the things here principally looked after are the receiving and propagating of holy Doctrine drawn out of the pure fountain of Sacred Scripture the right administration of true Gospel worship by which God is glorified as God and the worshippers are made more godly The due preaching of Gods word and dispensation of other divine ordinances by personslawfully called thereunto for the conversion of sinners and edification of converts Holy discipline truly and faithfully administred by the Pastors as the necessity of the Church requires and the State thereof will bear Religious family government Private mutual exhortations pious conferences and profitable conversation The predominant influence of religion in the civil government of a nation yet without usurpation or incroachment upon the civil rights of any especially of the higher Powers The unity of Christians and their mutual charity conspicuous and illustrious and lastly in order to all these intents a good frame of Ecclesiastical polity Holy Doctrine is the incorruptible seed of Regeneration by which the new creature is begotten It is not here intended to represent a perfect scheme thereof for it sufficeth to signifie that extracts thereof from holy Scripture are drawn out in the ancient Catholik Creeds and in the harmonious confessions of the present Reformed Churches Nevertheless our design requires the observation of some most important things about the Doctrine of Salvation As that there be first an earnest and hearty belief of the existence and providence of God and his government of mankind by laws congruous to their nature and of the immortallity of human souls and of a life of retribution in the world to come which is the foundation of all religion 2ly Right apprehensions of Gods nature and attributes more especially of his Holiness comprehending as well his purity and justice as his mercy and goodness that as he is ready to procure his creatures happiness and refuseth none that come unto him so that he cannot deny himself and that he receiveth note but upon terms agreeable to his Holiness 3ly An Idea of Godliness in themind not as shaped by any private conceptions but as expressed by the Holy Ghost whose workmanship it is that Christianity in the hearts and lives of men may be the same with Christianity in the Scriptures 4. The receiving of the great mystery of Godliness not as allegorized in the fancies of some Enthusiasts wherein it vanisheth to nothing but as verisied in the truth of the History wherein it becomes the power of God to Salvation and so not to sever the internal spirit of the Christian Religion from its external frame the basis whereof is the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead and of the incarnation of the eternal word Lastly Soundness of judgment in those great Gospel verities that are written for the exalting of Gods grace and the promoting of true godliness and the incouraging of the godly in opposition to ungracious ungodly and uncomfortable errours of which sort are these following truths That the study and knowledge of the Scriptures is the duty and priviledge of all Christians that according to their several capacities being skilfull in the word of righteousness they may discern between truth and falshood between good and evil and offer to God a reasonable service according to his revealed will That internal illumination is necessary to the saving knowledge of God the Holy spirit in that regard not inspiring new revelations but inabling to discern savingly what is already revealed in nature and Scripture That man was created after the image of God in righteousness and true holyness and that in this state he was indued with a self-determining principle called Freewill and thereby made capable of abiding holy and happy or of falling into sin and misery according to his own choice and that God left him to the freedom of his own choice having given him whatsoever power or assistance was necessary to his standing That the first man being set in this capacity fell from God and it pleased God not to annihilate him nor to prevent his propagating of an issue in the same fallen state which would follow upon his fall but left the condition of mankind to pass according to the course of nature being now fallen That by the sin of Adam all men are made sinners and corrupt in their whole nature and are under the curse of the Law and liable to eternal condemnation and being left to the wicked bent of their own wills are continually adding to their original sin a heap of actual transgressions and so are of themselves in a miserable and helpless condition That the Lord Jesus Christ according to his full intention and his Fathers commandment hath made propitiation for the sins of the whole world so far as thereby to procure pardon of sin and Salvation of soul to all that do unfeignedly believe and repent That man being dead in sin cannot be quickned to the divine life but by the power of Gods grace raising him above the impotency of lapsed nature That the culpable impotency of lapsed nature to saving good lies in the fixed full aversation of the will by a deplorable obstinacy nilling that good to which the natural faculties can reach and ought to incline as to their due object That the root of godliness lies in regeneration and inward Sanctification That God calleth some by the help of that special grace which infallibly effecteth their conversion and adhesion to him without any impeachment of the natural liberty of the will That