which may be managed with a strong bit and bridle as you please This is the sense of Mr. A's words in his Preface and what hurt is there in them Do not all Protestants speak the same language And is it not better that men eâ—r in some things than that they put out their eyes and see with those of other men blindly following their conduct and submitting and assenting to all their Impositions But the Dr. will say Is Separation by reason of the levity of mens minds only a small or petty inconvenience In answer whereunto I would distinguish of Separation There is a Separation that proceeds upon reasons apparently true and such is the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and this is a great and necessary duty There is a Separation that proceeds upon probable reasons which sometimes are not cogent nor conclusive and yet they may be such as honest and upright minded men may not be able to free themselves from being entangled and fettered by them This is an inconvenience and whether it be great or small I know not how 't will be avoided in this state of weakness and imperfection but by remedies worse than the disease But that which to my apprehension seems the best way of avoiding it is Let nothing be made necessary to Communion in Churches but a few plain necessary things and this would certainly put an end to the most of those Divisions and Separations that have and do vex the Christian Churches and the Church of England especially and particularly But there is a Separation that proceeds upon reasons apparently false such is the Separation of the Socinians from the Reformed Churches and such is the Separation of many in the Church of England This is intollerable and by all prudent and Christian means and endeavours to be repressed By Separation here I mean not barely refusing Communion but setting up new Churches in opposition to those they have forsaken But it may be enquired further Whether Separation upon probable weak and unconcluding reasons be not sinful I answer Yes but what if it be there is some difference in sins as most men believe and I see no great reason to doubt of it and 't is my opinion that neither all Sinners nor all Schismaticks that are truly such must be sent to the Mines or to the Galleys In brief God will make a difference between Sinners at the day of Judgment and I do believe that the Governours of Churches both Civil and Ecclesiastical should make some difference between them here In the mean time I would not be thought either to excuse or encourage unjustifiable Separations I would that the sinfulness of such Separation should be laid open with all its just aggravations and that all just means be used by the Ministers of the Gospel to prevent and hinder it yea and something by the Magistrate too but if Separation cannot be prevented I mean such as proceeds upon probable but not concluding reasons by those endeavours it must be endured an inconvenience being more eligible than a mischief and many things are and must be suffered in all societies that are not nor ought not to be approved Such was divorce in the Jewish Commonwealth and some things else in that and other societies of men If it be said that the Church of England doth not impose any thing upon its members by meer authority as the Church of Rome doth nor doth it force them to resign their reason to naked will and pleasure nor command belief of those notorious falshoods which that imperious and Apostate Synagogue of Satan doth I answer 't is readily granted and we bless God for it that this Church doth impose nothing that is apparently and grosly false it commands no Idolatrous Worship no opinions contrary to the common sense of mankind no invocation of Saints Prayers for the dead no Pilgrimages to Shrines no ridiculous or sottish Superstitions but though it impose nothing grosly false foolish or Superstitious yet some men think and I know not how to confute them that it imposes some things dubious uncertain and unnecessary from which the Clergy cannot dissent but thereby they shut themselves out of their office and become uncapable of exercising their Ministry with the countenance and protection of the Laws And if the Laity doubt the truth of any of its Impositions and do publish their doubts and will be pertinacious in the defence of them they are liable to excommunication and all that is consequent unto it and in these things this Church is peremptory and admits of no indulgence Subscribe or Preach not the Gospel speak nothing to the disparagement of any thing in the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy or you shall be excommunicated and given up to the Devil Thus it speaks and this is its Language I do easily grant that this Church pretends not to Infallibility as the Church of Rome doth but in whatsoever it determines it avows it self not mistaken or deceived And what is the difference in effect between a Church that assumes to it self the title and approbation of Infallible and a Church that says I am not mistaken in my Determinations and Impositions Suppose two persons one a Nestorian the other an Eutichian the one proposes in certain Articles his Doctrine so as confounds Christs Natures and withal tells you he is Infallible and you must subscribe to and acknowledg the truth of it or prepare your self for the Axe or the Gallows the other proposes his Doctrine so as he divides Christs Person but pretends not to be Infallible but says his Doctrine is true and he is not mistaken in it and 't is at your pleasure and in your choice either to subscribe it or prepare your self for the Mines of Peru and the Indies The Application is obvious and every one can make it without my manuduction or direction But let me not be said to defame this Church I have said already that it imposes nothing grosly and apparently false but only some things unnecessary and uncertain I will add here the penalties imposed upon those that refuse