our Love in our Sympathy in our Bowels of Affection in our Care for the Body though we are not all of an Aspect of a Figure of a Size in our Membership yet still are we the Body of Christ and Members in particular and being so we are the Israel of God upon whom is Peace and Mercy both now and for ever Amen And if we ought as certainly we ought so to pray with what satisfaction of mind with what appearance of Christianity can we move against the Peace of our Fellow-Members or not contribute to their Ease to their self-Enjoyment to the Comfort of each others Condition so that if one member be honour'd all the members may rejoice with it if one member suffer all the members may suffer with it and send in to its Relief and Support Our Defects herein disturbing the Peace not Ministring to the Merciful support of one another will be found another sort of Schism but of far deeper Guilt than that so much cryed out of not Conforming to one anothers Indifferents But above all the Ravening of the Evening Wolf the Roar of the Lyon the Poison and Venome of the Asp and Cokatrice ' should be far from our Mountain if we would have it accounted the Holy Mountain of the Lord. And on all sides we should open the Doors and Sluces that the streams of Divine Knowledg might run every way till it covers our Land as the waters do the Sea THE END True Religion the Interest of Nations or National Religion Demonstrated to be the Duty of Nations c. Psal 79. 6. Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy Wrath Fury upon the Heathen Nations that have not known thee and upon the Kingdoms Families that have not called on thy Name THIS Prayer doubled by the Spirit of God for the weight of it the safety to men it should be well known and the certainty of its effect contains a strong assertion of the great benefit of Phil. 3. 2. Gen. 41. 32. and obligation lying upon Nations to National true Religion For seeing according to a grand Rule in Gods Administration of the World Nations that have no National Religion and whose Nationalness therefore becomes Heathenism and is so branded by the Spirit of God for so Nations in Scripture very often signifies Heathen that is Nations without true Religion are lyable to the pouring out of the wrath and fury of God upon them It does not only follow by the rule of Contraries that National true Religion or Worship of the true God hath a strong order to and connexion with the favour of God but as the positive Proposition is the prime and original and gives ground to and contains within it self the privative so does this Proposition That Gods Anger and Fury is at all times ready against those that do not know him that do not call upon him as join'd in a National Body or Society being the privative owe it self to the other being the positive as shall be more fully made out in the arguing this Point At the present it will be enough to observe that these two Holy men the Composer of this Psalm and the Prophet Jeremy except as some think they were both one desiring the destruction of those Heathen enemies under whose oppression their own people which at that time comprehended the Church of God then groan'd and praying in spirit for it relye and rest the whole weight of their prayer upon this principle of great truth and consequence in Gods Government of the World that as Families as Nations as Kingdoms for so all Communities are comprehended they did not know nor call upon God that is they did not worship the true God and therefore were most justly subject to his fiercest displeasure And on the other side it is couched under this though indeed before it That the people that do know and call upon the true God have a title to his savour and vindication of them in all their distress while they are consider'd as so knowing and calling upon him and not contradicting it by their actions The Context therefore goes on arguing with God on this point They have devoured Jacob in whose quarrel and rescue God is so much concern'd And seeing the favour of God is Eternal Life and his wrath burns to the lowest Hell both his wrath and his favour are to be understood in their extent even to everlasting ages All which will ground the Proposition which I mainly intend in this Discourse That National true Religion is the greatest security strength and defence of a Nation against the Divine wrath and displeasure and gives the surest claim to his favour blessing and protection both in this world and in that which is to come Because it is an observation of the greatest duty and therefore to be most closely united in and pursued to the utmost by all wise Nations and by all the several parts and members of a Nation for it is their first and highest Psal 33. i2 144. 15. Interest Blessed is the Nâ—tion that is in such a case yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord who have Jehovah thus for their God And this very consideration should reconcile all differences in National Religion that can be composed without loss of that Truth and corruption of those parts of the Worship of God which give denomination to true National Religion This should incline those that are above to the greatest condescensions and those that are beneath to the most free compliances possible if they value Religion and love their Nation that at least there may be union in National Religion if there cannot be perfect Uniformity For I am fully perswaded that upon a strict examination of this Point it will be found that National Religion supposing it always the true is the happiest model of union in Religion of any upon earth and most pleasing to God except that of the Catholick Church whose union is in the Substantials of Truth worship and practise but comes under no other form or model properly taken but except this there is none so perfect to the ends and glory of Religion so adaequate to the expressions of Scripture concerning the publickness of Religion so encouraging and advantageous to the practise so reconcileable with the peace of Religion and Nations so preventive of the endless divisions and subdivisions Humane Nature is apt to fall into when it yields up it self to a scrupulosity and Disputatiousness about Externals and Forms in Religion I say again I am perswaded no man can serve God with greater acceptableness nor be Religious to greater ends and purposes of Religion than by joining with the Nation or Supream Civil Incorporation whereof he is a member so far as he can be permitted to do it consistent with the Truth of Religion and Divine Worship I say as far as he can upon these accounts if not throughout And of this I shall endeavour to give great and valuable proofs from
can we have of it Quest But how can it be but there must be Tradition seeing there were so many Things spoken and done more than the Scripture contains or the World it self could contain if they were all written These then being known in the first Times have been conserv'd by Tradition Tradition made valuable by those of Honourable Name among Christians and their Discourses of Christianity Answ Granting such things so preserv'd suppose them the Actions and Words of our Saviour himself yet if not written by Inspired Penmen they are not recommended as obligatory upon After-ages For whatever was necessary that we might believe and have Eternal Life was so written and that not only just so much as might serve Necessity for that the One Gospel of St. Joâ—â— might serve to That it self witnesses but also be matter of Bounty and Abundance so that out of that greater World of Truth than our World could receive there was so much selected as was bountifully sufficient and abundant to all Intents and Purposes of Clearness Certainty Enforcement upon the Affections Variety continual Exercise and Delight that so every Christian might be throughly furnished to every good Work to all things that pertain to Life and Godliness As for all that Christ did and spake or that the Apostles spake or did by Infallible Guidance and Immediate Assistance if it be not written a Veil is drawn over it and a Cloud hath received it out of our sight It is a secret thing that belongs not to us but is sealed up from us like the things which the Thunders uttered in the Revelation And indeed the Wisdom of Providence seems to have dealt with all such Sayings or Actions as with the Body of Moses all Monuments of Worth and Certainty after Scripture in relation to them are concealed from us There is a great Darkness upon the History of that Time lest we should superstitiously venerate in place of that which is divinely written and preserved to us the things that were not prepared for our Learning and so to us but as a Body not divinely inspired that is a Body without a Soul All too fierce Disputes about them are therefore raised only by Sathan the Enemy of Light and Truth to no other purpose than that about the Body of Moses that is to found an occasion of Superstition and silently to whisper Scripture is not sufficient And yet we see with what an eager Zeal Men are set upon such Researches not satisfied with the Proportion of Manna allowed by God but even as the Israelites that gathered much had nothing over so may it be truly said of those that would abound beyond Scripture in that which pertains to the true guidance of Conscience That they have nothing over and what they will needs keep as such corrupts Quest Is there Reason sufficient to support this Sentiment Answ This great Reason If we had undoubted but not inspired History of that Time it could not be like the Evangelistick History or the Actes of the Apostles to us we should in some things want the Application and Direction to our use dictated by Divine Wisdom in others the unerring Censure of even Apostolick Actions as in that of the Apostle Peter Galat. 2. 11. Now because our Consciences would be apt to be drawn into subjection to things of so great Reputation and yet there would be no Divine Authority to draw them nor Infallible Authority to support them in which Cases it is the Absolute Will of God they should not be in subjection God hath therefore in his Providence left that time so much in the dark that we may trust in his written Word only For separate Immediate Divine Presence from the Prophets and Apostles themselves and there remains nothing at the highest but the Wisdom and Prudence of Understanding and Good Men applying General Rules to particular Cases Times Places and Events as they for that time could best judge and yet besides the variation of Circumstances in every Age they themselves were as Men subject to mistakes as Nathan about David's building the Temple as Paul assaying to go into Bithynia to like Passions with other Men as in the Contention betwixt Paul and Barnabas to like Temptations as in the Miscarriage of Peter before referred to All they did and said not shining with immediate Light from Heaven must be tried in the Light of what themselves together with all the other Penmen of Scripture had written They themselves therefore acting or speaking by way of Prudence or general Assistance must be tried by themselves acting or speaking according to Revelation and special Assistance in which only they are and ought to be Authoritative Quest But it still remains There might be some things that were not so sit for vulgar Knowledge and so were Secreted into Tradition apart from Scripture and that Tradition deposited with Trusty Men who should successively so deposite it that it might at convenient Seasons be brought forth as Goliah's Sword from behind the Ephod Answ None like it indeed to serve a purpose But to satisfie Reason and Conscience nothing so improper For first let these Traditionaries give clear Expositions and such as are worthy to be acquiesced in of the Prophetick or otherwise Dark Places of Scripture If they cannot do that where is the Wisdom above the Vulgar and why did not Tradition without Scripture inclose those mysterious Visions of the Revelation from Popular Inspection But the things Tradition is imploy'd indeed in are quite of another Nature either the Prelation of Men in Church-Office and Dignity or some Rites of Worship that should change Devotion into Superstition or lull it into Ignorance or some Canons that turn Religion into Trade or Doctrines suited to that End or which serves to all such purposes a Tradition to call back all Scripture out of the Written Word into Oral Tradition by locking it up in a Tongue unknown to the generality of Christians And yet if there were any seemingly Purer or more Contemplational Traditions seeing they are not inrolled into Scripture they must as hath been said give such Evidences of themselves as Divine Revelation hath or be at their highest but Enthusiasm and Fanaticism Quest But what Esteem is to be had of the Writings and Iransactions of the Ancients whom we call Fathers Doctors of the Church Men of eminent Holiness great Abilities Confessors and Martyrs of Christianity Answ It may be easily judg'd by what hath been said already that they must be brought to Scripture laid at its Feet and submitted to its Acceptance whether according to its true Sense or not For if the Apostles when the Holy Spirit was not upon them could not exceed Humane how much less can any of a lower Class pretend The Fathers therefore had so great an Awe of Scripture that they did not assume any thing to themselves or their Writings or yield any thing to the Persons or Writings of those of the same Time with them but
it lying Foursquare and being solid square measure for so it must be if the Length Bredth and Height are all equal Answ I did not at all forget it but suffered your Questions to lead through all I less design'd that they might come to the Principal Character of the True Religion and the True Church so exactly adequate to one another Quest Will you then more fully explain this Similitude Answ That I may the better do it I must repeat it from the very Ground and Bottom of it which is that God makes use as he pleases of all the Knowledge and Science that is in the World to Minister to Divine Knowledge in which he principally intends to Instruct as being most absolutely necessary for all of what condition soever As then Mathematicks is the most Demonstrative Science and some things in it are of most retired and fine Speculation so are others most known and necessary to all imployed in Mechanicks Thus God hath been pleased to deposite some Prophetick Truths in the most mystick parts of that Learning and some of the more general use in the most known and acquainted parts of it now those that are more secret and not so necessary I shall leave to those that are most fitted thereunto But what is most plain and imports what is most necessary for all I will insist upon As then Number and Measure are means Ordained for Humane Nature and principal Instruments of Reason to come to the most certain knowledge of things and to be secured they are and continue what they justly ought to be so True Religion is thereupon presented to us under exact Number and Measure falling in one with another the Number Twelve multiplied into a Square Cube of Twelve thousand Furlongs And as the Foursquare Figure does so bind and is so compact with it self that it cannot receive the least Addition but with the loss of its Square nor the least Diminution but under the same Forfeiture thus True Religion is so perfectly it self that it can neither be added to nor diminished from but with a proportionable loss of it self God was pleased upon this account to chuse this Figure for the Altar under the Law for the Breast-Plate of Judgment this was the Measure of Solomons Oracle how far the Measures in Ezekiel agree I leave The Heathen by Natural Wisdom had such a Sense of the so Just to it self Foursquare that they called a Good Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Foursquare Man And lastly as Solid Square Measure is in all parts of it and throughout every part exactly Square and gives the most certain account of the whole content of a Body so is True Religion in all its Parts exactly so it self and every Part of every Part is reduced to the same exactness for so the Length Bredth and Height of it are equal and so is the True Church exactly adequated to True Religion The Faith is therefore said to be at once delivered to the Saints because it can receive no New Measures and it is called the Common Salvation or Doctrine of it because the Universal Standard is one This then is the Measure of a Man and the Measure of the Angel For by that Wisdom that is natural to a Man in which Beasts have no share that is to Number and Measure is made plain to us Angelical Number and Measure that is the Number and Measure of True Religion as the Angel delineated it beginning in the Apostolical Twelve and Multiplied by it self to an exact Square Figure or Measure Square in the whole product Square in every particular part and of that just content And with this exact Number Twelve so Foursquare agreed the Altar Temple and they that worshipped therein when the outward Court was left out of Measure to be trodden under Foot by Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition disguis'd under Popish Christianity of which whenever it shall be perfectly freed it shall appear in that Glory here describ'd All richest Pearl pure Gold most transparent Jasper that is Brightest Clearest Truth and of the exact Apostolical Number and Measure Quest Is there no farther Improvement to be made of this Divine Symbole the Foursquare City Answ There is when I have first observed to you False-Religion is out of all Square just Measure and even Number it is a constant and perpetual Odd wandring from True Religion and the justness of it to it self and that both in Doctrine Worship Rules of Life and Discipline so that it is impossible in it to Measure one thing from and by another or any one point of any of these by it self uneven in the whole Product uneven in every part uneven in the Root The most significant Emblem of the Popish-Church which having the Fundamentals of Christianity hath yet lost the Apostolical Twelve by innumerable most irregular and wild Additions and deformed every Single Article of Truth by most disagreeable Corruptions of it and therefore as a Man most Learned in Numbers hath demonstrated the Number 666 a Number no way to be reduced to a Foursquare Figure is the most Fit and Significant Hieroglyphick of it and indeed of all False-Religion that must have something of Truth to make it a Religion but as it is false is an Odd from that Truth Quest Let me now desire the most plain and useful Application of this Parabolick Scheme Answ You shall have it and it consists in observing Four Prime Characters of the True Christian Religion that may be as Four Equal sides of this Foursquare and of the Church adjusted to it from each of which may be measured to each of the rest and the Equality or Inequality will discover the Truth or Falshood of all that is brought to the Tryal 1. The Transcendant Holiness Goodness and Purity of the Doctrine Precepts of Worship Rules of Life Discipline is one side of this Christian-square with which whatever does not Square is convicted not to be of that Doctrine and Religion whether it look towards God in all the Highest most Honourable Apprehensions of him suitable Discourse Worship Love and Obedience or whether it look towards Men in all Justice Righteousness Mercy Compassion Charity Benevolence Beneficence and these as they respect all the particular Offices of Life Publick of Magistrates Subjects or Private as of Parents Children Husband Wife Master or Servants The Peace and Welfare of Mankind are treasur'd up in the Law of Christ or lastly whether it look to a Man 's own Person in Soberness Purity Continency in the Thoughts the Words the Actions The Honour and best State of the Mind and Body are provided for by this Doctrine that is after Godliness not only in the World to come but in this Life Whatever now does not agree with these wholesom words is detected not to be Christian which is all Truth Virtue and Praise 2. There being nothing more intimate to Man in this fallen state than the Sense of Guilt and knowledg that he is a
