your foul back-biting reviling censorious contentious tongues do not prove the contrary 13. who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisedome that is Let him that would be thought more knowing and religious than his neighbours be so much more blameless and meek to all men and excel them in good works v. 14. But if ye have a bitter zeal for so is the Greek word and strife in your hearts glory not in such a zeal or in your greater knowledge and lie not against the truth 15. This wisdome descendeth not from above as you imagine who father it on Gods word and spirit but is earthly sensual or natural and devillish O doleful mistake that the world the flesh and the Devil should prove the cause of that conceited spiritual knowledge and excellency which they thought had been the inspiration of the spirit v. 16. For where zeal and strife 〈◊〉 that is a striving contentious zeal against brethren there is confusion or tumult and unquietness and every evil work O lamentable reformers that set up every evil work while they seemed zealous against evil v. 17. But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality or wrangling and without Hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace when peace-breakers that sow in divisions and contention shall reap the fruit of unrighteousness though they call their way by the most religious names Thus I have briefly shewed you what Vâ—nity and Division are that wrong apprehensions draw you not to sin DIRECT VIII When any thing needeth amendment in the Church remember that the best Christian must be the forwardest to reformation and â—he backwardest to Division and must search and try all means of Reforming which make not against the concord of the Church I Do not here determine in what cases you may or may not separate from any company of faulty Christians I only say that you must never separate what God hath conjoyned the Holiness and the Vnity of believers If corruptions blemish and dishonour the Congregation Do not say Let sin alone I must not oppose it for fear of division But be the forwardest to reduce all to the will of God And yet if you cannot prevail as you desire be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extream necessity Resolve with Austin I will not be the chaff and yet I will not go out of the floor though the chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour of Reformation And yet as long as possibly you can avoid it forsake not the Church which you desire to reform As Paul said to them that were ready to forsake a sea-wrackt vessel If these abide not in the ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others DIRECT IX Forget not the great difference between casting out the wicked and impenitent from the Church by discipline and the godlies separating from the Church it self because the wicked are not cast out The first is a great duty The second is ordinarily a great sin THe question is not Whether the impenitent should be put away from Church-Communion That 's not denied But whether you should separate from the Church because they are permitted This is it which we call you to beware Not but that in some cases a Christian may lawfully remove from one Church to another that hath more light and purity for the edification of his soul. But before you separate from a faulty Church as such as may not lawfully be communicated with you must look well about you and be able to prove that thing which you affirm Many weak Christians marking those Texts which bid us avoid a man that is an Heretick and to have no company with disorderly walkers and not to eat with flagitious persons do not sufficiently mark their sense but take them as if they call'd us to separate from the Church with which these persons do communicate Whereas if you mark all the Texts in the Gospel you shall find that all the separation which is commanded in such cases besides our separation from the Infidels or Idolatrous world or Antichristian and Heretical confederacies and no-Churches is but one of these two sorts First either that the Church cast out the impenitent sinner by the power of the Keyes Secondly or that private men avoid all private familiarity with them And both these we would promote and no way hinder Thirdly but that the private members should separate from the Church because such persons are not cast out of it shew me one Text to prove it if you can Let us here peruse the Texts that speak of our withdrawing from the wicked 1 Cor. 5. Is expresly written to the whole Church as obliged to put away the incestuous person from among them and so not to eat with such offenders So is that in 2 Thes. 3. and that in Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid Unless it be a Heretick that hath already separated himself from our communion And then it can be put private familiarity which we are further to avoid In brief there is no other place of Scripture that I know of which commandeth any more I have before shewed that abundance of Church corruptions or of scandalous members were then among them and yet the Apostle never spake a syllable to any one Christian to separate from any one of all those Churches Which we cannot imagine that the Holy Ghost would have wholly omitted if indeed it had been the will of God Obj. But then why did Luther and the first Pretestants separate from the Church of Rome and how will you justifie them from Schisme Ans. Its pity that sloth and sortishness should keep any Protestant or Papist either in such ignorance as to need any help to answer so easie a question at this day Let not equivocal names deceive us and the case is easie By the word Church the Scripture still meaneth first either the Universal Church which is the body or Kingdome of Christ alone Secondly or particular Congregations associated for personal communion in Gods worship But the Pope hath feigned another kind of thing and called it The Church That is The Vniversality of Christians as headed by himself as the constitutive and governing head Whereas first God never instituted or allowed such a Church Secondly nor did ever the Universality of Christians acknowledge this usurping Head Shew me in Scripture or in Church-History that either there ever was de facto or ought to be de jure such a thing in the world as they call the Church and I profess I will immediately turn
