■pmn •ft ■ ■ M % f LIBRA It Y OF CONGfimfH 11 '•/,/. J^" ; g^ a. || • 1 1 ■ ■ 1 1 • ■ ■ ,/ u m I ■ *£• ■ ■ ^H IHI m V':> ■ ■ ■ ^H ■ »4i ■■-. ■ I ■ ■ ■ - ■ ■ i v*». \ PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. HNG FORTH THE GROUND OF THAT SOURCE OF COMFORT: IN WHICH GROUND OF A CLEAN BEAM AND A RIGHT SPIRIT, MEM MAY GROW IN GOOD AND PIRMLI SUPPORT BACfl OTHER AS LIVING STONES IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD. l1 s BY JOSEPH BANCROFT WITH ROBERT BARCLAY. "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." — Psalm li. 10. PHILADELPHIA : THOMAS WILLIAM STUCKEY, PRINTER, No. 57 North Seventh Street. 187 5. -aw CONTENTS. PAGK. Preface. ....... 5 Universal Love appearing in and through man reconciled unto, and in Unity with God, considered and testified unto as the greatest gift of God to men. By Joseph Bancroft, ...... 13 Universal Love considered and established upon its right foundation, being a serious enquiry how far Charity may and ought to be extended towards persons of different judgments in matters of Religion, and whose principles among the several sects of Christians do most naturally lead to that due moderation required. Written in the Spirit of love and meekness, for the removing of stum- bling-blocks out of the way of the simple ; by a lover of the souls of all men, Robert Barclay, . . 61 A Testimony concerning the true and acceptable worship of God : what it is ; and how to be performed. Set forth by Robert Barclay, in an Apology for the true Christian divinity ; being an explanation and vindica- tion of the principles and doctrine of the people called Quakers, ...... 107 Concerning True Discipline. The Anarchy of the Ran- ters, and other Libertines, the Hierarchy of the Ro- manists, and other pretended Churches, equally refused and refuted, in a two fold apology, for the Church and people of God, called, in derision, Quakers : Wherein they are Vindicated from those that accuse them of dis- order and confusion on the one hand, and from such aa CONTE] v a c; I them with tyranny and imposition on the it true and pure principles of tl.. | i d by their testimony : bo is also ti : . :• of the Church of Christ re- in, and Bottled upon its right bad lotion. By I ly, . . 185 NT written :' arc hon< d< ii, aved body ; ■ if the di them who pie who approved th I • -; : .:i arnestly soliciting th that all of them may truly bo- rne one - forth nd with precept. For their meeting 8 withoi • if they duly consider Ire unto love and to good work I i I, 0o I dii ided from Him : it' D and known amongst men, it must be th; neth out of their : and. to Come OUt of them, ftmustha placed in them ; the vessel, or their h Bpirit| first havi pared: proving that t! rard and the inward, the natural and the owned together, Cor men mutually to manifestation of God amongst them. V>y Bancroft, ..... 295 B to A Persuasive to Unity, . . . 825 PREFACE. In the love with which I feel my mind covered to the cause of Jesus Christ, and to my beloved fellow- creatures without respect of persons, which has obliged me to the present essay to gain their atten- tion for the purpose of mutual edification, I would bespeak the patient, careful reading of all that is herein put before them ; desiring each one to look to the Spirit of the Lord for the gift of understand- ing in that which is propounded ; and not to burden the creature with too earnest an effort on its own part ; as if the power of understanding were not the gift of God received in faith daily, but were inherent in man without the breath of Life, and himself capa- ble fully to understand all things at first mention of them: whereas, the growth of that capacity is to be waited for in all things both natural and spiritual ; and is conferred upon man as in a seed, and is in- creased by growth to appear first as a blade, by dressing and keeping, even in the good ground ; by watchfulness and care that an enemy does not sow evil seed when men sleep, and the w r atch is not kept up ; and so tares begin to grow, and the growth of good is checked and the understanding darkened, and edification obstructed. Therefore, wait upon the Lord, the Spirit of good, for a good understand- ing and a well disposed mind towards that for which 5 PREFACE. tliv attention is solicited : and recur to it again and aiii as thou finds thy mind bo disposed, In the U-av f anything that may be for edification to the house of God : which building is of considerate men above that which is admirable in the ox and the ii^s ; for (Jod has set man over the works of His hand- for " them M to have dominion over all in the place wherein He lias put him. The consideration of which purpose and commission to every member in itfl own place in the body, lv.niiivth that the spirits of the prophets be subject to the prophets, or to the same spirit in every fellow member; Beeing that which groweth of the good Beed in any of them [uireth purging, and is submitted to that which is Over those works in every man, tor the mutual oomfori of the whole, and the glory oi the great Eead of all. So that, dear reader, both for my d and comfort, and for our mutual edification, and that of the whdt body, it is needful that thOM be considerate, patiently watchful and prayerful, and shew thyself "an braelite indeed in whom is no guile/ 1 like Nathaniel; one doing the work of the one good seed of Abraham, the Friend of God, whether as a child, as a young man, as a strong man. as an elder, in Christ Jesus,who is the full growth of the manifestation ^\' that One only.good seed. I have frit it best for me to reprint what Robert Barclay wrote respecting Universal Love, True Christian Worship, and True Christian Discipline bout abridgment, notwithstanding thatthe cir- cumstances in which men at this time, particularly in the Knitcd States of America, are placed, may r to render parts of what he has written not VII needful now to recur to : ye1 even now, in relation to there is enough lefl of thai which Li is desirable Bhould be removed ou1 of the way, to make it well to revive the whole as he pu1 it before his contemporaries : that we may be stimulated to dili- gence in endeavoring the repair of that which has n broken down and greatly impaired, and is needful to our defence and comfort if we would be as a city compact together: that the work which he prophesied of, and which we see in measure^grown according to promise, may be fulfilled ; to the glory of God in the good of his creatures, and the perfec- tion of men in the stature of the Church of Jesus Christ, which can only have place as men stand in true testimony, as they did in that he wrote, "the good fruits and effects which daily abound to the household of faith, in the government the Lord is establishing among us, doth more and more com- mend it unto us ; and confirmeth our hearts in the certain belief of that, which we can confidently tes- tify in good conscience, that God hath led us here- unto by his Spirit : and we see the hand of the Lord herein, which in due time will yet more appear ; that as through our faithful testimony in the hand of the Lord, that anti-christian and apostatized genera- tion, the National Ministry hath received a deadly blow by our discovering and witnessing against their forced maintenance, and tithes, against which we have testified by many cruel sufferings of all kinds, as our chronicles shall make known to generations to come, so that their kingdom, in the hearts of thousands, begins to totter and lose its strength, and shall assuredly fall to the ground, through truth's \in PREFi prevailing in the earth ; bo on the other hand do we, by coming to righteousness and innocency, weaken the strength of their kingdom, who judge for re- wards, as well as such as preach for hire, and by not ministering occasions to those, who have Leaped ap riches, and lived in excess, lust and riot; by feeding and preying upon the iniquities and contentions of the people. For aa truth and righteousness prevails in the earth, by our faithful witnessing and keeping to it, the nations shall come to be eased and dis- burdened of that deceitful tribe of lawyers, (as well as priests) who by their many tricks, and endless in- tricacies, have rendered justice, in their method, burdensome to honest men, and seek not so much to put an end, as to foment controversies and conten- tion-, that they themselves may be still fed and up- held, and their trade kept up. Whereas by truth's propagation, as many of these controversies will die by men's coming to be less contentious, so when any difference ariseth, the saints giving judgment, with- out gif) or reward, or running into the tricks and endless labyrinths of the lawyers, will soon compose them. Ami this is that we are persuaded, the Lord U bringing about in our day, though many do not, and many will not see it; because it is indeed in a way different and contrary to man's wisdom, who are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, i" Cause of the meanness of it, as the Jews of old did him in his outward. Yet notwithstanding there were some then that did witness, and could not be rileut, hut mU8< testify that he was come; even so nowape there thousands, that can set to their seal, that he hath now again the second time appeared, 1\ and is appearing in ten thousands of bis saints; in and among whom (as a first fruits of many more that shall be gathered) he is restoring the golden b and bringing them into the holy order and govern- ment of his own Son, who is ruling, and to rate in the midst of them, setting forth the counsellors as at the beginning, and judges as at the first; and establishing truth, mercy, righteousness, and judg- ment again in the earth. Amen. Hallelujah I" e pp. l } o7-8.) As men are preserved standing to- gether patiently and faithfully in Buffering for and in the true worship of God, and preserved from di- visions amongst themselves, and in that agreement in which is ability to wrestle in prayer all night with the angel of God's presence until the break of day, and the blessing is received wherein the name is changed, and the people of God appear in saved persons, and one nation in salvation, nothing can divide their meetings for worship and discipline, held in the " patience of Jesus, to serve and worship him, with sufferings, ignominies, calumnies and re- proaches " as set forth in Robert Barclay's testimony respecting their meetings : see Articles xiii.and xiv. For the people of God do not hold meetings for the worship of Him to the exclusion of any desiring to be ITis worshippers, but for the invitation of all nun publicly to unite therein; that they may enjoy and possess the blessings of His spiritual government : " even as Jesus Christ, the author thereof, did enjoy and possess his spiritual kingdom, while oppressed, persecuted, and rejected of men; and as, in despite of the malice and rage of the devil, he spoiled princU paV ties and piowers, triumphing over them, and through thai had ttu power of death, thai is, : so also all hifl followers both run and do p him, not only without the arm of flesh to protect them, but even when oppressed. For their ;> bein| tual^ is by the power of the Spirit defended and maintained; but such worships as are !, and consist in carnal and outward ceremot* and . need a carnal and outward arm to protect and defend them, else they cannot stand and Ind as from hence have sprung up ail tho s and bloodshed among Chris* each by the arm of flush endeavored to defend and protect their own way and worship; 9 ' e p. l IT) so will the now divided people of God called Friends (or Quakers by the world) while re- maining without an open testimony against such divi- . defend each his own, and seek to impeach his neighbor's position; notwithstanding they have been rcifully preserved by the salt of good, in parts of rm in their meetings for worship and discipline : which form in division, and without the power and life, hath little to invite men to admire it, or rejoice in it: and hence almost every win a of this profession dwindle, and it is difficult to keep them up. Nothing can make them ally inviting hut the power of lave and unity: 8(3 I"' Gtod, who hath SO salted the divided parts and pr< parts in form, that there is nothing wanted to bring them together and make of them a living army for the work and purpose of k - the V >rm< r of all things/ 3 hut to take heed to the •wand cease, every man, from his own will and work, not their live- unto the death; PRBF l< but hating these, that newness of life may be received in tlir power of Love and Light, which is the power of God; thai would make us One people of God, ancl renew our meetings together, bo thai we cannot con- ceive of the comfort of them; which would make them so inviting thai there would be no need lor any contrivances of men for that purpose. For whal more delectable feasl ran men propose for themse] than that which is to 1>< i enjoyed in meeting together in the love of God, and the substance of things hoped for, which change not, but are eternal ; and are ever worthy to be waited for jointly by all men in themselves, where that which may be known of I is manifest. Come then, and let us MEET and REJOICE together in acceptable worship to God, and in care towards each other. The Lord hath laid it upon me to put forth these writings for the consideration of all men; and has engaged me to offer my person, time, and strength to meet with my beloved fellow-creatures in waiting upon Him for the discovery, and manifestation in the flesh, of the Way in which this good Cause may be glorified through us all. JOSEPH BANCROFT. Wilmington, Dkl., 12th mo. 11th, 1873, UNIVERSAL LOVE, APPEARING IX \vi) THBOUGB MAN RECONCILED UNTO, AM) IX UNITY WITH GOD, CONSIDERED AND TESTIFIED UNTO AS THE GREATEST GIFT OF GOD TO MEN. Universal love is that without which men cannot profitably meet together for the worship of God; neither for the proper and needful exercise of godly care or discipline to the help one of another ; n be adopted to put a stop thereto as ghl by others not proper or justifiable; and ntion amongst them became so sharp that in 1827, about three years after my coming amongst them, they separated into two parts. M v lot fd] with the larger part, who took the ini- tiative step in the division ; claiming not to have de- nnvBu a I i viated from sound dod rine, and to have taken thai step only to avoid contention. By thifl course and claim they saw no cause to Bel forth any statement doctrine, other than that they were in unity with writings to that time approved by the Society, and had no new doctrine to promulgate : and they with- heldfrom any dealing with those from whom they parted, either on account of beliefs, or because their disciplinary action, which they had consider* d grievous pa to justify themselves in withdrawing m their meetings and Betting up meetings separate from them. The other part, as was reasonably to be expected in such ease, to justify their charges of unsound- ss, not only set forth in print that which they con- sidered sound, but they set forth their charges against those who had withdrawn from them, and who generally denied such charges when applied to personally ; and they proceeded summarily to treat with and disown them individually on account of their owning and uniting with the Yearly Meeting set up, as was alleged, for peace sake; although those thus disowning such, confessed themselves not averse to the separation on the same behalf. I trust I have written no word here which will hurt a cicatrized wound, being desirous only to set forth that my Maker has dealt with me so as to pre- pare me for the work which I apprehend lie requires at my hand amongst my honored and beloved fellow- creatures, before He takes me hence to be seen of them no more. I am now fully seventy years of age; I have walked amongst you, dearly beloved and longed for, ever 16 I l-i.hsi A8IVI tO i M sin.-f thai time in much Berious thoughtfhlness eon- our condition, and the ofience which is pre- I to tender minds in the world by the want of which La manifest in us while yet wo claim to be Friends, and in the language of conduct, I.. | aoh other too much as enemies, in that continue to meet apart, and to believe respecting ■h other, that the obstacles preventing our meeting together are not with ourselves, but with our neigh- bors : which keeps those who do so, still in the po- rn of charging one another with wrong, and as being enemies and no1 Friends, as each continues to claim for himself. And this obtains without any open effort on the part of either, to come to judg- ment, and thereby to reconciliation with each other. Oh! how jealous should we be of ourselves while this is bo. There must be something wrong or titing with both in Buch a ease: and it is not rear able to Buppbse that it attaches to one part only, while neither Beeks openly to be reconciled. When I reflect how divine wisdom and goodness has dealt with and exercised me in mind and cir- cumstances since my coming amongst this people for whom particularly He has thus engaged me, I am amazed in thankful acknowledgment thereof I have been kept in constant exercise of mind on this »imt, and in a care so to walk as not to bring any reproach ^n cur holy profession, and in no respect to increase on my own part the feeling of division from any. Ami such lias heen the extension of in- finite mercy, that T know not that any man can justly bring any thing to my charge in breach ^£ either the first or the b< cond commandment, so that i FIVERS \L LOVB, APPEARING. 17 I love those before whom this may come, as my own il. I well remember my observation in 1827 that there was no one raised up to stand before the peo- ple with the testimony that the Friend could not be divided and have a place in the sight of the world as a living creature : which truth my mind was pointed to, though T was not required or qualified conspicu- ously to declare it as now, and during several years past In so much that when the division impended in New York Yearly Meeting after having taken place in Philadelphia, there was a desire clung about me tint Elias Hicks, before the crisis came there, might be given to see that men should not divide from each other on account of opinions, nor teach them for doctrine ; and to offer himself an offering to prevent it ; saying, this must not be, rather put me out of the way, and let me stand aside, than to divide from one another on my account : and I mourned that he did not do so. This trouble and controversy amongst the people called Friends differed from any that came before it, in the want or absence of such testimony bearers. There w^as no open testimony that the contention must be ended by suffering and ceasing to contend without love, which ever has been the way of saved men; and not by dividing the Friend's body and continuing the contention in the parts, which will be done as long as the division has place in men who do not seek to be reconciled, as it is at this day. In all previous difficulties amongst them, that which had the substance of the Friend warned the poople against contending for cjnnions out of love, and to the 18 A PBB8UABIVB 10 I in of] • r : whi< h if red 1 produ iiK'iit and enmity anion _ at it by contending earn- ■ the faith >n love to all men universally. And this good le the heavenly kingdom am them never ceased its operation on bucIi >ns in those who did i » from it, endeavor- _■ to draw closer together all who abode its virtuo rk, an«l anited in Beeking for the return and re- bu< fa as went away from its influence, and y< tinned to make profession of it, and Lined ! ailed by their good name. And such was the blessing attending their labor and testimony that many who had been misled were brought back ] we have no account that this godly care towards those who were the obje< Of it ( 1 ><> long as there Wen- any left who desired to hear the name of Friend and claimed to hold the nee oi it in b< ts and divisions □ from men, in self-will and opinion-; wherein it. he vir ' the Friend could appear in them : and the; ame entirely wasted, and the na amongst them. Th< b Iness of God hath, exercised mo from a m that which my parents testified of to icient teacher and preserver from harm : hich knowledge and understanding and preserva- tion - in the time of trial and division previ and after l s -7:) and that thi may 1 no others again that testi- the unity of the Friend with Jesus Christ which h a bo much lost, and re, nor proclaimed amongst the DNIVKBfi it i.«»\ i:, a rri: \ k ix«;. 10 i call all men to it: more especially in the lir>t place, those who have claim to the name by having the tuna which belongs to it in meetings for worship and discipline, and by having a part in other precious testimonies which arc not entirely laid waste; hut which hold in preservation, as salt, a remnant of every part, though in much weakness because of divisions. Oh! how marvellous is the goodness and mercy of God in preserving this divided people to the pro- don of the principles of the Truth which attends them of His mercy, notwithstanding their back- sliding and want of due sensibility towards Him, through weakness of love to Him and one to another. It often appears to me that there is no greater mercy left upon record of His dealings with any people. Xeither can this be duly recorded by this people, unless they will repent and be gathered: for unless they will be so, He will more and more waste them ; and they will lose the preserving influence which attends the precious gifts wdiich He bestowed upon them through the faithfulness of their fathers, and confirms unto them in meetings for worship and discipline in that good form which may be lost by them; but cannot grow, be progressed, or be established amongst men out of supreme love to God : and which gifts have not been conferred upon any other people; and never can be received and carried out in that goodness towards men which He designs they should enjoy, only as men become worthy of them through suffering with Christ, and are made partakers of the divine nature through love and regeneration. 20 A PERSUASIVE TO UN] T know of no evidences of the love, cond< ion, and good will ol God to man greater than is shewn in men who keep the testimonies committed to His Friends concerning the universality of His grace, and the operation of it through men who hold meet- > wait upon and worship Him, without respect of persons under One Head; establishing them in thai to each other which constrains them in a holy care, whereby they are governed as one body without any other moderator, chairman, or director ; that their me< tings, as the members of them are preserved in subordination to their One Head and in Menial, are models of order and of every lovely adornment, and encouraging to the use of every good and perfect gift diversely administered to the body through different members; Bhewing forth a meek and condescending spirit, and a preservation in that which M good and seemly, and out of that whicb is unseemly, selfish, and corrupt, such as sel- dom attends any other meetings of men; causing those to marvel at it who are strangers to their gov- erning Head, and the adorable Cause of such a ring. In the solemn sense which has been given to mc of th danger and temptation there ia amongst those professing to be Friends who are not suffi- ciently aware of their own inability of themselves ry good word and work, and their need of tire dependence upon the power of God in tin* flesh (His Son Jesus Christ) for preservation, to de- : from this simple waiting upon Him in their meetings \'<>r worship, and set up in them something of their own plannio interest the people and UNIVBRSAL IPPBARIfl 21 draw thei ach meetings; and also in their vari- i meetings for the transaction of Bucfa busio they are interested in, to depart from an open ac- knowledgment of their dependence upon the Head of the Church, or the c Elected and joined memb of him in the meetings, so as to appoint on* 1 or more from amongst themselves as chairman or di- torof the services; and I apart services for certain men in their own wills, an 1 times for partic- ular purposea according to the will of man, and to an exclusion of regard to the drawings of the Head of Jesus Christ unto any member or members in him who is His own image and perfect likeness in and through man's flesh: and also under an humbling sense oi' thankfulness which has been o-iven me in witnessing, in the different meetings of Friends who are divided, the wonderful mercy and goodness of God to us in sealing upon our minds a sense of our loss therein-, and of our great unworthiness in our sad condition to represent His Son, and to be wit- nesses of fas coming in the flesh who declares his Father, while there is such an exhibition of the weakness of love to one another that we are con- strained to meet in profession of his name with our earthly bodies denying one another, and not suffi- ciently in the denial of self: I say, with my senses quickened of God in acknowledgment of Jlis won- derful goodness in thus dealing with a weak and a backsliding people, so as to know that I am not alone in the contemplation of His mercy, but that He hath many witnesses of it who are unknown one to another because of division, T am constrained to entreat all to lay aside our own wills before God and 22 A P I NITV. h other, and thia e^ i Icnce of having done . that to //' and seek to m r in \\\< name: wherein having become far reasonable men, Be would help as to come to judgmenl before him to whom all judgment is com- mitted of hie Father ; and in whom it must abide as the Head of the One body (the Church by baptism into Jesus Christ's death), in which the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily ; made and proved to be of that fruit-bearing of good, which is of One only; according to the true and unchangeable testi- mony of Jesua Christ (Matt xix. 17), "there is none good but One, that is God." Oli! if these meetings were but of two, and that by the seeking of one of them to the other, through i1h> drawing and indwelling of the Father and the Son, in any neighborhood, with this testimony held enly hv them, how would this prevail in the Lord's time; entering in, and finding a pL amongBl the sorrowing disciples by its own life even when th« k doors of outward or self-defence are shut, (John xx. 19,) and proving their membership in the body of Jesus Christ by the marks of suffering in themselves through violence by rejectionin the di- vided parts : shewing that they had come out of the where sin had buried them, and out of Baby- lon whose people did not own them; and stood in the world to be made known to men by heavenly fruit-bearing amongst them in the world ; whose in- habitants distinguish things as they come to abide by the manifestation <>\' light, and know that they do no1 gather grapes ^\' thorns, nor figs of thistle • man who comes out of Babylon has no W UHIVBRSAL aiti:\i:i\ 23 ( ii from any men in the world, bul only ou1 of the conftision which gives her the name by p pie apoD whom it la written by the Truth : it ia not written by the Truth upon any nun in the world who saved from confusion and from partaking of Babylon's sins in the world, Ajs a man he has no « place but in the world and amongst his fellow men where he placed nol himself; but, by ( provi- dence has been placed of others, whom, it' he owns the Truth, or what is true, he must own as his natu- ral parents, brethren and sisters; to whom as a na- tural creature, his help, and care, and sympathy, and theirs to him under God, arc first manifestly due ; and as they are faithfully given by any men, such faithful men learn to understand by the tilings which are made, their obligation to each other, and to a higher and unseen power which is the Word of God, or Word of faith, which men come to know the pos- session of by love and nourishment of good unto and through growth, as from or of a seed, which is sown of the IIusbaxbmax who is the Father of Jesus Christ in men, the hope of the saints' glory. Men in the condition that the people called Friends were in about 1827, having had the form of God in their meetings when they were held in His life, which is the light of men and the power to distin- guish, having grown cold in love, their life was faint, and their Bight dim ; so that they did not distinguish between their circumstance, in which the form re- mained, and that of the people amongst whom George Fox and his cotemporaries walked. In those days there was no people who were in the form of God in their meetings for worship ; that good form 2 \ A PERSUASIVE TO I M IT. haying been left by men in the apostasy, had not • been restored amongst any thai we have record <>f. When he and his companions became convinced of the Truth, and were brought Into the knowledge of what the true form was in relation to the worship of God by the Church of Jesus Christ in Eim, they did not refuse to meet for worship with any holy men, nor with those who required them to meet with themselves who were not holy, for that purpose by authority claimed by them as of God; but they met with those who required them to do so ; at the same lime bearing the testimony of Truth respecting the order to be observed in the Church, or meetings of tlif members of Christ, which was against the dis- order which they were required of unholy men to be Bubject to in their meetings. This gave offence without cause from them, and they were put out of their houses and places for worship bo called, and persecuted to imprisonment and to death for their faithful testimony; notwithstanding they were al- ways willing to meet even with their persecutors and rejecters it' they might do so in godly order. And when they were rejected and driven out of those places called churches, they set up no meetings out of good order, nor to the exclusion of any men in that order which they suffered for; but held all their meetings for worship as public meetings for the free admission ^>i all men in the worship of God, in and under the limitation of the first and Becond com- mandment upon which all acceptable worship hangs. From the time of this convincement until near the time of the division in 1827, with small intermis- ofl amongst a few at different previous times, this form was held with much of the life of it amongst I m\ BRfi \\. L0VB, Ai'i-i: IRINQ, 2-") the peopL ly claiming to be Friends; and Bince that time the profession thereof in some degree of preserving virtue has remained to the present in both meetings for worship and discipline amongst all the divided parts of this people. So that there really is no excuse for holding separate meetings amon them, or that they Bhould not all Beek to meet to- gether in their meetings in all places according to the convenience of their respective residences, eepl that they have not their profession in possession in living vigor, as they should seek to hold it, and can only hold it out of division from good in any men. Now against whom shall this charge stand in the sence of the righteous Judge, but against the man on whom its mark is found? And is it not found upon every one who seeketh not the restora- tion of the divided members to the one body "in the day of the Lord Jesus." 1 Cor. v. 5. iSo man is called of God to relinquish a right profession, but rather to hold it fast righteously. Then it is right- eousness, and a willingness to suffer for righteous- ness sake, that is wanting amongst us to heal our divisions. Can this be had before we cease to do evil ? Is it not evil to seek to divide the form of God? And is there any other form purely of God in relation to worship but that which this people profess and formally hold? How great then is the responsibility attached to our profession, which should be of faith, and not held in hypocrisy ? Doth not that man hold his profession in hypocrisy who does not, under such circumstances, seek judgment in righteousness respecting his own conduct? He who truly seeks righteous judgment, cannot but own A . I MTV. the « of a righteous Judge, Ts not that ous Judge the admini r of the law which ;uiv two or more men righteously own? All men v, ,f and r Q fo and own a •, to be administered and executed in hteousness; or else they are hypocrites if they charge each other with wrong and do not seek judg- ment : or, beingjudged,theyrefuse to submit thereto, anddonotceaseto charge each other; and thereupon ►me reconciled to each other and to their right- ge. Where now do this prof people stand who have b i long divided and charging each other with wrong, without seeking reconciliation through i judgment? Can they he the people of God standing out of Babylon? or, if they are God's ►pie, arc they not in Babylon? Is not the voiee heard, v% Come out of her, my people, that ye he not partakers of her sins, and thai ye receive not of her ]»];i. For her sins have readied unto heaven, and ( tod hath remembered her iniquities." Musi we not come out of her, whilst we are yet in the world, by ceasing from contention out of the love of each , which want of love was the door at which we went in ? We, in the world, went from the love of ( Jod and of each other into Babylon ; and to and by this love, while yel in tie;- world, we mnst return. In the love of peace to self and the fear of Buffering, one part withdrew from the other; the same time professing the obligation to fulfill pie and advice of the Apostl< b, 1'- ter and Paul, i Cor. I But and if ye suffer f->r ' • iheir ten >r, neith« r be I I ' ' . Matt xvi. i 1 1 : Mark i iii ; l ; A . in. ta; ix. i -, il ; j C r, C 4 ; ; l'hil i -i2. i \i\ BBS IL LOVB, M'!m: \i:i\<;. 