have us receive If they shut out us that is not our sin but theirs The hurt and loss is farr more to the excluder than the excluded to him that loseth his Charity than to him that loseth but Communion with others And I know that as none shall take out of Christs hands those that are given him by the Father and he himself will in no wise cast them out so he will at last give no more thanks either to Diotrephes or to any separating parties that would rob him of his own and say that his Children are not his Children and that his Churches are not his Churches and that his Worship is not his Worship but Idolatry than you will give to him that will turn out your Children and servants and take away your goods and lands and say that they are not yours Brethren it grieveth me to the heart that neither party Conformable or Non-conformable is more sensible of the sin and danger of our distance Though I know that in both parties there are many wise and holy persons who I suppose lament it more than I do It layeth my soul in daily lamentations to see how we run further and further from each other to the apparent danger of the Protestant Cause and of the Kingdoms welfare and of all the hopes of our posterity And that in stead of repenting of those sins which every party is guilty of and taking warning by our former experiences or by the dreadful judgements of God upon us all that yet we are daily losing the little Love that is left and still flying further into more and more exasperations and distast As if all the Church and Kingdoms hopes consisted in overcoming one another When our long experience telleth us that subduing those that must still be members is no Cure of a divided body and that treading men down doth but alienate them the more And I know that it is Concord and Union upon such terms in which we are all agreed that must be our Cure if ever we be Cured And that no Covenant nor partial interest can possibly justifie us if we will stablish our union on such terms as shall either exclude such on one side as Jewel Grindal Downam Hall and other such Bishops or such on the other side as Ames Hildersham Cartwright Bayne Egerton and other such worthy persons that were Nonconformists For my part my terms should neither exclude Episcopal Independent nor Anabaptist But one that will separate and exclude himself or one that will tyranizâ— and exclude all others we cannot any otherwise have Concord and Communion with than distantly by Christian principles and patience But at long running they shall be all convinced that the Cure of the Church is not by meer Conquest or Contempt of others Nor by the Union and Concord of some Parties only but of the whole And that the sound and sober Conformists and Non-conformists are the parts in England that must be united And that neither Violence nor unjust separating Censures are the healing way And that which party soever it be that contriveth and endeavoureth a Union by the extirpation and ruine of the other part is schismatical and taketh the way of desolation And that it is the Devil the Infidels and the Papists that will be the gainers by our continued divisions And therefore though I know not the man alive in England who hath more fair pretence from the ungrateful usage of the differing partieâ— to desist from any more such conciliatory attempts yet let my hopes be never so low seeing it is a thing that must be done or we are undone I will imitate honest Mr. Dury and choose rather to wast my daies in vain attempts for Peace than to go quarrelling and contending to the grave as I have seen too many others do And if both parties in this exasperated age should never so much revile and sâ—ander me though a surviving name be little of my interest I make no doubt but our posterity will be constrained by experience to think better of Peace-makers than of Contenders The names of Melanchthon Bucer Calixtus Bergius Burroughs Hall Davenant c. are far more grateful and honourable to after times than the name of Flacius though an excellent learned man or of Schlusselburgius Calovius or any of our fiery Contenders or destroyers To all this I add that even the separated Churches themselves do find a necessity of Union and Concord for their preservation Division else will pursue the several pieces and the same principles which I write-against if they go along with them will crumble them all to dust The separated Churches in Holland of the English fully proved this Even those members in New-England which Mr. Norton sadly told Mr. Ash and me did withdraw and gather themselves to an unlearned Pastor and would not be intreated by Magistrates or Ministers yet when they were separated would fain keep Concord among themselves And if half of that separated body should again have separated from the rest that fragment would fain keep themselves in Unity And still nature teacheth them to feel that their Unity is their strength and life and that their Division is their dissolution 5. And I must needs tell the world that though I Conform not it is greater things than the matters of Conformity which are the chief parts of my Religion And therefore it is not Non-conformity that we must all Unite in so much as Christianity and soundness in the Faith And I doubt not but the Independents who offer to subscribe to the Doctrine of the Church of England will say that they differ far more from the Quakers and Seekers and Familists than they do from the Conformists And so do I though I would have Love and Gentleness exercised to them all 6. And if the present Conformable Ministry were more to be blamed than they are yet they may learn and profit while they teach Many of them are young coming lately from the University and may yet grow up to ability and piety and greater usefulness in the Church And many of them are prejudiced against their brethren for want of acquaintance And a Christian prudent Loving familiarity and Conversation with them may make them in time become more serviceable to the truth than we are whereas a continued distance estrangedness and censorious aversation will feed their mistakes and uncharitable censureâ— of us yea and their sharp severities against us and will keep up a heart-war and a Church-war in the land And alas who knoweth either when or how or in whose calamity it will End For he that puts on his armour should not boast as he that puts it off I do therefore conclude with this repeated profession that it is the Conformists and the Non-conformists that constitute the English protestant body And it is the Conformists and Non-conformists that must at last when they are wearied with tearing and opposing one another be brought together and the faithful of both
and those that are of that fashion are the only people and to reproach all of other fashions as ungodly and to think that he is therefore a better Christian than the other because his fashion of outward Worship seemeth the better to him Not that any thing in Gods Worship should be denyed its due regard But its pity that by an unproportionable estimation of mens several outward fashions words and gestures poor souls should be tempted to deceive themselves and to forget that he is the best Christian that hath most Faith Humility Love and Heavenliness which is the true Holiness and Beauty of the soul. 9. When men think a Lawful Communion yea a duty to be unlawful it will both keep them in the sin of omitting it and cause them to add their sinful Censures of all those that use that Communion which they avoid They do not only think that they are holier because they hear not and pray not and communicate not in the Parish Churches but they look down with a supercilious pity upon those that do And how many parties have I thus been pitied by As I go along the Streets the Quakers say Poor man thou art in darkness The Papists pity me for not being one of them The Anabaptists pity me for not being one of them The Separatists pity or disdain me because I forbear not the Worship that they forbear And this Excepter lamenteth my condition as passionately as any It is not for Not Worshipping with them that they censure me for I am ready to do it but for Worshipping with others in Words which they like not And whereas holiness was wont to be expressed most by Worship actions now it must be characterized more by Negatives even in external adjuncts And if he be the best man that avoideth most the Communion of others which he taketh to be bad