strangers I mean who have seen the World and having learnt our language and heard and read the Sermons that are commonly preached and printed in this great City affirm there are not the like to be found in any Church whatsoever God grant we be not deprived of such singular helps by our contempt of them and that our Candlestick be not removed out of its place because we withdraw our selves from the light which it holds forth to us Of which we are in very great danger if not knowing what it is truly to profit by Sermons we make no progress at all in the state of Christianity but deceive our own Souls in a vain opinion of our acquaintance with God and our blessed Saviour and the Mysteries of the Gospel which have little or no effect upon our hearts and lives I do not pronounce this to be the case of those who object to us that we have an unprofitable Ministry but I doubt not to demonstrate that the Sermons which are generally preached by the Ministry in this City to whose Inhabitants I principally write are such that they may profit by them if it be not their own fault and then leave them to Judg of themselves as they see cause I suppose we are all agreed or may easily agree what it is to profit by Sermons for we agree that the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to our Salvation and therefore when they are rightly opened and duly applied in a Sermon so that the Hearers improve either in Christian knowledg or in Faith or in well-doing then they profit by that Sermon Now if any Man do not improve in these by the help of the Sermons which he may hear in our Churches and the Fault lye in the Sermon it must be either in the matter of it or in the manner for none I presume will be so bold as to affirm that Gods Spirit doth not accompany a Sermon which wants nothing belonging to either of these the Preacher also being duely qualified And thanks be to God there are none that dare now complain of an Idle Scandalous Insufficient Ministry about this City but instead of that they that were wont to have those words in their mouths have taken up the complaint of an Vnedifying Whereby we have gained this great Point That they have no colour to pretend the Person who preaches is unsanctified and therefore God doth not bless his Ministry but the fault must lye if there be any in the Sermon it self and that in the matter of which it consists or in the manner of its delivery I. And as for the former of these I can scarce think that any Dissenter when he seriously considers will except against our Sermons upon that account they being taken out of the Holy Scriptures which are the foundation of our Religion and with such care to find out their true sense and proper meaning that perhaps they were never more clearly opened and rightly applied then they are now adays in our Churches I am sure All that heavenly Truth which was delivered to our first Parents when they were about to be expelled out of Paradise which God repeated in his Promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob which he shadowed and confirmed in the Law of Moses illustrated by the Oracles of the Prophets and finally fulfilled in the Incarnation Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Son of God and diffused by the Preaching of the Apostles and the Power of the Holy Ghost all over the World is there so fully and distinctly taught that we may safely say the whole Counsel of Gods Will is at one time or other faithfully declared among us And as that is declared compleatly so little else is medled withal matters of controversie being as rarely handled in our Pulpits I believe as in any place of the World unless it be those which the present State of things sometimes makes absolutely Necessary to fortifie the People against Popery and against Separation yet even these are not so often treated of as matters of general concernment to all Parties of Christians whatsoever For the great drift of our Preachers seems to be to instruct the People in the Truth and to make them good particularly to give them right notions of God which are the very bottom of all Religion knowing that Errors and Superstitions will fall of themselves without a particular confutation For they are supported by nothing but ignorance and naughty affections which will uphold them against all the Arguments whereby they can be assaulted unless mens minds be informed and possessed with such a right sense of things as alters their Wills and Affections and turns them to an unfeigned love of God and Goodness Which seems to me to be the aim and scope of the Sermons which are generally preached by our Ministers and which is so well performed that we need not fear to affirm there is nothing necessary either to make men truly knowing in the things of God or to work belief in them or to confirm them in the Faith or to direct them in their practice of what they know and believe or to excite them to follow those directions and to live according to the Laws of the Gospel or to satisfie material Scruples to resolve doubts and cases of Conscience to comfort disconsolate penitents and awaken drowsie sinners or any thing of like Nature but may be met withal in our Churches so fully solidly and judiciously handled that men need go no whither else for Edification if that be the thing they truly desire and sincerely seek and indeavour For what truth can they learn any where else which is not to be learnt if they will attend upon Gods service there in our Churches what Motives to believe or what Arguments to convince men of their Duty which are not there represented and pressed What Vice is there which doth not there receive just Correction What Virtue that is not there most strongly recommended which of the promises are not there applied to the Hearts of the faithful and where can men have better means of knowing the terror of the Lord as the Apostle speaks against all the impenitent and disobedient And if men cannot profit where such things as these are constantly managed to as much advantage as the skill of the Preacher will inable him I am sure the fault must lie somewhere else than in the matter of the Sermons II. Yes will some say we allow the matter of them to be good enough but the manner of them is such that we cannot reap the like benefit by them that we do by other mens preaching who cannot conform to the Church of England Which if it be a just Exception the fault must lie either in the Composition of them or in their delivery after they are composed 1. Now if the composition of them be faulty it is because their Method is not clear and perspicuous or the Language not plain enough to convey the
is apt to breed scruples and perplexities in well meaning but less knowing members of it and by degrees produces a distast or dislike of our Worship and plainly hinders the efficacy of the ordinances of Christ as administred in our Church whilest it creates prejudices in people against them as impure and corrupt and why there should not be a due regard had to those many who are Offended at our Dissenters Conventicle Worship as well as of those who are said to be Scandalized by our Church service I cannot at all guess I shall only say here that irreverent sitting at the receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Mens unmannerly wearing their Hats in time of Divine Worship and oftentimes putting them off but half way at their Prayers their indecent postures and antick gestures at their devotions the extravagancies and follies not to say worse some of them are guilty of in their extemporary effusions the strange uncouth Metaphors and Phrases they use in their Preaching in a word the slovenly performance of Divine Worship amongst the Dissenters is much more Scandalous then all the Ceremonies of our Church can ever be 4. Consider the Scandal that is hereby given to Magistrates and our Superiours by bringing their Laws and Authority into contempt concerning which the forenamed Mr. Jeans in his first Edition of his Discourse about Abstinence from all Appearance of Evil hath these words If saith he it were better to be thrown into the bottom of the Sea with a Millstone about ones Neck than to offend a little one a poor and illiterate Artizan what expression shall we then find answerable to the heinousness of a Scandal given to a Pious Magistrate to a Religious Prince to a Parliament and Convocation to an whole Church and Commonwealth 5. By this Separation from the Church great Scandal is given to the Papists not that they are displeased at it they are not indeed offended in that sense but this serves wonderfully to harden them in their false and Idolatrous Worship it increaseth their confidence that their Church is the only true Church of Christ because amongst them only is found Peace and Unity and this is a mighty temptation to many wavering Christians to turn Papists insomuch that Mr. Baxter hath told us that Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this Argument already and he saith of himself that he is persuaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmin and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of Sects among our selves This indeed is a great Scandal to our Protestant Religion and is that which the Papists are on all occasions so forward to object against us and hit us in the teeth with and by our hearty uniting with the Church of England we may certainly wrest out of their hands the most dangerous weapon they use against the Reformation 6. This tends to the Scandal of Religion in general It prejudiceth men against it as an uncertain thing a matter of endless dispute and debate it makes some Men utterly reject it as consisting mostly in little trifles and niceties about which they observe the greatest noise and contention to be made or as destructive of the Publick Peace of Societies when they see what dangerous feuds and quarrels commence from our Religious Differences and all the disorder and confusion that they have caused here in England shall by some be charged upon Christianity it self Thus our causeless Separations and Divisions open a wide door to Atheisme and all kind of Prophaneness and Irreligion After this manner it was of old and always will be where there are Parties in Religion and one contends that their Separation is lawful and the other that it is unlawful the Common people soon become doubtful and ready to forsake all Religion I might add here that such Separations necessarily occasion breach of Charity they beget implacable enmities and animosities Hence cometh strife emulation envying one Party continually endeavouring to overtop the other watching for one anothers halting rejoycing in one anothers sins and misfortunes constant undermining one another to the disturbance of the Publick Government and endangering the Civil Peace of all which and much more than I can now mention the present distracted condition of our Nation is so great and undenyable an evidence that there need no more words to shew the mischiefs that attend such Divisions and now let any one judge whether the Peace and Unity of the Church the maintaining of Charity amongst Brethren the keeping out Popery and Atheism the preservation of the Authority of the Magistrate and quiet of the Society we are Members of the honour and credit of our Religion Lastly Whether giving Offence to all both Conformists and Nonconformists those only excepted of our own particular Sect and Division nay Scandalizing them also in the true and proper sense of Scandal be not of far greater and more weighty consideration than the fear of displeasing or grieving some few weak dissatisfied Brethren Wo to those by whom Offences come But these things I have very lightly touched because they have been the subject of many Sermons and discourses lately published To sum up all I have said Since they who dissent from the Church of England are not such weak persons as St. Paul all along describes and provides for since we cannot by our Conformity really Scandalize or Offend them in that sense in which the Scriptures use those words since tho we did give Offence to them by our Conformity yet that would not excuse us from doing our Duty and by refusing to Conform we should do both them and others greater hurt and mischief I think I may safely conclude that there cannot lie any obligation upon any private Christian as the case now stands amongst us to absent himself from his Parish-Church or to forbear the use of the Forms of Prayer or Ceremonies by Law appointed for fear of Offending his weak Brethren I end all with one word of Advice First to those who are not convinced of the lawfulness of Conformity Secondly to those who are satisfied that it is lawful 1. To those who are not convinced of the lawfulness of Conformity and therefore urge so hard that they ought not to be Offended by us I would beseech them that they would take some care and make some Conscience to avoid giving any needless Offence to those of the Church of England and this cannot but be thought a reasonable request since they require all others to be so tender of them They ought not therefore to meet in such numbers nor at the same time at which we assemble to Worship God in our publick Churches Let them not affront our Service and Common-Prayers nor revile our Bishops and Ministers nor put on their Hats when at any time they chance to be present at our Service in our Churches nor talk nor read in Books nor make sour
together Then Seven more Saints Then all the Bishops and Confessors together Then all the Holy Doctors Then Five more of their own great Saints by Name Then all the Holy Priests and Levites Then all the Holy Monks and Hermites Then Seven She Saints by Name Then all the Holy Virgins and Widows And Lastly All the He and She Saints together But the brevity I am confined to in this Discourse will not permit me to abide any longer upon this Argument of the vast distance between these two Churches in reference to their Publick Prayers and Offices Fourthly We proceed to shew that there is also no small distance between the Church of England and that of Rome in reference to the Books they receive for Canonical This will be Immediately dispatched For no more is to be said upon this subject but that whereas the Church of Rome takes all the Apocryphal Books into her Canon the Church of England like all other Protestant Churches receives only those Books of the Old and New Testament for Canonical Scripture as she declares in her Sixth Article of whose Authority there was never any doubt in the Church And she declareth concerning the Apocryphal Books in the same Article citing St. Hierom for her Authority That the Church doth read them for Example of life and Instruction of manners but yet it doth not apply them to Establish any Doctrine And after the example of the Primitive Church no more doth ours and appoints the reading some of them only upon the foresaid Account In the Fifth and Last place The Church of England is at the greatest distance possible from the Church of Rome in reference to the Authority on which they each found their whole Religion As to the Church of Rome she makes her own Infallibility the Foundation of Faith For 1. Our belief of the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures themselves must according to her Doctrine be founded upon her infallible Testimony 2. As to that Prodigious deal which she hath added of her own to the Doctrines and Precepts of the Holy Scriptures and which she makes as necessary to be believed and practised as any matters of Faith and Practice contained in the Scriptures and more necessary too than many of them the Authority of those things is founded upon her unwritten Traditions and the Decrees of her Councils which she will have to be no less inspired by the Holy Ghost than were the Prophets and Apostles themselves But Contrariwise the Church of England doth 1. Build the whole of her Religion upon the Sole Authority of Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures And therefore she takes every jot thereof out of the Bible She makes the Scriptures the Complete Rule of her Faith and of her Practice too in all matters necessary to Salvation that is in all the parts or Religion nor is there any Genuine Son of this Church that maketh any thing a part of his Religion that is not plainly contained in the Bible Let us see what our Church declareth to this purpose in her 16 Article viz. That Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation So that as Mr. Chillingworth saith THE BIBLE THE BIBLE IS THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS So you see the Bible is the Religion of the Protestant Church of England Nor doth she fetch one Tittle of her Religion either out of unwritten Traditions or Decrees of Councils Notwithstanding she hath a great Reverence for those Councils which were not a Company of Bishops and Priests of the Popes packing to serve his purposes and which have best deserved the Name of General Councils especially the Four first yet her Reverence of them consisteth not in any opinion of their Infallibility As appears by Article 14. General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes and when they be gathered together for as much as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be not Governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may Err and sometimes have Erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that is manifestly proved that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Let us see again how our Church speaks of the matter in hand Article 20. The Church hath Power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith And yet it is not Lawful for the Church to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word Written neither may it so Expound one place of Scripture that it be Repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ that is as the Jewish Church was so of the Canon of the Old Testament by whose Tradition alone it could be known what Books were Canonical and what not so the Catholick Christian Church from Christ and his Apostles downwards is so of the Canon of the New Yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation If it be asked who is to Judge what is agreeable or contrary to Holy Writ 't is manifest that Our Church leaves it to every Man to Judge for himself But 't is Objected that 't is to be acknowledged that if the Church only claimed a Power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies that is according to the general Rules of doing all things Decently and Orderly and to Edification which Power all Churches have ever Exercised this may well enough consist with private Persons Liberty to Judge for themselves but 't is also said in the now Cited Article that the Church hath Authority in Controversies of Faith and accordingly Our Church hath Publisht 39 Articles and requires of the Clergy c. Subscription to them To this we answer that we shall make one Article Egregiously to Contradict another and one and the same to Contradict it self if we understand by the Authority in Controversies of Faith which Our Church acknowledges all Churches to have any more than Authority to Oblige their Members to outward Submission when their Decisions are such as Contradict not any of the Essentials of our Religion whether they be Articles of Faith or Rules of Life not an Authority to Oblige them to assent to their Decrees as infallibly true But it is necessary to the maintaining of Peace that all Churches should be invested with a Power to bind their Members to outward submission in the Case aforesaid that is when their supposed Errors are not of that Moment as that 't is of more pernicious Consequence to bear with them than to break the Peace of the Church by opposing them And as to the fore-mentioned
Law of God then we are indispensably ingaged to join in Communion with her For as has been intimated several times and it cannot be inculcated too often Nothing but the Unlawfulness of Communicating can make a Separation Lawful But if it be resolved that the Church of England must be forsaken notwithstanding that neither her Doctrine nor Discipline can be justly condemned it would yet convenient to bethink our selves what might be the most advisable to be done after we had left it Whether we should set up another way of Administration in the room of it Or whether every one should have the Liberty of following that which he fancied the best If we are for the setting up another way it must be either Presbytery or Independency For if there should be any other new Forms of Government they are not yet of Reputation enough to be put in Competition with these two great Pretenders to Divine Right And Presbytery which had once the fairest hopes of establishing it self is now grown weak and inconsiderable in comparison of what it was and those few which would still be thought of that Perswasion are manifestly departed from their own Principles and are fain to support themselves by Gathered Assemblies which they were not wont to allow Independency therefore seems at this time to be the prevailing way but their manner of Gathering Members and Associating themselves into particular Congregations their holy Band special Agreement or Covenant which they make essential to the Constituting of a Church are things which have not the least foundation in the holy Scriptures neither were they ever Countenanced by the practice of any Orthodox Christians in former Ages But put the case we should admit of either of these Forms of Discipline and Government we should be as far if not farther from being Vnited than we are now For they have both been known to have been very rigorous Imposers wherever they have had the Power of Commanding and as they have sometimes been so they would soon again become more odious to the several Subdivisions of Dissenters than Episcopacy it self And this being a thing so easily foreseen we are not now urged with the necessity of setting up either of these The great expedient that has been proposed of late is to indulge a Liberty of choosing what Church and what way of Worship any man pleases that is to grant a publick Toleration of divers Religions But this though it might gratifie the present humor of some part of the Nation and serve some mens Occasions better than any Establishment would be quickly disliked by most of those that now contend so Zealously for it For there must needs be a constant Emulation and Strugling betwixt the several Tolerated Parties which would give a continual Disturbance and as soon as any of them began to grow Numerous and Powerful and had any Hopes of succeeding they would presently imagine it very necessary to impose their own Discipline upon all the rest and this probably might soon put an end to the so much desired and magnified way of Toleration Or if we could suppose them contented to allow the same Freedom to others which they injoyed themselves yet it could not possibly be avoided but that this Indulgence must strangely multiply our Divisions while some Members of their Separate Churches would take Offence and withdraw and make choice of a new Pastor and incorporate themselves into another new Church and that after a while upon the like Pretences might be split into another and another and so on without any stop And then this would certainly set open the Gate to a Flood of Heresies and such monstrous and extravagant Opinions as must be confessed by the most prejudiced Dissenter to be of far more dangerous consequence to the cause of Religion than that sober and pious Liturgy and those few indifferent Rites which are now injoined This the experience of the Late Times found to be true The Church of England was no sooner overthrown but some of those that had been the most forward and busie to pull her down when they saw how suddenly the swarms of other Sectaries increased upon them were forced to acknowledge that the Constitution which they had destroyed was a great check and restraint to those Errors which grew Bold and Licencious under the Liberty they had procured The Bishops then who just before had been the common Theme of Popular Obloquy had some good Words unwillingly dropt upon them and their Diligence and Success in suppressing Absurd Heretical and many times Blasphemous Doctrines was allowed some just Commendation That Government which they had traduced and rendered as odious as was possible by all the arts of Defamation that could be used was found upon Trial to be far more desirable by some of its greatest Enemies than that Anarchy and Confusion they had contended for with so much Violence But if we cannot be made sufficiently Apprehensive of the dismal Effects that will almost Naturally follow upon a Publick Toleration yet methinks we should now be a little Suspitious of it since we know it is the main Engine the Papists have been working with these many years If there be no Remedy but that our Church must fall let us not throw it down our selves by methods of their Prescribing let us not act as if we were prosecuting the Designs of the Conclave and proceed just as if we were governed by the Decrees of the pretended Infallible Chair We may be ashamed to look so like Tools in the hands of the Jesuits when we suffer our selves to be guided by those measures which they had taken and talk and do as they would have us as if we were immediately inspired from Rome For we cannot be ignorant that Toleration has been a Device of theirs and it would not be any part of our Wisdom to grow unreasonably fond of the Invention of our Enemies and think to strengthen the Protestant Interest by those very means which their Subtilty and Malice had contrived to destroy it But if this Consideration should be laid aside What need can there be otherwise that we should desire to be Indulged in our departure from a Church where we may Communicate with a safe Conscience As we may certainly do in ours whose greatest Adversaries have not been able after the most curious Search they could make to find out one thing in the whole Constitution which they could positively affirm to be Forbidden and till that can be made appear we must still say that it cannot be Unlawful If the Imposition of some Indifferent things be thought a sufficient ground for a Separation as it is now generally urged since the proof of their Unlawfulness is despaired of then we must have Separated from the Apostolical Churches who had some such Usages as the Holy Kiss and others whose Indifferency is acknowledged by their being wholly disused We must have Separated from the first Churches that succeeded them which had all some Indifferent
