the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness When folk will follow their own imaginations and will not walk in the light of the word of God the Lord fills them with drunkenness and leaves them to dash upon one another and destroy one another like drunken men fighting in the dark But neither words nor rods will be rightly understood or laid to heart till the Spirit be poured from on high If the Lord would pour out his Spirit we would not only be brought to see our sins but to be ashamed of them to take shame and confusion of face to our selves we would sorrow and mourn and lament after the Lord we would turn from our sins to the Lord and joyn our selves to the Lord and we would joyn together in seeking the Lord in his Ordinances then the Wilderness would be a fruitful field the dead and scattered bones would be joyned together and live then Judah and Israel would be one stick in the hand of the Lord Ezek. 37. Then the Children of Israel and Judah would come together going and weeping seeking the Lord their God asking the way to Sion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyn our selves unto the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Jer. 50.4 5. When the Spirit is poured out from on high upon his people then the Lord turns to them a pure Language that they may call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one consent then they turn humble Suplicants and pour out their hearts in groans and sighs that cannot be uttered then Pride and Haughtiness is taken away and people become poor in Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh but trust in the Lord and rejoyce in the Lord Jesus Zeph. 3.9 10 11 12. Rom. 8.26 27. Phil. 3.3 Till the Lord come till he return with mercy and loving-kindness and turn us again and cause his face to shine and see our ways and heal us we will but wax worse and worse there is no remedy for us but in his Sovereign Gracc and those mercies that have been of old and endure for ever Let us look to him who is exalted to give Repentance to Israel and Remission of sins that he would turn us that we may be turned and heal our backslidings and heal our breaches that he may utter that quickning word Ezek. 37.9 Come from the four winds O breath and breath upon these slain that they may live O Lord come and overcome our evil with thy goodness for who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passes by the transgression of the Remnant of thy heritage and retains not anger for ever because thou delights in mercy who will turn again and will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins in the depth of the Sea thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn to our Fathers from the days of old Micha 7.18 19 20. We have not remembred our Covenant but have spoken words falsly in making a Covenant Nevertheless O Lord remember thy Covenant and establish to us an everlasting Covenant that we may remember our ways and be ashamed Establish thy Covenant with us that we may know that thou art the Lord that we may remember and be confounded and never open our mouth any more because of our shame when thou art pacified toward us for all that we have done O Lord Righteousness belongs to thee but unto us confusion of faces as it is this day to all of us to our Kings Princes Fathers Ministers people of all ranks belongs Confusion but to the Lord our God belongs mercies and forgiveness tho' we have sinned against him Lord give us Repentance and turn us and we shall be turned Let thy power be great according as thou hast spoken saying The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression Lord humble our uncircumcised hearts that we may take with our sins and accept of the punishment of them that we may remember them with shame and sorrow but do not thou remember against us former iniquities but according to thy mercy remember us for thy goodness sake O Lord remember for us thy Covenant and repent according to the multitude of thy mercies and for thy names-sake pardon our iniquities for they are many and great And when Wisdom and Council and Strength when Light and Life is gone and when Unity is gone when there is none to help and none of the Sons of Zion to take her by the hand in her distress when there is none to make up the breach no Intercessor let thine own arm bring salvation When all earthly Glory is stained blasted and gone appear in thine own Glory in the glory of thy wisdom power and Sovereign grace in building Sion build the house and bear the glory that when thou hast done the work by thy Spirit grace grace may be glorified and that this may be written for the Generations to come that the people which shall be created may praise the Lord. We do not present our Supplications before thee for our righteousness for we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousness as filthy rags but for thy great mercy O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thy own sake O our God! for this people are called by thy Name O Lord the hope of Israel the Savior thereof in the time of trouble though our iniquities testifie against us do for thy name sake if thou mark our iniquity we cannot stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou may be feared there is mercy with thee and plenteous redemption and thou redeemest Israel from all his iniquities and troubles O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low help us O God of our Salvation for the Glory of thy name and deliver and purge away our sins for thy name sake save this people bless thy Inheritance feed them also and lift them up for ever Save us O Lord our God and gather us to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. Unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and and ever Amen FINIS
