of Christ. Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not nor him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him To him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died For the kingdome of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another He that doubteth is damned if he eat Rom. 15. 1 2 3. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus thaâ— ye 〈◊〉 with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ received us to the glory of God Phil. 3. 15 16. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even thâ—s unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things Eph. 4. 2 3. With all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 15. Speaking the truth in love 16. Edifying in love Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind lâ—t each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus that made himself of no reputation 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings Iam. 3. 17. The wisdome from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy c. 1 Thes. 2. 5 6 7. Neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness Nor of men sought we glory neither of you nor yet of others when we might have been burthensome or used authority as the Apostles of Christ But we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children So being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness 2 Cor. 10. 1. I Paul beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ Gal. 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Col. 3. 12 13. Put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another c. 1 Tim. 6. 11. Follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness Tit. 3. 2. To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men 1 Pet. 3. 4. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of God is of great price Lev. 19. 18. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Rom. 12. 9 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another Rom. 13. 10. Owe nothing to any man but Love Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Love is the fulfilling of the Law Ioh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another Ioh. 13. 34. 15. 12 17. This is my commandement that ye love one another As I have loved you A new commandement Gal. 5. 14. The Law is fulfilled in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 1 Thes. 4. 9. Ye are taught of God to love one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. Be all of one mind having compassion one on another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous Not rendring evil for evil 〈◊〉 railing for raâ—ling but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing Pet. 2. 23. Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not Math. 5. 44 45. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven For if ye love them that love you what reward have you do not even the publicans the same And if ye salute your brethren only what do you more than others do not even the publicans the same Math. 6. 14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses Math. 5. 39 40 41. I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shal smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other allso And if any man will sue thee at Law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also 1 Thes. 5. 12 13 14. We beseech you brethren to know them which LABOVR AMONG YOV and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for THEIR WORK SAKE and be at peace among your selves Now we exhort you brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient toward all men se â—hat none render evil for evil to any man but ver follow that which is good both among your selves and to all men 1 Cor. 9. 19. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gain them that are under the Law To them that are without law as without law being not without law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some and this I do for the Gospels sake 1 Cor. 8. 1. Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth if any man think he knoweth
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
this book according to their Principles and as they use to do by others Before they have soberly read it over they will carry about the Sectarian reports of it from hand to hand And when one hath said it the rest will affirm it that I have clawed with one party and have girded at the other and have sought to make them odious by bringing them under the reproach of Separation and of censuring and avoiding the ungodly and that being luke-warm my self and a complyer with sin I would have all others do so too And that these Reconcilers are neither flesh nor fish and attempt impossibilities even to reconcile Light and darkness Christ and Belial And that for the sake of Peace we would â—ell the Truth and would let in Church-corruptions out of an over-eager desire of Agreement And when they have all done neither party will regard them but they shall fare worse than any others and will lose both sides whilest they are for neither I know it is the nature of the disease which I am curing to send forth such breath and scents as these And I intend not to bestow a word to answer them 5. And some of the wise and sober Ministers who mark more the inconveniences of one side than of the other and look more to outward occurrences than to the Rule