Assurgency to the attempting of difficult thing and so my Mind may retire to the Root of Christian Principles and also I have often been afraid lest ill-rooting at first and many Temptations afterwards have made it more necessary for me than many others to retire to the Root and secure my Fundamentals But upon much Observation I am afraid lest most others are in no better a Case and that at the first they take it for a granted thing that Christ is the Saviour of the World and that the Soul is Immortal and that there is a Heaven and a Hell c. while they are studying abundance of a Scholastick Superstructures and at last will find cause to study more soundly their Religion it self as well as I have done The better Causes are these 1. I value all things according to their Use and Ends and I find in the daily Practice and Experience of my Soul that the Knowledge of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Truth of Scripture and the Life to come and of a Holy Life is of more use to me than all the most curious Speculations 2. I know that every Man must grow as Trees do downwards and upwards both at once and that the Roots increase as the Bulk and Branches do 3. Being nearer Death and another World I am the more regardful of those things which my Everlasting Life or Death depend on 4. Having most to do with ignorant miserable People I am commanded by my Charity and Reason to treat with them of that which their Salvation lyeth on and not to dispute with them of Formalities and Neceties when the Question is presently to be determined whether they shall dwell for ever in Heaven or in Hell In a Word my Meditations must be most upon the matters of my Practice and my Interest And as the Love of God and the seeking of Everlasting Life is the Matter of my Practice and my Interest so must it be of my Meditation That is the best Doctrine and Study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy I abhor the Folly of those unlearned Persons who revile or despise Learning because they know not what it is And I take not any piece of true Learning to be useless And yet my Soul approveth of the Resolution of Holy Paul who determined to know nothing among his Hearers that is comparatively to value and make Oftentation of no other Wisdom but that Knowledge of a Cruchfied Christ to know God in Christ is Life Eternal As the Stock of the Tree affordeth Timber to build Houses and Cities when the small though higher multiâ—arious Branches are but to make a Crowns Nest or a Blaze So the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ of Heaven and Holyness doth build up the Soul to endless Blessedness and affordeth it solid Peace and Comfort when a multitude of Schoolâ—Niceties serve but for vain Janglings and hurtful Diversions and Contentions And yet I would not dissuade my Reader from the perusal of Aquinas Scotus Ockam Arminiensis Durandus or any such Writer for much Good may be gotten from them But I would persuade him to study and live upon the essential Doctrines of Christianity and Godliness incomparably above them all And that he may know that my Testimony is somewhat regardable I presume to say that in this I as much gainsay my natural Inclination to Subtilty and Accurateness in Knowing as he is like to do by his if he obey my Counsel And I think if he lived among Infidels and Enemies of Christ he would find that to make good the Doctrine of Faith and of Life Eternal were not only his noblest and most useful Study but also that which would require the height of all his Parts and the utmost of his Diligence to manage it skilfully to the Satisfaction of himself and others 4. I add therefore that this is Another thing which I am changed in that whereas in my younger Days I never was tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ and this was it which I called Unbelief since then my soreft Assaults have been on the other side and such they were that had I been void of internal Experience and the Adhesion of Love and the special help of God and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger I had certainly Apostatized to Infidelity though for Atheism or Ungodliness my Reason seeth no stronger Arguments than may be brought to prove that there is no Earth or Air or Sun I am now therefore much more Apprehensive than heretofore of the Necessity of well grounding Men in their Religion and especially of the Witness of the indwelling Spirit For I more sensibly perceive that the Spirit is the great Witness of Christ and Christianity to the World And though the Folly of Fanaticks tempted me long to over-look the Strength of this Testimony of the Spirit while they placed it in a certain internal Assertion or enthusiastick Inspiration yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the Witness of Christ and his Agent in the World The Spirit in the Prophets was his first Witness and the Spirit by Miracles was the second and the Spirit by Renovation Sanctification Illumination and Consolation assimilating the Soul to Christ and Heaven is the continued Witness to all true Believers And if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Even as the Rational Soul in the Child is the inherent Witness or Evidence that he is the Child of Rational