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
If you be so proud or rash as to reply why should I leave my sport for another mans conceits or judgement I will tell thee that which shall shame thy reply and thee if thou canst blush 1. It is not some humorous odd fanatick that I alledge against thee nor a singular Divine But it is the judgement of the antient Church it self The Fathers and Councils condemn Christians and Ministers especially that use spectacula spectacles or behold Stage-plays and Dicing 2. Even the oldest Canons of our own Church of England forbid Dicing to the Clergy which is because they reputed it evil or of ill report 3. Many Laws of Religious Princes do condemn them 4. Abundance of the most learned holy Divines condemn them 5. The sober learnedest of the Papists condemn them 6. And how great a number of the most Religious Ministers and people are against them of the age and place in which you live you are not ignorant And is the judgement of the antient Church and of Councils and Fathers and of the most learned Protestants and Papists and the most Religious people besides many antient Laws and Canons of no force with you in such a case as this Will you hold to a thing confessedly unnecessary against the judgement of so many that account them sinful Are you and your play-fellows more wise and learned than all these Or is it not extremity of Pride for such unstudied empty men to prefer their sensual conceits before such a concurrent stream of wiser and more ponderous judgements Read but Dr. Io. Reignolds his Treat against Stage-Plays against Albericus Gentilis and you will see what a world of witnesses are against you And if the judgement of Voetius Amesius and other Learned men against all Lusory Lots be of no authority at least it should move you that even Mr. Gataker and other that write for the lawfullness of them in that respect as Lusory Lots do yet lay down the rest of the requisites to make them lawful which utterly condemn our common use of Cards and Dice much more our Gamesters So that all the sober Divines that ever I read or heard condemn all these And are you wiser than all of them § 26. 4. Besides this your Consciences know that you are so far from them using to fit you for your Callings that you either live idly out of a Calling or else you prefer them before your Callings You have no mind of your work because your mind is so much upon your play you have no mind of your home or family but are weary of your business because your sports withdraw your hearts And you are so far from using them to fit you to any holy duty that they utterly unfit you and corrupt your hearts with such a kind of sensual delight as makes them more backward to all that is good insomuch that many of you even grow so desperate as to hate and scorn it This is the benefit it bringeth you § 27. 5. And you cannot but know what a Time-wasting sin it is Suppose the game were never so lawful Is it lawful to lay out so many hours upon it as if you had neither souls nor bodies nor families nor estates nor God nor death nor Heaven to mind § 28. 6. And how much prophaneness or abuse of others is in many of your Stage-plays How much wantonness and amorous folly and representing sin in a manner to entise men to it rather than to make it odious making a sport and mock of sin with a great deal more such evil And your Cards and Dice are the exercise usually of covetousness the occasion of a great deal of idle talk and foolish babble about every cast and every Card and oft-times the occasion of cursing and swearing and railing and hatred of those that win your money and oft it hath occasioned fighting and murder It is one of the Roman Laws 12. tab Prodigo bonâ—rum suorum administratâ—o interdicta esto it self And even your huntings are commonly recreations so costly as that the charge that keepeth a pack of Hounds would keep a poor mans family that is now in want Besides the Time that this also consumeth So that the case is clear that our Gamesters and licentious sportfull Gallants are a sort of people that have blinded their minds and seared their Consciences and despise the Laws and presence of God and forget death and judgement and live as if there were no life to come neglecting their miserable souls and having no delight in the word or holy worship of God nor the forethoughts of eternal joys and therefore seek for their pleasure in such foolish sports and spend those pretious hours in these vanities which God knows they had need to spend most diligently in repenting of their sins and cleansing their souls and preparing for another world § 29. If yet any impenitent Gamester or idle Time-waster shall Reply I will not believe that my Object Cards or Dice or Plays are unlawful I use them but to fit me for my duty What! would you have all men live like heremites or anchorites without all pleasure I answer you but by this reasonable request Will you set your selves as dying men in the presence of God and the â—ight of eternity and provide a true answer to these few Questions even such an answer as your Consciences dare stand to at the bar of God § 30. Quest. 1. Dost thou not think in thy Conscience that thy Maker and Redeemer and his work and Quest. 1. service and thy family and calling and the forethoughts of Heaven are not fitter matters to delight a sober mind than Cards or Stage-plays And what can it be but a vain and sinful mind that should make these toys so pleasant to thee and the thoughts of God and Heaven so unpleasant § 31. Quest. 