and to the inward state of Souls especially such as have not seen the times and things that I have seen will think that though all this be true it is unseasonable and may give advantage to such as love not Reformation And to them I shall return this answer 1. That if we stay seven years more for a seasonable time to oppose the radical sin of uncharitableness we may be in our graves and the sinners in their graves and the sin may be multiplied and rooted past all hope of remedy And why may you not as well stay seven years more for a seasonable time to Preach down all other sins as well as this Is this the least malignant or least dangerous sin 2. There was never a more seasonable time to tell men of their sin than when the temptation to it is the greatest when it is most growing and multiplying among us When God hath been so heinously dishonoured by it when the world doth ring of it when many Volumes reproach them for it And when the sensual and ungodly are hardened by it in their scorn of godliness to the apparent peril of their damnation yea more to turn our complaints from our Law-givers upon our selves It is want of Love and it is Dividing principles and practices that have silenced so many Ministers and brought us into all the confusions and calamities which we see and undergo 6. But there are many sincere and considerate Ministers who knowing this which I say to be true will be the more excited by it to lead the younger and passionate sort of Religious people into the wayes of Love and peace and to save them from the dangers here detected and perswade them to the practise of these Directions And for the use of these I write this Book And yet to end as I began I must add these notices for your right understanding of it 1. That this is not my first attempt upon this work but the progress of what I have been upon these three and twenty years About fifteen or sixteen years ago I preacht on the third Chapter of Saint Iames in a larger and a closer manner on this Subject than here I write because the times then called me to it 2. I perswade no Christian to justifie or own the sins or the least defects of any Church Minister or People in their Worship or in their lives though I perswade you to Communion with the Churches persons and worship-actions which have many faults For on Earth there is no person Church or Worship faultless and without corruption I justifie not the faults of my own daily Prayers and yet I never pray without them 3. I am not perswading Ministers to any unwise and unseasonable Preaching against the dividing Principles of the weak when the necessities of the Auditory more require other Doctrine Much less to exasperating railings and invectives And least of all to wrathful violence But only with prudence in season and with Love and gentleness to lead men into the truth If even with Infidels and Hereticks 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 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. How much more must the Children of Gods family be used with Love and tenderness But if the fierceness of any contradict what I say I only add that it is not an unexperienced person that speaketh it but one who through the mercy of God hath long kept a numerous flock in Love and unity and peace by such like means and hath seen the lamentable effects of the contrary way 4. While I say so much in this Treatise against the rash censuring of others I give you not the rule for mens censuring of themselves They know more by themselves They may search into the depth of their hearts and intentions which we cannot do They are allowed to be more suspicious censorious of themselves than of any others It more concerneth them And they have more to do with themselves and may be bolder with themselves We judg others in order to visible Church-Communion by visible and publick evidence But in order to their preparation for the judgment of God we must direct them to judge themselves according to the truth in the inward parts 5. While I draw you to peace and moderation towards others I desire not to quench the least degree of Christian zeal Nay I endeavour to kill that which would kill it The purified peculiar people of the Redeemer ane zealous but of what not to consume and destroy one another nor to hate and flye from one another nor to vilifie and backbite one another but they are zealous of good works And Paul will tell you what are good works Gal. 5. 22 23. Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance Be zealous in Loving all Christians as Christians and all men as men Be zealous for Peace If it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. Be zealously patient gentle good meek temperate And the works of the flesh are hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition heresies A zeal for these is earthly sensual and devilish as Iames telleth you And remember that the word which is translated there Envy is Zeal in the Original But our translators were afraid lest the prophane would have mistaken it if they had translated it Zeal ver 16. where zeal and strife is that is a striving contentious zeal there is confusion and every evil work If you believe
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
