doe their first works So that in the purest times the Saints have had their cold fits their retrogradations and goings back in spiritualls Thus much for the proofe of the premisses now that the weak ones may not be offended at this discourse for I would not willingly offend or stumble any that professe the name of Christ it will be necessary to premise a few cautions 4. Considerations by way of caution for preventing mistakes and informing the judgment a right before I come to the Symptomes and in order there unto I shall lay down these following considerations First as Satan that lying spirit may delude thee 1. Consi Satan will tempt you to think worse of your spirituall condition than it is by flattering thee into a beliefe that thy soule is in a flourishing growing condition by reason of some gifts and enlargements when it is otherwise and thus he deales with hypocrites and temporary believers so may he likewise accomplish his wicked designe by perswading thee that thou art in a languishing condition when thou art not by the one he would puffe thee up and make thee glory in the flesh and by the other he would expose thee to such discouragements that thou shouldest not serve God comfortably in thy calling as hee will tempt thee to think better of thy condition than it is so likewise to think worse of it than it is by presenting before thee false mediums and glasses and putting thee upon consulting with flesh and blood which is no competent judge in spiritualls for the flesh savoureth not the things of God q Mat. 16.23 Now this latter temptation of Satan commonly surprizeth a Christian when he hath a deep sense of his own vilenesse and is much abased in himself his heart in an humble and contrite frame for then 't is most probable such a temptation may take a deep impression therefore at such times take heed you deny not the work of grace and the operation of the Spirit of God upon your souls acknowledge your own nothingness but with all be sensible of the love of God towards you in changing and renewing your hearts Secondly 2. Consi The keennesse of a corruption doth not infallibly preâ—â—â—se a declension in spiritualls it cannot be safe for a Christian to judge of his spiritual condition by the keennesse or activeness of this or that corruption in him for the soul may have intimate converse and familiarity with God and be filled with that peace which passeth understanding when yet it is buffetted and exercised with the bublings up and stirrings of corruption and this was Pauls case in the 7th to the Romans 1 Rom. 7. where after a great conflict with the flesh hee comes off a conquerer by the consideration of the victories of Christ and in another place r he tells us that he had a thorne or prick in the flesh which was some notable corruption or other and though hee had prayed thrice against it yet still it continued vexing the good man to the end that his faith patience might be exercised and therefore the Lord tells him for his comfort that his grace was sufficient for him notwithstanding the malice of Satan and the daringness of his lusts and that the Lords strength was made perfect in his weaknesse Å¿ 2 Cor. 12. Here Paul was not in a spirituall consumption because he was exercised with the stirrings of corruption but therefore God permitted it that he might not trust in himself but in the Lord so neither shouldest thou presently conclude upon the stirring of every corruption that thou art run behind hand in true mortification for as some Patients that are nigh unto death make a great bustling and are so strong when they are giving up their last breath that two or three men can scarse hold them or as the body of a man after he hath received his deaths wound will leape and move from place to place even so it is with the lusts and corruptions of believers for though they are knockt in the head and have received their deaths wound by the death of Christ yet will they bustle and make a stir so long as wee remaine in this Tabernacle and untill the flesh be perfectly subdued in us by the Spirit 3. Cons The distemperature of the body hinders internal actings Thirdly the constitution of the body if distempered with melancholy and other ill humours may and doth cloude the understanding and interrupt the internall motions and operations of the renewed soul So that a Christian cannot clearely apprehend them in himselfe or make out the same to others Melancholick Christians are as full of divine experiences as heavenly and spirituall as any yet when this duskish humour and black distemper of melancholy which may well be called the devils cushion is prevalent upon them oh what false conclusions what grosse mistakes and carnall reasonings what closing in with Satans suggestions and fighting under his coulours doe these bewray at such times how shamelesse are they in denying what Christ hath done for them and what the Spirit hath wrought in them and evidenced to them which they will thankfully acknowledg when the skie is clear the weather faire when the cloude of melancholy is dispelled and the foggy mists of temptations scattered and therefore it behoves Saints not to judge of their spirituall condition in melancholick and pettish fits for the Satan and their owne lying hearts joyning together will deceive them Fourthly 4. Cons Saints differ in the measure of their spirituall growth as some trees grow taller and shoot forth more than others so is it with Saints in their spirituall growth there are Saints of severall degrees and measures as