digest their Reason and take in the Light they judge by so as to make it their own else if they cannot find their Reasons nor acquit themselves from doubt they must suspend For a Christian is Commanded by his Lord to call no Man upon Earth Master or Father Quest What is the meaning of that Answ It is this very Thing that we should receive nothing as Doctrine or Indisputable Truth or Precept upon any Man's Word that does not offer such Reason and Authority from God and his Word that we our selves see Reason not to receive it as the Word of Man but of God Quest But is it not said that they that have the Rule over us watch for our Souls as they that must give an Account for the same If we are not to believe them and surrender our Judgment to theirs how can they give an Account Answ They that Rule over us watch for our Souls and must give an Account as Ezekiel's Prophets and Watchmen by giving Warning laying Truth before us offering the sincere Word of God in all Cases the success of which upon Souls Converted and Saved is their Crown and Glory and their unsuccess lookes like a sorrow to see those Souls lost for whom they laboured in vain and spent their strength upon them for nought yet so that if they have been faithful though without success their reward is with the Lord and their Work with God But notwithstanding this every Man is so to account for his own Soul that the very success is not a Blind Obedience to Rulers but as is said a Receiving the Word not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God And if these Watchmen neglect their Duty or Seduce instead of Teaching Men are to apply to better Means afforded by God and if they do not they still die in their Iniquity and following their Blind Leaders fall into the Pit which is an unanswerable Argument that we may trust in no Man but in God only For if an implicit Faith could be a saving Faith it should save those that followed such Guides though they themselves were justly Condemned in not discharging their Trust Quest But were not the Apostles and Prophets to be Trusted at a higher rate than thus Answ No There were such evident Marks of Divine Doctrine always given by God to those that desired to Know Love and Obey him that even the very Prophets and Apostles were not to be received without them nor to be believed but according to them nay to be plainly Anathematiz'd if they varied from it Christians were therefore to judge to try the Spirits to search the Scriptures whether the things spoken were so to have recourse to undoubted Principles of Truth that were as standards to all that came after besides the Unction from the Holy One whereby they were inabled to know all things necessary to Salvation Quest But is not all Humane Teaching and Instruction hereby taken away and what becomes of the Ministry the Eldership of the Church and their Rule Answ They are all hereby Established for they are the Ordination of God to this very purpose to make Men see to bring them Light to clear things to them that by the awakening their Judgments the summoning and collecting their Principles they may see with their own Eyes the ways of God and Religion the Holy Spirit graciously adjoyning it self to their Ministry They have no Dominion over their Faith but are helpers of thier Joy that is they facilitate and make pleasant the knowledge and assurances of Religion and they Rule by Exhorting Admonishing Rebuking Comforting and even Commanding in the Evidences of Divine Authority on Account of which they are to be obey'd and highly esteemed for their Works sake Notwithstanding all this no Man is excluded from his own Office to himself for every particular Christian is in some Sense a Congregation and Preacher to himself as Solomon his Conscience hath the Keys binds and looses within it self nay Christians are not excluded from Rule in the Church when they have the Word of God on their side they may plead and reason with their Mother Hos 2. 2. When they have more understanding than their Teachers or the Rulers Rule not according to the Word of God they that speak according to the Law and the Testimony even Rule their Rulers and prove the more noble Organs of the Church when those that should Rule it are as the Idols Eyes that see not Ears that hear not or as the Idol Shepherd a Blast is upon their Right hand and Right-eye that their Arm is clean dried up and their Eye utterly darkened the most naked unfurnished Christian with outward Accomplishments that yet knows the Word of God is among the Prophets in such a time of necesity CAP. XII Of Schism and Scandal Quest FRom the precedent Discourse of the Church I conceive the truest Notion of Schism may be deduced I desire you therefore to Explain what the true Nature of Schism is Answ The Question concerning the Nature of Schism follows very pertinently upon the right settlement of the Nature of the Church now the whole Being of the Church consisting in its Union to God and Christ in Love according to the Truth of his Word and that it receives all its Members into Union with it self by their being first united as it self is Schism which is Division must needs in its strictest and most formal Notion be a Division from that Truth wherein the whole Church is one and so from the Love consequent upon such an Union Quest What is that Truth of the Word of God in which the Church is One Answ The Truth of the Doctrine of God or the Unity of the Faith of the Son of God in things to be believed and the Truth of his Law and Commands in things to be done Quest How is the Love of the Church Vnited in these Answ It is a Love in the Truth and hereby we know we Love the Brethren when we Love God and keep his Commandments John Epist 2. No Love how great soever is Christian-love nor Union how close soever Christian-union if it be not in the Truth and Commandments of God From whence it necessarily follows the Schism that is a Schism from the Church must be a Disunion from the Faith of the Scriptures and the Love springing from that Faith and there is no danger of any other Schism from the Church as it is a Church Quest How does Schism differ from Heresie Answ Heresie in the highest Sense and worst Sense of it is a Disunion from Truth in some Fundamental and Grand Concernment of Religion either in the Doctrine or Commands of God so that a Man is subverted and sinneth and must needs be Condemned of a Separation from the Assembly of Truth both by himself and the Thing it self and that both as to Faith and Christian-love he is so separated Schism is a Disunion in some less momentous parts
of Christian Religion This being premised I come more particularly to give answer 1. Many of these things that are named as found in the Church of the Jews as a National Church were not yet the Essentials of a Church as National in general but of that particular National Church and typical of things under the Gospel as is plain in the exposition of them in the New Testament and more particularly that excellent Epistle to the Hebrews the Temple the High Priest the Holy of Holies the Altar the Sacrifices the solemn Feasts with such like serv'd only as shadows of things to come and the want of them argues nothing against National Religion 2. Those things that were not Typical or whose main and sole intention was not to adorn and compleat that whole Frame but rested upon Universal Principles of Reason Truth and Duty can never be abrogated but are for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have National hope in God and be obliged in our duty even as they were Thus the duty of Magistrates and people towards true Religion of publick instruction of publick Ministers of Religion of care for places of meeting for Divine Worship throughout a Nation continue still and need no new commands in the Gospel 3. As to the first planting of Churches by drawing Christians into particular private Societies it amounts but to thus much that Christ the Lord of tâ—e Church did not found his Church universal as necessarily diffusing it self into Nations nor could it in reason be so For seeing it was in Divine Providence for great and weighty Reasons of which it is not proper now to speak intended and ordered that hundreds of years should pass over Christianity ere it had the favour and protection of Supreme Christian Magistrates there must have been for that space no Religion or Church if there had been no other Form but National The Church of Christ therefore though it was in those days within Nations Cities Towns and Villages yet of low stature in comparison of National Religion till the Reign of Christian Emperors considerable indeed in it self and its diffusion through so much of the world but not acknowledged by Laws or Governments till long after its first entrance And at all times upon the change of a Christian Magistracy into a Pagan an Apostate an Heretical or Idolatrous Succession or the complex of all Antichristianism which early invaded the Church and even covered and obscured it in succession of time the Church of necessity must fall back into such a low state and subsist upon its obedience to the Law of Christ and its own prudential accommodations to the state of Times without the Magistrates care and protection Our Saviour therefore took care of the Catholick Church which is of absolute Divine Institution which is founded in that promise The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it To which belong primarily all the great and glorious expressions of Scripture to which are given originally Pastors and Teachers to propagate promote build up and strengthen it and shall by virtue of Christs ascension far above all heavens be certainly continued to it till we all come to the unity of the Faith of the Son of God to a perfect man to the full measure and stature of Christ in all his members All other Societies of Christians are but little images and representations of this in these its excellencies and the more they participate of it the more truly are they the Churches of Christ But because this is too diffus'd for one Model for one Frame to comprehend there is therefore allowance given by Christ for lesser Associations of this Catholick Church from the nature of the thing and because of the discountenance of Nations and worldly powers at first and since upon true Christianity Our Saviour therefore Matth. 15. 18 c. expresly fixes the promise of his Divine Presence in the smallest parts of this Church where but two or three are gathered together in his Name he hath assured he will be in the midst of them so that it is hence evident the whole neighbouring discourse centers in the least Assemblies agreeing in Christian Religion For though it supposes first a greater number the Church and two or three Witnesses being contradistinguished yet as it were in prospect of the great fewness upon some exigencies of Christians practising the duties of Christianity together it brings down the promises of Audience in their appeals to heaven and presence with their whole worship and services to the smallest numbers not by way of limitation to but encouragement of so small a number And it is very observable the very same declaration of Christ to the Apostles whose soever sins you remit or bind by the true Doctrine of the Gospel shall stand good in heaven the very same is said here to the smallest Societies of Christians as to their Judgment and determination upon their own members according to the Laws of Christ concerning the offences that fall out among themselves having the same Doctrine to proceed he committed to them even as to the Apostles themselves Churches are Pillars and Rocks of Truth even as the most Excellent Ministers and either or all being no more but Praecones each in their kind or Publishers of the Will of Christ and his Truth declar'd in his Word in the vertue of their being parts of the Catholick Church Now the Reason why our Saviour pitches upon so small a number of Christians agreeing is certainly this because he would appoint no other form to his Church than such as could live as could subsist under any Civil Government whatever whether friendly or unfriendly to it He gave it no other shape but what it might attain and keep under any state of Civil Laws under any enmity it met with in the world And this was most necessary because the Church of Christ was not confin'd to one Nation as the Jewish was whom God in a peculiar manner singled out and manag'd to the state of a Kingdom and Nation by a mighty power and out-stretched arm and conserv'd by the same ruling it with an immediate sensible presence after he had form'd it by precise Laws and setled the just bounds of all Officers in their Office and appointed them the place of the exercise of it whereas the Christian Doctrine being indifferent to every Nation under Heaven it did as it made its progress convert certain numbers to it self at first which had no priviledg of humane Laws or Powers but the edg of all turn'd against it so that the Form of Churches was composed to all the vicissitudes of Providence they were to undergo and that in all reason must be in case of necessity the very least of Societies of Christians Two or Two or Three as our Saviour significantly points upon small Societies for such are most fitted to the worst of conditions that could befall lesser and single bodies moving every way
one view is by St. Stephen as I observ'd call'd the Church and the Congregations after they were become a Nation though they could not all then meet together are call'd the Church also because they were all under one Law and Institution all partakers of the same Rights and Priviledges and so indeed all particular Churches of Christians are but the Catholick Church in lesser Associations as the circumference of Heaven is the same though in so many different Horizons As light is the same though variously modell'd by its several Receptions as the Ocean is one by how many several Denominations soever it be distinguish'd from the shores it washes or the channels or other scituations it rests in so this Church is often spoken of as one Church and as several Churches as the Sea is one and several Seas they being so much every way the same as to differ only in the Universality But whether a Nation united in Christianity may be call'd a National Church having many dissents of opinion appertaining to it and not possible to be decided by express Scripture there being no Christian Nation under Heaven in those days of the New Testament wherein it was written I shall leave wholly in the middle and only observe two Things concerning this Controversie 1. That there can no great matter accrue to either side of it by deciding for or against a National Church For allow a National Church or if you will a Congregational Church agreeing in any thing not agreeing with the Laws of Christ or if either of them wants any thing necessary to our Obedience to all the Laws of Christ In the first of these Cases Christians may and ought to retire from the Irregularities of any such Church either National or Congregational that they may be pure from Corruption In the second Case Christians must find out the ways and opportunities so far as is possible whereby they may perform all the Duties commanded by Christ though they separate from either of those Churches no further than to those ends But if there be a Corruption in the Main or a Defect in the Vitals of the Doctrine or Worship of Christ in either Notion or Churches that will not be upon due Remonstrances reform'd then if according to the Institution of Christ Christians gather into Assemblies though lesser though but of Two or Three they are assur'd of the Presence of Christ and no inconvenience of Rending the Body of Christ or making Divisions in his Church shall condemn them for the Society deserted is not his Church but the Society that does desert is his Church supposing it retires sincerely in obedience to the Laws of Christ On the other side Suppose a National Church not of the Ordination of Christ in the Gospel as under that Name or Notion yet if that stand good which I have endeavoured to demonstrate that every Nation to which the Gospel is preach'd is bound by the Laws of God establish'd in Nature and by the Laws of God and Christ in his Word to plant true Christian Religion upon its National Union It will be still every Christians duty to joyn in unite himself with encourage and promote all that True National Christian Religion and not to separate from it any further than the Laws of Christ oblige him that he may yield Obedience to all those Laws For it is the absolute Duty of every member of a Nation to seek the Eternal Salvation of his Nation in his sphere as the Apostle Paul did of the Jews in so high an Orb when he profess'd his great heaviness and sorrow of heart even to the wishing himself accurs'd from Christ and prayed with his hearts desire they might be sav'd On account of which in so many things he became to the Jews as a Jew and wrote that Excellent Epistle to the Hebrews It being for that very Reason to me most probable it was his that he might make good all those great professions of Love to them for though it was peculiarly directed to the Christian Hebrews yet it had an aspect upon the whole Religion and people of the Jews as the scope of Adjusting all the Mosaick and Jewish Law to the Gospel-Mediation makes plain and so was in it self most proper for the Conversion of that Nation as a Nation seeing their own'd and gloried in National Religion truly understood led to the Christian Religion justly now to have been their National Religion if they had yielded obedience to their own Laws rightly interpreted Now if National Religion be an undoubted obligation upon Nations and the members of Nations so far as it is true Those Laws those Officers that are though not ordain'd by Christ yet not contradictory to his Ordination but necessary according to Rules of Right Reason to the Establishing True Religion as National must be submitted to also upon the account and for the sake of that True Religion as National But if National Religion wander from Truth that Fundamental Liberty establish'd by Scripture and Laws of Nature must be always preserv'd that I before asserted as giving Right to retire from all Societies not united in Truth according to the Degrees of their defection from it But for the further justifying National True Religion I will in the next place observe from Scripture the Uses and great Ends of Churches and see how far National Religion may be accommodated to them For Churches are not therefore appointed that men may Arbitrarily and Fancifully chuse which or what sort they will be of but that the true Reasons and Purposes of them may be observed and complied with and they are these Three 1. That there may be a Generation of men in the world in the same Faith and Worship of God in Jesus Christ according to the Scripture however dispers'd at whatever distance soever remote yet united in the same Doctrine Prayer Preaching Praising God in the Sacraments and if opportunity allows and invites it in the same actual Worship and at all times closely compacted in a virtual and mystical Communion with one another the same spirit running through all uniting all to Christ and God and one with another joyned in the same love and sympathy of joy in the prosperity and of sorrow in the afflâ—ctions and sufferings one of another and with all readiness in yielding the fruits of mutual Charity Mercy and Compassion from one end of the earth to the other every true Christian being the compassionate Samaritan to every other Christian and not Jewishly distinguishing his mercy to his own Sect Party or Church and in cases of corruption and defection from the Laws and Word of Christ there is to Christians a mutual power of remonstrating against those corruptions and that defection by arguing expostulating censuring the evil of them yea and Authoritative denouncing the Judgment of God and Christ upon them for that Charter of Christs to the true Preachers of the Gospel to the true Churches stands good as to Ages so to
its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scriptures to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if they cannot give Satisfaction to cavelling Atheists or Infidels or to the Scruples of Good Men it still remains a just Ground of Satisfaction The Spirit that carried by an Almighty Hand the Writers of the Old Testament carried those Penmen of the New by the same also and from one single Glance of its Meaning that it self with Divine Artifice had left drawn there it derives that full Face of Truth in the New to be its Sense in the Old than that Samson's Riddle in the Exposition should be his Sense in the dark Cover of it in Words that could not else import it He that created the Words in the Old Testament and even then inspired them with that Divinest Sense as with Life might yet suffer it to lie intoomb'd in them till it self that entrusted it there gave it a Resurrection in the New Quest But would you have none undertake in the Interpreting or Expounding Scripture except by Inspiration or the Evidences of immediate Divine Presence where either Scripture is not so express as to be its own undoubted Interpreter or the Interpretation deduced as evidently as any Consequence by Reason Answ Far be it from me to discourage or lessen such Undertakings I rather wish all the Lord's People thus far Prophets to search the Meaning of Scripture with all the Helps and Advantages they can attain and that in the mean time all those who have any part of the Prophetick Office upon them would read and meditate day and night to Interpret Scripture to themselves and others Quest But how is such Interpretation consistent with the Apostles so great Assertion That Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Answ First Interpretation guiding it self by the plain evident and Self-Interpreting Oracles of Scripture in things absolutely necessary to Salvation displays a Body of Divine Publick Truth which in regard of the Darkness Inattendence and Inconsideration of the generality of the very Professors of the Faith of the Scriptures and much more in regard of the great Indisposedness of their Hearts to the Obedience of Scriptures need such constant Displays by Applicatory Interpretation and a distinct Office to attend continually on this very Thing And yet the main Concernment of such Interpretation lies in what is so plain that when opened and applied it is impossible to be doubted of as Scriptures Sense 2. Such Interpretation as may be Private in regard of its Derivation of any Doctrine from such or such a particular Place of Scripture yet keeping it self to the Analogy of Scripture in the plain and undoubted Sense in other Places does still maintain the free and Publick Course of the Waters of Life 3. Interpretation of Scripture thus guiding it self according to the evident Sense of Scripture in its clearest Parts and taking that as a Clew into the more abstruse Parts of Scripture necessarily encounters much Sound and excellent Truth nearly allied to Publick and Divine in all Knowledge Natural Historical Chronological Moral Political pertaining to Language and Eloquence which makes the World more lightsom and less subject to the Tyranny of the Prince of Darkness How great a Light of all Learning hath broken out from the very Endeavours of Interpreting Scripture to the Glory of the Father of Lights the high Honour and venerable Estimation of Scripture the much Ascertaining True Publick Religion and the Universal Good 4. Many great Truths and undoubtedly Divine in themselves that being more at a distance from those that are necessary to Salvation it hath not pleased the Publick Wisdom of the World to give such Assurance of them as that they should be imposed upon the Belief of all that acknowledge the Sacred Authority of Scriptures and yet may present very large Satisfactions to the Minds of those who are assisted by the Holy Spirit into the great Scripture-Reason in such Points though but particularly for
God to be the Governour of the World and of his Church He hath been pleased to order the Conveyance of Scriptures into so many Languages by raising up many to travel in the Knowledge of all Tongues and the Keys of them as in the Originals to find out their Meaning and to transfuse them into all other Languages and that by so many of several Ages and Nations as makes all Combination to deceive impossible and Universal Deception next to impossible upon the Translators themselves These things are under his supreme Care It is enough to us there is brought to our Knowledge such an excellent Doctrine rising out of so many Divine Sayings and Discourses that are as so many Stars in the Firmament of Truth clear as the Luminaries of that name in the Heavens Why should we then be more than modestly and humbly concerned to know all the Ages they have pass'd through before they came to us or all the Secrets concerning their Motion and Appearance that he onely knows that calls the Stars by their Names It is enough they evidently and undeniably declare God to us and assure us by their Light by their regular Motion according to the Laws of Truth and Goodness that they are Stars the Greater and the Lesser differing one from another in Glory yet all Stars and of a truly Divine Lustre Certain and not Wandring Quest Let us now hear the Conclusion of this whole Matter Answ It rests in these two things 1. That the Evidences of the Divine Presence in the Scriptures and all the principal Branches thereof are as clear and certain and do satiate the Soul and its Faculties inlightned by the general Influences of the Divine Spirit much more by its sanctifying Efficacy even as the clearest Notions we have of Things do and much above them And that these Evidences are the same in the Original Scriptures and in the Translations for that they are indeed All Original and not capable of any Translation but make even Translation an Original 2. That as Scripture is such a Contexture and makes up such a Book God the supreme Governour of the Church and of the World in general hath always and does always take care of its preservation from such Corruptions as would injure those Evidences of Divine Inspiration he hath ingraven upon it not only upon the Substance but upon the very Contexture and the very same care he hath taken for the Conveyance of it by agreeable Translations to the several Nations in their own Tongue to whom he hath vouchsafed the Scriptures themselves or the Doctrine of them Quest Hath God wrought miraculously to these Ends Answ That need not be asserted but he hath by the ordinary Interposals of Providence watchful in every thing over its own Ends brought all to pass he in Wisdom thought necessary Quest What Visible Means hath Providence used for the securâ—â—g Scriptuâ—es against foul Corruptions Answ Continual and various Copyings of the Original even in the Days of the Writers in the very time of the Inspection and Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and downwards from them both by Manuscript and Print which various Copies being compared though they have not to the degree of a Mâ—racle agreed in Minutes have yet concerted the Substance Quest What care hath God been pleased to take with regard â—o Translations Answ Very eminent where it needed most For some Ages before the coming of the Messiah it came no doubt by Divine Superintendency which hath the Hearts of Kings in his Hands and turns them as the Rivers of Water into the Heart of a Great and Learned Prince of Aegypt to procure the Translation of the Divine Law into the Greek the then most known Language of the World Seventy two Seniors of the Jews as History most generally agrees the Learnedest in their Native Hebrew were employed in it This Translation was generally and publickly received among the Jews was approved by our Lord and his Apostles in several Quotations Hereby there was at once a Preparation of those Scriptures to the most Publick Notice an Assurance of the true Import of the Hebrew Tongue and an authorised Translation And in the same so known Greek Language wherein are reposed such Treasures of all Literature is added that most Sacred Roll of the New Testament And from that time have there been by the great Industry God hath excited Men to several Versions of the Old and New Testament into a great variety of Languages with strict Expository Researches and Criticisms upon all that concerns either the Readings or the Sense of Words and Phrases as well as the Doctrine contained in them by which there might be a freer Propagation of Sacred Knowledge and a Security against such Corruptions and Mistakes as might efface the Divine Image or any of the Lineaments of it in â—â—ese Records or their Translations however differing as I have said in minuter Things CAP. VIII Of Tradition and Antiquity Quest BY what hath been said Scripture and its Interpretation appear guarded by their own Divineness against all Private and Counterfeit as by Cherubims and a Flaming Sword turning every way But hath there been no Stratagem of the Adversary to undermine Divine Catholick Religion and the Authority of Scripture the Publick Record of Religion with its Publick Interpretation and yet that all these should seem still to rest firm upon their own Base Answ The great Enemy of God and Truth hath been wanting in no Artifice and therefore hath fallen upon that very Method inquired of that what could not be atchieved by denying Scripture by bringing in False Scripture or Private Interpretation monstrous to the Text all such gross Frauds being in some Times and Places exposed and exploded might be more successfully attempted and effected by yoaking Tradition with Scripture a Private Incertain Oracle with a Publick and Certain one and so avowed to be by the Traditionists themselves Quest What is Tradition Answ These four things concur to the making up Tradition 1. That from the Divine Authority of Scriptures and the True Religion of them which as hath been said it acknowledges it borrows not only Countenance but Occasion and more than that a shew of Reason and Necessity for it self 2. That it therefore endeavours to tack and joyn it self to Scripture and the Religion of it as necessary to compleat and fill it up or to provide something more requisite to that Religion that Scripture hath not provided for 3. That it having grown up from no true Root nor risen upon any just Foundation it hath stollen into its Authority and Reverence by being passed from Hand to Hand so long that its Elderliness looks like a Patent for that Authority and Reverence And its Original some Injudicious Devotion at the best not being easie to be trac'd it comes to be supposed or rather superstitiously to be suspected to be Divine and at length like a long-told Lie assuming to be Truth it takes upon it self to be
Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Quest How then is it said to be the Pillar of Truth And of what Importance is that to the Actuating Scripture Answ As the Laws and Ordinances of Courts and Governments are publickly fixed that every one may know and take notice of them so the Church in all its Members but especially by Deputed Ministers giving themselves wholly to it proclaims preaches and makes offer of the most Publick Notice of the Word of Truth within it self that all the Children and Servants of the Family may be continually catechiz'd and built up therein and Strangers have opportunity to know if they would apply themselves to it Thus it is a Famous City set on an Hill that cannot be hid and therefore its Laws Constitutions Manners cannot but in all reason be inquired of by all that do so much as pass by it It is a Candlestick bearing the lofty Torch of Divine Truth Of this the Pillars of the Temple at Jerusalem and the affixing to them the Rolls of Divine Revelation was an eminent Type and alluded to by the Apostle As therefore from a Prince come forth Edicts Proclamations Manifesto's and Declarations according to Laws which are fastned to Publick Pillars of the Court it self and all open and conspicuous Places of Concourse so are there in the Church the most advantagious Publications of the Divine Truth and Word to all both the Natives and Free-born of the Church it self and Ingenuous Strangers that would hearken out the most Reasonable Proposals of Truth or whom God is pleased to Naturalize to himself Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Ground of Truth And how does this actuate Scripture Answ It means nothing but the Perpetuity and Continuation of Truth with the Church establishing it self by all that Firmness of Divine Evidence and Reason and on those very Securities taking Possession of the Church as the Ark of its Strength where it self or the God that is Truth it self places the Soles of his Feet as on his unmovable Footstool for ever Of which the Ark in the Holâ—est was a Type the Footstool of the Throne of Mercy the secure Repository of the Tables of the Covenant the Ark of Testimony over which the Shecinah or Glory appeared as inthron'd attended with Cherubims and setting its Feet upon it the place of my Throne and the place of the Soles of my Feet Ezek. 43. 7. For thus the True Church against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail is the unchangeable Rest of Truth It adheres to Truth it buys the Truth and never sells it Truth dwells with it for ever God never suffers it to apostatize from Truth but by the constant holding of the Judgment and retaining the Love and Zeal of the Affections of those that are indeed his Church he hath setled his Word in his Church on Earth even as it is for ever settled in Heaven The Church therefore actuates Scripture by finding out Reasons debating enforcing defending by all Arguments that Truth of Scripture and so persisting in it for ever Quest Cannot then the Church fail Answ It hath been said before the True Church cannot fail For the True Church is as hath been described the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth and that which is so cannot fail and God will have such a Church always in the World If any Person City or Nation that seem to have been the Church have this Light eclipsed the â—anâ—lestick removes for it is only a Candlestick for the sake of the Light and the Pillar it self shakes and falls if the Records fixed to it are taken away and the Palace and Court remove with the Prince who is always with his Truth and the lively Motion of it So much Truth therefore and active Display of it so much a Church in any Place and the Truth removing or lying dead the Church removes also or is ready to die in that Place Quest But is there no higher Sense of the Church being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ No other but what arises from the most intimate and inseparable Union betwixt the Church and Truth Truth taking an undefailable possession of the Church so that whereever Truth in that Fulness as to lead to Life and Happiness is there is the Church and no where else The True Church then may be stiled a Pillar and Ground of Truth in the highest Sense if rightly understood that is Truth it self that is the unmovable Pillar and everlasting Foundation hath so closely banded the Church with it self that it is One Pillar and Foundation with it Thus the Church may be both the Building and the Rock and Foundation to succeeding Parts and Members of the Church The Building as it self rests upon the Pillar and Foundation of Truth else it can't be the Church The Pillar and Foundation of Truth to the still succeeding and rising Church as it is One with Truth it self to which every True Member first comes and unites and therein to the Church even as every Degree of Building is a Foundation and Support to the still growing Building not in it self but as it is surely cemented to the Foundation regulated by it and partakes its Strength Yet if it swerve never so little from the Foundation it is presently a Deformity and the more it swerves the greater danger of the Ruine of it self and all that rests upon it Quest May not this help to explain that so much disputed Expression of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not preval against it Answ I shall be glad if it may give any Light to it and hope it may For the Apostle Peter making that Confession of the Divinity of Christ not singular but representing the whole Body of Apostles and Christians and being possessed with and by that Truth he confess'd was both part of the Building upon that Rock and as united with that Rock he became Rock it self upon which succeeeding Christians were to be built The Prophets and Apostles are in this Sense Foundations and the Twelve Apostles Twelve Foundations Christ himself being the Corner-stone in whom alone the whole Building even the Apostolick Foundation it self rises in a strict and proper Sense Quest Is there not a good Security then in joyning our selves to the Church to those that have been in the Building before us Answ No otherwise than as we joyn our selves by their Ministry to that Foundation it self which always lies sure upon which they themselves must alone rest if the True Church For by placing our selves not upon them but upon that Common Foundation we are adjusted to the whole Building that was before us that lies regular with that Foundation by the Care of him who is both the Foundation Corner-stone and is also he that built all things even God in Christ Quest We must then seek to
them Captive with the rest though in different Baskets as the Prophet Jeremy represents Quest How do they survive in the time of the displac'd and dejected Candlestick Answ They are either called out to a Zealous Appearance and Suffering for Truth or sometimes retired into Corners like the Seven thousand in Israel or the Church in the Wilderness that they cannot appear like a Church offering those Publick Notices of Divine Truth a Church is designed for Quest How is a Visible Profession lost from Particular Persons Answ It is too often thrown up by Apostasie or Profaneness or dwindled into a very Spiritless Form but very often a Profession without the Power being not inconsistent with the working of Iniquity it may pass out of this World like a Lamp burning but being found to burn only in a small Temporary Light without Oyl in the Vessel a Plenitude of Grace in the Heart shutting out every Lust it becomes a Lamp put out in utter Darkness Quest What is to be inferred from all this Answ That there is no Trust but in the Lord himself the Truth it self by which at all times the Church that is indeed the Pillar and Ground of Truth and wherein it is so will be known to us and in uniting to Truth we are united to That Quest There remains one thing yet to be understood in the Description of the Church which is its Power of Governing even as it is Governed by the Word of God Vnder what Notions I beseech you is that Government expressed in Scripture Answ That Power is by our Saviour represented under the Mataphor of Keys and the Use of those Keys in opening and shutting or in Binding and Losing Quest What is the meaning hereof Answ The meaning is plainly this When the Church of Christ hath by the Key of Knowledge inquir'd into all the Divine and Heavenly Doctrine of the Gospel and Word of God it hath in and according to that Word and only so a Power of Application of that Doctrine to Particular Cases binding Men under the Sense of Guilt and fear of Damnation in such or such Sins and an impenitent Continuance in them or of Absolving and assuring Men of the Divine Favour and Acceptance in a holy course of Life and Obedience to God and of Pardon upon Repentance after Falls into Sin and Disobedience and so of Declaring and Pronouncing upon Men as to their present State in the Church by Excommunication or Absolution all these are the Power of Binding and Loosing according to what our Saviour speaks in parallel Words Whose Sins you remit they are remitted whose Sins you retain they are retained meaning still according to his Word the Pole-Star by which they are to direct all their Motions who claim any such Power For only where it is declard according to the Word is it that what is bound on Earth is also bound in Heaven and what is loosed on Earth is loosed in Heaven there being an Invariable Agreement between what is Published from Heaven in the Word of God concerning the State and Actions of Men on Earth and the Transactions in Heaven in relation to them He then that pronounces agreeably with that word pronounces as Heaven does and will pronounce Heaven binds what he binds and looses what he looses because he speaks the Voice of Heaven in both Cases But that there should be any Binding or Loosing except in the Power of this Word and according to it in its Vertue in its Truth nothing can be more contrary to the Ends to the Glory to the Soveraignty of Christ To bind any single Christian by Excommunication and not according to this Word is as much a Brutum Fulmen a Thunder to no purpose a causeless Curse that shall not come as for the Pope to Excommunicate whole Protestant Churches Quest What is a Particular Church Answ It is the Catholick Church in a Neighbourhood or number of Christians Communicating one with another ordinarily even as the whole Cotholick Church would if it were possible Communicate with it self in the Ordinances and Worship of Christ exactly according the to Rules of his Word wherein this is the distinguishing Character of the True Church that its Communion is not with it self primarily but its Communion is so with it self as to be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ principally as the Fountain-Head Center and Rule of the Communion and therein it holds out and invites to its Communion CAP. X. Of the Officers appointed by Christ in his Church Quest CAn there be either an Orderly or an Effectual Actuation of the Truth by the Church as a Congregation without distinct and separate Offices and Officers that may attend continually on this very thing Answ It is imposible for an Assembly without Order would cease to be an Assembly and fall into a Confusion or Rude Multitude All Wise and Prudent Assemblies have always had Elders to preside over them and our Lord hath ordained such to moderate throughout his Congregation or Church to conduct all the Publick Services of Religion For all things therein are actually administred by the Ministers of Christ the Noblest Organical Parts of the Church like those Senses that attend upon the Understanding most immediately Seeing Eyes and Hearing Ears so these upon the Word of Christ And that they may be most fitted ingaged and provoked hereunto they are even according to the very Laws of Nature separated to their Offices and unto all Preparations for them by Reading and Meditation as to their Proper Calling and Business of Life seeing they do not pretend to Immediate and Extraordinary Inablements or Excitations to their Service Quest What Titles or Characters does the New Testament place upon these Officers Answ Those that we have especial Respect to for in the Deacons if strictly taken we are less concerned receive Denominations either from their Work and Service or from that Honour and Estimation due to the Faithful Discharge of such a Service From their Work they are stiled Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers Ministers Servants of God and Christ and in a just sense of the Church also From the Estimation and Honour due to the Discharge of their Work and the Authority it ought to carry in the Hearts and Consciences of Christians they are styled Bishops Elders Rulers Guides and Ensamples as also Embassadours And the Work and the Honour do so enclose one another that they ought not to be separated and are in their Institution the Measure one of another extending both to Obedience and Support of them in their Work and the Titles are so prepared by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost that they ought not to be changed for any other nor the Scripture Language herein to be altered for any Words not importing the same proper Sense Quest How shall the True Ministers of Christ be known that there may be that Obedience and Submission paid to them that is commanded Answ There can be no other Means to
Peace and Welfare and to punish Offenders and Transgressors according to the Degree of their Guilt and can no more be Impeached in that procedure than in any the most undoubted Functions or Rights of Government whatever Quest I must desire to be guided in my Thoughts concerning the Power of Governours in Revealed Religion Answ Besides the Legislative and Vindictive Power of Supreme Magistrates in Natural Religion there is that Divine stamp of Authority God hath Engraven upon them so that besides their Laws they recommend Religion by the very representation of God himself whose Presence they bear and have not only the more Remote Authority of a Prince but the nearest most Natural and kindly Authority of a Father On account of which Solomon as a King so often speaks Hear O ye Children the Instruction of a Father and as having all Parental Affection in himself forsake not saith he the Law of a Mother The Care of all means for Instruction and Propagation of Religion is most proper to Government And all these Administrations in Religion run not only through all points of Natural Religion in that ampleness before expressed but do most genuinely and freely stream through all points of Revealed Truth and the whole Counsel of God in the Scripture nothing being more Princely and Paternal than the utmost Providence and Influence of Princes and Soveraign States herein wherein they fulfill the Prophesie of Kings being Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church of God But there is this difference between Natural and Revealed Religion Natural Religion is written in the Heart and may certainly be found there however it comes to be known clearly and truly only by Revelation and so may be absolutely Commanded But Revealed Religion is recorded by Faith and Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God and therefore cannot be Commanded but must be expected by the Blessing of God upon Instruction But if any Man profess to believe Revealed Religion to have received it as the undoubted Truth of God it is then the Law of Nature he should deport himself in it and towards it as to the Truth of God Nebuchadnezzer Darius and the King of Nineveh their Laws were rightly grounded upon the Principles of Natural Religion concerning the True God The Laws of Moses and the Princes of Judah in Revealed Religion were upon the so unavoidable acknowledgement of the Divine Presence and Authority in and with those Laws the so many Repeated Covenants Indentures and Engagements of that People on the evident Appearances of God to be obedient to those Laws But in the Revelation oâ— Jesus Christ we find no tracks of Humane Power bâ—â—â—ll was done by Instruments fitted from Heaven naked of â—ll Humane Authority that the Excellency of th◠〈◊〉 might be of God and not of Men till Princes and 〈◊〉 agreed in the Faith of the Gospel not by Compulsion but by Evidences and inward Assurances of the Faith and so it is still to continue Quest Before you pass from this point that it may be made the clearer will you give the Distinction between Sovereign Powers and the Elders of the Church For they are both called Rulers they are both called the Ministers of God Answ This is indeed most necessary to be known as tending much to Illustrate this whole Matter 1. The Power of the Elders of the Church lies wholly and intirely in the Evidence of the Truth and the Word of God they Minister without which their Persons are Invested with no Power or Authority at all But there is a Sacred Character upon Soveraign Powers and their very Persons so that Reverence Prostration Obeysance Honourable Titles and Obedience in all Lawful Things are due to them even when their Commands in some things being unlawful cannot be obeyed as appears every where in Scripture 2. The Authority Power and Majesty of Sovereign Princes remains Inviolable and not to be invaded by any no not by those who have Commission to speak the Word of God There is no Temporal Power in order to Spirituals Conferred by Christ or Ordained to his Ministers to Create a Civil-Spiritual Power within a Civil and to rencounter it But Princes are in all Causes and over all Persons within their own Dominions under God and according to his appointment Supream Governours so contrary is Scripture to the Usurpation of the Anti-Church herein All Religious Princes guiding themselves by Gods Word have great Power and Authority not only by that Word but by Virtue of that Authority and Majesty God hath Cloathed them with as his Vicegerents to Direct and Govern according to Truth wherein the Divine Spirit is pleased often to be so immediately present with them that a Divine Sentence is in the Kings Lips that they may direct according to Truth and in all Truth they are to be Obey'd not only for the Truths sake but for that Authorities sake also God hath Invested them with 3. The Elders of the Church lose their Power by erring from Truth and the Word of God for of what Authority is the False Prophet or the False Teacher But Princes and Soveraign Powers have a Power though misapply'd to vindicate their Authority upon those that cannot Obey them except they should Disobey God to Obey Magistrates which none dare assert that acknowledge God in which Power Magistrates must not be resisted even while they cause Men to suffer for Righteousness sake 4. The Admonitions Excommunications Anathema's of Church Rulers have no Force when not grounded upon Divine Truth nor ought to make Impression upon Conscience but to be rejected with Disdain But the Penal Sentences and Vindictive Decrees of Sovereign Powers have their Effect so far even when they are unjust as to be received as an Ordination of Power appointed by God though us'd to a wrong purpose Where the Word of a King is there is Power and his Wrath is as the Roaring of a Lion and it is so appointed by God Against such a Supream Executive Power Arm'd with the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation there is no rising up no remedy but appeal to God by Prayers and Tears Quest This whole Account might be much Illustrated if it be declared on the other side what Obedience is due to the Ministers of the Word and Truth of God whether extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles or ordinary as the Elders of the Church and Ministers of the Gospel even when Supream Magistrates Command the contrary Answ The Word and Truth of God are of so Supream Authority that though the Ministers of it are of no Authority separated from that Word yet the Word and â—â—uth oâ— God of which they are Embassadours is much highâ—◠〈◊〉 â—he Kings and Princes of the Earth and there is no Compare between thâ— one and the other God therefore raised up extraordinarily what Messengers he pleased and sent them with what Messages he thought good to what Princes or Magistrates soever because immediately 〈◊〉 God the
greater Communities and that Patriarchate and Primogeniture lost it self in the numerousness of Mankind Reason advis'd to the orderly separating and dedicating some persons to the continual attendance upon Sacred Offices 3. That they might be the more Authoritative herein as persons of greatest sanctity wisdom attainments in knowledg were most recommended to such a choice so Education separation to Reading Meditation Study for attainment of knowledg must be the means under the eye of Natural Religion for enabling persons for the discharge of such Functions For there are but three ways whereby persons can be supposed authorized to presidency in Divine Things 1. By Parental Authority the same with Patriarchal 2. By Eminency of Parts and Gifts join'd with dedication of themselves and orderly approbation to publick office 3. By special and immediate appointment of God either by a standing Law as in the Levitical Priesthood or by Inspiration as in the Prophets The first two are of Natural Sanction the last of Supernatural Ordination And so far as appears by Sacred Records no one of them excludes from Discourses and Instructions of even a publick character those that have eminent gifts and inablements though not by immediate inspiration as Elihu having an excellent spirit equal'd himself with men of days and years as he himself speaks Job 32. 7 8. But Jeroboams making Priests of the meanest of the people 1 King 12. 3â— â— was a transgression against the very Laws of Nature And it seems to me an error of too much a like enormity against innate reason to bring down Divine Offices to such prepar'd prescription as the most uneducated undevoted undedicated persons to knowledg study meditation might perform so that they have nothing to trust to but as it is call'd the indelible character of Ordination which will hardly bear them out in the Court of natural Conscience and therefore cannot easily attone them to the rules of Revealed Religion which never contradicts or so much as dispenses with natural On the other side to clog the higher dignified persons in this Ministry with so much of rule and business as hinders the performance of these Divine Offices with the utmost effects of that study and meditation before spoken of runs into the same ill consequence and exchanges a Religious service into a secular Grandeur Else no one hath reason to envy that they who are Princes in Righteousness Truth and Peace and Priests indeed of the most High God Gen. 14. 18. mediating continually betwixt God and men in Doctrine Prayer Blessing and Praises should be placed among the Princes of the people And so I have run through those things that more immediately concern the first and greatest commandment but like unto Mat. 22. 37 38. these are Righteousness Justice Mercy Truth Sobriety Temperance Charity Humility Modesty Patience general love peaceableness containing our selves within our own bounds order submission to Government with perfect subjection in all things that do not contradict obedience to God together with all those things that speak virtue goodness loveliness good report honour esteem in human conversation Phil. 4. 8. which so far as they can come under the observation of man and can be regulated by laws so far as they can come into palpable instances are worthy of rewards and encouragements and the contrary of punishments This is natural Religion and it stands upon this unmovable foundation Nothing is more truly Religion or reverence of the Divine Majesty than those things which do most perfect humane nature into a conformity with God And therefore the first and chiefest in the order or scale of Religious excellencies are the things that are most really good the more substantial rational solidly good any thing is the more it pleases God and must be approved of Rom. 14. 18. men if they shew themselves men Thus all the massy acts of Love to God and men Godliness Righteousness Soberness excel all the Honour pretended to be done to God by prayer praises discourses of him oâ— whatever of that sort seems most worthy to be preferred which without the other become a flattery of God only Next discourses of his word and will in order to learn obedience are of higher account than prayer for He that Prov. 28. 9. turns away his ear from hearing the law his prayer shall be an abomination yet Prayer and Praises are much more acceptable than sacrifices There may be now a solemn appeal made to all the world whether Christian Religion is defective in one single point of this true Natural Religion at the highest and fullest dimensions of it possible to be conceived here is the height and depth the breadth and length of Natural Knowledg concerning God concerning good and evil concerning rewards and punishments according to the most sober sedate judgment of Mankind the universal consent of the world the most ready accusations and defences all men make in points of good and evil in their treaties and debates one with another according to the discourses of the most Wise Learned and Virtuous of the Philosophers the best of Lawgivers If then there be the most Wise the most Good the most Virtuous that ever was in nature found in Christian Religion abating nothing but positive Laws topical Religion Rites and Customs what a foundation of peace quietness and happy state might a consent but in this Natural Religion as it is fairly extant in the Christian Religion be and what a conviction of the Christian verity would such an acceptance of Natural Undeniable Religion from it be when just as in the day of Pentecost those Acts 2. 8. several sorts of people heard the wonderful Works of God each in their own language so in Christianity every one finds what ever they can think excepting their own particular Rites most generally truly and valuably good and that upon deepest considerations strictest examination and even uncontroversable certainty And how benign and compassionate might mankind be to it self if summoning together these truly excellent notions and framing its Religious Laws according to them they exacted a severe conformity in all that is thus vertuous and good and allowed a benign freedom of offering and receiving the best accounts that can be given of further revelations from God forbearing injury violence and blood and then also it would soon appear what an indisputable title that only excellent Religion of our Saviour hath to be the truly Catholick Religion of the whole world and so far to set it at peace Now though there is little reason to expect this will come to pass till a spirit be poured out from on high and these rivers of truth break out in the wilderness till the great Prophecies of Scripture looking to a better state of the world come to be fulfilled Yet still according to the rule of right Reason it should be so nor doth it diminish the reasonableness or silence the offers of the Reasons that they are not likely
