a judgment of those things wherein their corrupt Interest is opposed or immediately or remotely struck at For men cannot serve God and Mammon as there it follows they cannot be faithful to God and his Truth where a love to him and a care to please him do not bear a greater sway than love to Mammon or any other worldly concern doth Add we yet to all this one consideration more and that is That when men have more love for and pleasure in unrighteousness for worldly advantage sake than love to Truth for Truths sake and what attends a sincere receiving of it the Scripture hath told us that for that very cause God shall send such learned men not excepted strong delusions that they should believe a lie to think and believe verily they have fast hold of Truth when yet they have but a lie in their right hand 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. God in just judgment giving them up to an injudicious mind to call evil good and good evil These things shew how little in reason the consideration of the learning and parts of any of the Popish party ought to weigh with those who upon the account of them are inclined to entertain any whit the more favourable opinion of their way when they consider as they ought that their Learning and Parts are in conjunction with a corrupt Interest As for the Laity or Common people of the Popish perswasion I will not say that a worldly corrupt Interest doth so much prevail on them immediately to be or to continue to be what they are in point of Popery as it doth with their Clergie but at the Second hand it doth prevail on them also For they acting by an Implicite faith believing as their Church-men believe and seeing not with their own but with their eyes and taking all on trust from them and giving up themselves intirely to their Conduct it follows necessarily that if a corrupt Interest misguide their Guides they also must needs become seduced by means of it So that what was said to the people of Israel of old is truly applicable unto them O my people they which lead thee cause thee to err But that will be no excuse to them who suffer themselves to be so misled For if the blind lead the blind you know who hath said they both shall fall into the ditch Now if Popery shall be found indeed to be founded in a like secular carnal corrupt Interest as the corrupt Doctrine and Practice of the false Apostles was and whether it be or no I leave you to judge by what the following discourse offers you then that alone would be enough to blast the Reputation of it for ever in the minds of all such as have judgment in Spiritual things For by this very thing did St. John discriminate the false Teachers and Degenerate Christians and their way from the Orthodox and Sincere and their way They saith he are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them 1 Jo. 4.5 6. They are of the world i. e. they were men of worldly minds and such as chiefly designed a worldly Interest they were such as did mind earthly things as it is elsewhere exprest Phil. 3.18 therefore they speak of the world i. e. the Doctrine which they taught so far as it was False was calculated to promote a worldly corrupt Interest And the world heareth them that is earthly minded men pretenders to Religion received their Doctrine as falling in with their worldly design But we saith St. John are of God he that knoweth God heareth us i. e. received their Doctrine which drew men off from the world to God He that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of error behold here a plain Discrimination of who and whose way is of God and whose is not with whom the Spirit of Truth is found and with whom the Spirit of Error If the Authors of Popery then and their followers have adopted into their Religion as a part of it any corrupt Doctrine or Practice for worldly advantage sake as the false Teachers of old did then they we see as well as those false Teachers are markt out by St. John as being not of God but of the world and as men that are misguided by a Spirit of Errour And although by wresting the Scriptures and corrupting the Word of God they think to colour over and patronize their corrupt Doctrines and Practices just as the false Apostles before them did yet their Arguings thence are but of the same nature with the Reasonings of the false Apostles in like cases which were as St. Paul calls them but perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness 1 Tim. 6.5 I have in the following Papers shewed how St. Paul's Complying with the Jews in some Rites of the Jewish worship upon account of Expedience was quite of a different nature from the corrupt Complyances of the false Apostles and their party And from that prudential and expediential complyance of his I have in an Appendix by parity of Reason argued the expediency of yielding to the use of some things in or about the external form of Gods Worship which are neither directly commanded nor forbidden by God when circumstances render such a yielding necessary to prevent Divisions in the Church and the bad Consequences of them and to preserve Peace and Charity in it and the better to further the free course of the Gospel And this I have done the rather lest any should think that such a yielding as aforesaid should be of like nature with those corrupt compliances of the false Apostles and their Party which are represented to view in the following Discourse As for those who have hitherto escaped the snares of Popery the proper use of the ensuing Tract for them is to fortifie them against all Temptations of turning Papists of what nature soever the Temptation