Church be able to prove it hath worse crimes to nullisie it than any of these had For none of these were for these faults pronounced no Churches of Iesus Christ. Secondly observe that no one Member is in all these Scriptures or any other commanded 〈◊〉 come out and separate from any one of all these Churches as if their communion in worship were unlawful And therefore before you separate from any as judging communion with them unlawful be sure that you bring greater reasons for it than any of these recited were DIRECT VI. Understand well the different conditions and terms of Communion with the Church as invisible and as visible and the different priviledges of the Members that so you may not presume to impose any conditions which God hath not imposed nor yet to grudge at the reception of those that are not sanctified and sincere ALL Christians are agreed that it belongeth to God only to make the conditions of Church-communion and therefore it belongeth not to us to invent them nor to our wit to censure what God hath done but to search the Scripture till we find it out and then obey it This is the great controversie which hath troubled the Church When men know not who should be Members of the Church and who not and when they have no certain rule or character to know whom they must receive it is no wonder if confusion and contention be the complexion and practice of such Churches And here the Pastors have torn the Church by running into contrary extreams Some have thought that the Visible Church must be constituted only of such persons as satisfie the Pastors and the people of the truth of their sanctification by some special account of their conversion or the work of grace upon their hearts in a distincter manner than the ancient Church required of the baptized Wherein being agreed of no certain terms to know anothers sanctification by their Churches are diversified according to the measure of the strictness or largeness censoriousness or charity of the Pastors the people while one thinks that person to have true grace whom another thinks to have done And so they that will be most uncharitable do pretend to the reputation of being the most pure because they are most strict And multitudes are shut out whom Christ would have to be received his children are numbred with the dogs On the other side there is one or two of late among us who think that the Church is but Christs School where he teacheth the way to true Regeneration and not a Society of professed Regenerate ones or Saints And that all who own Christ as the Teacher of the Church and submit to the Government of the Pastors and are willing to learn how to be regenerate should be baptized though they profess not any special saving faith or repentance And their reasons are because first else all that doubt of their sincerity must lie or be kept out Secondly because that in the Church of the Jews the multitude were such as were openly ungodly And some of the Papists talk also at this rate though indeed they are themselves yet â—tterly unresolved in this point What Church soever is constituted according to either of these two opinions will not be constituted according to the mind of Christ But yet with this difference The first Opinion introduceth Church tyranny and injustice and is founded in the want of Christian charity and knowledge and tendeth to endless separations and confusions But the second opinion inferreth all these greater mischiefs First it confoundeth the Catechumens with the Christians and maketh all Christians who are but willing to learn to be Christians Secondly it maketh the Christian Church to consist of such as are no Christians As that person certainly is not who consenteth not that Christ be his Teacher Priest and King For to such a one he is no Christ seeing these are the essential parts of his Mediatory office And the new device of distinguishing Christs Apostolike and Mediatory offices so the Church congregate and the Church regenerate accordingly will not seem to difend this conceit For as Christ is not divided so his office for which he is called Christ is but One which entirely is called the office of a Saviour or Redeemer or Mediator which are all one And the essential parts of it are first his Priestly second Teaching and Ruling offices or works And this which is called his Apostleship is but the same which is called his Teaching or Prophetical Office and is a part of his Mediatory or saving Office And he is no Christian nor is that any Congregated Christian Church which professeth not to take Christ for his Mediator his Priest and King as well as for an Apostle a Prophet or Teacher Thirdly they therefore who hold the aforesaid doctrine do introduce a new sort of Christianity Fourthly and a new sort of Baptism which the Church of Christ never knew to this day And therefore they do ingenuously profess their dissent from our form or words in Baptism because we put the baptized to renounce the flesh the world and the devil and to use such covenanting words as must signifie special grace But through the great mercy of God Baptism is still the same thing in all the Christian Churches in the world the Reformed the Roman the Greek the Armenian yea and the Ethiopian too for all their seeming reiteration of it And Baptism among them all is the same now as it hath been in all Generations from Christs institution of it So that we fully maintain as well as the Romans that Christianity hath by this sacred Tradition been safely delivered down to us to this day What a Christian is and what Christianity is may be most certainly known by this which is commonly called our Christening In which the profession and covenant which maketh men Christians is so express and unchanged from age to age Therefore these men who would have our Baptism changed do speak plainly but impudently as if they were raised in the end of the world to reform the Baptism and Christianity of all ages and were not only wiser than the universal Church from Christ till now but also at last must make the Church another thing I intreat the Reader who would know the judgement of all antiquity about Baptism as supposing saving grace to read those numerous citations of Mr. Gataker in the Margin of his book against Davenant of Baptism Fifthly and by this new doctrine they destroy all that special Love which Church-members or visible Christians as such should bear to one another For if no faith or consent must necessarily be professed at Baptism but that which is common to the ungodly and children of the devil then all Church-members as only such must be taken to be but ungodly and no man must love a Church-member as such with a special love as a visible Saint but only as one of the hopefuller sort of the
as a profession of Christianity And as to the Act it must be first A signification of the mind by word or writing or some intelligible sign Secondly it must seem to be understood For no man consenteth to that which he understandeth not But herein any intelligible sign of a tollerable understanding must be accepted though we find that the persons conceptions are raw and not so distinct and clear as they ought nor the expressions ready orderly or compt Thirdly it must seem to be serious For that which is apparently dissembled or Iudicrous is null Fourthly It must be de presenti a present giving up our selves to Christ and not only a promise de futuro that we will hereafter take him for our Saviour and Lord and not at present Fifthly it must seem to be voluntary and not constrained for then it is not serious Sixthly it must seem to be deliberate and resolute and setled and not only the effect of a mutable passion This goeth to make it a real Profession in the common sense of all mankind Obj. But how few among us do so much as seem be understanding serious and resolved in covenanting with Christ Answ. In the Degree of these we all fall short of that which is our duty But if you accuse any of the want of so much as is necessary to an acceptable Profession First you must be sure that you speak not by uncharitable surmise and hear-say but upon certain proof or knowledge Secondly and that therefore you speak it not at a venture of whole Parishes or families but only of those persons by name whom you know to be guilty Thirdly and that you remember that it is the Pastors office to judge and that you expect not that every one must give an account of their knowledge to you And if there be a mis-judging it is the fault of the Pastor and not yours of which more anon Fourthly that persons Baptized are already admitted into the Church and therefore if they make profession of Christianity they must not be put to bring any other proof of their title but it lies on you to disprove it if you will have it questioned And to reject them from communion without a proved accusation is Tyranny and Lording it over the Church of God These are Gods terms of Church-communion And if you will needs have stricter you must have none of his making but your own Obj. But all visible Christians and Churches are visible Saints and Regenerate and so are not ours Answ. To be a Visible Saint is to profess to be a Saint And whosoever doth profess the Baptismal Covenant professeth to be a Saint Conversion Regeneration Faith and Repentance are all contained into taking God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for our Father Saviour and Sanctifier Obj. But you may teach a Parrot to speak those words Answ. It s true And perhaps to speak any words which you use your selves But if you will thence conclude that words must not be taken as a Profession you grosly err or abusively wrangle or if you infer