communion with them all as far as Catholick Principles will give leave In pursuing the ends of this Interest there is no need of private or unauthorized Persons entring into such stated combinations and correspondences as the Jesuits and other Orders under the Papacy have setled in their Societies throughout the World For all Pious Christians are taught of God and have one Spirit touching the main of this design and are inclined to pursue the same with one accord And indeed so it is that only the sincere friends of truth men of upright hearts and humble spirits and honest lives will observe and follow the rules of this Interest And it sufficeth if they keep close to their common rule of Faith and Life and follow after the things that make for Peace and know the present state of Gods Israel and acquaint themselves with each other as opportunity of converse offers it self and so govern themselves and carry on the advancement of Religion by such honest and harmless means as need not shun the light but may stand before the face of all opposers CHAP. XXXII The Wisdom of the Higher Powers in promoting the Religiousness of their People THe advancement of true Religion is the interest of the Higher Powers if to maintain Gods honour and mans chief good be their interest and if the defying of God and the utter undoing of men be against it Yea if the Tranquility and Peace of Governours and the stability of Government be regarded human Wisdom will direct to promote that way which is no other than the exercise of a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man Godliness includes Prudence Justice Temperance Fortitude and all Goodness It is an internal Law effectually subduing them that have it to all external Laws that are just and good and the example of it goes far to the bettering of many others in things pertaining to humanity It is regular and harmonious in every part it leads to Order Peace and Unity and there is nothing in it inconsistent with right Policy It is the way of true Wisdom and apt to take most among the serious and well advised part of the People and when it hath taken hold of them it makes them Wise and Serious more abundantly It corrects rash rugged wrathfull and fierce natures and to say the least whatsoever turbulency may afterwards remain in such it makes them of far more sedate and castigate Spirits than otherwise they would be And though it doth not forthwith exterminate yet it so debilitates all Complexional Distempers that they cannot break forth into a course of mischief and ordinarily it works an evident notable change Of so great force is an attentive and active Conscience over all human passions And doubtless it is the strongest bond to hold Subjects in obedience to their Governours For the Conscientious are held in by the terrour of the Lord and the dread of the wrath to come besides the sense of mans wrath which they have in common with all considerate Persons Wherefore it is clearly the Princes Interest that his Subjâ—cts universally if it can be should be Religious and consequently it is the Wisdom of his Government to indeavour it as far as it is attainable And if he would bring them to such a state he is to take care to exalt Gods immediate Soveraignty over their Consciencies and under that Soveraignty to hold them in subjection to himself For where Conscience is not preserved in its awfull regard to Gods Law as its Supream rule true Religion is extinguished And they are the Patrons of Irreligion who propagate such principles as tend to alienate the Conscience from its true Soveraign and Proprietor and either to make it servile to those who have no just dominion over it or to debauch it into searedness or dead security One way most needfull and advantagious for preserving Gods Authority over Conscience is most effectually to bind Gods Laws upon the People and to order what things else are necessary for the due observation thereof and to lay no other yoke upon them in things pertaining to God And as this way imports much to the sincerity and reality of Religion so it doth no less to the keeping of Religious minds in unity For in what center will the judiciously Conscientious unite if not in the revealed mind and will of God as it is apprehended by them Will the injunctions of the Civil Magistrate or the Authority of Ecclesiastical Superiors better resolve the doubts of such men or silence their Disputes This is not urged to prove that Superiors can injoyn nothing in Religion but what is particularly before enjoyned of God or that the Consciences of Inferiors are not bound by their Commands in subordination to Gods Commands but only that they take the best course for the unfeigned Piety and truly Christian concord of their People that by their injunctions seek mainly to promote obedience to the Divine Laws and add no more of their own than what is clearly necessary thereunto And what more just and prudent course than to forbear things that are unnecessary and unserviceable to the promoting of Truth and Peace yet with a perplexity and a stumbling block an easie inlet to all dissolute or ductile Spirits and a bar against many of known sincerity and to use that moderation in the publick Rule and Standard which takes away or exceedingly lessens dissents and consequently the occasions of dissention The Spirit of Christianity forbids Christian Magistrates to destroy sincere Christians for their little differences and narrow principles in Forms of Church Order And no reason of State will oblige them to that severity how importunately soever some Interessed men may urge it Judicious charity or a prudent indulgence towards such cannot undermine Religion or the Civil State And a sound Ecclesiastical Polity set for the increase of true Godliness will receive no dammage by it but it will rather gain upon those Dissenters and if their scruples be not removed it shall abide firm and stable and grow in strength by the reputation of its own goodness and sufficiency in that it is not hazarded or impaired by this charity and forbearance The Higher Powers by granting some limited liberty do more universally protect the faithfull and having no interest in competition with the advancement of Christs Kingdom are able and wise enough to provide against any dangerous inconveniencies The bounds and rules of this indulgence are not so undiscoverable as to make it a vain proposal yet it is but an idle demand of those that require an enumeration of all particulars than which nothing more or less may be tolerated in any case All particularities in any human affairs are not easie nor necessary to be known at one view nor are they so fixed but they may admit considerable variations according to the different state of things There be general rules of Prudence that are a sufficient indication of what ought to be done at any
12. read Sacraments pag. 77. l. 3. read condescention pag. 96. l. 22. read orall pag. 99. l. 2. read rites pag. 116. l. 13. read abasing ib. l. 25. read noting pag. 117. l. 25. read transform it into pag. 121. l. 21. read Levities pag. 144. l. 21. read exalt pag. 149. l. 20. read effected pag. 150. l. 20. read smatch pag. 157. l. 13. read exercise pag. 162. l. 7. read vainly pag. 163. l. 11. dele love pag. 167. l. 9. read concerns pag. 171. l. 3. read Enemies ib. l. 9. read regulation ib. l. 19. read and pag. 189. l. 6. read be not pag. 202. l. 22. read and are withall A TRACT OF THE SOUND STATE OF RELIGION c. CHAP. I. The Nature of Christianity and the Character of true Christians THe Names and Titles by which real Christians are in Holy Scripture distinguished from other men are not mean and common but high and excellent as a Chosen generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People the first-fruits of Gods creatures the houshold of God children of Light children of Wisdom heirs of the heavenly Kingdom and the Title of Saints was one of their ordinary appellations Doubtless the true difference between them and others lyes not in mere names but in some peculiar excellencies of quality and condition thereby signified And so much is abundantly set forth in the several expressions of Christianity as the Regeneration the new Creation a transformation in the renewing of the mind a participation of the divine nature the life of God conformity to the image of the Son of God and such like Thus from the Scripture stile it is evident that true Christianity is of an other nature then that carnal formal and lifeless profession with which multitudes confidently take up and that in its true professors there must needs be found something of a higher strain and nobler kind and which indeed makes them meet for that holy and Blessed state to come unto which it leads them It is indeed an excellent name and nature the regenerate State and divine life which is begun in the new birth wherein the Soul retaining the same natural faculties is changed from a carnal into a spiritual frame by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost and the word of truth In this change the mind is illuminated unto an effectual acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness as containing the highest good and appearing in such evidence as makes earthly things to be seen what they are indeed but as dross and dung in comparison thereof The will is drawn by the force of the truth acknowledged to an absolute conversion and adhesion to God as the great and ultimate object of the souls love desire joy reverence observance acquiescence zeal and intire devotion In this absolute conversion to God is included the renouncing of all self dependence and of that perverse self-seeking which follows the lapsed state and an unlimited self resignation to God which is the only true self-seeking and self-love For God having made our felicity immutably coherent with his glory but subordinate thereunto a true Convert turning from poor empty nothing self to the infinite God exchanges insufficiency poverty vanity and misery for immensity almightiness all-sufficiency and infinite fullness and so he loseth self as it is a sorry thing and a wretched Idol and findeth the blessed God and self-eternally blessed in him And forasmuch as all have sinned and fallen away from God and cannot be brought back to him but in the hand of a Redeemer and Reconciler our Religion stands also in the sensible knowledg of sin and of our deplorable state under the power and guilt thereof with an humiliation sutable thereunto and in a lively faith towards our Lord Jesus the eternal Son of God made man in the fulness of time who gave himself for us to redeem us from sin and death to a life of grace and glory Which Faith is the worthy receiving of him in the full capacity of a Redeemer the intire and hearty acceptance of the grace of God in him the Souls resignation to him to be conducted to God by him and the securing of all that is hoped for in his hands with an affiance in his all-sufficiency and fidelity This Faith worketh by love towards God and man For through faith we love God because he loved us first and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins And through faith we resolve