unity undisturbed peace and unfeigned Love but the very infidels and ungodly round about them did reverence both them and their religion for it And where did you ever see Christians divided unpeaceable and bitter against each other but it made them and their profession a scorn to the unbelieving and ungodly world and whilst they despise and vilifie one another they teach the wicked to despise and vilifie them all Seventhly I may therefore add that the Unity of Believers is one of Gods appointed means for the conversion and salvation of unbelievers And their Divisions and discord are an ordinary means of hardening men in infidelity and wickedness and hindering their love and obedience to the truth As a well ordered Army or a City of uniform comely building is a pleasing and inviting sight to the beholders when a confused rout or a râ—inous heap doth breed abhorrence even so the very sight of the concordant societies of Christians is amiable and alluring to those without when their disagreements and separations make them seem odious and vile As a musical instrument in tune or a set of musick delight the hearer by the pleasing harmony when one or more instruments out of tune or used by a rude unskilful hand will weary out the patience of the hearer so is it in this case and the difference is much greater between concordant and disconcordant Christians Who loveth to thrust himself into a fray And what wise man had not rather partake of the friendly converse than joyn with drunken men that are fighting in the streets Peace and Concord are amiable even to nature And you can scarce take a more effectual means to win the world to the Love of Holiness than by shewing them that Holiness doth make you unfeigned and fervent in the Love of one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Nor can you devise how to drive men more effectually from Christ and to damn their souls than to represent Christians to them like a company of mad men that are tearing out the throats of one another How can you think that the unbelievers and ungodly should think well of them that all speak so ill of one another When the Lutheran flyeth from the Calvinist and the Episcopal from the Puritan and the Protestant from the Anabaptist and the Presbyterian from the Independent and all the other side implacably fly from them Can you wonder if the Infidel and the Idolater fly further from you all Mark well the words of Christ in his prayer Ioh. 17. 20 21 22 23. For them which shall believe on me by their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me All these observations are obvious in these words 1. That the unity of Christians must be universal even of all that believe the Gospel of Christ. 2. That this Union should have some low resemblance to the Union of the Father and the Son 3. That it is Christs great desire and intercession for his Followers that they may be one 4. That their glory is for their Unity 5. That their Unity is their perfection 6. That the Father and Son are the Head or Center of the Unity 7. That this Unity is the great means of converting the world to the Christian faith and convincing Infidels of the truth of Christ as sent by God Open but your eyes and you may see all these great doctrines in this Prayer of Christs for his people Unity O that all the Christian Churches would try this means for the worlds Conversion Not on the impossible terms of Popery but on the necessary terms proposed by Christ. 8. External Unity and peaceable Church-communion doth greatly cherish our Internal unity of Love And Church-divisions do cherish wrath and malice and all the works of the flesh described by Paul Gal. 5. 21 22 23. I pray you consider how he describeth the fleshly and the spiritual man v. 14 15. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit c. Now the works of the flesh are manifest adultery enmities or hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions or as it may be read Divisions or factions heresies envyings murders c. But the fruit of the spirit is Love joy peace lâ—ng-suffering gentlenss goodness faith meekness temperance Against such there is no law And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Let us not be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Obj. O but those that I separate from are guilty of this and that and the other fault Answ. Chap 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Instead of censorious disdain and separation bear ye one anothers burthen and so fulfil the Law of Christ which you think you fulfil by your unwarrantable separations while you are but fulfilling your fleshly passions When once parties are engaged by their opinions in Anti-churches and fierce disputings the flesh and satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe When united Christians are provoking one another to Love and to good works and minding each other of their heavenly cohabitation and harmonious praise and are delighting God and man by the melody of their concord The contentious zealots in their separate Anti-churches are preaching down Love and preaching up hatred and making those that differ from them seem an odious people not to be communicated with by aggravating their different opinions or modes of worship till they seem to be no less than Heresie or Idolatry If many thousands yet living in England or Ireland had not heard this with their ears yet Iames may be believed Chap. 3. 1 c. My Brethren be not many Teaching-Masters for that is the word knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation For in many things we offend all which he addeth because the arrogancy of Sectaries was caused by the aggravating of other mens offences If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man that is If you will shew that you are perfecter better your selves than those whom you account so bad see that