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
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
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
are but the effects of your prejudice passion or weakness of understanding 28. Do not too much reverence the revelations impulses or most confident opinions of any others upon the account of their sincerity or holiness but try all judiciously and soberly by the word of God 29. Take heed least the trouble of your own disquieted doubting minds do become a snare to draw you to some unâ—outh way of Cure and so make the fancy of some new opinion sect or practice to seem your remedy and give you ease and soperswade you that it is the certain truth 30 Keep in the rank of a humble disciple or Learner in Christs Church till you are fit and called to be Teachers your selves 31. 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 32. Lay not a greater stress upon your different words and manner of prayer than God hath laid And take heed of scorning reproaching or slighting the words and manner of other mens worship when it is such as God accepteth from the sincere Where the Case about forms of prayer is handled 33. When you are sure that other mens way of worship is sinful yet make it not any other or greater sin than indeed it is and speak not evil of so much in it as is good And slander not God as a hater or rejecter of all mens Services which are mixt with infirmities or as a partial hater of the infirmities of others and not yours 34. Think not that all is unlawfully obeyed which is unlawfully commanded 35. Think not that you are guilty of all the faults of other mens worship with whom you joyn no not of the Ministers or Congregations Nor that you are bound to seperate from all the worship which is faultily performed For then there must be no Church-Communion upon Earth Where is more about extemporary prayer and imposed forms 36. Yet know what Pastors and Church-Communion you may joyn with and what not And think not that I am perswading you to make no difference 37. In your judging of Discipline reformation and any means of the Churches good be sure your eye be 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 â—ts nature destructive of the end 38. Neglect not any truth of God much less renounce it or deny it 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 39. 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 these greater though the least when it is indeed a duty is not to be denyed or neglected 40. Labour for a sound judgement to know good from evil least you trouble your selves and others by mistakes Forsake not the guidance of a judicious Teacher nor the Company of the agreeing generality of the Godly 41. Let not the bare fervour of a Preacher or the loudness of his voice or affectionate utterance draw you too far to admire or follow him without a proportion of solid understanding and judiciousness 43. Your belief of the necessary Articles of faith must be made your own and not taken meerly on the Authority of any And in all points of belief or practice which are necessary to Salvation you must ever keep company with the Universal Church For it were not the Church if it erred in those And in matters of Peace and Concord the major vote 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 is to be preferred before the Rulers and the major Vote 43. Reject not a good cause because it is owned by some bad men And own not a bad cause for the goodness of the Patrons of it Iudge not of the Cause by the persons when you should judg of the persons by the Cause 44. Yea take the bad examples of religious men to be one of your most perillous temptations And therefore labour to discover what are the special sins of professours in the age you live in that you may be specially fortified against them 45. 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 46. When you have to do only with stigmatized scandalous ones to vindicate the honour 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 advantage to win them to the truth 47. Whenever you are avoiding any error forget not that there is a contrary extream to be avoided of which you are not our of danger 48. Think more and talk more of your faults and failings against others especially against Princes Magistrates and Pastors than of their faults and failings against you 49. Take notice of all the good in others which appeareth and talk rather of that behind their backs than of their faults 50. Study the duty of instructing and exhorting more than of reproof and finding fault 51. The more you suffer by Rulers or any mâ—n the more be watchful lest you be tempted to dishonour them or to withdraw or abate the Love which is their due 52. Make Conscience of heart-revenge and tongue-revenge as well as of hand-revenge 53. When you are exasperated by the hurt which you feel from Magistrates remember also the Good which the