to command your belief yet I hope you will admit them as grounds of credibility to facilitate your assent being handed to us by those that cannot be imagined not to know being so near nor be suspected to combine flalsly to impose on us being so pious And if you want an Example take it from the Disciples who out of a sense of their own wants bespake their Master thus Teach us to pray as John taught his Disciples I beseech you therefore consider in time what you are doing for if Mr. Baxter prophecies right he tells you That Separating will at last ruine the separate Churches themselves for no instance can be given saith he of a separate Church of a hundred years standing To conclude the same Author saith The Protestant Religion must be kept up by the means of the Parish-Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship then performed and they that think and endeavour that which is contrary to this of what side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists O that now my dissenting Brethren you would be perswaded to lay aside all prejudice and partiality self-ends and interests and follow the things that make for peace Suffer your Reasons to awake put on Modesty be clothed with Humility and call no men or decent Custom Popish or Antichristian till you are assured by an infallible signe it is so lest you be found fighters against God and slanderers of your Brethren Be not rash censurers but judge righteous judgment lest you abuse the truth it self and call the Spouse of Christ an Harlot The Church of England is bare-fac'd hath no Idols to obscure no spiritual Cheat with which to delude you for the representing of which we should stand either in need of darkness or a false light we have nothing in our publick profession which the wisest men the most pious Christians may not practice nothing in our Faith which they ought not stedfastly to believe It is onely want of Enquiry and a sober Examination that the purity of our Churches Doctrine is not more generally embraced 't is because the calmness and sobriety of its Devotion the moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not more impartially enquired into that men mistake us divide from our Communion trouble the world with their impertinent noise and clamour and administer matter of offence to many thousands in England who are hardened into an utter neglect of Godliness by the unwarrantable Singularities and the scandalous sins especially of those Professors that have been most addicted to sinful Separations without receiving occasion or giving a reason for it And to conclude I am afraid that all those Scruples that have been urged to vindicate a Separation from our Communion will be found too light at the day of the Lord to counterpoise the vast guilt of Schism and Disobedience Could you make it appear that your Salvation was in the least hazarded by Communion with us if you could not have Peace but upon those ill terms of parting with Truth and Holiness could you demonstrate that in any thing we are departed from the true Church your Separation was warrantable but since 't is evident our Church hath preserved intire that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints without any loss or innovation since all the Laws and Rules of holy and Christian life are by our Church taught since men may conform to all the Constitutions of our Church and yet be as holy as the best of Saints in any Age of the world since there is nothing herein commanded that ever God did forbid and since all this we are able to prove by the clearest Demonstrations it must necessarily follow they incur a Wo that call good evil and light darkness 4. 'T is no less a hainous offence also to separate from a true Church under a pretence that notoriously sinful Members are received into Communion with it This is to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Spider and to prevent an imaginary guilt of Pollution by others incur a real guilt of Schism in themselves And though by dispencing with Humility and Charity they magnifie themselves and brand those they separate from with the disgraceful Epithets of ungodly and profane and with the Whore in the Proverbs wipe their mouths and say they have done no harm yet in the judgment of St. Paul the sin of Separation is so dangerously infectious that the persons guilty of it are to be set in the first rate of Offenders and to be shunned as soon as descried Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est attentè diligenter quasi hostes è spicula observetis Biza in loc Divisions are the Intelligences that put the Orbs of Offences into motion and are the prime subversion of the Church which otherwise is rarely endamaged for whilst it is united Satan is not admitted nor Scandals started which makes the Apostle in another place so passionately resent the injury offered to the Church by Divisions that he wishes they were cut off that trouble it by unsetling and removing its Votaries from their first Station 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And you will have no cause to think this a severe process since there is more mischief threatned to the Church of God and less hopes of recovery in a Separatist than a more notified Malefactor A debauch'd man if discreetly reprehended will blush and tremble at his Miscarriage but an Ableptick Schism-Master will disdain insult