fetch true grounded satisfaction from the Scriptures and from the solid truth in the use of Gods appointed means they hearken to any one that will promise them comfort and salvation by what means soever Like ignorant people is their sickness some of them know not an able Physician and some of them will not be at the cost and some of them will not take such unpleasing Medicines and most of them have not patience to stay for a Cure unless the Medicine at twice or thrice taking do give them ease they will not believe that it will do them any good And so in their foolish ignorance and the weariness of their pain they will go to any ignorant woman or unskilful fellow who will take cheapest of them and be boldest in his undertakings And those that die by it are out of sight and forgotten by the living And those that by the strength of nature do recover do magnifie their ignorant Physician as if there were none such and so entice others to their Graves Thus many troubled unquiet souls either notâ—ound â—ound Doctrine and Teachers from deceit or else will not be at the pains or patience to wait on God in the use of the right means or most commonly spoil the Remedy offered them by their own misapplications and then for ease they hearken to any ignorant Sectary that will fiercely cry out against â—ound Teachers and revile all that are wiser than himself as if he knew more than all the Ministers in the Country O saith the deceiving Papist you will never have setled comfort while you follow these Ministers and till you come to us who are the true Church Saith the Anabaptist you will never be well setled while you follow these Preachers They have not the Spirit but speak only by the book Come to us and be baptized and you will have peace And thus saith the Quaker the Familist and other Sects I have known some that have lived long in doubts and fears of damnation who have turned Anabaptists and suddenly had comfort And yet in a short time they forsook that Sect and turned to another I have known those also that have lived many years in timerous complaints and fears of Hell and they have turned to the Antinomians and suddenly been comforted And others have turned Arminians which is clean contrary and been comforted And others have but heard of the Doctrine of perfection in this life and suddenly been past their fears as if hearing of perfection had made them perfect And from thence they have turned Familists and at last shew'd their perfection by fornication and licentiousness and meer Apostasie who yet liv'd very conscionably and blamelesly as long as they lived in their fears and troubles The reason of all this is plain to any judicious Observer 1. The persons are ignorant and never had the right knowledge and skilful improvement of the sound doctrine which at first they seemed to embrace And 2. the power of conceit and fancy brought them comfort or quietness in their change For they thought before that if they had not somewhat extraordinary they could have no assurance of salvation And while they held that sound Doctrine which all about them held as well as they and found no extraordinary power of it on their hearts they perceived no difference between themselves and others But when they had entertained new opinions and entered into a new Sect which confidently told them that they only were in the right they had then something extraordinary to trust their souls on And the novelty of the matter and greatness of the change with the conceited excellency of the opinions and party did make them think that they were now grown very acceptable to God To this may be added that as a life of holiness hath far more opposition from the Devil the world and the flesh than the changing of an opinion or joyning with a party hath so it must be harder to get and keep that comfort which is got and kept by faith and holiness than that which is got by such an easie change We see among us what abundance of persons can live like beasts in most odious whoredomes drunkenness and rage or like devils in bloody cruelty against the good and yet be comforted because they are of the Church of Rome which they think is the true Church As if God saved men for being of such a side or party And why may not Separatists Anabaptists and others easily take such kind of comfort O therefore labour for well-grounded faith and solid knowledge that you may attain the true Evangelical comforts and your ignorance may not prepare you for deceit and you may not be like children toss'd to and fro and carried up and down with every wind of doctrine by deceived and deceitful men Nor may not have need to go to the devil to be your comforter nor to steal a little unlawful peace from parties and opinions as if there were not enough to be had in Christ and holiness and eternal life DIRECT XXX Keep in the rank of a humble Disciple or learner in the Church of Christ till you are fit and called to be your self a Teacher CHrist owneth no Disciples which are not in one of these two ranks either Teachers by office upon a lawful call or Learners who submit to be taught by others When his Ministers have made men his Disciples they must afterward Teach them to observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded them Matth. 