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< he hath of that thing; and whatever the matter be, • let him be sure not to forget a fober, modeft, bash<ful behaviour; without which virtues, doubtless no ⚫ good can be effected. But here we muft attentively confider, both how far a man ought to fubmit to the judgment of the congregation, and who may defervedly be accounted a troubler of the church. Verily • I conceive a man ought so far to give way, as that, ⚫ after I have alledged what I had to fay for my opinion, if yet the reft fhall not allow of my judgment, I ought to give over defending it, and cease ⚫ to be troublesome to the congregation concerning ⚫ the fame: but I ought not to be compelled to confefs • that I have erred, nor to deprecate any fault, while I do not yet understand that I have erred, for fo I • fhall fin against God. He therefore is a troubler of the church, that will not, fo far as we have expreffed, fubmit to the judgment of the church, but ⚫ goeth on to be troublesome; but especially that man who would exact of another that which he ought not to do; viz. to recant, being not perfuaded that he ⚫ is in an error. But those men are commonly reputed • troublers of the church, who refuse to ratify what⚫ ever shall any ways fall out of the paftors mouths.

Again, in this place it may reasonably be demanded, < whether, when that a matter hath been once or twice debated, and fome man, knowing the judgment of the congregation, would again reduce it into contro• verfy, he ought to be heard, or injoined filence, and ⚫ take the matter for determined. But of this we shall in another place more conveniently difpute. That which remains, therefore, is, that we wrestle with God, by daily prayers, to grant that we may have the ufe of this fo fovereign and faving liberty, so profitable to the church, and that thereby we may reap • abundance of fruit: and that he would, to that end, • break and tame our spirits with his spirit, and render them mild and gentle; and not fuffer what he hath • ordained for the confirmation and establishment of his church, to be, by the ftubbornnefs and perverse

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nefs of our wits and minds, turned to the mischief • and deftruction thereof.' With much more to the fame purpose, too large to be here inserted.

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What I have cited, makes an apology, for doing so, needlefs: his whole book is a moft accurate account of Satan's ftratagems, to caufe and keep up divifions among Chriftians; deferving a firft place with the most Christian writers fince the apoftolical times. He was an Italian, of excellent natural and fupernatural endowments, banished about Luther's time for the gofpel. Let us now inform ourselves of the judgment of that great man of our own country, J. Hales, of Eton, in his treatife of the Power of the Keys,' upon the matter in hand; viz. To your fecond query, Whether the keys were configned to the apoftles only? The anfwer is in no cafe hard to give; it may perchance, in fome cafe, be dangerous; for there is a generation ' of men in the world, the clergy they call them, who impropriate the keys unto themselves, and would be C very angry to understand, that others from themselves 'fhould claim a right unto them. To your question then; no doubt but originally none received the keys from the mouth of our Saviour, but the apoftles < only; none did, or ever could, manage them with that authority and fplendor, as the apostles did, whò ‹ were, above all, moft amply furnished with all things. fitting fo great a work. For whereas you feem to intimate, that the preaching miffion was communi'cated to others, as the feventy-two difciples, as well as the apostles, you do but mistake yourself, if you ' conceive that the keys of the gofpel were any way ' committed to them: for concerning the mystery of Jefus Chrift, and him crucified for the fins of the world (wherein, indeed, the opening the kingdom of heaven did confift) they received it not, they ' knew it not. To be the prime reporters of this, was an honour imparted only to the apoftles: yet were they not fo imparted, as that they fhould be con

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• J. Hales, Of the Keys, page 170, 171, 172, 173.

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• fined to them. Every one that heard and received the light of the faving doctrine from them, so far • forth as he had understanding in the ways of life, had • now the keys of the kingdom of heaven committed to his power, both for his own and others use. Every C one, of what ftate or condition foever, that hath any occafion offered him to ferve another in the ways of life, clergy or lay, male or female, whatever he be, hath these keys, not only for himself, but for the be⚫nefit of others. For if natural goodness teach every ⚫ man, Lumen de Lumine, erranti comiter monftrare viam, • &c. then how much more doth Chriftian goodness require of every one, to his ability, to be a light to those who fit in darkness, and direct their steps who • most dangerously mistake their way? To fave a foul, every man is a priest. To whom I pray you, is that faid in Leviticas, "Thou shalt not fee thy brother "fin, but fhalt reprove, and fave thy brother?" And if the law binds a man, when he faw his enemy's cattle to ftray, to put them in their way; how much ⚫ more doth it oblige him to do the like for the man • himself? See you not how the whole world confpires ⚫ with me in the fame opinion? Doth not every father

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teach his fon, every mafter his fervant, every man his < friend? How many of the laity in this age, and from ⚫ time to time in all ages, have by writing, for the publick good, propagated the gospel of Chrift; as if fome • fecret inftinct of nature had put into mens minds thus ' to do, &c.

