Holy Scriptures but that we may joyn in a Liturgy or use it if the Form of Words be not from Scripture This is thus proved 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawful A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden of God Therefore it remaineth lawful The major is undoubted because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful where there is no Law there is no Transgression Yet I have heard very Reverend Men Answer this That it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil Principles Now for the Minor That a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof than that no Prohibion can be produced The main Body of Non-Conformist Ministers did judge that the Ordinary Liturgy appointed for Publick Worship was such as a good Christian might lawfully joyn in Apol. p. 148. If it be lawful for the People to use a stinted form of Words in Publick Prayer then is it in it self lawful for the Pastors But it is lawful for the People c. For the Pastors Prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted Form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a Book It is lawful to use a Form in Preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because Preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for Prayer as for that in the main That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful But such is the use of some stinted Forms c. I have shewed that it was so in the Jewish Church That it hath been of ancient use in the Church since Christ and at this day in Africk Asia Europe and the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I need not stand to prove it And those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of Worship As for the Common-Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would do again in the like case Object But if a faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed by a Law I know it before-hand and am guilty of it Answ If the thing be sinful either it is 1. Because the Prayers are defective and faulty Or 2. Because they are imposed Or 3. because you knew the Fault before-hand but none of these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty Prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed for that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For 1. it proveth the Minister less voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the errour of their own Judgments 2. Because though lawful things oft become unlawful when Superiours forbid them yet no reason can be given why a lawful thing should become unlawful because a lawful Superiour doth command it else Superiours might take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commanding them You would take it for a wild Conceit in your Children or Servants if they say when you bid them learn a Catechism or use a Form of Prayer It was lawful for us to do it till you commanded us but because you bid us do it it is unlawful If it be a Duty to obey Governours in all lawful things then it is not a Sin to obey them 3. It is not your knowing before hand that makes it unlawful for 1. I know in general before hand that all imperfect Men will do imperfectly and though I know not the particular that maketh it never the lawfuller if fore-knowledge it self did make it unlawful 2. If you know that e. g. an Antinomian or some mistaken Preacher would constantly drop some words for his Errour in praying or preaching that will not make it unlawful in your own Judgment for you to joyn if it be not a flat Heresie 3. It is another Man's Errour or Fault that you foreknow and not your own 4. God himself doth as an Universal Cause of Nature concur with Men in those Acts which he foreknoweth they will sinfully do yet is not the Authour or Approver of the Sin We the Commissioners 1663. all thought a Liturgy lawful and divers Learned and Reverend Nonconformists of London met to consider how far it was their duty or lawful to Communicate with the Parish Churches where they lived in the Liturgy and Sacrament and I proved four Propositions 1. That it is lawful to use a Form 2. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the use of the Liturgy 3. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the Lord's Supper 4. That it is to some a duty to joyn with some Parish Churches three times a year in the Lord's Supper and none of the Brethren seemed to dissent but took the Reasons to be valid Were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective Form than our Liturgy rather than none And this is the judgment of many New-England Ministers conform to the old Non-conformists who did some of them read the Common Prayer and the most of them judged it lawful to joyn in it or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Richard Rogers c. would not write so earnestly for coming to the beginning and preferring it before all private Duties And truly I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christ's Churches upon Earth but he that separates from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all and he that separates from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive Those Forms of Liturgy which now are most distasted were brought in by the most zealous religious People at the first The many short Invocations Versicles and Responses which the People use were brought in when the Souls of the Faithful did abound with Zeal and in holy fervors break out in such expressions and could not well endure to be bare Auditors and not vocally to bear their part in the praises of God and prayers of the Church I have shewed at large How far God hath given Men power to prescribe and impose Forms for others and commanded others to obey them when Christ said When ye pray say Our Father c. he bound the Disciples in duty to do as he bid
