Love of God and therefore it is Best 20. The grand impediment to all Religion and our Salvation which hindereth both our Believing Loving and Obeying is the inordinate sensual inclination to Carnal self and present transitory things cunningly proposed by the Tempter to ensnare us and divert and steal away our hearts from God and the life to come The understanding of these Propositions will much help you in discerning thr Nature and Reason of Religion DIRECT II. Diligently labour in that part of the life of faith which consisteth in the constant use of Christ as the Means of the souls access to God acceptance with him and comfort from him And think not of coming to the Father but by him § 1. TO talk and boast of Christ is easie and to use him for the increase of our carnal security and boldness in sinning But to live in the daily Use of Christ to those Ends of his Office to which he is by us to be made use of is a matter of greater skill and diligence than many self 〈…〉 Professors are aware of What Christ himself hath done or will do for our salvation is â—â—â—â— directly the thing that we are now considering of but what Use he requireth us to make of him Paul Sâ—aiiger Thes. p. 725. Christus solus quidem secundum utramque naturam di 〈…〉 Id. p 725. in the life of saith He hath told us that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and that except we eat his flesh and drink his blood we have no life in us Here is our Use of Christ expressed by eating and drinking his flesh and blood which is by faith The General parts of the work of Redemption Christ hath himself performed for us without asking our Consent or imposâ—â—g upon us any Condition on our parts without which he would not do that work As the Sun doth illustrate and warm the earth whether it will or not and as the Rain falleth on the Grass without asking whether it consent or will be thankful so Christ without our consent or knowledge did take our nature and fulfill the Law and satisfie the offended Law-giver and Merit grace and conquâ—â— Satan Death and Hell and became the Glorified Lord of all But for the exercise of his graces in us and our advancement to communion with God and our living in the strength and joyes of faith he is himself the Object of our Duty even of that Faith which we must daily and diligently exercise upon him And thus Christ will profit us no further than we make Use of him by faith It is not a forgotten Christ that objectively comforteth or encourageth the soul but a Christ believed in and skilfully and faithfully Used to that end It is Objectively principally that Christ is called Our wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 30. The knowledge of him and the mysteries of Grace in him is the Christian or Divine Philosophy or Wisdom in opposition to the vain Philosophy which the Learned Heathens boasted of And therefore Paul determined to know nothing but Christ crucified that is to make oftentation of no other knowledge and to glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ and so to preach Christ as if he knâ—w nothing else but Christ. See 1 Cor. 1. 23. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. And it is Objectively that Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by faith Ephes. 3. 17. Faith keepeth him still upon the heart by continual cogitation application and improvement As a friend is said to dwell in our hearts whom we continually love and think of § 2. Christ himself teacheth us to distinguish between Faith in God as God and faith in himself Namquâ—â—mpâ—â—â—â—nâ— involute non â—â—â—â—haec soâ—um sed qâ—â—â—â—unquâ— Divinae â—â—eâ—ae prâ—dunt credit de quibus tamen nâ—n omnibus interrâ—gatur quod eâ— expresse â—â—iâ—e omnia illi minime opus sit omnia 5. c 6. p. 461. Christian Religion beginneth not at the Highest but the Lowest with Christ incarnate teaching dying â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 1â—1 out of Iâ—â—tâ—r as Mediator John 14. 1. Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God or Believe ye in God â— believe also in me These set together are the sufficient cure of a troubled heart It is not Faith in God as God but Faith in Christ as Mediator that I am now to speak of And that not as it is inherent in the understanding but as it is operative on the heart and in the life And this is not the smallest part of the life of faith by which the just are said to live Every true Christian must in his measure be able to say with Paul Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me The Pure Godhead is the Beginning and the End of all But Christ is the Image of the invisible God the first born of every creature and by him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things do consist And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence Col. 1. 16 17 18 19. In him it is that we who were sometime far off are made nigh even by his blood For he is our Peace who hath recâ—nâ—iled both Iew and Gentile unto God in one body by the Cross having slain the â—nâ—ity thereby and came and preached peace to them that were far off and to them that were â—igâ— For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father so that now we are no more i◠〈…〉 s and forâ—â—igners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes. 2. 1â— â—â—â—â—â—â—6 17 18. In him it is that we have beldness and access with confidence through faith in him Epâ— â—â—â—â—â— He is the Way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but by him John 14. 6. It is by the blood of Iesus that we have boldness and liberty â— to enter into the holiest by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh Because we have so Great a Priest over the House of God we may draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith c. Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. By him it is that we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and boast in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5. 1 2. So that we must have all our Communion with God through him § 3. Supposing what I
members of the visible Church The Integral and accidental Union I pass by now 2. Besides this Union of the Universal Church with Christ the Universal Head there is in all Particular organized Churches a subordinate Union 1. Between 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. the Pastor and the flock and 2. Between the People one towards another which consisteth in these their special Relations to each other 3. And there is an Accidental Union of many particular Churches As when they are United under one Civil Government or Consociated by their Pastors in one Synod or Council These are the several sorts of Church-Union Direct 2. § 4. Direct 2. Understand also wherein the Communion of Christians and Churches doth consist that you may know what it is that you must hold to In the Universal Church your Internal Communion with Christ consisteth in his communication of his spirit and grace his word and mercies unto you and in your returnes of Love and Thanks and Obedience unto him and in your seeking to him depending on him and receivings from him Your Internal Communion with the Church or Saints consisteth in mutual Love and other consequent affections and in praying for and doing good to one another as your selves according to your abilities and opportunities Your external communion with Christ and with most of the Church in Heaven and Earth is not mutually visible and local For it is but a small number comparatively that we ever see But it consisteth in Christs visible communication of his word his officers and his ordinances and mercies unto you and in your visible learning and reception of them and obedience to him and expressions of your Love and Gratitude towards him Your external communion with the Universal Church consisteth in the Prayers of the Church for you and your prayers for the Church In your holding the same faith and professing to Love and Worship the same God and Saviour and Sanctifier in the same holy ordinances in order to the same eternal end § 5. Your external Communion in the same particular Congregations consisteth in your assembling together to hear the Preaching of Gods word and to receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and pray and praise God and to help each other in knowledge and holiness and walk together in the fear of the Lord. § 6. Your Communion with other neighbour Churches lyeth in praying for and counselling each other and keeping such correspondencies as shall be found necessary to maintain that Love and Peace and Holiness which all are bound to seek according to your abilities and opportunities § 7. Note here that Communion is one thing and subjection is another It is not your subjection to other Churches that is required to your communion with them The Churches that Paul wrote to at Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi c. had Communion together according to their capacities in that distance but they were not subject one to another any otherwise than as all are commanded to be subject to each other in humility 1 Pet. 5. 5. The Church of Rome now accuseth all the Christians in the World of separating from their Communion unless they will take them for their Rulers and obey them as the Mistres Church But Paul speaketh not one syllable to any of the Churches of any such thing as their obedience to the Church of Rome To your own Pastors you owe subjection statedly as well as communion and to other Pastors of the Churches of Christ fixed or unfixed you owe a temporary subjection so far as you are called to make use of them as sick persons do to another Physicion when the Physicion of the Hospital is out of the way But one Church is not the Ruler of another or any one oâ— all the rest by any appointment of the King of the Church § 8. Direct 3. By the help of what is already said you are next distinctly to understand how far Direct 3. you are bound to Union or Communion with any other Church or person and what distance separation or division is a sin and what is not that so you may neither causlesly trouble your selves with scruples What Unity is among all Christians Gal. 3. 20. 4. 5 6. Ephes. 4. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. nor trouble the Church by sinful Schism § 9. I. There must be a Union among all Churches and Christians in these following particulars 1. They have all but One God 2. And One Head and Saviour Jesus Christ. 3. And One Sanctifier the Holy Ghost 4. And One Ultimate End and Hope even the fruiâ—â—on of God in Heaven 5. And one Gospel to teach them the Knowledge of Christ and contain the promise of their salvation 6. And one kind of faith that is wrought hereby 7. And one and the same Covenant 1 Pet. 1. 16 Eph. 4. 11 12 13. of which Baptism is the seal in which they are engaged to God 8. And the same Instrumental founders of our faith under Jesus Christ even the Prophets and Apostles 9. And all members of the Eph. 2. 20 21 19. same Universal Body 10. And all have the same new nature and Holy disposition and the same Holy Affections in Loving God and Holiness and Hating sin 11. They all own as to the essential 1 Joh. 3. 11 14 23 parts the same Law of God as the Rule of their faith and life even the sacred Canonical Scriptures Psal. 122. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Joh 3. 6. Heb. 10. 25. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. 12. Every member hath a Love to the whole and to each other especially to the more excellent and useful members and an inclination to holy Communion with each other 13. They have all a propensity to the same holy means and employment as Prayer learning the word of God and doing good to others All these things the True living members of the Church have in sincerity and the rest have in Profession Râ—m 12. 1. Eph 2. 10 11. What 〈…〉 sity â—â—l be in the Church 1 Joh. 2. 12 13 14 § 10. II. There will be still a diversity among the Churches and particular Christians in these following points without any dissolution of the fore-described Unity 1. They will not be of the same Age or standing in Christ but some babes some young men and some fathers 2. They will not have the same degrees of strength of Knowledge and of Holiness some will have need to be fed with milk and be unskilful in the word of Righteousness 3. They will differ in the kind and Heb. 5. 11 12 13. measure of their gifts some will excell in one kind and some in another and some in none at all Mat. 17. 2. 13. 3â— Rom. 14. 1 2 21. 4. They will differ in their natural temper which will make some to be more hot and some more mild some more quick and some more dull some of more regulated wits and some more scattered and
3. Else there should be seldome any Church in the world for want of a Head yea never any For I have proved there and to Iohnson that there never was a true General Council of the Universal See also in my Reasons of Christian Religion Coâ—s 2. of the Interest of the Church Church But only Imperial Councils of the Churches under one Emperours power and those that having been under it had been used to such Councils And that it is not a thing ever to be attempted or expected as being unlawful and morally impossible Quest. 13. Whether there be such a thing as a Visible Catholick Church And what it is THe Antients differently used the terms A Catholick Church and The Catholick Church By the first they meant any particular Church which was part of the Universal By the second 1 Cor. 12. 12. and throughout they meant the Universal Church it self And this is it that we now mean And I answer Affirmatively There is a Visible Universal Church not only as a Community or as a Kingdom distinct from the King but as a Political Society 2. This Church is the Universality of Baptized Visible Christians Headed by Iesus Christ himself Eph. 4. 1 5 6 7 16. There is this and there is no other upon earth The Papists say that this is no Visible Church because the Head is not Visible I answer 1. It is not necessary that he be seen but visible And is not Christ a Visible person 2. This Church consisteth of two parts the Triumphant part in Glory and the Militant part And Christ is not only Visible but seen by the triumphant part As the King is not seen by the ten thousandth part of his Kingdoms but by his Courtiers and those about him and yet he is King of all 3. Christ was seen on earth for above thirty years and the Kingdom may be called visible in that the King was once visible on earth and is now visible in Heaven As if the King would shew himself to his people but one year together in all his life 4. It ill becometh the Papists of any men to say that Christ is not visible who make him see him taste him handle him eat him drink him digest him in every Church in every Mass throughout the year and throughout the world And this not as divided but as whole Christ. Object But this is not quatenus Regent Answ. If you see him that is Regent and see his Laws and Gospel which are his Governing instruments together with his Ministers who are his Officers it is enough to denominate his Kingdom visible 5. The Church might be fitly denominated Visible secundum quid if Christ himself were invisible Because the Politick Body is visible the dispersed Officers Assemblies and Laws are visible But sure all these together may well serve for the denomination Quest. 14. What is it that maketh a Visible Member of the Universal Church And who are to be accounted such 1. BAptism maketh a Visible member of the Universal Church and the Baptized as to entrance Matth. 28. 19. 〈…〉 1â— 16. unless they go out again are to be accounted such 2. By Baptism we mean open devotion or dedication to God by the Baptismal Covenant in which the adult for themselves and Parents for their Infants do Profess Consent to the Covenant of Grace which includeth a Belief of all the Essential Articles of the faith and a Resolution for sincere obedience and a Consent to the Relations between God and us viz. that he be our Reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifier 3. The Continuance of this Consent is necessary to the continuance of our visible membership 4. He that through ignorance or incapacity for want of water or a Minister is not baptized and yet is solemnly or notoriously dedicated and devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same Covenant though without the outward Sign and professeth openly the same Religion is a visible Christian though not by a compleat and regular visibility As a Souldier not listed nor taking his Colours or a Marriage not regularly solemnized c. 5. He that forsaketh his Covenant by Apostacy or is totally and duly excommunicated ceaseth to be a visible member of the Church Quest. 15. Whether besides the Profession of Christianity either Testimony or Evidence of Conversion or Practical Godliness be necessary to prove a man a Member of the Universal Visible Church 1. AS the Mediator is the way to the Father sent to recover us to God so Christianity includeth John 14. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6 3 11. Godliness And he professeth not Christianity who professeth not Godliness 2. He that professeth the Baptismal Covenant professeth Christianity and Godliness and true Conversion 2 Pet. 1. 3. And therefore cannot be rejected for want of a Profession of Conversion or Godliness 3. But he that is justly suspected not to understand his own profession but to speak general words without the sense may and ought to be examined by him that is to baptize him And therefore though the Apostles among the Jews who had been bred up among the Oracles of God did justly presume of so much understanding as that they baptized men the same day that they professed to believe in Christ yet when they baptized converted Gentiles we have reason to think that they Acts 2. 38 39. first received a particular account of their Converts that they understood the three essential Articles of the Covenant 1. Because the Creed is fitted to that use and hath been ever used thereunto by the Churches as by tradition from the Apostles practice 2. Because the Church in all ages as far as Church History leadeth us upward hath used catechising before baptizing yea and to keep men as Catechumens some time for preparation 3. Because common experience telleth us that multititudes can say the Creed that understand it not If any yet urge the Apostles example I will grant that it obligeth us when the case is the like And I will not fly to any conceit of their heart-searching or discerning mens sincerity When you bring us to a people that before were the Visible Church of God and were all their life time trained up in the knowledge of God of sin of duty of the promised Messiah according to all the Law and Prophets and want nothing but to know the Son and the Holy Ghost that this Iesus is the Christ who will reconcile us to God and give us the sanctifying Spirit then we will also baptize men the same day that they profess to believe in Iesus Christ and in the Father as reconciled by him and the Holy Ghost as given by him But if we have those to deal with who know not God or sin or misery or Scripture Prophecies no nor natural verities we know no proof that the Apostles so haâ—â—ily baptized such Of this I have largely spoken in my Treatise of Confirmation 4. It is
heed of running from one extream into another p. 50 Direct 11. Be not too confident in your first apprehensions or opinions but modestly suspicious of them p. 51 Direct 12. What to do when Controversies divide the Church Of silencing truth p. 52 Direct 13. What Godliness is The best life on earth How Satan would make it seem troublesome and ungrateful 1. By difficulties 2. By various Sects 3. By scrupulosity 4. By your over-doing in your own inventions 5. By perplexing fears and sorrows 6. By unmortified lusts 7. By actual siâ—s 8. By ignorance of the Covenant of grace p. 54 Direct 14. Mortifie the flesh and rule the senses and the appetite p. 57 Direct 15. Be wary in choosing not only your Teachers but your Company also Their Characters p. 58 Direct 16. What Books to prefer and read and what to reject P. 60 Direct 17. Take not a Doctrine of Libertinism for Free Grace p. 61 Direct 18. Take heed lâ—st Grace degenerate into Counterfeits formality c. p. 63 Direct 19. Reckon not on prosperity or long life but live as dying p. 65 Direct 20. See that your Religion be purely Divine That God be your First and Last and All Man nothing p. 66 CHAP. III. The General Grand Directions for walking with God in a life of faith and Holiness Containing the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity p. 69 Gr. Dir. 1. Understand well the Nature Grounds Reason and Order of Faith and Godliness Propositions opening somewhat of them The Reader must note that here I blotted out the Method and Helps of Faith having fullier opened them in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and another of the Unreasonableness of Infidelity Gr. Dir. 2. How to live by Faith on Christ. How to make Use of Christ in twenty necessities p. 72 Gr. Dir. 3. How to Believe in the Holy Ghost and live by his Grace His Witness Seal Earnest c. Q. When good effects are from Means from our Endeavour and when from the Spirit p. 77 78 Gr. Dir. 4. For a True Orderly and Practical Knowledge of God A Scheme of his Attributes p. 81 82 Gr. Dir. 5. Of self resignation to God as our Owner Motives Marks Means p. 83 Gr. Dir. 6. Of subjection to God as our Soveraign King What it is How to bring the soul into subjection to God How to keep up a Ready and Constant Obedience to him p. 85 Gr. Dir. 7. To Learn of Christ as our Teacher How The Imitation of Christ. p. 90 Gr. Dr. 8. To obey Christ our Physicion or Saviour in his Repairing healing work p. 95 How each faculty is diseased or depraved The Intellect its acts and maladies The Wiâ—â— Q. Whether the Locomotive and sense can move us to sin without the Consent of the Will â—r Reason upon its bare Omission The sin of the Memory Imagination affections sensitive appetite exterior parts which need a Cure Forty intrinsecal evils in sin which make up its Malignity The common Aggravations of sin Special aggravations of the sins of the Regenerate Directions to get a hatred of sin How to cure it p. 95 Gr. Dir. 9. Of the Christian Warfare under Christ Who are our Enemies Of the Devil The state of the Armies and of the War between Christ and Satan The ends grounds advantages auxiliaries instruments and methods of the Tempter p. 104 How Satan keepeth off the forces of Christ and frustrateth all means Christs contrary Methods p. 109 Tit. 2. Temptations to particular sins with Directions for preservation and Remedy 1. How Satan prepareth his baits of Temptation p. 111 2. How he applyeth them p. 114 Tit. 3. Temptations to draw us off from duty p. 124 Tit. 4. Temptations to frustrate holy duties p. 126 Gr. Dir. 10. How to work as servants to Christ our Lord. The true doctrine of Good Works p. 128 Directions for our serving Christ in well doing p. 130. Where are many Rules to know what are good works and how to do them acceptably and successfully Q. Is doing good or avoiding sin to be most looked at in the choice of a Calling or Employment of life p. 133 Q. May one change his Calling for advantages to do good Q. Who are excused from living in a Calling or from Work p. 124 Q. Must I do a thing as a Good work while I doubt whether it be good indifferent or sin p. 134 Q. Is it not every mans duty to obey his Conscience p. 135 Q. Is it not a sin to go against Conscience Q. Whether the formal cause alone do constitute obedience Q. How sin must be avoided by one that hath an erroneus conscience Q. How can a man lawfully resist or strive against an erring conscience when he striveth against a supposed truth Q Is not going against conscience sinning against Knowledge p. 136 Q. When the information of conscience requireth a long time is it not a duty to obey it at the present Q. May one do a Great Good when it cannot be done but by a Little sin as a Lye Q Must I not forbear all Good Works which I cannot do without sin Q Must I forbear a certain great duty as preaching the Gospel for fear of a small uncertain sin Q. What shall a man do that is in doubt after all the means that he can use p. 137 Sixteen Rules to guide a doubting conscience and to know among many seeming duties which is the greatest and to be preferred p. 137 Gr. Dir. 11. To LOVE GOD as our Father and Felicity and End The Nature of holy Love God must be Loved as the Universal Infinite Good Whether Passionately What of God must be loved p. 141 What must be the Motive of our first Love Whether Gods special Love to us The sorts of holy Love Why Love is the highest Grace p. 143 The Contraries of holy Love How God is Hated The Counterfeits of Love p. 144 Directions how to excite and exercise Divine Love ibid. How to see God Signs of true Love p 154 Gr. Dir. 12. Absolutely to Trust God with Soul Body and all with full acquiâ—scence The Nature of Trust of which see more in my Life of Faith and Disp. of Saving Faith p. 157. The Contraries The Counterfeits Q. Of a particular faith The Uses of Trust. p. 158. Fifteen Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God p. 158 Gr. Dir. 13. That the temperament of our Religion may be a DELIGHT in God and Holiness Twenty Directions to procure it with the Reasons of it 162 Gr. Dir. 14. Of THANKFULNESS to God our grand Benefactor The signs of it Eighteen Directions how to obtain and exercise it 167 c. Gr. Dir. 15. For GLORIFYING God Ten Directions how the Mind must Glorifie God Ten Directions for Praising God or Glorifying him with our Tongues Where are the Reasons for Praising God Twelve Directions for Glorifying God by our Lives p. 172 Gr. Dir. 16. For Heavenly mindedness and Gr. Dir. 17. For Self-denyal
their power of the Rod or supposing that they had none such p. 802 Q. 27. What are Christs appointed means of the Unity and Concord of the Universal Church and consequently of its preservation if there be no humane Universal Head and Governour of it upon Earth And if Christ hath instituted none such whether prudence and the Law of Nature oblige not the Church to set up and maintain an universal Ecclesiastical Monarchy or Aristocracy seeing that which is every mans work is no mans and omitted by all p. 802 Q. 28. Who is the Iudge of controversies in the Church 1. About the Exposition of the Scriptures and Doctrinal points in themselves 2. About either Heresies or wicked practices as they are charged on the persons who are accused of them That is 1. Antecedently to our practice by way of regulation 2. Or consequently by judicial sentence and execution on â—ffenders p. 803 Q. 29. Whether a Parents power over his Children or a Pastors or many Pastors or Bishops over the same Children as parts of their stocks be greater or more obliging in matters of Religion and publick Worship p. 804 Q. 30. May an office Teacher or Pastor be at once in the stated relation of a Pastor and a Disciple to some other Pastor ibid. Q. 31. Who hath the power of making Church-Canons p. 805 Q. 32. Doth Baptism as such enter the Baptized into the Universal Church or into a particular Church or both and is Baptism the particular-Church-Covenant as such ibid. Q. 33. Whether Infants should be Baptized I have answered long ago in a Treatise on that Subject Q. What Infants should be Baptized And who have right to Sacraments And whether Hypocrites are univocally or equivâ—cally Christians and Church-members I have resolved in my disput of Right to Sacraments p. 806 Q. 34. Whether an unbaptized person who yet maketh a publick profession of Christianity be a member of the visible Church And so of the Infants of believers unbaptized ibid. Q. 35. Is it cértain by the word of God that all Infants baptized and dying before actual sin are undoubtedly saved or what Infants may we say so of p. 807 Q. 36. What is meant by this speech that Believers and their seed are in the Covenant of God which giveth them right to Baptism p. 812 Q. 37. Are believers Children certainly in Covenant before their Baptism and thereby in a state of salvation or not till they are baptized p. 813 Q. 38. Is Infants title to Baptism and the Covenant benefits given them by God in his Promises upon any proper moral condition or only upon the condition of their natural relation that they be the seed of the faithful ibid. Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors Patrimi or God Fathers as we call them and Is it lawful to make use of them p. 814 Q. 40. On whose account or right is it that the Infant hath title to Baptism and its benefits Is it on the Parents Ancestors Sponsors the Churches the Ministers the Magistrates or his own p. 815 Q. 41. Are they really baptized who are Baptized according to the English Liturgie and Canons where the Parent seemeth excluded and those to consent for the Infant who have no power to do it p. 817 Q. 42. But the great question is How the Holy Ghost is given to Infants in Baptism and whether all the Children of true Christians have inward sanctifying grace Or whether they can be said to be justified and to be in a state of salvation that are not inherently sanctified and whether any fall from this Infant state of salvation p. 817 Q. 43. Is the right of the Baptized Infants or adult to the sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost now Absolute or suspended on further conditions And are the Parents further duty for their Children such conditions of their Childrens reception of the actual assistances of the spirit or Are Childrens own actions such conditions and May Apostate Parents forfeit the Câ—venant benefits to their baptized Infants or not p. 821 Q. 44. Doth Baptism always oblige us at the present and give grace at the present and is the grace which is not given till long after given by baptism or an effect of baptism p. 823 Q. 45. What is a proper violation of our Baptismal Covenant p. 824 Q 46. May not baptism in some cases be repeated And when ibid. Quest. 47. Is baptism by Lay men or women lawful in cases of necessity or are they nullities and the person to be rebaptized p. 825 Q. 48. May Anabaptists that have no other errour be permitted in Church Communion p. 826 Q. 49. May one offer his Child to be baptized with the sign of the Cross or the use of Chrisms the white garment milk and honey or Exâ—rcisms as among the Lutherans who taketh these to be unlawful things ibid. Q. 50. Whence came the antient universal Custome of Anointing at baptism and putting on a white garment and tasting milk and honey and Whether they are lawful to us p. 827 Q 51. Whether it be necessary that they that are baptized in infancy do solemnly at age review and own their baptismal Covenant before they have right to the state and priviledges of Adult members and if they do not Whether they are to be numbred with Christians or Apostates p. 827 Q. 52. Whether the Universal Church consist only of particular Churches and their members p. 828 Q. 53. Must the Pastor first call the Church and aggregate them to himself or the Church first Congregate themselves and then choose the Pastor p. 829 Q. 54. Wherein doth a particular Church of Christ differ from a consociation of many Churches ibid. Q. 55. Whether a particular Church may consist of more Assemblies than one or must needs meet all in one place ibid. Q. 56. Is any form of Church-Government of Divine Institution p. 830 Q. 57. Whether any formes of Churches and Church-Government or any new Church-officers may lawfully be invented and made by maâ— p. 832 Q 58. Whether any part of the proper Pastoral or Episcopal power may be given or deputed to a Lay man or to one of any other office or their proper work may be performed by such p. 839 Q. 59. May a Lay man Preach or expound the Scriptures or what of this is proper to the Pastors office p. 840 Q 60. What is the true sense of the distinction of Pastoral power in foro interiore exteriore rightly used ibid. Q. 61. In what sense is it true that some say that the Magistrate only hath the external Government of the Church and the Pastor the Internal p 841 Q. 62. Is the tryal judgement or consent of the Laity necessary to the admittance of a member into the universal or particular Church ibid. Q. 63. What power have the people in Church Censures and Excommunication p. 842 Q. 64 What is the peoples remedy in case of the Pastors male-administration ibid. Q. 65. May one be a Pastor
Q. 121. May a Minister pray publickly in his own name singly for himself or others or only in the Churches name as their mouth to God ibid. Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altar be lawfully now used instead of Christs Ministers Worship and the Holy Table p. 882 Q. 123. May the Communion Table be turned Altar-wise and Railed in And is it lawful to come up to the Rails to communicate p. 882 Q. 124. Is it lawful to use David's Psalms in our Assemblies p. 883 Q. 125. May Psalms be used as prayers and praises and Thanksgivings or only as Instructive Even the Reading as well as the singing of them ibid. Q. 126. Are our Church-Tunes Lawful being of mans invention p. 884 Q. 127. Is Church Musick by Organs or such Instruments Lawful ibid. Q. 128. Is the Lords day a Sabbath and so to be called and kept and that of Divine institution And is the seventh day Sabbath abrogated c p. 885 Q. 129. Is it Lawful to appoint humane Holy dayes and observe them ibid. Q. 130. How far is the holy Scriptures a Law and perfect Rule to us p. 886 Q. 131. What Additions or humane Inventions in or about Religion not commanded in Scripture are Lawful or Unlawful p. 887 Q. 132. Iâ— it unlawful to obey in all thâ—se cases where it is unlawful to impose and command or in what cases And how far Pastors must be believed and obeyed p. 888 Q. 133. What are the additions or inventions of mâ—n which are not fâ—rbidden by the Word of God whether by Rulers or by private men invented p. 889 Q 134. What are the mischiefs of unlawful Additions in Religion p. 891 Q. 135. What are the mischiefs of mens errour on the other extream who pretend that Scripture is a Rule where it is not and deny the aforesaid lawful things on pretence that Scripture is a perfect Rule say some for all things p. 892 Q. 136. How shall we know what parts of Scripture precept or example were intended for universal constant obligation and what were but for the time and persons that they were then directed to p. 893 Q. 137. How much of the Scripture is necessary to salvation to be believed and understood p. 894 Q. 138. How may we know the Fundamentals Essentials or what parts are necessary to salvation And is the Papists way allowable that some of them deny that distinction and make the difference to be only in the degrees of mans opportunities of knowledge p 895 Q 139. What is the use and Authority of the Creed And is it of the Apostles framing or not And is it the Word of God or not p 896 Q 140. What is the use of Catechisms p. 897 Q. 141. Could any of us have known by the Scriptures alone the Essentials of Religion from the rest if tradition had not given them to us in the Creed as from Apostolical Collection ibid. Q. 142. What is the best method of a true Catechism or sum of Theologie p. 898 Q. 143. What is the use of various Church-Confessions or Articles of faith ibid. Q. 144. May not the subscribing of the whole Scriptures serve turn for all the foresaid ends without Creeds Catechisms or Confessions ibid. Q. 145. May a man be saved that believeth all the Essentials of Religion as coming to him by verbal Tradition and not as câ—ntained in the Holy Scriptures which perhaps he never knew p. 899 Q 146. Is the Scripture fit for all Christians to read being so obscure ibid. Q. 147. How far is Tradition and mens words and Ministry to be used or truâ—â—ed in in the exercise of faith p. 900 Q 148. How knâ—w we the true Canon of Scripture from Apocrypha ibid. Q. 149. Is the publick Reading of the Scripture the proper wâ—rk of the Minister or may a Lay man ordinarily do it or another officer p. 901 Q 150. Is it Lawful to Read the Apocrypha or any good Books besides the Scriptures to the Church as â—omiliâ—s c ibid. Q 151. May Church Assemblies be held where there is no Minister or what publick Worship may be so performed by Lâ—y men As among Inâ—idels or Papists where persecutiâ—n haâ—h killed imprisoned or expelled the Ministry p. 902 Q. 152. Is it Lawful to subscribe or profess full assent and consent to any religious Books besides the Scriptures seeing all men are fallible ibid. Q. 153. May we lawfully Swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our Lawful Pastors ibid. Q. 154. Must all our Preaching be upon some Text of Scripture p. 904 Q. 155. Is not the Law of Moses abrogated and the whâ—le Old Testament out of date and therefore not to be Read publickly and Preached ibid. Q. 156. Must we believe that Moses Law did ever bind other Nations or that any other parts of the Scripture bound them or belonged to them or that the Iews were all Gods visible Church on earth p. 905 Q. 157. Must we think accordingly of the Christian Churches nâ—w that they are only advanced above the rest of the World as the Iews were but not the only people that are saved p. 906 Q. 158. Should not Christians take up with Scripture wisdom only without studying Philosophy or other Heathens humane Learning p. 907 Q. 159. If we think that Scripture and the Law of Nature are in any point contradictory to each other Which must be the standard by which the other must be tryed p. 908 Q. 160. May we not look that God should yet give us more Revelations of his will than there are already made in Scripture ibid. Q. 161. Iâ— not a third Rule of the Holy Ghost or perfecter Kingdom of Love to be expected as different from the Reign of the Creator and Redeemer p. 909 Q. 162. May we not look for Miracles hereafter p. 910 Q. 163. Is the Scripture to be tryed by the spirit or the Spirit by the Scripture and which of them is to be preferred ibid. Q. 164. How is a pretended Prophet or Revelation to be tryed p. 911 Q. 165 May one be saved who believeth that the Scripture hath any mistake or errours and believeth it not all ibid. Q. 166. Who be they that give too little to the Scriptures and who too much and what is the danger of each extream p. 912 Q. 167. How far do good men now Preach and pray by the spirit p. 913 Q. 168. Are not our own Reasons studies memory strivings Books Forms Methods and Ministry needless yea a hurtful quenching or preventing of the Spirit and setting up our own instead of the spirits operations p. 914 Q. 169. How doth the Holy Ghost set Bishops over the Churches p. 914 Q. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-Lands much more the Ministry holy and What reverence is due to them as holy p. 915 Q. 171. What is Sacriledge and what not p. 916 Q. 172. Are all Religious private-meetings forbidden by Rulers unlawful Conventicles or are
