The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 5 – Chapter 6

The Reformed Pastor · Chapter 5 – Chapter 6

p. 247CHAP. V.

SECT. I. The Uſe of Exhortation.

HAving diſcloſed and lamented our miſcarriages and neglects, our duty for the future lies plain before us. God forbid that we ſhould now go on in the ſin that we have confeſſed, as careleſly as we did before. Then would that exclamation of Salvian fall upon us, de Gubern. l. 3. p. 87. Novum ſiquidem monſtri genus eſt; cadem pene omnes jugiter faciunt, quae feciſſe plangunt. Et qui intra…t Ecclefiaſticam domum, ut mala antiqua defleant, exeunt; & quid dico exeunt? in ipſis pene hoc orationibus ſuis ac ſupplicationibus moliuntur; Aliud quippe or a hominum, aliud corda agunt: Et dum verbis praeterita mala plangunt, ſenſu ſutura meditantur: ac fi oratio eorum rixa eſt magis criminum quam exoratrix; ut vere illa in eis Scripturae maledictio compleatur, ut de oratione p. 248ipſa exeunt condemnati, & oratio eorum fiat in peccalum.

Be awakened therefore I beſeech you brethren, by the lowd and manifold voice of God, to ſet more ſeriouſly to the work of God, and to do it for the future with all your might, and to take heed to your ſelves and to all the Flock. The Reaſons why you ſhould take heed to your ſelves, I gave you in the beginning. The Reaſons why you ſhould take heed to all the Flock, I ſhall give you now, as Motives to enforce this Exhortation; and the Lord grant that they may work with us according to their truth and weight.

1. THE firſt quickning Conſideration which the text here affordeth us, is taken from our Relation to all the Flock. We are Overſeers of it. In this I ſhall further ſhew you theſe ſubordinate particulars, which will manifeſt the force of this conſideration.

1. The nature of the office requireth us to Take heed. What elſe are we Overſeers for? Epiſcopus eſt nomen quod plus oneris quam honoris ſignificat, ſaith Polid. Virgil. p. 240. and a Father before him To be a Biſhop or Paſtor is not to be ſet up as Idols for the people to bow to, or as idle ſlow-bellies to live to our fleſhly delight and eaſe; but it is to be the guide of ſinners to ſalvation The particulars of our duty we have ſomewhat touched before, and more ſhall do anon. It is a ſad caſe, that men ſhould be of a calling that they know not the nature of, and undertake they know not what. Do theſe men know p. 249and conſider what they have undertaken, that live at eaſe and pleaſure, and have time to take their ſuperfluous recreations, and to ſpend an hour and more at once in loitering and vain diſcourſes, when ſo much work doth lie upon their hands! Why Brethren, do you conſider where you ſtand, and what you have taken upon you? Why you have undertaken the Conduct under Chriſt of a band of his ſouldiers againſt Principalities and Powers, and ſpiritual wickedneſs in high places. You muſt lead them on the ſharpeſt conflicts. You muſt acquaint them with the enemies ſtratagems and aſſault. You muſt watch your ſelves and keep them watching. If you miſcarry they and you many periſh. You have a ſubtile enemy, and therefore muſt be wiſe; You have a vigilant enemy, and therefore muſt be vigilant. A malicious, and violent, and unwearied enemy; and therefore you muſt be reſolute, couragious & unwearied. You are in a crowd of enemies, compaſſed with them on every ſide; and if you heed one and not all, you will quickly fall. And O what a world of work have you to do? Had you but one ignorant old man or woman to teach, though willing to learn, what a tedious task is it? But if they be as unwilling as ignorant, how much more difficult is it? But to have ſuch a multitude of theſe, as moſt of us have, what work will it find us? Who hath ever tryed it, that knoweth it not by experience? What a pitiful life is it, to reaſon with men that have almoſt loſt the uſe of reaſon, and to talk with obſtinate willful people, that know what they will and reſolve, but not why they do it? and to argue the caſe with them that neither underſtand themſelves nor you; and yet p. 250think that no man hath underſtanding that contradicteth them, and that are confident they are in the right, when they can ſhew nothing but that confidence to make them confident? their will is the reaſon of their judgements and lives: it ſatisfies them, and it muſt ſatisfie you. O Brethren, what a world of wickedneſs have we to contend againſt, in ſome one ſoul! and what a number of thoſe worlds? what rooting have their ſins? what diſadvantage muſt truth come upon? How ſtrange are they to the Heavenly meſſage that we bring them: and know not what you ſay when you ſpeak in that only language that they underſtand? And when you think you have done ſomething, you leave your ſeed among the ſowls of the air; wicked men are at their elbows to riſe up and contradict all that you have ſaid. They will cavil, and carp, and ſlander you, that they may diſgrace your meſſage, and deride and ſcorn them away from Chriſt, and quickly extinguiſh the good beginnings that you hoped you had ſeen. They uſe indeed weaker reaſons then yours, but ſuch as come with more advantage being neer them, and familiarly and importunately urged, and ſuch as are fetcht from things that they ſee and feel, and which are befriended by their own fleſh. You ſpeak but once to a ſinner, for ten times or twenty times that the Meſſengers of Satan ſpeak to them; moreover, how eaſily do the cares and buſineſſes of the world devour and choak the ſeed which you have ſown? And if it had no enemy but what is in themſelves, how eaſily will a frozen carnal heart, extinguiſh thoſe ſparks which you have been long in kindling? and for want of fewel and further help, they will go out p. 251of themſelves. What abundance of diſtemperers, and luſts, and paſſions, do you caſt your gracious words amongſt? and what entertainment ſuch companions will afford them, you may eaſily conjecture. And when you think your work doth happily ſucceed, and have ſeen men under troubles and complaints, confeſsing their ſins, and promiſing reformation, and living as new creatures and zealous converts, alas after all this, they may prove unſound and falſe at the heart, and ſuch as were but ſuperficially changed, and took up new Opinions, and new company, without a new heart: How many are after a notable change, deceived by the profits and honours of the world, and fallen away while they think they ſtand? How many are entangled again in their former ſenſuality? and how many do but change a diſgraceful way of fleſh-pleaſing for a way that is leſs diſhonourable, and maketh not ſo great a noiſe in their conſciences? How many grow proud before they reach to a ſettled knowledge, & greedily ſnatch at every error that is preſented to them, under the name of Truth; and in confidence of the ſtrength of their unfurniſhed intellects, deſpiſe them that they were wont to learn of, and become the greateſt grief to their Teachers, that before rejoyced in their hopeful beginnings? And like Chickens that ſtraggle from the hen, they are carried away by that infernal Kite, while they proudly deſpiſe the Guidance and advice of thoſe that Chriſt hath ſet over them for their ſafety. O Brethren, what a field of work is there before us? not a perſon that you can ſee but may find you work. In the Saints themſelves, how ſoon do their graces languiſh if you neglect them? p. 252and how eaſily are they drawn into ſcandalous waies, to the diſhonour of the Goſpel, and their own loſs and ſorrow! If this be the work of a Miniſter, you may ſee what a life he hath to lead. Up then, and let us be doing with all our might: Difficulties muſt quicken and not diſcourage in a Poſsible and Neceſſary work. If we cannot do all, let us do what we can: For if we neglect it, woe to us and them. Should we paſs over all theſe needful things, and by a plauſible Sermon only, think to prove our ſelves faithful Miniſters, and to put off God and man with ſuch a ſhell and formal vizor, our Reward would prove as ſuperficial as our work.

2. Conſider alſo that it is by your own voluntary undertaking and engagement, that all this work is laid upon you. No man forced you to be Overſeers of the Church. And doth not common honeſty bind you to be true to your truſt?

3. Conſider alſo that you have the Honour to encourage you to the Labour. And a great honour indeed it is to be the Embaſſadors of God, and the inſtruments of mens converſion and ſalvation, to ſave mens ſouls from death, and cover a multitude of ſins, Jam. 5 ult. Indeed the honour is but the attendant of the work. To do therefore as the Prelates of the Church in all ages have done, to ſtrive for precedency, and fill the world with vile contentions about the dignity and ſuperiority of their ſeats, doth ſhew that they much forget the nature and work of that office which they ſtrive about. I ſeldom ſee men ſtrive ſo ſeriouſly who ſhall go firſt to a poor mans cottage to teach him and his family the way to heaven; or who ſhall firſt endeavour the converſion of a ſinner; or p. 253firſt become the ſervant of all; ſtrange! that for all the plain expreſſions of Chriſt, men will not underſtand the nature of their office! If they did, would they ſtrive who ſhould be the Paſtor of a whole County and more, when there are ten thouſand poor ſinners in it that cry for help; and they are not ſo eager to engage for their relief? Nay when they can patiently live in the houſes with riotous profane perſons, and not follow them ſeriouſly and unceſſantly for their change? And that they would have the Name and Honour of the work of a County, who are unable to do all the work of a Pariſh, when the Honour is but the appendix of the work? Is it Names and Honour, or the Work and End that theſe deſire? O if they would faithfully, humbly, and ſelf-denyingly lay out themſelves for Chriſt and his Church, and never think of Titles and Reputation, they ſhould then have Honour whether they would or not: but by gaping after it, they loſe it: For this is the caſe of vertues ſhadow, Quod ſequitu, fugio, quod fugit ipſe ſequor.

4. Conſider alſo, you have the many other excellent Priviledges of the Miniſterial office to encourage you to the work. If you will not therefore do the work, you have nothing to do with the Priviledges. Its ſomething that you are maintained by other mens labours, and live on the common-wealths allowance. This is for your work, that you may not be taken off it, but as Paul requireth, may Wholly give your ſelves to theſe things, and not be forced to neglect mens ſouls whileſt you are providing for your own bodies. Either do the work then or take not the maintenance.

p. 254But you have far greater Priviledges yet then this. Is it nothing to be bred up to Learning, when others are bred at the plough and cart? and to be furniſhed with ſo much delightful knowledge, when the world lieth in ignorance. Is it nothing to converſe with Learned men, and talk of high and glorious things, when others muſt converſe with almoſt none but ſilly ignorants?

But eſpecially, What an excellent life is it to live in the ſtudies and preaching of Chriſt? to be ſtill ſearching into his myſteries, or feeding on them! to be daily in the conſideration of the bleſſed Nature, or Works, or Waies of God! Others are glad of the leiſure of the Lords Day, and now and then an hour beſides when they can lay hold of it: But we may keep a continual Sabboth: We may do nothing elſe almoſt but ſtudy and talk of God and Glory, and call upon him, and drink in his ſacred, ſaving truths. Our employment is all high and ſpiritual! Whether we be alone, or with others, our buſineſs is for another world. O were but our hearts more ſuitable to this work, what a bleſſed joyful life ſhould we live! How ſweet would our ſtudy be to us? How pleaſant would the pulpit be? and what a delight would our conference of theſe things afford? To live among ſuch excellent helps as our libraries afford, and have ſo many ſilent wiſe companions whenever we pleaſe and of ſuch variety. All theſe and more ſuch Priviledges of the Miniſtery, beſpeak our unwearied diligence in the work.

