necessity of it Christ should profit them nothing Gal. 5. 2. Now from this History as our Author had contrived it he drew several wilde inferences As first p. 203. In this fantastical Hurry I cannot see saith he but all the World were Schismaticks To which I reply That all the World were not concerned in it there being some Nations that differed from both these in the observation of Easter as Socrates l. 5. c. 21. hath observed for even among the Jewish Converts some that agreed on the 14th day differed in the Moon and Venerable Bede observes that our Nation which the Pope pretends to have been his Converts did in those primitive times observe their Easter on the 14th day which by the way is an argument that we at first received the Christian Faith not from the Church of Rome who exploded this custome but more Anciently from Joseph of Arimathea or from St. Philip who as many good Authors affirm planted the Christian Religion in our neighbour Nation of France and as the Asian Churches affirm was one of them that taught them this custom nor do we read that they were condemned for Hereticks for so doing Neither did those Eastern Churches who differed in the Moneth anathematize each other and Socrates ubi supra gives this reason for it They that agree in the same Faith may differ from each other in respect of Rites as the Reformed Churches do at this day And though the Roman Church did excommunicate the Asian yet were they never the more Schismaticks for that being they were sui Juris not under the Roman power And according to our Authors definition of schism they being never members of that Church from which they were excommunicate could not be guilty of schism notwithstanding Victors rigor We say therefore they were still members of the Catholick Church And as for the Roman Church what should make them Schismaticks For though Victor did arrogate too much as to the manner of his proceedings yet as to the matter his prosecution against a Jewish ceremony when it grew into an Opinion of being necessary to be observed was his duty and approved by the practice of St. Paul himself And while there was a controversie between their Governors the People and Clergy too of both Parties continued in due subjection to their Superiors and in mutual charity to one another So that the Separatists of our Age can have no excuse for their Schism from this instance But our Author infers Secondly that this fell out through the ignorance or which he mentioneth also the malice of their Governors and that through the just judgment of God on the People because through sloth and blind obedience they examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched down and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them To which I Answer It doth not appear there was any charge of ignorance to be imputed to Victor or his People for the reasons above mentioned much less of malice Our present Sectaries do call their opposition to Ceremonies more innocent than that by the name of zeal and love to the cause of God Nor was there any thing imposed on the Churches of either side that concerned their Faith nor any custome or rite de novo but only the Asian Churches were desired to translate the custome of observing Easter from a day which gave offence not only to the Church of Rome but several other Churches Petavius says the difference was not de Catholico dogmate sed de Ritu seu Ritûs potiùs tempore And if the Superiors in the Asian Churches had thought the Alteration fit as shortly after they did it had doubtless been the Peoples duty to submit for every Church hath power in those things which are indifferent and much more in such things as give offence to other Churches to appoint and alter rites and ceremonies for the publick Worship of God and the People shew themselves not beasts of burthen but Christ's Free-men in submitting to their Governors as far as Christian liberty doth permit If Victor had imposed new Articles of Faith as Pius Quintus did in the Council of Trent doubtless those Primitive Christians would have resisted even to bloud of which they gave too many instances when they constantly endured all manner of torments rather than they would renounce the Faith once delivered to them Our Author therefore needed to ask pardon for wounding the reputation of these Ancient Worthies in cool bloud as well as for massacring at once the authority of all the Fathers in the heat of a temptation p. 204. where he says thus You may plainly see the danger of our appeal to Antiquity for resolution in controversies of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence for if the discretion of the chiefest Guides of the Church did in a point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of extreme grossness and folly think so poor spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot in the Churches Pardon me I know not what temptation drew that note from me To this I reply 1. Whoever he be that so contemptuously rejects the Authority and trampleth on the reputation of the Fathers hath sufficiently excused those that shall slight his own This is the Author 's own sense Golden Remains p. 260. 2. I refer it to the judgment of the Reader whether Victor Bishop of Rome condemning some of the Asian Churches for adhering too tenaciously to a Jewish ceremony which was of ill consequence to those and other neighbouring Churches were not more excusable than a private person living many hundred years after the fact and never rightly knowing or else wrongfully representing it insolently and causlesly condemning the Ancient Fathers not of one or two Ages or parts of the Church but all in general as if the failing of one man in a point so trivial and inconsiderable as our Author calls it were sufficient reason to condemn them all for indiscreet and poor spirited persons And to impute extreme grossness and folly to all that should think them competent Judges of our differences This is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond that of Abailardus who was wont to say that the Fathers for the most part did think this or that to be right but I think otherwise as if his single authority could out-weigh all theirs 3. He must pretend to have some new light for his guide and be either an Enthusiast or Socinian that can see any danger in appealing to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith For seeing there is scarce any point of Faith but some unhappy Wits have controverted it and in defence of their Opinions have put the Scriptures on the rack to make them speak their own sense how can
