despise them but to receive them to our Communion as Christ receiveth us Rom. 14 15. Approving all so far that serve God in that which his Kingdom doth consist in Rom. 14. 17 18. VI. All Christians must earnestly oppose Divisions and Sects and sidings with Strife and Envy as a sign of Carnal Men and must labour to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment and to glorify God with one mind and mouth 1 Cor. 1. 10. 3. 3 c. And must not forsake the assembling of themselves Heb. 10. 25. VII It is by Love that the whole Body of Christ must edify itself and win and overcome their Adversaries even those that curse and hate and persecute them as God doth good to the just and unjust Love being the most powerful Conquerour of Hearts Eph. 4. 15 16. Matth. 5. 44 c. VIII No excellency of one Party above others nor no faultiness of any Christians must be pretended against any duty of Love and Communion But we must not sin for Communion with any IX Though we must not by profession word or subscription own the sin of any Church we must join in their Communion in the Worship of God with those whose Worship is mixt with sin in matter and manner so it be not sin that is by its evil predominant against the good of the duty to make the work rejected of God like Poyson in our food which makes the hurt greater than the good because else we must neither Worship God our selves nor join with any in the world All the works of sinful men being mixt with sin To deny this is virtually to separate from all the Christian world X. Therefore our bare presence is no signification that we approve all that is done in that Assembly The very nature of Christian Communion is a profession of the contrary we being bound by God to communicate in good and not to own the evil And if men command us to own all that they there do their command cannot bind us against Gods nor make our presence a profession that we obey them against God It being God that is the Master of us and our work And Christianity itself being a profession that we obey God before Man Else Man by commanding us to own some ill word or circumstance might drive us from all Christian Communion If Men should command us in our private Meetings to do it for an ill end or an ill Principle as in Obedience to Usurpers we must not therefore forbear all private Meetings nor will our bare meeting signify our Obedience to such Commands If the Pastor of a single Church or many Associate tell the people your meeting must be to own e. g. Anabaptistry Antinomianism Presbytery Erastianism Separation c. this binds them not either to own it or to withdraw without some greater reason He is no Master of their Faith XI Nor will the bare knowing beforehand that the Pastor will say or do somewhat unlawful make our presence guilty of approving it We know before-hand that we and all Men are sinners and shall sin in what we do And we may suppose Men will speak as they think And as we know not but any Man may speak amiss till we hear what he saith so when we know that the Pastors have tolerable Errours and will vent them it will not make us guilty of their sin nor bind us to depart We meet to own Christianity and not all that the Man will say or do known or unknown I know before that I shall have many faults in my own Prayer disorder dulness c. which I do not own though herein I am guilty XII Yet no Man should prefer worse before better if all things set together it be better indeed to the Person at that time XIII God hath by his Son Iesus and his Apostles instituted all that in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Conversation which is obligatory or necessary Universally to all the Church over and above what is required by the Law of Nature And no Man or Men have power to add any thing of universal obligation XIV God hath by Nature and Scripture obliged Men themselves to choose and determine divers subordinate expressions significations modes circumstances or accidents of this universal Religion which are not themselves meet for an universal and unchangeable obligation but local temporary and mutable Some of which every Man may choose for himself some the present Pastor must choose some the associated Pastors may choose and some the Magistrate may choose These must be added to the universal Duties so far is such addition from being sin I have often named many particulars As the Translation of the Scripture which to choose The version of the Psalms in rithme or metre the common use of new made Hymns the dividing the Scripture into Chapter and Verse the words of Sermons their method the particular Text to be chosen what Chapters to read at what hour to begin how long to Preach in what words to pray whether the same oft or changed whether fore-studied or not whether written or unwritten whether studied and written by our selves or by others where the place shall be where the Pulpit Font Table c. shall stand what Ornaments they shall have