sins beyond the bounds of Truth and Soberness But they must also magnifie and multiply them above the multitude of the great Mercies of God Who can limit the Sovereign grace of God who hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy The example of Manasseh's Repentance might have restrained them from this bold encroaching upon the Sovereignty of Free Grace 12. It 's a terrible stretch that they say they have shewed their enmities against all Righteousness this is a part of the Description of Elimas the Sorcerer Acts 13.10 They cannot but be exceedingly blinded with prejudice against the Magistrate who sees not some Righteousness in the exercise of their Government 13. If Private Persons may take upon them because of the sins of their Superiours to disown their Authority and take Power to themselves and execute Judgment upon these who are their Parents Masters Magistrates this would overturn the Foundations of all Humane Society and fill the World with Confusion Though Saul was an ungodly man and Persecuted David without a cause and drove him out of the Land from the Ordinances and exposed him to the hazard of serving other gods Though he unjustly and very summarily slew eighty five Priests of the Lord and contrary to the manner of the Kingdom which obliged him to maintain Religion and Righteousness did put the Foundations of the Earth out of course yet David did not think himself obliged to disown Saul to be King nor did he think himself obliged to kill Saul when he had Power and Opportunity to do it he will not suffer his Men to do it 1 Sam. 24.6 7. 1 Sam. 26.8 9. He did not think that his killing of Saul was the way to free the Land from Guiltiness yea his heart smote him for cutting off the lap of his Garment He judged Abner worthy of Death because he had not been careful to preserve Saul's Life And though David was appointed of God to be a blessed Instrument of Reformation and Saul stood in his way yet he will not destroy him but waits Gods leisure There were many ill Kings in Judah but the Lord never directs private Persons to disown them and dethrone and kill them Ahaz is frequently called by the Lord King Ahaz notwithstanding of all the ill he had done and was doing Daniel calls Darius King after the Blasphemous Decree which he had Signed Christ directs to give Tribute to Caesar and gives it himself And Paul owns Nero's Judgment-seat and Appeals to Caesar and what Monsters Tiberius and Nero were is known to all who know the Histories of the Roman Emperours If this Device of nullifying the Authority of Rulers because of their faults real or alledged were put in practice it would quickly turn the World upside-down For though Magistrates as Gods Vicegerents be singularly obliged to represent the Holiness and Righteousness of God in the exercise of their Government yet if we consider that they have the same Corruption by nature which others have and that they have greater temptations than others and that there are often with them men who for their own ends will tempt them to sins which they would never have thought upon As for Example That abominable Decree which Daniel's Enemies cheatingly obtruded upon Darius as a great Complement and when they have gotten them to Enact any thing that is not right they will alledge they are in point of Honour bound to maintain their own deed And seeing there are many Flatterers who will praise all that great Persons do as if it were right And seeing faithful Counsellors who singly design the Glory of God and the true Happiness and Interest of Rulers are very rare Dum non vult alter timet alter dicere verum Regibus And considering how many provocations Rulers use to get by bitter invectives and scurrillous Pamphlets which tend to render them contemptible and by slighting and misconstruing their favours and by affronting of their Authority These things being considered I mean their inward Corruption and allurements to sin upon the one hand and irritating Provocations upon the other hand it 's like enough that they who will nullifie their Authority because of their faults will not want pretences and they who are of this humour of Deposing Rulers if they find not faults enough they will make where they want or they will magnifie their faults and make them worse than they are If Men of this disposition made Insurrection against Moses and alledged upon him who was the meekest man upon Earth and whom God had extraordinarily raised up That he lifted up himself above the Congregation of the Lord and that he had brought them out of a Land flowing with Milk and Honey to kill them in the Wilderness and made himself altogether a Prince over them and had not brought them unto a Land flowing with Milk and Honey nor given them Inheritance of Fields and Vineyards And that he would put out or bore out their Eyes If they found or made so many pretences against Moses who was so blameless O! how many faults would they find in the Persons and Government of the generality of Rulers through the World in these last times in which Iniquity does so much abound in Persons of all ranks Preach But if Kings and Rulers do not what they ought to do but do the contrary then the Subjects are free from any Oath of Allegiance and from any Covenant made to preserve their Persons and Authority In the National Covenant we swear to defend the Kings Person and Authority with our Goods Bodies and Lives in the defence of Christ his Evangel Liberties of the Countrey Ministration of Justice and Punishment of Iniquity against all Enemies within this Realm and without as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful defender to us in the day of our Death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the Solemn League and Covenant we