things against that and never as yet did that I hear of agree upon any other nor I think ever will For let it be considered that there is scarce any part of our Liturgy which some have not excepted against and you will find our Author's advice impracticable He himself would have no Absolution as appears not only by his omission of that Office when he enumerates the parts of a Liturgy but by telling us that the power of the Keys belongs to every one Clergy or Lay Male or Female not only for himself but for the benefit of others p. 172. and p. 183. that you may as well make your Muletter your Confessor as your Parish-Priest Others will have no confession Some are displeased at the Responses others cannot be reconciled to the Lord's Prayer against the use of which as the Leaders of one Faction have Printed so the Grandees of another have often preached The Reader knows what sort of People cannot joyn in the Gloria Patri the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and it is well if they will stand to the Apostles The Te Deum and Magnificat are displeasing to some the Collects because they are too short and the Litany because it is too long to others Some are angry at the Prayer for Bishops others not very well pleased with those for the King If you read what our Author saith p. 60. concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as 1. that in the Communion there is nothing given but Bread and Wine 2. The Bread and Wine are signs indeed but not of any thing there exhibited but of something given long before 3. That Jesus Christ is eaten at the Communion-Table in no sense neither spiritually by vertue of any thing done there nor really nor metaphorically nor literally 4. The Spiritual eating of Christ of common to all places as well as the Lords Table you may see the Author was no friend to the Office for Administration of the Lord's Supper And it 's well known who are enemies to that of Baptism Our Author dislikes the consecration of Bishops to whom he denies any Superiority but that of reverence others oppose the Ordination of Priests It is sad to consider at what a Distance many of our People yet keep themselves and children from the Catechism and Confirmation and the burial of the Dead only that of Marriage they are pretty well reconciled to So that I say our Author's Proposals are impracticable if not impossible to be observed either to remove from our Liturgies whatever is i.e. seems scandalous to every Party or to leave nothing but what all agree on and I think we shall all agree sooner in an Universal character and language too than in such a Liturgy Our first Reformers have given us undeniable Proofs that they were very learned and very good Men and Bishop Jewel in their name professeth that they did consult the ancient Liturgies of the purest times and adapted ours to them The Papists condemn us for castrating as much as was thought sinful must we be still condemned for retaining what is decent If any thing in our Liturgy had been contrary to the Word of God I am confident the Church would have expunged it as soon as its adversaries had discovered it but if it be quarrelled at for requiring us to worship God according to the Apostolical injunction in Decency and order we had rather be accounted beasts of burden in submitting to the lawful Ordinances of our Superiors than wild Asses for kicking against our Masters It hath alway been the practice of the Church of God conform to the practice of the Holy Apostles Acts 15. when any opinions or practices contrary to Faith or Unity began to prevail to assemble in Councils and Synods that by conference and consulting with the Scriptures and Primitive customes they might raise a fence against the growing torrent and as well confirm their own as confute the opinions and practices of their adversaries as may be seen in the Decrees and Canons made in the first 600 Years And when by general consent and subscription these Decrees were approved they did as occasion required insert sometimes into the Liturgy such passages out of their own or former Articles as might help to instruct the People in the true Faith and be an antidote against those poisonous errors that were become Epidemical Hence first the Apostles Creed and the Gloria Patri c. and those being not express enough against prevailing errors the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were inserted and some whole Articles were added to the Apostles Creed And if as our Author saith a man may go to an Arrian Church so there be no Arrianism exprest in their Liturgy why may not our Superiors require our communion in the Liturgy which is free from that and all other Doctrinal errors And whereas our Liturgy is in all things conform to our Articles of Doctrine which are so free from the exceptions either of Calvinists or Arminians as that both Parties appeal to it as to the standard whereby they would have their Opinions tryed as appears in the late quiquarticular controversies between Doctor Heylin and Mr. Hickman I see no reason why they may not upon our Author's grounds conform much rather to ours than unto Arrian Liturgies A Liturgy that hath past many fiery Trials first in the Marian days when the Composers of it imbraced it at their Martyrdom after which it appeared so inoffensive to the Papists themselves which I account no small commendation that for some Years after Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown they omitted not to frequent the use of it and in the beginning of our troubles when the Smectymnuans heated the Irons and made it pass the trial Ordeal its innocency was such that it came off untoucht And when in the Grand Debate their Successors thought to have blown it up by the fewel which they had heaped together in a mock-liturgy their plot was so confused and imperfect that a great part of the Brotherhood were of the Opinion that the old was better And I am still perswaded if it were put to the vote whether this Liturgy should be retained or any other formerly used in the Primitive or now in use among the Reformed Churches brought into its room they would give the like suffrage as I have heard Sr. Harry Martyne did when some of Cromwels Confidents had moved the question whether They should have a King or no King that if they must have a King they had rather have the Old Gentleman meaning King Charles of blessed memory than any other in the Nation Our Author begins to treat of Conventicles from p. 226. and continueth it to the end The substance of which I shall present to the Reader in these several and divers Periods First he says truly that all meetings upon unnecessary occasions of Separation are to be so stiled so that in this sense a Conventicle is nothing else but a congregation of schismaticks
â—MPRIMATUR GVIL JANE Nov. 24. 1677. Mr. HALES's TREATISE OF SCHISM Examined and Censured By THOMAS LONG B. D. and Prebendary of EXETER To which are Added Mr. BAXTER's ARGUMENTS FOR Conformity WHEREIN The most Material Passages OF THE TREATISE of SCHISM ARE ANSWERED LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. Mr. HALES's TRACT OF SCHISM AND Schismaticks Printed by the Original Copy EXAMINED AND CENSURED Who is it can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable Men by opposing not only the present Church conversing in Earth but the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages Mr. Hales in his Miscellanies set forth by Mr. Garthwait Anno 1673. p. 260. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS LORD BISHOP OF EXETER IT was prophesied of our Saviour that the Government should be upon his shoulders Is 9. 6. and though he have devolved that burden upon mortal men which is Angelicis humeris formidandum yet doth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put under his shoulder and help them to bear it or they would soon sink under it For however it fares with the Church whether it be under persecution none are so much exposed to a fiery trial as they or whether it enjoy peace and plenty Pride and contention swels up some corrupt members to the daily vexation of their Heads Governors And how blameless soever their Persons be their Office is made a Crime Better things might have been expected from the Author of the Treatise hereafter considered wherein there is so much contempt poured out upon the Episcopal Office and on all Church authority and administrations that the Ink is not more black than the Calumny But where should the impetus of discontent and faction vent it self but against those rocks that are set by God Himself to give check and bounds unto it Now that in the Apostles days this sacred Order was appointed among other great ends as a remedy against Schism is acknowledged by such as are its reputed Adversaries In the Church of Alexandria from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist they were continued as a bulwork against Schism saith St. Hierom in his Epistle to Evagrius And in the Church of Corinth when Men begun to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo this Office was appointed that the seeds of Schism might be taken away saith the same Father on the first Chap. to Titus And he tells the Luciferians in a Dialogue with them That unless an eminent and uninterrupted power be by all given to the chief Pastors there will be as many schisms as there are Priests In all this St. Hierom followeth the more ancient Fathers Passibus aequis for Ignatius advised the Trallians to do nothing without their Bishop Which advice he repeating again tells them It is not my word but the Word of God and if ye suspect me to say this as understanding that there are Divisions among you he is my witness for whom I am in bonds that it was not man but the Spirit that declared this to me St. Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinth p. 57. says That the Apostles foreseeing that Divisions would arise as Christ had foretold did establish Bishops And the 32. Canon of the Apostles ordained That if any Presbyter or Deacon should make conventions without his Bishop he should be deposed In the 4th Oecumenical Council of Calcedon consisting of 630. Fathers there was read an Ancient Canon of the Council of Antioch to this effect If any Presbyter or Deacon contemning his Bishop shall separate and erect another Altar and will not obey the Bishop calling him home once and again we do utterly condemn such a one Which Canon being read by Aetius an Arch-Deacon the Fathers with one consent proclaimed This is a righteous Canon of the Holy Fathers In the Second Council of Carthage by the Eighth Canon it was provided That if any Presbyter lifted up with pride should make a Schism against his Bishop let him be accursed But in defiance of all these Canons and curses they have been accounted the only blessed Men in our times who have most vehemently decryed this holy Order and successfully maintained a Faction against them To whom if they are yet capable of any Counsel I would commend the moderation of Mr. Calvin who speaking of Popish Bishops Instit l. 4. c. 10. S. 6. saith If they were true Bishops I would yield them though not so much authority as they do require yet as much as is requisite for the well-ordering of Ecclesiastical Government And what he means by true Bishops he explaineth S. 1. The form of the Ancient Church sets before our eyes a pattern of the Divine institution for the order of governing his Church For though the Bishops of those times did set forth many Canons in which they seemed to express more than was expressed in the Holy Scripture yet they composed their whole Oeconomy with such caution according to that only rule of God's Word that you may easily perceive that they held nothing in this respect differing from the Word of God And in S. 4. he repeats the same Si rem intuemur reperiemus veteres Episcopos non alium regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Deus verbo suo praescripsit With how much truth and reverence doth this Learned man speak of those ancient Bishops of whom he says not only that they did not actually swerve from God's Word as to their Government but that they would not This Candor is much wanting in such as pretend to be Mr. Calvin's Disciples with whom this Sacred Function and all its Administrations are defamed as Antichristian and Popish and a Covenant for extirpating them root and branch is still pertinaciously adhered to But though the authority of these men be despised yet methinks that of our Saviour who hath made them his Ambassadors and Apostolus cujusque is est quisque and hath told us Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me should not be rejected nor those severe penalties under which he exacts our obedience to his Officers be slighted For whoever will not hear the Church is to be accounted as a Heathen or Publican and Mark 6. 11. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgment than for them And though wicked men do securely despise the censures of the Church yet hath Christ said Matth. 18. 18. of his Officers Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven which authority the Church of God would not have exercised in the purest and most primitive times by so many and dreadful Anathema's if their great Lord had not authorized them or if they had not experienced the good effects
distinction that he still retains Unity As he is One so we call him GOD the Deity the Divine Nature and other Names of the same signification as he is distinguished so we call him Trinity Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost In this Trinity there is One Essence Two Emanations Three Persons or Relations Four Properties Five Notions A Notion is that by which any Person is known or signified The One Essence is GOD which with this relation that it doth generate or beget makes the Person of the Father The same Essence with this Relation that it is begotten makes the Person of the Son The same Essence with this relation that it proceedeth maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost The Two Emanations are to be begotten and to proceed or to be breathed out The Four Properties are First Innascibility and Inemanability the second is to generate these belong to the Father the third is to be begotten this belongs to the Son the fourth is to proceed or to be breathed out this belongs to the Holy Spirit The five Notions are first Innascibility the second is to beget the third is to be begotten the fourth Spiratio passiva to be breathed out the fifth Spiratio activa or to breath and this Notion belongs to the Father and the Son alike for Pater filius spirant Spiritum sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God And then he ingenuously concludes If any Man think this Confession to be defective for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives deficient and I shall thank him for his labour But to proceed The confutation of this Treatise of Schism will appear to be necessary not only to wipe off the aspersions of the Papists but to silence the Objections of Factious Persons who often take Arguments from it to defend themselves in their separation as will appear by that which followeth Mr. Hales had said p. 207. That the Church might be in any number more or less in any place Country or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without prejudice to the Definition of the Church or the truth of the Gospel This strange notion is contrary to what Mr. Hales delivers in his Golden Remains p. 260. When we appeal saith he to the Churches Testimony we content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time And p. 186. This succession of the Church is sufficient to prove where our Church was before Luther This strange notion I say That the Church visible may totally decay prevailed too far with Mr. Chillingworth who saith p. 239. It is not certain that the truth of the Article of the Holy Catholick Church depends upon the Actual existence of a Catholick Church but rather upon the right that the Church of Christ or rather to speak properly that the Gospel of Christ hath to be universally believed and therefore the Article may be true though there were no Church in the World Now though this were only a probleme which Mr. Chillingworth defends not but in the 14. p. of his Preface overthroweth saying I believe that our Saviour ever since his Ascension hath had in some place or other a visible true Church on Earth and that there will be such a Church to the Worlds end yet his Adversary p. 779. of Infidelity Unmasked falls heavily on him and tells him that this notion is not only against the Scripture Eph. 4. 11. but against all Protestants and all Christians and sends him to Calvin 's Institutions l. 4. c. 1. and to Volkelius whom he calls his Socinian Brother de verâ Rel. l. 6. c. 5. who prove a Succession of Pastors and Doctors to have been always in the Church Remansit Doctorum Pastorúmque officium nec non alia quaedam And indeed Dr. Potter whom Mr. Chillingworth defended had said truly That it was an error in the nature and matter of it properly Heretical to say the Church remained only in the party of Donatus and that it was much worse to say she remained no where for this were to overthrow the Article of the Catholick Church and is little less than blasphemy saith Arch-bishop Laud. Again Mr. Hales p. 218. said It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspected actions This argument Mr. Chillingworth improveth p. penult of his Preface to Charity maintained If a Church says he supposed to want nothing necessary require me to profess against my Conscience that I believe some error though never so small and innocent which I do not believe and will not allow me her communion but upon this condition in this case the Church for requiring this condition is Schismatical and not I for separating from the Church Mr. Baxter speaks much more like a Conformist in this case than either Mr. Hales or Mr. Chillingworth If a Church saith he p. 464. of Reasons for Christ Relig. S. 15. which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local communion with it though we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their communion And I think it is more rational peaceably to dissent until we are actually excluded than presently to pronounce that Church Schismatical which requires such conditions of our communion For if that which I believe to be an error being if an error but small and innocent be required of me by a Church which maintaineth all necessary things I ought rather to submit to or at least peaceably with-hold my communion from that Church than to violate its communion by my separation because that Church which GOD hath preserved in all necessary truths may probably know that which I believe to be an error and but a small one if an error to be an important truth or if she be mistaken in such small things it is not schismatical in her to require my profession who may well be resolved of my doubt when so many wiser and better than my self after mature deliberation think fit to require it For as Mr. Hooker saith p. 100. In all right and equity that which the Church hath so long received and held for good that which publick approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient And p. 55. This Opinion That the Authority of Man affirmatively in matters Divine is nothing worth being once inserted into the minds of the vulgar sort GOD knows what it may grow unto Thus much we see It hath already made Thousands so head-strong even in gross and palpable Errors that a Man
Hales in this posthumous piece but with that inimicus homo whoever he be that hath sown tares among the good seed and wrapt up poyson in his Golden Remains And necessary it is that such noxious and unsavory weeds should be rooted out and not suffered to defile the grave of so Candid a person or made use of as a shelter for unclean creatures to hide themselves and croak under them as the Transproser doth who having raked a heap of them together from p. 175. to p. 183. fancieth himself as secure on that dunghil as if he were in some inchanted Castle The first thing that is obnoxious in the Treatise of Schism is p. 191. of the Posthumous works where it is said that Heresie and Schism as they are in common use are two Theological Mormo's or Scarcrows And what the Author means by common use you may be informed p. 213. where he says Arrianism Eutychianism Nestorianism Photinianism Sabellianism and many more you may add Socinianism too which is but a compound of those are but names of Schism howsoever in the common Language of the Fathers they were called heresies So that our Author explodes the Judgment of all the Fathers who condemned those things for Heresies which he thinks do scarce deserve the name of Schisms And a new notion of Heresies is brought in by him p. 214. Indeed Manicheism Valentinanism Marcionism Mahometanism are truly and properly heresies for we know that the Authors of them received them not but minted them themselves and so knew that which they taught to be a lye but can any man avouch saith our Author that Arrius and Nestorius and others that taught erroneously concerning the Trinity or the person of our Saviour did maliciously invent what they taught and not rather fall upon it by error and mistake Till that be done and that upon good evidence we will think no worse of all parties than needs we must and take these Rents in the Church to be but Schisms upon matter of Opinion If this be true in vain did the Bishops of the Primitive Church assemble in the Councils of Nice Ephesus and other places to condemn and suppress the Opinions of Arrius Nestorius and other Heresiarcha's And the fears and jealousies of the present Church concerning the growth of heresies are groundless for though the erring spirits of this age should revive all the dangerous tenets of Arrius Eutychius Nestorius Photinus and Sabellius and all the blasphemies of Manes Valentinian Marcion or Mahomet himself yet seeing they did not invent these errors themselves but fell on them by mistake though they adhere to them never so tenaciously and wilfully defend them they deserve but the name of Schismaticks And until some such persons as Simon Magus Montanus or Mahomet shall set up for a new God or a Holy Ghost or a Messias in direct opposition to the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour we need not trouble the world with the odious names of Heretick or Schismatick which are but Theological Scarcrows For p. 215. we are told that the Rents in the Church occasioned by those heresies were at the worst but Schisms upon matter of Opinion In which case saith our Author it is not a point of any great depth of Understanding to discover what we are to do so be it distemper and partiality do not intervene I do not yet see that opinionum varietas Opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that men of different Opinions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris and if occasion require I may go to an Arrian Church if there be no Arrianism exprest in their Liturgy This is expresly contrary to what I quoted from p. 229. It is not lawful for prayer hearing c. and as contrary to the Holy Scriptures Rom. 16. 