28. 19 20. And a Learner must hear and read and discourse in a learning way by humble asking the resolution of his doubts acknowledging the weakness of his own understanding and the superiority of his Teachers This is the common ruine of raw professours that they presently grow proud of a poor ignorant head as if it were full of knowledge and spirituality and while they continue Hearers they continue not Disciples or Learners but come with a proud and carping humour to quarrel with their Teachers as poor ignorant men in comparison of them And therefore choose them a heap of Teachers according to their own opinions And all this while they have such list to be some body and to vent their seeming wisdome that they can hardly stay from being Teachers themselves till they have any thing like a lawful call Whereas if they would have kept in the rank of humble Learners till they had grown wiser they might have preserved the Churches peace and their own DIRECT XXXI Grow up in the great substantial practical truths and duties and grow downwards in the roots of a clearer belief of the word of God and the life to come And neither begin too soon with doubtful opinions nor ever lay too much upon them HE that taketh this course will have all these advantages First He will be himself a solid Christian and will make sure of the man which is his own salvation Secondly He will have so fast hold of the necessary
sin which caused it and remember that you have aggravated your own transgression If you are children in parts and goodness your selves you are unfit either to upbraid the people with their childish weaknesses or to cure them DIRECT III. In all your publick Doctrine and private Conference inculcate still the necessary conjunction of Holiness and Peace and of the Love of God and Man And make them understand that Love is their very Holiness and the sum of their Religion the end of Faith the heart of Sanctification and the fulfilling of the Law And that as Love to God uniteth us to Him so Love to man must unite us to one another And that all Doctrine or practice is against God and against Christ and against the great work of the Spirit and is enmity to the Church and to mankind which is against Love aâ—d Unity Press these things on them all the year that your hearers may be bred up and nourished with these principles from their youth IF ever the Church be recovered of its wounds it must be by the peaceable Disposiâ—ions of the Pastors and people And if ever men come to a peaceable Disposition it must be by peaceable Doctrine and principles And if ever men come to peaceable Principles it must be by the full and frequent explication of the nature pre-eminence necessity and power of Love That they may heat of it so much and so long till Love be made their Religion and become as the very Natural Heat and Constitution of their souls And if ever men be generally brought to this it must be by daily sucking it from those breasts which nourish them in the infancy and youth of their Religion and by learning it betimes as the sum of Godliness and Christianity And if ever they come to this the Aged experienced ripe and mellow sort of Ministers and private Christians must instil it into Schollars and into the younger sort of Ministers that they may have nothing so common in their ears and in their studies as Uniting-Love That they may be taught to know that God is Love and thaâ— he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Ioh. 4. 16. And that the Love of God doth ever work towards his image in man 1 Ioh. 4. 7 11 12 20. And that all men as men have some of his Image in their Nature as they are Intellectual Free Agents exalted above the bruits Gen. 9 6. And therefore we must Love men as men and Love Saints as Saints That it is Love to God and man which is the true state of Holiness and the New creature and which Christ came to recover lapsed man to and which the Holy Ghost is sent to work and all the means of grace are intended and fitted for and must be used for or they are misused In a word that FAITH WORKING BY LOVE or LOVE and THE WORKS OF LOVE KINDLED BY THE SPIRIT BY FAITH IN CHRIST is the sum of all the Christian Religion Gal. 5. 6 13 22. 1 Tim. 1. 5. He that crieth up Holiness and Zeal without a â—ue commemoration of Love and Peace doth first deceive the hearers about that very Holiness and Zeal which he commendeth whilest he lamely and so falsly representeth and describeth it and doth not make them know how much of Holiness consisteth in Love nor that true zeal is Love it self in its fervâ—ur and intense degree And so people are enticed to think that Holiness is nothing but the passions of fear and grief and earnest expressions in preaching and praying or scrupulousness and singularity about some controverted things or some other thing than indeed it is And they are tempted to think that Christian zeal is rather the violence of partial passions and the fervor of wrath and the making things sinful which God forbiddeth not than the fervors of Love to God and man And when the mind is thus mocked with a false Image of Holiness and Zeal it is cast into a sinful mold and engaged in the pursuit of an erroneous dangerous course of life And at last it cometh to an enmity