Weakness but pity them that they do not see tho Mercies of God in so good a Prince and such good Laws Let us not I say despise them for as the Apostle argues Who made thee to differ Was it not the Grade of God that rescued thee from this Weakness And indeed the Sufferings even of a notorious Malefactor are pitiable as we have a general Respect for Humane Nature And this will induce our weak Brother to think that we are loving and tender and Christian-like when we do not mock at but pity their Calamity Tho 't is very fit and meet that good and righteous Laws should take place and be executed upon Offenders yet 't would be hard if those that are to execute these Laws or any other should superadd any Censure or intermingle any sort of Treatment that the Laws will not directly allow or do not expresly enjoyn 'T is no Persecution to put good and justifiable Laws in Execution but it looks like one when those that are to do it rejoyce in their Brothers Sufferings But 3. The Strong should consider and pity the Meanness and Confusion of their Faith and Understanding Now Faith as the Scripture saith comes by hearing and therefore this Fault I shall rather chuse to lay upon their Teachers than upon them tho 't is in part their fault to make no better a Choice And I must confess I take it to be the particular sleight of their Preachers to cut out Work for themselves to make their Hearers of nice and bogling Consciences that they may have them under their Dominion to raise such Scruples that they and none else care to answer and render Religion an odd and unintelligible Undertaking I must confess I have not much heard their Sermons but I have perus'd some of their Books where a great deal of what they say is very formidable and some again unintelligible Doctrine where Nineteen Marks of Grace are set down and strictly required when Two or it may be never a one of them will serve the turn Now for my part I heartily pity any Hearer that with Awe and Reverence puts his Soul into the Hands of a Teacher that is not Faithful that drags him thorow a rough and tempestuous Way when a much plainer and casier is nigh at hand Christ came to make Religion plain and easie and if any Man that puzzles and entangles it be his true Embassadour judge ye But having some Considerations to add to the other sort of Men the Weaker Brethren I shall pass to them and speak but briefly to them and so conclude And to these my Request is 1. To have a competent and becoming Reverence for Authority And here I do not go perswade these Men into the Notion of Infallibility as if all their Governours did or said were as infallible as any part of the New Testament but to desire them to have in themselves ductile obedient governable and perswasive Frames of Spirit not to be morose or peevish or sowr or obstinate And let the Consideration of his being the Power and the Ordinance of God carry them beyond all their little Doubtings and Objections A meek and a quiet and a submissive Frame of Spirit is in the sight of God of great price 2. My Desire to the Weak of our days is seriously to consider That the Government can never provide against all the petty Exceptions of every particular Person and that 't is impossible that all the Dissenters can be pleas'd Is not this to be prov'd within our Memory when the Presbyterian and Independent tho now they love so dearly were as much Antichristian one to another as now We are to Both And if at this time the Government goes to comply with the Conscience of the Presbyterian what then will become of the Independent If the Mouths of both these can be stopp'd what must be done for the Anabaptist Or if these could be complied with too what shall we do for the great Numbers of Dissenting Quakers All these come in with a pretended equal Cry and Loudness of Conscience and if these Dividers cannot condescend to each others Weakness how can they expect the Government should Therefore when they desire that the Governours should make such Laws as shall suit every Mans Conscience that 's impracticable nay and impossible without bringing absolute Confusion into the Church and State Nay themselves I dare say do not desire the Laws should be made so loose as to take in all the several Sects of Dissenters and if it takes in one Party that is blinded and weakned by his Conscience why not another If they object That a little Condescension would take in some I beseech them On whose side ought the Condescension to lie Is it not more feasible that particular Persons may come into the Church than that the whole Form of Church and State-Government must be new-molded for them If this be an humble or modest Demand I leave every Man that can to judge and I think we may safely undertake that the Government will grant when all the Dissenters are agreed what to ask I mean that will make us all one according to Christ Jesus 3. My Desire to the weak Brethren is not to place Religion or the Suspension of it in little trifling Indifferent Things This was that our Saviour highly blamed in the Pharisees Nay is it not the extreme Dotage of some in our days that think a Tag more the Gospel-mode than a Ribband or a short Black Coat more Edifying and Evangelical than a Gown or a Surplice This is that which we really and truly call Superstition in the Church of Rome that a Stick set on cross should be more Reverend and Venerable than in any other Posture The Substance and Truth of Religion lies in great and weighty Matters and these thanks be to God our Dissenters own we retain in the Doctrine of the Church of England And therefore why do they fly us by reason of our Ceremonies All that we say for them is That they are Ancient and Decent and who fitter to judge of Order and Decency than our Governours If they object Had these things been used in our Saviours time they had not scrupled them But how are we assured that they speak truth in this Matter The Sacraments were used in our Saviours time and yet a great number of our Dissenters scruple them The Creed was compiled in the Apostles time and yet most of them boggle at some part of it viz. The Communion of Saints and the truest and most intelligible Notion of the Holy Catholick Church Besides Christ and his Apostles had then neither Room nor External Authority to plant and perfectly settle a Visible Church they could instil their Doctrines and General Rules of Faith but could not descend to all the Particular Modes of Worship these we derive as faithfully as we can from the Primitive Christians which all sober and wise Men have a great Veneration for And indeed