Linnen Silk silver Vessels or otherwise Whether we be bare-headed or covered at Prayer Sacrament c. Whether we shall kneel stand sit or be prostrate at Prayer c. what distinctive Garments Pastors shall use By what signs of consent and obligation Men vow and swear whether by putting the hand under the Thigh lifting it up subscribing laying it on the Book kissing the Book c. what Catechisms to use with many more such God hath commanded men to choose such things as these by the Rules of Edification Love Peace Concord Order Decency winning those without c. XV. These may be called Worship in a sense subservient to Gods Ordinances of Worship as we Worship Men by putting off the Hat kneeling bowing c But if any will not call it Worship they must not call it false Worship nor pretend that the Controversy is any more than about the bare name XVI They that feign such things as these to be sinful additions and an invading of Christs Office and denying his faithfulness c. condemn the Scripture that commandeth such determinations and contradict the Law of Nature and the practice of all Churches on Earth and would exterminate all Gods Worship which cannot be performed without some such determinations XVII As God hath not tied us to words in Prayer or Preaching though he have recorded many forms in Scripture but left all to choose what words time and circumstances make fit by Book or without so the conveniences and inconveniences both of set forms and of free speaking are on each part so great and undenyable that we have no cause to censure that Church which useth both that is which agreeth on a set form to
we serve You say When men pray they bid us pray in extempore prayer both are required to what is good True And I may joyn with the good in an extempore prayer without owning any evil in it Indeed you say p. 28. The Mass is not more twisted in all the parts of it by Law than the Lyturgy nor left less to our power to pick and choose If this Union do render the far greater pollutions the Idolatry and Heresy of the Mass infectious to the whole Worship who can prove that the pollutions of other Worship when we are likewise commanded not to distinguish or divide doth not in their kind and degree diffuse the taint alike Ans. God is the Master of his Worship I do what he bids me tho man contradict it If God bid me hear and believe the Scripture and man say hear also and believe the Apocrypha I will openly profess I obey God and you no further than you contradict not God Rather than not hear the Scripture I will hear also the Apocrypha but not believe it to be Gods Word But if they bid me also hear the Alcoran I will withdraw 2. It is not the Conjunction but the kind of the thing joyned that maketh it unlawful An honest weak man an Antinomian an Anabaptist a Presbyterian or whoever you dissent from in tolerable cases may mix his Opinion and faulty expressions and methods with his Prayer and Sermon as intimately as evil is mixt in the Mass and yet you will not refuse Communion with him It is lawful to drink beer that hath bad water mixt rather than none but not to drink that which hath poyson equally mixt To p. 29. I think if a Turk pray against Idolatry Murder c. that Prayer is materially good But as to Goodness from a Holy Principle no Hypocrites is good The insufficiency of my answer you no way manifest till you prove that I must joyn with all that is in publick Worship or with none 6. Pag. 32. You say Doth he say a word of owning Parish Churches and Worship Ans. If you or he say nothing against these we shall leave the Diocesan case to others But if you be the man that I have lately privately written to I doubt not but I have proved to you that Parish Churches that have good Ministers are true particular Churches and those Ministers true Pastors and that any Bishops holding the contrary doth not disprove it 7. When you recite my words describing the Cause I plead viz. I have written over and over that I persuade no man either to or from a publick Church till I know his Circumstances And that I doubt not but it is one mans duty and another mans sin You add I believe dear Sir that though this concession may displease those who may best bear it it may reconcile you to most of those that are called Dissenters If so those Dissenters it seems by you do not much differ from me But I think ten to one of the people accounted commonly Dissenters through England are of my mind and are for Parish-Worship rather than either none or worse But by Dissenters I suppose you mean those of the Doctors mind or your own And if so I thank you for your own Charity and Reconciliation But if you did not know them better than I I should doubt that your said Friends are not altogether so reconcileable Sir You add p. 39. And if as you allow the practical determination depends on the circumstances of the Persons you reduce the Controversy to a far narrower room than was by most supposed And every one