in Sackcloth being slain and lying dead three Days and a half True Christianity being in all appearance extinct The measuring the Altar the Temple and those that Worship in it signifying the close Retirement of Pure Religion and the outward Court left to be trodden down by the Gentiles or Heathen Christians and their impure Rites and Worship and therefore excluded from those strict measures true undefiled Christianity is enclos'd within Revel 11. 1â— Now upon all these Representations of such a State of the Church so exquisitely shadowed and resembled and compared with that deep plunge and immersement of Christian Religion in the time of the Popish Midnight who can but believe these with many concurrent Delineations in all those forecited Scriptures were on purpose to give the Portraicture of that so Fatal Apostasie that believes it at all to be Prophesied in the Book of God and who that considers the weight of the thing can but believe it foretold if there be any thing prophetick of the State of Christianity to the end of the World As it most evidently appears there is But if any be so incredulous as to suppose such a State of Christianity beneath the Prefigurations of the Divine Spirit he cannot if he be indeed a Protestant but agree that nothing does with more Art and Divine Skill Pourtray and Draw to the Life such a Devastation of Christs True Religion as all History knows Popery hath made and as far as it can prevail does now and would do much farther and in its very Frame is constituted so to do Quest But seeing you suppose these Types of Popery may be applyed another way though it is I confess very hardly to be supposed yet I desire if any thing hath fallen under your Observation that can be less avoided to make plain how different a Religion Popish-Christianity is from the Scripture-Christianity you would give me leave to ask what it is Answ I must needs commend your Rational Enquiry for I know neither the Veneration given to any Religion by the Natives of it nor the ill Words against any Religion by those that are Strangers and Enemies to it should conclude against it The Professors of every Religion are startled at any reproach of their own Religion as at horrible Blasphemy but freely speak ill of a diverse from it Mahometans call themselves Believers and Christians Infidels Popish Religion calls it self Catholick and Protestancy a Grand Heresie and Schism Judaism charges whole Christianity with Cheat and Imposture It is therefore necessary we should have some Magnetick Needle to point us to the True Religion and to the True Christianity seeing its Name is not only distributed to many but so solemnly divided into the Popish and Protestant Profession of Christianity Quest What then can be our Invariable Northpole in Religion in such a Wide and Tumultuous Ocean Answ I hope you have not forgotten what was at first given in Instruction concerning Natural and Revealed Religion their exact Agreement with one another and with all our Faculties so that no Religion in the World can deserve the Name of a Religion but looks monstrous and horrid only so far as it borrows some or more of the Grand Principles of our True Religion nor can be at all Weighty and Considerable but is vain and ridiculous if it receive no Ballast from True-Religion That then which was accounted for in the beginning being remembred I shall especially apply my self to ascertain True-Christianity in contradiction to the false or Popish Christianity by that which will much ascertain all True Religion also in General and difference it from all False Religion Quest I much desire to have some such Test as you seem to intimate and promise Answ I cannot furnish you with a better surer and more lively than that Emblem of the Divine Spirit representing the New Jerusalem by a four-square City the Length and the Bredth and the Height of which are equal The Walls and the Gates and the City it self amounting to so many Square Solid Furlongs all exactly regulated by the Number Twelve all of Massy-Gold and most precious Pearl Rev. 21. Quest The very General view of so rich an Embleme much affects me but I desire you to lead me into the Application of it to each particular purpose and in the first place what am I to understand by the City Answ It is evidently told us it is the New Jerusalem that is coming down from Heaven the True Church Seated in the Christian Religion for so the Apostle Paul assures us the Christian Church so Spirited with True Christianity is Jerusalem which is above the Divine and Spiritual Jerusalem which is free and is the Mother of us all if True Christians Gal. 4. 26. Quest What do you understand by the Foundations the Wall the Gates the City it self Answ I am not bold or curious in pursuing Emblems too close but understand in general by the whole of all these the Doctrine the Worship the Rules of Life the Discipline of the True Church Quest What are we directed to by all being reduced to the Number Twelve Answ It is very evident the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb give the Honour to the Number Twelve for the Prophets and Apostles that is the Truth ministred insallibly by them is the Foundation upon which the True Christian Church is built Jesus Christ himself being the Corner-Stone and so to shew True Religion hath been always Substantially the same The Twelue Tribes of Israel and the Name of Jerusalem the People and City of God of old are Recorded with Honour as expressive of the True Church fixed in the True Religion in the Times before Christ Quest Why are all things in the Christian State describ'd to be of Pure Gold and Precious Pearl Answ To teach us by sensible things the transcendent Purity and Worth of Christian Religion and the equal Purity and Worth of all things in it of a most transparent clearness being all Spiritual Intellectual full of Light and Truth and so to be received and enjoy'd by Purity and Intellectuality or Clearest Understanding Wisdom and Prudence in the Knowledge of this Divine Revelation and by greatest Innocency Cleanness and Heavenliness of Heart Affections and Life Quest But can this be supposed to be the present State of the Church of God as it is here upon Earth Answ This is the certain and most unalterable Constitution and Designation of God concerning it and whoever plants it lower in any of the Things before Named viz. the Doctrine Worship Rules of Life or Discipline contradicts the very thing it self or degrades and embases it though it must be acknowledged its being thus prepared and adorned as a Bride must be from Heaven in some just season appointed by the Father This is yet always the Tryal of the True Church and the True Religion although the Church be not yet perfected to it Quest But you seem to have forgotten the City and all the Parts of
to have their effect there being many other in the event incurable evils upon men in despight of right Reason the cure of which yet any one may freely offer and discouse 2. Having thus far insisted upon the first Particular under this Head of Natural Religion I come to shew the agreeableness of Christian Religion with Natural in what it reveals above and beyond Natural Religion and the great Reasons of our Acceptance of Christian Religion thereupon which was the second Head propos'd And that I may make this the clearer let it be distributed into these three Branches 1. That it is hereby necessarily suppos'd Natural Religion is given to be a Test and Touch-stone of Truth in Religion 2. That Christian Religion hath such an evident agreement with Natural Religion as to be approved and recommended by it 3. That it being so excellent and so recommended it lays the true grounds of peace throughout the world in Religion 1. As to the first I thus argue If a man have no notes of distinction within if there be not a Religious Rational Understanding planted by God as a nature in man if there be not Principles ingrafted into that Understanding how shall a man know the goodness of anything propos'd to him the conformity of it with what it is pretended to be When our Saviour challenged the Phraisees requiring a sign from Heaven for the truth of his Doctrine thus Why even of or from within your selves judg ye not what is Luk. 12. 5 7. right He imply'd The very essence of a man as an Intellectual Rational Spirit must be also full of Religious and Moral Principles and so must have innate judgment of Religious Truth as many other Scriptures assure us Without this a man can have nothing but an Implicite faith for his Religion a strong belief it 's true Now seeing Turks Jews Papists every one that is throughly possess'd with his Religion hath the same this kind of Faith is no other than these several Religionists laying a wager one with another which is the true Religion and it greatly derogates from the Christian Religion to suppose there is no more but this confident adventure for it rather than for any other and no grand assurance within in Natural Religion Even matters of Divine Revelation however immediately from God must be hence known and discovered else every thing that calls it self Revelation must be taken for Divine Although the Prophets might be at some times under a strong supernatural hand that transported their minds as it did also in extraordinary cases their bodies yet they were generally under the still-voice speaking to their faculties enlightning their reason sanctifying their affections by which they had even at the time of their greatest raptures a sense of the excellency of Divine Truth an habitual acquaintance with the ways of Divine approach and presence a search into the things they had spoken even after they had spoken them So the Apostle Peter tells us They searched what or what manner of time the Spirit that was in them did signifie 1 Pet. 1. 11. They had a holy gust of Divine things a judgment discerning between any sort of private spirit and the universal Spirit of Grace and Truth else how did they differ from Balaam 2 Pet. 1. ult Abraham no doubt had a free debate with himself of the certainty that the voice was Divine that commanded him to Gen. 22. sacrifice his Son and argued within himself the reasonableness of returning his Son and especially his Son Isaac to the Author of all life and being and of Isaac's most particularly and so he resign'd him But Infinite Truth and Goodness always jealous over the sacredness of Nature's Laws would not permit the execution The great power of Miracles is not their astonishment of sense but summoning mens minds with great authority to Rational and Religious Considerations laid up in store within them The sum then of this Point is this Natural Religion always with us as intimate as our faculties as certain and true as they are in their frame and creation must be our Ordeal if I may so call it our Fiery our surest way of trial of all Proposals made to us in Religion that is after due awakening our minds and examination of things by them and the blessed assistances or highest infusions of the Divine Spirit are breath'd into our natural sentiments in things pertaining to God inlightned purified and guided into all truth 2. The second Branch follows viz. Christian Religion hath such an evident agreement with Natural Religion as to be approved and recommended by it even in what it reveals above and beyond Natural Religion Now if it be first evident there is not one good thing in that whole Religion as every thing in it is holy just and good but Christianity hath united it self with it self it hath so carefully gathered up all the fragments of it that no one thing is or can be lost And if it be made good in the second place that whatever Christian Religion reveals beyond natural Religion endures the touch of Natural Religion and is besides its own proper credentials recommended by it there cannot be any thing added to evince that Christian Religion is a foundation of Oecumenical peace in Religion seeing Natural Religion is the Oecumenick Religion the Religion of all mankind It must be so for every man hath it written in his heart and Christian Religion is in much of it one and the same Religion is all of it most agreeable with Natural Religion and recommended by it It then necessarily follows no man can be wisely Rationally Religious but he must be so far Christianly Religious and what Christian Religion offers beyond the wisdom and rationality of a man beyond the Law of the first creation is yet as agreeable with it as light with light greater light with lesser light how then can he that shews himself man be cruel outragious against or out of peace with it He that falls out with it falls out with Godliness Righteousness Soberness Humility Truth peace with God attonement to him with laying hold upon Eternal Life and flying from the wrath to come with Patience Meekness Mercy Compassion from God to men from men to one another He that persecutes Christianity must persecute righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in which whosoever Rom. 14 17 18. serveth Christ as every one must do that serves him is accepted of God and approved of men and therefore to despite Christianity is not only Belluine but Devilish So that the third Branch plainly results from the two former viz. if Natural Religion be the standard and touchstone given us to try all things in Religion by and that Christian Religion comes off from the tryal more precious than Gold It follows then of what value it ought to be to all the world To demonstrate then the second Branch that Christian Religion so agrees with Natural as to
its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scriptures to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if they cannot give Satisfaction to cavelling Atheists or Infidels or to the Scruples of Good Men it still remains a just Ground of Satisfaction The Spirit that carried by an Almighty Hand the Writers of the Old Testament carried those Penmen of the New by the same also and from one single Glance of its Meaning that it self with Divine Artifice had left drawn there it derives that full Face of Truth in the New to be its Sense in the Old than that Samson's Riddle in the Exposition should be his Sense in the dark Cover of it in Words that could not else import it He that created the Words in the Old Testament and even then inspired them with that Divinest Sense as with Life might yet suffer it to lie intoomb'd in them till it self that entrusted it there gave it a Resurrection in the New Quest But would you have none undertake in the Interpreting or Expounding Scripture except by Inspiration or the Evidences of immediate Divine Presence where either Scripture is not so express as to be its own undoubted Interpreter or the Interpretation deduced as evidently as any Consequence by Reason Answ Far be it from me to discourage or lessen such Undertakings I rather wish all the Lord's People thus far Prophets to search the Meaning of Scripture with all the Helps and Advantages they can attain and that in the mean time all those who have any part of the Prophetick Office upon them would read and meditate day and night to Interpret Scripture to themselves and others Quest But how is such Interpretation consistent with the Apostles so great Assertion That Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Answ First Interpretation guiding it self by the plain evident and Self-Interpreting Oracles of Scripture in things absolutely necessary to Salvation displays a Body of Divine Publick Truth which in regard of the Darkness Inattendence and Inconsideration of the generality of the very Professors of the Faith of the Scriptures and much more in regard of the great Indisposedness of their Hearts to the Obedience of Scriptures need such constant Displays by Applicatory Interpretation and a distinct Office to attend continually on this very Thing And yet the main Concernment of such Interpretation lies in what is so plain that when opened and applied it is impossible to be doubted of as Scriptures Sense 2. Such Interpretation as may be Private in regard of its Derivation of any Doctrine from such or such a particular Place of Scripture yet keeping it self to the Analogy of Scripture in the plain and undoubted Sense in other Places does still maintain the free and Publick Course of the Waters of Life 3. Interpretation of Scripture thus guiding it self according to the evident Sense of Scripture in its clearest Parts and taking that as a Clew into the more abstruse Parts of Scripture necessarily encounters much Sound and excellent Truth nearly allied to Publick and Divine in all Knowledge Natural Historical Chronological Moral Political pertaining to Language and Eloquence which makes the World more lightsom and less subject to the Tyranny of the Prince of Darkness How great a Light of all Learning hath broken out from the very Endeavours of Interpreting Scripture to the Glory of the Father of Lights the high Honour and venerable Estimation of Scripture the much Ascertaining True Publick Religion and the Universal Good 4. Many great Truths and undoubtedly Divine in themselves that being more at a distance from those that are necessary to Salvation it hath not pleased the Publick Wisdom of the World to give such Assurance of them as that they should be imposed upon the Belief of all that acknowledge the Sacred Authority of Scriptures and yet may present very large Satisfactions to the Minds of those who are assisted by the Holy Spirit into the great Scripture-Reason in such Points though but particularly for
THE PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANT Truth and Peace IN FOUR TREATISES VIZ. The TRUE STATE of LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE In Freedom from Penal Laws and Church-Censures The OBLIGATIONS to NATIONAL TRUE RELIGION THE NATURE of SCANDAL Particularly as it relates to Indifferent Things A CATHOLICK CATECHISM Shewing the True Grounds upon which the Catholick Religion is ascertained Zech. 8. 19. Love the Truth and Peace By THO. BEVERLEY Rector of Lilley in Hertfordshire LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will. Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. To the Reader I Have very sadly observed the great distress of Humane Affairs through miscarriages every way in point of Religion For while the Powers of this world and Ecclesiastick Jurisdictions take it for their Right to impose by severe Penalties and dreadful Censures what they think fit under so great a name they yet neither can assure any one they are not or do not use to be mistaken in their recommendations or that all their Authority or Power shall excuse and acquit those that obey them when they appear before Gods Tribunal so that it is impossible the Judgment or Conscience should have any repose here On the other side some not only out of Recoyl for self-preservation or out of design but from Furious Wild Principles have broken out into publick disturbance to make room for what they have proclaim'd as the Kingdom of God and Christ to the great scandal of True Religion the imbrewing their hands very horridly in Blood and the seeming Justification of utmost Rigors against any pretences of Religion except according to Law Besides all this private Feuds and Animosities vehement and angry disputes are every where clamorous and people hereupon in great Amuse what they should believe or do Now since there is no doubt all these evils are foreseen by God there is as little doubt that there are sure Remedies provided against them I have then upon the whole this account to give the Reader That the observation of so many Counter-Cries of Opinion such great Exasperations in mens Affections such Complaints of oppression of Conscience by undue Laws such Recriminations of Faction Sedition Fanaticism not only among Christians but among Protestant Christians and of the same Common National Interest mov'd me to seek Retirement to some Rock of Certainty that I might be at perfect Peace upon in full satisfaction of Judgment and composure of Affection and having found Natural Religion as certain as our Faculties and Fundamental Christianity in most things of the same immediate certainty as Natural in all things after due exploration of the same final certainty I am so far at Peace in my Judgment as to have no doubt WHAT IS TRVTH in relation to Eternal Happiness if ten thousand more of Opinions encompassed me round about so far at Peace in my Affections as not to be in Commotion with any man that gives Testimony to Christian Charity that he is a strict observer of Natural Religion and Fundamental Christianity one Essential Rule of both which is Love Peace and Mercy to all that are centred in this Natural Christian Religion though they may adjoyn or refuse some Eccentrick Placits that do not harm the Foundation Lastly I am assur'd this very Natural Religion espoused by Christianity well considered and observed would disarm the world of those Instruments of Cruelty in the Cause of Religion so extreamly abhored by it whether used by angry supreme Powers or unjustly taken up by Seditious Ambitious or Fanatick Subjects Which Cruelty men are sain to borrow from wild Beasts no such being given by the Gracious Author of all things to so excellent a Nature as he made the Humane and therefore most certainly not by the Redeemer nor his Religion who came to fill the world with Innocency Goodness and Peace after so great an Invasion of Barbarity and Cruelty Now having found this satisfaction my self I make offer of it if it may be the same to others asking only Candid Interpretation in particular management the main Principle being above the need of pardon or the Fear of Indignation Although the Discourse being intended much shorter is not distinguished in the Body of it into Chapters or otherwise yet that the Reader may have a guidance into the main Designs of it I have prefixed this Summary of Heads of Discourse following each other The Contents THE Introduction Explaining the Text and shewing the merciful Design of Christianity against contrary appearances The always present way of determining Doubts in Religion 1. to 8. Of Natural Religion as sure as our Faculties and the Examination of Things by it 10. to 26. Of Natural-Religion united by Christian Religion to and with it self as the only Assurance and Test of Revealed Religion and of the little value of Ceremonies in Religion either Natural or Christian 27. to 45. Of Natural Religion the only standard of Humane Paenal Laws in Religion 45. to 79. Of the great use of Natural Religion in composing and deciding Differences in Christian Religion applied to some of the greatest Controversies in it 80 82. Of the first Principle of Peace in Christianity it self The important Honourable Business given as one Rule to walk by wherein it engages all its Disciples several ways producing peace 88 to 94. Of the grand Principles of the Vnion of Christians into one Body on which love and peace are infallibly to ensue 95 to 99. Of Heresie and the nature of it cutting off from that Vnion exemplified in Popery and whether the Roman Society be a True Church Of Schism and its nature as it cuts off from the Body of Christ 99 to 110. Of the Laws for Christians being imbodied in a Catholick Church in particular Congregations or Churches and the Order of Both to National Christian Constitutions Of the great value the word of God gives to Publick National Religion requiring our utmost attemperation of our selves to it consistently with conscience Of the Peace of Christianity in relation to the Ministerial presidency of it in relation to Magistracy to Vniversal Goodness 121 to 127. A Lamentation over the World's unhappiness in relation to so excellent a thing as Religion and Christian Religion 127. An Offerture for the Amicable Return of all Protestants one to another within our English Nation and the Methods of it 136. ERRATA PAGE 2 l. 28. r. action p. 7. l. 25. for thus r. that p. 17 l. 17. blot them p. 23 l. 1 for them r. that l. 5. for it self r. themselves p. 27. l. 32. r. appellation p. 91. l. 37. for they r. that p. 109. l. 7. blot why l. 10. blot who being p. 1220 Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 141. l. 7. r. done ISA. XI 6 7 8 9. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them And
that that Doctrine is made known to men by the light of nature consequentially and by way of deduction though not originally ingrafted I make no doubt and that these two ways 1. By that obligation to forgive planted in humane nature and the inclinableness of generous minds to it as an Excellency and Glory of Humane Nature and therefore it is most attributable to God seeing all perfection derives from God and is most attributable to him To the Lord Dan. 9. 9. our God belong mercies and forgivenesses He hath declared to man it does so by inserting it as a Nobleness in his heart They therefore that do not esteem it a virtue and of most desirable practise in themselves may upon that very reason dispair of it from God seeing they count it wiser and better not to forgive and whatever is best and wisest is most attributable to God 2. By the patience of God towards sinners which in its most natural Inferences leads to repentance and is salvation Rom. 2. 4 5. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Infinite goodness not being willing that any should perish but all come to repentance and therefore that penitential frame discoverable in humane nature upon ingenuous sense of sin answers this patience of God as the Eye and light as the Ear and sound do one another and both together are a connate Gospel in mans soul If any should think this a derogation from the Mediator he will be satisfied I intend no such when I tell him I esteem all those notions of Natural Religion and Morality as continued to be planted in man are from Jesus Christ the Creator-Redeemer by whom every thing was made that is made who is that true light that is the light of men the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world Natural Religion therefore may well be inlaid John 1. 4 9. with Evangelical Lines since it is all from Christ The Apostles therefore both St. Paul and Peter discourse it as the great sin of men against natural Knowledg and Conscience not to know that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance to despise the riches of his long-suffering and forbearance to account it slackness and not salvation which could not be without the grace of God in a pardon made known by natural light nay indeed all impressions of Natural Religion continuing and moving to good actions after sin are built upon Gods pardoning Mercy because God allows receives no worship from Devils who find no place for repentance David therefore celebrates God thus There is forgiveness Psal 103. 4. with thee that thou mayest be feared that is honoured reverenced worshiped and served which could not be since mans sin if thou didst not forgive Thus evident is the Doctrine of Pardon and Repentance that if there be any such thing as Natural Religion since the fall that must be a noble branch of it The King of Nineveh had a confidence in this Mercy that so peremptory decree of destruction notwithstanding for the allowance Jonah 3. ult of them a quarentine or forty days patience carried a solemn promise of Pardon upon Repentance in the very nature of it else why was not the destruction immediate so he understood and so it proved and therefore it is a worthy part of religious publick discourse in the worship of God 2. The second duty of Natural Religion is prayer to God which our dependance upon God our expectation from him both for the holy and happy state of our minds in vertue and godliness challenges from us the recommendation of our state beyond death into the hand of God as a faithful Creator requires it of us the peaceable and prosperous order and government of the world and of our nearer concerns in it National Domestick Personal provoke us to it Prayer for pardon and reconciliation to God Vows of obedience to him of returns to him by repentance how necessary are they for upon supposition of sin and hopes of pardon the same considerations enter into prayer that do into discourses of God Now this is a duty so natural that not to pray is to restrain John 15. 4. prayer to shut up and imprison a most natural motion and vent of the soul that is ready forcibly to burst out as water consin'd within bounds too close for it David makes addresses to God as by one of his Attributes Oh thou Psal 65. 2. that hearest prayers and therefore hast an universal congregation of suppliants about thee to thee shall all flesh come 3. Praises of God in the divine excellencies of his Nature and Beeing in the glories of Creation and Providence in his Mercies and continual Beneficencies to our selves and all his creatures in his righteousness judgments and severities upon the wickedness that is in the world are a tribute to God so natural that God as our Maker gives all men songs in the night that is continual matter of praise even in the ordinary and extraordinary seasons the whole Creation is one Mouth opened in his glory This is so due and even necessary to be paid that some Naturalists of no great reputation for Devotion have upon the survey of the admirable works of God found his praises even bubbling up from them in Hymns of Praise 4. The holy and reverend mentions of God upon all just and valuable Reasons as in swearing by his Name in Covenants and Pacts in decision of controversies by testimony in asseverations of truth in promises are among the Decrees of this Natural Religion Lastly The universal Sanctification of the Divine Majesty in all our thoughts words and actions that in nothing we may reverse that acknowledgment we make in solemn duties who that calls God the bâ—st and greatest Names of Love and Awe in the highest dâ—grees as Heathens did by the force of Natural Religion can deny or keep back any part of these from God or if any denies them or does contrary to them by impious swearing blaspheming the Name of God or undervalues the awful and tremendous attributes or what evidently and undoubtedly pertains to the Divine Honour and Glory who can say severity upon him is cruelty but a due sacrifice to justice as punishments for blood rapine unnatural lusts are All these then are so plain and evident Duties that they need nothing of further discourse but only a sober reflection upon their own evidence in order to their prevalency in the understanding of men And for the manner of performance besides the very gravity required in such awful actions the prudence of rational nature in its solemn deportments the greatest condecency required to divine things that can arise from nature and not from artifice I know nothing to be added except a caution to rest here and not to suffer the transports and inchantments of a fleshly imagination that is endlesly spinning out it self in forms and modes of divine worship till that worship become not a piece of pageantry only for that were
greater Communities and that Patriarchate and Primogeniture lost it self in the numerousness of Mankind Reason advis'd to the orderly separating and dedicating some persons to the continual attendance upon Sacred Offices 3. That they might be the more Authoritative herein as persons of greatest sanctity wisdom attainments in knowledg were most recommended to such a choice so Education separation to Reading Meditation Study for attainment of knowledg must be the means under the eye of Natural Religion for enabling persons for the discharge of such Functions For there are but three ways whereby persons can be supposed authorized to presidency in Divine Things 1. By Parental Authority the same with Patriarchal 2. By Eminency of Parts and Gifts join'd with dedication of themselves and orderly approbation to publick office 3. By special and immediate appointment of God either by a standing Law as in the Levitical Priesthood or by Inspiration as in the Prophets The first two are of Natural Sanction the last of Supernatural Ordination And so far as appears by Sacred Records no one of them excludes from Discourses and Instructions of even a publick character those that have eminent gifts and inablements though not by immediate inspiration as Elihu having an excellent spirit equal'd himself with men of days and years as he himself speaks Job 32. 7 8. But Jeroboams making Priests of the meanest of the people 1 King 12. 3â— â— was a transgression against the very Laws of Nature And it seems to me an error of too much a like enormity against innate reason to bring down Divine Offices to such prepar'd prescription as the most uneducated undevoted undedicated persons to knowledg study meditation might perform so that they have nothing to trust to but as it is call'd the indelible character of Ordination which will hardly bear them out in the Court of natural Conscience and therefore cannot easily attone them to the rules of Revealed Religion which never contradicts or so much as dispenses with natural On the other side to clog the higher dignified persons in this Ministry with so much of rule and business as hinders the performance of these Divine Offices with the utmost effects of that study and meditation before spoken of runs into the same ill consequence and exchanges a Religious service into a secular Grandeur Else no one hath reason to envy that they who are Princes in Righteousness Truth and Peace and Priests indeed of the most High God Gen. 14. 18. mediating continually betwixt God and men in Doctrine Prayer Blessing and Praises should be placed among the Princes of the people And so I have run through those things that more immediately concern the first and greatest commandment but like unto Mat. 22. 37 38. these are Righteousness Justice Mercy Truth Sobriety Temperance Charity Humility Modesty Patience general love peaceableness containing our selves within our own bounds order submission to Government with perfect subjection in all things that do not contradict obedience to God together with all those things that speak virtue goodness loveliness good report honour esteem in human conversation Phil. 4. 8. which so far as they can come under the observation of man and can be regulated by laws so far as they can come into palpable instances are worthy of rewards and encouragements and the contrary of punishments This is natural Religion and it stands upon this unmovable foundation Nothing is more truly Religion or reverence of the Divine Majesty than those things which do most perfect humane nature into a conformity with God And therefore the first and chiefest in the order or scale of Religious excellencies are the things that are most really good the more substantial rational solidly good any thing is the more it pleases God and must be approved of Rom. 14. 18. men if they shew themselves men Thus all the massy acts of Love to God and men Godliness Righteousness Soberness excel all the Honour pretended to be done to God by prayer praises discourses of him oâ— whatever of that sort seems most worthy to be preferred which without the other become a flattery of God only Next discourses of his word and will in order to learn obedience are of higher account than prayer for He that Prov. 28. 9. turns away his ear from hearing the law his prayer shall be an abomination yet Prayer and Praises are much more acceptable than sacrifices There may be now a solemn appeal made to all the world whether Christian Religion is defective in one single point of this true Natural Religion at the highest and fullest dimensions of it possible to be conceived here is the height and depth the breadth and length of Natural Knowledg concerning God concerning good and evil concerning rewards and punishments according to the most sober sedate judgment of Mankind the universal consent of the world the most ready accusations and defences all men make in points of good and evil in their treaties and debates one with another according to the discourses of the most Wise Learned and Virtuous of the Philosophers the best of Lawgivers If then there be the most Wise the most Good the most Virtuous that ever was in nature found in Christian Religion abating nothing but positive Laws topical Religion Rites and Customs what a foundation of peace quietness and happy state might a consent but in this Natural Religion as it is fairly extant in the Christian Religion be and what a conviction of the Christian verity would such an acceptance of Natural Undeniable Religion from it be when just as in the day of Pentecost those Acts 2. 8. several sorts of people heard the wonderful Works of God each in their own language so in Christianity every one finds what ever they can think excepting their own particular Rites most generally truly and valuably good and that upon deepest considerations strictest examination and even uncontroversable certainty And how benign and compassionate might mankind be to it self if summoning together these truly excellent notions and framing its Religious Laws according to them they exacted a severe conformity in all that is thus vertuous and good and allowed a benign freedom of offering and receiving the best accounts that can be given of further revelations from God forbearing injury violence and blood and then also it would soon appear what an indisputable title that only excellent Religion of our Saviour hath to be the truly Catholick Religion of the whole world and so far to set it at peace Now though there is little reason to expect this will come to pass till a spirit be poured out from on high and these rivers of truth break out in the wilderness till the great Prophecies of Scripture looking to a better state of the world come to be fulfilled Yet still according to the rule of right Reason it should be so nor doth it diminish the reasonableness or silence the offers of the Reasons that they are not likely
