contains in it the summe of our Christian Gospel which it seems by this and other passages he had gotten a sight of and understood in the simplicity of it that Christ the eternal Word or reason of his Father had two great designes in his prospect effects of his providence and care of mankinde the first to bring men to good life to reformation of every evil course subduing of passions c. the second to render them happy hereby so doing and blessed eternally and this managed so powerfully and effectually for them that nothing but their own stupid and obstinate negligence and contempt of this divine donative can deprive them of these benefits of it CHAP. IV. JESVS CHRIST Crucified § 1. AND as Jesus Christ indefinitely taken is set down to be this Foundation so elsewhere is Jesus Christ Crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 2.2 and accordingly the whole Gospel is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word which is of the Crosse of Christ c. 1.18 and that supposing it be believed sufficient to superstruct on it the conversion of the whole world to a new and Christian life and accordingly it is there styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those that escape out of the deluge of infidelity the very power of God ver 24. the power of God and the wisdome of God the powerfullest and wisest method toward the accomplishing of this work which is farther explained Rom. 1.16 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Gentile If this doctrine of the Crosse be once received there is no more wanting to engage and oblige all rational men to that renovation of their lives which is oft called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving or delivering them out of their evil waies and will assuredly bring them to salvation in the notion wherein we vulgarly take it § 2. That the crosse of Christ hath this propriety may appear by these five effects or branches of it 1. it is the highest confirmation imaginable of the truth of all that he had delivered from his Father He laid down his life for the testifying of it 2. It is the exemplifying and that is the most Rhetorical argument the most powerful way of perswading the highest and hardest part of the Christian's duty that of laying down our lives for the truth resisting unto blood in our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our spiritual Olympicks our striving against sin 3. It is a sealing that Covenant betwixt God and us which he came to preach a Covenant of mercy and pardon and everlasting salvation to all that perform the condition of it and to none else and that is of all others the greatest and most effectual engagement to that performance 4. It is the sacrifice for the sinnes of the whole world the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or means of expiation or pardon upon our unfeigned return and change and that is absolutely necessary to found our hope as that hope is necessary to excite our indevours 5. It was the ceremonie of consecrating Christ our high Priest to his great Melchisedekian office of blessing us in which as his resurrection instated him so that was by way of reward to his sufferings Phil. 2.9 and so all that sufficiencie of strength which is required for the turning every one from iniquity Act. 3.25 being an effect of that blessing of his the doctrine of his death from the merit whereof this quickning power doth flow is a foundation of all cheerfull attending on his service to which he is so sure to afford his assistance CHAP. V. JESVS CHRIST raised c. § 1. ELsewhere this Foundation is determined to one other single article that of the resurrection of Christ Rom. 10.9 which supposing and comprehending the crucifixion under it and being visibly and undeniably wrought by the immediate and omnipotent power of God and not imputable to any other possible means was a most illustrious testimonie and conviction of the innocencie of Christ thus signally vindicated and rewarded by God and consequently a confirmation of the truth of all that he had taught and thus signed with the effusion of his blood § 2. Of this one article it is our Saviours affirmation that it was so full matter of conviction to all gainsayers that they which should not be wrought upon by that were to expect no farther signs or miracles the design of the holy Ghosts coming upon the Apostles being to fit them for the great work for which Christ had given them Commission the testifying and proclaiming his Resurrection from thence arises the aggravation and irremissibleness of the sin against the holy Ghost who had so abundantly convinced the world of Christ's righteousness by his arising and going to his Father And accordingly in the preaching of S. Peter Act. 2. this was the doctrine that with such an Emphasis he inculcated upon them v. 22. Men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth ye have nailed with wicked hands and killed Whom God hath raised up c. and v. 24. this Jesus hath God raised up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which we all are witnesses or whose witnesses we all are ver 32. and so made him Lord and Christ v. 36. And when they heard this they were pricked at the heart and said Men and brethren What shall we doe And upon this one foundation he immediately superstructs the exhortation to repentance and coming in by baptisme unto Christ and three thousand were that day wrought on by that method v. 41. § 3. Beside this the Resurrection of Christ was a peculiar pawn and pledge of God's raising up our bodies out of the grave and before that time comes of his quickning our souls out of the most