total separation from the Church is unlawful And this the old Non-Conformists did generally hold and maintain against the Brownists and the Dissenting Brethren did declare on their part We have always professed and that in those times when the Churches of England were the most either actually overspread with defilements or in the greatest danger thereof c. that we both did and would hold Communion with them as the Church of Christ. And among the present Non-Conformists several have writ for Communion with the Church against those that separate from it and have in Print declared it to be their duty and their practice So M r Baxter I constantly joyn in my Parish-Church in Liturgy and Sacraments It s said of M r Joseph Allen That he as frequently attended on the publick worship as his opportunities and strength permitted Of Mr. Brinsley that he ordinarily attended on the Publick Worship Dr. Collins saith as much of himself Mr. Lye in his Farewell Sermon doth advise his People to attend the Publick Worship of God to hear the best they could and not to separate but to do as the old Puritans did thirty years before Mr. Cradacot in his farewel Sermon professeth That if that Pulpit was his dying Bed he would earnestly perswade them to have a care of total separation from the Publick Worship of God Mr. Hickman freely declares I profess where-ever I come I make it my business to reconcile people to the publick Assemblies my conscience would fly in my face if I should do otherwise And Mr. Corbet as he did hold Communion with the Church of England so saith That the Presbyterians generally frequent the Worship of God in the Publick Assemblies It s evident then that it is their principle and we may charitably believe it is their practice in Conformity to it Thus Mr. Corbet declares for himself I own parish-Parish-Churches having a competent Minister and a number of credible Professors of Christianity for true Churches and the Worship therein performed as well in Common-Prayer as in the Preaching of the Word to be in the main sound and good for the substance or matter thereof And I may not disown the same in my practice by a total neglect thereof for my judgment and practice ought to be concordant And if these two judgment and practice be not concordant it would be impossible to convince men that they are in earnest or that they do believe themselves while they declare against separation and yet do keep it up Those good men therefore were aware of this who met a little after the Plague and Fire to consider saith Mr. Baxter whether our actual forbearance to joyn with the Parish-Churches in the Sacrament and much more if it was total might not tend to deceive men and make them believe that we were for separation from them and took their Communion to be unlawful And upon the reasons given in they agreed such Communion to be lawful and meet when it would not do more harm than good that is they agreed that it was lawful in it self 2. They hold that they are not to separate further from such a true Church than the things that they separate for are unlawful or are conceived so to be that is that they ought to go as far as they can and do what lawfully they may toward Communion with it For they declare That to joyn in nothing because they cannot joyn in all things is a dividing practice and not to do what they can do in that case is Schism for then the separation is rash and unjust If therefore the Ministerial Communion be thought unlawful and the Lay-Communion lawful the unlawfulness of the former doth not bar a person from joyning in the latter The denying of assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common-Prayer doth not gainsay the lawfulness of partaking in that Worship it being found for the substance in the main c. as a judicious person hath observed This was the case generally of the old Non-Conformists who notwithstanding their exclusion from their Publick Ministry held full Communion with the Church of England We are told by a good hand That as heretofore M r Parker M r Knewstubs M r Vdal c. and the many Scores suspended in Queen Elizabeth and King James's Reign so also of later times M r Dod M r Cleaver c. were utterly against even Semi-Separation i. e. against absenting themselves from the Prayers and the Lord's Supper So it s affirmed of them by M r Ball They have evermore condemned voluntary Separation from the Congregations and Assemblies or negligent frequenting of those Publick Prayers And some of them earnestly press the People to prefer the publick service before the private and to come to the beginning of the Prayers as an help to stir up Gods Graces c. And others did both receive the Sacrament and exhort others so to do as I shall afterward shew Again if in Lay-Communion any thing is thought to be unlawful that is no reason against the things that are lawful This was the case of many of the godly and learned Non-Conformists in the last age as we are told That were perswaded in their Consciences that they could not hold Communion with the Church of England in receiving the Sacrament kneeling without Sin yet did they not separate from her Indeed in that particular act they withdrew but yet so as they held Communion with her in the rest And thus much is owned by those of the present age as one declares The Church of England