and spurn at him that by a modest Reproof would turn him from the errour of his way besides a Sect-maker disturbs the peace of the Church tears its Vnity and paves a Causey to destruction whilst the other onely perverts himself and disquiets but his own Conscience But admit some of the Members of our Church were as bad as they would render them it makes no Pallizado for their Conventicle for as long as the Church sojourneth on Earth bad men will be mixed with the good and they deserve a sharp reprehension in the opinion of Mr. Calvin Calvin in Mat. 13.36 that tumultuously depart from the Church or by unseasonable rigidness endeavour to overthrow it And Christ Jesus in propounding this Parable saith the same Author would bridle and moderate their Zeal who think it unlawful to have Communion with none but pure Angels and they that preposterously make haste to root out all that displeaseth them do as much as in them is prevent Christs Judgment and usurp the Angels Office Mr. Perkins tells us Expos on St. Jude v. 9. Amplified on Gal. 1.2 that faults in the manners of Professors is no warrant for our Separation for tho vices saith he appear in the lives of Ministers and People so long as true Religion is taught and the Sacraments duely administred it is a Church and we may not depart from it Mr. Hildersham makes it
than weakness in you since there is nothing in our worship of God committed that is unlawful or omitted that is necessary You that are Dissenters contend for trifles we for order and obedience as for example in our English Church many people stumble at our publick Rites decent Gestures and Vestments and challenge us fiercely of these as offences But give me leave to tell you that these ungrounded notions how plausible soever are but the dreams of some misty sleepy brains for the Devil that he may keep the world under these delusions 't is his usual knack to burthen the forms of Gods Worship with clamour and vulgar prejudice lest the union of Christians should destroy his Kingdom or lessen his Subjects I appeal to any indifferent man whether it be not more injurious to Christian liberty to follow the humorous dislikes of private and petulant spirits which require the omission or to yield obedience to lawful Authority which by mature advice commands the use of such things as are otherwise and in themselves equally indifferent for use or forbearance The respect of private scandal ceaseth when just authority determines our liberty and that restraint which proceeds from special duty is of superiour reason to that which is deriv'd from common charity We ought to bear a greater regard to our publick Governours than to our private brethren and be more careful to obey them than satisfie these 'T is true we are commanded be not conformed unto this world Rom. 12.2 but the main import of the words and design of the Apostle is in what follows But be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind Newness of mind is that Substantial duty of Christianity which makes all other things lawful unto us To the indifferent things of the world we may conform for quietness sake to the things of decency and order we should conform for conscience sake onely to the wickedness of it we should not fashion our selves But since I know that our adversaries out of interest cannot be quiet but will notwithstanding all that can be said to the contrary load innocent Ceremonies with scandalous Epithets for by this craft they get their livings let me demand of them How came you so weak that are so pure How long hath the lawfulness of these things been cleer'd among you what pains hath been taken by our reverend Prelates What evincing arguments have fallen from the Lips and Pens 〈◊〉 our reverend Divines what stone 〈◊〉 offence have we not removed to make your way cleer And now let thâ— world judge if our holy Mother thâ— Church who but maintains her juâ—… Right and Liberty be to be taxed for giving offence or not rather her weaâ— Sons which shut their eyes against thâ— light to be sharply reproved for theâ—… wilful disobedience Yet am I noâ—… so uncharitable to think that every one which dissents from the doctrinâ— of this or that Church must be stigmatized for a Schismatick No if a dissenter be meek and modest humble and holy and makes no breach in the Church's Vnity such a one hath the temper of a sober Christian and will do no mischief to Religion but when dissenting about indifferent things is managed with Pride and Passion Rage and Malice tending to the subversion of Government and good Order Then 't is manifest there is something more in the case than Conscience and the man is become Factious When a weak scruple against the Sign of the Cross shall make men Rebels against the Crown when a superstitious abhorrence of a white Vesture shall make us dye our garments in blood and a furious zeal against an Organ shall make men call for the confused noise of Drums and Trumpets 't is manifest they have lost the temper of sober Christians and deserve the hateful name of Rebels as well as Schismaticks 'T is a strange delusion that hath seized some which scruple at an innocent Ceremony who against all convictions and armies of reason will be troubled and will not understand this is very bad but 't is worse that he should think himself to be the more godly man for being thus troubled and diseas'd and that upon this