unity undisturbed peace and unfeigned Love but the very infidels and ungodly round about them did reverence both them and their religion for it And where did you ever see Christians divided unpeaceable and bitter against each other but it made them and their profession a scorn to the unbelieving and ungodly world and whilst they despise and vilifie one another they teach the wicked to despise and vilifie them all Seventhly I may therefore add that the Unity of Believers is one of Gods appointed means for the conversion and salvation of unbelievers And their Divisions and discord are an ordinary means of hardening men in infidelity and wickedness and hindering their love and obedience to the truth As a well ordered Army or a City of uniform comely building is a pleasing and inviting sight to the beholders when a confused rout or a râ—inous heap doth breed abhorrence even so the very sight of the concordant societies of Christians is amiable and alluring to those without when their disagreements and separations make them seem odious and vile As a musical instrument in tune or a set of musick delight the hearer by the pleasing harmony when one or more instruments out of tune or used by a rude unskilful hand will weary out the patience of the hearer so is it in this case and the difference is much greater between concordant and disconcordant Christians Who loveth to thrust himself into a fray And what wise man had not rather partake of the friendly converse than joyn with drunken men that are fighting in the streets Peace and Concord are amiable even to nature And you can scarce take a more effectual means to win the world to the Love of Holiness than by shewing them that Holiness doth make you unfeigned and fervent in the Love of one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Nor can you devise how to drive men more effectually from Christ and to damn their souls than to represent Christians to them like a company of mad men that are tearing out the throats of one another How can you think that the unbelievers and ungodly should think well of them that all speak so ill of one another When the Lutheran flyeth from the Calvinist and the Episcopal from the Puritan and the Protestant from the Anabaptist and the Presbyterian from the Independent and all the other side implacably fly from them Can you wonder if the Infidel and the Idolater fly further from you all Mark well the words of Christ in his prayer Ioh. 17. 20 21 22 23. For them which shall believe on me by their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me All these observations are obvious in these words 1. That the unity of Christians must be universal even of all that believe the Gospel of Christ. 2. That this Union should have some low resemblance to the Union of the Father and the Son 3. That it is Christs great desire and intercession for his Followers that they may be one 4. That their glory is for their Unity 5. That their Unity is their perfection 6. That the Father and Son are the Head or Center of the Unity 7. That this Unity is the great means of converting the world to the Christian faith and convincing Infidels of the truth of Christ as sent by God Open but your eyes and you may see all these great doctrines in this Prayer of Christs for his people Unity O that all the Christian Churches would try this means for the worlds Conversion Not on the impossible terms of Popery but on the necessary terms proposed by Christ. 8. External Unity and peaceable Church-communion doth greatly cherish our Internal unity of Love And Church-divisions do cherish wrath and malice and all the works of the flesh described by Paul Gal. 5. 21 22 23. I pray you consider how he describeth the fleshly and the spiritual man v. 14 15. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit c. Now the works of the flesh are manifest adultery enmities or hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions or as it may be read Divisions or factions heresies envyings murders c. But the fruit of the spirit is Love joy peace lâ—ng-suffering gentlenss goodness faith meekness temperance Against such there is no law And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Let us not be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Obj. O but those that I separate from are guilty of this and that and the other fault Answ. Chap 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Instead of censorious disdain and separation bear ye one anothers burthen and so fulfil the Law of Christ which you think you fulfil by your unwarrantable separations while you are but fulfilling your fleshly passions When once parties are engaged by their opinions in Anti-churches and fierce disputings the flesh and satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe When united Christians are provoking one another to Love and to good works and minding each other of their heavenly cohabitation and harmonious praise and are delighting God and man by the melody of their concord The contentious zealots in their separate Anti-churches are preaching down Love and preaching up hatred and making those that differ from them seem an odious people not to be communicated with by aggravating their different opinions or modes of worship till they seem to be no less than Heresie or Idolatry If many thousands yet living in England or Ireland had not heard this with their ears yet Iames may be believed Chap. 3. 1 c. My Brethren be not many Teaching-Masters for that is the word knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation For in many things we offend all which he addeth because the arrogancy of Sectaries was caused by the aggravating of other mens offences If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man that is If you will shew that you are perfecter better your selves than those whom you account so bad see that
thou judge thy brother or why dâ—st thou set at nought thy brother we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Let us not therefore judge one another any more v. 13. 14. I know and am pâ—rswaded by the Lord Iesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean v. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace v. 22. Hast thou faith Have it to thy self before God Ch. 15. 1 2. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let us every one please his neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself v. 5. 6. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one â—owards another according to Christ Iesus that ye may with ONE MIND and ONE MOuTH glorifie God wherefore receive ye one another as Christ received us to the glory of God Ch. 16. 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Act. 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another 1 Cor. 11. 17 18. I hear there are divisions among you For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest Math. 13. 29 30. Nay lest while ye gather up the â—ares ye root up also the wheat with them Let both grow together till the harvest 41. The Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father V. 47. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net cast into the Sea which gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew to the shore and sate down and gathered the good into Vessels and the bad they cast away so shall it be at the end of the world Math. 22. 9 10. Go into the high ways and as many as ye find bid to the marriage or as Luk. 14. Compel them to come in so those servants went unto the high ways and gathered all as many as they found both bad and good and the wedding was furnished with guests And the King saw there a man that had not on a wedding garment and said Friend How camâ—st thou in hither c. Mark thus he will condemn wicked hypocrites themselves but blameth not the Ministers that compelled them or that let them in Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness Considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ Let every man prove his own work Note that Paul purified himself as having a Vow He circumcised Timothy He became a Jew to the Jews and all things to all men that he might win some Phil. 1. 15 16. Some preach Christ of envy c. as aforecited Phil. 2. 1 2 3. If there be any consolation in in Christ fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings Ch. 3. 15 16. Let as many as are perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you But whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord c. and be at peace among your selves Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition avoid knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself Jam. 3. 1 2 13 c. My brethren be not many Masters knowing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation For in many things we offend all who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Mat. 12. 