And I am sure this in all Justice Humanity and Reason tends to Peace for what can move to it more than a sole design of doing Good in them that are at the top and an evident Assurance to them that are below that that Good is offered to them and continually â—laborated for them what can more quiet and addulce mens Spirits than to see an inâ—ire Contrivance and Composure of all things to their Eterâ—â—l Salvation as the Apostle did all for the Elects sake that they might be saved 2 Tim. 2. 10. Such Ministerial Rulers are therefore the peculiar gift of Ephes 4. 11. Christ and speak the Magnificence of his Ascension They are given for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying the body of Christ all great ends in a Christian computation and as there were then extraordinary qualifications immediately given by Christ so now there ought to be such in the ordinary methods of Divine blessing upon Reading Study Meditation to which they that desire to serve Christ in the Ministry are wholly to give themselves that their profiting may appear to all Church-preferments as we call them and Ecclesiastick Dignities are often otherwise bestowed and serve other ends and yet too very often the Donors design these excellent ends and when they are otherwise intended yet are in many instances over-rul'd by God into great subserviency to these ends by the excellent Abilities and Labours of Holy and Learned Ministers of Christianity But be those things as they are under human Dispose as they fall out the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Great ones even his true Ministers And let him that calleth himself by great names in Christs Kingdom see that he make them good by his Service and Ministry Not by serving tables I understand any meaner service than feeding the sheep of Christ A prudent Governour for Church-Orders Rites and Ceremonies a great Improver of Church-Revenues however good they may be in their kind will not rise high enough nor answer the account Not a cunning Disputer a witty Haranguer but a Workman that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth is Christs Minister 5. In appendage to this Head follows the Fifth account of the Peaceable Intendment of Christianity to the world and that is The Method of Chastising Correcting and Reforming the known transgressions against the Laws of Christ and they so far as they are stated to the use of after-ages are according to the nature of the offence Admonitions Warnings Reproofs Rebukes Avoiding Rejecting from Communion esteeming as Heathens and Publicans casting out of the Church consignation over to Divine Judgment All these of a spiritual nature fitted to edification and not to destruction 2 Cor. 13. 10. to touch the Conscience to affect the Mind to work self reflection shame self-condemnation repentance and amendment or else Divine Judgment must be awaited It is the Rational as well as Christian Expedient of purging a Society from the scandal of offendors from Infection and Contagion of keeping it pure and honourable viz. to disavow them when gentler means are ineffectual It is a most natural Instrument for Reformation and Amendment and if it do not work so when upon just causes and by an unerring key is not only an appeal to Divine Judgment but a Predamnation I know it is debated by Learned men Whether the Apostolick 1 Cor. 4. 2 1. Rod and delivery to Satan did not operate by corporeal infliction as in Ananias and Sapphira and possibly in the Incestuous person in a lower degree I will however allow It did or might yet sith it was extraordinary it was immediately from heaven much more convictive of conscience than human processes wherein are often found much of mistake and injustice It was without noise or violence nor did it allow recrimination and complaint and therefore much more fit to go along with so spiritual Doctrine than Worldly Judicature and possibly necessary for primitive times to give authority to the Doctrine of Christ newly set out in the world So that still here 's none of that barbarous hurting or destroying in all Gods Holy Mountain and most probably the infliction fell upon those that were guilty of great offences against Natural Religion Acts 5. 1. Acts 13. 11. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 21. Chap. 13. 2. 1 Tim. 1. 20. as Ananias's falshood of the deepest dye Elymas his Sorcery the Incestuous Corinthian those that had not repented of their Fornication Lasciviousness and Vncleanness Hymeneus and Alexander who had put away a good conscience and then broke out into Blasphemy 6. The peacefulness of Christianity is most evidently seen in its deportment of it self towards Magistracy of which having spoken much in that which concerned Natural Religion taken into union with Christian I shall only present these following short mentions of particulars wherein Christianity manifestly designs Universal Peace under this Head 1. It every where confirms and assures the Divine ordination of it 2. It states its Power in inforcing all Natural Religion and Goodness In restraining all that is impious and evil 3. It craves nothing of it but to have Justice done it according to those sanctions nor prophecies any thing in the greatest outward happiness of Christianity but that Princes and Nations shall be sprinkled by it and Supreme Princes Isa 52. 15. become its Nursing-fathers 4. It enjoins upon all its servants and professors upon unjust sufferings to return nothing of violence but blessings and prayers for injuries and with patience to resign life it self 5. It interposes not in deciding the bounds between Princes and people but leaves that to Laws of Nature and particular Laws of Nations Compacts between one and the other neither straitning nor enlarging Prerogative neither swelling nor abating Power nor on the peoples side curtailing or stretching Liberty It leaves these things to be disputed in their own Forum to be debated in their own proper Senate For its own sake it moves no Land-marks either way It tears up no sences As it therefore is horrible injury ro Christianity to proclaim as some speak King Jesus to the disturbing Earthly Kingdoms when his Kingdom is not of this world So is it a huge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grand extreme on the other side and inconsequence to argue from the Commands of Christians sufferings when Human Laws and Regular State-Constitutions adjudged them to such how unjustly soever then indeed no resistance is to be made for the sake of Christian Religion But it is vastly inconsequent to infer hence any man is bound by the Law of Christianity tamely to resign those Rights even those Religious Rights that are establish'd to him by the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of a Nation wherein the whole Power of Kingdoms and States Princes and People have concurr'd For Christian Religion as Christian Religion undermines no Laws whether for Princes
and shifting for the gaining opportunities for the assembling themselves and preserving their relation one to another in the discharge of mutual duties much more easily than any greater associations could for our Saviour intended all for use not for Form he minded not Nominal Titular Bishops and Churches Thus far I have pleaded the appointment of Christ that the smallest numbers of Christians may agree and associate and be assured of his presence But now that this appointment is in bar of greater Societies of Christians is by no means to be granted for it is most apparent our Saviour design'd all things under the Gosplel should be restor'd to the Law of Nature and the true Reason of Things Now according to that the first End of all Society is the enjoyment of True Religion in more than solitude This desire of enjoying true Religion in Society extends it self from the least of Societies to the greatest that are not too great for the Ends of Society Our Saviour therefore as he gave no Frame of positive Laws or Worship no Pedagogy of Precepts so no Institution of Bounding Churches but that in case of straits and exigencies his true Religion may be administred in the very smallest of Societies with confidence of his Favour and Presence when it hath freedom it may enlarge it self further and further and if it have favour of Nations and Governments ascend to the greatest yet with this reserve That if in any time or place National Christianity varies from the true Original Christianity as often it hath been sound to do so that it cannot even in substantial things be consented in with a pure Conscience privater Congregations even to the most particular are always ready for Christians to retire into for so the Laws of Nature allow where the Publick is not safe and yet when the whole is not corrupted nor liberty of joyning without commixture with those Corruptions denied there may yet be there ought to be no Separation Thus the greatest Societies are not in bar of the least when True Religion requires them Thus the least are not in bar of the greatest when Christianity is at full freedom for it is closely allied with that Wisdom whereby Kings ought to Reign and Princes to decree Justice by which Princes Prov. 8. 15 16. ought to rule and Nobles yea all the Judges of the Earth with that Wisdom which rejoyces in the Habitable parts of the Earth and hath its delights with the sons of men I have therefore before observed That Christian Religion at the very first joyn'd it self as near as it could to all Humane Societies made ready to it as Families Villages Regions and so far as the Rage of Persecution would permit Christian Societies united themselves unto Distant and National Correspondencies among themselves Now it hath been so unhappy indeed with the World that in few Instances there hath been a Good State of National Religion to yield a full consciencious Compliance with Yet this will no more argue against the Thing it self than it does against any other of the wise and good Ordinations of God or against the Jewish Church so immediately govern'd by God and yet so often and so notoriously corrupted in Judah and more generally in the Ten Tribes and yet to shew how to the very utmost without following a multitude to do evil we ought to joyn with any that are good in a Nation and with any thing that is good in National Religion when Elijah had as it were deserted his place and the good influence his being in publick might have had and that God found him alone He did by way of Reproof ask him What he did alone in 1 Kings 19. 9. the Wilderness and inform'd him of a greater number that had not bowed to Baal than he knew of with whom he might joyn himself If Corruption would argue against any good Appointment or Ordination of God it would argue against Churches of the very first Form or Constitution those Churches in the Revelation whose Corruption is severely tax'd and threatned yet are without any Censure as to their Constitution and while Sâ—paration from those Churches is not so much as intimated yet a Separation from Impurities is highly commended and promised reward Those Names Rev. 3. 4. in Sardis that had not defiled their garments are assured they should walk with Christ in white for he judg'd them worthy From whence I conclude no Form of Churches can recommend things disagreeing from the word of God how truly form'd soever those Churches be for Churches are constituted for joyning in those things that are agreeable to the Will of Christ not in those that are not and yet Separation from Corruptions does not necessitate Separation from Churches while there are any Parts of Divine Truth and Worship preserv'd pure to unite in so great are the Obligations that lye upon all sincerely Religious to make true Religion as publick as they can in the several Societies that are found to ingraft it upon Now that every Society that is the feat of True Christian Religion is in the language of the New Testament A Church I allow and therefore will briefly inquire into the Scripture-notion of a Church And I find the Original word taken out of the Septuagint of the Old Testament which translates the Hebrew Kahal by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators in the Old Testament as generally render Congregation although in the New Testament what is in the quotations out of the Old Testament in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they render Church so that from the whole it is very plain as the Vniversal or National Assembly of the people of Israel was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Church as by St. Stephen Acts 7. 38. where he speaks of the whole Body of the Israelites in the Wilderness so the Vniversal Assembly of Christians consider'd as in the Catholick Church is call'd by our Saviour and the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Congregation by way of Eminency as Holy Records are The Scripture or Writing and the Volume of Scripture The Bible or Book as the glad tidings of Christ are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Evangil or Gospel so the Church is The Congregation And as lesser Congregations of that Church of the Jews that did not comprehend the whole Body are call'd The Congregation or Church even so lesser Societies of Christians are call'd the Congregation or Church in allusion to which our Saviour says If two or three are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of like Importance gathered together in my name I will be in the midst of them So that the Universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christians seen only together by God and particular Assemblies of Christians that meet together under each others eye are in the phrase of the New Testament Churches Even as the whole Assembly of the Israelites in the Wilderness when they were all under
