authority and reverend esteem of their Persons and Office yet it regulates the same as much as may be to prevent ambition avarice sensuality idleness haughtiness that the worst of Men may not be incouraged to aspire to its Promotions and that good Men may not degenerate and that the sacred name of the Church may be held by a society of Men not carnal but truly spiritual It is constituted as much as may be to secure a succession of wise and godly Pastors and Teachers from age to age which is the surest means of the Church's perpetual good Estate It is not framed to uphold things only serviceable to a carnal interest but to inforce things acceptable to God and profitable to Men and to suppress whatsoever tends to defeat the power of the Gospell or disgrace the Profession of it and to reform abuses impartially and effectually According to the true end of Ecclesiasticall Authority which is for edification and not for destruction it inlargeth the power of doing good and restrains the power of hurting as much as the ends of Goverment will permit such restraint accordingly its greatest severity takes hold of the worst Men and the best are left most at liberty and secure from unnecessary molestation It is directed to the satisfying of the just and reasonable demands of conscience which is a choice and tender thing and therefore it is very tender of intangling and perplexing the same unnecessarily It makes the Pastors government truly pastoral that is not imperious and violent but Paternal proceeding by Exhortation and Doctrine and gentle instruction and love and when correction is necessary by the rod of Discipline It aims at the forming of Mens minds and the governing of their conversations by good and sound Principles and to make them aâ—… much as may be a Law to themselves yet aâ—… supposing the exceeding pravity of Mans nature and the infirmities of the best of men iâ—… leaves not the safety of Religion meerly to Mens good dispositions and inclinations buâ—… by due restraints curbeth the remainder oâ—… Mans perverseness It seeks not to debase the People and de press their faculties that they may be the more easily led captive by politick Men at their pleasure but to ennoble them as much as they are capable and to advance their understandings to the best improvement and accordingly it takes care that they may be throughly instructed in things pertaining to Faith and Godliness In a word it would make even the lowest and meanest of them not Brutes buâ— Men and not meer natural men but Christians or spiritual Men. The subject here described hath different degrees of excellency as it is more or less answerable to its rule and available to its end But notwithstanding divers defects and errours if that which is wholsom and good be predominant it is to be esteemed a good Constitution yet the best is most desirable Of such consequence is the structure of Ecclesiastical Polity that if it be naught it hath a continual evil influence on all Church affairs and perverts the whole course thereof and the making of many particular good Laws or Rules will not help it for in that case they are rendred almost useless It is notably observed by a Person of eminent worth Church Government is a fort or castle if Traitors to the Kingdom of Christ get the possession of it it were desirable that the Castle were ruin'd and the Christian Religion left to support it self by the innate evidence of its own Truth than be forcibly maintain'd for contrary ends and prove a mystery of Ungodliness and Tyranny CHAP. XII The corrupt state of Religion and first Externalness and Formality EVery kind of excellency in the present World hath its counterfit or false resemblance which in things of a moral nature is the depravation or degeneration thereof And so the true Religion hath its degeneration which is destructive to it yet in this corruption of Mankind is easily mistaken and exalted in the room of it It is a dead image of Christianity without the inward life of Christ and the works thereof are dead works being not wrought in God It is the dominion of the spirit of the World and of unmortified lust under pretence of the rule of the Spirit of God It is a zeal of some unnecessary Opinions and unprofitable Observances received sometimes from a more peculiar and private fancy sometimes from the general custom and tradition or at the best a zeal of Orthodoxality when that form of sound Doctrine is not obeyed from the heart It is a self-chosen godliness and not of Gods making taken up to delude the Conscience and lift up the Soul with high but ill-grounded hopes and in the mean while to excuse it from that which is the root of the matter the renouncing of the carnal life and all worldly lusts and the obtaining of the spirit of Power Love and of a sound mind and a life of Purity Goodness and impartial Righteousness The best of it is but a gloss or varnish of superficial Religiousness accompanied with a dead kind of Morality which hath its rise from education or from complexion otherwise called good Nature but springs not from the root of love towards God and of a living faith in Jesus Christ. The several impostures disguises and false pretences by which Men delude themselves and abuse the World in this matter are almost numberless yet they generally fall into one of these two main currents of religious Aberrations either the Political popular and broad way of Externalness and Customariness or the devious path of Sectarian dissetledness and extravagancy The more ample degeneration of Christianity is the meerly formal external and political State thereof that hath prevailed far and near over the Christian World This externalness is very plausible and specious but very consistent and for the most part accompanied with a large indulgence to the Flesh and with much licentiousness of Principles and Practice and it casts the mind into a deep forgetfulness of that which is spiritual and substantial in Religion It is the common rode and broad way because most obvious and easie to the carnal spirit of all sorts of Men who having some conscience of Religion gladly take up with a form that with more security and peace they may deny the power thereof as also because it seems most servicable to Superiors for shaping and swaying the consciences of Inferiors to their wills and to the ends by them designed Accordingly as it gets ground it erects a frame of things which hath a shew of Piety Unity and Order but is really an engine devised to destroy whatsoever may be truly called by those lovely names When Mens false and vain inventions rule instead of Gods Oracles when the truth of the Gospel is mingled with such Doctrines Institutions and Observances as corrupt the Purity enervate the Power and frustrate the ends of the Gospel when the misapprehension or misapplication of true
Doctrine depraves the mind and begets a false notion of Godliness or Christianity when Regeneration or true Conversion is prevented by being made in effect no more than Civility joyned with a dead conformity to the exterior part of the Christian Institution when Religion is placed in an outside Pharisaical Holiness in some bodily severity and it may be in meer forms and empty shews without internal and real Mortification and Devotion when the exterior Ordinances of the Gospel are retained but used after another manner than what becomes the Gospel-Church or sutes the ends of Gospel-Worship when a sapless and fruitless Generation of Men are nourished in holy Orders who cherish the People in ignorance profaness or lukewarmness who shew them a way to Heaven that is smooth broad and easie to the Flesh who serve or at least spare the lusts of Men who humour the vulgar Sort in rude follies who give absolution upon formal and loose terms and therewith a false repose to poor deluded Souls when the great interest of Churchmen is to promote Superstition blind Devotion and implicit Faith and to hold People in the chains of spiritual darkness and in the pleasing bondage of carnal liberty their Consciences being in the mean time secured by the belief of certain Tenents and Articles of Religion and the devout Observance of certain external Ordinances When the Policy of the Church is contrived to maintain fleshly ease and pleasure worldly pomp and power and the chiefest glory of the Ecclesiastical State lies in outward order without inward life and spirit in sacred Administration When the weapons of its warfare are not spiritual but carnal sutable to an earthly and sensual State When submission to the wills of Masters upon Earth is called obedience and their peaceable possession of Wealth and Honor is taken for the Churches Peace When concord in the unprofitable or hurtfull dictates of Men is made to pass for the unity of the Spirit When the Constitution it self the general corruption of Mankind being considered is found defective for the true end of Government and le ts loose the rains of depraved Appetite and by carnal Allurements alienates the mind from the things of the Spirit of God and turns it after the pomps and vanities of the World and serves the voluptuosness covetousness and pride of its adherents for which cause its yoke is easie to the sensual part of men but it is scandalous to them that know the truth and becomes a Stepmother to the most serious and conscientious when these and the like things prevail the Christian Religion is turned into another thing than what it is indeed by men of corrupt minds who serve their own lusts and by the wisdom that descends not from above but is Earthly Sensual Devilish square out to themselves and those that live under their influence a loose Form of Christianity not after Christ but after the course of this world But this corruption is more or less enormous in different Ages and Countries according to its greater or nearer distance from the times and means of purer knowledge And a less corrupt state may be severed from that which is more grosly vicious and impure and yet remain a degeneration in the same kind though in a lower degree And let this be noted that in a degenerate state the doctrines and institutions of Christ may be so far retained as to contain things absolutely necessary to Christian faith and life which may beget and preserve the vitals of Christianity in them that do not mingle with the other poisonous ingredients or at least not in their full extent Yea the Degeneration may happen to be in a lower degree and less pernicious and perhaps only as a Scab upon some part and not overspreading the whole Body of the Church and great multitudes therein may profess and practice the truth as it is in Jesus Thus the Judaical Church in its corrupt state retained the vitals of true Religion which were a sufficient means of grace to them that escaped the pollutions of those times and were not seasoned with the leaven of false Teachers CHAP. XIII The Sectarian and Fanatical Degeneration THe other deviation lies more out of the common rode of the generality of carnal Gospellers and this is usually stiled Sectarian whereof the particular by paths are numberless But let this be noted that whatsoever way swerves from the main ends of Religion and the great design of the Gospel is no other than a Sect or Faction yea though it spread so far and wide as that they who walk therein do for their huge multitudes presume to appropriate to themselves alone the Title of the Catholick Church Wherever the interest of a Party bears sway to the detriment of the universal Church and the common cause of Godliness where inventions false or useless are made the necessary Symbols of Religion there a Sectarian interest bears Sway and the gaining of the Secular power will not wipe off the blot of such a Party The name of Sectaries may fit proud usurpers as well as blind zealots This necessary proviso being made it remains to speak in this place of the more incoherent unstable and ungovernable sort of Sects The root of the evil in this kind is commonly a heightened fancy and complexional Zeal bearing Rule instead of Sober judgment and a more intellectual Spiritual and pure love It shall suffice to set down some notable instances for it were endless to recount them all Some have been so far transported with the hatred of Church Tyranny and persecuting Pride and cruelty that they mind not the good of Church unity order and government and they run so far from implicit faith in the dictates of proud men that themselves have proudly slighted the Churches directive judgment and all Pastoral Authority as a thing of no value and have fiercely impugned it as opposite to Christian liberty Of the like strain are they that upon pretence of higher attainments and greater Spirituality have rejected external ordinances as the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments and the publick Ministery and Ecclesiastical discipline as low and beggarly rudiments while they declare themselves hereby to be carnal and vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds Some through abuse and mistake of Divine promises concerning the Spirits Teaching have forsaken the sure guidance of Gods Law and betaken themselves to the uncertain intimations of Providence and the dangerous impulses of their own Spirits and pretended immediate inspirations which are for the most part the delusions of an exalted Fancy and sometimes they have really fallen under Satanical impressions Because there is the fleshly wisdom of the carnal mind that is enmity against God some have disclaimed reason it self as corrupt and carnal and in the mean while follow their own wilfull imagination under the pretence of the Light within them and delight in things irrational and unintelligible and render themselves uncapable of sound instruction A Fanatick fury
