that we own to the Redeemer as such are subordinate thereto It is the work of Christ to bring us back to God whom we fell from and to restore us to our perfection of Holiness and Obedience and as he is the way to the Father so faith in him is the way to our former employment and enjoyment of God I hope you perceive what all this driveth at viz. That to see God in his creatures and to love him and converse with him was the employment of man in his upright state That this is so far from ceasing to be our duty that it is the work of Christ by faith to bring us back to it and therefore the most holy men are the most excellent students of Gods works and none but the holy can rightly study them or know them His works are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal 111. 2. But not for themselves but for him that made them Your study of Physicks and other Sciences is not worth a rush if it be not God by them that you seek after To see and admire to reverence and adore to love and delight in God appearing to us in his works and purposely to peruse them for the knowledge of God this is the true and only Philosophy and the contrary is meer foolery and so called and called again by God himself This is the sanctification of your studies when they are devoted to God and when he is the life of them all and they all intend him as the end and the principal Object And therefore I shall presume to tell you by the way that it is a grand error and of dangerous Consequence in the Christian Academies pardon the Censure from one so unfit for it seeing the necessity of the Case commandeth it that they study the Creature before the Redeemer and set themselves to Physicks and Metaphysicks and Mathematicks before they set themselves to Theology when as no man that hath not the vitals of Theology is capable of going beyond a fool in Philosophy and all that such do is but doting about questistions and opposition of sciences falsly so called 1 Tim. 6. 20. 21. And as by affecting a separated Creature-knowledge Adam fell from God so those that mind these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they miss the end of all right studies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while they will needs preferr these they miss that faith which they pretend to aim at Their pretence is that Theology being the end and the most perfect must be the last and all the subservient sciences must go first But 1. There is somewhat of Natural knowledge indeed prerequisite and somewhat of art before a man can receive Theology but that is no more then their mothers can teach them before they go to school 2. And its true that all right natural knowledge doth tend to the increase of Theological knowledge but that which is a means to its perfection may be the effect or Consequent of its beginning And 3. The end must be first known because it must be intended before the choice or use of means And 4 The Scripture revealeth to us the things of God himself in the most easie way and therefore he must be first learned there And 5. The book of the Creatures is not to shew us more of God then the Scripture doth but by representing him to us in more sensible appearances to make our knowledge of him the more intense and operative and being continually before our eyes God also would be continually before them if we could aright discern him in them It s evident therefore that Theology must lay the ground and lead the way of all our studies when we are once acquainted with so much of words and things as is needful to our understanding the sense of its Principles If God must be searched after in our search of the Creature and we must affect no separated knowledge of them then Tutors must read God to their Pupils in all and Divinity must be the beginning the middle the end the life the all of their studies And our Physicks and Metaphysicks must be reduced to Theologie and nature must be read as one of Gods books which is purposely written for the revelation of himself The holy Scripture is the easier book when you have first learnt God and his will there in the necessary things address your selves cheerfully to the study of his works that you may there see the Creature it self as your Alphabet and their Order as the Composure of syllables words and sentences and God as the subject matter of all and the respect to him as the sense or signification and then carry on both together and never more play the meer Scriveners stick no more in your letters and words but read every Creature as a Christian or a Divine If you see not your selves and all things as living and moving and having being in God you see nothing what ever you think you see If you perceive not in your perusals of the Creatures that God is all and in all and see not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 11. 36. you may think perhaps that you know something but you know Nothing as you ought to know 1 Cor. 8. 