knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they shall be alike good Whatsoever scornfull or careless Men conceit hereof the Divine Wisdom hath made it praise-worthy and precious The tongue of the just is as choice silver and the lips of the righteous feed many And to good Hearts this Practice will not be burdensom for they will recreate their Minds herewith as an holy divertisement and serious Pastime while others spend their leasure in that mirth and laughter which the Wise Man calls madness CHAP. IX The Prevalence of Religion or real Godliness in the Civil Government of a Nation IN Christian States and Kingdoms Religion being Gods interest ought to have the preeminence in all things And its Preeminence is no incroachment upon the Rights of the Higher Powers but their Establishment God alone hath an underived and unlimited Empire over Man his creature The People are primarily Gods Subjects and then are subject to Princes as to his Vicegerents and obedience to him is the grand interest both of Prince and People None can doubt that God hath made his own Glory and mans Salvation the supreme ends of government and subjection And consequently that is the best Policy which gives these ends the highest place and makes temporal advantages and the wellfare of the outward Man subordinate thereunto And this requires that the Constitution give the highest regards to Gods Laws and maintain their Authority and that the whole publick Administration tend to the promoting of Righteousness and true Holiness and to the suppressing of all unrighteous and impious Practice As it is the Church's duty and honour to teach and command her Children to do whatsoever Christ hath commanded so it is the proper work and chiefest glory of the Magistrate who is Gods Minister to defend the Faith and uphold the Ordinances of the Gospel and to further the most lively and powerfull Dispensation of them and to incourage and command obedience to the Divine Law written in Nature or Scripture In subserviency hereunto his Power is to determine such things as are requisit in general but in particular are left undetermined of God and therefore called indifferent and are to be ordered by human Prudence according to the general Rules of Gods word And for these ends the chief Magistrate hath a Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiastical But it is no diminution of his Authority to remove from it things unnecessary unprofitablē and offensive in their use and for their doubtfull nature apt to perplex the Subjects conscience And he is the general Bishop of his Dominions in a political sense without any incroachment upon that Authority wherewith Christ the King of the Church hath invested spiritual Pastors As he is such an Officer it is worthy of his chiefest care to provide and send forth able and faithfull Dispensers of the Word that may teach the People the good knowledge of God after the example of the good King Jehoshaphat and to see that every one who hath the Cure of Souls be resident with his Flock and constantly instruct them by preaching the Word and Catechizing them in the Principles of Religion and not to suffer Pluralists to seise upon several Congregations as a prey to fleece but not to feed them to incourage laborious Ministers that watch for the Peoples Souls as those that must give an account and strictly to injoyn the Sanctification of the Lords Day which was sanctified to the publick Worship of God by the Apostles of our Lord who were guided by an infallible Spirit in setling this as all other Ordinances pertaining to Christs Kingdom and was observed by the Apostolick Churches and so hath continued in all Ages and in all places of Christianity and is conveyed down to us by as unquestionable Tradition as the Scripture it self It is not of little moment to suppress or at least to bring into disgrace whatsoever customs serve for nought but to feed inordinate Sensuality and to make those that use them profane vicious and licentious There are frequented shews and pastimes well known that increase unto all ungodliness and may be called the Devils ordinances Those that wish well to Piety have an ill part to act when they take upon them to defend some exercises from which an extreem abuse is inseperable and which are made a trade of gain arising from the impurity and profaness of them and therefore are incorrigible and can admit no reformation The Piety of any Nation is not to be measured by formalities and opinions and uniformity in little things but by substantial Devotion by solid zeal in the weighty matters of the Law and main concerns of Religion by righteousness of life by sobriety purity modesty by peace and concord with mutual forbearance in those differences that should not and need not make breaches among Brethren by dutifulness in all relations by industry frugality and by abounding Charity that is full of good Works Happy is that State where religious influence is predominant where the pious and prudent bear sway not by intrusion but by lawfull Admission also where it ariseth to that strength as to carry along with it the affection and interest of a Nation not by setting up the Faction of a few but by making the generality or at least the greater number of considerable men some of them truly regenerate Christians and the rest orderly and well affected One would think it were out of question that it were more desirable that Religiousness should be in fashion than open dissoluteness and profaness For uncontrolled profaness will run down all Religion But when those that reach not the Power of Godliness indeed come so far as to take up an outward garb thereof it is a great external advantage to true Religion and shews its prevalent Influence on the publick State If any should demur upon this Assertion by making it a question whether Phariseim or Profaness be the worser evil let him know first that profane and dissolute Christians are notorious Hypocrites for professing to know God when in works they deny him Besides Phariseism is not simple insincerity but a compound hypocrisie wherein malignity and enmity against the Power of Godliness is the chief ingredient it is a kind of strict externalness that seeks to destroy the inward life and spirit of that Religion which it pretends to own I have no list to say that such malignity is less mischievous than filthy lewdness or debauchery But the garb of strict Profession here mentioned is of another nature and serviceable to the Churches good though we must continually and strictly charge all Men to beware of resting in it to the ruine of their own Souls CHAP. X. Christian Unity and Concord ALl faithfull Christians are Members of one mystical Body having all one Spirit one Lord and Head one Faith one Baptism and one God and Father of them all one Hope of their Calling and one Heaven to receive them all
