laborem, appetimus dignitatem; immundorum spirituum feras á grege dilacerando non pellimus; et quod eis remanserat, ipsi consumimus: quando peccantes divites vel potentes non solum non arguimus, sed etiam veneramur; ne nobis aut munera solita offensi non dirigant, aut obsequia desiderata subducant: ac sic muneribus eorum et obsequiis capti, immo per hæc illis addicti, loqui eis de peccato suo aut de futuro judicio formidamus: ad hoc tantum potentes effecti, ut nobis in subjectos dominationem tyrannicam vindicemus; non ut afflictos contra violentiam potentum qui in eos ferarum more sæviunt, defendamus. Inde est quod tam á Potentibus hujus mundi, quam á nobis, quod pejus est, nonnulli graviter fatigati depereunt, quos se de manu nostra Dominus requisiturum terribiliter comminatur——

Sulp. Severus also toucheth the sore when he saith, Hist. lib. ii. Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur, multoque avidius tum martyria gloriosis mortibus quærebantur, quam nunc episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur.'

But when he saith ibid. after Constantine's delivery of the church, Neque ulterius persecutionem fore credimus, nisi eam quam sub fine jam sæculi antichristus exercebit,' either he was very grossly mistaken, or else those are the instruments of antichrist that are not thought so.

It is a most notable instance to our purpose which Severus ends his history with, of the mischievous zeal of orthodox Ithacius and Idacius against Priscillian and his Gnostics; and worthy of the study of the prelates of the church: 'Idacius sine modo et ultra quam oportuit Istantium sociosque ejus lacessens, facem nascenti incendio subdidit: ut exasperavit malos potius quam compresserit.' In sum, they got the magistrate to interpose and banish the Gnostics, who quickly learned by bribing court officers to turn the emperor against the orthodox for themselves; till the zeal of Idacius and Ithacius grew so hot as to accuse even the best men, yea, St. Martin himself of favoring the Gnostics and at last got another tyrannical emperor to put Priscillian and many other Gnostics to death, though they withdrew from the accusation, as tending to their own confusion. And Severus saith, 'Certe Ithacium nihil pensi, nihil sancti habuisse definio: fuit enim audax, loquax, impudens, sumptuosus, veneri et gulæ plurimum impertinens.

Hic stultitiæ eo usque processerat, ut omnes etiam sanctos viros, quibus aut studium inerat lectionis, aut propositum erat certare jejuniis, tanquam Priscilliani socios et discipulos, in crimen arcesseret. Ausus etiam miser est, Martino episcopo, viro plane apostolis conferendo, palam objectare hæresis infamiam :- quia non desinebat increpare Ithacium, ut ab accusatione desisteret.' And when the leaders were put to death, the heresy increased more, and honoured Priscillian as a martyr, and reproached the orthodox as wicked persecutors: and the end was, that the church was filled by it with divisions and manifold mischiefs, and all the most godly made the common scorn. 'Inter hæc plebs Dei et optimus quisque, probro atque ludibrio habebatur.' They are the last words of Severus's History; and changing the names are calculated for another meridian, and for later years.

CHAPTER IX.

How to behave ourselves in the Public Assemblies, and the Worship there performed, and after them.

I HAVE purposely given such particular Directions in Part ii, on this subject, and written so many books about it, and said so much also in the Cases of Conscience, that I shall here only cast in a few common Directions, lest the reader think I make a balk.

Direct. 1. Let your preparations in secret and in your family on the beginning of the Lord's days, be such as conduce to fit you for the public worship.' Run not to church as ungodly people do, with a carnal heart, that never sought God before you went, nor considered what you go about; as if all your religion were to make up the number of the auditors; and you thought God must not be worshipped and obeyed at home, but only in the church. God may in mercy meet with an unprepared heart, and open his eyes and heart, and save him; but he hath made no promise of it to any such. He that goeth to worship that God at church, whom he forgetteth and despiseth in his heart and house,

See my "Treatise of the Lord's Day," and my "Cure of Church Divisions."

may expect to be despised by him. O consider what it is for a sinner that must shortly die, to go with the servants of God to worship him; to pray for his salvation, and to hear what God hath to say to him by his minister, for the life of his immortal soul!

