shame do know to be true and visible but to my comfort do know to be an Objection of no weight for our question is concerning Communion with not the Constitution of a Church That such matter should not at first Constitution have been taken in and having grown up ought to have been cut off and cast out I can and do yield and consent but that the disorder defection and prophaneness of the members or what is more the Angels and Ministers hath resolved the Church into a non-entity and necessitated non-communion save in a new Constitution and Church gathering I cannot believe because I finde nothing more plainer in Nature then for a degenerate Vine to retain the name and nature of a Vine when it bringeth forth little save sowre Grapes Mat. 3.9 nor is any thing more clearer in Scripture then for the children of the Devil Matth 3 9. John 8.44 to have Abrahaem to their father and be the children of God and Covenant of Graco by visible administration or for disorderly Christians in Corinth to be called and owned as Saints and Believers a man covetous a fornicator and adulterer an idolater 1 Cor. 5.11 Rev. 3.1 a drunkard to be called a brother Sardis having a name to live but being dead is declared one of the golden Candlesticks among which Christ walketh and when Paul wrote to Titus the Christians in Crete were abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Titus 1 13 16. yet was Titus charged to rebuke them sharply not to disown them or decline communion with them or to gather the fit matter and orderly Christians among them into a new Church form nor are any among them advised or directed so to do a Ram and a Goat cannot be denied to be of Christs flock on earth though they may be turned on his left hand at the day of judgment Correction and casting out is the priviledge of a Church member and supposeth its capacity in their object though an incestuous person the prophanenesse of the members of this Church may and must provoke my brotherly admonition ministerial reprehension and the Churches Censures against them but will never warrant my non-communion with them or voluntary absence from Gods solemn publick worship celebrated among them because it doth not ipso facto by any due order or divine direction discharge their relation to Christs Catholick visible body so long as God knoweth them as his Spouse and people though deserving having not received from him a Bill of Divorce I may be burdened to see their lewdnesse and lightnesse but must not forsake the Bride-chamber nor his worship therein celebrated without all doubt the capacity of those within the Church though disorderly and as such to be judged is vastly different from Turks Jews and Pagans and those without the Church who refuse to professe the true God and Christ or obedience to them the one being subjected to Gods special pastoral paternal care in the case of their very disorder and aberrations whilest the other only enjoy Gods common providence as do other creatures the works of his hands What hath been urged to nullifie this Church from what this kind of men will needs suppose to be the form thereof Parochial distribution convenient and good viz. that they are by Parochial constitution and Christ never ordained Parishes hath been often and abundantly answered by many and among others I have already fully spoken to it in my Bethshemish clouded and shall therefore now only say Parochial distribution is no constitution nor any essential form of the Church so as that bare simple habitation within such bounds should ipso facto without further capacity or qualification make men Church members or their removal or non-residence within this or that Parish as do Merchants and Mariners should discharge their relation to the Church but it is a Political order and convenient distribution of the Church Catholick visible to particular Assemblies for the due and more easie Celebration of Gods publick worship the Lord Jesus founded his Church Catholick and universal into which Baptism is the Ordinance of Catholick incision and imitation and excommunication is the Ordinance of Catholick excision and discharge but nature and the necessity of order doth divide it into particular Assemblies according to humane discretion and no order can more conveniently circumscribe particular societies of the Church than vicinity and cohabitation This the holy Ghost doth plainly digitate by denominating the first plants of Christianity Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus and the like by the places where they were planted not by the first planters or after Pastors blaming it as a Schism in the Church to say I am of Paul I of Apollo and I of Cephas and indeed this distribution doth much facilitate the inspection of the Pastor or brethren beyond what the Covenant constitution of Congregationalists is capable of whereby some living in York are members of a Church in London Parochial Division then being the benefit of the Church and members thereof in Christian Cities Countries and Nations it is so far from blame and avoidance that it is to be commended and approved by men of prudence and order and can never necessitate or warrant any mans non-non-communion with the Christian Assemblies thus distributed and conveniently assembled Unto such as stumble themselves and would have others so to do at Communion with the Church of England because they do not know that it was rightly gathered Englands Church was rightly constituted at the first and constituted at the first I shall briefly say History the best evidence of an ancient Act doth assure us that the Gospel was first preached and Christianity was first planted in our Islands by the Apostles or Apostolical men which no doubt did with all care rightly lay here the right foundation of Gods Church and if we may as in cases of this nature we must judge a posterior the certainty of the root by the extent and quality of the branches the foundation by the Dimensions and duration of the Fabrick can any man reading the English Stories of the eminent Martyrs of Christianity found in this Church in all ages since the times of the Apostles unto this day and not conclude the Church was at first rightly planted and founded these men shall do well to resolve the old question ever put by the Non-conformists to the Brownists these mens progenitors if they be begotten to God in what Church and by what Ordinances were they converted was it not the Church of England we whom they to serve their designe will own as Saints and declare fit matter for a Church must professe our selves sprouts from this plant their Charity is not sure so irrational as to believe men may gather Grâ—pes of Thorns or Figgs of Thistles for if so their gathering Churches will be found needlesse whilest Saints grow in Infidel soils and Gods house existeth without the laying any foundation These men shall do well to