I have and have had neighbours better than you all that never communicate with any Church nor ever publickly hear or pray or Worship God at all because they think all your wayes of Worship to be bad I remember Rivet marketh out Grotius by this that while he forsook the Protestant Churches and called us to unite with the Church of Rome that is with the Pope ruling not arbitrarily but by the Laws of a General Council not excluding that of Trent he did actually communicate with none at all 10. When mens judgements are thus mistaken about Church Communion their Worship of God will be corrupted They will in their hearts earnestly desiee that all others may be of their mind and they will complain to God of that as a sin which is mens duty Especially among those of their own mind And this offering up of their mistakes to God in earnestness as an acceptable service is a sad polluting of holy things So he that is famed to have written this Antidote is said to have made my Book which was written for Christian Love to be the matter of his publick Humiliation And another of my friends in dayes of prayer maketh it his lamentation Lord here are those that are one day here and another day at Common-prayer As if the exercise of Knowledge and Love in impartial Communion with all Christs Churches not forcing us to sin were a sin to be lamented But I need not go further for instance than this Antidote where the Reverend Author taketh it for a service of God to write against those necessary Precepts of Love and Unity which he mistakingly opposeth And so did Mr. Iohnson and Mr. Canne who most confidently presented their Writings for separation to God as a service which he had commanded them and would own 11. This narrow judgement tempteth men on one side to Anathematize all that say There are any other true Churches in England save of one form and fashion and it tempteth others to deny the Parish Churches to be at all true Churches and so to narrow the possessions of Christ. And hereupon it tempteth them to endeavour to disgrace and dissolve each other It draweth many to think that it is the Interest of Religion now in England to have the Parish Churches to be brought low in reputation and deserted and Gods publick Worship which they would have all Religious people use to be only that of tolerated or more private Churches By which they little know what they wiâ—â— against the interest of the Christian and Pro 〈…〉 nt Religion in this Land Nor what hurt they would do if in this they had their wills 12. These dividing Principles and Spirits which I oppose will on one side give shelter to all the prophane malignant minds that itch to be afflicting others that fear God more than they And on the other side it will give shelter to all kind of Heresies and Sects of which experience is too full a proof 13. Yea before our eyes the most pernicious Heresies even those of Quakers are still not only continued but increase And we see men that to day condemn Communion with the Parish Churches and then with the Presbyterians do shortly fly from Communion with the Independents too And mens passions in sufferings pervert their judgements And frequently men are overcome by tryal when they think they are most constant and have overcome It s commonly known how many of late are turned Quakers And what considerable persons lately in prison fell to that unhappy Heresie Yet they that by a Prison lost their Religion no doubt thought themselves more honourable by their sufferings than those that go to Common-prayer And shall we stand by and see this work go on and neither lament their sin that drive men to this nor warn them of the Passions and Principles that lead to it 14. Separation will ruine the separated Churches themselves at last By separation I mean the same thing that the old Non-conformists wrote against by that name It will admit of no consistency Parties will arise in the separated Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech my deer brethren that are otherwise minded to open their eyes so far as to regard experience Brethren what now Comparatively are all the separated Churches or parties upon Earth Would you have all Christs Churches and all the interest of the Christian Religion to be as short lived and to stand upon no more certain terms than they do How few separated Churches do now exist that were in being an hundred years ago Can you name any And would you have had all the Churches of Christ on Earth to be dissolved when they were dissolved Or do you think that all were dissolved with them This would make us all seekers indeed 15. Separating and narrow principles befriend not Godliness as they pretend to do but lamentably undermine it If it were but by driving off and disaffecting the lower sort of Christians whose Communion you reject The Case of three or four Churches in New-England grieve my heart But the Case of the Summer Islands as
related to me by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister lately discouraged and come from thence would make a Christian heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that plantation once was And how one Godly Mininister by separation selecting a few to be his Church and rejecting all the rest from the sacrament the rejected party are grown to doleful estrangedness from Religion and the selected party much turned Quakers and between both how wofull are the fruits But the Case of England Scotland and Ireland which I foretold in my book of Infant Baptisme is yet a more lamentable proof what separation hath done against Religion so full a proof that it is my wonder that any good man can overlook it 16. Yea it tendeth to make Religiousness contemptible and the professors of it a common scorn when we are perceived to place it in unwarrantable separations and singularities and when we make men think that the greatest difference between those that they call Precise or Religious and others is but this that one of them prayeth without book and the other by the book that one of them will not joyn with those that use the Liturgie and the other will If we let men see that in indifferent things we are indifferent and that lesser evils we avoid as lesser and greater evils as greater and that the great difference between us and the ungodly is in our seriousness in our Christian profession and in our heavenlyness and true obedience to Christ it would much convince them of their misery and honour Religion in the world But when they perceive that the greatest contention which our houses and our streets do ring of is whether we shall hear a man that conformeth or not Or whether we shall pray with them that use the Liturgie Or whether we may sometimes Communicate with a Parish Church or not This turneth the thoughts of the careless and carnal the worldling and the sensualist from the necessary condemning of himself for his ungodliness and sets him on thinking that these stricter people do differ from him in things of no importance and that they are but an erroneous self conceited sort of persons and that he is much the wiser man Thousands in England are hardened into a neglect of Godliness to our suffering and the apparent danger of their own damnation by occasion of the unwarrantable singularities and the scandalous sins especially of those professors that have been most addicted to sinful separations 17. I am not causelesly afraid lest if we suffer the principles and practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazzard us all and we may lose that which the several parties do contend about Three waies especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied sects they will perswade people that we must either come for Unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this argument already And I am perswaded that all the arguments else in Bellarmine and all other books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of sects among our selves Yea some Professors of Religious strictness of great esteem for Godliness have turned Papists themselves when they were giddy and wearied with turnings and when they had run from sect to sect and found no consistency in any For when they see so many they say How can I tell that this or that is in the right rather than the other This it is that they ring continually in our ears Which of all these sects is in the right And what assurance have they of it more than all the rest that are as confident And how small a