thence that your neighbour understandeth himself no more than a Parrot doth you must prove what you say to the Pastor of the Church For God hath not allowed him to excommunicate baptized persons because you say that they are ignorant And if they are willing to learn it is fitter to teach them than to excommunicate them And here I must lament it that I have met with many censorious Professors who would not communicate with the Parish Churches because the people are ignorant who when I have examined themselves have proved ignorant of the very substance of Christianity so that I have been much in doubt whether I ought to admit them to the Lords Table or not They knew not whether Christ was Eternal or whether he was God when he was on earth or whether he be Man now he is in heaven nor what Faith is or what Iustification or Sanctification is nor what the Covenant of grace is nor what Baptism or the Lords Super are nor could prove the Scripture to be the word of God or prove mans soul to be immortal but gave false or impertinent answers about all these And yet could not joyn with the ignorant Churches And next I desire you here to observe the different Priviledges as well as the different Conditions of Visible and Invisible Churchmembership The members of the Church mystical or Regenerate have the pardon of all sin and acceptance with God and communion with him and with his Church in the spirit and are the adopted children of God and heirs of everlasting life and shall live in heaven with Christ for ever The meer Visible Members of the Church that are not regenerate by the spirit as well as sacramentally by water have only an outward Communion with the Saints and have only the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament and only a name to live when they are dead And are these such great matters that we should envy them to poor sinners that must have no more Have we the Kernel and do we envy them the Shell Have we the Spirit and do we envy them the flesh or outward signes alone Yea consider farther that it is more for the sake of the truly faithful than for their own that all Hypocrites have their station and priviledges in the Church God maketh use of their Gifts and Profession for his elect to many great services of the Church And is it not then a foolish ingratitude in us to murmur at their presence Understand well the conditions and Reasons of this visible state of membership and how far it is below the state of the Regenerate and it will turn your separating murmuring into a thankful acknowledgment of the wisdom of God DIRECT VII Get right and deep aprehensions of the Necessity and Reasons of Christian Unity and Concord and of the sin and misery of Divisions and Discord WHen we have but slight apprehensions of a duty we easily neglect it and scarce reprove our selves for it or repent of our omission And when we have but slight apprehensions of the evil of any sin a little temptation draweth us to it we are hardly brought to through-repentance for it And there is in many Christians a strange inequality and partiality in their apprehensions of good and evil Some duties they dare not omit and they judge all ungodly who omit them when some others as great are past by as if they were no part of religion And some sins they fear with very great tenderness when we can scarce make their consciences take any notice of others as great And usually they let out all their zeal on one sâ—de only while they over-look the other The Papist seemeth so sensible of the good of Unity and the evil of Divisions that he thinketh usurpation of an Universal Church-Monarchy and Tyranny and horrid bloud-shed to be not only lawful but necessary for the prevention and the cure
these Additions to Christianity this proud Church-tyranny I doubt not is the great cause of Schism in the world And when I have had opportunity to write against it I have born my testimony against it as is yet legible But it is not that sort of men that I am here most to speak to but to them that profess to be more teachable and willing to know the truth 3. And yet I add though this Book be written principally to save the darker sort of honest Christians from the sin and misery of Church divisions I write it not principally for them to read For I know their prejudice weakness and incapacity after-mentioned But I write it to remember the Teachers of the Churches what principles they have to Preach and strengthen and what principles to confute and to destroy if ever they mean to save the people from this state of sin and the Churches from the sad effects And if Ministers neglect the faithful discharge of so great and necessary a duty let them remember that they were warned if they find themselves overwhelmed in the ruines II. The Reasons moving me to this work are these First It is my calling to help to save people from their sins and Church division is a heap of sins 2. The more I love them that I hope are tender Conscienced and dare not sin when they are convinced of it the more I am bound to endeavour their conviction remembring who hath said Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19. 17. 3. LOVE is not an appurtenance of my Religion but my Religion it self God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him who can speak a higher word of any thing in all the world Love is the end of faith and faith is but the Bellows to kindle Love Love is the fulfilling of all the Law the end of the Gospel the nature and mark of Christs Disciples the divine nature the sum of holiness to the Lord the proper note by which to know what is the man and what his state and how far any of his other acts are acceptable unto God without which if we had all knowledge and belief all gifts of utterance and highest profession we were but as sounding Brass and as a tinkling Cymbal And if all our goods were given to the poor and our bodies to the fire it would profit nothing Love is our foretast of Heaven and the perfection of it is Heaven it self even the state and work of Angels and of Saints in glory And he that is angry with me for calling men to Love is angry for calling them to Holiness to God and Heaven Holiness which is against Love is a contradiction It is a deceitful Name which Satan putteth upon unholiness All Church principles which are against Universal Love are against God and Holiness and the Churches life And he that saith he loveth God and hateth his Brother is a Lyar. To be holy without Love is to see without light to live without life He that said The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle c. did no more dream of separating them then of dividing the head of a man from his heart to save his life Iam. 3. 17. Nor no more than he that said Follow Peace with all men and Holiness Heb. 1â— 14. No necessity can justifie such a division Holiness and Love to God are but two names for one thing Love to God and to man are like Soul and Body that are separated no way but by death Love and Peaceableness differ but as Reason and Reasoning Love may be without Passive Peace from others to us but never without Active Peace from us to others 4. I have had so great opportunity in my time to see the working of the mysterie of iniquity against Christian Love and to see in what manner Christs House and Kingdome is edified by divisions that if I be ignorant after such sad experience I must be utterly unexcusable and of a seared Conscience and a heart that seemeth hardened to perdition God knoweth how hardly sin is known in its secret root till men have tasted the bitterness of the fruit Therefore he hath permitted the two Extreams to shew themselves openly to the world in the effects And one must be noted and hated and avoided as well as the other I thought once that all that talk against Schism and Sects did but vent their malice against the best Christians under those names But since then I have seen what Love-killing principles have done I have long stood by while Churches have been divided and sub-divided one Congregation of the division labouring to make the other contemptible and odious and this called the Preaching of truth and the purer worshiping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful pride and surliness and into the way of Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ. I have many a time heard it break out into more horrid revilings of the best Ministry and Godliest people than ever I heard from the most malignant Drunkard I have lived to see it put to the Question in that which they called the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once When Love was first killed in their own breasts by these same principles which I here detect I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the Rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kinds of Rule even that which they themselves set up have been committed and justified and prophanely fathered upon God These with much more such fruits of Love-killing principles and divisions I have seen And I have seen what fierce censorious proud unchristian tempers they have caused or signified In a word I have long seen that envious wisdom whatever it pretend is not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish and that where envy and strife is upon pretence of Religious precedency of wisdom there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. 15 16. And if after so long so sad so notorious experience you would have me still to be tender of the brood of Hell I mean these Loveâ—destroying wayes and to shew any countenance to that which really hath done all this you would have me as blind as the Sodâ—mites and as obdurate as Pharaoh and his Egyptians and utterly resolved never to learn the will of God or to regard either good or evil in the world 5. The same sins are continued in without repentance The same pride and ignorance is still keeping open our divisions And if after such warnings as the world scarce ever had the like we shall be still impenitent
