An Exhortation of the Particular Kirks of Christ in Scotland

TO THEIR DEAREST AND WORTHIEST Sister the Kirck of Christ at Edinburgh, Grace to you & peace from God our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

W E may all of us discern by our unprepared minds for suffering such evils as are daily incident to all men, as they are men, how we are disposed to take up the cross of Christ, and to beat that other sort of afflictions, that are proper to Christians, as they are professors of the Gospel: for albeit that all vices do cry in our ears, that we be woeful creatures, subjected through sin to many miseries; albeit the lamentable example of others set the same lesson many a time before our eyes, & albeit we do often feel the sparkles of the fire upon our own bodies, and may know the warning pieces before the Lord's great ordnance, yet when tribulation cometh within our doors, we think it almost as strange, and entertain it as impatiently, as if it had never knocked, nor given a warning before: the love of the world, & the secure fruition of present prosperity naturally so filling the heart, that it leaveth no room for the expectation of adversity. We may find upon greater reason the like untoward disposition of heart, when we are called to suffer for the profession of the gospel: for we have been taught from the beginning, that all that will live godly in Jesus Christ must suffer persecution, that the godly shall weep, and lament, but the world shall rejoice; often hath it been beaten in our ears, that we would ere long be put to our trial; We might also by the light of the fires of affliction in other Kirks beside us, have discovered our own dangers, and prepared our selves against them; and which is more, and draweth nearer, in the trial begun, and continued at home amongst our selves, we might have beholden the common case, and condition of us all; yet no sooner are we assayed a new again with the smallest threatenings, but we are put to such perplexity, as if either we of all Christians were excepted from affliction, and to us only Christ should be a Savior without a cross, or else that for fear of the loss of some worldly dignity, or temporal commodity, we should so much as enter in deliberation whether to change any part of our holy, and comfortable profession.

Ye are set upon the stage at this time (right reverend, and dearest sister) to act your part, we are the beholders, all our eyes round about are fixed upon you, you are made a spectacle after a special manner to the world, to angels, to men; your care must be so to carry yourselves, that y •• draw not on by your sinning against God, a greater judgment, then man can remove again; that you commit not that which may be a blot to your profession, and either a bleeding wound to your consciences, while ye live, or the beginning of an endless defection. Make not the faces of so many, as behold you, and are ready to suffer with you to be ashamed, because of you: Beware to do that, which will make your friends, and the followers of Christ to mourn, and your enemies the favorers of Antichrist to rejoice.

We cannot deny (most worthy Sister) but both our pastors, and professors have been watered many times with that large river of Eden, that gladded your city, and have received both light, and heat from your golden Candlesticks. You may therefore without offense of any, ēxpect at our hands some thankful reflex and Christian reciprocation at this time.

We must first of all earnestly beseech you, by the peace of your souls, & by the price of your redemption, that ye change nothing in the worship of God upon any sudden fear, or perturbation of mind, with a secret doubting, and contradiction from your own consciences: for when the cloud of passion is past over, and the light breaketh out again, the accusations of conscience shall be more insufferable, nor the importunity of temptation is now; the fears of the judgment of God shall be greater, then now be the fears of the wrath of the world. And when ye have changed the comfortable worship of God with husks, & empty ceremonies that nourish not, either ye shall with remorse return to eat bread, in the old manner in your fathers house, or else ye shall dolefully go on from evil to worse, your consciences, which ye have grieved, perpetually tormenting you, and the one fide whom ye have hardened, crying out upon your old hypocrisy, and the other side whom ye have deserted, upon your new apostasy. That, which your conscience would not suffer you to do, for any pretended church authority, for all the arguments, & reasons that have been multiplied, and for the doctrine and example of your own pastors, if ye shall now through fear of any worldly loss suddenly admit, what shall all these, who have been your witnesses from the beginning of this controversy judge, but that ye are a multitude of willful worldlings; that ye have in your prosperity counterfeited the voice, and carried the opinion of good Christians, as the parrat can learn to imitate the voice of man; but now when ye are beaten with the parrat, ye return to your own voice, and manifestly declare of what kind you are.