Church doth any one sect make And â—f hâ—w late original for the most But the poor deluded souls consider not that in going to the Papists they go but to another sect that is worse than any of the rest And though greater yet not past the third part of the Christians in the world And that Christianity is but one And that the way to rest is to unite upon the common terms of simple Christianity 2. And who knoweth not how fair a game the Papists have to play by the means of our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on each party and saying to one side Lay more upon them and and abate them nothing and to the other stand it out and yield to nothing And who is so blind then as not to see their double game and hopes viz. that either our divisions and alienations will carry men to such distances and practices as shall make us accounted seditious rebellious and dangerous to the publick peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that when so many parties under sufferings are constrained to beg and wait for liberty the Papists may not be shut out alone but have Toleration with the rest And shall they use our hands to do their works and pull their freedom out of the fire We have already unspeakably served them both in this and in abating the odium of the Gun powder plot and their other Treasons Insurrections and Spanish invasion of which read Thuanus himself that openeth all the mystery 3. And it is not the least of our danger nor which doth least affect me lest by our follies extremities and rigors we should so exasperate the Common people as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in Case of any competitions or their invasions or insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace Sure I am that the Parliaments and peoples resolutions against them after the late fire and in the time of the last war when they were so much feared did discourage and depress them more than all the rest of their opposers And though we cannot rationally believe that the people of England much less wise and sober Governors will ever be such enemies to themselves as to subject themselves to the Romish Tyranny and to forget what Ireland and England have seen and felt yet because it is not only oppression that maketh wise men mad let us do nothing by unlawful alienations and singularities or fierce and disobedint oppositions which tend to make the people like better of the Papists than of us 18. I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christs Churches upon Earth But he that separateth from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all And he that separateth from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgie and the badness of all our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive 19. Though Ministerial Conformity be to us another
partyes must build up the Church in Love and Peace And therefore the interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the doctrine and worship there performed and not by the Non conformists alone And they that think and endeavour that which is contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Him therefore that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations Let not him that eateth despise him that cateth not And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth For God hath received him Who art thou that judgest another mans servant 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 acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and the things wherewith one may edifie another And blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God THE GENERAL PART OR INTRODUCTION TO THE DEFENCE OF MY CURE OF Church-Divisions Being a Narrative of those late Actions which have occasioned the Offence of men on both Extreams with the true Reasons of them And of these Writings which some account Unseasonable with the true stating of the Case of that Separation which my opposed Treatise medleth with And an Answer to several great Objections Printed in the Year 1671. I. THE GENERAL PART OR INTRODUCTION CAP. 1. The Narrative of those late Actions which have occasioned mens displeasure against me on both sides with the Reasons of them and of my Writing which I am now defending THE number of Books written against me is so great that if I should not be very suspicious of my self lest I had wronged the truth and the Church of God and given men just occasion of all this obloquy I should be very defective in humility and in that care which I am obliged to for the avoiding of such injuries And I find upon examination that if I could have let all sides alone and judged it consistent with my duty to be silent while the envious man sowed his tares and not to have contradicted any that I took to be injuring the Truth and Church nor to have sounded the trumpet against any error which arose before us I could as easily have escaped their wrath as others And I find that whereas our differences both in Doctrine and Worship and Discipline have engaged men of several minds in such writings against me Some Infidels diverse Quakers Papists Antinomians some Arminians some Anti-arminians Anabaptists Separatists Levellers Diocesans c. What one accuseth me of another doth not only acquit me of but ordinarily as sharply accuse me for the contrary and for going no further from the rest So that nothing but silence could put by their fiercest accusations And silence it self will not please the Imperious sect who think me criminal because I serve them not according to their own desire and way And silence was not that which I promised God at my ordination nor is it a doing of that work to which I was then consecrated and devoted But because some men speak in a more Sanguinary dialect than others and because the late charges of Disloyalty ought not to be disregarded by a loyal subject and because for the sakes of their own souls it hath often made me pitty Mr. Durel Dr. Boreman and many others like them who have published ugly falsehoods of me I once thought to have here exercised so much Charity to them as by a full Narrative of all those actions of my life which concern such matters as they accuse me of to have rectified all their mistakes at once and made them understand what it is which they wrote of before they understood it And the rather because this excepter followeth them in telling me how guilty I was of the wars and all the effects of them and also that I wrote a flattering book to Richard Cromwell And in this narrative I purposed to confess so much as had any truth in their accusations and to stop them in their falsifications and calumnies as to the rest But upon second thoâ—â—â—ts I cast it by perceiving by too long experience that they who are engaged against the Truth are unable to bear it and take all for an unsufferable wrong to them which detecteth the falsehood of their reports And when men do as Mr. Hinkley importune me to publish the reasons of my Non-conformity when they know that the Law forbiddeth it and there is no expectation of procuring a Licence or when the old stratagem is so visibly used of drawing us by their challenges into their Ambuscad'es or when I am eagerly provoked to gape against an oven while it is red or flaming hot If I crave their patience and exercise my own till it be grown more cool before I accept of such a challenge and suffer them to use their Art till repentance shall unteach it them and to make my name a stepping stone to those ends which they now aspire after methinks they should be content to talk on without a contradiction and to be free from the light of that Truth which they are not able to endure Or at least should pardon me if I imitate my Lord that was silent even when false accusers sought his defamation and his blood But God â—nabling me I promise them an answer as soon as they will procure me License and Indemnity In the mean time I shall now only 1. Tell you why I offended one side by saying so much against their impositions 2. And why I have since offended the other yea both sides by my late Book called The Cure of Church-Divisions Before the King was restored being then at London I was called to preach two publick sermons tâ—â— one before the Parliament the day before they voted the Kings return The other before the Lord Major and Aldermen on a day of thanksgiving for the hopes of his return In the latter I plainly shewed my sense of the case of the falling party and the Armies actions and gave as plain a warning to the then rising party with some prognosticks thereupon In the former the first that ever I preached to a Parliament and he last I spake some words of the facility of Concord with the sober godly moderate sort of the Episcopal Divines and how quickly Arch-Bishop Usher and I came to an Agreement of the termes on which they might Unite When this Sermon was Printed this passage caused many moderate Episcopal Divines to urge me to tell them the terms of that Agreement And they all professed their great desires and hopes of Concord upon such termes viz. Dr. Gulston Dr. Allen Dr. Bernard Dr. Fuller Dr. Gauden and several others Dr. Gauden desired a meeting to that end of the several parties but none came at the day appointed but he
