these Additions to Christianity this proud Church-tyranny I doubt not is the great cause of Schism in the world And when I have had opportunity to write against it I have born my testimony against it as is yet legible But it is not that sort of men that I am here most to speak to but to them that profess to be more teachable and willing to know the truth 3. And yet I add though this Book be written principally to save the darker sort of honest Christians from the sin and misery of Church divisions I write it not principally for them to read For I know their prejudice weakness and incapacity after-mentioned But I write it to remember the Teachers of the Churches what principles they have to Preach and strengthen and what principles to confute and to destroy if ever they mean to save the people from this state of sin and the Churches from the sad effects And if Ministers neglect the faithful discharge of so great and necessary a duty let them remember that they were warned if they find themselves overwhelmed in the ruines II. The Reasons moving me to this work are these First It is my calling to help to save people from their sins and Church division is a heap of sins 2. The more I love them that I hope are tender Conscienced and dare not sin when they are convinced of it the more I am bound to endeavour their conviction remembring who hath said Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19. 17. 3. LOVE is not an appurtenance of my Religion but my Religion it self God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him who can speak a higher word of any thing in all the world Love is the end of faith and faith is but the Bellows to kindle Love Love is the fulfilling of all the Law the end of the Gospel the nature and mark of Christs Disciples the divine nature the sum of holiness to the Lord the proper note by which to know what is the man and what his state and how far any of his other acts are acceptable unto God without which if we had all knowledge and belief all gifts of utterance and highest profession we were but as sounding Brass and as a tinkling Cymbal And if all our goods were given to the poor and our bodies to the fire it would profit nothing Love is our foretast of Heaven and the perfection of it is Heaven it self even the state and work of Angels and of Saints in glory And he that is angry with me for calling men to Love is angry for calling them to Holiness to God and Heaven Holiness which is against Love is a contradiction It is a deceitful Name which Satan putteth upon unholiness All Church principles which are against Universal Love are against God and Holiness and the Churches life And he that saith he loveth God and hateth his Brother is a Lyar. To be holy without Love is to see without light to live without life He that said The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle c. did no more dream of separating them then of dividing the head of a man from his heart to save his life Iam. 3. 17. Nor no more than he that said Follow Peace with all men and Holiness Heb. 1â— 14. No necessity can justifie such a division Holiness and Love to God are but two names for one thing Love to God and to man are like Soul and Body that are separated no way but by death Love and Peaceableness differ but as Reason and Reasoning Love may be without Passive Peace from others to us but never without Active Peace from us to others 4. I have had so great opportunity in my time to see the working of the mysterie of iniquity against Christian Love and to see in what manner Christs House and Kingdome is edified by divisions that if I be ignorant after such sad experience I must be utterly unexcusable and of a seared Conscience and a heart that seemeth hardened to perdition God knoweth how hardly sin is known in its secret root till men have tasted the bitterness of the fruit Therefore he hath permitted the two Extreams to shew themselves openly to the world in the effects And one must be noted and hated and avoided as well as the other I thought once that all that talk against Schism and Sects did but vent their malice against the best Christians under those names But since then I have seen what Love-killing principles have done I have long stood by while Churches have been divided and sub-divided one Congregation of the division labouring to make the other contemptible and odious and this called the Preaching of truth and the purer worshiping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful pride and surliness and into the way of Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ. I have many a time heard it break out into more horrid revilings of the best Ministry and Godliest people than ever I heard from the most malignant Drunkard I have lived to see it put to the Question in that which they called the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once When Love was first killed in their own breasts by these same principles which I here detect I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the Rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kinds of Rule even that which they themselves set up have been committed and justified and prophanely fathered upon God These with much more such fruits of Love-killing principles and divisions I have seen And I have seen what fierce censorious proud unchristian tempers they have caused or signified In a word I have long seen that envious wisdom whatever it pretend is not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish and that where envy and strife is upon pretence of Religious precedency of wisdom there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. 15 16. And if after so long so sad so notorious experience you would have me still to be tender of the brood of Hell I mean these Loveâ—destroying wayes and to shew any countenance to that which really hath done all this you would have me as blind as the Sodâ—mites and as obdurate as Pharaoh and his Egyptians and utterly resolved never to learn the will of God or to regard either good or evil in the world 5. The same sins are continued in without repentance The same pride and ignorance is still keeping open our divisions And if after such warnings as the world scarce ever had the like we shall be still impenitent
to purchase them DIRECT XXXVII In your judging of Discipline Reformation and any means of the Churches good be sure your Eye be both upon the true End and upon the particular Rule and not on either of them alone Take not that for a means which is either contrary to the word of God or is in its nature destructive of the End THere are great miscarriages come for want of the true observation of this rule First If a thing seem to you very needful to a good end and yet the word be against it avoid it For God knoweth better than we what means is fittest and what he will bless As for instance some think that many self-devised ways of worship contrary to Col. 2. 21 23. would be very profitable to the Church And some think that striking with the sword as Peter did is the way to rescue Christ or the Gospel But both are bad because the Scripture is against them Secondly and if you think that the Scripture commandeth you this or that positive means if Nature and true Reason assure you that it is against the End and is like to do much more harm than good be assured that you mistake that Scripture For first God telleth us in general that the means as such are for the End and therefore are no means when they are against it The Ministery is for edification and not for destruction The Sabbath is for man and not man for the Sabbath Secondly God hath told us that no positive duty is a duty at all times To pray when I should be saving my neighbours life is a sin and not a duty though we are commanded to pray continually So is it to be preaching or hearing on the Lords day when I should be quenching a fire in the town or doing necessary works of mercy Wherefore the Disciples Sabbath-breaking was justified by Christ and he giveth us all a charge to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice which must needs import I prefer mercy before sacrifice and would have no sacrifice which hindereth mercy Therefore if a Sermon were to be preached so unseasonably or in such unsuitable circumstances as that according to Gods ordinary way of working it were like to do more hurt than good it were no duty at that time Discipline is an Ordinance of Christ But if sound reason tell me that if I publickly call this man to Repentance or excommunicate him it is like to do much hurt to the Church and no good to him it would be at that time no duty but a sin As Physick must be forborn where the Disease will but be exasperated by it Therefore Christ boundeth our very preaching and reproof with a Shake off the dust off your feet as a testimony against them And give not that which is holy to dogs c. When treading under foot and turning