Part 11

1. To beseech you to consider, whether you did not receive the _work of Conversion from sin unto God, which ye presume to be wrought in you first of all, in these publique assemblies, from which you now separate?_ And if once you found Christ walking amongst us, How is it that you do now leave us? Do you not therein leave Christ also? Are we lesse, and not rather more reformed then we were? If the presence of Christ, both of his power and grace, be with us, why will you deny us your presence? Are ye holier and wiser then Christ? Is not this an evident token that we are true Churches, and have a true Ministry, because we have the seal of our Ministry, even the conversion of many sons and daughters unto God? Doth not the Apostle from this very ground, [176]argue the truth of his Apostleship? Is it not apparent, that our Ministers are sent by God, Because their Embassage is made successfull by God, for the good of souls? Did you ever read of true conversion ordinarily in a false Church? Will the Lord concur with those Ministers whom he sends not? Doth not the Prophet seem to say the quite contrary, _Ier._ 23.33. And therefore either renounce your conversion, or be converted from that great sin of separating from us.

2. To consider, whether there was not a time, _when ye could have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to those Ministers, whose eyes you would now pluck out, and whom now you hate, and think you do God good service, in reviling and persecuting them._ How is it, that you are thus altered and changed? _Are they become your enemies, because they tell you the truth?_ You will Reply, It is because they are _Ministers Ordained by Antichristian Bishops_; and therefore before they have renounced their false Ministry, we cannot with a safe conscience hear them, nor expect a blessing from their Ministry. This Reply is, we confess, a great stumbling block to many godly people, in this Kingdome; for satisfaction to it, we offer these particulars:

1. Many of you that make this Reply, hold, _That the Election of the people is by Gods Word sufficient to make a man a true Minister without Ordination._

Now it is certain, that many publique Ministers have been chosen by the free and full consent of their Congregations; and most of them have had an after consent, which was sufficient to make _Leah_ _Jacobs_ wife[177], and why not (to use your own words) to marry a man to a people; and therefore according to your own judgments, all such are lawfull Ministers. For sinfull superadditions do not nullifie divine Institutions.

2. Some of you, that besides Election, require Ordination for the making of a Minister, yet say, that this Ordination must be by the people of the Congregation; and thus are your Ministers ordained.

Now we finde neither precept nor president for this in all the Scripture; we finde [178]_Ordination by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery_, but never of the laying on of the hands of the people. We finde [179]the Apostles, _Timothy_ and _Titus_, _Ordaining_, but never the people _Ordaining_; and for private persons to assume the power of Ordination (that is, a power to send men to preach the Gospel, and administer the Sacraments) is a sin like unto the sin of _Uzzah_, and of _Corah_, and his company. Therefore we say to you, as Christ doth, _Matth._ 6. _First pluck the beam out of thine own eye, and then_, &c. First justifie the Ordination of your own Ministers by private persons, and then you will see better, to find fault with the Ordination of our Ministers.

3. We distinguish between a defective Ministry, and a false Ministry, as we do between a man that is lame or blind, and a man that is but the picture of a man. We do not deny, but that the way of Ministers entring into the Ministry by the Bishops, had many defects in it, for which they ought to be humbled: But we add, that notwithstanding all the accidental corruptions, yet it is not substantially and essentially corrupted: As it is with Baptism in the Popish Church; all Orthodox Divines account it valid, though mingled with much dross, because the party baptized, is _baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost_. And therefore, when a Papist turns Protestant, he is not baptized again, because the substance of Baptisme is preserved in Popery under many defects. The like, and much more, may be said for the _Ordination of our Ministers by Bishops_: It is lawful and valid for the substance of it, though mingled with many circumstantial defects.

And this appears,

1. Because when they were ordained, _they were designed to no other Office, but to preach the Word, and administer the Sacraments; according to the Will of Christ._

2. Because since their Ordination, _God hath sealed the truth of their Ministry_ (as hath been said) _by his blessing upon it_. If they be _Antichristian Ministers_, how is your _conversion Christian_?