clean and delectable and paved with mercies and fortified and secured by Divine protection and where Christ is your Conductor and so many have sped so well before you and the wisest and best in the world are your companions Live then as men that have changed their Master their end their hopes their way and work Religion layeth not men to sleep though it be the only way to Rest. It awakeneth the sleepy soul to higher thoughts and hopes and labours than ever it was well acquainted with before He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. You never sought that which would pay for all your cost and diligence till now You never were in a way that you might make haste in without repenting of your haste till now How glad should you be that Mercy hath brought you into the right way after the wanderings of such a sinful life And your gladness and thankfulness should now be shewed by your cheerful diligence and zeal As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from the dead to do nothing or live to little purpose though the Scripture giveth us not the history of his life So did he not raise you from the death of sin to live idely or to be unprofitable in the world He that giveth you his Spirit to be a principle of heavenly life within you expecteth that you stir up the gift that he hath given you and live according to that heavenly principle Direction 16. ENgage thy self in the chearful constant use of the means and helps appointed by God Direct 16. for thy confirmation and salvation § 1. He can never expect to attain the end that will not be perswaded to use the means Of your selves you can do nothing God giveth his help by the means which he hath appointed and fitted to your help Of the use of these I shall treat more fully afterwards I am now only to name them to thee that thou maist know what it is that thou hast to do 1. That you must hear or read the Word of God and other good Books which expound it and How Paenitents of old did rise even from a particular sin judge by these words of Pacianus Paâ—â—â—â—â—â— ad Poeâ—â—t Bibl. Pat. To. 3. p. 74. You must not only do that which may be seen of the Priest and praised by the Bishop to weep before the Church to lament a lost or sinful life in a â—ordid garment to fast pray to role on the earth if any invite you to the Bath or such pleasures to refuse to go If any bid you to a Feast to say These things are for the happy I have sinned against God and am in danger to perish for ever What should I do at Banquets who have wronged the Lord Besides these you must take the poor by the hand you must beseech the Widdow lye at the feet of the Presbyters beg of the Church to forgive you and pray for you you must try all means rather than perish apply it I shewed you before The new born Christian doth encline to this as the new born child doth to the breast 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes that desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Psal. 1. 2 3. The blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night § 2. 2. Another means is the publick worshipping of God in communion with his Church and people Besides the benefit of the word there preached the prayers of the Church are effectual for the members and it raiseth the soul to holy joyes to joyn with well ordered Assemblies of the Saints in the Praises of the Almighty The Assemblies of holy worshippers of God are the places of his delight and must be the places of our delight They are most like to the Celestial Society that sound forth the praises of the glorious Iebovah with purest minds and cheerful voice In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Psal. 29. 9. In such a Chore what soul will not be rapt up with delight and desire to joyn in the consort and harmony In such a flame of united desires and praises what soul so cold and dull that will not be enflamed and with more than ordinary facility and alacrity fly up to God § 3. 3. Another means is private prayer unto God When God would tell Ananias that Paul was converted he saith of him Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. Prayer is the breath of the new creature The Spirit of Adoption given to every child of God is a Spirit of prayer and teacheth them to cry Abba Father and helpeth their infirmities when they know not what to pray as they ought and when words are wanting it as it were intercedeth for them with groans which they cannot express in words Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 15 26 27. And God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit in those groans The first workings of grace are in Desires after grace provoking the soul to servent prayer by which more grace is speedily obtained Ask then and ye shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Luke 11. 9. § 4. 4. Another means to be used is Confession of sin not only to God for so every wicked man may do because he knoweth that God is already acquainted with it all and this is no addition to his shame He so little regardeth the eye of God that he is more ashamed when it is known to men But in three Cases Confession must be made also to Man 1. In case you have wronged man and are thus bound to make him satisfaction As if you have robbed him defrauded him slandered him or born false witness against him 2. In case you are Children or Servants that are under the government of Parents or Masters and are called by them to give an acount of your actions You are bound then to give a true account 3. In case you have need of the Counsel or Prayers of others for the setling of your consciences in peace In this case you must so far open your case to them as is necessary to their effectual help for your recovery For if they know not the disease they will be unfit to apply the remedy In these cases it is true that He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 13. § 5. 5. Another Means to be used is the familiar company and holy converse with humble sincere experienced Christians The Spirit that is in them and breatheth and acteth by them will kindle the like holy flames in you Away with the company of idle prating sensual men that can talk of nothing but their worldly wealth or business or their reputations or their appetites and lusts
In your Baptism you renounced the world with its pomps and vanity and now do you deifie what you then defied § 36. Temp. 18. Another Temptation is to draw on the sinner into such a custom in sin and long Tempt 18. neglect of the means of his Recovery till his Heart is utterly Hardened § 37. Direct 18. Against this read after Chap. 4. Part. 2. against Hardness of Heart Direct 18. Tempt 19. § 38. Temp. 19. Another Temptation is to Delay Repentance and purpose to do it hereafter § 39. Direct 19. Of this I entreat you to read the many Reasons which I have given to shame and Direct 19. waken delayers in my Book of Directions for a sound Conversion § 40. Tempt 20. The worst of all is to tempt them to flat unbelief of Scripture and the life Tempt 20. to come § 41. Direct 20. Against this read here Chap. 3. Dir. 1. Chap. 4. Part. 1. and my Treatise against Direct 20. Infidelity § 42. Temp. 21. If they will needs looks after Grace he will do all he can to deceive them with counterfeits Tempt 21. and make them take a seeming half conversion for a saving change § 43. Direct 21. Of this read my Directions for sound Conversion and the Formal Hypocrite and Direct 21. Saints Rest Part. 3. c. 10. § 44. Temp. 22. If he cannot make them flat Infidels he will tempt them to question and contradict Tempt 22. the sense of all those Texts of Scripture which are used to convince them and all those doctrines which grate most upon their galled consciences as of the Necessity of Regeneration the fewness of them that are saved the difficulty of salvation the torments of Hell the necessity of mortification and the sinfulness of all particular sins They will hearken what Cavillers can say for any sin and against any part of Godliness and with this they wilfully delude themselves § 45. Direct 22. But if men are resolved to joyn with the Devil and shut their eyes and â—avil Direct 22. against all that God speaketh to them to prevent their misery and know not because they will not know what remedy is left or who can save men against their wills This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil He that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3. 19 20. In Scripture some things are hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. Of particulars read the end of my Treatise of Conversion § 46. Temp. 23. Yea Satan will do his worst to make them Hereticks and teach them some doctrine Tempt 23. of licentiousness suitable is their lusts It s hard being wicked still against Conscience in the open light This is kicking against the pricks too smarting work to be easily born Therefore the Devil will make them a Religion which shall please them and do their sins no haâ—m Either a Religion made up of loose Opinions like the Familists Ranters Libertines and Antinomians and the Jesuites too much or else made up of trifling formalities and a great deal of bodily exercise and Stage-actings and complement as much of the Popish devotion is And a little will draw a carnal heart to believe a carnal doctrine It s easier to get such a new Religion than a new heart And then the Devil tells them that now they are in the right way and therefore they shall be saved A great part of the world think their case is good because they are of such or such a Sect or Party and of that which they are told by their Leaders is the true Church and way § 47. Direct 23. But remember that what ever Law you make to your selves God will judge Direct 23. you by his own Law Falsifying the Kings Coyn is no good way to pay a debt but an addition of Treason to your former misery It is a new and a holy heart and life and not a new Creed or a new Church or Sect that is necessary to your salvation It will never save you to be in the soundest Church on earth if you be unsound in it your selves and are but the dust in the Temple that must be swept ouâ— Much less will it save you to make your selves a Rule because Gods Rule doth seem too strict § 48. Tempt 24. Another way of the Tempter is to draw men to take up with meer Convictions Tempt 24. instead of true Conversion when they have but learnt that it is Necessary to salvation to be Regenerate and have the Spirit of Christ they are as quiet as if this were indeed to be regenerate and to have the Spirit As some think they have attained to perfection when they have but received the opinion that perfection may here be had so abundance think they have sanctification and forgiveness because now they see that they must be had and without sanctification there is no salvation And thus the knowledge of all Grace and Duty shall go with them for the grace and duty it self and their judgement of the thing instead of the possession of it and instead of having grace they force themselves to believe that they have it § 49. Direct 24. But remember God will not be mocked He knoweth a convinced head from Direct 24. a holy heart To think you are Rich will not make you rich To believe that you are well or to know the remedy is not enough to make you well You may dream that you eat and yet awake hungry Isa. 29. 8. All the Land or money which you see is not therefore your own To know that you should be holy maketh your unholiness to have no excuse Ahab did not scape by believing that he should return in peace Self-flattery in so great and weighty a case is the greatest folly If you know these things happy are ye if you do them John 13. 17. § 50. Tempt 25. Another great Temptation is by hiding from men the intrinsick evil and odiousness Tempt 25. of â—in What harm saith the Drunkard and Adulterer and voluptuous Sensualists is there in all this that Preachers make so great ado against it What hurt is this to God or man that they would make us believe we must be damned for it and that Christ dyed for it and that the Holy Ghost must mortifie it Wherefore say the Iews Ier. 16. 10. hath God pronounced all this great evil against us or what is our iniquity or what is our sin that we have committed He that knoweth not God knoweth not what sin against God is especially when the Love of it and Delight in it blindeth them § 51. Direct 25. Against this I intreat you to ponder on those forty intrinsecal evils in sin which Direct 25. I have after
hold it with any that will drive us from it unless we will commit some sin Statedly we must hold it with the Church which regularly we are joyned to and live with and Occasionally we must hold it with all others where we have a call and opportunity who in the substance worship God according to his Word and force us not to sin in conformity to them It is not Schism to lament the sins of any Church or of all the Churches in the world The Catholick Church on earth consists of sinners It is not Schism to refuse to be partaker in any sin of the purest Church in the world Obedience to God is not Schism It is not Schism that you joyn not Bodily with those Congregations where you dwell not nor have any particular call to joyn with them Nor that you choose the pureâ—â— and most edifying Society rather than one that is less pure and profitable to you â—aeteris paribus supposing you are at liberty nor that you hold not Bodily Communion with that Church that will not suffer you to do it without sinning against God Nor that you joyn not with the purest Church when you are called to abide with one less pure But it is worse than Schism to separate from the Universal Church To separate from its Faith iâ— Apostasie to infidelity To separate from it in some one or few essential Articles while you pretend to hold to Christ the Head is Heresie To separate from it in Spirit by refusing Holiness and not loveing such as are truly holy is damning ungodliness or wickedness To differ from it by any error of judgement or life against the Law of God is sin To magnifie any one Church or party so as to deny due Love and Communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity And this is the principal Schism that I here admonish you to avoid It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your Bodily Communion from a Church that you were bound to hold that Communion with upon a false supposâ—tion that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church Thus I have briefly told you what is Schism § 4. 1. One pretence for Schism is Usurped Authority which some one Church may claim tâ— Command others that owe them no subjection Thus Pride which is the Spirit of Hell having crepâ— into the Church of Christ and animated Usurpations of Lordship and Dominion and contending for superiority hath caused the most dangerous Schisms in the Church that ever it was infested with The Bishop of Rome advantaged by the Seat and Constitution of that Empire having claimed the Government of all the Christian world condemneth all the Churches that will not be his subjects And â—o hath made himself the Head of a Sect and of the most pernicious Schism that ever did rend the Church of Christ And the Bishop of Constantinople and too many more have followed the same Method in a lower degree exalting themselves above their Brethren and giving them Laws and then condemning and persecuting them that obey them not And when they have imposed upon other Churches their own usurped Authority and Laws they have laid the plot to call all men Schismaticks and Sectaries that own not their tyrannical Usurpation and that will not be Schismaticks and Sectaries with them And the cheat lyeth in this that they confound the Churches Unity with their pretended Authority and Schism with the refusal of subjection to them If you will not take them for your Lords they cry out that you divide from the Church As if we could hold Communion with no Churches but those whose Bishops we obey Communion with other Churches is maintained by Faith and Charity and Agreement in things necessary without subjection to them As we may hold all just Communion with the Churches in Armenia Arabia Russia without subjection to their Bishops so may we with any other Church besides that of which we are members Division or Schism is contrary to Unity and Concord and not to a Usurped Government Though disobedience to the Pastâ—rs which God hath set over us is a sin and dividing from them is a Schism Both the Pope and all the lower Usurpers should do well first to shew their Commission from God to be our Rulers before they call it Schism to refuse their Government If they had not made better advantage of Fire and Sword than of Scripture and Argument the world would but have laughed them to scorn when they had heard them say All are Schismaticks that will not be our Subjects Our Dominion and will shall be necessary to the Unity of the Church The Universal Church indeed is One united under One Head and Governour but it is only Jesus Christ that is that Head and not any Usurping Vicar or Vice-Christ The Bishops of particular Churches are his Officers but he hath Deputed no Vicar to his own Office as the Universal Head Above all Sects take heed of this pernicious Sect who pretend their Usurped Authority for their Schism and have no way to promote their Sect but by calling all Sectaries that will not be Sectaries and Subjects unto them § 5. 2. Another pretence for Schism is the Numbers of the Party This is another of the Papists motives As if it were lawful to Divide the Church of Christ if they can but get the greater party They say We are the most and therefore you should yield to us And so do others where by the Sword they force the most to submit to them But we answer them As many as they are they are too few to be the Universal Church The Universal Church containing all true professing Christians is much more than they The Papists are not a third part if a fourth of the whole Church Papists are a corrupted Sect of Christians I will be against Dividing the Body of Christ into any Sects rather than to be one of that Sect or divided party which is the greatest § 6. 3. Another pretence for Schism is the soundness or Orthodoxness of a Party Almost all Sects pretend that they are wiser and of sounder judgement than all the Christian World besides yea those that most palpably contradict the Scriptures as the Papists in their half-communion and unintelligible service and have no better reason why they will so Believe or Do but because others have so Believed and Done already But 1. The greatest pretenders to Orthodoxness are not the most Orthodox 2. And if they were I can value them for that in which they excell without abating my due respect to the rest of the Church 3. For the whole Church is Orthodox in
and all the secrets of the heart Psalm 44. 21. 94. 11. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15. 18. His understanding is infinite Psalm 147. 5. What praise doth that Goodness and Mercy deserve which is diffused throughout all the world and is the life and hope and happiness of men and Angels His Mercy is Great unto the Heavens and his Truth unto the Clouds Psalm 57. 10. O how great is his Goodness to them that fear him Psalm 31. 10. and therefore how great should be his Praise Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord and who can shew forth all his Praise Psalm 106. 2. For great is the Glory of the Lord Psalm 138. 5. § 15. 2. It is the end of all Gods wondrous works and especially the end which man was made for that all things else might Praise him Objectively and men and Angels in estimation and expression that his Glorious excellency might be visible in his works and be admired and extolled by the rational creature For this all things were created and are continued For this we have our understanding and our speech This is the fruit that God expecteth from all his works Deny him this and you are guilty of frustrating the whole creation as much as in you lieth You would have the Sun to shine in vain and the Heavens and Earth to stand in vain and man and all things to live in vain if you would not have God have the praiâ—e and Glory of his works Therefore Sun and Moon and Starrs and Firmament are called on to Praise the Lord Psalm 148. 2 3 4. as they are the matter for which he must by us be praised O praise him therefore for his mighty acts Praise him according to his excellent greatness Psalm 150. 2. O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare his wondrous works for the children of men Psalm 107. 8 c. Yea it is the end of Christ in the Redemption of the world and in saving his elect that God might in the Church in Earth and Heaven have the praise and glory of his grace Ephes. 1. 6 12 14. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that iâ— the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Heb. 13. 15. And let the redeemed of the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever Psalm 107. 2. For this all his Saints are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. § 16. 3. The Praise of God is the highest and noblest work in it self 1. It hath the highest object even the glorious excellencies of God Thanksgiving is somewhat lower as having more respect to our selves and the Benefits received But Praise is terminated directly on the perfections of God himself 2. It is that work that is most immediately neerest on God as he is Our end And as the end as such is better than all the means set together as such so are the final duties about the end greater than all the mediate duties 3. It is the work of the most excellent creatures of God the holy Angels They proclaimed the coming of Christ by way of Praise Luke 2. 13 14. Glory to God in the highest on earth peace Good-will towards men Psalm 103. 20. 148. 2. And as we must be equal to the Angels it must be in equal Praising God or else it will not be in equality of Glory 4. It is the work of Heaven the place and state of all perfection And that is best and highest which is nearest Heaven Where they rest not day nor night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Allmighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 8. 10. Rev. 19. 5. A voice came out of the throne saying Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him both small and great verse 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundrings saying Allelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready § 17. 4. It beseemeth us and much concerneth us to learn and exercise that work which in Heaven we must do for ever and that is to Love and joyfully Praise the Lord. For earth is but the place of our apprentiship for Heaven The preparing works of mortifying repentance must in their place be done but only as subservient to these which we must ever do When we shall sing the new song before the Lamb Thou art worthy For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us Kings and Priests unto our God Rev. 5. 9 10. Therefore the Primitive Church of believers is described as most like to Heaven Luke 24. 53. with great joy they were continually in the Temple Praising and blessing God O Praise the Lord therefore in the congregations of the Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Psalm 149. 1 2. Let the Saints be joyful in glory Let the high praises of God be in their mouths verse 5 6. § 18. 5. Though we are yet diseased sinners and in our warfare among enemies dangers and perplexities yet Praise is seasonable and suitable to our condition here as the greatest part of our duty which all the rest must but promote Pretend not that it is not fit for you because you are sinners and that humiliation only is suitable to your state For the design of your redemption the tenour of the Gospel and your own condition engage you to it Are they not engaged to Praise the Lord that are brought so near him to that end 1 Pet. 2 5. 9. that are reconciled to him To whom he hath given and forgiven so much 1 Tim. 1. 15. Tit. 3. 3 5. Psalm 103. 1 2 3. that have so many great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. that are the Temples of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in them and sanctifieth them to God That have a Christ interâ—â—ding for them in the highest Rom. 8. 33 34. That are allways safe in the arms of Christ that are guarded by Angels and Devils and enemies forbidden to touch them further than their father sâ—eth necessary for their good That have the Lord for their God Psalm 33. 12. 4. 8. That have his Saints for their companions and helpers That have so many ordinances to help their souls And so
20. Insomuch as it sâ—â—mâ—th one of the greatest impediments to the Conversion of the Heathen and Mahomâ—tan world and the chiefest means of confirming them in their Iâ—â—â—â—delity and making them hate and scorn Christianity that the Romish and the Eastern and Southern Churches within their view do worship God so dishonourably as they do as if our God were like a little Child that must have pretty toyes bought him in the Fair and brought home to please him Whereas it the unreformed Churches in the East West and South were Reformed and had a Learned Pious Able Ministry and clearly preached and seriously applyed the Word of God and worshipped God with understanding gravity reverence and serious spirituality and lived a holy heavenly mortified self-denying conversation this would be the way to propagate Christianity and win the Infidel world to Christ. § 43. Direct 12. If you will glorifie God in your lives you must be above a selfish private narrow Direct 12. mind and must be chiefly intent upon the publick good and the spreading of the Gospel through the world A selfish private narrow soul brings little honour to the cause of God It s alwayes taken up about it self or imprisoned in a corner in the dark to the interest of some Sect or Party and seeth not how things go in the world Its desires and prayers and endeavours go no further than they can see or travel But a larger soul beholdeth all the earth and is desirous to know how it goeth with the Cause and Servants of the Lord and how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving Nations and such are affected with the state of the Church a thousand miles off almost as if it were at hand as being members of the whole body of Christ and not only of a Sect. They pray for the Hallowing of Gods Name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will throughout the Earth as it is in Heaven before they come to their own necessities at least in order of esteem and desire The prosperity of themselves or their Party or Countrey satisfieth them not while the Church abroad is in distress They live as those that know the Honour of God is more concerned in the welfare of the whole than in the success of any party against the rest They pray that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified abroad as it is with them and the Preachers of it be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men 2 Thess. 3. 1 2. The silencing the Ministers and suppressing the interest of Christ and souls is the most grievous tydings to them Therefore they pray for Kings and all in authority not for any carnal ends but that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. Thus God must be glorified by our Lives DIRECT XVI Let your life on Earth be a conversation in Heaven by the constant work of Gr. Dir. 16. Faith and Love even such a faith as maketh things future as now present and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your sight and such a Love as makes you long to see the glorious face of God and the glory of your dear Redeemer and to be taken up with blessed Spirits in his perfect endless Love and Praise MY Treatise of The Life of Faith and the fourth Part of The Saints Rest being written wholly or mostly to this use I must refer the Reader to them and say no more of it in this Direction DIRECT XVII As the soul must be carried up to God and devoted to him according to all the Gr. Dir. 17. foregoing Directions so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness or flesh-pleasing I pass not this by as a small matter to be passed by also by the Reader For I take the Love of God kindled by Faith in Christ with the full Denyal of our carnal selves to be the sum of all Religion But because I would not injure so great a duty by saying but a little of it And therefore desire the Reader who studieth for Practice and needeth such helps to peruse the mentioned Books of Self-denyal and Crucifying the World which is the grand enemy to God and Godliness in the world and from the three great branches of this Idolatry viz. the Love of sensual pleasures the Love of worldly wealth and the proud desire and Love of worldly honour and esteem And the mortifying of these must be much of the labour of your lives OF this also I have written so much in a Treatise of Self-denyal and in another called The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ that I shall now pass by all save what will be more seasonable anon under the more Particular Directions in the fourth Tome when I come to speak of Selfishness as opposed to the Love of others I Have now given you the General Grand Directions containing the very Being and Life of Godliness and Christianity with those particular sub-directions which are needful to the performance of them And I must tell you that as your life and strength and comfort principally depend on these so doth your success in resisting all your particular sins And therefore if you first obey not these General Directions the more particular ones that follow will be almost useless to you even as branches cut off from the Stock of the Tree which are deprived thereby of their support and life But upon supposition that first you will maintain these Vital parts of your Religion I shall proceed to Direct you first in some particulars most nearly subordinate to the forementioned duties and then to the remoter branches APPENDIX The true Doctrine of LOVE to GOD to HOLINESS to OUR SELVES and to OTHERS opened in certain Propositions Especially for resolving the Questions what self-love is lawful What sinful Whether God must be loved above our own felicity And how Whether to Love our felicity more than God may stand with a state of saving grace Whether it be a middle state between sensuality and the Divine nature to Love God more for our selves than for Himself Whether to Love God for our selves be the state of a Believer as he is under the promise of the New Covenant And whether the spirit and sanctification promised to Believers be the Love of God for himself and so the Divine nature promised to him that chooseth Christ and God by him out of self-love for his own felicity How God supposeth and worketh on the principle of self-love in mans Conversion With many such like To avoid the tediousness of a distinct debating each Question THough these things principally belong to the Theorie and so to another Treatise in hand called Methodus Theologiae yet because they are also Practical and have a great influence upon the more Practical Directions and the right understanding of them may help the Reader himself to determine a multitude of Cases of Conscience the