and contempt of that which is Holiness and Zeal indeed For it accounteth Love but a Moral-vertue which they ignorantly take for a diminutive title of the great and primitive duties required by the light and law of nature it self And zealous Love is accounted by them but a carnal and selfish compliance and temporizing and a pleasing of men instead of God And â— zealous promoting of Unity and Peace is taken but for a cowardly neutrality and betraying of some truth which should be earnestly contended for And on the other side they that preach up Love to man and Peace and Concora without putting first the Love of God and a Holy and Heavenly mind and life they will cheat the poor ignorant carnal people by making them believe that God and Heaven may be forgotten and good neighbourhood to each other is all that is needful to make them happy And they will tempt the more religious sort to sin more against Love and Peace than before Because they will think that it is but a confederacy for Satan against Christ and a submission to the wills of proud usurpers to strengthen their worldly interest against godliness which these preachers mean when they plead for peace And thus as I have known ungodly Preachers by crying down Schism bring Schism into request while it was no such thing as real schism which they meant in theâ—r exclamations till at last the true eruption of schism with its monstrous effects made good people see that such an odious sin there is Even so I have known that a carnal Preacher contemning Holiness and crying up Love and Peace hath tempted the people to have too light thoughts of Love and Peace because it was but a confederacy in sin with a neglect of godliness which the preacher seemed to cry up Till riper knowledge better taught good people to perceive that Love and Peace are more Divine and excellent things than carnal preachers or hearers can imagine The wisedome from above is first pure then peaceable Let it therefore be a true conjunction of Holiness and Peace which you commend DIRECT IV. If others shew their weakness by any unwarrantable singularities or divisions shew not your greater weakness by passions impatiency or uncharitable censures or usage of them especially when any self-interest doth provoke you NOne usually are so spleenishly impatient at the weakness of Dissenters or Separatists as the Pastors are And what is the cause Is it because they abound most in Love to the souls of those who offend or them who are endangered by them If so I have no more to say to such But when we see that the Honour and Interest of the Pastors is most deeply concerned in the business and that they are carried by their impatiency into more want of Charity than the other express by their separations and when we see that they
strength of his arguments but were all the while thinking what to say against him or how to go on as they had begun Lastly not to run into any more causes there is an universal lamentable cause of differences that almost all people naturally are apt to be very confident of all their own apprehensions And very few have any due suspicion of their own opinions or an understanding submission to wiser men Yea boyes that are once past their Tutors dictates and the weakest women are usually as confident that they are in the right as the most learned and experienced persons Yea none are so apt to be too doubtful and diâ—â—ident of their own understandings as the Learned who are next the highest form For they have knowledge enough to know what can be objected against them and to see an hundred difficulties which the ignorant never saw So that the more weak worthless and erroneous any ones judgment is usually the more furious are they in their prosecution of it as if all were most certain truth which they apprehend These are the boldest both in schisms and persecutions as being so sure that their conceits are right that they dare censure or separate or scorn or despise or afflict dissenters It is a common thing to hear religious people speak meanly and humbly of their own understandings in the general But when it cometh to particulars it is the rarest part of humility in the world to find Very few do shew any competent modesty except the grosly ignorant who have no pretence to wisdome What abundance of good people of the darker sort have I been fain to rebuke for their over-valuing me and my understanding who when I have but crost their opinions about any thing which most groundlesly they took for a duty or a sin have held as fast their vain conceits and made as much of their most senseless reasonings and as passionately and confidently rejected the most unquestionable proof which I have offered them as if they had been infailible and had taken me for an errant fool And this is not the case of one or two Sects only but naturally of almost all men till God hath taught them that rare part of humility to have Humble Understandings and low thoughts of their own judgements and a due suspicion of their apprehensions And their cure is the harder because they know not how to have a humble suspicion of themselves without running into the contrary extream of scepticism and being cold and unfaithful to the truth They know not how to hold fast that which is good and to be constant in religion without holding fast all which they have once conceited to be good and being constant in their errour Especially