that that Doctrine is made known to men by the light of nature consequentially and by way of deduction though not originally ingrafted I make no doubt and that these two ways 1. By that obligation to forgive planted in humane nature and the inclinableness of generous minds to it as an Excellency and Glory of Humane Nature and therefore it is most attributable to God seeing all perfection derives from God and is most attributable to him To the Lord Dan. 9. 9. our God belong mercies and forgivenesses He hath declared to man it does so by inserting it as a Nobleness in his heart They therefore that do not esteem it a virtue and of most desirable practise in themselves may upon that very reason dispair of it from God seeing they count it wiser and better not to forgive and whatever is best and wisest is most attributable to God 2. By the patience of God towards sinners which in its most natural Inferences leads to repentance and is salvation Rom. 2. 4 5. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Infinite goodness not being willing that any should perish but all come to repentance and therefore that penitential frame discoverable in humane nature upon ingenuous sense of sin answers this patience of God as the Eye and light as the Ear and sound do one another and both together are a connate Gospel in mans soul If any should think this a derogation from the Mediator he will be satisfied I intend no such when I tell him I esteem all those notions of Natural Religion and Morality as continued to be planted in man are from Jesus Christ the Creator-Redeemer by whom every thing was made that is made who is that true light that is the light of men the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world Natural Religion therefore may well be inlaid John 1. 4 9. with Evangelical Lines since it is all from Christ The Apostles therefore both St. Paul and Peter discourse it as the great sin of men against natural Knowledg and Conscience not to know that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance to despise the riches of his long-suffering and forbearance to account it slackness and not salvation which could not be without the grace of God in a pardon made known by natural light nay indeed all impressions of Natural Religion continuing and moving to good actions after sin are built upon Gods pardoning Mercy because God allows receives no worship from Devils who find no place for repentance David therefore celebrates God thus There is forgiveness Psal 103. 4. with thee that thou mayest be feared that is honoured reverenced worshiped and served which could not be since mans sin if thou didst not forgive Thus evident is the Doctrine of Pardon and Repentance that if there be any such thing as Natural Religion since the fall that must be a noble branch of it The King of Nineveh had a confidence in this Mercy that so peremptory decree of destruction notwithstanding for the allowance Jonah 3. ult of them a quarentine or forty days patience carried a solemn promise of Pardon upon Repentance in the very nature of it else why was not the destruction immediate so he understood and so it proved and therefore it is a worthy part of religious publick discourse in the worship of God 2. The second duty of Natural Religion is prayer to God which our dependance upon God our expectation from him both for the holy and happy state of our minds in vertue and godliness challenges from us the recommendation of our state beyond death into the hand of God as a faithful Creator requires it of us the peaceable and prosperous order and government of the world and of our nearer concerns in it National Domestick Personal provoke us to it Prayer for pardon and reconciliation to God Vows of obedience to him of returns to him by repentance how necessary are they for upon supposition of sin and hopes of pardon the same considerations enter into prayer that do into discourses of God Now this is a duty so natural that not to pray is to restrain John 15. 4. prayer to shut up and imprison a most natural motion and vent of the soul that is ready forcibly to burst out as water consin'd within bounds too close for it David makes addresses to God as by one of his Attributes Oh thou Psal 65. 2. that hearest prayers and therefore hast an universal congregation of suppliants about thee to thee shall all flesh come 3. Praises of God in the divine excellencies of his Nature and Beeing in the glories of Creation and Providence in his Mercies and continual Beneficencies to our selves and all his creatures in his righteousness judgments and severities upon the wickedness that is in the world are a tribute to God so natural that God as our Maker gives all men songs in the night that is continual matter of praise even in the ordinary and extraordinary seasons the whole Creation is one Mouth opened in his glory This is so due and even necessary to be paid that some Naturalists of no great reputation for Devotion have upon the survey of the admirable works of God found his praises even bubbling up from them in Hymns of Praise 4. The holy and reverend mentions of God upon all just and valuable Reasons as in swearing by his Name in Covenants and Pacts in decision of controversies by testimony in asseverations of truth in promises are among the Decrees of this Natural Religion Lastly The universal Sanctification of the Divine Majesty in all our thoughts words and actions that in nothing we may reverse that acknowledgment we make in solemn duties who that calls God the bâ—st and greatest Names of Love and Awe in the highest dâ—grees as Heathens did by the force of Natural Religion can deny or keep back any part of these from God or if any denies them or does contrary to them by impious swearing blaspheming the Name of God or undervalues the awful and tremendous attributes or what evidently