aggravate the faults of all that are against their way As if every infirmity were a crime and had no excuse yea they are oft glad to hear of some miscarriage in them for which they may speak against them And very readily take up such reports and are the willing-tongues of slanderous fame And in all this their faction maketh them impenitent For they think it tendeth to the disgrace of the other Party and so of their Cause which they account an errour and consequently that God hath use for their malicious Calumnies to his glory What company can you come into of forward Christians but they are talking against those of other parties except a few true entire Christians who are throughly possessed with the loving compassionate spirit of their Lord and have received the true impression of the Gospel And if you mark the cause you will find it as a sectarian spirit that prevaileth against the Catholick spirit of Christianity And in no sect more than in those that pretend to be the only Catholicks and to do all this against the Sectaries as such What bitter lies do the Popish sects under the name of Catholicks daily vent not only against Luther Calvin and other Reformers but any that stand against the peculiar interest of their party And they that can get the upper hand-and by worldly advantages become the domineering sect do think that thereby they are exempted from the name and number of sectaries and that all are sectaries that question their authority and do not absolutely obey them In all their discourse the stigmatizing of dissenters is an ordinary part One side reproacheth the other as Hereticks and Schismaticks And the other reproacheth them as hypocrites formalists and pharisaical persecutors And every party think that all this is a part of Christian zeal and if they did it not they should be guilty of lukewarmness and neutrality and consenting to the sins of others And thus the Church of Christ is engaged in a war against it self And when all men should know them to be Christs disciples by loving one another most men may perceive that they have too much contrariety to the Christian nature by their endeavouring to make each other odious And all because instead of distinguishing the members of the same Body by their several offices and degrees we are grown to make several Bodies of them and to set one part against another How many a Kingdomes conversion from Infidelity hath been hindered and how many a faithful Minister silenced or reproached and how many excellent Christians slandered and vilified and how many blamless customs forms and practises accused and how many infirmities aggravated as mortal crimes by a siding factious disposition and to promote the cause and interest of a Sect. Therefore as you love your integrity and peace keep up an impartial universal love and honour to all Christians as such and take heed of a dividing spirit DIRECT XX. Be very suspicious of your Religious passions and carefully distinguish between a sound and a sinful zeal lest you should father your sin on the spirit of holiness and think that you are most pleasing God when you offend him WE are seldome more mistaken in justifying our selves than in our Passions And when our Passions are Religious the mistake is both most easie and most perillous Easie because we are apt to be most confident and not suspect them the matter seeming so great and good about which they are exercised And Perilous because the greatness and goodness of the matter doth make the errour the greater and the worse I have shewed before how easie it is to think that our Religious passions are all the works of the spirit of God For we are apt to estimate them by the depth and earnestness which we feel But excellent persons have been here mistaken as Iames and Iohn were And not only so but when the passion is up the judgement it self is seldome to be far trusted For it inclineth us to err in all things that concern the present business Therefore still remember the difference between true zeal and false And know that he that is upright in the main and whose zeal for Christianity is sound may yet have much zeal that is unsound with it First It is an ill sign when your zeal is raised about some singular opinion which you have owned and not for the common salvation and substance of the Christian faith or practise Or at least when your odd opinion hath a greater proportion of your zeal than many more plain and necessary truths Secondly when your zeal is moved by any personal interest of your own By honour or dishonour By any wrong that is done you or any reputation of wisdome or goodness which lieth on the cause Or at least when your own interest hath too large a proportion in your zeal Thirdly when your zeal is more for the interest of your party than for the Universal Church and the common cause of Godliness and Christianity and can be content that some detriment to the whole may further the interest of the party Fourthly when your zeal tendeth to hurt and crueley and would have God rather to glorifie his Iustice by some present notable judgement than his Mercy by patience and forgiving And when your secret desire of fire from heaven or some destruction of the adversaries is greater than your desire and prayer for their conversion The sure mark of true zeal is that it is zealous Love It maketh you love your neighbours and enemies more fervently than others do But false zeal maketh you more inclined to their suffering and to reproach and hurt them Fifthly It is an ill signe when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your understanding And your