later as much as you believe the former What hinders then that this branch of power should not be conferred upon him in his Ordination The Authority conferred upon the Church by Christ is the same in both and both are by the Church with due Limitation invested on the Presbyter in his Ordination And good reason it should be so for I doubt not that the Sacrament ought regularly to be administred to none but absolved persons as none were to eat the Passover but those who were clean from all Legal pollutions We see that the Presbyterians and all other Sectaries amongst us are so tender of this point that they are so far from lessening the Authority of their Church-officers in this particular or at least of the whole Church as they please to terme it that they are much more rigid and severe in executing a Power like this of their own making then ever the Bishops were in putting the power Christ undoubtedly gave them in execution But I need not say much of this second branch to one of your perswasion 3. Lastly if you desire to know what advantage this is to a Penitent I answer that if a Penitent do but believe as much of the Priests authority though I shall be thought no very great friend to the inlargement of it as I have asserted viz. an Annnnciative power from God not only to declare men Pardonable as he doth in preaching the Gospel but to pronounce them pardoned upon inspection of their faith and repentance as he doth in giving them absolution he shall not only recieve comfort by the Preists assuring him of the safety of his condition and of his redintegration into grace and favour with God but shall enjoy the benefit of his prayers whom God hath appointed to that Duty most especially and whom he hath promised to accept together with the Blessing of the Priest Blessing him in Gods stead as well as in Gods name a favour which nothing but some lend Hophni's and Phinees's amongst the Clergie Numb 6.23.27 but multitudes of prophane Esau's amongst the Layety could have had the skill or luck to have rendered so contemptible as we see it is the punishment whereof as likewise of Despising the Persons and Offices of such whom God hath appointed to serve at the Altar of Blessing in many other particulars both this present and many future unreformed Ages shall as well as have some pass't times undoubtedly bear even to the removall of the Golden Candelstick from among them That thus a Priest is inabled to do is cleare from the Form of Absolution appointed in the Liturgie of our Church to be used in the Visitation of the sick wherein as the Authority of the Church in that point as also of the Priest are plainly asserted so is it matter of wonder that so many Legall Protestants have such a slender respect for an important and necessarie duty it is not to be believed that either that Power of the Priest that form of absolution and the Duty of Confession are reserved to be huddled up in so troublesome an hour and all the time of health past over without any inquiry into our Accounts the Church injoyns it to be used then but doth not forbid the use of it at other times My advice to you is that if you desire the recoverie of your own Peace of conscience you put this Duty in practise more frequently and see that your Ghostly Father do his Duty in this and no other forme of Absolution I mean any of his own making least by some error he may seem to do more then his power will permit him or not do as much as the Church hath enjoyned OBJECTION X. You will say perhaps what settlement of Conscience by a Sacerdotal Absolution seeing the Priest can but see with the eyes of a Man and hath no Knowledge of my heart which is so Deceitful that it is a very great difficulty for any man to finde it out though it lodg in his own breast and if he had knowledge thereof yet is the Act but Ministerial not Dispoticall and who knows whether God will confirme it or no. SOLUTION 15. THe Priest seeth but as man seeth but he may see what you see not and judge better of what he sees then every common person seeing the lips of the Priest do preserve knowledge If therefore he have understanding to discerne and judge aright of what he sees as you must suppose he hath else you will at least condemn your self of an unreasonable choyce it is your buisiness to lay your Soul before him and to acquaint him throughly and truly with your Condition if you fail in this and consequently the Act be done under an error the blame hereof will light on none but your self And as for the knowledg of your wayes there is no doubt but if St. Pauls Rule be true though nothing else without us but God doth yet the Spirit of a man doth know the things of a man 1 Cor. 2.11 and the heart may be Emptied to the very bottom by such rules as a judicious prudent and pious Confessor shall prescribe But in the later part of your Objection I am sorry to hear any question made of Gods confirmation of that due and necessarie Act of Absolution made in His name and by vertue of a Commission derived from him Any thing of this nature amongst men would sound too infamous especially if fixt upon such Persons who have the Power and Honour of Giving commissions to other men To question Gods faithfulness is a sin of infidelity and he that hath promised under the second covenant he will remember our Sins and Iniquities no more Heb. 8.12 i. e. of such as embrace the Gospel preach'd unto them 14. To conclude my Answer fully to these two last Objections I suppose that because we have no visible bloody Sacrifice nor a Mostholy on Earth into which the High-Priest may enter with blood for his own and our Sins it is therefore a matter of difficulty in your judgement to be ascertained of the way of obtaining pardon for Sinners under the Gospel the means of doing it being so secret and invisible and the Threatnings in case it be not done so open and terrible The Apostle tells us plainly That Iesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 which imports not only the immutability of Gods accepting Christ as the meritorious cause of Remission of Sins but also the unchangeableness of that method whereby this Kingdom of Christ under the Gosper is administred For this later which most concerns your case the Apostle tells you that Christ ever livâ—th to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 this being the most considerable part of his Office in the administration of his mediatory Kingdom This Iatercession for us i. e. the Church in general and each one in particular being his own immediate Act in Heaven and prefigured unto us by the High-priests going into the