25. Iesus said every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or house divided against it self shall not stand I have cited so many Texts against division and for the Unity of the Church and concord of Christians as one would think by the very hearing of them without expositions or argumentation should utterly mortifie all inclination to divisions and hard censures in all true believers yea so many Texts as I am perswaded many that most need them will think it tedious to read them over And yet I have cause to fear lest many such will feel as little of the sense and authority of them as if there were no such words in the Scripture and none of this had been set before them Out of all these you may gather these reasons of the necessity of Unity and of the evil of schism or division First It is One God One Head One Saviour and One Holy Spirit into whose name we are all baptized Secondly It is One Covenant which all in Baptism make with this One God Thirdly It is One Spirit by which we are all regenerated and One new Nature which is in all the truly sanctified Fourthly It is One Gospel or holy word of God which is to us all the seed of our new birth the rule of our faith and lives and the foundation of our hope and must be our daily meditation and delight and the food on which the children of Gods family must all live Fifthly It is One Body of Christ whereof we are all members As Christ is not divided so his Body that is his Church both as
of Christ. Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not nor him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him To him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died For the kingdome of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another He that doubteth is damned if he eat Rom. 15. 1 2 3. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus thaâ— ye 〈◊〉 with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ received us to the glory of God Phil. 3. 15 16. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even thâ—s unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things Eph. 4. 2 3. With all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 15. Speaking the truth in love 16. Edifying in love Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind lâ—t each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus that made himself of no reputation 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings Iam. 3. 17. The wisdome from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy c. 1 Thes. 2. 5 6 7. Neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness Nor of men sought we glory neither of you nor yet of others when we might have been burthensome or used authority as the Apostles of Christ But we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children So being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness 2 Cor. 10. 1. I Paul beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ Gal. 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Col. 3. 12 13. Put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another c. 1 Tim. 6. 11. Follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness Tit. 3. 2. To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men 1 Pet. 3. 4. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of God is of great price Lev. 19. 18. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Rom. 12. 9 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another Rom. 13. 10. Owe nothing to any man but Love Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Love is the fulfilling of the Law Ioh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another Ioh. 13. 34. 15. 12 17. This is my commandement that ye love one another As I have loved you A new commandement Gal. 5. 14. The Law is fulfilled in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 1 Thes. 4. 9. Ye are taught of God to love one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. Be all of one mind having compassion one on another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous Not rendring evil for evil 〈◊〉 railing for raâ—ling but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing Pet. 2. 23. Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not Math. 5. 44 45. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven For if ye love them that love you what reward have you do not even the publicans the same And if ye salute your brethren only what do you more than others do not even the publicans the same Math. 6. 14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses Math. 5. 39 40 41. I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shal smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other allso And if any man will sue thee at Law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also 1 Thes. 5. 12 13 14. We beseech you brethren to know them which LABOVR AMONG YOV and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for THEIR WORK SAKE and be at peace among your selves Now we exhort you brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient toward all men se â—hat none render evil for evil to any man but ver follow that which is good both among your selves and to all men 1 Cor. 9. 19. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gain them that are under the Law To them that are without law as without law being not without law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some and this I do for the Gospels sake 1 Cor. 8. 1. Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth if any man think he knoweth
as carnal For ye are yet carnal v. 12. If any build on this foundation wood hay stubble v. 15. he shall suffer loss chap. 4. 18. 21. Some are puffed up Shall I come to you with a rod or in love chap. 6. 5 6 7 8. I speak to your shame Is there not a wise man among you Because yee go to Law one with another before Heathens Nay you do wrong and defraud and that your brethren Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God chap. 11. 17 18 19 20 21. I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse For first of all when you come together in the Church I hear that that there be divisions among you For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you When you come together into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken Vers. 23. 30. He that eateth and drinketh unworthâ—ly eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body For this cause many are weak and sick among you and many sleep Chap. 14. Reproveth their abuse of unknown tongues and their disorder in Gods publike worship Chap. 15. 12 13 14 15. If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is vain yea and we are found false witnesses of God v. 17. and ye are yet in your sins 2 Cor. 12. 20 21. I fear lest when I come I shall not finde you such as I would and that I shall be found to you such as ye would not Lest there be debates envyings wraths strifes back-bitings whisperings swellings tumults and lest my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many that have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed Besides that Paul and his Ministry was slandered and much slighted among them as by his large aâ—d vehement apologies and expostulations doth appear These were the faults of the Church of the Corinthians The corruptions of the Churches of Galatia Gal. 1. 6 7 8 9. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ to another Gospel which is not another but there are some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ thoughâ—e â—e or an Augel from heaven preach any other Gospel to you than that which we have preached to you let him be accursed Chap. 3. 1 2 3. O foolish Galathians Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Are ye so foolish Having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh Have ye suffered so many things in vain chap. 4. 9. How turn yâ— again to weak and beggarly elements whereto ye desire again to be in bondage vers 10. 11. Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed on you labour in vâ—in v. 16. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law v. 29. As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now The Legalists persecuting the Apostles Chap. 5. 2. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing V. 3 4. For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of no effect to you Who ever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace v. 9. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump 12. I would they were even cut off which trouble you Chap. 6. 12. As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised The corruptions of the Church of Colosse Col. 2. 20 21 22 23. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the Commandements and Doctrines of men Which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship The corruptions of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 4 5. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Remember from whence thou art fallen and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remoâ—e thy Candlestick Act. 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things c. as aforesaid The corruptions of the Church of Pergamus Rev. 2. 14 15 16. I have a few things against thee because thou hast there theâ— that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate Repent or else I will The faults of the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2. 20 21 22 I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest the woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess to teach and to sedâ—ce my sâ—rvants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols The faults of the Church of Sardis Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead I have not found thy works perfect before God 4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments The faults of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. 15 16 17. Thou art neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I haue been thus large in citing the words of the Text to make it plain to you of what kind of Members the Visible Churches were then made up And to affect their hearts with the sense of their partiality who can plead for many things as duties and plead against many things as sin without one plain word of Scripture on their side and yet can read all these without either sense or notice Yet mark I pray you that I am far from saying that God alloweth any of these sins or that any should make light of them For all must abhor them Nor do I say that none of the Churches ought to have excommunicated any of these offenders for these sins Some of them I doubt not should have been cast out But these are the uses which I desire you to make of all these Texts First before you judge any Church to be 〈◊〉
your foul back-biting reviling censorious contentious tongues do not prove the contrary 13. who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisedome that is Let him that would be thought more knowing and religious than his neighbours be so much more blameless and meek to all men and excel them in good works v. 14. But if ye have a bitter zeal for so is the Greek word and strife in your hearts glory not in such a zeal or in your greater knowledge and lie not against the truth 15. This wisdome descendeth not from above as you imagine who father it on Gods word and spirit but is earthly sensual or natural and devillish O doleful mistake that the world the flesh and the Devil should prove the cause of that conceited spiritual knowledge and excellency which they thought had been the inspiration of the spirit v. 16. For where zeal and strife 〈◊〉 that is a striving contentious zeal against brethren there is confusion or tumult and unquietness and every evil work O lamentable reformers that set up every evil work while they seemed zealous against evil v. 17. But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality or wrangling and without Hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace when peace-breakers that sow in divisions and contention shall reap the fruit of unrighteousness though they call their way by the most religious names Thus I have briefly shewed you what Vâ—nity and Division are that wrong apprehensions draw you not to sin DIRECT VIII When any thing needeth amendment in the Church remember that the best Christian must be the forwardest to reformation and â—he backwardest to Division and must search and try all means of Reforming which make not against the concord of the Church I Do not here determine in what cases you may or may not separate from any company of faulty Christians I only say that you must never separate what God hath conjoyned the Holiness and the Vnity of believers If corruptions blemish and dishonour the Congregation Do not say Let sin alone I must not oppose it for fear of division But be the forwardest to reduce all to the will of God And yet if you cannot prevail as you desire be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extream necessity Resolve with Austin I will not be the chaff and yet I will not go out of the floor though the chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour of Reformation And yet as long as possibly you can avoid it forsake not the Church which you desire to reform As Paul said to them that were ready to forsake a sea-wrackt vessel If these abide not in the ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others DIRECT IX Forget not the great difference between casting out the wicked and impenitent from the Church by discipline and the godlies separating from the Church it self because the wicked are not cast out The first is a great duty The second is ordinarily a great sin THe question is not Whether the impenitent should be put away from Church-Communion That 's not denied But whether you should separate from the Church because they are permitted This is it which we call you to beware Not but that in some cases a Christian may lawfully remove from one Church to another that hath more light and purity for the edification of his soul. But before you separate from a faulty Church as such as may not lawfully be communicated with you must look well about you and be able to prove that thing which you affirm Many weak Christians marking those Texts which bid us avoid a man that is an Heretick and to have no company with disorderly walkers and not to eat with flagitious persons do not sufficiently mark their sense but take them as if they call'd us to separate from the Church with which these persons do communicate Whereas if you mark all the Texts in the Gospel you shall find that all the separation which is commanded in such cases besides our separation from the Infidels or Idolatrous world or Antichristian and Heretical confederacies and no-Churches is but one of these two sorts First either that the Church cast out the impenitent sinner by the power of the Keyes Secondly or that private men avoid all private familiarity with them And both these we would promote and no way hinder Thirdly but that the private members should separate from the Church because such persons are not cast out of it shew me one Text to prove it if you can Let us here peruse the Texts that speak of our withdrawing from the wicked 1 Cor. 5. Is expresly written to the whole Church as obliged to put away the incestuous person from among them and so not to eat with such offenders So is that in 2 Thes. 3. and that in Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid Unless it be a Heretick that hath already separated himself from our communion And then it can be put private familiarity which we are further to avoid In brief there is no other place of Scripture that I know of which commandeth any more I have before shewed that abundance of Church corruptions or of scandalous members were then among them and yet the Apostle never spake a syllable to any one Christian to separate from any one of all those Churches Which we cannot imagine that the Holy Ghost would have wholly omitted if indeed it had been the will of God Obj. But then why did Luther and the first Pretestants separate from the Church of Rome and how will you justifie them from Schisme Ans. Its pity that sloth and sortishness should keep any Protestant or Papist either in such ignorance as to need any help to answer so easie a question at this day Let not equivocal names deceive us and the case is easie By the word Church the Scripture still meaneth first either the Universal Church which is the body or Kingdome of Christ alone Secondly or particular Congregations associated for personal communion in Gods worship But the Pope hath feigned another kind of thing and called it The Church That is The Vniversality of Christians as headed by himself as the constitutive and governing head Whereas first God never instituted or allowed such a Church Secondly nor did ever the Universality of Christians acknowledge this usurping Head Shew me in Scripture or in Church-History that either there ever was de facto or ought to be de jure such a thing in the world as they call the Church and I profess I will immediately turn