5. You are related to Chriſt as well as to the Flock. He therefore being alſo related to you, you are not only advanced but ſecured by the relation, if p. 255you be but faithful in the work that it requireth. You are the Stewards of his myſteries, and Rulers of his houſhold: And he that entruſted you will maintain you in his work: But then, it is required of a Steward that a man be found faithful, 1 Cor. 4. 2. Be true to him, and never doubt but he will be true to you. Do you feed his Flock; and he will ſooner feed you as he did Elias, then forſake you. If you be in priſon, he will open the doors; but then you muſt relieve impriſoned ſouls. He will give you a tongue and wiſdom that no enemy ſhall reſiſt: but then you muſt uſe it faithfully for him. If you will put forth your hand to relieve the diſtreſſed, and willingly put it to his plough, he will wither the hand that is ſtretched out againſt you. The Miniſters of England, I am ſure, may know this by large experience. Many a time hath God reſcued them from the jaws of the devourer. O the admirable preſervations, and deliverances that they have had, from cruel Papiſts! from tyranical perſecutors! from malicious Sectaries, & miſguided paſſionate men! Brethren, in the fear of God conſider, Why is it that God hath done all this? Is it for your perſons, or for his Church? What are you to him more then other men, but for his work and peoples ſakes? Are you Angels, or men? Is your fleſh of any better mettle then your neighbours? Are you not of the ſame Generation of ſinners, that need his grace as much as they? Up then and work as the Redeemed of the Lord; as thoſe that are purpoſely reſcued from ruine for his ſervice. O do not prepare a remedileſs overthrow for the Engliſh Miniſtery by your ingratitude after all theſe deliverances. If you believe that God hath reſcued you for p. 256himſelf, live to him then, as being unreſervedly his that hath delivered you.

SECT. II.

II. THE firſt Motive mentioned in the text, we have ſpoken of, which is from the Conſideration of our office it ſelf. The ſecond is from the efficient cauſe. It is God by his ſpirit that makes us Overſeers of his Church, therefore it concerneth us to Take heed to our ſelves and it. I did before ſhew you how the Holy-Ghoſt is ſaid to make Biſhops or Paſtors of the Church in three ſeveral reſpects. By Qualifying them for the office: By directing the Ordainers to diſcern their Qualifications, and know the fitteſt men: and by directing them, the people and themſelves for the affixing them to a particular charge. All theſe were done then in an extraordinary ſort, by inſpiration, at leaſt very oft. The ſame are all done now by the ordinary way of the ſpirits aſſiſtance. But it is the ſame ſpirit ſtill: and men are made Over-ſeers of the Church (when they are rightly called) by the Holy-Ghoſt now as well as then. Its a ſtrange conceit therefore of the Papiſts to think that Ordination by the hands of man, is of more abſolute neceſſity to the Miniſterial Office, then the calling of the Holy-Ghoſt. God hath determined in his word, that there ſhall be ſuch an office, and what the Work and Power ſhall be, and what ſort of men, as to their qualifications, ſhall receive it: None of theſe can be undone by man, or p. 257made unneceſſary. God alſo giveth men the Qualifications which he requireth. So that all that the Church hath to do, whether Paſtors or People, Ordainors or Electors, is but to diſcern, and determine, which are the men that God hath thus Qualified, and to Accept of them that are ſo provided, and upon conſent to inſtall them ſolemnly in this office. But I purpoſely cut ſhort the controvertible part.

What an Obligation then is laid upon us by our call? If our Commiſſion be ſent from Heaven, its not to be diſobeyed. When Paul was called by the voice of Chriſt, he was not diſobedient to the heavenly Viſion! When the Apoſtles were called by Chriſt from their ſecular imployments they preſently leave friends, and houſe, and trade and all, and follow him. Though our call be not ſo immediate or extraordinary, yet is it from the ſame ſpirit. Its no ſafe courſe to imitate Ionah, in turning our back upon the commands of God. If we neglect our work, he hath a ſpur to quicken us: and if we over-run it he hath Meſſengers enough to over-take us, and fetch us back, and make us do it; and it is be… to do it at firſt then at laſt. This is the ſecond Motive.

p. 258SECT. III.

III. THE third Motive in the Text, is, from the dignity of the Object. It is the Church of God which we muſt Overſee, and Feed. It is that Church which the world is much upheld for; which is ſanctified by the Holy-Ghoſt; which is united to Chriſt, and is his myſtical body: that Church which Angels are preſent with, and attend upon as Miniſtring Spirits; whoſe very little ones have their Angels beholding the face of God in heaven: O what a charge is it that we have-undertaken! And ſhall we be unfaithful to ſuch a charge! Have we the Stewardſhip of Gods own family, and ſhall we neglect it! Have we the conduct of thoſe Saints that muſt live for ever with God in glory, and ſhall we neglect them! God forbid! I beſeech you Brethren, let this thought awaken the negligent! You that draw back from painful, diſpleaſing, ſuffering duties, and will put off mens ſouls with uneffectual formalities; do you think this is an honourable uſage of Chriſts Spouſe? Are the ſouls of men thought meet by God to ſee his face, and live for ever in his glory, and are they not worthy of your utmoſt coſt and labour? Do you think ſo baſely of the Church of God, as if it deſerved not the beſt of your care and help? Were you the Keepers of ſheep or ſwine, you might better let them go, and ſay, they be not worthy the looking after; and yet you would ſcarce do ſo if they were your own. But dare p. 259you ſay ſo by the ſouls of men even by the Church of God? Chriſt walketh among them: Remember his preſence, and keep all as clean as you can. The praiſes of the moſt high God are in the midſt of them. They are a ſanctified peculiar people, a Kingly Prieſthood, an holy Nation, a choice generation, to ſhew forth the praiſes of him that hath called them, 1 Pet. 2. 9. and yet dare you neglect them? What a high honour is it to be but one of them, yea but a door keeper in the houſe of God! but to be the Prieſt of theſe Prieſts, and the Ruler of theſe Kings, this is ſuch an honour as multiplyeth your obligations to diligence and fidelity in ſo noble an employment.

SECT. IV.

IV. THE laſt Motive that is mentioned in my Text, is, from the Price that was paid for the Church which we Overſee. God the Son did purchaſe it with his own blood. O what an Argument is here to quicken the negligent? and what an Argument to condemn thoſe that will not be quickned up to their duty by it? O ſaith one of the antient Doctors, if Chriſt had but committed to my keeping one ſpoonful of his blood in a fragile glaſs, how curiouſly ſhould I preſerve it, and how tender ſhould I be of that glaſs? If then he have committed to me the purchaſe of his blood, ſhould I not as carefully look to my charge? What Sirs ſhall we p. 260deſpiſe the blood of Chriſt? Shall we think it was ſhed for them that are not worthy of our utmoſt care? You may ſee here it is not a little fault that negligent Paſtors are guilty of? as much as in them lyeth, the blood of Chriſt ſhould be ſhed in vain: They would loſe him thoſe ſouls that he hath ſo dearly bought.

O then let us hear thoſe Arguments of Chriſt, when ever we feel our ſelves grow dull and careleſs; Did I dye for them, and wilt not thou look after them? Were they worth my blood, and are they not worth thy labour? Did I come down from Heaven to Earth, to ſeek and to ſave that which was loſt: and wilt not thou go to the next door, or ſtreet, or Village to ſeek them? How ſmall is thy labour or condeſcention as to mine? I debaſed my ſelf to this, but it is thy honour to be ſo imployed. Have I done and ſuffered ſo much for their ſalvation? and was I willing to make thee a co-worker with me, and wilt thou refuſe that little that lyeth upon thy hands? Every time we look upon our Congregations, let us believingly remember, that they are the purchaſe of Chriſts blood, and therefore ſhould be regarded accordingly by us.

And think what a confuſion it will be at the laſt day to a negligent Miniſter, to have this Blood of the Son of God to be pleaded againſt him! and for Chriſt to ſay, It was the purchaſe of my blood that thou didſt ſo make light of, and doſt thou think to be ſaved by it thy ſelf? O Brethren, ſeeing Chriſt will bring his Blood to plead with us, let it plead us to our duty, le…t it plead us to damnation.

p. 261SECT. V.

I Have done with the Motives which I find in the Text it ſelf: There are many more that might be gathered from the reſt of this Exhortation of the Apoſtle; but we muſt not ſtay to take in all. If the Lord will ſet home but theſe few upon your hearts, I dare ſay we ſhall ſee reaſon to mend our pace: and the change will be ſuch on our hearts, and in our Miniſtery, that our ſelves and our Congregations will have cauſe to bleſs God for it. I know my ſelf unworthy to be your Monitor; but a Monitor you muſt have; and its better for us to hear of our ſin, and duty, from any body, then from no body. Receive the admonition, and you will ſee no cauſe in the Monitors unworthyneſs, to repent of it: but if you reject it, the unworthyeſt Meſſenger may bear that witneſs againſt you that will confound you. But before I leave this Exhortation, as I have applyed it to our general work, ſo I ſhall carry it a little further to ſome of the ſpecial parts and modes of our Duty which were before expreſſed.