to own and acknowledg or do defame its determinations are not so severe nor sanguinary as in the Roman Church nor peradventure so certainly and severely executed but whether the peremptory imposing things doubtful controverted useless and unnecessary upon the legal and established penalties be not tyrannical and imperious would deserve a little consideration Why must all Ministers be obliged to subscribe to all things in the 39. Articles Liturgy and Book of Ordination as containing nothing contrary to the Word of God Why must they subscribe the 20th Article concerning the power of the Church to ordain Rites and Ceremonies Why must they assent to the 8th Article where 't is said that the Athanasian Creed ought throughly to be received and believed why must the salvation of Infants being baptized and dying before the commission of actual sin be acknowledged as certain by the Word
and Censures and I am very well content they have them provided they will or can discharge them But of the impossibility of that I am past doubt for though the Diocesses of our English Bishops be not so great as that of the Pope which the Dr. acknowledges to be too great and spacious yet I think they are too large for their management and that the duty incumbent on them with respect unto them is utterly impracticable Mount Athos Polion or Ossa are neither of them so great as the Globe of the earth yet they are all burthens utterly insupportable Whether the Dr. will allow this multiplication of Bishops or Suffragans rather that the name Bishop may not become too common and so become less venerable I cannot tell I find him in many places of his Book and in his Preface very jealous of the honour of our Reformation and positively resolved never to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor the lawfulness of the Ceremonies hitherunto practised in it vide Pref. p. 89. I have my self a very great esteem for the Reformation of this Church and a mighty honour for the great and incomparable Hero's that were the Reformers of it but 't is no disparagement to say they were but men though the greatest men nor is it any Reproach to the Reformation to say it was imperfect The Learned and Pious Dr. Burnet hath observed divers defects and imperfections in it and I know not how they can be denied and to speak the truth concerning it is not to reproach it And what if it should be said that among others 't was an imperfection in our Reformation that the number of Bishops was not increased so far as that they might be sufficient for the work and duty incumbent on them Can a Bishop inspect the Clergy in a Diocess of the present dimensions can he exercise the Censures of the Church upon all the culpable delinquents in it can he confirm all the Children in it can he ordain Priests for all the Parishes therein with that circumspection wariness and care which was observed by the primitive Bishops and which the honour of this Church the Christian Religion and the salvation of souls doth require Doth the Reverend Dr. think those things can be done by any the most diligent and industrious Bishop on earth I dare say he cannot think it possible and if he doth not think it possible I would enquire further of him whether he does not think it very necessary and desirable that all this work were put into more hands that they may be capable of performing it for till then I am much assured it can never be done however necessary or desirable it may be These things being said I will now add I shall never desire the Dr. to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor will I brlieve many of the Nonconformists desire him to do it but I would humbly desire him to put to his helping hand for the amendment and perfecting of it and to perfect and compleat it is not to condemn it 't is only to confess it a little short of that perfection that it may attain and what great work is perfect of a sudden at its birth into the world In brief Diocesan Episcopacy I like and that 's the Constitution of this Church and so doth Mr. B. for ought that I can see but I would fain have more Bishops not to controul Episcopal Power but to assist in the performance of Episcopal Duty Page 301. The Dr. undertakes to confute what Mr. B. had said viz. that wherever there is the true notion of a Church there must be a constitutive regent part i. e. a standing governing power which is an essential part of it and this he promises to do from Mr. B. himself How well he hath done it let the Reader judg by what the Author of the Peaceable Design hath replied to him upon this Subject But the Dr. infers from what Mr. B. had said of the necessity of a Regent Head to every Church as followeth And so Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope a wonderful kindness and made a very plausible plea for his universal Pastorship But there are some men in the world who do not attend to the advantages they give to Popery so they may vent their spleen against the Church of England To which I answer Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope no kindness at all for another visible Head may be assigned to the Catholick Church and that is the holy Jesus he is both the visible and invisible Head thereof he is unto it both a Head of government and a Head of influence he governs it by his Laws and by the influence of his Spirit and hath appointed inferiour officers for the government and direction of it according to his own institutions and though he be not seen by mortals here below yet he is visible and that is enough to constitute him the visible Head of the Catholick visible Church There are some Kingdoms that never see their Prince and in all Kingdoms multitudes of Subjects that never lay their eyes on him and yet he is never the less their Civil visible Head But there are some men in the world that will take very small occasions to signifie their displeasure against Mr. B. and what hath he done to deserve