Papacy Nay in Scotland it self there were some who argued so strongle against the Convenant that a Jolly man I have read of Mr. Andr. Cant. was driven to such straits at last as he had nothing to say but his That they must deny Learning and Reason and help Christ as Life If you will give me leave I 'le tell you something worse than this N. C. How is it possible C. There were some that in plain terms pleaded Religion for the breaking of the Covenant So that contrary to Mr. Nye's Exhortation I told you of with them there was Yeas and Nay J. Lilbura for instance in his Englands Birth-wirthgt p. 29. saith that the Covenant is impossible to be kept and that the Framers and Makers of it have run into wilful perjury See Mr. Bellamy's Vindic. of the City Remonstr 26. May 1646. Nay he calls it This Make-bate persecuting sould-destroying England-dividing and undoing Covenant With whom you may joyn Mr. J. Goodwin who tells us in his 12. Cautions p. 4. that to violate an abominable and accursed Oath speaking with reference to this Covenant out of Conscience to God is an holy and a blessed perjury N. C. Now I hope you have done C. It ought not to be forgot that this Covenant was contrary to you Solemn Protestation taken first by both Houses of Parliament wherein they promised to defend the true reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England Did they not N. C. Yes C. Whey then did your Minister perswade them to enter into this New Oath which was so contrary to some Articles of our Churches Doctrine N. C. They explain'd themselves as I remember before they Covenanted and told us what they meant by the Doctrine of the Church of England C. Very good And was it not finely done that after the Members of both Houses had taken the Protestation so as I now said the House of Commons alone should make a Declaration that by those words the Doctrine of the Church of England was intended only so much of it as was opposite to Popery and Popish Innovation and should not be extended to the maintenance of the Discipline and Government And then that under this Explication published only by the Commons and never assented to by the Peers this Protestation was imposed on the Kingdom and all that would not take it declared unfit to bear office in Church or Common-wealth What is there to be said I beseech you to excused these strange proceedings First both Houses swear to plain words Then one House claps an interpretation on them And after that they alone so far intrench upon the Peoples Liberties which they were bound to maintain as to impose this Protestation upon them without consent of Parliament and that under a heavy penalty on those that should not comply with them All this is no less than a Demonstration methinks that too many of you for we will not condemn all have been too forward to take Gods name in vain at least to ingage your selves in Oaths and Vows hastily and rashly And withall it shews that you were of that imposing Spirit which you now complain of and that Religion was more pretended than truly aim'd at And lastly that you were so vainly confident your favour with God that you could take his name into your mouths backward and forward and never blush so you did but look demurely and express much reverence to it in common talk All which I protest is spoken to no other purpose but to humble you and to shew that you unjustly usurp the name of the most Religious People the most conscientious and the most fearful of offending God that are in the Nation and that you abuse the simple when you make them believe that you are the Pillars upon which the Kingdoms welfare stands for whose sake alone it is that we were not made long ago like Sodom and Gomorrah For it is manifest you have involv'd the people in abundance of guilt and made Religion vile in their eyes and helpt to bring the name of God which you have taken so oft in vain into great contempt N. C. This is not a place to talk in C. You say right otherwise I should have told you of a fresh guilt of this kind For I am informed some have set up Schools for the instructing Youth in Logick and Philosophy directly contrary to the Oath they took in the University But I am run beside my intention in this discourse having told you I remember it would be in vain to dispute any more and therefore desired when we met again the time might be spent to other purposed N. C. I have not forgot it But if you will go in here we will not wrangle at all but only talk fairly as loving Friends of some matters in which you are concerned C. I suppose it is about our old business and then you had better consider of what I have said already If that will not move you I have little hope to do any good upon you N. C. You are a strange man When I had no great mind to be troubled with your Discourse then you would never have done And now that I am earnest to be satisfied in some things you hang back and have nothing to say Methinks you might be willing at least to receive an account of my Thoughts concerning our late Debate C. Have you then considered what I said as you promised you would N. C. Yeas that I have And being somewhat stagger'd with it I thought good to consult with some Christian friends and hear their Opinion which I prefer before my own C. And what was the issue N. C. I perceive they are generally offended at you to a high degree C. So were the Scribes and Pharisees at our Saviour And for any thing I know both upon the same score because you are plainly told of your faults This nettles and vexes you at the heart only to hide and conceal your secret anger you call it