Church and the Souls of other men than the benefit to us and others is like to countervail That cannot be done lawfully which cannot be done without doing more hurt than good and destroying the end Obj. We must do that which God bids us and leave it to him what shall be the success Ans True But you must prove then that God bids you do it for we will not take your word Aâ—â—â—â—matives bind not to all times No duty is at all times a duty Nay out of season it is a sin He that saith Pray continually would not have you pray when you should preach or hear or be quenching a Fire in the Town He that commanded Sacrifice set some to learn the meaning of these words I will have mercy and not sacrifice There is few of you but would forbear a Sermon or Prayer to save your own or others Lives And you receive the Sacrament but once a moneth at most which the Primitive Churches used every Lords Day 3. The same practice than in one place where it will do more good than hurt is a duty which in another place where it will do more hurt than good is a sin 4. The Case is now of so great moment that no Minister should rashly determine it for himself nor upon the desires of some of the people only but should consult with wise and sober men that are impartial 5. The benefits to be expected and compared are these 1. The pleasing of God when we know it is his will and the profit of mens Souls by the most regular manner of Discipline and Worship 2. The setting up an imitable example of right Discipline and Worship to other Churches but then woe to them that set up a worse 3. The satisfying the Consciences of some honest mistaking people who think erroneously that a Conforming Minister may not be Communicated with or at least not in the use of the Liturgie or in a Parish Church or that the Sacrament may not be received kneeling 6. The evils to be feared and compared with the benefits are these 1. The exasperating of the minds of persons for number or quality considerable and so alienating them from their brethren and hindring their good 2. And thereby weakening the Protestant interest in a time which requireth our greatest Concord 3. And the setting of parties against parties and Churches against Churches and turning Religion into contentions and mutual oppositions 4. And the countenancing of unlawful separations which will all shelter themselves under such examples and the dividers will not see the different principles on which we go while our practice seemeth to be the same 5. And so it may be injurious to future Ages by seeming to give them presidents for unlawful separations 6. And it is not the least evil consequent that we shall cherish not only the Error of those that think worse of the Parish-Worship Assemblies than there is cause but we shall also accidentally nourish their pride who will think themselves a holier people because they Erroniously over-censure the persons and practices of others 7. The prime great obligation for the cure of all this doth Ile upon some of the conforming side It were easie for them not to silence Christs Ministers that are as wise and good as themselves It were easie for them not to punish a godly person so heavily as an Excommunication comes to for the weakness of scrupling a Sacrament-gesture and not to punish their Children with being unchristened or themselves with Excommunication who think the dedicating Image of the Cross unlawful or think it their own duty to enter their own Children into the Covenant of God rather than Godfathers that have no propriety in them and they are sure never intend to take them for their own or use them as they covenant to do 8. If on such occasions true godly Christians are cast out of their Parish-Churches whether they err or not all Ministers are neither obliged nor allowed to desert them and so to add cruelty and affliction to the afflicted 9. They that think they answer all by saying that these peoples scruples are but Errours do but 1. Shew their self-esteem who can call that Errour which they have said so little to prove to be so in some of their instances 2. And he talketh neither like a Pastor nor a Christian nor a Man that thinketh all that err should be cast out of the Church 10. To discern whether in this case a distinct Church is to be gathered or not is a work of meer Christian prudence and must be determined by comparing the good and evil consequences together and discerning truly which preponderateth And he that through Imprudence misjudgeth either way doth sinne 11. Therefore it is folly and sin for Ministers Conformable or Nonconformable to expect that in this all should go the same way and to censure those that differ from their Opinion when they may be under different circumstances 12. They that live in London where it hath ever been usual to go to Neighbour Parish-Churches from their own and where custome and abundance of accidents make the inconveniencies less have not so much against their different Church-meetings as those in Countrey Towns and Parishes have 13. Those that live where the Nonconformists are the main body of the people and the rest are such for number and quality whose displeasure is of less publick consequence have the less against their distinct Church-meetings 14. Those who live where the Nonconformists are few and the Conformists for number and quality most considerable and are like to be greatly exasperated by distinct Churches must deny their own personal conveniencies rather than hinder a greater good and may not do that which others may do 15. When the publick good forbids it the tolerated Ministers must not gather distinct Church-Assemblies but joyn with the publick Churches and help the people by their instructions at other times 16. When the publick good forbids it not the tolerated Ministers must hold distinct Assemblies for assistance in Doctrine Worship and Discipline as near as they can to the will of God But so as to further and not disgrace nor hinder the honest Parish-Ministers living with them in Unity Love and Peace and whether de nomine their Assemblies shall be called distinct Churches is a case of no great moment though I think that it is fittest to take them for distinct Churches secundum quid and not simpliciter as many Chappels be Seeing though in the Assemblies they distinctly worship God c. yet they hold personal Communion in a godly conversation with the rest of the Christians in the Parish and should sometimes also assemble with them And so much for my own opinion in this case 27. If Christians would but give over the censoriousness contentions and abuse of others which different Assemblies in the same Town are usually employed in I see not what great hurt it would do any for Anabaptists Separatists c.