and carnall interests to false ways and vain inventions For which cause it behooves the zealous Religionist to be carefull even to jealousie that he be not imposed upon by himself or others and in this care heartily and intirely to resign and conform himself to the Law of God By such resignation and conformity he secures his own Soul and what in him lies the Sound state of Religion It is here acknowledged that what is written in nature is Gods Law as well as what is written in Scripture and that natural Revelation as well as supernatural is Divine and whatsoever is known of God by the Light of nature in the matter of Religious Worship is to be received as well as that which is known by the Light of Scripture and the divine Goodness is to be owned in both though in the latter it hath appeared more abundantly because therein is given us a full instruction in all things pertaining to Gods Kingdom which in the other is not given For the great mysteries of the Gospel could not be known by nature and in things that could be known thereby the light is but weak and glimmering and not easily able to fix the heart therein not so much for want of evidence in the object as from the pravity of our mind reason being laid asleep and all our faculties being sunk into the brutish life What is the utmost capacity of that light among the Heathens is hard for us to define and though it be harsh to determine that they were all utterly and universally forsaken of God yet it is evident both by Scripture and the lives of the Gentiles that Gentilism was a very forlorn state This is enough to shew the high favour of God toward the Church in supernatural Revelation by which he hath not only instructed us in things supernatural not otherwise to be known in this life but also more perfectly in the Laws of nature now transcribed into the Books of the Old and New Testament so that there is nothing of Religion or Morality that may not be found therein Besides the Law of God written in Nature and Scripture what certain and stable rule of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Conversation hath the Church to walk by that there can be no certainty or consent in meer or all Tradition or in the judgment of the ancient Fathers or the ancient practice of the Catholick Church is so evident as needs no confirmation and there can be no acquiescence or accord in the determinations of any visible universal Supream Power For whereas all Christians acknowledge the Divine Authority of the Scripture they neither do nor ever did nor will unanimously acknowledge that there is such a Power in being And the main Body of them that maintain'd such a Catholick Supremacy cannot agree in what subject the same resides whether in the Pope or a General Council And as several Popes so have several Councils of equal amplitude and authority often crossed one another and consequently some of both kinds must needs have erred And it still remains a controversie undeterminable which Councils are to be received and which to be rejected unless the whole Christian World hitherto disagreeing herein will be bound up by the resolves of one Party that can bring no better proof than their own pretended infallibility To all which may be added that an Oecumenical Council truly so called or a Representative of the universal Church was never yet congregated Wherefore let the Faithfull rest upon the old right foundation the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles whose infallibility is unquestionable Such being the fulness and perfection of holy Scripture which was given by Divine inspiration and that for this end that the man of God might be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works it must needs be safest in Divine matters not to be venturous without its warrant They best secure themselves from error who keep to that rule which is both perfect and infallible some pretending to lay open the folly of the way which they call puritanism affirm that the mystery thereof lies in this principle that nothing ought to be Established in the Worship of God but what is authorized from the Word of God Indeed there are those of that denomination who disallow whatsoever instituted Worship is not so authorized but they are not so ignorant as to suppose that all particular circumstances belonging to Divine Worship which admit of endless variation are defined in the Word of God such as are those natural and civil circumstances without which actions are not performable But they suppose a wide difference between these matters such as time place method furniture c. and those ordinances of Religion which they take for parts of Worship as being made direct and immediate signs of honour given to God by their use And all of this kind some do judge or at least suspect to be unlawfull that are not of Gods appointment My design obligeth me to shun the intangling of this Discourse with controversie and therefore I write not either for or against the lawfulness of such uncommanded Worship But it is sufficient for me to shew that the purity of Religion is more safe by acquiescence in that only which God hath prescribed than by addition of new ordinances of Worship devised by men who even the best of them may too easily deviate from the truth And who knows not that too much yielding to mens devised Forms and Rights which had a shew of Wisdom made way for the departure of so great a part of Christendom from the primitive Christianity All duties of the Law of nature may be clearly proved from Scripture though the particular instances thereof that are innumerable and their infinitely variable circumstances cannot be there expressed As for instituted Worship it is unquestionable that there is no such defect in those parts thereof that are of Divine authority as needs to be made up by the human addition of other new parts And it is granted on all hands that there are things meerly circumstantial belonging to it which are necessary in general but in particular not determined of God and must be ordered by the light of nature and human prudence according to the general rules of Gods word None that know what they say in magnifying the written Word will teach the People not to rely upon impartial reason which no true Revelation did ever contradict But we are so conscious of the weakness of human understanding that in case of any seeming contrariety between Scripture and Reason not to give the Scripture the preeminence we know is most unreasonable Is Scripture liable to be perverted so is Reason Is there obscurity and difficulty in the interpretation of Scripture so in human ratiocinations much more Whosoever can apprehend right reason can rationally apprehend Gods written word which is its own interpreter and whose authentick interpretation of it self we are inabled to discern by rational inferences and deductions
state as a Jewel that hath its greatest lustre by the brightest light is maintain'd by the clearest knowledge In bright times the impostures and carnal designs of devised Doctrines and superstitious vanities will be made manifest and the hypocrisie being detected the Merchandize thereof will be quite marr'd In such times even the vulgar sort will expect from those in sacred Functions at least the appearance of a sober righteous and godly conversation with diligence in holy administrations Then the enemies of real Sanctity are put to hard shifts and forc'd to appear either in some colours of Truth or in the shame of their own nakedness For this cause the Followers of Truth make it their special interest as throughly to promote the most ample diffusion and universal increase of Knowledge among all ranks and sorts of Men as the Adverse partly seek to oppose and debase it We do not hereby mean an intermedling in difficult matters a smattering in controversies and certain curiosities of Opinions a store of unnecessary notions and of meer words and phrases which things are commonly erroneous and at the best but injudicious and puff up the half-witted and self-conceited and make them troublesom to themselves and others But that which is here commended for an universal increase and propagation is to understand the Principles of the Essential Truths of Christianity to see their evidence to judge rightly of their weight and worth and to view their coherence and besides these to know so much of other Truths as the different Capacities of Men will inable them for the bettering of their Knowledge in the Essentials The means of diffusing this Light are well known as the