not only loved the wayes of covetousness but ensnared the people in uncleannesses and upon those in the Gospel that made Gods house a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves So that another ground and reason of mens forsaking and propagating separations from our publick assemblies Covetousness selfe interest I 'le name a 5. Even Idleness and this both spiritual and natural spiritual for because many men will take no paines in the practise of the duties of godliness which might well imploy mens whole lives therefore they fall into nice and new opin ions to imploy their active mindes So spiritual Idleness in things in which they should be imployed makes men curious and curiosity contentious The zeal of practise of humility and patience and self denyal and mortifying the flesh with the affections and lusts and renouncing the world and the other parts of real goodness this zeal grows cold and so that of disputes gets and gathers heat and vigor A lass our good works in this age fall short of the first Christians and then no wonder that our controversies exceeds theirs because we spend not our time in the one which is irksome to flesh and blood and therefore we imploy it in hammering and forging the other Pharaoh understood this well though he applyed it ill when he thought the Israelites proposals of travelling into the wilderness to their divotions was the effect of their idleness and so increast their taskes as the properest way to divert their design and as spiritual Idleness so also natural is often the cause of division For as experience sheweth such men as desert or neglect their secular callings are most apt to run after new teachers and with the widowes that neglected their office of Ministration to be busibodies and in many families the she-zealots neglecting their proper business the guiding of the house have therefore run into conventicles and upon them have seducers acted their designs most leading captive silly women to become duck coyes to whole families besides these there are another sort of Idle persons to that can sit at home lurke by their fire sides when they should be in Gods house and though they have little or nothing to hinder them from attending his ordinance yet any pretence a showr of rain a sore finger an Aking head a thin blast of weather will serve the turn to divert them O that such would remember Hezekiahs example who with in three dayes after he had been sick of a most painful and mortal disease went into the Temple a Esa 38.22 And the woman that on the sabbath resorted to the Synagogue though she had a spirit of infirmity eighteen yeares b Luk. 13.10 â—1 Alass the cause is mens hearts are dead and void of grace and the love of God and his word and so they find little comfort they take no delight in his publick worship and therefore are glad of an excuse David loved Gods tabernacle well For his heart and his flesh rejoyced for the living God c Psa 84.12 Those that tast how sweet the Lord is will desire the sincere milk of this word d 1 Pet. 2.2 3 O thou that art so careless whether ever thou appear in the assemblies of Gods Church in this life thou hast cause to fear thou shall never stand in the congregation of the righteous in the life to come e Psa 1.5 That 's a fifth cause of mens forsakeing or absenting from the assemblies as the manner of many is 6. There is a sixth which I will name because I will miss none and but name it because I have spoken in effect to it before The manner of some is to forsake them upon pretence they can spend their time and serve God as well pray and read good books at home as in the Church of God But God loves the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob f Psal 87.2 David sure being both a prophet and a King could serve God as well in private as any pretenders and he had both a prophet and a Priest with him in his Banishment yet did he for all that long for the publick worship of God bewailed the want of it exceedingly g Psal 84.3 But I have fully shown you before the excellency and acceptableness of publick worship perfoâ—rmed by Godly ministers together with his people in a publick place above any private whatsoever that 's a sufficient consideration to convince them of sin that forsake the assemblies upon this account as the manner of some is Thus have I now both discovered the evident duty of all Christians and their obligation to frequent the publick assemblies in order to the publick worship of God and the sin of those men that either upon pretence of corruptions in the Church though they acknowledg it Orthodox and right in the substantials of religion or of some faults in the ministers life or opinion or gifts or carriage but in truth out of malice or hatred against him or out of pride or curiosity or Idleness or upon pretence they can as well serve God at home do neglect or forsake the publique assemblies Now what remaines but a word of exhortation to all that have an ear to hear what Gods Spirit saith unto the Churches and members of them 1. I beseech you Beloved in the Lord to learn to lay to heart your obligation to attend upon Church Assemblies and beware of those that endeavour the divisions of the Church or to divide and separate you from it It 's the Apostles own earnest exhortation