may be Always remembring that such as follow the false Apostles in corrupting the Christian Religion to avoid Persecution or for any worldly advantage whatsoever must expect to share with them in their fate also of whom it is said their end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11.15 And since you will find by the process of the Discourse before you that the Corruptions both in Faith and Practice first in the false Apostles and their followers and after them in the Papists did arise and spring out of an inordinate love of the world the consideration thereof may serve as a Sea-mark to warn us to take heed of that Rock upon which so many professours of Christianity have made shipwrack of it This running into the Spirit of the World hath always been fatal to the Churches As it laid waste at last the once famous flourishing Churches of the Apostles own planting so it hath since deprest and kept many others very low in their
10. Love not the world nor the things of the world saith St. John to those who were in danger of being corrupted by the false Apostles through love to the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world 1 John 2.15 16. Here 's a brief description of that love of the world which is disallowed by God and a snare of death to men The lust of the Eye is covetousness which is a transgression of the rule of righteousness or moderation in desiring or getting or the rule of Piety or Charity in keeping the things of this world The lust of the Flesh is a transgressing of the Laws of Sobriety Temperance and Chastity in using them And the pride of Life is a transgression of the Laws of Modesty and Humility in using undue means to draw honour and esteem from men Now then when St. John saith if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him his meaning seems to be this that when any man lives in the breach of any of Gods Commandments in Coveting Getting Keeping or Using the things of this world that 's the man that so loves the world as that the love of the Father is not in him For as the love of God according to this Apostle consisteth in keeping his Commandments as he saith Chap. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments So the not loving the Father but the world consists in the breach of his Commandments in Coveting Getting Keeping or Using the friendship or the things of the world And thus the false Apostles were lovers of the world They were willing to be for God and the Gospel so long and so far as their being so did not deprive them of their worldly accommodations but wherein it did so that they could no longer serve two Masters God and Mammon without faultering with one of them then and in those particular cases when such a Competition did occur they were wont still to cleave to their worldly interest but to turn their back upon God and the Gospel For which cause they were compared to Esau and stiled prophane persons like him Heb. 12.16 For as Esau preferred so inconsiderable a thing as a mess of Pottage because of the presentness of the satisfaction he expected thereby before the far more desirable priviledges and benefits of Birth-right and Heirship because they for a great part at least were not to be received till afterwards So these lovers of and designers for this present world did chuse ease and other worldly accommodations because present rather than the better hope of eternal life because absent and to come This was the root of bitterness in the persons of Seducers against the springing up of which among the Christians the Author of this Epistle had cautioned them v. 15. At that time when the case was so that all that would live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution there was no way of retaining a profession of Christianity and their worldly ease and enjoyments too but by corrupting the Christian Religion and making it another thing than the Author of it had made it which was the thing the false Apostles laboured to bring the Christians to under delusive pretences that they might save themselves from suffering which brings me to what is next to be discoursed and that is to shew how unworthily these false Teachers corrupted the Christian Religion to attain their worldly end and base design S. 2. The next thing then which as I said I proposed to shew was how in what way and by what means the false Apostles carried on their worldly design of which I have been speaking how in particular they ordered things in their profession of Christianity so as to secure their end and to serve their design for this world In doing of which I shall shew first that to this end they corrupted the Christian Religion by their sinful mixtures Secondly that they did this and carried on their whole design for the world under a Religious pretence First they corrupted the Christian Religion on purpose to serve their design They corrupted it partly by adding other things to it which were of a contrary nature and partly by sinister and corrupt interpretations of the Christian Doctrine and of the Scriptures of the Old Testament to countenance those additions either as lawful or as necessary And thus they abused the Scriptures touching the use of the Law of Moses by misconstruction and misapplication They would be esteemed for judicious teachers of the Law when they understood not what they said nor whereof they affirmed 1 Tim. 1.7 They taught Circumcision and the observation of other Rites of the Law of Moses to be necessary to the Salvation of Christian Gentiles when their doing so served their carnal design though otherwise they made no conscience