put now in the end of the world to find out a new foundation for Prelacy supposing that it hath been amiss defended till now and all these Texts except by one or two amiss expounded it will occasion the shaking of the frame it self 3. But the best is we begin to be pretty well agreed at least about the whole Government that de facto was in being in Scripture-times For 1. It is now at last confessed that the word Presbyter is not certainly taken any where in the New Testament for one that is subject to a Bishop having not power of Ordination or Jurisdiction and that no such Presbyters were in being in Scripture-times And by what authority they are since erected let them prove that are concerned in it 2. We are agreed now that they were the same persons who in Scripture are called Bishops Presbyters 3. And that these persons had the power of Ordination Jurisdiction 4. And that these persons were not the Bishops of many particular Churches but one only They ruled not many Assemblies Ordinarily meeting for Church Communion for there could no such meetings be kept up without a Bishop or Presbyter to administer the Ordinances of Christ in each And if there were in a Diocess but one Bishop and no other Presbyters in Scripture times then it must needs be that a Diocess contained but one ordinary Church Assembly and that de facto no Biship in Scripture-times had under him any Presbyters nor more such Assemblies then one That is they Ruled the particular Churches just as our Parish Pastors do So that we are satisfied that we go that way that the Apostles established and was used de facto in Scripture-times And if any will prove the lawfulness of latter mutations or will prove that the Apostles gave power to these particular Pastors to degenerate into another sort of officers hereafter according to the Cogency of their Evidence we shall believe it In the mean time desiring to be guided by the word of God and to go upon sure ground and take only so much as is certain we hold where we are and are glad that we are so far agreed Yet not presuming to censure all superiour Episcopacy nor refusing to obey any man that commandeth us to do our duty but resolving to do our own work in faithfulness and peace For my own part I have ever thought it easier to be Governed then to Govern and I am ready as the Brittish told Austin to be obedient to any man in and for the Lord Nor can I think that any Government can be burdensom which Christ appointeth but all beneficial to us as making our burden lighter and not heavyer and helping and not hindering us in the way to heaven Were Christs work but throughly done I should be the backwardest in contending who should have the doing of it Let us agree but on this one thing which is plain here in my Text That the Churches or Flocks should be no greater then the Pastors can personally over-see so that they may Take heed to all the Flock and then let but able faithful men be the Over-seers that will make the word of God the Rule and lay out themselves for the saving of mens souls and I am resolved never to contend with such about the business of superiority but cheerfully to obey them in all things lawful if they require my obedience If the difference were not more about the matters commanded and the work it self to be done then Who should command it me thinks humble men should be easily agreed Would they but lay by all needless humane impositions and obtrusions and be contented with the sufficient word of God and not make new work to necessitate new Canons and Authorities to impose it but be content with the Gospel simplicity and let us take that for a sufficient way to heaven that Peter and Paul went thither in I think I should not disobey such a Bishop though I were not satisfied of his differing Order or Degree Yea if he were addicted to some encroaching usurpation of more power then is meet would he but forbear the Ecce duo gladii and come to us only with the sword of the spirit which will admit of fair debates and works only upon the conscience I know no reason much to fear such power though it were undue But enough of this SECT III. THE Observations which the Text affordeth us are so many that I may not now stay so much as to name them but shall only lay down that one which containeth the main scope of the Text and take in the rest as subordinate motives in the handling of that in the method which the Apostle doth here deliver them to us Doct. THE Pastors or Over-seers of the Churches of Christ must take great heed both to themselves and to all their Flocks in all the parts of their Pastoral work The method which we shall follow in handling this point shall be this 1. I shall briefly open to you the terms of the subject What is meant by Pastors and Churches 2. I shall shew you what it is to Take heed to our selves and wherein it must be done 3. I shall give some brief Reasons of that part of the point 4. I shall shew you What it is to Take heed to all the Flock in our Pastoral work and wherein it must be done 5. I shall make some Application of all SECT IV. 1. VVHat the words Pastor Bishop and Church do signifie I will not wast time to tell you they being so well known As for the things signified 1. By a Pastor or Bishop here is meant An Officer appointed by Christ for the ordinary Teaching and Guiding a particular Church and all its members in order to their salvation and the pleasing of God Christ appointeth the Office it self by his Laws The person he calleth to it by his qualifying Gifts Providential disposals secret impulses and ordinarily by the Ordination of his present Officers and the Acceptance of the Church Teaching and Guidance contain the main parts at least of the work to which they are designed The particulars we shall further stand upon anon A particular Church is the object of their work by which they are distinguished from Apostolical unfixed itinerant Ministers They are the stated Ordinary Teachers of such a Church by which they are differenced both from private men who do occasionally teach and from the foresaid Itinerant Ministers that do but in transitu or seldom teach a particular Church The subject is the matters of Salvation and Obedience to God and the end is salvation it self and the pleasing of God therein by which work and ends the office is distinguished from all other offices as Magistrates School-masters c. though they also have the same remote or ultimate ends By the Flock and Church is meant that particular society of Christians of which these Bishops or Elders have the charge associated for personal Communion in
Justice of Peace may be said to rule the Land is not a matter of much moment to be stood upon but the former seems most likely to be the sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is both acquisivit asseruit in suam vindicavit It s said to be done by the blood of God by a Communication of the names of the distinct natures And it affords us an argument against the Arrians seeing Christ is here expresly called God SECT II. BUT it is necessary before we proceed to Instruction and Application that we be resolved more clearly who those Elders or Bishops be that Paul doth here exhort I am desirous to do all that lawfully I may to avoid controversie especially in this place and on such occasions But here it is unavoidable because all our following application will much depend upon the explication and if you shall once suppose that none of this Exhortation was spoken to men in your office and capacity no wonder if you pass it over and let it alone and take all that I shall hence gather for your practise as impertinent This Text was wont to be thought most apt to awaken the Ministers of the Gospel to their duty but of late the negligent are gratified with the News for news it is that only Bishops in a sâ—pereminent sense whom we usually call Prelates are spoken to in this Text and not only so but that no other Text of Scripture doth speak to any other Church Presbyters certainly but them yea that no other were in being in Scripture times Here are two Questions before us to be resolved 1. Whether the Elders here mentioned were the Elders of one Church of Ephesus or of all that part of Asia that is of every Church one This is but in order to the second which is whether these Elders were only Prelates or such Bishops as among us have carried that name The reasons that may be brought to prove these to be the Prelates of the several Cities of Asia and that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is those many Cities are these following 1. The affirmation of Irenaeus To which we say 1. There might be many Elders of Ephesus present though some from the neerest Cities were there also which is all that Irenaeus affirms 2. We oppose to the saying of Irenaeus the ordinary exposition of the antients The most singular is of least authority caeteris paribus 2. It may be said that Paul calls them to remember how he had been among them three years not ceasing to warn every one c. But he was not three years at Ephesus only but in Asia c. Answ He may be said to be where his chief place of abode is He that resideth ordinarily at Ephesus though he thence make frequent excursions to the neighbour parts may well be said to abide so long at Ephesus And the Ephesian Elders might well be acquainted with his industry round about them though here is no certainty that he mentioneth any more then what he did with them For what he did in Ephesus he did in Asia as that which is done in London is done in England Obj. 3. But it is meant of all Asia for he saith among whom I have gone c. Answ 1. As though Paul might not go preaching the Gospel in Ephesus 2. If he went further the Ephesine Elders might accompany him Ob. Ephesus was the Metropolis and therefore all Asia might be thence denominated Answ 1. It must be proved that it was so denominated All France is not called Paris nor all England London 2. It is not whole Countries but a Church that Paul speaks of and it is yet unproved that the Church of one City had then any such dependance on the Church of another City as lesser Cities had upon the Metropolis Our Reasons that make us think that either all or many of these Elders or Bishops were over the particular Church of Ephesus are these 1. It is expresly said in the Text that they were Elders of the Church referring to Ephesus next before mentioned He sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church And it cannot be proved in all the New Testament that the Bishops of other Churches and Cities are called Bishops of a greater City because it is the Metropolis 2. Here is mention but of one Church and one Flock in the singular number and not of many when yet it is acknowledged that he speaketh not of the Universal Church for then that language were not strange but of a particular Church And it is the use of the Apostles to speak still in the plural number when they mention the particular Churches of many Cities and not to call them all one Church or Flock 3. And it may seem else that the Elder of each one of these Cities hath a charge of all the rest For they are required to take heed of all the Flock which though it may possibly be by taking every one his part yet if one should fail the rest seem to have his charge upon them which is more then they can do 4. Paul was now in so great hast in his journey to Jerusalem that Luke measureth it out by the daies And it is not like that Paul could in such hast call the Elders from the several Cities of Asia If he had passed through the Brittish Seas in such haste and lodged at Plimouth and had thence called to him the Elders of Paris he must have staid many dayes or weeks before he could have gathered also the Bishops of Rhemes Arles Orleance and the rest of France 5. The numbers of Prophets and gifted men in those times and the state of other particular Churches doth give us sufficient reason to conjecture that Ephesus was not so scant of help as to have but one Presbyter Grotius thought that Timothy with his Com-Presbyters made this appearance but others have given very probable reasons that Timothy was none of them 6. The Judgement of Expositors antient and modern running so commonly the other way commandeth some respect from us But 1. I confess the matter seemeth but conjectural on both sides and neither part to have a certainty but if probability may carry it there seems to be many of the Elders of Ephesus though possibly some of the neighbouring Cities might be with them 2. But let this go how it will it maketh not much to the main matter in hand What if Ephesus and each other City or Church had then but one Presbyter will it follow that he was a Prelate No but the contrary It will prove that there was then none such at all if there were no subject Presbyters For there is no King without subjects nor master without servants 1. The stream of antient and modern Expositors do take this Text to speak of Presbyters in the common sense And we must be cautelous before we be singular in the expounding of so many texts as speak the same way 2. If men be