dare undertake that it shall more maintain your honour with your peace of Conscience Brethren our great account is near The Judge is at the door It will be then comfortable to give a true account of Ministerial fidelity and hear Well done good and faithful servant rather than to hear We have beaten our fellow Servants or unfaithfully kept the Key of knowledge The souls of your charge are many and precious It is a hard and great work to cure one to make one Ignorant person understand one proud person humble one infidel to believe one worldling to become Heavenly or one sensualist to be a mortified Saint What help then do you need what labour is requisite to bring a Parish of many hundred or thousand persons to this change As our weakness must make us all cry out Who is sufficient for these things so when one man hath ten mens work to do he may well say He is insufficient In the first three Centuries when one Congregation had a Bishop with a Colledge or Company of fellow Presbyters they were not too many though one onely could preach at once I speak not uncertainties We have tryed the Pastoral work and know by experience that a Parish of a thousand much more of many thousand families hath work enough for many the most able and diligent Ministers in the Land Yea a Parish of an hundred Families needeth more help than any one Minister is able to afford them Try them all by personal conference house by house as we have done and judge Would you then have the people taught reformed and saved or not If yea Would you not have necessary help to do it I cannot believe that man to know truely what it is to be a Minister or a Christian that perceiveth not a necessity of help if he can have it And if you had converted all now living those that are born next will have need of as much labour as their Parents For ignorance sensuality and pride will be born with them Thank God therefore that you may have help and take it whether you meet in one or two Assemblies Help your tolerated Brethren in their work as those that more desire the good of the peoples souls than they Consult together for the removing of impediments and for the strengthening of each other And if any factious or froward Non-conformist should happen to be your Neighbour go to him and by love and familiarity seek to win and cure him and you will win the hearts of all good people And if he be really turbulent and do more harm in the place than good I am perswaded the rest of the Non-conformists will rebuke him and disown him I add IV. If any difference between you cannot be composed instead of troubling the people about it quietly refer it to some indifferent Arbitrators Is there not a wise man among you Must Abrahams and Lots Servants separate them for a Well Must Paul and Barnabas part for different censures of another mans omission Shall Christians Protestants Ministers the Teachers of Love and Concord and Patience be so weak so selfish so bad such contradicters of their daily Doctrine as not to be able to carry on Christs work in peace nor to make an amicable composure of their differences If you are Christians indeed the difference is not who shall have the most followers applause or honour but who serveth God and saveth souls in the right and true effectual way And may not prayer and consultation reconcile such a controversie For my own part I am conscious of pride and selfishness Yet I can confidently say that when I had a Pastoral charge where I needed many Assistants if I had known where that man lived whom the people would have loved honoured and profited by more than my self I would have rid night and day to get him to be the man And when I have heard my Neighbour Ministers that were younger men I can scarce forbear naming them preach much more affectionately and profitably than my self I have sate under them with tears of joy But alas What hath ten years silence of such men deprived the souls of the poor people of I never 〈…〉 it meet with Saint Francis and the Fryâ—â—s to abase my self by going naked or by taking on me to be an Awfe or by filthiness or ridiculous behaviour As if Heaven and a Swine-sty were most like See Foulis his History of Popery But I have thought it my duty to cast away deliberately and knowingly much of my Reputation even with Religious people by the discharge of such duty as I knew would do it Believing that Reputation is one thing to be resolutely denyed for Christ and that he that saveth his honour shall lose it and he that loseth it for Christ shall have everlasting honour Brethren there is no great matters to be done in the Church of Christ in the midst of so many corruptions and temptations without confirmed Resolution Resolve tâ— be wholly the servants of Christ and to seek mens Salvation and to take no thought for your carnal interest and honour And then the God whom you serve will take care of it Think not that other mens selfishness or frowardness is an excuse to yours Who knoweth man and knoweth not that pride and selfishness is as common as sin that is Is the last-dying heart of all our corruption Will you expect none of it in others when you know if you know your selves that you have much of it in your selves 〈◊〉 dealing is not the Sign of enmity but love 〈◊〉 must tell you that we cannot but think that you need Repentance great Repentance for sinning more and that by publick deliberate chosen covenanted Ministerial sin protesting against Repentance in the day when Judgements called us all to renew our Repentance for our former sins But yet we suspect our own understandings We know what different apprehensions of things good men may have We know that we are great sinners our selves We take not all this to warrant our censorious separations from you But we beseech you be not too angry with us for differencing between good and evil between him that sweareth and him that feareth an Oath As long as we do it to the cost and suffering of our own flesh which disputeth in us more cunningly and strongly for Conformity then all the Durels the Fullwoods the Stilemans c. in England We have naturally no more love to poverty to scorn to a prison than you have And why may not those that do nothing else almost say that its like we study to know the truth as hard as any of you all And the love of beggery scorn and imprisonment is not likely much to byas us And if you think that our honour with our party doth it you must needs think that we who so sharply reprove them do think very highly of that poor despised party when we prefer their opinions not onely before your Magnates Plures