the Apostle hath given fair Power and Encouragement to Magistrates to be doing when he bids them take care that all things be done decently and in order And who is the best Judge of Order and Decency the Magistrate the Ordinance of God or the Weak Brother I shall leave to Wise Men to determine And whereas they oft object That the Government must not enjoyn any thing but what is expresly commanded in the Scriptures If they will turn the same Argument fairly it will amount to thus much directly against themselves viz. That they must not deny Obedience in any thing that is not positively and in plain Words forbidden unless they think the Scripture allows them more Liberty than it allows the Magistrate or that they shall have Liberty to disobey in those very Cases in which the Prince shall not have Power to enjoyn And then let them shew us where the Scriptures deny a Surplice or any other of our Ceremonies retained and used And do they deny Compliance because of the Tenderness of their Conscience The Magistrate doth likewise out of his tender Love and Care for the Church and Uniformity in our Worship enjoyn them as well knowing that some External Form of Church-Government is absolutely needful and none yet after several Trials can be pitch'd upon that are more decent and less offensive 4. My last Desire to weak Brethren is that they would not throw themselves out of the Communion of Christs Catholick Church By this they frustrate the Design of Christs coming into the World and Dying for us He came to make us all one And I perceive they take it mightily in dudgeon to be Excommunicated which as they manage the Case is onely a Publick Confirmation of what they themselves have done long before St. Paul doth not seem to imagine that they would throw themselves out of Communion but was afraid that the Strong would not Communicate with them And this we desire with all our Souls to do but the mischief of it is our weaker Brethren think themselves Holier and Wiser and if so much Stronger than we And to these I may well use those Words of the Wise-man onely advisable in such Cases as these Eccles 7.16 Be not righteous overmuch neither make thy self over wise for why shouldest thou destroy thy self And why should these Men under a needless and unjustifiable Pretence of Sanctity hazard their Souls by rending the Communion of Christs Church and by Disobedience to Gods Governours and their Bodies and Estates by undergoing the Penalty of our National Laws Who hath required this at their Hands that they should set up for Martyrs before they are called to bear witness to the Truth of Christ And I wish to God these Men would seriously consider what 't is to be out of the Communion of the Catholick Church If there be but One Church why do they not Communicate with us why do they go out from us If there be Two Catholick Churches what becomes of an entire Article of our Creed Indeed there is no sense in that Assertion But I must not I need not add any more to these Particulars I hope what I have said will not be look'd upon either as sharp uncharitable or unseasonable What I have said is spoke out of a real desire that you would be like minded one towards another that you would receive one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God I am well aware that Men are not like Iron to be hammer'd when they are heated or to be hector'd and jeer'd into Communion and Religion and therefore I have been all along pleading for the contrary But I hope no Man will be angry when we modestly and sincerely tell him the Truth as I have endeavoured plainly to do Especially I would not leave any Distaste with you as to my Person or Temper now in this last Exercise I am performing among you for this would be ill Policy with respect to my Future Undertakings and an ill Requital to that Kindness I own I have received from all Parties among you I shall onely beg your Prayers and Well-wishes for my Future Undertakings and Success in my Performances and conclude all with those Words of the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.11 14. Finally Brethren farewell be perfect be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with bless preserve and guide you from this time forth for evermore Amen FINIS Books Printed for FINCHAM GARDINER A Continuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stilfleets Unreasonableness of Separation in Answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob c. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other Parts of Divine Service Prescribed in the Liturgie of the Church of England The Case of Kneeling at the holy Sacrament Stated and Resolved Wherein these Queries are considered 1. Whether Kneeling at the Sacrament be contrary to any express Command of Christ obliging to the observance of a different Gesture 2. Whether Kneeling be not a Deviation from that Example which our Lord set us at the first Institution 3. Whether Kneeling be not unsuitable and Repugnant to the Nature of the Lord's Supper as being no Table Gesture The first Part. Considerations of present use considering the Danger Resulting from the Change of our Church-Government 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which Respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of indifferent things used in the Worship of God Proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of England ' s Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in Answer to his Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of Joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship The first Part. 8. The Case of Mixt Communion Whether it be lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and Mixt Communions
neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision availed any thing that Meats and Days were all alike and that the Old allowed and established Law must give way to a New Gospel I question if any of us had lived in those days and been bred up in the strictest Knowledge of the Law how many of us would instantly have turned Christians especially since so many of us now stumble and are mistaken about the Gospel tho the World hath been so long inur'd and accustomed to its Doctrine so that there was great reason in those days for the Strong to bear with the Weak because the Difficulties of rightly judging and discerning Things were very strong and masculine enough to throw down weak Minds But when Weakness is pretended to make way for Confusion when Men will pretend they are weak at one time and will take it amiss when you go to instruct them as such at another this looks rather like Wilfulness than the Weakness St. Paul here means But I am very well aware that there is a very popular and current Observation in our days which seems a great Objection against what I have hitherto said and that is That Men can no more be supposed to be alike in Judgment than they are in Features But the Case is not at all the same Men would no doubt be all exactly Featured alike if God had design'd they should be so and had drawn them all as Copies from the same Original But he hath given us all the very self-same Law and Rule he hath given us the same Faculties to judge with and therefore it might justly be expected we should all think the same things One Soul hath no unlikeness to another but onely from the different Humours and Sentiments it receives And if the Rules be all the same to manage our Souls by whence comes the Unlikeness Not from the necessary imprest Features of the Soul but from the wrong Apprehension and Management of the Rule So that 't is no fault not to be alike in outward Features because God never designed us all the self-same external Aspect But 't is a Crime not to think the self-same truth according to Christ Jesus because this was the Reason of Gods giving us one unalterable Rule that we should with one mind and one heart glorifie him But I must pass to the several Considerations some to the Strong and some to the Weak and so conclude 1. To the Strong I desire them to consider these following Things with reference to the Weak By the Weak I mean those that are really so and not such as use it for an obstinate and ungovernable Pretence 1. I desire the Strong to consider That their weak Brethren seem to have somewhat to say for themselves When I hear a Man telling me that he hath been educated in such an Opinion and his Parents before him nay and that he doth not owe his Opinion onely to the Font but that he hath strove and prayed and read and considered and conferr'd that after all his Examination he cannot find that he hath any love for any Opinion more than his unconquerable Perswasion fixes him I say when we hear a Man sincerely and from the bottom of his Heart saying That he cannot distinguish things as others can that he cannot think that Indifferent which others do that he cannot admit things that are really Lawful in others Opinion to appear so in his A Man that is Strong ought to pity such a ones Weakness Tho to my apprehension 't is very strange if what these Men tell us be true 't is very odd that a Man out of the Church shall tell us by his Eye-sight that a House is a House a Tree a Tree and a Man a Man and see these things as clearly as any Man else and yet have this Man into a Church and you can't perswade him but that a plain whited Wall is a Carved or a Molten Image For this is really the Case Take these Men in Worldly Business and they are as intelligent and as strong and as rational as others but in Religion they are as odd and aukerd and untractable Tho methinks 't is very sad that that Religion which Christ designed to enlighten should cloud and maze their Understandings But yet thus we oft see it is Men are thus either in pretence or reality weak however that be we must leave them to God bear with their Weakness and be glad to see them in our Communion And if I can any thing judge of the Temper of those that are of the Church of England I dare vouch for the wiser and soberer part of them that they do not disdain Communion with the weakest Brother But alas the Case is now altered from that in St. Paul's days the VVeak refuse Communion with the Strong which seems to give a great contradiction to their pretended Weakness for those that really know themselves weak would not throw themselves out to the wide World and pretend to take greater care for themselves than God in his Providence and their Governours by their great Care offer to them But 2. The Strong ought to bear with and pity the Weak in that they expose their Persons and Fortunes to the Censure of the Magistrate upon Needless things Real Martyrdom and laying down our Lives and Estates for the Truth is highly commendable in the Eyes of God and Man But to withstand and contend with the Supreme Magistrate when he is doing the true part of his Duty is really a very great Evil for a good Magistrate is the great Crown and Blessing of a Nation for by prudent Exercise of good and righteous Laws he reduces many to a good and right Understanding of Things that it may be would not else mind or consider about Religion And if the Magistrate doth not take care of his Subjects Souls as well as their Bodies he bears the best part of his Sword in vain for People are very apt to run into strange Enthusiasms when every Man may cut out what Religion he pleases and we may well think a Prince blame-worthy in this Particular if God own him as his Deputy and Vicegerent and yet he doth nothing for God in all his Government And indeed we have all the reason in the World to give all due respect to the Laws especially of Good Princes for the higher the Office the greater the Grace that descends upon them But yet notwithstanding the Prince as a part of his Duty takes care to see Religion exercis'd yet too many there are that dare to offend and expose their Lives and Fortunes to the dint of his Laws and that for little potty trivial things And these the Strong ought to pity they seem to be in earnest when their Blindness will enable them to part with that which is dear to them rather than obey Therefore when we see any of our weak Brethren in trouble because of their Weakness let us not deride and contemn them because of their