Direct. 11. Enter not into the holy assembly either superstitiously or irreverently.'. Not as if the bending of the knee, and mumbling over a few words with a careless, ignorant mind, and spending an hour there as carelessly, would save your souls: nor yet as if the relation which the worship, the worshippers and the dedicated place have unto God, deserved not a special honour and regard. Though God be ever with us, every where; yet every time, and place, and person, and business is not equally related to God. And holiness is no unfit attribution, for that company or that place, which is related to God, though but by To be unthe lawful separation and dedication of man. covered in those countries where uncovering signifieth reverence, is very well becoming a reverent soul; except when the danger of cold forbids it. It is an unhappy effect of our contentions, that many that seem most reverent and themholy, in their high regard of holy things, do yet carry selves with more irreverent deportment, than those that themselves account profane. God is the God of soul and body, and must be worshipped by both: and while they are united, the actions of one are helpful to the other, as well as due and decent.

Direct. 111. If you can, come at the beginning, that you may shew your attendance upon God, and your esteem of all his worship.' Especially in our assemblies, where so great a part of the duty, (as confession, praises, reading the Scriptures,) are all at the beginning. And it is meet that you thereby shew that you prefer public worship before private, and that needless businesses keep you not away.

Direct. Iv. If you are free, and can do it lawfully, choose the most able, holy teacher that you can have, and be not indifferent whom you hear.' For O how great is the differand how bad are our hearts; and how great our necessity of the clearest doctrine, and the liveliest helps! Nor be you indifferent what manner of people you join with, nor what manner of worship is there performed; but in all

ence;

choose the best when you are free. But when you are not free, or can have no better, refuse not to make use of weaker teachers, or to communicate with faulty congregations in a defective, faulty manner of worship, so be it, you are not compelled to sin. And think not that all the faults of the prayers, or communicants are imputed to all that join with them in that worship; for then we should join with none in all the world.

Direct. v. When the minister is weak, be the more watchful against prejudice and sluggishness of heart, lest you lose all.' Mark that word of God which he readeth to you, and reverence, and love, and lay up that. It was the Law, read and meditated on, which David saith the godly do delight in. The sacred Scriptures are not so obscure and useless as the Papists do pretend, but convert the soul, and are able to make us wise unto salvation. Christ went ordinarily to the synagogues where even bad men did read Moses and the prophets every sabbath day. There are thousands that cannot read themselves, who must come to the assembly to hear that Word read, which they cannot read or hear at home. Every sentence of Scripture hath a Divine excellency, and therefore had we nothing but the reading of it, and that by a bad man, a holy soul may profit by it.

Direct. vI.Mind not so much the case of others present as yourselves: and think not so much how bad such and such a one is, and unworthy to be there, as how bad you are yourselves, and unworthy of communion with the people of the Lord, and what a mercy it is that you have admittance, and are not cast out from those holy opportunities.

Direct. VII. Take heed of a peevish, quarrelsome humour, that disposeth you to carp at all that is said and done, and to find fault with every mode and circumstance, and to affect a causeless singularity, as thinking that your own ways, and words, and orders are far more excellent than other mens'. Think ill of nothing out of a quarrelsome disposition, but only as evidence constraineth you to dissent. And then remember that we are all imperfect, and faulty men must needs perform a faulty worship, if any, for it cannot be better than the agent.

Direct. VIII. When you meet with a word in a sermon or prayer, which you do not like, let it not stop you, and hinder your fervent and peaceable proceeding in the rest; as if you must not join in that which is good, if there be any faulty mixture in it. But go on in that which you approve, and thank God that pardoneth the infirmities of others as well as your own.'

Direct. Ix. Conform yourselves to all the lawful gestures and customs of the church with which you join.' You come not thither proudly to shew the congregation, that you are wiser in the circumstances of worship than they, nor needlessly to differ from them, much less to harden men into a scorn of strictness, by seeing you place religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things. But you come to exercise love, peace, and concord, and with one mind and mouth to glorify God. Stand when the church standeth; sit when the church sitteth; kneel when the church kneeleth, in cases where God doth not forbid it.

Direct. x. Take heed of a customary, formal, senseless heart, that tolerateth itself from day to day, to do holy things in a common manner, and with a common, dull, and careless mind; for that is to profane them.' Call in your thoughts when they attempt to wander; stir up your hearts when you feel them dull. Remember what you are about, and with whom it is that you have to do, and that you tread on the dust of them who had such opportunities before you which are now all gone, and so will yours. You hear and pray for more than your lives; therefore do it not as in jest or as asleep.

Direct. x1. Do all in faith and hope. Believe what you may get of God in prayer, and by an obedient hearing of his Word.' Would you not go cheerfully to the king, if he had promised you to grant whatever you ask? Hath not God promised you more than kings can give you? Oh it is an unbelieving and a despairing heart, that turneth all into dead formality! Did you but hope that God would do all that for you which he hath told you he will do, and that you might get more by prayer than by your trades, or projects, or all your friends, you would go to God with more earnestness and more delight.

Direct. x11. Apply all the Word of God to yourselves