being best capable of understanding his own circumstances it will not bear great heat or importunity from another But whence came those wrong Suppositions of the most If after 20 years Communion in the Parish Churches I venture on the Censorious so far as to give my Reasons for my own Practice and defend those Reasons and that Practice against contrary Writings and such wise Men as you are so reconcilable and see how narrow the Controversy is whence comes it that most think it to be what it is not against such frequent plain expressions You and I may conjecture at the Cause Your Conclusion is a pious Profession of that Love and the main Principles of that Concord for which I write 10. You wisely leave the Vindication of the Doctors words when it cometh to the case which I oppose him in As That neither God nor good men will allow of judging our Profession and Practice by any reserves of our own when I have proved that our reserves against owning mixtures of evil are necessary in all Communion 11. You vindicate not his words that He that joyns in the Worship of the Common-Prayer doth by his Practice make Profession that it is wholly agreeable to Gods mind and will And that to do it with other reserves is Hypocrisy and worse than the thing itself without them 12. You vindicate not his grand Argument Religious Worship not Divinely Instituted and Appointed is false Worship without excepting any secondary sort of Worship 13. You defend not his saying That there is nothing accidental in the Worship of God and that every thing that belongs to it is part of it or of its subsistence 13. You defend not that Because outward Rites and Modes of Worship Divinely Instituted and determined do become necessary parts of Divine Worship therefore such as are Humanly Instituted and Determined are thereby made parts of false Worship What work would this Argument make If all outward Modes are false Worship when determined by Men if Divine Determination would make them necessary 14. You do not vindicate that All Prayers and Praise in Church-Assemblies meerly as such are prohibited by the Lyturgy unless you do it by denying Parish-Churches 15. You do not defend That the Lyturgick Worship was in its first Contrivance and is in its continuance an Invention or Engine to defeat or render useless the promise of Christ to his Church of sending the Spirit in all Ages to enable it to the due discharge and performance of all Divine Worship in its Assemblies and therefore unlawful to be complyed with That the very being and continuance of the Church without which it is but a dead Machine lyeth on this Doth this speak only of the English Lyturgy which is not 200 years old think you When next he tells us that It 's the way of Worship by a prescribed Lyturgy and that it was insensibly brought in when in several Ages the Church had lived without it and that to render the promise of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost in the Administration of gifts useless 16. You defend not that Hence followed a total neglect of all the Spirits Gifts in the said Administration Nor that This produced all the Enmity of the said work of the Spirit which the world is now filled withal that it ariseth from hence alone Nor that the Worship Treated
of the Case Men in flesh have sin and danger and Bodies lyable to sensible commotion of Spirits and so to grief Those in Heaven are not such They have no cause of grief and yet have renewed faculties of mind and will which disgust sin and hate it and are turned from it to a contrary love and life Even here if a man by his own sin and folly had shut up himself twenty years in a Dungeon or put out his Eyes and never seen the light suppose this man suddenly delivered into the light and he would not stay to mourn for his former state but the sudden joy would exclude sorrow And yet his change would be a true Repentance for what he did But as you have wronged all Protestants by fathering your Errour on them you have made it my duty to vindicate them with my self But I am grown such a Prodigal of my Reputation with Men of such a judging disposition that I will cast away a little more of it on your Censure The Scripture speaketh so much more of our Glory after the Resurrection then before and purposely keepeth us so low in our knowledge of the particular state of Souls before and Calvin whom I suppose you take not for an Heretick for all his Treatise against the sleep of Souls did think the difference was so great between the state of the separated Souls and that at the Resurrection that I must profess my ignorance to be so great that I am uncertain whether this first state do set all the blessed so high as that no thought is consistent with it that hath the least degree of suffering For 1. I know that all Creatures are Passive 2. If felicity be imperfect till the Resurrection it must be privatively or positively or both If privatively how can I prove that nothing