steddiness purity and soberness This new nature while it is lodg'd in the earthly tabernacle is clogg'd with many adverse things especially the relicks of the old nature which cause much vanity of thoughts indisposedness of mind motions to evil and aversations from good and somtimes more sensible disorders of affections and eruptions of unruly passion and aberrations in life and conversation The same divine principal is in some Christians more firm lively and active than in others yet it is habitually prevalent in them all and it resists and overcomes the contrary principle even in the case of most beloved sins and strongest temptations and perseveres in earnest and fearful indeavours of perfecting holiness in the fear of God And whatsoever degree of sanctity is obtained it ascribes wholly to the praise of Gods grace in Christ and the power of his spirit Christianity being known what it is it may easily be known what it is not and so the false disguises of it may easily be detected Forasmuch as it looks far higher than the temporal interests of mankind in the settlings of this life though it doth not overlook them it cannot be thought to have done its work in making men meerly just-dealers good neighbours and profitable members of the Common-wealth for such may be some of them that are without Christ without the hope of the Gospel and without God in the world Moreover it cannot lie so low as in a bare belief of the Gospel and an observance of its external institutes accompanied with a civil conversation As for such as rest in these things what are they more in the eye of God than the heathens that know him not And wherein do they differ from them except in a dead faith and outward form taken up by education tradition example custom of the country and other such like motives Nor doth it lie in unwritten doctrines and ordinances of worship devised by men nor yet in curiosities of opinion or accidental modes of Worship discipline or Church-government nor in ones being of this or that Sector party nor in meer Orthodoxality all which being rested in are but the false coverings of hypocrites It is not the lax and easie low and large rule by which Libertines and Formalists yea some pretended perfectionists do measure their own righteousness who assert their perfectness by disannulling or lessening the law of God In a word it is not any kind of morality or vertue whatsoever which is not true holiness or intire dedication to God and therefore much less is it that loose and jolly religion of the sensual gang who keep up a superficial devotion in some external forms but give up themselves to real irreligion and profaneness and bid defiance to a circumspect walking and serious course of Godliness And now it is too apparent what multitudes of them that prophess the faith of Christ are Christians in name only and not indeed Their alienation from the life of God and their enmity against it and their conformity to the course of this world in the lusts thereof doth testifie that they have not received the grace of God in truth But Christians indeed according to the nature of Christianity above expressed which is now in them though not in the highest yet in a prevalent degree do make it their utmost end to know love honour and please God to be conformable to him and to have the fruition of him in the perfection of which conformity and fruition they place the perfection of their blessedness In the sence of their native bondage under the guilt and power of sin they come to the Mediator Jesus Christ and rest upon him by the satisfaction and merit of his obedience and suffering to reconcile and sanctifie them to God and accordingly they give up themselves to him as their absolute Teacher and Ruler all-sufficient Saviour Having received not the Spirit of the world but that which is of God they are crucified to the honours profits and pleasures of the world and have their conversation in heaven and rejoyce in the hope of glory and prepare for sufferings in this life and by faith overcome them The law of God is in their hearts and it is the directory of their practice from day to day by the touchstone of Gods word they prove their own works and come to the light thereof that their deeds may be made manifest to be wrought in God They draw nigh to God in the acts of religious worship of his appointment that they may glorifie him and enjoy spiritual communion with him and be blessed of him especially with spiritual blessings in Christ and as God is a Spirit they worship him in Spirit and in truth It is their aim care and exercise to keep consciences void of offence towards God and towards men and to render to all their dues both in their publick and private capacities and to walk in love towards all not excluding enemies and to do all the good they can both to the souls and bodies of men but those that fear God they more highly prise and favour The remainder of corruption within themselves they know feelingly and watch and pray and strive that they enter not into temptation and maintain a continual warfare against the Devil the world and the flesh under the conduct of Jesus Christ their Leader according to the laws of their holy profession with patience and perseverance In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation they indeavour to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God and to shine as lights in the world and by the influence of their good conversation to turn others to righteousness Such is the Character of those persons upon whose souls the holy doctrine of the Gospel is impressed and in whom the Christian religion hath its real being force and vertue These are partakers of the heavenly calling and set apart for God to do him service in the present world and afterwards to live in glory with him for ever These are the true Church of God the Church being