by another name and say you are offended N. C. No they are not angry with those who give them a private reproof but to print a book against them what can it intend but mischief C. Now I guess at their meaning Their offence is of the same nature with that which Mr. Edwards saith the Sectaries took at his Gangraena * Because it hinders their making Proselytes and so for want of growing up to such a number as they design and hope for they may miss of a Toleration and so in the issue a Domination which is so much sought for by them N. C. They mean the same that the Apostle doth who requires us to give no offence neither to the Jews nor to the Greeks nor to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10.32 C. By your favour Sir Saint Paul and you have not the same meaning as you might have learnt long ago if you did not converse more with your frivolous writers
only wait till Christ assures him that he had made all the promises to him For thus he explains the business Jacob would not believe that Joseph was alive till he saw the Chariots that were come for him These sent from Joseph to Jacob brought Jacob to Joseph So every believing Soul is poor and feeble disabled to go to God and to believe in the Lord Jesus Doubting-Christian drawn to Christ p. 148.150 Therefore be must look to the Chariots of Israel first it should be of Joseph according to the resemblance and that will convey him to the promise and when the chariots are come get up into them The Lord Jesus is gone to heaven and hath sent these chariots for thee therefore get thee up and say Lord take me up with thee And so they did They got up into I know not what fiery Chariots and mounted into the Air and there fancied they saw the Lord Jesus immediately revealing himself to them and so carrying them to the promise the absolute promise And I verily believe these Doctrines were they from whence the American Jezabel as they call'd her extracted her Poisons and by which the people were prepared to drink of the cup of her Fornication perswading themselves that a man is united to Christ and justified without Faith that Faith is not a receiving him but discerning be hath received him already that a man is united to Christ only by the work of the Spirit upon him without any act of his that there is a testimony of the Spirit and a voice unto the Soul meerly immediate without any respect unto or concurrence with the word And that there are distinct seasons of the workings of the several Persons so that a Soul may be said to be so long under the work of the Father and not the Sons and so long under the work of the Son and not under the Spirit And in conclusion that a man is not effectually converted till he hath full assurance and that this is given immediately all the activity of a Believer being only to act to sin All these I say are the plain sense if there be any at all in this Book of what he delivered in more obscure words N. C. Pray go not about to prove this For my head begins to turn round already meerly with the scent of these intoxicating ingredients C. If these Doctrines had been broacht by any of us you would have found out our picture long ago in the Revelation and said that the Church of New England was Thyatira and this the Jezabel which called her self a Prophetess and that such Divines as these were the Prophets of Baal the Priests of Jezabel and these Doctrines the Doctrines of Devils All which you might have done with a greater colour and shew of reason than apply these names to our Priests But you are favourable to one another and wink at such Books as these provided the Authors be Nonconfurmists and cannot as you ignorantly speak bow to Baal N. C. I am glad there are none of these Doctrines here in this England C. Those Books are here and highly admired by such sound Believers as take all for Gospel that some men say but can find nothing of Christ among those that speak sense and make the Doctrine of Christ intelligible Nay I can find you Disciples of such Authors as these among your Preachers who will sometimes tell you that Christ will do all for you Sips of sweetness or Cons for weak Believers by John Durant 1662. and then tell you presently that something must be done by you Thus one of them introduces the Soul complaining That the Duggs of Divine love are full but I cannot suck Answer Be of good comfort Christ will not only open his Bosom but thy Mouth But I cannot fetch out the Milk that lies in his Breast I am but weak Answer Christ is sweet and with his finger be will force out the Milk of Mercy into thy Mouth if thou canst but open thy Mouth What need he have made an if of it if Christ would open its mouth and if he will do that and every thing else why did he not make an end of the business in one word and say All the Activity of Believers is to act to sin And so comfort the believing Ewes who are big with young in a sinful sense and say N. C. We talkt a little while ago of some mens bellowing and braying and now you are going to fall a bleating C. You are very pleasant I hope then it will not offend you to let you know that I was giving you the explication which this man makes of those words in Isaiah 40.11 I will gently lead those that are with young that is saith he according to the admirable way Pag. 102 103. now in fashion of expounding the holy Writ Christ will be very kind to those Saints that step aside which is called whoring in Scripture and deal gently with those who are big with young in a sinful sense whom I was going to tell you he comforts thus O ye sinning Ewes who have been big with young hath not