2. Doth not thy Conscience tell thee that it is not to fit thee for thy Calling or Gods Quest. 2. service that thou usest these sports but only to delight a carnal fantasie Doth not Conscience tell thee that it is more the pleasure than the benefit of it to thy soul or body that draws thâ—e to it Dost thou work so hard or study so hard all the day besides as to need so much recreation to refresh thee § 32. Quest. 3. Doth not thy Conscience tell thee that if thy sensual fantasie were but cured it Quest. 3. would be a more profitable recreation to thy body or mind to use some sober exercise for thy body which is confined to its proper limits of time or to turn to variety of labour or studies than to sit about these idle games § 33. Quest. 4. Dost thou think that either Christ or his Apostles used Stage-plays Cards or Dice Quest. 4. or ever countenanced such a temper of mind as is addicted to them Or was not David as wise as you that took up his pleasure in the word of God and his
souls to do their undertaken work § 1. Motive 1. Consider that the Holy Government of Families is a considerable part of Gods own Government Motive 1. of the world and the contrary is a great part of the Devils Government It hath pleased God to settle as a natural so a Political order in the world and to honour his creatures to be the instruments of his own operations And though he could have produced all effects without any interior causes and could have Governed the world by himself alone without any instruments he being not as Kings constrained to make use of Deputies and Officers because of their own natural confinement and insufficiency yet is he pleased to make inferiour causes partakers in such excellent effects and taketh delight in the frame and order of causes by which his will among his creatures is accomplished So that as the several Justices in the Countries do govern as Officers of the King so every Magistrate and Master of a family doth govern as an Officer of God And if his government by his Officers be put down or neglected it is a contempt of God himself or a rebellion against him What is all the practical Atheism and Rebellion and ungodliness of the world but a rejecting of the Government of God It is not against the Being of God in it self considered that his enemies rise up with malignant rebellious opposition But it is against God as the Holy and Righteous Governour of the world and especially of themselves And as in an Army if the Corporals Sergeants and Lieutenants do all neglect their offices the Government of the General or Colonels is defeated and of little force so if the Rulers of Families and other Officers of God will corrupt or neglect their part of Government they do their worst to corrupt or cast out Gods Government from the earth And if God shall not Govern in your families who shall The Devil is always the Governour where Gods Government is refused The world and the flesh are the instruments of his Government Worldliness and Fleshly living are his service Undoubtedly he is the Ruler of the family where these prevail and where Faith and Godliness do not take place And what can you expect from such a Master § 2. Motive 2. Consider also that an ungoverned ungodly family is a powerful means to the damnation Motive 2. of all the members of it It is the common Boat or Ship that hurrieth souls to Hell that is bound for the devouring gulf He that is in the Devils Coach or Boat is like to go with the rest as the Driver or the Boatman pleaseth But a well-governed family is an excellent help to the saving of all the souls that are in it As in an ungodly family there are continual temptations to ungodliness to swearing and lying and railing and wantonness and contempt of God so in a Godly family there are continual provocations to a holy life to faith and love and obedience and heavenly mindedness Temptations to sin are fewer there than in the Devils Shops and Workhouses of sin The Authority of the Governours the conversation of the rest the examples of all are great inducements to a holy life As in a well ordered Army of valiant men every coward is so linked in by order that he cannot choose but fight and stand to it with the rest and in a confused rowt the valiantest man is born down by the disorder and must perish with the rest even so in a well ordered holy family a wicked man can scarce tell how to live wickedly but seemeth to be almost a Saint while he is continually among Saints and heareth no words that are profane or filthy and is kept in to the constant exercises of Religion by the authority and company of those he liveth with O how easie and clean is the way to Heaven in such a gratious well ordered family in comparison of what it is to them that dwell in the distracted families of prophane and sensual worldlings As there is greater probability of the salvation of souls in England where the Gospel is preached and professed than in Heathen or Mahometane countrys so is there a greater probability of their salvation that live in the houses and company of the Godly than of the Ungodly In one the advantages of instruction command example and credit are all on Gods side and in the other they are on the Devils side § 3. Motive 3. A holy well-governed Family tendeth not only to the safety of the members