the Spirit among Christians is witnessed maintained and strengthened by their holy communion of Love and Peace one with another but is darkened weakened and lessened by their uncharitable Dissentions Hence it is evident that the Unity here commended is primarily that of the Church in its internal and invisible State or the Union and Communion of Saints having in themselves the Spirit and Life and Power of Christianity T is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external order with a vital Union with Christ and holy Souls his living members is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new Nature and Divine Life Secondarily it is the Unity of the Church in its external and visible State which is consequent and subservient to the internal and stands in the profession and appearance of it in the professed observation of the duties arising from it Where there is not a credible Profession of Faith unfeigned and true Holiness there is not so much as the external and visible Unity of the Spirit Therefore a sensual Earthly generation of men who are apparently lead by the Spirit of the World and not by the Spirit that is of God have little cause to glory in their adhering to an external Church order whatsoever it be Holy love which is unselfed and impartial is the Life and Soul of this unity without which it is but a dead thing as the Body without the Soul is dead And this love is the bond of perfectness that Cement that holds altogether in this mystical Society For this being seated in the several members disposeth them to look not to their own things but also to the things of others and not to the undue advancement of a Party but to the common good of the whole Body Whosoever wants this love hath no vital Union with Christ and the Church and no part in the Communion of Saints The Church is much more ennobled strengthened and every way blessed by the Communion of holy love among all its living members or real Christians than by an outside uniformity in the minute circumstances or accidental modes of Religion By this love it is more beautifull and lovely in the eyes of all intelligent beholders than by outward pomp and ornament or any worldly splendor The Unity of the Church as visible whether Catholick or particular may be considered in a three-fold respect or in three very different points The first and chief point thereof is in the essentials and all weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life The second and next in account is in the essentials and integrals of Church state that is in the Christian Church-Worship Ministery and Discipline considered as of Christs institution and abstracted from all things superadded by men The third and lowest point is in those extrinsecal and accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination Of these several points of Unity there is to be a different valuation according to their different value Our first and chief regard is due to the first and chief point which respects Christian Faith and Life The next regard is due to that which is next in value that which respects the very constitution or frame of a Church And regard is to be had of that also which respects the accidentals of Religion yet in its due place and not before things of greater weight and worth Things are of a very different nature and importance to the Churches good Estate and a greater or lesser stress must be laid upon Unity in them as the things themselves are of greater or lesser moment The Rule or Law of Church Unity is not the will of man but the will of God Whosoever keeps that Unity which hath Gods word for its Rule keeps the Unity of the Spirit And whosoever boasts of a Unity that is not squared by this Rule his boasting is but vain An Hypothesis that nothing in the Service of God is lawfull but what is expresly prescribed in Scripture is by some falsly ascribed to a sort of men who earnestly contend for the Scriptures sufficiency and perfection for the regulating of Divine Worship and the whole state of Religion God in his Word hath prescribed all those parts of his Worship that are necessary to be performed to him He hath likewise therein instituted those Officers that are to be the Administrators of his publick Worship in Church Assemblies and hath defined the authority and duty of those Officers and all the essentials and integrals of Church state As for the circumstantials and accidentals belonging to all the things aforesaid he hath laid down general Rules for the regulation thereof the particulars being both needless and impossible to be enumerated and defined In this point God hath declared his mind Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. 12. 