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A53681 A discourse concerning evangelical love, church-peace and unity with the occasions and reasons of present differences and divisions about things sacred and religious, written in the vindication of the principles and practise of some ministers and others. Owen, John, 1616-1683. 1672 (1672) Wing O735; ESTC R13316 129,318 262

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Body of the Church promising it should be bound and loosed in Heaven whatever they did bind and loose on earth and that whatever they did ask with a common consent should be granted by the Father In this charitable office to give satisfaction to the offended and pardon to the offendor the Primitive Church was alwayes exercised And in conformity to this St. Paul ordained that brethren having Civil Suits one against another should not go to the Tribunals of Infidels but that wise men should be appointed to judg the Differences and this was a kind of Civil Judgment as the other had the similitude of a Criminal but were both so different from the Judgments of the world that as these are executed by the Power of the Judg who enforceth submission so those only by the will of the guilty to receive them who refusing of them the Ecclesiastical Judge remaineth without execution and hath no power but to foreshew the Judgment of God which according unto his omnipotent good pleasure will follow in this life or the next And indeed the Ecclesiastical Judgment did deserve the name of Charity in regard that it did only induee the guilty to submit and the Church to judg with such sincerity that neither in the one any bad effect could have place nor just complaint in the other and the excess of charity in correcting did make the Corrector to feel greater pain than the corrected so that in the Church no punishment was imposed without lamentation of the multitude and greater of the better sort And this was the cause why to correct was called to Lament So St. Paul rebuking of the Corinchians for not chastising the incestuous said you have not lamented to separate such a Transgressor from you And in another Epistle I fear that when I come unto you I shall not find you such as I desire but in contentions and tumults and that at my coming I shall lament many of those who have sinned before The Judgment of the Church as it is necessary in every multitude was fit that it should be conducted by one who should preside and guide the action propose the matters and collect the poynts to be consulted on This care due to the most principal and worthy psrson was alwayes committed to the Bishop And when the Churches were many the propositions and deliberations were made by the Bishop first in the Colledge of the Priests and Deacons which they called the Presbitery and there were ripened to receive afterwards the last resolution in the general Congregation of the Church This form was still on foot in the year 250 and is plainly seen by the Epistles of Cyprian who in the matter concerning those who did eat of meats offered to Idols and subscribe to the Religion of the Gentiles writeth to the Presbitery that he doth not think to do any thing without their counsel consent of the people writeth to the people that at his return he will examine the causes and merits thereof in their presence and under their judgment and he wrote to those Priests who of their own brain had reconciled some that they should give an account to the people The Goodness and Charity of the Bishops made their Opinion for the most part to be followed and by little and little was cause that the Church Charity waxing cold not regarding the Charge laid upon them by Christ did lean the ear to the Bishop and Ambition a witty Passion which doth insinuate it self in the shew of Virtue did cause it to be readily embraced But the principal cause of the change was the ceasing of the Persecutions For then the Bishops did erect as it were a Tribunal which was much frequented because as Temporal Commodities so Suits did encrease This Judgment though it were not as the former in regard of the Form to determine all by the Opinion of the Church yet it was of the same Sincerity Whereupon Constantine seeing how profitable it was to determine Causes and that by the Authority of Religion captious actions were discovered which the Jadges could not penetrate made a Law that there should lie no Appeal from the Sentences of Bishops which should be executed by the Secular Judge And if in a Cause depending before a Secular Tribunal in any state thereof either of the Parties though the other contradict shall demand the Episcopal Judgment the Cause shall be immediately remitted to him Here the Tribunal of the Bishop began to be a common Pleading Place having Execution by the Ministry of the Magistrate and to gain the name of Episcopal Jurisdiction Episcopal Audience and such like The Emperor Valence did enlarge it who in the Year 365. gave the Bishop the care over all the Prizes of vendible things This Judicial Negotiation pleased not the good Bishops Possidonius doth recount that Austin being employed herein sometimes until Dinner-time sometimes longer was wont to say that it was a trouble and did divert him from doing things proper unto him and himself writeth that it was to leave things profitable and to attend things tumultuous and perplexed And St. Paul did not take it unto himself as being not fit for a Preacher but would have it given to others Afterwards some Bishops beginning to abuse the Authority given them by the Law of Constantine that was seventy years after revoked by Horcadius and Honorius and an Ordination made that they should judge Causes of Religion and not Civil except both Parties did consent and declared that they should not be thought to have a Court Which Law being not much observed in Rome in regard of the great power of the Bishops Valentinian being in the City in the year 452. did renew it and made it to be put in execution But a little after some part of the Power taken away was restored by the Princes that followed so that