are Church-Members and in a State of Communion are bound to all the Acts of external and visible Communion with the Church The exercise of Church Authority consists in Receiving in or Shutting out of the Church To receive into the Church is to admit them to all external Acts of Communion to Shut or Cast out of the Church is to deny them the external and visible Communion of the Church not to allow them to Pray or receive the Lords Supper or perform any Religious Offices in the publick Assemblies of the Church Now all this Church Authority would signifie nothing were not External and Actual Communion both the Priviledge and Duty of every Christian and yet this is all the Authority Christ hath given to His Church 5. And to confirm all this nothing is more plain in Scripture than that Separation from a Church is to withdraw from the visible Communion of it and there can be no Notion of Separation without this now if Separation from Religious Assemblies be to break Communion then to live in Communion with the Church requires our Actual Communicating with the Church in all Religious Duties And that this is the true Notion of Separation is easily proved from the most express testimonies 2 Cor. 6. 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you Where come out from among them and be ye separate plainly signifies to forsake the Assemblies of Idolaters not to Communicate with them in their Idolatrous Worship So that not to joyn with any Men or Church in their Idolatrous Worship is to Separate from their Communion which is a very Godly Separation when the Worship is Idolatrous and Sinful but a Schismatical Separation when it is not Thus St. John tells us of the Ancient Hereticks They went out from us because they were not of us for if 1 John 2. 19. they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us Where their going out from them plainly signifies their forsaking Christian Assemblies upon which account the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews admonishes the Christians not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is in which he Heb. 10. 25. refers to the Separation of those Ancient Hereticks And thus accordingly to have Fellowship or Communion with any is to partake with them in their Religious Mysteries By this Argument St. Paul disswades the Corinthians for Eating of the Idols Feast because they were Sacrifices to Evil Spirits and by partaking of those Sacrifices they had Communion with them But I say that the things which the 1 Cor. 10. 20 21. Gentiles Sacrifice they Sacrifice to Devils and not to God and I would not that you should have Fellowship with Devils Ye cannot Drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils So that tho we must first be in a state of Communion with Christ and his Church must first be received into Covenant and by Baptism be incorporated into the Christian Church before we have any right to Communicate with this Church yet no Man can preserve his Church-state without Actual Communion no Man has Communion with Christ or his Church but he who Actually Communicates in all Religious Offices and Christian Institutions a state of Communion confers a right to Communicate but Actual Communion consists in the exercise of Communion and a right to Communicate without Actual Communion is worth nothing as no right or priviledge is without the Exercise of it for enjoyment consists in Acts and all the Blessings of the Gospel all the Blessings of Christian Communion are conveyed to us by Actual Communion So that if we would partake of the Blessings of Christ if we would Reap the advantages of Church-Communion we must live in Actual Communion and not content our selves with a dormant and useless right which we never bring into Act. This is sufficient to prove the necessity of Actual Communion with the Christian Church when it may be had for where it cannot be had Non-Communion is no Sin for we are not obliged to Impossibilities he who lives in a Country or travels through any Country where there is no true Christian Church to Communicate with cannot enjoy Actual Communion the right and Duty of Communion continues tho necessity may suspend the Act. But the greater difficulty is whether it be not Lawful to suspend our Communion with any particular Churches when we see the Church divided into a great many Parties and Factions which refuse Communion with each other which is the deplorable state of the Church at this day among us Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers all Separate from the Church of England and from each other and from hence some conclude it Lawful to suspend Communion with all the divided Parties which is just such a reason for a Total suspension of Church-Communion as the different and contrary opinions in Religion are for Scepticism and infidelity Because there are a great many kinds of Religions in the World and a great many divided Sects of the Christian Religion therefore some Men will be of no Religion and because the Christian Church is divided into a great many opposite and Separate Communions therefore others will be of no Church and the reason is as strong in one case as it is in the other that is indeed it holds in neither For it is possible to discover which is the true Religion notwithstanding all these different and contrary perswasions about it and it is equally possible to find out which of these divided Communions is a true and Sound Member of the Catholick Church and when we know that we are bound to maintain Communion with it Indeed if such Divisions and Separations excuse us from Actual Communion with the Church Actual Communion never was and is never likely to be a Duty long together for there never was any state of the Church so happy long together as to be without divisions even in the Apostles times there were those who Separated from the Communion of the Apostles and set up private Conventicles of their own and so it has been in all succeeding Ages of the Church and so it is likely to continue and if we are not bound to Communicate with the Church while there are any Hereticks or Schismaticks who divide from the Church farewell to all Church Communion in this World Should any Man indeed Travel into a Strange Country and there find a Schism in the Christian Church it were very fitting for him to Suspend Communion with either Party till he had opportunity to acquaint himself with the state of the Controversie so as to judge which party is the Schismatick and then he is bound if he understand their Language to Communicate
averse to Communion Baxter's Cure p. 311. with the Parish-Churches than the Nonconforming Ministers are as one complains and whatsoever they might think of the Conformity of Ministers because of the previous Terms required of them they would judg what is required of the People to be lawful as some Continuat Morning Exercise Serm. 4. p. 89. of them do And as the Ministers by bringing their Case to the People's may see Communion then to be lawful and find themselves obliged to maintain it in a private Capacity so the People by perceiving their Case not to be that of the the Ministers but widely different from it would be induced to hold Communion with the Church and to joyn with those of their Ministers that think it their Duty so to do and are therein of the opinion of the old Non-Conformists that did not act * * * Rathband's Epistle to the Reader prefixed to the grave and modest Confutation c. as if there were no middle between Separation from the Church and true Worship thereof and Subscription unto or Practice or Approbation of all the Corruptions of the same For †††Nichol's plea for the Puritans though they would not subscribe to the Ceremonies yet they were against Separation from God's publick Worship as one of them in the name of the rest doth declare So that as great a Difference as there is betwixt Presence and Consent betwixt bare Communion and Approbation betwixt the Office of the Minister and the Attendance of a private Person so much is there betwixt the Case of Ministerial and Lay-Communion And therefore when we consider the Case of Lay-Communion we are only to respect what is required of the People what part they are to have and exercise in Communion with the Church Now what they are concerned in are either the Forms that are imposed the Gestures they are to use and the Times they are to observe for the Celebration of Divine Worship or the Ministration which they may be remotely suppos'd also to be concerned in The lawfulness of all which and of all things required in Lay-Communion amongst us I shall not undertake to prove and maintain by Arguments taken from those that already are in full Communion with the Church of England and so are obliged to justify it but from those that in some things do differ from it who may therefore be supposed to be impartial and whose Reasons may be the more heeded as coming from themselves and from such that are forward in other respects to own the Miscarriages of the Church as those that wholly separate from it For the better understanding of the Case and of their Judgment in it I shall consider 1. What Opinion the most eminent and sober Non-Conformists have had of the Church of England 2. What Opinion they have had of Communion with that Church 3. What Opinion they have had of such Practices and Usages in that Church as Lay-men are concerned in 1. What Opinion the most eminent and sober Non-Conformists have had of the Church of England And that will appear in these two things First That they owne her to be a true Church Secondly To be a Church in the main very valuable First They own her to be a true Church Thus Mr. Baily saith of the old Non-Conformists They Disswasive â— 2. p. 21. did always plead against the Corruptions of the Church of England but never against the Truth of her Being or the Comfort of her Communion And as much is affirmed of the present by a grave and sober Person amongst them The Presbyterians generally hold the Church of Corbet's Discourse of the Religion of England p. 33. England to be a true Church though defective in its Order and Discipline Thus it 's acknowledged in the name of the rest by one that undertakes their Defence and would defend them in their Separation We acknowledg the Church of England to be a true Church Non-Conformists no Schismaticks p. 13. and that we are Members of the same visible Church with them This they do not only barely assert but also undertake to prove This is done by the old Non-Conformists in their Confutation of the Brownists who thus begin That the Church of England is a true A grave and sober Confut. p. 1. c. p. 57. Church of Christ and such an one as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself cutteth himself off from Christ we doubt not but the indifferent Reader may be perswaded by these Reasons following 1. We enjoy and joyn together in the use of those outward means which God hath ordained in his Word for the gathering of a visible Church and have been effectual to the unfeigned Conversion of many as may appear both by the other Fruits of Faith and by the Martyrdom which sundry have endured that were Members of our Church c. 2. Our whole Church maketh Profession of the true Faith The Confession of our Church together with the Apology thereof and those Articles of Religion which were agreed upon in the Convocation-House Anno 1562. whereunto every Minister of the Land is bound to subscribe so far forth as they contain the Confession of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments do prove this evidently c. So Mr. Ball Wheresoever we see the Word of God Friendly Tryal of the Gâ—ounds of Separat c. 13â— p 306. truly taught and professed in Points fundamental and the Sacraments for substance rightly administred there is the true Church of Christ though the Health and Soundness of it may be crazed by many Errors in Doctrine Corruptions in the Worship of God and Evils in the Life and Manners of Men. As much as this is also affirmed in the Letters passed betwixt the Ministers of Old-England A. Letter of many Ministers in Old-England to others in New England p. 24. and New-England It is simply necessary to the being of a Church that it be laid upon Christ the Foundation which being done the remaining of what is forbidden or the want of what is commanded cannot put the Society from the Title or Right of a true Church And if we enquire into the Judgment of the present Non-Conformists we shall find them likewise arguing for it Thus the Author to Jerubbaal The Jerubbaal or the Pleader impleaded p. 18 27. Essentials constitutive of a true Church are 1. The Head 2. The Body 3. The Union that is between them Which three concurring in the Church of England Christ being the professed Head she being Christ's professed Body and the Catholick Faith being the Union-band whereby they are coupled together she cannot in justice be denied a true though God knows far from a pure Church If we should proceed in this Argument and consider the Particulars I might fill a Volume with Testimonies of this kind 1. The Doctrine of the Church is universally held to be true and sound even the Brownists owned it of
old in their calm mood who declare We testify to all Brownists Apol p. 7. An. 1604. Men by these Presents That we have not forsaken any one Point of the true ancient Apostolick Faith professed in our Land but hold the same Grounds of Christian Religion with them See more in Baily's Disswasive cap. 2. p. 20 33. and Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation Part 1. § 9. p. 31. The Presbyterians if I may so call them for distinction sake do own it So Mr. Corbet The Doctrine of Faith and Sacraments by Discourse § 21 p. 43. Law established is heartily received by the Non-conformists So Mr. Baxter As for the Doctrine of the Church of England Preface to 5 Disp p. 6. the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by Edw. 6. were sound in Doctrine adhering to the Augustan Method express'd now in the Articles and Homilies they differ'd not in any considerable Point from those whom they called Puritans The like is affirmed by the Independents The Confession of the Church of Peace-Offer ing p. 12. See Mr. Baxter's Defence of his Cure Part 1. p. 64. and Part 2. p. 3. and Wadsworth in his Separation yet no Schism p. 60 62. Mr. Throughton's Apology for the Non-Conformists cap. 3. p. 106. England declared in the Articles of Religion and herein what is purely doctrinal we fully embrace 2. As to the Worship they own it for the Matter and Substance to be good and for Edification So the old Non-Conformists as Mr. Hildersham There is Lecture 26. on John p. 121. nothing in our Assemblies but we may receive profit by it c. And again There is nothing done in God's Publick Worship among us but what is done by the Institution Ordinance and Commandment of the Lord. So among the present it is owned by both Presbyterians and Independents by the former in the Morning Exercise Continuat Morning Exercise Serm 4. p. 91. Why may it not be supposeable that Christians may be moved by reasonable Considerations to attend the publick Forms the substantial Parts of them being thought agreeable to a Divine Institution though in some Circumstantials too disagreeable So it is acknowledged That in Throughton's Apol. p. 104. private Meetings the same Doctrine and Worship is used as in the Parish Churches only some Circumstances and Ceremonies omitted By the latter We know full well that we Peace-Offering p. 17. differ in nothing from the whole form of Religion established in England but only in some few things in outward Worship But I shall have further occasion to treat of this under the third General 3. As for the Ministry of the Church 1. It is acknowledged to be true and for substance the same which Christ hath established So Mr. Bradshaw I Unreasonableness of the Separation p. 16. affirm That the Ministry of our Church-Assemblies howsoever it may in some particular parts of the Execution haply be defective in some Places is for the Substance thereof that very same Ministry which Christ hath set in his Church This he speaks as he saith of those that do subscribe and conform according to the Laws of the State 2. That they have all things necessarily belonging to their Office so the grave and modest Confutation maintains The preaching of the whole Truth of God's Word Grave and modest Confutat p. 28. and nothing but it the Administration of the Sacraments and of Publick Prayer as they are of all parts of the Ministers Office prescribed in the Word so they are all appointed to our Ministers by the Law 3. They own That all the Defects in it whether in their Call or Administration do not nullify the Office Thus much Mr. Bradshaw doth contend for So many of our Ministers Unreasonableness of Separation p. 27 37. who in the Book of Ordination are called Priests and Deacons as in all Points concerning the substance of their Ministry are qualified according to the intent of the Laws have their Offices Callings Adminstration and Maintenance for the Substance thereof ordained by Christ And yet I deny not but there may be some accidental Defects or Superfluities in or about them all yet such as do not or cannot be proved to destroy the Nature and Substance of any of them This is maintained at large in the Letter of the Ministers in Old England c. p. 86 87. And the like is also affirmed even by those of the Apologet. Narration p. 6. Congregational Way so the Brethren in their Apology The unwarrantable Power in Church-Governours did never work in any of us any other Thought much less Opinion but that the Ministry thereof of the English Churches was a true Ministry So Mr. Cotton The Cotton's Infant Baptism p. 181. Power whereby the Ministers in England do administer the Word and Sacraments is either spiritual and proper essential to their Calling or advantitious and accidental The former they have received from Christ c. The latter from the Patron who presents or the Bishop who ordains c. Whoever has a mind to see their Ordination defended may consult Jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici part 2 p. 12 16 17 25 c. Jus Divinum Regim Eccles p. 264 c. Cawdry's Independency a great Schism pag. 116. and his Defence of it pag. 35 37. Thus far therefore we see how far it is agreed that the Church of England is a true Church in its Doctrine Worship and Ministry But when we come to consider what the Church is they own thus to be true there we shall find that they do differ The Presbyterians generally own a National Church and have writ much in the behalf of it as may be seen in the Books quoted in the * * * Jus Divinum Minist Evang. p 12 c. Brinsly's Church-remedy p 41 42. Cawdry Independ a great Schism p. 60 89 172. Margin Others look upon it as a prudential thing and what may lawfully be complied with So Mr. Tombs | | | Theodulia or just Defence § 15 16. Preface c. 9. § 3. It is no more against the Gospel to term the Believers of England the Church of England than it is to term Believers throughout the World the Catholick Church nor is it more unfit for us to term our selves Members of the Catholick Church nor is there need to shew any Institution of our Lord more for the one than the other But those that will not own it to be a true Church in respect of such a Constitution or that speak doubtfully of it do yet assert as much of the Parish Churches It 's acknowledged by all that the Distribution into Parishes is not of Divine but Humane Institution but withal its thought by some * * * Crofton's Reformation not Separation p. 10. and Bethshemesh clouded p. 101 c. Cawdrey's Independ a great Schism p. 132 c. Church-Reformation p. 42. agreeable to the reason of the