32. What soever thing I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it The prohibition is not meerly of altering the Rule Gods written Word by addition or diminution but of doing more or less than the Rule required as the precept is not of preserving the Rule but of observing what is commanded in it Such human institutions in Divine Worship as be in meer subserviency to Divine institutions for the necessary and convenient modifying and ordering thereof are not properly additions to Gods commandments For they are of things which are not of the same nature end and use with the things which God hath commanded but of meer circumstantials and accidentals belonging to those things And these circumstantials are in genere necessary to the performance of Divine Institutions and are generally commanded in the Word though not in particular but are to be determined in specie by those to whom the power of such determination belongs They that assert and stand to this only Rule provide best for the Unity of Religion and the Peace of the Church For they are ready to reject whatsoever they find contrary to this Rule they are more easily kept within the bounds of acceptable Worship and all warrantable obedience they lay the greatest weight on things of the greatest worth and moment they carefully regard all Divine institutions and whatsoever God hath commanded and they maintain Love and Peace and mutual forbearance towards one another in the more inconsiderable diversities of Opinion and Practice Those things that are left to human determination the Pastors Bishops or Elders did anciently determine for their own particular Churches And indeed it is very reasonable and naturally convenient that they who are the Administrators of Divine institutions and have the conduct of the People in Divine Worship and know best what is most expedient for their own Society should be intrusted with the determination of necessary circumstances within their
own Sphere But forasmuch as the Supream Magistrate is intrusted of God with the care of Religion within his Dominions and hath a Civil Supremacy in Eclesiastical affairs and a great concern in the orderly management of publick Assemblies he is authorized of God to oversee the determinations and actings of Ecclesiastical Persons and may assume to himself the determination of the aforesaid circumstantials for the honour of God the Churches edification and the publick Peace keeping within the general rules prescribed in Gods Word For the maintaining of Church-Unity that is according to Gods word it is the part of Subjects to submit to what their Governours have determined so far as their submission is allowable by the said rule and it is the part of Governours to consider well the warrantableness of their determinations More especially their wisdom and care is much required in settling the right bounds of Unity In this regard the terms of admission to the Communion and Ministery of the Church must be no other than what the declared will of God hath made the terms of those priviledges and which will shut out none whom God hath qualified for and called to the same The setting of other boundaries besides the iniquity thereof will inevitably cause divisions The Apostles Elders and Brethren assembled at Jerusalem Acts 15. 28. writing to the blieving Gentiles declare It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things From which it is evidently inferred that the burden of things unnecessary ought not to be laid on the Churches The things injoyned by that Assembly were antecedently to their Decree either necessary in themselves or in their consequents according to the state of things in those times and places And whatsoever is made the matter of a strict injunction especially a condition of Church Communion and Priviledges ought to have some kind of necessity in it antecedent to its imposition Symbolical Rites or Ceremonies instituted by man to signifie Grace or Duty are none of those things which being necessary in general are left to human determination for this or that kind thereof They have no necessary Subserviency to Divine institutions they are no parts of that necessary decency and order in Divine Worship without which the Service would be undecent And indeed they are not necessary to be instituted or rigidly urged in any time or place whatsoever The being and well being of any rightly constituted Church of Christ may stand without them St. Paul resolves upon the cases of using or refusing of meats and the observance or non-observance of days which God had neither commanded nor forbidden and of eating of those meats which had been offered in Sacrifice to Idols Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way The Command here given extends to Pastors and Governours as well as to other Christians and is to be observed in acts of Governments as well as in other acts St. Paul was a Church Governour and of high authority yet he would not use his own liberty in eating Flesh much less would he impose in things unnecessary to make his Brother to offend In the cases aforementioned there was a greater appearance of reason for despising censuring or offending others than there can be for some impositions now in question among us viz. on the one side a fear of partaking in Idolatry or of eating meats that God had forbidden or of neglecting days that God had commanded as they thought on the other side a fear of being driven from the Christian Liberty and of restoring the Ceremonial Law Nevertheless the Apostle gives a severe charge against censuring despising or offending others of different Persuasions in those cases And if it were a Sin to censure or despise one another much more is it a Sin to shut out of the Communion or Ministery of the Church for such matters The word of God which is the Rule of Church-Unity evidently shews that the unity of external order must always be Subservient to Faith and Holiness and may be required no further than is consistent with the Churches Peace and Edification The Churches true Interest lies in the increase of regenerate Christians who are her true and living Members and in their mutual love