a publick spirit as publick as is their sedition in some sort delivered my own soul and they shall not perish without warning and that repeated with as much vehemency as are their Divisions God in mercy give a Blessing And so may they see yet again how I do set before them fire and water and will they chuse the water alas the waters of Separation are waters of bitterness Massah and Meribah be their name and Marah is their tast they are themselves as it were baptized strife and contention and so noisome loathsome and every way unsavory is their rellish But the Fire is from the Lord in the Sanctuary it is a Refiners fire and a coal from the Altar that so all iniquity may be done away Blessing and a Curse and will they chuse the curse it is Anathema Maranatha A curse untill Christ come against all those who love not the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Communion of his Saints But this the Blessing when the Spirit shall say come and the Bride shall say come and the Church shall say come and every one that has set heart to seek the Lord the Lord God of his Fathers shall also come that so God may translate his Church which is here terribly Militant as an Army with banners in good order and in due aray unto Trophies and Triumphs in that glory which shall be everlasting And so look they once more and behold and chuse they whether they will Life and Death and will they chuse Death Death which shall never have an end the reward of those who do wilfully reject the means and the passage unto Life Oh! that at length they would believe schism and separation to be a damning Sin that they would not place the worship of God in the ways and amidst the sons of perdition I 'le leave a Text or two for them to urge upon themselves and can there be plainer words than these Rom. 13.2 They that resist that power which is the Ordinance of God or which is all one that Power which commands Obedience unto Gods Ordinance shall receive unto themselves Damnation 2 Pet. 3.1 3. False Prophets and false Teachers bring upon themselves swift Destruction whose judgment of a long time lingreth not and their Damnation slumbereth not Epist of St. Jude v. 13. These are wandring stars not keeping within their proper and appointed Orbs in order to a regular and an equal revolution Vnto whom is reserved the Blackness of Darkness for ever But after all this Life and Peace to those that seek and keep peace in the fear and love of God and of those that are set over them To conclude Let us be perswaded as we are men and Christians to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace considering that God is terrible in his judgments against the Rebellious and Sacrilegious he is wonderful in his providence for the defence of those that wait and call upon him his wrath is dreadful unto Death his loving kindness is surpassing and in his favour is Life The Assembling together of his Saints is Venerable and Awful God is honoured in the midst whilst due Reverence is paid to those that are round about him considering all these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness we should be no longer faithless but believing may we the more and the rather be added to the Church as Believers in the Lord and may this number increase to Multitudes of every age and of every Sex both Men and Women our Churches Prayer shall with little alteration be the close of all We Pray thee O Lord Help thy Servants whom thou hast redâ—emed with thy most Precious Blood Make them to be numbred with thy Saints here in a holy Communion and hereafter in glory everlasting To which God of his infinite Mercy bring us all to whom be ascribed Honour Praise and Adoration to Father Son and Holy Ghost One God and three Persons and that of all Ages in the Church by Christ Jesus world without end Amen Lord Mercifully receive the Prayers of thy Church that all troubles and errors being quenched it may serve thee in quietness and grant us peace in our days Amen A BAD AND A Good Zeal DESCRIBED and LIMITED Gal. 4.17 18. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that you might affect them or us 18. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not only when I am present with you IT was even in our Saviours time the Hypocritical Devotion of the Pharisees and is at this day the Pharisaical Hypocrisie both of the Conclave and the Consistory to compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when he is gained they make him two-fold more the child of Hell then themselves so that the last estate of the poor man is worse than his beginning But as for us Woe unto us unless that our Religion do exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees their industry was both commendable and imitable if we could abstract their Labour of Love as they call it from the malice of their intention we may hear them both while they sit in the Chair of Moses but not when their design is to tumble Moses out of his Chair not when they rebell against Moses the Servant of the Lord and vex Aaron the Saint of God their long Prayers were not amiss no though they were in the Markets and the corners of every street when they made their