the day But yet this is not all nor the worst if worse may be O that ever it should be spoken of godly Ministers that they are so set upon popular air and of sitting highest in mens estimation that they envy the parts and names of their Brethren that are preferred before them as if all were taken from their praises that is given to anothers and as if God had given them his gifts to be the meer ornaments and trappings of their persons that they may walk as men of reputation in the world and all his gifts in others were to be trodden down and vilified if they seem to stand in the way of their honour What a Saint a Preacher for Christ and yet envy that which hath the Image of Christ and malign his gifts for which he should have the glory and all because they seem to hinder our glory Is not every true Christian a member of the body and therefore partaketh of the blessings of the whole and of each particular member thereof and doth not every man owe thanks to God for his Brethrens gifts not only as having himself a part in them as the foot hath the benefit of the Guidance of the eye but also because his own ends may be attained by his brethrens gifts as well as by his own For if the glory of God and the Churches felicity be not his end he is not a Christian Will any work-man malign another because he helpeth him to do his masters work yet alas how common is this hainous crime among men of parts and eminency in the Church They can secretly blot the Reputation of those that stand cross to their own and what they cannot for shame do in plain and open terms lest they be proved palpable lyers and slanderers they will do it in generals and malicious intimations raising suspicions where they cannot fasten accusations And so far are some gone in this Satanical vice that it is their ordinary practice and a considerable part of their business to keep down the estimation of any that they dislike and to defame others in the slyest and most plausible way And some goe so far that they are unwilling that any one that is abler then themselves should come into their Pulpits least they should be applauded above themselves A fearful thing That any man that hath the least of the fear of God should so envy at Gods gifts and had rather that his carnal hearers were unconverted and the drowsie not awakened then that it should be done by another who may be preferred before them Yea so far doth this cursed vice prevail that in great Congregations that have need of the help of many Teachers we can scarce in many places get two in equality to live together in love and quietness and unanimously to carry on the work of God! But unless one of them be quite below the other in parts and content to be so esteemed or unless one be a Curate to the other or ruled by him they are contending for precedency and envying each others interest and walking with strangness and jealousie towards one another to the shame of their profession and the great wrong of the Congregation I am ashamed to think of it that when I have been endeavouring with persons of publike interest and capacity to further a good work to convince them of the great necessity of more Ministers then one in great Congregations they tell me they will never agree together I hope the objection is ungrounded as to the most but it is a sad case that it should be so with any Nay some men are so far gone in Pride that when they might have an equal assistant to further the work of God they had rather take all the burden upon themselves though more then they can bear then that any should share with them in the honour and for fear least they should diminish their interest in the people Hence also it comes to pass that men do so magnifie their own opinions and are as censorious of any that differ from them in lesser things as if it were all one to differ from them and from God and do expect that all should be conformed to their judgements as if they were the rule of the Churches faith and while we cry down Papal Infallibility and determination of Controversies we would too many of us be Popes our selves and have all stand to our determination as if we were infallible It s true we have more modesty then expresly to say so we pretend that it is only the evidence of truth that appeareth in our Reasons that we expect men should yield to and our zeal is for the truth and not for our selves But as that must needs be taken for Truth which is ours so our Reasons must needs be taken for valid and if they be but freely examined and found to be infirm and fallacious and so discovered as we are exceeding backward to see it our selves because they are ours so how angry are we that it should be disclosed to others and we so espouse the cause of our errors as if all that were spoken against them were spoken against our persons and we were hainously injured to have our arguments throughly confuted by which we injured the truth and the minds of men so that the matter is come to that pass through our Pride that if an errour or fallacious argument do fall under the Patronage of a Reverend Name which is no whit rare we must either give it the victory and give away the truth or else become injurious to that name that doth patronize it For though you meddle not with their persons yet do they put themselves under all the strokes which you give their arguments and feel it as sensibly as if you had spoken it of themselves because they think it will follow in the eyes of man that weak arguing is a sign of a weak man If therefore you take it for your duty to shame their errors and false reasonings by discovering their nakedness they take it as if you shamed their persons and so their names must be a Garrison or fortress to their mistakes and their Reverence must defend all their sayings from the light And so high are our spirits that when it becomes a duty to any man to reprove or contradict us we are commonly impatient both of the matter and of the manner We love the man that will say as we say and be of our opinion and promote our reputation though he be less worthy of our love in other respects But he is ungrateful to us that contradicteth us and differeth from us and that dealeth plainly with us in our miscarriages telleth us of our faults Especially in the management of our publike arguings where the eye of the world is upon us we can scarce endure any contradiction or plain dealing I know that Railing language is to be abhorred and that we should be as tender of each others
the name of the Lord e. g. to avoid a notorious obstinate offender and so to obey the command of God that is though we may charge them in the name of the Lord to consent and obey and do their duty yet if their Iudgements remain unconvinced in a case which is to them obscure we have no more to do but satisfie our selves that we have done our duty So that when we have quarrelled never so long what is it but the Peoples consent that the moderate men on one side do require and consent the other side requireth also Call it what else you will whether a Government or an Authority or a Liberty Consent is the thing which both require And are we not then in the matter agreed Peruse for this Mr. Lyfords words before cited See also what the leading men for Presbyterian Government do not only acknowledge but maintain as effectually as others as Dav. Blondellus de Jure plebis in Regim Eccles Calvin Institut l. 4. c. 12. sect 4. Ne quis tale judicium spernat aut parvi aestimet se Fidelium suffragiis damnatum testatus est Dominus c. Ita Zanchius ubi sup and many more Indeed this Consent of the people is not sine qua non to the Pastors performance of his own part viz. Charging the Church in Christs name to avoid the Communion of such a notorious obstinate offender and suspending his own acts towards him and so charging them to receive the innocent or penitent For if the people consent not to avoid such and so would exclude all Discipline yet the Pastor must charge it on them and do his part But it is sine qua non to their actual rejecting and avoiding that offender In a word we must Teach them their duty and require it and they and we must obey and do it and neither they nor we may oblige any to sin Obj. But we are not agreed about the matter of the Church that must be Governed Answ Peruse the qualifications required in Church-members in the writings of the moderate on both sides and see what difference you can find Are not both agreed that Professors of true faith and holiness cohabiting and consenting are a true Church and when they contradict that Profession by wicked actions Doctrine or life they are to be dealt with by Discipline Though I confess in our practise we very much differ most that I know running into one of the extreams of loosness or rigor 3. MY third and last Request is that all the faithful Ministers of Christ would without any more delay Unite and Associate for the furtherance of each other in the work of the Lord and