said or that doth not heartily and diligently promote it 22. He that had rather ten thousand persons stay'd idlely at home or went to Sports or Drinking in Stepney parish or Giles Cripplegate or Sepulchers or Martins in the Fields or Giles in the Fields or Clement Danes c. than a Nonconformist should preach to them I will not soul my paper by calling him as he deserveth though he pretend that gathering a Church out of a Church is a thing that he opposeth 23. In all these Cases following the Nonconformists will hold distinct Church-Assemblies from the Parish Churches 1. Where the Parish Church is not capable of them as was last instanced by reason of the number 2. When the Parish Priest is one to whom wise men may not commit the care of their Souls and one whose Ministry is not to be owned I would there were none such 3. When the Ejected Minister in foro conscientiae Ecclesiae verè sic dictae retaineth still his Ancient Relation to his Flock and part of them Schismatically separate from him and joyn with an intruder publickly that never had a lawful Call and the other half separate not from their ancient Pastor It s possible the obtruder though he have the Temple may be the Schismatick Ask Dr. Wild and Dr. Gunning whether they thought not so 14. years ago 4. It may be some that are more complyant than my self with good peoples weaknesses and humours when there is none of the foresaid Reasons may rather choose to be Pastors to honest Separatists or Anabaptists than by deserting them to leave them to do worse And what great matter of injury or provocation should this seem to any peaceable man Envy is too odious a thing for any Servant of Christ to own Is it in the power of Anabaptists to bring all their judgments to yours And till they can must they be quite cast off Who knoweth not how many Ages the Novatians were tolerated by the wisest and godlyest Emperors and Bishops yea what black characters are given by pious Historians of Ithacius and his fellow Bishops who first in France did set the Sword awork even against Heresies and of Cyril at Alexandria who first as a Bishop used it himself 5. But that 's not all What if any number of persons as good as you shall think that the Liturgie is guilty of all the Disorders and Defects which once were charged on it and of some Doctrinal Corruptions since And what if they think that the Parish Churches are void of Christs true Discipline and are under an Alien one which they judge unlawful What if they say that yet your Churches may be true Churches and all this may be submitted to when we can have and do no better but he that can serve God in a manner more agreeable to his Word is bound to do it and not to offer God the worst when the King alloweth us to do our best And if withall they say that you refuse them and they refuse not you You will not give them the Lords Supper unless they take it kneeling which I think they may do but they think otherwise you will not Baptize their Children without the transient Image of the Cross as a dedicating sign c. If in this case they choose a distinct Church-Assembly and Pastor and Mode of Worship what harm â—s this to you or any one and why should it break Love and Peace 24. But in this last Case I suppose the most of the Nonconformists that live in Country Parishes which have good Ministers of their own will not call themselves a distinct Church totally but will hold their meetings as Chappel-Meetings are held Preaching the Word and Communicating in the Sacraments in the best way they can among themselves but so as not to unchurch the Parish Church as none or to withdraw themselves from their Communion but will keep all loving correspondence with them and seasonably sometimes Communicate with them to shew their principles by their practice For the benefit of Christian Love and Concord may make it best for certain seasons to joyn even in defective Modes of Worship as Christ did in the Synagogues Temple in his time Though the least defective must be chosen when no such accidental reasons sway the other way And perhaps some Nonconformists own Administrations may be as defective as the Liturgie 25. Where the people are satisfied with the Parish-Church Communion I suppose the Nonconformists will only help to instruct them at seasonable times and not meddle with the Sacramental Administrations 26. The same practice may be done on various Principles and many Nonconformists may gather Churches in the forenamed Cases without turning Separatists or forsaking any of their former principles Their differences will appear in these respects 1. They will not pronounce any of your Parish Churches Null which have lawful Ministers 2. They will not say that your Worship is such as no man may lawfully Communicate in 3. They still hold that Parish-bounds are very convenient though not absolutely necessary to be Church-bounds not taking every Parishione to be of the Church but none ordinarily but Parishioners to be of the Church 4. They are driven from the Parish-Ministry against their wills and had far rather hold their ancient stations 5. They will thankfully return to them when ever they have leave And earnestly pray that these seemings and shews of separation may cease the occasion of them being taken away 6. They prefer their own manner of worshipping God as better than the Liturgy in their opinion and therefore to be chosen when they may choose but they account it not the only acceptable Worship but are present with you in spirit desiring a part in the prayers of all true Christians in the world 7. They set not up the Church-Government of the People over the Pastors or themselves nor any of the rest of the Separatists proper principles of Church-Government 8. Lastly they desire nothing more than as Neighbour-Ministers in love and concord to carry on with you the same work of Christ And in all these they differ from Separatists though they gather Churches 26. The grand Difficulty to the Nonconformists in their present condition lieth but in this one case Whether in competent Parishes which have able and godly Conformable Ministers the obligation to hold Union and Communion with the Parish Church or the obligation to exercise a more regular way of Church-Discipline and Worship than the Parish Churches do or will do should be judged the more prevalent And consequently whether they should gather Churches out of Churches in this case For in the other forementioned cases the answer is more easie I shall give my own opinion as followeth 1. It is lawful and a duty to be a member of such a Parish-Church when we can have and do no better 2. We cannot have or do better when it cannot be without a greater hurt to the Publick Interest of the Gospel the
Essentials of a true Church That Dr. Seaman Mr. Calamy Dr. Manton Mr. Gouge Dr. Bates Dr. Jacomb and abundance more such with the people subject to them as Pastors were true Churches Prove you if you can that on Aug. 24. 1662. they were degraded or these true Churches dissolved on any reason which any Churches for 600 years after Christ would own 4. If not you seem your self to accuse their Successors of Schism for drawing away part of the people from them meerly by the advantage of having the Temples and Tythes and so gathering Churches out of true Churches so ordinary is it for self-esteeming men to talk to their own reproach and condemnation Sect. 8. But as to his second Objection I will take his part and though we differ not at all from the Doctrine of the Church of England till the new Doctrine about Infants was brought into the new Rubrick yet it is not in minutioribus that we differ from the Conformists gather from it what you can God knoweth we think the matters in difference very far from things indifferent CHAP. V. Whether the Declaration make the Non-conformists preaching more lawful or their duty than it was before Sect. 1. HIs Sect. 2. Pro. 2. is impertinent For 1. He knoweth little if he know not that the Nonconformists did before take such preaching and meetings to be lawful and a duty in respect of the Law of God where they had opportunity to use them 2. But they take it for a double sin to neglect a duty when they have Liberty granted them by the King to perform it But he knoweth we take God for our absolute Soveraign and think that none can repeal his Laws because that none hath any power but from him and we suppose that he will pass the final sentence on Kings and us To what purpose is it then among Christians to question whether Men make it lawful for Christs Consecrated Ministers to preach