Secondly, when you hear that suggested unto you, which is the scope of the worldlings text, John. 11. 48. If we let him alone the Romans shall come, and take away both our place, and our nation; if ye adhere to the reformation, & retain Christ, as you have learned him; both Session, and counsel will be removed, and your town will turn to nothing. Remember that which was once taught you upon that place, by your own holy, and heavenly preacher M. Rollock in his powerful manner. That the wisdom of the world looketh to the present estate, and condition of things; if with it Christ, and the purity of religion may subsist, then will they embrace Christ, & religion, otherwise they bid them farewell. But the wisdom of God (saith he) layeth Christ, and the purity of Christian religion for a ground, and sin closeth her eyes to all events whatsoever for Christ, and religion should not be servants to policy, but policy, and this whole world should serve Christ, and religion. The Jews preferring their estate to Christ, and fearing ruin, if Christ should live, they kill him to save their nation, but the same was the cause, that in the justice of God the Romans came, and destroyed their nation. The Lord hath moe ways then your town hath ports, to bring in his wrath, and for magnifying his own wisdom, and snaring of men in their wisdom, many times judgment entereth by the port, that policy hath locked fastest. They wanted not in those days their own pretexts, none of them was so shameless, as to set himself against God, as God, they had their own cunning to color the matter, and pulled forth their eyes least they should see, that God, against whom they fought, as men deal now with Christ, and the purity of religion. The more knowledge, and the less conscience we find in any age, we may look for the fouler errors, and the fairer covers. Oppose also to that the Christians text Matth. 16. 26. and with elevation of heart think seriously, what hath a man profited, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 1. the immortal soul of man may be loosed. 2. the gaining of the world is the ordinary cause of the loss of the soul. 3. it is extreme folly to loose the soul for gaining of the world: for first it is an unprofitable gain, what hath a man profited? and next it is an unreparable loss, what can a man give in exchange for his soul, so that the loss of one soul, is the eternal loss of that which is more worth then the whole world. 4. he maketh themselves judges, and demandeth them for their farther conviction. But in this lieth the deceit, that while men to their own conviction acknowledge it to be madness to loose their souls for the world, they observe not, or will not suffer themselves to observe the secret, but sure conjunction betwixt the sinful courses they betake them selves to for gaining the world, and betwixt the loss of their souls. Purge your affections of this particular fear, and quit yourselves of such things, as woe your flesh, and court your carnal senses: Covetousnes is the root of all evil, ease savoreth not the things that be of God, but those that be of men, and whosoever shall be ashamed of Christ and his words in this adulterous, and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with his holy angels.

Thirdly, when ye have happily removed the world, and all wordly temptations from betwixt your eye & the cause in hand; for your resolution ye need not to search after curiosities of learning, nor wander after uncertainties of opinions; but limitting and directing your sight, 1 Look first upward to the glorious majesty of God, who is present at his own worship, & neither accepteth, nor blesseth a worship, that is not directed by his own word: think as in his sight, whether ye may look for a more sensible testification of his comfortable presence in your souls at the celebration of the Lord's supper, when ye draw nearest to Christ's institution, or when Christ's gesture of sitting is abolished as common, & profane, & the Antichrists gesture of kneeling is enforced as more humble and holy; the table of the Lord either taken away or turned into a cupboard, our eating & drinking into a minsed and pinched tasting, our conjunct communicating into a confused disputation, our sacramental breaking in the time of the action into a formal carving before the action, our kindly, and Christian distribution into a steward like dispensation, the enunciatiue words of the institution, into an idle petition and repetition, and our spiritual exhortations according to Christ's example into a comfortless deadness, & silence. Such Churches, as never saw better, may have some comfort in this, but for you who have seen the glory of the first temple in this land, and who call to mind with what heavenly meditation, lively affection, large consolation, and with what spiritual resolution ye were wont to be filled; It is a wonder, when ye see this new ministration with your eyes, that your hearts melt not within you, that your flesh crieth not out for the living God, that ye weep not with a louder voice then the voice of their joy, who shout now having gotten the ark of the Lord upon a cart, that ye prefer not the poorest parish in the land with the liberty of Christ's institution, to your own tabernacles and courts, that of late were so amiable, that your souls longed, and fainted for them.