again and rending us is lâ—kest to be the success the wisdome of Christ and not that of the flesh only requireth us to take it for no duty This is to be observed by them that think that Admonitions and excommunications and exclusion from the Sacrament must be used in all places and at all times alike without respect to the End come of it what will Or that will tempt God by presuming that he will certainly either bless or at least justifie their unseasonable and imprudent actions as if they were a duty at all times To be either against the Scripture or against the End is a certain proof that an action is no duty because no means DIRECT XXXVIII Neglect not any truth of God much less renounce it or deny it For lying and contempt of Sacred truth is always sinful But yet do not take it for your duty to publish all which you judge to be truth nor a sin to silence many lesser truths when the Churches peace and welfare doth require it TO speak or subscribe against any truth is not to be done on any pretense whatsoever For lying is a sin at all times But it is the opinion of injudicious furious spirits that no truth is to be silenced for peace Truth is not to be sold for carnal prosperity but it is to be forborn for spiritual advantage and true necessity First if the publishing of all truths were at all times a duty then all men live every moment in ten thousand sins of omission because there are more than so many truths which I am not publishing Nay which I never shall publish whilest I live Secondly Positives bind not always and to all times Thirdly while you are preaching that opinion which your zeal is so much for you are omitting far greater and more necessary Truths And is it not as great a sin to omit them as the lesser Fourthly Mercy is to be preferred before sacrifice What if the present uttering some truth would cost many thousand mens lives Were not that an untimely and unmerciful word And is it not as bad if but accidentally it tend to the ruine of the Church and the hurt of souls It were easie to instance in unseasonable and imprudent words of truth spoken to Princes which have raised persecutions of long continuance and ruined Churches silenced Ministers and caused the death of multitudes of men Fifthly And where is there any word of God which commandeth us to speak all that we know and which forbiddeth us to forbear the utterance of any one truth Sixthly And for the most part those men who are most pregnant and impatient of holding in their opinions on the pretense of the pretiousness of truth do but proudly esteem their own understandings precious and do vend some raw undigested notions vain janglings or errors under the name of that truth which must by no means be concealed though the vending of it tend to envy and strife and to confusion and every evil work When those that have the Truth indeed have more wisdome and goodness to know how to use it It is not Truth but Goodness which is the ultimate object of the soul. And God who is infinite Goodness it self hath revealed his Truths to the world to do men Good and not to hurt them And the Devil who is the Destroyer so he may but do men hurt will be content to make use even of Truth to do it Though usually he only pretendeth Truth to cover his lies And this angel of Light hath his ministers of Light and Righteousness who are known by their fruits whilest the pretenses of Light and Righteousness are used to Satans ends and not to Christs to hurt and destroy and to hinder Christs Kingdome and not to save and to do good As the Wolf is known by his bloody jaws even in his sheeps cloathing DIRECT XXXIX Know which are the great duties of a Christian life and wherein the nature of true Religion doth consist And then pretend not any lesser duty against those greater though the least when it is indeed a duty is not to
this book according to their Principles and as they use to do by others Before they have soberly read it over they will carry about the Sectarian reports of it from hand to hand And when one hath said it the rest will affirm it that I have clawed with one party and have girded at the other and have sought to make them odious by bringing them under the reproach of Separation and of censuring and avoiding the ungodly and that being luke-warm my self and a complyer with sin I would have all others do so too And that these Reconcilers are neither flesh nor fish and attempt impossibilities even to reconcile Light and darkness Christ and Belial And that for the sake of Peace we would â—ell the Truth and would let in Church-corruptions out of an over-eager desire of Agreement And when they have all done neither party will regard them but they shall fare worse than any others and will lose both sides whilest they are for neither I know it is the nature of the disease which I am curing to send forth such breath and scents as these And I intend not to bestow a word to answer them 5. And some of the wise and sober Ministers who mark more the inconveniences of one side than of the other and look more to outward occurrences than to the Rule and to the inward state of Souls especially such as have not seen the times and things that I have seen will think that though all this be true it is unseasonable and may give advantage to such as love not Reformation And to them I shall return this answer 1. That if we stay seven years more for a seasonable time to oppose the radical sin of uncharitableness we may be in our graves and the sinners in their graves and the sin may be multiplied and rooted past all hope of remedy And why may you not as well stay seven years more for a seasonable time to Preach down all other sins as well as this Is this the least malignant or least dangerous sin 2. There was never a more seasonable time to tell men of their sin than when the temptation to it is the greatest when it is most growing and multiplying among us When God hath been so heinously dishonoured by it when the world doth ring of it when many Volumes reproach them for it And when the sensual and ungodly are hardened by it in their scorn of godliness to the apparent peril of their damnation yea more to turn our complaints from our Law-givers upon our selves It is want of Love and it is Dividing principles and practices that have silenced so many Ministers and brought us into all the confusions and calamities which we see and undergo 6. But there are many sincere and considerate Ministers who knowing this which I say to be true will be the more excited by it to lead the younger and passionate sort of Religious people into the wayes of Love and peace and to save them from the dangers here detected and perswade them to the practise of these Directions And for the use of these I write this Book And yet to end as I began I must add these notices for your right understanding of it 1. That this is not my first attempt upon this work but the progress of what I have been upon these three and twenty years About fifteen or sixteen years ago I preacht on the third Chapter of Saint Iames in a larger and a closer manner on this Subject than here I write because the times then called me to it 2. I perswade no Christian to justifie or own the sins or the least defects of any Church Minister or People in their Worship or in their lives though I perswade you to Communion with the Churches persons and worship-actions which have many faults For on Earth there is no person Church or Worship faultless and without corruption I justifie not the faults of my own daily Prayers and yet I never pray without them 3. I am not perswading Ministers to any unwise and unseasonable Preaching against the dividing Principles of the weak when the necessities of the Auditory more require other Doctrine Much less to exasperating railings and invectives And least of all to wrathful violence But only with prudence in season and with Love and gentleness to lead men into the truth If even with Infidels and Hereticks the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. How much more must the Children of Gods family be used with Love and tenderness But if the fierceness of any contradict what I say I only add that it is not an unexperienced person that speaketh it but one who through the mercy of God hath long kept a numerous flock in Love and unity and peace by such like means and hath seen the lamentable effects of the contrary way 4. While I say so much in this Treatise against the rash censuring of others I give you not the rule for mens censuring of themselves They know more by themselves They may search into the depth of their hearts and intentions which we cannot do They are allowed to be more suspicious censorious of themselves than of any others It more concerneth them And they have more to do with themselves and may be bolder with themselves We judg others in order to visible Church-Communion by visible and publick evidence But in order to their preparation for the judgment of God we must direct them to judge themselves according to the truth in the inward parts 5. While I draw you to peace and moderation towards others I desire not to quench the least degree of Christian zeal Nay I endeavour to kill that which would kill it The purified peculiar people of the Redeemer ane zealous but of what not to consume and destroy one another nor to hate and flye from one another nor to vilifie and backbite one another but they are zealous of good works And Paul will tell you what are good works Gal. 5. 22 23. Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance Be zealous in Loving all Christians as Christians and all men as men Be zealous for Peace If it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. Be zealously patient gentle good meek temperate And the works of the flesh are hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition heresies A zeal for these is earthly sensual and devilish as Iames telleth you And remember that the word which is translated there Envy is Zeal in the Original But our translators were afraid lest the prophane would have mistaken it if they had translated it Zeal ver 16. where zeal and strife is that is a striving contentious zeal there is confusion and every evil work If you believe
