to let them alone either in publike or private whatever other work we have to do I confess I am forced frequently to neglect that which should tend to the further encrease of knowledge in the godly and may be called stronger meat because of the lamentable necessity of the unconverted Who is able to talk of Controversies or nice unnecessary points yea or truths of a lower degree of necessity how excellent soever while he seeth a company of ignorant carnal miserable sinners before his face that must be chang'd or damn'd Me thinks I even see them entring upon their final woe Me thinks I even hear them crying out for help and speedyest help Their misery speaks the lowder because they have not hearts to seek or ask for help themselves Many a time have I known that I had some hearers of higher fancies that lookt for rarities and were addicted to despise the Ministery if he told them not somewhat more then ordinary and yet I could not find in my heart to turn from the observation of the necessities of the impenitent for the humouring of these nor to leave speaking to the apparently miserable for their salvation to speak to such novelists for the clawing of their ears no nor so much as otherwise should be done to the weak for their confirmation and increase in grace Me thinks as Pauls Spirit was stir'd within him when he saw the Athenians so addicted to Idolatry Acts 17. 16. so it should cast us into one of his paroxisms to see so many men in great probabilitie of being everlastingly undone and if by faith we did indeed look upon them as within a step of hell it should more effectually untye our tongues then they tell us that Croesus danger did his sons He that will let a sinner go to hell for want of speaking to him doth set less by souls then the Redeemer of souls did and less by his neighbour then rational Charity will allow him to do by his greatest enemy O therefore Brethren whomsoever you neglect neglect not the most miserable Whatever you pass over forget not poor souls that are under the condemnation and curse of the Law and may look every hour for the infernal execution if a speedy change do not prevent it O call after the impenitent and ply this great work of converting souls whatever else you leave undone 2. The next part of the Ministerial work is for the building up of those that are already truly converted And according to the various states of these the work is various in general as the persons are either such as are young and weak or such as are in danger of growing worse or such as are already declining so our work is all reducible to these three Confirmation and Progress Preservation and Restauration 1. We have many of our flock that are young and weak though of long standing yet of small proficiency or strength Heb. 5. 11 12. And indeed it is the most common condition of the godly Most of them â—â—ick in weak and low degrees of grace And it is no easie matter to get them higher To bring them to higher and stricter opinions is very easie that is to bring them from the truth into error on the right hand as well as on the left but to encrease their knowledge and gifts is not easie but to encrease their graces is the hardest of all It is a very troublesom thing to be weak It keepeth under dangers it abateth consolation and delight in God and taketh off the sweetness of his waies and maketh us go to work with too much backwardness and come off with little peace or profit It maketh us less serviceable to God and man to bring less honour to our Master and profession and do less good to all about us We find small benefit by the means we use we too easily play with the Serpents baits and are insnared by his wiles A Seducer will easily make us shake and evil may be made appear to us as Good truth as falshood sin as a duty and so on the contrary we are less able to resist and stand in an encounter we sooner fall we hardlier rise and are apter to prove a scandal and reproach to our profession We less know our selves and are more apt to be mistaken in our own estate not observing corruptions when they have got advantage we are dshonourable to the Gospel by our very weakness and little useful to any about us and in a word though we live to less profit to our selves or others yet are we unwilling and too unready to dye And seeing the case of weakliness is comparatively so sad how diligent should we be to cherish and encrease their grace The strength of Christians is the honour of the Church When men are inflamed with the Love of God and live by a lively working saith and set light by the profits and honours of the world and love one another with a pure heart fervently and can bear and heartily forgive a wrong and suffer joyfully for the cause of Christ and study to do good and walk in offensively and harmlesly in the world as ready to be servants of all men for their good becoming all things to all men to win them and yet abstaining from the appearances of evil and seasoning all their actions with a sweet mixture of Prudence Humility Zeal and Heavenly spirituality O what an honour are such to their professions What ornaments to the Church and how excellently serviceable to God and man Men would sooner believe that the Gospel is indeed a word of truth and power if they could see more such effects of it upon the hearts and lives of men The world is better able to read the nature of Religion in a mans life then in the Bible They that obey not the word may be won by the conversations of such as these 1 Pet. 3. 1. It is therefore a necessary part of our work to labour more in the polishing and perfecting of the Saints that they may be strong in the Lord and fitted for their masters use 2. Another sort of Converts that need our special help are those that labour under some particular distemper that keeps under their graces and maketh them temptations and troubles to others and a burden to themselves For alas too many such there are Some that are specially addicted to Pride and some to worldliness and some to this or that sensual desire and many to frowardness and disturbing passions It is our duty to set in for the assistance of all these and partly by disswasions and clear discoveries of the odiousness of the sin and partly by suitable directions about the way of remedy to help them to a fuller conquest of their corruptions We are leaders of Christs Army against the powers of darkness and must resist all the works of darkness wherever we find them though it be in the children of light We must be no more tender of the sins of
them I know that some of these men are Learned and Reverend and intend not such mischievous ends as these The hardening of men in ignorance is not their design But this is the thing effected To intend well in doing ill is no rarity Who can in reverence to any men on earth sit still and hold his tongue while he seeth people thus run to their own destruction and the souls of men be undone by the contendings of Divines for their several parties and interests The Lord that knows my heart knows that if I know it my self as I am not of any one of these parties so I speak not a word of this in a sactious partiality for one party or against another as such much less in spleen against any person but if I durst in conscience I would have silenced all this for fear of giving them offence whom I much honour But what am I but a servant of Christ and what is my life worth but to do him service and whose favour can recompence for the ruines of the Church and who can be silent while souls are undone Not I for my part while God is my Master and his word my Rule his work my business and the success of it for the saving of men my end Who can be reconciled to that which so lamentably crosseth his Masters interest and his main end Nor yet would I have spoken any of this if it had been only in respect to my own charge yet I bless God the sore is but small in comparison of what it is in many other places But the observation of some neighbour Congregations and others more remote me thinks should make the very contrary minded Divines relent if they were present with them Would it be a pleasant hearing to them to hear a croud of scandalous men to reproach their Ministers that would draw them to repentance and to tell them they have no authority over them and all this under the pretence and shelter of their judgements Had they rather men went to Hell then be taught the way to Heaven by Presbyters that had not their Imposition of hands Is that point of order more necessary then the substance of the work or the end it self Nay I must needs in faithfulness say yet more That it is no credit to the cause of these Reverend men nor ever was that the generality of the most wicked men and haters and contemners of all Devotion are the great friends and maintainers of it And the befriending of such a party did more to gain their love then to save their souls And the engageing such a Party for them hath not been the least cause of their fall This is true however it be taken And what a case would the Churches of England be in if we should yield to the motions of these Reverend men supposing that mens judgements are not at their own wills and therefore many cannot see the reasons for Prelacy must we all give up our charges as no true Ministers and desert the Congregations as no true Churches Why whom will they then set over them in our stead First it is known that they cannot if they had fit men procure them what liberty their way requires because of the discountenance of authority and it is known that they have not fit men for one Congregation of very many And had they rather that the doors were shut up and God had no publike worship nor the people any publike teaching or Sacraments then any but they should have a hand in the performance of it Or if the Ministers keep their places can they wish all the Congregations to stay at home and live like Heathens Nay are they not angry with us