was ordained or for which Pastors and Teacher's are granted unto the Church Eph. 4. 8 9 10 11 12. And the Scripture abounds in the Declaration of what skill and knowledge in the Mystery of the Gospel what Attendance unto the Word and Prayer what Care watchfulness and diligent Labour in the Word and Doctaine are required unto a due discharge of the Ministerial Duty Where it is omitted or neglected where it is carelessly attended unto where those on whom it is incumbent to act more like Hirelings than true Shepherds where they want skill to divide the Word aright or wisdom and knowledge to declare from it the whole Counsel of God or diligence to be urgent continually in the Application of it there the principal end of all Church-Communion is ruined and utterly lost And where it so falls out let any man judge what thoughts they are like to be exercised withal who make Conscience of the performance of their own Duty and understand the necessity of enjoying the Means that Christ hath appointed for their edification And it is certain that such Churches will in vain or at least unjustly expect that Professors of the Gospel should abide in their particular communion when they cannot or do not provide food for their Souls whereby they may live to God Unless all the Members of such Churches are equally asleep in security Divisions among them will in this case ensue Will any Disciple of Christ esteem himself obliged to starve his own Soul for the sake of communion with them who have sinfully destroyed the principal end of all Church-communion Is there any Law of Christ or any Rule of the Gospel or any Duty of Love that require them so to do The sole immediate end of mens joyning in Churches being their own edification and usefulness unto others can they be bound in Conscience alwayes to abide there or in the communion of those Churches where it is not to be attained where the means of it are utterly cast aside This may become such as know not their duty nor care to be instructed in it and are willing to perish in and for the company of others But for them which in such Cases shall provide according to the Rules of the Gospel for themselves and their own safety they may be censured judged and severely treated by them whose Interest and Advantage it is so to do they may be despised by Riotous Persons who sport themselves with their own Deceivings but with the Lord Christ the Judge of all they will be accepted And they do but encrease the dread of their own Account who under pretence of Church-Power and Order would forcibly shut up Christians in such a condition as wherein they are kept short of all the true ends of the Institution of Churches To suppose therefore that every voluntary departure from the constant Communion of such Churches made with a design of joyning unto those where the Word is dispensed with more diligence and Efficacy is a Schisme from the Church of Christ is to suppose that which neither the Scripture nor Reason will give the least Countenance unto And it would better become such Churches to return industriously unto a faithful Discharge of their Duty whereby this occasion of Divisions may be removed out of the way than to attempt their own Justification by the severe prosecution of such as depart from them Thirdly In pursuit of the Doctrine of the Gospel so improved and applyed it is the known and open Duty of Churches in their Guides or Ministers by all means to countenance and promote the Growth of Light Knowledge Godliness strictness and fruitfulness of Conversation in those Members of them in whom they may be found or do appear in an especial manner Such are they to own encourage and make their companions and endeavour that others may become like unto them For unless men in their ordinary and common conversation in their affections and the interest which they have in the Administration of Discipline do uniformly answer the Doctrine of Truth which they preach it cannot be avoided but that it will be matter of offence upto others and of Reproach to themselves Much more will it be so if instead of these things those who Preside in the Churches shall beat their fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunken But by all wayes it is their duty to separate the precious from the vile if they intend to be as the Mouth of the Lord even in their Judgments Affections and Conversations And herein what Wisdome Patience Diligence Love Condescention and Forbearance are required they alone know and they full well know who for any season have in their places conscientiously endeavoured the Discharge of their Duty But whatever be the Labour which is to be undergone therein and the trouble wherewith it is attended it is that which by the appointment of Christ all Ministers of the Gospel are obliged to attend unto They are not by contrary actings to make sad the hearts of them whom God would not have made sad nor to strengthen the hands of them whom God would not have encouraged as they will answer it at their peril The hearts of Church Guides and of those who in an especial manner fear God thriving in Knowledge and Grace under the Dispensation of the Word ought to be knit together in all holy affections that they may together grow up into him who is the Head For where there is the greatest evidence manifestation of the power and presence of Christ in any there ought their Affections to be most intense For as such persons are the Crown the Joy and rejoycing of their Guides and will appear to be so in the Day of the Lord so they do know or may easily do so what Obligations are on them to honour and pay all due respects unto their Teachers how much on all accounts they owe unto them whereby their mutual Love may be confirmed And where there is this Vniformity between the Doctrine of the Gospel as Preached and the Duties of it as practised then are they both beautiful in the eyes of all Believers and effectual unto their proper ends But where things in Churches through their negligence or corruption or that of their Guides are quite otherwise it is easie to conjecture what will ensue thereon If those who are forwardest in Profession who give the greatest evidence that they have received the power of that Religion which is taught and owned among them who have apparently attained a growth in spirituol Light and Knowledge above others shall be so far from being peculiarly cherished and regarded from being loved liked or associated withal as that on the other side they shall be marked observed reproached and it may be on every slight provocation put even to outward trouble whilst men of worldly and prophane Conversations ignorant perhaps riotous and debauched shall be the delight and companions of Church Guides and Rulers it cannot be that
had a good Foundation to build upon For that Easter was to be observed byvertue of Apostolical Tradition was generally granted by all And he took it as unquestionable upon a current and prevalent Rumor that the observation of it was confined to the Lords day by the example of St. Peter Hereupon he refused the Communion of all that would not conform unto his resolution for the observation of Easter on the Lords day and cast out of Communion all those Persons and Churches who would observe any other day which proved to be the condition of the principal Churches of Asia amongst whom the Apostle John did longest conâ—erse Here was our present case directly exemplified or represented so long before hand the Success onely of this fact of his remaineth to be enquired into Now it is known unto all what entertainment this his new Rule of Communion found among the Churches of Christ. The Reproof of his Precipitancy and irregular fixing new bounds unto Church Communion was famous in those days Especially the Râ—buke given unto him and his practise by one of the most Holy and Learned Persons then living is eminently celebrated as consonant to Truth and Peace by those who have transmitted unto us the Reports of those Times He who himself first condemned others rashly was for his so doing generally condemned by all Suppose now that any Persons living at Rome and there called into Communion with the Church should have had the condition thereof proposed unto them namely that they should assent and declare that the observation of Easter by Apostolical Tradition was to be on the Lords day only and upon their refusal so to do should be excluded from Communion or on their own accords should refrain from it where should the Guilt of this Disorder and Schism be charged And thus it fell out not only with those who came out of Asia to Rome who were not received by that Diotrephes but also with sundry in that Church its self as Blastus and others as what great Divisions were occasioned hereby between the Saxons and Brittains hath been by many declared But in the Judgment of the primitive Churches the Guilt of these Schisms was to be charged on them that coyned and imposed these new Rules and Conditions of Communion And had they not been judged by any the pernicious consequences of this temerarious Attempt are sufficient to reflect no inconsiderable Guilt upon it Neither could the whole Observance its self from first to last ever compensate that loss of Love and Peace among Christians and Churches which was occasioned thereby Nor hath the Introduction of such things ever obtained any better success in the Church of God How free the Churches were untill that time after they were once delivered from the Attempt of the Circumcised Professors to impose upon them the Ceremonies of Moses from any appearance of unwritten Conditions of Communion is manifest unto all who have looked into the Monuments which remain of those times It is very true that sundry Christians took upon them very early the Observation of sundry Rites and Usages in Religion whereunto they had no Guidance or Direction by the word of God For as the corrupted Nature of Man is prone to the Invention and use of sensible present things in Religion especially where Persons are not able to find satisfaction in those that are purely spiritual requiring great intention of mind and Affections in their Exercise so were they many of them easily infected by that Tincture which remained in them from the Judaisme or Gentilism from which they were converted But these observances were free and taken up by Men of their own accord not only every Church but every Person in the most of them as far as it appears being left unto their own Liberty Some Ages it was before such things were turned into Laws and Canons and that perhaps first by Hereticks or at least under such a Degeneracy as our minds and Consciences cannot be regulated by The Judgment therefore and Practice of the first Churches are manifest against such Impositions Fifthly upon a supposition that it should be Lawful for any Persons or Churches to assign unscriptural Conditions of their Communion it will follow that there is no certain Rule of Communion amongst Christians fixed and determined by Christ. That this is otherwise we have before declared and shall now only manifest the evil Consequences of such a Supposition For if it be so no Man can claim an Admission into the Society or Communion of any Church or a Participation in the Ordinances of the Gospel with them by vertue of the Authority of Jesus Christ. For notwithstanding all his Pleas of submission to his Institutions and the Observation of his Commands every Church may propose something yea many things unto him that he hath not appointed without an admission whereof aâ—d subjection thereunto he may be justly excluded from all Church Priviledges among them Now this seems not consonant unto the Authority that Christ hath over the Church nor that Honour which ought to be given unto him therein Nor on the same supposition are his Laws sufficient to rule and quiet the Consciences or to provide for the Edification of his Disciples Now if Diotrephes is blamed for not receiving the Brethren who were recommended unto the Church by the Apostle probably because they would not submit to that pre-eminence which he had obtained among them they will scarcely escape without reproof who refuse those whom the Lord Christ commends unto them by the Rules of the Gospel because they will not submit unto such new Impositions as by vertue of their Pre-eminence they would put upon them And what endless Perplexities they must be cast into who have learned in these things to call him only Lord and Master is apparent unto all Baptism with a voluntary credible Profession of Faith Repentance and Obedience unto the Lord Christ in his Commands and Institutions is all the warranty which he hath given unto any of his Disciples to claim their Admission into his Churches which are instituted and appointed to receive them and to build them up in their Faith And if any Person who produceth this warranty and thereon desireth according to order the Communion of any Church if he may be excluded from it or forbidden an entrance into it unless it be on grounds sufficient in the Judgment of Charity to evince the falseness and hypocrisie of his Profession little regard is had to the Authority of Christ and too much unto Mens own Churches indeed may more or less insist upon the Explicitness of this Profession and the Evidences of its sincerity as they find it tend to their Peace and Edification with a due Attendance unto the Rule and Example left unto them in this matter in the Gospel And that the exercise of this Power in any Churches may not turn to the Prejudice of any every Professor is allowed with reference unto particular Assemblies to
Spirit which is savingly communicated unto the Church in this sense alone a greater number of Persons belonging thereunto than in any One Nation or Church under Heaven The charge therefore of some against us that we Paganize the Nation by reason of some different Apprehensions from others concerning the regular Constitution of particular Churches for the Celebration of Gospel Worship is wondrous vain and ungrounded But we know that men use such severe Expressions and Reflections out of a discomposed habit of Mind which they have accustomed themselves unto and not from a sedate Judgment and consideration of the things themselves And hence they will labour to convince others of that whereof if they would put it unto a serious Tryal they would never be able to convince themselves This then is that Church which on the account of their Sincere faith and Obedience shall be saved and out of which on the account of their Profession there is no salvation to be obtained which things are weakly and arrogantly appropriated unto any Particular Church or Churches in the World For it is possible that men may be Members of it and yet not belong or relate unto any particular Church on the Earth and so it often falleth out as we could manifest by instances did that work now lie before us This is the Church which the Lord Christ loved and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it unto himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish And we must acknowledge that in all things this is the Church unto which we have our first and Principal regard as being the spring from which all other considerations of the Church do flow Within the virge and compass of it do we indeavour to be found the End of the Dispensation of the Gospel unto Men being that they should do so Neither would we to save our Lives which for the Members of this Church and their good we are bound to lay down when justly called thereunto wilfully live in the neglect of that Love towards them or any of them which we hope God hath planted in our hearts and made natural unto us by that one and self-same Spirit by whom the whole Mystical Body of Christ is animated We do confess that because the best of Men in this Life do know but in part that all the Members of this Church are in many things liable to Error mistakes and Miscarriages And hence it is that although they are all internally acted and guided by the same Spirit in all things absolutely necessary to their Eternal salvation and do all attend unto the same Rule of the Word according as they apprehend the mind of God in it and concerning it have all for the Nature and Substance of it the same Divine Faith and Love and are all equally united unto their Head yet in the Profession which they make of the conceptions and perswasions of their minds about the things revealed in the Scripture there are and always have been many Differences among them Neither is it morally possible it should be otherwise whilst in their Judgment and Profession they are left unto the Ability of their own Minds and Liberty of their Wills under that great variety of the Means of Light and Truth with other Circumstances whereinto they are disposed by the Holy Wise Providence of God Nor hath the Lord Christ absolutely Promised that it shall be otherwise with them but securing them all by his Spirit in the foundations of eternal Salvation he leaves them in other things to the exercise of mutual Love and forbearance with a charge of Duty after a continual endeavour to grow up unto a perfect Union by the improvement of the blessed Aids and Assistances which he is pleased to afford unto them And those who by ways of Force would drive them into any other Union or Agreement than their own Light and Duty will lead them into do what in them lies to oppose the whole Design of the Lord Christ towards them and his Rule over them In the mean time it is granted that they may fall into Divisions and Schisms and mutual Exasperations among themselves through the Remainders of Darkness in their minds and the Infirmity of the flesh And in such Cases mutual judgings and despisings are apt to ensue and that to the Prejudice and great Disadvantages of that Common faith which they do profess And yet notwithstanding all this such cross intangled wheels are there in the course of our Nature they all of them really value and esteem the things wherein they agree incomparably above those wherein they differ But their valuation of the matter of their Union and Agreement is purely spiritual whereas their Differences are usually influenced by Carnal and Secular Considerations which have for the most part a sensible Impression on the Minds of poor Mortals But so far as their Divisions and Differences are unto them unavoidable the Remedy of farther Evils proceeding from them is plainly and frequently expressed in the Scripture It is Love Meckness forbearance bowels of Compassion with those other Graces of the Spirit wherein our Conformity unto Christ doth consist with a true understanding and due valuation of the Vnity of faith and the common Hope of Believers which are the ways prescribed unto us for the prevention of those Evils which without them our unavoidable Differences will occasion And this excellent way of the Gospel together with a Rejection of evil surmises and a watchfulness over our selves against irregular judging and censuring of others together with a peaceable walking in consent and Unity so far as we have attained is so fully and clearly proposed unto us therein that they must have their Eyes blinded by Prejudices and Carnal Interests or some effectual working of the God of this world on their minds into whose understandings the Light of it doth not shine with uncontroulable Evidence and Conviction That the Sons or Children of this Church of Jerusalem which is above and is the Mother of us all should on the account of their various Apprehensions of some things relating to Religion or the worship of God unavoidably attending their frail and imperfect condition in this world yea or of any Schisms or Divisions ensuing thereon proceeding from Corrupt and not throughly mortified Affections be warranted to hate judge despise or contemn one another much more to strive by external force to coerce punish or destroy them that differ from them is as forreign to the Gospel as that we should believe in Mahomet and not in Jesus Christ. Whatever share therefore we are forced to bare in Differences with or Divisions from the Members of this Church that is any who declare and evidence themselves so to be by a visible and regular Profession of faith and Obedience as it is