whatsoever God doth in time and in whatsoever order he doth it he decreed from eternity to do the same and in the same order and so he decreed from eternity to give that special grace to some and by it to bring them to glory which decree is eternal election to which is opposite the pure negative of Non-election As for preordination to everlasting punishment it passeth not upon any but on the foresight and consideration of their final abode in the state of sin That the more common convictions inclinations and endeavours towards God in persons unregenerate are good in their degree and the ordinary preparative to a saving change and they are the effects of that divine grace which is called common That deligent seeking after God by the help of common grace is not in vain it being the means to some further attainment towards the souls recovery and it is regarded of God in its degree and God doth not deny men further degrees of help till they refuse to follow after him by not using the help already given them and by resisting his further aid That God hath made all men savable and though he doth not simply and absolutely will the conversion and Salvation of all yet he willeth it so far and in such manner as is sufficient to encourage the diligent in their endeavours and to convict the careless of being inexcusable despisers of his grace towards them That there is an
not lasting but by usual and easie changes their weakness is discovered To tie a People to certain little rules and methods in Church Discipline that are geâ—erally displeasing as the necessary terms of â—hurch Priviledges when the ends of Discipline may be as well obtained without them is at the best but the vanity of a needless trouble in doing that with much ado which might be done with less and it may occasion an incurable breach and the rejection of the whole Form of Government Narrow and uncertain boundaries of Church Communion and arbitrary and rigid rules of admission are contrary to that ample and fixed Church state which is necessary to uphold and propagate true Religion The Faith of Christ hath been propagated and perpetuated in large Kingdoms and Nations by incompassing under its external Rule and Order the multitude that made profession though they might faâ—… short of the New Birth and those things thaâ— accompany Salvation And it doth not rooâ— or spread in any sort considerable in a Region where the order of admission is set by the rigid and narrow principles of a small Party and the general multitude lies open as waâ—… ground for any to invade or occupy The strength and security of the Protestant Reformation came by the taking in of Kingdomâ— and whole Dominions within its compasâ— The external Kingdom of God must needs be much wider than the internal It is like the draw Net that gathered Fishes good and bad and like a Corn Field wherein Wheaâ—… and Tares grow together till the Harvest Moreover the increase of professed Christian makes way for the increase of regenerate Christians and Converts to the power of Godliness are generally made out of the mass of People of an Orthodox profession and few of them are turned immediately from Infidelity Popery or any Heresie CHAP. XXIV The Care and Wisdom of the Church in preventing and curing the evil of Fanatical and Sectarian Error AMong the Wiles of Satan whereby he depraveth the Spiritual excellency of pure Religion and mightily hinders its advance in the Kingdoms of this World Fanatical and Sectarian aberrations are not the least If these follies were but heeded by those that are most in danger before they are ingaged and drunken with errour it were in great part an antidote against this mischief For the well minded that are but weak and of easie impression are lead aside chiefly for lack of attention and observation Many are Children in understanding and many are passionate and inconsiderate and an innate levity and inconstancy of mind is very common It behoves the Guides of the Flock to possess the minds of the People with sober principles and to have a watchfull eye upon the first rising of any Pragmatick Fancies that feed on notions and novelties under a shew of a more discerning Spirit in Gospel Mysteries than others have Such being vanity puff'd up will be starting questions and multiplying slight exceptions against the received Truth and will please the itching ears and slight Spirits of some pretenders to Godliness who will become their hasty proselytes and join with them to unravel one thing after another in the texture of holy Doctrine And by the repute of their good parts and seeming Piety may stagger others of good intentions but weaker judgments And of this sort none are more dangerous than vain-glorious Teachers ambitious of leading Parties and by plausible indowments furnished for such designs These to raise their own fame and make to themselves a devoted People will become absolute Sect-Masters and those that close with them they hold with pleasing devices and serve their humours that they may serve themselves of them There is also in some Persons a right Sectarian leaven which is evermore to follow peculiar Opinions and some separated Party in Religion and they speak security to their own Souls by being of such an Opinion or of such a Party Against the Sectarian and Fanatick Spirit it concerns the Church to keep a continual watch and ward but not so as to imprison the truth to lock up the key of knowledge to stifle Godly zeal to detain a People in dead and dull principles that