27 the law of Christ, "if thy brother offend agai thee, pro and tell him his foul! between him and thee alone ; which obligati >n, for whal appeared a sufficient reason a1 thai lime, was put off till a mor eenienl season; and jei remains lack! to be fulfilled. The other part, in the like deficiency of true love and patient charity, and in the same hope oi' relief to themselves from Buffering, hastily took occasion of their brethren's misstep, and by disownment cut them off personally from further care or seeking. The wall of love and charity which was thus broken down, we must each do our own part personally in building up again before our own house and place, and take it for a defence. This can only be done by coming out of Babylon, the city of collected self-seeking men in hypocrisy; and collect- ing or gathering together in Jerusalem, the city of the One good, the quiet habitation, and Mother of all the Church of God through love to Him and one to another; seeking strength from the Lord, in keep- ing the first commandment, to seek the good of and in each other and all men continually in fulfillment of the second; holding meetings for worship in the form of God undivided, open to all men, and public for conscience sake; and if imposed upon therein by sinners, to suffer it: and to keep meetings for holy discipline in the Holy Spirit and persons, desir- ing to submit one unto another in righteousness; and if any amongst us are otherwise minded, that we learn to behave ourselves towards them as follow- ers of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Believing that the Lord hath laid it upon me to 28 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. labor with my people for the restoration of His name and cause amongst men, and for the gathering of them together as he would have gathered Jerusalem's children, but they would not, He hath opened my understanding to cite our attention to these three things which remain to be needful to the existence of the Church of Christ, and are left with us of His own marvellous goodness in the degree at least that we are preserved by his seed itself from entire de- struction, like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. May we look to Him to strengthen the little good that re- mains, that we may be gathered together in One before the things which make for peace are hid from our eyes. These things are faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity. Let us first speak of Charity, the greatest gift of God to men ; His own love ; the first thing needful to men, and to be in a man by receiving and not re- jecting it. Then of Faith, which is the second needful gift, and cometh by hearing the call from the Giver of the first, that is sounded through the things which He has made ; for without a man receiveth that grace through faith, which is the substance of grace re- ceived, it is impossible for him to please God. With- out faith man cannot worship Him in understanding nor with the knowledge of acceptance. Then of Hope; which is the third gift of God needful to be received by men, and which cometh by experience of the other two working through patience in them; as thereby the body of Jesus Christ comes to be set forth in members fitly joined together, and men enjoy salvation in the fullness of God; partaking of that which every joint supplietli 29 of His goodness, and which without that joint, is lacking to the body. This divine hope in men enables them to set forth the substance of discipline or God's government, in a quickened mortal body, through care for each other as fellow-members in the Church which is the body of Jesus Christ ; wherein every saved member is preserved in God's ordering, and in his own proper place, and all the members enjoy the whole of His wisdom and good- ness bodity, or as in one blessed man. "Without hope men would not labor, neither could they par- take of mutual faith, the substance of that which they hope for; and without charity, that which they labor for cannot be enjoyed by them : which makes charity the greatest gift, being known to have been eminently the first, and now also to be the last, and most needful in order to crown all, and make of many members one perfect man ; so that the Apos- tle's words are true, if I " have not charity, I am nothing." For therein men shew forth God's work- manship by His Love working in them to all men without respect of persons, and by the acceptable worship of Him ; and by mutual labor to communi- cate one to another of His good gifts, in hope fully to enjoy them all through His ordering of every member in the occupancy of every gift under that discipline which is the full manifestation of His own perfect wisdom in men through denial of themselves, in the faith and patience of saints in that hope which " maketh not ashamed, because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Rom. v. 1-5. "With this concern of mind I have been turned to A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. [er three productions of the pen of RoBi I: y } on IV >, True Church Worship, and Trim Church 1 1 >vernment, as bearing upon : needful to be sel forth and Lered then, as they are now. I feel drawn to reprio i herewith ; and to request the attention and prayer of all who profess the name of the people of I tod, to have the substance of these three things in q, and proved to be so by work-: a they proved themselves to have them in possession am whom U. Barclay walked, and in del ace whom, in the exposition of the Truth, he wrote, I >ne Mediator betwi d and man, tin- man (Mir; I Jesus; Or as a member of that Church which is the body of Jesus 01 ud stands ia his power of mediation; suffering for sins, ami hem in his body crucifi d for sin, and dead unto it; hut alive unto good in willing the forgive- ness of them who know not what they do. This mediatorial I >r Church in Gtod i.- in condescen- !i to thrni who are accusers of the brethren while y are themselves involved in sin: Beeking to in- icl them in relation to the fulfilling and execution of the law which they profess to own and to execute; and exampling them in the fulfillment of it by re- From condemnation of the sinner against a\ 1 1< »i j i no witness stands in innocency; which only is the qu tion und< law righteously to exe- cute it. Men who are in .\r-w> Christ by baptism into lm death unto sin, nm>t mrrt tliose who are in and of the world, and those who tempt righteous satiou againsl them, in the same diation thai he met those of whom the DNIV] . I 81 relation ; • a in John \ ii u And the m«I I M. i ! unto liiiii a woman taken in adultery ; and when thej had Bet her in I midst, they say unto hhn, Ma ter, ; '.'^ woman v. en in adultery, in the \ t, Now Moses in the law commanded us, thai such should be stoned : bui what sayesi thou'." This they said, tempting him, thai they might have b *e him. But Jesus id down, and with his finger wr u the ground, as tl 'r do other flesh and spirit, or man, is qualified to mediate between Gk)d and men, than the man Chrisl Jesus; or those members in Him who are proved to be of God by being bo Baved as to keep the law, and teach and lead the sinner to sin no more: in which man there is no wall of sep- aration between man and God, but be is made ilesb of his flesh, and bone of his bone, who "continueth • k able to save them to the very uttermost that come unto God by Him, Beeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Beb. vii. 25. This flesh and spirit ever constitutes the one mediator between ( tod and man. " Now a mediator is not a mediator of one:*' but being made Tree from sin, IS ordained of God, by example and precept, to invite all wbose sins bave separated them from Him and from each other per- sonally, to reconciliation by the same death unto sin, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost; not imputing trespasses unto them, but praying for the forgiveness of sinners, and receiving all who repent and forsake sin. This is the Friend of God and man; and the fruit- bearing members of ibis body of Jesus Christ con- stitute a society of Friends truly, and are members of the One Mediator. Fulfilling the law in them- Belves, they come to know their own dependence on a merciful helper for ability to dp so, and are Idled with compassion for as many as are out of the Way, Chrisl Jesus, desiring they may be Baved from con- demnation; and directing them to the law of the Spirit of Life in Him ; which always bears true wit- ness in reproof of sin present, and manifests God's UHIVBB8AL L0V1, .\rrr. \i;in<;. :>:J willingness to forgive Bins past and truly repented of, and His pnwcr to preserve in salvation from sin all who love the Reprover and deny themselv forming one new man of joined members in one body, by and under Jesus Christ its Head, to the glory of God. j How remarkably were that people of whom R. Barclay wrote in the Fifth Bection of his treatise on Universal Love imbued with the virtue of the Chuivli which is in God! bo that he was not afraid nor ashamed to close the same with desiring his readers to "seriously consider whether there be any entire, united body of Christians, except these here men- tioned, who do unanimously hold fortli so much doctrine so directly establishing and agreeing to true universal love ? " Of their being so imbued no greater or more conclusive evidence need be required and given than their establishment in the holding of meetings for "Worship and Discipline in the Love and in the manner set forth and defended by him in the treatises referred to. May we of this day and time consider these great and precious testimonies; and how exceeding short we are fallen of being wholly gathered in churches or meetings which do very well agree with true universal love. Let us then endeavor to redeem the time and repair the loss we and the world receive from this fall, under a true sense of the experience we have had of the evil; and the memory we retain of how far our own faults have prevailed over us and stimulated that which was wrong in each other; endeavoring to confirm and strengthen ourselves in the good now revealed and embraced by some who 34 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. meet together for the healing of breaches; that by bo meeting in meekness and submission to one an- other truly in this universal love, true charity may prevail through the powerful working of God's in- finite goodness turning all to the advantage of those that love and follow Him. Pure Charity is God's love. lie is love ; and therein manifests Himself to man through His Son " Jesus Christ, the same yes- terday, and to-day, and for ever." The effect of charity in man is only truly to be known and shewn in loving God above all, comprehended in keeping His commandments zealously in love to all men. It leads out of all which is false in zeal and wicked in practice, and into a pure and clear understanding, and to a renewed sanctified will, as Ii. Barclay has well remarked in the second section of his treatise, which is worthy of repeated consideration. In the beginning of his third section he has ad- mirably summed up what he has previously said, thus: "That true Christian love and charity is the most excellent of virtues, most needful to be sought after and attained; that it is never joined but with purity, which it naturally leads to; and therefrom doth consequentially arise an indignation and zeal against unrighteousness; which true zeal is justly commendable, and really distinguishable from all false and ignorant zeal." For the clear stating the work of men who are in the limitation of righteous indignation and zeal in the controversy of charity against unrighteousness, the following assertions may be proposed and af- firmed : 1st That whatsoever love is consistent with the UHIVBRSAL LOVB, apim:akinn earth to forgive sins, which is in Jesus Christ, and in as many as receive him (John i. 12), and >o rxiYKRSAL LOVB, APPEARING. D!l walk, even as he walked (1 John ii. 6)j who stood and cried, %k It' any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink/' (John vii. $7 ). This is the true and unchangeable cause and foun- dation of meetings i^>v divine worship and holy disci- pline in good form amongst men : which cause and foundation is One ; and the Ohorch tliat is built there- on is not divisible in the Life of God,which is the true Light of men : but is the true witness with God and man that all the meetings of men for divine worship ought to be public and open to all for the purpose of reverently waiting upon God and owning each other under the One Head of the body, the Church, even Jesus Christ : and that all meetings for holy disci- pline ought to be conducted or held in the world se- lectly in that which is holy and is chosen out of the world ; which holy thing or body bears the sins of men and carries their infirmities) suffering, the just for the unjust, that men may be brought to God : in which love of God (or charity) saved men cannot forsake the unsaved and sick, nor forget to do good and com- municate of that which has been committed to them in the Church, as members of Jesus Christ's incor- ruptible flesh and bones ; nor go out of the world, wdiere God has placed them as lights in it ; to be as a city set on a hill, and as lighted candles upon can- dlesticks, to give light to all that are in the house. In this Spirit and in godly form in the flesh, meet- ings for the worship of God ought to be held ; and also meetings for godly discipline, which is the god- ly care of godly men in the world for fulfilling the purposes proposed and affirmed in the four asser- tions before mentioned ; which discipline can only 40 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. be carried out by men bo imbued with the love of God (which La not divisible but universal) that it behooves them to Buffer, and to lay down their life for the world : that in the time when things are distinguished (as in the third day of creation) the same life and in- corruptible flesh may appear, in example and pre- cept, in victory over the grave in which wicked men desire to keep it. They who are Friends truly, and in Jesus Christ, the substance of universal love, will hold meetings for worship and discipline out of divi- sions from this power and wisdom of God; and in the faith which overcomes the world while in it as Jesus Christ did, Buffering for it: not fearing them who crucify him in the flesh, both the Head and mem- hers ; and alter that have no more that they can do. Aj9 those who are preserved in this testimony on this foundation cannot cause, or foment, or stand in defence of any separation of such meetings; surely it must have been in a departure from this founda- tion, and a want of understanding this testimony that the divisions have taken place, and yet have place amongst them who claim to be the same peo- ple of God called Quakers. Then let the query have due consideration with all of them, How may they reasonably proceed towards a reconciliation? Must it not be by returning to first principles? which principles are very well and concisely set forth by It. Barclay under seven heads in the fifth Section of his treatise on Universal love, which may well bear Beveral readings and frequent weighty consider- ation : and by receiving in possession what not only these Beveral professors of the name of Friend, but every professor of any name to religion pre - to UNIVBR8AL LOVE, APPBAKIM 41 move in and be moved by, even thai love of God which is charily ; and only truly constitutes a man a Friend of God and man; and preserves him from being an enemy to any man; and from being harmed by any enemy, or by contact with serpents, or drink- ing any deadly thing, as promised by Christ. Mark xvi.lS. See also eh. vii. 1-28, and Matt. xv. 11-20. For "not that which goeth into the month defileth a man; but that which comefh out of the month, this defileth a mail." " But to eat with nnwashen hands, defileth not a man;" neither to meet in godly form in the same house with an unholy person for worship ; or within the sound of false doctrine to enter the body by the ear; neither when Friends are met for godly discipline in the capacity of a Yearly Meeting on the true and unchangeable foundation set forth above, could any thing that may come from without them who are so met, defile or harm them. Nevertheless from any so met an invitation might be extended to those who may address them (and. who so far desire to be as meeting with them) as well as to others ; whether faithful persons, or sinners, whom, having forgiven, or prayed for, they can weep over and ad- dress in this universal love, desiring the gathering of them together, as of Jerusalem's children, in the denial of their own wills which have had place in them to "separate themselves" and scatter them abroad as sheep having no shepherd. That which so invites, forgiving sins, and in prayer for sinners, is the Church of Christ and God, the Bride which says, Come : and they are Friends, who do the will of God ; all hatred of men is cast out of these persons. Let the conduct be right, and 42 A PBK8UA8IVH TO UNITY. opinions will be kept in their proper places ; thero- fore attend to the conduct first, and leave, or do not dwell in, or halt between opinions. This could not but restore society, in reconciling men to each other; inasmuch as in acting well, or in doing justly and right, they must become Friends in the substance of all good, eveti Jesus Christ ; and could not be ene- mies to God, and in contention one with another. Let us seriously consider that in order to withdraw from contention no man needs to change the loca- tion of his person, but only to keep in pure love, ceasing to contend himself: neither to withdraw himself from those who walk disorderly, need he to go from any other man's person, or from any meet- ing of men which is in a right form for men to meet in to perform acceptable worship. But he must walk orderly in his own person, and m godly form, in order to shew and prove his own orderly walking : it cannot otherwise be proved that he is withdrawn from those who walk disorderly, when the two are known to exist in sufficient proximity to set forth the dissimilarity which is between them in the apparent difference of their walking in good or bad conduct. This is in accordance with the Apostle's teaching (1 Cor. v. 7 to 13) : " Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are un- leavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacri- ficed for us : therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of mal- ice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth :" being entirely one good bread by the perfect work of the Troth in the creat- ures abiding therein, as God placed them in the be- UNIVBR8AL LOVE, APPEARING. 19 ginning, and now in the regeneration replaces every one who ceases to do evil. How ie tins purging to be done! not by the parts or members going away firom each other in love of their own wills; bn1 by their remaining in contact through l<>ve of cadi other and denial of Belf. The power ofgood is stronger than all leavens, and by its own virtue, in any 1 sol or member loving and abiding with it, will over- come and purge out all old leaven, and the leaven of malice and wickedness, which only by the perverted love of the creature has inward possession ; and must be overcome of the stronger and purged out by the love of good, before the creature can become unleavened of the old leaven and of the bad, and be- come of the good or heavenly bread : which must be partaken of by the members in one body through pure love and in contact, with mutual desire to be filled anew ; which renewing cannot take place while the parts remain separate from each other, and do not adjoin by contact, being grafted together again. The members of the body, though separable by the ordainment of God if unfruitful, are placed in con- tact with each other by the same ordination to bear much fruit : not to go apart, or from the places in which their Maker and Placer has put them, but to abide there in patience, and even in suffering, that the virtue of good may make them whole and con- stitute them one in contact ; or a whole in consist- ence by the prevalence of good over every member through joints, and the supply of each one through and by another : being bound in contact as their Maker has placed them, every joint, member, or vessel in His place, of His own perfect right and 14 a PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. authority, as He saw good for His own gl ory : and theirs in Him as every member abides in His pla and in their respective places, where lie placed them : no1 going out of their places in the world, or one from another in the world which lias need of them all in their places in it ; but being preserved from bo doing, and from all other evil, so as to overcome the evil by good, in its own power, which is above all; and is able to preserve those who love it and are filled with it, from all harm by any contact with that which is contaminating by love of it in the d< piscr of the birthright of good, and the lover of that which is vanity in itself, and most perish with the using. That the Apostle had in his mind the same understanding which I endeavor to convey, I think is sufficiently intimated by what immediately fol- lows, Bhewing that he did not contemplate a dis- placing of fleshy bodies in the world by somewhat that he had previously written to them ; for he goes on to say : " I wrote unto you in an epistle not to accompany with fornicators: yet not altogether witli the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters ; for then must ye needs go out iA' the world. "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; with such an one no not to eat." No offender in any thing can be rightly considered to be other than a brother until he lias been spoken to (as a brother, in that love which seeks hifl restoration from his offence) by a brother, by brethren, and by the I ETIVBRG \L L0VB, AiTi: 1RIN0. 45 Chinch, and baa reftoed to hear them all ; in which ease In' may not be called a brother, bul a lost man, not subject to known good government, a heathen; 01 a man who does that which is hateful to the brethren, as a Publican among the Jew?: which men the Church, the body of Jesus Christ, is sent to seek ami to saw, by example and precept while in suffer- ing by them, and by laying down her life for the world: meaning for t *em who are of the world, hav- ing rejected the bn therhood and GtocL But for saved men, rightly called brothers, to be where they have no personal presence in company with evil workers, they "must needs go out of the world ;" which need does not apply to refraining from keep- ing company while in the world, if men duly consider that the essence and substance of companionship is in similar action from the same spirit in several men, yet operating with privity ; it may be in fornication, in covetousness, in idolatry, in railing, in drunken- ness, or in extortioning ; but not without a man joins in these sins and uncleannesses w 7 ith another, and makes them his meat by eating them or doing them in such privity : otherwise Jesus Christ would have been defiled by coming in contact with those whom he walked with, ate and drank with, and communi- cated amongst, in holy example to such as should be his disciples. But a man not doing an}' of these wickednesses, nor approving them himself, those men who do them are without to him and not within : and, continues the Apostle, " what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? (and are justly esteemed as offending brethren in the church so lon£ as they need 46 A PS&SUA6IV1 TO UNITY. and receive the care and judgment of their friend-, and have not so far rejected it as to become given over fc * unto Satan for t lie destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may he saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.") But them that are without God judge th. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked per- son." This implies that that wicked person must be put away in a man's own person, and from com- pany with the innocent, (who may and will execute the law given of God unto them through his faith- ful servants ; ) that they he in the world uncontam- inated by wickedness because of their companionship with, and love of good, which keeps them from fall- ing. For the woe which is consequent upon the fall from innocence, is not unto the man hy whom the offence does not come, but unto that man by whom it doth come. Matt, xviii. 6-9. If " the little ones which believe in me," (the Head with the body of Christ sent into and now in the world,) were to go out of the body, or out of the field, or the world, in which the head and body of Christ is ; (and which head even while personally in the world was "the Son of man which is in heaven," John iii. 13,) how could they be offended? Wherefore the woe is unto the world because of offences, which must needs be while men are of it; but not by them who are not of the world, although they are in it to be offended, and to suffer for the offenders; yet chosen OUl of it, being called, and faithful to the call to 80 ]<>ve God as to be sent into it; not "separating themselves/' Jude 19, from any man in that love ; but being preserved themselves from the evil of so separating, and from all harm in the world; doing the will oi God in Jesus Christ, who is the Son UNIVBB8AL L0VB, aiti:.\ki.\ among them; but thai they be perfectly joined to- gether in tin* same mind and in the same judgment. Lei Qfl take heed that we be not carnally minded, which ifl accompanied with envying and strife, and divisions; but let as endeavor to be laborers to- gether with God on the foundation which he hath laid, and which Ifl One, even Jesus Christ, His own image or likeness ; and let no man glory in men, nor any be puffed op lor one man against another. Should it not be the care of all who go forth in the ministry to walk according to these exhortations with all faithfulness and diligence; and of all Elders to watch over the flock with the Ministers for their en- couragement in this faithful work; and of all Over- seers to labor jointly with them to promote those dis- positions in the whole flock which would conform all to the same heavenly likeness ? that we may he in deed and in Truth followers of that One man who should die for the people ; of whom it was prophesied that he should gather together in One the chilflren of God that were scattered abroad ; the same who prayed, and yet prays, for the sanctification of those whom he sends into the world, " that they all may be One; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be One in us ; that the world may be- lieve that thou hast sent me." In this desire I commend what I have written, and that which my fellow servant Robert Barclay wrote, to the prayerful consideration of my beloved fellow creatures to whom this may come : but more particularly to those of them who claim the name of that creature which is perfectly set forth in keeping the commandments of Jesus Christ; having faith, 4 A PER6UASIVH TO UNITY. hope, and charity in possession by the grace of God : which hath made me a Friend to all without respect of persona Joseph Bancroft. Xear Wilmington, lhi.. 10th Month, 1st, I .1 UNIVERSAL LOVK CONSIDERS] > AND ESTABLISHED UPON ITS RIGHT FOUNDATION, BEING A SERIOUS ENQUIRY HOW FAR CHARITY MAY AND OUGHT TO BE EXTENDED TOWARDS PERSONS OF DIFFERENT JUDGMENTS IN MATTERS OF RELIGION, AND WHOSE PRINCIPLES AMONG THE SEV- ERAL SECTS OF CHRISTIANS DO MOST NATURALLY LEAD TO THAT DUE MOD- ERATION RE- QUIRED. Written in the Spirit of love, and meekness, for the removing of stumbling-bloeks out of the way of the simple ; by a lover of the souls of all men, ROBERT BARCLAY. God is lai'e, and he that dwclleth in love, dwelleth in God. — i John iv. 16. For this is the love of God, that ive keep his commandments. — i John v. 2. UNIVERSAL LOVE, &c. SECTION L THE INTRODUCTION. GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCE IN THIS MATTER; WITH THE REASONS MOVING HIM TO TREAT THEREOF. Albeit it were very desirable that man could, from his very tender a^e upwards, receive Godliness *> or from a tender so living an impression not only of the truest j^ e ™ ess th c { and surest principles of the doctrines of few - Christ, but also of the life and power of godliness, to leaven the w^hole mind and affections unto the pure and holy nature of Jesus ; yet seeing that this happi- ness befals to few, (most of men being, by the preju- dice of education, either prepossessed or defiled with wrong notions) or else those who come to receive even at first a right impression in their understand- ings, as to opinion or principle, do either by the power of inward corruption working upon their natural complexions, or by other temptations from without, oftentimes fall exceeding short of this pure life ; the best way to redeem the time, and to repair that loss is from the experience we have had of the evil, and the memory we retain of how far we have been wrong, to confirm and strengthen ourselves in the good now revealed and embraced ; w T hich, by the powerful working of God's infinite goodness turning all to the advantage of those, that love and follow 64 A PBR8UA8IVH TO UNITY. Him, makes the ministry of such the more effectual, as in the example of Paul and others was manifest It being then so, that the conditions of my life hitherto (albeit I ae yet am but a young man) gives me experience more than, perhaps, to many others, to treat of this subject: therefore, finding a true freedom and liberty in my spirit, I have willingly undertaken (for the sake of some) to write some- thing briefly, and yet I hope clearly thereof; that my experience herein, (if the Lord will,) by His blessing, may be useful to others. My first education from my infancy up fell The author's amongst the strictest sort of Caluinists, those education O > ence. expcri " °f our country being generally acknowl- edged to be the severest of that sect, in the heat of seal surpassing not only Geneva, (from whence they derive their pedigree) but all other the reformed churches abroad (so called); so that some of the French Protestants, being upbraided with the fruits of this zeal, as it appeared in John Knox, Buchanan and others, do (besides what is peculiar to their principles of this kind) allege the superabundance thereof to proceed a fervido Scotoram Ingenio, i.e., from the violent complexion of our countrymen. I had scarce got out of my childhood, when I was, by the permission of Divine Providence east among the company of Papists, and my tender years, and immature capacity not being able to withstand and resist the insinuations that were used to proselyte me to that Way, I became quickly defiled with the pollutions thereof; and continued therein for a time, until it pleased God, through his rich love and mercy t<> deliver me out of those snares, and to give me a dear understanding of the evil of thai way. UNIVERSAL L0VB, ESTABLISHED, 6f> In both these Becta i lu* reader may easily con- ceive, tliat I bad abundant occasion to receive im- pressions contrary to this principle of love herein treated of ; seeing the straitness of several of their doctrines, as well as their practice of persecution, do abundantly declare, how Opposite they are to uni- versal love; as sba-11 hereafter more at Large be shewn. And albeit the time it pleased God to de- liver me out of these snares, I was so young, that it may be presumed, my observations could be but weak, and consequently my experience inconsider- able; yet, forasmuch as from my very childhood I was very ambitious of knowledge, and by a certain felicity of understanding (I think I may say without vanity) successful beyond many of my equals in age, (though my observations at that time were but weak) yet since I have with more leisure and cir- cumspection gathered thence so much experience, as I am confident, will serve for a sufficient foundation to any superstructure I shall build upon it in this treatise. The time that intervened betwixt my forsaking of the Church of Rome and joining with those with whom I stand now engaged, I kept myself free from joining with any sort of people ; though I took liberty to hear several : and my converse was most with those that inveigh much against j udging, and such SmSSf kind of severity; seeming to complain greatly for want of this Christian charity among all sects. Which latitude may perhaps be esteemed the other extreme opposite to the preciseness of these other sects ; whereby I also received an opportunity to know, what usually is pretended on that side like- f)G A PERSUASIVE TO (MTY. wise; and thence can say somewhat experimentally on that part also. As for those I am joined to, and whom I justly Pcopic'svan- esteem to bo the true followers and ser- ous JK ouaU^. thc vants of Jesus Christ, the world speaks di- versely of them, as to this matter ; some highly ac- cusing them of the want of charity, and quarreling with them as such, who peremptorily condemn all but themselves : others have a contrary conceit of them ; each aocordingas they are prejudicated and in- formed. What may he truly said in the case shall after appear. I myself have been diversely censured in this matter, being engaged in controversy; which, as they can be scarcely handled without something of sharpness, so are seldom managed by any so suc- jsfully, as not to bear the censure of some or other in this respect Having then upon the whole matter observed, that this want of charity is that, for the want of which each sect accuses the other, and yet are most averse to see this defect in themselves; and that some do accuse all sects as guilty of this crime; I have judged it meet to commit my sense hereof to writing, according to the purpose signified in the title afore-mentioned. SECTION II. Till: NATURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE AND CHARITY DEMON- bteatbd; the consistency of true zeal the it k- with; ITfl DISTINCTION from falsi: zeal. The nature of Christian love and charity is fully tnnvmaAL loyi, m pablishbd. 51 Mid abundantly described in the Holy Scripttu where it ia preferred before all other virtues and properties whatsoever : as that which comprehendeth in it all other perfections, and is the root and spring of them. For there can be no true virtue, bnt that which proceedeth from love; hence God himself ia called love, 1 John iv. 7, as being that under which all his innumerable and unutterable perfections arc included. By this love we are re- deemed from the corruption of our nature, and have received the benefit of a mediator; John 16. This is the banner, wherewith God covcrctli his chil- dren, Cant. ii. 4. This is that, which constrained our Lord Jesus Christ to lay down his life for us ; John xv. 13. The exercise of this is given by Christ, as the principal token of his disciples ; John xiiL 35. It is numbered as the first fruit of the spirit; Gal. v. 22. It is called the fulfilling of the law, as that wherein all consisteth; Romans xiii. 10. For to love God above all things, and our neighbor as our- selves, is the sum not only of the law, but of the Gospel also. (See 1 Cor. xiii. 13.) Thereupon the Apostle Paid giveth to this love or charity the pre- cedency before either faith or hope ; in which chap- ter he doth briefly, but very emphatically describe it. For having first shown that the speaking with tongues of men and angels, that the gifts of J n h c e yo ^^ prophesying, understanding and knowl- *"jj C n a e r . ity ' edge, that the faith, that even could re- p C r ^ g of move mountains, and the giving of all to aueriu the poor, yea, and the body to be burnt, is nothing without it : he proceeds to the description of it thus : — charity suffers long, is kind ; charity envieth not, 58 A PERSUA8IV! TO UNITY. vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not be- have itself unseemly, Beeketh not lier own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoicethnot in iniquity, hut rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all filings, en- dureth all things, never faileth, albeit other gifts have, 1 Cor. xiii., from the first verse. As by this the excellency of love is shewn, so the necessity of pressing after it, and living in it w T ill be readily acknowledged by all: but seeing, the sum of this love, as well as the perfection thereof consists in loving Ood above all ; so whatever diverteth in anything therefrom, is not to be accounted love, though the same word be used to express it, and that in the Scripture itself; such as the love of self, Scu-i vf the love of the world, the love of any crea- ture. Hence for the attaining of the true and excel- lent love, the love of all these other things is not only to be laid aside, and the love of God preferred to them, but they are to be hated, as Christ himself phraseth it, he that hateth his life, John xii. 25; yea, he nseth it so, as to speaking of hating father and mother, L>/Le xiv. 2G. Though when the love to such is truly subordinate to the other, it is both commended and commanded. The testimony, which is required of our really being in the love of God, Christ himself the :[ signifiethto us, if you love me, keep my commandments: and as the beloved dis- ciple John said in the ease of knowledge, showing US the falsehood of SUch, as pretend to know God, and yet do not BO; Baying, he that says he knows God, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and VXIYEKSAL LOVB, i>tai;lisiii:i>. 