furtherance of the right and successful use of gifts For ordinarily he that speaketh from the heart speaketh to the heart when an unexperienced hypocrite speaketh without life But sometimes a dulness and want of utterance in the sincere and a natural and affected servency in the hypocrite with a voluble tongue do obscure this difference and make the hypocrite the more profitable to the Church DIRECT XVIII Understand well the necessity of your Communion with all the Universal Church and wherein it consisteth and how far to be preferred before your Communion with any particular Church WIth the Vniversal Church mystical you must have communion by the same spirit the same regeneration the same Faith and Love and the same Laws of God and obedience thereto With the Universal Church visible you must have communion in the same Profession of faith and repentance and the same baptism and the same sort of ministry and publike worship so far as they are universally determined of by Christ. And though you are absent in body you must be as present in spirit by consent with all the Churches of Christ on earth You must have spiritual communion with the whole spiritual Church and visible communion in kind in the same Rule of faith and kind of workship with all the visible Church and Lâ—cal-presential communion with that particular Church where you are present and with any other where your presence afterwards may be needful unless they hinder you by unlawful terms So that it is not the same kind nor measure of Communion which you are obliged to hold with all But you must have Communion with all men as a man and with neighbours as a neighbour and with relations according to the relations civil or domestical and with all true Christians as a true Christian and with all professed Christians as a professed Christian and with the particular Church of which you are a part as a part of that Church And with your bosome Friends and intimate Companions as a Friend and Companion And yet in all this you must communicate with no Church or person in their sin it self and yet not refuse their Communion in good though mixt with sin You must own all the prayers of all the Churches in the world so far as they are good and joyn in spirit by consent as if you concurred with them in presence and made all their prayers to be your own As you do by the prayers of the Church where you are present If there be disorders or imperfections or sinful blemishes in their prayers you must disown all those faults but not therefore disown any part of all their prayers which are good but desire to have a part in them and desire the pardon of their failings And here you may perceive what a mischief pievish separation is on both sides It hindereth you from prâ—ying aright for others as the members should do for all the body And it hindereth you from partaking in the benefit of the prayers of most of the Church of God on earth Indeed God may hear those prayers for you which you your selves disown But whether this may be expected according to the ordinary course of his dealing is much to be doubted seeing he hath made every mans will or choice the ordinary condition of his participation of such benefits it is hard to conceive that he that abhorreth the prayers of other men or taketh them for such as God abhorreth or will not accept and in his mind disowneth all participation and communion in them should yet have a part against his will But of this more anon As your Baptism maketh you Members of the Universal Church in order of nature before you are members of a particular Church so your relation to the Universal Church is more noble more necessary and more durable than your relation to any particular Church It is more noble because the Society is more noble The whole is more excellent than a little part It is more necssary because you cannot be saved and be Christians without being members of the Universal Church But you may be Christians and be saved without being a member of any stated particular Church It is more durable because you can never separate from the Univeâ—sal Church or cease to be a member of it without being separated from Christ But divers occasions may warrant your removeall from a particular Church Live not therefore in those narrow and dangerous principles as if your Congregation or your party were all the Church of Christ or as if you had no Christian relation to any other Ministers or People nor owed any duty to them as Members of the same Body But remember that all Christians Persons and Congregations are but the Members of the Kingdom of Christ. DIRECT XIX Take heed of engaging your selves too far in any divided Sect or of espousing the interest of any party of Christians to the neglect or injury of the common interest of the Universal Church or cause of Christianity I Doubt not but among several ranks of Christians the soundest and most upright are to be best esteemed and caeteris paribus their Communion to be preferred before theirs that are more unsound and scandalous But it s one thing to prefer the eye or hand before the foot a noble member before a more ignoble and another thing to own a Sect as such or a party as they either divide from others or take up a dividing opposite interest You are sure that the Universal Church of Christ can never erre against the essentials of Christianity nor against any truth or duty necessary to their salvation For then the Church were no Church and then Christ were not its Head And then the body of Christ might perish And then Christ were not the Saviour of his body But you cannot say of any one part that you are sure that part shall never fall away and perish There may fall out a necessity which may warrant the Body to cut off a hand or leg to save the rest But no corporal necessity can warrant you to destroy the whole nor any one member to forsake the Body before it is forcibly cut off He that seeth not how the espousing of parties and divided interests doth corrupt most Christians in the world and lacerate and deface the Church of Christ doth not understand or not observe the condition of mankind It is somewhat rare to meet with any serious Christians who are not so deeply engaged into some Sect or Side or party as to darken their judgements and pervert their affections as to all the rest and to corrupt their converse in the world How blindly do such look on all that is good in those that differ from them How partially do they judge of the judgements and practises of others How small a thing will serve the turn to excuse the faults of any of their party And how small and common a good seemeth excellent in them And how perversly do they
aggravate the faults of all that are against their way As if every infirmity were a crime and had no excuse yea they are oft glad to hear of some miscarriage in them for which they may speak against them And very readily take up such reports and are the willing-tongues of slanderous fame And in all this their faction maketh them impenitent For they think it tendeth to the disgrace of the other Party and so of their Cause which they account an errour and consequently that God hath use for their malicious Calumnies to his glory What company can you come into of forward Christians but they are talking against those of other parties except a few true entire Christians who are throughly possessed with the loving compassionate spirit of their Lord and have received the true impression of the Gospel And if you mark the cause you will find it as a sectarian spirit that prevaileth against the Catholick spirit of Christianity And in no sect more than in those that pretend to be the only Catholicks and to do all this against the Sectaries as such What bitter lies do the Popish sects under the name of Catholicks daily vent not only against Luther Calvin and other Reformers but any that stand against the peculiar interest of their party And they that can get the upper hand-and by worldly advantages become the domineering sect do think that thereby they are exempted from the name and number of sectaries and that all are sectaries that question their authority and do not absolutely obey them In all their discourse the stigmatizing of dissenters is an ordinary part One side reproacheth the other as Hereticks and Schismaticks And the other reproacheth them as hypocrites formalists and pharisaical persecutors And every party think that all this is a part of Christian zeal and if they did it not they should be guilty of lukewarmness and neutrality and consenting to the sins of others And thus the Church of Christ is engaged in a war against it self And when all men should know them to be Christs disciples by loving one another most men may perceive that they have too much contrariety to the Christian nature by their endeavouring to make each other odious And all because instead of distinguishing the members of the same Body by their several offices and degrees we are grown to make several Bodies of them and to set one part against another How many a Kingdomes conversion from Infidelity hath been hindered and how many a faithful Minister silenced or reproached and how many excellent Christians slandered and vilified and how many blamless customs forms and practises accused and how many infirmities aggravated as mortal crimes by a siding factious disposition and to promote the cause and interest of a Sect. Therefore as you love your integrity and peace keep up an impartial universal