with authority and used to awaken them with an He that hath ears to hear let him hear did yet convert no more than he did what can we expect upon our drowsie and dry discourses but drowsiness in the hearers if not contempt Fifthly And alas the private work of the Ministery is done as poorly by too many who do pretty well in publick as if they knew not that it is any considerable part of their employment or as if indeed they believed not the immortality and preciousness of souls And if the praise of men constrained them not to do the publick part somewhat better they would become contemptible burthens of the Church Sixthly the great duty of Catechizing is so much neglected that few of the people understand the great fundamental truths and few are instructed in the true method of the Christian doctrines who know somewhat of the matter of them And such defects and languor in the Vital parts will one time or other appear in the externals Seventhly Formality and imagery choaketh or excludeth the sense life and power of the most necessary truths They that teach youth the â—â—rds of the Catechism do oft content themselves with that much as if they had made them understanding Christians and leave them as ignorant sensless of the importance of those words as they were before ever they learnt them The foresaid unacquaintedness with the people and their weaknesses doth make many teachers lose their labour while they measure the common people by themselves and think that they can understand such words as they themselves can understand When they little know how utterly ignorant abundance are of the matter when they have learned to speak all the words by rote Therfore experience hath oft constrained me to say that after all their study and learning in the Universities such Pastors as did never familiarly converse with the poor and vulgar of the flocks and try the exercise of personal instruction and exhortation upon them are no more to be regarded in many controversies about the Pastoral work and discipline than an unexperienced Physician or Chyrurgeon or Soldier or Pilot in many cases of their professions Which maketh many learned self-conceiced Doctors become the plagues while they think themselves the pillars of the Church There are no parents or masters but find it presently in their children how quickly they will learn a Catechism and therein the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue while they scarce understand the sense and matter of any of the plainnest words which they have uttered And we find it is just so with too many of the aged also And therefore if by other questions and explications you put them out of their rode and teach them not to fix their thoughts upon the matter as well as on the words it will all prove but as the teaching of a Paâ—rot and not of a true believer And what I have said of Catechising is true also of Prayer Confession and every other part of worship In which the Hypocrites part is easie even the out-side form and lifeless image But it is the inward Life the spirit and truth which is the excellent heavenly and difficult part Eighthly And some make a formality and a snare of the gift of extemporary expression And by a preposterous care to avoid all forms they teach them not these Catechism forms with that diligence as the matter doth require But leave their minds void of those orderly well-setled second notions which should help the first And thus while some neglect the soul or spirit of Christâ—anity and others neglect the form or body of it betwixt them both it is too much neglected by almost all Ninthly Too many are meer wordlings and ungodly self-seekers and enter upon the Ministery but as a trade to live by and never had that humble holy mind themselves which they expect in the people But as riches and preferment and honour and ease are the things which they most seek so they do proportion and choose the means accordingly And when they have thus made themselves contemptible and alienated the hearts of the people from them they theâ— call them all that passion can suggest not for their sin against God but for crossing their carnal ends and interest Tenthly And under all this ignorance negligence and vice pride maketh too many of them to be enemies to repentance and to all that would bring them to it so that they are not so much offended with the people for their own faults as for disliking theirs scarce a drunkard a swearer in all the parish is so impatient of hearing of their sins as many of these high minded impenitent Ministers Nay so far are they from enduring to be accounted of as they are that they expect applause and great veneration when they deserve not pardon And they think they are neglected or treated unreverently if their ignorance be not called wisdome and their hypocrisie go not for the only pieâ—y and their carnal discourse and conversation for which God threatneth their damnation Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8 13. be not cloathed with some fair and honourable names And when they have thus set the people so pernicious an example they storm against them for not being more obedient to them than they themselves will be to God and for rejecting the precepts and reproofs of that Scripture which they have rejected and despised before their faces I humbly propound it therefore to my Brethren that if they have a people who despise their Ministery and turn away from them and speak against them and seek after other teachers that they would first impartially ask their consciences I have we given them no cause or occasion of all this Is it not long of us Have we so preached so privately overseen and taught them and so lived as that all this confusion will not be justly laid at our doors When we have first truly cleared things at home we are the fitter then to expostulate with our people And when we have pulled out the beam of selfishness carnalâ—ty negligence and pride out of our own eyes we may the better see to cast the motes of childish peevishness and discontent out of the peoples eyes DIRECT II. â—t is needful to the peoples edification and concord that their Pastors much excel them in knowledge and utterance and also in prudence holiness and heavenliness of mind and life that so both the reverence of their calling and persons may be preserved and the people instructed by their examples I Doubt not but the ministrations of a weak and of an ungodly Minister are valid and may be effectual to the flock And that the innocent people forfeit not their priviledges in acceptable worship and effectual Sacraments though a wicked Pastor may forfeit his own acceptance and reward with God But yet because there are none of us so innocent whose consciences may not justly tell us that we have deserved to be afflicted in that kind and
these Additions to Christianity this proud Church-tyranny I doubt not is the great cause of Schism in the world And when I have had opportunity to write against it I have born my testimony against it as is yet legible But it is not that sort of men that I am here most to speak to but to them that profess to be more teachable and willing to know the truth 3. And yet I add though this Book be written principally to save the darker sort of honest Christians from the sin and misery of Church divisions I write it not principally for them to read For I know their prejudice weakness and incapacity after-mentioned But I write it to remember the Teachers of the Churches what principles they have to Preach and strengthen and what principles to confute and to destroy if ever they mean to save the people from this state of sin and the Churches from the sad effects And if Ministers neglect the faithful discharge of so great and necessary a duty let them remember that they were warned if they find themselves overwhelmed in the ruines II. The Reasons moving me to this work are these First It is my calling to help to save people from their sins and Church division is a heap of sins 2. The more I love them that I hope are tender Conscienced and dare not sin when they are convinced of it the more I am bound to endeavour their conviction remembring who hath said Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19. 17. 