and Dr. Bernard and Dr. Manton and I where I spake these words which he Printed without the limitation annexed which I set right in my next Printed Book viz. That I found then little or nothing in the doctrinal part of the Common prayer Book which was not sound having but as favourable an exposition as good mens writings usually mnst have He left out the doctrinal part At last when the Earle of Oâ—ery perswaded me to be his Majesties Chaplain in Ordinary and was present when the Earl of Manchester gave me and Mr. Ash an oath of fidelity it being he that first brought me acquainted with Bishop Usher the mention of the same business fell in Whereupon we shortly after were told by the Lord Chamberlain that it was his Majesties pleasure that there should be a treaty for Union between the Episcopal party and the Presbyterians And Dr. Reignolds Mr. Calamy Mr. Ash and my self being first Employed when we had made some entrance we desired that some might be chosen by the Ministers throughout the land to signifie their sense because we could speak in the name and sense of none but our selves But his Majesty not consenting to that we desired an addition of many brethren at hand which was granted and the liberty for all Ministers that would to meet with us for consultation as many did at Sion-Colledge and elsewhere In this Treaty we all professed our Judgements for the Lawfulness of a Liturgie and desired the Reformation of that which we had with the addition of new forms in Scripture phrase fitted to the several Offices with Liberty to the Ministers to use this or that Whereupon we drew up such a Liturgie our selves which though it fell to my share yet the rest of our brethren examined and approved of it saving that Dr. Reignolds disliked the displeasing the Bishops by such large additions and a Liturgie seeming entire of it self instead of some additional prayers to theirs How many weeks we were employed from first to last in these debates how fully and freely we took that opportunity to plead for reformation and against unnecessary impositions whilest the men that now quarrel with us said nothing that we know of how hard a province fell to my own lot as to the offending of the Bishops under whose hot displeasure I thereby in obedience to my Conscience did cast my self our writings which somebody hath published for the greater part of them shew and our Savoy conference and my prohibition to preach in Worcester Diocess shortly after before other Ministers were silenced and the published writings against me did all sufficiently acquaint the world And the particulars of this business I now pass by Only I think meet to make this twofold profession to the two parties on the Extreams 1. That the true reason why I wrote and spake so much so long and so vehemently had it been possible to have prevented many Impositions was principally because I undoubtedly foresaw how great a number of faithful worthy Ministers would else be silenced by them and how ill the Church could spare those Ministers while there are so many hundred thousands of ignorant and ungodly people in the land and what sort of Ministers in too many places must unavoidably succeed them unless the Church doors should be shut up and I foresaw how the people under such Ministers would be affected to Religion and to the Bishops and Ministry And I foresaw what multitudes of Religious persons would take the things imposed as unlawful and would separate from Communion with the publick Churches and would worship God in private meetings with the silenced Ministers I foresaw how many Ministers and people that did Conform with a grudging Conscience would do more at last to undermine the Impositions than the Non-Conformists I foresaw easily what jealousies displeasure severities imprisonments c. would follow the private preaching of the silenced Ministers and the private meetings of the people And I knew well that other Ministers as well as I would judge it no better than perfidious sacriledge to forsake the holy calling to which they were consecrated and devoted and to desert so many thousand needy souls But above all I foresaw how certainly and sadly the Churches divisions would be hereby increased and the Love of each party to the other would be abated if not destroyed How hard it was for one side to Love and Honour the Non-conformists that accounted them Persecutors and unconscionable men And how hard it was for the other side to Love and Honour those that they suffered by And how little Reproaches Fines and Imprisonments do use to increase mens Love to others I â—orâ—knew that one side would call the other Rebellious Schismatical Phanaticks and the other side were like enough to account them Perjured Perfidious Persecutors and that in the midst of such thoughts such words such usage Love was no more like to prosper than fire in the sea And I knew that whatever zeal be pretended for Obedience and Order on one side or for purity of Worship on the other when Love dieth Religion dieth and they that are destroyers of Love are destroyers of the Church and of Christianity and of the souls of men and to increase Love is to save sâ—iâ—ls And I foresaw that the further they go in this way the further they will go from God and Godliness from peace and safety and that it will be the longer the worse till they retire For one hard usage on one side and hard censure on the other side after another will by degrees raise men to the height of bitterness and make them think that their interest conâ—isteth in the hurt and ruine of each other Also I foresaw that while we worried and weakned one another as all Sects would grow under the discontents of one party so the Papists were like to be the principal gainers And they would be ready to offer their service to strengthen one of the parties against the other and would be glad to take up the reproaches against the most religious people that were by angry adversaries brought unto their hands And that when we had made our selves a Common scorn by our manifold divisions and by our biting and devouring one another they would plead this as our shame to draw people to themselves as the only stable and consistent Church and would make us giddy that we might rest on them as our Supporters and when they saw us weak enough would be ready to devour us all And I easily foresaw how calamitous a thing it would be to the Kingdom to have most Towns and Parishes set all together by the ears and for the neighbours to be as Guâ—lphes and Gibellines every man employed in censuring and reproaching others instead of living together in neighbourly and Christian Love And I foresaw what an injury this would be to the King to have the suffering party under these temptations and wise men made mad and his people weakned
