about our Godliness or Goodness 1 Pride of our understandings worketh thus First a man that was formerly in darkness is much affected with the new-come light and perceiveth that he knoweth much more than he did before And then he groweth to a carnal and corrupt estimation of it valuing it more as Nature is pleased with it than as it is sanctified by it Delighting in knowledge for it self more than for the purity Love and heavenliness which it should effect Then he looketh about him on the ignorant sort of people who know not what he knoweth and seeth how far they are below him And he thinketh with himself what a difference hath God made between Me and Them And because Thankfulness is a duty he observeth not how Pride doth twist it self with it and creep in under the protection of its name And how Thankfulness and Pride have the same expressions and both of them say I thank thee O Father that thou hâ—st hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes I thank thee O God that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican Luk. 18. 11. And then he is so taken up with the things which he knoweth that he perceiveth not what knowledge yet he wanteth And the deep affection which his knowledge worketh in him or the tickling pleasure which he hath in knowing joyned with this ignorance of his ignorance in other things doth make him over-confident of all his apprehensions as if every thing which he imagineth were an absolute certainty And so he wanteth that humble suspicion of his own understanding which a true acquaintance with his ignorance would have caused in him And thus he groweth to over-value all his own conceivings and to under-value all the opinions and reasonings of others which are contrary to his own And thence he proceeds to corrupt his Religion with such mis-apprehensions and his rash unsuspected understanding entertains one errour first and then that lets in many more till he have espoused a self-chosen frame of doctrine instead of the sacred truths of God and method of the Gospel And from hence he proceedeth to choose his Religious exercises also according to these mis-apprehensions These make him Duties which are no Duties and sins which are no sins And thus he calleth evil good and good evil and putteth darkness for light and light for darkness bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter And having made him a Religion of his own he confidently thinketh that it is of God And next he valueth all men that he hath to do with according as they are nearer or farther off from this which he accounteth the way of God He chooseth his Church or party whom he will joyn with by the test of this Religion which his pride hath chosen He zealously declaimeth against the opposers of his way as against the adversaries of truth and Godliness and consequently of God himself He prayeth up his opinions and preacheth them up and contendeth for them and prayeth and preacheth and dispâ—teth down all that â—s against them He laboureth to strengthen the party that is for them and to weaken that which is against them And thus he divideth the kingdom and family of Christ He destroyeth first the Love of his brother and neighbour in himself and then laboureth to destroy it in all others by speaking against those that are not of his way with contempt and obloquy to represent them as an â—â—lovely sort of men And if the interest of his cause and party do require it perhaps he will next destroy their persons And yet all this is done in zeal of God and as an acceptable service to him And they think all are Neâ—ters and Lukewarm who prosecute not the Schism as fervently as they and fight not against Love with as much vehemency Yea and in all this they are still conâ—ident that they Lâ—ve the Brethren with a special Love and make it the mark that they are Christs disciples and that they are passed from deâ—th to life because they love the party and persons who are of their own opinion and way And thus PRIDE insensibly while they perceive it not at all doth choke their Opinions their Religions their Parties and make their Duties and their sins and rule their judgments affections and their actions which is all but the same thing which the Scripture in one word calleth HERESY And all that I have said you may find said in other words in the third Chapter of Iames. And there are two things which greatly promote this sin The one is a conceit that all their apprehensions are the Spirits dictatâ—s or the effect of its illumination And the works and teachings of the spirit are not to be contradicted or suspected but to be honoured Therefore they think that it is a resisting of the spirit to resist their judgment And they are perswaded that their apprehensions are caused by the spirit partly because they had no such thing whilest they lived in wickedness but it came in either with their change or shortly after And therefore they think that the same light which shewed them their sinful state doth shew them also all these principles And partly because they find themselves as deeply â—ffected with these misapprehensions as with other which are sound and right therefore they are confident that they come from the same spirit And specially when these thoughts come in upon the reading of the Scripture or in meditation or after earnest prayer to God to teach them by his spirit and lead them into the truth and not to suffer them to err and when they find that they have good ends and meanings and a desire to know the truth all thâ—s perswadeth them that it is the spirit from whom their thoughts proceed when yet it may be no such thing And another much greater and commoner cause of this self-conceitedness is this All mens understandings are naturally imperfect Our knowledge about Natural things is small and dark much more about things supernatural The wisest must say We know but in part And the variety of mens degrees of knowledge joyned with the difference of their educations and advantages and fore-going thoughts doth make as great a diversity of understandings as of complexions And yet it is very hard to any man to have a sufficient diffidence and suspicion of his mistaking mind For what a man knoweth he knoweth that he knoweth But no man that erreth doth know that he erreth For that is a contradiction If I knew that I erred in judgment I must know that the thing is otherwise than I judged it to be which is impossible to the same understanding at the same time For then judging were no judging as being contrary to knowledge When I see such a difficulty about a point as to pass no judgment at all but remain in meer suspence then I can easily perceive that I am ignorant of it But
