changed our Religion nor our Church What if he read his prayers and I say mine without book or what if he pray in white and I in black or what if he kneel in receiving the Eucharist and I sit or stand or what if he use the Cross in baptisme and I baptize no better then the Apostles did without it do these or such like make us to be of two Religions Do I change my Religion if I read with a pair of spectacles or if I look towards the South or West rather then the East c. We see what these men would make the Christian Religion to be Were the Apostles no Christians because they had no kneeling at the Eucharist nor Cross in Baptism nor Surplice nor at least our Common Prayer-book c Dare you say they were no Christians or yet that Christian Religion was one thing then and another thing now And for our Churches we do not only meet in the same places but we have the same doctrine the same worship in every part though he talk of our no true worship as if Praying Praising God c. were no true worship the things changed were by the imposers and defenders see Dr. Burgess Rejoynder professed to be no parts at all of worship but meer accidents we have the same people save here and there a few that separate by yours and others seducement and some vile ones that we cast out we have abundance of the same Ministers that we had And yet must we have no worship Ministry Communion of Saints or Salvation because we have only a Parochial and not a Diocesan Episcopacy Forsooth we have lost our Religion and are all lost men because our Bishops have but single Parish-churches to oversee which they find a load as heavy as they can bear and we have not one Bishop to take the Government of an hundred or two hundred Churches At Rome he is a damned man that believeth not in the Pope and is out of the Catholike Church because he is out of the subjection of the Pope and with these men we are lost men if we never so much believe in Christ because we believe not in an Archbishop and are out of the Catholike Church and Communion of Saints because we will not be ruled by such Rulers as these And what 's all this to such Counties as this where I live and most else in England that I hear of that know of no Bishop they have and they rejected none nor doth any come and command them any Obedience Must we be unchristened unchurcht and damned for not obeying when we have none to obey or none that calls for our obedience But I shall let these men pass and leave them in their separation desiring that they had Catholike spirits and principles This much I have said to let men see that there is no possibility of our union with this sort that are resolved on a separation and that it is not these Novelists and Dividers but the antient Episcopal party of England that we can easily agree with § 7. The next that I shall instance in that was agreed with these Principles of ours is the late Reverend and Learned Bishâ—p Vsher of whose Concord with us I have two proofs The one was his own profession to my self The other is his own writings especially his Propositions given in to King Charls now printed called The Reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church which consisteth of four Propositions having first proved that all Presbyters have the power of Discipline and Church-government the first alloweth the single Rector of the Parish to take notice of the scandalous reprove admonish and debar them from the Lords Table The second is that in every Rurall Dâ—anry all the Pastors within the Precinct may by the Chorepiscopus or Suffragan be every month Assembled in a Synod and according to the Major part of their voices he conclude all matters that shall be brought into debate before them as Excommunication c. The third is for a Diocesan Synod once or Twice a year where by the consent of the Major part of the Rectors all things might be concluded by the Bishop or Superintendent call him whether you will or in his absence by one of the suffragans whom he deputes to be Moderator The fourth is for Provincial and National Synods in like sort § 8. And when I had perused these papers in M. S. I told him that yet one thing was left out that the Episcopal party would many of them stick at more then he and that is a Negative voice in Ordination in the President to which and the rest I proposed this for accommodation in brief 1. Let every particular or Parish Church have a Bishop and Presbyters to assist him where possibly they can be had 2. Let all these Associate and their several Associations have a stated President 3. Let all men be at liberty for the name whether they will call him a Bishop President Moderator Superintendent or the like 4. And for the Negative voice in Ordination let all Ministers of the Assâ—ciation agree that de facto they will not Ordain without him but in Cases of Necessity but let every man be left free to his own Principles on which he shall ground this practice and not be bound to consent that de jure a Negative vote is due to the President These terms did I propose to the Bishop for Accommodation and intreated him to tell me plainly his judgement whether they are satisfactory and sufficient for the Episcopal party to yield to for Peace and Communion and his answer was this They are sufficient and modâ—rate men will accept them but others will not as I have tryed for many of them are offended with me for propounding such terms And thus this Reverend Bishop and I were agreed for Peace in a quarter of an hour the truth of whâ—ch I solemnly profess and so would all the Ministers and Christians in England if they were not either wiser or foolisher honester or dishonester then he and I. And this I leave on Record to Posterity as a testimony against the dividers and contenders of this age That it was not long of men of the temper and principles of this Reverend Archbishop and my self that the Episcopal party and their dissenting Brethren in England were not speedily and heartily agreed for we actually did it To no honour of mine but to the honour of this peaceable man and the shame of the unpeaceable hinderers or refusers of our Reconciliation let this testimony live that Posterity may know whom to blame for our Calamities they all extoll Peace when they reject it and destroy it § 9 For a third witness of the Reconcileableness of the Moderate Episcopal party on these terms I may well produce Dr. Holdsworth who subscribed these same Propositions of Bishop Vsher to the King and therefore was a Consenter to the same way of
proceed to blood or banishment or you miss your ends and will but be opposed with greater animosity § 14. Reas. 12. And then this will raise an odium upon your Government and make men look upon you as tyrants For naturally men pitty the suffering party especially when it is for the cause of God or Profession of more then ordinary exactness in the obeying of Gods commands And then mens minds will by this be tempted to disloyal jealousies and censures if not to the opposition of the Rulers § 15. Reas. 13. And it were an evil which your Ceremonies will never countervail if it were but the uncharitableness that will certainly be raised by them When you will persecute men and force them against their Consciences in such indifferent things as you call them you will occasion them to judge you persecutors and cruel and then they will censure you as ungodly yea as enemies to the Church And then you will censure them for schismatical and self-conceited and refractory disobedient people And so Christian love and the offices of love will be extinguished and you will be mutually engaged in a daily course of hainous sin § 16. Reas. 14. And it will be the worse in that your persecution will oft fall on the most consciencious persons Hypocrites and temporizers dare do any thing and therefore will follow the stronger side and obey him for their worldly ends But the upright Christian dare not do that which is displeasing to God for a world He is the man that will be imprisoned or banished or rackt or slain rather then he will go against his Conscience And is it not a horrid thing to make such Laws that the most conscionable are likest to fall under and to perish by May it not make you tremble to read that God himself doth call such his Jewels Mal. 3.16 17. and saith he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye and that it were better for him be cast into the depth of the sea with a Mâ—lstone about his neck that offendeth one of these little ones Away with the Ceremonies that are unnecessary and yet have such effects and bring you into such danger § 17. Reas. 15. And then a more grievous evill wilâ—â—follow the Ceremony will devour the substance and shut out the preachers and consequently the word and worship of the Lord. For you will never give men Liberty to forbear them And when godly Ministers will not be conformable to your will you must silence them lest they draw the people from you And so the ignorant must be left in their ignorance and the prophane in their prophaness and the godly in their sorrows for want of their faithful Teachers and the ordinances of grace § 18. Reas. 16. And then it will follow that ignorant idle ungodly Ministers must be taken in to supply their rooms For if the best disobey you you will think your selves necessitated to take such as will obey you And so God shall be dishonoured his word and work abused his people grieved his enemies encouraged the wicked hardened and the unworthy Ministers themselves undone and destroyed and all for a few unnecessary ceremonies of your vain invention § 19. Reas. 17. And now it were more unexcusable then ever before to Impose such unnecessary burdens on the Churches when we have so lately seen and felt the sad and miserable effects of such impositions We are scarce out of the fire that this straw and rubbish kindled in this land We are the men that have seen the Churches divided by them and the preachers cast out for them and persecution occasioned by them and the Nation hereupon corrupted with uncharitableness the Bishops against the people and the people against the Bishops and war and misery hence arising And yeâ— shall we return to the occasion of our misery and that while we confess it to be a needless thing § 20. Reas. 18. Yea this course is like to kindle and maintain Divisions between the Churches of several Nations as well as among those that are under the same government For either you will have all the Christian world to join with you in your Mystical and unnecessary Ceremonies or not All cannot be expected to join with you For 1. The world will never agree in such humane unnecessary things 2. There is no universal governor to Impose one Law of Ceremonies on all the Churches Christ only is the universal King and Head and he hath done his part already If you will have more universal Laws you must first have another universal King or Head And there is none such Only the Pope and a General Council pretend to it and they are both deceived in this and would deceive us They are none of our Lords as I have elsewhere proved But if you expect not universal Concord in your Mystical signs and Ceremonies then 1. Why should you cast out your Preachers and brethren for those things which other Nations may be so well without and hold communion with forreigners that avoid them and deny Communion to neighbors as good that are of the same mind And 2. This will make forreign Churches and you to grudge at one another and the diversity will cause disaffection especially when you persecute your members for the cause that 's theirs We find now by experience that the Images Exorcism Crossing c. of the Lutherans doth exceedingly hinder their Peace with other Churches while others censure them as superstitious and they by custome are grown so highly to value their own Ceremonies as to censure and disdain those that are not of their mind § 21. Reas. 19. It easily breedeth and cherisheth ignorance and formality in the people You cannot keep them from placing their Religion in these Ceremonies and so from deceiving their souls by such a Pharisaical Religiousness in washings and observances And so in vain will they worship God while their worship is but a Conformity to the doctrines traditions and inventions of men Mat. 15. § 22. Reas. 20. To prevent these evils and yet in vain your Rites and Signs must bring New doctrines and new labours into the Church which will exceedingly hinder the doctrine and work of Christ. The Ministers must teach the people the meaning and use of all these Ceremonies or else they will be dumb signs contrary to your intent and the use of them will be vain And if we must spend our time in opening to our people the meaning of every ceremony that you will impose 1. It will be but an unsavoury kind of preaching 2. It will divert them and us from greater and more needful things Yea we must teach them with what Cautions in what manner to what ends c. to use all these Ceremonies or else they will turn them all to sin if not to Popish yea to heathenish formalities And alas how much ado have we to get our people to understand the Creed and the Kernel of the Gospel the essentials of