Parents And therefore ungodly Persons have a great disadvantage in their resisting Temptations to unbelief and it is no wonder if Christ be a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness There is many a one that hideth his Temptations to Infidelity because he thinketh it a shame to open them and because it may generate doubts in others but I doubt the imperfection of most mens care of their Salvation and of their diligence and resolution in a holy Life doth come from the imperfection of their belief of Christianity and the Life to come For my part I must profess that when my belief of things Eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firm all goeth accordingly in my Soul and all Temptations to sinful Compliances Worldliness or Flesh-pleasing do signifie worse to me than an invitation to the Stocks or Bedlam And no Petition seemeth more necessary to me than Lord increase our Faith I Believe help thou my unbelief 5. Among Truths certain in themselves all are not equally certain unto me and even of the Mysteries of the Gospel I must needs say with Mr. Richard Hooker Eccl. Polit. that whatever men may pretend the subjective Certainty cannot go beyond the objective Evidence for it is caused thereby as the print
the Saints Rest where I have not said half that should have been said and the Reason was because that I had not read any of the fuller sort of Books that are written on those Subjects nor conversed with those that knew more than my self and so all those things were either new or great to me which were common and small perhaps to others and because they all came in by the way of my own Study of the naked matter and not from Books they were apt to affect my mind the more and to seem greater than they were And this Token of my Weakness accompanied those my younger Studies that I was very apt to start up Controversies in the way of my Practical Writings and also more desirous to acquaint the World with all that I took to be the Truth and to assault those Books by Name which I thought did tend to deceive them and did contain unsound and dangerous Doctrine And the Reason of all this was that I was then in the vigour of my youthfull Apprehensions and the new Appearance of any sacred Truth it was more apt to affect me and be highlyer valued than afterward when commonness had dulled my Delight and I did not sufficiently discern then how much in most of our Controversies is verbal and upon mutual Mistakes And withal I know not how impatient Divines were of being contradicted nor how it would stir up all their Powers to defend what they have once said and to rise up against the Truth which is thus thrust upon them as the mortal Enemy of their Honour And I knew not how hardly Mens Minds are charged from their former Apprehensions be the Evidence never so plain And I have perceived that nothing so much hindreth the Reception of the Truth as urging it on Men with too harsh Importunity and falling too heavily on their Errors For hereby you engage their Honour in the business and they defend their Errors as themselves and stir up all their Wit and Ability to oppose you In controversies it is fierce Opposition which is the Bellows to kindle a resisting Zeal when if they be neglected and their Opinions lie a while despised they usually cool and come again to themselves though I know that this holdeth not when the Greediness and Increase of his Followers doth animate a Sectary even though he have no Opposition Men are so loth to be drenched with the Truth that I am no more for going that way to work and to confess the Truth I am lately much prone to the contrary Extream to be too indifferent what Men hold and to keep my Judgment to my self and never to mention any thing wherein I differ from another or any thing which I think I know more than he or at least if he receive it not presently to silence it and leave him to his own Opinion And I find this Effect is mixed according to its Causes which are some good and some bad The bad Causes are 1. An Impatience of Mens weakness and mistaking frowardness and Self-conceitedness 2. An Abatement of my sensible Esteem of Truth through the long abode of them on my Mind Though my Judgment value them yet it is hard to be equally affected with old and common things as with new and rare ones The better Causes are 1. That I am much more sensible than ever of the necessity of living upon the Principles of Religion which we are all agreed in and uniting these and how much Mischief Men that over-value their own Opinions have done by their Controversies in the Church how some have destroyed Charity and some caused Schisms by them and most have hindered Godlyness in themselves and others and used them to divert Men from the serious prosecuting of a holy Life and as Sir Francis Bacon saith in his Essay of Peace that it 's one great Benefit of Church-Peace and Concord that writing Controversies is turned into Books of practical Devotion for increase of Piety and Virtue 2. And I find that it 's much more for most Mens Good and Edification to converse with them only in that way of Godliness which all are agreed in and not by touching upon Differences to stir up their Corruptions and to tell them of little more of your knowledge