3. LOVE is not an appurtenance of my Religion but my Religion it self God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him who can speak a higher word of any thing in all the world Love is the end of faith and faith is but the Bellows to kindle Love Love is the fulfilling of all the Law the end of the Gospel the nature and mark of Christs Disciples the divine nature the sum of holiness to the Lord the proper note by which to know what is the man and what his state and how far any of his other acts are acceptable unto God without which if we had all knowledge and belief all gifts of utterance and highest profession we were but as sounding Brass and as a tinkling Cymbal And if all our goods were given to the poor and our bodies to the fire it would profit nothing Love is our foretast of Heaven and the perfection of it is Heaven it self even the state and work of Angels and of Saints in glory And he that is angry with me for calling men to Love is angry for calling them to Holiness to God and Heaven Holiness which is against Love is a contradiction It is a deceitful Name which Satan putteth upon unholiness All Church principles which are against Universal Love are against God and Holiness and the Churches life And he that saith he loveth God and hateth his Brother is a Lyar. To be holy without Love is to see without light to live without life He that said The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle c. did no more dream of separating them then of dividing the head of a man from his heart to save his life Iam. 3. 17. Nor no more than he that said Follow Peace with all men and Holiness Heb. 1â— 14. No necessity can justifie such a division Holiness and Love to God are but two names for one thing Love to God and to man are like Soul and Body that are separated no way but by death Love and Peaceableness differ but as Reason and Reasoning Love may be without Passive Peace from others to us but never without Active Peace from us to others 4. I have had so great opportunity in my time to see the working of the mysterie of iniquity against Christian Love and to see in what manner Christs House and Kingdome is edified by divisions that if I be ignorant after such sad experience I must be utterly unexcusable and of a seared Conscience and a heart that seemeth hardened to perdition God knoweth how hardly sin is known in its secret root till men have tasted the bitterness of the fruit Therefore he hath permitted the two Extreams to shew themselves openly to the world in the effects And one must be noted and hated and avoided as well as the other I thought once that all that talk against Schism and Sects did but vent their malice against the best Christians under those names But since then I have seen what Love-killing principles have done I have long stood by while Churches have been divided and sub-divided one Congregation of the division labouring to make the other contemptible and odious and this called the Preaching of truth and the purer worshiping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful pride and surliness and into the way of Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ. I have many a time heard it break out into more horrid revilings of the best Ministry and Godliest people than ever I heard from the most malignant Drunkard I have lived to see it put to the Question in that which they called the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once When Love was first killed in their own breasts by these same principles which I here detect I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the Rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kinds of Rule even that which they themselves set up have been committed and justified and prophanely fathered upon God These with much more such fruits of Love-killing principles and divisions I have seen And I have seen what fierce censorious proud unchristian tempers they have caused or signified In a word I have long seen that envious wisdom whatever it pretend is not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish and that where envy and strife is upon pretence of Religious precedency of wisdom there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. 15 16. And if after so long so sad so notorious experience you would have me still to be tender of the brood of Hell I mean these Loveâ—destroying wayes and to shew any countenance to that which really hath done all this you would have me as blind as the Sodâ—mites and as obdurate as Pharaoh and his Egyptians and utterly resolved never to learn the will of God or to regard either good or evil in the world 5. The same sins are continued in without repentance The same pride and ignorance is still keeping open our divisions And if after such warnings as the world scarce ever had the like we shall be still impenitent
Church but Christ himself 58. Take heed of superstition indiserâ—â—t â—â—al â—â—th been the usual beginner of superstition Mâ—lignity in that age the sharpest opposer for the Aâ—thorâ—s sake Formality in the next age hath made a Religion of it And then the zealous who first invented it have turned most against it for the sake of the last owners And thus the world hath turned round Instances lay'd down of the superstition of Religions people in this age 59. If through the fault of either side or both you cannot meet together in the same assemblies yet keep that Unity in faith love and practice which all neighbour Churches should maintain And use not your different assemblies to revâ—ling and destroying Love and Peace 60. When the Love-killing spirit either cruel or dividing is abroad among Christians be not idle nor discouraged Spectators nor betray the Churches peace by lazy wishes But make it a great part of your labour and Religion to revive Love and Peace and to destroy their contraries And let no censures or contempt of any party take you off But account it as comfortable to be a Martyr for Love Peace by blind Zealots or proud Usurpers as for the saith by Infidels or Heathens And take the pleasing of God whoever is displeased for your full reward The Additional Directions to the Pastors 1. Let it be our first care to know and do our own duty And when we see the peoples weakness and divisions let us first examine and judge our selves and lament and reform our own neglects Ministers are the Cause of most divisions 2. It is needful to the peoples Edification and Concord that their Pastors much excel them in knowledge and utterance and also in prudence holiness and heavenly mindedness that the reverence of their callings and persons may be preserved and the people taught by their Examples 3. Inculcate still the necessary conjunction of Holiness and Peace and of the Love of God and Man And that Love is their Holiness it self and the sum of their Religion the End of faith and the fulfilling of the Law And that as Love to God uniteth us to Him so Love to man must unite us to each other And that all doctrine and practices which are against Love and Unity are against God against Christ against the Spirit against the Church and against Mankind 4. If others shew their weakness by unwarrantable singularities or divisions shew not your greater weakness by impatience and uncharitable censures or usage of them especially when self-interest provoketh you 5. Distinguish between them that separate from the Universal Church or from all the Orthodox and Reformed parts of it and those who only turn from the Ministery of some one person or sort of persons without refusing Communion with the rest 6. Distinguish between them who deny the Being of the Ministry and Church from which they separate and those who remove only for their own Edification as from a worse or weaker Ministry a Church less pure 7. Distinguish between those who hold it simply unlawful to have Communion with you and those who only hold it unlawful to prefer your assemblies before such as they think to be more pure 8. Remember Christs interest in the weakest of his Servants and do nothing against them which Christ will not take well 9. Distinguish between weakness of Gifts and of Graces and remember that many who are weaker in the understanding of Church-orders may yet be stronger in grace than you 10. Think on the Common Calamity of mankind what strange disparity there is in mens understandings and will be And how the Church here is a Hospital of diseased souls of whom none are perfectly healed in this life 11. Distinguish still between those truths and duties which are or are not of necessity and between the tolerable and the intolerable errors And never think of a Common Unity and Concord but upon the terms of necessary points and of the primitive simplicity and the forbearance of dissenters in tolerable differences 12. Remember that the Pestoral Government is a work of Light and Love And what these cannot do we cannot do Our great study therefore must be first to know more and to Love more than the people and then to convince them by cogent evidence of truth and to cause the warmth of our Love to be felt by them in all the parts of our