2. But he that seeth and loveth God in the Creature the same is known and loved of him Vers 3. Think not so basely of the works of God and your physicks as that they are only preparatory studies for boyes It is a most high and noble part of holiness to search after behold admire and love the great Creator in all his works How much have the Saints of God been imployed in it The beginning of Genesis the books of Job and the Psalms may acquaint us that our Physicks are not so little kin to Theology as some suppose I do therefore in zeal to the good of the Church and their own success in their most necessary labours propound it to the consideration of all pious Tutors whether they should not as timely and as diligently read to their Pupils or cause them to read the chiefest parts of Practical Divinity and there is no other as any of the Sciences and whether they should not go together from the very first It is well that they hear Sermons but that is not enough If they have need of private help in Philosophy besides publike Lectures much more in Theology If Tutors would make it their principal business to acquaint their Pupils with the doctrine of Life and Labour to set it home upon their hearts that all might be received according to its weight and read to their hearts as well as to their heads and so carry on the rest of their instructions that it may appear they make them but subservient unto this and that their Pupils may feel what they drive at in all and so that they would teach all their Philosophy in habitu Theologico this might be a happy means to make happy souls and a
if he saw the face of God doth more affect my heart though with common words then an unreverent man with the most exquisite preparations Yea if he bawl it out with never so much seeming earnestness if Reverence be not answerable to fervency it worketh but little Of all Preaching in the world that speaks not stark lyes I hate that Preaching which tendeth to make the hearers laugh or to move their minds with tickling levity and affect them as Stage-playes use to do instead of affecting them with a holy Reverence of the name of God Saith Hierom. in Epistol ad Nepotian pag. mihi 14. Decente in Ecclesia te non clamor populi sed gemitus suscitetur Lachrymae auditorum laudes tuae sunt We should as it were suppose we saw the Throne of God and the millions of Glorious Angels attending him that we might be awed with his Majesty when we draw neer him in his holy things lest we profane them and take his name in vain To this I annex that all our work must be done spiritually as by men possessed by the Holy Ghost and acted by him and men that savour the things of the Spirit There is in some mens preaching a spiritual strain which spiritual hearers can discern and relish And in some mens this sacred tincture is so wanting that even when they speak of spiritual things the manner is such as if they were common matters Our Evidence also and ornaments must be spiritual rather from the holy Scripture with a tautelous subservient use of Fathers and other Writers then from Aristotle or the authorities of men The wisdom of the world must not be magnified against the wisdom of God Philosophy must be taught to stoop and serve while faith doth bear the chiefest sway And great Schollars in Aristotles School must take heed of too much glorying in their master and despising those that are there below them least themselves prove lower in the School of Christ and least in the Kingdom of God while they would be great in the eyes of men As wise a man as any of them would glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ and desired to know nothing but him crucified They that are so confident that Aristotle is in Hell should not too much take him for their Guide in the way to heaven It s an excellent memorandum that Greg. M. hath left in his Moral l. 33. Deus primo collegit indoctos post modum Philosophos non per oratores docuit piscatores sed per Piscatores subâ—git Oratores The Learnedst men should think of this Let all writers have their due esteem but compare none of them with the word of God We will not refuse their service but we must abhor them as Competitors It s a sign of a distempered heart that looseth the relish of Scripture excellency For there is a connaturality in a spiritual heart to the word of God because this is the seed that did regenerate him The word is that feal that made all the holly Impressions that be in the hearts of true believers and stampt the Image of God upon them And therefore they must needs be like that word and highly esteem it as long as they live Austin tells us in his lib. 10. de Civit. Deic 29. Quod initium sancti Evangelii cui nomen est secundum Joannem quidam Platonicus sicut à sancto sene impliciano qui postea Mediolanensi Ecclesiae praesedit Episcopus sâ—lebamus audire aurâ—is literis consoribendum peromnes Ecclesias in locis eminentiscimis proponendum esse dicehat If he could so value that which suited with his Platonism how should we value the whole which is suitable to the Christian nature and interest God is the best Teacher of his own nature and will 11. The whole course of our Ministery must be carried on in a tender Love to our people we must let them see that nothing pleaseth us but what profiteth them and that which doth them good doth us good and nothing troubleth us more then their hurt We must remember as Hierom saith ad Nepotian That Bishops are not Lords but Fathers and therefore must be affected to their people as their children Yea the tenderest love of a mother should nor surpass theirs We must even travel in birth of them till Christ be formed in them They should see that we care for no outward thing not money not liberty not credit not life in comparison of their salvation but could even be content with Moses to have our names wiped out of the Book of life i. e. to be removed è numero viventium rather then they should perish and not be found in the Lambs book of life in numero salvandorum Thus should we as John saith be ready to lay down our lives for the brethren and with Paul not to count our lives dear to us so we may but finish our course with joy in doing the work of God for their salvation When the