here taken as mystical not as visible and these are all joyned together by one Spirit in one Body under Christ their Head in the same new nature having one rule of their profession and one hope of their calling These are a great multitude which no man can number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues yet hitherto not proportionable to the rest of mankind And they continue throughout all ages but in greater or lesser numbers and more or less refined from Superstition or other corruptions and more or less severed from the external communion of the Antichristian State according to the brightness or darkness of the times and places wherein they live CHAP. II. Things pertaining to the Sound State of Religion And first holy Doctrine THe advancement of the Christian life which hath its beginning in the new birth being the great end propounded in this discourse in reference to this end
inherent righteousness by which the faithful are truly named righteous not only before men but in the judgment of God himself and which can be no more without good works then the sun without light That this is so perfect as not to lack any thing necessary to the true nature of righteousness nor to be maimed in any principal part thereof though in respect of degrees and some accidental parts it be imperfect That the faithful cannot by this inherent righteousness abide the strict tryal of divine justice but they are acquited from the guilt of sin and their deserved punishment by the meer grace of God in Christ. That Christs righteousness is so far bestowed on believers and made theirs that in the merit and consideration thereof they are freed from the curse of the Law and the condemnation of hell are justified unto eternal life and adopted to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom And imputed righteousness in this sense cannot be gain-said That no faith is justifying but that which works by love and brings forth the fruit of good works That the condition of the new covenant for the remission of sins and everlasting life is faith alone not as excluding repentance and new obedience but as excluding the works of the Law or legal covenant and this is no derogation from the freest grace That the faithful keep the commandments of God and in some sense may be said to fulfill the Law that is not in the strictness of the covenant of works but in the observance of duty without reserves in the sincerity of love towards God and man as the Scripture saith love is the fulfilling of the Law That obedience every way perfect is required of the faithfull as their duty but not under the penalty of eternal death yet under that penalty they are obliged to sincere obedience That good works have relation to eternal life as the means to the end in that manner as the seed to Havest as the race and combat to the Prize as the work to the Reward not according to equality or condignity or merit strictly so called but according to free compact or congruity That the faithfull may be assured of their own justification by a true fixed persuasion that excludes hesitation and suspense and causeth holy security peace and joy and that they ought to labour for such assurance which ariseth partly from the divine promises and partly from the sense of their own infeigned faith That though godliness stands not in absolute perfection yet it stands in that integrity of heart and life an indubitable evidence whereof cannot be had without a very carefull and close walking with God and continued earnest endeavours of perfecting holiness in his fear That all human actions must have an actual or habitual reference to Gods glory and that all things are to be done in the best manner for that end That notwithstanding the power of divine grace which works mightily in Gods chosen whosoever will be saved must watch and pray and strive and bestow his chiefest care and pains therein and so continue to the end and particularly in the constant exercise not of a Popish outside formal but a Spiritual and real mortification and self denial in continual dependance on Gods grace who worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure In the positions aforegoing all nice obscure perplexed and unnecessary notions are avoided and the plain sense of Gospel doctrine is attended This simplicity and plainess makes the truth much more intelligible and less controvertible where a multitude of nice terms and notions are vain and hurtfull superfluities that muffle the truth and cloud mens judgments and multiply controversies and cause much confusion CHAP. III. The due ordering of Gospel Worship FOrasmuch as divine Worship is the first and nearest act of Piety and aims immediately at the glorifying of Gods name and the keeping of the soul devoted to him the due ordering thereof must needs be one of the highest concernments of true religion Whereupon such an order thereof must needs be most desirable as hath most tendency to exalt the honour of Gods name and to advance the souls pure devotion And doubtless that hath most tendency thereunto which is most according to the nature and will of God Notwithstanding the fetches of mens wit in commending their will-worship God best knows what service will please him best and do us most good It becomes us neither to contemn Gods authority in the neglect of his institutions nor to controle his wisdom in the addition of vain inventions And this will bring us into the way of a reasonable service most acceptable to God and profitable to our selves In the fulness of time our Lord Christ being to establish a more perfect way than what had been before lays this foundation God is a Spirit and they that worship him must Worship him in Spirit and truth Accordingly he antiquated the old legal form great in outward furniture and visible spendor but comparatively small in substance and inward power