Prophets that divine for money and pimp for domination Mich. 3.11 and Demas-like forsake the fellowship of Saints and embrace this present World So that unless the Apostles return from Heaven or that Christ himself come again in Person and lasn them as he did the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple I see small hopes of Establishing the Government of the Church on a right Basis If they would be active in good earnest to divest themselves of all Temporal Domination and Jurisdiction and content to be reduced to the life and practise of the Apostles as they are to persecute their fellow Members for Conventicling we might be happy Yet I must do the right Reverend Author of Naked Truth that right That if the Ecclesiasticks were all of his mind and first seek the Kingdom of God it would easily be done and I do with him humbly conceive That the Bishops with the rest of the Clergy are bound in Conscience to implore the Assistance of both Houses of Parliament to Petition his Majesty for the Redress of the Abuses by Pious Laws settling the Church Government in the Primitive Purity and Authority which most evidently was very great and as greatly reverenced Bishops and Priests being the Persons to whom Christ and his Apostles committed the Souls of Men bought with his most precious Blood Therefore I think they do such Clergy-men not Priesthood not Episcopacy not true Church of England Men no wrong who esteem them as they manage their matters the very worst Interest that Protestant Kings and Kingdoms have but that of the Papists These Animosities and Differences have been ever since the beginning of the Reformation between the Conforming and Non-conforming Clergy and I may truly prophesie ever will be so long as Conscience shall be on the Earth and as long as Ministers will not be Servants but Lords over Gods heritage and will not condescend to let things made by God Almighty indifferent so to be and remain the Reasons are pregnant for that Conscience will be Conscience while the World stands and therefore there ever will be Scrupulonties and Obligations upon Conscience which are greater than all other Obligations in the World And therefore King James the First would say and that truly That the Puritans were never to be obliged and for that Reason Whereas if things indifferent might so remain and the Conventiclers permitted to preach in publick to take away all Fears Jealousies and Suspicion we should be all at quiet for then there would not be left so much as the pretence of Religion to occasion Dislentions or Quarrels Besides it is the time-serving Clergy only the Drones that vilifies and abaseth that caluminates and disturbs the Dissenters and not the Dissenters them EXtremities used against them at their Instigation Silencing Imprisoning Excommunicating making use of Laws against them that in their primary 35 Eliz. simple and sincere Institution were intended and enacted against Papists only and they not proceeded against so violently according to those very Laws in full force against them as against the Non conformists who have been Indicted under the Notion of Popish Recusants and Penalties levied upon them and the Papists either totally connived at or remissly prosecuted many Crimes through ungrounded prejudices laid to their charge as disturbing of the Government which they abhor and teach not of which they are no otherways guilty than by that Logick that the Fox his Earon his Head were Horns meer Surmizes Calumnies and Libels and nothing proved but that contrary to a human Law they following the Command and Example of Christ and his Apostles meet and assemble together to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their and our God and with one another and to make Peace and Reconciliation with God whilst they are yet in the way yet in the possibility of Salvation whcih Law in it self is null and void because it contradicts the Law of God which Commands all Men every where to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus and all Priests to teach all Nations Baptizing c. and to preach in every Church in season out of season c. to reprove exhort rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. Is not this with the Priests of old and the Captain of the Temple to be grieved at the heart that they teach the People and therefore laid hands on them and put them in hold and like Elymas the sorcerer being full of all subtlety and all mischief children of the Devil enomies of all righteousness never ceasing to pervert the right ways of the Lord Act. 4.2 and 13.10 But lying lips shall be put to silence which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous Psalm 31.18 It was St. Paul's Glory that Christ was preached any way though through strife or vain glory and I fear it is the glory of the more violent and haughty Tory Church of England Party as the road to Preferment to decry Conventicling and Preaching contrary to such a Law and to stop the Mouths of them that would Preach whereby they intitle themselves to the Character of the Shepherds described and deciphered Isai 56.10 11. Consider that in Preaching contrary to such a Law they do no more than what Christ and his Apostles did in their Days The Rulers of the Jews offended with Peter 's Sermon imprisoned him and John and having strictly examined them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus Did they therefore forbear Preaching or were they obedient to such Commands of the Rulers I tell you nay but answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to bearken unto you more than unto God judge ye and continued speaking the Wrod of God with great boldness Acts 4. The like did the rest of the Apostles even from house to house though accused of turning the World up-side down and of doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar yet preaching the Word of God boldly Act. 17.26 Either the Author to the Hebrews Preacht false Doctrine when he exhorteth us to consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is And so did St. Paul when he wrote his Chap. 14. to the Corinthians wherein he adviseth all to desire Spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesie that they may speak unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort when the Church is come together in one place with particular Directions how all should behave themselves in such Assemblies that all may profit with a general Rule that all things be done decently and in order Either I say these Apostles taught false Doctrines in so Teaching or else they that preach and prate against such Assembling as the manner of some is are false teachers I know no medium take it as you please Can it it be imagined that if St. Paul who rejoyced
Dead of many Superfluities which creep into the Churches under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self For to charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the beginning of all Superstition and when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schisms began to break in If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities and not over-rigid in either reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there were far less danger of Schism or Superstition and all the inconveniences likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the Imbecillity of Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while wheresoever false and suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick for that is a like unlawful to make Profession of known or suspected Falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspect Actions Much of the same Opinion is Bishop Usher If at this day we should take a Survey of the several Professions of Christianity that have any large spread in any part of the World as of the Religion of the Romans and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Egyptians and Ethiopians in the South of the Graecians and other Christians in the East and should put by the Points wherein they differ one from another and gather from one Body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree we should find that in those Propositions which without Controversie are Universally received in the whole Christian World so much Truth is contained that being joyned with Holy Obedience may be sufficient to bring Men into everlasting Salvation His Sermon on Ephes 4.13 preached before his Majesty 1624. If our Ecclesiastical Grandees in the last Reformation of our Liturgy had been of St. Paul's mind as they ought to have been and not abuse their Power in the Gospel who though he was free from all Men yet made himself Servant unto all that he might gain the more to the Jew a Jew to them that are under the Law as under the Law to them that are without the Law as without the Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ To the weak as weak and was made all things to all men that by any means he might save some And this he did for the Gospel sake 1 Cor. 9.18 23. And by his so doing he gave no offence neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles nor to the Church of God but he pleased all men in all things not seeking his own profit but the profit of many that they might be saved chap. 10. ver 32 33. There had been no complaining of our Prelates nor any matter left to pick quarrels withall and the Kingdom much happier than now it is which Doctrine of Compliance is to be understood only of things indifferent And our Non-cons desire but the like in things indifferent Sure if St. Paul so much a more excellent Person than our Pontiffs held it his Duty thus to comply it would be no disparagement to our Prelates to do the same Certainly none will dare to aver That our Conventicles quatenus Conventicles are unlawful but unlawful only upon Presumptions and ungrounded Prejudices and Surmizes that their Non-conformist Teachers mostly Presbyterians or Independants do teach or foment Rebellion Schism Faction Now if in truth they are not guilty of such Crimes but their good Conversation is falsly abused by them 1 Pet. 3.16 What have such Conformist Church of England Men to answer for themselves that so slander them by laying such Crimes to their charge as they are no ways guilty of and in their Pulpits out of which nothing should be Preach't but what is as true as Gospel One Mr. J.T. in his Sermon on Eccl. 10.20 pag. 29 31. hath so hard thoughts of them as to believe That we shall never be free of a Plot if not against the Lafe of the King yet against the Peace and Honour of his Government so long as there is one Conventicle in England left And that as it is Death by the Laws of this Nation for a Popish Priest to be seen upon English Ground so it would be very well if it were so for a Non conforming one too Very Ghostly Councel to come from a Ministor of the Gospel of Peace I could wish that he and those of the like Junto did understand their Priesthood as it ought to be understood then they would Preach things that now were Holy Pure Peaceable and of good Report without such Trash This Gentleman is not alone in these stabbing Censures there are more of his Quire that sing to the like Tune a temper very ill becoming Preachers of the Gospel of Peace One other Mr. M. B. commonly known in the University by the Character of his Majesty's D ee Chaplain was turned out for what it 's a shame to tell tho' since crept in again in his Sermon on Luke 19.14 tells us That among Phanaticks a new Nick-name for old Puritans their Loyalty is Rebellion and their Religion is Treason and whose very Gospel is the Mystery of Iniquity and that amongst Phanaticks and Atheists transformed into malitious Fiends by the Hellish