without Hypocrisy Jam. 3.17 2. He takes the sure way to be wise for 1. He goes for it where it is to be had and by such means as the Giver of Wisdom doth direct him If any Man lack Wisdom let him ask it of God He asketh and he receiveth 2. He ceaseth to be wise in his own Conceit and becomes a Fool that he may wise 3. Having obtained Wisdom he considers his latter End his highest and chiefest End and Good and all Means tending to it 3. He advanceth in his Wisdom 1. By Observation and Imitation of the only wise God and Christ who is the Wisdom and Power of God There is a likeness in his renewed Nature of the Properties and communicable Attributes of God And as God doth manifest the Glory of his Attributes in the Government of the World especially his Church and peculiar People so he is a Follower or an Imitator of God Ephes. 5.1 And he never errs but when he deviates from his Example 2. He walks by a Law which maketh wise the Simple 3. As God is his End and the Law directs him to it so he keeps his End in his Eye II. He is the best Man for altho he is defective and often out of Order yet he hath First The best-temper'd Soul of any Man He hath the best Soul for 1. He hath the best Mind or Head 2. The best Will and Heart and by consequence 3. The best qualified Affections and Passions 2 dly The most regulated sensitive Appetites 3 dly And by consequence he lives the best Life and doth the most Good in his Place and Calling 1. He hath the best-temper'd Soul and Spirit for he hath the best Mind or Head He hath the best Mind 1. For Apprehension 2. Discretion 3. Dijudication For 1. He is illuminated by the Spirit in the Law which enlightneth the Mind he hath an Understanding given him he perceiveth the Things of God 2. He apprehending 1. Things of a contrary Nature as good and evil 2. Things good but in differing degrees 3. Things of an indifferent Nature capable of being good or evil according as they are used he discerns between Things and Things 3. By Dijudication or an Act of Judgment he separates Things evil to be rejected Things good to be embraced Things indifferent to be used or let alone according to Use End and Circumstances And now we may call a moderate Man an understanding discerning judicious Man He is judicious and hath three sorts of Things before him 1. Matters of Faith 2. Matters of Opinion 3. Matters of Practice 1. In Matters of Faith necessary to be believed to eternal Life there is no place for Moderation in the common sence of Moderation for we must earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints A moderate Man taught of God is zealous in all Things which he ought to hold fast and this Zeal in its highest strain and advanced is but moderated and directed according to the everlasting Importance of those precious and necessary Things 2. In Matters of Opinion probable but not evident he is only stiff and zealous according to their derivation and tendency If grounded upon Scripture he is so far zealous as he is in love with the Word of Grace and Truth If they tend to God's Glory and Man's spiritual Good and Salvation he is so far tenacious of them as he apprehends their tendency to be to promote that But he is moderate in Matters of Opinion reconcileable to Truth consistent with Holiness and Charity he contends not for or against these Things but with modesty and sobriety 3. In Matters of Duty and Practice such as respect God and Man these stand in a different degree and according to their place in God's Commandment a moderate Man doth intend or remit rise or fall And all these Things may be Matters of Debate and Controversy and in the Controversy he makes a Difference of 1. Things 2. Persons and governs himself according to the Rule of God's Word right Reason and Prudence 2. His Head hangs not loose but his Heart and Will is become conformable to his Mind and so his Heart and Will are made better by the goodness of his Mind his Mind being enlightned and a Judgment passed upon Convictions of Good and Evil so he nills the Evil and wills the Good He understands and knows what God declares and pronounces he judgeth in himself according as God pronounceth and willeth and nilleth according to his Judgment and being obedient to his Judgment he is a consciencious Man And hence another true part of the Character of a moderate Man appears A moderate Man is a true-hearted honest sincere consciencious Man and therefore comes into the Rank of the best of Men. 3. And by consequence his Affections are the most orderly and regular He loves that which is good approved and commanded of God hates that which is hateful disallowed and forbidden of God It is a hard Work to moderate the Affections and Passions it is a Work for Grace Vigilance Prayer Care and Time a strait Hand must be kept upon them with a watchful Eye or they will flie out like a mettall'd Horse They are easily moved and put out of order by a watchful Tempter who hath the advantage of a Constitution of Body in every Man and knows how to come upon us by Surprize but no Man sits so even in the Saddle as a Man of a moderate Judgment If he cannot prevent their flying out he can soonest restrain them and recall himself And if his Affections are inclined or hang by a partiality 't is towards real good Man and for