the maintaining of Unity and Concord in his Churches And that they would not neglect their Brotherly meetings to those ends nor yet spend them unprofitably but improve them to their edification and the effectual carrying on the work Read that excellent Letter of Edmond Grindal Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to Q. Elizabeth for Ministerial meetings and exercises such Bishops would have prevented our contentions and wars You may see it in Fullers new History of the Church of England And let none draw back that accord in the substantials of faith and godliness Yea if some should think themselves necessitated I will not say to Schism least I offend them but to separate in publike worship from the rest me thinks if they be indeed Christians they should be willing to hold so much Communion with them as they can and to consult how to manage their differences to the least disadvantage to the common truths and Christian cause which they all profess to own and prefer And here I may not silently pass by an uncharitable slander which some Brethren of the Prelatical Iudgement have divulged of me far and near viz. That while I perswade men to Accommodation it was long of me that the late Proclamation or Ordinance was procured for silencing all Sequestred Ministers viz. by the late Worcestershire Petition which they say was the occasion of it and they falsly report that I altered it after the subscription To which I say 1. It was the Petition of many Iustices and the grand Iury and thousands of the County as well as me 2. There is not a word in it nor ever was against any godly man but only that the notoriously insufficient and scandalous should not be permitted to meddle with the mysteries of Christ specially the Sacraments which we desired should have impartially extended to all parties alike And so much of this as was granted we cannot but be thankful for whoever grudge at it and wish it had been fully granted 3. I desire nothing more then that all able godly faithful Ministers of what side soever in our late State differences may not only have liberty but encouragement For the Church hath not any such to spare were they ten times more In a word I would have those of what party soever to have Liberty to preach the Gospel whose errours or miscarriages are not so great as that probably they will do as much hurt as good Brethren I crave your pardon for the infirmities of this address and earnestly longing for the success of your Labours I shall daily beg of God that he would perswade you to those duties which I have here requested you to perform and would preserve and prosper you therein against all the Serpentine subtilty and rage that is now engaged to oppose and hinder you April 15. 1656. Your unworthy fellow-servant Rich. Baxter TO The Lay-Reader THE reason why I have called this volumn the first Part of the book is because I intend if God enable me and give me time a Second Part containing the duty of the people in relation to their Pastors and therein to shew 1. The Right and Necessity of a Ministry 2. The way to know which is the true Church and Ministry and how we justifie our own calling to this office and how false Prophets and Teachers must be discerned 3. How far the people must assist the Pastors in the work of the Cospel and the Pastors put them on and make use of them to that end And 4. How far the people must submit to their Pastors and what other Duty they must perform in that Relation But because my time and strength is so uncertain that I know not whether I may live to publish my yet-imperfect preparations on this subject I dare not let this first Part come into your hands without a word of caution and advice lest you should misunderstand or misapply it 1. The caution that I must give you is in two parts 1. Entertain not any unworthy thoughts of your Pastors because we here confess our own sins and aggravate them in order to our humiliation and reformation You know it is men and not Angels that are put by God in the office of Church-guides And you know that we are imperfect men Let Papists and Quakers pretend to a sinless perfection we
amiss if in the beginning of our Confession we look behind us and imitate Daniel and other servants of God who confessed the sins of their fore-fathers and predecessors For indeed my own Judgement is so far from denying Original sin even the imputed part with the antient opposers of it or those of the new Edition that it doth not so much excuse me from the Guilt of my later progenitors offences as most other mens do seem to excuse them Let us fetch up then the core of our shame and go to the bottom and trace the behaviour of the Minsters of the Gospel from the daies of Christ till now and see how far they have been from innocency When Christ had chosen him but twelve Apostles who kept neer his person that they might be acquainted with his Doctrine Life and Miracles yet how ignorant did they long remain not knowing so much as that he must dye and be a sacrifice for the sins of the world and be buried and rise again and ascend into glory nor what was the nature of his spiritual Kingdom so that it puts us hard to it to imagine how men so ignorant could be in a state of grace but that we know that those points were after of absolute necessity to salvation that were not so then How oft doth Christ teach them publikely and apart Mark 4. 34. and rebuke them for their unbelief and hardness of heart And yet after all this so strange were these great mysteries of Redemption to them and these now Articles of our Creed that Peter himself disswadeth Christ from suffering and goeth so far in contradicting his gracious thoughts for our Redmption that he is called Satan and tantum non excommunicate And no wonder for if his counsel had been taken the world had been lost for ever And as there was a Iudas among them so the twelve are before Christs face contending for superiority so early did that Pride begin to work in the best which afterwards prevailed so far in others as to bring the Church so low as we have seen What should we say of their joynt forsaking Christ of their failings even after the powrings out of the Spirit of the dissention and separation between Paul and Barnabas how strange Peter made of the calling of the Gentiles of his complyance with the Jews to the endangering the liberties of the Gentiles Gal. 2. Of the dissimulation of Barnabas and the common dissertion of Paul in his suffering When he had found one Timothy he saith he had no man like-minded that would naturally care for their estate for all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ Phil. 2. 20 21. A sad charge of self-seeking in that glory of the Church for faith and purity And what charges are against most of the Angels of the seven Asian Churches is expressed Rev. 2. and 3. And its likely that Archippus was not the only man that had need to be warned to look to his Ministery Col. 4. 17. Nor Demas the only man that forsook a persecuted partner and turned after the things of the world Nor Diotrephes the only man that loved to have the prehemine noe and made quarrels and dealt unjustly and unmercifully in the Church upon that account And even while the Churches were frying in the flames yet did the Pride and dissentions even of godly Pastors do more then the fire of persecution could do to turn al to ashes How sad a story is it that Policrates with all the Eastern Churches should be arrogantly excommunicated by Victor with his Romans upon no higher a crime then mis-choosing of Easterday which our Brittains also long after were guilty of who would think that so great weakness and presumptuous usurpation and uncharitable cruelty and Schismatical zeal could have befalen the Pastors of the Church in the strongest temptations of prosperity much less in the midst of Heathenish persecutions What toyes and trifles did the antient Reverend Fathers of the Church trouble their heads about and pester the Church with and what useless stuff are many of their Canons composed of Yet these were the great matter and work of many of their famous consultations How quickly did they seem to forget the perfection of holy Scripture the non-necessity and burdensomness of ceremonious impositions And by taking upon them an unnecessary and unjust kind of Jurisdiction they made the Church so much more work then ever Christ made it and so clogged Religion with humane devices that the Christian world hath groaned under it ever since and been almost brought to ruine by it and the Reverence of their persons hath put so much Reputation on the crime and custom hath so taught it to plead praescription that when the â—acerated languid Churches will be delivered from the sad effects of their presumption God only knoweth It would make an impartial Reader wonder that peruseth their Canons and the History of the Church that ever men of piety and charity and sobriety could be drawn to perplex