direction Timothy was to hold fast the form of sound words at his Church at Ephesus that as there is but one Faith so in Believing Congregations there might be but one Confession And this not only evinced from Scripture and Reason as expedient but from the Apostles practice who having received the promise of the Father and power from on high at Jerusalem they agreed on one summary Rule for their own Teaching and the Peoples believing a compendious sum of Evangelical Doctrines exquisitely composed which is delivered to us by Tradition from Antiquity and generally received under the Name of the Apostles Creed In which Confession the intelligent Believer not only makes an acknowledgment of his assent to Promises of Mercy to be rely'd upon but to the reasonableness of Duties of Obedience that are injoyned by the Gospel to be practiced and makes open profession of Communion of Saints which must be maintained by the practice of Holiness and comprehend all the duties of Christianity that are required And this compendious Confession of Faith by repeating this set Form prescribed by the Apostles hath been used by the People as well as the Minister by which they openly declared their unfeigned Assent to what they did believe and their stedfast Resolution of what they would do in every Congregation that would be reputed of the Church of Christ And if it be lawful and expedient to have set Forms for Confession of Faith it cannot be unlawful and unfitting to have set Forms for the exercise of Devotion It cannot be a reproach but a duty to have our Spirits thus stinted when the Spirit of Grace limits himself in the Rules of Holiness and hath the denomination of Holy from this limitation And if new sorts of Words and variety of Expressions must be used in praying as some wildly fancy I wonder St. Paul in all his Epistles in the beginning should use the same Salutation and in the end should use the same Valediction and that Christ in his Agony who wanted neither expression or fervency should pray thrice together the same words At Antioch that the Christians there in their Congregation had their Liturgy At Corinth that the People were all Prophesying At Jerusalem that in their Religious Assemblies they were to hold fast the profession of their Faith without wavering is so evident as doubtless it can need no further illustration And if set Form of Words were unlawful in Gods service certainly the multitude of Angels would never have been represented unto us as agreeing in one Anthem on Earth nor they above in the same doxology in Heaven And if the Examples of Saints and Angels may lead us rightly if Nature God and Christ and his Apostles may direct us safely we must conclude That Vniformity of Words is not only lawful but expedient in the exercise of Godliness 3. I shall prove Vniformity of Words necessary and expedient by Reason 1. And Reason it self will tell us if we have not abjured it that Vniformity in Words is necessary and conducing to the practice of Godliness for take this away and see what giddiness and distractedness must necessarily ensue in every Assembly Without agreement in these things to terminate and bound both our Thoughts and Words how improbable is it that most men should be secured from inconsiderate wandrings and unwarrantable expressions But being confined to words of Faith and Devotion we call home our Thoughts to consider what these import and signifie that are injoyned and prescribed us and reverently we worship God and pray to him and confess to his Name And our wilful Opposers give Testimony to this Truth by their practice that set Ferms must be prescribed to the People When the best gifted Brother is appointed and agreed on to put up Prayers which are set Forms to the whole Congregation and it is not to be denied but every Member that is truly Religious secretly doth concur with such Prayers and limit their Thoughts to what is signified by such Expressions Weak Creatures never considering that they split upon that Rock which they pretend studiously to avoid while they voluntarily enslave themselves and stint their spirits and thoughts to conform to the sudden wild effusions and oft unwarrantable expressions of their idolized Teacher and dare not spoil their Liberty to submit unto and concur with the deliberate Forms and Prescriptions of their sober Governours and Rulers which will undoubtedly guide and lead them to the right exercise of true Religion that tends to peace Poor inconsiderate People they know not what to do for it is not a set Form they hate which they may see they cannot avoid but a spirit of Contradiction they love while they oppose the warrantable directions of their Religious Leaders and willingly suffer themselves to be captivated by wild ungovern'd Enthusiasts and run headlong into an inexcusable sin of a wilful Disobedience But if any can think set Forms to be unlawful and will be tied to none but avoid them then must every pretended Saint bring a distinct Prayer and Psalm to be poured out by himself in their several Congregations And it must necessarily follow when every one is singing a several Psalm in their Congregation it must happen what St. Paul saith was at Corinth when they all spake with several Tongues a Stranger coming in must in reason conclude that there was madness in the midst of them Thus in Reason we must determine to terminate and bound the Thoughts and Considerations of them that would be truly Religious there ought to be set Forms of Words agreed upon and prescribed in Believing Congregations 2. That is best to be used that will most heighten our Devotion and Intention in our Religious addresses to God for how shall I hope that God should intend me if I do not intend my own Petitions And I am verily perswaded Prayer without Devotion is like a Body without a Soul it is dead and ineffectual Now this I do deliberately affirm and maintain That premeditated and set Forms of Prayer must heighten any mans Devotion and Intention I desire such as obstinately oppose premeditated and composed Forms to consider that in this they contend only for freedom of Words And have Words any power or influence over God Can we imagine that God is taken with variety or shift of Phrases Words or loeutions are for mans necessity not Gods information They are of no necessity to make our hearts known to him who understand what we need before we ask him and our Thoughts afar off And it is the affections of our Hearts not the expression of our Mouths that make us prevail with our God What therefore may best conduce to settle our Consideration to fix our Desires and Intentions on God and good things is most lawful and most expedient to be used And this I dare say upon Reason and from Experience is best done by well-weighed Forms of set Prayers foreknown and assented unto both by Priest and People For
