the eyes of the world and do our part to make them believe that to be a Christian is but to be of such an Opinion and to have that faith which James saith the Devils had and to be solifidians and that Christ is no more for Holiness then Satan or that the Christian Religion exacteth Holiness no more then the false Religions of the world For if the Holy and unholy are all permitted to be sherp of the same fold without the use of Christs means to difference them we do our part to defame Christ by it as if he were guilty of it and as if this were the strain of his prescripts 7. We do keep up separation by permitting the worst to be uncensured in our Churches so that many honest Christians think they are necessitated to withdraw I must profess that I have spoke with some members of the separated or gathered Churches that were moderate men and have argued with them against their way and they have assured me That they were of the Presbyterian judgement or bad nothing to say against it but they joyned themselves with other Churches upon meer necessity thinking that Discipline being an Ordinance of Christ must be used by all that can and therefore they durst no longer live without it when they may have it and they could find no Presbyterian Churches that executed Discipline as they wrote for it and they told me that they did thus separate only protempore till the Presbyterians will use Discipline and then they would willingly return to them again I confess I was sorry that such persons had any such occasion to withdraw and the least ground for such a reason of their doings It is not keeping them from the Sacrament that will excuse us from the further exercise of Discipline while they are Members of our Churches 8. We do too much to bring the wrath of God upon our selves and our Congregations and so to blast the fruit of our labours If the Angel of the Church of Thyatira was reproved for suffering Seducers in the Church we may be reproved on the same ground for suffering open scandalous impenitent ones Rev. 2 20. 9. We seem to justifie the Prelates who took the same course in neglecting Discipline though in other things we differ 10. We have abundance of aggravations and witnesses to rise up against us which though I will purposely now over-pass lest I seem to press too hard in this point I shall desire you to apply them hither when you meet with them anon under the next branch of the Exhortation I know that Discipline is not essential to a Church but what of that Is it not therefore a duty and necessary to its well-being Yea more The power of Discipline is essential to a particular Political Church And what is the Power for but for the work and use As there is no Common-wealth that hath not partem imperantem as well as partem subditam so no such Church that hath not partem regentem in one Pastor or more SECT XII 8. THE last particular branch of my Exhortation is that You will now faithfully discharge the great duty which you have undertaken and which is the occasion of our meeting here to day in personal Catechizing and Instructing every one in your Parishes that will submit thereto What our undertaking is you know you have considered it and it is now published to the world But what the performance will be I know not but I have many reasons to hope well of the most though some will alwaies be readyer to say then to do And because this is the chief business of the day I must take leave to insist somewhat the longer on it And 1. I shall give you some further Motives to perswade you to faithfulness in the undertaken work Presupposing the former general Motives which should move us to this as well as to any other part of our duty 2. I shall give to the younger of my Brethren a few words of Advice for the manner of the performance CHAP. VI. SECT I. 1. THE first reasons by which I shall perswade you to this duty are taken from the benefits of it The second sort are taken from the difficulty And the third from the Necessity and the many obligations that are upon us for the performance of it And to these three heads I shall reduce them all 1. And for the first of these when I look before me and consider what through the blessing of God this work well managed is like to produce it makes my heart to leap for joy Truly Brethren you have begun a most blessed work and such as your own consciences may rejoyce in and your Parishes rejoyce in and the Nation rejoyce in and the childe that is yet unborn yea thousands and millions for ought we know may have cause to bless God for when we have finished our course And though it be our business here to humble our selves for the neglect of it so long as we have very great cause to do yet the hopes of a blessed success are so great in me that they are ready to turn it into a day of Rejoycing I bless the Lord that I have lived to see such a day as this and to be present at so solemn an engagement of so many servants of Christ to such a work I bless the Lord that hath honoured you of this County to be the beginners and awakeners of the Nation hereunto Is it not a controverted business where the exasperated minds of divided men might pick quarrels with us or malice it self be able to invent a rational reproach Nor is it a new invention where envy might charge you as innovators or proud boasters of any new discoveries of your own or scorn to follow in it because you have led the way No it is a well known duty It is but the more diligent and effectuall management of the Ministerial work and the teaching of our Principles and the feeding of babes with milk You lead indeed but not in invention of novelty but the restauration of the antient Ministerial work and the self-denying attempt of a duty that few or none can contradict Unless men do envy you your labours and sufferings or unless they envy the saving of mens souls I know not what they can envy you for in this The age is so quarrelâ—om that where there is any matter to fasten on we can scarce explain a truth or perform a duty but one or other if not many will have a stone to cast at us and will speak evil of the things which they do not understand or which their hearts and interests are against But here I think we have silenced malice it self and I hope we may do this part of Gods work quietly as to them If they cannot endure to be told what they know not or contradicted in what they think or disgraced by discoveries of what they have said amiss I hope they will give us leave
reformation of the Church which our meetings should conduce to 3. And I give you this further answer What had the Church of Christ done till the daies of Constantine the great if it had no better Pastors then you that will not Govern it without the joynt compulsion of the Magistrate Discipline and severe Discipline was exercised for three hundred years together where the Prince did not give them so much as a Protection nor Toleration but perfecuted them to the death Then was the Church at the best and Discipline most pure and powerful say not then any more for shame that it is to no purpose without a Magistrate when it hath done so much against their wills O what an aggravation is it of our sin That you cannot be content to be negligent and unfaithful servants but you must also flie in the face of your Lord and Master and obliquely lay the blame on him What do you else when you blame Churchcenâ—ures as uneffectual when you should blame your lazy self seeking hearts that shift off the use of them Hath Christ put a leaden sword into your hands when he bids you smite the obstinate sinner Or are you cowardly and careless and then blame your sword instead of using it as thinking that the easier task Are the Keyes of Christs Kingdom so unmeet and useless that they will not open and shut without the help of the sword or are you unskillful and lazy in the use of them If they have contracted any rust by which they are made less fit for service next to the Prelates we may thank our selves that let them lie so long unused 4. And I must tell you that too much interposition of the sword with our Discipline would do more harm then good It would but corrupt it by the mixture and make it become a humane thing Your Government is all to work upon the conscience and the sword cannot reach that It is not a desirable thing to have Repentance so obscured by meer forced Confessions that you cannot know when men do mean as they speak and so it will be the sword that doth all by forcing men to dissemble and you will not discern the power of the Word and Ordinance of Christ I confess since I fell upon the exercise of some Discipline I find by experience that if the sword did interpose and force all those Publike Confessions of sin and Profession of Repentance which I have perswaded men to by the light of the word of God it would have left me much unsatisfied concerning the validity of such Confessions and Promises whether they might indeed be satisfactory to the Church And I find that the godly people do no further regard it then they perceive it hearty and free and if it were forced by Magistrates they would take him for no Penitent person nor be any whit satisfied but say He doth it because he dare do no otherwise And I must add this word of plainer dealing yet You blame the Magistrate for giving so much liberty and is it not long of your selves that he doth so You will scarce believe that such enemies to Liberty of Conscience are the causes of it I think that you are and that the keenest enemies have been the greatest causes For you would run too far to the other extream and are so confident in every controversie that you are in the right and lay such a stress upon many Opinions of your own as if life or death did lie upon them when perhaps the difference may prove more verbal then real if it were searcht to the quick that this occasioneth Magistrates to run too far the other way and if they look on such as and dare not trust the sword in such hands you may thank your selves Truly Brethren I see by experience that there is among many of the most injudicious of us such a blind confused zeal against all that is called error by their party that without being able to try and make a difference they let flie pell mell at all alike and make a great out-cry against errors when either we know not what they are nor how to confute them nor which he tolerable in the Church and which intolerable nor how far we may hold or break Communion with the owners of them and perhaps are the erroneous persons our selves The observation of this hath made the Magistrates so over-jealous of us that they think if they set in with a party in each contention we shall never be without blood and misery And I confess I see in some Ministers so little of the fire of Divine Love and Christian Charity and compassion nor heavenly mindedness nor humble sense of their own infirmities and so much of the zeal that Iames describeth Iam. 3. 