17. Titus 3. 10. Ephes 5. 11. What error and confusion would these wilde notions bring into the Church if false Prophets and Deceivers should be permitted to teach and the People not restrained from hearing them although they should teach such damnable Doctrines as denyed the Lord that bought them I shall appeal therefore from the Author to Mr. Hales who tells us p. 192. However Heresie and Schism are but ridiculous terms in the common manage yet the things in themselves are of very considerable moment the one offending against truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly So deadly that I cannot compare them better than to that Italian who designed to kill his enemy body and soul for Truth being the very Soul of the Church and Peace and Unity the great organ or instrument by which it becomes visible and prosperous the toleration of Heresie and Schism will be as destructive to the Church here as they will certainly be to the Authors of them without repentance hereafter There is a lesser mistake in our Author's definition of Schism p. 195. by which he excuseth all such from the guilt of Schism as do separate from that part of the visible Church whereof they were not once members On which account all such children as were born of Schismatical Parents though they defend the schism never so obstinately are not guilty whereas it is the duty of all Christians to live in communion with that part of the Catholick Church in which they reside and not to suffer themselves as our Author expresseth it like beasts of burthen to be imposed upon by their Predecessors The Schism of the Donatists is by our Author acknowledged to be a complete Schism upon the grounds mentioned p. 196. I demand therefore whether such children as were born to the Donatists and persisting in the opinions and practices of their Fore-fathers troubled the Churches of Africa 300. years together were guilty of Schism or no or whether such as among us were born of Anabaptistical or Quaking Parents and still persist in and propagate Church-divisions are complete Schismaticks or not And if we should try them by our Author 's own rules I am sure they will be found guilty The next error of our Author is his allowing of Separation upon Scruples and suspicions as p. 194. he says When either Acts unlawful or ministring just Scruple are required of us to be performed consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism but due Christian animosity This just Scruple he calls p. 201. a strong suspicion and p. 218. Where suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church-Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick It is like our Author forgat what he said a little before p. 217. that when Scruples of conscience began to be made or pretended then Schisms began to break in as also what is said p. 209. What if the Preacher deliver any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well perswaded yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear a part in some suspected Act. Against this error of our Authors I affirm That
on the 14th day of the Moon For the Eastern Churches alledging the practice of S. John and Philip for the 14th day had a better ground for it than a Jewish custom namely that of Christian Charity and Baronius notes it as worthy of our observation that the Apostles had anciently appointed that though Easter were observed on the Lords day by the generality of Christians yet they should gently tolerate the Judaizing Converts which were of the circumcision and were in great numbers in the Eastern parts See Baronius's Annals ad Ann. 167. p. 168. Now the Western Churches pleaded for their practice which was the observation of the Sunday following the Authority of S. Peter and S. Paul who had fully convinced the Gentile converts that all Jewish rites were to be laid aside as having had their full completion in Christ but yet as in other like cases they were instructed to bear with the Jews as for some time they did for the first time that this controversie was agitated was between Anicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna who according to the custom of other Asian Churches celebrated Easter day on the 14th of the Moon For which practice Polycarp alledged the Authority of S. John And Irenaeus in an Epistle mentioned by Eusebius l. 5. c. 18. tells us that Polycarp came to Rome to discourse with Anicetus concerning this and other different observations between the Eastern and Western Churches and having after some conference amicably agreed other controversies they still differed about this observation but without any violation of the bond of Charity for they communicated together Anicetus giving leave to Polycarp to perform the offices of Divine Worship in his Church and it was then concluded That both Churches should be at liberty to observe the Ancient customes delivered to them from their Predecessors But about the year of Christ 198. Victor Bishop of Rome revives the controversie with Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus who was then 65 years old and came within a little time of S. John being cotemporary with Polycarp Victor pleads that the custom of his Church was derived from the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul and that all his Predecessors had celebrated Easter on the Lords day See Eusebius lib. 5. ch 21 22 23. And Nicephorus l. 4. c. 36. Polycrates in his Epistle mentioned by Eusebius l. 5. c. 24. replies That all the Provinces of Asia observed it according to an Ancient tradition received long before i. e. before the second Century from S. John and S. Philip from Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna from Thraseas Bishop of Eumenia Sagaris of Laodicea Papirius and Melito Bishops of Sardis who always practised according to the same Canon and all the Bishops of Asia then living consented to and subscribed his Epistle Upon this Victor beginneth to storm and threatneth to Excommunicate the Bishops of Asia as Heterodox and to that end he assembleth the Bishops under his Jurisdiction who with one consent declared for peace desiring his forbearance and disliking his too great severity The Epistle of Irenaeus to Victor on this occasion is yet extant in which he declares That although for his part he was resolved to observe the Feast of Easter on the Sunday according to the practice of the Western Church in which he lived yet he could not approve that the Eastern Church should be Excommunicated for observing an Ancient custom and mindeth Victor that the Bishops before him had never broken the Churches peace on this occasion But no mediation would prevail Victor was Victor still and proceeds to denounce an impotent sentence against the Asian Churches Baronius says something to excuse the severity of Victor viz. That as long as those Churches were Catholick and incorrupt they of Rome thought it expedient to tolerate that custom but when from that custom Schism and Heresie brake in upon the Asian Churches for Montanus having diffused his Heresie through Asia those Asians began to plead that they had received this Tradition from their Paraclete that the Pascha ought to be celebrated on the 14th of the Moon and on no other day and that all such as practised otherwise were in an error then Victor thought it his duty to restrain this error 2. This Opinion of keeping Easter after the Asian manner was taken up by many Hereticks and so spread it self that it invaded the very bosom of the Roman Church and pluckt thence one Blastus who in the face of that Church maintained the Asian against the Roman Custom Tertullian speaks of this Blastus in his book de Praescriptionibus c. 53. saying that he endeavoured to bring in Judaism affirming that the Christian Pascha was not to be kept otherwise than was prescribed by the Law of Moses And this opinion of Blastus drew away so many after him that Irenaeus wrote a book of Schism directed purposely against Blastus but could not recal him And now let the indifferent Reader judge whether the subject of this controversie were most unnecessary most vain as our Author declaims Victor indeed did prosecute it with too much heat insomuch that the Cardinal knows not what to say in his excuse An verò quod potestate jure faciebat recténe fecerit dubitatum est saith the Cardinal Doubtless the Asian Churches were sui juris not under the jurisdiction of Victor or if they had been yet was he not unblameable in Excommunicating all the Churches of Asia for the fault of some few that had crept in among them whom in due time they would have restrained by their own authority He was also too precipitate in not yielding to the mediation of his own Bishops in behalf of those Churches And lastly he was much more culpable for imposing this observation on the Asian Churches as a matter of Faith and judged them to be heterodox and excommunicate that would not submit Baronius his words ad annum Christi 198. p. 191. of the Antwerp edition are Totius Asia Ecclesias cum aliis finit imis tanquam alterius fidei opinionis à communi unitate Ecclesia amputare conatur Nor were the Asian Churches without fault for yielding so long to a Jewish Ceremony which might long ere that time have been decently buried as other Jewish customes had been And also for suffering some among them to teach a necessity of observing the Christian Pascha on the 14th day and no other So that to conclude though the Roman Church was in this particular stronger in the Faith yet as our Author saith they should have born with the imbecillity of their weaker Brethren a thing which he observes S. Paul would not refuse to do p. 218. To which I say that S. Paul did comply for a while with the Jewish Converts in the Case of Circumcision but when some of them pleaded for a necessity of Circumcision he thunders against that Opinion as loudly as Victor did against this saying That if they were Circumcised i. e. with an Opinion of the