right of Earthly Powers Not the retrenching any of the Freedoms of Natural Religion not the imposing any thing besides and beyond it by power or penalties not the forbidding of Reformation of any corruptions invading it not the embargoing any Revelation from Heaven consisting with or perfecting Natural Religion as all truly such do only the power of requiring all to live in obedience to the punishment of those that disobey Natural Laws But it may be further said God intended Christianity should be brought in not by might not by power but by tâ—e Spirit of the Lord. That Believers in it should seal it not with Pleasures Honours and outward Advantages accruing to them by it but with their blood and sufferings This is also most true it appears God did so intend But still if Magistrates were intrusted by God with making Religion Legal or not Legal by their seal it is plain that Divine Ordination of Magistracy was dishonour'd and debas'd by him that appointed it in that it was not at all taken notice of in so great an affair of the Divine Kingdom And so far as they could judg who did not believe there was a real injury done to Powers and the sufferings of Christians were on that account just For who could know that for so long a time God had suspended that supposed Ordination of his viz. That no Religion should be brought into any State or Kingdom that had not first the favour and license of the Laws and Magistrates of that State and Kingdom But now suppose it is a stated Rule that beyond Natural Religion the Magistrates Power extends not but that being secur'd there is a freedom to Subjects of taking care of their Souls and wherein they have to do with God as of their bodies lives or estates in private concerns or as a Philosopher hath of chusing what he thinks the best system and from the best Authors and that men may freely reason herein still within the confinement of Natural Religion Reverâ—nce of God and all just deferences to men and then Christian Religion had a Legal entrance offering no disregard to Magistracy but taking natural freedom to offer it self wherein its way being so prepar'd it then opens it self with all that Divine Power and Authority that cannot be refus'd but under the great peril of Eternal damnation Thus proportionably the case is the same concerning the Reformation of Christianity from Popery We then that are Christians and Protestant Christians have great reason to keep that door of the just and lawful propagation of Religion not contrariant to Natural Religion as open as we can and to grant a quiet comprehensive of all offers that can be made keeping within Rules of Natural Religion Reason and Prudence it seeming less hazard to admit those inconveniences attendant upon this liberty that through humane corruption run round with every thing than those greater mischiefs of having Christian or Protestant Religion violently kept out Thus I have endeavour'd to clear that there are obligations lying upon men precedent to any right of Humane Authority viz. of duty to God in obeying God rather than men of the Profession Confession and publication of true Religion however men forbid or scorn it of rational communication of truth as the Apostles said We Act. 4. 12. cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard of charity to mens souls in not concealing the tydings of Salvation the Righteousness and Truth of God For certainly David expresses himself according to the Laws of Natural Religion when he says I have preached righteousness in the great congregation I have not refrained my lips Oh Lord thou Psal 40. 9 10 knowest I have not hid thy righteousness in my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation And Moses when he says Give ear Oh ye Heavens and Deut. 32. 1 2 3 I will speak and hear Oh earth the words of my mouth my doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distill as the dew because I will publish the name of the Lord Ascribe ye greatness to our God Yet from hence I do not suppose any man bound to go and preach to the Great Turk either the Laws of Natural Religion against any of the iniquities of that tyranny or follies of that superstition or the just and holy Laws and Truths of Christianity instead of his worse than Aâ—ile Alcoran Every man is to measure his commission and the enablements he hath receiv'd from God for his work and not to venture upon things beyond his line For even the Apostles knew their measures the measure of the rule distributed them by God a measure reaching so far beyond which they did not stretch themselves in that famous place 2 Cor. 10. 13. Every man may compute the probable account his service will turn to in the Glory of God and the Salvation of mens souls Christ teaches him to forbear when it is certain before hand His pearls will be trodden under foot and himself Mat. 7. 6. rent And so I have finished what I think necessary to be spoken upon this Third Argument and pass on to the fourth Argum. 4. Natural Religion may well be the Cement of Vniversal Peace since whatever can comport with the good of the Vniverse or Community is secured by it The Glory of God so far as Community is charged with it The Peace and Welfare of particular persons The orderly Posture of every man in his Station and Rank The just deference to Magistracy and publick Authority The security of publick Peace and Quiet The Advancement of True Religion in Divine Revelation Now in every one of these I will consider what Objections may be made against allowing freedom in Religion upon Natural Religion secur'd and the Answers to them Object 1. Every False Religion or refusal of the True Religion in a Nation not vindicated by due severity upon Offenders is an offence against the Divine Majesty of a National Guilt and brings down National Judgments Answer The government of Conscience being Gods peculiar no earthly Power shall be charged with the obliquities and errors of it any more than with the secret sins of men that are not known or those Distempers of Mind and Spirit which coming into no palpable Instances can neither be convicted nor sentenced by man Now mistakes of men in Religion not cognisable by the light of Nature are to be reckon'd among the Errors of Conscience and so are properly left to Gods Judgment-seat and the Magistrate stands free It is therefore very observable Princes are called nursing-Fathers and Queens nursing-Mothers signifying not a Isa 49. 23. Commanding-Power but a tender insinuating cherishing the Encouragements from them that such an Appellative carryes with it in those that declare it in those that are to receive it The Magistrate discharging this Honourable Trust may acquit himself and the Community
understood The excellent Wisdom Gravity of Natural Religion in the lives and actions of men especially enobled with Christianity would bring most of men except extremely bad or wild into an admiration of its excellency that even ingenuous shame together with general prudence would compose them against fugitive inconstant changeable giddy opinion Men are not so intractable as they are thought to these awful Laws if wisely propos'd The worst and wildest part would become in every mans sense due subjects for rigor whom so much reason and fair inducement would not prevail upon Steelly unfruitful unsatisfactory ceremonies loose principles and practises the want of that great presence of true Religion and an iron hand instead of it makes men Atheistick Sceptick and Fanatick ever teeming into vain opinion for want of solid goodness to rest upon But however sinful degenerate men will be bad every way Uniformity begets lothsome ignorance and formality That which is best in it self is to be chosen viz. That free air and light in which men may try all things and hold fast that which is good though evil adheres to that as to all good things Argum. 5. To conclude True Natural Religion hath a set of such self-evident principles that it will be enough to name them and yet if they were observ'd and obey'd universal peace and quietness could not fail to result from them 1. That every man hath the due care of his soul committed to himself so that it shall be no Apology for him in the sight of God that others whether Churches Magistrates or publick Teachers misled him it may be some abatement of condemnation to him and increase to them but it shall not Ezek. 3. 18. deliver him he shall die in his sin though his blood shall be required at the watchmans hand What reason then can there be or how can it be accounted for to compel that man with force to take that way he judges dangerous or drive him from what he thinks best for his soul To advise perswade reason him is commendable and charitable It is good for him to make the best inquiry and take the best advice But that he should be forc'd against his own sense is unnatural and barbarous seeing he must be wise for himself or if he scorns he Prov. 9. 12. alone must bear it This is to be understood in cases not evidently good or evil by Natures Laws In them there is no excuse against impressions of absolute authority Now how much would this tend to peace if it had its due observance 2. That Humane Nature should do all the good kindness and ease it can to it self in every particular member and remove all the evil discomfort and mischief it can in the same manner and no severity except in cases plainly destructive to general Humanity can be tollerable to true Humanity If this were mens Rule who would hurt or destroy in the world 3. That in all things wherein a man can without infinite hazard do it he should unite himself with the greatest Communities with lawful Governours with Nations and most comprehensive Congregations of Christians seeing that is most acceptable to God who would have all Nations to Rom. 15. 9 10 11. serve him all people to praise him It is most Humane and Christian it is also most a mans interest most safe and secure to himself 4. That wherein a man finds himself under a necessity of differing from any man much more from a Community he should deport himself with all meekness humility modesty love and charity that he may demonstrate it is truly his judgment and sense of conscience and not perverse humour that makes him differ that he is still a most lively feeling member in the body of mankind and Christians that in all things excepting the glory of God and the salvation of his soul interests too vast to be compounded for he prefers the publick before himself such a one can neither harm nor deserve to be harmed I have now dispatch'd what I intend concerning this first foundation of even Vniversal Peace recommended by Christian Religion viz. The general unity and uniformity there would be in Natural Religion if men would shew themselves men I will only by way of Conclusion reflect upon the usefulness of so great a Point 1. It justifies the great Creator of all who hath not left himself without witness amidst this great Deordination of his Rational creatures that he is yet a Faithful Creator Seeing he hath carv'd into their very Beings such a Law of Truth and Goodness that if they would but shew themselves men would have preserv'd them from the great errors of Vnderderstanding and Practise and as a Compass would steer them in the wide and disorderly sea wherein they now sail By this inward infallible guide if rightly excited to give its sense and duly applied they might find true Religion in this Babel of Languages concerning it And though it is very difficult and in the event through mans great corruption but not in the reason of things almost impossible without Divine Illumination so to excite and apply it yet there it is even within men so to be excited and applied and it is mens corruption only and wickedness that it is not of more use 2. To us Christians having the benefit of this Divine Illumination in the Word of God and in the hopeful assistances of the Holy Spirit the use of this Natural Law is much more visible and indeed chiefly we have the benefit of it and of such discourse as this upon it and our guilt more than twofold if we do not find it To us it may appear how inflexible a Rule it is how excellent the Religion of our Saviour is we may in every thing see by it what it is that is indeed of value among all our divisions What is that faith once delivered to the Saints we should be always in an agony for and what we may allow and condescend to those various Sentiments that are and will be as various as aspect the beauty and even harmony of Humanity and Christianity being not made up of Vniformity in such things but unity of love and charity is the true beauty the true melody here all would be a dead calm without some variety Thus as Christian Religion revives and now impresses Natural Religion so does Natural Religion corrected freed from its Interpolations corrupt Glosses restor'd and fill'd up where gaping chasmes had spoil'd the sense and contexture and anew imprinted upon us by Christian Religion give great light to Christian Religion For being thus restor'd and a natural light within us it is redintegrated to us in its great Office to be as the candle of the Lord in our spirits by which we behold the true and excelling Glories of Christianity 3. It therefore makes brief and compendious many great Controversies as they are made in Christian Religion I shall summarily instance in these Four 1. Those between
Rome and the Reformed Churches Although I have a just value for all those renowned labours of the great lights God hath raised up in the Protestancy a very rational and Christian entertainment of the Writer and Reader Yet I must profess the unshaken Assurance I center upon in all those Controversies is a short Conclusion of the matter That Romish Religion not only is not but cannot be true it is impossible it should be of God if Scripture and our Faculties are true if Natural Religion or Christian Religion that we have in the Scriptures be true And this I take to be a ready and sure Antidote against Popery to all that are equally concern'd to know which is the True Religion Catholick Religion falsly so called Popish Religion or Protestant Religion though they have not opportunity to acquaint themselves with all the Learning so plentiful so valuable at this day in the world for the decision between them 2. That great Principle of Natural Religion Hear Oh Israel the Lord thy God is one Jehovah and Thou shalt love Deut. 6. 4 5. the Lord thy God with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy might and strength And that great Principle of Christian Religion If any man love not the Lord Jesus let 1 Cor. 16. 22. him be Anathema Maranatha these two joyned together assure me beyond doubt Our Mediator upon whom our Love Trust Service is to rest and that at such a distance as is Heaven from Earth cannot be but the One God with the Father and so I am resolved in the Socinian Controversie And further if he be the Eternal Son of God and his offering up the Humanity united to him a sacrifice I know it must be of infinite value and not a martyrdom not an example only 3. By Natural and Christian Principles united I am convinc'd the great foundations on which the Controversies between the Arminian and Calvinist as we use to express them rest must have great truth on both sides but they being related to those judgments of God that are as a great depth it is impossible to find them out to perfection for how can Finite wade in Infinite without being swallowed by it We need not therefore stay till these two things can be reconcil'd in our Judgments the infinite soveraignty and dominion of the Almighty over every particular immortal spirit that he hath made so that it cannot be dispos'd of or dispose it self without the counsel and foreknowledg of God and yet that no one is prejudg'd by any determination of God in the true liberty of a rational creature much less determin'd to sin and misery upon it by any over-ruling power We may safely with respects to both sides be profoundly abased in the sense of Incomprehensible soveraignty over us in a self-condemnation wherein soever we find our selves degenerate and fallen into sin as knowing our destruction of our selves Nor need we stay till supreme grace and our own free-will are reconcil'd in dispute we may safely on both sides make our humblest and most lowly appeals to him that worketh in us both to will and to do We must do so and are under the same security and obligation in stirring up our utmost Phil. 2. 13. Ezek. 18. 32. powers in turning our selves that we may live in working out our salvation with fear and trembling And all beyond Phil. 2. 12. these two conclusions are but Speculation in which we may imploy and entertain our selves in considering infinite wisdom and glory and searching as near as we dare approve its holy and gracious ways but need not be angry we can't agree in things out of our depth so as to be certain 4. In all the Disputes concerning Forms of Church-Government Modes of Worship we have thus much of resolution from the consent of Christian with Natural Religion Whatever is most substantially good is fittest to be the center of Agreement and Vnion and other things doubtful allowed to particular reason and choice with mutual tolleration and charity As is further to be shewn us under the next Head of Discourse Having now spoken so much of Natural Religion I think it necessary before I quite leave it besides the survey I have taken of it to add these Characters concerning it that it may not possibly be mistaken 1. It is that which depends upon nothing particular but must be the same to all Nations and times it is all essence and hath no accidents or circumstances as it is natural To pray is Natural Religion that is to lift up Desires to God with humility and hope this is and must be the same without any variation to every man in the world Now whatever can be suppos'd to pertain to it if it be not the same every where is not Natural Religion There can be but one nation of a God to all the world there can be but one Justice Sobriety throughout there can be but one notion of sin or of the pardon of it of Judgment to come as they are natural Till you come to Essence you come not to Natural Religion 2. It is that which cannot be demurr'd to but with the failure of all sober reason nor indeed without a consciousness of it while denied I am fully assured no man can deny a God a distinction between good and evil a future state without a strong recoil of the Natural Faculties returning as by an Intellectual Moral Elastick force 3. It is that whereof if any of the Principles be taken away grand inconveniencies and absurdities will follow like taking away light air or water out of the natural world What an infinite necessity is there of God of Prayer to him of Praises of him of his pardoning-mercy since sin of Judgment to come Take away these and universal nature flys in pieces runs every way upon so great a vacuum as the want of any these Principles immediately makes This is Natural Religion and nothing else is Natural Religion but this Having discours'd what a foundation of Vniversal Peace Christian Religion hath laid in not only assuming to but uniting with it self Natural Religion I shall come now to present as in perspective Christian Religion it self and shew the admirable contrivances for unity peace and love it hath found out and most earnestly prest on all its Disciples so infinitely wise reasonable and good so efficaciously insinuated so strongly argued and enforc'd so awfully commanded so to the life the very Divine life of it even Hypostatiz'd in our Lord that it is indeed the inexpiable shame and guilt of the Christian world that it is so unlike the Divine Philosophy the Laws the grand Exemplar of it That I may pursue this Intention with greatest advantage I shall propose under several Heads how this design is laid by the infinite wisdom of our Saviour much different from what is ready on all occasions to offer it self to Humane Imagination that is Vnity in Vniformity without which as
our Love in our Sympathy in our Bowels of Affection in our Care for the Body though we are not all of an Aspect of a Figure of a Size in our Membership yet still are we the Body of Christ and Members in particular and being so we are the Israel of God upon whom is Peace and Mercy both now and for ever Amen And if we ought as certainly we ought so to pray with what satisfaction of mind with what appearance of Christianity can we move against the Peace of our Fellow-Members or not contribute to their Ease to their self-Enjoyment to the Comfort of each others Condition so that if one member be honour'd all the members may rejoice with it if one member suffer all the members may suffer with it and send in to its Relief and Support Our Defects herein disturbing the Peace not Ministring to the Merciful support of one another will be found another sort of Schism but of far deeper Guilt than that so much cryed out of not Conforming to one anothers Indifferents But above all the Ravening of the Evening Wolf the Roar of the Lyon the Poison and Venome of the Asp and Cokatrice ' should be far from our Mountain if we would have it accounted the Holy Mountain of the Lord. And on all sides we should open the Doors and Sluces that the streams of Divine Knowledg might run every way till it covers our Land as the waters do the Sea THE END True Religion the Interest of Nations or National Religion Demonstrated to be the Duty of Nations c. Psal 79. 6. Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy Wrath Fury upon the Heathen Nations that have not known thee and upon the Kingdoms Families that have not called on thy Name THIS Prayer doubled by the Spirit of God for the weight of it the safety to men it should be well known and the certainty of its effect contains a strong assertion of the great benefit of Phil. 3. 2. Gen. 41. 32. and obligation lying upon Nations to National true Religion For seeing according to a grand Rule in Gods Administration of the World Nations that have no National Religion and whose Nationalness therefore becomes Heathenism and is so branded by the Spirit of God for so Nations in Scripture very often signifies Heathen that is Nations without true Religion are lyable to the pouring out of the wrath and fury of God upon them It does not only follow by the rule of Contraries that National true Religion or Worship of the true God hath a strong order to and connexion with the favour of God but as the positive Proposition is the prime and original and gives ground to and contains within it self the privative so does this Proposition That Gods Anger and Fury is at all times ready against those that do not know him that do not call upon him as join'd in a National Body or Society being the privative owe it self to the other being the positive as shall be more fully made out in the arguing this Point At the present it will be enough to observe that these two Holy men the Composer of this Psalm and the Prophet Jeremy except as some think they were both one desiring the destruction of those Heathen enemies under whose oppression their own people which at that time comprehended the Church of God then groan'd and praying in spirit for it relye and rest the whole weight of their prayer upon this principle of great truth and consequence in Gods Government of the World that as Families as Nations as Kingdoms for so all Communities are comprehended they did not know nor call upon God that is they did not worship the true God and therefore were most justly subject to his fiercest displeasure And on the other side it is couched under this though indeed before it That the people that do know and call upon the true God have a title to his savour and vindication of them in all their distress while they are consider'd as so knowing and calling upon him and not contradicting it by their actions The Context therefore goes on arguing with God on this point They have devoured Jacob in whose quarrel and rescue God is so much concern'd And seeing the favour of God is Eternal Life and his wrath burns to the lowest Hell both his wrath and his favour are to be understood in their extent even to everlasting ages All which will ground the Proposition which I mainly intend in this Discourse That National true Religion is the greatest security strength and defence of a Nation against the Divine wrath and displeasure and gives the surest claim to his favour blessing and protection both in this world and in that which is to come Because it is an observation of the greatest duty and therefore to be most closely united in and pursued to the utmost by all wise Nations and by all the several parts and members of a Nation for it is their first and highest Psal 33. i2 144. 15. Interest Blessed is the Nâ—tion that is in such a case yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord who have Jehovah thus for their God And this very consideration should reconcile all differences in National Religion that can be composed without loss of that Truth and corruption of those parts of the Worship of God which give denomination to true National Religion This should incline those that are above to the greatest condescensions and those that are beneath to the most free compliances possible if they value Religion and love their Nation that at least there may be union in National Religion if there cannot be perfect Uniformity For I am fully perswaded that upon a strict examination of this Point it will be found that National Religion supposing it always the true is the happiest model of union in Religion of any upon earth and most pleasing to God except that of the Catholick Church whose union is in the Substantials of Truth worship and practise but comes under no other form or model properly taken but except this there is none so perfect to the ends and glory of Religion so adaequate to the expressions of Scripture concerning the publickness of Religion so encouraging and advantageous to the practise so reconcileable with the peace of Religion and Nations so preventive of the endless divisions and subdivisions Humane Nature is apt to fall into when it yields up it self to a scrupulosity and Disputatiousness about Externals and Forms in Religion I say again I am perswaded no man can serve God with greater acceptableness nor be Religious to greater ends and purposes of Religion than by joining with the Nation or Supream Civil Incorporation whereof he is a member so far as he can be permitted to do it consistent with the Truth of Religion and Divine Worship I say as far as he can upon these accounts if not throughout And of this I shall endeavour to give great and valuable proofs from
Wisdom and Goodness yet it is spoken to us in the plainest Language as if God carryed it as Princes do in their magnificence whose Glory is in their great Courts in the multitude of their Attendants and People Spectators Admirers and Tributaries to their luster 2. I argue to the publickness of Religion from the good it does to the souls of men It is from hence the greatest wisdom to win souls and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars Now the offer of true Religion to them that had it not before the perswasion of it upon those that have not yet obeyed it tends to their Conversion Repentance to their love and fear of God They therefore that have the true sense of these things in their own souls use all means out of love to the Glory of God and to the souls of men to propagate them to others which is best done by all publick acts of Religion This is the original Law from the very beginning it was so Enoch the seventh from Adam prophecyed publickly The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness This was the great zeal of Christians in the first times Further It strengthens confirms and inflames Religion among those that are the joynt Professors Publick Religion is the great glory and security of Religion it self mutually warming and assisting it self in all its several parts and the Professors of it As Iron sharpens Iron so is the countenance of a man to his Friend herein How much more lively is Religion probable to be in a Religious than an Atheistick and Barbarous Country nor does God afford those divine heats to those that withdraw from Assemblies in Religion except in cases of necessity however he may supply in extraordinary exigences without which Wo to him that is alone in Religion if he fall he has not any to help him up and how can one be warm alone If one prevails against him he wants a Second to withstand together with him and the benefit of the threefold cord that is not easily broken Every thing in nature endeavours towards Community or universal Unity as its own strength and security Even the Devils retain so much of first Nature as to knit in a community and false Christianity imitates the true in a pretence to Vniversality though a most destructive one like that of the God of this World who aspires to Universal Monarchy but it is in sin and death But this does not disparage True Religion moving to an Universality of Truth Peace and Life for evermore 3. The blessing and acceptance that Religion receives from the Divine Majesty is much greater for the publickness of it even in this sence Two are better than one for they have a good reward for their labour In thss sence their complicated services are more forcible their threefold Cord is not easily broken Not that God is prevailed upon to any change in himself or his Government by the services of his Creatures though in a multitude but he is pleased to found the occasions and opportunities of his own most bountiful Recompences in the drawing near of their greater numbers For as when God was pleased to communicate himself more freely he did it to a multitude of Creatures so he delights in receiving back the glory of having thus communicated himself from a multitude also and as there is more of himself in more of his Creatures whether of several sorts or of the same so there is more of his blessing in their approaches to him He that does not only weigh the Mountains in scales but comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure takes notice of those prayers and desires of the poor of the people that make the crowd and throng in his worship and service He accepts the pair of Turtle Doves the two Mites when it is the All and is ready to reward it This was the policy of Nineveh's Natural Religion to unite their Force in Humiliation Fasting and Prayer and to take advantage of joyning the mute desires of the Beasts that have a voice in the ears of God Abraham's Servant made the Camels kneel down while he prayed to God Thus in Thanksgivings It was David's art to gather up all the praises even of the lowest of the Creatures that could so meanly give them and inspiring them with his own reason made them as it were to follow his Harp and unite in his own Hallelujahs Thus he served himself of them that making by them a greater present of glory to God he might receive the greater blessing from him The Apostle speaks of the good effect of Christian Charity in causing an abundance of thanksgivings to God David saying The congregation of the people would compass God about adds this prayer therefore for their sakes return thou on high Now all these expressions reporting to us a great force in the publickness of Religious Duties we know it is only from the agreeableness of this publickness with the Divine Will and Nature and his holy Ordination who loves his Saints and knows their approach to him is an approach to their life and happiness And because he loves all his Saints and Creatures the more of them in conjunction draw near to him the more of his tender mercies have the occasion to spread themselves for else all the Nations are to God but as the drop of the Bucket and the dust of the Ballance all their services are not sufficient to him for a sacrifice to burn before him He humbles himself to behold the things that are in Heaven as well as those on Earth He with great delight yet looks to one that is of a broken and contrite spirit and that trembles at his word As one day and a thousand years are both alike to the Infinity of God so are a thousand persons and but one as it is all one to him to save with many or few so it is to be intreated by them in prayer or accept their praise but according to the wisdom and holiness of the Divine Manifestation in his Love and Bounty so he is pleased to see his Servants draw near to him in an union of Love among themselves and every one having a claim to his favour who is all Goodness the united claim is stronger He hears even the Ravens that cry for they are his Creatures if any man therefore could intwist their cry with his own in a general scarcity he makes his own so much the stronger He then that joyns the prayers and desires of many with his own doubles still the strength as is manifest by the Apostles so often and earnestly desiring the help of prayers And this may answer what may seem to be an objection against good men joyning with publick and promiscuous Assemblies wherein are so many ignorant and bad men that by their sins ignorance and folly rather obstruct the effect and acceptance of good men joyning with them so that
it becomes one great Family I know there may be some exceptions from this description of a Nation which will have their force upon National Religion also as it results from it For sometimes one Monarchy does as it were stride over more Nations sometimes one City or Free Town is distinguisht from the rest of the World by one Government one Civil Interest independent in its Government in its proper Interest upon any other Now in such a Monarchy as contains several People and Nations under it it does not properly give name to a National Religion while their Interests Laws Conversation and Civil Commerce are preserved and kept distinct as these are often allowed to be under some conquering Potentacy On the other side if a narrower compass of people than we properly call a Nation viz. a Region a Province a City hath its Interests its Laws its Government Conversation and Commerce intire to it self it is as to the purpose we are now upon as it were a Nation The sum then is this so far as Humane Society has drawn any People or Families into a close and more compacted state of Civil Interests necessitude one to another and Government running up to the highest point of Government in that compact state so far is the obligation of Union in publick Religion drawn upon them where these are freer that attendance to union in Religion is freer also any further than the common truth of Religion and the obligations of that bind even those at greatest distance and union one with another For thus Religion may and ought to unite all the true Professors of it at what remove soever from one another It may and ought also to pass upon whatever bond of union there is in the world but there is no such union as Laws Commerce Conversation common safety running all up to the supreme Government over that conjunction to graft Religion upon All else is but consent in the same unity of one God one Lord one Spirit one Faith one Baptism which make the Catholick Church one Body and joining with one another presentially in the same acknowledgments of God when a concurrence of all things necessary happens to fall out as cannot be supposed frequent in parts remote one from another and of a divers lip or language The Catholick Church is indeed united as Humane nature is in one and the same true Reason and thereupon a readiness of wise and learned men to correspond one with another at a distance or confer one with another if at any time suitable concurrences favour it or as the world much more the Catholick Church is a Temple built to the Glory of the Creator and Redeemer wherein all good men meet from one end of the Heaven to the other in the unity of the same Spirit and in the same kind of worship and if opportunity allowed in the same actual worship The nearer therefore any parts of the Catholick Church are by the Neighbourhood of Nations by the frequency of Traffick the neareâ— the more frequent the correspondencies are the mutual assistance may and ought to be But now in the Dependencies and Interweavings of all Civil Interests in Nations there are not only those voluntary and contingent correspondencies but such as first grow out of the nature of Humane Society and bind of themselves to common true Religion and then have the favour encouragements directions obligations of Laws and Authority running like the same spirit into all the several parts of a Nation and recommending that National true Religion as it stands in this Union that is first commanded by God besides much more free ordinary Actual Meetings in one and the very same place and Acts of Worship It is true indeed the Worship of God allows our worldly callings and the provisions of the present life and Relation and therefore a Neighbourhood whether it be the more populous of Cities or Towns or the more infrequent of Villages hath the conveniencies of more solemn and stated Meetings the ordinary fit seasons of the Lords-day and other solemn times of worship thereupon National Religion is generally exercis'd in these lesser Societies even as the Justice and Execution of Laws and National Authority must be brought home to men in their particular Countries and Towns and not rest in the Capital Cities at a distance from their daily Business and Conversation and yet the standard of all things National is generally preserv'd there for the very sake of union Even so of National Religion not as Religion for the standard of that is Scripture only but as National so the Agreement in it is deposited with all other National Acts. So that National Religion hath the advantage in these two things First The Naturalness and Closeness of the Union of a Nation to all the Interests of Humane Society and therein it imitates the nearness and closeness of Families or lesser Incorporations as much as can be consistent with the second thing viz The Illustriousness Magnificence Honourableness of Religion as seated in larger Bodies but especially as upon the Soveraignties and Supremacies of the Great Incorporations of Mankind I shall only observe further That All this does most effectually exclude the pretence of an Vniversal Church-Monarchy as hateful in Religion as an Universal State-Monarchy in Politicks and Civil Liberty Both of which are indeed Tyranny The Imaginary Benefits of such sorts of Union are infinitely toilsome and tedious while they are expected and always in the issue found impossible to be enjoyed in their Fruits but in the mean time while the pretenders are labouring for and grasping at so vast a power they fill the world with the lamentable effects of their Ambition and do indeed destroy Humane Society because those Laws and Bands that tye it together being so over-strain'd fly in pieces and I am sure nothing is more contrary to Christianity than an Vniversal Head of Religion here upon Earth except Christ himself with an Ubiquity of Holiness Power and Influence came down to reign upon it An universal Union were indeed desirable and glorious if there were an Omnipresence of Vertues answerable to the Administration but that being too great for any creature too great in the present state of the World Religion and Christian Religion glide along with the Civil Union they find prepared as I shall presently evince beyond which is nothing but Usurpation I come now to the Arguments from Scripture and Reason for National Religion not afforded to any other Figure of Union in it The first Argument shall be that I derive from this prayer I Argum. 2 have chosen to discourse this point upon and I lay it thus The prayers in which Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost rest upon some great Pillars and Principles of Divine Truth and Argument For particular cases in which they prayed are brought to those general principles by an understanding inlightned to understand in an humble sense even as God understands
