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A26860 An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal soveraignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1682 (1682) Wing B1184; ESTC R16768 131,071 189

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willing to learn of him as his Disciple I was in his next The unwearied Labourer in Christs harvest and his marvellous joy c. And in the rest when I could not receive his reasonings I became worse and more m●serable than ever It 's a wonderful meritoriou● excellency with such men to become their Proselytes and admirers As true Charity and Piety would fain propagate Tru●h Goodness and happiness so Pride Self-conceit and a Sectarian Spirit are like the inordinate lust of fornicators impatient longer than they are propagating their spurious kind And indeed the inordinate height of your self-conceitedness and confidence in gross confounding error will make chast souls afraid of your procacious sollicitations Had you sought my corporal destruction and not the Churches ruin for which you profess a zeal I might silently have let you take your course But the sober world so well knoweth that Satan and Papists are so much against the plain and serious preaching of the Gospel and so much for blood or cruelty towards Dissenters how faithful and truly religious soever that if you go on to be like them 1. In la●bouring us to cease preaching And 2. To call for punishment we know what to those that will not cease you will cherish men in the opinion that you are a Papist more than all your friends and talk can make them believe that you are not Sir when sin groweth crying and common I am one that dare not preach impenitency by hiding it and saying it is a doubtful or a little thing though I expect that guilt should be impatient and some Doctors should go on to say behind my back that less than this is unchristian and intemperate passion or abuse Methinks you who judg millions of true believers and lovers of God and holiness to damnation and by Printing this go about to have all men think them such and consequently to love them no better than the damnable should be loved should never be so partially tender as not to endure to be but told what you say and do And will you be angry with sober Christians for startling at such a Doctrine that All our other qualifications though we believe and love God c. will not save us unless we have the Sacrament from a Minister ordained by a Bishop of your described species and he from such another c. to the beginning Can Christian ears relish the description of such a Hell as containeth the believing Christian lovers of God and Holiness who call'd upon his name and sought first his Kingdom and Righteousness and forsook all for Christ but were damned for want of an uninterrupted Diocesan Ordination of the Priest that gave them the Sacrament and all his predecessors Sure Christians hitherto han't believed that Diocesans Sacraments will make a Heaven of wicked ungodly men nor the want of them make a Hell of Saints And will you be angry with me for not believing that God is such a one as will for ever hate and damn in Hell the souls that loved him above all Will he take that love from them when they die Or do they continue in Hell to love him while he hateth and tormenteth them Were not that to call him worse than the Devil whom they do not love You only tell us that they cannot be saved for want of your species of Sacramenters But if you meant not by this their Damnation but a Purgatory or Annihilation it 's meet you should deal plainly and tell us what it is They are Articles of our Faith and Religion That whoever believeth sincerely in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life And that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth And that eye hath not seen c. what God hath prepared for them that love him When Dr. VVilkins once preached in Pauls Church an excellent Sermon for peace and concord on mutual forbearance on Rom. 14.17 The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men he accosted me at the Pulpit foot with these true words I am sure this Sermon pleased you If Dr. Tillotson will publish that Sermon as he hath done Dr. Isaac Barrow's those two books will more shame your love-killing schismatical doctrine than all that I have said against you And if the fore-mentioned moderating Doctors go on to publish me to be a man of unpeaceable provoking language for saying that such doctrines and practices are great sins they will seem to me to take the preaching of Repentance for reviling and that he is the sinner that tells men of sin and that the Laity are far happier men who may be called to Repentance for their vices than the Clergy or Church-corrupters who are heinously wronged if their sins be named and they be but intreated to consider and repent yea if we but tell the reason why we dare not do as they in a time when we have cause to study such Texts as Ezek. 9.4 Perhaps God may permit your principles to get the upper hand But if he do I shall love them never