for casting out a grosly ignorant insufficient scandalous sort of Ministers who were the great means of the perdition of the people whose souls they had taken charge of As for the casting out of any able godly men upon meer differences about the late troubles and State affairs I speak not of it I approve not of it If any such thing were done let them maintain it if they can that did it for I neither can nor will But it s a very sad case that any men of judgement piety should not only be indifferent in matters of such moment but should think it a persecution and an injury to their party and cause to have hundreds of unworthy wretches to be ejected when it was a work of so great necessity to the Church And indeed by all this they plainly shew what a condition they would reduce this Nation into again if it were in their power Sure they that would have the people disown and withdraw from them as being no Ministers and turn their backs on the word and Sacraments would silence them if they could I think there is no doubt of that And surely they that are so offended that the insufficient and scandalous ones are cast out would have them in again if they could And if this be the change that they desire let them not blame men that believe the Scripture and value mens salvation if they have no mind of their change If it were a matter of meer opinion we should be more indifferent with them Or if the question were only whether men should be conducted in waies of holiness by a Prelate or by meer Presbyters only we should think it of less moment then the matter that is before us But when it comes to this pass that the Prince of darkness must be so gratified and so much of the Church of Christ delivered overmuch into his power and the people led by multitudes to perdition and all for the upholding of our own parties or interests or conceits we cannot make light of such matters as these These are not meer speculations but matters that are so obvious to sense and Christian experience that they must not think much that serious experienced Christians are against them But that I be not mistaken it is far from my thoughts to speak what I have done of any peaceable man of the Prelatical way or to meddle in the Controversie of the best way of Government nor do I speak to any of the New Prelatical way but only those who are guilty of the miscarriages which I have spoken of and for them I had rather bear their indignation then the Church should bear the fruits of their destructive intemperate conceits The most common cause of our Divisions and unpeaceableness is mens high estimation of their own Opinions And it ordinarily worketh these two waies sometimes by setting men upon Novelties and sometimes by a censorious condemning of all that differ from the party that they are of Some are as busie in their enquiries after new Doctrines as if the Scripture were not perfect or Christ had not told us all that is necessary or the way to heaven were not in all ages one and the same from Christ to the end of the world or the Church
Gildas Salvianus THE REFORMED PASTOR Shewing the nature of the Pastoral work Especially in Private Instruction and Catechizing With an open CONFESSION of our too open SINS Prepared for a day of Humiliation kept at Worcester Decemb. 4. 1655. by the Ministers of that County who subscribed the Agreement for Catechizing and Personal Instruction at their entrance upon that work By their unworthy fellow-servant Richard Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster Luke 12. 47 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Book-seller at Kederminster and are to be sold by William Roybould at the Unicorn In Pauls Church Yard 1656. To my Reverend and Dearly beloved Brethren the faithful Ministers of Christ in Brittain and Ireland Grace and Peace in Iesus Christ be increased Reverend Brethren THE subject of this Treatise so nearly concerneth your selves and the Churches committed to your care that it perswadeth and emboldeneth me to this address notwithstanding the imperfections in the manner of handling it and he consciousness of my great unworthiness to be your Monitor Before I come to my principal errand I shall give you hat account which I suppose I owe you of the Reasons of his following work and of the freedom of speech which to some may be displeasing When the Lord had awakened his Ministers in this County and some neighbouring parts to a sense of their duty in the work of Catechizing and private Instruction of all in their Parishes that would not obstinately refuse their help and when they had subscribed an Agreement containing their Resolutions for the future performance of it they judged it unmeet to enter upon the work without a solemn humbling of their souls before the Lord for their so long neglect of so great and necessary a duty And therefore they agreed to meet together at Worcester Decemb. 4. 1655. and there to joyn in such Humiliation and in earnest Prayer to God for the pardon of our neglects and for his special Assistance in the work that we had undertaken and for the success of it with the People whom we are engaged to instruct At which time among others I was desired by them to Preach In answer to their desires I prepared the following Discourse which though it proved longer then could be delivered in one or two Sermons yet I intended to have entred upon it at that time and to have delivered that which was most pertinent to the occasion and to have reserved the rest to another season But before the meeting by the increase of my ordinary pain and weakness I was disabled from going thither To recompence which unwilling omission I easily yielded to the requests of divers of the Brethren forthwith to publish the things which I had prepared that they might see that which they could not hear If now it be objected that I should not have spoken so plainly or sharply against the sins of the Ministry or that I should not have published it to the view of the world or at least that I should have done it in another tongue and not in the ears of the vulgar especially at such a time when Quakers and Papists are endeavouring to bring the Ministry into contempt and the people are too prone to harken to their suggestions I confess I thought the Objection very considerable but that it prevailed not to alter my resolutions is to be ascribed to the following Reasons 1. It was a purposed solemn Humiliation that we were agreed on and that this was prepared and intended for And how should we be humbled without a plain Confession of our sin 2. It was principally our own sins that the Confession did concern and who can be offended with us for confessing our own and taking the blame and shame to our selves which our consciences told us we ought to do 3. I have excepted in our Confessions those that are not guilty and therefore hope that I have injured none 4. Having necessarily prepared it in the English tongue I had no spare time to translate it 5. Where the sin is open in the sight of the world it is in vain to attempt to hide it 6. And such attempts will but aggravate it and increase our shame 7. A free Confession is a condition of a full Remission and when the sin is publike the Confession must be publike If the Ministers of England had sinned only in Latine I would have made shift to have admonished them in Latine or else have said nothing to them But if they will sin in English they must hear of it in English Unpardoned sin will never let us rest or prosper though we be at never so much care and cost to cover it Our sin will surely find us out though we find not it The work of Confession is purposely to make known our sin and freely to take the shame to our selves And if he that confesseth and forsaketh be the man that shall have mercy no wonder then if he that covereth it prosper not Prov. 28. 13. If we be so tender of our selves and so loath to confess God will be the less tender of us and he will indite our Confessions for us He will either force our Consciences to confession or his Iudgements shall proclaim our iniquities to the world Know we not how many malicious adversaries are day and night at work against us Some openly revile us and some in secret are laying the designs and contriving that which others execute and are in expectation of a fuller stroak at us which may subvert us at once What is it but our sins that is the strength of all these enemies Is not this evil from the ordering of the Lord Till we are reconciled unto him we are never safe He will never want a rod to scourge us by The tongues of Quakers and Papists and many other sorts are all at work to proclaim our sins because we will not confess them our selves Because we will not speak the truth they will speak much more then the truth Yet if we had man only to plead our cause with perhaps we might do much to make it good but while God accuseth us how shall we be justified and who shall hide our sins when he will have them brought to light And God is our Accuser till we accuse our selves but if we would Iudge our selves he would not Iudge us 8. The fire is already kindled which revealeth our sin Iudgement is begun at the house of God Hath the Ministry suffered nothing in England Scotland and Ireland and have there been no attempts for their overthrow Hath it not been put to the Vote in an Assembly that some called A Parliament of England whether the whole frame of the stablished Ministry and its legal maintenance should be taken down and were we not put to plead our Title to that maintenance as if we had been falling into the hands of Turks that had thirsted for our subversion as resolved enemies to the Christian cause
