necessity of it Christ should profit them nothing Gal. 5. 2. Now from this History as our Author had contrived it he drew several wilde inferences As first p. 203. In this fantastical Hurry I cannot see saith he but all the World were Schismaticks To which I reply That all the World were not concerned in it there being some Nations that differed from both these in the observation of Easter as Socrates l. 5. c. 21. hath observed for even among the Jewish Converts some that agreed on the 14th day differed in the Moon and Venerable Bede observes that our Nation which the Pope pretends to have been his Converts did in those primitive times observe their Easter on the 14th day which by the way is an argument that we at first received the Christian Faith not from the Church of Rome who exploded this custome but more Anciently from Joseph of Arimathea or from St. Philip who as many good Authors affirm planted the Christian Religion in our neighbour Nation of France and as the Asian Churches affirm was one of them that taught them this custom nor do we read that they were condemned for Hereticks for so doing Neither did those Eastern Churches who differed in the Moneth anathematize each other and Socrates ubi supra gives this reason for it They that agree in the same Faith may differ from each other in respect of Rites as the Reformed Churches do at this day And though the Roman Church did excommunicate the Asian yet were they never the more Schismaticks for that being they were sui Juris not under the Roman power And according to our Authors definition of schism they being never members of that Church from which they were excommunicate could not be guilty of schism notwithstanding Victors rigor We say therefore they were still members of the Catholick Church And as for the Roman Church what should make them Schismaticks For though Victor did arrogate too much as to the manner of his proceedings yet as to the matter his prosecution against a Jewish ceremony when it grew into an Opinion of being necessary to be observed was his duty and approved by the practice of St. Paul himself And while there was a controversie between their Governors the People and Clergy too of both Parties continued in due subjection to their Superiors and in mutual charity to one another So that the Separatists of our Age can have no excuse for their Schism from this instance But our Author infers Secondly that this fell out through the ignorance or which he mentioneth also the malice of their Governors and that through the just judgment of God on the People because through sloth and blind obedience they examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched down and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them To which I Answer It doth not appear there was any charge of ignorance to be imputed to Victor or his People for the reasons above mentioned much less of malice Our present Sectaries do call their opposition to Ceremonies more innocent than that by the name of zeal and love to the cause of God Nor was there any thing imposed on the Churches of either side that concerned their Faith nor any custome or rite de novo but only the Asian Churches were desired to translate the custome of observing Easter from a day which gave offence not only to the Church of Rome but several other Churches Petavius says the difference was not de Catholico dogmate sed de Ritu seu Ritûs potiùs tempore And if the Superiors in the Asian Churches had thought the Alteration fit as shortly after they did it had doubtless been the Peoples duty to submit for every Church hath power in those things which are indifferent and much more in such things as give offence to other Churches to appoint and alter rites and ceremonies for the publick Worship of God and the People shew themselves not beasts of burthen but Christ's Free-men in submitting to their Governors as far as Christian liberty doth permit If Victor had imposed new Articles of Faith as Pius Quintus did in the Council of Trent doubtless those Primitive Christians would have resisted even to bloud of which they gave too many instances when they constantly endured all manner of torments rather than they would renounce the Faith once delivered to them Our Author therefore needed to ask pardon for wounding the reputation of these Ancient Worthies in cool bloud as well as for massacring at once the authority of all the Fathers in the heat of a temptation p. 204. where he says thus You may plainly see the danger of our appeal to Antiquity for resolution in controversies of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence for if the discretion of the chiefest Guides of the Church did in a point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of extreme grossness and folly think so poor spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot in the Churches Pardon me I know not what temptation drew that note from me To this I reply 1. Whoever he be that so contemptuously rejects the Authority and trampleth on the reputation of the Fathers hath sufficiently excused those that shall slight his own This is the Author 's own sense Golden Remains p. 260. 2. I refer it to the judgment of the Reader whether Victor Bishop of Rome condemning some of the Asian Churches for adhering too tenaciously to a Jewish ceremony which was of ill consequence to those and other neighbouring Churches were not more excusable than a private person living many hundred years after the fact and never rightly knowing or else wrongfully representing it insolently and causlesly condemning the Ancient Fathers not of one or two Ages or parts of the Church but all in general as if the failing of one man in a point so trivial and inconsiderable as our Author calls it were sufficient reason to condemn them all for indiscreet and poor spirited persons And to impute extreme grossness and folly to all that should think them competent Judges of our differences This is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond that of Abailardus who was wont to say that the Fathers for the most part did think this or that to be right but I think otherwise as if his single authority could out-weigh all theirs 3. He must pretend to have some new light for his guide and be either an Enthusiast or Socinian that can see any danger in appealing to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith For seeing there is scarce any point of Faith but some unhappy Wits have controverted it and in defence of their Opinions have put the Scriptures on the rack to make them speak their own sense how can