than what you find them willing to receive from you as meer Learners and therefore to stay till they crave Information of you as Musculus did with the Anabaptists when he visited them in Prison and conversed kindly and lovingly with them and shewed them all the Love he could and never talkt to them of their Opinions till at last they who were wont to call him a Deceiver and false Prophet did intreat him to instruct them and received his Instructions We mistake Mens Diseases when we think there needeth nothing to cure their Errors but only to bring them the Evidence of Truth Alas there are many Distempers of Mind to be removed before Men are apt to receive that Evidence And therefore that Church is happy where Order is kept up and the Abilities of the Ministers command a reverend Submission from the Hearers and where all are in Christ's School in the distinct Ranks of Teachers and Learners For in a learning way Men are ready to receive the Truth but in a Disputing way they come armed against it with Prejudice and Animosity 3. And I must say farther that what I last mentioned on the by is one of the notablest Changes of my Mind In my youth I was quickly past my Fundamentals and was running up into a multitude of Controversies and greatly delighted with metaphisical and scholastick Writings though I must needs say my Preaching was still on the necessary Points But the elder I grew the smaller stress I layd upon these Controversies and Curiosities though still my intellect abhoâ—reth Confusion as finding far greater Uncertainties in them than I at first discerned and finding less Usefulness comparatively even where there is the greatest Certainty And now it is the fundamental Doctrines of the Catechism which I highliest value and daily think of and find most useful to my self and others The Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments do find me now the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my Meditations They are to me as my daily Bread and Drink And as I can speak and write of them over and over again so I had rather read or hear of them than of any of the School Niceties which once so much pleased me And thus I observed it was with old Bishop Usher and with many other Men And I conjecture that this Effect also is mixt of good and bad according to its Causes The bad Cause may perhaps be some natural Infirmity and Decay And as Trees in the Spring shoot up into Branches Leaves and Blossoms But in the Autumn the Life draws down into the Root so possibly my Nature conscious of its Infirmity and Decay may find it self insufficient for numerous Particles and
he lived in the House of a certain Nobleman near our parts and that being much in London he is there the chief Hector or great Disputer for the Papists and that he was the chief of the two Men who had held and printed the Dispute with Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning And when I saw what Advantage he had got by printing that Dispute I resolved that he should not do so by me and so I printed all our Papers but before I printed them I urged him to some farther Conference and at our next meeting I told him how necessary it was that we should agree first of the meaning of our Terms and I wrote down some few as Church Pope Council Bishop Heresy Schism c. which I desired him to explain to me under his Hand promising him the like whenever he desired it which when I had got from him I gave him some Animadversions on it shewed their Implications to which he answered and to that I replyed And when he came no more to me nor gave me any Answer I printed all together which made him think it necessary at last to write a Confutation whereto I have since published a full Rejoinder to which I can procure no Answer § 84. And not long after hearing that the Countess of Balcarres was not well I went to visit her and found her grievously afflicted for her eldest Daughter the Lady Ann Lindsey about sixteen or seventeen Years of Age who was suddenly turned Papist by she knew not whom She told me that when she first heard of it she desired Dr. Gunning to meet with the Priest to dispute with him and try if her Daughter might be recovered who pretended then to be in Doubt And that Dr. Gunning first began to persuade her Daughter against the Church of Scotland which she had been bred in as no true Church and after disputed but about the Pope's Infallability and â—eft her Daughter worse than before and that she took it to be a strange way to deliver her Daughter from Popery to begin with a Condemnation of the Reformed Churches as no true Churches and confess that the Church and Ministry of Rome was true She desired me that I would speak to her Daughter and try whether she would yet enter into Conference about the Reason of her Faith But she utterly refused it and would say nothing to that purpose but refer us to the Church and profess her acquiescence in its Judgment and when I desired to know of her how she knew what was the Judgment of the Church whether it were not meerly the Word 〈◊〉 the Priest that satisfied her in this and therefore desired her that she would hear that Priest or Jesuit on whose Word she built all her Faith in the Presence of some one that was fit to help her