ministration and converse As the warmth of the Mothers milk is needful to the good nutrition of the Child The History of Martin 13. When you see many evils which Love and evidence will leave uncured yet do not reject this way till you have found one that will better do the work and with fewer inconveniences 14. When you reprove those weak Christians who are subject to errors disorders and divisions reflect noâ— any disgrace upon piety it self but be the more careful to proclaim the honour of Godliness and true Conscientious strictness lest the ungodly take occasion to despise it by hearing of the faults of such as are accounted the zealousest professors of it 15. Discourage not the people from so much of Religions exercises in their families and with one another as is meet for them in their private stâ—tions 16. Be not wanting in abilities watchfulness and diligence to resist Seducers by the evidence of truth that there may be no need of other weapons And quench the sparks among the people before they break out into flames 17. Be not strange to the poet ones of your flocks but impartial to all and the servants of all Mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate 18. Spend and be spent for your peoples good Do all the good that you are able for their bodies as well as for their souls And think nothing that you have too dear to win them that they may see that you are truely fathers to them and that their welfare is your chiefest care 19. Keep up the reverence of the ancient and experienced sort of Christians and teach the younger what honour they owe to them that are their Elders in age and grace For whilest the Elder who are usually sober and peaceable are duly reverenced the heat of rash and giddy youth will be the better kept in order 20. Neither neglect your interest in the Religious persons of your charge lest you lose your power to do them good Nor yet be so tender of it as to depart from sober principles or wayes to please them Make them not your Rulers nor follow them into any exorbitancies to get their love or to escape any of their censures 21. Let not the Pastors contend among themselves especially through envy against any whom the people most esteem A reproof of ignorant pievish backbiting quarrelsome Ministers 22. Study our great pattern of Love and tenderness meekness and patience and all those texts which commend these virtues till they are digested into a nature in you that healing virtue may go from you
and sinners Was it not because their Pride and superstition made them think too highly of their own religiousness and to make sins and duties which God never made and then to condemn the innocent for want of this humane religiousness What was the sin condemned in Isa. 65. 5. Which say stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou What meaneth that command in Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Read this verse over upon your knees and beg of God â—o write it on your hearts And I would wish all Assemblies of dividers and unwarrantable Separatists to write it over the doors of their meeting places And joyn with it Rom. 12. 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another that is before your selves But specially read and study Iam. 3. In a word if God would cure the Church of Religious pride the pride of wisdom and the pride of Piety and Goodness the Church would have fewer Heresies and contentions and have much more peace and much more true wisdom and Goodness it self DIRECT III. Overvalue not the common guift of utterance nor a high Profession as if the presence or absence of either of them did prove the presence or absence of true saving grace YET I shall anon tell you that neither of these must be undervalued nor accounted needless useless things But the overvaluing them hath caused great distempers in the minds and affections and communion and practise of many very well meaning Christians When God had first brought me from among the more ignorant sort of people and when I first heard religious persons pray without forms and speak affectionately and seriously of spiritual and heavenly things I thought verily that they were all undoubted Saints and the sudden apprehension of the difference of their guifts and speech from others made me think confidently that the one sort had the mark of God upon them and the other had nothing almost of God at all Till ere long of those whom I so much honoured one fell off to sensuality and to persecuting formality and another fell to the foulest heresie and another to disturb the Churches peace by turbulent animosities and divisions But the experience of this Kingdom these twenty sixe yeares hath done so much to convince the world what crimes may stand with high professions that I know not that I ever met with the man that would deny it seeing every sect casteth it upon all the rest however some of them would justifie themselves But I greatly fear lest the generation which is now springing up and knew not those men nor their miscarriages will lose the benefit of these dreadful warnings and scarce believe what high professours did turn the proudest overturners of all Government and resisters and despisers of ministry and holy order in the Churches and the most railing Quakers and the most filthy and blaspheming Ranters to warn all the world to take heed of being Proud of superficial guifts and high professions and that he that stanndeth in his own conceitâ— should take heed lest he fall When guifts 〈◊〉 utterance in prayer or talking are thus overvalued and high professions are taken to have more in them thâ—n they have men presently moddle their â—ffections and then the Church according to these mis-conceivings And â— talkative person who by company and use hath got more of these guifts than better Christians shall be extolled and admired when many a humble upright soul that wanteth such utterance shall be said to be no professor and so to be unworthy of the Communion of Saints Mistake me not I know that though profession may be without sincerity yet sincerity cannot be without some profession when there is opportunity to make it And I know that Grace is a vital principle and like fire which will work and seek a vent if you would restrain it And that Gifts of utterance are great mercies of God for the Edification of the Church But here lyeth your unhappy errour in this case 1. You take the common profession of Christianity to be no profession at all because there is wanting a profession of greater zeal and forwardness When as the common sort of people in this Land do profess to stand to their baptismal Covenant in which they own the essential parts of Godliness and Christianity and all that is of absolute necessity to Salvation He that truly understandeth the baptismal Covenant and Consenteth to it doth perform all which is necessary to a state of grace If he profess this he professeth both true faith and repentance and sanctification and mortification and all that is necessary to make a man a Christian. How then can you say that these are no Professors I tell you except a few Apostates the common sort of people in this Land are Professors of true faith and godliness Whether they are true Professors without dissembling is another question but they are professors of the truth If you say that Their ignorance and ungodly lives doth shew that they either understand not the baptismal Covenant or Consent not to it I answer Mark well what you say your selves For this doth but shew that they are Hypocrites You cannot say then that they are no Professors but that they are diâ—sembling professors They profess the truth they do not truly and uprightly profess it I tell you all the common sort of the people in England are either Saints or Hypocrites see how I have moved this to them in my Treatise called The formal Hypocrite They all profess enough to save them if they sincerely professed it He that is baptized and professeth himself a Christian and yet is a drunkard a swearer a fornicator or such like is certainly an Hypocrite as going against his own profession The very Creed Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments have enough to condemn him as an hypocrite And will you now come in and justifie these men from their hypocrisie by saying that they are no Professors If they were no Professors they could be no Hypocrites but meer Atheists or Infidels I know that those are the highest sort of Hypocrites who counterfeit the highest zeal and piety by the highest profession But this is but a difference in degree Who ever professeth to be a Christian professeth true Repentance faith and holiness and is an Hypocrite if he be not a Saint And then Consider that if you would exclude any of these from the Communion of the Church it must not be because they are no professors but because they are hypocrites ignorant or scandalous And if so then no man must be shut out but upon sufficient proof An unproved hypocrite or sinner is no hypocrite or sinner in the judgment of the Church and therefore Hypocrites are always a great part of the visible Church Otherwise Church-Communion would be founded on meer injustice