and tear in pieces the Churches by such a multitude of vanities and needless determinations â—o say no worse And that the Preachers of the Gospel of peace which so enjoyneth humility unity and love should ever be drawn to such a height of pâ—ide as to think themselves meet to make so many Laws for the whole Church of Christ and to bind all their Brethren through the world to the obedience of their dictates and practice of their historical insnaring Ceremonies and that upon the penalties of being accounted no less then damned Hereticks or Schismaticks Though Paul had told them betime that he was afraid of them lest as the Serpent deceived Eve so they should be deceived and drawn from the simplicâ—ty that was in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 3. Yet quickly was this Caution forgotten and the thing that Paul feared soon befell them and in stead of the simplicity of Doctrine they vexed the Churches with curious controversies and instead of the simplicity of Disciâ—line and Government they corrupted the Church with Pompe and Tyranâ—ie and varieties of new orders and rules of Religions and instead of the simplicity of worship they set up such a train of their own inventions of which the Church had no necessity that the Bishops were become the Masters of Ceremonies who should have been the faithful and humble observers of the pure Laws and Ordinances of Christ Though their Councils were usual for the Churches Communion had they been rightly ordered yet so unhappily did they manage them for the most part that Greg. Nâ—zianzene purposed to come at them no more as having never seen any that did not more harm then good And so bold and busie were they in additions and innovations even in making new â—reeds that Hilary sadly complains of it not sparing the Council of Nâ—ce it self though their Creed were allowable because they taught others the way and set the rest a work And Luther sheweth us at large in his
become a reproach to him that talked of it and they would cry out What! we must have talk of Scripture now you will preach to us we shall have these Preachers ordered â—re long So that it was become commonly in England a greater reproach to be a man truly living in the fear of God then to live in open prophaness and to rail at godliness and daily scorn it which was so far from being a matter of danger that many took it up in expectation of preferment and the Preachers of the times were well ware that the rising way was to preach against the precise Puritans and not to live precisely themselves And thus both Ministery and people grew to that sad pass that it was no wonder if God would bear no longer with the Land Even as it was in the Western Churches before the inundation of the Goths and Vandals as Salvian among others tells us Indeed I know not a Writer that more fitly painteth out the state of our times I shall therefore borrow some of his words to express our case which it seems had been then the Churches case Ipsa Dei Ecclesia quae in omnibus esse debet placatrix Dei quid est aliud quam exacerbatrix Dei aut prâ—ter paucissimâ—s quâ—sdam qui mala fugiunt quid est aliud pene omnis coetus Christianorum quam sentina vitiorum Quotum enim quemque invenies in Ecclesia non aut Ebriosum aut helluonem aut adulterum c. immo facilius invenias qui totum sit quam qui nihil Et quod diximus nihil niâ—is forsitan gravis videatur esse censura plus multo dicam facilius invenias reum malorum omnium quam non omnium facilius majorum criminum quam minorum id est facilius qui major a crimina cum minoribus quam qui minor a tantum sinâ— majoribus perpetrarint In hanc enim morum probrositatem prope omnis Ecclesiastica plâ—bs redacta est ut in â—uncto populo Christiano genus quodammodo sanctitatis siâ— minus esse vitiosum Itaque Ecclesias vel potius templa atque altaria Dei minoris reverentiae quidem habent quam cujusâ—â—bet minimi ac municipalis judicis domum Siquidem intra jâ—nuas non modo illustrium potestatum sed etiam praesidum praepositorum non omnes passim intrare praesumunt nisi quos aut judex vocaverit aut negotium traxerit aut ipsa honoris proprii dignitas introire permiserit it a â—t si quispiam fuâ—rit insolenter ingressus aut caedâ—tur aut propellatur aut alâ—qua verecâ—â—diae atque existimationis suâ— labe mulctetur In templa autem vel potius in altaria atquâ— sacraria Dei passim omnes sordidi ac flagitiosi sinâ— ulla penitus reverentia sacri honor is irrumpunt non quia non omnes ad exorandum Deum currere debent sed quia qui ingreditur ad placandum non debet egredi ad exacerbandum Neque enim ejusdeâ— officâ—â— est indulgentiam poscere â—r acundiam provocare Novum siquidem monstrigenus est eadem paene omnes jugiter faciunt quae fecisse se plangunt Et qui intrant in Ecclesiasticam domum ut mala antiqua defleant exeunt quid dico excunt in ipsis pene hoc orationibus suis moliuntur Salv. de Gubern l. 3. p. 86 87. Et pag. 180. O miseriam lacrymabilem O miseriam luctuosam quam dissimilis nunc a seipso est populus Christianâ—s id est ab eo qui fuit quondam Ecce in quid reducti sumus ut beatam fore Ecclesiam judicemus si vel tantum in se boni habeat quantum mali Nam quomado non beatam arbitremur si mediam plebis partem haberet innoxiam quam pene totam nunc esse plangimus criminosam superfluè unius scelera deflevimus aut omnes enim aut pene omnes flendi atque lugendi sunt Et pag. 195 196. Omnia amamus omnia colimus solus nobis in comâ—aratione omnium Deus vilis est siquando enim veniret quod saepe evenit ut eodem die festivitas Ecclesiastica ludi publici agantur quaeso ab omnium Conscientia quis locus majores Christianorum virorum copias haberet Caveane ludi publici au atrium Dei Et templum omnes magis sectentur au theatrum dicta Evangeliorum magis diligant au thymelicorum verba vitae an mortis verba Christi an mimi Non est dubium quin illud magis amemus quod anteponimus Too like to these here described were our times grown through the fault of those that professed themselves to have the oversight of their souls A most sad thing it was to see those men that undertook to guide men in the waies of life to be the chief means of discouraging them and to hear them make a mock at holiness that should have devoted their Doctrine and 〈◊〉 thereto The accusation may seem harsh to those of after-times that knew not this or that by the Patrons of iniquity are perswaded of the contrary But I say as Salvian l. 6. p. 197. Sed gravis est forsitan haec atque iniqua congestio Gravis profecto si falsa Yet through the mercy of God it was not all the Prelates of the Church that thus miscarried we have yet surviving our Usher our Hall our Morton learned godly and peaceable men whose names are as dear to us as any mens alive And O that it had been the will of God that all had been such Then had we not been like to have seen those daies of blood that we have seen nor those great mutations in Church and state But so far were these good men from being able to do the good that they would that they were maligned for their piety and soundness in the faith and many a time have I heard them despised as well as others and scorned as Puritans for all they were Prelates And yet it were well if all the guilt had lain upon that party But alas it was not so Those pious and painful Divines that were oppressed and much more that part of the people that joyned with them were too impatient under their suffering and bent themselves some of them more then was meet against the persons of those that they suffered by and too much endeavoured to make the Prelates odious with the people as persecutors of the Church of God and were ready to go too far from them on the other hand and to think the worse of some things because they commanded them Doubtless had we all suffered with more patience and carried our selves with meekness and gent eness to those that we differed from and given them so much commendation as was their due and put the best constructions on their actions that we could and covered their infirmities with the most charitable interpretations we might have done more to mollifie their minds or at least to have maintained our own innocency
