the only Remedy against Schism to be the chiefest cause They have made Associations and Confederacies of Men to set up New Forms of Churches Church-Government or Communion by multitudes of Clergy-Laws or Canons of their own to be necessary to Ministry and Communion and consequently to avoid Schsm and consequently to Salvation By which Arrogancy and Impositions and Arbitrary Laws and Censures thereupon the Christian World is now almost all broken into Sects condemning and censuring one another into Greeks Muscovites Armenians Georgians Nestorians Jacobites Abassines Maronites Papists Protestants c. And of all these the Papists pretend to a Power of Government by Legislation and Iudgment over all the Christians on Earth some placing it in the Pope as chief some in a Council or the Colledge of Bishops as chief of which the Pope is the prime Member most in Pope and Council agreeing This Sect unchurcheth all Christians save themselves and have made so many Canon-Laws as none can understand and keep Some that yet do not own the Pope tell us That yet the Church on Earth is one Political Body not unified by its Relation to Christ the Head and Form He is not Visible enough say the Papists to Head a Church that may be called Visible But it is unified by a certain Confederacy of Communion among themselves which sometime they call an Universal Government and say they have power to make Universal Laws and sometime say It is not One Unifying Government but One Communion and yet make Laws which all must hold Communion with They say and unsay and know not what to say They cannot tell us what are the necessary terms of that Communion nor how to know with what Nations and Churches we must hold it But this they agree in That Christ the Finisher of our Faith hath left Faith Worship and Government so unfinished that Bishops of all the World or many Nations they know not who must make us more Laws and when they will have done and compleated Religion no man knows And that all that will be Christians must on the Terms of these Canons have Communion with them and refuse not one thing that they command And therefore must all be learned enough to know that all that they command is lawful And if any withdraw for an Oath or Covenant or Ceremony tho he mentally own them as true Churches or if for dissent he be excomunicated by them he must worship God in no other Assembly but live like an Atheist till he be convinced of the Lawfulness of their Impositions else all that so worship God are damnable Schismaticks and so are all that communicate with them So that I know but few on Earth that they damn not for breaking their Canons tho they would keep all the Laws of Christ And every where they that have strength and possession presume that it is they that must thus be the Standers and Rulers of all others about them It is an utter Maze which they make the Terms of catholick communion and consequently of Salvation instead of the few plain certain things which Christ made necessary We can get but few of the vulgar to understand the sense of Baptism the Creed Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments And our churches are much made up of such and our Parishes have too many Sadduces Infidels and Hobbists yet all must be supposed to know 1. That all the Bishops and Priests are truly called and authorized when few know what maketh them Pastors indeed 2. And that all their words ceremonies and impositions are not repugnant to God's Word 3. And that all are to be avoided whom their Canons and Lay-civilians excommunicate 4. That it is a company of true Bishops and Churches in other Nations whose communion they own 5. That all are Schismaticks that they so judg and their churches no true churches of The English Schismatick detected and confuted Occasioned by a Resolver of Cases about Church Communion CHAP. I. SAITH THE RESOLVER § 1. THE Church is a Body or society of men separated from the rest of the World and united to God and to themselves by a Divine Covenant A. He saith this is the plainest description he can give That is not the fault of his Auditors or Readers 1. As to the Genus a Community of equals without Rulers is a body but I suppose he meaneth not such 2. Is it enough that it be of Men sure now they should be Christians 3. Many are separated from the rest of the World secundum quid that are no Christians some in one respect and some in another and none in all respects 4. Vnited to God is an ambiguous word no Creature is Vnited to him perfectly so as to be thereby what he is God in the created Nature Only Christ is united to him Hypostatically in his created Nature All are so far united to him in natural being as that in him they live and move and have their being And the Nature of man is one sort of his Image All things are united to him as effects to their constant efficient The Church should not be defined without any mention of Christ The Churches Union with God is by Christ. 5. Christ himself as Head is an essential part of the Church and should not be left out of a Definition thô the meer Body may in common speech be called the Church as the People may be called a Kingdom 6. Will any Divine Covenant serve or must it not be only the Baptismal Covenant 7. Is it called Divine only as made by God or as commanded by God and made by Man or as mutual Certainly Gods Law and offered or Conditional Promise is most frequently called His Covenant in Scripture and this uniteth not men to God till they consent and Covenant with him Their own Covenant Act is necessary hereto And that is a Divine Covenant only as commanded and accepted and done by Gods assisting Grace 8. The form of a Church is Relative and the Terminus is essential to a Relation It is no definition that hath not the End of the Association Therefore this is none at all and so the beginning tells us what to expect This description hath nothing in it but what may agree to divers forms of Society and so hath not the form of a Church And if he intended not a Definition but a loose description I would a defining Doctor had had the Chair during this controversie Let us try this description upon a Mahometan Kingdom Army or Navy or suppose them meer Deists 1. Such a Kingdom Army or Navy may be a Society 2. Of Men. 3. Separated from the rest of the World secundum quid ad hoc and none are separated from it simpliciter ad omnia e. g. No man is separated from the common humanity No Deist from any but Atheists and no Christian in believing a God and the Law of Nature and Nations 4. They are Vnited to God so far as owning a God and
a larger Council of many Nations and that the Synod at Dort had not as much Power as a lesser at Hague or a Synod of many Nations as much as one in Scotland But if as by parity of Reason they must they say that General or large Councils are the Governours of National Assemblies as they are of Classis and Presbyteries then they bring us under a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is sworn against and I think they are Papists but of the French sort who make General Councils Superior Governours of the Universal Church And if they determine the bounds of Church-Power by the Magistrates Laws and yet damn Erastians they seem in ignorance to deal too hardly with themselves 15. Another Instance is in the Place of Publick Worship God hath not determined where the Assembly shall meet where the Pulpit Font Table c. shall stand And if great and lofty Structures called Temples be Built purely to shew how we honour God and Religion as Constantine and others after him did at Constantinople Alexandria Ierusalem over the Grave of Christ and all over the Empire this Actual Expression of Honour to God is Cultus modalis secundarius a subservient sort of Worship and no Idolatry but Lawful 16. The same I say of Church Utensils If for the Honour of God and Religion the Pulpits and Tables have Ornaments of Silk Cups and Trenchers and Flaggons of Silver the Font and Seats have some special Neatness c. this is left to Man's Determination without any particular Institution and is no Idolatry 17. And if as Judges and Lawyers have distinguishing Habits the Ministers have so officiating and at other times to no worse end or manner than the said Utensils are put I know no Institution that is crost by it nor that forbids it 18. Another Instance may be of Speaking in the Assembly whether it shall be One Minister or Two or Three Whether Lay-men may not be Interlocutors by Questions yea and sometime Preach and Pray c. God hath not particularly determined but left to Human Choice 19. Many good Christians knowing the Lord's Day to be an Instituted Day of Thanksgiving for the greatest Mercies do as an Act of Honour wear their best Cloathes and Feast themselves and the Poor accordingly that day This is Lawful by the General Law but not particularly Instituted by God 20. Professing Signs in our Covenantings with God and Confessing of our Religion are left to be chosen onely by the General Laws of Edification and Order When a Nation or Church or Person renew their Covenant with God and their Confession of Faith it may be done when the Ruler demandeth their consent either by word or by subscribing or by lifting up the hand or by standing up or by bowing the Head for these are all or most found in Scripture instances yea sometimes they fell by Prostration to the Ground yea and so they oft did in receiving a Charge or Message from God by his Ministers I will add no more Instances These are enough If yet it be said That none of these be acts of Worship I again Answer 1. Then do not by Slander call them so and say still that Man's inventing or using these is using false Worship If they be no Worship they are no false Worship Confess then that it 's but a bare name that you charged with Idolatry for its onely such things as these that we would add 2. But de nomine If an Action done directly to honour God be to be called Worship some of these at least may be called Secondary subordinate Worship But if you appropriate the Name to Gods stated Ordinances these must not be called Worship but the manner order circumstances or accidents of Worship But call them what you will they are but what God alloweth and the General of them he commandeth I need not say much to his Applicatory Words 1. To return from Separation to Love and Union is as fitly called a Returning to their Vomit as returning from Drunkenness and Fornication to Sobriety and Chastity may be so called Repentance is casting up our Sin 2. The Names of bowing to Baal Dan and Bethel Babylon Idols c. are as easily used by Quakers Ranters Familists c. against all God's Church and Worship And they were worn so thread-bare by the railing Separatists then called Brownists against the Old Learned Godly Nonconformists that they turned to the Speakers reproach And I suppose he knoweth that the Scots were called as bad and worse by the Army that conquered them in 1650 c. 3. That sitting or drinking with the superstitious in acts of religious adoration is a sign of defection This would make all Backsliders who so sit and drink with him and such as he who is so superstitious as to turn sin into duty and duty into sin and falsly father Laws on God Yea that is worse than superstitious as is after manifested 2. Superstition is an offering somewhat as pleasing to God which is not pleasing to him All Christians have some degree of this in Matter or Manner for we know but in part and prophesie in part c. And so no Christians must joyn with others But must they not give over all Religious Duty themselves seeing their own defects more defile them than other mens 3. Christ doth not disown all imperfect worship that hath some Superstition And we must receive one another as Christ receiveth us 4. It was Superstitious persons that Paul commandeth Christians to receive to Communion Rom. 14. 5. Thus he condemneth the Apostles and the Churches then and the Scripture it self 6. It is dreadful revolting to choose rather forbearance of all Church Communion than to Communicate with our Parish Churches when better cannot be had and men are not forced to any sin themselves And he that will communicate with none that sin in Preaching Prayer Sacraments shall communicate with none 7. It is a gross Service of Satan and Popery to fight against Love and Unity and bring all the Publick Assemblies under disgrace as unlawful that Popery may take possession unresisted 4. His words of silly Sheep bleating after any Shepherd c. are but a Net to catch silly Souls It 's the common Trap of the Papists to put ignorant people to prove the Calling of the Ministers or forsake them They that preach the Gospel and do the Office tho faultily and are in possession have a Calling sufficient to justifie the Hearers when it may not be enough to justifie themselves A better Call than the High Priests that Christ did send men to 5. As to the Argument of Scandal It is of dreadful weight to deter a tender Conscience as from conforming to sin so from his groundless Separation and war against Unity and Love 6. That God saith such Means shall not profit yea curseth it is a slander against God and Scripture and all the Church on Earth that 's known by perverting and misapplying