Justinian did establish unto them a Court and Audience and assigned unto them the Causes of Religion the Ecclesiastical Faults of the Clergy and divers voluntary Jurisdictions also over the Laity By these Degrees the charitable correction of Christ did degenerate into Domination and made Christians lose their ancient Reverence and Obedience It is denied in words That Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is Dominion as is the Secular yet one knoweth not how to put a difference between them But St. Paul did put it when he wrote to Timothy and repeated it to Titus that a Bishop should not be greedy of gain nor a Striker Now on the contrary they made men pay for Processes and imprison the Parties as is done in the Secular Court c. This Degeneracy of Discipline was long since esteemed burdensome and looked on as the cause of innumerable troubles and grievances unto all sorts of people Yea it hath had no better esteem among them who had little or no acquaintance with what is taught concerning these things in the Scripture Only they found an Inconsistency in it with those Laws and Priviledges
for the preservation of outward Order And whatever Arbitrariness may be supposed in making a judgment upon the Rule of the Word or in the Application of its rule unto the present Case it must abide in some or other And who shall be thought more meet or able to make a right determination thereon than those whose Duty it is and who have the advantage to be acquainted with all Circumstances belonging to the Case proposed Besides there is the Judgment of the Church or the Congregation it self which is greatly to be regarded Even in the Church of England a suspension of any from the Lords Supper is allowed unto the Curate upon the Offence of the Congregation which is a sufficient evidence that a Judgment in this Case is owned to be their due For none can take Offence but upon a Judgment of the Matter at which he is offended nor in this case without a right to determine that some Offences ought to debar Persons from a participation of the holy Ordinances as also what those Offences are This therefore is to be considered as an Aid and Assistance unto Ministers in the discharge of their Duty It is the Church into whose communion persons are to be admitted And although it be no way necessary that determinations in this Case should be always made by Suffrage or a Plurality of Votes in the Body of the Church yet if the Sense or Mind of the Congregation may be known or is so upon the Enquiry that ought to be made unto that purpose that any persons are unmeet for their communion it is not convenient they should be received nor will their Admission in this case be of any advantage to themselves or the Church The Light of Reason and the Fundamental constitutive Principles of all Free Societies such as the Church is ascribe this Liberty unto it and the Primitive Church practised accordingly So also is the judgment and Desire of the Congregation to be considered in the admission of any if they are made known to the Guides of it For it is expected from them they should confirm their Love unto them without dissimulation as Members of the same Body and therefore in their approbation of what is done their Rulers have Light and Encouragement in their own Duty Besides there is appointed and ought to be preserved a communion among Churches themselves By virtue hereof they are not only to make use of mutual Aid Advice and Counsel antecedently unto a actings of Importance but each particular Church is upon just demand to give an account unto other Churches of what they do in the Administration of the Ordinances of the Gospel among them and if in any thing it hath mistaken or miscarried to rectifie them upon their Advice and Judgment And it were easie to manifest how through these Means and Advantages the Edification of the Church and the Liberty of Christians is sufficiently secured in that discharge of Duty which is required in the Pastors of the Churches about the Admission of persons unto a Participation of holy ordinances in them 5. This Duty therefore must either be wholly neglected which will unavoidably tend to the corrupting and debauching of all Churches and in the end unto their Ruine or it must be attended unto by each particular Church under the conduct of their Guides and Rulers or some others must take it upon themselves What hath been the issue of a Supposal that it may be discharged in the latter way is too well known to be insisted on For whilst those who undertake the Exercise of Church-Power are such as do not dispense the Word or preach it unto them towards whom it is to be exercised but are strangers unto their spiritual state and all the Circumstances of it whilst they have no way to act or exercise their presumed Authority but by Citations Processes Informations and Penalties according to the manner of Secular Courts of Judicature in Causes Civil and Criminal and whilst the Administration of it is committed unto men utterly unacquainted with and inconcerned in the Discipline of the Gospel or the preservation of the Church of Christ in Purity and Order and whilst herein many the most or all of them who are so employed have thereby outward Emoluments and Advantages which they do principally regard the due and proper care of the right Order of the Churches unto the Glory of Christ and their own Edification is utterly omitted and lost It is true many think this the only decent useful and expedient way for the Government of the Church and think it wondrous unreasonable that others will not submit thereunto and acquiesce therein But what would they have us do or what is it that they would perswade us unto Is it that this kind of Rule in and over the Church hath Institution given it in the Scripture or countenance from Apostolieal Practice Both they and we know that no pretence of any such Plea can be made Is it that the first Churches after the Apostles or the Primitive Church did find such a kind of Rule to be necessary and therefore erected it among themselves There is nothing more remote from Truth