that which appears in them which is most worthy of our strongest Love namely God and Godliness And he is not inexcusable himself who is apt to excuse them whom he hopes God will pardon yet still his Judgment is not perverted from a right Judgment of Sin and Infirmities A moderate Man is subject to Commotions but he allays them soonest and keeps an Eye and a Guard upon them Thus you have seen his Inside his Head Heart and Affections the inward Goodness of the best Man Now observe the Moderation of 2 dly His Sensitive Appetites God's Word revealing to him a Kingdom a Treasure a Crown in the World to come and God's Spirit convincing him of that Glory and Blessedness and drawing his Heart to Things above the same Word convincing him of the Vanity Temptations and Danger of the World and his own Judgment and Experience weighing with him he grows as his Faith and Love to God and Heaven grows most indifferent cool and slack or in one Word moderate toward the Things that are in the World 1. He grows moderate in his Desires and Pursuits looking most to his Duty and the right Use of the Things of this World 2. Moderate in using and enjoying them 3. Moderate in bearing the Crosses Disappointments and Losses of them And hence he commends himself to
us as a temperate contented patient Man 3 dly and lastly He is the best Man lives the best Life and leads the best Conversation The Inside being made clean the Outside will not be endured to be unseemly the Tree being made good the Fruit is good Here I need not speak 1. Of his conversing with God which is 1. Dependent upon meer Mercy the Mediation of Christ and the Assistance of the Spirit 2. Reverent as becomes Dust and Ashes 3. Fervent as a needy Creature in solliciting his Happiness and Salvation Nor 2. With himself which is intimate impartial frequent as having Work enough But 3. With others And in his Conversation with others in what Place Rank or Calling soever he is placed he labours to govern himself according to the Rule of his Calling in general as a Christian according to the Gospel and of his particular Calling whatsoever that is And he is a Man that minds his own Business and is no Busy-Body in other Mens Matters and acts from a threefold Principle 1. Of Self-denial 2. Of Charity 3. Of Righteousness 1. He leads his Life according to the Principle of Self-denial If Self be in the Scale the Hand of Moderation can never hold the Ballance even but when Self is denied He desires only so much of the World as may help him in his Duty and Way towards Heaven neither Poverty nor Riches but Food convenient He stands in no Man's way that climbs for Preferment envies no Man in it justles no Man out of it He modestly refuseth what others ambitiously seek and soberly useth what others abuse Ambition makes him neither Head of a Faction nor Emulation to follow a Party He serves no Interest in the World but God's He knows he should have the same Mind which Christ also had that he should not preach himself but Christ nor do as they who seek their own Things but like Timothy seek the Things of Jesus Christ. 2. He walks charitably If he hath Faith in doubtful Things or Things indifferent he hath it to himself but he hath Charity to others His Charity extends to Enemies to pray for them to relieve them to forgive them He is charitable even to hope all Things that are hopeful to believe all Things that are credible he is charitable in Constructions of Things doubtful and in his Censures of Men and Actions He is a Man of so much Love that he is a Man of Peace 3. He walks equitably He is ready to receive according to the same Measure he distributes Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even the same to them And this hath respect to all sorts of Men. He gives to all their due to Superiors Honour Tribute and Obedience The Moderate Man is not turbulent to the Government but to his power supports it and doth not shake it If Controversies arise about his Civil Rights 1. If the Things be sufferable he suffers Wrong if not 2. He seeks then by just Practices to attain Righteousness 3. He dares not revenge for that is to be unjust to God who saith Vengeance is mine If in Religious Matters If about the Foundations and Vitals he is tenacious of an Iota zealous and resolved but useth soft Words and hard Arguments as holy Mr. Dod said aiming to recover Truth and not to revile Persons If about Things meerly Accidental and Ceremonial 1. He thinks as our Reformers thought that Christ's Gospel is not a Ceremonial Law but it is a Religion to serve God not in the Bondage of the Figure or Shadow but in the Freedom of the Spirit Of Ceremonies why some be abolished c. 2. That Decency and Order is necessary to the solemn Worship of God and only such Things as are reducible to those two Heads 3. Edification is one End and Fruit of Ordinances and Duties and not of Ceremonies 1 Cor. 14.26 Our glorified Saviour gave Gifts to Men when he ascended and gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists for the edifying of the Body of Christ upon the same Reason to the same End from the same Goodness he would have given Ceremonies also for the Edification of the Body if they had been necessary 4. He rarely and unwillingly engages in the Disputes about Rites and