divinity of that Monster of a Priest the Author of Julian the Apostate whose whole Book it as great an Apostacy from the Practice of the Primitive Christians the Precepts of Obedience delivered by Christ and his Apostles and Christianity it self as ever Julian was guilty of pag. 19. As false a Scandal as a Priest of Baal could pulpit These are your Boanarges pure Church of England Men in their right Colours and Pontificalibus Nay the unclean Spirits like the Frogs that came out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet which are the Spirits of Devils which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth c. Rev. 26.13 14. who are not content falsly to Calumniate the Non-cons only but to Stigmatize also true Nathaniels Witness M. B. charging as a profligate Wretch and mercenary Scribler the late Writer of Julian the Apostate of which Charge the generality and best and wisest both of Clergy and Laiety do now acquit and justifie him to be the more Orthodox by their Pulpits Prints and Practices Sure sure Pulpits were never designed to spit Venome nor fulsly to Calumniate any especially for Printing and Publishing Gospel truths as that of lawful Resistance and Passive Obedience which Doctrines the generality of the Nation Lords Commons Bishops Priests Clergy and Laiety now own and practice and which was ever the Doctrine of the Church of England and of all sound Divines tho' metamorphosised and misrepresented by some Mungril Church of England Men as thwarting their sublunary designs of Pride Ambition Covetousness Honours and Preferments very ill becoming that most
SOME REMARKS Recommended unto Ecclesiasticks OF ALL PERSWASIONS NOT to trouble you with Prefaces or Apologies it is certain That as in the Church of the Jews they were not all Israel that were of Israel Rom. 9.6 so in our Church they have not all been nor yet are all true Church of England-men who boast and pride themselves in monopolizing that Character to themselves And yet I hope I may with great Truth affirm That the Independant Protestant Church of England is the best constituted Church both for Doctrine and Discipline in the World and that there are both in our Hierarchie and in our Inferior Clergy many seven shining Stars many true Nathaniels indeed in whom is no guile John 1.47 and yet I fear in the same Church that as there hath been so there are still many seven deadly Sinners Linsey-wolsey Divines not much unlike those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols or like those of Israel who swore by the Lord and Melcom Whoever will seriously and impartially consider and examine the Prints of Dr. Leighton Pryn Bastwick and Burton and compare them with the Prints of Harsenet Parker late Bishop of Oxon Montague Sybthorp Manwaring and others must conclude the Doctrines and Positions of these Men to be far more pernicious and destructive to whole Kingdoms than the other and better deserved their punishment than to be rewarded with Preferments as they were And then if we consider how Instrumental some Prelates of those times were in Punishing the one and Preferring the other contrary to all true Religion and to the genius and sense of the most Pious of the Nation thereby manifestly espousing their Cause to be their own whereby they became participes criminis by which misbehaviour of theirs they brought upon themselves contempt and the Nation abhorred them and would not be satisfied untill they had disenabled them by Act of Parliament 17 Car. And if we consider the Opinions that the late Bishop of Oxon. otherwise a pious worthy Prelate sacrificed to the Flames in July 1683 and the purport of the Address of the other University to his Majesty in September 1681. And also the Contents of very many Sermons preached on the Ninth of September 1683. Besides very many others rank of one and the same poysonous Leaven all squinting towards Arbitrary Power and as much as in them lies alluring and encouraging Kings to attempt the same by rendring them absolutely Absolute and unaccountable until Dooms-day in the Afternoon whereby they become only Nominal I had almost said Mungril Church-of-England-men but not true Israelites not true Nathaniels indeed These things considered how can I expect less than a whole host of Chemarims about my Ears But when I consider that according to the Doctrine of the Church of England the Word of God is the only Rule of Faith and Obedience and disapproves all implicite Faith blind Obedience and Infallibility and that we are not to imbibe Doctrines on trust and expect Salvation by a deputy Faith and Obedience And that St. Paul exhorts us that we be no more henceforth children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 And the Scripture it self counts it nobleness of mind to examine the doctrines of our Teachers whether those things are so Act 17.11 And the Angel of the Church of Ephesus highly commended for that he had tried them which said they were Apostles and were not and found them lyers Revel 2.2 And St. Paul bids us prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 Sure then after such Apostolical Precepts it is no crime to inquire whether they that boast of being Church-of-England-men are so in truth or no. I appeal to your selves Is it Fair nay is it Just nay Is it not Pride and Folly to assert Truth by arrogating to your selves the only freedom of Speech and stopping of Mouths and Pens and Press and burning Opinions of others equally gifted and furnished with the same means of knowledge with your selves and have like precious Souls to save as your selves and yet can let Popish Books and other vile Tenets be published and read as common as your own without Controul Fire or Faggot and connive at them but storm against Protestant Conventicles and can let Swearers Drunkards Whoremungers and Adulterers march openly