1. And firſt and above all, See that the work of ſaving grace be throughly wrought on your own ſouls. It is a fearful caſe to be an unſanctified Profeſſor; but much more to be an unſanctified Preacher. Doth it not make you tremble when you open the Bible, leſt you ſhould read there the Sentence of your own Condemnation? when you pen your Sermons, little do you think that you are drawing up inditements againſt p. 262your own ſouls! When you are arguing againſt ſin, you are aggravating your own: When you proclaim to your hearers the riches of Chriſt and grace, you publiſh your own iniquity in rejecting them, and your unhappineſs in being without them. What can you do in perſwading men to Chriſt in drawing them from the world in urging them to a life of faith and holineſs; but conſcience if it were but awake might tell you, that you ſpeak all this to your own confuſion? If you mention Hell, you mention your own Inheritance: If you deſcribe the Joyes of heaven, you deſcribe your miſery that have no right to it. What can you deviſe to ſay for the moſt part, but it will be againſt your own ſouls? O miſerable life! that a man ſhould ſtudy and preach againſt himſelf, and ſpend all his daies in a courſe of ſelf-condemning! A graceleſs unexperienced Preacher, is one of the moſt unhappy creatures upon earth. And yet is he ordinarily moſt inſenſible of his unhappineſs. For he hath ſo many counters that ſeem like the gold of ſaving grace, and ſo many ſplendid ſtones that ſeem like the Chriſtians Jewel, that he is ſeldom troubled with the thoughts of his poverty, but thinks he is Rich and wanteth nothing when he is poor, and miſerable, and blind, and naked: He is acquainted with the holy Scripture, he is exerciſed in holy duties, he liveth not in open diſgraceful ſin, he ſerveth at Gods Altar, he reproveth other mens faults, and preacheth up holineſs both of heart and life; and how can this man choſe but be Holy? O what an aggravated miſery is this, to periſh in the midſt of plenty! and to famiſh with the bread of life in our hands, while we offer it to others, and urge it on p. 263them! That thoſe Ordinances of God ſhould be the Occaſions of our deluſion, which are inſtituted to be the means of our conviction and ſalvation? and that while we hold the Looking glaſs of the Goſpel to others, to ſhew them the true face of the ſtate of their ſouls, we ſhould either look on the back ſide of it our ſelves, where we can ſee nothing, or turn it aſide, that it may miſ-repreſent us to our ſelves. If ſuch a wretched man would take my counſel, he ſhould make a ſtand, and call his heart and life to an account, and fall a preaching a while to himſelf, before he preach any more to others: He ſhould conſider whether food in the mouth will nouriſh that goeth not into the ſtomack? whether it be a Chriſt in the mouth or in the heart that will ſave men? Whether he that nameth him ſhould not depart from iniquity? and whether God will hear their prayers, if they regard iniquity in their hearts? and whether it will ſerve the turn at the day of reckoning to ſay, Lord we have propheſied in thy name; when they ſhall hear, Depart from me, I know you not? and what comfort it will be to Iudas when he is gone to his own place, to remember that he preached with the reſt of the Apoſtles, or that he ſate with Chriſt, and was called by him, Friend? and whether a wicked Preacher ſhall ſtand in the Iudgement, or ſinners in the Aſſembly of the juſt? When ſuch thoughts as theſe have entred into their ſouls, and kindly workt a while upon their conſciences, I would adviſe them next to go to the Congregation, and there preach over Origens Sermon, on Pſal. 50. 16, 17. But to the wicked, ſaith God, What haſt thou to do to declare my ſtatutes, or that thou ſhouldſt take my Covenant into p. 264thy mouth, ſeeing thou hateſt inſtruction, and haſt caſt my words behind thee? And when they have read this text, to ſit down, and expound, and apply it by their tears. And then to make a free Confeſſion of their ſin, and lament their caſe before the aſſembly, and deſire their earneſt prayers to God for pardoning and renewing grace; and ſo to cloſe with Chriſt in heart, who before admitted him no further then into the brain; that hereafter they may preach a Chriſt whom they know, and may feel what they ſpeak, and may commend the riches of the Goſpel by experience.

Verily, it is the common danger and calamity of the Church, to have unregenerate and unexperienced Paſtors: and to have ſo many men become Preachers, before they are Chriſtians; to be ſanctified by dedication to the Altar as Gods Prieſts, before they are ſanctified by hearty dedication to Chriſt as his Diſciples: & ſo to worſhip an unknown God, and to preach an unknown Chriſt, an unknown ſpirit, an unknown ſtate of holineſs and Communion with God and a glory that is unknown, and like to be unknown to them for ever. He is like to be but a heartleſs Preacher, that hath not the Chriſt and grace that he preacheth in his heart. O that all our Students in the Univerſity would well conſider this! What a poor buſineſs is it to themſelves, to ſpend their time in knowing ſome little of the works of God, and ſome of thoſe names that the divided tongues of the Nations have impoſed on them, and not to know the Lord himſelf, nor exalt him in their hearts, nor to be acquainted with that one renewing work that ſhould make them happy. They do but p. 265walk in a vain ſhew, and ſpend their lives like dreaming men, while they buſie their wits and tongues about abundance of names and notions, and are ſtrangers to God and the life of Saints. If ever God waken them by ſaving grace, they will have cogitations and imployments ſo much more ſerious, then their unſanctified ſtudies and diſputations were, that they will confeſs they did but dream before. A world of buſineſs they make themſelves about Nothing, while they are wilful ſtrangers to the Primitive, independent neceſſary Being, who is all in all. Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known: nor is any ſtudy well managed, nor to any great purpoſe, where God is not ſtudyed. We know little of the creature till we know it as it ſtandeth in its Order and reſpects to God: ſingle letters and ſyllables uncompoſed are non ſence. He that over-looketh the Alpha and Omega and ſeeth not the beginning and end, and him in all, who is the all of all, doth ſee nothing at all. All creatures are as ſuch broken ſyllables; they ſignifie nothing as ſeparated from God. Were they ſeparated actually, they would ceaſe to be, and the ſeparation would be an annihilation: And when we ſeparate them in our fancies, we make Nothing of them to our ſelves. Its one thing to know the creatures as Ariſtotle, and another thing to know them as a Chriſtian. None but a Chriſtian can read one line of his Phyſicks ſo as to underſtand it rightly. It is a high and excellent ſtudy, and of greater uſe then many do well underſtand; but its the ſmalleſt part of it that Ariſtotle can teach us. When man was made perfect, and placed in a perfect world, where all things were in perfect p. 266order, and very good, the whole Creation was then mans book in which he was to read the nature and will of his great Creator; Every creature had the Name of God ſo legibly engraven on it, that man might run and read it. He could not open his eyes, but he might ſee ſome image of God: but no where ſo fully and lively as in himſelf. And therefore it was his work to ſtudy the whole volume of Nature; but firſt and moſt to ſtudy himſelf. And if man had held on in this preſcribed work he would have continued and increaſed in the knowledge of God and himſelf; but when he would needs know and love the creature and himſelf, in a way of ſeparation from God, he loſt the knowledge of all, both of the creature himſelf and God, ſo far as it could beatifie, and was worth the name of knowledge, and inſtead of it he hath got the unhappy knowledge which he affected, even the empty notions, and phantaſtick knowledge of the creature and himſelf as thus ſeparated: And thus he that lived to the Creator and upon him, doth now live to, and as upon the (other) creatures and himſelf; and thus, Every man at his beſt eſtate (the Learned as well as the illiterate) is altogether vanity: Surely every man walketh in a Vain Shew: ſurely they are diſquieted in vain, Pſal. 39. 5, 6. And it muſt be well obſerved, that as God laid not by the Relation of a Creator by becoming our Redeemer, nor the Right of his Propriety and Government of us in that Relation, but the, work of Redemption ſtandeth in ſome ſubordination to that of Creation, and the Law of the Redeemer to the Law of the Creator: ſo alſo the duties that we owed God as Creator are not ceaſed; but the duties that p. 267we own to the Redeemer, as ſuch, are ſubordinate thereto. It is the work of Chriſt to bring us back to God, whom we fell from, and to reſtore us to our perfection of Holineſs and Obedience; and as he is the way to the Father, ſo faith in him, is the way to our former employment and enjoyment of God. I hope you perceive what all this driveth at, viz. That to ſee God in his creatures, and to love him and converſe with him, was the employment of man in his upright ſtate; That this is ſo far from ceaſing to be our duty, that it is the work of Chriſt by faith to bring us back to it: and therefore the moſt holy men are the moſt excellent ſtudents of Gods works: and none but the holy can rightly ſtudy them, or know them. His works are great, ſought out of all them that have pleaſure therein, Pſal. 111. 2. But not for themſelves but for him that made them. Your ſtudy of Phyſicks and other Sciences, is not worth a ruſh, if it be not God by them that you ſeek after. To ſee and admire to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God appearing to us in his works, and purpoſely to peruſe them for the knowledge of God, this is the true and only Philoſophy, and the contrary is meer foolery, and ſo called and called again by God himſelf. This is the ſanctification of your ſtudies, when they are devoted to God, and when he is the life of them all, and they all intend him as the end, and the principal Object.