shall be all ungoverned And the Physitian that will undertake the Guidance of all the sick people in a whole Nation or County when he is not able to visit or direct the hundreth man of them may as well say Let them perish Ob. But though they cannot Rule them by themselves they may do it by others Answ The nature of the Pastoral work is such as must be done by the Pastor himself He may not delegate a man that is no Pastor to Baptize or administer the Lords Supper or to be the Teacher of the Church No more may he commit the Government of it to another Otherwise by so doing he makes that man the Bishop if he make him the immediate Ruler and Guid of the Church And if a Bishop may make each Presbyter a Bishop so he do but derive the power from him then let it no more be held unlawful for them to Govern or to be Bishops And if a Prelate may do it it is like Christ or his Apostles might and have done it for as we are to preach in Christs name and no in any mans so it s likely that we must Rule in his name But of this somewhat more anon Yet still it must be acknowledged that in case of necessity where there are not more to be had one man may under take the charge of more souls then he is able well to over-see particularly But then he must only undertake to do what he can for them and not to do all that a Pastor ordinarily ought to do And this is the case of some of us that 〈◊〉 greater Parishes then we are able to take 〈…〉 â—eed to as their state requireth I must proteâ—â— or my own part I am so far from their boldness in 〈…〉 venture on the sole Government of a County that I would not for all England have undertaken to have been one of the two that should do all the Padoral work that God enjoyneth to that one Parish where I live had I not this to satisfie my conscience that through the Churches necessities more cannot be had and therefore I must rather do what I can than leave all undone because I cannot do all But cases of unavoidable necessity are not to be the standing condition of the Church or at least it is not desirable that it should so be O happy Church of Christ were the Labourers but Able and Faithful and proportioned in number to the number of souls So that the Pastors were so many or the particular Flocks or Churches so small that we might be able to Take heed to All the Flocks SECT II. HAving told you these two things that are here implyed I come next to the duty it self that is exprest And this Taking heed to All the Flock in general is A very great care of the whole and every part with great watchfulness and diligence in the use of all those holy actions and Ordinances which God hath required us to use for their salvation More particularly this work is to be considered 1. In respect to the subject matter of it 2. In respect to the object 3. In respect to the work it self or the Actions which we must do And 4. In respect to the End which we must intend Or it is not amiss if I begin first with this last as being first in our intention though last as to the attainment 1. The ultimate end of our Pastoral over-sight is that which is the ultimate end of our whole lives Even the Pleasing and Glorifying of God to which is connext the Glory of the humane nature also of Christ and the Glorification of his Church and of our selves in particular And the neerer ends of our office are the sanctification and holy obedience of the people of our charge their unity order beauty strength preservation and increase and the right worshipping of God especially in the solemn Assemblies By which it is manifest that before a man is capable of being a true Pastor of a Church according to the mind of Christ he must have so high an estimation of these things that they may be indeed his ends 1. That man therefore that is not himself taken-up with the predominant love of God and is not himself devoted to him and doth not devote to him all that he hath and can do that man that is not addicted to the pleasing of God and maketh him not the Center of all his actions and liveth not to him as his God and Happiness That is that man that is not a sincere Christian himself is utterly unfit to be a Pastor of a Church And if we be not in a case of desperate necessity the Church should not admit such so far as they can discover them Though to inferiour common works as to teach the Languages and some Philosophy to translate Scriptures c. they may be admitted A man that is not heartily devoted to God addicted to his service honour will never set heartily about the Pastoral work nor indeed can he possibly while he remaineth such do one part of that work no nor of any other nor speak one word in Christian sincerity For no man can be sincere in the means that is not so in his intentions of the end A man must heartily Love God above all before he can heartily serve him before all 2. No man is fit to be a Minister of Christ that is not of a publike spirit as to the Church and delighteth not in its beauty and longeth not for its felicity As the good of the Common-wealth must be the end of the Magistrate his neerer end so must the felicity of the Church be the end of the Pastors of it So that we must rejoyce in its welfare and be willing to spend and be spent for its sake 3. No man is fit to be a Pastor of a Church that doth not set his heart on the life to come and regard the matters of everlasting life above all the matters of this present life and that is not sensible in some measure how much the inestimable riches of glory are to be preferred to the trifles of this world For he will never set his heart on the work of mens salvation that doth not heartily believe and value that salvation 4. He that delighteth not in holiness hateth not iniquity loveth not the Unity and Purity of the Church and abhorreth not discord and divisions and taketh not pleasure in the Communion of Saints and the publike worship of God with his people is not fit to be a Pastor of a Church For none of all these can have the true ends of a Pastor and therefore cannot do the works For of what necessity the end is to the Means and in Relations is easily known SECT III. II. THE subject matter of the Ministerial work is in general spiritual things or matters that concern the Pleasing of God and the Salvation of our people It is not about temporal and transitory things It is
For those of the antient Prelacy are more moderate I know it will be displeasing to them and I have no mind to displease them but yet I will more avoid the treacherous or unfaithful silence which may wrong them then the words of faithful friendship which may displease them And I will say no more to them then if I know my self I should say if I were resolved for Prelacy It is the judgement of these men that I now speak of that a Prelate is essential to a Church and there is no Church without them and that their Ordination is of necessity to the essence of a Presbyter and that those that are ordained without them though some will except a case of necessity are not Ministers of Christ Hereupon they conclude that our Congregations in England are no true Churches except where the Presbyter dependeth on some Prelate and the Ministers ordained by Presbyters only are no true Ministers and they will not allow men to hear them or communicate with them but withdraw from our Congregations like Separatists or Recusants And the same note many of them brand upon all the Reformed Churches abroad that have no Prelates as they do on us So that the Church of Rome is admirably gratified by it and instead of demanding where our Church vvas before Luther they begin to demand of us Where it is now And indeed had it been no more visible in the ages before Luther then a Reformed Prelatical Church is now they would have a fairer pretence then â—ow they have to call upon us for the proof of its visibility Suppose that the Presbyters who rejected Prelacy were guilty of all that schism and other sin as they are ordinarily accused of For I will now go on such suppositions Must the people therefore turn their back on the Assemblies and Ordinances of God Is it better for them to have no preaching and no Sacraments and no publike Communion in Gods worship then to have it in an Assembly that hath not a Prelate over it or from a Minister ordained without his consent I confess I would not for all the world stand guilty before God of the injury that this Doctrine hath already done to mens souls much less of what it evidently tendeth to There are through the great mercy of God abundance of painful and able young Ministers that were in the Universities in the time of the wars and had no hand in it and were ordained since Bishops became to them either invisible or inaccestible and its like they judge not their Ordination to be of necessity They lay out themselves faithfully for the healing of that ignorance and common prophaneness which got so much head under their careless or drunken predecessors They desire nothing more then the saving of souls They preach sound Doctrine They live in Peace And it is the greatest of their grief that many of their hearers remain so ignorant and obstinate still And see what a help these poor impenitent sinners have for their cure They are taught to turn their backs upon their Teachers and whereas before they heard them but with disregard they are now taught not to hear them at all And if we privately speak to them they can tell us that its the Judgement of such and such learned men that we are not to be heard nor our Churches to be communicated with nor we to be at all regarded as Christs Ministers And thus Drunkards and Swearers and worldlings and all sorts of sensualists are got out of gun-shot and beyond the reach of our teaching or reproof And those that do not for shame of the world obey their Doctrine to stay from the Assembly yet do they there hear us with