Ecclesiastical Affairs much more are we far from condemning all the ancient and present Churches of Christ that have used such or yet use them throughout the Christian world And yet farther are we from separating from them on that account for using Liturgies and from encouraging such a Separation Yea we commonly use a stinted Liturgie our selves at least the Psalms read and sung and we hold it lawful to use such as are invented by men that are no Prophets seeing we are commanded to use Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs which confineth us not only to Scripture words and all men have not the skill to make Hymns ex tempore much less would all the Assembly ex tempore break forth into the same words Therefore those that are used by all must be invented by some And Ministers with us do ordinarily impose their own invented words on all the Congregation who must follow them as our Metres and Tunes of Psalms are imposed XVII We think it not unlawful to use as much of the English Liturgy as we consented to use when by his Majesties Commission some of us treated about the reformation or alteration of it viz. in such Assemblies where the Peoples incapacity maketh not such use of it more hurtful than helpful to their edification and the comly concordant worshipping of God Much less do we think it unlawful for our selves or the People in this case to join in the reverent and serious use of it with others We find that even the old Non-conformists such as Cartwright Hildersham Knewstube Dr. Jo. Reignolds Bradshaw Paget Ball c. petitioned for a Reformation but not an Abolition of it and wrote and preached against separating from it or for it from the Churches that used it and many of them not only used much or most of it themselves but also perswaded to the use of it and answered largely the Separatists Arguments against such use And we join with Mr. Ball and other of them in thanking God that England hath a more reformed Liturgy than most of the Churches in the World and we would not seem to use it when we do not but do it as aforesaid in the serious devotion and fervour of our Souls Nor would we peevishly make any thing in it worse than it is but would put the best construction on each part of it that true Reason will justifie or allow XVIII We are far from judging the Parish Ministers to be no true Ministers of Christ or the Parish Churches no true Churches or judging it unlawful to hold Communion with them But if there be any called Ministers or Priests of these following sorts we take them for no true Ministers of Christ ziz 1. If by insufficiency they are uncapable of Teaching the necessary parts of Christianity and Guiding the Church accordingly in the Publick Worship of God 2. If they are Hereticks denying any of these essential parts 3. If they are malignant Opposers of the practice of them And in a word If they are such through incapacity as are like to do more harm than good XIX In several Customs freely not by constraint used in many ancient Churches and in several practices of several Churches of these Times we find that which we would not by Oaths or Subscriptions or Covenants approve but with they were reformed and that they had never been used when yet we do not for such things dishonour and reproach such Churches nor inveigh against them in our preaching to diminish their due esteem much less disclaim them as no Churches of Christ but love and honour them and live peaceably under many faults which we cannot reform in the places where we live So be it no sin be put upon our selves we can hold Communion with those that have divers sins or faults in their Ministrations not as with their sin but with their Church in worship notwithstanding the sin so it corrupt not God's worship so far as that he himself rejecteth it For no Man is sinless in his best performance XX. Though the Pastors hold any tolerable errors personally and though such are usually uttered in their Ministration and though they be inserted in their Liturgies so that we may expect to hear them yea uttered as in that Churches name we hold not all this sufficient cause to warrant our separation from that Church For all Churches consist of Men and all Men are faulty and imperfect and such as the Men are such we may expect their works should be notwithstanding the Divine assistance And to separare from all faulty Churches and Worship is to separate from all the World and allow all the World to separate from us XXI If 〈◊〉 true Church deny us Communion unless we will commit some sin or omit some necessary duty though we cannot be locally present in such cases nor approve what they so do yet we shall not therefore renounce them as no Churches but lamenting their sin and their denying us their Communion on just Terms we shall continue the Union and Communion of Faith and Love and be present in spirit though corporally absent desiring a part in their Prayers and owning all that God disowneth not XXII We hold that no Christians must be disjoyned or separated in any of the seven Points of Union required by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. 