aggravations of Sin before the Lord and with their acknowledgment and bewailing of such scandals before the World as have been given by some among them as also with their publick Testimonies against Errors and Corruptions that have risen in their times and so they reproach them for their humility sincerity and impartiality in abusing themselves and giving glory to God and condemning Sin where ever they find it They scoff at those that speak of communion with God spiritual experiences desertions and the like matters and use in scorn Scriptural words and phrases and other holy expressions used by the Religious and profane the terms of Holy Godly Saint Sanctified by the use thereof in scandalous Ironies and so they make sport for profane men and harden them in their irreligion They would render holy things contemptible by nothing some little oversight and indecencies mostly involuntary in those that perform the same as perhaps in the Preachers tone or gesture And to say the truth it is one of the easiest things in the World for licentious wits to play upon the most serious and sacred things and to make the most acceptable Service of God and his choicest Servants seem ridiculous These are some of the many vile and wretched ways of disgracing true Religion And I will add one more to wit that madness of opposition on what side soever it be which to make a different Party odious will not fear to expose Godliness it self to the contempt and scorn of them that scorn all Religious Parties Surely it is a fearfull thing to be a hater reviler and scorner of Persons and things dear to God and precious in his sight What is it to provoke the Lord to jealousie if this be not Wherefore he doth no ill service that detects this perillous folly And men would easily shun such mistake and prejudice as makes them misjudge and condemn the Pious if they would but deal fairly and exercise the same equity and candor towards them which is due to all sorts and which towards themselves all do justly challenge But Godliness will be still Godliness let presumptuous wits imploy their Tongues and Pens to transform into never so ugly shapes Invectives Sarcasms odious and ridiculous Tales and Stories Scenial representations and disguises will not confound it nor sink its authority and reputation On the other hand the fairest coverings and best contrived Apologies the most notable and advantageous Policies will not make corrupt things savoury nor insipid things relishable nor little empty things great and weighty nor uphold the estimation of a degenerate carnal outside lifeless state of Religion where better things are known The wit of man may adorn or palliate any folly and deform true Wisdom but in a lucid Region where knowledge is diffused Wisdom will shew it self and the folly of fools cannot be hid But let the Religious know that it behoves them to take care that they suffer not so many things in vain for these indignities may do them more good than the vain applause of men If their Enemies give them advantage as indeed they do for the learning of more Wisdom Sobriety and Circumspection let them receive it it is pity they should not make the most of such harsh Instructions What manner of Persons should they be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness that as much as in them lies there might not be that wo to the World because of offences and that with well doing they might put to silence the ignorance of foolish men More especially they should do their uttermost to shun even the appearance of the sins more peculiarly charged upon them as Hypocrisie Pride Wildness of Fancy Affected Singularity and Self-Flattery and to be adorned with a conspicuous sincerity humility and charity And whatsoever contumely they indure let them by no means retaliate in the same kind remembring their blessed Lord who being reviled reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Wickedness cometh from the wicked scurrility petulancy bitterness and all intemperate language is more agreeable to their adversaries than to them And it is observed that the flinging of witty sarcasms biting jears and scoffs and railing words against a Party do vex and gall more than hurt or break them and provoke but not convince them and serve indeed to feed a humour and make sport and do some present feat but do not carry the main cause or prevail in the end but turn rather to the dammage and blemish of those for whose service they were designed CHAP. XVI Religions main strength next under the Power of God lies in its own intrinisick excellency THe propagating of true Christianity and the sound state of Religion agreeable thereunto against the enmity of the adverse World is worthy of the utmost indeavours of all pious men and to search into the right ways and means thereof is a necessary and noble speculation But it must first be known that its Stability and Victory in the World depends primarily upon the Wisdom Truth and Power of God ingaged for it and therefore it cannot fall by the Power and Policy of Adversaries nor sink and lose it self by the weakness or defectibility of its Professors but it remains firm and sure and the same for ever Next after the Power of God its main strength is its own intrinsick excellency It is upheld chiefly by its own principles which are mans perfection and place our nature in its due state and put both Persons and Societies into the only right frame and reduce all things into their own place and order They have nothing in them of iniquity impurity vanity or unfitness but are perfectly holy just and good and give unto God his due and unto men theirs and that upon the most excellent grounds that can be laid as the Glory of God our conformity to him our fellowship with him our reward from him and in him and all in and through a Mediator who is God and Man in one Person and the Head of all the faithfull who are his Body The Godly practice conformable to these principles is from a cause that faileth not to wit the inhabitation and influence of the Holy Spirit of God Though true Christianity be far above the strain and reach of meer nature yet it is practicable by Divine grace and notwithstanding the imperfect state of its Professors it faileth not of its end which is to bring into the Possession of the heavenly Kingdom the fruition of God and everlasting glory yea it doth effect great and excellent things in the present world Its rules are pure and perfect its motives are great and high and of indubitable verity They that live after it are a Law to themselves and an aw to others No other institution Philosophical or Religious is so powerfull to restrain inordinate affection and to settle the minds and affairs of men in the greatest peace and order as far as human imperfection can arrive It denies all
Men stupid and foolish that they may the better Lord it over them as besotted Vassals It cannot invite or ingage any to its Side by â—arnal allurements and provisions made for â—he lusts of Men. The making of such Provisions would extinguish its life and power and bring forth a spurious carnal Brood that always with deadly hatred pursues its true Proâ—essors It cannot lift up it self by serving the deâ—â—gns and lusts of earthly Potentates though it â—ives them their due honour to the full yet it â—empts them not by flattery to think of themselves above what they are nor doth it proâ—itute its Sacred Rules to patronize any enorâ—ities in their Conversations or political Adâ—inistrations It cannot subdue a People and hold them unâ—er by armed violence and usurpation for his were to subvert it self and undermine its â—wn foundation which is truth meekness and â—â—ghteousness It seeks not by any irregular motions to perâ—rb a settled State though adverse and injurious to it It cannot enter into the recesses 〈◊〉 wicked Policy its principles will not bear 〈◊〉 out in the cunning and close ways of dishonâ—… sty It abhors such ingagements as draw oâ—… necessity of proceeding in unrighteous or daâ—… gerous Counsels and especially such iniquiâ—… as would not pass away in a transient action but would hold up a lasting usurpation or iâ—… jury to its perpetual reproach and repugnanâ—… to it self It neither hath nor in human judgment 〈◊〉 like to have the sufficiency of an arm of Flesâ—… or worldly Puissance for its intrinsick and aâ—… biding strength untill it comes in a more exâ—… tensive power and more ample victory that hath been yet manifested in the World Thâ—… mutable Advantages of certain times and occaâ—… sions are but loose and hollow ground and nâ—… settled foundation for it to build upon It is not furthered by a course of subtilties and of intricate and cloudy projects which be get suspition of evil but by an openess an frankness of dealing in all certainty and clearness For in it self it is clear as the Sun anâ—… regular and certain as the ordinances of Heâ—… ven or the Motions of the Celestial Bodies Whatsoever degree of obliquity or uncertainty happeneth to it is only extrinsical proceeding from Mens corruptions and frailties who neâ—… ther are can be here absolutely exact and perfect in it It rejects the fury of passion bitterness clamours wrath tumult and all outrage In a word it can admit nothing that is inconsistent with intire honesty And it is not weakened by this strictness For Truth is great and powerfull and by a weak and gentle yet sound and solid manifestation of it self it maintains a conquest answerable to its own condition in this present World CHAP. XVIII The Interest of true Religion lies much in its venerable Estimation among Men. A Corrupt state of Religion nourishing Pride and Sensuality and yielding it self managable to the designs of Men after the course of the World is commonly upheld by an arm of Secular power which by ways of its own it can make sure to it self But pure Religion abhorring base compliances and residing in the hitherto lesser number that walk in the narrow way is not so well suted for a settled and continued potency in that kind Wherefore by how much the more it fails of an assurance of worldly Power and Greatness by so much the more it needs the advantage of venerable estimation for its own intrinsick excellence A desire of vain glory and an ambitious catching at the praise of Men is opposite to this interest and destroys the ends thereof But because things that appear not are of the same reason with things that are not in regard of influence upon the minds of Men Christianity should be made appear to be what it is indeed that it is not a meer Idea in the imagination or intellect but a wisdom and power that may be practiced and its glory is displaid in a Life of integrity purity and charity by the brightness of which graces in the primitive Times it became illustrious and was exalted over all the learning and vertue and potency of the Heathen World in such an Age as had all civil disciplines in their perfection and it is never so much indangered as when the sanctity of its Professors is fallen or exposed to scandal Eminent Holiness is after miracles the next great testimony to the truth and is now in the room of Miracles and its influence is very powerfull Wheresoever it is it invigorates others of this Fellowship that are near it and it commands aw and reverence from all Men. T is a great happiness when Persons indued herewith are in proportionable number fixed like stars of the first magnitude throughout the firmament of the Church when there are Men of strong Parts much prudence active spirits firm resolution who are filled with the Holy Spirit inflamed with love to God and devoted to seek the things that are Christs and fitted thereunto by real mortification and self-denial also when Persons of a lower sphere for the perfections of Nature or Learning have attained to a large measure of the primitive Spirit of Faith love meekness brotherly kindness and charity whereby they are made ready to every good work and provoke others thereunto As the eminent piety of some so the approâ—ed piety of the generality of serious Professors imports exceedingly to the reputation and reverence of true Religion The spiritual Man discerneth the excellency of the Divine life and the beauty of Holiness and the natural Man also can discern humility chastity temâ—erance patience charity integrity as things morally good and profitable to Men and by â—…ese things the truth is vindicated and mainâ—…ined To defile the purity of this Professiâ—… is to stain its glory and to stain iâ—s glory is 〈◊〉 render it weak and despicable None thereâ—…re may pass for the allowed Disciples of this â—ay but such as keep themselves pure from 〈◊〉 foul sins of Sensuality and from all palpaâ—… dishonesty Howbeit the lawfull favour â—…d assistance of any others may with due cauâ—… be admitted in its concernments A harmless life if barren and unprofitable is of little value in it self and also of little force to advance any Profession Nay a fruitless life is scandalous and unchristian They are the words of Christ herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples The root of such fruitfulness in good works is love out of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned to which belong those praises that it is the end of the Commandment and the fulfilling of the Law Now because they that walk circumspectly are often censured by the looser Sort to be uncharitable it doth the more concern them really to shew forth the laudible fruits of Charity and to maintain all good works before Men though not to be seen of Men and to hate narrowness of Soul and base selfishness What do ye more