points that no controversies or opinions will shake his faith or destroy his love to God or man Thirdly He will honour God by upright practise and shew forth the power and excellency of religion in the true success upon the heart and life His Religion which begins in solid faith will grow up into sincere Love and good works Fourthly He will be without partiality a Lover of all the servants of Christ and therefore escape temptations to faction and division because his Religion consisteth in those common truths and duties which all profess Fifthly he will not only safely receive all further truths from these principles but all his knowledge and disputes will be sanctified as being all subservient to faith and love and holiness Whereas he that taketh the contrary course and presently falleth to the study of by-opinions and layeth too much upon them will prove too like a superficial hypocrite and a deceiver of himself by thinking that he is something when he is nothing Gal. 6. 5 6. And he will make a pudder in the world for nothing as children do in the house about their babies and their bawbles He will make but an engine of his by-opinions to destroy true Piety and Christian Love in himself first and then in all that will believe him He will first make himself and then many others believe that Religion is nothing but proud self-conceit and faction And he will be the shame of his profession and the hardener of the wicked in their sin and misery by perswading them that the Religious are bnt a few ignorant whimsical fanaticks These are too sad experienced truths DIRECT XXXII Lay not a greater stress upon your different words or manner of prayer than God hath laid And take heed either of scorning reproaching or slighting the words and manner of other mens worship when it is such as God accepteth from the sincere IT is an easie thing to turn the native heat of Religion into a feaverish out-side zeal about words or circumstances or ceremonies whether it be for them or against them O what a wonder is it that by so palpable a trick as thâ—s the Devil should deceive so many and make such a stir and disturbance in the Church I know that one party will cry up Order the other will cry up Spirituality and both will say that God maketh not light of the smallest matters in religion nor no more must we And in this general position there is some truth But if nothing could be said for both their errours they would then be no deceits nor be capable of doing any mischief Some things that you contend about God hath left wholly undetermined and indifferent And some things in which your brother erreth his errour is so small a fault as not at all to hinder his acceptance with God nor with any man that judgeth as God doth Had you ever understood Rom. 14 15. you would have understood all this It would make a knowing Christian weep between indignation and compassion to see in these times what censures and worse are used on both sides about the wording of our prayers to God! How vile and unsufferable some account them that will pray in any words which are not written down for them And how unlawful others account it to pray in their imposed forms some because they are forms and some because they are such forms and some because that Papists have used them and some because they are imposed when God hath given them no command but to pray in faith and fervency according to the state of themselves and others and in such order as is agreeable to the matter and in such method as he hath given them a Rule and Pattern of But of all quarrels about forms and words he hath never made any of their particular determinations no more than whether I shall preach by the help of Notes or study the words or speak those which another studied for me It is a wonder how they that believe the Scriptures came first to make themselves believe that God maketh such a matter as they do of their several words and forms of prayer That he loveth only extemporary prayer as some think and hateth all prescribed forms Or that he loveth only prescribed Forms as others think and hateth all extemporary prayers by habit Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and also prayers by habit were used And yet Christ never interposed in the Controversie so as to condemn the one or the other He condemneth the Pharisees for making long prayers to cover their devouring widdows houses and for their praying to be seen of men But whether their prayers were a Liturgy and set forme or whether they were extemporary he taketh no notice as telling us that he condemned neither And it s like the Pharisees long Liturgy was in many things worse than ours though the Psalms were a great part of it And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Nay as far as I can find the Pharisees and other Jews were not in this so blind and quarrelsome as we nor never made a controversie of it nor ever presumed to condemn either Liturgies or Prayers by habit I shall now pass by their errour who are utterly against publike prayers from a habit as having spoken of it at large elsewhere when I had opportunity I shall now only answer the contrary extreme Obj. Where hath God given any men power to prescribe and impose forms for others or commanded others to obey them Answ. First where ever he hath given any power to teach their inferiours to pray who cannot do it in a better way He hath given Parents this power where he hath bid them Bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Is it not by the Law of nature the Parents duty to teach their children to pray And is not the learning of the words first profitable to their learning of the sense May they not teach their Children the Lords Prayer or a Psalm though it be a Form And why not then other words which are agreeable to their State And he that taught his own Disciples a Form and Rule of Prayer and telleth us that so Iohn taught his Disciples and saith to his Apostles As my Father sent me so send I you by making them Teachers to his Church did allow them to teach either by forms or without as the cause required All the Scripture is now to Preachers a form of Teaching And when we read a Chapter we read a prescribed form of Doctrine And it haâ—h many forms of prayer and praise and forms of Baptizing administring the Lords Supper If you say that the Apostles had an infallible spirit I answer True And that proveth that that their Doctrine was more infallible than other mens but not that they only and not other men may teach by the way of forms All the Books of Sermons now written are
to purchase them DIRECT XXXVII In your judging of Discipline Reformation and any means of the Churches good be sure your Eye be both upon the true End and upon the particular Rule and not on either of them alone Take not that for a means which is either contrary to the word of God or is in its nature destructive of the End THere are great miscarriages come for want of the true observation of this rule First If a thing seem to you very needful to a good end and yet the word be against it avoid it For God knoweth better than we what means is fittest and what he will bless As for instance some think that many self-devised ways of worship contrary to Col. 2. 