to have their effect there being many other in the event incurable evils upon men in despight of right Reason the cure of which yet any one may freely offer and discouse 2. Having thus far insisted upon the first Particular under this Head of Natural Religion I come to shew the agreeableness of Christian Religion with Natural in what it reveals above and beyond Natural Religion and the great Reasons of our Acceptance of Christian Religion thereupon which was the second Head propos'd And that I may make this the clearer let it be distributed into these three Branches 1. That it is hereby necessarily suppos'd Natural Religion is given to be a Test and Touch-stone of Truth in Religion 2. That Christian Religion hath such an evident agreement with Natural Religion as to be approved and recommended by it 3. That it being so excellent and so recommended it lays the true grounds of peace throughout the world in Religion 1. As to the first I thus argue If a man have no notes of distinction within if there be not a Religious Rational Understanding planted by God as a nature in man if there be not Principles ingrafted into that Understanding how shall a man know the goodness of anything propos'd to him the conformity of it with what it is pretended to be When our Saviour challenged the Phraisees requiring a sign from Heaven for the truth of his Doctrine thus Why even of or from within your selves judg ye not what is Luk. 12. 5 7. right He imply'd The very essence of a man as an Intellectual Rational Spirit must be also full of Religious and Moral Principles and so must have innate judgment of Religious Truth as many other Scriptures assure us Without this a man can have nothing but an Implicite faith for his Religion a strong belief it 's true Now seeing Turks Jews Papists every one that is throughly possess'd with his Religion hath the same this kind of Faith is no other than these several Religionists laying a wager one with another which is the true Religion and it greatly derogates from the Christian Religion to suppose there is no more but this confident adventure for it rather than for any other and no grand assurance within in Natural Religion Even matters of Divine Revelation however immediately from God must be hence known and discovered else every thing that calls it self Revelation must be taken for Divine Although the Prophets might be at some times under a strong supernatural hand that transported their minds as it did also in extraordinary cases their bodies yet they were generally under the still-voice speaking to their faculties enlightning their reason sanctifying their affections by which they had even at the time of their greatest raptures a sense of the excellency of Divine Truth an habitual acquaintance with the ways of Divine approach and presence a search into the things they had spoken even after they had spoken them So the Apostle Peter tells us They searched what or what manner of time the Spirit that was in them did signifie 1 Pet. 1. 11. They had a holy gust of Divine things a judgment discerning between any sort of private spirit and the universal Spirit of Grace and Truth else how did they differ from Balaam 2 Pet. 1. ult Abraham no doubt had a free debate with himself of the certainty that the voice was Divine that commanded him to Gen. 22. sacrifice his Son and argued within himself the reasonableness of returning his Son and especially his Son Isaac to the Author of all life and being and of Isaac's most particularly and so he resign'd him But Infinite Truth and Goodness always jealous over the sacredness of Nature's Laws would not permit the execution The great power of Miracles is not their astonishment of sense but summoning mens minds with great authority to Rational and Religious Considerations laid up in store within them The sum then of this Point is this Natural Religion always with us as intimate as our faculties as certain and true as they are in their frame and creation must be our Ordeal if I may so call it our Fiery our surest way of trial of all Proposals made to us in Religion that is after due awakening our minds and examination of things by them and the blessed assistances or highest infusions of the Divine Spirit are breath'd into our natural sentiments in things pertaining to God inlightned purified and guided into all truth 2. The second Branch follows viz. Christian Religion hath such an evident agreement with Natural Religion as to be approved and recommended by it even in what it reveals above and beyond Natural Religion Now if it be first evident there is not one good thing in that whole Religion as every thing in it is holy just and good but Christianity hath united it self with it self it hath so carefully gathered up all the fragments of it that no one thing is or can be lost And if it be made good in the second place that whatever Christian Religion reveals beyond natural Religion endures the touch of Natural Religion and is besides its own proper credentials recommended by it there cannot be any thing added to evince that Christian Religion is a foundation of Oecumenical peace in Religion seeing Natural Religion is the Oecumenick Religion the Religion of all mankind It must be so for every man hath it written in his heart and Christian Religion is in much of it one and the same Religion is all of it most agreeable with Natural Religion and recommended by it It then necessarily follows no man can be wisely Rationally Religious but he must be so far Christianly Religious and what Christian Religion offers beyond the wisdom and rationality of a man beyond the Law of the first creation is yet as agreeable with it as light with light greater light with lesser light how then can he that shews himself man be cruel outragious against or out of peace with it He that falls out with it falls out with Godliness Righteousness Soberness Humility Truth peace with God attonement to him with laying hold upon Eternal Life and flying from the wrath to come with Patience Meekness Mercy Compassion from God to men from men to one another He that persecutes Christianity must persecute righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in which whosoever Rom. 14 17 18. serveth Christ as every one must do that serves him is accepted of God and approved of men and therefore to despite Christianity is not only Belluine but Devilish So that the third Branch plainly results from the two former viz. if Natural Religion be the standard and touchstone given us to try all things in Religion by and that Christian Religion comes off from the tryal more precious than Gold It follows then of what value it ought to be to all the world To demonstrate then the second Branch that Christian Religion so agrees with Natural as to
be recommended by it in what it reveals beyond it 1. The first thing I shall insist upon is this That even as Natural Religion conduces very much to the worlds Peace that it is Natural Substantial and not Ceremonial so doth it also recommend Christian Religion that it is so far from consisting in Ceremony that it hath no more in number than there were found in innocency There was the tree of the knowledg of good and evil the not eating of which was a symbol of universal obedience There was the tree of Life a Sacrament sealing the Reward of obedience Gen 2. 9. There was the seventh day Sabbath a day of solemn converse with God and meditation of his Works founded upon his rest from Creation and a pledg of everlasting Rest with God Gen. 2. 2 3. In Christianity there is Baptism the seal of the Covenant of Grace entred into on Gods part and ours The Sacrament of the Lords Supper the seal of the full Communication of all the blessings of the Covenant The Christian Sabbath a day dedicated to the service and enjoyment of the Creator-Redeemer giving natural Rest to bodies Religious Festivals to souls in holy imployment and action grounded on his Resurrection and sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high called by express title the Lords Day as the Eucharist the Lords Supper and a pawn of the Eternal Sabbatism with our Lord in Glory Now these are so few so easie so familiar so near natural so intelligible that it is plain the Institutor and Founder of them had no pleasure in Ceremonies or that his servants should waste their time or spirits in observing them or imploy their understandings in finding out a Rationale for them although in condescension to men sojourning in flesh and blood he gave such Symbols of his Grace and Presence And so in the fewness the easiness the intelligibleness there is a testimony to them from Natural Religion which else is unconcerned in all the Religious Rites and Ceremonies that are in the world and leaves them to be judged by that proof they can make of themselves either as enjoyned by God or as the results of humane Prudence or National Decency Further it can give no account of them for Natural and Ceremonial Substantial and Ceremonial are opposed one to another This then is the Glory of Natural and Christian Religion which indeed are not two but one that they have least of shade The darker any Religion is the more are the Ceremonies like the shadows of the evening stretched out the clearer the Religion the nearer the perfection of Heaven where there is no shadow at all the less are the Ceremonies like the shades of a high noon in the Summer solstice The depraved heart of man is so easily bewitch'd with Forms and Fopperies calling them significant Ceremonies like saying to the dumb stone awake arise and teach or to their staff declare to us that it is by no means to be trusted lest seeking Hab. 2. 19. Hosea 4. 12. a shady devotion of Ceremonies under the disguise of a solemn one as the Pagans chose Woods and Groves for their sacred performances it lose it self in the thicket not knowing where it is and in the end the true Religion also I cannot see what Religion or Devotion except that which ignorance is the mother of and which cannot be good no more than the heart that uses it can suffer by being easie of access familiar unencumbred the most plain free intelligible institution of the Lords Supper was at length corrupted into the idolatrous Mass by being made horrid as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion by being solid and substantial is best secur'd from the stroak of the Atheist who accuses it of trick and design for when there are found Ceremonial covers like pious frauds over it and they easily yield to Attack as of no value the Atheist presently challenges all the rest by proportion and renders it suspicious It is best secur'd against the schismatick and unquiet spirit that is truly so for he hath something in unnecessary Ceremony to fasten on and move trouble by It is kindest to the more modest scrupulous person who is upon great Reasons afraid of humane additions to divine worship Ceremony can add nothing to the truly wise and generously Religious person who loves Religion for it self and needs not the childish and Phantastick Gaudery or Gayety of Ceremonies to inamor him of Religion he loves it for its true worth for its native Beauty and substantial excellency It is therefore only fitted to the Hypochondriack Devotionist who loves Religion in such a kind of set solemn dress or to the empty Formalist that must have it so adorned or recommended or to vulgar unlearned and irrational minds who must be catch'd with shows and pompous appearances and kept in amuse that they may be somewhat intent in Religious excercise but with this disadvantage that they seldom pierce further than this surface or take notice of the Religion it self and when at any time these things happen to be exposed they become the scorn and hate of such persons so that they deal rudely with them But now substantial massive Religion yields not to such sort of Attacks but like Rock resists supported with its own substance born upon its own truth And therefore were it not for the excellency of Christian Religion of Divine Revelation in the Scriptures I should rather choose as he said to have my soul among the Wise Rationally Religious Philosophers if such can be found then with any Religion that this day appears in the world not excepting the Romish that hath deturpated and dishonoured the only excellent Religion and as it is Romish is the worse because it is Christian Next to those ponderous self-great and infinitely Rational principles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I should choose to rest only in the undoubted principles and maxims of Natural Religion so excellent that Christianity hath not lost one of them but so gathered up the Fragments that no one thing could be lost as I have already said Besides this Natural this Christian Religion I know nothing but all subjection to principalities and powers according to the Laws of Nations in civil things the gravity and decency of Religious actions according to all Laws of humane Prudence and the custom of Countries If any one should object to the advantage of Ceremonies the state of Religion among the Jews involved and wrapped up in so much Ceremonie It may be answered to him 1. There was so great and presential an evidence of Divine Authority concerning them among the Jews who were only bound to them under that immediate Theocraty exercised over them that as it was absolutely necessary so it was sufficient to bear them up God as the Author continually and frequently appeared to give value to them by his own particular command He was able to bless and impower the meanest Rite to
or a Bad Religion when yet Christians were under the fiery Tryal when they were continually under persecution for their Religion which the Apostle calls Righteousness because able to justifie it self to be so by the Laws of Natural Religion when they were bound to deny so great a part of their subjection to the higher powers as not to cease to be Christians at their command what then does this largeness frankness and freedom of expression mean On the part of Christians to be subject and that not for wrath but for â—onsâ—ience sake and to submit themselves when yet they were presently upon the account of their holy profession of Christianity to deny subjection and submission to the great command of Magistracy in Religion On the part of Magistrates that they were only a Terror to evil works and a praise to them that do well that he that does well should not be afraid when upon the true estimate of Christianity they were persecuting for righteousness sake How can all this be reconciled but by reducing all to the just bounds and limits of divine Ordination fixing the Magistrates Power and the Peoples Obedience in things pertaining to Religion thus so far as Natural Religion extends so far the Magistrates power extends here he is the Minister of God and bears not the sword in vain hither is the peoples obedience to come in all things pertaining to that they must needs be subject not only for wrath but conscience sake These are the ancient Landmarks thar ought not to be removed I speak not at all of civil obedience now but of obedience in things pertaining to the conscience Let none of you suffer as a murderer as a thief as an evil-doer 1 Pet. 4. 15 16. as a busie-body in other mens matters So the same Apostle speaks Offences against Natural Religion or for violation of Godliness commanded by the Law of Nature then quietness and peace of life is justly denied you But if you suffer as Christians rejoice and be exceeding glad when you come to suffer upon the account of that excellent Religion reveal'd from Heaven and assur'd to you here there is no suffering justly due to you therefore your sufferings shall be recompenced to you with Divine Glory from Heaven from whence Christianity is revealed Let us lay the whole together At that very time when Magistrates were Heathens and enemies to Christian Religion and Christians could pay them no obedience in receding from Christianity so that upon the point of Christianity there was not the mutual obligation of obedience and protection yet there was still a common center wherein even in Religious Considerations the Protection of Magistrates and the Obedience of Christians was to meet and that uncontroversably on both sides good and what could that be but as one place calls it godliness and honesty another good works another doing well This then is the standard of the worlds peace and tranquility Vniversal Religion Absolute Religion Natural Religion even as Natural Justice Vniversal Justice is the measure of all Transactions between man and man Yet if Magistrates will inflict sufferings upon Christians 1 Pet. 2. 2â— holding fast their profession they are taught by Christianity to suffer patiently not as if sufferings were due to them but that Justice may be done Natural Religion may be maintained one great branch of which is upholding Government in all its Honours and Plenipotence but therefore in testimony to them that sufferings are not due to them the Spirit of God and of Glory shall rest upon them Even as in all undue Administrations of the Magistrates power where Humane Laws the Laws of this or that Government have taken no care suffering is the duty of the innocent but their appeal lyes above The Conclusion then is this according to the sense of the New Testament where ever there is no impeachment lyes against men from the violation of Natural Religion their peaceable and quiet lives are the just right of their godliness and honesty Praise security a state out of fear is due to them as well-doers as to those that do that which is good Many other are the expressions we meet with in the Apostolick Writings looking this Way that the great Letters of commendation to mankind in general concerning persons and their ways in Religion so far as the thing comes under their judicature is the intrinsick and real goodness of their Profession and Lives at the beam of Natural Conscience This is the Royal Law every one is to fulfil in these things Jam. 2. 8. Rom. 14. 18. we must serve Christ that we may be accepted of God and approved of men Thus they must adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour thus they must take care against the Name 1 Tim. 6. 1. of God being blasphemed thus they must put to silence the ignorance â— Pet. 2. 15. 3. 16. of foolish men and make them ashamed Now it is true all the severity of Profession and Life according to Natural Religion will not justifie the truth or goodness of an assumed Religion as revealed from God as of the sober Moral Heathen Jew Turk Papist or any Master of Sect of most unblameable life among Protestants that is to be tryed in a Consistory proper to it the Arguments and Evidences of it being reveal'd are to be weighed the nature scope and tendency of it and all its Principles are to be examined and at last it stands at Gods Judgment-seat where it ought to be judged But thus the Argument is the more enforced that where there are the Testimonials of Natural Religion fairly written in the behalf of any Religion and the Professors of it though we are not nor may have reason to be induced by the Motives of Credibility it gives to approve our selves to God or seek everlasting happiness in it yet the right hand of Humanity in allowing Peaceable Lives is to be given them Having thus far insisted upon Scripture in the proof of this Assertion I come now to argue it by Reason and under every Argument to observe the Objections that may be made against it Argum. 1. And in the first place I argue from the great Excellency of Natural Religion and the Acceptableness of it to God that therefore since it is also general Religion it ought to be the Center of common peace in Religion we ought to allow the Hospitableness of Humanity to all that profess it and Dogmatize nothing but what upon due hearing and discourse they offer to make out consistent and fairly agreeing with it For it is but reasonable even upon a violent suspition of the contrary to inquire hear and receive Reason if it can be given as in the case of the Altar of Testimony we read of Joshua 22. 10. God made the World and all the Magnificencies of it at the first to entertain men of this general and excellent Religion And the Apostle Peter saith as in Revival of what had been
our Love in our Sympathy in our Bowels of Affection in our Care for the Body though we are not all of an Aspect of a Figure of a Size in our Membership yet still are we the Body of Christ and Members in particular and being so we are the Israel of God upon whom is Peace and Mercy both now and for ever Amen And if we ought as certainly we ought so to pray with what satisfaction of mind with what appearance of Christianity can we move against the Peace of our Fellow-Members or not contribute to their Ease to their self-Enjoyment to the Comfort of each others Condition so that if one member be honour'd all the members may rejoice with it if one member suffer all the members may suffer with it and send in to its Relief and Support Our Defects herein disturbing the Peace not Ministring to the Merciful support of one another will be found another sort of Schism but of far deeper Guilt than that so much cryed out of not Conforming to one anothers Indifferents But above all the Ravening of the Evening Wolf the Roar of the Lyon the Poison and Venome of the Asp and Cokatrice ' should be far from our Mountain if we would have it accounted the Holy Mountain of the Lord. And on all sides we should open the Doors and Sluces that the streams of Divine Knowledg might run every way till it covers our Land as the waters do the Sea THE END True Religion the Interest of Nations or National Religion Demonstrated to be the Duty of Nations c. Psal 79. 6. Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy Wrath Fury upon the Heathen Nations that have not known thee and upon the Kingdoms Families that have not called on thy Name THIS Prayer doubled by the Spirit of God for the weight of it the safety to men it should be well known and the certainty of its effect contains a strong assertion of the great benefit of Phil. 3. 2. Gen. 41. 32. and obligation lying upon Nations to National true Religion For seeing according to a grand Rule in Gods Administration of the World Nations that have no National Religion and whose Nationalness therefore becomes Heathenism and is so branded by the Spirit of God for so Nations in Scripture very often signifies Heathen that is Nations without true Religion are lyable to the pouring out of the wrath and fury of God upon them It does not only follow by the rule of Contraries that National true Religion or Worship of the true God hath a strong order to and connexion with the favour of God but as the positive Proposition is the prime and original and gives ground to and contains within it self the privative so does this Proposition That Gods Anger and Fury is at all times ready against those that do not know him that do not call upon him as join'd in a National Body or Society being the privative owe it self to the other being the positive as shall be more fully made out in the arguing this Point At the present it will be enough to observe that these two Holy men the Composer of this Psalm and the Prophet Jeremy except as some think they were both one desiring the destruction of those Heathen enemies under whose oppression their own people which at that time comprehended the Church of God then groan'd and praying in spirit for it relye and rest the whole weight of their prayer upon this principle of great truth and consequence in Gods Government of the World that as Families as Nations as Kingdoms for so all Communities are comprehended they did not know nor call upon God that is they did not worship the true God and therefore were most justly subject to his fiercest displeasure And on the other side it is couched under this though indeed before it That the people that do know and call upon the true God have a title to his savour and vindication of them in all their distress while they are consider'd as so knowing and calling upon him and not contradicting it by their actions The Context therefore goes on arguing with God on this point They have devoured Jacob in whose quarrel and rescue God is so much concern'd And seeing the favour of God is Eternal Life and his wrath burns to the lowest Hell both his wrath and his favour are to be understood in their extent even to everlasting ages All which will ground the Proposition which I mainly intend in this Discourse That National true Religion is the greatest security strength and defence of a Nation against the Divine wrath and displeasure and gives the surest claim to his favour blessing and protection both in this world and in that which is to come Because it is an observation of the greatest duty and therefore to be most closely united in and pursued to the utmost by all wise Nations and by all the several parts and members of a Nation for it is their first and highest Psal 33. i2 144. 15. Interest Blessed is the Nâ—tion that is in such a case yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord who have Jehovah thus for their God And this very consideration should reconcile all differences in National Religion that can be composed without loss of that Truth and corruption of those parts of the Worship of God which give denomination to true National Religion This should incline those that are above to the greatest condescensions and those that are beneath to the most free compliances possible if they value Religion and love their Nation that at least there may be union in National Religion if there cannot be perfect Uniformity For I am fully perswaded that upon a strict examination of this Point it will be found that National Religion supposing it always the true is the happiest model of union in Religion of any upon earth and most pleasing to God except that of the Catholick Church whose union is in the Substantials of Truth worship and practise but comes under no other form or model properly taken but except this there is none so perfect to the ends and glory of Religion so adaequate to the expressions of Scripture concerning the publickness of Religion so encouraging and advantageous to the practise so reconcileable with the peace of Religion and Nations so preventive of the endless divisions and subdivisions Humane Nature is apt to fall into when it yields up it self to a scrupulosity and Disputatiousness about Externals and Forms in Religion I say again I am perswaded no man can serve God with greater acceptableness nor be Religious to greater ends and purposes of Religion than by joining with the Nation or Supream Civil Incorporation whereof he is a member so far as he can be permitted to do it consistent with the Truth of Religion and Divine Worship I say as far as he can upon these accounts if not throughout And of this I shall endeavour to give great and valuable proofs from
and inflam'd with a Holy Affection in a lowly Imitation of the Divine Zeal wherewith God performs all his Holy Ordinations Thus as Princes they have power with God because they offer him their Petitions according to his Established Rules of Government and his own Holy Will concerning the things wherein they pray to him Now the understanding these Rules was extraordinary and infallible to the Prophets and Servants of God inspir'd by him but to us in ordinary by the light of the Word of God by the Laws of True and Right Reason in deductions from that word And in which word and the deductions from it if we are not mistaken the Efficacy will be certain because if we ask according to his will we are sure he heareth us and that we have in some true sense the Petitions we ask of him This is so valuable a Rule of prayer that Daniel though so great a Man of Vision yet betook himself to this ordinary means of Instruction in the mind of God Dan. 9. By Books of Holy Records and general Chronology he knew that the time of the Babylonish Captivity was near its Expiration and so set himself to prayer and was crown'd with this wonderful success and acceptance Thus prayers prevail with God and yet without any change in him there being a Configuration or Concurrence of all things according to his own unchangable Will His Counsels of old that are Faithfulness and Truth are remonstrated to him by the humble servent desires of his servants that knew them to be his Counsels and who are ordered by the same counsels to enquire or beseech him by prayer according to them and therefore by his spirit the spirit of prayer He draws the parallel lines to his own Intentions upon their Hearts Desires and Affections I have pursued this the further because it gives a solution to that Doubt how God without any change in himself hears prayers and also assures us this prayer being so remarkable as to be twice us'd in the same words most certainly bears it self upon some certain principle from which we may argue to general practise The principle it rests upon must be this There is an Establish'd order betwixt the wrath and displeasure of God His Fury and Vengeance and the Nations or Families not knowing not calling on his Name and this is known by very light of Nature His Wrath according to unchangable Laws is always prepar'd against those that forsake him and that Duty they owe to him as Nations It had been else a great presumption upon God and Breach of Charity to the Nations so to pray against them which may also give us account of all those Dreadful Imprecations and Curses David and other Prophets and Holy men pour out against their own Enemies and the Enemies of their people They are founded in their being Enemies to God his True Worship Love and Service and as such their Final Destruction was decreed against them by the most Righteous Laws of Divine Government made known unto those Holy men and so they prayed for it as publique persons and not out of private Wrath and Revenge but this by the way I proceed now in the main Argument And this principle I am upon That the Wrath of God is against the Nations that are without National Religion lyes deeper in a First and more Original principle viz. There is an Obligation a great Duty lying upon Nations as Nations to know and worship the True God For else why should God find fault why should he be angry when none had resisted his Will From hence it is That there is a Natural Order established by God between his Love and Favour and a People and their publique True Religion because it is the Observation of a Duty and the Observation of Duty is the fitting us for Blessing and â—avour as the neglect and Transgression of Duty cannot be without wrath and displeasure For thus God hath placed Life and Death one over against another yet so that Life and Blessing are always first even as Duty is always before sin For God never made Death and Destruction even as he never could be the cause of sin but they come in by the Failing of our Duty and so of that Life and Blessedness entail'd on our Duty Yet the Obligation to National True Religion is much more evident from these Holy men praying down Wrath upon them that know not God and that call not on his Name then it could have been from the praying for his Favour to them that did know him and that did call on his Name because his Favour might have been vouchsafed upon Terms much below our substantial and inviolable Duty As many of the Jewish Rites might be Arguments for and Pledges of Gods gracious Regard to the people he had so distinguish'd when the want of those signs would not have argued to the effusion of his Wrath and Vengeance there being no natural or positive Duty lying upon any but the Jews to such observances There may be many Arguments for the Bounty and Favour of God from External Rites appointed by him and observ'd by his people though indeed these all refer to their Essential Duty and argue nothing without it Yet the contrary will not enforce to the opposite Degrees of Wrath and Indignation because they are not observ'd when no substantial Duty is violated Vncircumcision that keeps the Law may have in the main the same security from wrath with Circumcision that keeps the Law also Seeing then there is so great wrath against those that know not God that call not on his Name It assures us the Duty the Obligation and the Reason of it lye deep that the omission is so subjected to the Divine Revenges and it is in this A society without Religion is a High contempt of God a making flesh our arm and departing from the Lord and so from his Favour and Blessing A principality without an Inscription a Dedication to the Glory of God to which all things are to be devoted is like the building a Tower up to Heaven A sin like the sin of Herod when he let that Sacrilegious Applause sink into him and gave not the Glory to God and therefore subjects men to be at any time smitten and blasted by God who has said Those that honour him he will honour but all else shall be lightly esteem'd whether Nation or Person It is not therefore only the Judgment upon the Irreligion of particular persons of particular Families that is here intended though this is included and suppos'd but especially upon the Irreligion of Societies knitting and strengthning themselves without the True God upon Principalities exalting themselves and not by and with the Almighty and Supreme Majesty On the other side if there be a Duty an Obligation of being publiquely Religious there is a Blessing upon it according to that Fundamental Principle He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder
and Divine Reasons are the only way of introducing it into Nations Beyond this is nothing but Popish Antichristian Ambition or wild and cursed Enthusiasm with all their salvage effects 2. Where there is National Religion even the National Authority is first Christianiz'd so that there is no Headship no Foundation but Christ and his Laws taking place upon a National State in profession of him If the Christianity then be removed by falshood taking place instead of Truth the Nationalness stays but the Religion the Candlestick is removed the Church is departed from it and retires where it may be enjoyed in its own Truth The form of the Church is the very same with that of the Catholick Church and Congregations As it is National the Headship Organization is no other than National but no more than the City of Corinth or other Cities or Regions made a Church of Corinth or those other Churches no more do National Laws or Magistracy make the National Religion Christianity if received settles there if not received or afterwards expulsed leaves Laws Magistracy Cities to themselves and so it deals with Churches or Forms of them of what kind soever 3. All Union in True Religion is free rational voluntary It owns no compulsion of Laws or Magistracy except in things morally good or evil so that in this only is the difference from National Agreement in other things that of Religion is voluntary and by consent Princes and Governors may be nursing Fathers and Mothers by honorary Rewards and Encouragements they may give all freedom to the true Worship of God and protect it by Laws they may fâ—nce it in with the strict observation of all moral observances they may offer and take care for the perswasions of Religion to be addressed to all their Subjects Many such demonstrations of their Love to true Religion are allowed by God but despotically to command or compel is not of the nature of True Christian though National Religion Christs Kingdom not being of this world refuses even the Magistrates Sword much more that of private force for the propagation of its most proper Interests Our Saviours Religion hates all things of violence and cruelty it is not of its Spirit he does all by instruments of his own And if Nations have made their Religion yea the Religion of Christ an essential of their Government yet if it be not according to the rule of Christ Obedience to and the good opinioof that Government is a lower and lesser Interest than Truth and O bedience to Christ Christ never intended Christianity for a Politick Engine or Expedient yet for the conservation of Government in its full Rights there is not a more concernful point of Christian Religion than the whole Doctrine of Patient Suffering with its reasonableness though it is unhappy for those Rulers that put Christians upon the exercise of it unhappy is that Power that is sealed to with Martyrs Sufferings Yet every man owes to God a strict account why he is not of the National Religion what reasons counterballance to him the great reasons given for National Religion and therein shall receive his Sentence from Christ If any upon just reasons desert a Congregation though but of two or three as I have at large set out is a little Sanctuary reserved to them by Christ with a faithful promise of his presence where it cannot be enjoyed in greater which are else though with some disadvantages in all other regards to be preferred for their publickness and not without great reasons to be refrained from or deserted If the Reasons are not of weight they stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ who are guilty of a Schism against the Laws of Christianity the Laws of Natural Religion the Laws of Humane Society and that according to the malignancy of it To draw this Discourse now to a Conclusion let me subjoyn some Rules by way of Inference of certain good effect to the management of so great an Interest as I have represented National Religion Rule 1. That the Religion offered for National should in the substantials of it be all of clear and undoubted evidence from the Word of God and sound reason from it and in indifferents or necessarily adhering circumstances prepared by so publick a Spirit as to project least of doubt and scruple that as Articles of Faith should be so fram'd as to beget no dividing Controversie but leave room to the particular Judgments of Men where points absolutely necessary are secured so all things of external mode or form should be so freely and generously design'd that every mans particular apprehension may be most at liberty without which the probabilities of the National Religion are surpris'd Rule 2. That in Circumstantials of Religion what is prepared and setled so that it cannot be alter'd by any private dispose nor allowed to any private choice without scandal to the publick Every man should consider his Liberty of Conscience on one side as on the other to preserve himself from scruple as in the Apostles instance of eating There is liberty on one side to eat all things but this does not determine to a necessity of eating that were not liberty If therefore there be a good reason an expediency not to eat the liberty is more conserv'd in not eating than in eating So it is in the use or not use of all indifferent things Where then as to the case we are now upon the advantages for publique Religion incline this way or that way to the use or not use of Indifferent Things It is our greatest liberty to move our selves that way and not to be deterr'd with the suspition of the loss of it by so doing This seems to be the Prophet Zachariahs resolution concerning the Fasts wherein those that would have them laid down and others would keep them still a foot differ'd He first shews them of no value with God then bids them love the Truth and Peace Zach. 8. 10. For though outward Forms Uniformity or Variety in them are of no account in themselves with God but either way in the Uniformity or the Variety They that serve God in spirit and truth are accepted of him yet the angry dissents and disagreements that dis-joyn the minds of men and disable the Union of Divine Worship is like the covering the Altar with tears of complaint and makes the offering unacceptable That there may be the Unity God is delighted in without Uniformity is plain by the Harmony of the Evangelists in their History of our Saviour where there is perfect Unity yet without Uniformity it is plain too by a consideration of Gods smelling a savour of rest in the services of the Church Universal where there is great Variety yet Unity But the contentions and quarrels that often arise about these things are the great causes of Gods displeasure what may most cure them is then most to be desired and chosen but what that is I will not be so bold as to prescribe
we whatever smaller distinctions make the they and the we are both one in our Lord Jesus Christ We ought therefore to pray for the common benefit of all so united though not bound up in the same form with us for a gracious audience and reception of their and our Worship of God that so the Spirit of Love and Vnion in the main may convey all our services into one before God where indeed if they are as he requires they meet stripp'd of all their outward Circumstances Form and Ceremony Faith and Obedience being alone able to mount thither with them And services so raised can by no means be spar'd for small differences in a National Religious Interest for the Angels of all such behold the Face of our Father in Heaven If Darius though a Heathen Prince had such a sense of the virtue Ezr. 6. 10 of that true Religion he was not of as to engage those of so great difference from him in their sense of God to pray for the peace of the King and his Sons how much more should we who are all of the same true Faith and Worship and know the Force and Energy of it by great acts of Favour to one another in those things wherein we cannot be wholly one yet all joyn in praying for the acceptance of one anothers services and the services of the whole Nation whereof we are not only Civil but Religious Members And if we are truly Religious shall be so accounted with God yet with the abatement of our sinful differences and divisions How should we therefore unite that we may lose none of the things that we have wrought but may receive a full reward Rule 6. It is the happiness of our Nation that if any man truâ—y understands considers and pronounces of our National Religion It stands in the Scripture making us wise to Salvation In Faith in Jesus Christ Repentance Love of God Fear of the Divine Majesty all Acts of Justice Love Mercy Compassion true sincere Preaching the whole Word of God Prayer use of Sacraments the Lords-day Religious Discourses Conferences Catechetical Instructions and Education of Youth in the knowledg of Religion Restraint of Atheism Irreligion Intemperance and Sensuality generally and throughout the Nation Compulsion of the very worst of men to acknowledge a Deity and his Worship for what is hypocrisie in them may turn to the salvation of good men These are the things I say again that are truly our National Religion all things pertaining to Order Decency outward Form or Mode are but the Vehicle the conveyance of that True Religion if the main Ends of which be obtain'd viz. That these Religious Acts are perform'd but with that peace and freedom from confusion Confusion destructive of all publick Actions and with that Honourableness that is agreeable to the state of every Nation and this Nation particularly in the simplicity of Religious Worship It is enough and whatever on these accounts is commanded in our National Religion I freely own and acknowledge as reconcilable with these Characters forbearing such who though agreeing in all main things upon sincere endeavours to understand them so cannot acquiesce in them as so who deserve compassion These things ought to be no Partition-Wall in our National Worshipping of God one with another nor can they without great rigor and censor ousness very evil in the sight of God be condemned in those who for the sake of Substantial National Religion the publickness and more universal benefit of it wherein they are most truly zealous pay obedience to the Rules of them Rule 7. Let us all strive labour preach hear and pray and even suffer in the Reformation of our selves and endeavours to Reform all others according to the most excellent Rules of our most Holy Religion professed in this Kingdom as our National Religion that it may be found to Praise Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ and be thought worthy to stand before the Son of Man at his coming before whom nothing but the Gold and precious Stones of Substantial Truth and Goodness can stand all else will be burnt off as Hay and Chaff by the fire of that day and they that have been hot and contentious for them be saved only as by Fire with difficulty and loss And in the mean time that our Vnion and Love in the True Religion may be to us an assurance of the Divine Favour and presence of his protection and blessing that neither our Candlestick may be removed nor our Nation the present place of it be taken away for generally both are removed one with the other or soon after one another Rule 8. Let no man be discouraged from the most zealous Affectionate joyning himself to and promoting National Religion because oâ— that veneration due to the Name of The Church and Churches according to the Scripture For a Nation united in True Christian Religion differs no more in the strictest notion from a Church than a Body of men united and consecrated to God according to the Law of Nature differs from a Society united and consecrated to God according to an Institution that is no more than an Institution planted in Nature differs from an Institution given by Revelation For one is the Appointment of God of old from the very Foundations of Humane Society The other after the Fall of Nature and the Inability of it to its end An Institution therefore does not repeal a Natural Law but takes care it should be fulfill'd and compleated in its chiefest End Israel was a Church to God being so devoted to him by his own Institution and it was a Holy Nation according to the Original Exod. 19. 6. Law being elevated by the Institution to its true perfection as a Nation The Christians to whom the Apostle Peter wrote As they were a Church according to the Institution of Christ so they were a Holy Nation as he stiles them succeeding into the place of that whole Jewish Nation Consecrated to God by the Law of Nature upon Nations though but strangers scattered abroad yet to show the 1 Pet. 1. 1â— great value God has of a Nation devoted to him they are stiled A Holy Nation The Institution of the Catholick Church as the seat 1 Pet. 2. 9. of the True Religion of Jesus Christ makes a Nation united in that True Religion both a Church as that Catholick Church hath thereby a Residence in it and much more than those fore-mentioned scatter'd Jews a Holy Nation as it is Nationally resign'd up to God in the True Religion according to the Law of Nature made perfect by the Institution Where then a Nation is united in the Truth of Christian Doctrine the Purity of Divine Worship the Holy Rules of Practise the Catholick Love of all Christians Baptized into the same Body made to drink into that one Spirit In Pastors and Teachers Ministring the same Gospel the Apostles infallibly deliver'd and seal'd with Miracles All
Reason or Doctrine of Religion edifies or emboldens Conscience For although Conscience was made for the Divine Truth and Law of God which is the Truth and not for Scandal it was made so even and true to it that they which love this Law have great peace and nothing can scandalise or offend them that is either seduce or hurt them yet in this very Seat in this very Throne of the Divine Law in this Temple of God in this place of the Holy this Tribunal of the Soul that ought to be the Sanctuary of Truth and Righteousness and as a Tabernacle of Testimony does Scandal exalt it self as if it were from God and from thence it gives its Oracles but Conscience thus debauched and prostituted bears no more proportion to true Conscience than Antichrist does to Christ and is therefore a pseudo-Conscience an Anti-Conscience Conscience falsly so called 7. Scandal always dashes its own Principles of deceived Reason and false Doctrine upon some true and grand Principle of Reason and Doctrine of Religion For though every Truth of God is great yet there are of the first magnitude on account of which oppos'd the Spirit of God brands it Scandal more remarkably and hereupon though the Sin derived from Scandal may in it self seem small yet in regard of some stable Law of Religion made void and thereby Sin introduced it is a very great Sin though in a matter of its own Nature sometimes indifferent Now it cannot be otherwise but Scandal must thus dash upon Truth because as I have said it herein differs from simple Temptation that its rest is upon some false Principle of Reason or Doctrine of Religion it frames mischief by a Law and it must needs be that every false Principle and Doctrine must rush against some true one and though no Truth of God be small or Sin little and Scandal is always proportionable yet the wisdom of Scripture hath appropriated the name of Scandal to the violation of some grand Principle As I shall now in the next place for the further explaining of Scandal observe those Pillars of the Divine Truth and Law against which it throws and bruises the Scandalised Soul as the Sacred Books shall instruct us 1. The Eternal Being and Holy Government of God in the World according to those Righteous Just and Good Laws he hath given and according to which he will Judge and make Retribution to all Men at that great day is the Fountain and most Fundamental Principle of Religion So then whatever upon pretence of Reason and just cause undermines the Faith abates the Aws or dispirits the Obedience agreeable to so supreame a standard of all these is the Original and final Scandal Here all Scandal begins in the decay of the Faith and Fear of God and hither it returns It ends in a further loss of God and this upon offence taken that too much is required without reason This is that Eternal Rock of Truth at which whoever stumbles must needs be hurt wounded and grieved Thus was I grieved in my Heart and pricked in my Reins Psal 73. 21. saith the Psalmist on this very occasion Whoever falls violently against it it breaks him whoever contests to remove it and burdens himself with it it falls upon him and grinds him to Powder And yet against this speculative and practical Atheism hath in all Ages hardened it self and by shews of Reason and high Spirit been heaving and pecking at it and casting Scandals in all Mens way Gods retirement as they fancy it into the thick covering of the Clouds and the pleasure of Jâ—b 21. 14. walking in the Circuit of Heaven and not coming down in visible shapes of Glory and Power have given to ungodly Men the Boldness and a counterfeit of Argument to dispute against his Being and Government I say a counterfeit of Argument for with an Apparition of Reason from hence and an Insolency of Wickedness they Conjure down they Moâ—mo of Religion and the Goblin of Conscience as they esteem them Atheism hath always spoken stout Words against God saying to God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge Mal 3. 13. of thy ways What is the Almighty that we should serve him Or what profit is it if we should pray unto him Job 21. 14. It hath of old lifted up Men against God and stretched out their hand against the Almighty so that they have run upon God even upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler to mischief themselves to the utmost In the very days of Job there was this Counsel of the Job 10. 3. and 21. 16. and 22. 18. wicked as if it was the result of debate and serious consideration in a Senate of Atheists as if they had made the Experiment and found upon proof there was no advantage in serving God and no Man came by the worse in despising him It is not the invention of one Age of this last Age as if it might pride it self in finding it out Scripture hath not thought it against its Interests to record the strength of the Cause as it was managed of old in those Elder days of Job in the last days of the Old Testament in the time of the Prophet Malachi But over-runs it with a Flood of Truth and Eloquence even as God does as he pleases with a Deluge of Wrath. Yet present Impunity and the seeming confusion of Providence in the prosperity of the ungodly and the afflicted State of good Men hath been always a stumbling Block to sudden and short consideration Job significantly calls it Gods shining on the Councel of the Wicked as if it Job 10. 3. gave it a Lustre and Countenance Even good Men till they went into the Sanctuary of God and looked to the end of things have found it a Scandal The Psalmist acknowledges His Feet were almost gone and his Feet well Psal 73. 2. nigh slipped when he saw the Prosperity of the Wicked and Waters of a full Cup of affliction wrung out to the Godly Yet upon full discussion of the case he confesses it his Folly Ver. 22. and Ignorance So Foolish was I and Ignorant I was as a Beast before thee The wise King observed the Hearts of Eccles 8. 11. the Sons of Men fully set them in to do Evil because Sentence on an Evil Work was not speedily Executed God by his Patience sustaining and making wicked Men stand Exod. 9. 16. even when they deny him is the occasion of their more dreadful fall for their Foot will slide in due time to their Eternal Ruine how slack soever God is misdeemed he will be a swift Witness of his own Being and Truth and the Avenger of his own Glory Now so far as any Man hath either in secret Suspicions or in the silent Murmurs of his Soul said There is no God or vanquished the prevailing Awes of God so that Conscience hath been emboldened or edified or so much as silenced or dumb
every Quarter with Mischiefs How much better then is it that indifferent things in Religion were taken away even while the World standeth than that they should be kept up as the Sconces of Scandal For Indifferent Things let not the Work of God be destroyed nor any for whom Christ dyed in danger to Perish the more we esteem our Church our Religion our Worship of God the better and purer they are the more it is pity any should be divided from it should be so far scandalised as to be Schismaticks from it either in our account or if it be that Sin in the real danger of it and of perishing in it The more excellent our Church is the more the Apostles Rules take hold of us Let not the good of our Church be evil spoken of as if it was Ceremonial Let us not lose any from our Church for Meat and Drink Increase not the Woe of Scandal any way for so mean Things as Indifferents Let us not indanger our selves into the Woe of him by whom Scandal comes for Elements But besides all these Considerations there is not so absolute a security in adding any thing under any Name whatever to the pure Worship of God any more than to his Word lest we be found Lyars to him mismatching with it what will not endure the Fire Greatest Peace have they that Prov. 30. 5 6. love thy Law O Lord and that only nothing shall offend them in nothing will they offend others Observing Rites that had been Divine was not so safe to the first Christians having to do with Rites that had been corrupted Idolatrously and Superstitiously proved very Fatal Ceremonies are but Shaddows Superstition easily pervades that little thin Essence they have They have not the Right of being Gods Creation to bring them off to lye lower than their Corruption and commend them There is no such Cause to be over-zealous of such things in regard of which a late * Father Simmons 's Critical History Romanist hath said The true Religion of the Church of England differs little from the Romish in outward appearance The Argument strikes all ways if our Constitution be so good and injur'd not at all by Ceremonies let us as Christ Seek and save that which is lost those we look upon as the least that believe in Christ let them not be lost for Ceremonies The Love and Compassion of a Saviour triumphs towards these least easily Offended narrow-soul'd morose suppose them Smoaking Flax bruised Reeds yet despise them not if Christians if Protestants Their Angels behold the Face of the Father of Christ in Heaven Let them not be Offended Scandalised from Union with our National Church for Ceremonies If on the other side our Ceremonies in Gods account should be blemishes of our Church and Imperfections or if they may be turned into such by an ignorant use of them or if they cause Divisions and Scandals if the Mischiefs of those Scandals fall upon Strangers to true Religion and keep them at distance All these considerations weigh heavy against a Zeal for them But if none of these can be laid to their Charge yet if Men doubt concerning them what must they do How shall they escape that of the Apostle He that doubteth is Damned if he Eats Whatever is not of Faith is Sin Why should this be hazzarded for Indifferents And when the Tyde of Advantages Preferments Publick Approbation are on one side Deprivation of all those Censures and Penalties on the other who dares answer for many Men that they do not offer Violence to their Principles much more venture over their Doubts And yet in those very Doubts has the Apostle laid his Doctrine Or Lastly Wo can reasonably suppose Men would stem this Tyde that is against them if they had not real Conscientious Doubts or higher than Doubts to contest with in prejudice of their Complyance Upon the whole then I cannot but conclude Imposing Indifferent Things in Religion by a violent Example much more by severe Ways is very contrary to the Apostles Doctrine in that Case and that upon Reasons that till I see them answered I must suppose unanswerable I have now thus far discoursed of Scandal in the more strict and particular Cases Scripture hath given us the notices of but in the remaining Heads to be treated of I shall consider it in that largest and most comprehensive Grasp of it Religion in general And there is nothing that requires greater Wisdom and the prepossessions of a more Religious Prudence than to sit and count the Charge of undertaking serious Piety as the Lord hath bidden us in relation to one Branch of Scandal Persecution so with respect to the whole Negotiation of Scandal in the World It is the great both Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Scripture that he hath given full and ample warning before hand of all the Disadvantages we are to encounter in our Faith Love and Obedience to him as when we are assured There shall be False Prophets There must be Heresies There shall be Persecution There shall be an Apostacy or general Defection from True Symmetral Christianity within Christianity it self And so in the present Case it must needs be that Scandals come For the Knowledge of these things is one greatest Defence against the Evil predicted as also against the staggering of our Minds concerning the Truth of Religion it self Let any man then enquire and search this thing out both in Scripture and close Reason and he will find Scandals must come though he may at first think Religion if it be so great and excellent as is given out of it should not be darkned and clouded with Scandal but stand clear from it and it be impossible it should be any way liable to it Now that it is in it self Just and Right even to Perfection it self is every where recorded and published of it Wisdom speaks excellent things and the opening its Lips are Prov. 8. 6. Right Things It speaketh Truth and Wickedness is an abomination to its Lips All its Words are in Righteousness and nothing froward or perverse in them They are all plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find Knowledge The Righteousness of thy Testimonies is everlasting give me Vnderstanding and I shall live Gods Precepts are right concerning All Things and secure from every False Way Psal 119. 104. c. His Law is the Truth By the Word of his Lips Men are kept from the Paths of the Destroyer Amidst all the scandalising Psal 17. 4. Hos 14. 11. and intangling Works of Men The Ways of the Lord are all right if Men have but right Feet right Intentions Affections and Motions And yet when all this is granted let any Man cast the thing in his severest Thoughts and he will find it impossible as things are Religion should be free from Scandal and that therefore as if any Man cannot deny himself he cannot be Christ's Disciple so if