prejudice and contempt and from the Communion of the Church in the Lords Supper they commonly abstain Were it only the case of those few Civil persons that conscientiously go this way and address themselves to these kind of men for Government and Sacraments I would never have mentioned the thing For it is not them that I intend For what care I what Minister they hear or obey so it be one that leadeth them in the waies of truth and holiness Let them follow Christ and forsake their sins and go to heaven and I will never much contend with them for the forsaking of my Conduct But it is the common sort of prophane and sensual men that are everywhere hardened against the Ministery and they have nothing but the reputation of the Prelatical Divines to countenance it with If their Teachers do but differ in a gesture from these men they vilifie them and reject their guidance having nothing but the authority of such men to support them Fain would we reach their consciences to awaken them from their security for it pittyeth us to see them so neer unto perdition But we can do no good upon them for our Ministery is in contempt because of the contrary judgement of these men Not that the poor people care any more for a Prelate as such then for an ordinary Minister For if Prelates would have troubled them as much with their preaching and reproofs and discipline they would have hated them as much as they do the Ministers But because they found by experience that under their Government they might sin quietly and make a scorn of godliness without any danger or trouble and that to this day the men of that way are so much against those precise Ministers that will not let them go quietly to hell therefore are they all for Prelacy and make this the great shelter for their disobedience and unreformed lives So that I confess I think that the hurt that Separatists and Anabaptists do in England at this day is little to the hurt that is done by these men For I count that the greatest hurt which hardeneth the greatest number in the state and way of greatest danger An Anabaptist may yet be a penitent and godly person and be saved But the sensual and impenitent worldlings can never be saved in that condition I see by experience that if separation infect two or three or half a score in a Parish or if Anabaptistry infect as many and perhaps neither of them mortally this obstinate contempt of Ministerial exhortation encouraged by the countenance of the contrary minded doth infect them by the scores or hundreds If we come to them in a case where they have no countenance from the Ministery how mute or tractable comparatively do we find them But if it be a case where they can but say that the Prelatical Divines are of another judgement how unmoveable are they though they have nothing else to say Try when we come to set afoot this work that we are now upon of Catechizing and private instruction whether this will not be one of our greatest impediments though in a work of unquestioned lawfulness and necessity Even because they are taught that we are none of their Pastors and have no authority over
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
Would you be but as impatient with your sins as with reproofs you should hear no more from us but we should be all agreed But neither God nor good men will let you alone in such sins Yet if you had betaken your selves to another calling and would sin to your selves only and would perish alone we should not have so much necessity of molesting you as now we have But if you will enter into the office which is for the necessary preservation of us all so that by letting you alone in your sin we must give up the Church to apparent loss and hazard blame us not if we talk to you more freely then you would have us do If your own body be sick and you will despise the remedy or if your own house be on fire and you will be singing or quarrelling in the streets I can possibly bear it and let you alone which yet in charity I should not easily do But if you will undertake to be the Physician of an Hospital or to all the Town that is infected with the plague or will undertake to quench all the fires that shall be kindled in the Town there is no bearing with your remisness how much soever it may displease you Take it how you will you must be told of it and if that will not serve you must be yet closelyer told of it and if that will not serve if you be rejected as well as reprehended you must thank your selves I speak all this to none but the guilty And thus I have given you those Reasons which forced me even in plain English to publish so much of the sins of the Ministry as in the following Treatise I have done And I suppose the more penitent and humble any are and the more desirous of the truest Reformation of the Church the more easily and fully will they approve such free confessions and reprehensions THE second sort of objections against this free Confession of sin I expect to hear from the several parties whose sins are here confessed Most of them can be willing that others be blamed so they might be justified themselves I can truly say that what I have here spoken hath been as impartially as I could and not as a party nor as siding with any but as owning the common Christian cause and as somewhat sensible of the apparent wrongs that have been offered to common truth and godliness and the hinderances of mens salvation and of the happiness of the Church But I find it impossible to avoid the offending of guilty men For there is no way of avoiding it but by our silence or their patience And silent we cannot be because of Gods commands and Patient they cannot be because of their guilt and partiality and the interest that their sin hath got in their affections I still except those humble men that are willing to know the worst of themselves and love the light that their deeds may be made manifest and long to know their sins that they may for sake them and their duty that they may perform it Some its like will be offended with me that I blame them so much for the neglect of that Discipline which they have disputed for so long But what remedy If Discipline were not of God or if it were unnecessary to the Church or if it were enough to dispute for duty while we deliberately refuse to perform it then would I have given these Brethren no offence Some its like will be offended that I mention with disallowance the Separatists or Anabaptists as I understand some are offended much that I so mentioned them in an Epistle before the Quakers Catechism as if they opened the door to the Apostacy of these times and they say that by this it appeareth that while I pretend so much Zeal for the Unity of the Church I intend and endeavour the contrary To which I answer 1. Is it indeed a sign that a man loveth not the Unity of the Saints because he loveth not their dis-union and division Who can escape the censure of such men but he that can unite the Saints by dividing them 2. I never intended in urging the Peace and Unity of the Saints to approve of any thing which I judged to be a sin nor to tye my own tongue or other mens from seasonable contradicting it Is there no way to peace but by participating of mens sin The thing I desire is this 1. That we might all consider how far we may hold Communion together even in the same Congregations notwithstanding our different opinions and to agree not to withdraw where it may possibly be avoided 2. But where it cannot that yet we may consult how far we may hold Communion in distinct Congregations and to avoid that no further then is of meer necessity And 3. and principally to consult and agree upon certain Rules for the management of our differences in such a manner as may be least to the disadvantage of the common Christian truths which are acknowledged by us all Thus far would I seek peace with Arminians Antinomians Anabaptists or any that hold the foundation Yea and in the two last I would not refuse to consult on accomodation with moderate Papists themselves if their Principles were not against such consultations and accommodations and I should judge it a course which God will better approve of then to proceed by carnal contrivances to undermine their adversaries or by cruel murders to root them out which are their ordinary courses I remember that Godly Orthodox Peaceable man Bishop Usher lately deceased tels us in his Sermon at Wansted for the Unity of the Church that he made a motion to the Papist Priests in Ireland that because it was ignorance of the common principles that was like to be the undoing of the common people more then the holding of the points which we differ in therefore both parties should agree to teach them some Catechism containing those common principles of Religion which are acknowledged by us all But jealousies and carnal counsels would not permit them to harken to this motion 3. And as concerning that Epistle before my papers to the Quakers I further answer that by Separatists there I plainly mean Church-dividers even all that make unnecessary Divisions in or from the Churches of Christ whom the Apostle so earnestly beseecheth us to mark and avoid Rom. 16. 17. and which he calleth them carnal for and so earnestly contendeth against 1 Cor. 1. and 2. and 3. and in many other places in his Epistles And if this be a tolerable sin then the Unity of the Church is not a necessary thing and then the Apostles would never have condemned this sin as they have done Do we all so sensibly smart by the effects of these sins and is the Church of Christ among us brought into such a torn and endangered condition by them so that we are in no small danger of falling all into the hands of the common adversaries
the name of the Lord e. g. to avoid a notorious obstinate offender and so to obey the command of God that is though we may charge them in the name of the Lord to consent and obey and do their duty yet if their Iudgements remain unconvinced in a case which is to them obscure we have no more to do but satisfie our selves that we have done our duty So that when we have quarrelled never so long what is it but the Peoples consent that the moderate men on one side do require and consent the other side requireth also Call it what else you will whether a Government or an Authority or a Liberty Consent is the thing which both require And are we not then in the matter agreed Peruse for this Mr. Lyfords words before cited See also what the leading men for Presbyterian Government do not only acknowledge but maintain as effectually as others as Dav. Blondellus de Jure plebis in Regim Eccles Calvin Institut l. 4. c. 12. sect 4. Ne quis tale judicium spernat aut parvi aestimet se Fidelium suffragiis damnatum testatus est Dominus c. Ita Zanchius ubi sup and many more Indeed this Consent of the people is not sine qua non to the Pastors performance of his own part viz. Charging the Church in Christs name to avoid the Communion of such a notorious obstinate offender and suspending his own acts towards him and so charging them to receive the innocent or penitent For if the people consent not to avoid such and so would exclude all Discipline yet the Pastor must charge it on them and do his part But it is sine qua non to their actual rejecting and avoiding that offender In a word we must Teach them their duty and require it and they and we must obey and do it and neither they nor we may oblige any to sin Obj. But we are not agreed about the matter