21 23. would be very profitable to the Church And some think that striking with the sword as Peter did is the way to rescue Christ or the Gospel But both are bad because the Scripture is against them Secondly and if you think that the Scripture commandeth you this or that positive means if Nature and true Reason assure you that it is against the End and is like to do much more harm than good be assured that you mistake that Scripture For first God telleth us in general that the means as such are for the End and therefore are no means when they are against it The Ministery is for edification and not for destruction The Sabbath is for man and not man for the Sabbath Secondly God hath told us that no positive duty is a duty at all times To pray when I should be saving my neighbours life is a sin and not a duty though we are commanded to pray continually So is it to be preaching or hearing on the Lords day when I should be quenching a fire in the town or doing necessary works of mercy Wherefore the Disciples Sabbath-breaking was justified by Christ and he giveth us all a charge to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice which must needs import I prefer mercy before sacrifice and would have no sacrifice which hindereth mercy Therefore if a Sermon were to be preached so unseasonably or in such unsuitable circumstances as that according to Gods ordinary way of working it were like to do more hurt than good it were no duty at that time Discipline is an Ordinance of Christ But if sound reason tell me that if I publickly call this man to Repentance or excommunicate him it is like to do much hurt to the Church and no good to him it would be at that time no duty but a sin As Physick must be forborn where the Disease will but be exasperated by it Therefore Christ boundeth our very preaching and reproof with a Shake off the dust off your feet as a testimony against them And give not that which is holy to dogs c. When treading under foot and turning again and rending us is lâ—kest to be the success the wisdome of Christ and not that of the flesh only requireth us to take it for no duty This is to be observed by them that think that Admonitions and excommunications and exclusion from the Sacrament must be used in all places and at all times alike without respect to the End come of it what will Or that will tempt God by presuming that he will certainly either bless or at least justifie their unseasonable and imprudent actions as if they were a duty at all times To be either against the Scripture or against the End is a certain proof that an action is no duty because no means DIRECT XXXVIII Neglect not any truth of God much less renounce it or deny it For lying and contempt of Sacred truth is always sinful But yet do not take it for your duty to publish all which you judge to be truth nor a sin to silence many lesser truths when the Churches peace and welfare doth require it TO speak or subscribe against any truth is not to be done on any pretense whatsoever For lying is a sin at all times But it is the opinion of injudicious furious spirits that no truth is to be silenced for peace Truth is not to be sold for carnal prosperity but it is to be forborn for spiritual advantage and true necessity First if the publishing of all truths were at all times a duty then all men live every moment in ten thousand sins of omission because there are more than so many truths which I am not publishing Nay which I never shall publish whilest I live Secondly Positives bind not always and to all times Thirdly while you are preaching that opinion which your zeal is so much for you are omitting far greater and more necessary Truths And is it not as great a sin to omit them as the lesser Fourthly Mercy is to be preferred before sacrifice What if the present uttering some truth would cost many thousand mens lives Were not that an untimely and unmerciful word And is it not as bad if but accidentally it tend to the ruine of the Church and the hurt of souls It were easie to instance in unseasonable and imprudent words of truth spoken to Princes which have raised persecutions of long continuance and ruined Churches silenced Ministers and caused the death of multitudes of men Fifthly And where is there any word of God which commandeth us to speak all that we know and which forbiddeth us to forbear the utterance of any one truth Sixthly And for the most part those men who are most pregnant and impatient of holding in their opinions on the pretense of the pretiousness of truth do but proudly esteem their own understandings precious and do vend some raw undigested notions vain janglings or errors under the name of that truth which must by no means be concealed though the vending of it tend to envy and strife and to confusion and every evil work When those that have the Truth indeed have more wisdome and goodness to know how to use it It is not Truth but Goodness which is the ultimate object of the soul. And God who is infinite Goodness it self hath revealed his Truths to the world to do men Good and not to hurt them And the Devil who is the Destroyer so he may but do men hurt will be content to make use even of Truth to do it Though usually he only pretendeth Truth to cover his lies And this angel of Light hath his ministers of Light and Righteousness who are known by their fruits whilest the pretenses of Light and Righteousness are used to Satans ends and not to Christs to hurt and destroy and to hinder Christs Kingdome and not to save and to do good As the Wolf is known by his bloody jaws even in his sheeps cloathing DIRECT XXXIX Know which are the great duties of a Christian life and wherein the nature of true Religion doth consist And then pretend not any lesser duty against those greater though the least when it is indeed a duty is not to
most after in many places for the meer affectionate manner of expression and lowdness of the Preachers voice How oft have I known the ablest Preachers undervalued and an ignorant man by crouds applauded when I that have been acquainted with the Preacher ab incunabulis have known him to be unable well to answer most questions in the common Catechism And I durst not tell them of his great insufficiency and ignorance for fear of hindering the success of his labours and being thought envious at other mens acceptance I have known poor tradesmens boys have a great mind of the Ministry and we that were the Ministers of the Countrey contributed to maintain them while they got some learning and knowledge But they had not patience to keep out of the Pulpit till they competently understood their business there And yet many of the religious people valued these as the only men And some of them shortly after turned to some whâ—msical Sect or other and contemned the Ministers that instructed and maintained them And all this while understood not half so much as many of our sober Auditors understood This prepareth the poor people to be hurried into any disorder or division when they no better know how to choose their Guides DIRECT XLII Your belief of the necessary Articles of Faith must be made your own and not taken meerly upon the Authority of any And in all points of Belief or Practice which are of necessity to Salvation you must ever keep company with the Universal Church for it were not the Church if it erred in these And in matters of peace and concord the greater part must be your guide In matters of humane obedience your Governours must be your Guides And in matters of high and difficult speculation the judgment of one man of extraordinary understanding and clearness is to be preferred before both the Rulers and the major Vote IN several sorts of Controversies and Cases you must prefer several sorts of Guides or Judges It is a grand pernicious Errour to think that the same mens judgments must be most followed in every Case And it is of grand importance to know how to value and vary our Guides as the Cases vary And for the most part every man is more to be regarded in his own way of study and profession than wiser men in other matters of other studies and professions As a Lawyer is to be valued in the Law more than the ablest and most illuminated Divine And a Philosopher in Philosophy and a Linguist in the Tongues and a Physician in Physick c. For instance First Suppose it were a Controversie whether Christ be God or whether there be a life to come or a resurrection c. Here no man must be Judge because if you are Christians indeed it is past controversie with you And you believe this upon the evidences of truth which have convinced you And herein the universal Church are your associates Secondly Suppose it be made a Controversie whether you shall use this Translation or version in publick or another or whether you shall meet at this hour or that at this place or that what words of prayer shall be used in publick what persons you shall communicate with in publick and what not c. In all such your lawful Pastors and Rulers are the Judges and their judgments must be preferred before more learned men that are not related to you Thirdly Suppose the question be among many associated Churches whether this Church or Pastor be to be disowned as Heretical or owned by the rest as orthodox Christians Here the judgement of the Pastors of those associated Churches in Councels is to be preferred as of the proper Judges Fourthly Suppose the question were among a free people that want a Pastor whether this man or that or the other being all sufficient shall be the Pastor of that Church Here the major Vote of the people of that Church should be preferred Fifthly Suppose the question be whether 1 Iohn 5. 