were not still the same thing And they look not only after new discoveries in lesser things but they are making us new Articles of faith framing out new waies to heaven The body of Popery came in at this door Their new fundamentals were received on these terms Their new Catholike Church which their fore-fathers knew not was thus set up Before it consisted of all Christians through the world and now it must consist of none but the Popes subjects So is it with the Anabaptists They must now in the end of the world have a new Church for Christ even in the natural capacity of the matter I Never since the creation can it be proved that God had any where a Church on earth where Infants were excluded from being members if there were any among them They were members before the Law under the Promise under the Law and under the Gospel through the Christian world to this day ◠and yet they would needs make Christ a Church now without them As if Christ had mist it in the forming of his Church till now Or as if he begun to be aweary of infants in his Church now at last Or as if the Providence of God did now begin to be awakened to have a right formed Church in the conclusion of the world and to eject those infants as incapable who till now have been in the bosom of his family Yea this disturbing vice doth also work by setting a higher rate of necessity upon some truths then the Church of Christ had ever done When we will needs make that to be of absolute Certainly which hath been either not before received or but as a dark doubtful thing and we will make that to be of necessity to salvation which the former ages did hold but as a point of a far lower nature which some were for and some against without any great disagreement or mutual censure I confess I do hold some points of Doctrine my self to be true which I cannot find that the Church or any in it did hold of many ages after the Apostles but then I cannot lay such a stress on them as to think them of flat necessity to the welfare of the Church and the saving of souls As the Doctrine of the certain perseverance of all the Justified and some few more If I may think that Austin Prosper and all the Church in those Ages did err therein as I think they did Yet to think that they erred fundamentally were to think that Christ had no Church I will not take the Judgement or Practice of the Church in any age since the Apostles as my Rule of faith and life but I will suppose that they had all things in the most defiled age that were of absolute necessity to salvation I know that we must be Justified in the same way as they were and upon the same terms Faith is the same thing now as it was then and hath the same object to apprehend for our Justification and the same office in order to our Justification Many new notions are brought in by Disputers which must not be made matters of necessity to the soundness or integrity of the Churches faith We may talk of Peace as long as we live but we shall never obtain it but by returning to the Apostolical simplicity The Papists faith is too big for all men to agree upon or all their own if they enforced it not with arguments drawn from the fire the halter and the strappado And many Anti-Papists do too much imitate them in the tedious length of their subscribed Confessions and novelty of impositions when they go furthest from them in the quality of the things imposed I shall speak my mind to these in the words of Vincentim Lirinensis cap. 26. 〈◊〉 satis nequeo tantam quorundam hominum vaesaniam tantam excoecatae mentis impietatem tantam postremo errandi libidinem ut contenti non sint traditâ semel acceptâ antiquitus credendi reguld sed nova ac nova in diem quaerant semperque aliquid gestiant religioni addere mutare detrabere Quasi non coeleste dogma sit quod semel revelatum esse sufficiat sed terrena institutio quae aliter perfici nisi assidua emendations immo potius reprehensione non possit When we once return to the antient simplicity of faith then and not till then we shall return to the antient love and peace But the Pride of mens hearts doth make them so overvalve their own conceptions that they expect all men else should be of their mind and bow down to those reasons which others can see through while they are as confident as if there were no room for doubting Every Sect is usually confident in their own way and as they value themselves so they do their reasons And hereupon arise such breaches in affections and communion as there are while most men cry down the divisions of others but maintain the like Some will have no Communion with our Churches because we have some Members that they take to be ungodly and do not pull up the Tares in doubtful unproved cases where we cannot do it without pulling up the Wheat Others are so confident that Infants should be unbaptized and out of the Church that they will be of no Church that hath infant members till these scandalous infants be I say not excommunicated for that supposeth a former right but taken as such that have no part or fellowship in the business they will not joyn with such a society Christ telleth us that except we become as little children we shall not enter into his Kingdom and they say except little children be kept out of the Church they will not enter or abide in it Is not this extream height of spirit to be so confident as to avoid Communion upon it in a case where the Church hath been in all ages or almost all by their own confession so much against them Would they not have separated from the whole Church on the same ground if they had lived in these times Others as is before said are so confident that we are no Ministers or Churches for want of Prelatical Ordination and Government that they separate also or deny Communion with us And thus every party in the height of their self-conceitedness is ready to divide condemn all others that be not of their mind And it usually falls out that this confidence doth but bewray mens ignorance and that too many make up that in passion and wilfulness which they want in reason How many have I heard zealously condemning what they little understand It s a far easier matter to say that another man is erroneous or heretical or rail at him as a deceiver or blasphemer then to give a sound account of our belief And as I remember twenty years ago I have observed it the common trick of a company of ignorant formal Preachers to get the repute of that learning which they wanted by
tamen nata sunt quae omnia si non concupiscimus possidemus inquit Minutins Felix p. mihi 397. You lose no great advantage for heaven by becoming poor Qui viam terit eo faelicior quo levior incedit Id. I know where the heart is carnal and covetous words will not wring their money out of their hands They can say all this and more to others but saying is one thing and believing is another But with those that are true believers me thinks such considerations should prevail O what abundance of good might Ministers do if they would but live in a contempt of the world and the riches and glory of it and expend all they have for the best of their Masters use and pinch their flesh that they might have wherewith to do good This would unlock more hearts to the reception of their Doctrine then all their oratory will do and without this singularity in religiousness will seem but hypocrisie and its likely that it is so Qui innocentiam colit Domino supplicat qui hominem periculo surripit opimam victimam caedit Haec nostra sacrificia haec Dei sacra sunt sic apud nos Religiosior est ille qui justior inquit idem Minutius Felix ib. Though we need not do as the Papists that will betake them to Monasteries and cast away Propriety yet we must have nothing but what we have for God SECT X. 6. THE next branch of my Exhortation is that you would maintain your Christian and brotherly Unity and Communion and do as much of Gods work as you can in unanimity and holy concord Blessed be the Lord that it is so well with us in this County in this regard as it is We lose our Authority with our people when we divide They will yield to us when we go together who would resist and contemn the best of us alone Two things in order to this I beseech you to observe The first is that you still maintain your meetings for communion Incorporate and hold all Christian correspondency Grow not strange to one another Do not say that you have business of your own to do when you should be at any such meeting or other work for God It is not only the mutual edification that we may receive by Lectures disputations or conferences though that 's not nothing but it is specially for consultations for the common good and the maintaining of our Communion that we must thus assemble Though your own person might be without the benefit of such meetings yet the Church and our common work requireth them Do not then shew your selves contemners or neglecters of such a necessary work Distance breedeth strangeness and somenteth dividing flames and jealousies which Communion wil prevent or cure It wil be our enemies chiefest plot to divide us that they may weaken us conspire not with the enemies and take not their course And indeed Ministers have need of one another and must improve the gifts of God in one another and the self-sufficient are the most deficient and commonly proud and empty men Some there be that come not among their brethren to do or receive good nor afford them any of their assistance in consultations for the common good and their excuse is only we love to live privately To whom I say why do you not on the same grounds forbear going to Christ and say You love to live privately Is not Ministerial Commnnion a duty as well as common-Christian Communion and hath not the Church always thought