9. As for them that cry out of Confusion and Sacriledge and irreligiousness and I know not what if Ceremonies be not constantly used and all forced to them but be used with an indifferency the distempers of their own souls contracted by such Customs is a sufficient argument to move a sober considerate man to desire that the Church may be delivered from such endangering customs They do but tell us that custom hath made cerâ—monies become their very Religion And what a kind of Religion is that CHAP. XIV Reasons against the Imposing of our late Controverted Mysticall Ceremonies as Crossing Surplice c. § 1. HOW far Ceremonies are lawfull or unlawfull to the users I have shewed sufficiently already and therefore may omit the fourteenth Proposition as discussed before But so eager are the minds of men to be exalting themselves over the whole world and puting yoaks on their Brethrens necks even in the matters of God and setting up their own wills to be the Idols and Law-givers to all others that I take it for the principal part of my task to give in my Reasons against this distemper and to try if it be possible to take men off from Imposing or desiring the Imposition of unnecessary things I durst not desire the Imposing of our Mysticall Ceremonies but had rather they were abolished or left indifferent for these followings Reasons § 2. Reas. 1. To impose 〈◊〉 symbolical Rites upon the Church which Christ hath not imposed doth seem to me to be an usurpation of his Soveraign power It belongeth to him to be the Law-giver of his Church No man hath Power to make him a new worship Officers are but to see his Laws executed and to determine only of such circumstances as are needfull for the well executing them To make new Symbols or instituted signs to teach and excite Devotion is to make new humane Ordinances whereas it belongs to us only to use well such as he hath made and to make no Laws but such as are thus needfull for the executing of his Laws But of all this I have more largely spoken already § 3. Reas. 2. The imposing of these Mystical Rites doth seem to accuse Christ of ignorance or negligence in that he hath not himself imposed them when he hath taken upon him that Royall office to which such Legislation doth belong If Christ would have such Rites imposed on the Churches he could better have done it himself then have left it to man For 1. These being not mutable circumstances but the matter of standing Laws are equaâ—ly necessary or unnecessary to this age of the Church as to that in which Christ lived upon earth and to those Countreys in which he conversed as to these If Images Crossing significant garments c. be needfull to be imposed in England why not in Iudaea Galatia Cappadocia 〈◊〉 c. And if they are needfull now why not then No man can give a rational cause of difference as to this necessity If therefore Christ did neither by himself nor by his Apostles who formed the first Churches and delivered us his mind by the Spirit institute and impose these Rites then either the imposing of them is needless and consequently noxious or else you must say that Christ hath omitted a needfull part of his Law and worship which implies that he was either ignorant what to do or careless and neglective of his own affairs which are not to be imagined Moses left nothing out of the Law that he delivered that was to be the standing matter of the Law nor omitted he any thing that God required in the instituting of the Legal worship But Christ was faithfull to him that appointed him as Moses was in all his house Heb. 3.2.3 therefore certainly Christ hath omitted nothing that was to be a standing Gospel Law and Worship nor done his work imperfectly § 4. Reas. 3. And as this Imposition of Mystical Rites doth imply an accusation of Christ so doâ—h it imply an accusation of his Laws and of the holy Scriptures as if they were insufficient For if it belong to Scripture sufficiency to be the full revelation of the will of God concernng Ordinances of worship and duties of universal or stated Necessity then must we not imagine that any such are left out If Scripture be Gods Law it is a perfect law And if it belong to it as a Law to impose one stated Symbol Ordinance or matter of worship then so it doth to impose the rest of the same nature that are fit to be imposed If we will do more of the same that Scripture was given for to do we accuse it while we seem to amend it § 5. Reas. 4. And by this means we shall be brought to a loss for the Rule of our Religion For if once we leave the holy Scriptures we shall not know where to fix If God have not instituted all the Ordinances of Worship such as Sacramental or Mystical Rites c. that are meet to be statedly Imposed on the Churches then we are uncertain who is to be the institutor of them The Pope will claim it and General Councils will claim it and Provincial Councils and particular Bishops will claim it and Princes will claim it and we shall be at a loss for our Religion § 6. Reas. 5. But whoever it be that will be the master of our Religion they will certainly be men and so it will become a humane thing Whereas Divine worship supposeth a Divine institution and it is an act of obedience to God and therefore supposeth a Law of God For without a Divine Law there cannot be obedience to God § 7. Reas. 6. These impositions seem to be plain violations of those prohibitions of God in which we are forbidden to add to his worship or diminish from it As Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it Object But we add nothing to the Word of God though we impose such Mystical Rites as he imposeth not Answ. The text doth not say Thou shalt not add to my Command but Thou shalt not add to the thing that I command thee It is the Work Worship or Ordinances that you are forbidden to add to or diminish from and not the Word or Law it self only § 8. Reas. 7. It seemeth to be a very great height of Pride that is manifested in these impositions 1. When men dare think themselves wise enough to amend the work of Christ and his Apostles and wise enough to amend the holy Scriptures is not this exceeding Pride How can man more arrogantly lift up himself then by pretending himself to be wiser then his Maker and Redeemer Is it not bad enough to equalize your selves with him unless you exalt your selves above him If you do not so what mean you by coming after him to correct his Laws or mend his work and make better laws and ordinances for his Church then he
Christianity and the two Sacraments of Christs institution and some short Catechism that containeth these And when we have done our best in publick and in private we leave many of them ignorant what these two Sacraments are yea or who Christ himself is And must we put them to so much more labour as to learn a Rationale or exposition of all the Ceremonies holy dayes c We shall but overwhelm them or divert them from the Essentials And here you may see the unhappy issue of humane wisdom and false means It is to be teachers of the ignorant that men pretend these Signs Images and Ceremonies to be usefull And yet they are the causes of ignorance and keep men from necessary knowledge If you doubt of this do but open your eyes and make use of experience See whether among the common people the most Ceremonious are not commonly the most ignorant yea and the most ungodly too It is a truth so notorious that it cannot be denyed Who more ignorant of the Sacraments then they that rail at them that fit in the act of receiving Who more ignorant of the doctrine of the Gospel who more obstinate enemies of a holy life more worldly self-conceited licentious prophane despisers of their faithfull Teachers then the most zealous persons for all these Ceremonies § 23. Reas. 21. Moreover these new Laws and services introduce also a new office into the Church There must be some of pretended Power to impose all these Ceremonies and see them executed or else all is vain And no such office hath Christ appointed Because men thought it necessary that all the Christian world should have but one way and Order in the Ceremonious worship which was commonly approved therefore they thought there was a Necessity of one Head to maintain this unity of order and so came up the Pope as to one cause And so in a Nation we must have some one or more Masters of Ceremonies when Ceremonies are kept a foot And so whereas Christ hath placed officers in his Church to teach and guide them and administer his own Ordinances we must have another sort of officers to make Laws for Mystical signs and Ceremonies and see them executed and punish the neglecters and teach the people the meaning and the use of them The Primitive Bishops had other kind of work we find directions to the Pastors of the Church containing the works of their office as to Timothy Titus c. But we no where find that this is made any part of their work to make new Teaching signs and Ceremonies and impose them on the Church nor have they any directions for such a work which surely they much needed if it had been their work indeed § 24. Reas. 22. When we once begin to let in humane Mystical Rites we shall never know where to stop or make an end On the same ground that one Age inventeth three or four the next think they may add as many and so it will grow to be a point of devotion to add a new Ceremony as at Rome it hath done till we have more then we well know what to do with § 25. Reas. 23. And the miserable plight that the Christian world hath lain in many ages by Ceremonies may warn us to be wise Augustine complaineth that in his time the Church was burdened with them and made like the Jewish Synagogue The most of the Churches in Asia and Africa are drowned too deeply in Ceremonious formality turning Religion into ignorant shews The Church of