7. e. g. be Canonical Scripture or the Doxology after the the Lords Prayer c. here a few learned Antiquaries are to be believed before a major Vote or Councel unskilled in those things who contradict them Sixthly Suppose the question were of the Object of predestination of the naturâ—â— of the wills liberty of the concourse of God and determining way of grace of the definition of justification faith c. Here a few well studied judicious Divines must be preferred before Authority and majority of Votes As one clear-sighted man seeth further and better than a thousand that have darker sight So that you must in such vary your guides according to their several capacities and the Case Obedience hearkneth most to Authority Unity and Concord must depend most on some majority of Votes Hard questions must be decided by the best studied Persons and the quickest clearest sights and not by bare Commands or Votes DIRECT XLIII Take heed lest you be tempted to reject a good Cause because it is owned by some bad persons or to like a bad cause when it is owned by men that are otherwise good And that you judge not of the faith and cause by the persons when you should judge of the persons â—ather by the faith and cause I Confess when we have no other reason to encline us to one opinion or to another but only the reputation of them that hold it caeteris paribus in matters of meer godliness the judgment of godly men is much to be preferred before theirs that are ungodly and they are much liker to be in the right But when God hath given us other means to know the truth we must impartially make use of them It too oft falleth out that honest people are like straying sheep If one leap over the hedge the rest will croud and strive to follow him And therefore errours are like Languages and Fashions that follow the Country where they are bred The religious people in Sweden and Denmark have one sort of errour In Holland and Helvetia perhaps they have another In France and Spain and Italy they have others In Greece and Armenia and Ethiopia they have others And it is an easie matter before we are aware to fall into the common epidemical disease and to think This is best because the best and strictest people are of this mind And indeed sin doth seldome get so great an advantage in the world as when it hath won the major vote among the most religious sort of people If but a Peter separate Barnabas and many more will follow And on the other side sometimes the worser sort of men may hold fast the truth and many ignorant persons are apt to reject it because it is owned by men so bad But if Truth be the Religion of their King and Countrey or of their Ancestors in which they were brought up or if their reputation or peace of conscience lie upon it or if the defence of it shew
old can do And if you extend the case to all other parts of the Ministery where the reason is the same they will say what reverence is due to such or why should we maintain and honour men for doing no more than our children can do And the Popish devise to make a disparity by keeping the people in ignorance is the basest and most pernicious plot of all When the Pastors instead of excelling the people would keep down the people from increasing in their knowledge and expression this is so notorious a discovery of envy pride and malignity conjunct that the people presently flye from such Pastors as supposing them to be ministers of the Devil because they see them bear his image What do we teach them for if we would not have them learn and profit What greater honour can a Teacher have than to make his Schollars as wise and able as himself Every one who is a child of Light and believeth in him who is the Light of the world will suspect that man to be a Minister of the Prince of darkness who is a malicious adverstry of Light This is that brand of the Roman iniquity the hindering men from the reading of the Scriptures and magnifying ignorance which maketh men so commonly think them to be the Ecclesia malignantium and the Antichristian brood Thus Cardinal Wolsey declaimed against the Art of Printing as that which would take down the honour and profit of the Priesthood by making the people as wise as they It is not by keeping them down or envying their abilities that we must keep our distance from the people but by rising higher our selves and excelling them in all ministerial gifts Else why should we be thought any fitter to be their Teachers and Guides than they to be ours Yea though we excel them in all these abilities it will not serve turn to the ends of our Ministery unless we also excel them in holiness and every Christian vertue The Devil knoweth more than Ministers And if he have a tongue to speak he wanteth not utterance He is the most excellent and honourable who is likest to God and hath most of his image And God hath more proposed himself to mans imitation in Goodness than in Greatness He hath not said Be Great for the Lord your God is Great but walk in the Light as he is in the Light 1 Iob. 1. 7. and Be holy for the Lord your God is holy 1 Pet. 1. 16. Lev. 20. 7. 19. 2. 21. 8. To be Great and Bad is to be able to do mischief To be Learned ingenious and Bad is to be wise to do evil and a crafty and subtle instrument of the devil Ier. 4. 22. It was no laudable description of Elymas Act. 13. 8 10. O full of subtlety and all mischiefs thou child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord Satan would never transform himself into an Angel of Light nor his ministers into the Ministers of Righteousness nor would Pharisees and hypocrites cover oppression by long prayers if Light Righteousness and long prayers were not laudable in themselves and necessary in the preachers of the word of God and had not a goodness in them capable of being a cloak to their iniquity 2 Cor. 11. 14 15. Mat. 23. 14. God is Light 1 Iob. 1. 5. And God is Holy If therefore Satan or any hypocrite would credit their falshood and wickedness they must pretend to Light and Holiness And he that will keep up the true honour of his Ministery and be accepted with God and reverenced by good men mâ—st do it by real Light and Holiness An ungodly Minister hath a radicated enmity to the holy doctrine which he preacheth and to the holy duties and life which he exhorteth the people to And how well how sincerely how readily how faithfully they are like to do the work which they are enemies to you may easily judge The carnal mind is enmity to God for it is not subject to his law nor indeed can be Rom. 8. 6 7 8. I knoâ— that they are not enemies to the honour nor to the maintenance and therefore may force themselves to do much of the outside of the work But where there is an inward enmity to the life and ends of it we can expect but a formal unwilling and unconstant discharge of such unpleasing duty Truth is for Goodness The Knowledge which maketh you not Good is lost and hath mist its end If therefore your Love to God and man your mortification and unblameableness of life your heavenly mindedness be no greater than the peoples or perhaps much less do not wonder if you lose your honour with them and if you grow contemptible in their eyes Mal. 1. 10. 14. I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 2. And now O ye Priests this commandement is for you If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name I will send a curse upon you The Law of truth was in Levi's mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn away many from iniquity For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts Therefore also have I made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my wayes but have been partial in the Law 1 Sam. 2. 17. 24 30. The sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord Ye make the Lords people to transgress Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at my offering which I have commanded I said indeed that thy house should walk before me for ever But now the Lord saith Be it far from me for them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed If as Moses you stand nearer to God than the people do you must be so much holier than they and your faces must shine with the beames of God in the peoples eyes They that with open face behold in Christ as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3. 7. 17 18. If therefore by your low and common parts and carnal lives you make your selves contemptible instead of exclaiming against the people cry out against your selves and lament your sins and the more you have aggravated the crimes of Schism and other errors in your flocks the more penitently bewail your
