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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52476	Three choice and profitable sermons upon severall texts of Scripture viz. Jer. 30. 17, John 14. 3, Heb. 8. 5 : the first of them being the last sermon which he preached at the court of election at Boston, the second was the last which he preached on the Lords-Day, the third was the last which he preached on his weekly-lecture-day : wherein (beside many other excellent and seasonable truths) is shewed, the Lords soveraignty over, and care for his church and people, in order to both their militant and triumphant condition, and their fidelity and good affection towards himself / by that reverend servant of Christ, Mr. John Norton ...	Norton, John, 1606-1663.; Norton, John, 1606-1663. Copy of the letter returned by the ministers of New-England to Mr. John Dury about his pacification.	1664 (1664)	Wing N1324; ESTC R40050	44,511	76

man and calamity will not remove it The hard-heartedness of good people is very strange Heb. 3.8 Harden not your hearts Oh! provoke him not as at Meribah what doth Paul cry out against and so David and Moses Meribah Meribah this this lyeth at the hearts of such the inseparable the insuperable invincible non-subjection of Israel to the wayes of God this is not cureable with calamity Instr 4. Though Sions malady be such as that lookt at in it self it cannot be cured yet lookt at in Gods promise and it cannot want a cure Look upon it in it self and it seems incurable look't at in the Physician and it cannot but be cured Ieremiah looking at his sufferings he will speak no more but looking at Gods promise and it is as fire in his bones he cannot but speak 2 King 8.10 there is a quaerie put to the Prophet whether Benhadad shall live the prophet answers He may certainly recover howbeit the Lord hath shewed me he shall surely dye i. e. the disease was not such but he might have recovered so may I by allusion invert and say Sions disease is incurable but yet she shall certainly recover Look at Sion in the glass of Providence and she is as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit Isai 54.5 6. 66.4 husbandless as to reproach and yet at the same time thy Maker is thy husband if we look at Sion in the glass of the Promise this Out-cast is both Marah and Hephzibah both a Widow and Beulah Look at the Out-casts tears as an effect of mans not caring for her but as an occasion and demonstration of Gods care for her Psal 126.5 6. that Sion sheddeth tears denominateth her Marah that Sions tears are seed denominateth her Hephzibah Psal 56 8. that tears fall from Davids cheeks this is matter of sorrow that Davids tears fall into Gods bottle is matter of joy Instr 5. Gods touching an impenitent Out-cast with repentance is a signal of Gods having mercy thereon Sions recovery by repentance from her backsliding is an effect of grace and a fore-runner of the set time of Stons mercy Sions impenitency is the life and strength of Sions of the Out-casts calamity Repentance doth break the yoke of Babylon Impenitency doth lay on the yoke of Babylon You may truly say the date of the Out-casts captivity and the date of their impenitency is the same The enemy is never harder-hearted to Sion then when Sion is hard-hearted to her God Their affliction was not the bardness of the Babylonians hearts but Lord why hast thou hardned our hearts Isai 63.17 when the Out-casts return to Ston they shall goe weeping with their faces thitherward Ier. 50.4 5. Vse 2. Exhortation The text openeth my mouth to call upon Gods Outcasts to accept of Gods plaister God proposeth to us Remedy or Calamity we have our option whether that of the plaister or of the sore make we our choice If we accept the plaister the time of mercy even the set time is come if you do not accept it you may look at it as the beginning of sorrow That we are Out-casts this doth speak us sick but our not accepting the remedy speaks our sickness incurable To be Out-casts this argues that we are cast off by men but our not accepting the remedy speaketh us cast off by God the condition of an Out-cast supposeth us sinners but the rejection of the remedy doth say that we are castawayes for an Out-cast to need a medicine is common to good and bad to accept it is proper to the good Let us then accept the Lords Plaister As an Ingredient thereto I shall propose this Direction viz. 1. Learn we to judge aright of Liberty Scripture-liberty Gal. 5.1 Paul biddeth us stand fast in our liberty and those accursed ones he looks unto Chap. 1. who also pleaded for liberty and whom the Assertors of true Liberty should accordingly pronounce accursed Blessed men plead for liberty and cursed men plead for liberty The Gnostick in 2 Pet. 2.19 doth plead for liberty Good men plead for liberty and bad men plead for liberty the best men plead for liberty and the worst men plead for liberty If you ask what Liberty is you may look at it as a Power as to any external restraint or obstruction-on mans part to walk in the Faith Worship Doctrine and Discipline of the Gospel according to the Order of the Gospel When you hear men plead for Liberty see that it be not Liberty falsly so called 2. Acknowledge Order Divine and in particular in that great Point of a Ministerial Judge There are that make little of Order and yet we may think not any made so little as Paul made much of it Let All things be done in Order 1 Cor. 14.40 it seemeth an Apostolical spirit doth conclude that sometimes better such a thing not done then not orderly done There is a judgement Discretive which belongeth