Church of Christ from an unalterable Rule are of an unchangeable Judgment They are not like Children tossed up and down with every breath nor carried about with diverse and strange Doctrines but the God of hope as he hath filled them with all joy so with all peace and unity in believing That they continue stedfast in the same Faith are perfectly joyned together in the same Judgment and amidst Society of Believers there is but one Spirit one Conscience The Head and perfection of a Rational Creatures Vnity must be in Judgment Beasts may agree in Affection only Men can agree in Judgment And Judgment Faith and Conscience of which there is a noise in the World are but little different All the result of the Souls Reasoning the deliberate conclusion and agreement of her Counsel from a certain Rule and infallible A respect of the Rational Creature to the Rules of the Gospel not only as true and warrantable but as good and acceptable and a serious purpose and resolution to conform to those Rules accordingly Of which Rules some are supernatural and revealed others are natural some positive but being injoyned by Christ they are eternal universal indispensable and binding to the Catholick Church of Christ But some Rules are particular given by Christian Rulers to their particular National Churches to whose wisdom Christ hath left the ordering and injoyning of some Canons not unlawful for setling Peace And be the Canons either concerning Words or Actions since they are accomodately fitted to the custome and apprehensions of the People and are significant expressions of the Subjects unity of Judgment and Faith They are binding to believing Subjects for the Lords sake So that as in the Catholick Church for the General Rules so in particular Churches for particular Commands where lawfully fixed and unrepealed the Believing Subjects are to be of the same Faith of the same Judgment And where difference of Faith or Judgments are in the same constituted Church impossible it is there should be Vnity of Affection impossible it is the Souldiers and Servants should be in peace and Vnity where Captains and Leaders are at variance and dissension Liberty or pretence of Conscience in a constituted Church can never be plea sufficient to justifie two differing Believers in differing and contrary undertakings If one of those undertakings be warrantable the others must be unlawful and unwarrantable There is but one Conscience one Faith in this case can be justifiable as certain as there is but one Rule and but one Truth And when two differing Believers in differing and contrary Actions can have but one true and justifiable Rule There cannot be in contrary Actions any more than one right Faith or justifiable Conscience And Conscience is Concludens scientia a deliberate Conclusion and setled Judgment a fixed Determination of the Intellective part from a certain infallible Rule from which we infer assume and apply to our selves the morality of our Actions and determine of the subsequent issue accordingly So that two things are required to make up a Conscience 1. A deliberate Determination or Conclusion 2. A certain Rule from whence we infer the morality of our Actions 1. There must be a deliberate Determination in what may be called Conscience so no Example or practice of the most retired mortified man can be a Rule for thy Conscience The most devout of men are no Lords of our Faith who at the best are but Helpers of our joy Infallibility is not to be granted to any particular man which is not granted to any particular Church of Christ Neither can Conscience be made up soundly from the practice of a fallible man but from the law of Nature and Rules of an Infallible God So that it is not to be called Conscience that is grounded on the Examples of godly Religious men without thy own Deliberation Nor is that Conscience that hath only former Resolutions for its Rule for wilful obstinacy timaciousness of purpose cannot be a part of Conscience which is not in the Appetitive part at all Nor can Humor Animosity a sudden precipitate ingaging be justified by plea of Conscience when there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conscience cannot be without Deliberation neither can Deliberation without applying or determination be called Conscience For while the Vnderstanding is fluctuating questioning and inquiring it may be in tendency to it it is not yet to be called Conscience And here again they seem as far from Reason in their expressions as from Obedience in their actions that call out for liberty of Conscience May not my Conscience be free And they would make the doubting Reason against the undoubtedly lawful Command of the Superiour in things indifferent to be the weak tender Conscience But where liberty or doubting is there can be no determination of the thing doubted and where no determination there can be no Conscience 2. That cannot be called Conscience that grounds not its Determination upon a certain Rule When Conscience is but a Witness to a Rule at the best a subordinate Rule neither can it be an absolute Law which must be determined by a Law without which it may be Humor Animosity Fancy or Opinion whatever it is surely it cannot rightly be called Conscience And since Conscience cannot be without a Rule and when the Rules of Nature and the Gospel do not interfere and are not contrary there cannot be two different or contrary Consciences that can be both good of any professed Believers in a constituted Church wheresoever Over the General Church of Christ there be Rules Natural and Necessary whose morality is determined and some Rules Positive and Arbitrary that are eternally and universally binding to all Believers to the end of the World In all these Gospel Rules there can be but one Conscience in all Believers undoubtedly And in every particular Church somethings are to be determined for Peace sake by the wisdom of Governours as time and place words and gestures c. in the service and worship of God Now in a Constituted Church where these things are determined I deliberately declare in this Subjects submission and the others refusal there can be but one Conscience For when indifferent things are determined by wise and good Rulers most conducing to convenience and peace the Rule upon such determination is for every Believing Subject to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake Now when no Conscience can be without a Rule since I have a Rule for my Submission and thou canst shew no Rule thou hast for thy Refusal certainly it must be concluded I have a Conscience in my willing subjection but thou canst have no Conscience in thy wilful omission and opposition And being there is but one Rule that is good and warrantable in all positive things there can be to speak properly in such things but one Conscience For Resolutions if without yea much more if against a Rule cannot be called Conscience And Conscience which is 〈◊〉
Publick Worship with all the precise method of that Order and Decency that ought to be used in it in which they will pretend to better and transcend the excellency of our Liturgy which is prescribed and used among us Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum And until they can do this their wisdom is to study to be quiet and conform to this till they can find out and propose a better Method of our publick Worshipping of God beyond all exceptions that they will abide by And now I say what Subject of the Church of England can reasonably desert or reject our Liturgy which is visibly the best that is extant to us upon sober Consideration And how can I but stand amazed that the Common Service as prescribed should by so many of our Neighbours not only be neglected but contemned when it can neither be justly blamed nor amended Certainly I am not uncharitable but should be too conniving if I did forbear to declare a want of Religion and Reason in those men that run away to the flocks of our pretended Companions that hold no Uniform Communion that is Visible When no worship of God is evident no practice of the Peoples Devotion no vocal Confession of the Believers Faith no offering any sacrifice of Praise and yet every Christian is bound to Conform in all those things as well as the Minister in every Believing Congregation Why will ye go away from us O ye of little faith we hold fast the words and practice of eternal life Friendly Perswasives to my Country-men COme then