2 Look back, and see how the house of God was built, and the headstone put upon it by God's own hand to the admiration of the Christian world about us; what unity of ministers, authority of assemblies, order of ministry, purity of external, power of internal worship, what zeal, and indignation against all impiety, and iniquity. And again by what methods, and machinations have succeeded, for unity, division, for authority anarchy, for order hierarchy, for purity of worship antichristian ceremonies, for power of godliness superstition & profanitie, and for zeal, and indignation, nothing but lukewarmnes, and toleration. In all these considerations, as this national kirk was eminent above other nations, so were ye above us all, as far as in civil dignity. And shall we live to see the day, when for the confused fear of an uncertain loss, our Jerusalem shall become Romish, our Philadelphia become Laodicea, our fountain be turned into a puddle, our glory become our shame, our Najoth, our beauty turn to be our blemish, our loathing, our deformity.

Look back also to the course of his blessings upon our reformation, & the perpetual course of his judgments upō our defection. We know the power of the Lord's particular providence in all the works under the sun, & should have learned against the atheism of the times to have referred notable judgments to their own procuring causes. The darkness, lightning, thunder, hail & rain at the ratificatiō of these rites that now molest us; the inundations, the hunger, and cold, the sicknesses and death, since can not yet be worn out of our senses, & shall be kept in memory by the generations after us.

Look again back, & compare the many reverend assemblies, which we have kept with that one new meeting at Perth, & try the spirits. The place of the 95 Psal. is impertinent, neither can it be a commandment, for at sometimes it is not lawful to kneel before him, & no man will say, that we are commanded so oft, as we worship, to kneel. The second, and third reasons in the act, beside other absurdities, do charge the Lord Jesus Christ with his disciples, & all the kirks that have used Christ's gesture after him with an irreverent behavior in a holy action. And whether the memory of by past, or the multiplicatiō of present superstition, (which is the fourth pretence in the act) might not have given a better narratiue for the contrary conclusion, the times have given verdict.

3 Look inwards into your own heart, that you may find the testimony of a good conscience, one sure note whereof, is this, that in cases cōtroverted a good conscience taketh ever the surest, and safest side. Perjurie is a heinous sin, & odious to the world. Idolatry is against the first commandments of the first table, & is no less abominable in the sight of the alseeing jealous God then is adultery to a jealous husband, whē it is committed before his eyes. Now it is known to us all, that in our confessions and covenants we have abjured all Antichrist his rites, and ceremonies added to the ministration of the true sacraments without the word of God (of the which sort, this kneeling was esteemed to be one, and cannot escape this censure more then other popish rites) & it is as certain, that all the fetches, and fingers that have been busied about this knot have not loosed it. Kneeling also before the elements is proved to be Idolatry, not only in that sense, that a glance of the eye, or a gesture, and a rash word of anger, are adultery, and murder by Christ's own interpretation, but also being taken, as it is commanded in the act; both because it is kneeling with direction before a creature, and that it is done in reverence of the sacrament. The greatest clerks among our opposites can give no other answers, nor differences betwixt this kneeling, & the worship of images, but that the one is somewhat inhaesive in objecto, or adhaesive per objectum, but the other is abstractive ab obiecto, and that the sacrament is obiectum a quo significative, which dark distinctions, and subtle evasions can be conceived but of a few, neither can these few find in them any satisfaction. But upon the other side Christ's gesture of sitting at the communion is free of the fear of both these rocks. And therefore while the superstitious conscience will be pleased with the appearance of humility, and the servile conscience will follow example and authority, and the blind conscience swalloweth down bunchbacked camels, and gnats, counting all under indifferency, and the bold conscience will venture with sacrificing Saul stoutelie, & the presumptuous conscience will take leave for worldly respects, and say, in this the Lord be merciful unto me; In the mean time the good conscience laboring to keep integrity, will take the safest, and surest course for her constant tranquility, that she neither be guilty of perjury nor Idolatry.

