_Of the Qualifications of their Ministry_. _Eleven marks that it is
Christian_.
I. They were changed men themselves, before they went about to change
others. Their hearts were rent, as well as their garments; and they knew
the power and work of God upon them. And this was seen by the great
alteration it made, and their stricter course of life, and more godly
conversation that immediately followed upon it.
II. They went not forth, or preached, in their own time or will, but in
the will of God; and spoke not their own studied matters, but as they
were opened and moved of his Spirit, with which they were well acquainted
in their own conversion: which cannot be expressed to carnal men, so as
to give them any intelligible account; for to such it is, as Christ said,
like the blowing of the wind, which no man knows whence it cometh, or
whither it goeth. Yet this proof and seal went along with their
ministry, that many were turned from their lifeless professions, and the
evil of their ways, to an inward and experimental knowledge of God, and a
holy life, as thousands can witness. And as they freely received what
they had to say from the Lord, so they freely administered it to others.
III. The bent and stress of their ministry was conversion to God;
regeneration and holiness. Not schemes of doctrines and verbal creeds,
or new forms of worship: but a leaving off in religion the superfluous,
and reducing the ceremonious and formal part, and pressing earnestly the
substantial, the necessary and profitable part to the soul; as all, upon
a serious reflection, must and do acknowledge.
IV. They directed people to a principle in themselves, though not of
themselves, by which all that they asserted, preached, and exhorted
others to, might be wrought in them, and known to them, through
experience, to be true; which is a high and distinguishing mark of the
truth of their ministry, both that they knew what they said, and were not
afraid of coming to the test. For as they were bold from certainty, so
they required conformity upon no human authority, but upon conviction,
and the conviction of this principle, which they asserted was in them
that they preached unto: and unto that they directed them, that they
might examine and prove the reality of those things which they had
affirmed of it, as to its manifestation and work in man. And this is
more than the many ministers in the world pretended to. They declare of
religion, say many things true, in words, of God, Christ, and the Spirit;
of holiness and heaven; that all men should repent and amend their lives,
or they will go to hell, &c. But which of them all pretend to speak of
their own knowledge and experience; or ever directed to a divine
principle, or agent, placed of God in man, to help him; and how to know
it, and wait to feel its power to work that good and acceptable will of
God in them?
Some of them, indeed, have spoken of the spirit, and the operations of it
to sanctification, and performance of worship to God; but where and how
to find it, and wait in it, to perform our duty to God, was yet as a
mystery to be declared by this farther degree of reformation. So that
this people did not only in words, more than equally press repentance,
conversion, and holiness, but did it knowingly and experimentally; and
directed those, to whom they preached, to a sufficient principle; and
told them where it was, and by what tokens they might know it, and which
way they might experience the power and efficacy of it to their souls'
happiness. Which is more than theory and speculation, upon which most
other ministers depend: for here is certainty; a bottom upon which man
may boldly appear before God in the great day of account.
V. They reached to the inward state and condition of people; which is an
evidence of the virtue of their principle, and of their ministering from
it, and not from their own imaginations, glosses, or comments upon
scripture. For nothing reaches the heart, but what is from the heart; or
pierces the conscience, but what comes from a living conscience; insomuch
as it hath often happened, where people have under secrecy revealed their
state or condition to some choice friends, for advice or ease, they have
been so particularly directed in the ministry of this people, that they
have challenged their friends with discovering their secrets, and telling
their preachers their cases, to whom a word hath not been spoken. Yea,
the very thoughts and purposes of the hearts of many have been so plainly
detected, that they have, like Nathaniel, cried out, of this inward
appearance of Christ, "Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of
Israel." And those that have embraced this divine principle, have found
this mark of its truth and divinity, that the woman of Samaria did of
Christ when in the flesh, to be the Messiah, viz. It had told them all
that ever they had done; shown them their insides, the most inward
secrets of their hearts, and laid judgment to the line, and righteousness
to the plummet; of which thousands can at this day give in their witness.
So that nothing has been affirmed by this people, of the power and virtue
of this heavenly principle, that such as have turned to it have not found
true, and more; and that one half had not been told to them of what they
have seen of the power, purity, wisdom, and goodness of God therein.
VI. The accomplishments, with which this principle fitted even some of
the meanest of this people for their work and service, furnishing some of
them with an extraordinary understanding in divine things, and an
admirable, fluency, and taking-way of expression, gave occasion to some
to wonder, saying of them, as of their Master, "Is not this such a
mechanic's son, how came he by this learning?" As from thence others
took occasion to suspect and insinuate they were Jesuits in disguise, who
had the reputation of learned men for an age past; though there was not
the least ground of truth for any such reflection; in that their
ministers are known, the places of their abode, their kindred and
education.
VII. That they came forth low, and despised, and hated, as the primitive
Christians did; and not by the help of worldly wisdom or power, as former
reformations in part have done: but in all things it may be said, this
people were brought forth in the cross; in a contradiction to the ways,
worships, fashions, and customs of this world; yea, against wind and
tide, that so no flesh might glory before God.
VIII. They could have no design to themselves in this work, thus to
expose themselves to scorn and abuse; to spend and be spent; leaving wife
and children, house and land, and all that can be accounted dear to men,
with their lives in their hands, being daily in jeopardy, to declare this
primitive message revived in their spirits, by the good Spirit and power
of God, viz.
That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; and that he has sent
his Son a light into the world, to enlighten all men in order to
salvation; and that they that say they have fellowship with God, and are
his children and people, and yet walk in darkness, viz. in disobedience
to the light in their consciences, and after the vanity of this world,
lie and do not the truth. But that all such as love the light, and bring
their deeds to it, and walk in the light, as God is light, the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son should cleanse them from all sin. Thus John i. 4.
19. Chap. iii. 20, 21. 1 John i. 5, 6, 7.
IX. Their known great constancy and patience in suffering for their
testimony in all the branches of it; and that sometimes unto death, by
beatings, bruisings, long and crowded imprisonments, and noisome
dungeons: four of them in New England dying by the hands of the
executioner, purely for preaching amongst that people: besides
banishments, and excessive plunders and sequestrations of their goods and
estates, almost in all parts, not easily to be expressed, and less to
have been endured, but by those that have the support of a good and
glorious cause; refusing deliverance by any indirect ways or means, as
often as it was offered unto them.
X. That they did not only not show any disposition to revenge, when it
was at any time in their power, but forgave their cruel enemies; showing
mercy to those that had none for them.
XI. Their plainness with those in authority, like the ancient prophets,
not fearing to tell them to their faces, of their private and public
sins; and their prophesies to them of their afflictions and downfal, when
in the top of their glory: also of some national judgments, as of the
plague, and fire of London, in express terms; and likewise particular
ones to divers persecutors, which accordingly overtook them; and were
very remarkable in the places where they dwelt, which in time may be made
public for the glory of God.
Thus, reader, thou seest this people in their rise, principles, ministry,
and progress, both their general and particular testimony; by which thou
mayst be informed how, and upon what foot, they sprang, and became so
considerable a people. It remains next, that I show also their care,
conduct, and discipline as a Christian and reformed society, that they
might be found living up to their own principles and profession. And
this the rather, because they have hardly suffered more in their
character from the unjust charge of error, than by the false imputation
of disorder: which calumny, indeed, has not failed to follow all the true
steps that were ever made to reformation, and under which reproach none
suffered more than the primitive Christians themselves, that were the
honour of Christianity, and the great lights and examples of their own
and succeeding ages.