join your self to that separated Church till you can prove that the hurt that will follow by discord offence division encouraging of Schisms and Pride c. is not likely to be greater than your benefit can compensate but if this separate Church be a factious Church set up contentiously against the Concordant Churches tho' on pretence of greater purity and if their Meetings be imploy'd in contemning and reviling other Churches whose People are not of their mind and in puffing up themselves with Pride as if they were the only true Churches of Christ avoid such separate Churches as the enemies of Love and Peace And again in the same Book p. 336. he bids us Not peevishly pick quarrels with the Prayers of the Church nor come to them with humorsome prejudice think not that you must stay away or go out of the Church for every passage that is disorderly unmeet yea or unsound or untrue for the words of Prayer are the work of Men and while all Men are fallible imperfect and sinful their Prayers and Preaching will be like themselves and he that is the highest pretender and the peevishest quarrelier hath his own failings c. So that if our Dissenters will allow their own Mr. Baxter to be a competent judge or any of the other learned Divines beforesaid they must own that neither the weakness of the Ministry nor better Edification is a sufficient cause for Separation But there is another thing say they which makes it necessary for us to separate from the Church of England and that is the Oaths and Subscriptions which they require from us What says Mr. Baxter to this Why Mr. Baxter in his Poor Man's Family Book p. 331. says If a Church in other respects sound require of you any false Subscriptions Promises or Oaths or any unlawful thing you must not do it but hold Communion in other lawful things It seems then he does not allow of Separation upon this account neither The Scruples which Men make to the Oaths and Declarations are grounded upon mistakes for that they But for the farther satisfying of such well meaning Persons as are scrupulous 't were much to be wish'd that these Oaths Subscriptions c. and the other things required by the Act of Uniformity were altered and explained by Act of Parliament according to the Bill drawn up by the Dean of St. Pauls which the Dissenters especially the Presbyterians are willing to agree to and have made the very same Proposals themselves in their Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet ' s Sermon at the latter end Vide. take the words in a strained and unnatural Sence Whereas if they would remember what the famous Bishop Sanderson tells us De Juran Praelect 6. sect 12. p. 177. And what all learned Men do agree in to wit That in every Oath all those Conditions or Exceptions ought to be understood which by right or common use are implied in it viz. as far as I can ' and 't is lawful for me things remaining in the same state c. With these Conditions there is nothing in these Oaths or Subscriptions that can reasonably be scrupled and without them 't is impossible to frame an Oath that a Man can safely venter to swear to Besides though these Subscriptions were sufficient cause for Separation how can the Lay People justifie their Separation upon this account No such Oaths or Subscriptions are required of them they are only required from the Ministers Why then do the People forsake the Church Is it in reverence to the Ministers least they should have none to Preach to This is what they never could answer with any colour of Reason and therefore many of the Non-Conformist Ministers do frequently in discourse fairly and honestly own that the Terms of Lay-Communion with the Church of England are easy enough but the only thing they stick at is the terms of Ministerial Communion The only Answer that ever I heard made to this is in a Book call'd An Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet ' s Sermon by some Non-Conformists pag. 6. They tell us That they must not justifie themselves in their Preaching and leave the People in Schism I must needs say this was kindly done of them for 't were very unfriendly in them to draw the poor silly People into Schism and when they have done to slip their own Necks out of the collar and leave the People in the lurch and therefore they quickly find an Answer to stop their Mouths whom they knew would never examine it Say they we are Ministers of Christ and have a Commission to Preach and therefore the People may lawfully forsake the Church to hear us for we must not Preach to the Stone Walls But pray will this Reason justifie the People in leaving their Parish Church and their own lawful Minister to run after a stranger for fear he should want a Congregation to Preach to If the King should give a Gentleman a Commission to raise a Regiment does this oblige Men that have formerly Listed themselves under other Officers to leave their Service and follow him No sure There are in the Two Universities many Hundred young Men that are qualified for the Ministry