whose capacity will scarce serve him to utter five words in sensible manner blusheth not in any doubt concerning matter of Scripture to think his own bare Yea as good as the Nay of all the Wise Grave and Learned Judgments that are in the whole World which insolency must be represt or it will be the very bane of Christian Religion And therefore he concludes The certain commands of the Church must be obeyed in all things not certainly unlawful And page 144. That which the Church by her Authority shall probably think and define to be true and good must in congruity of reason over-rule all other inferior judgments whatsoever And as to Orders established by the Church sith equity and season favour that which is in being till orderly judgment of Decision be given against it it is but Justice to Exact of you and perversness in you it would be to deny thereunto your willing obedience Not that I judge it a thing allowable for Men to observe those Laws which in their hearts they are stedfastly perswaded to be against the Laws of God but your perswasion in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend and in otherwise doing ye offend against GOD by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause Be it that there are some Reasons inducing you to think hardly of our Laws are those Reasons demonstrative are they necessary or but meer probabilities only An argument necessary and demonstrative is such as being proposed unto any Man and understood the mind cannot choose but inwardly assent But if the skilfullest among you can shew that all the Books ye have hitherto written be able to afford any one Argument of this nature let the instance be given As for probabilities what thing was there ever set down so agreeable with sound reason but some probable shew against it might be made Is it meet that when publickly things are received and have taken place general obedience thereunto shall cease to be exacted in case this or that private person led with some probable conceit should make open protestation Peter or John disallow them and pronounce them naught So that of peace and quietness there is not any way possible unless the probable voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over rule all private of like nature in the same Body Which thing effectually proveth that GOD being Author of Peace and not of confusion in the Church must needs be Author of those Mens peaceable resolutions who concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of Decreeth till they see Necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary And p. 144 145. Mr. Hooker saith That which the Church by her Authority shall probably think and define to be true and good must in congruity of reason over-rule all other inferior judgments whatsoever And where our duty is Submission weak oppositions betoken Pride Now as the Name of Mr. Hales prevailed with Mr. Chillingworth to imbrace some unsound Opinions of his so hath it done with others of great note The Author of the Irenicum p. 108. repeats the first and part of the second Page of this Tract with this Commendation It is well observed by a Learned and Judicious Divine That Heresie and Schism c. And p. 120. I shall subjoyn the judgment of as Learned and Judicious a Divine as most our Nation hath bred in his Excellent though little Tract of Schism And then he repeats p. 210. In those Schisms c. to p. 212. And in p. 120 and 121. of the Irenicum he quotes Mr. Hales from p. 215. And were Liturgies c. to p. 218. and adds So far that Excellent Person whose words I have taken the pains to transcribe because of the great wisdome judgment and moderation contained in them and the seasonableness of his Counsel and Advice to the present posture of Affairs among us And p. 394. Thus that incomparable Man Mr. Hales in his often quoted Tract of Schism p. 223. to p. 225. adding Thus that grave and wise Person whose words savour of a more than ordinary tincture of a true spirit of Christianity that scorns to make Religion a footstool to pride and ambition The Author of the Rehearsal Transpros'd speaks marvellously of Him I shall conclude says he with a Villanous Pamphlet of which a great Wit was the Author and whereas Mr. Bayes is alwayes defying the Non-conformists with Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity and the Friendly Debate I am of Opinion though I have a great reverence for Mr. Hooker that this little Book of not full Eight Leaves hath shut that Ecclesiastical Polity and Mr. Beyes too our of Doors It is one Mr. Hales of Eaton a most Learned Divine and one of the Church of England and most remarkable for his sufferings in the late times and for his Christian patience under them And I reckon it not one of the least ignominies of that Age that so eminent a Person should have been by the iniquity of the times reduced to those necessities under which he lived As I account it no small honour to have grown up into some part of his acquaintance and conversed a while with the living Remains of one of the clearest Heads and best prepared Breasts in Christendom I hope it will not be tedious though I write some few and yet whatsoever I omit I shall have left behind more material passages And then he fills up near Eight Pages of his Book out of Mr. Hales his Eight Leaves It was not amiss in the Scribes and Pharisees to build the Tombes of the Prophets and garnish their Sepulchres but to persecute their Successors and Christ himself under pretence of honouring the Ancients was an impiety full fraught with malice and envy And a usual thing it is for such as intend to trample on such Worthies as are present and stand in their way to express great respect to those that are removed out of it Sed nisi quae terris semota suisque Temporibus defuncta videt fastidit odit Yet by that Author's leave I have quoted much less out of the Reverend Mr. Hooker in this Parergon yet enough to confute all that he or Mr. Hales have said in Defence of Schism There is another late Pamphlet called Separation no Schism which in p. 40. telleth us That a meer suspicion of sin is a sufficient ground for withdrawing Communion in the judgment of very learned Men and then quotes Mr. Hales So says that Universally admired Man p. 210. and p. 216 217 218. and infers These Testimonies are so clear and backt with such Unanswerable Reasons that not only where the Commission of Sin but the doing any thing that is suspected to be sinful is required as a condition of Communion there a withdrawing is lawful and not at all Schismatical Now when Men of so much Learning and Judgment as some of those whom I have mentioned have upon the reputation
of them Did the Apostle in vain derive a power to the Church of Corinth 1 Epist ch 5. v. 5. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one as the Incestuous person unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Or can we think the Records of the several Churches in those first Ages which relate the divers painful and languishing Distempers of Body as well as the anguish and trouble of Mind which seized on such as by the Censures of the Church were cast out of Christian communion into the power of Satan to be false or forged The Divine Judgments which pursue such as in our times have been deservedly ejected or do wilfully depart from the Church-communion who are for the most part given up to a reprobate sense and being possessed with a spirit of Giddiness and perversness do as Cain run up and down from the Presence of God in his Publick Worship like Vagabonds from one Faction to another till they fall into unnatural and diabolical practices and straying from Christ's Fold are made a Prey unto the Devil do evidently demonstrate that the Church-censures are not bruta fulmina but have powerful effects for the conversion or confusion of contumacious offenders But non tali Auxilio That Sacred Function which your Lordship sustains in our Church needs not so weak an Apology as I can make for it I have only endeavoured as I was able to silence the reproaches and contradictions of unreasonable Men by whose strivings the burden of Government which of it self is weighty enough is made to