did but fast and pray more and read the Scriptures more than others he was reproached as a Heretick and favourer of the Priscillianists Martin Bishop of Turen was at that time a man of no great Learning but so famous for Holiness Charity and numerous miracles as the like is scarce written with credibility of any man since the Apostles for which he is canonized a Saint This Martin was grieved partly to hear strictness brought into reproach and partly to see Magistrates called to the suppression of heresies by the Bishops and so every heretick taught how to persecute and suppress the truth who could burget the Emperor on his side Therfore he petitioned the Emperour for mercy to the Priscillianists and told him that it was a thing not used by Christians to propagate sound doctrine or suppress mens errours by the sword He also avoided the Synods of the Bishops and refused not only their Councils but their Communion Whereupon the Bishops not only despise him as an unlearned man and one that deceived the people with false miracles but also suggested to the Emperour that he was a favourer of the hereticks himself Insomuch that Martin hardly escaped suffering with them through the Bishops calumnies But the great piety and clemency of the Emperour preserved him And at last did promise him the saving of the lives of some that were further appointed to suffer on condition that he himself would communicate with the Bishops Martin saw that there was no other means to save the life of one that else was presently tâ—odie and thinking that Christ who would have mercy and not sacrifice would in such a case allow it he promised to have Communion with the Bishops and so did communicate with them the next day and saved the mans life When he had done it he was in great doubt and perplexity about it whether he had done well or not and in this trouble went secretly out of the City homewards And by the way in a Wood as he was in heaviness and doubt an Angel appeared to him and rebuked and chastened him for communicating with them and bid him take warning by this lest the next time he hazarded his salvation it self by it And Martin professed that long after this the gift of miracles was denied him but he communicated with the Synod and Bishops no more This History I only recite without determining how far the Reader is to believe it But I must say that the reading of it was a temptation to me to doubt concerning my Communion the Reader may easily know with whom For though I know how credulous and fabulous many ancient Writers were yet I considered that thâ—s Historian is one of the most ancient one of the most learned one of the most strictly Religious of all the old Historians of the Church and that he was himself an intimate acquaintance of Martins and had it from his own mouth and most solemnly protesteth or sweareth that he feigneth nothing and that the miracles of Martin were known to him partly by his own sight partly by Martin's own Relation and partly by many credible witnesses And they were so believed commonly in that age by good men that it was the occasion of his Canonizing And if such History is not to be believed I will not mention the consequences that will hence follow And yet on the other side I considered First That it was possible that a holy man might be mistaken by fear and scrupulosity and take that for an Angels appaâ—ition which was but a dream Secondly That his avoiding Communion with the Bishops might be only a prudential act fitted to that time and place upon accidental or circumstantial reasons which will not suit with another time and place Thirdly It is dangerous making the actions of any men upon pretense of any Revelations and Miracles to be instead of Scripture the rule of our faith or duty much more to prefer them before the Scripture when there is a contrariety between them Fourthly And his separation was but temporary not from the Order nor from any of the other Pastors or from the people but only from those individual persons whom he supposed to be scandalous And these considerations I judge sufficient to resist that temptation Whoever understandeth what a man is and what a Christian is and what the office and work of a Pastor is will make no doubt but that his Guidance must be paternal and that as Love is the effect to be produced in the people so Love in him must be the means of causing it that he must expect that the success of his preaching discipline should not exceed the measure of Love which is manifested therin further thanas God may extraordinarily work beyond the aptitude of the means And when he hath complained of the people as sharply as he will he shall find that whatsoever it is that Love cannot do in order to their conversion and edification and which Light or evidence cannot do in order to their conviction is not by him to be done at all And if he will be trying with edge tools he may cut his own fingers sooner than cure an erring mind And shall find that the people will much worse endure acts of force and corporal penalty from a Pastor than from a Magistrate and will hardly believe by any cloathing that he is a sheep if they once perceive that he hath bloody teeth Our work is to win the heart to Christ And he is unfit to be a Pastor that knoweth not how hearts are to be won DIRECT XIII When you have thought of all the evils that will be uncured when Love and evidence have done their part yet reject not this way till you have found out a better which will do the work that is to be done and that with fewer inconveniences I Am not now about to state the bounds of Liberty in matters of Religion It requireth a full Treatise by it self and many tediously dispute the case before they ever truly stated it Much less am I perswading Magistrates that they must permit every deceiver to do his worst to draâ— the people from God or from Christ Iesus the Mediator from faithâ— and godliness any more than from Loyalty Peace and Honesty But I am speaking only against that partial factioâ—s needless dividing and pernicious violence which is pretended to be the chief if not the only cure of all the errours or disagreements in the Churches by those that know no part of Chyrurgery but amputation Some speak much of the many disorders which will be uncured if Violence do not more than Teaching and Love But I humbly ask of them First are those disorders such as are curable in this life or such as are the unavoidable miseries of our corrupt and imperfect state Secondly will force cure them better than evidence of truth and Love will do Thirdly will they be so cured without a greater mischief God telleth the Sabbath-breakers
living acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. They have need to make a better proof of their authority than Kelley did of his Revelation when he brought Doctor Dee to consent to adultery by the same pretended warrant God who is Love accepteth not such a sacrifice at the hands of Love-killers and Church-destroyers But especially when besides this acrimony of mind there shall other more pernicious diseases be contracted and foment these censures reproaches of their brethren the malignity of the disease is a sad prognostick Two such causes of it Paul layeth open one Act. 20. 30. the other Rom. 16. 17 18. One is the devilish sin of pride and a desire to have many disciples to be our applauders They shal speak perverse things to draw awaydisciples after them The other selfishness carnality and coveteousness They serve not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies And so 2 Pet. 2. 3. Through Coveteousness they shall with feigned words make Merchandise of you They buy and sell mens souls for gain These are Gainsayers in a double sense Their craft bringeth them in no small gain and lest it should be set at nought for gain they do gain-say the truth and raise up tumults against the best of the servants of Christ as Act. 19. 