4 Look forward, and ye shall see the wide door of traditions cast open, whereby the whole multitude, & theatrical pomp not only of English, but popish rites, woodbind to the gospel may as well enter, when authority biddeth them, as these called innocent ceremonies. And when we have received the shadow, what can we look for less then for the substance, for which some are secretly as busy, as others openly are for ceremonies. The devil hath put the warp of defection long since upon his beam amongst us, he will not let it out of his loome, but will still employ one malignant wit after another to make it out. And the Lord in his justice may plague preceeding defections with following apostasy, whatsoever be the intention of the present urgers.

Look forward, what shall be the case of the posterity, and of your own children, whether they shall have cause to curse their predecessors, that resisted not the beginnings of evil, and who were more careful of their civil then of their spiritual liberties. Their hearts shall mourn, and the tear many a time shall fall into their eye, when they shall behold so fair a building, so dearly conquessed, so firmlie grounded, so compactly built, so well lighted, so wholesome to dwell in, so meet for God, and his Angels to delight in, so fruitful a paradise as this kirke was, wherein they should have succeeded, to be pitifullie ruined by their fathers, possessed by their enemies, and made a den of unclean spirits.

Look yet forward a little. ye know we have no pattent for our peace, but the evils of the times tell us of evil times: death itself is not far from everyone of us, and Christ at last shall come to judgment to punish them, who obey not the Gospel, with everlasting destructiō from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, and to be glorified in his Saints, & to be admired in all them that believe. In these three greatest terrors, what joy of heart shall it be unto you? that God by his singular care, not for your merits above others, that fall, but to make you examples of his grace, hath kept you in so dangerous days from the streā of defection; that he hath made you to shine as the stars in heaven, whē others like the sand of the sea shore have been covered with the inundations of the time. So many of you, as have seen better times have not now long to live, your eye is upon the mark, ye are almost at the ende of your race, and the crown is ready for you, and shall ye turn your back upon God, leave that course, whereby ye have all your assurance, and comfort of salvation, and return now to the garlic, and onions of Egypt, when ye are so near to the promised Canaan. Better ye be fyned by others, then that ye file yourselves, and the darkness of Blackness is far more tolerable, then the blackness of darkness. Cum innocens de poena metuit, de innocentia gloriatur Hierony. Omnis nobis vilis est poena, ubi pura comes est conscientia. Tiburt.

5 Look also about you. for if ye look to Malefactors, it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, then for evil doing, for his quarrel, thē for your own sins, never refuse to taste of the brimm of that cup, the dregs whereof, & third draught might have been your portion. If ye look to Mockers, resolve with Job. 17. 6. to be made a by word of the people, & as it were a tabret. for either thou must be a mocker with Ishmael, or sustain mockings, & derisions with Isaac. If ye look to them who suffer in other places, their trials are fiery, & they have suffered to the blood, yours are but earthen, or airy, & ye have not yet suffered with joy the spoiling of your goods. If ye look to papists; and adversaries, harden them not; & most of all, when ye look upon weak professors, give them no offense, neither do that which is scandalous, or may be unto them a stumbling block. Neither your inward intention, nor the outward commandment of the magistrate will remove the moral, perpetual, and universal reason, that is given by the Apostle without any exception, Destroy not him, for whom Christ died. Neither your good meaning, nor civil authority, will make it cease to be scandal, nor cease to be sin, nor cease to be your sin. And thus except ye blind your eyes willfully, and put away a good conscience, look whether ye will, whether upward, or back, or inward, or forward, or about you, all cal you to be ready upon the watch word to suffer, all promise you joy, & comfort in your sufferings. Let the brambles of the wood that can do no better rule over the trees of the forest; continue ye still like the olive, the fig tree, the vine; loose not your fatness, your sweetness, your cheerfulness for the fattest, the sweetest, and most pleasant preferments.