in the Tryal of his Assertions and intreated her to procure a Conference in her hearing between him and me she promised readily that it should be done The next time I came again and askt whether she had spoke with him about it and whether time and place were agreed on she confidently told me that he was ready to do it when I pleased and that all he desired was that my Promise might secure him from Accusation and from the danger of the Law and that was all that he was solicitous for I offered her to bring only two Witnesses on each side and that we might have two days Conference or Dispute in one of which he should give his Reasons why she ought to change her Religion and I would answer them and in the other I would give my Reasons why she ought not to change and he should answer me and I thought this the clearest and most impartial Method for the discerning of the Truth And I promised her all the Security which I could procure him from any danger The next time I came to know the Day she told me the Gentleman would not meet nor dispute I desired to know the Reason But she told me that she did not know her self I intreated her to procure some other to do it in whom she put the greatest Confidence and desired her to take the ablest she could get among all the Jesuits or Priests of the Queen or the Queen-Mother with whom I knew she was not unacquainted But she would not undertake for any whereupon I was forced to urge her with Provocations and tell her that seeing she was forced to resolve all her Faith into the Word of particular Priests by which only she knew the Sense of the Church and all that History which induced her to believe that Rome was the true Church she seemed very little to regard her Soul who would so far venture it upon the Words of Men that would not be provoked to an equal Conference in her hearing The next day I came I urged her again to procure a Conference She told me that the Gentleman would not consent And when I urged her to tell me his Reason she told me that he knew me very well and that he had very high Thoughts of me and that it was not now through any fear of Danger for he durst venture his Life in my Hands but since he knew it was me that he was to meet with he would not come but would not tell her why And though still I told her that there were more enough if he refused I could not procure her to bring any of them to a Dispute But at last when I purposely continued to provoke them she told me that he would yield to Dispute so it might be done only in Writing and not a Word spoken nor any thing written but Syllogistically and according to the strictest Rules of Disputation I told her 1. That I supposed that she understood not when an Argument was in Mood and Figure nor what a Fallacy was and therefore that this was not designed to her Edification 2. That I supposed that she had not read one of many of all those Books already written against them which are unanswered And if Writing will serve turn a printed Argument is as good as a written one Nor had she read the late Disputation between Mr. Iohnson and me nor were any one of my Books against them yet answered and why then should I write more till those were answered 3. I told her that Mr. Iohnson's Writing and mine held us above a Twelvemonth and yet was not driven to the Head And I asked her whether she would be willing to wait a Year or two and suspend her Resolution in Religion till she saw the Issue of our Disputation in Writing 4. I told her that it was like that he that offered this understood that by his Majesty's Pleasure I was then newly engaged in another Work which occasioned him to make this Offer 5. But yet that her Deceiver might have no Excuse I offered her that I would do all that he desired and manage it in Writing so be it
this 4. Prop. About compelling the Unfit to receive the Lord's Supper Strict The Church doth not compel any to receive the Sacrament that is unfit but punnisheth them that are unfit and neglect the making of themselves fit for it by breaking off their Sins by Repentance Answ. Alas poor Souls that must have such a Cure It seems by this that this Church supposeth 1. That all Men can Cure all their Unfitness 2. And that a Prison is the way to make them willing We Nonconformists contrarily think That 1. A Willing person may be Uncured of some unfitnesses 2. And that a Prison is no fit cure for such nor for some others We think that a Melancholly or Timerous Person is unfit who would be like to be distracted by the fear of unworthy Receiving We are sure that all that we can say will not Cure such Fears in very many If Conformists can do it and will not they are to blame We know that the Person himself though willing cannot do it We will not believe that Christ would have them laid in Goal to cure them But if the Bishops will take that course it must be suffered We judge all our present Infidels Sadducees and Socinians unfit if not the Papists And they offer their Protestations that they cannot change their Judgments We think a Goal unapt to change them but rather with meekness to instruct Opposers if God perhaps will give them Repentance to the acknowlegment of the Truth 2 Tim. 2. 