then calling out of every Nation Converts into particular Societies and Congregations I shall make an Essay to level the line of them to Nations and Kingdoms as they are united into such Conspicuous and Illustrious Bodies of Mankind with their Principalities so form'd so compacted and not only a Diffus'd Catholick Church or small and invisible Congregational Churches 1. The Kingdom of Christ can no way attain that Greatness which it is prophecyed and foretold it shall attain if it does not allow Nations as Nations to associate themselves in the profession of it if it only gives Right to private and particular Churches or Congregations and a Diffusive Church that can no way congregate which though great in its Spiritual Union yet arises to no visible Greatness but as it moving into all parts of the world congregates it self according to any of the Laws or Advantages of Humane Society it falls into and finds prepared for it The Messiah then can never as is prophecyed of him have his portion divided him with the great nor divide the spoyl with the strong but must rest in a very low and under-condition of small private and particular Assemblies of his servants professing him but a National Christian Religion a Religion as Famous as the name of the most populous Cities and the greatest Princes and their Territories in honour to the Lords anointed must not be allowed no not according to his own Designation For though the Eminency of the Doctrine and the Appearance of God with it does infinitely surmount all created Greatness yet many places of Scripture compare the Honour and Glory of Christ as a Prince over Nations with other Soveraignties and prefer his not only in regard of the Heavenliness and Eternity of it but as it obtains an Interest and Command in the world For it is a Government over Nations as Nations over the Laws and Principalities of Nations and not of one only but many Nations not indeed in the way of Worldly power but Divine perswasion Evidences of Truth and Reason Vertue of Holiness and Goodness are the Scepter of this Kingdom the weapons of this Power and this Mountain shall grow greater and greater till all the Prophecies are exactly fulfill'd in the Soveraignty of Christ and the lowest subjection of all Kingdoms to him the greatest Mountains disappearing and becoming nothing before him when the fulness of the Jews and Nations are come into him Thus it is a Mountain set upon the top of the Mountains not only in the Eminency of its Doctrine but the professed subjection of the Governments of the world that are in Scripture call'd Mountains to it for his Truth Meekness and Righteousness sake But if Nations receiving and flowing into Christianity sink it presently into particular private Assemblies as it was while under persecution and that it should be of no more publique Honour than at such times the Mountain of the Lords house should not be above the Hills but shaded by them and that according to the very Constitution of Christianity it self for the Supremacies stand aloft but the profession of Christ retires into privacies yea the worship of the True God Creator of Heaven and Earth which after the appearance of the Son of God in the world is only in Christ must be so far from being exalted as is everywhere signified that it must be abated and brought low by the Depression and falling down of the Mosaick Frame for then it was setled upon one of the Principalities of the world and though it be now more diffus'd yet if it not only be not but ought upon its own principles to be Established in and upon the publick profession of a Nation It has not nor can have such an Eminency as among the Jews when it had the Awfulness and Majestickness of a Kingdom devoted to that true Worship making it thereby of much greater notice in the World And if Religion may be National even as Nations themselves are united in a way of order so must National Religion also be by order compos'd into its Nationalness and this by the Rules of Scripture and Right Reason But let this be no pretence to that Tyranny in Christian Religion that great Usurpation of Popery for it is a Sacrilegious Displacing the Honour from Christ upon oftentimes a most unworthy Mortal those Princes then that are Minores Coronae that lessen themselves by giving their Kingdom and power to the Beast must needs diminish the Honour of their profession of Christianity seeing they have so far stripp'd themselves of their Principalities that they have them not to dedicate to Christ The retaining their Honour unvouch'd unviolate by any creature and presenting to the Honour of Christianity a Supremacy unprostitute is the true Glory done by Christian Princes to Christianity 2. If there were not the Liberty allowed to Nations to espouse Christianity to their Government and to receive the Honour to themselves of being Religious and Christian as Nations the Condition of Nations were worse than that of the Jews under the Law For now People as in the Body of a Nation may not be so happy as to have the Lord for their God They may not crown themselves with the chief Glory of Nations viz. True Religion Moses we know often magnifies the State of the Jews to themselves in this particular viz. the Excellency of their Religion He uses it as a great Argument that God loved the Nation He told them it was their Wisdom and Honour before the rest of the Nations round about them who had reason to defer to them that they were a great and a wise Nation an understanding people that had such Deut. 4. 8 c. Statutes and Judgments Now seeing Christian Religion hath the undoubted Evidences of Wisdom Truth and Goodness not only so superior to all the Religions in the world as to be the only true Religion but much superior to that under Administration of the True Religion it self among the Jews It must needs be the happiness of Nations to enfranchise it as the publick National Religion by the same Authority whereby they make valid any other Law or Act so as to become the act of the Publick And we have reason to believe those many expressions of Ephes Eph. 2. 14. c. 3. 6. 2. 14. c. 3. 6. Breaking down the Partition Wall and admitting all Nations to be the People of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body together are intended not only to signifie that they may unite in lesser Congregations but in the fullness of National Associations else they are not received into the same freedoms and immunities that the Jews had nor could Aegypt and Assyria be so equal with Israel that Israel should be but a third with them whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless all alike with no more variation than Aegypt my People Assyria the work of my Hands and Israel my Inheritance Isa 19. We may find Christianity intended to embrace all
and shifting for the gaining opportunities for the assembling themselves and preserving their relation one to another in the discharge of mutual duties much more easily than any greater associations could for our Saviour intended all for use not for Form he minded not Nominal Titular Bishops and Churches Thus far I have pleaded the appointment of Christ that the smallest numbers of Christians may agree and associate and be assured of his presence But now that this appointment is in bar of greater Societies of Christians is by no means to be granted for it is most apparent our Saviour design'd all things under the Gosplel should be restor'd to the Law of Nature and the true Reason of Things Now according to that the first End of all Society is the enjoyment of True Religion in more than solitude This desire of enjoying true Religion in Society extends it self from the least of Societies to the greatest that are not too great for the Ends of Society Our Saviour therefore as he gave no Frame of positive Laws or Worship no Pedagogy of Precepts so no Institution of Bounding Churches but that in case of straits and exigencies his true Religion may be administred in the very smallest of Societies with confidence of his Favour and Presence when it hath freedom it may enlarge it self further and further and if it have favour of Nations and Governments ascend to the greatest yet with this reserve That if in any time or place National Christianity varies from the true Original Christianity as often it hath been sound to do so that it cannot even in substantial things be consented in with a pure Conscience privater Congregations even to the most particular are always ready for Christians to retire into for so the Laws of Nature allow where the Publick is not safe and yet when the whole is not corrupted nor liberty of joyning without commixture with those Corruptions denied there may yet be there ought to be no Separation Thus the greatest Societies are not in bar of the least when True Religion requires them Thus the least are not in bar of the greatest when Christianity is at full freedom for it is closely allied with that Wisdom whereby Kings ought to Reign and Princes to decree Justice by which Princes Prov. 8. 15 16. ought to rule and Nobles yea all the Judges of the Earth with that Wisdom which rejoyces in the Habitable parts of the Earth and hath its delights with the sons of men I have therefore before observed That Christian Religion at the very first joyn'd it self as near as it could to all Humane Societies made ready to it as Families Villages Regions and so far as the Rage of Persecution would permit Christian Societies united themselves unto Distant and National Correspondencies among themselves Now it hath been so unhappy indeed with the World that in few Instances there hath been a Good State of National Religion to yield a full consciencious Compliance with Yet this will no more argue against the Thing it self than it does against any other of the wise and good Ordinations of God or against the Jewish Church so immediately govern'd by God and yet so often and so notoriously corrupted in Judah and more generally in the Ten Tribes and yet to shew how to the very utmost without following a multitude to do evil we ought to joyn with any that are good in a Nation and with any thing that is good in National Religion when Elijah had as it were deserted his place and the good influence his being in publick might have had and that God found him alone He did by way of Reproof ask him What he did alone in 1 Kings 19. 9. the Wilderness and inform'd him of a greater number that had not bowed to Baal than he knew of with whom he might joyn himself If Corruption would argue against any good Appointment or Ordination of God it would argue against Churches of the very first Form or Constitution those Churches in the Revelation whose Corruption is severely tax'd and threatned yet are without any Censure as to their Constitution and while Sâ—paration from those Churches is not so much as intimated yet a Separation from Impurities is highly commended and promised reward Those Names Rev. 3. 4. in Sardis that had not defiled their garments are assured they should walk with Christ in white for he judg'd them worthy From whence I conclude no Form of Churches can recommend things disagreeing from the word of God how truly form'd soever those Churches be for Churches are constituted for joyning in those things that are agreeable to the Will of Christ not in those that are not and yet Separation from Corruptions does not necessitate Separation from Churches while there are any Parts of Divine Truth and Worship preserv'd pure to unite in so great are the Obligations that lye upon all sincerely Religious to make true Religion as publick as they can in the several Societies that are found to ingraft it upon Now that every Society that is the feat of True Christian Religion is in the language of the New Testament A Church I allow and therefore will briefly inquire into the Scripture-notion of a Church And I find the Original word taken out of the Septuagint of the Old Testament which translates the Hebrew Kahal by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators in the Old Testament as generally render Congregation although in the New Testament what is in the quotations out of the Old Testament in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they render Church so that from the whole it is very plain as the Vniversal or National Assembly of the people of Israel was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Church as by St. Stephen Acts 7. 38. where he speaks of the whole Body of the Israelites in the Wilderness so the Vniversal Assembly of Christians consider'd as in the Catholick Church is call'd by our Saviour and the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Congregation by way of Eminency as Holy Records are The Scripture or Writing and the Volume of Scripture The Bible or Book as the glad tidings of Christ are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Evangil or Gospel so the Church is The Congregation And as lesser Congregations of that Church of the Jews that did not comprehend the whole Body are call'd The Congregation or Church even so lesser Societies of Christians are call'd the Congregation or Church in allusion to which our Saviour says If two or three are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of like Importance gathered together in my name I will be in the midst of them So that the Universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christians seen only together by God and particular Assemblies of Christians that meet together under each others eye are in the phrase of the New Testament Churches Even as the whole Assembly of the Israelites in the Wilderness when they were all under
one view is by St. Stephen as I observ'd call'd the Church and the Congregations after they were become a Nation though they could not all then meet together are call'd the Church also because they were all under one Law and Institution all partakers of the same Rights and Priviledges and so indeed all particular Churches of Christians are but the Catholick Church in lesser Associations as the circumference of Heaven is the same though in so many different Horizons As light is the same though variously modell'd by its several Receptions as the Ocean is one by how many several Denominations soever it be distinguish'd from the shores it washes or the channels or other scituations it rests in so this Church is often spoken of as one Church and as several Churches as the Sea is one and several Seas they being so much every way the same as to differ only in the Universality But whether a Nation united in Christianity may be call'd a National Church having many dissents of opinion appertaining to it and not possible to be decided by express Scripture there being no Christian Nation under Heaven in those days of the New Testament wherein it was written I shall leave wholly in the middle and only observe two Things concerning this Controversie 1. That there can no great matter accrue to either side of it by deciding for or against a National Church For allow a National Church or if you will a Congregational Church agreeing in any thing not agreeing with the Laws of Christ or if either of them wants any thing necessary to our Obedience to all the Laws of Christ In the first of these Cases Christians may and ought to retire from the Irregularities of any such Church either National or Congregational that they may be pure from Corruption In the second Case Christians must find out the ways and opportunities so far as is possible whereby they may perform all the Duties commanded by Christ though they separate from either of those Churches no further than to those ends But if there be a Corruption in the Main or a Defect in the Vitals of the Doctrine or Worship of Christ in either Notion or Churches that will not be upon due Remonstrances reform'd then if according to the Institution of Christ Christians gather into Assemblies though lesser though but of Two or Three they are assur'd of the Presence of Christ and no inconvenience of Rending the Body of Christ or making Divisions in his Church shall condemn them for the Society deserted is not his Church but the Society that does desert is his Church supposing it retires sincerely in obedience to the Laws of Christ On the other side Suppose a National Church not of the Ordination of Christ in the Gospel as under that Name or Notion yet if that stand good which I have endeavoured to demonstrate that every Nation to which the Gospel is preach'd is bound by the Laws of God establish'd in Nature and by the Laws of God and Christ in his Word to plant true Christian Religion upon its National Union It will be still every Christians duty to joyn in unite himself with encourage and promote all that True National Christian Religion and not to separate from it any further than the Laws of Christ oblige him that he may yield Obedience to all those Laws For it is the absolute Duty of every member of a Nation to seek the Eternal Salvation of his Nation in his sphere as the Apostle Paul did of the Jews in so high an Orb when he profess'd his great heaviness and sorrow of heart even to the wishing himself accurs'd from Christ and prayed with his hearts desire they might be sav'd On account of which in so many things he became to the Jews as a Jew and wrote that Excellent Epistle to the Hebrews It being for that very Reason to me most probable it was his that he might make good all those great professions of Love to them for though it was peculiarly directed to the Christian Hebrews yet it had an aspect upon the whole Religion and people of the Jews as the scope of Adjusting all the Mosaick and Jewish Law to the Gospel-Mediation makes plain and so was in it self most proper for the Conversion of that Nation as a Nation seeing their own'd and gloried in National Religion truly understood led to the Christian Religion justly now to have been their National Religion if they had yielded obedience to their own Laws rightly interpreted Now if National Religion be an undoubted obligation upon Nations and the members of Nations so far as it is true Those Laws those Officers that are though not ordain'd by Christ yet not contradictory to his Ordination but necessary according to Rules of Right Reason to the Establishing True Religion as National must be submitted to also upon the account and for the sake of that True Religion as National But if National Religion wander from Truth that Fundamental Liberty establish'd by Scripture and Laws of Nature must be always preserv'd that I before asserted as giving Right to retire from all Societies not united in Truth according to the Degrees of their defection from it But for the further justifying National True Religion I will in the next place observe from Scripture the Uses and great Ends of Churches and see how far National Religion may be accommodated to them For Churches are not therefore appointed that men may Arbitrarily and Fancifully chuse which or what sort they will be of but that the true Reasons and Purposes of them may be observed and complied with and they are these Three 1. That there may be a Generation of men in the world in the same Faith and Worship of God in Jesus Christ according to the Scripture however dispers'd at whatever distance soever remote yet united in the same Doctrine Prayer Preaching Praising God in the Sacraments and if opportunity allows and invites it in the same actual Worship and at all times closely compacted in a virtual and mystical Communion with one another the same spirit running through all uniting all to Christ and God and one with another joyned in the same love and sympathy of joy in the prosperity and of sorrow in the afflâ—ctions and sufferings one of another and with all readiness in yielding the fruits of mutual Charity Mercy and Compassion from one end of the earth to the other every true Christian being the compassionate Samaritan to every other Christian and not Jewishly distinguishing his mercy to his own Sect Party or Church and in cases of corruption and defection from the Laws and Word of Christ there is to Christians a mutual power of remonstrating against those corruptions and that defection by arguing expostulating censuring the evil of them yea and Authoritative denouncing the Judgment of God and Christ upon them for that Charter of Christs to the true Preachers of the Gospel to the true Churches stands good as to Ages so to
whether a strict Conformity upon Reasons in Government best understood by Governours themselves or a compassionate Indulgence most acceptable to Christianity Rule 3. They that without the violation of the true and substantial Rules of Religion can most see and use their liberty in these things and thereby become instruments of the greatest publique good are most acceptable to God They that do not Tythe the Mint and Cummin of Indifferent Things in National Religion and Worship with great noise and zeal for that is the greatest injury can be done to it but take them so far as they are instruments of Peace and use them in their own Indifferency for the greatest service to the publique They that insisting with any stress upon main things only are most earnest in turning many to righteousness These are they that shall shine as Stars in the Nations Firmament if not now assuredly in Eternity They that take advantage of the National profession to call sinners to repentance cause greater joy in Heaven than they that only think to secure themselves with the purer Societies Sure in this case God chooses mercy in seeking and saving them that are lost rather than sacrificing alone by our selves without regard to such Christ chose rather to converse with Publicans and Sinners than what look'd lâ—ke purer Society because he came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance For the case was much different between the scandalous of the Jewish National Church with which our Saviour conversed and so of every National Church from the Churches gathered newly from among the Heathen of whom the Apostle speaks though even among them we read of no Separation from Religious Duties but only from private converse among those that were scandalous till they were as publickly disowned as they ought to be by Church Censures But on the other side they are least in the Kingdom of Heaven and the National Religion whether Rulers or People that dispirit Religion by an immoderate heat for meer Forms that are so warmly concern'd for Indifferencies to give reason to suspect they are a principal part in their esteem of their own or the National Religion Whereas such things so far as they may be any way contributary to good are best observed with greatest silence and least cry being rather to be first so far prepared to acceptance and use that there may be no noise of Axes Hammers or Tools of force or compulsion about them Rule 4. In all Religious Duties and the management or administration of them there are different excellencies like the Psalms of Degrees or those parts of a Psalm honoured with the Notes of Elevation There will and may be different Keys of Affection according to the differing hands playing upon us The People hung upon Christ to hear the Word of God for he tauâ—ht them with Authority and not as the Scribes yet they were â—â—â—nd by Christ to hear the Scribes Even thus in the National 〈◊〉 and Administrations we may undoubtedly more warmly adhere to and pursue the things that are more excellent and with a lighter touch pass over things of less moment though in all we mind the glory of God and the peace of National Religion For Union in National Religion must be primarily and chiefly in things truly called Religion and in lesser things with a regard to peace only David was otherwise affected in praise than in sacrificing a Bullock with Horns and Hoofs seeing as he says it pleased God more yet in the fear of God he did both The Apostle was otherwise affected in the Preaching of Christ than when he became as a Jew to the Jews yet he did the latter Religiously too The higher and closer the Ministry of Divine Truth and Service is the greater and closer the adherence of the Soul ought to bee Some things we ought to do with our might and only not to leave others undone Rule 5. We ought to have a steady and certain Gage within our selves of what our Lord hath provided for the preserving the truth of Religion to us and what care he hath taken so far as is possible with the conservation of that Truth to give us all advantage for publickness in Religion As to the truth of Religion these three provisions will secure it 1. That no man is so much bound to any Church Communion Nation or Government as to the true Religion which is the first and absolute necessary nor shall his withdrawing from any of them in things impure and offensive to God be charged upon him as sin or Schism All the putting out of Synagogues casting out Names or Excommunications signifie not any thing where God and Christ are in communion and where those on whom they fall are of the general Assembly and Church of the First born of that truly Catholick Church which is the only necessary Church to be of that we may be saved 2. The privatest Assemblies yea even single Souls so retiring that they may worship God according to his word have the promise that God and Christ will make their abode with them come and sup with them and they with him and they shall be written in the writing of Gods people The Catholick Church is always provided for them that they may not be out of the best Society under Heaven The Apostle encouraged the Hebrew Christians that might think them selves divided from the Jews that had been the only Church of God by assuring them the Gospel brought them into a greater Church than that viz. the General Assembly and Church of the First-born written in Heaven This honour have all the Saints of Christ 3. All the evils that can be endured upon account of Christ and obedience to him will be abundantly recompenced by the saving of the soul and that better and truer life That Argument of our Saviour He that loses his life saves it and he that saves it loses it And what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and loses his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul stands always impregnable that a man should buy the truth and not sell it at any rate whatever Thus for the Truth of Religion 2. As to the Publickness of Religion there are these great advantages for it 1. That Christian Religion professes Love endeavour of Good and Salvation to all men to every Creature and hath antiquated all that Judaism that neglects any for their profit to Salvation though but Gentiles 2. That a man may join his Religious Services to any thing truly good in Natural or Revealed Religion whether of Families Neighbourhoods Cities Nations or of voluntary Societies stopping there and keeping himself free from other mens sins so that the evil that other men adjoin to any thing true and good in Religion being protested against and divided from does not corrupt what is good or true but it may be enjoyed in the most publick way while we have nothing to do with the
evil nor find it so mixt with the good as to admit of no separation And what is wanting in the publick worship of that which Christ hath ordained and commanded does not necessitate the total departure from that publick Worship when the very Institution is not chang'd by that want for the true Christian may make up that want in privater Duties Thus they that feared the Lord spake often to Mal. 3. 16. one another without separation from the Church 3. There is a free use granted by Christ of all things indifferent or a freedom on each sides to do oâ— not to do where no moral evil adheres or disobedience to some express Command of Christs attends either part If then Religion be not drawn out of those necessary things wherein Divine Wisdom Goodness and Truth have plac'd it and Traditions thereupon become Doctrines which constantly carries alâ—ng a rejecting the Commands of God or a lower esteem of them for those Traditions sake if there be no moral evil or indecency nor that a too great cumber be drawn upon Religious Acts every thing is by the Laws of Christ left to its own indifferency as Reason invites or perswades on either side to the doing or not doing All which sets men free from a Jewish yoke in these cases and is the true Christian Liberty Eating or not eating keeping a day or not keeping it Buying in a market and going to a feast without asking any question for Conscience sake without fear of the danger of moral defilement in those things that other mens sins defile only to themselves if we keep our selves pure are plainly the Liberty Christ hath published to us every Creature of God is pure and not to be rejected but received with thanksgiving no sin of man can pollute it to any but himself And this consideration may state to us the whole matter that relates to order and decency That order which God hath establisht in nature it self that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are written with a Sun-beam upon things themselves are out of all dispute God is the Author of them and not of the contrary confusion or indecency That order which is the prudential contrivance of men though not the same in all places times and to all persons as the former yet ought to be chearfully complied with as what is necessary to a National union in and administration of publick Religion both as to Officers and Things seeing nothing can be setled without order Accordingly we find the wise and pious Governours among the Jews taking care and the people submitting to such Ordinations and all under Divine Approbation The Order that is meerly of Humane position and arbitration moves the greatest doubt standing in things that have only the thin pretexts of Antiquity to give them some venerableness or that they are usages already in being or that they add the Imaginary decency that Ceremonies set out Humane actions with Now as to this they that have the power of imposing are equally to weigh the value of Religion it self and what that may suffer for the sake of this order and a great account lyes upon them before God but for those that are under subjection I add further As to this sort of order I can only say this that supposing it no way turn'd into Doctrine as the Pharisees not eating with unwashen hands but declar'd against as such the consequences of observing or not observing are to be ballanc'd and so the practise of every conscientious man to be determined On one side stands the freedom of using this order as an advantage to do good the consideration of the peace of Nations the National defence made more unite against false Religion at the price of Conformity to those more Arbitrary Impositions On the other side stands a just fear for the purity of Religion being either obscured or the freedom of it incumbered or for the reputation of Religion which often suffers by those unnecessary adherencies as if they entered into the nature of Religion it self I must yet allow the preference in my own judgment to that side by which National Religion is most served but with the full perswasion that God receives both if over-bitter zeal on either side be not offensive to him and with the concession that National Religion were more happy if more free but if love adjust to each their due allowance the services of both will be found with great acceptance in the common National Religion as I doubt not their hands would be in the defence of it against the Invasion of a National false Religion But if any be over-rigid or severe on either part they may receive the full rewards of their own society or party but they lessen the higher recompences of doing the most publique good The strictest Laws either this way or that way in these things are of mens own making and exacting so from them only they have their reward who are zealous beyond their own knowledg and the goodness of the matter From all that hath now been said under this Rule I collect 1. That they that cannot agree to the publickly encouraged constitution of a Nation should yet point their worship as much as they can towards it They should comply with all that is good in it so far as they can be recieveâ— without launching beyond their judgments Thus Christianity was made as publique in all places by the Apostles as they could by adjoyning it to any principle of Truth or to the natural sense of Religion they found any where St. Paul gave solemn thanks to God in the midst of all that sailed with him though a bad sort of men Thus he Preached the true God and Christ at Atkens upon their Inscription To the unknown God upon the Fundamentals of National Theology upon the wise saying of a Poet of their own He thought it best to acknowledg all that was good in the most faulty state of Religion as an advantage to convince what was bad and disagreeing to that good and gaining men to unite with that whole element of Truth and Goodness with which any sparks kindled in them already were so closely allied as to gain them to the whole How much nearer then and closer may Christians and of the Reformed Christianity fall in one with another if we valued what we agree in at a higher rate as certainly we ought to do then what we differ about 2. The way to make National Religion most National is by comprehending all the differences that can be reconcil'd with true Religion while they that dissent in some things receive one another with a good peaceable holy and publick temper of mind as the great Argument and Inducement of which we should all pray for the acceptance of the holy services of all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle distinguishes Christians but immediately unites them again both theirs and ours They and
as he was wont on all such Questions takes the occasion of most Grave Weighty and Important Doctrine and Admonition in return to it And that he might place in his Remonstrance a most lively Emblem He calls a little Child and sets him in the midst of the Disciples and upon him displays these two great points of Truth 1. That except a man be converted and become as a little Child he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven either of Christ here in the Gospel and his True Church or the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter Now though this being Converted and becoming as little Children be very profitably and pertinently applyed to Regeneration yet considering it in the Scope and whole Context it is very evidently designed to that Humility Unimperiousness sense of the danger of perishing for ever Innocency and Inoffensiveness from Scandal by which others perish The resemblances of which are found no where in this World so agreeable and significant as in some Properties of little Children and their Nature the manly state of Humane Nature shewing so little hereof in this great Degeneracy as to require a perfect Conversion and Regeneration to such a state 2. The second point of Truth is this That whoever humbles himself and becomes as such a little Child in those Christian Properties is one of those Great ones those Magnates or the more any one humbles himself so the greater he is and he that humbles himself most is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Messiah and shall be in the Kingdom of Glory These two great Points of Instruction being now settled upon this living Emblem the Lord proposes the very same to other two as great purposes of Admonition although from another aspect or cast of this one Picture Consider Little Ones as the Emblems of Weakness Infirmity liableness to Danger and Injury of little Defence and Resistance to any Assault and so the Lord declares 1. Whoever receives such a little one in his name that is upon the account of Profession of Jesus Christ into a just esteem value and care of cherishing such a one in that Holy Profession and securing him as far as he can in the Blessedness of that state receives that is owns and acknowledges with Honour Christ himself and the kindness is accepted as if it were immediately placed upon Christ 2. But if any one Scandalises sets a stone of Offence and Ruin in the path of such a Little One by which he falls from or in his Profession of Christianity to his Destruction the Lord pronounces a Woe upon such a one as dreadful as the Proverb imports It were better that a Milstone were hung about his Neck and he were cast into the depth of the Sea Which as it peremptorily dooms the Professed obstinate Scandaliser so it warns all of managing themselves so in Christianity as to cast off all Offence and Scandal from it and to encourage the tenderest in it to strengthen and promote them Hereby then our Lord hath designed the security of the whole state of Christianity from the harm and danger of Scandal for in these Little Ones he comprehends 1. Those who in regard of their being new-born out of the State of Universal Scandal are in danger of being re-intangled in its Net or in regard of any other disadvantage or liableness to Scandals mischief are the lost as our Saviour after stiles them and the weak though not the young as the Apostle names them Now if such are secured all are secured For if a Christians carriage be so off from the danger of Scandalising as not to Scandalise the weak the stronger will be much less in danger to be offended 2. Those are the weak and the Little Ones to us who appear to us under any such disadvantage though indeed they are not as he that doubts and dares not do what others profess to do on great assurances seems weak to them that doubt not but are so assured and then the Precept of Christ takes as great hold of us in all our Administrations towards them as if they were really so Now what a Wall of defence were this to Christianity what a happy state would the state of it be if we were all most tender towards those with relation to their safety for Eternal Happiness who seem the lowest weakest least to us in that Profession 3. The Term Little Ones expresses a subordination under the Great Ones Now that they may not assume over the Little Ones the Lord first affirms with his usual Asseveration that none can be Great or any thing at all in his Kingdom that is not humble and inoffensive as a Little One. And that if any that takes himself to be a Great One thinks he has priviledge to do as he pleases either by Imposition or Imperiousness over the Little Ones and does not in all points of Christianity demean himself as the least under one common Lord the Lords dreadful Commination hangs over him he is in danger to be One of the Grandees in Torments On those things therefore that lye within the Compare betwixt the Great Ones and the Little Ones does the Finger of the Lords Discourse especially point But though our Lord was most feelingly concerned and struck the most stinging Woe into those that Scandalise them that believe in him yet he did not overlook the World in general but bewailed it perishing under Scandals the multitude of Scandals the inevitableness of Scandals that they must needs come even impossible they should not come and yet because he knew what Spirit it is that acts Scandal even from Satan the chief of Scandal down through all the Ministers of it he heaps the Woe upon him by whom Scandal comes Of which I have endeavoured a full account in the after management And because whoever Scandalises others is first Scandalised himself and they also that receive Scandal from others have some great Scandal within upon which that from without catches he therefore so severely cautions on all sides against the Scandal of the Right Eye the Right Hand the Right Foot and prefers to every mans choice the dismembring any of them rather than that the whole Body joyned to that Member so fettered with Scandal should be cast into Hell where their Worm dies not and their Fire is never quenched the dreadful end of Scandal Next follow the Arguments with which our Lord presses the highest value and care over the least of them that believe in him not to offend them 1. He shews at the same time how honourable the Employment in serving the little ones is and also of how dangerous a consequence it is to despise them which both by the relation it hath to the Context and the Apostles use of it cannot be far from Scandalising The Angels suffer no disparagement in being called their Angels And the very mention of Angels brings to mind the Charge they have over all such to bear them up in