these are such as come to their knowledge by hard and laborious studies and meditation though also by the spirit blessing their endeavours And they are such as give proof of the knowledge which they pretend to And they are such as employ their knowledge to preserve the peace and concord of believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own names though thereby they set the world on fire Make therefore no more of these vain defences of your Pride Let no man think of himself and his own understanding above what is meet I perswade you not to deny any truth which indeed you know nor to doubt of any thing which is made truly certain to you But value not your understandings above their worth and fix not too rashly upon your first apprehensions and go not away with a passionate confidence in your poor raw untryed and defective conceptions But remember that you know but little and must have time and labour to grow up to the rest Be not wise in your own conceits Rom. 12. 16. 11. 25. Prov. 26. 5. 28. 11. And this is commonly the sin of the slothful that never were at that pains for knowledge by which it must be attained The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason Prov. 26. 16. You little think when you are conceited of your knowledge that you are further from wisdom than a fool Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit There is more hope of a fool than of him Be not wise in thy own eyes Prov. 3. 3. Wo to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight Isa. 5. 21. Be not righteous overmuch neither make thy self over-wise why shouldst thou destroy thy self The self-conceited must become fools in their own esteem if ever they will be wise as the worldly wise must own that which is folly in the judgment of the world if ever they will be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. 2. And there is a Religious Pride of Goodness as well as of Knowledge which must yet more carefully be avoided as being yet worse than the former as the thing abused is much better And this worketh as subtilly and secretly as the former It may not only consist with many complaints and confessions of sinfulness weakness and unworthyness but even with doubts of sincerity and so much dejectedness as seemeth to draw near to desparation It is an ordinary thing to hear the same persons talk in a complaining doubting and almost despairing manner of speech and yet to have high expectations of respect from others and to be most proudly impatient of the least undervaluing or neglect Yea Pride will make an advantage to it self of all these humble confessions and complaints And it is an old observation that many are proud of their humility For though it be true that Austin saith that Grace is a thing which no man can use amiss the meaning is only that Grace efficiently can do nothing amiâ—s For if it do amiss so far it is not grace Yet objectively all Grace may be abused that is a man may make it the object of his Pride and the occasion of many other sins And this Religious Pride of Goodness doth ordinarily work under the pretext of Thankfullness to God for his grace and Zeal for Holyness But it may be known by this that it always tendeth to lift us up and to the diminishing of Love to oothers and to the contempt of the weak and the censuring of our brethren and the division and disturbance of the Church of God They are lamentable effects which this Pride produceth in the Church and all Societies where it cometh It maketh all mens Goodness seem little except our own It causeth the people to undervalue their Pastors and turneth compassion of meâ—s weaknesses into a sowr contempt It setteth a man in his own conceit so near to God that he looketh down on other men as earthly animals in comparison of himself It maketh new terms of Church-Communion and teacheth men to make narrower the door of the Church than God hath made it It causeth men to deny and vâ—liâ—ie Gods grace in those that answer not their expectations And to think that the Church is not worthy of their Communion And to think that none are so fit as they to be the Reformers of the Church and of the world I intreat those who are in danger of this pernicious sin to think with themselves 1. What a heynous crime and folly it is for one that but lately was a child of the Devil and a sink of sin to be proud so quickly of their goodness And for one that so lately was groaning and weeping with a broken heart for a sinful life to be already puffed up with the conceits of godlyness And for one who daily maketh confession to God of a sinful heart and a faulty life and of great unworthyness to contradict all this by an over-valuing of his own piety And how incongruous it is for one who professeth to hope for justification by free grace mercy only to have nothing of his own but what 's defiled and who abhorreth the Doctrine of merit and talketh so much of our emptyness and insufficiency to be yet puffed up with the conceit of his spirituality and worth And what an odious self-conâ—radiction it is to make your self like the Devil in pride because you think you are like God in holiness 2. And consider that the more you are proud of your Goodness the less you have to be proud of If this sin be predominant it is certain that you have no saving grace at all And what an odious thing and miserable case is it to be proud of Holyness when you are unholy and to be damned both for want of it and for being proud of it That a man should be proud of that for want of which he must suffer the fire of Hell But if your pride be not predominant yet it is certain that in what measure soever you have that vice in that measure you are destitute of grace For true grace and pride are as contrary as life and death 3. And study well the meaning of all these Scriptures For you shall not say that I mis-interpret them to you Why was it that Christ mentioneth the Parable of the Phaâ—â—see and the Publican one thanking God that he was not so bad as others and the other thinking himself unworthy to look up to heaven Luke 18. 10 11. c. Why did he give us the parable of the prodigal who confesseth that he was unworthy to be called a Son and of his elder brother who swelled with envy at his entertainment Why was it that Christ seemed not strict enough to the Pharisees in keeping the Sabbath nor in his Diet nor in his Company but they called him a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber and a friend of Publicans