noisome vaults the habits and customs of sin wherein they lay putrified this being an act of the same omnipotent Spirit by which he raised up Jesus from the dead and without which it were as hopelesse an attempt for sinners to go about to rise to new life as it were for dead men to raise themselves out of their graves And consequently the belief of this was in the former of these respects of special importance to confirm our hopes of another life on which so many branches of Christian piety so immediately depend that especially of laying down our lives for Christ's sake that if our hope in Christ were only that of this life we could never espouse so cold a service And in the latter respect it was most proper to quicken our hopes that upon our awaking at Christ's call and arising like Lazarus out of our graves of sin that Christ which gives us life would command us to be loosed from our grave-clothes rescue us by the power of his Spirit from the bands and power of sin and enable us to live Christianly Which we could not hope to doe without this power of his Spirit to
our own frailties and the consideration of the slipperie place we stand on of the watchfulness of the tempter and the advantage he hath from a false partie within us which is alwaies ready to joyn with him and betray us and of the great difficulty the moral though not natural impossibility that in so long a work we should continue so vigilant as to be obnoxious neither to surprise nor fall would be apt like the news of the Anakims in the way to discourage us from leaving the accustomed familiar wilderness and undertaking the unknown voiage to that good land invironed with so many difficulties An opinion of the fecibleness or succesfulness of the work being as necessary to found a purpose of undertaking it as either the authority of commands or the perswasiveness of promises or pungency of menaces or prospect of mischiefs upon neglect can be imagined to be § 22. But when all these objections are answered discouragements removed difficulties provided for as they are by this Article of Remission of sins duly explained and superadded to the former branches of the foundation they to whom all this is revealed and received with an undoubting faith if they doe not presently set about so easie and so happy a task which hath so many grains of equity and mercy allowed in the weighing it out unto us if they will not be directed into a path so plained and smoothed that the wayfaring men though fools shall not erre therein that weaknesse or ignorance or natural defects or humane frailties or any thing that includes not unsynceritie and presumptuous going on in sin shall be reconcileable with their hopes and God's acceptance must needs acknowledge themselves in the number of the blinde people that have eyes of the provokers that shall not because they will not enter into God's rest of the sinners that have no excuse for their sin § 23. In the next place the Resurrection of the body which includes and supposes a future state of souls after that of this life for to what purpose should that world of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carkasses arise if there were not as numerous a world of souls ready to animate them and joyn with them in receiving rewards or punishments for all that the souls have acted by those instruments in this life is most necessary to found and inforce this Renovation For if there were nothing after this life if in the death of a man there were no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cure or remedy Wisd 2.1 if the premises of the Atheist in that chapter had truth in them his conclusion being founded on those premises it could not be strange or irrational for him to proceed Come on therefore let us enjoy the good things that are present v. 6. § 24. And if supposing the immortality of the soul the body were not ascertain'd to return to that old associate if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that shop or workhouse of the good or evil spirit should with all that hath been wrought in it be consumed eternally this would take it much out of the care of the soul either to stop it in its Career of sin or to mortifie those affections that are in this earthy part or to spiritualize and replenish it with good works § 25. If the upper soul that hopes to reign in another world can so farre preserve that degree of superiority and dignity of its nature as to reprehend and check what is consented to by the will or middle faculty in complyance with the flesh that inferior and brutish as it is as oft as any sin against conscience is committed and can then hope that after a few years of sensuality that importune rebellious servant shall be eternally cast off drop into a perpetual impassible nothing take a long progresse into a land where all things are forgotten and consequently the good which hath been acted in that flesh as well as the evil this would be some colour for that novel perswasion a fruitful principle of all carnality that the man may be regenerate in the sight of God though he be sold under sin led captive unto the law of sin which is in the members § 26. But when the prevarications and irregularities of the body which are not subdued as well as check'd mortified as well as disliked by the soul shall receive their certain payment in the body reunited on purpose to the soul that that which hath merited by compliance may be rewarded by sympathie when the flames that by being inflicted on the body are experimented to afflict and enter into the soul shall demonstrate to the soul her close concernment in all that is permitted to come so neer