14 15. which is kindled from another fire that makes them full of suspicions and jealousies and keen and eager against their Brethren censuring defaming and unconscionably back-biting them and straining an ill sense out of their well meant words and actions and living towards them in plain envy and malice instead of Christian love and peace I say I see so much of this in many that affect the Reputation of Orthodox while they are indeed factious that I am the less sorry that the Magistrate doth so little interpose For were the sword in such envious angry hands there would be little quiet to the Church For there is no two men on earth but differ in something if they know or believe any thing And these men must square the world to their own judgements which are not alway the wisest in the world They that dare so rail at others as Blasphemers when they know not what they say themselves durst suâ—e smite them as Blasphemers if they had power This may possibly make the Magistrate think meet seeing we are so quarrelsom and impatient to let us fight it out by the bare fists and not to put swords into our hands till we are more sober and know better how to use them For if every passionate man when he hath not wit enough to make good his cause should presently borrow the Magistrates sword to make it good truth would be upon great disadvantage in the world Magistrates are commonly the most tempted and abused men and therefore I know not why we should call so lowd to have them become the Arbitrators in all our quarrels lest error have two victories where truth gets one I could wish the Magistrate did more but if he do but give us Protection and Liberty specially if he will but restrain Deceivers from preaching against the great unquestionable truths of the Gospel and give publike Countenance and Encouragement to those master-truths I shall not fear by the Grace of God but a prudent sober unanimous Ministery will ere long shame the swarm of vanities that we think so threatning But I have been too long on this I shall only conclude it with this earnest request to my Brethren of the Ministery
upon their hands than they can well dispatch grow sick of it and sit down out of a lazy despondency and do just nothing O if once our hearts were but filled with Zeal for God and compassion to our peoples souls we would up and be doing though we could but lay a brick a day and God would be with us May be you who find a people rude and sottishly ignorant like stones in the quarry and trees unfell'd shall not bring the work to such perfection in your daies as you desire Yet as David did for Solomon thou mayst by thy pains in teaching and instructing them prepare materials for another who shall rear the Temple Read the rest THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THE brief explication of the Text. Sect. 2. What sort of Elders they were that Paul spoke to Sect. 3. The Doctrine and Method Sect. 4. The terms opened Sect. 5 6 7 and 8. Wherein we must take heed to ourselves Sect. 9. to 16. The moving Reasons to Take heed to ourselves CHAP. II. Sect. 1. WHat it is to Take heed to all the Flock It s implyed that every Flock have their own Pastor and that regularly the Flock be no greater then the Pastors may over-see taking heed to all Sect. 2. The ends of this Oversight Sect. 3. Of the subject of this work Sect. 4. Of the Object of it 1. The unconverted 2. The converted 1. The young and weaker 2. Those that labour under some special distempers 3. Decliners 4. That are fallen under some great Temptation 5. The disconsolate 6. The strong Sect. 5. Of the action it self 1. Publike Preaching 2. Sacraments 3. Publike prayer and praise and benediction 4. Oversight of the members distinctly 1. Knowing them 2. Instructing the ignorant 3. Advising them that seek advice 4. Looking to particular Families How 5. Resisting seduction 6. Encourageing the obedient 7. Visiting the sick 8. Comforting 9. Private admonishing offenders 10. More publike Discipline 1. Publike admonition How 2. Publike exhortation to open discovery of Repentance 3. Publike praying for the offender 4. To assist the penitent confirming absolving c. 5. Rejecting the obstinately impenitent from our Communion 6. Reception of the penitent The manner and necessity of these acts Making Laws for the Church is not our work CHAP. III. OF the manner and concomitants of our work It must be done 1. Purely for God and not for self 2. Laboriously and diligently 3. Prudently orderly 4. Insisting most on the Greatest and most Necessary things 5. With Plainness and Evidence 6. In a sense of our insufficiency and dependance on Christ 7. In Humility and Condescention 8. A mixture of severity and mildness 9. With Affectionate seriousness 10. Reverently and spiritually 11. In tender love to our people 12. Patiently And we must be studious of Union and Communion among our selves and of the Unity and peace of the Church CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. THE first Use for our humiliation Confessing the sins of the Ministry especially of this Nation heretofore Sect. 2. A confession of our present sins Specially 1. Pride Sect. 3. 2. An undervaluing the Unity and Peace of the Catholike Church Sect. 4. 3. Want of serious industrious unreserved laying out our selves in the work of God Discovered 1. By negligent studies Sect. 5. 2. By dull drowsic preaching Sect. 6. 3. By not helping them that want abroad Sect. 7. 4. By neglect of acknowledged Duties E. G. Church Discipline The pretences confuted that would justifie it Sect. 8. 5. By the Power of worldly carnal interests Manifested 1. By temporizing 2. Worldly business 3. Barrenness in works of Charity Sect. 9. Applyed for Humiliation CHAP. V. Sect. 1. VSE of Exhortation Motives in the text 1. From our office and Relation to all the Flock with some subservient considerations Sect. 2. 2. From the efficient cause the Holy-Ghost Sect. 3. 3. From the Dignity of the Object Sect. 4. 4. From the price paid for the Church Sect. 5. A more particular exhortation 1. To see that the saving work of grace be wrought on our own hearts A word to Tutours and Schoolmasters Sect. 6. 2. Keep Grace in vigour and activity and preach to your own hearts first for your work sake Sect. 7. 3. Stir up your selves to the work and do it with all your might Sect. 8. 4. Keep up earnest desires and expectations of success Sect. 9. 5. Be zealous of good works Spare no cost Sect. 10. 6. Maintain Union and Communion The way thereto Sect. 11. 7. Practise so much of Discipline as is certainly your duty Sect. 12. 8. Faithfully discharge this duty of personal Catechizing and Instruction of all the Flock CHAP. VI. Sect. 1. REasons for this Duty 1. From the Benefits The great Hopes we have of a blessed success of this work if faithfully managed Shewed in 20. particulars Sect. 2. 2. From the Difficulty of this work Sect. 3. 3. From the Necessity of it which is manifold Sect. 4. Use What great cause of Humiliation we have for neglecting this so long Sect. 5. An Exhortation to the faithful performance of this work Twenty aggravations of our sin and witnesses which will condemn the wilful refusers of so great duties as this Private Instruction and Discipline are Sect. 6. The Objections of lazy unfaithful Ministers against Personal Instruction and Catechizing answered CHAP. VII Sect. 1. DIrections to the less experienced for the right managing of this work 1. For bringing our People to submit to it Sect. 2. 2. To do it so as is likest to succeed 1. For the Conversion of the ungodly and awaking of the secure In twelve Directions CHAP. VIII DIrections how to deal with self-conceited Opinionists and to prevent or cure Errour and Schism in our People And how to deal with those of whose condition we are between hope and fear Readers you will right me and ease your selves if you will mend these mis-Printings with your pen before you read the book PAg. 46. li. 14. for conscience read conference 3 p. 90. l. 9. r. moâ—iendo p. 105. l. 4. blot out that p. 106. l. 29. blot out us p. 113. l. 23. r. art p. 115. l. 19. after token r. it p. 135. l. 25. r. speaking for p. 142. l. penult r. desertion p. 144. l. 26. r. histrionical p. 145. l. 13. r. useful p. 146. l. 18. r. better p. 150. l. 16. r. contrive p. 168. l. antipen r. sit p. 180. l. antipen r. that p. 186. l. 3. r. Hoâ—tonus p. 188. l. 25. and p. 189. l. 8. r. sit still p. 209. l. 16. for shineth r. thriveth p. 211. l. 8. after and r. then p. 213. l. 17. blot out for p. 217. l. 17. after call r. them p. 222. l. 18. r. the p. 286. l. 11. r. going to Church p. 289. l. 9 10. r. continued and l. 20. r. see p. 290. l. 15. r. compose and l. 17. r. will never and l. 24. r. serve and l. 28. r. confessions p. 248. l. 14. r.