since the Reformation to be as sound and healthful a part of the Catholick Church as any in the world For we know no Place nor Nation where the Gospel for so long a season hath been preached with more Diligence Power and Evidence for Conviction nor where it hath obtained a greater Success or Acceptation Those therefore who perish amongst us do not do so for want of Truth and a right belief or Miscarriages in Sacred worship but for their own Personal Infidelity and Disobedience For according to the Rules before laid down we do not judge that there are any such Errors publickly admitted among them nor any such Miscarriages in Sacred Administration as should directly or absolutely hinder their eternal Salvation That they be not any of them through the Ignorance or Negligence of those who take upon them the conduct of their Souls encouraged in a State or way of Sin or deprived of due Advantages to farther their spiritual Good or are lead into Practices in Religion neither acceptable unto God nor tending to their own Edification whereby they may be betrayed into Eternal Ruine is greatly incumbent on themselves to consider Unto this Catholick Church we owe all Christian Love and are obliged to exercise all the Effects of it both towards the whole and every Particular Member as we have Advantage and Occasion And not only so but it is our Duty to live in constant Communion with it This we can no otherwise do but by a Profession of that Faith whereby it becomes the Church of Christ in the notion under Consideration For any failure herein we are not that we know of charged by any Persons of Modesty or Sobriety The Reflections that have been made of late by some on the Doctrines we teach or own do fall as severely on the Generality of the Church of England at least until within a few years last past as they do on us And we shall not need to owne any especial Concernment in them until they are publickly discountenanced by others Such are the Doctrines concerning Gods Eternal Decrees Justification by Faith the Loss of Original Grace and the Corruption of Nature the Nature of Regeneration the Power and Efficacy of Grace in the Conversion of Sinners that we say not of the Trinity and satisfaction of Christ. But we do not think that the Doctrines publickly taught and owned among us ever since the Reformation will receive any great dammage by the impotent assaults of some few especially considering their mannagement of those assaults by tales railing and ralliery to the lasting reproach of the Religion which themselves profess be it what it will Thirdly The Church of Christ or the visible Professors of the Gospel in the world may be considered as they are disposed of by Providence or their own choyce in Particular Churches These at present are of many sorts or are esteemed so to be For whereas the Lord Christ hath instituted sundry solemn Ordinances of Divine Worship to be observed joyntly by his Disciples unto his honour and their edification this could not be done but in such Societies Communities or Assemblies of them to that purpose And as none of them can be duly performed but in and by such Societies so some of them do either express the Union Love and common Hope that is among them or do consist in the means of their preservation Of this latter sort are all the wayes whereby the Power of Christ is acted in the Discipline of the Churches Wherefore we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ as the King Ruler and Lawgiver of his Church hath ordained that all his Disciples all persons belonging unto his Church in the former notions of it should be gathered into distinct Societies and become as Flocks of Sheep in several Folds under the eye of their Great Shepherd and the respective Conducts of those employed under him And this conjunction of Professors in and unto particular Churches for the celebration of the Ordinances of sacred Worship appointed by Christ and the participation of his Institutions for their edification is not a matter of accident or meerly under the disposal of common Providence but is to be an act in them of choice and voluntary obedience unto the commands of Christ. By some this Duty is more expresly attended unto than by others and by some it is totally neglected For neither antecedently nor consequentially unto such their Conjunction do they consider what is their duty unto the Lord Christ therein nor what is most meet for their own edification They go in these things with others according to the custome of the Times and Places wherein they live confounding their Civil and spiritual Relations And these we cannot but judge to walk irregularly through ignorance mistakes or prejudices Neither will they in their least secular concernments behave themselves with so much regardlesness ot negligence For however their Lot previously unto their own choyce may be cast into any place or Society they will make an after-judgment whether it be to their advantage according to the Rules of prudence and by that judgment either abide in their first station or otherwise dispose of themselves But a Liberty of this nature regulated by the Gospel to be exercised in and about the great concernments of mens souls is by many denyed and by most neglected Hence it is come to pass that the Societies of Christians are for the most part meer effects of their Political Distributions by Civil Lawes aiming principally at other ends and purposes It is not denyed but that Civil Distributions of Professors of the Gospel may be subservient unto the ends of Religious Societies and Assemblies But when they are made a means to take off the minds of men from all regard to the Authority of the Lord Christ instituting and appointing such Societies they are of no small disadvantage unto true Church-Communion and Love The Institution of these Churches and the Rules for their disposal and Government throughout the world are the same stable and unalterable And hence there was in the first Churches planted by the Apostles and those who next succeeded them in the care of that work great Peace Vnion and Agreement For they were all gathered and planted alike according unto the Institution of Christ all regulated and ordered by the same common Rule Men had not yet found out those things which were the Causes of Differences in after-Ages and which yet continue so to be Where there was any difference it was for the most part on the account of some noysom foolish Phantastical Opinions vented by Impostors in direct opposition to the Scripture which the generality of Christians did with one consent abhor But on various occasions and by sundry degrees there came to be great variety in the conceptions of men about these Particular Churches appointed for the Seat and Subject of all Gospel Ordinances and wherein they were authoritatively to be administred in the Name of Jesus Christ For
the Church in neither of the former notions is capable of such administrations Some therefore rested in particular Assemblies or such Societies who did or might meet together under the guidance and inspection of their own Elders Overseers Guides or Bishops And hereunto they added the occasional meetings of those Elders and others to advise and determine in common about the especial necessities of any particular Church or the general concernments of more of them as the matter might require These in name and some kind of resemblance are continued throughout the World in Parochial Assemblies Others suppose a particular Church to be such a one as is now called Diocesan though that name in its first use and application to Church Affairs was of a larger extent than what it is now applyed unto for it was of old the name of a Patriarchal Church And herein the sole Rule Guidance and Authoritative inspection of many perhaps a multitude of particular Churches assembling for sacred Worship and the Administration of Gospel Ordinances distinctly is committed unto one man whom in contradistinction from others they call the Bishop For the joyning of others with him or their subordination unto him in the exercise of Jurisdiction hinders not but that the sole Ecclesiastical Power of the Diocess may be thought to reside in him alone For those others do either act in his name or by power derived from him or have no pretence unto any Authority meerly Ecclesiastical however in common use what they exercised may be so termed But the nature of such Churches with the Rule and Discipline exercised in them and over them is too well known to be here insisted on Some rest not here but unto these Diocesan adde Metropolitical Churches which also are esteemed particular Churches though it be uncertain by what warrant or on what grounds In these one person hath in some kind of Resemblance a respect unto and over the Diocesan Bishops like that which they have over the Ministers of Particular Assemblies But these things being animated and regulated by certain Arbitrary Rules and Canons or Civil Laws of the Nations the due bounds and extent of their power cannot be taken from any Nature or Constitution peculiar unto them And therefore are there where-ever they are admitted various Degrees in their Elevation But how much or little the Gospel is concerned in these things is easie for any one to judge Neither is it by wise men pretended to be so any further than that as they suppose it hath left such things to be ordered by humane wisdome for an expediency unto some certain ends One or more of these Metropolitical Churches have been required in latter Ages to constitute a Church National Though the truth is that Apellation had originally another occasion whereunto the invention of these Metropolitical Churches was accommodated For it arose not from any respect unto Ecclesiastical Order or Rule but unto the supream Political Power whereunto the Inhabitants of such a Nation as gives Denomination to the Church are Civilly subject Hence that which was Provincial at the first Erection of this Fabrick which was in the Romish Empire whilst the whole was under the power of one Monarch became National when the several Provinces were turned into Kingdomes with absolute Soveraign power among themselves wholly independent of any other And he who in his own Person and Authority would erect an Ecclesiastical Image of that demolished Empire will allow of such Provincial Churches as have a dependance upon himself but cares not to hear of such National Churches as in their first notion include a Soveraign Power unto all intents and purposes within themselves So the Church of England became National in the dayes of King Henry the Eighth which before was but Provincial Moreover the consent of many had prevailed that there should be Patriarchal Churches comprehending under their Inspection and Jurisdiction many of these Metropolitical and Provincial Churches And these also were looked on as Particular for from their first invention there having been four or five of them no one of them could be imagined to comprize the Catholick Church although those who presided in them according to the pride and vanity of the declining Ages of the Church stiled themselves Oecumenical and Catholick Things being carried thus far about the Fifth and Sixth Century of years after Christ One owned as Principal or chief of this latter sort set up for a Church denominated Papal from a Title he had appropriated unto himself For by Artifices innumerable he ceased not from endeavouring to subject all those other Churches and their Rulers unto himself And by the advantage of his Pre-eminence over the other Patriarks as theirs over Metropolitans and so downwards whereby all Christians were imagined to be comprized within the Precincts of some of them he fell into a claim of a Soveraignty over the whole Body of Christianity and every particular member thereunto belonging This he could have had no pretence for but that he thought them cast into such an Order as that he might possess them on the same grounds on which that Order it self was framed For had not Diocesan Metropolitical and Patriarchal Churches made way for it the thought of a Church Papal comprehensive of all believers had never befallen the minds of mind For it is known that the prodigious Empire which the Pope claimed and had obtained over Christianity was an emergency of the contests that fell out among the Leaders of the greater sorts of Churches about the Rights Titles and Pre-eminences among themselves with some other occasional and intestine Distempers Only he had one singular advantage for the promotion of his Pretense and desire For whereas this whole contiguation of Churchts into all these Storyes in the top whereof he emerged and lifted up himself was nothing but an accommodation of the Church and its Affairs unto the Government of the Roman Empire or the setting up of an Ecclesiastical Image and Representation of its Secular Power and Rule the centring therein of all subordinate Powers and Orders in one Monarch inclined the minds of men to comply with his Design as very reasonable Hence the principal Plea for that Power over the whole Church which at present he claims lyes in this that the Government of it ought to be Monarchial And therein consists a chief part of the mystery of this whole work that whereas this Fabrick of Church Rule was erected in imitation of and complyance with the Roman Empire that he could never effect his Soveraignty whilst that Empire stood in its strength and union under the command of one or more Emperours by consent yet when that Empire was destroyed and the Provinces thereof became parcelled out unto several Nations who erected absolute independent Soveraignties among themselves he was able by the Reputation he had before obtained so to improve all emergencies and advantages as to gather all these new Kingdomes into one Religious