but also Motive 3. to the ease and pleasure of their lives To live where Gods Law is the principal Rule and where you may be daily taught the mysteries of his Kingdom and have the Scriptures opened to you and be led as by the hand in the paths of life where the praises of God are daily celebrated and his name is called upon and where all do speak the heavenly language and where God and Christ and Heaven are both their daily work and recreation where it is the greatest honour to be most holy and heavenly and the greatest contention is who shall be most humble and godly and obedient to God and their superiors and where there is no reviling scornes at Godliness nor no prophane and scurrilous talk what a sweet and happy life is this Is it not likest to Heaven of any thing upon earth But to live where worldliness and prophaneness and wantonness and sensuality bear all the sway and where God is unknown and holiness and all religious exercises are matter of contempt and scorn and where he that will not swear and live prophanely doth make himself the hatred and derision of the rest and where men are known but by their shape and speaking-faculty to be men nay where men take not themselves for men but for bruits and live as if they had no rational souls nor any expectations of another life nor any higher employments or delights than the transitory concernments of the flesh what a sordid lothsom filthy miserable life is this made up by a mixture of BEASTLY and DEVILISH To live where there is no communion with God where the marks of Death and Damnation are written as it were upon the doors in the face of their impious worldly lives and where no man understandeth the holy language and where there is not the least foretast of the Heavenly everlasting joys what 's this but to live as the Serpents seed to feed on dust and to be excommunicated from the face and favour of God and to be chained up in the prison of concupiscence and malignity among his enemies till the judgement come that is making haste and will render to all men according to their works § 4. Motive 4. A holy and well-governed family doth tend to make a Holy Posterity and so to propagate Motive 4. the fear of God from Generation to Generation It is more comfortable to have no children than to beget
made them your equals Remember that they have immortal souls and are equally capable of salvation with your selves And therefore you have no power to do any thing which shall hinder their salvation No pretence of your business necessity commodity or power can warrant you to hold them so hard to work as not to allow them due time and seasons for that which God hath made their duty 2. Remember that God is their absolute Owner and that you have none but a derived and limited Propriety in them They can be no further yours than you have Gods consent who is the Lord of them and you And therefore Gods Interest in them and by them must be served first 3. Remember that they and you are equally under the Government and Laws of God And therefore all Gods Laws must be first obeyed by them and you have no power to command them to omit any duty which God commandeth them nor to commit any sin which God forbiddeth them Nor can you without Rebellion or Impiety expect that your work or commands should be preferred before Gods 4. Remember that God is their Reconciled tender Father and if they be as good doth Love them as well as you And therefore you must use the meanest of them no otherwise than beseemeth the Beloved of God to be used and no otherwise than may stand with the due signification of your Love to God by Loving those that are his 5. Remember that they are the Redeemed ones of Christ and that he hath not sold you his title to them As he bought their souls at a price unvaluable so he hath given the purchase of his blood to be absolutely at your disposal Therefore so use them as to preserve Christs right and interest in them Direct 2. Remember that you are Christs Trustees or the Guardians of their souls and that the Direct 2. greater your power is over them the greater your charge is of them and your duty for them As you owe more to a Child than to a Day Labourer or a hired Servant because being more your own he is more entrusted to your care so also by the same reason you owe more to a slave because he is more your own And power and obligation go together As Abraham was to Circumcise all his servants that were bought with money and the fourth Commandment requireth Masters to see that all within their gates observe the Sabbath day so must you exercise both your Power and Love to bring them to the Knowledge and faith of Christ and to the just obedience of Gods commands Those therefore that keep their Negro's and slaves from hearing Gods word and from becoming Christians because by the Law they shall then be either made free or they shall lose part of their service do openly profess Rebellion against God and contempt of Christ the Redeemer of souls and a contempt of the souls of men and indeed they declare that their worldly profit is their treasure and their God If this come to the hands of any of our Natives in Barbado's or other Islands or Plantations who are said to be commonly guilty of this most heinous sin yea and to live upon it I intreat them further to consider as followeth 1. How cursed a crime is it to equal Men and Beasts Is not this your practice Do you not buy them and