unity undisturbed peace and unfeigned Love but the very infidels and ungodly round about them did reverence both them and their religion for it And where did you ever see Christians divided unpeaceable and bitter against each other but it made them and their profession a scorn to the unbelieving and ungodly world and whilst they despise and vilifie one another they teach the wicked to despise and vilifie them all Seventhly I may therefore add that the Unity of Believers is one of Gods appointed means for the conversion and salvation of unbelievers And their Divisions and discord are an ordinary means of hardening men in infidelity and wickedness and hindering their love and obedience to the truth As a well ordered Army or a City of uniform comely building is a pleasing and inviting sight to the beholders when a confused rout or a râ—inous heap doth breed abhorrence even so the very sight of the concordant societies of Christians is amiable and alluring to those without when their disagreements and separations make them seem odious and vile As a musical instrument in tune or a set of musick delight the hearer by the pleasing harmony when one or more instruments out of tune or used by a rude unskilful hand will weary out the patience of the hearer so is it in this case and the difference is much greater between concordant and disconcordant Christians Who loveth to thrust himself into a fray And what wise man had not rather partake of the friendly converse than joyn with drunken men that are fighting in the streets Peace and Concord are amiable even to nature And you can scarce take a more effectual means to win the world to the Love of Holiness than by shewing them that Holiness doth make you unfeigned and fervent in the Love of one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Nor can you devise how to drive men more effectually from Christ and to damn their souls than to represent Christians to them like a company of mad men that are tearing out the throats of one another How can you think that the unbelievers and ungodly should think well of them that all speak so ill of one another When the Lutheran flyeth from the Calvinist and the Episcopal from the Puritan and the Protestant from the Anabaptist and the Presbyterian from the Independent and all the other side implacably fly from them Can you wonder if the Infidel and the Idolater fly further from you all Mark well the words of Christ in his prayer Ioh. 17. 20 21 22 23. For them which shall believe on me by their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me All these observations are obvious in these words 1. That the unity of Christians must be universal even of all that believe the Gospel of Christ. 2. That this Union should have some low resemblance to the Union of the Father and the Son 3. That it is Christs great desire and intercession for his Followers that they may be one 4. That their glory is for their Unity 5. That their Unity is their perfection 6. That the Father and Son are the Head or Center of the Unity 7. That this Unity is the great means of converting the world to the Christian faith and convincing Infidels of the truth of Christ as sent by God Open but your eyes and you may see all these great doctrines in this Prayer of Christs for his people Unity O that all the Christian Churches would try this means for the worlds Conversion Not on the impossible terms of Popery but on the necessary terms proposed by Christ. 8. External Unity and peaceable Church-communion doth greatly cherish our Internal unity of Love And Church-divisions do cherish wrath and malice and all the works of the flesh described by Paul Gal. 5. 21 22 23. I pray you consider how he describeth the fleshly and the spiritual man v. 14 15. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit c. Now the works of the flesh are manifest adultery enmities or hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions or as it may be read Divisions or factions heresies envyings murders c. But the fruit of the spirit is Love joy peace lâ—ng-suffering gentlenss goodness faith meekness temperance Against such there is no law And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Let us not be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Obj. O but those that I separate from are guilty of this and that and the other fault Answ. Chap 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Instead of censorious disdain and separation bear ye one anothers burthen and so fulfil the Law of Christ which you think you fulfil by your unwarrantable separations while you are but fulfilling your fleshly passions When once parties are engaged by their opinions in Anti-churches and fierce disputings the flesh and satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe When united Christians are provoking one another to Love and to good works and minding each other of their heavenly cohabitation and harmonious praise and are delighting God and man by the melody of their concord The contentious zealots in their separate Anti-churches are preaching down Love and preaching up hatred and making those that differ from them seem an odious people not to be communicated with by aggravating their different opinions or modes of worship till they seem to be no less than Heresie or Idolatry If many thousands yet living in England or Ireland had not heard this with their ears yet Iames may be believed Chap. 3. 1 c. My Brethren be not many Teaching-Masters for that is the word knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation For in many things we offend all which he addeth because the arrogancy of Sectaries was caused by the aggravating of other mens offences If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man that is If you will shew that you are perfecter better your selves than those whom you account so bad see that
aggravate the faults of all that are against their way As if every infirmity were a crime and had no excuse yea they are oft glad to hear of some miscarriage in them for which they may speak against them And very readily take up such reports and are the willing-tongues of slanderous fame And in all this their faction maketh them impenitent For they think it tendeth to the disgrace of the other Party and so of their Cause which they account an errour and consequently that God hath use for their malicious Calumnies to his glory What company can you come into of forward Christians but they are talking against those of other parties except a few true entire Christians who are throughly possessed with the loving compassionate spirit of their Lord and have received the true impression of the Gospel And if you mark the cause you will find it as a sectarian spirit that prevaileth against the Catholick spirit of Christianity And in no sect more than in those that pretend to be the only Catholicks and to do all this against the Sectaries as such What bitter lies do the Popish sects under the name of Catholicks daily vent not only against Luther Calvin and other Reformers but any that stand against the peculiar interest of their party And they that can get the upper hand-and by worldly advantages become the domineering sect do think that thereby they are exempted from the name and number of sectaries and that all are sectaries that question their authority and do not absolutely obey them In all their discourse the stigmatizing of dissenters is an ordinary part One side reproacheth the other as Hereticks and Schismaticks And the other reproacheth them as hypocrites formalists and pharisaical persecutors And every party think that all this is a part of Christian zeal and if they did it not they should be guilty of lukewarmness and neutrality and consenting to the sins of others And thus the Church of Christ is engaged in a war against it self And when all men should know them to be Christs disciples by loving one another most men may perceive that they have too much contrariety to the Christian nature by their endeavouring to make each other odious And all because instead of distinguishing the members of the same Body by their several offices and degrees we are grown to make several Bodies of them and to set one part against another How many a Kingdomes conversion from Infidelity hath been hindered and how many a faithful Minister silenced or reproached and how many excellent Christians slandered and vilified and how many blamless customs forms and practises accused and how many infirmities aggravated as mortal crimes by a siding factious disposition and to promote the cause and interest of a Sect. Therefore as you love your integrity and peace keep up an impartial universal love and honour to all Christians as such and take heed of a dividing spirit DIRECT XX. Be very suspicious of your Religious passions and carefully distinguish between a sound and a sinful zeal lest you should father your sin on the spirit of holiness and think that you are most pleasing God when you offend him WE are seldome more mistaken in justifying our selves than in our Passions And when our Passions are Religious the mistake is both most easie and most perillous Easie because we are apt to be most confident and not suspect them the matter seeming so great and good about which they are exercised And Perilous because the greatness and goodness of the matter doth make the errour the greater and the worse I have shewed before how easie it is to think that our Religious passions are all the works of the spirit of God For we are apt to estimate them by the depth and earnestness which we feel But excellent persons have been here mistaken as Iames and Iohn were And not only so but when the passion is up the judgement it self is seldome to be far trusted For it inclineth us to err in all things that concern the present business Therefore still remember the difference between true zeal and false And know that he that is upright in the main and whose zeal for Christianity is sound may yet have much zeal that is unsound with it First It is an ill sign when your zeal is raised about some