positive may concur when privation is as bad 3. I think that Protestants mostly agree that Christs own Soul while his Body was in the Grave was in Paradise in Joy and yet in a state that was partly Penal as it was a separation from the Body by death And that all Souls in Heaven are happy and yet in a state partly Penal in Heaven itself as they are separated from the body and short of the Resurrection For not only the minute of dying but the state of death is Penal to a Soul that desireth a return to the body And yet Heaven may be to it unconceivable felicity I only hence conclude that we must not take on us to know more than we do of separate Souls nor to make a measure or manner of blessedness for them of our own heads nor to apply every Text to them that is spoken of the state after the Resurrection There is enough besides to feast our joyful hopes IV. Some few other practical Doctrines we differ about as where pag. 30. you say I doubt not to affirm that doing that which a Law requires so far as the intention is moved by the Law is a justifying of it And submitting to any Law on the consideration of its Penalties is so far a justifying its preceptive part as not so great an evil as the Penal Ans. I first premise that this is little or nothing to the Cause I pleaded for For whereas you say None that I know of say it is a duty simply or without any dependence or human Sanction I have largely told you that taking publick Communion to be but do facto what it is and the Lyturgy as commonly used I take it to be a duty to hold such Communion where no better at least is though there were no human Sanction but voluntary Concord and this by vertue of Gods great Commands of glorifying him with one mind and mouth in Unity Love and Peace not an immutable duty but a duty rebus sic stantibus It is in obedience to Gods Commands more than Mens that I have gone to the Parish Churches and would have gone as much if the Law had not commanded it but only had deprived me of better But as to your undoubted affirmation I am as much past doubt that it is not true as you unlimitedly express it The intention may be moved by a Law for the effects or consequents sake and not justify the Law but only justify the Act of the Subject Yea it may be moved by the formal Authority of the Law-giver exprest by his Law and yet not justify the Law Ioseph and Mary were Taxed with others by Augustus Law They were moved by that Law and its effects to pay the Tax And yet justifyed not the Law nor decided the Case whether it were by Right or Usurpation All Conquered People by unjust War may obey a Taxing Law The Israelites might obey the Philistines that forbad them Smiths and Swords c. They may labour and Travel and pay Taxes moved by unjust Laws and yet not justify the Law but only their own Acts. When Christ sent Peter to take a Fish with Money in his Mouth and pay Tribute the Law moved his intention because of the offence that would follow the breaking of it And yet his answer intimateth that he justified not the Law If he carried his Cross at their Command that justified not their Command If he bid us give our Coat to him that sueth us for our Cloak if the Law be against us it proveth not he bids us justify the Law If a Confessor go to Prison or Banishment or to the Gallows or fire without resistance to do this as moved by the Law is no justifying of the Law If the Protestants in France should pay each man a yearly Tribute for liberty of Conscience or the Christians under the Turk pay Posâ—-mony moved by the Law this justifieth not the Law I am persuaded your Church would gladly pay somewhat for liberty of Worship and yet not justify the Law that required it If the Law required us to meet for Gods Worship at an inconvenient place or time or to use a version of Psalms in Meeter or a Translation of Scripture that is not the best he that useth these in obedience to this because Concord in these according to Law is better then a better Version Translation Hour Place with Discord and because Obedience may do more good then better circumstances would without it yet doth not hereby justify the Law If the Law bid you appear before Justices or Judges that are bad men and unjust you may obey the Law and not justify it Dear Brother I will not aggravate your Errour by its ill Consequences But you and I tell the world what need all men have of pardon in our mistakes even when we are most confident 2. And as to your second affirmation it is not true without limitation That submitting to a Law on consideration of the Penalties is so far a justifying its preceptive part as not so great an evil as the Penal This is confused work The prâ—ceptive part of the Law is actus