3. Because they were ordained by Bishops, not as Lord Bishops, or as _a superiour Order by divine Right above a Presbyter_; but as they were _Presbyters_. For the understanding of which, you must know,

1. That by Scripture, a Bishop and Presbyter is all one, as appears by _Act._ 10.27, 28. _Tit._ 1.5, 6, 7, 8. _Phil._ 1.1. 1 _Tim._ 3.1, 2, &c. 1 _Pet._ 5.1, 2. and by what is said by the Authors quoted in the [180]Margent.

2. _That the Lordly Dignities of Bishops were meer civill additaments annexed to their Bishopricks by Kingly favour._

3. That this Opinion, that _Bishops are a [181]superiour Order of Ministry, by Divine Right above a Presbyter, is a late upstart Opinion, contrary to antiquity_, as appears by the Authors quoted in the Margent.

4. That the Laws of this Realm do account nothing _divine_ in a Bishop, but his being a Presbyter; and therefore the Parliament in their _Ordinance for Ordination_, tels us, _That they did ordain as Presbyters, not as Bishops, much lesse as Lord Bishops_.

As for their usurpation of the sole power of Jurisdiction, together with their Lordly Titles & Dignities, and Dependances, we have renounced them in our _Solemn League and Covenant_: But we never did, nor never shall renounce them as _Presbyters_, which by the consent of all sides, are by _Divine Right_.

We shall add one thing more,

4. That Ministers do not receive their Ministry from the People, or Bishops, but immediatly from Jesus Christ: For they are Ministers and Embassadors of Christ, not of the People: Indeed they are Embassadors for the good of the People, but not Embassadors of the People: All that the people or Bishop doth, is but to _choose_ and _ordain_ a man; but it is Christ that gives him his _power and authority_; As when a wife _chooseth a husband_, and a Town a Mayor; the Town doth not give the Mayor, nor the wife the husband, the power they have; but the _Laws of God_, the one and of _Man_, the other: So it is here, It is Christ that gives the Office, and the Call to the Ministry; They are his _Servants_, and in his _Name_ execute their function. It is he that fits them with ability for their work; the people they consent, and the _Bishop as a Presbyter, with other Presbyters, ordain him_; which though it had many Corruptions mingled with it, when the _Bishop_ was in all his pomp and Lordliness, yet for the substance of it, it was lawful & warrantable, and _therefore cannot without sin be renounced and abjured_.

3. In the third place we exhort you to consider, _whether since you have forsaken our Congregations, you have not fallen into such strange opinions, and those of so high a nature, as that if any man should have told you seven years ago, that you would have one time or another fall into them, you would have said to him, as_ Hazael _did to the Prophet; Am I a dog, that I should do this?_ Who would ever have thought, that you that did once sigh, mourn, and bitterly complain, _That a Chappell was permitted to the Queen to hear Masse in, should now plead for a toleration of Popery, and all manner of Errours and Heresies? That you that did once flock to our Churches as Doves to the windows, should now not only forsake ours, but all Churches of whatever constitution; That you that did once so much prize Christ, and his holy Scriptures, should now (some of you at least) deny the Divinity of Christ, and his holy Scriptures?_ But this is no great wonder, for the Apostle hath foretold it, [182]_That evill men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived_; and that _they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a Canker_, &c. _Errour_ is of an incroaching nature; as the _little Theef_ openeth the _door_ oftentimes to the _great Theef_ so a little _errour_ paves a cause-way to a greater: The _Popish superstition_ at first grew secretly, the _tares_ were hidden under the _corn_; but in a little while the _tares_ grew up, so as no _corn_ could be seen: Images, at first were brought into the Church _only for an historicall use_; afterwards, to stir up _devotion_, at last, they came to be _worshipped_: Let the Serpent but winde in his head, & he will quickly bring in his whole body: Your _first errour_ was in _separating from our Churches_, from which _Christ doth not separate_. Here the _Serpent got in his head_, & no wonder his whole body _followed_; he that saith _yea_ to the Devil in a little, shall not say _nay_ when he please: He that tumbleth down the _Hill of Error_, will never leave tumbling, till he comes to the _bottome_. First you deny our Ministers to be true Ministers, and our Ordinances to be true Ordinances; and then God, as a just Judge, gives you over, in a little time, to deny all _Ministers and Ordinances_, and then to be _above all Ministers and Ordinances_; and at last, to be above Christ himself, and not to stand in need of his _mediation to God the Father_. First you deny _Baptisme of Infants_, and then after, _Baptisme of water_: In a word, First you _run away from us_, and then for the most part turn _Independents_, then _Antinomians_, then _Anabaptists_ then _Arminians_, then some of you _Socinians_, _Antiscripturists_, _Anti-Trinitarians_, still waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, & in the conclusion, meer _Atheists_.