of the Venerable Mr. Hales improved such Notions and Arguments as are destructive to the Government and Peace of the Church of England it is not strange that Men of little Learning and great Prejudices should assume them whereby as far as they are able to justifie their Schismatical practices nor that the Scepticke of this Age should be fond of such Notions as may tend to the Subversion of what hath been so long and so well established among us We may rather wonder how so Villanous a Pamphlet as the Rehersal calls it yet so obnoxious to just exceptions should have continued so long in Vogue without a Confutation from some more Learned Hand that the Infection of it might proceed no farther but its weakness be made manifest to all Men. As for Doctor Parker he hath no less judiciously and successfully acquitted Himself against any thing objected by Master Hales or Marvel than Master Hooker To instance in that one particular of pretending Scruples of Conscience against the Commands of Publick Authority he faith more in One Page than all the Objectors will be able to Answer Though this pretence saith he might be allowed of in the Dayes of Queen Elizabeth when it was first started yet after so long time and so much enquiry it is intolerable For if after all their search and examination they have not been able to descry the evils they suspected this is a sufficient Principle of Presumption that their Jealousies are ungrounded so that if they are now able to object any certain crime against them then this Plea of a Doubtful Conscience ceaseth and the Certainty is to be pleaded in stead of the Doubt if not an Hundred and Fifty Years is a sufficient time to satisfie or to cancel scruples And a scrupulous Conscience is of a modest yielding and plyable temper as arising from a diffidence and distrust of it self And Doubts and Scruples are rarely imployed but upon trifling and inconsiderable matters the material parts of Duty being too plain and easie to be liable to so much uncertainty And therefore obedience to Authority being one of the greatest and most indispensable Duties of Mankind in that it is so absolutely necessary to their well being and injoyned upon them by the most Positive Precepts and severest Penalties of the Gospel Nor is it fit that in Doubtful cases of a Publick concern Men should talk too peremptorily of their private Perswasions because they are incompetent Judges of the Publick good and therefore are to be determined and over-ruled by the Judgment of those to whose care the management of Publick Affairs is intrusted unless in case of certain and unquestionable Disobedience to the Law of GOD For we are no otherway free from the Supreme Authority on Earth but as we are subject to a Superior in Heaven AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. HALES's TREATISE of SCHISM Q. WHat is the benefit of Communion Answ Communion is the strength and ground of all society Sacred and Civil whoever therefore causeth a breach if in civil occasions is guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if in Ecclesiastical differences is guilty of Schism so that Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a Lay-schisme p. 193. Q. What is the definition of Schism Answ Schisme is an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once Members Q. When is Separation necessary Answ Separation is then necessary when nothing will save us from the guilt of Conscience but open separation p. 195. Q. When is Schisme complete Answ These two things make Schism complete First The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2ly The erecting a new Church and Oratory for the dividing Party to meet in publickly As in the late famous controversie in Holland de Praedestinatione as long as the disagreeing Parties went no further than disputes the Schisme was unhatched but as soon as one Party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating Party to meet in what before was a Controversie became a formal Schisme p. 197. Q. What is the danger of Schism Answ What the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schisme in general is most true and they spake most strange things of it for they saw that unadvisedly and upon fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially among Christians upon whom the tye of love and communion doth especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves a Man from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience And p. 192. Heresie and Schisme are things of great moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and both are deadly Q. Was the Schisme of the Donatists any way excusable Answ No they were compleat Schismaticks upon the grounds before mentioned nor was there any necessary cause for their Separation for the occasion of the Schisme was an Opinion that where good and bad were mixed there could be no Church by reason of pollution evaporating as it were from sinners which blasted the righteous and made all unclean whereas in his Congregations he pretended that wicked persons found no shelter p. 206. Q. How was this Schisme of the Donatists refuted Answ By this one maxime of Saint Augustine which was irrefragably asserted Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam That the unity of the Catholick Church is not to be forsaken for the sins of some that are within it p. 206. Q. Though in this Schism the Donatist was the Schismatick yet might not any one communicate with them if occasion so required if so be they did not flatter them in their Schisme for why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist if occasion so required since neither Nature nor Religion suggest the contrary why may I not be present at such publick Meetings as pretend Holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook Yea why may I not go to an Arian Church if occasion require so there be no Arianism expressed in the Liturgy Answ 1. You may not communicate with such because of the danger of Schisme before mentioned 2ly Because it is not lawful no not for prayer hearing conference or any other religious office whatsoever for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which may be performed warrantably in publick p. 229 230. Q. But what if they to whose care the execution of the publick service is committed do some things unseemly suspicious or unlawful if their Garments be censured as or indeed be superstitious what if the Gesture of Adoration be used at the Altar what if the Homilist or Preacher deliver any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well