Ceremonies having Reason for his Practice he would have his Practice pass for a Reason These Disputes often run upon great Mistakes in the state of the Questions mis-applied Scriptures Prejudices pass for Arguments and they blow up Heats waste Time enfeele Men in the performance of great Duties and do more frequently end in Divisions and Separation of Minds than Satisfaction 5. He hath a respect to the Customs of Churches which commonly are sitted to the Genius of their Countries while they retain their Innocency He can use Ceremonies well washed from Superstition in his own Mind and Practice by sound Doctrine He is not ceremonious in the Use of Ceremonies as religious divine Things commending him to God and yet there is no Man more ceremonious than he for he useth them but as Ceremonies with respect to Men as human Things ordained by Man's Authority Artic. of the Church 34. 6. He doth not wonder that some Men are zealous for them when he considers their Reasons nor why others are against them when he considers theirs If he can give himself a Reason for their Use he may use them upon his own Reason tho not upon other Men's But he cannot see a Reason why they who cannot bring their Reasons to them should be compelled to use them should be buried alive or excommunicated for their Non-observance of them A Diversity of Ceremonies makes not a Diversity of Religions they that think so are tainted with Superstition 7. He cannot see how our blessed Reformers could well do otherwise than they did considering they were but few not enabled with the Gift of Miracles the gracious King young the Nobility factious the Priests and Popish Bishops numerous the People superstitious and the Government had enough to do to preserve it self a moderate Course was necessary to be taken which is highly applauded by the Learned Mr. Hales in his Sermon of Dealing with erring Christians with respect to the Papists And now if he may be so bold as to speak his Opinion it is Moderation and it is but Moderation that respect should be had to the present Times and the Dispersion of Protestants dissatisfied all over the Land These are not the Things that will ever bring in Papists for they have more of them than we have and if they came over to us for the sake of these Things it would be so much the worse for us to bring in Papists except they leave all that was meant by the old Word Papistry behind them 8. He takes the whole Text together All Things are lawful for me i.e. all Things indifferent neither good nor evil in their own Nature But all Things are not expedient All Things are lawful for me but I will not be
erring Souls we must shew it in Moderation Know we not that we our selves are subject to Errours That many err unwillingly that all have not a Capacity to judg nor means and leisure to be inform'd that many are prepossessed prejudiced melancholy overturn'd by Passions Do not we know the power of a scrupulous Conscience That there may be Honesty of Heart in loving God and Holiness in hating Sin and desiring to please God in his Worship that cannot dispute nor understand an Argument nor our Distinctions How can we save some with Fear making a Difference but by Moderation O how merciful and indulgent is our Heavenly Father to many weak froward pettish complaining sickly staggering Children And should not we be like him If we cannot convince them by clear and to us satisfying Reasons by Love and Beneficence by all Courtesy and Endearments by Painfulness in our Callings commending our selves to every Man's Conscience in the sight of God by Holiness and Exemplary Lives we are at a loss the Weapons of our Warfare being only spiritual we will commend them heartily to God and if we cannot gain them we will be very careful to give them no just cause to depart from us by denying any thing within our Power to grant them 8. There are not many things of which most Men can be very confident and one great and common cause of Confidence is their abounding in their own sence and not knowing what contrary Parties can say for their Persuasions There is hardly any matter of Controversy between the Conformist and Nonconformist but there are different Thoughts of the very same things among Conformists themselves there is good reason therefore why we should be sober and modest which are some some of the Vertues that Moderation is exercised in 9. On the other hand we are sensible that Obedience Peace Order and Uniformity are great things and on the other hand I think no Man can think that the things which are the Instances of Obedience which are said often to be things indifferent to be under-valued If I say the harm and danger of precious Souls are of far greater Consideration If we think then that if Authority think sit to silence the Controversy by the removing the matters of those things not good or necessary in themselves that the Salvation of precious Souls may not be obstructed by a rigorous exacting of them We make but a moderate Estimation of them if we think them of less moment than the Good or Evil to Souls for whom Christ died Better the Controversies were buried than that Souls should be endangered to perish for them And though touch not taste not handle not a needless Scrupulosity Shiness and Displeasure against