reputation as our fidelity to the truth will permit But our Pride makes too many of us to think all men contemn us that do not admire us yea and admire all that we say and submit their judgements to our most palpable mistakes We are so tender that no man can touch us scarce but we are hurt and so stout and high-minded that a man can scarce speak to us Like froward children or sick folk that cannot endure to be talkt to the fault is not that you speak amiss to them but that you speak to them So our indignation is not at men for writing or speaking injuriously or unjustly against our words but for confuting them And a man that is not verft in complementing and skilled in flatterie above the vulgar rate can scarce tell how to handle them so observantly and fit their expectations at every turn but there will be some word or some neglect which their high spirits will fasten and take as injurious to their honour So that a plain Countrey-man that speaks as he thinks must have nothing to do with them unless he will be esteemed guilty of dishonouring them I confess I have often wondered at it that this most hainous sin should be made so slight of and thought so consistent with a holy frame of heart and life when far lesser sins are by our selves proclaimed to be so damnable in our people And more have I wondered to see the difference between ungodly sinners and godly Preachers in this respect When we speak to drunkards worldlings or any ignorant unconverted men we disgrace them as in that condition to the utmost and lay it on as plainly as we can speak and tell them of their sin and shame and misery and we expect not only that they should bear all patiently but take al thankfully and we have good reason for all this And most that I deal with do take it patiently and many gross sinners will commend the closest Preachers most and will say that they care not for hearing a man that will not tell them plainly of their sins But if we speak to a godly Minister against his errours or any sin for too many of them if we honour them and reverence them and speak as smoothly as we are able to speak yea if we mixt commendations with our contradictions or reproofs if the applause be not apparently predominant so as to drown all the force of the reproof or confutation and if it be not more an applause then a reprehension they take it as an injury almost insufferable That is railing against them that would be no better then flatterie in them to the common people though the cause may be as great Brethren I know this is a sad and harsh confession but that all this should be so among us should be more grievous to us then to be told of it Could this nakedness be hid I should not have disclosed it at least so openly in the view of all But alas it is long ago open in the eyes of the world We have dishonoured our selves by idolizing our honour We print our shame and preach our shame and tell it unto all Some will think that I speak over charitably to call such persons Godly men in whom so great a sin doth so much preval I know where it is indeed predominant not hated and bewailed and mortified in the main there can be no true godliness and I leave every man to a cautelous jealousie and search of his own heart But if all be Graceless that are guilty of any or most of the forementioned discoveries of Pride the Lord be merciful to the Ministers of this Land and give us quickly another spirit for grace is then a rarer thing then most of us have supposed it to be Yet I must needs say that it is not all that I intend To the praise of Grace be it spoken we have some among us here and I doubt not but it is so in other parts that are eminent in humility and lowlyness and condescention and exemplary herein to their flocks and to their Brethren and it is their glory and shall be their glory and maketh them truly honourable and amiable in the eyes of God and all good men yea and in the eyes of the ungodly themselves And O that the rest of us were but such But alas this is not the case of all O that the Lord would lay us at his feet in the tears of unfeigned sorrow for this sin Brethren may I take leave a little to expostulate this case with my own heart and you that we may see the shame of our sin and be reformed Is not Pride the sin of Devils the first-born of Hell is it not that wherein Satans Image doth much consist and is it tollerable evil in a man that is so engaged against him and his Kingdom as we are The very design of the Gospel doth tend to self abasing and the work of grace is begun and carried on in Humiliation Humility is not a meer ornament of a Christian but an essential part of the new creature It is a contradiction to be a sanctified man or a true Christian and not humble All that will be Christians must be Christs Disciples and come to him to learn and their lesson is to be meek and lowly Mat. 11. 28. O how many precepts and admirable examples hath our Lord and master given us to this end Can we once conceive of him as purposely washing and wiping his servants feet and yet be stout and Lordly still shall he converse with the meanest and we avoid them as contemptible people and think none but persons of riches and honour to be fit for our society How many of us are oftner found in the houses of Gentlemen then in the poor cottages of those that have most need of our help There are many of us that would think it a baseness to be daily with the most needy and beggarly people to instruct them in the matters of life and supply their wants As if we had taken charge only of the souls of the rich Alas what is it that we have to be proud of Of our body why are they not made of the like materials as the brutes and must they not shortly be as loathsom and abominable as the dung is it of our Graces Why the more we are proud of them the less we have to be proud of And when so much of the nature of Grace is in Humility it s a great absurdity to be proud of it Is it of our Learning Knowledge abilities and gifts Why sure if we have any knowledge at all we must needs know much reason to be humble and if we know more then others we must know more reason then others do to be humble How little is it that the most Learned know in comparison of that which yet they are ignorant of And to know that things are past your reach and to know how ignorant you
are one would think should be no great cause of Pride However do not the Devils know more then you And will you be Proud of that which the Devils do excell you in Yea to some I may say as Salvian li. 4. de Gubern p. 98. Quid tibi blandiris O homo quisquis es Credulitate quae sine timore atque obsequio Dei nulla est aliquid plus Daemones habent Tu emin unam rem habes tantummodo illi duat Tu Credulitatem habes non habes timorem illi Credulitatem habent pariter timorem Our very business is to teach the great lesson of self-denyal and humility to our people and how unfit is it then that we should be proud our selves We must study Humility and Preach Humility and must we not possess and practice it A proud Preacher of Humility is at least a self-condemning man What a sad case is it that so vile a sin is no more easily discerned by us but many that are most Proud can blame it in others and take no notice of it in themselves The world takes notice of some among us that they have aspiring minds and seek for the highest room and must be the Rulers and bear the sway where-ever they come or else there is no standing before them No man must contradict them that will not partake of the fruits of their indignation In any consultations they come not to search after truth but to dictate to others that perhaps are fit to teach them In a word they have such arrogant domineering spirits that the world rings of it and yet they will not see it in themselves Brethren I desire to deal closely with my own heart and yours I beseech you consider Whether it will save us to speak well of the grace that we are without or to speak against the sin that we live in Have not many of us cause to enquire once again Whether sincerity will consist with such a measure of Pride When we are telling the drunkard that he cannot be saved unless he become temperate and the fornicator that he cannot be saved unless he become chaste an undoubted truth have we not as great reason if we are proud to say of our selves that we cannot be saved unless we become humble Certainly Pride is a greater sin then whoredom or drunkenness and Humility is as necessary as Chastity and Sobriety Truly Brethren a man may as certainly and more slily and dangerously make haste to hell in a way of Profession and earnest preaching of the Gospel and seeming zeal for a Holy life as in a way of drunkenness and filthyness For what is true Holiness but a devotedness to God and a living to him and what is a wicked and damnable state but a devotedness to our carnal selves and a living to our selves And doth any man live more to himself then the proud or less to God And may not Pride make a Preacher study for himself and pray and preach and live to himself even when he seemeth to out-go others in the work if he therefore out-go them that he may have the glory of it from men It is not the work without the principle and end that will prove us upright The work may be Gods and yet we do it not for God but for our selves I confess I feel such continual danger in this point that if I do not watch against it least I should study for my self and preach for my self and write for my self rather then for Christ I should soon miscarry and after all I justifie not my self when I must condemn the sin Consider I beseech you Brethren what baits there are in the work of the Ministery