not lasting but by usual and easie changes their weakness is discovered To tie a People to certain little rules and methods in Church Discipline that are geâ—erally displeasing as the necessary terms of â—hurch Priviledges when the ends of Discipline may be as well obtained without them is at the best but the vanity of a needless trouble in doing that with much ado which might be done with less and it may occasion an incurable breach and the rejection of the whole Form of Government Narrow and uncertain boundaries of Church Communion and arbitrary and rigid rules of admission are contrary to that ample and fixed Church state which is necessary to uphold and propagate true Religion The Faith of Christ hath been propagated and perpetuated in large Kingdoms and Nations by incompassing under its external Rule and Order the multitude that made profession though they might faâ—… short of the New Birth and those things thaâ— accompany Salvation And it doth not rooâ— or spread in any sort considerable in a Region where the order of admission is set by the rigid and narrow principles of a small Party and the general multitude lies open as waâ—… ground for any to invade or occupy The strength and security of the Protestant Reformation came by the taking in of Kingdomâ— and whole Dominions within its compasâ— The external Kingdom of God must needs be much wider than the internal It is like the draw Net that gathered Fishes good and bad and like a Corn Field wherein Wheaâ—… and Tares grow together till the Harvest Moreover the increase of professed Christian makes way for the increase of regenerate Christians and Converts to the power of Godliness are generally made out of the mass of People of an Orthodox profession and few of them are turned immediately from Infidelity Popery or any Heresie CHAP. XXIV The Care and Wisdom of the Church in preventing and curing the evil of Fanatical and Sectarian Error AMong the Wiles of Satan whereby he depraveth the Spiritual excellency of pure Religion and mightily hinders its advance in the Kingdoms of this World Fanatical and Sectarian aberrations are not the least If these follies were but heeded by those that are most in danger before they are ingaged and drunken with errour it were in great part an antidote against this mischief For the well minded that are but weak and of easie impression are lead aside chiefly for lack of attention and observation Many are Children in understanding and many are passionate and inconsiderate and an innate levity and inconstancy of mind is very common It behoves the Guides of the Flock to possess the minds of the People with sober principles and to have a watchfull eye upon the first rising of any Pragmatick Fancies that feed on notions and novelties under a shew of a more discerning Spirit in Gospel Mysteries than others have Such being vanity puff'd up will be starting questions and multiplying slight exceptions against the received Truth and will please the itching ears and slight Spirits of some pretenders to Godliness who will become their hasty proselytes and join with them to unravel one thing after another in the texture of holy Doctrine And by the repute of their good parts and seeming Piety may stagger others of good intentions but weaker judgments And of this sort none are more dangerous than vain-glorious Teachers ambitious of leading Parties and by plausible indowments furnished for such designs These to raise their own fame and make to themselves a devoted People will become absolute Sect-Masters and those that close with them they hold with pleasing devices and serve their humours that they may serve themselves of them There is also in some Persons a right Sectarian leaven which is evermore to follow peculiar Opinions and some separated Party in Religion and they speak security to their own Souls by being of such an Opinion or of such a Party Against the Sectarian and Fanatick Spirit it concerns the Church to keep a continual watch and ward but not so as to imprison the truth to lock up the key of knowledge to stifle Godly zeal to detain a People in dead and dull principles that will not reach to the New Birth and Divine Life For this were all one as to prevent or cure a frenzy by causing a Lethargy or some other such like stupidity Moreover a Superstitious formal love and sensual way of Religion will in no wise be able to prevent or suppress this evil but will give occasion to its rise and growth except in times of profound ignorance and silence as in the depth of Popish darkness But whensoever the light breaks forth and the People see with their own eyes and the Ecclesiastical Governours will not admit a true reformation but persecute those that seek it then are many in danger of falling into this opposite extream For they are cast upon it both by the hatred of the present corruptions and by the weakness of their own judgment being not throughly instructed in the solid truth And so they â—un hastily from superstition and externalness into delusion and wild fancies from the common dissoluteness and remisness of those that call themselves Orthodox into a vain boasting of perfection from the usurpations of proud men incroaching upon Christs Prerogative and their false constrained Unity into Anarchy and confusion and from a wrathfull zeal and persecuting cruelty into a disorderly promiscuous and familistical love or indulgence towards all On the contrary a Church state that is agreeable to the Spiritual Ministration of the Gospel and truly Apostolical is the surest remedy against Sectarianism and Phanaticism truly so called When the Church abandons Romish Tyranny and Superstition and yet is settled in a regular and stable Polity when the publick Order throughly promotes the means of sound knowledge and incourageth real Godliness it satisfie the minds of them who justly expect in a Gospel Church and Ministry more than an outward Form even the manifestation of Truth and Spiritual Light and Life and Power anâ— it prevents their wandring to seek after it iâ— the devious paths of Sectaries It is of great moment that of the moâ—… learned able and judicious Persons of Orthodox profession there be many eminently Pious whose authority and reputation may bâ—… able to hold in those whose affection anâ—… fancy is apt to outrun their judgment likewise that the Pastors of the Church who aâ—… called the Light of the World do so walk iâ—… the Light as that there be no occasion oâ—… stumbling in them through notorious Pridâ—… Covetousness Self-Seeking inordinate sensuality or the vehement appearance of any gross evil For the weaker sort is commonly undone by offences And because seducers are very active and spare no cost nor travel but as they have done of old do compass Sea and Land to gain Proselites it behoves the Pastors carefully to keep their People and the People carefully to keep themselves out of the hands of these Hucksters The
common remisness in this matter is deplorable Sometimes the manner of opposition against Seducers is unadvised and prejudicial To contend for truth by wrath and clamour and contumelious language and usage inhanceth the price of Error and adds to its reputation But the surest way is to converse much with our plain hearted People and to season them with right principles and to detect the subtile methods of deceitfull workers and the dangerous issues of their allurements and by honest and inoffensive applications to prepossess those holds of which deceivers seek to possess themselves And here it is of chief importance that the influence of the Pastors and other prudent and able Persons upon the common multitude of professors be more prevailing than the influence of the common multitude upon the Pastors and other prudent Leaders Servile temporizing with vulgar fancies degrades the Authority and Wisdom of prudent Guides and lifts up a vulgar Spirit and will bring it to that pass that the weakest and most inconsiderate shall sway the Churches Interest Let Persons of approved worth be more faithful and noble than by such servility and treachery to raise to themselves a power in the hearts of the weaker sort Let them rather commend themselves by their known Integrity Wisdom and Goodness and by being ready also in all condescention to serve and please them to their Edification And such faithfulness is the surest means to gain them love and honour Let the Religious beware of seeking to be admired and magnified among one another or of overprizing each others esteem This latter seems to be the cause that drew Peter to a fit of dissimulation and separation from the believing Gentiles while he sought too much to please them that were of the Circumcision Sometimes we know not our own Spirits It is good to beware of provocations like to be given or taken Upon a supposed affront or injury men of parts have been hurried into dangerous contests and to make head against petty passionate opposition they have run beyond their own thoughts and wrought strange confusion Discretion and charity seeks to convince and satisfie and not to exasperate an offended Brother It is well observed that no turbulent Opinion or Party doth usually arise in the Church but by the Church's neglect of some truth or duty Wherefore if an evil spirit seek an occasion of mischief reform the abuse and so prevent his working upon the simple And forasmuch as some of upright hearts being deceived with a fancy of a more sublime and perfect way may pass into the tents of Sectaries so far as conceâ—ns Church Order and external Worship a compassionate regard must be had of such as walk honestly and retain those fundamental Truths that may be a ground-work for saving Faith and godly Life Now towards such the greatest charity is exercised in labouring to remove the stumbling-block of their error and to make it plain before them that the Faithfull whose Communion they forsake contend for the Perfection of holy Scripture and the explicit Knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation and the reasonable service of God according to his Word and spiritual Worship sutable to the Gospel Dispensation and the lively use of holy Ordinances in opposition to unwritten Traditions Mens inventions implicit Faith ignorant devotion and meer formality That they declare by word and deed against the iniquity and impiety of this evil World and therefore the world hates them that they insist upon no forms or usages in Religion but what are commanded by the positive Laws of Christ or are necessary in their general reason by the law of Nature that they seek no worldly advantages or advancements in the Church but what are necessary for the support of the Truth according to Gods ordinary Providence and lastly that human infirmities must not be thought strange in them that have not obtained Angelical perfection These and the like things should be laid open before honest People that have been seduced into Sectarian error CHAP. XXV The advancement of the sound State of Religion by making it National and the settled interest of Nation CHrists little Flock cannot go out of the World nor retire within themselves alone from the Nations of the Earth but they must needs remain a part of Kingdoms Commonwealths with the World in general They must take themselves to be concerned in the civil Powers for the Powers that are will take themselves to be concerned in them and their ways For which cause their aims and actions as far as their Sacred Rule allows must be fitted to the capacity of the civil Government and directed unto the generall peace and quietness of the nation whereof they are in which they enjoy their civil rights