praecipientis the Commanders Act The instances before mentioned tell you that this may be obeyed for the Penalty sake when yet the evil of the Command or Law is sinful and so worse than the Penalty or Obedience which are not sin Forgive me for telling you that you should have distinguished the preceptive part of the Law from the matter Commanded by it and the evil of the Law and Law-maker from the evil of the Obeyer and then only have concluded that he that obeyeth a Precept only to avoid the Penalty professeth the Penalty to be worse then his Act of Obedience But he doth not make it worse then the Law or the Law-makers sin If a Law did Command me to appear before a Lay-Civilian who useth the Keys of the Church and this on pain of Death or Imprisonment I may be moved both by Precept and Penalty to appear as being better then either refusal or penalty and yet not think that the Law or Precept is a less evil in itself or its ends to the Law-maker or the publick Whether this thought be right or wrong is nothing to our question so if I were by Law commanded to joyn in the Lyturgy on pain of Death or Imprisonment or being deprived of all other Church Worship I may think this Law worse than my sufferings and yet think my Obedience to it my Duty Yea if a Law bid me play with Childrens Bubbles or any such trisling on pain of Death the Case would be the same And if any should take occasion by your confident judgment to refuse to obey wherever he may not justify the preceptive part of the Law the effect would be worse then of my naming Dr. O. SECT 4. I Told you I have no leisure to write Books for my self now Thus far I have written for Truth and Love and Unity As to all your Charges against my self I say again I will not justify my self My naming Dr. Owen which is so heinously taken I have told you the occasion of To which I truly add 1. I did it as a distinctive note that the Readers might know what it was that I answered 2. And I that use to put my Name to my Writing never dreamt that it would have been taken any worse to name him than to confute a Writing that by common uncontrolled supposition bore his Name Had I thought it would have been taken so ill while the Super-Conformists bear far more it 's two to one but I had forborn it And now it 's done I am yet but little wiser when I think of the publick Cause fore-described I am ready to think it should weigh down all your contrary reasons When I feel in my self an inward averseness to strive with any by ungrateful words and hear from you how ill it 's taken then I dislike it And my own selfish lothness to be the object of the hard thoughts and talk of so many of you is some byass to my judgment I wholly follow the Rule you mention to choose that which doth most good and least hurt And truly the reverence of your own and some others judgment telling me that it doth more hurt than good doth turn the Scales and make me repent that I named the Doctor And I leave your Charges against me to their best advantage to the Reader though my inclination is much to open the mistakes I may give a brief touch to your self for your information which I expect not should affect the Reader suppose your Book to lie open before you Pag. 1. 1. If you thought them not good enough to be his nor intended for publick view why did you wrong him so much and the people much more as to divnlge them with his Name Pag. 2. Do good men take it for a priviledge to hurt the Church uncontradicted 2. The more are displeased with Truth the greater is the disease that needeth it 3. To be zealous for Love against Hatred and its Causes is not so bad as to need to be quenched It is zeal for a Sect against Unity which corrupt nature is for 4. I doubted not but guilt would be impatient 5. It was your Party that wronged his Name by divulging that which you now take for his disgrace Pag. 3. It 's wisely done not to own the Cause I oppose and yet not let men know whether it be for fear of the Law or because you are against it O that I could have fore-known that I might have confuted his Arguments without his Name and displeased no body I thought you had taken them for his Honour and not his Disgrace when so many value them Pag. 4. 1. If they are true they are his Honour If false why should I suffer them to do mischief 2. I named not Mr. Ralphson till all said he openly owned his Books in Prison Had you rather all that Worship God in Parish Churches were persuaded that it is Idolatry than Mr. Ralphson should be confuted by name I hope you have better reasons for concealing your own Name to do mischief un-named is not worth pleading for Pag. 5. If the work be faulty why do you not joyn with me to save men from it And why did your private Letter own it his conjunct with Fame And not one Man yet that I hear of denyeth it 2. I offered you to stop it 3. Is it disingenuity in me to tell you of twenty untruths in your private Letter and many notorious and ingenuity in you to be offended for being told of them rather than for writing them This is to comply with the World that taketh the detecter only for the sinner 4. Is a defensive confutation of Errour dealing severely 5. Agreeing Copies confute you To confute