of keeping the Law themselves For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the Law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh said St. Paul of them Gal. 6.13 but more of this afterwards St. Peter also tells us that they wrested things in St. Paul's Epistles and other Scriptures to their own destruction They walked in craftiness and handled the word deceitfully as St. Paul reflects it upon them in 2 Cor. 4.2 and so he doth again when he saith we are not as many which corrupt the word of God 2 Cor. 2.17 By an unkindly violence which they offered to it they made it seemingly and in the eyes of weak and injudicious and credulous persons to countenance what they did in prosecution of their carnal design And although these false appearances were but slight and such as had nothing satisfying in them to an unprejudiced and discerning mind yet they would serve for demonstrations and pass for good proof with those who were willing and desirous to have those things prove true which the false Apostles pretended to be so Like as when the false Prophets of old prophesied falsly the people loved to have it so because it was for their carnal interest to have that prove true which they prophesied But this only in general But to come more particularly to the business and to shew how they corrupted the Christian Religion to save them from suffering and to compass their farther ends The sincere Christians were in great danger of suffering the loss of all the things of this world for Christ and the Gospel sake from two sorts of enemies to Christianity the unbelieving Jews and the unbelieving Gentiles To avoid which the False Apostles taught themselves first and others after somewhat to comply with these Enemies of Christianity in mixing somewhat of their Rites and Usages with it on purpose to take off the edge of that Opposition and Persecution
they used all the art they could to defend and justifie what they had done and had perswaded others to do And to render the opposition they had herein from the holy Apostles the less available in the eyes of others they sought by one means or another to disparage them and to undermine the authority and reputation they had in the hearts of the Christians And by these means they corrupted and drew away many after them and that not of the more ordinary Disciples only but probably many of those also who were become preachers of the Gospel whereof it may be Demas might be one who as St. Paul said had forsaken him and embraced this present world And indeed this Contagion spread so fast and prevailed so much that St. Paul complained saying all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ Phil. 2.21 Thus having given you an account of the Rise of the False Teachers in the Apostles days I shall now give you a more particular and full account of their design And their Design as I have already intimated was worldly it was to Secure and Procure a worldly corrupt interest It is not unlikely but that at the first their design in complying so much as they did with the profest enemies of Christianity was only to avoid those sufferings for the Gospel sake which the sincere Christians were exposed to and underwent both in their persons and estates But afterwards when they had carried away many by their deceits and were become the Head and ring-leaders of a Party a farther worldly advantage offered it self and came in prospect which we may well conceive they were not so dull as not to perceive nor so careless and negligent as not to pursue and that was an opportunity of Gain of making merchandize of the seduced Christians besides the opportunity of gratifying their ambition in becoming the Head of a Party As the false Prophets of old and the corrupt Priests when by prophesying and preaching pleasing things to the people they found no small benefit in the liberal gifts and rewards that course did procure were encouraged to make a trade of so doing in which respect those Prophets were said to divine for money and those Priests to teach for hire even so the false Apostles also perceiving that to be a thriving way applyed themselves to preach for Doctrine such things as pleased the unsound and timorous professors of the Gospel and so made their carnal ends on them They taught things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake as St. Paul saith and thereby subverted whole houses Tit. 1.11 They found that the preaching such loose Doctrine in point of compliance as tended to ease the professors of Christianity of the burden of persecution was very gainful it gained them many Proselytes for they came in by whole housholds we see and it gained them much of filthy lucre also For their Proselytes grew very kind to them for teaching them an easier and safer way of professing Christianity than they knew before Yea so it was that the poor deluded people became so much their servants upon account of that satisfaction they took in that new discovery that St. Paul upbraided some of them with it in these words Ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a man smite you on the face 2 Cor. 11.20 The design of these men to be a worldly and fleshly design is plentifully as well as plainly discovered in the Epistles of the Apostles The sincere Christians indeed ventured all their worldly concerns and sacrificed all their worldly interest upon the service of the Gospel their holy profession and their own Souls but these men as St. Paul characteriseth them were enemies to the Cross of Christ they were such as made their belly their God and minded earthly things Phil. 3.18 