two Cases to be the Expedient against Scandal he therefore perswades the not eating upon these Contingencies as by the by which was a very easie performance for Christian Charity but the Thing he was wholly intent upon was that great Doctrine of not Scandalising for the sake of Indifferent Things These Circumstances easily vanished the main Point remains unmoved They were only a Scheme a momentany and transitory one to display this great Doctrine in and to present it upon When these things grew into a Ritual Religion the Scheme was altered and shifted they grew sinful and were condemned the Doctrine stood yet and for ever stands firm planted upon them Object 4. The Rites used are such as are recommended from Antiquity and were of use of old in the Primitive Church Answ Allow it to be so All that can be collected from thence is but Example wound up to its highest Peg when it does not reach Christ And whenever it does not reach him it does not bind Be ye followers of me as I 1 Cor. 11. 1. am of Christ said the Apostle just about to discourse of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordinances or Traditions Those Concurrences All Every where Always must begin in Scripture and be found there else they do but oblige our Prudence not our Conscience Only so far as Antiquity or the Primitive Church inables us to see with our own Eyes the Sense of Scripture or the Determinations of Natural Light and Reason in any Case so far it obliges us in Conscience All else is but the Deference of Modesty and due Regard which cannot weigh against Scandal except we make the Oracles of Antiquity equal to the Heavenly Oracles and then we must demand the same Certainty of the Divine Inspiration of the one as of the other or else we may quickly run into the greatest of Scandals Object 5. The Commands of Lawful Authority take away the Indifferency and make Necessary what was before Indifferent Answ The Question is not Whether Magistrates ought to be obeyed in all things Indifferent for that is readily granted if in all Circumstances they are Indifferent nor whether Rites are Indifferent Things for that is also supposed to be granted but the question must be Whether it is an indifferent thing to give or receive Scandal upon the account of Indifferent Things seeing that may indisputably fall out or the Apostles Discourses fall to the Ground and in one sort of Indifferents as well as others else the Apostles Discourse will be ineffectual to any the like Case Seeing then the Tribunal and Authority of God is higher than of any of the Supreams of this World and that Scandal is cognisable only before him and that whatever incurs Sandal is inseparable from Sin against God it must needs follow that in a Case of Doubt from which a Man cannot acquit himself he cannot obey Men in that without disobeying God who hath declared to him Whatever is not of Faith is Sin and he that doubteth and doth what he doubteth of is Damned that is Condemned within himself and in the thing it self And the Reason in such a Case must be the same as in a Case of Obeying Magistrates against any express Divine Prohibition For though the thing doubted of does much differ if it be indeed indifferent Yet the Prohibition is as plain against doing what is doubted of and what is not of Faith as in any Case Seeing then all Humane Authority must lower its Top to Divine I cannot see but that in Indifferent things in Religion which is Gods peculiar for we speak only of that the Magistrates Power is excluded in case of real doubt of Conscience in which a Man can do nothing but he runs into Gods danger even as in any other case of such danger by reason of Sin And what is offered in Relief will not avail viz. That Obedience to Magistrates is certainly a Duty but whether there be any disobedience to God about such or such Indifferents is in doubt and if the thing be indeed indifferent it is a doubt upon mistake And then there is a disobedience to God in an undoubted Rule and Command to avoid it in a case not only of doubt but of mistake This I say cannot avail Because the measure is not to be drawn betwixt Obedience to Magistrates in all lawful things or things indifferent but betwixt Obedience to Magistrates and Obedience to that Rule of the Word of God in all cases of doubt which is as clear and as little subject to doubt as any Rule whatever Yet does not this evacuate the Power of Magistrates it being restrained to things indifferent in Religion and in Doubt and the Doubt fixed upon a grand Principle of Truth Nor is that of greater satisfaction That in Obedience to Magistrates there are so many degrees of Good and so many of Evil in the Disobedience but in doing well or ill concerning Indifferents there are much fewer Degrees both of the Good and the Evil therefore Obedience to God in so great a Morality as Obedience to Magistrates is always to be preferred before our doing well in Indifferents and the fear of Evil in one to be avoided much rather than the same fear in the other The Reason of Dissatisfaction is this That the Measure is not betwixt the Morality of Obedience to God in obeying Magistrates and doing well or ill about things Indifferent but betwixt the Morality of Obeying God in one of his clear and undoubted Precepts and in another of the same Evidence and Clearness which must needs be one and the same and of the same Rate of Morality Seeing Obedience to God is the Fundamental Morality If it were not thus the Magistrates Prohibition of Sacrifice of the Cup in the Lords Supper must exempt from Obedience to God in those Duties because Obedience to Magistrates is a Moral Duty but the other Ceremonial But it is out of Measure certain Obedience to God is both the top and the bottom of all Morality and although Obedience to Magistrates is a great point of Morality yet Obedience to God is so before it as to be the Measure of it Besides if Obedience to God be to be valued not by his Authority but by weighing the Precepts themselves much more Obedience to Magistrates is to be estimated by the Commands they give of which Indifferents in Religion will never be made out to be worthy to be the Tests either of their Authority or our Obedience whatever unthinking Men have said therein Indeed among the Divine Commands God hath chosen Mercy rather than Sacrifice honouring Parents rather than Corban but it is because he hath so declared in his Word and in Mens Consciences But all the Laws of God do harmoniously Conspire and Subordinate themselves one to another among which Obedience to Magistrates and Preserving the Government and Peace of Conscience are none of the least nor of any contest or distance of unkindness between themselves Whoso
are Infamous Malefactors Male-contents under the most wise and sage Government or Wits ill employed that Lampoon it 6. Let us continually look to Jesus who in himself subdued the whole power of Scandal keeping steady and uniform Obedience to the Divine Will and did always the things that were pleasing to it though Scandals of all sorts pressed in on every side Who being in the Form of Phil. 2. 6. God thought it not robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no Reputation but took on him the Form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even to the death of the Cross Hereby even by the Dignity of his Person and the Profound Humility of his Obedience he hath not only done that Honour given that Glory to the Divine Soveraignty and Righteousness the Glory of that Supreme Authority as hath made Recompence for all the Scandals of Angels and Men so far as that Soveraignty or Righteousness are absolutely concerned whether any should believe in him or not but hath also made Attonement perfect Attonement and Reconciliation for all that do believe in and obey him into a share of which I make no doubt the Holy Angelical Nature immediately entred according to their state even from the time he was declared the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Through his Obedience and Meditaion ador'd and applyed to they have persever'd free from Scandal by which so great a part fell upon account of which when the First begotten came into the Heb. 1. 6. World all the Angels of God Worshipped him The virtue from himself as the Exemplar as the First-born among many Brethren Rom. 8. 29. to whose Image they are Predestinated to be conformed does by degrees extirpate all the very remains of Scandal in his Church and he presents it without blame spot wrinkle blemish or any such thing even by real and efficacious operation before the Eyes of Glory His Example alwaies stands before them as the most absolute and sublime Pattern to which they daily are exercised in fashioning themselves Thus our Lord does every way dissolve the Works of the Devil and deliver them who by reason of Scandal were all their lives time subject to bondage by destroying Scandal and him that hath the great Power of it the Devil 7. This should make Heaven desirable to us where no Scandal dwells nor any more since the Angels of Scandal were cast out of it can so much as once enter where there is perfect light without any variation or shaddow of turning The Holy ones there are vext with Scandal's Wiles no more with the Wiles of the God or Ministers of Scandal or those that by his Stratagems are made any way serviceable to it 8. It makes Hell more dreadful the seat and Center the Fund of Scandal where all the good Principles men have had or seem'd to have while they were in the World or the Church the best state of this World and their Temporary good Actions are all swallowed up and by the great power of Scandal turned all into it self wherein all the temporary partial Righteous men of this World whose being Scandalis'd as to the main the true love of God and his Children turned their best things now into a sort of Splendida peccata better complexioned sins have then all that they seemed to have taken from them And by reason of that great Stumbling Block the Eternal loss of God They turn from all their Righteousness and all that they have done is not remembred to them any more for ever They sink into that unpardonable Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit whch is an irreconcilable Enmity to what is known to be of God undeniably of him and that Enmity expressed in the proper language of Scandal Blasphemy and is never forgiven whether committed in this World or that which is to come Now what is there more dreadful to the mind that hath any thing remaining of an Ingenuous sense towards God that hath but so much Love and Reverence towards him though too faint for true saving Grace as will answer a profession of God and the Lord Jesus but will be horribly afraid at the supposition of such a hatred of God such a Blasphemy of him and so of Hell on this account that every sin boils up there into this Height of Scandal 9. We are dreadfully warned from being the Ministers of Scandal either through Design or through great Falls and Miscarriages in our Religious Course this we ought to take care of in Relation to the World in general but especially towards the Little ones that believe in Christ stronger Christians are most out of our danger who grieve or have a just Zeal against our Scandals but in the mean time themselves grow stronger and stronger as Trees that cast their Roots the deeper for being assailed with the Winds But the Little ones are in the Eye of Christ of the tenderest concern because they need it most While we are in the way of our Duty if any receive Scandal and are resolved to do so they create it to themselves we must let them alone but in all things wherein we can save a Soul from Scandal let us consider the Recompence we save a Soul from Death and hide a multitude of Sins a glorious Reward without any more And herein let us always remember we have an Eminent Seat of Doctrine not to Scandalise for the sake of Indifferent Things a Doctrine prepared on purpose for all Ages of the Church of Christ concerning Indifferents one of the Eminent Seats of Doctrine of the New Testament and more particularly in relation to Scandal and therefore by no means to be lightly regarded To Conclude all that we may neither give nor receive Scandal three things are most necessary to which I shall subjoin great Counsels of Scripture in each Case 1. That we have our Judgments well settled within our selves in all the substantials and necessary points of true Religion upon a Divine and not an Humane assurance only that in that part we may neither Offend nor receive Offence for which Solomon's Advice is our great Security Bow down Prov. 22. 7. thine Ear to the Words of the Wise and apply thy Heart to my Knowledge For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee they shall withal be fitted in thy Lips That thy Trust may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day even to thee Have I not Written to thee excellent things in Counsels and Knowledge That I might make the know the certainty of the words of Truth that thou mightest answer the words of Truth to them that send unto thee Or those Admonitions of the Apostle Paul That we henceforth be no more as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine by the sleights of Men and cunning
Craftiness whereby they lye in Eccles 4. 14. wait to deceive But following the Truth in Love we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ From the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying it self in Love Be not carried about Heb. 13 9. with divers and strange Doctrines For it is a good thing that the Heart be established with Grace not with Meats which have not profited them that have been exercised therein 2. That we have a true and sincere Love of the Divine Law and our Obedience to it the Blessedness of which and its great preservation from Scandal the Psalmist thus describes Blessed is the Man that walketh not in the Councel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of Sinners nor Psal 1. 1. sitteth in the Seat of the Scornful But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate Day and Night And he shall be like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Water that bringeth forth his Fruit in due season his Leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper 3. That we order all things of Indifferency in Religion aright both as to the Sense of our own minds and the Edification of others To which purpose the Apostles Directions should be always before us The Kingdom of God is not Meat nor Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Rom. 14. 5 17. 1 Cor. 10. 22. Give no Offence neither to the Jews nor Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Whoever thus serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. FINIS ERRATA Several mis-pointings and litteral mistakes the Candid Reader is desired to observe and pardon and what is most injurious to the Sense thus to Correct PAge 6. line 32. for an read all p. 13. l. 22. for they r. the. p. 17. l. 12. dele not p. 18. l. 11. for at r. with p. 25. l. 30. for he r any one p. 27. l. 30. for purity r. party p. 38. l. 4 for Righteous r. weak p. 44. l. 24. dele them p. 48. l. 17. for rule r. rate p. 55. l. 22. after are r. not p. 61. l. 9. for Sacrifice r. Sacraments p. 76. l. 29. for Party r. Polity p. 79. l. 11. after justly r. may Printed for Tho. Parkhurst THE whole Duty of a Nation or National True Religion Argued and Perswaded upon greatest Motives of Scripture and Reason Conciliated to all moderate Apprehensions though differing in smaller things and to the strictest Notion of Churches II Book Liberty of Conscience in its order to Universal Peace Impartially Stated and proved to be the just Right and genuine effect of True Natural and Christian Religion in Immunity from Penal-Laws Church Censures and private Animosities A CATHOLICK CATECHISM SHEWING THE IMPOSSIBILITY THE CATHOLICK RELIGION Should be varied to the Degree of a Thought from the Measures left Sealed by the Apostles WITHOUT THE LOSS of TRUTH And therefore The Impossibility POPERY or whatever else is not found in Scripture should be CATHOLICK Composed to the Capacity of the Meanest that will but Consider that they may know and be ready upon un-movable Reasons to give an Apologie or Defensive Answer for the Catholick Religion if they are indeed of it and be secured from Temptation in Times of Danger 2 Pet. I. 12 The Present Truth Prov. 22. 21. That I might make thee know the Certainty of the Words of Truth that thou mightest answer the Words of Truth to them that send unto thee LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Call this A Catechism because I design it a Familiar Instruction in Fundamental Truths Resounding the same Thing from Question to Answer the easiest way of Conveying Truth and Imprinting it upon the Minds of those that are even of the meanest Capacity But especially because the Principles of it are to be daily so Meditated upon Pondered and Applyed to use as to be a perpetual sound in our Ears and so to be properly stiled Catechism For Things of such great weight as Principles are must have as the most Advantageous Admâ—ssion as the most Deep and therefore Leisurely Insinuation as the most Resolved Adherence when found True and Right which is Buying the Truth and not Selling it so they must have the most Easy and Ready Application to all their Uses and Ends They must therefore be bound continually about our Neck that when we go they may lead us that when we sleep they may keep us that when we wake they may talk with us Prov. 6. 21 22. I know the Things I have written cannot be duely received without much Thinking and without that they will be in danger of a Censorious rejection from the most or of a superficial unintelligent Acceptance in the Kinder which is as bad as the other and therefore I present it as a Catechism to those that shall at all approve it that they may be throughly versed in it and the Sense of it grow Domestick to them I call it a Catholick Catechism only with Relation to the Great Subjects it Treats of the Catholick Religion and the Catholick Church in those things wherein they are Catholick or in which their Catholickness consist That is that they are of God and that the whole Society of Holy and Happy Spirits is by that Catholickness united and closely banded with it self Catholick as the Epistles called Catholick that is after some Doubt Asserted to be Divine of the Publick Spirit of God and giving that Publick Doctrine in which the General Assembly is one I have endeavoured to contrive the Questions and Answers so that the Answers may be an Apology or Defensive Answer of that Catholick Truth giving a Reason or a Rational Account to any Demand that can be made upon it And it is the Apology of that Truth it self the Apology it gives and furnishes us with for other can no Man give Truth can need no other than its Native Apology for it self no other will it accept To give this and to be always ready to give it to keep it within us and to have it fitted to our Lips is the proper Fruit of such a Catechetical Instruction and the Apostle assures us it is the great Duty of Christianity and the greatest Honour we can do to God First to Sanctifie him in our Hearts by a full acknowledgment of him in his Divine Truth by a Plerophory or full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and