Empire under himself by their common consent In the mean time by the Original Divisions of the Empire and the Revolutions that happened afterwards amongst the Nations of the World the greatest number of Christians were wholly inconcerned in this new Church Soveraignty which was erected in the Western Provinces of that Empire So was the Mystery of Iniquity consummated for whereas the Pope to secure his new Acquisitions endeavoured to empale the Title and Priviledges of the Catholick Church unto those Christians which professed Obedience unto himself unto an exclusion of a greater number there ensued such a confusion of the Catholick and a particular Church as that both of them were almost utterly lost Concerning these several sorts of conceited particular Churches it is evident that some of them as to their nature and kind have no Institution in nor warrant from the Scripture but were Prudential Contrivances of the men of the Dayes wherein they were first formed which they effected by various degrees under the conduct of an Apprehension that they tended unto the increase of Concord and Order among Christians Whether really and effectually they have attained that end the event hath long since manifested And it will be one day acknowledged that no Religious Vnion or Order among Christians will be lasting and of spiritual use or advantage unto them but what is appointed and designed for them by Jesus Christ. The truth is the mutual intestine Differences and Contests among them who first possessed the Rule of such Churches about their Dignities Pre-eminences Priviledges and Jurisdictions which first apparently let in Pride Ambition Revenge and Hatred into the Minds and Lives of Church-Guides lost in the peace of Christendome and the degeneracy of theâ—r Successors more and more into a secular Interest and worldly frame of Spirit is one great means of continuing us at a loss for its retrival How far any man may be obliged in Conscience unto communion with these Churches in those things wherein they are such and as such behave themselves in all their Rule and Administrations may be enquired into by them who are concerned What respect we have unto them or what Duty we may owe them as they may in any place be established by the Civil Laws of the Supream Magistrate is not of our present consideration But whereas in their Original and Rise they have no other warrant but the Prudential contrivance of some men who unquestionably might be variously influenced by corrupt Preâ—udâ—ces and Affections in the finding out and mannagement of their Inventions what ground there is for holding a Religious communion with them and wherein such communion may consist is not easie to be declared For the notion that the Church-communion of the generality of Christians and Ministers consists only in a quiet subjection unto them who by any means may pretend to be set over them and claim a right to rule them is fond and impious In the mean time we wholly deny that the Mistakes or Disorders of Christians in complying with or joyning themselves unto such Churches as have no warrantable institution ought to be any cause of the diminishing of our Love towards them or of withdrawing it from them For notwithstanding their Errors and Wanderings from the Paths of Truth in this Matter they do or may continue interested in all that Love which is due from us unto the Church of Christ upon the double account before insisted on For they may be yet persons born of God united unto Christ made partakers of his Spirit and so belong to the Church Catholick Mystical which is the first principal Object of all Christian Love and Charity The Errors wherewith they are supposed to be overtaken may befal any persons under those Qualifications the admittance of them though culpable being not inconsistent with a state of Grace and acceptation with God And they may also by a due profession of the fundamental Truths of the Gospel evince themselves to be professed Subjects of the visible Kingdom of Christ in the world and so belong to the Church Catholick vâ—sibly professing under which notion the Disciples of Christ are in the next place commended unto our Love And it is the fondest imagination in the world that we must of necessity want Love towards all those with whom we cannot join in all acts of Religious Worship or that there need be any Schisme between them and us on the sole account thereof taking Schisme in the common received notion of it If we bear unkindness towards them in our minds and hearts if we desire or seek their hurt if we persecute them or put them to trouble in the world for their Profession if we pray not for them if we pity them not in all their Temptations Errors or Sufferings if we say unto any of them when naked be thou cloathed and when hungry be thou fed but relieve them not according unto our abilities and opportunities if we have an aversation to their Persons or judge them any otherwise than as they cast themselves openly and visibly under the sentence of Natural Reason or Scripture-Rule we may be justly thought to fail in our Love towards them But if our Hearts condemn us not in these things it is not the difference that is or may be between them and us about Church-Constitutions or Order that ought be a cause or can be an evidence of any want of Love on our parts There will indeed be a distinct and separate practice in the things wherein the difference lies which in it self and without other avoidable evils need not on either side to be Schismatical If by censures or any kind of power such Churches or Persons would force us to submit unto or comply with such things or ways in Religious Worship as are contrary unto our Light and which they have no Authority from the Lord Christ to impose upon us the whole state of the Case is changed as we shall see afterwards As for those Particular Churches which in any part of the world consist of Persons assembling together for the worship of God in Christ under the Guidance of their own Lawful Pastors and Teachers we have only to say that we are full well assured that where-ever two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ there he is present with them and farther than this there are very few concerning whom we are called to pass any other Censure or Judgment So we hope it is with them and so we pray that it may be And therefore we esteem it our Duty to hold that Communion with all these Assemblies when called thereunto which is required of any Christians in the like cases and Circumstances Unless we are convinced that with respect unto such or such Instances it is the Mind of Christ that neither among our selves nor in Conjunction with others nor for the sake of present Communion with them we should observe them in his worship we judge our selves under an Obligation
to make use of their Assemblies in all Acts of Religion unto our Edification as occasion shall require But where the Authority of Christ in the things of sacred worship doth intervene all other considerations must be discarded and a compliance therewith will secure us from all irregular Events It must be acknowledged that many of these Churches have wofully degenerated and that any of them may so do both from their Primitive Institution and also the sole Rule of their worship And this they may do and have done in such various Degrees and ways as necessarily requires a great variety in our Judgments concerning them and our Communion with them The whole Christian world gives us Instances hereof at this Day yea we have it confirmed unto us in what is recorded concerning sundry Churches mentioned in the Scripture its self They were newly planted by the Apostles themselves and had Rules given by them to attend unto for their Direction And besides they were obliged in all Emergencies to enquire after and receive those Command and Directions which they were inabled infallibly to give unto them And yet notwithstanding these great Advantages we fâ—nd that sundry of them were suddenly fallen into siâ—ful neglects disorders and miscarriages both in Doctrine Discipline and worship Some of these were reproved and reformed by the Great Apostle in his Epistles written unto them for that End And some of them were rebuked and threatned by the Lord Christ himself immediately from Heaven That in process of Time they have increased in their Degeneracy waxing worse and worse their present state and Condition in the world or the Remembrance of them which are now not at all with the severe dealings of God with them in his Holy wise Providence do sufficiently manifest Yea some of them though yet continuing under other Forms and shapes have by their Superstition false worship and Express Idolatry joyned with wickedness of Life and Persecution of the true worshipers of Christ as also by casting themselves into a new worldly Constitution utterly forreign unto what is appointed in the Gospel abandoned their Interest in the State and Rights of Churches of Christ. So are sundry faithful Citties become Harlots and where Righteousness inhabited there dwells Persâ—câ—ting Murderers Such Churches were planted of Christ wholly noble vines but are degenerated into those that are bitter and wild Whatever our Judgment may be concerning the Personal condition of the Members of such apostatized Churches or of any of them all Communion with them as they would be esteemed the Seat of Gospel Ordinances and in their pretended Administrations of them is unlawful for us and it is our indispensible Duty to separate from them For whatever Indifferency many may be growing into in matter of outward worship which ariseth from ignorance of the Respect that is between the Grace and Institutions of Christ as that from an Apprehension that all internal Religion consists in Moral Honesty only yet we know not any other way whereby we may approve our selves faithful in our Profession but in the Observance of all whatever Christ hath commanded and to abstain from what he condemns For both our Faith and Love whatever we pretend will be found vain if we endeavour not to keep his Commandments Such was the state of things in the Church of Israel of old after the Defection uâ—der Jeroboam It was no more a true Church nor any Church at all by vertue of positive Institution For they had neither Priests nor Sacrifices nor any Ordinances of Publiâ—k worship that God approved of Hence it was the Duty of all that feared God in the Ten Tribes not to joyn with the Leaders and Body of the People in their worship as also to observe those Sacred Institutions of the Law which were forbidden by them in the Order that they should not go up to Jerusalem but attend unto all their Sacred Solemnities in the Places where the Calves were set up Accordingly many of the most Zealous Professors among them with the Priests and Levites and with a great Multitude of the People openly seperated from the Rest and joyned themselves unto Judah in the worship of God continued therein Others amongst them secretly in the worst of times preserved themselves from the Abominations of the whole People In like manner under the new Testament when some have deserved the Title of Babylon because of their Idolatry false worship and Persecution we are commanded to come out from among them in an open visible professed Seperation that we be not Partakers of their Sins and Plagues But this Judgment we are not to make nor do make concerning any but such as among whom Idolatry spreads its self over the Face of all their Solemn Assemblies and who joyn thereunto the Persecution of them who desire to worship God in Spirit and in Truth The Constitution of such Churches as to their being acceptable Assemblies of worshipers before God is lost and dissolved Neither is it Lawful for any Disciple of Christ to partake with them in their Sacred Administrations For so to do is plainly to disowne the Authority of Christ or to set up that of wicked and Corrupt men above it Yet all this hinders not but that there may in such Apostatical Churches remain a profession of the fundamental Truths of the Gospel And by vertue hereof as they maintain the interest of Christ's visible Kingdome in the world so we no way doubt but that there may be many amongst them who by a saving faith in the Truths they do profess do really belong to the Mistical Church of Christ. An instituted Church therefore may by the Crimes and wickedness of its Rulers and the generality of its Members and their Idolatrous Administrations in holy things utterly destroy their Instituted Estate and yet not presently all of them cease to belong unto the Kingdome of Christ. For we cannot say that those things which will certainly annul Church Administrations and render them abominable will absolutely destroy the salvation of all individual persons who partake in them and many may secretly preserve themselves from being defiled with such abominations So in the height of the Degeneracy and Apostacy of the Israelitish Church there were seven thousand who kept themselves pure from Baalish Idolatry of whom none were known to Elijah And therefore did God still continue a respect unto them as his people because of those secret ones and because the Token of his Covenant was yet in their flesh affording unto them an extraordinary Ministry by his Prophets when the ordinary by Priests and Levites was utterly ceased This we are to hope concerning every place where there is any Profession made of the Name of Christ seeing it was the Passion of Elijah which caused him to oversee so great a Remnant as God had left unto himself in the Kingdome of Israel And from his example we may learn that good men may somtimes be more
building and unsafe unto its self or like a dead mortifyed part of the Body which neither receives any vital Influence from the Head nor administers nourishment unto any other part Now it cannot be denyed but that in the Contests that are in the world about Church Vnion and Divisions with what is pleaded about their nature and Causes there is little or no consideration had thereof Yea those things are principally insisted on for the constituting of the One atd the according of the Other which cast a neglect yea a contempt upon it It is the Romanists who make the greatest outcryes about Church Union and who make the greatest Advantage by what they pretend so to be But hereunto they contend expresly on the one side that it is indispensibly necessary that all Christians should be subject to the Pope of Rome and united unto him and on the other that it is not necessary at all that any of them be spiritually and savingly united unto Christ. Others also place it in various Instances of Conformity unto and Complyance with the Commands of Men which if they are observed they are wondrous cold in their enquiries after this Relation unto the Head But the truth is that where any one is interested in this Foundation of all Gospel Unity he may demand Communion with any Church in the world and ought not to be refused unless in Case of some present Offence or scandal And those by whom such Persons are rejected from Communion to be held on Gospel terms on the account of some Differences not entrenching on this Foundation do exercise a kind of Church Tyranny and are guilty of the Schism which may ensue thereon So on the other side where this is wanting mens complyance with any other terms or conditions that may be proposed unto them and their obtaining of Church-Communion thereon will be of little Advantage unto their Souls Secondly Unto this Foundation of Gospel Unity among Believers for and unto the due improvement of it there is required an Vnity of Faith or of the belief and Profession of the same Divine Truth For as there is one Lord so also one Faith and one Baptism unto Believers And this ariseth from and followeth the other For those who are so united unto Christ are all taught of God to believe the Truths which are necessarily required thereunto And however by the Power of Temptation they may fall in it or from it for a season as did Peter yet through the Love and care of Jesus Christ they are again recovered Now unto this Vnity of Faith two things are required First a precise and express Professio 1 of the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion For we outwardly hold the Head by a consent unto the form of wholsome words wherein the Doctrine of it is contained Of the Number and Nature of such Fundamental Truths whose express Acknowledgment belongs unto the Unity of Faith so much hath been discoursed by others as that we need not add any thing thereunto The sum is that they are but few plainly delivered in the Scripture evidencing their own necessity all conducing to the begetting and increase of that Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God Secondly It is required hereunto that in other things and Duties every man be fully perswaded in his own mind and walking according to what he hath attained do follow Peace and Love with those who are otherwise perswaded than he is For the Vnity of Faith did never consist in the same precise Conceptions of all revealed Objects Neither the nature of Man nor the means of Revelation will allow such a Unity to be morally Possible And the figment of supplying this variety by an implicit Faith is ridiculous For herein Faith is considered as professed and no man can make profession of what he knoweth not It is therefore condescention and mutual forbearance whereby the Vnity of Faith consisting in the joynt belief of necessary Truths is to be preserved with respect unto other things about which Differences may arise Yet is not this so to be understood as though Christians especially Ministers of the Gospel should content themselves with the knowledge of such Fundamentals or confine their Scripture inquiries unto them Whatever is written in the Scripture is written for our instruction and it is our duty to search diligently into the whole Counsel of God therein revealed Yea to inquire with all diligence in the use of all means and the improvement of all advantages with fervent supplications for light and aid from above into the whole Mistery of the will of God as revealed in the Scripture and all the Parts of it is the principal duty that is incumbent on us in this world Aud those who take upon them to be Ministers and Instructors of others by whom this is neglected who take up with a superficiary knowledg of general Principles and those such for the most part as have a coincidence with the Light of Nature do but betray the souls of those over whom they usurp a charge and are unworthy of the Title and Office which they bear Neither is there any thing implyed in the means of preserving the Vnity of Faith that should hinder us from explaining confirming and vindicating any Truth that we have received wherein others differ from us provided that what we do be done with a spirit of meekness and love Yea our so doing is one principal means of ministring nourishment unto the Body whereby the whole is increased as with the increase of God But in the Room of all this what contendings fightings destructions of men body and soul upon variety of Judgments about sacred things have been introduced by the Craft of Satan and the carnal interest of men of corrupt minds is known to all the world Thirdly There is an Vnity of Love that belongs unto the Evangelical Unity which we are in the description of For Love is the bond of perfection that whereby all the Members of the Body of Christ are knit together among themselves and which renders all the other ingredients of this Unity useful unto them And as we have discoursed of the nature of this Love before so the exercise of it as it hath an actual influence into Gospel Vnity among Christians may be reduced unto two Heads For First it worketh effectually according to the measure of them in whom it is in the Contribution of supplyes of Grace and Light and helps of obedience unto other Members of the body Every one in whom this Love dwelleth according to his Ability Call and Opportunities which make up his measure will communicate the spiritual supplies which he receiveth from the Head Christ Jesus unto others by Instructions Exhortations Consolations and Example unto their Edification This he will do in Love and unto the ends of Love namely to testifie a joynt Relation unto Christ the Head of all and the increase of the whole by supplyes of life