her then it will appear to be every man's interest to joyn good performances to spiritual purposes and resolutions to act as well as to designe to subdue and quell the exorbitances of the flesh as well as to continue the wouldings of the spirit And this being absolutely required to the syncerity and reality of our repentance and renovation which consists not in the strife or wish or purpose but in the actual operations of good life the belief of the resurrection of the body which is so instrumental and preparative to this must needs be fundamental to that which is superstructed on it and was therefore deemed fit to be first preached to all men before strict Christian performances could reasonably be required of them § 27. Lastly the everlasting life both of body and soul in that future state whether in blisse or woe hath with all reason been added as the last stone to this foundation and in it all the promises and terrors of the Gospel to perswade and drive us to repentance § 28. Were the state wherein we expect our reward for the abstinencies or riots of this present life under the prejudices of short or finite as it hath the disadvantage of absence and futurity the promises and threats of Christ would lose much of their virtue and energie and being by their spiritual and invisible nature rendred so faint in the original and yet to make them more so set to sollicite us at a distance they would want a competent instrument to collect and convey their rayes succesfully or so as to affect or impresse the species with any vigor on a dull and withall prejudicate faculty We know a life in reversion is not half so valuable as that which may at present be entred on and this not only in the opinion of fools but of the most prudent purchasers And unlesse there be somewhat in the duration to inhaunse the value and to he offered in commutation and to reward the patience of the present self-denial heaven it self would be look'd on jealously as a project to deprive us of our present portions to cheat us of our possessions But when the losse of every present advantage to flesh and blood is sure to be repaid in a farre
of bringing down that most sacred name whereby we should be saved to be the vilest instrument of all carnality and by the power of thy convincing Spirit Lord humble and subdue all that exalts it self against the obedience of Christ And when thou hast cast out so many evil spirits be pleased thy self to possesse and inrich our souls to plant and root and confirm and secure in us all those pretious fruits of piety and faith and obedience and zeal toward thee of purity and meekness and simplicity and contentedness and sobriety in our selves of justice and charity and peaceableness and bowels of mercy and compassion toward all others that having seriously and industriously as our holy vocation ingages us used all diligence to adde unto our faith virtue and to virtue patience and perseverance in all Christian practise we may adorn that profession which we have so long depraved and having had our fruit unto holiness we may obtain our end everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Contents CHAP. I. THe Notation of the word Fundamental Page 1 CHAP. II. The Division of the discourse into four parts What are Fundamental in general Page 15 CHAP. III. A particular view of Fundamentals Jesus Christ indefinitely Page 24 CHAP. IV. Jesus Christ Crucified Page 35 CHAP. V. Jesus Christ raised c. Page 38 CHAP. VI. Other Articles of Belief in Christ Page 42 CHAP. VII The Faith in Baptisme Page 56 CHAP. VIII Of the Creeds in general and first of the Apostles Creed Page 58 CHAP. IX Of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds together and severally of the Nicene Page 82 CHAP. X. Of the Athanasian Creed Page 91 CHAP. XI Of the Superstructure and the particular branches thereof Page 94 CHAP. XII Of the Doctrines that hinder the superstructing of good life on the Christian belief first among the Romanists a Catalogue of them especially that of the Infallibility of the Church 2. Among others 1. that of the Solifidian Page 108 CHAP. XIII Of the Fiduciarie Page 120 CHAP. XIV Of Christ's dying for none but the Elect Page 130 CHAP. XV. Of the irrespective decrees of Election and Reprobation Page 145 CHAP. XVI Of the Predetermination of all things Page 156 CHAP. XVII Of the Spirits acting all things within the man Page 192 CHAP. XVIII Of the Mistakes concerning Repentance Page 202 CHAP. XIX Of the necessaries to the superstructing of good life on this Foundation Page 211 A Prayer Page 240 THE END ERRATA PAge 51. line 12. re Christ p. 60. § 4 l. 9. re Eutychen p. 77. l. 1. after omitted adde p. 90. l. 25. after practise adde p. 95. l. 17. after the adde most p. 110. marg the note subditos-with that next following it Valdi belong to p. 111. l. 7. and the word guilt p. 111. the note Summorum belongs to lin 19. and the word deviabilis p. 111. the note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to p. 112. l. 16. and the word secure p. 114. l. 19. after principle for put l. 20. after falshoods for put l. 21. after practises adde l. 23. after bread adde of l. 24. after God adde p. 128. l. 4. after not re but be reasonable p. 172. l. 19. after nature adde and p. 178. l. 10. dele was p. 189. l. 20. re 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 198. l. 17. re § 11. p. 200. l. 5. for if re of p. 204. l. 27. after being adde l. 30. after God adde p. 206. lin 9. after Repentance adde which is not repentance p. 213. l. 17. after § 6. re First p. 219. l. 3. for in re of p. 223. l. 7. for service re sacrifice p. 229. l. 26. re diffused Foundation is a relative and figurative word The relation of it to superstructure Building on the sand and on a rock The difference between them The Superstructure to which Foundation here relates Two sorts of Superstructures Heaven The Church Heaven cannot be it for two Reasons The first The second Fundamental to a Church to Piety and Christian life This notion of Fundamental confirmed by S. Athanasius Edifying Four branches of discourse proposed The General way of defining Fundamentals by what the Apostles taught every where The foundation laid 1 Cor. 3.11 1 Tim. 6.20 Jude 3. 