thing and somewhat favoured by Scripture and by Experience has been found to be of such Convenience Advantage and Security to Religion that Mr. Baxter hath more than once said †††Mr. Baxter's Plea for Peace Epist Serm. on Gal. 6. 10. p. 24. Defence p. 21. par 1. p. 36. I doubt not but he that will preserve Religion here in its due Advantages must endeavour to preserve the Soundness Concord and Honour of the Parish-Churches And Mr. Corbet saith | | | Mr. Corbet's Account of the Principles c. of several Non-Conformists p. 26. That the nullifying and treading down the Parish-Churches is a Popish Design But whatever Opinion others may have of that Form yet all of one sort and another agree that the Churches so called are or may be true Churches This was the general Opinion of the old Non-Conformists Thus saith a late * * * Troughton's Apol. p. 103. Writer who though he is unwilling to grant that they did own the National Church to be a true Church yet doth admit as he needs must at least that they did own the several Parishes or Congregations in England to be true Churches both in respect of their Constitution and also in respect of their Doctrine and Worship and that there were in them no such intolerable Corruptions as that all Christians should fly from them And even those that were in other respects opposite enough to the Church did so declare It was saith Mr. Baxter the Parish Churches that had the Liturgy Defence of his Cure part 2. p. 178. V. Letter of Ministers of Old England to New p. 49. which Mr. H. Jacob the Father of the Congregational Party wrote for Communion with against Fr. Johnson and in respect to which he called them Separatists against whom he wrote The same I may say of Mr. Bradshaw Dr. Ames and other Non-conformists whom the Congregational Brethren think were favourable to their way And if you will hearken to the abovesaid Apologist he saith again and again That the general Sence Apol. c. 4. p. â—17 of the present Non-conformists both Ministers and People is that the Parishes of England generally are true Churches both as to the Matter of them the People being Christians and as to the form their Ministers being true Ministers such as for their Doctrine and Manners deserve not to be degraded But lest he should be thought to incline to one side I shall produce the Testimony of such as are of the Congregational Way As for those of New-England Mr. Baxter doth say That Defence of his Cure part 2 p. 177. their own Expressions signify that they take the English Parishes that have godly Ministers for true Churches though faulty Mr. Cotton professeth that Robinson's denial of Way cleared p. 8. the Parishional Churches to be true Churches was never received into any Hearts amongst them and otherwhere saith We dare not deny to bless the Womb that bare us His Letter p. 3. printed 1641. and the Papes that gave us suck The five Dissâ—nting Brethren do declare * * * Apologet. Narr V. Hooker's Survey Pref. and part 1. p. 47. We have this sincere Profession to make before God and the World that all the Conscience of the Defilements in the Church of England c. did never work in us any other Thought much less Opinion but that Multitudes of the Assemblies and Parochial Congregations thereof were the true Churches and Body of Christ To come nearer Dr. T. Goodwin On the Ephes p. 477 488 489. doth condemn it as an Error in those who hold particular Churches those you call Parish-Churches to be no true Churches of Christ and their Ministers to be no true Ministers and upon that Ground forbear all Church-Communion with them in hearing or in any other Ordinance c. and saith I acquitted my self before from this and my Brethren in the Ministry But the Church of England is not only thus acknowledged a true Church but hath been also looked upon as the most valuable in the World whether we consider the Church it self or those that minister in it The Church it self of which the Authors of the grave and modest Confutation thus write All the known Pag. 6. Churches in the World acknowledg our Church for their Sister and give unto us the Right-hand of Fellowship c. Dr. Goodwin saith If we should not acknowledg these Ibid. Churches so stated i. e. Parish-Churches to be the true Churches of Christ and their Ministers true Ministers and their Order such and hold Communion with them too in the Sence spoken of we must acknowledg no Church in all the Reformed Churches c. for they are all as full of Mixtures as ours And Mr. J. Goodwin saith Sion College visited that there was more of the Truth and Power of Religion in England under the late Prelatical Government than in all the Reformed Churches in the World besides If we would have a Character of the Ministry of the Church of England as it was then Mr. Bradshaw Unreasonableness of the Separat p. 97. gives it Our Churches are not inferiour for number of able Men yea and painful Ministers to any of the Reformed Churches of Christ in foreign Parts c. And certainly the Number of such is much advanced since his time But I cannot say more of this Subject than I find in a Page or two of an Author I must frequently Mr. Baxter's Cure of Church Divisions Dir. 56. p. 263. use to which I refer the Reader Before I proceed I shall only make this Inference from what hath been said That if the Church of England be a true Church the Churches true Churches the Ministry a true Ministry the Doctrine sound and Orthodox the Worship in the main good and allowable and the Defects such as render not the Ordinances unacceptable to God and ineffectual to us I think there is much said towards the proving Communion with that Church lawful and to justify those that do joyn in it Which brings to the second General which is to consider II. What Opinion the sober and eminent Non-conformists Sect. II. have of Communion with the Church of England And they generally hold 1. That they are not totally to separate from it this follows from the former and must be own'd by all them that hold she is a true Church for to own it to be such and yet to separate totally from it would be to own and disown it at the same time So say the Members of the Assembly of Divines Thus to Papers for Accommodation p. 47. depart from true Churches is not to hold Communion with them as such but rather by departing to declare them not to be such And saith Mr. Baxter Nothing will Reasons for the Christian Relig. p. 464. warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church which yet is the case in total Separation but the want of
something essential to a Church But if the Church have all things essential to it it is a true Church and not to be separated from When the V. Annotations on the Apologet. Nar. p. 17. Church of Rome is called a true Church it 's understood in a Metaphysical or Natural Sence as a Thief is a true Man and the Devil himself though the Father of Lies is a true Spirit But withal she is a false Church as Mr. Brinsly saith from Bishop Hall an Heretical Arraignment of Schism p. 26. Apostatical Antichristian Synagogue And so to separate from her is a Duty But when the Church of England is said to be a true Church or the Parochial Churches true Churches it 's in a moral Sence as they are sound Churches which may safely be communicated with Thus doth Dr. Bryan make the Dwelling with God Serm. 6. p. 289 291. Opposition The Church of Rome is a part of the universal visible Church of Christians so far as they profess Christianity and acknowledg Christ their Head but it is the visible Society of Traiterous Vsurpers so far as they profess the Pope to be their Head c. From this Church therefore which is Spiritual Babylon God's People are bound to separate c. but not from Churches which have made Separation from Rome as the reformed Protestant Churches in France and these of Great Britain have done in whose Congregations is found Truth of Doctrine a lawful Ministry and a People professing the true Religion submitting to and joyning together in the true Worship of God Such a Separation would as has been said unchurch it This would be to deny Christ holds Communion with it or to deny Communion with a Church with which Christ holds Communion contrary to a Principle that is I think universally maintained The Error of these Men saith Mr. Brightman * * * On Rev. c. 3. V. Jenkin on Jude v. 19. Allen Vindiciae Pietatis second part p. 123. Vindication of Presbyterian Government p. 130. Cotton on John p. 156. i◠full of Evil who do in such a manner make a Departure from this Church by total Separation as if Christ were quite banished from hence and that there could be no hope of Salvation to those that abide there Let these Men consider that Christ is here feasting with his Members will they be ashamed to sit at Meat there where Christ is not ashamed to sit Further this would be a notorious Schism so the old Non-conformists conclude * * * Grave Consut p. 57. Cawdrey's Independency further proved p. 136. Because we have a true Church consisting of a lawful Ministry and a faithful People therefore they cannot separate themselves from us but they must needs incur the most shameful and odious Reproach of manifest Schism for what is that saith another †††Brinsly's Arraigment p. 15 24 44. but a total Separation from a true Church This lastly would not diminish but much increase the Fault of the Separation As another saith | | | Baily's Disswasive c. 6. p. 104. For it is a greater Sin to depart from a Church which I profess to be true and whose Ministry I acknowledg to be saving than from a Church which I conceive to be false and whose Ministers I take to have no Calling from God nor any Blessing from his Hand This therefore is their avow'd Principle That total Separation from the Church is unlawful And this the old Non-conformists did generally hold and maintain against the Brownists * * * Ames 's Puritanismus Angl. V. Parker on the Cross part 2. c. 91. § 21. Bax. Defence p. 55. and the Dissenting Brethren did declare on their part †††Apologet. Nar. p. 6. We have always professed and that in those times when the Churches of England were the most either actually over-spread with Defilements or in the greatest Danger thereof c. that we both did and would hold Communion with them as the Churches of Christ And amongst the present Non-conformists several have writ for Communion with the Church against those that separate from it and have in Print declared it to be their Duty and Practice So Mr. Baxter | | | Sacril desert p. 75. I constantly joyn i◠my Parish-Church in Liturgy and Sacrament It 's said of Mr. Joseph Allen * * * The Life of Mr. J. Allen p. 111. That he as frequently attended on the Publick Worship as his Opportunities and Strength permitted †††The Doctrine of Schism p. 64. Of Mr. Brinsley that he ordinarily attended on the Publick Worship Dr. Collins saith as much of himself | | | Reasonable Account c. Mr. Lye in his Farewell Sermon doth advise his People to attend the Publick Worship of God to hear the best they could and not to separate but to do as the old Puritans did thirty Years before Mr. Cradacot in his Farewel Sermon professeth That if that Pulpit was his dying Bed he would earnestly perswade them to have a care of total Separation from the Publick Worship of God Mr. Hickman freely declares I profess Bonasus vapulans p. 113. where-ever I come I make it my Business to reconcile People to the Publick Assemblies my Conscience would fly in my Face if I should do otherwise And Mr. Corbet as he did hold Communion with the Church of England so saith * * * Account of the Principles of the Non-conformists p. 26. That the Presbyterians generally frequent the Worship of God in the Publick †††Discourse of the Religion c. p. 33. V. Mr. Read's Case p. 15. Assemblies It 's evident then that it is their Principle and we may charitably believe it is their Practice in Conformity to it * * * Non-conformists Plea for Lay-Communion p. 1. Thus Mr. Corbet declares for himself I own Parish-Churches having a competent Minister and a number of credible Professors of Christianity for true Churches and the Worship therein performed as well in Common-Prayer as in the Preaching of the Word to be in the main sound and good for the Substance or Matter thereof And I may not disown the same in my Practice by a total neglect thereof for my Judgment and Practice ought to be concordant And if these two Judgment and Practice be not concordant it would be impossible to convince Men that they are in earnest or that they do believe themselves while they declare against Separation and yet do not keep it up Those good Men therefore were aware of this who met a little after the Plague and Fire to consider saith Mr. Baxter Non-conformists Plea fo◠Peace § 17◠p 240. whether our actual Forbearance to joyn with the Parish-Churches in the Sacrament and much more if it was total might not tend to deceive Men and make them believe that we were for Separation from them and took their Communion to be
unlawful And upon the Reasons given in they agreed such Communion to be lawful and meet when it would not do more Harm than Good that is they agreed that it was lawful in it self 2. They hold that they are not to separate further from such a true Church than the things that they separate for are unlawful or are conceived so to be that is that they ought to go as far as they can and do what lawfully they may towards Communion with it For they declare * * * Burrough's Irenic p. 182. That to joyn in nothing because they cannot joyn in all things is a dividing Practice and not to do what they can do in that case is Schism for then the Separation is rash and unjust †††Vindication of Presbyter Governm Brinsly's Arraignm p. 16 32. Therefore if the Ministerial Communion be thought unlawful and the Lay-Communion lawful the Unlawfulness of the former doth not bar a Person from joyning in the latter The denying of Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common-Prayer doth not gainsay the Lawfulness of partaking in that Worship it being sound for the substance in the main c. * * * Corbet's Plea for Lay-Communion c. p. 2. as a judicious Person hath observed This was the Case generally of the old Non-conformists who notwithstanding their Exclusion from their Publick Ministry held full Communion with the Church of England We are told by a good Hand That as Irenicum by Discipulus de tempore Junior alias M. Newcomen Epist to the Reader Friendly Tryal c. 7. p. 121. heretofore Mr. Parker Mr. Knewstubs Mr. Vdal c. and the many Scores suspended in Queen Elizabeth and King James's Reign So also of later times Mr. Dod Mr. Cleaver c. were utterly against even Semi-Separation i. e. against absenting themselves from the Prayers and the Lord's Supper So it 's affirmed of them by Mr. Ball They have evermore condemned voluntary Separation from the Congregations and Assemblies or negligent frequenting of those Publick Prayers And * * * Hildersham Lect on John R. Rogers's 7 Treatises Tr. 7. c. 4. p. 224. some of them earnestly press the People to prefer the publick Service before the private and to come to the beginning of the Prayers as an help to stir up God's Graces c. And others did both receive the Sacrament and exhort others so to do as I shall afterwards shew 2. Again if in Lay-Communion any thing is thought to be unlawful that is no reason against the things that are lawful This was the Case of many of the godly and learned Non-conformists in the last Age as we are told that Vindicat. of the Presbyt Govern p. 135. were perswaded in their Consciences that they could not hold Communion with the Church of England in receiving the Sacrament kneeling without Sin yet did they not separate from her Indeed in that particular Act they withdrew but yet so as they held Communion with her in the rest And thus much is owned by those of the present Age as one declares The Church of England Jerubbaal p. 28 30. being a true Church so that a total Separation from her is unwarrantable therefore Communion with her in all parts of real solemn Worship wherein I may joyn with her without either Let or Sin is a Duty So another saith of them Throughton's Apol. p. 107. They are ready and desirous to return to a full Vnion with the Parishes when ever the Obstacles shall be removed And again They hold Communion with the Parishes not only in Faith and Doctrine but also in Acts of Worship where they think they can lawfully do it This those of the Congregational-Way do also accord to that they ought in all lawful things to communicate with the Churches of England not only in Obedience to the Magistrate in which case they also acknowledg it to be their Duty as well as others but Mr. Nye's Case of great and present use p. 4 and 5. Mr. Read's Case p. 14. also as they are true Churches and therefore plead for the Lawfulness of hearing the established Ministry and undertake to answer the Objections brought against it whether taken from the Ministers Ordination * * * Burrough's Irenic p. 183. Lawfulness of hearing the publick Ministers of the Church of England Nye's Case p. 24 25. or Lives or the Church in which they are Ministers c. as you may find them in Mr. Robinson's Plea for it of old and Mr. Nye's of late as they are printed together Upon the Consideration of which the latter of these thus concludes In most of the Misperswasions of these latter Times by which Mens Minds have been corrupted I find in whatsoever they differ one from another yet in this they agree That it 's unlawful to hear in publick which I am perswaded is one constant Design of Satan in the variety of ways of Religion he hath set on Foot by Jesuits amongst us Let us therefore be the more aware of whatsoever tends that way Of this Opinion also is Mr. Tombs though he continued Theodulia Or a just Defence of Hearing c. c. 10. § 15. p. 369. c. 9. § 8. p. 319. an Anabaptist who has writ a whole Book to defend the hearing of the present Ministers of England and towards the close of the Work hath given forty additional Reasons for it and in opposition to those he writes against doth affirm Sure if the Church be called Mount Sion from the preaching of the Gospel the Assemblies of England may be called Sion Christ's Candlesticks and Garden as well as any Christians in the World I shall conclude this with what Mr. Robinson saith in this Case viz. For my self thus Treatise of the Lawfulness of Hearing c. p. ult I believe with my Heart before God and profess with my Tongue and have before the World that I have one and the same Faith Spirit Baptism and Lord which I had in the Church of England and none other that I esteem so many in that Church of what State or Order soever as are truly Partakers of that Faith as I account thousands to be for my Christian Brethren and my self a Fellow-Member with them of that one Mystical Body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout the World that I have always in Spirit and Affection all Christian Fellowship and Communion with them and am most ready in all outward Actions and Exercises of Religion lawful and lawfully done to express the same And withal that I am perswaded the hearing of the Word of God there preached in the manner and upon the grounds formerly mentioned both lawful and upon occasion necessary for me and all true Christians withdrawing from that Hierarchical Order of Church-Government and Ministry and the uniting in the Order and Ordinances instituted by Christ Thus far he From what hath been said upon
25. been many times said viz. that by things not Commanded are meant things forbidden and hath nothing to prove it by but only that the things mentioned in Scripture to which that phrase is applied were things forbidden as Idolatry c. Though what he produceth out of the Case be sufficient Case of Indifferent Things p. 20. yet he extreamly forgets himself when he saith nothing but only since in the page he quotes there are two arguments that are sooner flip'd than answered But however what hath he to reply to that which hath been many times said He grants It is true And is this nothing toward the proof of it What fitter way have we to find out the meaning of a phrase than to consider the several places where it is used Or to ascertain the sense of it than to shew that it 's always alike applied to such a case or thing But in answer to this he asks Why are such things express'd to us in this phrase as Not Commanded only 1st I answer they are not thus express'd as Not commanded Only For the things said to be not commanded are either in their own nature or in Scripture absolutely Forbidden as I have shewed and he grants and therefore to limit the phrase as if there was no more intended in it than that the things are not commanded as the Word Only implies and not also forbidden is to thwart Scripture as well as my reasoning from it 2ly If we take the Phrase as it is yet there his Question Why are they thus express'd and not commanded is of no Importance for supposing we could give no Reason for such an use of it that would not be sufficient to question the Thing as long as we find it constantly so used and applied But 3ly Was there no Reason offer'd no account given of it Let him peruse the Tract he opposeth as sure he did and he will find it expresly undertaken and two Reasons given for it as 1. Things forbidden are Case of Indiff Things pag. 23. called not commanded because all things prohibited are by consequence not commanded and not è contra 2. It 's by way of Meiosis c. But these though to the purpose in hand were not I am afraid to his Well! Let us consider 4ly What Account our Author himself gives at last of this 1. Saith he Things forbidden in Scripture are said to be not commanded To let us know the doing of a thing not commanded in God's Worship is Guilt enough Surely not so great as to do a thing notoriously Case Indiff Things pag. 20. forbidden as I there shewed Surely it can be no Guilt at all to do a thing not commanded if not also forbidden because as he owns there are Indifferent Things in the Worship of God and what are indifferent Things but Things not commanded as well as not forbidden 2. He saith it was so express'd because the Guilt of the Sin of Idolatry and Superstition lay in this that it was a thing not commanded had God commanded those things they had been a true Worship and acceptable In which assertion of his he grosly mistakes First as to the nature of Idolatry and Superstition when he saith the guilt of them lay in this that they were things not commanded Whereas it is evident that they were Sins because forbidden For what is Superstition but the dreading of that which is not to be dreaded as the Greek word shews Such as the Signs of Heaven Divinations and Daemons and even the unreasonable and inordinate fear of God himself When we fear Jer. 10. 2. offending him in what is not offensive to him And what is Idolatry but the giving Divine honour to that which is not God or prohibited honour to the true and only God These are things manifestly forbidden Secondly It 's yet a grosser Error which is contained in the reason he gives for it viz. That had God Commanded those things they had been a true Worship and acceptable An assertion First that confounds the Nature of things that makes Vice and Vertue alike and no otherwise discriminated but by Gods written Law as if Idolatry and Superstition were not Evil antecedent to all Revelation and which are so where Revelation is not as well as where it is Secondly From hence it follows that those things may be acceptable to God which in their own nature do tend to drive Religion out of the World and that may be true Worship which will unavoidably debase the Deity in the thoughts of Mankind For so do Idolatry and Superstition As for the Instances he there takes notice of I shall reserve them to a more convenient place Conclus 2. If things Indifferent be such as are neither Conclus Commanded nor Forbidden and that things are not unlawful because not Commanded then things thus Indifferent and not commanded are not additions to the Word Case of Indiff things p. 24. of God and the places usually insisted upon must be understood according to the sence I gave of them and which may serve as a sufficient reply to what he hath Case examined p. 26. said upon that Head But yet because he hath offer'd somewhat in another place that looks like an Argument I shall here consider it He argues thus If obedience be wanting the Salt is wanting to the Sacrifices Pag. 4. of our God which as we humbly conceive leaves no more room for perfective than corruptive Additions to Divine Worship c. What can be an act of Obedience to God but what he hath commanded whether he hath forbidden it or no If we bid our Servant go a mile and he goeth two possibly hoping to do us Service in it we hope his going the Second mile is no act of obedience though we did not forbid him In matters of this Nature no act of Supererogation is allowable because it can be no obedience In answer to which it will be necessary to resolve this Question Q. Whether the doing of any thing in the Worship of God without a command be a sinful addition to the Word of God I answer that if the Question is understood of the proper and essential parts of Worship if I may so speak then we grant it and say that he that shall institute any thing in that kind without Divine Institution doth challenge Gods prerogative to himself and because the rule is sufficient all such perfective are corruptive additions as he speaks to both Rule and Worship It is as if a Servant when bidden to go a mile he goeth two possibly hoping to do Service in it for in matters of this nature no Supererogation is allowable Thus far his comparison holds as to matters of the same Nature and design'd to the same end and esteemed to be of the same use As the going of two Miles for one with an intent to do as good Service and be as well if not better approv'd for so doing But if the question be
Surplice since White was used as a badge of Royalty and Dignity of joy and innocency in Civil cases and so may be used by V. Brightman in Ames Fresh Suit part 2. p. 505 510. way of signification in Religious and so of the rest All that he hath to say about the Surplice is that it 's tied to Worship which is remote from the case in hand and shall afterward be considered To this I may also add the Cross which he saith they Pag. 15. do not stumble of making upon a pack of Cloth or Stuff or upon a Sheep for note of distinction and may be and is used for graver purposes in the like way of signification in Civil matters as I have observ'd and so may be by this Argument transfer'd into the Service of Religion 4. It was further maintain'd in the stating of the Case Case of Indiff Things p. 5 6. that the ordering and administration of the things relating to Divine Worship was left to Christian prudence To this our Author saith It is very true these must be determined Case examined p. 7. by human prudence but that they must necessarily be determined by the prudence of the Superiour and may not be determined by the prudence of the agents is another Question Who ever affirmed it That they are left to human prudence to fix and determin is all that I maintain'd but how far Superiours may determin and how far Inferiours must submit to things so determin'd is another Question and belongs to another place From what hath been said it may appear whether no man ever doubted of the truth of the Case as I have stated it when he himself speaks so dubiously and uncertainly about it But because I have not stated it to his mind and that it 's not the Dissenters position pag. 19. but only a position which their adversaries have imposed upon them without any ground as he saith let us see how he states the Question which is thus Q. Whether things the doing or not doing of which Ibid. God hath not prescribed being neither necessary to the action as an human action nor convenient for it with reference to those that perform it for the ends of it nor naturally nor in common judgment such without which it cannot be done decently may be lawfully used in the Worship of God by all persons or by any persons who judge that God hath forbidden the part to which they are by men determined either in the letter or by the just reason and consequence of Holy Writ as forbidding all useless and superfluous things in so sacred actions or things not necessary and used ordinarily in Idolatrous and Superstitious services or judging that in Worship every man is sui juris and ought not to be deprived of the liberty God hath left him may be universally and lawfully used This he hath elsewhere formed into a position and pag. 23 24. from thence doth declare that it lies upon his Adversary to prove that those things which he would have all Dissenters conform to are 1. Things naturally necessary to all human Acts. Or 2. Things convenient for them as human acts Or with reference to the true end of such acts Or 3. Such as Nature shews to be comely for all human acts or such grave acts at least or which common judgment so judgeth Or 4. That men may do what they reasonably judge sinful Or 5. That there is no reason to judge useless and superfluous actions in the Worship of God sinful Or 6. No reason so to judge of the things not necessary to be used in Gods Worship and which have been and are ordinarily used in Idolatrous Worship Or 7. That there is no reason to judge that Christians in matters of Worship ought to be left at liberty in things when God hath so left them Whether this be indeed the Dissenters position he best pag. 19. understands as I should think but whether it be their position explained as he saith or confounded I leave pag. 24. to the judgment of others This only I am sure of that for as much as I can understand of it I may turn his own words upon him and whereas he saith of the Case as I have stated it None in his wits did ever deny it I can say as it 's stated by him None in his wits did ever affirm it For who in his wits will ever affirm that it 's lawful to use such things in the Worship of God that are sordid and indecent disorderly and confused idle useless and superfluous hurtful and pernicious And yet according to him this must he do that will undertake to prove that things that are not comely convenient or edifying may be admitted thereinto For this Author tells us that by Decency we can understand pag. 11. nothing but what is oppos'd to sordidly c. And if it be not decent by his rule it must be sordid And so of the rest Again Who in his wits will affirm that men may do what they reasonably judge sinful And yet these things must they affirm that will attack this position of our Authors By which stating of the Question and mingling things of a different nature together he hath provided well for his own security and may without fear of being conquer'd or so much as oppos'd fling down the Gantlet with If our R. Author hath taken the pag. 25. position as here stated and argued it we shall consider what he hath said if not we shall lightly pass over what he hath said c. and expect till he hath justified all or any of the last Seven mentioned particulars But I shall not so lightly pass over what he hath said without clearing what may be cleared and reducing the Case into its proper principles though it be what he hath taken no care to explain or prove If we review his seven particulars we shall find that the (a) (a) (a) V. case of a scrupulous Conscience Dr. Calamy's Sermon on that subject 4th and 6th (b) (b) (b) the case of Symbolizing and the defence belong not to this case and are otherwhere resolved And of the Five remaining Four of them are reducible to one argument which come now to be considered and the last of Christian Liberty I shall treat upon in the close of this Discourse In treating upon the Four that belong to one argument and have for their subject Human Acts I think it may be done by putting and resolving the following Question Q. What is it that doth make things in themselves lawful and indifferent to be unlawful in Divine Worship This is the main seat of the controversie it being agreed that there are indifferent things in the Worship of God But since we afterward divide upon it and say that notwithstanding this there are some things of that nature that are by circumstance unlawful it is fit to understand how this Question is resolved by
is properly no Conscience unless by Accident we have nothing here to do with them but shall reserve them to another place Here we suppose that we do make a Judgment of the thing that is we are perswaded in our Minds concerning the goodness or badness of this or the other Action And that which we are to inquire into is how far that Judgment binds us to Act according to it Now if our Conscience be a Right Conscience that is if we have truly informed our Judgment according to the Rule of Gods Law It is beyond all Question and acknowledged by all the World that we are in that Case perpetually bound to Act according to our Judgment It is for ever our Duty so to do and there can no blame no guilt fall upon us for so doing let the Consequence of our Acting or not Acting be what it will So that as to a Right Conscience or a well informed Judgment there is no dispute among any sort of Men. But the great thing to be inquired into is what Obligation a Man is under to Act according to his Judgment supposing it be false supposing he hath not rightly informed his Conscience but hath taken up false measures of what God hath Commanded or Forbidden Now for the Resolution of this I lay down these Three Propositions which I think will take in all that is needful for the giving Satisfaction to every one concerning this point First Where a Man is mistaken in his Judgment even in that Case it is always a Sin to Act against it Be our Conscience never so ill instructed as to what is Good or Evil though we should take that for a Duty which is really a Sin and on the contrary that for a Sin which is really a Duty Yet so long as we are thus persuaded it will be highly Criminal in us to Act in contradiction to this persuasion and the reason of this is evident because by so doing we wilfully Act against the best light which at present we have for the direction of our Actions and consequently our Will is as faulty and as wicked in consenting to such Actions as if we had had truer Notions of things We are to remember that the Rule of our Duty whatever it be in it self cannot touch or affect our Actions but by the Mediation of our Conscience that is no farther than as it is apprehended by us or as we do understand and remember it So that when all is done the immediate Guide of our Actions can be nothing but our Conscience our Judgment and Perswasion concerning the Goodness or Badness or Indifferency of things It is true in all those Instances where we are mistaken our Conscience proves but a very bad and unsafe Guide because it hath it self lost its way in not following its Rule as it should have done But however our Guide still it is and we have no other guide of our Actions but that And if we may lawfully refuse to be guided by it in one Instance we may with as much reason reject its Guidance in all What is the Notion that any of us hath of a Wilful Sin or a Sin against Knowledg but this That we have done otherwise than we were convinced to be our Duty at the same time that we did so And what other measures have we of any Mans Sincerity or Hypocrisie But only this that he Acts according to the best of his Judgment or that he doth not Act according to what he pretends to Believe We do not indeed say that every one is a good Man that Acts according to his Judgment or that he is to be commended for all Actions that are done in pursuance of his Perswasion No we measure Vertue and Vice by the Rule according to which a Man ought to Act as well as by the Mans intention in Acting But however we all agree that that Man is a Knave that in any instance Acts contrary to that which he took to be his duty And in passing this Sentence we have no regard to this whether the Man was Right or mistaken in his Judgment for be his Judgment Right or Wrong True or False it is all one as to his Honesty in Acting or not Acting according to it He that hath a false perswasion of things so long as that perswasion continues is often as well satisfied that he is in the Right as if his Perswasion was true That is he is oftentimes as Confident when he is in an Error as when he is in the Right And therefore we cannot but conclude that he who being under a mistake will be tempted to Act contrary to his Judgment would certainly upon the same Temptation Act contrary to it was his Judgment never so well informed And therefore his Will being as bad in the one Case as in the other he is equally a Sinner as to the Wilfulness of the Crime tho indeed in other respects there will be a great difference in the Cases This I believe is the Sense of all Men in this matter If a Man for instance should of a Jew become a Christian while yet in his Heart he believeth that the Messiah is not yet come and that our Lord Jesus was an Impostor Or if a Papist should to serve some private ends Renounce the Communion of the Roman Church and joyn with ours while yet he is perswaded that the Roman Church is the only Catholick Church and that our Reformed Churches are Heretical or Schismatical Though now there is none of us will deny that the Men in both these Cases have made a good change as having changed a false Religion for a true one yet for all that I dare say we should all agree they were both of them great Villains and Hypocrites for making that change because they made it not upon Honest Principles and in pursuance of their Judgment but in direct Contradiction to both Nay I dare say we should all of us think better of an ignorant well meaning Protestant that being seduced by the perswasions and Artifices of a cunning Popish Factor did really out of Conscience abandon our Communion and go over to the Romanists as thinking theirs to be the safest I say we should all of us entertain a more favourable Opinion of such a Man in such a Case Though really here the change is made from a true Keligion to a false one than we should of either of the other Men I have before named All this put together is abundantly sufficient to shew that no Man can in any Case Act against his Judgment or Perswasion but he is Guilty of Sin in so doing But then our Second Proposition is this The mistake of a Mans Judgment may be of such a Nature that as it will be a Sin to Act against his Judgment so it will likewise be a Sin to Act according to it For what Authority soever a Mans Conscience has over him it can never bear him out if he do an
are not discovered by our Governours either in Church or State No nor by as Learned and Religious Divines of all Perswasions as any in the World The most Divines by far the most and those as Pious and as Able as any are clearly of Opinion that there is nothing Vnlawful in our Worship but that on the contrary all things therein prescribed are at least Innocent and free from sin if not Pure and Apostolical So that if it should at last prove that they are all mistaken Yet the Law of God which forbids these things being so very obscure and the Sense of it so hardly to be found out it is a great Presumption that a man may very innocently and inculpably be Ignorant of it And if so it will be a very little or no sin at all in him to act against it Because if it was not his Duty to know this Law it cannot be his Sin that his Practice is not according to it And if it was his Duty to know it yet it being so obscurely delivered and only to be gathered by such remote Consequences it can at most be but a Sin of Ignorance in an ordinary Person where so many of the best Guides are mistaken if he should transgress it And then farther This must likewise be considered That if Conformity to our Liturgy and Worship should prove a sin in any Instance Yet the Evil Consequences of it extend no farther than the Mans Person that is guilty of it There is no damage ariseth either to the Christian Religion or to the Publick Interest of the Kingdom by any mans being a Conformist But on the contrary as things stand with us Vnity and Conformity to the Established way seem to bring a great advantage to both as I hinted before and to be a probable means to secure us from many Dangers with which our Reformed Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom is threatned Well but now on the other hand Let us suppose the contrary side of the Question to be true viz. That our Governours in this matter are in the Right and we are in the Wrong That there is nothing required of us in the Church of England as a Term of Communion but what is very Innocent and Lawful however it be our misfortune to Doubt that there is and in a zealous Indulgence to these Doubts we take the liberty to live in open disobedience to our Lawful Governous and to break the Unity of the Church into which we were Baptized I say admitting the thing to be thus what kind of Sin shall we be guilty of then Why certainly we are guilty of no less a Sin than causlesly dividing the Body of Christ against which we are so severely cautioned in the New Testament We are guilty of the Breach of as plain Laws as any are in the Bible viz. Of all those that oblige us to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace that Command us to Obey those that are over us in the Lord to be subject to the Higher Powers to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject not only for Wrath. but for Conscience sake I say these plain Laws we disobey for Conscience sake and we disobey them too in such Instances where we have the whole Catholick Church of old and far the greatest and the best part of the present Church of a different Perswasion from us Well but as if this was not enough What are the Consequences of this our Sin For by the Consequences of a sin the greatness of it is always to be estimated I speak as to the Material part of it with which we are here concerned Why they are most Terrible and Dreadful both with respect to our selves and others By this unnatual Separation we do for any thing we know put our selves out of the Communion of the Catholick Church and consequently out of the enjoyment of the ordinary means of Salvation We maintain and keep up Divisions and Disorders in the Church and lend a helping hand to all those Animosities and Hatreds all that bitter Contention and Strife and Uncharitableness which hath long torn the very Bowels of Christs Church and given occasion to that Deluge of Atheism and Profaneness and Impiety which hath over-spread the Face of it We put Affronts upon our Lawful Governours who should be in the place of God to us We give Scandal to all our Brethren that make a Conscience of living Peaceably and Piously And lastly as we offer a very fair Handle and Pretence to all Discontented and Factious men to Practice against the Best of Governments So we take the most effectual course to Ruine the Best Constituted Church in the World and with it the Reformed Religion in this Kingdom This now being the Nature and these being the Consequences of our Separation from the Established Church among us I leave it to any indifferent man to Determine whether any Doubt about the Lawfulness of our Communion though that Doubt be backed with greater Probabilities than do appear on the other side nay if you will with all the Probabilities that can consist with the nature of a Doubt can have weight enough to Ballance against such a Sin and such Consequences as Separation in our Case doth involve a man in I think there is no unconcerned Person but will pronounce that supposing where there are Doubts on both sides a man is to chuse that side on which there is the least appearance of Sin he is in this Case certainly bound to chuse Communion with the Established Church rather than Separation from it And that is all I Contend for But now after all this is said it must be acknowledged that if there be any man who hath other apprehensions of these matters and that after a Consideration of all things that are to be said for or against Conformity it doth appear to him upon the whole matter both more probable that our Communion is sinful than that it is a Duty and withal that to Communicate with us will involve him in a greater sin and in worse Consequences than to continue in Separation I say if any man have so unfortunate an understanding as to make such an estimate of things we must acknowledge that according to all the Rules of a Doubting Conscience such a man is rather to continue a Nonconformist than to obey the Laws of the King and the Church But then let him look to it for his acting in this Case according to the best Rules of a Doubting Conscience will not as I said before at all acquit him either of the Guilt or Consequences of Criminal Schism and Disobedience Supposing that indeed he is all along under a mistake as we say he certainly is and that there is nothing required in our Communion that he might not honestly and lawfully comply with as there certainly is not Unless in the mean time the man fell into these mistakes without any fault
do any thing in God's Worship but what is so determined it follows that God cannot be worshipped at all unless we could worship him in no Time Place Habit or Gesture nor indeed can I learn how a Christian can with a good Conscience perform any part of God's Worship if this Principle be admitted for true that whatsoever is not commanded is forbid since the external Circumstances of religious Actions without which they cannot be performed are not prescribed or determined in Scripture and so he must commit a Sin every time he prays or receives the Holy Sacrament Besides this Reason would oblige us to separate from all the Churches that ever were or are in the World there being no constituted Church in which there are not some Orders and Injunctions for the regulating the publick Worship of God no where commanded in Scripture We could never upon this Principle have held Communion with the Primitive Churches which undoubtedly had their instituted significant Ceremonies nor is there any Church at this day that hath not by its own Authority determined some of the Circumstances of Divine Service for the more decent and orderly Performance thereof Nay those very Persons that make this Exception do themselves practise many things in the Worship of God without the least shadow of a Divine Command to which they oblige their Hearers and Communicants for conceived Prayers sitting at the Eucharist sprinkling the Infant at Baptism the Minister's officiating in a black Cloak or Coat are full out as unscriptural humane uncommanded as any Gesture Habit or Form used in our Church 2. That is said to be unlawful which hath been abused to sinful Purposes to Idolatry or Superstition so that nothing ought to be retained in our Worship tho it be not forbid by God which was used in times of Popery Hence the ordinary Objection against our Parish Churches is that they are not sufficiently purged from Popery that our first Reformers were indeed excellent and worthy Persons for the Times they lived in that what they did was very commendable and a good Beginning but they were forced to comply with the necessities of the Age which would not bear a compleat Reformation They left a great deal of Popish Trash in the Church hoping by degrees to reconcile the Papists to it or at least that they might not make the Breach too wide and too much prejudice or estrange them from it But we now live under better means have greater Light and Knowledge and so a further and more perfect Amendment is now necessary Thus the Order of Bishops is decried as Popish and Antichristian our Liturgy as taken out of the Mass Book and our Ceremonies as Relicks of Idolatry But the truth of the case is this We must consider that those of the Church of Rome do hold and maintain all the Essentials of Christianity but then by degrees as they found Opportunity they have added a number of impious and pernicious Doctrines to the Christian Faith the Belief and Profession of which they equally require of all that are in their Communion Besides this they have introduced several idolatrous and superstitious Rites and Practises into the Service of their Church never heard of for the first four hundred Years by which they have miserably defaced and corrupted the Worship of God and made it necessary for all those that love their own Salvation to separate from them Now our first Reformers here in England did not go about to invent a new Species of Government to devise new Rites and Ceremonies and a new form of Worship such as should be least excepted against and then obtrude it upon this Nation as was done at Geneva and some other places but they wisely considered that if they did but reject what the Romanists had added to the Faith and Worship of Christians lay aside their novel Inventions Usurpations and unwritten Traditions there would remain the pure simple Primitive Christianity such as it was before the Roman Church was thus degenerated nor have we any thing of Popery left amongst us but what the Papists had left amongst them of Primitive Religion and Worship As we must not receive the evil for the sake of the good so neither must we reject the good for the sake of the evil In our Church we pray neither to Saints nor Angels nor the Virgin Mary our Liturgy is in a known Tongue we deny the Laity no part of the Sacrament nor the reading of the Scriptures we offer no Mass Sacrifice nor Worship Images or the consecrated Bread We have not one Doctrine or Ceremony in use amongst us that is purely Popish But we must be obliged to part with the most sacred venerable and usefullest things in our Religion if this be a sufficient reason of our forbearing any thing because the Papists abuse it This therefore I conclude to be the best and plainest rule for the governing of our Consciences not wilfully to omit any thing that God hath commanded to avoid to the utmost of our Power what God hath forbid and what ever else we have no particular Divine Law about to guide our selves by the general Rules of Scripture the commands of our Superiours and by the measures of Prudence Peace and Charity This one rule and it cannot but seem a very reasonable one would soon put an end to our squabbles and janglings about Forms and Ceremonies and other indifferent things 5. In order to the bringing men to a complyance with the Laws of our Church we must desire them to consider that there never was nor ever will be any publick Constitution that will be every way unexceptionable The best policy whether Civil or Ecclesiastical that can be established will have some flaws and defects which must be borne and tolerated Some Inconveniences will in process of time arise that never could be foreseen or provided against and to make alteration upon every emergent difficulty may be often of worse consequence than the evil we pretend to cure by it Let the Rules and Modes of Government Discipline publick Worship be most exact and blameless yet there will be faults in Governours and Ministers as long as they are but men We must not expect in this World a Church without Spot or Wrinkle that consists only of Saints in which nothing can be found amiss especially by those who lye at the catch and wait for an advantage against it If men will scruple and reform as long as any thing remaineth which they can object against they must e'en come at last as a Reverend Person of our Church hath observed to the state of that miserable Man who left all humane Society that he might not be defiled with other Mens Sins and at last cut out the Contents of Chapters and Titles of Books out of the Bible because they were humane Inventions added to the pure Word of God Men must be willing if ever they would promote Peace and Unity to put candid Constructions and