so and practised accordingly If you mean that you love your own ease or commodity better then Gods service say so and speak your minds But I suppose there are few of them so silly as to think that is any just excuse though they will give us no better Somewhat else sure lieth at the bottom Indeed some of them are empty men and afraid their weakness should be known when as they cannot conceal it by their folitariness and might do much to heal it by Communion some of them are careless or scandalous men for them we have no desire of their Communion not shall admit it but upon publike Repentance and Reformation Some of them are so in love with their parties and opinions that they will not hold communion with us because we are not of their parties and opinions whereas by Communication they might give or receive better information or at least carry on so much of Gods work in unity as we are agreed in But the mischief of schism is to make men censorious and proud and take others to be unmeet for their communion and themselves to be the only Church or pure Church of Christ The Papists will have no Catholick Church but the Romans and unchurch all beside themselves The Separatists and many Anabaptists say the like of their parties The new prelatical party will have no Catholick Church but Prelatical and unchurch all except their party and so avoid Communion with others and thus turning Separatists and Schismaticks they imitate the Papists and make an opposition to schism their pretence First All must be accounted schismaticks that he not of their opinion and party when yet we find not that opinion in the Creed and they must be avoided because they are Schismaticks But were solve by the grace of God to adhere to more Catholick principles and practices and to have Communion with all Godly Christians that will have Communion with us so far as they force us not to actual sin And for the separating Brethren as by distance they are like to therish misinformations of us so if by their wilful estrangedness and distance any among us do entertain injurious reports of them and think worse of them and deal worse by some of them then there is cause they may partly thank themselves Sure I am by such means as these we are many of us grown so hardened in sin that men make no great matter what they say one against another but stand out of hearing and sight and vent their spleen against each other behind their backs How many jeers and scorns have they among their Companions for those that are against their party and they easily venture be'the matter never so false A bad report of such is easily taken to be true and that which is true is easily made worse when as Seneca saith Multos absolvemus si coeperimus ante judicare quam irasci nunc autem primum impetum sequimur It is passion that tels the tale and that receiveth it The second thing therefore that I intreat of you is that you would be very tender of the Unity and Peace of the Catholick Church not only of your own parties but of the whole And to this end these things will prove necessary 1. Do not too easily introduce any Novelties into the Church either in faith or practice I mean not that which seems a novelty to men that look no further then yesterday for so the restoring
Pre-determination 3. Lay not too great a stress on those controversies that are meerly verbal and if they were anatomized would appear to be no more Of which sort are far more I speak it confidently upon certain knowledge that now make a great noise in the world and tear the Church then almost any of the eager contenders that ever I spoke with do seem to discern or are like to believe 4. Lay not too much on any point of faith which was disowned of or unknown to the whole Church of Christ in any age since the Scriptures were delivered us 5. Much less should you lay too much on those which any of the more pure or judicious ages were wholly ignorant of 6. And least of all should you lay too much on any point which no one age since the Apostles did ever receive but all commonly hold the contrary For to make such an error which all the Church held to be such as is damning were to unchurch all the Church of Christ and to make it such as must exclude them from our Communion 1. Doth make the whole Church excommunicable which is absurd 2. And doth shew that iâ— we had lived in that age you would it seems have separated from the whole Church To give an instance of the difference among errors That any elect person shall fall away totally and finally is a palpable condemned error of dangerous consequence But that there are some justified ones not elect that shall fall away and perish is an errour of a lower nature which may not break the Communion of Christians For otherwise we must renounce Communion with the Catholike Church in Augustines daies and much more before as is said before What then Shall I take this therefore for a truth which the Church then held some will think me immodest to say No as if I were wiser then all the Church and that in so learned an age if not for so many But yet I must be so immodest as long as Scripture seemeth to me to warrant it Why might not Augustine Prosper and all the rest mistake in such a thing as that But then I am not so immodest nor unchristian as to unchurch all the Church on that account Nor would I have separated from Austin and all the Church if I had then lived Nor will do now from any man on that account Both sides will be displeased with this resolution one that I suppose all the Church to err and our selves to be in the right and the other that I take it for no greater an error but what remedy it will it must be so Read Prospers Respad Capit. Gall. and you may quickly know both Austins mind and his He that shall live to that happy time when God will heal his broken Churches shall see all this that I am now pleading for reduced to practice and this moderation take place of the new dividing zeal and Scripture-sufficiency take place and all mens Confessions and Comments to be valued only as subservient helps and not to be the test of Church-Communion any further then they are exactly the same with Scripture And till the healing Age come we cannot expect that healing truths be entertained because there are not healing spirits in the Leaders of the Church But when the work is to be done the workmen will be fitted for it and blessed will be the agents of so glorious a work But because the Love of Unity and Verity Peace and Purity must be conjunctly manifested we must avoid the extreams both in Doctrine and Communion The extreams in Doctrine are on one side by Innovating Additions on the other side by envying or hindring the progress of the light The former is the most dangerous of which men are guilty these waies 1. By making new points of faith or duty 2. By making those points to be fundamental or necessary to salvation that are not so 3. By pretending of Prophetical and other obscurer passages of the Scriptures that they have a greater objective Evidence and we a greater certainty of their meaning then indeed is so As I have met with some so confident of their right understanding of the Revelation which Calvin durst not expound and profest he understood it not that they have framed part of their Confessions or Articles of faith out of it and grounded the weightyest actions of their lives upon their exposition and could confidently tell in our late changes and differences which side was in the right and which in the wrong and all from the Revelation and thence would fetch such arguments as would carry all if you would but grant the soundness of their expositions but if you put them to prove that you marr'd all And these corruptions of sacred Doctrine by their Additions are of two sorts some that are the first Inventers and others that are the propagators and maintainers and these when Additions grow old do commonly maintain them under the notion of antient verities and oppose the antient verities under the notion of Novelty as is before said The other extream about Doctrine is by hindring the progress of knowledge and this is commonly on pretence of avoiding the Innovating extream It must be considered therefore how far we may grow and not be culpable Innovaters And 1. Our Knowledge must increase extensively ad plura we must know more verities then we knew before though we may not feign more There is much of Scripture that will remain unknown to us when we have done our best Though we shall find out no more Articles of faith which must be explicitly believed by all that will be saved yet we may find out the sense of more particular Texts and several Doctrinal Truths not contrary to the former but such as befriend them and are connexed with them And we may find out more the Order of Truths and how they are placed in respect to one another and so see more of the true method of Theologie then we did which will give us a very great light into the matter it self and its consectaries 2. Our knowledge also must grow subâ—ectively intensively and in the manner as well as in the matter of it And this is our principal growth to be sought after To know the same great and necessary truths with a sounder and clearer knâ—wledge then we did which is done 1. By getting strong Evidence and Reasons in stead of the weak ones which we trusted to before for many young ones receive Truths on some unsound grounds 2. By multiplying our Evidence and Reasons for the same truth 3. By a clearer and deeper apprehension of the same Evidence and Reasons which before we had but superficially received For one that is strong in knowledge seeth the same truth as in the clear light which the weak do see but as in the twi light To all this must be added also the fuller Improvement of the Truth received to its ends I shall give you the summe of my meaning in