being a true Church so that a total separation from her is unwarrantable therefore Communion with her in all parts of real solemn Worship wherein I may joyn with her without either let or sin is a duty So another saith of them They are ready and desirous to return to a full union with the Parishes when ever the obstacles shall be removed And again They hold Communion with the Parishes not only in Faith and Doctrine but also in acts of worship where they think they can lawfully do it This those of the Congregational way do also accord to that they ought in all lawful things to communicate with the Churches of England not only in obedience to the Magistrate in which case they also acknowledge it to be their duty as well as others but also as they are true Churches and therefore plead for the lawfulness of hearing the established Ministry and undertake to answer the objections brought against it whether taken from the Ministers ordination or lives or the Church in which they are Ministers c. as you may find them in Mr. Robinson's Plea for it of old and Mr. Nye's of late as they are Printed together Upon the consideration of which the latter of these thus concludes In most of the misperswasions of these latter times by
which men's minds have been corrupted I find in whatsoever they differ one from another yet in this they agree That it 's unlawful to hear in publick which I am perswaded is one constant design of Satan in the variety of ways of Religion he hath set on foot by Jesuits amongst us Let us therefore be the more aware of whatsoever tends that way Of this Opinion also is M r Tombs though he continued an Anabaptist who has writ a whole Book to defend the Hearing of the present Ministers of England and toward the Close of the Work hath given forty additional Reasons for it and in opposition to those he writes against doth affirm Sure if the Church be called Mount Sion from the preaching of the Gospel the Assemblies of England may be called Sion Christ's Candlesticks and Garden as well as any Christians in the World I shall conclude this with what M r Robinson saith in this Case viz. For my self thus I believe with my heart before God and profess with my tongue and have before the World that I have one and the same Faith Spirit Baptism and Lord which I had in the Church of England and none other that I esteem so many in that Church of what state or Order soever as are truly Partakers of that Faith as I account thousands to be for my Christian Brethren and my self a Fellow-member with them of that one Mystical Body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout the World that I have always in spirit and affection all Christian Fellowship and Communion with them and am most ready in all outward Actions and Exercises of Religion lawful and lawfully done to express the same And withal that I am perswaded the hearing of the Word of God there preached in the manner and upon the grounds formerly mentioned both lawful and upon occasion necessary for me and all true Christians withdrawing from that Hierarchical Order of Church-Government and Ministry and the uniting in the Order and Ordinances instituted by Christ. Thus far He. From what hath been said upon this Head we may observe that though these Reverend Persons do go upon different Reasons according to the Principles they espouse though they agree not in the Constitution of Churches c. yet they all agree that the Parochial Churches are or may be as I have observed before true Churches of Christ that Communion with such Churches is lawful and that we are to go as far as we can toward Communion with them Though they differ about the Notion of Hearing as whether it be an Act of Communion and about the Call of those they hear yet they all agree in the lawfulness of it And therefore to separate wholly in this Ordinance and from the Parochial Churches as no Churches are equally condemned by all 3. They hold that they are not to separate from a Church for unlawful things if the things accounted unlawful are not of so heinous a nature as to unchurch a Church and affect the Vitals of Religion or are not imposed as necessary terms of Communion 1. If the Corruptions are such as do not unchurch a Church or affect the vital parts of Religion So saith M r Tombs Not every not many Corruptions of some kind do un-church there being many in Faith Worship and Conversation in the Churches of Corinth and some of the Seven Churches of Asia who yet were Golden Candlesticks amidst whom Christ did walk But such general avowed unrepented of errours in Faith as overthrow the foundation of Christian Faith to wit Christ the only Mediator betwixt God and man and salvation by him Corruptions of Worship by Idolatry in Life by evil manners as are utterly inconsistent with Christianity till which in whole or in part they are not unchurched For till then the Corruptions are tolerable and so afford no just reason to dissolve the Church or to depart from it So M r Brinsley Suppose some just grievances may be found among us yet are they tolerable If so then is Separation on this ground intolerable unwarrantable in as much as it ought not to be but upon a very great and weighty cause and that when there is no remedy So M r Noyes Private Brethren may not separate from Churches or Church-Ordinances which are not