be presently more fully discours'd under the Head of Interpretation Quest How far and to what things does the Rule of the Word of God extend Answ To all things most assuredly that are necessary to Salvation and Eternal Life or to the true perfecting the Conscience in Purity and Peace whether they are things to be believed as the Springs of Heavenly Action or Things to be observed in the Worship of God or to guidâ— the Practice and order the Conversation aright to thaâ— Salvation or that are prescribed according to the Will of God for Discipline and Government of the Church Alâ— these are plainly written or by just Consequences to bâ— derived from the Word of God so far as they are necessary to shew Men the way to please God or to assure them they do please God that so they may attain the Promise of Eternal Life Quest Is there no other Rule of Religion then but the Scriptures embracing the Law of Nature Answ There can be none except either Religion were not derived wholly from God and therefore not so Catholick as we have asserted it or except any other Record of Religion can shew its Descent as High and Publick as Scripture does Of which Proof which Scripture gives of it self and what it is Inquiry is in the next place to be made CAP. VI. Of the Proof of Scripture That it is of God and that the Proof also is Publick and Divine Quest WHat kind of Proof of so Divine a Record as Scripture is high enough to prove it to be so Divine Answ That which is even as the Original of Scripture Divine also Quest Why must the Proof or Evidence of Scripture be Divine Answ 1. Because it is below the Dignity of Divine to receive its principal Proof from Private or lower than Divine or Publick 2. Because nothing but Divine can so reach the Conscience as to fill and possess it with satisfactory Evidence in so great a Concernment as Religion nor strikes the Heart with those great Effects of Love to Fear of Joy in Scripture and the Word of God so essential to Religion but Divine When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth the Word of God 3. Because it is impossible what is truly Divine should not dart the Rays of Divinity as all other Things of Excellency send out the Beams of that Excellency they have and thereby discover themselves For we know all things especially by themselves The Light remonstrates it self by it self The Genius of every Writer shews it self first by it self We see the Divineness of Creation and Miracles by themselves Best and Greatest is self-evidently Divine and whatever it is written upon is evidently Divine also Quest How does Scripture shew it self thus Divine Answ By a Majestick Assumption to it self to be Divine it speaks so in and of all things it speaks and as it pleases effects as Divine only does and can effect and is the Best and Greatest Record of Truth to all Holy and Wise Minds The only extant inviolate Record of Natural and Revealed Religion in the World is Scripture Quest Is Ratiocination then or the Just Compass Reason goes to be neglected concerning Scriptures Answ By no means For when these Self-evidences of every thing have struck us earlier than our Scrutinies of Reason and its Inquest can be performed about them that they may neither appear Fancies to us on our second Thoughts nor we run into Mistake concerning them by the Power of Imagination there is then liberty for Reason to inquire further and assure it self Nor will the Evidence hereupon amount to less than Divine For Divine only can satisfie the Reason that rationally and like it self inquires into Divine Quest What then are the great Assurances to Reason of the Divinity of Scripture Answ I account this the Chief That there are Two great Volumes the Book of the Natural Law of Religion written upon the Heart and engraven in the Conscience and the Book of Scripture That both these are addressed purely to the Mind as abstracted from Sense That each of them is Counterparted by Two great Manifestations of Divinity to Sense which Sense is Reason incarnate or Mind acting in and by Body These two are either Ordinary or Constant as Creation Conservation or Providence or Extraordinary as Miracles That each of them have also two Executive Powers acting them to their Ends The Motions and Activities of Reason inabled by the constant Concourse of General Illumination and the Supernatural Illuminations and Motions of the Divine Spirit And that all these agree in one unite with and fortifie one another all of them carrying the Evidences of Divine Presence and filling all the Apprehensiveness of our Faculties concerning God that he is in them so that nothing is Divine in the whole World the contrary of which we may feel or Scripture is Divine Quest But what is to be allowed to Consent of History Vniversal Tradition and Education in the Belief of Scriptures Answ All that can be desired to be allowed for it speaks the Absolute Sovereignty of God in making use of whom and what he pleases in introducing his Word into any Parts of the World and contriving the Testimony of Men as preparatory to the Testimony from himself which is much greater even as our Saviour received the Service of John's Testimony but had much higher or as Reason may receive from Sense some accidental Testimonies Quest But is there not much more to be yielded to the Rational Assurance that such Historians as the Prophets Apostles and Inspired Writers of such Honesty and Integrity would not prevaricate nor give any false Account of Things of the Miracles wrought by themselves or our Saviour of the Doctrines of Christianity or of their Divine Original especially when they seal'd all these with the Contempt of all things in this World even of Life it self and died in the constant Affirmation of them which remov'd all base Designs far from them even the suspicion of it Answ These Proofs of the Doctrine and Divine Descent of Scripture are undoubtedly of the highest Account that any Created Testimony can be and are a down-weight of Proof to all sober Reason Yet that they can rise above the Value of John Baptist's Testimony to Christ I cannot find and therefore we must remove higher to the Doctrines that those Holy Men preach'd and writ the spiritual Wisdom and admirable Contexture they us'd in Writing the Works they did carrying the Evidences of Divinity in themselves and applied by the Holy Spirit to the Senses of true Believers with its own assuring Attestations and gracious Operations of which all that was but created is no more than the Tube Pipe or Channel of Conveyance if we enter it into a compare with what is Higher and Divine But if the last Resolution of Proof were into any thing Humane there might be mistake in that for Humane at its
Divine and to curse all those that derogate from it 4. That having thus rivetted it self it by degrees like Pharaoh's Lean Kine eats out the generous and rich Sense of Scripture and devours the Authority of it and yet it self remains a jejune and starv'd Superstition Quest Who are the great Masters of Tradition Answ They that have under the True Religion set up some private Diana of Profit Honour or Worldly Advantage and cannot maintain it by that True Religion they eke out therefore with Private Tradition what may support it Quest What Antidote is there against the Mischief of Tradition Answ To cleave with full purpose and resolution of Heart and Soul to the Word of God and to that only to have no Religion nor any thing in Religion but what is enjoyned and recommended by Divine Authority in that Blessed Word of God and this is indeed to be of the truly Catholick Apostolick and Publick Religion Quest But is the Sense that hath now been given of Tradition the best Sense of it in Scripture-use Answ No it is not and the Consideration of a better Sense will much clear to us the Nature of Tradition When therefore our Saviour discoursed of the Commandments of Men delivered down from Hand to Hand subsisting only upon the Private Authority of the Elders not founded on the written Canon of the Old Testament at that time the only Rule of Faith Worship and Practice he always names Tradition in the ill Sense already given But when the Doctrine and Rules of the New Testament in those grand Points were just breathing from the Holy Spirit and not yet fixed in that abiding Canon Tradition is so long accepted in a good Sense The History of the Things done by our Saviour though most surely believed Luc. 1. 1. was first but delivered or tradition'd by Word of Mouth but afterwards written that the certainty of them might be more fully known to those that had been before Catechiz'd in them by Oral Tradition All the Ordinances of the Christian Worship were first Traditions 1 Cor. 11. 2. and the very Rules of Life were in Tradition 2 Thess 3. 6. But yet all these though they were Tradâ—â—â—ons delivered by those that were Commissioned immediately by the Holy Ghost and were themselves Eye witnâ—sâ—â—â— and Ear-witnesses of most Things they gave in Tâ—â—dition were yet not sealed so sure as the more sure Word of Prophesie because they were not yet written by Divine Inspiration though given out by it nor generally received and assured as so written till the due time of Trial by former Scripture had passed upon them The first Christians did therefore well to take heed to that former Scripture till they had the full Day of the Gospel as hath been before spoken If Tradition then was not so sure in the first and truly pure Times of it how much less would it have been sure afterwards if it had continued in Tradition All therefore of Doctrine in the New Testament was first prepared by Tradition laid in and proved by the Scriptures of the Old Testament either by direct Consequence or by Interpretation from immediate Revelation demonstrated as the First giving of Scripture always was by Miracles and so all at once and once for all consigned over to the Posterity of Christians by Divinely Inspired Writings so assured so confirmed as to leave no place for Tradition oâ— the Best sense There remains therefore nothing for Tradition now but its Ill sense Quest Why might not True Religion continue in Tradition committed all along to Faithful Men even as it did in â—â—e Custody of the Apostles and such Faithful Persons as they committed it to Answ Even in the time of the Apostles it was trusted no longer to Tradition than it must needs for the Apostle John the Survivor of them closed the Canon of the New Testament that was drawn apace into Writing all along But at that time there was such a continual immediate Energy or Efficacy of the Holy Spirit that Truth mov'd every way like Lightning and both by its direct and straight forward Motion in Doctrine and its reverse strokes in the Conviction of all Falshood Errour was blasted every way But when this Extraordinary Appearance ceased there was then no safety for Truth but in an unchangeable Written Word that was in such an extraordinary Season of Miracles and immediate Revelation setled and established under so great a Supervisal in the midst of so many Witnesses of all things by their Eyes and Ears and it being once written and always so secured by Divine Providence as hath been represented it always speaks the same Things in the same Words it first did Quest Why might not Divine Truth be committed some more Fundamental Parts to Writing and some according to variety of Occasion to Tradition Answ God to whom all Futurity is present who foresaw all that was necessary to be written before he had done writing cannot be supposed to commit his Will in part to Writing and that upon great Reasons and the same Reasons notwithstanding to leave a considerable part or so much as any one Branch obligatory upon the Conscience to Parol-Tradition For if he that offends in one Point is guilty of all there needs the same Authority and as well assured for one Point of Faith and Obedience as for all the rest 2. It is unconceivable what End Tradition unconsign'd by Scripture can serve that Scripture does not more fully and effectually take care for Publick Religion reserves nothing to be a Cabal for Private Interest within a close Cabinet or Conclave 3. Whatever is supposed to be entrusted to Tradition must either be the very same we have in Scripture and then Tradition is needless and superfluous for we have it in Scripture if we duly exercise our selves in it or it is more than Scripture hath declared and yet supposed to be of equal Authority with Scripture and then it must be a Motionary and Itinerant Word of God But where are the daily and continual Seals and Credentials Divine Tradition had and in a constant fresh Motion with it as it moves for so it had need be in so fluid a Thing as Tradition if it would pretend to be Sacred and so Divinely Inspired Tradition had while it continued in Tradition But what Reason can be given Tradition as we now speak of it was not incorporated into Scripture as was argued before Or that in so long a Course of Time it hath not been enroll'd into Scripture as the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles still was Seeing if it had all things else it cannot but want the Benefit of the Divine Contexture and Conveyance that Scripture hath in Words chosen and put together by Inspiration and the ready easie and certain Access to it by all For all are equally concerned in it Now seeing Tradition wants all these how can we accept it How can we look off from Scripture to pore upon Tradition or what hold
fanciful Distinction of themselves under Christ as an ordinary Chief of a Party and not as the Divine Head of the whole Body in the Catholick Truth Even as he erred that vulgarly called Christ Good not knowing him to be God the Supremely Solely Good Quest Are they all true Converts that are of the Church Answ All that are indeed the Church are so but all that may appertain to the Church are not so as all that were of Israel were not Israel There is a visible Profession that is too often not sincere yet this makes Men Of or belonging to the Church but not truly The Church Many are so called that are not chosen But all that are truly The Church are also truly called and truly Converts not only outwardly and visibly the Church but inwardly and invisibly so too whose praise is not of Men but of God In the mean time they that are onely of the Visible Church have the Means of Grace and are not thrown out of that Register of God's People till the Final Judgment cuts them off A very great Benefit in it self Quest Is not the Church then so Catholick or General as the Profession of the True Religion is Answ The Catholickness of the Church as hath been often inculcated is its Union to God and Christ and that in sincerity As to the general Profession though the number of it be as the Sand of the Sea a Remnant only shall be saved For God will finish the Account and cut it short in Righteousness for a short work will the Lord make in the Visible Church There shall be an often eating or brousing it off a retrenching of it again and again it shall cast the Leaves of its meer Professors as the Teyle-tree or Oak when yet their Substance is in them the Holy Seed are the Substance of it Isa 6. ult not losing them it loses nothing Quest In what sense is it then said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Answ It is undoubted none can fail while they are the Church while united to Truth to the God of Truth to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life It is also certain from this high Declaration there always shall be a Church in the World so united Hades or Mortality shall not prevail over it and how much farther it assures the Perseverance of those that are once truly the Church I leave the thing it self to speak It is said They that overcome ar Pillars that never go out of it and They that go out of it were not of it for if they had been indeed of it they would no doubt have continued with it And how the Church it self shall always continue if any True Member of it may perish is not easie to conceive Quest How is the Church ordained by God to actuate Scripture as it is the Record of Catholick Religion Answ The Apostle in his Noble Description of the Church hath laid the Foundations of our Instruction herein in those three Honourable Titles he hath given it 1. That it is the House of the Living God 2. That it is the Pillar of Truth 3. That it is the Ground of Truth Quest Before the Explanation of each of these Titles in the first place I desire it may be determined whether these things are spoken of the Catholick or of a Particular Church the Particular Church of Ephesus Answ Although I have already affirmed That the Catholick Church differs from a Particular True Church only in the Compass and Comprehensiveness of it yet I very willingly represent it over again in this Instance These things are truly applied to the Catholick Church to the Particular Church of Ephesus to every Particular Church nay it reaches down to every single living Member of the Church so far that God makes his abode with him dwells in him he is a Pillar in the House of God the Truth rests and dwells in him and shall be with him for ever so that he is a Ground of Truth and hath more of the Church in him than greater seeming Portions of it that erre from the Truth Quest If you please now to proceed in the