prudence and experience is as much less than other mens as your zeal is greater True zeal hath some equality of Light and Heat Sixthly It is an ill sign when it is a zeal which is easily kept alive and hardly restrained For that sheweth the slesh and the Devil are too much its friends The true zeal of the spirit doth need the fuel of all holy means and the bellows of meditation and prayer to kindle it and all is too little to keep it up in the constancy that we desire But carnal zeal will burn of it self without such endeavours Seventhly It is an ill signe when some sect or false-teacher was the kindler of it and not the sober preaching of the truth Eighthly And it is an ill sign when it burneth in the same soul where lust and wrath and pride and malice burn And when it prospereth at the same time when the love of God and a heavenly mind and life decay The zeal of a sensualist of a proud man of a covetous man of a self-conceited empty person can hardly be thought a spiritual zeal 9. And it is an ill sign wâ—en it carrieth you from the holy rule and pretendeth to come from a spirit which will
if we shall sin our selves into suffering and sin in our suffering as we did before even the very same sin of Divisions which brought us to it how heinous is our Crime and how dreadful the Prognostick of our greater ruine And how guilty are those Ministers of the blood of Souls that will not tell men of the sin and danger 6. I know that Dividing Principles and Dispositions do tend directly to the ruine and damnation of those in whom they do prevail That which killeth Love killeth all grace and holiness and killeth Souls That which quencheth Love quencheth the Spirit a thousand fold more then the restraining of our gifts of utterance doth That which banisheth Love banisheth God That which is against Love is against the design of Christ in our Redemption and therefore may well be called Antichristian And if the Roman Kingdom for so it is rather to be called than a Church had not such Moral marks of Antichristianity which Dr. More hath notably opened in his Mysterie of iniquity If they were not the Engineers for the Division of the Christian world by a false Center and by impossible terms of Unity and by the engine of tearing dividing impositions If among them were not found the blood of the Saints and the Martyrs of Jesus I should in charity fear to suspect them of Antichristianity notwithstanding all the Prophetical passages which seem otherwise to point them out because I should still suspect my understanding of those Prophecies when the Law of Loving my neighbâ—ur as my self is plain to all They are dangerously mistaken that think that Satan hath but one way to mens damnation There are as many wayes to Hell as there be to the extinguishing of Love And all tendeth unto this whicâ— tendeth to hide or deny the Loveliness that is the Goodness of them whom I must Love much more that which representeth them as odious And there are many pretenses and wayes to make my Neighbour seem unlovely to me One doth it as effectually by unjust or unproved accusations of ungodliness or saying Their worship is Antichristian formal ridiculous vain as another doth by unjust and unproved accusations of Schism Disobedience or Sedition And they that love Godliness may be tempted to cast off their love of their Neighbours yea of the truly Godly when they once believe that they are ungodly And the white Devil is a Love-killer as well as the black He is 〈◊〉 mortal an enemy to Love who back biteth another and saith he is Prophane or he is an empty formalist or he is a lukewarm temporizing complying manpleaser as he that saith He is a pievish factious Hypocrite I am sure he was no Malignant nor intended to gird at Godliness nor to grieve good men who told us that it is Satans way to transform himself into an Angel of Light that is one that pretendeth to make higher motions for Light and for Religious strictness than Christ himself doth and that his Ministers are sent forth by him as Ministers of Righteousness 2 Cor. 11. 14 15 16. who will seem more Righteous than the Preachers of truth Satan will pretend to any sort of strictness by which he can but mortifie Love If you can devise any such strictness of opinions or exactness in Church orders or strictness in worship as will but help to kill mens love and set the Churches in divisions Satan will be your helper and will be the strictest and exactest of you all He will reprove Christ as a Sabbath breaker and as a gluttonous person and a Wine-bibber and a friend or Companion of Publicans and Sinners and as an enemy to Caesar too We are not altogether ignorant of his wiles as young unexperienced Christians are You think when a wâ—athful envious heat is kindled in you against men for their faulâ—â— that it is certainly a zeal of Gods exciting But mark whether it have not more wrathâ— than Love in it and whether it tend not more to disgrace your brother than to 〈◊〉 him or to make parties and divisions than to heal them If it be so if St. Iames be not deceived you are deceived as to the author of your zeal Iam. 3. 15. 16. and it hath a worse Original than you suspect It is one of the greatest reasons which maketh me hate Romish Church tyranny and Religious cruelties against dissenters because as they come from want of Love so I am sure that they â—end to destroy the Love of those on whom they are inflicted and to do more hurt to their Souls than to their Bodies The Devil is not so silly an Angler as to fish with the bare Hook nor such a Fool as when he would damn men to intreat them openly to be damned nor when he would kill mens Love to intreat them plainly not to Love but hate their neighbours But he doth it by making you believe that there is just and necessary cause for it and that it is your duty and that you should be lukewarm in the cause of God of truth of Godliness if you did not do it that so you may go on without scruple and do so again and not repent Even they that killed Christs Apostles did it as a duty and a part of the service of God Ioh. 16. 