Church receiveth by them 54. Learn to suffer by good people and by Ministers and not only by ungodly people or by Magistrates 55. When you complain of violence and persecution in others take heed lest the same inward vice work in you by Church cruelties and dimning censures against them or others Persecution and separation often have the same Cause 56. Keep still in your eye the State of all Christs Churches upon earth that you may know what a people they are through the world whom Christ hath Communion with and may not ignorantly separate from almost all the Church of Christ while you think that you separate but from those about you Queres about separation 57. Yet ler not any here cheat you by the bare namees and titles of Unity to the papal usurping head of the Church nor must you dream of any Head and Center of Unity to the universal
aggravate the faults of all that are against their way As if every infirmity were a crime and had no excuse yea they are oft glad to hear of some miscarriage in them for which they may speak against them And very readily take up such reports and are the willing-tongues of slanderous fame And in all this their faction maketh them impenitent For they think it tendeth to the disgrace of the other Party and so of their Cause which they account an errour and consequently that God hath use for their malicious Calumnies to his glory What company can you come into of forward Christians but they are talking against those of other parties except a few true entire Christians who are throughly possessed with the loving compassionate spirit of their Lord and have received the true impression of the Gospel And if you mark the cause you will find it as a sectarian spirit that prevaileth against the Catholick spirit of Christianity And in no sect more than in those that pretend to be the only Catholicks and to do all this against the Sectaries as such What bitter lies do the Popish sects under the name of Catholicks daily vent not only against Luther Calvin and other Reformers but any that stand against the peculiar interest of their party And they that can get the upper hand-and by worldly advantages become the domineering sect do think that thereby they are exempted from the name and number of sectaries and that all are sectaries that question their authority and do not absolutely obey them In all their discourse the stigmatizing of dissenters is an ordinary part One side reproacheth the other as Hereticks and Schismaticks And the other reproacheth them as hypocrites formalists and pharisaical persecutors And every party think that all this is a part of Christian zeal and if they did it not they should be guilty of lukewarmness and neutrality and consenting to the sins of others And thus the Church of Christ is engaged in a war against it self And when all men should know them to be Christs disciples by loving one another most men may perceive that they have too much contrariety to the Christian nature by their endeavouring to make each other odious And all because instead of distinguishing the members of the same Body by their several offices and degrees we are grown to make several Bodies of them and to set one part against another How many a Kingdomes conversion from Infidelity hath been hindered and how many a faithful Minister silenced or reproached and how many excellent Christians slandered and vilified and how many blamless customs forms and practises accused and how many infirmities aggravated as mortal crimes by a siding factious disposition and to promote the cause and interest of a Sect. Therefore as you love your integrity and peace keep up an impartial universal love and honour to all Christians as such and take heed of a dividing spirit DIRECT XX. Be very suspicious of your Religious passions and carefully distinguish between a sound and a sinful zeal lest you should father your sin on the spirit of holiness and think that you are most pleasing God when you offend him WE are seldome more mistaken in justifying our selves than in our Passions And when our Passions are Religious the mistake is both most easie and most perillous Easie because we are apt to be most confident and not suspect them the matter seeming so great and good about which they are exercised And Perilous because the greatness and goodness of the matter doth make the errour the greater and the worse I have shewed before how easie it is to think that our Religious passions are all the works of the spirit of God For we are apt to estimate them by the depth and earnestness which we feel But excellent persons have been here mistaken as Iames and Iohn were And not only so but when the passion is up the judgement it self is seldome to be far trusted For it inclineth us to err in all things that concern the present business Therefore still remember the difference between true zeal and false And know that he that is upright in the main and whose zeal for Christianity is sound may yet have much zeal that is unsound with it First It is an ill sign when your zeal is raised about some singular opinion which you have owned and not for the common salvation and substance of the Christian faith or practise Or at least when your odd opinion hath a greater proportion of your zeal than many more plain and necessary truths Secondly when your zeal is moved by any personal interest of your own By honour or dishonour By any wrong that is done you or any reputation of wisdome or goodness which lieth on the cause Or at least when your own interest hath too large a proportion in your zeal Thirdly when your zeal is more for the interest of your party than