to every Believer there is a judgement Authoritative that belongs unto the Church and is set therein by God and also there is a judgement Decisive which belongs unto the Council Onely remember that the Supreme Judge is either 1. Authentick i. e. Jesus Christ or 2. Regulative i. e. the Scripture or 3. Ministerial i. e. the Council This Question concerning a Ministerial Judge in matters of Religion is that which hath greatly exercised the Christian world insomuch that both Protestants and Papists agree That the Resolution of this Controversie is of so great moment as that hereupon depends the Resolution of all Controversies When a Controversie ariseth in a Church differences must not alwayes continue what shall resolve the same if a Ministerial Judge be not admitted Take away this Order and how shall Peace or the Society continue This truth of a Ministerial Judge is reckoned among the Fundamentals Secundarily because it doth tend to the 〈…〉 finde preservation of all that else is of the Foundation You shall finde this Truth impleaded throughout all generations since the Primitive times and pleaded for by all the Orthodox in all the Centuries Deut. 17.12 Standum sententiae summi judicis Israel must stand to this if it be in matters of Religion there is the Priest if in matters Civil there is the Magistrate and he that stands not or submits not to the Sentence of these let him be cut off from Israel so requisite a thing is Order Acts 15. there is no rest in such a case what now do they but refer it to a Council and that doth determine it 1 Cor. 14.32 The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets I will not acknowledge him a Prophet that is not subject to the Prophets Let not any one therefore under pretence of a Prophet or whatever Inspiration or Perswasion soever exempt themselves from subjection to Order Obj. The major part may erre and is not alwayes the melior part Councils and Churches may erre and have erred Answ 1. But is it not true that the

fear was upon them because of the people of the land one means to secure them from fear in time of trouble was with the first to proceed with the things of Religion and to be in good earnest to settle them 1 Chron. 28.20 21. Do it saith David unto Solomon and the Lord God even my God will be with thee and not only so but the priests the princes the people will be with thee c. But when Solomon falls off from God's Worship then ariseth against him the spirit of Hadad and the spirit of Rezin and the spirit of Ieroboam c. 1 Kings 11. It is a great point of policy in troublesome times viz. the attending to the Cause of Religion Without Order the Ark could not move in Davids time but you see what trouble follows upon it and Churches cannot likewise move untill the Order of the Churches be proportionably settled Haggai 1.5 6. Now therefore saith the Lord of Hosts consider your wayes when the Worship of God was neglected things went ill with them You have sown much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough and again ver 7th Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your wayes and in Chap. second they do hearken to him the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel and Josuah and from the time that they set themselves about the work of the Lord all things went well with them How farre the drought and the last years and other troubles are here considerable referring to our selves let the Scripture be the interpreter The matters of outward prosperity have much dependance upon the carrying on the cause of Religion and that according to the Order of the Gospel or by the Scripture-patern our safety lies in keeping there not turning to the right hand nor turning to the left hand In Exod. 39. you have it mentioned about ten times in that Chapter in way of Commendation that what was done was so according as the Lord had Commanded Moses Let this stand with us I beseech you beloved that for the motion of Elders of Brethren of Councils of Magistrates of Churches settle the same as the Lord hath Commanded i. e. according to Scripture-prescript and patern we are then a safe People FINIS A COPY OF THE LETTER Returned by the MINISTERS of NEW-ENGLAND TO M R. JOHN DURY ABOUT HIS PACIFICATION Faithfully Translated out of the Original Manuscript written in Latine By the Reverend AVTHOR of the Three former SERMONS With some Considerations premised about that Subject necessary for these Times By a Lover of Truth and Peace Published in the Year 1664. THE PREFACE TO THE READER AS of old it was observed that Julian who hated the Christians with an implacable hatred when he could invent no way worse opened a wide way for Schisms and Divisions In like manner hath it been the Policy of the Adversary in succeeding times when there appears no hope of undermining the Walls of Truth by Heresie and false Doctrine to attempt the scattering and dispersing the Assertors thereof by raising and fomenting Schisms and Dissensions amongst them From which Fountain it may justly be feared hath sprung a jealousie in the mindes of sundry persons in this Country That the Determination of the late Synod Anno 1662. if attended unto would bring into the Churches of New-England a practice contrary both to the Frame of their Churches and to the judgement of those famous Worthies that at first their Churches were blest withall when as it will be found most evident to any that shall impartially survey the Constitution and state of the said Churches That the principall if not the sole Reason why the same things then agreed upon were not long before set afoot and practised