perhaps as well as most of the Non-Conformist Ministers and are not yet called to the Office nor provided with Churches suppose all these now were admitted into Orders and scatter'd all over the Kingdom are the People obliged to run away from their lawful Minister orderly set over them and divide the Parishes each perhaps into Three or Four to furnish all these new made Ministers with Congregations to Preach to An excellent contrivance this of our Reverend Non-Conformist Ministers to entail the Church Revenue upon them and their Successors for ever without being beholding to King Bishop or Patron and without any possibility of ever being cut off or forfeited all the Lawyers in England could not have devised so good a security for them as they have subtlely done here for themselves They may Preach what Doctrine they please for the Government or against it they have a Commission to Preach and the People are therefore bound they say to hear them For Preaching and Hearing they say are Relatives and the one does necessarily suppose the other 'T is true indeed actual Preaching supposes Hearing so do actual Governours necessarily suppose a People to be Govern'd But a Commission to Govern does not necessarily suppose a People actually to be Govern'd for there may be Governours appointed and made though there be then no People for them to Govern as was resolved by all the Judges of England in the Case of Sutton's Hospital Co. Rep. 10. fol. 32. a. So their Commission to Preach does not necessarily draw with it People to be preached to but only warrants their Preaching where 't is really wanted and when they can have People to Preach to without injuring others or disturbing the Peace of a settled true Christian Church But to say no more in a matter so clear I have already shew'd that there lies no Obligation upon any Non-Conformist Minister to Preach in England and consequently there can be no necessity for the People to hear them The Oaths and Subscriptions are required only of the Clergy and is no more than what other Reformed Churches require
testimony of the Person chosen And to that end 't is true the People were to be present at the nomination of a new Bishop for since they were to be Men blameless and of good report 't was but fit that the People that best knew his Life and Conversation should be present to testify the same And herewith agrees St. Cyprian Ep. 68. whom Mr. Baxter vouches for the contrary says he The Bishop shou'd be chosen in the presence of the People that by their presence their Faults may be publish'd or their good Actions commended but says not a word of the Peoples Power of Electing him All our Ordinations must be done in the publick view of the People who are demanded of the Bishop whether any of them can or will except against the Persons to be admitted See the Form of Ordination in the Book of Common Prayer As to the Elections of Deacons 't is to be noted that 't was properly no Church Power which they had but they were Stewards of the Common Stock and therefore 't was but reasonable the Community should be satisfied in the choice of them St. Chrysostom in his Book de Sacerdotio complains much of the unfitness of the People to judge in such matters So does St. Augustine Ep. 110. And indeed were there no other Reasons against the Peoples choosing their own Ministers but the mischiefs that would necessarily attend it 't were sufficient for when ever the People assum'd this Power of choosing it caus'd so great Disturbances in the Church that at Antioch the Divisions of the People about the choice of a Bishop in the time of Constantine had kindled such a Flame as had almost destroy'd both Church and City The like at Rome upon the choice of Damascus And if the People have the Power of choosing their own Ministers what shou'd hinder but there may be a Presbyterian Independant Anabaptist Quaker and Papist teacher all in one Parish and so this would set open a door to infinite Divisions And therefore to avoid the great Evils and inconveniences of popular Elections the Power of choosing their own Ministers was taken away from the People by several Councils as 12. and 13. Can. Conc. Laodicea Conc. Antioch c. 18. c. Conc. 2d of Nice c. 3. The Reason that first gave Lay-men a title to the nomination of Ministers was when Christian Princes and others had given large Endowments to the Church 't was thought but just that they should have the nomination of the Ministers for those Churches that they had built and indow'd And this was a Prerogative in the Kings of England ever since the first foundation of a Christian Church here and long before any freedom of Elections was pretended to See Stat. 25. Edw. 3. and the Case of the King 's Ecclesiastical Power in Lord Cook 's 8th Rep. and the Case of Praemunire in Sir John Davenant's Reports Case ult And this title of Patronage has been confirmed to Lay-men by several Councils as 1st Coun. of Orange Anno Dom. 441. 2d Counc of Arles Anno 452. 