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
it He resisteth Light as an Angel of Light and his Ministers hinder Righteousness as pretended Ministers of Righteousness And he will be a zealous Reformer when he would hinder Reformation And this is the mark of Satans way of Reformation He doth it by by dividing the Churches of Christ and teaching Christians to avoid each other And to that end he zealously aggravateth the faults of every party to the rest that they may have odious thoughts of one another and Christian Love may be turned into aversation As in the Plague time every one is afraid of the breath and company of his neighbour and they that were wont to assemble and converse with peace and pleasure do timerously shun the presence of each other because they know that it is an infectious time and they are uncertain who is free even so doth Satan break the societies and converse of Christians by making them believe that every party hath some dangerous infection which as they love their souls they must avoid And he destroyeth your Love to one another by pretending Love to your selves O how careful will he be for your souls when the Devil would undo you he will do it as your Saviour And when his meaning is to save you from Heaven and from Christ and from his saving grace and from Union and Communion with his Church and from the impartial Love of one another he takes on him that he is saving you only from sin and from Church-corruptions Or rather that it is Christ and not he that giveth you counsel And he can do much in imitating Christ in the manner of his suggestions to make you believe that it is Christ indeed Perhaps his counsel shall come in in the midst of a fervent prayer or presently after it to make you believe that it is an undoubted answer of your prayers And oft times his impulses are vehement and much affecting to make you think that it is something above nature And the pioâ—s pretence will much perswade you to think that sure this can never come from an evil spirit But if you had well studied 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. Gal. 1. 8. Luke 9. 55. 1 Ioh. 4. 1 2. 2 Thes. 2. 2. you might be wiser and be saved from this deceit I will not recite the words because I would have you turn to them and seriously study them And in this dividing work the Devil doth as make-bates do who first goes to one man and tell him a tale what such a one said against him and what a dangerous person he is and then go to the other and say as much of the first to him So the Devil saith to the Presbyterian O take heed of the Independents and to the Independents Take heed of these Presbyterians To the Anabaptist he suggesteth Avoid these Protestants Take heed of them for they Baptize infants And to the Protestants he saith Take heed of these Anabaptists for they are against baptizing any till they come to full age To one he saith Away from that Church or think not those persons to be religious for they pray by the book And to the other he saith Take heed of those people as whimsical and proud and brainsick fanaticks for they pray without-book by the Spirit To one sort he saith Take heed of those people for they wear a Surplice or Kneel at the Sacrament or answer the Priests in the Responses of the Common-prayer To the other he saith Take heed of these disobedient stubborn selfconceited people that will sit at the Sacrament and will not conform to the orders of the Church I am not now minding whose opinion is right or wrong among all these parties or any like them But how charitable to your souls the Devil is when he would destroy your charity and your souls and how piously and kindly he would have you take heed when he would lead you to perdition and how great a Reformer he will be if he may but do it by Dividing It may be the young unexperienced Schismatick of what sect soever will distast these words and think I speak like an adversary to Reformation And so the Devil would make him think of all other Christians as well as of me except his party But if one should give such counsel for the preservation of his own health and bodily comfort as the Dividing spirit giveth him for the Church and for his soul he would quickly understand it according to my present sense If one should come in kindness to him and bid him O take heed of that mouth and belly for it getteth nothing but devoureth all that the hands do get by labour Cut off that hand for it hath a crooked finger Cut off that gouty foot that it may not trouble the whole body Rip up those guts which have such filthy excrements he would not swell against me if I advised him to suspect such kindness Fifthly Remember also that the Unity of Christians is their peace and ease as well as their strength and safety Psal. 133. 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity As the amity and converse with friends is pleasant and the concord of families is their quietness and ease so is it as to the amity and concord which is the bond of Church society And the divisions and discord of Christians is their mutual pain and trouble Do you not feel your minds disturbed by it Do you not see the Church discomposed by it The itch of contention doth ordinarily make it pleasant for the time to every Sect to scratch by zealous wranglings and disputes for their several opinions till the blood be ready to follow But the smart and scab doth use to convince them of their folly But if they will go more than Skin-deep they may need a Surgeon Children will claw themselves but it is Madmen that will wound themselves The hurtâ— which we get in the Christian warfare by mortifying the flesh or by the persecution of the malignant enemy is tenderly healed by the hand of Christ and usually furthereth our inward peace But if we will hurt and wound and divide our selves what pity or comfort can we expect Sixthly Consider also that the Unity and Concord of Believers is their Honour and their Divisions and discord are their shame And consequently the honour or dishonour of Christ and the Gospel and Religion is much concerned in it Agreement among Christians telleth the world that they have a certainty of the faith which they profess and that it is powerful and not ineffectual and that it is of a healing nature and tendeth to the felicity of the world But Divisions and discords among Christians perswade unbelievers that there is no certainty in their belief or that it is of a vexatious and destructive tendency or at best that all its power is too weak to overcome the malignity which it pretendeth to resist where did you ever see Christians live in undivided