to health and growth or directly destructive as intrinsecal and vitiating to the subject or extrinsecal and conversant about the same notwithstanding which the subject remains the same participation in which contracts guilt as in offering sacrifice to an Idol or contracts no guilt to the Communicant eating in an amicable friendship what is offered to an Idol such as put us out of a possibility of salvation the only ground of separation or are therewith consistent imposed by others and so their sin not sufficient to bâ—r our duty all which were applyed to the Popish administrations nullifying Christs Offices and Ordinances and so necessitating separation polluting by participation and Englands corruptions grieving God and his people some 8. some 7. some 4. years now past but preserving Gods worship in the substantial matter and essential form thereof and so not sufficient to supersede communion If you look into the writings which bear my name in the world you will find separation because of corruption condemned by reasons beyond what the most serious Church-gathering Separatists ever undertook to answer otherwise then by rage and reproach the dialect of restrained lust in that as well as in this revolution Read at your leisure my Bethshemesh clouded Saints zeal against sinful Altars Virtue and value of Baptisme written many years since and you will see Mr. Crofâ—ons communion with the Church of England is not repugnant to his judgement more then seven years since declared and in those very writings lately published before and for which men have by Gods permission brought my light under a bushel you shall find my zeal for Reformation consistent to union and communion with the Church nor did the force of opposing corruption drive me as I might probably have done to let fall any expressions in favour of separation My logical casuistical Contests for Reformation do very plainly condemn and protest against schisme and sedition as thereunto destructive particularly in my Analâ—psis to Doctor Gaudens Analysis my Argument and Answer is thus concluded Whatsoever shall be the establishment in the Church though never so corrupt yet whilst consistent with salvation though it may occasion to me suffering and a suspence of my Ministry by Gods Grace it shall not effect on me or such on whome I have influence Schisme from the Church or a resistance of his Majesties just Authority And in my Epistle to the Lyturgicall Considerator considered in which I urge my apprehended grounds for the alteration and abolition of the Ministerial method of solemn publique prayer used in our Church with a proâ—est for Communion under it though against administration by it I am so much affected to the peace of the Church that I have of late preached what God assisting I am resolved for to practise viz. that many and graet corruptions in Gods worship are to be grieved for and patiently groaned under before Schisme be consented to or separation be consulted Provided neverthelesse I be passive not active in them I can keep Communion under that form of worship whereby I cannot administer and heartily say Amen to the matter of those petitions which are put up in an order so preposterous and indigested that I dare not stand between God and his people with the same The liberty that I now pursue when obtained and used is no more than a practice commensing on these professions whereby they are made more legible not more censurable than they were before My good friend These things considered I must professe when ever God shall mollifie the hearts of men into whose hands he hath given my present liberty I see not any reason that I dare plead before the Lord or reflect as a barre on my Conscience whereupon my solitary Sabbaths may be sweetned and spent with comfort my passage to the publique assemblie and worship though in this order and with these appendants which are burdensome to my spirit standing open and so my absence being a voluntary act within my own power If any man professing the fear of God can produce any I should be glad for I fear to be charged with the omission of Gods publique worship celebrated in Christ his Church though with extrinsecal corruption and in a rude Ministeriall order which ought to be reformed but will not excuse me though unforced by the offence of some weak brethren zealously affected to the purity of Gods House and Worship I am not insensible that the Committee of discretion will be no lesse ready to call me fool for steering this course than they were for my entering the Lists in defence and â—â—…oâ—cement of Reformation wherein I am deserted by my more prudent brethren for that I hereby strike ost from that party on whom my former contests did seem to 〈◊〉 me But to them I must breifly answer I am willing to be wise as a serpent and resolved to keep my innoâ—…nâ—… as a dove so long as these do correspond and agree I have an heart to lodge them but if prudence once obâ—…ate or obstruct duty or guide into oâ— guard sin I fear the serpent begins to wind too farre and getting in the head will wind in the body and devour the doâ—… that some who have been objects of my opposition because subjects of separation have in my present sufferings embraced me and shewed kindnesse to me and mine beyond some more specially charged with it as their more particular duty I am very sensible and thankfully acknowledge to God and them and hope they did not thereby designe to charme my zeal against what I ever cenceived to be sin I confess it hath been a check to my comforts to consider some triumph in me and my sufferings because opposed to the superstitions and prophanesse which they dislike who agree not with me in those positive truths which I have asserted and will be turned in their hearts against me when the same two-edged-sword in my weak hand shall be constrained to strike their more civil seemingly sacred lusts The Usurer huggs and hath the Preacher home to dinner when he preacheth against the prodigal profusal spending drunkard who will hunt and hurry him out of the Parish when he shall preach against usury I cannot but tell you a passage which here befell me In my close confinement three persons full of seeming zeal to piety and purity stumbled into my chamber and saluted me with this salutation we are strangers to you but in conscience of our duty are come to visit you as a sufferer for Jesus Christ to which kind and Christian salutation I returned a short admonition that we might endeavour to understand the truths of the Lord Jesus and labour to agree in positives for I feared many rejoyced in my sufferings as negative and against what is grossely evil who would not embrace the truths I did contend for on which these persons zeal boiled over into this angry Taunt what I warrant you you are yet for the Church of England and your