will joyn with such a one no more And it is the Confession which must be the sin But if once we have to do against the sin of any that are Great or Godly that power or piety is made a patron of the errour then it may be a smarting censure indeed which we may expect One crieth out He is a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition as they did of Paul though I hate and preach-against sedition Another saith he is bitter and speaketh against the Godly when I spend my self to preach up Godliness But if it be a party that is engaged in the errour you must expect the censure of all the party And what errour is it that hath not a party or that hath neither Greatness nor Godliness for a refuge If in doctrinal or practical consultations of great moment you have to do with injudicious unskilful men if you contradict their way be it never so modestly you are proud and self-opiâ—ionated and must have your own way If you follow their mistakes and contradict them not you may wound the Church and Cause of Christ and be more generally censured at the last In a word when such a multitude of things are matters of Controversie as many may be the matters of Censure One will censure me for praying with a form or book and another for praying without it One for being too long and another for being too short one for this gesture and another for that One for preaching when I am silenced another for not preaching more One for being too gentle to dissenters and another for being too severe One for being too narrow in my principles and communion and another for being too large and universal And if in the sense of the sin and misery of some Christians Love-killing principles and practises I have spent the best of twenty years in writing preaching while I had leave conferring and praying for the Union of Christians and the Churches peace I have but made a wedge of my bare hand by putting it into the clift and both sides have closed upon me to my pain But I have turned both parties in the fray which I endeavoured to part against my self when each side had one adversary I had two Nay this is not the worst to be expected But moreover I must add that I was never more accused of any thing as a crime than of that which I did most against And even for doing so Never more suspected of Carnal compliance than when I exercised the greatest self-denial Never more accused of unpeaceableness than for labouring for the Churches peace Never was I more accused of Schism than for striving with all my power to have united the Ministers and healed the Church or at least prevented further divisions Never more accused of enmity against the true Discipline of the Church than when I have done most and at the dearest rates to stablish it and to prevent its fall In all this I meddle not with my Civil Superiours as thinking it meeter patiently to bear than to aggravate their censures though not all so tolerable as private mens I might give you as many instances of the matters of common Converse He that hath much to do in the world shall hardly escape the censure of many The buyer will say he sells too dear The seller will say he would buy too cheap Every one that expecteth a commodity will censure him that hindereth it and steps in before him If I have a friend or kinsman unworthy of any office or preferment he is nevertheless peremptory in his desires and expectations for being unworthy If I will not speak for him and further his suit I am censured as unnatural and unkind and turn a friend into an enemy If I do speak for him I am false to my conscience and the common good and I must look to be censured accordingly by many But I will add no more instances lest what I intend for instruction seem to be but a complaint But to what purpose is all this It is to let the Reader know that man is not God nor his judgement to be rested in nor his favour to be over-valued To call to you O cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils whose heart is deceitful and desperately wicked For wherein is he to be accounted of Look up to God and take him for your God indeed Rest in his Love and be satisfied in his approbation Despise not man nor lay any stumbling blocks before them but as to your own interest in their esteems farther than Gods service and their benefit requireth it account it but a shadow and a thing of nought And say of it as Paul With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you or of mans day or judgement For I have one that judgeth me even the Lord. 1 Cor. 4. 3. It is GOD Christians it is GOD it is only GOD whose infallibility justification and unspotted truth and goodness you must make your rest It is Heaven it is Heaven it is only Heaven where perfect truth and impartial righteousness and the full vindication of all the just and the fruition of perfect Love and Concord is to be expected and where malice and lies and discord and the father of them are totally and finally shut out As you would not be used as Hypocrites by God and deprived of the true Reward of faith O seek not after the hepocrites reward What is the applause of mortal man Can you not bear the censure of such a shadow How then would you suffer martyrdome for Christ Over-value not the esteem of High or Low of the Great or of the Godly of the many or of the few Gods approbation is sufficient to be your reward See that you be Godly and then be more indifferent though you are thought ungodly See that you be loyal and peaceable and then you may bear it if you be called the contrary Abhor all unwarrantable divisions and then you may bear to be reputed schismaticks Study you to be good and not to be accounted good And what if I should look further to historical fame when I am dead Away with the over-valuing of that too as part of the hypocrites reward I confess God usually blesseth the memory of the just and sets their names above the power of the greatest tyrants and causeth the names of the wicked to rot But this is but a temporal and uncertain thing If one write in my praise to the highest and another write a Volume of false reproaches how shall posterity know which is true who knew neither party nor the cause But yet the nearer reason of all this admonition is to let you know that as contention comes by pride so over-valuing the esteem and censures of men though Good or Great is a dreadful snare and cause of schismes For then you will be stretching your consciences and using your wits to please the party whose censures you must escape And
day above another Another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Rom. 15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us â— ease his neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Wherefore RECEIVE ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God Rom. 14. 17 18 19 20. For the Kingdome of God is not meat and drink but Righteoâ—sness and PEACE and Ioy in the Holy Ghost For he that in THESE THINGS serveth Christ is Acceptable to God and APPROVED of MEN. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for PEACE and things wherewith one may Edifie another For meat destroy not the work of God Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth that is acknowledgeth to be indifferent or lawful And he that doubteth is damned if he eat The rest and some of the same again you shall have in the Conclusion and I shall not accuse my self of vain repetition but account my self and England happy if twice or ten times warnâ—ng you of your undoubted duty in the plain words of God which you cannot without professed Infidelity deny will but perswade you to heal our grievous wounds at so cheap a rate as the doing of that good and blessed work which NONE may so EASILY do as YOU and none are more OBLIGED to do nor shall suffer more everlastingly for not doing it if no Scripture no reasons no experience no petitions no groans and tears of the distressed Church of Christ can intreat you to it But alas Rom. 3. 