the heavenly glory as Enoch and Elias this flesh and bones of his were not transformed into a spiritual body I do question seeing the Apostle tells us expresly That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven We may refer this flesh and bones therefore to his Rising and Ascension but leave it in dubio in regard to his Sitting in Heaven In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and new Testament of whose AuthorÃty was never any doubt in the Church Art 6. By Church I understand the whole Catholick Church or this Church of England for it is evident that there hath been doubt made of some Books in our Canon by Antient Particular Churches and Fathers The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius's Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought thorowly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Art 8. The word thorowly I understand only in regard to the Articles of those Creeds not in regard to the Proem and Conclusion of the Athanasian Quicunque vult which is inconsistent I hold with the Goodness of God and Natural Religion The condition of man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will Art 10. By the words no power and cannot I understand a Moral power and impotency which lyes in such a disposition as that a man never will without the special grace of God but not so as if we had no power at all that is Physical or as if the terms of the Covenant of Grace were Impossible to any We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholsom Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification Art 11. By the words Faith only I understand what Paul means by Faith without works that is Faith in opposition to works that would make the reward to be of debt and not of grace or to works of the Law works which the Law requires to Justification which none have and if any be justified at all it must be therefore without them not in opposition to Repentance and Evangelical Obedience and though it be for Christ's sake or his merits and not ours that he accounts us righteous yet is our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience the condition upon which he does it or rather the Righteousness it self which upon the account of Christ's deserving he accepts unto life everlasting Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sin Art 13. When good works done before grace are said to have the nature of sin I understand that thô such works are good quoad operis substantiam yet they are evil quoad modum quo ordinantur ad vitam aeternam and consequently when they are said not to be pleasant unto God I understand not acceptable unto Salvation I judg that the doing what we can through the strength of free will and common grace is not to be discouraged and to be held in some good sense preparatory to saving Conversion yet because there is no full promise made thereunto as the condition of obtaining that grace which is special it is truly said that such works do not make us meet for receiving or do not of congruity deserve the same Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as Vessels made to honour After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives Art 16 17. I apprehend the Church here does follow St. Austin in the Points of Election and Perseverance and when it is said that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given it must be understood so as that the Elect for all that shall never finally fall away but shall infallibly recover and be saved They are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved Art 18. I observe the Church hath but one Anathema in all her Articles and that seems to be denounced here against all those who do or shall hold that any persons can be saved that are not Christians as if the Death of Christ or benefits thereof and the knowledge of him were commensurate through the world But God forbid I am out of doubt that God hath a Government over all mankind which is Moral in order to Life and Salvation and that the instrument of that Government must be the Law of Grace the Law of Innocency becoming in the state of Lapsed Nature uncapable of that end which being at first promulgated to Adam after his Fall and to Noah must belong to all their Posterity insomuch as every one whosoever he be that lives up in sincerity to this Law according to that administration of it he is under shall be saved For my Assent then to this Article I do desire the word by may be especially noted I could not assent to this Article if it were in the Law or Sect he professeth but being by I hold plainly that if a Heathen or any Person that never heard the Gospel repents of his sin and trusts to a good God and lives up to the Law or Covenant of Grace according to the first Edition of it I say if any such indeed do Rom. 2.26 Act. 10.35 and thereby comes to be saved it is by the Christian Religion which he implicitely holds in the substance with us and not by the Law Sect that he professeth that he is saved And this Salvation of his is in
Churches to be no true Churches or that the Church does impose such things as conditions of her Ordinary Constant Lay-communion which are sinful or intolerable As I am of Opinion that they can make no such plea good so must I heartily advise them to take heed because if they do stand upon such a one their Separation being without cause if the Parish-Churches be true Churches and it be no sin to go to them they know the Charge lyes against them I will add To separate from any Church upon a reason common to others as because we have a Liturgy or the like is virtually to separate from all that have one and consequently from the most of Churches in all Ages of the World The truth is there is such an impression got on the imaginations of some of the Dissenters that if they should come in to the Church so as to be subject to the Hierarchy and submit to her present Impositions nay if they shall but touch with the Conformist almost in any thing though only to go to