sit more uneasie on the shoulders of our spiritual Guides Against whom it is no difficult work to maintain that assertion of Dr. Hammond in his answer to the Catholick Gentleman p. 134. That as long as any particular Bishop remains in due subordination to his Canonical Superiors so long the departure of any Clergy-man that is under his Jurisdiction from that obedience which canonically he owes to him is in him that is thus guilty of it an act of Schism But this comes not now under consideration My present endeavours I do lay at your Lordships feet as an acknowledgment of that great happiness which we of your Lordships Diocess do injoy under your Government in which Authority and Meekness Candor and Courage Piety and Prudence are so duly tempered that though each of them be visible yet it is hardly discernable which is most prevalent That free and favourable access which your Lordship hath vouchsafed me in more private concerns hath incouraged me to this publick Address for the service of the Church hoping that the Work may find the like gracious acceptance as the Author hath both which as they really need so they humbly beg your Lordships pardon and protection which will be a sufficient Sanctuary against all Adversaries of the truths which he defends and therein of EXON New-Years Day 1677. Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant THO. LONG when all other arguments have failed to cut the Gordian knot of our present peace and unity in pieces It is my endeavour by the following Exercitations to take this Sword out of the Enemies hands or at least to blunt the edge of it and make it unserviceable to evil designs When I first apprehended it I only let it fall on the Anvil by its own weight and every one may perceive how it yielded to that gentle Examination wherefore I was encouraged by a severer censure to lay it on the Anvil again and I hope with a few strokes I have so broken it that there is scarce an Artist among the Factions can so solder it as to make it hurtful or formidable again I could wish they would at last turn this and other such Swords into Plow-shares as Men of Evangelical Spirits ought to do and study to be quiet and do their own business But I think it not enough to deprive our Adversaries of this Weapon I shall attempt to vindicate the fame and reputation of the Venerable Mr. Hales of whose authority the Churches adversaries do often make use to the maintenance of Faction against her as sometime they did of the King 's for raising a Rebellion against Him It is an aggravation of sorrow that the Church like the Eagle should receive its most dangerous wounds by the darts which are feathered from her own wing And that that learning and piety which is wanting in the adverse party to inforce their own arguments and support their cause should be supplied by the Revolt as in the Apostates to Popery or the Captivity as in the case of Mr. Hales of some unsetled and unwary Sons of the Church of whose parts and reputation the Enemies on both sides have made more advantage than of their own This hath been the beginning and growth of Errors and Schismes when Men of subtile parts and popular esteem raise doubts and arguments against the truth and instill them into weaker judgments and unstable minds who are apt for want of understanding to take their Sophistry for solid reasoning and through affection to their Persons to adhere to them as to the most faithful guides and jurare in verba magistri But it is a very preposterous method to judge of the cause according to the reputation of such as espouse it S. Augustine gives us a safer rule nec causa causae nec persona personae praejudicet Let both causes and persons stand or fall according to their own merit That little which I can gather concerning Mr. Hales all which and a great deal more I charitably believe he did well deserve is to this effect compiled by Mr. Lloid in his Memoires p. 606. In writing of which it seems he consulted the present Bishop of Chester and Mr. Faringdon his familiar friends Mr. Hales was born in Kent and bred Fellow of Merton Colledge where he was chosen Greek Professor of Oxford Sir Dudley Carleton made him his Chaplain when he was at the Hague about the business of the Synod of Dort whereof being sent thither to that purpose he wrote a daily and exact account completed as appears in his Remains by Dr. Balcanquel At which Synod he hearing Episcopius well pressing as he thought that of Saint John 3. 16. he said There I bad John Calvin good night After this he was Fellow of Eaton and then Prebendary of Windsor in the first of which places he was Treasurer but which is strange such was his integrity and charity to his loss in point of Estate And Fellow such his prudence in avoiding the Oaths of the times without any snare to his Conscience A person of so large a capacity so sharp quick piercing and subtile a wit of so serene and profound a judgment beyond the ordinary reach built upon unordinary notions raised out of strange observations and comprehensive thoughts within himself and of so astonishing an industry that he became the
Heylen with whom he was acquainted told him that he found the Arch-bishop whom he knew before to be a nimble Disputant to be as well versed in Books as business That he had been ferreted by him from one hole to another till there was none left to afford him further shelter That he was now resolved to be Orthodox and to declare himself a true Son of the Church of England both for Doctrine and Discipline p. 361 362. If it be demanded why our Author did not refute this Tract in his life-time I answer 1. he did do it as effectually as the Philosopher confuted him that denied motion when he arose from his seat and walked up and down before him for his long profession and practice contrary to what was there written was Protestatio contraria facto 2. The Tract carried its confutation with it as appears in the examination 3. It 's not impossible that he foresaw how it might be serviceable to the Royal Party whom their adversaries had begun to revile and persecute as Arminians and Papists and in some cases poyson well tempered and rightly applied may become medicinal 4. He might be confident such weak arguments as he made use of though they might please the factious multitude who knew no better yet they could do no great hurt among Judicious men And because we cannot guess at the Author's aim which is secret we ought to judge by his actions which were publick The learned Bishop Taylor made use of a like Stratagem to break the Presbyterian power and to countenance Divisions between the Factions which were too much united against the Loyal Clergy for in his Liberty of Prophesying he insists on the same Topicks of Schism and Heresie of the incompetency of Councils and Fathers to determine our Ecclesiastical controversies and of scrupulous Consciences and urgeth far more cogent arguments than our Author did but still he had prepared his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Antidote to prevent any dangerous effect of his discourse Not unlike to some Mountebanks Pardon the Comparison who to amuse the vulgar and to effect their own ends do administer to their Merry-Andrews a certain Dose of Poison but immediately give them such an Antidote as causeth them to cast it up again and hinders the mischievous operation of it For the Judicious