office And if there should be any found among you that will shuffle over the work and deal unfaithfully in this and other parts of your office I take it for no just cause of reproach to us that we accept of your subscription when you offer to joyn with us For Catechizing is a work not proper only to a Minister and we cannot forbid any to engage themselves to their unquestionable duty But in our Association for Discipline we must be somewhat more scrupulous with whom we joyn I earnestly beseech you all in the name of God and for the sake of your peoples souls that you will not slightly slubber over this work but do it vigorously and with all your might and make it your great and serious business Much judgement is required for the managing of it Study therefore how to do it beforehand as you study for your Sermons I remember how earnest I was with some of the last Parliament to have had them settle Catechists in our Assemblies But truly I am not sorry that it took not effect unless for a few of the larger Congregations For I perceive that all the life of the work under God doth lie in the prudent effectual management in searching mens hearts and setting home the saving truths and the ablest Minister is weak enough for this and few of inferiour place or parts would be found competent for I fear nothing more then that many Ministers that preach well will be found too unmeet for this work especially to manage it with old ignorant dead-hearted sinners And indeed if the Ministers be not reverenced by the people they will rather slight them and contest with them then humbly learn and submit how much more would they do so by inferiour men Seeing then the work is cast upon us and it is we that must do it or else it must be undone let us be up and doing with all our might and the Lord will be with us I can tell you one thing for your encouragement It is a work that the enemies of the Church and Ministry do exceedingly vex at and hate and fear more then any thing that yet we have undertaken I perceive the signs of the Papists indignation against it And me thinks it hath the most not able character of a work extraordinarily and unquestionably good For they storm at it and yet have nothing to say against it They cannot blame it and yet they hate and fear it and would fain undermine it if they knew how You know how many false rumours have been spread abroad this Country to deter the people from it as that the Lord Protector and Council were against it That the subscribers were to be ejected That the Agreement was to be publikely burnt c. And when we have searcht after the authors we can drive it no higher then the Quakers the Papists Emissaries from whom we may easily know their minds And yet when a Papist speaks openly as a Papist some of them have said that it is a good work but that it wants authority and is done by those that are not called to it Forsooth because we have not the Authority of their Pope or Prelates And some that should be more sober have used the same language as if they would rather have thousands and millions of souls neglected then have them so much as Catechized and Instructed without Commission from a Prelate Yea and some that differ from us about Infant Baptism I understand repine at it and say that we will hereby insinuate our selves into the people and hinder them from the receiving of the truth A sad case that any that seem to have the fear of God should have so true a Character of a partial dividing and siding mind as to grudge at the propagation of Christianity it self and the common truths which we are all agreed in for fear least it should hinder the propagation of their opinions The common cause of Christianity must give place to the cause of these lower controverted points and they grudge us our very labour and suffering for the common work though there be nothing in it which medleth with them or which they are able with any shew of reason to gainsay I beseech you Brethren let all this and the many motives that I have after given you perswade you to the greater diligence herein When you are speaking to your people do it with the greatest prudence and seriousness and be as earnest with them as for life or death and follow it as close as you do your publike exhortations in the Pulpit I profess again it is to me the most comfortable work except publike preaching for there I speak to more though yet with less advantage to each one that ever I yet did set my hand to And I doubt not but you will find it so to you if you faithfully perform it 2. MY second request to the Reverend Ministers in these Nations is that at last they would without any more delay unanimously set themselves to the practice of those parts of Christian Discipline which are unquestionably necessary and part of their work It is a sad case that good men under so much liberty should settle themselves so long in the constant neglect of so great a duty The common cry is Our people be not ready for it they will not bear it But is not the meaning that you will not bear the trouble and hatred which it will occasion If indeed you proclaim our Churches uncapable of the Order and Government of Christ What do you but give up the cause to them that withdraw from them and encourage men to look out for better societties where that Discipline may be had For though preaching and Sacraments may be omitted in some cases till a fitter season and accordingly so may Discipline be yet it is a hard case to settle in a constant neglect for so many years together as we have done unless there were a flat impossibility of the work And if it were so because of our uncapable materials it would plainly call us to alter our constitution that the matter may be capable I have spoke plainly afterward to you of this which I hope you will bear and conscionably consider of I now only beseech you that would make a comfortable account to the chief Shepherd and would not be found unfaithful in the house of God that you do not wilfully or negligently delay it as if it were a needless thing nor shrink not from duty because of trouble to the flesh that doth attend it For as that 's too sad a sign of hypoorisie so the costlyest duties are usually the most comfortable and be sure that Christ will bear the cost I could here produce a heap of testimonies of Fathers and Reformed Divines that charge this duty with great importunity I shall only now give you the words of two of the most godly laborious judicious Divines that most ever the Church of Christ had since
upon their hands than they can well dispatch grow sick of it and sit down out of a lazy despondency and do just nothing O if once our hearts were but filled with Zeal for God and compassion to our peoples souls we would up and be doing though we could but lay a brick a day and God would be with us May be you who find a people rude and sottishly ignorant like stones in the quarry and trees unfell'd shall not bring the work to such perfection in your daies as you desire Yet as David did for Solomon thou mayst by thy pains in teaching and instructing them prepare materials for another who shall rear the Temple Read the rest THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THE brief explication of the Text. Sect. 2. What sort of Elders they were that Paul spoke to Sect. 3. The Doctrine and Method Sect. 4. The terms opened Sect. 5 6 7 and 8. Wherein we must take heed to ourselves Sect. 9. to 16. The moving Reasons to Take heed to ourselves CHAP. II. Sect. 1. WHat it is to Take heed to all the Flock It s implyed that every Flock have their own Pastor and that regularly the Flock be no greater then the Pastors may over-see taking heed to all Sect. 2. The ends of this Oversight Sect. 3. Of the subject of this work Sect. 4. Of the Object of it 1. The unconverted 2. The converted 1. The young and weaker 2. Those that labour under some special distempers 3. Decliners 4. That are fallen under some great Temptation 5. The disconsolate 6. The strong Sect. 5. Of the action it self 1. Publike Preaching 2. Sacraments 3. Publike prayer and praise and benediction 4. Oversight of the members distinctly 1. Knowing them 2. Instructing the ignorant 3. Advising them that seek advice 4. Looking to particular Families How 5. Resisting seduction 6. Encourageing the obedient 7. Visiting the sick 8. Comforting 9. Private admonishing offenders 10. More publike Discipline 1. Publike admonition How 2. Publike exhortation to open discovery of Repentance 3. Publike praying for the offender 4. To assist the penitent confirming absolving c. 5. Rejecting the obstinately impenitent from our Communion 6. Reception of the penitent The manner and necessity of these acts Making Laws for the Church is not our work CHAP. III. OF the manner and concomitants of our work It must be done 1. Purely for God and not for self 2. Laboriously and diligently 3. Prudently orderly 4. Insisting most on the Greatest and most Necessary things 5. With Plainness and Evidence 6. In a sense of our insufficiency and dependance on Christ 7. In Humility and Condescention 8. A mixture of severity and mildness 9. With Affectionate seriousness 10. Reverently and spiritually 11. In tender love to our people 12. Patiently And we must be studious of Union and Communion among our selves and of the Unity and peace of the Church CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. THE first Use for our humiliation Confessing the sins of the Ministry especially of this Nation heretofore Sect. 2. A confession of our present sins Specially 1. Pride Sect. 3. 2. An undervaluing the Unity and Peace of the Catholike Church Sect. 4. 3. Want of serious industrious unreserved laying out our selves in the work of God Discovered 1. By negligent studies Sect. 5. 2. By dull drowsic preaching Sect. 6. 3. By not helping them that want abroad Sect. 7. 4. By neglect of acknowledged Duties E. G. Church Discipline The pretences confuted that would justifie it Sect. 8. 5. By the Power of worldly carnal interests Manifested 1. By temporizing 2. Worldly business 3. Barrenness in works of Charity Sect. 9. Applyed for Humiliation CHAP. V. Sect. 1. VSE of Exhortation Motives in the text 1. From our office and Relation to all the Flock with some subservient considerations Sect. 2. 