the better but the worse and shall better love the world which forsake not God nor is forsaken by him Mr. DODWEL's LEVIATHAN or Absolute Destructive Prelacy the Son of ABADDON APOLLYON and not of IESVS CHRIST c. CHAP. I. Of Mr. Dodwel's displeasure against me as if I accused him to be a Papist and accused unjustly the Councils of Bishops § 1. WHEN Mr. Dodwell in a tedious Volume did null the Reformed Churches their Ministry Sacraments and Covenant-title to salvation meerly for want of uninterrupted succession down from the Apostles of Ordination by such as he appropriateth the name of Bishops to I aggravated his fault as being one that professeth himself a Protestant He took this to be an accusation of Popery I Published to satisfie him that I meant no such thing but de nomine will call him what he calls himself and de re will be no judg of any thing but his books and words to which I leave the Reader to know him This satisfieth him not but he continueth so much concerned that I doubt he will make men think there is some tender place that is so impatient of a mis-supposed touch I have nothing to do with him or his Religion as his further than he assaulteth us by his Writings And he is the Accuser and the Accusation is of no less moment than aforesaid and sinning against the Holy Ghost and of Schism and subverting all Government if we do but practice differently from the Prelates will and alledg Scripture and Gods Authority for it and appeal to Christ. I am but on the Defence against all this § 2. I profess it is not meer education prejudices custom or worldly interest which keep me from Popery or his way of absolute obedience to Prelates I have studied what may
Church-ruin to be devised than to suppose a more extensive Concord to be possible and necessary than indeed is and so to set up an impossible End and Means and to deny Concord and Peace to all that cannot have it on those terms If all should be denied to be the Kings Subjects who dare not profess Assent Consent and approbation of every law and part or word of the laws or that agree not of the meaning of every law or that differ in any matters of Religion what a Schism Confusion and Ruine would it unavoidably make in the Kingdom and how few Subjects would it leave the King Even as if none but men of the same stature visage or wit should be Subjects 4 The necessary Union and Concord of Christians is a matter of so great importance that it cannot be supposed that Christ is the sole Universal Lawgiver and yet hath not ordained or determined what shall be the terms of necessary Christian Unity and Concord And indeed he hath determined it Viz. I. He hath ordained Baptism himself to be our Christning or our visible Investiture in the Church Universal that is our Relation to Christ as the Head of his Universal Kingdom or Body And every rightfully baptized person till by violating that Covenant he forfeit his benefits is to be taken by us as a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Heir of Heaven and we are bound to love him as a brother and use him accordingly in all due Offices of Love And because the Church into which Baptism entereth us consists of Christian Pastors and People Apostles and Prophets having been as Foundations infallibly delivering us now recorded in Scripture the Word of Life and ordinary Pastors being appointed to teach and guide the people in holy Doctrine Worship and Conversation therefore it is implied that the baptized person at Age understandeth this and consenteth thereunto that is to receive as infallible the recorded sacred Doctrine of the infallible persons Apostles and Prophets and the ordinary Ministry of such ordinary Pastors and Teachers as he shall discern to be set over him by the Word and Spirit of Christ. Whether this consent to the Pastoral-Office be necessary to the Being of a Christian or only to the Well-being is a controversie with which I need not stop or length●n in this account But Baptism as such doth not enter us into any particular Church II. 1. Christ by himself and his ●pirit in the Apostles hath ordained that Christians shall be associated into particular Churches consisting of the aforesaid Ordinary Pastors and their Flocks for Personal Communion in holy D●ctrine Worship and Conversation in all which these Pastors are their Guides according to the Laws or Word of Christ already delivered by the in●allible Ministry of the Apostles and Prophets against or beyond which Christ hath given them no power Their Office is of his own making and describing and their power to determine undetermined useful circumstances in Gods Worship and Church-discipline is but a power to obey Christs general commands to do all thing● in Love Peace Order Decency and to Edification which they may not violate 2. Every Christian that hath opportunity should be a Member of some such particular Church Statedly if it may be if not yet transiently But some may want such opportunity as single persons converted or cast among Infidels Travellers Embassadors Factors and other Merchants among Infidels or where