that if God so loved us then ought we also to love one another And this love eminently contains in it all the virtues of moral honesty towards men as truth justice mercy peaceableness kindness faithfulness humility meekness modesty and towards inferiors moderation equity and condescention and towards Superiors reverence and submission Christianity is a root of true goodness that brings forth its fruit in due season in the first place the internal and immediate actings of faith hope and love which may be called radical duties as lying next the root then the inseparable effects thereof such as are holy meditation and prayer among the acts of devotion towards God and among the acts of charity towards men justice fidelity mercy which are called the weightier matters of the Law And further it shoots forth into an universal regard of Gods commandments in all particularities not slighting the lowest or remotest duties which indeed cannot be slighted without the contempt of that Authority which injoyned the greatest and most important The Spirit of Christianity is a spirit of Wisdom and prudence that guides in a perfect way It sets right the superior governing faculties and holds the inferior under the command and government of the Superior It awakens reason to attend to the souls great concernments to mind the danger of temptations the madness of depraved affections and the mischief and banefulness of all sin It is no inconsiderate licentious presumptuous dissolute spirit but strict circumspect and self suspitious solid serious and universally conscientious It is pure grave sober shunning every unseemly speech all foolish and light behaviour and much more that which hath a filthy savour and smels rank of impurity and dishonesty It watcheth the motions of the animal life and sensitive appetite and curbs them when they are extravigant and renounceth whatsoever things tend to vitiate the soul and work it below its spiritual happiness It is a spirit of patience and of true rational courage and of resolved submission to the will of God It is above wordly riches and poverty and glory and ignominy and fleshly pain and pleasure But self-conceit excessive self estimation asperity towards others and domineering cruelty over conscience is no part of the above-mentioned and commended strictness and severity For as it hates flattery and base compliance with others in prophaness or lukewarmness so it is ever qualified with meekness lowliness of mind peaceableness patience that it may gain upon others and win them to its own advisedness
steddiness purity and soberness This new nature while it is lodg'd in the earthly tabernacle is clogg'd with many adverse things especially the relicks of the old nature which cause much vanity of thoughts indisposedness of mind motions to evil and aversations from good and somtimes more sensible disorders of affections and eruptions of unruly passion and aberrations in life and conversation The same divine principal is in some Christians more firm lively and active than in others yet it is habitually prevalent in them all and it resists and overcomes the contrary principle even in the case of most beloved sins and strongest temptations and perseveres in earnest and fearful indeavours of perfecting holiness in the fear of God And whatsoever degree of sanctity is obtained it ascribes wholly to the praise of Gods grace in Christ and the power of his spirit Christianity being known what it is it may easily be known what it is not and so the false disguises of it may easily be detected Forasmuch as it looks far higher than the temporal interests of mankind in the settlings of this life though it doth not overlook them it cannot be thought to have done its work in making men meerly just-dealers good neighbours and profitable members of the Common-wealth for such may be some of them that are without Christ without the hope of the Gospel and without God in the world Moreover it cannot lie so low as in a bare belief of the Gospel and an observance of its external institutes accompanied with a civil conversation As for such as rest in these things what are they more in the eye of God than the heathens that know him not And wherein do they differ from them except in a dead faith and outward form taken up by education tradition example custom of the country and other such like motives Nor doth it lie in unwritten doctrines and ordinances of worship devised by men nor yet in curiosities of opinion or accidental modes of Worship discipline or Church-government nor in ones being of this or that Sector party nor in meer Orthodoxality all which being rested in are but the false coverings of hypocrites It is not the lax and easie low and large rule by which Libertines and Formalists yea some pretended perfectionists do measure their own righteousness who assert their perfectness by disannulling or lessening the law of God In a word it is not any kind of morality or vertue whatsoever which is not true holiness or intire dedication to God and therefore much less is it that loose and jolly religion of the sensual gang who keep up a superficial devotion in some external forms but give up themselves to real irreligion and profaneness and bid defiance to a circumspect walking and serious course of Godliness And now it is too apparent what multitudes of them that prophess the faith of Christ are Christians in name only and not indeed Their alienation from the life of God and their enmity against it and their conformity to the course of this world in the lusts thereof doth testifie that they have not received the grace of God in truth But Christians indeed according to the nature of Christianity above expressed which is now in them though not in the highest yet in a prevalent degree do make it their utmost end to know love honour and please God to be conformable to him and to have the fruition of him in the perfection of which conformity and fruition they place the perfection of their blessedness In the sence of their native bondage under the guilt and power of sin they come to the Mediator Jesus Christ and rest upon him by the satisfaction and merit of his obedience and suffering to reconcile and sanctifie them to God and accordingly they give up themselves to him as their absolute Teacher and Ruler all-sufficient Saviour Having received not the Spirit of the world but that which is of God they are crucified to the honours profits and pleasures of the world and have their conversation in heaven and rejoyce in the hope of glory and prepare for sufferings in this life and by faith overcome them The law of God is in their hearts and it is the directory of their practice from day to day by the touchstone of Gods word they prove their own works and come to the light thereof that their deeds may be made manifest to be wrought in God They draw nigh to God in the acts of religious worship of his appointment that they may glorifie him and enjoy spiritual communion with him and be blessed of him especially with spiritual blessings in Christ and as God is a Spirit they worship him in Spirit and in truth It is their aim care and exercise to keep consciences void of offence towards God and towards men and to render to all their dues both in their publick and private capacities and to walk in love towards all not excluding enemies and to do all the good they can both to the souls and bodies of men but those that fear God they more highly prise and favour The remainder of corruption within themselves they know feelingly and watch and pray and strive that they enter not into temptation and maintain a continual warfare against the Devil the world and the flesh under the conduct of Jesus Christ their Leader according to the laws of their holy profession with patience and perseverance In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation they indeavour to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God and to shine as lights in the world and by the influence of their good conversation to turn others to righteousness Such is the Character of those persons upon whose souls the holy doctrine of the Gospel is impressed and in whom the Christian religion hath its real being force and vertue These are partakers of the heavenly calling and set apart for God to do him service in the present world and afterwards to live in glory with him for ever These are the true Church of God the Church being here taken as mystical not as visible and these are all joyned together by one Spirit in one Body under Christ their Head in the same new nature having one rule of their profession and one hope of their calling These are a great multitude which no man can number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues yet hitherto not proportionable to the rest of mankind And they continue throughout all ages but in greater or lesser numbers and more or less refined from Superstition or other corruptions and more or less severed from the external communion of the Antichristian State according to the brightness or darkness of the times and places wherein they live CHAP. II. Things pertaining to the Sound State of Religion And first holy Doctrine THe advancement of the Christian life which hath its beginning in the new birth being the great end propounded in this discourse in reference to this end
the things here principally looked after are the receiving and propagating of holy Doctrine drawn out of the pure fountain of Sacred Scripture the right administration of true Gospel worship by which God is glorified as God and the worshippers are made more godly The due preaching of Gods word and dispensation of other divine ordinances by personslawfully called thereunto for the conversion of sinners and edification of converts Holy discipline truly and faithfully administred by the Pastors as the necessity of the Church requires and the State thereof will bear Religious family government Private mutual exhortations pious conferences and profitable conversation The predominant influence of religion in the civil government of a nation yet without usurpation or incroachment upon the civil rights of any especially of the higher Powers The unity of Christians and their mutual charity conspicuous and illustrious and lastly in order to all these intents a good frame of Ecclesiastical polity Holy Doctrine is the incorruptible seed of Regeneration by which the new creature is begotten It is not here intended to represent a perfect scheme thereof for it sufficeth to signifie that extracts thereof from holy Scripture are drawn out in the ancient Catholik Creeds and in the harmonious confessions of the present Reformed Churches Nevertheless our design requires the observation of some most important things about the Doctrine of Salvation As that there be first an earnest and hearty belief of the existence and providence of God and his government of mankind by laws congruous to their nature and of the immortallity of human souls and of a life of retribution in the world to come which is the foundation of all religion 2ly Right apprehensions of Gods nature and attributes more especially of his Holiness comprehending