Bare Unity is more intelligible tho no one know wherein it must be § 39. He adds To preservt the Peace and Unity of Episcopacy it 's necessary that every Bishop do not only observe the same Rule of Faith but especially in matter of weight and consequence the same Customes and Usages and the same Laws of Discipline and Government and when any difficult case happens for which they have no standing Rule to consult Ans. The longer the worse If I ask him whether he mean such Customs and Usages as are part of God's Word materially commanded or commended in Scripture I know not what he will say but I strongly conjecture he will say No It is Tradition and Church-Customs not there mentioned If I ask how these come espcially to be mentioned as matter of weight and consequence he confesseth that God and not Man made the Church And is not God's Law sufficient to be its Universal Rule If man make these matters of weight man may unmake them 2. But is it not Universal Church-Communion that he is speaking of I provoke him to tell me if he can who on Earth hath power beside God and our Saviour to make Laws the same of Discipline and Government to the Universal Church Is not Legislation the prime part of Government Have not you oft denied any Humane Supreme Government under Christ over all the Church Do you not here say the contrary Know you not the difference between the Contracts of a Community and the Laws of a Polity It 's no true Law if it be not the act and instrument of a Rector to govern his Subjects If Twenty Kings meet or School-Masters Physicians c. and agree on certain Points of Government this maketh them not One Polity Kingdom or School Their Contracts are neither Laws to each other nor to their common Subjects but every King may make them a Law to his own Subjects 4. If you should mean only National Laws of Discipline and Government how come all the Churches in the World to be obliged to observe the same Laws e g. our Canons This as to Traditions is expresly contrary to our Articles of Religion which you subscribe And when the Church-Laws of all Countreys differ so much which must all be reduced to If you say They must all agree to those called the Codex Ecclesiae Universalis or the Four or Six first approved Councils c. I answer 1. It 's gratis dictum And how prove you those universally obligatory and no other And how will you satisfie Conscience which are the obligatory Laws indeed 2. Why do you then cast all from Communion that observe the 20 th Canon of the Council of Nice 3. What power have dead Bishops over us and all Christ's Church They were Canons for one Empire which is dissolved and of which we are no part 4. Is Christ so insufficient a Lawgiver even for Laws necessary to the Unity of his Church as that we must have more Laws of Government and Discipline which the Catholick Church must unite in or be no Church And shall that man plead for such Laws that yet saith There is no universal Governor I never said you are a Cassandrian or a Papist But it was such ignorant Doctors that saddled the Horse and held the Stirrup while the Pope got up § 40. This saith he makes it highly reasonable for Neighbour-Bishops at as great a distance as the thing is practicable with ease and convenience as the Bishops of the same Province or Nation to live together in a strict Assâ—ciation and Confederacy to meet in Synods to oblige themselves to the same Rules of Discipline and Worship There may be a primacy of order granted to some Bishops and their Chair by general consent and under the regulation of Ecclesiastical Canons for the preservation of Catholick Unity Ans. You make this Catholick Unity essential to the Church And yet doth it lie in Humane Canons and Assâ—ciations Did Christ leave things so essential to Humane Invention And is concord in your Canons necessary to salvation And yet the proof of all this is but this and such Doctors Assertion that it's highly reasonable And so Unity and Salvation must lie on all that such will think highly reasonable 2. If Subjects may thus make their own Laws no doubt they will make them suitable to their Natures and Inclinations And it 's confest that oft the most even of Bishops are bad and worldly men and suitable to their Ends and Interests How many would be glad if Soveraigns would thus let Subjects make their own Laws 3. But how were the Canons or Laws of a National Church to be a Rule to all the Church on Earth and necessary to its Unity 4. And how comes this man that made it damnable in the Independents to make a Church-Covenant as if they renounced Baptism now to make Church-Associations and Confederacies to be so necessary to Catholick Unity Truly I know no answer for the man but the same that Binnius giveth us when Pope Iohn and Hormisda gave a contrary determination de fide on the question Whether it may be said that One of the Trinity was crucified One said Yea But the Nâ—storians taking hold of it the other said Nay Ita mutatis hostibus saith Bâ—â—nius arma necessario mutanda sunt That 's true when it 's for themselves which is false when it 's for others 5. But it was modestly done to confine these Confederacies to the greatest distance that the thing is practicable with ease and convenience And so he fairly denieth General Councils and after more plainly But when the Armenians Syrians Abassines Greeks c. cannot with ease and convenience go above Five or Six Hundred miles at most and so each Countrey hath different Customs Laws and Canons Can the Catholick Church obey them all § 41. P. 127. This saith he seems to be the true Original of Archiepiscopal and Metropolitical Churches Ans. If so I will not believe that they are necessary to Catholick Unity and Salvation till I know who invented them and whether they had as good a Commission as the Apostles 2. If Bishops made the first Achbishops and Parish-Bishops say others the first Diocesans and Presbyters the first Parish-Bishops then 1. Inferiors may make Superiors and give the power which they never had 2. Why then may they not ordain Equals and propagate their species 3. Then Presbyters or Bishops are of God and Archbishops of Men. § 42. Page 128. Saith he Every Bishop is the proper Governour of his own Diocess and cannot be regularly imposed on against his consent Ans. Yet even now He that causelesly breaks this Union is no Catholick Bishop It seems then it goeth not by Vote but a Dissenter may be a free Catholick I pray you then impose not on others against their conâ—ent The whole Authority saith he of any Bishop or Council over other Bishops is founded on the Laws of Catholick Communion Therefore they have no
and Devote himself to Him Therefore to force the unwilling to be Baptized is a Sacrilegious Prophanation of Baptism 4. To be Baptized is to be solemnly invested in a visible State of Regeneration Pardon Adoption and Right to Christ and Life Eternal by a Ministerial Delivery of such Right as in the Name of Christ. But no unwilling Person hath any Right to these unvaluable Gifts Therefore no unwilling Person should be forced to receive the said Investiture 5. Christ's Tryal and Description of the Willing is Whether they resolve to accept of his Grace forsaking all worldly interest that stands against it Luke 14.26 27 to the end Therefore to Baptize all that are forced to it by the Sword and had rather be Baptized and say they Believe than lose all they have and lie in Gaol is to Preach another Gospel in part 6. Persons Baptized in infancy have no right to Communion in the Lord's Supper till they profess their personal Faith and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant And the Unbaptized are not to be forced to Communicate The Lords Supper redelivering all the same great unvaluable Gifts to the Receivers which were delivered in Baptism the Unwillâ—ng are no more capable of one than the other And to force them to say they are Willing and to receive that which they have no right to is Sacrilegious prophaning Holy things 7. The ancient Churches for many hundred years were so far from forcing any to Baptism or Church-Communion or thinking that they should be forced that they admitted none that did not earnestly desire it And if the Baptized by Impenitency or Apostacy or â—long withdrawing from Communion did shew themselves again uncapable by unwillingness they Declaratively cast them out 8. And that the Excommunicate as such should be laid up in Prison and undone to force them again to be Willing to be Christians or to Communicate hath the same Reasons against it as against doing it at the first and to take them for Willing and Capable of Absolution and Salvation who had rather say they Repent and Consent than lye in Gaol is to pervert Christ's Gospel and Sacraments and confound the Church And the ancient Churches would have abhorred the motion of such a thing 9. But it is just and meet that Princes make a difference between Christian and Infidel Subjects and between those that live Willingly in Communion of the Church and those that refuse it And that a Christian Kingdom should give those Powers and Immunities to willing Christians which they give not to Infidels and the justly Excommunicate especially in matters relating to Government Legislative and Judiciary and especially about Reâ—igion and the Church And if any to obtain such Immunities or Powers do Hypocritically profess Christianity and consent themselves only are guilty of the Prophanation no wrong means was used and the Church is no searcher of the Heart 10. But Christianity being necessary to our Salvation and it being the Christian Magistrates Duty to do his best for the Salvation of all his Subjects and Knowledge being the means of Consent and Teaching and Learning the means of Knowledge it is the Duty of such Magistrates to provide sufficâ—ent Teachers for Number and Qualâ—ty for all the Subjects and to compel men to Hear Conâ—er and Learn as Catechumens The ancient Churches had their previous Instructions for such who were yet dismissed before the Communion Exercises proper to the faithful § 3. II. To the second case I Answer 1. There is nothing in this World that Man can do without all inconveniencies or which may not be turned to some occasion of Evil. On one side 1. It is most desirable that all Kingdoms were wholly Christians and the Princes be Defenders and Promoters of Religion and the Church and Kingdom be materially the same and the Civil Government used Holily according to God's Laws to holy ends 2. And it is desirable accordingly that the Kingdom being all Christian be divided into fit parts for Christian Conversation and Communion such as our Parishes are and that all be of the Church who are of the Parish and the Civil State sanctified and the Ecclesiastick grow up as Body and Soul into one And that all in the Parish be of one mind and of one Church and that there be no just cause given for any to separate from the rest nor any do it without cause 3. And it is desirable that all these Parish-Churches in a Kingdom living under one civil Government do by the means of Senior Pastors and Synods hold such Correspondence as is necessary to their common Concord and Strength These things being Desirable it is no wonder if good Governours Endeavour them and that ignorant men Plead for all such Concomitants Subordinates and Consequents as do suppose them When as in Fact the case being quite otherwise to administer matters on