my beloved Countrymen since these things are so that an Vniform profession of Faith must be maintained in Believing Societies and fifth by our Liturgy according to Gospel Rules we are ordered and directed to this reasonable Service Let us lay aside all prejudice and partiality all contentious humors Let there be no longer a Spirit of Opposition or wilful Contradiction be found among us Let us follow after the exercise of those things that make for Peace and wherewithal we may best edifie one another Whatever things are honest whatever things are just whatever things are pure let 's think and conclude of the practice of such things Let us endeavour to bend our selves to the quiet of the Church of God and to hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Let 's evidence the God of hope hath filled us as with all joy so with all peace in Believing There is but One Truth but One Faith among us let there be but One Spirit but One Conscience Let us shew the God of Patience and Consolation hath granted us to be like-minded Let 's not forsake the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but let us hold fast the form of sound words and the profession of our Faith without wavering Let there be no divisions but let us speak the same thing to declare we are perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same Judgment Let there be no divisions among us about Ministers account of them as Stewards of the Mysteries of God and yet your Faith stands not in the wisdom of Men but in the power of God Have their Persons not so much in admiration as if lords of your Faith by Preaching only esteem them highly for their works sake whereby they lead you to the holding fast the Profession of your Faith and the true exercise of right Godliness which hath the promise c. And as in your speeches you declare your Vnanimity in your holy Assemblies so in your Behaviour let there be Uniformity Let your Conversation be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ and let all things be done decently and in order and reverently as in the House and presence of the living God Worship God in the beauty of Holiness so as if an Vnbeliever come among you he may be convinced and fall down and worship God also because he sees verily of a truth God is in the midst of you It is the fit time for Christ to be born in us when Vnity is among us In a calm night the Dew descends to the Earths refreshment and Grace is like to come down to us when we are in the way of Peace Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace as directed and the God of love and peace shall be with you AMEN Proposition II. The wilful Omission or Recusancy of any Believing Subjects Conformity to those Rules is an heinous Sin and a dangerous Disobedience I Heartily beg of the Candid Reader so much charity to believe it as true what I publickly declare and avow That I am a Reformed Christian of the Church of England and that I shall never attempt to perswade my fellow Subjects to any practice that is ungodly or contrary to the Rules of the Gospel And be assured whoever thou art that I sincerely desire every man may come to the knowledge and practice of Truth and be saved and therefore I dare not by a flattering compliance or connivance sooth any man in the errour of his way which will lead him securely to his destruction And I dare not daub over Recusancy as some desire with a paint and varnish of a trifling weakness or infirmity or palliate it over with a false pretence of tender Conscience when it will prove if considered an heinous sin and a dangerous Disobedience Give me leave therefore without offence if thou beest willing to be Informed to bring to thy Remembrance what I have formerly delivered and am ready to defend concerning our Canons and Rules of Uniformity prescribed about the Publick exercise of Religion 1. Our Governours as subordinate under Christ do not Rule their Believing Subjects arbitrarily but by Laws subordinate to the Rules of the Gospel 2. All that the power of Governours can reach unto in a Visible Church is to order and direct Externals in the publick exercise of Religion 3. That the right exercise of true Religion is the open profession of Faith 4. Of that open Profession there must be Uniformity 5. Every Baptized Subject of England is obliged to conform to such Laws prescribed For to command or prohibit as the Gospel directs is warrantable And all our Laws to the Common sort of Believing Subjects are according to those Rules If Natural or expressly Evangelical there can be no dispute if a Christian thou art bound to obey And if the Laws be Positive or Humane and not against Nature or Injust thy Obligation is divine and thy Submission is natural being thou art to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lorods sake SECT I. Let us determine and agree what we are to understand by those Laws and the Conformity to them that the Believing Subject of England is bound to observe THE Governours aim and care is not only at the keeping and diverting from the People what is grievous
be Publick so must it be 2. Vniversal The Father naturally cares for the welfare of every Child Gods Providence is over all his Creatures for their good And it is the care of his Deputies to provide for the welfare and happiness of all their Subjects Now if Religion be the only thing that can make men happy as it is proved the Governour cannot compass his End which is to procure the happiness of his Subjects but by enjoyning the Exercise of Religion to be Universal CHAP. IV. Our Governours of our Church of England have done well to injoyn every Believing Subject an open Profession of his Faith in his respective Congregation The particulars incident to this Head are Four I. We are to consider and agree what FAITH is II. That of that Faith there ought to be Profession III. That Profession ought to be made by every Believer IV. This is to be done in respective Congregations SECT I. 1. OUr Governours are not only as Gods Deputies under the Law of Nature to injoyn their Subjects the Care of Religion but as Deputies of Christ under a more perfect Law revealed by him in this last dispensation to injoyn their Subjects the right Exercise of true Religion prescribed in the Gospel which he published to fulfil the Law of Nature that man might come to that Happiness for which he was created and designed And this I understand to be the most proper Notion of Faith viz. The true Religion well ordered and rightly modified by Gospel Rules by the right Exercise whereof we worship and serve God acceptably so that whatsoever is not of Faith is sin and without Faith it is impossible to please God For being Baptized into the obedience of the Gospel of which obedience Baptism represents our Profession we ought to have a firm Perswasion of the goodness and reasonableness not only of the Duties in the Gospel prescribed but of our conformity to those Prescriptions for the carrying on that true and undefiled Religion wherewith God is well pleased So that Faith is the Gospel grace that teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live holily righteously and soberly in this present world And Believing is a comprehensive Duty and signifies not only a tacit assent to Evangelical Rules as true and warrantable as a barren act of the Understanding but a firm election and perswasion of these Rules as good and comfortable and implies a firm purposing and resolving of a total Gospel Obedience I heartily pity and bewail the differences and distances that are to be seen among Professed Believers in this Nation and upon serious Consideration I fully perswade my self