Explanation of these Titles and first What is the Importance of the Churches being the House of God for the actuating the Scripture Answ God the most High Possessour and Owner of Heaven and Earth places his Court Family and particular Residence where he pleases and he hath chosen the Church to be this to him This is my Rest here will I dwell for ever for I have desired it Heaven is my Throne Earth is my Footstool where is the House you will build me To this Man will I look that trembles at my Word And where God dwells there he manifests himself As a Master of a Family makes known in his House and Family his Nature Will Laws and Government so God does in his Church In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel In his Church he shews the Light of his Countenance expects and rewards Services as a Great Master and makes known his Dislikes and Displeasure This is brought to pass in the Church by those many Ways that God hath of bringing his Word to any Places or Persons giving it Reception among them and then stirring up his Children and Servants to hear his Voice to search his Mind and Will and to understand it so that it is as a Voice continually behind them In his Temple therefore in his House every one must needs speak of his Glory His Word cannot lie still for all are concerned to meditate ponder inquire and discourse of it and are by Supreme Management excited so to do and so much as this Exercise in his Word is by any means depressed so far God is withdrawn and the Excellency of the Church-state lost Now of the Church being the House of God there was this great Type God dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem as in a Palace there was such a Diet of Shew-bread changed every day of Sacrifices of all sorts such Perfumes of Incense and Odours such Officers and Servants attending continually such Resorts of the whole Body of the People to the Court of this Great King and Princely Housholder Together with this State runs along in a mighty Stream Gods shewing his Word to Jacob his Statutes and Judgments to Israel In the New Testament the Pomp and Ceremonial Part is wholly transferred into Spirituality but Spirituality is not lower but higher in the Substance of all that could be figured by these things and the substantial part of that State the Communication of the Word of God is much exalted in the true Christian Church that the Light of One Day is now as much as the Light of Seven was before Thus the Church as the Family of God cannot but actuate his Word Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Pillar of Truth Does the Church support Truth Answ Not so for it self is built upon the
Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Quest How then is it said to be the Pillar of Truth And of what Importance is that to the Actuating Scripture Answ As the Laws and Ordinances of Courts and Governments are publickly fixed that every one may know and take notice of them so the Church in all its Members but especially by Deputed Ministers giving themselves wholly to it proclaims preaches and makes offer of the most Publick Notice of the Word of Truth within it self that all the Children and Servants of the Family may be continually catechiz'd and built up therein and Strangers have opportunity to know if they would apply themselves to it Thus it is a Famous City set on an Hill that cannot be hid and therefore its Laws Constitutions Manners cannot but in all reason be inquired of by all that do so much as pass by it It is a Candlestick bearing the lofty Torch of Divine Truth Of this the Pillars of the Temple at Jerusalem and the affixing to them the Rolls of Divine Revelation was an eminent Type and alluded to by the Apostle As therefore from a Prince come forth Edicts Proclamations Manifesto's and Declarations according to Laws which are fastned to Publick Pillars of the Court it self and all open and conspicuous Places of Concourse so are there in the Church the most advantagious Publications of the Divine Truth and Word to all both the Natives and Free-born of the Church it self and Ingenuous Strangers that would hearken out the most Reasonable Proposals of Truth or whom God is pleased to Naturalize to himself Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Ground of Truth And how does this actuate Scripture Answ It means nothing but the Perpetuity and Continuation of Truth with the Church establishing it self by all that Firmness of Divine Evidence and Reason and on those very Securities taking Possession of the Church as the Ark of its Strength where it self or the God that is Truth it self places the Soles of his Feet as on his unmovable Footstool for ever Of which the Ark in the Holâ—est was a Type the Footstool of the Throne of Mercy the secure Repository of the Tables of the Covenant the Ark of Testimony over which the Shecinah or Glory appeared as inthron'd attended with Cherubims and setting its Feet upon it the place of my Throne and the place of the Soles of my Feet Ezek. 43. 7. For thus the True Church against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail is the unchangeable Rest of Truth It adheres to Truth it buys the Truth and never sells it Truth dwells with it for ever God never suffers it to apostatize from Truth but by the constant holding of the Judgment and retaining the Love and Zeal of the Affections of those that are indeed his Church he hath setled his Word in his Church on Earth even as it is for ever settled in Heaven The Church therefore actuates Scripture by finding out Reasons debating enforcing defending by all Arguments that Truth of Scripture and so persisting in it for ever Quest Cannot then the Church fail Answ It hath been said before the True Church cannot fail For the True Church is as hath been described the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth and that which is so cannot fail and God will have such a Church always in the World If any Person City or Nation that seem to have been the Church have this Light eclipsed the â—anâ—lestick removes for it is only a Candlestick for the sake of the Light and the Pillar it self shakes and falls if the Records fixed to it are taken away and the Palace and Court remove with the Prince who is always with his Truth and the lively Motion of it So much Truth therefore and active Display of it so much a Church in any Place and the Truth removing or lying dead the Church removes also or is ready to die in that Place Quest But is there no higher Sense of the Church being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ No other but what arises from the most intimate and inseparable Union betwixt the Church and Truth Truth taking an undefailable possession of the Church so that whereever Truth in that Fulness as to lead to Life and Happiness is there is the Church and no where else The True Church then may be stiled a Pillar and Ground of Truth in the highest Sense if rightly understood that is Truth it self that is the unmovable Pillar and everlasting Foundation hath so closely banded the Church with it self that it is One Pillar and Foundation with it Thus the Church may be both the Building and the Rock and Foundation to succeeding Parts and Members of the Church The Building as it self rests upon the Pillar and Foundation of Truth else it can't be the Church The Pillar and Foundation of Truth to the still succeeding and rising Church as it is One with Truth it self to which every True Member first comes and unites and therein to the Church even as every Degree of Building is a Foundation and Support to the still growing Building not in it self but as it is surely cemented to the Foundation regulated by it and partakes its Strength Yet if it swerve never so little from the Foundation it is presently a Deformity and the more it swerves the greater danger of the Ruine of it self and all that rests upon it Quest May not this help to explain that so much disputed Expression of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not preval against it Answ I shall be glad if it may give any Light to it and hope it may For the Apostle Peter making that Confession of the Divinity of Christ not singular but representing the whole Body of Apostles and Christians and being possessed with and by that Truth he confess'd was both part of the Building upon that Rock and as united with that Rock he became Rock it self upon which succeeeding Christians were to be built The Prophets and Apostles are in this Sense Foundations and the Twelve Apostles Twelve Foundations Christ himself being the Corner-stone in whom alone the whole Building even the Apostolick Foundation it self rises in a strict and proper Sense Quest Is there not a good Security then in joyning our selves to the Church to those that have been in the Building before us Answ No otherwise than as we joyn our selves by their Ministry to that Foundation it self which always lies sure upon which they themselves must alone rest if the True Church For by placing our selves not upon them but upon that Common Foundation we are adjusted to the whole Building that was before us that lies regular with that Foundation by the Care of him who is both the Foundation Corner-stone and is also he that built all things even God in Christ Quest We must then seek to
find the Truth by it self and then the Church by that Truth and not the Church by it self and then the Truth by the Church Answ Very true For God hath so in his Infinite Wisdom establish'd the very Nature of Things Truth can give many Assurances of it self to us by it self so suited to our Faculties The Church can give us none but by its agreement with Truth revealed in the Word of God We could not have known such a Congregation as the Church at all to be much less which it is but by that Word manifesting it self in our Consciences and so distinguishing to us the True Church among the many Associations in the World each calling to us as having the best Religion among themselves Even the True Apostles themselves could be known to be so and False Apostles tried and found Liars no other way but by this Truth view'd and considered singly and distinctly by it self Quest But when we have found the Church by the Truth may we not then deliver up our selves wholly to the Church as so united to Truth Answ No by no means We can never so deliver up our selves nor will the True Church desire any such thing of us seeing its Office is not to hold out it self but the Word of Truth and in doing any thing else it acts not as a Church but as any other ordinary Society and on no other Terms can we have to do with it For the very Attempt to hold out as a Church any Laws of its own ought to enter us into a Jealousie whether it be the True Church which is as a Church the Pillar and Rest of Divine Truth only Quest What Reason is there of such a Jealousie when once we have found it a Church by the Truth it holds out Answ Because a Church that hath been a True Church may several ways decline from its State Quest How then can it he said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Answ That Prophetick Promise does not secure this or that Particular Church but that there shall be a Seed of the Church in the World with which the Covenant of God is Eternal My Word shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed or thy Seed's Seed for ever But it is yet further true the True Seed the Holy Seed the Substance of the Church can never utterly and finally fail in any Particular Member of it for if it could it were too great a violation of our Saviour's Truth in that Declaration The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church or force that Immortal retrograde into Mortality even that most dreadful one of the Second Death for which a Succession of others and in the same Danger is but a faint Salvo though it go on so to the End of the World Quest Who are this True Church in every Age and Place Answ They which are by True Saving Faith united to Christ the Son of God the Rock of Eternity and being so founded upon him are Pillars that never remove and a Rest of Truth for ever having been taught and learnt it as it is in Jesus Quest Who are the Professionary Church only Answ They that though they may as Artificial Pillars give some Ornament to the House of God and offer Truth yet not being indeed united to the Foundation are movable and may go out of the House They are such as have not received the Truth in the Love and Obedience of it within themselves and so may fall away from it It cannot be said of them as of the former The Truth shall be with them for ever having made its Edrâ—â—â—ma or Settlement in them Quest How does the Professionary Church fall away in the Bulk and Body of its Professors and Profession Answ The Office of the Church being to Actuate Truth and only Truth it may fail either in abating the Fervours due to Truth though nothing False or Forreign be admitted or in receiving Falshood or things of a baser Alloy for Truth and wasting those Fervours due only to Truth upon them The one may be called a departing from the true State of a Church the other from the State of a True Church and they usually meet one in another Quest How does this come to pass Answ From the Judgment of God upon the present sinful State permitting things so to themselves that in very few Instances it is but that the Imperfections of Good Men and the prevailing Corruptions of Professionary Christians change the Holy Lively Activities of the True State of a Church into Lukewarmness and Formality or by admitting Falshood and impure Mixtures into Doctrine Worship and Discipline corrupt the State of the Church so that it loses its Truth Quest What becomes of the Professionary Church when it loses the True State of a Church Answ It is as the Prophet expresses a Civil State or a City that hath lost its Splendour It becomes like a burnt Mountain or extinguish'd Globe of Light It retains the Form but loses the Life and Vigour of a Church like Ephesus that lost its First Love or Sardis that had a Name to live but was dead or Laodicea that was neither cold nor hot Quest What becomes of it when it is corrupted and loses in its Truth Answ It exchanges the Lively Oracles for Forms of Doctrine and Lifeless Discourse not of the High Spirit of Scripture It debases pure Worship into Ceremonialness Superstition or Idolatry and the Gospel Rule and Discipline it sells for a Worldly Politie and the true Graces of Christianity expressed in a Holy Conversation for what is much beneath or contrary Sometimes it forsakes Truth in some Fundamental Article that it swells out from the Foundation in a Breach ready to fall And there is one Instance of all these in the Anti-Church which will deserve a greater Consideration Quest How does God deal with such Churches Answ Sometimes sweeps them with the Beesom of Destruction taking away both the Candlestick and Place of it together Alienes Both to them and their Religion thrusting them out of their whole Possession Sometimes he suffers them to continue even for Ages yet so that their Candlestick is moved out of its due stately Positure hardly appearing like a Candlestick and that by the Indignation of God Quest In these Cases how does it fare with the True Holy Seed the Substantial Church Answ God chastens them to Repentance Self-purification and greater Zeal in that Case of the Churches losing its Brightness and Vigour that they may recover their first State and Work aad sets them on work to retrive Truth lost in that other Case of the Churches Defection Quest How is it with them when the very Place and Candlestick are taken away Answ They are either first removed into the higher State of the Church in Heaven or driven before into other Parts of the World by Persecution or the violence of the Judgment makes no distinction but carries