unto them and let us all labour to stir up those Gracious Principles of Love and Peace which ought to guide us in the use of our Liberty and will enable us to preserve Gospel-Unity and there will be a greater Progress made towards Peace Reconciliation and Concord amongst all sorts of Christians than the spoiling of the Goods or imprisoning of the Persons of Dissenters will ever effect But it may be such things are required here unto as the world is yet scarce able to comply withal For whilst men do hardly believe that there is an efficacy and power accompanying the Institutions of Christ for the compassing of that whole end which he aimeth at and intendeth whilst they are unwilling to be brought unto the constant exercise of that spiritual Diligence Patience Meekness Condescention Self-Denial Renunciation of the world and Conformity thereunto which are indispensibly necessary in Church-Guides and Church-Members according to their measure unto the attaining and preservation of Gopel-Unity but do satisfie themselves in the disposal of an Ecclesiastical Vnion into a subordination unto their own secular Interests by external force and power we have very small expectation of success in the way proposed In the mean time we are herewith satisfied Take the Churches of Christ in the world that are not infected with Idolatry or Persecution and restore their Vnity unto the Terms and Conditions left unto them by Christ and his Apostles and if in any thing we are found uncompliant therewithal we shall without repining bear the reproach of it and hasten an amendment Another Cause of the evil Effects and Consequents mentioned is the great neglect that hath been in Churches and Church-Rulers in the pursuance of the open direct Ends of the Gospel both as to the Doctrine and Discipline of it This hath been such and so evident in the world that it is altogether in vain for any to deny it or to attempt an Excuse of it And men have no reason to flatter themselves that whilst they live in an open neglect of their own Duty others will always according to their wills or Desires attend with diligence unto what they prescribe unto them If Churches or their Rulers would excuse or justifie their Members in all the evils that may befal them through their Miscarriages and Mal-administrations it might justly be expected that they should go along with them under their conduct whither-ever they should lead them But if it can never be obliterated out of the Minds and Consciences of men that they must every one live by his own Faith and every one give an account of himself unto God and that every one notwithstanding the interposition of the help of Churches and their Rulers is obliged immediately in his own person to take care of his whole Duty towards God it cannot be but that in such cases they will judge for themselves and what is meet for them to do In case therefore that they find the Churches whereunto they do relate under the guilt of the neglect mentioned it is probable that they will provide for themselves and their own safety In this state of things it is morally impossible but that Differences and Divisions will fall out which might all of them have been prevented had there been a due attendance unto the Work Doctrine Order and Discipline of the Gospel in the Churches that were in possession of the Care and Administration of them For it is hard for men to believe that by the Will and Command of Christ they are inevitably shut up under spiritual disadvantages seeing it is certain that he hath ordered all things in the Church for their Edification But the consideration of some particular Instances will render this Cause of our Divisions more evident and manifest The first End of Preaching the Gospel is the Conversion of the Souls of men unto God Acts 26. 17 18. This we suppose will not be questioned nor denied That the work hereof in all Churches ought to be attended and pursued with Zeal Diligence Labour and Care all accompanied with constant and fervent Prayers for success in and by the Ministers and Rulers of them 1 Tim. 5. 17. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. is a Truth also that will not admit of any Controversie among them that believe the Gospel Herein principally do men in Office in the Church exercise and manifest their Zeal for the Glory of God their compassion towards the Souls of men and acquit themselves faithfully in the Trust committed unto them by the great Shepherd of the Sheep Christ Jesus If now in any Assembly or other Societies professing themselves to be Churches of Christ and claiming the Right and Power of Churches towards all persons living within the bounds or limits which they have prescribed unto themselves this work be either totally neglected or carelesly perfunctorily attended unto if those on whom it is immediately incumbent do either suppose themselves free from any Obligation thereunto upon the pretence of other Engagements or do so dispose of themselves in their relation unto many Charges or Employments as that it is impossible they should duly attend unto it or are unable and insufficient for it so that indeed there is not in such Churches a due representation of the Love Care and Kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ towards the Souls of men which he hath ordained the Administrations of his Gospel to testifie it cannot be but that great thoughts of heart and no small disorder of mind will be occasioned in them who understand aright how much the principal end of constituting Churches in this world is neglected among them And although it is their duty for a season patiently to bear with and quietly seek the Reformation of this Evil in the Churches whereunto they do belong yet when they find themselves excluded it may be by the very Constitution of the Church its self it may be by the iniquity of them that prevail therein from the performance of any thing that tends thereunto it will increase their disquietment And whereas men do not joyn themselves nor are by any other ways joyned unto Churches for any Civil or Secular Ends or Purposes but meerly for the promotion of Gods Glory and the Edification of their own Souls in Faith and Gospel-Obedience it is altogether vain for any to endeavour a satisfaction of their Consciences that it is sin to withdraw from such Churches wherein these ends are not pursued nor attainable And yet a confidence hereof is that which hath countenanced sundry Church-Guides into that neglect of Duty which many complain of and groan under at this day The second end of the Dispensation of the Gospel in the Assemblies of the Churches of Christ by the Ministers of them is the Edification of them that are converted unto God and do believe Herein consists that feeding of his Sheep and Lambs that the Lord Christ hath committed unto them And it is mentioned as the principal end for which the Ministry
such Churches should long continue in peace nor is that peace wherein they continue much to be valued An Agreement in such wayes and practises is rather to be esteemed a Conspiracy against Christ and Holiness than Church Order or Concord And when men once find themselves hated and it may be Persecuted for no other cause as they believe but because they labour in their Lives and Professions to express the power of that Truth wherein they have been instructed they can hardly avoyd the entertainment of severe thoughts concerning them from whom they had just reason to expect other usage as also to provide for their own more peaceable encouragement and edification Fourthly Hereunto also belongeth the due exercise of Gospel Discipline according to the mind of Christ. It is indeed by some called into question whether there be any Rule or Discipline appointed by Christ to be exercised in his Churches But this doubt must respect such outward forms and modes of the Administration of these things which are supposed but not proved necessary For whether the Lord Christ hath appointed some to Rule and some to be ruled whether he hath prescribed Lawes or Rules whereby the One should govern and the other obey whether he hath determined the Matter Manner and End of this Rule and Government cannot well be called into Controversie by such as profess to believe the Gospel Of what nature or kind these Governours or Rulers are to be what is their Office how they are to be invested therewith and by what Authority how they are to behave themselves in the Administration of the Laws of the Church are things determined by him in the Word And for the Matters about which they are to be conversant it is evidently declared of what nature they are how they are to be mannaged and to what end The Qualifications and Duties of those who are to be admitted into the Church their deportment in it their removal from it are all expressed in the Lawes and Directions given unto the same end In particular it is ordained That those who are unruly or disorderly who walk contrary unto the Rules and wayes of holiness prescribed unto the Church shall be rebuked admonished instructed and if after all means used for their amendment they abide in impenitency that they be ejected out of Communion For the Church as visible is a Society gathered and erected to express and declare the Holiness of Christ and the power of his Grace in his Person and Doctrine And where this is not done no Church is of any advantage unto the interests of his Glory in this World The Preservation therefore of Holiness in them whereof the Discipline mentioned is an effectual means is as necessary and of the same importance with the preservation of their Being The Lord Christ hath also expressly ordained That in case Offences should arise in and among his Churches that in and by them they should be composed according to the Rules of the Word and his own Lawes and in particular that in sinful miscarriages causing offence or scandal there be a regular proceeding according unto an especial Law and Constitution of his for the removal of the offence and recovery of the offendor as also that those who in other cases have fallen by the power of temptation should be restored by a spirit of meekness and not to instance in more Particulars that the whole Flock be continually watched over exhorted warned instructed comforted as the necessities or occasions of the whole or the several Members of it do require Now supposing these and the like Laws Rules and Directions to be given and enjoyned by the Authority of Christ which gives Warranty for their Execution unto men prudent for the ordering of affairs according to their necessary circumstances and Believers of the Gospel doing all things in obedience unto him we judg that a compleat Rule or Government is erected thereby in the Church However we know that the exercise of Discipline in every Church so far as the Laws and Rules of it are expressed in the Scripture and the Ends of it directed unto is as necessary as any Duty enjoyned unto us in the whole course of our Gospel Obedience And where this is neglected it is in vain for any Churches to expect Peace and Vnity in their Communion seeing it self neglecteth the principal means of them It is pleaded that the mixture of those that are wicked and ungodly in the sacred Administrations of the Church doth neither defile the Administrations themselves nor render them unuseful unto those who are rightly interested in them and duly prepared for the participation of them Hence that no Church ought to be forsaken nor its Communion withdrawn from meerly on that account many of old and of late have pleaded Nor do we say that this solely of its self is sufficient to justifie a separation from any Church But when a Church shall tolerate in its Communion not only evil men but their evils and absolutely refuse to use the Discipline of Christ for the Reformation of the One and the taking away of the other there is great danger least the whole Lump be leavened and the edification of particular persons be obstructed beyond what the Lord Christ requires of them to submit unto and to acquiesce in Neither will things have any better success where the Discipline degenerates into an outward forcible Jurisdiction and Power The things of Christ are to be administred with the Spirit of Christ. Such a frame of heart and mind as was in him is required of all that act under him and in his Name Wherefore Charity Pity Compassion Condescention Meekness and Forbearance with those other Graces which were so glorious and conspicuous in him and in all that he did are to bear sway in the minds of them who exercise this Care and Duty for him in the Church To set up such a Form of the Administration of Discipline or to commit the exercise of it unto such persons as whereby or by whom the Lord Christ in his Rule of the Church would be represented as furious captious proud covetous oppressive is not the way to honour him in the world nor to preserve the peace of the Churches And indeed some while they boast of the Imitation of Christ and his Example in opposition to his Grace do in their Lives and Practises make unco the world a Representation of the Devil But an account of this Degeneracy is given so distinctly by Peitro Suave the Author of the History of the Council of Trent lib. 4 ad Ann. 1551. that we think it not unmeet to express it in his own words He saith therefore that Christ having commanded his Apostles to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments he left also unto them in the person of all the faithful this principal precept to love one another charging them to make peace between those that dissented and for the last Remedy giving the care thereof to the
Body of the Church promising it should be bound and loosed in Heaven whatever they did bind and loose on earth and that whatever they did ask with a common consent should be granted by the Father In this charitable office to give satisfaction to the offended and pardon to the offendor the Primitive Church was alwayes exercised And in conformity to this St. Paul ordained that brethren having Civil Suits one against another should not go to the Tribunals of Infidels but that wise men should be appointed to judg the Differences and this was a kind of Civil Judgment as the other had the similitude of a Criminal but were both so different from the Judgments of the world that as these are executed by the Power of the Judg who enforceth submission so those only by the will of the guilty to receive them who refusing of them the Ecclesiastical Judge remaineth without execution and hath no power but to foreshew the Judgment of God which according unto his omnipotent good pleasure will follow in this life or the next And indeed the Ecclesiastical Judgment did deserve the name of Charity in regard that it did only induee the guilty to submit and the Church to judg with such sincerity that neither in the one any bad effect could have place nor just complaint in the other and the excess of charity in correcting did make the Corrector to feel greater pain than the corrected so that in the Church no punishment was imposed without lamentation of the multitude and greater of the better sort And this was the cause why to correct was called to Lament So St. Paul rebuking of the Corinchians for not chastising the incestuous said you have not lamented to separate such a Transgressor from you And in another Epistle I fear that when I come unto you I shall not find you such as I desire but in contentions and tumults and that at my coming I shall lament many of those who have sinned before The Judgment of the Church as it is necessary in every multitude was fit that it should be conducted by one who should preside and guide the action propose the matters and collect the poynts to be consulted on This care due to the most principal and worthy psrson was alwayes committed to the Bishop And when the Churches were many the propositions and deliberations were made by the Bishop first in the Colledge of the Priests and Deacons which they called the Presbitery and there were ripened to receive afterwards the last resolution in the general Congregation of the Church This form was still on foot in the year 250 and is plainly seen by the Epistles of Cyprian who in the matter concerning those who did eat of meats offered to Idols and subscribe to the Religion of the Gentiles writeth to the Presbitery that he doth not think to do any thing without their counsel consent of the people writeth to the people that at his return he will examine the causes and merits thereof in their presence and under their judgment and he wrote to