as well his purity and justice as his mercy and goodness that as he is ready to procure his creatures happiness and refuseth none that come unto him so that he cannot deny himself and that he receiveth note but upon terms agreeable to his Holiness 3ly An Idea of Godliness in themind not as shaped by any private conceptions but as expressed by the Holy Ghost whose workmanship it is that Christianity in the hearts and lives of men may be the same with Christianity in the Scriptures 4. The receiving of the great mystery of Godliness not as allegorized in the fancies of some Enthusiasts wherein it vanisheth to nothing but as verisied in the truth of the History wherein it becomes the power of God to Salvation and so not to sever the internal spirit of the Christian Religion from its external frame the basis whereof is the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead and of the incarnation of the eternal word Lastly Soundness of judgment in those great Gospel verities that are written for the exalting of Gods grace and the promoting of true godliness and the incouraging of the godly in opposition to ungracious ungodly and uncomfortable errours of which sort are these following truths That the study and knowledge of the Scriptures is the duty and priviledge of all Christians that according to their several capacities being skilfull in the word of righteousness they may discern between truth and falshood between good and evil and offer to God a reasonable service according to his revealed will That internal illumination is necessary to the saving knowledge of God the Holy spirit in that regard not inspiring new revelations but inabling to discern savingly what is already revealed in nature and Scripture That man was created after the image of God in righteousness and true holyness and that in this state he was indued with a self-determining principle called Freewill and thereby made capable of abiding holy and happy or of falling into sin and misery according to his own choice and that God left him to the freedom of his own choice having given him whatsoever power or assistance was necessary to his standing That the first man being set in this capacity fell from God and it pleased God not to annihilate him nor to prevent his propagating of an issue in the same fallen state which would follow upon his fall but left the condition of mankind to pass according to the course of nature being now fallen That by the sin of Adam all men are made sinners and corrupt in their whole nature and are under the curse of the Law and liable to eternal condemnation and being left to the wicked bent of their own wills are continually adding to their original sin a heap of actual transgressions and so are of themselves in a miserable and helpless condition That the Lord Jesus Christ according to his full intention and his Fathers commandment hath made propitiation for the sins of the whole world so far as thereby to procure pardon of sin and Salvation of soul to all that do unfeignedly believe and repent That man being dead in sin cannot be quickned to the divine life but by the power of Gods grace raising him above the impotency of lapsed nature That the culpable impotency of lapsed nature to saving good lies in the fixed full aversation of the will by a deplorable obstinacy nilling that good to which the natural faculties can reach and ought to incline as to their due object That the root of godliness lies in regeneration and inward Sanctification That God calleth some by the help of that special grace which infallibly effecteth their conversion and adhesion to him without any impeachment of the natural liberty of the will That whatsoever God doth in time and in whatsoever order he doth it he decreed from eternity to do the same and in the same order and so he decreed from eternity to give that special grace to some and by it to bring them to glory which decree is eternal election to which is opposite the pure negative of Non-election As for preordination to everlasting punishment it passeth not upon any but on the foresight and consideration of their final abode in the state of sin That the more common convictions inclinations and endeavours towards God in persons unregenerate are good in their degree and the ordinary preparative to a saving change and they are the effects of that divine grace which is called common That deligent seeking after God by the help of common grace is not in vain it being the means to some further attainment towards the souls recovery and it is regarded of God in its degree and God doth not deny men further degrees of help till they refuse to follow after him by not using the help already given them and by resisting his further aid That God hath made all men savable and though he doth not simply and absolutely will the conversion and Salvation of all yet he willeth it so far and in such manner as is sufficient to encourage the diligent in their endeavours and to convict the careless of being inexcusable despisers of his grace towards them That there is an
inherent righteousness by which the faithful are truly named righteous not only before men but in the judgment of God himself and which can be no more without good works then the sun without light That this is so perfect as not to lack any thing necessary to the true nature of righteousness nor to be maimed in any principal part thereof though in respect of degrees and some accidental parts it be imperfect That the faithful cannot by this inherent righteousness abide the strict tryal of divine justice but they are acquited from the guilt of sin and their deserved punishment by the meer grace of God in Christ. That Christs righteousness is so far bestowed on believers and made theirs that in the merit and consideration thereof they are freed from the curse of the Law and the condemnation of hell are justified unto eternal life and adopted to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom And imputed righteousness in this sense cannot be gain-said That no faith is justifying but that which works by love and brings forth the fruit of good works That the condition of the new covenant for the remission of sins and everlasting life is faith alone not as excluding repentance and new obedience but as excluding the works of the Law or legal covenant and this is no derogation from the freest grace That the faithful keep the commandments of God and in some sense may be said to fulfill the Law that is not in the strictness of the covenant of works but in the observance of duty without reserves in the sincerity of love towards God and man as the Scripture saith love is the fulfilling of the Law That obedience every way perfect is required of the faithfull as their duty but not under the penalty of eternal death yet under that penalty they are obliged to sincere obedience That good works have relation to eternal life as the means to the end in that manner as the seed to Havest as the race and combat to the Prize as the work to the Reward not according to equality or condignity or merit strictly so called but according to free compact or congruity That the faithfull may be assured of their own justification by a true fixed persuasion that excludes hesitation and suspense and causeth holy security peace and joy and that they ought to labour for such assurance which ariseth partly from the divine promises and partly from the sense of their own infeigned faith That though godliness stands not in absolute perfection yet it stands in that integrity of heart and life an indubitable evidence whereof cannot be had without a very carefull and close walking with God and continued earnest endeavours of perfecting holiness in his fear That all human actions must have an actual or habitual reference to Gods glory and that all things are to be done in the best manner for that end That notwithstanding the power of divine grace which works mightily in Gods chosen whosoever will be saved must watch and pray and strive and bestow his chiefest care and pains therein and so continue to the end and particularly in the constant exercise not of a Popish outside formal but a Spiritual and real mortification and self denial in continual dependance on Gods grace who worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure In the positions aforegoing all nice obscure perplexed and unnecessary notions are avoided and the plain sense of Gospel doctrine is attended This simplicity and plainess makes the truth much more intelligible and less controvertible where a multitude of nice terms and notions are vain and hurtfull superfluities that muffle the truth and cloud mens judgments and multiply controversies and cause much confusion CHAP. III. The due ordering of Gospel Worship FOrasmuch as divine Worship is the first and nearest act of Piety and aims immediately at the glorifying of Gods name and the keeping of the soul devoted to him the due ordering thereof must needs be one of the highest concernments of true religion Whereupon such an order thereof must needs be most desirable as hath most tendency to exalt the honour of Gods name and to advance the souls pure devotion And doubtless that hath most tendency thereunto which is most according to the nature and will of God Notwithstanding the fetches of mens wit in commending their will-worship God best knows what service will please him best and do us most good It becomes us neither to contemn Gods authority in the neglect of his institutions nor to controle his wisdom in the addition of vain inventions And this will bring us into the way of a reasonable service most acceptable to God and profitable to our selves In the fulness of time our Lord Christ being to establish a more perfect way than what had been before lays this foundation God is a Spirit and they that worship him must Worship him in Spirit and truth Accordingly he antiquated the old legal form great in outward furniture and visible spendor but comparatively small in substance and inward power and instituted an other of a far different strain wherein the rituals and externals are few and plain but their substance and inward power is great and mighty And when he abrogated former things which for their time had the stamp of divine authority because they suited not with the Gospel state and were in a comparative sense called carnal ordinances that were not good doubtless it was not his mind and will that men should erect new frames of their own devising after the similitude of those old things that are passed away To worship God in the Spirit after the simplicity that is in Christ according to the Gospel dispensation as it is most agreeable to the nature of the divine Majesty which is Worshipped and best fitted to glorifie him as God indeed so it is also most efficacious to make the Worshippers more knowing in religion more holy and heavenly in Spirit and conversation and every way more perfect in things pertaining to life and godliness Irreverence rudeness sordidness or any kind of negligence in the outward service of God is not here commended under the simplicity and Spirituality of Gospel worship Due regard must be had to all those matters of decency the neglect whereof would render the Service undecent such as are convenient places of assembling commonly called Churches comely furniture and convenient utensils therein a grave habit not of special sanctity but of civil decency for a Minister all which should not be vile and beggarly but gracefull and seemly likewise a well composed countenance and reverent gesture is requisite in all that present themselves before the Lord. Sitting or lolling or covering the head or having the hat half-way on in prayer is among us unseemly except natural infirmity call for indulgence herein but laughing talking gazing about in our attendance on religious exercises is no better than profaneness and to come into the congregation walking with our hats on