Reader may perceive such a reserve though it lay in Ambuscado and be compacted in a narrow compass as may easily rout those Troops which began too soon to cry Victoria and thought of nothing else but dividing the Spoil And if the learned Bishop did this and was blameless the goodness of the End in such cases denominating the Action I see no cause why our Author whose ends as we ought in charity to believe considering the integrity of the Person were for the restoring of peace seeing he represented the causes of War so frivolous and inconsiderable ought to be represented as a Criminal or adversary And thus I have endeavoured to rescue the Author's Person as well as his Papers from the Enemies tents according to the advice of Tully in the case of Muraena Tolle Catonem de Causâ that by any means he should take off Cato from appearing as an Enemy or an Evidence against him lest the Opinion of Cato's vertues should create him more prejudice than the strength of his Arguments were like to do I have only to acquaint the Reader that the reason why in the following Censure I have sometime named the Author as distinct from Mr. Hales is because I believe it is applied by too many to such intents as the Author never thought of and as the Epigrammatist saith of ill repeating so shall I say of ill applying other mens books Malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus I cannot certainly calculate the time when this Tract of Schism was first penned but I suppose it to be about Forty Years since it being quoted by Mr. Chillingworth in his Answer to Knott which wants but little of that age And unless my conjecture and credible information do both fail me the occasion on which it was written was this Mr. Hales and Mr. Chillingworth were of intimate acquaintance and beside a constant correspondence by Letters they had frequent converse with each other but more especially when Mr. Chillingworth came so far in his Answer as to Vindicate our Church from Schism which was charged on her by Knott He consulted with Mr. Hales concerning the nature of Schism and after discourse he desired Mr. Hales to write his thoughts about it which he did in this Tract out of which Mr. Chillingworth urged some arguments which I think are the worst in all his Book Sure I am that they caused ill reflections not only on the private reputation of Mr. Hales and Mr. Chillingworth but on the Church of England as if that did favour the Socinian Principles The Author of Infidelity Unmasked writing against Mr. Chillingworth tells him that his arguments concerning Schism were conceits borrowed from a Letter of Mr. John Hales of Eaton written to a private Friend of his as I am credibly informed saith that Author by a Person well known to them both at that time and who saw the Letter it self And he farther affirms of his own certain knowledge that Mr. Hales was of a very inconstant judgment One Year for Example says he doubting of or denying the blessed Trinity and the next Year professing and adoring the same And another Person in a Pamphlet called the Total Summ written against Mr. Chillingworth reviles him on the same account in these words In this you shew the Adamantinal hardness of your Socinian forehead and Samosatenian Conscience The truth is that some arguments borrowed from the Socinians and urged first by Mr. Hales and from him by Mr. Chillingworth gave occasion to that imputation But as for Mr. Chillingworth he had sufficiently secured his reputation in the Preface of his Book where he thus professeth I believe the Doctrine of the Trinity the Deity of our Saviour and all other Supernatural verities received in the Scripture as truly and as heartily as any man And whereas he dyed in the Faith of the Church of England he hath given assurance that he was then no Socinian As for Mr. Hales whatever he was when he wrote this Tract of Schism and some others yet as his Adversary says he did afterward profess and adore the blessed Trinity And for the Reader 's satisfaction as well as for Mr. Hales his Vindication I shall transcribe that account which he gives of his Faith concerning the Trinity in his Golden Remains Mr. HALES's Confession of the TRINITY The Summ of whatever either the Scriptures teach or the Schools conclude concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity is comprised in these few Lines GOD is One numerically one more one than any single Man is one if Unity could suscipere magis minus yet God is so One that he admits of distinction and so admits of
And he had before p. 196. determined them to be schismaticks 1. That do chuse a Bishop in opposition to the former and 2. That do erect a new Church and Oratory for the dividing party to meet in publickly Now our Author p. 200. moves the question Who shall judge what is a necessary occasion of separation which question he says hath been often made but never truly Answered not because it is a point of great depth or difficulty truly to assoil it but because the true solution carryeth fire in the tail of it for it bringeth with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiors To you for the present this shall suffice if so be you be Animo defaecato if you have cleared your self from froth and grounds if neither sloth nor fears nor ambition nor any tempting spirits of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the true impediments why both that and other questions of the like danger are not truly Answered if all this be and yet you see not how to frame your resolution and settle your self for that doubt I will say no more of you than was said of Papias S. Johns own Scholar you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your abilities are not so good as I presumed This question is so easie to be resolved that as our Author thinks every person may settle himself and resolve what to do in it if he be Animo defaecato and have cleared himself from froth and grounds if neither sloth nor fears nor Ambition nor any tempting spirits of that nature abuse him One or more of these impediments it is probable prevailed with our Author not to determine the question so plainly as he ought and most likely that of fear because he saith it would be displeasing to Superiors and would carry fire in the tail of it And doubtless his fears were just it could not do otherwise than provoke his Superiors in a high degree if he had peremptorily delivered what he intimates in diverse parts of the Treatise to be his Opinion and when I shall collect them you will see they carry wild fire and powder-plots in their tails enough to blow up all Government The Question is who should judge what is a necessary Occasion of Separation Which question he intends not to leave to the judgment of Governors whom he supposeth to give the Occasion and to whom the resolution would not be pleasing but to those that take the occasion and indeed he leaves it to private persons to judge of the Laws of their Superiors who if they cannot find will easily seign some occasion to excuse their separation And our Author hath fitted it to their hands for he informs them p. 194. That when either false or uncertain conclusions are obtruded for truth and acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be performed in these cases consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism but due Christian Animosity And p. 201. He makes it a