people see that you unseignedly love them they will hear any thing and bear any thing and follow you the more easily As Austin saith Dilige dic quicquid voles We will take all things well our selves from one that we know doth entirely love us We will put up a blow that is given us in Love sooner then a foul word that is given us in anger or in malice Most men use to judge of the counsel as they judge of the affection of him that gives it at least so far as to give it a fair hearing O therefore see that you feel a tender love to your people in your breasts and then let them feel it in your speeches and see it in your dealings Let them see that you spend and are spent for their sakes and that all you do is for them and not for any ends of your own To this end the works of charity are necessary as far as your estate will reach For bare words will hardly convince men that you have any great love to them Amicitia a dando accipiendo nascitur Chrysost But when you are not able to give shew that you are willing to give if you had it and do that sort of good that you can Si potes dare daâ— si non potes affabilem tefac Coronat Deus intus bonitatem ubi non invenit facultatem Nemo dicat non habeo Charitas non de sacculo erogatur August in Psal 103. But be sure to see that your love prove not carnal flowing from pride as one that is a suiter for himself rather then for Christ and therefore doth love because he is beloved or that he may be pretendeth it And therefore take heed that you do not connive at their sins under pretence of love for that were to cross the nature and ends of Love Amici vitia siferas facistua Senec. Friendship must be cemented by piety Tu primum exhibe to bonum quaere alterum similem tibi Sen. A
or after it is meet that we urge him to be serious in his humiliation and set it home upon his conscience till he seem to be truly sensible of his sin For it is not a vain formality but the Recovery and saving of a soul that we expect 3. We must see that he beg the Communion of the Church and their prayers to God for his Pardon and Salvation 4. And that he Promise to fly from such sins for the time to come and watch more narrowly and walk more warily 5. And then we have these things more to do 1. To assure him of the riches of Gods love and the sufficiency of Christs blood to pardon his sins and that if his Repentance be sincere the Lord doth pardon him of which we are authorized as his Messengers to assure him 2. To charge him to persevere and perform his promises and avoid temptations and continue to beg mercy and strengthening grace 3. To charge the Church that they imitate Christ in forgiving and retain or if he were cast out receive the Penitent person in their Communion that they never reproach him with his sins or cast them in his teeth but forgive and forget them as Christ doth 4. And then to give God thanks for his recovery so far and to pray for his confirmation and future preservation 5. The next part of Discipline is the Rejecting and Removing from the Churches Communion those that after sufficient tryaldo remain impenitent Where note 1. That if a man have sinned but once so scandalously or twice it is but a Profession of Repentance that we can expect for our satisfaction but if he be accustomed to sin or have oft broke such Promises then it is an actual reformation that we must expect And therefore he that will refuse either of these to Reform or to Profess and manifest Repentance is to be taken by us as living in the sin For a hainous sin but once committed is morally continued in till it be Repented of and a bare forbearing of the act is not sufficient 2. Yet have we no warrant to rip up matters that are worn out of the publike memory and so to make that publike again that is ceased to be publike at least in ordinary cases 3. Exclusion from Church-Communion commonly called Excommunication is of divers sorts or degrees more then two or three which are not to be confounded of which I will not so far digress as here to treat 4. That which is most commonly to be practised among us is Only to remove an impenitent sinner from our Communion till it shall please the Lord to give him Repentance 5. In this Exclusion or Removal the Minister or Governors of that Church are Authoritatively to charge the people in the name of the Lord to avoid Communion with him and to pronounce him one whose Communion the Church is bound to avoid and the Peoples duty is Obedientially to avoid him in case the Pastors charge contradict not the word of God So that he hath the Guiding or Governing Power and they have 1. A discerning power whether his charge be just 2. And an executive power For it s they that must execute the sentence in part by avoiding the Rejected as he himself must execute it by denying him those Ordinances and Priviledges not due to him whereof he is the Administrator 6. It is very convenient to pray for the Repentance and restauration even of the Excommunicate 7. And if God shall give them Repentance they are gladly to be received into the Communion of the Church again Of the manner of all these I shall say no more they being things that have so much said of them already And for the manner of other particular duties of which I have said little or nothing you have much already as in other writings so in the Directory of the late Assemblie Would we were but so far faithful in the Practice of this Discipline as we are satisfied both of the matter and manner and did not dispraise and reproach it by our negligence while we write and plead for it with the highest commendations