16 17 18. Destruction and misery are in their wayes The way of PEACE they have not known There is no fear of God before their eyes Eccles. 7. 7. SURELY OPPRESSION MAKETH A WISE MAN MAD. Rev. 6. 10. QUAMDIU DOMINE SANCIE VERAX Psal. 120. 6. DIU HABITAVIT ANIMA MEA INTER OSORES PACIS The Preface THE Reason why I think it needful to adjoyn these few Directions to the Pastors are First Because I think that the rest will do but little good without them Though the people are more inclined to separations than the Pastors yet are the Pastors the greater causes of most of the Divisions in the Church And therefore must be the chiefest in the Cure Because the advantage of their parts and place doth make them most significant in both And their office obligeth them to be the most skilful and forward in the Cure Secondly Because I should be chargeable with such partiality as beseemeth not a Minister of Christ if I should fall upon the miscrariages of the people only and say nothing to my self and brethren who are as deeply concerned in the matter in hand Yet I must here premise that as I have done this part with greater brevity so also with submissive tenderness and respect And that I do not at all intend any of the Directions following as a Magisterial Dictator to those in authority nor any of the admonitions as factious reflections upon superiors or inferiors or as pleading for or against any party now among us To the reasons after given for tenderness to Religious dissenters though too much inclined to separations I shall here only add First That the general weakness even of the Pastors through most of the Churches upon earth should make us rather pity the weakness of the people than angrily revile them And to think of Christs words Let him that is without sin cast the first stone Alas our preaching our praying our conference our living tell all the world too lowdly that we are weak How few are there that be not either ignorant or injudicious or imprudent or dull and liveless or dry and barren or of a stâ—mmering tongue in our Ministerial work And in so high a business any one of these is a lothsome blemish If we are put to defend our Religion or any necessary part thereof how weakly and injudiciously is it usually done In a word Our great divisions among our selves with our censures and usage of one another do tellâ—all the world not only that we are weak but that too many of us account one another to be worse than weak even intollerable and unworthy of our sacred office And shall we by our weakness and faultiness become the peoples scandal and tempt them to undue separations and when we have done be impatient with their weakness while we overlook our own Secondly Let us be so impartial as to remember how far some have spoken to their sense who have been of most veneration in the Church I instance but in two First The wise and ancient Britain Gildas who saith no less than Apparet ergo eum qui vos sacerdotes sciens ex corde dicit non esse eximium Christianum Sane quod sentio proferam O inimici Dei non sacerdotes O licitatores malorum non pontifices traditores non sanctorum Apostolorum successores â— impugnatores non Christi ministri Sed quomodo vos aliquid solvetis ut sit solutum in coelis a coelo ob scelera adempti immanium peccatorum sunâ—bus compediti c. If the Author of these words â—e Venerable account not the speakers of such like now to be utterly intollerable The second is St. Martin whose story out of Sulpitius Severus I have afterwards abbreviated If a Sainted Bishop most famous for myracles pretend to Angelical Revelation for so much as is there mentioned let us be charitable and patient to those tender conscionable Christians who mistakingly go in such like wayes I am my self so sensible of the evil and danger of Dividing separating principles and â—ayes that it is much of my labour to cure them with all And therefore I have written what I have here done though I am sure I shall displease the guilty But overdoing and illdoing will prove but undoing The Lord give more Wisdome Holiness and Love to Pastors and people and open our ears to healing counsels before we are incurable Amen Directions to Pastors how to deal with those weak Christians who are inclined to Divisions WHen the young and ungrounded sort of Christians do by their errors pride or passions disturb the Churches peace orde it is the Pastors usually that are first and most assaulted by their abuses and therefore are most impatient and exasperated against them And it were well if we were so innocent our selves as that our consciences need not call us to enquire whether all this be not partly the fruit of our own miscariages However seeing that both the eminency of our grace and the nature of our office should make us more sensible of the Churches
are but the effects of your prejudice passion or weakness of understanding 28. Do not too much reverence the revelations impulses or most confident opinions of any others upon the account of their sincerity or holiness but try all judiciously and soberly by the word of God 29. Take heed least the trouble of your own disquieted doubting minds do become a snare to draw you to some unâ—outh way of Cure and so make the fancy of some new opinion sect or practice to seem your remedy and give you ease and soperswade you that it is the certain truth 30 Keep in the rank of a humble disciple or Learner in Christs Church till you are fit and called to be Teachers your selves 31. Grow up in the great substantial practical truths and duties and grow downwards in the roots of a clearer belief of the Word of God and the life to come And neither begin too soon with doubtful opinions nor ever lay too much upon them 32. Lay not a greater stress upon your different words and manner of prayer than God hath laid And take heed of scorning reproaching or slighting the words and manner of other mens worship when it is such as God accepteth from the sincere Where the Case about forms of prayer is handled 33. When you are sure that other mens way of worship is sinful yet make it not any other or greater sin than indeed it is and speak not evil of so much in it as is good And slander not God as a hater or rejecter of all mens Services which are mixt with infirmities or as a partial hater of the infirmities of others and not yours 34. Think not that all is unlawfully obeyed which is unlawfully commanded 35. Think not that you are guilty of all the faults of other mens worship with whom you joyn no not of the Ministers or Congregations Nor that you are bound to seperate from all the worship which is faultily performed For then there must be no Church-Communion upon Earth Where is more about extemporary prayer and imposed forms 36. Yet know what Pastors and Church-Communion you may joyn with and what not And think not that I am perswading you to make no difference 37. In your judging of Discipline reformation and any means of the Churches good be sure your eye be upon the true End and upon the particular Rule and not on either of them alone