be gone after you and furned you and laid you upon his shoulders rejoycing * Pag. 114. The very Phrase of Mr. Hooker Though thou canst not find the way to heaven yet he will find thee c. and lay thy Soul upon his shoulders i. e. upon the Riches of the freeness of his Grace p. 149 150. It may be thou hast been wandring like Dinah from thy fathers house art big with young and afraid to go home But fear not go and try be will not cast you out of doors Though you come with big bellies to keep to the Metaphor he will deal gently with thee though with young p. 119. N. C. We have followed these Ewes or Goats or what you do please to call them too far C. It 's true But at first I intended only to tell you how he describes weak believers Who have as Divines say the Faith of Adberence they will stick to Christ as theirs but they want a faith of Evidence they cannot see themselvs to be his p. 18. N. C. These Divines speak Nonsense C. Judg then in what uncertainty the Disciples of these Divines live who never tell them plainly what Faith is And what a strange blindness they labour with who cannot see as they speak that they are Christ's though they perswade themselves that he is theirs Nor do I see what satisfaction they are like to receive in particular cases any more than in this the greatest of all Your Doctrine seems to me to be so obscure that it 's hard to come to any solid setlement or peace of mind One of your Rules for instance is that we must have a warrant from the word of God for every thing we do If there be neither Precept nor Practise that we can find there to justifie an action we intend it must not be done
shame But when the same sickness hath taken hold of very many there remains nothing else to the good but sorrow and be wailing that so they may escape that destruction which is like to come on the multitude of the wicked And in very deed saith he if the contagion of sinning hath invaded the multitude the severe mercy of Divine discipline is necessary but the counsel or enterprises of separation are both vain and pernicious yea sacrilegious because then they become both impious and proud and give more trouble to the good which are weak than they correct the sturdy ones who are evil And concluding this point he gives this Advice Let a man therefore with Mercy correct what he can and that which he cannot let him bear with patience And with love let him mourn and lament until He from above do either redress and amend or else differr until the harvest to root out the tares and to winnow out the chaff And here he alledges the example of St. Cyprian that holy Martyr who had been Bishop of Carthage and describes the multitude as full of gross sins yea many of his fellow Bishops as spotted with very foul crimes but yet he communicated with them though not in their sins which he evermore reprehended yet in the Sacraments and holy Worship of God Nay he shews that our Saviour himself did not separate in Body from the Pharisees and Saduces and multitude of common people but met with them at the Temple And it is also plain that the African Church in St. Austin's dayes besides their evil manners had some other blemishes which cannot be charged on ours for by his own complaint it appears there were such a multitude of Rites and Ceremonies then in use that they were a very great burden and the Church was oppressed and groaned under them And therefore I think your preciseness in separating from us is more like the disdainful and proud Religion of the Scribes and Pharisees than the humble and charitable purity of our blessed Saviour N. C. If you take these old Fathers for your Guides they will lead you I now not whither They held many strange Opinions C. I suppose you would separate from them too if they were alive But what think you of Mr. Calvin He is a more modern Father and you may think perhaps more inlightned will you stand to his judgment N. C. Why What says he C. He tells you that Wheresoever the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments administred according to the institution of Christ there is the Church of God Instit Book 4. Cap. 1. Sect. 9. And if the very multitude hath and doth honour these it deserves without doubt to be esteemed and judged a Church because it is certain that these things are not without fruit And if you look a litle further to the next Section he repeats it again with much earnestness Sect. 10. There appears in such a multitude as he mentioned before neither a deceitful nor doubtful face of a Church Of which no man may either despise the Authority or refuse the Admonitions or resist the Counsels or mock at the Corrections much less depart from it break in sunder the Unity of it and go unpunished For the Lord so highly esteems the Communion of the Church that he counts him for a Traiterous Runaway and forsaken of Religion whosoever shall stubbornly estrange himself from any Christian fellowship So that it be such a one as hath a true Ministry of the word and Sacraments He so commends the Churches Authority That when it is violated he judges his own diminished Do you hear this N. C. Yes But C. To prevent all your exceptions look further into the 12. Sect. and there he will tell you that the fellowship of such a Church is never to be cast off though it swarm full of many faults Yea and there may be some faultiness crept into it in the Administration either of Doctrine or of the Sacraments yet it ought not to estrange us from the Communion of it For all the Articles be not of one sort And therefore we ought not rashly for every light dissention forsake the Church