Christianity is so corrupted by the P●stors as that they will not allow men Communion without sinful Oaths Covenants Professions Words or Practices 3. No one at Age can be a Member of the Universal or of any particular Church and so the Subj●ct of that Pastor against his will or without his own consent however Antecedent Obligations may bind men to consent 4. Every such Church should have its proper Bishop and in Ignatius's time its Unity was describ●d by One Altar and One Bishop with his fellow Presbyters and Deacons 5. Such B●shops or Pastors were to be ordained by Senior Bishops or P●stors and received by the E●ection or Consent of the whole Church and for many hundred years no Churches received their Bishops on any other terms The Ordainers and the People or Church receiving him having each a necessary consent as a double Key for the security of the Church to which afterwards the Christian Magi●●rates consent was added according to Gods word so far as protecting and countenancing of the Bishop did require The senior Bishops must consent to his Ordination the people must consent to him as formally related to themselves as their Pastor and the Magistrate as to one to be protected by him 6 As without mutual consent the relation of Pastor and flock is not founded so Gods Providence must direct every man to know what particular Church he should be of and whom by consent to take for the guide of his soul. In England men may freely chuse what Church and Pastor they will stand related to every man having liberty to dwell in what Parish or Diocess he please without asking leave of the Bishop to remove 7. The individuating or distingu●shing of particular Churches by peculiar Circuits or proper spaces of ground is no further of Gods institution than it is the performance of the general commands of doing all in order to edification c. And as in prosperous times under godly peaceable Princes it is greatly convenient and desirable so in several cases of Division Church-corruption by Heresie or Tyranny Persecution c. it is inconvenient and it becomes a necessary duty to gather Churches in the same space of ground where only some other Pastor had a Church before The cases in which this is lawful and the cases in which Separation is unlawful having written largely in another paper I shall offer it to you when you desire it 8. It is not of absolute necessity that all the members of a particular Church do always or usually meet in one place though it be very convenient and desirable where it may be done for Persecution may prohibit it or want of a large capacious place or the great d●stance of some of the Inhabitants or the age or weakness of others and therefore in the ancient Churches though at first they usually were all assembled in one place yet after when they encreased the Canons required all the people to assemble with the Bishop but at certain chief Festivals in the year having Chappels or Oratories in the Villages where they m●t on other days And with us many Parishes of great extent have many Chappels of ease 9. But that the end of the Association be not only for distan● communion by Delegates or Letters or meer relation to one common Ruler as all the Empire had to the Emperour but for PERSONAL COMMVNION of Pastor and Flock so that they may at least per vices meet together or live within the reach of each others personal notice and converse and Communion in
submit to all unsinful conditions of the Episcopal communion where they live if imposed by the Ecclesiastical Government thereof This proved by these two degrees 1. That the supposition of their being less secure of salvation out of this Episcopal communion than in it is sufficient to prove them obliged to submit to all terms not directly sinful however unexpedient rather than separate themselves or suffer themselves to be excluded from this communion chap. 1. § 7 8 9 10. 2. That there is indeed less security of salvation to be had even on performance of the Moral conditions of salvation out of this Episcopal communion than in it This proved from two things 1. That they cannot be so well assured of their salvation in the use of extraordinary as of ordinary means nay that they being left to extraordinaries is a condition either very hazardous or at least very uncomfortable at present whatever it may prove hereafter Ch. II. 2. That these ordinary means of salvation are in respect of every particular person confined to the Episcopal communion of the place he lives in as long as he lives in it This proved from Two things 1. That these ordinary means of salvation are confined to the external Communion of the visible Church This proved from Four things 1. We cannot be assured that God will do for us what is necessary for our salvation on his part otherwise than by his express promises that he will do it Chap. III. § 1 2. 