And therefore I ſhall preſume to tell you by the way, that it is a grand error, and of dangerous Conſequence in the Chriſtian Academies, (pardon the Cenſure from one ſo unfit for it, ſeeing the neceſſity p. 268of the Caſe commandeth it) that they ſtudy the Creature before the Redeemer, and ſet themſelves to Phyſicks, and Metaphyſicks, and Mathematicks, before they ſet themſelves to Theology: when as no man that hath not the vitals of Theology is capable of going beyond a fool in Philoſophy; and all that ſuch do is but doting about queſtiſtions, and oppoſition of ſciences falſly ſo called. 1 Tim. 6. 20. 21. And as by affecting a ſeparated Creature-knowledge Adam fell from God, ſo thoſe that mind theſe foreign, they miſs the end of all right ſtudies; foreign: while they will needs preferr theſe, they miſs that faith which they pretend to aim at. Their pretence is, that Theology being the end, and the moſt perfect, muſt be the laſt, and all the ſubſervient ſciences muſt go firſt: But, 1. There is ſomewhat of Natural knowledge indeed prerequiſite, and ſomewhat of art, before a man can receive Theology; but that is no more then their mothers can teach them before they go to ſchool. 2. And its true that all right natural knowledge doth tend to the increaſe of Theological knowledge: but that which is a means to its perfection, may be the effect or Conſequent of its beginning: And 3. The end muſt be firſt known, becauſe it muſt be intended before the choice or uſe of means: And 4 The Scripture revealeth to us the things of God himſelf in the moſt eaſie way, and therefore he muſt be firſt learned there: And 5. The book of the Creatures is not to ſhew us more of God then the Scripture doth; but by repreſenting him to us in more ſenſible appearances, p. 269to make our knowledge of him the more intenſe and operative, and being continually before our eyes, God alſo would be continually before them, if we could aright diſcern him in them. Its evident therefore that Theology muſt lay the ground, and lead the way of all our ſtudies, when we are once acquainted with ſo much of words and things as is needful to our underſtanding the ſenſe of its Principles. If God muſt be ſearched after in our ſearch of the Creature, and we muſt affect no ſeparated knowledge of them, then Tutors muſt read God to their Pupils in all; and Divinity muſt be the beginning, the middle, the end, the life, the all of their ſtudies: And our Phyſicks and Metaphyſicks muſt be reduced to Theologie; and nature muſt be read as one of Gods books, which is purpoſely written for the revelation of himſelf. The holy Scripture is the eaſier book: when you have firſt learnt God and his will there, in the neceſſary things, addreſs your ſelves cheerfully to the ſtudy of his works, that you may there ſee the Creature it ſelf as your Alphabet, and their Order as the Compoſure of ſyllables, words and ſentences, and God as the ſubject matter of all, and the reſpect to him as the ſenſe or ſignification; and then carry on both together, and never more play the meer Scriveners, ſtick no more in your letters and words, but read every Creature as a Chriſtian or a Divine. If you ſee not your ſelves and all things as living, and moving and having being in God, you ſee nothing, what ever you think you ſee. If you perceive not in your peruſals of the Creatures, that God is all, and in all, p. 270and ſee not foreign, (Rom 11. 36.) you may think perhaps that you know ſomething, but you know Nothing as you ought to know (1 Cor. 8. 2.) But he that ſeeth and loveth God in the Creature, the ſame is known and loved of him. (Verſ. 3.) Think not ſo baſely of the works of God, and your phyſicks, as that they are only preparatory ſtudies for boyes; It is a moſt high and noble part of holineſs to ſearch after, behold, admire, and love the great Creator in all his works: How much have the Saints of God been imployed in it! The beginning of Geneſis, the books of Job and the Pſalms may acquaint us that our Phyſicks are not ſo little kin to Theology as ſome ſuppoſe. I do therefore in zeal to the good of the Church, and their own ſucceſs in their moſt neceſſary labours, propound it to the conſideration of all pious Tutors, whether they ſhould not as timely, and as diligently read to their Pupils (or cauſe them to read) the chiefeſt parts of Practical Divinity (and there is no other) as any of the Sciences? and whether they ſhould not go together from the very firſt? It is well that they hear Sermons; but that is not enough: If they have need of private help in Philoſophy beſides publike Lectures, much more in Theology? If Tutors would make it their principal buſineſs to acquaint their Pupils with the doctrine of Life, and Labour to ſet it home upon their hearts that all might be received according to its weight, and read to their hearts as well as to their heads, and ſo carry on the reſt of their inſtructions, that it may appear they make them p. 271but ſubſervient unto this, and that their Pupils may feel what they drive at in all, and ſo that they would teach all their Philoſophy in habitu Theologico, this might be a happy means to make happy ſouls, and a happy Church and Commonwealth. (The ſame I mean alſo along of the Courſe of Schoolmaſters to their ſcholars.) But when Languages and Philoſophy have almoſt all their time and diligence, and inſtead of reading Philoſophy like Divines, they read Divinity like Philoſophers, as if it were a thing of no more moment then, a leſſon of Muſick, or Arithmetick, and not the doctrine of Everlaſting life; this is it that blaſteth ſo many in the bud, and peſtereth the Church with unſanctified Teachers! Hence it is that we have ſo many worldlings to preach of the inviſible felicity, and ſo many carnal men to declare the myſteries of the Spirit; and I would I might, not ſay, ſo many Infidels to preach Chriſt, or ſo many Atheiſts to preach the living God: And when they are taught Philoſophy before or without Religion, what wonder if their Philoſophy be all or moſt of their Religion; and if they grow up into admirations of their unprofitable fancies, and deifie their own deluded brains, when they know no other God; and if they reduce all their Theologie to their Philoſophy, like Campanella, White, and other ſelf-admirers; or if they take Chriſtianity for a meer deluſion, and fall with Hobbs to write Leviathans, or with the L. Herbert to write ſuch Treatiſes de veritate, as ſhall ſhew the world how little they eſteem of verity; or at beſt, if they turn Paracelſian Behmeniſts, and ſpin them a Religion from their own inventions! Again therefore p. 272I addreſs my ſelf to all them that have the education of youth, eſpecially in order to preparation for the Miniſtery; You that are Schoolmaſters and Tutors begin and end with the things of God. Speak daily to the hearts of your Schollars thoſe things that muſt be wrought into their hearts, or elſe they are undone. Let ſome piercing words fall frequently from your mouthes, of God, and the ſtate of their ſouls, and the life to come; Do not ſay, They are too young to underſtand and entertain them. You little know what impreſſions they may make which you diſcern not; Not only the ſoul of that boy, but a Congregation, or many ſouls therein may have cauſe to bleſs God for your zeal and diligence, yea for one ſuch ſeaſonable word. You have a great advantage above others to do them good; You have them before they are grown to the worſt, and they will hear you when they will not hear another. If they are deſtinated to the Miniſtery, you are preparing them for the ſpecial ſervice of God; and muſt they not firſt have the knowledge of him whom they muſt ſerve! O think with your ſelves, what a ſad thing it will be to their own ſouls, and what a wrong to the Church of God, if they come out from you with common and carnal hearts, to ſo holy, and ſpiritual and great a work! Of an hundred Students that be in one of your Colledges, how many may there be that are ſerious experienced godly men! ſome talk of too ſmall a number. If you ſhould ſend one half of them on a work that they are un it for, what bloody work will they make in the Church or Countries. Whereas if you be the means of their through-ſanctification, how many p. 273ſouls may bleſs you, and what greater good can you do the Church? When once their hearts are ſavingly affected with the Doctrine which they ſtudy and preach, they will ſtudy it more heartily, and preach it heartily: their own experience will direct them to the fitteſt ſubjects, and will furniſh them with matter, and quicken them to ſet it home; and I obſerve that the beſt of our hearers can feel and favour ſuch experimental preachers, and uſually do leſs regard others, what ever may be their accompliſhments. See therefore that you make not work for Sequeſtrators nor for the groans and lamentation of the Church, nor for the great Tormenter of the murderers of ſouls.

SECT. VI.

2. MY ſecond particular Exhortation is this: Content not your ſelves to have the main work of grace, but be alſo very careful that your graces be kept in life and action, and that you preach to your ſelves the Sermons that you ſtud…, before you preach them to others. If you did this for your own ſakes, it would be no loſt labour; but I am ſpeaking to you upon the publike account, and that you would do it for the ſake of the Church. When your minds are in a heavenly holy frame, your people are like to partake of the fruits of it. Your prayers, and praiſes, and doctrine will be heavenly and ſweet to them! They will likely feel when you have been much with God: That which is on your hearts moſt, is like to p. 274be moſt in their ears: I confeſs I muſt ſpeak it by lamentable experience, that I publiſh to my Flock the diſtempers of my ſoul: when I let my heart grow cold, my preaching is cold; and when it is confuſed, my preaching will be ſo; and ſo I can obſerve too, oft in the beſt of my hearers, that when I have a while grown cold in preaching, they have cooled accordingly; and the next Prayers that I have heard from them hath been too like my preaching. We are the Nurſes of Chriſts little ones. If we forbear our food, we ſhall famiſh them; they will quickly find it in the want of Milk; and we may quickly ſee it again on them, in the lean and dull diſcharge of their ſeveral duties: If we let our Love go down; we are not ſo like to raiſe up theirs: If we abate our holy care and fear, it will appear in our Doctrine: If the matter ſhew it not, the manner will. If we feed on unwholſom food, either errors, or fruitleſs controverſies, our hearers are like to fare the worſe for it. Whereas if we could abound in Faith, and Love, and Zeal, how would it over-flow to the refreſhing of our Congregations, and how would it appear in the increaſe of the ſame graces in others! O Brethren, watch therefore over your own hearts: keep out luſts and paſſions, and worldly inclinations; Keep up the life of Faith and Love; Be much at home: and be much with God. If it be not your daily ſerious buſineſs to ſtudy your own hearts, and ſubdue corruptions, and live as upon God, if you make it not your very work which you conſtantly attend, all will go amiſs, and you will ſtarve your auditors; or if you have but an affected ſervency, you cannot expect ſuch a bleſſing to attend it; Be much, p. 275above all, in ſecret prayer and meditation. There you muſt fetch the heavenly fire that muſt kindle your ſacrifices; Remember you cannot decline and neglect your duty, to your own hurt alone; but many will be loſers by it as well as you. For your peoples ſakes therefore look to your hearts. If a pang of ſpiritual Pride ſhould overtake you, and you ſhould grow into any dangerous or ſchiſmatical conceits, and vent your own over-valued inventions, to draw away Diſciples after you, what a wound might this prove to the Church that you are ſet over! and you might become a plague to them inſtead of a bleſſing, and they might wiſh they had never ſeen your faces. O therefore take heed of your own Judgements and Affections. Error and vanity will ſlily inſinuate, and ſeldom come without fair pretences; Great diſtempers and apoſtacies, have uſually ſmall beginnings. The Prince of darkneſs doth frequently perſonate the Angels of light, to draw children of light again into his darkneſs. How eaſily alſo will diſtempers creep in upon our affections, and our firſt love, and fear, and care abate! Watch therefore for the ſake of your ſelves and others.

And more particularly, me thinks a Miniſter ſhould take ſome ſpecial pains with his heart, before he is to go to the Congregation: if it be then cold, how is he like to warm the hearts of the hearers! Go therefore then ſpecially to God for life: and read ſome rowſing waking book, or meditate on the weight of the ſubject that you are to ſpeak of, and on the great neceſſity of your peoples ſouls, that you may go in the zeal of the Lord into his houſe.

p. 276SECT. VII.

3. MY next particular Exhortation is this, Star up your ſelves to the great work of God, when you are upon it, and ſee that you do it with all your might. Though I move you not to a conſtant lowdneſs (for that will make your fervency contemptible) yet ſee that you have a conſtant ſeriouſneſs; and when the matter requireth it (as it ſhould do it, the application at leaſt of every Doctrine) then lift up your voice, and ſpare not your ſpirits, and ſpeak to them as to men that muſt be awakened, either here or in Hell. Look upon your Congregations believingly and with compaſſion, and think in what a ſtate of Joy or Torment they muſt all be for ever; and then me thinks it ſhould make you earneſt, and melt your heart in the ſenſe of their condition. O ſpeak not one cold or careleſs word about ſo great a buſineſs as heaven or hell! What ever you do, let the people ſee that you are in good ſadneſs. Truly Brethren, they are great works that are to be done, and you muſt not think that trifling will diſpatch them. You cannot break mens hearts by jeſting with them, or telling them a ſmooth tale, or patching up a gawdy oration. Men will not caſt away their deereſt pleaſures upon a drowſie requeſt of one that ſeemeth not to mean as he ſpeaks, or to care much whether his requeſt be granted. If you ſay, That the work is Gods, and he may do it by the weakeſt means; I anſwer, Its true, he may do ſo; p. 277But yet his ordinary way is to work by means; and to make not only the matter that is preacht, but alſo the manner of preaching to be inſtrumental to the work: Or elſe it were a ſmall matter whom he ſhould imploy that would but ſpeak the truth. If grace made as little uſe of the Miniſterial perſwaſions as ſome conceive, we need not ſo much mind a Reformation, nor caſt out the Inſufficient.