consider Knowledge of a Church it first constitution not necessary whether the knowledge of the mode and order of first planting and gathering the Church be necessary to every member related to it In England we finde societies professing the true God and Christ baptized into his name worshipping him by his own Ordinances this is the forme of a Church and doth suppose and imply a Root and Foundation by which it is animated and preserved But must we needs know how it was at the first laid or planted though by length of time it is worn out of sight and over-grown with earth and weeds are we bound to renounce the Vine and run out of the house unlesse we pluck up the root and raze the foundation to satisfie our selves herein if so God help the illiterate souls and weak capacities not capable to conceive or well understand the same is Christs Church planted for an age only that every succeeding generation must transplant gathering of Churches did indeed begin the Acts of the Apostles must it needs be continued to the end of the Revelation to the coming of the Lord to judgment I finde not Paul in his joyning himself to the Church nor Priscilla and Aquila in their travels and communion with different Churches make any demurre on this enquiry and I dare not think the holy Ghost would have concealed from us a point of so great importance My good friend upon the whole of this Objection I must let you know that my serious and deliberate thoughts do dissent from the Conclusions concerning the matter and form of a Church stated by the self-consecrated Officers of the hundred and twenty self-constituted gathered Churches which of late years met at the Savoy but assent unto the determination of Mr. Cotton in his advice to the brethren of old England at the close of his way of the Churches in New-England viz. The work is not to make them Churches which were none before for the Gospel having been preached in England by Apostles or Apostolical men they were without doubt rightly planted but to reduce them to the Primitive purity they had in their first constitution And here my friend I must desire the Independents will not be offended that I propose them as the present prime promoters of the nonentity of the Church of England by way of barre to Communion with her and a principle of separation from her for that notwithstanding their contrary professions of what they cannot soberly charitably and rationally deny their common suggestion in England is fit matter but not the form which is the esse of the Church their Savoy conclusions and paganizing Church-gathering practice do loudly proclaim them the off-spring of the Brownists and posterity of the rigid Separatists ever withstood by the sober and serious Non-Conformists since Englands Reformation and in this point the summum genus of those several specifical self-constituted Sects which have confounded our Church the odium of whose Schism from it defended by Rebellion Schism and horrid Treason is at this day most sadly though falsly reflected on the most loyal sober serious reforming non-conforming Presbyterians to the weakning their hands and retarding yea diverting their progresse in an humble argumentative and patient pursuit of Christs Ordinances and due authority of Christs Officers to be restored and exercised in the Church of England by me ever owned and now lamented but not to be deserted Such as fancie the Church of England was lost in the deluge of Popery and Antichristianism Englands Church lost not its being in Popery may by their own observation correct the same and be constrained to confesse there is in this respect no more cause of stumble as to the entity of this Church then was as to the being of the Jews when overspread with Idolatry in their many defections from God for in Englands worst times they may finde a persecuted Elias a John Wickliffe with many other most eminent branches bringing forth the Clusters of Gospel Grapes to the bleeding out their very lives besides Obadiah's fifties hidden in Caves by the violence of persecution certainly the Root must abide or how or whence could these branches spring Yea the winter storms of Popery passing away and the floods of Antichristianism asswaging though not dryed up and the chief weeds of superstition being plucked up though some remain how hath this Church revived flourished and sent out many most eminent and pious branches without any new plantation Yea conveyed unto themselves who question her being the truth of Grace and Faith in Christ Jesus if ever they receiv'd it I blesse God I have learned to discern between the subject and its separable adjuncts though never so vile and do believe the Church to be Christs Church though vitiated and defiled with Idolatrous administrations all nor indeed any defection is an actual divorce if adulterous Judah Jet 3. on a summons to repentance do return and put away her abominations she loseth not her relation to God nor doth the high places continued under his reformation make God or his people to forsake her the Temple of God abides his when given to be trodden under the feet of the Gentiles yea when the Antichrist the man of sin sitteth therein this notion may possibly sound better to some eares from New-England than from the Tower of London let it therefore be thence receiv'd If Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and the Courts of the Temple be given to the Antichristiaen Gentiles for a certain time to tread under foot then there was a true Church state where he sate and whilest he sate there and it was the true measured Temple whose Courts he did tread under fo t nor can there be Antichrist unlesse there be the Temple of God and Courts thereof where he is and if ever Antichrist sate in England then there was the Temple of God there before he sate in it and whilest he sate in it as was also in other reformed Churches the Temple or Church is the subject wherein he must sit the Antichristian seat is not the subject nor constituteth it but is an accident vitiating the subject and separable from it the removing therefore of Antichristianity doth not destroy the subject or make it cease to be but changeth it into the better state in which it was before thus accidentally vitiated this is the assertion of Mr. Phillips of Water-town in New England England was Christs Church before the Antichristian deluge under the power of Popery and since it was purged out and so she at this day notwithstanding her backsliding doth abide God provoked hath not yet removed his Candlestick or given her a bill of divorce as he justly may and I fear yet will if I then deny Communion with such of her assemblies I have a liberty to attend and frequent and make my appeal to God on the account of her non-entity with a Lord she was not or I know her not to