fundamentally defective neither in Doctrine or Manners Heresy or Prophaness To all which add the Testimony of D r Owen and M r Cotton The former asserts That many errours in Doctrine disorders in sacred Administrations irregular walking in Conversation with neglect and abuse of Discipline in Rulers may fall out in some Churches and yet not evacuate their Church-state or give sufficient warrant to leave their Communion and separate from them The latter saith Vnless you find in the Church Blasphemy or Idolatry or Persecution that is such as is intolerable there is no just ground of separation This is universally own'd But if any one should yet continue unconvinced let him but peruse the Catalogue of the faults of nine Churches in Scripture collected by M r Baxter and I perswade my self he will think the Conclusion inferr'd from it to be just and reasonable Observe saith he that no one member is in all these Scriptures or any other commanded to come out and separate from any of all these Churches as if their Communion in Worship were unlawful And therefore before you separate from any as judging Communion with them unlawful be sure that you bring greater reasons for it than any of these recited were 2. They are not to separate if the Corruptions are not so made the Conditions of Communion that they must necessarily and unavoidably communicate in them M r Vines speaks plainly to both of these The Church may be corrupted many ways in Doctrine Ordinances Worship c. And there are degrees of this Corruption the Doctrine in some remote Points the Worship in some Rituals of mans invention or custom How many Churches do we find thus corrupted and yet no Separation of Christ from the Jewish Church nor any Commandment to the Godly of Corinth c. to separate I must in such a Case avoid the Corruption hold the Communion But if Corruptions invade the Fundamentals the foundation of Doctrine is destroyed the Worship is become idolatrous and what is above all if the Church impose such Laws of her Communion as there is a necessity of doing or approving things unlawful in that Case Come out of Babylon The Churches of Protestants so separated from Rome But if the things be not of so heinous a nature nor thus strictly required then Communion with a Church under defects is lawful and may be a Duty So saith M r Corbet in the name of the present Non-Conformists We hold not our selves obliged to forsake a true Church as no Church for the corruptions and disorders found therein or to separate from its Worship for the tolerable faults thereof while our personal profession
THE CASE OF Lay-Communion WITH THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND CONSIDERED And the Lawfulness of it shew'd from the Testimony of above an hundred eminent Non-Conformists of several Perswasions Published for the satisfaction of the scrupulous and to prevent the sufferings which such needlesly expose themselves to LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms in the Poultry 1683. TO THE DISSENTERS FROM THE Church of England Dear Brethren YOU being at this time called upon by Authority to joyn in Communion with the Church and the Laws ordered to be put in Execution against such as refuse it it s both your Duty and Interest to enquire into the grounds upon which you deny Obedience to the Laws Communion with a Church of God and thereby expose our Religion to danger and your selves to suffering In which unless the cause be good the call clear and the end right it cannot bring Peace to your selves or be acceptable to God Not bring Peace to your selves For we cannot suffer joyfully the spoiling of our Goods the confinement of our Persons the ruine of our Families unless Conscience be able truly to say I would have done any thing but sin against God that I might have avoided these sufferings from men Not be acceptable to God to whom all are accountable for what portion he hath instrusted them with of the things of this life and are not to throw away without sufficient reason and who has made it our duty to do what we can without Sin in Obedience to that Authority which he hath set over us as you are told by some in the same condition with your selves To assist persons in this enquiry I have observed that of late several of the Church of England have undertaken the most material points that you do question and have handled them with that Candor and Calmness which becomes their profession and the gravity of the Arguments and which may the better invite those that are willing to be satisfied to peruse and consider them But because Truth and Reason do too often suffer by the prejudices we have against particular persons to remove as much as may be that obstruction I have in this Treatise shewed that these Authors are not alone but have the concurrent Testimony of the most eminent Non-Conformists for them who do generally grant that there is nothing required in the Parochial Communion of the Church of England that can be a sufficient reason for Separation from it The sence of many of these I have here collected and for one hundred I could easily have produced two if the Cause were to go by the Pole so that if Reason or Authority will prevail I hope that yet your satisfaction and recovery to the Communion of the Church is not to be despaired of Which God of his infinite mercy grant