and instituted an other of a far different strain wherein the rituals and externals are few and plain but their substance and inward power is great and mighty And when he abrogated former things which for their time had the stamp of divine authority because they suited not with the Gospel state and were in a comparative sense called carnal ordinances that were not good doubtless it was not his mind and will that men should erect new frames of their own devising after the similitude of those old things that are passed away To worship God in the Spirit after the simplicity that is in Christ according to the Gospel dispensation as it is most agreeable to the nature of the divine Majesty which is Worshipped and best fitted to glorifie him as God indeed so it is also most efficacious to make the Worshippers more knowing in religion more holy and heavenly in Spirit and conversation and every way more perfect in things pertaining to life and godliness Irreverence rudeness sordidness or any kind of negligence in the outward service of God is not here commended under the simplicity and Spirituality of Gospel worship Due regard must be had to all those matters of decency the neglect whereof would render the Service undecent such as are convenient places of assembling commonly called Churches comely furniture and convenient utensils therein a grave habit not of special sanctity but of civil decency for a Minister all which should not be vile and beggarly but gracefull and seemly likewise a well composed countenance and reverent gesture is requisite in all that present themselves before the Lord. Sitting or lolling or covering the head or having the hat half-way on in prayer is among us unseemly except natural infirmity call for indulgence herein but laughing talking gazing about in our attendance on religious exercises is no better than profaneness and to come into the congregation walking with our hats on
knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they shall be alike good Whatsoever scornfull or careless Men conceit hereof the Divine Wisdom hath made it praise-worthy and precious The tongue of the just is as choice silver and the lips of the righteous feed many And to good Hearts this Practice will not be burdensom for they will recreate their Minds herewith as an holy divertisement and serious Pastime while others spend their leasure in that mirth and laughter which the Wise Man calls madness CHAP. IX The Prevalence of Religion or real Godliness in the Civil Government of a Nation IN Christian States and Kingdoms Religion being Gods interest ought to have the preeminence in all things And its Preeminence is no incroachment upon the Rights of the Higher Powers but their Establishment God alone hath an underived and unlimited Empire over Man his creature The People are primarily Gods Subjects and then are subject to Princes as to his Vicegerents and obedience to him is the grand interest both of Prince and People None can doubt that God hath made his own Glory and mans Salvation the supreme ends of government and subjection And consequently that is the best Policy which gives these ends the highest place and makes temporal advantages and the wellfare of the outward Man subordinate thereunto And this requires that the Constitution give the highest regards to Gods Laws and maintain their Authority and that the whole publick Administration tend to the promoting of Righteousness and true Holiness and to the suppressing of all unrighteous and impious Practice As it is the Church's duty and honour to teach and command her Children to do whatsoever Christ hath commanded so it is the proper work and chiefest glory of the Magistrate who is Gods Minister to defend the Faith and uphold the Ordinances of the Gospel and to further the most lively and powerfull Dispensation of them and to incourage and command obedience to the Divine Law written in Nature or Scripture In subserviency hereunto his Power is to determine such things as are requisit in general but in particular are left undetermined of God and therefore called indifferent and are to be ordered by human Prudence according to the general Rules of Gods word And for these ends the chief Magistrate hath a Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiastical But it is no diminution of his Authority to remove from it things unnecessary unprofitablē and offensive in their use and for their doubtfull nature apt to perplex the Subjects conscience And he is the general Bishop of his Dominions in a political sense without any incroachment upon that Authority wherewith Christ the King of the Church hath invested spiritual Pastors As he is such an Officer it is worthy of his chiefest care to provide and send forth able and faithfull Dispensers of the Word that may teach the People the good knowledge of God after the example of the good King Jehoshaphat and to see that every one who hath the Cure of Souls be resident with his Flock and constantly instruct them by preaching the Word and Catechizing them in the Principles of Religion and not to suffer Pluralists to seise upon several Congregations as a prey to fleece but not to feed them to incourage laborious Ministers that watch for the Peoples Souls as those that must give an account and strictly to injoyn the Sanctification of the Lords Day which was sanctified to the publick Worship of God by the Apostles of our Lord who were guided by an infallible Spirit in setling this as all other Ordinances pertaining to Christs Kingdom and was observed by the Apostolick Churches and so hath continued in all Ages and in all places of Christianity and is conveyed down to us by as unquestionable Tradition as the Scripture it self It is not of little moment to suppress or at least to bring into disgrace whatsoever customs serve for nought but to feed inordinate Sensuality and to