c. But then in the next he tells you that in bearing with the imperfections of life our gentle tenderness ought to go much further And in the next but one that it is one thing to shun the private company of a wicked man and another for hatred of such to forsake the Communion of the whole Church Which is to be more rigorous than St. Paul And although this temptation to forsake the Church may by an indiscreet zeal of righteousness Sect. 16. enter into the thought of a good man yet we shall find that too much preciseness grows rather out of Pride Disdainfulness and false Opinion of holiness than of true holiness and true zeal thereof They that are bolder than others and as it were the Standart-bearers to make any departing from the Church for the most part do it upon no other cause but their despising of all men to boast themselves to be better than others But I think I had best let the rest alone lest you say I rail upon godliness of which this Separation is now grown a great note though in Mr. Calvins words N. C. We are not to mind what men say Nor to have their persons in admiration C. No Not what your own Ministers say Sure their words are another Gospel with you or else how come you so to misunderstand the old N. C. They are good men and so we value what they say C. I 'le shew you then that they have said the very same in behalf of our Form of Divine Service that I did the last time we talkt together And that they condemn this withdrawing from us which Mr. Bridge makes the mark of a Saint N. C. Pray let it alone It will be too long C. Let me tell you thus much That they told their Brethren of New-England heretofore that if we deny communion with such a Church as ours there hath been no Church these 1400. years with which a Christian might lawfully joyn Nay Letter of many Ministers in Old England requesting the judgment of their Brethren in New Engl concerning 9. Positions 1637. with their Answer 1639. And the Reply 1640 Published afterward by Mr. Simeon Ash and Mr. W. Rathband 1643. that if such scruples as are now in your heads may take place it will be unlawful to hold communion with any Society under Heaven And that as for making an Idol of the Common Prayer which by the way was a phrase they themselves made use of afterward it might be as well said that they made an Idol of their conceived Prayers And therefore what evil spirit is it that now possesses so many of your Presbyterian Ministers and hath driven them as if they were out of their wits from our Church and their own Principles and from all the Churches of
Christ that now are or ever were N. C. Pray do not say so C. They have granted me that for 1400. years there never was any Church with which we might hold Communion if not with ours And I will prove that there hath been none for these 1668. years N. C. You are strangely bold C. No bolder than Mr. Calvin who will give you good satisfaction if you read the Chapter to which I referred you that the Church of the Jewes in our Saviour's time and the Apostolical Churches afterward tolerated greater Vices in manners and fouler Errors in Doctrine than were in any Church from which in his days a separation was made And I will shew you distinctly either now or when you will require it that those Churches planted and watered by the Apostles had those Corruptions in Doctrine Worship Manners Discipline and Government which cannot be pretended to be in ours And yet there was no separation of some Members from the rest Nay the Apostles notwithstanding all these speak very well in general of some They call them all Believers and Saints And none knew then any other Men of the World and Vnbelievers but Pagans such as did not acknowledg Jesus to be the Lord. N. C. I am loth to give you so great a trouble But I pray answer me one Scripture which seems to be against this when it saith The Apostles separated the Disciples Act. 19.9 C. Admirably argued The Apostles separated the Disciples from those that were not Disciples and therefore we may separate Disciples from Disciples N. C. How say you C. The Apostles I say were sent to preach the Gospel and make Disciples to Christ baptizing them into his Name who believed on him Those who would make profession of Christ they gathered into a new Church from among the Jewes and Pagans who disown'd him And accordingly here in this City having won some to believe and made them Christs Disciples they separated them from the rest of the Jewish Synagogue who blasphemed Christ and would acknowledg no other Religion but that of Moses to be a distinct Society by themselves and no longer Members of the unbelieving Synagogue From whence you would inferr that one Christian is to be separated from another Christian and believers gathered from believers if one part appear to us Pious and the other Vicious Which is just as if the Apostles out of those few Disciples separated from the Jews had made another lesser Church separated from the rest of the Disciples N. C. I see my Error plainly And shall remember hereafter if I can not merely to nibble at the Scripture as you called it but take it altogether But Mr. Bridge affrights us horribly with one place which prophesies he sayes of the greatest separation in the latter dayes that ever was It is in the Revelation where the Spirit cryes Come out of her my people that you be not partaker of her sins There shall be the greatest separation and that provokes the Antichristian party as his words are p. 179. of the Book before mention'd C. I remember them very well Rev. 18.4 But do you still take Mr. Bridge for a Prophet Have I not