Actions divers from that which commandeth my affections As those that put children relations families neighbours under our especiall charge and care though often others must be more loved 20. That Good which is the object of Love is not a meer Universal or General notion but is allwaies some particular or singular being in esse reali vel in esse cognito As there is no such thing in rerum natura as Good in a meer General which is neither the Good of natural existence or of moral perfection or of Pleasure Profit Honour c. Yea which is not in this or in that singular subject or so conceived so there is no such thing as Love which hath not some such singular object As Rada and other Scotists have made plain 21. All Good is either GOD or a CREATURE or a Creatures Act or Work 22. GOD is GOOD Infinitely Eternally Primitively Independently Immutably Communicatively of whom and by whom and to whom are all things The Beginning or first efficient the Dirigent and ultimately ultimate cause of all created Good As Making and Directing All things For Himself 23. Therefore it is the duty of the Intellectual Creature to Love God Totally without any exceptions or restrictions with all the Power Mind and Will not only in degree above our selves and all the world But also as GOD with a Love in kind transcending the Love of every Creature 24. All the Goodness of the Creature doth formally consist in its threefold Relation to GOD viz. 1. In the Impresses of God as its first Efficient or Creator as it is his Image or the effect and demonstration of his perfections viz. his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness 2 In its Conformity to his Directions or Governing Laws and so in its Order and Obedience 3. And in its Aptitude and Tendency to God as its final cause even to the demonstration of his Glory and the Complacency of his Will 25. All Created Good is therefore Derivative Dependant Contingent Finite Secondary From God By God and To God receiving its Form and Measure from its respect to Him 26. Yet as it may be subordinately From man as the Principle of his own Actions and By man as a subordinate Ruler of himself or others and To man as a subordinate End so there is accordingly a subordinate sort of Goodness which is so denominated from these respects unto the Creature that is himself Good subordinately 27. But all this subordinate Goodness Bonum à nobis Bonum per nos Bonum nobis is but Analogically so and dependantly on the former sort of Goodness and is something in due subordination to it and against it nothing that is not properly Good 28. The best and excellentest Creatures in the foresaid Goodness-related to God are most to be loved and all according to the Degree of their Goodness more than as Good in relation to our selves 29. But seeing their Goodness is formally their Relation unto God it followeth that they are Loved 〈◊〉 only for his sake and consequently Gods Image or Glory in them is first Loved and so the true Love of any Creature is but a secondary sort of the Love of God 30. The best being next to God is the universe or whole Creation and therefore next him most to be loved by us 31. The next in Amiableness is the whole coelestial society Christ Angels and Saints 32. The next when we come to distinguish them is Christs own Created Glorified Nature in the Person of the Mediator Because Gods Glory or Image is most upon him 33. The next in Amiableness is the whole Angelical society or the orders of Intellectual Spirits above man 34. The next is the spirits of the Just made perfect or the Triumphant Church of Saints in Heaven 35. The next is all this lower world 36. The next is the Church in the world or militant on earth 37. The next are the particular Kingdoms and Societies of the world and so the Churches according to their various degrees 38. The next under societies and multitudes are those individual persons who are Best in the three fore-mentioned respects Whether our selves or others And thus by the objects should our Love that is Rational be diversified in Degree and that be Loved best that is best 39. The Amiable Image of God in man is as hath oft been said 1. Our Natural Image of God or the Image of his three Essential properties as such that is Our Vital Active Power our Intellect and our will 2. Our Moral Image or the Image of his said properties in their perfections viz. Our Holiness that is Our Holy Life or spiritual vivacity and Active Power Our Holy Light or Wisdom our Holy Wills or Love 3. Our Relative Image of God or the Image of his Supereminencie Dominion or Majesty which is 1. Common to Man in respect to the Inferiour Creatures that we are their Owners Governâ—rs and End and Benefactors 2. Eminently in Rulers of Men Parents and Princes who are Analogically sub-owners sub-rulers and sub-benefactors to their inferiors in various degrees By which it is discernable what it is that we are to Love in man and with what variety of kinds and degrees of Love as the Kinds and degrees of amiableness in the objects differ 40. Even the Sun and Moon and frame of Nature the Inanimates and Bruits must be Loved in that Degree Compared to Man and to one another as their Goodness before described that is the Impressions of the Divine perfections do more or less Gloriously appear in them and as they are adapted to him the ultimate end 41. As God is in this life seen but darkly and as in a Glass so also proportionably to be Loved For our Love cannot exceed our Knowledge 42. Yet it followeth not that we must Love him only as he appareth in his works which demonstrate him as effects do their cause For both by the said works improved by Reason and by his word we know that he is before his works and above them and so distinct from them as to transcend and comprehend and cause them all by a continual causality And therefore he must accordingly be Loved 43. It greatly hindereth our Love to God when we overlook all the intermediate excellencies between Him and us which are much better and therefore more amiable than our selves such as are before recited 44. The Love of the universe as bearing the liveliest Image or impress of their Cause is an eminent secondary Love of God and a great help to our Primary or Immediate Love of him Could we comprehend the Glorious excellency of the universal Creation in its matter form parts order and uses we should see so Glorious an Image of God as would unspeakably promote the work of Love 45. Whether the GLORY of God in HEAVEN which will for ever beatifie the beholders and possessors be the Divine Essence which is every where or a Created Glory purposely there placed for the felicity of holy spirits and
what that Glory is are questions fittest for the beholders and possessors to resolve 46. But if it be no more than the Universal existent frame of Nature Containing all the Creatures of God beheld uno intuitu in the Nature order and use of all the parts it would be an unconceivable felicity to the beholders as being an unconceivable Glorious Demonstation of the Deity 47. It is lawful and a needful duty to labour by the means of such excellencies as we now know which Heaven is resembled to in Scripture to imprint upon our Imaginations themselves such an image of the GLORY of the Heavenly Society CHRIST ANGELS SAINTS and the HEAVENLY PLACE and STATE as shall help our Intellectual apprehensions of the Spiritual Excellencies which transcend imagination And the neglect of Loving God as foreseen in the Demonstration of the Heavenly GLORY doth greatly hinder our Love to him immediately as in himself considered 48. The LORD JESUS CHRIST in his Glorified Created Nature is Crowned with the highest excellency of any particular Creature that he might be the MEDIATOR OF OUR LOVE to God and in him seen by faith we might see the GLORY of the Deity And as in Heaven we shall have spiritual Glorified Bodies as well as Souls so the Glorified Created Nature of Christ will be an Objective Glory fit for our Bodies at least to behold in order to their Glory as the Divine Nature as it pleaseth God in Glory revealed will be to the soul. 49. The exercise of our Love upon God as now appearing to the glorified in the glorious created nature of CHRIST beheld by us by faith is a great part of our present exercise of Divine Love And we extinguish our Love to GOD by beholding so little by faith our glorified Mediator 50. We owe greater Love to ANGELS than to Men because they are Better nearer God and liker to him and more demonstrate his Glory and indeed also Love us better and do more for us than we can do for one another And the neglect of our due Love and Gratitude to Angels and forgetting our relation to them and receivings by them and communion with them and living as if we had little to do with them is a culpable overlooking God as he appeareth in his most noble creatures and is a neglect of our Love to God in them and a great hinderance to our higher more immediate Love Therefore by Faith and Love we should exercise a daily converse with Angels as part of our heavenly conversation Phil. 3. 20 21. Heb. 12. 22. and use our selves to Love God in them Though not to pray to them or give them Divine Worship 51. We must Love the glorified Saints more than the inhabitants of this lower world because they are far better and liker to God and nearer to him and more demonstrate his holiness and glory And our neglect of conversing with them by faith and of Loving them above our selves and things on earth is a neglect of our Love to God in them and a hinderance of our more immediate Love And a Loving Conversation with them by faith would greatly help our higher Love to God 52. Our neglect of Love to the Church on earth and to the Kingdoms and publick Societies of mankind is a sinful neglect of our Love to God in them and a hinderance of our higher Love to him And the true use of such a Publick Love would greatly further our higher Love 53. If those Heathens who laid down their Lives for their Countreys had neither done this for fame nor meerly as esteeming the temporal good of their Countrey above their own temporal good and lives but for the true excellency of Many above One and for Gods greater Interest in them they had done a most noble holy work 54. Our adherence to our carnal selves first and then to our carnal interests and friends and neglecting the Love of the highest excellencies in the servants of God and not Loving men according to the measure of the Image of God on them and their Relation to him is a great neglect of our Love of God in them and a hinderance of our higher immediate Love And to use our selves to Love men as God appeareth in them would much promote our higher Love And so we should Love the best of men above our selves 55. The Loving of our selves sensually preferring our present Life and earthly Pleasure before our higher spiritual felicity in Heaven and our neglecting to Love Holiness and seek it for our selves and then to Love God in our selves is a neglect and hinderance of the Love of God 56. Man hath not lost so much of the knowledge and Love of God as appearing in his Greatness and Wisdom and Natural Goodness in the frame of Nature as he is the Author of the creatures natural goodness as he hath of the knowledge and Love of his Holiness as he is the Holy Ruler Sanctifier and End of souls 57. The sensitive faculty and sensitive Interest are still predominant in a carnal or sensual man And his Reason is voluntarily enslaved to his sense so that even the Intellectual Appetite contrary to its primitive and sound nature Loveth chiefly the sensitive Life and Pleasure 58. It is therefore exceeding hard in this depraved state of nature to Love God or any thing better than our selves because we Love more by Sense than by Reason and Reason is weak and serveth the interest of Sense 59. Yet the same man who is prevalently sensual may know that he hath a rational immortal soul and that Knowledge and Rectitude are the Felicity of this soul and that it is the Knowledge and Love of and Delight in God the highest Good that can make him perpetually happy And therefore as these are apprehended as a means of his own Felicity he may have some kind of Love or Will unto them all 60. The thing therefore that every carnal man would have is an everlasting perfect sensual pleasure And he apprehendeth the state of his souls perfection mostly as consisting in this kind of felicity And even the Knowledge and Love of God which he taketh for part of his felicity is principally apprehended but as a speculative gratifying of the imagination as carnal men now desire knowledge Or if there be a righter notion of God and Holiness to be Loved for themselves even ultimately above our sensual pleasure and our selves yet this is but an uneffectual dreaming Knowledge producing but an answerable lazy wish And it will not here prevail against the stronger Love of sensuality and phantastical pleasure nor against inordinate self-love And it is a sensual Heaven under a spiritual Name which the carnal hope for 61. This carnal man may Love God as a Means to this Felicity so dreamed of as knowing that without him it cannot be had and tasting corporal comforts from him here And he may Love Holiness as it removeth his contrary calamities and as he thinks it is crowned with
Unbelief is one of the Causes of them and the sinfullest Cause § 2. And that the Article of Remission of sin is to be Believed with application to our selves is certain The Article of Remission of sin to be believed applyingly But not with the application of Assurance Perswasion or Belief that we are already pardoned but with an applying Acceptance of an offered pardon and Consent to the Covenant which maketh it ours We believe that Christ hath purchased Remission of sin and made a Conditional Grant of it in his Gospel to all viz. if they will Repent and Believe in him or take him for their Saviour or become Penitent Christians And we consent to do so and to accept it on these terms And we believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent § 3. By all this you may perceive that those troubled Christians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God but only of their own sincerity and consequently of their Justification and Salvation do ignorantly complain that they have not faith or that they cannot believe For it is no act of unbelief at all for me to doubt whether my own heart be sincere This is my ignorance of my self but it is not any degree of unbelief For Gods Word doth no where say that I am sincere and therefore I may doubt of this without doubting of Gods Word at all And let all troubled Christians know that they have no more unbelief in them than they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of God Even that despair it self which hath none of this in it hath no unbelief in it iâ— there be any such I thought it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is before I come to give you Directions against it And though the meer doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all yet real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures is so common and dangerous a sin and some degree of it is latent in the best that I think we can no way so much further the work of Grace as by destroying this The weakness of our faith in the truth of Scriptures and the remnant of our unbelief of it is the principal cause of all the languishings of our Love and Obedience and every Grace and to strengthen faith is to strengthen all What I have â—ullier written in my Saints Rest Part 2. and my Treatise against Infidelity I here suppose § 4. Direct 1. Consider well how much of Religion Nature it self teacheth and Reason without Direct 1. supernatural Revelation must needs confess as that there is another life which man was made for and that he is obliged to the fullest Love and Obedience to God and the rest before laid down 〈…〉 in the world are perpetual visible Evidences in my eyes of the truth of the Holy Scriptures 1 That there should be so Universal and implacable a hatred against the godly in the common sort â—f unrenewed men in all Agâ—â— and Nations of the Earâ—h when thâ—se men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong â—s a visible proof of Adams fall and he 〈◊〉 of a Saviour and a Sanctifier 2 That all those who are seriously Christians should be so far renewed and recovered from the common corruption as their heavenly â—inds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth â—o â—lainly shew a particular special Providence in the converting and confirming souls by differencing Grace and work on the soul as the sanctified feel doth shew that indeed the work is his 4. That God doth so plainly grant many of his Servants prayers by special Providences doth prove his owning them and his 〈◊〉 5. That God suffereth his Servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so much for his Love and Service from the world and flâ—sh dâ—â—h shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ— and thâ—n how should his Government of men be just 6. That the Renewed Nature which maketh men better and therefore is of God doth wholly look at the life to come and lead us to â—t and live upon it this sheweth that such a life there is or else this would be delusory and vain and Goodness it self would be a deceit 7. When it is undenyable that de facto esse the world is not Governed without the Hopes and Fears of another life almost all Nations among the Heathens believing iâ— and shewing by their very worshipping their dead Heroes as Gods that they believed that their soulâ— did live and even the wicked generally being restrained by those hopes and fears in themselves And also that de posse it is not pâ—â—â—â—ible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wâ—â—se than Beasts and all Villanies would be the allowed practice of the world As every man may feel in himself what he were like to be and do if he had no such restraint And there being no Doctrine or Life comparable to Christianity in their tendency to the life to come All these are visible staâ—ding evidences assisted so much by common sense and reason and still apparent to all that they leave Infidelity without excuse and are ever at hand to help our faith and resist temptations to unbelief 8. And if the world had not had a Beginning according to the Scriptures 1. We should have found Monuments of Antiquity above sâ—x thousand years old 2. Arts and Sciences would have come to more perfection and Printing Guns c. not have been of so late invention 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world would not have been yet uninhabited unplanted or undiscovered Of Aâ—heâ—sm I have spoken before in the Introduction and Nature so clearly revealeth a God that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men in the Introduction And then observe how congruously the doctrine of Christ comes in to help where Nature is at a loss and how exactly it suits with Natural Truths and how clearly it explaineth them and fully containeth so much of them as are necessary to salvation and how suitable and proper a means it is to attain their Ends and how great a testimony the Doctrines of Nature and Grace do give unto each other § 5. Direct 2. Consider that mans End being in the life to come and God being the righteous and Direct 2. merciful Governour of man in order to that End it must needs be that God will give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that end And that the clearest fullest means must needs demonstrate most of the Government and Mercy of God § 6. Direct 3. Consider what full and sad experience the world hath of its pravity and great
didst omit Thou hast an offended God to be reconciled to and for thy estranged soul to know as thy Father in Jesus Christ what abundance of Scripture truths hast thou to learn which thou art ignorant of How many holy duties as Prayer Meditation holy conference c. to learn which thou art unskilful in and to perform when thou hast learned them How many works of Justice and Charity to mens souls and bodies hast thou to do How many needy ones to relieve as thou art able and the sick to visit and the naked to cloath and the sad to comfort and the ignorant to instruct and the ungodly to exhort Heb. 3. 13. Heb. 10. 25. Ephes. 4. 29. what abundance of duty hast thou to perform in thy Relations to Parents or Children to Husband or Wife as a Master or a Servant and the rest Thou little knowest what sufferings thou hast to prepare for Thou hast Faith and Love and Repentance and patience and all Gods graces to get and to exercise daily and to increase Thou hast thy accounts to prepare and assurance of salvation to obtain and Death and Judgement to prepare for what thinks thy heart of all this work Put it off as lightly as thou wilt it is God himself that hath laid it on thee and it must be done in time or thou must be undone for ever And yet it must not be thy toyl but thy delight This is appointed thee for thy chiefest recreation Look into the Scripture and into thy Heart and thou wilt find that all this is to be done And dost thou think in thy Conscience that this is not greater business than thy gawdy dressings thy idle visits or thy needless sports which is more worthy of thy Time § 10. Direct 3. Remember how gainful the Redeeming of Time is and how exceeding comfortable Direct 3. in the review In Merchandize or any trading in husbandry or any gaining course we use to say of a man that hath grown rich by it that he hath made use of his Time But when Heaven and communion with God in the way and a life of holy strength and comfort and a death full of joy and hope is to be the gain how cheerfully should Time be Redeemed for these If it be pleasant for a man to find himself thrive and prosper in any rising or pleasing employment How pleasant must it be continually to us to find that in redeeming Time the work of God and our souls do prosper Look back now on the Time that is past and tell me which part is sweetest to thy thoughts However it be now I can tell thee at death it will be an unspeakable comfort to look back on a well spent life and to be able to say in humble sincerity My time was not cast away on worldliness ambition idleness or fleshly vanities or pleasures but spent in the sincere and laborious service of my God and making my calling and election sure and doing all the good to mens souls and bodies that I could do in the world It was entirely devoted to God and his Church and the good of others and my soul What a joy is it when going out of the world we can in our place and measure say with our blessed Lord and pattern John 17. 4 5. I have Glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now O Father glorifie me with thy self Or as Paul 1 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Iudge shall give And 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdâ—m we have had our conversation in the world It s a great comfort in sickness to be able to say with Hezekiah Isa 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight O Time well spent is a precious cordial to a soul that is going to its final sentence and is making up its last and general accounts Yea the reviews of it will be joyful in Heaven which is given though most freely by the Covenant antecedently yet as a Reward by our most righteous judge when he comes to sentence men according to that Covenant § 11. Direct 4. Consider on the contrary how sad the review of ill spent time is and how you will Direct 4. wish you had spent it when it is gone Hast thou now any comfort in looking back on thy despised hours I will not so far wrong thy understanding as to question whether thou know that thou must die But thy sin alloweth me to ask thee Whether at thy dying hour it will be any comfort to thee to remember thy pastimes And whether it will then better please thee to find upon thy account so many hours spent in doing good to others and so many in prayer and studying the Scriptures and thy Heart and in preparing for death and the life to come so many in thy calling obediently managed in order to eternity or to hear so many hours spent in idleness and so many in needless sports and plays hawking and hunting courting and wantonness and so many in gathering and providing for the flesh and so many in satisfying its greedy lusts Which reckoning doth thy Conscience think would be most comfortable to thee at the last I put it to thy own Conscience if thou were to die to morrow how thou wouldst spend this present day Wouldst thou spend it in idleness and vain pastimes Or if thou were to die this day where wouldst thou be found and about what exercises Hadst thou rather death found thee in a Play-house a Gaming-house an A L E house in thy fleshly jollity and pleasure Or in a holy walking with thy God and serious preparing for the life to come Perhaps you 'l say that If you had but a day to live you would lay by the labours of your calling and yet that doth not prove them sinful But I answer There is a great difference between an evil and a small unseasonable Good If death found thee in thy honest calling holily managed Conscience would not trouble thee for it as a sin And if thou rather choose to die in prayer it is but to choose a greater duty in its season But sure thou wouldst be loth on another account to be found in thy Time-wasâ—â—ing pleasures And Conscience if thou have a Conscience would make thee drâ—ad it as a sâ—n Thou wilt not wish at death that thou hadst never laboured in thy lawful calling though thou wouldst be found in a more seasonable work But thou wilt wish then if thou
her discontent yet the case must be resolved by such considerations And a prudent man that knoweth what is like to be the consequent on both sides may and must accordingly determine it 4. But ordinarily the life health or preservation of so proud luxurious and passionate a woman is not worth the saving at so dear a rate as the wasting of a considerable estate which might be used to relieve a multitude of the poor and perhaps to save the lives of many that are worthier to live And 1. A mans duty to relieve the poor and provide for his family is so great 2. And the account that all men must give of the use of their Talents is so strict that it must be a great reason indeed that must allow him to give way to very great wastfulness And unless there be somewhat extraordinary in the case it were better deal with such a Woman as a Bedlam and if she will be mad to use her as the mad are used than for a steward of God to suffer the Devil to be served with his masters goods Lastly I must charge the Reader to remember that both these cases are very rare and it is but few Women that are so lyable to so great mischiefs which may not be prevented at cheaper rates And therefore that the Indulgence given in these decisions is nothing to the greater part of men nor is to be extended to ordinary Cases But commonly men every where sin by omission of a stricter Government of their families and by Eli's sinful indulgence and remisness And though a Wife must be Governed as a Wife and a Child as a Child yet all must be governed as well as servants And though it may be truly said that a man cannot hinder that sin which he cannot hinder but by sin or by contributing to a greater hurt yet it is to be concluded that every man is bound to hinder sin whenever he is able lawfully to hinder it And by the same measures Tolerations or not-hindering Errours and sins about Religion in Church and Common-wealth is to be judged of None must commit them or approve them nor forbear any duty of their own to cure them But that is not a duty which is destructive which would be a duty when it were a means of edifying CHAP. X. The Duties of Parents for their Children OF how great importance the wise and holy Education of Children is to the saving of their souls and the comfort of the Parents and the good of Church and State and the happiness of the World I have partly told you before but no man is able fully to express And how great that calamity is which the World is faln into through the neglect of that duty no heart can conceive But they that think what a case the Heathen Infidel and ungodly Nations are in and how rare true piety is grown and how many millions must lie in Hell for ever will know so much of this inhumane negligence as to abhor it § 1. Direct 1. Understand and lament the corrupted and miserable state of your Children which they Direct 1. have derived from you and thank fully accept the offers of a Saviour for your selves and them and â—bsolutely See my Treat for Infant Baptism resign and dedicate them to God in Christ in the sacred Covenant and solemnize this Dedication and Covenant by their Baptism And to this end understand the command of God for entring your Children solemnly into Covenant with him and the Covenant-mercies belonging to them thereupon Rom. 5. 12 16 17 18. Ephes. 2. 1 3. Gen. 17. 4 13 14. Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Rom. 11. 17 20. Joh. 3. 3 5. Mat. 19. 13 14. You cannot sincerely dedicate your selves to God but you must dedicate to him all that is yours and in your power and therefore your Children as far as they are in your power And as Nature hath taught you your Power and your duty to enter them in their infancy into any Covenant with man which is certainly for their good and if they refuse the conditions when they come to age they forfeir the benefit so nature teacheth you much more to oblige them to God for their far greater good in case he will admit them into Covenant with him And that he will admit them into his Covenant and that you ought to enter them into it is past doubt in the evidence which the Scripture giveth us that from Abrahams time till Christ it was so with all the Children of his people Nay no man can prove that before Abrahams Time or since God had ever a Church on Earth of which the Infants of his servants if they had any were not members dedicated in Covenant to God till of late times that a few began to scruple the lawfulness of this As it is a comfort to you if the King would bestow upon your Infant-Children who were tainted by their Fathers treason not only a full discharge from the blot of that offence but also the titles and estates of Lords though they understand none of this till they come to age so is it much more matter of comfort to you on their behalf that God in Christ will pardon their Original sin and take them as his Children and give them title to everlasting life which are the mercies of his Covenant § 2. Direct 2. As soon as they are capable teach them what a Covenant they are in and what are Direct 2. the benefits and what the conditions that their souls may gladly consent to it when they understand it and you may bring them seriously to renew their Covenant with God in their own persons But the whole order of Teaching both Children and Servants I shall give you after by it self and therefore shall here pass by all that except that which is to be done more by your familiar converse than by more solemn teaching § 3. Direct 3. Train them up in exact obedience to your selves and break them of their own Direct 3. wills To that end suffer them not to carry themselves unreverently or contemptuously towards you but to keep their distance For too much Familiarity breedeth contempt and emboldeneth to disobedience The common course of Parents is to please their Children so long by letting them have what they crave and what they will till their wills are so used to be fulfilled that they cannot endure to have them denyed and so can endure no Government because they endure no crossing of their wills To be Obedient is to renounce their own wills and be ruled by their Parents or Governours wills To use them therefore to have their own wills is to teach them disobedience and harden and use them to a kind of impossibility of obeying Tell them oft familiarly and lovingly of the excellency of obedience and how it pleaseth God and what need they have of Government and how unfit they are to govern themselves and how dangerous it is to Children
some notable yea or ordinary providence which did lately occurr 5. Or of some examples of good or evil that are fresh before you 6. Or of the right doing of the duty that you are about or any such like helps Direct 5. § 7. Direct 5. Talk not of vain unprofitable controversies nor often of small circumstantial matters that make but little to edification For there may be idle talking about matters of Religion as well as about other smaller things Especially see that the quarrells of the times engage not your thoughts and speeches too far into a course of unprofitableness or contention § 8. Direct 6. Furnish your selves before hand with matter for the most edifying discourse and never Direct 7. go abroad empty And let the matter be usually 1. Things of weight and not small matters 2. Things of certainty and not uncertain things Particularly the fittest subjects for your ordinary discourse are these 1. God himself with his Attributes Relations and Works 2. The great mysterie of mans Redemption by Christ His person office sufferings doctrine example and work His resurrection ascension glory intercession and all the priviledges of his Saints 3. The Covenant of Grace the promises the duties the conditions and the threatnings 4. The workings of the Spirit of Christ upon the soul and every grace of the Spirit in us with all the signs and helps and hinderances of it 5. The wayes and wiles of Satan and all our spiritual enemies the particular temptations which we are in danger of what they are and how to avoid them and what are the most powerful helps against them 6. The corruption and deceitfulness of the heart The nature and workings effects and signs of ignorance unbelief hypocrisie pride sensuality worldliness impiety injustice intemperance uncharitableness and every other sin with all the helps against them all 7. The many duties to God and man which we have to perform both internal and external and how to do them and what are the chiefest hindrances and helps As in reading hearing meditating prayer giving alms c. And the duties of our Relations and several places with the contrary sins 8. The Vanity of the world and deceitfulness of all earthly things 9. The powerful Reasons used by Christ to draw us to holiness and the unreasonable madness of all that is brought against it by the Devil or by wicked men 9. Of the sufferings which we must expect and be prepared for 10. O◠death and the preparations that will then be found necessary and how to make ready for so great a change 11. Of the day of judgement and who will be then justified and who condemned 12. Of the joyes of Heaven the employment the company the nature and duration 13. Of the miseries of the damned and the thoughts that then they will have of their former life on earth 14. Of the state of the Church on earth and what we ought to do in our places for its welfare Is there not matter enough in all these great and weighty points for your hourly meditation and conference § 9. Direct 7. Take heed of proud self-conceitedness in your conference Speak not with supercilious Direct 7. censorious confidence Let not the weak take on them to be wiser than they are Be readier to speak by way of Question as Learners than as Teachers of others unless you are sure that they have much more need to be taught by you than you by them It 's ordinary for novices in Religion to cast all their discourse into a Teaching strain or to make themselves Preachers before they understand It is a most loathsome and pitiful hearing and yet too ordinary to hear a raw self-conceited ungrounded unexperienced person to prate magisterially and censure confidently the doctrine or practices or persons of those that are much better and wiser than themselves If you meet with this proud censorious spirit rebuke it first and read to them Iam. 3. and if they go on turn away from them and avoid them for they know not what manner of spirit they are of they serve not the Lord Jesus whatever they pretend or think themselves but are proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and making divisions in the Church of God and ready to fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. 6. 3 4 5 Rom. 16. 17. Luk. 9. 55. Direct 8. § 10. Direct 8. Let the wisest in the company and not the weakest have most of the discourse But yet if any one that is of an abler tongue than the rest do make any determinations in doubtful controverted points take heed of a hasty receiving his judgement let his reasons seem never so plausible or probable but put down all such opinions as doubts and move them to your Teachers or some other impartial able men before you entertain them Otherwise he that hath most wit and tongue in the company might carry away all the rest into what errour or heresie he please and subvert their faith when he stops their mouths § 11. Direct 9. Let the matter of your speech be suitable to your end even to the good of your Direct 9. selves or others which you seek The same subject that is fit for one company is very unfit for others Learned men and ignorant men pious men and prophane men are not fit for the same kind of discourse The medicine must be carefully fitted to the disease § 12. Direct 10. Let your speech be seasonable when prudence telleth you it is not like to do more Direct 10. harm than good There is a season for the prudent to be silent and refrain even from good talk Amos 5. 17. Psal. 39. 1 2. Cast not Pearls before Swine and give not holy things to Dogs that you know will turn again and rend you Matth. 7. 6. Yea and among good people themselves there is a time to speak and a time to be silent Eccles. 3. 7. There may possibly be such excess as tendeth to the tiring of the hearers and more may be cram'd in than they can digest and surfetting may make them loath it afterwards You must give none more than they can bear And also the matters of your business and callings must be talkt of in their time and place § 13. Direct 11. Let all your speech of holy things be with the greatest seriousness and reverence Direct 11. that you are able Let the words be never so good yet levity and rudeness may make them to be prophane God and holy things should not be talkt of in a common manner But the gravity of your speech should tell the hearers that you take them not for small or common matters If servants and others that live near together would converse and speak as the Oracles of God how holy and heavenly and happy would such families or societies be CHAP. XVII Directions for each particular member of the Family how to spend every ordinary day of