and confidently in our Streets without so much as the Summons of an Apparitor or Excommunication Tacitus intending to write the Life of Agricola Incursurus tam saeva infest a virtutibus tempora did beg Pardon which otherwise he would not have done considering that Aurelius Rusticus for praising Paetus Thrasea calling him virum sanctum was put to Death by Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere concupiscens And also Herennius Senecio because he had written the Life of Helvidius Priscus another Cato or Brutus a Person of most free Speech in behalf of the Commonwealth for calling them most Holy and Upright Persons Besides severity was used against the Writers of Books charge being given to the Aediles and Triumviri capitales that the Works of those Noble Wits should solemnly be burnt in the Market-place supposing that with that Fire they could stop the Mouths of the People of Rome abolish the Liberty of the Senate and suppress the Knowledge of all Mankind Expelling withall the Professors of Wisdom and all good Learning and Arts lest any sparks of Honesty should remain Hence Sulpitia a Poetess of that time Nunc igitur qui res Romanas imperat inter Et studia sapiens hominum nomenque genusque Omnia abice foras atque urbe excedere jussit A very noble and pious Example taken from Heathenish Princes for Christians to imitate We naturally love nay long for forbidden Fruit and are most inquisitive after Books forbidden as being always jealous that some Truths lie dormant in such ready to fly in the Faces of those that forbid them and make wise Men conclude That Reason cannot stand on their side who will not suffer the Reasons of both Parties to be read and published Gospel Truths need no such Artifices Souls purely divine without mixtures and allay of little pittiful ends and interests do scorn the motion lest happily some Divine Truths may by such sinister devices be suppressed and stifled And others being of the contrary Opinion diametrically opposite one to the other and each differing no farther from the one than the other from them and neither Infallible what would you have us poor Laicks do death and damnation being pulpited against us by both Perswasions as one Opinion or the other happeneth to possess the Pulpit 1. I say That the differences among us are occasioned not as Christians but as Men. The Gospel is the Gospel of Peace Peace was the last Legacy that Christ left to his Church My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you John 14.27 And his
Eyes before they go about to remove the Motes that are in their Brothers Eyes Should I rake as some naked Truths have done into the Bosome of their Regiment of their Church Discipline I doubt it would be found so foul as not to be swept cleansed and purified but by the Beesom of destruction by reducing it to what it was in the Apostles days and purest times which might easily be done if Priests were more Heavenly than Earthly minded and would first seek the Kingdom of Heaven under which easie Government the Gospel flourished tho' all Nations and Kingdoms were accursed Enemies thereunto and would flourish now again with greater Purity than now it doth did not our Tory Ecclesiasticks disdain and think it too mean and below them to live the life of the Apostles and as Christ himself did who tho' being in the Form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and to Minister and not be administred unto Remember the Reprimand and Counsels that Christ himself gave to James and John who sought high things but it shall not be so among you but whoever will be great among you let him be the Minister Math. 20. Mark 10. Luke 22. However let us consider what Government Christ left to his Church and trace that as far as we can that we may see how well it hath been observed or how far degenerated The Church the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most glorious State in the World formed in the Council of God before the Creation of the Heavens founded on the Cross of his Son in the fulness of time governed by his Eternal Self quickned by his Spirit the most valued of all his Jewels the last End of all his Works and the onely Scope of all his Marvels a State not mortal but endureth for ever against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail It is the House of Almighty God the Temple of his Holiness the Pillar of his Truth the Dwelling-place of his Grace and Glory This Church this Kingdom tho' it is not of this World yet it is first chosen gathered erected and established in this World not by the Wisdom of the mighty Potentates of this World viz. Kings Emperors and Armies but by the Preaching of the Gospel by Fishermen and other illiterate and mean Persons and would have its Administrations without Temporal or Secular mixtures of human Power or Policy as so much as of inticing words lest his People should thereby be beguiled Col. 2.4 but chose rather by the foolishness of Preaching to propagate his Gospel and to confound the wise and the mighty things of the World So Paul 1 Cor. 2. my speech and my preaching was not with inticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power v. 4. That your Faith should not stand in the wisdom of Men but in the power of God ver 5. However we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of the world ver 6. but we speak the wisdom of God in a mysterie even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory verse 7. Which none of the Princes of the world knew c. The way and manner of propagating the Gospel and gathering of Churches from the beginning was after this sort and manner viz. Christ after his Ascension having given them their Commission Matth. 