be the Church and Spouse my heart would condemn me in the guilt of a notorious lye groundlesse and uncharitable Censure and so make my wilful solitary devotion exceeding sad because exceeding sinful Secondly I hitherto could not nor yet can 2. Englands corruptions no sufficient bar to Communion conceive the corruptions of the Church of England to be a sufficient ground or warrantable barre to my non-non-Communion with her solemn assemblies in her publick worship I do not say that Separation in all Cases is unlawful Separation from the world and Babylon allowed I well know Christians are called out of and separated from the world in their first accession to the Church of Christ but this is not our Case who do as is before noted own the Church of England as resolved into that capacity I know also separation from Babylon the seat of Antichrist is a duty directed and charged by the Lord on all his people and unto this also the Church of England doth professe Englands corruptions paralleld with Israels and others and cannot be denied to have attained and therefore stands distinct from the one under the Epithite Reformed as well as from the other by the Appellation Church so as tâ—at I dare not deeme England the world or Babylon those objects of a serious sacred separation and non-non-communion to both which she is found contradistinct That there are in the Church of England especially in her present relapsed estate many and grosse corruptions grievous to the Spirit of God and his people calling for the zealous admonitions and most faithful rebukes of his Ministers is alas too too legible and apparent to be denied by any yet when I consult the Scriptures I cannot but finde as great yea if possible greater corruptions in those whom God and his people owned as his Church and Spouse and yet separation or voluntary non-communion was never practised advised or indulged but the contrary thereunto Will any object unto us the prophanenesse of the Ministers Prophanenesse of Ministers ministration rudenesse and disorder of the ministration of Gods worship we yeild it is too visibly true but more vile administrators or irregular administrations cannot be than were the sons of Eli in their service who made the people to loath the offerings of the Lord and were rebuked and described by Samuel in 1 Sam. 2.12 13 14 15 16 17. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord and the Priests custome with the people was this when any man offered Sacrifice the Priests servant came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh-hook in his hand and he struck it into the pan or kettle or Caldron or pot all that the flesh-hook brought up the Priest took for himself so they did in Shilo unto all the Israelites that came thither also before they burned the far the Priests servant came and said to the man that sacrificed give me flesh for to rost for the Priest for he will not have sodden flesh of thee but raw and if any man said unto them let them not faile to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul desireth then he would answer him nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force wherefore by this horrid disorder defended by violence the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord and in verse 22. it is reported that Eli's sons lay with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation O horrid uncleannesse most heaven-daring villany yet I find not that any God-fearing-Israelite forsook the Sanctuary or durst forbear their Sacrifice nor did Samuel who reproved and denounced Gods judgment against this prophanenesse ever advise or direct the same the Scribes and Pharisees in the dayes of our Saviour said but did not laid heavie burdens on the people Matth. 23. which themselves would not touch with one of their fingers they under pretence of long prayers devoured widows houses they would neither enter into heaven themselves nor suffer such as would yet the Lord himself who reproved them heard them and charged his Disciples to hear them because they sate in Moses seat Let it be observed and remembred the Authority may but the quality of the Minister doth not adde to or abstract from the entity or efficacy of Gods Ordinances 1 Cor. 9.27 he may preach to my salvation who is himself a castaway Do any object the preaching false doctrine Corruption in Doctrine and Worship publick reading the Apocripha as part of Gods Word innovations in worship polluting Gods Ordinances or injustice in discipline I shall neither deny nor excuse the same only say as the Apostle Peter to the Church in his dayes there were false Prophets among the people even as there are false Teachers among you the true Prophets of God in Israel 2 Pet. 2.1 were ordinarily confronted by the false there wanted not an Hannaniah to break the Yokes of Jeremiah nor a proud Pashur to put him in the Stocks in the Gate of Benjamin when he only declared Gods mind warned of Gods approaching judgments and withstood the perjurious breach of the Oath of God which was upon the King and Kingdom nor is any thing more plain than Israels setting their posts by Gods posts their Altars by Gods Altars Ezek. 8.6.43.8 setting up in Gods house the very Image of Jealousie insomuch that Gods Prophets were ordinarily invective and vehemently reproving in their Ministery and indeed extraordinarily raised up to that very end yet we find not in all their Cals to Repentance one Caution against Communion with the Church or Call unto sâ—paration Mark 8.15.7.3 In the dayes of our Saviour the Jews were so corrupt in their doctrine that he Cautioned his Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees they made the Word of God of none effect by their traditions of the Elders they enervated the Law by most strait and false interpretations thereof In worship they innovated and with great severity imposed their own Inventions Pharisaical Rites and Superstitions they prophaned the Temple and made Gods house a Den of Thieves and in their Discipline they made acts of Necessity Charity and piety censurable unto a casting out of the Synagogues against all which the whole Ministery of the Lord Jesus was highly invective and severely rebuking yet he neither disowned them as a Church denyed communion with them all his time on earth or directed any of his Disciples so to do so long as God continued his presence and Ordinances to and among them but on the contrary pleaded for them as the very fountain of Salvation in opposition to the Samaritans You worship you know not what but we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews he sent his cleansed Lepers to shew themselves to the Priests John 4.22 and