Errour is not worse then to own or defend it Pag. 6. If it be so heinous to confute it why did you divulge it Pag. 7. My Reasons for Love and Concord were long before considered 2. I had heard of them long in many hands though till then I never saw them And you say you saw it a year before 2. It 's strange so knowing a man should think that bad Arguments with a valued Name are not dangerous Yes even against common sense as those for Transubstantiation To confute your self you add that on all sides peoples Opinions are mostly and most strongly mastered by affections and it 's beyond all our power to cure the disorder And yet is there no danger from Names Pag. 8. Must all appearance of Enmity and bitterness be laid aside and Love used c. And yet must we let Men Excommunicate one another and call all to mutual avoidance without contradiction Let Churches and Christians be taught to damn each others Persons and Worship causelesly and take each other for Idolaters for fear of breaking Love and Peace 2. Do you believe that Dr. Owens Name was not known with them before 3. Mr. Warners came out since which I compared with Mr. Ralphsons 4. Can you tell why I was to
Bishop of Lincoln the Bishop of Hereford Dr. Peter Moulin Dr. Stillingfleet and many more have done is known Your Mr. Mat. Mâ—ad once commended a Conformist for a Benefice to me with these words I take him to be the holiest Man I know I have loved him the better ever since for his Candor Charity and Impartiality SECT 6. An Expository Advertisement about naming faulty Persons AS all men ought to have a just regard of their own and their neighbours reputations so the over-much tenderness of the guilty and the proud doth make it a matter of much difficulty for an impartial man to know whether and when he should name or make known the persons whom he doth oppose or blame Though the resolution seem easie both to them that have no charity to caution them and to them that will do no duty that displeaseth others Being called to review my own practice in this I shall give the World an account First of my Judgment in it and then of my doings I. I take such a nomination to be a duty in these cases following 1. In case of necessary defence of the Truth against some dangerous Errour of some men otherwise pious and tolerable the greatest Pillars of the Church have usually named them I hope all those Iudaizers that Paul so sharply writeth against were not in a state of damnâ—tion Doubtless Peter and Barnabas were not Gal. 2. nor I hope Demas nor all the rest that he saith were not like-minded to Timothy but sought their own and not the things of Jesus Christ And I hope the like of Diotrephes much more assuredly of Iohn that blamed him though that beloved Disciple is thrice named as culpable seeking to be greatest and offering to call for Fire from Heaven and forbidding one to do Miracles in Christs Name And Peter oft and once tremendously Matth. 16. rebuk't by Christ. The sins of Noah and his Sons Lot and his Wife and Daughters Sarah Abraham Isaac Iacob and his Sons Moses Aaron Miriam many Judges Eli David Solomon Rehoboam Asa Hezekiah Iosiah and many more are left on Record in Scripture with their names by him who is LOVE it self and hareth uncharitableness And though we believe not all that Bernard Walaf Strabo and such others though good men believed of Peter Bruis Henricus and other Albigenses Waldenses and Bobemians much less all that Tho. Waldensis saith against Wickliss the wisest Reformers have seen cause to mention some of their mistakes Luthers first mistakes while he disowned not the Papacy and his after sharpness against Carolostadius and Zuinglius are recorded by many that dislike them as he recordeth his distaste of those aforesaid and many more whom he dissented from All that are contradicted by name are not taken by sober men to be graceless or intolerable Swenkfeldius was a man of honour and his Character was that he had an honest heart but not a regulated head and yet the generality of Reformers cryed down his Errours and Sect. The Calvinists write for Communion with the Lutherans and the Moderate Lutherans love the Calvinists yet they write against each other by name as too many Volumes openly shew George Major was a wise and good man though Schlusselburgius and such others number him and his followers as Hereticks as Caâ—â—viâ—â— doth the Calixtines Nicholas Gallus and Amâ—sdorsius were noted Divines and Century Writers though they so used Major and maintained that Good works are not necessary to Salvation for which wiser men did write against them Mat. Flac. Illyricus the chief Century Writer was a Learned Zealous Protestant and yet many more than Melancthon and Beza have left as a blot upon his name that he was so fierce against Ceremonies and unpeaceable and that he maintained that Original Sin is the substance of the Soul Andrew Osiander was a very Learned Protestant high in favour with his Prince