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
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
Church but Christ himself 58. Take heed of superstition indiserâ—â—t â—â—al â—â—th been the usual beginner of superstition Mâ—lignity in that age the sharpest opposer for the Aâ—thorâ—s sake Formality in the next age hath made a Religion of it And then the zealous who first invented it have turned most against it for the sake of the last owners And thus the world hath turned round Instances lay'd down of the superstition of Religions people in this age 59. If through the fault of either side or both you cannot meet together in the same assemblies yet keep that Unity in faith love and practice which all neighbour Churches should maintain And use not your different assemblies to revâ—ling and destroying Love and Peace 60. When the Love-killing spirit either cruel or dividing is abroad among Christians be not idle nor discouraged Spectators nor betray the Churches peace by lazy wishes But make it a great part of your labour and Religion to revive Love and Peace and to destroy their contraries And let no censures or contempt of any party take you off But account it as comfortable to be a Martyr for Love Peace by blind Zealots or proud Usurpers as for the saith by Infidels or Heathens And take the pleasing of God whoever is displeased for your full reward The Additional Directions to the Pastors 1. Let it be our first care to know and do our own duty And when we see the peoples weakness and divisions let us first examine and judge our selves and lament and reform our own neglects Ministers are the Cause of most divisions 2. It is needful to the peoples Edification and Concord that their Pastors much excel them in knowledge and utterance and also in prudence holiness and heavenly mindedness that the reverence of their callings and persons may be preserved and the people taught by their Examples 3. Inculcate still the necessary conjunction of Holiness and Peace and of the Love of God and Man And that Love is their Holiness it self and the sum of their Religion the End of faith and the fulfilling of the Law And that as Love to God uniteth us to Him so Love to man must unite us to each other And that all doctrine and practices which are against Love and Unity are against God against Christ against the Spirit against the Church and against Mankind 4. If others shew their weakness by unwarrantable singularities or divisions shew not your greater weakness by impatience and uncharitable censures or usage of them especially when self-interest provoketh you 5. Distinguish between them that separate from the Universal Church or from all the Orthodox and Reformed parts of it and those who only turn from the Ministery of some one person or sort of persons without refusing Communion with the rest 6. Distinguish between them who deny the Being of the Ministry and Church from which they separate and those who remove only for their own Edification as from a worse or weaker Ministry a Church less pure 7. Distinguish between those who hold it simply unlawful to have Communion with you and those who only hold it unlawful to prefer your assemblies before such as they think to be more pure 8. Remember Christs interest in the weakest of his Servants and do nothing against them which Christ will not take well 9. Distinguish between weakness of Gifts and of Graces and remember that many who are weaker in the understanding of Church-orders may yet be stronger in grace than you 10. Think on the Common Calamity of mankind what strange disparity there is in mens understandings and will be And how the Church here is a Hospital of diseased souls of whom none are perfectly healed in this life 11. Distinguish still between those truths and duties which are or are not of necessity and between the tolerable and the intolerable errors And never think of a Common Unity and Concord but upon the terms of necessary points and of the primitive simplicity and the forbearance of dissenters in tolerable differences 12. Remember that the Pestoral Government is a work of Light and Love And what these cannot do we cannot do Our great study therefore must be first to know more and to Love more than the people and then to convince them by cogent evidence of truth and to cause the warmth of our Love to be felt by them in all the parts of our ministration and converse As the warmth of the Mothers milk is needful to the good nutrition of the Child The History of Martin 13. When you see many evils which Love and evidence will leave uncured yet do not reject this way till you have found one that will better do the work and with fewer inconveniences 14. When you reprove those weak Christians who are subject to errors disorders and divisions reflect noâ— any disgrace upon piety it self but be the more careful to proclaim the honour of Godliness and true Conscientious strictness lest the ungodly take occasion to despise it by hearing of the faults of such as are accounted the zealousest professors of it 15. Discourage not the people from so much of Religions exercises in their families and with one another as is meet for them in their private stâ—tions 16. Be not wanting in abilities watchfulness and diligence to resist Seducers by the evidence of truth that there may be no need of other weapons And quench the sparks among the people before they break out into flames 17. Be not strange to the poet ones of your flocks but impartial to all and the servants of all Mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate 18. Spend and be spent for your peoples good Do all the good that you are able for their bodies as well as for their souls And think nothing that you have too dear to win them that they may see that you are truely fathers to them and that their welfare is your chiefest care 19. Keep up the reverence of the ancient and experienced sort of Christians and teach the younger what honour they owe to them that are their Elders in age and grace For whilest the Elder who are usually sober and peaceable are duly reverenced the heat of rash and giddy youth will be the better kept in order 20. Neither neglect your interest in the Religious persons of your charge lest you lose your power to do them good Nor yet be so tender of it as to depart from sober principles or wayes to please them Make them not your Rulers nor follow them into any exorbitancies to get their love or to escape any of their censures 21. Let not the Pastors contend among themselves especially through envy against any whom the people most esteem A reproof of ignorant pievish backbiting quarrelsome Ministers 22. Study our great pattern of Love and tenderness meekness and patience and all those texts which commend these virtues till they are digested into a nature in you that healing virtue may go from you