perswaded Answ Yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained to bear a part in them our selves The Priests under Eli had so ill demeaned themselves about the daily Sacrifice that they made it to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifices to the Priests for in Schismes which concern fact nothing can be a just cause of refusal of Communion but only the requiring of the execution of some unlawful or suspected Act. Q. What may we do when some Persons in a Church teach erroneous Doctrines suppose of Arius and Nestorius concerning the Trinity or the Person of our Saviour Answ What to do in this case is not a point of any great depth of understanding to discover so be it distemper and partiality do not intervene I do not see that Opinionum varietas Opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Men of different Opinions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris in the publick Worship This Argument holds à fortiori if I may keep communion with such as teach false Doctrines much more with such as practise only suspected Ceremonies p. 226. Q. What is your Opinion of Conventicles Answ It evidently appears that all Meetings upon unnecessary occasions of Separation are to be so stiled so that in this sense a Conventicle is nothing else but a Congregation of Schismaticks Q. Is not this name sometime fixed upon good and honest Meetings p. 227. Answ It is and that perchance not without good reason For first it hath been at all times confessed necessary that God should have not only inward and private devotion when Men either in their Hearts or Closets or within their private Walls pray praise confess and acknowledge but that all these things should be done in publick by troops and shoals of Men from whence proceeded publick Temples Altars Forms of Service appointed Times and the like which are required for open Assemblies Q. What is the reason of the severe Censures and Laws against private Meetings Answ When it was espied that ill affected persons abused private Meetings whether religious or civil to evil ends religiousness to gross impiety and the Meetings of Christians under Pagan Princes when for fear they durst not come together in open view were charged with soul imputations as by the report of Christians themselves it plainly appears as also civil Meetings under pretence of Friendship and neighbourly visits sheltered treasonable attempts against Princes and Common-weals Hence both Church and State joyned and joyntly gave order for forms times places of publick Concourse whether for civil or religious ends and all other Meetings whatsoever besides those of which both time and place were limited they censured for routs and riots and unlawful Assemblies in the State and in the Church for Conventicles Q. Is it not lawful then for Prayer hearing conference and other religious Offices for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick Order is allowed Answ No for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which warrantably may be performed in publick p. 230. Q. I pray you Sir What general Rules are fit to be observed for the discovering and avoiding of Schisme Answ Take heed of entertaining scruples of Conscience about things of little moment for when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schismes began to break in p. 217. Q. What other Rule is necessary to be observed Answ That you do not endeavour to advance one Bishop against another much more a Presbyter against the Bishop which in St. Cyprian's language is Erigere Altare contra Altare to set up Altar against Altar to which he imputeth the Original of all Church disorders and if you read him you would think he thought no other Church-tumult to be a Schisme but this For the general practice of the Church was never to admit more than one Bishop at once in one See but it fell out among the Ancients sometime by occasion of difference in Opinion sometimes because of difference among those who were interessed in the choice of Bishops that two Bishops and sometime more were set up and all Parties striving to maintain their own Bishop made themselves several Congregations and Churches each refusing to participate with others And seeing it is a thing very convenient for the peace of the Church to have but one Bishop in a See at once Their punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily or wantonly go about to infringe it HAving by a brief Analysis of the Treatise of Schism extracted the genuine sense of the Author who as the Transproser says p. 175. was one of the Church of England and as such I have endeavoured to represent him it is obvious to every one that shall read that Tract that instead of Answering Mr. Hooker's or Mr. Parker's Tracts of Ecclesiastical Polity it hath fully refuted it self and all other cavils of the Schismaticks who by these two assertions of his will for ever lye under a just condemnation The One is p. 209. What if those to whose care the Execution of the publick service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the Garments they wear be censured as nay indeed be Superstitious what if the gesture of Adoration be used at the Altar what if the Homilist or Preacher deliver any doctrine of the truth of which we be not well perswaded yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear a part in them our selves Then may not any of the Laity who are not required to bear a part in such things separate from our Congregations and by consequence neither may their Leaders draw them into a separation The second Assertion is p. 229. It is not lawful no not for prayer for hearing for conference for any other religious office whatsoever for people to assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed This conclusion our Author infers from substantial premises I confess I was so tender of the reputation and memory of Mr. Hales who as the Transproser says was not only one of the Church of England but most remarkable for his sufferings in the late times and for his Christian patience under them which befel him as Mr. Parker observes p. 148. when he had declared himself of another Opinion and obtained leave of Arch-bishop Laud who converted him to call himself his Grace's Chaplain that naming him in his publick prayers the greater notice might be taken of the Alteration which doubtless was the cause why so eminent a person was by the iniquity of those times reduced to those necessities under which the Transposer observes he lived p. 176. that I resolved at first not to make any reflection on such passages as discovered the Author to be guilty of so many Passions infirmities and contradictions I shall not deal therefore with Mr.