Interest and a taking Tone and Voice do more with the most than solid evidence of truth But they who desire to have a party follow them and are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and speak perverse things c. are guilty of Church divisions Do not you condemn a carnal state Remember they are carnal who are contentious dividers in the Churches 1 Cor. 3. 1. You will disallow a fleshly mind and life Remember then that the works of the flesh are these As Adultery Fornication c. So Hatred or Enmity Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dividings into Parties When once Parties are ingaged by their Opinions in Anti-Churches and fierce disputings the Flesh and Satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe The Fire is blown up when Men are desirous to have a party follow them and cry them up and thereupon are busie in perswading others to be of their Mind and do speak perverse things to draw away Disciples after them to be accounted Masters of a Party Christ Direct p. 52. part 3. Church dividers are the most successful Servants of the Devil being Enemies to the Family of Christ in his Livery They gratifie Satan and all the Enemies of the Church and do the very works that he would have them do more effectually than open Enemies could do As mutineers in an Army may do more to destroy it than the power of the Enemy p. 60. It is a Sin that contradicteth all Gods Ordinances and means of Grace A Sin against as great and lamentable experiences as almost any Sin can be this is a heinous aggravation of it that commonly it is justified and not repented of yea it is fathered upon God every Sect pretending Gods Authority and it represents his Kingdom worse than that of the Devil which is not divided Of Superstition Do you not hate Superstition Consider then what Superstition is it is the making of any new parts of Religion to our selves and fathering them upon God Of this there are Two sorts Positive and Negative When we falsely say This is a duty commanded by God or when we falsely say This is a sin forbidden by God take heed of both For instance The Scripture telleth us of no Church-Elders but what were ordained and of none but such as were of the same Office with the Preaching Pastors or Elders of none that had not Authority to Baptize and Administer the Lord's Supper nor doth Church History tell us of any other as a Divine Office But now we have concluded that there is a distinct Office of Ruling Elders who need not be Ordained and who have no power to Baptize or to Administer the Lord's Supper This I think is Superstition for we feign God to have made a Church Office which he never made That it is simply unlawful to use a Form of Prayer or to read a Prayer on a Book That if a School-master impose a Form upon a Scholar or a Parent on a Child it maketh it become unlawful That our presence maketh us guilty of all the errors or unmeet expressions of the Minister in publick Worship at least if we before know of them and therefore that we must joyn with none whose Errors or Mis-expression we know of before That we are guilty of the sins of all unworthy or scandalous Communicants if we communicate with them though their admission is not by our fault That he whose judgment is against a Diocesan-Church may not lawfully joyn with a Parish-Church if the Minister be but subject to the Diocesin That whatsoever is unlawfully commanded is not lawful to be obeyed That it is unlawful to do any thing in the Worship of God which is imposed by Men and is not commanded in the Scripture These and more such as these are Superstitions which some Religious People have brought in And by all such inventions fathered upon God and made a part of Religion the minds of Men are corrupted and disquieted and the Churches disturbed and divided Most of our Acquaintance think it their duty to keep up the Reputation of the Publick Conformable Ministry p. 246. of Plea and p. 109. We are far from designing any abasement of the Clergy nor do we deny or draw others to deny any due Reverence or Obedience to them I repent that I no more discouraged the peevish Spirit of quarelling with Superiors and Church Orders And that I encouraged such by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions Admonition to Bagshaw The People are ready to scorn the Gravest and Wisest Pastors we are indangered by Divisions chiefly because the Self-conceited part of the Religious People will not be ruled by their Pastors Cure of Divisions p. 393. I repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiors and Church Orders and though I ever disliked and opposed it yet that I did sometime too much encourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions and was too loath to displease the Contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good and meeting with too few Religious Persons that were not pleased with such invectives P. 52. to Bagshaw In The Preface to Christ Direct It is said That my Writeings differing from the common judgment had already caused offence to the Godly Answ 4. If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such Men much more by endeavouring further than ever I have done the quenching that Fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the Folly and Mischiefs of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tare the Church of God And let them know that I am about it Of Prejudice Take heed of suffering Prejudice and Fancy to go for reason and raise in your Minds unjustifiable distasts of any way or mode of Worship It is wonderful to see what Fancy and Prejudice can do get once a hard Opinion of a thing and your Judgments will make light of all that is said for it and will see nothing that should reconcile you to it Partiality will carry you away from Equity and Truth Abundance of things appear now false and evil to Men that once imagined them to be so which would seem harmless and laudable if tried by a Mind that is clear from Prejudice Of Censoriousness Is not Censoriousness and Rash Judging a Sin Yet one Congregation of the Division labours to make others odious and contemptible and that is called the Preaching of Truth and purer Worshipping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful Pride and Surliness and into Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ I have lived to see it put to
now Published by the Collector But I foresee it will be necessary to obviate two Objections that will be made against these Admonitions First That Mr. Baxter hath written plain Contradictions to them and the Separating Brethren will adhere to his First Sentiments which lead them to their Non-conformity to which I Answer That Mr. Baxter gave them this Precaution in one of his first and best Treatises charging them strictly that if God should give him over to any Church-rendring course that they would forsake him and not follow him a step Secondly That what they interpret as Contradictions were in Truth no other then Confessions of his former mis-apprehensions and passionate heats of his intemperate Zeal but these are the Results of his sedate and rational Deliberation The great Apostle St. Paul was not ashamed to record in Holy Writ what enormities a misgrounded Zeal had hurried him into while he was in an estate of Ignorance and Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. and this doubtless was Mr. Baxter's practice for reflecting upon what he had said or done to countenance the Separating way he saw it had done more hurt than good for which reason he recanted them But these instructions of his are like the Coelestial Bodies which carry light and benign influences with them they are self-evident and speak home to the Judgment and Consciences of all unprejudiced Men who cannot resist the force of that Reason and Demonstration which inspires every part of them with so much Life and Power Beauty and Ornament Consistency and Symmetry as will render them highly Acceptable Amiable and Beneficial to such as shall embrace and practise them As for such Dissenters as have conceived any hard thoughts of Mr. Baxter or these his Admonitions I intreat them to consider whether they can answer or confute them to the satisfaction of their own Consciences and if they cannot then whether it be not rational and pious to walk by these directions which tend so much to the establishment of the publick Peace of this divided Church and Nation and to their own present and eternal welfare 2. Objection It may be said that these Amonitions are now become unseasonable there being a Toleration granted to Men of all Perswasions to Worship God after their several modes Answ To this I say that Schism is a Sin antecedent to all Humane Constitutions as being directly forbid in the Holy Gospel and consequently will continue to be sinful tho' all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth should indulge and tolerate them for the Laws of Men cannot make void the Law of God nor alter the nature of things and justifie or make that to be good which the only Lawgiver of Christians hath condemned as unlawful and as it is said of Poligamy among the Jews that the Law of Moses connived at it for the hardness of their hearts so it is for the hardness and uncharitableness of Mens Spirits that Rulers are constrained for a time to tolerate and bear with many things that are Offensive and Prejudicial to the prosperity of their Government For Toleration far differs from the approbation of a thing and implieth the unlawfulness thereof rather than the Justification of it Besides the present Toleration is far from intending or making an establishment of the Practises which are tolerated to the prejudice of the Church which hath for many Ages and now doth continue in actual possession of all its Powers and Priviledges as in time past So that as the present Schism and Separations is possitively condemned by the Laws of the Gospel so they have not any approbation from the Laws of Men but what the corruptions of Men and their ungovernable Tempers make tolerable on some pressing occasions and unhappy juncture of Affairs I beseech you therefore read the following Admonitions without Prejudice and judge of them by the end for which they were first written by Mr. Baxter and are now published by c. Mr. RICHARD Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters Of the Church IN a Petition drawn by Mr. B. to be presented to the King He makes this a part of the Profession of his Religion I do willingly profess my consent to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sense agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Errors or Heresies contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of common-Common-Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it Mr. Baxters Life Part 3. p. 161. Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. Sect. 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but Unity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church § 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the Worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the Several Members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it tho' we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion § 1. We do not say you are no true Ministers nor Churches nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you Apology p. 82. See also p. 87. 89. § 2. Where Parish Bounds are judged necessary all Persons living in the Parish may be constrained to hear Publick Teaching and to Worship God either in that or in some other approved or tolerated Church within their convenient reach or Neighbourhood Way of Concord Part 3. p. 139. § 3. The People are no Judges who is fit to be and shall be a Minister of Christ the Supream Civil Magistrate is Judge whom he must countenance maintain and tolerate The disposal of the Tithes and Temples is in the
People commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the Congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the People do it Of Bowing at the Name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the Name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive Scandalous or offensive I will bow at the Name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names which we Translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our Translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are Subordinate to Christ in his Priestly Office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Rom. 12. 1. and Heb. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any Question oa Scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their Followers that all Antiquity is on their side The Lord's Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion-Table c. Q. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the Rails to Communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these Circumstances but only general rules for Edification Unity Decency and Order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw Men to Popery or to incourage Men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away Dogs keeping Boys from sitting on it and the professed Doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real Corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the Place Name Scituation and Rail is unsound for we Assemble there to Communicate in and according to the professed Doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private Opinion and Error of the Minister Whether we shall receive the Lord's Supper at a Table or in our Seats Whether the Table shall be of Wood or Stone Round or Long or Square Whether it shall stand on the East or West side of the Temple or in the middle Whether it shall have Rails or no Rails All these are left to Humane Prudence As for standing at the reading of the Gospel Page 148. he