make those that use them profane vicious and licentious There are frequented shews and pastimes well known that increase unto all ungodliness and may be called the Devils ordinances Those that wish well to Piety have an ill part to act when they take upon them to defend some exercises from which an extreem abuse is inseperable and which are made a trade of gain arising from the impurity and profaness of them and therefore are incorrigible and can admit no reformation The Piety of any Nation is not to be measured by formalities and opinions and uniformity in little things but by substantial Devotion by solid zeal in the weighty matters of the Law and main concerns of Religion by righteousness of life by sobriety purity modesty by peace and concord with mutual forbearance in those differences that should not and need not make breaches among Brethren by dutifulness in all relations by industry frugality and by abounding Charity that is full of good Works Happy is that State where religious influence is predominant where the pious and prudent bear sway not by intrusion but by lawfull Admission also where it ariseth to that strength as to carry along with it the affection and interest of a Nation not by setting up the Faction of a few but by making the generality or at least the greater number of considerable men some of them truly regenerate Christians and the rest orderly and well affected One would think it were out of question that it were more desirable that Religiousness should be in fashion than open dissoluteness and profaness For uncontrolled profaness will run down all Religion But when those that reach not the Power of Godliness indeed come so far as to take up an outward garb thereof it is a great external advantage to true Religion and shews its prevalent Influence on the publick State If any should demur upon this Assertion by making it a question whether Phariseim or Profaness be the worser evil let him know first that profane and dissolute Christians are notorious Hypocrites for professing to know God when in works they deny him Besides Phariseism is not simple insincerity but a compound hypocrisie wherein malignity and enmity against the Power of Godliness is the chief ingredient it is a kind of strict externalness that seeks to destroy the inward life and spirit of that Religion which it pretends to own I have no list to say that such malignity is less mischievous than filthy lewdness or debauchery But the garb of strict Profession here mentioned is of another nature and serviceable to the Churches good though we must continually and strictly charge all Men to beware of resting in it to the ruine of their own Souls CHAP. X. Christian Unity and Concord ALl faithfull Christians are Members of one mystical Body having all one Spirit one Lord and Head one Faith one Baptism and one God and Father of them all one Hope of their Calling and one Heaven to receive them all
as well as the sense of any rational discourse whatsoever And the evidence of Gods Testimony is much more effectual than the arguments of human reason to command assent and quiet mens minds and appease their contests And if we yield not our controversies to be finally decided by this sacred Rule whither shall we go or wherein shall we all be bound up The truth is when men seek out vain inventions to please their own fancies or to serve their own ends and find their devised ways condemned by Gods word then they fall to derogate from its authority and sufficiciency and talk much of the impertinency and folly of those that insist upon it and cry up tradition and reason and that wisdom of Man that is but foolishness with God When things will not be as well as they should they must be as they may There be some usefull truths and practices that may be too dearly bought if purchased with the breach of the Churches Peace and Unity and the hazard of its whole Estate Howbeit then is the best state of things when the Apostolick Doctrine and Discipline is the standardmeasure of all and nothing is retained but what is plainly agreeable thereunto And the safety of pure Religion lies in as through a reformation according to this rule as the times will bear Let the severest reason that is impartial weigh the following words written by one of a Catholick Spirit and true to the Interest of Reformed Christianity touching our departure from Rome We should leave upon us no string or tassel of our ancient Captivity such as whereby they may take hold of us to pull us back again into our former bondage but look upon our selves as absolutely free from any tye to them more than in indeavouring their Conversion and Salvation which we knowing so experimentally not to be compassed by needless Symbolizings with them in any thing I conceive it our best Policy studiously to imitate them in nothing but for all indifferent things to think rather the worse of them for their using them as no Person of Honour would willingly go in the known Garb of any Lewd and Infamous Persons Whatsoever we Court them in they do but turn to our scorn and contempt and are more hardened in their own wickedness Wherefore seeing that needless Symbolizings with them doth them no good but hurt we should account our selves in all things indifferent perfectly free to please and satisfie in the most universal manner we can those of our own Party not caring what Opinions or Customs or outward Formalities the Romanists and others have and may have had from the first Degeneracy of the Church As for the word Popery it is not more odious than ambiguous among Protestants On the one hand some that will speak hard words against it have drawn it into so extreamly narrow a compass as to place it in little more than a secular interest of Power controverted between the Pope and the Princes and Prelates of Christendom and others that make it broader are yet very