By this means religions interest may incorporate with the general interest of a nation run in the same channel That pure Religion may take root and spread and prosper it is necessary to bring its external frame to the consistency of a National settlement The just â—aâ—aude hereof is laid in the doctrine of Faith and substantials of Divine Worship and things necessary to Church unity and order but it goes not beyond these And being fixed in this extent it is in a way to gain besides the support and power of the Law the Nations unstrained compliance and approbation As on the one hand Ecclesiastical tyranny is a root of bitterness always bearing gall and wormwood so on the other hand unfixedness and unlimited liberty consists not with that stability wherein all prudent Governors would settle their own affairs as also with that general tranquillity and repose which is the health of any People If one were raised to empire by a meer Fanatick Party he cannot settle himself nor stand upon firm ground till he wind his interest out of their hands and turn himself to the way of general satisfaction To the same intent and purpose it is of great importance so to fix the terms of Church Communion as not to set a perpetual bar against the main body of the People A Church state so barr'd though it were asserted with a veterane Army and could inclose all preferments both of honor and profit within it self to be at its disposal yet it is hard to see how it could ever obtain a firm establishment For a Christian Nation in general being shut out of the Church or barr'd of such Privileges as are supposed to belong to them as Christians are inraged and likely to be ingaged as one Man to oppose that which they take for intolerable oppression Or if they care not to be admitted they will turn to a contrary interest and Party in Religion or to infidelity Barbarism Atheism or some destructive way or other Now the intention here propounded may take effect if the Constitution shut out none from Sacred and Spiritual Priviledges but such as make not Profession of true Christianity or be destitute of that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to true
And though we may not please them in doing that which is evil yet we may in that which is lawfull but less edifying and so we may let go some good in the manner of performance rather than omit the whole Service Here is indeed a sinfull defect yet not on our part but on theirs who urge the way that is less edifying and refuse the better The exercise of Church Discipline being a means and not the end must be govern'd by rules of Prudence among which this is a chief one that the means must not be asserted so stifly as to indanger or destroy the end The exercise of Spiritual Authority is necessarily more regulated by the determination of the Civil Magistrate in a State that maintains the true Religion than in a State that either persecutes or disregards it If it were supposed that Spiritual Power is radically the same in all Ministers of the Gospel let it be considered whether the exercise of that Power may not be more restrained in some and let forth to a larger extent in others upon prudential grounds provided it be not inlarged in some to an exorbitancy and streightened in others to an extream deficiency Likewise if there be a dissent or doubting about a Superiority or Pre-eminence of Spiritual Power in some distinct Ecclesiastical Office let it be considered how far submission may be yielded to a Power objectively Ecclesiastical but formally Political derived from the Civil Magistrate and seated in Ecclesiastical Persons by Temporal Laws Lastly in reference to things imposed there is a wide difference between a quiet submission and an approving free choice It may be the duty of Subjects to do that which may be the sin of Governors to command For in the same things wherein Governors refuse the better way Subjects may do their parts and choose the best way they can If these considerations or others of the like Catholick tendency be found allowable and will pass among Brethren of different judgments they may prevent and heal many breaches and unite dissenters in the bond of Peace and Love and afford unto such as have been intangled a more free scope and large capacity for publick aims and actions CHAP. XXIX Whether the purity and power of Religion be lessened by amplitude and comprehensiveness A Doubt may arise in this place whether it ben ot safer to make the Church-doors narrow and to keep a strict guard upon the entrance into it and to insist upon the exactest purity that Religion may continue uncorrupt and that the Church be not defiled nor its Interest ravished by Strangers In resolving this doubt I forget not that the way is narrow and the Gate is straight that leadeth unto Life But self-denial and real mortification and a conversation in Heaven and not strictness of opinion in Church Order is this narrow way and straight Gate and our Salvation lies upon purity of heart and life and not upon Church purity Besides God hath made the Gate of the visible Church much wider than the Gate of Heaven and Church Discipline cannot be set in that strictness in which the Doctrine of Salvation is to be preached For Doctrine directly judgeth the heart and requireth truth in the inward parts but Discipline judgeth only the exterior conversation and must be satisfied in the credibility of Profession In walking by rigid rules of Discipline though with an aim to advance purity we may easily shut out those whom Christ hath taken in True Piety may be found in many who retain such things as some Godly Christians judge Erroneous or Superstitious and Godly sincerity may be found in many whom some of greater zeal but too censorious may judge to be but formalists It is not good to neglect sober and serious People though in a lower degree of profession who conform to Gods Ordinances and regard a sound Ministery and shew themselves teachable lest we reject those that would help to uphold and honour Religion more than many who will put themselves forward among the strictest sort but indeed are either carnal projecters or busie bodies or froward and fickle Persons and a stain to the Profession in which they seem to glory This narrowness of Church-communion and other reservedness of some strict Professors tends neither to the increase nor stability of pure Religion Zealous Christians are a kind of good leaven like that in the Gospel Parable which if kept alone is of no efficacy but being diffused will season the whole lump If they sever themselves into distinct visible Societies from the body of a Nation professing the true Religion their vertue cannot spread far but they leaven the whole mass of People by being diffused throughout the whole And then they gain reverence and reputation and by their example profane and dissolute Persons may be convinced and much reformed and among those that walk orderly many may be carried on from common to saving Grace Hereunto may be added this inestimable benefit to wit the apparent hope of the propagation of true Religion to the Generations to come which otherwise being unfixed might in time wear away and fail in such a Nation Furthermore sincere Christians are comparatively but a little Flock and of that little Flock the greater number are of low capacities and very defective in political prudence and if they were wholly left to govern themselves in separated Societies they might easily be insnared into Parties and Breaches and manifold inconveniencies Indeed those of them that are best able to govern themselves are most convinced of the need of publick Government Wherefore it is the security of the faithfull to live under a publick and fixed rule and order and consequently to be imbodied with a Nation if it may be in one way of Communion CHAP. XXX Factious usurpations are destructive to Religions interest REligion is by the maligners of it too often called Faction But the name is not more reproachfull than the thing it self is hurtfull to it And the prudent promoters of it will avoid Factious usurpations and all such ways as would turn to a general greivance But if any number of men in a higher degree of profession should seek the ingrossing of profits and preferments within themselves upon the account of their being Religious and the assuming of such power as cannot be maintained but by injury or disregard really or in appearance offered to all others and should so act in Civil Affairs as if they only were the people and think to do this for the advancement of Religion they would much mistake their way For besides the iniquity of this practice the vanity and weakness of it is manifest The intrinsick and permanent strength of strict Religion must be well considered For that which is adventitious is very mutable and may be soon turn'd against it Occasional advantages may suddenly raise it up to reputation and power among men and as suddenly leave it to sink and fall again Wherefore its friends and followers may
as Studious of the Churches Peace and Concord as any others And though they have not the same latitude of judgment with others in some points yet they have a right Catholick Spirit to promote the common Interest of Religion and more especially the Protestant Reformation and dread the weakning and shattering of it by needless Divisions and are ready to go as far as conscience will allow in compliance with the injunctions of Rulers But they are cast and kept out of the Established Order by the injunction of some terms which in regard of their present judgment they can not comply with but under the guilt of so great a sin as dissembling in the matter of Religion Touching Church-Government they admit the Episcopacy that was of ancient Ecclesiastical custom in the time of Ignatius yea or of Cyprian Bishop Usher's model of Government by Bishops and Arch-bishops with their Presbyters was by some of them presented to the Kings Majesty for a ground-work of Accommodation They acknowledge the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy according to the Oath in that case required His Majesty in his gracious Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs gives a Testimony concerning the Ministers that attended him in Holland in these words viz. To our great satisfaction and comfort We found them Persons full of affection to Us and of zeal to the Peace of Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to be to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations in either as without shaking foundations might best allay the present Distempers They are ready to engage that they will not disturb the Peace of the Church nor indeavour any point of alteration in its Government by Rebellious Seditions or any unlawfull ways Those points of Conformity wherein they are dissatisfied are but some accidentals of Religion and external modes and the Declarations and Subscriptions importing an allowance of all and every thing contained in the Liturgy And they think that these points are not so necessary in themselves or in their consequents but they are very dispensable as the Wisdom of Governours shall see cause If it be objected that if any thing should be yielded to them there would be no end of their cravings that which I have to say is That reasonable men will be satisfied with reasonable concessions and if Subjects know not what is fit for them to ask Governours know what is fit for them to give By granting the desired relaxation the Church would not as some alledge be self-condemned as confessing the unlawfulness of her injunctions or as justifying the Opinions of the Dissenters For it can signifie from her no more than either her indulgence to the weak or her moderation in things less necessary and more controverted which would not turn to her reproach but to her greater justification I have here nothing to say to them that object against any relaxation after that manner as if they desired not our Conformity but our perpetual exclusion Such may be answered in due season And I have here nothing to do with those that argue against us from Politick considerations respecting a particular Interest too narrow for an adequate foundation of Church-Peace and Christian-Concord But my scope is to consider what may be done by the Higher Powers and Church Guides for the healing of breaches according to the Wisdom which is from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie I have made particular observation of those too most remarkable Parties which have been looked upon as the chief instances of Schism in the more ancient times The other Schisms that I find of any remark in those times were raised sometimes by Persons cast out of the Church for their Crimes and thereupon drawing Disciples after them as was that of Meletius a Bishop in Egypt who was desposed for having sacrificed to Idols Sometimes by offence unjustly taken at some supposed faultiness in a Bishop as was that of an Orthodox Party in Antioch against another Meletius