great solemn and pompous Processions that they might be seen of men and so give an example of Devotion unto the World but we must beware of them when we find that upon this pretence they devour Widdows Houses when they commit a rapine upon the portion of the Widdow and of the Fatherless their long Robes were no such hainous crime nor their Phylacteries upon their Garments in which are supposed to have been written in Capital Letters the Ten Commandements of God to put the People in mind of their Duty but this was their fault when they proposed the Law as a Precept of obedience unto others and most shamefully and wickedly broke it in every Precept themselves in a word it is an Evangelical Precept the command of Christ himself with which Holy Church begins and exhorts to her offertory That we let our Light shine before men even the Light of our Profession in the publick attestations of our Religion we may be both burning and shining Lights but we must be careful that there be the oyl of good works to feed the flame lest men rejoyce in our Light only for a season and because they cannot behold a pious and a holy conversation directed by the fear of God therefore they do not glorifie our Father which is in Heaven we are to be watchful then that we try the hot Spirits of zeal that are abroad inthe world whether they be
Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the rest Such as might have evil will against and an evill eye upon such Dispensations in Solomons Porch No man durst to joyn himself to them That which wrought thus upon the Adversary that he durst not stretch out his hand to smite was either the Judgment of God upon Ananias and Sapphira or else the Wonders that were wrought amongst the people 1 As for the judgment upon Ananias and Sapphira for their Sacrilegious with-holding part of the price of their Land Paena istius modi non parum valabat terrendis impiis ne temere prorumperent in eorum coelum ubi Deus tam severum vindicam se ostenderet Calv. in loc This sort of sudden and unexpected punishment was caution enough to those who were froward and disobedient that they should not venture to disturb those Solemnities in which God had manifested himself so severe in taking vengeance If for such a small thing might they think as Sacriledge onely for purloyning a little money God would evert so great a Displeasure of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who commit a Sacriledge upon in offering to do violence unto the Persons of such who are exercised in the Solemn Administration of a strict and a most holy Religion 2 The Wonders and Signes which were wrought among the people these did work upon and steal away the hearts of all that saw them So that v. 26. the enemy durst not be too boistrous against them lest the People as one Man should rise up against them and stone them and at length from their own consultations they were forced to dismiss them in peace they begin to doubt amongst themselves whitherto this would grow They suspect their own jurisdiction lest it should be exercised without fear or wit and in the end ver 38. that they be found to be fighters against God v. 35 39. Ye men of Israel take heed to your selves it is you that are in the greatest danger what you intend to do as touching these men Refrain from them and let them alone for if this Work or this Counsell be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God you cannot overthrough it and this Work and Counsel was not of men but of God and therefore the Enemy could by no means hinder it I might here observe to you the constant the special care and providence which God has for his Church how that the fury of man doth often turn to his Praise in the deliverance of his People he restraineth the remainders of wrath also he bringeth to naught the designes of the Heathen and maketh the devices of the Aliens to be of no Effect should they rage yea and that furiously yet they would imagine but a vain thing let them take counsel together with one accord yet he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision Psal 2.6 I Know that Second Psalm is litterally spoken of our Saviours Person and yet it is also applyed by the Apostles to the propagation of his Gospel in the Chapter before the Text ver 27. This was at that time the Churches Prayer when they prayed with one heart and with one voice Of a Truth Lord against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together And now Lord behold their threatnings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy Word Surely the Sons of Thunder were amongst them whilst the Word of God went forth from them like Lightning the place was shaken where they were Assembled ver 35. With great power gave they witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the result of all was the wonderful effect in the Text that of those that were adversaries durst no one joyn himself unto them May I not apply the same Providence of Almighty God comfortably to our selves to this once afflicted and despised Church of ours if she be not yet despised and afflicted made a by-word and a reproach to her own Children no wounds like those which