9th Counc of Toledo c. And this Right of presentation is not only us'd in England but in other reform'd Churches In Denmark the Archbishops and Bishops are appointed by the King so they are in Swedeland So in other Lutheran Churches the Superintendants are appointed by the several Princes and the Patrons present before Ordination The Synod of Dort hath a Salvo for the right of Patronage In France the Ministers are chosen by Ministers at Geneva by the Council of State who have Power likewise to depose them And Beza in his Ep. 83. declares against the Peoples choosing their Ministers as a thing without any ground in Scripture Grotius Ep. ad Boatslaer Ep. 62. p. 21. agrees herein How comes then our English Dissenters to make this a ground of Separation to wit The depriving the People of their Right of choosing their own Ministers when 't is evident they never had any such Right but when they got it by Usurpation And 't is contrary to the general practice of the Church in all Ages and even to the practice of other reform'd Churches at this day But besides the unwarrantableness of the Peoples choosing their Ministers and the great mischiefs that attend it by making the People run into Divisions and Factions 't is a thing very unreasonable in it self that such an ignorant proud unpeaceable sort of People as Mr. Baxter himself confesses in his Sacrilegiae Dissert p. 102. c. the ordinary sort of Christians to be should be made judges of their Ministers abilities and soundness of Doctrines who are most apt to revile the best and gravest Ministers as the same Mr. Baxter says himself in his Cure of Divis p. 393. Sure 't is more likely that the King and Parliament and the Governours of the Church shou'd provide able and fit Ministers for us than such sort of People as these unless any will be so ridiculous as to suppose that the Magistrates and Clergy are all bad men and the ignorant common People the only incouragers of Vertue They may say 't is as unreasonable on the other hand that all the People of a Parish shou'd be oblig'd to take a Minister put into the Cure by some young raw extravagant Heir that had the good Fortune to be born to an Estate to which the Advowson did belong but perhaps is as ignorant and unfit to judge of the abilities of a Minister as the meanest in the Parish To this I answer That though such ignorant Persons may sometimes have the right of Presentation yet they have not the Power of putting into the Cure any Minister they please for the Patron has only the right of presenting his Clerk who must be admitted and instituted by the Bishop before the Cure is said to be full and if the Bishop with the rest of his Clergy after examination had c. do think him any way unqualified for the Cure of Souls he may reject him and put the Patron to present another qualify'd for the Office which if he neglect to do within six Months from the time the Church became void he shall lose his presentation for that turn and the Bishop shall present So that the Patron it seems cannot put whom he will on the People for their Pastor but is bound to find Personam idoneam a fit Person And now before we pass from this matter let us see whether the Civil Magistrate has Power to silence Ministers or not Doubtless he has otherwise 't is impossible that any Kingdom should be safe for since the generality of the People are so apt to be led by their Spiritual Guides and take their Notions of Loyalty and Obedience from them 't is strange to imagine that Ministers shall be allow'd to Preach up Sedition Heresy or what Doctrine they please and it shall not be in the Power of the Magistrate to silence them But say our Dissenters we are
who endeavour to inform them but instead of this they fly out into rage and violent Passions against those who offer to remove their Scruples and for their kindness return most reproachful bitter Language both on the Persons tho' never so Eminent and the thing tho' never so Sacred which is visible in all their Books of Controversie And even in common Discourse How difficult is it to obtain from the Zeal of many of our Dissenters so much truce as to hear what one can say to them with patience and civility They tell us in plain terms we may spare our breath and not pretend to teach them they understand their Duty better than we do They are satisfied in their own minds that they are in the right and will not be wheedled out of their Opinion by all that we can say This is truth Mr. Baxter himself has own'd as much in his Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet p. 81. where he affirms in his own name and the name of his People That he who thinks that his own or others reasonings will ever change all the truly honest Christians in the Land knows so little of Matters or of Men or of Conscience as that he is not fit to be a Bishop or a Priest What will they say now to this will their Scruples of Conscience excuse their Separation and Disobedience when 't is evident they will not use the proper means to satisfie their Consciences Nay farther