of the Church that must be Governed Answ Peruse the qualifications required in Church-members in the writings of the moderate on both sides and see what difference you can find Are not both agreed that Professors of true faith and holiness cohabiting and consenting are a true Church and when they contradict that Profession by wicked actions Doctrine or life they are to be dealt with by Discipline Though I confess in our practise we very much differ most that I know running into one of the extreams of loosness or rigor 3. MY third and last Request is that all the faithful Ministers of Christ would without any more delay Unite and Associate for the furtherance of each other in the work of the Lord and the maintaining of Unity and Concord in his Churches And that they would not neglect their Brotherly meetings to those ends nor yet spend them unprofitably but improve them to their edification and the effectual carrying on the work Read that excellent Letter of Edmond Grindal Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to Q. Elizabeth for Ministerial meetings and exercises such Bishops would have prevented our contentions and wars You may see it in Fullers new History of the Church of England And let none draw back that accord in the substantials of faith and godliness Yea if some should think themselves necessitated I will not say to Schism least I offend them but to separate in publike worship from the rest me thinks if they be indeed Christians they should be willing to hold so much Communion with them as they can and to consult how to manage their differences to the least disadvantage to the common truths and Christian cause which they all profess to own and prefer And here I may not silently pass by an uncharitable slander which some Brethren of the Prelatical Iudgement have divulged of me far and near viz. That while I perswade men to Accommodation it was long of me that the late Proclamation or Ordinance was procured for silencing all Sequestred Ministers viz. by the late Worcestershire Petition which they say was the occasion of it and they falsly report that I altered it after the subscription To which I say 1. It was the Petition of many Iustices and the grand Iury and thousands of the County as well as me 2. There is not a word in it nor ever was against any godly man but only that the notoriously insufficient and scandalous should not be permitted to meddle with the mysteries of Christ specially the Sacraments which we desired should have impartially extended to all parties alike And so much of this as was granted we cannot but be thankful for whoever grudge at it and wish it had been fully granted 3. I desire nothing more then that all able godly faithful Ministers of what side soever in our late State differences may not only have liberty but encouragement For the Church hath not any such to spare were they ten times more In a word I would have those of what party soever to have Liberty to preach the Gospel whose errours or miscarriages are not so great as that probably they will do as much hurt as good Brethren I crave your pardon for the infirmities of this address and earnestly longing for the success of your Labours I shall daily beg of God that he would perswade you to those duties which I have here requested you to perform and would preserve and prosper you therein against all the Serpentine subtilty and rage that is now engaged to oppose and hinder you April 15. 1656. Your unworthy fellow-servant Rich. Baxter TO The Lay-Reader THE reason why I have called this volumn the first Part of the book is because I intend if God enable me and give me time a Second Part containing the duty of the people in relation to their Pastors and therein to shew 1. The Right and Necessity of a Ministry 2. The way to know which is the true Church and Ministry and how we justifie our own calling to this office and how false Prophets and Teachers must be discerned 3. How far the people must assist the Pastors in the work of the Cospel and the Pastors put them on and make use of them to that end And 4. How far the people must submit to their Pastors and what other Duty they must perform in that Relation But because my time and strength is so uncertain that I know not whether I may live to publish my yet-imperfect preparations on this subject I dare not let this first Part come into your hands without a word of caution and advice lest you should misunderstand or misapply it 1. The caution that I must give you is in two parts 1. Entertain not any unworthy thoughts of your Pastors because we here confess our own sins and aggravate them in order to our humiliation and reformation You know it is men and not Angels that are put by God in the office of Church-guides And you know that we are imperfect men Let Papists and Quakers pretend to a sinless perfection we
promissionibus p. 309. l. 11. for Is it not r. It is not p. 314. l. 20. for recover recover p. 339. l. 24. for for r. to p. 341. l. 9. for the r. that p. 343. l. 22. r. prosecution p. 351. l. 22. for more r. meer p. 356. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 377. l. 25 r. use it and l. 27. r. and that sect p. 378. l. 29. r. is in p. 383. l. 23. for by such r. than by taking such p. 389. l. ult for One r. Me p. 390. l. 27. for profession r. proper place p. 394. l. 10. r. so far as p. 398. l. 21. for sensual Lazarus r. sensual Lazyness and l. 27. r. acknowledged p. 403. l. 29. r. from him p. 401. l. 10. for I say r. They say p. 409. l. 10. r. against all p. 418. l. 12. for prosess r. possess and l. 14. r. If any have p. 422. l. 2. r. to live long p. 430. l. 5. for elocution r. election and l. 29. for of r. that p. 431. l. 20. for of that r. of Christ p. 438. l. 15. for them r. him p. 442. l. 22. r. to the heart p. 444. l. 14. r. beset p. 445. l. 7. for we r. so p. 459. l. 19. for till then r. tell them p. 463. l. penult for they r. that and l. ult for these r. the Church p. 467. l. 2. for loathed r. toothed p. 469. for obtusions r. obtrusions Gildas Salvianus THE REFORMED PASTOR ACTS 20. 28. Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood CHAP. I. SECT I. Reverend and Dearly Beloved Brethren THough some think that Pauls Exhortation to these Elders doth prove him their Ruler we hope who are this day to speak to you from the Lord that we may freely do the like without any jealousies of such a Conclusion Though we teach our people as Officers set over them in the Lord yet may we teach one another as Brethren in Office as well as in Faith If the people of our charge must teach and admonish and exhort each other daily Col. 3. â—6 Heb. 3. 13. no doubt Teachers may do it to one another without any supereminency of power or degree We have the same sins to kill and the same graces to be quickned and corroborated as our people have we have greater works then they to do and greater difficulties to overcome and no less necessity is laid upon us and therefore we have need to be warned and wakened if not to be instructed as well as they So that I confess I think such meetings should be more frequent if we had nothing else to do together but this And as plainly and closely should we deal with one another as the most serious among us do with their Flocks lest if only they have the sharp admonitions and reproofs they only should be sound and lively in the Faith That this was Pauls judgement I need no other proof then this rowsing heart-melting exhortation to the Ephesian Elders A short Sermon but not soon learnt Had the Bishops and Teachers of the Church but throughly learned this short exhortation though with the neglect of many a Volumn which hath taken up their time and helpt them to greater applause in the world how happy had it been for the Church and them Our present straits of time will allow me to touch upon no part of it but my Text which supposing Paul the speaker and the Ephesine Elders his hearers containeth 1. A two-sold duty 2. A four-fold motive to enforce it The first duty is to Take heed to themselves The second is to take heed to all the Flock And the main work for the Flock which is thus heedfully to be done is expressed even to feed them or play the Shepherds for them The motives closely laid together are these 1. From their engagement and Relation They are the Over-seers of the Flock It is their office 2. From the efficient cause even the authority and excellency of him that called them to it which was the Holy Ghost 3. From the dignity of the object which is the matter of their charge It is the Church of God the most excellent and honourable society in the world 4. From the tender regard that Christ hath to this Church and the price it cost him He purchased it with his own blood This Motive is partly subordinate to the former The terms of the Text have no such difficulty as to allow me the spending of much of our little time for their explication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is maxima cura diligentia animum adhibere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Iansenius and others note a little Flock It signifieth not here the whole Church of Christ which elsewhere is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in reference to Christ the great Shepherd but it signifieth that particular Church which these Elders had a special charge of Whether that was one or many we shall enquire anon What is meane by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops or Over-seers here is thus far agreed on that they were Officers appointed to Teach and Guide those Churches in the way to salvation and that it is the same persons that are called Elders of the Church of Ephesus before and Bishops here Of whom more anon The verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth here to import both the Qualification Ordination and particular designation of these Elders or Bishops to their charge for we must not limit and exclude without necessity The Holy Ghost did by all these three waies make them Over-seers of their Flocks 1. By qualifying them with such gifts as made them fit for it 2. By directing the minds of those that Ordained them to the ministery 3. By disposing both their own minds and the Ordainers and the peoples for the affixing them to that particular Church rather then another Dicit eos constitutos à spiritu sancto saith Grotius quia constituti erant ab Apostolis plenis spiritu sancto quanquam approbante plebe But no doubt in those times the Holy Ghost did give special directions as by internal oracle for the disposal of particular teachers as we read in the case of Saul and Barnabas and for the provision for particular Congregations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by some translated barely to feed as ours here by others only to Rule but indeed as Gerhard Iansenius and others note it is not to be restrained to either but containeth in it all the Pastoral work In one word it is Pastorem agere to do the work of a Pastor to the Flock Whether it be the Ephesine Congregation before called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whether it be the Universal Church which they may be said to feed and Rule by doing their part towards it in their station as a