59 the truth is not in him, 1 John ii. 4. So maybe also said, he that saith he loves God and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the troth is not in him ; ording as the same Apostle saith; 1 John v. 3: u For this is the love of God, that we keep his command- ments." Hence it La apparent that love without purity is but a false pretence; and that whatsoever hinders from the practice of this love of God, or withdraws from the obedience of the least of his commands, is to be denied, and no ways to be entertained; as being either the love of the devil, the love of the world, or the love of self, and not the love of the Father. And as from the true love of God (having taken plaee both upon the understanding and will,) there ariseth a great fervency and desire of mind, that it may be wholly united with the Lord, and made conformable unto his will in all things. So from hence ariseth also a certain aversion from, indignation of, and even hatred to whatsoever is con- trary tl i ereunto,or has a tendency to lead from it,which is commonly called zeal. AVhich zeal having a right bottom and foundation, and proceeding ^cc™ 26 * 1 purely from the love of God, is a great £ f °£od e love virtue, greatly to be commended and pressed after ; and the defect thereof is justly reprovable in a Chris- tian. That zeal then, thus considered, is a thing excellent, pure and holy of itself, appears, in that it is ascribed to God himself, 2 Kings xix. 13, where, in the performance of the blessed evangelical promises to be performed by the zeal of the Lord (Isaiah xix. 17,) He is said "to be clothed with zeal, as with a cloak;" and (lxviii. 15) his zeal is numbered with his bowels and mercies. Next David recommends CO A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. himself to God, for that the " zeal of his house had eaten him up." PsaLhdx* 9, andexix. 139. And Paul commenda the Corinthians for their zeal, 2 Cor. vii. 11; 1 Cor. xiv. 12. And for this end has the grace of God appeared unto all, that there might he B people gathered "zealous of good works," Tit. ii. 14. And as this is commended a;id recommended on the one hand, so is the contrary thereof (to wit, indiilerency and lukewarmness) reproved and re- linked as a thing displeasing to the Lord. Of many instances whereof, that might be given, that unto the Church of Laodicca may serve at present. Revel. xiii. 15-16. Because for a remedy against this evil she is exhorted, verse 19, to be zealous and re- pent. But as there is a true zeal, so is there a false one; and it is not more needful to have the one, than it is to avoid the other. Now as the true zeal proceedethfrom the pure love of God, and single regard to his honor seai/feT anc ^ £'l° r y5 P0 tlie false zeal proceedethfrom grci s . andde " ^ ie l° ve °f something else, and the regard to other things. And of this false zeal there are several kinds, as well as degrees: all of which, though they ought to be shunned, yetsome are farmore hurt- ful and pernicious than others. The worst and highest of these is, when as men through the height of pride, lust, ambition or envy, show themselves furious :s - and zealous to satisfy and fulfil their de- sires and affections; this is the highest zeal for self: from this zeal did Cain slay Abel) Ishmael mocked 7. a wicked Isaac, and Esau hated Jacob; Pharaoh perse- cuted the children of Israel; Said, David; and Jezebel, the true prophets of the Lord. i mvkksal LOVB, B8TABLI8HRD. 61 A Becond kind is, when as men, thai are not trne ami faithful even to those princfplee of religion they profess tlu maeh es to a< knowK dge as true, as being conscious to themselves, and also publicly known to be such, as are vicious and profligate; yet do vio- lently persecute and oppress others, thai differ from them; though they be not only equal to them, but n bv their own acknowledgment exceed them in temperance and virtue: having nothing to charge them with, but that they agree not with them in judgment and practice in matters of religion. This apparently is a false zeal, and not of God; for if it proceeded from the true love of God, it would first operate in themselves to the removing of all those things, which they acknowledge to be contrary to this love of God, before it exerted itself towards others; seeing, as the proverb is, Charity begins at home. And like unto this was the zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees, who persecuted scribes and Christ for a breaker of the law, which them- stanced" ' selves did not fulfil; as is also the zeal both of the Papists and Protestants in their persecutions at this day. A third sort is of such,who do indeed walk strictly and closely to their own principles, making 3 . a blind conscience of their way ; but yet being zeaf 01 blinded in their understanding, do persecute truth, supposing it to be error. Of this number was Paul before his conversion, being as to the law blameless, and persecuting the saints out of zeal, Acts xxii. 3; Gal. i. 14. And therefore in this class he numbers his countrymen, saying, They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, Horn, x. 2. And perhaps 62 A PSB8UA8IV1 TO UNITY. among these Bach may be numbered, of whom Christ speaketh, Baying to his disciple's, and "when they kill you, they shall think to do God good service. " A fourth or last sort is, when as men being truly enlightened in their understanding, but their will, heart and affections not being thoroughly leavened with the love of God, do condemn things justly re- 4 v Ar ?. sl V provable, hut not out of the pure drawings self-willed i- " r vi:, E8TABLISE 68 and attained ; tliat it U never joined but With purity, which it naturally lead and therefrom doth consequentially arise an indignation and seal against unrighteousness: which true seal is justly com* mendable, and really distinguishable from all false and ignorant zeal. For the more clear stating of the controversy in proceeding in this matter, these following asser- tions relating thereto may be proposed and affirmed. I. That whatsoever love is consistent with the pure love of God, may be safely jEJfo?" exercised towards all sorts as well of men, f™^^ as Christian-. Lhnsd - II. That whatsoever love or charity really con- duceth to the salvation of their souls, and so far as they are capable thereof, may and ought to be shewed towards them. m. That therefore the good in all ought to be commended, encouraged and loved, and no true good either denied, rejected or despised, because of any errors peculiar to respective sects. IV. That the evil either in opinion or practice ought neither to be spared, encouraged nor foment- ed under any pretence of love whatsoever. These I shall not enlarge, nor yet offer to prove (studying to avoid prolixity) because I presume, they will be readily granted and assented to by all : that then, which principally comes under consideration, is to consider and examine, AVhich of all the several sorts of Christian- this day, do most truly observe these rules, and shew forth most of the true love and zeal of God in their 64 A im-rsiwsive TO UNITY. way and principles, avoiding that, which is contrary thereunto I Wherein that I may proceed clearly, there arc Borne things previous to be warily and Beriously weighed. As ■ First ; When I speak of the charity of the seve- ral sorts of Christians, I speak of such as are settled i. in theirrespective principles, as persuading men judging themselves certainly in the truths and others -ii*i in. -re rr;n.v- SOUlldneSS 01 tllClll I SO tllUt tllCir lOVC ailCl able than these others, charity is really to such, as they judge and believe are wrong. Seeming to have charity to all, and be afraid to judge them from an unscttledness in one's self, as not knowing which is right, or which is wrong, is a virtue of necessity and not of choice: and proceedeth no ways from the love of God, neither has any resemblance thereunto: for God loves and compassionates sinners, and such as arc out of the way, not as being ignorant or doubting, whether they be such ; but as really knowing them. It were indeed the height of madness and folly for these unsettled, uncertain and straggling souls to take the liberty to judge others for being wrong, while they profess, they know not yet, who is right, and who is wrong; being only sure of this, that themselves are not come to rights; for they could not in so doing but be self-condemned. Not but I believe, that the condition of such, if they be truly forbearing, and ready to embrace the good, when seen by them, is both more tolerable to others, and safe for themselves, than those, that are hardily con- fident in a wrong belief, from thence forwardly judging others. But this I mention for the sake of IAI I I, BCAHJ 05 certain men of loose and uncertain principles, who being really coi - of their own unsettledness, f: g then. at a loss as con- cerning many of the controverted principles of the Christian religion, which is right, and which wnr and not finding ■ ret I come to any certain determination therein, and being perhaps unwilling to undergo the trouble and difficulty of such a seri- ous search and enquiry, as \ avoid these troublesome cirei; i, or rather ino veniences, which ma; m to them necessaril j accompany their imbodying themselves with I particular people or fellowship, and therefore find it more I .y and please themselves with some general notions of practical truths commonly ac- knowledged bj all, and therefore cover themselves by condemning that heat, asperity, and severe cen- suring, that is among the several sons of Christians one towards another, as not consistent with, nor suit- able to that love, which ought to be in all Christians : whereas poor men ! they mind not, how much t: fall in this crime, and that in a d _ far more re- provable, than those they thus accuse. For, F -r. : Are not they found guilty of the want of this Christian love and charity, that do _ i. judge and condemn all tht 1 sorts opinions in of Christian :ve in thia - .':.- nrat&aad cipai and necessary a Christian virtue; otberf.-r wherebv they do indirectly shut them out *?■*« of them- from being Christians or disciples of . ^^ for if they ged it an error incoi. I with I tian love and charity, to condemn or accuse one an- other for difference in opinion : why are thev found 06 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. themselves ho guilty of it ? For since this censuring and condemning of one another amongst the several sorts of Christians is practiced by them as their duty, and a ne cessa ry consequence of their doctrine, why should these judge them for it? If they say, they condemn them for it, because they believe it to be a wrong principle? shall not others be allowed the like liberty to condemn principles they likewise believe to be wrong? One of two then must of necessity hold, either that wrong doctrines or opinions may be justly reproved, confuted and condemned with- out breach of Christian love and charity, and there- fore the so doing amongst the several sorts of Chris- tians (upon their own respective principles in itself simply considered) not evil or reprovable, and there- fore these men wrong in judging it so; or it is an evil, and inconsistent with Christian love and char- ity to condemn any sort of Christians for their doc- trines and opinions : and if so, these men fall foully in this crime, that do accuse all others for this judg- ing of principles ; and yet themselves judge them for their principles herein. And, Secondly : Their envy in this is of an higher de- 2 . gree by their own sentence, than those others thus judged by them: because the others proceed upon a certain belief and firm persuasion, that they are in the right, and those they condemn wrong; and so proceed rationally COnsequt ntial to their own principles: but these men, albeit they be conscious to £hemselv< that they are not come to a determination of what is right, and what wrong, and remain yet in doubt for want of a clear understanding, what to approve, imvi:ksal LOVB, i> iaiilisiikd. 67 ami what to condemn ; do nevertheless most irration- ally (ami Inconsequentially to their own affirmations) reprove, censure and condemn all others, as destitute or at Least defective in a virtue and quality bo lary ami essential to all Christian societies- To whom therefore may be fitly applied ti ing of the patriarch Jacob to his first-born! Jicuben : " Un- stable as water, thou shalt not excel." Gen. xlix. 4. And that of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, ]\<>,,t. ii. 11. As also that other saying of the same apos- tle to the Galatians, " For if I build again the things that I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." Gal. ii. 18. Second!)/ : To make a judgment of the several sorts of Christians, we must fetch it not from a A religious the practices of particular persons; but ? ociet yj* om from their respective principles, by enquir- its principles, r * * 7 » * not from par- inir, how far they naturally lead to, or draw ticuiarper- © 7 ** *> sons prac- from this universal love ? Because that it tices - cannot be denied, but that among all and every sort of the several sects of Christians, there are men of divers and sundry humors and complexions, some more hot, violent and forward, who prosecute what they judge right, with great zeal, haste and fury; others of more calm, meek and loving dispositions, who though they be not less desirous to advance their way, yet do it in a more complacent, affable and deliberate manner : some there are, that are naturally of a careless, indifferent, Gallio-like temper in such things, and therefore behave more forbear- ingly and civilly towards such as dissent from them ; not because of any virtue, but because such things do not much trouble or touch them. Neither then 68 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. of these virtues, as they are incident to particular persons, arc so justly chargeable upon a sect or peo- ple, as from thence to make a positive judgment of their universal charity or not, seeing, these are not the consequences of their principles, or that which necessarily comes from them, as relating to this or that society ; but the mere product of their natural and private humors. How far any particular or sin- gular persons among the several sects have attained to the performance of that true love and zeal, for- merly described, I shall not determine; neither does it necessarily belong to this question : for if any should be found to do any thing, which were so far from being the consequence of their principles, as to be quite contrary, their brethren would not suffer their principles from thence to be disapproved; so neither can the excellency of any singular persons, while not proceeding upon their principles, approve them as justifiable in this respect. As for instance : where it is the universal principle and general prac- tice of a sect, to persecute even to the utmost those that differ from them (as in the Chuch of Rome) should there be found one or two, or a very few of a more moderate spirit, that should profess an aversion from such sort of severity, and also practice it in their station according to their capacity, who would ascribe this moderation and charity to the Church of Rome, would take his measure but badly. And on the other hand, where it is the universal principle and general practice of a people, not at all to persecute for the matter of conscience, should any private per- sons of that society be carried by their fury and heat to the practice of any such thing,though directly con- FMYKK6AL L0VB, ESTABLISHED. 69 trary to their principles ; who would charge this upon the whole people, and thence measure them, would make also a had oonsequence. Nevertheless I shall not deny, bat some principles are so pernicious, and bo straight and narrow, that they seem hy a certain malignity generally to influence all their followers, as shall after be observed : hut I shall now proceed to the fore-mentioned examination. SECTION IV. AN EXAMINATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SEVERAL SORTS OF THE SO CALLED CHRISTIANS COMPARED WITH THIS UNIVERSAL LOVE, AND FOUND DEFECTIVE : AS 1, OF PAPISTS ; 2, OF PROTESTANTS IN GENERAL ; 3, OF S0- CINIANS. As there are two ways chiefly, whereby a people or society do signify their charity or love Universal towards others, that diner from them ; so in— by these two also is signified their contrary prin- ciples and practice. The first is by a favorable and charitable judg- ment of the condition of men's souls, albeit i. a ebant of different and contrary principles from ment JU them, in supposing, or at least not absolutely deny- ing, but that they may even upon their own prin- ciples, if faithful thereto, obtain peace with God and life eternal. The second is by a friendly and neighborly deport- ment towards men's persons, in not seeking 2 A fr i end]v to ruin and destroy them, whether in life, dc P° rUnent - liberty or estate; albeit their judgment concerning God, and things spiritual in the nature and manner 70 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. of the exercise of their worship be both contrary and different : where the defect of any of these two is, there of necessity must be wanting universal love and charity. For thou, that has bound up and tied the means i. Uncharifc. of salvation to thy principles and doctrines, meat so as to exclude from salvation all that differ from thee, or contradict thee, hast cer- tainly declared, thy charity exceeds not the limits of thv own form; and that the best opinion and highest esteem thou hast of any that differ from thee, for any virtues or excellencies that may appear to be in them, resolves at last in no better than this conclu- sion; for all this they must be damned. Xeither will it serve to prove the universal charity of any people in this respect, that some of them may problematically affirm, that salvation may be pos- sible to some such dissenters living in remote parts, who are excluded from the benefit of all means of knowing their principles, making this possibility only as an effect of God's omnipotency, and bo purely miraculous ; alleging, they will not deny, but God in a miraculous and extraordinary way may bring some to heaven. For this shows no charity at all either in the principle or people ; but is only a mere seeming acknowledgment of God's omnipo- tency from a sight of the gross absurdity that would follow from affirming otherwise. Those only can be med charitable in point of doctrine, and truly to commend the love of God, whose principle L8 of that extent, as naturally to take in within the compass of it both such as have not arrived to their discoveries, and who arc also different in judgment IMVKKSAL LOVI, established. 71 from them, and thai without any extraordinary and miraculous conveyance ; aa being the common moans and order of Salvation appointed by Gk>d lor all, and truly reaching all. Moreover, in the second place, tar lesa canst thou pretend to have charity tor me, that wilt rob me of my life, goods or Liberty, because 1 cannot jump with thee in my judgment in religious matters: to say, thou dost it for good, and out of the love thou bearest to my soul, is an argument too ridiculous to be answered ; unless that the so doing did iufallibly produce always a change iu judgment: the very contrary whereof experience has abundantly shewn, and to this day doth shew ; seeing such severities do oftener confirm men in their principles, than drive them from them. And then by thy own confession thou dost not only destroy mv body, but my z. UncWt- .-.,.-,. able deport- soul also; and canst not avoid thinking, up- ment : todc . . stroy men for on thy own principle, but lmust be damn- conscience t . • • • anactofmal- ed if I persist in my judgment: which for ice. thee to be the very immediate occasion and author of, is certainly the greatest act of malice and envy that can be imagined : seeing thou dost what in thee lieth, through thy heat of zeal and fury, to cut me off from obtaining that place of repentance, which, for aught thou knowest, it might please God to afford me, were not my days thus shortened by thee. To allege the example of putting to death mur- Magistrates derers and other such profligate malefactors death maie- ( which is allowably done by the general their crimes t n -t .. , . . , _ is no example judgment or almost all Christians) from for them to • i kill good thence ursine:;, that as this is not accounted a men for ma* n •ni • ters of c,jn - breach of Christian charity, so neither the science. 72 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. other, will no way serve the purpose, nor yet be a suf- ficient cover for this kind of unchristian cruelty ; be- cause the crimes for which these are thus punished, are Bach, as are not justified as matters of conscience, or conscientiously practiced ; which are unanimously condemned not only by the consent of all Christians, but of all men, as being destructive to the very nature of mankind, and to all human society : and it is con- fessed even by all such malefactors themselves; I know not if one of a hundred thousand can be ex- cepted; and the punishment of such is justifiable, as all generally acknowledge. But to kill sober, honest, good men, merely for their conscience, is quite con- trarv to the doctrine of Christ, as has been else- where upon other occasions largely demonstrated. This being premised, I shall briefly apply the same to the several sorts of Christians, that thence may be observed whose principles do most exactly agree with, and lead to that universal love and charity, so much in words commended by all : and for the want of which every sort take so much liberty to judge and condemn each other. There are many other particulars, by which the several sects may be tried in this respect ; but these two fore-men- tioned being the principal, I shall chiefly insist upon them in this present application. To begin then with the Papists, there Is nothing The Papists' more commonly acknowledged and assent- im: . without the ed to anions them, than that maxim, extra church is no ° salvation. ccclcsiam nulla salus, without the church there is no salvation; which maxim in a sense, I confess to be true, (as shall hereafter appear) but ac- COrding as it is understood among them, it docs ut- DHIVBE8AL Levi-:, KTABLIBHID. 73 terlv destroy this universal love and charity. For by this church, without which (here is no salvation, they precisely understand the church of Rome; koning, that whosoever are not of her fellow- ship, are QOl saved. And this must needs Dec sarily follow upon their principles, seeing, they make the ceremonial embodying in this church so necessary to salvation, that they exclude Thcirch ii. from it the very children begotten and SSSfiS brought forth by their own members, thcirn s° r - unless formally received by the sprinkling or bap- tism of water. And albeit they have a certain place more tolerable than hell for these unbaptised in- fants; yet hence is manifest, how small their charity is ? And how much it is confined to their particu- lar ceremonies and forms ? Since if they think children born among them for want of this circum- stance are excluded from heaven, albeit never guilty of actual transgression ; they must needs judge, that such as both want it, and also are guilty of many sins (as they believe all men are, who are come to age, especially such as are not in the church) go without remedy to hell. Secondly, all dissenters and separatists from the church, infidels, Turks and heretics, which The , p °P e ' s ' ~ ' yearly curse (in short) are all that profess not fellowship S^jgg^ and communion with the church of Rome, {£*£ wlthout and own her not as their mother, are in a most solemn manner yearly excommunicated by the Pope ; and it were a most gross inconsistency to suppose, that such, as are so cursed and excommunicated, and given over to the devil by the father and chief bishop of the church, can in the judgment of the mem- 74 a rrnsuAsivE to unity. bers be saved ; especially while they think he is ap- proved of GkkL, and led by an infallible Spirit in his so excommunicating them. Ami lastly, to Buppose any >uch universal love or The found*, charity, aa extending to persons either h lho without the compass of their own society, Superiority or dissenting and separating from them, so oi rcur. ag tQ rec ]^ on them in a capacity or possibil- ity of salvation, were to destroy and overturn the very basis and foundation of the Roman Church; which stands in acknowledging the superiority and precedency of Peter and his successors, and in believ- ing that infallibility is annexed thereunto. Now, such as are not of the Roman Society, can- not do this ; and those that do not thus, are such, to whom the Church of Rome can have no charily ; but must look upon them as without the church, and consequently as uncapable of salvation, while there abiding. If it be objected that the Church of Rome profess- object. eth charity to the Greek, Armenian, and Ethiopian churches, albeit vastly different in many things from them: I answer, that whatsoever charity the Church of Answer. Rome either doth, or ever hath profess to any of these, shall be found to be always upon a supposed acknowledgment made by them to the See of Rome, as the Mother church and apostolic scat, from thence seeking the confirmation and The Church . . ° . of Rome authority or their Patriarchs, at least, as chanty to the Romanists have BOUffht to make the some. ° world believe (how true, is not my pi ent business to enquire) and all these differences <>( UKIVBB8AL I.nVK, ESTABLISHED. 7.') 'emonies, that are betwixt them, are only approv- bythe R imams such which are indulged to them by the Pope, who pretends out of a fatherly rare and compassion to yield these things unto them : which, If it be true, is done by him rather to uphold the show of his authority, and because distance of place and other ineommodities hinder him from pressing more apon them ; since in places nearer hand, and where titter opportunities have been pre- ted, he has shewn himself very zealous and lent to bring all to a ready obedience to the least of his commands : as by many examples could be largely proved. Yet some are of the mind, that all these stories, and pretended acknowledgments of Patriarchs to the Romish See, are but the mere effects of the policy of that court to uphold their grandeur; and nothing better but pretty comedies to amuse the vulgar and credulous, and augment their reverence towards the Pope and his clergy : but whatever be in this, it is abundantly manifest, that there can be nothing more contrary to this uni- versal love and charity, than Romish principles, and that no man of that religion, without deserting his principles can pretend to it. As to the other principle of persecution, how much it is preached and practiced in the Pereecurion Church of Rome, will need no great proba- HfjJSi fo . tion : those that are acquainted with, or S^aful-ch have heard of the Spanish Inquisition, of of Romc * the many inhuman butcheries and massacres com- mitted both in France and the Netherlands upon men, merely for the matter of their consciences; the many plots, consultations, combinings and wars 76 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. contrived, fomented, and curried on by the bishops of Rome themselves, and the chief of their cler yielding large and voluntary contributions thereto, for to ruin and root out the dissenters from the Romish Society, after Luther appeared ; cannot but -, how natural and consequential it is to Romish principles so to do? And thence also observe, how contrary and opposite these things are to universal love and charity ? And how much they act the hy- pocrite, when they pretend Christian charity to any, that differ from them. And this manifestly appears in these two, which none of them that has understanding to know, or honesty to confess their principles, can deny. I might also add a third, which albeit by some Popish doctors in some nations it be denied, yet is no less firmly believed and contended for by other eminent persons among them, especially Bellarmine, and ap- proved by the Pope himself, to wit, the Pope's power to depose princes in case of heresy, and give their kingdoms to others : allowing them upon that ac- count to fight against them, and accounting their so purchasing of them lawful. Small offences hereto- fore would have provoked to this sentence, as ap- The Pope's peared in the example of Hildebrand and JSJ^tfSS others; but of late he is more sparing Br Pnnccs an( j deliberate i n his denunciations, finding his authority less regarded, and his power to bring to obedience much abbreviated. But sure- ly, this principle cannot consist with universal love, when that, which by all is acknowledged to be an ordinance of God, doth not secure the lawful ad- ministrators thereof from the bitterness of it : if you VNIVKRSAL LOVi:, ESTABLISHED. 77 will not allow a king to be a king, albeit his right ami title bo to be La every way aa good, as such among yourselves, unless he be of your mind; certainly there is but small hopes of your charity to other persons! There might be much more said and en- larged as well upon this as other things, which suffi- ciently evideneeth the Chureh of Rome can have no just claim to this universal love; which I pur- posely, to avoid all manner of prolixity, do omit. The great variety of doctrines among Protestants (so called) will make it somewhat harder Protestants . to decipher them particularly in this mat- p™ ci P les - ter ; yet to take first notice of those who by their most public confessions,as well as by their possession of whole nations, are most commonly and universally understood to bear that name, (to wit) the Lutherans and Calvinists seem most regular. And because of their unity, as well as of several others, in that doctrine and practice of x Lutherans persecution, I shall make my first obser- and Calvinists - vation from thence : which being not only held by them, but also bv several others dissenting from both of them, may be termed (the more the pity) a gene- ral doctrine of Protestants : how far this contradicts universal love, is before mentioned. But Persecution as to them, it has this additional aggrava- anTpraak" 6 tion (which is very considerable) that they do, and that upon their owned principles, so rigorously per- secute one another, not permitting one another the free exercise of their conscience in their respective dominions ; albeit they acknowledge, that they agree in fundamentals, and that they have both upon the same design of reformation departed from antichrist. 78 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. H«»w then can these men pretend to any thing of uni- versal love or charity, who upon so small difference, by themselves not esteemed fundamental, do deny one another the very common and natural benefits of the creation. And of this the island of Great Bri- md in- tain can give good evidence. For albeit the Protestants there be in a sense all Calvin] or at least not at variance in that, which was and is the great controversy among the Lutherans and Cal- vinists abroad; and that their difference lies only in the matter of the government of the church, and some other ceremonies ; many of which Calvin him- self confesseth not to be of that consequence, for which the godly should be at variance ; yet how lit- tle charity they have to one another, and how great and irreconcilable prejudice and malice, is openly known to the world ! So that upon this account the Prelatic party has persecuted the Presbyterian, and the Presbyterian them, as they respectively found themselves in a capacity to do it; not only to the ejection of the clergy for this difference out of their function, and Excommuni- the excommunication and publicly cursing eating one t t_ • • another. one of another ; but also to the turning m and out of state officers, to the imprisoning, forfeit- ing, banishing, yea, and judicial execution both of private and public persons. Not to mention the hor- rible devastations and public wars, whereby this is- land became as a bloody tragedy to the ruin of thou- Wars and MUNIS Of families J which took ltfl HSC frOUt bloodshed, their differences, and was carried and fo- mented from the very pulpits under this notion. Also those common and usual denominations, where- UNIYBR8AL LOVB, B8TABLI8HE0. 79 with they used (and yet do design on) one Another, ttOt unknown, as, self-seeking and self-separating hypocrites, seditious incendiaries, presumptuous re- bels; and oq the other hand, proud and bloody pre- lates, ignorant and ungodly curates, wicked and hateful malignants, idolatrous and superstitious. I could also (were it not both tedious and trouble- some to repeat such Btuff) give instance of not much a severity and reproaches very near of the same quality, that have passed betwixt other Bub- Severity and divided species of Calvinists ; as betwixt the betwixt Re. nmnstrants Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants in **&***** tt i i t/v n t • tcri.uis and Holland, upon the difference or their prm- independents triples, albeit they agree in the matter of government ; and the English Presbyterians and Independents,who quarrel not much (at least the generality of them, as themselves are willing the world should believe) about principles, but only in a small circumstance of gov- ernment. All which doth well witness, how void those men are of true charity ! And how far from that true, universal Christian love so much commend- ed and pretended to by them ? especially considering, that these are not only some personal infirmities, or escapes of private persons among them; but the universal, necessary and consequential effects of their respective principles, which proceed from them as men so circumstantiated and related to such and such fellowships and societies. There is another principle not only common both to Lutherans and Calvinists, but even to The cvii of those sub-divided Calvinists (I mean the chinches, Episcopalians and Presbyterians) which preachers, i i 1 • i -i • t &c. set up cannot but obstruct and necessarily hinder and estabrd 80 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. this universal love ; to wit : the pressing after, and seeking to establish a national church; whereby up- on the magistrates, or great part embracing any religion, they distribute the whole kingdom into sev- eral parishes or congregations, and appoint preachers of that way to them all : bo that a man cannot be a member of the state, without he be a member of the church also ; and he is robbed of the very privileges, which he ought to enjoy as a man, unless he will agree (albeit against his conscience) to every circum- stance of that church, which is established in the country he lives. For the making of which the more effectual, the law in our country provides, that when a man is excommunicated or cast out of the church, Excommuni. he is also cast out of the state. So that a cvii thereof, man upon the church's censure for a matter merely conscientious, incurs the same hazard of the loss of his estate and liberty, a3 if he had been guilty of some heinous crime towards the state. But how can those pretend to universal love, that have thus confined all, both spiritual and temporal blessings to their sect, that they think not men worthy to live as men, or breathe the common air, unless they will subscribe to all their sentiments ? Surely, this is far from the nature of God's love, that causes his sun to rise both upon the just and unjust ! Thus far as to persecution, and what depends upon it. I observed before, that the general defect of this universal love did proceed from wrong notions con- cerning the love of God ; for such as confined God's love, did consequently confine their own. Now the chief way, whereby men by their own narrow opinions seek to limit and confine the uni- DNIVBBSAL I LBLI&HBD, 81 venal Love of God, La by proposing the necessary means of salvation appointed by God, as n.