use them meerly to the same end as you do your horses to labour for your commodity as if they were baser than you and made to serve you 2. Do you not see how you reproach and condemn your selves while you vilifie them as Savages and barbarous wretches Did they ever do any thing more savage than to use not only mens bodies as beasts but their souls as if they were made for nothing but to actuate their bodies in your worldly drudgery Did the veriest Cannibals ever do any thing more cruel or odious than to sell so many souls to the Devil for a little worldly gain Did ever the cursedst miscreants on earth do any thing more rebellious and contrary to the will of the most merciful God than to keep those souls from Christ and holiness and Heaven for a little money who were made and redeemed for the same ends and at the same pretious price as yours Did your poor slaves ever commit such villanies as these Is not he the basest wretch and the most barbarous savage who committeth the greatest and most inhumane wickedness And are theirs comparable to these of yours 3. Doth not the very example of such cruelty besides your keeping them from Christianity directly tend to reach them and all others to hate Christianity as if it taught men to be so much worse than Dâ—gs and Tygers 4. Do you not mark how God hath followed you with Plagues and may not Conscience tell you that it is for your inhumanity to the souls and bodies of so many Remember the late fire at the Bridge in Barbado's Remember the drowning of your Governour and Ships at Sea and the many judgements that have overtaken you and at the present the terrible mortality that is among you 5. Will not the example and warning of neigbour Countreys rise up in judgement against you and condemn you You cannot but hear how odious the Spanish name is made and thereby alas the Christian name also among the West Indians for their most inhumane Cruelties in Hispaniola Iamaica Cuba Peru Mexico and other places which is described by Iosep. a Costa a Jesuite of their own And though I know that their cruelty who murdered millions exceedeth yours who kill not mens bodies yet yours is of the same kind in the merchandize which you make with the Devil for their souls whilst you that should help them with all your power do hinder them from the means of their salvation And on the contrary what an honour is it to those of New England that they take not so much as the Natives Soyl from them but by purchase that they enslave none of them nor use them cruelly but shew them mercy and are at a great deal of care and cost and labour for their salvation O how much difference between holy Master Eliot's life and yours His who hath laboured so many years to save them and hath translated the whole Bible into their language with other Books and those good mens in London who are a Corporation for the furtherance of his work and theirs that have contributed so largely towards it And yours that sell mens souls for your commodity 6. And what comfort are you like to have at last in that money that is purchased at such a price Will not your money and you perish together will you not have worse than Gebezi's Leprofie with it yea worse than Achan's death by Stoning and as bad as Iudas his hanging himself unless repentance shall prevent it Do you not remember the terrible words in Jude 11. Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain
of Psal. 23. 5. 92. 10. theirs but by former custome of the Countreys where they lived As 1. Anointing Luke 7. 46. Matth. 6. 17. Amos 6. 6. Psal. 89. 20. Lev. 16. 32. Luke 16. in Iudaea was like Bathing at Rome It was taken in those scorching Countreys for a wholsome and easing and comforting thing And therefore used to refresh the weary limbs of travellers and to comfort the sick 2. And it was the long accustomed Ceremony also used on Officers accounted sacred Kings and Priests who were anointed at their entrance and investiture 3. White Cloathing and Purple were then and there taken for the noblest attire Not appropriated Rev. 3 4 5. Thâ—y shall walk with me in white to sacred things and persons but as Scarlet lately in England the garb only of great men On which account not as a Sacred Vestment but as an honourable cloathing when the Bishops began to be advanced they were allowed to wear White Cloathing not only when they officiated but at other times 4. The Milk and Honey were there highly esteemed for food and accounted the character of the James 5. 14. Mark 6 13. Land of Promise 2. Hereupon by application the Churches used these signs in the Sacred Ordinance of baptism Not by new institution of the signification I say but by application of the old well known signification 3. As Natural Signs are commonly allowed to be applyed to holy things so signs whose signification is of old and commonly stated and well known by Agreement or Custome do seem in this not to be different from Natural Signs Such are all Words as signs of our minds No word signifying any thing Naturally but by Agreement or Custome only And such is kneeling in prayer and being uncovered and many the like About some of which Paul appealeth to the custome of the 1 Cor. 11. 16. Churches of God 4. It is most probable that these two things together brought in Anointing 1. The common use of Anointing then in both the foresaid Cases Common Refreshment and Sacred Investiture 2. And the mistake of all those Scripture Texts which command or mention Anointing Metaphorical Rev. 1. 