It is worthy our consideration Who is like to have the heavyer charge about this matter at the Bar of God Whether those deluded ones that have reproached and hindred discipline by their tongues because they knew not its nature and necessity or we that have so vilified it by our constant omission while with our tongues we have magnified it If hypocrisie be no sin or if the knowledge of our Masters will be no aggravation of the evil of disobedience then we are in a better case then they I will not advise the zealous maintainers and obstinate neglecters and rejecters of Discipline to unsay all that they have said till they are ready to do as they say nor to recant their defences of Discipline till they mean to practice it nor to burn all the Books that they have written for it and all the Records of their cost and hazzards for it least they rise up in Judgement against them to their confusion not that they recant their condemnation of the Prelates in this till they mean a little further to outgo them But I would perswade them without any more delay to conform their Practices to these Testimonies which they have given lest the more they are proved to have commended Discipline the more they are proved to have condemned themselves for neglecting it I have often marvailed that the same men who have been much offended at the Books that have been written for Free Admission to the Lords Supper or for mixt Communion in that one part have been no more offended at as Free permission in a Church state and as Free admission to other parts of Communion and that they have made so small a matter at as much mixture in all the rest I should think that it is a greater profanation to permit an obstinate scandalous sinner to be a stated member of that particular Church without any private first and then publike Admonition Prayer for him or censure of him then for a single Pastor to admit him to the Lords Supper if he had no power to censure him as these suppose I should think that the faithful Practice of Discipline in the other parts would soon put an end to the Controversie about Free Admission to the Lords Supper and heal the hurt that such Discourses have done to the rebellions of our people For those Discourses have more modesty then to plead for a Free Admission of the Censured or Rejected ones but its only of those that have yet their standing in that Church and are not censured And if when they forfeit their title to Church-Communion we would deal with them in Christs appointed way till we had either reclaimed them to Repentance or censured them to be Avoided it would be past controversie then that they were not to be admitted to that one act of Communion in the Supper who are justly
most Certain and Necessary things and be more seldom and sparing upon the rest If we can but teach Christ to our people we teach them all Get them well to heaven and they will have knowledge enough The great and commonly acknowledged Truths are they that men must live upon and which are the great instruments of raising the heart to God and destroying mens sins And therefore we must still have our peoples necessities in our eyes It will take us off gawdes and needless Ornaments and unprofitable Controversies to remember that One thing is Necessary Other things are desirable to be known but these must be known or else our people are undone for ever I confess I think Necessity should be a great disposer of a Ministers course of study and labours If we were sufficient for every thing we might fall upon every thing and take in order the whole Encuclopaedia But life is short and we are dull and eternal things are necessary and the souls that depend on our teaching are precious I confess Necessity hath been the Conductor of my studies and life It chooseth what book I shall read and tells when and how long it chooseth my Text and makes my Sermon for matter and manner so far as I can keep out my own corruption Though I know the constant expectation of death hath been a great cause of this yet I know no reason why the most healthful man should not make sure of the Necessaries first considering the uncertainty and shortness of all mens lives Xenophon thought there was no better Teacher then Necessity which teacheth all things most diligently Curtius saith Efficacior est omni arte Necessitas Who can in study preaching or life aliud agere be doing other matters if he do but know that This must be done Who can trifle or delay that feeleth the spurs of hasty Necessity As the souldier saith Non diu disputandum sed celeriter fortiter dimicandum ubi urget Necessitas So much more must we as our business is more important And doubtless this is the best way to redeem time and see that we lose not an hour when we spend it only on Necessary things And I think it is the way to be most profitable to others though not alwaies to be most pleasing and applauded because through mens frailty its true that Seneca complains of that Nova potius miramur quam magna Hence it is that a Preacher must be oft upon the same things because the matters of Necessity are few We must not either feign Necessaries or fall much upon unnecessaries to satisfie them that look after Novelties Though we must cloth the same necessaries with a grateful variety in the manner of our delivery The great volumns and tedious controversies that so much trouble us and waste our time are usually made up more of Opinion then necessary verities For as Marsil Ficinus saith Necessitas brevibus clauditur terminis opinto nullis And as Greg. Nazianz. and Seneca often say Necessaries