prayed against the Christians while he ignorantly persecuted them And they that think they do God service by killing his servants no doubt would pray against them as the Papists and others do at this day Be specially careful therefore that your Iudgements and Desires be found and holy before you offer them up to God in prayer For it is a most vile abuse of God to beg of him to do the Devils work and as most malitious and erroneous persons do to call him to their help against himself his servants and his cause § 10. Direct 9. Come alwayes to God in the humility that beseemeth a condemned sinner and in Direct 99. the faith and boldness that beseemeth a Son and a member of Christ Do nothing in the least conceit and confidence of a worthiness in your selves but be as confident in every lawful request as if you saw your Glorified Mediator interceding for you with his Father Hope is the Life of Prayer and all endeavour and Christ is the Life of Hope If you pray and think you shall be never the better for it your prayers will have little life And there is no hope of success but through our powerful intercessor Therefore let both a Crucified and Glorified Christ be alwayes before your eyes in prayer Not in a Picture but in the thoughts of a believing mind Instead of a Crucifix let some such sentence of holy Scripture be written before you where you use to pray as Iohn 20. 17. GO TO MY BRETHREN and SAY UNTO THEM I ASCEND UNTO MY FATHER and YOUR FATHER TO MY GOD and YOUR GOD. Or Heb. 4. 14. We have a great High-Priest that is passed into the Heavens Iesus the Son of God ver 15 16. that was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy c. Heb. 6. 9 20. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and that entreth into that within the vail whither the fore runner is for us entred Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them John 14. 13 14. If ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Christ and the Promise must be the ground of all your confidence and hope § 11. Direct 10. Labour hard with your hearts all the while to keep them in a reverent serious Direct 10. fervent frame and suffer them not to grow remiss and cold to turn prayer into lip-labour and lifeless formality or into hypocritical affected seeming fervency when the heart is senseless though the voice be earnest The heart will easily grow dull and customary and hypocritical if it be not carefully watcht and diligently followed and stirred up The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. 5. 16. A cold prayer sheweth a heart that is cold in desiring that which is prayed for and therefore is unfit to receive the mercy God will make you know that his mercy is not contemptible but worthy your most earnest prayers § 12. Direct 11. For the matter and order of your Desires and Prayers take the Lords Prayer Direct 11. Of the Method of the Lords Prayer see Ramus de Râ—lig Christ. l. 3. c. 3 Ludolphus de vita Christi par 1. c. 37. Peâ—kins iâ— orat dom Dr. Boys on the Liturgie p. 5 6 7. as your special Rule and labour to understand it well For those that can make use of so Brief an Explication I shall give a little help A Brief Explication of the Method of the LORDS PRAYER The Lords Prayer containeth I. The Address or Preface In which are described or implyed I. To whom the Prayer is made 1. Who he is GOD Not Creatures Saints or Angels 2. How Related to us He is OUR FATHER which comprehendeth fundamentally that he is 1. Our Creator And therefore 1. Our Owner or Absolute Lord. 2. Our Redeemer And therefore 2. Our Ruler or Supream King 3. Our Regenerater To the regenerate And therefore 3. Our Benefactor and Chief Good and so Our Felicity and Our End 3. What he is in his Attributes WHICH ART IN HEAVEN Which signifieth that therefore he is 1. Almighty and Able to grant all that we ask and to relieve and help us in every strait 2. All knowing Our hearts and wants and all things being open to his sight 3. Most Good from whom and by whom and to whom are all things the fountain the disposer and the End of all on whose bounty and influence all subsist And the present Tense ART doth intimate his Eternity In this one word is not only implyed all these Attributes of God but also our hearts are directed whither to look for their Relief and Directioâ— now and their Felicity for ever and called off from Earthly dependaâ—â—es and expectations of Happiness and Rest and to look for all from Heaven and at last in Heaven II. Who are the Petitioners Who are 1. Man as to his Being 2. By Relation Gods Children 1. By Creation So All are and therefore All may thus far call him Father 2. By Redemption As All are as to the sufficient Price and satisfaction 3. By Regeneration And so only the Regenerate are Children 1. His Own 2. His Subjects 3. His Beloved and Beneficiariâ—s that Live upon Him and to Him as their End 3. By Quality 1. Dependant on God 2. Necessitous 3. Sinners Yet 1. Loving God as their Father Yet 2. Loving themselves as Men Yet 3. Loving others as Brethren All which is signified in the word OUR II. The Prayer or Petitions In two Parts Of which I. The first Part is accoring to the Order of Estimation Intention and Desire and is 1. For the End simply which is GOD in the word THY repeated in every Petition 2. For the End respectively in the interest of GOD and that is in I. The Highest or Ultimate that is The Glory of God HALLOWED BE THY NAME II. The Highest Means of his Glory THY KINGDOM COME that is Let the World be subject to thee their Creator and Redeemer the Universal King III. The next Means being the effect of this THY WILL BE DONE that is Let thy Laws be fulfilled and thy disposals submitted to 3. For the Lower End even the subject of these Means which is the Publick Good of Mankind the World and Church IN EARTH that is Let the world be subjected to thee and the Church obey thee which will be the greatest blessing to them Our selves being included in the world And the measure and pattern is added AS IT IS IN HEAVEN that is Let the Earth be conformed as near as may be to the Heavenly pattern So that this Part of the Lords Prayer proceeding in the order of Excellency and Intention directeth us I. To make God our Ultimate Highest End and to desire his Interest first and
â—ordidst garb of a cold and careless heart and life 10. When you grow hottest about some Controverted smaller matters in Religion or studious of the interest of some private opinion and party which you have chosen more than of the interest of the common Truths and Cause of Christ. 11. When in joyning with others you rellish more the fineness of the speech than the Spirit and weight and excellency of the matter and are impatient of hearing of the wholsomest truths if the speaker manifest any personal infirmity in the delivery of them And are weary and tired if you be not drawn on with novelty variety or elegancy of speech 12. When you grow more indifferent for your company and set less by the company of serious godly Christians than you did and are almost as well pleased with common company and discourse 13. When you grow more impatient of reproof for sin and love not to be told of any thing in you that is amiss but love those best that highliest applaud you 14. When the renewing of your Repentance is grown a lifeless cursory work When in preparation for the Lords Day or Sacrament or other occasions you call your selves to no considerable account or make no greater a matter of the sins which you find on your account than if you were almost reconciled to them 15. When you grow more uncharitable and censorious to brethren that differ from you in tolerable points and less tender of the names or welfare of others and love not your neighbour as your selves and do not as you would be done by 16. When you grow less compassionate to the ungodly world and less regardful of the common interest of the Universal Church and of Jesus Christ throughout the earth and grow more narrow private-spirited and confine your care to your selves or to your party 17. When the hopes of Heaven and the Love of God cannot content you but you are thirsty after some worldly contentment and grow eager in your desires and the world groweth more sweet to you and more amiable in your eyes 18 When sense and appetite 1 Cor. 7. 31. and fleshly pleasure is grown more powerful with you and you make a great matter of them and cannot deny them without a great deal of striving and regret as if you had done some great exploit if you live not like a beast 19. When you are more proud and impatient and are less able to bear disesteem and slighting and injuries from men or poverty or sufferings for Christ and make a greater matter of your losses or crosses or wrongs than beseemeth one that is dead to the flesh and to the world 20. Lastly When you had rather dwell on Earth than be in Heaven and are more unwilling to think of death or to prepare for it and expect it and are less in love with the coming of Christ and are ready to say of this sinful life in flesh It is good to be here All these are signs of a declining state though yet you are not come to apostacy § 15. But the signs of a mortal damnable state indeed are found in these following degrees 1. When a man had rather have worldly prosperity than the â—avour and fruition of God in Heaven Signs of a graceless state 2. When the interest of the flesh can do more with him than the interest of God and his soul and do more rule and dispose of his heart and life 3. When he had rather live in sensuality than in Holiness And had rather have leave to live as he list than have a Christ and Holy Spirit to sanctifie and cure him or at least will not be cured on the terms proposed in the Gospel 4. When he loveth not the means that would recover him as such The nearer you come to this the more dangerous is your case § 16. And these following signs are therefore of a very dangerous signification 1. When the Dangerous signs of impenitency pleasure of sinful prosperity and delights doth so far over-top the pleasures of holiness that you are under trouble and weariness in holy duties and at ease and merry when you have your sinful delights 2. When no perswasion of a Minister or friend can bring you so throughly to repent of your open scandalous sins as to take shame to your selves in a free confession of them even in the open Assembly if you are justly called to it to condemn your selves and give warning to others and glorifie the most Holy God But you will not believe that any such disgraceful confession is your duty because you will not do it 3. When you cannot bring your hearts to a full Resolution to let go your sin but though Conscience worry and condemn you for it you do but sleightly purpose hereafter to amend but will not presently resolve 4. When you will not be perswaded to consent to the necessary effectual means of your recovery as to abstain from the bait and temptation and occasion of sin Many a Drunkard hath told me he was willing to be reformed but when I have desired them then to consent to drink no Wine or Ale for so many months and to keep out of the place and to commit the Government of themselves for so many months to their Wives or some other friend that liveth with them and to drink nothing but what they give them they would not Consent to any of this and so shewed the hypocrisie of their professed willingness to amend 5. When sin becometh easie and the Conscience groweth patient with it and quiet under it 6. When the judgement taketh part with it and the tongue will plead for it and justifie or extenuate it insteâ—d of repenting of it These are dangerous signs of an impenitent unpardoned miserable soul. And the man is in a dangerous way to this 1. When he hath plunged himself into such engagements to sin that he cannot leave it but it will cost him very dear as it will be his shame to confess it or his undoing in the world to forsake it or a great deal of cost and labour must be lost which his ambitious or Covetous projects have cost him It will be hard breaking over so great difficulties 2. When God letteth him alone in sin and prospereth him in it or doth not much disturb him or afflict him This also is a dangerous case § 17. By all this you may perceive that those are no signes of a backsliding state which some False signs of declining poor Christians are afraid are such As 1. When poverty necessitateth them to lay out more of their time and thoughts and words about the labours of their callings than some richer persons do 2. When age or sickness causeth their memories to decay so that they cannot remember a Sermon so well as heretofore 3. When age or sickness taketh off the quickness and vigor of their spirits so that they have not the lively affections in prayer or holy
been tempted to But you are sure that Heaven is better than Earth and that it is far better for them to be with Christ. 6. You allwayes knew that your friends must die To grieve that they were mortal is but to grieve that they were but men 7. If their mortality or death be grievous to you you should rejoice that they are arrived at the state of Immortality where they must Live indeed and die no more 8. Remember how quickly you must be with them again The expectation of living long your selves is the cause of your excessive grief for the death of friends If you lookt your selves to die to morrow or within a few weeks you would lâ—ss grieve that your friends are gone before you 9. Remember that the world is not for one Generation only Others must have our places when we are gone God will be served by successive Generations and not only by one 10. If you are Christians indeed it is the highest of all your Desires and Hopes to be in Heaven And will you so grieve that your friends are gone thither where you most Desire and Hope to be § 19. Obj. All this is reason if my friend were gone to Heaven But he dyed impenitently and Object how should I be comforted for a soul that I have cause to think is damned Answ. Their misery must be your grief But not such a grief as shall deprive you of your greater Answ. Joyes or disable you for your greater duties 1. God is fitter than you to judge of the measures Helps to moderate our sorrow for the dâ—mned of his mercy and his judgements and you must neither pretend to be more merciful than he nor to reprehend his Justice 2. All the works of God are Good and all that is Good is amiable Though the misery of the creature be Bad to it yet the works of Justice declare the Wisdom and Holiness of God and the perfecter we are the more they will be amiable to us For 3 God himself and Christ who is the merciful Saviour of the World approve of the damnation of the finally ungodly 4. And the Saints and Angels in Heaven do know more of the misery of the souls in Hell than we do And yet it abateth not their Joyes And the perfecter any is the more he is like-minded unto God 5. How glad and thankful should you be to think that God hath delivered your selves from those eternal flâ—mes The misery of others should excite your Thankfulness 6. And should not the Joyes of all the Saints and Angels be your Ioy as well as the sufferings of the wicked be your sorrows But above all the thoughts of the Blessedness and Glory of God himself should over-top all the concernments of the creature with you If you will mourn more for the Thieves and Murderers that are hanged than you will rejoice in the Justice prosperity and honour of the King and the wellfare of all his faithful subjects you behave not your selves as faithful subjects 7. Shortly you hope to come to Heaven Mourn now for the damned as you shall do then or at least let not the difference be too great when that and not this is your perfect state A Form of Exhortation to the Ungodly in their Sickness or those that we fear are such DEar Friend The God that must dispose of us and all things doth threaten by this sickness to call away your soul and put an end to the time of your pilgrimage and therefore your friends that Love and pity you must not now be silent if they can speak any thing for your preparation and salvation because it must be Now or Never When a few days are past they must never have any such opportunity more If now we prevail not with you you are likely to be quickly out of hearing and past our advice and help for ever And because I know your weakness bids me be but short and your memory is not to be burdened with too much and yet your Necessity must not be neglected I shall reduce all that I have to say to you to these four heads 1. Of the change which you seem near to and the world which you are going to 2. Of the Preparation that must be made by all that will be saved and who they be that the Gospel doth Iustifie or Condemn 3. I would fain help you to understand which of these conditions you are in and what will become of your soul if it thus goeth hence And 4. If your case be bad I would direct you how you may come out of it and what is yet to be done while there remaineth any time and hope And I pray you set your heart to what I say for I will speak nothing but the certain truth of God revealed to the world by his son and spirit expressed in the Scripture and believed by all the Church of Christ. I. God knoweth the change is great which you are near You are leaving this world where you have spent the dayes of your preparation for eternity and leaving this flesh to corrupt and turn to common earth and must here converse with man no more You are going now to see that world which the Gospel told you of and you have often heard of but neither you nor we did ever see Before your friends have laid your body in the grave your soul must enter into its endless state and at the Resurrection your Body be joyned with it Either Heaven or Hell must be your lot for ever If it be Heaven you will there find a world of Light and Love and Peace A world of Angels and glorified souls who are all made perfect in Knowledge and Holiness living in the perfect flames of Love to their Glorious Creator Redeemer and Regenerater And with them you will be thus perfected your self your soul will see the Glory of God and be rapt up in his Love and filled with his Joyes and employed triumphantly in his Maâ— 13. 2 Thes 1. 6 7 8 9 10 11. praises and this for ever If Hell should be your portion you will there be thrust away as a hated thing from the face of God and there you will find a world of Devils and unholy damned miserable souls among whom you must dwell in the flames of the wrath of God and the horrours of your own Conscience remembring with anguish the mercy which you once rejected and the warnings and time which once you lost and at the Resurrection your Soul and Body must be reunited and live there in torment and despair for ever I know these things are but half believed by the â—ngodly world while they profess to believe them And therefore they must feel that which they refuseâ— to believe But God hath revealed it to us and we will believe our Maker You are now going to see the great difference between the end of Holiness and of sin between the Godly and the ungodly and to
more to be regarded in many points which require experience than many of the younger sort that are yet more zealous and of quicker understanding and expression than the elder So those that we call the Fathers or Ancients were indeed in the younger ages of the Church and we that are faln into the later and more exprienced age have all the helps of the wisdom and experience of the Ages that were before us And therefore God will require at our hands an account of these greater talents which we have received As it were unexcusable now in a Physicion that hath the help of such Voluminous institutions observations and experiments of former ages to know no more than those former times that had no such helps so would it be as unexcusable for this present age of the Church to be no wiser than those former ages When Aquinas Scotus Ariminensis and other Schoolmen delivered the Doctrine of Christianity to the Church in a dress so far different from Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian or any of those former ages they certainly thought that they had attained to a far greater excellency and accurateness in the Knowledge of Divinity than those their Ancestors had attained And whatever they swear in the Trent Oâ—th of not expounding any Scripture otherwise than the Fathers do I doubt not but Suarez and Vasquez and others of their modern Schoolmen thought so too and would have been loth to be accounted wise in the measure only of those ancients The later and elder ages of the Church have had abundant experience e. g. of the tendâ—ncy of Ambition and Papal aspirings and usurpations of the mischiefs of composing and imposing the Popish Missals and numerous ceremonies and of their implicite faith and their concealment of the Scriptures from the Vulgar and many such points And if we are never the wiser for all this experience we are the more unexcusable and may be judged as the neglâ—cters of our greater helps § 32. Direct 21. In Controversies which depend most upon skill in the Languages Philosophy or other Direct 21. parts of common learning prefer the judgement of a few that are the most Learned in those matters before the judgement of the most ancient or the most Godly or of the greatest numbers even whole Churches that are unlearned In this case neither Numbers nor Antiquity nor Godliness will serve turn but as one clear eye will see further then ten thousand that are purblind so one Hierome or Origen may judge better of a translation or the Grammatical sense of a Text than a hundred of the other Fathers could One man that understandeth a Language is fitter to judge of it than a whole Nation that understand it not One Philosopher is fitter to judge of a philosophical question than a thousand illiterate persons Every man is most to be regarded in the matters which he is best acquainted with § 33. Direct 22. In Controversies of great difficulty where Divines themselves are disagreed and a Direct 22. clear and piercing wit is necessary regard more the judgement of a few acute judicious well studied Divines that are well verst in those Controversies than of a multitude of dull and common wits that think to carry it by the reputation of their number It is too certainly attested by experience that Judicious Satis triumphâ—t Vâ—ritas si apud paucos bonosque accepta nec indoles ejus est placere multis Lipsius men are very few and that the multitude of the injudicious that have not wit enough to underderstand them nor humility enough to confess it and to learn of them have yet pride and arrogoncy enough to contradict them and often malice enough to vilifie them In such differences it is not only a sign of a wise man to be content with the approbation of a few but also to have but few approvers except where the injudicious do implicitly believe those few that are judicious Commonly a very few that are wiser than the multitude are fain to stand by and compassionate not only the World but the Church and see the disease and the easie remedy and all in vain while they are but neglected or despised by the rest that will not be made wiser by them § 34. Direct 23. In all contentions hold close to that which all sides are agreed in There is so Direct 23. much agreed on even between the Papists and the Protestants as would certainly save them all if all of them did sincerely believe Love and Practise it For they all confess that the whole Canonical Scripture is true Therefore be more studious sincerely to hold and improve those common truths which they all profess than to oppose the particular opinions of any further than that common truth requireth it See that the Articles of the common Creed which all profess be unfeignedly believed by you and that the Petitions in the Lords Prayer be sincerâ—ly and earnestly put up to God and that the ten Commandments be heartily and entirely obeyed and then no errour or difference will be damning to you § 35. Direct 24. Take nothing as necessary to salvation in point of faith nor as universally necessary Direct 24. in point of practice which the universal Church in every age since Christ did not receive For if any thing be necessary to salvation which the Church received not in every age then the Church it self of that age could not be saved and then the Church was indeed no Church For Christ is the Saviour of his body But certainly Christ had in every age a Church of saved-ones who openly professed all that was of common necessity to salvation An opinion may be true which accuseth the generality in the Church of some errour or imperfection For it is most certain that the Church on Earth is composed of none that have the use of reason but erring and imperfect members But no opinion can be true that condemneth all the Church to Hell in any one age For the Head and Husband of the Church must be her Judge § 36. Direct 25. Be not born down by the censoriousness of any to overrun your own understanding Direct 25. and the truth and to comply with them in their errours and extreams But hold to the truth Thus Peter and Barâ—abas erred Gal. 2. and keep your station Jer. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them It is too usual for the younger and more injudicious sort of Christians to be most zealous about some little Opinions Ceremonies and Words and to censure all those that differ from them with such bitter censures as ungodly flashearted c. that hereupon some of the more judicious forsake the truth and simplicity of the Gospel to comply with these censurers meerly to escape them or as some say that they may keep an interest in them to do them good But such carnal compliances though with the most zealous men will bring
faith or Religion while he pretendeth to hold all the rest he is an Heretick If he deny the whole Christian faith he is a flat Apostate and these are more than to be Schismaticks § 12. The word Heresie also is variously taken by Ecclesiastick writers Austin will have Heresie to be an inveterate schism Hierome maketh it to be some perverse opinion Some call every Schism which gathereth a separated party from the rest by the name of Heresie Some call it a Heresie if there be a perillous errour though without any Schism Some call it a Heresie only when Schism is made and a party separated upon the account of some perillous errour Some say this errour must be damnable that is in the essentials of Religion And some say it is enough if it be but dangerous Among all these the commonest sense of a Heretick is One that obstinately erreth in some essential point and divideth from the Communion of other Christians upon that account And so Paraeus and many Protestants take Heresie for the Species and Schism for the Genus All Schism is not Heresie but all Heresie say they is Schism Remember that all this is but a Controversie de nomine and therefore of small moment § 13. By this that I have said you may perceive who they be that are guilty of Church-divisions Who are true Schismaticks As 1. The sparks of it are kindled when Proud and self-conceited persons are brainsick in the fond estimation of their own opinions and heart-sick by a feaverish zeal for the propagating of them Ignorant souls think that every change of their opinions is made by such an accession of heavenly light that if they should not bestir them to make all of the same mind they should be betrayers of the truth and do the world unspeakable wrong When they measure and censure men as they receive or reject their peculiar discoveries or conceits schism is in the Egge § 14. 2 The fire is blown up when men are desirous to have a party follow them and cry them up and thereupon are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and do speak perverse things to Act. 20. 20. draw away disciples after them And when they would be counted the Masters of a party § 15. 3. The flames break forth when by this means the same Church or divers Churches do Jam. 3. 13 14 15 16 17. fall into several Parties burning in zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely at one another as being on several sides as if they were not Children of the same Father nor members of the same body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo and another of Cepha◠and every one of a faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to represent one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these people whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore It is schism in the bud § 16. 4. When people in the same Church do gather into private meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in Love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their singular opinions and increase their parties and speak against those that are not on their side schism is then ready to bring forth and multiply and the swarm is ready to come forth and be gone § 17. 5. When these people actually depart and renounce or forsake the Communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause When thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is schism ripe and fruitful The swarm is gone and hived in another place § 18. 6. If now the neighbour Churches by their Pastors in their Synods shall in compassion seek to reclaim these straglers and they justifie their unjust separation and contemn the counsel of the Churches and Ministers of Christ this is a confirmed obstinate schism § 19. 7. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the body of Christ by an unrighteous censure and condemn the innocent and usurp authority over their Guides this is disobedience and uncharitableness with schism § 20. 8. If they shall also condemn and unchurch all the other Churches that are not of their mind and way and renounce communion with them all and so condemn unjustly a great part of the Body of Christ on Earth this is to add fury and rebellion to an uncharitable schism And if to cover their sin they shall unjustly charge these Churches which they reject with Heresie or wickedness they do but multiply their crimes by such extenuations § 21. 9. If the opinion that all this adoe is made for be a damning errour against some essential point of the true Religion then it is Heresie as well as Schism § 22. 10. If this separation from the Church be made in defense of an ungodly life against the Discipline of the Church If a wicked sort of men shall withdraw from the Church to avoid the disgrace of confession or excommunication and shall first cast off the Church lest the Church should proceed to cast out them and so they separate that they may have none to govern and trouble them but themselves this is a Prophane rebellious schism This is the common course of schism when it groweth towards the height § 23. 11. Besides all these there is yet a more pernicious way of Schism which the Church or Court of Rome is guilty of They make new articles of faith and new points of Religion and a new worship of God shall I say or of Bread as if it were a God And all these they put into a Law and impose them on all the other Churches yea they put them into an Oath and require men to swear that without any doubting they believe them to be true They pretend to have authority for all this as Rome is the Mistress of all other Churches They set up a new Universal Head as an Essential part of the Catholick Church and so found or fain a new kind of Catholick Church And he that will not obey them in all this they renounce Communion with him and to hide this horrid notorious schism they call all Schismaticks that are not thus subjected to them § 24. 12. And to advance
you and tell you that as you are the subjects of the Pope you are none of the Church of Christ at all From this treasonable conspiracy we withdraw our selves But as Coacil Tolâ—t 4. c. 61. 28. q. 1. Ca. Iudai qui allow separation from a Jewish husband if afâ—er admonition he will not be a Christian and so doth Aâ—osta and his Coâ—cil Lirâ—â—s l. 6. c. 21. and other Jesuits and allow the marrying of another And sure the Conjugal bond is faster than that of a Pastor and his sâ—ock may not a man then change his Pastor when his soul is in apparent hazzard you are the subjects of Christ we never divided from you nor denyed you our Communion Let Reason judge now who are the Dividers And is it not easie to know which is the Church in the Division It is all those that are still united unto Christ If you or we be divided from Christ and from Christians that are his Body we are then none of the Church But if we are not Divided from Christ we are of the Church still If part of a Tree though the far greater part be out off or separated from the rest it is that part how small soever that still groweth with the Root that is the living Tree The Indian Fig-tree and some other Trees have branches that take root when they touch the ground If now you ask me whether the branches springing from the second Root are members of the first Tree I answer 1. The rest that have no new Root are more undoubtedly members of it 2. If any branches are separated from the first Tree and grow upon the new root alone the case is out of doubt 3. But if yet they are by continuation joyned to both that Root which they receive their nutriment most from is it which they most belong to Suppose a Tyrant counterseit a Commission from the King to be Vice-King in Ireland and proclaimeth all them to be Traytors that receive him not The King disclaimeth him the wisest subjects renounce him and the rest obey him but so as to profess they do it because they believe him to be commissioned by the King Let the question be now who are the Dividers in Ireland and who are the Kings truest subjects and what Head it is that denominateth the Kingdom and who are the Traytors This is your case § 58. 2. Divisions are the deformities of the Church Cut off a nose or pluck out an eye or dismember either a man or a picture and see whether you have not deformed it Ask any compassionate Christian ask any insulting enemy whether our Divisions be not our deformity and shame the lamentation of friends and the scorn of enemies § 59. 3. The Churches Divisions are not our own dishonour alone but the injurious dishonour of Christ and Religion and the Gospel The World thinketh that Christ is an impotent King that cannot keep his Kingdom at unity in it self when he hath himself told us that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Mat. 12. 25. They think the Gospel tendeth to Division and is a doctrine of dissention when they see divisions and dissentions procured by it They impute all the faults of the subjects to the King and think that Christ was confused in his Legislation and knew not what to teach or command because men are confounded in their opinions or practices and know not what to think or do If men misunderstand the Law of Christ and one saith This is the sense and another saith that is the sense they are ready to think that Christ spake non-sense or understood not himself because the ignorant understand him not Who is there that converseth with the ungodly of the World that heareth not by their reproach and scorns how much God and Religion are dishonoured by the Divisions of Religious people § 60. 4. And thus also our Divisions do lamentably hinder the progress of the Gospel and the conversion and salvation of the ungodly World They think they have small encouragement to be of your Religion while your Divisions seem to tell them that you know not what Religion to be of your selves Whatever Satan or wicked men would say against Religion to discourage the ungodly from it the same will exasperated persons in these Divisions say against each others way And when every one of you condemneth another how should the Consciences of the ungodly perswade them to expect salvation in any of those ways which you thus condemn Doubtless the Divisions of the Christian world have done more to hinder the conversion of Infidels and keep the Heathen and Mahometane World in their damnable ignorance and delusions than all our power is able to undoe and have produced such desolations of the Church of Christ and such a plentiful harvest and Kingdom for the Devil as every tender Christian heart is bound to lament with tears of bitterness If it must be that such offence shall come yet woe to those by whom they come § 67. 5. Divisions lay open the Churches of Christ not only to the scorn but to the malice will and fury of their enemies A Kingdom or house divided cannot stand Matth. 12. 25. where hath the Church been destroyed or Religion rooted out in any Nation of the Earth but divisions had a Rev. 17. 13. principal hand in the effect O what desolations have they made among the flocks of Christ As Seneca and others opened their own veins and bled to death when Nero or such other Tyrants did send them their commands to Die even so have many Churches done by their divisions to the gratifying of Satan the enemy of souls § 62. 6. Divisions among Christians do greatly hinder the edification of the members of the Church while they are possessed with envyings and distaste of one another they lose all the benefit of each others gifts and of that holy communion which they should have with one another And they are possessed with that zeal and wisdom which Iames calleth earthly sensual and devillish which corrupteth Eph. 4. 16. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Rom. 15. 19. Acts 9. 3â— all their affections and turneth their food to the nourishment of their disease and maketh their very worshipping of God to become the increase of their sin Where divisions and contentions are the members that should grow up in humility meekness self-denyal holiness and love do grow in pride and perverse disputings and passionate strivings and envious wranglings The Spirit of God departeth from them and an evil Spirit of malice and vexation taketh place though in their passion they know not what Spirit they are of Whereas if they be of one mind and live in peace the God of love and peace will be with them What lamentable instances of this calamity have we in many of the Sectaries of this present time Especially in the people called Quakers that while they