their lash and why must he be the Subject of these most twinging Satyrs they are the words of a late Author and what is the spleen that he vents against the Church of England that makes their choler to ferment and boyl 'T is true Mr. B. doth with a brave and generous courage rebuke what he thinks amiss in the gnvernours and government of the Church of England he speaks plainly and without respect of persons he flatters none nor fawns upon none but indifferently reproves whatever he thinks worthy of it in whomsoever it be And if this be to vent his spleen against the Church of England I think he hath very venerable patterns and examples for it both in the Old Testament and the New as this Learned Dr. very well knows If it should be said that Mr. B. reproves where there is no fault I answer I should much rejoice if this were true and I believe so would Mr. B. as well as I but he must shut his eyes against the mid-day light that thinks there is no fault in the Government of this Church or nothing worthy of the plainest and most keen reproofs therein 'T were very easie to name many things if a man delighted to rake in Sinks and Kennels I mean the proceedings in the Spiritual Courts Page 302. The Dr. tells us that Mr. B. had said in his Answer to his Sermon that he would fain learn of him what those rules and ties are which make a National Church whether divine or humane If it be a divine rule we says Mr. B. are of the National
Church as well as you if humane he enquires how consent in these makes a National Church and how they come to be of the National Church which do not consent in them and objects the differences among the Conformable Clergy in the exposition of some of the Articles of this Church To which the Dr. answers three things I shall take notice only of the last of them viz. There is no difference among us concerning the lawfulness of the orders of our Church and duty of submission to them if there be any other differences they are not material and I believe are no other than in the manner of explaining some things which may happen in the best society in the world without breaking the peace of it as about the difference of orders the sense of some passages in the Athanasian Creed the true explication of one or two Articles which are the things he i. e. Mr. B. mentions A multitude of such differences will never overthrow such a consent among us as to make us not to be members of the same National Church To the first lines of this Paragraph which concern the agreement of the Members of this Church in the lawfulness of its orders and the duty of submission to them I shall reply nothing To the rest I say I am perfectly of the Dr's opinion and were it reduced to practice it would heal the most of the divisions and put a period to most of the separations that have rent and torn this Church in pieces for many years Why might not the Dissenters among us have been permitted to have continued in the Ministry and in the Church though they differed in some things in their judgments from the Conformable Clergy Would it have broken the peace thereof any more than the various apprehensions that are at present among themselves They are not all of a mind in the five points some of them understand and believe them after the sense of Calvin and others after the sense of Arminius and I might mention many others wherein they differ among themselves but the thing is sufficiently known and there is no need of it And are the differences among the Conformists themselves reconcilable with peace and those wherein the Nonconformists differ from them though they be no greater than the other irreconcilable with it What strange partiality is this Conformists may differ in multitudes of things without breaking the peace of the Church but if those that are Dissenters differ from them in a few impertinent and uncertain things the peace of the Church is subverted and all things put into confusion thereby The Conformists doubt at least some of them whether Bishops and Presbyters do differ in order or in degree some are past all doubt concerning it and do affirm they differ in order and not barely in degree This breaks no peace The Nonconformists cannot find that Word of God whereby 't is certain that children indefinitely which are baptized dying before they commit actual siâ— are undoubtedly saved and they are not very sure that all children that are baptized are regenerate by the â—â—irit or that they may safely say of all that they bury that God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the soul of the deceased person and give him hearty thanks that it hath pleased him to deliver him out of the afflictions of this sinful world and these are such dreadful and formidable things that the Church cannot be safe if the Members or at least any of the Preachers in it dispute the truth of them and therefore out they must go and if they attempt to exercise their Ministerial Office after they are ejected they are immediately the most damnable Schismaticks that ever the world did know and Prisons Fines Confiscations Banishments and all that is evil is beneath their sin and trangression Why a difference of opinion in these things might not be consistent with peace as well as in others that are of as great and somewhat greater import at least in my apprehension I am not able to divine if nothing but Reason and Religion were to determine concerning them but if spight malice and revenge and some other of those Antichristian passions be called to counsel and permitted to judg of them 't is not difficult to give a reason of the differing natures of these differences why some are judged consistent with peace and others utterly inconsistent with it But enough of this paragraph I shall conclude with one supplication to all the Conformable Clergy in England on the behalf of the Dissenters and 't is this That they may be permitted to differ from them in things of no