2. And Paul himself did once think verily that he ought to do many things which he did against the Name and Cause and Servants of Jesus Act. 26. 9. And as he did so he was done by and as he measured to others it was measured to him again For they that bound themselves in an Oath to kill him did deeply interesse God and Conscience in the cruelty But believe it it is Apostacy to fall from Love your souls dye when Love dyeth The opinions the Church Principles the sideings the Practises which destroy your love destroy your graces and your souls You dye while you have a name to live and think that you grow apace in Religion Therefore better understand the Tempter and when backbiters are deriding or vilifying your neighbours take it to signifie in plain English I pray you love not these men but hate them And I have told you in this Treatise that when one saith unjustly Kill them banish them and another saith Have no Communion with them it is too often the same inward affection which both express but in various wayes They are agreed in the assumption that their neighbour is unlovely And when Love is dead and yet Religion seemeth to survive and to be increased by it it is lamentable to think what a degenerate scandalous hypocritical Religion that will be and how odious and dishonourable to God To preach without Love and to hear without Love and to pray without Love and to communicate without Love to any that differ from your Sect O what a loathsome Sacrifice is it to the God of Love If we must leave our guift at the Altar till we are reconciled to one offended brother what a gift is
found 3. You would shew a humble sense of your own frailty who dare not proudly contemn your brethren 4. You would shew more love to God himself when you love all of God whensoever you discern it and cannot abide to hear his gifts and mercies undervalued 5. You would increase the grace of love to others in your selves by the daily exercise of it when backbiting and detraction will increase the malignity from which they spring 6. You would increase Love also in the hearers which is the fulfilling of the Law when detraction will breed or increase malice 7. You will do much to the winning and conversion of them whom you commend if they be unconverted For when they are told that you speak lovingly of them behind their backs it will much reconcile them to your persons and consequently prepare them to hearken to the counsel which they need But when they are told that you did backbite them it will fill them with hatred of you and violent prejudice against your counsel and profession Yet mistake me not It is none of my meaning all this while that you should speak any falsehood in commendation of others nor make people believe that a careless carnal sort of persons are as good as those that are careful of their souls or that their way is sufficient for salvation Nor to commend ungodly men in such a manner as tendeth to keep either them or their hearers from repentance Nor to call evil good or put darkness for light nor honour the works of the devil But to shew Love and impartiality to all and to be much more in speaking of all the good which is in them than of the evil Especially if they be your enemies or differ from you in opinions of Religion Tit. 3. 1. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men For we our selves were sometime foolish c. Grace is clean contrary to this detracting vice DIRECT L Study the Duty of instructing and exhorting more than Reproof and finding fault I Deny not but that it is duty to tell a brother of his fault and to reprove and that with plainness too Math. 18. 15. Lev. 19. 17. And it is but few that do this rightly of many that will backbite and censure But yet I have long observed that many Christians are enquiring How they must manage the duty of Reproof who ne-never enquire how to perform the duty of Christian exhortation or instructing of the ignorant When as this later is much more usually a duty than the former And you are bound to exhort a multitude whom you are not bound to reprove And exhortation to good is a duty which the hearer is usually less offended at It doth not so much gall and exasperate his mind It shameth him not so much and yet is the greater part of our duty to him as the positives of Religion are before the negatives Exhortation rightly used is the plain direct expression of Love and an earnest desire of anothers good When Reproof doth savour of a mixture of Love and displeasure and the wrath doth often cloud the love And I must say that I find many surly proud Professors much proner to Reproof than to Exhortation Their pride and self-conceitedness makes them too forward to reprove their Governours and the ignorant people are ready enough to reprove their Teachers and the servant to reprove the Master or the Mistris but not to be reproved by them Ministers must be wise and cautelous how they set such people on reproving and finding fault with others when their own pride and passion and fond self-opinion is ready to put them on too far DIRECT LI. The more you suffer by your Rulers or any men the more be watchful