I have But shall I therefore wrong the truth and Church of God and my own and others Souls God forbid And page 52. he farther tells us I repent that I no more discouraged the spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiors and Church-orders and though I ever disliked and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much incourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church corruptions and was too loth to displease the contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good knowing the prophane to be much worse than they and meeting with too few religious persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives And as an Argument of his repentance he defends himself against Bagshaw who objected that he chose on Easter day to communicate in a very populous Church purposely that it might be known saying p. 76. If a man by many years forbearing all publick prayers and Sacrament should tempt others to think that he is against them or counts them needless how should he cure that scandal but by doing that openly pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach the people by Example as well as Doctrine p. 78. And what he practised himself he carefully perswaded the people to avoid separation and hold communion in the parochial Churches For the Question which he maintained against Bagshaw was It is lawful to hold communion with such Christian Churches as have worthy or tolerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial order of them and the Ministers conformity and use of the Common Prayer-book and with two limitations concludes p. 89. That we ought to do so when some special reasons as from Authority scandal c. do require it And whereas by these actions and writings Mr. Baxter had so provoked the dissenting parties that it was objected as himself intimates in a second objection in the Preface of his Christian Directory That his writings differing from the common judgment had already caused offence to the Godly in the fourth Answer he sayes If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such men much more by endeavouring further than ever I have done the quenching of that fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the folly and mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tear the Church of God and let them know that I am about it These are resolutions becoming a Minister of Christ an Ambassador of the Prince of Peace taken up after long and serious deliberation well rooted and fixed in his judgment and Conscience by reason whereof he was enabled through the Grace of God to withstand manifold temptations and violent oppositions to the contrary Nor can I think that such a man as Mr. Baxter can flee and desert so good a cause and after Vows to make enquiry and render himself guilty of all those calumnies and reproaches which his enemies have endeavoured to fix upon him Nor can I think that having brought our present controversies to so narrow a compass of ground he will contribute to the building of a Babel upon it This were to make good those hard speeches of Mr. Bagshaw against him who tells us p. 152. That one worthy of Credit told him that the Learned and Judicious Mr. Herle having read that cryed up book of his said It had been happy for the Church of God if Mr. Baxter's friends had never sent him to School and that Mr. Cawdry had the same opinion of it And that another person as knowing in the Mystery of Godliness as either of them told a friend of his that notwithstanding the noise about him Mr. Baxter would end in flesh and bloud And in a word this would set home his own fears upon his spirit that he might be a fire brand in hell for being a fire-brand in the Church I shall therefore charitably believe that though he seem to look another way yet he is labouring to bring the people that adhere to him to the harbour of Ecclesiastical peace and unity that he doth still preach up not holiness only but peace too without which he knows no man shall see God nor can I think that he doth now practise in contempt of Authority what himself had condemned in others or that he intends to harden the people in such a Separation as he had so long so passionately so rationally declaimed against I rather hope that he hath some dispensation from his Lawful Superiors and that by a pia fraus having greater advantages of doing good put into his hands he will by degrees improve them to the glory of God and the peace of this distracted Church If he drive any other design I would desire him to consider first how he can Answer his own Arguments unto men and secondly how to give an account to God for his contrary practices But I have a very great confidence that he who hath with great industry and faithfulness provided so many solid materials from the Scriptures and right reason for the supporting and beautifying a Temple of peace having carved and guilded them over with serious Protestations of his own pacifick intentions and variety of Rhetorick to perswade others will not be a Leader of that rabble which shall first break down the carved works with axes and hammers and at last though sore against his will raze the very foundations and cry Down with it down with it even to the ground Of the Church Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. S. 2. THE Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but unity and concord without Division S. 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part S. 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church S. 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the several Members S. 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church S. 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it though we must not separate from
the other Study Gal. 2. 22. Rom. 14. 1. Acts 21. 24 26. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 6. 4. Titus 3. 8 9. I hope sad experience speaks this lesson to your very hearts if I should say nothing Do not your hearts bleed to look upon the State of England and to think how few Towns or Cities there be where is any forwardness in Religion that are not cut into shreds and crumbled as to dust by separations and divisions to think what a wound we have hereby given to the very Christian name how we have hardned the ignorant confirmed the Papists and are our selves become the scorn of our enemies and the grief of our friends and how many of our dearest best esteemed friends have fallen to notorious pride or impiety yea some to be worse than open Infidels These are pillars of Salt see that you remember them Though of your own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Acts 20. 30. yea though an Angel from Heaven should draw you to divisions see that you follow him not If there be erroneous practices in the Church keep your selves innocent with moderation and peace It must be no small error that must force a Separation Justin Martyr professed that if a Jew should keep the ceremonial law so he did not perswade the Gentiles to it as necessary yet if he acknowledged Christ he judgeth that he might be saved and he would imbrace him and have communion with him Paul would have him received that is weak in the faith and not un-church whole parishes of those that we know not nor were ever brought to a just trial I ever loved a godly peaceable Conformist better than a turbulent Nonconformist I differ from many in several things of considerable moment yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others so as to disturb the peace of the Church and separate from my brethren that are contrary minded I should fear lest I should prove a fire-brand in hell for being a fire-brand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your judgments and affections I here charge you that if God should give me up to any factious Church-rending course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step And for peace with one another follow it with all your might if it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. mark this When you feel any sparks of discontent in your breasts take them as kindled by the Devil from hell and take heed you cherish them not If the flames begin to break forth in censoriousness reproaches and hard speeches of others be as speedy and busie in quenching it as if it were fire in the thatch of your houses For why should your houses be dearer to you than the Church which is the house of God or your Souls which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Hath God spoke more against any sin than unpeaceableness If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you which Lodovicus Crocius says is the measure and essential property of the least degree of true faith if you love not one another you are not disciples of Christ Publick wars and private quarrels usually pretend the Reformation of the Church the vindicating of the Truth and the welfare of Souls but they as usually prove in the issue the greatest means to the overthrow of all It is as natural for both wars and private contentions to produce errors schisms contempt of Magistracy Ministry and Ordinances as it is for a dead Carrion to breed worms and vermine Believe it