peace and concord in receiving one another upon those terms which Christ hath made the bond of this Union The true Church Unity is comprized by the Apostle in these following Unities One Body one Spirit one Hope One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God But there is nothing said of one ritual or set Form of Sacred Offices one policy or model of Rules and Orders that are but circumstantial and accidental in a Church state and very various and alterable while the Church abides the same CHAP. III. Of Schism truly so called HEre I lay down general positions about Schism without making application thereof Whether these positions be right or wrong Gods Word will shew and who are or are not concerned in them the state of things will shew Schism is a violation of the Unity of the Spirit or of that Church-Unity which is of Gods making or approving This Definition I ground on the afore-cited Text Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have learned Separation and Schism are not of equal extent There may be a Separation or Secession where there is no Schism For Schism is always a Sin but Separation may be a Duty as the Separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome Moreover there may be Schism where there is no Separation The violation of Unity or the causing of Divisions may be not only by withdrawing but by any causing of others to withdraw from the Communion of the Church or by the undue casting or keeping of others out of the Church or by making of any breaches in Religion contrary to the Unity of the Spirit By looking back to the nature and rule and requisites of true Church-Unity we shall understand the true nature and the several kinds and degrees of Schism As holy love is the life and Soul of Church-Unity so that aversation and opposition which is contrary to love is that which animates the sin of Schism and is as it were the heart root of it Whosoever maintains love and makes no breach therein and whose dissenting or withdrawing from a Church is no other than what may stand with love in its extent is no Schismatick The Unity of the Spirit being primarily that of the Church as mystically the breach thereof lies primarily in being destitute of the Spirit and Life Spiritual much more in being opposite thereunto under the shew of Christianity also in the languishing or lessening of Spiritual Life especially of the acts of holy love The Unity of the Spirit being secondarily that of the Church as visible in its external state and the first and
aggravations of Sin before the Lord and with their acknowledgment and bewailing of such scandals before the World as have been given by some among them as also with their publick Testimonies against Errors and Corruptions that have risen in their times and so they reproach them for their humility sincerity and impartiality in abusing themselves and giving glory to God and condemning Sin where ever they find it They scoff at those that speak of communion with God spiritual experiences desertions and the like matters and use in scorn Scriptural words and phrases and other holy expressions used by the Religious and profane the terms of Holy Godly Saint Sanctified by the use thereof in scandalous Ironies and so they make sport for profane men and harden them in their irreligion They would render holy things contemptible by nothing some little oversight and indecencies mostly involuntary in those that perform the same as perhaps in the Preachers tone or gesture And to say the truth it is one of the easiest things in the World for licentious wits to play upon the most serious and sacred things and to make the most acceptable Service of God and his choicest Servants seem ridiculous These are some of the many vile and wretched ways of disgracing true Religion And I will add one more to wit that madness of opposition on what side soever it be which to make a different Party odious will not fear to expose Godliness it self to the contempt and scorn of them that scorn all Religious Parties Surely it is a fearfull thing to be a hater reviler and scorner of Persons and things dear to God and precious in his sight What is it to provoke the Lord to jealousie if this be not Wherefore he doth no ill service that detects this perillous folly And men would easily shun such mistake and prejudice as makes them misjudge and condemn the Pious if they would but deal fairly and exercise the same equity and candor towards them which is due to all sorts and which towards themselves all do justly challenge But Godliness will be still Godliness let presumptuous wits imploy their Tongues and Pens to transform into never so ugly shapes Invectives Sarcasms odious and ridiculous Tales and Stories Scenial representations and disguises will not confound it nor sink its authority and reputation On the other hand the fairest coverings and best contrived Apologies the most notable and advantageous Policies will not make corrupt things savoury nor insipid things relishable nor little empty things great and weighty nor uphold the estimation of a degenerate carnal outside lifeless state of Religion where better things are known The wit of man may adorn or palliate any folly and deform true Wisdom but in a lucid Region where knowledge is diffused Wisdom will shew it self and the folly of fools cannot be hid But let the Religious know that it behoves them to take care that they suffer not so many things