for the Universal Church and the common cause of Godliness and Christianity and can be content that some detriment to the whole may further the interest of the party Fourthly when your zeal tendeth to hurt and crueley and would have God rather to glorifie his Iustice by some present notable judgement than his Mercy by patience and forgiving And when your secret desire of fire from heaven or some destruction of the adversaries is greater than your desire and prayer for their conversion The sure mark of true zeal is that it is zealous Love It maketh you love your neighbours and enemies more fervently than others do But false zeal maketh you more inclined to their suffering and to reproach and hurt them Fifthly It is an ill signe when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your understanding And your prudence and experience is as much less than other mens as your zeal is greater True zeal hath some equality of Light and Heat Sixthly It is an ill sign when it is a zeal which is easily kept alive and hardly restrained For that sheweth the slesh and the Devil are too much its friends The true zeal of the spirit doth need the fuel of all holy means and the bellows of meditation and prayer to kindle it and all is too little to keep it up in the constancy that we desire But carnal zeal will burn of it self without such endeavours Seventhly It is an ill signe when some sect or false-teacher was the kindler of it and not the sober preaching of the truth Eighthly And it is an ill sign when it burneth in the same soul where lust and wrath and pride and malice burn And when it prospereth at the same time when the love of God and a heavenly mind and life decay The zeal of a sensualist of a proud man of a covetous man of a self-conceited empty person can hardly be thought a spiritual zeal 9. And it is an ill sign wâ—en it carrieth you from the holy rule and pretendeth to come from a spirit which will
not be tryed by the Scripture Or when it driveth you to use means which God forbiddeth in his Word and putteth you upon ways which the sealed Law and Testimony condemn It cannot be of God which is against Gods Word 10. Lastly it is a suspicious sign when it is contrary to the judgement experience and zeal of the generality of the most wise experienced tryed sober godly Christians and so to the ordinary working of Gods Spirit in other men who are as good as you For Gods Spirit is not contrary to it self By all these signs you may easily perceive how the dividing zeal of a Sect as a sect doth differ from the genuine Christian zeal The one is a zeal for some singular opinion The other is a zeal for Godliness and Christianity The one is kindled by some interest of our own religious reputation the other is kindled by the interest of the will and glory of God The one is for the strengthning of a Party The other is to increase the Church Universal and promote the common cause of Christianity even when some particular truth or duty is the Matter of it yet the general cause of godliness is the end The one is a burning hurting zeal even the same which hath made matter for so many Martyrologies and frightful Histories by inquisitions torments prisons flames massacreâ— and bloody wars And the same which hath silenced so many faithful Ministers and disturbed so many States and Churches The other is a zeal of Love which maketh men fervent in doing good to others The one causeth men to revile and despise and censure and backbite and zealously to make all dissenters seem odious that the hearers may abate their love to them The other maketh us value all that is good in others and to hide their nakedness and to make them better and to provoke the hearers to love and to good works The one tendeth to divisions and sidings and separations and distances from our brethren and to feed contentions The other is a zeal for unity amity and peace The one is the complexion of the weak and childish the proud and self-conceited the peevish and surly sort of Professours The other is the zeal of solid knowledge and of the prudent humble meek and well grounded sort of Christians The one is a zeal which flyeth most outward against the sins of other men and can live with pride and covetousness and selfishness and sensuality at home such serve not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies Rom. 16. 16 17. The other beginneth at home and consumeth all these vices in the heart and as zeal increaseth humility and meekness and love and self-denyal and temperance and heavenly mindedness increase The one is easily got and easily kept and hardly kept under O how easie is it to get and keep a contemptuous censorious backbiting dividing or persecuting â—eal But the other is not so much befriended by Satan or the flesh and therefore must be preserved by prayer and meditation and very great diligence How hard is it to keep up a zealous love of God and Man and a fervour in all our heavenly and spiritual desires Abate but your diligence and this will presently decay when the fierce contending hurting separating and persecuting zeal doth need no such fuel or labour to maintain it The one is kindled by the enflaming censures of some rash and passionate Preacher that knoweth better how to kill Love than to cause it or by the singular conceits of some Sectary or Divider or by the backbitings of some Doâ—g or malicious Calumniator The other is kindled by the humble and heavenly preaching of the Gospel and by the meditations on Christs example and a study to imitate him and his Saints in patience forbearance foâ—giving others and doing good The one is a zeal which carrieth men