from one that hath too many years experience of it it is as hard a thing to maintain even in your people a sound understanding a tender Conscience a lively gracious heavenly frame of spirit and an upright life in a way of war and contention as to keep your Candle lighted in the greatest storms or under the waters The like I may say of perverse and fierce disputings about the circumstantials of discipline or other questions that are far from the foundation they oftner lose the truth than find it Wo to those Ministers that make unnecessary divisions and parties among the people that so they may get themselves a name and be cryed up by many followers The way to prosper your labours is to quench all flames of contention to your power Study the peace and unity of your Congregations keep out all occasions of divisions especially the doctrine of Separation and popular Church-Government the apparent Seminary of faction and perpetual contentions If once the people be taught that it belongs to them to govern themselves and those the Scripture calleth their Guides and Rulers we shall have mad work They that would pluck up the hedge of Government as if the vineyard could not be fruitful except it lay waste to the pleasure of all the beasts of the forest are like the pond that grudged at the banks and damm and thought it injurious to be restrained of its liberty and therefore combined with the winds to raise a tempest and so assault and beat down the banks in their rage and now where is that peaceable association of waters We feel now how those are mistaken that thought the way for the Churches unity was to dig up the banks and let all loose that every man in Religion might do what he list They are usually men least acquainted with a heavenly life who are the violent disputers about the circumstantials of Religion As the body doth languish in consuming Fevers when the native heat abates within and unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds so when the zeal of a Christian doth leave the internals of Religion and fly to ceremonials externals or inferior things the Soul must needs consume and languish Of Conformity For Conformity though to Ministers it be another thing by reason of the new impositions than it was to our Predecessors yet to the People Conformity is the same if not easier especially to them that I now speak to for it is the Liturgy Ceremonies and Ministry that most alienate them And the Liturgy is a little amended as to them by the change of the translation and some little words and by some longer Prayers and the Ceremonies are the same and thirty years ago there were many bare reading not preaching Ministers for one that is now Therefore our case of Separation being the same as of old I take it to be fully confuted by the Ancient Non-conformists and I have so great a veneration for the worthy Names much more an estimation of the reasonings of Mr. Cartwright Egerton Hildersham Dod Amesius Parker Baines Brightman Ball Bradshaw Paget Langley Nicols Herring c. that I shall not think they knew not why they chose this subject and wrote more against Separation than the Conformists did I am very glad that the pious Lectures of
which we translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are subordinate to Christ in his Priestly office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Hebr. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Ro. 12. 1. And Hebr. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel-times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any question or scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their followers that all antiquity is on their side The Lords Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion table c. Qu. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the rails to communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these circumstances but only general rules for edification unity decency and order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw men to Popery or to incourage men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away dogs keeping boys from sitting on it and the professed doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the place name scituation and rail is unsound for we assemble there to communicate in and according to the professed doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private opinion and error of the Minister Of the Creed Qu. 139. What is the use and authority of the Creed is it of the Apostles framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the baptismal covenant And for the satisfaction of the Church that men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or composition of the words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the three Articles of Christs own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach men to vary the matter And lastly no doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the essentials of Religion were by the tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Qu. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound doctrine and fitted to the peoples edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scriptures or other necessary Church duty 4. So they be not read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Qu. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Nonconformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear to them not as Officers claiming a divine right in the spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy Of the Holiness of Churches Qu. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers holy and what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more holy than those justly separated by man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its holiness And this expressed by such signs gestures actions as are fittest to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in Church and use reverent carriage and gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials Those modes or circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the publick Worship Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not an aliene work but his
own work amiss and therefore the thing in it self being lawful I would obey him and use that garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey And I see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of the Ring in marriage for though the Papists make a Sacrament of marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any Ordinance of Divine Worship more than the solemnizing a contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the pure And for Organs or other Instruments of musick in God's worship they being a help partly natural and partly artificial to the exhilarating the Spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the tune and metre and melody of singing unlawful Of Holy-days Nor do I scruple to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent Servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their Doctrine or Example and honor their memorial I am resolved if I live where such Holy-days Christ's Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration ascension and such like are observed to censure no man for observing them But if I lived under a government that peremptorily commanded it I would observe the outward rest of such a Holy-day and I would preach on it and join with the Assemblies in God's Worship yea I would thus observe the day rather than offend a weak Brother or hinder any man's salvation much more rather than I would make any division in the Church Of the Cross in Baptism I dare not peremptorily say that the Cross in Baptism is unlawful nor will I condemn Ancients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it more than my own forbearance will make I presume not to censure them that judge it lawful but only give the reasons that make me doubt and rather think it to be unlawful though still with a suspicion of my own understanding Of Ceremonies Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon Humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the commands of their lawful Governors in such things It may be very sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used by the Subject when they are commanded Mr. Baxter's judgment concerning Confirmation agreeable to the practice of the Church of England may be seen in a particular Treatise on that Subject Of Conventicles Q. 172. Are all religious and private Meetings forbidden by Rulers unlawful Coventicles Answ 1. It is more to the Honor of the Church and of Religion and of God and more to our safety and edification to have God's worship performed solemnly publickly and in great Assemblies than in a corner secretly and with few 2. It is a great mercy where Rulers allow the Church such publick Worship 3. Caeteris paribus all Christians should prefer such publick Worship before private and no private Meetings should be kept up which are opposite or prejudicial to such publick Meetings And therefore if such Meetings or any that are unnecessary to the ends of the Ministry the service of God and good of Souls be forbidden by lawful Rulers they must be forborn And it must be remembred that Rulers that are Infidels Papists Hereticks or Persecutors that restrain Church meetings to the injury of mens Souls must be distinguished from pious Princes that only restrain Hereticks and real Schismaticks for the Churches good 2. And that times of heresie and schism may make private meetings more dangerous than quiet times And so even the Scottish Church forbad private meetings in the Separatists days of late And when they do more hurt than good and are justly forbidden no doubt in that case it is a duty to obey and to forbear them It is a dangerous thing to be insnared in a Sect it will before you are aware possess you with a seaverish sinful zeal for the Opinions and interest of that Sect it will make you bold in bitter invectives and censures against those that differ from you it will corrupt your Church-communion and fill your very Prayers with partiality and humane passions it will secretly bring malice under the name of Zeal into your minds and words In a word it is a secret but deadly enemy to Christian love and peace Let them that are wiser and more Orthodox and godly than others shew as the Holy Ghost directeth them James 3. 