to entice a man to be selfish that is to be carnal and impious even in the highest works of piety The fame of a godly man is as great a snare as the fame of a learned man And woe to him that takes up with the fame of godliness instead of godliness Verily I say unto you they have their reward When the times were all for learning and empty formalities then the Temptation of the proud did lie that way But now through the unspeakable mercy of God the most lively practical preaching is in credit and godliness it self is in credit and now the Temptation to Proud men is here even to pretend to be zealous Preachers and godly men O what a fine thing doth it seem to have the people crowd to hear us and to be affected with what we say and then we can command their Judgements and Affections What a taking thing is it to be cryed up as the ablest and godlyest man in the Countrey and to be famed through the Land for the highest spiritual excellencies Alas Brethren a little grace will serve turn to make you to joyn your selves with the forwardest of those men that have these inducements or encouragements To have the people plead for you as their felicity and call you the Pillars of the Church of God and their Fathers the Chariots and horse-men of Israel and no lower language then excellent men and able Divines and to have them depend upon you and be ruled by you though this may be no more then their duty yet I must again tell you that a little grace may serve to make you seem zealous men for this Nay Pride may do it without any special Grace O therefore be jealous of your selves and in all your studies be sure to study Humility He that exalieth himself shall be brought low and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted I observe commonly that almost all men good and bad do loath the Proud and love the Humble so far doth Pride contradict it self unless it be where it purposely hideth it self and as conscious of its own deformity doth borrow the homely dress of humility And we have cause to be the more jealous because it is the most radicated vice and as hardly as any extirpated from the soul Nam saepe sibi de se mens ipsa mentitur fingit se de bono opere amare quod non amat de mundi autem gloria non amare quod amat inquit Gregor M. de cura Pastor P. 1. c. 9. When it was a disgrace to a man to be a godly zealous Preacher then Pride had not such a baite as now As the same Gregor saith ibid. p. 21. c. 8. Eo tempore quo quisquis plebibus praeerat primus ad Martyris tormenta ducebatur Tunc laudabile fuit Episcopatum quaerere quando per hunc quemque dubium non erat ad supplicia major a pervenire But it is not so now as he saith in another place Cap. 1. initio Sed quia authore Deo ad Religionis reverentiam omne jam praesentis seculi culmen inclinatur sunt nonnulli qui intra sanctam Ecclesiam per speciem regiminis gloriam affectant honoris Videri Doctores appetunt transcendere caeteros concupiscunt atque
them I know that some of these men are Learned and Reverend and intend not such mischievous ends as these The hardening of men in ignorance is not their design But this is the thing effected To intend well in doing ill is no rarity Who can in reverence to any men on earth sit still and hold his tongue while he seeth people thus run to their own destruction and the souls of men be undone by the contendings of Divines for their several parties and interests The Lord that knows my heart knows that if I know it my self as I am not of any one of these parties so I speak not a word of this in a sactious partiality for one party or against another as such much less in spleen against any person but if I durst in conscience I would have silenced all this for fear of giving them offence whom I much honour But what am I but a servant of Christ and what is my life worth but to do him service and whose favour can recompence for the ruines of the Church and who can be silent while souls are undone Not I for my part while God is my Master and his word my Rule his work my business and the success of it for the saving of men my end Who can be reconciled to that which so lamentably crosseth his Masters interest and his main end Nor yet would I have spoken any of this if it had been only in respect to my own charge yet I bless God the sore is but small in comparison of what it is in many other places But the observation of some neighbour Congregations and others more remote me thinks should make the very contrary minded Divines relent if they were present with them Would it be a pleasant hearing to them to hear a croud of scandalous men to reproach their Ministers that would draw them to repentance and to tell them they have no authority over them and all this under the pretence and shelter of their judgements Had they rather men went to Hell then be taught the way to Heaven by Presbyters that had not their Imposition of hands Is that point of order more necessary then the substance of the work or the end it self Nay I must needs in faithfulness say yet more That it is no credit to the cause of these Reverend men nor ever was that the generality of the most wicked men and haters and contemners of all Devotion are the great friends and maintainers of it And the befriending of such a party did more to gain their love then to save their souls And the engageing such a Party for them hath not been the least cause of their fall This is true however it be taken And what a case would the Churches of England be in if we should yield to the motions of these Reverend men supposing that mens judgements are not at their own wills and therefore many cannot see the reasons for Prelacy must we all give up our charges as no true Ministers and desert the Congregations as no true Churches Why whom will they then set over them in our stead First it is known that they cannot if they had fit men procure them what liberty their way requires because of the discountenance of authority and it is known that they have not fit men for one Congregation of very many And had they rather that the doors were shut up and God had no publike worship nor the people any publike teaching or Sacraments then any but they should have a hand in the performance of it Or if the Ministers keep their places can they wish all the Congregations to stay at home and live like Heathens Nay are they not angry with us for casting out a grosly ignorant insufficient scandalous sort of Ministers who were the great means of the perdition of the people whose souls they had taken charge of As for the casting out of any able godly men upon meer differences about the late troubles and State affairs I speak not of it I approve not of it If any such thing were done let them maintain it if they can that did it for I neither can nor will But it s a very sad case that any men of judgement piety should not only be indifferent in matters of such moment but should think it a persecution and an injury to their party and cause to have hundreds of unworthy wretches to be ejected when it was a work of so great necessity to the Church And indeed by all this they plainly shew what a condition they would reduce this Nation into again if it were in their power Sure they that would have the people disown and withdraw from them as being no Ministers and turn their backs on the word and Sacraments would silence them if they could I think there is no doubt of that And surely they that are so offended that the insufficient and scandalous ones are cast out would have them in again if they could And if this be the change that they desire let them not blame men that believe the Scripture and value mens salvation if they have no mind of their change If it were a matter of meer opinion we should be more indifferent with them Or if the question were only whether men should be conducted in waies of holiness by a Prelate or by meer Presbyters only we should think it of less moment then the matter that is before us But when it comes to this pass that the Prince of darkness must be so gratified and so much of the Church of Christ delivered overmuch into his power and the people led by multitudes to perdition and all for the upholding of our own parties or interests or conceits we cannot make light of such matters as these These are not meer speculations but matters that are so obvious to sense and Christian experience that they must not think much that serious experienced Christians are against them But that I be not mistaken it is far from my thoughts to speak what I have done of any peaceable man of the Prelatical way or to meddle in the Controversie of the best way of Government nor do I speak to any of the New Prelatical way but only those who are guilty of the miscarriages which I have spoken of and for them I had rather bear their indignation then the Church should bear the fruits of their destructive intemperate conceits The most common cause of our Divisions and unpeaceableness is mens high estimation of their own Opinions And it ordinarily worketh these two waies sometimes by setting men upon Novelties and sometimes by a censorious condemning of all that differ from the party that they are of Some are as busie in their enquiries after new Doctrines as if the Scripture were not perfect or Christ had not told us all that is necessary or the way to heaven were not in all ages one and the same from Christ to the end of the world or the Church