when good or evil is voted to them by that party whose piety they most esteem and reverence Nor is this a Religious distemper only but it is so natural to mankind that even in common matters neighbours and neighbours masters and servants husband and wife and almost all have a strange diversity of apprehensions One thinks that this is the best way and another that the other is best and let them reason and wrangle it out never so long usually each party still holdeth his own and hardly yieldeth to anothers reasons And when they do yield they are so unhappy that they are as like to yield to one more erroneous than themselves and to change into a worse opinion as to yield to the truth For commonly Appearance Advantage Interest and a taking tone and voice do more with them than solid evidence of truth Out of all this if you infer a necessity of Government so do I. But if a necessity of force and rigor think on it again and first hear what I shall further say And consider what I have said already Distinguish between the common frailties of mankind and special enormities And forget not that you are men and live among men And let not men be cast out for Original sin nor punish a few for that which is common to all the world Nor condemn not your selves in condemning others Of which I further add DIRECT XI Evermore distinguish between the necessary truths and duties and those which are not of necessity and between the Tollerable and the intollerable errours And never think of a Common Unity or Concord but upon the terms of necessary points and of the primitive simplicity of doctrine discipline and worship and the forbearance of dissenters in tollerable differences IF I were to speak but once to the world whilest I lived this should be my Theam And yet for ought that I can perceive by any visible effects I never spake of any thing with less success One party writeth copiously of the mischiefs which will â—ollow Tolleration And they say true iâ— they mean the tolleration of things intollerable The other write as copiously of the necessity of Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience And they say true if they mean only the Tolleration of things tollerable But neither of them saith true if they mean universally and speak in any other sense There is nothing more plain and sure than that the tollerating of all errours and faults which conscience may be pretended for or of none at all are utterly destructive of Christian and humane peace and safety He is scarce well in his wits that holdeth either part universally and unlimitedly For the one would have no Government and the other would have no subjects to be governed Seeing therefore bounds and limits there must be we may reckon them as the third sort of distracted persons who think that the bounds are so undiscoverable that the mention of them is in vain and therefore either All or None must be tollerated according as Rulers are disposed or their interest seemeth to require And therefore they say What points be they that are necessary and what unnecessary What errours are tollerable and what are intollerable Can you name and number them Or who must be the judge To which I answer First Let it be first supposed that God hath given us a Law to judge by and then we shall quickly tell you who shall be the Judge A question which the confused world doth further their confusion by when they are a thousand times answered past all rational contradiction Iudgement is private or publick The judicium privatum discretionis which is but the guide of rational acts belongeth to every private man which none that is a man did ever yet deny The judicium publicum is either in foro civili determining in order to corporal coaction and this belongeth only to the Magistrates Or it is in foro Ecclesiae determining in order to Church-communion or Excommunication and this belongeth only to the Church but under the coactive Government of the Magistrate the Pastors being the Governors and the people in part the executioners He that requireth more understands not this Secondly And what if therâ— be a difficulty what points are necessary
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
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
their wit or learning or if they can take an advantage by it against better men who erre in that one point It is no wonder in all these Cases if the worser sort of men defend the truth For instance If any Sect should rise in England who should deny Christ or the Scripture or the Resurrection or the Life to come or the Lords day for all that they cannot keep it holy yet the worser sort of the people would all rise up against such errours Shall we therefore think that the people are in the wrong So if any better persons deny Infant Baptisme or the use of the Lords Prayer c. the worser sort of people would be all against them and yet be in the right And yet how many do take a form of prayer or Liturgy to be unlawful meerly because the most of the worser sort are for it As a Pharisee can gratifie his hypocrisie by long Prayers which yet are good in themselves so can an ungodly person gratifie his hypocrisie and sloth by Forms and Liturgies which yet doth not prove them to be unlawful DIRECT XLIV Ye take the bad example of religious men to be one of your most peâ—ilous temptations And therefore labour to discover especially what are the sins of Professours