Rome is worse then they having made God a worship of histrionical actions and shews and signs and Ceremonies so that millions of the poor blind people worship they know not whom nor how And if we abate only of the number and keep up some of the same kind even Symbolicall Rites of mans institution to teach us and excite our devotion we shall harden them in their way and be disabled from confuting them For a Papist will challenge you to prove just how many such signs are lawfull And why he may not use threescore as well as you use three when he saith he is edified by his number as you say you are with yours § 26. Reas. 24. It is not inconsiderable that God hath purposely established a spiritual kind of worship in the Gospel telling us that God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Such worshippers doth God require and accept Bodily exercise profiteth little The kingdom of God is not in meats or in drinks but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Neither Circumcision availeth any thing in Christ Jesus nor uncircumcision but a new creature and faith that worketh by Love God would never have so much called men off from Ceremoniousness to spirituality if he had delighted in Ceremony § 27. Reas. 25. The Worship of God without his blessing is to little purpose No man can have encouragement to use any thing as a Means to teach him and help his devotion which he hath no ground to believe that God will bless But there is no ground that I know of to believe that God will bless these Instituted Teaching signs of mans inventions to the Edifying of our souls For God hath no where bid us devise or use such signs 2. Nor no where promised us a blessing on them that ever I could find And therefore we have no encouragement to use them If we will make them and impose them our selves we must undertake to bless them our selves § 28. Reas. 26. As vain thoughts and words are forbidden us in Scripture so no doubt but vain actions are forbidden but especially in the worship of God and yet more especially when they are Imposed on the Church by Laws with penalties But these Mystical Rites of humane institution are vain You call them your selves but Things indifferent And they are vain as to the use for which they are pretended that is to Teach and Edifie c. having no promise of a blessing and being needless imitations of the Sacraments of Christ. Vanity therefore is not to be imposed on the Church My last Reason will fullier shew them to be vain § 29. Reas. 27. We are sure the way in which Peter and Paul and the Churches of their times did worship God was allowable and safe and that Princes and Prelates are wise and righteous overmuch if they will not only be more wise and righteous then the Apostles in the matters of Gods worship but also deny their subjects liberty to worship God and go to heaven in the same way as the Apostles did If Peter and Paul went to heaven without the use of Images Surplice the Cross in Baptism kneeling in receiving the Lords Supper and many such Ceremonies why should not we have leave to live in the Communion of the Church without them would you have denyed the Apostles their liberty herein Or will you be partiall Must they have one way and we
FIVE DISPUTATIONS OF Church-Government AND WORSHIP I. Whether it be Necessary or Profitable to the right Order or Peace of the Churches of England that we Restore the extruded Episcopacy Neg. II. Assert Those who Nullifie our present Ministry and Churches which have not the Prelatical Ordination and teach the People to do the like do incur the guilt of grievous Sin III. An Episcopacy desirable for the Reformation Preservation and Peace of the Churches IV. Whether a stinted Liturgie or Form of Worship be a desireable means for the Peace of these Churches V. Whether Humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Church By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by Thomas Iohnson at the Golden Key in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. At 4. s. 6. d. bound To his Highness RICHARD Lord Protector OF THE Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland SIR THese Papers are ambitious of accompanying those against Popery into your Highness presence for the tender of their service and that upon the same account The Controversies here decided are those that have had a hand in most of the great transactions that of late years have here past and that still have a hand in the differences that hinder our desired peace I observe that the Nation generally rejoyceth in your peaceable entrance upon the Government And are affected with indignation if they hear but any rumors that troublesom persons would disturb their hopes And many are perswaded that you have been strangely kept from participating in any of our late bloody contentions that God might make you an Healer of our breaches and imploy you in that Templeâ—work which David himself might not be honoured with though it was in his mind because he had shed blood abundantly and made great wars 1 Chron. 22.7 8. I perceive also that some settlement of Church-affairs will be expected from you by the most And therefore it concerneth all our welfare that you be well acquainted with the state of those differences about which all will expect your judgement For my own part I think not that matters are half so far out of order in the Churches as most discontented men imagine But yet I know there is much to be mended wherein both God and most good men expect you should contribute a considerable part Some think there is no settlement in the Church till they are in the saddle and all their Brethren are become their servants and do them obeysance And alas we have those that take it for no settlement till they have the sword in their own hands or have engaged you to use it at their discretion and may again fill the Prisons or other Lands with their Brethren that are far better then themselves Those I mean that in their writings so glory that their predecessors hang'd the Puritans and lament that of late they were but silenced as being a less effectuall means Some would have no other settlement then we have or else would have Licentiousness settled by a Law and have unlimited Liberty in Religion Doubtless these are conscious what it is that they have need of If Heathens Infidels and Papists be but excepted out of the Toleration it displeaseth them And we can easily conjecture why If we grant them all the Liberty of their consciences that is of their mis-belief because alas we cannot cure it it satisfieth them not unless they may have also Liberty of tongue and Practise When I have heard and read the Reasonings of some of them against the Immortality of the soul and the Christian Religion it self I have wondered why they should take it for such a point of Liberty to have leave to draw others to their opinion when they seem to think that mens Happiness or Misery is no more concerned in it These are the men that tell the world that Magistrates have nothing to do with Religion but only with our Peace and Bodily welfare contrary to the fullest Testimony of the Scriptures Which is but to perswade men to esteem you as the dirt of the earth and to value the Ministry above the Magistracy as much as the Soul is better then the Body and as Heaven is better then this dunghill-world And for this odious doctrine they have no stronger reason then because that Heathen Princes are uncapable of deciding matters about Religion As if mens wilfull and wicked indisposition would change the office and disoblige both them and those that are guilty of no such unfitness from the obligations laid upon them by the Lord They may as wisely say that a sober Physitian is obliged to no more then a drunken one can perform or that a seeing man may do no more then the blind can do Or that a Learned Prince may not meddle with Learning because an unlearned Prince is unfit for it But any man that hath read Bellarmine Parsons Gretser or such like Jesuites may know the Fathers of this doctrine Nothing more familiar with them then that Princes have nothing to do but for our Bodies and the Common Peace but forsooth it is the Pope that must Rule all about our Souls The Libertines know whose cause they plead But verily men that regard the Interest of Christ and their salvation would set light by Princes if they believed them to be such terrestriall animals as Papists and Libertines would make them Some also there be that would have a settlement upon too rigorous terms though they would not have it executed with cruelty Most men would fain have their own opinions prevail and too many place too much of their Religion in censuring as Heterodox all that differ from them and think it an evidence of their Godliness that they are Uncharitable and seeing many minds and waies they think that punishment must heal them all Not that they would be driven to their Brethren but all their Brethren must be driven unto them In the midst of all these cross expectations if you will consult with and obey the Lord I dare boldly tell you it is past all doubt that you must avoid extreams and keep as tenderly the golden mean in this point as in any that concerns you If you give Liberty to All that is called Religion you will soon be judged of no Religion and loved accordingly If you so far close with any Party of them that walk in the faith of Christ and the fear of God as to deal rigorously with the rest you will be hated by them as a Persecutor And if men be oppressed in that which they value above their lives it will tempt them to neglect their lives for their relief If you joyn with no Church in the Lords Supper and other holy Communion lest you seem to espouse the party that you joyn with you will by most be judged to be carnally wise self-seeking and irreligious or one that is yet to seek for your Religion If you restrain all that