love and honour to all Christians as such and take heed of a dividing spirit DIRECT XX. Be very suspicious of your Religious passions and carefully distinguish between a sound and a sinful zeal lest you should father your sin on the spirit of holiness and think that you are most pleasing God when you offend him WE are seldome more mistaken in justifying our selves than in our Passions And when our Passions are Religious the mistake is both most easie and most perillous Easie because we are apt to be most confident and not suspect them the matter seeming so great and good about which they are exercised And Perilous because the greatness and goodness of the matter doth make the errour the greater and the worse I have shewed before how easie it is to think that our Religious passions are all the works of the spirit of God For we are apt to estimate them by the depth and earnestness which we feel But excellent persons have been here mistaken as Iames and Iohn were And not only so but when the passion is up the judgement it self is seldome to be far trusted For it inclineth us to err in all things that concern the present business Therefore still remember the difference between true zeal and false And know that he that is upright in the main and whose zeal for Christianity is sound may yet have much zeal that is unsound with it First It is an ill sign when your zeal is raised about some singular opinion which you have owned and not for the common salvation and substance of the Christian faith or practise Or at least when your odd opinion hath a greater proportion of your zeal than many more plain and necessary truths Secondly when your zeal is moved by any personal interest of your own By honour or dishonour By any wrong that is done you or any reputation of wisdome or goodness which lieth on the cause Or at least when your own interest hath too large a proportion in your zeal Thirdly when your zeal is more for the interest of your party than for the Universal Church and the common cause of Godliness and Christianity and can be content that some detriment to the whole may further the interest of the party Fourthly when your zeal tendeth to hurt and crueley and would have God rather to glorifie his Iustice by some present notable judgement than his Mercy by patience and forgiving And when your secret desire of fire from heaven or some destruction of the adversaries is greater than your desire and prayer for their conversion The sure mark of true zeal is that it is zealous Love It maketh you love your neighbours and enemies more fervently than others do But false zeal maketh you more inclined to their suffering and to reproach and hurt them Fifthly It is an ill signe when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your understanding And your prudence and experience is as much less than other mens as your zeal is greater True zeal hath some equality of Light and Heat Sixthly It is an ill sign when it is a zeal which is easily kept alive and hardly restrained For that sheweth the slesh and the Devil are too much its friends The true zeal of the spirit doth need the fuel of all holy means and the bellows of meditation and prayer to kindle it and all is too little to keep it up in the constancy that we desire But carnal zeal will burn of it self without such endeavours Seventhly It is an ill signe when some sect or false-teacher was the kindler of it and not the sober preaching of the truth Eighthly And it is an ill sign when it burneth in the same soul where lust and wrath and pride and malice burn And when it prospereth at the same time when the love of God and a heavenly mind and life decay The zeal of a sensualist of a proud man of a covetous man of a self-conceited empty person can hardly be thought a spiritual zeal 9. And it is an ill sign wâ—en it carrieth you from the holy rule and pretendeth to come from a spirit which will
upon all your prayers that ever he will teach you in this life the sense of every text of Scripture If ever he promised this he will perform it And is it to One Christian or to every praying Christian that he hath promised it If to every one why are we not all of a mind Why be not all as wise as you What need we Commentaries then Or what need have others of your Revelations If it be but to some who be those some And how shall we know them And how know you that you are one of them And why do not those some condescend to write an infallible Commentary upon all the Bible when they themselves are taught it of God that so we may doubt and differ no more But if you say that it is not the meaning of every text that God hath promised to make known to you when you pray but of some few how will you know which those few be And where is the promise which maketh this difference Except only that to all true Christians he hath promised to reveal so much as is necessary to their salvation But if you will pray for more your belief of your success must not go beyond the promise If you will promise to your selves you must perform for your selves Obj. But hath not God bid us believe that we shall receive what ever we ask and promised to believers that they shall receive it Answ. He hath first made a Law to command you prayer and then made a promise to grant what you pray for according to his will that is according to his command and promise and hath made your believing of this promise one of the conditions of his fulfilling it to you So that if you believe not his power and promise you shall not have right immediately to the thing promised But if you pray and believe and withall use those other means with diligence and patience which God hath appointed you you shall know in that measure as is suitable to your state For God hath not promised the same measure of knowledg to all true believers So that this is all that the promise giveth you and not that you shall know all that you pray to know and that immediately Obj. But then you leave us at utter uncertainty whether we have the answer of our prayers or not Answ. Not so But the answer of your prayers must not be tried by your conceits but by Gods rule If you pâ—ay for that which you have neither a command nor promise for your prayer is sin and your answer can be nothing but Gods rebuke or your own delusion But if you pray for that which you have a command for but no particular promise then you have only the General promise that your prayer shall not be lost but shall bring down either the thing you pray for or something else which the wisdome of God seeth to be best for you and others and to his ends And this is all that you can warrantably believe But if you pray for that which hath both a command and a particular promise as the pardon of sin and necessary grace and life eternal to a believer you may be sure that this prayer shall be granted in kind So that you are not to judge of the answer of prayers by your feelings and passions and impulses but by the promise of God which you must believe will be fulfilled what ever you feel Faith and not feeling must tell you whether your prayer be accepted Nay if you should receive health or wealth or gifts for your selves or others when you have prayed for them you cannot tell whether it be a merciful answer to your prayer or a judgement unless you try it by faith according to the promise I have nothing now to say of the case of miracles but this If God promise a miracle you may believe it because it is promised If he perform it without a promise then either you must not believe it till it is done or else your faith must be a miracle also And then the faith it self is its own justification But miracles are now so rare that all sober Christians will take heed how they expect them or over-hastily believe them and especially how they take their own belief for a miracle All the talk that some men make of a particular faith may be tried by what I have here said To conclude the warning which I give you in this case is from long and sad experience I have known too many very honest hearted Christians especially melancholly persons and women who have been in great doubt about the opinions of the Millenaries the Separatists the Anabaptists the Seekers and such like and after earnest prayer to God they have been strongly resolved for the way of errour and confident by the strong impression that it was the spirits answer to their prayers and thereupon they have set them into a course of sin If you say How know you that they were mistaken I will tell you how First Because they have been resolved contrary to the word of God And I know that Gods spirit did first make a standing Rule to try all after-impulses by And what ever impulse is contrary to that Rule is contrary to Gods spirit The Law and the testimony are now sealed and all spirits to be tried by them Isa. 8. 