Spiritual strain which is most agreeable to the things of the Spirit of God and which as coming from life and Spirit is better discerned than described There is a speaking not in words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth And though this more eminently took place in the Apostles and such other extraordinary persons yet there is no sufficient reason to restrain it to them alone St. Paul may well be understood to speak of this as a gift received by them that had received not the Spirit of the world but that which is of God and as something suted to the perception and taste of all Spiritual men It doth not exclude the use of human wisdom though the wisdom of the Spirit sway in chief For no doubt even Paul's human learning and prudence was herein serviceable though in subserviency to the influence and conduct of the Spirit This Spirituality of expression is conformable to that of the Spirit of God in Scripture though not confined to the words thereof Surely the mysteries of Salvation cannot be better handled than in those terms in which they were first delivered to wit in Scripture expressions or others consonant thereto solidly and pertinently used and to call this canting savours to much of that Spirit to which holy language is unsavory Without controversie the strongest reason is of greatest force to gain the wills of men to imbrace true Religion For that which crosseth sensuality selfishness and all the depraved appetite of our lapsed nature as Religion doth must needs have its greatest strength next under the power of divine grace in the force of right reason But care and skill is requisite that it be so prepared offered and set home that it may be sutable to them that should receive it and that the cogency thereof may so reach unto and fasten upon their judgments as to gain their wills Philosophical ratiocinations are too remote not only from low and dull capacities but also from the greater part of them that are competently apprehensive and intelligent and so being too much estranged from them they do not touch them to the quick A familiar natural plain and obvious way of reasoning comes home to all men and is most felt at the heart and that by Scholars themselves though their intellect may be more delighted in more accurate or reserved Speculations Scriptural preaching is indeed the most rational as coming with such reason as is of greatest force with men in matters of Salvation For Gods written word is a treasure of divine wisdom that throughly furnisheth the man of God Besides the infallible testimony thereof hath more authority than Philosophical reason though sound and true can have upon Christian hearers and it peirceth deeper and sticks closer And arguments taken and words spoken from Scripture wherewith the people converse dayly are more easily apprehended and retained and so are more instructive and every way more usefull than other reasonings Though numerous citations of sentences out of human Authors be an unprofitable kind of ostentation yet the Sentences of Holy Writ which is the evidence of our Christian hope and the testimony of him who is truth it self are most effectual to edification And whosoever is able to speak reason in divine matters is to make a rational use of Scripture and if any quote it impertinently and absurdly it is through defect of reason and they would be as injudicious in their Sermons without those quotations But nice and haughty wits mostly cavil without cause and charge profitable Preachers with injudiciousness meerly through their own vain curiosity and inconsiderateness Scripture quotations are sometimes used by way of allusion or for illustration not for strict proof and that which is brought for proof if it be not full and cogent yet it may add some weight and then it is not abused Besides if a passage be used in a sound and pious though not in its proper sense it is pardonable It is fit indeed that in citing Texts we know their true import and go more by weight than number shunning impertinency and superfluity yet it is not unfit to note that all sound and good Preachers are not alike judicious and those that are very solid may be guilty of some oversights and 't is a bad matter that their Ministery which God hath owned and honoured with good success in his Service should be set at nought for a few mistakes perhaps more pretended than real about the sense of some Scripture when it is not applyed otherwise than the Analogy of faith will bear and nothing is defended but known truth I have known a pious but strangely mistaken sense of a Scripture sentence cast into the mind and there fixed to have been the first occasion of seriousness in Religion to one that afterward lived and dyed a godly Christian. Now that which was causal in this conversion was the godly truth it self which was written in Gods word and the mistaking it to lie in such a sentence where it did not being but accidental was no hinderance I do in no wise countenance the irrational use of Scripture but am sensible of the importance of good judgment and due care about the sense thereof yet I cannot approve the scornful haughtiness of some men who deride godly persons well instructed in the Scripture as having nothing but words and Phrases and senseless notions either because they come short of Scholar-like exactness or because they speak of the things of God in a more Evangelicall and Spiritual strain than these can well bear In speaking the best use of art is to speak to best purpose and for that end in divine matters to speak with greatest Majesty and authority And this is done not by ostentation of wit by puerile and effeminate rhetorications by a rapsody of flanting words by starched speech by cadency of sounds or any too elaborate politeness that please the shallow fancy but by the evidence of reason set forth in a masculine and unaffected Eloquence that hath power over the wills of men which are tough and knotty peices Perspicuity is a great vertue and felicity in discourse for hereby what is offered gains attention and enters the mind and abides therein but intricacy and obscurity is a bar to its entrance and entertainment Hereunto an easie and obvious method evident coherence and plainness of expression conduceth mainly Wherefore he that minds what he hath to do is not careful by a more curious artifice to please the fancies of some itching hearers but hath most regard to that composure that makes most for a general benefit and edification And for this cause as he would not multiply words without need and become tedious so he would not be too succinct and close and by that means either too dark or too quick to inform or effect the people In vulgar auditories a dilating of the matter is most necessary so that idle tautologies and prolixity be avoided and it may be
spread forth in such fulness and plainess of speech as will not be unacceptable even to Scholars that are not wise in their own conceit But the careless and confused speaking of incoherent and undigested matter rudeness or baldness of expression is no part of this commended plainness which is orderly comely and weighty agreeable to the Majesty of Gods word A true Preacher of the Gospel rightly divides the word of truth and gives to all their portion He doth not make distinction where the rule of faith makes no difference nor doth he confound things that ought to be distinguished He is not partial towards parties for interest or affection And so he doth not promiscuously justifie or condemn the evil and the good together on any side but as he accounts it an odious thing to rail upon one party in the ambiguous terms of false Church false Worship false Ministry Idolatry Superstition Formality so he accounts it no less odious confusedly to inveigh against those of an other persuasion under the no less ambiguous terms as they are now commonly used of Hypocrites Pharisees Fanaticks Enthusiasts Separatists Humorists and such like He is constant in Preaching the word instant in season and out of season For in Preaching frequently he doth not do the work of the Lord negligently but duely feeds the flock and that with better prepared food than they use to bring that Preach but seldom upon pretence of greater preparation He watcheth over the flock with diligence and naturally cares for their estate for he knows the worth of precious souls He condescends to persons of low degree and is concerned for the souls of the poor and simple and illiterate as well as of the noble rich and learned for he knows their Redeemer paid alike dear for both And however the proud and covetous judge he doth not think it below him to intermeddle for the reducing of the simple that go astray and he seeks to recover them with gentleness and patience for he prefers the gaining of one Soul before all the preferments of this world He earnestly looks after that which some do little regard to wit the Seal of his Ministery in the saving efficacy thereof on the hearers and when he finds it he makes it the crown of his rejoycing And this Seal he takes not to be their meer owning of Sound doctrine or following an Orthodox party much less their abounding in notions their talking and outward Guarb of profession but their new birth or their Spiritual growth the promoting whereof is the scope of his labours and the dayly travell of his Soul CHAP. V. The due performance of Publick Prayer PRayer being a main part of Gods worship and chief act of devotion and such as doth accompany and Sanctifie every other Religious duty and the publick management thereof pertaining to the work of the Ministry its due performance must needs be of no small import to the increase of true Piety and no small part of the Ministerial excellency and sufficiency Among Spiritual gifts I doubt not to number the gift of Prayer also and I judge they speak too low of it that make it only a natural gift or acquired by practice and imitation Much indeed may lie in natural parts and observation and exercise but not all for over and above these things the Spirit of Christ presiding perpetually over his Church sets in and by a secret influence on men designed of God for this service indues them with a peculiar aptness of knowledge and utterance as well in Prayer as Preaching for the edifying of the Church And some unsanctified persons being thus gifted may preach and pray with a notable