When they declare 't is needless to go about to remove their Scruples for they are resolv'd beforehand they will not be convinc'd Let no Man say so for shame 't is against common Reason and the Opinion of all learned Men and even of Mr. Baxter himself But we will suppose for once that every particular Dissenter has done his utmost indeavour to satisfie his Conscience and that after all they cannot conquer their Scruples What then Must they therefore proceed to Separation No this was never allowed by Christ nor his Apostles nor by any Christian Church since their time not even by our Dissenters themselves heretofore Our Saviour himself did not separate from the Jewish Church though there were many things amiss in it nor advise others to do so says Vines a Non-Conformist in his Book on the Sacrament pag. 39. In the Apostles days we find there were some who scrupled some things that were enjoin'd but notwithstanding the difference of Men's Judgments and their pretended Scruples of Conscience the Apostles did prescribe Rules of Uniformity and allow'd none to Separate from the Church and frequent Meetings of their own setting up because they could not conquer their Scruples And this very Argument did the Assembly of Divines at Westminster Anno Dom. 1648. use against their Dissenting Brethren the Independents who pleaded for Separation upon the account of Conscience as the Dissenters do now See Papers for Accommodation pag. 111. And when the Independents told them they could not satisfie their Consciences so as to Conform to their Church Government and therefore begg'd That they may be allow'd separate Congregations the Assembly positively refused it and urged them to Conform to their way of Worship c. and charged them with Schism if they did not For say they To desire separate Congregations as to those parts of Worship where they own they can join with us is very unreasonable for tenderness of Conscience may justifie non-Communion in the thing scrupled but it cannot justifie a Separation See the Papers for Accommodation pag. 20 21 22 51 c. For if it should say they it then would make way for infinite Divisions and sub-Divisions and give countenance to perpetual Schism in the Church ib. p. 68 73 c. And then the Assembly justifie themselves in so doing by the practice of the Saints in the Apostles days For they tell them they desire no more of them hereby than what they were confident was practised by the Saints at Philippi namely To hold practical Communion in things wherein they Doctrinally agreed ib. p. 115. So that if the judgment of their own Brethren in a full Assembly may be taken upon the most weighty Debate and serious Deliberation their setting up separate Meetings and forsaking the Church upon the account of some Scruples which they pretend they cannot conquer is Sinful and Schismatical And when the Assembly of Divines was pressed farther by their Dissenting Brethren they desired them to answer in this one thing Whether some must be denyed the liberty of their Conscience in matters of practice or none If none then say they we must Renounce our Covenant and let in Prelacy again and all other ways If a denial of Liberty to some may be just then Vniformity may be settled notwithstanding Men's different Judgments or pretence of Conscience Papers for Accommodation pag. 116. Agreeable hereto is the practice of the Independents themselves where they have the power as in New-England no Separation is there allow'd upon the account of Scruples of Conscience as appears by their Book of Statutes which they have lately Printed and by their telling Mr. Williams a famous Minister among them that if nothing will serve him but Separation because he could not conquer his Scruples The World was wide enough and so away they banish'd them in the midst of Winter From what has been said it appears That though there were some things amiss in the Church of England which our Dissenters could not satisfie their Consciences about yet this would not justifie Separation from the Church though perhaps it might after due pains taken to inform themselves aright concerning them justifie their non-non-Communion in the things scrupled Now I will shew that there is really no cause to forsake the Church of England upon the account of Conscience And that all those who do forsake the Church and frequent separate Meetings are condemn'd for Schismaticks by the most Eminent Divines of all the Reformed Churches beyond Seas and by Mr. Baxter Dr. Owen Mr. Gifford Corbet and many other of the Non-Conformists themselves heretofore For First they all agree That no Man is obliged in Conscience to separate from any Church that is sound in Doctrine and has the Sacraments rightly and duly administer'd The Scripture allows Separation only in these three cases First In case of Idolatrous Worship Secondly In case of False Doctrine imposed instead of True And Thirdly In case things indifferent be made necessary to Salvation But where these Three are wanting nothing will justifie Separation See Canon Nicen. 6 15 16. Constant c. 6. Chalced. 17 20 26. Antioch c. 2 5. Cod. Eccles Afr. c. 53 55. Conc. Gangrae c. 6. Conc. Carth. c. 10 11. Cod. Can. Eccles Vniv Can. 65. All these Canons and many more do condemn Separation from a Church that is sound in Doctrine and has the Sacraments rightly and duly Administred So does Calvin in his Inst lib. 4. c. 1. numb 9. where he says That great allowances ought to be made to such