Think it not sufficient, that ye have before this time given testification of your zeal to your ancient liberty, and of your misliking of the present course of conformity. If you shall be weary now, or make defection; all your former testification will be a direct accusation against yourselves. Pilate protested thrice that he found no fault in Christ, & labored to set him free; but least he be reputed a small friend to Caesar, at last he delivered him to be crucified. Darius labored all the day til the setting of the sun to deliver Daniel, but overcome with importunity, he condemneth him at last to the lions den; which made him to pass that night without meat, sleep, or music. Your reasons, and motives that ye stood upon before, do yet stand without change in the power of your consciences, and therefore draw not upon yourselves after so long a day, a wrestles night of doole, and desolation.

Object not his Majesty's wrath, nor your Pastors delations, nor the examples of other Kirks. Think not that his gracious majesty hath quite forgotten what he was once himself, or that he will not pity his own wonted case in your persons now, as Augustine did the Manichęans, greater Heretics, then we are imagined to be. Illi in vos saeuiant, qui nullo tali error decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos vident, ego autem saeuire in vos omnino non possum, quos sicut meipsum illo tempore, ita nunc debeo sustinere, & tanta patientia vobiscum agere, quanta mecum egerunt proximi mei. His Majesty will not refuse at your hands the offer that Ierusalē made to Alexander. They could not suffer his image to be erected in their temple, but they were ready to please him in everything wherein God was not displeased, as to begin the accounts of their times from his entry to the town, and to give him the name of all their first borne sons. If you shall offer, what is Caesar's, and what is yours, he cannot offend that ye keep Christ's royal prerogative to himself. He was not a defender, but a persecutor of the faith (whom for respect to our Dread Soveraine we will not name). who inserted the images of the false gods into his own picture, that no man could adore the Emperor, and not adore them, and if any refused they were punished, as guilty of laesae majestatis. We look never to see your civil obedience, and the practice of Idolatrous ceremonies so straitlie joined, neither in his majesties opinion, nor in his injunctions to his good people.

Neither can your Ministers forget themselves so far, as to set themselves to be instruments to draw the wrath of a King upon their own flock. If they were justly offended, they would rather send up their complaints to heaven, then their miscontentments to court, and would rather inform you by scripture, then enforce you by authority, they would choose rather to draw your minds to them selves, then your monies to others. Pastores facti estis, non percussores, Nova atque inaudita est istae praedicatio, quae verberibus exigit fidem. Aliud est quod agitur typho superbiae, aliud zelo disciplinae. Plus erga corrigendos agat benevolentia, quam severitas, plus cohortatio, quā comminatio, plus charitas, quam potestas. Sed hi, qui quae suae sunt quaerunt, non quae Jesus Cnristi facile ab hac lege discernuntur.

Other Kirks abroad which have not been favored with your measure of reformation have been exercised with their own trials, but never had the happy occasion to give you example of suffering. The Lord hath been more liberal to us, & requireth of us that we give example, & encouragement to them to aspire to our perfection. We all suffer in the same cause of Christ, some for his person, some for his priesthood, & some for his princely office. If we look to the enemies, and not to the equity of the cause, there is great inequality of sufferings, yet the promise of blessedness is pronounced upon them, who suffer in the last times by Christians, no less then to them, who in the primitive times were persecuted by the heathen. Were the question now of the profession of the name of Christ, many say they would be martyrs, who now are persecutors: but the question would be, whether conscience, or credit were their cause. In matters of this sort, that we are about, especially where the discredit, and scoffing of the world waiteth on, conscience may be the more sensibly discerned; and the less the cause be, providing it be Christ's cause, the more acceptable to God, & the more comfortable to thyself is thy suffering. If by no means, when all are assayed with God and the King, and your pastors, you can decline the cross; but if the will of God be that ye suffer; then deny, and lay aside yourselves, take on the erosse, and follow Christ, applying joyfully to your souls all the comforts that the word furnisheth in afliction, whether the Lord's rich promises, or the sweet fruits of the cross, or the weakness of the enemies, or the greatness of the reward, or the example of the prophets, apostles, confessors, and martyrs, or which is most, conformity with Christ, whose we are, and in whom we continue.