tendency to the saving of others when themselves prove cast-aways Private Christians also according to their measure are partakers of this gift in much diversity of degrees God giving to every man severally as he will Besides this there is a special and saving gift the Spirit of Prayer and Praying in the Holy Ghost or by his gracious assistance in a holy manner according to the will of God which is indeed lively and powerfull and apt to kindle a holy fervour in them that joyn in the service so performed And why that which is performed in such a manner and by such assistance may not be called a praying by the Spirit I see no reason They who thankfully acknowledge and bless God for so great a gift of his grace do not intend thereby a miraculous inspiration or an absolute infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost Much less do they think that their prayers are such dictates of the Spirit as would infer that the very matter and wordâ— thereof being written would become Canonical Scripture to which is requisite not only an infallible Spirit but also an attestation thereof by the same Spirit sufficient to convince others But this they maintain that the Spirit helps them against their indisposedness of mind and deadness of heart and manifold infirmities and strengthens their faculties and quickens their graces and enlarges their desires and elevates their souls and brings things to their remembrace specially the divine promises yea and in some particulars may guide the heart and tongue by a present immediate suggestion For why must the Spirit of God be thought to do less in exciting to good then the Devill ordinarily doth in prompting to evil And yet they are not to depend on the Spirits immediate suggestion for matter words and method without taking care or thought before hand It is an ordinary and not miraculous assistance which they expect and which is usually given according to mens preparations and suted to their several capacities The Spirit of Prayer is not confined to this or that exterior frame or order of Prayer but is ever found there where the heart hath a due sense of the matter A particular form whether stinted or not stinted is not of the essence of Prayer but only its outward shape and it pertains to it not as it is a Sacred thing but as an action in general and for that no action can possibly be performed but in some particular mode this holy action cannot otherwise be performed And whereas there are divers modes thereof they may be used as they are congruous to the substance of the duty according to mens choice and judgment unless they were as indeed they are not bound up to one by a divine determination The lawfulness of Set-Forms is further evinced from the Lords Prayer and other forms in Scripture and as much is owned by the general custom of singing Davids Psalms Wherefore to turn the back upon the publick Prayers of the Church meerly because performed in this manner is unwarrantable And there is aâ— little warrant to restrain all publick Prayer to a stinted Liturgy and leave no liberty at all to the Ministers godly zeal and prudence In this particular the interest of true godliness will be much better advanced by moderation than by contests and rigor on
either hand For it is very discernable that the Antipathy against either way is mainly caused by the animosity and mutual opposition between the parties of different persuasions and inclinations in this matter They are too weak and ill-advised at least if not humorous and self-conceited that reject all Sett-Forms and on the other hand to suppress the gift of Prayer in our selves or others is to sin against the grace of God and to hinder much good The use of a Set-Form without an imperious restraint of Prayer thereto will obviate the objection of Stinting the Spirit which means if there be any thing to the purpose in that Phrase a suppressing or undue restraining of this Spiritual gift against which a caution is here given In our addresses to the great God it concerns us to look well both to thoughts and words that in both he may be Sanctified by us and glorified as God indeed And in our publick addresses to him a more special care must be had that nothing be uttered before him that is unmeet to be offered to his dreadfull Majesty Rude clownish and homely expressions as also quibling jingling and all levity and trifling is very loathsome in Preaching but in Prayer much more Affectation of words curiosity and politeness becomes not the weightiness and awfulness of this duty Yea abruptness obscurity and all incongruity of speaking is to be shunned herein as much as possible and that only is to be used which is plain clear seemly weighty savory and affectionate In like manner all indecency of voice and gesture is to be watched against as an offensive thing and apt to expose the Service to the derision of proud scorners Yet a seasonable elevation of the voice or other apt expression of earnestness is not to be counted rudeness Sometimes a worthy man may not be aware of some uncomeliness in his tone or in the posture of his countenance or some other bodily gesture by reason of the fervour of his Spirit in the duty joyned with inadvertency towards those exterior and lesser things And sometimes an ill habit or custom is not easily broken off These inconveniencies are prevented or redressed by a wariness of disposition and a moderate self-distrust and the actual observation of what is gracefull or uncomely in others Prayer is a holy Converse with God wherein an humble confidence and Son-like freedom of Spirit with him is acceptable yet withall it calls for the greatest prostration of soul and the deepest reverence and Subjection Wherefore humbly to expostulate with God is no sauciness The whole current of the Prayers of Saints in Scripture doth warrant it and that not only now and then in extraordinary cases Indeed our ordinary concerns with God are no less than the safety of our immortal Souls the pardoning of our great and numberless offences the subduing of inveterate corruptions our escaping of many deadly dangers our victory over the adverse world the powerfull presence of his Grace the light of his Countenance as also the interests of his glory and of his Church and people and of the world in general that poor Souls may be delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son all which are of the highest moment and of themselves exceeding difficult though to God all things are possible and they all require vehemence and importunity not as if God needed to be moved or stirred up but that we may declare our selves duely affected Howbeit even the best things may be over-done and this over-doing is the marring thereof If in the expostulations of Prayer men shall utter perverse or frivolous things or speak absurdly daringly or irreverently they are highly culpable and guilty of abusing the most holy things and of contemning the most glorious and fearfull name of the Lord their God Our freedom of access to God and converse with him must not be turned into an irreverent and presumptuous familiarity Those that are guilty of this rashness are worthy of great rebuke But I-know well that the Spirit of Luke-warmness and profaness doth usually cast reproaches and scorns upon that zeal and fervency of Spirit that well becomes the Servants of the Lord and labours to make the most accceptable and profitable kind of Prayer to seem ridiculous It is against reason to think that the Ministers of the present age brought up under such eminent advantage for Ministerial abilities should not be able to speak to God in good and solid sense in an orderly method and in affective grave and seemly language as becomes the Solemnity of Gods Worship Experience will justifie the sufficiency of serious pious and painfull Preachers in general though the captious and curious and such as love to cavil have found fault and despised the profitable endeavours of those whom God hath owned Besides the offences that are committed in this matter proceed more from inadvertency and imprudence than from insufficiency and may be corrected by care and causion and good advice And it is no vanity to suppose such a competency of prudence easily attainable by all those that are competently qualified for this Office Indeed it cannot be expected but that some will be less able and less perfect than others in this performance and that the same persons may not be alike perfect therein at all times nevertheless there is no such want of Security that the Churches service will be well performed if any Prayer be used in the Church besides a prescribed Form For who can doubt but that persons of competent ability and prudence may upon due incouragement be spread throughout a Nation in such an Age of learning and knowledge And to say otherwise were to disparage the Reformed Religion And there is no just cause of doubt but that an able Minister may make use either of a precomposed or of an immediately conceived Form of words Yet in this matter there is great diversity of judgment and affection even unto much prejudice and opposition But the same minds might well be conciliated to both ways if rightly ordered The Question is here supposed to be of the outward mode in which two things are mainly to be regarded to wit that it be reverend and affective Such as are best persuaded of a pre-composed Form and find it expedient for them doubtless may rightly manage it to the edifying of themselves and others For which end they must needs in some parts thereof make use of occasional variation and inlargement though premeditated as minding the more particular requiries of several times and occasions But others by a habit of ready utterance and much exercise are well prepared to pray by the immediate conceptions of their mind in proper and decent words and can do it without any straining of invention and with much freedom of Spirit No more is here spoken that what impartial men will grant And why should any forbid them that are thus qualified to use their gift But if any should be