just occasion of separation when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect which in our Authors phrase is the same with just scruple to be unlawful And again p. 218. Wheresoever false or suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church Liturgy he that separates is not the schismatick So that now there needs no Oedipus to unriddle the mystery For 1. if our Governors shall at any time obtrude uncertain conclusions for truth how certain soever they be to our Governors if they appear not so to us Or 2. if they require something to be done by us which we may justly scruple or strongly suspect Or 3. if they shall make suspected Opinions a piece of Church Liturgy this is indeed sufficient not only to justifie a separation but to entitle the Separatists to due Christian Animosity And our Author needed not the spirit of Prophecy to foretel that this would be displeasing to Governors and carry fire in its tail for it strikes directly at the foundation of all Government both in Church and State For in both Governments when such things are by solemn Edicts commanded or forbidden as are apparently good or evil we are to obey for Gods sake but where things neither good nor evil by any natural or positive law of God are injoyned by our superiours it is undoubtedly our duty to submit to them A scrupling Conscience or the dissent of private judgments to the deliberate determinations of Superiors in these cases can be no supersedeas to the obedience that is due from subjects as hath been already proved from the Nonconformists own confessions and will yet more clearly appear To which end I shall premise out of Dr. Owens concessions p. 408. of his survey of Ecclesiastical Polity Those pretended errors in our case saith he are not in matters of faith nor for the most part in or about the Worship of God or that which is acknowledged so to be but in or about those things which some think it convenient to add unto it or conjoyn with it And what peace what quietness is like to be in the world when the sword of vengeance must be drawn about these things To which I only reply Let them that draw the sword in such quarrels perish with the sword God hath put a sword into the Magistrates hand to be a terror to evil works and if unpeaceable men will not be subject neither for fear of wrath nor for Conscience sake but will raise tumults and seditious Factions against their lawful Rulers upon scruples and punctilio's they are the Aggressors and unless the Magistrate will suffer the sword which God hath put into his hands to be wrested from him he ought to be an Avenger to execute wrath upon evil doers their scruples concerning the lawfulness of such external acts of Worship notwithstanding 2. I premise that such men as are sound as to the foundation of faith and careful thereupon to build a holy life and keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and man though in such things as Dr. Owen hath mentioned they should not be able through their weakness of judgment after serious endeavours to get resolution of their scruples if they do yield obedience to them that God hath set over them though they should be mistaken yet their errors would not prejudice their Salvation And on this ground many of the Reformed Divines hope well of multitudes under the Roman tyranny and I doubt not but the Nonconformists have so much Charity as to have as good hopes of such honest Christians as die in the Communion of our Church 3. If it should happen that some good and honest men who are both sound in the faith and unblamable in life do after serious inquiry remain scrupulous still it is their duty to take the safest way and that is the way of obedience to their Lawful Governors which being a moral duty and
the hearts of the People filled with invincible prejudices and scruples to the neglect and contempt of this necessary duty which by Christ's institution and by Primitive practice ought to be frequently performed and by the Constitutions of the Church at least three times every Year but hath been totally omitted by some very adult Christians all their lives contrary to the advice and practice of former Nonconformists as well as to the commands of God and his Church And what can the end of these things be but hardning the People in their disobedience and ignorance in uncharitable prejudices and distances from their more pious and peaceable Brethren and provoking their Superiors to Acts of rigor and severity unless they will permit all things to run to confusion And whereas upon the late Test all Persons that had any publick office or imployment were required to receive this Holy Sacrament according to the Custome of the Church of England or to forfeit that imployment not one of an Hundred of those scrupulous Persons that were concerned continued a Recusant I suppose they have sufficiently convinced the Magistrates that the best way of removing these Scruples is to require the more frequent practice of that duty under the like penalties And now I hope the frivolousness of our Author's position p. 218. That wheresoever false or suspected Opinions and he asserts the same of practising suspected Actions in the same period are made a piece of the Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick doth evidently appear And if he that separates be not the Schismatick then they that require the performance of a suspected action are so and by consequence it will be in the power of every scrupulous faction to denominate their Governours to be the Schismaticks As our Author determineth the case a man may as innocently disbelieve any Article of his Christian faith upon this pretence of scruples against them as disobey the command of his Superiors For saith he p. 194. when uncertain conclusions are obtruded for truth or acts ministring just scruples are required to be performed consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism c. And p. 218. he gives this Reason for it It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspected Now suppose a subtle Socinian should meet with a scrupulous person and tell him that he doth well indeed to suspend his Communion from that Church which imposeth those things to be practised in the worship of God which have no warrant from thence but are rather condemned as Will-worship and Superstition but yet while he strains at a Gnat he swallows a Camel and suffers his Conscience to be imposed upon in matters of Faith which are of greater concern and then insinuate that there is no express text in Scripture nor any good Argument from Reason for a Trinity of persons in the Unity of the Godhead but both Scripture and Reason affirm there can be but one Supreme eternal God and then by wresting the Scriptures and perswading him that the Doctrine of the Trinity had its rise from Ecclesiastical Tradition not from the Scriptures and they that require the belief of it do teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men suppose I say by this leaven the scrupulous humor is fermented and swells up into a strong suspicion and he begins to grow sowr and discontented with his Teachers and likes the Arrian and Socinian Doctors better Doth not this man proceed upon the Authors grounds and may be as much justified by them if he turn Heretick as if he become a Schismatick And indeed there is not one Article of our Faith but cunning Sophisters