But to make him as sensible of the wickedness of these unlawful means and of the good of a serious spiritual Religiousness and of Christian Love and tenderness and forbearance here is the great difficulty And on the other side many are very sensible of the need of spirituality and seriousness in Religion and of the evil of hypocritical formality and imagery and of usurpation of the prerogatives of Christ and of the plague of persecuting Pride and cruelty who yet have little sense at all of the good of Unity and of the mischiefs of divisions in the Church Yea many are so careful to be found exact in their obedience to God that they build very much for duties and against sins upon dark and very far-fetcht consequences and upon a few obscure and doubtful passages in Scripture when there is no express words or clear text at all to bear them out And doubtless the darkest intimations of the will of God must not be disregarded But on the other side we cannot bring them to lay to heart some duties and sins which are over and over an hundred times and that with vehemency exprest and urged in the plainest words And because all Christians pretend to sâ—bmit to the word of God I will try whether it be not thus with you in the present case and will cite many plain expressions of Scripture for Christian Vnity and Concord that you may either better perceive you duty or plainly shew your great partiality Zech. 14. 9. In that day there shall be One Lord and his name One. Ezek. 34. 23. And I will set up One Shepherd over them Ezek. 37. 22. I will make thâ—m One Nation and One King shall be King to them all and they shall be no more two Nations nor divided into two Kingdomes any more 24. And David my servant shall be King over them and they shall have One shepherd Jer. 32. 39. I will give them one heart and one way So Ezek. 11. 19. Joh. 21 22. 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 Joh. 11. 52. That he should gather together in One the children of God that are scattered abroad Act. 1. 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication And chap. 2. 1. They were all with one accord in one place Act. 4. 24 32. They lift up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Act. 5. 12. They were all with one accord in Solomons Porch Act. 15. 25. It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord 2 Cor. 11. 2. I have espoused you to one husband Eph. 4. 1 c. I the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of your vocation wherewith ye are called 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 There is One body and One Spirit Even as ye are called in One hope of your calling One Lord One Faith One Baptism One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all v. 12 13. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the Unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man that we henceforth be no more childrâ—n tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunâ—ing craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the Head Christ From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love 1 Cor. 12. 3 12 13. No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost As the Body is One and hath many Members and all the members of that One body being many are One â—ody so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into One body v. 22 23. Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary And those members of the body which we think to be less honourable upon these we bestow more abundant honour and our uncâ—mely parts have more abundant comeliness For our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the body together hâ—ving given more abundant honour to that part that lâ—â—ked that there should be no Schisme in the body 〈◊〉 that the members should have the same care one for another And whether one member suffer all suffer with it and if one be honoured all rejoyce v. 15. If the foot say Because I am not the hand I am not of the bâ—dy is it therefore not of the body By all this you may see that even the lowest dishonoured 〈◊〉 an◠〈◊〉 memâ—ers must not be denied to be of the Church or body of Christ. 1 Cor. 13. 4 5. Charity suffereth long is not easily provoked thinketh no evil The greatest is charity v. 13. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement v. 12 13. Every one saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized into the name of Paul Ch. 3. 15. If any mans work be burnt he shall sâ—ffer loss yet he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Ch. 3. 3 4. For yâ— are yet carnal For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men while one saith I am of Paul c. Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations v. 3. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him which eateth not judge him which eateth for God hath received him who art thâ—u that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth One man esteemeth one day above another Another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind He that regardeth a day regardeth it to the Lord v. â—0 But why dost
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