lest your sufferings tempt you to dishonour them And the more you are wronged by your equals the more be afraid lest you should be tempted to withdraw the Love which is their due THe Honouring of our superiours is a Moral or Natural duty of the fifth Commandement which sufferings will not excuse us from And so is the Love of all men even of our enemies And selfishness and Passion are things so powerful that it is wonderful hard to escape their deceit They will blind the mind and change the judgement and corrupt the affections before you are aware or believe that you are at all perverted Every man must watch most where his temptation is strongest Do you not think that you have a far stronger temptation to dishonour a persecuting Magistrate than a good one And to hate an enemy than a friend Therefore arm your selves and one another against this snare And when others are aggravating the fault and injury do you in company remember each other in what danger you are now of losing your innocency and of doing your selves more hurt by that than any powers or enemies can do you It is an easie thing to Love one that loveth you and to honour a Magistrate that doth good to you and all But as the Apostle saith of servants 1 Pet. 2. 18 19 20. Be subject Not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults you take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God DIRECT LII Make conscience of heart-revenge and tongue-revenge as well as of hand-revenge IT is so notorious that Revenge is a usurpation of Gods prerogative a heinour sin that Professors could not so frequently easily commit it if they did not first deceive themselves and take that to be no revenge which is To do any open hurt to another they take notice of as sinful revenge But is there no secret wish in your heart that some evil may befal another Nor no secret gladness that some evil hath befaln him You will say It is not in revenge but in hope he may repent But take heed what is in your heart It s one thing to Repent of his injury to you as such and to make you amends and repair your honour And it s another thing to repent of it as a sin against God to the saving of his own soul. Is it not the former that you more desire than the later And are not your Tongues employed too often in revenge What are all your secret reflections and endeavours to dishonour those that have wronged you but revengeful speeches Railing and backbiting and nibling at anothers honour and good name may be acts of revenge as truly as the actions of the hand DIRECT LIII When you are exasperated at the hurt which you feel from Magistrates remember the good which the Church receiveth by them
as well as the hurt IF you look all at the evil in any man and overlook the good you cannot choose but hate hâ—m And if you think only of what you suffer by Magistrates you may easily know what the effect must be And the sin is so great that it should not be made light of by a tender conscience The good of the Office and of the person is of God and the evil is of Satan And should you so look at Satans part as to pass by all Gods part What ingratitude is it to take notice so deeply of your suffering and to take no notice of your mercies There are few Heathen Magistrates from whom those Christians who live under them receive not much more good than hurt Much more Christian Magistrates are a blessing to believers For if they persecute some yet they usually protect more from the fury of the vulgar rabble who would quickly devour them if Rulers did not restrain them And the countenancing of the Christian Religion in the essentials and defending Christian assemblies for Gods worship is an unvaluable mercy If Paul said to the Romans Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to evil Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God to thee for good Rom. 13. 3 4. How much more may those say so who have Christian Magistrates Or if some particular persons do suffer more under some such than Paul or the Christians did under Heathens Acts 28. last yet every true Christian must more regard the publick interest than his own and must rejoyce that the Gospel hath any protection and furtherance and the souls of the people any benefit whatever his personal suffering be Read Phil. 1. 12 to the 20. DIRECT LIV. Learn to suffer by Ministers and Good people and not only by Magistrates nor only by the ungodly I Confess it is a thing most unnatural for one true Christian to afflict another and especially for a Minister who is the father of the flock to be a hurter of them and to do like an enemy and to fleece them and devour them But yet it is a thing which sometimes must be born I have observed that Religious people when a Magistrate though a usurper persecuteth them they can in some sort undergo it as no strange thing And they are not so forward to cast off the office and abhor the persons by whom they suffer But if they suffer never so little by a Minister they flye away from him and are uncapable of comfortable communion with him and the breach is hardly ever made up I confess there is some more colour for this impatiency to be mentioned in another place But yet Gods servants have been tryed by this kind of suffering also and therefore you must not be so tender of it nor be driven by it into sinful separations or into a contempt of the Ministers of the Gospel as too many sects in these times have been Read what at large is said of the afflicting Shepherds Ezek. 34. Zech. 10. 