28.19 20. and having filled all the Apostles with the Holy Ghost according to his promise Acts 1.8 and endued them with tongues they departed and separated and gathered several Congregations or Churches so that the sound thereof went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World Rom. 10.18 which was after this manner viz. Christ after his Glorious Resurrection having led Captivity Captive be gave gifts unto men and called some to be his Apostles some Prophets some Teachers and Pastors c. who after they had chosen Matthias in the room of Judas the Traitor and cloven Tongues like as Fire having sate vpon each of them and all filled with the Holy Ghost and having preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and thereabouts the Word of God and Number of Disciples daily increasing from 120. to 3000. and more for which they being persecuted by the Chief Priests and Sadduces because they taught the People and preached through Jesus the Resurrection of the Dead which seems to be the same Year that Christ was Crucified viz. An. Aet suae 33. and 18. Tiberius scourging some and killing others Which Persecution occasioned divers of the Brethren to withdraw themselves into Neighbouring Places and Countries which gave occasion to the Gospel to be more universally spread throughout Palestine the Apostles yet remaining in Jerusalem Acts 8. who afterwards dispersing themselves also spread the Gospel into all Nations after this sort and manner viz. when a certain Number of Brethren being Converted and well Instructed in the true Faith agreed among themselves to build or hire a Temple Tabernacle or House for their joint meetings and exercising their Religion hired a Priest and constituted a Church and as the Number encreased so that the Church and Priest being not sufficient for them all those who were most remote did build another and fit themselves with more conveniences About the end of the First Century or beginning of the Second for good order and concord and for civility and respect they did bear to their Bishop or Priest custom began to include his consent also which in process of time soon degenerated into Luciferian Usurpation by the oblique Artifices of the Priests or Bishops of which Rome in process of time taking hold made great use to the abusing of the Power of the Brethren and to incroach upon the Priviledges of the Body of the Church It is not unworthy of our further observation That all his while the Apostles and their Successors were Independent one of the other and so were their several and select gathered Congregations And tho' there were Thousands of Churches gathered by the Apostles and their Successors yet there are no foot steps remaining that the Churches gathered by any one Apostle or Bishop or Presbyter were subject or did depend on any one or more Churches gathered by any other or more Apostles The like is as true after the death of the Apostles That no one Church by what Apostle soever gathered was left subject to any other Church gathered by any other Apostle no nor yet subject to any other Church of their own converting and gathering but every Church was to be governed by its own peculiar Body observing Gospel Precepts viz. to love one another to do all things decently and in order c. Tho' the Pope hath usurped a monstrous Supremacy over all Churches yet how and when and by what Artifices and Tricks the Popes
Psalm hath a Dodrine ver 26. If any Man speak ver 27. let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge ver 29. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first bold his peace ver 30. for ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all be comforted v. 31. and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets v. 32. let the women keep silence ver 31. wherefore bretheren covet to prophesie ver 39. Now if the words or terms of the whole Church all every one any Man the other another Bretheren be words and terms of universality and differencing then certainly the Words Prophets and Prophecying in this Chapter are most especially applicable to the Bretheren to the Auditors In this Chapter also are Instructions given that Women in these Conventicles do hold their peace ver 31. let all prophesie one by one that all may learn and be comforted and all things be done decently and in order all which are Commandments of the Lord ver 37. If these be no Divine Oracles and Precepts to all the Faithful to congregate for the ends and purposes aforesaid then I understand neither plain Scripture nor plain English But if any Men will understand God otherwise than he will be understood and distinguish Scriptures and model them to their own humour and accept or reject his truth as will best consist with their own resolutions and by oblique Arts think to trick us out of our just Rights I leave them to the just Judgment of God who will judge Righteously The Primitive and puest Churches were so gathered and so propagated Moreover the same Apostle re-inforceth the same Doctrine in his Epistle to the Hebrews ch 10. ver 23 24 25. to hold fast the profession of Faith without wavering to consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is Heb. 10.23 24 25. who fearing the Breath of Fools and that thereby their designs of Honours and Preferments and other wretched Ends would be defeated dare not assemble to husband the precious moments of thier lives to the advantage of their Master what is this else but to bespatter and to have scornful and mean conceits of the humility of the ways of Christ and of the simplicity of his Gospel Do they not rather betray much luke-warmness and indifferency and walk in a Neutrality and Adiaphorism between God and Baal nay much hellishness and devillish Antipathy to Christ and his strictest service For in truth it is unbeseeming nor Priest nor Prelate but a duty incumbent upon them to counenance and encourage Conventicles or Assemblies guilty of nothing maugre all the false Aspersions and Calumnies laid upon them