>t reach- ing to all; for Buch, to whom they reach not, we cannot suppose to have any real love extended to them. In this the generality of Protestants are de- ficient; albeit some exceed others in a particular re- spectj as shall he hereafter observed. That wherein they are generally wanting, Lutherans is by affirming, that there can be no salva- Miration * , ,..! ~ without the tion without the explicit knowledge or koowWgeof L m ° Christ and Christ, and benefit of the scriptures. This the scriptures is held both by Lutherans, Calvinists and Arniini- ans; I mean, by these churches; whatever may be the private sentiments of particular persons among them. Now whereas all these do acknowledge, that many thousands, yea, whole nations have been and are ex- cluded from the benefit of this knowledge ; they must necessarily conclude salvation impossible to them, and so they can have no charity for them, so as to suppose a possibility of salvation to them. And this goes directly against, and destroys the na- ture of universal love ; which cannot be entertained towards any, but upon the supposition, that they are under a possibility of being saved ; or that those circumstances they are under, not being in them- selves (simply considered) sinful, (as being such, as are not in them to help) do not absolutely exclude them from it. I confess, that I cannot have charity to a w r icked man, that he can be saved, so long as he continues wicked : and if thence any should seek to infer, that so likewise — We cannot have charity to those men, object 6 V 'J A PBRSUASIVH TO UNITY. that want the scriptures and the outward knowledge of Christ, that they can be saved, so long as they want that: therefore as the one is not contrary to universal Love, neither is the other. Answer. I answer ; the comparison holds not to all ; because the ground of my not having charity to him, is his continuing in a thing, which himself knows to be displeasing to God by the law of God, which he has revealed to him, and acknowledges to be good ; and therefore the ground of my hopes of him, that he may be saved, if he repents, is, because The ^ound he knows the means how to repent, and be of universal . lo**. converted, bo my universal love reaches to him not only in that I believe, 'tis possible for God to bring him out of his wickedness ; but in that I acknowledge, that God in order thereto has ac- tually made manifest to him the way, how he may be converted : and so I exclude him not from the universal love of God, which I suppose in that manifestation of his will to have already really The defect touched and reached him. But the other turcs C and np " case has no parity with this. For first, that knowledge defect of the scriptures and outw r ard knowl- imhein- edge of Christ in an Indian or American, duns is pro- ° # _ . vidcntiai. Jfcc #J is no wilful, malicious act of them against any law known to them ; but is the mere providence of God by them inevitable : neither is it unto them any moral evil, that they are born or brought up in these parts, or come not to those places, where they may learn and find that knowledge. If I then judge, that God's love reaches not any such, whom by this providence he has permitted to be thus born and educated in order to save them, my UNIVERSAL LOTS, ESTABLISHED. 83 universal love can no ways reach to them, so as to suppose salvation possible to them, not because they refuse or resist the means of knowledge and salva- tion appointed to them of God; bat because they want it by the will of God, who thought not meet to give it to them. T look not upon it as my work in this treatise, to refute this doctrine, and shew its con- trariety to truth and scripture, having done that largely elsewhere, (as in my Apology explained of the 5th and Gth propositions ; ) it is enough here, that I shew, that sueli as hold this opinion cannot justly pretend to universal love : as doth evidently appear by what is said, and needs no further question. Perhaps the Socinians may step in here, or others of more general principles, who will affirm, they do not believe, that the want of this explicit knowledge doth necessarily exclude men from salvation. It is true, there are some of that mind ; but it were hard to rank them under any particular denomination : it being rather a notion of those men, of whom I made mention before, that are uncertain in their princi- ples, and join w r ith no people absolutely'; than ac- knowledged by a people or any public confession of any united or gathered church and people. The Socinians generally lay very great SocInIans . stress upon the outward knowledge of JjjJjJJLSf the Christ, and do believe, the outward knowl- oSjSd* edge of Christ, or of the resurrection at IVT^ttTry least, to be absolutely needful, holding the to salvation * sufficiency of that alone upon Rom. x. 9. But pass- ing that, and taking it for granted, that the gener- ality of Socinians, and several others with them (who being all taken in cumulo) may pass : for as much aa 84 A PEB8UA8IVB TO UNITY. a whole body of people do believe and affirm salva- tion even possible to such, as are by an inevitable fate excluded from the benefits of that external knowledge, in that they say, object. " That such as will improve that light of nature, which all men have given them of God, and exercise that common principle of reason, may from the works of creation and providence certainly conclude, that there is a God, forsake many evils, and do much good; and that such as do thus improve this natural and common light, do obtain of God to send them miraculouslv either some man or angel to signify to them the outward knowledge or resurrec- tion of Christ, that they may believe it and be saved." Answer. I answer : this doth not reach the full ex- tent of universal love ; because it still limiteth it to this external knowledge and supposeth no means of salvation without it. And next, because it supposeth somewhat miraculous; which as has been before ob- served, is a limitation not to be admitted in this case. But if any would affirm, that the improving of this natural light proved to them a means of sal- vation, without supposing any necessity of having the outward knowledge of Christ at all; albeit it would seem by the extent of their charity, that their love was very universal; yet they do not establish true universal love, more than the other. Because nothing is true universal love, but that which nat- urally proceedeth from the true love of God, and is founded upon good and sound principles deduced therefrom, and which hath not its rise from the lo of sell', or from a selfish principle: which though it may have a .-hew of universal love, is not really such ; UHIYBB8AL LOVB, B8TABUSHHD, 85 else he that would affirm, he believed, thai all men, as well the wicked as the godly, the unbelieving aa the believing should be saved, and that do wicked- ness can hinder a man from being saved — might i»« i said to be a truer preacher of universal love, than any, and most charitable of all men: and yet how would tliis be justly condemned by all Christians ? There can then be no true universal love, but that which is built upon the love of God, and is pure, and of the nature of it. So then, those that affirm, that men may be saved, even without the outward knowledge of Christ, and of the scriptures, if they improve the light of nature ; whether it be that they iud^e that the ligdit The light of J *> © o nature in of nature can carry them through to the order to •>-> salvation, end, and accomplish the work; or that an exalting ± of corrupt they suppose the improving of it will pro- J£^° n,I £' cure any such miraculous revelation, do tion - not truly preach or establish universal love, because the same is not founded upon the true love of God, but is an exalting of the nature and reason of man, which is really defiled and proceeds from self. Since these men for the most part do look upon grace, or the operation of the Spirit in the saints, as but a mere fancy. So I say, these men do not commend the true love of God, which is con- trary to self; but only their own corrupt nature and reason ; And do therefore really oppose and slight the universal love of God, in that they sup- pose man capable of himself to save himself without Christ the alone Mediator ; in and by whom the uni- versal love of God to all is only extended. For whomever God loves, he loves them in Christ, and 86 A PSB8UA8IV1 TO UNITY. no other ways ; and this love of God in Christ can- not be truly received and entertained to the salva- tion of the soul, hut as the old man, the first man with his deeds (which are altogether corrupted, and can claim no share in man's salvation) is put off and done away; and as the new man, that proceeds from a divine spiritual seed, which is not of nor from man's nature, comes to be born and brought forth in the soul. But much more do they contradict and declare Theprinci- themselves void of and strangers to the uni- f>le of ibtO- c ute reproba- versa! love, who hold the precise decree of ti n b con- # x » . reprobation, with the other principles de- Ii,vc pending thereupon, in believing;, that the far and invita- I O IT o? uon. greater number not only of mankind, but even of those that profess the name of Christ, are necessarily damned, and that by virtue of God's ab- solute decree,who from all eternity ordained to create them for that very end, and appointed them to walk in such wickedness, for which he might condemn them, and punish them eternally : so that not only such as are ignorant of the history of Christ, and of Scripture are certainly damned, but even most of those who have the benefit of this knowledge, are notwithstanding damned also, for not right using and applying the same, which miserable crime they necessarily fall in, because that God, albeit Tie publicly and by his revealed will doth invite them all to salvation, yet by a secret will unknown to men, He doth withhold from them all power and grace so lo do. Now I say, whoever are of this mind (as all Cal- vinistf; generally are) cannot justly pretend to uni- VMVKKSAL LOVB s ESTABLISHED. 87 versallove; for seeing they limit the love of God to a small Dumber, making all the rest only objects of his wrath and indignation, they must hy conse- quence so limit their own love also : for God being the fountain and author of love, no man can extend true Christian Love beyond His ; yea, the greatest and highest love of any man falls infinitely short of the love of God, even as far as a little drop of water falls short of the great ocean. Now, none of these men, without manifestly con- tradicting their own principles, can pretend to have love to any of those, that are thus predestinated to death : for what sottishnesswere it, and inconsistency, to pretend charity to such, so as to suppose a possi- bility of salvation for those, whom God hath ap- pointed to be damned, and to be sons of perdition ? For to say, we ought to have charity to all, because we know not who is appointed to life, or may be called to it, saith nothing to solve this difficulty. Because even to such, as may be supposed to be elected, I am not to have charity, so long as I see them in wickedness, and in any unconvert- Reason i. ed state ; for that were to walk against all true judgment, and a putting light for darkness, and darkness for light ; a calling good, evil ; and evil, good, which is expressly forbidden. Next, this were to make true Christian love as blind, as the heathens suppose their God of their lustful love to be, for I ought to love men for some real good I see in them, as feeling them to partake of, and grow in the love of God ; and not upon a mere perhaps God may do them good, perhaps they' may be called; unless I believed there was 88 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Bomething of God in all, given them in order to call them. Thirdly, seeing these men do believe and affirm, thai as God in this case appoints the end, so he doth the means also; they are not only obliged upon their principle, without all charity to conclude as damn- ed, and appointed to damnation all such, as have not the benefit of these means they think needful; but even all such among themselves enjoying these means in whom appear not (according to their notion of it) true and convincing tokens of conversion. And as this doctrine naturally leads from any thing like uni- versal love ; so (as I observed before) it so leaveneth and defileth with an unlovely humor such, as strict- ly and precisely hold it, that for most part they are The root of observed to be men of peevish and perse- thJblood° y cuting gpirits# principle of For these two principles, to wit; that of persecution. t j 10r0 | ^| n g nQ sa i va tion, without the church among Papists (as precisely understanding it of the Church of Rome) and this of absolute reprobation among Protestants, are the very root and spring, from whence flows that bloody and anti-christian tenet of persecution for the case of conscience ; and therefore both it and they are directly contrary and diametrically opposite to the true, Catholic, Chris- tian love of God. UNIVERSAL LOVB, ESTABLISHED, 89 SECTION V. II] PRINOIPLJ BRISTIANITT PROPOSED, AS THBT AKi: HELD r>V A GLRBA1 BODI 01 PEOPLE, AND WHOLE LTHERED CHI RCHBS in BRITAIN and IRELAND; WHICH DO VEKY WELL AGREE WITH TRUE UNIYER- vL LOVK. Siu'li as most commonly complain for the want of universal love, do allege this defect to proceed from the nature of a sect, unto which they think this want of charity so peculiar, that from thence they conclude, that it is impossible either for any sect uni- versally to have this universal love, or for any mem- ber of a sect, so long as he stands to his principles, or is strictly bound up and tied to a sect, to have this universal love. And indeed, this in a great measure is too true, if the nature of a sect be rightly under- stood ; and therefore to avoid mistakes, it will be fit to inquire somewhat in this matter. A sect is commonly and universally taken A sect . ustl in the worst part, and alway so understood, so called * where it is mentioned in the Scripture; as being either really understood of such as are justly so termed, (Acts v. 17; ch. xv. 5; ch. xxvi. 5,) or re- proachfully cast upon such, as ought not to have been so denominated, (Acts xxiv. 5, chapter xxviii. 22.) For a sect is a company of people following the opinions and inventions of a particular man or men, to which they adhere more, and for which they are more zealous, than for the simple, plain and neces- sary doctrine of Christ. But such as are not a sect, nor of a sect, are those, that follow the faith and doc- trines of Christ, and receive and believe The followers of Christ are the same, as purely preached and held forth of no *<*. 90 A PBB8UABIYB TO UNITY. by him unto them ; and not as by the recommenda- tion of man, as clouded and encumbered with their interpretations and additions; and so are mere Christians, and yet true and faithful ones too; yea, the most true and faithful. Now, which of the several sorts of Christians are to be accounted sects, and which not, is a great question ; and would take a larger discourse, than is proper to be inserted in this place, truly to inquire into it : and therefore it shall suffice me at this time to have asserted this in general, which, I judge, will be generally accorded to by all ; and leave the appli- cation to each understanding reader : for the clear- ing which there may several weighty observations fall in hereafter. Probably this will be almost grant- ed by all, and I am sure, may be truly affirmed, that Societies whatsoever people hold forth and preach nnu^llf^ doctrines, which in the nature of them termed truly contradict and are inconsistent with true sects. universal love, such may truly be termed a sect; which may be easily applied to those hereto- fore mentioned : and so consequently, whoever hold forth principles and doctrines consistent and agreea- ble thereunto, are and may truly be esteemed mere Christians, and no sect. Next, the nature of a people's society, and the causes drawing them together, with the method of their being gathered, does much contribute to evi- t Mark of dence, whether they are to be esteemed a SCCL sect or not? First, whose fellowship stands merely in judgment, and in that which reacheth the understanding, and «o are joined together in and for UJOVUUUA LOVB, ESTABLISHED. 91 one opinion, arc only to be esteemed however true their notion- may be Buppoeed i >, >■ . » n operative tot For the true principles and doc- nature to x conversion, trim- oi Christ, albeit they do truly reach ifefrlM the understanding, and require its assent; yet they are of an operative nature: however they may be held by one or two members of the church, without working upon their hearts; yet cannot be held, nor never was by any entire society, without purifying their souls, and reaching to and working upon their hearts to a true and real conversion, I mean, upon the greatest and most considerable part : but false doctrines maybe firmly believed by a whole society without having any operation. For the gathering of the apostles and primitive Christians was an uniting of hearts, and not of heads only ; those three thousand converts were pricked in their hearts, and not in their heads only : yea, where there may be a dissent in some things in point of judgment, if there be this unity of heart through the prevailing of the same life of righteous- ness, yet the true fellowship is not broken. As ap- peared in the example of the apostles themselves. Xow these people, who hold forth the principles and doctrines hereafter to be mentioned, were not gathered together by an unity of opinion, or by a tedious and particular disquisition of notions and opinions, requiring an assent to them, and binding themselves by leagues and covenants thereto ; but the manner of their gathering was by a secret want, which many truly tender and serious souls in divers and sundry sects found in them- ing^fthe^" selves : which put each sect upon the search itsrise and' of something beyond all opinion, which 92 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. might satisiy their weary souls, even the revelation ol God's righteous judgment in their heart to burn up the unrighteous root and fruits thereof; that the Bame being destroyed and done away,tlie inward peace and joy of the Holy Spirit in the soul might be felt to abound, and thence power and life to fol- low him in all his commandments. And so jnany came to be joined and united together in heart and spirit in this one life of righteousness, who had long been wandering in the several sects; and by the in- ward unity came to be gathered in one body: from whence by degrees they came to find themselves agreed in the plain and simple doctrines of Christ.* And as this inward power they longed for, and felt to give them victory over sin, and bring the peace that follows thereon, was that, whereby they were brought unto that unity and community together ; so they came first thence to accord in the universal preaching of this power to all, and directing all unto it: which is their first and chiefest principle, and most agreeable to this universal love, as I shall here- after shew. And it is very observable, that as those, whose gathering and fellowship arises from this mere unity of notions and opinions, do usually derive their name and designation from the first authors, inven- tors and fomentors of those opinions (as of old the Aiians, Nestorians, Manichaeans, &c.,and of late the Lutherans, Calvinists, Anninians, Socinians, Men- nonitee, ftc.) so those people, whose unity and fellow- • Which external agreement as well in doctrines as in the practices necessarily following thereupon, became as one external bond and type of their O WD outward and wship obvious to the world, whereby they arc distinguished even to the ob- tion of man from the several sects professing the name of Christ ; as the true •ians of ol tbeir adherence to the orthodox principles from other herc- that laid claim likewise to be Christians. UNIVERSAL LOVBj ESTABLISHED. i'3 sliip did arise from their mutual sense of this power working in and upon their souls, that Bociety derives not their name from any particular man ; and there- fore are providentially delivered from that great mark of a B6Ct But as the ungodly will be always throwing Borne name or reproach upon the children and servants of God ; it being observed, that through the deep and inward operation of thifl power in them B dread took hold on them, not only to the begetting of God's fear in their hearts, but even to the reach- ing and instructing of their outward man; hence the name of Quakers or Tremblers hath been east upon them ; which serveth to distinguish them from others, though not assumed by them. Yet as the Christians of old, albeit the name of Christian was cast upon them by way of reproach, gloried in it, as desiring above all things to be accounted the followers of Christ ; so they also are glad, that the world re- proacheth them as such, who tremble before the Lord, and who work out their salvation in fear and trembling. And truly, the Lord seems by his pro- phets of old to have foretold, that his children should be so reproached ; as Isa. lxvi. 5 : " Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; your breth- ren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified, and He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed :" where a joyful appearance of God is promised to these hated and reproached Tremblers or Quakers. And J^r.xxxiii. 9, does more clearly prophesy, how this reproachful name, when cast upon his children, shall be owned and countenanced by the Lord, in these very plain and comfortable words : " And it shall 94 A PERSTTASTYl TO UNITY. be to me a name of joy, a praise and an wherewith honor before all the nations of the earth, ic which shall hoar all the good, that I do un- to them, and they shall fear and tremble -them, (or quake) for all the goodness and for all the prosperity, that I procure unto it." As the nature of a sect ariseth from the love of M ir kofa se ^ anc ^ ^ s production, so in the last place scct there can be no more signal or certain mark of a sect, than when a people seek to advance and propagate their way in the strength of their own spirits, reckoning the preaching and publishing thereof by their own natural, or acquired from the lore parts, without the necessity of the inward motion of the Holy Spirit, both lawful and commendable ; and not only so, but the advancing and establishing of the same by outward force and violence. For here is man working without God or the guidance of his Spirit in his own mere strength and will, to set up his own images and inventions under a pretence of truths and pure Christianity. But those that dare not seek to advance even that, which they are persuaded is truth in their own will and spirit (far less by outw^ard force and muh from violence) but in and by God's Spirit, as He leads and moves to it by His life and power, shew, that such are not a sect, nor followers of man's inventions, but of Christ alone, waiting to follow him, as he acts and moves them by his own Spirit and power. And therefore are no sectarians, but mere Christians. The chief and first principle then held by those Christians, which (as I observed before) naturally UKTOBSAL LOYK, ESTABLISHED. 95 That there is somewhat <>f ariseth (and wac ited to by them) from their inward sense, that tied them together, 10, 'that there is Bomewhat of God, some £ftjj{5]* 1 light, some grace, some power, some mea- tobSS?t2S 4 Biire of the Spirit, some divine, spiritual, tosalvall,m 1 heavenly, substantial life and virtue in all men, k which is a faithful witness against all unrighteous- 4 ness and ungodliness in the heart of man, and lead.-, 1 draws, moves and inclines the mind of man to 4 righteousness, and seeks to leaven him, as he gives 4 way thereunto, into the nature of itself; whereby 4 an inward, thorough and real redemption may be 4 wrought in the hearts of all men, of whatsoever 4 nation, country or kindred they be, notwithstanding 4 whatsoever outward knowledge or benefit they be 4 by the providence of God necessarily deprived of :' because whatsoever they want of that, yet such a measure of this light, seed, life and word is commu- nicated to all, as is sufficient truly to convert them from the evil of their ways, purify and cleanse them, and consequently bring them to salvation. And in the affirming of this, they do not at all exalt self or nature, (as do the Socinians), in that they freely acknowledge, that man's nature is defiled and cor- rupted, and unable to help him, or further him one step in order to salvation; judging nothing more needful, than the full and perfect denying and mor- tification of self in order thereunto. Nor do they believe, this seed, light and grace to be any part of man's nature, or any thing, that properly or essen- tially is of man ; but that it is a free grace and gift of God, freely given to all men, in order to bring them out of the fall, and lead them to life eternal. 9t! A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Neither do they suppose, thi I, word and grace, which is sufficient to load to salvation, to be given to men without Christ; for they believe it to be the purchase and benefit of Christ's death, who tasted death for every man : so that they confess all to bo derived to them in and by Christ, the Mediator, to whom they ascribe all. Yea, they believe this light, grace and seed to be no other but a measure of that lite and spirit, that was in Christ Jesus; which being in Ilim, who is the head, in the fullness of it, is from Him (in whom it resideth) as he is ascended up unto, and glorified in the heavens, extended to all men, in order to redeem them from sin, and convert them to God. Thus according to this principle, without attribut- ing any thing to self, or to the nature of man, or claiming any thing without Christ, the universal love of God to all men is exhibited : whereby the means of salvation by Christ, and reconciliation unto God is so asserted, that no man is altogether excluded from it ; but each so reached, as puts him in a capa- city to be saved. Such then, as believe and preach tliis doctrine, must of necessity be esteemed great advancers and asserters of universal love, as those that truly establish it, not through any uncertainty or doubtfulness in themselves, but upon their own linn and acknowledged principle ; since that doth necessarily extend their charity to the not only sup- posing, but even concluding salvation pos- sible not only to the several sorts of Chris- 1 tians, but even to such, who by the disad- '!" vantage of education, and the remoter ** of their habitation are ignorant of the 1 EOVXR8AL l LBLISHED, 97 name of Christ Providing, thai this seed, grace, word and light, which 18 in thorn all, and the free gift of God to them all, receive place in their hearts, so as to work out the fruits and nature of unright- eousness; and to beget them unto righteousn* purity and holiness \ which according to this prin- ciple is believed to be very possible, where the ex- ternal knowledge is thus unavoidably wanting. For albeit those, who hold this principle, do believe, that the outward knowledge of Christ, and those other advantages, which from the use of the scriptures are enjoyed among Christians, are very comfortable, and conducing to facilitate salvation ; yet they reckon them not absolutely needful, holding them only to be integral, and not essential parts of Christianity : for they place the essence or being of Christianity only in the true and real conversion of the heart, by virtue of the operation of this light, seed and grace there. * Even as the essence and being of a man consists in the unity of soul and body, which is enough to denominate one a man, albeit he should want a leg or an arm, an eye or an ear, or have some other de- feet, or even should be destitute of some of the faculties of the mind, as of the memory, &c, that other men have : yet such a one would still, and that truly, be called a man, albeit not a complete and en- tire man. Yea, those that live in the most barbarous and uncivilized places of the world, where they are destitute and ignorant of all the liberal arts and * Let not the reader think strange, that I assert this principle, and enter not upon the probation of it (having done that largely elsewhere, as in my Apology) it not be- ing my business here so to do ; but only to show, how such and such principles do not agree with universal love : as on the other hand, when I make mention of other principles, I do not offer to refute them, it being enough here to demonstrate^ that they are contrary to universal love. 7 98 A PER8UASIVB TO UNITY. sciences used among as, and of all those conveniences which bo much conduce to the facilitating of human society, and accommodating of mankind in their living together; I say, those are still truly account- ed men, as having that which is truly essential or constitutive of a man, as such. In like manner, this principle supposed) the possibility of salvation "both to those commonly called Heathens, and to .many among the dark and erroneous sects. of Chris- tianity, in that this essential part of Christianity, is extended to them, albeit they want those other in- tegrals and comfortable parts, which may in and with respect to the spiritual man be fitly compared to these delects, that those harharous nations want, which we enjoy, as to the natural man. As none can deny, but this principle is most agreeing to uni- versal love ; so the practice of all even of those that deny it, doth evidence and shew, how agreeable it is as well to the love of God as to right reason, where, whenever any of the sects come to deal with the heathen or any such, against whom they cannot urge any thing from scripture or tradition, as being principles not acknowledged by them; then they are always forced to reeur to an inward, innate light in the soul, to which they labor to make manifest their principles ; albeit they differ about the nature and sufficiency of it ; yet they are forced to concede, that this is Qod's love to mankind, and that in this the universal love of God is extended to all. So that to ^Yi^vy one, to whom they come to preach, they may find something, by which they may urge or commend their doctrine : of which [shall give one singular example out o( the words of FhuwfacUS UHIYU8AL LOTS, I8TABLI8HXD. 't'sus, a J< whom that tribe for the 1 1 i irh eem they have of him, term the Apostle of the Indies; m il Led in P> ■ r hardus Va Iiegni J , p, 195, cap. 8: where he pota down the words i '$ Franc ^ letter thus (p, 247) : The Amarguru - ^^Tcc"" 4 fore they received baptism, w a t- JhTja^ ted with an odious and troublesome scru- niAn$ ' 4 pie, to wit: that (rod seemed not unto them mer- 4 ciful and benign, who had condemned all the Ja- 4 ponians he fore our eoraing to eternal punishment; specially, whoever did not worship God, according we preached ; and therefore they said, that he 4 (to wit, God) had wholly neglected the salvation of 4 all their prede< s, in permitting that these n 4 erable souls should altogether be destitute (to their 4 utter ruin) of the knowledge of saving truth. 4 This most odious thought did much draw them 4 back from the worship of the true God, but by the 4 help of God this error and scruple was taken from 4 them. For we first did demonstrate unto them, 4 that the divine law was the oldest of all; yea, be- 4 fore any law was made by the ancients. The Ja- 4 pans knew by the teaching of nature, that it was 4 unlawful to kill, steal, forswear and other things 4 contained in the ten divine laws; as was Taught b r 4 evident in that, when any of them com- to kin, &c. 4 mitted these crimes, they were tormented by the 4 pricks of their consciences: that hence reason it- f doth teach to flee the evil, and follow the good ; 4 and therefore was implanted in the minds of all * men by nature : so that all have the knowledge of 4 the divine law from nature, and of God the Author 100 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. 4 of nature, before discipline be added. Of which, 4 were it doubted, trial might he made in some body 4 altogether void of discipline, who lias been educa- ' ted in some mountain or wilderness without any 4 knowledge of the laws of his country : for if such 4 an one, thus altogether ignorant and unacquainted 4 with human discipline, were asked, wdiether to kill 4 a man, to steal, and these other things, which the 4 law of God forbids, were sinful or not? Or if it 4 were not right, to forbear these things ? Truly, I 4 say, such an one utterly ignorant of human disci- 4 pline, would so answer, that it would easily appear, 4 that he w r ere not void of the law of God. From 4 whence then shall we judge, he has drawn his no- 4 tion, unless from God himself, the author of nature ? 4 If then this be manifest in barbarous men ; how 4 much more in men civilized and well educated ? 4 Which being so, it necessarily follows, that the di- 4 vine law was implanted in man's heart, before all 4 laws made by man. This reason was so manifest 4 to them, that they were fully satisfied ; and so being 4 delivered from these snares, did easily subject 4 themselves to the sw T eet yoke of Christ.' Thus far Xaverisus. Thus it may seem, that to satisfy these Japonians, that their fore-fathers were not all necessarily damn- ed ; and to shew, that the universal love of God reached unto them to put them in a capacity of sal- vation, this cunning Jesuit could not find another way, than by asserting this principle; albeit it be no ways congruous to the doctrine of the Church of Rome. For these ancient Japonians could not be esteemed members of the Church of Rome; and as UNIVTOSAL L0VB, ESTABLISHED. 