11. And you will see that it is not a thing to be wondered at to have Shepherds which fleece and destroy the flocks and tread down their pasture and muddy their waters and feed themselves and not the flocks and gather not that which goeth â—stray Nay their own Shepherds pitied them not Zech. 11. 5 I know that it is the Magistrates that are often meant by Shepherds in the Prophets but the Priests also are usually meant with them and sometime distinctly by the same word And their falshood and cruelty oft expressed as in Ier. 2. 8 26. 5. 31. and 26. 7 8 11. 32. 32. Ezek. 22. 26. Hos. 6. 9. Mich. 3. 11. Zeph. 3. 4. Mal. 1. 6 2. 1. c. And remember that all the wickedness of these Priests and their abuse of the people did not warrant the people to forsake the Jewish Church Though the Ark was taken by the Philistines for the wickedness and violence of Eli's sons and the people tempted to desire a King by the sins of the sons of Samuel yet none of their mis-doings did warrant a separation from that Church Yea Christ who was persecuted by the Priests did yet bid the cleansed Lepeâ— go shew himself to the Priest and offer according to the Law Therefore a true Christian must learn though not to favour any mans sin nor to be indifferent what Ministery he liveth under yet patiently to suffer much abuse and persecution sometimes from Ministers themselves and to see that it drive them not in peevish impatiency into any extream or to any unlawful sect or separation nor to a disdain of the sacred office which they abuse nor to lose the benefit of it or be unthankful for it And though it be sad that true Christians should abuse each other yet this also must be born Many can bearâ—th scorn and cruelties of the openly profane who can scarce bear to be neglected or set light by much less to be hardly censured by the Religious But observe first that your Pride may notably appear in this and it is no great sign of humility to suffer only from the worst For you look on them as persons of no honour and the â—fore not capable of dishonouring you For a dog to bark at you you take for no disgrace Nay you take it for your honour to suffer by such persons as supposing it a mark of Christs disciples But the Religious you more reverence and think their contempt is a great dishonour to you and fore your pride will not suffer you to bear it patiently Secondly And remember that different opinions and interests may possibly so far exasperate some that are otherwise religious as to make them afflicters or more plainly persecâ—tors of one another though Godliness it self be applauded by them all The experience of England Scotland and Ireland within these 25 years doth sadly tell us and the world how far men can go in persecuting each other for different interests and opinions who all profess a zeal for godliness And let it have your special remark that one reason why all men as Christians and Godly do more easily and commonly love one another is because aâ— Christians and Godly they do not hurt or wrong each other But as they are of various sects they hate and envy one another because as they are sectaries they hurt and injure one another For the spirit and zeal of a sect as such is censorious hurtful unpeaceable and dividing But the spirit and zeal of Godliness and Christianity is kind and gentle and inclineth to do good to all Remember that you have never learâ—n the Christian art of suffering aright till you can suffer not only by bad men but by men that otherwise are good nor only by enemies but by friends nor only by them that bear the sword but also by some who preach the word and will not by
offend all Therefore be not many Masters too imperious or too censorious towards dissenters and the infirm lest ye receive the greater condemnation Jam. 3. 1 2. GOD who is One hath made the creatures MANY and divers And the further they go from Him the more they run into multiplicity and diversity It is admirable in Nature to see that among the millions of persons in the world there are no two that differ not sufficiently to be discernable from each other And among the bruits and inanimates it is so too Among horses and oxen and sheep and all creatures yea though non ovum ovâ— similius be a proverb yet there are no two that do not differ No nor among the millions of stones which lye scattered over the surface of the earth There are no two persons in all the world who are just of the same intellectual complexion and degree nor no two who are in all things of the same opinions or apprehensions No nor any one man who is in all things long of the same apprehensions and opinions with himself Nor is there any man whose thoughts and affections do perfectly consent with themselves in matter and order any two hours in all his life And if multiplicity and diversity have so much cause in nature how much more must needs be added by the common corruption and pravity of nature When all mankind hath so much ignorance of the mysteries of Religion and so many degrees of enmity and unsuitableness to holy things a great difference of judgement is an unavoidable consequent of this And mens various educations and converse and employments must needs cause a great variety of apprehensions As their nature so their education may agree in some generals But there are no two persons at age in the world whose educations have been the same in all particulars Though they were children of the same parents and bred in the same house and time yet all that they have seen and heard and medled with hath not been in all points just the same the same in matter and time and order and all circumstances And we see what great diversity of judgements any one of these doth daily cause To have parents