2. The ordinary means how we may assure our selves of our interest in his promises is by our interest in his Covenant by which they are conveyed to us Chap. III. from § 5. to the end 3. The ordinary means by which we may assure our selves of our interest in this Covenant with him is by our partaking in these external solemnities by which this Covenant is transacted and maintained Chap. IV V VI VII 4. The participation in these external solemnities with any legal validity is only to be had in the external Communion of the visible Church Chap. VIII B. II. That this visible Church to whose external Communion these ordinary means of salvation are confined is no other than the Episcopal Communion of the place where any one lives whilest he lives there This proved in Two parts a 1. That the visible Church to whose external Communion these ordinary means of salvation are consined is the Episcopal Communion This proved by these degrees A. 1. That salvation is not ordinarily to be expected without an external participation of the Sacraments 1. Negatively Not by those other popular means which ordinary persons are apt to trust in to the neglect of the Sacraments that is 1. Not by hearing the Word Preached Chap. IX 2. Not by private Prayer nor indeed by any out of the Communion of the Church Chap. X XI XII XIII XIV 2. Positively That salvation is ordinarily to be expected only by this external participation of the Sacraments 1. Proved concerning Baptism Chap. XV. 2. Concerning the Lords Supper Chap. XVI XVII II. That the validity of the Sacraments depends on the Authority of the persons by whom they are administred Chap. XVIII III. No other Ministers have the Authority of Administring the Sacraments but only they who receive their Orders in Episcopal Communion This proved by Four degrees 1. That the Authority of Administring the Sacraments must be derived from God Chap. XIX 2. That though it be derived from God yet it is not so derived without the mediation of those men to whom it was at first committed Chap. XX. 3. That it cannot be so derived from those men to whom it was first committed without a continued succession of persons orderly receiving Authority from those who had Authority to give it them from those first times of the Apostles to ours at present Chap. XXI 4. That this Authority is not now to be expected any where but in the Episcopal Communion Chap. XXII XXIII XXIV XXV b. 2. That the Episcopal Communion to which every particular person is obliged to joyn himself as he would enjoy the ordinary means of his own particular salvation is the Episcopal Communion of the place wherein he lives whilest he lives in it Chap. XXVI b. II. That the nature of this obligation to unsinful conditions of their Episcopal Communion is such as will make them guilty of the sin of SCHISM who rather than they will submit to such Conditions either separate themselves or suffer themselves to be excluded from Communion by their respective Diocesan Ordinaries Chap. XXVII Here is Episcopal Communion talkt of without telling what is the Episcopacy or what the Communion which he means and how both are known Confusion 1. There are usurping Bishops not truly called or chosen 2. There are Heretical Bishops 3. There may be divers Bishops in one City or County which of these mean you 4. He may be one fit for others and not for me nor am I to take him for my Pastor As the Greek Bishop in London and many Latine Bishops that spake not English heretofore or his faultiness may make it my duty to chuse a better 5. What if the King and Law command the contrary 6. All this is nothing for submitting to sinful conditions 2. As it is a duty to refuse sinful conditions so of many particular Churches to chuse the fittest for our communion The French and Dutch and Greeks in London are not Schismaticks for not being subject to this Bishop or locally communicating with him 2. You tell us not how a man shall know he is of the Bishops communion among a thousand Parish-Churches that differ in many things and own the Bishop in some things and not in others 3. Few of the Diocess ever locally communicate with our Bishops and mentally the Nonconformists communicate in Essentials at least 4. Most Christians on earth are guilty of Schism and yet are not prevalently Schismaticks but still members of the Catholick Church 5. The Bishops e. g. in France are more guilty of the Schism than the Protestants See Dr. Stillingfleet's Defence of Laud. 1. This is false in the fore-excepted cases 1. If he be a Bishop to others and not to me unless communion include not subjection for so we communicate with many other Bishops 2. If the condition imposed be a thing which a Superior Power forbiddeth King or in some cases Parents The matter and consequences are so weighty as tell us it is not well done to abuse dull Readers thus with the deceitful unexplained nature of Episcopacy and Communion The love of truth and souls forbid such deceit 1. If some receive only Parish-bishops of the old sort and others also their Archbishops and others such Diocesans as put down all Parish-bishops which of these have Episcopal communion 2. When of old many Ages Voting and Fighting could not tell men which was the true Bishop among many competitors and when at Rome there were oft two or three at once and when