constant Preaching of the Word and the opening of the Principles of Religion in a due form of Cathechism the strict observation of the Lords Day repetition of Sermons â—…ious Conferences reading the Word and Prayer in Families profitable Communication among neighbour-Christians in their daily converse the spreading of practical Books written by Men of sound judgment and Ministers private applications to those of their own Charges with prudence and meekness For the same end that main Principle of Protestanism the judgment of Discretion as â—elonging to all Christians is to be asserted and â—…indicated against that Popish and brutish Doâ—…trine of implicit Faith in the Church's deâ—…rminations This is not to subject matters of â—aith to a private Spirit but to refer them to â—…e divine Authority of the holy Scriptures to â—…e apprehended in the due and right use of â—eason which is a publick and evident thing â—…d lies open to the tryal and judgment of all Men. And to Men of sober minds serious for the saving of their own Souls the Analogy of Faith in the current of Scripture is easily discernable Moreover the general increase of Knowledge lies much in the ingenuous Education and condition of the common People in opposition to sordidness slavery and brutish rudeness Though some look upon the vulgar sort with contempt and seem to value them no more than brute Animals and think it enough that their Governors understand and consider for them and not they for themselves yet Christ hath shed his Blood as much for the redemption of that Sort as of the Noble and Mighty and Prudent and he hath made no difference between the one and the other in the conditions of Salvation and in the priviledges and ordinances of his Kingdom As for the receiving of the Grace of God the Scripture casts the advantage on the poorer and meaner side Not many wise Men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called was the observation of St. Paul and St. James witnesseth that God hath chosen the Poor of this world rich in Faith and Heirs of his Kingdom And those whom God hath chosen must needs be instructed in his Will That reasonable service that he requires none can perform without Knowledge Ignorance is opposite to the nature and being of true Christian Piety which is not at all where it is not received with understanding This general increase of Knowledge hath fallen under a great suspicion of evil and it may be under the jealousie of Rulers as disposing Men to Sedition Rebellion Herisie and Schism But how great a reproach is hereby cast upon human Nature or political Government or both that the more rationally apprehensive the Body of a People are they are so much the more ungovernable as if Government could not stand with the proper dignity and felicity of human Nature What manner of civil State is that which degrades the Subjects from Men to Beasts for a more absolute Dominion over them What manner of Christian Church is that which to prevent Heresie and Schism takes order that its Members be no Christians It is an unchristian inhuman policy in Church or State the foundation whereof is laid in the Peoples ignorance As for the true interest of Rulers it is not weakened but strengthened by their Peoples knowledge which in its right and proper tendency makes them more conscientious and however more circumspect and considerate and consequently more easily manageable by a just and prudent Government But gross ignorance tends to make them barbarous and belluine and in their mutinies and discontents uncounsellable and untameable and therefore very incongruous to a State governed by the Principles of Christianity or Humanity CHAP. XX. The advantage of Human Learning to the same end THough Religion rests not on human Learning as its main support yet it seeks and claims the necessary help thereof Those whom God designs for eminent service he indues with eminent gifts either by means or miracle and he gives every intrusted Servant a measure answerable to his degree The Apostles who laid the foundation were wise Master-builders and surely it was not the mind of Christ that Wisdom should die with them when he settled his Church to indure throughout all Ages and promised to be with it to the end of the World It is said indeed that the foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the weakness of God is stronger than Men. But that which is so called is not foolishness and weakness indeed but only so accounted by the pride of carnal Wisdom In this Learned age the Antichristian State in Christendom is forced to advance Learning in its own defence And now without Learning either divinely inspired or acquired by means we cannot defend our selves against it Wherefore to destroy the supports of Learning is the way to subvert Religion Yea though we were not ingaged by such strength of the Adversary to provide for our own defence yet solid human Learning doth of it self notably advance Divine Truth The Learning that was spread over the World in the primitive times of Christianity apparently made way for that sudden and ample spreading of the Gospel And the Reviving thereof after an universal decay no less apparently made way for the breaking forth of this clearer Light of the Gospel
common remisness in this matter is deplorable Sometimes the manner of opposition against Seducers is unadvised and prejudicial To contend for truth by wrath and clamour and contumelious language and usage inhanceth the price of Error and adds to its reputation But the surest way is to converse much with our plain hearted People and to season them with right principles and to detect the subtile methods of deceitfull workers and the dangerous issues of their allurements and by honest and inoffensive applications to prepossess those holds of which deceivers seek to possess themselves And here it is of chief importance that the influence of the Pastors and other prudent and able Persons upon the common multitude of professors be more prevailing than the influence of the common multitude upon the Pastors and other prudent Leaders Servile temporizing with vulgar fancies degrades the Authority and Wisdom of prudent Guides and lifts up a vulgar Spirit and will bring it to that pass that the weakest and most inconsiderate shall sway the Churches Interest Let Persons of approved worth be more faithful and noble than by such servility and treachery to raise to themselves a power in the hearts of the weaker sort Let them rather commend themselves by their known Integrity Wisdom and Goodness and by being ready also in all condescention to serve and please them to their Edification And such faithfulness is the surest means to gain them love and honour Let the Religious beware of seeking to be admired and magnified among one another or of overprizing each others esteem This latter seems to be the cause that drew Peter to a fit of dissimulation and separation from the believing Gentiles while he sought too much to please them that were of the Circumcision Sometimes we know not our own Spirits It is good to beware of provocations like to be given or taken Upon a supposed affront or injury men of parts have been hurried into dangerous contests and to make head against petty passionate opposition they have run beyond their own thoughts and wrought strange confusion Discretion and charity seeks to convince and satisfie and not to exasperate an offended Brother It is well observed that no turbulent Opinion or Party doth usually arise in the Church but by the Church's neglect of some truth or duty Wherefore if an evil spirit seek an occasion of mischief reform the abuse and so prevent his working upon the simple And forasmuch as some of upright