was not any doubt or scruple about the duty of the things themselves but the want of Agreement about the Way and Manner how they might most conveniently and safely put in practice which being now fully cleared up in the Propositions of the said Synod the Aspersion cast upon their former Church-administrations as too much favouring the way of the Separation is not onely now removed but an Expedient found out for the holding Communion with other Orthodox Churches in things lawful and necessary without any prejudice to the the Purity of their Worship The commendable receiving and practising of this Truth by some Churches among them and necessity of attending thereunto by all is most convincingly evident by many writings published abroad in the world by many Eminent persons in the name of others wherein much paines is taken up in clearing the way of these Churches from the imputation of Schism and separation from others but in none more then in a Letter returned with the Subscription of the names almost of all the Elders universally in this Place unto a Letter of the Reverend and Learned Mr. John Dury who ever since the year 1635. had been labouring for a Pacification between the Reformed Protestant Churches of Europe and who is famous in the Christian World for that work and at last had communicated his design to those of New-England desiring their Approbation and Concurrence in the said design wherein they expresly declare That they own all those Churches professing the Protestant Religion and retaining the fundamentals of Doctrine and essentials of Order if they be otherwise peaceable and walk orderly for Brethren and that they are ready to reach out unto them the right hand of fellowship From whence it will necessarily follow that seeing other Churches so qualified although they should dissent from them in many Points of Religion are owned as Brethren and that in way of fellowship if those that so profess shall refuse to conferre the seal of Baptism to the Children of such Parents as belong to any such like Churches according as is expressed in the aforesaid Propositions of the Synod They will neither be able to avoyd contradicting their own words and writings nor yet secure themselves from the guilt of dissimulation And that it might appear there was no advantage taken by any stragling sentence or expression in the said Letter cast off from its Dependants it was thought necessary to Translate and publish the whole to the open view of all and because also in the draught of the same are found many undeniable Arguments enforcing this very Conclusion as when it s said That the diverse opinions of some Churches about Polity and indifferent things although they are not so small that the lovers of truth should be silent about them so neither are they so great that they need be any hindrance to the seekers of Peace and Quietness in such an undertaking Which is also there further evidenced by instancing the unquestioned Example of our Saviour who refused not Celebrare Sacra or joyn in the Worship of God in the Jewish Church defaced at that time with more grievous corruptions And further it is added That the nature of Political as well as Christian Society

doth utterly forbid the denial of Fellowship-priviledges to such Members as are found without scandal Let not the words and practices of them that pretend to the greater Purity of Reformation be Yea and Nay which if it should appear the Scandall would be so much the greater in that the foresaid Letter with so many Subscriptions in all probability is known in the world being sent into Forreigne parts upon a Publick account As for the Translation of the Letter they who had the chiefest hand therein have no other design then by approving themselves as Lovers of Truth and Peace to undeceive simple-hearied and honest-minded persons who are ready with Barnabas to be carried away with the dissimulation of such as are through a kinde of preposterous Zeal unwilling to have any of the common Priviledges of the Church of God bestowed upon any whose effectuall Sanctification may be questioned which is the cause as one observeth of a Schismaticall inclination of some godly and religious persons In reference to the Words and Phrases much of the Elegancy of them is taken away in the Translation by reason of the abstruseness of the Latine it faring in this kinde with Books as it doth with Bodies which are nothing so comely when arrayed with a stranger as with their own proper clothing and habit but where-ever appeared a necessity of changing the phrase the sense is preserved whole and entire For a Conclusion If the Practice of the purest Churches together with the Authority of the most Pious Zealous Learned and judicious Divines might avail any thing in this consideration it were easie to present many things to the view of the Reader from the Writings of a Cas Consc Ep 9. qu. 3. Com. Gal 5.27 Perkins b De Pol lib. 1. cap. 13 14 33. Parker c Epist 149. 