are given in the house of Friends However for our comfort Hell and Death have not yet prevailed Not Rome whose mouth was wide as Hell nor the more secret contrivances of Schisme which like the Grave never hath enough our God has been a God both of the Hills and of the Valleys and through the power of his Might over both we have been more than Conquerours Rome upon its seven Hills animated from an aspering conclave could not over-see us and the Consistory in a seeming self-denyal making it self low as the Valleys could not over-reach or Vnder-mine us neither the Infallible Chair nor the Stool of wickedness could awe us or controul us Nay though for a while we might seem to be forsaken yet God gave us beauty for our ashes he restored our Captivity and put upon us the Garment of joy instead of a Spirit of heaviness So that to the one Adversary which in our heaviness asked us Where is now your Church sing us one of the Songs of your Sion We can now return this answer That the Tears which we shed at the Rivers of Babylon have caused Jordan it self to over-flow its banks Persecuted we were but not utterly cast off our God has provided us still a Name in the earth and when the Succession of an Apostolical Ministry was almost cut off quite in the midst of us our extremity was Gods opportunity for mercy See we yet once more the fire of the Sanctuary hid in its own embers and almost extinct during the Captivity again brought forth restored to its wonted lustre the flame yet again bright upon the Altar so that our Miraculous Restauration is to them an abundant Demonstration that we were and still are continued a Church according to ancient and Primitive Constitutions truly Apostolical But as for that other Adversary the Viper in our own bosom who both contributed unto and then upbraided us with our afflictions who because of the troubles which they brought upon us thence made an argument to reproach our Holy Constitutions as if they were in themselves unlawful because of Gods Displeasure against those who did not live up closely and severely to them thus whilst they have been the Rod of Vengeance in the hand of God they have talked to the grief of such whom God has wounded And why will not these persons now be as exact interpreters of Gods Providence against themselves is not the Scene again shifted and are we not I am sure if we understood either Gods glory or our own happiness we should be where we were before and have we not this to say for our Church even according to their way of argumentation that God who restored it was not against it We are not at this day without a Priest or without an Ephod And yet still with
their people for without a little Dissimulation their could be neither Living nor Livelinood But certainly God has no need of such mens Hypocrisie to Manifest his Glory nor the Church of their Dissimulation to preserve its peace He that is a Friend to all Religions or to all perswasions in Religion so far that according to the circumstances of his life he can ingage in or defend any of them is in truth of no Religion at all he is ready to Apostatize with Julian and should there arise an eleventh Persecution against Christianity he is never like to be either a Resolute Confessour for the truth he has own'd or a Faithful Martyr for the Faith into which he was baptized but this will be his sad Conversion quite contrary to the blessed alteration which was in St. Paul Is not this he that preached Christ but now he destroys all those who call upon that name delivering them up to bonds and imprisonment even to death it self God grant that we may never know such times as will put these men to their tryal and he preserve and continue his Church in Unity and Uniformity amongst us that it never stand in need of them to be Champions for its Faith or Discipline But whither such an eager industrious sollicitude of being indifferent of appearing all things to all men wresting St. Pauls practice as bad as they have done his writings out of a desire not to gain Proselytes but credit and profit to themselves I say whether such a zealous studious luke-warmness in things sacred and holy is not in the direct consequence of it a pre-requisite disposing a man to turn Jew Turk Pagan Infidel any thing does not in the formal notion of it promote Atheisme both in practice and speculation I leave this to the Disputers of this World to the curious speculative heads of our times seriously and soberly to consider But as for us let us be careful of a Temporary Faith of a Religion ours in the profession of it only because suited to the Climate we live in and the air we breath in to the popular breath we daily suck to the soil of the Countrey to the humours of Multitude Let us be stedfast in our holy Profession persevere in the way of Godliness as knowing that Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World it is Heaven-born God on high is Worshiped and man upon Earth is saved in the celebration of it this being our Assurance that we are accepted and a comfortable satisfaction to us that our zeal is rightly qualified when in the integrity of our hearts and the uprightness of our soul it is