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<DATE>2014-01-29</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140011.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>FIVE PROPOSITIONS TO THE Kings Maje&s;ty And the ARMY, concerning Church-Government, in the ordering of the Di&s;cipline thereof toward Communicants.</P>
<P>By <HI>H. Hammond</HI> Doctor in Divinity, and one Of the Kings Chaplains, now with his Maje&s;ty in the Army.</P>
<P><FIGURE>
<HEAD>C. R.</HEAD>
<FIGDESC>Tudor rose surmounted by a crown</FIGDESC>
</FIGURE></P>
<P><ADD>Aug: 6th</ADD> <HI>CAMBRIDGE,</HI> Printed for <HI>Nathaniel Smith, Anno Dom.</HI> 1647.</P>
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>Five Propo&s;itions to the Kings Ma|je&s;ty and the Army, concerning Church-Government, in the ordering of the Di&s;cipline thereof towards Communicants.</HEAD>
<P N="1">1. _THat the power may be, To provoke to goodne&s;&s;e, put|ting them in minde of every occa&s;ion, wherein any Chri|&s;tian vertue of mercifulne&s;&s;e, Almes-giving, meekne&s;&s;e, pu|rity, peace-making, is more then ordinarily &s;ea&s;onable; and by our example, and the examples of other pious men, (pre&s;ent, or read of in Story, e&s;pecially &s;acred) encouraging to abundance in well doing, and upon all occa&s;ions re|membring them of the various di&s;pen&s;ations of the love and mercy of God through Chri&s;t, where|in they have had their peculiar portion, and the in|finite immarce&s;&s;ible Crowne, that &s;uper-abundant weight of glory, which is not in the &s;ame degree powred out to all, but di&s;pen&s;ed according to works, according to the proportion of that labour of Love, and worke of Faith, that &s;hall be ob&s;er|vable in every Combatant of Chri&s;ts, when the
<PB N="2" REF="3">great Leader and Crowner of our Faith &s;hall come out to his day of retributions; and each of the&s;e is an excellent way to provoke all to well doing, the duty pre&s;cribed, <HI>Heb.</HI> 10.24. <HI>Let us ob&s;erve one another, to &s;harpen or provoke</HI> (in one another) <HI>Cha|rity and good or laudable works.</HI></P>
<P N="2">2. To give the Brother a &s;ight, not onely of his &s;ins (the not doing of which is an argument of a mo&s;t mortall enmity, a hating the Brother in the heart, whom we do not in that ca&s;e rebuke, <HI>Lev.</HI> 19.17. and no man mu&s;t be ever accounted other|wi&s;e then a treacherous contriver of his brothers de&s;truction, that is guilty of it) but even of his pa&s;&s;ions, his inclinations, the weakne&s;&s;es and pecu|liar di&s;tempers of his nature, things, of which no man is a competent judge to di&s;cerne them in him|&s;elfe, and wherein a man may live and dye igno|rant, if he be not taught by anothers more impar|tiall ob&s;ervation, and of which there is farre more rea&s;on to expect to be admoni&s;ht by a friend that takes notice of them, then of a jaundice-looke, or earthly breath, which being but &s;ymptomes of bo|dily di&s;ea&s;es, and yet by all rules of friend&s;hip to be revealed to him who is concerned to know and &s;eeke out for cure of them, are not neare &s;o dange|rous to be concealed, or unlikely to be di&s;cerned by the patient, as the more &s;ubtle &s;ecret di&s;ea&s;es of the Soule. Thus, if the interpretation of learned men will &s;tand good; Saint <HI>Paul</HI> received benefit by the admonition of the by-&s;tanders, <HI>Act.</HI> 23.4. without which he had not con&s;idered what was his duty to the High Prie&s;t. And thus did Chri&s;t befriend Saint <HI>Peter</HI> with the knowledge of his pa&s;&s;ionate temper
<PB N="3" REF="3">(tran&s;ported with zeale at the pre&s;ent, <HI>though he &s;hould dye with Chri&s;t, he will not deny him,</HI> and af|terwards, when danger was in&s;tant, tran&s;ported as much with a contrary pa&s;&s;ion) and foretold him, that he peculiarly &s;hould deny him, which it &s;eems, he never would have di&s;cerned in him&s;elfe: And if any thing had been armour &s;ufficient again&s;t &s;eare, this of all others would mo&s;t probably have &s;ecu|red him.</P>
<P N="3">3. The third is, (in ca&s;e of falling into, but e&s;pe|cially continuing in &s;in) frequent, repeated, impor|tunate calling and rouzing to awake, and get out of it. That title of the friend among the heathens, to be the other or &s;econd &s;elfe, being far from be|ing le&s;&s;ened or &s;uper&s;eded by Chri&s;t, (but improved indeed, and applyed to the divine&s;t and mo&s;t &s;acred offices of friend&s;hip, and the re&s;cuing from &s;in, as from the mo&s;t formidable danger) layes an obliga|tion upon every friend, every brother, <HI>i. e.</HI> Chri|&s;tian (toward every other, that comes wit hin the reach of his warmth or influence) to &s;upply all tho&s;e offices, that every ones &s;elfe, <HI>i. e.</HI> his &s;oul, his con&s;ci|ence, is concerned and obliged to do. Thus when the con&s;cience, be&s;ide the directive office, hath ano|ther of puni&s;hing and di&s;ciplining too, of playing the <HI>Erinnys</HI> with the torch within us, to &s;corch and light us out of our road of darkne&s;&s;e, the Brother, the Chri&s;tian, the &s;econd &s;oul, and con&s;cience with|in the fellow-Chri&s;tians brea&s;t, received thus into his mo&s;t venerable &s;ecrets, the knowledge of the deformities and &s;ins of his very &s;oule, when either he hath neglected to performe the duty of the Do|me&s;tick divine guardian, the a&s;&s;iduous watch to