far and in what instances we are bound to consider the weakness of our Brother First For the resolution of this Question it is necessary to know what is the true notion of a weak Brother Now a weak Brother or weak in Faith in Scripture denotes one newly converted to Christianity and so neither thorowly instructed in the principles nor well setled in the practice of it the same whom our Saviour calls a little one and the Apostle a babe in Christ 1 Cor. 3. 1. Conversion to Christianity is often called our new birth and consequently at Mens first entrance into the Christian Church they were for a while reckoned as in an Infant state and accordingly were to be most tenderly handled and nursed and gently used with all favour and indulgence not driven faster than they were able to go till by degrees by the improvement of their knowledge they came to be of full Age as the Apostle expresseth it Heb. 5. 14. They were at first to be fed with Milk to be taught the easiest and plainest Doctrines against which least exceptions could be made as our Blessed Saviour himself would not at first tell his Disciples of the shame and sufferings he was to undergo and when he did speak of them it was covertly and obscurely so that they did not perfectly understand him lest they should by it have been presently discouraged and tempted to have forsaken him no unnecessary burdens were to be laid upon them which might render their new Profession grievous to them every Stumbling-block and prejudice was to be removed out of their way that might occasion their falling the grown Christians and proficients were Charitably to condescend to the capacity of these Novices and make allowances and for a time bear with their Ignorance and many mistakes and Childish humours and deny themselves their own Liberty and become even as Children with them as if themselves were of the same mind and understood no better than these raw beginners Now these fresh Disciples little ones or Babes are the same with those St. Paul Rom. 14. calls weak Brethren weak for want of Age or Growth or as the Original word rather signifies Sickly and Feeble like a Man beginning to recover from a wasting Disease his distemper tho cured yet hangs a long time upon him the Dregs of it still remain He must for a while be carefully attended and watched since every little thing discomposes him and hazards a relapse So was it with these first Converts As soon as ever they were brought to acknowledg Jesus to be the Son of God and were willing to become his Disciples they were immediately Baptized tho as yet they understood but little of the Nature or design of the Gospel The Apostles and first Preachers of our Religion were in hast to make more Proselytes and therefore presently Baptized all that were willing to it without that previous Instruction and Preparation which afterwards when Churches were setled was made necessary before Heathens or Jews could be admitted by Baptism Thus the same day the Apostles Preached Christ to the Jews Acts 2. they Baptized about three thousand of them and Philip without any delay Baptized the Eunuch as soon as he professed to believe that Jesus was the Son of God and the Jaylor and his Household were Baptized the same hour at midnight at which Paul and Silas spake unto them the word of the Lord. After their Baptism they were to be tutor'd and train'd up in their new Religion where great care was to be taken great prudence and caution used towards them lest they should suddenly flie back and repent of their change for having been bred up and so long lived Jews or Gentiles and then of a sudden turn'd Christians they retain'd still a great love and kindness for many of their old Customs and Opinions they had mighty and inveterate prejudices to overcome the Old man was by degrees to be put off and therefore they were at first treated with all the tenderness and condescension imaginable the stronger and wiser Christians would not stand rigidly on any little matters would for the present tolerate many things which were necessary afterwards to be done away hoping that in time they might be better taught and be brought off those mistakes they now Labour'd under Had the Apostles in the beginning plainly told all the Jews of the ceasing of their Laws the abrogation of their Ceremonies and Worship the no necessity of Circumcision the taking in of the Gentiles they would never have born such Doctrines they would never have become Christians upon such terms nor ever endured those Teachers who seem'd to make so little account of Moses and their Temple Now to gain these St. Paul became weak himself tied up himself while amongst these Jewish Converts to such observances which he was really free from as if he had the same doubts and were of the same opinion with those weak Christians and advises all others who did understand their Liberty yet to oblige their Brethren by the same inoffensive carriage This then was the difference between the strong and the weak the strong were the well-grounded understanding Christians that knew it was lawful for them to Eat all kind of Meats that Christ had set them free from the burdensome Yoke of the Jewish Ceremonies the weak tho Brethren that is believers in Christ yet abstained from some Meats judging them unlawful or unclean and observed days and Zealously retained the Mosaical rites not being yet sufficiently instructed in that Liberty our Saviour had purchased for them or in the nature of his Kingdom which consisted not in Meat or Drink but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Hence I observe 1. That the rules which are laid down in Scripture concerning weak Brethren principally respect those times when our Religion made its first appearance in the World and were temporary provisions for the easier proselyting men to the Faith of Christ or the better securing and fixing those that were already come into the Church They are not standing Laws equally obliging all Christians in all Ages but were suited to the Infant state of the Church or rather to its condition whilst it was but an Embryo till Churches were formed and setled and our Christianity had got firm Footing and Possession in the World Thus St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 9. 19. For tho I be free from all Men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gain them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I
and a contempt of God to wound and destroy their precious Souls and to provide matter for eternal torments And any thing that discourageth a man in the way of his Duty or renders it more perplexed and troublesome to him may be justly called an offence or grief to him I do not easily understand how this kind of offence can properly be said to be given any other but by some of these ways Now let our debate be determined by these things and let the issue be Whether Conformity can be grieving others upon any of these accounts It cannot I am sure be said or at least nothing like a proof be offered that we offend men hereby because we either do any dishonour to God or to his holy Religion by it It is much truer that we bring honour and reputation to both by it To God by taking the best course we can pitch upon to secure the Solemnity and Decency of his Worship And to Religion by taking care that all the great Services of it be performed decently and to edification and not profaned by the ignorance or temerity of every bold and unskilful undertaker 2. Nor secondly can it be pretended that hereby we let men be spectators of our wickedness and profaneness and so grieve and make sad the hearts of good men while they see us without any fear of God before our eyes I have that charity for the modesty and integrity of our Dissenting Brethren that they will not call our Worship Idolatry and the service of Baal any longer though it cannot be dissembled that a great part of the less-discerning Rabble have been taught by them so to account and think of it But if any have been misled into such an Opinion I would beg them to come and behold our way of publick Worship for their better conviction 3. No nor thirdly do I see how it can be any offence upon its making the way of Religion and Duty more cumbersome or difficult to others than it would be It would be a hard matter for any to shew where he is hindred from being good by seeing others conformable to the Church or what obstruction that casts in his way of Duty I will at any time undertake to shew that it may be an help and advantage to him and a furtherance to him in the way of Religion and Salvation but let or hinderance it can be none If it be pretended that by this we make Religion cumbersome and clog that with Rites and Ceremonies that is a plain and easie thing I grant the Objection were reasonable and the Charge of giving offence undeniable were it either so as it began to be of old in St. Augustin's time or is at present in the Roman-Church clogged with so many antick and garish Ceremonies that it requires a great deal of study to be an exact Ritualist and is a thousand times harder to remember and observe all the Rites and Modes of any Service and Office in Religion than to do the thing a hundred times over But let me beg men to consider whether this Charge can be just against a Church and its Liturgy which enjoyn but three Ceremonies against which the Dissenters themselves can object and these too not in the same but so many distinct Services and which are little more than barely determining those circumstances of Habit and Gesture which are natural and necessary to all our actions If these things can be thought to make the Practice and Services of Religion burthensome then any of the Postures in which our Brethren perform their Worship will make that so too and then the Directory will be as chargeable and faulty in this as the Liturgy These things will be sufficient upon this first way that I proposed to shew that conforming to the Institutions of the Church is not concerned in any thing the Apostle speaks in this place nor can come under his notion of giving offence to any which he speaks against in it I will not deny but that some may be offended and troubled at it It is too visible how much some men are troubled to see a Church constituted among us to behold it protected by Law and Power and to see so great a deference and respect payd unto it and its way of Worship as blessed be God is at present by multitudes both of great and good men I do not doubt but it is greatly maligned and envyed by men and it is little less than a continual trouble and grief to them It is contrary to their private Interest and so long as it is so their designs and aims will never be effected But so ill men are troubled at a good Government and Thieves and Robbers may be vexed that Honest men are secured from them and these may as well cry out that the Laws and the Government are an offence to them as others may that they are offended at the Church and Conformity Sure we know things better than to call every thing a Scandal that any man is vexed or troubled at If we must acknowledge that an offence or forbear doing every thing for fear of Scandal that every ill designing man is pleased to take exceptions against it is more than probable we must do nothing at all nor venture to undertake any thing till we see whether all persons will be pleased with it or not We must not call every thing an offence that pleaseth not the humour of every man for then nothing can avoid that character But this is not enough to say in this matter for it will serve us much further not onely to justifie our selves from this imputation but to reflect it back upon those that charge us For when we have well considered things we shall find that the Scandal will fall upon our Accusers and not Conformity but Separation will be found to be the giving Offence and that in both the notions of giving it that have been named Separation is indeed the Scandal as being both an evil in it self and that which betrays others into many evils If ever there were such a thing as Schism in the world or if the Separation of the Donatists or any that were ever made from the Communion of a National Church were a Schism I think it hath been sufficiently proved on our behalf that the present Separation from our Church is really a Schism And if Schism be a damnable sin and so it is if we will judge either by the Doctrines of the Apostles or their best Successors yea and few sins greater then we shall need no other argument to prove Separation to be indeed the Scandal and that in the greatest notion of Scandal too And we sadly see what great mischiefs it is introductive of what uncharitableness and railing what pride and censoriousness it betrays men into Schism was scarce ever content to be alone Men think it not enough to separate from the Communion of the Church unless they go to justifie their Separation by
(f) (f) (f) Ibid. c. 19. And therefore all that can be gathered hence is that the Christian Church had no Form of Prayers for Heathen Souldiers which is no great wonder for if they had it 's very unlikely that the Heathen Souldiers would have used it but that they had Forms is evident because he calls the Prayers which Constantine used in his Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the manner of the Church of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (g) (g) (g) Ibid. c. 17. authorized Prayers which is the same title which he gave to that Form of Prayers which he made for his Heathen Souldiers (h) (h) (h) Ibid. c. 19. and therefore if by the authorized Prayers which he prescribed to his Souldiers he meant a Form of Prayers as it 's evident he did then by the authorized Prayers which he used in his Court after the manner of the Church he must mean a Form of Prayer also and since he had a Form of Prayers in his Court after the manner of the Church then the Church must have a Form of Prayers too Thus for the first second and third Centuries sufficient Testimony hath been given of the use of publick Forms of Prayer after which not to insist upon St. Basil's St. Chrysostom's and St. Ambrose's Liturgies which without all question are of great antiquity we have undeniable Testimonies of the use of publick Forms thus St. Chrysostom (i) (i) (i) Chrys 2. ad Cor. Hom. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those who are possess'd with a Devil and those who are under Penance Common Prayers are made both by the People and Priest and we all say one and the self-same Prayer the Prayer which is so full of mercy And then he goes on and tells us how when the Priest had prayed for the People that is in that ancient Form of dismission The Lord be with you they prayed again for him in these words And with thy Spirit I confess to me it seems at least highly probable that they were not at first so strictly limited to one constant Form of Liturgy but that upon occasion they might intermingle other Forms either of their own or other mens composure though in process of time this liberty became very prejudicial to Religion for by this means the Prayers of Hereticks were often mingled with the publick Offices and many unadvised and ill-composed Forms were introduc'd into the publick Worship and this St. Austin complains of Multi irruunt in preces non solùm ab imperitis loquacibus sed etiam ab haereticis compositas per ignorantiae simplicitatem non eas valentes discernere utuntur eis arbitrantes quod bonae sint (k) (k) (k) Austin de Baptism cont Donat. lib. 6. Many there are speaking of the Office of Baptism who take up Prayers hand-over-head which are composed not onely by unskilful persons but also by Hereticks and not being able to discern what they are through their simplicity and ignorance do use them thinking they are very good To prevent which great inconvenience the Church was forced by degrees to limit and restrain this liberty and first the Council of Laodicea which was held about the year 314 or as others think 364 made a Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (l) (l) (l) Concil Laod. c. 18. About using the same Office of Prayers in the Morning and Evening that is that they should not bring in new Forms at their pleasure into the publick Worship either of their own or other mens composure as they had done before but always confine themselves to one and the same Liturgy for so not onely Zonarus (m) (m) (m) Zon. in Concil Laod. c. 18. and Balsamon (n) (n) (n) Balsam ibid. but Smectymnuus (o) (o) (o) Smect Ans to Remon p. 7. and the Presbyterian Commissioners at the Savoy (p) (p) (p) Grand Debate p. 11. understand it viz. that they should use no other Prayers in the publick Service but such as had been constantly received by the Church And that this Canon is to be understood of the received Forms is evident both from the 15th and 19th Canon of this Council for in the 15th they forbid that any should go up into the Desk to sing or call the Psalm but onely the appointed Singers who were to sing out of the publick Parchments in the which onely the received Hymns were inserted for so in the 59th Canon they forbid the calling of the Psalms of private persons (q) (q) (q) Conc. Laod. c. 15 18 19. for before it 's plain that they took the same liberty to introduce new Hymns into the publick Service of their own or other mens composure as they had done to introduce new Prayers and not onely so but any one who would was allow'd to call the Hymn for so Tertul. Post aquam manualem lumina Tertul. Apolog. c. 39. ut quisquis de Scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest vocatur in medium Deo canere After their washing their hands and lighting the Candles any one is called forth to sing to God as he is able either out of the Scripture or by his own Gift of composure But the consequence of this liberty being afterwards found as prejudicial to Religion as that of introducing new Prayers the Council thought fit to restrain it and therefore in this 15th Canon they forbid the introducing new Psalms into the publick Worship So in the 18th they forbid the introducing new Prayers there having been the same liberty and the same ill consequence in both And then in the 19th Canon they direct That after the Homily the Prayers should be said for the Catechumeni and when they were gone the Prayers for such as were under penance and when they have received the imposition of hands and are departed then let the three Prayers for the faithful be offered up the First softly or every man to himself the Second and the Third aloud which is a plain argument that their meaning is to direct to the use of their stated Forms of Prayer for the forenamed occasions for how could the Congregation say the First of the three Prayers for the faithful to themselves and the other two aloud unless they were Forms which they had learnt by heart and were constantly used too After this there being as St. Austin complains very great disorders in the African Churches through the ill-composed and heretical Prayers which the Ministers foisted into their publick Worship and in which as it seems the Father was sometimes mentioned for the Son and the Son for the Father it was ordained in the third Council of Carthage (r) (r) (r) Concil Carth. 3 d. c. 12. That none in their Prayers should name the Father for the Son or the Son for the Father but that when they came to the Altar they should direct their Prayers to the Father Et quiccunque sibi
I believe those Prejudices of the Lay-Dissenters against the Common-Prayer which I have endeavoured to remove have wrought in them a greater a version to it than the best Divines of that way intended I should be very sorry to find my self mistaken in this And this consideration was some encouragement to me to give a true account of those things they seemed to dislike most of all Which I have endeavoured upon the plain grounds of Reason and Scripture almost wholly avoiding appeals to other Church Antiquity not but that great regard is to be had of it and that we can defend our selves by it but because they are very few in Comparison who are qualified to Examine this kind of Argument And the like I say of the Concurrence of other Reformed Churches with us in those things that are disliked As for the Sign of the Cross in Baptism it is pretended that this is a part of Worship or a Sacrament of Mans making The contrary to which has been so plainly shewn in late Discourses that unless I am called to give an account of it I cannot think fit to trouble you with this Dispute But I heartily desire our Brethren to consider at length that though the use of this Ceremony were not so easie to be defended as I think it is yet that it is no Condition of Communion because the People are not required to Sign with the Sign of the Cross but the Minister only As for Kneeling at the Communion of the Holy Table that is indeed every Communicants Act but of this you may expect a Discourse from another Hand which I hope will give satisfaction to all Sober Persons that are yet unsatisfied about it And now I intreat all those of the Dissenting Party into whose hands these Papers shall fall that they would seriously consider whether it be fit to venture the Guilt of Schism and the sad Consequences of it likely to come to pass upon such grounds as these Let us at length consult for the Honour of this Age with Posterity who will stand amazed to find a Separation of Protestants from this Church carried on so long upon so little occasion given and such weak Objections so strongly insisted upon as to build an opposite Communion upon them Let us Consult the Honour and the Safety of the Reformation and no longer suffer it to be exposed to scorn and dnager to be Laught at and Disgraced by the Papists our dangerous Enemies always but never more dangerous than now If the Dissenters are not yet convinced that the wide breach they have made in the Communion of Protestants will certainly let in Popery if it be not prevented by a timely closing with the Church of England Nothing remains but to wait till they are convinced by the last Extremity I can take no comfort in being assured that at last they will believe it when alas it will be to no purpose to believe it I beseech them to consider whether we are likely to be united in any other Communion but that of the Church of England as it is by Law Established and whether so little account ought to be made of Law and Authority as to say that our Governours may as well come down to them by forbearing to require what they dislike as they come up to the Law by doing what it requires Will our case bear this wantonness Will such Expressions consist with our Duty I beseech them by what is most dear to them by the Honour of God and the Love of Christ and the Care of their own Souls and the Charity they have for the Souls of other Men that they will take pains with themselves to lay aside Prejudice and Anger and all Passions that obstruct a clear Judgment of things that have been disputed amongst us and that they would consider impartially what we have said as in the sight of God who knoweth the Hearts of Men. Can they propound to themselves more beneficial Designs than to check the Prophaneness and Atheism which in this last Age hath been so much complained of than to restore in some measure the Ancient Discipline of the Church for the excluding of vicious Men from the Communion of the Faithful than to transmit the Profession of the true Religion Establisht among us down to their Posterity The most effectual means by which they can contribute to all those good Ends is to return heartily and unanimously to the Communion of the Church of England all the true Sons whereof are ready to receive them with open Arms with joy and thankfulness to God and to them for the good they will do us and themselves by it But as for them that for Worldly and Corrupt Interests encourage and support the present Separation from this Church I cannot expostulate with them in this manner since such Men have not the fear of God before them and 't is impossible they should be touched with tenderness for the Concerns of Religion while they continue as they are All I shall say to them is That when that great day of Judgment comes which they of all Men have most reason to be afraid of then all the dismal Consequences of this Schism which are likely to happen will be fully required at their hands to be sure whilst those that in meer Ignorance and Mistake have contributed to them shall have an easier Account to give especially if they have taken pains to inform themselves better What good Effect our Applications to Men will have we cannot say but if it shall appear that they are not yet prepared for Instruction we have the more reason to turn our selves to God by earnest Prayer that he would please to open the Understandings of the simple and to detect the ill Designs of dishonest Men and to enable us to bring forth more and better Fruits of Repentance that whatever happens to this Church it may not be forsaken of his Favour and Protection Amen FINIS THE RESOLUTION OF THIS CASE OF CONSCIENCE Whether the Church of England's Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it Unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England The Second EDITION LONDON Printed for Fincham Gardiner at the White-Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. The Case Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes Communion therewith Vnlawful IN speaking to this Case we will First Premise that there is a wide and vast distance betwixt the Church of England and that of Rome Secondly Shew that a Churches Symbolizing or agreeing in some things with the Church of Rome is no Warrant for Separation from the Church so agreeing Thirdly Shew that the Agreement that is between the Church of England and the Church of Rome is in no wise such as will make Communion with the Church of England Unlawful First We think it necessary to Premise that there is a wide and vast distance betwixt the Church of England and that