this how dare you blame me for writing to save you from confusion and every evil work 6. I will conclude with the repetition of one thing delivered in this Treatise that among all the rest two separating dividing principles will never give peace to the Church where they prevail The one is the confounding mens Title to visible Church Membership and Communion with their Title to Justification and Salvation The other is the Imposing of new terms and titles of Visible membership and Communion and rejecting the sufficiency of the â—erms and title of Christs appointment Christ hath solemnly and purposely made the Baptismal Covenanting with him to be the terms and title to Church membership and Communion And the owning of this same Covenant is the sufficient Title of the adult And the Imposers that come after and require another kind of evidence of Conversion or Sanctification than this do confound the Church and enflame the people and leave no certain way of tryal but make as various terms and titles as there are various degrees of wisdome and Charity and various opinions in the Pastors yea in all the people to whom they allow the judgement of such Causes in the several Churches In this point the sober Anabaptists seem to come nearer the truth than they I add no more but Christs conclusion that a house or Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand The Book it self was written near two years ago but this Preface Feb. 2. 1669. AN ABSTRACT OF THE DIRECTIONS 1. FOrget not the difference between the younger sort of Christians and the Elder The peril of the Church from young Christians 2. Observe the secret workings of spiritual pride and how deep rooted and odious a sin it is and what special temptations to it the younger and emptier sort of Christians have 3. Overvalue not the Common gift of utterance nor a high profession as if grace were appropriated to such alone who are to be called Professors 4. Affect not to be made enâ—lnent and conspicuous in holiness by standing at a further distance from common Christians than God would have you 5. Understand the true difference between the Church as Visible and as Regenerate or mystical and the several qualifications of the Members What Scandals were in the primitive Churches in Scripture times 6. Understand well the different Conditions and terms of Communion with the Church as mystical and as visible and the different priviledges of the members that you may not presume to impose any Conditions which God hath not imposed nor unjustly grudge at 〈…〉 essence of those that are not sincere 7. Get time and sleep apprehensions of the necessity and reasons of Christian Vnity and Concord and of the sin and misery of divisions and discord what Scripture saith herein 8. When any thing needeth amendment in the Church the best Christians must be the forwardest to Reform and the backwardest to divide on that pretence 9. Forget 〈◊〉 the great difference betweene the Churches 〈◊〉 the 〈…〉 and the Godlyes separating from the Church it self because the wicked are not cast out The first is a great duty the second usually a great sin Luthers case 10. Expect not that any one lawfully received into the Church by Baptism should be cast out of it or denyed the priviledges of the Church but according to the rules of Christian discipline by the power of the Keys that is for oâ—stinate impenitency in a gross on scandalous sin upon proof and after sufficient private and publick admonition 11. Understand what the Power of the Keys is and what the Pastors office is as they are the Governours of the Church entrusted by Christ with the power of admission and rejection that so you may know how far you are to rest in the Pastors judgment and may not usurp any part of their office to your selves 12. Study well Christs gracious nature and office and his great readiness to receive the weakest that come to him that so you may desire a Church discipline agreeable to the Gospel 13. Yet lest you run into the worse extream remember still that the destroying of sin and the sanctifying of man to God was the work of our Redeemer And that Holiness and Peace must go together And that our own Church-order and discipline must be subservient to the inward spirituality and prosperity of the Church-regenerate And no such favour must be shewed to sinners as favoureth sin and hindereth Holiness 14. Though your Governours are the Iudges what persons shall be of your publick-Church-Communion yet it is you that must judge who are fit or unfit for your private familiarity 15. Vnderstand how much it hath pleased God to lay all mens happiness or misery upon their own choice And seek not to alter this order of God 16. Though the profession of Christianity which entitleth men to Church-Communion must be credible yet remember that there are various degrees of Credibility And that every Profession which is not proved false is credible in such a degree as must be accepted by the Church 17. Know how far it is that either Grace or Gifts are necessary to a Minister that you may give to both their due 18. Vnderstand well the necessity of your Communion with all the Universal Church and wherein it consisteth and how far it is to be preferred before your Communion with any particular Church 19. Engage not your selves too far in any divided Sect and espouse not the interest of any party of Christians to the neglect or injury of the universal Church and the Christian Cause 20. Be very suspicious of your Religious passions and carefully distinguish between a sound and sinful zeal least you father your sin on the Spirit of God and think you please him more when you most offend him 21. Lend not a patient ear to backbiters nor hastily believe the most religious people when they speak ill of others 22. Make not your selves selves judges of other mens actions much less of their state before you have a Call or before you have sufficient knowledge of the person and of the Case 23. Mistake not the nature of the sin of Scandal as if it were the bare displeasing of another when it is the laying of a stumbling-block or occasion of sinning before another 24. Make Conscience of Scandalizing one party as well as another and those most who are most in danger by your offence 25. Be not over tender of your reputation with any sort of men on earth nor too impatient of their displeasure censures or contempt But live above them 26. Use not your selves needlesly to the familiar company of that sort of Christians who use to censure them that are more sober Catholick and charitable than themselves Unless you be as much or more with the soberer sort who will shew you the sin and mischief of Love-killing principles and divisions 27. Take heed of misjudging of the answers of your prayers and of taking those things to be from God which
Papist But if you ask why we separated from the Papal Church I answer Because first it was no Church of Christ as such And secondly It was a Church of traiterous combination against the prerogative of Christ and therefore by the Protestants called the Anti-christian Church We separated not from Rome either as the Universal Church for that it was not nor as part of the Universal Church for so we hold communion with those that are Christians in it still Nor as a true worshipping Congregation for they consist of many thousand congregations which we had never local communion with And as true worshipping congregations in specie we still hold communion with them in mind so far as they are such indeed But in two senses we separate from them First as a Papal Catholick Church because in that sense they are no Church of Christ but a pack of rebels Secondly as particular Congregations in specie which have mixed Gods worship with false doctrine and Idolatrous bread-worship and other unlawful things which by oaths and practise they would force those to be guilty of who will communicate with them And thus we disown them only as neighbour Churches that never were their lawful subjects but bear our testimony against their sin And our forefathers who were members of their Churches departed to save themselves from their iniquity and because they were refused by themselves unless they would lie forswear be idolaters and communicate with them in their sin Nor would they then nor will they to this day admit any into communion of their particular Churches as such who will not first come in to their pretended Universal Church which is no Church and worse than none If this answer seem not plain and full to you it is because you understand not Christian sense and reason DIRECT X. Expect not that any one lawfully received by Baptism into the Christian Church should be cast out of it or denied the priviledge of members but according to the rules of Christian discipline by the power of the Keyes that is for obstinate impenitency in a gross or scandalous sin which the person is proved to be guilty of and this after private and publick admonition and tender patient exhortation to Repentance HEre are two things which I desire you to observe First what is Christs appointed way for removing members from the Communion of the Church Secondly how great a sin it is to remove them by a contrary and arbitrary way of our own presumptuous invention First It is here supposed that the person is not a professed Apostate For there needeth no casting out of such He that turneth Turk or Heathen or openly renounceth Christianity or ceaseth the Profession of it doth go out of the Church himself and needeth not to be cast out Unless it be any Tyrant who will come to the Communion in scorn while he professeth but to shew his lawless will He that seeketh the Communion of the Church in sobriety thereby professeth himself a Christian. and for such as being Baptized continue this profession Christs way of rejecting them is plainly described in the Gospel Mat. 18. 