tender if not fond of many gross Corruptions of the Roman Church On the other hand some have extended it so far as to disparage things good and laudable and requisite and ignorantly call by that name whatsoever they fancy not Nevertheless those useless and offensive things taken up by the Papal Church since the time of their known Apostacy both Doctrines and Customs and that are theirs more peculiarly may justly be called Popish though they were not imposed as Apostolick commands or means of obtaining Pardon of Sin or of working Grace Why should we be tenacious of their Forms to the scandal of those of our own Belief How are we obliged or concerned to conform to their usages more than they are to ours Have they any Authority over us or are they any way a Rule unto us Are not the holy Scriptures of right both their Rule and ours Or can they upbraid us for departing from them in these at least unnecessary Opinions and Customs unless they upbraid us upon those grounds which we have rejected together with their Usurpation and and which if we receive again we must quit Protestancy it self This striving to come so near them whether tends it but to reduce us again into that Church For by all approaches to them they are not drawn one step towards us but are the more hardened and still they rest unmoveable on the rock of their pretended Supremacy and Infallibility The impurity of the Romish Church lies chiefly in its Superstition and Sensuality In the grosser part of its Superstition is manifold gross Idolatry and any way of symbolizing with Idolatry which is spiritual Whoredom should be dreaded by the chast Spouse of Chirst as the retaining of such Images as have been and are apt to be made objects of Religious Adoration and the making choice of the peculiar garbs and fashions of Idolaters in their worship Moreover where the gross Pollutions are avoided if their pomp and train of Ceremonies be retained they will be apt to take up the heart of such as are busied in them and to corrupt the Worship of God and make it a dead work and carnal Service and so the spirit and power of Godliness will decay and die among the People by this means Sensuality the concomitant of Idolatry and all gross Superstition is likewise manifested in their Devotions Of the Israelites Idolatry it is written The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play Sensual sports and pastimes are mingled with the Devotions of carnal Worshippers as is notably seen in the Popish Festivals And this makes the sensual part of Men addicted to such a way To pray a while and then to play is the business of their Sacred Solemnities But this course alienates the mind from true Holiness and tends to much Profaness and not only the Piety but the civility of a Nation will hereby much abate A Church that would maintain the purity of Religion the power of Godliness had need have its solemn days of divine Service distinct from the appointed times of carnal sport mirth and jollity CHAP. XV. The enmity of the World against Godliness and the Calumnies and Reproaches cast upon it considered THe security and increase of true Religion is a matter of no small difficulty The enmity against it is general and perpetual in the first race of Mankind it brake forth even to Bloud and throughout all Ages it hath been propagated that with great rage as well within as without the Pale of the visible Church The adverse World knows not the new Nature what it is for it knows not God whose Image it is The World is not only alienated from the Life of God but opposite to it by the antipathy of the carnal Life and so not only wants the true relish but hath a strong disrelish of the divine and heavenly Nature Moreover true Christianity is a light by which all things
common remisness in this matter is deplorable Sometimes the manner of opposition against Seducers is unadvised and prejudicial To contend for truth by wrath and clamour and contumelious language and usage inhanceth the price of Error and adds to its reputation But the surest way is to converse much with our plain hearted People and to season them with right principles and to detect the subtile methods of deceitfull workers and the dangerous issues of their allurements and by honest and inoffensive applications to prepossess those holds of which deceivers seek to possess themselves And here it is of chief importance that the influence of the Pastors and other prudent and able Persons upon the common multitude of professors be more prevailing than the influence of the common multitude upon the Pastors and other prudent Leaders Servile temporizing with vulgar fancies degrades the Authority and Wisdom of prudent Guides and lifts up a vulgar Spirit and will bring it to that pass that the weakest and most inconsiderate shall sway the Churches Interest Let Persons of approved worth be more faithful and noble than by such servility and treachery to raise to themselves a power in the hearts of the weaker sort Let them rather commend themselves by their known Integrity Wisdom and Goodness and by being ready also in all condescention to serve and please them to their Edification And such faithfulness is the surest means to gain them love and honour Let the Religious beware of seeking to be admired and magnified among one another or of overprizing each others esteem This latter seems to be the cause that drew Peter to a fit of dissimulation and separation from the believing Gentiles while he sought too much to please them that were of the Circumcision Sometimes we know not our own Spirits It is good to beware of provocations like to be given or taken Upon a supposed affront or injury men of parts have been hurried into dangerous contests and to make head against petty passionate opposition they have run beyond their own thoughts and wrought strange confusion Discretion and charity seeks