Church with them and take the Sacrament there which yet as to Lay-conformity is in effect indeed all they are afraid as if it were the receiving upon them the Mark of the Beast I mean the doing some very horrid thing they know not well else what and were therefore to be cast remediless into the Lake of Fire A business really of very sad consequence to our selves at home as exceeding scandalous to the Reformed Churches abroad who have their Liturgies and Ceremonies as we have and perhaps some or other of them less innocent than this of the Church of England But I will ask here What think we of Bradford Philpot Latimer Ridley Cranmer and the rest that suffered in Q. Mary's time Were there not amongst these holy Martyrs an Archbishop and Bishops and did not they go ordinarily to Church and receive the Sacrament according to the Liturgy as we do and admit of all the Impositions besides in King Edward's days Nay what think we of the old Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeth's and K. James his time who though they laid down their Ministry rather than to conform to some Impositions afterwards did yet maintain Communion with the Parish-Churches all their days Did any of these now or all these receive the Mark in their right hands or in their foreheads by this means And must they therefore be everlastingly damned I argue The receiving the Mark in the Revelations must be a sin certainly because the receiver is cast into Hell for it But to obey the Law or to conform only so far as we can which is the Rule of these Papers is the duty of every man no sin Again if receiving these Impositions be receiving the Mark it must be the promiscuous receiving them without caution which to beware of is the end of these Papers or against Conscience that is sinfully receiving them But to receive them as I here propose with Explication which is to receive them no otherwise but so as they may and ought to be received is to get a victory over the Mark avoiding the sin in the doing I must confess I am sorry that I have need to say thus much I wish I had not but there are some odd minds some vehement Revelation-men some melancholy Spirits and I am much assured that such a conception I speak of is not uncommon to such As for those that never had any such kind of thought but have their rational Exceptions it will yet be well even for them when they shall be able to get off their proper Objections so as to come honestly to Church with a Judgment that is satisfied and not only to avoid the Law to be secured from this also after they have done who can tell what impression the suggestions of a mans own heart if troubled or the words of another upon occasion may lay upon him And as for such as are for disputing the Point if they can produce those Arguments as will prove that the Church hath indeed imposed any thing as the condition of her Ordinary Communion which is sinful and intolerable those Arguments be sound then must I acknowledge the Schism which is made by their Separation from her Communion through those sinful Impositions must be imputed to her the Church of England is the Schismatick till she removes them But if those Arguments be not sufficient or unsound then must the Schism which is made be imputed to them For if the cause upon which they separate be found no cause and an insufficient one is none I must assert still that the Separation here conceived being causless must be Schism But what if it be Schism There are many such Ministers and such People who are rivetted in the belief that the Parish-Churches are no true Churches or at least that it is sin to go thither and what shall these do I answer I need not stand to say first what all will that these men are to lay down their Errour and so come to Church as the only way to escape sin but seeing they can never be convinced of that I must say there are degrees of Sin and Schism and the greatest evil must be most carefully shun'd To set up Meetings upon the account these do is sin is Schism I take it but to hold no Meetings at all and leave off the Assembling themselves together so as to rob God of his Worship altogether this is certainly more sinful more wicked more intolerable It appears consequently in the issue that a Toleration understand such a one as is meet or of such as are Tolerable is even almost as necessary to be granted by His Majesty and a Parliament when we have one as a constant and continued Pardon from God Almighty is to this poor divided Nation Not that I deny but there may be Reasons for the Meetings of Dissenters and perhaps very many that will hold and cannot be gainsaid and when I say that separating from the Church upon such grounds as draw ill consequences after it and will not hold is Schism I do not say that every meer local Separation from the Parish-Meeting when there is cause is so who am sensible what a Scare-crow hath been made of that bare word only as Mr. Hales hath observed Suppose a man stands upon his liberty from God and Nature to chuse his own Pastor for the benefit of his Soul as his own Physician for the health of his Body and so using those means which he finds most conducive to his own edification he sits down with such or such a Meeting for his stated Communion when yet he refuses not to go to Church maintaining occasional Communion also with his Parish I will not deny but such a man hath reason Indeed if he quite leave the Church I shall suspect according to my Principles that his ground is not good and that is all one as that he hath none You will say if I go