20. Secondly Because I have found their impulses contrary to one another One hath been resolved for Infant baptism and another against it One hath had a revealation for a prelacy like the order of Aaron and the Priests and another against all Prelacy One hath been confident of an answer of prayers for Antinomianism and another against it for Arminianism One for publike Communion and another to detest it And both came in in the same way And Gods spirit is not contrary to it self Thirdly Because I have seen abundance of prophesies of things to come which people have this way received with the greatest confidence to prove all false Fourthly Because I have staid till many of the persons have found by experience that they were deceived and have confessed it with lamentation And fifthly because perhaps I know more of the nature of prejudice affection melancholy feminine weakness and self-conceit and of tempting God in the way of prayer and of satans transforming himself into an Angel of light than every Reader will know till they have paid for their learning DIRECT XXVIII Do not too much reverence the impulses or revelations or most confident opinions of any others upon the account of their sincerity or holiness but try all judiciously and soberly by the Word of God MAny that have no such impulses themselves are yet so much taken with the reverence of others that they are very apt to be seduced by their confidence When so great a man as Tertullian was deceived by Montanus and his prophetess when such a one as Hacket could deceive not only Coppinger and Arthington but
abundance more some taking him for the Messiah and some by his breathing on them thinking that they received the Holy Ghost When David George in Holland and Iohn of Leyden in Munster and Behmen Stiefelius and so many more pretended Prophets in Germany could deceive so many persons as they did When the pretended revelations of the Ranters first and the Quakers after could so marvellously transport many thousand professours of religion in this land I think we have fair warning to take the counsel of St. Iohn Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God It is a pitiful instance of the good old learned Commenius who so easily believed the prophesies of Daubritius and the rest which he hath published Yea when he saw the prophesies fail yet when he adjured the prophet to speak truth and got him to swear as before the Lord that it was truth this seemed enough to confirm his belief of him whereas if he had been as well acquainted with the nature of Melancholy and Historical passions as many others are he would have known that as strange things as that he recordeth of the man or women may be done without any Divine inspirations and that it is no wonder if that person swear that his words are true who is first deceived himself before he deceive others For a crackt brain'd person to believe his delusions to be real verities is little wonder I have many a time my self conversed with persons of great honesty and piety though of no great judgment who have some of them affirmed that they had angelical revelations and some of them thought that the Spirit of God did bring this Scripture or that Scripture to their mind in answer to their prayers and were so very confident that what they affirmed was the certain truth or voice of God that I have been stricken with a reverence to their professions and with a fear lest I should resist God in resisting them But resolving to take none on earth for the master of my faith but to try the Spirits whether they be of God by going to the Law and Testimony I was constrained to turn my reverence into pity For I found that their seeming revelations were some of them Scripture-doctrine and some of them contrary to the Scripture As for that which is already in the Scripture what need I further revelation for it Is it not there sufficiently revealed Can their words add any authority to the Word of God And have I not Gods own Ministers and means to help me to the knowledge of his word And as for that which is contrary to Scripture I am sure that it is contrary to the will of God And if an Angel from Heaven should preach another Gospel to me I must hold him accursed Gal. 1. 7 8. so that if these persons should have the appearance voice of an Angel speaking to them I would despise it as well as the words of a mortal man if they be against the recorded word of God But by what I have seen and heard I know that it is a great temptation to some weak Christians to hear one that is much in prayer say Take heed what you do Have no Communion with this sort of men nor in this or that way of worship nor in this or that opinion for I am sure it is against the mind of God I once thought as you do but God hath better made known his mind unto me But saving the due respect to the honesty of such persons ask them How shall I know that you are in the right If they say I will not reason the case with you but I know it to be the mind of God Tell them that God hath made you reasonable creatures and will accept no unreasonable service of you and you have but one Master of your Faith even Christ Therefore if they believe that themselves which they can give you no reason to believe they must be content to keep their belief to themselves and not for shame perswade any other to it without proof If they say that God hath revealed it to them Tell them that he hath not revealed it to you and therefore that 's nothing to you till they prove their divine revelation If God reveal it to them but for themselves they must keep it to themselves If he reveal to them for others he will enable them to make some proof of their revelations that others may be sure that they sin not in believing them If they say that the Scripture is their ground Tell them that the Scripture is already revealed to all And if indeed what they speak be there you are ready to believe it But if they pervert the Sâ—â—pture by false interpretation or abuse it and mâ—â—apply it none of this is the work of the Spirit of God If they say that the spirit hath told them the meaning of the Scripture say as before that is not told for you which is not proved to you The Scripture is written in such words as men use of purpose that they might understand it and is to be understood by all men that hear it though they have no revelation God hath set Pastors in his Church to teach it If therefore revelations be still necessary to the understanding of the Scripture revelations then the Scriptures seem to be in vain and these last revelations must again have new revelations to the right understanding of them also The truth is it is very ordinary with poor fanciful women and melancholy persons to take all their deep apprehensions for revelations And if a text of Scripture come into their minds they say This text was brought to my mind and that text was set upon my spirit As if nothing could bring a text to their thoughts but some extraordinary motion of God And as if this bringing it to their mind would warrant their false exposition of it To conclude Decry not the necessity of the ordinary sanctifying work of the spirit to bless the Scripture to your true illumination and sanctification And if any pretend to any other revelations or inspirations or expositions of the Scripture which they cannot prove to youâ— despise them not but modestly leave them to themselves But take heed that the reverence of any ones holiness tempt you not to depart from the certain sufficienâ— word of God and draw you not into any 〈◊〉 Heresie or Separation or Opinion contrary to Gods standing Law DIRECT XXIX Take heed lest the trouble of your own disquieted doubting minds do become a snare to draw you to some uncouth way of cure and so make the fancy of some new Opinion Sect or Practise to seem your Remedy and give you ease and thereby perswade you that it is the certain truth THis is the pitiful Case of the ignorant and ungrounded and troubled sort of religious persons that they are looking every way for ease and comfort And having not wisdom enough to