in vain for these indignities may do them more good than the vain applause of men If their Enemies give them advantage as indeed they do for the learning of more Wisdom Sobriety and Circumspection let them receive it it is pity they should not make the most of such harsh Instructions What manner of Persons should they be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness that as much as in them lies there might not be that wo to the World because of offences and that with well doing they might put to silence the ignorance of foolish men More especially they should do their uttermost to shun even the appearance of the sins more peculiarly charged upon them as Hypocrisie Pride Wildness of Fancy Affected Singularity and Self-Flattery and to be adorned with a conspicuous sincerity humility and charity And whatsoever contumely they indure let them by no means retaliate in the same kind remembring their blessed Lord who being reviled reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Wickedness cometh from the wicked scurrility petulancy bitterness and all intemperate language is more agreeable to their adversaries than to them And it is observed that the flinging of witty sarcasms biting jears and scoffs and railing words against a Party do vex and gall more than hurt or break them and provoke but not convince them and serve indeed to feed a humour and make sport and do some present feat but do not carry the main cause or prevail in the end but turn rather to the dammage and blemish of those for whose service they were designed CHAP. XVI Religions main strength next under the Power of God lies in its own intrinisick excellency THe propagating of true Christianity and the sound state of Religion agreeable thereunto against the enmity of the adverse World is worthy of the utmost indeavours of all pious men and to search into the right ways and means thereof is a necessary and noble speculation But it must first be known that its Stability and Victory in the World depends primarily upon the Wisdom Truth and Power of God ingaged for it and therefore it cannot fall by the Power and Policy of Adversaries nor sink and lose it self by the weakness or defectibility of its Professors but it remains firm and sure and the same for ever Next after the Power of God its main strength is its own intrinsick excellency It is upheld chiefly by its own principles which are mans perfection and place our nature in its due state and put both Persons and Societies into the only right frame and reduce all things into their own place and order They have nothing in them of iniquity impurity vanity or unfitness but are perfectly holy just and good and give unto God his due and unto men theirs and that upon the most excellent grounds that can be laid as the Glory of God our conformity to him our fellowship with him our reward from him and in him and all in and through a Mediator who is God and Man in one Person and the Head of all the faithfull who are his Body The Godly practice conformable to these principles is from a cause that faileth not to wit the inhabitation and influence of the Holy Spirit of God Though true Christianity be far above the strain and reach of meer nature yet it is practicable by Divine grace and notwithstanding the imperfect state of its Professors it faileth not of its end which is to bring into the Possession of the heavenly Kingdom the fruition of God and everlasting glory yea it doth effect great and excellent things in the present world Its rules are pure and perfect its motives are great and high and of indubitable verity They that live after it are a Law to themselves and an aw to others No other institution Philosophical or Religious is so powerfull to restrain inordinate affection and to settle the minds and affairs of men in the greatest peace and order as far as human imperfection can arrive It denies all
Subordination in the several parts thereof either in way of proper authority or of mutual agreement And the Associated Churches and particular Members therein are naturally bound to maintain the orderly state of the whole Association and to comply with the Rules thereof when they are not repugnant to the Word of God A Bishop or Pastor and the People adhering to him are not declared to be the only true Church and Pastor within such a Precinct by their conjunction with the largest Combination of Bishops or Pastors and their Churches For the greater number of Bishops may in such manner err in their Constitutions as to make rightly informed Persons uncapable of their Combination A National Church is not a particular Church properly so called but a Combination or Coagmentation of particular Churches united under one Civil Supream either Personal as in a Monarchy or Collective as in a Republick And the true notion thereof lies not in any Combination purely Ecclesiastical and Intrinsecal but Civil and Extrinsecal as of so many Churches that are collected under one that hath the Civil Supremacy over them The National Church of England truly denotes all the Churches in England united under one Supream Civil Church-Governour the Kings Majesty Civil Magistrates as such are no Constitutive parts of the Church The Christian Church stood for several Centuries without the support of their authority But Supream Magistrates have a Civil Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical matters and a political extrinsecal Episcopacy