necessity of it Christ should profit them nothing Gal. 5. 2. Now from this History as our Author had contrived it he drew several wilde inferences As first p. 203. In this fantastical Hurry I cannot see saith he but all the World were Schismaticks To which I reply That all the World were not concerned in it there being some Nations that differed from both these in the observation of Easter as Socrates l. 5. c. 21. hath observed for even among the Jewish Converts some that agreed on the 14th day differed in the Moon and Venerable Bede observes that our Nation which the Pope pretends to have been his Converts did in those primitive times observe their Easter on the 14th day which by the way is an argument that we at first received the Christian Faith not from the Church of Rome who exploded this custome but more Anciently from Joseph of Arimathea or from St. Philip who as many good Authors affirm planted the Christian Religion in our neighbour Nation of France and as the Asian Churches affirm was one of them that taught them this custom nor do we read that they were condemned for Hereticks for so doing Neither did those Eastern Churches who differed in the Moneth anathematize each other and Socrates ubi supra gives this reason for it They that agree in the same Faith may differ from each other in respect of Rites as the Reformed Churches do at this day And though the Roman Church did excommunicate the Asian yet were they never the more Schismaticks for that being they were sui Juris not under the Roman power And according to our Authors definition of schism they being never members of that Church from which they were excommunicate could not be guilty of schism notwithstanding Victors rigor We say therefore they were still members of the Catholick Church And as for the Roman Church what should make them Schismaticks For though Victor did arrogate too much as to the manner of his proceedings yet as to the matter his prosecution against a Jewish ceremony when it grew into an Opinion of being necessary to be observed was his duty and approved by the practice of St. Paul himself And while there was a controversie between their Governors the People and Clergy too of both Parties continued in due subjection to their Superiors and in mutual charity to one another So that the Separatists of our Age can have no excuse for their Schism from this instance But our Author infers Secondly that this fell out through the ignorance or which he mentioneth also the malice of their Governors and that through the just judgment of God on the People because through sloth and blind obedience they examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched down and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them To which I Answer It doth not appear there was any charge of ignorance to be imputed to Victor or his People for the reasons above mentioned much less of malice Our present Sectaries do call their opposition to Ceremonies more innocent than that by the name of zeal and love to the cause of God Nor was there any thing imposed on the Churches of either side that concerned their Faith nor any custome or rite de novo but only the Asian Churches were desired to translate the custome of observing Easter from a day which gave offence not only to the Church of Rome but several other Churches Petavius says the difference was not de Catholico dogmate sed de Ritu seu Ritûs potiùs tempore And if the Superiors in the Asian Churches had thought the Alteration fit as shortly after they did it had doubtless been the Peoples duty to submit for every Church hath power in those things which are indifferent and much more in such things as give offence to other Churches to appoint and alter rites and ceremonies for the publick Worship of God and the People shew themselves not beasts of burthen but Christ's Free-men in submitting to their Governors as far as Christian liberty doth permit If Victor had imposed new Articles of Faith as Pius Quintus did in the Council of Trent doubtless those Primitive Christians would have resisted even to bloud of which they gave too many instances when they constantly endured all manner of torments rather than they would renounce the Faith once delivered to them Our Author therefore needed to ask pardon for wounding the reputation of these Ancient Worthies in cool bloud as well as for massacring at once the authority of all the Fathers in the heat of a temptation p. 204. where he says thus You may plainly see the danger of our appeal to Antiquity for resolution in controversies of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence for if the discretion of the chiefest Guides of the Church did in a point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of extreme grossness and folly think so poor spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot in the Churches Pardon me I know not what temptation drew that note from me To this I reply 1. Whoever he be that so contemptuously rejects the Authority and trampleth on the reputation of the Fathers hath sufficiently excused those that shall slight his own This is the Author 's own sense Golden Remains p. 260. 2. I refer it to the judgment of the Reader whether Victor Bishop of Rome condemning some of the Asian Churches for adhering too tenaciously to a Jewish ceremony which was of ill consequence to those and other neighbouring Churches were not more excusable than a private person living many hundred years after the fact and never rightly knowing or else wrongfully representing it insolently and causlesly condemning the Ancient Fathers not of one or two Ages or parts of the Church but all in general as if the failing of one man in a point so trivial and inconsiderable as our Author calls it were sufficient reason to condemn them all for indiscreet and poor spirited persons And to impute extreme grossness and folly to all that should think them competent Judges of our differences This is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond that of Abailardus who was wont to say that the Fathers for the most part did think this or that to be right but I think otherwise as if his single authority could out-weigh all theirs 3. He must pretend to have some new light for his guide and be either an Enthusiast or Socinian that can see any danger in appealing to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith For seeing there is scarce any point of Faith but some unhappy Wits have controverted it and in defence of their Opinions have put the Scriptures on the rack to make them speak their own sense how can
points of Faith delivered in the Scriptures be better understood and confirmed than by the joynt consent of such Ancient Doctors who conversed with the Apostles or their immediate Successors and are rightly called Apostolici many of which were Persons of great Learning and Eloquence and so could not be charged with ignorance And doubtless they were very industrious in inquiring into the grounds of the Christian Faith for which they forsook all temporal accommodations and most of them their lives and against all opposition have not only handed down to us the Scriptures themselves pure and incorrupt but the proper and genuine sense of them We do not make them Judices but Indices fidei not the Authors but the witnesses to confirm and give evidence in matters of Faith 4. The Papists do calumniate the Reformed Divines as if they rejected the judgment of the Fathers whereas they do with one consent and none more readily than they of the Church of England appeal to their Authority for confirmation of the Faith which they profess I could easily fill a Volume with the testimonies of our Modern Divines concerning the authority of the Ancients how competent Judges they are of the questions now on foot The naming of some few will resolve us whether our Author's Opinion or theirs deserves the imputation of grosness and folly Calvin in his controversie with Pighius de libero Arbitrio says The controversie between me and Pighius would soon be ended if he would declare the tradition of the Church in the certain and perpetual consent of the Holy and Orthodox Bucer says as much on Matth. 1. concerning the consent of the Church about the perpetual Virginity of the Holy Virgin Mary That to doubt of that consent unless some plain Oracle of Scripture doth inforce it is not the part of them that have learned what the Church of Christ is When Zanchy was 70. Years old and had long studied the point He tells us in these words Hoc ego ingenuè profiteor talem esse meam conscientiam ut à veterum Patrum sive dogmatibus sive scripturarum interpretationibus non facilè nisi manifestis scripturarum testimoniis vel necessariis consequentiis apertisque demonstrationibus convictus atque coactus discedere queam Sic enim acquiescat mea conscientia in hac mentis quiete cupio etiam mori Epistola ad Confess fidei p. 47. Gualter in his Preface to Peter Martyr's common places says From hence come all kinds of evils the pest of disputatiousness the violation of all bonds of Charity and shaking the fundamentals of Faith because we do not reverence the Ancients as much as we ought Nor fear I to affirm that the chief cause of the Contentions of our Age is because most Divines insist on the Opinions of their present Masters and read their Books not enquiring what learned Antiquity did think or what errors and heresies were condemned by it As for the Divines of our own Church it may be sufficient to mention Bishop Jewel's Chalengee and how well he discharged it If any learned man of our adversaries said that learned Bishop or all the learned men that be alive be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholick Doctor or Father or out of any old General Council or out of the Holy Scriptures of God or any one example of the Primitive Church whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved that there was any private Mass in the world for 600 years after Christ or that c. to the number of 27. Articles now in controversie between us and the Church of Rome I am content to yield and to subscribe And in his Apologie for the Church of England he says We came as nigh as possibly we could to the Apostolical Churches and the Ancient Bishops neither did we direct our Doctrine only but our Sacraments and form of Publick Prayers to their rites and institutions And after him the Church provided by her constitutions Imprimis videant Concionatores ne quid unquam pro concione doceant quod à populo religiosè teneri credi volunt nisi quod consentaneum sit Veteri Novo Testamento quódque ex iis docuerint Antiqui Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint I add only that of the Royal Martyr in his discourse with Henderson 3d. paper When you and I differ about the sense of the Scriptures and I appeal to the unanimous consent of the Fathers and the Primitive Church you ought to find a more competent Judge or to rest in him that is proposed by me And this shall serve to assoil that question which our Author saith carryeth fire in the tail of it and brings with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiors p. 200. But the fire proves an Ignis fatuus and our Author himself brings water enough to extinguish it for in p. 65. he saith If Aristotle and Aphrodiseus and Galen and the rest of those excellent men whom God hath endued with extraordinary portions of natural knowledge have with all thankful and ingenious men throughout all generations retained their credit intire notwithstanding it is acknowledged that they have all of them in many things swerved from the Truth Then why should not Christians express the same ingenuity to those who have laboured before us in the exposition of the Christian Faith and highly esteem them for their works sake their many infirmities notwithstanding From this general contempt of the Fathers our Author proceeds p. 206. to cast a slurr on S. Augustine For having mentioned S. Augustines argument which he maintained against the Donatists which was Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum Orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam i. e. that the Unity of the Church spread over the whole world ought not to be forsaken for the sins of some few that were in its communion he adds that though it were de facto false that Donatus his party shut up in Africa was the only Orthodox party yet it might have been true notwithstanding any thing S. Augustine brings to confute it And contrarily though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the face of the Earth were the Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing S. Augustine brings to confirm it As if that learned Father who was as close and exact a disputant as the Church hath enjoyed ever since had wholly mistaken the question or were unable to urge one argument pro or con i.e. either for confutation of that wretched Schism or for defence of the Catholick Church That learned Father wrote a very large Volume against those Schismaticks which contains so much both of wit and Argument that there would not need any thing else to be said for the confutation of Schismaticks to the worlds end if his arguments were well understood and applyed And when our Author proves the Donatists in two