To this let me add his fense of the force of the fathers authority in the decifion of controverfies; and how far the ancients, whether fathers or councils, ought to be interested in the debates of thefe times; which may not be improper to the prefent fubject, becaufe not a few build upon their bottom; the Clergy to be fure, that pretend to direct the rest.

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You fhall find,' fays he,

that all Schifms have crept into the church by one of these three ways;

⚫ either upon matter of fact, or matter of opinion, or

J. Hales, Tract of Schifm, p. 201, 202, 203, 204.

⚫ point

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point of ambition. For the firft; I call that matter of fact, when fomething is required to be done by us, which either we know, or strongly suspect, to be unlawful: fo the first notable fchifm, of which we read, ' in the church, contained in it matter of fact: for it being, upon error, taken for neceffary that an Eafter must be kept; and upon worse than error, if I may so speak, for it was no less than a point of Judaism, • forced upon the church, upon worfe than error, I fay, thought further neceffary, that the ground for the ' time of our keeping that feast, must be the rule left by Mofes to the Jews; there arofe a ftout question, ' whether we were to celebrate, with the Jews, on the fourteenth moon, or the Sunday following? This matter, though most unneceffary, moft vain, yet caused as great a combustion as ever was in the church; the weft feparating, and refufing communion with the eaft, for many years together. In this fantastical hurry, I cannot fee but all the world were fchifmaticks: neither can any thing excufe them from that imputation, excepting only this, that we charitably fuppofe that all parties, out of confcience, did what they did.

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A thing which befel them through the ignorance of their guides; for I will not fay their malice; and that through the juft judgment of God; because, through floth and blind obedience, men examined not the things which they were taught; but, like beafts of burden, patiently couched down, and indifferently underwent whatsoever their fuperiors laid upon them. By the way, by this you may plainly fee the danger of our appeal unto antiquity, for refolution in controverted points of faith, and how small relief we are to ex'pect from thence. For if the difcretion of the chiefeft guides and directors of the church, did, in a point fo trivial, fo inconfiderable, fo mainly fail them, as not to fee the truth in a fubject, wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the fight ' of it; can we, without imputation of extreme groffnefs and folly, think fo poor-fpirited perfons competent judges of the questions now on foot betwixt VOL. IV.

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< the churches? Pardon me! I know not what tempta⚫tion drew that note from me.'

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How these two worthy men will come off, I cannot tell: they have ventured fairly, and yet I think their cafe not hazardous at all. You have them in three points plain. First, That relying upon the clergy, as guardians of truth to the people, and the people not examining the truth of things from them, is not apostolical, but apoftatical. Secondly, That no councils or fathers ought to be the rule or judge of our faith. Thirdly, That to fave fouls, every man is a priest :' that is, the people are interested in the Chriftian miniftry, which is not tied to times, places, perfons, and orders, as under the law; but free to all that have obtained mercy and grace from God. And therefore Peter calls the believers, 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. “ An holy and "royal priesthood." So that every believer is a priest to himself under the gofpel. But all this I have mentioned with defign, if it be poffible, to beat men off that fuperftitious and dangerous veneration they carry to the names of church, priesthood, and fathers; as if they were to be faved by them, and not by Christ, who is the "Only Head and Saviour of the true church, " and God over all, bleffed for ever." And truly, when I confider the wide dependance fome people have upon the church, whilft they know not what she is, and make it a principle not to inquire, I am amazed, and often ftruck with horror, to obferve with what confidence they expose their fouls. This principle it is, and not inquiry, that makes men careless and unactive about their own falvation. But let none deceive themselves, "as they fow they fhall reap," Gal. vi. 5, 7. "Every

one must bear his own burden." It is not to be faved, to be within the pale of any visible church in the world. That is putting an eternal cheat upon ourfelves. Ill things are ill things, within or without the pale: that matters not: and as fin cannot be chriftened, nor impiety reconciled to Chriftianity, by any arts of men, fo "the wages of fin will be death," Rom. vi. 23. eternal death. To be therefore of the church of which

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