swear to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the Preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms And thus our Promise to preserve and defend his Person and Authority is restricted and when he does not what is his part we are not bound to own or defend him and his Authority As when two agrees that the one shall pay so much money upon the others delivering so much Corn or Meal if the Victual be not delivered by the one the other is under no Obligation to pay the Money Min. That comparison may beguile simple People but it 's strange that any Preacher should be deceived with it for this is clear that there is no other ground upon which the one is obliged to pay the Money but the delivering of the Victual by the other according to their agreement But all Inferiours Servants Children Subjects are bound by the Law of God and Nations to honour their Superiours Masters Parents Magistrates although their Superiours be undutiful as appears from 1 Pet. 2.18 19
Galatians It 's to this fellowship with Christ that God calls us in the Gospel and then give all diligence to make your calling and election sure It 's sad to see several people who will talk great things of the interests of Christ in the Land so ignorant of Christ and of union with him and so unconcerned as to their own interest in Christ that though they have no assurance of it and cannot give one mark of interest in Christ yet they are not sensible of this nor regrating it nor earnestly seeking in publick or private to know him to be in him to know if they be in him but they are taken up with other things Christ is not in their mind heart and mouth they are not speering after him in their private converse as the Spouse doth in the Song Saw ye him whom my soul loveth They are more in seeking to know some useless barren notion some jangling debate than they are in seeking to know Christ and him crucified more taken up in apprehending some unedifying empty conceit than in apprehending Christ or seeking to be apprehended by him Who can think that they are truly careful about Christs interests in the Land who are careless about their own interest in Christ and give no diligence to make sure their calling If folk were taken up about the one thing necessary it would take them off their vain janglings about these things which tend neither to edification nor peace They who are striving to enter in at the strait gate and taking the kingdom of heaven by violence and working out the work of their salvation with fear and trembling and giving diligence to make their calling and election sure will not find leisure to dote about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings and evil surmisings That weighty question What shall I do to be saved would take folk off from unedifying questions and doubtful disputations 2. Be much in the exercise of Faith and Repentance ye must live and walk by Faith and be daily searching out your sins looking into the sink of original corruption that loathsome stinking corrupt body of Death that is ever present with you to hinder you from good and incline you to evil and to the innumerable swarms of actual sins which compass you about and ye must be daily confessing your sins judging your self lamenting after the Lord lying at the Fountain opened to the house of David and Inhabitants of Jerusalem and coming through the great High Priest Jesus the Son of God to the Throne of Grace to obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in the time of need These exercises would hold you doing and keep you from medling as a busie-body in things too high for you and that do not belong to you and are not within the compass of your calling if ye were thus exercised ye would walk humbly with God and humbly with men ye would be so far from bidding others stand by themselves as if ye were holier than they that in holiness of mind ye would esteem others better than your selves and so far from casting at fellowship with the Lords people in publick Ordinances or private worship that ye would rather judge your self unworthy of their fellowship and if ye could do it would rather separate from your self than from others ye would think it a great mercy and priviledge that the like of you had any access to wait at the posts of the Lords doors and any place in his Courts beware of those who undervalue the preaching of Faith and Repentance for this was the Doctrine of the Prophets of John the Baptist who came preaching the Doctrine of Repentance and directing his hearers to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World Christ himself preached that men should repent and believe the Gospel and the Apostle Paul taught Repentance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Repentance and Faith are as necessary for the beginning and progress of our motion towards Heaven as our two legs are necessary for walking and the exercise of Faith and Repentance cease not till all tears be wiped away and Faith be turned into sight to cut off the exercise of Faith and Repentance is to cut off the legs of a man who is fleeing from sin and wrath to the true City of Refuge Ye may be sure that those Teachers who make it their business to discover to you your sins and diseases your poverty nakedness filthiness and direct you to Christ as the Saviour of sinners as the Physitian of souls as full of grace and truth who hath fine white Raiment fine Gold who is a fountain opened who teach you to loath your selves and to love Christ to have no confidence in the flesh but to rejoyce in the Lord Jesus who teach you that you are nothing and he is all that you may not glory in your selves but in the Lord you may be assured that they preach the same that Christ and his Apostles preached and if you