as permanent as it is passionate it is the same continued flame bright and pure to the last bending it self one way tending upwards though it be fire it is not seated beneath the concave of the Moon I mean spent upon sublunary changing perishing Designes but it is cherished by influenced upon and clothed with the Sun of Righteousness and the reward of its Constancy shall be Everlasting Felicity for him who is thus piously zealous unto Death there is laid up a Crown of Life And so I pass to the 2. Reason of this Apostolical approbation and that Taken from the habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be alwayes And here as in the Application of the first Discourse was mentioned we must be careful that we distinguish the habit of zeal from the constitution of the Body whether it be not the overflowing of the Gall rather than the result of Grace from the heart True indeed being called unto Grace and Holiness whatsoever were our passions before they are Crucified now with Christ in mortification and with him they are risen again and sanctified unto his service and so our zeal may at the same time be in some sort the natural temper of our Bodies and the pious frame of our Minds but then in other circumstances of life our zeal for Charity must alwayes take place of Passion neither must the Sun at any time set somnum nec rixa facit nor are the shadows of the night to be spread over our wrath So then be our Constitution what it will if in the personal occurrences of our lives our Moderation be known unto all men our zeal for God and Religion because perpetually the same is therefore Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be Alwaies Thunder does root up Foundations the effects of it are as dreadful as the noise is terrible but then the Lightning which doth accompany it is momentany it is but a sudden flash and we see it again no more There is a Madzeal or a Phrenzy rather like Thunder it pretends that it will clear the air when it makes the earth to tremble nothing but Desolation and overturning where-ever the Bolt lights it makes havock of all before it be it never so pleasant or desireable but the Lightning transcient the promising overtures are but some sudden glances which have more of terror and amazement than of comfort and refreshment we see them indeed or hear of them no sooner are they seen or heard but no where are they to be found whereas a Holy zeal is like the Sun breaking through a cloud though intercepted with the mists and foggs of errour and seduction yet it will make its way and spread the day where e're it comes it ariseth in its strength and in its beauty and rejoyceth to run its course it s going forth is from Heaven and its Circuit to the end of it again and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof such a thing is a pious zeal like unto the Ordinances of Heaven abiding the same for ever day after day tells the World its Piety and night after night in a satisfactory contemplation upon its own constancy sheweth unto the Devout Soul that such a zeal thus fixed and unalterable is according unto Godliness True zeal is not like Herods Devotion who sometimes heard John Baptist gladly and for his sake when the humour took him did many things that were good it is not like Agrippa's half Perswasion and yet not perswaded to be a Christian very near and so the farther from the Kingdom of Heaven it is not like Felix his pannick fit of trembling while he hears St. Paul reasoning of Temperance of Righteousness and of Judgment to come soon shaked off in a colder Dismission go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee it is not a sudden motion an ecstatical rapture an impetus that may cast Saul himself amongst the Prophets it is not a hot burning fit which comes and goes as some unhealthy humours ferment more or less in the Body or wild fancys work disturbedly and confusedly in the brain such a zeal as this which is not constant to it self is not unlike to Sauls evil Spirit when the Lord was departed from him it wants Davids Harp the sweet Singer of Israel the
Musick of the Sanctuary and the Songs of Sion to lay it nay and as the fit may take him the Javelin may be cast at David himself because of his Musick though a watchful eye and a speedy flight may prevent the danger whilst the hole out of the Wall is indication sufficient of the madness of the thrower This is the unaccountable Phrenzy of some whose zeal for they know not what would knock a mans brains out only for a wen in his fore-head who drive furiously like Iehu not at all considering what they trample upon or Desolations they leave behind them and then when it is too late they bethink themselves and look backwards they tell us they never thought it would have come to this they confess that they have done a great deal more then ever they intended and at length after all this mischief they will now sit down and be quiet never thinking of asking God forgiveness or giveing the Church satisfaction for the Schisms they have made now they are in the other extream as indifferent as before they were violent luke-warm indeed the heat if any is spent the wrong way But on