6. 5. 10. 20. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. As 1 John 2. 27. The Anointing which you have received teacheth you all things Ezek. 16. 9. I washed thee I anointed thee with Oyl c. Psal. 105. 15. 1 Chron. 16. 22. Touch not mine anointed Rev. 3. 18. And withal reading that we are made Kings and Priests to God and a Royal Priesthood they thought this might be signified by the usual honourary signs of such as well as by words to be called such So that they took it as if in our age the baptized should be set in a Chair of State and sumptuously apparelled and a â—east made to solemnize it as they do at Weddings and the baptized person set at the upper end c. which are significant Actions and Ceremonies But they intended them not as new Sacraments or any part of the Sacrament but as a pompous celebration of the Sacrament by such additional ceremonial accidents 5. And you must remember that they lived among Infidels where their profession was made the common scorn which tempted them by such ostentation and pomp to seek to make it honourable and to shew that they so accounted it and to encourage those who were discouragable by the scorn On which account also they used the Cross and the Memorials of the Martyrs 6. Yet some yea many afterwards did seem to take the Anointing for a Sacramental Action When they read that the Laying on of hands was the sign of Giving the Holy Ghost as distinct from baptism and that the Spirit is called in Scripture the Anointing they joyned both together and made that which they now call the Sacrament of Confirmation 7. Whether the Anointing Milk and Honey and the White Garment were then sinful in themselves to the users I determine not But certainly they proved very ill by accident whilest at this door those numerous and unlawful Ceremonies have entered which have so troubled the Churches and corrupted Religion and among the Papists Greeks Armenians Abassines and many others have made the sauce to become the meat and the lace to go for cloathing and turned too much of Gods Worship into Imagery shadows and pompous shews Quest. 51. Whether it be necessary that they that are baptized in Infancy do solemnly at age renew 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 numbered with Christians or Apostates Answ. 1. CHurch-membership is the same thing in Infants and in the Adult 2. Infants are naturally uncapable of doing all that in baptism which the adult must do As to understand profess c. themselves 3. The baptism of the Adult being the most compleat because of the maturity of the receivers is made the standing pattern in Scripture For God formeth his Ordinances to the most perfect ordinary receivers 4. Though an Infant be devoted acceptably to God by his Parents will yet when he is at age it must be done by his own will 5. Therefore a bare Infant title ceaseth when we come to age and the persons title ceaseth unless it be renewed by himself or his own Consent The reason is because the Conditions of his Infant Title then cease For his Parents will shall go for his no longer 6. Regularly and ad bene esse the transition out of the state of Infant-membership into the state of See the proofs of all in my Treatise of Co firmation Adult-membership should be very solemn and by an understanding personal owning of the Baptismal Covenant 7. There needeth no other proof of this than 1. That God in Scripture never gave adult persons title to his Covenant but by their own personal consent And at the first institution of baptism both went together Personal profession and baptism because the receivers were adult 2. And that Infants are capable of baptism but not of personal profession 3. Therefore though they are not to repeat baptism which was done before yet they are bound to make that profession at age which they never made before 8. Where this solemn Owning of their Covenant cannot be had by reason of Church corruptions and Magistrates prohibition there the persons ordinary joyning with the Church in the publick profession and worship is to be taken for an owning it 9. He that being baptized in infancy doth no way at full age own his Baptismal Covenant is to be taken for an Apostate 1. Because his Infant title ceaseth 2. And he notoriously violateth his Covenant 3. Because he can be no adult Christian that no way owneth Christ. 10. But this is to be understood of those that have opportunity For one in a Wilderness among Heathens only cannot joyn in publick Worship nor give testimony of his Christianity to the
do it And so sweet is Revenge to their furious nature as the damning of men is to the Devil that Revenged they will be though they lose their souls by it And the impotency and baseness of their spirits is such that they say Flesh and blood is unable to bear it § 11. 10. Another cause of murder is a wicked impatience with neer relations and a hatred of those that should be most dearly loved Thus many men and women have murdered their Wives and Husbands when either Adulterous Lust hath given up their hearts to another or a cross impatient discontented mind hath made them seem intollerable burdens to each other And then the Devil that destroyed their love and brought them thus far will be their teacher in the rest and shew them how to ease themselves till he hath led them to the Gallows and to Hell How necessary is it to keep in the way of duty and abhor and suppress the beginnings of sin § 12. 