24 27. It is for gain and worldly glory that they say what they say against those that are wiser and sincerer than themselves The sum of all this and most that followeth is in 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to the wholesome words the words of our Lord Iesus Christ mark it is not to the words of any new faith-makers devâ—sing and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud though he may cry down pride knowing nothing though he may cry down ignorance but doting about questions though he may seem to be wise and of high attainments and strifes of words while he seemeth to plead for the life of Religion whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings while they pretend to no less necessary a work than the saving of Truth and the peoples souls Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds the impatient scratchings of those whose corrupt blood must needs have vent and therefore causeth this itch of quarrelling and destitute of the truth whilest they think they are saving the life of truth supposing that gain is godliness being so blinded by the love of gain that they make themselves believe that is the cause of truth and Godliness which maketh for their gain and that the raising of them is the raising of the Church and that all tendeth to the interest of religion which tendeth to make them great and rich From such turn away that is own them not in hypocritical wranglings but turn your backs upon them as men unworthy to be disputed with in their way Answer not the fool according to his folly i. e. word it not with him in his foolish way lest you make him think himself worthy to be disputed with Talk not with him at his rates And yet answer him according to his folly by such conviction and rebukes as is meet for fooles and as may make him understand his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes and think that none can stand before him Secondly And it is commonly the most ignorant sort of Ministers who are the liberallest of their supercilious contempt of those whose understandings and worth are above their censures If a controversie be started which they either never studied or have only turned over the pages of a few books to number the sheets and never spent one year in the deep and serious search of the truth which is in question Or if they have clumsie wits that cannot feel so fine a thred nor are capable of mastering the difficulties None then are usually so ready to shoot their bolt and pass a Magisterial sentence and gravely and ignorantly tell the ignorant what eâ—rours such or such a one maintaineth as these that talk of that which they never understood For as I have known many unlearned sots that had no artifice to keep up the reputation of their learning than in all companies to cry down such and such who were wiser than themselves for no schollars but unlearned men so many that are or should be conscious of the dulness and ignorance of their fumbling and unfurnished brains have no way to keep up the reputation of their wisedome with their simple followers but to tell them O such a one hath dangerous errours and such a book is a dangerous book and they hold this and they hold that and so to make odious the opinions or practises of others which they understand not And this doth their business with these silly soals who hear not what can be said against them as well as if they were the words of truth and soberness As for the younger and emptier sort of Ministers it is no wonder if they understand not that which they had never opportunity to study or have taken but a superficial taste of But it were to be wished that they were so humble as to confess that they are yet but beardless and that time and long study is needful to make them as wise as those who with equal wit and grace have had many more years of serious study and greater opportunities to know the truth and that they have not their wisdome by special inspiration or revelation nor so far excel the rest of mankind in a miraculous wit as to know that by a few years lazy study which others know not by the laborious humble fearâ—hâ—s of a far longer time One would think that a little humility 〈…〉 the turn for thus much But it ignorance get possâ—ssion of the ancient and 〈◊〉 headed it triumpheth then and desiâ—◠〈…〉 and saith Give me a man that 〈…〉 with him Or rather Away with 〈…〉 is not worthy to be disputed 〈…〉 groweth not with years 〈…〉 wit may be poaring forty or fifty 〈…〉 that which another may sooner understand Much time and study is necessary to great wisedome But much time and study may consist with very mean attainments and doth not alwayes reach the wisedome which is sought And in such a case the ancient and grey-headed think that veneration is their due and that if they gravely sentence such or such to be erroneous they are injured if they are not believed They have not wisdome enough to make their age honourable and therefore they expect that their age should make their wisdome honourable Thirdly and because they are not able to endure the light nor to stand before the power of open truth they find it necessary to do almost all their work by back-biting When they are out of the hearing of those whom they back-bite among such as are as little sensible of this hateful sin as they then they have this man and that man this party and that party to reproach Fourthly And as Mr. Robert
as the waters cover the sea See also cap. 65. 25. Isa. 2. 2 3 4 5. And it shall come to pass in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hils and all nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and he will reach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people And they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn waâ—s any more O house of Iacob come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Mal. 2. 5 6 7 8 9 10. My covenant was with Levi of life and peace and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips He walked with me in Peace and Equity and did turn many from iniquity For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of hosts But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my wayes but have been partial in the Law Zech. 9 9. Behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having salvation lowly and riding on an ass He shall speak peace to the heathen and his dominion shall be from sea to sea Math. 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls Luke 4. 18. He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted 43 I must preach the Kingdome of God to other Cities also for therefore am I sent Mark 3. 20 21. The multitude cometh together again so that they could not so much as eat bread And when his friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said He iâ— beside himself Ioh. 4. 32 34. I have meat to eat that ye know not of My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Ioh. 9. 4. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work Luk. 22. 24. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest Math. 20. 25 26 27. But Jesus called them to him and said ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant Even as the son of man came not to be ministred to but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many Ioh. 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this world â—lse would my servants fight Luk. 12. 14. Who made me a judge or a divider over you 1 Pet. 5. 2 3 4. Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the over-fight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over or Over-ruling Gods heritage but bein ensamples to the flock And when the chief shepheard shall appear ye shall receive a crown of Glory 2 Cor. 1. 24. Not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy Math. 23. 8. Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master Christ and all ye are brethren 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 8 10. For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction Act. 20. 18 19. Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears 20 And have taught you publickly and from house to house In every City bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self that I might finish my course with joy and the ministery which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie to you the grace of God 29 30 31. Grievous wolves shall enter And of your own selves men shall arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears 33 34. I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel yea your selves selves know that these hands have ministred to my necessities and to them that were with me I have shewed you all things how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak 2 Cor. 12. 5. Of my self I will not glory but in my infirmities So 9 10. I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong 2 Tim. 2. 23 24 25. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 2 3. A Bishop must be blameless apt to teach no striker nor greedy of filthy lucre but patient Tit. 1. 7 8 9 10. A Bishop must be blameless as the Steward of God not self-willed or self-pleasing or stiffe in his own conceit not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lovâ—r of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort to convince the gain-sayers for there are many unâ—uly and vain talkers and deceivers whose mouths must be stopped 2 Cor. 10. 3 4 5. For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience