A PLEA FOR THE NON-CONFORMISTS TENDING To Justifie them against the Clamorous Charge of SCHISME By a Dr. of Divinity With two Sheets on the same Subject by another Hand and Judgment Vexatio dat intellectum LONDON Printed in the Year 1674. A PLEA for the Nonconformists tending to justifie them against the Clamourous Charge of Schisme § 1. IT was doubtless one of the greatest infelicities which ever befel the whole body of people in these three Nations considering them as universally professing the Doctrine of Christ that in the year 1662. the Settlement of the affairs of Religion with relation to Worship Government was made to no more universal satisfaction but that some thousands of Ministers many of whom their greatest Adversaries being judges were men of no inconsiderable worth and usefulness took themselves obliged rather to lay down the publick exercise of their Ministry then to do what was by Law required of them if they would preserve it and that such a rigid interpretation was at that time in practice put upon the Act of Uniformity as they were not only incapacitated to hold or take Livings but also to Preach occasionally in the publick Temples Whether the Act will necessitate any such sense may deserve the second thoughts of our Superiours § 2. Whether this was Originated in the anger resting in the bosom of some Church-men at that time who had been Sufferers Or in their zeal to continue some Bishops the repute of Martyrs who had suffered for the rigorous enforcing of some of the things now enjoyned or in the desire of some of that filthy lucre which ariseth from pluralities of Livings Dignities sine curare or in their desire to propagate some Doctrines to which they knew the persons who would be ejected would be no more friends then are the Articles of the Church of England as interpreted by King James former all Professors of Divinity in our Universities very many eminent Bishops and once and again by the whole Parliament of England or from one or all of these causes is uncertain to be determined a better Original is hard to fancy while the things required are by our most knowing Eccles Superiours granted not necessary antecedaneously to the Superiors command § 3. Nor could they ever have been made necessary as is now said by the King and Parliament of England had they not been suggested to them as things that in themselves might lawfully be done Nor probably would that suggestion have prevailed with our civil Superiours who in things meerly lawful know sufficiently that they are to govern themselves in their commands by Prudence had they not been also told that the Numbers both of Ministers and People that would refuse were very inconsiderable Their persons and circumstances very invaluable that if once the things were enjoyned the Generality would do them notwithstanding all their pretences of Conscience c. § 4. How true these suggestions were quickly appeared to our Prudent States-men which made the then Lord Chancellour a sufficient friend to Conformity and a Prudent Person before ever the Act took place send for some very valuable persons and propound a Medium to them that they might yet abide in their stations foreseeing the gap would be made the Parishes only providing some who might read the Liturgy but this was too late and the Act would not when it came out admit any such thing § 5. With that rigour the Act was pressed is sufficiently known and how soon after fortified with another Act against private Meetings and with another when that but a probationer for a few years was expired more severe than the former nor did there want those in all parts of the Nation that executed all the Acts with severity so far beyond what those Acts Authorised that they saw need of Indemnity for their actions by further Acts of Grace and Favour How many Godly Ministers and People were during these years not only publickly reviled in Pamphlets and Pulpits but Imprisoned and how many dyed in their imprisonments spoiled of their Livelihoods driven from their Habitations and Trades is but an unpleasant story to reflect upon and with how little success as to the bringing them to conform is abundantly known § 6. In the mean time it pleased his most Excellent Majesty as a tender Father of his People and he who considered his interest lay not in the Division and Ruine of his People but in their Peace and Freedom to attend their several Trades Professions and Callings the King himself as Solomon saith being nourished from the Field to inspect the state of Ecclesiastical affairs and hearing so many Crys from his People with the Advice of his Counsel to direct means for his or their better information about the numbers of Ministers and People dissenting for which purpose Letters were directed in the ordinary course from the Arch-Bishop to the Bishops who by their Registers were to inform themselves and then his most Sacred Majesty of the Number of dissenting Ministers c. § 7. How imperfect the information must be in this method is obvious enough to every one the Return could only be made of those who being possest of Livings Aug. 24. 1662. left them for not Subscribing into which number came not a 5th part of Ministers dissenting 1. None came which 1661 were turned out to give room to others who had a praevious Title to their Livings and were not possest so soon of any other which were very many 2. No Congregational Ministers who had no Legal Titles to Churches 3. None that fore-seeing they could not conform the Act being out did chuse rather to resign their Livings than abide a turning out 4. No young men not possest of Livings though ready for them To say nothing of Anabapt c. To advantage this imperfect account the Author of the Ecclesiastical Polity tells the World of but an hundred Ministers that hindred all Uniformity § 8. But our Wise and Prudent States-men quickly saw through these Fallacies and from their more perfect information of his most Sacred Majesty and the meltings of his own bowels towards the distresses of his People the sound of which came almost from every Court of Judicature and corner of the Nation his most Excellent Majesty and his Privy Counsel took a fuller estimate of the Number both of Ministers and private Christians dissenting from the publick modes of worship § 9. Upon this it was that his Majesty conceiving himself empowred thereto by his Prerogative and a liberty reserved to him by the last Act against Conventicles was pleased to issue out his Gracious Declaration for Indulgence date Mar. 17. § 10. What Power his Majesty had or what was reserved by that Act to him we are no Judges to determine It is enough for us That as his most Sacred Majesty hath asserted to himself such a power so the denial of it to him hath been by no publick Act made known to us much less his Majesties