are common and obvious it is superfluities that we waste our time for and labour for and complain that we attain them not Ministers therefore must be observant of the case of their Flocks that they may know what is most necessary for them both for matter and for manner And usually matter is first to be regarded as being of more concernment then the manner If you are to chose what Authors to read your selves will you not rather take those that tell you what you know not and speak the needful truth most evidently though it were with barbarous or unhandsom language then those that will most learnedly and elegantly and in grateful language tell you that which is false or vain and magno conatu nihil dicere I purpose to follow Austins counsel li. de catech praeponendo verbis sententiam ut animus praeponitur corpori ex quo fit ut ita mallem Veriores quam Discretiores invenire sermones sicut mallem prudentiores quam formosiores habere amicos And surely as I do in my studies for my own edification I should do in my teaching for other mens It is commonly empty ignorant men that want the matter and substance of true learning that are over curious and sollicitous about words and ornaments when the antient experienced most learned men abound in substantial verities usually delivered in the plainest dress As Aristotle makes it the reason why women are more addicted to pride in apparel then men because being conscious of little inward worth and ornament they seek to make it up with borrowed ornaments without So is it with empty worthless Preachers who affect to be esteemed that which they are not and have no other way to procure that esteem 5. All our teaching must be as Plain and Evident as we can make it For this doth most suite to a Teachers ends He that would be understood must speak to the capacity of his hearers and make it his business to make himself understood Truth loves the Light and is most beautiful when most naked It s a sign of an envious enemy to hide the truth and a sign of an Hypocrite to do this under pretence of revealing it and therefore painted obscure Sermons like the painted glass in the windows that keeps out the light are too oft the markes of painted Hypocrites If you would not Teach men what do you in the Pulpit If you would why do you not speak so as to be understood I know the height of the matter may make a man not understood when he hath studied to make it as plain as he can but that a man should purposely cloud the matter in strange words and hide his mind from the people whom he pretendeth to instruct is the way to make fools admire his profound learning and wise men his folly pride and hypocrisie And usually its a suspicious sign of some deceitful project and false Doctrine that needeth such a cloak and must walk thus masked in the open day light Thus did the followers of Basilides and Valentinus and others among the old Hereticks and thus do the Behmenists and other Paracelsians now who when they have spoken that few may understand them lest they expose their errours to the open view they pretend a necessity of it because of mens prejudice and the unpreparedness of common understandings for the truth But truth overcomes prejudice by meer light of Evidence and there is no better way to make a good cause prevail then to make it as plain and commonly and throughly known as we can and it is this Light that will dispose an unprepared mind And at best it s a sign that he hath not well digested the matter himself that is not able to deliver it plainly to another I mean as plain as the nature of the matter will bear in regard of capacities prepared for it by prerequisite truths For I know that some men cannot at present under stand some truths if you speak
are set over and you might become a plague to them instead of a blessing and they might wish they had never seen your faces O therefore take heed of your own Judgements and Affections Error and vanity will slily insinuate and seldom come without fair pretences Great distempers and apostacies have usually small beginnings The Prince of darkness doth frequently personate the Angels of light to draw children of light again into his darkness How easily also will distempers creep in upon our affections and our first love and fear and care abate Watch therefore for the sake of your selves and others And more particularly me thinks a Minister should take some special pains with his heart before he is to go to the Congregation if it be then cold how is he like to warm the hearts of the hearers Go therefore then specially to God for life and read some rowsing waking book or meditate on the weight of the subject that you are to speak of and on the great necessity of your peoples souls that you may go in the zeal of the Lord into his house SECT VII 3. MY next particular Exhortation is this Star up your selves to the great work of God when you are upon it and see that you do it with all your might Though I move you not to a constant lowdness for that will make your fervency contemptible yet see that you have a constant seriousness and when the matter requireth it as it should do it the application at least of every Doctrine then lift up your voice and spare not your spirits and speak to them as to men that must be awakened either here or in Hell Look upon your Congregations believingly and with compassion and think in what a state of Joy or Torment they must all be for ever and then me thinks it should make you earnest and melt your heart in the sense of their condition O speak not one cold or careless word about so