Suffer us therefore to speak to you in the words of Christ, to the Church of _Ephesus_. Rev. 2.5. _Remember from whence you are faln, and repent, and do your first works_, &c. Repent of all your Soul-destroying _Errours_, and return to the Churches from which ye have most unjustly separated, for fear, lest _God as a just Judge_, because you would not receive the love of the truth that you might be saved, should still give you over to strong delusions, that ye should believe a lye, _That all they might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse_: And this makes way to the fourth thing we have to say to you; and that is,

4. To beseech you to consider, _Whether since you forsook our Congregations, you are not much decayed in the power of Godliness_, whether you have not lost your first love to Godly Ministers, Gospel-Ordinances, Fastings, reading the Word, private & Family prayers, and Communion of Saints; whether you are not grown more censorious, self-conceited, headie, high-minded, treacherous, fierce, despisers of those that are good, and lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God; whether Duties to God and Man have not been more neglected, Sabbaths more prophaned, Families worse governed; the publique welfare of Church and State have not been less minded, whether prophaneness, or prophane Ones, have not been more indulged; and whether you be not sensibly and dangerously apostatized from that close and humble walking with God, which formerly some of you did so much labour after: For the truth is, _Corruption in the Judgment, will quickly bring corruption in the conversation_. Our actions are guided by our apprehensions; and if our apprehensions be _erroneous_, our _actions_ will quickly be tainted with wickednesse; And therefore it is very observeable, [183]_That in the old Law, when the Leprosie was in the head, the Priest was not only to pronounce the man unclean, but utterly unclean_: For Leprosie in the head, will quickly beget a Leprosie in the whole man: As the Sun is to the World; so is the Understanding to Man: If the Sun be dark, all the world is in darknesse; and if the light that is in thee (saith Christ) be darkness, _How great is that darkness?_ We wonder not at the _looseness_ of your practices, when we consider the _looseness_ of your principles: _For Doctrines contrary to Godliness, must needs bring forth a conversation contrary to the Gospell._ And this is an evident token to us, that the _New-Lights_ (as they are called) which you hold forth to the world, proceed not from the _Father of Lights_, but the _Prince of Darkness_, because they lead men into the _Works of Darkness_.

Therefore seeing that since your departure from us, you have wofully back-slidden from God, and are visibly decaid in Holiness and Righteousness, Our Exhortation to you is, that you would return to your first Principles; for then it was better with you, then now; And our prayer to God for you is, _That he would give you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that you may recover your selves out of the snare of the Devill, who are taken captive by his will._

Having finished that we had to say to those that separate from our Church, we now go on to speak a few words to those that _continue with us still, and that wait upon the publique Ministry, but do not yet joyn with us, in partaking of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper_. These we shall divide into three ranks.