sanctification of the Lords day and as I am a member of Christs Catholick visible Church and cannot by reason of my confinement be enjoyed without my attendance on that Irregular unsuitable method and confused order may be warrantably supersedâ—d and omitted on this ground and reason my presence at such administrations is offensive to some weake Brethren zealously affected to the simplicity of the Gospell were these corruptions abstracted from or opposed unto Gods worship there were to me no case of Conscience but they are confounded with it as the unclean vessel or ill favoured carving with my food whereby I live and therein I must profess it satisfieth not my conscience nor seemeth to me to be of weight that I must offer my sacrifice though by the loathsom order of Elies sons or go to the Temple though my way lye by the high places or assemble and send up my prayer in Gods Sanctuary though the Image of jealousie be set up in it cannot be soberly denied nor ought any to be thereat offended and I must needs resolve in the affirmative for the superadded vanities do not void Gods ordinance nor will defect and disorder with which my private capacity is not charged discharge my positive duty I am not insensible that some will be ready to read my allowance of the same in my attendance on it unto the hardning of themselves in sin or hindring themselves in duty concluding Communion in the ordinances is a consent unto the order to such I must say at their peril be it this scandall is taken not given this inference is more than the promises allow the Communion of the Prophets our Lord Iesus Christ and his Apostles with the Churches in their time under their many and great corruptions was not nor logically could be interpreted to be an argument of countenance and approbation of them or abatement of the zeale against them nor did they thereby contraction themselves the guilt thereof the spider which diffused in wine doth vitiate its subject and make it destructive by the very act of Communion doth spread his dirty webbs all over the Vine and we ear the grapes thereof without the least of doubt or danger the Cities that suffer by all unfit matter in their publike ministrations attend the good instructions and assent unto the due proposals petitions or demands rudely uttered by their Recorder nor think they themselves concerned in the broken blunt abrupt style or confused indigested method of his discourse the extrinsecal adjuncts and ministerial method of Gods ordinances is charged on the Ministers not members of Gods Church it may indeed add grief or pleasure to the people but voyds not the matter of Gods worship or leaveth any guilt on them who thereby receive and celebrate it but do not approve the same the spider may indeed suck poyson of the grape and wicked men may make my duty an occasion of their iniquity but neither the one nor the other giveth thereto any proper casualty events accidentalls are no arguments against my duty these are not more damnable to them who infer them then they would be to me if I by reasons thereof decline my duty my own sorrow nor other mens sin must never stave me off from positive duty these stumbling stones and scandalous inferences do and will ever lye in my way to Heaven yea to my natural life Christs sheep must drink and may be hurt by pudled waters withoâ—t participation in the polluting pudling guilt only chargeable on the Pastors and proud of the flock none can be offended that I worship God Ezek. 44. in the solemn publike worship of his people nor can without wounding their own soul be offended that I do it in this order to me distastful not to Gods worship destructive untill my liberty doth manifest it to be an act of choice not of chance if any hence infer and enforce a persecuting constraint and say these men may be compelled to that form of service they will not choose I shall grant it but advise such to sit down and consider how this will sound in Gods cares or how themselves will like it to be confined to unclean vessels and order because they can but will not chuse in such to eat their meat The offence of any who are Godly will be my trouble and their sin but the omission of duty though but for a day will be my transgression as I dare not admit that as a reason of this and must advise it be not pleaded Fifthly Let it be considered in steering this course Consid 5. This practice is not wâ—…hout president using this liberty and holding Communion with this very Church under these very corruptions and by attendance on this very order of service and solemn publike worship I am not without the caution and conduct of the sober godly learned promoters and pursuers of a perfect and compleat reformation the reformed Churches beyond the Seas and in Scotland obtained higher degrees of reformation and more purity of ordinances then did England for power and dominion the chiefest reformed Church yet these never did disown or decline Communion with her nor advise any her Members thereunto yet they did often rebuke and complain of her luke-warm haesitation in the degrees of reformation obtained and retention of those corruptions which ought to have been expelled among our selves Tindall Hooper Ridley Latimer Farrar Whitaker Cartwright Baines Sibbs Preston Rogers Geree Mr. Iohn Ball Langley Hind Nicholls with many others the non-conformists of Lincoln Devon and Cornwall besides those of our present age and yet contemporary with us all eminent Divines and Holy men groaning under these retained corruptions praying for perswading and pressing after unto many and great sufferings a progress in reformation unto the pure primitive plaines and simplicity of Christs own institution yet lived unto their last breath in constant Communion with our Church attending Gods ordinances under these very disorders and irregularities and did in many things administer according to the form then now imposed and did disâ—ast the non-communion of such who loytered out the time of publike prayer because prescribed and confused and by press and pulpit pleaded against the separations of Brown Barrow Iohnson Canne and their separating followers and adherents or non-communicating abettors as inferring that from the English Liturgy which it would not allow these good men with zeal reproved the many Superstitions continued but still denied them to be any sufficient ground for Separation from which they ever kept the greater distance as subverting the very foundation of the Church and have plainly trodden this tract in which we must travel pursuing the purity of worship in Union and Communion with the Church I shall not fear to professe these good men are the patterns to me proposed next to the prophets our Lord Jesus and the Apostles and cautionary boighâ— for the guidance of my zeal for the perfection of Reformation against and past the dangerous