intumescat ne proximos juvando se deserâ—t ne alios erigens cadat saith Gregor M. de cur past l. 4. Yea left all his labours come to nought because his heart and life is nought that doth perform them Nonnulli enim sunt qui solerti curâ spiritualia praecepta prescrutantur sed quae intelligendo penetrant vivendo conculcant repente decent quae non opere sed meditatione didicerunt quod verbis praedicant moribus impugnant unde fit ut cum pastor per abrupta graditur ad praecipitium grex sequatur Idem ib. li. 1. cap. 2. When we have led them to the living waters if we muddy it by our filthy lives we may lose our labour yet they be never the better Aquam pedibus perturbare est sancta meditationis studia male vivendo corrumpere inquit Idem ibid. Before we speak of the work it self we must begin with somewhat that is implyed and presupposed And 1. It is here implyed that Every Flock should have their own Pastor one or more and every Pastor his own Flock As every Troop or Company in a Regiment of souldiers must have their own Captain and other officers and every souldier know his own Commanders and Colours so is it the will of God that every Church have their own Pastors and that all Christs Disciples do know their Teachers that are over them in the Lord 1 Thes 5. 12 13. The Universal Church of Christ must consist of particular Churches guided by their own Over-seers and every Christian must be a member of one of these Churches except those that upon Embassages travels or other like cases of necessity are deprived of this advantage Acts 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church so Tit. 1. 5. and in many places this is clear Though a Minister be an Officer in the Universal Church yet is he in a special manner the Overseer of that particular Church which is committed to his charge As he that is a Physitian in the Common-wealth may yet be the Medicus vel Archiater cujusdam Civitatis and be obliged to take care of that City and not so of any other so that though he may and ought occasionally to do any good he can else where that may consist with his fidelity to his special charge when an unlicenced person may not yet is he first obliged to that City and must allow no help to others that must occasion a neglect of them except in great extraordinary cases where the publike good requireth it So is it betwixt a Pastor and his special Flock When we are Ordained Ministers without a special charge we are licenced and commanded to do our best for all as we shall have a call for the particular exercise but when we have undertaken a particular charge we have restrained the exercise of our gifts and guidance so specially to that that we may allow others no more then they can spare of our time and help except where the publike good requireth it which must be first regarded From this Relation of Pastor and Flock arise all the duties which mutually we owe. As we must be true to our trust so must our people be faithful to us and obey the just Directions that we give them from the word of God 2. When we are commanded to Take heed to all the Flock it is plainly implyed that the Flocks must be no greater regularly and ordinarily then we are capable of Over-seeing or taking heed of That particular Churches should be no greater or Ministers no fewer then may consist with a Taking heed to all For God will not lay upon us natural impossibilities He will not bind men on so strict account as we are bound to leap up to the Moon to touch the Stars to number the sands of the Sea If it be the Pastoral work to Over-see and Take heed to all the Flock then sure there must be such a proportion of Pastors assigned to each Flock or such a number of souls in the care of each Pastor as he is able to take such heed to as is here required Will God require of one Bishop to take the charge of a whole County or of so many Parishes or thousands of souls as he is not able to know or to over-see Yea and to take the sole Government of them while the particular Teachers of them are free from that undertaking Will God require the blood of so many Parishes at one mans hands if he do not that which ten or twenty or an hundred or three hundred men can no more do then I can move a Mountain Then wo to poor Prelates This were to impose on them a natural or unavoidable necessity of being damned Is it not therefore a most doleful case that learned sober men should plead for this as a desirable priviledge or draw such a burden wilfully on themselves and that they tremble not rather at the thoughts of so great an undertaking O happy had it been for the Church and happy for the Bishops themselves if this measure that is intimated by the Apstole here had been still observed and the Diocess had been no greater then the Elders or Bishops could Over-see and Rule so that they might have Taken heed to all the Flock Or that Pastors had been multiplyed as Churches multiplyed and the number of Over-seers proportioned so far to the number of souls that they might not have let the work be undone while they assumed the empty titles and undertook impossibilities And that they had rather prayed the Lord of the harvest to send forth more Labourers even so many as had been proportioned to the work and not to have undertaken all themselves I should scarce commend the prudence or humility of that Labourer let his parts in all other respects be never so great that would not only undertake to gather in all the harvest in this County himself and that upon pain of death yea of damnation but would also earnestly contend for this prerogative Obj. But there are others to Teach though one only have had the Rule Answ Blessed be God it was so and no thanks to some of them But is not Government of great concernment to the good of souls as well as Preaching If not then what matter is it for Church-Governors If it be then they that nullifie it by undertaking impossibilities do go about to ruâ—ne the Churche and themselves If only preaching be necessary let us have none but meer Preachers what needs there then such a stir about Government But if Discipline in its place be necessary too what is it but enmity to mens salvation to exclude it and it is unavoidably excluded when it is made to be his work that is naturally uncapable of performing it He that wâ—ll command an Army alone may as well say It shall be destroyed for want of command And the School-master that will Over-see or Govern all the Schools in the County alone may as well say plainly they
amiss if in the beginning of our Confession we look behind us and imitate Daniel and other servants of God who confessed the sins of their fore-fathers and predecessors For indeed my own Judgement is so far from denying Original sin even the imputed part with the antient opposers of it or those of the new Edition that it doth not so much excuse me from the Guilt of my later progenitors offences as most other mens do seem to excuse them Let us fetch up then the core of our shame and go to the bottom and trace the behaviour of the Minsters of the Gospel from the daies of Christ till now and see how far they have been from innocency When Christ had chosen him but twelve Apostles who kept neer his person that they might be acquainted with his Doctrine Life and Miracles yet how ignorant did they long remain not knowing so much as that he must dye and be a sacrifice for the sins of the world and be buried and rise again and ascend into glory nor what was the nature of his spiritual Kingdom so that it puts us hard to it to imagine how men so ignorant could be in a state of grace but that we know that those points were after of absolute necessity to salvation that were not so then How oft doth Christ teach them publikely and apart Mark 4. 34. and rebuke them for their unbelief and hardness of heart And yet after all this so strange were these great mysteries of Redemption to them and these now Articles of our Creed that Peter himself disswadeth Christ from suffering and goeth so far in contradicting his gracious thoughts for our Redmption that he is called Satan and tantum non excommunicate And no wonder for if his counsel had been taken the world had been lost for ever And as there was a Iudas among them so the twelve are before Christs face contending for superiority so early did that Pride begin to work in the best which afterwards prevailed so far in others as to bring the Church so low as we have seen What should we say of their joynt forsaking Christ of their failings even after the powrings out of the Spirit of the dissention and separation between Paul and Barnabas how strange Peter made of the calling of the Gentiles of his complyance with the Jews to the endangering the liberties of the Gentiles Gal. 2. Of the dissimulation of Barnabas and the common dissertion of Paul in his suffering When he had found one Timothy he saith he had no man like-minded that would naturally care for their estate for all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ Phil. 2. 20 21. A sad charge of self-seeking in that glory of the Church for faith and purity And what charges are against most of the Angels of the seven Asian Churches is expressed Rev. 2. and 3. And its likely that Archippus was not the only man that had need to be warned to look to his Ministery Col. 4. 17. Nor Demas the only man that forsook a persecuted partner and turned after the things of the world Nor Diotrephes the only man that loved to have the prehemine noe and made quarrels and dealt unjustly and unmercifully in the Church upon that account And even while the Churches were frying in the flames yet did the Pride and dissentions even of godly Pastors do more then the fire of persecution could do to turn al to ashes How sad a story is it that Policrates with all the Eastern Churches should be arrogantly excommunicated by Victor with his Romans upon no higher a crime then mis-choosing of Easterday which our Brittains also long after were guilty of who would think that so great weakness and presumptuous usurpation and uncharitable cruelty and Schismatical zeal could have befalen the Pastors of the Church in the strongest temptations of prosperity much less in the midst of Heathenish persecutions What toyes and trifles did the antient Reverend Fathers of the Church trouble their heads about and pester the Church with and what useless stuff are many of their Canons composed of Yet these were the great matter and work of many of their famous consultations How quickly did they seem to forget the perfection of holy Scripture the non-necessity and burdensomness of ceremonious impositions And by taking upon them an unnecessary and unjust kind of Jurisdiction they made the Church so much more work then ever Christ made it and so clogged Religion with humane devices that the Christian world hath groaned under it ever since and been almost brought to ruine by it and the Reverence of their persons hath put so much Reputation on the crime and custom hath so taught it to plead praescription that when the â—acerated languid Churches will be delivered from the sad effects of their presumption God only knoweth It would make an impartial Reader wonder that peruseth their Canons and the History of the Church that ever men of piety and charity and sobriety could be drawn to perplex and tear in pieces the Churches by such a multitude of vanities and needless determinations â—o say no worse And that the Preachers of the Gospel of peace which so enjoyneth humility unity and love should ever be drawn to such a height of pâ—ide as to think themselves meet to make so many Laws for the whole Church of Christ and to bind all their Brethren through the world to the obedience of their dictates and practice of their historical insnaring Ceremonies and that upon the penalties of being accounted no less then damned Hereticks or Schismaticks Though Paul had told them betime that he was afraid of them lest as the Serpent deceived Eve so they should be deceived and drawn from the simplicâ—ty that was in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 3. Yet quickly was this Caution forgotten and the thing that Paul feared soon befell them and in stead of the simplicity of Doctrine they vexed the Churches with curious controversies and instead of the simplicity of Disciâ—line and Government they corrupted the Church with Pompe and Tyranâ—ie and varieties of new orders and rules of Religions and instead of the simplicity of worship they set up such a train of their own inventions of which the Church had no necessity that the Bishops were become the Masters of Ceremonies who should have been the faithful and humble observers of the pure Laws and Ordinances of Christ Though their Councils were usual for the Churches Communion had they been rightly ordered yet so unhappily did they manage them for the most part that Greg. Nâ—zianzene purposed to come at them no more as having never seen any that did not more harm then good And so bold and busie were they in additions and innovations even in making new â—reeds that Hilary sadly complains of it not sparing the Council of Nâ—ce it self though their Creed were allowable because they taught others the way and set the rest a work And Luther sheweth us at large in his