may work upon persons disposed to scruples to have strong suspicions of them For Mr. Baxter tells us in his Saints everlasting rest Part 1. ch 7. Sect. 14. That Professors of Religion did oppose almost all the Worship of God out of Conscience which others did out of Prophaneness Upon this very pretense some will not hear of Infant Baptism nor others of the Lord's day but turn Anabaptists and Sabbatarians and for ought I know others may justifie rebellion and not only the Omission of moral duties but the Commission of any vice or impiety Experience hath evidently taught us that those persons who have been prone to entertain scruples in matters of Religion first have fallen next into sedition and rebellion and then to impiety and immoralities to Quakerism Atheism unnatural affection to Parents and acts and practices of as great cruelty and barbarity against themselves as against others But our Author grounds his Objection on Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin and He that doubteth is damned if he eat And this objection seems to be inforced by the Authority of Bishop Sanderson who p. 228. de Obligatione Conscientiae saith thus If any one through some fast rooted error of judgment do think the Law to be unjust which is not so the obligation of the Law doth remain notwithstanding that error of mind so that he is not free from sin if he do not obey yet that he sinneth more grievously if he should obey before that error be laid aside Which ease the Reverend Casuist intended to speak of more at large when he should come to treat of the comparison of both obligations viz. as I suppose the authority of the Magistrate and of Conscience For I perceive the question to which he makes this an Answer was What assurance that any Law is unjust is required to secure a subject in point of Conscience that he is not bound by that Law But the good Bishop never came to that point under which we might have expected his farther judgment in that case and therefore I shall take a little pains in finding out his resolution in some other parts of his writings Answer The Bishop says If a subject because that probable reasons do appear on both sides knoweth not nor can determine whether a Law be just or no so that his judgment hang in aequilibrio not knowing to which to incline in this case the subject is bound actually to obey so that he sinneth if he do not obey and if he do obey he sinneth not Now I observe that when the Bishop comes to give his reasons why a subject should obey against a scrupulous Conscience the same Reasons do require his obedience though his scruples he inveterate and obfirmed yea in things doubtful as by these following Reasons of his may appear His first Reason is because by a Reason of Law In dubiis potior est conditio possidentis therefore where there is a contest concerning a right betwixt the Lawgiver and the subject the right is alway to be presumed to be on the Lawgivers side as being in possession of the right unless some fit reason can be given to the contrary but in this case i. e. in things doubtful no such fit reason can
evidence of its unlawfulness seeing that therein they should not only wound their own Consciences and hazard their own Salvation but draw upon themselves the guilt of the Peoples sins by establishing iniquity by a Law and incouraging the People to comply with it by their examples and so like Jeroboam make the Israel of God to Sin But if in a deed done by a doubting Person at the command of one that is indued with lawful authority there be a sin it must go on his score that requireth it wrongfully not on his that doth but his duty in obeying nor is the Salvation of an obedient subject hazarded by a peaceable compliance with his Superiors commands in such doubtful and disputable actions Bishop Sanderson resolves a case that will put this out of doubt Sermon on Rom. 14. 23. p. 92. A Prince commandeth his Subjects to serve in his Wars it may be the quarrel is unjust it may be there may appear to the understanding of the Subject great likelihoods of such injustice yet may the subject for all that fight in the quarrel yea he is bound in Conscience so to do nay he is deep in disloyalty and treason if he refuse the service whatsoever pretensions of Conscience he may make for such refusal Mr. Baxter speaks almost as much p. 461. of his Five Disputations Every War that is unlawfully undertaken by the Prince is not unlawful in all his Souldiers Some of them that have not opportunity to know the evil of his undertaking may be bound to obey the case of others I determine not But a greater than he as I have shewn hath determined it and the practice of the Primitive Christians which stoutly fought the Battels of Heathen Emperors have confirmed that determination Now it is worthy of our consideration to think what manner of Souldiers such scrupulous Persons would make in case of a War begun against a just Prince by some of his Subjects that should pretend a Reformation of the Laws and arm themselves to redress abuses in the administration of Justice can we think that they who are apt to disobey upon I know not what scruples of the lawfulness of innocent Rites and Ceremonies injoyned by his authority will be ready to fight against their Brethren that herein agree with them would they not rather side against him as their Predecessors have done I suppose there are very few that are scrupulously factious in the Church but would in such a case be seditious and rebellious in the State I am sure they would find more plausible pretences as That the Prince commands such things as are to their Consciences unlawful and that they durst not ingage with him lest they draw innocent bloud upon their heads they think they are rather bound to help the Lord's People against the Mighty to rebuke even Kings for their sakes and if they see it meet to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with fetters of Iron and to execute upon them the Judgment written This Honour have all his Saints And yet that learned Casuist says that the fears of such scrupulous Persons need not trouble them no not in this grand case lest they should bring upon themselves the guilt of innocent bloud for the bloud that is unrighteously shed in such a quarrel he must answer for that set them on work not he that spilt it Is damnum dat qui jubet dare ejus verò nulla culpa est cui parére necesse est He doth the wrong that commands it to be done not he whose obedience is a necessary duty And truly says the same Casuist it is a great wonder to me that any Man endued with understanding and that is able in any measure to weigh the force of those precepts and reasons which bind inferiors to yield obedience to their Superiors should be otherwise minded in cases of like nature For whatsoever is commanded us by those whom God hath set over us either in Church Common-wealth or Family quod tamen non sit certum displicere Deo as saith St. Bernard which is not evidently contrary to the Law and Will of God ought of us to be received and obeyed no otherwise than as if God himself had commanded it because God himself hath commanded us to obey the higher Powers and to submit our selves to their Ordinances And if these things should not be so either Government or Christianity would in a short time be rooted out as incompetent one with the other for by such Men Christ is really