13 14 c. out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying or zeal and strife in your hearts Glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual Devilish Of Communion in the Lords Supper Qu. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons Answ It is your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the members are capable of Church-communion though there may some Infidels or Heathen or uncapable Persons violently intrude or scandalous Persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption Qu. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Answ I never yet heard any thing to prove kneeling unlawful there is no Word of God for or against any gesture Christ's example cannot be proved to oblige us in this and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours The nature of the Ordinance is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our Knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a Sealed Pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knees As for this Ceremony of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread-worship and the bodily real-presence my judgment was ever for it God having made some gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper work I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself in this as obligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace Mr. Perkins was for kneeling and Mr. Baines in his Letters writes for it and answers objections against it Qu. 4. But what if I cannot communicate but according to the administration of the Common-prayer book Answ 1. That it is not unlawful to receive according to the administration of the Common-prayer book because it is a form
extensive as they please The most are of Opinion that while the Church lyes so unprovided for the donations are not alienable sine Sacrilegio If there were a Surplusage above the competent maintenance it were another matter It is clear enough the Donors wills are frustrated and that their general intention and the general use viz. the maintenance of God's Worship and Ministers should stand though the particular use might be superstitious I cited in my last Sermon before the Parliament a place out of Mr. Hildersham on Psal 51. touching Sacriledge It did not please If his description of it be true then you will still be of your own mind I dare encourage no Purchasers c. Mr. Baxter's advice to separating Brethren As to separation Be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extreme necessity resolve with Augustine I will not be the Chaff and yet I will not go out of the Floor though the Chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour for Reformation and yet as long as you can possibly avoid it Forsake not the Church that you desire to reform as Paul said to them that were to forsake a shipwrackt Vessel If these abide not in the Ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others Of Raising Churches against Churches The interest of the Christian Protestant Religion in England must be much kept up by keeping up as much of truth piety and reputation as is possible in the Parish-Churches Therefore In Parishes where all may hear the Parish-Minister I would not have you without necessity to preach at the same hour of the day but at some middle time that you may not seem to vie with him for Auditors nor to draw the People from him but let them go with you to hear him and after come and hear you Do not meet together in opposition to the publick meeting nor at the time of publick worship nor yet to make a groundless schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are Members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hope of reforming it nor yet would I have you forward to vent your own supposed gifts and parts in teaching where there is no necessity of it nor as a separated Church but as a part of the Church more diligent than the rest in redeeming time Let all your private meetings be in subordination to the publick and by the approbation and consent of your spiritual guides remembring them which have the rule over you Heb. 13. 7 8 9. And I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them c. Rom. 16. 17 18. I would you would ponder every one of these words for they are the precious advice of the Spirit of God and necessary now as well as then The great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the sin of the Pastors in these later dayes is by division By this he hath promoted all the rest of his designs Our division gratifieth the Papist and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to believe or regard It advantageth profaneness and greatly hindereth the success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his kingdom The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare persons for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the journeys end and perfection of your revolt By such fearful desertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the unity of the Church And separation will ruine the separated Churches themselves it will admit of no consistency Parties will arise in the separated Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech my Brethren to open their eyes so far as to regard experience How few separated Churches do now exist that were in being an hundred years ago can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ to be dissolved In the year 1634. Roger Williams of New-England an Assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith Pastor at Plymouth where having vented divers singular opinions he was dismissed went to Salem which place in a years time he filled with principles of rigid Separation tending to Anabaptistry as That it is not lawful for an unregenerate man to pray or take an Oath in special not the Oath of fidelity to the Magistrate He forbad any of his Church-members to hear the godly Ministers of England when occasionally they went thither He taught that the Magistrate had nothing to do in matters of the first Table that there should be an unlimited toleration of all Religions that to punish any man for his Conscience was Persecution He separated not only from the Churches of Old but of New-England also as Antichristian After that he would not pray or give thanks with his own wife or family because they went to the Church-assemblies He kept private meetings by way of separation from and opposition to the Church-assembly and being banished as a disturber of the peace he sate down at a place called Providence and there fell to Anabaptistry renouncing Infant baptism And after a while he told his people that he was out of the way himself and had misled them for he could not find that any on earth had power to administer baptism and therefore their last baptism was a nullity as well as the first and that they must wait for the coming of new Apostles and so they dissolved and turned Seekers The case of the Summer Islands as related by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister come from thence upon discouragement would make a Christian heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that Plantation once was and how one godly Minister by Separation selecting a few to be his Church rejecting all the rest from the Sacrament the rejected party were dolefully estranged from Religion and the selected party turned Quakers But our own case is yet a more lamentable proof what Separation hath done against Religion so that it is my wonder that any good man can over-look it Above all things I intreat the dividing Brethren if they can so long lay aside partiality to judge of the reasons of their separation The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert But when many of us vent untruths and slanders against our Brethren and multiply publick untruths we never make scruple of communion with such Suppose one should say that a people guilty of such sins as are condemned Exod. 23.