A great matter alſo with the moſt of our hearers, doth lie in the very pronunciation and tone of ſpeech; The beſt matter will ſcarce move them, if it be not movingly delivered. Eſpecially, ſee that there be no affectation, but that we ſpeak as familiarly to our people as we would do if we were talking to any of them perſonally. The want of a familiar tone and expreſſion, is as great a defect in moſt of our deliveries, as any thing whatſoever, and that which we ſhould be very careful to amend. When a man hath a Reading or Declaming tone, like a School-boy ſaying his leſſon or an Oration, few are moved with any thing that he ſaith. Let us therefore rowſe up our ſelves to the work of the Lord, and ſpeak to our people as for their lives, and ſave them as by violence, pulling them out of the fire: Satan will not be charmed out of his poſſeſſion: we muſt lay ſiege to the ſouls of ſinners which are his garriſons, and find out where his chief ſtrength lyeth, and lay the battery of Gods Ordinance againſt it, and ply it cloſe till a breach be made; and then ſuffer them not by their ſhifts to make it up again; but find out their common objections, and give them a full and ſatisfactory anſwer. We have reaſonable creatures to deal with; and as they abuſe their reaſon p. 278againſt the truth, ſo they will expect better reaſon for it before they will obey. We muſt therefore ſee that our Sermons be all convincing, and that we make the light of Scripture and Reaſon ſhine ſo bright in the faces of the ungodly, that it may even force them to ſee unleſs they willfully ſhut their eyes. A Sermon full of meer words, how neatly ſoever it be compoſed, while there is wanting the light of Evidence and the life of Zeal, is but an image or a welldreſt carkaſs; In preaching there is intended a communion of ſouls, and a communication of ſomewhat from ours unto theirs. As we and they have underſtandings, and wills, and affections, ſo muſt the bent of our endeavours be to communicate the fulleſt Light of Evidence from our underſtandings unto theirs, and to warm their hearts by kindling in them holy affections, as by a communication from ours. The great things which we have to commend to our hearers, have reaſon enough on their ſide, and lie plain before them in the word of God; we ſhould therefore be ſo furniſhed with all ſtore of Evidence, as to come as with a torrent upon their underſtandings, and bear down all before us, and with our dilemma's and expoſtulations to bring them to a nonplus, and pour out ſhame upon all their vain objections, that they may be forced to yield to the power of truth, and ſee that it is great and will prevail.

p. 279SECT. VIII.

4. MOreover, if you would proſper in your work; Be ſure to keep up earneſt deſires and expectations of ſucceſs. If your hearts be not ſet on the end of your labours; and you long not to ſee the converſion and edification of your hearers, and do not ſtudy and preach in hope, you are not likely to ſee much fruit of it. Its an ill ſign of a falſe ſelf-ſeeking heart, that can be content to be ſtill doing, and ſee no fruits of their labour; ſo I have obſerved that God ſeldom bleſſeth any mans work ſo much as his whoſe heart is ſet upon the ſucceſs; Let it be the property of a Iudas to have more regard to the bag then to his buſineſs, and not to care much for what they pretend to care; and to think if they have their Tythes, and the love and commendations of the people, that they have enough to ſatisfie them: but let all that preach for Chriſt and mens ſalvation, be unſatisfied till they have the thing they preach for: He had never the right end of a Preacher, that is indifferent whether he do obtain them, and is not grieved when he miſſeth them, and rejoyced when he can ſee the deſired iſſue. When a man doth only ſtudy what to ſay, and how with commendation to ſpend the hour, and looks no more after it, unleſs it be to know what people think of his own abilities, and thus holds on from year to year, I muſt needs think that this man doth preach for himſelf, and drive on a private trade of his own, and doth not p. 280preach for Chriſt even when he preacheth Chriſt, how excellently ſoever he may ſeem to do it. No wiſe or charitable Phyſitian is content to be ſtill giving Phyſick, and ſee no amendment among his Patients, but have them all to die upon his hands: nor will any wiſe and honeſt Schoolmaſter be content to be ſtill teaching though his Scholars profit not; but either of them would rather be weary of the employment. I know that a faithful Miniſter may have comfort when he wants ſucceſs and though Iſrael be not gathered, our reward is with the Lord: and our acceptance is not according to the fruit, but according to our labour; and as Greg. M. ſaith, Et Aethiops etſi balneum niger intrat, & niger egreditur, tamen balneat or nummos accipit. If God ſet us to waſh Blackamores, and cure thoſe that will not be cured; we ſhall not loſe our labour, though we perform not the cure. But then 1. He that longeth not for the ſucceſs of his labours, can have none of this comfort, becauſe he was not a faithful labourer: This is only for them that I ſpeak of, that are ſet upon the end, and grieved if they miſs it 2. And this is not the full comfort that we muſt deſire, but only ſuch a part as may quiet us though we miſs the reſt. What if God will accept a Phyſitian though the Patient dye? He muſt work in compaſſion, and long for a better iſſue, and be ſorry if he miſs of it, for all that: For it is not only our own Reward that we labour for, but other mens ſalvation. I confeſs for my part, I marvel at ſome antient Reverend men, that have lived 20. or 40. or 50 years with an unprofitable people, where they have ſeen ſo little fruit of their labours, that it was ſcarce diſcernable, how they can p. 281with ſo much patience there go on? Were it my caſe, though I durſt not leave the Vineyard, nor quit my calling, yet I ſhould ſuſpect that it was Gods will, I ſhould go ſome whether elſe, and another come thither that might be fitter for them; and I ſhould not be eaſily ſatisfied to ſpend my daies in ſuch a ſort.

SECT. IX.

5. Do well as well as ſay well: be zealous of good works. Spare not for any coſt, if it may promote your maſters work.

1. Maintain your innocency, and walk without offence. Let your lives condemn ſin, and perſwade men to duty. Would you have your people be more careful of their ſouls, then you will be of yours? If you would have them redeem their time, do not you miſſpend yours. If you would not have them vain in their conference, ſee that you ſpeak your ſelves the things which may edifie, and tend to miniſter grace to the hearers. Order your own families well if you would have them do ſo by theirs. Be not Proud and Lordly if you would have them to be lowly. There is no vertue wherein your example will do more, at leaſt to abate mens prejudice, then humility, and meekneſs, and ſelf-denyal. Forgive injuries, and be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good: Do as our Lord, who when he was reviled, reviled not again; If ſinners be ſtubborn, and ſtout, and contemptous, fleſh and blood will perſwade p. 282you to take up their weapons, and to maſter them by their carnal means; but thats not the way, (further then neceſſary ſelf-preſervation or publike good requireth it) but overcome them with kindneſs, and patience, and gentleneſs. The former may ſhew that you have more worldly power then they (wherein yet they are ordinarily too hard for the faithful); but its the later only that will tell them that you overtop them in ſpiritual excellency, and in the true qualifications of a Saint. If you believe that Chriſt was more imitable then Caeſar or Alexander, and that its more glory to be a Chriſtian then to be a Conqueror, yea to be a man then a beaſt, (who oft exceed us in ſtrength) contend then with charity, and not with violence; and ſet Meekneſs, and Love, and Patience againſt force, and not force againſt force: Remember you are obliged to be the ſervants of all. Condeſcend to men of low eſtate; be not ſtrange to the poor ones of your Flock. They are apt to take your ſtrangeneſs for contempt: Familiarity improved to holy ends, is exceeding neceſſary, and may do abundance of good. Speak not ſtoutly or diſreſpectively to any one: but be courteous to the meaneſt as your equal in Chriſt. A kind and winning carriage is a cheap way of advantage to do men good.

2. Remember what I ſaid before of works of Bounty and Charity: Go to the poor, and ſee what they want, and ſhew at once your compaſsion to ſoul and body. Buy them a Catechiſm and ſome ſmall Books that are likeſt to do them good, and beſtow them on your neighbours, and make them promiſe you to read p. 283them, and ſpecially to ſpend that part of the Lords day therein, which they can ſpare from greater duties. Stretch your purſe to the utmoſt, and do all the good you can. Think not of being rich, ſeek not great things for your ſelves or poſterity. What if you do impoveriſh your ſelves to do a greater good; will it be loſs or gain! If you believe that God is your ſafeſt purſe-bearer, and that to expend in his ſervice is the greateſt uſury, and the moſt thriving trade, ſhew them that you do believe it. I know that fleſh and blood will cavil before it will looſe its prey, and will never want ſomewhat to ſay againſt that duty that is againſt its intereſt; But mark what I ſay, and the Lord ſet it home upon your hearts; That man that hath any thing in the world ſo dear to him that he cannot ſpare it for Chriſt if he call for it, is no true Chriſtian, And becauſe a carnal heart will not believe that Chriſt calls for it when he cannot ſpare it, and therefore makes that his ſelf deceiving ſhift, I ſay furthermore; that That man that will not be perſwaded that duty is duty, becauſe he cannot ſpare that for Chriſt which is therein to be expended, is no true Chriſtian: For a falſe heart corrupteth the underſtanding, and that again increaſeth the deluſions of the heart. Do not take it therefore as an undoing to make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteouſneſs, and to lay up a treaſure in heaven, though you leave your ſelves but little on earth. Nemo tam pauper poteſt eſſe quam natus eſt; Aves ſine patrimonio vivunt, & in diem pecua paſcuntur; & haec nobis tamen nata ſunt; quae omnia ſi non concupiſcimus poſſidemus, inquit Minutins Felix. p. (mihi) 397. You loſe no great advantage for heaven by becoming p. 284poor; Qui viam terit, eo faelicior quo levior incedit. Id.

I know where the heart is carnal and covetous, words will not wring their money out of their hands; They can ſay all this, and more to others; but ſaying is one thing, and believing is another. But with thoſe that are true believers, me thinks ſuch conſiderations ſhould prevail. O what abundance of good might Miniſters do if they would but live in a contempt of the world, and the riches and glory of it, and expend all they have for the beſt of their Maſters uſe, and pinch their fleſh that they might have wherewith to do good. This would unlock more hearts to the reception of their Doctrine, then all their oratory will do; and without this, ſingularity in religiouſneſs will ſeem but hypocriſie, and its likely that it is ſo. Qui innocentiam colit, Domino ſupplicat.—qui hominem periculo ſurripit, opimam victimam caedit; Haec noſtra ſacrificia; haec Dei ſacra ſunt; ſic apud nos Religioſior eſt ille qui juſtior, inquit idem Minutius Felix. ib. Though we need not do as the Papiſts, that will betake them to Monaſteries, and caſt away Propriety, yet we muſt have nothing but what we have for God.

p. 285SECT. X.

6. THE next branch of my Exhortation is, that you would maintain your Chriſtian and brotherly Unity and Communion, and do as much of Gods work as you can in unanimity and holy concord. Bleſſed be the Lord that it is ſo well with us in this County in this regard as it is. We loſe our Authority with our people when we divide. They will yield to us when we go together, who would reſiſt and contemn the beſt of us alone.