g Rom. 16 17. now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them They are no lovers of your souls as they pretend they are no servants of God for your good they are no fit guides for salvation that for things meerly external adiaphorous indifferent matters of meer order or decency separate themselves from the society of a true Church and would have you so to do As if a furious brainsick sailor should upon every occasion of anger or discontent cast himself overboard presuming to be safe enough out of the ship the ordinary road way of Gods saving any soul is in the unity of the Church And that is in a conjunction of them to some visible ordinary congregation according to that h Act. 2.47 the Lord added to the Church such as should be saved but exceruntè nobis they who go out from amongst us because they was never of us as to their hearts I will not presume to judge them as to their final state yet this I 'le say that the Church being the Spouse of Christ and Schism and Heresie being a work of the Flesh an effect of so bad causes as I have shown you fully ranked by the Apostle with fornication and drunkenness and adultery and the like I would not dye in their state for all the
SOUND CONSIDERATIONS FOR TENDER CONSCIENCIES Wherein is shewed their OBLIGATION To hold close Union and Communion with the CHURCH OF ENGLAND And their Fellow Members in it and not to forsake the publiek Assemblies thereof In several SERMONS preached upon 1 Cor. 1.10 and Heb. 10.25 By Joseph Briggs M. A. vic of Kirkburton in Yorksshire Qui Christum fine Ecclesia quaerit errare fatigari potest at invenire non pâ—test Venerabilis Beda in Can. 6.1 London Printed for Nathaniel Brooks and are to be sold at the Angel in Cornhil 1675. To the Right Worshipful Sr. John Kay of Woodsum Farnley Baronet one of his Majesties Justices of Peace of the Quorum and Deputy Lieutenent for the Westriding of York J. B. Wisheth all Mercy and Comfort in Christ Jesus both now and for ever Right-worshipful YOu and all good men would think it no small happiness to the Christian World if true Religion might reign as a Law unthwarted unopposed and the Orthodox Faith being obscured by no Questions and Cavils were onely published and not disputed Faith and Religion may fitly be resembled to a pure and liquid stream which becomes muddy being troubled and as by an Inundation of water the Field or Meadow adjoyning is turned into an miry pit So when Contentions which the wise man compares to an overflowing of water overspreads the green Pastures of Sacred truth much filth of error thereby cleavs to them Hence have Faith and Religion themselves come into question though of all other things they be most certain and indubitate And as plants often removed cannot take root and prosper so Faith and Piety being removed out of their ancient standing and bended this way and that way according to mens humors loose their reverence and stability and do decay in the lives of men and Atheism gets ground Hence it is that one gainsaying another one plucks down what should be by a common labour and consent built up And hence it is that as it is impossible for a man to follow guides whose backs are turned each of other and their faces a clean contrary way so Gods people who should be led by their spiritual guides in one beaten path of Faith and Godliness are with unspeakable peril distracted not knowing what to do while their leaders call them contrary wayes By this in a word do we Christians become a Reproach both to Jewes and Gentiles and we Protestants to the derision of Turks and Papists while our Church is broken in so many factions while Aarons bells do jangle all men are in an uproar and fall together by the Ears and the fire of unchristian animosities become too often like that of the Temple never to be extinguished But which is the worst of all Religion hereby becomes as it were heart eaten I mean the heart of it that is the practise of Holiness and Righteousness daily decayeth for when some men are loath to put themselves to the trouble of an holy life they readily list themselves under a party not doubting to acquire to themselves a glorious name if they be but zealous in the defence of a tittle or punctilio how careless soever they be in the essential duties of the Kingdome of God Indeed how this should be how the Christian Religion should be quarrell'd about is next to a Miracle considering what benignity and sweetness of disposition what candour and ingenuity of Spirit what humility and mutual condescention it requireth But aut hoc non est Evangelium aut non sumus Evangelici Either this is not the Right practice of Christianity or it is not calculated for our Meridian wherein abound so much pride and uncharitableness so many strifes and divisions so much wrath and envy confusion and every evil work How far different are ours to those pure primitive times wherein Religion truely flourished For then was the spirit of Meekness and gentleness and peacableness accounted the indispensable duties and characteristical notes of real Godliness The greatest instance of piety in the first Christians was to dye and not to fight for Christ they had not then learnt to make way for Doctrines or opinions by the dint of the sword And surely no reason can be