some Masters some prime Ministers of Scandal that as the Sons of Perdition push on Scandal in the World and are obstinately bent to do so and on such a sort of Men our Saviour principally fixes this Woe Now for the discoursing this great point of Scandal upon these three Fundamental Propositions I shall observe this Order 1. I will endeavour to settle a just Notion of Scandal and being Scandalised and so inlarge into the whole compass of Scandal in the general knowledge of it from Scripture 2. I will set my self to a pure and distinct Consideration of Scandal as it hath such a peculiar Interest as it appears to have in those Debates of the Apostle concerning Indifferent things in Religion in his Epistle to the Romans Cap. 14. and to the Corinthians 1 Ep. Cap. 8. and 10. 3. I 'le discourse the Reasons why Scandals must needs come 4. The Worlds woefull state because of Scandals shall be demonstrated 5. I will consider the Principal Authors of Scandal that are as the Angels of Satan in the World to that purpose 6. The whole shall be in the last place applyed to Practice I begin with the Notion of Scandal which is a Metaphorical expression taken from those Engines that are contrived and prepared on purpose for a surprizal into Mischief and Destruction and accordingly dispos'd covertly into a Mans way and passage or from what is naturally usefully or accidentally and carelesly placed in such way or passage so as that a Man unawares falls upon it as either Gin Snare or Trap or sharp Stakes or Stones that gall and cut Mens Feet if not removed or avoided Stones or Blocks that lye in the Path they are to walk and occasion their stumbling and fall oftentimes to their Death and Ruine and always to their inconvenience hazzard and danger All which Importances of the Word applyed to the several purposes of the Scripture-use in their Proprieties may be seen more at large in the most Learned Dr. HAMMOND's Discourse and Annotations upon Scandal I shall onely observe out of the Old Testament as one Instance of many that might be made That the same word that is used to express the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stumbling Block that God forbids to put before the Blind in Leviticus passes out of the Levit. 19. 14. Litteral Sense there into the Moral Sense in the Prophet Ezekiel for the stumbling Block of a Mans iniquity Ezek. 14. 3. Zephan 1. 3. which he puts before his Face and the stumbling Blocks with the Wicked in the Prophet Zephany Other the like Translations of the same and other Words of like Importance from their Native to this Moral intendment might be gathered together but that this one so plainly leads us into the main point and is so pregnant for the describing Scandal which may be thus represented Scandal is a prevailing Temptation to some great Sin or course of Sin causing the Soul to fall before it or catching and inwrapping the Soul in it and all the dreadful Consequences of it covered under the disguise and plausible pretence of a Principle of Reason or Doctrine of Religion to its greatest Mischief and Ruine if not recovered from it by the Grace of God and sincere Repentance 1. Scandal is thus when it prevails when it succeeds to its unhappy Effect of Scandalising For a Scandal may be offered and not take Our Saviour had a Scandal offered him by Peter his own Apostle Thou art a Scandal to me Matt. 16. 22 23. saith our Lord when he presented him a pretext a fair shew of Reason against suffering which was the very Law of his Mediation in the World impos'd upon him by God The Suffering yet of so Innocent so Divine and excellent a Person look'd like a Prodigy and monstrous portent to the Apostle not once to be spoken or thought of Be it far from thee Lord but our Saviour immediately discharg'd himself of it in that severe rebuke Get thee behind me Satan Thou art in this to me an Angel of Satan the first Inventer the supream Creator of Scandal The Saints and Servants of God have Scandals continually contrived into their Paths but God witholds their Feet from being taken He hath charged himself with them to keep them in all their Ways He bears them up in his Hand that they may not to their Ruine dash their Feet against any of these Stones Scandals are so many and so great as to undoe if it were possible the very Elect but for the Elects sake the Effective Power of Scandal is shortened 2. Scandal is a Temptation what the Evangalist Matthew calls being Scandalised or Offended the Evangelist Luke Matt. 13. 21. expresses by falling away in a Time of Temptation Luk. 8. 13. Scandal differs nothing from that Description of the Apostle James Every man is tempted when he is drawn Jam. 1. 14. away of his own Lust and enticed Then Lust when it hath conceived brings forth Sin and Sin when it is finished brings forth Death I say it differs nothing but that in Scandal the Temptation is covered Lust Inordinate Affection is always at the bottom of Scandal All Scandals against Religion or any of the Truths Commands or Duties of it have their Root in Lusts and sinful Corruption within Herein they are justly chargeable to Condemnation the Scandal within is the great Scandal He that hath an impure Affection quenched into the love of the Law of God hath nothing to Offend or Scandalise Psal 119. 156. him Scandal finds no place in him He that loves his Brother and God in him hath no occasion of Scandal 1 John 2. 10. in him But Scandal is Temptation so covered as I have described and therein it differs from meer Temptation Many Temptations to Sin are barefac'd and have nothing but Pleasure Profit or Vain-Glory to bait the Hook with the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye the Pride of Life all which leave the sin naked or the covering is at least so thin that Conscience is not at all impos'd upon But Scandal hath the seemingly fair ☜ Recommendation of a Principle of Reason or Doctrine of Religion how false soever And therefore though in a free way of speaking a man is Scandalised by his Right Eye his Right Hand his Right Foot interpreting them of his Lust getting the Ascendant over his Judgment and Conscience that has nothing of excuse but that he in whom it dwells has made it so necessary to him that it is become part of himself yet speaking more accurately and according to the general course of Holy Writing Scandal is Temptation shaddowed and sheltered there is some Screen betwixt the Eye of Conscience and defenceless Guilt some Attire of Vertue or Reason about the Sin There may be some places where Scandal may be very near signifying nothing but Temptation but generally there is as much difference as between Davids Fall into Murder and
Reason or Doctrine of Religion edifies or emboldens Conscience For although Conscience was made for the Divine Truth and Law of God which is the Truth and not for Scandal it was made so even and true to it that they which love this Law have great peace and nothing can scandalise or offend them that is either seduce or hurt them yet in this very Seat in this very Throne of the Divine Law in this Temple of God in this place of the Holy this Tribunal of the Soul that ought to be the Sanctuary of Truth and Righteousness and as a Tabernacle of Testimony does Scandal exalt it self as if it were from God and from thence it gives its Oracles but Conscience thus debauched and prostituted bears no more proportion to true Conscience than Antichrist does to Christ and is therefore a pseudo-Conscience an Anti-Conscience Conscience falsly so called 7. Scandal always dashes its own Principles of deceived Reason and false Doctrine upon some true and grand Principle of Reason and Doctrine of Religion For though every Truth of God is great yet there are of the first magnitude on account of which oppos'd the Spirit of God brands it Scandal more remarkably and hereupon though the Sin derived from Scandal may in it self seem small yet in regard of some stable Law of Religion made void and thereby Sin introduced it is a very great Sin though in a matter of its own Nature sometimes indifferent Now it cannot be otherwise but Scandal must thus dash upon Truth because as I have said it herein differs from simple Temptation that its rest is upon some false Principle of Reason or Doctrine of Religion it frames mischief by a Law and it must needs be that every false Principle and Doctrine must rush against some true one and though no Truth of God be small or Sin little and Scandal is always proportionable yet the wisdom of Scripture hath appropriated the name of Scandal to the violation of some grand Principle As I shall now in the next place for the further explaining of Scandal observe those Pillars of the Divine Truth and Law against which it throws and bruises the Scandalised Soul as the Sacred Books shall instruct us 1. The Eternal Being and Holy Government of God in the World according to those Righteous Just and Good Laws he hath given and according to which he will Judge and make Retribution to all Men at that great day is the Fountain and most Fundamental Principle of Religion So then whatever upon pretence of Reason and just cause undermines the Faith abates the Aws or dispirits the Obedience agreeable to so supreame a standard of all these is the Original and final Scandal Here all Scandal begins in the decay of the Faith and Fear of God and hither it returns It ends in a further loss of God and this upon offence taken that too much is required without reason This is that Eternal Rock of Truth at which whoever stumbles must needs be hurt wounded and grieved Thus was I grieved in my Heart and pricked in my Reins Psal 73. 21. saith the Psalmist on this very occasion Whoever falls violently against it it breaks him whoever contests to remove it and burdens himself with it it falls upon him and grinds him to Powder And yet against this speculative and practical Atheism hath in all Ages hardened it self and by shews of Reason and high Spirit been heaving and pecking at it and casting Scandals in all Mens way Gods retirement as they fancy it into the thick covering of the Clouds and the pleasure of Jâ—b 21. 14. walking in the Circuit of Heaven and not coming down in visible shapes of Glory and Power have given to ungodly Men the Boldness and a counterfeit of Argument to dispute against his Being and Government I say a counterfeit of Argument for with an Apparition of Reason from hence and an Insolency of Wickedness they Conjure down they Moâ—mo of Religion and the Goblin of Conscience as they esteem them Atheism hath always spoken stout Words against God saying to God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge Mal 3. 13. of thy ways What is the Almighty that we should serve him Or what profit is it if we should pray unto him Job 21. 14. It hath of old lifted up Men against God and stretched out their hand against the Almighty so that they have run upon God even upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler to mischief themselves to the utmost In the very days of Job there was this Counsel of the Job 10. 3. and 21. 16. and 22. 18. wicked as if it was the result of debate and serious consideration in a Senate of Atheists as if they had made the Experiment and found upon proof there was no advantage in serving God and no Man came by the worse in despising him It is not the invention of one Age of this last Age as if it might pride it self in finding it out Scripture hath not thought it against its Interests to record the strength of the Cause as it was managed of old in those Elder days of Job in the last days of the Old Testament in the time of the Prophet Malachi But over-runs it with a Flood of Truth and Eloquence even as God does as he pleases with a Deluge of Wrath. Yet present Impunity and the seeming confusion of Providence in the prosperity of the ungodly and the afflicted State of good Men hath been always a stumbling Block to sudden and short consideration Job significantly calls it Gods shining on the Councel of the Wicked as if it Job 10. 3. gave it a Lustre and Countenance Even good Men till they went into the Sanctuary of God and looked to the end of things have found it a Scandal The Psalmist acknowledges His Feet were almost gone and his Feet well Psal 73. 2. nigh slipped when he saw the Prosperity of the Wicked and Waters of a full Cup of affliction wrung out to the Godly Yet upon full discussion of the case he confesses it his Folly Ver. 22. and Ignorance So Foolish was I and Ignorant I was as a Beast before thee The wise King observed the Hearts of Eccles 8. 11. the Sons of Men fully set them in to do Evil because Sentence on an Evil Work was not speedily Executed God by his Patience sustaining and making wicked Men stand Exod. 9. 16. even when they deny him is the occasion of their more dreadful fall for their Foot will slide in due time to their Eternal Ruine how slack soever God is misdeemed he will be a swift Witness of his own Being and Truth and the Avenger of his own Glory Now so far as any Man hath either in secret Suspicions or in the silent Murmurs of his Soul said There is no God or vanquished the prevailing Awes of God so that Conscience hath been emboldened or edified or so much as silenced or dumb
and mute in the Commission of Sin or neglect of Duty upon these appearances and who can say herein I have made my Heart clean I am pure from this Transgression so far hath he been Scandalised and indanger'd to his Ruine This is the first great Pillar of Truth and the primary Scandal is placed here That Men think there is no reason God should have so much Love Fear Honour Obedience so much Worship and Service And the Second is like to it 2. Even the Faith of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World is like to that first great Principle and equal to it both because the whole Riches and Treasure of all Religion is deposited and concentered in it so that he hath not the John 17. 3. Father nor the Knowledge of the only true God nor the Eternal Life proceeding from it who hath not the Son who hath not the Knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent Even as Christ is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person so is the knowledge of Christ the express Image of the Knowledge of God and the brightness of it wherever it is revealed if it be not believed in the God of the World hath blinded the 2 Cor. 4. 6. minds of them that believe not least they should see the light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ who is the Image 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. of God shining to them Especially and more particularly that great Attribute of Divine Mercy and Pardoning Grace is illustrated and breaks out with brighter and warmer Beams in this Son of his Love the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins Acts 4. 12. of the World by the Sacrifice of himself His is the only Name given under the whole Heaven to the Children of Men whereby they can be saved This indeed was the Scandal of the Jews who assumed to themselves as the only Masters of the true Religion in the World and foolishness to the Greeks who took Isa 28. 16. upon them as the like Masters of Reason but this corner Stone of Truth was laid so sure and of so tryed an excellency 1 Pet. 2. 6. that all that reject and spurn at it stumble and fall are snared and broken They are false Notions of God and Truth that will not be reconciled to it and while even the Builders refuse it it will yet rise to be the Head of the Corner Ver 7. It hath now surmounted before any Impartial Judges all other Names of Religion in the whole World so that to strike at it where it is known and received argues a disaffection and being Scandalised at Religion it self and is become the same with denying God Providence and Eternal Judgment Corrupted Reason and Lucian-Wit aims at Religion in its very Essence when it pretends to dash upon that and if when it seem'd to encounter with Gods own Administration by Moses there was yet such a presence of God with it that it would be more tolerable Mat. 10. 15. c. for Sodam and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for those that refused it as the Lord in several places testifies how much greater will the Condemnation be now when it hath so perfectly antiquated all that pretension against it and worn out the Prejudices of Elder Paganisme And yet so far as the Foolishness of God as the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 25. styles it does not appear to us wiser than Men and the weakness of God stronger than Men we are ready to be Scandalised at the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour And it seems the easiest place for the Attacks of Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness who yet at last will find themselves in a Gin or Trap when they thought they had gained Ground and made entrance and shattered to pieces when they believed a Conquest For God taketh the wise in their own 1 Cor. 3. 19 20. Craftiness and he knoweth the wisest thoughts of Men that they are vain Every Degree of Apostacy from Christ is Heb. 3. 12. departing from the Living God Transactions in Prayer or Publick Discourses of Religion are so much the more Divine as they send forth the sweet savour of his Name which is as an Oyntment poured out The Apostle desired to 1 Cor. â— 2. Phil. 3. 8. know nothing but Christ and him crucified It is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Top and Transcendency of Knowledge Apostolick Epistles full of Christ and the Truth as it is in Jesus are the best Patterns for Sermons much exceeding the Rationalism or Moralism of tâ—â— wisest Philosophy It is a Degree of Scandal first taken â—nd then given to speak little of him All Preaching is not giving the savour of his Knowledge 2 Cor. 2. ult and if it have not Life to the Soul it is deadly a Symptom to Death The very diverting though to other Parts of Sacred Scripture speaks Men offended in him when they do not find him and express him the Alpha and Omega in all the Bright Morning Star the Amen And though a Battology a vain Repetition in naming him is blamable yet it is more blame to conceal him even in the best Discourses of his Religion The Rays of Religion are paler more weak and chill as they fall farthest off from him He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings and Blessed is he in these days even in these days whoever is not offended in him 3. The Spirituality Purity Cleanness and Chasteness of the Worship of God dictated by the clearest and sincerest Light of Natural Conscience approved by Divine Revelation or founded instituted and directed by that undoubted Heavenly Oracle is the next great Pillar of Truth upon which the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mens Souls is setled But against this sensual and defiled Imagination hath in all Ages raised Scandal and so befool'd Reason that it hath cast down many wounded yea many strong Men in their Intellectual Endowments and Reputation for Wisdom have been ensnar'd and ruin'd by it It hath been the Renown therefore of those Princes in Sacred Story that have had the Religious Magnanimity to resist the Charmes of this Sorceress and kept Divine Worship uncorrupted in whose Glory so much as the High Places was a dark Shade and ecclips'd them though it had fair Pretence Idolatry and Superstition have been most evidently branded in Scripture for the most wretched State of being scandaliz'd and Idols for the most abhorr'd Scandals This was the Snare of Gideon and his House and yet as Interpreters give us in a Matter as innocent at first as laying up the Ephod he had inquir'd at in his Danger as a Monument of Gratitude for his Victory that was after turn'd thus into a Scandal Judges 8. 27. This was the Scandal Balaam taught Balak to cast before the Children of Israel These were the Wiles the Gins and Traps in which the
Midianites Numb 25. 17 18. inclos'd cramp'd and vex'd them first with the Guilt rising up in the Face of Conscience and then with the miserable Consequence of the sudden Wrath of God revealed from Heaven against them This was the Stumbling-block of Iniquity the wicked Man in Ezekiel puts before his Face even the Idols he had upon his Heart These were the stumbling-blocks with the wicked God would cut off and remove in the Prophet Zephaniah This was one principal Point of Scandal the Apostle discourses of to the Corinthians in the Case of Eating 1 Cor. 8. 10. things offered unto Idols and that the Holy Spirit in the New Testament so eminently remarques for Balaam's Doctrine of Scandal The great Abomination and Lie that deceives the World in the Book of the Revelation is the detestable Rev. 2. 14. Antichristian Idolatry the notorious Scandal of the Christian World both within it self and before the Jews Turks and even Pagans who see their own Brutishness acted under that excellent Name This is so great a Point that God hath departed from the Brevity of that Majestick Law in the Second Commandment for the guarding his Worship as with a Flaming Sword every way because in a Case wherein Humane Nature is so prone to fall Whether therefore it be the dividing the Divine Honour to any other though under the Name of Reverence to him as the Original or Supreme or whether it be the carving a Worship for God he does not prescribe for himself whatever be the Dccency or Expediency to help the Devotion whether of the Learned or Unlearned it becomes Scandal and a Snare to those that are so impos'd upon And seeing though the weakness of Passion be far off from God he owns himself jealous we have reason to mistrust every thing when he is so seeing not only foul Debauches but even what is most innocent in all other Cases is suspected in that Hezekiah in the sense of this broke in pieces so venerable a Relique as the Brazen Serpent not only a Ceremony of 2 Kings 18. 4. Miraculous Cure but a Type of Christ and degraded it into a meer piece of Brass when he saw the Israelites scandalising at it and tempted by it to impure Glances When our Saviour perceived so clean and harmless an Usage as Mat. 15. 1. Washing before Meat creeping into a piece of Religion how severely he disown'd it and was careless of the causeless scandalising of the Pharisees by his Doctrine concerning it because he knew there was True and Real Scandal in that Rite so abus'd And when all is said that can be said the Heavenly Pattern is that in Divine Worship and that only of which it can be said That nothing in it can scandalise that is justly scandalise except we think God's Jealousie was a Jewish Style wholly now out of date And yet how hath this Scandal this Stone of Stumbling this Gin and Snare always lain in the way of Humane Imagination and prevail'd upon it As if God living in the Retirement of a Spiritual Nature did not understand how himself was to be address'd by Men nor knew the Points of Honour due to his own Glorious Nature as is most Fashionable and Modish in the World Men take upon them to distinguish things better by the Breeding they have had in this Earthly Country they think God so much a Stranger as not to know how to appoint for himself when Men have to do with him as if what might be well accepted in Heaven would not yet be current upon Earth Here Images Pictures Elevations Adorations of the Host with innumerable Rites and Ceremonies are necessary to beget Devotion due to God the Saviour they will serve Here they that can best judge what is most Stately have determin'd God must not make himself so cheap as immediately to receive Prayers and Supplications or by his Son only as the Mediatour Angels and Saints must intercede and then who can deny them their share of Honour Religion will be neglected and dâ—spised if it have not Sets-off besides it self and the necessary Decency of Humane Actions There must be something unusual to dress it up and amuse But all this is no more than the Greens and Flourishes laid over a Trap to hide it and invite the unwary Passenger God that understands himself so perfectly as to know what will please him understands all Men too and needs not that any should tell him of Man for he knows what is in Man and he hath pronounced it What is higly esteemed among Men is abomination in the sight of God He hath Isa 15. 9. said it In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men All outward Pomp is but drawing nigh with Lips when the Heart is far off To worship God is to give him the Glory of his own Perfections and not to make him such a One as our selves God is a Spirit and they that worship must worship him in Spirit Joh. 4 24. and Truth in his Spirituality and Truth not in their own Carnality and vain Shew It is not to Paint or Pourtray or Carve a Deity as the Heathen that chang'd the Truth of God into a Lie and the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Image of Coruptible Man and other baser Creatures because they thought it best and yet worse than that into Names of greatest Infamy and flagitious Turpitudes All frivolous Rites represent Divinity small and impertinent to the Great loss of the Glory due to that terrible Name The Lord our God One great End of Worship is the Conforming the Soul to the Divine Nature by Approaches to and Exercises of the Mind upon it but if this be mis-shapen the Soul is made more unlike to God Blessed for ever as the same Heathen became more licentious by the Pourtraictures they gave their Gods A trivial Temper of Mind naturally results from a trivial Worship even as it forms it first and often meeting it there it daily returns from it confirmed and improved The Sincere Worship directed to in the Gospel is that Glass in which we behold the Glory of the Lord and are changed 2 Cor. 3. ult into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Loosness of Life hath been always noted to be the Fruit of a Corrupt Worship It is naturally so and God curses it to be so God gave Idolaters up to their Lusts and an Injudicious Mind They that Worship him aright according to his Word Psal 36 8. and 6â— â— adhere to him and by regular Conduits drink Life from the Fountain of Life and derive from the River of his Pleasures they are abundantly satisfied with the Goodness of his House even of his Holy Temple They that Worship God after their own Imaginations do but drink out of their own broken or defiled Cisterns that hold no Water and therefore draw nothing but Wind and Air or
Corruption They walk in the Light of their own Sparks and have only this at Gods hand to lie down in sorrow Besides that God in just displeasure sends down upon them the Revenges of an abused and injur'd Power and Godhead Now all this expresses the Heighth both of the Deception and Mischief of Scandal 4. The fourth great Principle of Truth is the absolute and indispensible Necessity of Holiness both in Heart and Life without which no Man shall see the Lord Against which Heb. 12. 24. there lies no such Scandal or cause of Offence as inward and inherent Lust and inordinate Appetite which is obstinately set to obtain its Satisfaction and is no way to be tam'd but by beinâ— cut off though it be the Right Hand or Right Foot or even the Right Eye The Love of God Mark 9. 43. and his Law is the best Security against this Scandal and daily Mortification and Crucifixion of the Old Man with Ephes 4. 22. its sinful Lusts and Affections Pretences from Reason or Doctrines of Religion there can be none in this Case to those who acknowledge either Christianity or Morality But Men are carried down the violent Stream of ungovern'd Passion and that falls into the wide Sea of general Corruption and Bad Example which looks most like an Authority There are the Palliations and Excuses of Sin which may serve in a time of Peace and Carnal Security but cannot so delude Conscience as to be in a strict sense Scandal The continual Practice of Sin hardens the Heart sears benumbs and stupifies all inward Sense and cancels the Awe of those ingraven Laws and revealed Commands of God for a time but cannot either deny their Just Power or challenge them of Unreasonableness So that if any where Men are forc'd to take Refuge at the Atheistick denial of Religion it self or to blind Conscience with Superstitious Acts which seem to commute and make satisfaction for Sin Or if Men are resolved to blind their Eyes and obstruct all Sense they may make the Profession of True Religion a Cover to Sin as they that cry Lord Lord and Mat. 7. 22. the Temple of the Lord are we that name the Name of Jer. 7. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Christ with great ostentation and so may deceive their own Souls but to hold out against either the Challenges of Divine Truth or of their own Reflexions is impossible So that upon the whole matter Predominant Lust from within and Bad Example from the so abounding Iniquity of all sorts of Men the Falls of Good Men the Miscarriages of Hypocrites and insincere Professours of Religion are the greatest Scandals or Stumbling-blocks in the Ways of Holiness to those that are not insnared in the afore-named Scandals But although the necessity of Holiness is above the reach of strict and proper Scandal yet it is the very Center of all Scandal in the effect of it for then a Man is indeed scandalised when the Salt of Divine Truth when the Spirit of Truth can have no power nor efficacy upon him because of that Scandal to season the Heart nor govern the Life and Action in the Love Fear and Obedience of God and Jesus Christ But if it be possible for any Man to understand in his Heart and Life what he does not promise by Profession or if he seem to deny any Principle of Truth and does not understand in his Heart and Life the Extent and Force of his Denial but hath better Principles that are an Antidote and Counter-poyson to any Mistakes in the Doctrine of Religion he is not scandalised with the great Mischief of Scandal But that Man is scandalised that through False Principles or the denial of True ones wants their Power and Vertue upon his Affections and Actions For no Truth is for Notions sake but to make truly good the Heart and Practice the very Confession with the Mouth is to recoil back into the Soul and make that better and to move forward and ingage the Life along with it 5. It is a grand Pillar of the Truth of Religion That we love our Neighbour as our selves and that he that loves 1 John 4. 21. God should love his Brother also And there is not there cannot be any Law of Religion wherein the Equity the Love Favour and Compassion of the Lord our God and of Jesus Christ our Saviour towards Humane Nature does more evidently recommend it self It is the Justification of the Religion of the Scriptures to be the True Religion And as the Love of God to Man his Philanthropy does shine out more illustriously in the Gospel so does the Law and Doctrine of this Love of Christians to one another and not only to Christians but to all Men And in this as of greatest concernment thâ— Gospel is so abundant and its Discourses of so great weight that it is made another Hemisphere of Religion to the Love of God The one is the first and Mat. â—1 38 39. great Commandment and the second is like to it It is the Law and the Prophets it is the whole Law It is irreconcilable Rom. 13. 8 9. to the Love of God not to love our Brother It is 1 Joh. 3. 15. such a Degree of Murther that whoever is guilty of cannot have Eternal Life abiding in him It is the great Mark 1 Joh. 3. 14. We have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren So many are the Arguments and so strong the Obligations to this Duty that they cannot be recounted all may be summed up in that God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love is born of God dwelleth in God and God in him Now that this Love is fix'd in an Uniformity of Opinions or points of outward order in the Worship of God is most unreasonable to believe for besides the impossibility to reconcile all the innocent Varieties that are in Humane Nature though it be Christian humane Nature in their Sentiments and Elections in these things the things themselves are not of that amount as to be the proper rest of this Divine Love or that if it misses these Poles it should therefore cease to be the Axis upon which the Catholick Society of Christians and Christian unity turns for that in the very Nature of the thing must be substantial Christianity it self And this is indeed the Great Schism to be divided in Affection from Christians it is a wonder how it could be otherwise understood seeing smaller differences are frequently by the Apostle considered and allowed for without the least allowance for Christians not loving one another Christianity carries no Gall even towards utmost Strangers upon the account of its being the true Religion much less towards those that are truly Christians though not each uniform with one another in all things The great Scandals against this Love are private Men think it justifiable not to love those that have injured them but this Case hath been considered
and a forgivness of seventy seven Injuries in a day upon Acknowledgment Mat. 18. 22. Luke 17. 4. and Repentance been taken care for that Love may be continued The forgivness of God and Christ is set us as an Example and that it may the more affect us the odds between our Offences against God and all Trespasses against our selves is stated as disproportionate as ten thousand Talents to a hundred Pence But however Men think they may justly not love where there is a difference in Divine matters in matters of Religion This is the cause of God and Truth and yet this is generally but the greater Scandal for when the things that Christians differ in are small and that they agree in great and momentous things it is evident the Integrity Honour and Interest of Religion should much more unite and indear than little Interests divide In things that are evidently contrary to Divine Truth and the Law of God there is a just denial of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with respect to that Evil he travels with as the Apostle John the great Minister of Love teaches us and a Method for Reformation or Rejection as our Saviour agreeable to that Law in Leviticus prescribes us not to smother our Mat. 18. 15 c. Lev. 19. 17. hatred or disgusts in silence and reserve by concealing the fault a constant cause and store for our Anger or Ill-will but to bring it to an open procedure that either our misapprehension may be rectified or the person reformed and so our love either way restored or a just reason appear not for our hatred but for our limitting the extent of our Love In such a case it ought not to be as is due to a Christian but to a Publicane or Heathen who is still the Object of our Love but not of that kind that degree of Love adjust to Christians but this must be in a case clear and evident not every Dispute The Truth of Christian Religion and the great Design of it is the Salvation and Happiness of all the Servants of Christ and with an Universal Favour to Mankind and this is preserved only in Love Every thing then that cools and destroys Love under a shew of Just and Right is a Scandal because it overthrows Christianity which is indeed a Religion of Love and makes a man of great Name Pretence Authority in the Church a nothing It is a Scandal for it rises from Scandal it hath the ill effect of Scandal both ensnaring and destroying and it tends to further Scandal It rises from Scandal he that does not Love hath some Lust some interest of Profit Dominion or Pleasure that he serves under a name of Religion They that cause Divisions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divisions in affection taking advantage Rom. 16. 17. of Dissents in Opinion these serve their own Bellies That Lust which they cloak with Religion that baser Interest they cloath and cover with a better name that Lust so disguised deceives them and enslaves them under it self This moves to further Scandal every one that does not comply with the humour of this Lust and serve it he appears as the Irreligious or the Factious disorderly Person hereupon he must not be received or continued in the Love due to a Brother a Christian though the case be nothing at all to true Christianity Our Saviour as aware of this in his so severe caution of not Scandalising little ones immediatly subjoins those dreadful Precepts of cutting off the Right Hand c. that Scandalise our selves as implying they are the great causes of our Scandalising others This still moves on to further Scandal Scandal to Strangers who thereupon look upon Religion as Austere Morose and Cruel and so are discouraged from coming in to it Scandal to those whom our Saviour calls the little ones in Christianity whom it may be he so calls not that they Marc. 9. 4◠are always so in themselves when yet despised but because they may be only so in the Eyes of those that despise them and think not the honour and regard owing to Christians due to them or because take the meanest in Christianity or those we think or are indeed in most danger to be lost our Saviour in a Scheme in a Figure of little ones would represent they ought to be the most cautiously and tenderly treated Lastly They themselves become Scandalised too often to much higher degrees of Scandal hereby even against those things that carry the truest and most genuine Spirit of Christianity because they would go as far off as they can and be most unlike those from whom they dissent in some things that neither their Praying their Preaching their Phrase and manner of speaking must be accepted by them till they even desert the Examples of the very Scripture it self in those things and come too near Burlesquing the Sacred guise of them or at least what is so nearly united that the reproach that falls upon the one falls upon the other also and all that they may be sure to stand far enough off from the adverse purity of what they have espoused whose Opinions while they seem to strike the things most agreeable to Scripture are the Sufferers too often But he that loves his Brother has no occasion of this 1 John 2. 10 11. sort of stumbling which is not far from the Apostles meaning because as his Soul is rightly compos'd and not Clouded with dark and black passion so he hath no Temptation to dislike any thing in true Christianity out of Hatred to his Brother who professes it but an additional Obligation to keep the Truth entire out of Love to his Brother who is united in it with himself and therefore it is said hereby we know we love the Children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments when our love to them ingages us the more close in a Religious Union with them He that hates his Brother is ready to fall out with every thing that he is for and knows not at what he stumbles whether it be truly of God and Christ or not and so is no just occasion of stumbling though he stumble at it 1 John 5. v. 2. 6. The Government and Authority God hath vested in Conscience to understand with God for it self and the Soul and to guide it self according to his Command who is its only Father and it ought to have none upon Earth beside him even as Christ is its one Master is a Grand Principle of True Religion And this is of so great concernment that though the thing be good a Man does yet if he does it not upon a Judgement a Sense a Dictate of Conscience or if that he refuses be truly Evil yet if it be not rejected in the same manner upon the same Motives neither the one nor the other arises to a Religious action or is accepted with God as done in his Fear but is a vain honour of him