singular opinion which you have owned and not for the common salvation and substance of the Christian faith or practise Or at least when your odd opinion hath a greater proportion of your zeal than many more plain and necessary truths Secondly when your zeal is moved by any personal interest of your own By honour or dishonour By any wrong that is done you or any reputation of wisdome or goodness which lieth on the cause Or at least when your own interest hath too large a proportion in your zeal Thirdly when your zeal is more for the interest of your party than for the Universal Church and the common cause of Godliness and Christianity and can be content that some detriment to the whole may further the interest of the party Fourthly when your zeal tendeth to hurt and crueley and would have God rather to glorifie his Iustice by some present notable judgement than his Mercy by patience and forgiving And when your secret desire of fire from heaven or some destruction of the adversaries is greater than your desire and prayer for their conversion The sure mark of true zeal is that it is zealous Love It maketh you love your neighbours and enemies more fervently than others do But false zeal maketh you more inclined to their suffering and to reproach and hurt them Fifthly It is an ill signe when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your understanding And your prudence and experience is as much less than other mens as your zeal is greater True zeal hath some equality of Light and Heat Sixthly It is an ill sign when it is a zeal which is easily kept alive and hardly restrained For that sheweth the slesh and the Devil are too much its friends The true zeal of the spirit doth need the fuel of all holy means and the bellows of meditation and prayer to kindle it and all is too little to keep it up in the constancy that we desire But carnal zeal will burn of it self without such endeavours Seventhly It is an ill signe when some sect or false-teacher was the kindler of it and not the sober preaching of the truth Eighthly And it is an ill sign when it burneth in the same soul where lust and wrath and pride and malice burn And when it prospereth at the same time when the love of God and a heavenly mind and life decay The zeal of a sensualist of a proud man of a covetous man of a self-conceited empty person can hardly be thought a spiritual zeal 9. And it is an ill sign wâ—en it carrieth you from the holy rule and pretendeth to come from a spirit which will
not be tryed by the Scripture Or when it driveth you to use means which God forbiddeth in his Word and putteth you upon ways which the sealed Law and Testimony condemn It cannot be of God which is against Gods Word 10. Lastly it is a suspicious sign when it is contrary to the judgement experience and zeal of the generality of the most wise experienced tryed sober godly Christians and so to the ordinary working of Gods Spirit in other men who are as good as you For Gods Spirit is not contrary to it self By all these signs you may easily perceive how the dividing zeal of a Sect as a sect doth differ from the genuine Christian zeal The one is a zeal for some singular opinion The other is a zeal for Godliness and Christianity The one is kindled by some interest of our own religious reputation the other is kindled by the interest of the will and glory of God The one is for the strengthning of a Party The other is to increase the Church Universal and promote the common cause of Christianity even when some particular truth or duty is the Matter of it yet the general cause of godliness is the end The one is a burning hurting zeal even the same which hath made matter for so many Martyrologies and frightful Histories by inquisitions torments prisons flames massacreâ— and bloody wars And the same which hath silenced so many faithful Ministers and disturbed so many States and Churches The other is a zeal of Love which maketh men fervent in doing good to others The one causeth men to revile and despise and censure and backbite and zealously to make all dissenters seem odious that the hearers may abate their love to them The other maketh us value all that is good in others and to hide their nakedness and to make them better and to provoke the hearers to love and to good works The one tendeth to divisions and sidings and separations and distances from our brethren and to feed contentions The other is a zeal for unity amity and peace The one is the complexion of the weak and childish the proud and self-conceited the peevish and surly sort of Professours The other is the zeal of solid knowledge and of the prudent humble meek and well grounded sort of Christians The one is a zeal which flyeth most outward against the sins of other men and can live with pride and covetousness and selfishness and sensuality at home such serve not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies Rom. 16. 16 17. The other beginneth at home and consumeth all these vices in the heart and as zeal increaseth humility and meekness and love and self-denyal and temperance and heavenly mindedness increase The one is easily got and easily kept and hardly kept under O how easie is it to get and keep a contemptuous censorious backbiting dividing or persecuting â—eal But the other is not so much befriended by Satan or the flesh and therefore must be preserved by prayer and meditation and very great diligence How hard is it to keep up a zealous love of God and Man and a fervour in all our heavenly and spiritual desires Abate but your diligence and this will presently decay when the fierce contending hurting separating and persecuting zeal doth need no such fuel or labour to maintain it The one is kindled by the enflaming censures of some rash and passionate Preacher that knoweth better how to kill Love than to cause it or by the singular conceits of some Sectary or Divider or by the backbitings of some Doâ—g or malicious Calumniator The other is kindled by the humble and heavenly preaching of the Gospel and by the meditations on Christs example and a study to imitate him and his Saints in patience forbearance foâ—giving others and doing good The one is a zeal which carrieth men from the Scripture to pretenses of such revelations and inspirations and impulses as have no proof but the feeling and fancy of the person or at least to abuse the Word of God and plead it for that which it condemneth It provoketh men to some unlawful practâ—se under pretense of misinterpreted texts and of good ends and meanings The other still putteth you upon good and striveth against evil and goeth for tryal of every cause to the Law and to the testimony Lastly the one is a zeal which pretendeth the spirit and yet goeth contrary to the common workings of the spirit in the most part of the best and wisest Christians But the other is the common vital heat which animateth all the body of Christ and actualeth all his living members and keepeth up love and holiness in the Church and is the same in all humble heavenly Christians in the world It will be of great use to you in order to your own and the Churches peace to understand and observe the difference between these contrary sorts of religious zeal DIRECT XXI Lend not a patient ear to back-biters much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others But shew your detestation of that sin though they should be most religious people that use it and do it upon a religious pretence I Do not say that it is always unlawful to speak that which is ill of another behind his back Sometime wicked men will take occasion to justifie sin it self by the advantage of a sinners name And sometime they will magnifie the vertues of some wicked man or of some of their sect on purpose to cast reproach on godliness or to make others odious by the comparison Yet in such cases we must repress their malignity more by a defensive than an offensive opposition But the usual course of back-biting in all sorts of men is sinful The back-biter how great or learned or religious soever is but the devils minister to preach down the love of others and to exhort you to hate your brother or to abate your charity to him And he that patiently hearkeneth to such is a partaker of their sin And he that believeth them hath taken the infection Most of our odious thoughts of others and our false and uncharitable censures do come in this way For the most part men censure and separate and persecute most where they are acquainted least but go by hear-say and judge of men by back-biters mis-reports And acquaintance and familiarity usually reconcileth them and sheweth them their errour You think it is a fair excuse for you when you either believe or report evil of another to say that you heard it from very honest and religious or reverend persons or you heard it from many and confidently uttered But God hath not allowed you to receive back-biters because they are godly or because they are many This very age and time doth experimentally confute this excuse In which it is so common a thing for false reports and news to be uttered with confidence and that by multitudes and many of them religious and yet neither truth nor ground