to convince and satisfie and not to exasperate an offended Brother It is well observed that no turbulent Opinion or Party doth usually arise in the Church but by the Church's neglect of some truth or duty Wherefore if an evil spirit seek an occasion of mischief reform the abuse and so prevent his working upon the simple And forasmuch as some of upright hearts being deceived with a fancy of a more sublime and perfect way may pass into the tents of Sectaries so far as conceâ—ns Church Order and external Worship a compassionate regard must be had of such as walk honestly and retain those fundamental Truths that may be a ground-work for saving Faith and godly Life Now towards such the greatest charity is exercised in labouring to remove the stumbling-block of their error and to make it plain before them that the Faithfull whose Communion they forsake contend for the Perfection of holy Scripture and the explicit Knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation and the reasonable service of God according to his Word and spiritual Worship sutable to the Gospel Dispensation and the lively use of holy Ordinances in opposition to unwritten Traditions Mens inventions implicit Faith ignorant devotion and meer formality That they declare by word and deed against the iniquity and impiety of this evil World and therefore the world hates them that they insist upon no forms or usages in Religion but what are commanded by the positive Laws of Christ or are necessary in their general reason by the law of Nature that they seek no worldly advantages or advancements in the Church but what are necessary for the support of the Truth according to Gods ordinary Providence and lastly that human infirmities must not be thought strange in them that have not obtained Angelical perfection These and the like things should be laid open before honest People that have been seduced into Sectarian error CHAP. XXV The advancement of the sound State of Religion by making it National and the settled interest of Nation CHrists little Flock cannot go out of the World nor retire within themselves alone from the Nations of the Earth but they must needs remain a part of Kingdoms Commonwealths with the World in general They must take themselves to be concerned in the civil Powers for the Powers that are will take themselves to be concerned in them and their ways For which cause their aims and actions as far as their Sacred Rule allows must be fitted to the capacity of the civil Government and directed unto the generall peace and quietness of the nation whereof they are in which they enjoy their civil rights By this means religions interest may incorporate with the general interest of a nation run in the same channel That pure Religion may take root and spread and prosper it is necessary to bring its external frame to the consistency of a National settlement The just â—aâ—aude hereof is laid in the doctrine of Faith and substantials of Divine Worship and things necessary to Church unity and order but it goes not beyond these And being fixed in this extent it is in a way to gain besides the support and power of the Law the Nations unstrained compliance and approbation As on the one hand Ecclesiastical tyranny is a root of bitterness always bearing gall and wormwood so on the other hand unfixedness and unlimited liberty consists not with that stability wherein all prudent Governors would settle their own affairs as also with that general tranquillity and repose which is the health of any People If one were raised to empire by a meer Fanatick Party he cannot settle himself nor stand upon firm ground till he wind his interest out of their hands and turn himself to the way of general satisfaction To the same intent and purpose it is of great importance so to fix the terms of Church Communion as not to set a perpetual bar against the main body of the People A Church state so barr'd though it were asserted with a veterane Army and could inclose all preferments both of honor and profit within it self to be at its disposal yet it is hard to see how it could ever obtain a firm establishment For a Christian Nation in general being shut out of the Church or barr'd of such Privileges as are supposed to belong to them as Christians are inraged and likely to be ingaged as one Man to oppose that which they take for intolerable oppression Or if they care not to be admitted they will turn to a contrary interest and Party in Religion or to infidelity Barbarism Atheism or some destructive way or other Now the intention here propounded may take effect if the Constitution shut out none from Sacred and Spiritual Priviledges but such as make not Profession of true Christianity or be destitute of that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to true
not to run with the foremost but to proceed in such manner and so far as the standing in necessary libertieâ— may require and as the more considerate paâ—… of men will justifie to be discreet and honest but above all to indeavour by a godly and blameless life to make it manifest that Conscience hath been duly satisfied and not trifleâ— with In doubtfull matters and difficult times thâ— all good men should keep the same latitudâ— of judgment and practice in all wisdom for thâ— true interest of Religion may be wished bâ—… not expected For some will be more other less inlarged by the diversity of their apprehensions Also some by their natural dispositioâ— are more timerous or more complying other again are more hardy and less flexible or morâ— reserved and resolute in their opinions Many are injudicious and the best have their passionâ— and some lie under disadvantages that may Biass the judgment this or that way where thâ— matter is somewhat disputable others maâ— have weightier reasons either for assent or diâ—… sent though not obvious and perhaps not 〈◊〉 expedient