any Man cannot Encounter Scandal and overcome he cannot be the Servant of God the Disciple of Christ Let us then resume the Notion of Scandal and fit it to this general Prospect over Religion I am now upon and we shall find as the Lord speaks that Scandals must come Scandal then is any False Pretence or Appearance whereby Religion or any of the nobler Objects Parts Rules or Reasons of it are expos'd to Disadvantage and Disgust as unreasonable unjust untrue weak and empty morose unlovely and undesirable or the contrary Sin Irreligion and Disobedience to God are gloss'd over and presented as in all regards more choosable and to be desired than Religion and all things so intangled and perplex'd among themselves that Men are seduc'd from the esteem of the Divine Law and Obedience to it and insnar'd in Sin even by that justle and disorder Scandal makes in the several Laws and Rules of Religion among themselves and the blending with them the pretences of Sin upon which great dishonour to God and Religion sharp Conflicts of Conscience within it self Mischief to the Souls of Men and a general Disaffection to Religion ensues And now how this must needs be I shall undertake to shew having only observed First That there are some main Things so necessary for our Knowledge Faith and Practice that they are made exquisitely clear and most easie to be understood He that runs may read them wafaring Men though Fools cannot err therein the entrance of the Word of God concerning them giveth Light it giveth understanding to the Simple Again There are some Things of very great advancement to the Soul and its Happiness that are the reward of a holy humble diligence to know in such a Measure as they ought to be known and of a preceeding Obedience in those so plain things that as the Resurrection of Christ are not shewn to all the People but to chosen Witnesses Thus the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant What Man is he that feareth the Psal 25. 12 14 c. Lord Him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse The Meek will he guide in Judgment and the Meek will he teach his way If any Man will do his Will he shall know of John 7. 17. my Doctrine whether it be of God or not On the other side Ignorance and Disobedience to those Divine Truths that are nearest and most plain to us are punished either with concealment of or leaving us to Injudiciousness and Insensibleness in higher Divine Manifestations where also that Injudiciousness and Insensibleness are Condemned For to him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not Luke 8. 18. by improvement and good use shall be taken away even that which he hath And this is the Condemnation for not believing John 3. 19. in Christ that supernatural Revelation because they loved Darkness rather than Light as a Cover for their Evil deeds But besides those plain Truths written with a Sun-beam in Nature it self besides those of clear Revelation there are necessarily some deep Truths concerning the Divine Nature the Attributes of God his Decrees and Acts some Mysteries of Christ of Providence and the Government of the World that command Awe Reverence and Modesty and are not to be fathom'd and fully understood and yet cannot be so divided nor separated from those Truths that are necessary to be known but that the Understanding must and ought to have an observation of and search after them though with Fear and Trembling and with a Wisdom to Sobriety yet to know as much of them as it is made to know by Scripture These things now being premised I come to shew That in the first and best state of Things Scandals might come and that in the corrupt and degenerate state they must come And first how they might come and there must the same Original be assigned to Scandal as there is to Evil and Sin it self for neither Sin nor Scandal can derive themselves from the Holy Wise and Good Creator who made all Things just and even He most upright weighed out the Path of the Just by his own Eternal Perfect Way and made the Angelical and Humane the whole Rational Nature according to it upright and perfect so that there was no Scandal from this first beginning of Things But when God made Creatures of Reason and Understanding and of Free Will and Choice Understanding in the very Nature of it could search and pry and range every way and look not only upon Things that are but by Things that are they could collect Things possible from the Nature of Wise Good and Just they could descry Folly Evil and Wrong and in Happiness and Blessedness they could behold as in privation from them Misery and Unhappiness or the Transcendency and Infiniteness of Happiness and the Degrees below it they could trace and find out the Lines by which there rose up a Supremacy of these and back again by which there was Declination of Degrees from this Azimuth or insuperable Height And as these Understandings are so great so they are suited with Wills and Appetites as great by which they could aspire to be whatever they saw above themselves and to dislike in whatever they found themselves below So that it was possible for them to dislike their first Estates to forsake their proper Mansions or Habitations and leave them as if they were not loughty large and roomthy enough for them Thus the Angels left their Estate in Heaven and Adam his in Paradise aspiring to something higher and this through mutability from misapprehension jealousie and disgust arising from perfect mistake false appearance and mis-judging which is perfect Scandal Thus not being Infinite not being Omniscient nor able to find out the Almighty to perfection nor resting in the Love and Obedience of God in those things most certain evident and undoubted to them but projecting beyond their own Sphere they might come to charge Gods Holiness Goodness and Wisdom foolishly to raise suspitions they were not high and well enough observing how Evil lay from Good they might in Discontent draw the Line of Evil upon Good and charge Imperfection upon Perfection it self they might disorder the most orderly Alliances and confuse the just Distances between Things and Things This they might possibly do except God did interpose with his Immutability of Perfection for them and secure them But God permitting things to liberty this must be possible to fall out This possibility of Change was the Folly God charged the purest Angels with and in regard of which the Heavens were not clean in his sight From the miserable Consequences of this Possibility coming into actual Event the Good Angels were Elected and into them the Bad Angels fell who abode not in the Truth but fell into cursed Scandal and are wrapped up in Scandal fettered in it even in Chains of darkness which are
Craftiness whereby they lye in Eccles 4. 14. wait to deceive But following the Truth in Love we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ From the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying it self in Love Be not carried about Heb. 13 9. with divers and strange Doctrines For it is a good thing that the Heart be established with Grace not with Meats which have not profited them that have been exercised therein 2. That we have a true and sincere Love of the Divine Law and our Obedience to it the Blessedness of which and its great preservation from Scandal the Psalmist thus describes Blessed is the Man that walketh not in the Councel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of Sinners nor Psal 1. 1. sitteth in the Seat of the Scornful But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate Day and Night And he shall be like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Water that bringeth forth his Fruit in due season his Leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper 3. That we order all things of Indifferency in Religion aright both as to the Sense of our own minds and the Edification of others To which purpose the Apostles Directions should be always before us The Kingdom of God is not Meat nor Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Rom. 14. 5 17. 1 Cor. 10. 22. Give no Offence neither to the Jews nor Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Whoever thus serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. FINIS ERRATA Several mis-pointings and litteral mistakes the Candid Reader is desired to observe and pardon and what is most injurious to the Sense thus to Correct PAge 6. line 32. for an read all p. 13. l. 22. for they r. the. p. 17. l. 12. dele not p. 18. l. 11. for at r. with p. 25. l. 30. for he r any one p. 27. l. 30. for purity r. party p. 38. l. 4 for Righteous r. weak p. 44. l. 24. dele them p. 48. l. 17. for rule r. rate p. 55. l. 22. after are r. not p. 61. l. 9. for Sacrifice r. Sacraments p. 76. l. 29. for Party r. Polity p. 79. l. 11. after justly r. may Printed for Tho. Parkhurst THE whole Duty of a Nation or National True Religion Argued and Perswaded upon greatest Motives of Scripture and Reason Conciliated to all moderate Apprehensions though differing in smaller things and to the strictest Notion of Churches II Book Liberty of Conscience in its order to Universal Peace Impartially Stated and proved to be the just Right and genuine effect of True Natural and Christian Religion in Immunity from Penal-Laws Church Censures and private Animosities A CATHOLICK CATECHISM SHEWING THE IMPOSSIBILITY THE CATHOLICK RELIGION Should be varied to the Degree of a Thought from the Measures left Sealed by the Apostles WITHOUT THE LOSS of TRUTH And therefore The Impossibility POPERY or whatever else is not found in Scripture should be CATHOLICK Composed to the Capacity of the Meanest that will but Consider that they may know and be ready upon un-movable Reasons to give an Apologie or Defensive Answer for the Catholick Religion if they are indeed of it and be secured from Temptation in Times of Danger 2 Pet. I. 12 The Present Truth Prov. 22. 21. That I might make thee know the Certainty of the Words of Truth that thou mightest answer the Words of Truth to them that send unto thee LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Call this A Catechism because I design it a Familiar Instruction in Fundamental Truths Resounding the same Thing from Question to Answer the easiest way of Conveying Truth and Imprinting it upon the Minds of those that are even of the meanest Capacity But especially because the Principles of it are to be daily so Meditated upon Pondered and Applyed to use as to be a perpetual sound in our Ears and so to be properly stiled Catechism For Things of such great weight as Principles are must have as the most Advantageous Admâ—ssion as the most Deep and therefore Leisurely Insinuation as the most Resolved Adherence when found True and Right which is Buying the Truth and not Selling it so they must have the most Easy and Ready Application to all their Uses and Ends They must therefore be bound continually about our Neck that when we go they may lead us that when we sleep they may keep us that when we wake they may talk with us Prov. 6. 21 22. I know the Things I have written cannot be duely received without much Thinking and without that they will be in danger of a Censorious rejection from the most or of a superficial unintelligent Acceptance in the Kinder which is as bad as the other and therefore I present it as a Catechism to those that shall at all approve it that they may be throughly versed in it and the Sense of it grow Domestick to them I call it a Catholick Catechism only with Relation to the Great Subjects it Treats of the Catholick Religion and the Catholick Church in those things wherein they are Catholick or in which their Catholickness consist That is that they are of God and that the whole Society of Holy and Happy Spirits is by that Catholickness united and closely banded with it self Catholick as the Epistles called Catholick that is after some Doubt Asserted to be Divine of the Publick Spirit of God and giving that Publick Doctrine in which the General Assembly is one I have endeavoured to contrive the Questions and Answers so that the Answers may be an Apology or Defensive Answer of that Catholick Truth giving a Reason or a Rational Account to any Demand that can be made upon it And it is the Apology of that Truth it self the Apology it gives and furnishes us with for other can no Man give Truth can need no other than its Native Apology for it self no other will it accept To give this and to be always ready to give it to keep it within us and to have it fitted to our Lips is the proper Fruit of such a Catechetical Instruction and the Apostle assures us it is the great Duty of Christianity and the greatest Honour we can do to God First to Sanctifie him in our Hearts by a full acknowledgment of him in his Divine Truth by a Plerophory or full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and
Answ By staying the due time upon the Uncontrovertible Doctrines and Commands of Natures Laws yielding full Obedience to God in them trembling to add any thing of baser Alloy to them A Man shall see Revealed Truth shining out upon Natural and joyning it self to it and with it Thus many of the Fathers came over to Christianity And so in all parts of Scripture by rising from the most Fundamental Truths lov'd and obey'd a Man shall ascend by due degrees to those more remote Thus Good Men in the Old Testament waited for the Kingdom of God and upon just Considerations moved upon the Line of Truth from the State of Religion in the Old Testament to that of the New except sometimes a Light shines suddenly round about Men as in extraordinary Conversions Quest You seem then to think False Religion and All Divisions in the True have most nearly sprung up from over-confidence of Things not of the Evidence of Publick and Divine Truth Answ I do so indeed although I know Mens not liking to retain Truth but being bewitched by false Imagination betrays them both to the Plague of Lost and Fallen Spirits warring under the Prince of our disordered Air the Ruler of the Darkness of this World and to the various Arts of Men who corrupt Religion for the Ends they have to serve themselves of by it I know Mens Faculties of Search Inquiry into and Comprehension of Truth are much shrivell'd and shrunk up I know Endless Doubts and Incertainties are brought upon Religion by Darkness and false Appearances to Souls that are so full of all the Reasons and Causes of Delusion within themselves and deserted by the just Judgment of God giving them over to believe a Lie I acknowledge all these Causes of Errour Yet I am assured the close Adherence to God in Truths evidently Divine and not removing farther into a Religious Esteem of Things till upon the same Evidence is the Means under the Conduct of the Holy Spirit to be secure from dangerous Errour or Schism from the true Publick And whatever is not so evidently Publick and Divine is liable to Private Interpretation and so to Errour And when Men are overweening upon Private Interpretation they easily fall into Errour and when they are surly and masterly upon it it moves Wrath Emulation Strife so that both Falshoood and Cruelty have entered in at this Door and rang'd over the World Quest But ought we to stupifie all Inquiry and benumb Judgment in every thing not evidently Divine Answ Not so but to behave our selves humbly and modestly to acknowledge there are vast Tracts of Truth and Knowledge beyond what we know but we must feel the Evidence of them before we can receive them yet to carry our selves with due concession to every Mans Sense that though their Sense cannot nor ought to master us no more ought we to expect ours should them which would exceedingly reconcile or abate Differences and retrench the mischievous Effects the World hath so long groan'd under by so many Religions of Nations Names of Churches and Persons propagating their Private that is not Divine Sense and that with Clamour and too often with rude Force Quest What are the Instances of the Mischief of making Defection from this Publick Catholik Divine Truth for Private Sense Answ The Angels Fall from Heaven was certainly upon Private Sense and Interest Adam's from Innocency and Paradise upon the same the Jews Fall from being the Church and People of God was upon the Idiotism of having Religion for their own All Idolatry and Superstitions of Heathens have risen from hence All the Heresies in the Church have come from an over-love to Private Opinion This is the most damnable Antichristianism of Rome to make its Private Catholick All Persecutions of Heathens Romes Inquisition and Massacres have been inflam'd in this Furnace the love of making Private Publick And in lesser and more unfundamental Points Private Interpretation enfore'd as if it were Publick hath discompos'd the Peace of the Purest and best reformed Churches and not only disturb'd their Peace but stain'd their Purity Quest I seem to my self in all this unhappy Babelism or Confusion of Religion to be very apprehensive for the Glory of God and Religion Answ It is most necessary to be zealous for Divine Glory and for the Honour of Religion that Rivers of Tears should run down our Eyes because of the Injuries done by Men to the Divine Law But yet to be so concern'd as to be scandalised is to forget that God is infinitely more the Publick than we are and therefore to be offended at his Disposes is to make our Private the Publick We must then consider that if God does not miraculously interpose it must needs be so it is no other than the Necessity of the Case Men moving with so great Disadvantages as the Active Soul of Man does in so great a Concern as Religion is in our highest Interest and as thereupon Men will make use of it in the present World it must needs be so There must be Heresies in Religion But that this Mormo or dreadful Apparition may vanish we must remember 1. That to the Soul humble and fearing God all that is of Grand Interest in Faith Worship and Practice is so Publick and evidently Divine that no Man need be ever learning and never come to the Knowledge of the Truth After this God hath given this Employment to those that through Office or Desire set themselves to seek and intermeddle with al Knowledge to travel with advantage to themselves and others in their Inquiries into the whole Compass of Divine Knowledge whatever Difficulty can be supposed to be in things of higher Advance to Salvation is resolv'd to them that do the Will of God as a Reward of their Obedience They shall know the Doctrines that are of God that rise higher towards Heaven than others The due and diligent Search after Wisdom is a Test upon the truly Sincere and well-resolv'd in Religion that have in them another Spirit as Caleb to follow God fully and do not as the Israelites bring up an ill Report on this good Land as if the Difficulties were unconquerable and the Entertainment Hungry and Barren through the many Disputes and Differences in Religion Hereby lastly the Conduct of the Free Spirit is seen leading into all Truth and the Unction of the Holy One by which the True Christian knows all things necessary to him to be known appears most desirable and necessary Thus the Wise and Holy Government of God who brings Light out of these Clouds and Darkness is made manifest and it is to be ascribed to the Infinite Perfection of Light with the Father of Lights who is without any variation or shadow of turning Quest What Rule is then to be observed in the great Diversities of Men in Religion that may most abound to the Honour of Catholick Religion Answ To own and embrace any thing we find in any Man or
Society of Men that is truly Catholick if it be but according to the Light of Natural Religion to joyn with them in the Performance of any of such Services so far as they will admit it and keep to the Simplicity and Sincerity of them according to the Instances before-named of Jonah and St. Paul And much more should we do this when True Revealed Religion is joyned with Natural if nothing be requir'd of us that corrupts and defiles it No Man's Errour in which we are not forced to communicate should drive us from Truth or any part of it And upon these Foundations we should endeavour to win further and further upon all to bring them home to God wherein they wander We should make Allowances to every Man differing in smaller things receiving him without conditioning him to subscribe to us in things of Doubtful that is Private Disputation If any one erre from the Truth and one convert him by Evidences of that Truth let him know that he that converts a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soul from Death and hide a Multitude of Sins But if we cannot be admitted to such Communions with those that are so enslav'd to False or would bring us under the power of Private or will have nothing to do with us nor admit us to them we must not yet desert our Catholick Respect to all that is True and Good among them but acknowledging what is so value and praise it desire the Divine Acceptance for them in any Good thing so as to bring them out of the Errours they have adjoyned to it and as you have opportunity reason them out of the one by the Evidence of the other CAP. V. Of the Publick or Divine Original of Sacred Writing or Scripture Quest SEeing Scripture is the only Publick Record of True Pure Natural Religion and more eminently of Revealed it is most necessary to be fully informed in all Points concerning it And first What Care God hath been pleased to take that his Word and purely that should be committed to Writing Answ God held the Hands and Pens of Holy Men by an efficacious overshadowing their Minds and conducting all their Motions that they could not erre In some things he so fully possessed their Understandings and Affections with a full Knowledge and Sense of what they were to reveal that they could not so much as muse any thing Strange or Diverse from what they were so carried and born by the Divine Spirit in even as Elijah in his Body In other things wherein they could not look round about them nor fully comprehend what the Spirit in them did signifie though they convey'd it to After-times yet they were by Almighty Impressions upon all their Faculties necessary to that Service held in stronger than Adamantine Consinements that they could not extravagate from Divine Truths Even Balaam thus overpower'd against his will could not go beyond the Word of the Lord to speak either Good or Evil upon the greatest Reward much less Holy Men whose Wills were perfectly resigned to the Divine Will Quest But was not there a Possibility those Holy Men Writers of Scripture might at other times when the Spirit was not so immediately present to them alter or add of another Alloy to what themselves had been the Instruments of conveying from God to the World Or might not Pretenders arise and give out False Scripture to the World that had none of that True Spirit Answ When once any Part of Divine Testimony was committed to Writing it became a Boundary to those very Penmen much more to all others that they were always concluded by it So that besides the Dread and Awe of God and of the great Sin of Falsification of his Truth or Name they could not alter any thing so as to disagree with what they had before spoken by the Divine Spirit whose Righteous Judgments endure for ever nor could they so much as imitate themselves when unassisted by the Holy Spirit When therefore they did not understand by immediate Assistance the utmost End and Reach of what themselves were enabled to speak and write they did and they could do no more search and pronounce by all the best ordinary Helps God afforded them but could change nothing could add nothing they searched what or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ in them did signifie they could not pronounce of the Time when not revealed to them They knew the dreadful Anathema ready to fall even upon an Angel from Heaven that should preach another Gospel The least Iota once established by Unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness was less movable than Heaven and Earth and would bear no Addition but of the same Authority by which it self was given And even the very Manner Method Words as they meet to carry such a Sense have their Majesty and Divineness so that whatever was by Inspiration from God bridled that which was not and they that were inspir'd knew in what they were inspir'd and what they spoke as so inspired and in what they were not but were as Samson with his Locks cut no more than like other Men and most cautiously distinguish'd betwixt the one and the other Nothing therefore hath assayed to joyn it self to Scripture if any hath dar'd to do it it hath been rejected by it when not of the High and Publick Spirit of it Quest But did not the Writers of the New Testament reverse the Writings and Commands of the Old which thing so scandalised the Jews against our Lord his Disciples and Gospel Answ No otherwise than as the Sun commands the Shadow to fly away and the lesser Lights to retire when it self appears or the things typ'd out being come make useless the Types so that they necessarily give place or as Pictures vail when the Life is present Else there was such a Respect to the Scriptures of the Old Testament in those of the New as to avow them of God before them and Elder Scripture than themselves so that they vouch'd them for all they said and taught and staid the time of themselves being tried proved and sufficiently confirmed and Canonized into Scripture by the Scriptures that were undoubtedly so before them and in the very same Methods that they came into the Honour of being Scripture Upon which account the Apostle calls them the more sure Word of Prophesie more sure because of greater Antiquity and Elder Reception into Scripture than that Historical Relation and Doctrine which yet was immediately to pass into Scripture of the same Authority and Value with former Scripture and of greater Evidence and Divine Clearness and recommended by Higher Appearances of Divinity And on this same account the New Testament derives it self from the Old sometimes by Proofs out of it drawn according to the most regular Trains and Consequences sometimes by more immediate and authoâ—â—tative Interpretation but of the same Publick and Divine Inspiration with the Prophecy of Old Time it self as shall
be presently more fully discours'd under the Head of Interpretation Quest How far and to what things does the Rule of the Word of God extend Answ To all things most assuredly that are necessary to Salvation and Eternal Life or to the true perfecting the Conscience in Purity and Peace whether they are things to be believed as the Springs of Heavenly Action or Things to be observed in the Worship of God or to guidâ— the Practice and order the Conversation aright to thaâ— Salvation or that are prescribed according to the Will of God for Discipline and Government of the Church Alâ— these are plainly written or by just Consequences to bâ— derived from the Word of God so far as they are necessary to shew Men the way to please God or to assure them they do please God that so they may attain the Promise of Eternal Life Quest Is there no other Rule of Religion then but the Scriptures embracing the Law of Nature Answ There can be none except either Religion were not derived wholly from God and therefore not so Catholick as we have asserted it or except any other Record of Religion can shew its Descent as High and Publick as Scripture does Of which Proof which Scripture gives of it self and what it is Inquiry is in the next place to be made CAP. VI. Of the Proof of Scripture That it is of God and that the Proof also is Publick and Divine Quest WHat kind of Proof of so Divine a Record as Scripture is high enough to prove it to be so Divine Answ That which is even as the Original of Scripture Divine also Quest Why must the Proof or Evidence of Scripture be Divine Answ 1. Because it is below the Dignity of Divine to receive its principal Proof from Private or lower than Divine or Publick 2. Because nothing but Divine can so reach the Conscience as to fill and possess it with satisfactory Evidence in so great a Concernment as Religion nor strikes the Heart with those great Effects of Love to Fear of Joy in Scripture and the Word of God so essential to Religion but Divine When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth the Word of God 3. Because it is impossible what is truly Divine should not dart the Rays of Divinity as all other Things of Excellency send out the Beams of that Excellency they have and thereby discover themselves For we know all things especially by themselves The Light remonstrates it self by it self The Genius of every Writer shews it self first by it self We see the Divineness of Creation and Miracles by themselves Best and Greatest is self-evidently Divine and whatever it is written upon is evidently Divine also Quest How does Scripture shew it self thus Divine Answ By a Majestick Assumption to it self to be Divine it speaks so in and of all things it speaks and as it pleases effects as Divine only does and can effect and is the Best and Greatest Record of Truth to all Holy and Wise Minds The only extant inviolate Record of Natural and Revealed Religion in the World is Scripture Quest Is Ratiocination then or the Just Compass Reason goes to be neglected concerning Scriptures Answ By no means For when these Self-evidences of every thing have struck us earlier than our Scrutinies of Reason and its Inquest can be performed about them that they may neither appear Fancies to us on our second Thoughts nor we run into Mistake concerning them by the Power of Imagination there is then liberty for Reason to inquire further and assure it self Nor will the Evidence hereupon amount to less than Divine For Divine only can satisfie the Reason that rationally and like it self inquires into Divine Quest What then are the great Assurances to Reason of the Divinity of Scripture Answ I account this the Chief That there are Two great Volumes the Book of the Natural Law of Religion written upon the Heart and engraven in the Conscience and the Book of Scripture That both these are addressed purely to the Mind as abstracted from Sense That each of them is Counterparted by Two great Manifestations of Divinity to Sense which Sense is Reason incarnate or Mind acting in and by Body These two are either Ordinary or Constant as Creation Conservation or Providence or Extraordinary as Miracles That each of them have also two Executive Powers acting them to their Ends The Motions and Activities of Reason inabled by the constant Concourse of General Illumination and the Supernatural Illuminations and Motions of the Divine Spirit And that all these agree in one unite with and fortifie one another all of them carrying the Evidences of Divine Presence and filling all the Apprehensiveness of our Faculties concerning God that he is in them so that nothing is Divine in the whole World the contrary of which we may feel or Scripture is Divine Quest But what is to be allowed to Consent of History Vniversal Tradition and Education in the Belief of Scriptures Answ All that can be desired to be allowed for it speaks the Absolute Sovereignty of God in making use of whom and what he pleases in introducing his Word into any Parts of the World and contriving the Testimony of Men as preparatory to the Testimony from himself which is much greater even as our Saviour received the Service of John's Testimony but had much higher or as Reason may receive from Sense some accidental Testimonies Quest But is there not much more to be yielded to the Rational Assurance that such Historians as the Prophets Apostles and Inspired Writers of such Honesty and Integrity would not prevaricate nor give any false Account of Things of the Miracles wrought by themselves or our Saviour of the Doctrines of Christianity or of their Divine Original especially when they seal'd all these with the Contempt of all things in this World even of Life it self and died in the constant Affirmation of them which remov'd all base Designs far from them even the suspicion of it Answ These Proofs of the Doctrine and Divine Descent of Scripture are undoubtedly of the highest Account that any Created Testimony can be and are a down-weight of Proof to all sober Reason Yet that they can rise above the Value of John Baptist's Testimony to Christ I cannot find and therefore we must remove higher to the Doctrines that those Holy Men preach'd and writ the spiritual Wisdom and admirable Contexture they us'd in Writing the Works they did carrying the Evidences of Divinity in themselves and applied by the Holy Spirit to the Senses of true Believers with its own assuring Attestations and gracious Operations of which all that was but created is no more than the Tube Pipe or Channel of Conveyance if we enter it into a compare with what is Higher and Divine But if the last Resolution of Proof were into any thing Humane there might be mistake in that for Humane at its