alledged why Christians should not act by the same rule and stand upon the same ground now as then But that can never be while these partition walls are daily set up amongst us while men are dayly forsaking our Church Assemblies and racking their brains and purses and interests to found or defend their private Meetings in opposition unto them Indeed this seems to be the way to perpetuate a schism in the midst of us and as it were to establish it by a Law which we and our Posterity may have sad cause to lament when it is past all prevention or Cure To prevent the unspeakable Mischiefes the Prologue of utter destruction I conceive it the duty of all men in their several places to bestir themselves in time but especially of Magistrates and Ministry and it is my ambition to be some way instrumental to remove the causes which hath willingly carried me to this hazard first to Preach and then to Print these ensuing Sermons How serviceable they are to the end for which they are designed I leave it to your Worships considerations to determine Indeed when I first resolved to publish them I could have no dispute with my self to whom to dedicate them First upon the account of my great personal obligations to you for those constant respects you have been pleased to express unto my person ever since I had the happiness to be acquainted with and seated near you and also for that eminent love of God and his Church and truth the world hath experienced and must upon all occasions gratefully acknowledge in you to the praise of God that raiseth up such worthies Besides the very matter of the book seems as much to concern your self and other good Magistrates as us the Ministers of the Church For these two Offices are so intimately related Church and State Prince and Priest Magistrate and Minister are so nearly and naturally conjoyned in a mutual interest that like Hippocrates his twins they rejoyce and mourn flourish and perish together They have most what in all ages fared alike in the world Both are deputies under and instruments of and actors for God in their several Ministrations And therefore the Devil doth alike malice them both and stirs up his instruments either to corrupt them or remove these sacred functions from their purity and integrity if it be possible or else to disquiet and destroy them God leadeth his people like a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron * Ps 37.20 and therefore the enemies of the flock have an equal spite to both these two leaders In all Ages of the Church almost since it was constituted and established and since Kings and Queens have become the nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers thereof if the one have prospered
for themselves have no promise to be heard non aequè exoras quum solus Dminum obsecras saith the Father Thou doest not so soon obtain thy desire when thou prayest alone as when in the assemblies of the Brethren for in those Assemblies there is some thing more then prayers even the concord and consent and joyning in Love and Charity and the cry of the Priest whose office it is to make intercession for the people and being of the stronger size to carry a long with them the weak prayers of the people and carry then unto heaven Quod quis apud seipsum precatus accipere non poterit hoc cum multitudine precatus accipit Quare quia si non propria virtus tamen concordia multum potest The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone praying together with the multitude he shall obtain why because when his own worth cannot yet the concord and union of the Assembly may avail much It is no reproach to call the Churches Liturgy Common prayer the more common it is the better it is and the more effectual when not onely two or three but a whole Congregation are joyned nay all the Congregations of a whole nation do in the same words put their Common petitions and supplications O what a shrill noise must this needs make in the ears of God St. Jerom likened it to a thunder clap St. Easti to the roaring of the Sea it is like the several strings of a Well tuned instrument that makes a ravishing harmony as the flame of one stick is nothing to that of a bundle on fire together such is the devotion of one man to that of a whole Assembly vis unita fortior force vnited is somuch the stronger a threefold cable is hardly broken So do the joynt prayers of Gods people united and publiquely put up unto God move him as it were omnipotently and irresistably they mount up to heaven they rap at the gates and cannot easily be denyed entrance like as the petition of a whole Corporation is more avaliable to a King then the single petition of any particular person such is the power and profit of publique worship and devotion And that by the way is a forceable argument to disswade the truely Religious from forsaking the assemblies that 's the fifth Proposition the more publique religious worship is the better it is The next in order is this Prop. 6. That divine worship may be truely publique There is requisite the free and full assembling of our selves together in a publique place set a part for the same So you see I come home to my Text so set it home upon your judgments 〈…〉 with fulness of evidence and strength of reason as well as Holy Scripture Give me