represented as an enemy to Caesar and the event will be to have him crucified again in his members and put to open shame THE PREFACE TO Mr. BAXTER's ARGUMENTS THe same wise and Gracious Providence of Almighty God which over-ruled the Actions of those Armies that had kept us long in confusion and made them instrumental for the setling of peace in the State hath so directed the consultations and publick transactions of such as intruded on the affairs of the Church that if they would practise according to their own principles and acquiesce in their own arguments we might see peace and unity established also in the Church For besides the Arguments of the Non-conformists before 1642. who both by example and publick writings shewed their abhorrence of open Separation I do confidently affirm that if there were a collection made of those reasons which were urged by the Presbyterians to prevent the other Factions from separating from them as well in their Annotations Assemblies publick debates Sermons books of Schism Separation c. there needed no other security to the people of this Nation that they might with good Conscience conform to the publick Worship of God as it is now established I have formerly published Mr. Calvin's arguments to this purpose and now I present the Reader with Mr. Baxter's not only because I thought them most rational and perswasive but because I believe he was not acted by a studium partium any ambitious or private design but intended them as an Irenicum to perswade peace and reconciliation between all sober dissenters And I hope he will pardon me for prosecuting his own design while I do it in his own words published in several Treatises since he first set forth his Saints everlasting Rest in the Epistle to which he tells us he should fear of being a firebrand in Hell if he should be a firebrand in the Church I was much moved to see what odium he contracted from some of his Brethren of whom he deserved better things for endeavouring to heal our divisions yet was he not ashamed to write himself in the title page of his second admonition to Bagshaw a long-maligned and resisted endeavourer of the Churches unity and peace and in pag. 11. of that book he thus declares his Christian temper and resolution If injuries or interest would excuse any sin I think there are few Ministers in England who have more inducement to the Angry separating way than
I have But shall I therefore wrong the truth and Church of God and my own and others Souls God forbid And page 52. he farther tells us I repent that I no more discouraged the spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiors and Church-orders and though I ever disliked and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much incourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church corruptions and was too loth to displease the contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good knowing the prophane to be much worse than they and meeting with too few religious persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives And as an Argument of his repentance he defends himself against Bagshaw who objected that he chose on Easter day to communicate in a very populous Church purposely that it might be known saying p. 76. If a man by many years forbearing all publick prayers and Sacrament should tempt others to think that he is against them or counts them needless how should he cure that scandal but by doing that openly pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach the people by Example as well as Doctrine p. 78. And what he practised himself he carefully perswaded the people to avoid separation and hold communion in the parochial Churches For the Question which he maintained against Bagshaw was It is lawful to hold communion with such Christian Churches as have worthy or tolerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial order of them and the Ministers conformity and use of the Common Prayer-book and with two limitations concludes p. 89. That we ought to do so when some special reasons as from Authority scandal c. do require it And whereas by these actions and writings Mr. Baxter had so provoked the dissenting parties that it was objected as himself intimates in a second objection in the Preface of his Christian Directory That his writings differing from the common judgment had already caused offence to the Godly in the fourth Answer he sayes If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such men much more by endeavouring further than ever I have done the quenching of that fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the folly and mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tear the Church of God and let them know that I am about it These are resolutions becoming a Minister of Christ an Ambassador of the Prince of Peace taken up after long and serious deliberation well rooted and fixed in his judgment and Conscience by reason whereof he was enabled through the Grace of God to withstand manifold temptations and violent oppositions to the contrary Nor can I think that such a man as Mr. Baxter can flee and desert so good a cause and after Vows to make enquiry and render himself guilty of all those calumnies and reproaches which his enemies have endeavoured to fix upon him Nor can I think that having brought our present controversies to so narrow a compass of ground he will contribute to the building of a Babel upon it This were to make good those hard speeches of Mr. Bagshaw against him who tells us p. 152. That one worthy of Credit told him that the Learned and Judicious Mr. Herle having read that cryed up book of his said It had been happy for the Church of God if Mr. Baxter's friends had never sent him to School and that Mr. Cawdry had the same opinion of it And that another person as knowing in the Mystery of Godliness as either of them told a friend of his that notwithstanding the noise about him Mr. Baxter would end in flesh and bloud And in a word this would set home his own fears upon his spirit that he might be a fire brand in hell for being a fire-brand in the Church I shall therefore charitably believe that though he seem to look another way yet he is labouring to bring the people that adhere to him to the harbour of Ecclesiastical peace and unity that he doth still preach up not holiness only but peace too without which he knows no man shall see God nor can I think that he doth now practise in contempt of Authority what himself had condemned in others or that he intends to harden the people in such a Separation as he had so long so passionately so rationally declaimed against I rather hope that he hath some dispensation from his Lawful Superiors and that by a pia fraus having greater advantages of doing good put into his hands he will by degrees improve them to the glory of God and the peace of this distracted Church If he drive any other design I would desire him to consider first how he can Answer his own Arguments unto men and secondly how to give an account to God for his contrary practices But I have a very great confidence that he who hath with great industry and faithfulness provided so many solid materials from the Scriptures and right reason for the supporting and beautifying a Temple of peace having carved and guilded them over with serious Protestations of his own pacifick intentions and variety of Rhetorick to perswade others will not be a Leader of that rabble which shall first break down the carved works with axes and hammers and at last though sore against his will raze the very foundations and cry Down with it down with it even to the ground Of the Church Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. S. 2. THE Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but unity and concord without Division S. 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part S. 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church S. 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the several Members S. 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church S. 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it though we must not separate from