the work unless he can suppose the Soul of Man in all her faculties to be not only regular but inerrable that transpiercing Eye will sind some flaw in the most orient moral Action which a state of Separation and Bliss might have rendered that Action free from our very Prayers and Prayses are undoubtedly not so perfect in this as in the other life and this is one reason why till the day of Judgement Christ doth not deliver up the Kingdom to the Father his Melchesidekian Priesthood continuing in my opinion till that time both for the Quick and Dead that they may have their Perfect Consummation and bliss in everlasting glory this the Church prayes for and for what the Body prayes the Head doth undoubtedly intercede OBJECT XVIII But me thinketh say you I may do more good then I do SOLUTION 26. COncerning the measure of well-doing if it were in Moral positive precepts of Gods revealed Will there needs nothing more be said but that of our Saviour These ought to be done Matth. 23.23 But because such doubts or Scruples that afflict your minde are most likely to arise from those duties which are prescribed only in gross but the Quotum or measure left to our own prudence to determine as Fasting Prayer Alms c. I shall onely insist upon these there being no tollerable doubt or scruple to be made concerning the other which oblige ad semper at all times and in their full measure But you must take notice that it is not possible that part cular Rules and Directions can be given to all Christians concerning these Duties whereby all objections may be prevented some what may be said in general which may serve so far to direct you and all good Christians concerning these duties that by observing them you may be left secure from all damnable omissions of any of these duties and from any dangerous errors in performing them Fasting is a duty when enjoyned by publike lawful Authority and for Christian ends and to be performed in a charitable manner is an indispensable duty upon all save such with whom that Authority doth actually dispense or may duly be supposed to be dispensable by such an Authority But for private Fasts how frequently they are to be observed by every one cannot be defined without some regard had to our constitution of Bodie our calling the usual Contingencies of necessary affairs c. which may hinder the performance or make it impertinent to our end Publick Fasts are less lyable to errors in the performance than private are one reason amongst others is because the management of every one for that time is for the greatest part left under publick circumstances of Time Persons Place c. which render the Duty more free from error and scruple in the Performance Private asts are seldom free from private faults and inconveniencies Now because the circumstances of Complexion Age Sex Contingencies c. are so variable my judgment is that few Christians oblige themselves by Vow but under a pecuniary mulct to the poor they may to the observation of weekly voluntary fasts making those the choicest opportunities when they are most fit for those duties The best conjuncture is Prayer Fasting and Alms together or in those who have no corporal Alms some spiritual Largess to the Souls of others which all may give these set a price upon the Service of God and keep our Religion from being cheap and refuse and such as costs us nothing but the expence of a little time and breath But by this I desire not to be thought to discharge the weekly dayes of abstinence appointed by the Church or to commute for them by the observation of a day of your own for I look upon the Authority of the Church you were baptized in as uncancell'd in point of obliging you and all others who call your selves the Sons and Daughters of the Church of England These Cautions I shall recommend unto you and others in reference to the matter in hand 1. The duties of our honest and necessary calling wherein men do undoubtedly serve God when orderly and Christianly performed may though not wholly supersede either out of our family or private practise any of these duties yet moderate us in the practice of them So much time spent in prayer cannot in reason be expected from one that subsists by his honest Calling as from him that lives of a plentiful Revenue 2. Diversions and recreations ought not to govern us in of respect these duties but if they be such as require much of our time to the exercise of them which I believe is not agreeable to Christian principles the seasons must not be rob'd away from these duties but from something else wherein we have a power to dispense I do not believe that an Hunting-Match a Cittie-Visit or a Pack of Cards c. ought to exchange and alter the fittest and usual times and hours for prayer though necessary employments deeds of Mercy and Charity may much less abbreviate or wholly dispense with the duty 3. If it happen that there be an opportunity of doing some dutie of Piety as publick Prayer or Sermon c. in that place where you are enjoyn'd to be an Auditor Member of the Congregation on the Lords day or in any other place where you are in case there be no Schism in the National Church you may not absent your self only for such Diversions and Recreations the reason is not only for that a guilt of omission and also a scandal will follow from thence but you may lose an opportunity of doing or receiving some good at that time which you may not have tendred to you again To lavish away ones time is a very great imprudence besides a sin in any Christian but to lose seasons and opportunities is a very great piece of guilt as well as folly 4. In case you have bound your self to any of these in respect of the measure and frequency either by Vow or promise or firm Resolution especially if by way of Revenge for former faults 2 Cor. 7. 11. by all means be as projectual as you may in the observation there of assuring your self that as you shall meet with the more and greater oppositions after such Vow Promise or Resolution so you will finde much more trouble upon the not performance of the duty so vowed promised or resolved on because the duty thereby becomes in its circumstances to the hic and nunc of it of the nature of Gods unchangeable precepts and the sin of unfaithfulness is added to the omission of that duty by you 5. You need not scruple the Condition or perswasion of the Person to whom you give in bestowing of your Alms if you perceive the Receiver thereof be such as by honest endeavours cannot provide for himself and his Family in a way proportionable to the Dignity of mans Nature you have a good aim to hit the mark of Charity if nothing be probably