those who do vehemently and zealously fall in with Conformity to these Impositions in Indifferents yet they may be scandalised and that very deeply This Case does not I confess arise out of the Apostles Discourses except by the other Interpretation of the Scope of that to the Corinths which gives it not onely as if Compliance against the Sentiments of Conscience upon the Trust of Example were the Sin and Scandal but that the weaker Christians not having the Knowledge of the stronger doing as they did and not prepossess'd as they were that the Idol was nothing sunk into some Degrees at least of Idolatrous Reverence and Worship as if they knew no other Reason of eating in an Idols Temple but Devotion to him And this kind of Scandal though I believe the drift of the Apostle is chiefly as I have explained it yet too often falls out in these Cases Those Ceremonies that have been promoted into Divine Services or into the Ornament of Religion and the Places of it have been though dangerously enough yet not so ill design'd as afterwards abused by more Ignorant Persons who greedy and fond of a sensual and external Religion have been transported upon Superstition and sometimes downright Idolatry and this often noted in Scripture under the very Name of Scandal Thus I before observ'd in the Case of Gideons Ephod his House and all Israel were insnar'd beyond the first Intention Thus in the Brazen Serpent continued no doubt in memory of the Miracle yet afterwards prov'd so great a Snare that they burnt Incense to it And it is most likely Balaam cast his Snare at first in a less-guilty Feasting with the Midianites upon their Idols Sacrifices not known to be such poysonous Meat and by degrees toll'd them on into the midst of the Congregation and Assembly of Idolaters Thus the Apostles by Divine Direction condescending to the weakness of Convert-Jews among the Romans on consideration of the Divine Command in some of their Rites but just now expiring degenerated afterward into such a Judaism that the same Apostle was most severe against it and that very Strength of the Corinthian Christians or at least the Weakness of the Unknowing following their Example became afterwards into an infamous Doctrine the Doctrine of Balaam and the very inchanting Seduction of the Prophetess Jezebel who taught the People of Christ to commit Fornication and to eat things offered to Idols in honour to them The bringing in of Pictures into Places of Religious Worship suppose it as innocent as could be suppos'd at first yet was abus'd speedily into all imaginable Corruption and it is much to be fear'd all the Remonstrances concerning more Innocent Rites as they can't vindicate them from Scrupulosity on one side so can't preserve them from Mens placing too much of their Religion in them on the other whereby the true Conscience of it is weakned the Vertue and Vigour of Conscience in things truly Religious weakned and spent by having been laid out unnecessarily upon extern Observances and loosness of Life like Fornication with eating things offered to Idols breaking in upon the Commute of such Flatteries of Conscience for substantial Piety as the Jews would exchange New-Moons and Oblations for Justice and Mercy and walking humbly with God It must be indeed acknowledg'd not onely Humane Appointments but even Divine Commands are subject to the Injury of Scandal but with this difference One cannot be cut off though Scandal presses never so hard the other may and ought For in all things not ordained by God the Principle sinned against in Scandal is the exceeding Purity of Religion the substantial Piety and most Spiritual and Rational Worship of himself God requires and expects by his Word and that all things he has commanded be adjusted to those Ends even as he provided them and all he has not commanded should stand off or at least be presently superseded when become the Prey of Scandal Yet on the other side Scandal shelters it self under Order Decency or Edification of the Ignorant Obedience to Authority and presses on to the utmost under them 3. The third sort of Scandal arising from Indifferent Things upon those that will not be at all perswaded to a Compliance with them even they may be scandalised by unlawful and very sinful Censoriousness and Passion placing too much of their sense of Religion upon their dislike of such Additions to Divine Worship Divisions and Separations on both sides from the Publickest Worship of God and National Union in Religion beyond the Merit and Quality of the Cause or further than the Case at its utmost extent can require and if the Sin of Schism be such as the endeavour'd Notion of it would make it a Fall into the great Sin of Schism The Principle offended against in this sort of Scandal is That great Love of Christians and Union in Divine Worship in Truth and Peace made so Fundamental in Christianity by Christ and the Apostles The pretence of Scandal lies too both ways That for the sake of such Additionals we may desert those much higher Considerations and Reasons and Causes of Love and Union and our Obligations to them The Apostle represents this great Mischief not under the formal Account of Scandal in the Discourse to the Romans though I doubt not he after refers to it expresly as such when he joyns Scandals and Divisions together but Rom. 16. 17. in the Discourse it self he both sets out the Heat on both sides in judging and despising and argues on both sides with highest strength of Divine Reason against the Evil both ways And this is certain The more excellent our Religion the more desirable our Publick Worship and Communion for the Piety Rationality and Order of it the more pure our National Church and Association in Religion is and the greater the Sin of Separation the more does the Apostles Argument against scandalising for the sake of Indifferencies press and urge us Why should our Good be thought evil of or blasphem'd Why should our Publick Worship and National Religion be once thought to be Ceremony Why should our Communion be clogg'd with things of no greater avail than Meat and Drink Why should we lose those from our Communion who own The Kingdom of God is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and contend for those Divine things though they have not leisure and freedom for Ceremonies when they that serve God in them though they cannot joyn in lesser things yet as they are accepted of God so should be approved of Men Or if the Sin of Separation be so great and even Schism it self why for our Meat for our Indifferent things should they perish for whom Christ died or such a Work of God as appears in them be destroyed 4. The Severity Passion Transport beyond the Values of the things themselves and taking up the Instruments of Cruelty cannot be without Scandal upon the Imposers of Indifferency and those that will needs be
two Cases to be the Expedient against Scandal he therefore perswades the not eating upon these Contingencies as by the by which was a very easie performance for Christian Charity but the Thing he was wholly intent upon was that great Doctrine of not Scandalising for the sake of Indifferent Things These Circumstances easily vanished the main Point remains unmoved They were only a Scheme a momentany and transitory one to display this great Doctrine in and to present it upon When these things grew into a Ritual Religion the Scheme was altered and shifted they grew sinful and were condemned the Doctrine stood yet and for ever stands firm planted upon them Object 4. The Rites used are such as are recommended from Antiquity and were of use of old in the Primitive Church Answ Allow it to be so All that can be collected from thence is but Example wound up to its highest Peg when it does not reach Christ And whenever it does not reach him it does not bind Be ye followers of me as I 1 Cor. 11. 1. am of Christ said the Apostle just about to discourse of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordinances or Traditions Those Concurrences All Every where Always must begin in Scripture and be found there else they do but oblige our Prudence not our Conscience Only so far as Antiquity or the Primitive Church inables us to see with our own Eyes the Sense of Scripture or the Determinations of Natural Light and Reason in any Case so far it obliges us in Conscience All else is but the Deference of Modesty and due Regard which cannot weigh against Scandal except we make the Oracles of Antiquity equal to the Heavenly Oracles and then we must demand the same Certainty of the Divine Inspiration of the one as of the other or else we may quickly run into the greatest of Scandals Object 5. The Commands of Lawful Authority take away the Indifferency and make Necessary what was before Indifferent Answ The Question is not Whether Magistrates ought to be obeyed in all things Indifferent for that is readily granted if in all Circumstances they are Indifferent nor whether Rites are Indifferent Things for that is also supposed to be granted but the question must be Whether it is an indifferent thing to give or receive Scandal upon the account of Indifferent Things seeing that may indisputably fall out or the Apostles Discourses fall to the Ground and in one sort of Indifferents as well as others else the Apostles Discourse will be ineffectual to any the like Case Seeing then the Tribunal and Authority of God is higher than of any of the Supreams of this World and that Scandal is cognisable only before him and that whatever incurs Sandal is inseparable from Sin against God it must needs follow that in a Case of Doubt from which a Man cannot acquit himself he cannot obey Men in that without disobeying God who hath declared to him Whatever is not of Faith is Sin and he that doubteth and doth what he doubteth of is Damned that is Condemned within himself and in the thing it self And the Reason in such a Case must be the same as in a Case of Obeying Magistrates against any express Divine Prohibition For though the thing doubted of does much differ if it be indeed indifferent Yet the Prohibition is as plain against doing what is doubted of and what is not of Faith as in any Case Seeing then all Humane Authority must lower its Top to Divine I cannot see but that in Indifferent things in Religion which is Gods peculiar for we speak only of that the Magistrates Power is excluded in case of real doubt of Conscience in which a Man can do nothing but he runs into Gods danger even as in any other case of such danger by reason of Sin And what is offered in Relief will not avail viz. That Obedience to Magistrates is certainly a Duty but whether there be any disobedience to God about such or such Indifferents is in doubt and if the thing be indeed indifferent it is a doubt upon mistake And then there is a disobedience to God in an undoubted Rule and Command to avoid it in a case not only of doubt but of mistake This I say cannot avail Because the measure is not to be drawn betwixt Obedience to Magistrates in all lawful things or things indifferent but betwixt Obedience to Magistrates and Obedience to that Rule of the Word of God in all cases of doubt which is as clear and as little subject to doubt as any Rule whatever Yet does not this evacuate the Power of Magistrates it being restrained to things indifferent in Religion and in Doubt and the Doubt fixed upon a grand Principle of Truth Nor is that of greater satisfaction That in Obedience to Magistrates there are so many degrees of Good and so many of Evil in the Disobedience but in doing well or ill concerning Indifferents there are much fewer Degrees both of the Good and the Evil therefore Obedience to God in so great a Morality as Obedience to Magistrates is always to be preferred before our doing well in Indifferents and the fear of Evil in one to be avoided much rather than the same fear in the other The Reason of Dissatisfaction is this That the Measure is not betwixt the Morality of Obedience to God in obeying Magistrates and doing well or ill about things Indifferent but betwixt the Morality of Obeying God in one of his clear and undoubted Precepts and in another of the same Evidence and Clearness which must needs be one and the same and of the same Rate of Morality Seeing Obedience to God is the Fundamental Morality If it were not thus the Magistrates Prohibition of Sacrifice of the Cup in the Lords Supper must exempt from Obedience to God in those Duties because Obedience to Magistrates is a Moral Duty but the other Ceremonial But it is out of Measure certain Obedience to God is both the top and the bottom of all Morality and although Obedience to Magistrates is a great point of Morality yet Obedience to God is so before it as to be the Measure of it Besides if Obedience to God be to be valued not by his Authority but by weighing the Precepts themselves much more Obedience to Magistrates is to be estimated by the Commands they give of which Indifferents in Religion will never be made out to be worthy to be the Tests either of their Authority or our Obedience whatever unthinking Men have said therein Indeed among the Divine Commands God hath chosen Mercy rather than Sacrifice honouring Parents rather than Corban but it is because he hath so declared in his Word and in Mens Consciences But all the Laws of God do harmoniously Conspire and Subordinate themselves one to another among which Obedience to Magistrates and Preserving the Government and Peace of Conscience are none of the least nor of any contest or distance of unkindness between themselves Whoso
every Quarter with Mischiefs How much better then is it that indifferent things in Religion were taken away even while the World standeth than that they should be kept up as the Sconces of Scandal For Indifferent Things let not the Work of God be destroyed nor any for whom Christ dyed in danger to Perish the more we esteem our Church our Religion our Worship of God the better and purer they are the more it is pity any should be divided from it should be so far scandalised as to be Schismaticks from it either in our account or if it be that Sin in the real danger of it and of perishing in it The more excellent our Church is the more the Apostles Rules take hold of us Let not the good of our Church be evil spoken of as if it was Ceremonial Let us not lose any from our Church for Meat and Drink Increase not the Woe of Scandal any way for so mean Things as Indifferents Let us not indanger our selves into the Woe of him by whom Scandal comes for Elements But besides all these Considerations there is not so absolute a security in adding any thing under any Name whatever to the pure Worship of God any more than to his Word lest we be found Lyars to him mismatching with it what will not endure the Fire Greatest Peace have they that Prov. 30. 5 6. love thy Law O Lord and that only nothing shall offend them in nothing will they offend others Observing Rites that had been Divine was not so safe to the first Christians having to do with Rites that had been corrupted Idolatrously and Superstitiously proved very Fatal Ceremonies are but Shaddows Superstition easily pervades that little thin Essence they have They have not the Right of being Gods Creation to bring them off to lye lower than their Corruption and commend them There is no such Cause to be over-zealous of such things in regard of which a late * Father Simmons 's Critical History Romanist hath said The true Religion of the Church of England differs little from the Romish in outward appearance The Argument strikes all ways if our Constitution be so good and injur'd not at all by Ceremonies let us as Christ Seek and save that which is lost those we look upon as the least that believe in Christ let them not be lost for Ceremonies The Love and Compassion of a Saviour triumphs towards these least easily Offended narrow-soul'd morose suppose them Smoaking Flax bruised Reeds yet despise them not if Christians if Protestants Their Angels behold the Face of the Father of Christ in Heaven Let them not be Offended Scandalised from Union with our National Church for Ceremonies If on the other side our Ceremonies in Gods account should be blemishes of our Church and Imperfections or if they may be turned into such by an ignorant use of them or if they cause Divisions and Scandals if the Mischiefs of those Scandals fall upon Strangers to true Religion and keep them at distance All these considerations weigh heavy against a Zeal for them But if none of these can be laid to their Charge yet if Men doubt concerning them what must they do How shall they escape that of the Apostle He that doubteth is Damned if he Eats Whatever is not of Faith is Sin Why should this be hazzarded for Indifferents And when the Tyde of Advantages Preferments Publick Approbation are on one side Deprivation of all those Censures and Penalties on the other who dares answer for many Men that they do not offer Violence to their Principles much more venture over their Doubts And yet in those very Doubts has the Apostle laid his Doctrine Or Lastly Wo can reasonably suppose Men would stem this Tyde that is against them if they had not real Conscientious Doubts or higher than Doubts to contest with in prejudice of their Complyance Upon the whole then I cannot but conclude Imposing Indifferent Things in Religion by a violent Example much more by severe Ways is very contrary to the Apostles Doctrine in that Case and that upon Reasons that till I see them answered I must suppose unanswerable I have now thus far discoursed of Scandal in the more strict and particular Cases Scripture hath given us the notices of but in the remaining Heads to be treated of I shall consider it in that largest and most comprehensive Grasp of it Religion in general And there is nothing that requires greater Wisdom and the prepossessions of a more Religious Prudence than to sit and count the Charge of undertaking serious Piety as the Lord hath bidden us in relation to one Branch of Scandal Persecution so with respect to the whole Negotiation of Scandal in the World It is the great both Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Scripture that he hath given full and ample warning before hand of all the Disadvantages we are to encounter in our Faith Love and Obedience to him as when we are assured There shall be False Prophets There must be Heresies There shall be Persecution There shall be an Apostacy or general Defection from True Symmetral Christianity within Christianity it self And so in the present Case it must needs be that Scandals come For the Knowledge of these things is one greatest Defence against the Evil predicted as also against the staggering of our Minds concerning the Truth of Religion it self Let any man then enquire and search this thing out both in Scripture and close Reason and he will find Scandals must come though he may at first think Religion if it be so great and excellent as is given out of it should not be darkned and clouded with Scandal but stand clear from it and it be impossible it should be any way liable to it Now that it is in it self Just and Right even to Perfection it self is every where recorded and published of it Wisdom speaks excellent things and the opening its Lips are Prov. 8. 6. Right Things It speaketh Truth and Wickedness is an abomination to its Lips All its Words are in Righteousness and nothing froward or perverse in them They are all plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find Knowledge The Righteousness of thy Testimonies is everlasting give me Vnderstanding and I shall live Gods Precepts are right concerning All Things and secure from every False Way Psal 119. 104. c. His Law is the Truth By the Word of his Lips Men are kept from the Paths of the Destroyer Amidst all the scandalising Psal 17. 4. Hos 14. 11. and intangling Works of Men The Ways of the Lord are all right if Men have but right Feet right Intentions Affections and Motions And yet when all this is granted let any Man cast the thing in his severest Thoughts and he will find it impossible as things are Religion should be free from Scandal and that therefore as if any Man cannot deny himself he cannot be Christ's Disciple so if
Christianity Let them sit down and count their danger a Milstone about their Necks and the bottom of the Sea is safer in our Lords Judgment of the Case Wherever the Instruments of Cruelty are in any Habitations upon the account of lesser Differences in Religion Oh my Soul come not thou into their Secret Oh my Honour be not thou united to their Assembly In their Anger they dig down Walls of Defence and Security to Religion Protestant Religion Vnhappy very unhappy is their Anger for it is fierce and their Wrath for it is cruel They divide Jacob and scatter Israel 2. They that are the Authors of Scandal by their great Mistakes in Religion by their unhappy and miserable Falls into Sin by their involving others in their own Sin without considering the sad Consequence and End of both they have this great Aggravation of Guilt that Scandal Mischief and Death have spread from them and faln as a Snare upon others Yet their Guilt is measured by the proportion of the Scandal in its own Nature the malignancy of the Intention the stupid or seared carelesness of the Event but not by the Event it self whether the Scandal prevail upon others or not or whether they that are Scandalised repent or not Because the Guilt of the Scandalised is reckon'd to him by his own Degrees of Light his circumstances of defence against or extream danger of falling into the temptation by his own love of Sin or enmity against the Divine Law in which every Man is the principal Scandaliser to himself and his recovery out of the Scandal depends upon his own Repentance or Obduracy against the means of Repentance The Guilt of the Scandaliser is measured also by his own state in Sin in general his state in relation to that Sin of Scandalising his Continuance in it or Repentance from it and not by what befalls the Scandalised else the Apostle Paul's Salvation had been hopeless without the certain Repentance of all those he compelled to Blaspheme Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ and the Mercy of God in him are the only means of recovery out of this Snare of Death both to the Scandaliser or Scandalised and a certain means it is to either Before I come to the last Head of this Discourse viz. to draw down the whole Meditation so as that it may be most fitted to Practice I will endeavour to resume the whole diffusive Notion of Scandal into one Uniform Representation descending from the General into the Particulars of it Original Scandal is that dislike and exception the Rational Creature took to the Creator's Supream dispose over it and its disgust to that State wherein infinite Wisdom and Goodness had placed it so that instead of a thankful acquiescency in it to its happiness it hath proved a Fugitive and a Vagabond from it to its Ruine Reason of this at first there could be none but a disdain to have its large Capacities of Understanding confined or dictated to or its Freeborn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bridled or restrained its Liberty of Will manacled or fettered by a Divine Law As if it were not indeed greatest Understanding to be conformed with Truth and noblest Liberty to adhere to Infinite Goodness or as if Understanding were not Understanding if it could not take measures of Truth for it self without God Authoritatively superintending it nor Free-will be Free if it could not chuse wholly for it self and owe no account to God And whether this Scandal is first in the Understanding or Will is not material for the Union is so Vital between them both that what is in one is at the same time and as they say ipso facto in the other The Devil at the same time he abode not in the Truth had as our Saviour tells us swelling Lusts in his Will suitable John 8. 44. to his Prevarication from the Truth The very same may be observed in the fall of Adam there was in one Act a deception upon his Understanding deserting Truth a sensual Eye upon the Fair but forbidden Fruit and the Lusts of the Mind aspiring to an imaginary Gen. 3. 6. more mounted condition than God had placed him in to be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. This then is the first great Scandal at which the Angels and Adam fell a discontent at a state of Obedience and Subjection to God and his Commands how Holy Just and Good soever as if it were too Arbitrary upon Beings that could understand and chuse for themselves to be so limitted They did not like to consider to retain upon their Reasons not only that they had their Beings given them and that their Obedience was an absolute Due to the Creator but that it was Obedience to an Infinitely Good and Faithful Creator truer to the Interest of his Creatures than themselves could be This Scandal therefore prevailing upon them drew along the whole Tain of misery with it Scandalised Spirits always report ill of God and his Laws so far as they are Scandalised and they that are entering into Scandal too contentedly hear ill of him as appears in the Dialogue betwixt the Serpent and the First Man and Woman Spirits utterly lost by Scandal act in defiance of God and are the more enraged by finding the Misery of their Scandal pressing upon them even to despair as we see in the Devils Humane Nature is more modest and tender being succoured by Grace and the promised Seed in our first Parents and their Posterity preserved from the utmost mischief of Scandal by that Great Restorer from Scandal Not perfectly recovered but in a state of second Probation of rising after so great a Fall or being most unhappily again sunk below those hopes and made for ever the prey of Scandal even after Grace offered This State of Humane Nature is waved and various In some things Men are more clear and free in others hooked and staked with Scandal and wherein they are Right in the Generals they are often insnared in the Particulars and so that their freedom in the one giving them more room and space to stir inwraps them more in the Scandal of the other By degrees if not restor'd men lose the modesty and tenderness preserv'd to them by Grace and fall into the very Scandal of the Devils themselves or very near to it However in all Scandal there are some of the Lineaments of Primitive Scandal and the greater the Scandal the more and the more apparent are those strokes of the first Scandal There is in every Scandal an Understanding that will be wiser than God is for it a disgust to self Resignation into the Divine Will There is some Lust that clouds and darkens the Mind and there is some false Principle that imboldens Lust Scandal always wraps up sin with it self else it were not Scandal sin hath always Scandal to introduce it else there could be no sin Although therefore when we come to particular Cases there are many sins lye
Craftiness whereby they lye in Eccles 4. 14. wait to deceive But following the Truth in Love we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ From the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying it self in Love Be not carried about Heb. 13 9. with divers and strange Doctrines For it is a good thing that the Heart be established with Grace not with Meats which have not profited them that have been exercised therein 2. That we have a true and sincere Love of the Divine Law and our Obedience to it the Blessedness of which and its great preservation from Scandal the Psalmist thus describes Blessed is the Man that walketh not in the Councel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of Sinners nor Psal 1. 1. sitteth in the Seat of the Scornful But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate Day and Night And he shall be like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Water that bringeth forth his Fruit in due season his Leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper 3. That we order all things of Indifferency in Religion aright both as to the Sense of our own minds and the Edification of others To which purpose the Apostles Directions should be always before us The Kingdom of God is not Meat nor Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Rom. 14. 5 17. 1 Cor. 10. 22. Give no Offence neither to the Jews nor Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Whoever thus serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. FINIS ERRATA Several mis-pointings and litteral mistakes the Candid Reader is desired to observe and pardon and what is most injurious to the Sense thus to Correct PAge 6. line 32. for an read all p. 13. l. 22. for they r. the. p. 17. l. 12. dele not p. 18. l. 11. for at r. with p. 25. l. 30. for he r any one p. 27. l. 30. for purity r. party p. 38. l. 4 for Righteous r. weak p. 44. l. 24. dele them p. 48. l. 17. for rule r. rate p. 55. l. 22. after are r. not p. 61. l. 9. for Sacrifice r. Sacraments p. 76. l. 29. for Party r. Polity p. 79. l. 11. after justly r. may Printed for Tho. Parkhurst THE whole Duty of a Nation or National True Religion Argued and Perswaded upon greatest Motives of Scripture and Reason Conciliated to all moderate Apprehensions though differing in smaller things and to the strictest Notion of Churches II Book Liberty of Conscience in its order to Universal Peace Impartially Stated and proved to be the just Right and genuine effect of True Natural and Christian Religion in Immunity from Penal-Laws Church Censures and private Animosities A CATHOLICK CATECHISM SHEWING THE IMPOSSIBILITY THE CATHOLICK RELIGION Should be varied to the Degree of a Thought from the Measures left Sealed by the Apostles WITHOUT THE LOSS of TRUTH And therefore The Impossibility POPERY or whatever else is not found in Scripture should be CATHOLICK Composed to the Capacity of the Meanest that will but Consider that they may know and be ready upon un-movable Reasons to give an Apologie or Defensive Answer for the Catholick Religion if they are indeed of it and be secured from Temptation in Times of Danger 2 Pet. I. 12 The Present Truth Prov. 22. 21. That I might make thee know the Certainty of the Words of Truth that thou mightest answer the Words of Truth to them that send unto thee LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Call this A Catechism because I design it a Familiar Instruction in Fundamental Truths Resounding the same Thing from Question to Answer the easiest way of Conveying Truth and Imprinting it upon the Minds of those that are even of the meanest Capacity But especially because the Principles of it are to be daily so Meditated upon Pondered and Applyed to use as to be a perpetual sound in our Ears and so to be properly stiled Catechism For Things of such great weight as Principles are must have as the most Advantageous Admâ—ssion as the most Deep and therefore Leisurely Insinuation as the most Resolved Adherence when found True and Right which is Buying the Truth and not Selling it so they must have the most Easy and Ready Application to all their Uses and Ends They must therefore be bound continually about our Neck that when we go they may lead us that when we sleep they may keep us that when we wake they may talk with us Prov. 6. 21 22. I know the Things I have written cannot be duely received without much Thinking and without that they will be in danger of a Censorious rejection from the most or of a superficial unintelligent Acceptance in the Kinder which is as bad as the other and therefore I present it as a Catechism to those that shall at all approve it that they may be throughly versed in it and the Sense of it grow Domestick to them I call it a Catholick Catechism only with Relation to the Great Subjects it Treats of the Catholick Religion and the Catholick Church in those things wherein they are Catholick or in which their Catholickness consist That is that they are of God and that the whole Society of Holy and Happy Spirits is by that Catholickness united and closely banded with it self Catholick as the Epistles called Catholick that is after some Doubt Asserted to be Divine of the Publick Spirit of God and giving that Publick Doctrine in which the General Assembly is one I have endeavoured to contrive the Questions and Answers so that the Answers may be an Apology or Defensive Answer of that Catholick Truth giving a Reason or a Rational Account to any Demand that can be made upon it And it is the Apology of that Truth it self the Apology it gives and furnishes us with for other can no Man give Truth can need no other than its Native Apology for it self no other will it accept To give this and to be always ready to give it to keep it within us and to have it fitted to our Lips is the proper Fruit of such a Catechetical Instruction and the Apostle assures us it is the great Duty of Christianity and the greatest Honour we can do to God First to Sanctifie him in our Hearts by a full acknowledgment of him in his Divine Truth by a Plerophory or full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and
Because God to whom we properly and first Unite in Religion is the most Publick and Universal Being in whom all holy Spirits unite one with another and from whom whoever separates separates also from all good Spirits and so falls into the only dangerous Schism 2. Because the One God and Jesus Christ his Son our Lord the One Mediator would have all come to the Knowledge of this as the Catholick Truth that they might be saved and hath therefore reconciled and recapitulated all in Heaven and Earth into one Catholick Body in himself the Catholick Head 3. Because Gods Manifestations of himself are the only true Publick Authentick Records of this Religion and all other not derived from hence are private and false and the Meetings set up to celebrate any other Religion than thus manifested are indeed the close Schismatical Conventicles For none can be Publick Assemblies where God the supremely Publick and all holy Spirits withdrawn with him are not And all are Publick though but of two or three where God the Publick it self and in whom the whole Assembly of Saints meets is in the midst of them Quest Whence do you take occasion to call that Publick or Catholick that is Divine Answ From the Apostle Peter who when he is asserting concerning the certainty of the Scripture Prophecy affirms it a Principle absolutely necessary to be known that it is not of any Private Interpretation and that he may demonstrate it cannot be Private he avows the Original to be Divine Now the plain Opposite to Private is Publick in that therefore the Apostle does not oppose Publick but Divine to Private it is plain in his sense Divine is the only Publick and whatever is truly Publick is Divine and all else Private Quest How therefore are we to understand Private to oppose it to Publick or Divine Answ Idiotick or Private is applyed to persons whose Knowledge is very narrow and strait and they have cognisance of nothing beyond their little own 2. To those that have no Publick Character of Office or Magistracy And lastly to such whose care interest and concern is confined to themselves and their own Even thus Private is justly affixed to all except only to God and Religion as derived from him No created Knowledge either Angelick or Humane is comprehensive enough to be the Fountain no Power or Authority is supreme or vast enough to Enact nor is any care or concern for the world of Souls large or receptive enough to Ordain a Catholick Religion leading to a Common Salvation but his who is the Father of the whole Family of Spirits in Heaven and Earth Quest What Evidence of this is there Answ It is so much the Result of Reason that whoever considers it cannot deny it and upon this account all who have pretended to found a Religion have pretended some way or other to derive and receive it from God For who can know all that is necessary to be known but the Divine Mind and Spirit that knows and searches it self the Spring of all things and so first to be known Or what Authority can prescribe without much less against Omnipotency Or who can spread tender Mercies over all the Creation but the Faithful Creator himself All which are absolutely necessary to the Concernments of the truly Catholick Publick Religion Quest What are the Records God hath vouchsafed to men of this Catholick Publick Religion Answ They are two The Law ingraven upon Man's heart justified and sealed by the constant Miracle of Creation and Providence that carry semblable Lines of all that is written upon Mens hearts For that which may be known of God is manifest in men for God hath shewed it to them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead The Work that God commands Men to do is written in their heart their Consciences bearing witness and their Thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another The Eternal Word or Reason that made all things is the Light that lighteth the Reason of every man that cometh into the world Quest Which is the second Record Answ The second Record is Divine Revelation collected into Holy Scriptures All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine Reproof Instruction Correction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work No Prophesie of Scripture is of any Private Interpretation for Prophesie came not in old time by the Will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And even as the Law of Nature is seal'd by Creation and Providence so hath Revelation always been by Evidences of Divinity and Miracles a new Creation proportioned to the Ends of those Revelations Miracles of meer Power or Justice as upon Pharaoh of greatest Mercy and Benefaction only as by the most merciful Saviour of Mercy and sometimes of Justice as by Moses the Prophets and the Apostles who were to establish the Laws of the Old and New Testament Quest I perceive then all the things of Religion were not clear to Man by the Law written in his heart Answ No For some Parts of Religion are so necessary to our very Natures as Men that they were concreated with us and engraven upon our very Souls and the immediate motions of our Faculties must needs lead us to them while right and streight and continuing in that perfect state wherein our Creator left them For he looked upon all things that he had made and behold all was good and very good And he appointed a Sabbatism for all his Creatures and especially his Rational Creatures the Morning Stars to sing together and praise him for them But there are other Divine Truths which are as the breaking up of the Great Deep of the Infinite Wisdom Grace and Goodness of God that can be known to the highest Understandings of Angels or Arch-Angels only by Revelation Much less to Man a Reason of a lower Orb and least of all as fallen and corrupted Yet supposing the Souls of Men had abode in their first Clearness and Luster all his Faculties would have immediately received and adored God in all such Manifestations of himself and Congratulated those mighty Accessions of Light and Truth Quest But what need was there of any Revelation when Man was made perfect and good while he continued so Answ Revelation was even then necessary to shew that it is not consistent with the Nature of a Creature to have Happiness and Perfection within it self but to be in continual dependence upon and expectation from the Creator For even that Perfection wherein Adam was made was thus to maintain continue and assure it self and so to rise to higher Perfection He had therefore at first a Doctrine by Revelation sutable to the two Sacramental Trees so that though he was Perfect as such a