in the age that you live in that you may especially watch and sortifie your souls against them SOmetimes the strictest sort run in a gang after one opinion and sometimes after another sometimes to overvalue free will with the Pelagians sometimes to abuse the name and notion of free grace sometimes they are drawn with Peter to lay about them with a private unwarranted Sworâ— or by Politicians tempted into unlawful tumults sometimes they run together into unlawful Compliances and Conformities to escape some censure or danger to the flesh And most commonly they are hurried by Passion to follow some erroneous Leader into Schisme and Divisions which are contrary to Unity Love and Peace Study well what is the common errour of the religious party in the times and places where you live that you may take a special care to escape them For some such or others it is too probable they have Like not their fault for their Religions sake But specially take heed lest the Devil draw you to dislike their Religion for their faults Joyn with them heartily in the one but not in the other DIRECT XLV Desire the highest degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the times But affect not to be odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things AN affectation of singularity in indifferent things doth either come from such ignonorance as those were guilty of in Rom. 14. or most commonly from Pride though you perceive it not your selves If it be to go in a meaner garb than others and as the Quakers not to put off the hat or with the Fryars to go bâ—refoot or in a distinguishing habit that all men may see and say This is a singular person in Religion it is easie to see how this gratifieth pride Humility desireth not to be specially taken notice of And therefore in all things lawful to do as others do doth gratifie humility very much It 's strange to observe how much stress some persons lay upon their singular habits gestures expressions and actions when they have once taken them up and how sharp they are against all that are contrary For as the Masters of every Sect of Monks among the Papists had their several Rules of singularity in things indifferent and yet presently desired to get disciples to take their names and follow their rules so is it with most that begin in singularity They would have all follow them that it might grow common DIRECT XLVI When you have to do only with stigmatized scandalous ones to vindicate the honour of of Christianity from their scandal go as far from them as lawfully you can But with the common sort of sinners whose conversion you are bound to seek go not as far from them as you can but purposely study to come as near them as lawfully you may that you may have the better advautage to win them to the truth WHen it is our work to avoid persons that they may be ashamed or that we may shew our detestation of their wickedness then going from them is our duty and we must do it To the excommunicate in-publick and to the notoriously wicked and impenitent after admonition in our private way of life But with most men our duty is to labour their conversion and in hope to seek the saving of their souls till they prove as dogs and swine to their exhorters It is a common question whether we should go as far as we may from wicked-men or come as 〈◊〉 them as we may And it is very great ignorance to say either the one of the other without distinguishing of wicked men Seeing our duty lyeth the clean contrary way towards one sort of them and towards another And there is much difference also to be made of the matter in which our joyning with them or going from them doth consist For there are some things which though they are no sin yet are so like sin that our doing them is most like to be a snare and to hinder mens repentance and not to further it And in this we must not come too near them But there are other things in which our going too far from them is like to hinder their repentance The injudicious zeal of many young Christians doth often carry them into this extream Any fashion of apparel which the common people use they will avoid as far as modesty will permit them And any lawfull recreation which they use they will fly the further from because they use it And they think it a scandal to shoot or bowl or use any such game which bad men use And any form or manner of speech which is lawful in it self they think they must avoid because such use it But especially any way of worshipping God or any controvertible opinion in Religion which is owned by bad men they flye as far from as they can By which means all this evil is committed First Their own faith and practise is corrupted For many an errour is taken up by going too far from other mens faults Many a one turneth Pelagian by flying indiscreetly from Antinomianism And many a one turneth Antinomian by avoiding Pelagianism Many a one turneth Papist to shew his detestation of multitudes of sects And many a one turneth to the giddiest sects to avoid the things which are held and practised by the Papists and are so zealous in avoiding the Papists ceremonies and forms and holidays too far that at last they renounce their Ordination and their Baptism and some at last deny the Scriptures the Creed and the Christ which the Papists own Many a one turneth Separatist and Anabaptist and Quaker to get far enough from Bishops and Liturgies And many a one