and undoubtedly pertains to the Divine Honour and Glory who can say severity upon him is cruelty but a due sacrifice to justice as punishments for blood rapine unnatural lusts are All these then are so plain and evident Duties that they need nothing of further discourse but only a sober reflection upon their own evidence in order to their prevalency in the understanding of men And for the manner of performance besides the very gravity required in such awful actions the prudence of rational nature in its solemn deportments the greatest condecency required to divine things that can arise from nature and not from artifice I know nothing to be added except a caution to rest here and not to suffer the transports and inchantments of a fleshly imagination that is endlesly spinning out it self in forms and modes of divine worship till that worship become not a piece of pageantry only for that were
may have heard the fame of it with their ears It is the way found out and declared by him that made weights for the winds and ballance for the clouds It is the way of the fear of the Lord the beginning of Wisdom and departing from evil the true understanding There lyes the peace of Natural Religion It is the way of Christianity seen and publisht by Christ Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life That 's the peace of Christian Religion And it is certainly the proper excellency of Christian Religion and its very intention to bring this way both as Natural and Christian to light to lay the grounds of it to give the Rules and Measures of it to sweeten mens tempers to the good nature of it That every one in a clear and still air not darkned with Clouds full of Thunder and terrible with the Lightning of dreadful Laws and Bloody Executions may see may be wary in the choice of his conduct of himself to his unchangeable state and may therefore have light have room have still and silence in which he may weigh every thing prove every thing Now that which I have now declar'd is a way most agreeable to the Word of God and that Reason which respects either all mankind or all Christians This is the Contrivance of Christianity's providing That the Wolf and the Lamb may dwell together that the Lion may lye down with the Kid that the child may play on the hole of the Asp that there may be no hurting or destroying in all Gods Holy Mountain That Knowledg of God and True Religion may have the same scope and freedom that the waves have in the Sea Christianity hath always the Grounds ready by it and with it And to present them in their Rational Possibility is a Vindication of Divine Justice Righteousness and Goodness an Offerture to man to be happy Nor will the Platform be always Vtopian the days will come when it shall pass into life power and effect Now whenever this shall be in its Glory that Degeneracy of mankind that curse that lyes upon the earth that vail of the covering spread upon the face of all Nations that severe indignation of God against Humane Nature shall be removed The Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh the light of one day shall be as the light of seven All flesh shall see the Glory of the Lord together So come come thus Lord Jesus Even so Amen I have thus far made a Lamentation upon the General State of the World in relation to Religion which till some such mighty Influence come down from Heaven as I have intimated upon it is like to be for a Lamentation For the dark places of the Earth will be full of the Habitations of Cruelty and it is certain the Habitations of Cruelty will be furnished with the Instruments of Cruelty And therefore Oh my Soul come not into their secret unto their Assembly my Honour be not thou united for in their anger they slay and destroy and in their self-will they dig down walls Cursed be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel Their drink-offerings of Blood will I not offer nor take their name of Religion into my mouth I shall therefore leave them and address the close of this Discourse to the Saints that are in the earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my Delight And in the first place it calls us to the Review of the Excellent Christian Religion even as Natural Religion all essence all substance trace it throughout all its Doctrine Worship Rules of Life they are all by their very Goodness plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledg there is nothing froward nor perverse in them its bands of peace are not politick or worldly Intrigues no Ceremonial Symbolism or Ritual Shibboleth but ponderous Verities and Divine Love All the shew or appearance any Religion can make is but a ray borrowed from its Divine perfection a derivation from its light or from Natural Religion which is it self for pure Natural Religion is Christian Religion if you suppose a soul without sin mounting from its Creature-probaâ—ionership to its highest perfection as Adam if not having 〈◊〉 from Paradise to Heaven And Christian Religion is Natural Religion suppose the soul fallen and rising back from its Apostacy to that perfection by the Redeemer 2. Let me apply this Discourse to the Comprimise of all Differences betwixt Protestants and particularly in our English Christian Nation not defining any Controversal Point but urging to that end such undoubted Principles as I have insisted upon in this Discourse 1. That supposing a National Church cannot be made out to satisfaction yet Christian Kingdoms are so considerable a point of Scripture-Prophecy that it cannot be denied So far therefore as National Worship can be agreeable to a mans Conscience making inquiry and most curious search into the Word of God both as to his Duty and to his Liberty also and possible Freedom from Scruple every Christian is oblig'd to Glorifie God in the publick services of him and Confession of the Faith of Jesus