says If I live where Rulers peremtorily command it as a signified consent to the Gospel I would obey them rather than give offence And for kneeling when the Decalogue is read That the thing it self is lawful is past doubt and if it be commanded and the omission would be offensive I would use it though mistaken Persons were present because I cannot disobey nor differ from the whole Assembly without a greater hurt and scandal than seeming to harden the mistaking Person and because I could and would by other means remove that Persons danger as from me by making him know that it is no Prayer And the rather because in our times the Minister may in the Pulpit tell the People the contrary We must not lightly differ from the Churches where we live in such things I like best to kneel in Prayer and Confession of Sins To stand up in Praises to God at Singing and Reading Psalms of Praise and other Hymns to set at Hearing the Word because the body hath necessity of some rest Of the Creed Q. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed Is it of the Apostle framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant And for the satisfation of the Church that Men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or Composition of the Words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the Three Articles of Christ's own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach Men to vary the matter And Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the Tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Q. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound Doctrine and fitted to the Peoples Edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's Book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scripture or other necessary Church duty 4. So they
great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the Sin of the Pastors in these days is by Division by this he hath promoted all the rest of his Designs Our Divisions gratifie the Papists greatly hazard the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to regard or believe it advantageth Profaneness and greatly hinders the Success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his Kingdom Preface to Confession The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the Journeys end and perfection of your Revolt By such fearful Dissertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the Unity of the Church Parties will arise in the Separate Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech you my Brethren to open their Eyes so far as to regard Experience How few separated Churches do now Exist that were in being 100 years ago Can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ dissolved Of Communion in the Lord's Supper Q. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons Answ It is your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the Members are capable of Church-Communion though there may some Infidels or Heathen or uncapable Persons violently intrude or scandalous Persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the Corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption If we Sin not by omitting our own Duty it will be no Sin of ours to communicate with the Church where Scandalous Sinners or Hereticks are permitted the Pastors and Delinquents Sins are not ours Q. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Answ I never yet heard any thing to prove kneeling unlawful there is no Word of God for or against any gesture Christ's example cannot be proved to oblige us in this and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours The nature of the Ordinance is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our Knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a Sealed Pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knees As for this Ceremony of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread-worship and the bodily Real-presence my judgment was ever for it God having made some gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper Work I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself in this as oligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace Mr. Perkins was for kneeling and Mr. Baines in his Letters writes for it and answers objections against it Pag. 133. of Mr. B' s Life I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church Communion as many are who are so much for a Liturgy or so much against it so much for Ceremonies or so much against them that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their mind or way If I were among the Greeks the Lutherans the Independants yea the Anabaptists I would hold sometime Communion with them as Christians I cannot be of their Opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Q. 4. But what if I cannot Communicate but according to the Administration of the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book Answ 1. That it is not unlawful to receive according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book because it is a Form needs no proof to any that is Judicious 2. Nor yet for any evil in this particular Form for in this part the Common-Prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is imposed for a Command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with And for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light In general I must here tell the People of God in the bitter sorrow of my Soul that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation that hath in all Ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our Union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions And that true Humility and Acquaintance with our selves and Love to Christ and one another would shew some Men that it was but their Pride and Prejudice and Ignorance that made them think so heinously of other Mens manner of Worship And that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their Worship is not so odious as Prejudice and Faction and Partiality representeth it And that God accepteth that which they reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common People by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church and for Worshipping in that manner which he and his Party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every Party by this is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other Party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that Men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the Divisions among Christians and