those Priests who of their own brain had reconciled some that they should give an account to the people The Goodness and Charity of the Bishops made their Opinion for the most part to be followed and by little and little was cause that the Church Charity waxing cold not regarding the Charge laid upon them by Christ did lean the ear to the Bishop and Ambition a witty Passion which doth insinuate it self in the shew of Virtue did cause it to be readily embraced But the principal cause of the change was the ceasing of the Persecutions For then the Bishops did erect as it were a Tribunal which was much frequented because as Temporal Commodities so Suits did encrease This Judgment though it were not as the former in regard of the Form to determine all by the Opinion of the Church yet it was of the same Sincerity Whereupon Constantine seeing how profitable it was to determine Causes and that by the Authority of Religion captious actions were discovered which the Jadges could not penetrate made a Law that there should lie no Appeal from the Sentences of Bishops which should be executed by the Secular Judge And if in a Cause depending before a Secular Tribunal in any state thereof either of the Parties though the other contradict shall demand the Episcopal Judgment the Cause shall be immediately remitted to him Here the Tribunal of the Bishop began to be a common Pleading Place having Execution by the Ministry of the Magistrate and to gain the name of Episcopal Jurisdiction Episcopal Audience and such like The Emperor Valence did enlarge it who in the Year 365. gave the Bishop the care over all the Prizes of vendible things This Judicial Negotiation pleased not the good Bishops Possidonius doth recount that Austin being employed herein sometimes until Dinner-time sometimes longer was wont to say that it was a trouble and did divert him from doing things proper unto him and himself writeth that it was to leave things profitable and to attend things tumultuous and perplexed And St. Paul did not take it unto himself as being not fit for a Preacher but would have it given to others Afterwards some Bishops beginning to abuse the Authority given them by the Law of Constantine that was seventy years after revoked by Horcadius and Honorius and an Ordination made that they should judge Causes of Religion and not Civil except both Parties did consent and declared that they should not be thought to have a Court Which Law being not much observed in Rome in regard of the great power of the Bishops Valentinian being in the City in the year 452. did renew it and made it to be put in execution But a little after some part of the Power taken away was restored by the Princes that followed so that Justinian did establish unto them a Court and Audience and assigned unto them the Causes of Religion the Ecclesiastical Faults of the Clergy and divers voluntary Jurisdictions also over the Laity By these Degrees the charitable correction of Christ did degenerate into Domination and made Christians lose their ancient Reverence and Obedience It is denied in words That Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is Dominion as is the Secular yet one knoweth not how to put a difference between them But St. Paul did put it when he wrote to Timothy and repeated it to Titus that a Bishop should not be greedy of gain nor a Striker Now on the contrary they made men pay for Processes and imprison the Parties as is done in the Secular Court c. This Degeneracy of Discipline was long since esteemed burdensome and looked on as the cause of innumerable troubles and grievances unto all sorts of people Yea it hath had no better esteem among them who had little or no acquaintance with what is taught concerning these things in the Scripture Only they found an Inconsistency in it with those Laws and Priviledges
in the world ordered at first by persons fallible and who in many things were actually deceived should so continue in their purity and holiness from Age to Age as to stand in need of no Reformation or Amendment Well will it be if it prove so at the great Day of Visitation In the mean time it becomes the Guides of all the Churches in the world to take care that there do not such Decays of Truth Holiness and Purity in Worship fall out under their hand in the Churches wherein they preside as that for them they should be rejected by our Lord Jesus Christ as he threatens to deal with those who are guilty of such defections For the state of the Generality of Churches is such at this day in the world as he who thinks them not to stand in need of any Reformation may justly be looked on as a part of their sinful Degeneracy We are not ignorant what is usually pleaded in Barr unto all endeavours after Church-Reformation For they say if upon the Clamours of a few humorous discontented Persons whom nothing will please and who perhaps are not agreed among themselves a Reformation must instantly be made or attempted there will be nothing stable firm or sacred left in the Church Things once well established are not to be called into question upon every ones Exceptions And these things are vehemently pleaded and urged to the exclusion of all thoughts of changing any thing though evidently for the better But long continued complaints and Petitions of Multitudes whose Sincerity hath received as great an attestation as Humane Nature or Christian Religion can give it may be deserve not to be so despised However the Jealousie which Churches and their Rulers ought to have over themselves their state and condition and the presence of the Glory of Christ amongst them or its departure from them especially considering the fearful example of the Defection and Apostacy of many Churches which is continually before their Eyes seems to require a readiness in them on every Intimation or Remembrance to search into their state and condition and to redress what they find amiss For suppose they should be in the Right and blameless as to those Orders and Constitutions wherein others dissent from them yet there may be such Defects and Declensions in Doctrine Holiness and the Fruits of them in the world as the most strict observation of outward Order will neither countenance nor compensate For to think to preserve a Church by Outward Order when its internal Principles of Faith and Holiness are decayed is but to do like him who endeavouring to set a Dead Body upright but failing in his Attempt concluded that there was somewhat wanting within Another Principle of the same importance and applied unto the same purpose is that the people are neither able nor fit to judge for themselves but ought in all things to give themselves up unto the conduct of their Guides and to rest satisfied in what they purpose and prescribe unto them The imbibing of this Apprehension which is exceedingly well suited to be made a Covering to the Pride and Ignorance of those unto whose Interests it is accommodated makes them impatient of hearing any thing concerning the Liberty of Christians in common to judge of what is their Duty what they are to do and what they are not to do in things Sacred and Religious Only it is acknowledged there is so much Ingenuity in the management of this Principle and its Application that it is seldom extended by any beyond their own Concernments For whereas the Church of Rome hath no way to maintain its self in its Doctrine and Essential Parts of its Constitution but by an implicit Faith and Obedience in its Subâ—ects seeing the animating Principles of its Profession will endure no kind of impartial Test or Trial they extend it unto all things as well in Matters of Faith as of Worship and Discipline But those who are secure that the Faith which they profess will endure an examination by the Scripture as being founded therein and thence educed they will allow unto the people at least a Judgment of discerning Truth from Falshood to be exercised about the Doctrines which they teach But as for the things which concern the Worship of God and Rule of the Church wherein they have an especial Interest and Concern there they betake themselves for relief unto this Principle Now as there is more Honesty and Safety in this latter way than in the former so it cannot be denied but that there is less of ingenuity and self-consistency For if you will allow the people to make a judgment in and about any thing that is Sacred or Religious you will never know how to hit a Joint aright to make a separation among such things so as to say with any pretence of Reason about these things they may judge for themselves but not about those And it is a little too open to say that they may exercise a Judgment about what God hath appointed but none about what we appoint our selves But without offence be it spoken this Apprehension in its whole Latitude and under its restrictions is so weak and ridiculous that it must be thought to proceed from an excess of prejudice if any man of Learning should undertake to patronize it Those who speak in these things out of Custom and Interest without a due examination of the Grounds and Reasons of what they affirm or deny as many do are of no consideration And it is not amiss for them to keep their distance and stand upon their Guard lest many of those whom they exclude from judging for themselves should be found more compeâ—ent Judges in those Matters than themselves And let Churches and Church-Rulers do what they please every man at last will be determined in what is meet for him to do by his own Reason and Judgment Churches may inform the minds of men they cannot enforce them And if those that adhere unto any Church do not do so because they judge that it is their duty and best for them so to do they therein differ not much from an Herd of Creatures that are called by another name And yet a secret Apprehension in some that the Disposal of the Concernments of the Worship of God is so left and confined unto themselves as that nothing is left unto the people but the Glory of Obedience without any sedulous enquiry after what is their own duty with respect unto that account which every one must give of himself unto God doth greatly influence them into the neglects insisted on And when any of the people come to know their own Liberty and Duty in these things as they cannot but know it if at all they apply their minds unto the consideration of them they are ready to be alienated from those who will neither permit them to judge for themselves nor are able to answer for them if they should be misled For if the
intestine Differences and Schismes do but reproach them that they have not been able in an hundred years to rectifie all those Abuses and remove all those Disorders which they were inventing and did introduce in a thousand There is one thing only of this Nature or that owes it self unto this Original which we shall instance in as an occasion of much Disorder in the present Churches and of great Divisions that ensue thereon It is known none were admitted unto the fellowship of the Church in the Dayes of the Apostles but upon their Repentance Faith and turning unto God The plain Story of their Preaching the Success which they had therein and their Proceedings to gather and plant Churches thereon puts this out of the reach of all sober Contradiction None will say that they gathered Churches of Jews and Gentiles that is whilst they continued such nor of open Sinners continuing to live in their sins An evidence therefore and Confession of Conversion to God was unavoidably necessary to the Admission of Members in the first Churches Neither will we ever contend with such importune Prejudices as under any pretences capable of a wrangling Countenance shall set up against this evidence Hence in the judgment of Charity all the Members of those Churches were looked on as persons really justified and sanctified as effectually converted unto God and as such were they saluted and treated by the Apostles As such we say they were looked on and owned and as such upon their Confession it was the duty of all men even of the Apostles themselves to look on them and own them though absolutely in the sight of God who alone is the Searcher of the hearts of men some among them were Hypocrites and some proved Apostates But this Profession of Conversion unto God by the Ministry of the Word and the mutual acknowledgment of each other as so converted unto God in a way of Duty was the foundation of holy spiritual Love and Unity among them And although this did not nor could preserve all the first Churches absolutely free from Schismes and Divisions yet was it the most Soveraign Antidote against that Infection and the most effectual means for the reduction of Unity after that by the violent interposition of mens Corruptions and Temptations it had been lost for a season Afterwards in the Primitive times when many more took on them the profession of Christian Religion who had not such eminent and visible Conversions unto God as most of those had who were changed by the Ministry of the Apostles that persons unfit and unqualified for that state and condition of being Members of Churches might not be admitted into them unto the disturbance of their Order and disreputation of their Holy Conversation they were for some good season kept in the condition of Expectants and called Catechumens or persons that attended the Church for Instruction In this state they were taught the Mysteries of Religion and trial was made of their Faith Holiness and Constancy before their Admission And by this means was the preservation of the Churches in Purity Peace and Order provided for Especially were they so in conjunction with that severe Discipline which was then exercised towards all the Members of them But after that the Multitudes of the Gentile world in the times of the first Christian Emperors pressed into the Church and were admitted on much easier terms than those before mentioned whole Nations came to claim successively the priviledge of Church-Membership without any personal duty performed or profession made unto that purpose on their part And so do they continue to do in many places to this day Men generally trouble themselves no farther about a Title to Church-Membership and Priviledges but rest in the prepossession of their Ancestors and their own Nativity in such or such places For whatever may be owned or acknowledged concerning the necessity of a visible Profession of Faith and Repentance and that credible as to the sincerity of it in the judgment of Charity it is certain for the most part no such thing is required of any nor performed by them And they do but ill consult for the edification of the Church or the good of the Souls of men who would teach them to rest in an outward formal Representation of things instead of the reality of Duties and the power of Internal Grace And no small part of the present ruine of Christian Religion owes it self unto this corrupt Principle For whereas the things of it which consist in Powers Internal and effectual Operations of Grace have outward Representations of them which from their Relation unto what they represent are called by the same names with them many take up with and rest in these external things as though Christianity consisted in them although they are but a dead Carcass where the quickning life and Soul of internal Grace is wanting Thus it is in this matter where there is a shadow and appearance of Church-Order when the truth and substance of it is far away Men come together unto all the Ends of Church-Assemblies where unto they are admitted but on no other grounds with no other hearts nor designes but on and with what they partake in any Civil Society or joyntly engage in any other worldly Concern And this Fundamental Errour in the Constitution of many Churches is the occasion as of other Evils so in particular of Divisions among professed Christians Hence originally was the Discipline of the Church accommodated by various degrees to the Rule and Government of such persons as understood little or were little sensible of the Nature Power and Efficacy of that spiritual Discipline which is instituted in the Gospel which thereby at last degenerated into the outward way of Force and Power before described For the Churches began to be composed of such as could no otherwise be ruled And instead of reducing them to their Primitive Temper and Condition where unto the Evangelical Rule was suited there was invented a way of Government accommodate unto that state whereinto they were lapsed which those concerned found to be the far easier work of the two Hence did sincere mutual Love with all the fruits of it begin to decay among Church-Members seeing they could not have that tollerable perswasion of that Truth of Profession in each other which is necessary to preserve it without Dissimulation and to provoke it unto a due Exercise Hence did private spiritual Communion fail amongst them the most being strangers unto all the ways and means of it yea despising and contemning it in all the instances of its exercise which will yet be found to be as the Life and Soul of all useful Church-communion And where publick Communion is only attended unto with a neglect hereof it will quickly wither and come to nothing For on this occasion do all duties of Watchfulness Exhortations and Admonitions proceeding from mutual Love and Care of each others condition so frequently recommended unto us in the Scripture