to be declared Mens cases beinâ— so exceeding various they must needs varyâ—… practice Some inconvenience but no dâ— structive mischief will follow this diversity it do not as one would think it should not disunite affections For then these several Paâ—…ties or persuasions rather are one in their main cause and may with one Spirit though walking in several Paths carry on the great concernments of it If Religion were but the bond of a Faction or the strength of a worldly interest the asserters thereof might lose or lessen it by taking such several ways But it depends not upon parties and their designs nor is obnoxious to such ingagements but in it self perfectly free from them Therefore it is advanced in any way that gives it liberty and opportunity to display it self to the world in the evidence of its own truth and goodness CHAP. XXVII The surest and safest ways of seeking Reformations WHen a corrupt State of Religion is inveterate or deeply rooted in a Nation â—he work of Pious men is convincingly to reâ—rove that corruption by the light of holy Doctrine and of holy Walking and to proâ—agate and press home with zeal the great and â—nquestionable truths of Christianity but to â—e more silent and sparing in matters more conâ—overted and of less importance the vehement â—rging whereof will not convince the world nor silence the adversary Likewise by humble addresses to the Higher powers in a fit season they may seek the redress of such enormities as are evidently Scandalous Absurd and Odious and yet perhaps the chief props of that corrupt State For this may be done without scandal or hazard and much is done if it take effect Clamorous contests about doubtfull Forms and Customs and in comparison but by matters do serve to animate the opposite party and afford them matter to work upon but the vigorous maintenance of the vital parts of Religion and the detecting of gross abuses bears them down It is time that ripens all things and every thing in its season is beautifull and successfull Then the redress of evils will run in its prepared Channel and a plain Path will be found through passages formerly inaccessable And then Rulers themselves may see what one of deep judgment observes that when time of course alters things to the worse Wisdom and Counsell had need alter them to the better they may find the necessity and utility of Reformation and by their Authority make it warrantable If the friends of truth walk in sober counsels and sure ways and follow the truth in peace and love and be serviceable to the common good they retain their innocence and maintain their honour which is their surest interest and shall be found though the fewer number to have a considerable influence upon the publick State Both Religious and Civil Affairs are apt to be carried in extreams for which cause Reformations commonly are suspected and their credit is much impaired In avoiding Superstition some have run into rudeness and undecency In Divine worship the natural expressions ofreverence and devout affection and things necessary to decency and order should be observed carefully by those that turn away from Superstitious vanities that it may appear that a well informed Conscience and the Spirit of a sound mind doth guide and rule them and that their principles are no way defective but sufficient and ample unto all regular devotion These necessary decencies and natural expressions of Devotion are plain and obvious to all intelligent persons and the modes of Civil reverence and seriousness in use among us do much guide herein A compliance with sober and grave solemnities affected by a Nation in general helps to procure a good esteem and to get ground among them whereas opposition and singularity may beget a general dislike Men do but mispend their zeal in opposing prevalent customs that have nothing in them contrary to sound Doctrine and good life Among other things I may instance in Religious performances at Funerals which may well be ordered without Superstition or any other abuse and improved to the peoples benefit who are then met together in the house of mourning Some Churches being in the midst of false worshippers to prevent all Superstition have forbidden the making of Prayers or Sermons at the interment of the Dead But in things of this nature Several Churches may have their peculiar reasons and accordingly their different orders As concerning Heathenish pastimes and vanities sometimes affected by the rude vulgar and perhaps countenanced by some of higher degree for ends well known they tend indeed unto much profaness and may trouble the minds and stir the zeal of good men Nevertheless when the power of reforming is beyond their line it sufficeth that the weighty and unquestionable matters of true Religion be constantly inculcated upon the People and the spreading of sound knowledge indeavoured both by publick Doctrine and by private Instruction And those humorous fooleries which opposition often heighteneth would soonest fall to the ground by contempt and silence In a happy season when the power of Religion hath a potent influence upon a Nation the laying of a good foundation for time to come is mainly to be regarded An opportunity in this kind may be lost not only by a sluggish neglect but also by an impetuous overstraining of it It is overstrained when things are carried forth beyond what a Nation will ever bear It may be more advisable to stop at moderate Reformations than to proceed to such extream alterations as must needs stand in opposion if so be they can so stand to a contrary fixed inclination generally prevailing The consequents of such proceeding need not to be here discoursed Besides the more healthfull state of Religion may stand not in a total change of things long in use but in reforming the abuse thereof And it should be minded that sometimes in curing a lesser evil