were rightly sensible of your own sins and humbled for them then the consideration of the sins of others would not puff you up but humble you further Dan. 9.5 6 7 8. Beware of the way of those who talk of the sins of others as if they were accusers leading a process against others and commending themselves by condemning others for that looks like the strain of the Pharisee in the 18. of Luke The sins of our Rulers Ministers and of persons of all ranks should make us ashamed Ezr. 9.6 3. Let the Glory of God and the enjoying of God be your chief end and take his word which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament for the only Rule to direct you how to glorifie and enjoy him deny your self beware of self-seeking self-pleasing of pleasing your own humors or the humors of others Let that be your great design to please God to be accepted of him if you can please others to their edification become all things to all for gaining of them but beware ye displease not God to please any make no mans Testimony though it were given immediately before his death the rule of your Faith or Practice so long as men are here on earth they know but in part and even good men may err in their judgment and practice in several things some are so easily misled that if a Paper come to their hand that pleases them in some opinion that they are addicted to they take all the rest of it for unquestionable truth without examination or if a Preacher be of their party they implicitely follow him in any thing he says or does beware of listning to Impulses and Revelations which ye find born in upon you even though ye be in a good frame of Spirit when they are cast in for Satan can turn himself into an Angel of light and wait such occasions of suggesting errors and he can delude people by
A REVIEW AND EXAMINATION OF A BOOK bearing the Title of the HISTORY OF THE Indulgence Wherein the lawfulness of the acceptance of the peaceable exercise of the Ministry granted by the Acts of the Magistrates Indulgence is demonstrated contrary Objections answered and the Vindication of such as withdraw from hearing Indulged Ministers is confuted To which is added a Survey of the mischievous absurdities of the late Bond and Sanquhair Declaration Rom. 14.19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another Prov. 24.21 My son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change c. LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks Market 1681. A Review and Examination of a Book bearing the Title of the History of the Indulgence c. AMongst the many sad tokens and prodigious Prognosticks of Gods anger against the Church of Scotland our multiplied Divisions are none of the least The righteous and holy God being deeply provoked hath armed every man against his brother so that Manasseh is against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and they both together against Judah And the Lord hath hereby in the open view of the Atheistical and prophane world poured contempt upon the remnant of his people that desire to cleave to his way and truth and made them despicable as a broken vessel that cannot be made whole again And this is the more afflicting that these contentions abound in a time wherein the Protestant Religion is visibly in so great danger from Popery and Popish Plots It therefore concerns all them who are any thing affected with the wrath and anger of a jealous and provoked God to lye in the dust to search out their own sins and provocations and sincerely bewail them before the Lord. And although the publick defections and provocations ought not to be slighted but much sorrowed for yet it is to be feared that personal humiliation repentance and reformation hath been little minded by many pretending to the abhorrence of publick sins O that every one of us might find grace seriously to enquire what we have done and that at such a time when all souls serious exercise of Religion is like to evanish into notions and debates every one of us would lay to heart the evil of his way both as to accession unto publick provocations and as to personal sins It is now high time when the Lord is so visibly taking vengeance for our inventions It hath been the sad observation of divers that every new tryal hath been the occasion of a new difference if not division The Lord partly in his holy displeasure withdrawing light and chastising his people for their sins and partly trying and exercising of them in that great duty of mutual forbearance so little made conscience of and partly discovering infirmities much dross in his own by the contests so carnally managed This we are now to instance in the Indulgence which although it was first looked on as a favour and mercy from God and the Ministers that imbraced it were advised thereto by the generality of outed Ministers a great part whereof were then at Edenborough yet now the contention about it is come to such a height that the acceptance is cried down as highly sinful and the hearing of Indulged Ministers Preached and written against as utterly unlawful The Indulged Ministers have generally hitherto for ought I know with much Christian meekness and patience endured reproach finding that what Letters were spread abroad against them did contain nothing but high Magisterial dictates without any shew of arguments as also they were resolved by their silence and forbearance to evidence their great desire to prevent contentions but now lest their silence should be looked on as faintness arising from the conviction of the evil of their Cause which it seems made the Author of one of these Letters to write that they never had the heart to dare to speak or themselves I shall say something in their behalf I must confess I am astonished to read these Papers