a false supposition of the matter of Fact as if that were which is not is but like the Men of Gothams striving and fighting which way they should drive their Sheep and where they should pasture them when they had none 1. No Kingdom is so wholly Christian as not to have many alas how many uncapable of Church-Communion 2. Yet it is a matter of order to be endeavoured that the Country be divided into Parishes and that they have an Ecclesiastick as well as a Civil Relation That is That each of these Parishes have a stated Teacher or many for the Catechumens who are uncapable of Communion And that the same Men be the Pastors of all in that Parish who consent and have the Temples and Tythes by the Magistrates Countenance and Consent And this great advantage of Publick Countenance and Maintenance will no doubt prevail with the main Body of Christians in that Parish if the men be desirable or tollerable to chuse them rather than others to avoid discountenance and the maintaining of others As all in the Hospital will be for the established Physician who dare trust him with their Lives But if this should be carried further to bind all persons to an absolute acceptance of such Parish Priests to be their only Pastors under the Bishops who are put upon them the mischiefs would be intollerable For 1. Then all must accept of Papists Priests only in France Spain Italy Bavaria Austria c and of bare Readers in Muâ—covy 2. Or else all Subjects are made Judges of the qualification of their Kings whether they are Orthoodox enough to chuse them Pastors while they are not allowed to judge what Pastor to trust 3. And then every ignorant malignant or prophane Man who by inheritance or purchase hath got Advowsons or Presentations hath got an advantage greatly to hinder the Salvation of all the Parish And if Money may buy Souls for so much probability of Damnation no wonder if the god of this World imploy many rich Merchants to purchase Advowsons For how ordinarily God worketh according to the suitableness of means Scripture and full Experience
prove If the Blind lead the Blind both fall into the Ditch 4. And this is quite contrary to the Ordination and bounty of our Lord who gave men gifts for the Edification of his Church and our Salvation if we may not use the publick Pastoral help of any better than many Patrons will chuse I would fly from that Kingdom as from a Bondage where I may use no Physician no Tutor no Food but what is chosen for me by any one that can purchase such a chusing-power And my Soul is more to me than my Body and less in the Power of Man And it is not the talk of a Magisterial Ranter that shall perswade me to be indifferent what Teacher I use as if God would work by all alike § 4. 2. On the other side 1. It is of absolute necessity that every man consent before another man can do the work of a Pastor for his Soul And God in Nature and Scripture hath ordained that he who must be saved or damned according to the Ministers success should be the chuser or refuser of that which so unspeakably concerneth him and not have his salvation more in anothers power than his own if he be at Age and in his Wits 2. And yet this may be run into Extreams and these are not easily avoided 1. Infants that is all short of an Understanding chusing Age and Ideots and Mad-men are half Brutes in act and to be governed accordingly by force so far as they are uncapable of Reason But these are not capable of the Church-Communion of the Adult Yea not only Children but all Subjects who are not Communicants may be forced to hear and learn as Catechumens as is said And they must not pretend a power to chuse their Teachers to excuse them from all Learning But if they say that they can learn better of another than the Parish-Minister if they are able they may remove to another Parish If not they must give proof that they live as Learners under some Teacher who is capable to instruct them approved or tolerated by Authority where Rulers own the Truth 3. And if Communicants will be at the charge of maintaining a Pastor whom they can better trust their Souls with than him whom the Patron chuseth for them the Orthodox or tolerating Magistrate must see that he be not an Heretick that doth more hurt than good and must keep them under the Laws of Loyalty and Peace and see that they sow not Sedition and revile not others under pretence of worshipping God 4. And no men should without necessity lose the advantages of a publick Ministry which the most consent to and which hath the Magistrates countenance and maintenance because gathering singular Churches within Parish-bounds seems some accusation of the Parish-Minister or Church and such Churches are oft tempted to Envy and Censoriousness and are usually envied and censured by others And Unity is much of our strength and beauty But in case of necessity it may be done § 5. In short 1. A good Ruler chusing a worthy Teacher for the Parish will thereby do much to draw all the sober to consent to him as their Pastor 2. Bad Rulers and Patrons chusing ignorant unskilful furious malicious or scandalous Teachers will drive those that love their souls to chuse better for themselves whatever it cost them 3. Where the Ministry and Churches are so vitiated in publick that their Communion is unlawful there God's worship must be kept up only in other voluntary Churches 4. Where publick Ministers or Worship are not utterly intolerable but greatly insufficient for the preservation of Religion and good of Souls by Disability or unsound Doctrine or Vice there the chief preservation of Religion must be in Voluntary Churches but so that the Parochial be no further disowned than there is cause 5. Where the publick Ministry and Worship are sound but impose some unnecessary doubtful things as conditions of Communion in justice they bind themselves thereby to allow Voluntary Churches to such as take these terms to be sin 6. When the Ministry and Church-Worship and State are sound and the conditions lawful and weakness maketh conscionable Christians think otherwise there private Churches must be tolerated but as Hospitals for the sick under the care of the Magistrate keeping peace The strife in England at this day is chiefly about the choice of Pastors in which good people will never be indifferent And few that I have known refuse audience and honour to able godly profitable Preachers that differ from them We are not at all of different Relâ—gions tho some say so to the dishonour of the National Church as if their Forms their Cross and Surplice and their New Oaths and Subscriptions were their Religion and so their Religion were Ceremony or Novelty § 6. III. As to the Third Case For what Reasons I and such other join in Worship and Communion with Parish-Churches And whether our practice be a sin or a duty or a thing indifferent For answer I. I shall shew what I am not pleading for II. What it is that I hold and plead for or defend III. What are the Reasons of my practice IV. Why it is that I now give out my Reasons § 7. I. For the First 1. I am far from perswading any one to commit the least sin on pretence of Concord or Communion with any Church on earth Their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Sin may seem to serve us for a Job but it will be bitter in the latter end 2. I would not have any to stretch their Consciences for Worldly Interest to believe that Sin is no Sin or that they may do it because it is a little one It is no little one to him that does it wilfully for Worldly Ends. 3. If an honest Christian mistake an indifferent thing to be a Sin I would have him do his best to get a truer apprehension But if he cannot I would not have him do the thing For he that can do that which he thinks a sin tho by mistake can as easily commit a real sin And it is a real sin to him for St. Paul saith He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatever is not of faith is sin Qu. But is such a man a martyr or rewardable who suffereth for his error Ans. He is rewardable as he suffereth for fearing to disobey God and for that which is formally obedience tho materially it was a mistaken thing If you had a Servant who mistook your command but died in the performance of that mistake you would commend his fidelity And if another that mistook you did what you bid him by that mistake but treacherously for hire crossed what he thought you meant you would take him for a perfidious knave Qu. But must a man then do all that he taketh to be a duty or avoid all which he taketh for a sin Ans. A culpable erring
Worshipping him amounts to besides the Union of the Creature with the Creator in whom he liveth c. And no unregenerate ungodly Christian is united to him savingly 5. They are united among themselves 6. This is by a Covenant 7. And by a Covenant Divine as to command approbation and object It is God that they Covenant to own and obey The common Profession of the Mahometans is There is one God and Mahomet is his Prophet It is Divine in tantum as commanded For God Commandeth all men to Own him to believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him And God so far approveth it St. Iames saith Thou dost well to him that believeth there is a God much more that is professedly devoted to him Let us by this examine the Jewish Church Iews now may be 1. A Body 2. Of Men 3. Separated from the rest of the World even in Religion and Church pretensions 4. United to God as Creatures as Men as the corporal seed of Abraham and as professing Belief Love and Obedience to God as their God 5. Strictly united among themselves 6. By a Covenant 7. Which God once commanded and still approveth so far as they own God Let us consider whether this description take not in those in every Nation that fear God and work Righteousness that never heard of Christ being thus combined And whether the Kingdom of God be not larger than his Church Joyn the Head and Tail of this mans book together and by the Head the description for ought I see Iews Mahometans if not almost all Heathens are the Church But at the End I think none on Earth is the Church At least none that separate from a pair of Organs or an ignorant Curate Nor can any man know who Page 2. § 2. He explaineth his Word Body as opposed to a confused Multitude A. But a Community of Equals that have no Governours may have order and â—e no confused Multitude And he himself after pleads over much for a necessity of Rulers P. 3. § 3. And in many places his Confusion and grand errour is repeated that the Christian Church is but one p. 7. We know no Church but what all Christians are members of by Baptsme which is the Vniversal Church p. 8. There is but one Church of which all Christians are members as there is but one Covenant p. 19. If there be but one Church and one Communion of which all true Christians are members c. p. 23. I am no otherwise a member of any particular Church than I am of the Vniversal p. 40. It 's a schismatical Notion of membership that divides the Christian Church into distinct memberships and therefore into the distinct Bodyes And p. 19. and often he saith those Churches which are not members of each other are separate Churches and Schismaticks A. I had hoped that no man but Mr. Cheny had talkt at this rate I. It 's agreed on that there is but one Universal Church The contrary is a Contradiction 2. It is agreed that there is no lawful particular Church which is not a part of the Universal 3. That whoever hath just Union and Communion with a true particular Church hath Union and Communion with the Universal 4. That all men in their Worship of God should accordingly perform it and do all that they do as Men in that Relation to the Universal Church None of this is controverted II. But I had hoped never to have heard any but Seekers say that there are not many lawful particular Churches distinct from the whole and from one another though not disjunct in the Common Essentials For the proof of the contrary 1. I begin with that which I expect should be most powerful The mans own after-Confessions to which he is oft brought Pag. 8. Distance of Place and the necessities and conveniences of Worship and Discipline has divided the Church into several parts and members and Particular Churches c. So pag. 14. pag. 19. All Christian Churches ought to be members of one More fully p. 20 21. This is ad hominem Yea and Nay is his Resolution 2. But I 'le bring other Arguments that prevail more with me The Sacred Scriptures oft tell us of many Churches therefore there are many Act. 9.31 The Churches had rest and 15.4 Confirming the Churches 16.5 So were the Churches established in the Faith Rom. 16.4 All the Churches of the Gentiles So ver 16. 