by Men carried away with the stream of this wicked World and the common prejudices and presumptions of foolish Men but of great Zeal to worship God and save their own Souls by besieging and besetting the Throne of heaven with more ardent and retired Prayers and Conferences Why do they thus mock God as one mocketh another Job 13.9 Certainly it would better become them to be zealous son Piety and good Lives because vicious Habits are worse than false Opinions And it is not only a duty incumbent on Prelate Priest and People but their glory also to countenance every thing that is done to gain Souls to Christ whether in pretence or in truth Phil. 1.15 16 17 18. and nothing is unseemly but vice Christians indeed ought to abstain from those things which are repugnant to Christian Profession which are Sins but whatsoever may be done without sin is lawful for every man to do and therefore may assemble Besides nothing ought to be condemned or spoken ill of that is capable of a good construction of which nature are our Conventicles and yet are reviled and evil spoken of by some who have the poyson of Asps under their Lips and whose Throats are as open Sepulchers because it is not only humanity but a Gospel Principle to make the most favourable and charitable construction of all Actions capable of a good and bad interpretation for charity thinketh no evil and we are commanded above all things to have fervent Charity for that shall cover a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 4.8 and envieth not is kind doth not behave it self unseemly as they do that decry Conventicles thereby giving great jealousie that in good earnest they esteem that Ordinance foolishness of Preaching desperately contemning the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. and I fear that they that have not this Charity towards such Conventicles their Charity is but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal and you know that Revilers are in the black Catalogue of the damned Crew mentioned 1 Cor. 6.9 10. and by so judging they prescribe for themselves and prejudge themselves Judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged Why beholdest thou the moat that 's in thy Brether's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Matth. 7.1 2 3. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14.4 and God alone is Judge of erring Persons Besides I know no Power on Earth that hath lawful Authority to forbid any Man to Preach the Gospel or that they that are called to Preach are obliged to ask leave of any other to Preach the Gospel either publickly or privately Christ and his Apostles notwithstanding all Threatnings and Imprisonments Prohibitings Scourgings what not yet preached the Gospel o th openly in their Synagogues and in the Temple and also privately by stealth even at midnight breaking Bread from House to House till they lost their lives for so doing which they would not have done had it been unlawful so to have done For my part I am of Opinion That our love to the Bretheren is the best and most manifest evidence of our love to God and the best Rule whereby to measure our love to him and I hope I shall never eminently see the Image of Christ in any Man Conventicler or not Conventicler but shall love him more dearly for it and abhor my self for being so much unlike him Why dost thou judge thy Brother or why dost thou set at naught by Brother for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And God will measure us by his own Line and by his own Plummet Deus bone unto what then doth all this Gall of Asps these I breats as wide as open Sepulchers decrying Conventicles and persecuting of them tend out of Zeal to the more strict and pure ways of serving God not possible it rather gives more occasions of greater Fears and Jealousies of more rancourous constitution of Hearts against
that Christ was preached in season and out of season though out of envy and strife though not sincerely though but in pretence and not in truth were living now and here would condemn our Conventicles or would not rather be in the midst of them himself I appeal to God and your own Consciences if you your selves ought not to continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread from House to House and Prayers If Conventicles in our Days do endeavour to come as near as they can to continue stedfast in the Doctrine and Fellowship of the Apostles why should they be interrupted Were not Spiritual Men mad doting upon mediocrities of Grace they would never burlesque the purity and simplicity of the Gospel nor the most strict ways of Piety and by ungrounded prejudices mis-judge them as Shagreen to good Government According to my Divinity Preaching in season out of season though not sincerely though but in pretence though not in truth Crimes of which I hope our Conventicles are no ways guilty and to become all things to all men that by all means they may save some is but to do the Will of their Master but more especially when their assembling and associating in such Conventicles is only to redeem and improve precious time by endeavouring to make all moments of their life comfortable and beneficial to themselves and others sparing sufficient time to humble themselves and to keep a constant communion with their and our God Pope Pius the Fourth could say That he would humble himself to Heresie in regard what ever was done to gain Souls to Christ did become that See And shall Protestants Clergy and not Clergy be like the Saduces and be grieved at heart that the People be taught the right ways of the Lord Absit I hope the Church of England tho' there have been and still are scab'd Sheep among them is not yet so corrupted as to have that laid to her charge which Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees That in vain they worshipped God teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and of which St. Austin complained in the Church wherein he lived which was so corrupted that the Commandments of God are laid aside teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and those exacted with such Severity nay with Tyranny that they were more severely censured who transgressed them than those who transgressed the Laws of God It is certainly so in Rome I will I could say it had never been so in England It is absurd to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord boasting of the Priviledges that the Gospel doth afford us and at the same time to prevaricate with God and the Redeemed of his own Blood to give them stones instead of bread and serpents instead of fish by such their destructive Doctrines and punish more for Non-conforming than for not Preaching and as by Excommunication to deny and abridge the excommunicate the participation of Sermons Sacraments Sabbaths c. all outward means of Grace and Repentance Did St. Paul and the Corinthians forbid him whom they had delivered to Satan to come to their Assemblies or partake of the Sacraments Did Christ ever forbid Publicans and Sinners to come unto him Did he not eat the Passover with Judas the greatest of Sinners When the Pharisees objected his eating and drinking with Sinners as a crime did not he tell him That they that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Matth. 9.11 12. Did he not converse daily with them Did he not cast out unclean Spirits nay Devils out of them And yet our excommunicates tho' but for Niff-Naffs must not approach the Temple of the Lord nor assemble in the Holy Congregations This hath been the practise of some Centuries of Years both of the Popish and Protestant Churches when in truth there 's no such thing in Holy Writ as it hath been and still is used in both Churches And that Excommunication that is mentioned in Scripture if any at all is in the body of the Church and not in the Officers thereof and which the Laity have as much Authority to exercise against the Clergy as the Clergy against the Laity it cannot be denied Is it recorded in any Scripture Old or New that the Church doors were to be shut against the vilest Sinners or Sacraments or Communion denied unto them and yet the use of Excommunication hath been and still is such in both Churches I should account it a marvellous happiness if any thing that I have written might so far prevail with our Clergy as seriously to take into their consideration their interessing and intermedling with Civil Affairs and Imployments and also Excommunication which bring so much odium and contempt upon them and lay to Heart how many hundreds of Years the Church hath been imposed upon and abused by them The abuse of which by the Roman Pontiffs hath been abominable even against Emperors Kings Princes and States that all Histories swell therewith and stinks in the Nostrils of God and Man But not so much abused by any Protestant Churches By Excommunication as now used they have done as much as in them lay to frustrate the whole design of the Gospel by debaring the Excommunicates the use and enjoyment of the outward means of Grace and Repentance What strange kind of Sacriledge is this that when Christ hath appointed Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments c. for the conversion of Sinners to him and for establishing and confirming them when converted our Priests out of self-Ends and Interests preach up another Doctrine viz. Excommunication which debars the benefit of them all and so by a new Gospel of their own do as much as in them lieth send People to the Devil instead of allowing them the means of Salvation How contrary how unlike were the Gospel-censures of old to this now in vogue they were for Edification not for Destruction as this knack or spell of Excommunication is Besides the Spiritual prejudices to the Salvation of Souls by Priests-craft it is extended also unto Temporals as that the Excommunicate cannot sue at Law for any Debts Land or for redress of injuries done unto him nor at his Death dispose of his Goods or Estate If this be Gospel I understand not gospel-Gospel-truths It 's a shame that Religion should be thus made use of and used so dirtily as to make it serve turns and Godliness to wait upon Gain Pride and Domination of Priests It would be a marvellous happiness to these Nations if the Church of England Men would yet be so wise and considerate in these evil and confounding times as to fettle among themselves the distracting Doubts of taking our New Oaths of Passive Obedience of Non-resistance of Allegiance of Praying for our KING For whilst they are of such different Opinions among themselves what would they have us sid Mortals the Laicks to do A separation if not worse must ensue and that of the highest nature and
of most dismal consequence infinitely beyond that of the Non-Cons and which undeniably tends to the Persecution do I say nay even to the Destruction of the Protestant Religion throughout Europe which now lies at stake gasping and a bleeding in this critical juncture of Affairs and which is wonderful in the Eyes of most considerate Men that all the Papists of Europe are at Defiance with our mighty Neighbour but those of our own Nations which argues them to have but Irish Understandings and perhaps Religion also And if he should prevail Acium est de Religione Protestantium and must be Slaves to boot I shall now draw towards a conclusion first intimating an Axiome of that great Divine Dr. Thomas Jackson viz. such are the Reciprocal Embracements and Interweavings of Truth and Goodness that we cannot rightly judge any thing for Good which is not True nor deny any known Truth to be in its own nature Good yet it often comes to pass that our desires are so eager and passionate on several Objects as Riches