1. One Body the Catholick Church headed by Christ 2. One Spirit the Holy Ghost 3. One Hope of our Calling Remission Adoption and the Heavenly Glory 4. One Lord Jesus Christ 5. One Faith the Essentials of Christianity believed 6. One Baptisme or Baptismal Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 7. One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all of whom and to whom and through whom are all things XXIII Though we are not satisfied of the lawfulness of using the transient Image of the Cross as a Dedicating Sign and Symbol of Christianity so much Sacramental much less to refuse from Baptism and Christendom all Christians Infants unless they will have them so crossed no more than if a Crucifix were so imposed and used yet do we not condemn all use of either Cross or Crucifix Nor do we presume censoriously to reproach and dishonour the ancient Christians who living among Pagans that derided Christ Crucified did shew them by oft using this sign that they were not ashamed of the Cross And though we find that they used more Rites and significant devised Signs and Ceremonies than we think they should have done yet we judge it our Duty to love and honour their Memorial Nor do we take all Rites to be sinful that are significant XXIV We hold not all the use of Images even the Images of holy Persons to be unlawful Historical and memorative use we commonly allow as the English Geneva Bible sheweth by many Pictures We condemn not them that have Scripture Persons and History Painted on their Walls or on the very Bricks that
THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS About the DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRACE AND MORALITY Printed in the Year 1676. THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS c. WHAT advantage the Enemy of God and Man hath got against Truth Holiness and Love by the Divisions of Christians and especially by the Contentions of their Teachers Experience hath been long telling the Christian World by smart and sorrow Where Envy and Strife hath begun Confusion and every Evil Work hath followed Little Breaches tend to greater The Cause which first made them will make them wider by calling in more Causes to its help and service Distinct Parties have their distinct Interests as to Commodity and Reputation And alas what work will selfishness and fleshly interest make What Moralities what Untruths Injustice and Unmercifulness is it pregnant with What Evil so great that it will not first venture on and then palliate and next justifie and lastly propagate if God do not mortifie or restrain it The foresight of this Danger to the Land of our Nativity moved some of Us to strive for the prevention of it while we thought there was place for our Endeavours But as our labour did but exasperate the Disease 〈◊〉 our doleful and dear-bought Experience of the prog â—â—ss and calamitous Fruits of Discord in the space of more than two Apprentiships hath wrought no perceived Cure on Mens Minds nor deliverance to the Church The Discord which began about Worship and Discipline is by some now pretended to be also in Doctrinals and about the Principles of Civil Government and Humane Society and Peace And whither increasing Discord by the power of Interest and Envy may yet carry the Charge or how much wider yet Dividers may perswade the Ignorant that the Difference is we cannot foretel But because we are sure that all tendeth to the ruine of Brotherly Love and that he that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and hath not eternal life abiding in him to save as many on both sides as we can from such a damning sin we take it to be our duty to detect the Errours of Contentious Dividers and to hinder their farther widening of the Breach Which we shall here attempt about this Question much agitated of late Quest Whether the Parties called Conformists and Non-Conformists do really differ about the nature and sufficiency of Morality compared with the Grace of Christ Neg. As to the Explication of our Terms 1. What we mean by Conformists and Non-Conformists we have lately shewed on another Question we mean not that if a Papist or Socinian or Quaker should join either with the Conformists or Non-Conformists they would not herein differ from others but that they that are now called Conformists and Non-Conformists herein differ not 1. Formally qua tales 2. No nor Materially qui tales being meerly such 2. We speak only of the Parties For as to some individual persons it cannot be expected that any Parties in the World should be wholly made up of men so wise as that none among them have Ignorance enough to wrangle in the dark 3. The Terms Grace and Morality must be anon explained in our Proof Which Proof as in our last Case we fetch I. From our common consent to the sacred Scriptures the ancient Creeds and the doctrinal Articles and Homilies of the Church of England which surely contain