between you and your Brethren for so they are is too much known to friends and foes at home and abroad and too much daily manifested by each side Shall it still continue or would you have it healed If it must continue tell us how long and tell us why Would you have it go with us to Eternity and will you not be reconciled nor dwell with us in Heaven It is not in your Power to shut us out And will you not be there if we be there Or do you think there will be any Discord where Love is Perfected and we are One in God If you can be content to be saved with us and believe that all of both Opinions that truly love and fear the Lord shall live there in dearest Love for ever how can you chuse when you forethink of this but Love them now that you must for ever Love and long to be reconciled to them with whom you must there so harmoniously accord You know that Earth is our preparation for Heaven and such as men would be there they must begin to be here As they must be Holy here that ever will there see the Lord in Holiness so must they here be Loving and Peaceable that ever will live in that perfect heavenly Love and Peace And why is it that the distance must be so great Are we not all the Children of one Father Have we not all the same God the same Redeemer the same Spirit in us if we are Christians indeed Rom. 8.9 Are we not in the same Baptismal Covenant with God Have we not the same holy Scripture for our Rule and are we not in the same universal Church and of the same Religion some of you say No to the grief of your friends and the shame of your own understandings and uncharitableness I beseech you bear it if I touch the sore For my work is Healing and therefore though it Must be touch't it shall be as gently as the case will bear If I may judge by such as I have had any opportunity to know I must say that the distance on your part is continued in some by confused apprehensions of the case and not distinguishing things that differ In some by discontents of mind and too deep a sense of worldly losses and the things that you take as injuries from others In some by the advantage of a co-interest and consociation with those Divines that are of your way and so by a Willingness to think them in the right and those in the wrong that you take for adversaries In some by a stiffness and stoutâ—ess of disposition that cals it Constancy to hold your own and Manliness not to stoop to others and takes it as dishonourable to seek for Peace even in Religion with your supposed adversaries or to yield to it at least without much importunity With too many miserable souls it is meer ungodliness and enmity to that way of Piety that in many that you differ from appears And in the best of you it is a Remissness of Charity and want of Zeal for the Churches Peace and the Love and Vnity of Brethren To confute the reasonings of all these sorts would draw out this Preface to too great a length The first sort my experience hath caused me to observe Oft have I faln into company with men that pour forth bitter odious words against Presbyterie and I ask them what that Presbyterie is that they speak of with so much abomination Is it the Name or the Thing which they so abhor If the Name is it not a term of Scripture used by the Holy Ghost 1 Tim. 4.14 Are not the Pastors of the Church most frequently called the Presbyters or Elders Tit. 1.5 Act. 14.23 15.2 4 6 22 23. 1 Tim. 5.17 Act. 20.17 James 5.14 1 Pet. 5.1 c. It must needs then be the Thing and not the Name which they abominate And what is that Thing most of them cannot tell me Some presently talk of the disuse of the Common Prayer as if that were a part of Presbyterie and Government and the form of worship were all one Some presently run to Scotland and talk of forcing men to Confession of sin and of their secular enforcement of their Excommunications But 1. If this be odious why was it used by the Bishops Is it good in them and bad in others 2. And why plead you for Discipline and against Toleration if you so loath the things you plead for 3. But will you not when it s known so openly distinguish the Ministerial Power from the secular It s known by their Laws and constant Practice that all the Power that was exercised by Violence on Body or Estate by the Assemblies was derived from the Magistrate whose Commissioners also sate among them And the Bishops in England were seconded by the Sword as much as they It s known that the Presbyterians commonly maintain in their Writings that Pastors have no Coercive or Secular Power but only the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to exercise on the Conscience committed to them by Christ. 4. And the writings and practice of those in England openly manifest it and its them with whom you have most to do Some tell me that Presbyterie is the Government of the Church without Bishops And is it only the Negation of your Prelacy that is the odious thing Is there nothing Positive odious in Presbyterie Thus our Belief is condemned by the Papists even because we Believe not so much as they when in the Positives of our Faith there is nothing that they can blame Some make it the odious thing that they have Lay-Elders But 1. The Presbyterians account them not Lay but Ecclesiasticks 2. And what is the Odious harm that these men do among them They are present and Consent to the admonishing and censuring of offendors And what great harm doth that to the Church Is it because they do not Preach No sure in that your Readers are much like them What work can you Name that these Elders are appointed to that by your Confession is not to be done It is not the Work then that you blame but that these men do it 3. But what is this to all that are in this point of your mind and think that unordained Elders wanting Power to preach or administer the Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of Gods appointment As far as I can understand the greater part if not three for one of the English Ministers that you stand at a distance from are of this mind and so far against Lay-Elders as well as you of whom I confess my self to be One. and that M r Vines was One I have shewed you in the End Surely then all we are none of the odious Presbyterians in your eyes Why then is there such a distance And are Lay-Elders as bad as Lay-Chancellors So also when some have been hotly condemning us as being against Bishops I ask them what a Bishop is and what
with the Neighbour Ministers in Essex And I have had Letters from many of that way with whom I Correspond full of Christian Love and Piety and hatred of calumny and separations But verily I must tell you that when we find any of you in your writings and Sermons making it your work to vilifie the Ministry and with the Quakers to make them odious to the people and making your jeers and railing and uncharitableness the life of your Sermons we cannot but suspect that you are Popish Emissaries while we find you in their work or else that you are Malignant Enemies and of the sâ—â—pentine brood whose heads shall shortly be bruised by the Lord. 4. And if it be the disuse of your Common Prayer that you separate from us for I would know of you whâ—ther you would have denyed Communion with all that lived before it had a being If this be your Religion I may ask you where was your Religion before Luther before King Edwards daies If you say in the Mass book and what else can you say I ask you then where was it before the Mass book had a being Would you have denyed Communion to the Apostles and all the Primitive Church for some hundreds of years that never used your Book of Common Prayer will you still make things indifferent necessary 2. One word to those of you that follow Grotius I have shewed that he professeth himself a Papist even in that Discussion which M r Pierce so magnifieth as excellent I hear Mr. Thorndike and others defend him and some think I injure him by calling him a Papist Wonderful what will not be a Controversie among learned men Are we faln among such that deny him to be a Papist that professeth expresly to be satisfied if evil manners be but corrected and school-opinions not imposed which are contrary to Tradition and all Councils and that professeth to own the Creed and Council of Trent and all the Popish Councils whatsoever and the Mistriship of Rome and the Catholick Mastership of the Pope governing the Catholick Church according to these Councils What is a Papist if this be none I refer you to my Evidence in the Discovery of the Grotian Religion and the first Chap. of the second Part of my Catholick Key replying to Mr. Pierce Confute it rationally if you can I shall now only desire you when you have read Rivet to read a Book called Grotius Papizans and to hearken to the testimony of an honest learned Senator of Paris that admired Grotius and tells you what he is from his own mouth and that is Claud. Sarravius who saith in his Epistol pag. 52 53. ad Gronov. De ejus libro libello postremis interrogatus respondit plane Milleterio Consona Romanam fidem esse veram sinceram solosqâ—e Clericorum mores degeneres schismati dedisse locum adferebatque plura in hanc sententiam Quid dicam Merito quod falso olim Paulo Agrippa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deploro veris lachrymis tantam jacturam Here you have a credible witness that from his own mouth reporteth it that our Reformation was to Grotius a schism and nothing but the ill manners of the Clergy gave us the opportunity And pag. 190. Epist. ad Salmas Vis ergo me exerte dicere quid sentiam de postremo Grotii libro an omnia mihi in eo probentur Rem rogas non magnam nec adeo difficilem quemque expedire promptum est Tantum abest ut omnia probem ut vix aliquid in eo reperiam cui sine conditione calculum apponam meum Verissime dixit ille qui primus dixit Grotium Papizare Vix tamen in isto scripto aliquid legi quod mirarer quodve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occurreret Nunquid enim omnes istiusmodi ejusdem authoris lucubrationes erga Papistarum errores perpetuam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erga Jesuitas amorem erga nos plus quam Vatinianum odium produnt clamant In Voto quod ejus nomen praeferebat an veritus est haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profiteri Had none of you owned Grotius his Popery I would never have charged it on you But when Grotius himself glorieth of his adherents in England and so many of you plainly defend him and profess your owning of those books and those doctrines in which his Popery is contained if ever Popery were known in the world I must then crave your pardon if I think somewhat the worse of Popery because they that hold it are ashamed of it For I abhor that Religion which a man hath cause to be ashamed of and will not save him from being a loser by it that owneth it and standeth to it to the last And I think that man hath no Religion who hath none which he will openly profess and stand to I have at this time but these few requests to make to you which I beseech you to answer without partiality 1. That you will seriously consider whether it be truly Catholick to unchurch us and so many Churches of Christ as are of our mind as your partakers do Because Catholicism is your pretense consider whether you be not further from it then most people in the world 2. Because I conceive this Book is not suited to your great objections I desire your perusal of another that comes out with it called A Key for Catholicks especially the second Part and if you cannot answer them take heed how you continue Papists 3. While you hold us for no Ministers or Churches or Capable of your Communion it is in vain for us to hope for Communion with you but we desire that you will consider of those terms of a more distant sort of Communion which there I have propounded in the End of the first and second Part and deny us not that much 4. At least we beseech you that while you are Papists you will deal openly and no worse with us then sober Papists that speak according to their Consciences use to do Do not let it as the Lord Falkland speaks be in the Power of so much per annum nor of your factious interest to keep you from professing your selves to be what you are and do not make the Protestant name a meer cloak to secure you in the opposing of the Protestant Cause and follow not the example of Spalatensis and the Counsel of Campian and Parsons in feigning a sort of Doctrinal Puritans and railing at Protestants under that name Deal with us but as sober Papists do and we shall take it thankfully How highly doth Bodin a Learned Papist extol the Presbyterian Discipline at Genevah from its effects when among many of you it hath as odious titles as if it were some blasphemous damning thing What sober Papist would talk as Mr. Pierce doth p. 30. of the great abomination of the Presbyterian Directory and not be able to name one thing in it that is abominable Is it a great