Laws of Christ and all diligence for salvation because they observed that those men that were such were so many of them hated and persecuted by the Rulers though on the occasions before mentioned And here was the foundation of our greatest misery laid While some of the Rulers themselves began to turn their hatred against practical godliness which corrupted nature hates in all and the common people took the hint and no longer confined the word Puritan to the Non-conformists but applyed it commonly through all parts of the Land to those that would but speak seriously of heaven and tell men of Death and Judgement and spend the Lords day in preparation thereto and desire others to do the like that did but pray in their families and keep their children and servants on the Lords day to learn the way to salvation in stead of letting them spend it in gaming or revelling they that did but reprove a swearer or a drunkard these were become the Puritans and the Precisians and the hated ones of the time so that they became a by-word in all the Towns and Villages in England that ever I knew or heard of as to these things And thus when the Prelates had engaged the vulgar in their cause and partly by themselves and partly by them had so far changed their cause as that all serious Christians that feared sin and were most diligent for salvation were presently engaged among their adversaries and they were involved with the rest though they did nothing against the Government or Ceremonies and the most ignorant and impious became the friends and agents of the times and everywhere made the most pious and sedulous Christians a common scorn to the dishonour of God and the hardening of the wicked and discouraging of the weak and filling men with prejudice against a godly life and hindring many thousands from the way of salvation then did God himself appear more evidently as interested in the quarrel and rose against them and shamed them that had let in scorn and shame upon his waies And this even this was the very thing that brought them down Besides this there was scarce such a thing as Church-Government or Discipline known in the Land but only this harassing of those that dissented from them In all my life I never lived in the Parish where one person was publikely admonished or brought to publike penitence or excommunicated though there were never so many obstinate drunkards whoremongers or vilest offenders Only I have known now and then one for getting a bastard that went to the Bishops Court and paid their sees and I heard of two or three in all the Countrey in all my life that stood in a white sheet an hour in the Church But the antient Discipline of the Church was unknown And indeed it was made by them impossible when one man that lived at a distance from them and knew not one of many hundreds of the Flock did take upon him the sole Jurisdiction and executed it not by himself but by a lay-Chancellor excluding the Pastors of the several Congregations who were but to joyn with the Church-wardens and the Apparitors in presenting men and bringing them into their Courts And an impossible task must needs be unperformed And so the controversie as to the letter and outside was Who should be the Governors of all the particular Churches but as to the sense and inside of it it was Whether there should be any effectual Church-Government or not Whereupon those that pleaded for Discipline were called by the New name of Disciplinarians as if it had been a kind of Heresie to desire Discipline in the Church At last the heat began to grow greater and new impositions raised new adversaries When conformable Puritans began to bear the great reproach there being few of the Non-conformists left Then must they also be gotten into the Net Altars must be bowed to or towards All must publish a Book for dancing and sports on the Lords day disabling the Masters of Families parents though they had smal time on the week-daies by reason of their poverty or labour to keep in their own children or families from dancing on that day that they might instruct them in the matters of God If a man as he read a Chapter to his family had perswaded them to observe and practice it and with any reasons urged them thereto this was called expounding and was enquired of in their Articles to be presented together with Adultery and such like sins so also was he used that had no preaching at home and would go hear a conformable Preacher abroad So that multitudes have I known exceedingly troubled or undone for such matters as these when not one was much troubled for scandalous crimes Then Lectures were put down and afternoon Sermons and expounding the Catechism or Scripture in the afternoons And the violence grew so great that many thousand families left the Land and many godly able Ministers Conformists as well as others were fain to flie and become Exiles some in one Countrey and some in another and most in the remote American parts of the world Thither went Cotten Hooker Davenport Shephard Allen Cobbet Noyes Parker with many another that deserved a dwelling place in England Yet I must profess I should scarce have mentioned any of this nor taken it for so hainous a crime had it been only cruelty to the persons of these men though they had dealt much hardlyer with them then they did and if it had not been greater cruelty to the Church and if they had but had competent men for their places when they were cast out But alas the Churches were pestered with such wretches as are our shame and trouble to this day Abundance of meer Readers and drunken profane deboist men were the Ministers of the Churches so that we have been this many years endeavouring to cleanse the Church of them and have not fully effected it to this day And many that had more plausible tongues did make it their chief business to bring those that they called Puritans into disgrace and to keep the people from being such So that I must needs say that I knew no place in these times where a man might not more safely have been drunken every week as to their punishment then to have gone to hear a Sermon if he had none at home For the common people readily took the hint and increased their reproach as the Rulers did their persecâ—tion so that a man could not in any place of England that I came in have said to a swearer or a drunkard O do not sin against God and wound or hazard your own soul but he should have been presently â—ooted at as a Puritan He could not have said to an ignorant or careleâ—s neighbour Remember your everlasting state prepare for death and Judgement or have talked of any Scripture matters to them but he was presently jeered as a Puritan or Precisian and Scripture it self was
that they would speedily and faithfully put in execution at least all the unquestionable part of the Discipline that they have so much contended for When we were so offended with the Parliament for their enumeration of scandals as too defective and a Protestation was published that we acted only on supposition that it was defective sure we little thought then that we that were so earnest to have had more power would use none and we that must needs have authority to reject more then the Parliament did enumerate would censure so few even of them as we have done since we have had more liberty to do it But one objection is common which I forgot They say We are but single Pastors and therefore cannot excommunicate men alone unless we should make every Pastor a Pope in his Parish or a Bishop at least Answ For my part I have no mind to obtrude my own opinion on such for the power of a single person to excommunicate I have sufficiently already proved my self a Novelist and singular with some by asserting antient and most common Truths But yet 1. I could with these men so much moderation as to be sure that they are in this as much wiser then the contrary-minded as their confidence doth import before they proceed in calling them Popes Least as the cunning of the times is by making many Antichrists to make none so these men should contrary to their intention credit the Pope by making so many Popes and the Prelates too by making such kind of Prelates 2. A Pope is the pretended head of the Catholike Church and an universal Bishop to govern it Are single ruling Pastors such A Diocesan Bishop is the Ruler of all the Pastors and Churches in a Diocess Is such a Pastor one of these 3. Why do you in your disputes against the Prelates maintain that every Minister is a Bishop of his own Church and do you now abhor it 4. What if you might not excommunicate may you not therefore do the rest may you not personally and publikely reprove them pray for them c. 5. Must not the people avoid a Notorious drunkard c. whether you bid them or not If not why hath God commanded it If yea why may you not bid them do that which is their duty 6. Have you none in your Parish not one or two to make Ruling Elders of that by their conjunction you may be authorised to do more then now you do I mean according to your own principles for I confess it s not according to mine 7. And what hindereth but you may joyn together if you will If it must needs be many Pastors conjunct that must exercise any act of Discipline why is it not so done Doth any forbid them or threaten them if they do it If you say I am alone because no neighbour Minister will joyn with me You speak hardly of all the Ministers about you What! are they all so negligent Blame us not then to reprove them But it s an incredible thing that they should be all so bad that are of your judgement that no one or two will be perswaded to assist you And I think you will confess that two or three may do it authoritatively though no one else in the County do it I could wish that the Prelates had not such an argument given them as this No one Presbyter hath the Power of the Keyes by their own Confession therefore two or three have not least they go further in proving the