is in page 218 c. The third thing I noted for matter of Schism was Ambition I mean Episcopal ambition shewing it self in two heads one concerning Plurality of Bishops in the same See another the Superiority of Bishops in divers Sees Aristotle tells us that necessity causeth but small faults but Avarice and Ambition were the mothers of great crimes He instanceth in the Sees of Alexandria Constantinople Antioch and Rome I am glad our Author found no instances of Episcopal ambition nearer home if there had been any in all probability he would have told us of them If he had been a friend to the Episcopal Order he would rather have done as Constantine said he was ready to do with his Bishops make his royal robes a covering for their infirmities than like a Cham discover the nakedness of those Fathers The best of Bishops are but men and so are subject to the like passions and infirmities as other men I have already instanced in the Apostles and other disciples of Christ and certainly it is not christianly done so to aggravate the faults of particular persons as to reflect upon the whole office Besides our Author might have mentioned as many and as dangerous Schisms made by covetous and ambitious Presbyters as by the Bishops Novatus and Novatian Aerius and Arrius Donatus and his fellow Presbyters who assumed the Episcopal power to themselves and shed more bloud and committed more outrages than were done under any instance of Episcopal ambition I will not insist on any foreign comparisons our late Schism at home is so fresh in our memories and the wounds made by it are yet so open that there needs no other Rhetorick than our own experience to teach us that the little finger of the Presbyterians was heavier than the Episcopal loins Let any person sum up together the mischiefs occasioned by the avarice and ambition of Bishops for 500 years together in this Nation of ours and I dare engage to demonstrate that for wickedness in contriving for malice and cruelty in executing for pride and arrogance in usurping for obstinacy and implacableness in continuing and endeavouring still to perpetuate our unparalleled confusions though many Bishops have done wickedly yet our Presbyterians have exceeded them all For let me be informed whether for a Juncto of Presbyters who had often sworn obedience to their lawful Ordinaries as well as allegiance to their Prince to cast off all those sacred obligations and dethroning one incomparable Prince to advance many Tyrants and by covenanting against one Bishop in a Diocess erect 100 or 200 in the same See and expose all to contempt and misery that would not partake with them in their sins whose tender mercies Mr. Hales himself found to be cruel being deprived of that plentiful estate which he enjoyed under the Episcopal Government and reduced to that extremity that he was forced to sell his books for the supply of his necessities let me be informed I pray whether this be not more than any Bishop ever did or could be guilty of Such indignities perjuries usurpations and cruelties against an Equal as these men have acted against their just lawful and excellent Governors both in Church and State I believe have not been acted since Judas betrayed his Master P. 225. Our Author infers from the Scriptures before mentioned That those sayings cut off most certainly all claim to superiority by title of Christianity except men can think that these things were spoken only to poor and private men Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath a hand in this heraldry of Secundum Sub Supra All this comes from composition and agreement of men amongst themselves The first Scripture referred to by our Author is I suppose Gal. 3. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek bond nor free male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Here is not a word of high nor low in this nor any other Scripture that I can find in our authors sense for the Apostle only shews that as to our acceptance by God in Christ there is no respect of persons but as he had said verse 26. ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus No difference from country relation sex or condition but as the King's Manuscript 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye are all Christs i. e. of his mystical body utcunque alia sunt diversa as Calvin observes the relation of King and subject Parent and child Husband and wife Master and servant notwithstanding Not that these relations are destroyed for then Christian Religion would be of all factions the most intolerable Estius on this place intimates that lest the Galatians should think they got advantages by being in Christ he tells them the Jew if he believed was as good as the Gentile the bond as the free which is therefore first named And if this sense could be applied to this Scripture which our Author gives then might the Quakers use it to defend all their rudeness because there is neither high nor low and the Family of love for all their carnality because there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus The second Scripture is Rom. 12. 10. In giving honour let every one prefer another before himself which place is so far from licensing any Christians to deny honour to those Superiors to whom it is due and strictly injoyned in the next chapter that it obligeth them to give it to equals and inferiors as S. Bernard says The first degree of Christian humility is Inferiorem se exhibere Aequali secundus Aequalem se exhibere Inferiori tertius Inferiorem se exhibere Inferiori in all which the giving honour to our Superiors is not mentioned being a duty that nature it self doth teach The Assembly gives a right sense of this Scripture Christian humility teacheth us not only not to prefer our selves above our equals nor to equal our selves to our betters but in some cases to equal our selves to our Inferiors So that we need not think these things were spoken to poor private men but were to be the common duties of all Christians without prejudice to their particular relations all which Christianity provides for S. Paul instructs Timothy as the Servant of the Lord to be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that opposed themselves But withal he incourageth him to teach and to command to rebuke and reprove to see that no man did despise him and leaves to him the government and care of the Church of God at Ephesus Where there is true Christianity there will be as much humility and meekness in the hearts and lives of Kings and Princes Bishops and Priests as of the meanest Peasant And therefore the Monks of Bangor were not advised amiss That they should know whether Austin that was sent by Gregory the Great to be an Arch-Bishop was a servant of God or no if he did meekly salute them and
the hearts of the People filled with invincible prejudices and scruples to the neglect and contempt of this necessary duty which by Christ's institution and by Primitive practice ought to be frequently performed and by the Constitutions of the Church at least three times every Year but hath been totally omitted by some very adult Christians all their lives contrary to the advice and practice of former Nonconformists as well as to the commands of God and his Church And what can the end of these things be but hardning the People in their disobedience and ignorance in uncharitable prejudices and distances from their more pious and peaceable Brethren and provoking their Superiors to Acts of rigor and severity unless they will permit all things to run to confusion And whereas upon the late Test all Persons that had any publick office or imployment were required to receive this Holy Sacrament according to the Custome of the Church of England or to forfeit that imployment not one of an Hundred of those scrupulous Persons that were concerned continued a Recusant I suppose they have sufficiently convinced the Magistrates that the best way of removing these Scruples is to require the more frequent practice of that duty under the like penalties And now I hope the frivolousness of our Author's position p. 218. That wheresoever false or suspected Opinions and he asserts the same of practising suspected Actions in the same period are made a piece of the Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick doth evidently appear And if he that separates be not the Schismatick then they that require the performance of a suspected action are so and by consequence it will be in the power of every scrupulous faction to denominate their Governours to be the Schismaticks As our Author determineth the case a man may as innocently disbelieve any Article of his Christian faith upon this pretence of scruples against them as disobey the command of his Superiors For saith he p. 194. when uncertain conclusions are obtruded for truth or acts ministring just scruples are required to be performed consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism c. And p. 218. he gives this Reason for it It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspected Now suppose a subtle Socinian should meet with a scrupulous person and tell him that he doth well indeed to suspend his Communion from that Church which imposeth those things to be practised in the worship of God which have no warrant from thence but are rather condemned as Will-worship and Superstition but yet while he strains at a Gnat he swallows a Camel and suffers his Conscience to be imposed upon in matters of Faith which are of greater concern and then insinuate that there is no express text in Scripture nor any good Argument from Reason for a Trinity of persons in the Unity of the Godhead but both Scripture and Reason affirm there can be but one Supreme eternal God and then by wresting the Scriptures and perswading him that the Doctrine of the Trinity had its rise from Ecclesiastical Tradition not from the Scriptures and they that require the belief of it do teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men suppose I say by this leaven the scrupulous humor is fermented and swells up into a strong suspicion and he begins to grow sowr and discontented with