shown you what a rare Seer he is in the Revelation N. C. I have heard others beside him mention this place Mr. Case I remember gave us this reason to hope that God would be gracious to England Englands Incouragement to wait on God p. 69. and that Babylon should shortly fall because he had begun with such a distinct and audible voice from Heaven to call his people out of Babylon saying Come out of her my people c. Rev. 18.4 her Idolatrous bowings cringings Altars Crosses and cursed Ceremonies false Worship false Doctrine C. You need say no more I have it perfectly in mind as well as you And you were wont I know in those days to believe that they knew the designs of Heaven as well as if they had been Counsellors of State in that kingdom And conceived the News they told you of what was coming as sure and certain as if they had layn in the Bosom of St. John as he did in our Saviour's But I hope by this time you are convinced they were only drowsy dreamers that knew nothing of his Mind And see that they are but like a poor Mouse which having but one hole is easily caught Babylon Babylon was all they had to say then and thither they run now These are the Magical sounds whereby they would astonish you The Mystical words whereby they practise all their Sorceries upon you Stop but your ears against these and you are free from their Enchantments for they can never prove that the Church of England is this Babylon from whence his people are call'd or that she hath taken so much as one sip or kiss'd the Cup of her Fornications N. C. I never askt them indeed to prove this C. No You took it very lovingly upon their word And ran after those whom you fancied and were inamoured of with an implicit Faith as if you had tasted too deep of the Cup your selves If you did but hear them say Mystery Mystery the very word you know in the forehead of the whore presently you bowed to them and thought you were under the teachings of an infallible Spirit And you remember I suppose very well that those two and all the rest of the Ministers that were wont to preach before the Parliament and in the greatest Congregations generally chose their texts out of the Old-Testament seldom out of the New unless it were the Revelation N. C. What of that C. By which means they furnished themselves in an abundant measure with such Comparisons as did them admirable service They could easily contrive it so that they might seem such a select number as the Jewes the peculiar people of God and we like the Aegyptians and Babylonians or what other accursed Nation they pleased And so applying all those places which spoke of them to us and our times they excited in you the same hatred against us that was in the Jews against those Nations and made you think it as necessary to separate from us as for the Jews to come out of Babylon Nay by a wonderful Art or prodigious Inchantment rather which argues your great dulness they first raised your fancies put words into your mouths and taught you to expect all that they had a mind should shortly come to pass and then they made the expectation they had wrought in you an argument that it should come to pass Thus I remember one of your Divines incouraged the Parliament to expect the overthrow of Babylon because said he the General talk throughout the Houshold among the Domesticks is Mr. H. Wilkinson Sermon upon Zach. 18.19 pag. 21. that Christ their King is coming to take possession of his Throne This they not only whisper but speak publickly Now you know before Kings go to a place their purpose is first known among
perpetual in the Church as we read in Mr. Cottons Catechism Now having devised these things to name no more I observe that the Covenant in the same Church is in one and the same Form of words as well as matter and therefore put into writing and must be read by the party to be admitted or he must hear it read by some other and give his Assent to it Here is not only a Form of Holy Covenant a principal point of worship as W. R. notes invented by one or more men but imposed upon others even as many as enter into the Church and more than that to be read upon a Book What is this better or how is it more lawful than a set form of prayer especially since this Covenant is imposed as an Ordinance of God and absolutely necessary so as no Book-Prayer I think is I find also that by this Covenant the Members in some places †Church of Salem in New-Engl were restrained and tyed up from shewing their gifts in speaking or scrupling till they were called thereto that is they being allowed to prophesie publickly and so to propound questions and make objections which they call Scrupling they bound them up in this Covenant which had the force of Law from doing it uncall'd I would fain know whether this be not to limit the Spirit as you speak and to stint it to times as you say we do it to words For if a man be never so full he must have no vent without a call from the Church And how I pray you doth this differ from an Ecclesiastical Canon as to it's force and obligation but only that it hath another name and all old Canons must be lay'd aside to make way for this new Covenant They tell us also expresly that the Magistrate may compel men to keep their Covenant though not to enter into it †Ib. Narration of Church Courses cap. 15. And for spreading of infectious Doctrines Mr. Wheelwright a Minister and Mrs. Hutchinson a pretended Prophetess were banished the Countrey Several of their followers also were some imprisoned some fined some disfranchised some banished and all disarmed for petitioning the Court in behalf of Mr. Wheelwright and remonstrating with due submission so their words were that they conceived he deserved no such censure a Proceedings of the General Court holden at New-Town Oct. 2. 