19. They were enemies to the great duty of taking up the Cross and suffering for Christ earthly things having more of their heart than he had These who by their pleasing doctrine aforesaid caused divisions and offences among the Christians contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned from the true Apostles were such as served not the Lord Jesus Christ whatever they pretended but their own bellies Rom. 16.17 18. And St. Peter describing them saith they had hearts exercised with covetous practises having for saken the right way and going astray followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.14 15. They ran greedily after the way of Balaam for reward as Jude hath it vers 11. And through covetousness with feigned words they made merchandise of the people whom they deluded 2 Pet. 2.3 Now in case of Persecution 't is true indeed that when Christ sent forth his Disciples as Sheep among Wolves he advised them to be wise as Serpents but innocent as Doves to use as much prudence for the avoiding of persecution as would consist with innocency Mat. 10.16 And no doubt but that the sincerest Christians were willing enough to make use of all the prudence they had to shun persecution so far as lawfully they might But yet were still careful to preserve and maintain their own innocency and integrity in all they did in that kind and not in the least to betray the Cause of Christ And therefore they could say in those suffering times This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom as the false Apostles but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 But the false Apostles and their followers used so much subtilty and carnal policy to avoid the Cross as that the wisdom of the Serpent did devour the innocency of the Dove They made themselves friends of the world indeed by unlawful compliance and by adulterating the Christian Religion by impure mixtures but then they thereby made themselves enemies to God as St. James saith in betraying his Truth and Cause James 4.4 By the way then we may see by what hath been said how dangerous a thing it is inordinately to desire and love the friendship of the world the accommodations of this present life it is we see that which hath betrayed multitudes otherwise in a hopeful way of Salvation into cursed and destructive Practises They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have been seduced from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows saith St. Paul speaking of those corrupt Christians whose inordinate love to the things of this world drew them into such sinful Compliances to preserve them as were inconsistent with Christianity in the truth and power of it 1 Tim. 6.9
to draw them over to them to become such Christians as themselves I know not which yet doubtless was one thing they promised themselves in it yet it 's very probable they found by experience that their complying with the Heathen in going to their Idol-feasts did procure them much ease as their compliance with the Jews had done either in freeing them from or greatly abating that Persecution which before they were exposed unto by professing the Gospel which was another thing they promised themselves in it And there are two things especially which make this probable The one is in that this Device of Compliance took with the Christians and prevailed so much in the several Churches as by the Scriptutes already quoted we see it did The other is in that St. Paul brings in the Corinthians applauding themselves in their happy condition since the time their new Teachers came among them to teach them a more easie and safe way of professing the Gospel than Paul had done in 1 Cor. 4.8 10. Now ye are full now ye are rich ye have reigned as kings without us We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ we are weak but ye are strong ye are honourable but we are despised even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst are naked and buffeted c. They had Halcyon days now as they thought in comparison of what they had before And it appears that this Church of Corinth especially was infected with this contagious Disease in that St. Paul hath it so often up arguing against it warning them of it several times and in both his Epistles to them And the ease they found by it was in all likelihood as I said the temptation by which it prevail'd so much among them as it did S. 5. Other things also they did in corrupting the Christian Religion to ingratiate themselves with the Enemies of it whereof Worshipping of Angels I may name for one against which the Apostle warned the Christians in Col. 2.18 saying Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up with his fleshly mind Whether this was done and taught in compliance with those Heathen who followed the way of Platonick Philosophy in this as some think and St. Paul had said before in ver 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit or whether to draw near to the Pagans who had their Daemons their Baalims or Lords to whom they addressed themselves as Mediators to their Superiour Deities I shall not determine But I think there is little question to be made but that this their falling back to the Rudiments of the World as well as other their Sophistications was to serve themselves in their worldly design S. 6. Furthermore They denied the Resurrection of the Body in compliance with the Enemies of Christianity The Pagans and likewise the Sadduces which were a prevailing Sect among the Jews held no Resurrection of the Body after death And we find that this Heretical Opinion was set on foot in