the causes of happiness or misery And the reason of this is because Natural-free-will was part of the Natural-image of God on Adam and it is as natural to a man to be a free-agent as to be Reasonable And God will govern Man as Man agreeably to his nature Therefore do not wonder if Church priviledges are principally left to mens own wills or choice when their salvation is left to it Indeed God would not have any man admitted into the Church and to its communion in his own way and on his own terms The way and terms are of Christs appointment That they must Profess Faith and Repentance is his appointed condition that the Minister must be the publike judge of this profession and accordingly receive them â—olemnly by Baptism and that they must enter under the hand of the Key-bearers of the Church All this is of Christs institution But whether they will make this profession or not and whether they will make it in truth or in falshood and whether they will live according to it or play the hypocrites and live contrary to it These are at their own choice And good reason for the gain or less must be their own If any be in the Communion of the Church who either never made profession of Christianity or who is proved before them to have apostatized from that profession or to live impenitently in any gross sin after the Churches admonition it is the Pastors fault and yours if it be by the neglect of your duty But if any other be there it is their own fault and the loss and hurt must be their own If any one that professeth Christianity ignorantly unbelievingly and hypocritically be there or if they come to the Sacrament whilest they live in secret or open sin before they have been openly admonished by the Church it is their own sin and not you but they shall bear the blame God leaveth such matters to their own choice and as they choose they speed And for us to grudge at this order of God is but to quarrel at wisdome and goodness and to correct Gods order by our disorder The man that came in without a wedding garment is blamed and bound hand and foot and punished But the Minister that called him in and admitted him is not blamed because he did as he was bidden He went to the high-ways and hedges and compelled them by importunity to come in that the House might be filled Nor are any that came in with him blamed for having communion with such For they were in their places and did as they were exhorted to do And sâ—â—will it be in the case that is before us DIRECT XVI Though the profession of Christianity which entituleth men to Church-communion must be credible yet remember that there are divers Degrees of credibility and that every Profession which is not proved false is credible in such a degree as must be accepted by the Church PRofession of Christianity is every mans Church-title No man is to prove the sincerity of his own profession nor may the Church require such proof at his hands For how can a man prove to another the sincerity of his own heart But the fuller testimony he giveth of it the better it is And therefore none should refuse to make his own profession as fully credible to the Church as he is able noâ— is the Church to be blamed for enquiring after the fullest credibility so be it they do it but ad melius esse and not ad esse not laying his title upon it nor refusing him for want of it But every profession as such is credible in some degree which is not disproved Because men are under God the only competent judges of their own hearts And the belief of one another is the ground of humane converse And it is an injury to any man to account him a lyar without sufficient proof He that will disprove a mans profession must prove first that he doth not tolerably understand what he saith secondly or that he speaketh not seriously but in jest or not voluntarily but in hypocrisie by constraint or for some by end Thirdly or that he contradicteth his own words by some more credible words or deeds And if you never yet thus disproved mens profession of Christianity before the Pastors of the Church and yet cry out against the Pastors for admitting them you are not true Reformers but disorderly Mutineers and peevish censurers in the Church of Christ. Christs orders and mens right and all Church-justice must not be trodden down and sacrificed to your humour and arbitrary way DIRECT XVII Know how far either Grace or Gifts are necessary to a Minister that you may give both Grace and Gifts their due THere have been two great questions which long have troubled the Church whether we may take him for a true Minister of Christ that is ungodly And what measure of Gifts is necessary to the being of the Ministry I have carefully answered them both in my Disputation of Ordination long ago and shall now only say in brief First that no ungodly man is so called to the Ministry as to excuse himself before God for his usurpation and hypocritical administrations Secondly But many an ungodly man is so far called to the Ministry as that his adminâ—st at ons are all valid to the Church and the innocent people shall not have the loss Thirdly no people should choose and prefer such an ungodly Minister before a better Fourthly but they should rather submit to such than have none when a better cannot by them be had Iudas had a place in the Ministry with the Apostles Act. 1. 17. And his ministration might be valid to others though his hypocrisie might turn it into sin to himself And his ministry might have been accepted of the people though they had known his hypocrisie as Christ did But a sincere Apostle was to be preferred before him And for Gifts First the greatest degree is best and secondly God maketh so great use of them that many an hypocrite wiâ—h excellent gifts doth edifie the Church more than many good men that are ungifted Thirdly but that measure of Gifts only is necessary to the Being of a Minister without which the essential parts of his office cannot be performed Learn therefore to prefer them that have most grace and guifts but not to take them for no Ministers that want Grace totally or want only a greater degree of Gifts And marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of ministration than Grace is He may perform the office of a Minister to the benefit of the Church that hath no saving grace at all so did Iudas so did those in Math. 7. 21. that prophesied and cast out devils in Christs name to whom he will yet say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not For Grace is to save him that possesseth it But Gifts are to teach and profit others Yet Grace is an exceeding