Christ with his native Country Suppose a man should retire to particular private Congregations to supply what he may find wanting in the National Constitution to compleat all the Duties of Christian Communion and the advantages of it yet still he is bound to promote and encourage National Religion so far as it extends to avoid as much as is possible all Divisions and profest separation from it by putting the fairest Construction and the kindest hopes upon those things that seem doubtful and as little infringing the Authority of Laws as may be consistent with sentiments of Conscience and a due enjoyment of that liberty God hath given men of judging for their own souls as in his sight viz. in those things that are not Laws of Natural Religion and so indisputable or those Grand Points of Christianity in which a Christian can have no allowance in all things else a Christian hath a liberty but so that he must not use that his liberty as a cloake of maliciousness but as the Servant of God give due Honour to 1 Pet. 2. 16. all I would therefore propose these three Considerations to draw men to the greatest Conjunction with National Religian that can by any means be reconcil'd with good Conscience towards God Considerat 1. That if we examine things by Scripture there are many abatements from the supposeable evil of external Observances of which we may lawfully make our utmost Advantages to so great a Good as our Professed Conjunction with National Religion while substantially good though the High Places I 1 Kings 15. 14. mean things equivalent in our opinion be not taken away as in the times of the Excellent Kings of Judah First then as fundamental to this case I suppose these two things Equiponderating one another 1. The high Character of National Christian
of matter or body in a perpetual transmutation can bear And that this Doctrine also of a future state is to the utmost cannot be denied since nothing can more compleat happiness or misery than the Scripture expressions reach to But I insist no further upon this being in the main substance of it in my account of it a fundamental point of Natural Religion but that God will transact this Judgment by Jesus Christ is indeed perfect Revelation and falls in with the former account given of his Mediatorship and enhanses still this principle as to its greatest certainty so to all its possible height since God in humane nature God in the Mediator Judging the world turns about with greatâ—st consolation to good men and terror to evil men that can be comprehended by humane understanding And so I have endeavoured to make good the second Head of discourse under this first foundation of universal peace Consent in Natural Religion viz. that Christian Religion in what it reveals beyond Natural Religion agrees yet with Natural Religion and is recommended by it and herein I have insisted upon those points of Christian Religion that are truly Christian for those private disputes among Christians were much better silenced within the Gates of Christianity it self in that way wherein they are managed and therefore much more ought not to be declared in Gath nor published in the streets of Ashkelon neither indeed need the points themselves upon which the disputes are For if together with those undoubted Principles of Natural Religion in Doctrine Worship and Practice as they are reveal'd by Christian Religion wherefrom none can make defection but under the most righteous severity of the Magistrate who in those cases bears not the sword in vain I say if together with these the substantial truths and institutions of Christian revealed Religion wherein we are all agreed were presented as the general confession or profâ—ssion of Christians before we come to lanch out into parâ—icular opinions or modes of worship our excellent Râ—ligion would stand much more like a City set on an hill Mat. 5. 14. whose Magnificence and Beauty could not be hid for the benefit both of strangers and its own Citizens since things so great so excellent so agreeable with all the inward sense of mens minds could not be rejected by those that would be accounted men of Mind Soul and Reason and especially there could upon these terms Christianity offers be no possible place for hurting or destroying Christians by any party except men are resolved to lay aside the Man and put on the Lion and Wolf Now by all that hath been spoken upon this point it appears three sorts of Opinions whatever of Christianity they assume to themselves are indeed the injury and horrible scandal of it because they contradict Natural Religion which is an abomination to Christianity 1. That Opinion which adoring our Mediator as having all power in Heaven and Earth allows him an ubiquitary presence and addresses prayers to him allots him all Divine Honours and yet denies him Coeternal God with the Father for this brings in supreme worship love confidence in more than the One God it cloaths Finite with Infinite which is a contradiction to the Law of Natural Religion every where illustrated and confirmed by the Word of God Of this great evil Socinianism Arrianism and the several names of Heresy of that Alliance are guilty 2. That which brings in Image-worship prayers to Saints and Angels which supposes Invisible Beeings though creatures Omniscient and Omnipresent as God that in all places men may lift up hands to them in prayer without doubting of their being lost in their direction to those that are not that they know able to take any notice of them and further which is not the least of the Idolatry it gives them the honour of being absolutely knowable by natural light in the Divine Attribute of hearing prayers that all flesh may come to them viz. in their Knowledg in their Mercy in their Power all which must be absolute as Gods and as evident to reason as in God seeing men have no justifiable revelation to any such purpose the Arto latria or adoration of the bread in the Sacrament is of the same family now however these things are intricated by various pretexts yet as the spectacle in the last especially is horrid to sense so the things to Reason and Natural Conscience and can ne'r be reconciled we have otherwise learnt Christ who in the days of his flesh neither requir'd nor receiv'd worship directed to his body upon any such pretensions Mark 10. 