will not reach to the New Birth and Divine Life For this were all one as to prevent or cure a frenzy by causing a Lethargy or some other such like stupidity Moreover a Superstitious formal love and sensual way of Religion will in no wise be able to prevent or suppress this evil but will give occasion to its rise and growth except in times of profound ignorance and silence as in the depth of Popish darkness But whensoever the light breaks forth and the People see with their own eyes and the Ecclesiastical Governours will not admit a true reformation but persecute those that seek it then are many in danger of falling into this opposite extream For they are cast upon it both by the hatred of the present corruptions and by the weakness of their own judgment being not throughly instructed in the solid truth And so they â—un hastily from superstition and externalness into delusion and wild fancies from the common dissoluteness and remisness of those that call themselves Orthodox into a vain boasting of perfection from the usurpations of proud men incroaching upon Christs Prerogative and their false constrained Unity into Anarchy and confusion and from a wrathfull zeal and persecuting cruelty into a disorderly promiscuous and familistical love or indulgence towards all On the contrary a Church state that is agreeable to the Spiritual Ministration of the Gospel and truly Apostolical is the surest remedy against Sectarianism and Phanaticism truly so called When the Church abandons Romish Tyranny and Superstition and yet is settled in a regular and stable Polity when the publick Order throughly promotes the means of sound knowledge and incourageth real Godliness it satisfie the minds of them who justly expect in a Gospel Church and Ministry more than an outward Form even the manifestation of Truth and Spiritual Light and Life and Power anâ— it prevents their wandring to seek after it iâ— the devious paths of Sectaries It is of great moment that of the moâ—… learned able and judicious Persons of Orthodox profession there be many eminently Pious whose authority and reputation may bâ—… able to hold in those whose affection anâ—… fancy is apt to outrun their judgment likewise that the Pastors of the Church who aâ—… called the Light of the World do so walk iâ—… the Light as that there be no occasion oâ—… stumbling in them through notorious Pridâ—… Covetousness Self-Seeking inordinate sensuality or the vehement appearance of any gross evil For the weaker sort is commonly undone by offences And because seducers are very active and spare no cost nor travel but as they have done of old do compass Sea and Land to gain Proselites it behoves the Pastors carefully to keep their People and the People carefully to keep themselves out of the hands of these Hucksters The
common remisness in this matter is deplorable Sometimes the manner of opposition against Seducers is unadvised and prejudicial To contend for truth by wrath and clamour and contumelious language and usage inhanceth the price of Error and adds to its reputation But the surest way is to converse much with our plain hearted People and to season them with right principles and to detect the subtile methods of deceitfull workers and the dangerous issues of their allurements and by honest and inoffensive applications to prepossess those holds of which deceivers seek to possess themselves And here it is of chief importance that the influence of the Pastors and other prudent and able Persons upon the common multitude of professors be more prevailing than the influence of the common multitude upon the Pastors and other prudent Leaders Servile temporizing with vulgar fancies degrades the Authority and Wisdom of prudent Guides and lifts up a vulgar Spirit and will bring it to that pass that the weakest and most inconsiderate shall sway the Churches Interest Let Persons of approved worth be more faithful and noble than by such servility and treachery to raise to themselves a power in the hearts of the weaker sort Let them rather commend themselves by their known Integrity Wisdom and Goodness and by being ready also in all condescention to serve and please them to their Edification And such faithfulness is the surest means to gain them love and honour Let the Religious beware of seeking to be admired and magnified among one another or of overprizing each others esteem This latter seems to be the cause that drew Peter to a fit of dissimulation and separation from the believing Gentiles while he sought too much to please them that were of the Circumcision Sometimes we know not our own Spirits It is good to beware of provocations like to be given or taken Upon a supposed affront or injury men of parts have been hurried into dangerous contests and to make head against petty passionate opposition they have run beyond their own thoughts and wrought strange confusion Discretion and charity seeks to convince and satisfie and not to exasperate an offended Brother It is well observed that no turbulent Opinion or Party doth usually arise in the Church but by the Church's neglect of some truth or duty Wherefore if an evil spirit seek an occasion of mischief reform the abuse and so prevent his working upon the simple And forasmuch as some of upright hearts being deceived with a fancy of a more sublime and perfect way may pass into the tents of Sectaries so far as conceâ—ns Church Order and external Worship a compassionate regard must be had of such as walk honestly and retain those fundamental Truths