2. From the efficient cause the Holy-Ghost Sect. 3. 3. From the Dignity of the Object Sect. 4. 4. From the price paid for the Church Sect. 5. A more particular exhortation 1. To see that the saving work of grace be wrought on our own hearts A word to Tutours and Schoolmasters Sect. 6. 2. Keep Grace in vigour and activity and preach to your own hearts first for your work sake Sect. 7. 3. Stir up your selves to the work and do it with all your might Sect. 8. 4. Keep up earnest desires and expectations of success Sect. 9. 5. Be zealous of good works Spare no cost Sect. 10. 6. Maintain Union and Communion The way thereto Sect. 11. 7. Practise so much of Discipline as is certainly your duty Sect. 12. 8. Faithfully discharge this duty of personal Catechizing and Instruction of all the Flock CHAP. VI. Sect. 1. REasons for this Duty 1. From the Benefits The great Hopes we have of a blessed success of this work if faithfully managed Shewed in 20. particulars Sect. 2. 2. From the Difficulty of this work Sect. 3. 3. From the Necessity of it which is manifold Sect. 4. Use What great cause of Humiliation we have for neglecting this so long Sect. 5. An Exhortation to the faithful performance of this work Twenty aggravations of our sin and witnesses which will condemn the wilful refusers of so great duties as this Private Instruction and Discipline are Sect. 6. The Objections of lazy unfaithful Ministers against Personal Instruction and Catechizing answered CHAP. VII Sect. 1. DIrections to the less experienced for the right managing of this work 1. For bringing our People to submit to it Sect. 2. 2. To do it so as is likest to succeed 1. For the Conversion of the ungodly and awaking of the secure In twelve Directions CHAP. VIII DIrections how to deal with self-conceited Opinionists and to prevent or cure Errour and Schism in our People And how to deal with those of whose condition we are between hope and fear Readers you will right me and ease your selves if you will mend these mis-Printings with your pen before you read the book PAg. 46. li. 14. for conscience read conference 3 p. 90. l. 9. r. moâ—iendo p. 105. l. 4. blot out that p. 106. l. 29. blot out us p. 113. l. 23. r. art p. 115. l. 19. after token r. it p. 135. l. 25. r. speaking for p. 142. l. penult r. desertion p. 144. l. 26. r. histrionical p. 145. l. 13. r. useful p. 146. l. 18. r. better p. 150. l. 16. r. contrive p. 168. l. antipen r. sit p. 180. l. antipen r. that p. 186. l. 3. r. Hoâ—tonus p. 188. l. 25. and p. 189. l. 8. r. sit still p. 209. l. 16. for shineth r. thriveth p. 211. l. 8. after and r. then p. 213. l. 17. blot out for p. 217. l. 17. after call r. them p. 222. l. 18. r. the p. 286. l. 11. r. going to Church p. 289. l. 9 10. r. continued and l. 20. r. see p. 290. l. 15. r. compose and l. 17. r. will never and l. 24. r. serve and l. 28. r. confessions p. 248. l. 14. r.
the glory of the Saints Many more such aggravations of your sins might be mentioned but as we haste over these so we must pass them by through our present haste SECT XV. 7. TAke heed to your selves for the honour of your Lord and Master and of his holy Truth and waies doth lie more on you then on other men As you may do him more service so also more dis-service then others The neerer men stand to God the greater dishonour hath he by their miscarriages and the more will they be imputed by foolish men to God himself The heavy Judgement was threatned and executed on Eli and on his house because they kicked at his sacrifice and offering 1 Sam. 2. 29. For therefore was the sin of the young men great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord vers 17. It was that great aggravation of causing the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme which provoked God to deal sharplyer with David then else he would have done 2 Sam. 12. 11 12 13 14. If you are indeed Christians the glory of God is dearer to you then your lives Take heed therefore what you do against it as you would take heed what you do against your lives Would it not wound you to the heart to hear the name and truth of God reproached for your sakes To see men point to you and say There goes a covetous Priest a secret Tipler a scandalous man these are they that Preach for strictness when themselves can live as loose as others they condemn us by their Sermons and condemn themselves by their lives For all their talk they are as bad as we O Brethren could your hearts endure to hear men cast the dung of your iniquities in the face of the Holy God and in the face of the Gospel and of all that desire to fear the Lord would it not break your hearts to think on it that all the poor godly Christians about you should suffer reproach for your mis-doings why if one of you that is a Leader of the Flock should but once be ensnared in a scandalous crime there is scarce a man or woman that seeketh diligently after their salvation within the hearing of it but besides the grief of their hearts for your sin they are likely to have it cast in their teeth by the ungodly about them though they never so much detest it and lament it The ungodly husband will tell the wife and the ungodly parents will tell their children and neighbours and fellow servants will be telling one another of it and saying These are your godly Preachers you may see what comes of all your stir are you any better then others you are even all alike Such words as these must all the godly in the Countrey perhaps hear for your sakes It must be that offence come but wo to that man by whom it cometh Mat. 18. 7. O Take heed brethren in the name of God of every word that you speak every step you tread for you bear the Ark of the Lord you are intrusted with his honour and dare you let it fall and cast it in the dirt If you that know his will and approve the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law and being confident that you your selves are Guides of the blind and lights to them that are in darkness instructers of the foolish teachers of babes c. If you I say should live contrary to your Doctrine and by breaking the Law dishonour God the name of God would be blasphemed among the ignorant and ungodly through you Rom. 2. 14 20 21 23 24. And you are not unacquainted with that standing Decree of Heaven 1 Sam. 2. 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Never did man dishonour God but it proved the greatest dishonour to himself God will find out waies enough to wipe off all that can be cast upon him but you will not so easily remove the shame and sorrow from your selves SECT XVI 8. TAke heed to your selves for the souls of your hearers and the success of all your labours do very much depend upon it God useth to fit men for great works before he will make them his instruments in accomplishing them He useth to exercise men in those works that they are most suited to If the work of the Lord be not soundly done upon your own hearts how can you expect that he should bless your labours for the effecting it in others He may do it if he please but you have much cause to doubt whether he will I shall here shew you some particular Reasons under this last which may satisfie you that He that would be a means of saving others must take heed to himself and that God doth more seldom prosper the labours of unsanctified men Reas 1. Can it be expected that God should bless that mans labours I still mean comparatively as to other Ministers who worketh not for God but for himself why this is the case of every unsanctified man None but the upright do make God their chief end and do all or any thing heartily for his honour They make the Ministery but a trade to live by They choose it rather then another calling because their parents did destinate them to it and because it is a pleasant thing to know and it is a life wherein they have more opportunity to furnish their intellects with all kind of science and because it is not so toylsom to the body to those that have a will to favour their flesh and because it is accompanied with some reverence and respect from men and because they think it a fine thing to be Leaders and Teachers and have others depend on them and receive the Law at their mouth and because it asfordeth them a competent maintenance For such ends as these are they ministers and for these do they preach and were it not for these and such as these they would soon give over And can it be expected that God should much bless the labours of such men as these It is not him they preach for but themselves and their own reputation or gain It is not him but themselves that they seek and serve and therefore no wonder if he leave them to themselves for the success and if their labours have no greater a blessing then themselves can give them and the word reach no further then their own strength is able to make it reach 2. Can you think that he is likely to be as successsul as others that dealeth not heartily and faithfully in his work never soundly believeth what he saith never is truly serious when he seemeth to be most ligent And can you think that any unsanctified man can be hearty and serious in the ministerial work It cannot be A kind of seriousness indeed he may have such as proceedeth from a common faith or opinion that the word is true and is