of all theirs By the Constitution of the French Church every Minister that will not subscribe to the Orders among them is to be declared a Schismatick And by the Constitution of Geneva any Minister that contemns the Authority of their Church or by his obstinacy disturbs the Order of it shall be first summon'd before the Magistrate and if that will not do he shall be Excommunicated but no Separation allow'd And Calvin says Ep. Olevian pag. 311 122. Let him that will not submit to the Orders of a Society be cast out Our Dissenters themselves did oblige all to Swear Solemnly to their Covenant under pain of Sequestration But say the Dissenters What if the Church of England Excommunicates us may we not then lawfully Separate and set up Meetings of our own I Answer 't is true the Laws of the Church do say that in some cases Men are Excommunicated ipso facto yet this does not oblige any to separate from Communion till Sentence be duly and judicially pronounced in a Church For by the Civil Law notwithstanding Excommunication ipso facto a Declaratory Sentence of the Judge is necessary before a Man shall be deny'd the benefit of Communion And the saying a Man is Excommunicated ipso facto signifies no more than that the Judge may give Sentence without any new judicial Process But though our Dissenters were actually Excommunicated for their Disobedience this this would not excuse them from Schism as Dr. Stillingfleet has proved at large Misch of Separ p. 370. Thus I have shew'd that none of those Pleas which are commonly used by the Dissenters for their Separation from us are sufficient to justifie Separation from a True Church Now if I can prove That the Church of England is a True Reform'd Church they must either Renounce their Principles of Separation or their Reason The only Argument I shall here make use of to prove that the Church of England is a True Reform'd Church is That it is so acknowledged by all the Reform'd Churches in the World who do all own her as a Sister and also by the most Eminent of our own Dissenters themselves All the Reform'd Churches beyond Seas do own the Church of England as a True Reform'd Church and yet they know what her Faults be in her Assemblies in her Worship in her Ministry and Government And this appears by the Harmony of Confessions of the Churches Collected and set forth by the Churches of France and of the Low-Countries They do receive and approve of the Confession of the Church of England and call it one of the True Reform'd Churches Calvin has acknowledged the same in his writings against the Brownists and condemns them for Schismaticks for separating from it See his Instit lib. 4. c. 1. And the famous Causabon in his Epistle to King James I. declares plainly That none at this day comes nearer the form of the Ancient Church than the Church of England does Grotius ad Boatslaer Ep. 62. acknowledges the same To which I shall add the Opinion of Two of the most Eminent Reform'd Divines at this day beyond Seas The one is Monsieur L'Moyn Professor of Divinity at Leyden in his Letter to the Bishop of London Anno Dom. 1680. who wrote to him to know his Judgment concerning our present Divisions in England L'Moyn writes him a long Letter which you may see at large at the latter end of Dr. Stillingfleet's Mischief of Separation I shall only repeat some of it Where was it ever seen says he after he had been highly condemning our Dissenters for Separation that the Salvation of Men was concern'd for Articles of Discipline and things which regard but the out-side and Order of the Church Truly these are never accounted in the number of essential Truths And as there is nothing but these that can save so there is nothing but these that can exclude from Salvation For the Episcopal Government what is there in it that is dangerous and may reasonably alarm Men's Consciences And if this be capable of depriving Men of Eternal Glory and shutting the Gates of Heaven who was there that entred there for the space of 1500. Years since that for all that time all the Churches of the World had no other kind of Government If it were contrary to the Truth is it credible that God had so highly approved it and permitted his Church to be tyrannized over by it for so many Hundred Years c. Therefore since all the Reformed Churches do look upon the Church of England not only as a Sister but as an elder Sister how comes it to pass that some English-men themselves have so ill an Opinion of her at present as to separate rashly from her For to speak the Truth I do not see their separate