the Church of Corinth by some among them 1 Cor. 15.12 How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead And we have little reason but to think that those who did put it on foot there did so the more to curry favour with the Opposers and Persecutors of the Christians who profest a belief of the Doctrine of the Resurrection because that for the same reason they did unduely comply with them in other things as I have shewed And because this was so manifestly contrary to the Gospel which yet they profest that in denying that they did in effect deny the Gospel therefore to bring themselves off from this self contradiction in their Profession when they felt themselves hard prest with it they fell to quibling with this Doctrine of the Resurrection and to put mystical Interpretations upon it as some in our days have done saying That the resurrection was past already as Hymeneus and Philetus did in 2 Tim. 2.17 18. They taught it seems That what is so oft affirmed in the Gospel touching the Resurrection was to be understood of a Resurrection then already past S. 7. Again To increase their Party and to strengthen their Interest they broached Doctrines of Libertinism and Licentiousness which is a course that usually proves too successful in drawing corrupt Men to be on the side of such Teachers and for the sake thereof to espouse other of their Opinions Such Men will run after such Teachers heaping to themselves as St. Paul saith teachers after their own lusts 2 Tim. 4.3 St. Peter speaking of this course of theirs in 2 Pet. 2.18 19. saith When they speak great swelling words of vanity they allure through the lusts of the flesh those who were clean escaped from those who live in errour While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption As in the things before-mentioned they corrupted the Christian Religion in point of Worship so in this under consideration they corrupted it in point of Manners Fornication was held a thing lawful among the Gentiles Acts 15.29 and the false Teachers to make themselves Friends of the World taught the Christians to esteem it lawful too Rev. 2.20 Thou sufferest the woman Jezabel who calleth her self a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication c. And so again in ver 14 15. Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Balaam c. so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate This sort of Men had eyes full of adultery beguiling unstable souls as St. Peter saith 2 Pet. 2.14 They crept into houses and led captive silly women laden with sins and led away with divers lusts 2 Tim. 3.6 They taught it also to be lawful to cast off Obedience and Subjection to Governours both Masters and Magistrates under pretence of their Christian Liberty by the Gospel which was a Doctrine very taking with many especially Jews many of whom were otherwise of themselves upon all occasions forward enough to cast off the Roman yoke Upon this account these Seducers were said to despise government and to speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 Jude 11. And to perish in the gainsaying of Core who as we know opposed Moses and Aaron in their Government Against this Seduction St. Peter cautions the Christians 1 Pet. 2.16 17. when he saith As free and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God Honour all men Love the brotherhood Fear God Honour the King And so doth St. Paul 1 Tim. 6.1 Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed S. 8. Furthermore they grew to this at last that if all their other Compliances would
advantage of that and by corrupt arts under religious pretences rise to that greatness in the world as to cause the world to wonder after them do fairly seem to be prophetically pointed at by the Apostle as those which should carry on the Mystery of Iniquity to a greater height and prevalence when that which hindred was taken out of the way than it could reach to in the Apostles dayes But I need not lay the stress of proving the Authors of Popery to be the Actors of the second part of the Mystery of Iniquity upon this contexture of Scripture I have been beating upon for the thing I suppose will appear evident enough of it self if there had been no such thing written as what we have in 2 Thes 2. For if they out of a worldly design have corrupted the Christian Religion under pretence of Religion as the false Apostles did Then they must needs be found workers of Iniquity in a Mystery as well as they And whether they have or no comes next to be enquired into which brings me to the Second part of what I was to discourse and that is to justifie my comparing the Authors of Popery with the false Apostles in managing a carnal and worldly design in corrupting the Christian Religion under pretence of practising and promoting it S. 15. To prepare my way to this I shall premise for our better understanding that though the design and practice of the false Apostles and the Authors of Popery agree in the general nature of them yet they differ in some circumstances But then that wherein they do differ does not tend to extenuate but to aggravate the iniquity of the design of the Authors of Popery and to render it more criminal than the same design was whiles and as it was managed by the false Apostles The false Apostles acting their part in times of open opposition against Christianity and of persecution for so much as but confessing the name of Christ were under a sore temptation of doing what they did at the first only to save their lives and to preserve and get a livelihood in the World Whereas those that gave the first rise to