all that is needful to be held about the difference of Grace and Morality Nor hath either Party declared their dissent by any contradiction of any of the aforesaid Articles or Doctrines II. Our second Proof is by a sufficient explication and enumeration of the Points in which we are agreed I. The word GRACE is taken 1. EFFICIENTLY 2. OBJECTIVELY 3. SUBJECTIVELY I. EFFICIENTLY Grace is taken 1. For the Efficient Principle 2. For the Efficient Action of the first Cause 3. For the Efficient Means and its operation 1. Grace taken for the Efficient Principle signifieth God's efficient Favour Love Mercy or Will to do good freely to the Unworthy 2. Grace taken for God's Efficient Action signifieth the same Good-will of God ex parte sui but as connoting the Effect in fieri vel facto esse The former is considered as Decreeing or meerly Willing but this as Effecting 3. Grace taken for the Efficient Means is an effect of God's free Love and a second Cause of Man's sanctification and hath many parts of which CHRIST as Mediator is the Head or Chief and his Gospel Ministers Sacraments and Providences are inferior subservient parts All which are the Efficient Grace of God II. OBJECTIVELY Grace is all God's free-given Mercy as it is offered and proposed to Man's actual Belief Acceptance and Improvement or use Even as the word Fides signifieth 1. The fidelity or trustiness of God the Promiser or Revealer 2. The fidelity or trustiness of the Word promising or asserting 3. The Belief or Trust of the Believer Fidem promittentis fidem promissi fidem credentis So the word GRACE hath the like three significations 1. The Grace of the Giver 2. The Grace of the extrinsick Gift 3. The intrinsick Grace of the Receiver This Objective Grace or Free-Gift is 1. God himself as offered us Relatively through Christ to be our reconciled God and Father with his Love and our Relation to him as his Children 2. Christ himself to be our Head and Saviour and our Relation to him as his justified saved Members 3. The Holy Ghost to be our Sanctifier our Relation to him and his Grace as offered This is the Grace offered and given us in Baptism by Covenant on Gods part Under these are the Objective Means the Gospel as it is to be believed the sanctified Mercies of this present life the Ordinances as to be used c. and ultimately Heaven as the end of all Glory freely given being the perfection of subjective Grace and as proposed and offered being the perfection of objective Grace III. SUBJECTIVELY GRACE is 1. Gracious Dispositions and Habits 2. Gracious Acts viz. 1. Of the Intellect 2. The Will 3. The Executive power in practise The word GRACE hath in the use of Divines all these significations besides several sub-divisions which the Schoolmen ordinarily make And in Scripture I. For Efficient Grace see Exod. 34. 6. and 33. 29. Num. 6. 25. Neh. 9. 17. 31. Joh 33. 24. Psal 86. 15. and 103. 8. and 112. 4. Isa 30. 18 19. Joel 2. 13. Jon. 4. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 16. and 10. 29. Eph. 1. 6 7. and 2. 5. 7 8. and 6. 24. 2 Cor. 12. 9. Rom. 11. 5 6. and 5. 2. and 1. 7. and 4. 16. Acts 15. 40. Heb. 29. II. For objective Grace see Gal. 1. 6. and 5. 4. and 2. 21. Jud. 4. 1 Pet. 3. 7. and 1. 10. 13. Joh. 1. 17. Acts 20. 24. 32. and 14. 3. Rom. 6. 14 15. Tit. 2. 11. Heb. 12. 15. 1 Pet. 4. 10. and 5. 12. III. For Subjective Grace see 2 Pet. 3. 18. 1 Pet. 5. 5. Jam. 4. 6. Heb. 12.
by Christ on us and as used by us towards Christ as the Mediator Faith in Christ is to kindle in us the holy love of God and obedience to him Love therefore as the final and everlasting Grace is preferred by the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. last v. and 13. throughout 5. Even our Faith in Christ and our Obedience to the Gospel in Preaching Sacraments and such like are neither only of natural nor only of supernatural Obligation but mixt Christ and his Ordinances are supernaturally revealed but being once revealed with the Evidence of Divine Authority natural Revelation then telleth us that it is our Duty to believe and obey 6. That which is of Natural Revelation and Obligation must be performed by supernatural Grace Though Nature prove that all Men should love God as God it is Grace that must dispose and enable them to do it 7. We call Grace supernatural not only because it is not essential to Nature no not to Adam in innocency but because in our lapsed state it is not conveyed to us by Natural Generation but Nature in the state of pravity is deprived of it and because God worketh it by the free gift of his Spirit in a manner beyond the search of man and by it as an effect of his love doth make us lovely in our union and relation to Christ who sanctifieth and justifieth us it being his Image on the Soul which no meer Natural Causes without this operation of God's Love and Spirit can effect But yet 1. We all agree that Holiness is Nature's health or rectitude and therefore sutable to it as its perfection as health is to the Body 2. And that the Spirit of God doth