there is nothing contributes more to the being and continuance of our Division than a general rashness and injudiciousness When men run away with some sudden partial Notions and slight Apprehensions of things of great necessity and deserved esteem in the World and do not seriously and discursively make a right Judgment and agree of the full sense and meaning of them as they import To instance in some few particulars which is easie for any to observe The Gospel most say they highly esteem and yet we cannot but observe that most snatch and run away with it as a promise of Mercy but never regard it as a rule of Duty and direction of an holy life The two Sacraments are Seals of the Covenant betwixt God and us and most men are very heedful at Receiving them that God may seal to them Remission of sins and never regard that at the same time they covenant under Seal to yield Obedience to God The Blood of Christ is precious and its shedding to be had in everlasting remembrance but when most men most solemnly remember it this Consideration contents them That Christs Blood was shed for our Redemption for remission of sins to reconcile God to man c. When we should think how this Blood-shedding was That men might be reconciled to God and be redeemed from an unclean conversation and by this sprinkling be sanctified and purged from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.13 14. Graces and gifts of the Spirit we justly value and admire but is it not too apparent men are taken up with gifts of Edification and pass by gifts and true grace of Sanctification so that if a man be but ready in a Scripture phrase hath gotten a voluble Tongue a round expression c. he gets the name and repute of a Saint immediately But the exercise of Piety and Charity which are the certain evidences of true Sanctity These things stand by neglected and despised I might instance in several things that we frame the same Consideration of If we give God but a piece of a Duty we think a maimed and imperfect sacrifice will content him and expiate and satisfie him and excuse all our defects and enormities and with gross mistakes we see evidently men delude and deceive themselves in this untoward generation And although in many things our mistakes of these sorts hasten our irreligious miscarriages yet in nothing are they more manifest than in the nature of Faith From all Christians that make any profession of the true Religion we shall hear these pretences That they live by Faith walk by Faith are justified by Faith are saved by Faith c. And yet for all this noise we hear of these things we can see but few that make a true judgment or have a right understanding of the full meaning of the real Faith in Christ or Faith of the Gospel It s undeniably true that without believing that supernatural Truth of Christs Merits for our pardon and remission of sins there can be no peace for men but they must die and consume in the guilt of their Transgressions It is certainly true that Christ our High Priest put away sins by the sacrifice of himself but when Christ our designed Mediatour was King and Prophet as well as Priest It is not barely a fruitless relying or a lazy recumbency on Christs Merits as our Priest only but our believing his Laws and Directions he left his Church as a King the observing his Counsels and Injunctions he gave as a Prophet is necessary to make up that Faith which will bring us to the end of our Hope which is the salvation of our souls It 's undeniably true that in the Gospel are given exceeding great and precious Promises of Mercies and Salvation upon which God hath caused â—he to hope yet when these Promises are not absolute but conditional upon our conformity to those Rules of Duty that are prescribed unless we be carried on to the practice of those things required that pertain to life and godliness we cannot be rationally concluded to have that Faith in the Gospel in us which will certainly bring us to that happiness which we openly design and expect And upon a serious inquiry we cannot conclude any of the Theological Graces to be truly infused into any man unless they discover
sin and misery wherewith the Earth is overspread as once out of the Ark so now out of the Church there can ordinarily be expected no Salvation The Ark was cemented within and without with Pitch and the Church with Charity Sometimes they have likened her to a Coat to Josephs Coat that was polymita divers coloured to Christs Coat inconsutilis without seam rents or divisions In Holy Scripture in several places the Church of Christ is compared to an House or Temple Many distinct stones and several pieces of wood make up one Building for the protection entertainment and comfort of the Owner so many Believers make up one living Temple one spiritual House for Christ and his Spirit to dwell and delight in As no number of Planks can make up a Ship an Ark without close joynting No multitude of Threds can make a warm Garment without close weaving No Stones can make up an House without close cementing No Members or Parts can make up a Body without close compacting so no number of Men can make up a Church without Conjunction or Vnity And this the Holy Spirit of Christ intimates unto us in that heavenly Song Cant. 6.9 My love my undefiled is but one the only one of her Mother the choice one of her that bare her yea so we believe and so we teach there is but one Catholick Church Let the Sectaries and Separatists that think to drown the cry of their sin with the noise of Conscience Let them boast vainely of their Multitudes that every one of their Congregations though of different Perswasions is the pure Church while they study to be many and make Divisions they are not the true Spouse and Church of our Lord Jesus Christ The Devil may have many Synagagues but Christ hath but one Church one Wife one Spouse one Royal Priesthood one holy People one People of his purchase There is but one Catholick Church One invariable from the beginning of the World as to Substantials and so will continue to the end of the same and rather than there should be an appearance of two Christ our Peace shed his Blood to make those that seemed twain both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us Eph. 2.14 One End to be attained by the same Means One People to be governed by the same Laws One Body to be actuated by the same Spirit Of that one Body one Head one Faith one Baptism One Eve the Mother of all living Men One Church the Mother of all Believers No wonder St. Paul should so pathetically beseech the Ephesians that if they would walk worthy of the Vocation whereunto they were called that they should hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace No wonder our Blessed Saviour in his last Agony in the Garden should pray so earnestly for those especially that had received the Laws which he had given them from the Father that they might be One as they were John 17.23 That all that believe on him through his word might be made perfect in one If we see rightly we may behold Christ's Heavenly Jerusalem that is incompassed with holy Angels as Walls like a City that is compacted with the same Rules as so many ligaments and actuated with the same Spirit accounts it not only good and joyful but necessary for all the Members of the Society to be joyned together in Vnity It not only continues the welfare but upholds the Constitution and being of the Church of Christ to banish Division and hold fast this Vnity SECT II. There must be in the Catholick Church Vnity of Faith THus the Church of Christ began in the last Dispensation and so it is to be continued in Vnity They were