103. Calvinus d Locus 47. thes 33 34. Bucanus with many other of the Learnedst Non-Conformists who alwayes disclaimed both the Principles and Practices of the Rigid Separation and all such as renounced Communion with other Churches upon the account of some Impurities about Order and Discipline However it came to be the fate of these Churches in America to verge too near them in their Primitive Administrations But we shall onely content our selves with the mentioning the Judgement of two not the least eminent and famous Lights in the Church of God about this point No Church can be said to be alienated from God and from his Covenant although it may become very sick and adulterous until God shall have taken away from it his Matrimonial Covenant casting it quite off as defiled with Adultery according to Isa 50 1. which will not be so long as it retaines the Head and the Head retaines it by a publick declaration of his grace that calleth Col. 2.19 Jun. Thes Theolog. Thes 36. pag. 2099. But Ames more fully about the Subject of Baptism 1. Expositious Infants are to be baptized whose Parents are unknown if they be born among Christians out of charity they are to be looked at as the sons of Christians if there be not just cause to presume the contrary 2. They that in some way by their Profeision belong unto the Church yet notwithstanding do openly violate the Covenant of God their Infants ought to be baptized though with some distinction sc so that what the Covenant requires and is wanting in them be supplied by others 3. Infants illegittimate ought so to be baptized that either their Parents profess their Repentance or that their Education be undertaken by other godly persons 4. Children of contumacious Excommunicates are not conveniently baptizable unless by the interposition of meet Sureties 5. Infants of Papists and such like who are Semi-Christians may be baptized if they finde a meet surety under whose power may be their Education Ames Cas Consc Lib. 4. Cap. 27. To which may be added The Baptism of Infants ought not to be deferred without a serious and weighty reason Ibid. TO THE WORTHY AND EMINENT M R. JOHN DURY SALVTATIONS THat amongst so many horrid Alarms of War amongst so many fatal differences of Opinion raised in matters of Religion and that also after so many and such unwearied labours of famous Intercessors now so often in this cause undertaken in vain you should O Dury the most zealous Friend of Peace not onely be seriously thinking of but are also unto this day strongly endeavouring the Espousals of Truth and Peace between the Professors of the Gospel we verily do largely congratulate you in the conceiving so great a design with our utmost and daily Prayers helping forward by Gods Assistance the birth of this Man-Childe Suffer us to speak the very truth of the matter nor is there any need to deny the same even as the Holy-Scripture relates how the Olive Branch brought much comfort to the Parent of the other World after the Flood while he was lamenting over the Tremendous Spectacle of the Deluge over flowing all here below in like manner did your Letter breathing a very spirit of peace as another Noahs dove sent down from Heaven wonderfully refresh the exile Brethren who were almost astonished to see so many nations that profess the Gospel making irreconcileable war amongst themselves together with the many and great dissentions in the business of Religion and that monstrous flood of Errour breaking forth not out of the Cataracts of the Clouds but the very Mouth of the Dragon Be it so that we are in the utmost parts of the Earth we have onely changed our Climate not our mindes we have altered our place that we might retain the Faith without alteration There are indeed some that might have been better imployed at least meer strangers to our affairs who do therefore impute unto us the guilt of Schism because in the first place we have endeavoured after the pure Worship of God But if any see good to enquire into the Reason why these Churches in the Wilderness left their Country this it was viz. that the Ancient Faith and pure Worship might be found inseparable companions in our Practice and that our posterity might be undefiled in Religion Nevertheless we are never unmindefull of the saying of Austin to the Brethren in the Wilderness as he styles them There are two things considerable saith he Conscience and good Name Conscience is necessary for thy self good Name for thy Neighbour He who trusts to his Conscience and neglects his good name is cruel especially if he be set in that place of which the Apostle writing to his Disciple saith In all things shew thy self an example of good works It may not be unlawful for us who are in the Wilderness on the further side of the Seas as well those who through grace are called to the Ministry though in our selves the greatest of sinners and the least of all the Saints as any others to Apologize for our selves in the Words of the Tribes beyond Jordan a little changed for the

vindicating or preserving our good name in a matter of so great moment both before great ones Fathers Brethren and every gentle Reader The Lord God of Gods the Lord God of Gods he known and Israel shall know if wittingly and willingly in Rebellion or treacherous dealing against the Lord or in Schism it be that we have departed from our Country save us not this day But yet notwithstanding we are not unmindful of that so known Oracle Love the Truth and Peace we neither strive for Truth without making reckoning of Peace neither do we pursue Peace with the loss of Truth the former defaceth this latter teareth the seamless Coat of the Church It is as necessary to avoid the Rock of Schism on the right hand as the Quicksands of Confusion on the left We renounce Samaratanism that deadly sink of false Doctrine as much as we fly from Donatism the sore enemy of Evangelical Temperament and devourer if we may speak after Teriullian of Christian Society but admire and embrace the Concord and Agreemeent of the Gospel We are no whit pleased with Cassanders shaking hands with Papists at the furthest distance erring from the Truth Nor yet with the Romanist renouncing Communion with them that are otherwise minded in lesser