most after in many places for the meer affectionate manner of expression and lowdness of the Preachers voice How oft have I known the ablest Preachers undervalued and an ignorant man by crouds applauded when I that have been acquainted with the Preacher ab incunabulis have known him to be unable well to answer most questions in the common Catechism And I durst not tell them of his great insufficiency and ignorance for fear of hindering the success of his labours and being thought envious at other mens acceptance I have known poor tradesmens boys have a great mind of the Ministry and we that were the Ministers of the Countrey contributed to maintain them while they got some learning and knowledge But they had not patience to keep out of the Pulpit till they competently understood their business there And yet many of the religious people valued these as the only men And some of them shortly after turned to some whâ—msical Sect or other and contemned the Ministers that instructed and maintained them And all this while understood not half so much as many of our sober Auditors understood This prepareth the poor people to be hurried into any disorder or division when they no better know how to choose their Guides DIRECT XLII Your belief of the necessary Articles of Faith must be made your own and not taken meerly upon the Authority of any And in all points of Belief or Practice which are of necessity to Salvation you must ever keep company with the Universal Church for it were not the Church if it erred in these And in matters of peace and concord the greater part must be your guide In matters of humane obedience your Governours must be your Guides And in matters of high and difficult speculation the judgment of one man of extraordinary understanding and clearness is to be preferred before both the Rulers and the major Vote IN several sorts of Controversies and Cases you must prefer several sorts of Guides or Judges It is a grand pernicious Errour to think that the same mens judgments must be most followed in every Case And it is of grand importance to know how to value and vary our Guides as the Cases vary And for the most part every man is more to be regarded in his own way of study and profession than wiser men in other matters of other studies and professions As a Lawyer is to be valued in the Law more than the ablest and most illuminated Divine And a Philosopher in Philosophy and a Linguist in the Tongues and a Physician in Physick c. For instance First Suppose it were a Controversie whether Christ be God or whether there be a life to come or a resurrection c. Here no man must be Judge because if you are Christians indeed it is past controversie with you And you believe this upon the evidences of truth which have convinced you And herein the universal Church are your associates Secondly Suppose it be made a Controversie whether you shall use this Translation or version in publick or another or whether you shall meet at this hour or that at this place or that what words of prayer shall be used in publick what persons you shall communicate with in publick and what not c. In all such your lawful Pastors and Rulers are the Judges and their judgments must be preferred before more learned men that are not related to you Thirdly Suppose the question be among many associated Churches whether this Church or Pastor be to be disowned as Heretical or owned by the rest as orthodox Christians Here the judgement of the Pastors of those associated Churches in Councels is to be preferred as of the proper Judges Fourthly Suppose the question were among a free people that want a Pastor whether this man or that or the other being all sufficient shall be the Pastor of that Church Here the major Vote of the people of that Church should be preferred Fifthly Suppose the question be whether 1 Iohn 5. 7. e. g. be Canonical Scripture or the Doxology after the the Lords Prayer c. here a few learned Antiquaries are to be believed before a major Vote or Councel unskilled in those things who contradict them Sixthly Suppose the question were of the Object of predestination of the naturâ—â— of the wills liberty of the concourse of God and determining way of grace of the definition of justification faith c. Here a few well studied judicious Divines must be preferred before Authority and majority of Votes As one clear-sighted man seeth further and better than a thousand that have darker sight So that you must in such vary your guides according to their several capacities and the Case Obedience hearkneth most to Authority Unity and Concord must depend most on some majority of Votes Hard questions must be decided by the best studied Persons and the quickest clearest sights and not by bare Commands or Votes DIRECT XLIII Take heed lest you be tempted to reject a good Cause because it is owned by some bad persons or to like a bad cause when it is owned by men that are otherwise good And that you judge not of the faith and cause by the persons when you should judge of the persons â—ather by the faith and cause I Confess when we have no other reason to encline us to one opinion or to another but only the reputation of them that hold it caeteris paribus in matters of meer godliness the judgment of godly men is much to be preferred before theirs that are ungodly and they are much liker to be in the right But when God hath given us other means to know the truth we must impartially make use of them It too oft falleth out that honest people are like straying sheep If one leap over the hedge the rest will croud and strive to follow him And therefore errours are like Languages and Fashions that follow the Country where they are bred The religious people in Sweden and Denmark have one sort of errour In Holland and Helvetia perhaps they have another In France and Spain and Italy they have others In Greece and Armenia and Ethiopia they have others And it is an easie matter before we are aware to fall into the common epidemical disease and to think This is best because the best and strictest people are of this mind And indeed sin doth seldome get so great an advantage in the world as when it hath won the major vote among the most religious sort of people If but a Peter separate Barnabas and many more will follow And on the other side sometimes the worser sort of men may hold fast the truth and many ignorant persons are apt to reject it because it is owned by men so bad But if Truth be the Religion of their King and Countrey or of their Ancestors in which they were brought up or if their reputation or peace of conscience lie upon it or if the defence of it shew
are not desperate and covereth sins instead of condemning without proof would equally cure them both And let me yet conclude with this double protestation against the carping slanderer who useth to falsifie mens words First That I intend not in all this any flattery of the ungodly or making them better than they are or forbearing plain reproof or Church-discipline nor any unlawful communion with the wicked nor countenancing them in any of their sins nor neglecting to call them to repentance Secondly That while I here name persecution my purpose is not to mark out any persons or party above others or determine who they be that are the persecutors But only to detect the deceitfulness of our hearts when we most complain of it and to shew that wherever that sin is indeed it cometh but from the same principle as sinful separation doth even from the death of Love to others Thirdly and I add that though I here aggravate the persecution of unjust excommunications or separations as robbing men of the priviledge of Christians yet leaving them the common liberties of men and subjects it is none of my purpose to equal this absolutely with that destroying cruelty which leaveth them neither and will not suffer them to enjoy so much liberty as Heathens and Infidels may enjoy or as Paul had under such Act. 28. ult DIRECT LVI Keep still in your thoughts the state of all Christs Churches upon Earth that you may know what a people they are through the world whom Christ hath communion with and may not be deceived by ignorance to separate from allmost all Christs Churches while you think that you separate from none but the few that are about you THousands of well meaning people live as if England were almost all the world And do boldly separate from their Neighbours here which they durst not do if they soberly considered that almost all the Christian world are worse than they But narrow minds who can look but little further with their Reason than with their eye-sight do keep out at once both Truth and Love It is a