Take not that for a means which is either contrary to the Word of God or is in â—ts nature destructive of the end 38. Neglect not any truth of God much less renounce it or deny it But yet do not take it for your duty to publish all which you judge to be truth nor a sin to silence many lesser truths when the Churches peace and welfare doth require it 39. Know which are the Great duties of a Christian life and wherein the nature of true Religion doth consist And then pretend not any lesser duty against these greater though the least when it is indeed a duty is not to be denyed or neglected 40. Labour for a sound judgement to know good from evil least you trouble your selves and others by mistakes Forsake not the guidance of a judicious Teacher nor the Company of the agreeing generality of the Godly 41. Let not the bare fervour of a Preacher or the loudness of his voice or affectionate utterance draw you too far to admire or follow him without a proportion of solid understanding and judiciousness 43. Your belief of the necessary Articles of faith must be made your own and not taken meerly on the Authority of any And in all points of belief or practice which are necessary to Salvation you must ever keep company with the Universal Church For it were not the Church if it erred in those And in matters of Peace and Concord the major vote must be your guide In matters of humane obedience your Governours must be your guides And in matters of high and difficult speculation the judgment of one man of extraordinary understanding is to be preferred before the Rulers and the major Vote 43. Reject not a good cause because it is owned by some bad men And own not a bad cause for the goodness of the Patrons of it Iudge not of the Cause by the persons when you should judg of the persons by the Cause 44. Yea take the bad examples of religious men to be one of your most perillous temptations And therefore labour to discover what are the special sins of professours in the age you live in that you may be specially fortified against them 45. Desire the highest degree of holiness and to be free from the Corruptions of the times But affect not to be odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things 46. When you have to do only with stigmatized scandalous ones to vindicate the honour of Christianity from their Scandal go as far from them as lawfully you can But with the Common sort of Sinners whose Conversion you are bound to seek go not as far from them as you can but purposely study to come as near them as lawfully you may that you may have the better advantage to win them to the truth 47. Whenever you are avoiding any error forget not that there is a contrary extream to be avoided of which you are not our of danger 48. Think more and talk more of your faults and failings against others especially against Princes Magistrates and Pastors than of their faults and failings against you 49. Take notice of all the good in others which appeareth and talk rather of that behind their backs than of their faults 50. Study the duty of instructing and exhorting more than of reproof and finding fault 51. The more you suffer by Rulers or any mâ—n the more be watchful lest you be tempted to dishonour them or to withdraw or abate the Love which is their due 52. Make Conscience of heart-revenge and tongue-revenge as well as of hand-revenge 53. When you are exasperated by the hurt which you feel from Magistrates remember also the Good which the Church receiveth by them 54. Learn to suffer by good people and by Ministers and not only by ungodly people or by Magistrates 55. When you complain of violence and persecution in others take heed lest the same inward vice work in you by Church cruelties and dimning censures against them or others Persecution and separation often have the same Cause 56. Keep still in your eye the State of all Christs Churches upon earth that you may know what a people they are through the world whom Christ hath Communion with and may not ignorantly separate from almost all the Church of Christ while you think that you separate but from those about you Queres about separation 57. Yet ler not any here cheat you by the bare namees and titles of Unity to the papal usurping head of the Church nor must you dream of any Head and Center of Unity to the universal
as wasting fire proceedeth from the incendiaries The Texts recited DIRECTIONS FOR VVeak Christians How they may escape the troubling dividing and endangering of the Church by their Errours in Doctrine Worship and Church-Communion IF we had never been warned by the History of the Sacred Scripture or of the former Ages of the Church yet our experience in this present Age is enough to tell both us and our Posterity how great perturbations and calamites may come to the Church of Christ by the miscarriages of the more zealous Professors of Religion and how great a hinderance such may prove to the prosperity of the Gospel to the Love and Unity of Christians to the Reformation and holy order of the Congregations and to all those good ends which are desired by themselves How great a dishonour they may prove to the Christian name and what occasions of hardening the wicked in their contempt of Godliness to their everlasting ruine and the sufferings of Believers Therefore seeing the peace and welfare of the Church is much more valuable than the peace and welfare of an individual soul as I have Directed you how to escape your own disturbance and undoing so I think it as necessary to direct you how to escape being the Plagues and disturbers of the Church and the instruments of Satan in resisting the Gospel and destroying others And you should be the more willing to hear me in this also because by hurting others you hurt your selves and by wronging the Church of God you cross your own desires and ends if you are Christians indeed and by doing good to others and furthering the cause of Godliness and Christianity you do good to your selves and further your own Cosolation and Salvation DIRECT I. FIrst observe this General direction see that you forget not the great difference between Novices and experienced Christians between the babes and those at full age between the weak and the strong in grace Level them not in your estimation It is not for nothing that the Spirit of God in Scripture maketh so great a difference between them as you may read in Heb. 5. 11 12 13 14 6. 1 2. 1 Tim. 3. 6. 1 Iohn 2. 12 13 14. There are babes strong men and fathers among Christians There are some that are dull of hearing and have need of milk and are unskilful in the word of righteousness and must be taught the principles and there are others who can digest strong meat who by reason of Use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Novices must not be made Pastors of the Church It is not for nothing that the Younger are so often commanded reverence and submission to the Elder and that the Pastors and Governors of the Church are usually called by the name of Elders because it was supposed that the elder sort were the most experienced and wise and therefore Pastors and Rulers were to be chosen out of them And why is it that children must so much honour their fathers and mothers and must be governed by them It is not meerly because generation giveth the Parents a propriety in their children For God would not have folly to be the governour of wisdom upon pretense of such propriety But it is also because that it must ordinarily be supposed that Infants are ignorant and Parents have understanding and are fit to be their Teachers as having had longer time and helps to learn and more experience to make their knowledge clear and firm If the young and unexperienced were ordinarily as wise as the aged or mature why are not children made governors of their Parents or at least commanded to instruct and teach them as ordinarily as Parents must do their children The Lord Jesus himself would be subject to his mother and reputed father in his Child-hood Luke 2. 