an Orthodox and right worthy Bishop of that City only because he was at first brought in by the Arrians sometimes by the exasperations of the People for injuries done to them or their Pastors and outrages committed by their opposites as was that of the Johannites at Constantinople upon the banishment of Chrysostom and somtimes by meer animosity and humor of discontentment as was that of Lucifer a Bishop in Sardinia who separated from Eusebius Bishop of Vertellis and others because they disliked his rash act of Ordaining Paulinus to be Bishop of Antioch as tending to perpetuate the Schism there begun Touching all the said Parties it may be observed that they did not plead that any Opinions or Forms were imposed on them to which their consciences did reluctate nor did they desire others forbearance towards them in such things as might bear too hard upon them but they themselves would not bear with others in that which they supposed faulty but did nither choose wholly to abandon the Communion of the Churches and did not seek nor care for accomodation with them But this is not the case of at least a great part of the Dissenters of these times For they importune an accommodation with the Churches of the Established Order and for Peace sake are willing to bear with the practice of others in that which themselves dislike or doubt of but they cannot obtain a Dispensation from others in some things which are very dispensable points according to their judgment but are forced to abide in a severed state unless they will profess what they believe not or practice what they allow not Now because the judgment and practice of antiquity is much insisted on I pray that it may be considered whether in the Primitive or ancient times of Christianity men yea many hundreds of men duly qualified for the Ministery by sound Faith and good Life as also by their Learning and Industry and offering all reasonable security for their submissive and peaceable demeanure were or would have been cast and kept out of the Church for their Nonconformity to some Opinions Forms and Ceremonies which at the best are but the accidentals of Religion and of the truth or lawfulness whereof the Dissenters were wholly dissatisfied and which the Imposers judged to be but things in themselves indifferent And I further pray that it may be considered whether it be easier for the Nonconformists to be self-condemned in Conforming to some injunctions against their consciences and in deserting the Ministery to which they are dedicated than for Superiours either by some relaxation to make them capable of Conforming or to bear with their peaceable exercise of the Ministery in a state of Nonconformity while some of their injunctions confine them to that state CHAP. V. Of making a right estimate of the guilt of Schism and something more of taking the right way to
12. read Sacraments pag. 77. l. 3. read condescention pag. 96. l. 22. read orall pag. 99. l. 2. read rites pag. 116. l. 13. read abasing ib. l. 25. read noting pag. 117. l. 25. read transform it into pag. 121. l. 21. read Levities pag. 144. l. 21. read exalt pag. 149. l. 20. read effected pag. 150. l. 20. read smatch pag. 157. l. 13. read exercise pag. 162. l. 7. read vainly pag. 163. l. 11. dele love pag. 167. l. 9. read concerns pag. 171. l. 3. read Enemies ib. l. 9. read regulation ib. l. 19. read and pag. 189. l. 6. read be not pag. 202. l. 22. read and are withall A TRACT OF THE SOUND STATE OF RELIGION c. CHAP. I. The Nature of Christianity and the Character of true Christians THe Names and Titles by which real Christians are in Holy Scripture distinguished from other men are not mean and common but high and excellent as a Chosen generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People the first-fruits of Gods creatures the houshold of God children of Light children of Wisdom heirs of the heavenly Kingdom and the Title of Saints was one of their ordinary appellations Doubtless the true difference between them and others lyes not in mere names but in some peculiar excellencies of quality and condition thereby signified And so much is abundantly set forth in the several expressions of Christianity as the Regeneration the new Creation a transformation in the renewing of the mind a participation of the divine nature the life of God conformity to the image of the Son of God and such like Thus from the Scripture stile it is evident that true Christianity is of an other nature then that carnal formal and lifeless profession with which multitudes confidently take up and that in its true professors there must needs be found something of a higher strain and nobler kind and which indeed makes them meet for that holy and Blessed state to come unto which it leads them It is indeed an excellent name and nature the regenerate State and divine life which is begun in the new birth wherein the Soul retaining the same natural faculties is changed from a carnal into a spiritual frame by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost and the word of truth In this change the mind is illuminated unto an effectual acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness as containing the highest good and appearing in such evidence as makes earthly things to be seen what they are indeed but as dross and dung in comparison thereof The will is drawn by the force of the truth acknowledged to an absolute conversion and adhesion to God as the great and ultimate object of the souls love desire joy reverence observance acquiescence zeal and intire devotion In this absolute conversion to God is included the renouncing of all self dependence and of that perverse self-seeking which follows the lapsed state and an unlimited self resignation to God which is the only true self-seeking and self-love For God having made our felicity immutably coherent with his glory but subordinate thereunto a true Convert turning from poor empty nothing self to the infinite God exchanges insufficiency poverty vanity and misery for immensity almightiness all-sufficiency and infinite fullness and so he loseth self as it is a sorry thing and a wretched Idol and findeth the blessed God and self-eternally blessed in him And forasmuch as all have sinned and fallen away from God and cannot be brought back to him but in the hand of a Redeemer and Reconciler our Religion stands also in the sensible knowledg of sin and of our deplorable state under the power and guilt thereof with an humiliation sutable thereunto and in a lively faith towards our Lord Jesus the eternal Son of God made man in the fulness of time who gave himself for us to redeem us from sin and death to a life of grace and glory Which Faith is the worthy receiving of him in the full capacity of a Redeemer the intire and hearty acceptance of the grace of God in him the Souls resignation to him to be conducted to God by him and the securing of all that is hoped for in his hands with an affiance in his all-sufficiency and fidelity This Faith worketh by love towards God and man For through faith we love God because he loved us first and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins And through faith we resolve that if God so loved us then ought we also to love one another And this love eminently contains in it all the virtues of moral honesty towards men as truth justice mercy peaceableness kindness faithfulness humility meekness modesty and towards inferiors moderation equity and condescention and towards Superiors reverence and submission Christianity is a root of true goodness that brings forth its fruit in due season in the first place the internal and immediate actings of faith hope and love which may be called radical duties as lying next the root then the inseparable effects thereof such as are holy meditation and prayer among the acts of devotion towards God and among the acts of charity towards men justice fidelity mercy which are called the weightier matters of the Law And further it shoots forth into an universal regard of Gods commandments in all particularities not slighting the lowest or remotest duties which indeed cannot be slighted without the contempt of that Authority which injoyned the greatest and most important The Spirit of Christianity is a spirit of Wisdom and prudence that guides in a perfect way It sets right the superior governing faculties and holds the inferior under the command and government of the Superior It awakens reason to attend to the souls great concernments to mind the danger of temptations the madness of depraved affections and the mischief and banefulness of all sin It is no inconsiderate licentious presumptuous dissolute spirit but strict circumspect and self suspitious solid serious and universally conscientious It is pure grave sober shunning every unseemly speech all foolish and light behaviour and much more that which hath a filthy savour and smels rank of impurity and dishonesty It watcheth the motions of the animal life and sensitive appetite and curbs them when they are extravigant and renounceth whatsoever things tend to vitiate the soul and work it below its spiritual happiness It is a spirit of patience and of true rational courage and of resolved submission to the will of God It is above wordly riches and poverty and glory and ignominy and fleshly pain and pleasure But self-conceit excessive self estimation asperity towards others and domineering cruelty over conscience is no part of the above-mentioned and commended strictness and severity For as it hates flattery and base compliance with others in prophaness or lukewarmness so it is ever qualified with meekness lowliness of mind peaceableness patience that it may gain upon others and win them to its own advisedness
our heads is by custom taken for irreverence and incivility and therefore to be avoided as offensive All matters of necessary decency are in their generals of the Law of nature and in the particulars to be ordered by human prudence All natural expressions of devotion as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer are allowed by all sorts We call them natural because nature it self teacheth to use them without any positive institution divine or human and a rational man by the meer light of nature is directed to use them yet not without some government and discretion For herein nature it self is subject to some variety and is in part determined and limited by the custom of several ages and countries as for instance in the prostration of the body in the act of adoration in the wearing of Sackcloth and renting of clothes in time of great humiliation which in former ages were sutable and that according to nature but not now adays in regard of the variation of custom And I suppose that in this sense St. Paul speaks against wearing of long hair as contrary to nature But there hath been much controversie about such Ceremonies as contribute nothing to the aforesaid necessary decency and are no natural nor civil and customary expressions of reverence and devotion but are of human institution and of a mystical and meerly instituted signification and made visible stated signs of Gods honour and the immediate expressions of our observance of him and obligation to him and by some supposed to be not meer circumstances but parts of divine Worship and yet more especially if they be designed in their use for that significancy and moral efficacy that belongs to Sacraments and made no less then the Symbals of our Christianity It lies not on me to determine on either side in this controversie nevertheless it is easie to apprehend this that it can be no danger nor dammage to be sparing in those things which being at least doubtfull and unnecessary have turned to endless strife and scandal between those that own the same doctrine of Faith and the same Church Communion Likewise it can do no hurt to reformed Christianity not to insist on that latitude in devised rites of worship that will acquit the greatest part of the Ceremonies used in the Church of Rome from the charge of Superstition and which makes way for the oppressing of the Churches and the sinking of religion under a luggage of unprofitable institutions To make any thing necessary and commanded of God which he hath not commanded and to damn any thing as forbidden by him which he hath left indifferent and to dread left God should not be pleased unless we do somethings which we need not do and lest he should be displeased when we do somethings not forbidden is no doubt the crime of Superstition but it is not the whole extent of that sin For it is no less Superstition to feign God to be pleased with mens vain inventions yea though they be not injoyned or observed as divine precepts and this also is to teach for Doctrines the commandments of men And who are the greater controlers of Gods wisdom and usurpers upon his authority They that fear to do what God hath allowed supposing it to be forbidden or they that presume to add their own inventions for the bettering of his service and make the omission thereof as criminal as the neglect of divine ordinances Doubtless it is a more tolerable Superstition to be over solicitous and scrupulous about the commandments of God than to be over-confident and vehement in the unwarrantable or questionable traditions of men Human devices multiplyed in Gods worship ingender to much vanity and superstition in the zealous observers of them and are apt to extinguish the inward life of Godliness as rank weeds choak the corn and they are commonly made a Cloak to real ungodliness And if some of them were first introduced with pious intention yet they are commonly maintained and multiplied to serve a carnal Interest And they are the more easily entertained and observed because it is easie to the flesh to buy out the inward Service of God and the subjection of the inward man by superficial bodily exercise But the depretiating of these devices serves to pluck off the mask of hypocrisie made up of meer formalities and to invigorate the life and spirit of true Religion To be the Ministration of the Spirit is the excelling glory of the Gospel Ministration wherewith a grave and sober decency and comely ornament doth well accord but excessive gaudiness pompous and theatrical shews various gesticulations and affected postures are vanities too much detracting from its dignity and spiritual Majesty CHAP. IV. The due dispensation of Gods word WHen our Lord Jesus ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men appointing and furnishing Spiritual Officers for the Service of his Kingdom some extraordinary and temporary as Apostles Prophets Evangelists others ordinary and successively perpetual as Pastors and Teachers Wherefore the interest of Christianity lies much in a right Gospel Ministery which is sutable and serviceable to our Lords design and the ends of his Gospel And it is a Ministery which is pure and uncorrupt dispensing the truth as it is in Jesus whereby men are brought to sound faith and true holiness which is vigorous and powerful apt to take hold of the conscience and reach the heart which is sollicitous and laborious travelling in birth till Christ be formed in the hearers and the Man-child the new creature be born into the world which is assiduous and instant in preaching the word by instruction reproof and comfort that as much as in it lies it may present every man perfect in Christ which comes with full Scripture evidence and cogent reason with solid matter in stile and language not negligent much less undecent yet not too curious and elaborate but free vehement grave serious and fit for the work in hand which is not to tickle ear but to break open the heart which is exemplary in faith purity charity self-denial and contempt of the world and finally which is not mercenary but naturally cares for the state of the flock and accommodates it self thereunto as its great charge and chief concern And who is sufficient for these things saith the great Apostle Doubtless much wisdom and grace is needfull in an able Minister of the new Testament and a Workman that needs not to be ashamed It being pre-supposed that he holds fast the form of Sound words and that he is throughly instructed in the mystery of Godliness which he is to impart to others in the first place his prudence will be concerned for the judicious management of the dispensation committed to him A prudent dispenser of the word will take care to deliver nothing to others but what is very intelligible to himself and whereof he can make good sense and render a reason to those that ask it He doth not
not consonant to right reason or that whatsoever is darted into their mind is to be taken for an irradiation from the Holy Ghost or that any may presume upon the Spirits immediate help in the neglect of rational search and Study But their meaning is that as heretofore in extraordinary persons there were extraordinary inspirations so there have been are and always shall be the ordinary teachings and inspirations of the Spirit in regard whereof it is stiled in Scripture the Spirit of wisdom and revelation which teaching as all the Faithfull stand in need of so more especially the Ministers of the Gospel and that this divine assistance doth elevate or heighten the gifts of nature and learning and guides us to sound reasoning yea and sometimes brings things into the mind without previous reasoning yet rational and found to be so upon due Scanning There is no great evidence in reason that St. Pauls demonstration of the Spirit and power is to be restrained to the miraculous confirmation of his Doctrine or any extraordinary gift though that sense be not excluded For the contexture of his discourse in that Chapter sets forth a certain faculty perceptive and expressive of the things of the Spirit of God belonging unto spiritual men as such And they are no Fanaticks that to this day own the more common interpretation of the words namely to Preach from the special help of the illuminating and quickning Spirit with a lively perception and feeling of the things that are delivered But whatsoever the meaning of those words be verily they are besotted with reason that in the pride thereof regard not this illumination from above and scoff at those that look after it To Preach Christ is the matter of this dispensation and to Preach moral duties is not extraneous to the Preaching of Christ but comprized under it Yet it must be acknowledged that morality in its best estate as it is vulgarly taken for temperance and righteousness towards men and other vertues of that rank as proceeding from a meerly natural principle which an Aristotle might describe in his Ethicks is far below Christianity For it is found in many that are alienated from the life of God and lead meerly by the Spirit of this world But this name may be given to some higher thing as first to the whole observation of Gods moral law founded in our Creation and that not only in the outward work after a common manner performable by the unregenerate but in a duemannerfrom a right principle to a right end that is from the love of God unto his glory And in this sense we acknowledge that it is a great part but not the whole of the Christian Religion nor indeed the whole of morality taken not vulgarly but Theologically and that in its full extent For so taken it is no other then the conformity of our minds and actions to God and his laws and faith in Christ is a main part thereof Indeed to preach Christ is to preach the whole Duty of man and more especially those duties that are consequent to and founded in our redemption as also to set forth the whole mystery of the Gospel which is the ground and reason of our duty For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and accordingly hath ordained the Ministery of reconciliation by which there is made known the lapsed and lost estate of mankind the abundant grace of God in Christ for their recovery remission of sins and free justification through his righteousness regeneration and inward sanctification the inhabitation of the spirit in believers and their mystical union with Christ their living by the faith of him and deriving of spiritual life and strength from him and growing up into him till they be filled with all the fulness of God in him their spiritual warfare and conflicts between the flesh and spirit within them their temptations desertions and renewed consolations and the earnest and sealing of the Holy Spirit given unto them Surely these are fit Subjects to behand led by a Gospel Preacher though the Preaching of these matters or of many of them is by some called Canting and phrase Divinity yet they are the Sacred expressions of the Holy Ghost in Scripture And dare any say they are but a sound of words without matter agreeable to the Stile No they are real and deep mysteries and intelligible to them that obey the truth It is heartily here asserted and earnestly contended for that the Gospel calls us as much to vertue as to glory and that its true intent is to reduce us to a holy life yet withall the Counsel of God therein is to set forth the glory of his free grace the all-fulness of Jesus Christ and the mighty working of his Spirit and the wonderfulness of Salvation through him to the intent that we might glory not in our selves but in him who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption And indeed who do more powerfully and successfully preach Christian duty than they that most insist on this unspeakable grace and lay open the treasures thereof The love of Christ is so to be spoken of as to beget in us a love towards him not imaginary and conceited but real and substantial made good by an intire subjection to him And therefore the Doctrines of free grace and of good works are to be sounding together in our Pulpits What Christ hath done for us is not to save us the pains of a continual mortification and of the agony to be endured therein and of aspiring to the most perfect state of holiness that is attainable We are to live as strictly as if we were to be saved by the perfection of our own obedience And indeed none lead more holy lives than they that desire to be found in Christ and when they have done all that they can rely wholly upon the mercy of God in him It is most true that Gospel mysteries do not lie in meer Phrases nor is new matter always brought with new forms of speech nor are people much the wiser by having their heads filled with them There are empty sounds and terms unintelligible swelling words with windy notions expressions that seem to draw deep whose meaning is but shallow There is a sollicitous stating of points with a seeming exactness that is indeed weak and injudicious and a niceness in distinguishing which is but frivolous Many controversies much agitated are but a strife of words and too great stress is often laid upon little fancies And a greater mischief there is that in cloudy language pernicious doctrines take shelter and dangerous Sects are known to hide themselves in this covert And therefore he that doth his work rightly will know the true significancy and import of what he utters He vents not meer words but sound matter and good substance for the souls of men are fed with solid sense and not with phrases Howbeit as touching expressions there is a certain
Their Union and Fellowship being chiefly mystical and invisible their Unity is far greater than what outwardly appears to the World and sometimes than what themselves can discern among themselves in particular by reason of many inferior yet very disquieting differences and discords Nevertheless it behoves them to provide that it might appear as much as may be what it is indeed and that it be conspicuous and illustrious in the sight of Men by their walking in love and peace Unity is the Churches strength and beauty the honour of the Faithfull and an argument for the certainty of their most holy Faith It makes Religion lovely and draws forth blessing praise from the Beholders of it and wins the World to a love and reverence of that Piety which makes the Professors of it to live in brotherly kindness and mutual charity But Division is the Church's weakness and deformity the reproach of Christians and a scandal against Christianity and an objection put into the mouths of Infidels against the Faith and an occasion of stumbling unto many In the present divided state of Religion each Party is apt to appropriate Godliness to themselves or at least to carry it towards others as if they did so And they that are loudest in accusing Dissenters of uncharitableness in this kind are themselves as uncharitable as any others It is true that God hath a peculiar People distinguished from all others by a peculiar Character but it is not confined to any Party of this or that Persuasion or Denomination that is narrower than meer Christianity And all true Christians are to receive one an other as God hath received them Indeed the best Christians are to be best esteemed and their fellowship is most desired But if they should be severed from the universality and in a strict combination set up as divided Party it tends to the Churches Ruine For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and if the nobler parts of the Body forsake the rest the whole must needs die Christian Concord doth not signifie an aggregation of things inconsistent as the fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness the communion of light with darkness the concord of Christ with Belial To set up Unity against Piety is a conspiracy against Christ who is King of righteousness and to pretend Piety against Unity is to oppose Christ the Prince of Peace whose Kingdom is the Reign of Love in the Soul Holiness and Peace must kiss each other and as inseperable Companions walk together It is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external Order without fellowship in the Divine Life is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new nature and to walk together in the same holy way This is far more