15 16. If thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it to the Church But if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man or a Publican Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject 1 Cor. 5. Ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have jâ—dged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan V. 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven v. 11 12 13. With such a one no not to eat Do not ye judge them that are within Therefore pâ—â— away from among your selves that wicked person By all this it is plain that the Church must exercise a regular course of justice with every person that it shall reject He must first be told prâ—vately of his fault and then before two or three unless at least the open notoriety make the private admonition needless And then it must be told the Church And the Church must with compassion tenderness and patience and yet with the authority of the Lord Jesus and the powerful evidence of truth convince him and perswade him to repent And he must not be rejected till after all this he obstinately refuse to hear the Church that is to Repent as they exhort him Note here that no sin will warrant you to cast out the sinner unless it be seconded with Impenitency It is not simply as a drunkard or a fornicator or swearer that any one is to be rejected but as an impenitent drunkard or fornicator or swearer c. Also that it is not all impenitency that will warrant their rejection But only impenitency after the Churches admonition Note also that no private person may expect that any offender be cast out either because his sin is known to him or because he is commonly famed to be guilty till the thing be proved by sufficient witness Yea that the admonition given him must be proved as well as the fault which he committed Yea if all the town do know him to be guilty and witness prove that he hath been privately admonished he may not be rejected till he be heard speak for himself and till he refuse also the publike admonition This is Christs order whose wisdom and mercy and authority are such as may well cause us to take his way as best And yet the ignorance or rashness of many professors is such that they would have all this order of Christ overturned And some of them must have such a drunkard and such a swearer kept away and rejected before ever they admonished them or exhorted them to Repentance or prove that any one else hath done it much more before they have told the Church or proved that he hath neglected the Churches admonition And some go so much further that they must have all the Churches taken for no Churches till they have gathered them a new and must have all the Parish at once rejected till they have gathered out some few again without any such order of proceeding with them as Christ appointeth It may be a thousand shall be cast out at once when never a one of them was thus admonished Obj. They were never members of a true
of that censorious zeal which unchurches Persons or Parishes without just tryal and proof upon rumours of fame or their own surmises DIRECT XI Understand well what is the power of the Keys and what the Pastoral offiae is as they are the Governours of the Church entrusted by Christ with the power of admission and rejection that so you may know how far you are to rest in the judgement of the Pastors and may not attempt to take any part of their office to your selves THe power of the Keyes is the power of taking into the Church and of Governing it and of casting out Both in respect to present Order and in respect to future happiness by a Ministerial declaration of the sense of the Gospel concerning the state of such as they The power of Baptizing is the power of the Keyes for reception into the Church The private members have not the power of baptizing nor were the Pastors ever appointed to do it by their advise consent or vote Therefore the private members have not the power of the Keyes for admission And it is most apparent in the Gospel that the Keyes for admission and for exclusion are given into the same hands and not one to the Ministers and another to the Flock Therefore the people that have not the first have not the later For full proof of this observe the meaning of these Texts Isa. 22. 22. And the Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open Isa. 9. 6. The Government shall be upon his shoulder Mat. 16. 19. I will give thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Mat. 18. 18. Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound c. Joh. 20. 23. Whose soever sins ye do remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Math. 28. 19. Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Joh. 20. 21. As my Father hath sent me euen so send I you Acts 1. 16 17. Judas was numbred with us and had obtained part of this Ministry Acts 20. 28. Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God Rom. 1. 1. Paul a Minister of Iesus Christ called an Apostle separated to the Gospel of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so esteem of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God Acts 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church Tit. 1. 3. Ordain Elders in every City as I appointed thee V. 7. A Bishop must be blameless as the Steward of God 1 Tim. 3. 5. For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour 1 Pet. 5. 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof Heb. 13. 7 17 24. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls salute them that have the rule over you 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them that is acknowledge their power and labours that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and to be at peace among your selves Read these with judgement and then believe if you can that the power of the Keys or Government is in the People Shew us what text doth give them that power and where the Scripture calleth them to exercise it by Votes Or where God requireth ability in them for Church-government or where he calleth them to leave their Callings and attend this work When those that must perform it he separateth to it as by office and calleth them to give themselves wholly thereunto 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. Tell us when the people were authorized to baptize or to rule the Church that is themselves Obj. Mat. 18. 15. Tell the Church if he hear not the Church c. Answ. Many Expositors think that by the Church there is meant the Ministers only by this reason The Church that mâ—st teach mâ—st be heard the Church that must be heard must be told But that is only the Pastors and not the People Ergo But I easily grant you that the word Church there signifieth the whole Congregation as Dr. Taylor in his Second Disswasive hath well shewed But it is as an Organized body only And so the Office is to be performed only by the Organical part and not by any of the rest When I say to a man Hear me I do not mean that he should hear me with his eyes but only with his ears And when I bid him See or Read I bid him not do it with his ears but with his eyes Nor do the eyes receive this power from the feet or hands but immediately from the Head Though if they were separated from the body they could not retain it So if another Kingdome send to England to desire an Army of Men to help them they mean the King only as the Commander of them and the people as the executors of his Command So when you are bid to tell the Church it is quâ—tâ—nus aurita that it must be told And when you are bid to hear it it is as Teaching that it must be heard So that this talketh not of any Government in the people either to use or to give Obj. 1 Cor. 5. Paul biddeth all the Church to put from among them that wicked person Answ. Note that Paul passeth the sentence first himself I have judged as if I were present not that you deliver but to deliver such an one to Satan And therefore he doth this in himself in the name of the Lord Iesus and supposeth himself among them in spirit and power when they do it and my spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. And I have said He speaketh to an organized Church which had two parts and accordingly two works to do The Ruling part was to put away the Offender by Iudgement or Sentence And the people were all to put him away by actual shunning his Communion which is but the obeying of that sentence If the King send to a Corporation to execute any Law he meaneth not that all persons must do it in the like manner but the Magistrates by Command and the people by obeying them and executing their Commands If I desire a man to transcribe me a Book and bring it me I mean not that every part of him shall herein have the same office But that he read it only with his eyes and