all that were believers with one accord in one place The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul As taught of God so of Christ they were taught to love one another and to do unto others as they would be done by like members of the same Body mutually sympathizing weeping with those that wept and rejoycing with those that did rejoyce bearing one anothers burthens and thus fulfilling the mind of Christ Neither had they of the Church of Christ a like respect to each others persons but the same respect to the Objects that were presented before them They did unanimously agree to chuse and refuse to love and hate the same thing They had a like hope a like fear the same joy the same sorrow Like Travellers tending to the same End they agree to walk in the same way and had the same will the same mind the same affections As they of the Church of Christ are to agree in the desires and affections of the appetitive part so ought they to agree in the conclusions and perswasions of the intellective part that nobler part of the Rational Soul of man if they will be knit into that Society that will hold professed subjection to the Rules of the Gospel The Society of Believers are to agree in the same Faith the same Judgment the same Conscience Thus St. Paul desires and expects of the believing Corinthians that they should be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment and of the Ephesians that they should endeavour to keep the Vnity of the spirit in the bond of Peace Eph. 4.3 There being meant by Spirit as elsewhere 1 Thess 5.23 the superiour faculty of the Rational Soul the conclusions of which were to be kept one and the same For but one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called into one hope of your calling One Lord One Faith One Baptism For Christ being ascended and set at the Right hand of God in heavenly places and having all things put under his feet as Head of the Church in it appointed several Orders and to them gave several Gifts for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying his Body till every part might come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. Upon this Rock Christ hath promised to build his Church meaning St. Peters Faith not his Person or Office As Christ hath but one Church so that one Church is founded upon one Rock and that unmovable unchangable alwaies the same The Rain may descend the floods may come down and the winds may blow and waves of opposition may split themselves with their own violence but the Faith of Christs Servants stand unmovable rather confirmed than hurt The Church of Christ is but One built upon one Rock But the Synagogues of Satan are built upon heaps of Sand Such is their Faith if I may say they have any as is like heaps of Sand whose forms are changed upon every pressure tossed up and down with every wind ready to receive either augmentation or diminution upon external Contingencies They are alwaies Changable But those that are truly Members of the
therefore we speak of a visible Church be it Catholick National or Parochial it is Coetus evocatorum a Company of Men called not invisibly internally but externally sensibly and such as have manifested their complyance with that Call Not a Company but a Society of Believers joyned together by a mutual profession of Faith For as Vnity of a sincere Faith is necessary for the Constitution of the Church invisible so is Vnity of profession of Faith necessary for the Constitution and being of a visible Church And to avoid rash unanswerable expressions and unbecoming behaviour it is both reasonable and necessary that words and actions should be reasonably agreed upon and determined The thoughts of our Souls like the eyes of our Bodies without an Object to terminate them will wander to the ends of the Earth therefore the prime work of Piety and Religion in the Rational Soul is to set God before the eyes of its Understanding That upon serious consideration seeing and concluding him the Best and the Greatest man may rationally both think and speak most honourably of him and behave himself most reverently towards him For Vniformity then in Religious exercises of necessity there must be the same Object GOD who is infinite must be proposed That our considerations and respects may be terminated upon him And of necessity there must be Rules and Forms agreed upon and fixed to direct and limit all associated Professors that their considerations and respects may be united either in knowing God or worshipping him Circumstances cannot be left indefinite and undetermined for mans Thoughts are as diverse naturally as their Faces and Tempers Their Words and Actions usually wild and extravagant and not only different but contrary also unless all these be bounded and terminated what Vnity can there be An arbitrary Will-worship will follow according to every mans fancy and in every meeting instead of a well-ordered Unity there must necessarily happen distraction and confusion And these things are obvious to every man that rationally considers them for never any Nation that had Religion true or false but alwaies agreed on a Common Ministration And in all their Sacrifices either propitiatory or gratulatory they have united together by certain Rules in a common Service and a joynt concurrence in it to that Deity which they adored And certainly all those Reasons formerly alleadged to urge an open profession of Faith return with new vigour strictly to oblige every Visible Church to acknowledge the necessity of fixing and observing Rules of Vniformity in every respective Congregation That the infinite Majesty of GOD may be generally and worthily glorified That our Neighbours and our selves may be most probably edified and comforted That those that are Vnbelievers may have their Conversion best furthered there must be Canons and Forms prescribed by Rulers to carry on a general Uniformity To conclude this Section then Governours must Rule by a Law their Laws can reach only to Externals in the exercise of Godliness In which Exercise of Godliness the first aim of Governours by their Laws is to promote Vniformity in Religious Assemblies To settle and continue an Vniformity there must be Rules to limit and direct SECT II. That the Canons and Forms in our Liturgy prescribed to the ends above-mentioned are most agreeable to the Rules of the Gospel is the next considerable LITURGY in its etymologie if rightly understood gives its full import and signification It is a Form or Rule of Administration in some publick Office Sometimes it is put in Scripture for Ministration in offices of Humanity and Liberality But our discourse and common Acceptation leads us to take it for that kind of Ministration that relates to Holy things about the Service and worship of God So here we understand it to be the Canons and Forms prescribed in a Visible Church of external profession of Faith by an evident demonstration of Obedience For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod fit per populum sit publicum a publick Religious Ministration in a Congregation of Believers So the People must be understood concerned in the Ministration as well as the Priest And those of the People that would be accounted of the Visible Church are to submit and conform to such Canons and Forms as are prescribed in the Ministration And when a Church is not an Assembly only but a Society of the Faithful not internally Faithful only for that is not discernible by us but externally by publick Profession either by words or actions What our Judgments must be of them that in Assemblies neglect and despise Profession according to Rules