1<>1 not being Buch, according to the Romish principle (who say, there is no salvation without the church, that is, without the Church of Rome) must needs have been damned. utty : That notion and definition of a church, which naturally arises lVoni this principle (and is ac- cordingly believed by the asserters of in n doth also both very well agree to and estab- ll^lZ™' lish this doctrine of universal love. For S^bTSm- by virtue of this seed and light extended bS^Sm. by Christ unto the hearts of all, it being cwh.wkh- Bupposed, that men may thereby be truly i^no saiva- converted, and consequentially united to Christ, it naturally follows, that such may become members of the church: else none of old, but the families of the Patriarchs and of the Jews could have been judged to be saved; nor yet any, during all the time of the apostasy : which as it is false in itself, will be hardly affirmed by any. And there- fore since such might be saved, they must be esteem- ed members of the church; without which (in this large sense) there can be no salvation, as including the whole body of Christ : of w r hich body who are not, are chiefly excluded. And therefore it is, that the church catholic or universal is not so confined to any sect, form or external profession, as that those, that are not initiated in those forms, are excluded absolutely from being members of the church ; un- less it be upon refusal or resistance of the will of God really manifest to them, as drawing them to the practice of particular things. For it hath pleased God at several times to require several things both of particular churches and persons, which he has not 102 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. of others : as to the Jewish converts, to " abstain from (binge strangled and blood;" and to the ehurehes of the Gentiles, " not to circumcise;" (which was permitted to the Christian Jews for a time) : and from particular persona many particular things have been recfuired; which, albeit they were not general obligations upon all Christians ; yet in so far as man- ifested to, and required of them, were sufficiently obligator}' ; and their disobedience to them should have been in them a breach of their general obliga- tion of obedience (which we owe to God in all things He requires) and consequently pernicious ; however others, to whom they have never been revealed nor required, might have been saved without them. Thirdly : As the asserting of principles, which Uj commend the love of God, and shew the his a spiri! ^c y g rca t extent of it to mankind, do most rnuni!iKudy l Agree with universal love ; so this people oV:!ntruc rts m another chief principle of their's do christians. g rea tly shew it. For as by the preaching of this universal principle of the tight, they shew the extension of God's love to all; so by preaching, that God both doth, and is willing to reveal his will im- mediately by his own Spirit in the hearts , of all those, that receive his light, that so they may be guided, acted and led thereby, and know the mind of God thus inwardly immediately in themselves; they hold forth the intention of God's love to all those, that follow and obey him: so that they neither bind up this " being led by the Spirit of God" only to themselves, nor stint it to singular and extraordi- nary occasions; bat hold it forth as a common and universal privilege to all true Christians and mem- • i church. 0OTVBR8AL LOVE, B8TABLI8HBI). 108 Now this doctrine greatly commends the love of God, and established) the principle of universal love, in that it. shew-, how universally God hath offered this blessed privilege to all, in that He hath given his light unto all ; upon the receiving of which this immediate guidance of the Spirit followeth, as a ne- cessary concomitant : for such as deny this immedi- ate revelation of God's will by his (Spirit in the hearts of his children, to be a common and univer- sal privilege to all true Christians and members of the church, must needs suppose the knowledge of his will neeessary for them, to be communicated to them by some other external means, as by outward writ- ings and precepts; insomuch, that all such, as are robbed of this benefit, are necessarily excluded from partaking of the universal love of God, in order to the salvation of their souls. Fourtldy : as the confining of the gifts and graces of God to certain external forms and cere- IV monies, are directly opposite and contrary ^OTktfthe to universal love, such as the limiting of ^'j^ j to the work of the ministry to outward ordi- StSf" nation, and to a particular tribe of persons ; lltcrature - the making human parts and arts more necessary thereto, than the grace of God, so that the grace of God, is not judged sufficient to make a man a minister, or to privilege him to preach without those other artificial and ceremonial things ; so I Bay on the other hand, those people to the commending of the universal love of God to all, but especially to the visible church, do affirm, that as this light and grace of God is given to all in order to save them ; so whoever finds himself truly called in his heart 104 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. thereby, and fitted to minister to others, may lawfully preach and declare to others the good things that God has done for his bouI, and direct and instruct them, as by the same grace he is enabled, how they may come to the experience and attainment of the Kime things; albeit he have no outward ordination or call from men; be not initiated in their ceremo- nies and orders, nor yet furnished with their learn- ing and school education. This greatly commends and holds forth the love of God, because it does not confine the ministry unto such a narrow compass, as by the several sects it is done; but supposeth, that among those that had not the scriptures and outward knowledge, there might have been ministers or preachers of righteousness : as it was said of *iVbaA, * Noah, job, that he was one, who was, ere the scrip- S 1 1 L'S 1 V • ran, ' tares were writ; and Job was another: in- besides Socr ates among the Greeks, Pytho- opians iov. qoras among the Latins, and several others righto. * . Y t i a i • ousness. that might be named among the Arabians, Indians and Ethiopians. And this doctrine dotli very much hold forth the universal love of God in the visible church, in that it excludeth none from ministering his gift, as he hath it, albeit a poor tradesman, or mechanic men : as is done among the far greater parts of the sects of Christendom by the presumptuous usurpation of them. Fifthly: these people do greatly commend and v hold forth the universal love of God to all, That wash. j n fleaying the use of outward, carnal hl! n M •/,!',! thing-, which perish in the using; BUch as i ,l washing or sprinkling with water, or eating ■ of bread and wine, to be the seals of God's covenant with man, or to be the means or man. UNIVERSAL LOVB, kstap.Ushkd. 105 channels, by which grace and spiritual refreshment La ministered to the bouL For thereby they confine not God's Love in the communicating of his gifts and graces to the application) or no1 using of elementary things, which may be as truly (as to the matter of them) performed by the most wicked and great hypocrite of the world, as by (he most godly and sincere; as do the greatest part of the sects among Christians, who make such a noise of the sacraments and ordinances, and do so quarrel and jangle about their matter and manner of performance : but do affirm and believe, that increase of grace, and re- freshment in and by the life of Christ is conveyed unto the souls of all those, that are faithful, as this seed receives a place, and grows up in their hearts, without these outward ceremonies. This cannot be performed, but by such as are sincere and godly in- deed; for such can only be truly faithful, and wait in that place, where grace and refreshment, strength and power, wisdom and courage, patience and all other good gifts are received. Sixthly: These people do much establish univer- sal love, in that they affirm, persecution of vi. ! n . That per^e- men tor the matter of their consciences to cmion for conscience is be unchristian and unlawful; believing, unlawful, that as God can only inform and enlighten the con- science, so it is contrary to the universal love of God, for men to seek to enforce and restrain it : as hath hitherto been sufficiently shewn. Lastly : They do very truly and observably estab- lish universal love, in that they preach love vit. to enemies, and the necessity of bearing and fightings , rr» • ... ..t for Christians and sunermg injuries without revenge; are unlawful. L06 A KfcSUASIVfl TO UNTTY. holding it unlawful for Christians to fight oruse carnal weapons even to resist Buch as oppose them, and wrongfully prejudice them. As this is most agreeable to the doctrine and practice of Christ, so is it to the universal love of God, whose iong-euffer- ing patience even towards the wicked, stiff-necked and rebellious alter many provocations, doth above all declare his love ; in which they cannot pretend to be followers of him, who believe it lawful for them to revenge every injury, to give blow for blow, and knock for knock, (and so know not, what it is patiently to receive and suffer an injury),if they have any opportunity of revenging themselves : and so consequently cannot have universal love, which ne- cessarily supposeth and includes love to enemies. And he that will beat, kill, and every way he can, destroy his enemy, does but foolishly contradict him- self, if he pretend to love him: and those that do not preach and practice love to enemies, but that which is quite contrary, cannot justly pretend either to the doctrine or practice of universal love. Where- fore I desire, the reader may make application here- of, as to the several sects of Christians, and examine, whose principles and practices do most agree here- with ? And seriously consider, whether there be any entire, united body of Christians, except these here mentioned, who do unanimously hold forth so many doctrines, so directly establishing and agreeing to true universal love ? Written in Aberdeen Prison, the First month, 1077. A TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE TRUE AND ACCEPTABLE WOR- SHIP OF GOD; WHAT IT IS; AND HOW TO BE PERFORMED. SET FORTH BY ROBERT BARCLAY, IN AN APOLOGY FOR THE TRUE CHRISTIAN DI- VINITY; BEING AN EXPLANATION AND VIN- DICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES AND DOCTRINE OF THE PEOPLE CALLED OUAKERS. ■:0: COPIED FROM THE EIGHTH EDITION IN ENGLISH, PRINTED BY J. PHILLIPS, LONDON, 1780. CONCERNING WORSHIP. All true and acceptable worship to God ifl offered in the inward and immediate moving and what the drawing oi nis own Spirit, which is nei- »«. **i x ceptablc to ther limited to places, times, nor persons. God - For tho' we are to worship him always, and con- tinually to tear before him ; yet as to the outward signification thereof, in prayers, praises, or preach- ings, we ought not to do it in our own How to ^ will, where and when we will ; but where P erformcd - and when we are moved thereunto by the stirring and secret inspiration of the Spirit of God in our hearts ; which God heareth and accepteth of, and is never wanting to move us thereunto, when need is; of which he himself is the alone proper judge. All other worship then, both praises, prayers or preachings, which man sets about in his own will, and at his own appointment, which he can both begin and end at his pleasure, do or leave undone as himself seeth meet, wdiether they be a prescribed form, as a liturgy, £c, or prayers conceived extern- pore by the natural strength and faculty of the mind, they are all but superstition, will- Su erstition worship, and abominable idolatry in the ~^ sight of God, which are now to be denied idoIatr >- and rejected, and separated from, in this day of his spiritual arising: however it might have pleased him (ivho winked at the times of ignorance, with a respect to the simplicity and integrity of 110 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY, Borne, and of his own innocent wed, which lay jib it were buriedinthe hearts of men under that mass of fttpi rstithm) to Npw upon the dead and dry bones, and to raise some, breathings of his own, and an- swer them; and that until the day should more clearly daim and break forth. § I. The duty of man towards God lieth chiefly in these two generals. 1. In an holy conformity to the pure law and light of God, so as both to forsake the evi\ and be found in the practice of those perpetual and moral precepts of righteousness and equity. And 2, In ren- dering that reverence, honor and adoration to God, that he requires and demands of us ; which is comprehend- ed under worship. Of the former we have already spoken, as also of the different relations of Christians, as they are distinguished by the several measures of grace received, and given to every one ; and in that respect have their several offices in the body of Christ, which is the church. Now I come to speak of wor- ship, or of those acts, whether private or public, general or particular, whereby man renders to God that part of his duty which relates immediately to him : and as obedience is better than sacrifice, so neither IS any sacrifice acceptable, but that which is done ac- cording to the will of him to whom it is offered. But men, finding it easier to sacrifice in their own wills, than obey God's will, have heaped up sacrifices with- out obedience; and thinking to deceive God, as they do one another, give him a shew of rever- Tme wor- ship :.r.'l ' enee, honor and worship, while they are wanis both inwardly estranged and alienated from his holy and righteous life, and wholly stran- CONCERNING WORSHIP, 1 1 1 re to the pure breathings of his spirit, in which the teptable sacrifice fend worahip is only offered up. Hence il is, that there \b not any thing relating to man's duty towards God, which among all aorta people hath been more vitiated, and in which the devil hath more prevailed, than in abasing man's mind concerning this thing: and as among many others, so among those called Christian*) nothing hath been more out of order, and more corrupted, M some J y <-c up to Jeru- &SHIP, 1 LS Balem to iror*Aq Anna, Simeon, Man-, £< .. were id 10OW sach a 1 ace Ui most impertinent, and no less 6 h lish and absorb tlum if I should infer from Paul's stulating with tlio G pu for their returning fa 1 the Jewish cet 9, that he there- : wdemned -V 1 ad all thepr as foolish and ignorant, because they used those thii gB: tlie forward man, not heeding the different dispensation* of times, ran into this impertinency. Tho' a spirit- ual worship might have been, and no doubt was practiced by many under the law in great A ° Ceremonies simplicity: yet will it not follow, that it undcnhe 1 J 7 •* law were not were no superstition to use all those a - ■ q>tSa| t° x true wuwap. monies that they used, which were by God dispensed to the Jews, not as being essential to true worship, or necessary as of themselves for transmit- ting and entertaining an holy fellowship betwixt him and his people ; but in condescension to them, who were inclinable to idolatry. Albeit then in this, as in most other tilings, the substance was enjoyed un- der the fat? by such as were spiritual indeed; yet - it veiled and surrounded with many rites and ceremonies, which it is no ways lawful for us to use now under the gospel. § m. Secondly; Albeit I say, that this worship is neither limited to times, places nor persons ; j^H ^jj yet I would not be understood, as if I in- is n ? 1 ,imited * to place or tended the putting away of all set times and P ersOU - places to worship : God forbid I should think of such an opinion. Xay, we are none of those that forsake the assembling of ourselves together; but have even certain times and places, in which we carefully meet a 114 A PERSUASIVE 'lo I MTV. together (nor can we bo driven therefrom by the threats and persecutions of men) to wait upon God, and worship him. To meet together we think necessa- ry of T y f° r ^ ie P e °pl e of God; because, eo long mccn as we are c i ot ] R , ( ] Avith this outward taber- nacle, there is a necessity to the entertaining of a joint and visible fellowship, and bearing of an out- ward testimony for God, and seeing of the faces of one another, that we concur with our persons as well as spirits: to be accompanied with that inward love and unity of spirit, doth greatly tend to encourage and refresh the saints. But the limitation we condemn is, that whereas the wni-wor- Spirit of God should be the immediate ao- tomtlfe tor > mover, persuader and influencer of man spmt of God. j n fj ie particular acts of worship, when the saints are met together, this Spirit is limited in its operations, by setting up a particular man or men to preach or pray in man's will { and all the rest are excluded from so much as believing that they are to wait for God's Spirit to move them in such things: and so they neglecting that in themselves which should quicken them, and not waiting to feel the pure breathings of God's Spirit, so as to obey them, are led merely to depend upon the preacher, and hear what he will say. Secondly ; In that these peculiar men come not 2 True thither to meet with the Lord, and to wait ordof f° r the inward motions and operations of Gud - his Spirit; and so to pray as they feel the Spirit to breathe thr<>ii(jh them, and in them ; and to preach, as they find themselves actuated and moved by God's Spirit, and as he gives utterance, so as to mi:i;mno WORSHIP, 115 Bpeak a word in season to refresh weary bouIb, and Ma the present condition and Btate of the people's hearts require; suffering God by his Spirit both to prepare people's hearts, and also give the preacher Bpeak what maybe fit and seasonable for them: l>nt }w [\\z.jlic preacher) hath hammered together in his closet, according to his own will, by his human wisdom and literature, and by stealing the words of truth from the letter of the Bcriptures, and patching together other men's writings and observations, so much as will hold him speaking an hour, while the glass runs; and without waiting or feeling the in- ward influence of the Spirit of God, he declaims that by hap-hazard, whether it be fit or seasonable for the people's condition, or not ; and when . . . Priests he has ended his sermon, he saith his pray- P rcach b y er also m his own will; and so there is an ihdrstudied • i sermons. end of the business. Which customary wor- shipy as it is no ways acceptable to God, so how un- fruitful it is, and unprofitable to those that are found in it, the present condition of the nations doth suffi- ciently declare. It appears then, that we are not against set times for worship, as Arnoldus against this proposition, Sect. 45, no less impertinently allegeth; offering needlessly to prove that which is not denied : only these times being appointed for outward conve- nience we may not therefore think with the Papists, that these days are holy, and lead people into a super- stitious observation of them; being persuaded that all days are alike holy in thesiyht of God. And altho' it be not my present purpose to make a wh h long digression concerning the debates daysawhoij, among Protestants about the first day of the week, com- 116 A PERSUASIVK TO UNITY. monly called the Lord?* day, yet forasmuch as it mes fitly in here, 1 Bhall briefly signify <»ur sense thereof. § IV. We, not Beeing any ground in scripture for or the first **i cannot be so superstitious as to believe, j**J^ that either the J( wish sabbath now continues, Ihc'i'td'f' 1 °r that the first day of the week is the mtf- day> type thereof, or the true Christian sabbath; which with Calvin we believe to have a more spiritu- al sense : and therefore we know no moral obligation by the fourth command, or elsewhere, to keep the first day of the week more than any other, or any ho- liness inherent in it. But first, forasmuch as it is necessary that there be some time set apart for the saints to meej; together to wait upon God ; and that secondly, it is fit at some times they be freed from their other outward affairs; and that thirdly, reason and equity doth allow that servants and beasts have some time allowed them to be eased from their con- tinual labor; and that fourthly, it appears that the apostles and primitive Christians did use the first day of the week for these purposes ; we find ourselves sufficiently moved for these causes to do so also, without superstitiously straining the scriptures for another reason ; which, that it is not to be there found, many Protestants, yon, Calvin himself, upon the f>nrth command, hath abundantly evinced. And though we therefore meet, and abstain from working upon this dajj y yet doth not that hinder us from hav- ing meetings also for warship at other times. § V. Thirdly; Though according to the know- ledge of God, revealed unto us by the Spirit, through that more full dispensation of UylU which we believe ooNCEurara worship, 117 the Lord hath brought about in this day, we judge it our duty U) hold forth that pure and Spiritual wor- ship which i ptable to Gk>d, and answerable to the testimony i>i' Christ and his apostles, and like- wise to testify airain-t and deny not only manifest Superstition and idolatry, but also all formal will- worship, which stands not in the power of f>. i T t , The worship God; yet, l Bay, we do not deny the whole inthe»j worship of all those that have borne the name of Christians even in the apostasy, as if God had never heard their prayers, nor accepted any of them ; God forbid we should be so void of charity ! The latter part of the proposition sheweth the con. trary. And as we would not be so absurd on the owe hand to conclude, because of the errors and darkness that many were covered and surrounded with in Babylon, that none of their prayers were heard or accepted of God, so will we not be so un- wary on the other, as to conclude, that because God heard and pitied them, so we ought to continue in these errors and darkness, and not come out of Babilon, when it is by God discovered ™ -r* • » , _ The Popish unto us. The Popish mass and vespers I mass and vespers. do believe to be, as to the matter of them, abominable idolatry and superstition, and so also believe the Protestants ; yet will neither 1 or they affirm, that in the darkness of Popery no upright-hearted men, though zealous in these abom- inations, have been heard of God, or ac- Bernardand cepted of him. Who can deny, but that f u °™ v ^ n _ both Bernard and Bonaventure, Taulerus, x ?£\^' Thomas a Kempis, and divers others have )}r$£E£dk both known and tasted of the love of God, Godi IIS A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. and felt the power and virtue of God's Spirit work- in-- with them for their salvation ? And yet ought we not to forsake and deny those superstitions which they were found in ? The Ccdvinistical Presbyterians do much upbraid (and I say not without reason) the formality and deadness of the Episcopalian and Thchisho>s' Lutheran liturgies ; and yet, as they will not litu^y. deny but there have been some good men among them, so neither dare they refuse, but that when that good step w r as brought in by them, of turning the public prayers into the vulgar tongues, though continued in a liturgy, it was acceptable to God, and sometimes accompanied with his power and presence: yet will not the Presbyterians have it from thence concluded, that the common prayers should still continue ; so likewise, though we should confess, that, through the mercy and wonderful con- descension of God, there have been upright in heart, both among Pajnsts and Protestants, yet can v?e not therefore approve of their way in the general, or not go on to the upholding of that spiritual worship, which the Lord is calling all to, and so to the testi- fying against whatsoever stands in the w T ay of it. § VI. Fourthly ; To come then to the state of the Assemblies controversy f , as to the public worship, we judge r ;, , ; l . 1 ' m it the duty of all to be diligent in the as- senbea. sembling of themselves together (and what we have been, and are, in this matter, our enemies in Gnat Britain, who have used all means to hinder our assembling together to worship God, may bear witness) and when assembled, the great work of one and all ought to be to wait upon God ; and retiring out of their own thoughts and imaginations, to feel CONCERNING W0R8HIP ll!> the Lord'- presence, and know a gathering into his name indeed, where he is in (he midst y according to his promise. And as every one is thus gathered, and bo met together inwardly in their spirits, AS wvll us out- wardly in their persons, there the Becret power and virtue of life is known to refresh t lie soul, and the pure motions and breathings of God's Spirit are felt to arise; from which, as words of declaration, pray- p or praises arise, the acceptable worship is known, which ediiies the church, and is well-pleasing to God. And no man here limits the Spirit of God, nor bringeth forth his own conned and gathered stuff; but every one puts that forth which the Lord puts into their hearts : and it is uttered forth not in man's will and wisdom, but in the evidence and t . . . Its glorious demonstration of the Spirit^and of power. Yea, dis P eiisation - though there be not a word spoken, yet is the true spiritual worship performed, and the body of Christ edified ; yea, it may, and hath often fallen out among us, that divers meetings have past without one word ; and yet our souls have been greatly edified and re- freshed, and our hearts wonderfully overcome with the secret sense of God's power and Spirit, which without words have been ministered from one vessel to another. This is indeed strange and incredible to the mere natural and carnally-minded man, who will be apt to judge all time lost where there is not something spoken that is obvious to the outward senses; and therefore I shall insist a little upon this subject, as one that can speak from a certain experi- ence, and not by mere hearsay, of this wonderful and glorious dispensation ; which hath so much the more of the wisdom and glory of God in it, as it is con- trary to the nature of man's spirit, will and wisdom. l'2i) A PBKSUAStYl TO UNITY. § VlL As there can be nothing more opposite to Thesiicm tnr niltlira ' wID and wisdom of man than ingupon tliis silent waiting upon God, so neither can obtained. j t | je obtained, nor rightly comprehended by man, but as he layeth down his own wisdom and will, so as to be content to be thoroughly subject to God. And therefore it was not preached, nor can be BO practiced, but by such as find no outward cere- mony, no observations, no words, yea, not the best and purest words, even the words of scripture, able to satisfy their weary and afflicted souls: because where all these may be, the life, power, and virtue, which make such things effectual, may be wanting. Bach, I say, were necessitated to cease from all ex- ternals, and to be silent before the Lord ; and being directed to that inward principle of life and light in themselves, as tha most excellent teacher, which can la. xxx. 20. never be removed into a corner, came thereby to be taught to wait upon God in the measure of life and grace received from him, and to cease from their own forward words and actings, in the natural wilh ing and comprehension, and feel after this inward seed of life, that, as it moveth, they may move with it, and be actuated by its power, and influenced, whether to pray, preach or sing. And so from this principle of man's being silent, and not acting in the things of God of himself, until thus actuated by God's light and grace in the heart, did naturally spring that manner of sitting silent together, and waiting together upon the Lord. For many thus principled, meeting together in the pure fear of the Lord, did not apply themselves presently to speak, pray, or sin-\ fcc.. being alraid to he found acting forwardly C0Ni grace in them- Belves, no1 being only silent as to words, bnt even abstaining from all their own thoughts, imagina- tions and desirea ; bo watching in a holy dependence Upon the Lord, and meeting together not only out- wardly in one place, but thus inwardly in one Spirit, and in one name of Jesus, \v\\k-\i is his power J 7 l What it is to and virtue, they eoine thereby to enjoy and ■ettm jcwi feel the arisinga of this life, which, as it prevails in each particular, becomes as a flood of re- freshment, and overspreads the whole meeting : for man, and man's part and wisdom, being denied and chained down in every individual, and God exalted, and his grace in dominion in the heart, thus his name comes to be one in all, and his glory breaks forth, and covers all ; and there is such a holy awe and reverence upon every soul, that if the natural part should arise in any, or the Avise part, or what is not one with the life, it would presently be chained down, and judged out. And when any are, through the breaking forth of this power, constrained to utter a sentence of exhortation or praise, or to breathe to the Lord in prayer, then all are sensible of it ; for the same life in them answers to it, as mProv.xxvii. 19, water face answereth to face. This is that divine and spiritual ivorship, which the world neither knoweth nor understandeth, which the vulture's eye seeth not into, Yet many and great are the advantages which my soul, with manv others, hath tasted of Advantages * « v ' of silent hereby, and which would be found of all actings. such as would seriously apply themselves hereunto : for, when people are gathered thus together, not 122 A PBRSTJASIV! TO rxm\ merely to hear men, nor depend upon thorn, but aU x. M art ' inwardly taught to stay their minds upon andxxvi. 3 . if u , jjQT^ aia ( wait for his appearance in their hearts; thereby the forward working of the spirit of man is stayed and hindered from mixing itself with the worship of God ; and the form of this worship 18 BO naked and void of all outward and worldly splendor, that all occasion for man's wisdom to he exercised in that superstition and idolatry hath no lodging here; and so there being also an inward quietness and retiredness of mind, the witness of God ariseth in the heart, and the light of Christ shineth, whereby the soul cometh to see its own condition. And there being many joined together in the same work, there is an inward travail and wrestling; and also, as the measure of grace is abode in, an over- coming of the power and spirit of darkness ; and thus we are often greatly strengthened and renewed in the spirits of our minds without a word, and we enjoy and possess the holy fellow sh ip and communion E P h. iv. 3 . of the body and blood of Christ, by which our inward man is nourished and fed; which makes us not to dote upon outward water, and bread and icine, in our spiritual things. Now as many thus gathered together grow up in the strength, power, and virtue of truth, and as truth comes thus to have victory and dominion in their souls, then they receive an utter* M1 ., to anee, and speak steadily to the edification "' n of their brethren, and the pure life hath a five passage through them, and what is thus spoken edifieth the body indeed. Such is the evident cer- tainty pf that divine strength that is communicated by thus meeting together, and waiting in silence R5HIP. IS upon I hat l nietimes when one hath come in that hath been unwatchful and wandering in his mind, or :ilv out of the hurrv of outward bu- •:*ss, and so not inwardly gathered with the rest, so soon as he retires h inwardly, this pc- being in a good measi: :n the whole m will suddenly lay hold upon 1 aid won fully help to raise up the good in him, and beget him into the sense of the same power, to the melting and warming of his 1. a as the warmth would take hold upon a man that is cold coming into a stove, or as a flame will lay hold upon some little combustible matter being near unto it. Yv,-., : fall out that - met 1 jether be stravincrin their minds, though outwardly silent, and so wandering from the measur- _race in themselves (which through the working of the enemy, and negligence of some, may fell out) if either one come in, or may be in, who is watchful, and in whom the life is rai in a great measure, as that one keeps his place, he will feel a i il for the rest in a sympathy with the seed which is oppressed in the other, and : from arising by their thoughts and wandering : and as such a faithful one waits in the light, and k- :i this divine work. God «»wfl«e oftentimes answers th travail and » breathings of his own seed through such a one, so that the rest will find themselves seer smitten without words, and that one will be as a I r throueh the secret travail of his soul to brin^ - forth the life in them, just as a little water thrown into a pump brings up the rest, whereby life will come to be raised in all, and the vain imasinat: T24 A IKKSIASIVE TO UNITY. brought down ; and such a one is felt by the rest to minister life unto them without words. Yea, some- times, when there is not 1 word in the meeting, but all are silently Waiting, if one come in that is rude and wicked, and in whom the power of darkness prevailetb much, perhaps with an intention to mock or do mischief, if the whole meeting be The rrux:ker t t v_ # struck wuh gathered into the life, and it be raised in a terror win v ... rf ^ £ood measure, it will strike terror into such spoken. ° an one, and he will feel himself unable to resist ; but by the secret strength and virtue thereof, the power of darkness in him will be chained clown : and if the day of his visitation be not expired, it will reach to the measure of grace in him, and raise it up to the redeeming of his soul. And this we often bear witness of, so that we have had frequent occasion in this respect, since God hath gathered us to be a people, to renew this old saying of many, Is i s.