2 Tim. 1.13 Eph. 4.5 Approved in common by the Apostles Comprehensive of all necessaries to the planting of a Church not to the conversion of every particular person Some Jews reduced to good life without this foundation Synesius a Bishop before he believed the Resurrection Jesus Christ the Foundation 1 Cor. 3.11 The Christian foundation compared with the Natural with the Judaical with the heathen and Mahomedan Christ crucified the Foundation What propriety the Crosse hath to this Christ's resurrection the Foundation an Argument of the greatest conviction A pawn of our Resurrection Corporal and Spiritual An example of new life to us The Mysterie of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 God made manifest by the Flesh The Arians doctrines against it De Fide p. 53. God justified by the Spirit God seen of Angels Preached among the Gentiles Believed on among men the Jewes the Gentiles Received up into glory The Father Son and holy Ghost The Apostles Creed Proved to be the Apostles †Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad sines terrae seminata ab Apostolis à discipulis corum accepit eam fidem quae est in unuÌ„ DeuÌ„ patreÌ„ omnipotenteÌ„ c. Iren l. 1. c. 2. * Quid si neque Apostoli quidem scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat Ordinem sequi traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus constituebant Ecclesias Cui ordinationi assentiunt mullae gentes barbarorum quorum qui in Christum credunt sine chartâ atramento scriptum habentes in cordibus suis salutare veterem eruditionem diligenter custodientes in unum Deum credentes c. Iren l. 3. c. 4. The articles thereof fundamental to good life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The article of God the Father Of God the Son Of God the holy Ghost Of the Holy Catholick Church Of the Communion of Saints The forgiveness of sins Misinterpreted Rightly understood The want of this to Renovation in a first a second a third respect The necessity of it The belief of the Resurrection of the Body Fundamental to Renovation The want of it very hurtful The perswasion gainfull Everlasting life The necessity of the belief of that The design of â—â—â—er Creeds Defined Of the Nicene One God Of all things visible and invisible One Lord Jesus Christ c. The H. Ghost the Lord and giver of life c. One baptisme for the Remission of sins The Doctrine of the Athanasian Creed The Censures The generall nature of the Superstruction in five particulars The specialties of it Piety in opposition to Idolatrie Piety in opposition to Formality To Hypocrisie To Sacrilege To Profaneness Obedience to Superiors Charitie e. Puritie Contentedness· Taking up the Crosse
Christ that pardon of sin and sufficience of strength and grace which were purchased by his death and typified and consigned to us by the sacramental elements so 't is again the ridding us of all our discouraging fears and the animating and obliging of us to make use of that grace which will carry us if we doe not wilfully betray our succours victoriously through all difficulties § 20. 4thly As it is a federal rite betwixt God and us as eating and drinking both among the Jewes and heathens was wont to be so 't is on our part the solemn undertaking of the condition required of us to make us capable of the benefit of God's new Evangelical covenant and that is syncere performance of all duties prescribed the Christian by Christ And he that doth no longer expect good from God then he performs that condition is ipso facto devested of all those fallacious flattering hopes which pretended to make purifying unnecessary and must now either live purely and piously or else disclaim ever seeing of God § 21. Lastly As this supper of the Lord is a token and engagement of charity among the disciples of Christ so it is the supplanting of all the most Diabolical sins the filthiness of the spirit the hatred variance emulation strife revenge faction schism that have been the tearing and rending of the Church of God oft-times upon pretense of the greatest piety but were by Christ of all other things most passionately disclaimed and cast out of his Temple And if by the admonitions which this Embleme is ready to afford us we can think our selves obliged to return to that charity and peaceable-mindedness which Christ so frequently and vehemently recommends to us we have his own promise that the whole body shall be full of light Mat. 6. that all other Christian virtues will by way of concomitance or annexation accompany or attend them in our hearts § 22. And the several happy influences of all and each of these considerations especially when they are superadded to the three former grand instruments and frequently every month at least and every great Festivity called in to reinforce our watch to remand us to our scrutinie the examination and search of out hearts and purging out all impurity that hath been contracted in those intervals and to renew our vows of temper and vigilance may very reasonably be allowed to have some considerable virtue and efficacy in them