by such sad divisions whereby their cheerfulness in his Love and service would be abated and forreign Enemies would be encouraged to attempts against our peace and safety and if ever they should invade us it maketh me tremble to think how our divisions would debilitate us and hazard all our common security and hopes Yea how uncomfortable a thing it must needs be to the King to rule such a divided people that live in a heart-war among themselves in comparison of ruling a loving and concordant sort of men In a word I knew that a house or Kingdom divided against it self would not stand And though I could not make the Bishops believe me I knew that divisions lamentable divisions were like to be the consequent of the things which then I so importunately petitioned and intreated them to forbear I knâ—w it for I could not choose but knâ—w it And for these reasons I wrote I pleaded I earnestly contended with them as I did while there appeared any hope as being loth to have seen the things which I have already seen and God knoweth to how much worse we are going if Grace and Wisdom yet prevent it not And though I exasperated the sore which I would have cured and have ever since my self lain under their displeasure yet I have peace in the testimony of my Conscience that I did my best to have prevented our miseries while I had time 2. And I would give notice to the other party that whilst I pleaded for their liberty and against the Imposing of unnecessary things I took not all the things in question for unlawful to be done which I thought unlawful to be made necessary to our Communion or Ministration All knew that my judgement ever was for the lawfulness of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread Worship and the Bodily real presence And we all as is said thought a Liturgie lawful and when we wrote our Reply to the Answer of our Exceptions we said these words which may tell you whether I change my mind and what was then our common sense pag. 3. While we took it to be a defective disorderly and inconvenient Mode of Worship it would be our sin to use it of choice while we may prefer a more convenient way whatever we ought to do in case of necessity when we must worship God inconveniently or not at all And pag. 12 13. What if it be only proved unlawful for you to impose it though not for others to joyn with you when you do impose it Is this no reason 〈◊〉 alter it Should you not have some care to avoid sin your selves as well as to preserve others from it An inconvenient Mode of Worship is a sin in the Impâ—ser and in the Chooser and Voluntary user that may offer God better and will not And yet it may not be only lawful but a duty to him that by violence is necessitated to offer up that or none By this you may see what we all thought then of not only hearing but reading a defective Liturgie in such a case If you say that this was but my own Opinion I answer Though as they wrote the particular Exceptions without me so I wrote this Defence of them by their appointment yet it was examined and consented to by the rest who were not men apt to take things on trust nor to be impâ—sed on by such a one as me When this Treaty was frustrate and the torrent of displeasure came upon us which reached me with the first I saw also that the storm of mens passions and discontents would quickly follow And therefore according to my own judgement and advice to others I endeavoured to practise my self that is neither to forsake my Calling or omit any service I could do for the Church nor yet to do it in a turbulent and unpeaceable or dividing way For the first I thought writing was my greatest work which made me not travail abroad to Preach which also weakness disabled me from doing But yet I never to my remembrance either forbad any from coming to my house nor ever invited any to hear me I had no Pastoral Charge in London nor could I live there with my health My judgement was that though so many hundred Ministers were silenced and too many Congregations had such as were to us matter of grief yet the Interest of the Christian Protestant Religion in England must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as was possible in the Parish Churches Therefore I never laboured or disputed to make any Minister a Non-conformist unless he came to me and by desiring my judgement made it my duty Though I oft openly professed that if I conformed my self to what is required of a Minister I should take it to be no little or single sin I remembred the saying of Mr. Dod who thanked God for the Churches sake that some conformed and for the Truths sake that some conformed not I resolved that if I lived where was an intolerable Minister I would not hear him nor come near him so as to encourage him in his sinful undertaking of that Sacred Office But if I lived under an able worthy or tolerable man I would joyn with him in publick constantly if I had not caeteris paribus the liberty of better and sometimes if I had And I would help him by my private labours as well as I could and live with him in Unity and Peace Accordingly I constantly joyned in the publick Prayers and hearing at the Parish Church where I lived having no better that I could go to and never Preached to my family but between the times of publick Worship and the people that came in to me wenâ— with me to the publick Worship In all this time many persons importuned me to indeavour that all Non-conformists might agree in one by what measures to walk as to their Communion with the Parish Churches and such other things for many reasons And I ever shanned all such attempts 1. Because it is the way that we have blamed so much in others to make narrow measures for other mens practices and unnecessary terms of Brotherly Concord We must unite as Christians in necessary things and if one man can e. g. kneel at the Sacrament and another cannot if one can joyn in Common-prayer and another cannot yea if one can Conform to the Liturgie and Ceremonies and another cannot it must not break our unity or peace 2. Because that Non-conformists are not all of the same judgement in every particular among themselves And how can they then agree upon the same practice in every point If they should either the most scrupulous must come up to them that think that lawful which they scruple or else the later must come to the former If they yield that think the things unlawful and do as the others do they shall sin And then they might as well Conform And
God hateth every sin in every prayer but he hateth the avoiding of prayer and of due communion much more He hateth every disorder in extemporate prayer And yet he more hateth that Censoriousness and Curiosity which would draw men to forsake the substantials of Worship or Christian Love and Communion on that pretence Gods Jealousie in his Worship is most about the heart and next about the substantials of his own institutions and of Natural Worship and least about the phrase of Speech and order while it is not such as is grosly dishonourable to the Nature of God and to the greater things And though God under the Law expressed his jealousie much about Ceremonies yet that was not for the Ceremonies sake but to controll gross irreverence and contempt of holy things as in the Case of Uzzah the Bethshemites Uzziah Aarons Sons and to keep up an esteem of the Holiness of God and to restrain sacrilegious presumption And under the Gospel it is neither this place of Worship nor that neither this Mountain nor Ierusalem but Spirit and Truth that God most looks at It is not whether you pray by a Book or without by words fore-studied or not by words of your own contriving or of anothers that God is now jealous of For even when you want words he accepteth the groans excited by his Spirit Rom. 8. 26 27. If Christians should plead Gods jealousie about his Worship as Censoriously against thelr own prayers as they do against other 〈◊〉 and Churches in this case they would turn prayer into the fuel of despair and torment For God is so jealous of his Worship that he hateth all the sinful dulness emptiness wandrings vain repetitions confusions unseemly expressions of all your secret prayers and all your family prayers And yet I would advise you neither to think that God therefore hateth you or the prayer it self nor yet to fly from God and prayer nor family Worship where it is no better done Gods jealousie especially under the Gospel is to be minded for to drive us from our sloth and carelesness to do the best we can but not to drive us from him or from prayer or from one another These are Satans ends of minding men of Gods jealousie as he doth troubled souls to drive them to despair And others may scruple joining with your weaknesses and faults in Worship on pretence of Gods jealousie as well as you with theirs What if twenty Ministers be one abler than another in their several degrees and the lowest of them doth weaklier than the Liturgick forms Doth it follow that only the ablest of all these may be joyned with because that all the rest do worse It is granted that we must offer God the best that we have or can do But not the best which we cannot do And many things must concurr and especially a respect to the publick good to know which is the best QUEST II. Quest. 