to Church I must own the Parish and I must own the Diocess and I must own the Bishop and his Government I answer and so you may but it is not necessary that you own them as of Divine Right which others I suppose do Upon that Hypothesis I must confess I do not see how any Separation from the Church unless in case of something imposed that is sinful could be justifiable and the Conformists therefore taking up that Principle do generally condemn all Meetings accusing them without discrimination of Schism But it is one thing to own the parish-Parish-Church the Diocess the Bishop Episcopal Government according to Law and another to won them as of Divine Institution I apprehend that Particular Congregations where there is a Pastor and Flock conjoyned for the Worship of God carrying on an holy life are the Churches of Christs appointment and that every Minister of such a particular People hath a power of Governing them as well as Teaching them derived to him from Christ being Episcopus Gregis by virtue of his Office if any then shall go to set up an Episcopus Postorum a Bishop of the Diocess to divest him that is Pastor of a particular Congregation or the Minister of the Parish of that Authority which Christ hath committed to him for governing his Flock which he that makes a Diocess to be the only Church of Apostolical Institution and the Diocesan the sole Pastor must do let him consider what he undertakes seeing the burden which is hereby laid on the Bishop and the account he must make at the great day for the Souls of so many he takes no particular care at all of is intolerable I will own the Bishop and his Regiment but not to the denial of the Ministers I will own a Diocess but not to the unchurching Particular Congregations There is another consideration therefore to be had of the Church than this here understood and that is as it is National and the King the Head of it The Church as National is divided into two Provinces and these into twenty six Diocesses and they into so many thousand Parishes The Parish-Church consists of a Particular Congregation which is therefore a Church of Christs appointment and the Authority or Regiment the Minister Pastor or Bishop of such a Flock hath is derived from Christ The Authority the Diocesan hath is derived from the King The King makes the Bishops he might make them if he pleased as Henry the Eighth by Commission and he is the Fountain of their Honour for they have Baronies and upon that account sit in the Lords House and if we may look on them accordingly as his Officers to exercise no other Authority as Diocesans but what they derive from him then As the Regiment of the Bishop and of the Pastors are of a different kind the Power or Regiment of the Pastor being internal or in sacris and formally Ecclesiastical flowing immediately from Christ but the Regiment of the Bishop external or circa sacra that is objectively Ecclesiastical deriving from the King so must the Authority or Government of the one be cumulative to and not destructive of the other And this is a Notion which methinks should not be hard of entrance to the Conformist or Nonconformist On the one side the Bishop should receive it because it grants him his Honour Dignity and great Revenues upon a clear and open foundation and it lightens his care and work The Office of a Bishop upon this Hypothesis may be discharged as that of any other Magistrate under the King But the Office of the Diocesan upon the other Hypothesis is a charge he can never perform and if he live in the negligence of what he thinks his duty and that wilfully all his life how can he be saved On the other side the Nonconformist should receive it because it opens his Eyes lets him see how he may be subject to the Bishop as he is to the King and the other Magistrates under him without molestation to his Conscience And this should be the Stone which I would lay for the Foundation if ever a Parliament would build upon it of a sound and lasting Peace in the Nation Whither this tends let the Reader see farther in the twelfth Section of that universally Learned sort of Gentlemans late Book call'd The Samaritan FINIS An Advertisement from the Bookseller THere is a late new Book Intituled A Private Psalter composed by the same Hand that wrote these sheets which being a Devotional Book is put in a fair Character for the sake of aged Eyes and sold by me whom the Reader may find out by the Title page Thomas Parkhurst An Addition from the Author UPon the mention of this Book I have these few words to subjoyn concerning the same If I can judg any thing in Divinity there is hardly any matter of more near importance to the most of serious Christians than this one thing to wit to be solidly informed what to do or how to live and support the Soul under the case when it hath examined itself and is in conflict and doubt whether it be in a state of Gods favour which is all one as whether it be sincere or not They that are light Christians do often talk of their assurance when the more weighty Christians are ready to droop and hang the head as the ears of Corn do that are fullest In the last Section of the evening Office of that Private Psalter there is a Determination de industria of this case according as I was able to admit Instruction with Devotion into my Design I am sensible of the smallness of my Talent and the greatness of the Concern and that whatsoever is peculiar is in danger to be defective who must confess my genius hath led me to the seeking a middle resolution in this great Practical case in regard to Life and Comfort as it hath usually done in the matter of polemical Opinions And for the sake of this case more especially was that Book printed If any worthy Person therefore of the Conforming Ministry who hath a Pen accomplished with the stile of the Times whose fluency or command of words may make the task easy to him which would be burdensome to me will take the sense only or matter of that last Section I mean the full and whole sense of it though nothing else purely but what is there hinted and enlarge it into a Treatise of a convenient dimension as he shall pitch upon a subject to exercise his parts which I think like to be profitable to most Christians especially to such as are of a tender Spirit and solicitous about their Spiritual estate so if he will bring it to the Bookseller above intimated to put it into the Press he will not be ungrateful to him I suppose for his Copy John Humfrey