Their Union and Fellowship being chiefly mystical and invisible their Unity is far greater than what outwardly appears to the World and sometimes than what themselves can discern among themselves in particular by reason of many inferior yet very disquieting differences and discords Nevertheless it behoves them to provide that it might appear as much as may be what it is indeed and that it be conspicuous and illustrious in the sight of Men by their walking in love and peace Unity is the Churches strength and beauty the honour of the Faithfull and an argument for the certainty of their most holy Faith It makes Religion lovely and draws forth blessing praise from the Beholders of it and wins the World to a love and reverence of that Piety which makes the Professors of it to live in brotherly kindness and mutual charity But Division is the Church's weakness and deformity the reproach of Christians and a scandal against Christianity and an objection put into the mouths of Infidels against the Faith and an occasion of stumbling unto many In the present divided state of Religion each Party is apt to appropriate Godliness to themselves or at least to carry it towards others as if they did so And they that are loudest in accusing Dissenters of uncharitableness in this kind are themselves as uncharitable as any others It is true that God hath a peculiar People distinguished from all others by a peculiar Character but it is not confined to any Party of this or that Persuasion or Denomination that is narrower than meer Christianity And all true Christians are to receive one an other as God hath received them Indeed the best Christians are to be best esteemed and their fellowship is most desired But if they should be severed from the universality and in a strict combination set up as divided Party it tends to the Churches Ruine For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and if the nobler parts of the Body forsake the rest the whole must needs die Christian Concord doth not signifie an aggregation of things inconsistent as the fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness the communion of light with darkness the concord of Christ with Belial To set up Unity against Piety is a conspiracy against Christ who is King of righteousness and to pretend Piety against Unity is to oppose Christ the Prince of Peace whose Kingdom is the Reign of Love in the Soul Holiness and Peace must kiss each other and as inseperable Companions walk together It is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external Order without fellowship in the Divine Life is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new nature and to walk together in the same holy way This is far more excellent than the greatest compliance in matters of meer external order and consequently much more regardable in our estimation and reception of Persons Though to meet in one place be not of so great importance as to be joyned in one Spirit yet it must not be counted a small matter The unity of Faith and Love is much concern'd in the unity of Church Communion it will be a matter of some difficulty for them to live together in Love whom one Church cannot hold Church divisions commonly divide affections and draw men into Parties and divided Interests and make them seek to strengthen their own Party by weakening all others to the great dammage of true Religion in general For which cause the unchurching of Churches and renouncing of Communion with them that are sound in the Doctrine of Faith and Sacrament and in the substance of Divine Worship should be dreaded by all sober Christians yea all unnecessary distances should be avoided least they lead to greater alienations and direct enmities and oppositions Those Churches that cannot hold local communion one with another by reason of differences that destroy not the essentials of Christianity should yet maintain a dear and tender Christian love one to another and profess their owning of each other as Churches of Jesus Christ and should agree together upon certain just and equal Rules for the management of their unavoidable differences so as may least prejudice charity and common good and least harden the ungodly and grieve the weak or dishonour God or hinder the success of common great and necessary truths upon the Souls of men amicably promoting the common cause of Christianity and every part thereof in which they are agreed and opening their disagreements to the People as little as they can Schism is an unwarrantable separation from or division in a Church and without controversie it is a heinous sin and to be detested both for its exceeding sinfulness and wofull consequents But it hath been so disguised and the odious name hath been so confusedly cast abroad and so unreasonably and maliciously misapplied that it is too slightly thought of where it should be sadly laid to heart For it is common with the strongest Party be it right or wrong to call themselves the Church and to have no better name for others than Schismaticks And so the reproach is but contemned by them that suffer it and the sin it self is too little feared on all sides But it is not a Temporal Law nor Secular Power nor any prevalence of Strength or Interest that makes a Church and none of these things will excuse them from Schism that act uncharitably against their Brethren and obstruct the progress of the Gospel and the increase of Godliness Nor are they forthwith to be counted Schismaticks who cannot in all points observe the Commandments of men and cannot neglect to yield their help to the saving of Souls that would otherwise want due means of Salvation when God hath called them to that Service with a woe unto them if they Preach not the Gospel For as much as all must dread the guilt of Schism truly so called let it be well considered that Ecclesiastical Superiors are as much concerned to take heed of Schismatical impositions as the People are to shun Schismatical Recusancy and Disobedience As well the Pastors Wisdom as the Peoples due submission is here importunately called for When Superiors know how to Command and Inferiors how to Obey things will go as well as may be hoped for in this our imperfect state here upon Earth As the Peace of a corrupt state of Religion is best assured by suppressing all conscientious inquiries into its Decrees so the Peace of the true Church and of the sound state of Religion is most secured by the most perfect exercise of sound Judgment and upright Conscience in all its adherents That Church that claims to her self an infallibility or challenges and obtains from her partakers an implicit Faith in her determinations without further enquiry needs not fear the breaking of the bond of her Peace if she multiply constitutions and impose any devised Doctrines and Ordinances sutable to
hath hurried some under pretence of erecting the fift Monarchy to rend and tear Kingdoms and Nations to attempt the dissolving of all Government in Church and State which is indeed the most ready way to subvert Gods Kingdom by the subversion of Christian Magistracy and Ministery and to dispossess the Gospel of the Territories it hath gained Some have proceeded so far in the pretended Reign of the Spirit as to abrogate the external Frame of the Christian Religion and to turn the Gospel History into mystical Allegories yet such as might be conceived and shaped in a vulgar fancy and are low and despicable things in comparison of the great mystery of Godliness according to the Historical sense of Scripture And which is yet worse some have been so gross as to turn into an Allegory the great hope of our Christian calling even the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the World to come and so pervert the mysteries of the Gospel into a mysterious Infidelity and Apostacy from Jesus Christ. Yea some perverting the high expressions of fellowship with God and dwelling in God and being made partakers of the Divine nature and the like have impiously talked of their begodded condition and blasphemously intituled the most High and Holy One to their abominable extravagancies and impurities And besides all these some are perpetual Seekers having no fixed belief in the most important points Persons so far inlightened as not to see the necessity of a higher way than the common dead formality and having some tast of Spiritual things and thereby raised above the general indifferency and Luke-warmness unto a kind of strictness seriousness and fervour of Spirit in Religion yet falling short of true Conversion and especially if they be well conceited of their own gifts and parts and seeming graces are apt to be carried away with a full gale of fancy into the gulf of these delusions And a tincture of this contagion though in a lower degree may sease on some who stand in the true grace of God being deceived by a shew of purity and Spirituality and peradventure lying under the disadvantage of some insnaring occasions which work upon the remainder of pride levity curiosity and other corruptions which the present imperfect State leaves in the hearts of real Christians And some of these may sooner fall into absurd opinions than many that receive not the truth in love who may easily abide among the Orthodox either because they do not concern themselves in Religious inquiries or because they are held by worldly advantages which stand on truths side The fancy is sooner filled with notions and the affections thereby raised than the judgment is well informed and the heart established in grace Hence proceed a sickliness in the Souls appetite a satiety of plain Saving truths and of sound wholsom Preaching a desire of novelty Self-conceitedness pragmatical confidence rash censures partiality in hearing the Word a lessening of the Pastoral Authority incroachments upon the Pastors Office dividing principles and practices and innumerable inconveniences Moreover well meaning People associated in a stricter profession are apt to be sequacious of some leading persons among them and some will follow the rest for company And the high pretensions and heightened confidence of Enthusiasts is a kind of Enchantment to bewitch those that unwarrantably approach to near them especially such as are predisposed by temper or complexion towards Enthusiasm In these things men forsake the Law and the Testimony to walk by false Lights and to follow blind Guides The Holy Ghost bids us trie the Spirits and hath given us an infallible rule of Tryal and leaves us not to any unaccountable impulse or impression The whole Tenor of Evangelical Doctrine shews that the Christian Spirit is both pure and peaceable that it doth not divide break and scatter a Christian people but unites heals and settles them that it doth not overturn Churches and civil States nor inflame Rulers against subjects nor subjects against Rulers nor dissolve Magistracy and Ministery but that it turns the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just and conciliates the minds of Magistrates and Ministers and People of all degrees in righteousness and peace which is the right and sure way of erecting Gods Kingdom It doth not cancel reason but maintain its interest in Religion as being under the power of God and the great prop and proof of the Christian Faith It is a Spirit of judgment and soberness and suppresseth the wild Dominion of the unruly imagination It doth not turn men from humanity and civil behaviour unto a surly and cynical pride and Fanatick melancholy and austerity but it disposeth them to all the duties of human life and civil Converse But there must be Heresies and it is impossible but that offences should come Where the light of the Gospel is broken forth Sectarianism and Fanaticism is the Devils After-Game So it sprung up in Germany upon the birth of Protestantism so it sprung up in the Primitive Church upon the birth of Christianity in the Gnosticks and such like Sectaries and so it continues in our times These irregularities and extravagancies are a great dammage and reproach to a serious zealous and strict profession and it is a stone of stumbling before many Nevertheless the greatest and most dangerous Degeneration from the Sound state of Religion lies not this way The conceptions and motions of Fanaticism having a kind of Spiritual strain though in a delusion take not with the greater number whether of high or low degree the learned or unlearned sort And in case it seases on a greater multitude it may trouble and unsettle a State but it can never settle it self and if it domineer a while its Tyranny cannot hold because it hath no foundation and it can never obtain to be a national Religion because it is inconsistent with the stability of civil Government It s greatest mischief to a State is that it may serve the designs of others to work out a more lasting misery For which cause the Romish Emissaries under a vizor have overacted this wild Spirit that by its confusion and Anarchy they might make way to introduce their own Tyranny But the more extensive dangerous and lasting depravation of Christianity lies on the same side with Popery which is formidable indeed being founded in power and policy and suted to worldly interests and to which mens innate propensions do generally more incline them For that their fancies and affections are inveagled with its outward wealth and glory and their consciences laid a sleep by its loose principles and lifeless forme of devotion CHAP. XIV The way of preserving Religion uncorrupt THe truth and purity of Religion lies in its conformity to its rule which is Gods revealed will or law and its deviation from it is its depravation From this rule men are easily drawn aside being inticed by their own vain imaginations perverse inclinations