51. Can there be a livelier conviction of the arrogancy of those novices who proudly sleight the judgments of their elders as presuming groundlesly that they are wiser than they Yea Christ would not enter upon his publick Ministry or Office till he was about thirty years of age Luke 3. 23. He is blind that perceiveth not in this example a most notorious Condemnation of the pride of those that run with the shell on their head into the Ministery or that hasten to be Teachers of others before they have had time or means to learn and that deride or vilisie the judgments of the aged who differ from their conceits before they understand the things in which they are so confident It was thought a good answer in Iohn 9. 21. He is of age ask him But they that are under age now think their words to be the wisest because they are the boldest and the fiercest The old were wont to bless the young and now the young deride the old It is the character of a truculent people Deut. 28. 50. that they regard not the person of the old that is They reverence not their age How many vehement commands are there in Solomons Proverbs to the younger sort to hearken to the counsel of their Parents The contrary was the ruine of Eli's sons and the shame of Samuels 1 Sam. 8. 1 5. Was Rehoboam unwise in forsaking the counsel of the aged and harkning to the young and rash And are those people wise that in the Mysteries of Salvation will prefer the vehement passions of a novice before the well-setled judgment of the experienced aged Ministers I know that the old are too oft ignorant and that wisdom doth not always increase with age But I know withall that Children are never fit to be the Teachers of the Church And that old men may be foolish but too young men are never wise enough for so high a work We are not now considering what may fall out rarely as a wonder but what is ordinarily to be expected Most of the Churches confusions and diviâ—â—ons have been caused by the younger sort of Christians Who are in the heat of their zeal and the infancy of understanding Who have affection enough to make them drive on but have not judgement enough to know the way None are so fierce and rash in condemning the things and persons which they understand not and in raising clamours against all that are wiser and soberer than they If they once take a thing to be a sin which is no sin or a duty which is no duty there is no person no Minister no Magistrate who hath age or wisdom or piety enough to save them from the injuries of juvenile temerity if they do not think and speak and do according to their green and raw conceits Remember therefore to be always sensible of the great disadvantages of youth and to preserve that reverence for experienced age which God in nature as well as in Scripture hath made their due If time labour were not necessary to maturity of knowledge why do you not trust another with your health as well as a studyed experienced
not be tryed by the Scripture Or when it driveth you to use means which God forbiddeth in his Word and putteth you upon ways which the sealed Law and Testimony condemn It cannot be of God which is against Gods Word 10. Lastly it is a suspicious sign when it is contrary to the judgement experience and zeal of the generality of the most wise experienced tryed sober godly Christians and so to the ordinary working of Gods Spirit in other men who are as good as you For Gods Spirit is not contrary to it self By all these signs you may easily perceive how the dividing zeal of a Sect as a sect doth differ from the genuine Christian zeal The one is a zeal for some singular opinion The other is a zeal for Godliness and Christianity The one is kindled by some interest of our own religious reputation the other is kindled by the interest of the will and glory of God The one is for the strengthning of a Party The other is to increase the Church Universal and promote the common cause of Christianity even when some particular truth or duty is the Matter of it yet the general cause of godliness is the end The one is a burning hurting zeal even the same which hath made matter for so many Martyrologies and frightful Histories by inquisitions torments prisons flames massacreâ— and bloody wars And the same which hath silenced so many faithful Ministers and disturbed so many States and Churches The other is a zeal of Love which maketh men fervent in doing good to others The one causeth men to revile and despise and censure and backbite and zealously to make all dissenters seem odious that the hearers may abate their love to them The other maketh us value all that is good in others and to hide their nakedness and to make them better and to provoke the hearers to love and to good works The one tendeth to divisions and sidings and separations and distances from our brethren and to feed contentions The other is a zeal for unity amity and peace The one is the complexion of the weak and childish the proud and self-conceited the peevish and surly sort of Professours The other is the zeal of solid knowledge and of the prudent humble meek and well grounded sort of Christians The one is a zeal which flyeth most outward against the sins of other men and can live with pride and covetousness and selfishness and sensuality at home such serve not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies Rom. 16. 16 17. The other beginneth at home and consumeth all these vices in the heart and as zeal increaseth humility and meekness and love and self-denyal and temperance and heavenly mindedness increase The one is easily got and easily kept and hardly kept under O how easie is it to get and keep a contemptuous censorious backbiting dividing or persecuting â—eal But the other is not so much befriended by Satan or the flesh and therefore must be preserved by prayer and meditation and very great diligence How hard is it to keep up a zealous love of God and Man and a fervour in all our heavenly and spiritual desires Abate but your diligence and this will presently decay when the fierce contending hurting separating and persecuting zeal doth need no such fuel or labour to maintain it The one is kindled by the enflaming censures of some rash and passionate Preacher that knoweth better how to kill Love than to cause it or by the singular conceits of some Sectary or Divider or by the backbitings of some Doâ—g or malicious Calumniator The other is kindled by the humble and heavenly