hid we have had free Liberty to have done the work of Christ which we have desired and pleaded for and yet we would not do it What might not the Ministers of England have done for the Lord if they had been but willing They had no prohibition nor any man to rise up against them of all the enemies whose hearts are against their work and yet they would not do it Nay more for ought you know you have the Approbation of Authority You have the commands of former powers not yet repealed You have the Protection of the Laws and present Governors If any one seek revenge against you for the sake of Discipline you have not only Laws but as many willing Magistrates to restrain and punish them as ever you knew I think in England And what would you have more Would you have a Law made to Punish you if you will not do your duty What! dare you tell God that you will not do his work unless the Magistrate drive you to it with scourges I confess if I had my will it should be so and that man should be ejected as a negligent Pastor that will not rule his People by Discipline though yet I might allow him to be a Preacher to the unchurched as well as he is ejected as a negligent Preacher that will not preach For Ruling is as Essential a part of a Pastors office as preaching I am sure And therefore seeing these men would fain have the Magistrate interpose if he did eject them for unfaithful negligent Pastors were it not for the necessity of the Church that hath not enow better I know not well how they could blame him for it It s a sad discovery of our carnal hearts when man can do so much more with us then God that we would obey the commands of men and will not obey the commands of Christ Is he fit to be Christs Officer that will not take his Command as obligatory But I know the thing expected is that all the people should be forced under a penalty to submit to our Discipline I confess I think that the Magistrate should be the hedge of the Church and defend the Ministery and improve his power to the utmost to procure an universal obedience to Christs Laws and restrain men from the apparent breach of them especially from being false Teachers and Seducers of others How far I am against the two extreams of Universal Licence and Persecuting tyrannie I have frequently manifested on other occasions But I shall now say but this 1. Doth not this further discover the carnal frame of our hearts when we will not do our duty unless the Magistrate will do his to the full and all that we conceive may be his duty What! will his neglect excuse yours Hath Christ bid you use the Keyes of the Kingdom and avoid a scandalous sinner upon condition that the Magistrate will punish him with the sword Is not this your meaning if you would speak it out that you find a great deal of difficulty in your work and you would have the Magistrate by terrifying offendors make it easie to you for if it be not safe and cheap and easie you are resolved you will not do it And such servants Christ may have enough Nay is not your meaning that you would have the Magistrate to do your work for you Just as your pious people have long cryed and prayed for Discipline and called upon Ministers to do it but we cannot get them to reprove offendors and deal with them seriously and lovingly for their good and inform the Church-Officers of them that are obstinate So do we toward the Magistrates The work of God is so much beholden to us that we would all have it done but few wâ—ll do it We can easilyer censure and talk against others for not doing it then do it our selves O the guile and hypocrisie of our hearts 2. But further What is it that you would have the Magistrate to do I pray you consider it how you will answer it before God that you should willfully neglect your own duty and then make it your Religion to quarrel with others Is it not a fearful deceit of heart for a man to think himself a godly Minister for finding fault with them that are less faulty then himself I say less faulty For tell me truly Whether the Magistrate do more of his part in Government or you in yours I am no more a flatterer of the Magistrate then of you nor was ever taken for such that I could understand but we must deal justly by all men Would you have the Magistrate to punish men eo nomine because excommunicated without any particular cognisance of the fact and case 1. That were unjust Then he must do wrong when ever we mistake and do wrong If an honest man were an hangman he would be willing to know that he hanged not a man that was unjustly condemned However the Magistrate is not the meer executioner of the Ministers but a Judge and therefore must be allowed the use of his Reason to know the cause and follow his own judgement and not punish men against it 2. And excommunication is so great a punishment of it self that I hope you do not think it nothing unless the Magistrate add more If so then the temporal punishment might serve turn and what need of yours But I suppose that this is not your sense but you are so just that you would have the Magistrate to punish a man as an offendor and not as excommunicate And if so I think it is not nothing that he doth Are all the penalties against Swearers Cursers Drunkards Peace-breakers Sabboth-breakers c. nothing Certainly the Laws of the Land do punish much sin against God Well! What do you as Church-Governors against these same sins The Magistrate fineth and imprisoneth them that is his part It is your part to bring them to open Repentance or to cast them out Have you done this as oft as he hath done his part Doth not the Magistracy of England punish ten twenty what if I say an hundred Swearers Drunkards or Sabboth-breakers by the sword for one that the Elders of the Church do punish by censures or bring to publike Repentance for the satisfaction of the Church Brethren these things seem strange to me that the case should stand thus as it doth and yet that the deceit of our hearts should be so great that we should go on to account our selves such blameless godly men whom Magistrates and people are all bound to reverence and to speak against the Magistrate so much as we do I believe they are all slack and faulty but are not we much more faulty What if they should pay us in our own coyn What language might they give the Ministers that after so many years talk of Discipline will do nothing in it I say nothing in most places To meet together for consulation is no exercise of Discipline nor
happy Church and Commonwealth The same I mean also along of the Course of Schoolmasters to their scholars But when Languages and Philosophy have almost all their time and diligence and instead of reading Philosophy like Divines they read Divinity like Philosophers as if it were a thing of no more moment then a lesson of Musick or Arithmetick and not the doctrine of Everlasting life this is it that blasteth so many in the bud and pestereth the Church with unsanctified Teachers Hence it is that we have so many worldlings to preach of the invisible felicity and so many carnal men to declare the mysteries of the Spirit and I would I might not say so many Infidels to preach Christ or so many Atheists to preach the living God And when they are taught Philosophy before or without Religion what wonder if their Philosophy be all or most of their Religion and if they grow up into admirations of their unprofitable fancies and deifie their own deluded brains when they know no other God and if they reduce all their Theologie to their Philosophy like Campanella White and other self-admirers or if they take Christianity for a meer delusion and fall with Hobbs to write Leviathans or with the L. Herbert to write such Treatises de veritate as shall shew the world how little they esteem of verity or at best if they turn Paracelsian Behmenists and spin them a Religion from their own inventions Again therefore I address my self to all them that have the education of youth especially in order to preparation for the Ministery You that are Schoolmasters and Tutors begin and end with the things of God Speak daily to the hearts of your Schollars those things that must be wrought into their hearts or else they are undone Let some piercing words fall frequently from your mouthes of God and the state of their souls and the life to come Do not say They are too young to understand and entertain them You little know what impressions they may make which you discern not Not only the soul of that boy but a Congregation or many souls therein may have cause to bless God for your zeal and diligence yea for one such seasonable word You have a great advantage above others to do them good You have them before they are grown to the worst and they will hear you when they will not hear another If they are destinated to the Ministery you are preparing them for the special service of God and must they not first have the knowledge of him whom they must serve O think with your selves what a sad thing it will be to their own souls and what a wrong to the Church of God if they come out from you with common and carnal hearts to so holy and spiritual and great a work Of an hundred Students that be in one of your Colledges how many may there be that are serious experienced godly men some talk of too small a number If you should send one half of them on a work that they are un it for what bloody work will they make in the Church or Countries Whereas if you be the means of their through-sanctification how many souls may bless you and what greater good can you do the Church When once their hearts are savingly affected with the Doctrine which they study and preach they will study it more heartily and preach it heartily their own experience will direct them to the fittest subjects and will furnish them with matter and quicken them to set it home and I observe that the best of our hearers can feel and favour such experimental preachers and usually do less regard others what ever