the safety of a Kingdom Or doth that tend to the honour of the children of God which is the shame of common men Or is that the safety of his Kingdom which is the ruine of all others We are all fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes. 2. 19. We are Gods building 1 Cor. 3. 9. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. Will he destroy the defilers and will he Love the Dividers and destroyers If it be so great a sin to go to Law unnecessarily with Brethren or to wrong them 1 Cor. 6. 8. What is it to disown them and cast them off And if they that salute and love only their Brethren and not also their enemies are not the Children of God Matth. 5. 47. What are they that separate from and condemn even their brethren § 71. 5. Church-dividers either would Divide Christ himself between them or else would rob him of a great part of his inheritance And neither of these is a little sin If you make several bodies you would have several Heads And is Christ divided saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 13. Will you make him a Sect Master He will be your common head as Christians but he will be no Head of your Sects and Parties I will not name them Or would you tear out of the hands of Christ any part of his possessions Will he cut them off because you cut them off Will he separate them from himself because you separate from them or separate them from you Will he give them a bill of divorce when ever you are pleased to lay any odious accusation against them Who shall condemn them when it is he that justifieth them Who shall separate them from the Love of God Can your Censure or separation do it when neither life nor death nor any creature can do it Rom. 8. 33 c. Hath he not told you that he will give them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of his hand John 10. 28. Will he lose his Iewels because you cast them away as dirt He suffered more for souls than you and better knoweth the worth of souls And do you think he will forget so dear a purchase or take it well that you rob him of that which he hath bought so dearly Will you give the members and inheritance of Christ to the Devil and say They are Satans and none of Christs Who art thou that judgest another mans servant § 72. 6. Church-dividers are guilty of self-ignorance and pride and great unthankfulness against that God that beareth with so much in them who so censoriously cast off their brethren Wast thou ever humbled for thy sin Dost thou know who thou art and what thou carryest about thee and how much thou offendest God thy self If thou do surely thou wilt judge tenderly of thy brethren as knowing what a tender hand thou needest and what mercy thou hast found from God Can he cruelly judge his brethren to Hell upon his petty differences who is sensible how the gracious hand of his Redeemer did so lately snatch him from the brink of Hell Can he be forward to condemn his brethren that hath been so lately and mercifully saved himself § 73. 7. Church-dividers are the most successful servants of the Devil being enemies to Christ in his family and livery They gratifie Satan and all the Enemies of the Church and do the very work that he would have them do more effectually than open enemies could do it As Mutineers in an Army may do more to destroy it than the power of the Enemy § 74. 8. It is a sin that contradicteth all Gods Ordinances and Means of Grace which are purposely to procure and maintain the Unity of his Church The Word and Baptism is to gather them into one body and the Lords Supper to signifie and maintain their Concord as being one bread and one body 1 Cor. 10. 17. And all the communion of the Church is to express and to maintain this concord The use of the Ministry is much to this end to be the bonds and joynts of the unity of believers Ephes. 4. 13 14 16. All these are contemned and frustrated by Dividers § 75. 9. Church-division is a sin especially to us against as great and lamentable experiences as almost any sin can be About sixteen hundred years the Church hath smarted by it In many Countreys where the Gospel prospered and Churches flourished division hath turned all into desolation and delivered them up to the curse of Mahometanism and Infidelity The contentions between Constantinople and Rome the Eastern and the Western Churches have shaken the Christian interest upon Earth and delivered up much of the Christian world to tyranny and blindness and given advantage to the Papacy to captivate and corrupt much of the rest by pretending it self to be the Center of Unity O what glorious Churches where the Learned Writers of those ages once lived are now extinct and the places turned to the Worship of the Devil and a Deceiver through the ambition and contentions of the Bishops that should have been the bonds of their Unity and peace But doth England need to look back into History or look abroad in forreign Lands for instances of the sad effects of discord Is there any one good or bad in this age that hath spent his dayes in such a sleep as not to know what Divisions have done when they have made such ruines in Church and State and kindled such consuming flames and raised so many Sects and Parties and filled so many hearts with uncharitable rancour and so many mouths with slanders and revilings and turned so many prayers into sin by poysoning them with pride and factious oppositions and hath let out streams of blood and fury over all the Land He that maketh light of the Divisions of Christians in these Kingdoms or loveth not those that speak against them doth shew himself to be so impenitent in them as to be one of those terrible effects of them that should be a pillar of Salt to warn after agis to take heed § 76. 10. Yea this is a heinous aggravation of this sin that commonly it is justified and not repented of by those that do commit it When a drunkard or a whoremonger will confess his sin a Church-divider will stand to it and defend it And wo to them that call evil good and good evil Impenitency is a terrible aggravation of sin § 77. 11. And it is yet the more heinous in that it is commonly fathered upon God If a drunkard or whoremonger should say God commandeth me to do it and I serve God by it would you not think this a horrid aggravation When did you ever know a Sect or party
how contrary soever among themselves but they all pretended Gods authority and entitled him to their sin and called it his service and censured others as ungodly or less godly that would not do as bad as they St. Iames is put to confute them that thought this wisdom was from above and so did glory in their sin and lye against the truth when their wisdom was from beneath and no better than earthly sensual and deviliish For the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy c. James 3. 17. § 78. 12. Church divisions are unlike to our Heavenly state and in some regard worse than the Kingdom of the Devil for he would not destroy it by dividing it against it selâ— Matth. 12. 26. O what a blessed harmony of united holy souls will there be in the Heavenly Ierusalem where we hope to dwell for ever There will be no discords envyings Sideings or contendings one being of this party and another of that but in the Unity of perfect Love that world of Spirits with joyful Eph. 4. 13 14 16. praise will magnifie their Creator And is a snarling envy or jarring discord the likely way to such an end Is the Church of Christ a Babâ—l of confusion Should they be divided party against party here that must be one in perfect Love for ever Shall they here be condemning each other as none of the children of the Most High who there must live in sweetest concord If there be shame in Heaven you will be ashamed to meet those in the delights of Glory and see them entertained by the Lord of Love whom you reviled and cast out of the Church or your communion causelesly on earth § 79. Remember now that Schism and making parties and divisions in the Church is not so small a sin as many take it for It is the accounting it a duty and a part of Holiness which is the greatest cause that it prospereth in the world And it will never be reformed till men have right apprehensions of the evil of it Why is it that sober people are so far and free from the sins of swearing drunkenness fornication and lasciviousness but because these sins are under so odious a character as helpeth them easily to perceive the evil of them And till Church-divisions be rightly apprehended as whoredom and swearing and drunkenness are they will never be well cured Imprint therefore on your minds the true Character of them which I have here laid down and look abroad upon the effects and then you will fear this confounding sin as much as a consuming Plague § 80. The two great causes that keep Divisions from being hated as they ought are 1. A charitable Two Hinderances of our true apprehensions of Schisme respect to the good that is in Church-dividers carrying us to overlook the evil of the sin judging of it by the Persons that commit it and thinking that nothing should seem odious that is theirs because many of them are in other respects of blameless pious conversations And indeed every Christian must so prudently reprehend the mistakes and faults of pious men as not to asperse the piety which is conjunct and therefore not to make their persons odious but to give the person all his just commendations for his piety while we oppose and aggravate his sin Because Christ himself so distinguisheth between the good and the evil and the person and the sin and loveth his own for their good while he hateth their evil and so must we And because it is the grand design of Satan by the faults of the godly to make their Persons hated first and their Piety next and so to banish Religion from the world And every friend of Christ must shew himself an enemy to this design of Satan But yet the sin must be disowned and opposed while the person is Loved according to his worth Christ will give no thanks for such Love to his children as cherisheth their Church-destroying sins There is no greater enemy to sin than Christ though there be no greater friend to souls Godliness was never intended to be a fortress for iniquity or a battery for the Devil to mount his Cannons on against the Church nor for a blind to cover the Powder-mines of Hell Satan never opposeth Truth and Godliness and Unity so dangerously as when he can make Religious men his instruments Remember therefore that all men are vanity and Gods interest and honour must not be sacrificed to theirs nor the most Holy be abused in reverence to the holiest of sinful men § 81. The other great hinderance of our due apprehension of the sinfulness of divisions is our too deep sense of our sufferings by superiours and our looking so much at the evil of persecutions as not to look at the danger of the contrary extream Thus under the Papacy the people of Germany at Luthers Reformation were so deeply sensible of the Papal cruelties that they thought by how many wayes soever men fled from such bloody persecutors they were very excusable And while men were all taken up in decrying the Roman Idolatry corruptions and cruelties they never feared the danger of their own divisions till they smarted by them And this was once the case of many good people here in England who so much hated the wickedness of the Prophane and the Haters of Godliness that they had no apprehensions of the evil of Divisions among themselves And because many prophanâ— ones were wont to call sober godly people Schismaticks and Factious therefore the very names begâ—n with many to grow into credit as if they had been of good signification and there had been really no such sin as schism and factiâ—n to be feared Till God permitted this sin to break in upon us with such fury as had almost turned us into a Babel and a desolation And I am perswaded God did purposely permit it to teach his people more sensibly to know the evil of that sin by the efâ—â—cts which they would not know by other means And to let them see when they had reviled and ruined each other that there is that in themselves which they should be more afraid of than of any enemy without § 82. Direct 5. Own nâ—t any cause which is an enemy to Love And pretend neither Truth nor Holiness Direct 5. nor Unity nor Order nor any thing against it The Spirit of Love is that one Vital Spirit which 〈…〉 9 〈…〉 4. 〈…〉 2. 〈…〉 19. â—â— 1 〈…〉 1 â—â—â—â— 5 〈…〉 2 â—â—â—â— 1. 7. Heb. 10. 24. 〈…〉 5. 6 13. doth animate all the Saints The increase â—f Love is the powerful Balâ—â—me that healeth all the Churches wounds Though loveless lifeless Physicions think that all these wounds must be healed by the Sword And indeed the Weapon-salve is now become the proper cure It is the Sword that must be medicated that the wounds made by it may be healed The decayes of
Love are the Churches dissolution which first causeth sissures and separations and in process crumbleth us all to dust And therefore the Pastors of the Church are the fittest instruments for the cure who are the Messengers of Love and whose Government is paternal and hurteth not the body but is only a Government of Love and exercised by all the means of Love All Christians in the world confess that LOVE is the very â—â—â—â— and perfection of all Grace and the End of all our other duties and that which maketh us like to God and that iâ— Love dwelleth in us God dwelleth in us and that it will be the everlasting Grace and the work of Heaven and the Happiness of souls and that it is the excellent way and the character of Saints and the Nâ—w Commandmâ—nt And all this being so it is most certain that no way is the 1 â—â—â—â— 4. 7. 8. â—â—â—â— 13 35. 〈…〉 way of God wâ—â—câ—â—â— not the way of Love And therefore what specious pretences soever they may have and one may cry up Truth and another Holiness and another order and another Unity it seâ—â— to jâ—â—â—â—â— their â—nvyings hatred cruelties it is most certain that all such pretences are Satanical deceiâ—â— And â—â— they bile and devour one another they are not like the sheep of Christ but shall be dâ—â—â—â—â—â—d one of another Gal. 5. 15. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling 〈…〉 4. 2. 〈…〉 of the Law Rom. 13. 10. When Papists that shew their love to mens souls by racking their bodies and fryâ—â—g them in the fire can make men apprehensive of the excellency of that kind of Love they may â—â—â—â— it to the healing of the Church In the mean time as their Religion is such is their Concord while all those are called Members of their Union and Professors of their Religion who must be burnt to ashes if they say the contrary They that give God an Image and Carkass of Religion â—â—â—â— 1. 4 are thus content with the Image and Carkass of a Church for the exercise of it And if there were nothing â—llâ— but this to detect the sinfulness of the Sect of Quakers and many more it is enough to satisfie any sober man that it cannot be the way of God God is not the author of that Spirit and way which tends to wrath emulation hatred railing and the extinction of Christian Love to all â—â—vâ— their own Sect and party Remember as you love your souls that you shun all wayes that are destructive to universal Christian Love § 83. Direct 6. Make nothing necessary to the unity of the Church or the communion of Christians Direct 6. which God hath not made necessary or directed you to make so By this one â—olly the Papists are become see 〈…〉 p. 52â— the most notorious Schismaticks on earth even by making new Articles of faith and new parts of worship and imposing them on all Christians to be sworn subscribed professed or practised so as that no man shall be accounted a Catholick or have communion with them or with the Universal Church if they could hinder it that will not follow them in all their Novelties They that would subscribe to all the Scriptures and to all the antient Creeds of the Church and would do any thing that Christ and his Apostles have enjoyned and go every step of that way to Heaven that Peter and Paul went as far as they are able yet if they will go no further and believe no more yeâ— if they will not go against some of this must be condemned cast out and called Schismaticks by these notorious Schismaticks If he hold to Christ the Universal Head of the Church and will not be subject or sworn to the Pope the Usurping Head he shall be taken as cut off from Christ. And there is no certainty among these men what measure of faith and worship and obedience to them shall be judged necessary to constitute a Church-member For as that which served in the Apostles dayes and the following ages will not serve now nor the subscribing to all the other pretended Councils until then will not serve without subscribing to the Creed or Council of Trâ—nt so no body can tell what New Faith or Worship or Test of Christianity the next Council if the world see any more may require and how many thousand that are Trent-Catholicks now may be judged Hereticks or Schismaticks then if they will not shut their eyes and follow them any whither and change their Religion as oft as the Papal interest requireth a change Of this Chillingworth Hales and Dr. H. More have spoken plainly If the Pope had imposed but one lye Dâ— H. More saith Myst. Redemp p. 495. l. 10. c. 2. There is scarce any Church in Christâ—ndome at this day that doth not obtrude not only falshood but such falsehoods that will appear to any free Spirit pure contradictiors and impossibilities and that with the same gravity authority and importunity that they do the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be sad For what knowing and conscientious man but will be driven off if he cannot assert the truth without open asserting of a gross lye Id. p. â—26 And as for Opinions though some may be better than other some yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyment of either private or publick rights supposing there be no venome of the persecutive spirit mingled with them But every one that professeth the faith of Christ and believeth the Scriptures in the Historical sense c. to be subscribed or one sin to be done and said All Nations and persons that do not this are no Christians or shall have no communion with the Church the man that refuseth that imposed lye or sin is guiltless of the Schism and doth but obey God and save his soul And the Usurper that imposeth them will be found the heinous Schismatick before God and the cause of all those Divisions of the Church And so if any private Sectary shall feign an opinion or practice of his own to be necessary to salvation or Church communion and shall refuse communion with those that are not of his mind and way it is he and not they that is the cause of the uncharitable separation * See Hales of Schisme p. 8. § 84. Direct 7. Pray against the Usurpations or intrusions of intrusions of impious carnal ambitious Direct 7. covetous Pastors into the Churches of Christ. For one wicked man in the place of a Pastor may do more In Ecclesiâ—s plus certaminum gignunt verba hominum quam Dei magâ—sque pugnatur fere de Apolline Petro Paulo quam de Christo Retine divina Relinque humana Bucholcer to the increase of a Schism or faction than many private men can do And carnal men have carnal minds and carnal interests which are both unreconcileable to the spiritual holy mind and interest For the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. And if such Starrs fall from Heaven no wonder if they bring many down headlong with them Humble souls dwell most at home and think themselves unworthy of the communion of their brethren and are most quarrelsome against their own corruptions They do nothing in grife and vain glory but in lowliness of mind each one esteemeth other better than themselves Phil. 2. 2 3. and judge not lâ—st they he judged Matth. 6. 1. And is it likely such should be Dividers of the Church But Proud men must either be great and domineer and as Diotrephes 3 John 9 10. love to have the preheminence and cast the Brethren out of the Church and prate against their faithfullest Pastors with malitious words or else must be noted for their supposed excellencies and set up themselves and speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them and think the brethren unworthy of their Communion and esteem all others below themselves and as the Church of Act. 20. 30. Rome confound Communion and Subjection and think none fit for their Communion that obey them not or compâ—y not with their opinion and will There is no hope of Concord where Pride hath power to prevail § 86. Direct 9. Take heed of singularity and narrowness of mind and unacquaintedness with the Direct 9. former and present state of the Church and world Men that are bred up in a corner and never read nor heard of the common condition of the Church or world are easily mislead into Sschism through ignorance of those matters of fact that would preserve them Abundance of this sort of honest people that I have known have known so little beyond the Town or Countrey where they lived that they have thought they were very Catholick in their Communion because they had one or two Congregations and divided not among themselves But for the avoiding of Schism 1. Look with pity on the Unbelieving world and consider that Christians of all sorts are but a sixth part of the whole earth And then 2. Consider of this sixth part how small a part the reformed Churches are And if you be willing to leave Christ any Church at all perhaps you will be lothe to separate yet into a narrower party which is no more to all the world than one of your Cottages is to the whole Kingdom And is this all the Kingdom on earth that you will ascribe to Christ Is the King of the Church the King only of your little party Though his flock be but a little flock make it not next to none As if he câ—â—e into the World on so low a design as the gathering of your sect only The less his stock is the more sinful it is to rob him of it and make it lesser than it is It is a little flock if it contained all the Christians Protestants Greeks Armenians Abassines and Papists on the Eâ—â—th Be singular and separate from the unbelieving world and spare not And be singular in Hâ—liness from Prophane and nominal hypocritical Christians But affect not to be singular in opinion or practice or separated in Communion from the universal Church or generality of sound believers or if you forsake some common errour yet hold still the Common Love and Communion with all the faithful according to your opportunities 3. And it will be very useful when you are tempted to separate from any Church for the defectiveness of its manner of Worship to enquire how God is worshipped in all the Churches on Earth and then consider whether if you lived ☞ That â—oâ— above that knoweth the heart dâ—â—â—â— disâ—ern that frail mâ—n â—â— some of theâ—r conâ—radictions iâ—tâ—nâ— the same thing and aâ—â—eâ—â—eth bâ—th I. Vâ—â—â—â— â—sâ—aâ— 3. 7. 15. among them you would forsake Communion with them all for such defects while you are not forced to justifie or approve them 4. And it is very useful to read Church history and to understand what Heresies have been in times past and what havock Schisms have caused among Christians For if this much had been known by well-meaning persons in our dayes we should not have seen those same Opinions applauded as new light which were long agoe exploded as old Heresies nor should we have seen many honest people taking that same course to reform the Church now and advance the Gospel which in so many ages and Nations hath heretofore destroyed the Church and cast out the Gospel A narrow soul that taketh all Christs interest in the world to lye in a few of their separated meetings and shutteth up all the Church in a Nutshell must needs be guilty of the foulest schisms It is a Catholick spirit and Catholick principles loving a Christian as a Christian abhorring the very names of Sects and Parties as the Churches wounds that must make a Catholick indeed § 87. Direct 10. Understand well the true difference between the visible Church and the world Direct 10. lest you should think that you are bound to separate as much from a corrupted Church as from the world It is not True faith but the Profession of true faith that maketh a man fit to be acknowledged a member of the Visible Church If this Profession be unsound and accompanied with a vitious life it is the sin and misery of such an Hypocrite but it doth not presently put him as far unrelated to you as if he were an infidel without the Church If you ask what advantage have such unsound Church-members I answer with the Apostle Rom. 3. 1 2. Much every way chiefly because unto them are committed the Oracles of God Rom. 9. 4. To them pertaineth the Adoption and the glory and Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises Till the Church find cause to cast them out they have the external priviledges of its Communion It hath made abundance to incur the guilt of sinful separation to misunderstand those Texts of Scripture that call Christians to separate from Heathens Infidels and Idolaters As 2 Cor. 6. 17. Wherefore come out frâ—m among them and be ye separate saith the Lord c. The Text speaketh only of separating from the world who are Infidels and Idolaters and no members of the Church and ignorant people ordinarily expound it as if it were meant of separating from the Church because of the ungodly that are members of it But that God that knew why he called his people to separate from the World doth never call them to separate from the Church universal nor from any particular Church by a mental separation so as to unchurch them We read of many loathsome corruptions in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Laâ—dicea c. but yet no command to separate from them So many abuse Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her my people As if God commanded them to come out of a true Church because of its corruptions or imperfections because
7. 26. 13. Mat. 23. 14. Mar. 1â— 40. Exod. 6. 30. Deuâ— 7. 12. 11. 13. 13. 18. 15. 5. 26. 17. 28. 1. Psal. 81. 8 9 10 11 12. of promoting unity and obedience and the Catholick Church while the Cloak or Cover of it is but the thin transparent Spider-web of humane Traditions and numerous Ceremonies and childish complementing with Goâ— And when they have nothing but the prayers of a long Liturgie to cover the effects of their earthly sensual and diabolical zeal and wisdom as St. Iames calls it 3. 15 16. and to concâ—ct the Widdows houses which they devour and to put a reverence upon the office and work which they labour all the week to render reproachful by a sensual luxurious idle life and by perfidious making merchandize of souls As ever you care what becometh of your souls take heed lest sin grow bold under Prayers and grow familiar and contemptuous of Sermons and holy speeches and lest you keep a custome of Religious exercises and wilful sins For oh how doth this harden now and wound hereafter He is the best hearer that is the holiest liver and faithfullest obeyer Direct 14. Be not a bare hearer of the Prayers of the Pastor whether it be by a Liturgie or Direct 14. without For that is but hypocrisie and a sin of omission You come not thither only to hear prayers but to pray And kneeling is not praying but it is a profession that you pray And will you be prayerless even in the house of Prayer and when you profess and seem to pray and so add hypocrisie to impiety I fear many that seem Religious and would have those kept from the Sacrament that Pray not in their Families do very ordinarily tolerate themselves in this gross omission and mocking of God and are Prayerless themselves even when they seem to Pray Direct 15. Stir up your hearts in a special manner to the greatest alacrity and joy in speaking Direct 15. and singing the Praises of God The Lords day is a day of Joy and Thanksgiving and the Praises of God are the highest and holyest employment upon Earth And if ever you should do any thing with all your might and with a joyful and triumphing frame of soul it is this Be glad that you may joyn with the Sacred Assemblies in heart and voice in so Heavenly a work And do not as some humersome pievish persons that know not the danger of that proud disease fall to quarreling with Davids Psalms as unsuitable to some of the hearers or to nauseate every failing in the Metâ—â— so as to turn so holy a duty into neglect or scorn for alas such there are near me where I dwell nor let prejudice against melody or Church-musick if you dwell where it is used possess you with a spleneâ—ick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work And if you know how much the incorporate soul must make use of the body in harmony and in the joyful praises of Iehovah do not then quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporeal Direct 16. Be very considerate and serious in Sacramental renewings of your Covenant with God Direct 16. O think what great things you come thither to Receive And think what a holy work you have to See Mâ— Rawlâ—â—s Book of Sacramental Covenanting do And think what a Life it is that you must promise So solemn a Covenanting with God and of so great importance requireth a most holy reverent and serious frame of soul. But yet let not the unwarrantable differencing this Ordinance from Gods praises and the rest seduce you into the common errours of the times I mean 1. Of those that hence are brought to think that the Sacrament should never be received without a preparatory day of humiliation above the preparation for an ordinary Lords days work 2. And therefore receive it seldom whereas the primitive Churches never spent a Lords day together without it 3. Those that turn it into a perplexing terrifying thing for fear of being unprepared when it should be their greatest comfort and when they are not so perplexed about their unpreparâ—dness to any other duty 4. Those that make so great a difference betwixt this and Church-prayers praises and other Church-woâ—ship as that they take this Sacrament only for the proper work and priviledge of Church-members And thereupon turn it into an occasion of our great contentions and divisions while they fly from Sacramental Communion with others more than from Communion in the other Church-worship O what hath our subtle enemy done against the Love Peace and Unity of Christians especially in England under pretence of Sacramental purity Direct 17. Perform all your Worship to God as in heart-Communion with all Christs Churches Direct 17. upon Earth Even those that are faulty though not with their faults Though you can be present but with one yâ—â— consent as present in spirit with all and separate not in heart from any one any further than they separate from Christ. Direct 18. Accordingly let the Interest of the Church of Christ be very much upon your heart Direct 18. and pray as hard for it as for your self Direct 19. Yâ—â— remember in all what Relation you have to the Heavenly Society and Chore and Direct 19. think how they Worship God in Heaven that you may strive to imitate than in your degree Of which more anâ—n Direct 20. Let your whole course of life after savour of a Church-frame Live as the servants of Direct 20. that God whâ—m you Worship and as ever before him Live in the Love of those Christians with whom you have Communion and do not quarrel with them at home nor despise nor persecute them with whom you joyn in the Worshipping of God And do not needlesly open the weaknesses of the Minister to prejudice others against him and the Worship And be not Religious at the Church alone for then you are not truly Religious at all CHAP. X. Directions about our Communion with Holy Souls Departed and now with Christ. THE oversight and neglect of our duty concerning the souls of the blessed now with Christ I have said more of â—his since in my â—â—â—â—e of Faith doth very much harden the Papists in their erroneous excesses here about And if we will ever reduce them or rightly confute them it must be by a judicious asserting of the Truth and observing so much with them as is our duty and commending that in them which is to be commended and not by running away from truth and duty that we may get for enough from them and errour For errour is an ill way of confuting errour The practical Truth lyeth in these following Precepts § 1. Direct 1. Remember that the departed souls in Heaven are part and the noblest part of the Body Direct 1. of Christ and family of God of which you are inferiour members and therefore that you owe