preaching of the Gospel and by the meditations on Christs example and a study to imitate him and his Saints in patience forbearance foâ—giving others and doing good The one is a zeal which carrieth men from the Scripture to pretenses of such revelations and inspirations and impulses as have no proof but the feeling and fancy of the person or at least to abuse the Word of God and plead it for that which it condemneth It provoketh men to some unlawful practâ—se under pretense of misinterpreted texts and of good ends and meanings The other still putteth you upon good and striveth against evil and goeth for tryal of every cause to the Law and to the testimony Lastly the one is a zeal which pretendeth the spirit and yet goeth contrary to the common workings of the spirit in the most part of the best and wisest Christians But the other is the common vital heat which animateth all the body of Christ and actualeth all his living members and keepeth up love and holiness in the Church and is the same in all humble heavenly Christians in the world It will be of great use to you in order to your own and the Churches peace to understand and observe the difference between these contrary sorts of religious zeal DIRECT XXI Lend not a patient ear to back-biters much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others But shew your detestation of that sin though they should be most religious people that use it and do it upon a religious pretence I Do not say that it is always unlawful to speak that which is ill of another behind his back Sometime wicked men will take occasion to justifie sin it self by the advantage of a sinners name And sometime they will magnifie the vertues of some wicked man or of some of their sect on purpose to cast reproach on godliness or to make others odious by the comparison Yet in such cases we must repress their malignity more by a defensive than an offensive opposition But the usual course of back-biting in all sorts of men is sinful The back-biter how great or learned or religious soever is but the devils minister to preach down the love of others and to exhort you to hate your brother or to abate your charity to him And he that patiently hearkeneth to such is a partaker of their sin And he that believeth them hath taken the infection Most of our odious thoughts of others and our false and uncharitable censures do come in this way For the most part men censure and separate and persecute most where they are acquainted least but go by hear-say and judge of men by back-biters mis-reports And acquaintance and familiarity usually reconcileth them and sheweth them their errour You think it is a fair excuse for you when you either believe or report evil of another to say that you heard it from very honest and religious or reverend persons or you heard it from many and confidently uttered But God hath not allowed you to receive back-biters because they are godly or because they are many This very age and time doth experimentally confute this excuse In which it is so common a thing for false reports and news to be uttered with confidence and that by multitudes and many of them religious and yet neither truth nor ground
most after in many places for the meer affectionate manner of expression and lowdness of the Preachers voice How oft have I known the ablest Preachers undervalued and an ignorant man by crouds applauded when I that have been acquainted with the Preacher ab incunabulis have known him to be unable well to answer most questions in the common Catechism And I durst not tell them of his great insufficiency and ignorance for fear of hindering the success of his labours and being thought envious at other mens acceptance I have known poor tradesmens boys have a great mind of the Ministry and we that were the Ministers of the Countrey contributed to maintain them while they got some learning and knowledge But they had not patience to keep out of the Pulpit till they competently understood their business there And yet many of the religious people valued these as the only men And some of them shortly after turned to some whâ—msical Sect or other and contemned the Ministers that instructed and maintained them And all this while understood not half so much as many of our sober Auditors understood This prepareth the poor people to be hurried into any disorder or division when they no better know how to choose their Guides DIRECT XLII Your belief of the necessary Articles of Faith must be made your own and not taken meerly upon the Authority of any And in all points of Belief or Practice which are of necessity to Salvation you must ever keep company with the Universal Church for it were not the Church if it erred in these And in matters of peace and concord the greater part must be your guide In matters of humane obedience your Governours must be your Guides And in matters of high and difficult speculation the judgment of one man of extraordinary understanding and clearness is to be preferred before both the Rulers and the major Vote IN several sorts of Controversies and Cases you must prefer several sorts of Guides or Judges It is a grand pernicious Errour to think that the same mens judgments must be most followed in every Case And it is of grand importance to know how to value and vary our Guides as the Cases vary And for the most part every man is more to be regarded in his own way of study and profession than wiser men in other matters of other studies and professions As a Lawyer is to be valued in the Law more than the ablest and most illuminated Divine And a Philosopher in Philosophy and a Linguist in the Tongues and a Physician in Physick c. For instance First Suppose it were a Controversie whether Christ be God or whether there be a life to come or a resurrection c. Here no man must be Judge because if you are Christians indeed it is past controversie with you And you believe this upon the evidences of truth which have convinced you And herein the universal Church are your associates Secondly Suppose it be made a Controversie whether you shall use this Translation or version in publick or another or whether you shall meet at this hour or that at this place or that what words of prayer shall be used in publick what persons you shall communicate with in publick and what not c. In all such your lawful Pastors and Rulers are the Judges and their judgments must be preferred before more learned men that are not related to you Thirdly Suppose the question be among many associated Churches whether this Church or Pastor be to be disowned as Heretical or owned by the rest as orthodox Christians Here the judgement of the Pastors of those associated Churches in Councels is to be preferred as of the proper Judges Fourthly Suppose the question were among a free people that want a Pastor whether this man or that or the other being all sufficient shall be the Pastor of that Church Here the major Vote of the people of that Church should be preferred Fifthly Suppose the question be whether 1 Iohn 5. 