1637. and the Apology in defence of the proceedings holden at Boston 1636. And great many more remarkable things there are in that story which I cannot stand to recite But must proceed to tell you that as for others who are not of their way there is just no liberty at all For as they will not grant communion to members of other Churches not constituted as they are so if a company of approved godly people should sit down near them where their power reaches differing from them only in some points of Church Government some of them tell us not only that they shall not be owned as a sister Church but also be in danger of severe punishment by the Civil Magistrate b Narration c. cap. 10. N. C. What is all this to our Independents C. They extol both the Men and the wayes of New-England to the Skyes and therefore approve of them I suppose not only as good but as excelling all other The Men they say have testified their sincerity to all generations future by the greatest undertaking except that of our Father Abraham viz. leaving this Countrey to go thither meerly to worship God more purely c Apologetical Narration 1643. pag. 5. And as for their wayes and practices they are improved to a better Edition and greater refinement than those of other Reformed Churches d Ib. which makes it reasonable to believe that when they Covenanted to reform according to the example of the best Reformed Churches they had New-England in their eyes as their pattern For those General words as Mr. Feak e Beam of Light p. 25. rightly observes left it under suspence and undetermined which of the Reformed Churches had obtained the highest degree of Reformation The Scots and their Friends judged the Kirk of Scotland the best Reformed the Dissenting Brethren approved the Reformation of New-England to be most excellent But be this as it will we have learn't thus much from what hath been related that the Churches of a better Edition and greater refinement do not think it unlawful to use forms in Gods holy Ordinances unto which they bind those who come under their Power restraining them also from opening their mouths when perhaps they think themselves full of the Spirit and denying leave to others to set up a different way from theirs in their Neighbourhood As for our Independents I can shew from their Books that they think it necessary to be as severe in a great many Cases 〈◊〉 and I remember as heavy complaints of them as ever they made of the Presbyterians and have been told that they daily spet their renom privately and publickly against those that separated from them a Vanity of the present Churches p. 3. and 11. c. N. C. It will be too long to relate all those things But I would fain know how this will stand with Christian Liberty C. Do you think that it consists in being tyed to no Law at all N. C. None but Gods C. Take heed what you say N. C. In matters of worship I mean C. That 's absurd as I have shewn you Gods Law hath only given us the general rules whereby things to be ordered in the Church according to which our Governors are to make particular Laws and we are to obey them or else there will be nothing but confusion Yet still our Christian Liberty remains because First we are not tyed to this or that pattern or Model but our Governors have liberty to establish whatsoever being in it self indifferent shall seem to them most expedient for maintaining comliness and Order And secondly when any orders are established this is our Liberty as our Divines teach you that we do not use them as any part of Divine Worship as some of you do nor as meritorious and satisfactory nor as necessary to justification or salvation but only for discipline and good Orders sake And lastly by consequence the same Authority may alter them and hath not so tyed up it self to them but that it is at liberty to abolish those in case of inconvenience arising and establish others in the room But such a Liberty as leaves men loose from all Laws and Orders save those that they shall chuse themselves is a wild fancy which your Ministers condemn as well as ours Mr. Dury for instance a very moderate Presbyterian tells the Independent Brethren We must expect no such Liberty as shall break the Bond of Spiritual Unity which by the allowance of a publick tolleration of a different Church Government may be occasioned To keep therefore Unity intire a few must
to save you and my self any further labour I shall commend a few Directions to you for the guiding of your conscience and so conclude N. C. Let 's hear them C. I cannot expect you should bear any respect to my Advice therefore I will speak to you in another mans words which are so good that it's pitty they should be forgot They were writ above threescore years ago by Mr. Rich. Bernard in a Book of his where he teaches you how to carry your self in a Church or State so as that you may seek the publick quiet of it †Christian Advertisements and Counsels of peace 1608. N. C. How I pray you I 'le study his counsels C. First maintain and uphold all that is manifestly good in it 2. If there be any manifest evils labour in your place by the best means to have them amended peaceably 3. Bear with lighter faults for a time till a fit occasion be offered to have them amended 4. As for likelihoods of evil make them not apparent evil by ill interpretation where neither the State intends it nor so maintains it 5. Take doubtful things ever in the better