them Captive with the rest though in different Baskets as the Prophet Jeremy represents Quest How do they survive in the time of the displac'd and dejected Candlestick Answ They are either called out to a Zealous Appearance and Suffering for Truth or sometimes retired into Corners like the Seven thousand in Israel or the Church in the Wilderness that they cannot appear like a Church offering those Publick Notices of Divine Truth a Church is designed for Quest How is a Visible Profession lost from Particular Persons Answ It is too often thrown up by Apostasie or Profaneness or dwindled into a very Spiritless Form but very often a Profession without the Power being not inconsistent with the working of Iniquity it may pass out of this World like a Lamp burning but being found to burn only in a small Temporary Light without Oyl in the Vessel a Plenitude of Grace in the Heart shutting out every Lust it becomes a Lamp put out in utter Darkness Quest What is to be inferred from all this Answ That there is no Trust but in the Lord himself the Truth it self by which at all times the Church that is indeed the Pillar and Ground of Truth and wherein it is so will be known to us and in uniting to Truth we are united to That Quest There remains one thing yet to be understood in the Description of the Church which is its Power of Governing even as it is Governed by the Word of God Vnder what Notions I beseech you is that Government expressed in Scripture Answ That Power is by our Saviour represented under the Mataphor of Keys and the Use of those Keys in opening and shutting or in Binding and Losing Quest What is the meaning hereof Answ The meaning is plainly this When the Church of Christ hath by the Key of Knowledge inquir'd into all the Divine and Heavenly Doctrine of the Gospel and Word of God it hath in and according to that Word and only so a Power of Application of that Doctrine to Particular Cases binding Men under the Sense of Guilt and fear of Damnation in such or such Sins and an impenitent Continuance in them or of Absolving and assuring Men of the Divine Favour and Acceptance in a holy course of Life and Obedience to God and of Pardon upon Repentance after Falls into Sin and Disobedience and so of Declaring and Pronouncing upon Men as to their present State in the Church by Excommunication or Absolution all these are the Power of Binding and Loosing according to what our Saviour speaks in parallel Words Whose Sins you remit they are remitted whose Sins you retain they are retained meaning still according to his Word the Pole-Star by which they are to direct all their Motions who claim any such Power For only where it is declard according to the Word is it that what is bound on Earth is also bound in Heaven and what is loosed on Earth is loosed in Heaven there being an Invariable Agreement between what is Published from Heaven in the Word of God concerning the State and Actions of Men on Earth and the Transactions in Heaven in relation to them He then that pronounces agreeably with that word pronounces as Heaven does and will pronounce Heaven binds what he binds and looses what he looses because he speaks the Voice of Heaven in both Cases But that there should be any Binding or Loosing except in the Power of this Word and according to it in its Vertue in its Truth nothing can be more contrary to the Ends to the Glory to the Soveraignty of Christ To bind any single Christian by Excommunication and not according to this Word is as much a Brutum Fulmen a Thunder to no purpose a causeless Curse that shall not come as for the Pope to Excommunicate whole Protestant Churches Quest What is a Particular Church Answ It is the Catholick Church in a Neighbourhood or number of Christians Communicating one with another ordinarily even as the whole Cotholick Church would if it were possible Communicate with it self in the Ordinances and Worship of Christ exactly according the to Rules of his Word wherein this is the distinguishing Character of the True Church that its Communion is not with it self primarily but its Communion is so with it self as to be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ principally as the Fountain-Head Center and Rule of the Communion and therein it holds out and invites to its Communion CAP. X. Of the Officers appointed by Christ in his Church Quest CAn there be either an Orderly or an Effectual Actuation of the Truth by the Church as a Congregation without distinct and separate Offices and Officers that may attend continually on this very thing Answ It is imposible for an Assembly without Order would cease to be an Assembly and fall into a Confusion or Rude Multitude All Wise and Prudent Assemblies have always had Elders to preside over them and our Lord hath ordained such to moderate throughout his Congregation or Church to conduct all the Publick Services of Religion For all things therein are actually administred by the Ministers of Christ the Noblest Organical Parts of the Church like those Senses that attend upon the Understanding most immediately Seeing Eyes and Hearing Ears so these upon the Word of Christ And that they may be most fitted ingaged and provoked hereunto they are even according to the very Laws of Nature separated to their Offices and unto all Preparations for them by Reading and Meditation as to their Proper Calling and Business of Life seeing they do not pretend to Immediate and Extraordinary Inablements or Excitations to their Service Quest What Titles or Characters does the New Testament place upon these Officers Answ Those that we have especial Respect to for in the Deacons if strictly taken we are less concerned receive Denominations either from their Work and Service or from that Honour and Estimation due to the Faithful Discharge of such a Service From their Work they are stiled Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers Ministers Servants of God and Christ and in a just sense of the Church also From the Estimation and Honour due to the Discharge of their Work and the Authority it ought to carry in the Hearts and Consciences of Christians they are styled Bishops Elders Rulers Guides and Ensamples as also Embassadours And the Work and the Honour do so enclose one another that they ought not to be separated and are in their Institution the Measure one of another extending both to Obedience and Support of them in their Work and the Titles are so prepared by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost that they ought not to be changed for any other nor the Scripture Language herein to be altered for any Words not importing the same proper Sense Quest How shall the True Ministers of Christ be known that there may be that Obedience and Submission paid to them that is commanded Answ There can be no other Means to
discern them but by the Word of Righteousness of which all True Ministers are the Ministers on account of which alone Obedience and Submission to them is due Their bringing that Word in its own Life Evidence and Power is their best Commission Quest But how are they most orderly enstall'd into so high a Function Answ Christ as the Head of the Church hath ascended up on high and given gifts to Men and as the Lord of the Harvest takes it upon him as his Supreme Care to thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest The several Congregations of Christians observing Ministerial Abilities and Meetness to Teach call out to such to help them and herein in the Cessation of Extraordinary Gifts the Schools of Learning and Religious Education like the Schools of the Prophets do best prepare and the Judgment of those that have been Pastors and Teachers before them does most orderly recommend to Choice and Acceptance in the great Service such as are Scribes instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven and commits to them the Charge of Teaching others For in this as in all other Acts the Elders of the Church are to preside with due Respect to the Congregation Quest Is the Lord Christ pleased then to act generally by the Elders and Officers of the Church Answ Generally and ordinarily he does so the Officers are therefore more particularly entrusted by Christ with the Keys even as the Church in general is Thus eminently by the Ministry of the Apostles our Lord founded his Church and so edifies and builds it up in After-ages by Pastors and Teachers and when great Defections have prevailed upon it summons it to Reformation by some rais'd up among those Officers and whom he sends out as such to reform and recover his Church Yet still all this Power is in and according to his Word and no other and so that in all things as much as may be the Knowledge Judgment and Approbation of the Church is to be joyn'd in all the Officers do as having their Interest in the Keys also because they have their Interest in the Word of God in the Understanding Opening and Applying of which to Particular Cases the whole Power of the Keys rests The Apostles Elders and the Brethren or whole Church were together pleased and together joyn'd in that Famous Conciliary Epistle Acts 15. 22. Quest I desire your more full Explanation of the Publick Offices of the Christian Church and the Power accompanying it Answ I will very willingly do as you desire and begin with the Apostles Quest Wherein stood their Power Answ It stood in their Preaching Acting Directing Governing by that Immediate and Infallible Assistance of the Divine Spirit by which they writ and sealed Scripture and by which they were so guarded every way that they could turn neither to the Right Hand nor to the left in any thing wherein they exercised this Power Quest How was this Power Justified Answ By the Divineness substantial Goodness and Reasonableness of all their Prescriptions propos'd in all the Methods of Rational Discourse and manifestation of themselves in Mens Consciences witness'd to by the Holy Spirit and authorised by a Power of Miracles generally of Beneficence or doing good and in some but sparing Instances of infliction of Bodily Pains or Death Quest Did the Apostles never err in their Administration Answ Whenever that Infallible Guidance was not present to them they might err as was before observed in the Apostle Peter's Miscarriage which no doubt was recorded to shew their Power was not in themselves but in the Divine Spirit acting by them that none in After-ages might pretend to dictate as their Successors having not their Power and yet requiring Obedience as if they had it whereas even the Apostles themselves might err and so lose their Power if never so little deserted by the Holy Spirit And therefore what they consigned over to After-ages was winnowed from every thing Humane and Fallible that both Officers and People might know the one Common Rule by which one is to Govern the other in the Application of it is to be Governed Quest Who were next to the Apostles in this Office and Power Answ Evangelists such as were Timothy and Titus who having a Portion of the Apostolick Work to plant and settle Churches and Ordinary Officers in them had also a Portion of their Power to enable them to it it being absolutely necessary there should be such till the General Rule was fully settled and fixed Quest Were not the Apostles and Evangelists above Ordinary Pastors and Teachers Answ They were in this great Point of Difference that they had the Word of God by Immediate and Infallible Revelation committed to them to commit the same to others by direction from the same Spirit who gave them Discerning to whom to entrust it till all things relating to the Kingdom of God in the Church were sealed in the Canon of the New Testament else they owned themselves Compresbyters as the Apostle Peter stiles himself A Presbyter with Presbyters Quest From all that hath been spoken we are to conclude That the whole Power in the Church and in all things pertaining to Religion is retained in the Word of God Answ It is so For Christ in his Word is the only King and Lawgiver of his Church which Glory he will not give to another Whatever Power can be supposed resident in the whole Church together is no other than in that Word of Truth publickly offered by it The Apostles Power was only the presence of that Word to them by the Immediate Revelation and infallible Guidance of the Holy Spirit for the Preaching it throughout the World and thereby founding the Christian Church Such was the ordinary Power of any extraordinary Ministers under them The and constant Rulership of the Elders of the Church remains unmoveably in the Word which it is their Office to speak Quest Are not those we distinguishingly call Bishops Successours to the Apostles in that Preeminency they had over other Pastors and Elders Answ That Successors to the preeminency of the Apostles may be well established Three things are necessary 1. That there be found and produced Distinct Commands given in Scripture â—o the Inferior Ministers of the New Testament to obey Superior Ministers or Bishops Commands to Christians to obey Inferior Ministers or Ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors We must find the Apostle distinguishing ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors as we find him distinguishing Civil Magistrates into the King as Supreme and Governors as those that are sent by him 2. Seeing it is very clear and apparent there is nothing more distant from the Design of the Gospel than to Constitute any thing for the sake of making a great Figure without as great an Use or End and that Christ hath not given Power to his Rulers to Command
the very least thing but as Commanded by himself first for then they would be Lords which he plainly declares against and absolutely denies to them and that what they do as Commanded by him they should do so in Duty and Service to the Supreme Lord and Subordinately to his Church as not to be called or esteem'd Benefactors for their Services so that it must be evident what their Superior Service is it must be plainly expressed in the Word of God and there at least so determinately set down as to be deduced with greatest clearness to the Understanding and Conscience of Christians and distinguishingly from the Service of other Subordinate Rulers appointed by Christ that so it may be waited for and received according to his Ordinance with Faith and Obedience 3. Seeing Christ appoints none to an Eminency of Service without a suitable Eminency of Abilities as is plain in the Apostles and Evangelists it is therefore reasonable to expect some extraordinary promises of the presence of Christ to those Superior Ministers to assist them in the Conduct of their Superiority wherein they might above any other Ministers of the Gospel Visibly and Experimentally make some approaches to the Eminent Assistances the Apostles and Evangelists had in the time of their Ministry and that they have continued and succeeded in their High Function in the Church of Christ so that the History of the Real Substantial Services of Bishops to Christianity hath come near to the Acts of Apostles and as much excelled that of Common Presbyters as the Order it self is supposed to do Now without these three self evident concurrent marks of Superiority secret invisible Characters are of no signification Quest How then is such a Succession of Bishops in a Superiority over Presbyters so uncontrolably deduced from Antiquity Answ Besides all other Coincident Accounts there is this to be given After the Apostles there was but a Gradual Cessation of Apostolick Men Men of Eminent Graces and Extraordinary Gifts though not of the Infallible Guidance of the Divine Spirit for the Revelation of the Gospel or the writing of Scripture yet of more immediate Divine Assistances in resemblance of Timothy and Titus for the Confirmation of the Churches planted by the Apostles Supervisal over them and Care for them and also for the further propagation of Christianity which being but newly set out had not arrived many places where it was to come and so needed some more than ordinary Assistances Even as Miracles did not immediately Cease no more did these Personages extraordinary in their Endowments Such as these were worthily in a Degree of Superiority over those that had not the same miraculous Inablements nor Knowledge as yet in Christianity Afterwards such Manifestations of the Divine Presence by Degrees retiring and Christianity having fixed it self where it was then to go and the Churches settled the best accounts of the continuing Distinction between those that were upon the same level in regard of their Gifts and Graces were but Humane Prudence and Order which oblige no Man's Conscience beyond the valuableness of the Reasons of that Prudence and Order Except undeniable Holiness Industry and Improv'd Understanding recommend any Person to such Eminency For Eminency and being Taller than others in those Qualifications will make any Person a Bishop in the true sense of one whether so ordinated or not and cannot make him that is a Dwarf in these truly a Bishop however for Orders sake he may stand in the place of that Figure He that excels in his Knowledge of Obedience to Zeal for and Authority in the Word of God seeing that Word conveys all this kind of Power from it self must needs have more of that kind of Power so conveyed than others for the more purely this Word is understood and Preached the more Power goes out of it and along with those that display it and so they become Pastors of a higher Character whether of a higher Order or not CAP. XI Of every Man's Obligation to be wise for himself to Salvation Quest ACcording to all the precedent Accounts of the Church it seems not only reasonable but most necessary every Man should be wise for himself unto Salvation Answ It is certainly so for every Man is to be determin'd by the Word of God to the True Religion to which purpose he is to apply his Mind to search for true Wisdom as for Silver and to seek for it as for hidden Treasure Quest How should Men of so great Disadvantages to such High Things be inabled to Judge Answ Wisdom assumes most justly to it self to be of so high Value that every Man should think it worth his while to Labour and Travel herein and to them that do so it hath promised the most certain Success even the pouring out its Spirit to them and that they shall understand the Fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God The Things of greatest moment are not of such difficulty but that they are attainable in the use of Right Means under so great Promises Quest What are those Right Means Answ Bowing down our Ears to the Words of the Wise that is of those that by Inspiration from God have been Wise and written their Wisdom for Future Ages and by applying our Hearts to Divine Knowledge upon which they come to be inlay'd within us and to be fitted to our Lips to be agreeable and well matched to our Discourse and not like a Parable in a Fools Mouth Quest But are not these things spoken and written to the Learned and Elders of the â—hurch that they might know for the People and the People put their trust in them Answ No They are written to thee even to thee that is to every one that they might have their Trust only in God that is find the Rock of Divine Veracity and Infallibility and have no need to trust in Men â—ut to know the certainty of the Words of Truth and be able to answer the Words of Truth either to those that advise with them as Friends or challenge them as Enemies Quest If this was the sense of the Old Testament it is undoubtedly much more so of the New Answ It must needs be so as a higher and more Intellectual State of the Church as much freer and clearer in its Notions of Truth The Apostles Discourse Christians as no Christians if they are not able to Judge as Wise Men what they say If they are not Men in understanding if they attain not to the state of Teachers by skill in the Word of Righteousness and have senses exercised to discern by an Intellectual and Spiritual Gust Things Good and Evil if they cannot give an Apology or Defence of the Hope that is in them that is of their Christianity to every one that asks them a Rational Account of it Quest But in things of Perplexity and Doubt are not Christians bound to submit to the Judgments of their Teachers Answ If they can receive and