Church Catholick Visible Do we break Charity with our Brethren do we Revile them or Reproach their Persons or Societies Let them bear the blame who do it we plead not for them in the mean time let not all other Non-Con be called Schismaticks for their sake We know very many of the Non Con. have been uncharitably enough dealt with by those three famous Authors of the Friendly debate Ecclesiastical Polity and of Knowledge of Communion with Christ have they rendred reviling for reviling though the Masters of Morality have so treated their Brethren as if Veracity Comity and Urbanity were not in the Catalogue of their Moral Virtues When the Author opens himself a little plainer and tells us what he meaneth by a Schisme in the Church of England considered as a part of the Church Catholick Visible we shall better understand him § 23. But he saith we sinfully separate from the Organical National Church of England and indeed this he must mean or nothing by what he said before for it is not possible to separate sinfully from a National Church considered only as a large part of the Church-Catholick Visibles while they keep in the profession of Christ and his Gospel and in the practice of the same Acts of worship with them and in the same Doctrines of Faith unless they fail in love refusing all kind of occasional Communion with their Brethren condemning them as no parts of the Church of Christ The worshipping of God by different phrases and forms of Prayers in different habits of Vestment by different rites and ceremonies c. will not do it for these are things which belong not to any National Church as a part of the Church Catholick Visible Christ left no Liturgy to his Catholick Church nor any such rites and ceremonies and habits nor was ever the Catholick Visible Church uniform in them our Brethren themselves confess these mutable things wherein several parts of the Catholick Church differ each from other These things proceed from the Church considered as Organical not as a part of the Catholick Visible Church for then the major part of all particular Christians must consent to the imposition of them § 24. Now truly for this Particular Organical National Church it is possible we may have separated from it for we never knew there was any such Creature and at last our Author doth confess that Mr. Caudry hath told him that the Presbyterians do generally agree That the Disciplinary part or form of Government is not essential to a National Church he should therefore first have proved that there is such a thing under the Gospel as A Stated National Organical Church and we should then have tried whether the same Arguments would not have served the Papists to have proved a Catholick organical Church and that something better than they serve our Author because they have found out a single head for it which we find our Author p. 43. at great loss to find for his particular National Organical Church § 95. He knows not whether he should fix it upon the King for he is to be considered as a mixed person Or The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury because he is Primate of all England or all the Bishops and Pastors That the King is the Supreme Political Head and Governour of the National Church of England is our of doubt to all Protestants but such a one as will not claim Authority to any one strictly called Ecclesiastical act neither to Preach nor administer a Sacrament nor Ordain Ministers Are we discoursing of such a head think we The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury indeed may do all these but may he execute any acts of Discipline in the Province of York must the Arch-Bishop of York be taken in Then we have one National Church Organical with two heads yet that is better than 26. for so many must be if all the Bishops make the head and that yet is better than 9000 heads as must be if the Pastors of all Parishes be the Head In short none of these can by an act of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction influence the whole body and what kind of head is that The King indeed as Political Head of the Church may influence the whole with his commands relating to Ecclesiastical affairs but surely we have no Arçh-Bishop Bishop or Pastor can Excommunicate from Dan to Beershaba Our Author not being able to fix his thoughts in this point at last tells us It is not material for it is a certain Vanity to say 43. Because I cannot find the the Head I will deny the Body Is it so can there then be a living Organical Body without an Head It is not the body we are discoursing of but an Organical Body We may know our Mother as our Author saith though we do not know our Father but we must know we had a Father and that Father is or was a visible Creature or else he could not be known § 26. Well but what is this same National Organical Church of England He p. 42. gives us this Description of it It is a community consisting of professed Christians united in the same Doctrine Government and Worship according to the 39. Articles and Homilies her Liturgy and Canons and Laws and divided into Parochial Assemblies for the more convenient Worship of God And p. 45 Schisme from the Church of England is a sinful dividing from or dissolving our Union or Communion with her in her Governours Worship Members or Assemblies We can neither allow his descriptis on of the National Church of England nor yet of his description of Schisme or sinful separation from it and we would gladly hear by what Scripture or reason either of them can be made good § 27. It will be no wonder if denying the thing of a National Governing Church we deny the description of it for Non eus non potest definiri Now we do believe that under the Gospel there never was nor can be a stated National governing Church unless what is indeed somtimes though far from the sense we are now speaking to and perhaps not so properly called a Church according to the dialect of Scripture made up of all the Messengers of all the particular Churches in a Nation in an Assembly for deliberations advice and determinations in some weighty emergent cases to obviate which we put in the term stated for this is only an Occasional National Church or Synod which hath but a temporary being pro renatâ and meets and acts at the pleasure of the Prince the Supreme Political Head § 28. When we speak of a Church we understand Church as a Scriptural term in the Religious usage of it applicable to no body of people but such a one as the Scripture calleth so So that if there be any such body as may be called a National Governing Organical Church we must either find it in the New Testament or at least find some directions there for the constitution ordering of it some