them be the cause of Irregularity yet it must be acknowledged that a Zeal for Ordinances without unnessary Rites is laudable and a Zeal against Rites is not so much to be blam'd as the Evil to be fear'd on the other hand to those many erring and superstitious Souls that think Ordinances are not Ordinances without them We cannot rhetoricate upon them as some Men do that they are Helps and Ornaments to Devotion that they are edifying in their Nature and Vse for if so they are necessary and the Ordinances are maim'd when they are taken off We know no Inconvenience or Dammage but Good to have followed the Abolition of many Ceremonies formerly in use for some of which as much may be said as for these in use And two things prevailed upon our Reformers to lay them aside 1. Their Multitude 2. And principally because they were abused by the Superstitious Blindness of the rude and unlearned and partly by the insatiable Avarice of such as sought more their own Lucre than the Glory of God that the Abuses could not well be taken away the things remaining still Of Ceremonies why some be abolished c. We have not omitted to instruct our People in these things and yet many attribute too much to them and those that look upon them as they are in their nature and use cannot be stiff for them there is as great Reason to forbear them that scruple them as them that are too fond of them not to say too superstitious to the one they are a Stone of stumbling to the other they are a part of the Building And setting aside the Authority which commands them and may withdraw those Commands without detriment to Religion they who say the Ordinances had them not have as much at least to say against them as they have who cannot be without them We are indulgent to these who err from the Doctrine of the Church concerning them as obedient Children we do heartily wish we could be as indulgent to those who are of a different Mind and as far as we may and in some things we may be tender towards them we cannot but we must use an honest Moderation SECT VI. And if it were not that we are to shew our Moderation to All Men we could not forbear Complaints and deep Resentments of the Carriage of our Conforming Brethren who in many Sermons and Printed Discourses do represent us as if we were a dangerous sort of Men to Church and State We are not insensible of the things in which we cannot and therefore have not concurred with them which may give them Offence We have not declined when we had occasion and opportunity to give our Reasons for our forbearing or refusing to make up the number with them with which we are still satisfied and never saw any Reason to change our Judgments and to give us cause to repent as for an Omission of any Duty But we will stedfastly shew a Moderation of Meekness and Patience and bear what 's fit for us to bear We will not make our loud Complaints under the many Censures Representations and Misconstructions that are thrown upon us for indeed they are but a bundle of Sticks and not of Rods and by our Moderation we will pile and bundle them as Protogoras did his bundle of Sticks so handsomly that they will be lighter by their bundling up But why we should be misrepresented to the World we can see no cause but what calls for our Commiseration It is some kind of Surprize to us to read and hear in publick what hath not been as much as whispered to us in private And before we are told of Offences in private and before the Church be told of us to tell of us to the Magistrate and to the World is not regular nor friendly To declaim against us for Moderation truly so called would be to commend us to the World and to good Men. But then that we may first dy and stink before we come to be formally prosecuted that we may be suspected and then hated and then used we know not how nor we know not why we are painted in the Colours of the fowlest Fellow in the Dock But we are sure this Paint will not endure the Fire
brought under the Power of any 1 Cor. 6.12 When they manifestly prove inexpedient or when any Soul is brought under the Power of any of those Things in themselves lawful in their Use they cease to be so He observes and uses Things lawful when they are enjoined by lawful Authority but when he finds them inexpedient and do not further the Gospel or when Souls are become subject to them he cannot but wish the Things in debate were left out of the Laws or left at Liberty And now he cannot but stand indifferent to Things that are indifferent III. Lastly Lest I should forget my self take the last Sight of a Moderate Christian and you see him to be the happiest Man alive 1st Happy in himself and happy with respect to others He is happy in the best Temper of Mind happy in a clear discerning and Judgment happy in well-governed Passions not hurried inflamed and transported not blinded by Partiality to self He maintains and keeps up the Banks of Sobriety against the Breaches of Intemperance he lies dry when others are under Water He is a Lover of Peace a Moderator of Strifes and by that means there is Peace in his Borders when others are in Wars and Contention yet he is not so tame as to be run down with Insolence or turn his Back upon true Religion and leave it to the Abuses of Atheists Papists Hereticks He is