great a business as heaven or hell What ever you do let the people see that you are in good sadness Truly Brethren they are great works that are to be done and you must not think that trifling will dispatch them You cannot break mens hearts by jesting with them or telling them a smooth tale or patching up a gawdy oration Men will not cast away their deerest pleasures upon a drowsie request of one that seemeth not to mean as he speaks or to care much whether his request be granted If you say That the work is Gods and he may do it by the weakest means I answer It s true he may do so But yet his ordinary way is to work by means and to make not only the matter that is preacht but also the manner of preaching to be instrumental to the work Or else it were a small matter whom he should imploy that would but speak the truth If grace made as little use of the Ministerial perswasions as some conceive we need not so much mind a Reformation nor cast out the Insufficient A great matter also with the most of our hearers doth lie in the very pronunciation and tone of speech The best matter will scarce move them if it be not movingly delivered Especially see that there be no affectation but that we speak as familiarly to our people as we would do if we were talking to any of them personally The want of a familiar tone and expression is as great a defect in most of our deliveries as any thing whatsoever and that which we should be very careful to amend When a man hath a Reading or Declaming tone like a School-boy saying his lesson or an Oration few are moved with any thing that he saith Let us therefore rowse up our selves to the work of the Lord and speak to our people as for their lives and save them as by violence pulling them out of the fire Satan will not be charmed out of his possession we must lay siege to the souls of sinners which are his garrisons and find out where his chief strength lyeth and lay the battery of Gods Ordinance against it and ply it close till a breach be made and then suffer them not by their shifts to make it up again but find out their common objections and give them a full and satisfactory answer We have reasonable creatures to deal with and as they abuse their reason against the truth so they will expect better reason for it before they will obey We must therefore see that our Sermons be all convincing and that we make the light of Scripture and Reason shine so bright in the faces of the ungodly that it may even force them to see unless they willfully shut their eyes A Sermon full of meer words how neatly soever it be composed while there is wanting the light of Evidence and the life of Zeal is but an image or a well-drest carkass In preaching there is intended a communion of souls and a communication of somewhat from ours unto theirs As we and they have understandings and wills and affections so must the bent of our endeavours be to communicate the fullest Light of Evidence from our understandings unto theirs and to warm their hearts by kindling in them holy affections as by a communication from ours The great things which we have to commend to our hearers have reason enough on their side and lie plain before them in the word of God we should therefore be so furnished with all store of Evidence as to come as with a torrent upon their understandings and bear down all before us and with our dilemma's and expostulations to bring them to a non-plus and pour out shame upon all their vain objections that they may be forced to yield to the power of truth and see that it is great and will prevail SECT VIII 4. MOreover if you would prosper in your work Be sure to keep up earnest desires and expectations of success If your hearts be not set on the end of your labours and you long not to see the conversion and edification of your hearers and do not study and preach in hope you are not likely to see much fruit of it It s an ill sign of a false self-seeking heart that can be content to be still doing and see no fruits of their labour so I have observed that God seldom blesseth any mans work so much as his whose heart is set upon the success Let it be the property of a Iudas to have more regard to the bag then to his business and not to care much for what they pretend to care and to think if they have their Tythes and the love and commendations of the people that they have enough to satisfie them but let all that preach for Christ and mens salvation be unsatisfied till they have the thing they preach for He had never the right end of a Preacher that is indifferent whether he do obtain them and is not grieved when he misseth
you will not do as far as you can your selves When you threaten them for neglecting it you threaten your own souls 12. All our hard censures of the Magistrate for doing no more and all our reproofs of him for permitting Seducers and denying his further assistance to the Ministers doth condemn our selves if we refuse our own duty What must all the Rulers of the world be servants to our sloathfulness or light us the candle to do nothing or only hold the stirrup to our Pride or make our beds for us that we may sleep by day-light Should they do their part in a subordinate office to protect and further us and should not we do ours who stand nearest to the end 13. All the maintenance that we take for our service if we be unfaithful will condemn us For who is it that will pay a servant to take his pleasure or sit still or work for himself If we have the Fleece it is sure that we may look to the â—lock And by taking the wages we oblige our selves to the work 