7. e. g. be Canonical Scripture or the Doxology after the the Lords Prayer c. here a few learned Antiquaries are to be believed before a major Vote or Councel unskilled in those things who contradict them Sixthly Suppose the question were of the Object of predestination of the naturâ—â— of the wills liberty of the concourse of God and determining way of grace of the definition of justification faith c. Here a few well studied judicious Divines must be preferred before Authority and majority of Votes As one clear-sighted man seeth further and better than a thousand that have darker sight So that you must in such vary your guides according to their several capacities and the Case Obedience hearkneth most to Authority Unity and Concord must depend most on some majority of Votes Hard questions must be decided by the best studied Persons and the quickest clearest sights and not by bare Commands or Votes DIRECT XLIII Take heed lest you be tempted to reject a good Cause because it is owned by some bad persons or to like a bad cause when it is owned by men that are otherwise good And that you judge not of the faith and cause by the persons when you should judge of the persons â—ather by the faith and cause I Confess when we have no other reason to encline us to one opinion or to another but only the reputation of them that hold it caeteris paribus in matters of meer godliness the judgment of godly men is much to be preferred before theirs that are ungodly and they are much liker to be in the right But when God hath given us other means to know the truth we must impartially make use of them It too oft falleth out that honest people are like straying sheep If one leap over the hedge the rest will croud and strive to follow him And therefore errours are like Languages and Fashions that follow the Country where they are bred The religious people in Sweden and Denmark have one sort of errour In Holland and Helvetia perhaps they have another In France and Spain and Italy they have others In Greece and Armenia and Ethiopia they have others And it is an easie matter before we are aware to fall into the common epidemical disease and to think This is best because the best and strictest people are of this mind And indeed sin doth seldome get so great an advantage in the world as when it hath won the major vote among the most religious sort of people If but a Peter separate Barnabas and many more will follow And on the other side sometimes the worser sort of men may hold fast the truth and many ignorant persons are apt to reject it because it is owned by men so bad But if Truth be the Religion of their King and Countrey or of their Ancestors in which they were brought up or if their reputation or peace of conscience lie upon it or if the defence of it shew
testimony for it in the world And Gods promise of reward doth tell you that you labour not in vain Is that in vain which Heaven is promised to Quest. But what is it that you would have 〈◊〉 do for Love and Peace and against the contraries Answ. First Preach and write if it be your calling Secondly Let the cause of Love and Peace be much in your secret and open prayers to God Thirdly Instruct all that learn of you with principles of Love and Peace and labour to plant them deep in their minds and make them as sensible of the evil of the contraries as they are of any other sin Unless Divines and Parents do take the way to bring up the people and children under this kind of doctrine that Love and peace may become their Religion the Church is never like to be recovered Fourthly In all your conference labour seasonably and prudently to inculcate these matters on the hearers minds and to bear your testimony against cruelty and division Fifthly Put such books into peoples hands as plead best the cause of Love and Peace Among others get men to read these Bishop Usher's Sermon on Eph. 4. 3. at Wansted before King Iames Bishop Hall's Peace-maker Mr. Ieremiah Burroughs of Heart-divisions and Mr. Stillingsteet's Irenicon and all Mr. Duries Sixthly Disgrace not your Doctrine by the badness of your own lives but be as much more Holy than them as you are more Peaceable that they may see that it is not a carnal unholy Peace that you desire But these things belong to the following Directions Finally Brethren farewel Be perfect be of good comfort Be of one mind Live in Peace And the God of Love and Peaâ—e shall be with you 1 Cor. 13. 11. Phil. 4. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 23. And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. Now the God of Peace be with you all Amen Rom. 15. 33. Martyrdome for Love and Peace is as honourable and gainful as Martyrdome for the Faith Part. II. DIRECTIONS TO THE PASTORS HOW TO Esteem and use Christs Flock EVEN The weak ones and the quarrelsome Children And what must be done by themselves in the first place both to prevent and heal DIVISIONS THe Practise of which the Author doth humbly and earnestly beg of them as with tears upon his knees for the sake of Christ that purchased the weakest with his blood for the sake of those that must live in peace with Christ for ever for the sake of those who are in danger of turning to Popery or contemning Godliness through the scandal of our Divisions to their own damnation for the sake of these poor distracted Churches for the sake of the King that he may have the comfort of Governing a quiet and united people and for their own sakes that they may give up their account with joy to the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and not with terrour for the consuming and scattering of his flock And that he may both begin and end with Divine Authority the Author humbly beggeth of them all that England may but SEE and FEEL that the PASTORS do VNDERSTAND BELIEVE CONSIDER and OBEY that will of God which these following Texts of Scripture do express Psal. 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Math. 25. 40 45. Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these my Brethren ye did it not to me Math. 18. 6 10. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Take heed that ye Despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do alwayes behold the face of my father which is in heaven II For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost 2 Cor. 4. 3. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lest 1 Cor. 9. 16. For necessity is laid upon me yea wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel Act. 20. 20 24 28 33. I have taught you publickly and from house to house But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus Take â—eed therefore to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly nor for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Luk. 22. 24 25. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the Greatest And he said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve I am among you as he that serveth 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. Know them which LABOUR AMONG you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their WORK sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double honour Especially they who labour in the WORD and DOCTRINE Phil. 1. 15 16 17 18. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy strife and some also of good will The oâ—r preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds What then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Act. 28. 30 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him preaching the Kingdome of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Iesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him Rom. 14. 1 2 3 4. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations For one believeth that he may eat all things Another who is weak eateth herbs Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth For God hath received him Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To his own Master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be holden up For God is able to make him stand One man esteemeth one