Would they perswade us that as Ministers of the Gospel and such as have or may have the care of particular Churches committed unto us that we have no such concernment in these things but what we may solemnly renounce and leave them wholly to the mannagement of others We are not able to believe them The Charge that is given unto us the Account that will be required of us the nature of the Office we are called unto continually testifie other things unto us Wherefore we dare not voluntarily engage into the neglect or omission of this Duty which Christ requireth at our hands and of whose neglect we see so many sad Consequents and Effects The Lord Christ we know hath the same Thoughts and makes the same Judgment of his Churches as he did of old when he made a solemn Revelation and Declaration of them And then we find that he charged the Failings Neglects and Miscarriages of the Churches principally upon the Angels or Ministers of them And we would not willingly by our neglect render our selves obnoxious unto his Displeasure nor betray the Churches whereunto we do relate unto his just indignation for their declension from the Purity of his Institutions and the vigour of that Faith and Love which they had professed We should moreover by the Conformity required of us and according to the Terms on which it is proposed engage our selves against the exercise of our Ministerial Office and Power with respect unto them who are already Members of Particular Churches For this we carry along with us that by Conforming we voluntarily consent unto the whole state of Conformity and unto all that we are to do or not to do by the Law thereof Now it is not to be expected that all who are duly initiated or joyned unto any Church
whose Cause they plead we are cast out and excluded from Church Communion with them by the unscriptural Conditions of it which they would force upon us The Distance between us that ensues hereon they are the Causes of not we for we are ready to joyn with them or any others upon the Terms of Christ and the Gospel And do they think it meet that we should revenge their fault upon our selves by a voluntary abstinence from all the wayes and means of our edification Doth any man think that Jesus Christ leaves any of his Disciples unto such a condition as wherein it is impossible they should observe his Commands and Institutions without sin That we should joyn in some Societies that in them we should assemble together for the worship of God in him and that we should in them do and observe whatever he hath appointed we look upon as our indispensible Duty made so unto us by his Commands These things say some you shall not do with us if you will do no more and if you do them among your selves you are Schismaticks But this is a severity which we know we shall not meet with at the last Day We stand at the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ. It will it may be be demanded by what Warrant or Authority we do assemble our selves in Church Societies for the Administration of Gospel Ordinances and who gave us this Authority VVe answer That it is acknowledged there is a Difference between them and us so that with them we cannot enjoy the VVorship of God But of this Difference we are not the Cause nor do give occasion to any blameable Divisions by our Principles or Practises VVhere the Cause is found there the guilt remains This being the state of things with us it is fond to imagine that any Professors of the Gospel do absolutely want a Warranty or Authority to obey Jesus Christ to observe his Commands and to serve him according to his revealed VVill. His Command in his Word his Promise of the acceptance of them and of his presence among them in all the Acts of their holy obedience the assistance and guidance of his holy Spirit which he affords graciously unto them are a sufficient Warranty and Authority for what they do in express complyance with his Commands and more they will not plead a power for VVhere the Spirit and Word of Christ are there is his Authority And this is no otherwise committed unto men but to enable them to act obedientially towards him and Ministerially towards others And were Church Actings considered more with respect unto the Obedidience that in them is performed unto Christ which is their first and principal Consideration it would quickly be evident whence men might have Authority for their performance And by the same means are we directed in their Order and Manner Besides the Ministers who go before the people in their Assemblies are all of them so far as we know solemnly set apart unto their Office and VVork according unto what Christ hath appointed and their Duty it is to teach unto all men the good wayes of Christ and to go before them who are convinced and perswaded by them in their practise These things hath their Lord and Master required of them and an account concerning them will he call them unto at the last Day A Dispensation is committed unto them and a necessity is thence incumbent on them to preach the Gospel and who shall excuse them if they neglect so to do For that all those who are Ministers of the Gospel are called to preach the Gospel and that diligently every one according as he hath received the Gift of the Grace of God is out of question with them that do believe the Gospel And of the Stewardship which is committed unto them herein are they to give an Account And we do know that it is a fearful thing for sinners that is wilful neglecters of his Commands to fall into the hands of the living God Our Lord Jesus Christ also hath testified beforehand that he who setteth his hand to this Plough and looks back again is not fit for the Kingdome of God He alone who calls them to this work can discharge them of it and that either by the Rule of his Word or his Providence And when men are invincibly hindred as many are at this day it is their suffering but not their sin Otherwise none can absolve them from the Duty they owe to Jesus Christ in this matter and that Debt which they owe to the Souls of men in undertaking the work of the Ministry Some indeed