Honours Impery c. that they get the start of Deliberation and our Minds and Inclinations so forcibly prepossessed thereof that they cannot be disswaded from a mistaken Good and that it is a true and real Evil and only a seeming Good And desires to have it abetted and countenanced with the Authority of Truth are unlawful and indeed prevaricating with God And whilst our Trains our counter-lustings and opposite inclinations stand in equal Balance there can be no settled Resolution or actual Choice And the Affections after such debatements will hardly sway the Soul unless the Understanding do wave and decline the Point whereat it stood and either yield to the suggestions and illusions of our fleshly Reasons for the time being as True and Good or at least not expresly condemn them for False nor with Christian Courage stoutly withstand them Truths or Precepts Divine considered in general or without incumberances annexed to their practise many there be which affect more vehemently than their more honestly and more humbly minded Brethren who more willingly subscribe to the narrow Rules of the Apostles and so walk more exactly and more blameless in all God's Commandments But a servent and precipitato imbracement arising not from a clear intellectual apprehension of the abstract Truth or zealous Sense of their Goodness but rather from general innate temper of desiring eagerly and fiercely whatsoever they desire at all becometh the Mint or Forge of metamorphosing and misrepresenting God's revealed Will in his Word whilst they descend to actual choice of particulars preferred in their course of life That Christ's Advice is to be followed before any contrary Counsel is not to be denied by any Christian yet such is the corruption of our nature that almost every Man in matters of practise prejudicial to their private earthly Interests will traverse the meaning whether of his clearest Maxims or most peremptory Mandates and supersede them Christ his reply to Martha complaining of her Sister for not helping her to etertain him Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen the better part which shall not be taken away from her Luke 10.41 42. includes and warrants a Maxime of most Holy use viz. That a life priviledged and vacant from Secular Imployments for better Meditation and Solacing their Souls on Heaven and Heavenly things is the most compendious and comfortable Course to that endless Life which every good Christian proposeth as the sole end of this wearisome Pilgrimage that at the end of his Days he may obtain the end of his Hopes and be brought to the presence of God where is fulness of joy and at whose right-hand there are pleasures for evermore Were their Hearts true and constant to God to the true Interest of their Souls it were impossible but that their inclinations and assent should be swaied to the subordinate practises But as the Heart is deceitful above all things so it will quickly find Justifications or Apologies Tricks or Shams for the most sinister choices the proud and haughty Spirit thus fobs and shames his own judgment viz. practical Imployments for Preserments my opportunities and qualifications considered are the best course I can take either for my own or others good wherefore our Saviour's Advice to Martha rightly limited and interpreted is no way contrary to my choice And if he can light of other Sacred Passages which mention the advancements of God's Saints to Civil Dignities as Daniel's wearing a Purple Robe and furtherance of the Churches Cause by his High Place in the Court these he takes as sealed Warrants to Authorize his ambitious Desires or self-exalting Projects and so in a trimming way walking between God and Baal making the Souls of Men and the Glory of God subordinate to their ambitious Projections who Balaam like for the hope of Honour and Preferment rise early sit up late run and ride and become more sensless of God's displeasure than was his dumb Ass How many have we known pulpit Damnation against Pluralities of Benefices and afterwards having tasted the sweet of one have been content to swallow more preach against three Parsonages as the most ready way to get two How many have owned Nâ—â— Episcopari and yet accept thereof For Prelates and Priests to intangle and ingage themselves in Civil Concerns is unapostolical and to incumber themselves with Pluralities with two contra-distinct Offices and to be accounted as those that having put their hands to the plough and yet look back are not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 9.62 And according to St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.34 no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Soldier and a Christian-life is a continual Warfare Is it not a sad and lamentable condition when the violence of our Passions shall endeavour by wrestings of places of Scripture and by false Reasonings to bring the strait and inflexible Rule of Truth to bend to their Bow the better to serve their base ends of Pride Pelf and Ambition For without some shew of agreement with God's Word no Dogmatical Assertion can be maintained as true by any Christian But I have done leaving them only to consider That the manifest and notorious abuse of Power be it Civil or Ecclesiastical dischargeth the Faithful from the sin of Contempt and Disobedience the very word Abuse undeniably insers as much in its own plain and proper signification And tho' this be an undeniable Truth yet the subtle Ecclesiasticks will coin Distinctions and false Reasonings to enervate or evade the force thereof So Bellarmine against Gerson in the point of Excommunication grants the consideration to be true hypothetically only viz. if it be meant of the Abuse of the Keys in points Essential as if the Prelate should exceed his Commission in which case he agrees with St. Peter Obiendum est