leave to prosecute this Proposition by parts To publique worship to make it publique there is requisite the assembling of Minister and people in a publique place 1. Of Minister His presence is necessary unless in case of unremoveable impediment as some sudden sickness or some weighty cause of absence for he is a person set a part for the administration of Gods publique worship he is consecrated to draw nigh unto God he is by office an Ambassador or Messenger between God and man Gods mouth an Ambassador to the people appointed to beseech them in Gods stead to be reconciled unto him And he is the peoples mouth and Ambassador unto God to offer up their requests for grace and mercy unto him Gods mouth to them in preaching and their mouth unto God in prayer Hence c Joel 2.18 the Priests are required to put up petitions and supplications Let the Priests the Priest of the Lord stand between the Porch and the Altar and say spare thy people good Lord spare them And as under the Law it was the Priests office to to burn incense and Vzziah was smitten of God with a loathsome leprousie for usurping it So still under the Gospel it is the Ministerial office to offer the Sacrifice of publique prayer unto God which is as sweet smelling incense in the nostrils of God and for preaching the word is express how shall they preach unless they be sent d Rom. 10. â—0 how able so ever they be to teach the word and sound doctrine yet if they have not a mediate and ordinary call or sending which though it be by man yet is divine as Luther saith they cannot preach to your prâ—fit they come not to edifie but to destroy They are Luthers words Let no uncalled speaker Beloved have any encouragement at your hands having no mission from God Our Saviour tells you that what shew soever they make of holiness and spiritualness and godliness and saintship and the like yet they are wolves in sheep cloathing thieves spoiling Gods heritage deceitful workers underminding the truth therefore takeheed of them or forsaking the publique assemblies to run after them to your perversion and distruction such is the first requisite to a publique worship the Ministers the rightly called Ministers presence in the Assembly 2. That puplique worship may be publique indeed the people ought to come and joyn in it every one that would be saved must be member of the true Church for extra ecclesian nou est salus out of the true Church â—nd Religion no man can find assurance of comfort and Salvation Japhet cannot be saved until perswaded to dwell in the tents of Shem nor Noahs family out of the Ark. The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure word of God is preached and the Sacraments are duly administred according to all those things that are necessarily requisite for the same A true Church is chiefly to be distinguished from a false by purity and soundness of doctrine and due administration of the Sacraments in it And surely these are unquestionable in our Church of England even in the confession of our adversaries as it stands at this day reformed from the dreggs of Popery in its doctrine and worship So then to this Church let every one joyn himself and not seperate from it if he would be saved e Acts 2.47 The Lord added to the Church such as should be saved Regia via The King of heavens high way to Salvation is by adding to the Church not by seperating from it If God be our Father the Church is our Mother f Gal. 4.26 Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all Hence the Church is oft called the Kingdome of heaven g Mat. 13.44 And that promise that is made h Esa 33.24 the people that dwells there shall have their sins forgiven is to be understood of the catholick Church and so by consequence is applicable 1. The Tabernacle where the Arke of the Covenant and the Altar was placed There God promised to meet with his people that worshipped him hence it was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation or the Tabernacle of Meeting as
their office to watch over their souls unwearyedly to spend and to be spent to win them to Christ And so in spiritual regeneration as in natural regeneration it is love that begets Children unto Christ And on the other hand the people should be as careful of love to their Ministers Saint Paul records of the Galatians k Gal. 4.15 That they would have pluckt out their very eyes to have given them unto him far short of the Galatians are those that muzzle the mouths of the oxen that should tread out the corne That abridge the hire of the labourer and withhold the Churches right The Galatians was willing to forsake the dearest things they had in the world their very eyes if not their life for the Gospels sake and its ministry l Gal. 6.6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things So I say consider what love is commanded by God from Ministers to their people and people to their Ministers But on the other hand see from whence all variance betwiâ—â— them comes even from the Devils craft and malice for no way hath he more effectual to hinder the efficacy of the word then this His five thousand years experience hath taught him that it is to little purpose to mutter a syllable directly against Gods word he sees no likelyhood to beget in Christians especially in Protestants