there are several gifts and dispensations and but one Spirit t 1 Cor. 12. so there are severall degrees of faith love joy humility and all even the least of them streaming from that one Spirit Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ u Eph. 4.7 Some have more and others lesse according to the wise dispensation of the Father perhaps thou art not so high in communion with God as others are thou hast not high attainments but art low and dead hearted comparing thy self with others wilt thou therefore conclude that thou hast no communion with God at all or that there is a decrease of thy communion with him that thou art no member at all because thou art not the most eminent member or that thou art a languishing dying member because thou art not so nimble and active in spirituall performances as others These are false conclusions and shew forth a great deale of pride and unthankfulness Thus much by way of caution now I come to the Symptomes of a Christians abatement in spiritualls in the handling whereof I shall be somewhat large First 1. Symtome If there be a decay of love humility self-denyall if there
age it is neither wholly night nor wholly day with us but we expect a glorious evening wee looke for a time when truth shall vanquish error and light shall swallow up darknesse And those that have a name they live and yet are dead shall be plainly discovered and that maske and vizard pull'd off where with they have blinded many precious Saints I meane their pretences of high and glorious discoveries without relation to the blood of a crucified Christ which is not only sleighted and undervalued by Papists and others that live under a Covenant of works but also by another sort of Professors who have much of the Spirit of divine light and dying to the flesh and carnall created things in their mouthes the Lord Jesus in the sufferings of his humane nature is laid aside as an Almanack out of date or an old administration or fleshly appearance out of which they are passed And this is that spirit of Antichrist which began to work in Johns time and appeared much in Luthers time in Zwenkfeld his followers who judged Luther and other faithful Christians to be men of a very low straine that lived under a carnall administration upon the letter and history not knowing God in Spirit and in mystery which is the very language of the manifestarians in these daies concerning many precious Saints I shall be far from stirring up the civill Magistrate against those that erre in judgment about spirituall things so they submit to lawfull Authority in civill things for this were to thwart the straine of Christs Gospel which exhorts us to love and forbearance if peradventure the Lord will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth a Heb. 10.2 our weapons saith the Apostle are not carnall but spiritual b 2 Cor 10 4. and my Kingdome saith our Saviour is not of this world if it were my disciples would fight c Ioh. 18.36 Howbeit it concerns every Christian soul to mourn before the Lord and to be earnest with him in prayer that he would consume the man of sin with the breath of his nostrills and that he would throw down the strong holds of Satan namely those horrid errors and blasphemies which are crept into the Churches of Christ I shall desire thee Christian Reader to read this little book without prejudice and to avoid jangling and strife and minde the things that tend to peace and edification Now the Lord give thee and mee a seeing eye a hearing eare and an understanding heart Farwell To the Christian READER HIgh attainments and choyce Communion with God are a great Happinesse such as many Saints come not up to nor all that pretend they have them doe enjoy Some judge themselves on the top of Mount Sion when they are at the foot thereof they are without sinne perfect live in the Essence of God neither Christ nor any of his institutions are considerable with them The Ministery is a delusion the Ordinances of the Gospel low administrations empt Cloudes fleshly appearances and dead formes righteousnesse holinesse faith are to them of little account Immediate revelations are onely looked at the holy Scriptures laid aside Whereupon Satans delusions are often taken for the Spirits discoveries and these conceit themselves all Spirit manifest much flesh Is it not fleshly wisdome to put down what the infinite wisdome of God hath set up to seek out inventions of out own and not to be content with the Gosspel which is the power of God to mans salvation Reader art thou beyond others in knowledge holinesse high attainments let not thy tongue but life declare it Christ had the Spirit not by measure John 3.34 he was annointed above his fellowes Heb. 1.9 fill'd with all the fulnesse of God Colos 2.9 yet he conversed with sinners Matth. 9.11 pray'd with others Luk. 9.28 frequented the Assemblies Luke 4.16 preached to mixt multitudes Mark 6.33 34. pray'd before meat Matth. 