-im. x. 12. Saul also among the prophets? For not a i\\v have come to be convinced of the truth after this manner, of which, I myself, in part, am a true wit- ness, who not by strength of arguments, or by a par- ticular disquisition of each doctrine, and convince- ment of my understanding thereby, came to receive and bear witness of the truth, but by being secretly reached by this life; for when I came into The true J J ' icc - the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a incut. L L 7 secret power among them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me, and the good raised up, and so T became thus knit and united unto them, hun- gering more and more after the increase of this power and life, whereby I might feel myself perfect- ly redeemed. And indeed this is the surest way to 009CHBHIK6 WORSHIP, 125 ome i Christian, to whom afterwards the knowl- edge and understanding of principles will doI l" 1 wanting, bnl will grow ap so much ss la needful, aa the natural fruit of this good root, and such ft knowl- edge will not be barren nor unfruitful After this manner we desire therefore all that oome among us to be proselyted, knowing that though thousands should be convinced in their understanding of all the truths we maintain, yet it* they were not sensible of this inward life, and their souls not changed from UnrighteOU8ne88 to righteousness, they could add nothing to us. For tins is that cement whereby we are joined, as to the Lord so to one another, iCor vli7 and without this none can worship with us. ^£ t< hrc tC'tlls- Yea, if sueli should come among us, and f^^°^ from that understanding and eonvineeinent theLord - they have of the truth, speak ever so true things, and utter them forth with ever so much excellency of speech, if this life were wanting, it would not edify us at all, but be as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Cor. xiii. 1. § VIII. Our icork then and worship is, when we meet together, for every one to watch and 0ur work wait upon God in themselves, and to be gather- ff^J^S ed from all visibles thereunto. And as lngs - every one is thus stated, they come to find the good arise over the evil, and the pure over the impure, in which God reveals himself, and draweth near to every individual, and so he is in the midst in the general, whereby each not only partakes of the par- ticular refreshment and strength which comes from the good in himself, but is a sharer in the whole body, as being a living member of the body, having 1"2G A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. a joint fellowship and communion with all. And as this worship is steadfastly preached and kept to, it becomes easy, though it be very hard at first to the natural man, whose roving imaginations and running worldly desires are not so easily brought to silence. And therefore the Lord often times, when any turn towards him, and have true desires thus to wait upon him, and find great difficulty through the un- stayedness of their minds, doth in condeseension and compassion cause his pow r er to break forth in a more strong and powerful manner. And when the mind sinks down, and waits for the appearance of l[f<\ and that the power of darkness in the soul wres- tles and works against it, then the good seed, as it ariseth, will be found to work as physic in the soul, especially if such a w T eak one be in the assembly of divers others in whom the life is arisen in greater dominion, and through the contrary workings of the power of darkness there will be found an inward striving in the soul as really in the mystery as ever Esau and Esau woA Jacob strove in Rebecca's womb. iSRctSSS -^nd f rom tllis inward travail, while the wumb - darkness seeks to obscure the light, and the light breaks through the darkness, which it always will do, if the soul gives not its strength to the darkness, there will be BUch a painful travail found in the soul, that will even w T ork upon the outward man, so that often times, through the working there- of, the body will be greatly shaken, and many groans, and sighs, and tears, even as the pangs of a woman in travail, will lay hold upon it; yea, and this not only as to one, but when the enemy, who when the children of Ghd assemble together is not wanting to be present, I if he can let their comfort, hath prevailed in any measure in a whole meeting, and strongly worketh against it by spreading and propa- gating his dark power, and by drawing out the minds i>\' snch as are met from the life in them, as they come to be Ben8lble of this power of his that works against them, and to wrestle with it by the armor of light, sometimes the power of God will break forth into a whole meeting, and there will be such an in- ward travail, while each is seeking to over- Thetravail come the evil in themselves, that by the SSh^fctD. Strong contrary workings of these opposite nou song ' powers, like the going of two contrary tides, every individual will be strongly exercised as in a day of battle, and thereby trembling and a motion of body will be upon most, if not upon all, which, as the power of truth prevails, will from pangs and groans end with a sweet sound of thanksgiving and praise. And from this the name of Quakers, The name of i. e. Tremblers, was first reproachfully cast Sb^Tit upon us ; which, though it be none of our s P run s- choosing, yet in this respect we are not ashamed of it, but have rather reason to rejoice therefore, even that we are sensible of this pow r er that hath often- times laid hold of our adversaries, and made them yield unto us, and join with us, and confess to the truth, before they had any distinct or discursive knowledge of our doctrines, so that sometimes many at one meeting have been thus convinced : and this power would sometimes also reach to and wonder- fully work even in little children, to the admiration and astonishment of many. 128 A Pr.RSl'ASIYE TO UNITY. § IX. Man j are the blessed experiences which r , ., . could relate of this silence and manner of worship; yet I do not so much commend and folw speak of silence as it' we had bound ourselves by any law to exclude praying or preaching, or tied ourselves thereunto; not at all : for as our worship consisteth not in words, so neither in silence, as silence; bnt in an holy dependence of the mind upon God: from which dependence silence necessarily follows in the first place, until words can be brought forth, which are from God's Spirit. And God is not wanting to move in his children to bring forth words of exhorta- tion or prayer, when it is needful; so that of the many gatherings and meetings of such as are con- vinced of the truth, there is scarce any in which God raiseth not up some or other to minister to his breth- ren ; and there are few meetings that are altogether silenU For when many are met together in this one life and name, it doth most naturally and fre- quently excite them to pray to and praise God, and stir up one another to mutual exhortation and in- structions; yet we judge it needful there be in the first place some time of silence, during which every one may be gathered inward to the word and gift of grace, from which he that ministereth may receive strength to bring forth what he ministereth ; and that they that hear may have a sense to discern be- twixt the precious and the vile, and not to hurry into the exercise of these things so soon as the bell rings, a- other Christians do. Yea, and we doubt not, but assuredly know, that the meeting may be good and refreshful, tho J from the sitting down to the rising Up thereof there hath not been a word as outwardly fftaRNIHCI W0B8HIP. 129 spoken, and ye1 life may have been known J J u £ to abound in each particular, and an inward jJSSj^Jw, growing up therein and thereby, yea, so as ,uumcs - words might have been spoken acceptably, and from the lite : yet there being no absolute necessity laid ujum any so to do, all might have chosen rather quietly and silenlh/ to possess and enjoy the Lord in them- selves, which is very sweet and comfortable to the Boul that hath thus learned to he gathered out of all its own thoughts and workings, to feel the Lord to bring forth both the will and the deed, which many can declare by a blessed experience : though indeed it cannot but be hard for the natural man to receive or believe this doctrine, and therefore it must be rather by a sensible experience, and by coming to make proof of it, than by arguments, that such can be convinced of this thing, seeing it is not enough to believe it, if they come not also to enjoy and possess it ; yet in condescension to, and for the sake of, such as may be the more willing to apply themselves to the practice and experience hereof, if they found their un- derstandings convinced of it, and that it is founded upon scripture and reason, I find a freedom of mind to add some few considerations of this kind, for the confirmation hereof, besides what is before mention- ed of our experience. § X. That to wait upon God, and to watch before him, is a duty incumbent upon all, I sup- Towaitand pose none will deny ; and that this also is a landed Tn" part of worship will not be called in ques- thescn P ture - tion, since there is scarce any other so frequently commanded in the holy scriptures, as may appear from Psalm xxvii. 14, and xxxvii. 7, 34; Prov. xx. 9 130 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. 22; Tscl xxx. 18; Hosea xii. 6; ZepK iii. 8; Matt. xxiv. 42, and xxv. 18, and xxvi. 41; Mark xiii. 33, 35, 37; Luke xxi. :){}; Arts i. 4, and xx. 31; 1 Cor. xvi. 13; Col. iv. 2; 1 Thcs.w 6; 2 Tbn.iv. 5; 1 Pet. iv. 7. Also this duty is often recommended with very great and precious promises, as Psalm xrv« 3, and xxxvii. 9, and Ixix. 6 ; Isa. xlii. 23 ; Lain. iii. 25, 26. " They that wait upon the Lord shrill renew tl> strength, fc." Isa. xl. 31. Now how is this waiting upon God, or watching before him, but by this silence of which we have spoken? Which as it is in itself a gn 'ft and principal duty, so it necessarily in order both of nature and t>m< precedeth all other. But that it may he the better and more perfectly understood, as it is not only an outward silence of the body, but an inward silence of the mind from all its own imainna- tions and self-cogitations, let it be considered accord- ing to truth, and to the principles and doctrines hereto- fore affirmed and proved, that man is to be considered in a two-fold respect, to wit, in his natural, unregenerate, dint fallen State, and in his spiritual and renciocd condi- tio,* ; from whence ariseth that distinction of the natural and spiritual man so much used by the apostle, and heretofore spoken of. .Also these two births of the mind proceed from the two seeds in man respectively, to wit, the good seed and the evil; and from the evil seed d«>th not only proceed all manner of gross and abominable wickedness and profanity, hut also hypoc- risy, and those wickednesses which the Scripture calls spiritual, because it is the s< rp nt working in and by the natural man in things that are an • thai J sJ " ,llual - spiritual, which having a shew and appear- ance of good, are so much the more hurtful and ora itobahip. 181 dangerouf transforwud and transform f light; and therefore doth the Bcriptnre bo pressingly and frequently, m we have heretofore bad occasion to observe, shut out and ex- clude the natural man from meddling with the >JS of G>iatry docs of idofatiy, whereby man loveth, idolizeth, httg its own . - . . . conceiving*, and cmbracetti his own conceptions, inven- tions and product of his own brain, is so incident unto him, and seated in his fallen nature, that so long as hlfl natural spirit is the first author and actor of him, ami is that by which ho only is guided and OOHOXRHIHG WORSHIP. 1 : » :> > moved in his worship towards Grod, so as act first to wait for another guide to direet him, he can never perform the pore spiritual worship, nor bring forth any thing hut the fruit of the first, fallen, natural, and corrupt root. Wherefore the time appointed of 1 being come, wherein by Jesus Christ ho hath been pleased to restore the true spiritual worship, and the outward form of ivorship, which was appointed by God to the Jews, and whereof the manner and time of its performance was particularly de- termined by God himself, being come to an worship but end, we find that Jesus Christ, the author of scribed by s>n • • i. • -i r Christ. the Christian religion, prescribes no set form of worship to his children, tinder the more pure ad- ministration of the new covenant*, save that he only tells them, That the worship now to be performed is spiritual, and in the Spirit. And it is especially to be observed, that in the whole Aeiv Testament there is no order nor command given in this thing, but to follow the revelation of the Spirit, save only that general one of meeting together; a thing dearly own- ed and diligently practiced by lis, as shall hereafter more appear. True it is, mention is made of the * If any object here. That the Lord's prayer is a prescribed form of prayer, and there/ore of Worship given by Christ to his children ; I answer, First, This cannot be objected by any sort of Christians that I know, because there are none who use nol other prayers, or that limit their worship to this. Secondly, This was commanded to the disciples, while yet weak, before they had received the dispensation of the gospel ; not that they should only use it in praying, but that he might shew them by one example how that their prayers ought to be short, and not like the long prayers of the Pharisees. And that this was the use of it, ap- pears by all their prayers, which divers saints afterwards made use of, whereof the scripture makes mention ; for none mule use of this, neither repeated it, but used other words, according to the thing required, and as the Spirit gave utterance. Thirdly, That this ought to be so understood, appears from Rom. viii. 26, of which afterwards mention shall be made at greater length, where the apostle saith, We know not what ive should pray for as ive ought y but the Spirit itself maketh intercession fer us y &c. But if this prayer had been such a prescribed form of prayer to the church, that had not been true, neither had they been ignorant what to pray, nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them. 134 A PER8UA8IY1 TO UNITY. dntiee of praying, preaching, and ringing; but what h order of method should be kept in so doing, spiriL ngl1 or that presently they should beset about so soon as the saints are gathered, there is not one word to be found : yea, these duties, as shall after- wards be made appear, are always annexed to the assistance, leadings, and motions of God's Spirit. Since then man in his natural state is thus excluded from acting or moving in things spiritual, how or what way shall he exercise this first and previous duty of waiting upon God but hy silence, and bybring- „, . inir that natural part to silence t Which is I o wail on © -T ^lorm- no other ways but by abstaining from his cd - own thoughts and imaginations, and from all the self-workings and motions of his own mind, as well in things materially good as evil; that he be- ing silent , God may speak in him, and the good seed may arise. This, though hard to the natural man, is so answerable to reason, and even natural experience in other things, that it cannot be denied. lie that cometh to learn of a master, if he expect to hear his KdtA of a master and be instructed by him, must not bobr. continually be speaking of the matter to be taught, and never be quiet, otherwise how shall his master have time to instruct him ? Yea, though the scholar were never so earnest to learn the science, yet would the master have reason to reprove him, as un- toward and indocile, if he would always be meddling of himself, and still speaking, and not wait in silence patiently to hear his master instructing and teaching him, who ought not to open his mouth until by his master he were commanded and allowed so to do. So also if One Were about to attend a great prince, ho CONCERNING WORSHIP. 186 aid be thought an impertinent and im- orapfaet , - I his scr- pmdent servant, who, while be ought pa- nut tientlj and readily to wait, that he might answer the king when he speaks, and have his eye upon 1dm to observe the least motions and inclinations of his will, and to do accordingly, would l>e still deafening him with discourse, though it were in praises of him ; and running to and fro, without any particular and immediate order, to do things that perhaps might good in themselves, or might have been com- manded at other times to others. Would the kings of the earth accept of such servants or service ? Since then we are commanded to wait upon To waIt in God diligently, and in so doing it is promised Sllence - that our strength shall be renewed, this venting cannot be performed but by a silence or cessation of the nat- ural part on our side, since God manifests himself not to the outward man or senses, so much as to the inward, to wit, to the soul and spirit. If the soul be still thinking and working in her own The thinking will, and busily exercised in her own imagi- dSefSe**" nations, though the matters as in them- volceofG(xL selves may be good concerning God, yet thereby she incapacitates herself from discerning the still, small voice of the Spirit, and so hurts herself greatly, in that she neglects her chief business of waiting upon the Lord : nothing less than if I should busy myself, crying out and speaking of a business, while in the meantime I neglect to hear one w T ho is quietly whispering into my ear, and informing me in those things which are most needful for me to hear and know concerning that business. And since it is the chief work of a Christian to know the natural will in 136 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. its own proper motions crucified, that God may both move in the act and in the will, the Lord chiefly re- gards this profound subjection and self-denial. For some men please themselves as much, and gratify their own sensual wills and humors in high and cu- rious speculations of religion^ affecting a name and Rcii^ous reputation that way, or because those ^cuiauons. things by custom or otherways are become pleasant and habitual to them, though not a whit more regenerated or inwardly sanctified in their spir- sensud ^s, as others gratify their lusts in acts of recreation, sensuality , and therefore both are alike hurtful to men, and sinful in the sight of God, it being nothing but the mere fruit and effect of man's natural and unrenewed will and spirit. Yea, should one, as many no doubt do, from a sense of sin, and fear of punishment, seek to terrify themselves from Thoughts of sin, by multiplying thoughts of death, hell, tokeepout and judgment, and by presenting to their kaves imaginations the happiness and joys of hea- ven, and also by multiplying prayers and other reli- gious performances, as these things could never de- liver him from one iniquity, without the secret and inward power of God's Spirit and grace, so would they signify no more than the fig-leaves wherewith Adam thought to cover his nakedness. And seeing it is only the product of man's own natural will, pro- ceeding from a self-love, and seeking to save himself, and not arising purely from that divine seed of right- eousness which is given of God to all for grace and salvation, it is rejected of God, and no ways accept- able unto him; since the natural man, as natural, while he stands in that state, is, with all his arts, CONCERNING WORSHIP, 137 parts and actings, reprobated by him. This great duty then of waiting upon God, must needs be exercised in man's denying self, both inwardly and DrnTlf igina (ions of the natural man in his rise. own will, from which all errors and her- esies concerning the Cliristian religion in the whole world have proceeded. But if it please God at any- time, when one or more are waiting upon him, not to present such objects as give them occasion to ex- ercise their minds in thoughts and imaginations, but purely to keep them in this holy dependence, and as they persist therein, to cause the secret refreshment and the pure incomes of his holy life to flow in upon them, then they have good reason to be content, be- cause by this, as we know by good and blessed ex- perience, the soul is more strengthened, renewed, and confirmed in the love of God, and armed against The soui re- the power of sin, than any way else; this whati The being a fore-taste of that real and sensible God. ' enjoyment of God, which the saints in hea- ven daily possess, which God frequently affords to his children here for their comfort and encourage- ment, especially when they are assembled together to wait upon him. § XI. For there are two contrary powers or spirits, to wit, the power and spirit of this xcorld, in which the Whatever prince of darkness bears rule, and over as whhumthe Ct n*any as are acted by it, and work from it; rofGou and the youw or Spirit of God, in which ccjncd. Q 0( j wor ] cu th and beareth rule, and over as many as act in and from it. Bo whatever be the things that a man thinketh of, or aeteth in, however ritual or religious as to the notion or form of them, Iqpg as he aeteth and moveth in the natural and Corrupt spirit ami Will, and not from, in, and by the CONCERNING worship. 189 power of God, he sinneth in all, and La nol accepted of God. For hence both the plowing and praying tricked is sin ; as also whatever a man Pwr.jm.4a. acts in and from the Spirit and power of God, hav- ing Ids understanding and will influenced and moved by it, whether it be action- religious, civile or even natural,he \< accepted in bo doing in the Bight of God, and is blessed in them. From what is said it doth ap- pear how frivolous and impertinent their Jm.L«$. objection is, that say they wait upon God in praying and preaching, since waiting does of itself imply a passive dependence, rather than an acting. And since it is, and shall yet be more shewn, that To pray and 7 ^ preach with- preachina and praying without the Spirit is out the spirit 1 j ± u j sr ls offence to an offending of God, not a waiting upon God - him, and that praying and preaching by the Spirit presnpposes necessarily a silent waiting to feel the motions and influence of the Spirit to lead there- unto ; and lastly, that in several of these places where praying is commanded, as Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiii. 33; -L? ike xxi. 36 ; 1 Peter xv. 7; watching is specially prefixed as a previous preparation thereunto ; we do well and certainly conclude, that since waiting and watching are so particularly commanded and recom- mended, and cannot be truly performed but in this inward silence of the mind from men's own thoughts and imaginations, this silence is and must necessarily be a special and principal part of God's worship. § XII. But secondly, The excellency of this silent waiting upon God doth appear, in that it is n. impossible for the enemy, viz., the devil, to waiting the L ^77 ? devil cannot counterfeit it, so as for any soul to be de- counterfeit, ceived or deluded by him in the exercise thereof. 140 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Now in all other matters he may mix himself with the natural mind of man, and so by transforming himself he may deceive the soul, by busying it about things perhaps innocent in themselves, while yet he keeps them from beholding the pure light of Christ, and so from knowing distinctly their duty, and doing of it. For that envious spirit of man's eternal hap- piness knoweth well how to accommodate himself, and fit his snares for all the several dispositions and inclinations of men ; if he find one not fit to be en- gaged with gross sins, or worldly lusts, but rather averse from them, and religiously inclined, he can fit himself to beguile such a one, by suffering his thoughts and imaginations to run upon spiritual mat- ters, and so hurry him to work, act, and meditate in his own will. For he well knoweth that so lone; as self bears rule, and the Spirit of God is not the prin- cipal and chief actor, man is not put out of his reach ; so therefore he can accompany the priest to Aitar, pray, the altar, the preacher to the pulpit, the zea- fttudy.cannoc lot to his prayers, yea, the doctor and profs- shut the dev- _ 7 . . . .. 7 ,.. . ii out. sor of divinity to his study, and there he can cheerfully suffer him to labor and work among his books, yea, and help him to find out and invent sub- tile distinctions and quiddities, by which both his mind, and others through him, may be kept from heeding God's light in the conscience, and waiting upon him. There is not any exercise whatsoever, where- in he cannot enter, and have a chief place, so as the soul many times cannot discern it, except in this alone I for he can only work in and by the natural man and his faculties, by secretly acting upon his imaginations and desires, &c, and therefore, when he CONCERNING WORSHIP. 141 (to wit, the natural man) is silent, there he must also stand. And therefore when the soul comes to this silence, and as it were is brought to nothingness, as to her own workings, then the devil is shut out; for the pure presence of God and shining of his Light he cannot abide, because so long as a man is thinking and meditating as of himself, he cannot be sure but the devil is influencing him therein : but when he comes wholly to be silent, as the pure light of God shines in upon him, then he is sure that the devil is shut out ; for beyond the imaginations he cannot go, which we often find by sensible experience. For he that of old is said to have come to the gathering to- gether of the children of God, is not wanting to come to our assemblies. And indeed he can well enter and work in a meeting, that is silent only as to words, either by keeping the minds in various thoughts and imaginations, or by stupefying them, so as to over- whelm them with a spirit of heaviness and slothful- ness : but when Ave retire out of all and are turned in, both by being diligent and watchful upon the one hand, and also silent and retired out of all our thoughts upon the other, as we abide in this sure place, we feel ourselves out of his reach. Yea, oftentimes the power and glory of God will break forth and appear, just as the bright sun through many clouds and mists, to the dispelling of that power of darkness; which will also be sensibly felt, seeking to cloud and darken the mind, and wholly to keep it from purely waiting upon God. § Xm. Thirdly, The excellency of this worship doth appear, in that it can neither be stopt nor m interrupted by the malice of men or devils, oftheQua£ 142 A PKR8UA8IVJ TO UNITY. , , , as all others can. Now interruptions and cdhv C mcnor toppings of worship may be understood in a twofold respect, either as we are hin- dered from meeting, as being outwardly by violence separated one from another; or when permitted to meet together, as we are interrupted by the tumult, noise, and confusion which such as are malicious may use to molest or distract us. Now in both these respects, this worship doth greatly overpass all others : for how far soever people be separate or hindered from coming together, yet as every one is inwardly gathered to the measure of life in himself, there is a secret unity and fellowship enjoyed, which the devil and all his instruments can never break or hinder. But, secondly, it doth as well appear, as to those mo- lestations which occur, when we are met together, what advantage this true and spiritual worship gives as beyond all others; seeing in despite of a thou- sand interruptions and abuses, one of which were sufficient to have stopt all other sorts of Christians, we have been able, through the nature of this wor- ship, to keep it uninterrupted as to God, and also at the same time to shew forth an example of our Christian patience towards all, even often times to the reaching and convincing of ouropposers. For there is no sort of worship used by others which can subsist (though they he permitted to meet) unless they be either au- thorized and protected by the magistrate, or defend themselves with the arm of flesh : but we at the same time exercise worship towards God, and also patient- ly bear the reproaches and ignominies which Christ prophesied should be so incident and frequent to Christians. V^v how can the Papists say their /nass, rCXRNINQ WORSHIP. 1 (3 if there be any there to disturb and inter- ., hlp rupt them? I><> but take away the book, the chalice, the /ws<, or the priests gar* mtcrrul,lc ■ menta; yea, do but spill the tMfer, or the trim, or blow out the candles (a thing quickly done), and the whole business 5s man-cd, and no sacrifice can be of- fered. Take from the Lutherans or 2£/>/s- ThePrn(est . copalians their Liturgy or Common- Prayer- JJf ^J** 5 '"/>•, and no service can be said. Remove d-ta from the ChlvwJstS, Arminians, Socinians, Indepen- dents, or Anabaptists, the pulpit, the 6iWe, and the hour-glass, or make but such a noise as the voice of the preacher cannot be heard, or disturb him but so before he come, or strip him of his bible or his books , and he must be dumb : for they all think it an heresy to wait to speak as the Spirit of God giveth utterance; and thus easily their whole wor- ship may be marred. But when people meet to- gether, and their worship consisteth not in such out- ward acts, and they depend not upon any one's speaking, but merely sit down to wait upon God, and to be gathered out of all visibles, and to feel the Lord in Spirit, none of these tilings can hinder them, of which we may say of a truth, We are sensible wit- nesses. For when the magistrates, stirred up by the malice and envy of our opposers, have used all means possible (and yet in vain) to deter us from meeting together, and that openly and publicly in our own hired houses for that purpose, both death, banishments, imprisonments, finings, beat- The suffer- ings, whippings, and other such devilish in- Quakerefor rr» i • r» their re' i. ventions, have proved ineffectual to terrify meetings. us from our holy assemblies. And we having, I say, 144 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. thus oftentimes purchased our liberty to meet, by dee]) sufferings, our opposers have then taken another way, by turning in upon us the worst and wickedest people, yea, the very off-scourings of men, who by all manner of inhuman, beastly and brutish behavior, have sought to provoke us, weary us, and molfcst us, but in vain. It would be almost incredible to de- clare, and indeed a shame, that among men pretend- ing to be Christians, it should be mentioned, what things of this kind men's eyes have seen, and I my- self, with others, have shared of in suffering ! There they have often beaten us, and cast water and dirt upon us ; there they have danced, leaped, sung, and spoken all manner of profane and ungodly words ; offered violence and shameful behavior to grave women and virgins; jeered, mocked and scoffed, asking us, If the Spirit was not yet come ? And much more, which were tedious here to relate : and all this while we have been seriously and silently sitting together, and waiting upon the Lord. So that by these things our inward and spiritual fellowship with God, and one with another, in the pure light of righteousness, hath not been hindered. But on the contrary, the Lord knowing our sufferings and reproaches for his testimony's sake, hath caused his power and glory more to abound among us, and hath mightily refresh- ed us by the sense of his love, which hath filled our souls ; and so much the rather, as we found ourselves gathered into the name of the Lord, which is the Prov. xviii. 10. strong tower of the righteous ; whereby we felt ourselves sheltered from receiving any inward hurt through their malice : and also that he had de- livered us from that vain name and profession of fontKnra worship, 146 Christianity, ander which our oppoeen wore not ashamed to bring forth those bitter and cursed fruits. Yea, sometimes in the midst of this tumult ami op- p tiition, God would powerfully more some or other of U3 by his Spirit, both to testify of that joy, which notwithstanding their malice we enjoyed, and pow- erfully to declare, in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, against their folly and wickedness ; so as the power of truth hath brought thera to some measure of quietness and stillness, and stopt the im- petuous streams of their fury and madness: that even as of old Moses by his rod divided the The rod of waves of the Red Sea, that the Israelites fedtfaem; mi^ht pass ; so God hath thus by his Spirit maketh way mm , -i m • • thr °' the ™- made a way for us in the midst of this ging waves. raging wickedness, peaceably to enjoy and posse-s him, and accomplish our worship to him : so that sometimes upon such occasions several of our oppo- sers and interrupters have hereby been convinced of the truth, and gathered from being persecutors to be sufferers with us. And let it not be forgotten, but let it be inscribed and abide for a constant remem- brance of the thing, that in these beastly wha^^^ and brutish pranks, used to molest us in jj™ n t };* t did our spiritual meetings, none have been more ^^J^ of busy than the young students of the univer- commh? sities, who were learning philosophy and divinity (so called) and many of them preparing themselves for the ministry. Should we commit to writing all the abominations committed in this respect by the young fry of the clergy, it would make no small volume ; as the churches of Christ, githered into his pure wor- ship in Oxford and Cambridge in England, and Edin- 10 14G A pkusuasivi: TO unity. burg and Aberdeen in Scotland, where the universities are, can well hear witness. § XlV. Moreover, in this we know, that we are Tiowthcoia partakers of tlie new covenant's dispensation, iant- l j- • i c r>ti • hip doth and disiupUs of Christ indeed, sharing with differ from . . ° t.cncw. him in that spiritual worship which is per- formed in the Spirit and in Truth; hecause as he was, so are we in this world. For the old covenant- worship had an outward glory, temple and ceremonies, and was full of outward splendor and majesty, having an outward tabernacle and altar, beautified with go Id, silver, and precious stones ; and their sacrifices were confined to a particular place, even the outward Mount Sion ; and those that prayed, were to pray with their faces towards that outward temple : and there- fore all this w^as to he protected by an outward arm. Nor could the Jews peaceably have enjoyed it, but when they were secured from the violence of their outward enemies: and therefore when at any time their enemies prevailed over them, their glory was darkened, and their sacrifices stopt; and the face of their worship marred : hence they complain, lament, and bewail the destroying of the temple, as a loss ir- Thenewcov- reparable. But Jesus Christ, the author cnant-wor- . n , ■. , ship is inward, and institutor or the new covenant-worship, John is. 3 6. testifies, that God is neither to be worship- ped in this nor that place, but in the Spirit and in Truth : and forasmuch as his kingdom is not of this world, neither doth his worship consist in it, or need either the wisdom, glory, riches, or splendor of this world to beautify or adorn it ; nor yet the outward power or arm of flesh to maintain, uphold, or protect it ; but it is and may be* performed by those that arc spirit- ually-minded, notwithstanding all the opposition^ no- conckhnix-j worship. 117 knee, and malice of men; because it being purely spiritual, it is out of the reach of natural men to in- terrupt or obstruct it. Even as Jesus Christ, the au- thor thereof, did enjoy and possess his spiritual king- dom, while oppressed, persecuted, and rejected of men; and as, in despite of the malice and Coia. i 5 . rai^e of the devil, he spoiled jmncipalities and j)owrrs, triumphing over them, and through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; bo also all his followers both can and do worship Hcb. B. 14. him, not only without the arm of flesh to protect them, but even when oppressed. For their worship being spiritual, is by the power of the Spirit Camai wor- defended and maintained ; but such worships Land StHlt 1 -I . . • 7 i j the arm of as are carnal, and consist in carnal and out- flesh. ward ceremonies and observations, need a carnal and outward arm to protect and defend them, else they cannot stand and subsist. And therefore it appears, that the several worships of our opposers, both Papists and Protestants, are of this kind, and not the true spiritual and new covenant-worship of Christ ; because, as hath been observed, they cannot stand without the protection or countenance of the outward magistrate, neither can be performed, if there be the least oppo- sition : for they are not in the patience of Jesus, to serve and worship him with sufferings, ignominies, cal- umnies, and reproaches. And from hence have sprung all those wars, fightings, and bloodshed among Chris- tians, while each by the arm of flesh endeavoured to defend and protect their own way and worship : and from this also sprung up that monstrous opinion of persecution ; of which we shall speak more at length hereafter. 148 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. § XV. But Fourthly ; The nature of this wor- ship, which is performed by the Operation of the iv Spirit, the natural man being silent, doth in'spui;?!" 1 * appear from these words of Christ, John iv. Christ 28, 24: "But the hour cometh, and now is 9 when the true worshippers shall v)orship the Father in Spirit and in Truth : for the Father sccketh such to wor- ship him. God is a Spirit, and they thai worship him, in us! worship him in Spirit and in Truth." This testi- mony is the more specially to be observed, for that it is both the first, chief est, and most ample testimony, which Christ gives us of his Christian worship, as dif- ferent and contra-distinguished from that under the law. For first, he sheweth that the season is now come, wherein the worship must be in Spirit and in 7)'uth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship him : so then it is no more a worship consisting in outward observations, to be performed by man at set times or opportunities, which he can do in his own will, and by his own natural strength; for else it would not differ in matter, but only in some circumstances from ~, _ that under the law. Next, as for a reason 1 he reason ' STlnrsinp °f ^ a worship, we need not give any other, inspirit. an( j i n( ] ee j none can give abetter than that which Christ giveth, which I think should be suffi- cient to satisfy every Christian, to wit, GOD IS A SPIRIT, and the;/ that worship him, must Worship him in SpirU and in Truth. As this ought to be received because it is the words of Christ, so also it is found- ed upon so clear a demonstration of reason, as suffi- ciently evincetih its verity. For Christ excellently argues from the analogy that ought to be betwixt the object, and the worship directed thereunto: CONCERNING worship. 