17. Luke 11. 27. 28. John 6. 36. John 20. 17. but refus'd it except when at sometimes the mighty Emanations of his Divinity prostrated men into the Adorations of him 3. Whatever Dogme or Sect of men subvert the very nature of Religion as a Proteus-Thing that sneaks into all shapes and professions according to the earthly powers it appears before fearing men rather than God All things that overturn morality and distinction betwixt good and evil the denial of Spirits a future State as undermining the very Life and Beeing of the Almighty Spirit all Phanatick Principles turning Religion into Raunterism or moving the pillars of humane societies as consisting in submission to principalities and powers in subjection to Laws civil customs and decencies all such things as these and the whole lineage of them however they may presume to Christianize themselves are a just abhorrence to the true Christian Spirit as most contrary to the Law of nature These opinions therefore now named are excluded and shut out of that universal Peace and Quietness I am to speak of under this last Head of the survey of Natural Religion which I now come to viz. The third thing proposed under this first head of Natural Religion and upon which the whole weight of it rests and turns as to the intention of this Discourse is this That Christianity supposes it a firm ground of enjoying the Common Peace and Tranquility in Religion that a man receives and owns all the grand points of Natural Religion Godliness Righteousness Soberness and acknowledges it his duty and makes it his profession to live according to them that he avows no Principles contrary hereunto though he believes and professes to be assur'd of some other Divine Revelations in order to his Eternal Happiness It supposes a man that in all his discourse and action gives abundant security of his fidelity to Natural Religion A man that is no Idolater Atheist Blasphemer of Religion Impugner of Morality that observes the Worship of God in Prayers Praises and Religious Discourses should be free to commend himself to God in what he thinks most agreeable to his will though in distinction from others whom he no way disturbs against rules of Reason Modesty Peaceableness and Humility but only offers the Apology of his own faith yet with meekness and fear and the perswasives â— Pet. 3. 15.
wholly out of the childishness of Ceremonies or Opinions 2. The weaker Christians whom the Apostle very gently and tacitely signifies by those that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are under some abatement from this perfection of judgment they have somewhat of reverence for those Rites formerly of Divine Appointment though they sincerely too value Christ above all even as the perfect To the First the Apostle advises Let us wholly and intirely mind the same thing so many of us as are perfect we have nothing else to do we have nothing in the least to take us off To the Second he allows First All the Tolleration of Charity till and confidently foretells God will reveal even this to them viz. not only the supreme excellency of Christianity but the total uselesness and utter abolition of those Ceremonies But in the Second place he presses them on so far as they had attained viz. to a sense of the incomparable excellency of the knowledg of Christ to a conformity in his Death and Resurrection and that they would walk by that one Rule that they would adjust all their Actions and Motions with the perfect Christian and mind that same thing though they cannot lay aside all regard to other things immediately of that lower Rate Here then is the Christians Rule of governing himself as a Christian and it brings forth certain Peace 1. The absolute and inexceptionable Rule to every one that is a True Christian to have a supreme value for the eminency of the knowledg of Christ to know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings to be made conformable to his Death to forget things behind and to press forward for the prize If any man hath not attained this Rule he is either no Christian or under the disguise of one if he be an Vndertaker an Imposer a Master in Christianity such as the Apostle here so dreadfully brands an evil worker a designer against Christ Here is the one same Rule by which all Christians are to walk here is the one thing they are all to mind Here is no allowance no tolleration here it is they are all to be so serious of such excellent Spirits to have such a value one of another as to be able to center in Universal Love and Peace upon this point 2. Every perfect man is not to take in any thing of a lower kind of a forreign extract into so Divine and Heavenly a Religion that he may wholly and without any allocation to any thing else mind this same thing This makes him a more wise a more perfect manly and full ag'd Christian more Spiritual and Divine and more fitted to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The overowning any way party or person takes off so from the Excellency of a Christian as to render him Carnal and Childish I could not saith the Apostle speak to you but as unto carnal as unto babes in Christ you are so 1 Cor. 1. 12. over-zealous for men and make Christ himself as if he were but the Head of a Party And this brings forth Strife Envy and Division as he tells those Corinths 1 Cor. 3. 1. 