2. DOth not the Covenant make it now unlawful to hold Communion in the use of the Liturgie Answ. To hold Communion in the Liturgie Ordinarily where we cannot lawfully have better and extraordinarily where we can have better is a thing that we are bound to by the Covenant and not at all bound against For those of the Independent way who think as Mr. Eaton writeth that the Covenant bindeth not I need not here say any thing as to their satisfaction For others I say 1. There is no word in all the Covenant expresly against the Liturgie 2. If there had been any word in it against Communion with the Churches that use the Liturgie it had been sin and against our duty and therefore could not bind 3. The judgement of Protestants is that Vowes must not make us new duties of Religion but bind us faster by a self obligation to that which God binds us to without them Therefore though if we should Vow an indifferent thing it would bind yet this could not be taken for the Covenanters intention 4. And it is commonly agreed that if we Vow a thing indifferent it bindeth us not when the indifferency ceaseth which may be by the Magistrateâ— command or by another mans necessity or change of Cases Else a man might before hand prevâ—â—t most of the Magistrates obligations and his Pâ—reâ—ts and Masters too and escape obedience and might say with the Pharisees it is Corban or a devoted thing 5. It remâ—â—neth therefore that no man of us all hath need to go or ought to go to the Covenant to know what is his duty in the worship of God but only to the Scripture seeing if Scripture make it noâ— a duty the Magistrates Law will make the doing of it a sin And if Scripture make it not a sin the Magistrates command will make it a duty But when we know what is duty or sin in our case we may go to our Vows next to prove that it is a double duty or a double or aggravated sin but no otherwise Therefore let the Scripture only decide the first case whether it be lawful or not 6. The Covenant or Vow expresly bindeth us against schisme But the renunciation of Communion which I now dispute against is plaine schisme Therefore we are bound against it by that Vow 7. The Covenant bindeth us against all that is contrary to the power of Godliness and found doctrine But the separating which I plead against is certainly such 8. The Covenant bindeth us to Unity and the nearest Uniformity we can attain But as the world goeth now this Communion is the nearest and needful to express our Unity 9. The Covenant bindeth us to Reformation according to Gods word and the example of the best reformed Churches But to prefer no publick worship or a worse before the Liturgie is deformation and prophaneness And it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgie before none than to prefer extemporate publick worship before the Liturgie And all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgie if they come among us where it is used Therefore it seemeth to me to be perjury and Covenant-breaking either to prefer no publick worship before the Liturgie or to refuse occasional Communion with the Churches that use the Liturgie as a thing meerly on that account unlawful QUEST III. Quest. 3. WHether the Case be not much altered since the old Non-conformists wrote against separation then called Brownisme And whether we have not greater Light into these Controversies than they Answ. 1. The Case of Ministers Conformity is much altered by a new Act which requireth subscribing new things Declaring Assent and Consent to all things prescribed and conteined in and by three books and by some other things But that part of the Liturgie which the people are to joyn in is made better as is shewed before And if we are returned to the same state that they were then in we are under the same duties that they were under And let
with scorn Are not we Commanded not to reveal the secret of another which pious and prudent Mr. Baxter hath not scrupled to sin against c. Prov. 25. 9. As you abuse the text which speaketh of an individual person who is supposed to be hereby injured because known so you speak untruly in saying I revealed anothers secrets For to pass by that I reveal not the persons who are still unknown it is not true that they were secrets When I disputed almost all day with such both Souldiers and others in the publick Church at Amersham above 20 years ago was that a secret which they so fiercely proclaimed When I disputed daily almost with such in Cromwell's Army was that a secret When I disputed with Mr. Brown an Army Chaplain and his adherents for the Godhead of Christ in a publick Church at Worcester was that a secret When I disputed in the publick Church at Kiderminster with the Quakers was that a secret When the said Quakers and many other Sects have come to my house and have oft assaulted me in many other places openly and vented their ignorance with fierce revilings and raging confidence was that a secret When I have openly Catechized men was that a secret Do not all sound Protestants believe that they are fundamentals which our Quakers commonly contradict and are ignorant of especially Foxes party whom Smith and Major Cobbet accuse to deny Christ and the Resurrection c. And are there not Assemblies of such in London And do not many turn to them of late And is that a secret which their books and their assemblies tell the World Who is it now that is put to shame EXCEPT IX Answered I must now answer for what I say against the Papists too I Confess they are separatists or recusants too But le ts hear the Charge You say They are very unweighed and rash words when he saies Shew me in Scripture or in Church history that either there ever was de facto or ought to be de jure such a thing in the World as the Papists call the Church and I profess I will immediately turn Papist We think none can write thus but declares a great unsteadiness in his Religion for none that knoweth Church history but can prove that such a Church as the Romane hath been neer 1300 years actually in being Answ. 1. My foregoing words are these The Pope hath feigned another thing and called it the Church that is The Universality of Christians headed by himself Whereas 1. God never instituted or allowed such a Church 2. Nor did ever the Universality of Christians acknowledge this usurping head Now when you say there hath been such a Church as the Romane either you mean what I denied such a Church as they claim and feign and I described Or only such a Church as they are which is another thing If the later why will you grosly abuse your Reader by such a deceit which tendeth to tempt him unto Poperie What 's that to my words which you seem to contradict But if you mean the former and indeed contradict me then 1. You prevaricate in befriending Popery 2. You here set down three more Untruths in matter of fact 1 That there hath been neer 1300 years or ever was such a Church that is that the Universality of Christians did acknowledge the Pope for the Universal Constitutive and Governing Head 2. That there is none that knoweth Church history but can prove this 3. That they are very unweighed words in which I assert what I did And all this I have given the World full proof of in my Dispute against Mr. Iohnson the Papist of the Visibility of the Church Had I not weighed the words I had not so many years ago so largely proved and maintained them And I have there fully proved that the Romane Church was only Imperial or of the Empire and the Countreys that after fell from the Empire such as we call national because under one Prince That de facto the Persians the Abassines Indians part of Armenia and many other Churches or Christians never acknowledged him their Constitutive or Governing Head that the Emperors who called the General Councils had nothing to do with the subjects of other Princes nor used to call them That the General Councils consisted only of the subjects of the Empire and those that had been of the Empire except one Iohannes Persidis and one or two more inconsiderable persons that no account can be given of who they were or how they came thither Godignus himself will tell you enough of the Abissines All the Papists in the World are never able to answer this publick Evidence of fact with any sense Mr. Iohnson's Reply I take not to be worthy of an Answer with any man that can make use of an answer when his shift is so gross as to instance in the Bishops of Thracia as out of the Empire and such as they which every novice in history and Geographie can Confute Unless I