hearts being deceived with a fancy of a more sublime and perfect way may pass into the tents of Sectaries so far as conceâ—ns Church Order and external Worship a compassionate regard must be had of such as walk honestly and retain those fundamental Truths that may be a ground-work for saving Faith and godly Life Now towards such the greatest charity is exercised in labouring to remove the stumbling-block of their error and to make it plain before them that the Faithfull whose Communion they forsake contend for the Perfection of holy Scripture and the explicit Knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation and the reasonable service of God according to his Word and spiritual Worship sutable to the Gospel Dispensation and the lively use of holy Ordinances in opposition to unwritten Traditions Mens inventions implicit Faith ignorant devotion and meer formality That they declare by word and deed against the iniquity and impiety of this evil World and therefore the world hates them that they insist upon no forms or usages in Religion but what are commanded by the positive Laws of Christ or are necessary in their general reason by the law of Nature that they seek no worldly advantages or advancements in the Church but what are necessary for the support of the Truth according to Gods ordinary Providence and lastly that human infirmities must not be thought strange in them that have not obtained Angelical perfection These and the like things should be laid open before honest People that have been seduced into Sectarian error CHAP. XXV The advancement of the sound State of Religion by making it National and the settled interest of Nation CHrists little Flock cannot go out of the World nor retire within themselves alone from the Nations of the Earth but they must needs remain a part of Kingdoms Commonwealths with the World in general They must take themselves to be concerned in the civil Powers for the Powers that are will take themselves to be concerned in them and their ways For which cause their aims and actions as far as their Sacred Rule allows must be fitted to the capacity of the civil Government and directed unto the generall peace and quietness of the nation whereof they are in which they enjoy their civil rights By this means religions interest may incorporate with the general interest of a nation run in the same channel That pure Religion may take root and spread and prosper it is necessary to bring its external frame to the consistency of a National settlement The just â—aâ—aude hereof is laid in the doctrine of Faith and substantials of Divine Worship and things necessary to Church unity and order but it goes not beyond these And being fixed in this extent it is in a way to gain besides the support and power of the Law the Nations unstrained compliance and approbation As on the one hand Ecclesiastical tyranny is a root of bitterness always bearing gall and wormwood so on the other hand unfixedness and unlimited liberty consists not with that stability wherein all prudent Governors would settle their own affairs as also with that general tranquillity and repose which is the health of any People If one were raised to empire by a meer Fanatick Party he cannot settle himself nor stand upon firm ground till he wind his interest out of their hands and turn himself to the way of general satisfaction To the same intent and purpose it is of great importance so to fix the terms of Church Communion as not to set a perpetual bar against the main body of the People A Church state so barr'd though it were asserted with a veterane Army and could inclose all preferments both of honor and profit within it self to be at its disposal yet it is hard to see how it could ever obtain a firm establishment For a Christian Nation in general being shut out of the Church or barr'd of such Privileges as are supposed to belong to them as Christians are inraged and likely to be ingaged as one Man to oppose that which they take for intolerable oppression Or if they care not to be admitted they will turn to a contrary interest and Party in Religion or to infidelity Barbarism Atheism or some destructive way or other Now the intention here propounded may take effect if the Constitution shut out none from Sacred and Spiritual Priviledges but such as make not Profession of true Christianity or be destitute of that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to true
there is a real hazard of a greater mischief and in hasty attempts of changes things may be carried on beyond the commendable end designed even to its utter ruin For commonly men are not Masters of what they get in such precipitate ways CHAP. XXVIII Considerations tending to a due inlargement and unity in Church-communion AN unhappy kind of controversies about Forms of Divine Worship Ecclesiastical Government and qualification of Church Members hath been the calamity of our times The differences in these points have made a sad breach upon Church unity and divided Brethren of the same Reformed Profession both in affection and interest and have been the occasion of much misery In regard whereof some things that make for an amicable condescention among Brethren and for humble submission to Superiors are here propounded for consideration but not as peremptory resolves Though many or most of them seem to me to carry their own evidence Yet it becomes one who is sensible of human weakness and of his own meaness to write modestly in these points about which there is so great a variety of apprehensions The Communion of Saints is the Communion of the Catholick Church and of particular Christians and Churches one with another as Members thereof and therefore we may not restrain our fellowship to any particular Church or Churches so as to with-hold it from the rest of the Catholick Church Our Communion with the Catholick Church is as well in Religious Worship as in Christian Faith and Life As there is one Faith so one Baptism and one Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ and we being many are one Bread and one Body Though we cannot at once locally communicate with the whole Church in external Worship because it cannot possibly meet in one place yet according to our capacity and opportunity we are so to communicate with the several parts thereof and not unwarrantably withdraw from any and this is a vertual communicating with the whole Church Discipline and Government as to the particular Form thereof hath much more obscurity than the Doctrine of Christian Faith and Life and is much more controverted among the Godly Learned And in more dark and doubtfull points humility charity and good discretion teacheth mutual forbearance In Ecclesiastical Regiment all Church Members are not so concern'd as Church Guides and Pastors are Christ hath not left the affairs of his Kingdom in so loose a posture as to give a liberty of leaving or chusing the Communion of a Church according to our own affections without regard to order A particular visible Church being a Body politick cannot subsist without rules of stable Policy Her censures and judgments ought to be clear certain and uniform or of the same tenor and therefore may not proceed upon such a kind of Evidence as at the most is but conjectural and of variable apprehension Our arbitrary conjecture of an others Regeneration is but an uncertain way of admission to sacred Priviledges wherein no uniform judgment can be held between several Churches nor the several Members of the same Church nor by the same Person with himself at several times For mens apprehensions about the Spiritual Estate of others are exceeding different and inconstant But whether a Person make a credible profession