the Word of God because it is unfitly mangled into parts and parcels urduly fixed unto places unreasonably appropriated unto dayes and times Surplices and canting quiering singing boys and men and published in unseemly vestures and voyces I confess their Common-Prayer is my burden by reason of its defects and disorder and the rudeness of the Ministerial Method I stand convinced it ought to be altered yea ab lished See the Epistle to the Liturgical consideratoâ— considered by reason of its Symetry to the Romish Mass superstitious Order and unsutableness to Solemn Publick Prayer yet I must confess I find in it no Matter to which on a charitable interpretation a sober serious Christian may not say nay can deny his Amen And though I distaste the Ministeriâ—l Mâ—thod I cannot disown in it the essential Form of Prayer viz. A calling upon God in the Name of Christ That Set-Forms of Prayer are used is an Act and Argument of weakness that they are imposed on Gods Church and Ministers is an Act I cannot acquit of wickedness And that this defective disorderly Form is retained yea by forcâ— returned into the Church of England I fear will be found an Act and Argument of wilfulness against Gods mind yet neither the one nor the other maketh it cease to be Publick Solemn Pray r nor do I see on what ground I can deny or refuse my Amen to what is prayed for because I know there are many things wanting to the Church which are not not indeed can be by this Form expressed or not joining desires to God with and as a Member of his Church because they are rudely and unfittingly expressed whil'st the irregularity of that common Order is no Bar to Gods acceptance of my more regular Amen thereunto given Departure from Babylon is the indispensable Duty and will be the property of all whose names are written in the Lambs Book of Life but the Object must be Babylon in the very abstract Setting the mark of the Beast on them who partake with her Rev. 13.8 17 4 13 8. bearing in her hand the Cup of Abomination and so appearing to be formal spiritual Aegypt anâ— Sodom I cannot believe every or any Society retaining some Bâ—â—â—… 〈◊〉 â—…stures and Orders with a protested and apparent recession from Babylon can be the Object thereof and the last of these is the capacity of Englands Church Certainly the Temple of the Lord is not to be disowned or renounced because it hath been sometime trodden down by the Antichristian Gentiles and vitiated by the seat of the Beast when these are expelled though the dirt of their tramplings and stink of their session remain behind them My good friend let it be seriously resolved is there no difference between Israel and Judah Rome and a reformed Church a professed sacrifising Priest and a Minister of the Gospel fondly affecting and retaining that Appellation between a calling on the only true God in the name of Christ though in a defective rude confused and unfitting order and praying unto Saints and dumb Idols between the disorderly administration of the worship for matter and form Gods own appointment and the Ordinance nullifying administration in an unknown tongue to which the hearers cannot say Amen and abstraction or alteration of the Elements beyond yea contrary to Gods prescription or what the possibility of nature and entity of the ordinance will admit between Sacraments with some unwarrantable superstitious Appendants and a Sacrifice expiatory for the quick and dead must we depart from Israel returned from Egypt and Babylon though retaining the savour some of the Manners and Customs and an hankering mind to go back unto those accursed places I pray God keep England in her now retrograde motion from going back to Rome then through his Grace I shall not dare to renounce her Communion though my soul mourn for her corruption for so long as we enjoy in her the very matter and essential form of Gods worship and Ordinances though in an humane unfit corrupt ministerial method and order with some vaine and needlesse appendants of humane invention we are not without confidence of Gods presence and a possibility of salvation and we therefore are without a sufficient ground for separation or non-communion Consid 3d. Communion is no bar but a help to reformation Thirdly let it be considered Communion with the Church under many and great corruptions is not inconsistent with zeal care and contest for reformation thereof the designs of Hell may agree in the end but disagree in the means but it is not so with the determinations of Heaven the Devil may suggest and provoke the correction of sin by sin or make zeal to purity a spurre to separation and the shiprack of vertue to and in the Church 1 Cor. 11.13 14.15 he can make the white Witch heale what the black doth hurt by him one Conjurer doth blesse what another doth curse the Angel of light doth often expel and lay the Angel of darknesse but yet they be both evil Angels he sticks not at nor stirreth against Piety or Religion provided it be but sinful he is content men go in a via lactea sacra to the place of woe and steere by Conscience if erronious to their own condemnation but it is not thus with God and the dictates of his holy Spirit all his commands are competible his Graces concatenated 2 Pet. 1.5 c. 7. All the duties of a Christian are to be discharged without interfering interruption or destruction by one another he alloweth not one sinful step in the way of salvation though paved with never so fair a pretence of sanctity if therefore his people stumble thereinto they must return and go back if they will go to heaven no one duty at any time damps zeal unto another they may be desparata but never are opposita different but not contrariant one to another the discords in true Religion do ever constitute the clearest harmony all extreams are equally odious unto the God of order excesses finde no more acceptance with him than defects in Religion be not righteous overmuch is a divine dictate though many times unduly Eccl. 7.16 17. and unjustly pleaded by men as well as be not over-much wicked Gods Israel may not turn to the right or left hand Deut. 5.32.17.20.18.14 departing from the way of his Statutes the true Christian must walk in all well-pleasing in every good word and work and hate every evil way Col. 1.10 It hath been a scandalous Blasphemy from its very first being of Christianity to say or suppose it doth direct its subjects to do evil that good may come thereby sincere Saints are ever acted by the Spirit of peace and love to seeke and zealously pursue the purity of Gods worship in union with his Church Rom. 3.8 Reformation a duty zeal care and contests for Reformation of Gods Church and worship subjected to the least corruption can