them but I think too many of us have cause to fear lest we do but publikely proclaim our own shame in the guilt of our negligence or imprudent weaknesses and lest in Condemning them and Testifying against them we Testifie against and Condemn our selves 13. If you be not well able to deal with them do as I before advised Give them the best book on that subject to peruse 14. If all this will not do get the fittest neighbour Minister that you know to come over and help you Not in Publike nor as a set Disputation without necessity but let him come as occasionally and ex improviso come upon them in one of their private meetings as desirous to see and hear them and so take the opportunity to deal with them And if after that there be any Disputations appointed be sure to observe the old rule fight with them on their own ground and keep up the war in their quarters and let it come as little as you can into your own and therefore go to their Assemblies but let them not come into yours For with them you can lose little and may gain much but at home you can gain little but it s two to one will lose some let the error be never so gross The Sectaries commonly observe this course themselves and therefore you will have much ado to get their consent to bring your disputations into their own Assemblies 15. Let not the authors of the Schism out-do you or go beyond you in any thing that is good For as truth should be more effectual for sanctification then errour so if you give them this advantage you give them the day and all your disputation will do but little good For the weaker people judge all by the outward appearance and by the effects and be not so able to judge of the Doctrine in it self They think that he hath the best cause whom they take to be the best man I extend this rule both to Doctrine and Life E. G. If a Libertine preach for Free-grace do you preach it up more effectually then he be much upon it and make it more glorious on right grounds then he can do on his wrong If on the like pretences he magnifie the Grace of Love and in order to cry down fear and humiliation be all for living in pure Love to God do not contradict him in the assertive but only in the negative and destructive part but out-go him and preach up the Love of God with its motives and effects more fully and effectually then he can do on the corrupt grounds on which he doth proceed Or else you will make all the silly people believe that this is the difference between you that he is for Free-Grace and the Love of God and you are against it For if you dwell not upon it in your preaching as well as he they will not take notice of a short concession of profession So if an Enthusiast do talk all of the Holy-Ghost and the light and witness and Law within us Fall you upon that subject too do that well which they did ill and preach up the office of the Holy-Ghost his indwelling and operations and the light and testimony and Law within us better then they This is the most effectual way of setling your people against their seductions So if you be assaulted by Pelagians if they make a long story to prove that God is not the Author of sin do you fall upon the proof of it too If they plead for Free-will do you plead for that Free-will which we have the natural liberty which none deny consisting in a self-determining power and supposing actual indetermination and deny only that Liberty which the will hath not that is 1. Either a freedom from Gods Government 2. Or from the necessary guidance of the Intellect and Moral force of the object 3. Or that true Spiritual Ethical freedom from vicious inclinations which consisteth in the Right Disposition of the will though the sanctified indeed have this in part and that predominantly So if any Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian will go about industriously to prove mans power or rather impotency to will or do evil do it as effectually as he For this is indeed but to prove a man a sinner under pretence of proving him free or at least to prove him defectible if it be not the ill inclination but the possibility of sinning that they defend in which case we can say more then they So if they go about laboriously to prove that Christ dyed for all I would endeavour to do it as effectually as they that it might appear to the people that the difference between us is not in this that they would magnifie the riches of grace above me or that I would leave sinners hopeless and remediless and without an object for faith any more then they nor that I abuse or reject express Scriptures when they own them in their proper sense But I would let them know that the Controversie lyeth elsewhere viz. Whether Christ in offering himself a sacrifice for sin had not a special Intention or Resolution in complyance with his Fathers predestinating will infallibly and effectually to save his chosen even such and such by name in making his blood applyed effectual to the pardon of all their sins and to give them his spirit to seal them unto glory having no such Will Intention Resolution in dying no more then his Father had in predestinateing as to the rest of the world So if one that is for private mens preaching come and inveigh against Ministers for inhibiting them to use the gifts of God for the edification of the Church I would not presently set to thwart him but I would rather fall a perswading private men to use their gifts in all the waies that I even now mentioned and sharply chide them for using them no more and then among my Cautions or reprehensions meet with his desired abuse in the end And what I have said by way of instance in these few points I mean in all others Preaching truth is the most successful way of confuting error and I would have no Seducer to have the glory of out-going us in any good and so not in befriending or defending any truth Once more E. G. If a Socinian should fall a pleading for the Churches Peace and for Unity upon the antient simplicity of faith I would labour to out-go him in it and then would shew that the antient simple faith condemned him If he would plead Reason for Scripture or the Christian Religion I would endeavour to out-go him in it and he should not have opportunity to glory that he only had Reason for what he held and I had none But I would shew that as I have Reason to believe the Scripture so that Scripture condemneth his errors If a Separatist will plead for the Necessity of Church-order and Discipline so would I as well as he and shew him that it is only
them I know that some of these men are Learned and Reverend and intend not such mischievous ends as these The hardening of men in ignorance is not their design But this is the thing effected To intend well in doing ill is no rarity Who can in reverence to any men on earth sit still and hold his tongue while he seeth people thus run to their own destruction and the souls of men be undone by the contendings of Divines for their several parties and interests The Lord that knows my heart knows that if I know it my self as I am not of any one of these parties so I speak not a word of this in a sactious partiality for one party or against another as such much less in spleen against any person but if I durst in conscience I would have silenced all this for fear of giving them offence whom I much honour But what am I but a servant of Christ and what is my life worth but to do him service and whose favour can recompence for the ruines of the Church and who can be silent while souls are undone Not I for my part while God is my Master and his word my Rule his work my business and the success of it for the saving of men my end Who can be reconciled to that which so lamentably crosseth his Masters interest and his main end Nor yet would I have spoken any of this if it had been only in respect to my own charge yet I bless God the sore is but small in comparison of what it is in many other places But the observation of some neighbour Congregations and others more remote me thinks should make the very contrary minded Divines relent if they