overweighed by another accident shall cease to make them unlawful For instance p. 461. Sect. 4. If of two Translations of Scripture or two Versions of the Psalms the Pastor use the worser so it be tolerable we must obey And Sect. 7. If the Pastor appoint a more imperfect Version of the Psalms to be sung in the Church as is commonly used in England the obeying of him in the use of this will not bring so much hurt to the Church as the disobeying on that account would do For besides the sin of disobedience it self the Church would be in a confusion if they forsake his conduct that preserves the union and some will be for this and some for that and so the Worship it self will be overthrown And let it still be remembred that we allow both Magistrates and Pastors to see to the execution of God's Laws and to determine of circumstances in order thereto that are necessary in genere p. 482. Sect. 35. but not determined of God in specie p. 422. § 65. It may be very sinful to command some ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used by the subject when they are commanded p. 398. Certain things commonly called ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no person should disobey the Laws of their lawful Governors in such things If there should be any Pastors of the Churches who instead of concurring to heal the flock of these dividing principles shall rather joyn with backbiters and incourage them in their misreports and slanders because it tends to the supposed interest of their party or themselves Let them prepare to Answer such unfaithfulness to their Consciences which will be shortly awakened And to the great Shepherd of the flock who is at the door and who told even the Devils Agents that A house or kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but is brought to nought POSTSCRIPT I Have proposed such Arguments for Conformity as I occasionally met with in such books of Mr. Baxter's as came to my hands If I had consulted others I doubt not but I might have found many more as cogent as these but these being satisfactory and of eternal verity I humbly desire Mr. Baxter and others of his perswasion to consider them nor can I doubt but Mr. Baxter will charitably accept of these my endeavours for peace upon his own weighty arguments and the rather because I believe him by his writings to be a man of a great experience in the temper of the people of a quick and discerning judgment that can look through causes into the consequences and effects that will naturally result from them and moreover a person of so great sincerity that he will by no means stray from but readily defend his own principles which are sound and pacificatory And seeing he hath done as St. Paul did of whom Tertullian notes he did perswade to peace totis spiritûs sancti viribus I believe he is one that longeth to see the healing of our Churches and that tendered his Arguments to all sorts charging them to do so much as appears to be necessary as they are true to Christ to his Church and Gospel to their own and others Souls and to the peace and welfare of the nations And as they will Answer the neglect to Christ at their peril In the Title of a Treatise of Confirmation And in his Answer to Dr. Tully title page A Compassionate Lamenter of the Churches wounds caused by hasty judging and undigested conceptions and by the Theological wars which are hereby raised and managed by perswading the world that meer verbal or notional differences are material and such as our love concord and communion must be measured by for want of an equal discussion of the Ambiguity of words One who in the Epistle to the Reader for Confirmation exhorts to pray for the peace of Jerusalem because they shall prosper that love it and to seek it of God and man which was his own daily though too defective practice as a servant of the King of peace To him and all others as such I propose the following concessions and the conclusions inferred from them In his Christian Directory p. 854. 1. He that is silenced by just power though unjustly in a Country that needeth not his preaching must forbear there And p. 560. of the Saints Rest he tells us as to his particular If God would dispense with me for my ministerial services without any loss to his people I should leap as lightly as Bishop Ridley when he was stript of his Pontificalia and say as Paedaretus the Laconian when he was not chosen into the number of the three hundred men I thank thee O God that thou hast bestowed on this City so many men better than my self 2. That it is lawful to hold communion with our Churches having but tolerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial Order and the Ministers conformity and use of the Common-prayer book And that we ought to do so when some special reasons as from Authority scandal c. do require it Second Admonition to Bagshaw p. 78. 3. That when men are carried to separate on such pretended grounds they will be no where fixt but may still be subdividing and separating from one another till they are resolved into Individuals and have left no such thing as a Church among them p. 486. Of the five disputations and p. 487. By disobedience in lawful things the members of the Church will be involved in Contentions and so ingaged in bitter uncharitableness censures persecutions and reproaches of one another 4. Though Ministerial conformity is now much altered as to ingagements many of the Assembly of Divines yet living do conform again nor would I shun communion with the reverend Members of that Assembly Twiss Gataker Whitaker and the rest if again they used the Liturgy among us And if the old Non-Conformists such as Bolton c. were alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then which was worse than now I could not think their Communion in prayer and Sacraments unlawful nor censure that man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them Defence of principles of Love p. 12 13. And Mr. Baxter's practice in receiving the Sacrament confirmeth the same 5. If any Pastor instead of concurring to heal the flocks of dividing principles shall rather joyn with backbiters and incourage them in their misreports and slanders because it tends to the supposed interest of their party or themselves let them prepare to Answer such unfaithfulness to their Consciences which will be shortly awakened and to the great Shepherd of the flock who is at the door and who told even the Devils Agents that a house or kingdom divided cannot stand c. p. 253. H. C. 6. The Magistrate will quickly find that the distractions of the Church will quickly breed