3. If any man be under such disadvantage as to have taken such assumenta such additionals to his Christianity he being right in the main Rule of the supreme value of Christ in his Death and Resurrection he is to be supported in his infirmity by all the kindness and condescension of stronger Christians in expectation of Gods timely Revelation Rom. 15. 1. but so as to be press'd on to walk up and bear aloft to that Rule whereunto he hath attained to mind that one thing and so to wear out that mistaken esteem for any thing not deserving it And this is most necessary in order to Peace seeing such infirmities are natural to this low state even of Christians in this world Wherein they that are scrupulous must take heed of judging the wiser as disorderly irregular and almost prophane if they do not observe their Rites and the stronger ought as carefully to preserve themselves from despising the scrupulous as fond superstitionists because they can't neglect them So the Apostle discourses Rom. 14. Yet so that these somewhat otherwise minded be of the same mind and rule in the main else they can neither have peace in themselves nor yeild it to the higher Christians nor grow up to the stature of full ag'd men in Christ This also is to be added as observable that the case of the weakness of the first Chrâ—â—tians can never recur exactly for those Ceremonies being of Divine Institution had just claim to an awe upon Consciences not as yet clear in their repeal whereas all later Rites can pretend no higher than humane institution custome or venerable antiquity for the suspition of Apostolick Institution in their behalf and so adding Religion to them I look upon as much weaker and worse seeing we have no Authentick Records of such Institutions and in things of so dilute a goodness as Ceremonies must be there will not be a ballance to the opposite danger of leaning a Religious weight upon a broken Reed that both pierces and deceives But it may be said Is not the scrupulous forbearing the being scar'd and terrified at Ceremonies as great a weakness as being over anxious in their observation Does not the placing a point of Religion in an abhorrence of them and thinking ones self the better for not using them detract as much from minding this same thing and walking by the same Rule as the other side solicitude No doubt it does if we justly explain and limit in the case and therefore for the resolving this question I will observe the importance of this same Rule given us by the Apostle in another of his Epistles a place very parallel to the sense and much of the same expression with this to the Philippians the right explication of which will also much confirm the exposition given of this Rule seeing as I said they are both one and the same Rule and it is that we find Gal. 6. 14 15 16. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God Here is the Joy and Glory of Christianity in the Doctrine of Christ dying for sinners and bringing in that Divinest Religion upon it â—ere is a conformity to his Death by which all worldly sensual and fleshly Glory whether in fleshly Religion or fleshly Life which minister one to another is crucifyed to a Christian and he to it But most especially the Apostle levels here against a fleshly Religion observing the enemies of Christianity so active instead of 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
so many Remarkable Instances His Little-Child-like Inoffensiveness his easie Recession from his Just Rights for the Gospels sake his Inoffensiveness and Desire to please all to win upon all that they might be saved â—is dread of Danger lest whilst he Preached to others he himself should become a Cast-away Nor ever was there a clearer Comment upon cutting off the Right Hand and Foot and plucking out the Right Eye than his weighty Admonition of being Temperate in all things and bringing the Body into subjection One thing more I cannot but yet adjoin that the Apostle is so wary of Imposing upon any one in Indifferent Things appertaining to Religion in a positive or affirmative kind of observance that though for the avoiding Scandal he dehorts from Eating Meats or drinking Wine that may scandalise any in the very Eye of their Doubting Conscience and draw them into Sin yet he no where to the same purpose of avoiding Scandal perswades to the esteeming or observing a Day to the Lord though another may be Scandalised if he does not so Such abstinence yet in a full Freedom of Thoughts being a much easier performance of Charity extending only to Meats in Doubt under the Eye of the Doubting mind but observing a Day requires direct acts of Devotion From laying the obligation of which upon any Man the Apostle hath wholly withdrawn his Hand even in case of Scandal and only preserves from Despisal such a doubting Christian and then only when the Out-date of the Divine Command for such observance was but just come and not fully understood Pag. 38. l. 25. What therefore I have intimated contrary to this Account I retract as not fully considered And I now bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory that he would inspire the Hearts of Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors who are constituted as Guardian Angels of Conscience against Scandal and of all Christians in general that out of his Kingdom throughout the World and particularly in this Nation may be gathered all such things that offend and all those that wâ—rk iniquity on account of Them THE Woe of Scandal Matth. XVIII 7. Woe unto the World because of Offences or Scandals for it must needs be that Offences or Scandals come but woe to that Man by whom the Offence or Scandal comes A Free use of the word Scandal and to Scandalise for Offence or to Offend can need no Apology the Original being so well known and now become English more significant of the thing intended than the other Of which