that are going up and down amongst the people wherein with high and bitter words which I love not to repeat the Indulged Ministers are represented as having acknowledged and homologate a formal Ecclesiastick Supremacy assumed by the Magistrate and having subjected their Ministry in a direct line of subordination unto his cognizance as inferiour Civil Courts are unto the superiour yea not only so but these grave and worthy Ministers who thought it their duty to notice and bring to an account some few Probationers that were visibly sowing sedition and kindling a flame are represented as enamoured with that Idol of Jealousie meaning the Indulgence and as acted by the spirit of Antichrist And wherefore Because they took upon them to question the carriage of a few hardy and extravagant young men the tendency of whose way will ere long make it to appear what a spirit they were acted by But before I go further I must here protest that the personal reproaches cast upon those honest Ministers are not so much the motive that prevails with me to put Pen to Paper upon this Subject as respect unto the Truth and publick Interest of the Church the unity and order whereof seems to be wholly shaken and going to ruine by the courses driven on by some and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ Preached by them who I am sure have been armed by God in the Ministry with a blessing upon the souls of many though it is like these that now seek to decry the Indulged Ministers will not believe that ever their Ministry was blessed and countenanced of God and how can they seeing they look not upon them as the Ambassadors of Christ But blessed be God who hath looked upon them as his Ambassadors and hath not left their Ministry without the seal of a sensible blessing upon many But that I may inform honest well-meaning people who are jumbled and confounded with questions about the acceptance of the Indulgence and about hearing of Indulged Ministers I shall endeavour to lay the matter open in a plain conference The persons conferring shall be a Minister not Indulged but clear for hearing Indulged Ministers an ingenious Farmer who scruples to hear Indulged Ministers and a Preacher who is against the hearing of Indulged Ministers Farmer Sir it is now near Sun-setting I would be much obliged to you if you would be pleased to lodg at my house this night Minister I would be nearer the Church ere I take up my lodging for I use to make my Sabbath-days journeys as short as I can Farm You will be nighted ere you can come where you can have any tollerable lodging and you may with ease reach the Church to morrow before Sermon-time Min. Well I am content to stay with you Farm I assure you of welcom When you have taken some refreshment I
57. taxeth the Socinians for confounding Christs Kingly Office with his Priestly and in his Annotations subjoyned to his last Edition of that System he says As these two Offices must not be divided or drawn assunder or separate so they should not be confounded for Christs Priestly Intercession in Heaven is only for the Elect but his Royal Power is exercised as in calling and protecting the Elect so also in restraining compescing and punishing the enemies of his Church and in that same 10th Chap. Thes 55. Annot. A. In which respect the blood of the New Covenant is said to cry for better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 for the blood of Abel requireth vengeneance but the blood of Christ seeks and obtains Grace and Peace And the excellent Doctor Owen in his Exercitations prefixed to the Continuation of the Exposition on the 3 4 5. Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews Exercitat 8. pag. 117. saith For neither did Christ as King expiate and purge our sins which could be done only by a bloody Sacrifice nor doth he as Priest subdue his enemies and ours which is the work and whereunto the power of a King is required in brief as a Priest he interposeth with God for us as a King he acts from God towards us Pag. 119. For the Kingly power of Christ is intended unto his enemies the stubbornest of them and those who are finally so but Christ is a Priest offered and intended only for the Elect. Pag. 122. speaking of the Offices of a King and Priest considered absolutely he says That the Office of a King is founded in nature the Office of a Priest in Grace the one belongs to men as Creatures capable of Political Society the other with respect unto the supernatural end only Pag. 123. For that the Office of Priesthood is that faculty and power whereby some persons do Officiate with God in the name and on the behalf of others by offering Sacrifices all men in general are agreed And thereon it is consented also that it is in it's entire nature distinct from the Kingly Power and Office Pag. 124. For every Priest as we have shewed acts in the name and on the hehalf of men with God but a King in the name and on the behalf of God with and towards men as to the ends of that rule which God hath ordained The Priest represents men to God pleading their cause the King represents God to men acting his Power for all the acts of the Priestly Office belongs to oblation and intercession and these effects consists either in 1. Averruncatione mali or procuratione boni these they affect morally only by procuring and obtaining of them The Acts of the Kingly Office are Legislation destruction of enemies and the like Pag. 129. The special nature of his Sacerdotal Intercession which consists in the moral efficacy of his Mediation in procuring Mercy and Grace And in his Exposition on the 5th Chap. v. 1 2. where the Priestly Office is described For every High-Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God for men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes vice or loco in the stead Joh. 10.11 15. Chap. 13.38 Sometimes pro only as it denotes the final cause as to do a thing for the good of men 2 Tim. 2.10 And both these senses may have place here for where the first intention is the latter is always included he that doth any thing instead of another doth it always for his good and the High-Priest might be so far said to stand and act in the stead of other men as he appears in their behalf represented their persons and pleaded their cause and confessed their sins Levit. 