or be competently knowing or grosly ignorant whether he be scandalous or walk orderly is capable of certain evidence and of constant regular proceeding thereupon Let it be considered whether of these two either to proceed with men according to our private hopes and fears about their internal state or according to stated Rules and certain Evidence be the surer way to preserve the Church in Peace and to propagate true Piety Also whether Persons passable by such publick Rules can in Ecclesiastical Tryal be judged to be ungodly or to make a false profession whatsoever our private fears are concerning them And if their Profession be not proved false whether it be not to pass for credible in that Tryal Human Laws and publick Judgments presume them to be good that are not evicted to be bad Private familiarity is at every ones choice but our Church-communion being a publick matter must be Governed by publick and common Rules and not by private will If a Church impose such Laws of her Communion as infer a necessity of doing that which is unlawfull there is a necessity of abstaining from her Communion so far as those unlawfull terms extend Churches mentioned in Scripture had their corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Manners yet the Godly did not separate from them for those corruptions nor were commanded so to do Indeed they are commanded to come out of Babylon which is no other than to separate from Idolatrous Heretical Antichristian Societies Yet in suggesting this I do not encourage to a stated Communion in such Churches as have no other Ministers placed in them than such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of Souls commited to them that is who are unable to teach or teach corruptly either teaching pernicious Doctrine or abusing mishandling and misapplying sound Doctrine to encourage the Ungodly and discourage the Godly For the Scripture bids us beware of blind Guides and false Prophets By continuing in Church-communion we partake not of the Sins of others which we have no power to redress nor are we made guilty by their leaven if it doth not infect us and profane Persons are no more countenanced by our presence than those lewd Priests the Sons of Eli were by the Peoples coming to sacrifice In communicating in holy things we have internal Communion only with the faithfull and as for the meer external Communion it is with those that have as yet an outward standing in Christ till they are cut off by the hand of God or due order of Discipline When a Minister hath done his part to keep off the unworthy in the dspensing of the Sacrament to such he is in a moral sense meerly passive so that their unworthy participation cannot be imputed to him Nor in such an Administration is a practical lie or any falshood uttered For the Sacrament seals the mercy of the Covenant not irrespectively but conditionally and the words of the application must be so understood If we have not power to separate an obstinate scandalous offender from the Church yet the withdrawing of our selves from him is an Excommunication in some degree and the effect thereof is hereby in part obtained When Ministers and People do their duties in their Places without usurpation of further Power than they have warrant for then all will be though not so well as it might yet as it can be at present Of several modes and methods of publick Action Prudence makes choice not always of what is simply best but of that which is most passable if it be not so disorderly as to marr the substance or frustrate the end of an Administration In sacred Adminstrations we may yield without sin to others sinfull weaknesses
time as the present case requires As the Wisdom of a Housholder will direct him how far to bear with faults and weaknesses in his Family so the Magistrate by Wisdom will discern what may be born with in his Common-Wealth so far as is sufficient to the true and just ends of Government CHAP. XXXIII The Churche's true interest to be pursued by Ecclesiastical Persons NOthing is more precious and among Christians nothing should be more valued than the good of Gods Church for it is Christs and Gods great interest in the world but the misery is that the Churches name is abused and its interest mistaken most perversly For none have more pretended for the Church than they whose business is to get and keep worldly pomp and power with carnal ease and pleasure and to make laws and rules serviceable to these ends and to corrupt the minds and debauch the lives of men that they may bring them into blind obedience to such laws and maintain their worldly dominion over Christs heritage and who value all men howsoever qualified as they stand affected to their estate and accordingly stick not to reject the eminently good and to receive the notoriously bad In the Romish Church all this is palpable Now let these be called the Church by them that list to give that name to a state of Pride and Luxury of Tyranny and oppression of carnal and Devilish Policy under which the souls of people are betray'd to everlasting perdition Wherefore those in the Ministery that are sollicitous of the Churches welfare should state the interest thereof aright which indeed is not for the service of the flesh or the carnal mind but for the promoting of the Divine life in men and the increase of the mystical Society of Regenerate Persons united in Christ their Head by his Spirit dwelling in them and in order thereunto for the increase of the visible Society of persons externally owning such an internal State And therefore it is to promote and propagate the sound knowledge of God in Christ and to make the people of their charge really good and to advance them what they can in grace and wisdom according to their several capacities and to deal with them in meekness and love and to walk before them as examples of all purity and goodness and to be more sensible and sollicitous about the corruptions and sinfull disorders than the sufferings of the Church and to be more zealous for Gods honour and the good of Souls than for their own honour wealth or power and in a word to seek the things of Christ more than their own things The Ministers that discharge their Office well are in Scripture declared Worthy of double honour And that they be indowed with honorable settled maintenance is necessary for the support of a Religion that for its excellency requires to be supported by the help of excellent Gifts as Learning Eloquence and Prudence not now to be obtained by Miracles but in the ordinary use of means with much cost and labour And questionless the withdrawing of these supports tends to the Churches ruine nevertheless an inordinate and licentious collation and accumulation of Preferments making for the Service of Covetousness Ambition and depraved appetite and for the decay of Sobriety Vigilancy and Industry in the Pastors is no less dangerous This exorbitancy after the Roman Empire became Christian allured and brought in the men of this World who have their Portion in this life and gave them advantage by carnal arts to possess themselves of the chief Seats of Power in the Church by which means Religion degenerated into externalness and carnality and that which was then named the Church was at length turned into a worldly State which grew more and more corrupt till the mystery of iniquity was fulfilled in it Where Christianity hath recovered it self out of the degeneracy of the later times and knowledge is generally diffused among the people the sufficiency industry and faithfulness of Ecclesiastical persons will be inquired after negligence in their Administrations and irregularities in their lives will not pass without noting the ignorant