of Rome Our Church having renounced all Communion with the Church of Rome this speaks the greatest distance in the general betwixt the two Churches And as their distance particularly in Government is manifest to all from our Churches having utterly cast off the Jurisdiction of the Papacy so it is easie to shew that there is likewise a mighty distance betwixt them in Doctrine Worship and Discipline But we shall not stand to shew this in each of these distinctly but rather make choice of this Method viz. to shew that our Church is most distant from and opposite to the Church of Rome 1. In all those Doctrines and Practices whereby this Church deprives her Members of their due Liberty and miserably inslaves them 2. In all those Doctrines and Practices in which she is justly Charged with plainly Contradicting the Holy Scriptures 3. In each of their publick Prayers and Offices 4. In the Books they each receive for Canonical 5. In the Authority on which they each of them found their whole Religion First Our Church is at the greatest distance from that of Rome in all those Doctrines and Practices by which she deprives her Members of their due Liberty and miserably inslaves them For instance 1. This Church denieth her Members all Judgment of discretion in matters of Religion She obligeth them to follow her blindfold and to resolve both their Faith and Judgment into hers as assuming infallibility to her self and binding all under pain of Damnation to believe her Infallible But our Church permits us the full enjoyment of our due Liberty in believing and judging and we Act not like Members of the Church of England if according to St. Pauls injunction we prove not all things that we may hold fast that which is good if we believe every Spirit which St. John cautions us against and do not try the Spirits whether they be of God which he requires us to do 'T is impossible that our Church should oblige us to an implicite Faith in herself because she disclaimeth all pretence to infallibility Our Church tells us in her 19th Article that As the Churches of Jerusalem and Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their Living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith And our Churches acknowledgment is plainly implyed in asserting the most famous Churches in the World to have erred from the Faith that she her self must needs be Obnoxious to Errour in matters of Faith and that she would be guilty of the highest impudence in denying it 2. The Church of Rome imposeth a deal of most slavish Drudgery in the vast multitude of her Rites and Ceremonies and unreasonably severe Tasks and cruel Penances As to her Ceremonies they are so vast a number as are enough to take up as Sir Edwyn Sandys hath observed a great part of a mans life merely to gaze on And abundance of them are so vain and Childish so marvellously odd and uncouth as that they can naturally bring to use that Gentlemans words who was a curious observer of them in the Popish Countries no other than disgrace and contempt to those exercises of Religion wherein they are stirring In viewing only those that are injoyned in the Common Ritual one would bless ones self to think how it should enter into the minds of Men and much more of Christians to invent such things And the like may be said of the Popish Tasks and Penances in imposing of which the Priests are Arbitrary and ordinarily lay the most Severe and Cruel ones on the lightest offenders when the most Leud and Scandalous come off with a bare saying of their Beads thrice over or some such insignificant and idle business But the Church of England imposeth nothing of that Drudgery which makes such Vassals of the poor Papists Her Rites are exceeding few and those plain and easie grave and manly founded on the Practice of the Church long before Popery appeared upon the Stage of the World Our Church hath abandon'd the five Popish Sacraments and contents her self with those two which Christ hath ordained As is to be seen in her 25th Article where she declares that There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and Extreme Vnxion are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the Corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures But yet have not like Nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lords Supper For that they have not any visible Sign or Ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about c. And in saying that our Church owns not the fore-mentioned Popish Sacraments is implied that she hath nothing to do with any of those very many Superstitious Fopperies which are injoyned in the Offices appointed for the Administration of those Sacraments Again Our Church no whit more imitates that of Rome in her Cruel Tasks and Penances than in her Ceremonies as is needless to be shewed In short in our Churches few Rites she hath used no other Liberty but what she judgeth agreeable to those Apostolical Rules of Doing all things decently and in order and Doing all things to Edification And she imposeth her Rites not as the Church of Rome doth hers as necessary and as parts of Religion but as meerly indifferent and changeable things as we find in her 34th Article where she declares that Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church Ordained onely by Mans Authority so that all things be done to Edifying And this Article begins thus It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countrys Times and Manners so that nothing be Ordained against Gods Word 2. The Church of Rome subjects her Members by several of her Doctrines to inslaving Passions For instance that of Purgatory makes them all their life-time subject to the bondages of Fear at least those of them who are so sollicitous about the life to come as to entertain any mistrust or doubting as it 's strange if the most Credulous of them do not concerning the Efficacy of Penances and Indulgences Her Doctrine of Auricular Confession subjects all that are not forsaken of all Modesty to the passion of Shame Her Doctrine of the Dependance of the Efficacy of the Sacraments upon the Priests intention must needs expose all considerative people and those who have any serious concern about their state hereafter to great Anxiety and Solicitude But these Doctrines are all rejected by the Church of England That of Purgatory she
and I perceive you mean that it pleaseth you to find it not written in a heat and that there is nothing of a Censorious or Peevish humour or of a haughty contempt of those he deals with therein exprest And he hopes that upon the same accounts you are no less pleased with the other Resolutions of Cases which bear this company But he thinks it no mighty Attainment to be able in writing to manage a Controversie Coolly and Sedately without bitter or provoking Reflexions or contemptuous Expressions Though men of warm Tempers may find it somewhat difficult to govern their Spirits and Passions as it becomes them in the heat of disputing by word of mouth one would think that a small measure of Humility or Good nature or of Discretion and Prudence should make it no hard matter to acquire that other Attainment And much more that no one who is a Christian in Spirit and Temper as well as in Notion and Profession can find it a difficult thing to arrive at it But enough of this In your Second Paragraph you seem to intimate that our Author might have spared his pains in dwelling so long upon the Distance between our Church and the Church of Rome in points of Doctrine But he is not satisfied with the reasons you give for the needlesness of so doing Your reasons are two First because he argued chiefly for Communion in Worship And Secondly you never met with the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles charged as Popish nor our Church reflected on as symbolizing with that Idolatrous Church in Points of Doctrine But these reasons have not convinced our Author that he is over long upon this Argument for it was not his design to shew that our Church doth not symbolize in Points of Doctrine with that of Rome but that She stands at greatest defyance with that Church Not that She doth not teach her Corrupt Doctrine in her Articles but that she designedly confutes them and exposeth the falsity and corruption of them And this surely was worth the shewing in so many instances for their sakes who never read or considered those Articles as I fear very few of the Dissenters have done And whereas you say you never met with the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles charged as Popish and it would be strange if you had I say there is too great cause to suspect that very few of our Dissenting Brethren do understand how Anti-popish they are though they do not charge them as Popish And I doubt you have met with many I am sure very many are to be met with who have reflected upon our Church as an Idolatrous Church though you never heard her accused as symbolizing with the Idolatrous Church of Rome in Points of Doctrine But they will find it somewhat hard to understand how a Church can be Idolatrous in matters of Practice and yet be pure in her Doctrine from any tang of Idolatry Surely her Practices must be grounded upon her Doctrines or they would be strange Practices indeed And it would be wonderfull if she should Practise Idola try and yet Believe nothing that tends to the encouragement of that foul Sin nay believe and teach all those Doctrines that are as Opposite to Idolatry as Light to Darkness So that I conceive nothing could be more to our Author's purpose than to endeavour to remove that prejudice of many against the Constitution of our Church which is grounded upon an Opinion of its being near of kin to Popery And what could signifie more to their Conviction that there is not any ground for such an Opinion than the shewing how abhorrent to Popery our Church is in her Doctrine and what a testimony she beareth in her Articles against the Idolatrous and Superstitious Doctrines of the Romish Church and the Practices which she foundeth upon those Doctrines As to the several Additions you say may be made to the * * * pag. 4. Anti-popish Doctrines contained in the 39 Articles our Author conceives he was not guilty of any Oversight in not preventing you because some of them are not properly Anti-popish but contrary to the Doctrine of other Sects which are to be found among Abhorrers of Popery as well as Papists and others of them our Author hath not omitted but if you 'll look again you may find them in their proper places Viz. those Doctrines contained in Artic. VI. and Artic. XI This under the head of Doctrines flatly contradicting the Holy Scriptures pag. 9. That under the head of the Authority on which each of the two Churches founds its whole Religion pag. 18. Now I hope by this time you understand very well what our Author would have you conclude from this first part of his Performance which you say * * * pag. 4. you do not well understand And whereas you ask whether it be that the 39 Articles have in them nothing of kin to Popery as to matters of Faith And add that you dare say there is not a judicious Dissenter in England will say they have I answer if there be any injudicious Dissenters in England that will say they have I hope these poor people ought not to be so despised as that we should use no means for the undeceiving of them But our Author would have you conclude that he hath done what he designed which is as hath been already said not to shew that the 39 Articles have nothing of kin to Popery but that they are most abhorrent from it and that our Church is at the widest and vastest distance from Popery in her Doctrinals and consequently one would think too in matters of Practice But our Author does not satisfie himself to prove this by this consequence but goes on to shew it in the particular instances of matters of Practice after he had done it in Points of Doctrine To return now to your Second Page You say that it is mightily Satisfactory to you to hear our Author assuring you that our Church alloweth her Members the judgment of Discretion c. But Sir you needed no Authors to assure you of this since our Church hath done it as fully as it can be done by words and our Author no otherwise assures you of it than by citing our Churches Articles But whereas you add that this you cannot but think implieth a Liberty not onely to Believe and Judge but to Doe also according to what a man believes and judgeth surely you will find your self able to think otherwise when you have considered what is the necessary and immediate consequence of such a thought viz. that all such things as Laws are utterly inconsistent with allowing to men the Judgment of Discretion according to this large notion And that therefore our Church doth faultily Symbolize with the Church of Rome in having any such things as Government and Discipline You next say that our Author speaketh very true as to the Popish Rites and Ceremonies and that those in our Church are
shews both what was the crime of unworthy receiving and the punishment of it Their crime was their irreverent and disorderly participation of the Sacrament and their punishment was those temporal judgments which God inflicted upon them for this their contempt of the Sacrament Now this being I think very plain we are proportionably to understand the precept of examination of our selves before we eat of that bread and drink of that cup. But let a man examine himself that is consider well with himself what a sacred Action he is going about and what behaviour becomes him when he is celebrating this Sacrament instituted by our Lord in memorial of his body and bloud that is of his death and passion And if heretofore he have been guilty of any disorder and irreverence such as the Apostle here taxeth them withall let him censure and judge himself for it be sensible of and sorry for his fault and be carefull to avoid it for the future and having thus examined himself let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. This I think is the plain sense of the Apostle's Discourse and that if we attend to the scope and circumstances of it it cannot well have any other meaning But some will say Is this all the preparation that is required to our worthy receiving of the Sacrament that we take care not to come drunk to it nor to be guilty of any irreverence and disorder in the celebration of it I answer in short this was the particular unworthiness with which the Apostle taxeth the Corinthians and which he warns them to amend as they desire to escape the judgments of God such as they had already felt for this irreverent carriage of theirs so unsutable to the holy Sacrament He finds no other fault with them at present in this matter though any other sort of irreverence will proportionably expose men to the like punishment He says nothing here of their habitual preparation by the sincere purpose and resolution of a good life answerable to the rules of the Christian Religion This we may suppose he took for granted However it concerns the Sacrament no more than it does Prayer or any other religious duty Not but that it is very true that none but those who do heartily embrace the Christian Religion and are sincerely resolved to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it are fit to communicate in this solemn acknowledgment and profession of it So that it is a practice very much to be countenanced and encouraged because it is of great use for Christians by way of preparation for the Sacrament to examine themselves in a larger sense than in all probability the Apostle here intended I mean to examine our past lives and the actions of them in order to a sincere repentance of all our errours and miscarriages and to fix us in the steady purpose and resolution of a better life particularly when we expect to have the forgiveness of our sins sealed to us we should lay aside all enmity and thoughts of revenge and heartily forgive those that have offended us and put in practice that universal love and charity which is represented to us by this holy Communion And to this purpose we are earnestly exhorted in the publick Office of the Communion by way of due preparation and disposition for it to repent us truly of our sins past to amend our lives and to be in perfect charity with all men that so we may be meet partakers of those holy mysteries And because this work of examining our selves concerning our state and condition and of exercising repentance towards God and charity towards men is incumbent upon us as we are Christians and can never be put in practice more seasonably and with greater advantage than when we are meditating of this Sacrament therefore besides our habitual preparation by repentance and the constant endeavours of a holy life it is a very pious and commendable custome in Christians before their coming to the Sacrament to set apart some particular time for this work of examination But how much time every person should allot to this purpose is matter of prudence and as it need not so neither indeed can it be precisely determined Some have greater reason to spend more time upon this work than others I mean those whose accounts are heavier because they have long run upon the score and neglected themselves And some also have more leisure and freedom for it by reason of their easie condition and circumstances in the world and therefore are obliged to allow a greater portion of time for the exercises of piety and devotion In general no man ought to doe a work of so great moment and concernment slightly and perfunctorily And in this as in all other actions the end is principally to be regarded Now the end of examining our selves is to understand our state and condition and to reform whatever we find amiss in our selves And provided this end be obtained the circumstances of the means are less considerable whether more or less time be allowed to this work it matters not so much as to make sure that the work be throughly done And I do on purpose speak thus cautiously in this matter because some pious persons do perhaps err on the stricter hand and are a little superstitious on that side insomuch that unless they can gain so much time to set apart for a solemn preparation they will refrain from the Sacrament at that time though otherwise they be habitually prepared This I doubt not proceeds from a pious mind but as the Apostle says in another case about the Sacrament shall I praise them in this I praise them not For provided there be no wilfull neglect of due preparation it is much better to come so prepared as we can nay I think it is our duty so to doe rather than to abstain upon this punctilio For when all is done the best preparation for the Sacrament is the general care and endeavour of a good life And he that is thus prepared may receive at any time when opportunity is offered though he had no particular foresight of that opportunity And I think in that case such a one shall doe much better to receive than to refrain because he is habitually prepared for the Sacrament though he had no time to make such actual preparation as he desired And if this were not allowable how could Ministers communicate with sick persons at all times or persuade others to doe it many times upon very short and sudden warning And indeed we cannot imagine that the primitive Christians who received the Sacrament so frequently that for ought appears to the contrary they judged it as essential and necessary a part of their publick worship as any other part of it whatsoever even as their Hymns and Prayers and reading and interpreting the Word of God I say we cannot well conceive how they who celebrated it so constantly
libertie by God to use what comely Gesture we please either Sitting Kneeling or Standing And if the Law of the See the Case of Indifferent things Land did not restrain our libertie we might use any of the forementioned Gestures without the least violation of any Law of God This perhaps at first sight may seem very strange and false to many of our Dissenting Brethren who have been taught to believe otherwise and it may be to judge Charitably their Teachers and Pastours have in this particular been imposed on themselves by the Writings and Assertions of other Men whose Persons they have had in great admiration But yet I am so secure of this Truth that I challenge all the World to produce the Chapter and Verse wherein any Command is given for the use of any particular Gesture at the Celebration of the Lord's Supper That Popish Principle of believing as the Church believes and swallowing all for Gospel which she affirms to be so though very mischievous in its consequence is not so Popish that is so ill as to pin our Faith on the Sleeves of particular Men and relying barely on the word and credit of any one Man whom we highly esteem of what Party or Perswasion soever For this is to create a Pope to our selves and make every Man whom we phansie infallible this is to make two more than six and the Authority of one Man outweigh the Authority of the Church that is a Society of Men who are nothing near so liable to deception I don't desire therefore to be trusted by any means in the matter under present consideration and therefore I would have the Reader to observe this Rule Trust no Mans Eyes or Judgment where you are able to use your own but follow the example of the Bereans so highly commended Acts. 17. 11. by St. Paul upon this very account that is to make an ingenuous enquiry into the Truth of things to search the Scriptures whether these things be so as I say and assert If this course were generally followed it would go a great way towards the composing those differences and curing those divisions that at present are on foot amongst us occasioned by several Tenets and Opinions about matters of Religion By this means a great many which pass for Divine Oracles and Doctrines would appear to be no other than the whimsies and inventions of Men. With this cautionary advice I might fairly dismiss this Question as being fully Answered and leave all my Readers to disprove me if they can But because some may pretend they have not Leisure and others want of Skill and others are not enduced with Patience enough to search and examine this matter throughly as it ought I will yield all the Charitable assistance I am able towards their relief by doing the work to their hands My Business then at present is this to Collect and Present to your view all those places which relate to the Sacrament and are most likely to inform us what our Lord by his Institution and Appointment hath obliged us to And certainly if there be any Command which tyes us up to the use of any particular Gesture Sitting suppose or Standing and not Kneeling we shall find it in one or other of the Evangelists who give us a perfect Narrative of the whole Mind and Will of Christ in all matters necessary to Faith and Salvation Let us therefore bring them under a strict examination St. Matthew gives this account of Mat. 26. 26. the whole matter As they were eating Jesus took Bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body And he took the Ver. 27. Cup and gave Thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my Blood of the New Testament Ver. 28. which is shed for many for the Remission of Sins But I Ver. 29. say unto you I will not Drink henceforth of this Fruit of the Vine until that day when I Drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom And when they had Sung an Hymn Ver. 30. they went out into the Mount of Olives Much to the same purpose is the account which St. Mark gives of this matter And as they did eat Jesus took Bread and blessed and Mar. 14. 22. brake it and gave to them and said Take eat this is my Body And he took the Cup and when he had given Ver. 23. Thanks he gave it to them and they all Drank of it And he said unto them This is my Bloud of the New Ver. 24. Ver. 25. Testament which is shed for many Verily I say unto you I will Drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine until that day that I Drink it new in the Kingdom of God And Ver. 26. when they had Sung a Hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives And this is the sum of what Saint Mark delivers concerning the Lord's Supper Saint Luke with very little variation thus describes the matter And he took Bread and gave Thanks and brake it and Luke 22. 19. gave unto them saying This is my Body which is given for you this do in Remembrance of me Likewise also the Ver. 20. Cup after Supper saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Bloud which is shed for you This Evangelist indeed makes mention of another Cup which our Lord took and after he had blessed it he said to his Disciples Take this and divide it among your selves and withal told them that he would not Drink of the Fruit of the Vine until the Kingdom of God should come which Cup plainly refers to the Passover as will appear to any one who will consult and compare the 15 16 17 and 18. Verses of See Dr. Lightfoot on Mat. 26. 26. Horae Heb. Talmud the fore-mentioned Chapter and is supposed to be that Cup wherewith the Jews were wont to begin the Paschal Feast which they Blessed or Consecrated in this Form of words Blessed be God who Created the Fruit of the Vine And whereas our Lord saith he will Drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine his meaning is that he would never Celebrate the Feast of the Passover with them any more after that time but their next Festival Meeting should be in Heaven and this is very consistent with our Lord 's Drinking another Cup after this which he Consecrated to another use and signification in the Sacrament Ver. 20. And this is all the light this Divine Writer affords us concerning the outward Rites and Ceremones which our Lord used himself at the Institution of the Sacrament and established for the use of all Christians in all succeeding Ages As for St. John he makes no mention at all of the Institution of this Holy Feast by our Lord. All that can be collected from his Writings relates to the Passover or according to the Learned Dr. Lightfoot to