part 6. Judiciously discern between the abuse of a thing and that which may be well used lest in abhorring the abuse thou also do utterly condemn the thing it self and the use thereof 7. Let not the flourishing condition as thou fanciest it of any Forain Church or State make thee unthankful for the present good thou enjoyest at home and loath thine own happiness 8. Mark and hold the difference between these things the Equity of Law and the Execution the truth Generally established and professed and the personal Errors of some Between soundness of Doctrine and bad Application between substance and circumstance between the very being of a thing and the well being of it between what is necessary and what is only convenient and desirable between a Commandment and a Commandment to thee between what is lawful and what is expedient 9. Never presume to reform others before thou hast well ordered thy self 10. Do not disobey the evident commandment of God and when there is nothing but probability of sinning in obeying the precept of thy Governors do not set opinion before judgment Set aside fancy and do not refuse to obey Authority where it is not plain thou shalt sin against God Be more loth to offend a lawful Magistrate ☞ than many private persons Where thou canst not yield there humbly crave pardon Where thou canst not be tollerated be contented with Correction for safety of Conscience and bear what thou canst not avoid with a patient mind Remember that to stand more upon avoiding dislike in private persons than in offending the publick authority ☞ is no better than an humouring of men to increase discontentedness rather than to preserve the publick peace and welfare Nay it is better to cross some mens affections without sin to God than to neglect most certain Duty let people perish open a gap to the enemy lose thy liberty and no whit better the Church of God N. C. O but in this we must be very tender and disobey men rather than God C. You should be very tender and careful lest you disobey both by breaking the commands of your Governors when in so doing you follow no command of God For which end he gives you this Rule As thou mayst not out of policy for fear of trouble furnish thy self with distinctions and evade thy duty where the word is plain so thou oughtest not out of scrupulosity to imagine sin where there is none and trouble thy Conscience with fear of transgressing where there is no Law The one breeds Atheism the other is the mother of Superstition Therefore in indifferent things make no question for conscience sake so it be that neither holiness merit nor necessity be put therein nor used for any part of Gods worship but for Decency Order and Edification N. C. But what if I am in doubt and afraid to use these things you call indifferent C. In this case he hath given you such good Directions that I need seek for no other The substance of them is this You would do well to examine your self whence your Doubt arises whether from serious consideration and a judgment convinced or that it be only a niceness of dislike coming from a desire not to be troubled with them or for that thou hast not been used to them or because some cannot away with them or from Ignorance and want of knowledge or perhaps from a godly jealousie and fear of doing amiss I may add from a natural timorousness and uncertainty of mind which can resolve nothing If the ground be not a judgment inlightned and convinced it is not trouble of conscience but a dislike that works discontentedness upon some of the former grounds which must be removed by consideration and setling your judgment upon the Word of God and sound Reason Nay it will be fit to consider whether this doubting do not arise through your own default by looking out Reasons to increase your dislike and neglecting to search for Arguments ☜ to give you satisfaction If this be your Case as it is certain it is of too many take as great pains to resolve your self as you have done to bring your self into doubting else you deal but partially And have a care you be not too highly conceited of your self and look upon your own reasons through the vapour of affection N. C. My scruples are grounded upon this reason that to make a thing lawful in Gods worship it is not enough that it is not forbidden but it must be commanded C. Examine well without prejudice what our Divines have replyed an hundred times to this and you will find it an absurd Principle Or for the present onely weigh what he saith Why should a man be more scrupulous to seek to have a plain command for every thing he doth in Ecclesiastical matters even about things in themselves indifferent than about matters politick in Civil affairs Men in these matters knwo not the ground nor end of many things which they yield unto upon a General command to obey Authority and knowing them not to be directly against God's will And yet our obedience in all Civil matters must be first of Conscience and secondly as serving the Lord which cannot be without knowledge and perswasion that we do well even in that particular in which we obey which men usually for conscience sake inquire not into but rest themselves with a General commandment of obeying lawful Authority so it be not against a plain commandment of God What therefore doth let but that a man may so satisfie himself in matters Ecclesiastical I must tell you saith ☞ he that the curious searching so particularly into every thing to have full satisfaction hath so wrought in these days upon mens wits to bring distinctions that the more men seek in doubt for resolution the further they