point that I have often had occasion to repeat and yet will not forbear to repeat it here again It is but about one sixth part of the known world who make any profession of Christianity and are baptized besides how much peopled the unknown part of the world may be we know not Of this sixth part the Ethiopians Egyptians Syrians Armenians the Greek Churches the Muscovites and all the Papists are so great a body that all the Protestants or Reformed Churches are little more than a sixth part of this sixth The Papists being about a fourth or fifth part and the other Christians making up the rest And of these Protestants Sweden Denmark Saxony and many other parts of Germany making up the greatest part are such as are called Lutherans And of the other half which are supposed to be more Reformed there is scarce any of so Reformed lives as these in England and Scotland And among these how great a number are they that you separate from If you look to the Papists their worship is by the Mass If you look to the Muscovians they have a Liturgy much more blameable than ours and have a few Homilies instead of preaching If you look to the Greek Church to the Armenians the Abassines and all the Eastern and the Southern Churches in Asia and Africa they also worship God by Liturgies much more lyable to blame than ours and have but little preaching among them besides Homilies and the Members of their Churches are commonly far more ignorant than the worst of ours even than the rudest part of Wales If you look to the Lutherans they have Liturgies and Ceremonies and Images in their Churches though not adored and have far worse Preachers and of worse lives and more unprofitable preaching than is usually found with us and the people more ignorant and vicious If you look to the remnant called the more Reformed Churches in Holland France Helvetia Germany though they have much less of Liturgy or Ceremonies yet are their Church-members usually as ignorant as ours and more addicted to intemperance and there is no less scandal in their lives than among ours Now this being the true state of the world and though we daily pray that it may be better yet it is no better I would only intreat you but to think of it as it is and that to answer me deliberately these few Questions Quest. 1. Do you believe that all baptized professed Christians not denying any essential part of Christianity are Christs Universal Visible Church Qu. 2. Do you not believe that this Church is only One and that every particular Church and every Christian is a part of it Qu. 3. Do you not believe that it is unlawful in any case whatsoever to separate from it And that to separate from the Universal Visible Church is visibly to separate from Christ Qu. 4. Do you not believe that to give a Bill of Divorce to the Universal Church or to many hundred parts of it or to any one part and to declare that they are none of the Church of Christ is not great arrogancy and injury to men and unto Christ himself Qu. 5. Dare you say before God Let me have no part in any of the prayers of all these Churches on earth who use a Liturgy as culpable as ours because I will have no Communion with them Do you set so light by your part in their prayers Q. 6. If you travelled or lived in Abassia Armenia Greece or any Christian Country where their worship is not Idolatry nor substantially wicked nor they force not the worshippers to any false Oaths subscriptions or other actual sin would you refuse all communion with them and all publick worshipping of God Or would you not rather joyn with them than with no Church at all Qâ— 7. When you remember on the Lords days that now all the Christian world are congregate and are calling upon God and praising him in the name of one Christ and in the profession of one Faith dare you think of being a Body separated from them all And can you think that Christ disowneth them all save you Qu. 8. Can you think it agreeable to the gracious nature design and office of Jesus Christ to cast off and condemn so many hundred parts of the Church-universal and to accept that one part only which you joyn with Judge by his actions and expressions in the Scriptures Qu. 9. If there were bâ—t ten persons of your mind in all the world would you believe that God would save none but those ten or accept the worship of no more or that it were lawful to have communion with none but those ten If not how can you think so in a case so neer it Qu. 10. Can you prove that Christ doth separate from all the Christians of the world which you separate from or that they have no visible Commâ—nion with him or
that he taketh them for no Churches and disowneth the administration of all the Ministers in the world whom you disown or yet that it is safe to separate where Christ doth not separate and to be gone from his Hoâ—se while he there abideth and to condemn those whom he condemneth not nor yet commandeth you to forsake or to condemn Obj. The Church of Christ is a little flock and not to be estimated by number And if he confine his grace to never so few I will confine my Communion to as few Answ. First Grace is not visible to you but the Profession of it only Therefore your Communion must be extended according to mens profession and not according to sincerity which you know not when the question is who hath grace and who hath not God hath not made you a heart searching Judge but hath made profession the sign which you must judge by And he that professeth Christianity professeth all that is of necessity to salvation Secondly If Christs flock was little when he spake those words it is much greater now And if it be little still as it is in comparison of the world of Heathens Infidels and Hypocrites will he give them thanks that will make it less yea a thousand times less than it is indeed Hath he so few and will you take from him almost all those few If you had but a hundred sheep when your neighbour had a thousand would you thank him that would rob you of all save one Thirdly So far as God hath revealed the fewness of the saved we reverence his Counsels and believe his word But if you will make it so much less a number while you falsifie Gods word you will tempt your selves at last not to bâ—lieve it because you have made it false and incredible by making it your own Brethren I beseech you be not angry with us while we pity you and would save your souls from your own snares and delâ—sions You know not how fast you are hastening to infidelity and to the renouncing of Christ himself you little suspect that your extraordinary strictness for the purity of the Church doth tend to your turning heathens and denying the whole Church But remember that the nature of God is so infiaitly Good as well as Iust and the Gospel is such glad tydings to all the world and Christ called the Saviour of the world and God is said so to love the world in giving him Joh. 3. 16. that if you should say God would save but one man in the world or ten or a thousand and damn all the rest if you did in your bravadâ— believe your selves this year by the next you might be like enough to believe that the Gospel is but a fable I have much adoe to forbear naming some high Professours known lately at Wâ—rcester Exeter and other parts who died Apostate-infidels deriding Christianity and the immortality of the soul who once were Separatists And I must profess to you that for my own part if I did believe that Christs Church were no more numerous than all the Separatists on earth it would make the work of faith more difficult For as he is no King that hath no Kingdom so he is next to no King whose Kingdom is next to none He that would prove that our King is only King of â—slington or Hackney and no more would by deriding him to day prepare for the deposing him to morrow They are glorious things that are spoken of the Kingdom of Christ even that the Kingdoms of the world are become his Kingdoms And if you will take from him all save two or three Cottages I mean the separated Churches only it is but a little addition to your treason to take the rest and to Crucifie Christ afresh and write over him in derâ—sion the title of a King You do not discern the design of Satan He that cannot entice an Apple from a Child if he can get him to let him eat all the rest till it come to a little of the Core will then easily get him to throw away that worthless relict If to day you will needs believe that Christ will reject all the world and all the Churches save only a few persons who have pride enough to condemn all the rest by to morrow or eâ—e loâ—g you are like enough to add one other degree to your derision and to deny him to be Christ. Obj. But we are more than were in the Ark of Noah Answ. First You never yet proved that all that were out of the Ark were damned and no more saved from Hell than were savedâ— from the Deluge Secondly If you had yet thâ—â— Scripture speaketh such great things of the Universal