thus to seek themselves and overvalue their own esteem If it be the former 2 Why doth it not please you then that they are edified by others though not by you Do you think that it is not the same Gospel which others preach to them And may not that Gospel edifie and save them by the Preaching of another as well as by yours And if their dis-esteem of you be a sign or means that they are not edified by you is not their great esteem of others who are as faithful a sign and means that they are or may be edified by them Thirdly And why are you not much more troubled at the state of all those who are not converted or edified by you though they do not slight you or forsake you How many be there that seem to love and honour you and yet do not love and honour God but despise religion and their own Salvation If it be for their sakes and not your own that you are offended you will grieve most for them that are most ungodly though they honour you never so much and you will be glad for them that are faithful and Godly whose Ministery soever it be that they most esteem Fourthly But suppose them yet so foolish and faulty as to run from you to their own perdition The question is What is the way to câ—re them Is Love caused by hard words or stripes Will you say to them Love me or you shall be fined or imprisoned Christ doth not teach you to use such arguments when you speak for him but to beseech men in his name and stead tobe reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. But your own work will be done in your own way Obj. But Christ threatneth Hell to the impenitent and Paul pronounceth him Anathematized that loveth not the Lord Iesus and he talketh to his hearers of coming with a rod. Answ. No doubt but the corrupted mind of man hath need not only of Love to draw them home to God and work the cure but of Threatnings to drive them and to help on the cure And though it be Love that causeth Love which is their Holiness yet Fear removeth many impediments But still remember that it is Love which is predominant and fear is but subservient And that the fear which is contrary to Love is a vice and hindereth theâ—r salvation And remember that Fear and Love towards God will better stand together than Fear and Love to you will For men know Gods Soveraignty and Iustice and know that he is not to be questioned or resisted But if they suffer by you it will not be so digested nor will it so consist with love A patient will not bear to be whipt by his Physician to force him to take his medicâ—nes though a child will bear it from his parents whose Love and Power are more unquestionable to him I desire you but to mark your own experience and let your Love be predominant in all your ministrations and use no force or hurting course which will really abate their Love to you and then I shall leave you in the rest to your discretion Secondly Yet still we grant that Christs threatnings may be preached by you and must be Thirdly And that the rod of discipline must be used But this must be done only on the scandalous and such as more dishonour Christ than you And it must be so done that it may appear to be Christs own work and done by you upon his interest and at his commund and not either arbitrarily or for your selves And I shall be bold with confidence to add that in those cases where violent restraint or â—oaction is necessary the Pastor is the unmeetest person to meddle in it It is the Magistrates work to drive and force where it must be done and the Pastors to perswade and draw The flock of Christ is led by himself the Lamb of God and his Ministers must go before with him and attend him in the conduct and the Magistrate must come behind and drive and it is the hindermost and not those before that must be driven Pastors should be so far from calling out for the help of violence unless it be to keep the peace that they should rather shew their love and tenderness by seeking as far as they may to mitigate it And they should desire that no such ungrateful work be at all imposed upon them as to seem the afflicters of their flocks because when once they have lost their love they have lost their opportunity and advantage of edifying them And it is not Pilate's hypocritical washing of his hands that will excuse him Nor the Romish Clergies disclaiming to meddle in a judgement of blood which will reconcile the minds of sufferers to them as long as they are Masters of the Inquisition or deliver them up to the secular power and excommunicate and depose the temporal Lords who will not do such execution as they require Though I have some where else mentioned it I will again request the Reverend Pastors of the Church to peruse the story of Idacius and Martin in Sulpitius Severus The sum of it is this Priscillian and many others some Bishops and some Presbyters and some private persons were zealous in religion but heretical Gnosticks saith Sulpitius Ithacius and Idacius were two Orthodox Bishops who were very hot against these herâ—ticks Both of them men of rash and haughty spirits and one of them at least saith Sulpitius an injurious person that scarce cared what he said or did by others see what persons a good cause may be defended by These Bishops drew in the Bishops of the neighboring Churches in their Synods first condemned the Priscillianists and next provoked the Emperour against them The Priscillianists found that if that were the way an Emperours Court was not so Orthodox or constant but there might be as good hopes for them And therefore they got a powerful friend in Court to undertake their business and got the better of the Bishops The Bishops being born down for a time at last Maximus was proclaimed Emperour and came over with power and victory into Germany such another as Cromwel who by the Bishops was accounted a very Religious Christian but usurped the Empire and fought against and killed one of the Emperours and pretended that the souldiers made him Emperour against his will This Maximus whether sincerely or for his own advantage is unknown did take part with the Orthodox and greatly honour the Bishops and promote Religion and got a great deal of love and honour Ithacius and Idacius and the rest of the Bishops apply themselves to Maximus against the Priscillianists who hearkened to them and to please them put Priscillian and some others to death and punished others by other wayes of violence The more rude ungodly sort of Christians so far concurred or over-went the Bishops that they turned their fury against any that seemed more Religious than their neighbours so that if any one