adirect hatred of the word as such His policy then directs him to work obliquely to distil into mens hearts a hatred of their Ministers so to make them set at naught the word they preach This is the devils craft Now consider lastly how unreasonable this is what is the matter Is there some petty quarrel betwixt you wipe it of are there some occasions of disaffections look it be not causless as for the most part they are Do they reprove your sins drunkenness or sacriledge or perjury or rebellions or prophanations of Gods day or the like Alass they would not do it but in love to your souls they would have your good will and gladly be beloved of you if they durst forbear to please you but necessity lies upon them to cry a loud and not to spare to tell Judah of her sins and Israel of her abominations should you not then rather love then hate them for this and say let the righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness for faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful m Prov. 27.6 All these considerations do bid you shake off anger envy and despight by all means not to entertain the least seed thereof No evil reports no Idle accusations against your Pastor n 1 Tim. 5 19 But rather to pray for them to God to deliver them from unreasonable men o 2 Thes 3.1 And as St. Paul speakes of Epaphroditus to receive them in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation p Phil. 2.29 Laying a side all malice and guile and evil speaking as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby and then I dare say you will find no cause of forsaking the publick assemblies of the Church for your Pastors sake which was the second grand motive we propounded to consider why men are willful to forsake our Church assemblies as the manner of some is Besides these two grand occasions of forsaking the assemblies there be others we need not speak so largely of because being but named they cannot but be abhorred and being seen they discover their own nakedness such are these following 1. Some forsake the assemblies and separate themselves from us out of mear Ignorance takeing offence at many things in our assemblies causelesly or without any weighty reason they do not and are not able to distinguish between the essentials and circumstantials in Religion and so look upon any supposed mistake in the latter with detestation proper only to the perversion of the former and thence violate charity and break communion with those that hold the same faith with them These eager Spirits having a zeal without knowledg blow up minute differences with lasting contentions They raise disputes about a pin or a nail of the Temple that even endangers the whole fabrick they set the same value upon the leaves and bark of the tree as upon the fruit it self they make ado a bout a nail or tile of the house as if it were of the same concernment with a pillar or a beam they look upon that as simply evil which is onely so in some respects as it is wrong circumstantiated or which is onely not perfect in all degrees whereas did but men deliberately prize that which they oppose and proportion their displeasure to the just weight thereof their contentions would soon be calmed and never become quarrells with the Church of God Nay indeed in many it is meer sottish Ignorance that is the cause of their forsakeing the assemblies of the Church of God they was never grounded in the first principles of the Oracles of God and especially they would never learn their obligation to the Church they was baptized in to hold communion with it Perhaps these men will say they would fain do right and go the right way but they would never hearken to their right guides but gave their ears first to seducers being a little too much affected with that shew of piety they saw in them they put themselves wholy upon their directions and examples and so are carried hoodwinckt or blindfold into Schisms and damnable errors Thousands there be that have separated themselves that are meer Ignorants silly women especially that was alwaies learning but never came to the knowledg of the truth having better affections than principles whom because they would not receive the truth in the love thereof God hath given up to strong delusions to believe lies and so in some that 's one cause of their forsakeing the assemblies meer Ignorance 2. This Ignorance is oftentimes proud or conceited So that 's another cause damnable pride The wisest of men arraignes this vice as the ring-leader of divisions q Prov. 13.10 Onely by pride cometh contention Indeed there are few sins unto which pride is not either a parent or nurse but above all Schism and Heresie hath its immediate discent from it having so many lineaments and features of this deformed mother See some of these heads very largely and learnedly discoursed of by the author of the whole duty of Man in the causes of the Decayes of Christianity to whom I here acknowledg my self much indebted as sufficiently attests its extraction It is pride that makes some men dislike whatsoever is not of their own invention or whatever is imposed by their superiours or whatever others have a hand in whom they contemn or hate be it never so good or true or what is contrary to that they have formerly maintained and they are