was Confuted in London at a publick Play where that you may see who influenceth them a Tutor in Geographie was as I am credibly informed brought in telling his Pupill that Prester Iohn's Countrey of Abassia was of the same Latitude with a place in Worcester-shire called Kederminster Now seeing reason forbiddeth me to interpret you as speaking of the Church of Rome as a Sect or Party when I spake of it as the Universality of Christians headed by the Pope your Context shewing that it is my words that you gainsay therefore I must number these three also with the rest of your untruths You adde We wonder that any Protestant should be found though but by the equalling of Church history to Scripture as if the uncertain tradition of the one were to be as much accounted of and followed as the Divine and infallible Revelation of the other Answ. 1. Because this wonder plainly containeth an affirmation that I do so I must say that it is your tenth untruth Prove such a word if you are able 2. It is not true that this Historie is uncertain though not to be equalled with Scripture Is the Case of a vast Empire of Aethiopia as big yet after the decay saith Brierwood as Germany Italy France and Spain uncertain when the World knoweth that they have not had so much as Converse with the Pope and at Oviedos attempt did not know who he was And so of Persia India c. If you will needs be so much wiser than your neighbours as to prove all historie uncertain even that there was a Caesar or a William the Conqueror 1. While you befriend the Papists in this one point you will incommodate them in others 2. And you will promote Infidelitie by making that historie uncertain by which we know the Canonical books of Scripture and that they are delivered down to us the same and uncorrupt When I had given in few words a full
confess to you brother that though I once hoped that we should have been great gainers by our sufferings the fruit of them now appeareth to me to be such in many as maketh me more afraid of imprisonment for the sake of my soul than of my body lest it should stir up that passion which should bear down my judgement into some errors and extreams and corrupt and destroy my Love to them by whom I suffer And truly Brother I am fully convinced that many that think their sufferings are their glory and prove them better men than others are lamentably lost and overcome by their sufferings I think your companion and you are no gainers by it who presently by preaching and writing thus bring water to the extinguishing of Christian Love I think those two Gentlemen before mentioned that turned Quakers in prison and left their Religion as many more have done were losers by it And I think many thousands in these times that are driven into various errors and extreams and have lost their charity to adversaries and dissenters have lost a thousand times more than their liberties and money comes to Woe be to the World because of offences And woe be to them by whom offence cometh Experience of too many maketh me less in love with sufferings than I have been And to think that the quiet and peaceable preaching of the Gospel though under many other disadvantages if God would grant it us would be better for our own souls EXCEPT XIX Answered You proceed But Mr. B. being once got into the chair of the scornful will not easily out and therefore goes on It is an odious sound to hear an ignorant rash self-conceited person especially a Preacher to cry out Idolatry Idolatry against his brethrens prayers to God because they have something in them to be amended Whereas we do not therefore think any thing to be guilty of Idolatry because it hath something in it to be amended but because it is used in the worship of God without any command of God to make it lawful And this we must tell our Dictator is a species of Idolatry and forbid in the second Commandement And if he will not receive it so it is to use his own arrogant and imperious words because he understands not Christian sense and reason Answ. 1. The charge of Idolatry against the Liturgie and Conformable Ministers I found in Iohn Goodwins book and Mr. Brownes and others But this Brother carrieth it much further 2. He contradicteth himself in his Negation and Affirmation For whatsoever is to be amended which is used in Gods worship hath no command of God to make it lawful For it is sin But whatsoever is used in Gods worship without any command of God to make it lawful he affirmeth to be Idolatry Ergo whatsoever is used in Gods worship which is to be amended he maketh to be Idolatry 3. Reader if this one Section do not make thy heart grieve for the sake of the Church of Christ that our poor people should be thus taught and our Congregations thus distracted and unholyness that is uncharitableness fathered upon the God of Love and our sufferings and non-conformity thus turned to our reproach and wrath and reviling pretended to be Religion thou hast not a true sense of the concernments of Christianity and the souls of men I shall propose here these few things to thy consideration Quest. 1. Whether an Idolater be not an odious person and unfit for Christian Communion That these men think so their practise sheweth Q. 2. Whether he that writeth and preacheth to prove others Idolaters do not write and preach to make them so far seem odious and to perswade men from loving them and having communion with them as Christians Q. 3. Whether he that preacheth up hatred causelesly and preacheth down Christian love do not preach down the sum of true Religion and preach against God who is Love Q. 4. Whether preaching against God and Religion be not worse than talking against it in an Ale-house or in prophane discourse And fathering all this on God and Religion be not a sad aggravation of it Q. 5. Whether this brother that affirmeth this to be Idolatry that he speaketh against should not have given us some word of proof especially where he calleth me that deny it a Dictator And whether both as Affirmer among Logicians and as Accuser among men of justice the proof be not incumbent on him Q. 6. Whether here be a syllable of proof but his angry affirmation Q. 7. Whether thou canst receive this saying of his if thou have Christian sense and reason so far as to believe that all the Churches of Christ fore-named the Greek the Abissine the Armenian the Coptics the Lutherans and all the Reformed Churches that fall under his Charge are Idolaters And couldst bring thy heart accordingly to condemn them and separate from them And whether thou canst take all the holy Conformists of England such as Bolton Preston Sibbes Stocke Dike Elton Crooke Whateley Fenner c. for Idolaters yea and all the non-Conformists that used and joyned in the Liturgie Q. 8. Whether thou canst believe that this same brother himself that writeth at this rate do use nothing in Gods worship which hath no command of God to make it lawful Is all this reviling all this false doctrine all his untruths commanded of God Or doth he not make himself an Idolater Q. 9. Whether if he teach true doctrine there by any Church or person in the World that worshippeth not God with Idolatry I give my reasons 1. There is no one but sinneth or useth sin in the worship of God But no sin is commanded or lawful Ergo there is no one according to his doctrine but useth Idolatry in the worship of God 2. There is no one that useth not some things not commanded to make them lawful in the worship of God Therefore if he teach true doctrine there is no one but useth Idolatry The antecedent I have oft proved by many instances The method of every Sermon and Prayer the words the time and length the translation of the Scripture whether it shall be this or that the dividing of the Scripture into Chapters and Verses the Meeter of Psalms the Tunes Church utensils Sermon notes which some use Catechisms in forms c. the Printing of the Bible or any other books c. none of these are commanded And all these are used in the worship of God And must all Christians in the World be taught to fly from one another as Idolaters Is this the way of Love and Unity Q. 10. Why should this brother be so extream impatient with me for calling Dividers weak and pievish and censorious Christians If in his own judgement all men be Idolaters that use any thing in Gods worship not commanded Is not this to censure all men as Idolaters And yet is a censure of previshness on these Censurers a justifying of persecution Q.