account he shall fall out with his lawful Soveraign calumniate his Actions reproach his Counsellors abuse his subjects and quarrel with his Government and despise it this man nurses his scruple and instead of curing a Boyl dies of a Cancer or is like a man that hath strained his foot and keeps his 〈◊〉 for â—ase but by lying long there falls into a Lipâ—thymie and that bears him to his grave Thus calling themselves to doubtful disputations instead of practising known duties they go on deceiving and being deceived to their own discomfort here and misery hereafter But I gladly shift the Scene intreating my dissenting and scrupulous brethren to remember it is all our duties to obey and do what is commanded not judging our Judges but quietly submitting to their Injunctions who watch for our souls and must give an account to God But if so many mischiefs and offences proceed from indifferent things what shall we think of gross and infectious evils the misleading acts of the vitious or indulgent Ruler the Riots and Rapines of the rich the leud examples of Church-men Parents and Masters domestick fails the foul slips of the Religious the mutual seducements of men and women by scandalous habits Cum multis aliis c. The Ruler is first As Jacobs Sheep brought forth Lambs agreeing in colour with the pill'd rods they cast their eyes on so many people either out of a greedy hope to thrive by a servile imitation or out of a vain ambition to follow their betters take courses of the same tincture with the Scepters of Authority When the Clock strikes not in due season we blame not the weights or movement but the Clock-keeper and whom are the fails of the Vulgar ascribed to but their eminent Guides Let Baltazar carouze in the hallowed boles of the Temple and all the Court will pledge him let Queen Vasti controul her husband and all the scattered Dames in the Country-provinces will take the Reins into their own hands Why did the Heathens so furiously rage who did the people imagine a vain thing The Psalmographer resolves us The Rulers of the earth took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Who could imagine a people so laden with the favours of a gracious Messiah that saw their sick restored their blind inlightened their lame walking and their dumb speaking yea their dead bodies brought to â—ife Who would imagine after these beneficial works they should put him to so base and bitter a death Had not Herod and Pilat had not Annas and Caiaphas had not the Chief Priests and the Ruling Elders took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Therefore as if the guilt of all this had stuck on the Princes and Rulers the holy Psalmist directs his advice to them onely Be wise
the Opinion of one man only but that some of all Orders in that Church have bin guilty of it and tho Charity may encline me to believe that many Loyal persons of the Romish perswasion do abhor those Jesuitical principles and practices yet the Pope nay the whole Church cannot be acquitted till they have punished those Church-men of his who have publickly abetted such treasonable Conspiracies censured Mariana's and such other Books as have commended Regicides to the great scandal of Religion and by his Pontifical decree provided better for the safety of Kings than his Colledge of Jesuits have for till this be done and they have given us as many years experience of their Loyalty as they have of their Treachery 't will be of dangerous consequence to believe them innocent For what faith or trust can be reposed in those men whose Church perswades them to be wicked and covers all their hell-bred Contrivances under the umbrello of Religion which does nothing else but give scandal to it and bring upon themselves an endless Woe Now having done with these killing Nurses I could gladly break off this unsavoury Theme but that there is another Sect amongst us whose Poysonous Doctrines are as baneful if we take not heed 'T is one of the present Troubles we groan under a proud company of male-contented Bablers who are Priests of their own making and the sictitious Idols of abused Phancies having imbibed Seditious principles from them unwary Zealots have suck't not the Sincere milk of the Word I will be bold to say but a poysoned dose of Schism and Prejudice Thus the Stars fall from Heaven the waters below are turn'd into wormwood and the drinkers dye What mischievous offences have overspread the bosom of great Britain What splenative rage and opprobrious words are cast on the face of Authority What stumbling-blocks are daily thrown out to check harmonious Peace and united Devotion since troublesome rebellious and testy Spirits were both indulged and applauded 'T is now grown a necessary point of Purity to muzzle Assemblies into Schism and Faction to snivel out a demure Lye instead of a holy Doctrine to vent a Libel instead of a Use to bring in suspition that Thames and Tyber have joyn'd Channels and that our Government Rites and Liturgy are wholly Romish or Antichristian With this soure milk the Babes of Christ are publickly fed and yet the Non-conforming Presbyters would be thought no Offenders The boysterous Thunders of Heaven strike not the top of Olympus but saucy Seducers are now found that fear not to blast the height of Majesty overthrow the Seats of Superiority and tear Allegeance out of the peoples hearts and instead of casting