wicked man can be no true friend and if you befriend their wickedness you shew that you are such your selves Pretend not to love them if you favour their sins and seek not their salvation Solisancti Dei sunt inter se amici Basil Improborum stultorum nemo amicus Id. By favouring their sin you will shew your enmity to God then how can you love your brother Amicus esse homini non potest qui Deo fuerit inimicus Ambros If you be their best friends help them against their worst enemies Amicus animae custos And think not all sharpness inconsistent with Love Parents will correct their children And God himself will chasten every son that he loveth Melius est cum severitate diligere quam cum lenitate decipere Aug. Besides this the nature of love is to excite men to do good and to do it speedily diligently and as much as we can Alios curat aedificare alios contremiscit offendere ad alios se inclinat cum aliis blanda aliis severa nulli inimica omnibus mater August de Catech. Ecce quem amas Domine infirmatur Non dixerunt veni Amanti enim tantum nunciandum fuit sufficiet ut noverit Non onim amaâ— deserit August in Ioan. So will it be with us 12. Another necessary concomitant of our work is Patience We must bear with many abuses and injuries from those that we are doing good for When we have studyed for them and prayed for them and beseeched and exhorted them with all condescention and spent our selves for them and given them what we are able and tendered them as if they had been our children we must look that many should requite us with scorn and hatred and contempt and cast our kindness in our faces with disdain and take us for their enemies because we tell them the truth and that the more we love the less we shall be beloved And all this must be patiently undergone and still we must unwearyedly hold on in doing good in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance c. If they unthankfully scorn and reject our Teaching and bid us look to our selves and care not for them yet must we hold on We have to deal with distracted men that will flye in the face of their Physitian but we must not therefore forsake the cure He is unworthy to be a Physitian that will be driven away from a phrenitick patient by foul words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Sicut insani etiam medicum impetere conantur ita illi saith Chrysost of the Sodomites Hom. 43. in Gen. Et alibi Medici ferant aegrotum calcibus ferientem incessentem contumelâ—is convitiis nec off enduntur quia nihil aliud quam salutem agroti quaerentes licet facientis indecora non ideo acura desistunt sic concionator licet malae patiatur ab auditoribus c. If we tell them that natural men favour not the things of the spirit and are besides themselves in matters of salvation we must measure our expectations accordingly and not look thar fools should make us as grateful a return as the wise These are things that all of us can say but when we come to the practice with sinners that reproach and slander us fur our love and are readyer to spit in our faces then to give us thanks for our advice what heart-risings wâ—ll there be and how will the remnants of old Adam pride and passion struggle against the meekness and patience of the new man And how sadly do many Ministers come off in this part of their tryal Having given you these 12. Concomitants of our Ministerial labour as singly to be performed by every Minister let me conclude with one other that is necessary to us as we are conjoyned and fellow-labourers in the work and that is this We must be very studious of Union and Communion among our selves and of the Unity and Peace of the Churches that we oversee We must be sensible how needful this is to the Prosperity of the whole the strengthening of our common cause the good of the particular members of our flock and the further enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ And therefore Ministers must smart when the Church is wounded and be so far from being the Leaders in divisions that they should take it as a principal part of their work to prevent and heal them Day and night should they bend their studies to find out means to close such breaches They must not only barken to motions for Unity but propound them and prosecute them Nor only entertain an offered Peace but even follow it when it flyeth from them They must therefore keep close to the antient simplicity of the Christian faith and the foundation and Center of Catholike Unity They must abhor the arrogancy of them that frame new Engins to wrack and tear the Church of God under protence of obviating Errors and maintaining the truth The Scripture-sufficiency must be maintained and nothing beyond it imposed on others and if Papists or others call to us for the Standard and Rule of our Religion it is the Bible that we must shew them rather then any Confessions of Churches or writings of men We must learn to difference well between Certainties and Uncertainties Necessaries and Unnecessaries Catholike verities quae ab omnibus ubique semper sunt retentae as Vincent Lioen speaks and private opinions and to lay the stress of the Churches Peace upon the former and not upon the latter We must therefore understand the Doctrine of Antiquity that we may know what way men have gone to heaven by in former ages and know the writings of later Divines that we may partake of the benefit of their clearer Methods and Explications but neither of them must be made the Rule of our faith or charity We must avoid the common confusion of those that difference not between verbal and real Errors and hate that Rabies quorundam Theologorum that tear their Brethren as Hereticks before they understand them And we must learn to see the true state of Controversies and reduce them to the very Point where the difference lyeth and not to make them seem greater then they are Instead of quarreling with our Brethren we must combine against the common adversaries And all Ministers must associate and hold Communion and Correspondency and Constant meetings to those ends and smaller differences of Judgement are not to interrupt them They must do as much of the work of God in Unity and Concord as they can Which is the use of Synods not to Rule over one another and make Laws but to avoid misunderstandings and consult for mutual edification and maintain Love and Communion and go on unanimously in the work that God hath already Commanded us Had the Ministers of the Gospel been men of Peace and of Catholike rather then factious spirits the Church of
the eyes of the world and do our part to make them believe that to be a Christian is but to be of such an Opinion and to have that faith which James saith the Devils had and to be solifidians and that Christ is no more for Holiness then Satan or that the Christian Religion exacteth Holiness no more then the false Religions of the world For if the Holy and unholy are all permitted to be sherp of the same fold without the use of Christs means to difference them we do our part to defame Christ by it as if he were guilty of it and as if this were the strain of his prescripts 7. We do keep up separation by permitting the worst to be uncensured in our Churches so that many honest Christians think they are necessitated to withdraw I must profess that I have spoke with some members of the separated or gathered Churches that were moderate men and have argued with them against their way and they have assured me That they were of the Presbyterian judgement or bad nothing to say against it but they joyned themselves with other Churches upon meer necessity thinking that Discipline being an Ordinance of Christ must be used by all that can and therefore they durst no longer live without it when they may have it and they could find no Presbyterian Churches that executed Discipline as they wrote for it and they told me that they did thus separate only protempore till the Presbyterians will use Discipline and then they would willingly return to them again I confess I was sorry that such persons had any such occasion to withdraw and the least ground for such a reason of their doings It is not keeping them from the Sacrament that will excuse us from the further exercise of Discipline while they are Members of our Churches 8. We do too much to bring the wrath of God upon our selves and our Congregations and so to blast the fruit of our labours If the Angel of the Church of Thyatira was reproved for suffering Seducers in the Church we may be reproved on the same ground for suffering open scandalous impenitent ones Rev. 2 20. 9. We seem to justifie the Prelates who took the same course in neglecting Discipline though in other things we differ 10. We have abundance of aggravations and witnesses to rise up against us which though I will purposely now over-pass lest I seem to press too hard in this point I shall desire you to apply them hither when you meet with them anon under the next branch of the Exhortation I know that Discipline is not essential to a Church but what of that Is it not therefore a duty and necessary to its well-being Yea more The power of Discipline is essential to a particular Political Church And what is the Power for but for the work and use As there is no Common-wealth that hath not partem imperantem as well as partem subditam so no such Church that hath not partem regentem in one Pastor or more SECT XII 8. THE last particular branch of my Exhortation is that You will now faithfully discharge the great duty which you have undertaken and which is the occasion of our meeting here to day in personal Catechizing and Instructing every one in your Parishes that will submit thereto What our undertaking is you know you have considered it and it is now published to the world But what the performance will be I know not but I have many reasons to hope well of the most though some will alwaies be readyer to say then to do And because this is the chief business of the day I must take leave to insist somewhat the longer on it And 1. I shall give you some further Motives to perswade you to faithfulness in the undertaken work Presupposing the former general Motives which should move us to this as well as to any other part of our duty 2. I shall give to the younger of my Brethren a few words of Advice for the manner of the performance CHAP. VI. SECT I. 1. THE first reasons by which I shall perswade you to this duty are taken from the benefits of it The second sort are taken from the difficulty And the third from the Necessity and the many obligations that are upon us for the performance