Scandal our Saviour was in a deep and intense Contemplation in this Chapter and of the state of things because of it both in his Church and the World in the World especially as it confines upon his Church is in the Neighbourhood of it and view of what is done in it or indeed as within the Armes of it by a Profession of Christianity though an unsound and insincere Profession for so there is the World in the Church as well as the Church in the World The Lord turns himself to behold and observe this Scandal how it discharges it self on all sides with Woe Mischief and Ruine and with Compassion foretells and warns all of it as of the most destructive way of sinning the most to be abhorred kind of Mischief and Ruine This must needs make every thinking Christian afraid of Scandal of having any thing to do with it either in giving or receiving it and much more of being a Projector or Pusher of it on in the World and most of all in the Church Now to this whole Discourse there will be a continual occasion to have recourse in this Treatise But the words themselves offer to Consideration these Three Propositions 1. That the present state of the World is such that Scandals must needs come Scandal is very pressing and crowding in upon the World in regard of its multitude its Name is Legion it throngs the World our Saviour expresses it in its number Scandals In regard of its vehemency or importunity it must needs be that Scandal comes It thrusts in every where it perverts the best things and twines about them it plays in things Indifferent how much more in things purely Evil. Scandal comes it comes as an Eagle hasteth to the Prey it comes supping and blasting as an East Wind it comes as an Invader with its Troops And the World how willing is it to receive Scandal It calls for and invites it it opens all Gates and Doors to it it even surrenders and betrays it self to it it is mad after Scandal both to give and receive it It must needs be then that Scandals come Yet the World lies under great Misery because of the Propos 2. multitude of Scandals the Efficacy of Scandal upon it It is more miserable in regard of Scandal than meerly in regard of Sin For when the Lord Emphatically denounces a Woe upon the World because of Scandal he intends something more than the Scripture generally declares against Sin and Sinners for that is a known Case that there is a Woe upon Sin Our Saviour remonstrates this case as more rarely and yet of all most necessary to be understood observed and profoundly considered And though it will appear it is always in the Sense of Scripture joined with Sin yet it hath thus much more of Danger in it than that meerly it is sinful It is Sin some way guarded and defended against Divine Truth and so holds its Goods more in Peace It s wound is no less deadly yet more secret and unexpected and therefore the worst sort of Death It is an Ambush of Death In the Sin of Scandal most eminently it is even as in that most Enchanting Sin That a Man goes after it as an Oxe to the Slaughter and as a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks till a Dart strike through his Liver As a Bird hasteth to the Snare and knoweth not that it is for its Life Scandal wipes its Mouth when it destroys and says It hath done no wickedness when it speaketh fair there are seven Abominations under it As against those Men of Scandal the Pharisees so against Scandal it self hath the most merciful Saviour of the World made his keenest Remarks There is still however guilty the World be an Accumulative Propos 3. Woe and Misery upon that Man by whom the Scandal cometh Woe to the World but Woe to him by which our Saviour does not yet intend every one that Administers Scandal for so good Men often do in the doing their Duties even himself his Doctrine was an occasion of stumbling and a Rock of offence nor is every Man pointed at here that through Error or fall into Sin offers Scandal though this Woe spreads far in some degrees of it upon the Generality of Mankind yea upon every Man without Repentance seeing all Men one way or other guiltily convey Scandal along But there are some Engineers
and mute in the Commission of Sin or neglect of Duty upon these appearances and who can say herein I have made my Heart clean I am pure from this Transgression so far hath he been Scandalised and indanger'd to his Ruine This is the first great Pillar of Truth and the primary Scandal is placed here That Men think there is no reason God should have so much Love Fear Honour Obedience so much Worship and Service And the Second is like to it 2. Even the Faith of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World is like to that first great Principle and equal to it both because the whole Riches and Treasure of all Religion is deposited and concentered in it so that he hath not the John 17. 3. Father nor the Knowledge of the only true God nor the Eternal Life proceeding from it who hath not the Son who hath not the Knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent Even as Christ is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person so is the knowledge of Christ the express Image of the Knowledge of God and the brightness of it wherever it is revealed if it be not believed in the God of the World hath blinded the 2 Cor. 4. 6. minds of them that believe not least they should see the light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ who is the Image 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. of God shining to them Especially and more particularly that great Attribute of Divine Mercy and Pardoning Grace is illustrated and breaks out with brighter and warmer Beams in this Son of his Love the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins Acts 4. 