1. Such as are _young people_, not yet sufficiently instructed in the grounds of Religion.

2. Such as are _grown in years_, and come to our Churches, but yet are scandalous in life and conversation.

3. Such as live, for ought we know, unblameably, but yet refuse to come to the Sacrament in the Presbyterian way.

1. Such as are _young people_, and not yet sufficiently instructed in the grounds of Religion; Our Exhortation to you is, _That you would remember your Creator in the days of your Youth_; the word in the Hebrew[184] is, in the choyce of thy dayes: The time of Youth is the Golden Age; and grace in Youth, is like a Jewel in a gold-ring. The time of Youth, it is the _Seasoning Age_: A Vessell will of a long time retain the savour of that liquor that it is first seasoned withall; _Teach a child_ (saith Solomon) _the trade of his way, and he will not depart from it when he is old_. The time of Youth is the chiefe time you have to _work for heaven_. Old age is a time to _spend grace_; but Youth is the time to get it: Old Age is the time to _reap_ the fruit of holiness, but Youth is the time to _sow_ the seed of it: And it is a time, that of all times God doth most require, and most delight in. It is observed by one, that Christ [185]_loved his youngest Disciple best_: And by Another, that Christ was _wonderfully delighted_ with that _Hosanna_ that the children sang unto him, Mat. 21.16. [186]_The childrens Hosanna pleased him no less then the mens Hallelujahs; Suffer little children to come unto me_, saith Christ, _for to them belongeth the Kingdome of God._ In the Old Testament God hath manifested a great deal of love to young people; He chose _Abel_, the younger, _Shem_, the younger, _Abraham_, the younger, _Jacob_, the younger; young _Samuel_, and young _David_, and young _Josiah_: And therefore let young men, especially, be exhorted to begin betimes, to bear the yoak of the Lord; _Seek ye first the Kingdome of God, and his Righteousness_; first, _before_ any thing else; and first, _more_ then any other thing. Say not, (O say not!) I am a young man, and therefore may plead for liberty to do what I list, till I come of riper years: But remember, _That Jesus Christ shed his blood for thee when he was 8. dayes old_; and took thee into his Family by _Baptisme_, _when thou didst hang upon thy mothers Breast_; Thou art (it may be) a young man, but a Baptized young-man; A Young-man consecrated and dedicated to God; And it is not only sin, but sacriledg and perjury, to _impropriate that that is dedicated to God, to the service of the Devill_. Remember the wrath manifested from Heaven _against the 42. children_ that mocked _Elisha_; And remember further, That young people must dye, as well as old: _There are Skulls in Golgotha, of all sizes_; and young people have _immortall souls_, and must appear at the great day of Judgment, as well as _old_; Young people are by nature _children of wrath, heires of hell_; and therefore this is thy first work (_O young man_) to get out of the Root of Abomination, into the Root of Acceptation; out of the old _Adam_ into the new _Adam_; & before this be done, (though thou shouldst spend thy time in gathering up Pearls and Jewels,) thou art an undone creature.

For the better effecting of this, we exhort you, to attend diligently to the publike Preaching of the Word, and willingly and cheerfully to submit to be catechized and instructed by your _Parents, Masters, and Ministers_. The Scripture divideth a Congregation, into him that _catechizeth_, and those that are _catechized_, saying, [187]_Let them that are taught_, or (as it is in the Greek) _Catechized, communicate to him that teacheth_ (or _catechizeth_) _them in all good things_. In the Primitive times, when any Heathen man was converted to Christianity, he was first a _catechumenus_, before he was admitted either to _Baptisme_, or the _Lords Supper_. And _Egesippus_ testifies, [188]_that by the diligent instruction of the Church, there was no known Common-Wealth in any part of the World, inhabited, but within fourty years after Christs passion, received a great shaking of Heathenish Religion._ There are in Christian Religion, _fundamentalls_ and _superstructions_. The _fundamentalls_ are the vitals of Christianity: These are comprized in many of our _English_ Catechismes. Amongst all others, we do more especially commend the _greater and lesser Catechismes made by the Reverend Assembly of Divines_, _and published to be used in all Churches in_ England _and_ Wales, _by Authority of Parliament_. These we exhort you, not only to read, but to learn. And to invite you thereunto, we further declare;

That the study of the Catechisme, is a singular help for the _right understanding_ of the Scriptures: (For the Catechisme is nothing else, but a Methodical Extract out of the Bible, of the fundamentals of Christian Religion;) And it is also very useful to make you understand what your _Ministers preach to you_; And to keep you from the _Errours_ and _Heresies of these times_ to prepare you to give a distinct and perfect account of your Faith to the Minister and Elders. For one great Reason why men do so pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction, and run wilde into so many errors and heresies, and are so unable to give a particular and distinct account to the Minister and Elders, is for want of the study of the Catechisme. As a ship _without ballast_ is tossed about with every wave and wind; so is a _man without the study of the Catechisme_, carried about with every wind of vain doctrine. As a _house_ without a foundation will quickly fall, so will a Christian that is not well verst in the fundamentals of Religion. As Children grow _crooked_, that are not well looked to at first; so many run into _crooked opinions_, because not well catechized.