the contrary that zeal which is Good is with Reverence be it spoke like unto Jesus the Author of its Faith it is the same Yesterday to day and for ever the same yesterday when it was cherished and countenanced in prosperity and the same yesterday too when it was threatned and frowned upon in adversity the same to day being restored to honour and to favour and the same to day too should it be laid aside as useless or troublesome whilst Schism and Rebellion is to be cajoled if not rewarded the same for ever owning the Axiome to be true though the deduction somewhat hard and disingenuous that They who have already been approved in Affliction and Tribulation so manifesting their Piety to God their Allegiance to their Prince and their Devotion to the Church act by one and the same Principle still and this Principle will keep them honest must therefore the constant performance of their Duty be the only reward of their zeal and that zeal is yet again the same for ever ready to incounter all manner of difficulties as if it had never been disobliged such a zeal is good which is thus permanent it is like the fire upon the Altar a constant flame of love before it s kept alive whilst hid in the Embers of its own loyalty and fidelity under it breaks forth to its wonted brightness and lustre after Captivity though it consumes the Zealot yet it changes not and after all that has been said the word in the Text is emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Always one and the same and though sometime reflecting upon it self with comfort it may innocently and justly have an eye to the recompence of reward whether temporal or eternal yet it is not an eye service as before Men it is a holy zeal out of singleness of heart as pleasing God which is the Third and Last Reason of this Apostollical approbation taken from the occasion of expressing it not only when I your Apostle am present with you That zeal which is Good though its habit be as constant as is the Object of it universally good it is alway the same temper and frame of mind yet withal it is discreet as well as vehement it will then chiefly take occasion to shew it self when there is most need of it when the Spiritual Apostle or Pastor is out of the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only out of fear because of my Authority and jurisdiction when I am present but out of love to the thing it self should I be absent from you This is that which our chief Apostle as having the care over all the Churches the great Doctor of the Gentiles did give in charge in most of his Epistles to the several Churches which he had planted That they should be careful to manifest unto all the World that they had received the Truth of the Gospel in the love of it in that their stedfastness to the Faith be one and the same though he should not be locally present with them shaking the Rod of his jurisdiction over them thus were the Churches Centures to be managed at Corinth upon the incestuous person 1 Cor. 53. I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan and to the same Corinthians who took it for granted that the Apostle had a coercive power over them he gives them their option that according to their Behaviour during his absence so should his Presence with them be 1 Cor. 4.21 What will ye it is in your own power to make me welcome at my coming shall I come unto you with a Rod that is in the severity of Discipline over you or in the spirit of Meekness in the affability and courteousness of conversation with you and what was wanting in the Corinthians this same Apostle commends as praise worthy in his Colossians Chap. 11.5 Though I be absent in the flesh yet I am with you in the spirit joying and beholding your Order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ It was the same Caution which he gave to the Philippians Chap. 1.27 Let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit striving together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is contending with eagerness and zeal for the faith of the Gospel and to these Philippians also with this caution he gives them witness bearing Testimony for them that they had been constant thereby to incourage their future perseverance Chap. 2.12 Wherefore my beloved as ye have alwayes obeyed not in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling By all which it is evident that that zeal is to be suspected for Hypocrysie which is only suited to time place and person which is then exerted when such persons are present who either have a power over or an influence upon us but these being withdrawn immediately we grow as cold and as indifferent as ever the Ruler having turned his back the Servant presently alters the Copy of his Countenance It was an Heathens advice that we should imagine our selves in the presence of Socrates or some other rigid exemplar of vertue which may be a restraint upon us that we do not at any time transgress the Rule of our duty but that Philosopher came nearer the Dictates of Christianity who gave us this in Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. Aur. Carm. That above all things we have a Reverence for our selves