19.19 15.36 Communicated with his disciples Mat. 26.29 made use of the Scriptures Luk. 4.17 18 19 20 21. and directed others to do so John 5.39 How is it then that any should cast off such duties Have they more of the Spirit than Christ Are they richer than he If such thoughts lodge in them the Lord teach them to know themselves to bee lowly minded and to esteeme other better than themselves Phil. 2.3 What heights soever such speak of they are in a bottome greatly benighted and clouded decay'd rather than growne Christians Declinings are dangerous growth is comfortable It 's matter not onely of observation but of complaint that the power of godlinesse is much abated in most Saints Many in England have lost their first love it 's time for them to remember former dayes and to doe their first works lest severe judgements divorce them from their sweetest comforts This little Treatise very savoury and seasonable written with a Dove-like Spirit will discover to thee thy declensions and direct thee to the ready way of recovery Read it with a single heart and the Lord make it a blessing to thee W. G. Saints in England under a Cloude THat such as are spirituall and have tasted of the specially love and grace of God may yet for ends best known to him be cast into a sleepy and languishing condition and brought to a low ebb in their owne sense and feeling is an experimented and undeniable truth and hereof we have divers instances in holy writ Job was a godly man there was none like unto him and yet the Lord hid his countenance from him and writ bitter things against him a Job 13.26 and David and Heman were filled with horror and amazement in the apprehension of the Lords withdrawing his comforts and the light of his countenance from them and the Church of Christ was once put upon this sad and dismall conclusion That the Lord had forsaken her yea her Lord had forgotten her b Isa 49.14 Cant. 5.6 Nay in this we have the Lord Jesus himself for an example who as touching his humane nature wanted those sensible feelings and injoyments of God which he was wont to have in so much that this blessed Saviour of mankinde cried out in the bitternesse of his soule My God my God why hast thou forsaken me c Mat. 27.48 And againe My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto the death d Mat. 26.38 For our better understanding of this truth Two sorts of desertions and that wee may have a distinct knowledge of it according to the Scriptures we are to consider two sorts of desertion which differ much the one from the other First 1. A reall desertion there is a totall reall desertion and rejection by God and this is when the Lord hardens the heart of a man as hee hardned the heart of Pharaoh e Exo. 4.21 and wholly withdrew the influence and beames of divine grace from him the Lord wil call him no more he will breath on him no
longer by the breathings of his Spirit now this kind of desertion true Saints are not capable of nor subject unto For although there is oftentimes a withholding from them comforts and inlargements yet never a totall withdrawing of grace f Isa 54.10 for it is grace and grace only that supports them and bears up their spirits in a drooping and disconsolate condition it is the power of the Lords grace upon their souls that prevents sad disasters and desperate attempts which otherwise Satan and their flesh would put them upon Secondly 2. A suspension of comfort there is another kind of desertion which cannot properly be called a desertion but rather a Suspension of those soul refreshing manifestations influences and consolations of the Spirit which a Saint hath formerly enjoyed neither is this totall and universall but partiall and graduall in respect of measure and degree a true Christian is never so forsaken of God but he partakes in some measure of the influences and opperations of the Spirit of grace though there may not be such heatings and warmings as there have been The Sunne you know shines upon the earth in Winter as well as in Summer yet the earth is not so warmed heated nor the trees made so fruitfull by the influence of the Sunne in Winter as in Summer just so it is with a Christian he hath his Winter as well as his Summer seasons his nights as well as his dayes his complainings as well as his consolations but yet observe that this kind of desertion if it may be so called which a Saint is capable of is rather in his apprehension than reall The soul-ravishing object which is God in Christ is not darkned or eclipsed in it selfe God is perfect light and in him is no darknesse at all g 1 Joh. 1.5 But the darknesse is in the understanding or apprehensive faculty which is but renewed in part the flesh as a thick mist or cloude interposes it self betwixt the object and our understandings as betwixt the Sunne and our corporall eyes so that wee cannot clearly see into the things that are revealed or comprehend fully the glory of the spirituall object The Saints may be considered under a twofold notion Saints considered in a twofold relation or relation this will help much to the clearing of the matter in hand First 1. In justification as they are in a state of Justification and union with God in Christ and this admits of no change diminution or increase the weak Christian is as much justified as much united to God he hath as much interest and propriety in Christ though hee cannot make so much advantage and improvement of it as the strong Christian who hath a greater degree of faith the ground and matter of justification which is the free grace of God in and by the blood of Christ as Mediator h Ephes 1.6 7. Ro 3.24 25. remaines sure stedfast and unmoveable notwithstanding the daily sinnings and backslidings of saints the Covenant which they are under is an everlasting Covenant of free grace which cannot be disanulled i Jer. 32.40 and the bond of their spirituall union which is the Spirit of grace and love is an eternall bond that can never be broken or dissolved as the bond of temporall Marriage may be God hath betrothed his Saints to him for ever and hath given them his Spirit to be a Seale k Ephes 1.13 and a pledge of his