vicious excesses and sensuall pollutions yea all offensive levites and unchristian irregularities and all fellowship therewith Yet morosity and sowreness of Spirit it by no means approves but serenity of disposition and freeness and sweetness of conversation is both commanded and caused by it It reacheth the hidden man of the heart and awes the Conscience it forbids the inward motions of intemperance and injustice it condemns and loaths Hypocrisie and makes all external works to be nothing without sincerity It makes sincere love the principle and placeth it at the bottom of our whole behaviour towards others and therefore prompts and powerfully ingages to mutual succour in the time of need It maintains a charity unknown to the Infidel World and which is a vertue peculiar to it in the greatest vigor and extent It injoyns the love of enemies It exalts Humility meekness and mutual forbearance as chief vertues which were contemned by the pride of moral Heathens And therefore it makes men just and peaceable And yet withal it hath the best grounds of true fortitude and magnanimity And therefore Damns that pusillanimity and foolish softness of disposition which betrays truth and vertue Self-denial is one of its grand precepts without which none can live under its discipline and so it over-rules and controles that selfishness which is the Arch-rebell against God and the root of all mischief and turns the World upside down It teaches men to live above the Honors and riches of the World and takes off the heart from them Its principles most intirely accord with the true interest of the Higher powers it declare their authority to be from God as they are his Vicegerents and teacheth them to rule in Subordination to him according to his laws And it awes the Consciences of Subjects to obdience If Rulers command any thing repugnant to the Laws of God it forbiddeth subjects to perform such-commands yet withall obligeth to submit with patience to the unjust penalties of non-performance and to avoid Mutinies and Rebellions It also teacheth the people in Spiritual matters to receive the Churches directive with their own discretive judgment and so not to derogate from the just Authority of Ecclesiastical Superiors It is indeed the chiefest strength of all just Governments and Societies The truth is it doth hedge in with thorns the lusts of men as Pride Malice Revenge Covetousness and Sensuality but it secures and inlarges their wholsome comforts and injoyments their proprieties immunities and all just priviledges It advanceth Righteousness Temperance Beneficience and all other duties appertaining to mankind Wherever it roots and spreads it makes no small part of the Prudence Courage Industry and Frugality and by consequence of the wealth and strength of a Nation There is no aggregation of men in the world wherein appears more of that which is good and profitable to men than is found where the influence of this profession becomes predominant whether in a Nation or Kingdom or City or Family The Spirit of Christianity is the Spirit of power of love and of a sound mind which gives great advantage for Prudence Soberness steddiness of Conversation The seriousness and gravity of this way disposeth not to futil talking childish credulity easiness and rashness but to a considerate freeness and direct dealing with a generous caution and reservedness in due Season Though its followers cannot link themselves to Factions and serve all times and occasions and go along with the men of this world in their designs throughout yet they shall not fail of interest in a Nation not wholly vitiated nor is it hard for them to maintain an influence upon the publick State if they accommodate themselves to serve it so far as conscience and prudence leads them Considerate men will not contemn them and they that own them shall know where to find them and in pursuing good designs shall find them fast friends Religion doth not cast men down into stupidity pusillanimity or sluggish neglect of opportunity but erects them to a Prudent and temperate vigor of Spirit and regular activity whereby they become fit for the affairs of human life in a higher or lower Sphear according to their different capacities CHAP. XVII Religion may be advanced by human Prudence what ways and methods it cannot admit in order to its advancement THough true Religion stands by an unchangeable Law and depends not upon the mutable things of this World and varies not according to their variations nor is to be governed by the common policy of secular Kingdoms nevertheless its affairs may be much advanced by prudence and disadvantaged by indiscretion There is a lawfull use of human Policy being refined from Hypocrisie and all iniquity The Author of this Profession the holy and just One in whose mouth was no guile adviseth his Disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves St. Paul one of his chief Ministers was attentive to all the methods of gaining People and became all things to all men that he might win some and he was bold to tell some that being crafty he caught them with guile but it was the guile of abounding Charity and self-denial managed with prudence for the service of Christ and the saving of Souls In secular Kingdoms the reasons of State are locked up from the common view But the maxims and methods of this Interest may with great advantage be disclosed as well to Aliens and Enemies as to Friends and fellow-Citizens For by this discovery the powers of the World who through their own misapprehensions or others malicious suggestions are sometimes turned against it may become more propense and indulgent towards it and the more sober part of Men may be inclined to favour it and greater numbers both of high and low Degree may be brought intirely to close with it when they shall behold the goodness and usefulness the innocency and integrity of its Principles As for the Enemies counterworking we need not dread it For the stratagems of this warfare are not carnal and cannot be counterwrought with carnal stratagems It remaineth therefore as the business of this inquiry to consider how we may improve the intrinsical and innate Advantages before mentioned and to gain all extrinsical and adventitious ones that may be made and to make thâ— most of them all for the designed end But due care must be had that the wisdom of this World or human Policy have not too great 〈◊〉 stroke For many are the arts and methodâ—… that serve secular Interests which the sincerity and purity of true Religion can by no mean admit It cannot stablish it self in bloud and cruelty nor murther the innocent for its own security nor hold People in subjection by the horroâ— of a Spanish Inquisition which is not the policy of the city of God the Spiritual Jerusalem but of Babylon It cannot make use of such impostures as are used to uphold the mystery of iniquiâ—y and which is the way of those Church Politicians that make
not to run with the foremost but to proceed in such manner and so far as the standing in necessary libertieâ— may require and as the more considerate paâ—… of men will justifie to be discreet and honest but above all to indeavour by a godly and blameless life to make it manifest that Conscience hath been duly satisfied and not trifleâ— with In doubtfull matters and difficult times thâ— all good men should keep the same latitudâ— of judgment and practice in all wisdom for thâ— true interest of Religion may be wished bâ—… not expected For some will be more other less inlarged by the diversity of their apprehensions Also some by their natural dispositioâ— are more timerous or more complying other again are more hardy and less flexible or morâ— reserved and resolute in their opinions Many are injudicious and the best have their passionâ— and some lie under disadvantages that may Biass the judgment this or that way where thâ— matter is somewhat disputable others maâ— have weightier reasons either for assent or diâ—… sent though not obvious and perhaps not 〈◊〉 expedient to be declared Mens cases beinâ— so exceeding various they must needs varyâ—… practice Some inconvenience but no dâ— structive mischief will follow this diversity it do not as one would think it should not disunite affections For then these several Paâ—…ties or persuasions rather are one in their main cause and may with one Spirit though walking in several Paths carry on the great concernments of it If Religion were but the bond of a Faction or the strength of a worldly interest the asserters thereof might lose or lessen it by taking such several ways But it depends not upon parties and their designs nor is obnoxious to such ingagements but in it self perfectly free from them Therefore it is advanced in any way that gives it liberty and opportunity to display it self to the world in the evidence of its own truth and goodness CHAP. XXVII The surest and safest ways of seeking Reformations WHen a corrupt State of Religion is inveterate or deeply rooted in a Nation â—he work of Pious men is convincingly to reâ—rove that corruption by the light of holy Doctrine and of holy Walking and to proâ—agate and press home with zeal the great and â—nquestionable truths of Christianity but to â—e more silent and sparing in matters more conâ—overted and of less importance the vehement â—rging whereof will not convince the world nor silence the adversary Likewise by humble addresses to the Higher powers in a fit season they may seek the redress of such enormities as are evidently Scandalous Absurd and Odious and yet perhaps the chief props of that corrupt State For this may be done without scandal or hazard and much is done if it take