Meetings are of any great use or that one may be more Comforted there than in the Episcopal Churches When I was at London almost Five Years ago I went to several of their Meetings to see what way they took for the Instruction of their Hearers but I profess I was not at all Edified by it I heard one of the most famous Non-Conformists he Preached in a place where there were about Fourscore Women and a few Men He had chosen a Text about the Building up the Ruines of Jerusalem and for Explication of it he cited Pliny and Vitruvius I believe an Hundred times And did not forget to mention a Proverb in Italian Duro con duro non fa muro All this seem'd to me nothing to the purpose and very improper for his Auditory To Cantonize themselves and make a Schism to have the liberty to vent such Vanities seems very ill Conduct And the People seem very weak to quit their mutual Assemblies for things that so little deserve their esteem and preference I do not think that any one is obliged to suffer such Irregularity c. The other Authority I promised to cite is Monsieur Claud to whom the Bishop of London wrote about the same time desiring his Opinion as aforesaid Monsieur Claud returns him this answer All Reform'd Churches do acknowledge the Church of England as a true Church and I shall not be afraid to give that name to the holding of Assemblies apart and separating from the publick Assemblies and withdrawing themselves from under the Government of the Church 'T is real Schism We do not enter into a comparison of your order with that under which we live all are subject to inconveniencies ours have hers as well as yours It is enough for us to know that the same Divine Providence which by an indispensible necessity and by conjuncture of Affairs did at the beginning of
the Reformation put our Churches under that of the Presbytery has put yours under that of the Episcopacy and as we are assured that you do not despise our simplicity so neither ought we to oppose our selves against your Preheminence See both these Letters and a third from Monsieur L'Angle to the same purpose at large in the latter end of Dr. Stillingfleet's Misch of Separ Thus much for the foreign Divines Now we will come nearer home and see what our Dissenters themselves have thought of the Church of England from which they separate First then Several of the Dissenters to avoid the imputation of Brownism do sincerely profess before God and all the World That they hold the Church of England to be a true Church of Christ with which they did and would hold Communion notwithstanding any defilement or unwarranted Power of Church Government exercised therein See the Apologetical Narrative p. 5 6. Again They own that our Parochial Churches are true Churches and that they can find no fault with the Doctrine of our Church and that 't is lawful and * If occasional Communion be lawful constant is a Duty See Papers for Accomm p. 47 51 56. sometimes a Duty to communicate with us Baxter's Defence of his Cure p. 38. and 64. Corbet of Schism p. 41. Peace-offering in the name of the Congreg party Anno Dom. 1667. p. 10. True way of Conc. part 3. c. 1. sect 40. and Mr. Baxter in his last Answer to Bagshaw p. 30 31. has these words You little know what pernicious design the Devil has upon you in perswading you to desire and indeavour to pull down the interest of Christ and Religion which is upheld in the Parish Churches of this Land and to think that 't is best to bring them as low in reality and reputation as you can and contract the Religious Interest all into private Meetings And see also Mr. Baxter's Plea for Peace p. 240. to the same purpose And lastly Dr. Owen in his Book of Evangelical Love p. 54. acknowledges That they look upon the Church of England measuring it by the Doctrine received since the Reformation to be as sound and healthful a part of the Catholick Church as any in the World I have now prov'd that Separation from a true Church is sinful and schismatical I have proved the Church of England to be a true Church and all this I have proved from their own Writings How will they now justify their Separation or clear themselves from the imputation of Schism What will they say to this Is Schism not a sin Or is their Separation from us not Schism If they say it is not Schism Why then our Non-conformist Ministers know better what is Schism than all the Learned Divines of the Church of England and the most Eminent Men of all the Reformed Churches beyond Seas do For I have shewed from their own words That they do acknowledge the Church of England to be as true and sound a part of the Reform'd Church as any in the whole World and condemn all those that separate from her as guilty of Schism Doubtless these Men are as competent judges of Matters of Religion as any of our Dissenting Ministers And I am sure we have not the least reason to believe they would flatter us for they are strangers who have no dependance upon us and Men of more Piety and Honesty than to indulge us in any thing that