from the Scripture to pretenses of such revelations and inspirations and impulses as have no proof but the feeling and fancy of the person or at least to abuse the Word of God and plead it for that which it condemneth It provoketh men to some unlawful practâ—se under pretense of misinterpreted texts and of good ends and meanings The other still putteth you upon good and striveth against evil and goeth for tryal of every cause to the Law and to the testimony Lastly the one is a zeal which pretendeth the spirit and yet goeth contrary to the common workings of the spirit in the most part of the best and wisest Christians But the other is the common vital heat which animateth all the body of Christ and actualeth all his living members and keepeth up love and holiness in the Church and is the same in all humble heavenly Christians in the world It will be of great use to you in order to your own and the Churches peace to understand and observe the difference between these contrary sorts of religious zeal DIRECT XXI Lend not a patient ear to back-biters much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others But shew your detestation of that sin though they should be most religious people that use it and do it upon a religious pretence I Do not say that it is always unlawful to speak that which is ill of another behind his back Sometime wicked men will take occasion to justifie sin it self by the advantage of a sinners name And sometime they will magnifie the vertues of some wicked man or of some of their sect on purpose to cast reproach on godliness or to make others odious by the comparison Yet in such cases we must repress their malignity more by a defensive than an offensive opposition But the usual course of back-biting in all sorts of men is sinful The back-biter how great or learned or religious soever is but the devils minister to preach down the love of others and to exhort you to hate your brother or to abate your charity to him And he that patiently hearkeneth to such is a partaker of their sin And he that believeth them hath taken the infection Most of our odious thoughts of others and our false and uncharitable censures do come in this way For the most part men censure and separate and persecute most where they are acquainted least but go by hear-say and judge of men by back-biters mis-reports And acquaintance and familiarity usually reconcileth them and sheweth them their errour You think it is a fair excuse for you when you either believe or report evil of another to say that you heard it from very honest and religious or reverend persons or you heard it from many and confidently uttered But God hath not allowed you to receive back-biters because they are godly or because they are many This very age and time doth experimentally confute this excuse In which it is so common a thing for false reports and news to be uttered with confidence and that by multitudes and many of them religious and yet neither truth nor ground
bound to be more afraid of giving scandal to them than unto you Are not men most afraid of overthrowing the children and the weak rather than those that are stronger than themselves If you are apter to sin and turn from Christ than the people of the Parish Churches we should rather separaâ—e from you than from them If not we must more take heed of scandalizing them than you Obj. But Christ pronounceth a â—o to them that offend his little ones Answ. If by offending them be meant only persecuting and hurting them as many think then it is nothing to the question in hand For I hope communicating with others is not a persecuting you And bare displeasing them it is certain that the text doth not mean at all But if by offending them be meant scandalizing them that is laying snares before them whether by fraud or persecution to turn them from Christ and draw them to sins then it confirmeth all that I say And the term little ones conteineth the reason of the words Because as little children are easily overthrown easilier deceived so the young weak believers of little faith are most in danger of being turned away from Christ or ensnared in any sin or errour And therefore if you think the Parish Churches to consist of weaker persons than your selves the woe is to you or us if we offend them The truth is offending and giving scandal is commonly taken in the Gospel for any action which is not our necessary duty by which either Heathens and Inâ—idels and enemies to Christ are like to be drawn to harder thoughts of the Christian faith or any wicked man is like to be kept from a godly life or else by which the young ungrounded and unsetled sort of Christians may be tempted to turn back and forsake the faith which they have professed or fall into any dangerous sin And therefore seeing the separatists profess to be setled in the faith already and many in the Parish Churches are weak and many averse to some duties of Religion and more in danger of being turned away we are bound to be much more afraid of giving scandal to the Parishes than to the separatists Obj. But Christ cared not for offending such perverse ones as Herod or the Pharisees Answ. Christ feared not to displease the greatest when it would be done by doing good No more must you or they be pleased by our neglect of any duty But Christ was against laying any trap before either Herod or the Pharisees to make them sin And it is not your censure of others that will warrant us to use them as Reprobates forsaken of God If every man that can be uncharitable enough to call his neighbours Pharisees or enemies of Christ without proof shall keep us from communion with