Answ By staying the due time upon the Uncontrovertible Doctrines and Commands of Natures Laws yielding full Obedience to God in them trembling to add any thing of baser Alloy to them A Man shall see Revealed Truth shining out upon Natural and joyning it self to it and with it Thus many of the Fathers came over to Christianity And so in all parts of Scripture by rising from the most Fundamental Truths lov'd and obey'd a Man shall ascend by due degrees to those more remote Thus Good Men in the Old Testament waited for the Kingdom of God and upon just Considerations moved upon the Line of Truth from the State of Religion in the Old Testament to that of the New except sometimes a Light shines suddenly round about Men as in extraordinary Conversions Quest You seem then to think False Religion and All Divisions in the True have most nearly sprung up from over-confidence of Things not of the Evidence of Publick and Divine Truth Answ I do so indeed although I know Mens not liking to retain Truth but being bewitched by false Imagination betrays them both to the Plague of Lost and Fallen Spirits warring under the Prince of our disordered Air the Ruler of the Darkness of this World and to the various Arts of Men who corrupt Religion for the Ends they have to serve themselves of by it I know Mens Faculties of Search Inquiry into and Comprehension of Truth are much shrivell'd and shrunk up I know Endless Doubts and Incertainties are brought upon Religion by Darkness and false Appearances to Souls that are so full of all the Reasons and Causes of Delusion within themselves and deserted by the just Judgment of God giving them over to believe a Lie I acknowledge all these Causes of Errour Yet I am assured the close Adherence to God in Truths evidently Divine and not removing farther into a Religious Esteem of Things till upon the same Evidence is the Means under the Conduct of the Holy Spirit to be secure from dangerous Errour or Schism from the true Publick And whatever is not so evidently Publick and Divine is liable to Private Interpretation and so to Errour And when Men are overweening upon Private Interpretation they easily fall into Errour and when they are surly and masterly upon it it moves Wrath Emulation Strife so that both Falshoood and Cruelty have entered in at this Door and rang'd over the World Quest But ought we to stupifie all Inquiry and benumb Judgment in every thing not evidently Divine Answ Not so but to behave our selves humbly and modestly to acknowledge there are vast Tracts of Truth and Knowledge beyond what we know but we must feel the Evidence of them before we can receive them yet to carry our selves with due concession to every Mans Sense that though their Sense cannot nor ought to master us no more ought we to expect ours should them which would exceedingly reconcile or abate Differences and retrench the mischievous Effects the World hath so long groan'd under by so many Religions of Nations Names of Churches and Persons propagating their Private that is not Divine Sense and that with Clamour and too often with rude Force Quest What are the Instances of the Mischief of making Defection from this Publick Catholik Divine Truth for Private Sense Answ The Angels Fall from Heaven was certainly upon Private Sense and Interest Adam's from Innocency and Paradise upon the same the Jews Fall from being the Church and People of God was upon the Idiotism of having Religion for their own All Idolatry and Superstitions of Heathens have risen from hence All the Heresies in the Church have come from an over-love to Private Opinion This is the most damnable Antichristianism of Rome to make its Private Catholick All Persecutions of Heathens Romes Inquisition and Massacres have been inflam'd in this Furnace the love of making Private Publick And in lesser and more unfundamental Points Private Interpretation enfore'd as if it were Publick hath discompos'd the Peace of the Purest and best reformed Churches and not only disturb'd their Peace but stain'd their Purity Quest I seem to my self in all this unhappy Babelism or Confusion of Religion to be very apprehensive for the Glory of God and Religion Answ It is most necessary to be zealous for Divine Glory and for the Honour of Religion that Rivers of Tears should run down our Eyes because of the Injuries done by Men to the Divine Law But yet to be so concern'd as to be scandalised is to forget that God is infinitely more the Publick than we are and therefore to be offended at his Disposes is to make our Private the Publick We must then consider that if God does not miraculously interpose it must needs be so it is no other than the Necessity of the Case Men moving with so great Disadvantages as the Active Soul of Man does in so great a Concern as Religion is in our highest Interest and as thereupon Men will make use of it in the present World it must needs be so There must be Heresies in Religion But that this Mormo or dreadful Apparition may vanish we must remember 1. That to the Soul humble and fearing God all that is of Grand Interest in Faith Worship and Practice is so Publick and evidently Divine that no Man need be ever learning and never come to the Knowledge of the Truth After this God hath given this Employment to those that through Office or Desire set themselves to seek and intermeddle with al Knowledge to travel with advantage to themselves and others in their Inquiries into the whole Compass of Divine Knowledge whatever Difficulty can be supposed to be in things of higher Advance to Salvation is resolv'd to them that do the Will of God as a Reward of their Obedience They shall know the Doctrines that are of God that rise higher towards Heaven than others The due and diligent Search after Wisdom is a Test upon the truly Sincere and well-resolv'd in Religion that have in them another Spirit as Caleb to follow God fully and do not as the Israelites bring up an ill Report on this good Land as if the Difficulties were unconquerable and the Entertainment Hungry and Barren through the many Disputes and Differences in Religion Hereby lastly the Conduct of the Free Spirit is seen leading into all Truth and the Unction of the Holy One by which the True Christian knows all things necessary to him to be known appears most desirable and necessary Thus the Wise and Holy Government of God who brings Light out of these Clouds and Darkness is made manifest and it is to be ascribed to the Infinite Perfection of Light with the Father of Lights who is without any variation or shadow of turning Quest What Rule is then to be observed in the great Diversities of Men in Religion that may most abound to the Honour of Catholick Religion Answ To own and embrace any thing we find in any Man or
Society of Men that is truly Catholick if it be but according to the Light of Natural Religion to joyn with them in the Performance of any of such Services so far as they will admit it and keep to the Simplicity and Sincerity of them according to the Instances before-named of Jonah and St. Paul And much more should we do this when True Revealed Religion is joyned with Natural if nothing be requir'd of us that corrupts and defiles it No Man's Errour in which we are not forced to communicate should drive us from Truth or any part of it And upon these Foundations we should endeavour to win further and further upon all to bring them home to God wherein they wander We should make Allowances to every Man differing in smaller things receiving him without conditioning him to subscribe to us in things of Doubtful that is Private Disputation If any one erre from the Truth and one convert him by Evidences of that Truth let him know that he that converts a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soul from Death and hide a Multitude of Sins But if we cannot be admitted to such Communions with those that are so enslav'd to False or would bring us under the power of Private or will have nothing to do with us nor admit us to them we must not yet desert our Catholick Respect to all that is True and Good among them but acknowledging what is so value and praise it desire the Divine Acceptance for them in any Good thing so as to bring them out of the Errours they have adjoyned to it and as you have opportunity reason them out of the one by the Evidence of the other CAP. V. Of the Publick or Divine Original of Sacred Writing or Scripture Quest SEeing Scripture is the only Publick Record of True Pure Natural Religion and more eminently of Revealed it is most necessary to be fully informed in all Points concerning it And first What Care God hath been pleased to take that his Word and purely that should be committed to Writing Answ God held the Hands and Pens of Holy Men by an efficacious overshadowing their Minds and conducting all their Motions that they could not erre In some things he so fully possessed their Understandings and Affections with a full Knowledge and Sense of what they were to reveal that they could not so much as muse any thing Strange or Diverse from what they were so carried and born by the Divine Spirit in even as Elijah in his Body In other things wherein they could not look round about them nor fully comprehend what the Spirit in them did signifie though they convey'd it to After-times yet they were by Almighty Impressions upon all their Faculties necessary to that Service held in stronger than Adamantine Consinements that they could not extravagate from Divine Truths Even Balaam thus overpower'd against his will could not go beyond the Word of the Lord to speak either Good or Evil upon the greatest Reward much less Holy Men whose Wills were perfectly resigned to the Divine Will Quest But was not there a Possibility those Holy Men Writers of Scripture might at other times when the Spirit was not so immediately present to them alter or add of another Alloy to what themselves had been the Instruments of conveying from God to the World Or might not Pretenders arise and give out False Scripture to the World that had none of that True Spirit Answ When once any Part of Divine Testimony was committed to Writing it became a Boundary to those very Penmen much more to all others that they were always concluded by it So that besides the Dread and Awe of God and of the great Sin of Falsification of his Truth or Name they could not alter any thing so as to disagree with what they had before spoken by the Divine Spirit whose Righteous Judgments endure for ever nor could they so much as imitate themselves when unassisted by the Holy Spirit When therefore they did not understand by immediate Assistance the utmost End and Reach of what themselves were enabled to speak and write they did and they could do no more search and pronounce by all the best ordinary Helps God afforded them but could change nothing could add nothing they searched what or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ in them did signifie they could not pronounce of the Time when not revealed to them They knew the dreadful Anathema ready to fall even upon an Angel from Heaven that should preach another Gospel The least Iota once established by Unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness was less movable than Heaven and Earth and would bear no Addition but of the same Authority by which it self was given And even the very Manner Method Words as they meet to carry such a Sense have their Majesty and Divineness so that whatever was by Inspiration from God bridled that which was not and they that were inspir'd knew in what they were inspir'd and what they spoke as so inspired and in what they were not but were as Samson with his Locks cut no more than like other Men and most cautiously distinguish'd betwixt the one and the other Nothing therefore hath assayed to joyn it self to Scripture if any hath dar'd to do it it hath been rejected by it when not of the High and Publick Spirit of it Quest But did not the Writers of the New Testament reverse the Writings and Commands of the Old which thing so scandalised the Jews against our Lord his Disciples and Gospel Answ No otherwise than as the Sun commands the Shadow to fly away and the lesser Lights to retire when it self appears or the things typ'd out being come make useless the Types so that they necessarily give place or as Pictures vail when the Life is present Else there was such a Respect to the Scriptures of the Old Testament in those of the New as to avow them of God before them and Elder Scripture than themselves so that they vouch'd them for all they said and taught and staid the time of themselves being tried proved and sufficiently confirmed and Canonized into Scripture by the Scriptures that were undoubtedly so before them and in the very same Methods that they came into the Honour of being Scripture Upon which account the Apostle calls them the more sure Word of Prophesie more sure because of greater Antiquity and Elder Reception into Scripture than that Historical Relation and Doctrine which yet was immediately to pass into Scripture of the same Authority and Value with former Scripture and of greater Evidence and Divine Clearness and recommended by Higher Appearances of Divinity And on this same account the New Testament derives it self from the Old sometimes by Proofs out of it drawn according to the most regular Trains and Consequences sometimes by more immediate and authoâ—â—tative Interpretation but of the same Publick and Divine Inspiration with the Prophecy of Old Time it self as shall
highest elevation is but Created and Created is not firm and sure enough for a Foundation nor can it raise an Assent noble and generous enough for a Faith in that which is Divine All that can be summon'd may be an outward Fortification or Introduction but the Rock of Truth is the Son of God Divinity it self Upon this the Church is built that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Quest But are there no Parts of Scripture that receive greater Service from Humane Testimony than others Answ There are some Parts of Scripture that are but Ministerial and almost Servile in comparison of others And that these are found in all Authentick Copies and have been delivered down from Age to Age with the Sacred Rolls may depend more upon Humane Testimony especially where the Connexion with the more Divine Parts is not evident For these being but as the Body and some of them of the more remote Parts from the Soul of Scripture cannot sparkle that Divine Light and Heat the Spirit of Scripture does and so may stand in need of borrowed Light from the Superiour Luminaries of Sacred Truth and in many Cases may like the Moon need Reflexions of Light from our very Earth but the Sun of Scripture receives the Highest Testimony by the strongest Reflexions of its own Original Beams Quest How comes it to pass that there are such different Degrees of Scripture-Excellency in the several Parts of it and that it is not one Even Form of Doctrine methodically laid together and of the same Tenour of Discourse Answ In this seeming Disorder appears the great Wisdom and Majesty of Divine Contrivance that without obliging it self to the low and even pedantick Laws of Humane Discourse it raises so great a Record of Truth upon variety of Occasions and by an Infinite Foresight predetermining to it self the several Measures and Ends of Scripture raises them out of a great variety of Accidents and in such an Order as seem'd best to it self for those Ends so as to give easie and ready Advantages to him that runs to read and gather Instructions of weightiest moment and also of quickest and suddenest sally upon his Mind of greatest aptness to fix upon the Memory without loading it and yet in the mean time to lay the Obligations of all Degrees of Search and Diligence to join one part of Scripture to another so as to comprehend the whole Complex of Divine Doctrine and extract the Order of History For by a most natural free and unaffected occasional way all Truths to make wise to Salvation and a complete Sum of all Goodness is to be found in Scripture with infinite Varieties of Address all the ways possible to the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Imagination suited to all Capacities States Conditions full of plain and obvious of most retir'd secret and farthestreach'd Wisdom which no Mind can fully grasp nor Tongue express And with these Things of main Importance runs along such a Chronology of the Dealings of God with the World and especially with his Church as serves the main Design All Learning and Knowledge in the mean time attending with lowliest Submission and not with pompous Appearance Now from this Supreme Dispose of all things to the Ends of God in Scripture out of such a variety of Emergencies of all sorts arises such a diversity of several Excellencies in the Parts of Scripture that yet all meet in that Great Center of the Glory of God in a Communication of his Counsels concerning Man and that turn round those Two Globes that little one of the present World a Point like this Earth and the other that vast Circumference of Eternity Quest But is there not as great a difference arising from the various States and Conditions of the Writers of Scripture and the so different Periods of Time they were upon Answ That there is and must needs be a difference is undeniable yet to the great Glory of Scripture and assurance it is from God even those smallest and lowest things last spoken of are all treated with all the Purity Gravity becoming the Penmen of the Holy Spirit and with all the Usefulness their Nature can extend to Even so the Holy Men used by God in this Service how various and differing soever in their several Ages and Times of writing in their Circumstances of State and Condition in this World High Low Rich Poor Learned Unlearned how distant soever in their Times of Writing in the outward Forms and Modes of their Worship of God in the Things that fell under their Account and Relation before the Law under the Law in the Days of the Messiah after his Death yet there is the same Spirit Scope Chastness of Style Majesty and Authority in the Contexture one Aspect upon the Glory of God Obedience to him Desire of his Favour as the whole Happiness of Man the same Reflexions upon the great Evil of Sin and the consequent Misery and even of their own Sins So that where any Combination or Conference to concert things was impossible yet there is such an Union without a set Uniformity as assures the One Hand of the Divine Spirit and Guidance upon All. Quest Is not the Church of God the Trustee and Depository of Sacred Oracles Answ It is so in Divine Ordination and the general Course of Providence but yet it adds nothing to them but receives all from them The Church is known to be the Church by the Scriptures not the Scriptures by the Church except declaratorily only The Church is the Pillar and Rest of Scriptures where God is pleas'd to fix them that they may be exposed to Publick View but their Authority is of God evident in themselves Quest Do we then attribute nothing more to the Church in which we were Baptiz'd and received the Knowledge of Religion Answ A very great Favour it is of God that when he writes up the People he counts that we were born within his True Church where all the Springs of Salvation run but as to the Proof of Religion or the Records of it it can be no more than a Private Proof For till we make a true Judgment by what is Divine and Publick and of God in the true Church it does no more than equal other Societies walking with Confidence and Assurance with great Awes and Devotion in the Name of their God in the Profession of their Religion Till therefore there is a Trial of every Religion and the Records of it all such Societies are upon the same Level When the Religion and Oracles of every Religion come to be tried and duely examined the Church of God rises to Heaven and all else except so far as they joyn in any Parts of the same Truth sink down beneath Quest But how can we know that every Book of Scripture is Scripture but by the Testimony of the Church or that we have all the Books of it but by the same Testimony Answ That the Books we own
for Scripture are Scripture and all of them so arises to our Assurance by finding the same Divine Spirit of Truth running through one as does through another For upon this account the True Church received them when first received and so transmitted them making the same Judgment successively in the several Ages as the first did the same Reason always continuing What is besides this is to be attributed to the Discerning of Spirits in all the Times while Scripture was writing by the due Exercise of which True Scripture was received and all other shut out for the Writings of Prophets was subject to Prophets and by them enroll'd into Scriptures That we have the same Scripture justly and faithfully consigned over to us from Age to Age is to be own'd and acknowledg'd to Divine Providence watching over his Church and Oracles together and conveying to us by the ordinary Security of the Churches Testimony the Precious distinguish'd not only from the Vile but from the less Precious also but yet we must have greater Testimony than this as hath been already urged Quest But how could we be assured we have all the Scripture were it not for the Churches Testimony Answ Finding so much Divine and no more of the same stamp in the World we may be concluded that way and abundantly satisfied that God will accept us in our Faith and Obedience to so great a Revelation When any measure of Divine Truth hath been adhered to sincerely the Danger hath always been greater in losing True Religion by corrupt Additions and the injurious Refusals of further Revelation come to pass more through the Prejudices of that Corruption than by humble and modest Suspensions till God hath assured us of his further Revelations But besides this we may easily find we must needs have the whole Globe of Truth and the Horizon of the Gospel gives us the whole Heaven or Kingdom of it as it is administred in this World so that all further Degrees of Light and Discoveries of it shall be but greater Clearnesses of what we already have in the main and Substance For if even the New Testament though it made so great a change did but thus compleat and illustrate Christ yesterday and to day the same how much more may we be assured who have the New it self so much excelling the Old as it every where assures us So that we can expect a Milennium or the New Hierusalem on Earth only for the highest Exaltation of what we now have till we come to Heaven it self Quest Do the various Readings so often bandied by Learned Men make no Abatement from the Certainty of Scripture Answ Those various Readings are such as excite and quicken Search and yet cannot distract the Doctrine being not able to alter the Scope Coherence and Design of the Context much less to change the Analogie of Scripture in other Places While therefore they do not that they take away the suspicion of Conspiracy they preserve from greater Corruptions by turning the Eyes of Men to look every way they shew how many excellent Senses dwell near the Divine Writing and the Bad are manifestly enough thrown off For in main things there is so much repeated and said over again and again as that all such Truths may be fully presented and assured and yet not so much be said as might be said of the same kind without any Tautology for the Subjects are so rich that even the World would be over-charg'd and not able to contain the Books that would be written Amen CAP. VII Of the Publick Interpretation of Scripture Quest THat the Progress upon this great Point may be made with the best Advantage it will be necessary to state the Amount of what hath been already asserted viz. That Scripture is a Publick and Divine Record and That the Proof and Evidence it is Divine is Divine and Publick also What therefore do these two Positions arise to Answ They arise plainly to this 1. That True Religion is at once given unalterably fixed on Monuments of its own and cannot receive the various Phases of Increase or Decrease like the Moon by new and upstart Decrees Canons or Anathemas 2. That Religion is in this Sense Publick even as God himself that it is of free and open access in the Scripture and its Entertainment as liberal as the Light and the Fountains of Water and no Man need wait till his Religion be drawn out of the private Repository of Breast or Breasts 3. That the Assurance and Evidence of Scripture is very near us when we come to treat with it so that we need not send up to Heaven that were to bring Scripture down from above when it is come down already nor beyond the Sea to oldest Antiquity for a Scale to it which hath always the Broad Seal of Divinity with it for that were to bring Scripture a second time from the Apostles and former Ages through which Divine Care and Providence hath already pass'd it down to us with the very same principal Assurance it gave them viz. that Divine Life of Truth and Holiness that cannot be far from any one of us for in it our Understandings and Consciences live and move and have their Beings and in that Light alone see Light Quest But hath the Private Spirit of Apostate Angels working by Corrupted Humane Nature made no Attempt upon this Publick Record though so every way guarded as it is to introduce a False Religion even under the Appearance of this Publick Authority of Scripture Answ Yes that very notorious one of Private Interpretation Answ What is Private Interpretation Answ That it may be well understood being a very great Instrument of the False Spirit we must proceed by degrees to the true Comprehension of it And first in the strictness of its Notion it is an affixing a Sense to Scripture or any part of it that does not so evidently and indisputably flow from Scripture as to partake of the Divinity of Scripture Quest How should an Interpretation be so made of Scripture as to partake of its Divineness Answ An Interpretation is as Divine as Scripture when it is the true evident Importance and Sense of Scripture Words and Scope and carries the perfect Spirit and Analogie of Scripture with it or is a Deduction and Doctrine arising from Scripture measured by the Context by its usual ways of expressing it self and the compare of one Place of Scripture with another so as to evince it self to be a just and necessary Consequence Quest What is the Effect of such Interpretations Answ Every one that soberly and impartially and piously attends to it cannot but be convinced and instructed by it as the true Divine Scripture-Sense opened and applied to him Quest How else may Interpretation be Publick and Divine even as Scripture it self Answ When there is truly a Divine Presence and such Motives of Credibility by which a rightly qualified Person may be induced to believe that such an
themselves They may then taste the Graciousness of God and the Gratefulness of Truth in them without imposing on any others who cannot see by their Light 5. Yea even in things controverted between Holy Wise and Good Men in Interpreting Scriâ—â—ure each part of the Controversie when both cannot be reconciled in their Sense yet supports and makes stronger to their Faith some grand evident Principles of Divine and Publick Truth in which both Sides meet and are firmly united and to which each reconcile their own Opinions wherein they seem to differ from such Principles or from one another and leave a Middle in which they may meet one another and wherein Persons unconcern'd in their Controversies rest Upon which Agitations yet follow great Illustrations and Confirmations of such Grand Principles and Enlargements of Knowledge by the very Traverses of Dispute among Men sincerely affected to Truth and who search into it without the Love of Contention without Bitterness and Animosity but humbly modestly and with largeness of Mind towards those that dissent from them 6. God the Friend of Universal Knowledge allows the Souls gratification of it self with probable Sentiments restrained within due Bounds that may grow from Scripture-Interpretation 7. And lastly Pardons the Infirmities adhering to Humane Transactions in this most necessary Duty of Searching the Scriptures and over-rules such Miscarriages yea and even the more malevolent Distempers of Men herein some way or other to Good and makes them oftentimes Servants to some great Points of Truth Quest All this that hath been described I confess agrees with so Publick and Catholick a Record as Scripture is A Record wherein every one that comes to it may search his own Interest and Concern in it and improve it to the utmost A Record that offers and exposes it self to be understood and closely inquired into by all But how is it secured from a multitude of Private Interpretations when so many Interpretations acknowâ—â—dgedly Private continually pass upon it Answ Herein it is secure 1. That Scripture is not of any Interpretation but it s own native Sense It is not under the Power of any other It stands free and clear far above all Interpretation of Men to be considered by any one in it self and not under such Interpretation Such Interpretation does not become Scripture nor bind any one under the Curse fixed on those that add to Scripture or take from it These Interpretations may be added to or taken from according as Men see Reasons of Scripture preponderating one way or other This is the Freedom of Scripture to suffer all due approaches to its Sense This is its most severe Constancy to refuse all but it s own true Sense 2. As Scripture is not of any Interpretation but it s own Native Sense so its Sense is of no other Evidence but of Spiritual Divine and truly Rational Evidence so that if any Man does not bring such proofs of Scripture Sense as agree with Scriptures way of Evidencing it self and Scriptures way is not that of Private Authority or Humane Imposition but of Divine Authority and Presence his Interpretation however true yet does not bind as it is his Interpretation or upon any other Recommendation but Scriptures proper ways of recommending it self I speak as to Wise Men judge ye what I say Quest What then is that Private Interpretation the Apostle remonstrates against Answ All Interpretation that brings no Credentials from evident Scripture-sense nor from Heaven of immediate Inspiration much more if False or Mean and impossible to be so derived and yet would impale and inclose Scripture within it self and impose it self upon the Consciences and Judgments of others and so bring them under Bondage That which forbids Men to Interpret for themselves though with utmost Industry and all the Assistance they can use and the Implorings of Divine Assistance That which gives out Private Oracles at pleasure and too often most False ones as if they were Scripture and for its own Private sake would lock Scripture from the possibility of being Interpreted even by it self sequestring it into an unknown Tongue from great Multitudes of all Nations professing Jesus Christ This is indeed Private Interpretation and adding to Scripture making another Scripture which yet is not another And thus are all lower Degrees of this Tyranny to be estimated according to their several Graduations in it imposing upon Men as from some Scriptural Authority what is not of the True Excellency Spirit and High Descent of Scripture nor manifested in Mens Consciences as Scripture manifests it self Quest Is it not then necessary in regard of the Confusion arising from the variousness and incertainty of every Man Interpreting for himself and without certain Divine Evidence that there should be some Infallible Publick Interpreter so Divinely assisted as you describe And is it not reasonable to believe there is such a one seeing we cannot suppose God is wanting to his Church in such a Necessary Answ 1. Scripture it self is such an Infallible Interpreter it being in all things necessary to Salvation both clear and certain to all but the self condemned Heretick or Ignorant 2. When there comes such an Infallible Interpreter bearing the Seal of such Credentials as the Scripture does we will receive him Till such an Interpreter so arm'd comes to us we are never the better for his Pretence to Infallibility But all that receive him are destroyed by him when he brings Falshood for Truth under so great a Title so that he becomes more an Apollyon or Destroyer of the Church than an open Enemy can be Quest Must we not then necessarily suppose great Tracts of Scripture lying like unknown Land for want of Publick Interpretation Answ That there may be so cannot be denied in Controverted or Prophetick Parts of Scripture Yet that God hath been pleased to communicate much useful Knowledge relating to them is most evident and most thankfully to be acknowledged to his Goodness and Bounty Quest What Expectation is there of a Full and Certain Publick Interpretation of all such Scriptures Answ It is not for us to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But most probably at the time of fulfilling the great Prophesies of the New Testament there shall be such exâ—raordinary Effusions of the Divine Spirit as shall expedite all Doubt and make every thing clear the Knowledge of which is not reserved for Heaven to adorn the Absolute State of Perfection there Quest Seeing by all that hath been said it appears how incongruous Private Interpretation is to Publick Scripture or that the Will of Man should be trusted with the one and not with the other What Account therefore can be given of Translations May not they bring in a Private Interpretation upon Scripture if not performed by an immediate Divine Assistance Answ Even as in the safe Conveyance of Scripture it self and preserving it pure from gross Falsifications so in Translations we must leave