of it And to these three heads I shall reduce them all 1. And for the first of these when I look before me and consider what through the blessing of God this work well managed is like to produce it makes my heart to leap for joy Truly Brethren you have begun a most blessed work and such as your own consciences may rejoyce in and your Parishes rejoyce in and the Nation rejoyce in and the childe that is yet unborn yea thousands and millions for ought we know may have cause to bless God for when we have finished our course And though it be our business here to humble our selves for the neglect of it so long as we have very great cause to do yet the hopes of a blessed success are so great in me that they are ready to turn it into a day of Rejoycing I bless the Lord that I have lived to see such a day as this and to be present at so solemn an engagement of so many servants of Christ to such a work I bless the Lord that hath honoured you of this County to be the beginners and awakeners of the Nation hereunto Is it not a controverted business where the exasperated minds of divided men might pick quarrels with us or malice it self be able to invent a rational reproach Nor is it a new invention where envy might charge you as innovators or proud boasters of any new discoveries of your own or scorn to follow in it because you have led the way No it is a well known duty It is but the more diligent and effectuall management of the Ministerial work and the teaching of our Principles and the feeding of babes with milk You lead indeed but not in invention of novelty but the restauration of the antient Ministerial work and the self-denying attempt of a duty that few or none can contradict Unless men do envy you your labours and sufferings or unless they envy the saving of mens souls I know not what they can envy you for in this The age is so quarrelâ—om that where there is any matter to fasten on we can scarce explain a truth or perform a duty but one or other if not many will have a stone to cast at us and will speak evil of the things which they do not understand or which their hearts and interests are against But here I think we have silenced malice it self and I hope we may do this part of Gods work quietly as to them If they cannot endure to be told what they know not or contradicted in what they think or disgraced by discoveries of what they have said amiss I hope they will give us leave
that which we need not and should not because we will not fall closely to do that which we need and should And if we could handsomly contrive the more understanding sort of our people to assist us in private helping others though prejudice of others and their own unripeness and unfitness much hinder it would be the most effectual way to prevent their running into preaching distempers or into schisms For this employment would take them up and content the teaching humor that they are inclined to And it might make their parts more useful in a safe and lawful way 17. MOreover The very dilgent practice of this work that we are are upon would do much to set men right about many controversies that now trouble the Church and so to put an end to our differences Especially most of those about the Ministery Churches and Discipline would receive more convincing light by practice then all our idle talking or writing will afford us We have fallen of late into parties and troubled the Church about many controversies concerning excommunication in such and such cases which perhaps never will fall out or if they do they cannot be so well decided by any man that is not engaged in the practice It is like the profession of a Physitian a souldier a Pilot c. who can never be worth a straw at his work by all the precepts in the world without practise and experience This will be the only course to make 1. Sound Divines in the main which bare studying will not do 2. And recover us again to the Primitive simplicity to live upon the substantial necessary things 3. And to direct and resolve us in many of ouâ— quarrels that will no other way be well resolved For example If this work had been set on foot and it had been but visible what it is to have the oversight of souls durst any Prelates have contended for the sole Oversight of 200. or 400. or 1000 Churches and that the Presbyters might be but their curates and informers Durst they have striven with might and main to have drawn upon themselves such impossibilities and have carried such mountains on their backs and to answer God as Over-seers and Pastors of so many thousand people whose faces they were never like to see much less were they ever like to speak one word to them for their everlasting life Would they not have said If I must be a Bishop let me be a Parochial Bishop or have no more to oversee then I am capable of overseeing and let me be such as the Primitive Bishops were that had but one Church and not hundreds to take care of and let me not be engaged to natural impossibilities and that on pain of damnation and to the certain destruction of the business that I undertake sure these would rather have been their strivings I speak not this against any Bishops that acknowledge the Presbyters to be true Pastors to rule and teach the Flock and take themselves only to be the chief or Presidents among the Presbyters yea or the Rulers of Presbyters that are the Rulers of the Flock but of them that null the Presbyters office and the Churches Government and Discipline by undertaking it alone as their sole prerogative Many other Disciplinary controversies I might instance in that will be better resolved by this course of practice by the abundant experience which it will afford then by all the disputations or writings that have attempted it 18. AND then for the extent of the foresaid Benefits which in the two next places shall now be considered The design of this work is the Reforming and saving of all the people in our several Parishes For we shall not leave out any man that will submit to be instructed And though we can scarce hope that every particular person will be reformed and saved by it yet have we reason to hope that as the attempt is universal so the success will be more general or extensive then hitherto we have seen of our other labours Sure I am it is most like to the spirit and precept and offers of the Gospel which requireth us to preach the Gospel to every creature and promiseth life to every man if he will accept it by believing If God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth that is as Rector and Benefactor of the world he hath manifested himself willing to save All men if they will themselves though his Elect he will also make willing then sure it beseems us to offer salvation unto all men and to endeavour to bring them to the knowledge of the truth And if Christ tasted death for every man its meet we should preach his death for every man This work hath a more excellent design then our accidental conferences with now and then a particular person And I observe that in such occasional discourses men satisfie themselves to have spoken some good words but seldom set plainly and closely to the matter to convince men of sin and misery and mercy as in this purposely appointed work we are now more like to do 19. AND further It is like to be a work that shall reach over the whole Land and not stop with us that have now engaged in it For though it be at the present neglected I suppose the cause is the same with our Brethren as it hath all this while been with us who by vain expectations of the Magistrates interposition or by that inconsiderateness and lazyness which we are bewailing here this day have so much omitted it till now as we have done but specially a despair of a common submission of the people hath been the hindrance But when they shall be remembered of so clear and great a duty and excited to the consideration of it and see with us the feisableness of it in a good measure when it is done by common consent no doubt they will universally take it up and gladly concurr with us in so blessed a work For they are the servants of the same God as regardful of their Flocks and as consciencious as we and as sensible of the Interest of Christ and as compassionate to mens souls and as self-denying and ready to do or suffer for such excellent ends seeing therefore they have the same Spirit Rule and Lord I will not be so uncharitable as to doubt whether all that are godly or the generality of them will gladly joyn with us through all the Land And O what a happy thing it will be to see such a general combination for Christ and to see all England so seriously called upon and importuned for Christ and set in so fair a way to heaven Me thinks the consideration of it should make our hearts rejoyce within us to see so many faithful servants of Christ all over the Land to fall in with every particular sinner with such industrious sollicitations for the saving of their souls as men that will hardly