strongly enforc'd upon his Mind or in Prayers which among them are better compos'd and more fervently sent up unto God and in all other parts of Devotion which there are better fram'd and order'd to affect his Soul and make a truly Christian man These two things being explain'd and premis'd the Answer to the Question will be found true if we consider these following Reasons 1. That the Ground upon which the Question stands is false viz. There is not better Edification to be had in the Separate Meetings than in the Communion of the Church of England This will appear if we consider 1. How apt and fit the whole Constitution of the Church of England is to Edifie Mens Souls 2. That this Constitution is well us'd and manag'd by the Pastors of our Church for Edification The first will be manifest by Induction if we consider the several parts of her Constitution reducible to these following Heads 1. Her Creeds or Articles of Faith are those which our Dissenters themselves allow which are full and plain containing all Necessaries and Fundamentals in Religion nothing defective in Vitals or Integrals to make up the Body of a true Christian Church Christ that founded his Church best knew what was absolutely necessary to her being and there is nothing that he hath declar'd to be so but is contain'd in her Creeds Whatever is fundamental for us to know of the Nature of God is to be found there or by easie Consequences deduced from them Would we know what we ought to believe of the Nature of Christ or his Offices the Designs of his coming upon Earth the Constitution of his Reign and Government the Rewards and Punishments of his Laws the Times of Account and Retribution the mighty Miracles and extraordinary Acts of Providence to confirm these we may read them at large in Holy Writ and find wisely summ'd up in our Creeds Whose Articles to help the Memories of Men are short and few and to assist the dulness of their Understandings are manifest and plain they containing no more than what was some way or other either suppos'd before or included in or following from that brief Creed the Character of a true Christian that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God 1 John 4. 15. 5. 5. Whatever is any way reveal'd by God as necessary is an Article of our Faith nothing that is nice and obscure fit onely for dispute and wrangling is brought into our Creed all whose Articles are Primitive and of Divine right none of them purely speculative or curious but plain and useful in order to practice naturally leading to an Holy Life the end of all Religion We love every thing that is truly ancient and Apostolical but we cannot call that an eternal truth which was but yesterday and we are ready to embrace all truth but we cannot call that the High-Priest which is but the Fringe of his Garment We believe all that the early Christians in the first 300 Years thought sufficient for them to know and they were very secure that this would save them And if any truth be disguis'd or defac'd by the iniquity of the descending Ages we are ready to receive it whenever it is made clear and restor'd to its former shape and complexion we casting out obstinacy and perversness out of our Practice as well as niceness out of our Creed That Creed that Christ and his Apostles taught the Saints Martyrs and Confessors the Wise and Good Men in the first and purest days of Christianity believ'd and were secure of Heaven by it and therefore added no more that Faith this Church maintains which will sufficiently and effectually Edifie the Souls of Men. 2. The Necessity she lays upon a Good Life and Works For this is the solemn intention of all Religion our Creed our Prayers our Sacraments and Discipline and all Devotion Her Creed is such that all its Articles so directly or by natural consequence lead unto Virtue and Holiness that no man can firmly believe them but they must ordinarily influence his Manners and better his Conversation and if by virtue of his Creed his Life is not mended he either ignorantly and grosly mistakes their Consequences or is wilfully desperate Our Church publickly declares that without preparatory Virtues no Acts of Devotion however set off with Zeal and Passion are pleasing unto God and if obedience be wanting afterwards are but scene and show Such a Faith she lays down as fundamental to salvation which rests not in the brain and story in magnifying and praising in sighing and repeating but in the production of Mercy Charity and Justice and such excellent Virtues She makes no debates between Faith and Good Works nor argues nicely about the preference nor disputes critically the Mode how joyntly they become the condition of Salvation but plainly determines that without Faith and Good Works no Man shall see God She not onely keeps to a Form of sound Words but to a Conversation of equal Firmness and Solidity Her Festivals are to commemorate the Virtues of Excellent Men and to recommend them as Presidents for imitation Her Ceremonies which were principally design'd for Decency may also remind us of those Virtues which become the Worshippers of God Her Collects and Petitions are for Grace to subdue our Follies and to fortifie our resolutions for Holiness Her discipline is to lash the sturdy into Sobriety and Goodness And her Homilies are plainly and smartly to declare against the gross Acts of Impiety and to perswade a true Christian Deportment in Word and Deed and her whole Constitution aims at the Design of the Gospel to teach Men to live Soberly Righteously and Godly She flatters and lulls no man asleep in Vice but tells all secure sinners plainly that they do not pray nor receive aright that they are not absolv'd that their persons are not justified nor can have any true hopes of Heaven except they purifie themselves and be really just and good She neither useth nor allows any nice distinctions in plain Duties to baffle our Obedience nor suffers a cunning head to serve the designs of a wicked heart and teach Men learnedly to sin but urgeth plain Virtues laid down distinctly in Holy Writ and taught by Natural Reason and Conscience without calling them mean Duties or ordinary Morality to be the great Ornament of our Religion and the Soul of our Faith She sets no abstruse and phantastick Characters nor any Marks whose truth must be fetcht in by long deductions and consequences for Men to judge by whether they shall be sav'd or no but Faith and good Works which the Philosopher and meanest Christian can easily judge of The civil interest of a Nation is Edifi'd by such a Church pressing the necessity of good Works not onely thereby enforcing Peace and Justice Pity and Tenderness Humility and Kindness one towards another but she makes Kings safer and Subjects more secure condemning both Tyranny and Disobedience Parents more obey'd and
have been lessen'd with the character of dull honest and moral Men fit onely for Catechists and Christians of the lowest Form Tickle but their imaginations with conjectural Discourses about the Situation of Paradise of old or Hell now and you are a sounder Divine than he that onely draws wholsom Conclusions from Adam's prevarication to caution you against sin of the like nature or how to avoid those dismal flames where ever they are And others have been silly and phantastick in admiring those who have pratled about the length of the Sword that guarded Paradise or how the Spirits above pass Eternity away and scorn'd him who in plain methods chalkt them out the way that will lead them to Heaven The ancient Gnosticks because they 1 Tim. 1. 4. made a mixture of the Jewish Fables and Genealogies of their Lilith and Behemoth and fetcht in the Stories of the Gods out of Orpheus and Philistion two great Divines in the Pagan Religion into plain Christianity thought themselves the most knowing Men of the Secrets of God and Heaven and wondred how onely Faith upon Jesus and keeping of the Commands could be knowing of God or Wisdom from above The wranglings of the Schools with their fine distinctions and barbarous terms fitter for Magick than Christianity by their Disciples have been priz'd for great and precious Truths And Enthusiastick Raptures and slights making once the Brain to swim have snatcht the hearers beyond themselves and then thought them the Dictates of the Spirit and the Teachings of God and the more dark and obscure the Doctrine hath been the greater illumination it was esteem'd and call'd a noon-day Thought which was a mid-night Dream Such things as these pass with too many for saving Truths a great part of Mankind being ignorant in their Heads and corrupt in their Practice espous'd to Parties and Interests having Constitutions and Passions fit for these they readily swallow them down The Apostle confirms the truth of this telling 2 Tim. 4. 3. us the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears caus'd by some disease of Vice within which is not to be cured by good Physick but onely scratch'd and gratifi'd and if the Food though wholsom and good be not to their Palate and Fancy they complain of hunger and starving These and many more are the Instances of a weak and sickly nature craving onely nice and curious things for Spiritual Meat and kecking at the sincere Milk of the Word plain and substantial Truths that it may grow thereby To give therefore a liberty to every Man to run from an established Church upon the account of better Edification which is so often and easily mistaken is to direct Men into temptation and a snare and is dangerous and sinful and when once the gap is open where will especially the Vulgar stop May we not add that this pretence of better Edification is very fit to disguise and colour other Vices When Controversies have unhappily risen from an unjust denial of the Ministers Rights and Dues or the accidents of civil conversation they make the Ministry that was spiritual and good before to be call'd dull and mean and better must be sought elsewhere while onely Revenge or Covetousness is at the bottom Wandring Reports or their own lavish Tongue and censorious Temper have call'd some Pastours Covetous or Intemperate or branded them with other Vices and then cry out they cannot Edifie in such a Church and so make one fault help out another and Defamation must excuse their Schism 2. In taking the Opinions of Parties for undoubted Truths essential to salvation When men have once wedded a Party and the Opinions peculiar to it they magnifie and propagate them grow furious for their defence and call them the best part of Religion and if these be not abetted and cry'd up by the Pastours of our Church or they differ from them in explications and distinctions of them the way of salvation is not taught they do not improve their Spiritual condition and therefore is a just cause of their Separation Because the Notion or Explication of Faith and Spirit Church and Grace Justification Regeneration Conversion Adoption and other things of the like nature are generally different in our Church from those of the Separation they therefore cry we destroy the saving Truths of the Gospel and instead of being Edifi'd they find themselves weakned in their Christian Faith Though 't is plain to all impartial judgments that their sense and interpretation of them by natural consequences lessen the Grace of the Gospel and give security to lazy Sinners a strange sort of Edification For though our Charity is not so narrow as to think every man a vicious person who is thus mistaken in his conclusions yet however this alters not the nature of these Opinions and their consequences and who knows how far men of ill Principles do improve them Such is the perverse and angry temper of many about their own Opinions no way necessary to salvation wherein wise men and good men may differ which are not stated by Authority and may not be determin'd till Elias come yet if these be not insisted on and press'd with vehemency the great things of the Gospel are omitted and truths are wanting to their perfection And if once the People are possess'd with Opinions and Notions they grow fierce about them and call them salvation-truths and run head-long into a Sea of disorder and tumult for their defence The Disciples of the fifth Monarchy the Pretenders to the Spirit the Enemies of Childrens Baptism think themselves wrong'd and the Gospel hidden if casually they hear you making Interpretations of the Kingdom of Jesus the Operations of the Spirit and that divine Institution different from their lewd sense And many Questions when determin'd after a great deal of labour and passion and expence of time may improve our Knowledge but not Faith and a good Life the onely Edification The early and best Christians thought themselves mighty Saints and secure of Heaven if they onely knew Jesus and the Resurrection in their full extent and the World being such ill Judges about any other Edification it would be well if they return'd to this good old way and rest satisfi'd there lest they take the Inventions of Men Rhetorick or subtlety secular interest or conjectures for the Pillars of the Temple to support their Faith and so upon the score of Edification break the Peace and Unity of the Church and Obedience to our Governours the great things of Religion 3. In taking sudden heats and warmth for true Edification When melting tones affectionate expressions solemn looks and behaviour passion and vehemency and other Arts have play'd upon the fancy and put their constitutions into different motions some have though themselves so strangely Edifi'd as though it was the impulse and powerful acting of the Divine Spirit which
truth that we hear but not alway so when men preach for the best man is subject to Error which by the way shews the great ignorance and profaneness of this Age wherein men make nothing of the reading of Gods Word but take the liberty to discourse and chat all the time while the first and second Lessons are read to them And secondly the Word that is read is the Foundation of all Sermons and the very touch-stone whereby they are to be tryed To that which we hear read simple and absolute Obedience is due without any question made of the truth and certainty of it but so it is not to that which we hear preached farther than we find it agreeable to the written Word for they of Beraea were commended for examining by this even that which the Apostles themselves did preach IX But I say no more of this and shall only crave leave with some earnestness to desire two things of every one who saith he cannot profit by our Sermons 1. The First is that he would examine himself strictly upon this Question whether he thinks he could profit by such a Sermon as this did he hear it preached by one of your Ministers Search to the very bottom of your Hearts and be not satisfied till you feel how they stand affected and how they would receive a discourse upon these Subjects should you come occasionally as you now speak into one of our Churches and there find the Preacher pressing these things upon the Peoples Consciences Especially if you heard him add to these Rules that for the reverence of Gods publick worship care should be taken that the place where the Congregation assembleth may be decent and comely And he should call this place a Temple and affirm that Gods publick worship is no where so well performed as in this Temple and that it is a foul sin and contempt done to Gods worship that Parishioners either will not be at the chrage to maintain such as may keep the Church decently or are altogether careless to see it done and that the true cause why now adays Men will be at no cost with Gods House is because they have no delight in it and that this is a piece of irreligiousness which is a just cause of grief to every godly man c. Reflect I say upon your selves and resolve what you really think you would judge of such a Sermon How would it be accepted by you Would be apt to look upon it as altogether unprofitable or at least as needless discourse which might as well nay better be spared than preached to the People If this be your mind then consider with your selves why such things out of one mans mouth should relish well enough or go down without disgust which coming out of anothers you presently dislike Is it not manifest that you are partial and disaffected and that this is the reason you cannot profit by our Sermons Or if you could not like such discourses either from Nonconformists or from our Ministers then consider whether you have not reason to think you are very much mistaken in this business of profitable Sermons when you imagine such discourses as these to be unprofitable and superfluous which in the judgment of sober men of all sides are not only very useful but so necessary to be taught the People that for want of a sense of such things they are in danger to lose their Religion For as that good man said long ago and I doubt we are much improved in such impiety since that time as Superstition made the Papists too careful and too bountiful so Profaneness and Atheism hath made us too void of all care in beautifying the House of God 2. But if you think that you should count such a Sermon profitable then I desire you Secondly to examine your selves and consider whether you have learnt so much out of the Holy Scriptures as to observe all the foregoing Rules duly and carefully or so much as to make them your study and to think how to bring your Heart into conformity with them Do you for instance reverence God's Sanctuary and when you come into it and while you are there give open significations of it Do you come at the beginning of Divine Service or only to some part of it at the latter end or the Sermon only Do you stand up and do you kneel when the rest of the Congregation doth c. If you cannot say that you are so well acquainted with these and the rest of the foregoing Rules as to endeavour to live by them then in reason you ought to conclude that the fault is some where else and not in our Sermons if you cannot profit by them For you do not profit by the Holy Scriptures themselves Where these things are so plainly taught that a Man ought to think very meanly of himself and to look upon himself as a poor proficient in Religion who is not advanced thus far in his regard to the Duties and the Solemnities of God's Worship and Service And if being admonished of these things he do not humble himself nay become vile in his own Eyes for having thus long entertained an high opinion of himself though so deficient in the very rudiments and beginnings of Religion he is not likely to be much the better for any Sermon whatsoever because he will relish none but those only which feed his vain conceit of himself and of his high attainments and intimate acquaintance with God and communion with him in his Ordinances while he hath not a due esteem of them nor makes a right improvement by them X. But I hope these short Admonitions may put better inclinations into those Mens minds who will seriously think of them and particularly beget in them a greater regard than is usually given to the Holy Word of God read in our Churches Which will dispose ever one to profit better by all Sermons which are but the Interpretation and Application of that Word especially if with due devotion of heart they will joyn in the whole Service foregoing By which they may profit I have shown as much if not more as by Sermons if they be religiously disposed and will come at the beginning of the Prayers and with all humble reverence attend upon every part of God's Worship For as he that is away from any part of the Sermon says the same Person again shall profit the less by that which he doth hear so he that is away from any part of the Divine Service gets the less good by that at which he is present For there is no part of God's Service not the Confession not the Prayers not the Psalms not the Blessing but it concerns every one and every one may receive edification by it and will lose much of the Benefit he might have had if he absent himself from it A thing in which it seems many of them who had most knowledg and were the forwardest Professors in those days