men Death without question is the most formidable of all things in the world being that strong bridle which the hand of Providence holdeth in the Jaws of wicked men who else would most of them break out into the greatest excesses of insolency and outragious mischief this Great King of Terrors over-awing the most daring and violent Spirits of men in the world And of this natural cause of fear of death you cannot but be thought to have you share for that neither your Sex nor your Complexion can be supposed to season you against the but ordinary impressions of that Afflictive Passion That which I have term'd a moral cause of this fear I believe you already apprehend to be that or some remainders of that Spirit of Bondage mentioned by S. Paul Rom. 8.15 which as it seems by that Apostle doth in nothing more fully discover it self then in the bitter apprehensions of death Heb. 2.15 this cannot be excused much less incouraged in you or in any other but will stand in need of much good counsel and your own most sinnewed endeavours to remove or lessen it But what is it that you fear in death the pains thereof you cannot in reason fear because you know not of what or whether of any disease you may dye whether you may have pains or no or sense to feel them if you have any though even against these you are not without a Promise to which I am assured you have as good a claim as any one viz. that God will make the merciful or Charitable mans bed in his sickness Psal 41.3 though when God undertakes to make the sick mans bed his Soul indeed shall lye much easier then his bodie But that you indeed fear is after death that Thunder-clap which set Foelix a trembling when it sounded from the mouth of St. Paul I mean Judgment to come Acts 24.25 which for a good man to fear too much is a signe of Pusillanimiite not to fear at all is no signe of Piety our God is a Consuming Fire and in the best of us there is that dross which dreads the fury of Everlasting Burnings In a word above all other Remedies against the fear of death there is none more powerful yea so powerful as the contemplation of the death of Christ which gave the fatal blow to the Chain of Adamant wherein all mankinde till then were held captive being indeed the death of death Hos 13.14 The Representations whereof may be questionless very usefulty as well as innocently beheld by you or any other Christians but not under any barren and melancholick fixation of your eye or car on the story of our Saviours Passion but by a wise selecting out the fruits thereof and feeding upon them by discreet contemplation for the strengthening of our inward man against such intimidating thoughts of Mortality Neither can I advise you to avoid any thing that may stirre up this passion of fear in your heart but rather the contrary I mean to be forward in imbracing any seasonable opportunity of making these objects of sadness familiar to you For besides that it is a duty of Religion to weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 to visit the sick Matth. 25.36 to attend at the burial of our not friends only but brethren Tob. 2.2 yea to burie them with our own hands or to do any preparatory office about their Corpses if need be you will finde thereby this double advantage viz. that you will most earnestly fly sin the cause and sting of death and in short time gain a great victory over this Passion OBJECTION XXVI But though my fear of death be removeable yet is not my fear of falling away from Grace to be removed SOLUTION 32. ANd why do you not as well fear that the earth will open and swallow you up quick you have some dependance upon the Goodness and Providence of Allmighty God that he will not thus deal with you if you had not your fear of the later would be as just and as irremoveable as of the former For what assurance have you against the one that you have not against the other are not the Souls of men as pretious in the Eyes of their Creatour and Redeemer as are their bodies can there be so great and prodigious a judgement happpen to the Bodie of any man as is Gods total and final withdrawing of Grace from his Soul and have you not the same Good Word of God to depend upon in your fears of the one as well as of the other Doth God take care for oxen doth he give and perform promises of Food and Rayment and Health and Peace c. unto the Bodie but is he a dry and a barren Wilderness as the Prophet expresseth it Jer. 2.31 unto the Souls of his People I shall leave you to ruminate on that Argument of Saint Paul Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Remember I pray that God takes his Grace from no man who doth not abuse it The Talents were taken from none but him who wrapt one up in a Napkin from him it was taken away indeed and that justly because he made no use of that which was not only intended for use but would have been increased by using He could not help indeed the taking it from him when God for his Sluggishness thought this the most proper punishment for the one and reward for the other upon their Reckoning for the Talents but by Industry he might have prevented it as did the other two Servants And to render you satisfyed with an evident and full passage of Scripture be pleased to peruse that of St. Paul to the Hebrews Chap. 6.15 where after he had spoken of falling away and the dreadful and irrecoverable estate of Apostacy he addes that he is perswaded better things of them and such as are seen only in good Christians and his ground of that no fear is for that God would reward their former labour of Love with the grace of perseverance the due reward of such as like you do make use of Grace given as our Saviour witnesseth Mat. 25.29 OBJECT XXVII But sensible alteration in me and the Promised effects of Conversion I finde none SOLUTION 33. COnversion sounds not the same thing come as it did to the Jewes Heathen in the Apostles times and after the first Plantation of the Gospell who are not only to suffer a Change in point of morall practise but in point of belief Neither are there any extraordinary gifts of tongues and Miracles or Healings c. to be powred out upon new Converts for confirmation of Faith and increase of believers When the Jewes were come into the promised Land Manna ceased we are now in a way of ordinary dispensation and though the Holy Ghost be the Author of this as well as of the other and our submission to this as deeply