cannot be but that Divisions and Schisms will ensue thereon so it will not be difficult for an indifferent by-stander to judge on whether side the occasion and guilt of them doth remain Secondly We have the Practise of the Apostles in the pursuance of the Direction and Command of their Lord and ours for our Guide in this Case And it may be well and safely thought that this should give a certain Rule unto the proceedings and actings of all Church-Guides in future Ages Now they did never make any thing unscriptural or what they had not received by divine Revelation to be a condition of Communion in Religious Worship Church Order among Christians For as they testified of themselves that they would coâ—tinually give themselves unto prayer and the Ministry of the word so it was of old observed concerning them that their constant labour was for the good of the souls of men in their conversion unto God and edification in faith and holiness but as for the Institution of Festivals or Fasts of Rites or Ceremonies to be observed in the Worship of the Churches they intermedled with no such things And thence it came to pass that in the first entrance and admission of Observances about such things there was a great and endless variety in them both as to the things themselves observed and as to the manner of their observation And this was gradually increased unto such an height and excess as that the burden of them became intolerable unto Christendome Nor indeed could any better success be expected in a relinquishment and departure from the Pattern of Church Order given us in their example and practise Neither is the Plea from hence built meerly on this consideration that no man alive either from their Writings or the approved Records of those Times can manifest that they ever prescribed unto the Churches or imposed on them the observance of any uninstituted Ritâ— to be observed as a measure and Rule of their Communion but also it so fell out in the good providence of God that the Case under debate was proposed unto them and joyntly determined by them For being called unto advice and counsel in the case of the difference that was between the Jewish and Gentile Converts and Professors wherein the former laboured to impose on the latter the observation of Moses Institutions as the condition of their joynt Communion as was mentioned even now they not only determine against any such Imposition but also expresly declare that nothing but necessary things that is such as are so from other Reasons antecedently unto their Prescriptions and Appointments ought to be required of any Christians in the Communion or Worship of the Church And as they neither did nor would on that great occasion in that Solemn Assembly appoynt any one thing to be observed by the Disciples and Churches which the Lord Christ had not commanded so in their Direction given unto the Gentile Believers for a temporary abstinence from the use of their Liberty in one or two Instances whereunto it did extend they plainly intimate that it was the avoydance of a present Scandal which might have greatly retarded the progress of the Gospel that was the reason of that Direction And in such Cases it is granted that we may in many things for a season forgo the use of our Liberty This was their way and Practise this the Example which they left unto all that should follow them in the Rule and Guidance of the Church Whence it is come to pass in After-Ages that men should think themselves wiser than they or more careful to provide for the peace and unity of the Church we know not But let the bounds and measures of Church Communion fixed in and by their Example stand unmoved and many causes of our present Divisions will be taken away But it may be it will be offered that the Present state of things in the World requires some alteration in or variation from the precise Example of the Apostles in this matter The due observation of the Institutions of Christ in such manner as the nature of of them required was then sufficient unto the Peace and Unity of the Churches But Primitive Simplicity is now decayed amongst the most so that a multiplication of Rules and Observances is needful for the same ends But we have shewed before that the Accommodation of Church Rule and Communion to the Degeneracy of Christians or Churches or their Secular Engagements is no way advantagious unto Religion Let them whose Duty it is endeavour to reduce Professors and Profession to the Primitive Standard of Light Humility and Holiness and they may be ordered in all Church concerns according to the Apostolical Pattern Wherefore when Christians unto the former Plea of their readiness to observe and do whatsoever Christ hath commanded them do also adde their willingness to comply with whatever the Apostles of Christ have either by Precept or Example in their own practise commended unto them or did do or require in the first Churches and cannot be convinced of failing to make good their Profession we do not know whence any can derive a Warranty enabling them to impose any other conditions of communion on them The Institution therefore of the Lord Christ and the Practise of the Apostles lye directly against the imposing of the conditions enquired about And first to invent them then to impose them making them necessary to be observed and then to judg and censure them as Schismaticks as enemies to Love and Peace who do not submit unto them looks not unlike the exercise of an unwarrantable Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of the Disciples of Christ. Thirdly not only by their Example and Practice but they have also Doctrinally declared what is the Duty of Churches and what is the Liberty of Christians in this matter The Apostle Paul discourseth at large hereon Rom. 14. 15. Chap. The attentive Reading of those two Chapters is sufficient to determine this Cause among all uninterested and unprejudiced Persons He supposeth in them and it is the Case which he exemplifies in sundry Instances that there were among Christians and Churches at that time different Apprehensions and Observances about some things appertaining unto the worship of God And these things were such as had some seeming Countenance of a Sacred and Divine Authority for such was their Original Institution Some in the consideration hereof judged that they were still to be observed and their Consciences had been long exercised in an holy subjection unto the Authority of God in the Observance of them Nor was there yet any express and Positive Law erected for their Abrogation but the ceasing of any Obligation unto their Observance from their Primitive Institution was to be gathered from the nature of Gods Oeconomy towards his Church Many therefore continued to observe them esteeming it their Duty so to do Others were perswaded and satisfied that they were freed from any Obligation
unto May any make a Judgment but themselves who impose them when the number of such things grows to a blameable excess If others may judge at least for themselves their own practice and so of what is lawful or not it is all that is desired If themselves are the the only Judges the case seems very hard and our secession from the Church of Rome scarcely warrantable And who sees not what endless Contests and Differences will ensue on these Suppositions if the whole Liberty of mens Judgments and all apprehensions of Duty in Professors be not swallowed up in the Gulph of Atheistical Indifferency as to all the Concerns of outward worship The whole of what hath been pleaded on this Head might be confirmed with the testimony of many of the Learned writers of the Church of England in the defence of our Secession from that of Rome But we shall not here produce them in particular The sum of what is pleaded by them is That the Being of the Catholick Church lies in Essentials that for a particular Church to disagree from all other particular Churches in some extrinsecal and accidental things is not to separate from the Catholick Church so as to cease to be a Church but still whatever Church makes such extrinsecal things the necessary conditions of Communion so as to cast men out of the Church who yield not to them is Schismatical in its so doing and the Separation from it is so far from being Schisme that being cast out of that Church on those terms only returns them unto the Communion of the Catholick Church And nothing can be more unreasonable than that the Society imposing such conditions of communion should be Judge whether those conditions be just and equitable or no. To this purpose do they generally plead our common Cause Wherefore from what hath been discoursed we doubt not but to affirm that where unscriptural conditions of communion indispensibly to be submitted unto and observed are by any Church imposed on those whom they expect or require to joyn in their Fellowship Communion and Order if they on whom they are so imposed do thereon with-hold or withdraw themselves from the communion of that Church especially in the Acts Duties and Parts of Worship wherein a submission unto these conditions is exdressed either verbally or virtually they are not thereon to be esteemed guilty of Schisme but the whole fault of the Divisions which ensue thereon is to be charged on them who insist on the necessity of their Imposition That this is the condition of things with us at present especially such as are Ministers of the Gospel with reference unto the Church of England as it is known in its self so it may be evidenced unto all by an enumeration of the Particulars that are required of us if we will be comprehended in the Communion and Fellowship thereof For 1. It is indispensibly enjoyned that we give a solemn Attestation unto the Liturgy and all contained in it by the subscription or declaration of our Assent and Consent thereunto which must be accompanied with the constant use of it in the whole Worship of God As was before observed we dispute not now about the Lawfulness of the use of Liturgies in the publick Service of the Church nor of that in particular which is established among us by the Laws of the Land Were it only proposed or recommended unto Ministers for the use of it in whole or in part according as it should be found needful unto the edification of their people there would be a great Alteration in the case under consideration And if it be pretended that such a Liberty would produce great diversity yea and confusion in the Worship of God we can only say that it did not so of old when the Pastors of Churches were left wholly to the exercise of their own Gifts and Abilities in all Sacred Administrations But it is the making of an Assent and Consent unto it with the constant use of it or attendance unto it a necessary condition of all Communion with the Church which at present is called into question It will not we suppose be denied but that it is so made unto us all both Ministers and People and that by such Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical as are sufficiently severe in their Penalties For we have Rules and Measures of Church-communion assigned unto us by Laws meerly Civil Were there any colour or pretence of denying this to be so we should proceed no farther in this Instance but things are evidently and openly with us as here laid down Now this condition of communion is unscriptural and the making of it to be such a condition is without warranty or countenance from the word of God or the practice of the Apostolical and Primitive Churches That there are no footsteps of any Liturgy or prescribed Forms for the administration of all Church-Ordinances to be imposed on the the Disciples of Christ in their Assemblies to be found in the Scripture no intimation of any such thing no direction about it no command for it will we suppose be acknowledged Commanded indeed we are to make Prayers and supplications for all sorts of men in our Assemblies to instruct lead guide and feed the Flock of Christ to administer the holy Ordinances instituted by him and to do all these things decently and in order The Apostles also describing the work of the Ministry in their own attendance unto it affirm that they would give themselves continually unto Prayer and the Ministry of the Word But that all these things should be done the Preaching of the word only excepted in and by the use or reading of a Liturgy and the prescribed Forms of it without variation or receding from the Words and Syllables of it in any thing that the Scripture is utterly silent of If any one be otherwise minded it is incumbent on him to produce Instances unto his purpose But withall he must remember that in this case it is required not only to produce a warranty from the Scripture for the use of such Forms or Liturgies but also that Rules are given therein enabling Churches to make the constant attendance unto them to be a necessary condition of their communion If this be not done nothing is offered unto the Case as at present stated And whatever confidence may be made use of herein we know that nothing unto this purpose can be thence produced It is pleaded indeed that our Saviour himself composed a Form of Prayer and prescribed it unto his Disciples But it is not proved that he enjoyned them the constant use of it in their Assemblies nor that they did so use it nor that the repetition of it should be a condition of communion in them though the owning of it as by him proposed and for the Ends by him designed may justly be made so least of all is it or can it be proved that any Rule or just encouragement
can hence be taken for other men who are neither Jesus Christ nor his Apostles but weak and fallible as our selves to compose entire Liturgies and impose the necessary use of them in all the worship of the Church Neither is there the least countenance to be obtained unto such Impositions from the practise or example of the first Churches Liturgies themselves were an Invention of after-Ages and the use of them now enquired after of a much later date For those which pretend unto Apostolical antiquity have long since been convicted to be spurious and feigned Nor is there scarce any Learned man who hath the confidence to assert them to be genuine And on a supposition that so they are no tollerable reason can be given why the use of them should be neglected and such others taken up as are of a most uncertain Original The first condition therefore of communion proposed unto us is not only unscriptural which is sufficient unto our present Argument but also destitute of any ancient Example or Usuage among the Churches of Christ to give countenance unto it This if we admit not of if we attend not unto we are not only refused communion in other things but also excommunicated or cast out of the whole communion of the Church as many are at this day yea some are so not only for refusing compliance with the whole of it in general but for not observing every particular Direction belonging unto it as might be manifested in Instances of no great importance If therefore any Divisions or Schismes do ensue among us on this account that some indispensibly require an Assent and Consent unto the Liturgy and all things contained in it as the condition of compleat Church-communion or a necessary attendance on the whole Religious worship thereby performed and therein prescribed which others refuse to admit of as such and thereon forbear the communion proposed unto them it is evident from the Rules laid down where the guilt of them is to be charged And we do not discourse of what any may do among themselves judging it meet for their edification nor of what a Civil Law may constitute with respect unto publick places Employments and Preferments but only where lies the lin and evil that attends Divisions arising on these Impositions and which by their removal would be taken away And there seems to be an aggravation of this Disorder in that not only all men are refused communion who will not submit unto these Terms of it but also they are sought out and exposed unto severe Penalties if they will not admit of them though expresly contrary to their Consciences and Perswasions 2. Canonical Submission unto the present Ecclesiastical Government of the Church and the Administration of the Discipline thereof in their hands by whom the Power of it is possessed with an Acquiescency therein are to the same purpose required of us and expected from us Who these are and what are the Wayes and Means of their Administrations we shall not repeat as unwilling to give offence unto any We cannot but know how and in what sense these things are proposed unto us and what is expected from us thereon Neither dare we give another sense of them in our minds than what we judge to be the sense and intention of them who require our submission and obedience unto them It is not certainly their design nor mind that we should look on the Offices of the Church as unwarrantable and on their Rule as inconvenient so as to endeavour a Reformation in the one and of the other It is such a conformity they intend as whereby we do virtually at least declare our approbation of all these things in the Church and our acquiescency in them Neither can we be admitted to put in any Exception nor discharge our Consciences by a plain Declaration of what we dislike or dissent from or in what sense we can submit unto any of these things We take it therefore for granted that in the conformity required of us we must cordially and sincerely approve the pâ—esent Ecclesiastical Government and the Administration of Church-Discipline thereby For it is the profession of our Acceptance of it as proposed unto us and if we acquiesce not therein but express an uneasiness under it we do it at the hazard of the Reputation of our Sincerity and Honesty in conforming Now this condition of communion with the Church of England is also unscriptural and consequently unlawful to be made so This is by many now plainly acknowledged For they say there is no Government determined in the Scripture But this now in force amongst us is erected by the Authority of the Magistrate who hath supream power in things Ecclesiastical And on that ground a lawful Government they plead it to be and lawful to be exercised and so also by others to be submitted to But we have now sundry times declared that this is not our present Question We enquire not whether it be Lawful or no or on what account it may be so esteemed or how far it may be submitted unto or wherein But we say the professed acknowledging of it with submission unto it as the Government of the Church is required of us as a necessary condition of our communion If they are not so give us liberty to declare our sense concerning it without prejudice And if it be so then may we refuse this condition as unscrptural For in the case of Conformity there is not only a submission to the Government required but expresly as was said an approbation of it that it is such as it ought to be For in Religious things our practise declares a cordial approbation as being a part of our Profession wherein we ought to be sincere Some again make some Pleas that Bishops and some Government by them are appointed by the Apostles and therefore a submission unto them may be justly required as a condition of communion For we will not now dispute but that whatever is so appointed may be so required although we believe that every particular Instance of this nature is not rigidly to be insisted on if it belong not unto the Essentials of the Church and it be dubious to some whether it be so appointed or no. But yet neither doth an admittance of this Plea give us any relief in this matter For suppose it should or might be proved that there ought to be according to the mind of Christ in all Churches Bishops with a preeminence above Presbyters in Order or Degree and that the Rule of the Church doth principally belong unto them that are so yet will not this Concession bear an application to the present Question so as to afford us any Relief For the granting of things so dubious and questionable can never give them such an evidence of Truth and firmitude in the Church as to warrant the making of them necessary conditions of communion unto all Christians Neither doth it follow from any thing that