Two things in order to this I beſeech you to obſerve. The firſt is, that you ſtill maintain your meetings for communion: Incorporate, and hold all Chriſtian correſpondency; Grow not ſtrange to one another; Do not ſay, that you have buſineſs of your own to do, when you ſhould be at any ſuch meeting or other work for God. It is not only the mutual edification that we may receive by Lectures, diſputations or conferences (though thats not nothing) but it is ſpecially for conſultations for the common good, and the maintaining of our Communion, that we muſt thus aſſemble. Though your own perſon might be without the benefit of ſuch meetings, yet the Church and our common work requireth them. Do not then ſhew your ſelves contemners or neglecters of ſuch a neceſſary work. Diſtance breedeth ſtrangeneſs, and ſomenteth dividing flames and jealouſies, which Communion wil prevent or cure. It wil be our enemies chiefeſt plot to divide us that they may p. 286weaken us: conſpire not with the enemies, and take not their courſe. And indeed Miniſters have need of one another, and muſt improve the gifts of God in one another: and the ſelf-ſufficient are the moſt deficient, and commonly proud and empty men. Some there be that come not among their brethren to do or receive good, nor afford them any of their aſſiſtance in conſultations for the common good, and their excuſe is only we love to live privately. To whom I ſay, why do you not on the ſame grounds forbear going to Chriſt, and ſay You love to live privately? Is not Miniſterial Commnnion a duty, as well as common-Chriſtian Communion? and hath not the Church always thought ſo, and practiſed accordingly? If you mean that you love your own eaſe or commodity better then Gods ſervice, ſay ſo and ſpeak your minds. But I ſuppoſe there are few of them ſo ſilly as to think that is any juſt excuſe, though they will give us no better. Somewhat elſe ſure lieth at the bottom. Indeed ſome of them are empty men, and afraid their weakneſs ſhould be known, when as they cannot conceal it by their folitarineſs, and might do much to heal it by Communion: ſome of them are careleſs or ſcandalous men: & for them we have no deſire of their Communion, not ſhall admit it, but upon publike Repentance and Reformation. Some of them are ſo in love with their parties and opinions, that they will not hold communion with us becauſe we are not of their parties and opinions: whereas by Communication they might give or receive better information, or at leaſt carry on ſo much of Gods work in unity as we are agreed in. But the miſchief of ſchiſm is to make p. 287men cenſorious and proud, and take others to be unmeet for their communion, and themſelves to be the only Church, (or pure Church) of Chriſt.

The Papiſts will have no Catholick Church but the Romans, and unchurch all beſide themſelves. The Separatiſts and many Anabaptiſts ſay the like of their parties: The new prelatical party will have no Catholick Church but Prelatical, and unchurch all except their party, and ſo avoid Communion with others; and thus turning Separatiſts and Schiſmaticks, they imitate the Papiſts, and make an oppoſition to ſchiſm their pretence. Firſt, All muſt be accounted ſchiſmaticks that he not of their opinion and party (when yet we find not that opinion in the Creed), and they muſt be avoided becauſe they are Schiſmaticks. But were ſolve by the grace of God to adhere to more Catholick principles and practices, and to have Communion with all Godly Chriſtians that will have Communion with us, ſo far as they force us not to actual ſin. And for the ſeparating Brethren, as by diſtance they are like to theriſh miſinformations of us, ſo if by their wilful eſtrangedneſs, and diſtance, any among us do entertain injurious reports of them, and think worſe of them, and deal worſe by ſome of them, then there is cauſe, they may partly thank themſelves.

Sure I am by ſuch means as theſe we are many of us grown ſo hardened in ſin, that men make no great matter what they ſay one againſt another, but ſtand out of hearing and ſight, and vent their ſpleen againſt each other behind their backs. How many jeers and ſcorns have they among their Companions for thoſe that are againſt their party! and p. 288they eaſily venture be'the matter never ſo falſe. A bad report of ſuch is eaſily taken to be true; and that which is true is eaſily made worſe: when as Seneca ſaith, [Multos abſolvemus, ſi coeperimus ante judicare quam iraſci: nunc autem primum impetum ſequimur] It is paſſion that tels the tale, and that receiveth it.

The ſecond thing therefore that I intreat of you is, that you would be very tender of the Unity and Peace of the Catholick Church; not only of your own parties, but of the whole. And to this end theſe things will prove neceſſary. 1. Do not too eaſily introduce any Novelties into the Church either in faith or practice: I mean not, that which ſeems a novelty to men that look no further then yeſterday; for ſo the reſtoring of Ancient things will ſeem novelty to thoſe that know not what was Anciently; and the expulſion of prevailing novelties will ſeem a novelty to them that known not what is ſuch indeed. So the Papiſts cenſure us as Noveliſts for caſting out many of their Innovations; and our common people tell us we bring up new Cuſtoms if we do not kneel at the receiving of the Lords Supper: (A notorious Novelty: Even in the ſixth General Council at Trull. in Conſtantinop. this was the ninth Canon: Ne Dominicis diebus genua flectamus; à Divinis Patribus noſtris Canonice accepimus: Quare poſt veſpertinum ingreſſum Sacerdotum in Sabbato ad Altare ut more obſervatum eſt, nemo genu flectii uſque ad ſequentem veſperem poſt dominicam.) It is that which is indeed Novelty that I diſſwade you from, and not the demoliſhing of Novelties. Some have already introduced ſuch New p. 289Phraſes, at leaſt, even about the great points of faith, luſtification and the like, that there may be reaſon to reduce them to the Primitive Patterns.

A great ſtir is made in the world about the teſt of a Chriſtian and true Church, with whom we may have Communion, and about that true Center and Cement of the Unity of the Church, in and by which our Common calamitous breaches muſt be healed. And indeed the true Cauſe of our Contrived diviſions and miſery is for want of diſcerning the center of our unity, and the terms on which it muſt be done: which is great pity, when it was once ſo eaſie a matter, till the ancient teſt was thought inſufficient! If any of the Ancient Creeds might ſerve, we might be ſoon agreed. If Vinc…ntius Lirineuſ. teſt might ſerve, we might yet make ſome good ſhift, viz. To believe (explicitly) all that quod ubique quod ſemper quod ab omnibus creditum eſt For as he addeth [hoc eſt etenim verè propriè que Catholicum] But then we muſt come 1. That the firſt age may not be excluded which gave the rule to the reſt. 2. And that this extend not to every Ceremony which never was taken for unalterable, but to matters of faith; and that the acts and Canons of Councils, which were not about ſuch matters of faith, but meer variable order, and which newly conſtituted thoſe things, which the Apoſtolike Age knew not, and therefore were not properly Credita, much leſs, ſemper, & ab omnibus, may have no hand in this work. I ſay if either the ancient Weſtern, or Eaſtern Creed, or this Catholick faith of Vincentius might be taken as the teſt for explicit ſaith, or elſe rather all thoſe Scripture texts, that p. 290expreſs the Credenda with a note of neceſſity, and the the whole Scripture moreover be confeſſed to be Gods word, and ſo believed (in other points) at leaſt implicitly; this Courſe might produce a more general Communion and agreement; and more lines would meet in this Center then otherwiſe are like to meet. And indeed till men can be again content to make the Scripture the ſufficient Rule, in Neceſſaries to be explicitly believed, and in all the reſt implicitly, we are never like to ſee a Catholike Chriſtian durable Peace. If we muſt needs make the Council of Trent, or the Papal Judgement our teſt; or if we muſt make a blind bargain, with the Papiſts to come as near them as ever we dare, and ſo to compaſs another Interim, and make that a teſt (when God never made it ſo, and all Chriſtians never be of a mind in it, but ſome dare go nearer Rome, then others dare, and that in ſeveral degrees) or if we muſt thruſt in all the Canons of the former Councils about matters of order, diſcipline and ceremonies into our teſt, or gather up all the opinions of the Fathers for the three or four firſt ages, and make them our teſt; None of all theſe will ever ſeem to do the buſineſs! and a Catholike Union will never be founded in them. It is an eaſie matter infallibly to foretel this. Much leſs can the writings of any ſingle man, as Auſtin, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Beza, &c. or yet the late Confeſſors of any Churches that add to the ancient teſt, be ever capable of this uſe and honour.

I know it is ſaid that a man may ſubſcribe the Scripture, and the ancient Creeds, and yet maintain Socinianiſm or other hereſies: To which I p. 291anſwer, 1. So he may another teſt which your own brains ſhall contrive; and while you make a ſnare to catch hereticks, inſtead of a teſt for the Churches Communion, you will miſs your end, and the heretick by the ſlipperyneſs of his conſcience will break through, and the tender Chriſtian may poſſibly be enſnared. And by your new Creed the Church is like to have new diviſions, if you keep not cloſe to the words of Scripture. 2. In ſuch caſes when hereticks contradict the Scripture, which they have ſubſcribed, this calls not for a new or more ſufficient teſt, but the Church muſt take notice of it, and call him to account, and if he be impenitent exclude him their Communion. What I muſt we have new Laws made every time the old ones are broken? as if the Law were not ſufficient becauſe men break it? Or rather muſt not the penalty of the violated Law be executed? It is a moſt ſad caſe that ſuch reaſons as theſe ſhould prevail with ſo many learned godly men, to deny the ſufficiency of Scripture as a teſt for Church-Communion, and to be ſtill framing new ones that depart (at leaſt) from Scripture-phraſe, as if this were neceſſary to obviate hereſies? Two things are neceſſary to obviate hereſies, the Law and good execution; God hath made the former, and his Rule and Law is both for ſenſe and phraſe (tranſlated) ſufficient: and all their additional inventions as to the foreſaid uſe are as ſpiders webs. Let us but do our part in the Due execution of the Laws of Chriſt, by queſtioning offenders in orderly Synods, for the breaking of theſe Laws, and let us avoid Communion with the impenitent; and what can the Church do more? The reſt belongs to the Magiſtrate (to reſtrain him p. 292from ſeducing his ſubjects) and not to us.