parish Churches to which I could not but Reply by way of advice not to deny the being of the Church nor renounce union and Communion with it because of the corruptions in it but their zeal brake into rage and railing thou Antichrist wilt thou yet uphold the Beast and Whore of Rome are you Antichrist still with many more invectives and expressions of outrage which provoked me to give them this short farewell Freinds reconcile your selves to your selves am I a sufferer for Christ and yet Antichrist if you come not to visit me come not to vex me to all dissenting friends I cannot but by way of thanks for all their kindnesse intreate them to study the truths of God I have asserted and embrace not their force against me but against both extreames for that love will not last which is founded in present contradiction without consent in positives asserted Love the Truth and me for the Truths sake then shall ye have the comfort of loving indeed and in truth It was my hope and is my prayer that our retrogradation in Reformation would have made such who departed from us to reflect with seriousnesse even unto Repentance the experienced remorce of separating and Church confusion to which Church-gathering hath resolved us but if men harden themselves to uphold their sin and strengthen their party to the utter subversion of this poor Church and paganizing this Nation they must give leave to trust God with their love and kindnesses whilst to my power I resist their lusts and let them know I cannot be a Martyr of Faction I hope I can do all things and suffer all things for the truth and nothing against the truth and must all my days pursue Reformation of Gods Ordinances in Union and Communion with the Church leaving my self principles and practises to the judgment of God knowing it is an easie matter for me to be judged and misjudged by men and yet abide what I am A servant to God his Truth and Church Z.C. Julij 20. 1661 AN APPENDIX To the foregoing LETTER IN A LETTER Written in answer to one signifying to Mr. CROFTON the Offence which was taken at his going to CHURCH And being present at the COMMON-PRAYERS IN THE CHAPPEL IN THE TOWER OF LONDON For Mr. Z. C. Prisoner in the TOWER DEAR BROTHER YOU cannot enough believe how much your renewed publick Communion with we know not whom in the Ordinances which they think cannot but be materially corrupt especially in that place hath grieved and alienated the hearts of the Godly not only Members but Ministers Defend it how we can They censure it not only Impolitick but Impious hardning our Enemies weakning our Friends undoing your good Testimony and giving away the CAUSE it being aeque if not aequaliter as if you should Read and Administer the Form They think there can be no Obligation of Duty or Edification warranting the one which may not also justifie the other The matter of Doctrine and worship of Prayer seems to be not only the objectum ad quem but also per quibus whether things or persons wherein they take it for granted the Common-Prayer is corrupt As when you pray for Arch-Bishops Bishops as Ministers of a superiour Degree and indeed according to the new corrected Form of Ordination of the only Holy Order and Institution wherein they are an Antichristian Order c. Or if only the Circumstance of the Form were exceptionable yet you judge the Nurse may as well be bound in Duty and Necessity to give the Child his bread out of a Chamber pot as she her self or the Child feed themselves out of it Plead then you must necessity for both or neither and they expect you should do th' other too se defendendo or else supersede this for the time to come But if you proceed I perswade my self of that very many Brethren which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the rest you will be alone in this for they can with more patience brook to the present where there be personal corruptions in the Matter than where there are circumstantial material Offences in the Form Yours bound in your Bonds P. E. For the Reverend Mr. P. E. to be communicated to other Christian Friends and the Brethren of the Ministry concerned in his Letter as scandalized at my Communion with the Church in the Order of Service by which I cannot administer Good Brother GRace and peace abound yours no little aggravation of mine affliction I received I thereby understand the grief not only of Brethren in Christianity but in the Ministry because of what you call renewed my Communion with their Church in that Service by which I cannot administer and what is to me more greivous their Censures of my act as impolitick yea impious hardning our enemies weakning our friends undoing my good testimony and giving away the Cause Sir such is my esteem of the affections of the godly that their grief must needs be mine God is my witnesse I desire seek study their joy their grief for my duty can only grieve me in by being groundless whereby they wound themselves by wounding him whom God hath greived and that by most bitter words sharper then Swords or Razors hardning our enemies weakning our friends are easily borne they are events by accident beyond the nature and intent of the Act or the intention of the Agent resulting from the wickednesse of the one and weaknesse of the other to deem this Act Impolitick I take not ill all my acts and writings have been such in their account the Censures of the Committee of discretion are to me so common that they passe on me as things of course branding with folly what could never be convinced of iniquity but impious doth pierce mine intrails to shun sin hath been my study my smart did not piety bar may policy I could sleep in as whole a skin as my more prudent Brethren the fear of God conscience of duty provokes this impious act what a Monster of man hath God made me my course is nothing but contradictions treasonable loyalty schismatical unity impious piety yet this is not all an undoing of my good testimony and giving away the Cause and so an Apostate can any thing cut deeper be more clouding to my sufferings more deprive God of the glory thereof it pierceth my soul to cry Lord judge between me and Brethren my witnesse is on high my Record is above I have charity for Jobs miserable comforters they spake well of God though their arguing reproved not Job for they spake with a mistaken zeal I believe they were Saints against whom Paul appealed it is an easie thing for me to be judged of men my judgment is of the Lord The Lord strengthen my patience under this most provoking temptation that I may with sobriety reason against clamatous censorious Brethren My good Brother where is sobriety charity is zeal for purity a Moses Serpent to devour these Graces of the Spirit Cave