God to be the Governour of the World and of his Church He hath been pleased to order the Conveyance of Scriptures into so many Languages by raising up many to travel in the Knowledge of all Tongues and the Keys of them as in the Originals to find out their Meaning and to transfuse them into all other Languages and that by so many of several Ages and Nations as makes all Combination to deceive impossible and Universal Deception next to impossible upon the Translators themselves These things are under his supreme Care It is enough to us there is brought to our Knowledge such an excellent Doctrine rising out of so many Divine Sayings and Discourses that are as so many Stars in the Firmament of Truth clear as the Luminaries of that name in the Heavens Why should we then be more than modestly and humbly concerned to know all the Ages they have pass'd through before they came to us or all the Secrets concerning their Motion and Appearance that he onely knows that calls the Stars by their Names It is enough they evidently and undeniably declare God to us and assure us by their Light by their regular Motion according to the Laws of Truth and Goodness that they are Stars the Greater and the Lesser differing one from another in Glory yet all Stars and of a truly Divine Lustre Certain and not Wandring Quest Let us now hear the Conclusion of this whole Matter Answ It rests in these two things 1. That the Evidences of the Divine Presence in the Scriptures and all the principal Branches thereof are as clear and certain and do satiate the Soul and its Faculties inlightned by the general Influences of the Divine Spirit much more by its sanctifying Efficacy even as the clearest Notions we have of Things do and much above them And that these Evidences are the same in the Original Scriptures and in the Translations for that they are indeed All Original and not capable of any Translation but make even Translation an Original 2. That as Scripture is such a Contexture and makes up such a Book God the supreme Governour of the Church and of the World in general hath always and does always take care of its preservation from such Corruptions as would injure those Evidences of Divine Inspiration he hath ingraven upon it not only upon the Substance but upon the very Contexture and the very same care he hath taken for the Conveyance of it by agreeable Translations to the several Nations in their own Tongue to whom he hath vouchsafed the Scriptures themselves or the Doctrine of them Quest Hath God wrought miraculously to these Ends Answ That need not be asserted but he hath by the ordinary Interposals of Providence watchful in every thing over its own Ends brought all to pass he in Wisdom thought necessary Quest What Visible Means hath Providence used for the securâ—â—g Scriptuâ—es against foul Corruptions Answ Continual and various Copyings of the Original even in the Days of the Writers in the very time of the Inspection and Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and downwards from them both by Manuscript and Print which various Copies being compared though they have not to the degree of a Mâ—racle agreed in Minutes have yet concerted the Substance Quest What care hath God been pleased to take with regard â—o Translations Answ Very eminent where it needed most For some Ages before the coming of the Messiah it came no doubt by Divine Superintendency which hath the Hearts of Kings in his Hands and turns them as the Rivers of Water into the Heart of a Great and Learned Prince of Aegypt to procure the Translation of the Divine Law into the Greek the then most known Language of the World Seventy two Seniors of the Jews as History most generally agrees the Learnedest in their Native Hebrew were employed in it This Translation was generally and publickly received among the Jews was approved by our Lord and his Apostles in several Quotations Hereby there was at once a Preparation of those Scriptures to the most Publick Notice an Assurance of the true Import of the Hebrew Tongue and an authorised Translation And in the same so known Greek Language wherein are reposed such Treasures of all Literature is added that most Sacred Roll of the New Testament And from that time have there been by the great Industry God hath excited Men to several Versions of the Old and New Testament into a great variety of Languages with strict Expository Researches and Criticisms upon all that concerns either the Readings or the Sense of Words and Phrases as well as the Doctrine contained in them by which there might be a freer Propagation of Sacred Knowledge and a Security against such Corruptions and Mistakes as might efface the Divine Image or any of the Lineaments of it in â—â—ese Records or their Translations however differing as I have said in minuter Things CAP. VIII Of Tradition and Antiquity Quest BY what hath been said Scripture and its Interpretation appear guarded by their own Divineness against all Private and Counterfeit as by Cherubims and a Flaming Sword turning every way But hath there been no Stratagem of the Adversary to undermine Divine Catholick Religion and the Authority of Scripture the Publick Record of Religion with its Publick Interpretation and yet that all these should seem still to rest firm upon their own Base Answ The great Enemy of God and Truth hath been wanting in no Artifice and therefore hath fallen upon that very Method inquired of that what could not be atchieved by denying Scripture by bringing in False Scripture or Private Interpretation monstrous to the Text all such gross Frauds being in some Times and Places exposed and exploded might be more successfully attempted and effected by yoaking Tradition with Scripture a Private Incertain Oracle with a Publick and Certain one and so avowed to be by the Traditionists themselves Quest What is Tradition Answ These four things concur to the making up Tradition 1. That from the Divine Authority of Scriptures and the True Religion of them which as hath been said it acknowledges it borrows not only Countenance but Occasion and more than that a shew of Reason and Necessity for it self 2. That it therefore endeavours to tack and joyn it self to Scripture and the Religion of it as necessary to compleat and fill it up or to provide something more requisite to that Religion that Scripture hath not provided for 3. That it having grown up from no true Root nor risen upon any just Foundation it hath stollen into its Authority and Reverence by being passed from Hand to Hand so long that its Elderliness looks like a Patent for that Authority and Reverence And its Original some Injudicious Devotion at the best not being easie to be trac'd it comes to be supposed or rather superstitiously to be suspected to be Divine and at length like a long-told Lie assuming to be Truth it takes upon it self to be
Divine and to curse all those that derogate from it 4. That having thus rivetted it self it by degrees like Pharaoh's Lean Kine eats out the generous and rich Sense of Scripture and devours the Authority of it and yet it self remains a jejune and starv'd Superstition Quest Who are the great Masters of Tradition Answ They that have under the True Religion set up some private Diana of Profit Honour or Worldly Advantage and cannot maintain it by that True Religion they eke out therefore with Private Tradition what may support it Quest What Antidote is there against the Mischief of Tradition Answ To cleave with full purpose and resolution of Heart and Soul to the Word of God and to that only to have no Religion nor any thing in Religion but what is enjoyned and recommended by Divine Authority in that Blessed Word of God and this is indeed to be of the truly Catholick Apostolick and Publick Religion Quest But is the Sense that hath now been given of Tradition the best Sense of it in Scripture-use Answ No it is not and the Consideration of a better Sense will much clear to us the Nature of Tradition When therefore our Saviour discoursed of the Commandments of Men delivered down from Hand to Hand subsisting only upon the Private Authority of the Elders not founded on the written Canon of the Old Testament at that time the only Rule of Faith Worship and Practice he always names Tradition in the ill Sense already given But when the Doctrine and Rules of the New Testament in those grand Points were just breathing from the Holy Spirit and not yet fixed in that abiding Canon Tradition is so long accepted in a good Sense The History of the Things done by our Saviour though most surely believed Luc. 1. 1. was first but delivered or tradition'd by Word of Mouth but afterwards written that the certainty of them might be more fully known to those that had been before Catechiz'd in them by Oral Tradition All the Ordinances of the Christian Worship were first Traditions 1 Cor. 11. 2. and the very Rules of Life were in Tradition 2 Thess 3. 6. But yet all these though they were Tradâ—â—â—ons delivered by those that were Commissioned immediately by the Holy Ghost and were themselves Eye witnâ—sâ—â—â— and Ear-witnesses of most Things they gave in Tâ—â—dition were yet not sealed so sure as the more sure Word of Prophesie because they were not yet written by Divine Inspiration though given out by it nor generally received and assured as so written till the due time of Trial by former Scripture had passed upon them The first Christians did therefore well to take heed to that former Scripture till they had the full Day of the Gospel as hath been before spoken If Tradition then was not so sure in the first and truly pure Times of it how much less would it have been sure afterwards if it had continued in Tradition All therefore of Doctrine in the New Testament was first prepared by Tradition laid in and proved by the Scriptures of the Old Testament either by direct Consequence or by Interpretation from immediate Revelation demonstrated as the First giving of Scripture always was by Miracles and so all at once and once for all consigned over to the Posterity of Christians by Divinely Inspired Writings so assured so confirmed as to leave no place for Tradition oâ— the Best sense There remains therefore nothing for Tradition now but its Ill sense Quest Why might not True Religion continue in Tradition committed all along to Faithful Men even as it did in â—â—e Custody of the Apostles and such Faithful Persons as they committed it to Answ Even in the time of the Apostles it was trusted no longer to Tradition than it must needs for the Apostle John the Survivor of them closed the Canon of the New Testament that was drawn apace into Writing all along But at that time there was such a continual immediate Energy or Efficacy of the Holy Spirit that Truth mov'd every way like Lightning and both by its direct and straight forward Motion in Doctrine and its reverse strokes in the Conviction of all Falshood Errour was blasted every way But when this Extraordinary Appearance ceased there was then no safety for Truth but in an unchangeable Written Word that was in such an extraordinary Season of Miracles and immediate Revelation setled and established under so great a Supervisal in the midst of so many Witnesses of all things by their Eyes and Ears and it being once written and always so secured by Divine Providence as hath been represented it always speaks the same Things in the same Words it first did Quest Why might not Divine Truth be committed some more Fundamental Parts to Writing and some according to variety of Occasion to Tradition Answ God to whom all Futurity is present who foresaw all that was necessary to be written before he had done writing cannot be supposed to commit his Will in part to Writing and that upon great Reasons and the same Reasons notwithstanding to leave a considerable part or so much as any one Branch obligatory upon the Conscience to Parol-Tradition For if he that offends in one Point is guilty of all there needs the same Authority and as well assured for one Point of Faith and Obedience as for all the rest 2. It is unconceivable what End Tradition unconsign'd by Scripture can serve that Scripture does not more fully and effectually take care for Publick Religion reserves nothing to be a Cabal for Private Interest within a close Cabinet or Conclave 3. Whatever is supposed to be entrusted to Tradition must either be the very same we have in Scripture and then Tradition is needless and superfluous for we have it in Scripture if we duly exercise our selves in it or it is more than Scripture hath declared and yet supposed to be of equal Authority with Scripture and then it must be a Motionary and Itinerant Word of God But where are the daily and continual Seals and Credentials Divine Tradition had and in a constant fresh Motion with it as it moves for so it had need be in so fluid a Thing as Tradition if it would pretend to be Sacred and so Divinely Inspired Tradition had while it continued in Tradition But what Reason can be given Tradition as we now speak of it was not incorporated into Scripture as was argued before Or that in so long a Course of Time it hath not been enroll'd into Scripture as the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles still was Seeing if it had all things else it cannot but want the Benefit of the Divine Contexture and Conveyance that Scripture hath in Words chosen and put together by Inspiration and the ready easie and certain Access to it by all For all are equally concerned in it Now seeing Tradition wants all these how can we accept it How can we look off from Scripture to pore upon Tradition or what hold
Divine The great use of Councils is therefore so to debate and bring things to a Result by a confluence of Wisdom and Learning that we may see Divine Truths in their own Light in Scripture-light to hold out which they are but ministerially imploy'd and not to impose upon any under the name of Publick for that alone is Publick that is Divine All Comparison of Privates among themselves must needs be lost in this Publick before which the greatest name of Publick is but as the drop of the Bucket and the small dust of the Ballance And the union with that true Publick makes the most Private a Publick and Separation from it the most seemingly Publick a most Idiottal Private And it were very happy if the Experiment hereof were not too evident in the Councils that have been how little Number of it self can Contribute to truly Publick or Divine yet the fitness of the Means is withall to be acknowledged as ordain'd by God CAP. IX Of the Church-Catholick Quest SCripture the Publick Record of Catholick Religion being thus far Established and Secured both by Internal Characters and External Care of Providence it still remains necessary there should be some stated Ordination of God for the Actuating this Record to its several Purposes and Ends. 1. Because Divine Revelation having now finished its measures there cannot be expected those immediate motions of Truth that were vouchsafed by God in his extraordinary Presences but all is to be deriv'd from and display'd in Scripture 2. Scripture yet being but of the nature of a Record it would lye still and unmoved and as it were dead if not produced and applyed even as other Laws and Records do that are not continually executed to their proper Vses be their Virtue never so great if so Executed What therefore is that Ordinance of God in the Cessation of Immediate Presence for the exposing this Record to its universal notice and for the applying it daily to its great purposes which is the Executing it as far as it is to be Executed in this World Answ God hath by his extraordinary Ministers whom he gave his Divine Revelation and Word first founded the Church and according to the Degrees of that Revelation exalted it to be serviceable to this great End and so to supply the place of Immediate Presence Quest What is to be understood by the Church Answ The Church is The Catholick Congregation of Mankind called to the Faith and Obedience of that Word it self and which being called it self is entrusted to call others to the same Faith and Obedience and so is Govern'd and Governs according to it by daily Exercises in and according to that Word Quest Why do you give the Church the stile of a Congregation are not the Parts of it so distant that they cannot be Congregated in the Worship of God Answ They are yet all so united in the Faith and Obedience of this Sacred Word and in the Worship of God according to it as to be most properly called a Congregation in that regard Quest But still how can the Church be called a Congregation seeing that speaks it always actually Congregated but those very Members that in regard of nearness one to another are at due seasons Congregated cannot yet be always Congregated Answ The Twelve Tribes of Israel that is the Church in its several Members always united always ready to the Instant serving God Day and Night are beheld and seen by him as in a perpetual actual Congregation Quest Why do you call the Church The Congregation Answ Even as Holy Writing is The Scripture and The Bible or Book so the Church is The Congregation by way of Eminency the only Excellent Assembly or Congregation in the World And indeed upon a true account there is no other Religious Congregation but either a rude Multitude or a Conspiracy and Faction against God Quest Why is the Church said to be a Congregation called by the Word Answ Because Humane Nature uncall'd lies in the Lapse of Separation from God in Private and False Religion and in those Assemblies justly branded as before till it be recalled by him into the Church united again to him So that a Church is not a Natural but a Supernatural Assembly yet it is ready to embrace all true Nature anâ— the Associations of it into it self Quest Why is the Church describ'd to be One Catholick Congregation when both Scripture and daily Observation assure us there have been and are so many Particular Congregations very Regular Churches and duely so styled Answ Because the Church is of the Nature of those Things that are distinguished only by the several Accidental Receptions they find and yet still remain One the Catholick Church and a Particular Church differ no otherwise than as a Beam of Light differs from the whole Globe of Light or a Stream of Water from the Ocean Even the most Particular Church is in this regard Catholick that it is united to God and Christ that indeed give both the Name and Nature of Catholick from themselves Particular Churches yea even Particular Persons truly of the Church have every one the whole Character Title Promise and Privilege of the Catholick Church so far as they can need or receive them even as Heaven is Entire Heaven to every single Glorified Soul Every Lively Member of the Church touches the Head and Corner-stone and so in him the whole General Assembly and Church of the First-born both in Heaven and Earth and is at last consummate with them to Eternity Quest How is this Church Congregated Answ It was begun and hath always increased by Particular Persons converted and brought home to God according to his Word in several Ages and Successions For the Church as it is a Church is not a Society formed by a common Consent of Men or by their Will but its several Parts are added by God so that it consists of all that are inwardly and truly of that Catholick Religion in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Eternal Spirit all the World over and in which meet all that have been are or shall be thus converted by the Word of God as the Church is and shall be triumphant in Glory Quest The Call then that makes this Congregation is first to God and Christ and not to the Church it self Answ It is evidently so All true Converts first give themselves to God and Christ and by vertue of That to the Church The Apostles were not sollicitous of any other Conjoyning Men to the Church than what most necessarily followed upon their receiving the Gospel and were afraid of their fixing upon them that were but Ministers and Servants We preach Jesus to be the Lord and our selves Servants for Jesus sake The Corinthians heading themselves under Paul or Apollo or Cephas was very mischievous and therefore the Apostle knowing the Union ought to be only to Christ directs himself so vehemently against it as also against any
fanciful Distinction of themselves under Christ as an ordinary Chief of a Party and not as the Divine Head of the whole Body in the Catholick Truth Even as he erred that vulgarly called Christ Good not knowing him to be God the Supremely Solely Good Quest Are they all true Converts that are of the Church Answ All that are indeed the Church are so but all that may appertain to the Church are not so as all that were of Israel were not Israel There is a visible Profession that is too often not sincere yet this makes Men Of or belonging to the Church but not truly The Church Many are so called that are not chosen But all that are truly The Church are also truly called and truly Converts not only outwardly and visibly the Church but inwardly and invisibly so too whose praise is not of Men but of God In the mean time they that are onely of the Visible Church have the Means of Grace and are not thrown out of that Register of God's People till the Final Judgment cuts them off A very great Benefit in it self Quest Is not the Church then so Catholick or General as the Profession of the True Religion is Answ The Catholickness of the Church as hath been often inculcated is its Union to God and Christ and that in sincerity As to the general Profession though the number of it be as the Sand of the Sea a Remnant only shall be saved For God will finish the Account and cut it short in Righteousness for a short work will the Lord make in the Visible Church There shall be an often eating or brousing it off a retrenching of it again and again it shall cast the Leaves of its meer Professors as the Teyle-tree or Oak when yet their Substance is in them the Holy Seed are the Substance of it Isa 6. ult not losing them it loses nothing Quest In what sense is it then said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Answ It is undoubted none can fail while they are the Church while united to Truth to the God of Truth to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life It is also certain from this high Declaration there always shall be a Church in the World so united Hades or Mortality shall not prevail over it and how much farther it assures the Perseverance of those that are once truly the Church I leave the thing it self to speak It is said They that overcome ar Pillars that never go out of it and They that go out of it were not of it for if they had been indeed of it they would no doubt have continued with it And how the Church it self shall always continue if any True Member of it may perish is not easie to conceive Quest How is the Church ordained by God to actuate Scripture as it is the Record of Catholick Religion Answ The Apostle in his Noble Description of the Church hath laid the Foundations of our Instruction herein in those three Honourable Titles he hath given it 1. That it is the House of the Living God 2. That it is the Pillar of Truth 3. That it is the Ground of Truth Quest Before the Explanation of each of these Titles in the first place I desire it may be determined whether these things are spoken of the Catholick or of a Particular Church the Particular Church of Ephesus Answ Although I have already affirmed That the Catholick Church differs from a Particular True Church only in the Compass and Comprehensiveness of it yet I very willingly represent it over again in this Instance These things are truly applied to the Catholick Church to the Particular Church of Ephesus to every Particular Church nay it reaches down to every single living Member of the Church so far that God makes his abode with him dwells in him he is a Pillar in the House of God the Truth rests and dwells in him and shall be with him for ever so that he is a Ground of Truth and hath more of the Church in him than greater seeming Portions of it that erre from the Truth Quest If you please now to proceed in the Explanation of these Titles and first What is the Importance of the Churches being the House of God for the actuating the Scripture Answ God the most High Possessour and Owner of Heaven and Earth places his Court Family and particular Residence where he pleases and he hath chosen the Church to be this to him This is my Rest here will I dwell for ever for I have desired it Heaven is my Throne Earth is my Footstool where is the House you will build me To this Man will I look that trembles at my Word And where God dwells there he manifests himself As a Master of a Family makes known in his House and Family his Nature Will Laws and Government so God does in his Church In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel In his Church he shews the Light of his Countenance expects and rewards Services as a Great Master and makes known his Dislikes and Displeasure This is brought to pass in the Church by those many Ways that God hath of bringing his Word to any Places or Persons giving it Reception among them and then stirring up his Children and Servants to hear his Voice to search his Mind and Will and to understand it so that it is as a Voice continually behind them In his Temple therefore in his House every one must needs speak of his Glory His Word cannot lie still for all are concerned to meditate ponder inquire and discourse of it and are by Supreme Management excited so to do and so much as this Exercise in his Word is by any means depressed so far God is withdrawn and the Excellency of the Church-state lost Now of the Church being the House of God there was this great Type God dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem as in a Palace there was such a Diet of Shew-bread changed every day of Sacrifices of all sorts such Perfumes of Incense and Odours such Officers and Servants attending continually such Resorts of the whole Body of the People to the Court of this Great King and Princely Housholder Together with this State runs along in a mighty Stream Gods shewing his Word to Jacob his Statutes and Judgments to Israel In the New Testament the Pomp and Ceremonial Part is wholly transferred into Spirituality but Spirituality is not lower but higher in the Substance of all that could be figured by these things and the substantial part of that State the Communication of the Word of God is much exalted in the true Christian Church that the Light of One Day is now as much as the Light of Seven was before Thus the Church as the Family of God cannot but actuate his Word Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Pillar of Truth Does the Church support Truth Answ Not so for it self is built upon the
find the Truth by it self and then the Church by that Truth and not the Church by it self and then the Truth by the Church Answ Very true For God hath so in his Infinite Wisdom establish'd the very Nature of Things Truth can give many Assurances of it self to us by it self so suited to our Faculties The Church can give us none but by its agreement with Truth revealed in the Word of God We could not have known such a Congregation as the Church at all to be much less which it is but by that Word manifesting it self in our Consciences and so distinguishing to us the True Church among the many Associations in the World each calling to us as having the best Religion among themselves Even the True Apostles themselves could be known to be so and False Apostles tried and found Liars no other way but by this Truth view'd and considered singly and distinctly by it self Quest But when we have found the Church by the Truth may we not then deliver up our selves wholly to the Church as so united to Truth Answ No by no means We can never so deliver up our selves nor will the True Church desire any such thing of us seeing its Office is not to hold out it self but the Word of Truth and in doing any thing else it acts not as a Church but as any other ordinary Society and on no other Terms can we have to do with it For the very Attempt to hold out as a Church any Laws of its own ought to enter us into a Jealousie whether it be the True Church which is as a Church the Pillar and Rest of Divine Truth only Quest What Reason is there of such a Jealousie when once we have found it a Church by the Truth it holds out Answ Because a Church that hath been a True Church may several ways decline from its State Quest How then can it he said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Answ That Prophetick Promise does not secure this or that Particular Church but that there shall be a Seed of the Church in the World with which the Covenant of God is Eternal My Word shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed or thy Seed's Seed for ever But it is yet further true the True Seed the Holy Seed the Substance of the Church can never utterly and finally fail in any Particular Member of it for if it could it were too great a violation of our Saviour's Truth in that Declaration The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church or force that Immortal retrograde into Mortality even that most dreadful one of the Second Death for which a Succession of others and in the same Danger is but a faint Salvo though it go on so to the End of the World Quest Who are this True Church in every Age and Place Answ They which are by True Saving Faith united to Christ the Son of God the Rock of Eternity and being so founded upon him are Pillars that never remove and a Rest of Truth for ever having been taught and learnt it as it is in Jesus Quest Who are the Professionary Church only Answ They that though they may as Artificial Pillars give some Ornament to the House of God and offer Truth yet not being indeed united to the Foundation are movable and may go out of the House They are such as have not received the Truth in the Love and Obedience of it within themselves and so may fall away from it It cannot be said of them as of the former The Truth shall be with them for ever having made its Edrâ—â—â—ma or Settlement in them Quest How does the Professionary Church fall away in the Bulk and Body of its Professors and Profession Answ The Office of the Church being to Actuate Truth and only Truth it may fail either in abating the Fervours due to Truth though nothing False or Forreign be admitted or in receiving Falshood or things of a baser Alloy for Truth and wasting those Fervours due only to Truth upon them The one may be called a departing from the true State of a Church the other from the State of a True Church and they usually meet one in another Quest How does this come to pass Answ From the Judgment of God upon the present sinful State permitting things so to themselves that in very few Instances it is but that the Imperfections of Good Men and the prevailing Corruptions of Professionary Christians change the Holy Lively Activities of the True State of a Church into Lukewarmness and Formality or by admitting Falshood and impure Mixtures into Doctrine Worship and Discipline corrupt the State of the Church so that it loses its Truth Quest What becomes of the Professionary Church when it loses the True State of a Church Answ It is as the Prophet expresses a Civil State or a City that hath lost its Splendour It becomes like a burnt Mountain or extinguish'd Globe of Light It retains the Form but loses the Life and Vigour of a Church like Ephesus that lost its First Love or Sardis that had a Name to live but was dead or Laodicea that was neither cold nor hot Quest What becomes of it when it is corrupted and loses in its Truth Answ It exchanges the Lively Oracles for Forms of Doctrine and Lifeless Discourse not of the High Spirit of Scripture It debases pure Worship into Ceremonialness Superstition or Idolatry and the Gospel Rule and Discipline it sells for a Worldly Politie and the true Graces of Christianity expressed in a Holy Conversation for what is much beneath or contrary Sometimes it forsakes Truth in some Fundamental Article that it swells out from the Foundation in a Breach ready to fall And there is one Instance of all these in the Anti-Church which will deserve a greater Consideration Quest How does God deal with such Churches Answ Sometimes sweeps them with the Beesom of Destruction taking away both the Candlestick and Place of it together Alienes Both to them and their Religion thrusting them out of their whole Possession Sometimes he suffers them to continue even for Ages yet so that their Candlestick is moved out of its due stately Positure hardly appearing like a Candlestick and that by the Indignation of God Quest In these Cases how does it fare with the True Holy Seed the Substantial Church Answ God chastens them to Repentance Self-purification and greater Zeal in that Case of the Churches losing its Brightness and Vigour that they may recover their first State and Work aad sets them on work to retrive Truth lost in that other Case of the Churches Defection Quest How is it with them when the very Place and Candlestick are taken away Answ They are either first removed into the higher State of the Church in Heaven or driven before into other Parts of the World by Persecution or the violence of the Judgment makes no distinction but carries
digest their Reason and take in the Light they judge by so as to make it their own else if they cannot find their Reasons nor acquit themselves from doubt they must suspend For a Christian is Commanded by his Lord to call no Man upon Earth Master or Father Quest What is the meaning of that Answ It is this very Thing that we should receive nothing as Doctrine or Indisputable Truth or Precept upon any Man's Word that does not offer such Reason and Authority from God and his Word that we our selves see Reason not to receive it as the Word of Man but of God Quest But is it not said that they that have the Rule over us watch for our Souls as they that must give an Account for the same If we are not to believe them and surrender our Judgment to theirs how can they give an Account Answ They that Rule over us watch for our Souls and must give an Account as Ezekiel's Prophets and Watchmen by giving Warning laying Truth before us offering the sincere Word of God in all Cases the success of which upon Souls Converted and Saved is their Crown and Glory and their unsuccess lookes like a sorrow to see those Souls lost for whom they laboured in vain and spent their strength upon them for nought yet so that if they have been faithful though without success their reward is with the Lord and their Work with God But notwithstanding this every Man is so to account for his own Soul that the very success is not a Blind Obedience to Rulers but as is said a Receiving the Word not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God And if these Watchmen neglect their Duty or Seduce instead of Teaching Men are to apply to better Means afforded by God and if they do not they still die in their Iniquity and following their Blind Leaders fall into the Pit which is an unanswerable Argument that we may trust in no Man but in God only For if an implicit Faith could be a saving Faith it should save those that followed such Guides though they themselves were justly Condemned in not discharging their Trust Quest But were not the Apostles and Prophets to be Trusted at a higher rate than thus Answ No There were such evident Marks of Divine Doctrine always given by God to those that desired to Know Love and Obey him that even the very Prophets and Apostles were not to be received without them nor to be believed but according to them nay to be plainly Anathematiz'd if they varied from it Christians were therefore to judge to try the Spirits to search the Scriptures whether the things spoken were so to have recourse to undoubted Principles of Truth that were as standards to all that came after besides the Unction from the Holy One whereby they were inabled to know all things necessary to Salvation Quest But is not all Humane Teaching and Instruction hereby taken away and what becomes of the Ministry the Eldership of the Church and their Rule Answ They are all hereby Established for they are the Ordination of God to this very purpose to make Men see to bring them Light to clear things to them that by the awakening their Judgments the summoning and collecting their Principles they may see with their own Eyes the ways of God and Religion the Holy Spirit graciously adjoyning it self to their Ministry They have no Dominion over their Faith but are helpers of thier Joy that is they facilitate and make pleasant the knowledge and assurances of Religion and they Rule by Exhorting Admonishing Rebuking Comforting and even Commanding in the Evidences of Divine Authority on Account of which they are to be obey'd and highly esteemed for their Works sake Notwithstanding all this no Man is excluded from his own Office to himself for every particular Christian is in some Sense a Congregation and Preacher to himself as Solomon his Conscience hath the Keys binds and looses within it self nay Christians are not excluded from Rule in the Church when they have the Word of God on their side they may plead and reason with their Mother Hos 2. 2. When they have more understanding than their Teachers or the Rulers Rule not according to the Word of God they that speak according to the Law and the Testimony even Rule their Rulers and prove the more noble Organs of the Church when those that should Rule it are as the Idols Eyes that see not Ears that hear not or as the Idol Shepherd a Blast is upon their Right hand and Right-eye that their Arm is clean dried up and their Eye utterly darkened the most naked unfurnished Christian with outward Accomplishments that yet knows the Word of God is among the Prophets in such a time of necesity CAP. XII Of Schism and Scandal Quest FRom the precedent Discourse of the Church I conceive the truest Notion of Schism may be deduced I desire you therefore to Explain what the true Nature of Schism is Answ The Question concerning the Nature of Schism follows very pertinently upon the right settlement of the Nature of the Church now the whole Being of the Church consisting in its Union to God and Christ in Love according to the Truth of his Word and that it receives all its Members into Union with it self by their being first united as it self is Schism which is Division must needs in its strictest and most formal Notion be a Division from that Truth wherein the whole Church is one and so from the Love consequent upon such an Union Quest What is that Truth of the Word of God in which the Church is One Answ The Truth of the Doctrine of God or the Unity of the Faith of the Son of God in things to be believed and the Truth of his Law and Commands in things to be done Quest How is the Love of the Church Vnited in these Answ It is a Love in the Truth and hereby we know we Love the Brethren when we Love God and keep his Commandments John Epist 2. No Love how great soever is Christian-love nor Union how close soever Christian-union if it be not in the Truth and Commandments of God From whence it necessarily follows the Schism that is a Schism from the Church must be a Disunion from the Faith of the Scriptures and the Love springing from that Faith and there is no danger of any other Schism from the Church as it is a Church Quest How does Schism differ from Heresie Answ Heresie in the highest Sense and worst Sense of it is a Disunion from Truth in some Fundamental and Grand Concernment of Religion either in the Doctrine or Commands of God so that a Man is subverted and sinneth and must needs be Condemned of a Separation from the Assembly of Truth both by himself and the Thing it self and that both as to Faith and Christian-love he is so separated Schism is a Disunion in some less momentous parts
