account of our divisions so as it never would have done if they never had been begun besides the hazard we run of exposing our posterities to lose the substance by our contending for circumstance and besides the temptation we have thereby put upon men to call the whole of Christianity into question and thereupon to give reins to their lusts more than ever before since the Reformation was first made I pray God so to bind the consideration of these things upon your minds that you may be awakened thereby out of I know not what dream into which a great many of the good people of this Nation have fallen There is nothing hardly in Christianity more evident than that matters of less moment are to give way to those of greater circumstance to substance conveniencies to necessaries a less convenience to a greater a greater inconveniency to a less duties only by Positive Institution to those which are morally or naturally such as might be shewed in many other Scriptures Hos 6.6 Mat. 12.4 5 6 7. besides those now touch'd on about Christian liberty And I think nothing gives a more direct contradiction to all this than the Schism that is made among us or the things by which it is made because by this you make matters of greater moment to truckle and yield to those that are less circumstance to substance matters necessary to those of conveniency a greater convenience to a less and so on For I appeal to the light of your own reason and to your Conscience whether the affairs of Religion in reference to the Church of God and to the World are so much concerned in having Gods worship and Ordinances administred in your way rather than in the way of the Church of England as they are in the peace and unity of the Church and in what depends upon them Whether the Souls of men in general both of those which adhere to you and of those which do not are advantaged by your way of administration above what they are and would be in the way of the Church of England more than they are hurt by the division and separation that is made about that difference Whether the Christian Religion be more honoured abroad in other Nations among Christians and Infidels by the one than hurt by the other Whether the Protestant Cause both at home and abroad gains more by the one than it is hurt by the other and whether more secured to posterity by the one than endangered by the other Whether error and heresie be more supprest by the one than propagated by the other and lastly whether Charity Humility and other Christian vertues or graces wherein the substance and power of Religion consists are farthered in your way above what they are and would be in the way of the Church of England more than they are hindered by Schism and separation Now if the affairs and concerns of Religion among men do in these and many other respects lose more by your Schism than they get by having the worship of God administred in your way rather than in the way of the Church of England as doubtless they do and the thing is too manifest to be denied Then you must needs be as certainly guilty of making matters of greater moment to stoop and submit to those of less as ever the Pharisees were of passing over the weightier matters of the Law and contenting themselves that they tithed Mint Anise and Cummin There is no such proportion of value in your way of external administration of holy things as different from that of the Church of England as makes it worthy to be put in competition with the peace and unity of the Church and what depends thereon For the Scripture no where lays any such injunction upon us to observe one way or manner of external administration of the right substance of worship supposing it to be done in common language as it does for the keeping of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace nor gives any such caution against any external form of administration except that which is made in an unknown tongue as it does against the breach of the peace and unity of the Church and the many consequent ill effects thereof Nor is there any such utility in your way of administration as different from that of the Church of England as makes it worthy to be put in competition with the peace and unity of the Church I presume there is no sober serious Christian among you will say that your way of administration makes any such difference in the hearts and lives of Christians but that there were heretofore and are now Christians in Communion with the Church of England as sober righteous and godly as any among you I know nothing therein to hinder a man from being as holy and as good as he hath a mind to be It is the difference in mens more or less attendance to the substance of Christianity that makes them better or worse Christians and not their using different undetermined circumstances in the administration of worship And if it be so that your way of administration as different from that of the Church of England holds no such proportion of value or utility as makes it worthy to be brought in competition with the peace and unity of the Church Then for you to bring it into competition therewith nay to prefer it above the peace and unity of the Church and what depends thereon as it is apparent you do is a thing altogether unaccountable and a flat contradiction to that vein of Doctrine in the Scripture which I have mentioned above I know you will be ready enough to say that if it be so bad a thing in us to put undetermined circumstances in the administration of holy things into competition with the peace and unity of the Church as you say it is Then it cannot be good in them who by imposing such things upon us as conditions of Communion do put them into competition with the peace and unity of the Church also which is divided upon that account There is I grant little question but that the imposing of nothing as a condition of Communion but what is generally freest from exception is a very good way to preserve peace and unity in the Church But yet the using of some indifferent circumstances in the worship of God upon the first Reformation from Popery in this Nation was doubtless thought as convenient for the bringing people to Church then as ever a complying with the Jews in their usages not sinful in themselves was at the first Conversion of them to Christianity thought convenient to bring them to and to keep them in the Church then And though you think the case is so altered since the Reformation as that what was a reason of their use then to wit the bringing folk to Church is a reason of their dis-use and laying aside now as tending to the same end yet
separations and multiplied more and more monstrous Sects than ever there were in the Nation before Notwithstanding the sad experience of all which and notwithstanding the means used by the Higher Powers to reduce them yet it seems these several divided parts have thought themselves concerned upon one account or other still to carry on their esteemed Reformation in their several different ways and rather to run the hazard of all the ill consequences of their division in common from the Church of England and of their several subdivisions among themselves than to return to our Parochial Communion Now then the endeavour of the following Address is to shew these two things especially The one is That both the Principles and practice in many things wherein this Reformation endeavoured by them doth consist are really corruptions and things which ought themselves to be Reformed The other is that if any Emendation in matters Ecclesiastical shall be found convenient for the peace unity and stability of the Church of England as I will not deny but there may the present genius and temper of many of this Nation considered for Moses for the hardness of the peoples hearts by Gods direction put that into the body of the Law which otherwise would not have been ncessary Yet to seek this by separation from our Parish Churches and by gathering Churches out of them and by keeping assemblies in opposition to them is no good method of proceeding therein but such as tends to hurt the Church of God much more than to do it good and to set people back and not to bring them forward in that wherein the heart and spirit of true Christianity lies And for my Justification in this undertaking I have the old Non-Conformists so far on my side as that as Mr. Baxter saith Such as Mr. Cartwright Egerton Hildersham Dod Amesius Parker Bains Brightman Ball Bradshaw Paget Langly Nicols Hering and many such wrote more against separation than the Conformists did And the former writings of the present Presbyterians abound also with invectives against the practice of gathering Churches out of our Parish Churches Yea those who have been chief in the Congregational way have in their Apologetical Narration told the World That all that Conscience of defilement they conceived cleaved to the worship of God in our Parish Churches or of the unwarrantable power of Church Governours exercised therein did never work in any of them any other thought much less opinion but that multitudes of the Parish Congregations were the true Churches and body of Christ and the Ministry thereof a true Ministry And again We have always profest say they and that in these times when the Churches of England were most either actually over-spread with defilements or in the greatest danger thereof that we both did and would hold a Communion with them as the Churches of Christ I shall not offend you by making that improvement of these Concessions by reflections which the matter is capable of Only I heartily wish That for the honour of our Religion we may all be careful to do that which is good and commendable not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men and that nothing may be done but what we can give some competent account of unto men A thing wherein you have left even such as wish you very well much to seek as not knowing how to reconcile your principles and your practice What hath been offered by some in order to it from the consideration of the different circumstances of former and present times Doctrine of Schism opened and applyed to gathered Churches A stop to the course of separation I must needs say falls very short of it and hath met with such a return from other some as hath even left it without any strength at all especially in that which relates to Lay Communion Now the God of love and peace at last lead us out of all those distractions and confusions into which our own weakness and folly hath betrayed us into paths of purity peace and love and bestow upon us all a spirit of love and of a sound mind that so we may all come to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace A Serious and Friendly ADDRESS TO THE Non-Conformists Beginning with the Anabaptists SIRS NOW I am upon leaving the World by reason of Age some reasons have prevailed with me to leave behind me for you a few words not of bitter Contention but of Peace and to Edification and such only as are agreeable to a following the Truth in Love And in doing so methinks I might promise my self that what shall be thus offered will with a like mind be pondered and weighed by all such among you as in whom passion prejudice and partiality do not prevail more than that wisdom which is from above which is first pure then peaceable and easie to be intreated How unfit soever I may in other respects be thought for this undertaking yet my former experience in your way and the many serious and impartial considerations I have had about it may possibly have given me so much advantage for it as may excuse my present undertaking And besides if he that digged a pit Ex. 23.33 was to cover it no man need to wonder if I concern my self more than many others by endeavouring what in me lies to Cure the almost Epidemical Disease of Schism in some and to prevent it in others For however the general prevailing of it seems to have worn out that sense of the hainousness of it which the Church of God and all the famous Guides in it anciently had of it and to have changed its name and to be now adopted into the number of Virtues and to be esteemed an Ornament among too many yet I assure you it is not so with me who have seen and observed the dismal effects of it And doubtless it is not grown any whit the less hainous by prevailing so much as it hath done unless a thing becomes the less evil by how much the more mischief it does This evil took place presently after the Reformation from Popery and became a clog to it then as it hath been ever since And I know nothing so like to subvert the Reformation and at last to deliver us up again unto a Papal Power as this Sin of Schism Therefore blame me not if you find me endeavouring to awaken you into the same sense of it which I my self have If you will but take your measure of what it is like to produce among the whole Protestant party in the end if a stop be not put to it by what the divisions among your selves in the greatest part of your Congregations in this Nation hath brought forth especially in the West the prospect will be sad enough and such as one would think should create in you a great jealousy touching the practice of separating from other Protestant Congregations I should think it might well