suppose or pretend to suppose that a Prohibition given them by Superiors forbidding them to preach though not by nor according unto any Rule of the Gospel doth discharge them from any Obligation so to do that it shall be no more their Duty It would do so no doubt had they received no other command to preach the Gospel nor from any other Authority than that of and from those Superiors by whom they are forbidden But being perswaded that they have so from him who is higher than the highest they cannot acquiesce in this Discharge nor being bought with a price can they now be Servants of men But by whom are they thus forbidden to preach It will be supposed that the Church which differs from them and which originally makes it self a part in these Differences by the conditions of communion which it would impose upon them is no competent Judge in this case Nor will their Prohibitions who apparently thereby revenge their own Quarrel influence the Consciences of them that dissent from them For we speak not of what will or may take place but what the Consciences of men will or may be concerned in By the Civil Magistrate they are not forbidden to preach that we know of It is true they are prohibited to preach in the Legal Publick Meeting Places or Churches and these places being in the power and care of the Magistrate it is meet his Terms and conditions of their use should be accepted of or his Prohibition observed or his Penalty quietly undergone where a peaceable occasion is made use of contrary unto it As to other places Ministers are not absolutely forbid to preach in them no such power is as yet assumed or exercised Only the Manner of Assemblies for Sacred Worship and the Number of them that may assemble are regulated by Laws for Secular Ends or Civil Security and that under express Penalties incurred on a contrary practice But the Consciences of Ministers cannot be concerned in such Laws so far as to be exempted by them from the Obligation that lies upon them from the command of Christ to preach the Gospel This they are commanded by him to do and others know the penalties from men under the danger whereof they must attend unto them Besides the reason of these Legal Prohibitions so far as they do extend are taken from Civil considerations alone namely of
A DISCOURSE Concerning Evangelical Love Church-Peace and Unity With the OCCASIONS and REASONS of present Differences and Divisions about Things Sacred and Religious Written in the Vindication of the Principles and Practise of some Ministers and others Speciosum quidem nomen est Pacis et pulchra opinio Unitatis sed quis ambigat eam solam unicam Ecclesiae Pacem esse quae Christi est Hilar. London Printed 1672. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Christian Love and Peace CHAP. I. Complaints of want of Love and Vnity among Christians how to be mannaged and whence fruitless Charge of Guilt on some why now remov'd and for whose sakes Personal miscarriages of any not excused Those who mannage the Charge mentioned not agreed THe great Differences that are in the world amongst Professors of the Gospel about things relating to the Worship of God do exercise more or less the minds of the Generality of men of all sorts For either in themselves or their Consequents they are looked on to be of great importance Some herein regard principally that disadvantageous influence which they are supposed to have into mens spiritual and Eternal Concernments Others that Aspect which they fancy them to have upon the Publick Peace and tranquility of this world Hence in all Ages such divisions have caused great thoughts of heart especially because it is very difficult to make a right judgement either of their Nature or their Tendency But generally by all they are looked on as evil by some for what they are in themselves by others from the disadvantage which they bring as they suppose unto their secular interest Hence there are amongst many great Complaints of them and of that want of Love which is looked on as their cause And indeed it seems not only to be in the Liberty but to be the Duty of every man soberly to complain of the Evils which he would but cannot remedy For such complaints testifying a Sense of their Evil and a desire of their Cure can be no more than what Love unto the Publick Good requireth of us And if in any case this may be allowed it must be so in that of Divisions about sacred things or the worship of God with their causes and manner of mannagement amongst men For it will be granted that the Glory of God the Honour of Christ the Progress of the Gospel with the Edification and peace of the Church are deeply concerned in them and highly prejudiced by them And in these things all men have if not an equal yet such a special interest as none can forbid them the due consideration of No man therefore ought to be judged as though he did transgress his Rule or goe beyond his Line who soberly expresseth his sense of their Evil and of the Calamities wherewith they are attended Yet must it not be denyed but that much Prudence and moderation is required unto the due mannagement of such Complaints For those which either consist in or are accompanyed with Invectives against the Persons or ways of others instead of a Rational discourse of the causes of such Divisions and their Remedies do not only open enflame and irritate former wounds but prove matters of new contention and strife to their great increase Besides in the manifold Divisions and Differences of this nature amongst us all men are supposed to be under an adherence unto some one Party or other Herein every Man stands at the same Distance from others as they do for him Now all complaints of this kind carry along with them a tacit Justification of those by whom they are made For no man can be so profligate as to judge himself and the way of Religious worship wherein he is ingaged to be the cause of blaneable Divisions amongst Christians and yet continue therein Reflections therefore of Guilt upon others they are usually replenished withall But if those are not attended with evident Light and