St. Peters Net into the wild lusts of Mars translate the blessed Gospel of Peace into the iron language of Blood and War Trouble and Discord Truly however such clamorous Zealots boast of the certainty of their Election Christ hath mark'd them with a woe of rejection Woe to those barbarous Pilats that mingle blood with their Sacrifices Woe to those furious Sampsons that must have multitudes to perish with them Woe to the Seducing Prophet by whom the offence comes But truth as well as errour may occasion an offence good Counsel like the Peach-tree may bring forth poysonous fruit in one place and wholsome in another The messages of Heaven are oft compared to showers of rain which falling in due season makes a plentiful year but scarcity follows unseasonable showers That which in one place avails in another annoys it inricheth our fields but dirtieth our streets Woe be to those Clouds saith Bernard that send such showers as make foul work among us but bring forth no Fruit. A word spoken in due season and sit place hath an excellent savour but when both these are wanting the audience goes away worse Among others there are three waies of giving offences even in the publication of Truth 1. Either by scrupulous Doctrine 2. By bitter Rebukes or 3. By personal Invectives First We have some that while they would be thought Solid do indeed prove but saucy Divines on all occasions they are rushing into the hidden Secrets of God and perplex their weak people with the thorny mysteries of Election and reprobation a doctrine which is fitly ranked among those things that profit being unknown Not that I deny but there may be excellent matter drawn from such high Points but the Brain must use her knowledge as she doth her spittle and vent no more of it than may stand with the bodies welfare The bright countenance of Moses was vayled when he was to deal with the people whose benefit he prefer'd before his own applause It were far better men obscured the light of their knowledge and learning than that they should display it to affright others or dote about questions that breed envy and evil surmises There are in our Religion several Mysteries and holy Scripture contains many things above the reach of our quickest Capacities and in nothing more men give offences than in going about to explain Mysteries and give an account of such things which themselves acknowledge to be incomprehensible And this is not my opinion only but what some men will think strange 't is Mr. Calvin's also for at the close of his Doctrine of decrees he advises Ministers to be very wary of proposing this Doctrine to the people for fear of giving them offence and disturbance For if a man saith he should come into a Congregation and thus bespeak them Friends and Christians I am here sent to you to preach the Gospel but I must acquaint you aforehand that there are but two or three among you those that are the Elect that are like to be ever the better for my Ministry and as to the rest of you there 's Horribile Decretum a dreadful Bar in your way that all the Preaching in the world can do you no good and the Ordinances of Christ apply to them as you will can never prove available to your Salvation His hearers would run out of the Church and cry the man were out of his Wits This just resentment was extorted from the Geneva-Oracle by an ingenious reflection on his own Scheme and the unhappy consequence he foresaw it would produce and I heartily wish his caveat might be observed by his followers For certainly it would conduce more to the Glory of God and the Interest of Christianity if men would let those things that are mysterious remain so and employ themselves in promoting Justice Honesty and serious Devotion and instead of reprobating one another into the Regions of darkness to do offices of love and friendship one towards another and adorn the Doctrine of our Saviour by our mutual good-will and serviceableness to our brethren Secondly Publick Rebukes unless like Jonathans Rod they be dipped in honey offend all The rough hands of Esau were unfit for Superiority Sinners like blind men must be led gently not haled by violence What gets the
one duty and paying him with another with-holding the greater and yet would seem conscientious in the less Whilst thus contemning the Precepts of Heaven and the Communion of Saints in doing their own Will they lose the benefit of both Who hath required these things at your hand Religion is not a thing left to the arbitrary fancies of men to cull out from that diversity with which the World abounds what best pleases themselves neither are the ways and mediums of the exercise of it put into their power but as God is the Object of Worship so the means and manner by which and how he is honoured and his Servants benefited must be circumstantiated by himself his Will and not ours must be the sole and adequate Rule All Ordinances do not work necessarily as the Sun enlightens the sable Skies nor physically as having an inherent power to produce their effects but they are operative by the sacredness of their Institution Be wise then O Christians in maintaining a venerable esteem of our Church devotions where God by solemn Prayer is invoked the Word preached and the Sacraments rightly and reverendly administred being as Babes for hunger and thirst after them though not for knowledge and understanding in them 