1 2. Ps 15. 3. Rom. 1. 30 c. i. e. raising false reports reproaching our neighbours strife and debates should not be communicated with especially when not one of these offenders is called to repentance for it what answer will you give to this which will not confute your own objections against communion with many parish Churches in this land As to Popery The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the doctrine and worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Nor am I causelesly afraid that if we suffer the principles and practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several parties do contend about Three ways especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied Sects they will perswade people that we must either come for unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this argument already And I am perswaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine and all other books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of Sects among our selves Some Professors of Religious strictness and great esteem for Godliness having run from Sect to Sect and finding no consistency turned Papists themselves 2. Who knows not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on both parties saying to one side Lay more upon them and abate them nothing And to the other Stand it out and yield to nothing hoping that our divisions will carry us to such practices as shall make us accounted seditious rebellious and dangerous to publick peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that they may get a toleration together with us And shall they use our hands to do their work We have already served them unspeakably both in this and in abating the odium of the Gunpowder plot and other Treasons 3. It is not the least of our danger lest by our follies extremities and rigors we so exasperate the common people as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in case of competitions invasions or insurrections against the King and kingdoms peace The Papists account that if the Puritans get the day they shall make great advantage of it for they will be unsetled and all in pieces and not know how to settle the government Factions and distractions say they give us footing for continual attempts To make all sure we will secretly have our party among Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our interest Let the Magistrate cherish the disputations of the Teachers and let him procure them often to debate together and reprove one another for so when all men see that there is nothing certain among them they will easily yield saith Contzen the Jesuit Of Spiritual Pride Proud men will not grow in the same field or Church where tares do grow but will transplant themselves because God will not pluck up the tares especially if any ministerial neglect of discipline be conjoyned and instead of blaming their own pride lay the blame on the corruptions of the Church The Pharisees Liturgy is frequent in separate Assemblies God I thank thee I am not as other men But this is very remarkable that it is a pretence of our impurity and a greater purity with you that is pleaded by such as first turn over to you and that this height of all impieties should be the usual issue of a way pretended so exact and clean doubtless it is not Gods mind by this to discourage any from purity and true reformation but to shew his detestation of that spiritual pride which maketh men to have too high thoughts of themselves and too much to contemn others and to desire to be further separated from them than God in the day of grace doth allow of Consider this it is the judgment of some that thousands are gone to hell and ten thousands on their march thither that in all probability had never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for injoyment of communion in a purer Church He that causeth differences of judgment and practice contendings in the Church doth cause divisions though none separate from the Church If you may not divide in the Church nor from it then you may not causelesly divide from it your selves And commonly appearance advantage interest and a taking tone and voice do more with the most than solid evidence of truth But they who desire to have a party follow them and are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and speak perverse things c. are guilty of Church divisions Do not you condemn a carnal state Remember they are carnal who are contentious dividers in the Churches 1 Cor. 3. 1. You will disallow a fleshly mind and life Remember then that the works of the flesh are these As adultery fornication c. so hatred or enmity variance emulations wrath strife seditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividings into parties When once parties are ingaged by their opinions in Anti-Churches and fierce disputings the flesh and Satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe Of Superstition Do you not hate Superstition Consider then what superstition is it is the making of any new parts of Religion to our selves and fathering them upon God Of this there are two sorts positive and negative When we falsely say This is a duty commanded by God or when we falsely say This is a sin forbidden by God take heed of both For instance The Scripture telleth us of no Church-Elders but what were ordained and of none but such as were of the same office with the preaching Pastors or Elders of none that had not authority to baptize and administer the Lords Supper nor doth Church-History tell us of any other as a divine office But now we have concluded that there is a distinct office of Ruling Elders who need not be ordained and who have no power to baptize or to administer the Lords Supper This I think is Superstition for we feign God to have made a Church-office which he never made That it is simply unlawful to use a form of prayer or to read a prayer on a book That if a School-master impose a form upon a Scholar or a Parent on a child it maketh it become unlawful That our presence maketh us guilty of all the errors or unmeet expressions of the Minister in publick worship at