of several minds and tempers To be bred in families where there is great diversity of knowledge and practise To live among company of contrary principles and practise when one man heareth one thing talkt of and maintain'd in his daily converse and another the contrary When one hath a teacher of one opinion and another of another Or one hath a teacher that is cold and another one that is servent one a judicious one and another a rash and intemperate one what diversity of apprehensions may arise from any one of these And so there may from variety of passions of the mind through a diversity of bodily temperatures One that is naturally fearful is apt to apprehend a thousand things as terrible and consequently to be filled with scruples and to run away from doctrines and practises as dangerous where another doth apprehend no danger And one that is dark or incredulous or rash or stupid or hardened by any sinful course is apt to conceive that he is safe in every dangerous way and to sleep quietly at the brink of death and hell and to laught at them that tell him of his peril As men sit under the same instructions with variety of affections of fear or hope of Love or hatred of joy or sorrow so variously are they disposed to apprehend what they hear seeing recipitur ad modum recipientis And variety of Gods disposing providences must needs also have some such effect While one is rich and another is poor one hath crosses of divers sorts and another hath prosperity one is full and another is hungry one is observed admired and honoured and another is taken little notice of or is vilified and despised One hath many friends and another many enemies One hath friends that are kind and constant and the other such as are unkind and mutable One is preferred by Rulers and the other is ruined or oppressed All these will occasion variety of apprehensions As it was with the Lady who coming in very cold in a frosty day pitied the naked beggars at the door but when she was well warmed chid them away We all find that our apprehensions are very apt to vary in sickness from what they were in health and in poverty from what they were in plenty and when we are angred displeased or abused from what they were when we were pleased Yea when we have but read a lively book or heard a lively Sermon from what they were before our affections were so excited Also variety of Temptations may occasion great variety of apprehensions When one mans temptations are all alluring to lust or gaming or stage-playes or Romances or drunkenness or gluttony or pastime and anothers temptations are all to melancholy and inordinate at sterities and despair When one man is tempted to errours of one kind and another to the contrary Even he that overcometh in the main yet seldome so far conquereth as to receive no misimpression upon his mind Moreover variety of Callings studies and employments occasioneth variety of apprehensions A mans mind is much wrought upon by the business and objects which he is daily conversant about And therefore we find that usually the Courtier the Souldier the Sea-man the Citizen and the Country-man much differ in their apprehensions And usually though not every individual yet as to the most part all men are wisest in their own professions Lawyers are wisest in matters of Law and Divines in matters of Divinity Opportunities of study and instruction make exceeding great differences in the world The Lawyer and Physician perhaps may on the by have bestowed a few years time in Divinity in the midst of other interrupting studies When the Divine hath studied almost all his life and drawn out his meditations in one uninterrupted thred And so we discern that Lawyers and Physicians have oft different apprehensions of matters of doctrine worship and discipline from those of the best Divines And diversity of Interests maketh no small difference of apprehensions And those that are advantaged by their helps and studies may be disadvantaged by their interests And therefore we say the Magistrate and the subject the Lawyer and the Divine the Prelate and the Presbyter the Papist and the Protestant both Princes Prelates and People so strangely differ in their thoughts that one seemeth certain of that which another seemeth certain to be false and one ventureth his salvation on that which another ventureth his salvation against Interest worketh secretly and too much with the best but openly and predominantly with the worst And then the interest and opinion of the several Kingdomes Churches Pastors parties or Sects which men are related to or are engaged with doth strongly tend to different apprehensions in all matters which those interests are concerned in And
forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sin alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost ☞ Luk. 9. 54 55. Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of for the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them I conclude as I began that the consciousness of our own ordinary and lamentable infirmities and the greatness of the Churches sufferings thereby in all fore-going ages and in this will condemn us of impudent self-ignorance if Ministers be not compassionate and tender towards the weaknesses of the people who cannot be expected to equal them in knowledg Alas Brethren what are we even after so many years study preparation that we should be supercilious and cruel to the infirm what difficulties puzzle us what a loss are we at in our ordinary studies How weakly do we preach and pray and write How easily do we see this in one another as our mutual censures and severities shew Who troubled Paul and the first Churches but erroneous Teachers Who prated malitiously against Iohn and cast out the brethren but a Diotrephes Who brought in the errours of the Millenaries the corporeity of Angels the errours of the Arrians Eunomians Nestorians Eutychians Macedonians and almost all the rable ine Epiphanius Augustine and Philastrius but Bishops or Presbyters Who have caused and kept open the wounds of the Churches of the East and West so long Who introduced all the errours about praying for to the dead c. that are in most of the Liturgies of the Churches in East and West And all the errours that are found in so many Councils and Confessions of Churches and in so many Volumes of Controversie as are extant Who set up the Roman Usurpation and Tyranny Who set up the Papal power above Princes and determined in the Laterane Council for their power to depose them and alienate their dominions Who set up Usurpers and raised wars against Emperors and Kings upon these grounds Who brought in Transubstantiation with the rest of the Roman absurdities Who have been the Masters of the bloody Inquisitions And who hindereth the preaching of the pure doctrine of the Gospel in all the Romanists dominions Is it not an erroneous Clergy You 'l say Those are Papists and so are not we Ans. No God forbid we should But they are a mistaken Clergy which sheweth us that the Clergy are as liable to be dividers and troublers of the Church as the Laity are and have done much more If any hence would infer that the Pastors must be vilified or deprived of their just liberties and power I would more largely tell such a one that it is also the Clergy that have opposed all these Heresies and sins and that have maintained obedience to Princes and that have preserved the Scriptures and the Christian saith and that have been the salt and lights of the world without whom Christianity never long continued in any nation And that have been the chief instruments of bringing all the souls to Heaven that have passed thither from the militant Church But I have done this in two sheets for the Ministery long ago So that our faults consist with the honour of our function and of our necessary labours and with the praise of the more blameless And even so though the peoples weakness and inclinableness to unwarrantable separations and schisms be blameworthy as a fruit of their infirmity and injudiciousness Yet must we remember that they are the members of Christ and we must â—ot deny his interest in them nor judge or use them hardlier than Christ himself hath done or alloweth us to do But study his Love and tenderness and forbearance that we may follow him in serving him and not follow our uncharitable passions and call it a serving of him who liketh no such hurtful service He that loveth Christ in none of his Infants or weaker members but in the strong and more prudent sort alone doth love him in so few that he may question whether he loveth him indeed at all And whether ever he shall hear In as much as ye did it to the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me April 14. 1668. The way of Division by Violence I. Depart from the Apostolical primitive simplicity and make things un-necessary seem necessary in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Conversation II. Endure no man that is not of your mind and way But force all tâ— concord upoâ— these terms of yours what ever it cost III. â—rand all Dâ—â— â—ters with the 〈…〉 maticks â—â—ereticks or â—â—ditious Reâ—els that the◠〈◊〉 become â—teful to high â—nd low IV. When this â—ath greatly â—ncreased their â—isaffection to â—ou accusâ—â—heir Religioâ— of all the expressions of that disaffection to make iâ— odious also V. Take thosâ— for your enemies that arâ— their friends â— those for your friends which are their enemies And cherish those be thâ—y never so bad that will be against them and help you to rooâ— them out But remember that for all this you must come to judgement And read these following words of Mr. R Hookers which he useth of some part of the History which out of Sulpitius I before mentioned Eccles. Pâ—l Epist. Dedic The way of Peace by Love and Humility I. Adhere to the ancient simple Christianity and make nothing necessary to your Concord and Communion which is not necessary II. Love your neighbors as your selves Receive those that Christ receiveth and that hold the necessaries of Communion be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independants Anabaptists Arminians Calvinists c. so they be not proved Heretical or wicked III. Speak evil of no man and especiaâ—ly of Dignities Ruâ—lers Revile not when you are reviled speak moâ—â— of the good that is in Dislenters and do them all the Good you can IV. If any wrong you be the more watchful over your passions opinions and tongues lest Passion carry you into extreams Love your enemies â—less them that curse you do good to themâ—hat â—hat hate you and â—ray for them that despâ—ghtfully use you and persecute you And do noâ— evil â—hat good may come by it V. Impartially judg of men by Gods inâ—erest in them and â—ot your own or your parties Reprove the wayes of Love-killers and Backbiters and let not the fear of their Wrath or Censures carry you into a compliance with them or cause you by silence to encourage them But rejoyce if you should be Martyrs for Love and Peace For Blessed are the â—eek for they shall inherit the earth Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven The way of Division by Separation I. Depart from the Apostolical Primitive simplicity on pretence