see how millions are there safely landed that once were in as dangerous a station as you are Through many tribulations and temptations they arrived at the Heavenly Rest Satan once did his worst against them They were tost on the Seas of this tempestuous world But they were kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation and so may you 1 Pet. 5. 1. § 19. Direct 19. When you would duly value all your present means and mercies and see whither Direct 19. they tend look up then to the souls with Christ and see whither the like mercy hath conducted them The poorest Cottage and the hardest fare are great mercies as they tend to endless blessedness This now and Heaven after is great though the thing in it self be never so small Heaven puts the value and signification upon all your mercies The wicked make Cyphers of their greatest blessings by separating them in their esteem and use from God and Heaven which is the measure of their estimate § 20. Direct 20. When you see Divisions among believers and hear one for this party and another Direct 20. for that and hear them bitterly censuring each other look up then to the Saints with Christ and think what perfect Love and Peace and Concord i◠among them Consider how unlike our factions and Schisms are to their fervent Love and Unity And how how unlike our jarring strifes and quarrels are to their harmonious Praise of God Remember in what work it is that they are so happily united even Love and Praise uncessant to Jehovah And then think whether it would not unite the Saints on earth to lay by their contendings for the preheminence in knowledge covered with the guilded name of Zeal for the Truth of God and to employ themselves in Love and Praise and to shew their emulation here in striving who shall Love God and each other with the more pure heart and fervent Love 1 Pet. 1. 22. and who shall Praise him with the most heavenly alacrity and delight Consider whether this work of blessed souls be not like to be more desirable and excellent than the work of self-conceited wrangling Sophisters And whether there be any danger of falling into Sects and Factions or falling out by emulations or contentions while we make this work of Love and Praise the matter of our religious converse And consider whether almost all the Schisms that ever vext the Church of God did not arise either by the Pastors striving who should be the greatest Luk. 22. 24 26. or by the rising up of some Sciolist or Gnostick proudly pretending to know more than others and to vindicate or bring to light some excellent Truth which others know not or oppose And when you see the hot contendings of each party about their pretended Orthodoxness or wisdom which Iam. 3. is purposely written against remember how the concord of those blessed souls doth shame this work and should make it odious to the heirs of Heaven § 21. Direct 21. When you are afraid of Death or would find more willingness to dye look up to Direct 21. the blessed souls with Christ and think that you are but to pass that way which all those souls have gone before you and to go from a world of enmity and vanity to the company of all those blessed spirits And is not their blessed state more desirable than such a vain vexatious life as this There is no malice nor slandering nor cruel persecuting no uncharitable censures contentions or divisions no ignorance nor unbelief nor strangeness unto God nothing but Holy Amiable and Delightful Joyn your selves daily to that Coelestial Society suppose your selves spectators of their Order Purity and Glory and Auditors of their harmonious Praises of Jehovah Live by faith in a daily familiarity with them say not that you want company or are alone when you may walk in the Streets of the Heavenly Ierusalem and there converse with the Prophets and Apostles and all the glorious Hosts of Heaven Converse thus with them in your Life and it will overcome the fear of death and make you long to be there with them Like one that stands by the River side and seeth his friends on the further side in a place of pleasure while his enemies are pursuing him at his back how gladly would he be over with them And it will embolden him to venture on the passage which all they have safely past before him Thus Death will be to us as the Red Sea to pass us safe to the Land of Promise while our pursuers are there overthrown and perish We should not be so strange to the World above if we thus by faith conversed with the blessed ones § 22. Direct 22. When you are overmuch troubled for the death of your Godly friends look up to Direct 22. that world of blessed souls to which they are translated and think whether it be not better for them to be there than here and whether you are not bound by the Law of Love to rejoyce with them that are thus exalted Had we but a sight of the world that they are in and the company that they are gone to we should be less displeased with the will of God in disposing of his own into so Glorious a state § 23. All these improvements may be made by a Believer of his daily converse with the souls above This is the Communion with them which we must hold on earth Not by Praying to them which God hath never encouraged us to do nor by praying for them For though it be lawful to pray for the Resurrection of their Bodies and the perfecting of their blessedness thereby yet it being a thing of absolute certainty as the day of Judgement is we must be very cautelous in the manner of our doing this lawful act it being a thing that their happiness doth not at all depend on and a thing which will-worshippers have shewed themselves so forward to abuse by stepping further into that which is unlawful as the horrid abuses of the Names and dayes and shrines and relicts of real or supposed Saints in the Papal Kingdom sadly testifieth But the necessary part of our Communion with the Saints in Heaven being of so great importance to the Church on Earth I commend it to the due consideration of the faithful whether our forgetfulness of it is not to be much repented of and whether it be not a work to be more seriously minded for the time to come § 24. And I must confess I know not why it should be thought unlawful to celebrate the memorial of the life or martyrdome of any extraordinary servant of God by an Anniversary solemnity on a set appropriate day It is but to keep the thankful remembrance of Gods mercy to the Church and sure the life and death of such is not the smallest of the Churches mercies here on earth If it be lawful on the 5 of November to celebrate the memorial of
our deliverance from the Powder-plot I know not why it should be thought unlawful to do the like in this case also Provided 1. That it be not terminated in the honour of a Saint but of the God of Saints for giving so great a mercy to his Church 2. That it be not to honour a Saint meerly as a Saint but to some extraordinary eminent Saints Otherwise all that go to Heaven must have Festivals kept in remembrance of them and so we might have a million for a day 3. That it be not made equal with the Lords Day but kept in such a subordination to that Day as the Life or death of Saints is of inferiour and subordinate respect to the work of Christ in mans Redemption 4. And if it be kept in a spiritual manner to invite men to imitate the Holiness of the Saints and the constancy of the Martyrs and not to encourage sensuality and sloth CHAP. XI Directions about our Communion with the Holy Angels § 1. Direct 1. BE satisfied in knowing so much of Angels as God in Nature and Scripture Direct 1. hath revealed but presume not to enquire further much less to determine of unrevealed things That there are Angels and that they are holy Spirits is past dispute But what number they are and of how many worlds and of what orders and different dignities and degrees and when they were created and what locality belongeth to them and how far they excell or differ from the souls of men these and many other such unnecessary questions neither Nature nor Scripture will teach us how infallibly to resolve Almost all the Hereticks in the first ages of the Church did make their doctrines of Angels the first and chief part of their Heresies arrogantly intruding into unrevealed things and boasting of their acquaintance with the orders and inhabitants of the higher worlds These being risen in the Apostles dayes occasioned Paul to say Col. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind Direct 2. § 2. Direct 2. Understand so much of the Ministry of Angels as God hath revealed and so far take notice of your communion with them but affect not any other sort of communion Angelorum vocabulum nomen est officii non naturae nam sancti illi coelestis patriae spiritus semper sunt spiritus sed semper vocari Angeli non possunt Greâ—or I shall here shew how much of the Ministry of Angels is revealed to us in Scripture § 3. 1. It is part of the appointed work of Angels to be Ministring Spirits for the heirs of salvation Dan. 4. 13. Gen. 32. 1 2. Exod. 32. 2. Dan. 6. 22. Acts 12. 7 11. 1 King 19. 5 â— Heb. 1. 14. Not Ministers or Servants of the godly but Ministers of God for the godly As the Shepherd is not a servant of the sheep but for the sheep It is not an accidental or occasional work which they do extraordinarily but it is their undertaken Office to which they are sent forth And this their Ministry is about the ordinary concernments of our lives and not only about some great or unusual cases or exigents Psal. 34. 6 7. Psal. 91. 11 12. § 4. 2. It is not some but All the Angels that are appointed by God to this Ministration Heb. 1. 1 4. Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth c. Mark here that if you enquire whether God have any higher Spirits that are not imployed in so low an Office but govern these Angels or if you enquire whether only this world be the Angels charge or whether they have many other worlds also of Viators to take care of neither Nature nor Scripture doth give you the determination of any of these questions and therefore you must leave them as unrevealed things with abundance more with which the old Hereticks and the Popish Schoolmen have diverted mens minds from plain and necessary things But that all the Angels minister for us is the express words of Scripture § 5. 3. The work of this Office is not left promiscuously among them but several Angels have their Luke 1. 13. 18. 19 26 28. 2. 10 13 21. Actâ— 10. 7. 22. 12. 8 9. Dan. 3 28. 6. 22. Gen. 24. 40. several works and charge Therefore Scripture telleth us of some sent of one message and some on an other And tells us that the meanest of Christs members on earth have their Angels before God in Heaven Matth. 18. 10. I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do alwayes behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven Whether each true Believer hath one or more Angels and whether one Angel look to more than one Believer are questions which God hath not resolved us of either in Nature or Scripture But that each true Christian hath his Angel is here asserted by our Lord. § 6. 4. In this office of Ministration they are servants of Christ as the Head of the Church and the 1 Peâ— 3. 22. Matth. 26. 53. Mediator between God and man to promote the ends of his superiour office in mans Redemption Mat. 28. 18. All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth John 13. 3. Eph. 1. 20 21 22. And set him at his right hand in the celestials far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Rev. 23. 16. I Iesus have sent Rev. 1. 1. mine Angel to testifie unto you these things in the Churches Whether the Angels were appointed about the service of Adam in innocency or only began their Office with Christ the Mediator as his Ministers is a thing that God hath not revealed But that they serve under Christ for his Church is plain § 7. 5. This care of the Angels for us is exercised throughout our lives for the saving of us from 2 Kings 6. 17. all our dangers and delivering us out of all our troubles Psal. 34. 6 7. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles the Angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him and delivereth them Psal. 91. 11 12. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes They shall bear thee up in their hand lest thou dash thy foot against a stone In all our wayes that are good and in every step we tread we have the care and Ministry of tutelar Angels They are our ordinary defence and guard § 8. 6. In all this Ministry they perfectly obey the Will of God and do nothing but by his command Dan. 4. 35. Psal. 103. 10. Zech. 1. 8 10.
Orbs besides what Scripture saith even reason will strongly perswade any rational man 1. When we consider that Sea and Land and Air and all places of this lower baser part of the world are replenished with inhabitants suitable to their natures And therefore that the incomparably more great and excellent Orbs and Regions should all be uninhabited is irrational to imagine 2. And as we see the Rational Creatures are made to govern the Brutes in this inferiour world so reason telleth us it is improbable that the higher Reason of the inhabitants of the higher Regions should have no hand in the government of man And yet God hath further condescended to satisfie us herein by some unquestionable apparitions of good Angels and many more of evil spirits which puâ—s the matter past all doubt that there are inhabitants of the unseen world And when we know that such there are it maketh it the more easie to us to believe that such we may be either numbered with the happy or unhappy Spirits considering the affinity which there is between the nature of our souls and them To conquer senseless Saducism is a good step to the conquest of irreligiousness He that is well perswaded that there are Angels and Spirits is much better prepared than a Sadducee to bâ—lieve the immortality of the soul And because the infinite distance between God and man is apt to make the thoughts of our approaching his Glory either dubious or very terrible the remembrance of those myriads of blessed Spirits that dwell now in the presence of that glory doth much embolden and confirm our thoughts As he that would be afraid whether he should have access to and acceptance with the King would be much encouraged if he saw a multituâ—e as mean as himself or not much unlike him to be familiar attendants on him I must confess such is my own weakness that I find a frequent need of remembring the holy Hosts of Saints and Angels that are with God to embolden my soul and make the thoughts of Heaven more familiar and sweet by abating my strangeness â—mazedness and fears And thus far to make them the Media that I say not the Mediators of my thoughts in their approaches to the Most High and Holy God Though the remembrance of Christ the true Mediator is my chief encouragement Especially when we consider how servently those holy Spirits do love every holy person upon earth and so that all those that dwell with God are dearer friends to us than our Fathers or Mothers here on earth are as is briefly proved before this will embolden us yet much more § 18. Direct 5. Make use of the thoughts of the Angelical Hosts when you would see the Glory and Direct 5. Majesty of Christ If you think it a small matter that he is the Head of the Church on earth a handful of people contemned by the Satanical party of the world yet think what it is to be Head over all things far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come that is Gave him a power dignity and name greater than any power dignity or name of men or Angels and hath put all things under his feet Ephes. 1. 21 22 23. Being made so much better than the Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they Of him it is said Let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. 1. 4 6. Read the whole Chapter Our Head is the Lord of all these Hosts § 19. Direct 6. Make use of the remembrance of the glorious Angels to acquaint you with the dignity Direct 6. of humane nature and the special dignity of the servants of God and so to raise up your hearts in Magna dignitas fidelium animarum ut unaquaeque habeat ab ortu nativitatis in custodiam sui Angelum depuâ—atum imo plures Hitro Luke 20. 36. thankfulness to your Creator and Redeemer who hath thus advanced you 1. What a dignity is it that thâ—se holy Angels should be all Ministring Spirits sâ—nt for our good that they should love us and concern themselves so much for us as to rejoyce in Heaven at our conversion Lord What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Psal. 8. 4. 5. 2. But yet it is a higher declaration of our dignity that we should in Heaven be equal with them and so be numbered iâ—to their society and joyn with them everlastingly in the praise of our Creator 3. And it is yet a greater honour to us that our Natures are assumed into union of person with the Son of God and sâ— advanced above the Angels For he took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Nâ—r hath he put the world to come in subjection to the Angels Heb. 2. 5 16. This is the Lords doing and it is wonderous in our eyes § 20. Direct 7. When you would admire the works of God and his government look specially to the Direct 7. Angels part If God would be glorified in his works then especially in the most glorious parts If he take delight to work by Instruments and to communicate such excellency and honour to them as may conduce to the honour of the principal cause we must not overlook their excellency and honour unless we will deny God the honour which is due to him As he that will see the excellent workmanship of a Watch or any other Engine must not overlook the chiefest parts nor their operation on the rest So he that will see the excellent order of the works and Government of God must not over-look the Angels nor their Offices in the Government and preservation of the inferiour creatures so far as God hath revealed it unto us We spoil the Musick if we leave out these strings It is a great part of the glory of the works of God that all the parts in Heaven and Earth are so admirably conjoyned and joynted as they are and each in their places contribute to the beauty and harmony of the whole § 21. Direct 8. When you would be apprehensive of the excellency of Love and Humility and exact Direct 8. obedience tâ— the will of God look up to the Angels and see the lustre of all these vertues as they shine Heb. 1. 14. Psal. 103. 20 21 in them How perfectly do they Love God and all his Saints Even the weakest and meanest of the members of Christ With what humility do they condescend to minister for the heirs of salvation How readily and perfectly do they obey their Maker Though our chiefest pattern is Christ himself who came nearer to us and appeared in flesh to give us the example of all such duties yet under him the
and not under the scandal of Heresie Schism or gross corruption among those that live about 4. That it be under the countenance and encouraging favour of the Christian Magistrate 5. That it be the same Church of which the rest of the family which we are of be members That Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters and Servants be not of several Churches 6. That the Pastors be able Teachers prudent Guides and of holy lives and diligent in their office 7. That the Pastors be regularly called to their office 8. That the members be intelligent peaceable and of holy temperate and righteous lives But when all these cannot be had together we must choose that Church which hath those qualifications which are most needful and bear with tolerable imperfections The most needful are the first second and sixth of these qualifications Prop. 27. He that is free should choose that Church which is the fittest for his own edification that is The best Pastors people and administrations Prop. 28. A mans freedom is many wayes restrained herein As 1. When it will tend to a greater publick hurt by disorder ill example division discouragement c. 2. When superiours forbid it Of these things I have said so much in my Cure of Church Divisions and in the Defence of it and in the end of my Reas. of Christ. Relig. Consect 1. 2. that I pass them over here with the more brevity As Husbands Parents Masters Magistrates 3. By some scandal 4. By the distance or inconvenience of our dwelling 5. By differences of Judgement and other causes of contention in the said Churches And many other wayes Prop. 29. A free man who removeth from one Church to another for his edification is not therefore a Separatist or Schismatick But it must not be done by one that is not free but upon such necessity as freeth him Prop. 30. It is schism or sinful separation to separate from 1. A true Church as no true Church 2. From Lawful Worship and Communion as unlawful But of this more in its proper place Quest. 2. Whether we must esteem the Church of Rome a true Church And in what sense some Divines affirm it and some deny it WAnt of some easie distinguishing hath made that seem a Controversie here which is so plain â—â—â—â— Mr. Bur 〈…〉 â—nd 〈…〉 's contest hereabout that it can hardly be any at all to Protestants if the question had been but truly stated Remember therefore that by a Church is meant not a meer company of Christians any how related to each other but a society consisting of an Ecclesiastical Head and Body such as we call a Political society 2. And that we speak not of an Accidental Head such as the King is because he Governeth them suo modo by the sword for that is not an Essential Constitutive Part But of a Constitâ—tive Ecclesiastical Head and body 3. That the question is not Whether the Church of Rome be a Part of the Church but whether it be a true Church And now I answer 1. To affirm the Church of Rome to be the Catholick or Universal Church is more than to affirm it to be a true Catholick Church that is a true part of the Catholick Church and is as much as to say that it is the whole and only Church and that there is no other which is odious falshood and usurpation and slander against all other Churches 2. The Church of Rome is so called in the Question as it is a Policy or Church in a general sense And the meaning of the Question is Whether it be a Divine or a Humane or Diabolical Policy A Lawful Church 3. The Church of Rome is considered 1. Formally as a Church or Policy 2. Materially as the singular persons are qualified It is the Form that denominateth Therefore the Question must be taken of the Roman Policy or of the Church of Rome as such that is As it is one Ruler pretending to be the ☞ Vicarious constitutive Governing Head of all Christs Visible Church on earth and the Body which owneth him in this Relation 4. Therefore I conclude and so do all Protestants that this Policy or Church of Rome is no true Church of Christs Instituting or approbation but a Humane sinful Policy formed by the Temptation of Satan the Prince of Pride deceit and darkness The proof of which is the matter of whole loads of Protestant Writings And indeed the proof of their Policy being incumbent on themselves they fail in it and are still fain to fly to pretended false Tradition for proof in which the Sophisters know that either they must be Judges themselves and it must go for truth because they say it or else that if they can carry the Controversie into a Thicket or Wood of Fathers and Church History at least they can confound the ignorant and evade themselves Of this see my Disput. with Iohnson and my Key for Catholicks c. 5. The Bishop of the English Papists Smith called Bishop of Chalcedon in his Survey cap. 5. saith To us it sufficeth that the Bishop of Rome is St. Peters successour and this all the Fathers testifie and all ☞ the Catholick Church believeth But whether it be jure Divino or humano is no point of faith The like hath * System Fidâ—i Davenport called Fransc. à Sancta Clarâ more largely By this let the Reader judge whether we need more words to prove their Church to be such as Christ never instituted when the belief of their Divine right is no part of their own faith 6. If the Church of Rome in its formal Policy be but of humane institution it is 1. Unnecessary to salvation 2. Unlawful Because they that first instituted it had no Authority so to do and were Usurpers For either the makers of it were themselves a Church or no Church If no Church they could not lawfully make a Church Infidels or Heathens are not to be our Church-makers If a Church then there was a Church before the Church of Rome and that of another form And if that former form were of Christs institution man might not change it If not who made that form And so on 7. Our Divines therefore that say that the Church of Rome is a True Church though corrupt do not speak of it formally as to the Papal Policy or Headship but materially 1. That all Papists that are visible Christians are visible Parts of the universal Church 2. That their particular Congregations considered abstractedly from the Roman Headship may be true particular Churches though corrupt which yet being the only difficulty shall be the matter of our next enquiry Quest. 3. Whether we must take the Romish Clergy for true Ministers of Christ And whether their Baptism and Ordination be nullities I Joyn these two distinct Questions together for brevity 1. As True signifieth Regularly called so they are commonly Irregular and not True Ministers But as True signifieth
expectat cuique ad resipiscendum non ista sufficiunt infatuatum se juxta Domini sententiam nullo unquam sale saliri posse demonstrat I will not English it lest those take encouragement by it who are bent to the other extream 7. Yet it will be a great offence if any censorious self-conceited person shall on this pretence set up his judgement of mens parts to the contempt of Authority or to the vilifying of worthy men and especially if he thereby make a stir and Schism in the Church instead of seeking his own edification 8. Yea if a Minister be weaker yea and colder and worse than another yet if his Ministry be competently fitted to edification he that cannot leave him and go to a better without apparent hurt to the Church and the souls of others by division or exasperating Rulers or breaking family ☜ order or violating Relation duties must take himself to be at present denyed the greater helps that others have and may trust God in the use of those weaker means to accept and bless him because he is in the station where he hath set him This case therefore must be Resolved by a prudent comparing of the Good or Hurt which is like to follow and of the accidents or circumstances whence that must be discerned Quest. 10. What if the Magistrate command the people to receive one Pastor and the Bishops or Ordainers another which of them must be obeyed 1. THe Magistrate and not the Bishop or people unless under him hath the power and disposal See more of this after of the Circumstantials or Accidents of the Church I mean of the Temple the Pulpit the Tythes c. And he is to determine what Ministers are fit either for his own Countenance or Toleration and what not In these therefore he is to be obeyed before the Bishops or others 2. If a Pope or Prelate of a foreign Church or any that hath no lawful Jurisdiction or Government over the Church that wanteth a Pastor shall command them to receive one their command is null and to be contemned 3. Neither Magistrate nor Bishop as is said may deny the Church or people any Liberty which God in Nature or Christ in the Gospel hath setled on them as to the Reception of their proper Pastors 4. No Bishop but only the Magistrate can compell by the Sword the obedience of his commands 5. If one of them command the reception of a worthy person and the other of an intolerable one the former must prevail because of obedience to Christ and care of our souls 6. But if the persons be equal or both fit the Magistrate is to be obeyed if he be peremptory in his commands and decide the case in order to the peace or protection of the Church both because it is a lawful thing and because else he will permit no other 7. And the rather because the Magistrates Power is more past controversie than Whether any Bishop Pastor or Synod can any further than by counsel and perswasion oblige the People to receive a Pastor Quest. 11. Whether an uninterrupted Succession either of right Ordination or of Conveyance by Iurisdiction be necessary to the Being of the Ministry or of a true Church THe Papists have hitherto insisted on the necessity of successive right Ordination But Voâ—tius de desperata Causa Papatus hath in this so handled them and confuted Iansenius as hath indeed shewed the desperateness of that Cause And they perceive that the Papacy it self cannot be upheld by that way and therefore Iohnson alias Terret in his Rejoynder against me now concludeth that it is not for want of a successive Consecration that they condemn the Church of England but for want of true Iurisdiction because other Bishops had title to the places whilest they were put in And that successive Consecration which we take to include Ordination is not necessary to the being of Ministry or Church And it is most certain to any man acquainted in Church History that their Popes have had a succession of neither Their way of Election hath been frequently changed sometimes being by the people sometimes by the Clergy sometimes by the Emperours and lastly by the Cardinals alone Ordination they have sometime wanted and a Lay-man been chosen And oft the Ordination hath been by such as had no power according to their own Laws And frequent intercisions have been made sometime by many years vacancy when they had no Church and so there was none on Earth if the Pope be the Constitutive Head for want of a Pope sometime by long Schisms when of two or three Popes no one could be known to have more right than the other nor did they otherwise carry it than by power at last Sometimes by the utter incapacity of the possessors some being Lay-men some Hereticks and Infidels so judged by Councils at Rome Constance Basil and Eugenius the fourth continued after he was so censured and condemned and deposed by the General Council I have proved all this at large elsewhere And he that will not be cheated with a bare sound of words but will ask them whether by a succession of Iurisdiction they mean Efficient Conveying Iurisdiction in the Causers of his Call or Received Iurisdiction in the Office received will find that they do but hide their desperate Cause in Confusion and an insignificant noise For they maintain that none on earth have an Efficient Iurisdiction in making Popes For the former Pope doth not make his successor And both Electors Ordainers and Consecrators yea and the people Receiving they hold to be subjects of the Pope when made and therefore make him not by Jurisdiction giving him the power Therefore Iohnson tells me that Christ only and not man doth give the power and they must needs hold that men have nothing to do but design the person Recipient by Election and Reception and to Invest him ceremonially in the possession So that no Efficient Iurisdiction is here used at all by man And for Received Iurisdiction 1. No one questioneth but when that Office is received which is Essentially Governing he that receiveth it receiveth a Governing power or else he did not receive the Office If the question be only whether the Office of a Bishop be an Office of Iurisdiction or contain essentially a Governing power they make no question of this themselves So that the noise of Successive Jurisdiction is vanished into nothing 2. And with them that deny any Jurisdiction to belong to Presbyters this will be nothing as to their case who have nothing but Orders to receive They have nothing of sense left them to say but this That though the Efficient Iurisdiction which maketh Popes be only in Christ because no men are their Superiours yet Bishops and Presbyters who have Superiours cannot receive their power but by an Efficient Power of man which must come down by uninterrupted succession Answ. 1. And so if ever the Papal Office have an
intercision as I have proved it hath had as to lawful Popes the whole Catholick Church is nullified and it is impossible to give it a new being but by a new Pope But the best is that by their Doctrine indeed they need not to plead for an uninterrupted succession either of Popes Bishops or Presbyters but that they think it a useful cheat to perplex all that are not their subjects For if the Papacy were extinct an hundred years Christ is still alive And seeing it is no matter ad esse who be the Electors or Consecrators so it be but made known conveniently to the people and Men only Elect and Receive the person and Christ only giveth the power by his stated Law what hindereth after the longest extinction or intercision but that some body or some sort of persons may choose a Pope again and so Christ make him Pope And thus the Catholick Church may dye and live again by a new Creation many times over And when the Pope hath a Resurrection after the longest intercision so may all the Bishops and Priests in the world because a new Pope can make new Bishops and new Bishops can make new Priests And where then is there any shew of necessity of an uninterrupted succession of any of them All that will follow is that the particular Churches dye till a Resurrection And so doth the whole Church on earth every time the Pope dyeth till another be made if he be the Constitutive Head 2. But as they say that Christ only Efficiently giveth the Power to the Pope so say we to the Bishops or Pastors of the Church For there is no act of Christs Collation to be proved but the Scripture Law or Grant And if that standing Law give Power to the Pope when men have but designed the Person the same Law will do the same to Bishops or Pastors For it establisheth their Office in the same sort Or rather in truth there is no word that giveth power to any such Officer as an Universal Head or Pope but the Law for the Pastoral Office is uncontrovertible And what the Spanish Bishops at Trent thought of the Divine Right of the Bishops Office I need not mention I shall therefore thus truly resolve the question 1. In all Ordinations and Elections man doth but first choose the Recipient person 2. And Ceremoniously and Ministerially Invest him in the Possession when God hath given him the power But the efficient Collation or Grant of the Power is done only by Christ by the Instrumentality of his Law or Institution As when the King by a Charter saith Whoever the City shall choose shall be their Mayor and have such and such power and be Invested in it by the Recorder or Steward Here the person elected receiveth all his Power from the King by his Charter which is a standing Efficient conveying it to the Capable Chosen person and not from the Choosers or Recorder only the last is as a servant to deliver possession So is it in this case 2. The regular way of entrance appointed by Christ to make a person capable is the said Election and Ordination And for order sake where that may be had the unordained are not to be received as Pastors 3. If any get Possession by false pretended Ordination or Mission and be Received by the Church I have before told you that he is a Pastor as to the Churches use and benefit though not to his own And so the Church is not extinct by every fraudulent usurpation or mistake and so not by want of a true Ordination or Mission 4. If the way of regular Ordination fail God may otherwise by the Churches necessity and the notorious aptitude of the person notifie his will to the Church what person they shall receive As if a Lay-man were cast on the Indian shoar and converted thousands who could have no Ordination And upon the peoples Reception or Consent that man will be a true Pastor And seeing the Papists in the conclusion as Iohnson ubi supra are fain to cast all their cause on the Churches Reception of the Pope they cannot deny reasonably but ad esse the Churches reception may serve also for another Officer And indeed much better than for a Pope For 1. The Universal Church is so great that no man can know when the Greater part Receiveth him and when not except in some notorious declarations 2. And it is now known that the far greater part of the Universal Church the Greeks Armenians Abassines Copties Protestants c. do not receive the Roman Head 3. And when one part of Europe received one Pope and another part another Pope for above fourty years together who could tell which of the parties was to be accounted the Church It was not then known nor it is not known yet to this day And no Papist can prove it who affirmeth it As a Church e. g. Constantinople may be gathered or oriri de novo where there is none before so may it be restored where it is extinct And possibly a Lay-man as Frumentius and Edesiâ—s in the Indies may be the instrument of mens conversion And if so they may by consent become their Pastors when regular Ordination cannot be had I have said more of this in my Disputations of Church-Government Disp. 2. The truth is this pretence of a Necessity of uninterrupted successive Ordination Mission or Jurisdictional Collation ad esse to the being of Ministry or Church is but a cheat of men that have an interest of their own which requireth such a plea when they may easily know that it would overthrow themselves Quest. 12. Whether there be or ever was such a thing in the world as one Catholick Church Constituted by any Head besides or under Christ THe greatest and first controversie between us and the Papists is not What man or Politick person is the Head of the whole Visible Church But Whether there be any such Head at all eiPersonal or Collective Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical under Christ of his appointment or allowance Or any such thing as a Catholick Church so Headed or Constituted Which they affirm and we deny That neither Pope nor General Council is such a Head I have proved so fully in my Key for Catholicks and other Books that I will not here stay to make repetition of it That the Pope is no such Head we may take for granted 1. Because they bring no proof of it whatever they vainly pretendâ—â— 2. Because our Divines have copiously disproved it to whom I refer you 3. Because the Universal Church never received such a Head as I have proved against Iohnson 4. And whether it be the Pope their Bishop of Calcedon ubi sup Sancta Clara System â—id say is not de fide That a Council is no such Head I have largely proved as aforesaid Part 2. Key for Cath. And 1. The use of it being but for Concord proveth it 2. Most Papists confess it