for your own and the Churches sake Amen THE CONTENTS THE difference betwixt Ministerial and Lay-Communion pag. 1 The Dissenters grant the Church of England to be a true Church p. 4 That they are not totally to separate from it p. 12 That they are to comply with it as far as lawfully they can p. 16 That defects in Worship if not essential are no just reason for Separation p. 23 That the expectation of better edification is no sufficient reason to with-hold Communion p. 39 The badness of Ministers will not justifie Separation p. 48 The neglect or want of Discipline no sufficient reason to separate p. 59 The opinion which the Nonconformists have of the several practices of those of the Church of England which its Lay-Members are concerned in p. 64 That Forms of Prayer are lawful and do not stint the Spirit ibid. That publick prescribed Forms may lawfully be joyned with p. 66 That the Liturgy or Common-Prayer is for its matter sound and good and for its Form tolerable if not useful p. 69 That kneeling at the Sacrament is not idolatrous nor unlawful and no sufficient reason to separate from that Ordinance p. 71 72 That standing up at the Creed and Gospel is lawful p. 73 The Conclusion ibid. THE NON-CONFORMISTS PLEA FOR Lay-Communion With the CHURCH of ENGLAND THE Christian World is divided into two Ranks Ecclesiastical and Civil usually known by the names of Clergy and Laity Ministers and People The Clergy besides the things essentially belonging to their Office are by the Laws of all well-ordered Churches in the World strictly obliged by Declarations or Subscriptions or both to owne and maintain the Doctrine Discipline and Constitution of the Church into which they are admitted Thus in the Church of England They do subscribe to the truth of the Doctrine more especially contained in the Thirty Nine Articles and declare that they will use the Forms and Rites contained in the Liturgy and promise to submit to the Government in its Orders The design of all which is to preserve the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Christians which doth much depend upon that of its Officers and Teachers But the Laity are under no such Obligations there being no Declarations or Subscriptions required of them nor any thing more than to attend upon and joyn with the Worship practised and allowed in the Church Thus it is in the Church of England as it is acknowledged by a worthy Person to whom when it was objected that many Errours in Doctrine and Life were imposed as Conditions of Communion he replies What is imposed on you as a Condition to your Communion in the Doctrine and Prayers of the Parish-Churches but your actual Communion it self In discoursing therefore about the lawfulness of Communion with a Church the difference betwixt these two must be carefully observed lest the things required only of one Order of Men should be thought to belong to all It 's observed by one That the original of all our mischiefs sprung from mens confounding the terms of Ministerial Conformity with those of Lay-Communion with the Parochial Assemblies there being much more required of Ministers than of the People private persons having much less to say for themselves in absenting from the Publick Worship of God though performed by the Liturgy than the Pastor hath for not taking Oaths c. Certainly if this difference was but observed and the Case of Lay-Communion truly stated and understood the people would not be far more averse to Communion with the Parish-Churches than the Non-Conforming Ministers are as one complains and whatsoever they might think of the Conformity of Ministers because of the previous terms required of them they would judge what is required of the people to be lawful as some of them do And as the Ministers by bringing their Case to the Peoples may see Communion then to be lawful and find themselves obliged to maintain it in a private capacity so the People by perceiving their Case not to be that of the Ministers but widely different from it would be induced to hold Communion with the Church
and to joyn with those of their Ministers that think it their Duty so to do and are therein of the opinion of the old Non-Conformists that did not act as if there was no middle between separation from the Church and true Worship thereof and subscription unto or practice or approbation of all the corruptions of the same For though they would not subscribe to the Ceremonies yet they were against separation from Gods Publick Worship as one of them in the name of the rest doth declare So that as great a difference as there is betwixt presence and Consent betwixt bare Communion and approbation betwixt the Office of the Minister and the attendance of a private person so much is there betwixt the Case of Ministerial and Lay-Communion And therefore when we consider the Case of Lay-Communion we are only to respect what is required of the people what part they are to have and exercise in Communion with the Church Now what they are concerned in are either The Forms that are imposed the Gestures they are to use and the Times they are to observe for the Celebration of Divine Worship or The Ministration which they may be remotely suppos'd also to be concerned in The lawfulness of all which and of all things required in Lay-Communion amongst us I shall not undertake to prove