1 Cor. 7.17 So ordain I in all Churches 11.16 Neither the Churches of God have such Custom 14.33 As in all the Churches of the Saints 34. Let your Women keep silence in the Churches So 16.1.19 2 Cor. 8.1 The Grace of God bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia 18. Whose Praise is in the Gospel through all the Churches So 19.23 24. and 11.8.28 The care of all the Churches 12.13 Inferior to the other Churches Gal. 1.2 22. 1 Thes. 2.14 2 Thes. 1.4 Rev. 1.4 To the seven Churches ver 11.20 Angels and Candlesticks of the seven Churches And 2.7 11 17 29. and 3.6 13 22 23. and 22.16 His Concordance might have shew'd him all these in order Phil. 4.15 No Church communicated with me concerning giving and receiving but ye only The dispute now must be whether the Apostles or this Resolver be to be believed They say there are many Churches parts of One he saith There is but one and it 's Schismatical to divide it into distinct memberships or Bodyes c. It 's no Schisme here to say I am for Paul and the Holy Scripture Let who will believe the contradictor 3. My next Argument is this Where there are many Political Societies consisting of Christian Pastors and People professedly associated for the ordinary Exercise of those Relations as such in holy Communion in Christian Doctrine Worship Order and Conversation for Edification in true Faith Hope Love and Obedience and the Glorifying of God therein There are many distinct true Churches parts of the Church Universal But on Earth there are many such Societyes c. Ergo c. Either the controversie is De re or de nomine for we called Separatists use to separate these 1. If de re Let the existence of the thing defined be tryed by Scripture Reason and common Experience 2. If de nomine Forma quae dat esse dat Nomen Here is the true specifick form which is found in many single Churches ergo the Name of such single or individual Churches is due to them 4. Again ad hominem from the consequences 1. If there be not many single Churches in the Universal then there are not many Patriarchal National Provincial Metropolitical Diocesan or Parochial Churches For non entium non datur numerus Many nothings is a contradiction Multae sunt ergo sunt Abest tertij adjecti ad est secundi valet argumentum But if there be not many then 1. All the Parish Churches in England being but one and not many
the same place their neighbourhood maketh them capable of Personal presential Communion as men that may know and admonish each other and meet by turns and in presence manage their concerns which differenceth single Churches of the lowest order from associated Churches of men that have Communion only by others at distance XV. As Logicians say of other Relations the matter must be capable of the end or it is not capable of the name and form so is it here e. g. It is no Ship that is made of meer Sponge or Paper or that is no bigger than a Spoon it is no Spoon that is as big as a Ship One House is not a Village nor one Village a City nor a City a meer House So twenty or an hundred or a thousand Parishes associate cannot be a single Church of the first or lowest Order being not capable of mutual Knowledge Converse or personal present Communion Nor are two or three Lay-men capable to be such a Church for want of due matter But supposing them capable thô a full and rich Church have advantage for Honour and Strength yet a small and poor one is ejusdem ordinis as truely a Church and so is their Pastor as Hierom saith of Rome and Eugubium so Alexandria and Majuma c. Gregory Neocaesar was equally Bishop of nineteen at first as after of all save nineteen in the City XVI If the Apostles have Successours in their care and Superiority over many Churches it will prove that there should yet be men of eminent worth to take care of many Churches and to instruct and admonish the younger Ministers But it will neither prove 1. That they succeed the Apostles in the extraordinary parts of their Office 2. Nor that they have any forcing power by the Sword 3. Nor that one Church hath power over others by Divine right for the Apostles fixed not their power to any particular Churches but were general Visitors or Overseers of many Yet if the same Man who is fixed in a particular Church have also the visiting admonishing oversight of many as far as was an Ordinary part of the Apostles Office and be called an Archbishop I know no Reason to be against him XVII There be essential and Integral Acts of the Sacred Ministry instituted by Christ These none may take the Power of from any Ministers nor alter the species or integrity of the Office by setting up any such Superious as shall deprive them of that which Christ hath instituted or arrogating the like uncalled But as in worship so in Order and Church Government there are undetermined accidents As to choose the time and place of Synods to preside and moderate and such like And these the Churches by agreement or the Magistrate may assign to some above the rest And if the Magistrate affix Baronies Honours Revenues or his own due Civil forcing Power and make the same Men Magistrates and Ministers whether we think it prudent and well done or not we must honour and obey them XVIII Some call these humane Accidental Orders forms of Church Government and affirm as Bishop Reignolds did and Dr. Stillingfleet in his Irenicon and many excellent men by him cited that no form of Church Government is of Divine Command Which is true of all this second sort of Government which is but Accidental and humane but not at all of the first sort which is Divine and Essential to Christ himself first and to Pastors as such by his appointment so that the essential Government of the Universal Church by Christ and of each particular Church by Pastors specified by him if not of Supervisors of many as succeeding Apostles and Evangelists in their Ordinary work are of unalterable Divine right But the humane forms are alterable Such I account 1. The Presidency and Moderatorship and accidental Government of one Bishop in a single Church over the other Presbyters Deacons c. 2. The accidental Government of a Diocesan as an Archbishop over these lowest Bishops and Churches 3. And the Superiority of Metropolitans and Patriarchs over them so it be but in such Accidentals and within the same Empire not imposing a forreign Jurisdiction These tota specie differ from the Divine Offices XIX All these single Church being parts of the Universal are less noble than the whole and are to do all that they do as members in Union with the Whole and to do all as Acts of Communion with them XX. The General precepts of doing all to Edification Concord Peace Order c. oblige all the Churches to hold such correspondencies as are needful to these Ends And Synods are one special means which should be used as far and oft as the Ends require And if National Metropolitans and Patriarchs order such Synods I am not one that will disobey them But if on these pretences any would make Synods more necessary than they are and use them as Governours by Legislation and Judgement over the Particular Bishops by the use of the Church Keyes and will affixe to them or Metropolitans besides an Agreeing Power and the said Government in Accidentals a proper Church Government by making and unmaking Ministers or Christians excommunicating and absolving as Rulers by the said Keyes it may be a duty to disown such usurpations As the King would disown an Assembly of Princes any where met that would claim a Proper Government of him and his Kingdom Thô it were much to be wisht that all Christian Princes would hold such Assemblies for the Concord and Peace of Christendom XXI The Essentials of Faith Hope and Loving Pracâ—â—ce essentiate the Church objectively And these are all summarily contained in the Baptismal Covenant explained in the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalouge and all with much more even Integrals and needful Accidentals in the Sacred Scriptures which taking in the Law of Nature are Gods Universal Law XXII There is no Church on Earth so sound and Orthodox as to want no Integral part of Christian Religion Proved There is no man on Earth much less any multitude so sound as to want no Integral part But all Churches consist only of Men And therefore if all the Men be so far defective all the Churches are so It is not their Objective Religion Generally and implicitely received that I mean but their Subjective Religion and their explicite reception of the Objective The Scripture is our perfect Objective Religion in it self and as an Object proposed and in general and implicitely we all receive it But as a man may say I believe all that 's in the Scripture and yet be ignorant of the very Essentials in it so a man may explicitely know and believe all the Essentials and more and yet be ignorant of many Integrals All things in Scripture proposed to our Faith Hope and Practice are the Integrals of our Religion But no Christian understandeth all these proposals or words of Scripture Therefore no Christian explicitely believeth them all or practiceth all To hold the contrary
Convocations govern but as their Representatives 2. All that say that it is only the Bishops and not the Presbyters in Convocation that are the Governing Canon-making Church 3. All that say that the Clergy represent not King Nobles Parliaments Laiety and that these are true parts of the Church of England All these are ipso facto excommunicate 45. The 140. Canon Excommunicateth them that deny the Canons obligation of absent Dissenters which yet even many Papists deny of Councils Canons 46. The last Canon Excommunicateth all that contemn these Canons as taking them to be the work of a Company of Persons that conspired against Religious Godly men All this huge Catalogue are here excommunicate 47. If any part of all this be Schism Mr. Dodwell and this man seem to teach Separation from the Church of England Or if the late silencing hunting and ruining of two thousand Ministers were Schism and as bad as Bishop Taylor in Duct Dubit Mr. Hales of Eaton Chillingworth c. say of the like then these men make all the Church of England to be in as damnable a State as Adulterers and Murderers Yea they make all damnable Schismaticks that hold Communion with the Church of England for that is their Sentence on them that communicate with Schismaticks viz. that they are guilty of their Schism 48. They unchurch and damn the Churches of Corinth Galatia Laodicea Ephesus Smyrna c. in the Apostles dayes For the Scripture tells us of many guilty of Schism in all these and yet the rest communicated with them for the Scripture speaks more of Schism in a Church than of Schism or Separation from a Church Rom. 16.17 1 Cor. 1.10 3.3 11.18 Mat. 12 25. Luke 12. 52 53. 