yet he and all his followers greatly opposed by the Orthodox Reformers for maintaining that we are justified by Gods Essential Righteousness made ours And Fuâ—ccius sped the worse for following him though it was for State-Councils that he died How high a Character doth Melancthon and many other the greatest Divines give of Hubertus Languetus as an Honourable Learned Pious Excellent Man and yet it 's now scarce denyed but it was he that wrote Iunius Bâ—â—tus though it was long falsly charged on Beza and the Noble â—â— Plessis Doubtless Cassander Erasmus Wicelius and Grâ—tius were men of great worth that yet for peace owned the Roman Church and Corruptions so far as is not to be justified or overlookt All the Germane Prophets or Fanaticks that Chr. Beckmans Exercitations name and copiously confute were not ungodly or intolerable men Whatever the Paâ—â—câ—lsians Weigâ—lians and many of the rest were I know not but sure Thâ—ulerus was a godly man and Grotius commendeth Iohn Arâ—di and his followers as men of piety and peace and notwithstanding his vain affected words Iacob Behmen seemed a pious man and I loved many of his chief Followers in England of my acquaintance because their Spirit and Writings were all for Love and Peace and their difficult Gibberish made me fearless of their multiplying or ever doing any great hurt And the Papists quite out-do us in naming their Opponents and their Errours and yet not renouncing Communion with them but keeping them in the bosom of their Church as whole loads of Books written by the Schoolmen and several Sects and Orders against each other shew And specially the Controversies between the Seculars and Regulars sharply handled by Watson in his Quodlibits and divers others And newly Peter Walsh that calls himself Valesius and Sâ—rjeants and his Blaklows Controversies tell us more But none more than the Jesuists and Jansenists did we differ about half as many and weighty points as are recited in the Iesuites Morals and their Charge against the Iansenists we should scarce think each other fit to be Members of one Communion And naming Opponents is oft necessary to make the Reader know what Books we write against for distinction sake 2. And there is yet another great cause of naming faulty men both otherwise godly and heretical The Duty of a Publick or National Repentance oft requireth the mention of publick sins and sinners specially if they be our own God long forbeareth the publick National sins of Ancestors to see if Posterity who are the same Naâ—ion though not the same Persons will prevent his Judgments by Repentance In which case they must confess their own and their Fore Fathers sins This was the due practice of the Church of Old as Psal. 78. 107. and many other shew and the prayers of Ezra Daniel and others they named many and bewailed more of their National and Fore Fathers sins and if they do not Christ will name them for them as he did the blood shed from Abels till Zachâ—rias and will revenge all together on the Impenitent Generation Matth. 23. It was not to call dead
men to Repentance that all the forementioned faults of good and bad men are recorded in the Scripture But it is partly for the exercise of National Repentance and partly for a warning to the living that good mens names tempt them not to sin Yea that shaming them is a mercy to us all to this day is evident in that where God recordeth any sin without laying some reproach upon it Satan maketh a snare of it to persuade us it is no sin What abundance have been emboldened to Lie because the Midwives in Egypt and Davids Lies are recorded without adjoyned reproof Polygamy is pleaded for as lawful by that reason and the Jews did so by Divorce and some by drinking to excess or overthrow of reason All of us take it for a duty to bewail the Nations resistance of Reformation and cruelty to the Martyrs in Q. Mary's days and such like as part of our National Humiliation 3. When pernicious Deceivers endanger the Church by their Sophistry and Reputation especially by publick Writings which survive them God hath named in Scripture Simon Magus and Elymas and the Party called Nicolaitans whom his Soul hated and largely described many throughout the New Testament especially Epist. to Gal. Col. 2 Pet. 2. Iude Rev. 2. 