'T is a no less common than dreadful observation that those that leave the Church-Assemblies do at last bid adieu to Religion also Which that we may prevent 't is expedient we forsake not the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but account it a special favour from God when we may congregate our selves freely to worship the God of our Fathers And that our obedience may keep pace with the mercy let us provoke one another to the discharge of this duty saying Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob to pray before the Lord and with praises make his Name glorious But alas we might rather expect the removal of this Blessing than the continuance thereof for our exceeding faultiness and negligence God hath given a long and happy rest to the Land of our Nativity with advantages of giving our attendance at the posts of the doors of the Lords house We are not driven like the Primitive Christians of whom the world was not worthy to assemble by stealth in Dens and Caves of the Earth being persecuted afflicted and tormented but the Gates of the Lords House have been open to us and we have or might have had free access to his Altars While other Nations have heard the terrible noise of Cannons and the dismal effects of War and Bloud-shed the shreeks of Widows and Orphans we have had the musick of Bells calling us to the House of God and there the melody of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs We read in Acts 9.31 that the Churches had rest through all Judea and what use did they make thereof Did they grow careless and wanton kick against the Breasts that gave them suck and spurn at those Knees whereon they were dandled Did they contemn Ordinances slight the Sacraments throw contempt upon Prayer and despise Prophecying Did they lose their first love and neglect the good opportunities which God gave them for their increase in Holiness No they were edified and walked in the fear of the Lord and were multiplied Oh let us follow these pious Examples in loving the place where Gods honour dwels and answering the end for which they were appointed He that frequents the place of Gods Worship hath an early Title to a Blessing for though many are found of God that sought him not yet few or none ever sought him but they shall find him though it be in the last Watch of the night Nay sometimes those who have had ill designes in going to Church yet God hath made it work for their good and of unwilling Auditors framed willing and real Converts St. Augustin in a proud humour of carping entred the Church of St. Ambrose but departed with a broken and bleeding heart And who can tell but God may work as great a change on you if you would not fly the means that God hath appointed and wilfully neglect so great Salvation Let us at last with the shrill Cock not onely awake others but clap our own sides A sinning Priest is the fall of many and the offence of all It was a lamentable sight in the Prophets eye that the very stones of the Sanctuary were stumbling-blocks in every street What doth embolden sin more what doth occasion more spiritual falls than the foul Example of a Church-man who is heavenly in his Pulpit onely but out of it given to all excess of riot Oh how barbarously and cruelly do they wound the Gospel of our Lord Jesus that preach it to the World yet live as if they intended to go to Heaven some other way than that which they teach their Auditors Nay how is it possible his discourses against sin and of Heaven and Hell should prevail to the amendment of others who hath no care of his own Soul for the love men have to their Vices with a little help from the Devil will easily perswade them the whole is fictitious or else that Heaven may be obtained and Hell escaped upon easier terms than the Priest tells them How odious is the name of some old Heretick that hath fill'd the Church with Garboils and Blasphemy yet a crafty Heretick in St. Bernard's account hurts less than a leud Minister for Hereticks poyson the Church but with Words with giddy Tenents and airy Speculations which vulgar heads are not capable of but each shallow Ideot will spy a disorder in our lives and sooner follow our Vices than maintain our Opinions Divines may not think to carry it as some more wittily than truly say Physitians do to have the Sun see their good deeds and the grave abscond their failures No my brethren in the very walls of your houses holes will be dig'd as in the Prophecy of Ezekiel to spy out your secret abominations we cannot erre but with the Snail we leave our slimy filth to publick view and what need we wonder that our Messages miscarry and that the following slock are tumbling down when their Shepherd is walking on the edge of Rocks The River Nilus as Aristotle tells us hath a marvellous Stone in it which if ground to powder and given to a dog in some proper Vehicle he will never be able to spend his mouth Beloved that harsh and austere life as it were the Stone of Nile if we soften it in liquor and voluptuous courses we quite lose the vigor of our rebuking voice the authority of our holy Embassie What do we sweating in Pulpits if we love and practise the Vices we declaim against Divinity is a strange kind of Physick that effects no Cure unless the Physician take it as well as the Patient Who pulls a drowning man out of a deep stream with a dry hand Joash his Arrow is then