16.21 But in their behalf and for their good and advantage to perform what on their part is with God to be performed is evidently intended in this place and pag. 130. he expounds the things pertaining to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Expression is eliptical and sacred hut what is intended in it is sufficiently manifest the things which were to be done with God or towards God in his worship to answer the duties and ends of the Office of the Priesthood that is to do the things whereby God might be appeased atoned reconciled pacâ—fied and his anger turned away see Chap. 2.17 and pag. 136. He sheweth from the Text That Compassion is a qualification of an High-Priest for their relief who are sensible of their ignorance and wandrings and therefore are apt to be cast down and discouraged and that it is a qualification required in the Priest and necessary unto him for the aforesaid end So it is said of our Saviour the great High-Priest that he made reconciliation for the sins of the people and Intercession for Transgressors I shall only add one other and that is Thomas Goodwin B. D. in his Treatise entituled The heart of Christ in Heaven to sinners on earth Part. 2. 188. First saith he this Office of High-Priesthood is an Office erected wholly for the shewing of Grace and Mercy the Office of the High-Priesthood is altogether an Office of Grace and I may call it the Pardon-Office set up and erected by God in Heaven and Christ he is appointed the Lord and Minister of it and as his Kingly Office is an Office of Power and Dominion and his Prophetical Office an Office of Knowledge and Wisdom so his Priestly Office is an Office of Grace and Mercy the High-Priests Office did properly deal in nothing else if there had not been a Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies the High-Priest had not been at all appointed to go into it it was mercy reconciliation and atonement for sinners that he was to treat about and so to Officiate for at the Mercy-seat he had otherways no work nor any thing to do when he should come into the most Holy place Now this was but a typical allusion to this Office of Christ in Heaven and therefore the Apostle in the Text when he speaks of this our High Priests being entered into Heaven he makes mention of a Throne of Grace and this is the very next words to my Text Chap. 5.1 2 3. verses in which he gives a full description of an High-Priest and all the properties and requisites that were to be in him Pag. 189. the great and essential qualifications there specified that were to be in an High-Priest are Mercy and Grace It 's said he was ordained for men that is for mens cause and for their good pag. 190. thus you see the ends which he is ordained for are all matter of Grace and Mercy the qualification that was required in an High-Priest was That he should be one that could have Compassion Mercy and Compassion is that which is here made the special and therefore the only mentioned property of the High-Priest as such and the specifical essential qualification that was inwardly and internally to constitute him The Reader will find much more
6. Some things become necessary or the more necessary to be done because of those who urge the forbearance of them out of some erroneous principle or for establishing of some error And thus Mr. Rutherford sheweth in the forecited Treatise That to forbear the cating of Swines-flesh before a Jew who alledges that it is a sin or breach of the Commandment of God to do so to forbear it now when we are fully possessed in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free were to harden the Jew in his Judaism and the way to bring us again under the yoke of the Ceremonial Law Now 1. seeing God hath ordained Magistracy for protection of his servants and people and for protecting them in the exercise of his worship it was expedient and necessary to accept of this Protection when offered and not to refuse it for the acceptance of the effect and product of the exercise of that Authority which is Gods Ordinance was an acknowledgment and owning the Ordinance of God a honouring of those to whom by Divine appointment honour is due And this was a contributing to render the Ordinance of God effectual for that end for which he had instituted and ordained it and upon the contrary the refusing of this relaxation and of the protection of lawful Authority would have been a slighting and despising of the Ordinance of God and a doing of that which tended to render the Ordinance of God ineffectual for that end and use for which God ordained it Now the relaxation of this restraint which had been long upon the publick exercise of their Ministry and the protection of lawful Authority which Mr. H. accepted of was the very exercise of that Authority which is the Ordinance of God 2. Seeing the Magistrate in loosing that restraint which hindred the peaceable exercise of the Ministry did his duty he did somewhat of that which he was obliged to do it was necessary that the Ministers whom they were willing to loose from the restraint formerly laid on and whom they were willing to protect in the exexcise of their Ministry should in their place and station further and promove the Magistrate in any good