digest their Reason and take in the Light they judge by so as to make it their own else if they cannot find their Reasons nor acquit themselves from doubt they must suspend For a Christian is Commanded by his Lord to call no Man upon Earth Master or Father Quest What is the meaning of that Answ It is this very Thing that we should receive nothing as Doctrine or Indisputable Truth or Precept upon any Man's Word that does not offer such Reason and Authority from God and his Word that we our selves see Reason not to receive it as the Word of Man but of God Quest But is it not said that they that have the Rule over us watch for our Souls as they that must give an Account for the same If we are not to believe them and surrender our Judgment to theirs how can they give an Account Answ They that Rule over us watch for our Souls and must give an Account as Ezekiel's Prophets and Watchmen by giving Warning laying Truth before us offering the sincere Word of God in all Cases the success of which upon Souls Converted and Saved is their Crown and Glory and their unsuccess lookes like a sorrow to see those Souls lost for whom they laboured in vain and spent their strength upon them for nought yet so that if they have been faithful though without success their reward is with the Lord and their Work with God But notwithstanding this every Man is so to account for his own Soul that the very success is not a Blind Obedience to Rulers but as is said a Receiving the Word not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God And if these Watchmen neglect their Duty or Seduce instead of Teaching Men are to apply to better Means afforded by God and if they do not they still die in their Iniquity and following their Blind Leaders fall into the Pit which is an unanswerable Argument that we may trust in no Man but in God only For if an implicit Faith could be a saving Faith it should save those that followed such Guides though they themselves were justly Condemned in not discharging their Trust Quest But were not the Apostles and Prophets to be Trusted at a higher rate than thus Answ No There were such evident Marks of Divine Doctrine always given by God to those that desired to Know Love and Obey him that even the very Prophets and Apostles were not to be received without them nor to be believed but according to them nay to be plainly Anathematiz'd if they varied from it Christians were therefore to judge to try the Spirits to search the Scriptures whether the things spoken were so to have recourse to undoubted Principles of Truth that were as standards to all that came after besides the Unction from the Holy One whereby they were inabled to know all things necessary to Salvation Quest But is not all Humane Teaching and Instruction hereby taken away and what becomes of the Ministry the Eldership of the Church and their Rule Answ They are all hereby Established for they are the Ordination of God to this very purpose to make Men see to bring them Light to clear things to them that by the awakening their Judgments the summoning and collecting their Principles they may see with their own Eyes the ways of God and Religion the Holy Spirit graciously adjoyning it self to their Ministry They have no Dominion over their Faith but are helpers of thier Joy that is they facilitate and make pleasant the knowledge and assurances of Religion and they Rule by Exhorting Admonishing Rebuking Comforting and even Commanding in the Evidences of Divine Authority on Account of which they are to be obey'd and highly esteemed for their Works sake Notwithstanding all this no Man is excluded from his own Office to himself for every particular Christian is in some Sense a Congregation and Preacher to himself as Solomon his Conscience hath the Keys binds and looses within it self nay Christians are not excluded from Rule in the Church when they have the Word of God on their side they may plead and reason with their Mother Hos 2. 2. When they have more understanding than their Teachers or the Rulers Rule not according to the Word of God they that speak according to the Law and the Testimony even Rule their Rulers and prove the more noble Organs of the Church when those that should Rule it are as the Idols Eyes that see not Ears that hear not or as the Idol Shepherd a Blast is upon their Right hand and Right-eye that their Arm is clean dried up and their Eye utterly darkened the most naked unfurnished Christian with outward Accomplishments that yet knows the Word of God is among the Prophets in such a time of necesity CAP. XII Of Schism and Scandal Quest FRom the precedent Discourse of the Church I conceive the truest Notion of Schism may be deduced I desire you therefore to Explain what the true Nature of Schism is Answ The Question concerning the Nature of Schism follows very pertinently upon the right settlement of the Nature of the Church now the whole Being of the Church consisting in its Union to God and Christ in Love according to the Truth of his Word and that it receives all its Members into Union with it self by their being first united as it self is Schism which is Division must needs in its strictest and most formal Notion be a Division from that Truth wherein the whole Church is one and so from the Love consequent upon such an Union Quest What is that Truth of the Word of God in which the Church is One Answ The Truth of the Doctrine of God or the Unity of the Faith of the Son of God in things to be believed and the Truth of his Law and Commands in things to be done Quest How is the Love of the Church Vnited in these Answ It is a Love in the Truth and hereby we know we Love the Brethren when we Love God and keep his Commandments John Epist 2. No Love how great soever is Christian-love nor Union how close soever Christian-union if it be not in the Truth and Commandments of God From whence it necessarily follows the Schism that is a Schism from the Church must be a Disunion from the Faith of the Scriptures and the Love springing from that Faith and there is no danger of any other Schism from the Church as it is a Church Quest How does Schism differ from Heresie Answ Heresie in the highest Sense and worst Sense of it is a Disunion from Truth in some Fundamental and Grand Concernment of Religion either in the Doctrine or Commands of God so that a Man is subverted and sinneth and must needs be Condemned of a Separation from the Assembly of Truth both by himself and the Thing it self and that both as to Faith and Christian-love he is so separated Schism is a Disunion in some less momentous parts
of this Truth under an apprehension of a greater moment than there is indeed in the Causes of such a Disunion and a proportionable abatement of Christian Love arising from it All Heresie therefore includes Schism but all Schism does not rise up to Heresie Quest Are these the Scripture Notions of Schism and Heresie according to its use of those Words Answ They are most agreeable with the Sense of it but the words were not so set solemn and formal in Scripture as afterwards in Ecclesiastick Writers for Dichostasyes or Division into two or more Parties and Contentions are by the Apostle used to the same Sense as Schism and Heresie sometimes signifies no more than a Sect or Division though that is remarkably used in its worst Sense by both the Apostles Paul and Peter Quest Is every different Apprehension and Practice ensuing upon it though distant from Truth immediately to be Condemned of Schism Answ By no means if it be a Modest and Humble Distrust and Suspension concerning the Truth and Command of God in some things of smaller moment and doubtful yea though it comes to a positive Determination so far as a Man's judgment and yet erroneous can at the present discern it cannot be branded as Schism if there be no stress laid upon the Thing beyond its desert if the Union in the greatest and clearest Truths and Commands remains firm and the Love due to such an Union with the Church of God be sincere and fervent yea even Dissent in greater points thus qualified and free from ill practice hath not been rigidly censur'd for Heresie Quest Is there no danger then of running into Schism if there be an Vnion with Truth Answ In this Sense only when the weakness or misapprehension of others are rated against them beyond their Merit and without regard to the greater Truths they agree in and the Love due to them upon Union in those greater Truths is withdrawn or the Spirit of meekness in endeavouring to restore the Erring Christian denied This may be justly esteem'd like Schism as it recedes from the just value of Great Truths and from the Charity of Christians upon Union in them but no Man is to espouse any Mans Errors or to receive even Truth by an implicit Faith for fear of Schism in things that carry not a broad Evidence of Divine Truth there is great scope for Modest Suspensions and even Dissents without Imputation of Schism for Truths of magnitude either in Doctrine Worship Practice or Discipline are too bright to be refused by sincere and honest Minds after due admonition Quest Wherein lies then the great Evil of Schism Answ That Schism and the Evil of it may better be understood I will set before you the several Instances of Schism in Scripture and the Evils noted by the Apostle in each of them 1. The first sort of Schism is the Disunion in the sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and bringing in upon it the necessity of the Judaique Rites to concur with it This the Apostle to the Romans Rom. 16. 17. calls making Divisions or Parties beside or contrary to the Doctrine received The great Evil of this adding to the Word of God is that it lays Scandals before Men and draws them into this great mischief that instead of the pure nourishment of Divine Truth all runs into this over-beloved Sentiment and so deprives the Soul of the true and vigorous Spirits of Truth and also the Service due to True Christianity is drain'd away and consumed upon this private Opinion which is indeed the mischief of all Falshood in Religion and Devotion in Things not appointed by God who only can prescribe what is truly fitted to our Good and bless it with suitable Effect Miscarriage from Divine Truth is always found in Schism with this mischievous Consequence that it deceives the Soul with a Cloud and Wind instead of Truth and solid Good 2. A Second kind of Schism the Apostle Notes 1 Cor. 11. 19 20. was the Disorder in Divine-Worship in that great Ordinance of the Lords Supper wherein they that were reprov'd were necessitated to withdraw and to stand apart for the manifesting themselves in the purity of that Worship and Service for the very honor of it The great Evil of this Schism is that it brings in a necessity of divided Parties in Publick Religion and the Duties of it seeing good Men must separate from such Corruptions and stand at a Distance from them on Account of which Religion it self is dishonoured as if it were a Jumble of Sects and gave an uncertain sound and further than that is charged as if it were but a Sect it self because it stands by it self Thus Christianity was called This Sect and the Sect of the Nazarenes Idolatry damns the True Worship of God as a Heresie from it self and the False Church charges the truly Publick-Assembly with Schism and a Private Religion 3. Another Degree of Schism the Apostle taxes in the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 11. c. 4. 3. was that this one intire Profession of Christianity in the one Universal Church of Christ they thought ought to be shred into little Fraternities under the Names of some prime Minister of Christianity or even under the Name of Christ himself as an ordinary Master of a Party except we will understand that Those Approved who stood firm in Christ alone were manifested and stood alone by being at a distance from the Schism of others and so appeared as was said before like a Schism themselves Thus vain Philosophy parcell'd out it self under its great Masters The great Evil of this is that it raises Feuds Contentions and Factions as if this one Integral Christianity could have distinct Interests and some ingross one Interest others another Whereas the Apostle thus reduces this Schism all Ministers saith he with all their Gifts Graces and Functions are the whole Churches without any cantoning other than that Order and Conveniency requires the more constant administration of Religion in certain Congregations with their Elders Cephas the Apostle of the Circumcision was the Corinthians though Gentiles as well as the Apostle of the Gentiles Paul himself and not only the Churches Ministers â—ut the whole World and the Cargo of Light and Truth in it are the Churches Every Truth every Ordinance every Minister whâ—ther of Truth Natural or Revealed Religion with all the happy Effects of them are all the Donation of Christ to the Catholick Church whose the Catholick Church is and no Ministers whatever and Christ is Gods who is the Foundation Center and Supream Head of this Unity and Union 4. The last Instance of Schism I find in Holy Scripture is intimated to us under that curious Parable 1 Cor. 12. 12. of the Wise and Excellent Temperament betwixt the several Members of the same Body set in different Degrees of Dignity the less comely parts have more abundant Comliness and those that we think to be less Honourable on these we bestow more abundant
only to teach the Observation of things Commanded them by the Lord himself 2. There is a constant Disclaimer in the Gospel of any Despotick or Lord-like Power in Church-Rulers Christ expresly Compares the Power he gave with Civil Powers and Resolves it shall not be so among his Disciples as was among them He saies the Chief among them shall be Ministers and Servants delivering the Will of their Lord and not Lords themselves they must have no Will of their own to promulge They profess they Preach Jesus the Lord and themselves Servants for Jesus sake Servants of those they Preach to as they Minister to them the Divine Will not Lords over Gods Heritage but ensamples of the Flock Embassadours delivering only the Messages of their Master and beseeching Men But if the whole scope of Indifferent Things were given them for a Dominion how great would it be 3. These Circumstances in Religion may grow so bulky and cumbersome and make such a Medly in it that no one would know what Religion it self is 4. The Free Votes and Suffrages of Christians in all things they receive as most con-decent and convenient is that more abundant Honour God hath given to the meanest Members of his Church Thus the whole Affair in that Council Acts 11. was managed by not only the Apostles the Elders but the Brethren also each according to their Station and Situation in the Body the Church For that there may be no Despotique Power what is Commandâ—d by Christ must be so represented that the Evidences it is so Commanded must be duly Represented and the Divine Authority sufficiently remonstrated what is of Advice and Conveniency must be carried by free Suffrage and Consent Quest But still the Church being a Society and the best of Societies it must be Subject to the Laws of Nature concerning Society and what is carried by the Votes of People being always subject to Turbulency and Confusion have we not great Assurance seeing Christ reversed nothing Natural but confirmed it that there are many things not written in Scripture but left to their necessity and expediency according to Natures Laws and so what is nearest to Monarchick being farthest from Confusion the Rulâ—rs of the Church and among them the Bishops ought to determine all things neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God Answ There is in the Church the perfect and absolute Monarchy of Christ in his Word and besides this there is no other nor can the Laws of Nature dictate any other there is one Lawgiver who is able to save or destroy and there need not any more Masters for more would certainly breed Confusion whatever therefore is clearly according to the Word of God or to be made out to be so whatever is the evident Dictate of Nature as distinction of Sexes 1 Cor. 11. 