of this Truth under an apprehension of a greater moment than there is indeed in the Causes of such a Disunion and a proportionable abatement of Christian Love arising from it All Heresie therefore includes Schism but all Schism does not rise up to Heresie Quest Are these the Scripture Notions of Schism and Heresie according to its use of those Words Answ They are most agreeable with the Sense of it but the words were not so set solemn and formal in Scripture as afterwards in Ecclesiastick Writers for Dichostasyes or Division into two or more Parties and Contentions are by the Apostle used to the same Sense as Schism and Heresie sometimes signifies no more than a Sect or Division though that is remarkably used in its worst Sense by both the Apostles Paul and Peter Quest Is every different Apprehension and Practice ensuing upon it though distant from Truth immediately to be Condemned of Schism Answ By no means if it be a Modest and Humble Distrust and Suspension concerning the Truth and Command of God in some things of smaller moment and doubtful yea though it comes to a positive Determination so far as a Man's judgment and yet erroneous can at the present discern it cannot be branded as Schism if there be no stress laid upon the Thing beyond its desert if the Union in the greatest and clearest Truths and Commands remains firm and the Love due to such an Union with the Church of God be sincere and fervent yea even Dissent in greater points thus qualified and free from ill practice hath not been rigidly censur'd for Heresie Quest Is there no danger then of running into Schism if there be an Vnion with Truth Answ In this Sense only when the weakness or misapprehension of others are rated against them beyond their Merit and without regard to the greater Truths they agree in and the Love due to them upon Union in those greater Truths is withdrawn or the Spirit of meekness in endeavouring to restore the Erring Christian denied This may be justly esteem'd like Schism as it recedes from the just value of Great Truths and from the Charity of Christians upon Union in them but no Man is to espouse any Mans Errors or to receive even Truth by an implicit Faith for fear of Schism in things that carry not a broad Evidence of Divine Truth there is great scope for Modest Suspensions and even Dissents without Imputation of Schism for Truths of magnitude either in Doctrine Worship Practice or Discipline are too bright to be refused by sincere and honest Minds after due admonition Quest Wherein lies then the great Evil of Schism Answ That Schism and the Evil of it may better be understood I will set before you the several Instances of Schism in Scripture and the Evils noted by the Apostle in each of them 1. The first sort of Schism is the Disunion in the sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and bringing in upon it the necessity of the Judaique Rites to concur with it This the Apostle to the Romans Rom. 16. 17. calls making Divisions or Parties beside or contrary to the Doctrine received The great Evil of this adding to the Word of God is that it lays Scandals before Men and draws them into this great mischief that instead of the pure nourishment of Divine Truth all runs into this over-beloved Sentiment and so deprives the Soul of the true and vigorous Spirits of Truth and also the Service due to True Christianity is drain'd away and consumed upon this private Opinion which is indeed the mischief of all Falshood in Religion and Devotion in Things not appointed by God who only can prescribe what is truly fitted to our Good and bless it with suitable Effect Miscarriage from Divine Truth is always found in Schism with this mischievous Consequence that it deceives the Soul with a Cloud and Wind instead of Truth and solid Good 2. A Second kind of Schism the Apostle Notes 1 Cor. 11. 19 20. was the Disorder in Divine-Worship in that great Ordinance of the Lords Supper wherein they that were reprov'd were necessitated to withdraw and to stand apart for the manifesting themselves in the purity of that Worship and Service for the very honor of it The great Evil of this Schism is that it brings in a necessity of divided Parties in Publick Religion and the Duties of it seeing good Men must separate from such Corruptions and stand at a Distance from them on Account of which Religion it self is dishonoured as if it were a Jumble of Sects and gave an uncertain sound and further than that is charged as if it were but a Sect it self because it stands by it self Thus Christianity was called This Sect and the Sect of the Nazarenes Idolatry damns the True Worship of God as a Heresie from it self and the False Church charges the truly Publick-Assembly with Schism and a Private Religion 3. Another Degree of Schism the Apostle taxes in the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 11. c. 4. 3. was that this one intire Profession of Christianity in the one Universal Church of Christ they thought ought to be shred into little Fraternities under the Names of some prime Minister of Christianity or even under the Name of Christ himself as an ordinary Master of a Party except we will understand that Those Approved who stood firm in Christ alone were manifested and stood alone by being at a distance from the Schism of others and so appeared as was said before like a Schism themselves Thus vain Philosophy parcell'd out it self under its great Masters The great Evil of this is that it raises Feuds Contentions and Factions as if this one Integral Christianity could have distinct Interests and some ingross one Interest others another Whereas the Apostle thus reduces this Schism all Ministers saith he with all their Gifts Graces and Functions are the whole Churches without any cantoning other than that Order and Conveniency requires the more constant administration of Religion in certain Congregations with their Elders Cephas the Apostle of the Circumcision was the Corinthians though Gentiles as well as the Apostle of the Gentiles Paul himself and not only the Churches Ministers â—ut the whole World and the Cargo of Light and Truth in it are the Churches Every Truth every Ordinance every Minister whâ—ther of Truth Natural or Revealed Religion with all the happy Effects of them are all the Donation of Christ to the Catholick Church whose the Catholick Church is and no Ministers whatever and Christ is Gods who is the Foundation Center and Supream Head of this Unity and Union 4. The last Instance of Schism I find in Holy Scripture is intimated to us under that curious Parable 1 Cor. 12. 12. of the Wise and Excellent Temperament betwixt the several Members of the same Body set in different Degrees of Dignity the less comely parts have more abundant Comliness and those that we think to be less Honourable on these we bestow more abundant
to do from that very time of the Apostles to this Day and hath also actuated the Truth of the Scripture and those Fundamentals of it according as its Interest hath led it in some Ages more in some less as shall be presently more discovered Quest Having then the Scriptures those Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors upon them in such a length of time with what reason can it be looked upon as an Anti or Antichristian-Church Answ With very great reason because by a multitude of Additions fowlest Idolatrous and Superstitious Corruptions and false Interpretations upon the Scriptures the Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancients shamefully interpolated and by Spurious Writings under their Names despited it hath turned whole Christianity into a very contrary thing to it self while therefore it holds those points of Christianity and the Records of it in veneration and yet supports all its Falshoods thereby it becomes perfectly an Antichurch or Antichristian It hath in regard of those Articles of Truth it holds and actuates so much as to have the Name of a Church and Christian and yet having them so falsified corrupted and changed from themselves it becomes a Mock-Church a Mock-Christianity that is an Antichurch and Anti-christian in despite of the True-Church and True-Christianity And as to its Actuation of Truth it hath so Actuated Truth as to Actuate by Truth its own Falshoods and Lies upon Truth Quest How then did it rise to such an Eminency and pretence of being Catholick and Publick Answ The many Concurrences of Divine Providence under his deep and unsearchable Judgments in the Government of the World in relation to that state he had appointed for his Church I leave to the History of the Church and Roman Empire in those times by which may be understood how the Papacy took the advantage to Exalt it self not only above the Episcopal Chairs then in an Ambitious Contest for Supremacy but above all that was called God that is the Imperial Power it self and so set its Foot upon the Necks of Christian Princes throughout the World till the great Cheat began to be detected and all this by and upon pretence of being the Vicar of Christ or the Head of the Catholick that is the Roman-Church Quest These things I confess not so convenient to my Inquiry I desire only to know how in the middle of so many horrible Corruptions this Antichurch could be so bold as to vaunt it self the Vniversal Church of Christ Answ Taking the utmost benefit of its Antiquity in the Christian-Faith and Fundamentals of it and especially of the Conspicuousness and Famousness of its State and in the mean time the Corruptions growing up by degrees and not so observably as at once for Papal Rome was not built in a Day It usurped the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as its own the Key of Knowledge in its Infallibility the Keys of Power in opening and shutting Heaven Gates so as that in the Darkness then overspreading the World and the Church Ignorance the Mother of False-Devotion so bewitching the Minds of Men that they all wondered after the Roman-State as new modelled under the Beast Arm'd with two Horns like those of a Lamb counterfeiting Power from Christ the Lamb but that spake as a Dragon pursuing all its pretendedly Christian Decrees with the extreamest Salvageness of any of the greatest Earthly Tyrants but all under a Mask of the Catholick Apostolick Church by which Fascination of Zeal to the most excellent Religion though so Vitiated Princes and People Surrendred their Power to this great Sorceress using at once all the Frauds and Cheats of False-Prophesie and the Arts and Policy of the most Designing Universal Monarchy Thus while this Antichurch stole into Power by the best appearances of True-Religion and secured it by all the Blandishments of a Meretricious Religion it found it self so strong as to force its False-Religion by its Power and using both together raised the Grandeur of both a Secular and Spiritual Tyranny to such a height Quest But how did the True-Church in this time Actuate Truth or agree with those Characters of being the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ It was by the might and prevalency of this Secular and Spiritual Tyranny so suppressed that it was in a manner known only to God who reserv'd a number to himself in the midst of so great a Defection wherein that promise was made Good the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church Exposing and Actuating Truth pure from those Corruptions is hardly and very hardly to be found in History in any of the Lines and Motions of it in the most dark and dolesom period of that Defection Quest How was it with the True-Church recovering it self from this great Darkness Answ God raised up by extraordinary Measures of though but an ordinary presence such who by Indefatigable searches into his Truth and Word and those Records of Christianity that Antichurch was concerned to preserve because as was said it could not without so much of a Church be an Antichurch and by bold Publications of it shook so that Inchanted City that a tenth part of it fell And by the great contrivance of Providence even the chief of that Antichurch were forc'd by way of Repercussion to raise greater Light by endeavours to defend themselves from Scripture Antiquity and Reason by the Summons of all that Learning Wit and Industry could levy in their Defence so that they were necessitated to awaken out of that Barbarity and Ignorance in which they had been so long drown'd and to Actuate even Truth more fiercely that they might together with it make as potent and prevalent as they could and give countenance to those great Falshoods they had interwoven with it From all which broke out such a light in the World that Princes rowz'd themselves and no longer crouch'd down under such an intoxicated Servitude which had long gall'd and pinch'd them but that they knew not how to rid themselves from it till the Sorcery was laid bare which still gave greater scope for the display of Truth Quest Could the Scripture be inconscious or silent concerning so great Revolutions in the Church of God as these Answ It is in all True Reason most impossible and therefore it is a mighty Argument that those great places of Scripture that do so notoriously agree to such a purpose as the Discovery of this Antichristian State are justly apply'd to it by Protestant Interpreters Quest If you please point me to the chief of those places you refer to Answ I will do it very briefly as being too large for the present purpose to enumerate many or enlarge upon any of them But what more proper to delineate such a State than the Apostasie the Apostle describes 2 Thess 2. 3. and 1 Timoth. 1. 4. or than the Church in the Wilderness Revel 12. 14. the Witnesses Prophecying
all but one great Lie of this Son of the Father of Lies the Image of the God of this World the Son of his falshood and perdition contrary to Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love But if any one receiving Christianity or the Scriptures from the Antichurch and measuring them in and by themselves separates True Christianity from the Antichristianism and retains it Pure it is but like the Service God received from the False Prophet Baalam when he Prophesied Truth into whose Place and Office Antichrist succeeds and is therefore styled the False Prophet Revel 16. 13. Quest What then can this pretended Catholick Church be in relation to the True Catholick Publick Religion Answ It can be no other upon strict account than the Synagogue of Satan the Pseudocatholick Antichurch in a Damnable Heresie from and hatred to the General Assembly and Church of the First Born written in Heaven united with the God of Truth and Love and the Son of the Father in Truth and Love in a Hellish Schism and Separation from the Apostolick Catholick Church of which God and Christ are the Head Quest How can it be believed that so great a Lie upon Christianity should be received by so large a proportion of the Christian World or that Persons of so vast Abilities and Comprehensions should so deceive others or be themselves deceived Answ Scripture has taken all the care possible to Arm us against this Objection which is indeed very great It calls this Apostacy a Mystery of Iniquity and to assure us the Apostle Paul and the Divine Person in the Revelation point to the same Thing upon the Forehead of this Adulterous Church is written Mystery Now a Mystery if it were presently understood and all easie and plain were no Mystery It hath the Energy of Delusion in causing Men to believe a Lie it is the whole Deceit of unrighteousness it sets up a great Stage of Counterfeit Miracles that it vaunts upon and that it might have that Reverend Face of Antiquity to deceive with and say it comes from a far-off Ages It was a Mystery that was then at work in the Apostles time Lastly It hath its effect upon them that may be Christians and receive Truth but not the chaste unprostitute Love of Truth alone Quest But it seems imposible that any parts of the Christian World that have been once disabused should return any more under so great a Delusion Answ There are very great hopes that God who hath Commanded his Light to shine out of this Darkness will interpose by the perpetual Brightness of his own appearance and by that Divine Breath of his Mouth in his Word against the return of so great a Darkness This set aside there are so many Reasons of fear and such possibilities of laying a Train of Causes reaching to such an Effect that there can be no place for Security but in the Almighty Providence and yet what Degrees of that deadly Scourge may fall on the Protestant World God only knows we know our Sins deserve very ill Quest What is the greatest Security under the Divine Grace and Providence against so great Desolation upon True Christian Religion Answ A perfect Acquiescency of the Protestant Nations upon the Foursquare of Divine Truth and Resolvedness not to move from thence For as a Foursquare never removes from its own Base because it is All Base so they that are Squar'd to it and settled upon it never move For it always bears them alike with it self and by its own Justness recalls them if they offer to wander meer angry prejudice against this or that False Religion is not enough without being thus grounded upon Truth Entertainment of Truth with any Addittaments will secure no Man for he that receives one Addition may receive another He that receives Truth lying Foursquare with it self is called back by that Even of Truth He that adds one to it and makes it Odd may go on indefinitely as Popery hath done because he hath forsakent he Just Even that should stay him He can no longer wait for the Voice of Truth that by it self always answers it self but to what is not like it self it will not answer but discover it to be off from this Square it will not on any respects hearken to any thing different because it will not be sollicited to move from it self So that upon the whole the Laws of Symetry and Commensuration are the great Security of True Religion and ascertain the True Church both to it self and all Beholders For Additions to Religion like Surds or Irrational Figures incommensurable to the Rational Square can never be reduc'd to this Foursquare of Truth but are like the Deaf Adder that will not hearken to the voice of Reason Charming never so Wisely Nor can they ever be reduced to a certainty or exactness with themselves but are one thing to day another to morrow But Divine Truth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rational Certain Expresly it self Deaf indeed to any thing else but in it self it is Yesterday and to Day the same for ever He therefore that daily ponders meditates upon hath a just Measure of the Fundamentals of Divine Truth and does all things in a Regular Square with them shall know the Doctrine that is of God all the Fruits of the Tree of Life though they are various yet come all within the Apostolick Twelve and he that hath a Spiritual Gust exercis'd to discern betwixt Good and Evil by tasting any aright will taste all and find them Apostolical and know whatever pretends and is not and so reject it He will know all the Gates of Wisdom and Truth and the Angelical Guard attending at them and go in and out by them but the Disorderly Breaches and Gaps that Wild Beasts or Deceitful Foxes have made he avoids knowing they exceed the Apostolick Twelve and are therefore dangerous and pernicious and whatever Apparation of Angels may be at them he knows it is only Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and his Ministers transformed as the Apostles of Christ as the Ministers of Righteousness Thus the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles Numbred and Measured exactly by it self is the Security of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that is of the True Church CAP. XIV Of the Power of Magistrates in Religion and of National Religion Quest IT is I think very clear by all that hath been spoken that the settlement of Religion in the Word of God is most stable and certain and that by no Powers he hath given in his Church it can be changed nor receive any Arbitrary Additions that should be Obligatory But I am in great doubt how to reconcile those Commands of Scripture to be subject to Principalities and Powers with those strict Precepts to keep close to the Word of God and to turn neither to the Right hand nor to the Left where Rulers so often prescribe in Religion contrary to or different from the Word of
King of Kings and Lord of Lords and yet there extraordinary â—inisters in all things wherein they were not Commanded by God preserv'd the Just Rights of Soveraignty Thus the Word of God ought by ordinary Ministers to be faithfully declared by those who are called to do it and if it be so declared it hath and ought to have a Soveraignty above all Earthly Soveraignty both with Princes and Subjects and yet the Publishers of it and they to whom it is Published stand in their Just Distances and in all things pay the Homage due to Soveraignty by Obedience Active wherein they are not Countermanded by God or by Submission to penal Laws and Decrees made against them by the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation wherein they cannot Obey God and the Powers at once because so is the Will of God that they should by suffering for well doing put to silence the Cavils of the Ignorant or Malicious Quest But ought we not to expect that Princes should be the Supream Interpreters of the Mind and Will of God that so their Command and Superiority might be more absolute and because that Government that does not determine the Religion of the Subject cannot have so free a display of it self nor rest so secure as is necessary to Government Answ While the Holy Patriarchs Ruled who by the Laws of Nature more unsullyed so near the Creation by purer Tradition by Divine Revelation vouchsafed to them as occasion required preserv'd Religion Undefiled Supream Authority and Instruction in True Religion Resided in the same Persons yet even then their Authority in Religion was from the Evidences of Divine Truth even as afterwards in Moses Samuel David and Solomon who were both Supream Princes and immediately Commissioned by God as Prophets for wherever Men are Deputed by God either as ordinary or extraordinary Ministers of his Truth the Authority is not in Man but in the Word of God evidencing it self to be the Word of God When therefore the Patriarchal both Power and Holiness expired and the Revolt of Princes and People from True Religion grew greater God begun to Instruct his Church by Messengers sent on purpose and Separated betwixt Princes and Prophets Yea even in the time of so Sacred a Priesthood Established by God himself among the Jews he taught his Church very often by Prophets of an extraordinary and immediate Character And lastly by the Apostles Founded the Christian Church without any Consultation with or Concurrence of the Powers at that time in the World and yet those Apostles taught all Subjection to those very Powers until the whole was settled in the Canon of Scripture Consent with which is now the only Credential of a Teacher appointed by God however he be Ordinated by Men. Quest What is to be Inferred from hence Answ Especially that the Truth of Religion is so independent upon all Humane Soveraignty that it is to be accepted only upon Tryal by its own Evidences and not by those of Humane Authority This Treasure is therefore for the most part entrusted to Earthen Vessels not only to Men but to the Men of unguarded condition that the Excellency of the Power and Evidence of Divine Truth may be more apparently as it always is in it self of God and not of Man Quest What other reason may there be of Separating the Administration of Divine Truth from that of Princely Government Answ â—ecause each Administration requires the whole Attendance of those ingag'd in either except they are at least immediately inspired It is said of the Magistrate he is the Minister of God attending continually on this very Thing To the Elders of the Church â—t is said take heed to the Ministry thou hast received of the Lord that thou fulfil it Give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine give thy self wholly to them make full proof of thy Ministry Be Instant Preach the Word in Season out of Season or without Season Publickly and from House to House Quest I desire you now to apply your Discourse to the Administration of Soveraign Powers in modelling and Circumstantiating Indifferent things in Religion what their Power given them by God therein is Answ That I may give you an answer in that I must observe our Saviours Distinction of the Things that are Gods and the things that are Caesars and his charge that the things that are Gods be rendred to him and the things that are Caesars be rendred to Caesar Now none of the things that are Caesars are his first but they are first Gods and given to Caesar by God God then hath intrusted Caesar with the rendring the things that are Gods to God that is to take care that the Obedience due to God according to Godliness Righteousness and Soâ—erness may by the making of Good Laws and by the Vigorous Execution of them be given to God and also that the good intended to whole Humane Nature may be preserv'd to it as a Service of great Acceptance with God for every Governour is the Minister of God for Good to every Man he is the Minister of God for Publick good But in the mean time all these Supream Notions are so Gods that they must not be changed by Magistrates or their Laws but must be rendered intirely to him as he gave them in the Glory of them not Adulterated or Imbas'd And especially in all things that concern God himself more immediately as in the Purity Spirituality of his Nature the Divineness of his Truth and Word the Service and Ordinances of his Worship and whatever he hath herein reserved to himself all these are so his that no Caesar hath any Power in or over them to add or diminish or make the least alteration So that though they may have great Power in many things relating to Religion to the Accommodation of the most External Exercise of it to Government and the Peace of Nations yet as to the very Religious Actions themselves and the Management of them they must be close confin'd to Gods Manifestation of himself how he will be Worshipped and to those things that are absolutely necessary to Moddel and decently to Circumstantiate that Worship and so it is to be rendred to God perfectly according to his own Pattern and the Magistrates Care is that it be so rendred if in things evident to Natures Light the Magistrates Laws have place if only to be known by Revelation the Magistrates Power cannot rise above the means appointed by God that is Instruction producing Faith and Obedience and not Compulsory Laws seeing Natural Reason may be Oblig'd but Faith is the Gift of God Now these things God hath by the Prerogative of his Divine Power reserv'd to himself and they are to be rendred to God distinct from the things of Caesar that is from all Civil things given by God to Coesar and so to be rendred to Caesar Yea even distinct from the Appendant Laws for the securing Justice and Soberness which though they are Gods yet
any Man cannot Encounter Scandal and overcome he cannot be the Servant of God the Disciple of Christ Let us then resume the Notion of Scandal and fit it to this general Prospect over Religion I am now upon and we shall find as the Lord speaks that Scandals must come Scandal then is any False Pretence or Appearance whereby Religion or any of the nobler Objects Parts Rules or Reasons of it are expos'd to Disadvantage and Disgust as unreasonable unjust untrue weak and empty morose unlovely and undesirable or the contrary Sin Irreligion and Disobedience to God are gloss'd over and presented as in all regards more choosable and to be desired than Religion and all things so intangled and perplex'd among themselves that Men are seduc'd from the esteem of the Divine Law and Obedience to it and insnar'd in Sin even by that justle and disorder Scandal makes in the several Laws and Rules of Religion among themselves and the blending with them the pretences of Sin upon which great dishonour to God and Religion sharp Conflicts of Conscience within it self Mischief to the Souls of Men and a general Disaffection to Religion ensues And now how this must needs be I shall undertake to shew having only observed First That there are some main Things so necessary for our Knowledge Faith and Practice that they are made exquisitely clear and most easie to be understood He that runs may read them wafaring Men though Fools cannot err therein the entrance of the Word of God concerning them giveth Light it giveth understanding to the Simple Again There are some Things of very great advancement to the Soul and its Happiness that are the reward of a holy humble diligence to know in such a Measure as they ought to be known and of a preceeding Obedience in those so plain things that as the Resurrection of Christ are not shewn to all the People but to chosen Witnesses Thus the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant What Man is he that feareth the Psal 25. 12 14 c. Lord Him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse The Meek will he guide in Judgment and the Meek will he teach his way If any Man will do his Will he shall know of John 7. 17. my Doctrine whether it be of God or not On the other side Ignorance and Disobedience to those Divine Truths that are nearest and most plain to us are punished either with concealment of or leaving us to Injudiciousness and Insensibleness in higher Divine Manifestations where also that Injudiciousness and Insensibleness are Condemned For to him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not Luke 8. 18. by improvement and good use shall be taken away even that which he hath And this is the Condemnation for not believing John 3. 19. in Christ that supernatural Revelation because they loved Darkness rather than Light as a Cover for their Evil deeds But besides those plain Truths written with a Sun-beam in Nature it self besides those of clear Revelation there are necessarily some deep Truths concerning the Divine Nature the Attributes of God his Decrees and Acts some Mysteries of Christ of Providence and the Government of the World that command Awe Reverence and Modesty and are not to be fathom'd and fully understood and yet cannot be so divided nor separated from those Truths that are necessary to be known but that the Understanding must and ought to have an observation of and search after them though with Fear and Trembling and with a Wisdom to Sobriety yet to know as much of them as it is made to know by Scripture These things now being premised I come to shew That in the first and best state of Things Scandals might come and that in the corrupt and degenerate state they must come And first how they might come and there must the same Original be assigned to Scandal as there is to Evil and Sin it self for neither Sin nor Scandal can derive themselves from the Holy Wise and Good Creator who made all Things just and even He most upright weighed out the Path of the Just by his own Eternal Perfect Way and made the Angelical and Humane the whole Rational Nature according to it upright and perfect so that there was no Scandal from this first beginning of Things But when God made Creatures of Reason and Understanding and of Free Will and Choice Understanding in the very Nature of it could search and pry and range every way and look not only upon Things that are but by Things that are they could collect Things possible from the Nature of Wise Good and Just they could descry Folly Evil and Wrong and in Happiness and Blessedness they could behold as in privation from them Misery and Unhappiness or the Transcendency and Infiniteness of Happiness and the Degrees below it they could trace and find out the Lines by which there rose up a Supremacy of these and back again by which there was Declination of Degrees from this Azimuth or insuperable Height And as these Understandings are so great so they are suited with Wills and Appetites as great by which they could aspire to be whatever they saw above themselves and to dislike in whatever they found themselves below So that it was possible for them to dislike their first Estates to forsake their proper Mansions or Habitations and leave them as if they were not loughty large and roomthy enough for them Thus the Angels left their Estate in Heaven and Adam his in Paradise aspiring to something higher and this through mutability from misapprehension jealousie and disgust arising from perfect mistake false appearance and mis-judging which is perfect Scandal Thus not being Infinite not being Omniscient nor able to find out the Almighty to perfection nor resting in the Love and Obedience of God in those things most certain evident and undoubted to them but projecting beyond their own Sphere they might come to charge Gods Holiness Goodness and Wisdom foolishly to raise suspitions they were not high and well enough observing how Evil lay from Good they might in Discontent draw the Line of Evil upon Good and charge Imperfection upon Perfection it self they might disorder the most orderly Alliances and confuse the just Distances between Things and Things This they might possibly do except God did interpose with his Immutability of Perfection for them and secure them But God permitting things to liberty this must be possible to fall out This possibility of Change was the Folly God charged the purest Angels with and in regard of which the Heavens were not clean in his sight From the miserable Consequences of this Possibility coming into actual Event the Good Angels were Elected and into them the Bad Angels fell who abode not in the Truth but fell into cursed Scandal and are wrapped up in Scandal fettered in it even in Chains of darkness which are
Chains of Scandal till the Judgment of the great day that Jude 6. it may then be decided whether they had just cause of Offence or not Thus the Devil was a Lyar from the beginning and the Father of it of the Lye of Scandal For all Scandal is a Lye John 8. 44. And now when there was an actual Fall a Defection of any of the Rational Creatures actually come to pass God still permitting things to their own Liberty then it cannot be but that Scandals come For when once the Activity of an Understanding carried with a perverse and disorderly Will is in motion then it traverses all ways cuts all those Lines of Allyance and Connexion betwixt Things and Things scales the heights dives down into the bottom fills all things with Confusion and Perplexity that it may Scandalise mis-represent and mis-report God and Supream Goodness extols forbidden Pleasures and Enjoyments and an imaginary Happiness as if enviously denied and that denial unreasonably and to no benefit complyed with And the more Agents there are thus perverted and ill disposed the more Scandals must needs arise and shew themselves when therefore Angels fell or if some Principal fell first there must needs be Scandals in motion from them and they drew down innumerable lesser Stars with them when they propagated Scandal to Men as we read in the History of the Fall and Men grew numerous and wicked Scandals must needs come amain and multiply themselves For so many sinful and impure Understandings at work and hurried on by extreamly bad and unholy Wills Scandals must become like a Deluge and cannot but increase to a kind of Infinite and must be pressing every where for there is no Light so clear but a dim and dark Eye may report it black and obscure there is no way so smooth and even but Lame Legs Crooked Feet being themselves unequal may stumble and fall in it When a Man as Solomon says is cast into a Net by his own Feet when his Feet are a Net to themselves he must be Scandalised and Catch'd wherever he goes There is no Sense so grave and seriously compos'd but a vain Fancy that is full of odd and antick Shapes and Images within it self may travestee and turn it into Ridicule Even the plainest Sense by Ignorance or Malice may be so transpos'd as to be made most unintelligible Non sense and by separating the parts from their due order one to another may be perverted into Falshood and Blasphemy Thus therefore by the Darkness of Mens minds by the Maliciousness and ill Designs of corrupted Intellectuals enraged by impure Lusts and Passions the plainest things in Religion may be mis-understood mis-represented mis-reported and disguised out of themselves much more the more secret retir'd and even unfathomable parts of Divine Truth Providence and Government God hath made every thing good that he hath made and his very permissions of Evil are all over-ruled by him to Good and even to us they may be Medicinal and of use if taken by the right Handle On the other side Scandal turns the very best things into Evil to the Person Offended and nothing can be so Good that it both not so abuse The Spies it sends out upon the Land of Promise bring up an ill Report of it Indifferent Things that are by God prepared and intended to turn each way either to use or not to use according as Circumstances lead and both ways to be advantages for Good Scandal hath a great hand over and turns them to Evil all ways Things that are Evil the Sins and Falls of Men either Good Men or Bad Men or Men seemingly Good and inwardly Bad are as the proper Dominion and Territory of Scandal and it raises what it can against Religion by them Thus every thing by the not only Permission but Justice of God upon the faln World is subjected to Scandal not willingly for all things work together for good as they are impressed with Motion from the Divine Hand but deserted by that but so much as permissively Scandal violently transports them upon Evil. Now things standing thus there is the God of Scandal and his Angels the Angels of Scandal the Divel and the whole Hoast of faln Spirits the Great Reasons and Wits of this World the Prophets of Scandal the Ambitious Powers and Interests of Worldly Greatness Secular Policy Ecclesiastical Domination Debauched Religion and in one word the whole Universe of Lusts all at the service of Scandal and employed by it From hence are all those Atheistick Discourses those Heretical Opinions those Monstrous Idolatries and Superstitions those Burlesques of Lucian Wits those Bold and Authoritative Examples of general Wickedness Prophaneness and Irreligion that have spread themselves over the whole Earth those Severities in matters of Indifferency And where there is in any Time or Place such a sense of Truth and Religion that any of these Evils plain and bare-faced take very little but are hated and hooted at every thing that is better is borrowed against it self the Mantle of Law and Right is put on pretences of Religion are made the Rayment of things most contrary to it And in all times True Religion Piety and Vertue expulsed under the worst Names and covered with the ugly Vizor of Evil it being hard to bring Goodness into mis-repute in its own likeness under its own appearance To this purpose besides every Man being the first and worst Scandaliser to himself besides the lower and lesser Ministeries of Scandal within privater Communities there are in all Times and Places the publick Councels of Scandal and the Cabals of it that are neither Idle nor Lukewarm but pursuing all things to the utmost And the Men of this World are always greedy of Scandal of receiving it either through miserable Ignorance and Inapprehensiveness or from Propensions of their own and to serve their particular Occasions or as they embark their Interests in the Bottom of a Common Scandal as most safe and of the richest Return or if it were no more they are always so near of Kin to Degeneracy and Depravedness Now lay all these together and we may easily find Scandals must come not only lesser Scandals but greatest and most prevailing ones that do as it were sweep the World before them If any thing therefore can be added to Scandal it will be we must expect it though there hath been so much done upon it to improve it and especially since the Rising Progress and yet surviving Contest of the Western Antichristianisme And whether there may be yet a Reserve in the Counsels of God for Scandal before its Final Abolition to unite and summon all its Strength and become in a sort Oecumenical I mean the Scandal of Antichristianism especially these latter Days must discover In the mean time I will not be afraid to say There is a very horrible Scandal rising at this very time even a Protestant Popery placing such an absolute Dependence upon