everlasting love to them Secondly 2. In Sanctification the Saints may be considered in their Sanctification and communion with God which is an effect or product of their justification and union l Gal. 4.6 now in this the Saints have experience of great changes and alterations of ebbings and flowings as in the Sea of increasings and decreasings as in the Moone Their communion with God and enjoyment of him is sometimes greater sometimes lesser as God manifests himself to them and the Sun of righteousnesse shines on them you shall have a Christian high in communion with God when hee meets with a ful-tide and fresh-gale of the Spirit m The Spirit is compared to wind Cant. 4.6 hee goes on merrily in his way and passes over the Red sea of temptations as it were with a fore-right winde but when the wind blowes not at all or else blowes but softly either he cannot hoiz saile or at the best heeds forced having but a side wind to tacke often about and make many boords before hee get to shore Here you may aske me why Saints now under the new Testament administration Quest are lesse surprized with spirituall languishings and swoonings than Saints were under the old Testament administration The old administration ingendered bondage Answ and terror in those who lived under it although they were sonnes yet were they dealt with as servants though they were heires yet were they used as children in nonage n Gal. 4.1 2 3. Gal. 5.1 but the new administration brings peace and liberty to Saints This the Apostle handels excellently as in other places so especially in the 2 to the Cor. 3 Chap. Therefore those Christians that act much from a spirit of bondage and yeeld to slavish feares terrors though they may be right in the maine yet doubtless their carriage and demeanour is not answerable to the new Testament administration Now the reason as I conceive why Job and David and other eminent believers in the old Testament had so much horror upon their spirits is because they lived under a typical administration and were types of Christ * God exhibited spiritual things to believers under the old Testament in Types and shadows Heb. 10.1 not only in their bodily sufferings but also in their spirituall agonies and temptations in the one they shaddowed forth the sufferings of his body * Vide Calv. Institu lib. 2. Cap. 11. Sect. 3. ad finem and in the other the sufferings of his soule And now the old administration being abolished and a new one taking place we doe not read that the Saints who lived since Christs ascension have had so much horror and bondage upon their spirits as Job and David had Neverthelesse it cannot be denied but the Saints have their ebbings and languishings under the new Testament more or lesse Paul that chosen vessell of God had conflicts within as well as terrors without he was not alwayes carried up into the third heaven as he writes of himself o 2 Cor. 12 but had sometimes experience of sad qualmes and aguish fits and in Johns time which according to the opinion of some was a time of more light The Angels of the Church of Ephesus p Rev. 2.4 5. who were faithfull and so acknowledged by Christ himself in the 2 and 3 verses had lost their first love and were fallen from their former zeale and therefore Christ bids them remember from whence they were fallen and repent and
shall shine no longer but the Lord will be an everlasting light to his church now if these scriptures bee appliable to the Church earth which I rather thinke ought to be referred to the saitns when glorified and triumphant in heaven it must be when he church is made perfect not onely by imputation but inherently when she sees God face to face and there is no flesh nor corruption in her till then they ought not to plead for an exemption from Ordinances and if Ordinances cease in this life much more eating and drinking and the duties of matrimonial relation if there shall be so much glory revealed as to swallow up the former which are of a higher nature that fulnes of glory will much more0 put an end to the latter which are lower more perishing and therefore those that say they need use Ordinances no longer let them also refraine from eating and drinking and conversing in the world * Praesens haec vita vita est fidei quae non est praesentum ac fruentium sed absentium sperantium expect Sixthly if yee constantly attend the purest Ordinances and the most spiritual and evangelicall Ministery and heare truths that are most sutable to your condition and corespond most with your experiences and yet bring forth little or no spiritual fruit but are still dead-hearted indisposed and unprofitable under these thriving dispensations it s a Symptome that you are under a spirituall distemper * Non progredi estregredi Christians oft times blame the men and the meanes and quarrell with the truths of God either as too high or too low for them when they oght rather to blame the carnality sleightnes and unbeliefe of their owne hearts for herefore the word profits not becanse it is not mixed with faith in them that heare it u Heb. 4.2 yet I deny not but there may be and often is * Sermo auditus fine fide vel fide non mixtus tâ abest ut prositaudienti ut magis eum damnet Muscul a great failing in him that dispenses the word for he may deliver it so generally and confusedly having little or no experience of the worke of Gods Spirit that an experienced Saint cannot profit by it If there be not bodily motion and stirring you may conclude the party is in a swound or trance and againe if he eat good victualls