were present with them Would it be a pleasant hearing to them to hear a croud of scandalous men to reproach their Ministers that would draw them to repentance and to tell them they have no authority over them and all this under the pretence and shelter of their judgements Had they rather men went to Hell then be taught the way to Heaven by Presbyters that had not their Imposition of hands Is that point of order more necessary then the substance of the work or the end it self Nay I must needs in faithfulness say yet more That it is no credit to the cause of these Reverend men nor ever was that the generality of the most wicked men and haters and contemners of all Devotion are the great friends and maintainers of it And the befriending of such a party did more to gain their love then to save their souls And the engageing such a Party for them hath not been the least cause of their fall This is true however it be taken And what a case would the Churches of England be in if we should yield to the motions of these Reverend men supposing that mens judgements are not at their own wills and therefore many cannot see the reasons for Prelacy must we all give up our charges as no true Ministers and desert the Congregations as no true Churches Why whom will they then set over them in our stead First it is known that they cannot if they had fit men procure them what liberty their way requires because of the discountenance of authority and it is known that they have not fit men for one Congregation of very many And had they rather that the doors were shut up and God had no publike worship nor the people any publike teaching or Sacraments then any but they should have a hand in the performance of it Or if the Ministers keep their places can they wish all the Congregations to stay at home and live like Heathens Nay are they not angry with us for casting out a grosly ignorant insufficient scandalous sort of Ministers who were the great means of the perdition of the people whose souls they had taken charge of As for the casting out of any able godly men upon meer differences about the late troubles and State affairs I speak not of it I approve not of it If any such thing were done let them maintain it if they can that did it for I neither can nor will But it s a very sad case that any men of judgement piety should not only be indifferent in matters of such moment but should think it a persecution and an injury to their party and cause to have hundreds of unworthy wretches to be ejected when it was a work of so great necessity to the Church And indeed by all this they plainly shew what a condition they would reduce this Nation into again if it were in their power Sure they that would have the people disown and withdraw from them as being no Ministers and turn their backs on the word and Sacraments would silence them if they could I think there is no doubt of that And surely they that are so offended that the insufficient and scandalous ones are cast out would have them in again if they could And if this be the change that they desire let them not blame men that believe the Scripture and value mens salvation if they have no mind of their change If it were a matter of meer opinion we should be more indifferent with them Or if the question were only whether men should be conducted in waies of holiness by a Prelate or by meer Presbyters only we should think it of less moment then the matter that is before us But when it comes to this pass that the Prince of darkness must be so gratified and so much of the Church of Christ delivered overmuch into his power and the people led by multitudes to perdition and all for the upholding of our own parties or interests or conceits we cannot make light of such matters as these These are not meer speculations but matters that are so obvious to sense and Christian experience that they must not think much that serious experienced Christians are against them But that I be not mistaken it is far from my thoughts to speak what I have done of any peaceable man of the Prelatical way or to meddle in the Controversie of the best way of Government nor do I speak to any of the New Prelatical way but only those who are guilty of the miscarriages which I have spoken of and for them I had rather bear their indignation then the Church should bear the fruits of their destructive intemperate conceits The most common cause of our Divisions and unpeaceableness is mens high estimation of their own Opinions And it ordinarily worketh these two waies sometimes by setting men upon Novelties and sometimes by a censorious condemning of all that differ from the party that they are of Some are as busie in their enquiries after new Doctrines as if the Scripture were not perfect or Christ had not told us all that is necessary or the way to heaven were not in all ages one and the same from Christ to the end of the world or the Church
me thinks a little humility should make men ashamed of that common conceit of unquiet spirits viz. That the welfare of the Church doth so lye upon their opinions that they must needs vent and propagate them whatever come of it If they are indeed a living part of the body the hurt of the whole will be so much their own that they cannot desire it for the sake of any party or opinion Were men but impartial to consider in every such case of difference how far their promoting their own judgement may help or hurt the whole they might escape many dangerous waies that are now trod If you can see no where else look in the face of the Churches enemies how they rejoyce and deride us And as Seneca saith to demulce the angry Vide ne inimiciâ— iracundia tua voluptati sit When we have all done I know not what party of us will prove a gayner so true are the old proverbs Dissensio ducum hostium succum And Gaudent praedones dum discordant regiones And is it not a wonder that godly Ministers that know all this how the common adversary derideth us all and what a scandal our divisions are through the world and how much the Church doth lose by it should yet go on and after all the loudest calls and invitations to peace go on still and few if any sound a retreat and seriously call to their Brethren for a retreat Can an honest heart be insensisile of the sad distractions and sadder Apostacies that our divisions have occasioned Saepâ—rixam conclamatum in vicino incendium solvit saith Seneca What scolds so furious that will not give over when the house is on fire over their heads Well if the Lord hath given that evil spirit whose name is Legion such power over the hearts of any that yet they will sit still yea and quarrel at the pacificatory endeavours of others who hunger after the healing of the Church and rather carp and reproach and hinder such works then to help them on I shall say but this to them How diligently soever such men may preach and how pious soever they may seem to be if this way tend to their everlasting peace and if they be not preparing sorrow for themselves then I am a stranger to the way of peace SECT XI 7. THE next branch of my Exhortation is that You would no longer neglect the execution of so much Discipline in your Congregations as it of confessed necessity and right I desire not to sour on any one to an unseasonable performance of the greatest duty But will it never be a fit season Would you forbear Sermons and Sacraments so many years on pretence of unseasonableness Will you have better season for it when you are dead How many are dead already before they ever did any thing in this work that were long preparing for it It is now near three years since many of us here did engage our selves to this duty And have we been faithful in performance of that engagement I know some have more discouragements and hinderances then others But what discouragements can excuse us from such a duty Besides the Reasons that we then considered of let these few be further laid to heart 1. How sad a sign do we make it to be in our preaching to our people to live in the willful continued omission of any known duty And shall we do so even year after year and all our daies If excuses will take off the danger of this sign what man will not find them as well as you Read Amesius medul cap. 37. de Disciplin Eccles Gelespi's Aarons rod with Rutherford and many more that are written to prove the Need and Dueness of Discipline saith Ames ib. sect 5. Immo peccat in Christum authorem ac institutorem quisquis non facit quod in se est ad hanc Disciplinam in Ecclesiis Dei constituendam promovendam And do you think it safe to live and dye in such a known sin 2. You gratifie the present designs of dividers whose business is to unchurch us and unchristen us to prove our Parishes no true Churches and our selves no baptized Christians For if you take them for people uncapable of Discipline they must be uncapable of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and other Church-Communion and then they