1 Cor. 12.25 Iam. 3.15 16. And yet no one was commanded to separate from those Churches no not from those that had Heresies among them such as denyed the Resurrection and taught Fornication and eating things offered to Idols that were drunk at the Sacrament or Love-Feasts nor those that had Jewish Schismaticks who talkt like ours Act. 15. Except ye be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses ye cannot be saved The Churches were not all unchurcht and damn'd that communicated with such Yea Peter was guilty of encouraging them in Schism that would not eat with the Christian Gentiles but he was not unchristened by this 49. They separate from or unchurch almost all the Ancient Churches in the dayes of the most famous Emperours and Councils For I have manifested past doubt that they almost all did Hereticate or separate from one another It was Schism either in Victor to Excommunicate the Asian Bishops or in them to deserve it and be excommunicate The owning or disowning several Councils specially that of Calcedon and that at Const. de tribus Capitulis c. was the Schism of almost all the Imperial Churches one part condemning the other And if either were in the Right it salves not the Case with them For most of the same men that went that way call'd the Right in one Princes Reign went contrary in the next and so condemned each other round especially about Images adoration 50. Hereby they cut off that Succession of that sort of Ordination which they say must be uninterrupted while it came down from Churches excommunicated by one another or make the Proof of it impossible 51. They separate from all the Greek Church at this day as guilty of Schism both in their Succession from Schismaticall Bishops at Constant Alexand. Antioch Ierusalem c. and in their excommunicating not only the Church of Rome for a wrong cause the filioque but other Churches and for divers Acts of Schism 52. They must by their Principles Separate from the Abassines Aegyptians Syrians and all the Eastern and Southern Churches that are called Iacobites and Nâ—storians For Councils and other Churches condemn them And they condemn the Councils of Ephesus and Calcedon and all since And they must separate from and condemn the Churches of Armenia Georgia Circassia c. because they separate from others and are separated from 53. Their Principles utterly unchurch the Church of Rome 1. Especially because it is guilty of the greatest Schism on earth by setting up a false Church form and head 2. And because they Schismatically condemn and Unchurch three parts of the Church on earth even all save their Sect 3. And for their many other Schismatical Doctrines and Practices 4. And as being condemned by the Greek Protestants and most Churches and separated from by the Church of England which they own 54. They separate in Principles from all or near all General Councils save the first as having separated from other Councils and condemned them and being again condemned by them 55. Some of them condemn and separate from all the Protestant Churches that have Bishops in Sweden Denmark Germany Transylvania c. because they had not their Ordination Successively from Bishops but Presbyters at the Reformation And because they have been guilty of Schism against others 56. The Principles of Mr. Dodwel and his Associates condemn the Church of England as Schismatical 1. Those that claim Succession from Rome whose own Succession hath been oft and long interrupted by incapacities and Schisms 2. For holding Communion with those Protestant Churches which these men call Schismaticks 57. They condemn and separate from all the Churches called Presbyterian in France Holland Geneva Scotland formerly and those in Helvetia that have no Bishops Thô some would threat kindness on them by saying that they would have them and cannot And why cannot they 58. Their Principles make the Bishop of Oxford Bristol c. Schismaticks For their Dioceses are Churches taken out of Churches being lately parts of other Dioceses 59. And they condemn all the Parish Churches in England as Churches distinct from Cathedrals For they are all Churches gathered out of Churches At first the Cathedrals were the only single Churches Next Monasteries were gathered and next our Parish Churches And the Parish Church of Covent-garden is a Church taken out of a Church 60. Their Principles damn St. Martin that separated to the death from all the Bishops Synods and them that were near him save one Man because they perswaded Maximus to use the Sword against Priscillian Gnosticks and brought men of strict Religion under Suspicion of Priscillianism And sure the ruined persecuted Protestants here are more Orthodox than the Priscillians And they damn Gildas that told the English Clergy that he was not eximius Christianus that would call them Ministers Do they not disgrace the many Churches dedicated to the Memory of St. Martin if he be a damned man I doubt they damn Paul and Barnabas for local angry separating from each other Whatever they do by Peter and Barnabas for the Separation blamed Gal. 2. 61. If all are Schismaticks that here conform not all those called Conformists are such that conform to the words in a false sence 62. They separate from
Reedeeming Restauration and other such in Scripture intimate that Christ did restore Man to the state he fell from adding more mercy to it And therefore that his Soul was immortal and he in via and not in patria And I believe not what he adds of man's being not obliged to deny Sensuality were it not for Heaven 1. He thinks Adam was made but for Earth And yet God bound him Not to eat of that Fruit which his eye appetite and fancy led him to desire Doth he not here directly condemn God's Law and justifie Adam's Sin 2. Were there no Heaven for us man were bound to rule his Appetite and Sense by Reason And the bonum publicum and his own would oblige him by Reason to restrain Sensuality as to Women Wine Meat desire of our Neighbours Estate Anger that would kill others in revenge 3. And I think God doth not bind us now to take the forbearance of such comforts as further us in Holiness Thankfulness and other Duties to be any necessary way to Heaven § 36. Page 122 123. To prove his sort of Catholick Unity he is not content with Episcopatus Unus est but he asserteth That all the Bishops of the Church are but one Bishop invested with the same Power c. Ans. 1. Episcopacy may be said to be One as it is One in specie and for one remote End and Object as Justiceship in England may be called One But that all Bishops should be but one Bishop is strange Tho by impropriety of speech almost any thing may be said No doubt but the Name Bishop signifieth in common speech the Subject related Either he meaneth that the Subjects are one or the Relation While he abhorreth the distinguishing of the equivocal Unity we must take him to speak in sinsu famosiore usitato 1. They that have divers numerical constitutive parts of men matter and form are divers Bishops as Subjects of the Relation But so have e. g. the Bishop of Canterbury and York and London They have divers Souls and Bodies They that may depose and curse each other are not the same Bishop But so did Chrysostome and his Adversaries and hundreds more If they are One subjectively the Virtues and Vices of ones are anothers and the Creditor may take one man to Prison for anothers Debt 2. They cannot be One numerically in the Relation of Bishop For the Relation is Accidens quod sequitur subjectum The same numerical Accident cannot possibly be in two distinct Subjects For it perisheth if it cease to be in its Subject One man's Colour Virtue Learning c. cannot numerically be the Accident of another So that all Bishops being one Bishop is just like the rest of this man's Doctrine I believe one may be good and another bad one saved and another damned What can the man mean by it if he could speak his mind Sure nothing but that their Office is of the same species and they bound to use it in their several places as from one Christ under one Law of his with the greatest Love and Concord they can and for the common good of one Universal Church Can he mean more without gross Error And who denieth any of this as to the Episcopacy of Christ's institution § 37. They are bound to govern where it can be had by mutual advice and consent Ans. So far as the end requireth The common good So say the Independents And is that the Unity so much talkt of § 38. ' No Bishops are absolutely independent but are obliged to preserve the Unity of the Episcopacy Those Churches must be independent which have an independent Power and Government as all must have that have independent Governours or Bishops and independent Churches can never make one Body and one Catholick Communion because they are not Members of each other Ans. 1. No Two Churches on Earth of the same species Diocesan or Parochial c. are members of each other but all of the Universal or National of which they are parts no more than your fingers or eyes are members of each other 2. Reader pardon me that in the beginning I commended him as being for Diocesan Independency in Power These words make me again uncertain what he 's for Plain English would distinguish dependance of Subjects on Rulers in a Polity and dependance of Equals by Concord in a Community These are plain words He after saith that Diocesans have no proper Governors Ecclesiastick over them or to that sence But here he saith they are not independent in Power and Government Yet the man saith so little in any determinate sence that I know not whether by dependance in Government he mean a political dependance on superior Governors or a political Union of many persons to make one superior governing power like a Senate or a meer voluntary concord of many Governors that are Equals like that of many School-Masters or Princes whose Concord maketh them not One Polity but One Community The former sence some words of his do favour but elsewhere he so much denieth them that I hope it is but the last that he meaneth 3. But if this be his sence What independent whom he so much damneth doth not acknowledg a dependance in Community on all true Christians and in Polity on Christ Doth not every Christian confess that all true Churches and Christians depend on the Whole as Parts and on each other as Fellow-Members obliged to live on the same Christ in the same Love and Communion in Essentials and in as many Integrals of Religion as they can reach to I never met with the Christian that denied this Therefore what to make of this man's words I know not § 38. P. 126. he saith He who causelesly breaketh this Unity can be no Catholick Bishop Ans. Is it come to that Alas how few Catholick Bishops then do we hear of in the World Tho no good man breaks it in the Essentials who breaks it not in Degrees or Integrals They were guilty of Schism that said I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas Peter brake it in some degree Gal. 2. And much more those Phil. 1. that preacht Christ in strife to add to Paul's affliction How shall we know then what all his talk for Communion signifieth as to practice With what Bishops in the World must we hold Communion And how shall we know them If any prove that any English Bishop causelesly breaketh this Union in any degree must we separate from him I know no evasion for him here unless he will yet distinguish of Unumâ— Martinius saith Unus is 1. Indivisus 2. Sic indivisus ut etiam indivisibiâ—â—s 3. Sic indivisas ut divisibilis 4. Sic indivisus ut divisus seâ— distinctus ab aliis 5. Unicus solus 6. Unus cum aliquo seu idem aut numero aut genâ—re aut specie aut analogia item Essentia Persona Voluntate aut actu But this is Gibberish I suppose to the Doctor