which he was willing to do as when a Minister is willing to do his duty in preaching and Catechising the people should be willing to hear and be Catechised so when a Magistrate is willing to permit or allow Ministers to preach in his Dominions and to protect them in the exercise of their Ministry it 's the duty of Ministers who have the access to the peaceable exercise of their Ministry under the protection of lawful Authority to accept of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry and to refuse this offer were the way to mar and stifle the good which the Magistrate was willing to do Now when the Magistrate is willing to do any thing which is right and his duty it 's a sin to mar impede and stifle any good that he is willing to do 3. Seeing peace and the protection of lawful Authority and the peaceable exercise of the Ministry under the protection of lawful Authority are great blessings of God and God promises and gives them to his people as great benefits and his people are obliged to pray for them Isa 48.18 Isa 60.15 16 17 18. Isa 11.6 7 8 9. 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Therefore it 's necessary to accept these mercies and benefits when the Lord in his Providence offers and gives them and to refuse them when they are offered were to slight the mercies of God and to refuse what we are bound to seek and to be thankful for when we get it 4. Seeing the fixed setled and peaceable exercise of the Ministry is so necessary as appears from the Lords taking care that Ministers might be setled in Cities and Churches and from the many conveniencies of a setled Ministry which are wanting in an unfixed Ministry for they who may not stay among a people cannot so know their state and case and so cannot apply their Doctrine sutable to their case and cannot make full proof of their Ministry among them in laying the foundation in all the principles of the doctrine of God and then leading the people forward unto greater perfection in knowledge in declaring the whole Counsel of God and they have not access to Catechise and visit c. as those who have the setled and fixed exercise of their Ministry have and then peace and quietness in preaching and hearing the Gospel hath many conveniences people not only know whither they shall go to hear but they may come seasonably without hazard by the way and without fear of disturbance when they are come so that they may more compose themselves for hearing than they can who are in a continual apprehension of a hostile Invasion and often alarmed with hearing or seeing some noise or appearance of armed soldiers These fears and confusions are great Impediments of the sanctification of the Sabbath Now the setled and peaceable exercise of the Ministry which is so many ways expedient and necessary cannot be had but by the Magistrate and therefore to have refused to make any use of the Indulgence had been to refuse the setled and peaceable exercise of the Ministry 5. This acceptance was useful for preventing many evils of sin and calamity The indulged Ministers could not see how they could without sin refuse to make any use of the Indulgence and they conceived their refusal to take the benefit of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry would have given occasion of offence and provocation to the Magistrate and to the destitute Congregations who desired their help the desire of a people who are wandring as sheep without a Shepherd had a cry that they could not see how they could slight without sin The acceptance prevented the filling of the Kirk with a Conformist whom the people would not have heard and freed those Parishes of the quarterings plunderings imprisonments which they were formerly obnoxious unto it prevented their uncertain wandrings on the Sabbath their disquieting and confounding fears their running and fleeing on the Sabbath which is such a calamity that our Saviour directs the Jews to pray that their flight might not be in the winter neither on the Sabbath-day Matth. 24. and prevented rendevousing and fighting and mingling blood with Sacrifices on the Lords day The many disorders and confusions and sad sufferings the imprisonments and finings and banishments and the great effusion of the blood of the people of God which have followed upon the hostile clashings betwixt Magistrates and people may teach us how necessary the peaceable exercise of the Ministry under lawful Authority is and how necessary it is to take and seek and follow after peace with all men especially with the Magistrate The Indulged Ministers cannot nor could not see how a refusing to have any making or medling with the Magistrate which these Authors urge could consist with the respect due to Authority or with
show that those of the outed Ministers to whom the Magistrate had granted the peaceable publick exercise of their Office in some Parishes in their returning to those Parishes where they were formerly ordained Ministers or not having access to the peaceable exercise of their Ministry in their own Parishes upon the â—nvitation of destitute Congregations with the consent of Presbyterian Ministers concerned going to exercise their Office in those destitute Congregations till they might have access to return â—o their own Parishes That these Ministers in so doing did sin Of what Law of God is this practice of theirs a Transgression Is it a sin for Ministers whom God hath called to the work of the Ministry to exercise their Office in the Parishes where they were ordained Ministers or to help destitute Congregations who desire them to come and help them Is it a sin because the Magistrate permits them to preach The Author himself dare not say this as appears from his first Answer to the first Objection A Minister â—ins not