3. in their publick appearance in Religious Assemblies administration of Divine Services in a known Language 1 Cor. 14. v. 5. the speaking of one Prophet only at once and not in a Confusion of Voices v. 31. All such Natural Order and Decency or whatever is of Indisputable Decency according to the Manners and Custom of our Native Country these are the utmost Bounds of Prescription All things else are to be Comprimiz'd by Agreement and Suffrage and even these necessary things are to be Managed by Doctrine Rational Convicton Exhortation Admonition Rebuke and even Charge and Command with all Authority in the Evidences of the Divine Word and Will and no otherwise For this I say again is the more abundant Honour the Rulers or more Honourable Members of the Church are to invest the lowest with to Circulate with them the Life and Spirits of Truth by transfusing the Advantages of all the Light and Knowledge they have that they as Living Wise and Intellectual Members also may judge what is Commanded them by God and not be as Fools or Lifeless Members For what Blood Spirits and Life are in the Body that is Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding in the Will of God in the Church And in all Indifferent things the very same Freedom the Foot hath to represent to the higher Powers of Nature what offends it and is immedately heard the very same Power the lowest Member of the Church hath to remonstrate to the Higher what Scandalizes it in the accepting this or that Indifferent Ceremony and it ought as feelingly as immediately to be heard For as the same Soul is present to all parts of the Natural Body so the same Spirit of the Head of the Church animates his whole Body the Church which is the Fulness or Complement the Receptacle of his Fulness the Fulness in which he will appear Full and Compleat who fills all in all As therefore the Head it self feels by this Spiritual Union so are the Eyes and Ears the Higher Members of this Body to do And if they do not so feel it argues an Interruption between them and the Head it self for that most concernfully reciprocates with the whole Body and the extreamest part of it and so does every part inliven'd by him also if there be no Intercision nor Obstruction betwixt it and the Head Quest Is there yet any further Reason against a Power in the Rulers of the Church for imposing in things of indifferency under the Names of Decency and Order Answ There is the great Reason of the Mischief of Scandal to be added to all that hath been spoken Quest What is to be understood by Scandal Answ Scandal is a Subject of Discourse of too large a Compass for the present purpose but as it is strictly to be adjusted to it it may be thus understood Scandal is that Hurt and Grief a Man receives in Submitting either to Humane Example or Imposition in things of themselves neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God when the Conscience is in doubt whether that which is required to be done be not displeasing to God and forbidden by him or that which is required to be omitted or not done is not pleasing to God and Commanded by him and yet submits it self to be led by that Example or Commanded by such Impositions and so falls into Sin and under a wound of Conscience Quest When the thing is indeed neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God how can it be changed by the Conscience being in Doubt concerning it Answ Because the Conscience is that complex or congregated Power of the Soul wherein are preserved all the Doctrines to be believed and Rules of Action to the end that it may observe and direct how the Soul is to Govern it self and square all its Actions to the Will of God and that it may comfort or check the Soul in doing Well or Ill according to those Doctrines or Rules Wherein then Conscience is mistaken and misjudges either way against that which is Commanded by God or for that which is forbidden by him there is nothing to be done but to reduce Conscience to its Right Rules which is the Will of God in
Peace and Welfare and to punish Offenders and Transgressors according to the Degree of their Guilt and can no more be Impeached in that procedure than in any the most undoubted Functions or Rights of Government whatever Quest I must desire to be guided in my Thoughts concerning the Power of Governours in Revealed Religion Answ Besides the Legislative and Vindictive Power of Supreme Magistrates in Natural Religion there is that Divine stamp of Authority God hath Engraven upon them so that besides their Laws they recommend Religion by the very representation of God himself whose Presence they bear and have not only the more Remote Authority of a Prince but the nearest most Natural and kindly Authority of a Father On account of which Solomon as a King so often speaks Hear O ye Children the Instruction of a Father and as having all Parental Affection in himself forsake not saith he the Law of a Mother The Care of all means for Instruction and Propagation of Religion is most proper to Government And all these Administrations in Religion run not only through all points of Natural Religion in that ampleness before expressed but do most genuinely and freely stream through all points of Revealed Truth and the whole Counsel of God in the Scripture nothing being more Princely and Paternal than the utmost Providence and Influence of Princes and Soveraign States herein wherein they fulfill the Prophesie of Kings being Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church of God But there is this difference between Natural and Revealed Religion Natural Religion is written in the Heart and may certainly be found there however it comes to be known clearly and truly only by Revelation and so may be absolutely Commanded But Revealed Religion is recorded by Faith and Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God and therefore cannot be Commanded but must be expected by the Blessing of God upon Instruction But if any Man profess to believe Revealed Religion to have received it as the undoubted Truth of God it is then the Law of Nature he should deport himself in it and towards it as to the Truth of God Nebuchadnezzer Darius and the King of Nineveh their Laws were rightly grounded upon the Principles of Natural Religion concerning the True God The Laws of Moses and the Princes of Judah in Revealed Religion were upon the so unavoidable acknowledgement of the Divine Presence and Authority in and with those Laws the so many Repeated Covenants Indentures and Engagements of that People on the evident Appearances of God to be obedient to those Laws But in the Revelation oâ— Jesus Christ we find no tracks of Humane Power bâ—â—â—ll was done by Instruments fitted from Heaven naked of â—ll Humane Authority that the Excellency of th◠〈◊〉 might be of God and not of Men till Princes and 〈◊〉 agreed in the Faith of the Gospel not by Compulsion but by Evidences and inward Assurances of the Faith and so it is still to continue Quest Before you pass from this point that it may be made the clearer will you give the Distinction between Sovereign Powers and the Elders of the Church For they are both called Rulers they are both called the Ministers of God Answ This is indeed most necessary to be known as tending much to Illustrate this whole Matter 1. The Power of the Elders of the Church lies wholly and intirely in the Evidence of the Truth and the Word of God they Minister without which their Persons are Invested with no Power or Authority at all But there is a Sacred Character upon Soveraign Powers and their very Persons so that Reverence Prostration Obeysance Honourable Titles and Obedience in all Lawful Things are due to them even when their Commands in some things being unlawful cannot be obeyed as appears every where in Scripture 2. The Authority Power and Majesty of Sovereign Princes remains Inviolable and not to be invaded by any no not by those who have Commission to speak the Word of God There is no Temporal Power in order to Spirituals Conferred by Christ or Ordained to his Ministers to Create a Civil-Spiritual Power within a Civil and to rencounter it But Princes are in all Causes and over all Persons within their own Dominions under God and according to his appointment Supream Governours so contrary is Scripture to the Usurpation of the Anti-Church herein All Religious Princes guiding themselves by Gods Word have great Power and Authority not only by that Word but by Virtue of that Authority and Majesty God hath Cloathed them with as his Vicegerents to Direct and Govern according to Truth wherein the Divine Spirit is pleased often to be so immediately present with them that a Divine Sentence is in the Kings Lips that they may direct according to Truth and in all Truth they are to be Obey'd not only for the Truths sake but for that Authorities sake also God hath Invested them with 3. The Elders of the Church lose their Power by erring from Truth and the Word of God for of what Authority is the False Prophet or the False Teacher But Princes and Soveraign Powers have a Power though misapply'd to vindicate their Authority upon those that cannot Obey them except they should Disobey God to Obey Magistrates which none dare assert that acknowledge God in which Power Magistrates must not be resisted even while they cause Men to suffer for Righteousness sake 4. The Admonitions Excommunications Anathema's of Church Rulers have no Force when not grounded upon Divine Truth nor ought to make Impression upon Conscience but to be rejected with Disdain But the Penal Sentences and Vindictive Decrees of Sovereign Powers have their Effect so far even when they are unjust as to be received as an Ordination of Power appointed by God though us'd to a wrong purpose Where the Word of a King is there is Power and his Wrath is as the Roaring of a Lion and it is so appointed by God Against such a Supream Executive Power Arm'd with the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation there is no rising up no remedy but appeal to God by Prayers and Tears Quest This whole Account might be much Illustrated if it be declared on the other side what Obedience is due to the Ministers of the Word and Truth of God whether extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles or ordinary as the Elders of the Church and Ministers of the Gospel even when Supream Magistrates Command the contrary Answ The Word and Truth of God are of so Supream Authority that though the Ministers of it are of no Authority separated from that Word yet the Word and â—â—uth oâ— God of which they are Embassadours is much highâ—◠〈◊〉 â—he Kings and Princes of the Earth and there is no Compare between thâ— one and the other God therefore raised up extraordinarily what Messengers he pleased and sent them with what Messages he thought good to what Princes or Magistrates soever because immediately 〈◊〉 God the
For the sake of the True Religion we may be oblig'd to forsake not only our Country but our Fathers House and to unite to the Church of God founded in that True Religion yet in the mean time we must own all that is Divine Rational True weresoever we find it much more in our Native Country and if it be possible propagate True Religion upon it For we shall not only be judged in this World with our Nation but shall rise with it at the Day of Judgment in the same Station or Lott wherein we were placed in this World according to our doing good in it we shall receive our Reward with those of it that are saved who shall then survive in Glory and become as if they were the whole Nation the perishing part being lost as we therefore desire the prosperity of it in this World so ought we to endeavour by all means the Eternal Happiness of as many of it as we can by joyning with them and ingaging them in True Religion Quest I desire your Second Proposition Answ It is this That in a Political Sense National Religion is when Magistrates and the Body of the People joyn in the True Religion and Establish it by Law and devote to it the most Publick Advantages that the Largeness and Grandeur of such a Nation have in their Power fixing Characters of Civil Honour and ample Condition upon the Rulers of the Church and Communicating to them Magistratical Power in things pertaining to the External Defence Honour and Provision for the True Religion as it is National all which so far as it is Serviceable to the best Ends is acceptable to God our Saviour who is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace and ought to be Submitted to with Reverence both in Obedience to Government and also as it is done in Honour to the Name of God and True Religion The State of the Church in times of Persecution being not the Standard as to these things in the prosperous times of it Quest I now desire the Third Proposition Answ The Government of a Nation in Religion appointing and prescribing Liturgies Confessions of Faith Catechisms and Publick Forms of Instruction or Homilies they may be so far useful as when they are composed according to the Word of God to secure True Religion and the Publick Administration of it by so much publickly Ratified and requiring of all whom it Intrusts as Ministers of the Word of God under its Approbation and Maintenance to assent to the Truth of Religion so Compriz'd and Publickly to declare it by using them as is appointed But these are not to be understood to put Limits upon the Ministers of the Word first entrusted by Christ who are both in Prayer Preaching the Gospel and all means of Instruction to search into all the Scripture that is profitable for Doctrine Instruction Reproof and to Pray with all Prayer and Supplication according to the particular occasions and in that abundance and liberality of the Divine Oracles that they themselves may speak as the Oracles of God and Pray with the Vnderstanding and in the Holy Spirit and that all their Service may be matter of Bounty from their own Minds and not of Constraint and necessity as impos'd For how should they then as every Good Scribe Instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven bring out of their Treasure Things New and Old or like the good Housholder that hath made provision and laid up in store to that End In all these things Solomons Example is Great According to which the Preacher ought to be Wise and to teach the People Knowledge and give good heed and seek to find out acceptable Words that may be as Goades and Nailes not blunted with Common use Quest I now desire your Fourth Proposition Answ The Benefit of National Religion Established by Law is That every Subject of that Nation hath a Right to the True Religion so Established and may claim his Interest and Property in it as in all Things else legally due to him and is not oblig'd upon the account of Passive Obedience to desert or relinquish his Right in it any more than his Righteous Claim or Title to any thing else he enjoys by Laws and yet Trangresses no Rule of Christianity but hath the same Obligation to defend that his Right as any other Right whatever so far as the Laws of the Nation enable him nor can there be any Resistance to Government in so doing even as there can be none but it is the Duty and Trust of Subordinate Magistrates to adhere to the Laws in the point of True Religion as in all other Cases and of the Supreme Legislative Power of a Nation to foresee Dangers and prevent them by Additional Laws as necessity shall require And all this with the Prerogative due to Religion Quest I desire your Fifth Proposition Answ National Religion seeing it is design'd to Comprehend a multitude of Persons of most necessarily and unavoidably various Sentiments and Apprehensions must be so prepared as that with greatest Ease and Room to Consciences and Understandings of so many several Figures and Impressions there may be an Union in National Religion with least Scruple and therefore to give all the Liberty that Truth gives not imposing Arbitrarily because Religion as hath been said is Gods Peculiar and in that the Doubting Conscience cannot Obey farther than it sees the Divine Rule before it not in things Dark and Disputable because clear things are only necessary to Salvation not forcibly except when Natural Religion is Violated because patient Instruction Counsel and Ratiocination are the Divine Methods in giving and working Faith Quest I now expect the last Proposition Answ I shall give you the last and therein Conclude this whole Enquiry and Instruction and it is this The True Religion of the Word of God in a Nation or City does overtop all the False and Private Religions in it and become in the Sacred Register the National Religion In the Sacred Maps the Christians of Achaia were Achaia it self The Seven Churches of Asia were the Cities themselves And whatever Lesser Differences or Divisions this or that Name of Distinction may seem to make in National Religion yet the True Substantial Religion in all of them shall be one National Religion and become one Rod and Scepter in the Hand of Christ and the Nation be as one National Tribe and Church For let Men do what they can against it True Religion as it is the only Publick Religion and no Separation of Men from it however called Publick can make it Private so in what place soever it is it shall have the most Publick Character and the True Religion in all those that sincerely profess it shall be one True Publick Religion and those little Differences shall not cleave it into more than one Without the Change of True Religion it self there cannot be a Schism of a deeper Sense in it if Bitterness and Animosity Censoriousness and the Persecuting Spirit were away God will graciously Interpret Scruples on one side to a Jealousie for the Purity of Religion the freedom of the other to a desire to Propagate it under the favour of Laws and thereby to be capable of doing most Good In Heaven they now are all one and shall be one and the Envy Strife and Contention which the Good Lord Pardon shall be utterly Abolished This is the Honour of True Religion of Publick Divine Religion Now the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make his Church and his Church in this Nation perfect in every Good Work to do his Will Working in it that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS ERRATA Page 36. l. 20. for scale read seal p. 70. l. 9. r. 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