that may be a ground-work for saving Faith and godly Life Now towards such the greatest charity is exercised in labouring to remove the stumbling-block of their error and to make it plain before them that the Faithfull whose Communion they forsake contend for the Perfection of holy Scripture and the explicit Knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation and the reasonable service of God according to his Word and spiritual Worship sutable to the Gospel Dispensation and the lively use of holy Ordinances in opposition to unwritten Traditions Mens inventions implicit Faith ignorant devotion and meer formality That they declare by word and deed against the iniquity and impiety of this evil World and therefore the world hates them that they insist upon no forms or usages in Religion but what are commanded by the positive Laws of Christ or are necessary in their general reason by the law of Nature that they seek no worldly advantages or advancements in the Church but what are necessary for the support of the Truth according to Gods ordinary Providence and lastly that human infirmities must not be thought strange in them that have not obtained Angelical perfection These and the like things should be laid open before honest People that have been seduced into Sectarian error CHAP. XXV The advancement of the sound State of Religion by making it National and the settled interest of Nation CHrists little Flock cannot go out of the World nor retire within themselves alone from the Nations of the Earth but they must needs remain a part of Kingdoms Commonwealths with the World in general They must take themselves to be concerned in the civil Powers for the Powers that are will take themselves to be concerned in them and their ways For which cause their aims and actions as far as their Sacred Rule allows must be fitted to the capacity of the civil Government and directed unto the generall peace and quietness of the nation whereof they are in which they enjoy their civil rights By this means religions interest may incorporate with the general interest of a nation run in the same channel That pure Religion may take root and spread and prosper it is necessary to bring its external frame to the consistency of a National settlement The just â—aâ—aude hereof is laid in the doctrine of Faith and substantials of Divine Worship and things necessary to Church unity and order but it goes not beyond these And being fixed in this extent it is in a way to gain besides the support and power of the Law the Nations unstrained compliance and approbation As on the one hand Ecclesiastical tyranny is a root of bitterness always bearing gall and wormwood so on the other hand unfixedness and unlimited liberty consists not with that stability wherein all prudent Governors would settle their own affairs as also with that general tranquillity and repose which is the health of any People If one were raised to empire by a meer Fanatick Party he cannot settle himself nor stand upon firm ground till he wind his interest out of their hands and turn himself to the way of general satisfaction To the same intent and purpose it is of great importance so to fix the terms of Church Communion as not to set a perpetual bar against the main body of the People A Church state so barr'd though it were asserted with a veterane Army and could inclose all preferments both of honor and profit within it self to be at its disposal yet it is hard to see how it could ever obtain a firm establishment For a Christian Nation in general being shut out of the Church or barr'd of such Privileges as are supposed to belong to them as Christians are inraged and likely to be ingaged as one Man to oppose that which they take for intolerable oppression Or if they care not to be admitted they will turn to a contrary interest and Party in Religion or to infidelity Barbarism Atheism or some destructive way or other Now the intention here propounded may take effect if the Constitution shut out none from Sacred and Spiritual Priviledges but such as make not Profession of true Christianity or be destitute of that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to true
communion with them all as far as Catholick Principles will give leave In pursuing the ends of this Interest there is no need of private or unauthorized Persons entring into such stated combinations and correspondences as the Jesuits and other Orders under the Papacy have setled in their Societies throughout the World For all Pious Christians are taught of God and have one Spirit touching the main of this design and are inclined to pursue the same with one accord And indeed so it is that only the sincere friends of truth men of upright hearts and humble spirits and honest lives will observe and follow the rules of this Interest And it sufficeth if they keep close to their common rule of Faith and Life and follow after the things that make for Peace and know the present state of Gods Israel and acquaint themselves with each other as opportunity of converse offers it self and so govern themselves and carry on the advancement of Religion by such honest and harmless means as need not shun the light but may stand before the face of all opposers CHAP. XXXII The Wisdom of the Higher Powers in promoting the Religiousness of their People THe advancement of true Religion is the interest of the Higher Powers if to maintain Gods honour and mans chief good be their interest and if the defying of God and the utter undoing of men