prescribed is easily to be concluded For whatever good opinion others blindly may have of such or they may have of themselves yet not giving in their Assemblies any evident signs of external Profession they are in reason not to be judged of the Visible Church of Christ And this shews how unjustifiable the Meetings of our Separatists are when there is no publick exercise of Religion no vocal confession of Faith no express desires of Obedience in any of their Congregations To give evidence of any Assembly that it is a part of the Visible Church there must be a sensible Profession an apparent submission to the Canons and Forms of a Liturgy And conformity of the People to those Rules gives satisfaction who are to be reputed but wilful omission and neglect declares who are not to be reputed of the Church of Christ And blessed be God we have as it is necessary and expedient from our wise Governours considering our infirmities and extravagancies Canons and Forms prescribed in our Liturgy for Religious Ministration which are most agreeable to the Rules of the Gospel The Rules of the Gosple given by Christ and his Apostles are of so different natures such different sorts The Canons and Forms ordering our Common-Service in the publick exercise of Religion are so numerous and various as it were the work of an Age to discourse distinctly and pertinently of every particular that may be comprehended in this Section But first let us consider what we understand by the Rules of the Gospel to which our Canons and Prayers are to conform Now our Blessed Saviour at the first planting of the Gospel upon the Apostles and Seventy before his Passion and upon some Chosen Vessels for his Honour after his Ascension having all power given him did in those daies plentifully pour out his Spirit upon them and gifts graces and ability he gave to them in an extraordinary manner and measure for the work of the Ministery and edifying his Body by the prevalence of his Word and Gospel which he sent them abroad to preach confirming the Word by signs following That the whole power of the World was not able to resist the wisdom and Spirit by which they spake divers Gifts he distributed of miraculous operation For different Administrations as Gifts of Healing working of Miracles Prophesying discerning of Spirits diverse kinds of Tongues Interpretation
these wilful Omissions would be accounted an unholy thing and so was doing despight to the Spirit of Grace and so throw away the probable means to get the helpful assistance of the Spirit of Grace which was ready to attend upon them that were frequently busied in those holy Ministrations For the Blood of the Covenant did sanctifie them as a visible Society of the Faithful to Religious exercises which if they fell away from they sinned wilfully and must look for a subsequent punishment And now I humbly beg of my well-meaning Country-men that separate and withdraw themselves from us that they would considerately receive these things with the same spirit that I have written them without gall of bitterness or desire of Revenge and with meekness and holy fear Be not wise in your own eyes think soberly of your selves and your waies Be not high-minded but fear Be not without fear to add sin unto sin weigh not things with a false Ballance put not light for darkness nor darkness for light good for evil c. This will bring woe and abomination This the way while you clamour against others Superstition to be guilty of the same you condemn while wilfully you stand upon your mistaken Perswasion I know not how far you may flatter your selves with the Opinion you have assumed to your selves and gained from others of your Sanctity yet upon right deliberation you must conclude with me While you wilfully omit or refuse to conform to the Preceptive Rules of Piety prescribed you are guilty of transgressing the greatest and most comprehensive Commandement And if thou beest involved in those Circumstances that usually attend and aggravate these sins if thou sinnest yet openly voluntarily perfidiously and impenitently thou wilt render thy self guilty of a most notorious Crime and without repentance and amendment thou wilt hasten thy own misery and contributest to thy power to bring speedy and inevitable ruine upon the most flourishing Church and Kingdom in the World And this puts me upon the fourth Section SECT IV. Recusancy is a dangerous sin and hurtful Disobedience IT is a great part of wisdom to ponder the way of our feet And now because considering the issue and end of our Actions will keep us from doing amiss give me leave mildly to represent upon an impartial survey the dreadful consequences of this sin those cursed effects it certainly brings upon all Orders of men throughout the whole Nation The injury it offers to King and Parliament and all thy Governours both Civil and Ecclesiastical while thou declarest manifestly thou suspectest their goodness doubtest of their wisdom despisest their Authority and to thy utmost by thy wilful Recusancy intimatest to others That they have rashly and inconsiderately imposed Commands that are unlawful and unwarrantable and by this evil Example misguidest thy Neighbour into a dangerous Disobedience For when other sins of Commission reach to the injury of a person or Family or two this sin of wilful Omission is extensively hurtful to all sorts of Men in the Society and disturbs the publick peace of all that are among us These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are dreadful and detestable not only because making Divisions they certainly turn themselves out of Church-membership that are guilty of them but when these men run into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and separate into Sects and Factions and in their Meetings make it their business to deprave or defame the Divine Service and Vniformity prescribed by Religious Governours These things must highly aggravate their Crime and sadly increase our misery and this we sensibly perceive by too woful experience It is no pleasure to me to see what I heartily bewail the deplorable estate we are in at this time in this poor distracted Nation by that wilful Recusancy and sinful Separation that by our tameness and connivance we have suffered unhappily to thrive and spread among us When every person and party that hath deserted the Communion of our Church covers the deformity of this Errour with a Cloak of pretended Conscience and proudly and unyieldingly idolizeth his mistaken Judgment and limits his affection to his own Party of the same Perswasion and betrays his disaffections to those of sound Judgments by venting his opposition wrathfully with bitter Invectives against them And those Parts and Endowments men should use in closing and healing our Breaches they misemploy in widening them Every one is wiser in his own eyes than his Ruler or Teacher and pertinaciously defends his own Fancy and justifies unyeildingly his own Perswasion Diversity of misled Judgments and pretended Consciences have caused an alienation of Affections and hence wrath and bitterness hath broke out into contemptuous Carriages Sections and provoking Expressions That in Church matters our several Factions shew nothing but Ataxy and distraction And in matters of State from mens wilful disobedience to lawful Commands an inclination is discovered to tend to Sedition and Rebellion The religious Ruler and faithful Minister must needs be grieved and disquieted to see our Reformed Profession so much blasphemed the Gospel and its Faith so much disgraced and despised and the Name of Christ and his Cause so much dishonoured And what honest