idle and scandalous will fall into contempt outward Formalities will be no covering as in darker times they were distinctive Habits and Reverend Titles alone will not procure veneration the Ecclesiastical Authority will sink and fall without remedy if real worth doth not uphold it In such times men will not be to learn that an arm of flesh doth not constitute a Christian Church and that the aid of the secular Power is not enough to prove one Party to be Orthodox and the rest Heretical or Schismatical External violence which is the common support of false Religions will in this case do little good but it will render them that call for it the more odious and more discover the weakness of their Cause Wherefore the Clergy must resolve to do Worthily and fulfill their Ministery or they must extinguish the Light of the Gospel or the Light of the Gospel will extinguish them But if as faithfull Shepherds they watch over the Flock and tender the state thereof if they labour in the Word and Doctrine and Teach with meekness and patience if they pitty and succour the weak and heal that which is lame that it may not be turned out of the way if they use the rod of Discipline with judgment and Paternal affection if they discard and lay by mens unprofitable institutes and maintain all Divine ordinances in their due honour and chiefly urge the observance of the indispensable Commands of God and turn men from externalness and make it their chief aim that Christ by his Word and Spirit may Reign in the hearts of Professed Christians then shall they magnifie their Office and establish their Authority and hold their Flocks in an unfeigned Reverence and submission as feeling the force of the Ministerial warfare in their Consciences And the inferior differences shall not be able to cause disgust or aversation or break those strong bonds of the Peoples sincere regard toward their Pastors but they would rather be swallowed up in love which is the bond of Perfectness The Conclusion NO greater thing can fall under the consideration of Mankind than the Security and increase of true Religion The Glory of God among men and their eternal Salvation depends upon it T is as far above the concernments of the Kingdoms of this World and their Politick Administrations all Secular Affairs and Philosophical speculations as the Heavens are high above the Earth An inquiry into the Sound state and true interest thereof is a contemplation worthy of the greatest minds and the advancement of it is the chiefest honour of the highest Powers T is the Royal interest of that Potentate who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and of that Blessed Society which are incorporated under him their Lord and Head And who that in any degree hath truly known the felicity of this Kingdom and hopes for a
Lot of inheritance in the glory of it doth not value the concerns thereof above all his chief joys that are but of this World A zeal for the common Faith and a constraning love to all the Faithfull hath excited a very mean and weak one to do what he was able on this important Subject impartially searching after their common good Let the Prince of this Society one of whose names is Counsellour deliver his Flock from all dangerous and disadvantageous error and from wandring in broken Parties by unstable and divided Counsels and shew them graciously the right way of maintaining a consistency among themselves and of gaining upon the reconcilable part of men And forasmuch as this Prince and Leader is the Lamb of God whose Banner is Love let his people every where be acted by the Spirit of Love and shew forth the meekness of Wisdom in all good Conversation with Humility Patience and Long-suffering having this Principle deeply imprinted in them The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God The point of CHURCH-UNITY AND SCHISM Discuss'd CHAP. I. Of the Church and its Polity THe Church is a Spiritual Common-wealth which according to its primary and invisible State is a Society of regenerate Persons who are joyned to the Lord Christ their Head and one to another as fellow Members by a mystical Union through the Holy Spirit and are justified Sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Life but according to its secondary and visible state it is a Society of Persons professing Christianity or Regeration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the Symbals of that Profession and made partakers of the external priviledges thereunto belonging There is one Catholick Church which according to the invisible Form is the whole company of true Believers throughout the World and according to its visible Form is the whole company of visible Believers throughout the World or Believers according to human judgment This Church hath one Head and Supream Lord even Christ and one Charter and System of Laws the Word of God and Members that are free Denizons of the whole Society and one Form of Admission or solemn Initiation for its Members and one kind of Ministery and Ecclesiastical Power This Church hath not the power of its own Fundamental Constitution or of the Laws and Officers and Administrations intrinsecally belonging to it but hath received all these from Christ its Head King and Lawgiver and is limited by him in them all Nevertheless it hath according to the capacity of its acting that is according to its several parts a power of making Secondary Laws or Canons either to impress the Laws of Christ upon its Members or to regulate circumstantials and accidentals in Religion by determining things necessary in genere not determined of Christ in specie As the Scripture sets forth one Catholick Church so also many particular Churches as so many Political Societies distinct from each other yet all compacted together as parts of that one ample Society the Catholick Church Each of these particular Churches have their proper Elder or Elders Pastor or Pastors having authority of teaching and ruling them in Christs name An Ecclesiastical Order of Presbyters or Elders that are not Bishops is not found in holy Scripture For all Presbyters or Elders being of a sacred Order in the Gospel Church that are any where mentioned in Scripture are therein set forth as Bishops truly and properly so called and are no where set forth as less than Bishops These Elders or Bishops are Personally to Superintend all their Flock and there is no grant from Christ to discharge the same by Delegates or Substitutes A distinction between Bishops and Presbyters and a Superiority of the former over the latter was after the Scripture times anciently and generally received in the Christian Church Yet it was not a diversity of Orders or Offices essentially different but of degrees in the same Office the essential nature whereof is in both The Bishop of the first Ages was a Bishop not of a multitude of Churches but of one stated Ecclesiastical Society or single Church whereof he was an immediate Pastor and he performed the work of a Bishop or immediate Pastor towards them all in his own Person and not by Delegates and Substitutes and he governed not alone but in conjunction with the Presbyters of his Church he being the President Though several Cities in the same Kingdom have their different municipal Laws and Priviledges according to the diversity of their Charters yet particular Churches have no Divine Laws and Priviledges diverse from each other but the same in common to them all because they have all the same Charter in specie from Christ. Therefore each of them have the same power of Government within themselves And the qualifications requisite to make men Members or Ministers of the Universal Church do according to Christs Law sufficiently