excellent than the greatest compliance in matters of meer external order and consequently much more regardable in our estimation and reception of Persons Though to meet in one place be not of so great importance as to be joyned in one Spirit yet it must not be counted a small matter The unity of Faith and Love is much concern'd in the unity of Church Communion it will be a matter of some difficulty for them to live together in Love whom one Church cannot hold Church divisions commonly divide affections and draw men into Parties and divided Interests and make them seek to strengthen their own Party by weakening all others to the great dammage of true Religion in general For which cause the unchurching of Churches and renouncing of Communion with them that are sound in the Doctrine of Faith and Sacrament and in the substance of Divine Worship should be dreaded by all sober Christians yea all unnecessary distances should be avoided least they lead to greater alienations and direct enmities and oppositions Those Churches that cannot hold local communion one with another by reason of differences that destroy not the essentials of Christianity should yet maintain a dear and tender Christian love one to another and profess their owning of each other as Churches of Jesus Christ and should agree together upon certain just and equal Rules for the management of their unavoidable differences so as may least prejudice charity and common good and least harden the ungodly and grieve the weak or dishonour God or hinder the success of common great and necessary truths upon the Souls of men amicably promoting the common cause of Christianity and every part thereof in which they are agreed and opening their disagreements to the People as little as they can Schism is an unwarrantable separation from or division in a Church and without controversie it is a heinous sin and to be detested both for its exceeding sinfulness and wofull consequents But it hath been so disguised and the odious name hath been so confusedly cast abroad and so unreasonably and maliciously misapplied that it is too slightly thought of where it should be sadly laid to heart For it is common with the strongest Party be it right or wrong to call themselves the Church and to have no better name for others than Schismaticks And so the reproach is but contemned by them that suffer it and the sin it self is too little feared on all sides But it is not a Temporal Law nor Secular Power nor any prevalence of Strength or Interest that makes a Church and none of these things will excuse them from Schism that act uncharitably against their Brethren and obstruct the progress of the Gospel and the increase of Godliness Nor are they forthwith to be counted Schismaticks who cannot in all points observe the Commandments of men and cannot neglect to yield their help to the saving of Souls that would otherwise want due means of Salvation when God hath called them to that Service with a woe unto them if they Preach not the Gospel For as much as all must dread the guilt of Schism truly so called let it be well considered that Ecclesiastical Superiors are as much concerned to take heed of Schismatical impositions as the People are to shun Schismatical Recusancy and Disobedience As well the Pastors Wisdom as the Peoples due submission is here importunately called for When Superiors know how to Command and Inferiors how to Obey things will go as well as may be hoped for in this our imperfect state here upon Earth As the Peace of a corrupt state of Religion is best assured by suppressing all conscientious inquiries into its Decrees so the Peace of the true Church and of the sound state of Religion is most secured by the most perfect exercise of sound Judgment and upright Conscience in all its adherents That Church that claims to her self an infallibility or challenges and obtains from her partakers an implicit Faith in her determinations without further enquiry needs not fear the breaking of the bond of her Peace if she multiply constitutions and impose any devised Doctrines and Ordinances sutable to
vicious excesses and sensuall pollutions yea all offensive levites and unchristian irregularities and all fellowship therewith Yet morosity and sowreness of Spirit it by no means approves but serenity of disposition and freeness and sweetness of conversation is both commanded and caused by it It reacheth the hidden man of the heart and awes the Conscience it forbids the inward motions of intemperance and injustice it condemns and loaths Hypocrisie and makes all external works to be nothing without sincerity It makes sincere love the principle and placeth it at the bottom of our whole behaviour towards others and therefore prompts and powerfully ingages to mutual succour in the time of need It maintains a charity unknown to the Infidel World and which is a vertue peculiar to it in the greatest vigor and extent It injoyns the love of enemies It exalts Humility meekness and mutual forbearance as chief vertues which were contemned by the pride of moral Heathens And therefore it makes men just and peaceable And yet withal it hath the best grounds of true fortitude and magnanimity And therefore Damns that pusillanimity and foolish softness of disposition which betrays truth and vertue Self-denial is one of its grand precepts without which none can live under its discipline and so it over-rules and controles that selfishness which is the Arch-rebell against God and the root of all mischief and turns the World upside down It teaches men to live above the Honors and riches of the World and takes off the heart from them Its principles most intirely accord with the true interest of the Higher powers it declare their authority to be from God as they are his Vicegerents and teacheth them to rule in Subordination to him according to his laws And it awes the Consciences of Subjects to obdience If Rulers command any thing repugnant to the Laws of God it forbiddeth subjects to perform such-commands yet withall obligeth to submit with patience to the unjust penalties of non-performance and to avoid Mutinies and Rebellions It also teacheth the people in Spiritual matters to receive the Churches directive with their own discretive judgment and so not to derogate from the just Authority of Ecclesiastical Superiors It is indeed the chiefest strength of all just Governments and Societies The truth is it doth hedge in with thorns the lusts of men as Pride Malice Revenge Covetousness and Sensuality but it secures and inlarges their wholsome comforts and injoyments their proprieties immunities and all just priviledges It advanceth Righteousness Temperance Beneficience and all other duties appertaining to mankind Wherever it roots and spreads it makes no small part of the Prudence Courage Industry and Frugality and by consequence of the wealth and strength of a Nation There is no aggregation of men in the world wherein appears more of that which is good and profitable to men than is found where the influence of this profession becomes predominant whether in a Nation or Kingdom or City or Family The Spirit of Christianity is the Spirit of power of love and of a sound mind which gives great advantage for Prudence Soberness steddiness of Conversation The seriousness and gravity of this way disposeth not to futil talking childish credulity easiness and rashness but to a considerate freeness and direct dealing with a generous caution and reservedness in due Season Though its followers cannot link themselves to Factions and serve all times and occasions and go along with the men of this world in their designs throughout yet they shall not fail of interest in a Nation not wholly vitiated nor is it hard for them to maintain an influence upon the publick State if they accommodate themselves to serve it so far as conscience and prudence leads them Considerate men will not contemn them and they that own them shall know where to find them and in pursuing good designs shall find them fast friends Religion doth not cast men down into stupidity pusillanimity or sluggish neglect of opportunity but erects them to a Prudent and temperate vigor of Spirit and regular activity whereby they become fit for the affairs of human life in a higher or lower Sphear according to their different capacities CHAP. XVII Religion may be advanced by human Prudence what ways and methods it cannot admit in order to its advancement THough true Religion stands by an unchangeable Law and depends not upon the mutable things of this World and varies not according to their variations nor is to be governed by the common policy of secular Kingdoms nevertheless its affairs may be much advanced by prudence and disadvantaged by indiscretion There is a lawfull use of human Policy being refined from Hypocrisie and all iniquity The Author of this Profession the holy and just One in whose mouth was no guile adviseth his Disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves St. Paul one of his chief Ministers was attentive to all the methods of gaining People and became all things to all men that he might win some and he was bold to tell some that being crafty he caught them with guile but it was the guile of abounding Charity and self-denial managed with prudence for the service of Christ and the saving of Souls In secular Kingdoms the reasons of State are locked up from the common view But the maxims and methods of this Interest may with great advantage be disclosed as well to Aliens and Enemies as to Friends and fellow-Citizens For by this discovery the powers of the World who through their own misapprehensions or others malicious suggestions are sometimes turned against it may become more propense and indulgent towards it and the more sober part of Men may be inclined to favour it and greater numbers both of high and low Degree may be brought intirely to close with it when they shall behold the goodness and usefulness the innocency and integrity of its Principles As for the Enemies counterworking we need not dread it For the stratagems of this warfare are not carnal and cannot be counterwrought with carnal stratagems It remaineth therefore as the business of this inquiry to consider how we may improve the intrinsical and innate Advantages before mentioned and to gain all extrinsical and adventitious ones that may be made and to make thâ— most of them all for the designed end But due care must be had that the wisdom of this World or human Policy have not too great 〈◊〉 stroke For many are the arts and methodâ—… that serve secular Interests which the sincerity and purity of true Religion can by no mean admit It cannot stablish it self in bloud and cruelty nor murther the innocent for its own security nor hold People in subjection by the horroâ— of a Spanish Inquisition which is not the policy of the city of God the Spiritual Jerusalem but of Babylon It cannot make use of such impostures as are used to uphold the mystery of iniquiâ—y and which is the way of those Church Politicians that make
well reckon that they have made the most of their advantages when they can secure its interests in the common interest of a Nation A firm liberty and security founded in a national interest is more agreeable to the condition of regenerate Christians than an intire potency to themselves alone For they would scarce well comport with so great a weight of power Hypocrites for carnal ends would addict themselves to their party and overact them The sincere would prove but men corruptions would appear and miscarriages would marr their reputation which is not their least Support Hereunto may be added many incongruities that would happen to them The Gallantry and Splendor of the world will be no help to that humble and contrite frame of Spirit and real mortification and holy walking and heavenly mindedness which is the power of Christianity The various and versatile ways of worldly policy turning to innumerable occasions are not very passable to truly tender Consciences Besides if the power were inclosed within these narrow limits many of low Birth and Breeding must needs be lifted up both to the envy of the excluded party and the disesteem of Magistracy And persons of low condition being raised above their own Sphere upon the account of Religion may be easily tempted to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think and to grow busie peevish and rigid in needless matters which will provoke a People and fire their Spirits and though the rage be pent up for a season within their breasts it will at length break out into a flame The power of Christianity as to human strength is best established and extended by leaning upon some common interest with which it falls in as the Vine is born up and spreads abroad by the support of a wall or frame It is therefore most sutable to the terms upon which it stands in this world to be in a complex state with some other just large and stable interest such as is the common peace and safety both of Prince and