may be their accomplishments See therefore that you make not work for Sequestrators nor for the groans and lamentation of the Church nor for the great Tormenter of the murderers of souls SECT VI. 2. MY second particular Exhortation is this Content not your selves to have the main work of grace but be also very careful that your graces be kept in life and action and that you preach to your selves the Sermons that you studâ— before you preach them to others If you did this for your own sakes it would be no lost labour but I am speaking to you upon the publike account and that you would do it for the sake of the Church When your minds are in a heavenly holy frame your people are like to partake of the fruits of it Your prayers and praises and doctrine will be heavenly and sweet to them They will likely feel when you have been much with God That which is on your hearts most is like to be most in their ears I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience that I publish to my Flock the distempers of my soul when I let my heart grow cold my preaching is cold and when it is confused my preaching will be so and so I can observe too oft in the best of my hearers that when I have a while grown cold in preaching they have cooled accordingly and the next Prayers that I have heard from them hath been too like my preaching We are the Nurses of Christs little ones If we forbear our food we shall famish them they will quickly find it in the want of Milk and we may quickly see it again on them in the lean and dull discharge of their several duties If we let our Love go down we are not so like to raise up theirs If we abate our holy care and fear it will appear in our Doctrine If the matter shew it not the manner will If we feed on unwholsom food either errors or fruitless controversies our hearers are like to fare the worse for it Whereas if we could abound in Faith and Love and Zeal how would it over-flow to the refreshing of our Congregations and how would it appear in the increase of the same graces in others O Brethren watch therefore over your own hearts keep out lusts and passions and worldly inclinations Keep up the life of Faith and Love Be much at home and be much with God If it be not your daily serious business to study your own hearts and subdue corruptions and live as upon God if you make it not your very work which you constantly attend all will go amiss and you will starve your auditors or if you have but an affected servency you cannot expect such a blessing to attend it Be much above all in secret prayer and meditation There you must fetch the heavenly fire that must kindle your sacrifices Remember you cannot decline and neglect your duty to your own hurt alone but many will be losers by it as well as you For your peoples sakes therefore look to your hearts If a pang of spiritual Pride should overtake you and you should grow into any dangerous or schismatical conceits and vent your own over-valued inventions to draw away Disciples after you what a wound might this prove to the Church that you
tamen nata sunt quae omnia si non concupiscimus possidemus inquit Minutins Felix p. mihi 397. You lose no great advantage for heaven by becoming poor Qui viam terit eo faelicior quo levior incedit Id. I know where the heart is carnal and covetous words will not wring their money out of their hands They can say all this and more to others but saying is one thing and believing is another But with those that are true believers me thinks such considerations should prevail O what abundance of good might Ministers do if they would but live in a contempt of the world and the riches and glory of it and expend all they have for the best of their Masters use and pinch their flesh that they might have wherewith to do good This would unlock more hearts to the reception of their Doctrine then all their oratory will do and without this singularity in religiousness will seem but hypocrisie and its likely that it is so Qui innocentiam colit Domino supplicat qui hominem periculo surripit opimam victimam caedit Haec nostra sacrificia haec Dei sacra sunt sic apud nos Religiosior est ille qui justior inquit idem Minutius Felix ib. Though we need not do as the Papists that will betake them to Monasteries and cast away Propriety yet we must have nothing but what we have for God SECT X. 6. THE next branch of my Exhortation is that you would maintain your Christian and brotherly Unity and Communion and do as much of Gods work as you can in unanimity and holy concord Blessed be the Lord that it is so well with us in this County in this regard as it is We lose our Authority with our people when we divide They will yield to us when we go together who would resist and contemn the best of us alone Two things in order to this I beseech you to observe The first is that you still maintain your meetings for communion Incorporate and hold all Christian correspondency Grow not strange to one another Do not say that you have business of your own to do when you should be at any such meeting or other work for God It is not only the mutual edification that we may receive by Lectures disputations or conferences though that 's not nothing but it is specially for consultations for the common good and the maintaining of our Communion that we must thus assemble Though your own person might be without the benefit of such meetings yet the Church and our common work requireth them Do not then shew your selves contemners or neglecters of such a necessary work Distance breedeth strangeness and somenteth dividing flames and jealousies which Communion wil prevent or cure It wil be our enemies chiefest plot to divide us that they may weaken us conspire not with the enemies and take not their course And indeed Ministers have need of one another and must improve the gifts of God in one another and the self-sufficient are the most deficient and commonly proud and empty men Some there be that come not among their brethren to do or receive good nor afford them any of their assistance in consultations for the common good and their excuse is only we love to live privately To whom I say why do you not on the same grounds forbear going to Christ and say You love to live privately Is not Ministerial Commnnion a duty as well as common-Christian Communion and hath not the Church always thought so and practised accordingly If you mean that you love your own ease or commodity better then Gods service say so and speak your minds But I suppose there are few of them so silly as to think that is any just excuse though they will give us no better Somewhat else sure lieth at the bottom Indeed some of them are empty men and afraid their weakness should be known when as they cannot conceal it by their folitariness and might do much to heal it by Communion some of them are careless or scandalous men for them we have no desire of their Communion not shall admit it but upon publike Repentance and Reformation Some of them are so in love with their parties and opinions that they will not hold communion with us because we are not of their parties and opinions whereas by Communication they might give or receive better information or at least carry on so much of Gods work in unity as we are agreed in But the mischief of schism is to make men censorious and proud and take others to be unmeet for their communion and themselves to be the only Church or pure Church of Christ The Papists will have no Catholick Church but the Romans and unchurch all beside themselves The Separatists and many Anabaptists say the like of their parties The new prelatical party will have no Catholick Church but Prelatical and unchurch all except their party and so avoid Communion with others and thus turning Separatists and Schismaticks they imitate the Papists and make an opposition to schism their pretence First All must be accounted schismaticks that he not of their opinion and party when yet we find not that opinion in the Creed and they must be avoided because they are Schismaticks But were solve by the grace of God to adhere to more Catholick principles and practices and to have Communion with all Godly Christians that will have Communion with us so far as they force us not to actual sin And for the separating Brethren as by distance they are like to therish misinformations of us so if by their wilful estrangedness and distance any among us do entertain injurious reports of them and think worse of them and deal worse by some of them then there is cause they may partly thank themselves Sure I am by such means as these we are many of us grown so hardened in sin that men make no great matter what they say one against another but stand out of hearing and sight and vent their spleen against each other behind their backs How many jeers and scorns have they among their Companions for those that are against their party and they easily venture be'the matter never so false A bad report of such is easily taken to be true and that which is true is easily made worse when as Seneca saith Multos absolvemus si coeperimus ante judicare quam irasci nunc autem primum impetum sequimur It is passion that tels the tale and that receiveth it The second thing therefore that I intreat of you is that you would be very tender of the Unity and Peace of the Catholick Church not only of your own parties but of the whole And to this end these things will prove necessary 1. Do not too easily introduce any Novelties into the Church either in faith or practice I mean not that which seems a novelty to men that look no further then yesterday for so the restoring