being fit for the sacrament c. to be admitted and go in the Congregational way pag. 42. they cite Cotton Holin of Chur. Mem. p. 92. saying Neither among us doth irregeneration alone keep any from Church-fellowship with us unless it be accompanied with such fruits as are openly scandalous and de convincingly manifest irregeneration They prudently tell us p. 45. that The Lord hath not set up Churches only that a few old Christians may keep one another warm while they live and then carry away the Church into the cold Grave with them when they die but that they might with all care and advantages nurse up still successively another generation of subjects to Christ c. And that We may be very injurious to Christ as well as to the souls of men by too much straitening and narrowing the bounds of his Kingdom or visible Church on earth Citing Paraeus in Mat. 13. saying In Church-Reformation it is an observable truth that those that are for too much strictness do more hurt than profit the Church Abundance more to the same purpose I might collect And seeing they take children growing up to be members under Church-discipline according to their Capacities Let it be considered soberly whether this doth not intimate to us that Discipline it self must not be exercised with the hurtful rigor that some expect For I would intreat the ridgeder sort if they are Parents but to tell me at what age and for what faults and for want of Grace they would have their own children excommunicated And when they have done whether they will also proceed to a Family Excommunication of them for the same causes They adde a sixth Prop. for the Baptizing of the Children of those that by death or extraordinary providence have been inevitably hindered from publickly acting as aforesaid and yet have given the Church cause in judgement of Charity to look at them as so qualified and such as had they been called thereto would have so acted And they adde a seventh Propos. that The Members of Orthodox Churches being sound in the faith and not scandalous in life and presenting due testimony thereof these occasionally coming from one Church to another may have their children baptized in the Church whither they come by virtue of Communion of Churches But if they remove their habitation they ought orderly to covenant and subject themselves to the Government of Christ in his Church where they settle their abode and so their children to be baptized It being the Churches duty to receive such to Communion so far as they are regularly capable of the same So that they provide for the reception of all meet persons But the chief thing observable is that in Propos. 5. Where the Qualifications or Description of a just entitleing Profession is laid down as consisting in no more than these four things 1. Understanding the doctrine of Faith 2. The publick Profession of Assent thereto 3. Not to be scandalous in life 4. And solemnly owning the Covenant before the Church wherein they give up themselves and their children before the Lord. They require no other proofs of Regeneration noâ— any particular account how they were converted nor what further signs of it they can shew And for my own part I never dissented from those called Congregational in England in the two great points from which their Churches are denominated viz. 1. That regularly they should consist but of so many as are capable of Personal Communion which they call a Congregation 2. And that this Congregation is not jure Divino under the spiritual Government of any superior Church as Metropolitane Patriarchal c. But my chief dissent from them hath been in their going beyond Independency and too many of them coming too neer to Separation 1. By making other tearms of mens title to Church-member-ship than these here recited by the New-England Synod and then the understanding sober profession of Assent and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant is 2. And for their gathering new Churches in the several Parishes as if there had been no Churches there before and the members not gathered by them were not the subjects of any Church-Discipline neither the Children nor Adult And the reasons why I have ever dissented from them in these points have been these 1. Because I find that the contrary was the way of Scripture-times and all antiquity And that the Apostles still received members upon a sudden and bare profession of belief and consent to the Baptismal Covenant with the penitent renunciation of the Flesh the World and the Devil And all Ages since have held this course and made Baptisme the Church-door But I shall heartily joyn with any Brethren that will endeavour herein to save the Church from that state of Imagery and dead Formality which Papists and all Carnal Hypocrites have mortified Gods ordinances and unspeakably injured the Churches by and are still working every ordinance of God that way All good men should labour to recover Religion and Christian profession to an understanding seriousness I will here insert the words of a most Learned and High Prelatist to shew you that whoever is against this Course in Practice no sober men can deny it in principles Eldersfield of Bapt. pag. 48. marg Upon score of like reason whereto and for such after-tryal may have been taken up in the Christian Church that examination which did sift the Constancy or rather Consistency of those that had been taken in young to their presumed grounds that if they wavered they might be known and discharged Or if they remained constant they might by Imposition of hands receive what the common name of that Ceremony did import of their Faith at least a sign of Confirmation Vasques hath from Erasmus in the Preface to his Paraphrase on the Gospels a word of most wholsome grave and prudent advice that those who were baptized young when they begin to write Man should be examined An ratum habeant id quod in Catechismo ipsorum nomine promissum fuit Quod si ratum non habeant ab Ecclesiae jurisdictione liberos manere in 3 part Thom. Disp. 154. To. 2. C. 1. 2. If they did then stand to what their Sureties had presumed for them If not they should be discarded Most necessary and of unimaginable benefit But not if it be turned into cursory Imagery Such a scrutiny would shake off thousands of rotten hypocrites and purge the Church of many such Infidel-believers or professors upon whose dirty faces a little holy water was sprinkled when they knew not what it was but they no more mind the true Sanctification appertaining than Turks or Saracens who shall rise up in judgement against their washed filthyness Or than those of whom St. Peter It is happened unto them according to the true Proverb The dog to his vomit and the washed swine to wallow in the mire Such Discipline of awakened Reason is that which the World groans for And groan it may for any