greater moment than those in which they differ among themselves If it be said 't is not in their power to permit it I answer Time was when it was very much in their power to have done it and I think they might do well to use some endeavours to retrieve it or at least give some evidence that they wish well to it This I think is no unreasonable request how it may be resented I know not 't is the love of this Church and the peace thereof that hath caused me to propose it and that shall satisfie my mind But having said this on the behalf of the Dissenters I must add a word or two on my own behalf and that is That a fair and passable sense may be and is put upon these passages mentioned from the Rubrick and Liturgy by the Conformable Clergy and amongst them by my self but what is that to those whose judgments and consciences will not permit them to put that sense upon them All mens minds are not cast in the same mould all cannot admit that latitude of sense and exposition in those and many other things that some men do and can without offence and neglect to their consciences and must they therefore be shut out of the Vineyard of the Lord and denied the liberty of working there Certainly this is a severe method of proceeding and hardly reconcilable with the Laws of Christianity The Learned Dr. in several places of his Book represents Mr. A. as unlearned unread and very weak in his reafoning and argumentations Page 174. he accuses him of childish trifling about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Canon and in the same page and that next to it he mislikes his explication of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he observes from Grotius is not found in one Manuscript the sense whereof he thus expresses What we have attained let us walk up to the same and that Greek phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says implies no more than minding that very thing viz. v. 14. pressing towards the mark and then adds But if he had pleased to have read on to Phil. 4.2 he would have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie unanimity and St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.25 opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 th t there be
will never agree unless it be in a few plain great and necessary things and that in multitudes of lesser things they will dissert for ever and that in this diversity of understandings 't is impossible it should be otherwise and that under this diversity of apprehensions there will be some diversity of practises too where men fear God and have a value for their own Consciences and the suggestions thereof is he fit to bear the Office of a Bishop or a Priest that is ignorant of these things surely he is very little acquainted in the great variety and imperfections of humane minds that thinks that all Christians will ever be of one mind in many lesser things and he is as little acquainted with the Consciences of men that thinks honest Christians will be of the same practice where their judgments are so much divided I will conclude this Paragraph with the following Story which will serve to evince the incurableness of some peoples jealousies and scruples and I 'le do it in the words of the person that sent it to me I know a Gentlewoman whose Parents were of the Congregational persuasion and such was her education nâ—vertheless after her marriage her husband being conformable she accompanied him to the publick worship of God and this she did for some years but all this time her scruples and her fears and the jealousies of her Conscience did so plague and torment her that she had little or no comfort in her life yea heâ— bodily health was very much weakned and impaired by the perturbations of her mind this having been her condition for some years at length she forsook the publick and established worship betook her self to a Congregational Church and now lives in peace and tollerable heath The Gentlewoman I do believe is truly pious and conscientious and doth avow that could she be satisfied of the lawfulness of attending on the publick way of worship she would do it with all her heart Her reason and arguments may be easily answered and she may be silenced and one would think her judgment satisfied but her scruples return again like a Torrent and she cannot resist them and in plain English are incurable without some very great and transforming impressions from above And this is no rare or single case but what often occurs as those men know that converse with the consciences of Christians The Dr. returns again to the Author of the Letter out of the Countrey pag. 376. and thus he speaks concerning him The main force of what he saith i.e. the Author of that Letter lyes in this that those that cannot conquer thier scruples as to Communion with our Church must either return to the state of Paganism or set up new Churches by joining with the ejected Ministers To which the Dr. replies This is new Doctrine and never heard of in the days of the old Puritans for they supposed men obliged to continue in the communion of this Church although there were some things they scrupled and could not conquer those scruples and this they supposed to be far enough from Paganism The old Puritans did suppose that those that scrupled Ministerial communion were obliged to continue as Lay-men in the communion of this Church But what is this to those that scruple Lay-commuion which is the case of many now in England And what shall these people do they must either communicate against their Consciences or joyn with the ejected Ministers or live as Pagans and which it is the Dr. will advise them to I cannot tell but 't is possible we may know hereafter If he should say they must put off their scruples and communicate with the license and approbation of their consciences I say so too 'T is their duty to endeavour it but what if after all the endeavours they can use they cannot