undertake to administer unto the Church authoritatively in the Name of Jesus Christ. If they are given or granted unto them how may it be made to appear that they are so for the Ends mentioned only but not for the Rule and Government of the Church which also belongs unto them where is the Exception in the grant made to them where are the Limits assigned unto their Power that they shall exercise it in some concerns of the Kingdom of Heaven but not in others And whereas the greatest and most necessary Parts of this Power such as are Ministerial Teaching and the Administration of the Sacraments are confessedly committed unto them how comes it to pass that the less should be reserved from them For whereas the former are necessary to the very Being of the Church the latter are esteemed by some scarcely to belong unto it To say that Bishops only receive these Keys and commit or lend the Use of them to others for such Ends and Purposes as they are pleased to Limit is both forreign to the Scripture and destructive of all Ministerial Power And if Ministers are not the Ministers of Christ but of Men if they have not their Authority from him but from others if that may be parcelled out unto them which they have from him at the Pleasure of any over them there needs not much contending about them or their Office Besides the Relation of these things one to another is such as that if they are absolutely separated their Efficacy unto Edification will be exceedingly impaired if not destroyed If those who have the Dispensation of the word committed unto them have not Liberty and Authority if it be not part of their Office Duty to watch over them unto whom it is dispensed and that accompanyed with Spiritual weapons Mighty through God towards the fulfilling of the Obedience of some and the revenging of Disobedience in others if they have no Power to Judge admonish or Censure them that walk unanswerably to the Doctrine of the Gospel preached unto them and whose Profession they have taken upon them they will be discouraged in the pursuit of their work and the Word it self be deprived of an helpful Means appointed by Christ himself to farther its Efficacy And those who shall content themselves with the Preaching of the Word only without an Enquiry after its Success in the Minds and Lives of them that are committed to their Charge by virtue of that Care and Authoritative Inspection which indeed belongs to their Office will find that as they do discharge but one Part of their Duty so they will grow cold and Languid therein also And when there hath been better Success as there hath where some against their wills have been hindred by Power from the Exercise of the Charge laid on them by Christ in this matter making up as they were able by private Solicitude and Perswasion what they were excluded from attending unto in publick Ministerial Acts it hath been an Effect of especial favour from God not to be ordinarily expected on the account of any Rule And thence it is that for the most part things openly and visibly do fall out otherwise the People being little reformed in their Lives and Preachers waxing cold and formal in their work And if the Censures of the Church are administred by them who preach not the Word unto the People they will be weak and enervous as unto any Influence on the Consciences of Men. Their minds indeed may be affected by them so far as they are attended with outward Penalties but how little this tends unto the Promotion of Holiness or the Reformation of Mens Lives Experience doth abundantly testifie Church Discipline and Censures are appointed merely and solely to second confirm and establish the word and to vindicate it from abuse and contempt as expressing the sense that Jesus Christ hath of them by whom it is received and of them by whom it is despised And it is the word alone which gives Authority unto Discipline and Censures Where therefore they are so separated as that those by whom the Word is administred are excluded from an Interest in the Exercise of Discipline and those unto whom the Administration of Discipline is committed are such as neither do nor for the most part ought to preach the word it cannot be but that the Efficacy and success of them both will be impeded It is so also as to the Administration of the Sacraments especially that of the Supper of the Lord. These are the principal Mysteries of our Religion as to its external Form and Administration the Sacred Rites whereby all the Grace Mercy and Priviledges of the Gospel are sealed and confirmed unto them who are in a due manner made partakers of them About them therefore and their orderly Administration did the Primitive Church alwayes use their utmost care and diligence And these in an especial manner did they make use of with respect unto them to whom they were to be communicated For they feared partly lest men should be made partakers of them to their disadvantage being not so qualified as to receive them to their benefit as knowing that where persons through their own defaults obtain not Spiritual profit by them they are in no small danger of having them turned into a Snare and partly that these holy and sacred Institutions themselves might neither be prophaned contaminated nor exposed unto contempt Hence of those who gave up their Names unto the Church and took upon them the Profession of the Gospel the greatest part were continued for a long season under their Care and Inspection but were not admitted into the Society of the Church in those Ordinances until upon good trial they were approved And if any one after his Admittance was found to walk unanswerably unto his Profession or to fall into any known Sin whence Offence did ensue among the Faithful he was immediately dealt withal in the Discipline of the Church and in case of Impenitency separated from the Congregation Nor did the Guides or Pastors of the Churches think they had any greater Trust committed unto them than in this that they should use their utmost Care and Diligence that persons unmeet and unworthy might not be admitted into that Church-Relation wherein they should have a right to approach unto the Table of the Lord and to remove from thence such as had demeaned themselves unworthy of that communion This they looked on as belonging unto their Ministerial Office and as a Duty required of them in the discharge thereof by Jesus Christ. And herein they had sufficient Direction both in the Rule of the Word as also in the Nature of the Office committed unto them and of the work wherewith they were intrusted For all Ministers are Stewards of the Mysteries of Christ of whom it is required that they should be faithful Now as it belongs unto a faithful Steward to distribute unto the Houshold of his Lord the provision which he hath
made for them and allows unto them in due season so also to keep off those from partaking in them who without his Masters Order and Warrant would intrude themselves into his Family and unjustly possess themselves of the Priviledges of it In these things doth the Faithfulness of a Steward consist And the same is required in Ministers of the Gospel with respect unto the Houshold of their Lord and Master and the Provision that he hath made for it These therefore being undeniably parts of of the duty of faithful Pastors or Ministers it is evident how many of them we must solemnly renounce a concernment in upon a compliance with the conformity in matter and manner required of us Neither are these Duties such as are of light importance or such as may be omitted without any detriment unto the Souls of men The Glory of Christ the Honour of the Gospel the Purity of the Church and its Edification are greatly concerned in them And they in whose minds a neglect of these things is countenanced by their attendance unto some outward Forms and Appearances of Order have scarcely considered him aright with whom they have to do Some therefore of these Duties we shall instance in First It is the Duty of all faithful Ministers of the Gospel to consider aright who are so admitted into the Church as to obtain a Right thereby unto a Participation of all its Holy Ordinances Take care they must that none who have that Right granted them by the Law of Christ be discouraged or excluded nor any altogether unworthy admitted And hereunto as it is generally acknowledged a credible Profession of Repentance Faith and Obedience that is of those which are sincere and saving is required To neglect an Enquiry after these things in those that are to be admitted unto the Table of the Lord is to prostitute the Holy Ordinances of the Gospel unto contempt and abuse and to run cross to the constant practice of the Church in all Ages even under its greatest degeneracy And the Right Discharge of this Duty if we may be allowed to be in earnest in spiritual things if it be believed that it is internal Grace and Holiness for the sake whereof all outward Administrations are instituted and celebrated is of great weight and importance to the Souls of men For on the part of persons to be admitted if they are openly and visibly unworthy what do we thereby but what lies in us to destroy their Souls It cannot be but that their hardning and impenitency in sin will be hazarded thereby For whereas they have granted unto them the most Solemn Pledge of the Lord Christ's Acceptance of them and of his Approbation of their state towards God that the Church is authorized to give what reason have they to think that their condition is not secure or to attend unto the Doctrine of the Church â—ressing them to look after a change and relinquishment of it For although the administration of the Sealing Ordinances doth not absolutely set the Approbation of Christ unto every individual person made partaker of them yet it doth absolutely do so to the Profession which they make They witness in the Name of Christ his Approbation of it and therewithal of all persons according to their real Interest in it and answering of it But those who in no considerable Instances do answer this Profession can obtain nothing unto themselves but an occasion of hardning and rendring them secure in a state of Impenitency For tell men whilst you please of the necessity of Conversion to God of Reformation and a holy Life yet if in the course of their Vnholiness you confirm unto them the Love of Christ and give them Pledges of their salvation by him they will not much regard your other Exhortations And thence it is come to pass in the world that the conformity worth that we contend about ten thousand times over which ought to be between the Preaching of the Word the Adninistration of the Sacraments and the Lives of them who are Partakers of them is for the most part lost The Word still declares that without Regeneration without saving Faith Repentance and Obedience none can enter into the Kingdom of God In the Adninistration of the Other Ordinances there is an abatement made of this rigorous determination and men have their salvation assured unto them without a credible profession yea or a pretence of these Qualifications And the Lives of the most who live in the enjoyment of these things seem to declare that they neither believe the one nor much regard the other In the mean time the Church it self as to its Purity and the holiness of its communion is dammaged by the neglect of a careful inspection into this Duty For it cannot be but that Ignorance Worldliness and Prophaneness will spread themselves as a Leprosie over such a Church whence their communion will be of very little use and advantage unto Believers And hereby do Churches which should be the Glory of Christ by their expression of the Purity Holiness and excellency of his Person and Doctrine become the principal Means and Occasions of his Dishonour in the world and he that shall read that Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it unto him self a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish will be much to seek after the Effects of this Design of Christ in his Love and Death if he measure them by what appears in Churches under the power and influence of this neglect Nor do those who plead for the continuance of things in such a state without Reformation sufficiently consider the Representation that the Lord Christ made of himself when he was about to deal with his Churches some of which were overtaken with carelesness and negligence in this matter And yet hath he therein laid down a Rule as to what kind of proceedings Particular Churches are to expect from him in all Generations And it is a matter of no small Amazement that any Churches dare approve and applaud themselves in such a state of impurity and defection as is evidently condemned by him in those primitive patterns Do men think he is changed or that he will approve in them what he judged and condemned in others Or do they suppose he minds these things no more and because he is unseen that he seeth not But we shall all find at length that he is the same yesterday to day and for ever and that as the Judge of all he stands at the door Now this Duty by conformity we renounce a concernment in so as to attend unto it by virtue of Ministerial Authority whence the guilt of all the evil consequents thereof before mentioned must fall on us For it is known that a meer shadow of the work of this