11. And sometimes Covetousness hath caused Murder when one man desireth another mans estate Thus Ahab came by Naboth's Vineyards to his cost And many a one desireth the death of another whose estate must fall to him at the others death Thus many a Child in heart is guilty of the murder of his Parents though he actually commit it not Yea a secret gladness when they are dead doth shew the guilt of some such desire◠while they were living And the very abatement of such moderate mourning as natural affection should procure because the estate is thereby come to them as the heirs doth shew that such are far from innocent Many a Iudas for Covetousness hath betrayed another Many a false witness for Covetousness hath sold anothers life Many a Thief for Covetousness hath taken away anothers life to get his money And many a Covetous Landlord hath longed for his Tenants death and been glad to hear of it And many a Covetous Souldier hath made a trade of killing men for Money So true is it that the Love of money is the root of all evil and therefore is one cause of this § 13. 12. And Ambition is too common a Cause of Murder among the great ones of the World How many have dispatched others out of the World because they stood in the way of their advancement For a long time together it was the ordinary way of Rising and dying to the Roman and Greek Emperours for one to procure the murder of the Emperour that he might usurp his Seat and then to be so murdered by another himself And every Souldier that looked for preferment by the change was ready to be an instrument in the fact And thus hath even the Roman seat of his Mock Holiness for a long time and oft received its Successours by the poison or other murdering of the possessours of the desired place And alas how many thousand hath that See devoured to defend its Universal Empire under the name of the spiritual Headship of the Church How many unlawful Wars have they raised or cherished even against Christian Emperours and Kings How many thousands have been Massacred How many Assassinate as Hen. 3. and Hen. 4. of France Besides those that fires and Inquisitions have consumed And all these have been the flames of Pride Yea when their fellow-Sectaries in Munster and in England the Anabaptists and Seekers have catcht some of their proud disease it hath workt in the same way of blood and cruelty § 14. 2. But besides these twelves great sins which are the nearest cause of Murder there are many more which are yet greater and deeper in nature which are the Roots of all especially these 1. The first cause is the want of true Belief of the Word of God and the judgement and punishment to come and the want of the Knowledge of God himself Atheism and Infidelity 2. Hence cometh the want of the true Fear of God and subjection to his holy Laws 3. The predominance of selfishness in all the unsanctified is the radical inclination to murder and all the injustice that is committed 4. And the want of Charity or Loving our Neighbour as our selves doth bring men neer to the execution and leaveth little inward restraint § 15. By all this you may see how this sin must be prevented and let not any man think it a needless work Thousands have been guilty of murder that once thought themselves as far from it as you 1. The soul must be possessed with the Knowledge of God and the true Belief of his Word and judgement 2. Hereby it must be possessed of the Fear of God and subjection to him 3. And the Love of God must mortifie the power of selfishness 4. And also much possess us with a true Love to our neighbours yea and enemies for his sake 5. And the twelve fore-mentioned causes of murder will thus be destroyed at the Root § 16. II. And some further help it will be to understand the Greatness of this sin Consider therefore 1. It is an unlawful destroying not only a Creature of God but one of his noblest Creatures upon earth Even one that beareth at least the natural Image of God Gen. 9. 5 6. And surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man Yea God will not only have the beast slain that killeth a man but also forbiddeth there the eating of blood v. 4. that man might not be accustomed to cruelty 2. It is the opening a door to confusion and all calamity in the World For if one man may kill another without the sentence of the Magistrate another may kill him and the world will be like Mastiffs or mad Dogs turned all loose on one another kill that kill can 3. If it be a wicked man that is killed it is the sending of a soul to Hell and cutting off his time of Repentance and his hopes If it be a Godly man it is a depriving of the World of the blessing of a profitable member and all that are about him of the benefits of his goodness and God of the service which he was here to have performed These are enough to infer the dreadful consequents to the Murderer which are such as these III. 1. It is a sin which bringeth so great a guilt that if it be repented of and pardoned yet Conscience very hardly doth ever attain to peace and quietness in this World And if it be unpardoned it is enough to make a man his own Executioner and tormenter 2. It is a sin that seldome scapeth vengeance in this life If the Law of the Land take not away their lives as God appointeth Gen. 9. 6. God useth to follow them with his extraordinary Plagues and causeth their sin