119 Qod is a Spirit ; Therefore, he must he worshipped in Spirit. This is so certain, that it can suffer no contradic- tion ; yea, and this analogy is so necessary to be minded, that under the law, when God instituted and appointed that ceremonial worship to the Jews, because that worship was outward, that there might he an analogy, he saw it necessary to condescend to them as in a special manner, to dwell betwixt the C/tcrubims within the tabernacle, and afterwards to make the temple of Jerusalem in a sort his habitation, and cause something of an outward glory and majesty to appear, by causing fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices, and filling the temple with a cloud ; through and by which mediums, visible to the outward eye, he manifested himself th/outwTrd proportionably to that outw T ard worship wdiich he had commanded them to perform. So now under the new covenant, he seeing meet in his heavenly wisdom to lead his children in a path more heavenly and spiritual, and in a way more easy and familiar, and also purposing to disappoint carnal and outward observations, that his may have an eye more to an inward glory and kingdom than to an out- ward, he hath given us for an example hereof the appearance of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who (as Moses delivered the Israelites out of their outward bondage, and by outwardly did fro°m S destroying their enemies) hath delivered and Christ dejl? doth deliver us by suffering, and dying by from inward the hands of his enemies ; thereby triumph- ing over the devil, and his and our inward enemies, and delivering us therefrom. He hath also insti- 1")0 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. tuted an inward and spiritual icorship : so that God now tieth not his people to the temple of Jerusalem, nor yet unto outward ceremonies and observations ; but taketh the heart of every Christian for a temple to dwell in ; and there immediately appeareth, and giveth him directions how to serve him in any out- ward acts. Since, as Christ argueth, God is a Spirit, he will now be worshipped in the Spirit, where he re- veals himself, and dwelleth with the contrite in heart Now, since it is the heart of man that now is become the temple of God, in which he will be worshipped, and no more in particular outward temples, (since, as blessed Stephen said, out of the prophet, to the professing Jews of old, The most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands) as before the glory of the Lord descended to fill the outward temple, it be- hooved to be purified and cleansed, and all polluted stuff removed out of it; yea, and the place for the tabernacle was overlaid with gold, the most precious and cleanest of metals ; so also before God be wor- shipped in the inward temple of the heart, it must also be purged of its own filth, and all its own thoughts and imaginations, that so it may be fit to receive the Spirit of God, and to be actuated by it. And doth not this directly lead us to that inward si- Imce, of which we have spoken, and exactly pointed ont ? And further, This worship must be in truth; intimating that this spiritual worship, thus actuated, IS only and properly a true worship ; as being that which, for the reasons above observed, cannot be counterfeited by the enemy, nor yet performed by the hypocrite. § XVI. And though this worship be indeed very ffCBBHING ffORBniP, 161 different from the divers established invented wor- ships among Christians, and therefore may seem strange to many, yet hath it been testified of, com- mended and practiced, by the most pious of all sorts, in all ages, as by many evident testimonies might be proved. So that from the professing and practicing thereof, the name of Mystics hath arisen, as of a cer- tain sect, generally commended by all, whose writings are full both of the explanation and of the . „ , L A certain commendation of this sort of worship ; where 'S ^ 1 ^ they plentifully assert this inward introver- [heifinwa^i sion and abstraction of the mind, as they call SSSJsf - it, from all images and thoughts, and the £ h n ia boi ted prayer of the will : yea, they look upon this l657 ' as the height of Christian perfection ; so that some of them, tho' professed Papists, do not doubt to affirm, That such as have attained this method of worship, or are aiming at it, (as in a book, called Sancta Sophia, put out by the English Benedictines, printed The En lish at Doway, Anno 1657. Tract. I. Sect. 2, f e ^^ l ; nes cap. 5,) need not, nor ought to trouble or busy jgjj ^ themselves with frequent and unnecessary confes- ag^ftheir sions, with exercising corporeal labors and aus- ZTdct™ d terities, the using of vocal voluntary prayers, tlons ' the hearing of a number of masses, or set devotions, or exercises to saints, or prayers for the dead, or having so- licitous and distracting cares to gain indulgences, by going to such and such churches, or adjoining one's self to con- fraternities, or entangling one's self with vows and prom- ises ; because such kind of things hinder the soul from observing the operations of the Divine Spirit in it, and from having liberty to fullow the spirit whither it would draw her. And yet who knows not that in such lf>2 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY, kind of observations the very substance of the Popish religion consisteth I Yet nevertheless, it ap- pears by this, and many other passages, which out of their Mystic writers might be mentioned, how they look vipon this worship as excelling all others; and that such as arrived hereunto, had no absolute need of the others : yea, (sec the Life of Balthazar Alva- rez, in the Bamo Snicta Sophia, Tract. III. Sect. 1, cap. 7,) such as tasted of this quickly confessed, that the other forms and ceremomies of worship were use- less as to them ; neither did they perform them as things necessary, but merely for order or example's sake. And therefore, though some of them were so overclouded with the common darkless of their profession, yet could they affirm that this spiritual worship was still to be retained and sought for, even though it should become necessary to omit their outward ceremonies. Hence Bernard, as Bernard pre- . . , faring the m many other places, so in his Jbpistle to Spirit above ■•• n / Popish William, abbot of the same order, saith, orders. ' J Take heed to the rule of God ; the kingdom of God is ivilhin you ; and afterwards, saying, That their outward order and rules should be observed, he adds : But otherwise,, when it shall happen that one of these two must be omitted, in such a case these are much rather to be omitted than those former : for by how much the Spirit is more excellent and noble than the body, by so mwh are spiritual exercises more prof tablethaneorporeal. Es not that then the best of worships, which the best of men in all ages, and of all sects, have commended, and which is most suitable to the doctrine of Christ? T say, is not that worship to bo followed and performed? And so much the oovomimra worship. 158 rather, as (rod hath raised a people to testily for it, and preach it, to their gnat refreshment and strengthening, in the very face of the world, and notwithstanding much opposition; who do not, as these Mystics, make of it a mystery, only to be attained by a few men or women in a tics did ** t u confine that cloister; or, as their mistake was, after mystery to a 1 t ' cloisur. wearying themselves with many outward ceremonies and observations, as if it were the conse- quence of such a labor ; but who in the free love of God (who respects not persons, and was near to hear and reveal himself, as well to Cornelius, a centurion and a Roman, as to Simeon and Anna; and who dis- covered his glory to Mary, a poor handmaid, and to the poor shepherds, rather than to the high priests and devout proselytes among the Jews) in and according to his free love, finding that God is reveal- ing and establishing this worship, and making many poor tradesmen, yea, young boys and girls, witness- es of it, do entreat and beseech all to lay aside their own will-worships, and voluntary acts, performed in their own wills, and by their own mere natural strength and power, without retiring out of their vain imaginations and thoughts, or feeling the pure Spirit of God to move and stir in them ; that they may come to practice this acceptable worship, which is in Spirit and in Truth. But against this worship they object : § XVII, First, It seems to be an unprofiU obj. i. able exercise for a man to be doing or thinking nothing : and that one might be much better employed, either in med- itating upon some good subject, or otherwise praying to or praising God. 154 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Answer. I answer ; That is not unprofitable, which U of absolute necessity before any other duty can be acceptably performed, as we have shewn this waiting to be. Moreover, those have but a carnal and gross apprehension of God, and of the things of his kingdom, who imagine that men please him by their own workings and actings : whereas, as hath been shown, theirs* step for a man to fear God is to cease from his own thoughts and imaginations, isa. l 16, and suffer God's Spirit to work in him. we must For we must cease to do evil ere we learn to uHrewe do well ; and this meddling in things spirit- wdL tc ual by man's own natural understanding, is one of the greatest and most dangerous evils that man is incident to ; being that which occasioned our first parents' fall, to wit, a forwardness to desire to know things, and a meddling with them, both with- out and contrary to the Lord's command, obj. 2. Secondly; Some object, If your worship merely consists in inwardly retiring to the Lord, and feeling of his Spirit arise in you, and then to do out- ward acts as ye are led by it, what need ye have public meetings at set times and places, since every one Set times and to . r ' ^ places for ma ij enjoy this at home ? Or should not every Heelings, J J J *y one stay at home, until they be particularly moved to go to such a place at such a time ; since to meet at set times and places seems to be an outward observation mid ceremony, contrary to what ye at other times assert ? I answer, first : To meet at set times and places is Answer. not any religious act, or part of worship in inKs, their itself; but only an outward conveniency, ne- use arul rea- n . -, -. iMsriti. cessary for our seeing one another, so long Bfl we are clothed with this outward tabernacle : and ooHonuinra worship. 155 therefore oar meeting at set times and places ifl not B part of our worship, but a preparatory accommoda- tion of our outward man, in order to a public viable wars hip ; since we set not about the visible acts of ship when we meet together, until we be led thereunto by the Spirit of God. Secondly, God hath seen meet, so long as his children are in this world, to make use of the outward senses, not only as a means to convey spiritual life, as by speaking, praying, prais- ing, fie., which cannot be done to mutual edification, but when we hear and see one another; but also to maintain an outward, visible testimony for his name in the world : he causeth the inward life (which is also many times not conveyed by the outward senses) the more to abound, when his children assemble themselves diligently together to wait upon him ; so that as iron sharpeneth iron, the seeing of Prov. xxvii. i 7 . the faces one of another, when both are inwardly gathered unto the life, giveth occasion for the life secretly to rise, and pass from vessel to vessel. And as many candles lighted, and put in one place, do greatly augment the light, and make it more to shine forth, so when many are gathered together into the same life, there is more of the glory of God, and his power appears, to the refreshment of each individual ; for that he partakes not only of the light and life raised in himself, but in all the rest. And therefore Christ hath particularly promised a blessing to such as assemble together in his name, seeing he will be in the midst of them (Matt, xviii. 20). And the author to the Hebrews doth precisely prohibit the neglect of this duty, as being of very dangerous and dreadful consequence, in these words, Heb. x. 24: And let lf)6 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. US consider one another, to provoke unto lore, and to good w<>rk* ; not forsaking the assembling of ourselres together ', as the manner of some is ; — For if we sin Assembling J J Unrttobe willfully, after that we have received the know- neglected. ledge of the truth, there remaindh no more sac- rifice for sins. And therefore the Lord hath shewn that he hath a particular respect to such as thus as- semble themselves together, because that thereby a public testimony for him is upheld in the earth, and his name is thereby glorified; and therefore such as are right in their spirits, are naturally drawn to keep the meetings of God's people, and never want a spirit- ual influence to lead them thereunto : and if any do it in a mere customary way, they will no doubt suffer condemnation for it. Yet cannot the appointing of places and times be accounted a ceremony and observa- tion, done in man's will, in the worship of God, seeing none can say that it is an act of worship, but only a mere presenting of our persons in order to it, as is above said. Which that it was practiced by the primitive church and saints, all our adversaries do acknowledge. obj. 3 . Lastly, Some object, That this manner of icorship in silence is not to be found in all the scripture : Answer. I answer : We make not silence to be the sole matter of our worship ; since, as I have said in waiting above, there are many meetings, which are to gukf* seldom altogether silent ; some or other are bmppowA still moved either to preach, pray, or praise : and so in this our meetings cannot be but like the meetings of the primitive churches recorded in scrip- ture, since our adversaries confess that they did preach &n& pray by the Spirit. And then what ah- OONCBRKING worship. 157 Btirdity is it to suppose, that at some time the Spirit did Dot move them to those outward acts, and that then they were silent I Binoe we may well conclude they did not speak until they were moved ; and SO nodoubt had sometimes silenee. Acts ii. 1, before the Spirit came upon them, it is said, — They were att with one accord in one place; and then it is said, The Spirit suddenly came upon them; but no mention is made of any one speaking at that time; and I would willingly know what absurdity our adversaries can in- fer, should we conclude they were awhile silent? But if it be uri>;ed, That a whole silent meet- instance. ing cannot be found in scripture ; I answer; Supposing such a thing were Answer. not recorded, it will not therefore follow that it is not lawful ; since it naturally followeth from other scripture precepts, as we have proved this snentmee* doth. ±or seeing the scripture commands proved m ° # scripture and to meet together, and when met, the scrip- reason. ture prohibits prayers or preachings, but as the Spirit moveth thereunto ; if people meet together, and the Spirit move not to such acts, it will necessarily follow that they must be silent. But further, there might have been many such things among the saints of old, though not recorded in scripture ; and yet we have enough in scripture, signifying that such things were. For Job sat silent seven days with his friends together : here was a long silent meeting ; see also Ezra ix. 4 and Ezckiel xiv. 1, and xx. 1. Thus having shewn the excellency of this worship, proving it from scrip- ture and reason, and answering the objections which are commonly made against it, which, though it may suffice to the explanation and proof of our proposi- 158 A PBBSUAKVfl TO UNITY. Mm, yet I shall add something more particularly of preaching, praying and singing, and so proceed to the following proposition. § XVIII. Preaching, as it is used both among PapiMs. and Protestants, is for one man to what preach, take some place or verse of scripture, and log is with the Protestants thereon speak for an hour or two, what he and Papists. * hath studied and premeditated in his closet, and gathered together from his own inventions, or a studied from the writings and observations of talk an hour -i i i • • or two. others; and then naving got it by heart, (as a school-boy doth his lesson) lie brings it forth, and re- peats it before the people: and how much the more fertile and strong a man's invention is, and the more industrious and laborious he is in collecting such 06- s> rvations, and can utter them with the excellency of speech and human eloquence, so much the more is he accounted an able and excellent preacher. To this we oppose, that when the saints are met True preach- together, and every one gathered to the b^ by the & ' . Spirit gift and grace of God in themselves, he that ministereth, being actuated thereunto by the arising of the grace in himself, ought to speak forth what the Spirit of God furnisheth him with ; not minding the eloquence and wisdom of words, but the demonstration of the Spirit and of power: and that either in the inter- preting some part of scripture, in case the Spirit, Which is the good remembrancer, lead him so to do, or otherwise wards of exhortation, advice, reproof, and instruction, or the sense of some spiritual cxpcricn<< all which will still be agreeable to the scripture, though perhaps not relative to, nor founded upon any particular chapt r or Vi rs, as a text. Now let us ex- ooRGBBvnrci worship. 159 amino and consider which of these two sorts of preaching is most agreeable to the precepts of CkriM ami his apoedeSj and the pri'mit/rc church, recorded in scripture? For, first, as to their preaching upon a , if it were not merely customary or premeditated, but done by the immediate motion of the Spirit, we Bhould not blame it; but to do it as they do, there is neither precept nor practice^ that ever I could ob- serve, in the New Testament, as a part tof the instituted worship thereof. But they allege, That Christ took the book of Isaiah, and read out of it, and spake therefrom ; and objection. that Peter preached from a sentence of the prophet Joel. I answer. That Christ and Peter did it not Answer, but as immediately actuated and moved x rhrist , s thereunto by the Spirit of God, and that **Jfi** without premeditation, which, I suppose JJUJj? our adversaries will not deny; in which llon ' case we willingly approve of it. But what is this to their customary conned way, without either waiting for or expecting the movings or leadings of the Spirit? Moreover, that neither Christ nor Peter did it as a settled custom or form, to be constantly practiced by all the ministers of the Church, appears, in that most of all the sermons recorded of Christ and his Apostles in scripture were without this, as appears from Chris fs sermon upon the mount, Matt. v. 1, fie. ; Mark iv. 1, fie, and Paul's preaching to the Athenians, and to the Jews, &c. As then it appears that this method of preaching is not grounded upon any scripture precept, so the nature of it is contrary to the preaching of Christ under the new covenant, as expressed and recommended in scripture ; for Christ, 100 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. in Bending forth his disciples, expressly mentioneth, that they are not to speak of or from themselves, or to forecast beforehand, but that which the Spirit in the same hour shall teach them, as is particularly men- tioned in the three evangelists, Matt x. 20; Mark. xiii. 11; Luke xii. 12. Now if Christ gave this order to his disciples before he departed from them, as that which they were to practice during his abode outwardly with them, much more were they to do it after his departure, since then they were more es- pecially to receive the Spirit, to lead them in all things, and to bring all things to their remembrance, John xiv. 26. And if they were to do so when they appeared before the magistrates and princes of the earth, much more in the worship of God, when they stand specially before him ; seeing, as is above shown, his worship is to be performed in Spirit ; and there- fore after their receiving of the Holy Ghost, it is Raid, Acts ii. 4, They spake as the Spirit gave them utter- ance, not what they had studied and gathered from books in their closets in a premeditated way. Franciscus L&mbertus, before cited, speaketh well Fmnciscus an ^ sheweth their hypocrisy, Tract. 5, of ^stTmony 5 ' 5 Prophecy, chap. 3, saying, Where are they mSt?tt£. now that glory in their inventions, who say, a ?i'mVand n " fi ne invention ! a fine invention! This they figments. ca jj invention, which themselves have made vp ; but what have the faithful to do icith such kind of inven- turns} It is not figments , nor yet inventions, that we Witt have, but things that are solid, invincible, eternal, and heavenly; not which men hare invented, but which God hath revealed ! fi>r if we believe the scriptures, our inren- tion profit, th nothing, but to provoke God to our ruin. CONCERNING WORSHIP, 161 And afterwards, Beware (aaithhe) that th m determine dy to speak what before thou hast meditated, whatsoi r, r it be ; for though it be lawful to determine the t xl which thou tort t und, y\ t net at all the ml rpr< - tatian; lest if thou so dost, thou take from the Holy rit that which is his, to wit, to direct thy speech, that thou may est prophesy in the name of the Lord, void of all learning, meditation, and experience, and as if thou hadst studied toothing (ft all, committing thy heart, thy tongue f and thyself wholly unto his Spirit, and trusting nothing to thy former studying or meditation ; but saying with thyself in great confidence of the divine promise, The Lord will give a word with much power unto those that preach the gospel. But above all things be care- ful thou follow not the manner of hypocrites, who having written almost word for word what they are to say, as if they were to repeat some verses upon a theatre, having learned all their preaching as they do that act tragedies. And afterwards, when they are in the place of prophesy- ing, pray the Lord to direct their tongue ; but in the mean time, shutting up the way of the Holy Spirit, they determine to say nothing but what they have written. unhappy hind of Prophets, yea, and truly cursed, which depend not upon God's Spirit, but upon their own writ- ings or meditation I Why pray est thou to the Lord, thou false prophet, to give thee his Holy Spirit, by which thou mayest speak things profitable, and yet thou repcllest the Spirit ? Why preferrest thou thy meditation or study to the Spirit of God? Otherwise why committest thou not thyself to the Spirit ? § XIX. Secondly, This manner of preaching as used by them (considering that they also *. The affirm that it may be and often is performed by wisdom"" men who are wicked, or void of true grace) not&Lh. 162 A PBB8UA8IVB TO INITY. cannot only not edify the church, beget or nourish true faith, bul is destructive to it, being directly con- trary to the nature of the Christian and apostolic min- istry mentioned in the scriptures: for the apostle preached the gospel not in the wisdom of words, lest the w of Christ should be of none effect, 1 Cor. i. 17. But this preaching not being done by the actings and movings of God's Spirit, hut by man's invention and eloquence, in his own will, and through his natural and acquired parts and learning, is in the wisdom of words, and therefore the cross of Christ is thereby made of none effect. The apostle's speech and preach- ing was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that the faith of their hearers should not stand in the icisdom of iin n, but in the power of God, 1 Cor. ii. 3, 4, 5. But this preaching having nothing of the Spirit and power in it, both the preachers and hearers confessing they wait for no such thing, nor yet are oftentimes sen- sible of it, must needs stand in the enticing words of man's wisdom, since it is by the mere wisdom of man it is sought after, and the mere strength of man's eloquence and enticing words it is uttered; and therefore no wonder if the faith of such as hear and depend upon such preachers and preachings stand in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God. The apostles declared, That they spake not in the words which man's icisdom tcacheth, but which tin Holy Ghost tcacheth; 1 Cor. ii. 13. But these preachers confess that they are strangers to the Holy Ghost, his motions and operations, neither do they wait to feel them, and therefore they speak in the «?ords which their own natural wisdom and learning COHCBRNUra WORSHIP. 1()3 teach them, mixing them inland adding them to, sii--li words as they rteal out of the Bcriptures and other bookstand therefore speak not what the Holy Ghost teacheth. Thirdly, This is contrary to the method and order of the primitive Church mentioned by the 3. Tn.e apostle, 1 Cor. xiv. 30, n, but the preacher must speak, and not that which is revealed unto him, but what he hath pre- pared and premeditated before hand. Lastly, By this kind of preaching the Spirit of God, which should be the chief instructor The and teacher of God's people, and whose in- ^ ^ is shut fluence is that only which makes all preach- EJ^ t £j" ing effectual and beneficial for the edify- tcacher - ing of souls, is shut out, and man's natural wisdom, learning, and parts set up and exalted ; which no doubt is a great and chief reason why the preaching among the generality of Christians is so unfruitful and unsuccessful. Yea, according to this doctrine, the devil may preach, and ought to be heard also, seeing he both knoweth the truth and hath as much eloquence as any. But what avails excellency of speech, if the demonstration and power of the Spirit be wanting, which toucheth the conscience? We see that when the devil confessed to the truth, yet Christ would have none of his testimony. And as these pregnant testimonies of the scripture do prove this part of preaching to be contrary to the doctrine 104 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. of Christ, bo do they also prove that of ours before affirmed to be conformable thereunto. objection. § XX. But if any object after this man- ner, Have not many been benefitted, yea, and bath con- verted and edified by the ministry of such as have pre- dated their preaching ? Yca y ami hath not the Spirit often concurred by its divine influence with preachings thus pn meditated, so as they hare been powerfully borne in upon the souls of the hearers to their advantage t Answer. I answer , Though that be granted, which I shall not deny, it will not infer that the thing was Paul erse- g° 0( l in itself, more than because Paul was Sn^e*£i u me * Wlt ^ by Christ to the converting of persecuting h* 8 sou ^ riding to Damascus to persecute good? the saints, that he did well in so doing. Neither particular actions, nor yet whole congrega- tions, as we above observed, are to be measured by the acts of God's condescension in times of igno- rance. But besides it hath oftentimes fallen out, that God, having a regard to the simplicity and in- tegrity either of the preacher or hearers, hath fallen in upon the heart of a preacher by his power and holy influence, and thereby hath led him to speak things that were not in his premeditated discourse, and which perhaps he never thought on before ; and those passing ejaculations, and unpremeditated but living exhortations, have proved more beneficial and refreshing both to preacher and hearers than all their premeditated sermons. But all that will not allow them to continue in these things which in themselves are not approved, but contrary to the prartiee of the apostles, when God is raising up a people to serve him, according to the primitive purity OOVGBUmra worship. igs and spirituality ; yea, such acts of God?& ccndeecension, in times of darkness and ignorance, should engage all more and more to follow him, according as he reveals his most perfect and spiritual way. § XXL Having hitherto spoken of preaching, now it is fit to speak of praying, 0f " er concerning which the like controversy ^ w l a h r c dis ariscth. Our adversaries, whose religion is JjfiSmdill" all for the most part outside, and such whose mwarcL acts are the mere product of man's natural will and abilities, as they can preach, so can they pray when they please, and therefore have their set partic- ular prayers. I meddle not with the controversies among themselves concerning this, some of them being for set prayers , as a liturgy , others for such as are conceived extempore : it suffices me that all of them agree in this, That the motions and influence of the Spirit of God are not neccessary to be pre- vious thereunto; and therefore they have set times in their public worship, as before and after The priests* t. i . n . . -| .. set times to preaching, and in their private devotion, as preach and morning and evening, and before and after S^spiri" 7 meat, and other such occasions, at w T hich they pre- cisely set about the performing of their prayers, by speaking words to God, whether they feel any mo- tion or influence of the Spirit or not ; so that some of the chiefest have confessed that they have thus prayed without the motions or assistance of the Spirit, acknowledging that they sinned in so doing ; yet they said they looked upon it as their duty so to do, though to pray without the Spirit be sin. We freely confess that prayer is both very profitable, and a necessary duty commanded, and fit to be practiced 16G A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. frequently by nil Christians; but as we can do noth- ing without Christ, so neither can we pray without the concurrence and assistance of his Spirit. But that the state of the controversy may be the better under- stood, let it be considered^/??*^, that prayer is two-fold, what inward wwoarrf and outward. Inward 'prayer is that prayer is. secret turning of the mind towards God, where- by, being secretly touched and awakened by the light of Christ in the conscience, and so bowed down under the sense of its iniquities, unworthiness, and misery, it looks up to God, and, joining with the secret shin- ings of the seed of God, it breathes towards him, and is constantly breathing forth some secret desires and aspirations towards him. It is in this sense that we are so frequently in scripture commanded to pray continually, Luke xviii. 1; 1 Thess. v. 17; Eph. vi. 18 ; Luke xxi. 36 ; which cannot be understood of outward prayer, because it were impossible that men should be always upon their knees, expressing words of prayer; and this would hinder them from the exercise of those duties no less positively commanded, what out- Ouhcard prayer is, when as the spirit, being wmidpnyti . f ! * . -, • is. thus in the exercise of inward retirement, and feeling the breathing of the Spirit of God to arise powerfully in the soul, receives strength and liberty by a superadded motion and influence of the Spirit to bring forth either audible sighs, groans, or words, and that either in public assemblies, or in private, or at meat, &c. As then inward prayer is necessary at all tunes, so, Inwanl 80 ^g HB tllC (hlV Of CVelW llKllfs VtSltOtiOn ataST*" lasteth, he never wants some influence, less or more, for the practice of it; because he i CONCERNING WORSHIP, 167 HO sooner retires his mind, and considers lii Tii!^< 1 1* i Ti l's presence, but he finds himself in the practice of it. The outward exercise of prayer, as needing a greater and superadded influence and motion of the Spirit, as it cannot he continually practiced, prayer doth so neither can it he so readily, so as to ho superadded effectually performed, until his mind be some time acquainted with the inward; therefore such as are diligent and watchful in their minds, and much retired in the exercise of this inward prayer, are more capable to be frequent in the use of the outicard, because that this holy influence doth more constantly attend them, and they being better ac- quainted with, and accustomed to, the motions of GocPs Spirit, can easily perceive and discern them. And indeed, as such who are most diligent have a near access to God, and he taketh most delight to draw them by his Spirit to approach and call upon him, so when many are gathered together in this watchful wind, God doth frequently pour forth the Spirit of prayer among them and stir them thereunto, to the edifying and building up of one another in love. But because this outward prayer depends upon the inward, as that which must follow it, and cannot be accepta- bly performed but as attended with a superadded in- fluence and motion of the Spirit, therefore cannot \\ e prefix set times to pray outwardly, so as to We cannot lay a necessity to speak words at such and S^Sak^d such times, whether we feel this heavenly pray * influence and assistance or no : for that we judge were a tempting of God, and a coming before him without due preparation. We think it fit for us to 168 A PERSUASIVE K) UNITY. present ourselves before him by this inward n tin nu nt of the mind, and BO to proceed further, as his Spirit shall help OS and draw us thereunto; and we find that the Lord accepts of this, yea, and seeth meet sometimes to exercise us in this silent place for the trial of our patience, without allowing us to speak further, that he may teach us not to rely upon out- ward p, rformances, or satisfy ourselves, as too many do, with the saying of our prayers ; and that our de- pendence upon him may be the more firm and con- stant, to wait for the holding out of his sceptre, and for his allowance to draw near unto him, with great- er freedom and enlargement of Spirit upon our lu arts towards him. Yet nevertheless we do not deny but sometimes God, upon particular occasions, very suddenly, yea, upon the very first turning in of the mind, may give power and liberty to bring forth words or acts of outward prayer, so as the soul can scarce discern any previous motion, but the influence and bringing forth thereof may be as it were simul ami sand: nevertheless that saying of Bernard is true, that all prayer is lukewarm, which hath not an in- 8ptration preceding it Though we affirm that none ought to go about prayer without this motion, yet we Such sin as do not deiiv but such sin as neglect prayer ; arc neglect- ,....,., , fog payer, but their sat 18 in that they come not to that place where they may feel that which would lead them thereunto. And therefore we question not but many, through neglect of this inward watchful* I and retbredness of mind, miss many precious op- portunities to proband thereby are guilty in the sight of Gbd j yet would they 8tn it* they should set about the act until they first felt the influence. For vonumra worship. 