<PB N="4" REF="4">keepe off the ho&s;tile approaches or mines of &s;innes, or hath not been obeyed in his warnings, he hath now this onely la&s;t part of duty behind, that of be|comming the Angell to <HI>Lot,</HI> calling him, leading him, forcing him out of Sodome, &s;etting him with|out the Port with an e&s;cape, fly for thy life, neither &s;tay thou in all the plaine; and againe re-inforcing the admonition and warning, with an e&s;cape to the mountaines le&s;t thou be con&s;umed. And he that hath no heart to be thus importunate upon his pe|ri&s;hing brother, may by that ghe&s;&s;e how little he hath of that Angelicall temper in him.</P>
<P N="4">4 The fourth degree of this duty is, (in ca&s;e any or all the former, though con&s;cientiou&s;ly and dili|gently u&s;ed, have yet been without &s;ucce&s;&s;e, then watching of &s;ea&s;ons and opportunities, calling in prudence to a&s;&s;i&s;t Charity, the braine to aide the heart, either comming as God to <HI>Adam,</HI> in the coole of the day, when the tempter of the wax may probably make it more capable of impre&s;&s;ion, or (as the fathers &s;ay of Gods dealing with the Elect, whom he doth, as 'tis thought, by that meanes in|fallibly worke on) calling him, <HI>tempore congruo,</HI> at a fit cho&s;en time, when in all probability a &s;ea&s;o|nable admonition may be hearkened to; great va|riety there is of the&s;e opportunities, not defineable particularly, but onely ob&s;ervable by him, that not onely in his duty towards God, and toward him|&s;elf, but al&s;o toward his weak or &s;ick brother doth walke circum&s;pectly, and ob&s;ervingly, not as an unwi&s;e, but wi&s;e watchman, and that is the mea|ning of Ephe&s;. 5.16. parallel to Dan. 2.8. rendred
<PB N="5" REF="4">in the former place redeeming, in the latter gai|ning the time, <HI>i. e.</HI> delaying in time of the rage, or fury of the Prince, in <HI>Dan.</HI> or of the evill times, in St. <HI>Paul;</HI> and &s;o in the heat of a violent &s;inne, when admonition is out of its place, untill the pre&s;ent tempe&s;t be over, and then there be more hope, or po&s;&s;ibility for rea&s;on to be hearkened to. And as a branch of this comes in at la&s;t</P>
<P N="5">5 A fift degree of this duty (when nothing el&s;e will, and that may probably or po&s;&s;ibly doe &s;ome good, but never el&s;e, never upon wearine&s;&s;e, or wrath, or any thing, but grounds of deepe&s;t Cha|rity) the breaking of familiar conver&s;e with him, to whom all other methods of kindne&s;&s;e have prov'd &s;ucce&s;le&s;&s;e. For as in the authoritative pro|ce&s;&s;e, when the cen&s;ures of the Church are found nece&s;&s;ary, to which onely Chri&s;t de&s;igned them to the &s;aving that which is lo&s;t, the cour&s;e is to de|ny him the mo&s;t intimate &s;ociety, that of the communion of the faithfull, and neither joyne with him in the Prayers and Le&s;&s;ons, nor in the participation of the Lords Supper: &s;o in the image of that, the &s;ociety of &s;ingle friends or Chri&s;tians (e&s;pecially where there is no place for the publike cen&s;ures either for want of govern|ment in a new planted Church, or where Schi&s;me hath driven it out, or where the crime is not of that nature, as to be capable of that publike audi|ence) when all the former offices of the <HI>Angelus cu&s;tos</HI> have been perform'd impro&s;perou&s;ly, then that of the Angell with <HI>Jacob,</HI> a wre&s;tling to get from him, to deny him the ble&s;&s;ing of his company
<PB N="6" REF="5">and familiarity, may prove &s;ea&s;onable, not out of a fa&s;tidious pa&s;&s;ionate di&s;plea&s;ure to the &s;inner, (O, he is then the mo&s;t naturall proper object of pitty and kindne&s;&s;e, the incorrigible &s;inner is fit for any thing rather then our anger or impatience) nor a|gaine, le&s;t I be polluted by his company, (in this ca&s;e 'tis with the friend as with the beleeving Hu&s;|band, if the unbeleeving Wife is willing to live with him, let him not depart, how knowe&s;t thou but that by thy Chri&s;tian contrary example thou mai&s;t yet &s;ave thy impenitent heathen brother?) but I &s;ay onely on that great principle of &s;aving Charity, that by &s;eeing him&s;elfe avoided, with|drawne from, left to conver&s;e with none (be&s;ide his &s;inne) but fiends and flatterers, he may po&s;&s;ibly be a&s;hamed, and by that confu&s;ion of &s;pirit awakened out of that &s;nare, whence the calme, le&s;&s;e &s;en&s;ible admonitions were not able to rouze him, and this perhaps was the kinde that belong'd to the di&s;or|derly obedient, 1 The&s;. 5.14. which the <HI>The&s;&s;aloni|ons</HI> are &s;o earne&s;tly entreated (peculiarly under the notion as brethren) to u&s;e in this ca&s;e; and an opportunity &s;ometime may be wi&s;ely cho&s;en when it may prove proper and &s;ea&s;onable.</P>
</DIV1>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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