heart that loves the King and Church of England but must be sad and bemoan it That Peace and Love which are the cement and glory of any Church and Nation should by these our Divisions be seen to wax faint and languish and be even expiring in the midst of us And let any now that thinks most lightly of the Divisions and stands most for Liberty tell me if he can and instance in any one Order of men that is not injured by them For the King and the Parliament are rendred Vile and their Authority contemptible while their greatest and best Laws about the Publick exercise of Religion are neglected and despised The Protestant of England that is truly Religious must be offended and grieved to see his Neighbour by his wilful Separation continue in an open and heinous sin By this thy Relations Equals and Inferiours must be injured in all probability while thou seducest the poor and weak by thy evil Example and makest them to think meanly and dishonourably of our established Liturgy the most necessary and the most Religious Constitution that is visibly extant in the World By this especially hath come the Universal decay of true Christian Piety and epidemical disesteem and aversness from the publick Worship of God From this as from a Fountain hath that deluge of Sins flowed forth that hath overspread and overwhelmed this unhappy Nation We cannot deny but that almost every where we discover sinful prejudices superstition blindness of heart Rash judging and censuring both of holy Persons and sound Doctrines Pride vain-glory and hypocrisie Envy hatred malice and uncharitableness We cannot deny but Seditions and privy Conspiracies false Doctrine and Heresie hardness of Heart and contempt of Gods Word and Commandements are too manifestly to be seen in the midst
of us Wrath emulations bitterness clamour evil speaking whispering backbiting and detraction lying and slandering c. all these sins and miscarriages are but the numerous and unlucky Off-spring of Recusancy and wilful Separation that I cannot but in anguish of Spirit cry out Cursed be the womb of SCHISME that bare these things and the Paps that hath given them suck For these things sake if not repented of the wrath of God must hasten upon us as wilful Children of Disobedience Neither hath this detestable sin made us thus miserable among our selves but hath rendred us unhappy among other Nations when it hath brought a dis-repute of us and a dis-esteem of our Religion almost in all parts of the World Turks Heathens Pagans Jews not only contemn but blaspheme our Church and Faith because of the divisions and dissensions of our Professors And when the concord of Professors Vniformity preserve the beauty and loveliness of a Church which attracts all mens admiration and affection undoubtedly Divisions and Factions must bring that deformity upon any Nation which must make it loathed and abhorred And how can we in reason expect that others should desire to be United to us who are not United among our selves We can never hope but they that are without will shun us as infectious as long as this deadly disease cleaves close unto us I hear the sad Complaints of my Countrymens fears That Popery is like to be brought in among us And this I confess is my fear also for while we wilfully maintain Divisions and Separations among us unquestionably we contribute to the utmost to that which we fear to fall upon us And the way hath not been made more plain this hundred years for the return of Popery than we have lately made it by our Divisions The Papists and Jesuits very well know they can never set up their own Church till they have pulled down ours which alone stand in competition for precedence and outvies them And to destroy this our Church of England which is the best ordered in the World by our Schisms and Sects we lend our helping hand most effectually Who doth not see that we are running into that Bondage we pretend to abominate while we endeavour to destroy Vniformity as it is prescribed For out of the Visible Church there is no ordinary way of Salvation And there is no keeping up the face of a Visible Church without Vniformity If therefore we wilfully persist by our Schisme to destroy Vniformity in the Church of England when there is none to be found in our separated Congregations what remains but we must willingly run to the Church of Rome if we will be saved All these things perpended it must be concluded That wilful Recusancy of Conformity or Schisme is not only an heinous but an hurtful sin in respect of those within us It renders us disesteemed and contemned by those without us It contributes to the introduction and prevalency of Popery into the Nation And It is a dangerous sin to Men themselves that are guilty of it when it renders them liable to the just condemnation both of Man and God We are most affected with those Evils that most nearly touch our selves Consider then thy own dangerous condition who ever thou art that separatest from the Church of England if thou persistest in thy wilful Disobedience and what must follow by the just Judgment both of Man and God Thou art guilty at the fairest of the dreadful sin of Schisme by thy voluntary departure and wilful separation from the Communion of that Visible Church whereof once a Member A sin by St. Paul branded with the odious name of Carnality 1 Cor. 3.3 Are ye not carnal walk ye not as men And Rom. 16.17 18. the same Apostle directs the Believing Brethren to set this note and remark upon such as caused and maintained Divisions they were such as did not serve the Lord Jesus Christ and were to be avoided Their fair speeches and smooth actions in this case could not acquit but condemn them whilst both of them were used with this end by them to deceive the hearts of the simple and pervert their practice from the Uniform Communion of a Believing Society It is sad but true that such from Believers Censure and Judgment if they will be directed by the Apostle and perswaded must lose the reputation of being Christians and be marked and noted for such as are not servants of Jesus Christ And further if it be questioned Whether continuing wilfully in a manifest sin be inconsistent with the state of Grace or not certainly upon serious Inquiry it must be determined Affirmatively And it must be granted upon the Reasons forementioned That wilful Omission of the necessary Duties of Piety is an open sin and such a sin as withdraw men from the kindly operations of Grace and makes God withhold and turn away his Spirit from a People who waits to be gracious to his Servants usually while in the exercise of Holiness This despising of Holy Duties puts a contempt and offers despite to the Spirit of Grace And certainly the consequence of that sin is sad enough that makes God withhold his Spirit from men such draw back to perdition by their visible Recidivation The effects and consequences of this sin in probability will be dreadful as you have heard among Men and there will be a sad issue of this sin from the Just GOD who not only will withdraw his Grace but will manifest his displeasure by his wrath which will come upon the wilful Children of Disobedience And good it will be for this sinner in time to consider That although he may possibly escape the condemning Judgment of fallible Man yet he cannot warrantably promise himself to escape in another day the condemnation of Christ Sins of Omission that are obstinately for the most part persisted in will fare worse than sins of Commission that oftimes are repented of and will meet with a more severe Sentence from the mouth of Christ And the mind of Christ is clearly discovered unto us in this particular Matt. 25.41 when as accursed they shall hear that fearful Discedite Depart ye into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And the sin he chargeth them with and sentenceth them for was a wilful omission of Acts of Charity For I was an hungry and ye gave me no meat Thirsty and ye gave me no drink Naked and ye cloathed me not c. Now if for wilful Omission of such Acts of Charity sinners shall hear that fearful Ite maledicti how justly may they hear the like dreadful Sentence for omission of Acts of Piety You have not worshipped mein the beauty of Holiness You have not spoken to my Praise to make my Name glorious You have not held fast the open profession of your Faith c. For greater sins there cannot reasonably be expected a lesser Sentence or easier punishment from the most just Judge For sinning thus