were but to take their tythes and honour and to be reverenced by the people and to preach once or twice a week a sermon which tendeth to their applause they could submit to this much But Paul's exhortation Act. 20. seemeth intollerable preciseness But souls will not be informed or reformed at so cheap a rate Sin hath corrupted them more than so If we will sleep the envious man will not sleep but when we awake we shall find that he hath sowed his tares Sometimes grievous Wolves will enter not sparing the flock and sometimes of our own selves will men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Therefore watch Study hard and meditate on these things and give your selves wholly to them that your profiting may be known to all that you may be able to stop the mouths of gainsayers and to edifie and stablish all the flock that they be not as children tossed to and fro and carried up and down by every wind of doctrine by the câ—nning slight and subtilty of men by which they lie in wait to deceive For to this end did Christ give offices and gifts Study therefore to shew your selves workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing methodizing opening and so defending the word of truth Act. 20. 20 28 29 30. Eph. 3. 12 14. 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. 2 Tim. 2. â— 15. DIRECT XVII Be not strange to the poor ones of your flock but impartial to all and the servants of all mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate Rom. 12. 16. ALL souls are equally precious unto Christ whether rich or poor O set the strange example of Christs condescension still before your eyes Was it the high or the low that were his familiars Did he live in fulness and ride in poâ—p and associate only with the rich and great O see him washing his disciples feet And hear him teaching them by that example what they ought to do for one another He came not to be ministred unto but to minister How sharply did he rebuke his disciples when they strove who should be greatest And setting a little child before them hath taught us what must be our ambition And that he that will be the greatest must be the servant of all Our greatness lieth in the greatest of our humility and usefulness Math. 18. 1 2 3 4. 23. 11. Luk. 22. 24 25 26. Math. 20. 28. It is lawful and meet that men in power should be honoured by us and also that the people be taught to honour them and that you keep such interest in them as is needful to the publick good and therfore all converse with them is not unlawfull But when Ministers only attend on the rich and are strange and seldome among the poor it makes them accounted carnal worldly men and is unsuitable to their Lords example and to the work of their calling The poor are far more numerous than the rich and therefore our work is more among them And death will quickly level all And when we have all done we shall find that the poor receive the glad fidings of the Gospel and the poor of the world may be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdome which God hath prepared for them that love him Mat. 11. 5. Iam. 2. 5 6. And that the rich do hardly enter into the Kingdome of heaven Iam. 2. 6 7. But ye have despised the poor Do not the rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgement seats It is the poor that must be the chief crown and comfort of your labours Therefore be not strangers to them if you would not have them account you lordly worldly and self-seeking men If you will leave them to themselves and think your selves too good to be their companions or to come into their smoaky Cottages and then think that a lordly command or rebuke should serve the turn to keep them from errour and schism and disorder you may find your errour to the Churches cost when it is too late And it will be but a pitiful excuse for your pride or laziness to cry out of seducers for creeping into such houses which you disdained to come into your selves what do you by avoiding them but invite any others thither that will come and leave them as it were swept and garnished for such evil spirits DIRECT XVIII Spend and be spent for your peoples good and do all the good that possibly you can for their bodies as well as for their souls and think nothing that you have too dear to win them that they may see that you are truly Fathers to them and that their well-fare is your chiefest care and business ALl men love themselvs and naturally and necessarily love those that they know do greatly love them And all men are sensible of their bodily concernments and consequently of that good that is done to their bodies He that setteth himself to relieve the poor and to put on others to relieve them to visit the sick and help those that are in trouble and to comfort the afflicted to do what good he can to all and hurt to none shall find that their ears will be open to his doctrine and that they will follow