when God commandeth it Sect. 2. But pag. 14. he thinks he may safely say that the Declaration doth not so much as uncommand and uninjoyn any thing which the Law properly commands or injoyns Answ Say you so 1. The Law commandeth Magistrates to execute the penal Laws The King forbiddeth them Is not that to uncommand them 2. The Law commandeth us not to meet above four in a private house for worship otherwise than c. The King suspendeth or dispenseth with this Command and not only with the penalty And is not a suspension of a Precept an uncommanding though not a commanding of the contrary I will not instance in Juries indicting Papists c. Sect. 3. But he subtilly tells us that the Declaration meddles neither with the Preceptive nor Punitive parts of the Law but only with the Execution which is extrinsick to both All Lawyers must come learn anew of him what it is to dispense with a Law As if the Command You shall examine and punish such such men and the prohibition You shall not punish them but protect them were not contrary Nor the prohibition You shall not meet above four c. and the dispensation You may meet c. Sect. 4. But all this is utterly impertinent to them whose Consciences never allowed them to forbear their Ministry in formal obedience to any mens prohibition but only when they had not power or opportunity to exercise It 's no duty which cannot be done And License maketh that possible which was impossible He that untieth my feet accidentally maketh it my duty to go Sect. 5. pag. 16. Let Mr. Crofton answer for himself but the other two named by you Ball and Baxter have much against you but nothing for you and understand themselves better than you understand them and he that surviveth taketh himself to be abused by your Allegations and provoketh you to cite any of his words which are against Nonconformists preaching as they have opportunity If you had rather that we were all used as Mr. Jos Allein was you may see by his Preface to his Life whether he was not for such sufferings rather than silence Sect. 6. His reviving his pitiful Objection That we have the approbation of Authority for separation is but a contemptible sporting of himself at the game he is best skilled at Objecting nothing that he may seem to answer it with something Sect. 7. But p. 18. he will bring us to Vtopia Morus invented it and there he will suppose the Villanies of Theft Murder and Adultery unpunished and publick Meetings allowed where they should be practised Answ 1. What should the poor Nonconformists hear if they thus Commented on the Clemency of the King 2. But because you will force dumb men to speak suppose that in the same Utopia the Philosophy Schools which had faithful Teachers and the Christian Churches that had faithful Pastors were deprived of near 2000 of them at once and those that came in their places had the consent but of the least part of the people and that they were such as did Doctrinally declare to the people that millions may be PER â— without sin that they ex animo approve of all the Gregorian Liturgie and every thing therein and of all the Lutherans Consubstantiation and Church-Images and when in Baptism they had vowed to fight against the World the Flesh and the Devil under Christ they should contrarily upon deliberation make a solemn publick Covenant that in their places callings they would never endeavour to reform Cardinals Inquisitions High-places Consubstantiation Church-Images or Church-tyranny so in part renounce their Baptism And suppose a clement Prince should release the ejected Teachers from their restraints and allow them to set up private schools of Philosophy and Divinity and the people should say We cannot in conscience cast our Souls on the guidance of the PER â— and therefore crave the benefit of your conduct If these suffering men shall seek to reconcile them to the PERS â— and desire them to have a better opinion of them but yet tell them that they will not deny them their own best help Quaere whether they sinned by not being PER â— themselves or by not being cruel deserters of mens Souls and which side is to be compared to the Murderers and Adulterers I know this is not our Case in England but if we must follow you into Utopia or Moria let us have the equitable judgment of the place CHAP. VI. Of the Inconveniencies of our Tolerated Meetings Sect. 1. NOthing more easie than for men that have some great advantages to force inconveniencies upon other mens greatest Duties And we look to do nothing in the World scarce that shall have no inconvenience I eat not one meal of ten that doth not make me sick But must I therefore give over I can tell you of more than a few inconveniences of your own preaching and Church-worship and yet you will not give it over But if any shall make those inconveniencies against our wills
Answ 1. Such confidence upon such insignificant reasonings is a great dishonour to the wit and humility of the Author He that no better knoweth their judgments can tell you what all the light of the Presbyterian conscience is 2. He can prove that our Ministery is needless sinful c. because he can call the exercise of it separation As if the paucity of ignorant and ungodly Souls and the sufficient number ability zeal and diligence of the Conformists made us and our Labours needless indeed Alas what thoughts have these men of souls of sin of holiness of repentance and of their own sufficiency and labours But Sir who made you a fitter Judge of the need of souls than themselves and all others Next perswade us that Tutors are needless because all in England are born learned I have much ado to get servants in my own Family that have tolerable knowledge and piety And can our Conformists alone sufficiently teach many hundred Families and prove that other mens help is needless Try first whether you can perswade men that you alone are sufficient to teach all the Children in your Parishes to speak and to dress them and feed them and that all other persons help is needless Get them to fast all till you seed them your selves and make them believe they need no other meat We that have conferred with all the people of our Parishes when we were permitted found that multitudes were almost as ignorant as Heathens And yet our excellent successours that do no such thing as to any two of them that ever I knew or heard of but see their faces in the Church can prove all our Teaching needless to these poor ignorant souls Is this humility and Ministerial fidelity It s sin in us to preach and duty to the Conformists I am glad they take it yet for a duty to any 3. But is it not as easie for us to say That you have needlesly and sinfully and scandalously taken our places I mean as to the Church-Relation not as to the Temples and Tythes and drawn some of the people to separation from those that were before true Churches We say not so but put not your selves on the hard task of disproving it if you are wise 4. But our necessity Sir hath visible Causes 1. God and our own consent at our Ordination made our necessity of exercising our Ministry We are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ nor that it was our choice But God hath laid this necessity on us and wo be unto us if we preach not the Gospel as we have opportunity 2. The Bishops to some of us and senior Pastors to others by Ministerial Investiture imposed this necessity on us 3. The great necessity of multitudes of fouls which nothing but gross ignorance de facto Infidelity or Impudency can deny concurreth to cause this necessity 4. The Law imposeth a necessity