of Ancient things will seem novelty to those that know not what was Anciently and the expulsion of prevailing novelties will seem a novelty to them that known not what is such indeed So the Papists censure us as Novelists for casting out many of their Innovations and our common people tell us we bring up new Customs if we do not kneel at the receiving of the Lords Supper A notorious Novelty Even in the sixth General Council at Trull in Constantinop this was the ninth Canon Ne Dominicis diebus genua flectamus à Divinis Patribus nostris Canonice accepimus Quare post vespertinum ingressum Sacerdotum in Sabbato ad Altare ut more observatum est nemo genu flectii usque ad sequentem vesperem post dominicam It is that which is indeed Novelty that I disswade you from and not the demolishing of Novelties Some have already introduced such New Phrases at least even about the great points of faith lustification and the like that there may be reason to reduce them to the Primitive Patterns A great stir is made in the world about the test of a Christian and true Church with whom we may have Communion and about that true Center and Cement of the Unity of the Church in and by which our Common calamitous breaches must be healed And indeed the true Cause of our Contrived divisions and misery is for want of discerning the center of our unity and the terms on which it must be done which is great pity when it was once so easie a matter till the ancient test was thought insufficient If any of the Ancient Creeds might serve we might be soon agreed If Vincâ—ntius Lirineus test might serve we might yet make some good shift viz. To believe explicitly all that quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est For as he addeth hoc est etenim verè proprièque Catholicum But then we must come 1. That the first age may not be excluded which gave the rule to the rest 2. And that this extend not to every Ceremony which never was taken for unalterable but to matters of faith and that the acts and Canons of Councils which were not about such matters of faith but meer variable order and which newly constituted those things which the Apostolike Age knew not and therefore were not properly Credita much less semper ab omnibus may have no hand in this work I say if either the ancient Western or Eastern Creed or this Catholick faith of Vincentius might be taken as the test for explicit saith or else rather all those Scripture texts that express the Credenda with a note of necessity and the the whole Scripture moreover be confessed to be Gods word and so believed in other points at least implicitly this Course might produce a more general Communion and agreement and more lines would meet in this Center then otherwise are like to meet And indeed till men can be again content to make the Scripture the sufficient Rule in Necessaries to be explicitly believed and in all the rest implicitly we are never like to see a Catholike Christian durable Peace If we must needs make the Council of Trent or the Papal Judgement our test or if we must make a blind bargain with the Papists to come as near them as ever we dare and so to compass another Interim and make that a test when God never made it so and all Christians never be of a mind in it but some dare go nearer Rome then others dare and that in several degrees or if we must thrust in all the Canons of the former Councils about matters of order discipline and ceremonies into our test or gather up all the opinions of the Fathers for the three or four first ages and make them our test None of all these will ever seem to do the business and a Catholike Union will never be founded in them It is an easie matter infallibly to foretel this Much less can the writings of any single man as Austin Aquinas Luther Calvin Beza c. or yet the late Confessors of any Churches that add to the ancient test be ever capable of this use and honour I know it is said that a man may subscribe the Scripture and the ancient Creeds and yet maintain Socinianism or other heresies To which I answer 1. So he may another test which your own brains shall contrive and while you make a snare to catch hereticks instead of a test for the Churches Communion you will miss your end and the heretick by the slipperyness of his conscience will break through and the tender Christian may possibly be ensnared And by your new Creed the Church is like to have new divisions if you keep not close to the words of Scripture 2. In such cases when hereticks contradict the Scripture which they have subscribed this calls not for a new or more sufficient test but the Church must take notice of it and call him to account and if he be impenitent exclude him their Communion What I must we have new Laws made every time the old ones are broken as if the Law were not sufficient because men break it Or rather must not the penalty of the violated Law be executed It is a most sad case that such reasons as these should prevail with so many learned godly men to deny the sufficiency of Scripture as a test for Church-Communion and to be still framing new ones that depart at least from Scripture-phrase as if this were necessary to obviate heresies Two things are necessary to obviate heresies the Law and good execution God hath made the former and his Rule and Law is both for sense and phrase translated sufficient and all their additional inventions as to the foresaid use are as spiders webs Let us but do our part in the Due execution of the Laws of Christ by questioning offenders in orderly Synods for the breaking of these Laws and let us avoid Communion with the impenitent and what can the Church do more The rest belongs to the Magistrate to restrain him from seducing his subjects and not to us Well! this is the thing that I would recommend therefore to all my Brethren as the most necessary thing to the Churches peace that you Unite in necessary truths and tolerate tolerable failings and bear with one another in things that may be born with and do not make a larger Creed and more necessaries then God hath done And to that end let no mans writings nor the judgement of any party though right be taken as a test or made that rule And I Lay not too great a stress upon controverted opinions which have godly men and specially whole Churches on both sides 2. Lay not too great a stress on those Controversies that are ultimately resolved into Philosophical uncertainties as some unprofitable controversies are about Free-will and the manner of the spirits operation of Grace and the Divine Decrees and
now reproving any of these in the matter though the last especially well deserve it but that they lay so much upon their several orders and formalities as many of them do When indeed if we had our will in all such matters of order and had the rightest form of Government in the world it is the painful execution and the diligent and prudent use of means for mens conversion and edification by able faithful men that must accomplish the Reformation Brethren I dare confidently tell you that if you will but faithfully perform what you have Agreed upon both in this business of Catechizing and personal instruction and in the matter of Discipline formerly where we have well waved all the controverted part which hath so much ascribed to it you will do more for the true Reformation that is so desirable and hath been so long prayed and hoped for then all the changes of forms and orders so eagerly contended for are ever like to effect If Bishops would do this work I would take them for Reformers And if Presbyters will do it I will take them for Reformers and it was those that neglected and hindred it that I ever took for Deformers Let us see the work well done that God hath made so necessary for mens conversion preservation restauration and salvation and the doers of it whether Prelates or Presbyters shall never have any fierce opposition of mine But it is not bare Canons and Orders and Names and Shews that any wise man will take for the substance of Reformation It is not Circumcision or uncircumcision to be a Jew or a Gentile bond or free that availeth any thing but a new creature and faith that worketh by love That is the Reformation which best healeth the Ignorance and Infidelity and Pride and Hypocrisie and Worldliness and other killing sins of the Land and that most effectually bringeth men to faith and holiness Not that I would have the least truth or duty undervalued or any part of Gods will to be rejected But the Kingdom of God consisteth not in every truth or duty not in ceremonies or circumstances not in meats or drinks but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy-Ghost Dear Brethren it is you and such as you that under Christ must yet give this Nation the fruit of all their prayers and pains their cost and blood and heavy sufferings All that they have been doing for the good of the Church and for true Reformation for so may years was but to prepare the way for you to come in and do the work which they desired Alas what would they do by fire and sword by drums and trumpets for the converting of souls The actions of Armies and famous Commanders which seem so glorious and make so great a noise that the world rings of them what have they done or what can they do that is worth the talking on without you In themselves considered all their victories and great atchievements are so far from being truly glorious that they are very lamentable and a Butcher may as well glory that he hath killed so many beasts or a hangman that he hath executed so many men as they can glory in the thing considered in it self For war is the most heavy temporal judgement And far less cause would they have to glory if their cause and ends were wrong