meant of the same sort of Presidents and then you may soon see what Bishops were in Tertullians dayes For we have no reason to think that they are not the same sort of Officers which he calleth Presidents and of whom he there saith Praesident probati Seniores So in the foregoing words in Tertullian ibid. it s said Aquam adituri ibidem sed aliquando prius in Ecclesia sub Antistitiâ— manu contestamur nos renunciare Diabolo Pompae angelâ—s ejus Where it seems that there were no more thus initiated then the Antistes himself did first thus engage in the Congregation And I believe they take this Antistes for a Bishop And here by the way let this argument be noted Seeing its past doubt that the first sence of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Catus or holy Assembly it self why should the Meeting place be so often called also Ecclesia in those times in the borrowed sence but only in Relation to the People there assembled and it s plain that it was but one Congregation and not many that assembled in that place and therefore it was from that one that the Place is called Ecclesia That it is oft so called besides this place of Tertullian which seems so to use the word I refer you to Mr. Meads exercitation of Temples who proves it distinctly in the several Centuries That saying of Theophilus Antiochenus ad Antolychum seems to intimate the whole that I intend sic Deus dedit mundo qui peccatorum tempestatibus Naufragiis jactatur Synagogas quas Ecclesias Sanctas Nâ—minamus in quibus veritatis doctrina fervâ—t ad quas confugiunt veritatis studiosi quotquot sâ—lvari Deique judicium iram evitare volunt So that the Churches of those times which were as Noahs Ark and where safety was to be found for the soul were Synagogues or Assemblies So Tertul. de Idololatr c. 7. pag. mihi 171. Tota die ad hanc partem zelus fidei peroravit ingenuuÌ„ Christianum ab Idolis in Ecclesiam venire de adversaria officina in domum Dei venire See more places of Tertullian cited by Pamelius on this place num 29. page 177. specially see that de virg Veland cap. 13. p. 224. Clemens Alexandrinus hath divers passages to the purpose now in hand Stromat li. 7. in the beginning he mentioneth the Church and its officers which he divideth only into two sorts Presbyters and Deacons But I will name no more particular persons but come to some intimations of the point before us from customes or Practices of the Church and the Canons of Councils And it seems to me that the dividing of Parishes so long after or of Titles as they are called doth plainly tell us that about those times it was that particular Polâ—cical Church did first contain many stated Congregations And though it be uncertain when this began Mr. Thorndike as we heard before conjectureth about Cyprians dayes yet we know that it was long after the Apostles and that it was strange to less populous places long after it was introduced at Rome and Alexandria where the number of Christians too much ambition of the Bishop occasioned the multiplication of Congregations under him and so he became a Bishop of many Churches named as one who formerly was Bishop but of a single Church For if there had been enough one hundred or fifty or twenty or ten years before to have made many Parishes or stated Assemblies for communion in worshâ—p then no doubt but the light oâ— Nature would have directed them to have made some stated divisions before For they must needs know that God was not the God of Confusion but of order in all the Churches And they had the same reasons before as after And persecution could noâ— be the hindrance any more at first then at last For it was under persecuting Emperours when Parishes or Titles were distinguished and so it might notwiâ—hstanding persecutions have been done as well at first as at last if there had been the same reason It seems therefore very plain to me that it was the increase of Converts that caused this division of Titles and that in planting of Churcheâ— by the Aposâ—les and during their time and much afâ—er the Chuâ—ches consisted of no more then our Parishes wâ—o being most inhabitants of the Cities had their meetings there for full communion though they might have other suborâ—inate meâ—tings as we have now in mens houses for Repenting Serâ—â—ons and Prayer And as Mr. Thorndâ—ke out of Nâ—nius tells us of 365. Bishopricks in Ireland planted by Patrick so other Authors tell us that Patrick was the first Bishop there or as others and more credible Palladius the first and Patrick next and yet the Scots in Ireland had Churches before Palladius his dayes as Bishop Vsher sheweth de Primordiis Eccles. Britan. 798 799 800 c. Iohannes Major de gestis scholarum li. 2. cap. 2. prioribus illis temporibus per Sacerdotes Monachos sine Episcopis Scotos in fide eruditos fuisse affirmat Et ita sane ante Majorem scripsit Johannes Fordonus Scotichron li. 3. cap. 8. Ante Palladii adventum habebant Scoti fidei Doctores ac Sacramentorum Ministratores Presbyteros solummodo vel Monaches ritum sequentes Ecclesiae Primitivae N. B. Of which saith Usher Quod postremum ab iis accepisse videtur qui dixerunt ut Johan Semeca in Glossa Decreti dist 93. ca. Legimus quod in Prima Primitiva Ecclesia commune erat officium Episcoporum Sacerdotum Nomina erant communia officium commune sed in secunda primitiva caeperunt dinstigui nomina officia So that it seems that some Churches they had before but Palladius and Patrick came into Ireland as Augustine into England and abundantly increased them and settled withall the Roman Mode So that it seemed like a new Plantation of Religion and Churches there Yet it seems that the Bishops setled by Patrick save that himself an Archbishop was like our Bishops were but such as were there before under the name of Presbyters saith Fordon after the rite or fashion of the Primitive Church And saith Vsher ibid. p. 800. Hector Boethius fuisse dicit Palladium primum omnium qui Sacrum inter Scotos egere Magistratum à summo Pontifice Episcopum creatum quum antea Populi suffragiis ex Monachis Caldeis pontifices assumerentur Boeth Scotorum Histor. lib. 7. fol. 128. b. And he adds the saying of Balaeus Scriptor Britanic centur 14. cap. 6. A Caelestino illum missum ait Johannes Balaeus ut Sacerdotalem ordinem inter Scotos Romano ritu institueret Habebant inquit antea Scoti suos Episcopos ac Ministros ex verbi Divini Ministerio plebium suffragiis electos prout Asianorum more fieri apud Britannos videbant Sed haec Romanis ut magis ceremoniosis atque Asianorum osoribus non placebant By these passages it is easie to conjecture
way or other feel ere long that they have owned a very unprofitable cause and such as they shall wish they had let alone and that it made not for their honour to be so much enemies to the welfare of the Church as the enemies of the abolition of that Prelacy will appear to be Cons. II. The matter of that clause in the National Covenant which concerneth the abolition of this Prelacy before mentioned was so far from deserving the Reproaches and Accusations that are bestowed on it by some that it was just and necessary to the well being of the Church In this also I purposely mean the Civil controversie about the authority of imposing taking or prosecuting the Covenant and speak only of the Matter of it to avoid the losing of the truth by digressions and new controversies They that by reproaching this clause in the Covenant do own the Prelacy which the Covenant disowneth might shew more love to the Church and their own souls by pleading for sickness and nakedness and famine and by passionate reproaches of all that are against these then by such owning and pleading for a far greater evil Cons. III. Those of the English Ministry that are against the old Episcopacy and are glad that the Church is rid of it are not therefore guilty of Schism nor of sinfull disobedience to their spiritual superiours If any of them did swear obedience to the Prelates a tyrannicall imposition that God never required nor the Primitive Church never used that 's nothing to our present case which is not about the keeping of oaths but the obeying or rejecting the Prelacy in it self considered It is not schismatical to depart from an â—â—â—rpation that God disowneth and the Church is endangered and so much wronged by and to seek to pull up the Roots of Schism which have bred and fed it in the Churches so long Cons. IV. Those that still justifie the ejected Prelacy and desire the restauration of it as they needlesly choose the guilt of the Churches desolations so are they not to be taken for men that go about to heal our breaches but rather for such as would widen and continue them by restoring the main cause Cons. V. If we had had such an Episcopacy as Bishop Hall and Bishop Vsher did propound as satisfactory and such men to manage it Episcopacy and Peace might have dwelt together in England to this day It is not the the Name of a Bishop that hath been the matter of our trouble but the exorbitant Species introducing unavoidably the many mischiefs which we have seen and felt Cons. VI. Ordination by the ejected Prelacy in specie is not of necessity to the being or well-being of a Presbyter or Deacon If the Species of Prelacy it self be proved contrary to the word of God and the welfare of the Church then the Ordination that is by this Species of Prelacy cannot be necessary or as such desirable Cons. VII A Parochial or Congregational Pastor having assistant Presbyters and Deacons either existent or in expectance was the Bishop that was in the dayes of Ignatius Iustin Tertullian and that Dr. Hammond describeth as meant in many Scriptures and existent in those dayes I speak not now to the question about Archbishops Cons. VIII The Ordination that is now performed by these Parochial Bishops especially in an assembly guided by their Moderator is beyond all just exception Valid as being by such Bishops as the Apostles planted in the Churches and neerer the way of the Primitive Church then the Ordination by the ejected Species of Prelates is Cons. IX As the Presbyters of the Church of Alexandria did themselves make one their Bishop whom they chose from among themselves and set him in a higher degree as if Deacons make an Archdeacon or Souldiers choose one and make him their Commander saith Hierom ad Evagr. so may the Presbyters of a Parochial Church now And as the later Canons require that a Bishop be ordained or consecrated by three Bishops so may three of these Primitive Parochial Bishops ordain or consecrate now another of their degree And according to the Canons themselves no man can justly say that this is invalid for want of the Consecration by Archbishops or of such as we here oppose Cons. X. Those that perswade the People that the Ordinanation of those in England and other Churches is null that is not by such as the English Prelates were and that perswade the people to take them for no Presbyters or Pastors that are not ordained by such Prelates and do make an actual separation from our Churches and Ministers and perswade others to the like upon this ground and because the Ministers have disowned the English Prelacy and withal confess that Church of Rome to be a true Church and their ordination and Priesthood to be just or true are uncharitable and dangerously Schismatical though under pretence of decrying Schism and many wayes injurious to the Church and to the souls of men and to themselves This will not please but that I not only speak it but further manifest it is become Necessary to the right Information of others FINIS The Second DISPUTATION VINDICATING The Protestant Churches and MINISTERS that have not Prelatical Ordination from the Reproaches of those Dividers that would nullifie them WRITTEN Upon the sad complaints of many Godly Ministers in several parts of the Nation whose Hearers are turning Separatists By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1658. The Preface Christian Reader IF thou be but for the interest of Christianity more than of a party and a Cordial friend to the Churches Peace though thou be never so much resolved for Episcopacy I doubt not but thou and I shall be one if not in each Opinin yet in our Religion and in Brotherly affection and in the very bent of our labours and our lives And I doubt not but thou wilt approve of the scope and substance of this following Disputation what imperfections soever may appear in the Manner of it For surely there is that of God within thee that will hardly suffer thee to believe that while Rome is taken for a true Church the Reformed that have no Prelates must be none that their Pastors are meer Lay-men their Ordination being Null and consequently their administrations in Sacraments c. Null and of no Validity The Love that is in thee to all believers and especially to the Societies of the Saints and the honour and interest of Christ will keep thee from this or strive against it as nature doth against poyson or destructive diseases If thou art not a meer Opinionist in Religion but one that hast been illuminated by the spirit of Christ and felt his love shed abroad in thy heart and hast ever had experience of spiritual communion with Christ and his Church in his holy Ordinances I dare then venture my cause upon thy judgement Go