on us not to preach among you in the Temples If then God say Preach and the Law say Preach not in the Temples we may conclude we must preach out of the Temples if we have but as much wit as King James's Hounds had that at a double way if they find the Hare hath not gone one way will take it for granted he is gone the other Here is then but two makers of our necessity the Imposer and the Restrainer Reproach neither of them if you will take our council Sect. 10. He addeth In vain do you think to help your selves and to satisfie the World by pleading the moderation of your Principles and that you do believe our Parochial Congregations are true Churches which the other Sectaries deny For besides that many of the Independents acknowledge the same this is the great aggravation of your Schism For why then do you seperate from us Ans 1. We are glad that you confess the Independents themselves are so moderato towards you 2. We perswade none to separate from you 3. Do you silence us and depose us from the Ministry and forbid Baptism and the Lords Supper to all that have not as wide a swallow as your selves and then ask Why separate you from us 4. Do you draw Churches to your selves out of our true Churches that were before you and then charge your act on us 5. Why come not you to the private Churches among you that have all this while been kept up e. g. In London why may not Dr. Manton Dr. Annesley Dr. Jacomb and abundance of such as fairly charge those that go only to the Temples for separating from them They say They are as true Chuches as you If their not hearing you is separation why is not your not hearing of them so Big words when men are got into the Saddle make not their Cause good 6. But it seemeth that acknowledging you true Churches will not satisfie you without what actual hearing you But doth not every Chappel and every neighbor Parish then and all the World besides your Auditory sinfully separate from you Some men can triumph in such reasonings for themselves as would make another sick to read them CHAP. VII Of the inconvenience from our Brethrens sence of Toleration Sect. 1. HIs next Section pag. 21 c. is as meer delusion as any of the rest First he argueth from the Presbyterians being always against a Toleration Reader all sober Divines that ever I met with use here to distinguish between Tolerable and Intolerable things and persons and to conclude that the Tolerable must be Tolerated and the other not though they all agree not how much is Tolerable Now what doth this man but talk confusedly as if they had been against all Toleration Look up man without blushing and tell the World Whether ever the Presbyterians maintained it a sin to Tolerate Presbyterians Alas for those poor people that cannot try sence from nonsence with what stuff will such men carry them away If you talk of the Toleration of any that are Intolerable what have we to do with it any more than you Sect. 2. Any more than you did I say Sir vilifie not the wits of those Clergy men that chiefly contributed to our so as to imagine that they did not know what they did and foresee this day Honour their understandings more than to take them for so ignorant especially being lowdly foretold it as not to foreknow 1. What number and sort of men would be laid by 2. How the people would judge of them and their Cause 3. How both they and the people would go through their sufferings 4. How wise sensible and merciful His Majesty would be when he saw all this stir and dissatisfaction of his people 5. And that the preaching of silenced Ministers in private would encourage all other Sects 6. And when ever the door was opened for their Liberty all others would endeavour to thrust in with them Who then I pray you hath done more for Toleration you or we Sect. 3. But his next hath no bounds and
but that proveth you not more able or your preaching better than theirs Partiality may make some of your own mind think all well that you say and all weak that others say but the rest of men will the more despise you Be not wise in your own conceit Look not every man at his own gifts and worth but at the gifts and worth of others In honor prefer one another Pride is the first born of the Devil and pride of knowledge and goodness is more common and pernicious than pride of Comelyness Wealth or Greatness Mark that Preacher Conformable or Non-conformable who striveth hardest for his own honour and would raise it by dishonouring others and is most impatient of all that clowdeth him and is onely for those that set him up and look out no further for a mark of badnesâ— but take that man for one of the worst how well soever he preach or pray Except Christs Apostles had bin converted to the teachable humble state of little Children they could not have entered into the Kingdom of Heaven Math. 18. 3. You wear not the Livery of Christ if you are not humble and apter to think meanly of your own gifts and doings proportionably than of other mens How unsavoury is it to hear a Non-conformist come from a profitable Sermon of a Conformist saying to hinder the peoples benefit This is poor dry stuff and carping at every incongruous word as much as to say I can do much better Through Gods Mercy some Conformists preach better than many of you can do 4. Yet difference between Conformable Ministers and own not the Ministry of any that are utterly incompetent and intolerable Hear them not ordinarily for though I say not that all their Ministrations are nullities yet I say that you should not encourage an intollerable undertaker to destroy himself and others By into crable men I mean First Such as are ignorant of or erroneous against the essentials of Christianity Secondly Such as are utterly unable to teach them others Thirdly Such as malignantly Preach down the practice of a holy life Or in a word those whose Ministry is such as really tendeth to do more hurt than good from such turn away Yea where the Conformable Minister may be tolerable in case no better could be had yet if indeed his teaching be so trifling and sapless as is like to do but little good let compassion move you to take more liberty your selves to teach the people there than under worthyer Men. Too many such young raw triflers I confess I have heard my self and I would not have order or humility pretended to turn Preaching into a Ceremony lest all Religion be next taken but for a Ceremony It is a serious work and must be seriously done 5 If you live where the Conformable Parish Minister is faithful truly endeavouring the salvation of his Flock I charge you in the name of Christ Do not onely if possible as much as in you lyeth live in love familiarity and peace with him but also do all that you can to maintain his honour and promote his work Be not Strangers to him Distance breedeth uncharitable thoughts If you hear or see any thing that you dislike go privately and lovingly and tell him of it If any behind his back dishonour him rebuke them If he look for some superiority over you and some observance from you deny it not It is a duty to submit to one another You can tell a Prelate that he that will be the greatest must be the Servant of all Practice as you preach He that scorns to stoope is proud as well as he that would have Men stoope to him Live with him as a Brother and as a Servant in meekness humility and gentleness of behaviour And do not like our young passionate Persons trample upon him as if his Conformity had put him as a sinner below you as more Holy than he and under the Magistery of your Reproofe You and I think that he hath sinned But