in preaching the Gospel though an Uâ—urper a Robber permit him to preach and much â—ess doth the Permission of the lawful Magistrate render his preaching sinful Object The Magistrate appoints them to preach and to preach in such or such a parish and therefore it 's sinful Ans 1. If it were a sin in the Magistrate to appoint a Minister to preach in such or such a place and a sin for the Minister to preach because the Magistrate appointed him to preach in such a place then the Ministers who wrote the first Book of Discipline and the Church of Scotland who approved it did sin in desiring the Magistrate to appoint Ministers to preach in such and such Parishes We did shew from the first Book of Discipline That they desired the Magistrate to do this and more too even to compel them to preach 2. This Author grants in his Answer to the third Objection That the Magistrate may place Ministers when the Church is corrupt and all things are out of order the vanity of his evasion by which he seeks to elude that Argument taken from the 10th Chapter of the second Book of Discipline is before discovered 3. Suppose it were unlawful for the Magistrate to appoint a Minister to exercise the Office of the Ministry in a particular Parish yet it would not be sinful for that Minister to preach in that Parish if the Parish were vacant and earnestly desired him to exercise his Ministry among them and if his preaching there were not injurious to any if the Magistrates appointing a Minister to preach c. in a Parish render the Ministers preaching in that Parish sinful then the Magistrate by such appointments might make the exercise of the Ministry in any Parish or in all Parishes in his Dominions sinful which is a most absurd Conceit Or is it sinful to accept of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry in such or such Parishes because the Magistrate gives them Injunctions and Rules to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry But 1. These Injunctions were the Magistrates Acts and not the Ministers 2. The Ministers accepted not of these Injunctions but declared they could receive no such Ecclesiastick Rules from the Magistrate and that they had full Prescriptions from Christ which they behoved to observe as they would be answerable to him of whom they had received their Ministry 3. The Act of Instructions as it was distinct from the Act of Indulgence in which the publick peaceable exercise of their Ministry was granted and came not to the Ministers hands for a considerable time after they had received the Act of Indulgence so there was a great difference in the nature of the Acts and the Indulged Ministers did right in making use of what was good and refusing what was evil 4. If the Magistrates sending Injunctions to Ministers renders the exercise of their Ministry sinful then the Magistrate may render the exercise of the Ministry in any place in every place of his Dominions sinful by sending Instructions to all the Ministers in his Dominions which is another absurd Conceit which if it were received would make it easie for an ill-disposed Magistrate to mar all preaching by writing and sending Acts of Instructions to all the Ministers in his Dominions Object The Act of Indulgence flowed from a sinful Supremacy and therefore it was sinful to make any use of it Ans To say nothing of the making use of a Pass given by a Captain of Robbers or of a Covenant of peaceable commerce made with an Usurper who hath no just title which Casuists do not condemn I answer That that Act which indeed was the Act of Indulgence and which the Indulged Ministers made use of viz. The Relaxation of the Civil Restraint which hindred the peaceable exercise of their Ministry or the granting of the publick peaceable exercise of Ministry was no Act of any sinful Supremacy but the exercise of that power which the Magistrate hath from God for doing good As from the right stating of the question it evidently appears That this accepting of the publick peaceable exercise of the Ministry was not sinful so it evidently appears That it was lawful and commendable and a duty to which they were obliged as the work of the Ministry is a good work so the peaceable setled exercise of it under the protection of lawful Authority is a great mercy that hath many blessings and advantages in it it 's a promised blessing it 's a blessing for which the people of God should pray and because the peaceable setled exercise of the Ministry cannot be where Magistrates are without their allowance or permission therefore it 's duty to pray That the Lord would incline the heart of Rulers to grant the peaceable publick exercise of Religion in their Dominions and when the Lord inclines the hearts of Rulers to this we should not slight such a promised Mercy nor refuse the return of our Prayers but thankfully receive this blessing of God conveyed by the hand of the Magistrate and make use of this Talent to the Glory of God and edification of his Church I remember I have spoken before of the advantages of the peaceable setled exercise of the Ministry and of the necessity of accepting of it especially in answering the last head of the Authors Arguments and shall say no more of the state of the question but this That they who but understand the terms of the question will see that all the Arguments which the Author brings to prove the accepting of the Indulgence sinful do evanish as smoke and lose all colour when they compere before the light of naked Truth And they will see that what these Ministers did in exercising their Ministry in these desolate Congregations when the Lord in his good Providence had given them peaceable access thereto was so evidently a religious work a labour of love a work of mercy a seasonable expedient necessary work