many very good men think that publick interest may be allowed much power upon their minds though private and personal must be denied Is it not a wonder to see not only that almost all Christians are incorporated into one sect or party or other but how easily the inconsiderable reasons of their party can prevail with them and how hardly the better reasons of their adversaries seem to them of any weight or worth Not only the parties of Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Reformed c. shew this but in the same Church the Regulars and Seculars the Bishops and the Jesuits the Dominicans and Jesuits the Thomists Scotists c. declare it And the difference made by natural capacities is yet more than all this When one man is born to a duller understanding and another hath a quick and clear apprehension All that these men read and hear and meditate on is like to make different impressions on their minds And this is the greatest thing of any one which maketh many controversies endless and maketh both Divines and people run away from one another as dangerously erroneous If a few men have clearer understandings than the duller and unstudied sort they are like to be the minor part For the dull and slothful and yet self-conceited will ever be the greater part many to one till the golden age return And when all the world feeleth the consequents of this difference can we doubt of it or so far dote as to think it possible to cure it Yet the various degrees of the Grace of God do certainly also make great variety of apprehensions When God giveth to some those true illuminations those â—hirsting desires after truth those heart-experiences those delightful relâ—shes those powerful effects and victories which he giveth not to others they are made to differ must needs have different apprehensions of such things In which sense Christ saith that he came not to send peace but division that is to be such an object and preach so holy a doctrine and give such grace as would â—ccasion divisions by making his sanctified ones differ from the world and occasioning the erritation of the worlds malignity And indeed the grand difference between the seed of the woman and of the serpent the holy and the carnal seed is that which is the root of the greatest and sorest divisions in the world which will never be reconciled till Christ at the day of judgement shall say to one part Come ye blessed and to the other Go ye cursed For the carnâ—l mind is enmity against God and is not subject to his law nor indeed can be in sensâ— compâ—sito Rom. 8. 6 7 8. It was not for nothing that God permitted that great eruption of it in the first man that ever was born into the world against his innocent brothers life on the bare account of their religious sacrifices And the Cainites are still too strong for Alel's successors and too numerous And why did he kill his brother But because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous Gen. 4. 10 11. 1 Joh. 3. 12. And as Paul saith of the two sons of Abraham as he that was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. For the flesh fighteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other Gal. 5. 17. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. And they that are of the flesh do savour mind or understand the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. Our heavenly teacher told his disciples that if they were of the world the world would love them but because they are not of the world but he had chosen them out of the world the world would hate them even as it hated him Ioh. 15. 18 19 24 25. Ioh. 17. 14. And every one that doth evil hateth the light Ioh. 3. 19 20. Nothing then can be surer or plainer to a believer than that there will be still as great divisions and diversitie of apprehensions as radicated enmity can breed And to prevent many objections let these three things be noted First That this grand difference which lieth in the greatest matters in head and heart must needs have influence upon abundance of inferiour controversies Both as the Persons and main cause are concerned in them Reason and experience have put this past controversie Secondly That this doth not concern only the visible Church and the world but the visible Church within it self For all the Hypocrites and carnal worshippers have still the Cainish serpentine nature Yea those that by advantages and interest are brought over to the Orthodox as well as Christian side And it is a happy Church where the Hypocrites are not the greater part And it is neither great Learning nor degrees nor the Pastoral office nor the profession of the highest zeal which will serve turn to cure the carnal enmity without the sanctifying spirit of grace So that when controversies arise we see not in the hypocrites that carnal mind which in the strictest proâ—ession or greatest learning or most venerable function will work against the interest of holiness But we are sure that there it is though we know not the persons in whom but by the full effects Thirdly And note also that there is a mixture or remnant of this unhappy root and principle even in the sanctified themselves And it is hard in a controversie to perceive in our selves much more in others how much our judgements may be moved by this party and what influence it may have into our conclusions So that all this maketh it but too manifest what a certainty there is of perpetual differences in the Church upon all these foresaid accounts Add also this great and unavoidable cause that one errour leadeth in another And no man being without some and every one being generative and inferring more what will it come to when all those also shall have their off-spring and the further they go the more they will increase and multiply And as the judgement by one is laid open to another even as truth inferreth truth so the will is engaged and espouseth mens own opinions as their interest which maketh them stretch their wâ—ts in study to maintain what once they have received and asserted And alas how often have I heard wise and reverend persons cry out against this pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse or the same have shamefully shewed it in themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying cogent evidence against them and being so intent on their own inventions and cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak And when they have heard him their first words shew that they never well weighed the