are no Church And so you will plainly seem to preach meerly as they do to gather Churches where there were none before And indeed if that be your case that your people are not Christians and you have no particular Churches and so are no Pastors tell us so and manifest it and we shall not blame you 3. We do manifest plain laziness and sloath if not unfaithfulness in the work of Christ I speak from experience It was laziness that kept me off so long and pleaded hard against this duty It is indeed a troublesom and painful work and such as calls for some self-denyal because it will cast us upon the displeasure of the wicked But dare we preferr our carnal ease and quietness and the love or peace of wicked men before our service to Christ our Master Can sloathful servants look for a good reward Remember Brethren that we of this County have thus Promised before God in the second Article of our Agreement We agree and resolve by Gods help that so far as God doth make known our duty to us we will faithfully endeavour to discharge it and will not desist through any fears or losses in our estates or the frowns and displeasure of men or any the like carnal inducements whatsoever I pray you study this promise and compare your performance with it And do not think that you were ensnared by thus engaging for Gods Law hath laid an obligation on you to all the same duty before your engagement did it Here is nothing but what others are bound to as well as you 4. The Ministery that are for the Presbyterian Government have already by their common neglect of the execution made those of the separating way believe that they do it in a meer carnal compliance with the unruly part of the people that while we exasperate them not with our Discipline we might have them on our side And we should do nothing needless that hath so great an appearance of evil and is so scandalous to others It was the sin and ruine of many of the Clergy of the last times to please and comply with them that they should have reproved and corrected by unfaithfulness in preaching and neglect of Discipline 5. The neglect of Discipline hath a strong tendency to the deluding of souls by making them think they are Christians that are not while they are permitted to live in the reputation of such and be not separated from the rest by Gods Ordinance and it may make the scandalous to think their sin a tolerable thing which is so tolerated by the Pastors of the Church 6. We do corrupt Christianity if self in
the eyes of the world and do our part to make them believe that to be a Christian is but to be of such an Opinion and to have that faith which James saith the Devils had and to be solifidians and that Christ is no more for Holiness then Satan or that the Christian Religion exacteth Holiness no more then the false Religions of the world For if the Holy and unholy are all permitted to be sherp of the same fold without the use of Christs means to difference them we do our part to defame Christ by it as if he were guilty of it and as if this were the strain of his prescripts 7. We do keep up separation by permitting the worst to be uncensured in our Churches so that many honest Christians think they are necessitated to withdraw I must profess that I have spoke with some members of the separated or gathered Churches that were moderate men and have argued with them against their way and they have assured me That they were of the Presbyterian judgement or bad nothing to say against it but they joyned themselves with other Churches upon meer necessity thinking that Discipline being an Ordinance of Christ must be used by all that can and therefore they durst no longer live without it when they may have it and they could find no Presbyterian Churches that executed Discipline as they wrote for it and they told me that they did thus separate only protempore till the Presbyterians will use Discipline and then they would willingly return to them again I confess I was sorry that such persons had any such occasion to withdraw and the least ground for such a reason of their doings It is not keeping them from the Sacrament that will excuse us from the further exercise of Discipline while they are Members of our Churches 8. We do too much to bring the wrath of God upon our selves and our Congregations and so to blast the fruit of our labours If the Angel of the Church of Thyatira was reproved for suffering Seducers in the Church we may be reproved on the same ground for suffering open scandalous impenitent ones Rev. 2 20. 9. We seem to justifie the Prelates who took the same course in neglecting Discipline though in other things we differ 10. We have abundance of aggravations and witnesses to rise up against us which though I will purposely now over-pass lest I seem to press too hard in this point I shall desire you to apply them hither when you meet with them anon under the next branch of the Exhortation I know that Discipline is not essential to a Church but what of that Is it not therefore a duty and necessary to its well-being Yea more The power of Discipline is essential to a particular Political Church And what is the Power for but for the work and use As there is no Common-wealth that hath not partem imperantem as well as partem subditam so no such Church that hath not partem regentem in one Pastor or more SECT XII 8. THE last particular branch of my Exhortation is that You will now faithfully discharge the great duty which you have undertaken and which is the occasion of our meeting here to day in personal Catechizing and Instructing every one in your Parishes that will submit thereto What our undertaking is you know you have considered it and it is now published to the world But what the performance will be I know not but I have many reasons to hope well of the most though some will alwaies be readyer to say then to do And because this is the chief business of the day I must take leave to insist somewhat the longer on it And 1. I shall give you some further Motives to perswade you to faithfulness in the undertaken work Presupposing the former general Motives which should move us to this as well as to any other part of our duty 2. I shall give to the younger of my Brethren a few words of Advice for the manner of the performance CHAP. VI. SECT I. 1. THE first reasons by which I shall perswade you to this duty are taken from the benefits of it The second sort are taken from the difficulty And the third from the Necessity and the many obligations that are upon us for the performance of it And to these three heads I shall reduce them all 1. And for the first of these when I look before me and consider what through the blessing of God this work well managed is like to produce it makes my heart to leap for joy Truly Brethren you have begun a most blessed work and such as your own consciences may rejoyce in and your Parishes rejoyce in and the Nation rejoyce in and the childe that is yet unborn yea thousands and millions for ought we know may have cause to bless God for when we have finished our course And though it be our business here to humble our selves for the neglect of it so long as we have very great cause to do yet the hopes of a blessed success are so great in me that they are ready to turn it into a day of Rejoycing I bless the Lord that I have lived to see such a day as this and to be present at so solemn an engagement of so many servants of Christ to such a work I bless the Lord that hath honoured you of this County to be the beginners and awakeners of the Nation hereunto Is it not a controverted business where the exasperated minds of divided men might pick quarrels with us or malice it self be able to invent a rational reproach Nor is it a new invention where envy might charge you as innovators or proud boasters of any new discoveries of your own or scorn to follow in it because you have led the way No it is a well known duty It is but the more diligent and effectuall management of the Ministerial work and the teaching of our Principles and the feeding of babes with milk You lead indeed but not in invention of novelty but the restauration of the antient Ministerial work and the self-denying attempt of a duty that few or none can contradict Unless men do envy you your labours and sufferings or unless they envy the saving of mens souls I know not what they can envy you for in this The age is so quarrelâ—om that where there is any matter to fasten on we can scarce explain a truth or perform a duty but one or other if not many will have a stone to cast at us and will speak evil of the things which they do not understand or which their hearts and interests are against But here I think we have silenced malice it self and I hope we may do this part of Gods work quietly as to them If they cannot endure to be told what they know not or contradicted in what they think or disgraced by discoveries of what they have said amiss I hope they will give us leave