and maintain by Arguments taken from those that already are in full Communion with the Church of England and so are obliged to justifie it but from those that in some things do dissent from it who may therefore be supposed to be impartial and whose Reasons may be the more heeded as coming from themselves and from such that are as forward in other respects to owne the miscarriages of the Church as those that wholly separate from it For the better understanding of the Case and of their Judgment in it I shall consider 1. What opinion the most eminent and sober Non-Conformists have had of the Church of England 2. What opinion they have had of Communion with that Church 3. What opinion they he had of such practices and usages in that Church as Lay-men are concerned in 1. What opinion the most eminent and sober Non-Conformists have had of the Church of England And that will appear in these two things First That they owne her to be a true Church Secondly To be a Church in the main very valuable First They owne her to be a true Church Thus an Eminent Person saith of the old Non-Conformists They did always plead against the Corruptions of the Church of England but never against the truth of her Being or the comfort of her Communion And as much is affirmed of the present by a grave and sober Person amongst them The Presbyterians generally hold the Church of England to be a true Church though defective in its Order and Discipline And thus it 's acknowledged in the name of the rest by one that undertakes their Defence and would defend them in their Separation We acknowledge the Church of England to be a true Church and that we are Members of the same visible Church with them And this they do not only barely assert but do undertake to prove This is done by the old Non-Conformists in their Confutation of the Brownists who thus begin That the Church of England is a true Church of Christ and such an one as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself cutteth himself off from Christ we doubt not but the indifferent Reader may be perswaded by these Reasons following 1. We enjoy and joyn together in the use of those outward means which God hath ordained in his Word for the gathering of a visible Church and have been effectual to the unfeigned conversion of many as may appear both by the other fruits of Faith and by the Martyrdom which sundry have endured that were Members of our Church c. 2. Our whole Church maketh profession of the true Faith The Confession of our Church together with the Apology thereof and those Articles of Religion which were agreed upon in the Convocation-House An. 1562. whereunto every Minister of the Land is bound to subscribe so far forth as they contain the Confession of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments do prove this evidently c. So Mr. Ball Wheresoever we see the Word of God truly taught and professed in Points fundamental and the Sacraments for substance rightly administred there is the true Church of Christ though the health and soundness of it may be crazed by many errours in Doctrine corruptions in the Worship of God and evils in the life and manners of men As much as this is also affirmed in the Letters passed betwixt the Ministers of Old England and New England It is simply necessary to the being of a Church that it be laid upon Christ the foundation which being done the remaining of what is forbidden or the want of what is commanded cannot put the Society from the Title or Right of a true Church And if we enquire into the judgment of the present Non-Conformists we shall find them likewise arguing for it Thus the Author of Jerubbaal The Essentials constitutive of a true Church a re 1. The Head 2. The Body 3. The Union that is between them Which three concurring in the Church of England Christ being the professed Head She being Christ's professed Body and the Catholick Faith being the Union-band whereby they are coupled together She cannot in justice be denied a true though God knows far from a pure Church If we should proceed in this Argument and consider the Particulars I might fill a Volume with Testimonies of this kind The Doctrine of the Church is universally held to be true and sound even the Brownists own'd it of old in their calm mood who declare We testifie to all men by these Presents That we have not forsaken any one Point of the true ancient Apostolick Faith professed in our Land but hold the same grounds of Christian Religion with them See more in Bayly's Disswasive c. 2. p. 20.33 and Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation part 1. § 9. p. 31. The Presbyterians if I may so call them for distinction sake do owne it So M r Corbet The Doctrin of Faith and Sacraments by Law established is heartily received by the Non-Conformists So M r Baxter As for the Doctrin of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by Edward the VI were found in Doctrine adhering to the Augustan method express'd now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable Point from those whom they called Puritans The like is affirmed by the Independents The Confession of the Church of England declared in the Articles of Religion and herein what is purely Doctrinal we fully embrace As to the Worship they owne it for the matter and substance to be good and for Edification So