thou judge thy brother or why dâ—st thou set at nought thy brother we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Let us not therefore judge one another any more v. 13. 14. I know and am pâ—rswaded by the Lord Iesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean v. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy 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 that make for peace v. 22. Hast thou faith Have it to thy self before God Ch. 15. 1 2. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let us every one please his neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself v. 5. 6. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one â—owards another according to Christ Iesus that ye may with ONE MIND and ONE MOuTH glorifie God wherefore receive ye one another as Christ received us to the glory of God Ch. 16. 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Act. 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another 1 Cor. 11. 17 18. I hear there are divisions among you For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest Math. 13. 29 30. Nay lest while ye gather up the â—ares ye root up also the wheat with them Let both grow together till the harvest 41. The Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father V. 47. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net cast into the Sea which gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew to the shore and sate down and gathered the good into Vessels and the bad they cast away so shall it be at the end of the world Math. 22. 9 10. Go into the high ways and as many as ye find bid to the marriage or as Luk. 14. Compel them to come in so those servants went unto the high ways and gathered all as many as they found both bad and good and the wedding was furnished with guests And the King saw there a man that had not on a wedding garment and said Friend How camâ—st thou in hither c. Mark thus he will condemn wicked hypocrites themselves but blameth not the Ministers that compelled them or that let them in Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness Considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ Let every man prove his own work Note that Paul purified himself as having a Vow He circumcised Timothy He became a Jew to the Jews and all things to all men that he might win some Phil. 1. 15 16. Some preach Christ of envy c. as aforecited Phil. 2. 1 2 3. If there be any consolation in in Christ fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings Ch. 3. 15 16. Let as many as are perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you But whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord c. and be at peace among your selves Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition avoid knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself Jam. 3. 1 2 13 c. My brethren be not many Masters knowing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation For in many things we offend all who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Mat. 12. 25. Iesus said every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or house divided against it self shall not stand I have cited so many Texts against division and for the Unity of the Church and concord of Christians as one would think by the very hearing of them without expositions or argumentation should utterly mortifie all inclination to divisions and hard censures in all true believers yea so many Texts as I am perswaded many that most need them will think it tedious to read them over And yet I have cause to fear lest many such will feel as little of the sense and authority of them as if there were no such words in the Scripture and none of this had been set before them Out of all these you may gather these reasons of the necessity of Unity and of the evil of schism or division First It is One God One Head One Saviour and One Holy Spirit into whose name we are all baptized Secondly It is One Covenant which all in Baptism make with this One God Thirdly It is One Spirit by which we are all regenerated and One new Nature which is in all the truly sanctified Fourthly It is One Gospel or holy word of God which is to us all the seed of our new birth the rule of our faith and lives and the foundation of our hope and must be our daily meditation and delight and the food on which the children of Gods family must all live Fifthly It is One Body of Christ whereof we are all members As Christ is not divided so his Body that is his Church both as
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
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