them then the worse any man is the more he shall be Lord of all other mens consciences DIRECT XXV Be not over-tender of your reputation with any sort of men on earth nor too impatient of their censures displeasure or contempt THe fangs of the censorious are a common scandal and as strong a snare or temptation to some men as worldly preferments are to others When we come among men whom we take for the most Religious and hear them keenly censure all for hypocrites or formalists profane or schismaticks who are contrary to them in opinion or practise at the first we are in danger of being carried away as Barnabas in dissimulation and to say as they say or at least comply with them by our silence and practise lest we should be censured by them as others are Especially Ministers are greatly in danger of this snare For the prophane hate them for their doctrine and their holy lives And it is the godly that are the fruit of their labours and the satisfaction which they have for all their sufferings and the comfort of their lives And if these forsake them and despise them with whom shall they find any comfort in the world Therefore they are very much in danger of complying too far with their errours and weaknesses to keep their interest in them And they think it is that they may do them good And perhaps this was the case of Peter and Barnabas with the weak Judaizing Christians For Paul telleth us Rom. the 14. that it was the use of the weak who thought those things to be duties and sins which were not so to judge the strong who knew their liberty And it was the custome of the strong to despise the weak Just as at this day the mistaken superstitious Christian saith They are prophane that are not against all that he is against And those that see his errour say what giddy whimsical fanaticks are these So was it then and so it is like to be till God give the world a better mind Many a faithful Minister I have known who have freely confessed to me that the censures of peevish self-conceited Christians enclined to separation was a far stronger temptation to them to forsake or overrun their own understandings than all the offers of honours or riches could be on the other side It is a hard thing when we have spent our labour and lives to bring men to Christ and have got them into a state of hope and forwardness to be shortly after cast off by them as formalists oâ— temporizers or any thing that their sick fancies will call us But for all this it is but one of those trials which God will have his servants undergo And both Ministers and private persons must be above the praise and the dispraise even of self-conceited Religious persons before they can be sit to follow Christ as tried and firmly setled men Stand your ground if you are in the right Truth will bear all your charges at the last and will defend it self and you If you please men whoever they be contrary to God and conscience you are servants of men and verily you have your reward Math. 6. But you are no longer the servants of Christ. Gal. 1. 10. And you will never be setled but change as the Moon as the parties or opinions of the censurers change But if you stick to the words of truth and soberness at last the sober part of the Religious will be your encouragers and many of the giddy will come to you by Repentance when experience hath shewed them that which they would not learn of you That which is vertiginous will at last settle its rest on that which is permanent and firm As boys when they have made themselves wheel-sick with turning round will lay hold on the next post to keep them from falling Therefore bear the censures of the ignorant Please them in all things lawful for their good and edification and become all things to all men in a lawful way But depart not from the principles or practise of Christian-union Communion Charity or Sobriety to please a dividing hot-brain'd party nor to escape their sharpest censures He is
that he taketh them for no Churches and disowneth the administration of all the Ministers in the world whom you disown or yet that it is safe to separate where Christ doth not separate and to be gone from his Hoâ—se while he there abideth and to condemn those whom he condemneth not nor yet commandeth you to forsake or to condemn Obj. The Church of Christ is a little flock and not to be estimated by number And if he confine his grace to never so few I will confine my Communion to as few Answ. First Grace is not visible to you but the Profession of it only Therefore your Communion must be extended according to mens profession and not according to sincerity which you know not when the question is who hath grace and who hath not God hath not made you a heart searching Judge but hath made profession the sign which you must judge by And he that professeth Christianity professeth all that is of necessity to salvation Secondly If Christs flock was little when he spake those words it is much greater now And if it be little still as it is in comparison of the world of Heathens Infidels and Hypocrites will he give them thanks that will make it less yea a thousand times less than it is indeed Hath he so few and will you take from him almost all those few If you had but a hundred sheep when your neighbour had a thousand would you thank him that would rob you of all save one Thirdly So far as God hath revealed the fewness of the saved we reverence his Counsels and believe his word But if you will make it so much less a number while you falsifie Gods word you will tempt your selves at last not to bâ—lieve it because you have made it false and incredible by making it your own Brethren I beseech you be not angry with us while we pity you and would save your souls from your own snares and delâ—sions You know not how fast you are hastening to infidelity and to the renouncing of Christ himself you little suspect that your extraordinary strictness for the purity of the Church doth tend to your turning heathens and denying the whole Church But remember that the nature of God is so infiaitly Good as well as Iust and the Gospel is such glad tydings to all the world and Christ called the Saviour of the world and God is said so to love the world in giving him Joh. 3. 