apparent danger of damnation And every impenitent person that you see and know about you suppose that you hear them cry to you for help as ever you pitied poor wretches pity us lest we should be tormented in the flames of hell if you have the hearts of men pitty us And do that for them that you would do if they followed you with such complaints O how can you walk and talk and be merry with such people when you know their case Me thinks when you look them in the face and think how they must lie in perpetual misery you should break forth into tears as the Prophet did when he looked upon Hazael and then fall on with the most importunate Exhortations when you must visit them in their sickness will it not wound your hearts to see them ready to depart into misery before you have ever dealt seriously with them for their recovery O then for the Lords sake and for the sake of poor souls have pity on them and bestir your selves and spare no pains that may conduce to their salvation 3. ANd I must further tell you that this Ministerial fidelity is Necessary to your own welfare as well as to your peoples For this is your work according to which among others you shall be judged You can no more be saved without Ministerial diligence and fidelity then they or you can be saved without Christian diligence and fidelity If you care not for others at least care for your selves O what is it to answer for the neglect of such a charge and what sins more hainous then the betraying of souls Doth not that threatning make us tremble If thou warn not the wicked their blood will I require at thy hands I am afraid nay I am past doubt that the day is near when unfaithful Ministers will wish that they had never known that charge But that they had rather been Colliars or Tinkers or sweepers of Channels then Pastors of Christs flock when besides all the rest of their sins they shall have the blood of so many souls to answer for O Brethren our death as well as our peoples is at hand and it is as terrible to an unfaithful Pastor as to any When we see that dye we must and there is no remedy no wit or learning no credit or popular applause can put by the stroke or delay the time but willing or unwilling our souls must be gone and that into a world that we never saw where our persons and worldly interest will not be respected O then for a clear Conscience that can say I lived not to my self but to Christ I spared not my pains I hid not my talent I concealed not mens misery nor the way of their recovery O Sirs let us therefore take time while we may have it and work while it is day for the night cometh when none can work This is our day too and by doing good to others we must do good to our selves If you would prepare for a comfortable death and a sure and great Reward the harvest is before you gâ—rd up the loins of your minds and quit your selves like men that you may end your days with that confident triumph I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Iudge shall give me And if you would be blessed with those that dye in the Lord Labour now that you may rest from your labours then and do such works as you would wish should follow you and not such as will prove your terror in the review SECT IV. HAving found so great Reason to move us to this work I shall before I come to the Directions 1. Apply them further for our Humiliation and Excitation And 2. answer some Objections that may be raised And 1. what cause have we to bleed before the Lord this day that have neglected so great and good a work so long That we have been Ministers of the Gospel so many years and done so little by personal instructions and conference for the saving of mens souls If we had but set a work this business sooner that we have now agreed upon who knows how many more might have been brought over unto Christ and how much happyer we might have made our Parishes ere now And why might we not have done it sooner as well as now I confess many impediments were in our way and so there are still and will be while there is a Devil to tempt and a corrupt heart in man to resist the light But if the greatest impediment had not been in our selves even in our own darkness and dulness and undisposedness to duty and our dividedness and unaptness to close for the work of God I see not but much might have been done before this We had the same God to command us and the same miserable objects of compassion and the same liberty from Governors of the Common-wealth But we stood looking for changes and we would have had the Magistrate not only to have given us leave to work but have done our work for us or at least to have brought the game to our hands and while we lookt for better daies we made them worse by the lamentable neglect of a chief part of our work And had we as much petitioned Parliaments for the interposition of their Authority to compell men to be catechized and instructed by the Minister as we did for maintenance and other matters its like we might have obtained it long ago when they were forward to gratifie us in such undisputable things But we have sinned and have no just excuse for our sin somewhat that may perhaps excuse à tanto but nothing à toto and the sin is so great because the duty is so great that we should be afraid of pleading excuse too much The Lord of Mercy forgive us and all the Ministry of England and lay not this or any of our Ministerial negligences to our charge O that he would cover all our unfaithfulness and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant would wash away our guilt of the blood of souls that when the chief Shepherd shall appear we may stand before him in peace and may not be condemned for the scattering of his Flock And O that he would put up his controversie which he hath against the Pastors of his Church and not deal the hardlyer with them for our sakes nor suffer underminers or persecutors to scatter them as they have suffered his Sheep to be scattered and that he will not care as little for them as they have done for the souls of men nor think his salvation too good for them as they have thought their labour and sufferings too much for mens salvation and as we have had many daies of Humiliation in England for the sins of the Land and the Judgements that have lain upon us I hope we shall hear that God will more
the utmost as your Helpers in their places in an orderly way under your Guidance or else they will make use of them in a disorderly dividing way in opposition to you It hath been a great cause of Schism when Ministers would contemptuously cry down private mens preaching and withall desire not to make any use of the Gifts that God hath given them for their assistance but thrust them too far from holy things as if they were a prophane generation The work is like to go poorly on if there be no hands imployed in it but the Ministers God giveth not any of his gifts to be buryed but for common use By a prudent improvement of the gifts of the more able Christians we may receive much help by them and prevent their abuse even as lawful marriage preventeth fornication And the uses you must specially put them to are these 1 Urge them to be diligent in Teaching and praying with their own families specially Catechizing them and teaching them the meaning of what they learn and whetting it on their affections And there if they have a mind to preach to their children and servants so they undertake not more then they are able to do I know no reason but they may 2. Urge them to step out now and then to their poor Ignorant Neighbours and catechize and instruct them in meekness and patience from day to day and that will bring them more peace of Conscience then contemning them 3. Urge them to go oft to the Impenitent and scandalous sinners about them and deal with them with all possible skill and earnestness yet also with love and patience for the Converting reforming and saving of their souls 4. Acquaint them with their duty of watching over each other in brotherly love and admonishing and exhorting one another daily and if any walk scandalously to tell them their fault before two or three after the contempt of private reproof and if that prevail not to tell the officers of the Church that they may be further proceeded with as Christ hath appointed 5. At your private meetings and in days of humiliation or thanksgiving in private imploy them in prayer and in such learning Questions as is aforesaid 6. If there be any very ignorant or scandalous sinner that you know of and you cannot possibly have time your selves to speak to them at that season send some of those that are able and sober to do it in your stead to instruct the ignorant and admonish the offenders as far as a private man on a message from a Minister and in discharge of his own duty may go 7. Let some of them be chosen to Represent the Church or to see that they have no wrong and to be their Agents to prepare all Cases of Discipline for publike audience and to be present with the Church officers at appointed meetings to hear the Evidences that are brought in against any scandalous impenitent sinners and to discern how far they are valid and how far the persons are obliged to make satisfaction and give publike testimony of Repentance or to be further proceeded against 8 Let such as are fit be made subservient officers I mean Deacons and then they may afford you help in a regular way and will by their relation discern themselves obliged to maintain the unity of the Church and authoritie of the Ministrie as they have some participation of the Employment and honour and so by a complication of Interests you will make them firmer to the Church But then see that they be men Competently fit for the place I am perswaded if Ministers had thus made use of the parts of their ablest members they might have prevented much of the Divisions and distractions and apostacie that hath befaln us For they would have then found work enough upon their hands for higher parts then theirs without invading the Ministrie and would rather have seen cause to bewail the impefection of their abilities to that work which doth belong to them Experience would have convinced and humbled them more then our words will do A man may think he can stir such ablock or pluck up a tree by the roots that never tryed but when he sets his hands to it he will come off ashamed And see that you drive them to diligence in their own works and let them know what a sin it is to neglect their families and their ignorant miserable neighbours c and then they will be kept humble and have no such mind to be running upon more work when they feel you spurring them on to their own and rebuking them for the neglect nor will they have any leisure for schismatical Enterprises because of the constancy and greatness of their employment 11. Still keep up Christian love and familiarity with them even when they begin to warp and make defection and lose