his Teachers and likes the Arrian and Socinian Doctors better Doth not this man proceed upon the Authors grounds and may be as much justified by them if he turn Heretick as if he become a Schismatick And indeed there is not one Article of our Faith but cunning Sophisters may work upon persons disposed to scruples to have strong suspicions of them For Mr. Baxter tells us in his Saints everlasting rest Part 1. ch 7. Sect. 14. That Professors of Religion did oppose almost all the Worship of God out of Conscience which others did out of Prophaneness Upon this very pretense some will not hear of Infant Baptism nor others of the Lord's day but turn Anabaptists and Sabbatarians and for ought I know others may justifie rebellion and not only the Omission of moral duties but the Commission of any vice or impiety Experience hath evidently taught us that those persons who have been prone to entertain scruples in matters of Religion first have fallen next into sedition and rebellion and then to impiety and immoralities to Quakerism Atheism unnatural affection to Parents and acts and practices of as great cruelty and barbarity against themselves as against others But our Author grounds his Objection on Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin and He that doubteth is damned if he eat And this objection seems to be inforced by the Authority of Bishop Sanderson who p. 228. de Obligatione Conscientiae saith thus If any one through some fast rooted error of judgment do think the Law to be unjust which is not so the obligation of the Law doth remain notwithstanding that error of mind so that he is not free from sin if he do not obey yet that he sinneth more grievously if he should obey before that error be laid aside Which ease the Reverend Casuist intended to speak of more at large when he should come to treat of the comparison of both obligations viz. as I suppose the authority of the Magistrate and of Conscience For I perceive the question to which he makes this an Answer was What assurance that any Law is unjust is required to secure a subject in point of Conscience that he is not bound by that Law But the good Bishop never came to that point under which we might have expected his farther judgment in that case and therefore I shall take a little pains in finding out his resolution in some other parts of his writings Answer The Bishop says If a subject because that probable reasons do appear on both sides knoweth not nor can determine whether a Law be just or no so that his judgment hang in aequilibrio not knowing to which to incline in this case the subject is bound actually to obey so that he sinneth if he do not obey and if he do obey he sinneth not Now I observe that when the Bishop comes to give his reasons why a subject should obey against a scrupulous Conscience the same Reasons do require his obedience though his scruples he inveterate and obfirmed yea in things doubtful as by these following Reasons of his may appear His first Reason is because by a Reason of Law In dubiis potior est conditio possidentis therefore where there is a contest concerning a right betwixt the Lawgiver and the subject the right is alway to be presumed to be on the Lawgivers side as being in possession of the right unless some fit reason can be given to the contrary but in this case i. e. in things doubtful no such fit reason can
evidence of its unlawfulness seeing that therein they should not only wound their own Consciences and hazard their own Salvation but draw upon themselves the guilt of the Peoples sins by establishing iniquity by a Law and incouraging the People to comply with it by their examples and so like Jeroboam make the Israel of God to Sin But if in a deed done by a doubting Person at the command of one that is indued with lawful authority there be a sin it must go on his score that requireth it wrongfully not on his that doth but his duty in obeying nor is the Salvation of an obedient subject hazarded by a peaceable compliance with his Superiors commands in such doubtful and disputable actions Bishop Sanderson resolves a case that will put this out of doubt Sermon on Rom. 14. 23. p. 92. A Prince commandeth his Subjects to serve in his Wars it may be the quarrel is unjust it may be there may appear to the understanding of the Subject great likelihoods of such injustice yet may the subject for all that fight in the quarrel yea he is bound in Conscience so to do nay he is deep in disloyalty and treason if he refuse the service whatsoever pretensions of Conscience he may make for such refusal Mr. Baxter speaks almost as much p. 461. of his Five Disputations Every War that is unlawfully undertaken by the Prince is not unlawful in all his Souldiers Some of them that have not opportunity to know the evil of his undertaking may be bound to obey the case of others I determine not But a greater than he as I have shewn hath determined it and the practice of the Primitive Christians which stoutly fought the Battels of Heathen Emperors have confirmed that determination Now it is worthy of our consideration to think what manner of Souldiers such scrupulous Persons would make in case of a War begun against a just Prince by some of his Subjects that should pretend a Reformation of the Laws and arm themselves to redress abuses in the administration of Justice can we think that they who are apt to disobey upon I know not what scruples of the lawfulness of innocent Rites and Ceremonies injoyned by his authority will be ready to fight against their Brethren that herein agree with them would they not rather side against him as their Predecessors have done I suppose there are very few that are scrupulously factious in the Church but would in such a case be seditious and rebellious in the State I am sure they would find more plausible pretences as That the Prince commands such things as are to their Consciences unlawful and that they durst not ingage with him lest they draw innocent bloud upon their heads they think they are rather bound to help the Lord's People against the Mighty to rebuke even Kings for their sakes and if they see it meet to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with fetters of Iron and to execute upon them the Judgment written This Honour have all his Saints And yet that learned Casuist says that the fears of such scrupulous Persons need not trouble them no not in this grand case lest they should bring upon themselves the guilt of innocent bloud for the bloud that is unrighteously shed in such a quarrel he must answer for that set them on work not he that spilt it Is damnum dat qui jubet dare ejus verò nulla culpa est cui parére necesse est He doth the wrong that commands it to be done not he whose obedience is a necessary duty And truly says the same Casuist it is a great wonder to me that any Man endued with understanding and that is able in any measure to weigh the force of those precepts and reasons which bind inferiors to yield obedience to their Superiors should be otherwise minded in cases of like nature For whatsoever is commanded us by those whom God hath set over us either in Church Common-wealth or Family quod tamen non sit certum displicere Deo as saith St. Bernard which is not evidently contrary to the Law and Will of God ought of us to be received and obeyed no otherwise than as if God himself had commanded it because God himself hath commanded us to obey the higher Powers and to submit our selves to their Ordinances And if these things should not be so either Government or Christianity would in a short time be rooted out as incompetent one with the other for by such Men Christ is really represented as an enemy to Caesar and the event will be to have him crucified again in his members and put to open shame THE PREFACE TO Mr. BAXTER's ARGUMENTS THe same wise and Gracious Providence of Almighty God which over-ruled the Actions of those Armies that had kept us long in confusion and made them instrumental for the setling of peace in the State hath so directed the consultations and publick transactions of such as intruded on the affairs of the Church that if they would practise according to their own principles and acquiesce in their own arguments we might see peace and unity established also in the Church For besides the Arguments of the Non-conformists before 1642. who both by example and publick writings shewed their abhorrence of open Separation I do confidently affirm that if there were a collection made of those reasons which were urged by the Presbyterians to prevent the other Factions from separating from them as well in their Annotations Assemblies publick debates Sermons books of Schism Separation c. there needed no other security to the people of this Nation that they might with good Conscience conform to the publick Worship of God as it is now established I have formerly published Mr. Calvin's arguments to this purpose and now I present the Reader with Mr. Baxter's not only because I thought them most rational and perswasive but because I believe he was not acted by a studium partium any ambitious or private design but intended them as an Irenicum to perswade peace and reconciliation between all sober dissenters And I hope he will pardon me for prosecuting his own design while I do it in his own words published in several Treatises since he first set forth his Saints everlasting Rest in the Epistle to which he tells us he should fear of being a firebrand in Hell if he should be a firebrand in the Church I was much moved to see what odium he contracted from some of his Brethren of whom he deserved better things for endeavouring to heal our divisions yet was he not ashamed to write himself in the title page of his second admonition to Bagshaw a long-maligned and resisted endeavourer of the Churches unity and peace and in pag. 11. of that book he thus declares his Christian temper and resolution If injuries or interest would excuse any sin I think there are few Ministers in England who have more inducement to the Angry separating way than