he thinks that it is we that sin And he that is without sin let him cast the first stone I charge you Love him as your selves and behind his back say nothing and do nothing but what is fit to testifie such love Let all men thus know that you are Christs Disciples For all your Nonconformity you are no better than he if you be not more Charitable than he If you set your selves in a dividing way secretly to rejoice at his Disparagement and to draw as many from him as you can you are but Destroyers of the Church of God Call your selves what you will I will call you Destroyers if you are Dividers Yea much that else would be your Duty must be omitted to avoid Division The work of God the good of Souls the Defence of the Protestant Religion agaiâ—st Papists require your most conjoyned strength And you are be rayers of all these if you are Dividers Suppose your selves as Chappel Curats under the Parish Ministers and so in concord perform your work 6. Therefore go as oft as you can to his Congregation and hold Communion personally with him and lead the people with you Do not say Now we have opportunity to do better it is unlawful to joyn with them that do worse For thoug it be not lawful for you to neglect your own Duty and opportunity it is lawful for you by Deed as well as Word to shew your Christian Concord and Communion and so to do may make it at that time much better which else in regard of the manner would be worse Otherwise if one Preacher pray and preach better than all the rest all the people should be bound to forsake their Ministers go to him as one that doth better But bonum est ex causis integris Disjunction and ill effects your better mode of Worship worse 7. Therefore in Parishes where all may well hear the Parish Minister I would not have you without necessity preach at the same hour as he doth but at some middle time that you may not seem to vie with him for Auditors nor to draw the people from him But let them go with you to hear him and after come and hear you or before But in London and great Parishes where all cannot come to the Parish Church as also in Parishes where the Minister is not to be owned I perswade you to no such observation It is so inconvenient to the people there to be cast upon unmeet hours that I perswade you not to do it 8. Where the Parish Minister is to be heard by you and your hearers I think it best to preach ther but once a day and at some neighbour place that hath most need the other part My reasons are First Because the people cannot hear and digest four Sermons a day nor three well and those that hear you twice will not go to the Parish Church and so you will but draw them away from that which might profit them as
Worship must renounce communion with all the World and all with him Unteach them that false conceit that all Book-prayers are unlawful yea or all that is imposed Read over to them those Psalms that have frequent repetitions and responses that they may know that such are not unlawful If it be lawful for the people to sing Gods praise it is not unlawful to say it Do you doubt of the consequence Prove to us what difference there was between the ancient singing and our Laudatory saying and you will find your task too hard Unteach them that paultry principle of placing Religion in being cross to the rest of the Congregation As when they will not stand up at the Creed or at all the Hymns of praise when reason and use tell us that standing up is a convenient praising gesture and when the primitive Churches from an unknown original calling it an Apostolical Tradition unanimously commanded standing only in all the Lords Days Adorations which because we cannot now well observe it is decently confined to praises only And in this the Conformists do better and more decently than you and it is sorry perversness to fly from a better way because that others use it Unteach them their unwarrantable self-made Tests of Church Communion as if there must be any other proof of Holiness needs given besides a sober profession of Christianity that is of the Baptismal Covenant not provedly contradicted by Heresie or a wicked life If we are Non-Conformists because we cannot comply with all that we think to be invented uncapable terms of Communion from others why shall we make such engines to divide the Churches our selves and do the very things which we condemn in others Unteach them their expectations that all the Church must be satisfied of the sincerity of each Communicant or that the presence of the unworthy who are admitted by their own false profession or by the Ministers fault doth make it unlawfull to others there to communicate The Book called The Cure of Church Divisions will tell you more such dividing principles which you must unteach them The Ministers that have bred and cherished these have bin our subverters and are our shame and such principles are the shame of too many well meaning honest people Woe to the selfish Teachers that for their personal interest dare not contradict them but cherish them into their dividing errours when their eyes are opened and they see their mistakes they will be tempted to shew their own dislike of them by running as far on the extreame of formality In a word help to save Religious people from being superstitious while they cry out against superstition and make them know that a Religion which consisteth in our own modes and ways of worship and in decrying other mens may stand with all unmortified sin and that the flesh is no more denyed by sitting than by kneeling and that to say I am Godly because my gestures and orders are more Scriptural than the Conformists is a pittiful way for an Hypocrite to cheat his soul and make them know that few things have hardened men against Religion and made Non-Conformists a scorn instead of being helpers of mens souls so much as to see that many place their Religion in superstitions of their own Touch not tast not handle not and make it piety to avoid that as sin which is no sin and then men judge of all the rest by this 13. And I will presume to tell you my opinion as of a matter not absolutely necessary but at this time of such convenience as if I were to keep a Church Meeting I would resolve upon it as my duty and that is that your own practice now shew a sound and healing judgement about that Church troubling Controversie of Praying freely or by Forms even that now you would seasonably do both The contention about this hath bin childish and yet a fire not yet quenched in the Church while one belyeth God as if he had forbidden all FREE Prayer in the Church and others belye him as if he had forbidden all Forms or Book-prayer when God hath left both free to be done as edification most requireth His understanding is low that thinketh either of them simply unlawful and he knoweth little in such matters that knoweth not that both ways have many and great conveniences and both have many and great accidental inconveniences which having enumerated else where I must not now repeat And they that are all for the one only or the other only shall have all the inconveniences with the benefits but he that will seasonably use both shall have the benefits of both and the least part of the inconveniences of either Therefore in the Churches of England free prayers were allowed in the Pulpits after the Liturgy And pardon me for saying that when this petty controversie hath so much distracted us those Ministers that use but one way onely seem scandalously to the people to be onely for that way and so do harden them in their errour and keep the