consequence then you expect But if it must be so I could yet wish that no single Pastor for the excusing of himself would lay such a reproachful charge upon all the Ministers in the Country that be of his own Judgement as to say that Discipline is cast aside because they can get none to joyn with them in the execution at least till they have throughly tryed whether it be so indeed or not SECT VIII 5. ANother sad discovery that we have not so devoted our selves and all we have to the service of God as we ought is The Prevalency of worldly fleshly interests too much against the Interest and work of Christ And this I shall further manifest in these three instances following 1. Our temporizing 2. Our too much minding worldly things and shrinking from duties that will hinder our commodity 3. Our barrenness in works of Charity and in the improving of all that we have to our Masters use 1. I would not have any to be thwart and contentious with those that govern them nor to be disobedient to any of their lawful commands But it is not the least reproach upon the Ministery that the most of them for worldly advantage do still suit themselves with the party that is most likely to suit to their ends If they look for secular advantages they suit themselves to the secular Power if for the air of Ecclesiastick applause then do they suit themselves to the party of Ecclesiasticks that is most in credit This is not a private but an Epidemical malady In Constantines daies how prevalent were the Orthodox In Constantius daies they almost all turned Arrians so that there were very few Bishops at all that did not apostatize or betray the truth even of the same men that had been in the Council of Nice And when not only Liberius but great O sius himself fell who had been the President or chief in so many Orthodox Councils what better could be expected from weaker men Were it not for secular advantage or Ecclesiastick faction and applause how could it come to pass that Ministers in all the Countries in the world are either all or almost all of that Religion and way that is most in credit and most consistent with their worldly interest Among the Greeks they are all of the Greek profession and among the Abassines the Nestorians the Maronites the Iacobites the Ministers generally go one way And among the Papists they are almost all Papists And in Saxony Sweden Denmark c. almost all Lutherans In Holland France Scotland almost all Calvinists It s strange that they should be all in the right in one Countrey and all in the wrong in another if carnal advantages and reputation did not sway much When men fal upon a conscientious search the variety of Intellectual capacities causeth unavoidably a great variety of conceits about some hard lower things But let the Prince and the stream of men in credit go one way and you shall have the generality of Ministers agree to a hair and that without any extraordinary search How generally did the common sort of Ministers too often change their Religion with the Prince at several times in this land Not all as our Martyrologie can witness but the most I will purposely forbare the mention of any later change If the Rulers of an University should but be corrupt who have the disposal of preferments how much might they do with the most of the
students where meer Arguments would not take And the same tractable distemper doth so often follow them into the Ministery that it occasioneth the enemies to say that Reputation and preferment is our Religion and our Reward 2. And for the second How common is it with Ministers to drown themselves in worldly business Too many are such as the Sectaries would have them be who tell us that we should go to plough and cart and labour for our living and preach without so much study And this is a lesson easily learnt Men take no care to cast off and prevent care that their souls and the Church may have their care And especially how commonly are those duties neglected that are like if performed to diminish our estates For example Is there not many that dare not that will not set up the exercise of any Discipline in their Churches not only on the forementioned accounts but especially because it may hinder the people from paying them their dues They will not offend sinners with Discipline least they offend them in their estates yea though the Law secure their maintenance I find money is too strong an Argument for some men to answer that can proclaim the love of it to be the root of all evil and can make large orations of the danger of covetousness I will say no more now to these but this If it was so deadly a sin in Simon Magus to offer to buy the Gift of God with money what is it to sell his gifts his cause and the souls of men for money and what reason have such to fear least their money perish with them 3. But the most that I have to say is to the third discovery If worldly and fleshly interest did not much prevail against the interest of Christ and the Church surely most Ministers would be more fruitful in good works and would more lay out that they have to their masters use Experience hath fully proved it that works of Charity do most potently remove prejudice and open the ears to words of piety If men see that you are addicted to do good they will the easilyer belive that you are good and the easilyer then believe that it is good which you perswade them too When they see that you Love them and seek their good they will the easilyer trust you And when they see that you seek not the things of the world they will the less suspect your intentions and the easilyer be drawn by you to seek that which you seek O how much good might Ministers do if they did set themselves wholly to do good and would dedicate all their faculties and substance to that endl Say not that it is a small matter to do good to mens bodies and that this will but win them to us and not to God nor convert the soul For it is prejudice that is a great hindrance of mens conversion and this will remove it We might do men more good if they were but willing to learn of us and this will make them willing and then our further diligence may profit them Brethren I pray you do not think that it is ordinary charity that is expected from you any more then ordinary piety You must in proportion to your talents go much beyond others It is not to give now and them two pence to a poor man others do that as well as you But what singular thing do you with your estates for your Masters use I know you cannot give away that which you have not But me thinks all that you have should be for God I know the great objection is We have wife and children to provide for a little will not serve them at present and we are not bound to leave them beggars To which I answer 1. There are few texts of Scripture more abused then that of the Apostle He that provideth not for his own and specially those of his family hath denyed the faith and is worse then an Infidel This is made a pretence for gathering up portions and providing a full estate for posterity when the Apostle speaketh only against them that did cast their poor kindred and family on the Church to be maintained out of the common stock when they were able to do it themselves As if one that hath a widdow in his house that is his mother or daughter and would have her to be kept on the Parish when he hath enough himself His following words shew that it is present provision and not future portions that the Apostle speaketh of when he bids them that have widdows administer to them or give them what is sufficient 2. You may so educate your children as other mean persons do that they may be able to get their own livings in some honest trade or imployment without other great provisions I know that your charity and care must begin at home but it must not end there You are bound to do the best you can to educate your children so as they may be capable of being most serviceable to God but not to leave them rich or a full estate Nor to forbear other necessary works of Charity meerly for a larger provision for them There must be some proportion kept between our provision for our families and for the Church and poor A truly charitable self-denying heart that hath devoted it self and all that he hath to God would be the best judge of the due proportions and would see which way of expence is likely to do God the greatest service and that way he would take 3. I confess I would not have men lie too long under endangering strong temptations to incontinency lest they wound themselves and their profession by their falls But yet methinks its hard that men can do no more to mortifie the concupiscence of the flesh that they may live in a single freer condition and have none of these temptations from wife and children to hinder them from furthering their Ministerial ends by charitable works If he that marryeth not doth better then he that doth sure Ministers should labour to do that which is best And if he that can receive this saying must receive it we should endeavour after it This is one of the highest points of the Romish policy which they pretend to be a duty of common necessity that all their Bishops Priests and other Religious orders must not marry by which means they have no posterity to drain the Churches revenues nor to take up their care but they make their publike cause to be their interest and they lay out themselves for it while they live and leave all that they have to it when they die So that their Churches wealth doth daily increase as every Bishop Abbot Jesuite or other person doth gather more in their life time and usually add it to their common stock It s pitty that for a better cause we can no more imitate them in wisdom and self-denyal where it might be done 4. But they that must