exercise and to a fixed Charge as thou hast now a Call to the Office in general 9. Yet every Bishop or Pastor by his Relation to the Church Universal and to mankind and the interest of Christ is bound not only as a Christian but as a Pastor to do his best for the common good and not to cast wholly out of his care a particular Church because another hath the oversight of it Therefore if an Heretick get in or the Church fall to Heresie or any pernicious error or sin the neighbour Pastors are bound both by the Law of Nature and their Office to interpose their Counsel as Ministers of Christ and to prefer the substance before pretended order and to feek to recover the peoples souls though it be against their proper Pastors will And in such a case of necessity they may ordain degrade excommunicate and absolve in anothers charge as if it were a vacuity 10. Moreover it is one thing to excommunicate a man out of a particular Church and another thing for many associated Churches or Neighbours to renounce Communion with him The special 1 Cor. 5. Tit. 3. 10. 2 Thess. 3. 6 14. Pastors of particular Churches having the Government of those Churches are the special Governing Judges who shall or shall not have Communion as a member in their Churches But the neighbour-Pastors of other Churches have the power of Judging with whom they and their own flocks will or will 2 John 10. Rev. 2. 14 15 2â— not hold Communion As e. g. Athanasius may as Governour of his flock declare any Arrian-member excommunicate and require his flock to have no Communion with him And all the neighbour Pastors though they excommunicate not the same man as his special Governours yet may declare to all their flocks that if that man come among them they will have no Communion with him and that at distance they renounce that distant Communion which is proper to Christians one with another and take him for none of the Church of Christ. Quest. 25. Whether Canons be Laws And Pastors have a Legislative Power ALL men are not agreed what a Law is that is what is to be taken for the proper sense of that Word Some will have the name confined to such Common Laws as are stated durable Rules for the subjects actions And some will extend it also to personal temporary verbal Precepts and Mandates such as Parents and Masters use daily to the children and servants of their families And of the first sort some will confine the name Laws to those acts of Soveraignty which are about the common matters of the Kingdom or which no interiour Officer may make And others will extend it to those Orders which by the Soveraigns Charter a Corporation or Colledge or School may make for the subregulation of their particular societies and affairs I have declared my own opinion de nomine fully elsewhere 1. That the definition of a Law in the proper general sense is To be A sign or signification of the Reason and Will of the Rector as such to his subjects as such instituting or antecedently determining what shall be Due from them and to them Jus efficiendo Regularly making Right 2. That these Laws are many more wayes diversified and distinguished from the efficient sign subjects matter end c. than is meet for us here to enumerate It is sufficient now to say 1. That stated Regulating Laws as distinct from temporary Mandates and Proclamations 2. And Laws for Kingdoms and other Common-wealthy in regard of Laws for Persons Schools Families c. 3. And Laws made by the Supream Power as distinct from those made by the derived authority of Colleges Corporations c. called By-Laws or Orders For I will here say nothing of Parents and Pastors whose Authority is directly or immediately from the efficiency of Nature in one and Divine Institution in the other and not derived efficiently from the Magistrate or any man 4. That Laws about great substantial matters distinct from those about little and mutable circumstances c. I say the first sort as distinct from the second are Laws so called by Excellency above other Laws But that the rest are univocally to be called Laws according to the best definition of the Law in Genere But if any man will speak otherwise let him remember that it is yet but lis de nomine and that he may use his liberty and I will use mine Now to the Question 1. Canons made by Virtue of the Pastoral Office and Gods General Laws in Nature or Scripture for regulating it are a sort of Laws to the subjects or flocks of those Pastors 2. Canons made by the Votes of the Laity of the Church or private part of that society as private are no Laws at all but Agreements Because they are not acts of any Governing power 3. Canons made by Civil Rulers about the circumstantials of the Church belonging to their Office as orderers of such things are Laws and may be urged by moderate and meet civil or corporal penalties and no otherwise 4. Canons made by Princes or inferiour Magistrates are no Laws purely and formally Ecclesiastical which are essentially Acts of Pastoral power But only Materially Ecclesiastical and formally Magistratical 5. No Church Officers as such much less the people can make Laws with a Co-active or Coâ—rcive sanction that is to be enforced by their Authority with the Sword or any corporal penalty mulct or force This being the sole priviledge of Secular Powers Civil or Oâ—conomical or Scholastick 6. There is no obligation ariseth to the subject for particular obedience of any Law which is evidently against the Laws of God in Nature or holy Scripture 7. They are no Laws which Pastors make to people out of their power As the Popes c. 8. There is no power on earth under Christ that hath Authority to make Universal Laws to bind the whole Church on all the earth or all mankind Because there is no Universal Soveraign Civil or Spiritual Personal or Collective 9. Therefore it is no Schism but Loyalty to Christ to renounce or separate from such a society of ☜ Usurpation nor no disobedience or rebellion to deny them obedience 10. Pastors may and must be obeyed in things Lawful as Magistrates if the King make them Magistrates Though I think it unmeet for them to accept a Magistracy with the Sword except in case of some rare necessity 11. Is Pope Patriarchs or Pastors shall usurp any of the Kings Authority Loyalty to Christ and him and the Love of the Church and State oblige us to take part with Christ and the King against such Usurpation but only by lawful means in the compass of our proper place and Calling 12. The Canons made by the Councils of many Churches have a double nature As they are made for the people and the subjects of the Pastors they are a sort of Laws That is They oblige by the derived
Authority of the Pastors Because the Pastors of several Churches do not Lose any of Grotius dâ— Iâ—perio sum pot circ â—acr most solidly resolveth this Question their Power by their Assembling but exercise it with the greater advantage of Concord But as they are made only to oblige the present or absent Pastors who separatedly are of equal Office-power so they are no Laws except in an equivocal sense but only Agreements or Contracts So Bishop Usher profest his judgement to be And before him the Council of Carthage in Cyprians time But it needs no proof no more than that a Convention of Kings may make no Laws to bind the Kings of England but Contracts only 13. But yet we are aliunde obliged even by God to keep these Agreements in things lawful for the Churches peace and concord when greater contrary reasons à fine do not disoblige us For when God saith You shall keep Peace and Concord and keep Lawful Covenants The Canons afford us the Minor But these are Lawful Contracts or Agreements and means of the Churches Peace and Concord Therefore saith Gods Law you shall observe them So though the Contracts as of Husband and Wife Buyer and Seller c. be not Laws yet that is a Law of God which bindeth us to keep them 14. Seing that even the obliging Commands of Pastors may not by them be enforced by the Sword 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. 2 Cor. 1. 24. but work by the power of Divine Authority or Commission manifested and by holy Reason and Love therefore it is most modest and fit for Pastors who must not Lord it over Gods heritage but be examples to all to take the Lower name of Authoritative Directions and perswasions rather than of Laws Especially in a time when Papal Usurpation maketh such ruinating use of that name and Civil Magistrates use to take it in the nobler and narrower sense THe Questions 1. If one Pastor make Orders for his Church and the multitudes or Synods be against them which must be obeyed you may gather from what is said before of Ordination And 2. What are the particulars proper Materially to the Magistrates decision and what to the Pastors I here pass by Quest. 26. Whether Church-Canons or Pastors Directive Determinations of matters pertinent to their Office do bind the Conscience And what accidents will disoblige the people you may gather before in the same case about Magistrates Laws in the Political Directions As also by an impartial transferring the Case to the Precepts of Parents and Schoolmasters to Children without respect to their Power of the Rod or supposing that they had none such Quest. 27. What are Christs appointed means of the Unity and Concord of the Universal Church and consequently of its preservation if there be no Humane Universal Head and Governour of it upon Earth And if Christ have instituted none such Whether Prudence and the Law of Nature oblige not the Church to set up and maintain an Universal Ecclesiastical Monarchy or Aristocracy Seeing that which is Every mans work is as No mans and omitted by all I. TO the first question I must refer you in part to two small popular yet satisfactory Tractates Catholick Unity and The True Catholick and Church described written long ago that I do not one thing too oft Briefly now 1. The Unity of the Universal Church is founded in and maintained by their Common Relation to Christ the Head as the Kingdom in its Relation to the King 2. A Concord in Degrees of Goodness and in Integrals and Accidentals of Christianity will never be obtained on earth where the Church is still imperfect And perfect Holiness and Wisdom are necessary to Perfect Harmony and Concord Phil. 3. 12 13 14. 3. Experience hath long taught the Church if it will learn that the claim of a Papal Headship and Government over the Church Universal hath been the famous incendiary and hinderer of Concord in the Christian world 4. The means to attain such a measure of concord and harmony which is to be hoped for or endeavoured upon earth I have so distinctly fully and yet briefly described with the contrary Impediments in my Treatise of the Reasons of Christian Religion Part 7. Chap. 14. pag. 470 471. in about two leaves that I will not recite them If you say You are not bound to read the Books which I refer you to I answer Nor thiâ— II. To the latter Question I answer 1. To set up such an Universal Head on the supposition of natural Reasons and Humane Policy is 1. To cross Christs Institution and the Laws of the Holy Ghost as hath been long proved by Protestants from the Scripture 2. It is Treason against Christs Soveraign Office to usurp such a Vicegerency without his Commission 3. It is against the notorious light of Nature which telleth us of the Natural Incapacity of Mortal man to be such an Universal Governour through the world 4. It is to sin against long and dreadful common experience and to keep in that fire that hath destroyed Euperours Kings and Kingdoms and set the Churches Pastors and Christian world in those divisions which are the great and serviceable work of Satan and the impediment of the Churches increase purity and peace and the notorious shame of the Christian profession in the eyes of the Infidel world And if so many hundred years sad experience will not answer them that say If the Pope were a good man he might unite us all I conclude that such deserve to be deceived 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. Quest. 28. Who is the Iudge of Controversies in the Church 1. About the Exposition of the Scripture and Doctrinal points in themselves 2. About either Heresies or wicked Practices as they are charged on the persons who are accused of them That is 1. Antecedently to our Practice by way of Regulation 2. Or Consequently by Iudicial Sentence and Execution on Offenders I Have answered this question so oft that I can perswade my self to no more than this short yet clear solution The Papists use to cheat poor unlearned persons that cannot justly discern things that differ by puzling them with this confused ambiguous question Some things they cunningly and falsly take for granted As that there is such a thing on Earth as a Political Universal Church headed by any Mortal Governour Some things they shuffle together in equivocal words They confound 1. Publick Iudgement of Decision and private judgement of discerning 2. The Magistrates Iudgement of Church-controversies and the Pastors and the several Cases and Ends and Effects of their several judgements 3. Church-judgement as Directive to a particular Church and as a means of the Concord of several Churches Which being but distinguished a few words will serve to clear the difficulty 1 As there is no Universal Humane Church Constituted or Governed by a Mortal Head so there is no Power set up by Christ to be an Universal Iudge of either sort of Controversies
by decisive Iudicial â—entence Nor any Universal Civil Monarch of the world 2. The publick Governing Decisive judgement obliging others belongeth to publick persons or Officers Eph. 4. 7 13 14 15 16. of God and not to any private man 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. 17. 3. The publick decision of Doubts or Controversies about Faith it self or the true sense of Gods Word and Laws as obliging the whole Church on Earth to believe that decision or not gainsay it Acts 15. See my Key for Catholicks because of the Infallibility or Governing authority of the Deciders belongeth to none but Jesus Christ Because as is said he hath made no Universal Governour nor Infallible Expositor It belongeth to the Law-giver only to make such an Universally obliging Exposition of his own Laws 4. True Bishops or Pastors in their own particular Churches are Authorized Teachers and Guides in Expounding the Laws and Word of Christ And the people are bound as Learners to reverence their Teaching and not contradict it without true cause yea and to believe them fide humanâ in things pertinent to their Office For oportet discentem credere 5. No such Pastors are to be Absolutely believed nor in any case of notorious Error or Heresie where the Word of God is discerned to be against them 6. For all the people as Reasonable creatures have a judgement of private discerning to judge what they must Receive as Truth and to discern their own duty by the help of the Word of God and of their Teachers 7. The same power of Governing-Iudgement Lawful Synods have over their several flocks as a Pastor over his own but with greater advantage 8. The power of Judging in many Consociate Churches who is to be taken into Communion as Orthodox and who to be refused by those Churches as Hereticks in specie that is what Doctrine they will judge sound or unsound as it is Iudicium discernendi belongeth to every one of the Council â—ingly As it is a Iudgement obliging themselves by Contract and not of Governing each other it is in the Contracters and Consenters And for peace and order usually in the Major Vote But with the Limitations before expressed 9. Every true Christian believeth all the Essentials of Christianity with a Divine faith and not by a meer humane belief of his Teachers though by their Help and Teaching his faith is generated and confirmed and preserved Therefore no essential Article of Christianity is left to any obliging decision of any Church but only to a subservient obliging Teaching As whether there be a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell an Immortality of souls whether God be to be believed loved feared obeyed before man Whether the Scripture be Gods Word and true Whether those that contradict it are to be believed therein Whether Pastors Assemblies publick Worship Baptism Sacrament of the Lords Supper be Divine institutions And the same I may say of any known Word of God No mortals may judge in partem utramliâ—et but the Pastors are only Authorized Teachers and helpers of the peoples faith And so they be partly to one another 10. If the Pope or his Council were the Infallible or the Governing Expositors of all Gods Laws and Scriptures 1. God would have enabled them to do it by an Universal Commentary which all men should be obliged to believe or at least not to contradict For there is no Authority and Obligation given to men yea to so many successively to do that for the needful decision of Controversies which they never have Ability given them to do For that were to oblige them to things impossible 2. And the Pope and his Council would be the most treacherous miscreants on earth that in so many hundred years would never write such an Infallible nor Governing Commentary to end the differences of the Christian world Indeed they have judged with others against Arrius that Christ is true God and one with the Father in substance c. But if they had said the contrary must we have taken it for Gods truth or have believed them 11. To judge who for Heresie or Seandal shall be punished by the Sword belongeth to none but the Magistrate in his own dominions As to judge who shall have Communion or be excommunicated from the Church belongeth as aforesaid to the Pastors And the said Magistrate hath first as a man his own Iudgement of discerning what is Heresie and who of his subjects are guilty of it in order to his publick Governing Judgement 12. The Civil Supream Ruler may Antecedently exercise this Judgement of Discerning by the Teaching of their proper Teachers in order to his consequent sentences on offenders And so in his Laws may tell the subjects what Doctrines and practices he will either Tolerate or punish And thus may the Church Pastors do in their Canons to their several flocks in relation to Communion or non-communion 13. He that will condemn particular persons as Hereticks or offenders must allow them to speak for themselves and hear the proofs and give them that which justice requireth c. And if the Pope can do so at the Antipodes and in all the world either per se or per alium without giveing that other his essential claimed power let him prove it by better experience than we have had 14. As the prime and sole-universal Legislation belongeth to Jesus Christ so the final Judgement universal and particular belongeth to him which only will end all Controversies and from which there is no appeal Quest. 29. Whether a Parents power over his Children or a Pastor or many Pastors or Bishops over the same Children as parts of their flock be greater or more obliging in matters of Religion and publick Worship THis being toucht on somewhere else I only now say 1. That if the case were my own I would 1. Labour to know their different Powers as to the matter commanded and obey each in that which is proper to his place 2. If I were young and ignorant Natural necessity and natural obligation together would give my Parents with whom I lived such an advantage above the Minister whom I seldome see or understand as would determine the case de eventu and much de jure 3. If my Parents commanded me to hear a Teacher who is against Ceremonies or certain Forms and to hear none that are for them natural necessity here also ordinarily would make it my duty first to hear and obey my Parents And in many other cases till I came to understand the greater power of the Pastors in their own place and work 4. But when I come to Church or know that the judgement of all Concordant Godly Pastors condemneth such a thing as damnable Heresie or Sin which any Father commandeth me to receive and profess I would more believe and follow the Judgement of the Pastors and Churches Quest. 30. May an Office Teacher or Pastor be at once in a stated Relation of a Pastor and a
to true penitent believers with a right to everlasting life and as to the obligation to sincere obedience for salvation though not as to the yet future coming of Christ in the flesh And this Law of Grace was never 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 15. 4. 16. 26. yet repealed any further than Christs coming did fulfill it and perfect it Therefore to the rest of the world who never can have the Gospel or perfecter Testament as Christians have the former ☞ Law of Grace is yet in force And that is the Law conjoyned with the Law of Nature which now the world without the Church is under Under I say as to the force of the Law and a former Matth. 22. 29. Luke 24. 27 32 45. John 5. â—9 Acts 17. 2. 11. 18. 24 25. John 20. 9. John 7. 38 42. 10. 35. 13. 18. 19. 24 28. Luke 4. 18. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 19 20. Acts 8. 32 33 35. Rom. 1. 2. promulgation made to Adam and Noah and some common intimations of it in merciful forbearances pardons and benefits though how many are under it as to the knowledge reception belief and obedience of it and consequently are saved by it is more than I or any man knoweth 6. There are many Prophecies of Christ and the Christian Church in the Old Testament yet to be fulfilled and therefore are still Gods Word for us 7. There are many Precepts of God to the Jews and to particular persons given them on Reasons common to them with us where parity of Reason will help thence to gather our own duty now 8. There are many holy expressions as in the Psalms which are fitted to persons in our condition and came from the Spirit of God and therefore as such are fit for us now 9. Even the fulfilled Promises Types and Prophecies are still Gods Word that is his Word given to their several proper uses And though much of their Use be changed or ceased so is not all They are yet useful to us to confirm our faith while we see their accomplishment and see how much God still led his Church to Happiness in one and the same way 10. On all these accounts therefore we may still Read the Old Testament and preach upon it in the publick Churches Quest. 156. Must we believe that Moses Law did ever bind other Nations or that any other parts of the Scripture bound them or belonged to them or that the Iews were all Gods Visible Church on Earth Answ. I Conjoyn these three Questions for dispatch I. 1. Some of the Matter of Moses Law did Rom. 2. Rom. 1. 20 21 Enod 12. 19 43 48 49. 20. 10. Lev. 17. 12 15. 18. 26. 24. 16 22. Numb 9. 14. 15. 14 15 16 29 30. 19. 10. Deut. 1. 16. bind all Nations that is The Law of nature as such 2. Those that had the knowledge of the Jewish Law were bound â—ollaterally to believe and obey all the expositions of the Law of nature in it and all the Laws which were given upon reasons common to all the world As about degrees of Marriage particular rules of Justice c. As if I heard God from Heaven tell another that standeth by me Thou shalt not marry thy fathers Widow for it is abominable I ought to apply that to me being his subject which is spoken to another on a common reason 3. All those Gentiles that would be proselytes and joyn with the Jews in their policy and dwell among them were bound to be observers of their Laws But 1. The Law of Nature as Mosaical did not formally and directly bind other Nations 2. Nâ—r were they bound to the Laws of their peculiar policy Civil or Ecclesiastical which were positives The reason is 1. Because they were all one body of Political Laws given peculiarly to one political body Even the Decalogue it self was to them a political Law 2. Because Moses was not authorized or sent to be the Mediator or deliverer of that Law to any Nation but the Jews And being never in the enacting or Promulgation sent or directed to the rest of the World it could not bind them II. As to the second Question Though the Scripture as a writing bound not all the World yet 1. The Law of Nature as such which is recorded in Scripture did bind all 2. The Covenant of Psal. 145. 9 103. 19. Psal. 100. 1. Rom. 14. 11. Act. 34 35. Jud. 14. 15. Grace was made with all mankind in Adam and Noe And they were bound to promulgate it by Tradition to all their off-spring And no doubt so they did whether by word as all did or by writing also as it 's like some did as Henochs Prophesies were it 's like delivered or else they had not in terms been preserved till Iudes time 3. And God himself as aforesaid by actual providences pardoning and benefits given to them that deserved hell did in part promulgate it himself 4. The neighbour Nations might learn much by Gods doctrine and dealing with the Jews III. To the third Question I answer 1. The Jews were a people chosen by God out of all the Deut. 14. 2 3. 7. 2. 6 7. Exod. 19. 5. 6. 7 8. Lev. 20. 24 26. Deut. 4. 20 33. 29. 13. 33. 29. Rom. 3. 1 2 3. Nations of the Earth to be a holy Nation and his peculiar treasure having a peculiar Divine Law and Covenant and many great priviledges to which the rest of the World were strangers so that they were advanced above all other Kingdoms of the world though not in wealth nor worldly power nor largeness of Dominion yet in a special dearness unto God 2. But they were not the only people to whom God made a Covenant of Grace in Adam and Noe as distinct from the Law or Covenant of Innocency 3. Nor were they the only people that professed to Worship the true God neither was holiness and salvation confined to them but were found in other Nations Therefore though we have but little notice of the state of other Kingdoms in their times and scarcely know what National Churches that is whole Nations professing saving faith there were yet we may well conclude that there were other visible Churches besides the Jews For 1. No Scripture denyeth it and charity then must hope the best 2. The Scriptures of the Old Testament give us small account of other Countreys but of the Jews alone with some of their Neighbours 3. Sem was alive in Abrahams dayes yea about 34 years after Abrahams death and within 12 years of Ismaels death viz. till about An. Mundi 2158. And so great and blessed a man as Sem cannot be thought to be less than a King and to have a Kingdom governed according to his holiness and so that there was with him not only a Church but a National Church or holy Kingdom 4. And Melchizedeck was a holy King and
quae nemo possit reprehendere Cicero de fin Read Plutarks Precepts of Policy and that Old men should be Rulers given you from above Joh. 19. 11. Remember therefore that as Constables are your officers and subjects so you are the officers and subjects of God and the Redeemer and are infinitely more below him than the lowest subject is below you And that you owe him more obedience than can be due to you And therefore should study his Laws in Nature and Scripture and make them your daily meditation and delight Iosh. 1. 3 4 5. Psal. 1. 2 3. Deut. 17. 18 19 20. And remember how strict a judgement you must undergo when you must give account of your Stewardship and the greater have been your dignities and mercies if they are abused by ungodliness the greater will be your punishment Luk. 16. 2. 12. 48. § 2. Memorand 2. Remember therefore and watch most carefully that you never own or espouse any Memor 2. Interest which is adverse to the Will or Interest of Christ and that you never fall out with his interest Read often Psalm 2. Psalm 101. or his ordinances and that no temptation ever perswade you that the Interest of Christ and the Gospel and the Church is an enemy to you or against your real interest and that you keep not up suspicions against them But see that you devote your selves and your power wholly to his Will and Service and make all your interest stand in a pure subservience to him as it stands in a real dependance on him § 3. Memorand 3. Remember that under God your End is the publick good Therefore desire Memor 3. nothing to your selves nor do nothing to others which is really against your End § 4. Memorand 4. Remember therefore that all your Laws are to be but subservient to the Laws Memor 4. of God to promote the obedience of them with your Subjects and never to be either contrary to them nor co-ordinate or independant on them But as the By Laws of Corporations are in respect to the Laws and will of the soveraign power which have all their Life and power therefrom § 5. Memorand 5. Let none perswade you that you are such terrestrial animals that have nothing Memor 5. to do with the Heavenly concernments of your subjects For if once men think that the end of your office is only the bodily prosperity of the people and the End of the Ministry is the good of their souls it will tempt them to prefer a Minister before you as they prefer their souls before their bodies And they that are taught to contemn these earthly things will be ready to think they must contemn your office seeing no means as such can be better than the end There is no such thing as a temporal Happiness to any people but what tendeth to the happiness of their souls and must be thereby measured and thence be estimated Though Ministers are more immediately employed about the soul yet your office is ultimately for the happiness of souls as well as theirs though bodily things rewards or punishments are the means by which you may promote it which Ministers as such may not meddle with Therefore you are custodes utriusque tabulae and must bend the force of all your Government to the saving of the peoples souls And as to the objection from Heathen Read Bilson of subject p. 129. to the end of the second part specially p. 140 141 142. the Laws of Charles the Great And Grotius de Imperio sum Pot. circa sacrá cap. 1. per totuâ— Governours distinguish between the Office and an Aptitude to exercise it The Office consisteth 1. In an Obligation to do the duty 2. And in Authority to do it Both these a Heathen Ruler hath else the omission were a duty and not a sin But it is the Aptitude to do the duty of his place which a Heathen wanteth and he wanteth it culpably and therefore the omission is his sin Even as it is the sin of an insufficient Minister that he doth not Preach For the Question is of the like nature and will have the like solution Whether an ignorant Minister be bound to Preach who is unable or Heretical It is Aptitude that he wanteth and neither Authority nor Obligation if he be really a Minister But he is obliged in this Order first to get Abilities and then to Preach so is it in the present case § 6. Memorand 6. Encourage and strengthen a Learned Holy self denying serious laborious Memor 6. Ministry as knowing that the same Lord hath commissioned them in the institution of their office who instituted yours and that it is such men that are suited to the work for which their office was appointed And that souls are precious and those that are the Guides and Physicions of souls can never be too well furnished nor too diligent And the Church hath no where prospered on earth but in the prosperity of the abilities holiness and diligence of their Pastors God hath alwayes built by such and the Devil hath pulled down by pulling down such § 7. Memorand 7. Remember that the people that are seriously Religious that Love and Worship Memor 7. and Obey the Lord with all their heart are the best of your subjects and the honour of your Dominions I 〈…〉 saith of the Anâ—o 〈…〉 that they would not be saâ—â—ted by filthy persons And â—amprid of Alâ—xand 〈◊〉 that Nâ—sâ—â—h nâ—stos borae â—amae homines ad salutationem non admiâ—t Jussâ—â—que ut nemo ingrediatur nisi qui se innocentem novit Per praeconem edixit ut nemo salutaret principem qui se furem esse nosset ne aliquando detectus capâ—â—ali supplieâ—â— subâ—eretur Read Sebastian Foxius de Regno Regisâ— institutione see therefore that serious Godliness be every where encouraged and that the prophane and ignorant rabble be never encouraged in their enmity and opposition to it And that true Fanaticism Hypocrisie and Schism be so prudently discountenanced and supprest that none may have encouragement to set themselves against Godliness under the slander or pretension of such names If Christianity be better than Heathenism those Christians then are they that must be * Even Croesus Dionysius and Iâ—liaâ— were liberal to Philosophers and ambitious of their converse Vera civitatis foelicitas est ut Dei sit amans amata Deo illum sibi regem se illius populum agnoscat August de civiâ— Dei l. 5. c. 14. countenanced who go further in Holiness and Charity and Justice than Heathens do rather than those that go no further besides Opinions and Formalities than a Cato a Plato or Socrates have done If all Religion were a deceit it were fit to be banished and Atheism professed and men confess themselves to be but bruits But if there be a God there must be a Religion And if we must be Religious we must sure