either restrain or change them But when they have such an irritation and encouragement as this and that from men that would be reputed as Godly as the best then no wonder if they are hardened in their malignity When we would instruct them and mind them of their everlasting state and help to prepare them for their latter end they are told by Learned men that we are no Ministers but Lay-men and Schismaticks and that it is their sin to own us or receive the Ordinances of Christ from us as Ministers and so the poor people turn their backs on us and on the Assemblies and Ordinances of God and being taught by wise and learned men to disown us and despise us they follow their drunkenness and worldliness and ungodlyness with greater security and with less remorse for now they have a defensative against the galling doctrine of those precise Preachers that would not let them alone in their sin they were wont to be disturbed at least by Sermons and sometime they purposed to return and were in the way of Grace and in some hope but now they are taught by Learned Godly Divines to keep out of hearing they can go on and sin in peace Sect. 21. 15. By this means also you rob God of his publike worship People are taught to turn their backs on it you teach them that it is better that God have no publike Ministerial worship at all in Prayer Praises Sacraments c. then that he should have it from any but Prelatical Ministers O sacred doctrine And if you had your wills for the silencing or ejecting of all that are not Ordained by Prelates how many hundred Church-doors must be shut up in the Christian world or worse Sect. 22. 16. By this means all Impiety would be cherished and let loose When once the mouths of Ministers were stopped the mouth of the swearer and curser and railer and scorner at Godliness would be open and so would be the mouth of the drunkard and glutton If all that can be done be so much too little as experience tells us what a case would the Nations be in and how would iniquity abound if Ministers were cast out Sect. 23. 17. Yea it might endanger the Churches by the introduction of Infidelity or Heathenism it self For nothing is more natural as it were to corrupted man and if once the Ministry be taken down and they have none or those that are next to none Infidelity and Atheism will soon spring up And it will be a more dangerous sort of Infidelity then is among many of the open Infidels because it would be palliated with the name of Christianity and leave men further from conviction then some that never heard of Christ. Sect. 24. 18. And it is a temptation to Infidelity and Contempt of the Church and Ministrie when men shall â—ee that one party of Christians doth thus unchurch another They will think that they may boldly say that of us which we say of the another one party unchurcheth all the Papists these that we are now speaking to do unchurch all the Protestant Churches that are not Prelatical The Papists unchurch all but themselves and so among them they leave Christ but a very small part of his inheritance Sect. 25. 19. Yea I fear that by Consequence and too near and plaâ—n a Consequence they dissolve the Catholike Church it self And if it be so let them judge whether their doctrine subvert not Christianitie I use no violence for the inference If want of Prelatical Ordination do Null the Protestant Ministrie and Churches then it must needs follow that far greater defects and more against the vitals of the Church will do as much to unchurch the Romanists the Greeks Armenians Syrians Ethiopians Egyptians c. But alas how easie is it to prove that all these have far greater defects then the Presbyterian Protestant Churches and so the whole must fall together Sect. 26. 20. By all these means they joyn with the Quakers and Seekers and Drunkards in opposing the same Ministrie that they oppose You are no true Ministers of Iesus Christ say the Quakers Seekers and other Sects so also say these that now we are speaking of and if they preach their doctrine and side with them against the servants of Christ let them be afraid lest they partake of their Spirit and Reward Sect. 27. 21. Their doctrine and practice tendeth to grieve the hearts of the most experienced gracious souls Should all the Ministers be cast out that are not Prelatical and the places supplyed as they mâ—st be in their stead with such as can be had O what a day would it be to honest humble souls that were wont to delight themselves in the publike worship of God and to find instruction and admonition and consolation sutable to their necessities If now they should have all turned to what the Doctrine of these men portends their souls would be as in a Wilderness and famine would consume them and they would lament as David in his banishment and the Jews in their captivity to think of the daies that once they saw Sect. 28. 22. And doth it not imply a great deal of unholiness and enmitie to Reformation when men dare thus boldly unchurch the most of the Reformed Churches and pass such desperate nullifying censures on the most holy able painful Ministers of the Gospel O how many of them are studying and watching and praying for their people day and night and teaching them publickly and from house to house and that sometimes with tears willing to spend and be spent fo their Salvation not seeking theirs but them and when they have done all they are reproached as no Ministers of Christ and the people taught to disown them and forsake them Is this a sign of a son of God that is tender of his honour and interest or of a Holy Gracious soul Sect. 29. 23. At least by this means the hands of Ministers are weakned in their work and their difficulties increased and their hearts grieved because of their peoples misery O if they could have but a free unprejudiced hearing with poor sinners some good might be done But they will not hear us nor come neer us or speak to us Especially when they are taught to forsake us by such men I would not be the man that should thus add burden and grief to the faithful Ministers of Christ upon such an account for all the Bishopricks on earth Sect. 30. 24 They also distract the minds of Christians when they hear men thus degrading and unchurching one another so that weak persons are perplexed and know not what to think nor what Church or Religion to be of yea it is well if many be not tempted hereby to be of no Religion at all when they hear them condemning one another Sect. 31. 25. These shew too much formality and Ceremoniousness when they so much prefer their own opinon about a circumstance Ceremony or Mode before the very being
common to other Churches was never denyed by any author Words may not break square where the things are agreed If the name of a Bishop displease let them call this man a Moderator a President a Superintendent an Overseer Only for the fixedness or change of this person let the ancient and universall practice of Gods Church be thought worthy to oversway And if in this one point N. B. wherein the distance it so narrow we could condescend to each other all other circumstances and appendances of varying practices or 〈◊〉 might without any difficulty be accorded But if there must be a difference of judgement in these matters of outward Policy why should not our hearts be still one why should such a diversity be of Power to endanger the dissolving of the bond of brotherhood May we have the grace but to follow the truth in Love we shall in these several tracts overtake her happily in the end and findâ— her embracing of Peace and crowning us with blessedness So far Bishop Hall so that you see that only the fixing of the Moderator or President will satisfie such as he and so with him and such as he for my part I am fully agreed already § 4. And here by the way because there are so many Episcopal separatists of late that hazzard the souls of their partial followers and because the right habituating of the mind with Peace is an excellent help to a sound understanding and the escaping the errors and hainous sins that Faction engageth too many in I therefore make it my request to all that read these lines but soberly to read over that one Book of Bishop Halls called the Peace-maker once or twice which if I could procure I think I should do much to the Peace of these Churches and to the good of many endangered souls that by passionate and factious leaders are misguided § 5. The same Reverend man in his Humble Remonstrance hath these words Pag. 29 30 31. The second is intended to raise envy against us as the uncharitable censurers and condemners of those Reformed Churches abroad which differ from our Government wherein we do justly complain of a slanderous aspersion cast upon us We love and honour those Sister Churches as the dear spouse of Christ we bless God for them and we do heartily wish unto them that happiness in the Partnership of our adminâ—stration which I doubt not but they do no less heartily wish unto themselves Good words you will perhaps say but what is all this fair complement if our act condemn them For if Episcopacy stand by Divine right what becomes of these Churches that want it Maâ—ice and ignorance are met together in this unjust aggravatiâ—n 1. Our position is only affirmative implying the justifiableness and holiness of an Episcopal calling without any further implication Next when we speak of Divine right we mean not an express Law of God requiring it upon the absolute Necessity of the Being of a Church what hinderances soever may interpose but a Divine institution warranting it where it is and â—equiring it where it may be had Every Church therefore which is capable of this form of Government both may and ought to affâ—ct it but those particular Churches to whom this power and faculty is denyed lose nothing of the true essence of a Church though they miss