and thrive not by them but rather grow lank and leane you may well say he hath an ill concoction by reason of some bodily distemper or other So if the word be purely preached and the truths of the Gospel distinctly handled and you attend the meanes from day to day and ug continually with your hearts in Ordinances and yet notwithstanding you finde little or no spirituall sap and moisture but are leane and drie in this case it is evident enough that your spirituall digestion is in a great measure gone from you and that your inward man is under a distemper Now this may be when yet there is as frequent an use of Ordinances as much praying hearing conferring in the letter and forme as ever but there wants that spirituall life and vigour that holy familiarity and boldnesse with God in your performances which was wont to be nay your performances by the breathings of the Spirit may be lively and spirituall to others and yet your selves in the meane while dead-hearted and labouring under the burthen of your Iusts the great crop of gifts and fluent expressions which you have usually had in Prayer c. may still remaine and yet that which is the life of Prayer Gospel faith and assurance may decay and this many Christians can tell you by experience 7 Symtome when saints shark much after creature comforts Seventhly this may be another Syptome if yee dote so far on creature enjoyments that in dallying with these you spend and squander away many precious houres and dayes without serious thoughts of God and heavnly intercourses betweene him and you and so commit Idolarries with the creature and run a whoreing after the world and earthly things Forsaking him who is the fountaine of living water and digging to our selves broken cisternes that will hold no water xJer 2.13 If you set your hearts on creature beauty and sacrifice your affections to wanton dalliances igh apparel diet buil dings and other creature excellencies spending the very streame and creame and quintessence of your affections on these perishing objects so that when you come to rejoyce in God and love God and spirituall things yee have no heart to it but are altogether dead and indisposed as to this having spent your affections upon other objects and tired out your selves in the things of the world and further if you can rejoyce exceedingly in the possession of these outward things and forrow as much in the want of them be it a husband a wife a child or any other creature that is deare to your as if your life and happinesse were bound up in these temporall enjoyments It s aparent to me that you converse not much with God but rahter that his countenance is hid from you and surely the Prophet David was much under a cloude and not sensible of the consolations of his God when his affections were so captivated and insnared with the beauty of Bersheba and good Ezekiah was in the like condition when he made shew of his gold and silve in a vaine glorious manner to the King of Babylon And for those Christians that are easily transported and surprized with every temptation drink much of the perishing waters it appeares their spirits hang loose from God they have but little spirituall joy and therefore they run out to creature comforts and so spena their money for tht which is not bread and their labour for that which satisfieth not y If. 55.2.8 Symptome If there be an abatement in poynt of assurance Eighty if your assurance of salvation be weakned your evidences blurred and your soules brought into bondage so that you fall as it were under a covenant of works by poreing too much on your selves and creatures and not eyeing Christs blood and righteousnesse in the Spirit Now the soules that hath been acquainted with Christ the true spirituall seed may yet goe back to a Covenant of works as Abraham hankered after Ismael who was a type of the Covenant of works even when Isaac that typified the Covenant of grace was borne and that two wayes First 1. In depending on eternall acts in depending on the externall acts of Prayer c. and deriving your peace and comfort from the work done * Ex opere operato which is meere Popery and hence it is that you are lifted up and cast downe according to the outward performance thus the Pharisees builded their hopes and comforts upon their doings and performances and so doe many Professors in these dayes 2. Of the internall motion in stead of Christ
who whilest they depend on their owne righteousnesse are the greatest enemies to the righteousnesse of Christ Secondly in a more refined mysterious way attributing that to frames of spirit and to the acts of faith love joy which some falsly call God in them which should be attributed only to the righteousnes and bloodshed of the Lord Jesus If you fall on any thing for life salvation though never so spetious besides the righteousnesse of Christ as Mediator or if you looke on any thing either externall without you or internall within you as a ground of your peace apart from or without relation to the blood of Christ whereby the same is rendered acceptable in the sight of God this is to fall under a Covenant of works and oh that this were but rightly considered by those who count the knowledge of Christ in his Mediatorship and Preist-hood to be no other than a knowledge of him after the flesh Object Rom. 8.14 Yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare how then can the Saints be brought into bondage and under a Covenant of works T is true Answ the Spirit of God having once spoken peace to a believer he doth not