licence to preach in his Dominions How Humane Laws bind the Conscience Q. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience Answ p. 37. Taking conscience in a stricter sense as including essentially a relation to God's obligation the full sense of the question is this Whether it be a sin against God to break the laws of man Answ It is a sin against God to break such Laws as Rulers are authorized by God to make First because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers God commandeth us to obey in general and their Law determineth of the particular matter therefore God obligeth us in conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his commission he hath given them a certain beam of authority which is Divine as derived from God therefore they can command us by a power derived from God therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God Man being God's officer first his own Law layeth on us an obligation on derivatively Divine for it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. God's own Law bindeth us to obey Man's Laws Romans 13. And it may be a good reason to perswade obedience to our Ecclesiastical Governours because Preaching is a cheap and easie work in comparison of Church-government Take heed of engaging your selves in a Sect or Faction a narrow Sectarian separating mind will make all the truths of God give place to the opinions of his Party and measure the prosperity of the Gospel by the prosperity of his Party he will not stick to persecute all the rest of the Church of Christ if the interest of his Sect require it Overvalue not any private or singular opinions of your own or others for if once spiritual pride and ignorance of your own weakness make you espouse particular opinions as peculiarly your own you will think your conceits more illuminating and necessary than they are as if Mens sincerity lay in the imbracing of them and their Salvation on the receiving of them and think all that are against your opinion deserve to be cast out as enemies to Reformation and perhaps Twenty Years after experience may bring you to your wits and make you see the falshood or smalness of all those points which you made so great a matter of and then what comfort will you have of your persecutions O the deceitfulness of the heart of man Little do the many real Separatists who cry out against Persecution suspect that the same spirit is in them Whence is Persecution but from thinking ill of others and abhorring or not loving them and do not you do so by those whom you causlesly separate from It is one and the same sin in the Persecutor and Divider or Separatist which causeth the one to smite their Brethren and the other to excommunicate them the one to cast them into Prison as Schismaticks and the other to cast them out of the Church as profane the one to account them intolerable in the Land and the other to account them intolerable in the Church the inward thoughts of both are the same that those whom they smite or separate from are bad and unlovely and unfit for better usage But I have observed that Professors of Religion did oppose and deride almost all that worship of God out of pretended conscience which others did out of profaness Saints Rest part 1. c. 7. Sect. 14. It was none of the old cause that the People should have liberty and the Magistrate should have no power in all matters of God's worship faith and conscience And as it is not the old cause so it is not the good cause For first it contradicteth the express revelation of the will of God in the Holy Scripture Moses as a Magistrate had to do in matters of Religion and so had the Kings of Israel and Judah Law and providence are both quite changed if toleration of false worship and other abuses of Religion tend not to the ruine of the Common-wealth If Magistrates must give liberty for all to propagate a false religion then so must Parents and Masters also which would be a crime so horrid in the nature and effects of it as I am loth to name with its proper titles The Magistrates will quickly find that the distractions of the Church will breed and feed such distractions in the Common-wealth as may make them wish they had quenched the fire while it was yet quenchable Our unity is not only our strength but their strength and the fire that begun in the Church may if let alone reach the Court. Pag. 423. of his 5. Disputations he lays down this as the summ of what he had said That Man may determine of modes and circumstances of Worship necessary and commanded in genere but not determined by God in specie Sect. 65. and then infers Sect. 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 sinful though inconvenient 3. Obedience is commanded to our lawful Governors Sect. 70. And when we do obey in a case of miscommanding it is not a doing evil that good may come of it as some do misconceive but it is only a submitting to that which is ill-commanded but not evil in him that doth submit It is the determiner that is the cause of the inconvenience and not the obeyer Nor is it inconvenient for me to obey though it be worse perhaps to him that commandeth while he sinneth in commanding he may make it my duty to obey p. 461. Sect. 6. The reasons of this are obvious and clear even because it is the office of the Governors to determine of such circumstances It is the Pastor's office to guide and over-see the Flock and when he determineth these he is but in his own way and doth but his own work and therefore he is therein the Judge if the case be controvertible If none shall obey a Magistrate or Pastor in the works of their own office as long as they think he did them not the best way all Governours then would be presently overthrown and obedience denyed We are sure that God hath commanded us to obey them that are ever us in the Lord 1 Thess 5. 12. Hebr. 13. 7. 17 c. And therefore a certain duty may not be forborn on uncertain conjectures or upon every miscarriage of them that we owe it to This would un-church all Churches as they are Political Societies for if Pastors be taken down and the work of Pastors the Church is taken down S. 7. And the things in which the Pastor is now supposed to err are not of themselves unlawful but only by such an accident as being