some thing of their glory and perefection And page 32. Our form of Government differs little from their own save in the perpetuity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderatorship and the exclusion of that Lay-Presbyterie which never till this age had footing in the Christian Church And Page 41 42. Alas my Brethren while we do fully agree in all these and all other Doctrinal and Practical points of Religion why will you be so uncharitable as by these frivolous and causeless Divisions to â—end the seamless coat of Christ It it a Title or a Retinue or a Ceremony a Garment or a Colour or an Organ Pipe that can make us a different Church whiles we preach and profess the same saving truth whiles we desire as you profess to do to walk conscionably with our God according to that one Rule of the Royall Law of our Maker whiles we oppose one and the same common enemy whiles we unfeignedly endeavour to hold the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of Peace For us we make no difference at all in the right and interest of the Church betwixt Clergy and Laity betwixt the Clergy and Laity of one part and of another we are all your true Brethren we are one with you both in heart and brain and hope to meet you in the same heaven but if ye will needs be otherwise minded we can but bewail the Churches misery and your sin You hear how this good Bishop was far from a separation § 6. How contrary to this is the foresaid writing of Dr. Hide which I instance in because it is come new to my hand who stigmatizeth the front of his book with the brand of separation and that of one of the most rigid and unreasonable kinds Thus he begins When Conscientious Ministers cannot associate in the Church and Conscientious Christians cannot go to Church and Customary Christians go thither either to little purpose because to no true worship or to great shame because to no true Ministers t is fit the Church should come to private houses Doth he not begin very wisely and charitably What could the most Schismatical Papist say more What! no true worship no true Ministers and but Customary Christians that come thither Yes and that 's not all he pursues it with an exprobration that we are faln from our Religion p. 4. and yet that 's not all he adds Here seems yet to be a very bad certainty of their Religion and how can there be a better Certainty of their salvation unless that we may gratifie their singularity more then our own veracity we will say There may be a company of good Christians out of the Communion of Saints or a Communion of Saints out of Christs Catholike Church Should we laugh or weep at such a man as this What! no communion of Saints but with the separating party of the Prelates Unhappy we that live in England and can meet with so small a number of these Saints Is the Catholike Church confined to this party and Salvation to this Chunch Transcendent Papal arrogancy It s well that these Prelates are not the only Key-keepers of heaven for we see how we should then be used I must tell this Dr. and all of his mind that it is an easier way to Heaven then we dare hope to come thither by to joyn our selves to their separating Communion of Saints and live as the most that we are acquainted with that are of that Saint-like Communion He had been better have talked at these rates to men of another Age or Nation then to us that see the lives of their adherents We never
the sign of the Cross as well as by Baptism we are entred into a state of Christianity and so it is an Investing Sacramental sign It listeth us under the banner of Christ Crucified And that is the very essential nature of the Sacrament of Baptism it self As Listing investeth the soldier in his Relation and consequently in his Priviledges so doth Baptism by Gods appointment and Crossing is supposed by mans appointment to invest men in the Relation of the soldiers of Jesus Christ. § 60. Yea more then is expressed in the Definition of a Sacrament in the Common prayer-book if you judge it essential to a Sacrament to be an engaging Covenanting sign the Cross is instituted to this end Yea more then that if you judge it essential to a Sacrament to be an engaging sign in the very Covenant of Grace it self and not only in some particular promise this also is the end of its appointment It is to engage our selves to a Crucified Christ as our Captain and Saviour by his Cross and to bind our selves to the Duty of Soldiers or Christians to our lives end aâ—d consequently to teach us to expect the priviledges of faithfull servants and Soldiers from a Crucified Christ. § 61. All this is expressed in the very words of Ministerial application in the common Prayer-book which are these we receive this Child into the Congregation of Christs flock and do sign him with the sign of the cross in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the Devil and to continue Christs faithfull soldier and servant unto his lives end Amen So that you see here it is used as a listing investing Covenant sign engaging us to be Christs soldiers and not to be ashamed of his Cross or to confess his faith and manfully to fight c. and to persevere What 's wanting here to make a Sacrament § 62. Yet had it been but a bare Professing sign like writing or lifting up the hand to signifie consent instead of words I durst not have concluded so hardly of it And thus it seems in ancient times it began to be brought into use and the voluntary use of the cross on several occasions in many countries at this day doth seem to be no other But for my own part I dare not be guilty by consent of making a humane Sacrament or stating such an engaging Sacramental sign to all these uses in the publick worship of God I had rather suffer or leave my Ministry them venture on this while I see so much to make me fear that it is a sin But again I say as I reverence the ancients that used the cross I think amiss and yet more warrantably then we so I presume not to censure them that judge it lawfull but only give the reasons that make me doubt and rather think it to be unlawfull though still with a suspicion of my own understanding and a love and honour to dissenters § 63. As for the Common prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a form nor thought it simply unlawfull because it was such a form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case But I must needs say 1. That the shreding it into such abundance of small parcels seemeth to me very inconvenient It seems too light and ludicrous to toss sentences so formally between the Priest and Clerk and to make such a multitude of Prayers consisting but of a sentence or two at most And it seemeth to be tautologie and vain repetition to repeat over the same word so oft and a taking of Gods name in vain or too unreverently to begin with his Titles and Attributes and end with his name again and the merits or sake of Christ and this at almost every sentence as if we had done with him and were taking our leave and had forgot somewhat that called us to begin again and thus we begin and end and begin and end again it may be twenty times together 2. But the enforcing imposition of these Prayers is most to be condemned of which I have spoken in the former Disputation But for my part I censure none that use them nor take them to be therefore men of another Religion or worship It is but a modal difference in the same worship § 64. The Emperor Constantine was very much for Liberty for Dissenters and against persecution of them upon tolerable differences yet he himself was wont to write Prayers and Orations or Sermons of his own making Euseb. in vita Constant. l. 4. c. 55. 32. 29. and readeth some common prayers himself to the Congregation in his house c. 17. For he made his house a Church and preached in it ordinarily himself though he was both a Lay-man and unbaptized His sermon about Christianity to the Clergie is published by Eusebius and he preached a funeral Oration about the Immortality of the soul in his ordinary preaching place a little before his death Euseb. ib. c. 55. c. 29. c. 17. He giveth his soldiers a form of Prayer ib. c. 20. commanding them that were Christians to observe the Lords Day and spend it in holy exercises and not to labour on that day ib. c. 18.19.23 and also to honour the Holy daies consecrated to the Martyrs c. 23. that is to their memorial And commanding the very Heathen soldiers to pray as they could though not in the Church but in the fields together And in none of this dare I condemn him § 65. The summ of all that I have said is this that Man may determine of modes and circumstances of worship Necessary and Commanded in genere but not determined by God in specie But to make new worship-ordinances or institute Sacraments or Sacramental signs or any thing else for which in genere he hath no commission this is simply unlawfull § 66. But this is not all There is a second thing unlawfull also and that is the misdetermining of those same modes and circumstances which he is authorized to determine For he is as is said to do it by Gods General Rule Here therefore we must thus conclude 1 that every misordering of such great affairs is the sin of them that do it 2. But yet that the subject is not exempted from obedience by every such mistake of the Governor but by some he is § 67. If the mischoosing of such circumstances by Church-governors be but an inconvenience and do not destroy the ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey 1. For he is the judge in his own work and not we 2. the thing is not sinfull though inconvenient 3. Obedience is commanded to our lawfull Governors Of this we shall say more in the last Chap. § 68. But if a Governor so misdetermine but a mode or circumstance as will overthrow the substance and ends of the worship I