understand it with his reason and transcribe it with his hand and travel with his feet The Pastors only excommunicate by Judgement or Sentence and the people by obedient execution of it Obj. Who then shall cast out an Heretick or pernicious Pastor if he himself must be rejected Answ. 1. The Neighbour Pastors shall renounce Communion with him and reject him from their neighbour Communion And they shall warn that people to avoid him by virtue of the common relation which they have to the universal Church of Christ. 2. The people as Cyprian determineth are bound to forsake him not by an act of Government over him or themselves but by an act of obedience to God and of self-preservation As Souldiers must forsake a trayterous General or Seamen a perfidious or desperately unskilful Pilot that would cast them all away As the people did always choose their Pastors to Govern them so may they in such a case refuse them without usurping any Government themselves Well! Now let us see what influence this truth should have upon your Church-Communion Do you say that your neighbours are not to be accounted members of the Church nor to be communicated with Who took them into the Church by Baptism Was it not a Minister of Christ If you say no you must prove your accusation If you grant it was it not his Office so to do Hath not God made his Ministers Judges whom they are to baptize And afterward also whom to catechise and instruct and admit to the communion of the Church There is no doubt of it If then they are admitted by an entrusted Officer will you venture to usurp the place yea and to do them the wrong to say that they are no members Is it any of your trust or work I pray you mark what a mercy it is to you that the Officers and not the private members are entrusted with this work First if it were your work you must study and be able to perform it Secondly you must watch for it and constantly attend it If a Heretick pervert the Text of Scripture you must convince him by your skil in the Originals or in the sense How many hundred or thousand persons are there in a Parish to be tried The worst of them must have a hearing and just trial at least before you can refuse him lawfully And how accurately must this difficult work be done that the weakest be not denied his right nor the unfit admitted How long must a sinner be admonished and exhorted to repentance And are you able and willing to leave all your callings to do all this If the Minister that doth it must lay by the business of the world how think you that you can do the same without laying by your worldly business If he must have so many years learning and preparation can you do it without Mistake not it is not for Sermons only that Ministers need all their learning and labour but also for the discipline and guidance of the flocks Thirdly and if it be your work you must be accountable for it before God And do you not fear such a reckoning And if these busie people had their wish would they not be in a worse case than the most dumb and lazy Minister Consider it well and you will find that you are not at all bound to know what the spiritual state of any man is as he is to joyn in Church-communion with you but upon your Pastors trust and word Whether their understanding be sufficient at their admittance you are not any where called to try but the Pastor is And if he have admitted them you are to rest in his judgment unless you would undertake the office your selves whether their profession of faith and repentance be serious and credible you are not called to try and judge But if your Pastor have admitted them he hath numbred them with the visible Christians And it is the credibility of the Pastor that you have to consider and by him you must judge of the credibility of the professour and not immediately by your own trial Who are the persons that you shall meet at a Sacrament or in publike Communion you are not at all required to try And if you never saw them before or heard them speak you may perform your duty nevertheless Indeed if as a neighbour you are called to instruct or counsel or comfort them you must do it But there may be five thousand in one Church with you whose names or faces you are not bound to know but to rest in the knowledge of them to whom the keyes are committed who according to their office take them in Obj. But what if they are notoriously wicked Must I be blind Answ. No you must do your best by neighboâ—rly watchfulness and help though not by Pastoral Government to reform all about you whom you are able to do good to And if you know them to be so bad you must privately admonish them as is proved and then if they hear not tell the Church But if you see a man in the Church at the Sacrament or a thousand men who are unreformed and you know it not you have no reason to avoid the communion of such And if there be a thousand in the Church whose case you are strangers to thâ—s may be no sin of yours and should be no impediment of your communion Obj. But what if câ—rnâ—l negligâ—nt Ministers will let in 〈◊〉 into the Church by Baptism and give them the Lords Supper Shall it be thus in their power to corrupt the Church And must we joyn with them and take no care of it Answ. There is no person in any office or trust but may too easily abuse it And the more noble the work and trust is the greater is the siâ— and calamity of such abuse And no doubt but a bad unfaithful Minister is one of the greatest sinâ—ers on earth and one of the most pernicious plagâ—es to the Church Which could not be unless it were in his power to do very much hurt But it will not follow that therefore you must take his place and become the Church Governours or try all the peoples fitness your selves If a Judge be bad you may say what an intollerable thing is it that one man shall have power to give away mens estates and take away the livâ—s of the innocent and to acquit the guilty But for all that you must not mend it by stepping up into the judgement seat your self and saying that you or the rest of the people will do it better Some body must be trusted with it If you are fittest offer your self to the office The thing that you must do is to do your best to deliver the Church from so bad a Pastor Use all your wisdome and diligence to amend him And if you cannot do that use all your interest to get him out and get a better And if you cannot do that deliver your own soul from him by removing
which Christ intended was a Vnity in himself and â— Concord in holy Obedience to his Lawes But it is a Vnity in the will of man and a Concord in obeying the Dictates of the proud which Treacherous Pastors do require It is a Peaceable progress of the Gospel and unanimous endeavor to convert and sanctifie and save the world which Christ requireth us to promote But it is a Peaceable enjoyment of their own prosperity wealth and honour and a peaceable forbearance of a holy life which Wolvish Pastors do desire It is an Orderly management of holy doctrine worship and conversation for the edification of the flock and the increase of godliness which Christ commandeth But it is an absolute obedience to their wills and an exact observance of their new-made Religions and needless scandalous inventions and an adoring of their titles and robes of honour covering their ignorance pride and sensuality which Church-yrants call the Order of the Church All Christâ— indulgent tenderness and Discipline are but to further his Holy designe of killing sin and sanctifying souls But the Images of Piety Government Unity Peace and Order which Hypocrites and Pharisees set up are devised engines to destroy the Life and serious practice of the things themselves and are set up in enmity against spirituality and holiness that there might be no other Piety Government Unity Peace or Order in the Church but these lifeless Images It is far from the mind of Christ that no difference should be made between the Holy and the profans the precious and the vile Oâ— that serious piety should be suppressed or discouraged or faithful preachers hindered from promoting it on ignorant graceless Ministers countenanced under pretence of Peace or Order The design of Christ was not like Mahomet's to get himself an earthly Kingdom and numerous followers meerly to cry up his name And therefore he will not indulge men in their sinâ— nor abate oâ— alter the conditions of his Covenant to win disciples He will have his Ministers deal plainly with all to whom they preach and let them know that without self-denial and forsaking all in estimation and resolution and a willing exchange of earth for heaven they cannot be his true Disciples Nor without a Profest consent to thus much they cannot be his visible profest Disciples But all that will not repent must perish And therefore in their Baptism they must profess a renunciation of all competitors His Ministers also must impartially exercise the Keyes which he hath committed to their trust and must not fear the faces of men who at most are able but to kill the body Luk. 12. 4. They must discern between the righteous and the wicked and draw all scandalous sinners to repentance or else exclude them from the communion of Saints that the world may see that Christ is no friend to prophane persons or sensual â—leshly bruits As Chrysostome commandeth the Presbyters not to give the body and blood of Christ to the unworthy though he were the greatest Commander or wore a Diadem and professeth that he would suffer his own blood to be shed before he would give the blood of Christ to the unworthy And as blessed Paul would become all things to all men to win them and commandeth us not to please our selves but to please our neighbours for their good to edification And yet when it came to the flattering of men in their sins he saith that if he should so please men he should be no longer the servant of Christ. And as to his own interest in mans esteem he saith With me it is a small thing to be judged of you or of mans judgment Rom. 15. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 10. 