wilfully what can be looked for but Judgment and fiery Indignation If he that despised the publick Law and polity of Moses was judged worthy of Death of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that wilfully despiseth those Rules that are commanded by the Gospel of Christ If any man draw back wilfully from his Profession when the soul of the Apostle took none what pleasure can the soul of Christ take in him And now my dear Country-men that have been too long Dissenters who have stood at distance and separated from us I humbly beseech you in the Name of the Lord Jesus that you would consider That by your Baptisme you have been dedicated to the Obedience of the Faith of which you have made profession And by the Laws of the Gospel you are bound to submit to the Laws of the Land prescribed for the exercise of Piety And that wilful Omission or Recusancy of Conformity to these Laws is an heinous Sin and a dangerous Disobedience A Transgression against the first and greatest Commandement against a comprehensive Law of Piety It is a sin not far off from a dangerous Apostacy We are sure it is an accursed Schisme It 's a sin of direful fruits to them within us of dreadful consequences to them without us It 's probably an introduction and advance to Popery in the midst of us It 's a sin displeasing to the Spirit of Grace and Christ I would have so much charity to perswade my self that many of you have been drawn into this sin ignorantly through Vnbelief It is not my intent to write these things to shame you but as beloved in meekness to warn you Knowing all these Terrours I would perswade you as men soberly to consider the fearful dangers of this Sin and to return to a right mind and practice that which is warrantable and to bend your selves to the peace of the Church and Vnity in the Worship of God Mark them that have caused Divisions and hereafter avoid them Let us follow Peace with all Believers and the practice of Holiness that we may come at last together to the sight of God And for you that have not separated from us but have associated with us in the Faith of the Gospel go on as Just Ones should to live the life of Faith of which you have made profession Be not of those that draw back to perdition but of those that believe to the saving of your souls Be not led away with the Errour of the wicked to fall from your stedfastness Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them Come not into their secrets nor nigh their Habitations Do not fawningly flatter or countenance them for thy connivance and lenity will strengthen them Blow not the coals of these Sinners least thou be consumed with the flames of their wild fire Let this be our main design to banish all Factions and Schismes which this day are the shame and to bring back that Vniformity in the Worship of God which was once this Nations glory Let 's mind those things which tend to peace and unity in Divine Service whereby we may best edifie one another Let us as Brethren be stedfast and unmovable abounding in this work of our God forasmuch as we know our labour is not in vain in the Lord. But if any wilfully fall back and obstinately continue in this sin let such take notice That Judgments are justly prepared for Scorners and stripes for the backs of Fools Proposition III. The threatning and determining of Punishments against such wilful Transgressors is according to the dictates of Human Reason and the constant practice of the Church of God THE Transgressor we mean is the Recusant who wilfully omits to conform to those Canons and Forms prescribed and ordered in our Liturgy which are agreeable to the Rules of the Gospel And this wilful Omission in every Baptized Subject how slight of trivial soever it may seem to be I soberly and deliberately affirm and maintain to be a worse sin than Murther Theft Adultery or any other single sin of Commission whereby the prohibitive Rule of Charity is transgressed which is to be detested and avoided by every Believing person who would live comfortably in any Believing Society For it being a Transgression of the first and greatest and most comprehensive Law of Piety it must be a greater sin than that which transgresseth a particular prohibitive Law that concerns Charity that sin being a wilful aversion from that way that directly leads to that full content and happiness which ought to be intended And this we cannot but advisedly conclude when this sin for the most part as we may sensibly perceive is attended with those circumstances which must aggravate the Crime exceedingly For when we observe such Transgressors run into this sin not inconsiderately through surprizal but deliberately and electively not modestly but impudently not uncertainly or contingently but constantly and obstinately when they strive to be guilty of these Abominations contrary to Vows and Resolutions and when we confider the dreadful consequences what can we do less than without rashness conclude That such are heinous Transgressors and dangerously Disobedient And when such Transgressors are very rarely converted or amended by monitions or perswasions it is but reasonable and necessary that Religious Governours if it can be should restrain them by the threatning and predetermination of Punishments For when Governours are to be set over Societies to promote their publick good and happiness it is just and reasonable not only by proposing Rewards they should encourage their People to Religious and Vertuous Duties which will render them happy and comfortable but also by threatning and predetermining of Punishments to restrain and deter them from evil and enormous Actions which will render their lives wretched and miserable They mistake dangerously and wander no little out of the way who make it their work to defame the threatning and determining of Punishments with the odious slander of Malice and Bitterness when these things are evidences of the Rulers Love and Care who are set over a People by God to be a Terrour and affright the People from doing Evil by such manifest Determinations If Persons were so well disposed that they would be perswaded to be good by Counsels or Monitions or vvould be so ingenious as to be drawn to Religious and Vertuous Actions by proposal of Rewards then my mercy is such as I would have threatning and determination of Punishments forborn But when we see Men are led by Sense and Custome more than Reason and are generally vain in their Imaginations disorderly in their Affections wild and precipitantly irregular in their Actions it is needful to limit and circumscribe this their beastly Exorbitancy with an Hedge of Thorns and to bound them with a Fence of Punishments When foolishness is bound up in most mens childish hearts that incline them to extravagancy it is but the fatherly love and care