25. Yea though after the Chancellour's admonition or better means they be erroneous still Verily if your way were throughly practised and such Church-Laws executed and all dwelt in Goals that are unfit for the Sacrament after your teaching and admonition and Excommunication the Landlords would find a great diminution of their Tenants and the Goalers would have more Tenants than many Lords and it were necessary to have a Goal in every Parish This is your way of comforting the timerous but who should there maintain them all I know not But if Goalers be the most effectual Converters of Souls I think more Clergy-Men than Non-conformists need their help that obtain it not And they may possibly put in for the Tythes and Church-Revenues Strict Is any Minister required to give the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood to any unbaptized Person Is not this a groundless and slanderous insinuation Nay is any Minister forced or required to give the Sacrament to any notoriously wicked or prophane Person See the Rubrick before the Communion That which follows seems to aim at an introducing of Auricular Confession or the setting up an Independent Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction in every Minister over his own Parish Ans. 1. Your Charge is causeless I find in the Canons and Rubrick that every Parishioner must receive And those unbapaized as many born of Anabaptists are I find not described or named as excepted in the Canon or Rubrick nor that any at age are forced to be Baptized and yet are forced by Penalty to Communicate So that I confess I am so ignorant as not to know whether I should be punished by the Bishop if I refused an un-baptized Parishioner But yet I verily think that the meaning of the Makers of the Liturgy and Canon was otherwise and I intended no more but to enumerate them whom we would have Power not to give the Sacrament to q. d. Not only the unbaptized plainly to be named but also the rest following 2. If by notoriously wicked you mean those that the Bishop or Chancellour hath Excommunicated we may keep them awayâ— Or if the Congregation will say that they are offended by their Crimes then they may be admonished to forbear but if they will not forbear upon the Admonition or at least will every time say that they are fully purposed to amend as most wicked Men will do I find not by the Rubrick that we can refuse them except it be one that is obstinate in Malice when at that time desired to be reconciled but the Canon seemeth to give more Power 3. Our Case is this We know that many are professed Infidels and many understand not what Baptism or Christianity or the Lord's Supper are in the very Essentials in many Places I doubt the greater part of the Parish A great number live in heinous Sins Drunkenness Fornication Swearing slandering c. The ignorant and Infidels the Minister would instruct but they will not come to him nor speak to him but refuse to give him any account or answer Almost all are Baptized in Infancy and at Age come to Church and never owned that the Minister knoweth of their Baptismal Covenant any otherwise We know not that we have Power to exclude the grosly ignorant If we had it must be if any will witness that his Neighbours are so Ignorant as to be uncapable which what private Man can and will do or else if they will come and say before others I am so Ignorant which few if any ever will till God do humble them And who will come and offend the scandalous by witnessing against them unconstrained though they will openly report it to one another How few of the Infidels Socinians gross Ignorants or scandalous here in London are by the Witnesses accused to the Ministers as such If we have the most credible Report that half our Country Parishioners or a quarter more or less are grosly Ignorant of the Essentials of Christianity and we find it true by so many of the suspected as will talk with us we must receive all the rest with all the Infidels and wicked Livers that none will become Accusers of though we know much our selves to confirm report And if they tell us we will have nothing to do with you out of the Pulpit we will give you no account of our knowledge or Faith nay we take you not for any of our Pastors yet must we do the office of a Pastor to them and give them the Sacrament and we are setting up Auricular Confession if we do but as their Teachers require on just Suspicion any account of their Knowledge or Faith or upon our Knowledge offer first personally to instruct them And if we desire else but to suspend our own Act tho they have their Appeal we arrogate Independent Power No wonder if under such Overseers our Parishes be but what they are 4. Prop. n. 8. To publish Excommunications against his Conscience Strict Against his viz. the Minister's Conscience Is not this to make every Minister an Independent Ecclesiastical Judge And that not only exclusively to Lay-Chancellours but to Bishops themselves also as appears by the words or any other Answ. 1. No let the Indifferent judge An Ecclesiastick Judge is Iudex publicus but here is nothing but Iudicium discretionis privatum suspending my own Act and medling with no Man's else Doth he judge Ecclesiastically who speaketh not a word nor medleth with the Cause any more than any one in the Congregation 2. How