Popery taking their turn in the world in Halcy on days and peaceable times when persecution for confessing Christ was not only ceased but them when the profession of Christianity was grown into honourable request with High and Low they were under no such temptation of doing what they did in the way of their design either to save their lives or livelihood or to obtain an honourable estate becoming Bishops of the Churches of Christ being therein prevented by the bounty of Christian Emperors But their design and the mâ—â—ns used to effect it was founded in an excessive thirst and exorbitant desire after greatness and worldly domination exceeding all bounds of moderation And this difference renders the iniquity of the worldly design in the false Apostles but little in comparison of what it was in the Authors of Popery Solomon saith Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfie his soul when he is hungry Prov. 6.30 They pitty such as through a kind of seeming necessity are drawn to do that which yet is no wise-justifiable under such a Circumstance when the same thing done by another under no such temptation is looked upon with indignation To acquaint you then with the first rise of Popery as founded in a worldly design as at the first I acquainted you with the rise of the false Apostles and their corrupting the Christian Religion founded in a design for this world I must first represent to you the ill use which some of the Bishops made of that peace and prosperity which the Church of God at last came to enjoy when the Emperors and Rulers of the world became Christians themselves and imployed their power and greatness to encourage and farther the profession and practice of Christianity For when the Bishops of the Churches came not only to be protected in the discharge of their Function by publick Authority but also to be greatly honoured and highly advanced for their Profession and Function sake some of them were not able to stand under so great a weight of honour as was cast upon them without being puft up and transported with Pride and Ambition And this Pride and Ambition put them upon striving and contending for precedency preheminence and superiority of Jurisdiction which settled at last in a claim of Supremacy made by the Bishop of Rome in arrogating to himself the Title of Vniversal Bishop over all Bishops and Churches in the world And out of this pretended headship grew by degrees the whole body of Popery by which the Christian Religion hath been corrupted This exorbitant Power claimed by the Bishop of Rome could not be upheld and maintained without the assistance of such other Bishops and Presbyters as were willing to own and defend this headship Nor could that be expected without their sharing in the worldly advantages to be obtained thereby Nor could that grandeur which they designed for themselves be maintained without a suitable Revenue Nor such a Revenue be raised had the plain honest and moderate methods of Christianity been observed in it For if those methods could have been observed and their turn served thereby they would never have been at the trouble of inventing and defending new ones That these ends designed therefore might be served certain additions to and corruptions of the Scriptures and Christian Religion were pitcht upon as the likeliest means to obtain them but yet to be managed so as that the people might be perswaded that those additions and corruptions were either parts of Christian Religion or necessary means to promote it And these additions and corruptions are the things which we call Popery and not any other things though held and done by Papists which yet are agreeable to the Scriptures and which other Christians hold and do as well as they I do not say nor indeed think that the first Authors and beginners of Popery had in prospect or did practise all the additions and corruptions which afterward were found out by their successors as necessary to secure and uphold the Usurped Power and Greatness No more did their predecessors the false Apostles begin with all the evil devices which they were afterwards led to to carry on their design I shall now therefore come to instance in some of those additions and to shew how they fall in with this worldly design projected by the Authors of Popery and how like they look to what was designed and done by the false Apostles It may be every one of those additions in difference between Protestants and Papists may not directly tend to promote their worldly design though many of them do remotely which do not immediately But yet that will afford them no relief though so it should be Because when men invent some errors for no other reason but because they are serviceable to them in
things by what hath been fairly argued from Scripture by many to satifie doubtful minds concerning them I am very confident they might easily come to plenary satisfaction in their own minds touching this one thing viz. That to bear with those things for the peace of the Church and the Interest of Religion in general is not so inexpedient as it is by dividing the Church by forsaking that Worship to expose our Religion to the scorn and contempt of Atheists Infidels and Papists and to occasion alas too many others to become such and as it is to confound and unsettle the minds of well meaning but injudicious people and to betray them into the hands of seducers and as it is to divert mens minds from the serious consideration study and practice of the weightier matters of Religion and to engage them in contentious janglings and uncharitable revilings and censurings