highest elevation is but Created and Created is not firm and sure enough for a Foundation nor can it raise an Assent noble and generous enough for a Faith in that which is Divine All that can be summon'd may be an outward Fortification or Introduction but the Rock of Truth is the Son of God Divinity it self Upon this the Church is built that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Quest But are there no Parts of Scripture that receive greater Service from Humane Testimony than others Answ There are some Parts of Scripture that are but Ministerial and almost Servile in comparison of others And that these are found in all Authentick Copies and have been delivered down from Age to Age with the Sacred Rolls may depend more upon Humane Testimony especially where the Connexion with the more Divine Parts is not evident For these being but as the Body and some of them of the more remote Parts from the Soul of Scripture cannot sparkle that Divine Light and Heat the Spirit of Scripture does and so may stand in need of borrowed Light from the Superiour Luminaries of Sacred Truth and in many Cases may like the Moon need Reflexions of Light from our very Earth but the Sun of Scripture receives the Highest Testimony by the strongest Reflexions of its own Original Beams Quest How comes it to pass that there are such different Degrees of Scripture-Excellency in the several Parts of it and that it is not one Even Form of Doctrine methodically laid together and of the same Tenour of Discourse Answ In this seeming Disorder appears the great Wisdom and Majesty of Divine Contrivance that without obliging it self to the low and even pedantick Laws of Humane Discourse it raises so great a Record of Truth upon variety of Occasions and by an Infinite Foresight predetermining to it self the several Measures and Ends of Scripture raises them out of a great variety of Accidents and in such an Order as seem'd best to it self for those Ends so as to give easie and ready Advantages to him that runs to read and gather Instructions of weightiest moment and also of quickest and suddenest sally upon his Mind of greatest aptness to fix upon the Memory without loading it and yet in the mean time to lay the Obligations of all Degrees of Search and Diligence to join one part of Scripture to another so as to comprehend the whole Complex of Divine Doctrine and extract the Order of History For by a most natural free and unaffected occasional way all Truths to make wise to Salvation and a complete Sum of all Goodness is to be found in Scripture with infinite Varieties of Address all the ways possible to the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Imagination suited to all Capacities States Conditions full of plain and obvious of most retir'd secret and farthestreach'd Wisdom which no Mind can fully grasp nor Tongue express And with these Things of main Importance runs along such a Chronology of the Dealings of God with the World and especially with his Church as serves the main Design All Learning and Knowledge in the mean time attending with lowliest Submission and not with pompous Appearance Now from this Supreme Dispose of all things to the Ends of God in Scripture out of such a variety of Emergencies of all sorts arises such a diversity of several Excellencies in the Parts of Scripture that yet all meet in that Great Center of the Glory of God in a Communication of his Counsels concerning Man and that turn round those Two Globes that little one of the present World a Point like this Earth and the other that vast Circumference of Eternity Quest But is there not as great a difference arising from the various States and Conditions of the Writers of Scripture and the so different Periods of Time they were upon Answ That there is and must needs be a difference is undeniable yet to the great Glory of Scripture and assurance it is from God even those smallest and lowest things last spoken of are all treated with all the Purity Gravity becoming the Penmen of the Holy Spirit and with all the Usefulness their Nature can extend to Even so the Holy Men used by God in this Service how various and differing soever in their several Ages and Times of writing in their Circumstances of State and Condition in this World High Low Rich Poor Learned Unlearned how distant soever in their Times of Writing in the outward Forms and Modes of their Worship of God in the Things that fell under their Account and Relation before the Law under the Law in the Days of the Messiah after his Death yet there is the same Spirit Scope Chastness of Style Majesty and Authority in the Contexture one Aspect upon the Glory of God Obedience to him Desire of his Favour as the whole Happiness of Man the same Reflexions upon the great Evil of Sin and the consequent Misery and even of their own Sins So that where any Combination or Conference to concert things was impossible yet there is such an Union without a set Uniformity as assures the One Hand of the Divine Spirit and Guidance upon All. Quest Is not the Church of God the Trustee and Depository of Sacred Oracles Answ It is so in Divine Ordination and the general Course of Providence but yet it adds nothing to them but receives all from them The Church is known to be the Church by the Scriptures not the Scriptures by the Church except declaratorily only The Church is the Pillar and Rest of Scriptures where God is pleas'd to fix them that they may be exposed to Publick View but their Authority is of God evident in themselves Quest Do we then attribute nothing more to the Church in which we were Baptiz'd and received the Knowledge of Religion Answ A very great Favour it is of God that when he writes up the People he counts that we were born within his True Church where all the Springs of Salvation run but as to the Proof of Religion or the Records of it it can be no more than a Private Proof For till we make a true Judgment by what is Divine and Publick and of God in the true Church it does no more than equal other Societies walking with Confidence and Assurance with great Awes and Devotion in the Name of their God in the Profession of their Religion Till therefore there is a Trial of every Religion and the Records of it all such Societies are upon the same Level When the Religion and Oracles of every Religion come to be tried and duely examined the Church of God rises to Heaven and all else except so far as they joyn in any Parts of the same Truth sink down beneath Quest But how can we know that every Book of Scripture is Scripture but by the Testimony of the Church or that we have all the Books of it but by the same Testimony Answ That the Books we own
themselves They may then taste the Graciousness of God and the Gratefulness of Truth in them without imposing on any others who cannot see by their Light 5. Yea even in things controverted between Holy Wise and Good Men in Interpreting Scriâ—â—ure each part of the Controversie when both cannot be reconciled in their Sense yet supports and makes stronger to their Faith some grand evident Principles of Divine and Publick Truth in which both Sides meet and are firmly united and to which each reconcile their own Opinions wherein they seem to differ from such Principles or from one another and leave a Middle in which they may meet one another and wherein Persons unconcern'd in their Controversies rest Upon which Agitations yet follow great Illustrations and Confirmations of such Grand Principles and Enlargements of Knowledge by the very Traverses of Dispute among Men sincerely affected to Truth and who search into it without the Love of Contention without Bitterness and Animosity but humbly modestly and with largeness of Mind towards those that dissent from them 6. God the Friend of Universal Knowledge allows the Souls gratification of it self with probable Sentiments restrained within due Bounds that may grow from Scripture-Interpretation 7. And lastly Pardons the Infirmities adhering to Humane Transactions in this most necessary Duty of Searching the Scriptures and over-rules such Miscarriages yea and even the more malevolent Distempers of Men herein some way or other to Good and makes them oftentimes Servants to some great Points of Truth Quest All this that hath been described I confess agrees with so Publick and Catholick a Record as Scripture is A Record wherein every one that comes to it may search his own Interest and Concern in it and improve it to the utmost A Record that offers and exposes it self to be understood and closely inquired into by all But how is it secured from a multitude of Private Interpretations when so many Interpretations acknowâ—â—dgedly Private continually pass upon it Answ Herein it is secure 1. That Scripture is not of any Interpretation but it s own native Sense It is not under the Power of any other It stands free and clear far above all Interpretation of Men to be considered by any one in it self and not under such Interpretation Such Interpretation does not become Scripture nor bind any one under the Curse fixed on those that add to Scripture or take from it These Interpretations may be added to or taken from according as Men see Reasons of Scripture preponderating one way or other This is the Freedom of Scripture to suffer all due approaches to its Sense This is its most severe Constancy to refuse all but it s own true Sense 2. As Scripture is not of any Interpretation but it s own Native Sense so its Sense is of no other Evidence but of Spiritual Divine and truly Rational Evidence so that if any Man does not bring such proofs of Scripture Sense as agree with Scriptures way of Evidencing it self and Scriptures way is not that of Private Authority or Humane Imposition but of Divine Authority and Presence his Interpretation however true yet does not bind as it is his Interpretation or upon any other Recommendation but Scriptures proper ways of recommending it self I speak as to Wise Men judge ye what I say Quest What then is that Private Interpretation the Apostle remonstrates against Answ All Interpretation that brings no Credentials from evident Scripture-sense nor from Heaven of immediate Inspiration much more if False or Mean and impossible to be so derived and yet would impale and inclose Scripture within it self and impose it self upon the Consciences and Judgments of others and so bring them under Bondage That which forbids Men to Interpret for themselves though with utmost Industry and all the Assistance they can use and the Implorings of Divine Assistance That which gives out Private Oracles at pleasure and too often most False ones as if they were Scripture and for its own Private sake would lock Scripture from the possibility of being Interpreted even by it self sequestring it into an unknown Tongue from great Multitudes of all Nations professing Jesus Christ This is indeed Private Interpretation and adding to Scripture making another Scripture which yet is not another And thus are all lower Degrees of this Tyranny to be estimated according to their several Graduations in it imposing upon Men as from some Scriptural Authority what is not of the True Excellency Spirit and High Descent of Scripture nor manifested in Mens Consciences as Scripture manifests it self Quest Is it not then necessary in regard of the Confusion arising from the variousness and incertainty of every Man Interpreting for himself and without certain Divine Evidence that there should be some Infallible Publick Interpreter so Divinely assisted as you describe And is it not reasonable to believe there is such a one seeing we cannot suppose God is wanting to his Church in such a Necessary Answ 1. Scripture it self is such an Infallible Interpreter it being in all things necessary to Salvation both clear and certain to all but the self condemned Heretick or Ignorant 2. When there comes such an Infallible Interpreter bearing the Seal of such Credentials as the Scripture does we will receive him Till such an Interpreter so arm'd comes to us we are never the better for his Pretence to Infallibility But all that receive him are destroyed by him when he brings Falshood for Truth under so great a Title so that he becomes more an Apollyon or Destroyer of the Church than an open Enemy can be Quest Must we not then necessarily suppose great Tracts of Scripture lying like unknown Land for want of Publick Interpretation Answ That there may be so cannot be denied in Controverted or Prophetick Parts of Scripture Yet that God hath been pleased to communicate much useful Knowledge relating to them is most evident and most thankfully to be acknowledged to his Goodness and Bounty Quest What Expectation is there of a Full and Certain Publick Interpretation of all such Scriptures Answ It is not for us to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But most probably at the time of fulfilling the great Prophesies of the New Testament there shall be such exâ—raordinary Effusions of the Divine Spirit as shall expedite all Doubt and make every thing clear the Knowledge of which is not reserved for Heaven to adorn the Absolute State of Perfection there Quest Seeing by all that hath been said it appears how incongruous Private Interpretation is to Publick Scripture or that the Will of Man should be trusted with the one and not with the other What Account therefore can be given of Translations May not they bring in a Private Interpretation upon Scripture if not performed by an immediate Divine Assistance Answ Even as in the safe Conveyance of Scripture it self and preserving it pure from gross Falsifications so in Translations we must leave
can we have of it Quest But how can it be but there must be Tradition seeing there were so many Things spoken and done more than the Scripture contains or the World it self could contain if they were all written These then being known in the first Times have been conserv'd by Tradition Tradition made valuable by those of Honourable Name among Christians and their Discourses of Christianity Answ Granting such things so preserv'd suppose them the Actions and Words of our Saviour himself yet if not written by Inspired Penmen they are not recommended as obligatory upon After-ages For whatever was necessary that we might believe and have Eternal Life was so written and that not only just so much as might serve Necessity for that the One Gospel of St. Joâ—â— might serve to That it self witnesses but also be matter of Bounty and Abundance so that out of that greater World of Truth than our World could receive there was so much selected as was bountifully sufficient and abundant to all Intents and Purposes of Clearness Certainty Enforcement upon the Affections Variety continual Exercise and Delight that so every Christian might be throughly furnished to every good Work to all things that pertain to Life and Godliness As for all that Christ did and spake or that the Apostles spake or did by Infallible Guidance and Immediate Assistance if it be not written a Veil is drawn over it and a Cloud hath received it out of our sight It is a secret thing that belongs not to us but is sealed up from us like the things which the Thunders uttered in the Revelation And indeed the Wisdom of Providence seems to have dealt with all such Sayings or Actions as with the Body of Moses all Monuments of Worth and Certainty after Scripture in relation to them are concealed from us There is a great Darkness upon the History of that Time lest we should superstitiously venerate in place of that which is divinely written and preserved to us the things that were not prepared for our Learning and so to us but as a Body not divinely inspired that is a Body without a Soul All too fierce Disputes about them are therefore raised only by Sathan the Enemy of Light and Truth to no other purpose than that about the Body of Moses that is to found an occasion of Superstition and silently to whisper Scripture is not sufficient And yet we see with what an eager Zeal Men are set upon such Researches not satisfied with the Proportion of Manna allowed by God but even as the Israelites that gathered much had nothing over so may it be truly said of those that would abound beyond Scripture in that which pertains to the true guidance of Conscience That they have nothing over and what they will needs keep as such corrupts Quest Is there Reason sufficient to support this Sentiment Answ This great Reason If we had undoubted but not inspired History of that Time it could not be like the Evangelistick History or the Actes of the Apostles to us we should in some things want the Application and Direction to our use dictated by Divine Wisdom in others the unerring Censure of even Apostolick Actions as in that of the Apostle Peter Galat. 2. 11. Now because our Consciences would be apt to be drawn into subjection to things of so great Reputation and yet there would be no Divine Authority to draw them nor Infallible Authority to support them in which Cases it is the Absolute Will of God they should not be in subjection God hath therefore in his Providence left that time so much in the dark that we may trust in his written Word only For separate Immediate Divine Presence from the Prophets and Apostles themselves and there remains nothing at the highest but the Wisdom and Prudence of Understanding and Good Men applying General Rules to particular Cases Times Places and Events as they for that time could best judge and yet besides the variation of Circumstances in every Age they themselves were as Men subject to mistakes as Nathan about David's building the Temple as Paul assaying to go into Bithynia to like Passions with other Men as in the Contention betwixt Paul and Barnabas to like Temptations as in the Miscarriage of Peter before referred to All they did and said not shining with immediate Light from Heaven must be tried in the Light of what themselves together with all the other Penmen of Scripture had written They themselves therefore acting or speaking by way of Prudence or general Assistance must be tried by themselves acting or speaking according to Revelation and special Assistance in which only they are and ought to be Authoritative Quest But it still remains There might be some things that were not so sit for vulgar Knowledge and so were Secreted into Tradition apart from Scripture and that Tradition deposited with Trusty Men who should successively so deposite it that it might at convenient Seasons be brought forth as Goliah's Sword from behind the Ephod Answ None like it indeed to serve a purpose But to satisfie Reason and Conscience nothing so improper For first let these Traditionaries give clear Expositions and such as are worthy to be acquiesced in of the Prophetick or otherwise Dark Places of Scripture If they cannot do that where is the Wisdom above the Vulgar and why did not Tradition without Scripture inclose those mysterious Visions of the Revelation from Popular Inspection But the things Tradition is imploy'd indeed in are quite of another Nature either the Prelation of Men in Church-Office and Dignity or some Rites of Worship that should change Devotion into Superstition or lull it into Ignorance or some Canons that turn Religion into Trade or Doctrines suited to that End or which serves to all such purposes a Tradition to call back all Scripture out of the Written Word into Oral Tradition by locking it up in a Tongue unknown to the generality of Christians And yet if there were any seemingly Purer or more Contemplational Traditions seeing they are not inrolled into Scripture they must as hath been said give such Evidences of themselves as Divine Revelation hath or be at their highest but Enthusiasm and Fanaticism Quest But what Esteem is to be had of the Writings and Iransactions of the Ancients whom we call Fathers Doctors of the Church Men of eminent Holiness great Abilities Confessors and Martyrs of Christianity Answ It may be easily judg'd by what hath been said already that they must be brought to Scripture laid at its Feet and submitted to its Acceptance whether according to its true Sense or not For if the Apostles when the Holy Spirit was not upon them could not exceed Humane how much less can any of a lower Class pretend The Fathers therefore had so great an Awe of Scripture that they did not assume any thing to themselves or their Writings or yield any thing to the Persons or Writings of those of the same Time with them but
according to the undeniable Sense of Scripture Quest But the nearness of these Fathers to the Days of Christ and the Apostles must needs enable them either from what they themselves received warm from their Lips or from what they had from others not quite cold to know the Apostles Doctrine Discipline Manner of Life Purpose their Sense of the Scope and Meaning of those Things wherein they were Divinely Inspired and so to deliver it to After-ages Answ Whatever they have spoken or written giving us more light and advantage to understand and behold Scripture in its own Light ought from them or from any other to be accepted with great regard but if it do not thus it cannot be accepted even from the Writers of Scriptures themselves upon a single or divided Authority They were so bounded by the very Things and Words they themselves had once spoken and written by the Holy-Ghost that all the deference to their knowledge in Divine Things above others was to be made reasonable in the clearest Expounding what themselves and others had written by Divine Inspiration and to be discerned in the very Writings themselves and not to be drawn oracularly out of their Breasts when the Evidences of Divine Inspiration were not upon them For he that is Spiritual i. e. that God vouchsafes Inspiration to or pretends to it must acknowledge all that is either truly written or spoken by the same Inspiration to be the Commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 37. And as for the newness freshness and life of Truth given by Divine Revelation God graciously providing it should remain as Revelation left it and the Evidences it hath done so appearing with it it is the same in all Ages Divine never loses of its life nor abates of its vigor what it was so many Ages ago that it abides now what the Holy-Ghost spoke so many Ages ago that it speaks now as warmly as then All Divine Truth given is after the power of an endless life the Eternal Increated Spirit lives in it and gives Divine Quickness to it It is yesterday to day the same for ever and so breathes its own sense in Scripture by the ordinary Assistances it vouchsafes to Holy Humble and diligent Waiters upon him in this even as it did in the first Ages though the extraordinary Motions are withdrawn Quest But still the Gifts and Endowments of those Eminent Men with all the Light Truth Grace Learning and Reason they shine to us with ought to be esteemed and improved Answ Yes doubtless For whatsoever Things are true whatsoever things are pure are of Virtue and deserved praise they are Publick and of God wherever they are found And whatever there is in these Elders in their nearness to the First Times their Holiness their Sufferings their great Learning their Encounters of Paganism their Apologies for Christianity their Heavenliness their Contempt of this World all is a Donation and a Grace of God by them to his Church and Mankind in general Quest And does not there arise great Evidence to Christianity and the Doctrines and Practices of it from such eminent Witnesses Answ No doubt there does both to Christianity in particular and to all Religion Virtue and Goodness in general But yet neither their Writings nor Practices can in any wise become Scripture to us they all lead to Scripture and ought to do so they are all to be seen and reflected in Scripture Light and from thence they receive their lustre For though they are a Subordinate Testimony as hath been said yet Christian Religion hath greater Testimony and first enabled them to give a valuable Testimony to it self by Communicating so great knowledge and worth to them And besides all that hath been spoken the Writings of the Fathers are so Voluminous as not to be read over by the most so doubtful in their Genuiness that they cannot be Examined but with great Labour and well prepared Judgment so disputable in their sense that to attain a certainty in it would cut off Time from the greater Imployment of Meditation in the Word of God day and night where Men's Callings lie otherwise so that to receive our Religion from hence were of too remote an assurance to any one much more to those who have not Books and studie for their Profession But every Man whether learned or unlearned is concerned deeply to try his Religion with his own Eyes and not anothers for him and God hath therefore provided a Word nigh him even in his Mouth and in his Heart and hath also taken care by stirring up so many both of the Ancient and Modern Christians to separate themselves to intermeddle with all sacred knowledge that there is a worthy exercise of the learned World herein and great advantages arise thereby for universal knowledge even to the less learned and the very unlearned Quest But did the Fathers themselves distinguish thus their own and one anothers Writings from Scripture Answ It is most evident as hath been already affirmed they put a greatest difference betwixt the most excellent Monuments of Christianity that were but Humane whether their own or others and inspired Pages else Clement Ignatius and others might as well have been Canoniz'd by them as what is from them come down to us for Sacred Canon it self and even as they did we may see the great odds betwixt the one and the other and as we adore God the supreme Author so the Sovereign Preserver of Scripture who by Divine Evidences and by superintending Providence hath divided the bound of Scripture at so great a remove from all the Writings in the World whether Christian or Prophane the Apocryphal Books not excepted which though too adventurously joyn'd so generally in a Volume with Scripture yet are evidently disproportioned in the Majesty of Sense and Divine Eloquence Quest Is there no greater Authority of the First Councils Answ How many Humanes soever meet they cannot make up Divine where it was not before nor can a multitude of Privates constitute a Publick Divine and Publick may be declared but cannot be made so by such Contribution All Determinations of Councils are infinitely outweighed in Value and over-ruled in Authority by Scripture indeed Publick and Divine Quest But in such a number of his Servants may we not conclude God is certainly among them and does guide them Answ Give them all the advantages that can be given and either we must say they are Infallibly guided and then we must receive their Decrees as Scripture and they must be attested to us as Scripture is attested or they are not Infallibly guided and then their Decrees must be tryed as all Fallibles ought to be by a Rule surer than themselves If even Divine Revelation it self was at first tryed and found perfect nay if even all that God proposes to us as from himself comes laden with its own proper Evidences how much more must that which is confessedly humane be tryed by that which is confessedly