ordinarily make use of his appointed means and especially his Word for our sanctification And these being second Causes which have their proper Natures may so far be called natural Causes And that thus far Grace may be said to be Natural 8. This Holy Love being the final Act on God the final Object and so being man's felicity it self it followeth that all men have so much happiness constitutively as they have holy love to God and Goodness and that no man can be damned that hath the said predominant holy Love while such And that such have no cause to fear damnation any farther than they should fear lest by forfeiting Gods Grace they should lose that love 9. The Mediation of Christ and our Faith in him who is the Glass the Messenger and the great Gift of the Fathers Love are the Means appointed by God to sanctifie us by the effecting of this Love with all its Concomitants and Fruits 10. Therefore as God is called All in All so Christ is called All in all Col. 3. 11. to Believers as being the Way the Truth and the Life 11. Therefore they that would bring men to the holy and felicitating Love of God must preach Jesus Christ and his Grace to them as the means and bring them to believe in him and to take it for their Wisdom to know Christ crucified and glorified and to learn of him and obey him and trust in him and daily to use him as their Mediator for access to God acceptance with him and communication from him 12. To preach up the blessedness of Saints and excellency of holiness without teaching men how to attain it by Christ is but to commend health to the sick without directing them to the Physician and the Remedies And to hear of a Sanctity and Felicity not attainable is to be tormented by despair And to think to obtain it by our works or endeavours without a Mediator and his Grace or by any other Mediator than Christ is the way to lose it by false presumption and neglect of the necessary means It being Christ that is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 13. As Christ on Earth did purchase us this Salvation by his meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice and is now in Heaven our Head and Intercessor and the Treasury of Grace and Life to Believers so he sanctifieth us by his WORD and SPIRIT and herein differeth from all other Teachers that ever were in the World 1. That his Gospel Doctrine Precepts and Covenant-promises are singularly suited to this sanctifying work 2. That he sendeth forth his Spirit with it to work the Souls of men to that which he teacheth and commandeth that so they may be effectually taught of God Without the Spirit of Jesus no word or means will sanctifie and renew a Soul 14. Therefore all Preachers must jointly preach GOD and holy LOVE trust obedience and delight in him as the END and CHRIST and faith in him and learning of him and obeying him in the use of his healing Remedies as the MEANS This being life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17. 3. 15. And though the End must be preached as more excellent than the Means yet the Means must be preached as more mysterious and above meer natural Revelation Experience telleth us that all men quickly learn to confess that they should repent of sin and love God as God but they are hardly taught to understand the Mystery of Redemption the Person Incarnation Works Office and Grace of the Redeemer and therefore have here need of longer teaching The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Spirit must be the Preachers subject as it is the Christians benediction and felicity 16. There are things in Aristotle's Ethicks and in the Ethicks of the Stoicks and and some other Philosophers of great worth and use to Christians to shew us what by natural evidence may be discerned But they are all poor defective spirit-less Doctrines and Precepts in Comparison of the Gospel of Christ though to carnal wit they seem to excel it in Method Language and several Curiosities And the Writings of Christians who do but expound and apply Christ's Doctrine do far excel all the Heathens Ethicks 17. We have no reason to think that any of the Heathens understood all that Nature it self by way of proving-Evidence revealeth Yea or that any Christians perfectly understand it because natural evidences are exceeding numerous and none can say that he seeth them all and they are of various degrees some plain and some obscure and even natural verities as they arise from the great Branches into innumerable Partitions as smaller Sprigs are not perfectly discernable by a mortals Eye 18. Therefore no knowledge of Man much less any Heathens Writings are the certain measure of natural verities in Morality by which the number and certainty of the obscurer Particles may be known 19. Though Heathens know and teach that we must Love God and Goodness above all And all that sincerely love God and Goodness shall certainly be saved Yet this Confession will but more condemn them that have not and practice not what they teach but when they profess to know God