Gospel Church as that which maketh up 〈◊〉 former diminutions and losses and helpeth 〈…〉 against such difficulties DIRECT LVII Yet let not any here cheat you by overdoing nor meer names and titles of Unity deceive you instead of the thing it self Nor must you ever dream of any Head and Center of the Unity of the Catholick Church but Christ himself THere is no part of Religion which Satan doth not endeavour to destroy under pretense of promoting it And his way is to overgo Christ and his Apostles and to seem more zealouâ— than ever they were and to mend their work by doing it better or doing more Christ was not strict enough for the Pharisees in keeping the 〈◊〉 nor in his company nor in his diet Sataâ—â— hath always two ways to destroy both truth and duty The first is by direct opposing it But 〈◊〉 that will not do the next is by overdoing and pretending to defend it If he cannot destroy zeal by scorning it and quenching it he will try to do it by overheating and distempering it If he cannot destroy knowledge by the way of gross ignorance he will try to spin it out into the finer threds of vain and innumerable questions and speculations and to crumble it into such invisible atomes that it shall be reduced to scepticisme or nothing If he cannot destroy faith by open infidelity he will try to make men believe too much by making the objects of their own belief and calling that a particular faith altering God word and casting away the Reasons and evidences of faith to shew the strength and nobleness of their faith which needeth no such helps as these till by over-doing they have raised their edifice in the ayr and rejected their foundations and put out their eys in honour of the sun and of their Physician lest either of them should be accused as insufficient Even so when Satan findeth that he cannot directly destroy the Unity of the Church and bring division into credit he will be more zealous for unity than Christ himself He will then endure no disagreement among Christians no not in an opinion nor a form or ceremony not in meats or drinks or keeping of days or in judging of things lawful or unlawful which are not of necessity
strength of his arguments but were all the while thinking what to say against him or how to go on as they had begun Lastly not to run into any more causes there is an universal lamentable cause of differences that almost all people naturally are apt to be very confident of all their own apprehensions And very few have any due suspicion of their own opinions or an understanding submission to wiser men Yea boyes that are once past their Tutors dictates and the weakest women are usually as confident that they are in the right as the most learned and experienced persons Yea none are so apt to be too doubtful and diâ—â—ident of their own understandings as the Learned who are next the highest form For they have knowledge enough to know what can be objected against them and to see an hundred difficulties which the ignorant never saw So that the more weak worthless and erroneous any ones judgment is usually the more furious are they in their prosecution of it as if all were most certain truth which they apprehend These are the boldest both in schisms and persecutions as being so sure that their conceits are right that they dare censure or separate or scorn or despise or afflict dissenters It is a common thing to hear religious people speak meanly and humbly of their own understandings in the general But when it cometh to particulars it is the rarest part of humility in the world to find Very few do shew any competent modesty except the grosly ignorant who have no pretence to wisdome What abundance of good people of the darker sort have I been fain to rebuke for their over-valuing me and my understanding who when I have but crost their opinions about any thing which most groundlesly they took for a duty or a sin have held as fast their vain conceits and made as much of their most senseless reasonings and as passionately and confidently rejected the most unquestionable proof which I have offered them as if they had been infailible and had taken me for an errant fool And this is not the case of one or two Sects only but naturally of almost all men till God hath taught them that rare part of humility to have Humble Understandings and low thoughts of their own judgements and a due suspicion of their apprehensions And their cure is the harder because they know not how to have a humble suspicion of themselves without running into the contrary extream of scepticism and being cold and unfaithful to the truth They know not how to hold fast that which is good and to be constant in religion without holding fast all which they have once conceited to be good and being constant in their errour Especially when good or evil is voted to them by that party whose piety they most esteem and reverence Nor is this a Religious distemper only but it is so natural to mankind that even in common matters neighbours and neighbours masters and servants husband and wife and almost all have a strange diversity of apprehensions One thinks that this is the best way and another that the other is best and let them reason and wrangle it out never so long usually each party still holdeth his own and hardly yieldeth to anothers reasons And when they do yield they are so unhappy that they are as like to yield to one more erroneous than themselves and to change into a worse opinion as to yield to the truth For commonly Appearance Advantage Interest and a taking tone and voice do more with them than solid evidence of truth Out of all this if you infer a necessity of Government so do I. But if a necessity of force and rigor think on it again and first hear what I shall further say And consider what I have said already Distinguish between the common frailties of mankind and special enormities And forget not that you are men and live among men And let not men be cast out for Original sin nor punish a few for that which is common to all the world Nor condemn not your selves in condemning others Of which I further add DIRECT XI Evermore distinguish between the necessary truths and duties and those which are not of necessity and between the Tollerable and the intollerable errours And never think of a Common Unity or Concord but upon the terms of necessary points and of the primitive simplicity of doctrine discipline and worship and the forbearance of dissenters in tollerable differences IF I were to speak but once to the world whilest I lived this should be my Theam And yet for ought that I can perceive by any visible effects I never spake of any thing with less success One party writeth copiously of the mischiefs which will â—ollow Tolleration And they say true iâ— they mean the tolleration of things intollerable The other write as copiously of the necessity of Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience And they say true if they mean only the Tolleration of things tollerable But neither of them saith true if they mean universally and speak in any other sense There is nothing more plain and sure than that the tollerating of all errours and faults which conscience may be pretended for or of none at all are utterly destructive of Christian and humane peace and safety He is scarce well in his wits that holdeth either part universally and unlimitedly For the one would have no Government and the other would have no subjects to be governed Seeing therefore bounds and limits there must be we may reckon them as the third sort of distracted persons who think that the bounds are so undiscoverable that the mention of them is in vain and therefore either All or None must be tollerated according as Rulers are disposed or their interest seemeth to require And therefore they say What points be they that are necessary and what unnecessary What errours are tollerable and what are intollerable Can you name and number them Or who must be the judge To which I answer First Let it be first supposed that God hath given us a Law to judge by and then we shall quickly tell you who shall be the Judge A question which the confused world doth further their confusion by when they are a thousand times answered past all rational contradiction Iudgement is private or publick The judicium privatum discretionis which is but the guide of rational acts belongeth to every private man which none that is a man did ever yet deny The judicium publicum is either in foro civili determining in order to corporal coaction and this belongeth only to the Magistrates Or it is in foro Ecclesiae determining in order to Church-communion or Excommunication and this belongeth only to the Church but under the coactive Government of the Magistrate the Pastors being the Governors and the people in part the executioners He that requireth more understands not this Secondly And what if therâ— be a difficulty what points are necessary