disentangle their minds from them what shall they do then I beseech the Learned Dr. to give some directions to these scrupulous persons in this case In the same Page the Dr. desires to know whether as often as men do scruple joyning with others their separation be lawful And I do desire to know whether all unlawful separation be intollerable and whether all Schismaticks that are truly so must be imprisoned ruined and undone or sent to Cancasus and the Caspian Mountains When the Dr. hath answered this enquiry peradventure he may receive and Answer to the other if he cannot answer it himself The D. adds in the same and the following Page If it be lawful to separate as often as men scruple the lawfulness of joyning in communion with out Church 't is in vain to talk of any setled Constitution whether Episcopal Presbyterian or Independent for this Principle overthrows them all To which I answer I do not think it lawful to separate as often as men scruple joyning in communion yet I do believe it lawful to tolerate some unlawful separations yea and necessary too but let no unnecessary occasions of scruple and separation be given Let no separations for the sake of undoubted truths and the great essentials of Faith and Godliness be allowed Let the Congregations in the Nation be furnished with pious and holy Ministers and some discipline exercised in them and 't will be found that the number of Separatists will not be great and a stop will be put to the progress and encrease of them and a few years will reduce them almost to none for if the Causes of Separation be looked into they will be found to be the imposing and requiring of unnecessary and doubtful things ignorant and scandalous Preachers and undisciplined Churches Whether these things will justifie it I will not say but that they are the main Causes of it cannot be denied by any considering man And if these be not removed Separation will be continued unless the Popish method of Cure be undertaken viz. Fire and Faggot Racks and Tortures Confiscations and Punishments which certainly are Remedies that were never taught by Christ Jesus the Lover and Saviour of mankind but by the Devil the great enemy hater and destroyer of them And let me add further that I see no reason to infer that toleration of Separation upon tolerable scruples will destroy all Government in the Church for I think there was a Government in the Church when the Novatians were tolerated both at Rome and Constantinople for some hundreds of years as the Doctor very well knows and I hope we have a Government in the Nation though some men transgress the established Laws thereof yea and are permitted so to do with impunity Yet I would distinguish between Separation in the bud and blossome and Separation ripe and grown as 't is with us in England and I would say that some things may be done and some severities used to crush and prevent the encrease of it when budding which may not be done to extinguish and root it out when it s grown and encreased and the number of those that separate is very great and numerous Some few single Schismaticks not that are made such by unnecessary Impositions but such as make themselves such by unreasonable and unwarrantable scruples and objections may after the use of admonition teaching and instruction and a patient waiting for the success of them be treated with some rigor and moderate harshness But thousands and ten thousands are too many either to be laid in Gaols or sent to the barren deserts of Arabia or other Countreys at lesser distance from us Page 378. The Learned Dr. wonders that none of those who have undertaken to defend the cause of Separation have taken any care to put stop to it or to let us know where we may fix and see an end of it which scruples are to be allowed and what not and whether it be lawful to separate as long as men can go on in scruples and say they cannot conquer them Mr. B I suppose is one of them which the Doctor believes hath undertaken to defend the cause of Separation and I wonder the Doctor should not observe that he hath taken care to put a stop to it and let us know what scruples are to be allowed and what not Hath he not said over and over even to times without number That a difference is to be made betwixt tolerable and intolerable scruples and errors betwixt scruples that may be defended by probable reasons and such as have nothing to be pleaded on their behalf but apparent and obvious falshoods betwixt scruples about unnecessary and disputable things and such as are about necessary and undoubted truths and so owned and confessed by all Christians and in saying this he hath told us what scruples are to be allowed and what not and where to put a stop to Separation 'T is true these are but general rules to direct us by in judging of allowable and unallowable errors and scruples and where and when to put a stop to Separations but the application of them to particular cases is not difficult and since errors and scruples are infinite I hope the Dr. will not nor doth not expect that Mr. Baxter should name all particularly that are tolerable and intolerable this were to set him and Employment that might last to the worlds end if he could live so long and would prevent his writing of Books to the offence of his Conformable brethren but I think would please many of them very well who are willing to be rid of him and his Books But Sir I have in obedience to your commands put my Sickle too far into other mens Harvests and therefore will here put a period to my Remarks Besides I hear Mr. B. hath replied to the Learned Dr. and that his Book is abroad in the world though I have not seen it as yet living as you know at a great distance and in a small Village that hath little commerce wit London I know you will pardon all the faults and imperfections of these hasty Lines and when you have read them do what you please with them I am SIR Your very true Friend and Servant