33. Gal. 1. 10. 2 Tim. 2. 4. 1 Cor. 4. 3. Take heed therefore of pretending Unity order peace or charity against the strictest obedience of Godâ—laws or against the faithful preaching of the Gospel and exercise of true Church-discipline or against the necessity of the ancient profession of saving faith and true-repentance in all that will be admitted to the communion of the Church It is not an ungodly unity peace or order that we plead for DIRECT XIV Though your Governours and not you must judge what persons shall be of your publike Church-communion yet it is you that must judge who are fit or unfit for your private company and familiarity Here therefore exercise your strictness in your own part AS it is not you but the King that must judge who shall be of the same Kingdome with you nor the servant but the Master that must choose who shal be in the family with him Nor the scholler but the Schoolmaster that must choose who shal be of the same School with him So it is not you but your Pastor that must judg who shall be of the same Church with you As to the Universal visible Church this is confest by all And there is no reason why it should be denied of particular Churches as is proved But who shall be your Pastors or your Masters your husbands or your wives if you are yet free you your selves must be the choosers And who shall be your intimate companions or your bosome friends Here therefore make as strict a choice as you can If you meet a prophane person at the Lords Table it is his own fault or the Pastors But if you keep company needlesly with such or marry such it is your own fault If the Pastor do not excommunicate them you may choose not to be familiar with them Though you must meet them at the Church and pray with them you need not meet them at the Ale-house and drink with them Though you may not with a few of the most godly separate from the publike communion of all the rest yet may you keep a more intimate familiarity with those few than with all the rest And if you will consider this is all that is necessary to your own duty and that which is best for your own edification Keep thus to a strictness within the bounds of your own place and calling and God will bless you in such a strictness DIRECT XV. Understand well how much it hath pleased God to lay all mens good or evil happiness or misery upon their own choice And observe the reasons of it that you may not oppose this order of God THough God by his grace must change the perverse disposition of mens wills before they will make a gracious choice yet it is most certain that the teachings commands exhortations and reproofs of God are directed to the Will of man And that the promises and threatnings mercies and judgements are used to move and change the will And that in the tenor of his Laws and Covenants Christ hath set Life and Death before men and put their Happiness in their own choice and that no man shall have better or worse than he made choice of that is none shall be either happy or miserable but as they did choose or refuse
the causes of happiness or misery And the reason of this is because Natural-free-will was part of the Natural-image of God on Adam and it is as natural to a man to be a free-agent as to be Reasonable And God will govern Man as Man agreeably to his nature Therefore do not wonder if Church priviledges are principally left to mens own wills or choice when their salvation is left to it Indeed God would not have any man admitted into the Church and to its communion in his own way and on his own terms The way and terms are of Christs appointment That they must Profess Faith and Repentance is his appointed condition that the Minister must be the publike judge of this profession and accordingly receive them â—olemnly by Baptism and that they must enter under the hand of the Key-bearers of the Church All this is of Christs institution But whether they will make this profession or not and whether they will make it in truth or in falshood and whether they will live according to it or play the hypocrites and live contrary to it These are at their own choice And good reason for the gain or less must be their own If any be in the Communion of the Church who either never made profession of Christianity or who is proved before them to have apostatized from that profession or to live impenitently in any gross sin after the Churches admonition it is the Pastors fault and yours if it be by the neglect of your duty But if any other be there it is their own fault and the loss and hurt must be their own If any one that professeth Christianity ignorantly unbelievingly and hypocritically be there or if they come to the Sacrament whilest they live in secret or open sin before they have been openly admonished by the Church it is their own sin and not you but they shall bear the blame God leaveth such matters to their own choice and as they choose they speed And for us to grudge at this order of God is but to quarrel at wisdome and goodness and to correct Gods order by our disorder The man that came in without a wedding garment is blamed and bound hand and foot and punished But the Minister that called him in and admitted him is not blamed because he did as he was bidden He went to the high-ways and hedges and compelled them by importunity to come in that the House might be filled Nor are any that came in with him blamed for having communion with such For they were in their places and did as they were exhorted to do And sâ—â—will it be in the case that is before us DIRECT XVI Though the profession of Christianity which entituleth men to Church-communion must be credible yet remember that there are divers Degrees of credibility and that every Profession which is not proved false is credible in such a degree as must be accepted by the Church PRofession of Christianity is every mans Church-title No man is to prove the sincerity of his own profession nor may the Church require such proof at his hands For how can a man prove to another the sincerity of his own heart But the fuller testimony he giveth of it the better it is And therefore none should refuse to make his own profession as fully credible to the Church as he is able noâ— is the Church to be blamed for enquiring after the fullest credibility so be it they do it but ad melius esse and not ad esse not laying his title upon it nor refusing him for want of it But every profession as such is credible in some degree which is not disproved Because men are under God the only competent judges of their own hearts And the belief of one another is the ground of humane converse And it is an injury to any man to account him a lyar without sufficient proof He that will disprove a mans profession must prove first that he doth not tolerably understand what he saith secondly or that he speaketh not seriously but in jest or not voluntarily but in hypocrisie by constraint or for some by end Thirdly or that he contradicteth his own words by some more credible words or deeds And if you never yet thus disproved mens profession of Christianity before the Pastors of the Church and yet cry out against the Pastors for admitting them you are not true Reformers but disorderly Mutineers and peevish censurers in the Church of Christ. Christs orders and mens right and all Church-justice must not be trodden down and sacrificed to your humour and arbitrary way DIRECT XVII Know how far either Grace or Gifts are necessary to a Minister that you may give both Grace and Gifts their due THere have been two great questions which long have troubled the Church whether we may take him for a true Minister of Christ that is ungodly And what measure of Gifts is necessary to the being of the Ministry I have carefully answered them both in my Disputation of Ordination long ago and shall now only say in brief First that no ungodly man is so called to the Ministry as to excuse himself before God for his usurpation and hypocritical administrations Secondly But many an ungodly man is so far called to the Ministry as that his adminâ—st at ons are all valid to the Church and the innocent people shall not have the loss Thirdly no people should choose and prefer such an ungodly Minister before a better Fourthly but they should rather submit to such than have none when a better cannot by them be had Iudas had a place in the Ministry with the Apostles Act. 1. 17. And his ministration might be valid to others though his hypocrisie might turn it into sin to himself And his ministry might have been accepted of the people though they had known his hypocrisie as Christ did But a sincere Apostle was to be preferred before him And for Gifts First the greatest degree is best and secondly God maketh so great use of them that many an hypocrite wiâ—h excellent gifts doth edifie the Church more than many good men that are ungifted Thirdly but that measure of Gifts only is necessary to the Being of a Minister without which the essential parts of his office cannot be performed Learn therefore to prefer them that have most grace and guifts but not to take them for no Ministers that want Grace totally or want only a greater degree of Gifts And marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of ministration than Grace is He may perform the office of a Minister to the benefit of the Church that hath no saving grace at all so did Iudas so did those in Math. 7. 21. that prophesied and cast out devils in Christs name to whom he will yet say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not For Grace is to save him that possesseth it But Gifts are to teach and profit others Yet Grace is an exceeding