Divine The great use of Councils is therefore so to debate and bring things to a Result by a confluence of Wisdom and Learning that we may see Divine Truths in their own Light in Scripture-light to hold out which they are but ministerially imploy'd and not to impose upon any under the name of Publick for that alone is Publick that is Divine All Comparison of Privates among themselves must needs be lost in this Publick before which the greatest name of Publick is but as the drop of the Bucket and the small dust of the Ballance And the union with that true Publick makes the most Private a Publick and Separation from it the most seemingly Publick a most Idiottal Private And it were very happy if the Experiment hereof were not too evident in the Councils that have been how little Number of it self can Contribute to truly Publick or Divine yet the fitness of the Means is withall to be acknowledged as ordain'd by God CAP. IX Of the Church-Catholick Quest SCripture the Publick Record of Catholick Religion being thus far Established and Secured both by Internal Characters and External Care of Providence it still remains necessary there should be some stated Ordination of God for the Actuating this Record to its several Purposes and Ends. 1. Because Divine Revelation having now finished its measures there cannot be expected those immediate motions of Truth that were vouchsafed by God in his extraordinary Presences but all is to be deriv'd from and display'd in Scripture 2. Scripture yet being but of the nature of a Record it would lye still and unmoved and as it were dead if not produced and applyed even as other Laws and Records do that are not continually executed to their proper Vses be their Virtue never so great if so Executed What therefore is that Ordinance of God in the Cessation of Immediate Presence for the exposing this Record to its universal notice and for the applying it daily to its great purposes which is the Executing it as far as it is to be Executed in this World Answ God hath by his extraordinary Ministers whom he gave his Divine Revelation and Word first founded the Church and according to the Degrees of that Revelation exalted it to be serviceable to this great End and so to supply the place of Immediate Presence Quest What is to be understood by the Church Answ The Church is The Catholick Congregation of Mankind called to the Faith and Obedience of that Word it self and which being called it self is entrusted to call others to the same Faith and Obedience and so is Govern'd and Governs according to it by daily Exercises in and according to that Word Quest Why do you give the Church the stile of a Congregation are not the Parts of it so distant that they cannot be Congregated in the Worship of God Answ They are yet all so united in the Faith and Obedience of this Sacred Word and in the Worship of God according to it as to be most properly called a Congregation in that regard Quest But still how can the Church be called a Congregation seeing that speaks it always actually Congregated but those very Members that in regard of nearness one to another are at due seasons Congregated cannot yet be always Congregated Answ The Twelve Tribes of Israel that is the Church in its several Members always united always ready to the Instant serving God Day and Night are beheld and seen by him as in a perpetual actual Congregation Quest Why do you call the Church The Congregation Answ Even as Holy Writing is The Scripture and The Bible or Book so the Church is The Congregation by way of Eminency the only Excellent Assembly or Congregation in the World And indeed upon a true account there is no other Religious Congregation but either a rude Multitude or a Conspiracy and Faction against God Quest Why is the Church said to be a Congregation called by the Word Answ Because Humane Nature uncall'd lies in the Lapse of Separation from God in Private and False Religion and in those Assemblies justly branded as before till it be recalled by him into the Church united again to him So that a Church is not a Natural but a Supernatural Assembly yet it is ready to embrace all true Nature anâ— the Associations of it into it self Quest Why is the Church describ'd to be One Catholick Congregation when both Scripture and daily Observation assure us there have been and are so many Particular Congregations very Regular Churches and duely so styled Answ Because the Church is of the Nature of those Things that are distinguished only by the several Accidental Receptions they find and yet still remain One the Catholick Church and a Particular Church differ no otherwise than as a Beam of Light differs from the whole Globe of Light or a Stream of Water from the Ocean Even the most Particular Church is in this regard Catholick that it is united to God and Christ that indeed give both the Name and Nature of Catholick from themselves Particular Churches yea even Particular Persons truly of the Church have every one the whole Character Title Promise and Privilege of the Catholick Church so far as they can need or receive them even as Heaven is Entire Heaven to every single Glorified Soul Every Lively Member of the Church touches the Head and Corner-stone and so in him the whole General Assembly and Church of the First-born both in Heaven and Earth and is at last consummate with them to Eternity Quest How is this Church Congregated Answ It was begun and hath always increased by Particular Persons converted and brought home to God according to his Word in several Ages and Successions For the Church as it is a Church is not a Society formed by a common Consent of Men or by their Will but its several Parts are added by God so that it consists of all that are inwardly and truly of that Catholick Religion in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Eternal Spirit all the World over and in which meet all that have been are or shall be thus converted by the Word of God as the Church is and shall be triumphant in Glory Quest The Call then that makes this Congregation is first to God and Christ and not to the Church it self Answ It is evidently so All true Converts first give themselves to God and Christ and by vertue of That to the Church The Apostles were not sollicitous of any other Conjoyning Men to the Church than what most necessarily followed upon their receiving the Gospel and were afraid of their fixing upon them that were but Ministers and Servants We preach Jesus to be the Lord and our selves Servants for Jesus sake The Corinthians heading themselves under Paul or Apollo or Cephas was very mischievous and therefore the Apostle knowing the Union ought to be only to Christ directs himself so vehemently against it as also against any
fanciful Distinction of themselves under Christ as an ordinary Chief of a Party and not as the Divine Head of the whole Body in the Catholick Truth Even as he erred that vulgarly called Christ Good not knowing him to be God the Supremely Solely Good Quest Are they all true Converts that are of the Church Answ All that are indeed the Church are so but all that may appertain to the Church are not so as all that were of Israel were not Israel There is a visible Profession that is too often not sincere yet this makes Men Of or belonging to the Church but not truly The Church Many are so called that are not chosen But all that are truly The Church are also truly called and truly Converts not only outwardly and visibly the Church but inwardly and invisibly so too whose praise is not of Men but of God In the mean time they that are onely of the Visible Church have the Means of Grace and are not thrown out of that Register of God's People till the Final Judgment cuts them off A very great Benefit in it self Quest Is not the Church then so Catholick or General as the Profession of the True Religion is Answ The Catholickness of the Church as hath been often inculcated is its Union to God and Christ and that in sincerity As to the general Profession though the number of it be as the Sand of the Sea a Remnant only shall be saved For God will finish the Account and cut it short in Righteousness for a short work will the Lord make in the Visible Church There shall be an often eating or brousing it off a retrenching of it again and again it shall cast the Leaves of its meer Professors as the Teyle-tree or Oak when yet their Substance is in them the Holy Seed are the Substance of it Isa 6. ult not losing them it loses nothing Quest In what sense is it then said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Answ It is undoubted none can fail while they are the Church while united to Truth to the God of Truth to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life It is also certain from this high Declaration there always shall be a Church in the World so united Hades or Mortality shall not prevail over it and how much farther it assures the Perseverance of those that are once truly the Church I leave the thing it self to speak It is said They that overcome ar Pillars that never go out of it and They that go out of it were not of it for if they had been indeed of it they would no doubt have continued with it And how the Church it self shall always continue if any True Member of it may perish is not easie to conceive Quest How is the Church ordained by God to actuate Scripture as it is the Record of Catholick Religion Answ The Apostle in his Noble Description of the Church hath laid the Foundations of our Instruction herein in those three Honourable Titles he hath given it 1. That it is the House of the Living God 2. That it is the Pillar of Truth 3. That it is the Ground of Truth Quest Before the Explanation of each of these Titles in the first place I desire it may be determined whether these things are spoken of the Catholick or of a Particular Church the Particular Church of Ephesus Answ Although I have already affirmed That the Catholick Church differs from a Particular True Church only in the Compass and Comprehensiveness of it yet I very willingly represent it over again in this Instance These things are truly applied to the Catholick Church to the Particular Church of Ephesus to every Particular Church nay it reaches down to every single living Member of the Church so far that God makes his abode with him dwells in him he is a Pillar in the House of God the Truth rests and dwells in him and shall be with him for ever so that he is a Ground of Truth and hath more of the Church in him than greater seeming Portions of it that erre from the Truth Quest If you please now to proceed in the Explanation of these Titles and first What is the Importance of the Churches being the House of God for the actuating the Scripture Answ God the most High Possessour and Owner of Heaven and Earth places his Court Family and particular Residence where he pleases and he hath chosen the Church to be this to him This is my Rest here will I dwell for ever for I have desired it Heaven is my Throne Earth is my Footstool where is the House you will build me To this Man will I look that trembles at my Word And where God dwells there he manifests himself As a Master of a Family makes known in his House and Family his Nature Will Laws and Government so God does in his Church In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel In his Church he shews the Light of his Countenance expects and rewards Services as a Great Master and makes known his Dislikes and Displeasure This is brought to pass in the Church by those many Ways that God hath of bringing his Word to any Places or Persons giving it Reception among them and then stirring up his Children and Servants to hear his Voice to search his Mind and Will and to understand it so that it is as a Voice continually behind them In his Temple therefore in his House every one must needs speak of his Glory His Word cannot lie still for all are concerned to meditate ponder inquire and discourse of it and are by Supreme Management excited so to do and so much as this Exercise in his Word is by any means depressed so far God is withdrawn and the Excellency of the Church-state lost Now of the Church being the House of God there was this great Type God dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem as in a Palace there was such a Diet of Shew-bread changed every day of Sacrifices of all sorts such Perfumes of Incense and Odours such Officers and Servants attending continually such Resorts of the whole Body of the People to the Court of this Great King and Princely Housholder Together with this State runs along in a mighty Stream Gods shewing his Word to Jacob his Statutes and Judgments to Israel In the New Testament the Pomp and Ceremonial Part is wholly transferred into Spirituality but Spirituality is not lower but higher in the Substance of all that could be figured by these things and the substantial part of that State the Communication of the Word of God is much exalted in the true Christian Church that the Light of One Day is now as much as the Light of Seven was before Thus the Church as the Family of God cannot but actuate his Word Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Pillar of Truth Does the Church support Truth Answ Not so for it self is built upon the
find the Truth by it self and then the Church by that Truth and not the Church by it self and then the Truth by the Church Answ Very true For God hath so in his Infinite Wisdom establish'd the very Nature of Things Truth can give many Assurances of it self to us by it self so suited to our Faculties The Church can give us none but by its agreement with Truth revealed in the Word of God We could not have known such a Congregation as the Church at all to be much less which it is but by that Word manifesting it self in our Consciences and so distinguishing to us the True Church among the many Associations in the World each calling to us as having the best Religion among themselves Even the True Apostles themselves could be known to be so and False Apostles tried and found Liars no other way but by this Truth view'd and considered singly and distinctly by it self Quest But when we have found the Church by the Truth may we not then deliver up our selves wholly to the Church as so united to Truth Answ No by no means We can never so deliver up our selves nor will the True Church desire any such thing of us seeing its Office is not to hold out it self but the Word of Truth and in doing any thing else it acts not as a Church but as any other ordinary Society and on no other Terms can we have to do with it For the very Attempt to hold out as a Church any Laws of its own ought to enter us into a Jealousie whether it be the True Church which is as a Church the Pillar and Rest of Divine Truth only Quest What Reason is there of such a Jealousie when once we have found it a Church by the Truth it holds out Answ Because a Church that hath been a True Church may several ways decline from its State Quest How then can it he said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Answ That Prophetick Promise does not secure this or that Particular Church but that there shall be a Seed of the Church in the World with which the Covenant of God is Eternal My Word shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed or thy Seed's Seed for ever But it is yet further true the True Seed the Holy Seed the Substance of the Church can never utterly and finally fail in any Particular Member of it for if it could it were too great a violation of our Saviour's Truth in that Declaration The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church or force that Immortal retrograde into Mortality even that most dreadful one of the Second Death for which a Succession of others and in the same Danger is but a faint Salvo though it go on so to the End of the World Quest Who are this True Church in every Age and Place Answ They which are by True Saving Faith united to Christ the Son of God the Rock of Eternity and being so founded upon him are Pillars that never remove and a Rest of Truth for ever having been taught and learnt it as it is in Jesus Quest Who are the Professionary Church only Answ They that though they may as Artificial Pillars give some Ornament to the House of God and offer Truth yet not being indeed united to the Foundation are movable and may go out of the House They are such as have not received the Truth in the Love and Obedience of it within themselves and so may fall away from it It cannot be said of them as of the former The Truth shall be with them for ever having made its Edrâ—â—â—ma or Settlement in them Quest How does the Professionary Church fall away in the Bulk and Body of its Professors and Profession Answ The Office of the Church being to Actuate Truth and only Truth it may fail either in abating the Fervours due to Truth though nothing False or Forreign be admitted or in receiving Falshood or things of a baser Alloy for Truth and wasting those Fervours due only to Truth upon them The one may be called a departing from the true State of a Church the other from the State of a True Church and they usually meet one in another Quest How does this come to pass Answ From the Judgment of God upon the present sinful State permitting things so to themselves that in very few Instances it is but that the Imperfections of Good Men and the prevailing Corruptions of Professionary Christians change the Holy Lively Activities of the True State of a Church into Lukewarmness and Formality or by admitting Falshood and impure Mixtures into Doctrine Worship and Discipline corrupt the State of the Church so that it loses its Truth Quest What becomes of the Professionary Church when it loses the True State of a Church Answ It is as the Prophet expresses a Civil State or a City that hath lost its Splendour It becomes like a burnt Mountain or extinguish'd Globe of Light It retains the Form but loses the Life and Vigour of a Church like Ephesus that lost its First Love or Sardis that had a Name to live but was dead or Laodicea that was neither cold nor hot Quest What becomes of it when it is corrupted and loses in its Truth Answ It exchanges the Lively Oracles for Forms of Doctrine and Lifeless Discourse not of the High Spirit of Scripture It debases pure Worship into Ceremonialness Superstition or Idolatry and the Gospel Rule and Discipline it sells for a Worldly Politie and the true Graces of Christianity expressed in a Holy Conversation for what is much beneath or contrary Sometimes it forsakes Truth in some Fundamental Article that it swells out from the Foundation in a Breach ready to fall And there is one Instance of all these in the Anti-Church which will deserve a greater Consideration Quest How does God deal with such Churches Answ Sometimes sweeps them with the Beesom of Destruction taking away both the Candlestick and Place of it together Alienes Both to them and their Religion thrusting them out of their whole Possession Sometimes he suffers them to continue even for Ages yet so that their Candlestick is moved out of its due stately Positure hardly appearing like a Candlestick and that by the Indignation of God Quest In these Cases how does it fare with the True Holy Seed the Substantial Church Answ God chastens them to Repentance Self-purification and greater Zeal in that Case of the Churches losing its Brightness and Vigour that they may recover their first State and Work aad sets them on work to retrive Truth lost in that other Case of the Churches Defection Quest How is it with them when the very Place and Candlestick are taken away Answ They are either first removed into the higher State of the Church in Heaven or driven before into other Parts of the World by Persecution or the violence of the Judgment makes no distinction but carries
of this Truth under an apprehension of a greater moment than there is indeed in the Causes of such a Disunion and a proportionable abatement of Christian Love arising from it All Heresie therefore includes Schism but all Schism does not rise up to Heresie Quest Are these the Scripture Notions of Schism and Heresie according to its use of those Words Answ They are most agreeable with the Sense of it but the words were not so set solemn and formal in Scripture as afterwards in Ecclesiastick Writers for Dichostasyes or Division into two or more Parties and Contentions are by the Apostle used to the same Sense as Schism and Heresie sometimes signifies no more than a Sect or Division though that is remarkably used in its worst Sense by both the Apostles Paul and Peter Quest Is every different Apprehension and Practice ensuing upon it though distant from Truth immediately to be Condemned of Schism Answ By no means if it be a Modest and Humble Distrust and Suspension concerning the Truth and Command of God in some things of smaller moment and doubtful yea though it comes to a positive Determination so far as a Man's judgment and yet erroneous can at the present discern it cannot be branded as Schism if there be no stress laid upon the Thing beyond its desert if the Union in the greatest and clearest Truths and Commands remains firm and the Love due to such an Union with the Church of God be sincere and fervent yea even Dissent in greater points thus qualified and free from ill practice hath not been rigidly censur'd for Heresie Quest Is there no danger then of running into Schism if there be an Vnion with Truth Answ In this Sense only when the weakness or misapprehension of others are rated against them beyond their Merit and without regard to the greater Truths they agree in and the Love due to them upon Union in those greater Truths is withdrawn or the Spirit of meekness in endeavouring to restore the Erring Christian denied This may be justly esteem'd like Schism as it recedes from the just value of Great Truths and from the Charity of Christians upon Union in them but no Man is to espouse any Mans Errors or to receive even Truth by an implicit Faith for fear of Schism in things that carry not a broad Evidence of Divine Truth there is great scope for Modest Suspensions and even Dissents without Imputation of Schism for Truths of magnitude either in Doctrine Worship Practice or Discipline are too bright to be refused by sincere and honest Minds after due admonition Quest Wherein lies then the great Evil of Schism Answ That Schism and the Evil of it may better be understood I will set before you the several Instances of Schism in Scripture and the Evils noted by the Apostle in each of them 1. The first sort of Schism is the Disunion in the sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and bringing in upon it the necessity of the Judaique Rites to concur with it This the Apostle to the Romans Rom. 16. 17. calls making Divisions or Parties beside or contrary to the Doctrine received The great Evil of this adding to the Word of God is that it lays Scandals before Men and draws them into this great mischief that instead of the pure nourishment of Divine Truth all runs into this over-beloved Sentiment and so deprives the Soul of the true and vigorous Spirits of Truth and also the Service due to True Christianity is drain'd away and consumed upon this private Opinion which is indeed the mischief of all Falshood in Religion and Devotion in Things not appointed by God who only can prescribe what is truly fitted to our Good and bless it with suitable Effect Miscarriage from Divine Truth is always found in Schism with this mischievous Consequence that it deceives the Soul with a Cloud and Wind instead of Truth and solid Good 2. A Second kind of Schism the Apostle Notes 1 Cor. 11. 19 20. was the Disorder in Divine-Worship in that great Ordinance of the Lords Supper wherein they that were reprov'd were necessitated to withdraw and to stand apart for the manifesting themselves in the purity of that Worship and Service for the very honor of it The great Evil of this Schism is that it brings in a necessity of divided Parties in Publick Religion and the Duties of it seeing good Men must separate from such Corruptions and stand at a Distance from them on Account of which Religion it self is dishonoured as if it were a Jumble of Sects and gave an uncertain sound and further than that is charged as if it were but a Sect it self because it stands by it self Thus Christianity was called This Sect and the Sect of the Nazarenes Idolatry damns the True Worship of God as a Heresie from it self and the False Church charges the truly Publick-Assembly with Schism and a Private Religion 3. Another Degree of Schism the Apostle taxes in the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 11. c. 4. 3. was that this one intire Profession of Christianity in the one Universal Church of Christ they thought ought to be shred into little Fraternities under the Names of some prime Minister of Christianity or even under the Name of Christ himself as an ordinary Master of a Party except we will understand that Those Approved who stood firm in Christ alone were manifested and stood alone by being at a distance from the Schism of others and so appeared as was said before like a Schism themselves Thus vain Philosophy parcell'd out it self under its great Masters The great Evil of this is that it raises Feuds Contentions and Factions as if this one Integral Christianity could have distinct Interests and some ingross one Interest others another Whereas the Apostle thus reduces this Schism all Ministers saith he with all their Gifts Graces and Functions are the whole Churches without any cantoning other than that Order and Conveniency requires the more constant administration of Religion in certain Congregations with their Elders Cephas the Apostle of the Circumcision was the Corinthians though Gentiles as well as the Apostle of the Gentiles Paul himself and not only the Churches Ministers â—ut the whole World and the Cargo of Light and Truth in it are the Churches Every Truth every Ordinance every Minister whâ—ther of Truth Natural or Revealed Religion with all the happy Effects of them are all the Donation of Christ to the Catholick Church whose the Catholick Church is and no Ministers whatever and Christ is Gods who is the Foundation Center and Supream Head of this Unity and Union 4. The last Instance of Schism I find in Holy Scripture is intimated to us under that curious Parable 1 Cor. 12. 12. of the Wise and Excellent Temperament betwixt the several Members of the same Body set in different Degrees of Dignity the less comely parts have more abundant Comliness and those that we think to be less Honourable on these we bestow more abundant
to do from that very time of the Apostles to this Day and hath also actuated the Truth of the Scripture and those Fundamentals of it according as its Interest hath led it in some Ages more in some less as shall be presently more discovered Quest Having then the Scriptures those Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors upon them in such a length of time with what reason can it be looked upon as an Anti or Antichristian-Church Answ With very great reason because by a multitude of Additions fowlest Idolatrous and Superstitious Corruptions and false Interpretations upon the Scriptures the Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancients shamefully interpolated and by Spurious Writings under their Names despited it hath turned whole Christianity into a very contrary thing to it self while therefore it holds those points of Christianity and the Records of it in veneration and yet supports all its Falshoods thereby it becomes perfectly an Antichurch or Antichristian It hath in regard of those Articles of Truth it holds and actuates so much as to have the Name of a Church and Christian and yet having them so falsified corrupted and changed from themselves it becomes a Mock-Church a Mock-Christianity that is an Antichurch and Anti-christian in despite of the True-Church and True-Christianity And as to its Actuation of Truth it hath so Actuated Truth as to Actuate by Truth its own Falshoods and Lies upon Truth Quest How then did it rise to such an Eminency and pretence of being Catholick and Publick Answ The many Concurrences of Divine Providence under his deep and unsearchable Judgments in the Government of the World in relation to that state he had appointed for his Church I leave to the History of the Church and Roman Empire in those times by which may be understood how the Papacy took the advantage to Exalt it self not only above the Episcopal Chairs then in an Ambitious Contest for Supremacy but above all that was called God that is the Imperial Power it self and so set its Foot upon the Necks of Christian Princes throughout the World till the great Cheat began to be detected and all this by and upon pretence of being the Vicar of Christ or the Head of the Catholick that is the Roman-Church Quest These things I confess not so convenient to my Inquiry I desire only to know how in the middle of so many horrible Corruptions this Antichurch could be so bold as to vaunt it self the Vniversal Church of Christ Answ Taking the utmost benefit of its Antiquity in the Christian-Faith and Fundamentals of it and especially of the Conspicuousness and Famousness of its State and in the mean time the Corruptions growing up by degrees and not so observably as at once for Papal Rome was not built in a Day It usurped the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as its own the Key of Knowledge in its Infallibility the Keys of Power in opening and shutting Heaven Gates so as that in the Darkness then overspreading the World and the Church Ignorance the Mother of False-Devotion so bewitching the Minds of Men that they all wondered after the Roman-State as new modelled under the Beast Arm'd with two Horns like those of a Lamb counterfeiting Power from Christ the Lamb but that spake as a Dragon pursuing all its pretendedly Christian Decrees with the extreamest Salvageness of any of the greatest Earthly Tyrants but all under a Mask of the Catholick Apostolick Church by which Fascination of Zeal to the most excellent Religion though so Vitiated Princes and People Surrendred their Power to this great Sorceress using at once all the Frauds and Cheats of False-Prophesie and the Arts and Policy of the most Designing Universal Monarchy Thus while this Antichurch stole into Power by the best appearances of True-Religion and secured it by all the Blandishments of a Meretricious Religion it found it self so strong as to force its False-Religion by its Power and using both together raised the Grandeur of both a Secular and Spiritual Tyranny to such a height Quest But how did the True-Church in this time Actuate Truth or agree with those Characters of being the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ It was by the might and prevalency of this Secular and Spiritual Tyranny so suppressed that it was in a manner known only to God who reserv'd a number to himself in the midst of so great a Defection wherein that promise was made Good the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church Exposing and Actuating Truth pure from those Corruptions is hardly and very hardly to be found in History in any of the Lines and Motions of it in the most dark and dolesom period of that Defection Quest How was it with the True-Church recovering it self from this great Darkness Answ God raised up by extraordinary Measures of though but an ordinary presence such who by Indefatigable searches into his Truth and Word and those Records of Christianity that Antichurch was concerned to preserve because as was said it could not without so much of a Church be an Antichurch and by bold Publications of it shook so that Inchanted City that a tenth part of it fell And by the great contrivance of Providence even the chief of that Antichurch were forc'd by way of Repercussion to raise greater Light by endeavours to defend themselves from Scripture Antiquity and Reason by the Summons of all that Learning Wit and Industry could levy in their Defence so that they were necessitated to awaken out of that Barbarity and Ignorance in which they had been so long drown'd and to Actuate even Truth more fiercely that they might together with it make as potent and prevalent as they could and give countenance to those great Falshoods they had interwoven with it From all which broke out such a light in the World that Princes rowz'd themselves and no longer crouch'd down under such an intoxicated Servitude which had long gall'd and pinch'd them but that they knew not how to rid themselves from it till the Sorcery was laid bare which still gave greater scope for the display of Truth Quest Could the Scripture be inconscious or silent concerning so great Revolutions in the Church of God as these Answ It is in all True Reason most impossible and therefore it is a mighty Argument that those great places of Scripture that do so notoriously agree to such a purpose as the Discovery of this Antichristian State are justly apply'd to it by Protestant Interpreters Quest If you please point me to the chief of those places you refer to Answ I will do it very briefly as being too large for the present purpose to enumerate many or enlarge upon any of them But what more proper to delineate such a State than the Apostasie the Apostle describes 2 Thess 2. 3. and 1 Timoth. 1. 4. or than the Church in the Wilderness Revel 12. 14. the Witnesses Prophecying