And therefore we earnestly beseech and intreat all Parents, and Masters of Families, that they would make conscience of this great duty of catechizing their children and servants. And oh that the Lord would make our words to take impression upon your hearts. In the Old Testament God commands Parents to _teach diligently their children_. The word in the Hebrew[189] is, to _whet the Law_ upon their children. The fourth Commandement is directed not to children, and servants, but to Parents and Masters; And they are there commanded, not only _in their own persons_, to keep the Sabbath; but to see that their _children and servants do it also_. It is not, _Thou, or thy son, or thy daughter; But thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter_. It doth not say, (as _Zanchy_ well observes[190],) _Remember thou to keep holy the Sabbath day, and to perswade thy children and servants to keep it holy_: But _remember thou to keep it holy, and thy son, and thy servant_, implying thereby, _that it is the Duty of the Master and Father, to compell his servant and children to the keeping of the Sabbath day_. For doing of this, God exceedingly extols _Abraham_, Gen. 18.19. _I know that he will command his children, and his household after him, that they keep the wayes of the Lord_: upon which words, a learned Divine wrote thus; [191]_Abraham did not leave his children and servants to their own genius, their own counsels, their own lusts, though it is certain, divers of them would have thanked him for such a liberty; for they had been nursed up in superstition and idolatry, as_ Abraham _was, and might have pretended, that they were not satisfied in point of conscience. But_ Abraham _knew how to distinguish between liberty of conscience, and liberty of lust, and therefore would not allow them such a liberty as would have enticed them into the worst kinde of bondage._ The New Testament also calls upon Parents, not only to bring up their children, but to [192]_nurture them up in instruction and admonition of the Lord_. Old _Eli_ was _grievously punished_ for neglect of this duty: And let his severe chastisement be as a _warning-piece_ to all Fathers and Masters; And let them know, _That if their children and servants perish for want of instruction, through their negligence, their blood will be required at their hands._

And if Parents and Masters, much more ought Ministers to be very conscientious in the diligent discharge of this duty. Our Saviour Christ layeth an express command upon them, not only _to feed the sheep_, _but also the lambs of Christ_. It is no disparagement to a _Peter_, to be a _feeder of Christs lambs_. Oh that Ministers would unanimously and universally set to this duty! We commend it to them, as a most _Soveraign Antidote_, to preserve their Congregations from the errours of these times. It is reported of _Julian_, that amongst other subtile plots he used for the rooting out of Christian Religion; One was the _suppression of all Christian Schools_, and places of catechizing. [193]And as one saith, _If he had not been as a Cloud that soon passeth away, it had been to be feared, lest within a short time he had overshadowed all Religion._ For when Catechizing was taken from the Church, it was presently all overspread with ignorance. And it is further added by the same Author, That the Papists themselves acknowledg, that all the advantage the Protestants got of them in the beginning of Reformation, was by their catechizing; because they began sooner to catechize, then they did. And it is to be feared, saith he, if ever the Papists get once again advantage of Us, it will be by their exacter catechizing, then ours. And therefore, if ever you would prevent the further _corruption_ of mens Judgments, and secure them from the infection of _errour_, and preserve Religion from ruine. We exhort you in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ, to practise this duty; and intreat our people with all readiness and constancie, to submit unto this Ordinance of God, which with so much publique prejudice, hath been so long neglected.

And to perswade people thereunto, let them consider further,

1. If Ministers are bound to catechize; then people are bound to be catechized.

2. That they are baptized, and thereby consecrated unto Christ, and obliged by promise, to give up themselves unto instruction.