which Christ intended was a Vnity in himself and â— Concord in holy Obedience to his Lawes But it is a Vnity in the will of man and a Concord in obeying the Dictates of the proud which Treacherous Pastors do require It is a Peaceable progress of the Gospel and unanimous endeavor to convert and sanctifie and save the world which Christ requireth us to promote But it is a Peaceable enjoyment of their own prosperity wealth and honour and a peaceable forbearance of a holy life which Wolvish Pastors do desire It is an Orderly management of holy doctrine worship and conversation for the edification of the flock and the increase of godliness which Christ commandeth But it is an absolute obedience to their wills and an exact observance of their new-made Religions and needless scandalous inventions and an adoring of their titles and robes of honour covering their ignorance pride and sensuality which Church-yrants call the Order of the Church All Christâ— indulgent tenderness and Discipline are but to further his Holy designe of killing sin and sanctifying souls But the Images of Piety Government Unity Peace and Order which Hypocrites and Pharisees set up are devised engines to destroy the Life and serious practice of the things themselves and are set up in enmity against spirituality and holiness that there might be no other Piety Government Unity Peace or Order in the Church but these lifeless Images It is far from the mind of Christ that no difference should be made between the Holy and the profans the precious and the vile Oâ— that serious piety should be suppressed or discouraged or faithful preachers hindered from promoting it on ignorant graceless Ministers countenanced under pretence of Peace or Order The design of Christ was not like Mahomet's to get himself an earthly Kingdom and numerous followers meerly to cry up his name And therefore he will not indulge men in their sinâ— nor abate oâ— alter the conditions of his Covenant to win disciples He will have his Ministers deal plainly with all to whom they preach and let them know that without self-denial and forsaking all in estimation and resolution and a willing exchange of earth for heaven they cannot be his true Disciples Nor without a Profest consent to thus much they cannot be his visible profest Disciples But all that will not repent must perish And therefore in their Baptism they must profess a renunciation of all competitors His Ministers also must impartially exercise the Keyes which he hath committed to their trust and must not fear the faces of men who at most are able but to kill the body Luk. 12. 4. They must discern between the righteous and the wicked and draw all scandalous sinners to repentance or else exclude them from the communion of Saints that the world may see that Christ is no friend to prophane persons or sensual â—leshly bruits As Chrysostome commandeth the Presbyters not to give the body and blood of Christ to the unworthy though he were the greatest Commander or wore a Diadem and professeth that he would suffer his own blood to be shed before he would give the blood of Christ to the unworthy And as blessed Paul would become all things to all men to win them and commandeth us not to please our selves but to please our neighbours for their good to edification And yet when it came to the flattering of men in their sins he saith that if he should so please men he should be no longer the servant of Christ. And as to his own interest in mans esteem he saith With me it is a small thing to be judged of you or of mans judgment Rom. 15. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 10. 33. Gal. 1. 10. 2 Tim. 2. 4. 1 Cor. 4. 3. Take heed therefore of pretending Unity order peace or charity against the strictest obedience of Godâ—laws or against the faithful preaching of the Gospel and exercise of true Church-discipline or against the necessity of the ancient profession of saving faith and true-repentance in all that will be admitted to the communion of the Church It is not an ungodly unity peace or order that we plead for DIRECT XIV Though your Governours and not you must judge what persons shall be of your publike Church-communion yet it is you that must judge who are fit or unfit for your private company and familiarity Here therefore exercise your strictness in your own part AS it is not you but the King that must judge who shall be of the same Kingdome with you nor the servant but the Master that must choose who shal be in the family with him Nor the scholler but the Schoolmaster that must choose who shal be of the same School with him So it is not you but your Pastor that must judg who shall be of the same Church with you As to the Universal visible Church this is confest by all And there is no reason why it should be denied of particular Churches as is proved But who shall be your Pastors or your Masters your husbands or your wives if you are yet free you your selves must be the choosers And who shall be your intimate companions or your bosome friends Here therefore make as strict a choice as you can If you meet a prophane person at the Lords Table it is his own fault or the Pastors But if you keep company needlesly with such or marry such it is your own fault If the Pastor do not excommunicate them you may choose not to be familiar with them Though you must meet them at the Church and pray with them you need not meet them at the Ale-house and drink with them Though you may not with a few of the most godly separate from the publike communion of all the rest yet may you keep a more intimate familiarity with those few than with all the rest And if you will consider this is all that is necessary to your own duty and that which is best for your own edification Keep thus to a strictness within the bounds of your own place and calling and God will bless you in such a strictness DIRECT XV. Understand well how much it hath pleased God to lay all mens good or evil happiness or misery upon their own choice And observe the reasons of it that you may not oppose this order of God THough God by his grace must change the perverse disposition of mens wills before they will make a gracious choice yet it is most certain that the teachings commands exhortations and reproofs of God are directed to the Will of man And that the promises and threatnings mercies and judgements are used to move and change the will And that in the tenor of his Laws and Covenants Christ hath set Life and Death before men and put their Happiness in their own choice and that no man shall have better or worse than he made choice of that is none shall be either happy or miserable but as they did choose or refuse