the heavenly glory as Enoch and Elias this flesh and bones of his were not transformed into a spiritual body I do question seeing the Apostle tells us expresly That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven We may refer this flesh and bones therefore to his Rising and Ascension but leave it in dubio in regard to his Sitting in Heaven In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and new Testament of whose AuthorÃty was never any doubt in the Church Art 6. By Church I understand the whole Catholick Church or this Church of England for it is evident that there hath been doubt made of some Books in our Canon by Antient Particular Churches and Fathers The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius's Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought thorowly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Art 8. The word thorowly I understand only in regard to the Articles of those Creeds not in regard to the Proem and Conclusion of the Athanasian Quicunque vult which is inconsistent I hold with the Goodness of God and Natural Religion The condition of man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will Art 10. By the words no power and cannot I understand a Moral power and impotency which lyes in such a disposition as that a man never will without the special grace of God but not so as if we had no power at all that is Physical or as if the terms of the Covenant of Grace were Impossible to any We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholsom Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification Art 11. By the words Faith only I understand what Paul means by Faith without works that is Faith in opposition to works that would make the reward to be of debt and not of grace or to works of the Law works which the Law requires to Justification which none have and if any be justified at all it must be therefore without them not in opposition to Repentance and Evangelical Obedience and though it be for Christ's sake or his merits and not ours that he accounts us righteous yet is our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience the condition upon which he does it or rather the Righteousness it self which upon the account of Christ's deserving he accepts unto life everlasting Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sin Art 13. When good works done before grace are said to have the nature of sin I understand that thô such works are good quoad operis substantiam yet they are evil quoad modum quo ordinantur ad vitam aeternam and consequently when they are said not to be pleasant unto God I understand not acceptable unto Salvation I judg that the doing what we can through the strength of free will and common grace is not to be discouraged and to be held in some good sense preparatory to saving Conversion yet because there is no full promise made thereunto as the condition of obtaining that grace which is special it is truly said that such works do not make us meet for receiving or do not of congruity deserve the same Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as Vessels made to honour After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives Art 16 17. I apprehend the Church here does follow St. Austin in the Points of Election and Perseverance and when it is said that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given it must be understood so as that the Elect for all that shall never finally fall away but shall infallibly recover and be saved They are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved Art 18. I observe the Church hath but one Anathema in all her Articles and that seems to be denounced here against all those who do or shall hold that any persons can be saved that are not Christians as if the Death of Christ or benefits thereof and the knowledge of him were commensurate through the world But God forbid I am out of doubt that God hath a Government over all mankind which is Moral in order to Life and Salvation and that the instrument of that Government must be the Law of Grace the Law of Innocency becoming in the state of Lapsed Nature uncapable of that end which being at first promulgated to Adam after his Fall and to Noah must belong to all their Posterity insomuch as every one whosoever he be that lives up in sincerity to this Law according to that administration of it he is under shall be saved For my Assent then to this Article I do desire the word by may be especially noted I could not assent to this Article if it were in the Law or Sect he professeth but being by I hold plainly that if a Heathen or any Person that never heard the Gospel repents of his sin and trusts to a good God and lives up to the Law or Covenant of Grace according to the first Edition of it I say if any such indeed do Rom. 2.26 Act. 10.35 and thereby comes to be saved it is by the Christian Religion which he implicitely holds in the substance with us and not by the Law Sect that he professeth that he is saved And this Salvation of his is in
own Soul neither partaking with my Brethren in these Evils out of which I strive to bring them by my Example nor give occasion to the Conformist of any hardning who seeing in me a regard to Authority together with a care of my Conscience in my Explications he may come to be judged in his own Thoughts and being ready perhaps then to hearken to any ingenuous Admonition so long as it is tendred in such a way as is not affected or done with preference of my Understanding or Piety above his but with Humility and sense of my own failings at least in many other things wherein he so much excels me he may be brought the good Spirit of God graciously assisting to that Repentance which is meet towards God and that Reconciliation towards us which we seek with him And now if my Diocesan or Metropolitan which I would chuse rather or any other Bishop they refusing will vouchsafe me only this condescension in subscribing the Declaration to speak to