effect Clamorous contests about doubtfull Forms and Customs and in comparison but by matters do serve to animate the opposite party and afford them matter to work upon but the vigorous maintenance of the vital parts of Religion and the detecting of gross abuses bears them down It is time that ripens all things and every thing in its season is beautifull and successfull Then the redress of evils will run in its prepared Channel and a plain Path will be found through passages formerly inaccessable And then Rulers themselves may see what one of deep judgment observes that when time of course alters things to the worse Wisdom and Counsell had need alter them to the better they may find the necessity and utility of Reformation and by their Authority make it warrantable If the friends of truth walk in sober counsels and sure ways and follow the truth in peace and love and be serviceable to the common good they retain their innocence and maintain their honour which is their surest interest and shall be found though the fewer number to have a considerable influence upon the publick State Both Religious and Civil Affairs are apt to be carried in extreams for which cause Reformations commonly are suspected and their credit is much impaired In avoiding Superstition some have run into rudeness and undecency In Divine worship the natural expressions ofreverence and devout affection and things necessary to decency and order should be observed carefully by those that turn away from Superstitious vanities that it may appear that a well informed Conscience and the Spirit of a sound mind doth guide and rule them and that their principles are no way defective but sufficient and ample unto all regular devotion These necessary decencies and natural expressions of Devotion are plain and obvious to all intelligent persons and the modes of Civil reverence and seriousness in use among us do much guide herein A compliance with sober and grave solemnities affected by a Nation in general helps to procure a good esteem and to get ground among them whereas opposition and singularity may beget a general dislike Men do but mispend their zeal in opposing prevalent customs that have nothing in them contrary to sound Doctrine and good life Among other things I may instance in Religious performances at Funerals which may well be ordered without Superstition or any other abuse and improved to the peoples benefit who are then met together in the house of mourning Some Churches being in the midst of false worshippers to prevent all Superstition have forbidden the making of Prayers or Sermons at the interment of the Dead But in things of this nature Several Churches may have their peculiar reasons and accordingly their different orders As concerning Heathenish pastimes and vanities sometimes affected by the rude vulgar and perhaps countenanced by some of higher degree for ends well known they tend indeed unto much profaness and may trouble the minds and stir the zeal of good men Nevertheless when the power of reforming is beyond their line it sufficeth that the weighty and unquestionable matters of true Religion be constantly inculcated upon the People and the spreading of sound knowledge indeavoured both by publick Doctrine and by private Instruction And those humorous fooleries which opposition often heighteneth would soonest fall to the ground by contempt and silence In a happy season when the power of Religion hath a potent influence upon a Nation the laying of a good foundation for time to come is mainly to be regarded An opportunity in this kind may be lost not only by a sluggish neglect but also by an impetuous overstraining of it It is overstrained when things are carried forth beyond what a Nation will ever bear It may be more advisable to stop at moderate Reformations than to proceed to such extream alterations as must needs stand in opposion if so be they can so stand to a contrary fixed inclination generally prevailing The consequents of such proceeding need not to be here discoursed Besides the more healthfull state of Religion may stand not in a total change of things long in use but in reforming the abuse thereof And it should be minded that sometimes in curing a lesser evil
chiefest point thereof being in the essentials and weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life the highest violation thereof and the chiefest point of Schism lies in denying or enormously violating the said essentials or weighty matters And it is directly a violation of the Unity of the Catholick Church and not of particular Churches only Not only particular Persons but Churches yea a large combination of Churches bearing the Christian name may in their Doctrine Worship and other avowed Practice greatly violate the essentials or very weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life and be found guilty of the most enormous breach of Unity It is no Schism to withdraw or depart from any the largest combination or collective body of Churches though for their amplitude they presume to stile their combination the Catholick Church that maintain and avow any Doctrine or Practice which directly or by near and palpable consequence overthrows the said essentials The next point of external Unity being about the essentials and integrals of Church state the Sacraments and other publick Worship the Ministery and Discipline of the Church considered as of Christs institution the next chief point of Schism is the breach hereof And this may be either against the Catholick or a particular Church Of such Schism against the state of the Catholick Church there are these instances 1. When any one part of professed Christians how numerous soever combined by any other terms of Catholick Unity than what Christ hath made account themselves the only Catholick Church excluding all Persons and Churches that are not of their combination 2. When a false Catholick Unity is devised or contended for viz. a devised Unity of Government for the Catholick Church under one terrene Head personal or collective assuming a proper governing power over all Christians upon the face of the whole Earth 3. When there is an utter disowning of most of the true visible Churches in the World as having no true Church state no not the essentials thereof and an utter breaking off from communion with them accordingly Of Schism against a particular Church in point of its Church state there be these instances 1. The renouncing of a true Church as no Church although it be much corrupted much more if it be a purer Church though somewhat faulty 2. An utter refusing of all acts of communion with a true Church when we may have communion with it either in whole or in part without our personal sin of commission or omission 3. The causing of any Divisions or Distempers in the state or frame of a true Church contrary to the Unity of the Spirit But it is no Schism to disown a corrupt frame of Polity supervenient to the essentials and integrals of Church state in any particular Church or combination of Churches like a leprosie in the Body that doth grosly deprave them and in great part frustrate the ends of their constitution The last and lowest point of external Unity lying in the accidental modes of Religion and matters of meer order extrinsick to the essentials and integrals of Church-State the violation thereof is the least and lowest point of Schism I mean in it self considered and not in such aggravating circumstances as it may be in Those accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination are allowed of God when they are determined according to prudence and charity for Peace and Edification and accordingly they are to be submitted to Consequently it is one point of Schism to make a Division from or in a Church upon the accountal of accident Forms and Orders so determined according to Gods allowance But if any of the accidentals be unlawfull and the maintaining or practicing thereof be imposed upon us as the terms of our communion it is no Schism but Duty to abstain from communion in that case For explicitly and personally to own errors and corruptions even in smaller points is evil in it self which must not be committed that good may come In this case not he that withdraws but he that imposes causeth the Division And this holds of things sinfull either in themselves or by just consequence And herein he that is to act is to discern and judge for his own practice whether the things imposed be such For Gods Law supposeth us rational creatures able to discern its meaning and to apply it for the regulating of our own actions else the Law were given us in vain Submission and reverence towards Superiors obligeth no man to resign his understanding to their determinations or in compliance with them to violate his own conscience Persons meek humble peaceable and throughly conscientious and of competent judgment may not be able by their diligent and impartial search to see the lawfulness of things injoyned and t is a hard case if they should thereupon be declared contumacious Seeing there be several points of Unity the valuation whereof is to be made according to their different value mens judgment and estimation of Unity and Schism is very preposterous who lay the greatest stress on those points that are of least moment and raise things of the lowest rank to the highest in their valuation and set light by things of the greatest moment and highest value as indeed they do who set light by soundness of Faith and holiness of Life and consciencious observance of Divine institutions where there is not also unanimity and uniformity in unscriptural Doctrines and human ceremonies And they that make such an estimate of things and deal with Ministers accordingly do therein little advance the Unity of the Spirit or indeavour to keep it in the bond of Peace Seeing the word of God is the rule of Church Unity a breach is made upon it when other bounds thereof are set than this rule allows An instance hereof is the devising of other terms of Church-communion and Ministerial liberty than God hath commanded or allowed in his Word to be made the terms thereof Also any casting or keeping out of the Church or Ministery such as Gods Word doth not exclude from either but signifies to be qualified and called thereunto God doth not allow on the part of the Imposer such tearms of Church communion or Ministerial station as are neither Scriptural nor necessary to Peace and Edification nor are any part of that necessary order and decency without which the Service of God would be undecent nor are in any regard so necessary but that they may be dispensed with for a greater benefit and the avoiding of a greater mischief And they are found guilty of Schism that urge such unscriptural and unnecessary things unto a breach in the Church Such Imposers are not only an occasion of the breach that follows but a culpable cause thereof because they impose without and against Christs warrant who will not have his Church to be burdened nor the consciences of his Servants intangled with things unnecessary Nevertheless such unscriptural or
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