happy in the large and quiet possession of Contentment 2dly He is happy as an Instrument of Good to others by bringing Things out of Disorder into Order by restoring a crazy sickly State into a happy Temper And it were happy if they that use desperate Applications did in time observe their Operation and all the Symptoms one with another Moderation looks on and knows that at last the Father of the Family must call her in and commit it to her to recover it and direct it to preserve its Health Lastly If the moderate Man cannot escape Trouble and Sufferings he is happy in possessing his Soul in Patience and that God will by his Grace help him to keep possession of his Soul and when his Soul is dispossessed the Lord will commend him as a wise Steward that used Moderation in writing down Fifty and Fourscore for an Hundred that was due and give him his Reward This moderate Man is now out of fashion but says Dr. Fuller in his Holy State p. 207. Once in an Age he is in fashion each Extreme courts him to make them Friends and surely he hath a great Advantage to be a Peace-maker betwixt opposite Parties tho at present he is crush'd between them An Appendix demonstrating that Parish-Churches are no Conventicles particularly for reading the second Service in the Desk In answer to a late Pamphelt entitled Parish-Churches turned into Conventicles c. IF the Title of this Epistle to all the Reverend Clergy of the Church of England were proved in the Epistle that Parish-Churches turned into Conventicles and Informers inform and Magistrates proceed upon their Information it would be a great Project to bring the Wealth of the Kingdom into the King's Exchequer to make the Poor of our Parishes Farmers and Freeholders at least and the Informers Fellows to Peers by the Moities for so many Conventicles kept throughout the Kingdom above twenty Years in most of our Parish Churches But we hope that Parish Churches being neither any Man's House nor Barn nor Yard nor Back-side may not come within the Act against Conventicles And except they deny Churches to be the Houses of God they know not how to sue the Owner of them for 20 l. for the House But if it should so happen that this Notion should universally take and gain Assent and make Converts as he saith he hath made pag. 21. and so Rectors and Vicars because they have taken Possession may be adjudged Owners of the Churches by some who wish there might be some Law to undo us we are perswaded that our Magistrates would not interpret the Act as including Parish-Churches seeing it speaks of a House in which a Family doth inhabit or if it be in a House Field or Place where is no Family inhabiting yet we suppose it is a House that hath been or may be inhabited or was built to be a Habitation and we hope that the Parish Churches are presum'd to be no Places for unlawful Assemblies or Conventicles And for some other Reasons it may be thought that the Author might have invented another Title for his Epistle He doth chiefly insist upon one piece of Nonconformity to prove Parish-Churches Conventicles and that is because we do not read the second or the Communion-Service at the North-side of the Holy Table when there is no Communion p. 5. And this Omission is a Sin of that nature and tendency that it doth not only offend against the Common Order of the Church but hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Conscience of the weak Brethren p. 5. He beseecheth us to consider what Mischiefs we do both to Church and State p. 7 c. A heavy Charge and that 't is high time to provide against so dangerous an Offence He tells us of two sorts of Persons he hath to deal with one plainly confessing that 't is commanded by Authority but say they have their Liberty to read there or not notwithstanding that Command Another sort confidently tell him there is no such Command And I suppose many may be found that are doubtful if not confident and I do profess I am neither convinc'd nor converted by what he saith and shall be judged by the Law it self by and by and make a few Observations and Oppositions 1. He saith The place for reading the second Service is without all doubt a thing indifferent in its own nature To this I oppose that a place inconvenient for saying or reading any part of the Service of God is not a thing indifferent because it is partly what is read to the People for their Edification and partly the Devotion of the People towards God If the Communion-Table be sixed Altar-wise or be not removed from the upper end of the Church in very many Churches the People cannot hear and cannot join in Prayer some have made some such Objection to him which he doth not remove and saith Be it never so inconvenient This may be debated in a regular way and the Inconvenience taken away by legal Authority but for any Parish Curat to judg of the Convenience or Inconvenience of a Law and thereupon to alter the Law after his own Model is no less a piece of Insolence than to take upon him to be King Bishop and Priest in his own Parish Whereby we are instructed that a Minister is to read at the Altar whether the People hear or no and pray or not I know one Doctor that takes leave sometimes of his great Congregation and goes to the upper end of a Great Chancel rather like to his private