Prayer and the other part will not joyn without it both Parties cannot be pleased and so one part must cast off Prayer it self or separate from the rest God commandeth the reading and preaching and hearing of the Scripture and the singing of Psalms but he hath left it to Man to make or choose the best Translation of Scripture or version of the Psalms Now if the Pastor appoint one version and Translation and the Church joyn in the use of it if any members will scruple joyning in this Translation or version they must needs forbear the whole duty of Hearing the Scripture and singing Psalms in that Congregation If they pretend a scruple against the appointed time or place of worship they will thereby cast off the worship it self For if they avoid our Time or Place they cannot meet with us nor worship with us § 8. Reas 5. And when they are thus carried to separate from the Congregation upon such grounds as these they will be no where fixt but may be still subdividing and separating from one another till they are resolved into individuals and have left no such thing as a Church among them For they can have no assurance or probability that some of themselves will not dissent from the rest in one Circumstance or other as they did from their Pastors and the Church that they were of before § 9. Reas 6. By this means the wicked that are disobedient to their Teachers and reject the worship of God it self will be hardened in their sin and taught by Professors to defend their ungodliness For the very same course that you take will serve their turns They need not deny any Duty in the substance but deny the circumstance and so put off the substance of the Duty If a wicked man will not hear the word preached he may say I am not against preaching but I am unsatisfied of the lawfulness of your Time or Place I am in judgment against coming to your Steeple-house or against the Lords Day And so he shall never hear though he say he is for hearing If a wicked man will not be personally instructed or admonished or be accountable to the Church or Pastors for any scandals of his life nor submit to any discipline he may say I am for discipline I know it is my duty to be instructed but I am not satisfied that I am bound to come to you when you send for me or to appear at such a place as you appoint the word of God nameth no time or place and you shall not deprive me of my liberty If a wicked Man would not hear or read the Scripture or sing Psalms he may say that he is for the duty but he is only against this and that Translation and version And so while every version is excepted against the duty is as much evaded as if it were denied it self By this device it is that the Rebellion of unruly People is defended They run to the circumstances of the duty and ask Where are they bound to come to a Minister or to be examined by him in order to a baptism or Lords supper or to speak their consent to be Church-members or to subscribe to a Profession or to read an English Bible or to hear in a Steeple-house with many such like Thus also it is that they put off Family-prayer and ask Where are they bound to pray in their Family Morning and Evening and so keep no constancy in Family-prayer at all under pretence of denying only the circumstances § 10. Reas 7. By this disobedience in things lawful the members of the Church will be involved in contentions and so ingaged in bitter uncharitableness and censures and persecutions and reproaches of one another which scandalous courses will nourish vice dishonour God rejoyce the enemies grieve the Godly that are peaceable and judicious and wound the consciences of the contenders We see the beginning of such fires are small but whither they tend and what will be the end of them we see not § 11. Reas 8. By these means also Magistrates will be provoked to take men of tender consciences for factious unruly and unreasonable men and to turn their enemies and use violence against them to the great injury of the Church when they see them so self-conceited and refusing obedience in lawful circumstances § 12. Reas 9. By this means also the conversion and establishment of souls will be much hindred and people possessed with prejudice against the Church and ordinances when they take us to be but humorous people and see us in such contentions among our selves To my knowledge our late difference about some such lesser things hath turned off or hindered abundance of people from liking the holy doctrine and life which we profess § 13. Reas 10. It will seem to the wisest to savour of no small measure of Pride when people on the account of lawful circumstances dare set themselves against their Governors and Teachers and quarrel with the Ordinances of God and with the Churches Humble men would sooner suspect themselves and quarrel with their own distempers and submit to those that are wiser than themselves and that are set over them for their guidance by the Lord. There may more dangerous Pride be manifested in these matters than in Apparel and such lower trifles § 14. Reas 11. Consider also what yielding in things lawful the Scripture recommendeth to us How far yielded Paul when he circumcised Timothy Act 16. 3. And when he took the men and purified himself with them in the Temple to signifie the accomplishment of the days of purification until that an offering should be offered for every one of them and this for almost seven dayes Acts 21. 26 27. with the foregoing verses § 15. So 1 Cor. 9. 19 20. For though I be free from all men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gain them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law To the weak I became as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some and this I do for the Gospels sake c. Study this example § 16. Read also Rom. 14. and 15. Chapters how much condescension the Apostle requireth even among equals about meats and dayes And 1 Cor. 8. 13. the Apostle would tie up himself from eating any flesh while the world standeth rather than make a weak brother to offend Many other passages of Scripture require a condescension in things of this indifferent nature and shew that the Kingdom of God doth not consist in them § 17. And Matthew 12. 1 2 to 9. you find that
which we translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are subordinate to Christ in his Priestly office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Hebr. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Ro. 12. 1. And Hebr. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel-times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any question or scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their followers that all antiquity is on their side The Lords Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion table c. Qu. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the rails to communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these circumstances but only general rules for edification unity decency and order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw men to Popery or to incourage men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away dogs keeping boys from sitting on it and the professed doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the place name scituation and rail is unsound for we assemble there to communicate in and according to the professed doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private opinion and error of the Minister Of the Creed Qu. 139. What is the use and authority of the Creed is it of the Apostles framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the baptismal covenant And for the satisfaction of the Church that men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or composition of the words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the three Articles of Christs own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach men to vary the matter And lastly no doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the essentials of Religion were by the tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Qu. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound doctrine and fitted to the peoples edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scriptures or other necessary Church duty 4. So they be not read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Qu. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Nonconformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear to them not as Officers claiming a divine right in the spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy Of the Holiness of Churches Qu. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers holy and what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more holy than those justly separated by man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its holiness And this expressed by such signs gestures actions as are fittest to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in Church and use reverent carriage and gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials Those modes or circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the publick Worship Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not an aliene work but his
needs no proof to any that is judicious 2. Nor yet for any evil in this particular form for in this part the Common-prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is imposed for a command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with And for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light In general I must here tell the People of God in the bitter sorrow of my Soul that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation that hath in all ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our divisions And that true humility and acquaintance with our selves and love to Christ and one another would shew some men that it was but their pride and prejudice and ignorance that made them think so heinously of other mens manner of worship And that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their worship is not so odious as prejudice and faction and partiality representeth it And that God accepteth that which they reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common People by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church and for worshipping in that manner which he and his Party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every Party by this is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the divisions among Christians and tenderest of their unity and peace Own the best as best but none as a divided Sect espouse not their dividing interest confine not your especial love to a party but extend it to all the members of Christ Deny not local communion when there is occasion for it to any Church that hath the Substance of true worship and forceth you not to sin Love them as true Christians and Churches even when they drive you from their Communion I have found that Reformation is to be accomplished more by restoration of Ordinances and administrations to their primitive nature and use than by utter abolition Of the Liturgy My Opinion as to Liturgy in general is 1. That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful 2. That a stinted Liturgy in some parts of Publick Service is necessary 3. In the parts where it is not necessary it may not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it 4. It is not of such necessity to take the matter and words out of the Holy Scriptures but that we may joyn in a Liturgy or use it if the form of words be not from Scripture This is thus proved 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawful A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden of God Therefore it remaineth lawful The major is undoubted because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful where there is no Law there is no transgression Yet I have heard very reverend men answer this That it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil principles Now for the Minor That a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof than that no prohibition can be produced If it be lawful for the people to use a stinted form of words in Publick prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors But it is lawful for the people c. for the Pastors prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a book It is lawful to use a form in preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for prayer as for that in the main That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful But such is the use of some stinted forms c. I have shewed that it is was so in the Jewish Church That it hath been of ancient use in the Church since Christ and at this day in Africk Asia Europe and the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I need not stand to prove it and those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of worship As for the Common-prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case Object But if a faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed by a law I know it before-hand and am guilty of it Answ If the thing be sinful either it is 1. because the prayers are defective and faulty or 2. because they are imposed or 3. because you knew the fault before-hand but none of these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed for that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For 1. it proveth the Minister less voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the error of their own judgments 2. Because though