And if their hearts and ends and cause be right and they mean as honestly as any men in the world yet are these great Commanders but your pioneers to cut up the thorns that stand in your way and to cast out the rubbish and prepare you the way to build the house Alas they cannot with all their victories exalt the Lord Jesus in the soul of any sinner and therefore they cannot set up his spiritual Kingdom for the hearts of men are his house and throne If the work should stop with the end of theirs and go no further then they can carry it we should be in the end but where we were in the beginning and one generation of Christs enemies would succeed another and they that take down the wicked would inherit their vices as they possess their rooms and the last would be far the worst as being deeper in the guilt and more engaged in evil-doing All this trouble then and stir of the Nation hath been to bring the work to your hands and shall it dye there God forbid They have opened you the door and at exceeding cost and sufferings have removed many of your impediments and put the building instruments into your hands and will you now stand still or loyter God forbid up then Brethren and give the Nation the fruit of their cost and pains frustrate not all the preparers work fail not the long expectations of so many thousands that have prayed in hope of a true Reformation and paid in hope and ventured in hope and suffered in hope and waited till now in hope In the name of God take heed that now you fail not all these Hopes Have they spent so long time in fencing the Vineyard and weeding and pruning it and making it ready for your hands and will you now fail them that are sent to gather in the vintage and lose all their labours When they have plowed the field will you sow it by the halves If they had known beforehand that Ministers would have proved idle and unfaithful how many hundreds would have spared their blood and how many thousands would have sate still and have let the old Readders and formalists alone and have said If we must have dullards and unprofitable men it is as good have one as another It is not worth so much cost and pains to change one careless Minister for another The end is the mover and life of the agent in all the means How many thousands have prayed and paid and suffered and more upon the expectations of a great advantage to the Church and more common illumination and reformation of the Nation by your means And will you now deceive them all Again I say God forbid Now it is at your hands that they are expecting the happy issue of all The eyes of the Nation are or should be all under God upon you for the bringing in the harvest of their cost and labours I profess it maketh me admire at the fearful deceitfulness of the heart of man to see how every man can call on others for duty or censure them for the omitting it and what excellent Judges we are in other mens cases and how partial in our own The very judicious Teachers of the Nation can cry out and too justly against one sect and another sect and against unfaithful underminers of those that they thought would have done the work and against the disturbers of the Reformation that was going on and say These have betrayed the Church and frustrated the Nations cost and hopes and undone all that hath been so long a doing And yet they see not or seem
apparent danger of damnation And every impenitent person that you see and know about you suppose that you hear them cry to you for help as ever you pitied poor wretches pity us lest we should be tormented in the flames of hell if you have the hearts of men pitty us And do that for them that you would do if they followed you with such complaints O how can you walk and talk and be merry with such people when you know their case Me thinks when you look them in the face and think how they must lie in perpetual misery you should break forth into tears as the Prophet did when he looked upon Hazael and then fall on with the most importunate Exhortations when you must visit them in their sickness will it not wound your hearts to see them ready to depart into misery before you have ever dealt seriously with them for their recovery O then for the Lords sake and for the sake of poor souls have pity on them and bestir your selves and spare no pains that may conduce to their salvation 3. ANd I must further tell you that this Ministerial fidelity is Necessary to your own welfare as well as to your peoples For this is your work according to which among others you shall be judged You can no more be saved without Ministerial diligence and fidelity then they or you can be saved without Christian diligence and fidelity If you care not for others at least care for your selves O what is it to answer for the neglect of such a charge and what sins more hainous then the betraying of souls Doth not that threatning make us tremble If thou warn not the wicked their blood will I require at thy hands I am afraid nay I am past doubt that the day is near when unfaithful Ministers will wish that they had never known that charge But that they had rather been Colliars or Tinkers or sweepers of Channels then Pastors of Christs flock when besides all the rest of their sins they shall have the blood of so many souls to answer for O Brethren our death as well as our peoples is at hand and it is as terrible to an unfaithful Pastor as to any When we see that dye we must and there is no remedy no wit or learning no credit or popular applause can put by the stroke or delay the time but willing or unwilling our souls must be gone and that into a world that we never saw where our persons and worldly interest will not be respected O then for a clear Conscience that can say I lived not to my self but to Christ I spared not my pains I hid not my talent I concealed not mens misery nor the way of their recovery O Sirs let us therefore take time while we may have it and work while it is day for the night cometh when none can work This is our day too and by doing good to others we must do good to our selves If you would prepare for a comfortable death and a sure and great Reward the harvest is before you gâ—rd up the loins of your minds and quit your selves like men that you may end your days with that confident triumph I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Iudge shall give me And if you would be blessed with those that dye in the Lord Labour now that you may rest from your labours then and do such works as you would wish should follow you and not such as will prove your terror in the review SECT IV. HAving found so great Reason to move us to this work I shall before I come to the Directions 1. Apply them further for our Humiliation and Excitation And 2. answer some Objections that may be raised And 1. what cause have we to bleed before the Lord this day that have neglected so great and good a work so long That we have been Ministers of the Gospel so many years and done so little by personal instructions and conference for the saving of mens souls If we had but set a work this business sooner that we have now agreed upon who knows how many more might have been brought over unto Christ and how much happyer we might have made our Parishes ere now And why might we not have done it sooner as well as now I confess many impediments were in our way and so there are still and will be while there is a Devil to tempt and a corrupt heart in man to resist the light But if the greatest impediment had not been in our selves even in our own darkness and dulness and undisposedness to duty and our dividedness and unaptness to close for the work of God I see not but much might have been done before this We had the same God to command us and the same miserable objects of compassion and the same liberty from Governors of the Common-wealth But we stood looking for changes and we would have had the Magistrate not only to have given us leave to work but have done our work for us or at least to have brought the game to our hands and while we lookt for better daies we made them worse by the lamentable neglect of a chief part of our work And had we as much petitioned Parliaments for the interposition of their Authority to compell men to be catechized and instructed by the Minister as we did for maintenance and other matters its like we might have obtained it long ago when they were forward to gratifie us in such undisputable things But we have sinned and have no just excuse for our sin somewhat that may perhaps excuse à tanto but nothing à toto and the sin is so great because the duty is so great that we should be afraid of pleading excuse too much The Lord of Mercy forgive us and all the Ministry of England and lay not this or any of our Ministerial negligences to our charge O that he would cover all our unfaithfulness and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant would wash away our guilt of the blood of souls that when the chief Shepherd shall appear we may stand before him in peace and may not be condemned for the scattering of his Flock And O that he would put up his controversie which he hath against the Pastors of his Church and not deal the hardlyer with them for our sakes nor suffer underminers or persecutors to scatter them as they have suffered his Sheep to be scattered and that he will not care as little for them as they have done for the souls of men nor think his salvation too good for them as they have thought their labour and sufferings too much for mens salvation and as we have had many daies of Humiliation in England for the sins of the Land and the Judgements that have lain upon us I hope we shall hear that God will more