Priviledged Chappels And shall all the rest even of the Religious people of the Land give over Worshipping God in publick I think not XVI Those that blame me do more than justifie me They scruple not communicating with those who hear Common-Prayer and receive the Sacrament in the Parish Churches in order to be Aldermen Sheriffs Common Councilmen Iurors c. nor pass any publick Censure on them Yea they communicate with such as take the Corporation Declaration and Oath And the said Declaration is a Profession that I do hold that there lies no Obligation on me or any other person from the Oath commonly called the solemn League and Covenant Here the Person justifieth all the Persons whâ—m he never knew in three Kingdoms from being obliged by an Oath and Vow against Popery Schism and Prophaness and to repent of Sin and to defend the King This which constituteth all our Cities and Corporations in England is a little more than that which constituteth our authorized Ministry and Vestries which is but that there is no Obligation to endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church c. even of Lay-Chancellors governing by the Church Keys Therefore they that pretend that they cannot joyn with the Ministry because they think they enter by Perjury confute themselves while they scruple not Communion with them that do more than the Ministry or the Vestry do And if any shall pretend that it is unlawful to joyn with them because of the Common-Prayer and at the same time freely joyn with them that take the Corporation Declaration I do not blame them for the latter but I must say that they strain so partially at a gnat as maketh me set a great deal the less by the Objections of such men If I were never so sure that the Church and Corporations were all thus Perjured I would greatly lament it but it being done in ignorance tho by men that should know and by men that have not heard what is said against it I would not separate from such a guilty Kingdom no more than the faithful did for some great common Jewish corruptions I will keep my own Soul as clear as I can And I confess that I was ever of the mind of those Judges in Scotland that say that if Oaths may be taken in a Sense of our own contrary to the usual Sense of the words unless the Lawmakers give another the Government will have no security by Oaths But when I think of several Universals â—such as no Obligation not endeavour any Alteration Assent and Consent to all things contained in and prescribed by on any pretence whatsoever as against any Commissioned c. And when I remember that to this day I never heard a Conformist own his taking these Universals without Limitation universally but in a particular Sense and with more Limitations than the Earl of Argyle did it doth not so much glad me that I never took them as it grieveth me for the English Clergy who take these with such Limitations that it falls out so unhappily that less should be Death in Scotland than they thought had been no Sin but a Duty in England But if the slur change not their Judgments I hope it will make them pardon us who were neither willing of the stretching Exposition or Punishment I dare not think that that Parliament were such men as would rather have silenced the whole Ministry and shut up all the Churches than have spoken a limited Sense in limited Words or have expounded their Universals if they meant not universally if the Body of the Clergy had but let them know that it was needful But their Obedience was such as told the World that Alterations and Explications were to them unnecessary XVII I would not drive the Comformists from us by departing too far from them By such reasons as you plead for separating from them you will teach them to justifie separating from us Tho our faults be not the same we are all faulty And so we shall run away from each others to the increase of our too great distance Yea experience of the contrary course encourageth me In both the places where my Ministry was first exercised is an honest Conformist and a Nonconformist since the writing of this one is dead and the other expelled who live in as great Love and Peace as if there were little difference between them the Nonconformists hearing and loving the publick Minister If you think not this better than Church-wars I do And I am sure Religion there prospereth much more than it would do by mutual avoidance XVIII And truly I am so tender of the honour of the Nonconformists that I will do my part to keep them from reproach And as I said before too many are apt to judg of all their cause by any one weakness or mistake It was the reason why in 1660. and 1661. when we attempted a Concord with the Bishops in vain we never said a word against a Form of Prayer nâ—r the most of the Liturgy nor Holy-days nor Kneeling at the Sacrament but only against Excommunicating the faithful that scruple it nor the Surplice nor the Ring in Marriage nor laying the Hand oâ— a Book in Swearing and other such because at least much may be said for them and if we laid our stress on doubtful things many would think the rest were no other And if we should be so weak as for the Liturgy c. to avoid all Communion with the Parish Churches as unlawful we might flatter one another as all Sects do but standers by would hence judg of all the rest and deride or pity us as scruplous Fanaticks that judg not by evidence but by prejdice and self conceit XIX VVhen great sufferings come upon men partiality and prejudice usually yieldeth so much to necessity as maketh them willing to take nothing for sin which is not sin and then they will yeild and their change will turn to their reproach as if it were meerly in worldly temporizing Therefore I will at first do what is lawful XX. Tho I think the Covenant bindeth me to nothing but what God bound me to before yet to that I think it doth as a secondary bond by my voluntary self obligation And it binds me against Prophaness and Schism and all that 〈◊〉 against 〈…〉 Dâ—ctrine and Godliness And I cannot see but it were some degree of 〈◊〉 yea and furthering prâ—phaness if I took all the Parish-Communion for unlawful and would have all England that have no Nonconformists nor can have to forsake the Parochial and so all Church-worship XXI I fear the guilt of Unthankfulness to God who hath given England yet a sounder Doctrine VVorship and Churches than most of the world XXII I am not willing of that way which would injure if not destroy the National Christianity and Reformation and further if not bring in Infidelity or Popery That Religion hath the advantage for extension to Numbers which hath the countenance of
the King and Laws and the possession of the Parish maintenance and Temples To how sad a state did all the Eastern Churches dwindle when they fell under the Turks How doth meer tolerated Religion thrive in France or any other Land where the Laws and Rulers are against it If we lose all the parish-Parish-Churches some other will have them If Protestants have them not Papists will And the Parochial Religion will be the National and common Religion The most will go thither and attend those Ministers who have the publick Authority and Maintenance Therefore it is most evident that they who would keep up the Protestant Religion must do their best to keep it up in the parish-Parish-Churches And they that would corrupt and undermine it there or drive or draw it thence into meer private tolerated Churches would drive it out of the Land as National and Extensive and let in Popery to be the National Religion And I doubt not the Papists will be the most zealous potent helpers of all them among us who cry down a Comprehension that is the removing of the things which we account sinful that we may live in concord which it makes me shrug to think that ever a religious Protestant should be against who himself counts that sin which we would have removed As if they said Reform none of your publick sins unless you will reform as much as we judg sinful lâ—st And doubtless it pleaseth the Papists that as some Scots refused the Oath of Supremacy as well as they so so many refuse the Parish-Churches and suffer as Recusants as well as they I say as Mr. Hunt There is no happiness for England but by an excellent Clergy and an high a just esteem of them And excellency will cause esteem XXIII There be some honest moderate men of interest if not of power who would endeavour our restauration and peace which they know must be principally by concord if they could see that the terms were possible But while some make them think that nothing will serve us but the casting out of all the Liturgy and Church-Government they turn their thoughts from it as an impossible thing But the perusal of the Treaty 1669. and the Kings's Declaration 1660. and our Agreement by the Lord Keeper Bridgeman's means might have better informed them And I will not contribute to their error XXIV But I have reserved my greatest Motive to Parochial Communion to the last I dare not condemn Jesus Christ and his Apostles who communicated with far more vitiated Societies Christ preached daily in the Temple He there offered according to the Law and sent Lepers cleansed to the Priests to offer tho the Priesthood was more corrupt and degenerated than ours The High Priest that should have been of Aaron's line was any one that could buy it with money or favour of the Heathen Romans And some think there were two at once The Pharisees had corrupted sacred Doctrine and Worship and the Sadduces were far worse than the Mahometans yet Christ did ordinarily joyn in the Synagogues and had he not joyned in their Liturgy as the rest he would have been noted for a Disturber and the Rulers would not have called him to preach as they did others See Luke 4.16 and 6.6 Iohn 5.59 and 18.20 Matth. 12.9 and 13.54 Mark 1.21 31. and 6.2 We find Christ bidding men Take heed of the leven of the Pharisees but yet to hear them delivering the Law in Moses chair They accused him for not separating more from Publicans and Sinners but not for separating from the Temple or Synagogues He told his Disciples that men should cast them out of the Synagogues but never bid them depart themselves And I find Peter Acts 10. scrupling Communion with the Gentiles till God rebuked him and c. 11. the Iewish Christians offended at it till convinced and Gal. 2. Paul reproving him to his face for withdrawing from the Gentiles lest he should offend the Iews And Paul would not himself have conformed so far as to circumcise Tâ—mothy and to shave his head for his Vow and purifie himself in the Temple had it been unlawful It was done by the same Votes Iames and the rest at Ierusalem who made the Decrees Acts 15. And if you say Paul and all these did unlawfully you will shake our foundation He professed to become a Iew to the Iews and all things to all men to save some This moveth me above all § 10. But it is objected 1. That it is in vain to come so near the Prelates For nothing will satisfie them or procure us the least abatement of their cruelty unless you will do all that is imposed Ans. 1. It is not to satisfie such as you describe that I do what I do It is to satisfie my own Conscience in obeying God 2. If but any one of all the forementioned Reasons hold good it is not in vain tho it satisfie not the implacable Do you think I go to worship God only to satisfie men I daily receive that benefit to my self which assureth me that it is not in vain Obj. 2. You that come so near them please them no better and you have suffered with the first Ans. 1. Had I done it to escape suffering I would have done that which I suffered for not doing and not done that which I suffered for But all that I have ever suffered from men is but a Flea-biting to that which I suffer from the Diseases of my own Soul and Body and yet I can love and forgive my self 2. If I suffer for the acts of Piety Love and Peace it is for righteousness And then Christ hath commanded me exceedingly to rejoyce Mat. 5.10 11. But if I suffer for sinful censoriousness and division what will be my comfort 3. I doubt not but I much more displease the Papists by my course of Communion than they do who by unjustfiable Opinions do make their cause indefensible and expose themselves to their triumph Obj. 3. You grieve many good people of the contrary mind Ans. No doubt of it So I have done most good people whose mistakes I ever sought to cure about Antinomianism Baptism and the rest But I please those good people who think as I do 2. Compare these Two sorts together How vast a number do the contrary minded censure They think all our late Parliaments to sin in their Communion even these last which they most praise Mr. Hunt challengeth their Accusers to name any Number of them all that conform not I have not heard of Three if of any One that is liable to the charge of Recusancy and hath not communicated in the Parish-Churches They accuse also all the Common-Council since changed and in a word almost all the Christian World And yet we can easily forgive them and forbear them And if they cannot bear with us if we obey our Consciences and give them the Reason of it yea if we had told them why we judg them to be mistaken and