to advance that work for which Christ came out from the bosome of his Father to superstruct the practise of all virtue where the Faith of Christ is once planted § 23. After these four which are thus subordinate and preparative the one to the other the later still bringing with it an addition of weight to the former Two more there are which are several from and yet being of continual use are interweaved and mixt with every of these and having their distinct energie proper to themselves when they are in conjunction with the former or added to them they must needs accumulate and superadde a considerable weight unto them § 24. The first is the use of Liturgie the second the word of exhortation among the Jewes and in the Apostles times and proportionable to that the sermons or homilies of the Church § 25. The Liturgie as it contains the whole daily office consisting of Confession prayers Psalms hymnes reading of the scripture of both Testaments Creeds supplications intercessions thanksgivings injunctions of Gestures and of Ceremonies and of Holy-daies is both the exercise of many parts of Piety and the conservatory of the Foundation on which all Piety together is regularly built and a means of hightning devotion and infusing zeal into it And the diligent worthy continual in stead of the negligent formal rarer use of it and the unanimous accord of whole societies and multitudes herein would certainly be very efficacious advancers of all Christian virtue of piety of charity of purity over the world of the two former directly and of the later by way of diversion the frequent performance of such offices obstructing and sealing up the fountains of impurity and intercepting that leisure which is necessary to the entertaining the beginnings of it § 26. So for Preaching or exhorting the people by way of Homilie it appears to have been received from the Jewish by the Christian Church and by the phrase by which it is expressed in the Acts a word of exhortation to the people it appears to have been generally imployed in reprehension of vices and exhortation to virtuous living And if we survey the Homilies of the Antient Church such are those of S. Chrysostome most eminently we shall discern that as upon Festival daies the subject of the Homilie was constantly the business of the Day the clearing the mysterie the incarnation of Christ c. and the recommending the actions or sufferings of the Saint and raising mens hearts to acknowledge the goodness of God in setting up such exemplary patterns and guides before us So upon other daies after some short literal explication of some place of scripture the custome was not to raise doctrinal points according to every preachers judgment or phansie but presently to fall off to exhortation to temperance continence patience and the like Christian virtues which either the propriety of the Text or the wants and sins of the auditory or the times suggested to them And this so farre from being a fault in their method of preaching that it was an eminent exemplary piece of Christian prudence observable and imitable in them as a means of keeping false or unnecessary definitions out of the Church which tend to the increase of disputes and contentions and whilst they they doe so are not to the edification and benefit but to the destruction and mischief of the hearers § 27. Of this usage of the Church it is most visible if it be but by the ill uses which are made of it many times in stirring up seditions rebellions murthers hatreds animosities calumnies revilings of superiors c. in disseminating of heresies infusing of prejudices c. what advantage may be had toward the advancement of all parts of Christian life by a due performance of it 'T is very much in the power of a popular Orator to represent vices in so formidable yet just appearances and to set out each virtue in so amiable a form and to apply this so particularly to those that are concerned to be thus wrought on that the Covetous person shall flie from and scatter most liberally his beloved Idol wealth the rageful person shall finde a calm the lustful a coldness insensibly infused upon his breast and the auditor's phansie and sensitive affections being called in to joyn with his reason and the Spirit of God it will by the blessing of that Spirit be in the power of meditation to radicate these seeds to fix this transient gleam of light and warmth to confirm inclinations and resolutions
of Good received in at the ear and give them a durable consistence in the soul § 28. Next to this is the spiritual persons being called for and obeying the summons to visit the sick Jam. 5.14 to assist him in the great work of discussing and examining his conscience of making his search as particular as it can whether it be any sin either unreformed or unsufficiently mortified which may have laid him under God's present displeasure and brought that disease as a piece of discipline upon him In this condition the rod of God hath a voice to be heard and he whose office it is in publick to explain the oracles of God for the use of the Church and to apply them to each mans wants is now to preach on this new text and expound to the sick man as farre as by the closest inspection he can judge the particular meaning of the voice the interpretation of God's message to him And if he be not able like Daniel to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream or Belshazzar's hand-writing on the wall which was the work of a Prophet extraordinarily inspired yet he may without the spirit of divination discern that affinity and dependence betwixt the man's unreformed sins and God's hand of punishment which