the worldly increase with their Power And for illustration-sake when the House being garbell'd had much less right but more force the Army as yet agreeing with them and the good King being in their hands than they gave to the Declarations of their Pleasure the Title not as before of Ordinances but of Acts of Parliament * * * Whill Memoirs p. 363. Oliver likewise declared plainly That there was as much need to keep the Cause by Power as to get it And being potent he entred the House and mock'd at his Masters and commanded with insolent disdain that That Bawble * * * Speech at the Dissol of the House Jan. 22. 1654. p. 22 meaning the Mace of the Speaker should be taken away Men may intend well but using the help of the illegal secular Arm they can never secure * * * Id. ibid. â— 529. what they propose but frequently render that which was well settled much worse by their unhinging of it But such means it comes to pass that the Civil State is embroyl'd and Religion sensibly decays in stead of growing towards perfection where publick order is interrupted and Men gain a Liberty which they know not how to use Secondly It appeareth by the History of our late Revolutions which began with pretence of a more pure Religion that our Dissentions occasion'd great Corruptions both in Faith and manners Then the War was Preached up as the Christian Cause And one of the City-Soldiers mortally wounded at Newberry-fight was applauded in an Epistle * * * Hill 's Ser. called Temple work A. 1644. to the Houses as one whose Voice was more than humane when he cryed out O that I had another Life to lose for Jesus Christ Then this Doctrine so very immoral and unchristian was by some * * * D. Crisp in Ser. called Our sins are already laid on Christ p 274 275. Preached and by great numbers embrac'd The Lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an Elect Person yet in the heighth of Iniquity and the excess of Riot and committing all the Abominations that can be committed than he hath to lay to the charge of a Saint Triumphant in Glory Then certain Soldiers * * * H. of Indep part 2. p 152 153. enter'd a Church with five Lights as Emblems of five things thought fit to be extinguish'd viz. The Lord's-day Tythes Ministers Magistrates the Bible Then by a publick Intelligencer who called himself Mercurius Britanicus ** ** ** Merc. Brit. N 13. Nov. A. 43 p. 97. the Lord Primate Vsher himself was reproach'd as an Old Doting Apostating Bishop Instances are endless but what need have we of further Witnesses than the Lords and Commons and the Ministers of the Province of London whose Complaints and Acknowledgments are here subjoyned The Lords and Commons in one of their Ordinances * * * Die Jovâ—z Febr. 4 1646. use these words We have thought fit lest we partake in other Mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their Plagues to set forth this our deep sense of the great dishonour of God and perillous condition that this Kingdom is in through the abominable Blasphemies and damnable Heresies vented and spread abroad therein tending to the Subversion of the Faith contempt of the Ministry and Ordinance of Jesus Christ The Ministers made a like acknowledgment saying Instead ** ** ** Testim to Truth of J. Chr. p. 31. of extirpating Heresie Schism Profaness we have such an impudent and general inundation of all these evils that Multitudes are not asham'd to press and plead for publick formal and universal Toleration And again We the Ministers of Jesus Christ do hereby testify to all our Flocks to all the Kingdom and to all the Reformed Churches as our great dislike of Pilacy Erastianism Brownism and Independency so our utter abhorrence of Anti-Scripturism Popery Arianism Socinianism Arminianism Antimonianism Anabaptism Libertinism and Familism with all such like now too rife among us Thirdly some Dissenters by the Purity of Religion mean agreeableness of Doctrine Discipline and Life to the dispensation of the New Testament and a removal of humane Inventions and thus far the Notion is true but with reference to our Church it is an unwarrantable Reflexion For it hath but one Principal Rule and that is the Holy Scripture and Subordinate rules in pursuance of the general Canons in Holy Writ are not to be called in our Church any more than in the pure and Primitive Christian Church whose Pattern it follows humane Imaginations but rules of Ecclesiastical Wisdom and Discretion But there are others among the Dissenters who by the Purity of Religion mean a simplicity as oppos'd to composition and not to such mixtures as corrupt the Circumstances or parts of Worship which in themselves are pure Quakers and some others believe their way the purer because they have taken out of it Sacraments and External Forms of Worship and endeavoured as they phrase it * * * G. Fox in J. Perrot's Hidden things brought to light p. 11. to bring the Peoples minds out of all Visibles By equal reason the Papists may say their Eucharist is more pure than that of the Protestants because they have taken the Cup from it But that which maketh a pure Church is like that which maketh a pure Medicine not the fewness of the Ingredients but the good quality of them how many soever they be and the aptness of their Nature for the procuring of Health Men who have this false Notion of the purity of Religion distill it till it evaporates and all that is left is a dead and corrupt Sediment And here I have judged the following words of Sir Walter Rawleigh not unfit to be by me transcribed and considered by all * * * Hist of the World l. 2. 1. part c. 5. p. 249. The Reverend Care which Moses had in all that belong'd even to the outward and least parts of the Tabernacle Ark and Sanctury is now so forgotten and cast away in this Superfine Age by those of the Family by the Anabaptist Brownist and other Sectaries as all cost and care bestow'd and had of the Church wherein God is to be served and worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous Disposition Insomuch as time would soon bring to pass if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barns and from thence again into the Fields and Mountains and under the Hedges and the Officers of the Ministry robbed of all Dignity and Respect be as contemptible as these places all Order Discipline and Church-Government left to newness of Opinion and Men's Fancies Yea and soon after as many kinds of Religions would spring up as there are Parish Churches within England Every Contentious and ignorant person clothing his Fancy with the Spirit of God and his Imagination with the gift of
Revelation insomuch as when the truth which is but One shall appear to the simple multitude no less variable than contrary to it self the Faith of Men will soon after dye away by degrees and all Religion be held inscorn and contempt Fourthly If several contrary Parties be established by way of sufferance no progress is likely to be made towards the perfecting of Religion For the suffering of divers Errors is not the way to the reforming of them One Principle only can be true and the blending of such as are contrary with it createth the greatest of Impurities a mixture of that which is profane with that which is sacred Fifthly Many Dissenters are not likely to erect a Model by which Christianity may be improved amongst us because they lay aside Rules of discretion and rely not on God's assistance in the use of good means but depend wholly upon immediate illumination without the aids of Prudence And some of the more sober amongst them have inclined too much towards this extream In Reformation said one * * * Mr. S. Sympson in A. 1643. Reform Preservat p. 126 27. in his Sermon before the Commons do not make reason your Rule nor Line you go by It is the line of all the Papists The second Covenant doth forbid not only Reason but all Divine Reason that is not contain'd by Institution in the Worship of God God's Worship hath no ground in any reason but God's Will Sixthly There are already provided in this Church more probable means for the promoting of pure Religion than those which have been proposed by all or any of the Dissenting Parties It is true each Church is capable of improvement by the change of obsolete Words Phrases and Customs by the addition of Forms upon new Occasions by adjusting discreetly some Circumstantials of External Order But to change the Present Model for any other that has yet been offered to publick consideration is to make a very injudicious bargain There are in it all the necessaries to Faith and Godliness there is preserved Primitive Discipline Decency and Order And under the means of it there are great numbers grown up into such an improvement of Judicious Knowledge and useful prudent serious Piety that it requireth a Laborious Scrutiny to find Parallels to them in any Nations under the Heavens I do not take pleasure in distastful Comparisons Yet I ought not sure to pass by with unthankful negligence that excellent Spirit which God hath raised up among the Writers and Preachers of this Church their labours being so instrumental towards the right information of the Judgment and the amendment of the Lives of unprejudic'd Hearers It must be confessed that there is some trifling on all sides And it will be so whilst Men are Men. But there is now blessed be God as little of it in the Church of England as in any Age. And the very few who do it appear plainly to be what they are Phantasticks and Actors rather than Preachers But amongst the Parties the folly and weakness puts on a more venerable pretence and they give vent to it with studied shews of mighty seriousness and deliver it solemnly as the immediate dictate of God's Holy Spirit And I cannot but call to mind one Minister in this Church who would for instance sake have deliberately used these words of Mr. Rutherford in a solemn audience * * * Ruth on Dan. 6. 26. p. 8. A. 1643. bef the Commons and after this manner God permits Sins and such solemn Sins that there may be room in the Play for pardoning Grace It seemeth also not unfit for me to take notice that the Changes formerly made in Church-matters in England by Dissenters were not so conducive in their nature to the edifying of the Body of Christ as the things illegally removed The Doctrine of God's Secret decrees taught in their Catechisms was a stronger and more improper kind of meat than that with which the Church of England had fed her Children Ordination by a Bishop accompany'd with Presbyters was more certain and satisfactory than that by Presbyters without a Bishop There was not that sobriety in many of the present and unstudied Effusions which appeared in every of those publick Forms which were considered and fixed And it sounded more decently for example sake to pray in the Churches words and say from Fornication Good Lord deliver us than to use those of an eminent Dissenter * * * Prayers at the end of Farewell Sermons Mr U's Prayer bef Serm. p. 31. Lord un-lust us Nor did the long continued Prayers help Men so much against Distraction as those shorter ones with breaks and Pauses in the Liturgy and the great and continued length of them introduced by consent sitting at Prayer Neither did it tend less to edification to repeat the Creed standing than to leave it quite out of the Directory for publick Worship Neither was it an advantage to Christian Piety to change the gesture of kneeling in the Eucharist when the Sacred Elements were given together with Prayer for that less reverend one of sitting Of sitting especially with the Haâ—t on as the most uncomely practice of some was the People being taught to cover the Head * * * Edward's Gangrena part 1 Error 112. p. 25. whilst the Minister was to remain bare amongst them Nor was the civil Pledge of the Ring in Marriage bettered by the invention of some Pastors who as is storied of them took a Ring * * * See Edw. Grangr 2 part p. 13. of some Women-converts upon their admittance into their Church Neither was the Alteration of the Form of giving the Holy Elements an amendment For the Minister was directed to the use of these words * * * Directory for publick Worship p. 27. Tak ye eat ye this is the Body of Christ which is broken for you This Cup is the New Testament in the blood of Christ which is shed for the Remission of the Sins of many The words denoting Christ's present Crucifix and either actually or in the future certainty of it give countenance to the Romish Sacrifice of the Mass though I verily believe they were not so intended Nor did the forbidding the Observation of Christ's Nativity and other Holy-days add one Hairs bredth to the Piety of the Nation but on the other hand it took away at least from the common People one ready means of fixing in their Memories the most useful History of the Christian Religion It is easy enough even for Men who are Dwarfs in the Politicks in such sort to alter a constitution as to make it more pleasing for a time to themselves during their Passion and the novelty of the Model in their Fancy not yet disturbed by some unforeseen Mischief or inconveniencie but 't is extream difficult upon the whole matter to make a true and lasting Improvement there being so many parts in the frame to be mutually fitted and such
Secession from us and professing you cannot joyn with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism You gather Churches out of your Churches and set up Churches in an opposite way to our Churches and all this you do voluntarily and unwarrantably not having any sufficient cause for it And in the same Book they tell us of a Two-fold Schism Negative and Positive Negative when Men do peaceably and quietly withdraw from Communion with a Church not making a Head against that Church from which they are departed the other is when Persons so withdrawing do consociate and withdraw themselves into a distinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church which say they Camero calls a Schism by way of Eminency and further tells us There are Four Causes that make a Separation from a Church lawful 1. When they that Separate are grievously and intollerably Persecuted 2. When the Church they Separate from is Heretical 3. When it is Idolatrous 4. When it is the Seat of Antichrist And where none of these four are found there the Separation is insufficient and Schism Now we are fully assured that none of these Four Causes can be justly charg'd upon our Congregations therefore you must not be displeased with us but with your selves if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism All which is as true now as it was then and as applicable to us and them as it was to them and their Dissenters Admit then there were some things in our Constitution that might be contrived to better purposes and that needed Amendment and Alteration yet I hope every Defect or supposed Corruption in a Church is not a sufficient ground for Separation or warrant enough to rend and tear the Church in pieces Let Mr. Calvin judge between us in this matter Institut lib. 4. Sect. 10 11 12. fol. 349. who says That wherever the Word of God is duely Preached and reverently attended to and the true use of the Sacraments kept up there is the plain Appearance of a true Church whose Authority no Man may safely despise or reject its Admonitions or resist its Counsels or set at nought its Discipline much less Separate from it and Violate its Unity for that our Lord has so great regard to the Communion of his Church that he accounts him an Apostate from his Religion who obstinately Separates from any Christian Society which keeps up the true Ministry of the Word and Sacraments that such a Separation is a denial of God and Christ and that it is a dangerous and pernicious Temptation so much as to think of Separating from such a Church the Communion whereof is never to be rejected so long as it continues in the true use of the Word and Sacraments though otherwise it be over-run with many Blemishes and Corrupons Which is as plain and full a Determination of the Case as if he had particularly designed it against the Doctrine and Practice of the Modern Dissenters from our Church IV. Fourthly We entreat them to Consider Whether it be pure Conscience and mere Zeal for the Honour of Religion and not very often Discontent or Trade and Interest that has the main stroke in keeping them from Communion with our Church Far be it from me to judge the Secrets of Mens Hearts or to fasten such a Charge on the whole Body of Dissenters yea I accuse not any particular Person but only desire they would lay their Hand upon their Hearts and deal impartially with themselves and say whether they stand clear before God in this matter And there is the more Reason to put Men upon this Enquiry not only because Secular Ends are very apt to mix with and shelter themselves under the shadow of Religion but because this has been an old Artifice made use of to promote Separation Thus the Donatists in the Primitive Times upheld their Separation from the Catholick Church and kept their Party fast together by Trading only within themselves by imploying none to Till their Grounds or be their Stewards but those that would be of their side nay and sometimes hiring Persons by large Sums of Money to be Baptiz'd into their Party as Crispin did the People of Mappalia And how evident the same Policy is among our Modern Vid. Aug. Epist 173. ad Crisp Quakers is too notorious to need either Proof or Observation Time was when it was made an Argument to prove Independency to be a Faction and not Edward's further Discovery p. 185. matter of Conscience because Needy broken decayed Men who knew not how to live and hoped to get something turned Independents and became Sticklers for it that some who had businesses Causes and Matters depending struck in with them and pleaded for them that so they might find Friends be sooner dispatched and fare better in their Causes that Ambitious Proud Covetous Men who had a mind to Offices places of profit about the Army Excise c. turned about to the Independents and were great Zealots for them Thus it was then and whether the same Leaven do not still spread and ferment and perhaps as much as ever there is just cause to suspect Whoever looks into the Trading part of this City and indeed of the whole Nation must needs be a very heedless and indiligent Observer if he do not take notice how Interests are formed and by what Methods Parties and Factions are kept up how many Thousands of the Poorer sort of Dissenters depend on this or that Man for their Work and consequently for their Livelihood and Subsistence how many depend upon others for their Trade and Custom whom accordingly these Men can readily Command and do produce to give Votes and increase Parties on all Publick Occasions and what little Encouragement any Man finds from them that once deserts them and comes over to the Church of England There is another thing that contributes not a little to this Jealousie and Suspicion that many of the Chiefest and most Stiff and Zealous of the Dissenting Party are they at least the immediate Descendants of those who in the late Evil-Times by Rapine and Violence shared among themselves the Revenues of the Church and the Patrimony of the Crown and are said still privately to keep on foot their Titles to them And if so what wonder if such Men look on themselves as obliged in point of Interest to widen Breaches foment Differences increase Factions and all this to Subvert and over-turn the Church of England being well assured they can never hope but over the Ruines of this Church to make way to their once sweet Possessions Let Men therefore impartially examine themselves and search whether a Worldly Spirit be not at the bottom of their Zeal and Stiffness These I confess are Designs too Base and Sordid to be owned above Board but be not Deceived God is not Mocked Man looks to the outward Appearance but God looks to the Heart V. Fifthly
Printed Licensed dispersed up and down in City and Country openly a Quarter of these Errours Heresies Blasphemies which have been all these ways vented by the Sectaries the People would have risen up and stoned them and pulled down their Houses and forced them to forbear such Doctrines O how is the Scene changed within these few Years and not long after he tells us that These are Risen Increased Reign and Prevail so far under a Parliament Sitting not under the Bishops Corrupt-Clergy Court-party but under a Parliament And in his Epistle to the Lords and Commons before the first part of his Gangraena he tells them That the Errours Heresies Blasphemies and Practices of the Sectaries of this Time had been Broached and Acted within these Four last Years in England and that in Your Quarters and in the places under your Government and power for which I tremble to think least the whole Kingdom should be in Gods Black Bill that together with their Reformation come in a Deformation and worse things were come upon them than ever they had before they had put down the Book of Common-Prayer but there were many amongst them that had put down the Scriptures slighting yea Blaspheming them he tells them they had cast out the Bishops and their Officers and they had many that had cast down to the ground all Ministers in all the Reformed Churches they had cast out Ceremonies in the Sacraments and they had many that had cast out the Sacraments themselves with many more sad complaints which he there makes To sum up all in the words of my Author Vbi supra p. 73. In this Catalogue the Reader may see great Errors and yet may turn himself again and behold greater namely damnable Heresies and yet turn himself again and read Horrid Blasphemies and a third time and read Horrible Disorders Confusions strange and unheard of Practices not only against the Light of Scripture but Nature as in Women's Preaching in Stealing away Men's Wives and Children from Husbands and Parents in Baptizing Women Naked in the Presence and Sight of Men c. And thus we see by what means it was that the Nation came to be Pestred with Opinions and Practices Impious beyond the Example of former Ages and such as were not once named among the Gentiles to the A Letter from a Noble Venetian to Card Barbarino translated and Printed 1648. p. 19. Infinite Prejudice and dishonour both of our Religion and our Nation It being the Observation which an Ingenious Foreigner who resided at London in those times made upon this occasion one of the Fruits says He of this Blessed Parliament and of these two Sectaries Presbyterians and Independents is that they have made more Jews and Atheists than I think there is in all Europe besides I doubt not but that the greatest part of our Dissenters do from their Souls detest the Heresies Blasphemies and Wickednesses that have been mentioned but then the Consideration ought to oblige them to double their diligence to prevent the like dismal Effects for the time to come and not to open the Gap again at which they must necessarily flow in upon us By what has been done they may see what a Blessed Reformation they may expect by the Ruin of this Church for the thing that hath been is that which shall be the same causes set on foot by the same Principles will Eternally produce the same Effects and though Men at first may mean never so well yet Temptations will insensibly grow upon them and Accidents happen which in the Progress will carry them infinitely beyond the Line of their first Intentions and engage them in Courses out of which when they come to discern their Errour it may be too late for them to Retire In the beginning of the long Parliament I make no question but the far greatest part of them met together with very honest and good Intentions and designed no more than to Correct some little Irregularities which they apprehended to be in Church or State But wee see how these very Persons where cariied from one passage to another and in time transported to those very things which at first they had so vehemently protested and declared against till at length Horrid Enormities came to be acted by and under them which no age can Paralel which ought to be a Sufficient Caution to all how they shake the least Stone that belongs to the Foundation least by picking out one after another the whole House tumble about their Ears when it is beyond their own Power to support it I shall shut up this Head with a brief Recapitulation of some of those Inferencs which Mr. Edwards makes from the State of those Loose and Licentious times we have been speaking of and then leave the Reader to judg whether they be not as Applicable to present Circumstances under which we are He infers thus First we may hence see how dangerous it is to Cat. and Discov Part 3 d. p. 52 53 57 70. Further Discov p. 195 203. despise and let alone a small Party Secondly That it is more than time fully and Effectually to settle the Government and Discipline of the Church Thirdly What the Mischief Evil and Danger of a Toleration and pretended Liberty of Conscience would be to this Kingdom and what it would Prove and Produce Fourthly That it sufficiently Justifies in the Sight of the World those Ministers and People who are Zealous for setling Religion and cry out for Government who Preach Petition speak often one to another of these things Fifthly what a great Evil and Sin Separation is from the Communion of the Reformed Churches and how highly displeasing to God for Men to make a Rent and Schism in the Church of God Sixthly That all such who have been deceived and drawn away under pretence of greater Purity Holiness c. and have any Fear and Awe of God and his Word be Exhorted to leave and forsake them and return to the Publick Assemblies and Communion of this and other Reformed Churches And God grant we may hearken to this Counsel and may seriously lay these things to heart VIII Eighthly We desire it may be considered what plain and apparent Advantages Separation gives to the Common Enemy of the Protestant Religion in these Nations The Church of England is notoriously known to have been the most strong and standing Bulwark of Protestancy ever since the Reformation for being Founded on Scripture-grounds and the Practice of True Genuine Primitive Antiquity and having been reformed by the most wise regular and justifiable Methods it stands like a Rock impregnable against all the Assaults which the Church of Rome makes upon it This has engag'd them to Plant all their Batteries to beat it down as being the only Church considerable enough to stand in their way and when not able to effect it by any other Arts they have betaken themselves to the old Artifice of Ruining us by dividing us In