Duty and not so much as a shadow of Authority for it would be left unto us For what is allowed in case of a sudden emergency upon an Offence taken by the whole Congregation at the wickedness of any which is instructed beforehand that this ought to be no matter of offence unto them as it may be it cannot be proved ever to have been observed in any one Instance so the allowed exercise of it would yield no relief in this case And if any one should extend the Rule beyond the interpretation that is put upon it by the present current administration of Church-Discipline there is no great question to be made what entertainment he would meet withal for his so doing And it is to no purpose to come into the Church as it were on purpose to go out again And if instead of dealing with the Souls and Consciences of men in the Name and Authority of Christ as Stewards of his Mysteries any can content themselves to be Informers of Crimes unto others we desire their pardon if we cannot comply with them therein And this is the Sum of what at present we are pleading about It is the duty of Ministers of particular Churches to judge and take care concerning the fitness of them according unto the Rules of the Gospel and the Nature of the Duty required of them who are to be admitted into the Fellowship of the Church and thereby unto a participation of all the holy Ordinances thereof This Charge the Lord Christ hath committed unto them and hereof will require an Account from them Upon the neglect or right discharge of this Duty Consequents of great moment do depend yea the due attendance unto it hath a great Influence into the Preservation of the Being of the Church and is the Hinge whereon the well-being of it doth turn But the power of exercising Ministerial Authority in a just attendance unto this Duty we must renounce in our conformity if we should submit thereunto For we have shewed before that after we have conformed we can pretend no excuse from what is enjoyned us or forbidden unto us by virtue thereof all being founded in our own voluntary act and consent Hence the guilt of this Omission must wholly fall on us which we are not willing to undergo There are we know many Objections raised against the committing of this Power and Trust unto the Ministers of particular Congregations Great Inconveniences are pretended as the consequents of it The Ignorance and Unfitness of most Ministers for the discharge of such a Trust if it should be committed unto them the Arbitrariness and partiality which probably others will exercise therein the Yoke that will be brought on the people thereby and disorder in the whole are usually pleaded to this purpose and insisted on But 1. This Trust is committed unto some or other by Christ himself and it is necessary that so it should be Never did he appoint nor is it meet nor was it ever practised in the Primitive Church that every one should at his pleasure on his own presumptions intrude himself into a participation of the holy things of the House of God The consideration of Mens Habitations with their Age and the like are of no consideration with respect unto any Rule of the Gospel Either therefore it must be left unto the pleasure and will of every man be he never so ignorant wicked or profligate to impose himself on the communion of any Church of Christ or there must be a Judgment in the Church concerning them who are to be admitted unto their communion 2. From the first planting of Christian Religion those who preached the Gospel unto the conversion of the Souls of men were principally intrusted with this Power and it was their duty to gather them who were so converted into that Church-Order and Fellowship wherein they might partake of the Sacred Mysteries or solemn Ordinances of the Christian Worship And this course of proceeding continued uninterrupted with some little variation in the manner of the exercise of this Power and Duty until Corruption had spread it self over the face of the whole professing Church in the world But still a shadow and resemblance of it was retained and in the Papal Church it self to this day particular Confessors are esteemed competent Judges of the meetness of their Penitents for an admission unto the Sacraments of their Church And who shall now be esteemed more meet for the discharge of this duty than those who succeed in the Office and Work of Preaching the Word whereby men are prepared for Church-Society And as it is a thing utterly unheard of in Antiquity that those who dispensed the Word unto the Illumination and Conversion of men should not have the power of their disposal as to their being added to the Church or suspended for a time as there was occasion so it is as uncouth that those who now sustain the same Place and Office unto the several Congregations attending on their Ministry should be deprived of it 3. If there be that Ignorance and Disability in Ministers as is pretended the blame of it reflects on them by whom they are made And we are not obliged to accommodate any of the Wayes or Truths of Christ unto the Sins and Ignorance of men And if they are insufficient for this work how come they to be so sufficient for that which is greater namely to divide the Word aright unto all their Hearers But we speak of such Ministers as are competently qualified according to the Rule of the Gospel for the discharge of their Office and no other ought there to be And such there are blessed be God through the watchful care of our Lord Jesus Christ over his Church and his Supplies of the Gifts of his Spirit unto them And such as these know it is their Duty to study meditate pray ask Counsel and advice of others perhaps of more Wisdom and Experience than themselves that they may know how in all things to behave themselves in the House of God Nor will God be wanting unto them who in sincerity seek direction from him for the discharge of any Duty which he calls them unto Other security of regular orderly and useful proceedings in this matter Christ hath not given us nor do we need For the due Observance of his Appointments will not fail the attaining of his Ends which ought to be ours also 4. The Judgment and acting of the Church-Officers in the Admission of persons into the compleat Society of the Faithful is not arbitrary as is pretended They have the Rule of the Scripture which they are diligently to attend unto This is the entire Rule which the Lord Christ hath left unto his Church both for their Doctrine and Discipline Whatever is beyond this or beside it is not his nor owned by him What is not done according to this Rule is of no force in the Consciences of men though it may stand until lawfully recalled
shall always walk blameless according unto the Evangelical Rule of obedience without giving offence unto others The state of the Church is not like to be so blessed in this World that all who belong unto it should be constantly and perpetually inoffensive This indeed is the Duty of all but it will fall out otherwise It did so amongst the Primitive Churches of old and is not therefore otherwise to be expected amongst us on whom the ends of the world are come and who are even pressed with the Decayes and Ruines of it Many Hypocrites may obtain an admission into Church Societies by the strictest Rules that any can proceed upon therein And these after they have known and professed the wayes of Righteousness may and often do turn aside from the holy Commandment delivered unto them and fall again into the Polutions of the world Many good men and really sincere Believers may through the power of Temptations be surprized into faults and sins scandalous to the Gospel and offensive to the whole Congregation whereof they are Members Hath the Lord Christ appointed no Relief in and for his Churches in such Cases no way whereby they may clear themselves from a participation in such impieties or deliver themselves from being looked on as those who give countenance unto them as they who continue in this Communion may and ought to be no Power whereby they may put forth from among them the old Leaven which would otherwise infect the whole no way to discharge themselves and their Societies of such Persons as are impenitent in their Sins No Means for the awakening conviction Humiliation and Recovery of them that have offended no way to declare his Mind and Judgment in such Cases with the Sentence that he denounceth in Heaven against them that are impenitent If he hath done none of these things it is evident that no Churches in this world can possibly be preserved from disorder and Confusion Nor can they by Love and the Fruits of an holy Communiou be kept in such a condition as wherein he can be pleased with them or continue to walk amongst them For let men please themselves whilst they will with the Name of the Church it is no otherwise with them where Persons Obstinately and impenitently wicked and whose Lives are wholly discrepant from the Rule of the Gospel are suffered to abide without controll But if he hath made the Provision enquired after in this Case as it is evident that he hath both the Authority he hath granted unto his Church for these Ends his Commands to exercise it with Care and Watchfulness with the Rules given them to proceed by with the known End of all Instituted Churches for the Promotion of Holiness being all open and plain in the Scripture it must then be enquired unto whom this Trust is firstly committed and of whom these Duties are principally required For Private Members of the Church what is their Duty and the way how they may regularly attend unto the Discharge of it according to the Mind of Christ in case of scandalous Sins and Offences among them they are so plainly and particularly laid down and directed as that setting aside the Difficulties that are cast on the Rule herein by the extreamly forced and unproveable exceptions of some interested Persons that none can be ignorant of what is required of them Mat. 18. v. 15 16 17 18 19 20. And a Liberty to discharge their Duty herein they are bound by the Law of Christ in due Order to provide for If they are abridged hereof and deprived thereby of so great a Means of their own Edification as also of the usefulness required in them towards the Church whereof they are Members it is a spiritual Oppression that they suffer under And where it is voluntarily neglected by them not only the Guilt of their own but of other Mens sins also lies upon them Neither is their own Guilt small herein For suffering sin to abide on a Brother without reproof is a fruit of hatred in the Interpretation of the Law and this hatred is a sin of an heynous Nature in the sense of the Gospel The Duty also of the whole Church in such Cases is no less evidently declared For from such Persons as walk disorderly and refuse to reform on due Admonition they are to withdraw and to put from amongst them such obstinate Offenders as also previously thereunto to watch diligently least any root of bitterness spring up among them whereby they might be defiled And hereunto also are subservient all the Commands that are given them to exhort and admonish one another that the whole Church may be preserved in Purity Order Holiness and Faithfulness But the chief enquiry is with whom rests the Principal Care and Power according to the Mind of Christ to see the Discipline of the Church in Particular Congregations exercised and to exercise it accordingly If this should be found to be in the Ministers and through their neglect in the Administration of it Offenders be left in their sins and Impenitency without a due Application of the means for their Healing and Recovery if the Church its self come to be corrupted thereby and to fall under the Displeasure of Jesus Christ as these things in one Degree or other more or less will ensue on that neglect it will not turn unto their Comfortable Account at the great Day That this is their Duty that this Authority and Inspection is committed unto them the Reasons before insisted on in the Case of Admission do undeniably evince And if those Ministers who do Conscientiously attend unto the Discharge of their Ministerial Office towards particular Flocks would but examine their own hearts by the Light of open and plain Scripture Testimonies with the Nature of their Office and of the work they are ingaged in there would need little arguing to convince them of what Trust is committed unto them or what is required from them If the Consciences of others are not concerned in these things if they have no Light into the Duty which seems to be incumbent on them their Principles and Practices or as we think mistakes and neglects can be no Rule unto us What we may be forbidden what we may be hindred in is of another Consideration But for us voluntarily to ingage unto the Omission of that Duty which we cannot but believe that it will be required of us is an Evil which we are every way obliged to avoid There are also sundry Particular Duties relating unto these that are more general which in like manner on the Terms of Communion proposed unto us must be foregone and omitted And where by these means or neglects some of the Principal ways of Exercising Church Communion are cast out of the Church some of the means of the Edification of its Members are wholly lost and sundry Duties incumbent on them are virtually prohibited unto them untill they are utterly grown into
disuse it is no wonder if in such Churches where these Evils are inveterate and Remediless Particular Persons do peaceably provide for their own Edification by joyning themselves unto such Societies as wherein the Rule of the Gospel is more practically attended unto It is taken for granted that the Church is not corrupted by the wicked Persons that are of its Communion nor its Administrations defiled by their Presence and Communication in them nor the Edification of others prejudiced thereby because it hath been so said by some of the Ancients though whether suitably unto the Doctrine of the Apostles or no is very questionable But suppose this should be so yet where wicked Persons are admitted without Distinction or Discrimination unto the Communion of the Church where they are tollerated therein without any procedure with them or against them contrary to express Rules of the Scripture given to that purpose so that those who are really Pious among them can by no means prevail for the Reformation of the whole they may not only without breach of Charity impairing of Faith or Love or without the least suspition of the Guilt of Schism forsake the Communion of such a Congregation to joyn unto another where there is more Care of Piety Purity and Holiness but if they have any Care of their own Edification and a due Care of their Salvation they will understand it to be their Duty so to do And we may a little touch hereon once for all The General End of the Institution of Churches as such is the visible mannagement of the Enmity on the part of the seed of the Woman Christ the Head and the Members of his Body mystical against the Serpent and his Seed In the pursuit of this End God ever had a Church in the world separate from persons openly profane doing the work of the Devil their Father And there is nothing in any Church Constitution which tends unto or is compliant with the mixing and reconciling these distinct seeds whilst they are such and visibly appear so to be And therefore as the Types Prophecies and Promises of the Old Testament did declare that when all things were actually brought unto an Head in Christ Jesus the Churches and all things that belong unto it should be Holy that is visibly so so the Description generally and uniformally given us of the Churches of the New Testament when actually called and erected is that they consisted of Persons called sanctified justified ingrafted into Christ or Saints Believers faithful ones purified and separate unto God Such they professed themselves to be such they were judged to be by them that were concerned in their Communion and as such they ingage themselves to walk in their Conversation By what Authority so great a Change should be now wrought in the Nature and Constitution of Churches that it should be altogether indifferent of what sort of persons they do consist we know not Yea to speak plainly we greatly fear that both the Worship and Worshipers are defiled where open impenitent sinners are freely admitted unto all sacred Administrations without controul And we are sure that as God complaineth that his Sanctuary is polluted when there are brought into it strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh so the true Members of the Church are warned of the Evil and dangers of such defiling mixtures and charged to watch against them We might yet further insist on the great evil it would be in us if we should give a seeming outward Approbation unto those things and their use which we cannot but condemn and desire to have removed out of the Worship of God And moreover there is as we believe an Obligation upon us to give a Testimony unto the Truth about the Worship of God in his Church and not absolutely to hide the Light we have received therein under a Bushel Nor would we render the Reformation of the Church absolutely hopeless by our professed compliance with the Things that ought to be reform'd But what hath been pleaded already is sufficient to manifest that there neither is nor can be a Guilt of Schism charged either on Ministers or People who with-hold themselves from the Communion of that Church or those Churches whereof the things mentioned are made Conditions necessary and indispensible and wherein they must be denyed the Liberty of performing many Duties made necessary unto them by the Command of Jesus Christ. And as the rigid Imposition of unscriptural Conditions of Communion is the principal Cause of all the Schisms and Divisions that are among us so let them be removed and taken out of the way and we doubt not but that among all that sincerely profess the Gospel there may be that peace and such an Agreement obtained as in observance whereof they may all exercise those Duties of Love which the strictest Union doth require These we profess our selves ready for so far as God shall be pleased to help us in the Discharge of our Duty as also to renounce every Principle or Opinion whereof we may be convinced that they are in the least opposite unto or inconsistent with the Royal Law of Love and the due exercise thereof If men will continue to charge accuse or revile us either out of a causeless distast against our persons or Misunderstanding of our Principles and wayes or upon uncertain Reports or meerly prompted thereunto through a vain elation of mind arising from the Distance wherein through their Secular Advantages they look upon us to stand from them as we cannot help it so we shall endeavour not to be greatly moved at it For it is known that this hath been the Lot and Portion of those who have gone before us in the Profession of the Gospel and sincere endeavors to vindicate the Worship of God from the Disorders and Abuses that have been introduced into it and probably will be theirs who shall come after us But the whole of our care is that in godly simplicity and sincerity we may have our conversation in the World not corrupting the Word of God nor using our Liberty as a cloak of maliciousness but as becomes the Servants of God But perhaps it will yet be pleaded that this is not the whole which we are charged withall For it is said that we do not only withdraw our selves from the communion of the Church of of England but also that we assemble in separate Congregations for the Celebration of the whole Worship of God whereby we evidently make a Division in the Church and contract unto our selves the guilt of Schism For what can there be more required thereunto But what would those who make use of this Objection have us to do would they have us starve our souls by a wilful neglect of the means appointed for their nourishment Or would they have us live in a constant omission of all the Commands of Christ By them or those