not your interest in them while you have any thoughts of attempting their recovery 12. If they do withdraw into separated meetings follow them and be among them if it may be continually enter a mild dissent as to the lawfulness of it but yet tell them that you are willing to hear what it is that they have to say and to be among them for their good if they will give you leave for fear lest they run to further evil And be not easily removed but hold on unless they resolvedly exclude you For 1. You may thereby have the opportunity of a moderate gentle opposing their errors and so in time may manifest the vanity of their course 2. And you will prevent much of that impudent reviling and grosser venting of further Error which they will do more freely where there is no Contradicter They may say any thing when there is none to gainsay them and make it seem good in the eyes of the weak 3. And by this means if any seducers from abroad come in to confirm them you will be readie to oppose them And so at the least you will do much to prevent the increase of their party It hath been a very great cause of the schisms in England that Ministers have only too many contemned them when they have withdrawn into private separated meetings have talk't against them to others or reproved them in the Pulpit in the mean time fled away from the faces of them or been strangers to them while they have given Seducers opportunity to come among them be familiar with them without contradiction and to have the advantages of deceiving them and even doing what their list O that the Ministrie had been more guiltless of those Errors and Schisms that they talk against But it s easier to chide a sectary in the Pulpit and to subscribe a Testimony against them then to play the skilful Physician for their Cure and do the tenth part of the duty that lieth upon us to prevent and heal such calamitous distempers I am not finding fault with Prudent Reprehensions of them in Publike or Testimonies against
of the Church that are not likely to do any great matters towards the conversion of ignorant sensual worldly men And some that are learned able men and fitted for controversies may yet be unfit to deal with those of the lower sort I suppose if you peruse the whole Ministry of a County you will not find so many such lively convincing Preachers as we could wish And I take it for granted that you are sensible of the weight of eternal things and of the worth of souls and that you will judge it a very desirable thing that every man should be imployed according to his Gifts and the Gospel in its Light and Power should be made as common as possibly we can Upon these and many the like Considerations the Ministers in this County resolved to choose out four of the most lively yet sober peaceable Orthodox men and to desire them once a moneth to leave their own Congregations to the assistance of some other and to bestow their labour in the places where they thought there was most need And as we were resolving upon this work the Natives of this County inhabiting the City of London having a custom of feasting together once a year and having at their feast collected some moneys by contribution for the maintaining of a weekly Lecture in this County besides other good works did by their Stewards desire us to set up the said Lecture and to dispose of the said moneys in order thereto And their judgements upon consulation did correspond with our design So that the said money being sufficient to satisfie another that shall in their absence preach in their own places we imploy it accordingly and have prevailed with some Brethren to undertake this work I propound to your consideration Reverend Brethren and to you the Natives of each County in London Whether the same work may not tend much to the edification of the Church and the welfare of souls if you will be pleased speedily and effectually to set it afoot through the Land Whether it may not by Gods blessing be a likely means to illuminate the ignorant and awaken the secure and countermine Seducers and hinder the ill success of Satans Itinerants and win over many souls to Christ and stablish many weak ones in the faith And not doubting but your judgements will approve of the design I humbly move that you will please to contribute your faculties to the vvork viz That the Londoners of each County will be pleased to manifest their benevolence to this end and commit the moneys to the hands of the most faithful Orthodox Ministers and that they will readily and self-denyingly undertake the work I hope the Gentlemen Natives of this County will be pleased to pardon my publishing their example seeing my end is only the promoting of mens salvation and the common good And that you may fullyer understand the scope of our design I shall annex the Letters directed to the several Ministers of the County which the Lecturers send to the Ministers of the place and receive his answer before they presume to Preach in any Congregations To all the rest of the Ministers of the Gospel in this County our Reverend and beloved Brethren Grace and Peace in our Lord Jesus Christ Reverend Brethren THE Communication of the heavenly Evangelical Light for the Glory of our Redeemer in the Conversion Edification and Salvation of mens souls is that which we are bound to by many Obligations as Christians and as Ministers of Christ for his Church and therefore must needs be solicitous thereof and it is that which the spirit of Grace where it abideth doth proportionably dispose the heart to desire By convictions of the excellency and necessity of this work and of our own duty in order thereto and by the excitation of undeserved Grace our hearts are carried out to long after a more general and effectual illumination and saving Conversion of the inhabitants of this County in which we live Which while we were but entring upon a consultation to promote it pleased God without our knowledge of it to put the same thoughts into the hearts of others The Natives of this Country of Worcester who dwell in London meeting at a feast as is their yearly use collected a sum of money for the setting of 8. poor boies to trades and towards the maintaining of a weekly Lecture and have committed the execution of this last to our care And upon consultation with their Stewards and among our selves both they and we are satisfied that a moveable Lecture on the Lords Day is the likelyest way for the improvement of their Charity to the attainment of their ends For 1. Many people through poverty cannot and many through negligence will not come to a week day's Lecture Experience telleth us that such are usually attended but little by those that have the greatest need 2. And thus the benefit may extend to more than if it were fixed in one Place We have therefore desired our Reverend and Dear Brethren Mr. Andrew Tristram Minister at Clent Mr. Henry Oasland Minister at Bewdley and Mr. Thomas Baldwin Minister at Wolverley and Mr. Joseph Treble Minister at Church-Lench to undertake this work and that each of them will be pleased every fourth Lords day to Preach twice in those places where they shall judge their labours to be most necessary and as we doubt not but their own Congregations will so far consent for the good of others So do we hereby request of you our Brethren that when any of them shall offer their labours for your Congregations in preaching the said Lecture you will receive them and to your power further them in the work For as we have no thoughts of obtruding their help upon you without your consent so we cannot but undoubtedly expect that men fearing God and desiring their peoples everlasting good will cheerfully and gratefully entertain such assistance And we hope that none will think it needless or take it as an accusing the Ministry of insufficiency For the Lord doth variously bestow his gifts all that are upright are not equally fitted for the work and many that are learned judicious and more able to teach the riper sort are yet less able to condescend to the ignorant and so convincingly and fervently to rowze up the secure as some that are below them in other qualifications and many that are able in both respects have a barren people and the ablest have found by experience that God hath sometime blest the labours of a stranger to do that which their own hath not done We beseech you therefore interpret not this as an accusation of any which proceedeth from the Charity of our worthy Countrey-men in London and from the earnest desires of them and us to further the salvation of as many as we can And that you may have no jealousies of the persons deputed to this work we assure you that they are approved men Orthodox sober peaceable and of upright lives happily qualified for their Ministerial work and zealous and industrious therein and so far from being likely to sow any errors or cause divisions or to draw the hearts of people from their own faithful Pastors that they will be forward to assist you against any such distempers in your Flocks Not doubting therefore but as you serve the same Master and are under the same oblations as we so as many as are heartily addicted to his service will readily promote so hopeful a work we commend you and your labours to the blessing of the Lord. Your Brethren and fellow-Labourers in the work of the Gospel Kederminster In the name and at the desire of the Ministers of this Association Richard Baxter John Boraston Jarvis Bryan Evesham In the name of the Ministers of this Association Giles Collier George Hopkins Iohn Dolphin * If any one about the time of Moses offering sacrifice according to the Law were not instructed in the Doctrine of the death of our Redeemer but only believed that God through the means which be knoweth to be most agreeable and convenient will forgive us ouâ— trespasses it were inshâ—â—ss to go about to exclude such a man from salvation Pet. Molinaeus de Tradition c. 19 p. 251 252.