many very good men think that publick interest may be allowed much power upon their minds though private and personal must be denied Is it not a wonder to see not only that almost all Christians are incorporated into one sect or party or other but how easily the inconsiderable reasons of their party can prevail with them and how hardly the better reasons of their adversaries seem to them of any weight or worth Not only the parties of Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Reformed c. shew this but in the same Church the Regulars and Seculars the Bishops and the Jesuits the Dominicans and Jesuits the Thomists Scotists c. declare it And the difference made by natural capacities is yet more than all this When one man is born to a duller understanding and another hath a quick and clear apprehension All that these men read and hear and meditate on is like to make different impressions on their minds And this is the greatest thing of any one which maketh many controversies endless and maketh both Divines and people run away from one another as dangerously erroneous If a few men have clearer understandings than the duller and unstudied sort they are like to be the minor part For the dull and slothful and yet self-conceited will ever be the greater part many to one till the golden age return And when all the world feeleth the consequents of this difference can we doubt of it or so far dote as to think it possible to cure it Yet the various degrees of the Grace of God do certainly also make great variety of apprehensions When God giveth to some those true illuminations those â—hirsting desires after truth those heart-experiences those delightful relâ—shes those powerful effects and victories which he giveth not to others they are made to differ must needs have different apprehensions of such things In which sense Christ saith that he came not to send peace but division that is to be such an object and preach so holy a doctrine and give such grace as would â—ccasion divisions by making his sanctified ones differ from the world and occasioning the erritation of the worlds malignity And indeed the grand difference between the seed of the woman and of the serpent the holy and the carnal seed is that which is the root of the greatest and sorest divisions in the world which will never be reconciled till Christ at the day of judgement shall say to one part Come ye blessed and to the other Go ye cursed For the carnâ—l mind is enmity against God and is not subject to his law nor indeed can be in sensâ— compâ—sito Rom. 8. 6 7 8. It was not for nothing that God permitted that great eruption of it in the first man that ever was born into the world against his innocent brothers life on the bare account of their religious sacrifices And the Cainites are still too strong for Alel's successors and too numerous And why did he kill his brother But because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous Gen. 4. 10 11. 1 Joh. 3. 12. And as Paul saith of the two sons of Abraham as he that was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. For the flesh fighteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other Gal. 5. 17. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. And they that are of the flesh do savour mind or understand the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. Our heavenly teacher told his disciples that if they were of the world the world would love them but because they are not of the world but he had chosen them out of the world the world would hate them even as it hated him Ioh. 15. 18 19 24 25. Ioh. 17. 14. And every one that doth evil hateth the light Ioh. 3. 19 20. Nothing then can be surer or plainer to a believer than that there will be still as great divisions and diversitie of apprehensions as radicated enmity can breed And to prevent many objections let these three things be noted First That this grand difference which lieth in the greatest matters in head and heart must needs have influence upon abundance of inferiour controversies Both as the Persons and main cause are concerned in them Reason and experience have put this past controversie Secondly That this doth not concern only the visible Church and the world but the visible Church within it self For all the Hypocrites and carnal worshippers have still the Cainish serpentine nature Yea those that by advantages and interest are brought over to the Orthodox as well as Christian side And it is a happy Church where the Hypocrites are not the greater part And it is neither great Learning nor degrees nor the Pastoral office nor the profession of the highest zeal which will serve turn to cure the carnal enmity without the sanctifying spirit of grace So that when controversies arise we see not in the hypocrites that carnal mind which in the strictest proâ—ession or greatest learning or most venerable function will work against the interest of holiness But we are sure that there it is though we know not the persons in whom but by the full effects Thirdly And note also that there is a mixture or remnant of this unhappy root and principle even in the sanctified themselves And it is hard in a controversie to perceive in our selves much more in others how much our judgements may be moved by this party and what influence it may have into our conclusions So that all this maketh it but too manifest what a certainty there is of perpetual differences in the Church upon all these foresaid accounts Add also this great and unavoidable cause that one errour leadeth in another And no man being without some and every one being generative and inferring more what will it come to when all those also shall have their off-spring and the further they go the more they will increase and multiply And as the judgement by one is laid open to another even as truth inferreth truth so the will is engaged and espouseth mens own opinions as their interest which maketh them stretch their wâ—ts in study to maintain what once they have received and asserted And alas how often have I heard wise and reverend persons cry out against this pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse or the same have shamefully shewed it in themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying cogent evidence against them and being so intent on their own inventions and cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak And when they have heard him their first words shew that they never well weighed the
any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know But if any man love God the same is known of him v. 4. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those that are weak 12. But when ye sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience ye sin against Christ. 13. Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world standeth lest I make my brother to offend Ioh. 13. 3. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself After that he poureth water into a bason and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded 12 13. So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again he said unto them Know ye what I have done to you Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am If I then you Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one anothers feet For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you Verily verily I say unto you that the servant is not greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Qu. To what purpose do you set together all these words of Scripture without any exposition or telling us what you conclude from them Answ. I purposely avoid glosses and collections that you may not say that I obtrude any thing on you of my own which is not the mind of your Lord himself And I set them together that they that overlook them may have a deeper apprehension than they have had First What is the true spirit of a Christian and nature of Christianity Secondly What is the office and work of the Ministery and which way they are to win souls and convince or silence gain-sayers and extirpate errours and prevent or cure schismes and secure the Churches peace And as for them that can seriously peruse all these words of the spirit of God and yet can find in them no matter of correction or instruction without a Commentary and argumentation I have no more to say to them at this time but to add Christs next words Ioh. 13. 18. I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen And I shall annex a few texts which characterize the contrary spirit Contrary I say to CHRISTIANITY and the faithful MINISTERY and with them I shall conclude 1 Ioh. 3. 12 13. Not as Cain who was of that Wicked One and slew his brother And wherefore slew he him Bâ—cause his own works were evil and his brothers righteous Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Câ—in v. 13. Marvel not my brethren if the world hate you Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer And ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abâ—ding in him We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren Ioh. 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning 1 Sam. 25. 25. 17. As his name is so is he Nabal is his name and folly is with him He is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him Read the story of Doeg 1 Sam. 22. Read also Ezra 4. 13 14 15 17. Esth. 3. 8. Haman said to the King There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the Provinces of thy Kingdome and their Laws are divers from all people neither keep they the Kings laws therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them Dan. 3. 