be against it Yea if the Tranquility and Peace of Governours and the stability of Government be regarded human Wisdom will direct to promote that way which is no other than the exercise of a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man Godliness includes Prudence Justice Temperance Fortitude and all Goodness It is an internal Law effectually subduing them that have it to all external Laws that are just and good and the example of it goes far to the bettering of many others in things pertaining to humanity It is regular and harmonious in every part it leads to Order Peace and Unity and there is nothing in it inconsistent with right Policy It is the way of true Wisdom and apt to take most among the serious and well advised part of the People and when it hath taken hold of them it makes them Wise and Serious more abundantly It corrects rash rugged wrathfull and fierce natures and to say the least whatsoever turbulency may afterwards remain in such it makes them of far more sedate and castigate Spirits than otherwise they would be And though it doth not forthwith exterminate yet it so debilitates all Complexional Distempers that they cannot break forth into a course of mischief and ordinarily it works an evident notable change Of so great force is an attentive and active Conscience over all human passions And doubtless it is the strongest bond to hold Subjects in obedience to their Governours For the Conscientious are held in by the terrour of the Lord and the dread of the wrath to come besides the sense of mans wrath which they have in common with all considerate Persons Wherefore it is clearly the Princes Interest that his Subjâ—cts universally if it can be should be Religious and consequently it is the Wisdom of his Government to indeavour it as far as it is attainable And if he would bring them to such a state he is to take care to exalt Gods immediate Soveraignty over their Consciencies and under that Soveraignty to hold them in subjection to himself For where Conscience is not preserved in its awfull regard to Gods Law as its Supream rule true Religion is extinguished And they are the Patrons of Irreligion who propagate such principles as tend to alienate the Conscience from its true Soveraign and Proprietor and either to make it servile to those who have no just dominion over it or to debauch it into searedness or dead security One way most needfull and advantagious for preserving Gods Authority over Conscience is most effectually to bind Gods Laws upon the People and to order what things else are necessary for the due observation thereof and to lay no other yoke upon them in things pertaining to God And as this way imports much to the sincerity and reality of Religion so it doth no less to the keeping of Religious minds in unity For in what center will the judiciously Conscientious unite if not in the revealed mind and will of God as it is apprehended by them Will the injunctions of the Civil Magistrate or the Authority of Ecclesiastical Superiors better resolve the doubts of such men or silence their Disputes This is not urged to prove that Superiors can injoyn nothing in Religion but what is particularly before enjoyned of God or that the Consciences of Inferiors are not bound by their Commands in subordination to Gods Commands but only that they take the best course for the unfeigned Piety and truly Christian concord of their People that by their injunctions seek mainly to promote obedience to the Divine Laws and add no more of their own than what is clearly necessary thereunto And what more just and prudent course than to forbear things that are unnecessary and unserviceable to the promoting of Truth and Peace yet with a perplexity and a stumbling block an easie inlet to all dissolute or ductile Spirits and a bar against many of known sincerity and to use that moderation in the publick Rule and Standard which takes away or exceedingly lessens dissents and consequently the occasions of dissention The Spirit of Christianity forbids Christian Magistrates to destroy sincere Christians for their little differences and narrow principles in Forms of Church Order And no reason of State will oblige them to that severity how importunately soever some Interessed men may urge it Judicious charity or a prudent indulgence towards such cannot undermine Religion or the Civil State And a sound Ecclesiastical Polity set for the increase of true Godliness will receive no dammage by it but it will rather gain upon those Dissenters and if their scruples be not removed it shall abide firm and stable and grow in strength by the reputation of its own goodness and sufficiency in that it is not hazarded or impaired by this charity and forbearance The Higher Powers by granting some limited liberty do more universally protect the faithfull and having no interest in competition with the advancement of Christs Kingdom are able and wise enough to provide against any dangerous inconveniencies The bounds and rules of this indulgence are not so undiscoverable as to make it a vain proposal yet it is but an idle demand of those that require an enumeration of all particulars than which nothing more or less may be tolerated in any case All particularities in any human affairs are not easie nor necessary to be known at one view nor are they so fixed but they may admit considerable variations according to the different state of things There be general rules of Prudence that are a sufficient indication of what ought to be done at any