men for the Ministry that had the extemporate gifts of Prayer and Preaching 2. And you confess that each Church had then many Elders for oversight besides those that laboured in the Word and Doctrine Do you believe that all these had such extemporate gifts of utterance Or that these might not on occasion Pray and Preach 3. If Parents teach Children necessarily to Pray in a prescribed form of words without designing to defeat Christ or his Spirit but to subserve them how can you tell but the first prescribers of publick forms did mean as well when they found few persons able to do so well without and abundance of Hereticks ready to corrupt Gods Worship with their Errors 4. Let it be soberly considered Whether mens long and hard Study for all the words which they write in Books and for their Sermons be done to defeat Christ and his Spirit or to subserve them And why the use of words studied by others and weighed by us before we utter them should defeat the Spirit any more than words premeditated by our selves Or at least is not the Spirit as much defeated in the People that joyn who ever prepareth the words For they do not themselves put them up by their gift of utterance And its impossible when you speak for the people to know whether those words were before studied and whether by your self or by another from whom you borrowed them I have heard Mr. Ph. Nye wish that some men were sent into Wales and other such places with an injunction to read good Sermon Books to the people such as Dr. Prestons Sibbs c. was this spoken to defeat the Spirit or to serve him D. O. 1. A total neglect of all gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Administration of Church-worship and Ordinances § 14. THe first Consequence is an untruth No doubt but Liturgies were abused to cherish Ignorance and Negligence XXVII Error But that the neglect was total is not true whether you respect all the Churches or all the parts of Worship and Ordinances 1. The many holy and excellent Men whose fame and writings are transmitted to us did not totally neglect all gifts of the Holy Ghost Were all the great Volumes of Sermons preached and written by Chrysostome without any gift of the Holy Ghost Or was Preaching no Ordinance Were all Augustine's elaborate Volumes done without him Or all Cyprian's Macarius Ephrem Syrus Basil's Gregory's yea or Bernard's Homilies and Works 2. Are the gifts of Holy Desire Faith Hope Repentance no gifts of the Holy Ghost Or can you prove that these were all totally neglected in the administration of Church-worship 3. It 's known thar in the Exercise of Discipline which is a Church-Ordinance and in Catechizing and Preaching they were not tied only to a form of words no nor in all Confession Prayer and Thanksgiving 4. It 's a great blow to the Universal Church to say That it totally neglected all the gifts of the Holy Ghost D. O. 2. When a Plea for the Work of the Holy Ghost began to be revived it produced all the enmity hatred and contempt of and against the Spirit of God himself and his whole Work in the Church which the World is now filled withal § 15. THat word his whole work in the Church is another mis-report XXVIII Error It is not his whole work that is so contemned A man may preach for Mercy to the Poor for Obedience to Authority for Love c. and he may sing Psalms of Praise and pray for Pardon and for Kings and Magistrates and for daily Bread and may profess to believe the Creed and Scripture c. without the contempt which you describe But no doubt but Malignity will take advantage of Liturgies and of almost any thing and so hath still done All is not unlawful which bad men abuse What is more turned against Christ in the world abroad than his Two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry What more abused to strife than the Sacrament of Love Union and Communion Are all these therefore unlawful And it 's a palpable Mistake That the foresaid scorn of all done by the Spirit ariseth from hence alone XXIX Error a justification of the devised way of Worship It ariseth more from a malignant enmity to serious godliness and from worldly interests and designs and from the slanders of Seducers that accuse good men and too much from the miscarriages of many that have boasted most of the Spirit as Quakers Ranters Familists c. do And Experience confuteth you For all those Countries that make but little use of Liturgies have yet malignant parties that hate and oppose spiritual serious Exercises of Religion D. O. All the Reproaches that are daily cast upon the Spirit of Prayer all the concontempt and scâ—rn which all Duties of religious Worship performed by his aid and assistance are entertained withal ariseth from hence alone namely a justification of this devised way of Worship as the only true way and means thereof Take this away and the wrath and anger of men against the Spirit of God and his wâ—rk in the Worship of the Church will be abated yea the necessity of them will be evident Tâ—is we cannot comply with lest we approve the original design of it and partake in the sins which proceed from it § 16. BEcause you lay the main stress of your Cause on History and Experience you constrain me to add some more History which I had rather have past by But if I set not Experience against Experience I shall leave abundance unto the danger of error who can judg by little else than Experience and that see and feel what 's present and forget what is long past and gone The Truth I have opened in my Christian Directory that both ways are liable to great abuse and all humane actions have their inconveniences The benefits of a sound Liturgy are 1. To keep out Heresie and ill words from publick worship 2. To be a help to men of unready utterance 3. That the people may know before-hand what they joyn in The inconveniences are 1. The dulling of Affection in hearing still the same words 2. The tempting of slothful worldly Candidates and Ministers to learn no other way of praying when this will serve all their worldly turns But I must add That this followeth not the imposing of a Liturgy but the exclusion of other Prayer and taking up with this alone 2. The conveniences of praying from an habit are 1. A just variation as Occasions vary 2. Help to fresh Affection 3. Forcing Ministers to get ability for utterance The inconveniences are 1. That the people know not till the words are past whether they may own them and so hardly try all and follow with just consent 2. That abundance of young raw unskilful men do ordinarily disgrace Prayer by their unskilful methods and expressions 3. That Hereticks and erroneous men have great opportunity to put their sins into their
professed that they are his I thought on Pauls case Gal. 2. who openly opposed Peter because he was to be blamed lest his great Name should make the Separation the most prevalent when Baâ—â—abas and others were carried away to Dissimulation and seeming to approve it It grieved me I think as much as any that blame me for it to seem to confute so worthy a man when he is dead and cannot answer for himself But I durst not let the writing of a dead man be so dangerous a trap for Souls and silently see the mischief prosper for fear of displeasing the mistakers But let the Reader know That it is so far from my design to wrong the Name of Dr. Owen by this Defence that I do openly declare That except in this point of his Mistake and who mistaketh not in more than one I doubt not but he was a Man of rare Parts and Worth And tho in the Tryals of the late Distractions of this Land I mention some of his Confessions it is to tell you that I had reason to hope that he repented for doing no more in his publick opportunities against the Spirit of Division which dissolved us And which of us need not repentance for our faults in those days of Tryal Yeâ— in his Doctrinal writings in his later Years he is much clearer than heretofore And even that Book of Communion with the Trinity which he writeth against whom I here deal with in the beginning is an excellent Treatise And his great Volumes on the Hâ—brews do all shew his great and eminent Parts it was his strange Error if he thought that freedom from a Liturgy would have made most or many Ministers like himself as free and fluent and copious of Expression In the late time he had never been so long Dean of Christ-Church so oft Vice chancellor of 〈◊〉 so highly esteemed in the Army and with the Persons then in Power if his extraordinary Parts had not been known But Reader if this excellent man had one mistake against all Liturgies and for Separation from them when yet he was of late years of more complying mildness and sweetness and peaceableness than ever before or than many others and if you will use his Name and Authority for this one Error Let me tell you I am confident you will wrong Dr. O. by ignorant defending him I doubt not but his Soul is now with Christ and that tho Heaven have no Sorrow it hath great Repentance and that Dr. O. is â—ow more against the receiving of this his mistake than I am and by deâ—ending it you far more displease him than me There is there no Darkness no Mistakes no Separation of Christs Members from one another no excommunicating or renouncing of Communion They all repent that ever they did any thing against Christian Love and Unity and received not one another as Christ receiveth us and did not own Communion in all that was good while they avoided the wilful consent to evil Were D. O. now to speak to you I am fully confident it would be to this purpose Tho all believers must be holy and avoid all known wilful Sin they must not avoid one another or their Communion in good because of adherent faults or imperfections for Christ who is most holy receiveth Persons and Worship that is faulty and false if all faultiness be falsness else none of us should be received There is greatest goodness where theâ—â— is greatest Love and Unity of Spirit maintained in the bond of Peace O call not to God to deny you Mercy by being unmerciful nor to cast you all out by casting off one another O Separate not from all Christs Church on Earth lest you separate from him or displease him God hath bid you pray but not told you whether it shall be oft in the same Words or in other with a Book or without a Book Make not superstitiously a Religion by pretending that God hath determined sâ—ch Circumstances O do not Preach and Write down Love and Commuâ—iâ—n â—f Saintâ— on pretence that your little Modes and Ways are only goâ—d and theirs Idolatrous or Intollerable and do not slander and excommunicate all or almâ—st all Christs Body and then wrong Gâ—d by faâ—hering this upon him You pray Thy will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven Why here is no Sâ—â—ife 〈…〉 Animosity Sâ—cts or Factions nâ—r Separating from or Excomâ—â—nicating on another Learn of Christ and know what Spirit ye are of and separate from none further than they separate from Christ and receive all hat◠〈◊〉 receiveth While â—ou blame canonical Dividers and unjust 〈…〉 do not you renoâ—nce Communion wiâ—h 〈◊〉 mâ—re than they 〈…〉 of too naâ—râ—w 〈◊〉 â—rincipleâ— and in the time of Temptation I did nâ—t foresee to what 〈…〉 Conâ—usion and Dissolution and Hatred and Ruin dividing 〈…〉 did tend but the 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 perfection of Love to God and one anothâ—r bids me beseech you to avoid all that is against it and to make use of no mistakes of mine to cherish any such offences or to oppose the motions of Love Unity and Peace No doubt but now this is D. O's mind If any one think that my Answers to him favour of too much disrespect which I fitted meerly to the Words I answered confessing my imprudence and liableness to such faultiness I desire that none will approve my failings blame me for them but do not therefore justifie true Schism and blame the cause of Love and Catholick Communion As to the mention of former miscarriages which arose from the Spirit and Principles of Division the Drs. Argument led me to mention them so necessarily that I must else have wronged the Cause and Truth Defended And I had great reasons I thought both for that and for this Defence which I shall next enumerate IV. I am not so blind as not to see inconveniences that abusers will raise from all that I have said But while I put those into one end of the Ballance I have so much to put into the other as with my Conscience quite weigheth down I know that men have already made tenfold worse use of our Silence in this Case and the Opinion 1. That we were all for the old Seditions and Convulsions And 2. that we are now oâ—â—he Dividers mind than ever they did of our writing against them And I have said so much against the active violent Dividers that should I say nothing against the Passive I should be partial and seem a Sectary my self Ovid taught me when I was a Child That Omnia perversas possunt corrumpere mentes Stant tamen illa suis omnia tuta locis 1. Truth and Love and Peace will be good when men have said and done their worst against them And I owe much more than this to their honour and defence Buy the Truth and sell it not is an old Precept These three are the very sum of all Religion and must not be forsaken or betrayed 2.