12. of the World by the Sacrifice of himself His is the only Name given under the whole Heaven to the Children of Men whereby they can be saved This indeed was the Scandal of the Jews who assumed to themselves as the only Masters of the true Religion in the World and foolishness to the Greeks who took Isa 28. 16. upon them as the like Masters of Reason but this corner Stone of Truth was laid so sure and of so tryed an excellency 1 Pet. 2. 6. that all that reject and spurn at it stumble and fall are snared and broken They are false Notions of God and Truth that will not be reconciled to it and while even the Builders refuse it it will yet rise to be the Head of the Corner Ver 7. It hath now surmounted before any Impartial Judges all other Names of Religion in the whole World so that to strike at it where it is known and received argues a disaffection and being Scandalised at Religion it self and is become the same with denying God Providence and Eternal Judgment Corrupted Reason and Lucian-Wit aims at Religion in its very Essence when it pretends to dash upon that and if when it seem'd to encounter with Gods own Administration by Moses there was yet such a presence of God with it that it would be more tolerable Mat. 10. 15. c. for Sodam and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for those that refused it as the Lord in several places testifies how much greater will the Condemnation be now when it hath so perfectly antiquated all that pretension against it and worn out the Prejudices of Elder Paganisme And yet so far as the Foolishness of God as the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 25. styles it does not appear to us wiser than Men and the weakness of God stronger than Men we are ready to be Scandalised at the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour And it seems the easiest place for the Attacks of Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness who yet at last will find themselves in a Gin or Trap when they thought they had gained Ground and made entrance and shattered to pieces when they believed a Conquest For God taketh the wise in their own 1 Cor. 3. 19 20. Craftiness and he knoweth the wisest thoughts of Men that they are vain Every Degree of Apostacy from Christ is Heb. 3. 12. departing from the Living God Transactions in Prayer or Publick Discourses of Religion are so much the more Divine as they send forth the sweet savour of his Name which is as an Oyntment poured out The Apostle desired to 1 Cor. â— 2. Phil. 3. 8. know nothing but Christ and him crucified It is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Top and Transcendency of Knowledge Apostolick Epistles full of Christ and the Truth as it is in Jesus are the best Patterns for Sermons much exceeding the Rationalism or Moralism of tâ—â— wisest Philosophy It is a Degree of Scandal first taken â—nd then given to speak little of him All Preaching is not giving the savour of his Knowledge 2 Cor. 2. ult and if it have not Life to the Soul it is deadly a Symptom to Death The very diverting though to other Parts of Sacred Scripture speaks Men offended in him when they do not find him and express him the Alpha and Omega in all the Bright Morning Star the Amen And though a Battology a vain Repetition in naming him is blamable yet it is more blame to conceal him even in the best Discourses of his Religion The Rays of Religion are paler more weak and chill as they fall farthest off from him He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings and Blessed is he in these days even in these days whoever is not offended in him 3. The Spirituality Purity Cleanness and Chasteness of the Worship of God dictated by the clearest and sincerest Light of Natural Conscience approved by Divine Revelation or founded instituted and directed by that undoubted Heavenly Oracle is the next great Pillar of Truth upon which the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mens Souls is setled But against this sensual and defiled Imagination hath in all Ages raised Scandal and so befool'd Reason that it hath cast down many wounded yea many strong Men in their Intellectual Endowments and Reputation for Wisdom have been ensnar'd and ruin'd by it It hath been the Renown therefore of those Princes in Sacred Story that have had the Religious Magnanimity to resist the Charmes of this Sorceress and kept Divine Worship uncorrupted in whose Glory so much as the High Places was a dark Shade and ecclips'd them though it had fair Pretence Idolatry and Superstition have been most evidently branded in Scripture for the most wretched State of being scandaliz'd and Idols for the most abhorr'd Scandals This was the Snare of Gideon and his House and yet as Interpreters give us in a Matter as innocent at first as laying up the Ephod he had inquir'd at in his Danger as a Monument of Gratitude for his Victory that was after turn'd thus into a Scandal Judges 8. 27. This was the Scandal Balaam taught Balak to cast before the Children of Israel These were the Wiles the Gins and Traps in which the
Divine The great use of Councils is therefore so to debate and bring things to a Result by a confluence of Wisdom and Learning that we may see Divine Truths in their own Light in Scripture-light to hold out which they are but ministerially imploy'd and not to impose upon any under the name of Publick for that alone is Publick that is Divine All Comparison of Privates among themselves must needs be lost in this Publick before which the greatest name of Publick is but as the drop of the Bucket and the small dust of the Ballance And the union with that true Publick makes the most Private a Publick and Separation from it the most seemingly Publick a most Idiottal Private And it were very happy if the Experiment hereof were not too evident in the Councils that have been how little Number of it self can Contribute to truly Publick or Divine yet the fitness of the Means is