16. that if you should say God would save but one man in the world or ten or a thousand and damn all the rest if you did in your bravadâ— believe your selves this year by the next you might be like enough to believe that the Gospel is but a fable I have much adoe to forbear naming some high Professours known lately at Wâ—rcester Exeter and other parts who died Apostate-infidels deriding Christianity and the immortality of the soul who once were Separatists And I must profess to you that for my own part if I did believe that Christs Church were no more numerous than all the Separatists on earth it would make the work of faith more difficult For as he is no King that hath no Kingdom so he is next to no King whose Kingdom is next to none He that would prove that our King is only King of â—slington or Hackney and no more would by deriding him to day prepare for the deposing him to morrow They are glorious things that are spoken of the Kingdom of Christ even that the Kingdoms of the world are become his Kingdoms And if you will take from him all save two or three Cottages I mean the separated Churches only it is but a little addition to your treason to take the rest and to Crucifie Christ afresh and write over him in derâ—sion the title of a King You do not discern the design of Satan He that cannot entice an Apple from a Child if he can get him to let him eat all the rest till it come to a little of the Core will then easily get him to throw away that worthless relict If to day you will needs believe that Christ will reject all the world and all the Churches save only a few persons who have pride enough to condemn all the rest by to morrow or eâ—e loâ—g you are like enough to add one other degree to your derision and to deny him to be Christ. Obj. But we are more than were in the Ark of Noah Answ. First You never yet proved that all that were out of the Ark were damned and no more saved from Hell than were savedâ— from the Deluge Secondly If you had yet thâ—â— Scripture speaketh such great things of the Universal Gospel Church as that which maketh up 〈◊〉 former diminutions and losses and helpeth 〈…〉 against such difficulties DIRECT LVII Yet let not any here cheat you by overdoing nor meer names and titles of Unity deceive you instead of the thing it self Nor must you ever dream of any Head and Center of the Unity of the Catholick Church but Christ himself THere is no part of Religion which Satan doth not endeavour to destroy under pretense of promoting it And his way is to overgo Christ and his Apostles and to seem more zealouâ— than ever they were and to mend their work by doing it better or doing more Christ was not strict enough for the Pharisees in keeping the 〈◊〉 nor in his company nor in his diet Sataâ—â— hath always two ways to destroy both truth and duty The first is by direct opposing it But 〈◊〉 that will not do the next is by overdoing and pretending to defend it If he cannot destroy zeal by scorning it and quenching it he will try to do it by overheating and distempering it If he cannot destroy knowledge by the way of gross ignorance he will try to spin it out into the finer threds of vain and innumerable questions and speculations and to crumble it into such invisible atomes that it shall be reduced to scepticisme or nothing If he cannot destroy faith by open infidelity he will try to make men believe too much by making the objects of their own belief and calling that a particular faith altering God word and casting away the Reasons and evidences of faith to shew the strength and nobleness of their faith which needeth no such helps as these till by over-doing they have raised their edifice in the ayr and rejected their foundations and put out their eys in honour of the sun and of their Physician lest either of them should be accused as insufficient Even so when Satan findeth that he cannot directly destroy the Unity of the Church and bring division into credit he will be more zealous for unity than Christ himself He will then endure no disagreement among Christians no not in an opinion nor a form or ceremony not in meats or drinks or keeping of days or in judging of things lawful or unlawful which are not of necessity
were but to take their tythes and honour and to be reverenced by the people and to preach once or twice a week a sermon which tendeth to their applause they could submit to this much But Paul's exhortation Act. 20. seemeth intollerable preciseness But souls will not be informed or reformed at so cheap a rate Sin hath corrupted them more than so If we will sleep the envious man will not sleep but when we awake we shall find that he hath sowed his tares Sometimes grievous Wolves will enter not sparing the flock and sometimes of our own selves will men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Therefore watch Study hard and meditate on these things and give your selves wholly to them that your profiting may be known to all that you may be able to stop the mouths of gainsayers and to edifie and stablish all the flock that they be not as children tossed to and fro and carried up and down by every wind of doctrine by the câ—nning slight and subtilty of men by which they lie in wait to deceive For to this end did Christ give offices and gifts Study therefore to shew your selves workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing methodizing opening and so defending the word of truth Act. 20. 