to the destruction of true Piety and placing Religion much in Opinion and in being of a different form and party and lastly as it is to expose us all to the danger of the breaking in of Popery by strengthning their hands who are of that way and by weakning our own and by encouraging them in hopes of success by our Divisions to practise upon us and by all their Arts to improve the advantage we put into their hands by our distractions and yet these and such like have been the effects of dividing our Church And if to bear with those external circumstances of Worship for the sake of the peace and edification of the Church and securing to us our Religion be not so inexpedient as it is to draw on us the foresaid bad effects of our divisions by withdrawing from the worship it self for the sake of those circumstances Then the Rule before laid down and according to which St. Paul acted shews which of these inexpediencies in case both should be such is to be yielded to and born with that the other may be avoided Now that to bear with the foresaid Circumstances of worship is not so inexpedient as it is to cause divisions and the Consequents of them by forsaking the worship for their sake will easily appear by this viz. In that the Lord hath not declared himself against the former as he hath done against the latter Although God hath expresly appointed the substantial parts of his worship as the ministration of the Word Prayer and Sacraments yet he hath not so expresly appointed the external form method manner and circumstances of Administration as whether it shall or shall not be administred according to the external circumstances required in our Liturgy but hath left things of that nature to be ordered by general rules of Education Comeliness and Order according to the best skill and prudence they have into whose hands the providence of God hath put the ordering of affairs of that nature And although the external form of administration of Gods publick worship may be comparatively better in one Nation or Church than in another when but all one in substance as it would be in particular congregations also if all Ministers were left to their own liberty therein Yet the meanest of them would not be unlawful so long as nothing is done in opposition to any divine precept or to the defeating of the end of the external administration of Gods publick worship But God hath not left men to any such latitude to cause or not to cause divisions and offences in the Church as he hath for them to use different forms and circumstances of forms in his publick worship and therefore there cannot be the like reason to pretend Inexpediency in submitting to them as there is in causing divisions and offences in the Church by forsaking the publick worship upon account of them If the honour of God and good of men had been as much concerned in the external form of his worship in not having it in this way but in that as they are in mens keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace we have all reason on our side to think he would then have been as particular and express for this form and against that as he hath been for the peace unity and charity of the Church and against their contraries and their contrary effects which yet he hath not been What God said to the Jews when he found them hot for Sacrifices but cold and careless in the moral part of Religion may with a little variation be very aptly applyed to our case in hand I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning burnt Offerings or Sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice c. but they hearkened not c. Jer. 7.22 23 24. For when our Lord Christ sees us more nice about forms of worship and more zealous for this and against that than we are for peace and Charity and the honour and safety of our Religion and the good of other mens souls which are greatly wronged and endangered by our divisions may he not as truly say When I gave forth the Gospel spake I a word to my Disciples to be hot for that external form of worship you contend for in opposition to that you contend against But this I said have Salt in your selves and peace one with another let all your things be done in Charity endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way that none occasion be given to the adversary to speak reproachfully and wo to the world because of offences and wo to him by whom the offence cometh and yet you have not been curious nice and cautious in these as you have been about the other Which if true what account can be given for our breaking the Church in pieces and exposing our Selves our Religion and the Spiritual and eternal concerns of others to such damage perils and hazards as have been mentioned and all for the sake of that which he commanded not I say commanded not definitively For doubtless they have been under a very great mistake who have asserted that nothing is to be done in the worship of God which he hath not commanded if they mean it not only of the intrinsick matter and substance of his worship but also of all external circumstances of administration as appears I suppose by what I have already said and by a due consideration of those very Scriptures upon which that opinion is supposed to be founded Such as Deut. 17.3 Jer. 7.31 19.5 32.35 Levit. 10.1 compared with Chap. 16.12 Chap. 6.12 13. Where when some have been censured by God for doing what he commanded them not it was in reference to false worship in the Substance of it done in opposition to what he had otherwise expresly appointed and commanded but never in reference to undetermined