Well! this is the thing that I would recommend therefore to all my Brethren as the moſt neceſſary thing to the Churches peace, that you Unite in neceſſary truths, and tolerate tolerable failings; and bear with one another in things that may be born with; and do not make a larger Creed, and more neceſſaries then God hath done. And to that end, let no mans writings, nor the judgement of any party though right, be taken as a teſt, or made that rule. And I, Lay not too great a ſtreſs upon controverted opinions, which have godly men, and ſpecially whole Churches on both ſides. 2. Lay not too great a ſtreſs on thoſe Controverſies that are ultimately reſolved into Philoſophical uncertainties (as ſome unprofitable controverſies are about Free-will, and the manner of the ſpirits operation of Grace, and the Divine Decrees and Pre-determination.) 3. Lay not too great a ſtreſs on thoſe controverſies that are meerly verbal, and if they were anatomized would appear to be no more. Of which ſort are far more, (I ſpeak it confidently upon certain knowledge) that now make a great noiſe in the world, and tear the Church, then almoſt any of the eager contenders that ever I ſpoke with do ſeem to diſcern, or are like to believe. 4. Lay not too much on any point of faith which was diſowned of, or unknown to the whole Church of Chriſt in any age ſince the Scriptures were delivered us. 5. Much leſs ſhould you lay too much on thoſe which any of the more pure or judicious ages were wholly ignorant of. 6. And leaſt of all, ſhould you lay too much on any point which no one age ſince the Apoſtles did ever receive, but all commonly hold p. 293the contrary. For to make ſuch an error which all the Church held, to be ſuch as is damning were to unchurch all the Church of Chriſt: and to make it ſuch, as muſt exclude them from our Communion. 1. Doth make the whole Church excommunicable, which is abſurd. 2. And doth ſhew that i… we had lived in that age, you would it ſeems have ſeparated from the whole Church. To give an inſtance of the difference among errors. That any elect perſon ſhall fall away totally and finally, is a palpable condemned error; of dangerous conſequence. But that there are ſome juſtified ones not elect that ſhall fall away and periſh, is an errour of a lower nature, which may not break the Communion of Chriſtians: For otherwiſe we muſt renounce Communion with the Catholike Church in Auguſtines daies, and much more before (as is ſaid before.) What then? Shall I take this therefore for a truth which the Church then held? ſome will think me immodeſt to ſay, No; as if I were wiſer then all the Church, and that in ſo learned an age if not for ſo many: But yet I muſt be ſo immodeſt, as long as Scripture ſeemeth to me to warrant it! Why might not Auguſtine, Proſper, and all the reſt miſtake in ſuch a thing, as that? But then I am not ſo immodeſt nor unchriſtian as to unchurch all the Church on that account: Nor would I have ſeparated from Auſtin, and all the Church, if I had then lived; Nor will do now from any man on that account. Both ſides will be diſpleaſed with this reſolution, one, that I ſuppoſe all the Church to err, and our ſelves to be in the right; and the other, that I take it for no greater an error: but what remedy! it will, it muſt be ſo; Read Proſpers Reſpad p. 294Capit. Gall. and you may quickly know both Auſtins mind and his.

He that ſhall live to that happy time, when God will heal his broken Churches, ſhall ſee all this that I am now pleading for, reduced to practice, and this moderation take place of the new dividing zeal, and Scripture-ſufficiency take place, and all mens Confeſſions and Comments to be valued only as ſubſervient helps, and not to be the teſt of Church-Communion, any further then they are exactly the ſame with Scripture. And till the healing Age come, we cannot expect that healing truths be entertained, becauſe there are not healing ſpirits in the Leaders of the Church. But when the work is to be done, the workmen will be fitted for it; and bleſſed will be the agents of ſo glorious a work.

But becauſe the Love of Unity and Verity, Peace and Purity muſt be conjunctly manifeſted, we muſt avoid the extreams both in Doctrine and Communion. The extreams in Doctrine are on one ſide, by Innovating Additions: on the other ſide by envying or hindring the progreſs of the light. The former is the moſt dangerous, of which men are guilty theſe waies.

1. By making new points of faith, or duty.

2. By making thoſe points to be fundamental or neceſſary to ſalvation, that are not ſo.

3. By pretending of Prophetical and other obſcurer paſſages of the Scriptures that they have a greater objective Evidence, and we a greater certainty of their meaning, then indeed is ſo.

As I have met with ſome ſo confident of their right underſtanding of the Revelation (which Calvin p. 295durſt not expound, and profeſt he underſtood it not) that they have framed part of their Confeſſions or Articles of faith out of it; and grounded the weightyeſt actions of their lives upon their expoſition; and could confidently tell in our late changes and differences, which ſide was in the right and which in the wrong, and all from the Revelation; and thence would fetch ſuch arguments as would carry all, if you would but grant the ſoundneſs of their expoſitions; but if you put them to prove that, you marr'd all.

And theſe corruptions of ſacred Doctrine by their Additions are of two ſorts: ſome that are the firſt Inventers: and others that are the propagators and maintainers: and theſe when Additions grow old, do commonly maintain them under the notion of antient verities, and oppoſe the antient verities under the notion of Novelty, as is before ſaid.

The other extream about Doctrine is by hindring the progreſs of knowledge: and this is commonly on pretence of avoiding the Innovating extream. It muſt be conſidered therefore, how far we may grow, and not be culpable Innovaters. And 1. Our Knowledge muſt increaſe extenſively ad plura; we muſt know more verities, then we knew before, though we may not feign more. There is much of Scripture that will remain unknown to us when we have done our beſt. Though we ſhall find out no more Articles of faith which muſt be explicitly believed by all that will be ſaved, yet we may find out the ſenſe of more particular Texts, and ſeveral Doctrinal Truths, not contrary to the former, but ſuch p. 296as befriend them, and are connexed with them. And we may find out more the Order of Truths and how they are placed in reſpect to one another, and ſo ſee more of the true method of Theologie then we did, which will give us a very great light into the matter it ſelf, and its conſectaries.

2. Our knowledge alſo muſt grow ſub…ectively, intenſively and in the manner, as well as in the matter of it. And this is our principal growth to be ſought after. To know the ſame great and neceſſary truths with a ſounder and clearer kn…wledge then we did: which is done,

1. By getting ſtrong Evidence and Reaſons in ſtead of the weak ones which we truſted to before; (for many young ones receive Truths on ſome unſound grounds.)

2. By multiplying our Evidence and Reaſons for the ſame truth.

3. By a clearer and deeper apprehenſion of the ſame Evidence and Reaſons which before we had but ſuperficially received▪ For one that is ſtrong in knowledge ſeeth the ſame truth, as in the clear light, which the weak do ſee, but as in the twi light. To all this muſt be added alſo the fuller Improvement of the Truth received to its ends.

I ſhall give you the ſumme of my meaning in the words of that great enemy of Innovation, Vincent. Lirinenſ. c. 28. Sed for ſitan dicit aliquis: Nulluſneergo in Eccleſiâ Chriſti profectus haeb…bitur? Religionis Habeatur plane, & maximus: Nam quis ille eſt tam invidus hominibus, tam exoſus Deo, qui iſiud probibere conetur? ſed it a tamen ut verè profect… ſit ille fidei, non permutatio. Siquidem ad perfectum pertinet, ut p. 297in ſemet ipſâ unaquaeque res amplificetur: ad permutationem vero ut aliquid ex alio in aliud tranſvertatur. Creſcat igitur oportet, & multum, vehementerque proficiat, tam ſi…gulorum quam omnium; tam unius hominis quam totius Eccleſiae aetatum ac ſeculorum gradib…s intelligentia, ſcientia; ſapientiae; ſed in quo duntoxat gene…e, in eodem ſcilicet dogmate, eodem ſenſu, e…dem que ſententia.

And more plainly, and yet more briefly, Cap. 30. Ius eſt etenim, ut priſca illa caeleſtis Philoſophiae dogmata proceſſu temporis excurentur, limentur, poliantur; ſed nefas eſt, ut commutentur. Accipiant licet Evidentiam, Lu…em, Diſtinctionem; ſed retineant neceſſe eſt plenitudinem, integritatem, proprietatem. Let this mean then be obſerved if we would perform both Truth and Peace.

2. About Church Communion the common extreams are; on one ſide, the neglect or relaxation of Diſcipline, to the corrupting of the Church, the encouragement of wickedneſs, and confounding the Kingdom of Chriſt and Satan: And on the other ſide, the unneceſſary ſeparation of Proud men, either becauſe the Churches own not their own opinions, or becauſe they are not ſo reformed and ſtrict in Diſcipline as they would have them or as they ſhould be. I have ever obſerved the humbleſt men very tender of making ſeparations: and the proudeſt moſt prone to it. Many corruptions may be in a Church, and yet it may be a g…eat ſin to ſeparate from it, ſo that we be not put upon an owning of their corruptions, nor upon any actual ſin. …here is a ſtrange inclination in proud men to make the Church of Chriſt much narrower then it is, and to reduce it to p. 298almoſt nothing, and to be themſelves the members of ſome ſingular ſociety, as if they were loth to have too much company in heaven. And by a ſtrange deluſion through the workings of a proud fancy, they are fuller of joy in their ſeparted ſocieties, then they were, while they kept in the union of the Church. At leaſt ſuch power of Ordinances, and preſence of the ſpirit, purity and peace, is promiſed to the weak by the Leaders that would ſeduce them, as if the Holy-Ghoſt were more eminently among them then any where elſe in the world. This hath ever been the boaſting of Hereticks. As the foreſaid Vincentius ſaith, cap. 37. Jam vero illis quae ſequuntur permiſſionibus miro modo incautos homines haeretici decipere conſueverunt. Audent etenim polliceri & docere, quod in Eccleſia ſua, id eſt, in Communionis ſuae Conventiculo, magna & ſpecialis ac plane perſonalis quaedam ſit Dei gratia, adeo ut ſine ullo labore, ſine ullo ſtudio, ſine ulla induſtria, etiamſi nec quaerant, nec petant, nec pulſent, quicun que illi ad numerum ſuum pertinent, tamen ita divinitus diſpenſentur, &c. But their conſolations and high enjoyments being the effect of ſelf-conceitedneſs and fancies are uſually ſo mutable and of ſhort continuance, that either the heat of oppoſitions, or mutation to other ſects muſt maintain their life, or elſe they will grow ſtale and ſoon decay.

Having ſaid thus much of the means, I return to the end of this Exhortation beſeeching all the Miniſters of Chriſt to compaſſionate the poor divided Church, and to entertain ſuch Catholike principles, and charitable diſpoſitions, as tend to their own and the common peace. Hath any thing in the world p. 299done more to loſe our authority, and diſable us for Gods ſervice then our differences and diviſions? If Miniſters could but be all of a mind, or at leaſt concurr in the ſubſtance of the work, ſo that the people that hear one, might as it were hear all, and not have any of us to head a party for the diſcontented to fall into or to object againſt the reſt, we might then do wonders for the Church of Chriſt. But if our tongues and hearts be divided, what wonder if our work be ſpoiled, and prove liker a Babel then a Temple of God. Get together then ſpeedily, and conſult for peace, and cheriſh not heart-burnings, and continue not uncharitable diſtances and ſtrangeneſs. If dividing hath weakened you, cloſing muſt recover your authority and ſtrength. If you have any diſlike of your Brethren or their waies, manifeſt it by a free debate to their faces, but do not unneceſſarily withdraw from them. If you will but keep together, you may come to better underſtanding of each other, or at leaſt may chide your ſelves. Friends, ſpecially quarrel not upon points of precedency or reputation, or any intereſt of your own. No man will have ſettled peace in his mind, nor be peaceable in his place, that proudly envyeth the precedency, of others, and ſecretly grudgeth at them that ſeem to cloud their parts and name. One or other will ever be an eye-ſore to ſuch men. There is too much of the Devils image on this ſin, for an humble ſervant of Chriſt to entertain. Moreover, be not too ſenſible of injuries: and make not a great matter of every offenſive word or deed. At leaſt do not let it interrupt your Communion and Concord in Gods work: For that were to wrong Chriſt and his Church, p. 300becauſe another hath wronged you. And if you be of this impatient humor, you will never be quiet: For we are all faulty, and cannot live together without wronging one another. Ubi que cauſae ſuperſunt niſi deprecator animus acceſsit, ſaith Seneca. And theſe proud over-tender men are often hurt by their own conceits: Like a man that hath a ſore that he thinks doth ſmart more when he conceits that ſome one hits it. They will think a man jeareth them, or contemneth them, or meaneth them ill, when it never came into his thoughts! Till this ſelf be taken down, we ſhall every man have a private intereſt and of his own, which will lead us all into ſeveral waies, and ſpoil the peace and welfare of the Church: while every man is for himſelf and his own Reputation, and all mind their own things, no wonder if they mind not the things of Chriſt.