their Register that in setting my name to his Book I may have leave to do it in these words According to a Paper delivered in by me to the Bishop I subscribe I see no reason but I may put my name to his Book as well as to this Paper and any other may do so too giving in the same or so much of it for all our Nonconformists have not their Exceptions alike as himself needs I would urge the Argument of Naamans Servants If the Nonconformists required some great thing of the Bishops for us to come in and unite with them especially under our common danger would not they do it and will they refuse us so small a matter If none of them for all that will be got to grant us this then must I commit the Cause of the Nonconformists to Almighty God to be Judg therein between them and us in this matter The Appendix BEING My Judgment about coming to Church and the Case of Private Meetings BEfore I leave my Province I think fit to reflect a little on what I have said in reference to my Brethren of the Nonconforming Party who will be apt many of them to be offended at me that I who am one of them should be so indifferent to either side as I appear which if it be a fault I confess it I am guilty of that impartiality or writing without respect of persons which I cannot help and if that fault will make the Episcopal Party bear with me more equally than my Brethren I think they deserve to be blamed Indeed I hope that as for the most part of the Dissenters it is out of the true Fear of God that they chuse the way wherein they go but though I think that Fear of God to be true I think it not pure and unmixt without Errour and without Imperfection They think I will suppose for I mean not as to all of them the going to Church unlawful and therefore set up Meetings As they do this then because they are afraid to sin it is the Fear of God but as there is Errour in this Fear doubting of that to be sin which is none this Fear turns to Superstition and Superstition can be no good ground for any thing a man does The evil they fear being no evil the cause for what they do is no cause and to separate from the Church without a cause I hold to be Schism For my own part I am persuaded in my Conscience that it is lawful to go to a Meeting and lawful to go to Church and I am sorry we have such a company of superstitious folks of both sides Men and Women of the Conformists that think it a sin to go to a Meeting and of the Nonconformist that thinks he sins if he go to Church when there is no Communion of Christians whatsoever where the Essentials of Christianity are but to separate from them without a cause whether on one side or other is Schism I say not that every Conformist therefore that goes to Church and never to a Meeting does incur this guilt because though he be locally never at a Meeting yet does he not mentally separate from the Meeters who holds them for all that to be true Christians and counts it no sin to joyn with them in Communion if he hâ—d reason Only he is himself well satisfied with the Service of the Church and he hath no reason for his going otherwhere It is not so on the part of the Nonconformist there is a Command of the Magistrate that he shall come to Church if he does not he must have some more prevailing reason or cause that will justifie his refusing it or else his Separation being causless I must still say cannot but be sin and consequently Schism If this please some it may be I shall displease them in what I say next and if it displease some I may next please them but I speak my Conscience A Person is set apart for the Office of the Ministry he being not able to conform is prohibited to Preach in Publick having a Call in Private he Preaches in a Meeting what is there in this which the Apostles own case does not justifie Whether it be meet to obey God or man judge ye I think moreover that the Commission of Christ which warrants a Ministers Preaching does also warrant the Hearers because Preaching and Hearing are Relata which will mutually draw one another I must add if some good men farther out of a sense of wrong to the Ejected do think themselves bound to come sometimes and hear such Ministers for acknowledging their Ministry and delivering their Souls from participation of the guilt of those that Ejected them especially if they were heretofore their own Pastors I take this to be so much more Christian and justifiable before God But if these Ministers and People do judg the Parish-Church no true Church or that it is a sin to go thither not having any Exception which is particular but what reaches all Parochial Congregations and upon that ground set up their Meetings I do not see this ground of theirs being a mistaken ground or this cause for their Separation being such as will not hold and consequently no cause how they can be justified from the aforesaid Imputation For the Minister to Preach I must inculcate upon the account of Christs Commission preferring his Masters Authority before Mans that is upon the plea of greater duty and for the People to come to hear by virtue of the same Commission upon the same plea still of farther or greater Edification as men go ordinarily to hear other Ministers than their own not in a way of Separation from the Publick Ministers or Parish-Churches but in Conjunction with them speaking still so far as concerns God's word I do maintain lawful But if any of my Brethren do offer another Plea that must draw with it a separation from the Parish Church whether it be that of holding such