all but one great Lie of this Son of the Father of Lies the Image of the God of this World the Son of his falshood and perdition contrary to Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love But if any one receiving Christianity or the Scriptures from the Antichurch and measuring them in and by themselves separates True Christianity from the Antichristianism and retains it Pure it is but like the Service God received from the False Prophet Baalam when he Prophesied Truth into whose Place and Office Antichrist succeeds and is therefore styled the False Prophet Revel 16. 13. Quest What then can this pretended Catholick Church be in relation to the True Catholick Publick Religion Answ It can be no other upon strict account than the Synagogue of Satan the Pseudocatholick Antichurch in a Damnable Heresie from and hatred to the General Assembly and Church of the First Born written in Heaven united with the God of Truth and Love and the Son of the Father in Truth and Love in a Hellish Schism and Separation from the Apostolick Catholick Church of which God and Christ are the Head Quest How can it be believed that so great a Lie upon Christianity should be received by so large a proportion of the Christian World or that Persons of so vast Abilities and Comprehensions should so deceive others or be themselves deceived Answ Scripture has taken all the care possible to Arm us against this Objection which is indeed very great It calls this Apostacy a Mystery of Iniquity and to assure us the Apostle Paul and the Divine Person in the Revelation point to the same Thing upon the Forehead of this Adulterous Church is written Mystery Now a Mystery if it were presently understood and all easie and plain were no Mystery It hath the Energy of Delusion in causing Men to believe a Lie it is the whole Deceit of unrighteousness it sets up a great Stage of Counterfeit Miracles that it vaunts upon and that it might have that Reverend Face of Antiquity to deceive with and say it comes from a far-off Ages It was a Mystery that was then at work in the Apostles time Lastly It hath its effect upon them that may be Christians and receive Truth but not the chaste unprostitute Love of Truth alone Quest But it seems imposible that any parts of the Christian World that have been once disabused should return any more under so great a Delusion Answ There are very great hopes that God who hath Commanded his Light to shine out of this Darkness will interpose by the perpetual Brightness of his own appearance and by that Divine Breath of his Mouth in his Word against the return of so great a Darkness This set aside there are so many Reasons of fear and such possibilities of laying a Train of Causes reaching to such an Effect that there can be no place for Security but in the Almighty Providence and yet what Degrees of that deadly Scourge may fall on the Protestant World God only knows we know our Sins deserve very ill Quest What is the greatest Security under the Divine Grace and Providence against so great Desolation upon True Christian Religion Answ A perfect Acquiescency of the Protestant Nations upon the Foursquare of Divine Truth and Resolvedness not to move from thence For as a Foursquare never removes from its own Base because it is All Base so they that are Squar'd to it and settled upon it never move For it always bears them alike with it self and by its own Justness recalls them if they offer to wander meer angry prejudice against this or that False Religion is not enough without being thus grounded upon Truth Entertainment of Truth with any Addittaments will secure no Man for he that receives one Addition may receive another He that receives Truth lying Foursquare with it self is called back by that Even of Truth He that adds one to it and makes it Odd may go on indefinitely as Popery hath done because he hath forsakent he Just Even that should stay him He can no longer wait for the Voice of Truth that by it self always answers it self but to what is not like it self it will not answer but discover it to be off from this Square it will not on any respects hearken to any thing different because it will not be sollicited to move from it self So that upon the whole the Laws of Symetry and Commensuration are the great Security of True Religion and ascertain the True Church both to it self and all Beholders For Additions to Religion like Surds or Irrational Figures incommensurable to the Rational Square can never be reduc'd to this Foursquare of Truth but are like the Deaf Adder that will not hearken to the voice of Reason Charming never so Wisely Nor can they ever be reduced to a certainty or exactness with themselves but are one thing to day another to morrow But Divine Truth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rational Certain Expresly it self Deaf indeed to any thing else but in it self it is Yesterday and to Day the same for ever He therefore that daily ponders meditates upon hath a just Measure of the Fundamentals of Divine Truth and does all things in a Regular Square with them shall know the Doctrine that is of God all the Fruits of the Tree of Life though they are various yet come all within the Apostolick Twelve and he that hath a Spiritual Gust exercis'd to discern betwixt Good and Evil by tasting any aright will taste all and find them Apostolical and know whatever pretends and is not and so reject it He will know all the Gates of Wisdom and Truth and the Angelical Guard attending at them and go in and out by them but the Disorderly Breaches and Gaps that Wild Beasts or Deceitful Foxes have made he avoids knowing they exceed the Apostolick Twelve and are therefore dangerous and pernicious and whatever Apparation of Angels may be at them he knows it is only Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and his Ministers transformed as the Apostles of Christ as the Ministers of Righteousness Thus the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles Numbred and Measured exactly by it self is the Security of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that is of the True Church CAP. XIV Of the Power of Magistrates in Religion and of National Religion Quest IT is I think very clear by all that hath been spoken that the settlement of Religion in the Word of God is most stable and certain and that by no Powers he hath given in his Church it can be changed nor receive any Arbitrary Additions that should be Obligatory But I am in great doubt how to reconcile those Commands of Scripture to be subject to Principalities and Powers with those strict Precepts to keep close to the Word of God and to turn neither to the Right hand nor to the Left where Rulers so often prescribe in Religion contrary to or different from the Word of
For the sake of the True Religion we may be oblig'd to forsake not only our Country but our Fathers House and to unite to the Church of God founded in that True Religion yet in the mean time we must own all that is Divine Rational True weresoever we find it much more in our Native Country and if it be possible propagate True Religion upon it For we shall not only be judged in this World with our Nation but shall rise with it at the Day of Judgment in the same Station or Lott wherein we were placed in this World according to our doing good in it we shall receive our Reward with those of it that are saved who shall then survive in Glory and become as if they were the whole Nation the perishing part being lost as we therefore desire the prosperity of it in this World so ought we to endeavour by all means the Eternal Happiness of as many of it as we can by joyning with them and ingaging them in True Religion Quest I desire your Second Proposition Answ It is this That in a Political Sense National Religion is when Magistrates and the Body of the People joyn in the True Religion and Establish it by Law and devote to it the most Publick Advantages that the Largeness and Grandeur of such a Nation have in their Power fixing Characters of Civil Honour and ample Condition upon the Rulers of the Church and Communicating to them Magistratical Power in things pertaining to the External Defence Honour and Provision for the True Religion as it is National all which so far as it is Serviceable to the best Ends is acceptable to God our Saviour who is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace and ought to be Submitted to with Reverence both in Obedience to Government and also as it is done in Honour to the Name of God and True Religion The State of the Church in times of Persecution being not the Standard as to these things in the prosperous times of it Quest I now desire the Third Proposition Answ The Government of a Nation in Religion appointing and prescribing Liturgies Confessions of Faith Catechisms and Publick Forms of Instruction or Homilies they may be so far useful as when they are composed according to the Word of God to secure True Religion and the Publick Administration of it by so much publickly Ratified and requiring of all whom it Intrusts as Ministers of the Word of God under its Approbation and Maintenance to assent to the Truth of Religion so Compriz'd and Publickly to declare it by using them as is appointed But these are not to be understood to put Limits upon the Ministers of the Word first entrusted by Christ who are both in Prayer Preaching the Gospel and all means of Instruction to search into all the Scripture that is profitable for Doctrine Instruction Reproof and to Pray with all Prayer and Supplication according to the particular occasions and in that abundance and liberality of the Divine Oracles that they themselves may speak as the Oracles of God and Pray with the Vnderstanding and in the Holy Spirit and that all their Service may be matter of Bounty from their own Minds and not of Constraint and necessity as impos'd For how should they then as every Good Scribe Instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven bring out of their Treasure Things New and Old or like the good Housholder that hath made provision and laid up in store to that End In all these things Solomons Example is Great According to which the Preacher ought to be Wise and to teach the People Knowledge and give good heed and seek to find out acceptable Words that may be as Goades and Nailes not blunted with Common use Quest I now desire your Fourth Proposition Answ The Benefit of National Religion Established by Law is That every Subject of that Nation hath a Right to the True Religion so Established and may claim his Interest and Property in it as in all Things else legally due to him and is not oblig'd upon the account of Passive Obedience to desert or relinquish his Right in it any more than his Righteous Claim or Title to any thing else he enjoys by Laws and yet Trangresses no Rule of Christianity but hath the same Obligation to defend that his Right as any other Right whatever so far as the Laws of the Nation enable him nor can there be any Resistance to Government in so doing even as there can be none but it is the Duty and Trust of Subordinate Magistrates to adhere to the Laws in the point of True Religion as in all other Cases and of the Supreme Legislative Power of a Nation to foresee Dangers and prevent them by Additional Laws as necessity shall require And all this with the Prerogative due to Religion Quest I desire your Fifth Proposition Answ National Religion seeing it is design'd to Comprehend a multitude of Persons of most necessarily and unavoidably various Sentiments and Apprehensions must be so prepared as that with greatest Ease and Room to Consciences and Understandings of so many several Figures and Impressions there may be an Union in National Religion with least Scruple and therefore to give all the Liberty that Truth gives not imposing Arbitrarily because Religion as hath been said is Gods Peculiar and in that the Doubting Conscience cannot Obey farther than it sees the Divine Rule before it not in things Dark and Disputable because clear things are only necessary to Salvation not forcibly except when Natural Religion is Violated because patient Instruction Counsel and Ratiocination are the Divine Methods in giving and working Faith Quest I now expect the last Proposition Answ I shall give you the last and therein Conclude this whole Enquiry and Instruction and it is this The True Religion of the Word of God in a Nation or City does overtop all the False and Private Religions in it and become in the Sacred Register the National Religion In the Sacred Maps the Christians of Achaia were Achaia it self The Seven Churches of Asia were the Cities themselves And whatever Lesser Differences or Divisions this or that Name of Distinction may seem to make in National Religion yet the True Substantial Religion in all of them shall be one National Religion and become one Rod and Scepter in the Hand of Christ and the Nation be as one National Tribe and Church For let Men do what they can against it True Religion as it is the only Publick Religion and no Separation of Men from it however called Publick can make it Private so in what place soever it is it shall have the most Publick Character and the True Religion in all those that sincerely profess it shall be one True Publick Religion and those little Differences shall not cleave it into more than one Without the Change of True Religion it self there cannot be a Schism of a deeper Sense in it if Bitterness and Animosity Censoriousness and the Persecuting Spirit were away God will graciously Interpret Scruples on one side to a Jealousie for the Purity of Religion the freedom of the other to a desire to Propagate it under the favour of Laws and thereby to be capable of doing most Good In Heaven they now are all one and shall be one and the Envy Strife and Contention which the Good Lord Pardon shall be utterly Abolished This is the Honour of True Religion of Publick Divine Religion Now the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make his Church and his Church in this Nation perfect in every Good Work to do his Will Working in it that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS ERRATA Page 36. l. 20. for scale read seal p. 70. l. 9. r. 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Scripture and Reason agreeable to it and deduced from it and herein being a Minister of God according to the National Religion Rom. 11. 13. I magnifie my Office To this purpose I will first consider of the Radical obligation we have to join our selves with others in the profession of Religion and Worship of God and how it rises from Personal Religion the Substratum or foundation of all and by what degrees it must and ought to rise and how it most rationally determines it self in National Religion It ought to attempt thus high and cannot successfully attempt higher in the way of Association to spread thus far and cannot expatiate to any purpose beyond it I shall therefore here give such Arguments for National Religion out of Scripture as it does not afford to any other figure of union in it In the first place therefore it necessarily must be suppos'd and granted That Personal Religion is the Fundamental Religion even as a Nation or even Universality of Humane Nature must become a notion without particular persons in whom all Communities subsist even so must National or Catholick Religion vanish into imagination if it were not sustained by particular and Personal piety Nations and Families calling upon God most necessarily imply and include the particular persons of each doing so And herein it is further considerable that every man is a compleat Being within himself that as it is said of him He is in his Soul and Body a little World within himself so he is a Kingdom a Society within himself and we may say in this sense He is a Church within himself also as Solomon calling himself Coheleth the Congregating Ecclesiastes or the Preaching soul in that great Treaty with himself suppos'd his soul a Congregation and a Preacher within and to it self first and then to the publick so ought every man to be to himself Here therefore is the first inviolable duty and obligation to Religion because a man can never be absent from himself and it is impossible for any force to surprize the passages of a soul to Heaven or to hinder the souls Congregating in Holy Meditations and Discourses within it self And as a man is thus consider'd he cannot nor ought to suffer himself to be impos'd upon or commanded without Divine Authority for as thus consider'd he cannot be forced by any and he is accountable Rom. 14. 4 12. countable only to God He stands or falls to his own Master Every one shall give account of himself to God which is one of the greatest Arguments the Apostle insists upon for mutual forbearance in disputable things in Religion every man on this account ought to be 1 Pet. 3. 15 able to render a reason of the hope that is in him to himself and others and not to rest in an implicite faith It will be no mans excuse he was led or commanded into a false Faith or Idolatrous worship Every man also upon this same account is bound to make confession Rom. 10. 10. with his mouth to salvation in his proper place and station and in a narrower sense yet a sense as large as his capacity and rank every true Christian is a Pillar and Ground of Truth that is Truth must 1 Tim. 3. 15. be setled and strongly seated in his soul and he must expose Truth and bear it out in Confession and holy practise and is himself a Temple or House of the living God where God will please to walk and dwell and therefore can be no way obliged to join with a Family or any sort of larger Community in a false Religion though he should stand alone in the true or should as Abraham forsake his People or his Fathers House to do it Yet notwithstanding this It is not good for a man to be alone Gen. 12. 1. Gen. 2. 18. though in true Religion if it can be otherwise he is made for Society and is as it were imperfect without it Herein he resembles God in some low degree in whose Image and likeness he is made God is an infinitely perfect Being in himself yet he hath pleased himself in communicativeness to all his Creatures and in the attraction of all in their several kinds especially Angels and Men to himself as if he was not satisfied in being holy in being happy alone Thus man though if he could not have society in True Religion he would be yet a complete and absolute Figure alone yet where and so far as he can have society in it he is so far from being complete alone that he must needs prove a Cypher a Nothing if he affected and coveted to be alone Whatever he has if he has not Love he is nothing God is Love and therefore rejoyces in communication from himself and with himself and so must so does every good man every holy man also If there be True Personal Religion there must be Religious Society for Man is made for Society and if he meets he must meet with that Religjous Sense he has upon himself with that I say he must meet with others which seems the absolute necessity of Religious Society For if a man meets with his own Religion others that have the same sense of Religion there arises a necessity of the Religion of all to meet together But further Man was made for Society and the first and supreme end of society as of all things is the glory of God and therefore society is in the first place bound to be Religious society Marriage the Root and beginning of society was that there might be a godly seed Mal. 2. 15. to sustain a Succession of Religion So society spreads on still that there might be Religious Societies As soon therefore as Seth the first Descendent from Adam in the holy Line had a Son born in the same Line it is recorded that Then Men began to call upon the Name of Jehovah that is most probably Adam and Seth took it as a just and necessary occasion not Gen. 4. ult only to set up a pillar of Thankfulness in seeing themselves the Progenitors of the blessed Seed but in the foresight of a holy society just ready to spring from their loyns they thought fit to promote Divine Worship into a publick State and certain Order and this I think the most agreeable Interpretation of that controverted place so that from the beginning of the world all along the History of True Religion in the Old and New Testament we shall find Religion contended into publickness and all the advantages of Humane Society Yea Humane Nature hath taken this so for granted that it is doubtful whether there ever was a society in the world politically united or not wholly barbarous but it was cemented in Religion though being so generally but false Religion it proved no better than Heathenism There may have been private Cabals of Atheism but there never was a publick Association against A God known and believed except
Divine and to curse all those that derogate from it 4. That having thus rivetted it self it by degrees like Pharaoh's Lean Kine eats out the generous and rich Sense of Scripture and devours the Authority of it and yet it self remains a jejune and starv'd Superstition Quest Who are the great Masters of Tradition Answ They that have under the True Religion set up some private Diana of Profit Honour or Worldly Advantage and cannot maintain it by that True Religion they eke out therefore with Private Tradition what may support it Quest What Antidote is there against the Mischief of Tradition Answ To cleave with full purpose and resolution of Heart and Soul to the Word of God and to that only to have no Religion nor any thing in Religion but what is enjoyned and recommended by Divine Authority in that Blessed Word of God and this is indeed to be of the truly Catholick Apostolick and Publick Religion Quest But is the Sense that hath now been given of Tradition the best Sense of it in Scripture-use Answ No it is not and the Consideration of a better Sense will much clear to us the Nature of Tradition When therefore our Saviour discoursed of the Commandments of Men delivered down from Hand to Hand subsisting only upon the Private Authority of the Elders not founded on the written Canon of the Old Testament at that time the only Rule of Faith Worship and Practice he always names Tradition in the ill Sense already given But when the Doctrine and Rules of the New Testament in those grand Points were just breathing from the Holy Spirit and not yet fixed in that abiding Canon Tradition is so long accepted in a good Sense The History of the Things done by our Saviour though most surely believed Luc. 1. 1. was first but delivered or tradition'd by Word of Mouth but afterwards written that the certainty of them might be more fully known to those that had been before Catechiz'd in them by Oral Tradition All the Ordinances of the Christian Worship were first Traditions 1 Cor. 11. 2. and the very Rules of Life were in Tradition 2 Thess 3. 6. But yet all these though they were Tradâ—â—â—ons delivered by those that were Commissioned immediately by the Holy Ghost and were themselves Eye witnâ—sâ—â—â— and Ear-witnesses of most Things they gave in Tâ—â—dition were yet not sealed so sure as the more sure Word of Prophesie because they were not yet written by Divine Inspiration though given out by it nor generally received and assured as so written till the due time of Trial by former Scripture had passed upon them The first Christians did therefore well to take heed to that former Scripture till they had the full Day of the Gospel as hath been before spoken If Tradition then was not so sure in the first and truly pure Times of it how much less would it have been sure afterwards if it had continued in Tradition All therefore of Doctrine in the New Testament was first prepared by Tradition laid in and proved by the Scriptures of the Old Testament either by direct Consequence or by Interpretation from immediate Revelation demonstrated as the First giving of Scripture always was by Miracles and so all at once and once for all consigned over to the Posterity of Christians by Divinely Inspired Writings so assured so confirmed as to leave no place for Tradition oâ— the Best sense There remains therefore nothing for Tradition now but its Ill sense Quest Why might not True Religion continue in Tradition committed all along to Faithful Men even as it did in â—â—e Custody of the Apostles and such Faithful Persons as they committed it to Answ Even in the time of the Apostles it was trusted no longer to Tradition than it must needs for the Apostle John the Survivor of them closed the Canon of the New Testament that was drawn apace into Writing all along But at that time there was such a continual immediate Energy or Efficacy of the Holy Spirit that Truth mov'd every way like Lightning and both by its direct and straight forward Motion in Doctrine and its reverse strokes in the Conviction of all Falshood Errour was blasted every way But when this Extraordinary Appearance ceased there was then no safety for Truth but in an unchangeable Written Word that was in such an extraordinary Season of Miracles and immediate Revelation setled and established under so great a Supervisal in the midst of so many Witnesses of all things by their Eyes and Ears and it being once written and always so secured by Divine Providence as hath been represented it always speaks the same Things in the same Words it first did Quest Why might not Divine Truth be committed some more Fundamental Parts to Writing and some according to variety of Occasion to Tradition Answ God to whom all Futurity is present who foresaw all that was necessary to be written before he had done writing cannot be supposed to commit his Will in part to Writing and that upon great Reasons and the same Reasons notwithstanding to leave a considerable part or so much as any one Branch obligatory upon the Conscience to Parol-Tradition For if he that offends in one Point is guilty of all there needs the same Authority and as well assured for one Point of Faith and Obedience as for all the rest 2. It is unconceivable what End Tradition unconsign'd by Scripture can serve that Scripture does not more fully and effectually take care for Publick Religion reserves nothing to be a Cabal for Private Interest within a close Cabinet or Conclave 3. Whatever is supposed to be entrusted to Tradition must either be the very same we have in Scripture and then Tradition is needless and superfluous for we have it in Scripture if we duly exercise our selves in it or it is more than Scripture hath declared and yet supposed to be of equal Authority with Scripture and then it must be a Motionary and Itinerant Word of God But where are the daily and continual Seals and Credentials Divine Tradition had and in a constant fresh Motion with it as it moves for so it had need be in so fluid a Thing as Tradition if it would pretend to be Sacred and so Divinely Inspired Tradition had while it continued in Tradition But what Reason can be given Tradition as we now speak of it was not incorporated into Scripture as was argued before Or that in so long a Course of Time it hath not been enroll'd into Scripture as the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles still was Seeing if it had all things else it cannot but want the Benefit of the Divine Contexture and Conveyance that Scripture hath in Words chosen and put together by Inspiration and the ready easie and certain Access to it by all For all are equally concerned in it Now seeing Tradition wants all these how can we accept it How can we look off from Scripture to pore upon Tradition or what hold