Consider the great temptations of the Rich and great and pity them that stand Direct 16. in so dangerous a station instead of murmuring at them or envying their greatness You little know what you should be your selves if you were in their places and the world and the flesh had so great a stroke at you as they have at them He that can swim in a calmer water may be carryed down a violent stream It is harder for that bird to fly that hath many pound weights tyed to keep her down than that which hath but a straw to carry to her nest It is harder mounting Heaven-wards with Lordships and Kingdoms than with your less impediments Why do you not pity them that stand on the top of barren mountains in the stroke of every storm and wind when you dwell in the quiet fruitful vales Do you envy them that must go to Heaven as a Camel through a needles eye if ever they come there And are you discontented that you are not in their conâ—â—tion will you rebel and fight to make your salvation as difficult as theirs Are you so unthankful to God for your safer station that you murmur at it and long to be in the more dangerous place § 40. Direct 17. Pray constantly and heartily for the spiritual and corporal welfare of your Governours Direct 17. And you have reason to believe that God who hath commanded you to put up such prayers will not suffer them to be wholly lost but will answer them some way to the benefit of them that perform the duty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. And the very performance of it will do us much good of it self For it will keep the heart well disposed to our Governours and keep out all sinful desires of their hurt or controll them and cast them out if they come in Prayer is the exercise of Love and good desires And exercise increaseth and confirmeth habits If any ill wishes against your Governours should stâ—al into your minds the next time you pray for them conscience will accuse you of hypocrisie and either the sinful desires will corrupt or end your Prayers or else your prayers will cast out those ill desires Certainly the faithful fervent prayers of the Righteous do prevail much with God And things would go better than they do in the world if we prayed for Rulers as heartily as we ought § 41. Obj. For all the prayers of the Church five parts of six of the World are yet Idolaters Heathens Object Infidels and Mahometans And for all the prayers of the Reformed Churches most of the Christian part of the world are drowned in Popery or gross ignorance and superstition and the poor Greek Churches have Mahometane or tyrannical Governours and carnal proud usurping Prelates domineer over the Roman Church and there are but three Protestant Kings on the whole earth And among the Israelites themselves who had Priests and Prophets to pray for their Princes a good King was so rare that when you have named five or six over Judah and never a one after the division over Israel you scarce know where to find the rest What good then do your Prayers for Kings and Magistrates Answ. 1. As I said before they keep the hearts of subjects in an obedient holy frame 2. Were Answ. it not for prayers those few good ones would be fewer or worse than they are and the bad ones might be worse or at least do more hurt to the Church than they now do 3. It is not to be expected that all should be granted in kind that believers pray for For then not only Kings but all the world should be converted and saved For we should pray for every one But God who knoweth best how to distribute his mercies and to honour himself and refine his Church by the malice and persecution of his enemies will make his peoples prayers a means of that measure of good which he will do for Rulers and by them in the world And that 's enough to encourage us to pray 4. And indeed if when Proud ungodly worldlings have sold their souls by wicked means to climb up into places of power and command and domineer over others the Prayers of the faithful should Obj. Si id jâ—ris obâ—ineat status religionis eâ—â—t instabilis Mutato regis animo religio muta bitur presently convert and save them all because they are Governours this would seem to charge God with respect of persons and defect of Justice and would drown the world in wickedness treasons bloodshed and confusion by encouraging men by flatteries or treacheries or murders to usurp such places in which they may both gratifie their lusts and after save their souls while the godly are obliged to pray them into Heaven It is no such hearing of prayers for Governours which God hath promised 5. And yet I must observe that most Christians are so cold and formal in their Prayers for the Rulers of the world and of the Church that we have great reason to impute the unhappiness Resp. Unicum hic solatium in Divina est providentia Omnium animos Deus in potestate sua habet sed speciali quodam modo Cor Regis in manu Domini Deus per bonos per malos Reges opus suum operatur Interdum tranquillitas interdum tempestas ecclesiae utilior Nempe si pius est qui imperat si diligens lector sacrae scripturae si assiduus in precibus si Ecclesiae Catholicae reverens si peritos attente audiens multum per illum proficit veritas Sin distorto est corrupto judicio pejus id ipsi cedit quam ecclesiae Nam ipsum grave manet judicium Regis ecclesiae qui ecclesiam inultam non sinet Grotius de Impeâ— p. 210. Joh. 18. 36. of Governours very much to their neglect Almost all men are taken up so much with their own concernments that they put off the publick concernments of the world and of the Church and State with a few customary heartless words and understand not the meaning of the three first Petitions of the Lords Prayer and the Reason of their precedency or put them not up with that feeling as they do the other three If we could once observe that the generality of Christians were more earnest and importunate with God for the Hallowing of his name through all the world and the coming of his Kingdom and the obeying of his will in Earth as it is in Heaven and the Conversion of the Kings and Kingdoms of the world than for any of their personal concernments I should take it for a better prognostick of the happiness of Kings and Kingdoms than any that hath yet appeared in our dayes And those that are taken up with the expectations of Christs visible reign on earth would find it a more lawful and comfortable way to promote his Government thus by his own appointed officers than to rebell against Kings and seek
preservation of the family in peace If children cry or fight or chide or make any fowle or troublesome work the mother will not therefore turn them out of doors or use them like strangers but remember that it is her place and duty to bear with that weakness which she cannot cure The proud impatience of the Pastors hath frequently brought them into the guilt of persecution to the alienating of the peoples hearts and the distraction and division of the Churches when poor distempered persons are offended with them and it may be revile them and call them seducers or antichristian or superstitious or what their pride and passion shall suggest or if some weak ones raise up some erroneous opinions alas many Pastors have no more wit or grace or pity than presently to be rough with them and revile them again and seek to right themselves by wayes of force and club down every errour and contention when they should overcome them by evidence of truth and by meekness patience and love Though there be place also for severity with turbulent implacable impenitent hereticks § 55. Direct 33. Time of learning and overcoming their mistakes must be allowed to those that are Direct 33. mis-informed We must not turn those of the lower forms out of Christs School because they learn not as much as those of the higher forms in a few weeks or years The Holy Ghost teacheth those who for the time might have been Teachers of others and yet had need to be taught the first Principles Heb. 5. 11 12. He doth not turn them out of the Church for their non-proficiency And where there is ignorance there will be errour § 56. Direct 34. Some inconveniences must be expected and tolerated and no perfect Order or Concord Direct 34. expected here on earth It is not good reasoning to say If we suffer these men they will cause this or that disorder or inconvenience But you must also consider whither you must drive it if you suffer them not and what will be the consequents He that will follow his Conscience to a prison will likely follow it to death And if nothing but death or prison or banishment can restrain them from what they take to be their duty it must be considered how many must be so used and whether if they were truly faulty they deserve so much and if they do yet whether the evils of the Toleration or of the Punishment are like to be the greater Peace and Concord will never be perfect till Knowledge and Holiness be perfect § 57. Direct 35. You may go further in restraining than in constraining in forbidding men to Direct 35. preach against approved doctrines or practices of the Church than in forcing them to preach for them or to subscribe or speak their approbation or assent If they be not points or practices of great necessity a man may be sit for the Ministry and Church-communion who meddleth not with them but Preacheth the wholsome truths of the Gospel and lets them alone And because no duty is at all times a duty a sober mans judgement will allow him to be silent at many an errour when he dare not subscribe to or approve the least But if here any proud and cruel Pastors shall come in with their lessâ—â— selfish incommodities and say If they do not approve of what we say and do they will secretly foment a faction against us I should answer them that as good men will foment no faction so if such Proud impatient turbulent men will endure none that subscribe not to all their opinions or differ from them in a circumstance or a Ceremony they shall raise a greater faction if they 'l call it so against themselves and make the people look on them as tyrants and not as Pastors and they shall see in the end when they have bought their wit by dear experience that they have but torn the Church in pieces by preventing divisions by carnal means and that they have lost themselves by being over zealous for themselves and that DOCTRINE and LOVE are the instruments of a wise Shepheard that loveth the flock and understands his work § 58. Direct 36. Distinguish between the making of new Laws or articles of belief and the punishing Direct 36. of men for the Laws already made And think not that we must have new Laws or Canons every time the old ones are broken or that any Law can be made which can keep it self from being broken Perversness in this errour hath brought the Church to the misery which it endureth God hath made an Universal Law sufficient for the Universal Church in matters of faith and holy practice leaving it to men to determine of necessary circumstances which were unfit for an universal Law And if the sufficiency of Gods Law were acknowledged in mens practices the Churches would have had more peace But when particular Countreys have their particular Volumes of Articles Consessions Liturgies and I know not what else to be subscribed to and none must Preach that will not say or write or swear that he believeth all this to be true and good and nothing in it to be against the Word of God this Engine wracks the limbs of the Churches all to pieces And then what 's the pretense for this epidemical calamity Why no better than this Every Heretick will subscribe to the Scriptures and take it in his own sense And what followeth Must we needs therefore have new Laws which Hereticks will not subscribe to or which they cannot break It is the Commendation of Gods Law as fit to be the means of Unity that all are so easily agreed to it in terms and therefore would agree in the sense if they understood it But they will not do so by the Laws of men All or many Hereticks in the primitive times would profess assent to the Churches Creed no doubt in a corrupt and private sense But the Churches did not therefore make new Creeds till above 300 years after Christ they began to put in some particular words to obviate Hereticks which Hilary complained of as the Cause of all their divisions And what if Hereticks will subscribe to all you bid them and take it in their own corrupted sense Must you therefore be still making new Laws and Articles till you meet with some which they cannot mis-understand or dare not thus abuse What if men will mis-interpret and break the Laws of the Land Must they be made new till none can mis-expound or violate them Sure there is a wiser way than this Gods word containeth in sufficient expressions all that is necessary to be subscribed to Require none therefore to subscribe to any more in matters of faith or holy practice But if you think any Articles need a special interpretation let the Church give her sense of those Articles and if any man Preach against that sense and corrupt the Word of God which he hath subscribed let his fault be
Plague devoureth multitudes § 12. Direct 9. He that will think ill of Godliness for mens sins shall never want occasion of such Direct 9. offence nor such temptations to flye from God If you are so foolish or malignant as to pick quarrels with God and godliness for mens faults which nothing but God and Godliness can reform you may set up your standard of defiance against Heaven and see what you will get by it in the end For God will not remove all occasion of your scandal There ever have been and will be Hypocrites in the Church on earth Noahs Ark had a Cham Abrahams family had an Ishmael and Isaacs an Esau and Davids an Absalom and Christs a Iudas The falls of good men are cited in Scripture to admonish you to take heed Noah Lot David Iosephs Brethren c. have left a mark behind them where they fell that you may take a safer way If you will make all such the occasion of your malignity you turn your medicine into your poyson and choose Hell because some others choose it or because some stumbled in the way to Heaven § 13. AND for those who are emboldned in sin because they see their superiours or religious men commit it or read that David Noah Peter c. fell let them consider Direct 1. That it is Rule and not example that you must chiefly live by Do the Laws of God by Direct 1. which you must be judged allow of sin If they do then fear it not § 14. Direct 2. Is not the example of Christ much better than a sinners If you will follow examples Direct 2. follow the best even that which was given you purposely to imitate The greatest and most learned man is fallible and the most religious is not wholly free from sin Sincerity writeth after a perfect Copy though it cannot reach it § 15. Direct 3. Consider that sin is not the better but the worse for being committed by a Religious a Direct 3. Greâ—t or a Learned man Their place their knowledge and profession aggravateth it And shall that embolden you which God most hateth § 16. Direct 4. And consider that when he that falleth by a surprize doth rise again by Repentance Direct 4. and is pardoned those that are hereby emboldened to sin deliberately and impenitently shall be condemned You may sin with David or Peter when you will but you cannot rise with them by true Repentance without that Grace which you wilfully resist and forfeit § 17. Direct 5. Lastly Consider that the best men and the greatest are the most dangerous tempters Direct 5. when they mislead us A David was a stronger temptation to Bathsheba than another man could have been A Peter might sooner mislead Barnabas and others into a sinful dissimulation and separation than another could have done Therefore do not think that where your danger is greatest your venturousness should be most Practical Directions against Offence and burt by others § 18. Direct 1. Lay well your foundation and understand the nature and reasons of Religion and Direct 1. then you will be so far from disliking it for the errors and falls of others that it will be written upon your minds as with a beam of the Sun that There can be no reason against obeying God and against the careful securing of our salvation This will be the first and undoubted Principle which nothing in the world can make you question What ever scandals persecutions or sufferings may attend a holy life you will still be past doubt that there is no other way No other eligible no other tolerable no other rational or that will lead to happiness What ever falls out in the world if the most great or learned or religious fall away it will not make you question Whether a man be a living creature nor whether the Sun be light nor whether two and two be four No more should it make you question Whether God be better than the Creature Heaven than earth or a life of Holiness than a life of sin You will say as Peter Lord whither should we go thou hast the words of eternal life John 6. What ever scandals are given or what ever befall the Church or if all the Disciples of Christ forsake him this remaineth as sure as that the earth is under us that there is no other way than Holiness for a wise man once to take into his thoughts § 19. Direct 2. Get once a sincere Love to God and a holy life and then no scandals will make you Direct 2. jealous of it nor think of looking any other way It is want of true and hearty Love that maketh you so easily taken off § 20. Direct 3. To this end know Religion by experience and this will put you past all doubt of Direct 3. its goodness He that never tasted Sugar may be perswaded by argument that it is not sweet or may think it bitter when he seeth another spit it out And he that knoweth Godliness but by looking on or hearsay may thus be drawn to think it bad But so will not he that hath truly tryed it I mean not only to try what it is to hear and read and pray but what it is to be humble holy and heavenly both in heart and life § 21. Direct 4. When you see any man sin be sure you do that duty which it calls you to Every fall that you see of others doth call you to see the odiousness of sin as you will do when you see a drunkard spewing or a Thief at the Whipping-post And it calleth you to search for and lament the root of such sin in your selves and to set your watch more strictly upon such a warning And it calls you to compassionate the sinner and if you have hope and opportunity to endeavour his recovery If you will conscionably do this duty which is your own you will be the less in danger of hurt by scandal It s Duty that must help to prevent infection § 22. Direct 5. Be watchful among all men High and Low Learned or unlearned Good and Bad. Direct 5. Venture not blindly upon the singular opinion of any men whatsoever nor into any new unproved way Remember that all men are a temptation to others And therefore be armed and watch against such temptation Know well what it is that is the peculiar temptation which the quality of those that you have to do with layeth before you Spend no day or hour in any company good or bad without a wise and careful vigilancy § 23. Direct 6. Be as little as you can iâ— scandalous and tempting company Presume not to touch Direct 6. pitch and promise your selves to scape defilement Especially fly from two sorts of scandals 1. The discourses and societies of Heretical or Schismatical men who speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them Acts 20. 30. Those that presume to run into such snares and
§ 21. I beseech thee now that readest these Lines be so true to God be so ingenuous be so much a friend to the comfort of thy soul and so much love a life of pleasure as to set thy self for the time to come to a more conscionable performance of this noble work and steep thy thoughts in the abundant mercies of thy God and express them more in all thy speech to God and man Say as David Psal. 116. 16 17. O Lord truly I am thy servant thou hast loosed my bonds I will offer to thee the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. Psal. 30. 1 2 3 4 11 12. I will extoll thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoyce over me O Lord my God I cryed unto thee and thou hast healed me O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent O Lord my God I will give thanks to thee for ever Psal. 69. 30. I will praise the name of God with a Song and magnifie him with thanksgiving This also shall please the Lord better than an Oxe Psal. 92. 1 2. It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing unto thy Name O Most High To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night Psal. 119. 62. At midnight will I rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgements Psal. 140. 13. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy Name the upright shall dwell in thy presence Remember that you are commanded in every thing to give thanks 1 Thess. 5. 18. When God is scant in mercy to thee then be thou scant in thankfulness to him and not when the Devil and a forgetful or unbelieving or discontented heart would hide his greatest mercies from thee It is just with God to give up that person to sadness of heart and to uncomfortable self-tormenting melancholly that will not be perswaded by the greatness and multitude of mercies to be frequent in the sweet returns of Thanks DIRECT XV. Let thy very heart be set to GLORIFIE GOD thy Creator Redeemer Gr. Dir. 15. and Sanctifier both with the Estimation of thy Mind the Praises of thy Mouth To Glorifie God and the Holiness of thy Life § 1. THe GLORIFYING of GOD being the End of man and the whole Creation must be the highest duty of our lives and therefore deserveth our distinct consideration 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 1 Pet. 4. 11. That God in all things may be glorified through Iesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen I shall therefore first shew you what it is to glorifie God and then give Directions how to do it § 2. To glorifie God is not to add to his essential perfections or felicity or real glory The Heb. â— 3. Act. 7. â—â— Rom. 3 â—â— Rev. 21 11 23. Jude 24. 1 Peâ— 4. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 18. glory of God is a word that is taken in these various senses 1. Sometime it signifieth the essential transcendent Excellencies of God in himself considered So Rom. 6. 4. Psal. 19. 2. 2. Sometime it signifieth that glory which the Angels and Saints behold in Heaven What this is a soul in flesh cannot formally conceive or comprehend It seemeth not to be the Essence of God because that is every where and so is not that glory Or if any think that his Essence is that glory and is every where alike and that the creatures capacity is all the difference betwixt Heaven and Earth he seems confuted in that the glory of Heaven will be seen by the glorified Body it self which its thought cannot see the Essence of God Whether then that Glory be the Essence of God or any immediate Emanation from his Excellency as the beams and light that are sent forth by the Sun or a created glory for the felicity of his Servants we shall know when with the blessed we enjoy it 3. Sometime it is taken for the appearance of Gods perfections in his creatures either natural or free agents as discerned by man and for his Honour in the esteem of man Iohn 11. 4. 40. 1 Cor. 11. 7. 2 Cor. 4. 15. Phil. 1. 11. 2. 11. Isa. 35. 2. 40. 5 c. And so to glorifie God is 1. Objectively to represent his Excellencies or Glory 2. Mentally to conceive of them 3. And Verbally to declare them I shall therefore distinctly Direct you 1. How to glorifie God in your Minds 2. By your Tongues 3. By your Lives Directions for Glorifying God with the Heart § 3. Direct 1. Abhor all Blasphemous representations and thoughts of God and think not of him Direct 1. lamely unequally or diminutively nor as under any corporeal shape nor think not to comprehend I egâ— Gassâ—â—ci Oration iâ— augâ—â—aâ— in Institut Asâ—â—oâ—om him but reverently admire him Conceive of him as Incomprehensible and Infinite And if Satan would tempt thee to think meanly of any thing in God or to think highly of one of his Perfections and meanly of another abhor such temptations And think of his Power Knowledge and Goodness equally as the Infinite perfections of God § 4. Direct 2. Behold his glory in the glory of his works of Nature and of Grace and see him in Direct 2. all as the soul the Glory the All of the whole Creation What a Power is that which made and preserveth all the world What a Wisdom is that which set in joynt the Universal frame of Heaven and Earth and keepeth all things in their Order How good is he that made all good and gave the creatures all their goodness both natural and spiritual by Creation and Renewing grace Thus The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Psal. 19. 1. His glory covereth the Heavens and the earth is full of his praise Hab. 3. 3. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters the God of glory thundereth Psal. 29. 3. Psal. 145. § 5. Direct 3. Behold him in the Person Miracles Resurrection Dominion and Glory of his blessed Direct 3. Son Who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person upholding all things by the word of his power and having by himself purged our sins sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high being made better than the Angels c. Heb. 1. 3 4. By him it is that glory is given to God in the Church Eph. 3. 21. God hath highly exalted him and given him
a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus is Christ to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Pray therefore that the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the acknowledgement of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in the coelestials fâ—r above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be Head over all things to his Church Eph. 1. 17 c. The Father hath glorified his name in his Son Iohn 12. 28. 13. 31 32. 14. 13. 17. 1. § 6. Direct 4. Behold God as the End of the whole Creation and intend him as the End of all the Direct 4. actions of thy life You honour him not as God if you practically esteem him not as your ultimate end even the Pleasing of his will and the honouring him in the world If any thing else be made your chiefest end you honour it before him and make a God of it § 7. Direct 5. Answer all his blessed attributes with suitable affections as I have directed in my Direct 5. Treatise of the Knowledge of God and here briefly Dir. 4. and his Relations to us with the duty which they command subjection Love c. as I have opened in the foregoing Directions We glorifie him in our hearts when the Image of his Attributes is there received § 8. Direct 6. Behold him by faith as allways present with you And then every Attribute will Direct 6. the more affect you and you will not admit dishonourable thoughts of him Pray to him as if you saw him and you will speak to him with reverence Speak of him as if you saw him and you dare not take his name in vain nor talk of God with a common frame of mind nor in a common manner as of common things By faith Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. God is contemned by them that think they are behind his back § 9. Direct 7. Think of him as in Heaven where he is revealed in Glory to the blessed and magnified Direct 7. by their high everlasting Praise Nothing so much helpeth us to Glorifie God in our minds as by faith to behold him where he is most Glorious The very reading over the description of the Glory of the New Ierusalem Rev. 21. 22. will much affect a believing mind with a sense of the Gloriousness of God Suppose with Stephen we saw Heaven opened and the ancient of daies the Great Jehovah Gloriously illustrating the City of God and Jesus in Glory at his right hand and the innumerable army of Glorifyed Spirits before his throne Praysing and magnifying him with the highest admirations and joyfullest acclamations that creatures are capable of would it not raise us to some of the same admirations The soul that by faith is much above doth most Glorifie God as being neerest to his Glory § 10. Direct 8. Foresee by faith the coming of Christ and the day of the universal Iudgement when Direct 8. Christ shall come in flaming fire with thousands of his holy Angels to be Glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes. 1. 10. § 11. Direct 9. Abhor all Doctrines which blaspheam or dishonour the name of God and would Direct 9. blemish and hide the Glory of his Majesty I give you this rule for your own preservation and not in imitation of uncharitable firebrands and dividers of the Church to exercise your pride and imperious humour in condemning all men to whose opinions you can maliciously affix a blasphemous consequence which either followeth but in your own imagination or is not acknowledged but hated by those on whom you do affix it Let it suffice you to detest false doctrines without detesting the persons that you imagine guilty of them who profess to believe the contrary truth as stedfastly as you your selves § 12. Direct 10. Take heed of sinking into flesh and earth and being diverted by things sensible from Direct 10. the daily contemplation of the Glory of God If your belly become your God and you mind earthly things and are set upon the honours or profits or pleasures of the world when your conversation should be in Heaven you will be glorying in your shame when you should be admiring the Glory of your Maker Phil. 3. 18 19 20. and you will have so much to do on earth that you will find no leisure because you have no hearts to look up seriously to God Directions for Glorifying God with our tongues in his Praises § 13. Direct 1. Conceive of this duty of Praising God according to its superlative excellencies as being Direct 11. the highest service that the tongue of men or Angels can perform To Bless or Praise or Magnifie How great a duty Praising God is God is not to make him Greater or better or happier than he is but to declare and extol his Greatness Goodness and felicity And that your hearts may be inflamed to this excellent work I will here shew you how great and necessary how high and acceptable a work it is § 14. 1. It is the giving to God his chiefest due A speaking of him as he is And when we have Christianus est homo dicens faciâ—â—â—â—â—â—grata diabolo oâ—nans 〈…〉 am Dâ—â— â—â—â—â—oris vitae à salutis suae Bâ—choâ—â—â—â— spoken the highest how far fall we short of the due expression of his glorious perfections O how great Praise doth that Allmightiness deserve which created and conserveth all the world and over-ruleth all the sons of men and is able to do whatsoever he will Great is the Lord and Greatly to be praised and his Greatness is unsearchable One Generation shall praise his works to another and declare his mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty and of thy wondrous works And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declare thy Greatness Psalm 145. 3 4 5. What Praise doth that knowledge deserve which extendeth to all things that are or were or ever shall be and that wisdom which ordereth all the world He knoweth every thought of man
and accordingly your speech must be mixt and tempered and your counsels or comforts given with the Conditions and Suppositions exprest § 13. Quest. But what order would you have us observe in speaking to the ignorant and ungodly Quest. 5. when the time is so short Answ. 1. Labour to awaken them to a lively sense of the change which is at hand that they may Answ. understand the necessity of looking after the state of their souls 2. Then shew them what are the terms of salvation and who they are that the Gospel doth judge to salvation or damnation 3. Next advise them to try which of these is their condition and to deal faithfully seeing self-flattery may undo them but can do them no good 4. Then help them in the tryal q. d. If it have been so or so with you then you may know that this is your case 5. Then tell them the Reasons of your fears if you fear they are unconverted or of your hopes if you hope indeed that it is better with them 6. Then exhort them conditionally if they are yet in a carnal unsanctified state to lament it and be humbled and penitent for their sinful and ungodly life 7. And then tell them the Remedy in Christ and the Holy Ghost and the Promise or Covenant of Grace 8. And lastly tell them their present duty that this Remedy may prove effectual to their salvation And if you have so much interest or authority as maketh it fit for you excite them by convenient questions so far to open their case as may direct you and as by their answers may shew whether they truly resolve for a holy life if God restore them and whether their hearts indeed be changed or not § 14. Direct 7. If you are not able to instruct them as you should read some good Book to Direct 7. them which is most suitable to their case Such as Mr. Perkins Right art of Dying well The Practice of Piety in the Directions for the Sick Mr. Ed. Lawrences Treatise of Sickness or what else is most suitable to them And because most are themselves unable for counselling the sick aright and you may not have a fit Book at hand I shall here subjoyn a brief Form or two for such to Read to the Sick that can endure no long discourse And other books will help you to forms of Prayer with them if you cannot pray without such help § 15. Direct 8. Iudge not of the state of mens souls by those carriages in their sickness which Direct 8. proceed from their diseases or bodily distemper Many ignorant people judge of a man by the manner of his dying If one die in calmness and clearness of understanding and a few good words they think that this is to die like a Saint Whereas in Consumptions and oft in Dropsies and other such Chronical diseases this is ordinary with good and bad And in a Feaver that 's violent or a Phrensie or Distraction the best man that is may die without the use of Reason Some diseases will make one blockish and heavy and unapt to speak and some consist with as much freedom of speech as in time of health The state of mens souls must not be judged of by such accidental unavoidable things as these § 16. Direct 9. Be neither unnaturally sensless at the death of friends nor excessively dejected or afflicted Direct 9. To make light of the Death of Relations and friends be they good or bad is a sign of a very vitious nature that is so much selfish as not much to regard the Lives of others And he that regardeth not the Life of his friends is little to be trusted in his lower concernments I speak not this of those persons whose temper alloweth them not to weep For there may be as deep a regard and sorrow in some that have no tears as in others that abound with them But I speak of a naughty selfish nature that is little affected with any ones concernments but its own § 17. Yet your grief for the death of friends must be very different both in degree and kind 1. For ungodly friends you must grieve for their own sakes because if they dyed such they are lost for ever 2. For your Godly friends you must mourn for the sake of your selves and others because God hath removed such as were blessings to those about them 3. For choice Magistrates and Ministers and other instruments of publick good your sorrow must be greater because of the common loss and the judgement thereby inflicted on the World 4. For old tryed Christians that have overcome the world and lived so long till age and weakness make them almost unserviceable to the Church and who groan to be unburdened and to be with Christ your sorrow should be least and your joy and thanks for their happiness should be greatest But especially abhor that nature that secretly is glad of the death of Parents or little sorrowful because that their estates are faln to you or you are enriched or set at liberty by their death God seldom leaveth this sin unrevenged by some heavy judgements even in this life § 18. Direct 10. To overcome your inordinate grief for the death of your relations consider these Direct 10. things following 1. That excess of sorrow is your sin And sinning is an ill use to be made of your Help against excessive grief for the Death of friends affliction 2. That it tendeth to a great deal more It unfitteth you for many duties which you are bound to as to Rejoice in God and to be Thankful for mercies and cheerful in his Love and Praise and Service And is it a small sin to unfit your selves for the greatest duties 3. If you are so troubled at Gods disposal of his own what doth your Will but rise up against the will of God as if you grudged at the exercise of his Dominion and Government that is that he is God! Who is wisest and Best and fittest to dispose of all mens lives Is it God or you Would you not have God to be the Lord of all and to dispose of Heaven and earth and of the lives and Crowns of the greatest Princes If you would not you would not have him to be God If you would is it not unreasonable that you or your friends only should be excepted from his disposal 4. If your friends are in Heaven how unsuitable is it for you to be overmuch mourning for them when they are rapt into the highest Joyes with Christ and Love should teach you to rejoice with them that rejoice and not to mourn as those that have no hope 5. You know not what mercy God Isa. 57. 1. shewed to your friends in taking them away from the evil to come you know not what suffering Phil. 1. 2◠23. the Land or Church is falling into or at least might have faln upon themselves nor what sins they might have