afterwards bring him into bondage by telling him that he is under wrath and in chaines of darknesse for this were a plaine contradiction which is far from the Spirit of God who is truth and is no lye z 1 Joh 2. c 7. neverthelesse the Saints may be brought into bondage after they have received the Seale of the Spirit as they may also be deluded with errors which wee must not impute to the Spirit of God but to Satan and the flesh for these two joyne together to rob God of the glory of his grace The Spirit who is free in his operation causeth terror and slavish feare in the believing soule no other wayes than the Sunne causeth darkness by suspending his beames and irradiations doubtlesse so far as wee hearken to the suggestions and language of the Spirit of God wee shall be conducted into the way of truth peace and comfort but wee often give credit to Satan that lying spirit and so are led from Christ the true way into dangerous paths Suppose yee take counsel both of an honest-man and a deceiver so far as you follow the advise of the honest-man yee prosper well in your businesse but if you will be tampering with the advise of the deceiver which is our case then wee have to doe with Satan who is the great Jugler yee will be cozened and deluded Ninthly 9 Symptome If ye slight the communion of Saints if the society and communion of Saints especially such as keep close in their judgments to the simplicity of the Gospel and are most spirituall holy and watchfull in their conversations be tedious and burthensome unto you so that you forsake their assemblies and meetings as it was the manner of some in the Apostles dayes a Heb. 10.25 And though yee are convinced that they have much of the Image of God upon them and your hearts have been wonderfully expatiated and enlarged whilst you frequented their assemblies God having unbosomed his love to you in the communication of their experiences yet now your spirits swell and rise up against them as too strick and too watchfull for you not long since their company and discourse was delightsome and precious unto you oh you could not be absent from them an houre you were never in your right element but when you were conversing with them I appeale to you did not your hearts often burne and were not your affections raised heaven wards in communicating with them where then is your former zeale and love seeing now yee are as much or more affected with the company of meere worldings or lukewarme Gospellers or sleight spirited Opinionists than with the Society of these precious saints certainely they have but could affections to Christ who looke on the communiion of saints as an arbitrary indifferent thing And as this is a symptome of decaying in spiritualls so it argues much vanity and slightnesse of spirit if you be taken up in your meetings with circumstanciall and trisling things and so fall to jangling and strif (a) 1 Tim. 1. 4 5 6 7. neglecting those blessed truthes wherein the Saints concur and agree as namely the Doctrine of Justification by Christ of assurance by the spirit and liveing upon God by saith in our severall callings and relations and herein professiors doe as children use to do who looke more on the outside than on that which is with in and prize bables and toyes more than Preclous things Religion which consists in a conformity of the hart to God is now turned into a dispure and made use of only as a head notion a sad thing hee that is the greatest disputant and can utter bigg swelling words is counted the most excellent Christian whereas many dispute much of religion that manifest but little of the power of it and those that are spirituall and walke circumspectly can tell you from experience that they have seldome or never mett with the comforts of God in disputes but have come away from them with sad harts and drooping spirits and how can it be otherwise since men exalt their owne notions and gifts more than Christ and strive more for victory than for truth in contending for their opinions Thirdly when men are let loose to a spirit of bitternesse 10 Symptome If there be much bitternesse against dissenting brethren invie and parsecution So that they stuff and fill their bookes sermons and discourses with gall and wormeword and rake up all the dunghills they can meete with that so they might find a matter against brethren who in some things oiffer from them looking on that which is true Christian charity according to the Apostls description (a) 1 Cor. 13. as want of true zeale such a spirit as this hath acted much of late in professors that live under seuerall formes and indeed ye that have a close commuinon with God a cleere judgment in the things of God may see these angry bitter men that would violently obtrude upon their brethren every opinion they hold though but Circumstanciall under a penalty notwithstanding their heat of spirit grow exceeding colde in the practicall part of Godlinesse and in the duties of Christian Charity while they continually cry out errors errors c. without excerciseing bowells of compassion towards their brethren they themselves loose much of their Communion with God for whereas they ought in tendernesse of heart to pray and mourne for their brethrē if fallen into any error either of doctrin or practise and endeavour by meekness of spirit to set them in joynt againe * So the word signifies Gal. 6.1 in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quemadmodum incolumitati naturae diligentia medicorum servit ita Christiana Charitas sanitati mentium cordium tam