him towards heaven with much less resistance than otherwise he must expect Few such Ministers do ever want success of their labours And the covetoâ—s close handed self-seeking and cruel are alwayes hated And let his mony perish with him who thinketh it better than the souls of men and the work of God DIRECT XIX Keep up the Reverence of the ancient and experienced sort of Christians and teach the younger what honour they owe to those that are their elders in age and grace For whilest the elder who are usually sober and peacaable are duly reverenced the heat of rash and giddy youth will be kept in order USually where the elder bear the sway the Church hath peace Though I know some deceive is grow worse and worse And it is where the young and rash are become the predominant most esteemed party that schism and disorders do prevail And though some tell the people what honour they owe their Elders by office yet few acquaint them what honour youths owe both to the Elder in age and in experience and grace It will therefore be much of the prudence of the Pastors to keep up the honour of the Elders of the people and to preserve in the younger a due esteem and reverence towards them DIRECT XX. The Pastors who will preserve the Churches Peace must neither neglect to preserve their interest in the Religious persons of their charge nor yet be so tender of it as to depart from sober principles or wayes to please them nor to make them their rulers nor follow them into any exorbitancies to avoid their censures BOth these extreams will tend to confusion First They that care not at all what men think of them do but despise their advantages to do
of Christ. Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not nor him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him To him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died For the kingdome of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another He that doubteth is damned if he eat Rom. 15. 1 2 3. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus thaâ— ye 〈◊〉 with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ received us to the glory of God Phil. 3. 15 16. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even thâ—s unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things Eph. 4. 2 3. With all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 15. Speaking the truth in love 16. Edifying in love Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind lâ—t each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus that made himself of no reputation 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings Iam. 3. 17. The wisdome from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy c. 1 Thes. 2. 5 6 7. Neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness Nor of men sought we glory neither of you nor yet of others when we might have been burthensome or used authority as the Apostles of Christ But we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children So being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness 2 Cor. 10. 1. I Paul beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ Gal. 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Col. 3. 12 13. Put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another c. 1 Tim. 6. 11. Follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness Tit. 3. 2. To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men 1 Pet. 3. 4. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of God is of great price Lev. 19. 18. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Rom. 12. 9 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another Rom. 13. 10. Owe nothing to any man but Love Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Love is the fulfilling of the Law Ioh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another Ioh. 13. 34. 15. 12 17. This is my commandement that ye love one another As I have loved you A new commandement Gal. 5. 14. The Law is fulfilled in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 1 Thes. 4. 9. Ye are taught of God to love one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. Be all of one mind having compassion one on another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous Not rendring evil for evil 〈◊〉 railing for raâ—ling but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing Pet. 2. 23. Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not Math. 5. 44 45. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven For if ye love them that love you what reward have you do not even the publicans the same And if ye salute your brethren only what do you more than others do not even the publicans the same Math. 6. 14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses Math. 5. 39 40 41. I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shal smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other allso And if any man will sue thee at Law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also 1 Thes. 5. 12 13 14. We beseech you brethren to know them which LABOVR AMONG YOV and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for THEIR WORK SAKE and be at peace among your selves Now we exhort you brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient toward all men se â—hat none render evil for evil to any man but ver follow that which is good both among your selves and to all men 1 Cor. 9. 19. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gain them that are under the Law To them that are without law as without law being not without law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some and this I do for the Gospels sake 1 Cor. 8. 1. Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth if any man think he knoweth