406 CONGREGATIONALISM THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH POLITY. CHAP. had done, by God's blessing upon their labors. XXV. Only at the foresaid Synod, two were ordered to write to him in the name of the Assembly, and to request his presence at their next meeting aforesaid, to hold forth his light he goeth by in waiving the practice of the churches; with promise if it be light, to walk by it; but if it appear otherwise, then they trust he will return again to the unity of practice with them. And for the other two Governments of Conectacut and Newhaven, if either have any law in force against them, or so much as need of a law in that kind, 'tis more than I have heard on. For our parts (I mean the churches of New England) we are confident, through God's mercy, the way of God in which we walk and according to which we perform our worship and service to Him, concurreth with those rules our blessed Saviour hath left upon record by the Evangelists and Apostles, and is agreeable with the practice of those primitive churches mentioned in the Acts, and regulated by the same Apostles, as appeareth not only in that Evangelical History, but in their Epistles to the several churches there mentioned. Yet nevertheless if any through tenderness of conscience be otherwise minded, to such we never turn a deaf ear, nor become rigorous, though we have the stream of authority on our sides. Nay, if in the use of all means we cannot reclaim them, knowing "the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy; and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace," according to James iii. 17, 18; and if any differing from us be answera EVIL-DOERS NOT TO BE TOLERATED. 407 XXV. James iii. 15,16. 8. 16. 12. ble to this rule in their lives and conversations, we do CHAP. not exercise the civil sword against them. But for such as Gorton and his company, whose wisdom seems not to be from above, as appeareth in that it is "full of envyings, strife, confusion," being therein such as the Apostle Jude speaks on, viz. "earthly, sensual, Jude devilish," who "despise dominion and speak evil of dignities," these are "murmurers, complainers, walkers after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, being clouds without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging 13. waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom (without repentance, which I much desire to see or hear of in him, if it may stand with the will of God,) is reserved the blackness of darkness forever"- these, I say, are to be proceeded with by another rule, and not to be borne; who suffer as evil-doers, and are a shame to religion, which they profess in word, but deny in their lives and conversations. These every tender conscience abhors, and will justify and assist "the higher powers God hath ordained," against such carnal gospellers, "who bear Rom. not the sword in vain," but execute God's vengeance on such; for the civil magistrate is "the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil." And therefore a broad difference is to be put between such evil-doers and those tender consciences who follow the light of God's word in their own persuasions, (though judged erroneous by the places where they live) so long as their walking is answerable to the rules of the Gospel, by preserving peace and holding forth holiness in their conversations amongst men. xiii. L 408 CHAP. NEW ENGLAND-GOD BLESS HER! Thus much I thought good to signify, because we of New England are said to be so often propounded for an example. And if any will take us for a precedent, I desire they may really know what we do, rather than what others ignorantly or maliciously report of us, assuring myself that none will ever be losers by following us so far as we follow Christ. Which that we may do, and our posterities after us, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father accept in Christ what is according to him; discover, pardon, and reform what is amiss amongst us; and guide us and them by the assistance of the Holy Ghost for time to come, till time shall be no more; that the Lord our God may still delight to dwell amongst his plantations and churches there by his gracious presence, and may go on blessing to bless them with heavenly blessings in these earthly places, that so by his blessing they may not only grow up to a nation, but become exemplary for good unto others. And let all that wish well to Zion say Amen.1 |