is sinful But it may be they will say that all these Learned Divines beyond Seas who have acknowledged the Church of England to be a true Church are ignorant of the Errors and Corruptions in her But let me tell them They might have a little more civility than to suppose that so many godly upright Men would rashly give their judgment of Matters of so great moment as those are which relate to Religion before they were truly acquainted with the nature and circumstances of the thing And besides They ought not to judge of other Men by themselves Because the most of their own Divines are utter stangers to the practice and Constitution of other Churches as appears sufficiently by their Principles of Separation must they believe others to be so too No throughly accomplish'd Divine can be supposed to be ignorant of the true state and condition of any Reformed National Church much less of so great and considerable an one as the Church of England But to put this out of dispute it appears before that several of the most Eminent Men before-mentioned were in England for some years and frequented both the Churches and Meetings on purpose to acquaint themselves with both in order to giving their judgment of them Since therefore the Doctrine of the Church of England is sound and the Worship true and Government and Constitution of it as agreeable to that of the best and purest Ages of the Church as any now in the World let us in the name of God lay aside all those fears and jealousies that have possess'd the minds of too many of us concerning it and let us remember that not only the Peace and Prosperity of this Church and Nation and of every particular Member of it depends upon our Union but of the Protestant Religion all over the World Tho' there may be some things amiss in the Church of England it is not the business of private Men to Reform the Church or dispute the fitness or unfitness of every little imposition Their Duty is to Conform at least in the outward action and submit the fitness of such things to the Wisdom of those to whom God Almighty has intrusted the Government of the Church and Nation they may reasonably be thought more competent judges of what is convenient and fit to be done or not to be done than private Men can be And if any thing be amiss in the Government of the Church or the manner of God's Worship they are to answer for it not the People God will call them to an account for imposing upon his People things not agreeable to his Will But will never condemn us for doing our Duty in submitting to such Governors as he has placed over us 'T is true there are some things in Religion which are essential to it without which Men cannot be saved Now in case our Governours command us to act contrary to these we ought not to obey for we must obey God rather than Men But 't is agreed on all sides That the Church of England enjoins no such things and that they who live godly sober lives according to the Doctrine of this Church are in a safe and ready way to Heaven But 't is a difficult Matter for Men to forsake what they have been all their lives accustomed to they cannot believe that Separation is so great a sin as we seem to make it And that so many honest good People and godly Ministers did live and die in sin If they are resolv'd they will not believe
Separation from a true Church to be sinful who can help that The great number that have liv'd and dy'd in that Opinion does not make the thing less sinful The Donatists in the African Church were more numerous that our English Dissenters are and had 't is likely as many sober and learned Divines among ' em For at the Conference at Carthage they had 400 Bishops yet these were condemn'd for Schismaticks by St. Austin and all the Catholick Bishops And the things that these Donatists separated from the Church for were for the most part the very same that our present Dissenters make the cause of their separation from the Church of England They thought the Bishopricks too large and the Power of the Bishops too great They refus'd to join in Communion with the Catholicks because sinners were admitted there They forsook the Ministers because they were not so agreeable to their humour as they would have them * Optatus Malevianus lib. 2. p. 47. They would not suffer any to speak in the Churches but the Ministers and stopt the mouths of all the People They held that the Civil Magistrate had no Power to Reform the Church They made a shew of greater Zeal for the Purity of Religion than other People and by their stiff rigorous severity which they shew'd and the vehement out-crys which they made that Discipline was not duly executed Many of the People not well grounded in the truth were terrified and turned unto them believing them to be the most zealous holy Men and the only true Church in the World Finally they condemn'd all other Churches as not true Churches See all this in Gifford a Non-conformist Minister his Book against the Brownists 2. part These are the very pretences that our present