12. There are certain Jews that O King have not regarded thee they serve not thy Gods nor worship the golden Image which thou hast set up Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God 7. All the Presidents of the Kingdome the Governours and Princes the Counsellors and Captains have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for 30 dayes save of thee O King he shall be cast into the den of Lions v. 11. These men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God which he did three times a day as aforetime 13 They said that Daniel that is of the captivity regardeth not thee O King nor the Decree that thou hast signed but maketh his prayers three times a day Amos 7. 12 13. Amazâ—ah said to Amos O thou Seer go flee thee away into the Land of Juda and there eat bread and prophesie there But prophesie not again any more at Bethel for it is the Kings Chappel and it is the Kings Court. Math. 23. 29 30 31. Wo unto you Scribes Pharisees Hypocriteâ— because ye build the tombs oâ— the Prophets and garnish the sepulchres the righteous and say If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets Wherefore ye be witnesses to your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers Ioh. 11. 48. If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation Act. 4. 1 2. And as they spake to the people the Priests and the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces came upon them being grieved that they taught the people And they laid hands on them and put them in hold v. 17. That it spread no further among the people let us straitly threaten them that they speak henceforth no more in this name 18. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus Gal. 4. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now 3 Ioh. 9. 10 11. I wrote to the Church but iâ—â— otrephes who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them receiveth us not and not content therewith neither doth he himself receive the Brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the Church Beloved follow not that which is evil but that which is good He that DOTH GOOD is of God but he that doth evil hath not seen God 1 Thes. 2. 14 15. For ye also have suffered like things of your own Countrymen even as they have of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men
not be tryed by the Scripture Or when it driveth you to use means which God forbiddeth in his Word and putteth you upon ways which the sealed Law and Testimony condemn It cannot be of God which is against Gods Word 10. Lastly it is a suspicious sign when it is contrary to the judgement experience and zeal of the generality of the most wise experienced tryed sober godly Christians and so to the ordinary working of Gods Spirit in other men who are as good as you For Gods Spirit is not contrary to it self By all these signs you may easily perceive how the dividing zeal of a Sect as a sect doth differ from the genuine Christian zeal The one is a zeal for some singular opinion The other is a zeal for Godliness and Christianity The one is kindled by some interest of our own religious reputation the other is kindled by the interest of the will and glory of God The one is for the strengthning of a Party The other is to increase the Church Universal and promote the common cause of Christianity even when some particular truth or duty is the Matter of it yet the general cause of godliness is the end The one is a burning hurting zeal even the same which hath made matter for so many Martyrologies and frightful Histories by inquisitions torments prisons flames massacreâ— and bloody wars And the same which hath silenced so many faithful Ministers and disturbed so many States and Churches The other is a zeal of Love which maketh men fervent in doing good to others The one causeth men to revile and despise and censure and backbite and zealously to make all dissenters seem odious that the hearers may abate their love to them The other maketh us value all that is good in others and to hide their nakedness and to make them better and to provoke the hearers to love and to good works The one tendeth to divisions and sidings and separations and distances from our brethren and to feed contentions The other is a zeal for unity amity and peace The one is the complexion of the weak and childish the proud and self-conceited the peevish and surly sort of Professours The other is the zeal of solid knowledge and of the prudent humble meek and well grounded sort of Christians The one is a zeal which flyeth most outward against the sins of other men and can live with pride and covetousness and selfishness and sensuality at home such serve not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies Rom. 16. 16 17. The other beginneth at home and consumeth all these vices in the heart and as zeal increaseth humility and meekness and love and self-denyal and temperance and heavenly mindedness increase The one is easily got and easily kept and hardly kept under O how easie is it to get and keep a contemptuous censorious backbiting dividing or persecuting â—eal But the other is not so much befriended by Satan or the flesh and therefore must be preserved by prayer and meditation and very great diligence How hard is it to keep up a zealous love of God and Man and a fervour in all our heavenly and spiritual desires Abate but your diligence and this will presently decay when the fierce contending hurting separating and persecuting zeal doth need no such fuel or labour to maintain it The one is kindled by the enflaming censures of some rash and passionate Preacher that knoweth better how to kill Love than to cause it or by the singular conceits of some Sectary or Divider or by the backbitings of some Doâ—g or malicious Calumniator The other is kindled by the humble and heavenly preaching of the Gospel and by the meditations on Christs example and a study to imitate him and his Saints in patience forbearance foâ—giving others and doing good The one is a zeal which carrieth men from the Scripture to pretenses of such revelations and inspirations and impulses as have no proof but the feeling and fancy of the person or at least to abuse the Word of God and plead it for that which it condemneth It provoketh men to some unlawful practâ—se under pretense of misinterpreted texts and of good ends and meanings The other still putteth you upon good and striveth against evil and goeth for tryal of every cause to the Law and to the testimony Lastly the one is a zeal which pretendeth the spirit and yet goeth contrary to the common workings of the spirit in the most part of the best and wisest Christians But the other is the common vital heat which animateth all the body of Christ and actualeth all his living members and keepeth up love and holiness in the Church and is the same in all humble heavenly Christians in the world It will be of great use to you in order to your own and the Churches peace to understand and observe the difference between these contrary sorts of religious zeal DIRECT XXI Lend not a patient ear to back-biters much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others But shew your detestation of that sin though they should be most religious people that use it and do it upon a religious pretence I Do not say that it is always unlawful to speak that which is ill of another behind his back Sometime wicked men will take occasion to justifie sin it self by the advantage of a sinners name And sometime they will magnifie the vertues of some wicked man or of some of their sect on purpose to cast reproach on godliness or to make others odious by the comparison Yet in such cases we must repress their malignity more by a defensive than an offensive opposition But the usual course of back-biting in all sorts of men is sinful The back-biter how great or learned or religious soever is but the devils minister to preach down the love of others and to exhort you to hate your brother or to abate your charity to him And he that patiently hearkeneth to such is a partaker of their sin And he that believeth them hath taken the infection Most of our odious thoughts of others and our false and uncharitable censures do come in this way For the most part men censure and separate and persecute most where they are acquainted least but go by hear-say and judge of men by back-biters mis-reports And acquaintance and familiarity usually reconcileth them and sheweth them their errour You think it is a fair excuse for you when you either believe or report evil of another to say that you heard it from very honest and religious or reverend persons or you heard it from many and confidently uttered But God hath not allowed you to receive back-biters because they are godly or because they are many This very age and time doth experimentally confute this excuse In which it is so common a thing for false reports and news to be uttered with confidence and that by multitudes and many of them religious and yet neither truth nor ground