109 talis grossly offends his master that Listh in his bed and sleeps, and neglects to do an.iT! his w foisjhett; yet if such a ono mmwmi should suddenly got up, without putting on his clothes, or taking along with him those no- tary tooU and instrumented without which he could not possibly work, and should forwardly fall a doing to no purpose, he would be so far thereby from re- pairing his former fault, that he would justly incur a new censure : and as one that is careless and other- ways busied may miss to hear one speaking unto him, or even not hear the bell of a clock, though striking hard by him, so may many, through negli- gence, miss to hear God oftentimes calling upon them, and giving them access to pray unto him; yet will not that allow them without his liberty, in their own wills to fall to work. And lastly, Though this be the only true and proper method of prayer, as that which is alone ac- ceptable to God, yet shall we not deny but In times of he oftentimes answered the prayers and q^ u ^ concurred with the desires of some, espe- J^JSL cially in times of darkness, who have great- ers * ly erred herein ; so that some that have set down in formal prayer, though far wrong in the matter as well as manner, without the assistance or influence of God's Spirit, yet have found him to take occasion therethrough to break in upon their souls, and won- derfully tender and refresh them ; yet as in preach- ing and elsewhere hath afore been observed, that will not prove any such practices, or be a just let to hinder any from coming to practice that pure, spiritual. and acceptable prayer, which God is again restoring 170 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. and leading his people into, out of all superstitions and in vpty formalities. The state of the contro- ls rsy % and our sense thereof, being thus clearly stated, will both obviate many objections , and make the an- First, spin- 8we r to others more brief and easy. I p U rolrdtom shall fi rst prove this spiritual prayer by some scripture. ghort considerations from scripture, and then answer the objections of our opposers, which will also serve to refute their method and manner thereof. § XXII. And First, That there is a necessity of T this inward retirement of the mind as previous £u1i S bc^k to prayer, that the Spirit may be felt to draw Ebdtt?** thereunto, appears, for that in most of prayer. those places where prayer is commanded, watching is prefixed thereunto, as necessary to go be- fore, as 3fatt.xx\v. 42; Mark xiii. 33, and xiv. 38; Luke xxi. 36, from which it is evident that this watching was to go before prayer. Now to what end is this watching, or What is it, but a waiting to feel Ghdfi Spirit to draw unto prayer, that so it may be Eph.vi. is. done acceptably ? For since we are to p>r ay always in the Spirit, and cannot pray of ourselves without it acceptably, this watching must be for this end recommended to us, as preceding prayer, that we may watch and wait for the seasonable time to pray, which is when the Spirit moves thereunto. Secondly, This necessity of the Spirit's moving and n concurrence appears abundantly from that SwHi of *e apostle Paid, Rom. viii. 2G, 27: .^™ Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should pray far as we aught ; but the Spirit itsi [f maketh intercession far us with groamngs which cannot \ -7. And he thatsearcheth tfu hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because OONdBXING worship. 171 hemnhrth mi n for the saint* according to (he wUl of Ghd. Which first holds forth the incapacity of men as of themselves to pray or call upon God in their own wills, even such as have received {he faith of Christ y and are in measure sanctified hy it, as was the Church of JRome,to which the apostle then wrote. Secondly, It holds forth that which can only help and assist men to pray, to wit, the Spirit, as that without which they cannot do it acceptably to God, nor ben- eficially to their own souls. Thirdly, The manner and way of the Spirit's intercession, with sir/Its and groans which arc unutterable. And Fourthly, That God receiveth graciously the prayers of such as are pre- sented and offered unto himself by the Spirit, know- ing it to be according to his icill. Now it cannot be conceived but this order of prayer thus asserted by the apostle is most consistent with those other testi- monies of scripture, commending and recommend- ing to us the use of prayer. From which I thus argue : If any man know not how to pray, neither can do it without the help of the Spirit, then it is to no Argument purpose for him, but altogether unprofitable, to pray with- out it. But the first is true, therefore also the last. Thirdly, This necessity of the Spirit to true pray- er, appears from Eph. vi. 18, and Judc 20, ITI where the apostle commands to pray always f^Zc^i* in the Spirit, and watching thereunto ; which ^atchtng is as much as if he had said, that we were thcreunto * never to pray without the Spirit, or watching there- unto. And Jude sheweth that such prayers as are in the Holy Ghost only, tend to the building up of our- selves in cur most holy faith. 172 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Fourthly, The apostle Paul saith expressly, 1 Cor. IV xii. 3, That no man can say that Jesus is the S^cgK* Lord but by the Holy Ghost : if then Jesus t^e rd H b uiy by canuot be tllU9 rightiy named but by the Ghost. Holy Ghost, far less can he be acceptably called upon. Hence the same apostle declares, 1 Cor. xiv. 15, that he will pray icith the Spirit, £c. A clear evidence that it was none of his method to pray without it. But Fifthly, All prayer without the Spirit is abomi- nation, such as are the prayers of the wicked, Prov. xxviii. 9. And the confidence that the saints have that v God will hear them is, if they ask anything g^Sf"* according to his will, 1 John v. 14. So if the onSTVfck. prayer be not according to his will, there is ed * no ground of confidence that he will hear. Now our adversaries will acknowledge that prayers without the Spirit are not according to the will of God, and therefore such as pray without it have no ground to expect an answer : for indeed to bid a man pray without the Spirit is all one as to bid one see without eyes, work without hands, or go without feet. And to desire a man to fall to prayer ere the Spirit in some measure less or more move him thereunto, is to desire a man to see before he opens his eyes, or to walk before he rises up, or to work with his hands before he moves them. § XXIII. But lastly, From this false opinion of vi. praying without the Spirit, and not judging is sin, not it necessary to be waited for, as that which th« Spirit may be felt to move us thereunto, hath proceeded all the superstition and idolatry that is among those called Christians, and those many CONCERNING WORSHIP. 173 abominations wherewith the Lord is pr&volced, and his Spirit grieved ; so that many deceive themselves now, as the ./< wi did of old, thinking it sufficient if they pay their daily sacrifices, and oiler their custo- mary oblations; from thence thinking all is well, and creating a false peace to themselves, as the whore in the &roverbs 9 because they have offered up their sacrifices of morning and evening prayers. And therefore it is manifest that their constant use of these things doth not a whit influence their lives and conversations, but they remain for the most part as bad as ever. Yea, it is frequent both among Papists and Protestants, for them to leap as it were out of their vain, light, and profane conversations at their set hours and seasons, and fall to their customary de- votion ; and then, when it is scarce finished, and the words to God scarce out, the former profane talk comes after it; so that the same wicked profane spirit of this world actuates them in both. If there be any such thing as vain oblations, or prayers that are abomination, which God heareth not (as is certain there are, and the scripture testifies, Isa. lxvi. 3; Jo\ xiv. 12,) certainly such prayers as are acted in man's will, and by his own strength, without God's Spirit, must be of that number. § XXIV. Let this suffice for proof. I shall now proceed to answer their objections, when I have said something concerning joining in prayer with Concernlng others. Those that pray together with one ^2? in accord use not only to concur in their spir- Wlth others * its, but also in the gesture of their body, which we also willingly approve of. It becometh those who approach before God to pray, that they do it with 174 A KB8UA8IV1 TO VNITY. ■> :, not 10 / the Spirit, n We answer, Not at all; and fur our testimony in Aiw this tiling, we have Buffered not a little. For when it hath fallen out, that either accidentally, Th e rc.-i,on or to witness against their worship, we have H£ y j been present during the same, and have pr " :> not found it lawful for us to bow with tliem thereunto, they have often persecuted us, not only with reproaches, hut also with strokes and eruel beatings. For this cause they used to BCCUSC us of pride, profanity, and madness, as if we had no re- spect or reverence to the worship of Chdj and as if we judged none could pray, or were heard of God, but ourselves. Unto all which, and many more re- proaches of this kind, we answer briefly and mod ly, That it suffices us that we are found so doing, neither through pride, nor madness, nor profanity, but merely lest we should hurt our con* i&UXM ; the reason of which is plain and evident : for since our V and doctrine oblige us to believe that the pPOffert of those who themselves confess they are v<>t toted by ti - rit are abominations, how can we with a sate conscience join with them ? If they urge, That this is the height of uncharitable- obj. i. | and arr /, as if loss always is fray by the Spbr , but they never ; a* h r t if tfu Spirit y and that they wen never actuated by i( y see* t*# ait** u*>j jutkr *** v# mmm *J tkt ty mnt Mmnqi '• • > m$Hkdtm I - ■ .■ Mg y wan** < *0 mmwf tkam ; kpom and tmrnnd d wft ' u* bmH to ynj *■ rttOtkx> tf htffiqg fcMNfti' t**4sjj die; d im*<; ttMMlfoi to pf»v ju Mrti T*a*U t ** wbkfc titm* U*rj ctokwuittt to p fritboot ibe . tp»idaf mndm Mvo w m mud pria» : Ui'; ftj.:rr. ; yet if it r:.u:. - ^ar that C fnrlmwwiinifip did concur *<& a occordiaj; we •bouK jiu *)»o; bat ibis* ir run:, l«t Ihi '.!«-;■ r: 4 , . :,.. cnrfbn*d :l tbab M* priaci- pfe. And ttltiiou^b thii* iinim iiart; •imi t nenflrtliekr mo confirmed 1 author bat mai 176 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. vinced thereof have embraced this part before other truths, which were easier, and, as they seem to some, clearer. Among whom is memorable of late years Alexander Skein, a magistrate of the city of Aberdeen, a man very modest, and very averse from giving of- fence to others, who nevertheless being overcome by the power of Truth in this matter, behooved for this cause to separate himself from the public assemblies and prayers, and join himself unto us; who also gave the reason of his change, and likewise succinct- ly* hut yet substantially, comprehended this contro- versy concerning worship in some short questions, which he offered to the public preachers of the city, and which I think meet to insert in this place. Somcques- ^ WkeAST Of TlOt should Oft OUtWard OCtS of worship, then they should also be needftdto inward acts, to wit) 'It sir, and latie to God. But this is absurd Therefore also that from whence it follows. I answer ; That which was said in the state of the Answer. <'<,,>•< rsy cleareth this; because, as to th genera] duties, there never wants an influence, so long as the day ni' a man's visitation lasteth ; during which J time Go I is always m ar to him, and wn stling with him by his Spirit, to turn him to himself; so that it' he do hut stand still, and cease from his evil thoughts, the Lord is near to help him, fcc. But as to the outward acts of prayer, they need a more special motion and influence, as hath been proved. 00KCXR1ONG W0R8HIP. 179 Secondly; They object, That it might be also alleged, that mm ought not to do moral duties, as ckflr otj** dren to (heir parents, nun to do right to their neigh* /><>r pt the Spirit move tin m to it. I answer; There ifl a great difference betwixt these general duties betwixt man and man, Answer. and the particular express arts of worship towards God: the one is merely spiritual, and commanded by God to be performed by his Spirit; the other an- swer their end, as to them whom they are immedi- ately directed to and concern, though done from a mere natural principle of self-love ; even as beasts have natural affections one to another, and therefore may be thus performed. Though I shall not deny, but that they are not works accepted of God, or beneficial to the soul, but as they are done in the fear of God, and in his blessing, in which his chil- dren do all things, and therefore are accepted and blessed in whatsoever they do. Thirdly; They object, That if a wicked man ought not to pray without a motion of the Spirit, be- obj. 3. cause his prayer would be sinful ; neither ought he to plow by the same reason, because the plowing of the Prov. xxi. 4 . wicked, as well as his praying, is sin. This objection is of the same nature with the for- mer, and therefore may be answered the Answer. same way ; seeing there is a great difference betwixt natural acts, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, How acts nf and seeking sustaiance for the body (which feSSn^e things man hath in common with beasts) and Splnts * spiritual acts. And it doth not follow, because man ought not to go about spiritual acts without the Spirit, that therefore he may not go about natural art* with- ISO A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. out it. The analogy holdfl better thus, and that for the proof of our affirmation, That as man for the going about natural acts needs his natural spirit; bo to perform spiritual acts he needs the Spirit of God. That the natural acts of the wicked and unregene- rate are sinful, is not denied; though not as in them- selves, but in bo for as man in that state is in all things reprobated in the sight of God. Fourthly ; They object, That ic irked men may, ac- obj. 4 . cording to this doctrine, forbear to pray for years together, alleging, they icant a motion to it. I answer ; The false pretences of wicked men do Answer. nothing invalidate the truth of this doc- trine ; for at that rate there is no doctrine of Christ, which men might not set aside. That they ought not to pray without the Spirit, is granted ; but then they That wicked ou ght to come to that place of watching, STiSra? where they may be capable to feel the Spir- spirit e to it's motion. They sin indeed in not j^rayuig ; pray " but the cause of this sin is their not watch- ing : so their neglect proceeds not from this doctrine, but from their disobedience to it; seeing if they did pray without this, it would be a double sin, and no fulfilling of the command to pray: nor yet would their prayer, without this Spirit, be useful unto them. And this our adversaries are forced to acknowledge in another case: for they say, It is a duty incumbent on Christians to frequent the sacrament of the Lord's Slipper, as they call it; yet they say, No man ought to take it unworthily : yea, they plead, that such as find themselves unprepared, must abstain; and therefore do usually excommunicate them from the table. Xow, though according to them it be neooeeary to partake nra woehhip. 1-1 of this sacrament; yet it fa aho necessary that Ufa that do it, do fi them* , lost Ufa and drink their own condemnation: and though they reckon it them to forbear, yet they account it more sinful for them to do it without this examination. Fifthly; They object Acta viii. 22, where Pel Simon Magna,! obj. 5. ray; from thence inferring, T ckednu pray. I answer ; That in the citing of this place, as I have often observed, they omit the first and Answer. chiefest part of the verse, which is thus, A tt viii. 22, pent therefore of this thy I The sorcer- " cr may pray, pray \s the t I of thm *** may be for : so here he bids him penuncc first 1\ Xow the least measure of true repent- ance cannot be without somewhat of that inward re- tirement of the mind which we speak of: and in- deed where true repentance goeth first, we do not doubt but the Spirit of God will be near to concur with, and influence such to pray to and call upon God. And Lastly; They object, That many obj. 6. prayers begun 5 rit have pre d ; and that V kol rm found accCj , as Ahab's : This objection was before solved. For the acts of God's compassion and indulgence at some Answer, times, and to some perspns, upon singular extraor- dinary occasions, are not to be a rule of our actions. For if we should make that the measure of our obe- dience, great inconveniences would follow; as is evident, and will be acknowledged by all. Next* 1S2 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY, We do not deny, but wicked men are sensible of tlie motions and operations of God's Spirit oftentimes, before their day be expired; from which they may at times pray acceptably; not as remaining alto- gether wicked, but as entering into piety, from whence they afterwards foil away. §. xxvi, As to the sing'mg of psalms , there will in. not be need of any long discourse ; for that pm1b». the case is just the same as in the two for- mer of preaching and prayer. We confess this to be a part of God's worship, and very sweet and refresh- ing, when it proceeds from a true sense of God's love in the heart, and arises from the divine influ- ence of the Spirit, which leads souls to breathe forth a sweet either a sweet harmony, or words suitable harmonious . »•*_• i i i i wand to the present condition ; whether they be words formerly used by the saints, and recorded in scripture, such as the Psalms of David, or other words; as were the hymns and songs of Zachar tiaSy Simeon, and the blessed Virgin Mary. But as But formal f° r the f° nilil l customary way of singing, it ^Jjjy hath no foundation in scripture, nor any m senpture. g r0UU( i \ n t rue Christianity i yea, besides all the abases incident to prayer and preaching, ithath this more peculiar, that oftentimes great and horrid lies are said in the sight of God : for all manner of Pn.fane wicked, profane people take upon them p.ivuis to personate trie experiences and condi- refuted tions of blessed David; which are not only false, as to them, but also as to some of more sobriety, who utter them forth : as where they will edng sometimes, Psalm xxii. 14, — My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels : and verse 15, My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my WORSHIP. tongue cleareth to my jaws ; and thou hast broughtmei*- to the dust of death : a: m vi. 6, I mm weary with my groaning, all tie night mm I ^>* : I water my co admu re, which those that speak kn be false, as I m. A sometimes will confess just after, in tl. that they are g - oppor those virtues, which but just before they have asser thems<: a Who an flint And singing doth more pleas* than the pure ears of the 1 ~o abhor- ing and h That singing then th -im no .1 thai PURE in the heart oven in and by which, I il songs and hgmns I the L rd, accof Gag : A the ap But as to their artificial music, either by 4,*^^ :imen'-. we mmKm have neither nor prec r it in the N -tament. § XX V IT. But Las:> ; T . eat a^ 5 of this true iror J y which we profess an tic^ :n ma. or in". Ihef needed pomp, XT i be : a spiritual and hea- ■■■■ ^ venly nature : and therefore too simple and con- tempt; I the natural mind and will off man, that hath d _ : :de in it, because he finds no room there for his imaginations and inventions, and :he oppo: itify his outward and carnal so that t" m - : 184 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. not likely to be long kept pure without the power; for it La of itself so nuked without it, that it hath nothing in it to invite and tempt men to dote upon it, further than it is accompanied with the power. imai Whereas the worship of our adversaries, esadC being performed in their own walls, is self- pleasing, as in which they can largely exercise their natural parts and invention: and so (as to most of them) having somewhat of an outward and worldly splendor, delectable to the carnal and worldly senses, they can pleasantly continue it, and satisfy them- selves, though without the Spirit and power; which they make no ways essential to the performance of their worship, and therefore neither wait for, nor expect it. § XXVIII. So that to conclude, The worship, The worship preaching, praying and singing, which we (junkers. plead for, is such as proeccdeth from the Spirit of Grod y and is always accompanied icith its influence, being begun by Us motion, and carried on by the power and strength thereof; and so is a worship purely spiritu- al: such as the scripture holds forth, John iv. 23, 24. 1 G>r. xiv. 15; JSph. vi. 18, &c. But the worship, preaching, praying and singing, Ouradver- whirh our adversaries plead for, and which sarics wor- . . T . 7 • 7 • 7 7 7 ship. we oppose, is a worship which is both begun, carried on, and concluded in man's own natural will and strength, without the motion or influence of God's Spirit, which they judge they need not wait for ; and therefore may be truly j>< rformed, both as to the matter and manner, by the wickedest of men. Such was the worship and coin oblations which God always rejected, as appears from Ida, lxvi. 3. Jd\ xiv. 12.&,c.;Isa.i. 13;/Ver. xv. 29; John ix. 31. THE ANARCHY OF THE RANTERS, AND OTHER LIBERTINES, THK HIERARCHY OF THE ROMANISTS, AND OTHER PRETENDED CHURCHES, EQUALLY REFUSED AND REFUTED, IN A TWO-FOLD APOLOGY. FOR THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE OF GOD, CALLED, IN DERISION, QUAKERS; Wherein they are Vindi- cated from those that accuse them of disorder and confusion on the one hand, and from such as calumniate them with tyranny and imposition on the other : showing, that as the true and pure principles of the Gospel are restored by their testimony ; so is also the ancient apostolic order of the church of Christ re-established among them, and settled up,on its right basis and foundation. * BY ROBERT BARCLAY. Phil. ii. 3. " Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory ; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem another better than themselves, Heb. xiii. 7. "Remember them that have the rule over you, who spoke u?ito you the word of God, whose faith follow." CONTENTS Section I. The Introduction and Method of this Treatise. Section II. Concerning the Ground and Cause of this Controversy. Section III. Whether there be any Order or Gov- ernment in the Church of Christ. Section IV. Of the Order and Government we plead for. Section V. In what cases, and how far this Gov- ernment extends. Section VI. How far this Government extends in matters Spiritual and purely Conscientious. Section VII. Concerning the Power of Decision. Section VIII. How this Government altogether dif- fereth from the Oppressing and Persecuting Principality of the Church of Rome, and other Anti-Christian Assemblies. The Conclusion. PREFACE TO THE READER. Such is the malignity of man's nature in his fallen state, and so averse is he from walking in the straight 7 -O > and even path of truth, that at every turn he is in- clinable to lean either to the right hand or to the left; yea, such as by the work of God's grace in their hearts, and powerful operation of his Spirit, have obtained an entrance in this way, are daily mo- lested, and set upon on all hands ; some striving to draw them the one way, some the other: and if through the power of God they be kept faithful and stable, then are they calumniated on both sides; each likening or comparing them to the worst of their enemies. Those that are acquainted with the holy Scrip- tures, may observe this to be the lot of the saints in all ages ; but especially those, whose place it hath been to reform and restore the ruins of the house of God, when decayed, or any considerable time have been liable to such censures : hence those that set about repairing of the walls of Jerusalem, were ne- cessitated to work with the one hand, and defend with the other. Christ is accused of the Jews as a Samaritan ; and by the Samaritans quarrelled with for being a Jew. The Apostle Paul is whipped and imprisoned by the Gentiles, and upbraided with being a Jew, and teach- 188 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Ing their customs; the same Paul is haled and ready to be killed by the Jews, for breaking the law and de- filing the temple with the Gentiles. The like hath also befallen those faithful witnesses, and messen- gers, whom God has raised up in this day to witness for his truth, which hath long been in a great mea- sure hid; but now is again revealed, and many brought to be witnesses of it, who thereby come to walk in the light of the Lord. This people thus gathered, have not wanted those trials, that usually accompany the church of Christ, both on the right hand and on the left, each charac- terising them in such terms, as they have judged would prove most to their disadvantage. From whence (as the testimony of the false witnesses against their Lord did not agree, neither do these against us) some will have us to be foolish, mad creatures; others to be deep, subtil politicians ; some John Owen to be illiterate, ignorant fellows; others to whh g so S much be learned, cunning Jesuits under a mere that^houl'h vizard : divers professors will have us to be against w in only pensioners of the Pope, undoubtedly we wi'n not Papists : but the Papists abhor us as here- understand it. . . - . _ . And Thomas tics ; sometimes we area disorderly, con- Danson about ., the same fused rabble, leaving every one to do as time accuses m. us of being they list, against all good order and govern- Jesmts sent J ° ° ° bom abroad meiit i at other times we are so much for under this ' vizard. order, as we admit not men to exercise the liberty of their own judgments. Thus are our rep- utations tossed by the envy of our adversaries; which yet cannot but have this effect upon sober- minded people, as to see what malice works against us; and how these men, by their contradictory as- PEBVAC1 TO TH1 KKADKU. 1S9 scrtions concerning us, save us the pains, while they refute one another. True it is, we have labored to walk amidst these extremities; and upon our appearing fot the truth, we have found things good in themselves abused on both hands : for such has always been the work of an apostasy, to keep up the shadow of certain truths ; that there-through they might shelter other evils. Thus the Jews made use of the law and the prophets to vindicate their abuses ; yea, and to crucify Christ : and how much many Christians abuse the Scriptures and the traditions of the apostles, to uphold things quite contrary to it, will in the general be readily acknowledged by most. But to descend more particularly : there be two things especially, both of which in their primitive use were appointed, and did very much contribute towards the edification of the Church : the one is, 1. The power and authority which the apostles had given them of Christ, for the gathering, build- ing up, and governing of his Church ; by virtue of which power and authority they also wrote the holy Scriptures. 2. The other is, that privilege given to every Christian under the gospel, to be led and guided by the Spirit of Christ, and to be taught thereof in all things. Now, both these in the primitive Church wrought effectually towards the same end of edification ; and did (as in their nature they may, and in their use they ought to do) in a good harmony very well con- sist together : but by the workings of Satan and perverscness of men, they are made to fight against 100 A NOLfiUABIVfl TO UNITY. and destroy one another* For on the one hand the authority and power, that resided in the apostles, while it is annexed and entailed to an outward ordi- nation and succession of teachers, is made use of to cloak and cover all manner of abuses, even the I of idolatry and superstition. For by virtue of thii »n, these men claiming the like in- fallibility, that was in the apostle- ugh they be str; 3 to any inward work, or manifestation of the Spirit in their hearts,) will needs oblige all oth to acquiesce and agree to their conclusions, however different from, or contrary to, the truths of th< : t- pel; and yet for any to call such conclusions in question, or examine them, is no less than a heinou3 heresy, deserving death, \c Or while the revela- tion of God's mind is wholly bound up to th things already delivered in the Scripture if God has spoke his last words there to his people ;) we are s<>^ put with our own natural understandings to Tame. Dar- x c ham, a noted debate about the meaning of it, and forced man rr c thcPresby. to inter]. ret them not as they plainly speak. . in his L ■ L - L exposition k u t according to the analogy of a certain upon the D revdauons. f a ith made bv men, not so much contrived to answer the Bcriptu S xipturee are strain- ed to vindicate it ; which, to doubt of, is also count- rving no less than ejection out of our native country, and to be robbed of the common aid our nativity cntitb And on this hand,' may boldly say , both Papists and Protestants haye itly gi tlie other hand, some are so great pretenders to inward in and revelation- of the Spirit, that there | wild, which they will m 191 not cloak with it ; and so macfa are they for own mind, as can admit of no llowship and community, nor of tliat 1 order and discipline, which the church of Christ • er was nor can be without. This gives an 01 door to all libertinism, and brings great reproach to the Christian faith. And on this hand have foully fallen the German Anabaptists, so called, John of den, Knipperdolling, &c, (in case these monstrous things committed by them be such as they are rela- . ) and some more moderate of that kind have been found among the people of England, called Rante as it is fame, the people called Quakers have been branded with both of these extremes, it is as true, it hath been and is their work to avoid them ; and to be found in that even and good path of the primitive church, where all were (no doubt) led and acted by the Holy Spirit; and might all have prophesied one by one; and yet there was a subjection of the pro- phets to the spirits of the prophets. There was an authority some had in the church, and yet it was for edification, and not for destruction : there was an obedience in the Lord to such as were set over ; and a being taught by such, and yet a knowing of the inward anointing, by which each individual was to be led into all truth. The work and testimony the Lord has given as is, to restore this again, and to set both these in their right place, without causing them to destroy one another. To manifest how this is ac- complished, and accomplishing among us, is the bu- siness of this Treatise ; which, I hope, will give some satisfaction to men of sober judgments, and impar- tial, and unprejudicate spirits : and may be made 192 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. useful in the pood hand of the Lord, to confirm and establish Friends against their present opposers; which is mainly intended and earnestly prayed for by ROBERT BARCLAY. T, rd* and Ultimo - an. rds men, but as :' . •.., they tVI: :V.i ir so:;> * ..-* .:. and th» aeoeptable day begam t a in a n thor \ to n Iv r ! P cc ? .*oh liber :1m flask, or will S used i method : tl as thui transgressor e zealous professor toot* t! N :u\ at tfct 1 to tl, and plant D ? T .-»: w ild reafl os, saying, I intil I In? ai •u^ht :i the: 1 hold TRUE all irit, pOMM I . of I we I . a in n. W and h all t; but ire obedieu \n the . ed not anri : thes* mony p ^np flttB it, in the aa were *•- ingeni. rdly pr ag in the c mdati gan to be ihaken ; ar ere awakened. . in the LTave* of .-in, ;. idolatry of all • i many ^ brought in from tl nd 200 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. the truth whs received by thousands with great cheerfulness and a readiness of mind; and the feet of those were beheld to be beautiful upon the moun- tains, that brought the glad tidings of these good things. And great lowliness and simplicity of heart was upon such that were newly convinced of the truth, and deep humiliation of spirit, and subjection to the power, both in themselves, and in those who were over them in the Lord, and had gathered them into the truth. But as it was in the gatherings of old, so it also fell out in this day; all kept not their first love : as among those thousands which Moses led out of Egypt, and carried through the lied Sea, who had sung praises to God upon the banks of salvation, many carcasses fell in the wilderness; some who B murmured and longed to return again to ;:near the reproach of the Cross of Christ; and were by and anon offended in him : some could not bear the tribulations, sufferings, and persecutions, which came for the truth's sake; and the seed in them was soon scorched with the heat of the day. And some not abiding in subjection to the truth in themselves, were not contented with that place and station in the body, which God had placed them in; but became vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, intruding into those things which they have not seen : and would needs be innovators, given to , t • i t • t i • i Innovators change, and introducing new doctrines and causing di- practices, not only differing, but contrary to what was already delivered in the beginning- making parties, causing divisions and rents, stum- bling the weak, and denying, despising and reviling the apostles and messengers of Christ, the elders of the Church, who loved not their lives unto death, but through much care and travel, and watchings and whippings, and bonds, and beatings, in daily jeopardy, gathered us by the mighty power of God in the most precious truth. Yet in all this there hath nothing befallen us, but that which hath been the ancient lot of the Church of Christ in the prim- itive times. 202 A PERSUASIVE TO UNITY. Now he that wafl careful for his Church and ^ m people in old times, hath not been wanting The C.orxl * i a to ue iii our day: but as lie lias again re- h , is Btored the truth unto its primitive integ- cburcta aim x ° ^ rity and simplicity, and as lie has delivered our understandings from these false doctrines and principles, which prevailed in the apostasy; so he hath not gathered us to he as sheep scattered without a shepherd, that every one may run his own way, and every one follow his own will, and so to he as a confused mass or chaos without any order ; but he, even the Lord, hath also gathered and is gathering us into the good order, discipline and government of his own Son the Lord Jesus Christ: therefore he hath laid care upon some beyond others, who watch for the souls of their brethren, as they that must give account. There are then fathers, that have begotten us unto Christ Jesus through the gospel, of whom we ought t<> he followers, and to remember their ways, which be in Christ. There are then fathers and children, instructors and instructed, elders and young men, The sevemi yea, and babes ; there are that cannot cease, stations in the ^ church, i. but must exhort, instruct, reprove, con- 16. demn, judge; or else, for what end gave Christ the gifts mentioned Ephes. iv. 11, 12 ? and how are the saints perfected? and the body of Christ edified of those, who came under the cogni- zance, and as it were, the test of this order and gov- ernment ? I may chiefly sum them up in three sorts (though there be divers others little subdivided species <^ them.) The first is, those that turn openly back to the c<>wnuNiN<; TRU1 DISCIPLINE 203 world again, through finding the way of truth too narrow. These have no1 been capable to do as any considerable hurl ; for being as salt, that has lost its Bavor, thej mpstiy aiKJ ~ prove a stink among those to whom they go : and T never knew any of them, thai proved any ways Bteadable to those, to whom they go. I iin