may be sufficient ground of superstructing Daniel's exhortation of breaking off his sinnes by repentance and shewing mercy to the poor by humiliation sincere resolution and vow of new life and by meet fruits of such reformation the highest works of charity and piety that the patient is capable of And besides that this method may receive so much force and probably prove successful by assistance of those impressions that the desire of recovering the former health may have upon the patient when he considers the pardon of sinnes which ordinarily introduced Christ's corporal cures and prudently judgeth how improbable it is that God which for any sin committed hath inflicted this disease should remove it before reformation or if he doth must doe it as an act of higher wrath and punishment Besides this I say the time of sickness or any other affliction is like the cool of the day to Adam a season of peculiar propriety for the voice of God to be heard in the mouth of his messengers and so may by the assistance of united prayers for God's blessing on his own instruments be improved into a very advantageous opportunity of begetting or increasing spiritual life in the soul and cannot without great guilt of unkindness and treachery to that most pretious part be neglected or omitted by us § 29. And the analogie holds though not in the same degree yet in the proportion to every other season or person who is under the power of any unreformed sin or is doubtful of the sincerity of the kinde or sufficience of the degree of his change and is not so fit or competent a judge of his own estate if upon no other score but because his own as any other fellow Christian of no deeper judgment then himself or as the spiritual person whose office it is to watch for his soul and is probably furnished with more skill fidelity zeal toward the doing of it may be deemed to be And in this case the use of spiritual conference which is at all times very profitable yea and pleasant to every diligent humble Christian is unimaginable and unspeakable especially if it be free and unrestrained having all the advantages of the divinest friendship and withall all the contentments and satisfactions of it which are exceedingly great and agreeable to rational ingenuous natures and bearing an image and lively resemblance of that conversation which is among Angels and beatified Saints a communication and conjunction of souls designed to our highest interests and concernments the countermining and eradicating of sin mortifying this or that passion rage or other sensual desire and contending for the highest exaltation and improvement of our natures all growth in grace and the practical knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ § 30. Many inhaunsments of this spiritual useful though more private exercise might be farther noted and rules for the more advantageous practise of it especially that there were some eminent persons of known abilities experience judgment gravity fidelity zeal to all Christian virtue and the good of souls set apart to this one office of spiritual conference in every Province and all men rationally convinced of the great benefits that might be reaped by a frequent resort to them in all possible times of need and of the no kinde of detriment or disadvantage that they can suffer by it § 31. But beyond all these there is another very efficacious method still behinde of which the Apostle saith that it was not carnal or weak but mighty to God or very powerful for the bringing down of strong holds for the subduing of the most obstinate contumacious sinner and bringing him into the obedience of the faith of Christ and that is the power and exercise of the Keyes committed to the Apostles their successors by Christ the weapons of their warfare as Saint Paul calls them the means of discharging their office to the good of souls § 32. For when any baptized instructed confirmed communicated Christian which hath participated of the Liturgie and Sermons of the Church shall in despight of all these obligations very competent and sufficient to have restrain'd him break out into any known wilfull scandalous sin this course is then ready at hand to be sent as an officer to arrest and reduce him First the admonitions fraternal or paternal of his fellow Christians or of the Governors of the Church then more publike reprehensions and increpations and upon the unsuccessfulness of all these milder medicaments the use of that stronger Physick the Censures of the Church either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a determinate shorter space or else indefinitely usque ad reformationem untill he reform and return and then when he doth so the admitting him to penance to approve the sincerity of his change by meet fruits of repentance and then and not till then allowing him the benefit of absolution § 33. The efficacy and usefulness of this last method hath elswhere been shewn at large in a Tract on that subject especially upon the score of shame when he that will live the life of a heathen go on unreformed in any open sin shall not be allowed the honour of a Christian name of an ordinary good reputation among men but be banished and interdicted the enjoyment of those sacred privileges which the meanest of Christ's flock is allowed by him What these losses are is sufficiently known and set off by the Apostles style expressing them by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destruction and excision and the like As for that other of shame the efficacy that belongs to it may be discerned by that antient Apophthegm of Cleobulus the fift of the sages of Greece 〈◊〉