it nothing to be bred up to Learning when others are bred at the plough and cart and to be furnished with so much delightful knowledge when the world lieth in ignorance Is it nothing to converse with Learned men and talk of high and glorious things when others must converse with almost none but silly ignorants But especially What an excellent life is it to live in the studies and preaching of Christ to be still searching into his mysteries or feeding on them to be daily in the consideration of the blessed Nature or Works or Waies of God! Others are glad of the leisure of the Lords Day and now and then an hour besides when they can lay hold of it But we may keep a continual Sabboth We may do nothing else almost but study and talk of God and Glory and call upon him and drink in his sacred saving truths Our employment is all high and spiritual Whether we be alone or with others our business is for another world O were but our hearts more suitable to this work what a blessed joyful life should we live How sweet would our study be to us How pleasant would the pulpit be and what a delight would our conference of these things afford To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford and have so many silent wise companions whenever we please and of such variety All these and more such Priviledges of the Ministery bespeak our unwearied diligence in the work 5. You are related to Christ as well as to the Flock He therefore being also related to you you are not only advanced but secured by the relation if you be but faithful in the work that it requireth You are the Stewards of his mysteries and Rulers of his houshold And he that entrusted you will maintain you in his work But then it is required of a Steward that a man be found faithful 1 Cor. 4. 2. Be true to him and never doubt but he will be true to you Do you feed his Flock and he will sooner feed you as he did Elias then forsake you If you be in prison he will open the doors but then you must relieve imprisoned souls He will give you a tongue and wisdom that no enemy shall resist but then you must use it faithfully for him If you will put forth your hand to relieve the distressed and willingly put it to his plough he will wither the hand that is stretched out against you The Ministers of England I am sure may know this by large experience Many a time hath God rescued them from the jaws of the devourer O the admirable preservations and deliverances that they have had from cruel Papists from tyranical persecutors from malicious Sectaries misguided passionate men Brethren in the fear of God consider Why is it that God hath done all this Is it for your persons or for his Church What are you to him more then other men but for his work and peoples sakes Are you Angels or men Is your flesh of any better mettle then your neighbours Are you not of the same Generation of sinners that need his grace as much as they Up then and work as the Redeemed of the Lord as those that are purposely rescued from ruine for his service O do not prepare a remediless overthrow for the English Ministery by your ingratitude after all these deliverances If you believe that God hath rescued you for himself live to him then as being unreservedly his that hath delivered you SECT II. II. THE first Motive mentioned in the text we have spoken of which is from the Consideration of our office it self The second is from the efficient cause It is God by his spirit that makes us Overseers of his Church therefore it concerneth us to Take heed to our selves and it I did before shew you how the Holy-Ghost is said to make Bishops or Pastors of the Church in three several respects By Qualifying them for the office By directing the Ordainers to discern their Qualifications and know the fittest men and by directing them the people and themselves for the affixing them to a particular charge All these were done then in an extraordinary sort by inspiration at least very oft The same are all done now by the ordinary way of the spirits assistance But it is the same spirit still and men are made Over-seers of the Church when they are rightly called by the Holy-Ghost now as well as then It s a strange conceit therefore of the Papists to think that Ordination by the hands of man is of more absolute necessity to the Ministerial Office then the calling of the Holy-Ghost God hath determined in his word that there shall be such an office and what the Work and Power shall be and what sort of men as to their qualifications shall receive it None of these can be undone by man or made unnecessary God also giveth men the Qualifications which he requireth So that all that the Church hath to do whether Pastors or People Ordainors or Electors is but to discern and determine which are the men that God hath thus Qualified and to Accept of them that are so provided and upon consent to install them solemnly in this office But I purposely cut short the controvertible part What an Obligation then is laid upon us by our call If our Commission be sent from Heaven it s not to be disobeyed When Paul was called by the voice of Christ he was not disobedient to the heavenly Vision When the Apostles were called by Christ from their secular imployments they presently leave friends and house and trade and all and follow him Though our call be not so immediate or extraordinary yet is it from the same spirit It s no safe course to imitate Ionah in turning our back upon the commands of God If we neglect our work he hath a spur to quicken us and if we over-run it he hath Messengers enough to over-take us and fetch us back and make us do it and it is beâ—â—â— to do it at first then at last This is the second Motive SECT III. III. THE third Motive in the Text is from the dignity of the Object It is the Church of God which we must Oversee and Feed It is that Church which the world is much upheld for which is sanctified by the Holy-Ghost which is united to Christ and is his mystical body that Church which Angels are present with and attend upon as Ministring Spirits whose very little ones have their Angels beholding the face of God in heaven O what a charge is it that we have-undertaken And shall we be unfaithful to such a charge Have we the Stewardship of Gods own family and shall we neglect it Have we the conduct of those Saints that must live for ever with God in glory and shall we neglect them God forbid I beseech you Brethren let this thought awaken the negligent You that draw back from painful displeasing suffering duties
bound notwithstanding your smaller difference to be helpers in the main work of the Gospel for the conversion and saving of souls 5. Whether then they are not bound to mannage the private difference so as they may not hinder the main work and therefore to let the lesser stoop to the greater 6 Whether they ought not to hold communion in publike worship and Church-relation with those that are so far agreed and walk in the fear of God 7. And whether it be not schism to separate from them for the sake of that small disagreement themselves being not necessitated by Communion to any actual sin I speak all this only of the tolerable differences that are among men fearing God And in that case if the person be sober and understanding he must needs yield to the affirmative of these Questions Which if he do or to any of them let him subscribe it or openly averr it And then let all the standers by be made apprehensive that none of the great matters that you deal with them about are questioned but all yielded unquestionable And the affixed Scripture leaves them so therefore there is no cause for them to receive the least discouragement in their way I conceive its past doubt that differing brethren may well joyn in recommending the truths that they are agreed in to the ignorant people Bishop Usher told King James in his Sermon at Wansted on the Churches Unity that he made this motion even to the Papists Priests themselves that they might joyn in teaching the people of that barbarous Nation the Common Principles that both were agreed in A motion too Christian for sullen factious Zeal to entertain I will repeat his own words pag. 33. The danger then of this ignorance being by the Confession of the most judicious Divines of both sides acknowledged to be so great the woful estate of the poor Countrey wherein I live is much to be lamented where the people generally are suffered to perish for want of knowledge he meant the Papists the vulgar superstitions of Poperie not doing them half that hurt that the ignorance of those Common principles of the faith doth which all true Christians are bound to learn The consideration whereof hath sometime drawn me to treat with those of the opposite party to move them that however in other things we did differ one from another yet we should joyn together in teaching those main points the knowledge whereof was so necessary to salvation and of the truth whereof there was no Controversie betwixt us But what for the Jealousies which these distractions in matters of Religion have bred among us and what for other respects the motion took small effect and so betwixt us both the poor people are kept still in miserable ignorance neither knowing the grounds of the one Religion nor of the other So far this learned Christian Bishop And what wonder if Popish Priests refuse this motion when now among us it is so rare a matter to find any in England though he differ only in the point of Infant-Baptism that will calmly and without fraudalent designs of secret promoting his own opinions by it entertain and prosecute such a motion for the common good As if they had rather that Christianitie were thrust out of the world or kept under then Infants should be admitted into the Church well let any party or person pretend what they will of Zeal or Holiness I will ever take the Dividatur for an ill sign The true Mother abhorrs the Division of the Child and the true Christian doth prefer the Common interest of Christianity before the Interest of a faction or an opinion and would not have the whole building endangered rather then one peg should not be driven in as he would have it he had rather a particular Truth if we suppose it a truth should suffer then the whole or the main And having given you this advice what to do with this kind of men in your Conference on the occasion now in question so I shall add a word or two of advice how to carry your self towards them at other times For the preservation of the Unity and Peace of your Congregations doth much depend on your right dealing with such as these For alas for grief and shame it is most commonly men that profess more then ordinary Religiousness they are the dividers of these 1. I must premise that the chief part of your work to preserve the Church from such doth consist in the prevention of their fall seeing when they are once throughly infected be the error what it will they are but seldom recovered but if they be beaten out of the error which they first fell into they go to another and perhaps thence to another but through a just excecation they seldom return to the truth 2. To which end it is most desirable that the Minister should be of Parts above the people so far as to be able to teach them and awe them and manifest their weaknesses to themselves or to all The truth is for it cannot be hid it is much long of the Ministers that our poor people are run into so many factions and particularly the weakness of too many is not the least cause when a proud Seducer shall have a nimble tongue and a Minister be dull or ignorant so that such a one can baffle him or play upon him in the ears of others it brings him into contempt and overthrows the weak For they commonly judge him to have the best cause that hath the most confident plausible triumphant tongue But when a Minister is able to open their shame to all it mightily preserveth the Church from their infection 3. It is necessary also to this end that you frequently and throughly possess your people with the nature necessity and daily use of the great unquestionable Principles of Religion and of the great sin and danger of a perverse zeal about the lower points before the greater are well laid and let them be made sensible how it is the Principles and not their smaller Controversies that life or death doth depend upon 4. Make them sensible of the mischiefs of Schism and the great and certain obligations that lie upon us all to maintain the Churches Unity and Peace 5. When a fire is kindled resist it in the beginning and make not light of the smallest spark and therefore go presently to the infected person and follow him by the means hereafter mentioned till he be recovered 6. Specially use a fit diversion when a small Controversie begins to endanger the Church raise a greater your self which you have better advantage to mannage and which is not like to make a division That is let them know that there are far greater difficulties then theirs to be first resolved such as some of the Questions before mentioned and so give them a Catalogue of them and set them a work upon them that they may be matter of avocation from that fore where