IMPRIMATUR 18 March 1675 6. Rmo D no Arch po Cant. Ã Sacris domesticis Geo. Hooper A Serious and Friendly ADDRESS TO THE Non-Conformists Beginning with the Anabaptists OR AN ADDITION TO THE Perswasive to Peace and Vnity By W. A. Luke 22.32 When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren LONDON Printed by J. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St Pauls Church-Yard MDCLXXVI THE PREFACE THE design of the following Address is to perswade to the Re-uniting of a divided Church And the unity of the Church is that which our Lord and Saviour earnestly and with reiterated Petitions prayed for to his Father and which his Apostles after him did with the most pathetical expressions they could well take unto themselves perswade the Christians to maintain By which we may perceive That the success of Christs design to be carried on by the Gospel does very much depend upon this Vnion which was the reason why the Heart of Christ and of his Apostles were so much set upon it And if so Then Divisions Sidings Factions and Disaffections in the Church and separation of one part of it from another must needs tend to frustrate and disappoint our Saviour in his design of Grace and to deprive the Church where these take place of the benefit and comfort in great part which he intended them in recommending the Christian Religion to them And then it will follow also That those who are most of the mind spirit and temper of our Saviour and his Apostles are and will be most tender lest they should make any breach in the Church or disturb the Peace of it and most careful to do what in them lies to repair breaches when made But contrariwise that those who are most venturous in making breaches upon pretences that will not abide an impartial tryal and least careful to close up those which are made are to that degree that they are so devoid of a Christ-like frame of mind and temper of spirit All which looks most unpleasantly upon so many as will not do all that they can do to prevent the farther growth of Schism and to heal the Churches wounds already made by it Considering all which and the deplorable state and condition of the Church in this Nation by reason of Schism and what men suffer and are like to suffer thereby in their religious interest I cannot imagine wherein or by what good men can better approve themselves to Christ in any one thing and more answer the Joy of his heart nor better serve their Generation than by endeavouring heartily according to the capacity they are in and the opportunity they have to promote the re-uniting of the divided parts of the Church of God in this Nation And if by endeavours of this nature any think I have acted more than comes to my share in this Address or otherwise it hath been out of the abundance of my affection to so good and necessary a work which will easily obtain pardon from those that are for peace I cannot say but that many attempts of this Nature have been made by others and endeavours used to this end But the reason why so little comes of it is because those who are the Aggressors or many of them would needs make themselves the Center of Vnion and Standard of Communion But how unreasonable it is to expect that an union should be brought to pass upon such terms or to think it fit that our breaches should lie open till it can is easie to apprehend For when will all Presbyterians think you be perswaded to turn Anabaptists or Independents or Independents to turn Anabaptists or Anabaptists to turn Independents or both to turn Presbyterians Or if they should when will those of the way of the Church of England fall in with them So that there seems a necessity of one of these two things either for all the subdivided parts of the Agressors to Re-unite themselves again to the Church of England from which they unduly rent themselves Or else to perpetuate our various Schisms until we have made our selves thereby a prey to the common Adversary And whoever are of the mind to put things on this issue and to run that hazard rather than to come to such terms of accommodation as are not sinful though otherwise not altogether such as they could wish will certainly shew themselves to be persons of but private selfish spirits regarding more their own personal satisfaction and private conveniency than the publick benefit of the Church in general a temper very unworthy a Christian and far from a laying down the life for the brethren It was the true Mother who was for yielding to her Competitrix rather than the Child should be divided Besides by continuing a Schism upon such terms which will not amount to any sufficient or just cause they make themselves accountable for all the dreadful effects of it Since then there is no probability that the Aggressors in their subdivisions will ever settle or unite upon any one of their narrow foundations it will I doubt not be much more becoming them as Christians for them all to reconcile themselves to the Church of England rather than to perpetuate such a complex Schism as we see hath cast both Church and Nation into a Convulsion and threatens its final ruin Do you or can you think that there is at this day after all tryals made any men upon Earth better Christians than many of those who have been bred in the Church of England since the Reformation from Popery and who have lived and died in her Communion I can hardly think that any sober intelligent person will venture to say there is And if not what is the matter then if nothing but the being very good Christians be your design why rather than to make a Schism that will not satisfie you for the attaining to it which hath been so successful for the effecting this end in so many other worthy persons as have left us an example of holy living worthy our imitation Why the matter as I apprehend it stands thus Those whose minds had been influenced and affected with the different principles of the old Non Conformists Brownists and Anabaptists before our late unhappy Civil Wars brake out took the opportunity which it gave them to begin a work of reformation in this Nation as they Notioned it to be And although they all still agreed with the Church of England in doctrines of faith and a holy life and in those doctrines wherein it opposeth the Church of Rome yea and in the substance of Divine worship also Yet they all opposed the Church of England in the external form of worship and in her order and Government But when they had done so they could not agree among themselves what form of worship and Government in opposition to all other is indeed of Divine Right but therein sharply opposed one another So that this so called Reformation produced more divisions and