but only by such an accident as being over-weighed by another accident shall cease to make them unlawfull For instance If the Pastor appoint a more imperfect version of the Psalms to be sung in the Church as is commonly done in England the obeying of him in the use of this will not bring so much hurt to the Church as the disobeying on that account would do For besides the sin of disobedience it self the Church would be in a confusion if they forsake his conduct that preserves the union and some will be for this and some for that and so the worship it self will be overthrown But if the Pastor would command a version so corrupt as would overthrow the duty it self or be as bad as non-performance the Church is then to seek redress and not obey him So if he command a Time inconvenient but tolerable as to meet at sun rising or sun setting it were better obey then dissolve the Church if we cannot be otherwise relieved But if he appoint a Time that 's intolerably unfit as at midnight I would not obey except in sâ—ch necessity as leaves to that time or none the same I spoke before of other circumstances § 8. On the other side if Magistrates or Pastors shall think their Imposition lawfull because the people may lawfully obey them they are as much mistaken Even many of those Divines that wrote for conformity to the late Ceremonies did take it to be 〈◊〉 sin of those that imposed them as they were imposed and would have written as much against the Imposition if they 〈◊〉 but had liberty I mâ—an such writers as Mr. Sprint Mr. Paybody Dr. Iohn Burgess who told the King of Pollio's glasses that were broken by Caesar that no more anger and danger of mens lives should follow and would have had him so to have used our Ceremonies So Zanchy that judged the Ceremonies such as might lawfully be used did write to the Queen to take them down and not leave them as snares to cast out the Ministers and at the same time he wrote to the Ministers to use them in case the Queen would not be perswaded to forbear the imposing and urging of them § 9. If I be bouâ—d to obey a Governour if he set me to pick straws or to hunt a feather it followeth not that he may lawfully command it I have heard many pleading for Ceremonies say that if the Magistrate commanded them and would not otherwise permit them to preach the Gospel they would preach in a fools Coat and a fools Cap with a feather rather then forbear But I do not think that any of them would justifie that Ruler that would make such a Law that no man should preach or celebrate the Sacraments but in a fools Coat and Cap such might expect to be judged by Christ as the scorners of him and his Ordinances CHAP. XIII Prop. 13. The Constant use of things indifferent should not be ordinarily commanded but they should be sometimes used and sometimes disused § 1. I WILL say but little of this because I have opened it before in the Disputation about Liturgies The Reasons of it are plain 1. Indifferent things should be used as indifferent things and therefore with some indifferency § 2. And 2. The people else will be brought to think them Necessary if they be constantly used and custome will grow to a Law And no contradicting this by doctrine will serve turn to rectifie the mistake For we cannot be alway nor oft preaching on such things And if we were yet practice is much more observed by them then doctrine which commonly they understand not or forget § 3. And 3. Hereupon their minds will receive a false impression about the nature of their Religion and they will be brought to worship they know not how and to set a high value on that which is not to be valued and consequently it will kindle a false zeal in their affections and corrupt all their devotions § 4. And 4. It will make them disobedient against Magistrates or Pastors that would take them off from their false apprehensions and misguided practices and if they live in a place where the Governours are against their customs they will disobey them on pretence of duty to God and think that they do him service in it § 5. Yea 5. They will be uncharitably censorious against their Brethren that are not of their mind and â—ooâ— on them as men that are self-conceited or irreligious as the Papists do by all that do no entertain every opinion which they 〈◊〉 with the Articles of their faith and every practice which they place their Religion in § 6. We see all this by sad experience among our selves The imposers of our Ceremonies and the maintainers of them did still profess that they were no parts â—ut Accidents of worshâ—p and they pleaded for them but as things indifferent And yet now the Magistrate and their lawfull acknowledged Pastors would bring the people in some of these Ceremonies to change their customs they will not do it in many places but make conscience as they profess of Gestures and forms and Dâ—yes and such like as if they had been of Divine Institution If they be things Indifferent why may not they disuse an Holy day one year as they use it another or disuse a form of Prayer one day as they use it another or recieve the Lords Supper one time sitting as they do another time kneeling But this they will not endure to yield to so that you see that constant uninterrupted use hath made custome a Law with them and given the Lie to the Doctrine of the Bishops themselves that called them but indifferent things and caused the people to place Gods worship in them § 7. And on the other side a constant purposed disuse of convenient Modes and Circumstances of worship may draw people to think them things unlawfull and to rise up against them as innovations and strange things when they are imposed § 8. Yet here we must distinguish of indâ—fferent things Some are so convenient that we cannot frequently vary but with great inconveniency and wrong to the Church as a due hour for Assembling and a convenient place and the best Translations and versions of the Psalms the fittest Utensils for worship c. In all these cases it were giddiness to vary frequently and without need and yet worse to tie men up from varying when they find need Other things are of ordinary inconvenience which therefore ordinarily should be disused though in some cases of necessity they must be allowed Other things depend upon the will of men and there is no great difference in point of convenience between the using and disusing them but what the will of man doth cause as in our vestures our gestures in some of the Ordinances as in hearing singing Psalms and in abundance of Ceremonies or Circumstances this is the case These are they that I say should be used but unconstantly §
of the Churches and Ministry and the substance of worship it self and the Salvation of men souls As if it were better for Churches to be no Churches then not Prelatical Churches or for souls to be condemned then to be saved by men that are not Prelatical I speak not these things to exasperate them though I can expect no better but in the grief of my soul for the sad condition that they would bring men into Sect. 32. 26. They lay a very dangerous snare to draw Ministers to be guilty of casting off the work of God Flesh and blood would be glad of a fair pretence for so much liberty and ease O how fain would it be unyoakt and leave this labourious displeasing kind of life And when such as these shall perswade them that they are no Ministers they may do much to gratifie the flesh For some will say I am at a loss between both wayes I cannot see the lawfulness of Prelacy and yet they speak so confidently of the nullity of all other callings that I will forbear till I am better resolved Another will say I find my self to be no Minister and therefore free from the Obligation to Ministerial Offices and I will take heed how I come under that yoak again till I have fuller resolution Another will scruple being twice Ordained and so will think it safer to surcease At least they tempt men to such resolutions that would discharge them from so hard a work Sect. 33. 27. By this means also they make the breaches that are among us to be uncurable and proclaim themselves utterly unreconcileable to the most of the Protestant Churches For if they will have no reconciliation or communion with them till they shall confess themselves no Churches and cast off all their Ministers they may as well say flatly they will have none at all For no reasonable man can imagine or expect that ever the Churches should yield to these terms When they are declared no Ministers or Churches you cannot then have Communion with them as Ministers or Churches Sect. 34. 28. And it is easie to see how much they befriend and encourage the Papists in all this Is it not enough that you have vindicated the Pope from being the Antichrist but you must also openly proclaim that Rome is a true Church their Priests true Priests their Ordinances and Administrations Valid but all the Protestant Churches that are not Prelatical are indeed no Churches their Ministers no Ministers c. Who would not then be a Papist rather then a member of such a Protestant Church How can you more plainly invite men to turn Papists unless you would do it expresly and with open face Or how could you gratifie Papists more Sect. 35. 29. And truly if all these evils were accomplâ—shed the Ministers forsaken iniquity let loose the Ordinances prophaned by unworthy men c. we could expect nothing but that the judgements of God should be poured out upon us for our Apostacy and that temporal plagues involuntary should accompany the spiritual plagues that we have chosen and that God should even forsake our land and make us a by word and an hissing to the Nations and that his judgements should write as upon our doors This is the people that wilfully cast out the Ministers and mercies of the Lord. Sect. 36. 30. And if all this were but accomplished in the Conclusion I may be bold to ask what would the Devil himself have more except our damnation it self If he were to plead his own cause and to speak for himself would he not say the very same as these Learned Reverend Disputers do would he not say to all our graceless people Hear nâ—t these Ministers they are no true Ministers Ioyn not in Communion with their Churches they are no true Churches I doubt not but he would say many of the same words if he had leave to speak And should not a man of any fear be afraid and a man of any piety be unwilling to plead the very cause of Satan and say as he would have them say by accusing so many famous Churches and Ministers as being none indeed and drawing the people so to censure them and forsake them This is no work for a Minister of Christ. Sect. 37. Besides what is here said I desire those whom it doth concern that are afraid of plunging themselves into the depth of guilt and horror that they will impartially read over my first sheet for the Ministry which further shews the aggravations of their sin that are now the opposers and reproachers of them Consider them and take heed Sect. 38. But again I desire these Brethren to believe that as it is none of the Prelatical Divines that I here speak of but those that thus nullifie our Church Ministry while they own the Ministry and Church of Rome so it is none of my desire to provoke even these or injure them in the least degree But I could not in this sad condition of the Church but propound these hainous evils to their consideration to provoke them to try and to take heed lest they should incur so great a load of guilt while they think they are pleading for Order in the Church How can there be any charity to the Church or to our brethren in us if we can see them in such a gulf of sin as this and yet say nothing to them for fear of provoking them to displeasure Sect. 39. And I think it necessary that all young men that are cast by their arguings into temptations of falling with them into the same transgressions should have the case laid open to them that they may see their danger and not by the accusations of Schism be led into far greater real Schism with so many other sins as these Sect. 40. Yet is it not my intent to justifie any disorders or miscarriages that any have been guilty of in opposition to the Prelacie And if they can prove that I have been guilty of any such thing my self I shall accept of their reproof and condemn my sin as soon as I can discern it Only I must crave that the usual way of presumption affirmation or bare names of crimes be not supposed sufficient for Conviction without proof and before the cause is heard And also I do profess that for all that I have here said against the English Prelacy and though I earnestly desire it may never be restored yet were I to live under it again I would live peaceably and submissively being obedient and perswading others to obedience in all things lawfull CHAP. IX The sinfulness of despising or neglecting Ordination Sect. 1. IT is a thing so common and hardly avoided for men in opposing one extream to seem to countenance the other and for men that are convinced of the evil of one to run into the other as the only truth that I think it necessary here to endeavour the prevention of this miscarriage and having said so much