Dissenters make for their separating from this Church Our Bishopricks are too large our Churches not according to Christ's Institution our Ministers unable and ungodly our way of Worship false our Magistrates assume an unwarranted Power in Church Matters Yea and in their over pretending to Purity and Godliness they are exact Donatists and by that very means do draw the more ignorant and zealous sort of People to them as the Brownists did No People pretend so much to Purity and Religion as they do In all places where they have their publick Meetings they are sure to begin before the Parish Churches and end after be they as long as they will But yet go in to one of their Meetings and you shall see as little signs of Devotion and as many of the People asleep as in any Parish Church in the Kingdom for the number So in their common Discourse many of them will scarce allow themselves so much liberty as to make them good company for fear they should happen to tell a lye but yet in their Dealings they will over-reach a Customer in a Bargain and use as many equivocations to deceive him as any other People shall But least you think I do them wrong let us hear what the learned Mr. Baxter says of them you won't believe that he would wrong them In his Poor Man's Family Book p. 221. speaking of such who run into Parties by Divisions says he Those injudicious sort of Christians having an over high esteem of their own Vnderstandings and Godliness and desiring to be made conspicuous for their Godliness in the World separate from ordinary Christians as below them and unworthy of their Communion these Sects have ever been the Nests of Errors And again ib. p. 331. he bids us beware of joining our selves to Separate Meetings who pretend to stricter Discipline and greater Purity who set themselves up Factiously and Contentiously against the Concordant Churches on pretence of greater Purity whose Meetings are imployed in Reviling others and Condemning other Churches and puffing themselves up with Pride as if they were the only Churches of Christ But our Dissenters will say This is a scandalous abuse to say that they condemn all other Reformed Churches in the World But I doubt they agree with the Donatists even in this For I suppose they will condemn all those that account them Schismaticks And this do all the Reformed Churches for they all hold that Separation from a true Church is Schism and own the Church of England for a true Church and consequently make them Schismaticks and so have expresly declared them as appears before Again I suppose they will condemn all Churches that communicate with an Idolatrous Anti-Christian Church knowing her faults some of them declare the Church of England to be such a Church and then they must condemn all the Reformed Churches which communicate with her Well say the Dissenters You of the Church of England have a great deal to say for your selves and if all be true that you have told us our Separation from you is sinful and unreasonable But what reason have we to believe you we have a great many able and godly Ministers of our own who tell us the quite contrary 't is certain they can't both be in the right why may we not then believe your Ministers may be deceived as well as ours I answer 'T is not so likely that all the Divines of the Church of England that have been since the Reformation should be deceived in a thing of this nature as that those of the Non-conformists should First Because they are much more numerous and 't is not so likely that a great many good Men should be deceived as a few 'T is a Rule in Logick Quod plures sapentiores testantur credibile est esse verum And Secondly Because they have much better means to come to the knowledge of the Truth than those of the Non-conformists can pretend to as will plainly appear by considering the Method taken on both sides for the breeding up of Divines Those who are design'd for the Study of Divinity in the Church of England are kept at the best Schools that can conveniently be had till they understand Latin and Greek very well then they are admitted into one of the Universities where they are put under the Care of a particular Tutor who is always one of the Fellows of the College and consequently a Man well approved of by the whole College for his Learning and Sobriety for by the Statutes of every College none but such are qualified for Fellowships This Tutor has seldom above 20. Students under his Care at a time and many of them not half that number every Student comes twice a day to his Tutor's Chamber to be instructed by him And besides this the College appoints other Tutors or publick Lecturers who are to teach and instruct them in the publick Halls some for Philosophy some for Disputations and other Exercises These publick Tutors are changed every year which is a great Advantage to the Students by acquainting them with the several Methods and Opinions of such variety of Learned Men. Thus they spend the first four Years and then after very strict