People And being a holy and wise Profession it leads its Followers in safe and right Paths and teacheth them to wait therein with patience The nature of its interest will bear such patient waiting For it is not carnal consisting of the great things of this world which may call for an eager and quick pursuit and daring interprizes but it is the upholding of such a cause as needs not fear a sinking if it catch not hold of every sudden offer that is not clear in regard of Conscience or prudence but by an unchangable reason it indures throughout all ages and if it fall it shall rise again It needs not the making of Parties and drawing people to its side by a pragmatical importunity nor to enter into any suspected ways but wheresoever it is managed like it self in righteous and prudent Counsels it makes the fairest progress and of longest continuance The reasons aforegoing do hold in due proportion against the ingrossing of privileges in particular in corporate Societies and the making of Parties to interrupt the settled order of promotions and to keep back persons legally intitled that the Religious alone might be promoted Such Practises make sad breaches and upon change of Affairs will turn to the great detriment if not the depression of the Party so advanced CHAP. XXXI Of Leading and following and of Combinations GOds Providence useth to dispose into all quarters some men not only of known integrity but eminent for wisdom and reputation who see more than the ordinary sort of good men and are able and meet to give advice like those children of Issachar men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do These are much the stay of this Profession and by their influence keep things right and preserve the weaker sort from manifold aberrations It is supposed that they seek not their own glory in being made Heads of Parties but that in sincerity and self-denial they follow truth and peace and use their Authority and ability to promote a Catholick interest and true concord among all Christians Nevertheless sometimes the understanding of the prudent fails and Counsel is hidden from them It pleaseth the only wise God sometimes to permit strange resolves to proceed from good and wise men that our main stress of hope might rest upon him alone and on his infallible Word and that we might not become the absolute Disciples of any Masters upon Earth One or two eminent men in a Country though wise and faithfull may not be followed as it were by implicit Faith which may lead into great mistakes It is to be supposed that there be many discreet persons though not of eminent ability whom it may become to hear and reverence their eminent men yet to see with their own eyes that is to judge by their own reason In this matter there be two extreams either to be too morose or too sequacious the one being the effect of a sullen pride and Self-conceit the other of pusillanimity temerity and such like weakness and both tending to make breaches and lead into parties We may have the persons of Worthy men in due veneration but not in excessive admiration Avoid precipitate Leaders for though the service of hot Spirits may be sometimes prosperous yet in this temperate cause their conduct is pernicious And there is as much reason to avoid such Leaders as care not or at least consider not what they do against the common interest of Christianity to advance a particular Form or Party But above all beware of such persons whose apparent worldly interests lead them to adhere to some divided Party to cherish Faction If much be committed into such hands we shall be lead into a wrong course or disabled to follow the right though we see it plain before us Yea the cause of Religion will be inthralled to the service of a Faction and be left with disgrace enough when men have serv'd their turns of it A people of honest zeal may easily be over-credulous of great and powerfull men that pretend to favour Religion and take it into their Patronage Yet the more discerning sort will look to it that while Grandees retain them with such favour and Friendship they overact them not to the dishonor and dammage of this Profession which is more worthy than to be held in vassalage and made to lackey after corrupt designs and more noble than to bear such indignity It is good for the younger sort of Professors to reverence the ancient and more experienced and for all sorts in their choice of Guides and Patterns to prefer solid judgment with integrity of Life and Conversation before taking parts heat of zeal and high affections Amidst diversities of Parties and Persuasions it is safe to hold communion with the generality of Serious and Pious Christians and yet to receive with love the several disagreeing Parties who for the main walk in the truth and to have
of words Ye have heard brethren as well in your private examination and in the exhortation and holy Lessons taken out of the Gospels and Writings of the Apostles of what dignity and how great importance this Office is whereto ye are called that is to say the Messengers the Watchmen the PASTORS and Stewards of the Lord to teach to premonish to feed to provide for the Lords Family I mention my Ordination according to the Episcopal Form because it is of greatest esteem with them to whom this Representation is more especially tendred Nevertheless I own the validity of Presbyterial Ordination and judge that Ministers so Ordained may make the same defence for exercising the Ministery in the same case that is here represented Christ is the Author and the only proper Giver of this Office and though he give it by the mediation of men yet not by them as giving the Office but as instruments of the designation or of the solemn investiture of the Person to whom he gives it As the King is the immediate Giver of the power of a Mayor in a Town Corporate when he gives it by the Mediation of Electors and certain Officers only as instruments of the designation or of the solemn investiture of the Person I am not conscious of disabling my self to the Sacred Ministrations that belong to the Office of a Presbyter by any Opinion or Practice that may render me unfit for the same Touching which matter I humbly offer my self to the tryal of my Superiors to be made according to Gods Word Nothing necessary to authorize me to those Ministrations is wanting that I know of I am Christs Commissioned Officer and I do not find that he hath revoked the authority which I have received from him And without the warrant of his Law no man can take it from me Nor do I find that the nature of this Office or the declared will of Christ requires that it be exercised no otherwise than in subordination to a Disocesan Bishop That I do not exercise the Ministery under the regulation of the Bishop of the Diocess and in other circumstances according to the present established Order the cause is not in me who am ready to submit thereunto but a bar is laid against me by the injunction of some terms in the lawfulness whereof I am not satisfied whereof I am ready to give an account when it is required I do not understand that I am under any Oath or Promise to exercise the Ministery no otherwise than in subordination to the Bishop or the Ordinary of the Place The promise made at my Ordination to obey my Ordinary and other chief Ministers to whom the government and charge over me is committed concerns me only as a Presbyter standing in relation to the Bishop or Ordinary as one of the Clergy of the Diocess or other peculiar Jurisdiction in which relation I do not now stand being cast out and made uncapable thereof Moreover in whatsoever capacity I now stand the said Promise must be understood either limitedly or without limitation If limitedly as in things lawfull and honest as I conceive it ought to be understood then I am not bound by it in the present case For it is not lawfull nor honest for me to comply with the now injoyned Conformity against my conscience or in case of such necessitated non-compliance to desist from the Ministery that I have received in the Lord. If it be understood without limitation it is a sinfull promise in the matter thereof and thereupon void Absolute and unlimited obedience to man may not be promised Let it be considered also that the objected promise could not bind me to more than the Conformity then required But since my Ordination and Promise then made the state of Conformity hath been much altered by the injunction of more and to me harder terms than formerly were injoyned When I was Ordained I thought that the terms then required were such as might be lawfully submitted to But young men such as I then was may be easily drawn to subscribe to things publickly injoyned and so become engaged before they have well considered The Ordainer or Ordainers who designed me to this Office of Christs donation and not theirs could not by any act of theirs lessen it as to its nature or essential state Nor can they derogate from Christs authority over me and the obligation which he hath laid upon me to discharge the Office with which he hath intrusted me That a necessity is laid upon me in my present state to preach the Gospel I am fully perswaded in regard of the necessities of Souls which cry aloud for all the help that can posibly be given by Christs Ministers whether Conformists or Nonconformists The necessary means of their Salvation is more valuable than meer external Order or Uniformity in things accidental I receive the whole Doctrine of Faith and Sacraments according to the Articles of the Church of England and am ready to subscribe the same I have joyned and still am ready to joyn with the legally established Churches in their publick Worship The matter of my sacred Ministrations hath been always consonant to the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches and particularly of the Church of England I meddle not with our present differences but insist on the great and necessary points of Christian Religion I design not the promoting of a severed Party but of meer Christianity or Godliness I am willing to comply with the will of my Superiors as far as is possible with a safe conscience and to return to my Ministerial station in the Established Churches may I be but dispensed with in the injunctions with which my conscience till I be otherwise informed forbids me to comply In the whole of my dissent from the said injunctions I can not be charged with denying any thing essential to Christian Faith and Life or to the constitution of a Church or any of the weightier matters of Religion or with being in any thing inconsistent with good Order and Government My Case as I have sincerely set it forth I humbly represent to the Clemency of my Governours and to the charity equity and â—â—â—â—â—r of all Christs Ministers and People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e I design to follow after the things which make for Peace and I hope I am not mistaken in the way to it I. C. FINIS Books lately Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside ONe Hundred of Select Sermons upon several occasions by Tho. Horton D. D. Sermons on the 4th Psal. 42. Psal. 51. and 63. Psal. by Tho. Horton D. D. A Compleat Martyrology both of Foraign and English Martyrs with the Lives of 26 Modern Divines by Sam. Clark A Discourse of Actual Providence by John Collings D. D. An Exposition on the 5 first Chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ by Charles Phelpes A Discourse of Grace and Temptation by Tho. Froysall The Revival of Grace Sacramental Reflections on the Death of Christ as Testator A Sacrifice and Curse by John Hurst A Glimps of Eternity to Awaken Sinners and Comfort Saints by Ab. Coley Which is the Church or an Answer to the Question Where was your Church before Luther by Rich. Baxter The Husbandmans Companion or Meditations sutable for Farmers in order to Spiritualize their Employment by Edward Bury Mr. Adams Exposition of the Assemb Catechism showing its Harmony with the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England The present State of New-England with the History of their Wars with the Indies Popery an Enemy to Truth and Civil Government by Jo. Sheldeck Spelling Book for Children by Tho. Lye Principals of Christian Religion with Practical Applications to each Head by Tho. Gouge Almost Christian by Matth. Mead. Godly Mans Ark by Edmund Calamy Heaven and Hell on Earth in a good or bad Conscience by Nath. Vincent Little Catechism for Children with short Histories which may both please and profit them by Nath. Vincent Ark of the Covenant with an Epistle prefixed by John Owen D. D. This Author hath lately Published this Book Intituled The Kingdom of God among men A Tract of the sound state of Religion or that Christianity which is described in the holy Scriptures and of things that make for the security and increase thereof in the World designing its more ample diffusion among professed Christians of all sorts and its surer propagation to future Ages Printed for Tho. Parkhurst