to purchase them DIRECT XXXVII In your judging of Discipline Reformation and any means of the Churches good be sure your Eye be both upon the true End and upon the particular Rule and not on either of them alone Take not that for a means which is either contrary to the word of God or is in its nature destructive of the End THere are great miscarriages come for want of the true observation of this rule First If a thing seem to you very needful to a good end and yet the word be against it avoid it For God knoweth better than we what means is fittest and what he will bless As for instance some think that many self-devised ways of worship contrary to Col. 2. 21 23. would be very profitable to the Church And some think that striking with the sword as Peter did is the way to rescue Christ or the Gospel But both are bad because the Scripture is against them Secondly and if you think that the Scripture commandeth you this or that positive means if Nature and true Reason assure you that it is against the End and is like to do much more harm than good be assured that you mistake that Scripture For first God telleth us in general that the means as such are for the End and therefore are no means when they are against it The Ministery is for edification and not for destruction The Sabbath is for man and not man for the Sabbath Secondly God hath told us that no positive duty is a duty at all times To pray when I should be saving my neighbours life is a sin and not a duty though we are commanded to pray continually So is it to be preaching or hearing on the Lords day when I should be quenching a fire in the town or doing necessary works of mercy Wherefore the Disciples Sabbath-breaking was justified by Christ and he giveth us all a charge to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice which must needs import I prefer mercy before sacrifice and would have no sacrifice which hindereth mercy Therefore if a Sermon were to be preached so unseasonably or in such unsuitable circumstances as that according to Gods ordinary way of working it were like to do more hurt than good it were no duty at that time Discipline is an Ordinance of Christ But if sound reason tell me that if I publickly call this man to Repentance or excommunicate him it is like to do much hurt to the Church and no good to him it would be at that time no duty but a sin As Physick must be forborn where the Disease will but be exasperated by it Therefore Christ boundeth our very preaching and reproof with a Shake off the dust off your feet as a testimony against them And give not that which is holy to dogs c. When treading under foot and turning again and rending us is lâ—kest to be the success the wisdome of Christ and not that of the flesh only requireth us to take it for no duty This is to be observed by them that think that Admonitions and excommunications and exclusion from the Sacrament must be used in all places and at all times alike without respect to the End come of it what will Or that will tempt God by presuming that he will certainly either bless or at least justifie their unseasonable and imprudent actions as if they were a duty at all times To be either against the Scripture or against the End is a certain proof that an action is no duty because no means DIRECT XXXVIII Neglect not any truth of God much less renounce it or deny it For lying and contempt of Sacred truth is always sinful But yet do not take it for your duty to publish all which you judge to be truth nor a sin to silence many lesser truths when the Churches peace and welfare doth require it TO speak or subscribe against any truth is not to be done on any pretense whatsoever For lying is a sin at all times But it is the opinion of injudicious furious spirits that no truth is to be silenced for peace Truth is not to be sold for carnal prosperity but it is to be forborn for spiritual advantage and true necessity First if the publishing of all truths were at all times a duty then all men live every moment in ten thousand sins of omission because there are more than so many truths which I am not publishing Nay which I never shall publish whilest I live Secondly Positives bind not always and to all times Thirdly while you are preaching that opinion which your zeal is so much for you are omitting far greater and more necessary Truths And is it not as great a sin to omit them as the lesser Fourthly Mercy is to be preferred before sacrifice What if the present uttering some truth would cost many thousand mens lives Were not that an untimely and unmerciful word And is it not as bad if but accidentally it tend to the ruine of the Church and the hurt of souls It were easie to instance in unseasonable and imprudent words of truth spoken to Princes which have raised persecutions of long continuance and ruined Churches silenced Ministers and caused the death of multitudes of men Fifthly And where is there any word of God which commandeth us to speak all that we know and which forbiddeth us to forbear the utterance of any one truth Sixthly And for the most part those men who are most pregnant and impatient of holding in their opinions on the pretense of the pretiousness of truth do but proudly esteem their own understandings precious and do vend some raw undigested notions vain janglings or errors under the name of that truth which must by no means be concealed though the vending of it tend to envy and strife and to confusion and every evil work When those that have the Truth indeed have more wisdome and goodness to know how to use it It is not Truth but Goodness which is the ultimate object of the soul. And God who is infinite Goodness it self hath revealed his Truths to the world to do men Good and not to hurt them And the Devil who is the Destroyer so he may but do men hurt will be content to make use even of Truth to do it Though usually he only pretendeth Truth to cover his lies And this angel of Light hath his ministers of Light and Righteousness who are known by their fruits whilest the pretenses of Light and Righteousness are used to Satans ends and not to Christs to hurt and destroy and to hinder Christs Kingdome and not to save and to do good As the Wolf is known by his bloody jaws even in his sheeps cloathing DIRECT XXXIX Know which are the great duties of a Christian life and wherein the nature of true Religion doth consist And then pretend not any lesser duty against those greater though the least when it is indeed a duty is not to
1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3 4. II. On the other side if any withdraw from our Communion let us not too hastily accuse them of schism And when we do let us well distinguish of schism and not go further from them than they have gone from us and to be our selves the Schismaticks while we oppose it There are many cases in which local separation may be lawful First As if our callings justly remove us to another place or Country Secondly If our spiritual advantage bind us to remove to a better Minister and more suitable society when we are free Thirdly if our lawful Pastors be turned out of the place and we follow them and turn away but from Usurpers Fourthly If the Pastors turn Hereticks or Wolves Fifthly If the publick good of the Churches require my removal Sixthly If any sin be imposed on me and I be refused by the Church unless I will commit it In these and some other such cases a remove is lawful And when it is not lawful yet it may be but such a blemish in the departers as the departerâ— find in the Church which they depart from which will on neither side dis-oblige them from Christian Love and such Communion as is due with neighbour Churches There is a schism from the Church and a schism in the Church There is a schism from almost all the Churches in the world and a schism from some one or few particular Churches There is a separation upon desperate intollerable principles and reasons and a separation upon some weak but tollerable ones These must not be conâ—ounded The Novatians were tolerated and loved by the sober Catholicks Emperours and others when many others were otherwise dealt with If any good Christians in zeal against sin do erroneously think that an undisciplin'd Church should be forsaken that they may exercise the discipline among themselves which Christ hath appointed It is the duty of that Church to take this warning to repent of her neglect of discipline and then to love and honour those thâ—t have though upon mistake perhaps withdrawn But if when they have occasioned the withdrawing by their corruption they will prosecute the persons with hatred revising slanders contempt or persecution and continue impenitent in their own corruption they will be the far greater Schismaticks and err a more pernicious errour DIRECT LX. When the Love-killing spirit either cruel or Dividing is abroad among Christians be not idle nor discouraged spectators nor betray the Churches Peace by a few lazy wishes but make it a great part of your labour and Religion to revive Love and peace and to destroy their contraries And let nâ— censures or contempt of any Sect or party take you off But account it an honour to be a Martyr for Love and Peace as well as for the Faith OF all parts of Religion I know not how unhappily it comes to pass men think that Negatives are sufficient for the service of Peace If a man live not unpeaceably and do no man wrong nor provoke any to wrath this is thought a sufficient friend to peace And therefore it is no wonder that Love and Peace so little prosper When Satan and his instruments do all that they can by fraud and force against it and we think it enough to stand by and do no harm It is the Peace-makers that Christ pronounceth blessed for theirs is the kingdome of heaven Math. 5. 