least if we before know of them and therefore that we must joyn with none whose errors or mis-expression we know of before That we are guilty of the sins of all unworthy or scandalous Communicants if we communicate with them though their admission is not by our fault That he whose judgment is against a Diocesan-Church may not lawfully joyn with a parish-Parish-Church if the Minister be but subject to the Diocesan That whatsoever is unlawfully commanded is not lawful to be obeyed That it is unlawful to do any thing in the Worship of God which is imposed by men and is not commanded in the Scripture These and more such as these are Superstitions which some Religious people have brought in And by all such inventions fathered upon God and made a part of Religion the minds of men are corrupted and disquieted and the Churches disturbed and divided Of Censoriousness Is not censoriousness and rash judging a sin Yet one congregation of the division labours to make others odious and contemptible and that is called the preaching of truth and purer worshipping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful pride and surliness and into Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ I have lived to see it put to the Question in the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kind of rule even that which themselves set up have been committed and justified and profanely fathered upon God these with much more such fruits of love-killing principles I have seen If you converse with censorious Separatists you shall hear so many invectives against them that are truly Catholick and sober as will make you think that love and peace and Catholick communion are some sinful and mischievous things The experience of 26. Years in this Kingdom may convince the World what crimes may stand with high professions such as the generation springing up will scarce believe What high Professors were the proudest overturners of all Government and resisters and despisers of Ministry and holy order in the Churches The most railing Quakers and most filthy blaspheming Ranters to warn the World to take heed of being proud of superficial gifts and high profession and that he that stands in his own conceit should take heed lest he fall I have much ado to forbear naming some high Professors known lately at Worcester Exeter and other places who dyed Apostate-Infidels deriding Christianity and the Immortality of the Soul who once were Separatists And I have heard of some Separatists who when others of a contrary judgment were going to the Churches at London looked in at the Doors saying The Devil choak thee art thou not out of thy pottage yet I commend to all that of the Apostle Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory but in bowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Read this Verse over on your Knees and beg of God to write it on your Hearts And I would wish all Assemblies of dividers and unwarrantable Separtists to write it over the Doors of their Meeting-places and join with it Rom. 12. 10. but especially study James 3. In a word if God would cure the Church of religious pride the pride of wisdom and the pride of piety and goodness the Church would have fewer heresies and contentions and much more peace true wisdome and goodness The forwardness of many to keep open divisions and to affect communion with none but such as say as they do is a down-right mark of a Schismatick And I know that dividing principles and dispositions do tend directly to the ruine and damnation of those in whom they do prevail When Men fall into several Parties burning in zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely on each other as being of several sides as if they were not children of the same Father nor members of the same Body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo c. and every one of a Faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to present one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these People whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore it is schism in the bud S. 16. When People in the same Church do gather into private Meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their single opinions and increase their Parties and speak against those that are not on their side Schism is then ready to increase and multiply and the Swarm is ready to come forth and be gone S. 17. When these People actually depart and renounce or forsake the communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated Body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause when thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is Schism ripe and fruitful the Swarm is gone and hived in another place S. 19. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the body of Christ by an unrighteous censure and condemn the innocent and usurp authority over their guides this is disobedience and uncharitableness with schism A true Christian that hateth Fornication Drunkenness Lying Perjury because forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also which are so frequently and vehemently forbidden Jo. 17. 21 22. Ro. 14. throughout Ro. 15. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Eph. 4. 1 2 c. 1 Cor. 12. Phil. 3. 15. Ro. 16. 17 18. 1 Tim. 1. 4. James 3. The mischief of Divisions may be seen at large p. 739. Q. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to preach the Gospel go on still to preach it against the Law Answ He that is silenced by just power though unjustly in a Country that needeth not his preaching must forbear there and if he can must go into another Country where he may be more serviceable We must do any lawful thing to procure the Magistrates
that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhering to the Augustane method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things page 483. of his five Disputations § 1. LEST Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just obedience and preserve them from any sinful nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But first I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them and so cannot obey them in faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their offices to command 2. It belongs not to their office to make God a new worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of worship belongeth to their office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general rules 3. We must not take the Lawful commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our sin and one sin will not excuse another sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying men 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary faith so much less can he disobey in faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no word of God against the act of obedience now in question It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful cases it is our duty to use God's means for our information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispense with us if it may not be dispensed with without a greater injury to the Church or cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a humane faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer side 9. Yet must we in great and doubtful cases not take up with the suspected judgment of a single Pastor but apply our selves to the unanimous Pastors of other Churches 10. Christians should not be over-busie in prying into the work of their Governours nor too forward to suspect their determinations But when they know that it is their Rulers work to guide them by determining of due Circumstances of worship they should without causless scruples readily obey till they see just reason to stop them in their obedience They must not go out of their own places to search into the Actions of another Man's office to trouble themselves without any cause § 4. And now I intreat all humble Christians readily to obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all lawful things and to consider to that end of these Reasons following Reas 1. If you will not obey in Lawful things you deny authority or overthrow Government it self which is a great ordinance of God established in the fifth Commandment with promise And as that commandment respecting societies and common good is greater than the following commands as they respect the private good of our neighbours or are but particular means to that Publick good whose foundation is laid in the fifth commandment so accordingly the sin against this fifth commandment must be greater than that against the rest § 5. Reas 2. In disobeying the lawful commands of our Superiors we disobey Christ who ruleth by them as his officers Even as the disobeying a Justice of Peace or Judge is a disobeying of the soveraign Power yea in some cases when their sentence is unjust Some of the ancient Doctors thought that the fifth commandment was the last of the first Table of the Decalogue and that the Honouring of Governors is part of our Honour to God they being mentioned there as his officers with whom he himself is honoured or dishonoured obeyed or disobeyed For it is God's Authority that the Magistrate Parent and Pastor is endued with and empowred by to rule those that are put under them § 6. Reas 3. What confusion will be brought into the Church if Pastors be not obeyed in things lawful For instance If the Pastors appoint the Congregation to Assemble at one hour and the People will scruple the time and say it is unlawful and so will choose some of them one time and some another what disorder will here be and worse if the Pastors appoint a Place of worship and any of the People scruple obeying them and will come to another place what confusion will here be People are many and the Pastors are few and therefore there may be some unity if the People be Ruled by the Pastors but there can be none if the Pastors must be ruled by the People for the People will not agree among themselves and therefore if we obey one part of them we must disobey and displease the rest And their ignorance makes them unfit to rule § 7. Reas 4. Moreover disobedience in matters of Circumstance will exclude and overthrow the substance of the worship it self God commandeth us to pray If one part of the Church will not joyn with a stinted form of