Why is my now attendance on solemn publick worship branded to be renewed communion with you know not whom if you mean this of persons individual truly as to the most I know not whom nor can I think you judge it necessary I cannot in my first communion know it in any Congregation is Church gathering become a Presbyterial principle is it the work of every age is seven not seventy years an age is non knowledge of Members a cause of non communion would not common charity make me know them to be a society of Christians worshippers of the true God in Jesus Christ and are they not hereby members of the Church Catholick visible particularly divided by local circumscription or have we renounced this principle is not the Liberty of the Tower a particular Church in a Presbyterial sence as well as Christ Church or Alhallows Breads street If I communicate in these must I not communicate with I know not whom may I not hear the Gospel preached and in calling on God in the name of Christ for things agreeable to his will communicate with I know not whom But why is my communion râ—newed I never denied I never ceased from I never was cut off from communion with the English Reformed Church and its particular Assemblies must Independents be verified in the false reproach viz. Presbyterial Churches wâ—re gathered Churches Presbytery interrupted was the Church dissolved and Communion abandoned Cave We have disowned denied determined sin and danger in these Notions I have more charity than to think my self out of Communion because violently debarred from Convention with the particular Assemblies of the Reformed English Church God having at length opened me a door of liberty to attend his solemn publick worship in this place with this Assembâ—y why is my acceptance and use thereof clamorously condemned as an act not only impoliti k but impious do not you know this is the execution of a resolution neither new nor rash not new for I thus determined and thus practised in my youth when piety was reproached by profane men as Puritanism and by the Brownists as corrupt Communion I thus determined and declared in my publick Ministery and preaching for Reformation I thus determined in all my late disputes and writings whilest I was at liberty I thus practised on accidental occasions I herein convinced and hereof perswaded prayed the liberty I now enjoy the first day I was committed prisoner to this place and have ever since petitioned to enjoy it this act you know is not rash but the result of mature and deliberate thoughts besides what hath passed between God and mine own soul I have heard and weighed the objections of separating as well as reforming brethren and after many expostulations I have you know it stated my Case of Conscience drawn up my reasons communicated them to Brethren and Christian Friends craved a Confutation from more than one prayed fraternal Correption by solid and serious Argumentation and professed a readiness to hear and obey Conviction I wonder after all this and Nine Months time to have corrected convinced my Judgment I shall be censured for bringing it to Act and you should now call for an Apology Dear Brother How long shall I complain when shall I be known and dealt with as a Brother Is it fair Play to revile and not reprove To condemn and not confute Will you neither convince my Conscience nor be content without Censures to see me obey it Are you angry to be imposed on and yet expect I should live by an implicite Faith and forbear what is to me a positive Duty on this bare Reason The Brethren will be displeased Let me say it without Prophaneness or Levity Be not wise overmuch The Offence of Brethren hath its place and weight in my Soul but must be well grounded before it counterpoize Conscience of positive indispensable Duty I well understand not the Epithites which vilifie my present Act because they are general and without Reason That it is Impolitick I may not deny I have ever been estranged to and at enmity with the Brethrens Policies and Fancy If they had in some things been as foolish as silly I God might have had more Glory Truth more Strength the Church more Purity and Order my self more Liberty their Comforts I know not nor will adventure to judge What Policies this Act must relate unto I know not unless it be the strengthning and so justifying those Schisms which supplanted subverted our Reformation by those Seditions Rebellions Treasons which have made it Odious and scandalized the endeavours thereof that the most Upright and Innocent among us are pressed under it If Brethren were sensible That my Zeal for Reformation is reproached repelled and my self thus oppressed by these Schisms they would not sure think it Policy to strike hands with them or Impolitick to appear really as well as verbally against them God knoweth I may not long speak let me speak freely Truly Brother foolish I think it aque and aequaliter politick for serious sober Reformers to unite with Non-communicating Separating Congregational Brethren in the Church-confounding nullifying principles and practises As for our late King-Killers to cry up the COVENANT and confound the Quarrel of the Parliament with the Good Old Cause Confound 62. with 52. and you may reconcile 48. to 43. and soon return to 48. again Agree these in Ecclesiasticks and divide them in Civils if you can I wish I could not scent some Brethren offended at my Act as tainted already in their Civils But I am a Fool be it so yet a Fools Bolt is soon shot If Presbyters will wisely serve Gods providence and do his Church proper Service Now it is their Time and Business to witness Corruptions circa cultum publicum will not warrant Non-communion with secession or separation from a true Church and such I yet deem England Correct this folly and I may become wise till then I will through Grace joy in my folly I have observed indeed Gods and the Kings Fools were never many But truly foolish I could never judge it good Policy That non-Non-communion Separation and the Sectarian Spawn should shroud themselves and be sheltered by Non-conformity and Reformation Hath not our dear-bought Experience taught us That the Repute of being the Parent of these hath been the Remora and Retroversion of that Can we forget how these when in Power did divide divert and destroy Reformation Paganize all England and plant One hundred and twenty gathered Churches and thereby proclaim Entity not Purity of the Churches was their Quarrel And shall we not now be so wise as to disown and deny them as a Bastard brood Now they are taken as Vagrants and whip't up to Non-conformists as their reputed Parents Can we ever witness Relation more than by these affectionate embraces in this day of Discrimination O! that my Brethrens Policy were so wise as to consider the Duty and Necessity of differing Reformation and