The great success and late prospering on both sides of dividing Love-destroying Opinions which I foretold in my Moral Prognostication calleth loud for remedying attempts And when is the Medicine seasonable but when the Disease is most dangerous and common They that go to Sea carry Medicines against the Scurvy and Flux and they that go where the Plague reingeth carry Antidotes against it c. 3. The Ministerial calling layeth strong Obligations on us to fidelity sowing Pillows and saying peace to sin and daubing with untempered morter are oft concluded with that Thunder-clap Their blood will I require at thy hands And I have been loath to desert the worst Malignants by despair as Dogs and Swine And shall I forsake the Children as such because they cry and are angry with the Mother because she hinders them from calling one another Bastards or beating one another or forsaking the house because of one anothers Presence or is She the make-bate because they cry for being parted in their frays 4. Thousands that hear the great Precepts of Love and Pray to be forgiven as they forgive are by such mistakes engaged in sinful despising censuring backbiting yea and rendering odious one another and so live in ordinary sin 5. Charity to such Souls is more necessary than to the Body and how dwelleth the Love of God in him that neglecteth it 6. He that doth not what he can to save others yea multitudes from sin becometh a partaker in the guilt and danger 7. He that openeth a Pit must fill it and he that seeth it covered with Leaves and telleth not men of the danger is guilty of the hurt 8. I must not cease Preaching because men will misconstrue it Therefore not Preaching by the Press when I have a call 9. I have long found that multitudes of our conscionable hearers are setled in belief that their Teachers take Parish-Communion for Sin because they practice it not even when they are commanded and threatned and punished By which they are silently misled till necessity force us to tell them otherwise And then they Censure them as unconscinable Temporizers and so they do all godly men that communicate in publick 10. I see how hard it is after to undeceive all these 11. Most of the Epistles of Paul Iames and Iude Peter and Iohn speak much and sharply against Church-dividers and separaters 12. The Scots Covenant swore all that took it against Schism and prophaness and all that 's against sound Doctrine and Godliness 13. Christ told us A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand 14. I saw that it is a dreadful dishonouring God and Religion to father on him our love-killing mistakes and sins And that he will vindicate his honour on us if we do it not our selves by open and penitent confession of such faults 15. We have long smarted under his Judgments already and shew no publick Repentance and are threatned with much more which if God may judge it 's repentance that must prevent 16. The common Convulsions Silencing and Calamities which we have long felt are notoriously the fruits of this same Spirit and Error and both the parties which I here gainsay And shall we lie four and twenty years in the Flames and be afraid to cry Fire or call for Water lest the Incendiaries on both sides be displeased 17. God's dissolving their Power and conquering Armies without a drop of Blood by their own Divisions did so notoriously shew the Sin by the punishment and shew Gods hand against it as was a kind of Miracle of Providence and maketh their Sin that be not moved by it too like to Pharoah's 18. The main thing that moveth me is That thousands being too young to know those days and deeds blind and malicious Enemies without any shame charge all the Crimes and Confusions of a party of men in Arms upon all the Religious People of the Land that be not in all other things of the Slanderers opinions and have made multitudes believe that it was all such that did the very thing which they opposed and suffered for opposing Yea they would interpret some late Laws as if they had such an accusing Sence And shall we by silence leave so many thousands under the guilt of such false Accusations to their own sin and to others wrong lest we blame the guilty 19. I find that this Error possesseth the minds of so many young Scholars and some Ministers as that they think of all Dissenters with so much scorn as that it is the very thing which hath tempted them into the contrary extream 20. I read and hear so many on this very Supposition calling out for our destruction and not to bear with us or spare us that our Rulers have great need of Gods Mercy to save them from the damning guilt of Persecution to which such temptations would induce them lest they take the Innocent for Guilty and think that it's Service to God to ruin them 21. I see that it is a most dangerous Scandal not to remove such a stumbling-block which tempteth thousands to hate their Brethren if not Piety it self as if all the stir that we have made were but against such things as Communion in the Liturgy with Parish Churches 22. I see multitudes like by mistakes to suffer as evil doers and be ruined for their Error and by glorying in it to disgrace the suffering of those that suffer for Truth and Duty 23. I see many Servants and Children tempted to disobey their Parents and Masters that call them to publick Worship and Families to be divided by this mistake 24. I see how Atheism is at the door if when all private Church-meetings are forcibly hindred men be taught that all Church Worship must be forsaken And in how great a part of the Land already must they have such or none 25. I know that to drive all godly people from the parish-Parish-Churches and to cast out sound Religion thence is the way to let in you know whom And that it greatly serveth the interest of the Papists to have the Parish Churches vilified and us divided besides the discouraging many godly Conforming Ministers 26. I have said after and oft That to separate from a Liturgy as such is virtually to separate from all Christs Church on Earth that 's known by History for a thousand years and more And at this day to separate from almost all even the reform'd Churches And to make Christ no King if he had all that while no Kingdom And to censure himself and his own practice 27. I have shewed the wrong that was done the old Nonconformists by this party and their full Testimony against it Yea and that the old Separatists were for much that these now do condemn 28. I have observed That the deepest Sufferers have been readiest to run into this exream and therefore Passion to be suspected 29. I see that the foreign Protestants are scandalized by a false conceit that the Dissenters here are against Communion
breach of their Covenant But they professed their gratitude without subscribing Divers of them are yet living but most by far are dead Were it not lest the Papists take advantage by it to undermine and ruin Peace-makers under the Name of Trimmers I would name you many places up and down in England where all the people live in love and quietness as if there were no Convulsive Cruelty or Schisms in the Land and this through the wise and conscionable behaviour of the Ministers the publick Ministers with the ejected Nonconformists living in so great and open amity as uniteth all the people Those that desire Reformation won by the good preaching and living of the publick Minister and by his kindness go all to hear him and when at other hours they meet to edifie one another by praying singing Psalms repeating a Sermon or reading a good Book he is far from hindring them Let any man that hath the Spirit of Christ judg whether this be not a better state of the Church than for some to be railing men from Communion with the charge of Idolatry and making the rest odious and for others to prophane the Pulpits by preaching up slanders and scorns and serving Satan in Christ's Name by making Religion seem Hypocrisie and conscionable men pass for odious Rebels for fearing lest some points of Conformity be sin and stirring up Rulers to use them accordingly if they were so bad and miserable as to be perswaded by such to persecution Which of these think you is the better and more desirable case Obj. But what would you do your self if you were in Spain or any other Land where there is no Church-worship but the Mass Would you not forbear all And will not the Papists use against you the same Arguments which you use against us and say That you separate from all the Church on Earth for 1000. years and so from Christ Ans. 1. What the Papists will say maketh not all true which they say The Question is Whether they say it truly 2. It 's the trick of deceivers in dispute to prove ab obscuriore and carry the Controversie into a darker Room and to fish in troubled Waters What if it were an hard Controversie whether I must separate from Papists from Bonner Gardiner c. doth it follow that it is as hard whether I must separate from Bradford Ridley Hooper and all those Martyrs and all the Protestant Churches With whom then shall I communicate 3. I 'le tell you what I would say and do to such Papists 1. I will prove their Objection false And 1. that at this day all Papists in the World are but as Bishop Brâ—mhall estimates about a fourth part of the Christian World 2. And that it was not till the days of our King Iohn and their Innocent the 3 d that a General Council decreed the Idolatry of Transubstantiation 3. That a great part of their own never consented to this and that few of the people understood or believed it 4. That even this Canon was made against great numbers of Godly men called Albigenses and Waldenses who opposed them in this Idolatry 4. Therefore I would resolve I will have no Local Communion with any Church in the use of this or any Idolatry but will Worship God in private if I can have no better but if I can I will And I separate not by this from the most of the Church but from a Tyrannical corrupt Sect or Schism Yea as to them I hold mental Communion with them in Christianity and in all that is good and sound and renounce Communion with them in all that I know to be evil Obj. But what if a Protestant Church make any Sin a condition of their Communion will you not separate Ans. 1. I have said so much of this in this Book against the Resolver and Unreasonable Defender as that I am ashamed that mens Objections make me guilty of so much repetition 2. None such can make any Sin the Condition of my mental Communion For if they joyn good and bad and bid me do so God forbids me and requireth me to own the good and disown the bad If they use the bad themselves and put not me to subscribe or own it I will joyn with them notwithstanding in that which is good and in due time and place disown the evils e. g. I have oft heard well-meaning men Preach falshoods against Calvanists and others against Arminians some against Presbytery some against Independency some against Infant-Baptism and alas how ordinarily do men drop their Errors and put them into their Prayers I will not for this separate from a Church that professeth to to take the Scripture for their rule Let them answer for their own misdoings 2. But if they bid me Subscribe or Approve any one Falshood or Sin I will deny it If they forbid me Communion I will continue it till they put me away by force And then it is not I that separate from them but it 's they by unjust casting me out that are Schismatical I 'le still have mental Communion with them in Faith and Love and not perswade any to separate from them as Idolaters or make them worse than they are but if I can I will go to another Church tho worse that will receive me without imposing actual sin but not draw others from them who are not cast out for refusing sin as I have been And tho I will not justifie many Protestant Writers who say That we separated not from the Church of Rome but they cast us out for not sinning yet I doubt not but this must be our case with sound Churches that would impose any Sin upon us But still To prefer the best and all things considered most profitable before the more faulty or imperfect without renouncing Communion with them or perswading all others from it as Idolaters or unlawful is that which I never called Schism nor wrote against To the unknown Author of a LETTER lately sent me SIR YOUR Letter contained 1. Your friendly reprehensions of me not only for my purpose to write against a MS. which you say was Dr. Owen's but for many other things and your enumeration of those faults of mine 2. With a friendly motion That I suspend my writing till we fairly debate the Cause upon some larger Papers of the Doctor 's on that Subject which you offered to send me I wrote you presently an Answer but your Messenger never more called for it by which I supposed that you changed your purpose If yet you will send for it I will send it you The Breviate of it is this 1. I do not feignedly but from my heart accept your manner of Reproof It is honest and friendly and I am truly thankful to you for it Tho I am thought to be too plain and sharp I can bear twice as much as I use It 's foolish pride that maketh us grudg at a friendly tho sharp reprehension But your mis-information