14. All the honour that we expect or receive from the people and all the Ministerial Priviledges before mentioned will condemn the unfaithful For the honour is but the encouragement to the work and obligeth to it 15. All the witness that we have born against the scandalous negligent Ministers of this age and the words we have spoken against them and all the endeavours that we have used for their removal will condemn the unfaithful For God is no respecter of persons If we succed them in their sins we spoke all that against ourselves And as we condemned them God and others will condemn us if we imitate them And though we be not so bad as they it will prove sad to be too like them 16. All the Judgements that God hath executed on them in this age before our eyes will condemn us if we be unfaithful Hath he made the idle Shepherds and sensual drones to stink in the nostrils of the people and will he honour us if we be idle and sensual Hath he sequestred them and cast them our of their habitations and out of the Pulpits and laid them by as dead while they are alive and made them a hissing and a by-word in the Land and yet dare we imitate them Are not their sufferings our warnings and did not all this befall them for our examples If any thing in the world should waken Ministers to self-denyal and diligence one would think we had seen enough to do it If the Judgements of God on one man should do so much what should so many years judgement on so many hundreds of them do Would you have imitated the old world if you had seen the flood that drowned them Would you have taken up the sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of bread Idleness if you had stood by and seen the flames of Sodom This was Gods argument to deter the Israelites from the Nations sins because for all these things they had seen them cast one before them Who would have been a Iudas that had seen him hanged and burst and who would have been a lying sacrilegious hypocrite that had seen â—nanias and Saphira dye And who would not have been afraid to contradict the Gospel that had seen â—lâ—mas smitten blind And shall we prove self-seeking idle Ministers when we have seen God scourging such out of his Temple and sweeping them away as dirt into the Channels God forbid For then how great and how manifold will our condemnation be 17. All the Disputations and eager contests that we have had against unfaithful men and for a faithful Ministry will condemn us if we be unfaithful And so will the Books that we have written to those ends How many score if not hundreds of Catechisms are written in England and yet shall we forbear to use them How many Books have been written for Discipline by English and Scottish Divines and how fully hath it been defended and what reproach hath been cast upon the adversaries of it through the Land And yet shall we lay it by as useless when we have free leave to use O fearful hypocrisie What can we call it less Did we think when we were writing against this sect and the sect that opposed Discipline that we were writing all that against our selves O what Evidence do the Book-sellers shops and their own Libraries contain against the greatest part even of the godly Ministers of the Land The Lord cause them seasonably to lay it to heart 18. All the daies of fasting and prayer that have been of late years kept in England so a Reformation will rise up in Judgement against the unreformed that will not be perswaded to the painful part of the work And I confess it is so heavy an aggravation of our sin that it makes me ready to tremble to think of it Was there ever a Nation on the race of the earth that hath so solemnly and so long followed God with fasting and prayer as we have done Before the Parliament began how frequent and servent were wein secret After that for many years time together we had a monethly Fast commanded by the Parliament besides frequent private and publike Faâ—â—s on the by And what was all this for What ever was sometime the means that we lookt at yet still the end of all our Prayers was Church-Reformation and therein especially these two things A faithful Ministry and Exercise of Discipline in the Church And did it once enter then into the hearts of the people yea or into our own hearts to imagine that when we had all that we would have and the matter was put into our own hands to be as painful as we could and to exercise what Discipline we would that then we would do nothing but publikely preach that we would not be at the pains of Catechizing and Instructing our people personally nor exercise any considerable part of Discipline at all It astonisheth me to think of it What a depth of deceit is it the heart of man What are good mens hearts so deceitful Are all mens hearts so deceitful I confess I told many souldiers and other sensual men then that when they had fought for a Reformation I was confident they would abhorr it and be enemies to it when they saw and felt it thinking that the yoak of Discipline would have pincht their necks and that when they had been catechized and personally dealt with and reproved for their sin in private and publike and brought to publike confestion and repentance or avoided as impenitent they would have scorned and spurned against all this and have taken the yoak of Christ for tyrannie But little did I think that the Ministers would have let all fall and put almost none of this upon them but have let them alone for fear of displeasing them and have let all run on as it did before O the earnest prayers that I have heard in secret daies heretofore for