3. And all that were faithful to the true Faith did of old name with detestation the Ebionites Cerinthians Gnosticks Valentinians Basilidians Manichees Priscilianists and Arians Sabellians Paulinists c. And since the Reformation the soberest Reformers named with zealous renunciation the names of not only such as Caesar Vaninus and Pomponatius Valent. Gentilis Servetus whom they burnt but also those Captains of Sedition that were the Heads of dangerous Sects Tho Muncers case they commonly mention with detestation and Ionn of Leydens and the rest at Mâ—nster as worse And yet Leo Juda tells us with what marvellous constancy Knipperdâ—lling endured his flesh to be pulled off by pieces with red hot Pincers scarce groaning or expressing grief The case of David George the Father of the Libertines as Beza calls him and Henry Nicols's the Father of the Familists multitudes recite with detestation II. But there are many things that stand up against this duty and turn men from it or make it doubtful in particular Instances 1. One is the great abuse of it by the Antients and the mischiefs done by that abuse It calleth for greatest grief to read it and to feel the fruit of it to this day which while I have recited out of the Councils and Church-History many cannot bear it The case of the Easter Contention in all the Christian World even in Brittain tells it us The shameful Catalogue of Hereticks in Philastrius yea many in Epiphanius tell it us So do the Controversies with the Audians Novatians Donatists the Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites the tria Capitula out of Theodorite Theodore Mops. and Ibas the Image Controversies the Corruptiâ—olâ— and Phantasiasts and many more such And since the heat of the Lutherans such as Marbachius Heshasius Westphalus Gallus Ambsdorsius and lately Calovius and many still against the Calvinists The over-violent usage of the Remonstrants in Holland the strife at the City of Frankford between the Conformists and Nonconformists the Violences and Reproaches of Episcopal Presbyterian Independants Erastians and Anabaptists against each other in England with the evil means and long continuance and woful effects The Scots Covenants excluding from their publick Union there and here all the Diocesan Divines and Party even such as Usher Morton Hall Davenant c. These great abuses of over-doers and dividers make many charitable men think that it is best to mention no mens faults at all save uâ—ter Enemies 2. And another grand dissuasive is the certain abuse that bad men will make of it Malignant Spit-fires do already write books full of palpable Lies against other men of which I have had a notable part And in common speech and reproach make many that they converse with believe these lies And if we call each other to Repentance or confess our own sin impudent Malice will turn it to a common scorn and say they are all alike and worse than they confess 3. And another hinderance is that we think controverted Cases are not matter of Censure And these are Controversies 4. But the greatest impediment of all is the Natural selfishness Pride and Impatience that is in all so far as they are unmortified and unhumbled and interessing God and his Truth and Cause more deeply than is just in the interest of our selves our Parties and our Opinions To these four Cases I briefly say 1. The avoiding of the contrary extream hindered not God and good men from mentioning Diotrephes Demas the Nicolaitans and all aforesaid 2. If we shall omit all duty that men will abuse we shall do none or next to none Repentance is most honourable except Innocency And they would reproach men less if they more confest their sin themselves And a true Confession is a true description of the Case and shameth them that make it worse then it is or lay the fault of the Guilty on the Innocent 3. What Heresy or sin almost is not controverted Satan will make a Controversy of all if that shall serve Arrianism is a sad instance and Socinianism which is much worse and Popery is more disputed for than they all 4. God hateth the Proud and will abase them and pardoneth none but the Penitent and he that sinfully saveth his Credit shall most lose it Repentance is a great hard necessary work we can easily call other men to repent III. Having told you my judgment I will as this worthy Brother adviseth yet further review my own actions I am one of those that have formerly imitated Austin in some Confessions and Retractations but I cannot make every scornful expectants Opinion my measure nor retract all that every extream'd Opposer or Dissenter doth dislike And I am one that long and very dearly endeavoured to have prevented those Overturnings which I bewail and at that time I thought them a sin so great as I will not now describe and took in the prognostick of their Consequents in which I have only been thus far mistaken that Gods wonderful mercy hath hitherto made them much easier then I expected I mentioned them most openly and plainly then to convince the Guilty and save the Tempted and I have oft since made some mention of them not to call the dead to Repentance but the Societies in their humiliations and the Nation and to preserve the living from the guilt of participation and imitation But I find that some much mistake me and think that all the Persons that I have named I mention as intolerable or make them worse than they are and equal the better with the worse yea make the Welsh Itinerants worse then ignorant vicious meer readers All this is far from my words and thoughts When Clement Writer wrote two Books against the Scripture the