fire burning in the Church He that prayeth only by Book or Form perswadeth the poor people that free prayer is Fanatical uncertain and unlawful and they that never pray otherwise perswade the poor people that all Forms or Book-prayers are unlawful if a whole party agree in forbearing all Forms at such a time as this when so many take them for unlawful And so they corrupt mens very Religion and teach them to make duties and sins to themselves which God never made and thereby set them in a way of Hypocrisie Self-delusion and endless quarreling with others I prescribe to no man and toleration so far taketh off publick Impositions as that none can now say This Form is imposed on me and therefore unlawful But though I will not bind my self I here tell the world That if my strength and toleration and a call should ever more give me opportunity for the free exercise of mine Office I would sometimes pray freely without Forms and sometimes use some part of the common Liturgy and sometimes use the Reformed Liturgy which in 1660. was agreed on by the Commissioned Non-Conformists though being done in extream hast it should be reviewed and perfected I would ordinarily pronounce the Creed as the Faith which the Church Assembleth in the profession of and ordinarily recite the Lords Prayer and Decalogue and read two Chapters and the Psalms And they that would not joyn in this way of Worship should freely go choose them a Teacher more agreeable to their opinions for I would not serve the humours of any in their dividing errours And Brethren endure me to tell you 1. That pleasing the ignorant professors humours is a sin that sheweth us too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last 2. And that I confess to you I think your day is short and that it is now of more importance what the future effects of your course will be to posterity or those to
come than how it will take with your present followers And when the History of this Age is written do that now which you would have there recorded My chief meaning is This will be a controversie when we are dead and gone Do that now which being recorded may best tend to the right decision of it then Leave to Posterity now you have liberty that example as well as words which thou would have them follow Tempt not future Contenders to plead that all Forms are unlawful by your examples If any say We shall thus loose our people and the Separatists who will cherish all such humours will have them all I answer We have too long tryed the pleasing way already and see that we cure not but cherish their disease Take Gods way and let us deny our selves as well with the humourous people as we have done with the Conformists and then leave the issue to God And if they will follow Separatists it is fitter that they be mislead by such erroneous persons than by you 14. And on this occasion let me say a word to this kind of Religious people Is it not a shame to you that your worthiest Ministers should be fain to go besides their own judgement in Gods Worship to humour you And that they must tell the world We would mix Free-prayer and Forms in publick but the people then will be gone to the Separatists I say not that they go against their Consciences For their consciences have directed them to omit what else would have bin fittest lest crossing your humour it should drive you away to your own subversion But how came you to be so much holyer and wiser than the Holyest and wisest of your Teachers Mark is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of the old experienced Christians Is it not a high degree of Pride for persons of your standing and understanding to conclude that allmost all Christs Churches in the World for these thirteen hundred years at least to this day have offered such worship unto God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it And that allmost all the Catholick Church on earth this day is below your Communion for using Forms And that even Calvin and the Presbyterians Cartwright Hildersham and the old Non-conformists were unworthy of your Communion Would you have run away from Dod or Perkins or from Cyprian or Augustine and said They are formal Fellows not to be joyned with Doth God use by Miracle to make self-conceited Women and young Men so much wiser than the most ancient studious experienced Divines It is best then to turn Preachers before we grow old and to avoid study and experience lest it make us more ignorant than we were Brethren and Friends I profess for your sincerity many of you are our joy and it is not a little that we have done and suffered for your sakes But I must tell you for Adversaries will tâ—ll if you that for your ignorance injudiciousness pride self-conceitedness you are our grief and shame We are hit in the teeth with such self-wise ignorant giddy unpeaceable followers And we have nothing to say but to blush and say that you mean well and that it is not long of us Can Gods Spirit which ordaineth Elders to be Pastors in his Church be the Guide of your judgements when with such shameless pride you set up your errours against the knowledge of your Guides If you are wisest be you the Pastors which some are prone enough to arrogate It shameth us it grieveth us to see and hear from England and from New-England this common cry We are endangered by Divisions principally because the self conceited part of the Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be Rulers of the Church and them Yea I tell you with truth and grief I am confident next to mens own sin which leaveth them to a judicial delusion nothing hath done more to set up Popery and the Prelacy you dislike than the scandalous instances of your unruliness and Church tearing humours And that you have made more Papists than ever you or we are like to recover Nothing is any whit considerable that a Papist hath to say till he cometh to your case and saith Doth not experience tell you that without Papal unity and force these people will never be ruled or united It is you that tempt them to use fire and Fagot that will not be Ruled nor kept in concord by the wisest and holyest and most self-denying Ministers on Earth Even Ainsworth the Learnedest and Godlyest Pastor of the Separatists though he went with them beyond Sea and was of their opinion and carded wooll to maintain himself while he was their Teacher yet could not keep that one separated Church in peace And must you even you that should be our comfort become our shame and break our hearts and make men Papists by your temptation Woe to the World because of offences and woe to some by whom they come I thank God I speak not my own case I think those many Religious people that I have had the oversight of are as ready to be ruled by me and as undivided as any that ever I have known But alas in too many places it is otherwise Should the Ministers in London that have suffered so long but use any part of the Liturgy and Scripture Forms though without any motive but the pleasing of God the Churches good what muttering and censuring would there be against them And woe to those few Teachers that make up their designs by cherishing these distempers One would think that their warning had bin fair But si nati sint ad bis perdendam Angliam The Lord have mercy on us 15. Seeing places and numbers and other Church-circumstances are matters left to humane prudence be sure that you prudentially discern the divesity of duties according to the diversity of places and occasions These things I here include First That you be not of those Church-tearers opinion who must have all go just one way in all those undetermined variable things And will censure all and take them for dividers that do not as they do Secondly That Edification or the Publick good is the end rule and measure of these Prudential actions Thirdly That in looking to this rule and end you must not look only to your present Congregation or the present Age but to all the Churches abroad and to posterity Fourthly That nothing here should be rashly done but by great advise Fifthly That therefore other Brethren as well dissenting as consenting Ministers should for safety be consulted with not to be your Governours but for Counsel and for Concord Sixthly To which end correspondencies of Ministers is necessary 16. In those places where the name of a distinct Church and that your administration of the Sacraments is like to do more harm than good it