And as for thoſe opinions which hinder our union (alas the great dividers of this age) me thinks if I cannot change their minds, I might yet rationally expect of every Party among us that profefs themſelves Chriſtians, that they ſhould value the whole before a part; and therefore not ſo perverſly ſeek to promote their party, as may hinder the common good of the Church, or ſo to propagate their ſuppoſed Truths, as to hinder the work of the main body of divine Truths. And me thinks a little humility ſhould make men aſhamed of that common conceit of unquiet ſpirits; viz. That the welfare of the Church doth ſo lye upon their opinions, that they muſt needs vent and propagate them whatever come of it. If they are indeed a living part of the body, the hurt of the whole will be ſo much their own, p. 301that they cannot deſire it for the ſake of any party, or opinion. Were men but impartial to conſider in every ſuch caſe of difference, how far their promoting their own judgement may help or hurt the whole, they might eſcape many dangerous waies that are now trod. If you can ſee no where elſe, look in the face of the Churches enemies, how they rejoyce and deride us. And as Seneca ſaith to demulce the angry, Vide ne inimici… iracundia tua voluptati ſit. When we have all done, I know not what party of us will prove a gayner: ſo true are the old proverbs, Diſſenſio ducum hoſtium ſuccum. And Gaudent praedones, dum diſcordant regiones. And is it not a wonder that godly Miniſters that know all this how the common adverſary derideth us all and what a ſcandal our diviſions are through the world, and how much the Church doth loſe by it, ſhould yet go on, and after all the loudeſt calls and invitations to peace, go on ſtill, and few, if any ſound a retreat? and ſeriouſly call to their Brethren for a retreat: Can an honeſt heart be inſenſiſile of the ſad diſtractions and ſadder Apoſtacies that our diviſions have occaſioned? Saep… rixam conclamatum in vicino incendium ſolvit, ſaith Seneca. What ſcolds ſo furious that will not give over, when the houſe is on fire over their heads? Well; if the Lord hath given that evil ſpirit whoſe name is Legion, ſuch power over the hearts of any, that yet they will ſit ſtill, yea and quarrel at the pacificatory endeavours of others who hunger after the healing of the Church, and rather carp, and reproach, and hinder ſuch works then to help them on, I ſhall ſay but this to them: How diligently ſoever ſuch men may preach, and how pious ſoever they p. 302may ſeem to be, if this way tend to their everlaſting peace, and if they be not preparing ſorrow for themſelves, then I am a ſtranger to the way of peace.

SECT. XI.

7. THE next branch of my Exhortation is, that You would no longer neglect the execution of ſo much Diſcipline in your Congregations, as it of confeſſed neceſſity and right. I deſire not to ſour on any one to an unſeaſonable performance of the greateſt duty. But will it never be a fit ſeaſon? Would you forbear Sermons and Sacraments ſo many years on pretence of unſeaſonableneſs? Will you have better ſeaſon for it, when you are dead? How many are dead already before they ever did any thing in this work that were long preparing for it? It is now near three years ſince many of us here did engage our ſelves to this duty: And have we been faithful in performance of that engagement? I know ſome have more diſcouragements and hinderances then others: But what diſcouragements can excuſe us from ſuch a duty? Beſides the Reaſons that we then conſidered of, let theſe few be further laid to heart.

1. How ſad a ſign do we make it to be in our preaching to our people, to live in the willful continued omiſſion of any known duty? And ſhall we do ſo even year after year and all our daies. If excuſes will take off the danger of this ſign, what man will not find them as well as you? Read Ameſius medul. cap. 37. de Diſciplin. Eccleſ. & Geleſpi's, Aarons rod, p. 303with Rutherford and many more that are written to prove the Need and Dueneſs of Diſcipline, ſaith Ameſ. ib. ſect. 5. Immo peccat in Chriſtum authorem ac inſtitutorem quiſquis non facit quod in ſe eſt, ad hanc Diſciplinam in Eccleſiis Dei conſtituendam & promovendam. And do you think it ſafe to live and dye in ſuch a known ſin?

2. You gratifie the preſent deſigns of dividers, whoſe buſineſs is to unchurch us and unchriſten us: to prove our Pariſhes no true Churches (and our ſelves no baptized Chriſtians.) For if you take them for people uncapable of Diſcipline, they muſt be uncapable of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and other Church-Communion; and then they are no Church. And ſo you will plainly ſeem to preach meerly as they do, to gather Churches where there were none before. And indeed if that be your caſe that your people are not Chriſtians, and you have no particular Churches, and ſo are no Paſtors, tell us ſo and manifeſt it, and we ſhall not blame you.

3. We do manifeſt plain lazineſs and ſloath, if not unfaithfulneſs in the work of Chriſt. I ſpeak from experience; It was lazineſs that kept me off ſo long, and pleaded hard againſt this duty. It is indeed a troubleſom and painful work, and ſuch as calls for ſome ſelf-denyal, becauſe it will caſt us upon the diſpleaſure of the wicked. But dare we preferr our carnal eaſe, and quietneſs, and the love or peace of wicked men, before our ſervice to Chriſt our Maſter? Can ſloathful ſervants look for a good reward? Remember Brethren, that we of this County have thus Promiſed before God in the ſecond Article of our Agreement, We agree and reſolve by Gods help, p. 304that ſo far as God doth make known our duty to us, we will faithfully endeavour to diſcharge it, and will not, deſiſt through any fears or loſſes in our eſtates, or the frowns and diſpleaſure of men, or any the like carnal inducements whatſoever. I pray you ſtudy this promiſe, and compare your performance with it. And do not think that you were enſnared by thus engaging; for Gods Law hath laid an obligation on you to all the ſame duty, before your engagement did it. Here is nothing but what others are bound to, as well as you.

4. The Miniſtery that are for the Presbyterian Government have already by their common neglect of the execution, made thoſe of the ſeparating way believe, that they do it in a meer carnal compliance with the unruly part of the people, that while we exaſperate them not with our Diſcipline, we might have them on our ſide. And we ſhould do nothing needleſs, that hath ſo great an appearance of evil and is ſo ſcandalous to others. It was the ſin and ruine of many of the Clergy of the laſt times, to pleaſe and comply with them that they ſhould have reproved and corrected; by unfaithfulneſs in preaching, and neglect of Diſcipline.

5. The neglect of Diſcipline hath a ſtrong tendency to the deluding of ſouls; by making them think they are Chriſtians that are not: while they are permitted to live in the reputation of ſuch, and be not ſeparated from the reſt by Gods Ordinance: and it may make the ſcandalous to think their ſin a tolerable thing which is ſo tolerated by the Paſtors of the Church.

6. We do corrupt Chriſtianity if ſelf in the eyes p. 305of the world; and do our part to make them believe, that to be a Chriſtian is but to be of ſuch an Opinion, and to have that faith which James ſaith the Devils had, and to be ſolifidians; and that Chriſt is no more for Holineſs, then Satan, or that the Chriſtian Religion exacteth Holineſs no more, then the falſe Religions of the world: For if the Holy and unholy are all permitted to be ſherp of the ſame fold, without the uſe of Chriſts means to difference them, we do our part to defame Chriſt by it, as if he were guilty of it, and as if this were the ſtrain of his preſcripts

7. We do keep up ſeparation, by permitting the worſt to be uncenſured in our Churches, ſo that many honeſt Chriſtians think they are neceſſitated to withdraw. I muſt profeſs that I have ſpoke with ſome members of the ſeparated (or gathered) Churches, that were moderate men, and have argued with them againſt their way; and they have aſſured me, That they were of the Presbyterian judgement, or bad nothing to ſay againſt it, but they joyned themſelves with other Churches upon meer neceſſity, thinking that Diſcipline being an Ordinance of Chriſt, muſt be uſed by all that can, and therefore they durſt no longer live without it when they may have it; and they could find no Presbyterian Churches that executed Diſcipline, as they wrote for it; and they told me, that they did thus ſeparate only protempore, till the Presbyterians will uſe Diſcipline, and then they would willingly return to them again. I confeſs I was ſorry that ſuch perſons had any ſuch occaſion to withdraw, and the leaſt ground for ſuch a reaſon of their doings. It is not keeping them from the Sacrament that will excuſe us from p. 306the further exerciſe of Diſcipline, while they are Members of our Churches.

8. We do too much to bring the wrath of God upon our ſelves and our Congregations, and ſo to blaſt the fruit of our labours. If the Angel of the Church of Thyatira was reproved for ſuffering Seducers in the Church, we may be reproved on the ſame ground for ſuffering open, ſcandalous, impenitent ones. Rev. 2 20.

9. We ſeem to juſtifie the Prelates who took the ſame courſe in neglecting Diſcipline, (though in other things we differ.)

10. We have abundance of aggravations and witneſſes to riſe up againſt us, which though I will purpoſely now over-paſs, leſt I ſeem to preſs too hard in this point, I ſhall deſire you to apply them hither, when you meet with them anon under the next branch of the Exhortation.

I know that Diſcipline is not eſſential to a Church; but what of that? Is it not therefore a duty; and neceſſary to its well-being; Yea more, The power of Diſcipline is eſſential to a particular Political Church: And what is the Power for, but for the work and uſe? As there is no Common-wealth that hath not partem imperantem, as well as partem ſubditam, ſo no ſuch Church that hath not partem regentem, in one Paſtor or more.

p. 307SECT. XII.

8. THE laſt particular branch of my Exhortation is, that You will now faithfully diſcharge the great duty which you have undertaken, and which is the occaſion of our meeting here to day, in perſonal Catechizing and Inſtructing every one in your Pariſhes that will ſubmit thereto. What our undertaking is you know, you have conſidered it, and it is now publiſhed to the world. But what the performance will be I know not: but I have many reaſons to hope well of the moſt, though ſome will alwaies be readyer to ſay, then to do. And becauſe this is the chief buſineſs of the day, I muſt take leave to inſiſt ſomewhat the longer on it. And 1. I ſhall give you ſome further Motives to perſwade you to faithfulneſs in the undertaken work; Preſuppoſing the former general Motives, which ſhould move us to this as well as to any other part of our duty. 2. I ſhall give to the younger of my Brethren, a few words of Advice for the manner of the performance.

p. 308CHAP. VI.