withall to be acknowledged as ordain'd by God CAP. IX Of the Church-Catholick Quest SCripture the Publick Record of Catholick Religion being thus far Established and Secured both by Internal Characters and External Care of Providence it still remains necessary there should be some stated Ordination of God for the Actuating this Record to its several Purposes and Ends. 1. Because Divine Revelation having now finished its measures there cannot be expected those immediate motions of Truth that were vouchsafed by God in his extraordinary Presences but all is to be deriv'd from and display'd in Scripture 2. Scripture yet being but of the nature of a Record it would lye still and unmoved and as it were dead if not produced and applyed even as other Laws and Records do that are not continually executed to their proper Vses be their Virtue never so great if so Executed What therefore is that Ordinance of God in the Cessation of Immediate Presence for the exposing this Record to its universal notice and for the applying it daily to its great purposes which is the Executing it as far as it is to be Executed in this World Answ God hath by his extraordinary Ministers whom he gave his Divine Revelation and Word first founded the Church and according to the Degrees of that Revelation exalted it to be serviceable to this great End and so to supply the place of Immediate Presence Quest What is to be understood by the Church Answ The Church is The Catholick Congregation of Mankind called to the Faith and Obedience of that Word it self and which being called it self is entrusted to call others to the same Faith and Obedience and so is Govern'd and Governs according to it by daily Exercises in and according to that Word Quest Why do you give the Church the stile of a Congregation are not the Parts of it so distant that they cannot be Congregated in the Worship of God Answ They are yet all so united in the Faith and Obedience of this Sacred Word and in the Worship of God according to it as to be most properly called a Congregation in that regard Quest But still how can the Church be called a Congregation seeing that speaks it always actually Congregated but those very Members that in regard of nearness one to another are at due seasons Congregated cannot yet be always Congregated Answ The Twelve Tribes of Israel that is the Church in its several Members always united always ready to the Instant serving God Day and Night are beheld and seen by him as in a perpetual actual Congregation Quest Why do you call the Church The Congregation Answ Even as Holy Writing is The Scripture and The Bible or Book so the Church is The Congregation by way of Eminency the only Excellent Assembly or Congregation in the World And indeed upon a true account there is no other Religious Congregation but either a rude Multitude or a Conspiracy and Faction against God Quest Why is the Church said to be a Congregation called by the Word Answ Because Humane Nature uncall'd lies in the Lapse of Separation from God in Private and False Religion and in those Assemblies justly branded as before till it be recalled by him into the Church united again to him So that a Church is not a Natural but a Supernatural Assembly yet it is ready to embrace all true Nature anâ— the Associations of it into it self Quest Why is the Church describ'd to be One Catholick Congregation when both Scripture and daily Observation assure us there have been and are so many Particular Congregations very Regular Churches and duely so styled Answ Because the Church is of the Nature of those Things that are distinguished only by the several Accidental Receptions they find and yet still remain One the Catholick Church and a Particular Church differ no otherwise than as a Beam of Light differs from the whole Globe of Light or a Stream of Water from the Ocean Even the most Particular Church is in this regard Catholick that it is united to God and Christ that indeed give both the Name and Nature of Catholick from themselves Particular Churches yea even Particular Persons truly of the Church have every one the whole Character Title Promise and Privilege of the Catholick Church so far as they can need or receive them even as Heaven is Entire Heaven to every single Glorified Soul Every Lively Member of the Church touches the Head and Corner-stone and so in him the whole General Assembly and Church of the First-born both in Heaven and Earth and is at last consummate with them to Eternity Quest How is this Church Congregated Answ It was begun and hath always increased by Particular Persons converted and brought home to God according to his Word in several Ages and Successions For the Church as it is a Church is not a Society formed by a common Consent of Men or by their Will but its several Parts are added by God so that it consists of all that are inwardly and truly of that Catholick Religion in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Eternal Spirit all the World over and in which meet all that have been are or shall be thus converted by the Word of God as the Church is and shall be triumphant in Glory Quest The Call then that makes this Congregation is first to God and Christ and not to the Church it self Answ It is evidently so All true Converts first give themselves to God and Christ and by vertue of That to the Church The Apostles were not sollicitous of any other Conjoyning Men to the Church than what most necessarily followed upon their receiving the Gospel and were afraid of their fixing upon them that were but Ministers and Servants We preach Jesus to be the Lord and our selves Servants for Jesus sake The Corinthians heading themselves under Paul or Apollo or Cephas was very mischievous and therefore the Apostle knowing the Union ought to be only to Christ directs himself so vehemently against it as also against any