to Church I must own the Parish and I must own the Diocess and I must own the Bishop and his Government I answer and so you may but it is not necessary that you own them as of Divine Right which others I suppose do Upon that Hypothesis I must confess I do not see how any Separation from the Church unless in case of something imposed that is sinful could be justifiable and the Conformists therefore taking up that Principle do generally condemn all Meetings accusing them without discrimination of Schism But it is one thing to own the Parish-Church the Diocess the Bishop Episcopal Government according to Law and another to won them as of Divine Institution I apprehend that Particular Congregations where there is a Pastor and Flock conjoyned for the Worship of God carrying on an holy life are the Churches of Christs appointment and that every Minister of such a particular People hath a power of Governing them as well as Teaching them derived to him from Christ being Episcopus Gregis by virtue of his Office if any then shall go to set up an Episcopus Postorum a Bishop of the Diocess to divest him that is Pastor of a particular Congregation or the Minister of the Parish of that Authority which Christ hath committed to him for governing his Flock which he that makes a Diocess to be the only Church of Apostolical Institution and the Diocesan the sole Pastor must do let him consider what he undertakes seeing the burden which is hereby laid on the Bishop and the account he must make at the great day for the Souls of so many he takes no particular care at all of is intolerable I will own the Bishop and his Regiment but not to the denial of the Ministers I will own a Diocess but not to the unchurching Particular Congregations There is another consideration therefore to be had of the Church than this here understood and that is as it is National and the King the Head of it The Church as National is divided into two Provinces and these into twenty six Diocesses and they into so many thousand Parishes The Parish-Church consists of a Particular Congregation which is therefore a Church of Christs appointment and the Authority or Regiment the Minister Pastor or Bishop of such a Flock hath is derived from Christ The Authority the Diocesan hath is derived from the King The King makes the Bishops he might make them if he pleased as Henry the Eighth by Commission and he is the Fountain of their Honour for they have Baronies and upon that account sit in the Lords House and if we may look on them accordingly as his Officers to exercise no other Authority as Diocesans but what they derive from him then As the Regiment of the Bishop and of the Pastors are of a different kind the Power or Regiment of the Pastor being internal or in sacris and formally Ecclesiastical flowing immediately from Christ but the Regiment of the Bishop external or circa sacra that is objectively Ecclesiastical deriving from the King so must the Authority or Government of the one be cumulative to and not destructive of the other And this is a Notion which methinks should not be hard of entrance to the Conformist or Nonconformist On the one side the Bishop should receive it because it grants him his Honour Dignity and great Revenues upon a clear and open foundation and it lightens his care and work The Office of a Bishop upon this Hypothesis may be discharged as that of any other Magistrate under the King But the Office of the Diocesan upon the other Hypothesis is a charge he can never perform and if he live in the negligence of what he thinks his duty and that wilfully all his life how can he be saved On the other side the Nonconformist should receive it because it opens his Eyes lets him see how he may be subject to the Bishop as he is to the King and the other Magistrates under him without molestation to his Conscience And this should be the Stone which I would lay for the Foundation if ever a Parliament would build upon it of a sound and lasting Peace in the Nation Whither this tends let the Reader see farther in the twelfth Section of that universally Learned sort of Gentlemans late Book call'd The Samaritan FINIS An Advertisement from the Bookseller THere is a late new Book Intituled A Private Psalter composed by the same Hand that wrote these sheets which being a Devotional Book is put in a fair Character for the sake of aged Eyes and sold by me whom the Reader may find out by the Title page Thomas Parkhurst An Addition from the Author UPon the mention of this Book I have these few words to subjoyn concerning the same If I can judg any thing in Divinity there is hardly any matter of more near importance to the most of serious Christians than this one thing to wit to be solidly informed what to do or how to live and support the Soul under the case when it hath examined itself and is in conflict and doubt whether it be in a state of Gods favour which is all one as whether it be sincere or not They that are light Christians do often talk of their assurance when the more weighty Christians are ready to droop and hang the head as the ears of Corn do that are fullest In the last Section of the evening Office of that Private Psalter there is a Determination de industria of this case according as I was able to admit Instruction with Devotion into my Design I am sensible of the smallness of my Talent and the greatness of the Concern and that whatsoever is peculiar is in danger to be defective who must confess my genius hath led me to the seeking a middle resolution in this great Practical case in regard to Life and Comfort as it hath usually done in the matter of polemical Opinions And for the sake of this case more especially was that Book printed If any worthy Person therefore of the Conforming Ministry who hath a Pen accomplished with the stile of the Times whose fluency or command of words may make the task easy to him which would be burdensome to me will take the sense only or matter of that last Section I mean the full and whole sense of it though nothing else purely but what is there hinted and enlarge it into a Treatise of a convenient dimension as he shall pitch upon a subject to exercise his parts which I think like to be profitable to most Christians especially to such as are of a tender Spirit and solicitous about their Spiritual estate so if he will bring it to the Bookseller above intimated to put it into the Press he will not be ungrateful to him I suppose for his Copy John Humfrey