is your duty to forbear it and only to Teach How to discern this Prudence and Counsel must direct you If there be a worthy Parish Minister and the people are all or almost all satisfied or may be satisfied by you to communicate with him according to the liturgy and if your own administration would stir up so much offence and hurt as that the benefit cannot countervail it the case is plain But if you live in London or where all the people cannot come to the Parish Church or the Minister is intollerable and the good is like on prudent advise to be apparently greater then the hurt I know not but you may 1. Know your flock by name 2. And take it either as a Chappel in some places or as a distinct Neighbour Church in other places 3. Duely Administer the Sacraments 4. And soberly and wisely use Christs Discipline 17. Be sure that the Concord of all the true Protestant Non-Conformists Churches be established upon the simple ancient Catholick terms and not upon any self-devised Additions That is that all that own the Scripture in general and the Baptismal Covenant the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue in particular as the summary of Holy Belief holy Desires and holy Practice be taken for fellow Christians till it be proved against them that by Heresie or wickedness they nullifie this profession This is the Rule and Test of universal concord Here all agree And if after this one Church will use Forms of Prayer and another will not one will Baptize Infants and another will delay it c. they are differences that must be born where Love and Reason cannot heal them without breach of Charity Concord or Communion yea in the same Church such different opinions may be born further than as those that dissent from the Pastors mode of worship will separate themselves when none rejecteth them We have all naturally a Pope born in us and when men have never so much talkt against Popery and Prelacy too many censure or run away from all that are not of their way If any tell you that so wide an enterance will let into the Church Socinians and other Hereticks who will mis-expound the words Ask them again First Whether Baptising men is not a taking them into the Church And whether the Apostles and Churches for many hundred years required any more of those that were Baptized And whether their business be to shew themselves wiser than the Apostles and the primitive Church Secondly Whether Hereticks will not subscribe to all the Scripture while they misinterpret it And whether all the Scripture therefore be not big enough for a Creed Thirdly Whether all Heresie be not a contradiction of some of the aforesaid Articles of Faith and he that saith I believe this Creed and all that is contrary to it renounce not all Heresie Fourthly Whether all Laws be faulty which men can misinterpret And whether the Law must be changed and enlarged as oft as any break it Fifthly Whether all the Volumns of General Councils be not yet too little by that rule the sence of many being still controverted Sixthly If we must have new Creeds and Church Articles as oft as Hereticks misexpound the old whether it be not in the power of the Devil and Hereticks to make our Faith ridiculously alterable every year till it grow intolerably voluminous Seventhly And who is it that must be still the Creed-makers or menders And where will they stop And how shall we know when we have all Eighthly Is he a wise Pastor that readeth how the Churches have ever since the Council at Nice bin distracted with new Creeds and yet will take no warning Read how Hilary Pict inveigheth against them When they vexed Hierome himself with suspicions of Heresie about the Trinity because he was not for the term Hypostasis as a person his answer was They ask me of my Belief or Faith as if I had bin New-born or Baptized without a Belief As if he should say Is it not a true and sufficient Creed or profession of Faith which we all make at Baptism Why else are we Baptized Ninethly Tell them that Pastors indeed must know more than all the people but not by having a new Creed or Scripture but at their Oraination they are to give an account of a fuller understanding the same Creed than the people must do And the Ordainers must examine them where they suspect them of Heresie Tenthly Lastly Tell them that no more than this is necessary at the door but if any after prove an Heretick the accuser must prove it by him and what is the use of Church-Discipline but to reform him or cast him out And Laws will not serve alone instead of Judgement If they say that a Heretick may do much mischief before it can be proved against him Tell them 1. That it must not be Thoughts but Words that do mischief in the Church And Words are proveable 2. That such proud tyrannical overdoers have bin the Churches undoers And it is they that have done as much mischief as most Hereticks And that they that will be so much wiser and better than God as to keep out all Heresie by their self-conceited ways are the men that let in Heresie and Impiety and keep or cast out faithful Pastors and are the Officers and Agents of the great Divider and Destroyer of the Churches Let me add Brethren we that have lived in an Age when the Engines of Church-Division have so sadly prospered and have smarted thereby and born our Testimony against them are doubly obliged to leave this Testimony of ours to Posterity to warn them that if possible they may escape the snare And therefore TO PUBLISH THIS OUR JUDGEMENT and OUR OWN CONCORD ON THESE PRIMITIVE TERMS to all the World as against the Romish tyrannical-uncertain-confounding Church-dividing and still growing Articles of Faith Remembring that the same men that have made their Religion so big as that the French Impression of it viz. their Councils is too dear for the purse of a Non-conformable Minister can yet tell you that even â—aith in Christ himself explicite is not absolutely necessary at least to justification and that the knowledge even of much of the Law of nature as well as of the Gospel may not be absolutely necessary as Sancta Clara Deus-Nat-Grat Problem 15. and 16. proveth out of the Schoolmen at large 18. Manage your Ministerial converse prudently and piously The converse of Ministers is of great use and therefore frequent Meetings needful Use them to these ends 1. To advise and prevent the effects of rashness or imprudencie in Church affairs when every weak man hath the use of the wisdom of all his seniors it is safe 2. To preserve Concord and prevent backbitings animosities and sactions and discordant scandalous singularities 3. That young Ministers may be Learners as well as Teachers and may grow up under the Helpes of their Seniors I think therefore you may best thus