qualifie them to be Members or Ministers of any particular Church to which they have a due and orderly call Local presential Communion in Gods Ordinances being a main end of erecting particular Churches they should in all reason consist of Persons who by their cohabitation in a vicinity are capable of such Communion and there may not be a greater local distance of the Persons than can stand with it A Bishops Church was anciently made up of the Christians of a City or Town and the adjacent Villages who might and did Personally meet together both for Worship and Discipline All Christians of the same local Precinct are most conveniently brought into one and the same stated Church that there might be the greatest Union among them and that the occasion of straggling and running into several Parties might be avoided Yet this local partition of Churches is not of absolute necessity and invariable but if there be some insuperable impediment thereof the partition must be made as the state of things will admit No Bishop or Pastor can by Divine right or warrant claim any assigned circuit of Ground as his propriety for Ecclesiastical Government as a Prince claims certain Territories as his propriety for Civil Government so that no other Bishop or Pastor may without his Licence do the work of the Ministery in any case whatsoever within that Circuit It is not the conjunction of a Bishop or Pastor with the generallity or the greater number of the People that of it self declares the only rightfull Pastor or true Church within this or that Circuit For many causes may require and justifie the being of other Churches therein Seeing particular Churches are so many integral parts of the Catholick Church and stand in need of each others help in things that concern them joyntly and severally and they have all an influence on each other the Law of Nature leads them to Associations or Combinations greater and lesser according to their capacities And the orderly state that is requisite in all Associations doth naturally require some regular
Subordination in the several parts thereof either in way of proper authority or of mutual agreement And the Associated Churches and particular Members therein are naturally bound to maintain the orderly state of the whole Association and to comply with the Rules thereof when they are not repugnant to the Word of God A Bishop or Pastor and the People adhering to him are not declared to be the only true Church and Pastor within such a Precinct by their conjunction with the largest Combination of Bishops or Pastors and their Churches For the greater number of Bishops may in such manner err in their Constitutions as to make rightly informed Persons uncapable of their Combination A National Church is not a particular Church properly so called but a Combination or Coagmentation of particular Churches united under one Civil Supream either Personal as in a Monarchy or Collective as in a Republick And the true notion thereof lies not in any Combination purely Ecclesiastical and Intrinsecal but Civil and Extrinsecal as of so many Churches that are collected under one that hath the Civil Supremacy over them The National Church of England truly denotes all the Churches in England united under one Supream Civil Church-Governour the Kings Majesty Civil Magistrates as such are no Constitutive parts of the Church The Christian Church stood for several Centuries without the support of their authority But Supream Magistrates have a Civil Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical matters and a political extrinsecal Episcopacy over all the Pastors of the Churches in their Dominions and may compell them to the performance of their Duties and punish them for negligence and mal-Administration and they may reform the Churches when they stand in need of Reformation The possession of the Tithes and Temples doth not of it self declare the true Pastor and Church nor doth the Privation thereof declare no Pastor and no Church For these are disposed of by the secular power which of it self can neither make nor make void a Pastor or Church A Diocess is a collective body of many Parishes under the Government of one Diocesan If the several Parishes be so many particular Churces and if their proper and immediate Presbyters be of the same order with those which in Scripture are mentioned by that name and were no other than Bishops or Pastors then a Diocess is not a particular Church but a Combination of Churches and the Diocesan is a Bishop of Bishops or a Governour over many Churches and their immediate Bishops If the Parishes be not acknowledged to be Churches nor their Presbyters to be realy Bishops or Pastors but the Diocess be held to be the lowest Political Church and the Diocesan to be a Bishop of the lowest rank and the sole Bishop or Pastor of all the included Parishes I confess I have no knowledge of the Divine right of such a Church or Bishop or of any precept or precedent thereof in Scripture For every particular Church mentioned in Scripture was but one distinct stated Society having its own proper and immediate Bishop or Bishops Elder or Elders Pastor or Pastors who did Personally and immediately Superintend over the whole Flock which ordinarily held either at once together or by turns Personal present Communion with each other in Gods Worship But a Diocess consists of several stated Societies to wit the Parishes which are Constituted severally of a proper and immediate Presbyter or Elder having cure of Souls and commonly called a Rector and the People which are his proper and â—…rge or cure And the People of thâ—… not live under the Personal and inâ—…rsight of their Diocesan but under â—…legates and Substitutes Nor do they oâ—…ly hold Personal present Communion with each other in Gods Worship either at once together or by turns Nevertheless which way soever a Diocess be considered I have nothing to object against submission to the Government of the Diocesan as an Ecclesiastical Officer established by the Law of the Land under the Kings Supremacy There is nothing in the nature of the Office of Presbyterate which according to the Scripture is a Pastoral Office that shewe it ought to be exercised no otherwise than in Subordination to a Diocesan Bishop Christ who is the Author and only proper giver of all Spiritual Authority in the Church hath not so limited the said Office and men cannot by any act of theirs enlarge or lessen it as to its nature or essential state or define it otherwise than it is stated of Christ in his word No power Ecclesiastical or Civil can discharge any Minister of Christ from the exercise of his Ministery in those circumstances wherein Christ commands him to exercise it nor any Christians from those duties of Religion to which the Command of Christ obligeth them As the Magistrate is to judge what Laws touching Religion are fit for him to enact and execute so the Ministers of Christ are to use a judgment of discretion about their own Pastoral acts and all Christians are to do the same about their own acts of Church-Communion The too common abuse of the judgment of discretion cannot abrogate the right use thereof it being so necessary that without it men cannot act as men nor offer to God a reasonable Service CHAP. II. Of true Church-Unity WHen the names of Unity and Schism are by partiality and selfishness commonly and grosly abused and misapplied the nature of the things to which those names do of right belong ought to be diligently inquired into and clearly and distinctly laid open For a groundwork in this inquiry I fix upon two very noted texts of Scripture The one is Eph. 4. 3. Indeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The other is Rom. 16. 17. Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have learned and avoid them The former guides us to the knowledge of true Church-unity and the latter shews us the true nature of Schism By the former of these Texts all Christians are obliged to maintain that Spiritual Unity which they have one with another under Christ their Head by the Holy Ghost in all due acts of holy Communion in Peace and Concord Several important things are here to be taken notice of 1. There is a Spiritual unity between all Christians in the form of one mystical Body as there is a natural unity between all the members of the natural Body The members being many are one body and members one of another 2. This Unity is under Christ as the Head of it What the head is to the natural Body that is Christ and much more to his mystical Body the Church 3. This Unity of Christians one with another under Christ is by the Holy Ghost and therefore called the Unity of the Spirit The Spirit of Christ the Head doth seize upon and reside in all the Faithfull by which they become Christs mystical Body and are joyned one to another as fellow-members 4. This Unity of
but their Superiors may T is the Spirit of Antichrist that is fierce and violent but the Spirit of Christ is dovelike meek and harmless and that Spirit inclines to deal tenderly with the consciences of Inferiours Tenderness of conscience is not to be despised or exposed to scorn because some may falsly pretend to it The Head of the Church and Saviour of the Body is compassionate towards his Members and he hath said Whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea As the way of unity lies much in the wisdom equity and charity of Superiours so in the humility and due submission of Inferiours in their ready closing with what is commendable in the publick constitutions in their bearing with what is tolerable in making the best improvement of what is therein improvable for their own and others Edification in a word in denying no compliance which piety towards God and charity towards men doth not forbid Matters of publick injunction which Inferiors stick at may be considered by them either as in themselves unlawfull or as inexpedient Now it is not only or chiefly the inexpediency of things commanded but the supposed unlawfulness of divers of those things that the Nonconformists generally stick at whereof they are ready to render a particular account when it will be admitted Howbeit a question may arise about the warrantableness of submission to things not in themselves unlawfull but inexpedient especially in respect of scandal the solution whereof may be requisite for the clearing of our way in such things Upon this question it may be noted That in those cases wherein there is no right of commanding there is no due of obedience Nevertheless things unwarrantably commanded are sometimes warrantably observed though not in obedience yet in prudence as to procure Peace and to shew a readiness to all possible compliance with Superiors Moreover Rulers have no authority to command that which in it self is not unlawfull when Christian charity forbids to do it in the present circumstances by reason of evil consequents For all authority is given for Edification and not for Destruction Likewise our Christian liberty includes no Licence to do that act at the command of Rulers the doing of which in regard of circumstances is uncharitable But here it must be considered how far the law of charity doth extend in this case and when it doth or doth not forbid my observance of what the Ruler hath unwarrantably because uncharitably commanded True charity doth not wholly destroy Christian Liberty though it regulates the use thereof and it doth not extend it so far one way as to destroy it self another way If I am bound up from doing every indifferent thing at which weak consciences will take offence my liberty is turned into bondage and I am left in thraldom to other mens endless Scrupulosities This is I think a yoke which Christians are not fit nor able to bear This bondage is greater and the burden lies heavier upon me if by reason of others weakness I must be bound up from observing an indifferent thing at the command of Rulers and by them made the condition of my liberty for publick Service in the Church when my conscience is fully satisfied that it is lawfull and otherwise expedient for me to do it As for the warrantableness of enjoyning the Ruler must look to that Are some displeased and grieved that I do it As many or more may be displeased and grieved if I do it not Do some take occasion by my necessary use of a just liberty to embolden themselves to sin My forbearing of it may be an occasion of sin to others as their persisting in some troublesom Errour to their own and others Spiritual dammage and in unwarrantable non-compliance with their Governours And the loss of my liberty for publick Service consequent to such forbearance must also be laid in the ballance When both the using and forbearing of my liberty is clogged with evil consequents I know no safer way than duly to consider of what moment the consequents are on either side and to incline to that which hath the lesser evil Herein the Wisdom of the prudent is to direct his way upon the impartial view of all circumstances which come under his prospect And if good conscience and right reason guided by the general Rules of Gods Word lead me to make use of my Christian liberty in compliance with my Superiors I must humbly and charitably apply my self to remove the offence that some take by clearing the lawfulness and expediency of my act to their judgments But if that cannot be discerned by them I am by my Christian good behaviour to make it evident to their consciences what in me lies that what I do I do sincerely and faithfully and that I am no temporizer man-pleaser and self-seeker I humbly conceive that that high saying of the Apostle If meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no Flesh while the World standeth doth admit such equitable interpretation as the circumstances of time place person and the whole state of things declares to be most reasonable A humble representation of my own case touching the exercise of the Ministery I Have been in the Ministery near fourty years having been ordained Presbyter according to the Form of Ordination used in the Church of England And being called to this Sacred Order I hold my self indispensibly obliged to the work thereof as God enables me and gives me opportunity The nature of the Office is signified in the Form of Words by which I was solemnly set apart thereunto viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained And be thou a faithfull Dispenser of the Word of God and of his holy Sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen The former part of these Words being used by our Saviour to his Apostles in conferring upon them the Pastoral Authority fully proves that the Office of a Presbyter is Pastoral and of the same nature with that which was ordinary in the Apostles and in which they had Successours Likewise this Church did then appoint that at the ordering of Priests or Presbyters certain portions of Scripture should be read as belonging to their Office to instruct them in the nature of it viz. That portion of Act. 20. which relates St. Pauls sending to Ephesus and calling for the Elders of the Congregation with his exhortation to them To take heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers to rule the Congregation of God Or else 1 Tim. 3. which sets forth the Office and due qualification of a Bishop And afterwards the Bishop spake to them that were to receive the Office of Priesthood in this form