Commissions given for a succession of National Officers but we find none of this we find indeed a general commission to Ministers to go and Preach and Baptize but this referred as well to the Heathens as to professed Christians If any will say that the Apostles were General Officers and from thence will argue for a succession of them it will better serve the Papists to prove an Universal Organical Church than it will serve any to prove a National Organical Church and we think that is what our Brethren will not be very free of granting If any urge the Example of the Jewish National Church which was Organical they will be also obliged to find our Saviours directions for the Hereditary discent of an High-Priest or the Election of one into his place We always thought the Jewish H. Priest was a type and Christ the Antitype whose coming abolished the type besides that that also will prove an Universal Organical Church for the Jewish High Priest govern'd the whole Visible Church which God in his days had upon the Earth besides we must have found some rules and laws left us by Christ for this High Priest Finally who so will erect a stated National governing or Organical Church in England must find us an Officer cloathed with Authority to Excommunicate from Michaels Mount in Cornwall to Carlile and Berwick Such a one we suppose there neither is nor ever was in England since the reformation § 29. But if we could allow such a Creature of God as a National governing Church in England we should have put Governours being certainly one of the Essential parts of such a Church into the description of it as well as into the Notion of Schisme from it Nor should we have so straitned the Notion of it as to necessitate all the members of it to be united in Doctrine Worship and Government without saying how far they must in these things be united Whether in every point of Doctrine delivered in the 39. Articles and Homilies so far as to approve and embrace all And in every point of Government according to the Canons or in every mode rite or ceremony according to the Liturgy or if not in what and how far they must be thus united And for the Laws as distinguished from the Canons we should have left them quite out being but civil constitutions about the affairs of the Church not properly Laws of the Church or in the more intrinsick matters of it but Impetus cuncta male ministrat this is the unlucky effect of long Definitions and too great eagerness to prove all Nonconformists Schismaticks The Author should have done well to have considered what he as well as we long since learned at the University 1. Definitiones debent esse breves It is the length of this description that spoils it and makes it by no art defensible 2. Debet constare ex attributis preoribus notioribus simpliciter had this been thought of the 39 Articles Homilies Liturgy Canons Laws had been quite left out nor certainly did our Author consider what would follow upon this description § 30. Let us but a little shew what inferences follow his Description of the National Governing Church of England 1. All Arminians without bail or mainprise must be Hereticks They are none of the Community of professed Christians in England united in the Doctrine of the 39 Articles will they tell us they are Let us ask King James once the very learned Head of this Church He tell us That Arminians was an Enemy to God Reg. Jacobi Dec. contra Vorstium p. 12. 14. that his Disciples are Pests Hereticks Arrogant persons Sectaries Atheists That the very Title of Bertius his Book concerning the Apostacy of the Saints required the fire Shall we be judged by the Parliament they make the Laws put into the description of this Church they confirmed the Articles We find them Anno 1628. crying aloud We Claim Protest and avow for Truth the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established by Parliament Mr. Rushworths Collections p. 650. 130. Eliz. which say they by the Publick Act of the Church of England and by the general and currant exposition of the Writers of our Church have been delivered to us and we reject the sense of the Jesuits and Arminians and all others wherein they differ from us Shall we ask the Professors of Divinity forty years since and upward in either University They joyntly agreed these points contrary to the 39 Articles one Dr. Baro only excepted and we know who was the first Doctor of that Divinity knowingly created at Oxford and the Professors course complement to him at his Creation after he had defended one of them Hujus te Theologiae creo Doctorem meaning the Arminian Divinity whence ever after to his Death possibly he took the liberty to Profess it as the Doctrine of our Church yea and they must be Schismaticks too though not from yet in the National Church and that 's the worst sort of Schisme because that which the Scripture chiefly if not only taketh notice of 2. Those who will sing no Psalms must be Schismaticks too for surely that 's an act of Worship in the Church of England and owned by her yea and those that do not ordinarily conform to all Rites and Ceremonies and Formes in the Liturgy do they approve of them The worse they still according to this description make a Shisme in the Church Quaery Whether none of the Conformists do this I could tell him of some nay One and he no mean One neither that openly told the People singing of Psalms was one of the Idols of the Church of England there were three Preaching and keeping the Sabbath were the two other § 40. Now if the Author could have been content to have described the National Church of England the number of professed Christians in it united in the same Doctrines necessary to Salvation and in the same Acts of Worship the Definition had been shorter many of these had been included and we had all been agreed But to be sure to make all the Nonconformists Shismatick he first Describes a thing not in being and which never was since Christ came and then describes it in such a manner as if he could create it would do very many of his own friends far more hurt than us § 41. In the mean time we must freely yeild him such a National Church as we before described and the King the Supreme Head of it not in a capacity to Preach or administer the Sacrament or exercise any act in it strictly an Ecclesiastical by Divine institutions but to Protect it to enjoyn the fulfilling in it what God hath commanded to do as much in it in short as any King of Israel and Judah as a King might do and to make rules and constitutions about it But we deny that our Meetings are any more Schismes in or from this Church then the Meeting of Christians