over all the Pastors of the Churches in their Dominions and may compell them to the performance of their Duties and punish them for negligence and mal-Administration and they may reform the Churches when they stand in need of Reformation The possession of the Tithes and Temples doth not of it self declare the true Pastor and Church nor doth the Privation thereof declare no Pastor and no Church For these are disposed of by the secular power which of it self can neither make nor make void a Pastor or Church A Diocess is a collective body of many Parishes under the Government of one Diocesan If the several Parishes be so many particular Churces and if their proper and immediate Presbyters be of the same order with those which in Scripture are mentioned by that name and were no other than Bishops or Pastors then a Diocess is not a particular Church but a Combination of Churches and the Diocesan is a Bishop of Bishops or a Governour over many Churches and their immediate Bishops If the Parishes be not acknowledged to be Churches nor their Presbyters to be realy Bishops or Pastors but the Diocess be held to be the lowest Political Church and the Diocesan to be a Bishop of the lowest rank and the sole Bishop or Pastor of all the included Parishes I confess I have no knowledge of the Divine right of such a Church or Bishop or of any precept or precedent thereof in Scripture For every particular Church mentioned in Scripture was but one distinct stated Society having its own proper and immediate Bishop or Bishops Elder or Elders Pastor or Pastors who did Personally and immediately Superintend over the whole Flock which ordinarily held either at once together or by turns Personal present Communion with each other in Gods Worship But a Diocess consists of several stated Societies to wit the Parishes which are Constituted severally of a proper and immediate Presbyter or Elder having cure of Souls and commonly called a Rector and the People which are his proper and â—…rge or cure And the People of thâ—… not live under the Personal and inâ—…rsight of their Diocesan but under â—…legates and Substitutes Nor do they oâ—…ly hold Personal present Communion with each other in Gods Worship either at once together or by turns Nevertheless which way soever a Diocess be considered I have nothing to object against submission to the Government of the Diocesan as an Ecclesiastical Officer established by the Law of the Land under the Kings Supremacy There is nothing in the nature of the Office of Presbyterate which according to the Scripture is a Pastoral Office that shewe it ought to be exercised no otherwise than in Subordination to a Diocesan Bishop Christ who is the Author and only proper giver of all Spiritual Authority in the Church hath not so limited the said Office and men cannot by any act of theirs enlarge or lessen it as to its nature or essential state or define it otherwise than it is stated of Christ in his word No power Ecclesiastical or Civil can discharge any Minister of Christ from the exercise of his Ministery in those circumstances wherein Christ commands him to exercise it nor any Christians from those duties of Religion to which the Command of Christ obligeth them As the Magistrate is to judge what Laws touching Religion are fit for him to enact and execute so the Ministers of Christ are to use a judgment of discretion about their own Pastoral acts and all Christians are to do the same about their own acts of Church-Communion The too common abuse of the judgment of discretion cannot abrogate the right use thereof it being so necessary that without it men cannot act as men nor offer to God a reasonable Service CHAP. II. Of true Church-Unity WHen the names of Unity and Schism are by partiality and selfishness commonly and grosly abused and misapplied the nature of the things to which those names do of right belong ought to be diligently inquired into and clearly and distinctly laid open For a groundwork in this inquiry I fix upon two very noted texts of Scripture The one is Eph. 4. 3. Indeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The other is Rom. 16. 17. Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have learned and avoid them The former guides us to the knowledge of true Church-unity and the latter shews us the true nature of Schism By the former of these Texts all Christians are obliged to maintain that Spiritual Unity which they have one with another under Christ their Head by the Holy Ghost in all due acts of holy Communion in Peace and Concord Several important things are here to be taken notice of 1. There is a Spiritual unity between all Christians in the form of one mystical Body as there is a natural unity between all the members of the natural Body The members being many are one body and members one of another 2. This Unity is under Christ as the Head of it What the head is to the natural Body that is Christ and much more to his mystical Body the Church 3. This Unity of Christians one with another under Christ is by the Holy Ghost and therefore called the Unity of the Spirit The Spirit of Christ the Head doth seize upon and reside in all the Faithfull by which they become Christs mystical Body and are joyned one to another as fellow-members 4. This Unity of
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
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
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