20 28 29 30. Eph. 3. 12 14. 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. 2 Tim. 2. â— 15. DIRECT XVII Be not strange to the poor ones of your flock but impartial to all and the servants of all mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate Rom. 12. 16. ALL souls are equally precious unto Christ whether rich or poor O set the strange example of Christs condescension still before your eyes Was it the high or the low that were his familiars Did he live in fulness and ride in poâ—p and associate only with the rich and great O see him washing his disciples feet And hear him teaching them by that example what they ought to do for one another He came not to be ministred unto but to minister How sharply did he rebuke his disciples when they strove who should be greatest And setting a little child before them hath taught us what must be our ambition And that he that will be the greatest must be the servant of all Our greatness lieth in the greatest of our humility and usefulness Math. 18. 1 2 3 4. 23. 11. Luk. 22. 24 25 26. Math. 20. 28. It is lawful and meet that men in power should be honoured by us and also that the people be taught to honour them and that you keep such interest in them as is needful to the publick good and therfore all converse with them is not unlawfull But when Ministers only attend on the rich and are strange and seldome among the poor it makes them accounted carnal worldly men and is unsuitable to their Lords example and to the work of their calling The poor are far more numerous than the rich and therefore our work is more among them And death will quickly level all And when we have all done we shall find that the poor receive the glad fidings of the Gospel and the poor of the world may be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdome which God hath prepared for them that love him Mat. 11. 5. Iam. 2. 5 6. And that the rich do hardly enter into the Kingdome of heaven Iam. 2. 6 7. But ye have despised the poor Do not the rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgement seats It is the poor that must be the chief crown and comfort of your labours Therefore be not strangers to them if you would not have them account you lordly worldly and self-seeking men If you will leave them to themselves and think your selves too good to be their companions or to come into their smoaky Cottages and then think that a lordly command or rebuke should serve the turn to keep them from errour and schism and disorder you may find your errour to the Churches cost when it is too late And it will be but a pitiful excuse for your pride or laziness to cry out of seducers for creeping into such houses which you disdained to come into your selves what do you by avoiding them but invite any others thither that will come and leave them as it were swept and garnished for such evil spirits DIRECT XVIII Spend and be spent for your peoples good and do all the good that possibly you can 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 truly Fathers to them and that their well-fare is your chiefest care and business ALl men love themselvs and naturally and necessarily love those that they know do greatly love them And all men are sensible of their bodily concernments and consequently of that good that is done to their bodies He that setteth himself to relieve the poor and to put on others to relieve them to visit the sick and help those that are in trouble and to comfort the afflicted to do what good he can to all and hurt to none shall find that their ears will be open to his doctrine and that they will follow him towards heaven with much less resistance than otherwise he must expect Few such Ministers do ever want success of their labours And the covetoâ—s close handed self-seeking and cruel are alwayes hated And let his mony perish with him who thinketh it better than the souls of men and the work of God DIRECT XIX Keep up the Reverence of the ancient and experienced sort of Christians and teach the younger what honour they owe to those that are their elders in age and grace For whilest the elder who are usually sober and peacaable are duly reverenced the heat of rash and giddy youth will be kept in order USually where the elder bear the sway the Church hath peace Though I know some deceive is grow worse and worse And it is where the young and rash are become the predominant most esteemed party that schism and disorders do prevail And though some tell the people what honour they owe their Elders by office yet few acquaint them what honour youths owe both to the Elder in age and in experience and grace It will therefore be much of the prudence of the Pastors to keep up the honour of the Elders of the people and to preserve in the younger a due esteem and reverence towards them DIRECT XX. The Pastors who will preserve the Churches Peace must neither neglect to preserve their interest in the Religious persons of their charge nor yet be so tender of it as to depart from sober principles or wayes to please them nor to make them their rulers nor follow them into any exorbitancies to avoid their censures BOth these extreams will tend to confusion First They that care not at all what men think of them do but despise their advantages to do