9. Here he that is not with Christ and the Church is against it Why should we think that so much actual diligence in hearing reading praying c. is necessary to the promoting of other parts of holiness and nothing necessary to Love and Peace but to do no hurt but be quiet patients Is it not worthy of our labour And is not our labour as needful here as any where Judge by the multitude and quality of the adversaries and by their power and success Is it a mark of hypocrisie to go no further in duties of Godliness than the safety of our reputation will give us leave And is it not so in the duties of Love and Peace If the Kingdome of God be in Righteousness and Peace then what we would do to promote Gods Kingdome we must do for them Rom. 14. 17. And if dividing Christs Kingdome is the way to destroy it and Satan himself is wiser than to divide his own Kingdome Math. 12. then what ever we would do to save the Kingdom of Christ all that we must do to preserve and restore the peace of it and to heal its wounds I know if you set your selves in good earnest to this work both parties who are guilty will fall upon you with their censures at least One side will say of you that you are a favorer of the Schismaticks and Sectaries because you oppose them not with their unhappy weapons love them not as little as they As they say of Socrates and Sozomen the Historians that they were Novatians because they spake truth of them called them honest men And as they said of Martyn and Sulpitius Severâ—s that they were favourers of unlearned Fanaticks and of the Priscilian Gnosticks because they were not as hot against them as Ithacius and Idacius but refused to be of their Councels or communicate with them for inviting the Emperour to the way of blood and corporal violence And the other side will say that you are a temporizer and a man of too large principles because you separate not as they do And perhaps that you are wise in your own eyes because you fall in with neither Sect of the extreams But these are small things to be undergone for so great a duty And he that will not be a peace-maker upon harder terms than these I fear will scarce be meet for the reward I again repeat Iam. 3. 17. The wisdome from above is first pure and then Peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Rom. 12. 18. If it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness Obj. But is it not as good sit still as labour to no purpose What good have ever any peace-makers done among differing Divines Answ. A grievous charge upon Divines and Christians Are they the only Bedlams or drunken men in the world If Princes fall out or if neighbours fall out arbitrators and peace-makers labour not alwayes in vain But I answer you It is not in vain Peace-breakers would have yet prevailed more and made the Church unhappier than it is if some Peace-makers had not hindered them The minds of thousands are seasoned with the Love of Peace and kept from cruelties and Schisms by the wholesome instructions and examples of Peace-makers And it is worth our labour to honour so holy and sweet a thing as Love and Peace and to bear our
many very good men think that publick interest may be allowed much power upon their minds though private and personal must be denied Is it not a wonder to see not only that almost all Christians are incorporated into one sect or party or other but how easily the inconsiderable reasons of their party can prevail with them and how hardly the better reasons of their adversaries seem to them of any weight or worth Not only the parties of Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Reformed c. shew this but in the same Church the Regulars and Seculars the Bishops and the Jesuits the Dominicans and Jesuits the Thomists Scotists c. declare it And the difference made by natural capacities is yet more than all this When one man is born to a duller understanding and another hath a quick and clear apprehension All that these men read and hear and meditate on is like to make different impressions on their minds And this is the greatest thing of any one which maketh many controversies endless and maketh both Divines and people run away from one another as dangerously erroneous If a few men have clearer understandings than the duller and unstudied sort they are like to be the minor part For the dull and slothful and yet self-conceited will ever be the greater part many to one till the golden age return And when all the world feeleth the consequents of this difference can we doubt of it or so far dote as to think it possible to cure it Yet the various degrees of the Grace of God do certainly also make great variety of apprehensions When God giveth to some those true illuminations those â—hirsting desires after truth those heart-experiences those delightful relâ—shes those powerful effects and victories which he giveth not to others they are made to differ must needs have different apprehensions of such things In which sense Christ saith that he came not to send peace but division that is to be such an object and preach so holy a doctrine and give such grace as would â—ccasion divisions by making his sanctified ones differ from the world and occasioning the erritation of the worlds malignity And indeed the grand difference between the seed of the woman and of the serpent the holy and the carnal seed is that which is the root of the greatest and sorest divisions in the world which will never be reconciled till Christ at the day of judgement shall say to one part Come ye blessed and to the other Go ye cursed For the carnâ—l mind is enmity against God and is not subject to his law nor indeed can be in sensâ— compâ—sito Rom. 8. 6 7 8. It was not for nothing that God permitted that great eruption of it in the first man that ever was born into the world against his innocent brothers life on the bare account of their religious sacrifices And the Cainites are still too strong for Alel's successors and too numerous And why did he kill his brother But because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous Gen. 4. 10 11. 1 Joh. 3. 12. And as Paul saith of the two sons of Abraham as he that was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. For the flesh fighteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other Gal. 5. 17. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. And they that are of the flesh do savour mind or understand the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. Our heavenly teacher told his disciples that if they were of the world the world would love them but because they are not of the world but he had chosen them out of the world the world would hate them even as it hated him Ioh. 15. 18 19 24 25. Ioh. 17. 14. And every one that doth evil hateth the light Ioh. 3. 19 20. Nothing then can be surer or plainer to a believer than that there will be still as great divisions and diversitie of apprehensions as radicated enmity can breed And to prevent many objections let these three things be noted First That this grand difference which lieth in the greatest matters in head and heart must needs have influence upon abundance of inferiour controversies Both as the Persons and main cause are concerned in them Reason and experience have put this past controversie Secondly That this doth not concern only the visible Church and the world but the visible Church within it self For all the Hypocrites and carnal worshippers have still the Cainish serpentine nature Yea those that by advantages and interest are brought over to the Orthodox as well as Christian side And it is a happy Church where the Hypocrites are not the greater part And it is neither great Learning nor degrees nor the Pastoral office nor the profession of the highest zeal which will serve turn to cure the carnal enmity without the sanctifying spirit of grace So that when controversies arise we see not in the hypocrites that carnal mind which in the strictest proâ—ession or greatest learning or most venerable function will work against the interest of holiness But we are sure that there it is though we know not the persons in whom but by the full effects Thirdly And note also that there is a mixture or remnant of this unhappy root and principle even in the sanctified themselves And it is hard in a controversie to perceive in our selves much more in others how much our judgements may be moved by this party and what influence it may have into our conclusions So that all this maketh it but too manifest what a certainty there is of perpetual differences in the Church upon all these foresaid accounts Add also this great and unavoidable cause that one errour leadeth in another And no man being without some and every one being generative and inferring more what will it come to when all those also shall have their off-spring and the further they go the more they will increase and multiply And as the judgement by one is laid open to another even as truth inferreth truth so the will is engaged and espouseth mens own opinions as their interest which maketh them stretch their wâ—ts in study to maintain what once they have received and asserted And alas how often have I heard wise and reverend persons cry out against this pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse or the same have shamefully shewed it in themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying cogent evidence against them and being so intent on their own inventions and cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak And when they have heard him their first words shew that they never well weighed the