differences but in special manner we ought to labour that we may walk with an even foot and not to turn aside an haires breadth from the Truth in the mean time it is better to be a Cyprian then a Steven It is much more grievous to think aright and be found a Scismatick then to think amiss in things not fundamental and be of a peaceable spirit The spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ is a spirit of Truth of peace and Communion so desirous of Peace that it requireth Communion in a true Church although not pure and so desirous of Truth that it forbids impurity in any Church whatsoever That that is the Mark at which we aim and which we endeavour and breath after in him who is the Way the Truth and Life It is confessed there are some Apices or lesser points in Divinity which the Church of God hath now for above an hundred years bewailed as the obstacles of Peace concerning which the chief controversies maintained are about Predestination Ubiquity and the Eucharist About these points how many thousand Polemick writings have been extant all abroad which the Christian World is scarce able to contein Alas that ever there should be a warre about the Sacrament Alas that ever there should be any contentious Treatises about the Eucharist turning the very Badge of Union into an Apple of Contention who can refrain from tears at the uttering of such things yet these notwithstanding that there is place for the so much desired Coalition between the Evangelicks and the Reformed so called may easily be made appear by running through the chief Heads of things As namely Because in the first Article they who were the greatest Favourers of that eminent Worthy of the former Age do yet ascribe the work of Conversion wholly unto God and do likewise stifly maintain and accurately defend Grace to be altogether free who were also utter enemies to that pestilent Opinion of the Schoolmen That God is bound to him that doth what he can of himself And who likewise do deservedly account it meer Pelagianism to make any kinde of Qualifying Fitness a Moral Motive unto predeterining Grace As for the Opinion of the Ubiquity of the Humane Nature by virtue of the Hypostatical Union it cannot be denied but that Papers have come abroad written by too much gall and sharpness In the mean while it is agreed upon by all and taken for granted That the Humane Nature is Personally Omnipresent According to this Rule likewise are other Propositions about the Person to be judged of under this head Lastly As concerning the Lords Supper the Divines of either part do reject Transubstantiation together with worshiping of bread But about the Real Presence viz. Sacramental of the Body and Blood of Christ it is agreed between both These so many and great Differences are to be accounted as so many Heart-griefs although not to be numbred amongst them which by the Apostle are called Vnlearned Questions yet we judge them not to be of that moment as to hinder the giving each other the right hand of fellowship or the pledges of Eclesiastical Brotherhood building upon that Apostolical Canon of holy Communion Nevertheless in that whereunto we have attained let us walk by the same Rule let us minde the same thing Phil. 3.16 Here also we may call to minde that common and received Distinction between Fundamentals and non-fundamentals and that Brotherly Fellowship is not to be refused with men peaceable and otherwise Orthodox for the sake of Non-fundamentals We account it very unequal to fasten upon any one that holds an Opinion all the Consectaries which to him that argues according to the exactest grounds of Reason seem to follow upon such premises especially if those Consequences be disowned by him in which respect there are no small Errours on both sides while those of our side impeach the other of Eutyches his opinion though refusing to own it for the sake of Consubstantiation And they on the other side go about to make ours guilty of making God the Author of Sin although we never so much disclaim it in the Point of Predestination The Disputes about the Consequences of these whether rightly inferred or not from the premises belong not to this place to be examined yea the matter it self requires rather that we should forbear But this Tragedy is not yet at an end For as to Polity and indifferent things they have taken up divers Opinions who it were to be wished that they would embsace that Concord one with another which hath been so often endeavoured after But the Differences of this nature as they are not so small that the Lovers of Truth should be silent about them so neither are they so great that they need be any hindrance to the Seekers of Peace and Quietness in the present Undertaking as may appear by the unquestioned Example of our Saviour who refused not to Celebrate the Worship of God in the Jewish Church defaced at that time with more greivous corruptions They who are united to Christ by heart-converting grace are Members of his Mystical Body and whosoever but in appearance at least are joyned to the Head and have added themselves to the Polity of Israel are to be received Members of the Political Body Now Communion follows upon Union Besides the nature of Political as well as Christian Society doth utterly forbid to deny the Priviledges of fellowship to such Members as are found without Scandal Thus much we thought good to speak briefly about this Point that Honoured Persons and Respected Brethren might understand what Reasons moved us to entertain the same Opinion with themselves We have been taught that the Idea or Patern of holy Communion ought