Suffer us therefore to speak to you in the words of Christ, to the Church of Ephesus. Rev. 2.5. Remember from whence you are faln, and repent, and do your first works, &c. Repent of all your Soul-destroying Errours, and return to the Churches from which ye have most unjustly separated, for fear, lest God as a just Judge, because you would not receive the love of the truth that you might be saved, should still give you over to strong delusions, that ye should believe a lye, That all they might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse: And this makes way to the fourth thing we have to say to you; and that is,
4. To beseech you to consider, Whether since you forsook our Congregations, you are not much decayed in the power of Godliness, whether you have not lost your first love to Godly Ministers, Gospel-Ordinances, Fastings, reading the Word, private & Family prayers, and Communion of Saints; whether you are not grown more censorious, self-conceited, headie, high-minded, treacherous, fierce, despisers of those that are good, and lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God; whether Duties to God and Man have not been more neglected, Sabbaths more prophaned, Families worse governed; the publique welfare of Church and State have not been less minded, whether prophaneness, or prophane Ones, have not been more indulged; and whether you be not sensibly and dangerously apostatized from that close and humble walking with God, which formerly some of you did so much labour after: For the truth is, Corruption in the Judgment, will quickly bring corruption in the conversation. Our actions are guided by our apprehensions; and if our apprehensions be erroneous, our actions will quickly be tainted with wickednesse; And therefore it is very observeable, [183]That in the old Law, when the Leprosie was in the head, the Priest was not only to pronounce the man unclean, but utterly unclean: For Leprosie in the head, will quickly beget a Leprosie in the whole man: As the Sun is to the World; so is the Understanding to Man: If the Sun be dark, all the world is in darknesse; and if the light that is in thee (saith Christ) be darkness, How great is that darkness? We wonder not at the looseness of your practices, when we consider the looseness of your principles: For Doctrines contrary to Godliness, must needs bring forth a conversation contrary to the Gospell. And this is an evident token to us, that the New-Lights (as they are called) which you hold forth to the world, proceed not from the Father of Lights, but the Prince of Darkness, because they lead men into the Works of Darkness.
Therefore seeing that since your departure from us, you have wofully back-slidden from God, and are visibly decaid in Holiness and Righteousness, Our Exhortation to you is, that you would return to your first Principles; for then it was better with you, then now; And our prayer to God for you is, That he would give you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that you may recover your selves out of the snare of the Devill, who are taken captive by his will.
Having finished that we had to say to those that separate from our Church, we now go on to speak a few words to those that continue with us still, and that wait upon the publique Ministry, but do not yet joyn with us, in partaking of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper. These we shall divide into three ranks.
1. Such as are young people, not yet sufficiently instructed in the grounds of Religion.
2. Such as are grown in years, and come to our Churches, but yet are scandalous in life and conversation.
3. Such as live, for ought we know, unblameably, but yet refuse to come to the Sacrament in the Presbyterian way.
1. Such as are young people, and not yet sufficiently instructed in the grounds of Religion; Our Exhortation to you is, That you would remember your Creator in the days of your Youth; the word in the Hebrew[184] is, in the choyce of thy dayes: The time of Youth is the Golden Age; and grace in Youth, is like a Jewel in a gold-ring. The time of Youth, it is the Seasoning Age: A Vessell will of a long time retain the savour of that liquor that it is first seasoned withall; Teach a child (saith Solomon) the trade of his way, and he will not depart from it when he is old. The time of Youth is the chiefe time you have to work for heaven. Old age is a time to spend grace; but Youth is the time to get it: Old Age is the time to reap the fruit of holiness, but Youth is the time to sow the seed of it: And it is a time, that of all times God doth most require, and most delight in. It is observed by one, that Christ [185]loved his youngest Disciple best: And by Another, that Christ was wonderfully delighted with that Hosanna that the children sang unto him, Mat. 21.16. [186]The childrens Hosanna pleased him no less then the mens Hallelujahs; Suffer little children to come unto me, saith Christ, for to them belongeth the Kingdome of God. In the Old Testament God hath manifested a great deal of love to young people; He chose Abel, the younger, Shem, the younger, Abraham, the younger, Jacob, the younger; young Samuel, and young David, and young Josiah: And therefore let young men, especially, be exhorted to begin betimes, to bear the yoak of the Lord; Seek ye first the Kingdome of God, and his Righteousness; first, before any thing else; and first, more then any other thing. Say not, (O say not!) I am a young man, and therefore may plead for liberty to do what I list, till I come of riper years: But remember, That Jesus Christ shed his blood for thee when he was 8. dayes old; and took thee into his Family by Baptisme, when thou didst hang upon thy mothers Breast; Thou art (it may be) a young man, but a Baptized young-man; A Young-man consecrated and dedicated to God; And it is not only sin, but sacriledg and perjury, to impropriate that that is dedicated to God, to the service of the Devill. Remember the wrath manifested from Heaven against the 42. children that mocked Elisha; And remember further, That young people must dye, as well as old: There are Skulls in Golgotha, of all sizes; and young people have immortall souls, and must appear at the great day of Judgment, as well as old; Young people are by nature children of wrath, heires of hell; and therefore this is thy first work (O young man) to get out of the Root of Abomination, into the Root of Acceptation; out of the old Adam into the new Adam; & before this be done, (though thou shouldst spend thy time in gathering up Pearls and Jewels,) thou art an undone creature.
For the better effecting of this, we exhort you, to attend diligently to the publike Preaching of the Word, and willingly and cheerfully to submit to be catechized and instructed by your Parents, Masters, and Ministers. The Scripture divideth a Congregation, into him that catechizeth, and those that are catechized, saying, [187]Let them that are taught, or (as it is in the Greek) Catechized, communicate to him that teacheth (or catechizeth) them in all good things. In the Primitive times, when any Heathen man was converted to Christianity, he was first a catechumenus, before he was admitted either to Baptisme, or the Lords Supper. And Egesippus testifies, [188]that by the diligent instruction of the Church, there was no known Common-Wealth in any part of the World, inhabited, but within fourty years after Christs passion, received a great shaking of Heathenish Religion. There are in Christian Religion, fundamentalls and superstructions. The fundamentalls are the vitals of Christianity: These are comprized in many of our English Catechismes. Amongst all others, we do more especially commend the greater and lesser Catechismes made by the Reverend Assembly of Divines, and published to be used in all Churches in England and Wales, by Authority of Parliament. These we exhort you, not only to read, but to learn. And to invite you thereunto, we further declare;
That the study of the Catechisme, is a singular help for the right understanding of the Scriptures: (For the Catechisme is nothing else, but a Methodical Extract out of the Bible, of the fundamentals of Christian Religion;) And it is also very useful to make you understand what your Ministers preach to you; And to keep you from the Errours and Heresies of these times to prepare you to give a distinct and perfect account of your Faith to the Minister and Elders. For one great Reason why men do so pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction, and run wilde into so many errors and heresies, and are so unable to give a particular and distinct account to the Minister and Elders, is for want of the study of the Catechisme. As a ship without ballast is tossed about with every wave and wind; so is a man without the study of the Catechisme, carried about with every wind of vain doctrine. As a house without a foundation will quickly fall, so will a Christian that is not well verst in the fundamentals of Religion. As Children grow crooked, that are not well looked to at first; so many run into crooked opinions, because not well catechized.