unavoidable Conviction because they proceed from Persons supposed not indifferent yea culpable in this very matter more of less themselves by them whom they reflect upon they are generally turned into Occasions of new exasperations and contests And hence it is come to pass that although all good men do on all occasions bewail the want of Love forbearance and condescention that is found among Professors of the Gospel and the Divisions which follow thereon yet no comfortable nor advantagious effects do thence ensue Yea not only is all Expectation of that blessed fruit which a general serious consent unto such Complaints might produce as yet utterly frustrated but the small remainders of Love and Peace amongst us are hazzarded and impaired by mutual charges of the want and loss of them on the Principles and Practices of each other We have therefore need of no small Watchfulness and care least in this matter it fall out with us as it did with the Israelites of old in another occasion For when they had by a sinful sedition cast out David from amongst them and from reigning over them after a little while seeing their folly and iniquity they assembled together with one consent to bring him home again But in the very beginning of their indeavours to this purpose falling into a dispute about which of the Tribes had the greatest interest in him they not only desisted from their first design but fell into another distemper of no less dangerous importance then what they were newly delivered from It must be acknowledged that there hath been a sinful decay of Love amongst Professors of the Gospel in this Nation if not a violent casting of it out by such prejudices and corrupt Affections as wherewith it is wholly inconsistent And it would be a matter of no small lamentation if upon the blooming of a design for its Recovery and Reduction with all its trains as forbearance Condescention Gentleness and Peace if any such design there be by contests about the occasions and causes of its Absence with too much seriousness in our own vindication and pleas of a special Interest in it above others new distempers should be raised hazzarding its everlasting exclusion In this state of things we have hitherto contented our selves with the Testimony of our own hearts unto the sincerity of our desires as to walk in Love and Peace with all Men so to exercise the fruits of them on all occasions administred unto us And as this alone we have thus far opposed unto all those Censures and Reproaches which we have undergone to the contrary so therewithall have we supported our selves under other things which we have also suffered Farther to declare our thoughts and Principles in and about the worship of God than they are evidenced and testified unto by our Practice we have hitherto forborne least the most moderate claims of an especial interest in the common Faith and Love of Christians should occasion new contests and troubles unto our selves and others And we have observed that sometimes an over-hasty indeavour to
a continual sorrow and trouble unto us so we acknowledge it to be our Duty and shall be willing to undergo any blame where we are found defective in the Discharge of it unto the utmost of our Power to endeavour after the strictest Communion with them in all Spiritual things that the Gospel doth require or whereof our condition in this world is capable In the mean time until this can be attained it is our desire to mannage the Profession of our own Light and Apprehensions without Anger Bitterness Clamours Evil speaking or any other thing that may be irregular in our selves or give just cause of offence unto others Our Prayers are also continually for the spiritual Prosperity of this Church for its increase in Faith and Holiness and especially for the healing of all breaches that are among them that belong thereunto throughout the World And were we not satisfied that the Principles which we own about the right Constitution of the Churches of Christ and the Worship of God to be observed in them are singularly suited to the furtherance and Preservation of Vnion and due Order among all the members of this Church we should not need to be excited by any unto their Renunciation But our main design in all these things is that both they and we with them may enjoy that peace which the Lord Christ hath bequeathed unto us and walk in the way which he hath prescribed for us And these things we mention neither to boast of nor yet to justifie our selves but only to acknowledge what is our conviction concerning our Duty in this matter And might there any sedate peaceable unprejudicate endeavours be countenanced and encouraged for the allaying of all occasional distempers and the composing of all differences among them who belong to this Church of Christ so as that they might all of them at least in these Nations not only keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace but also agree and consent in all wayes and Acts of Religious Communion we doubt not but to manifest that no rigid adherence unto the practise of any conceptions of our own in things wherein the Gospel alloweth a condescention and forbearance no delight in singularity no prejudice against persons or things should obstruct us in the promotion of it to the utmost of our power and ability Upon the whole matter we own it as our duty to follow and seek after peace unity consent and agreement in holy worship with all the members of this Church or those who by a regular profession manifest themselves so to be and will with all readiness and alacrity renounce every principle or practise that is either inconsistent with such communion or directly or indirectly is in its self obstructive of it Secondly The Church of Christ may be considered with respect unto its outward Profession as constitutive of its Being and the formal Reason of its denomination And this is the Church Catholick visible whereunto they all universally belong who profess the invocation of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours under the limitations that shall be mentioned afterwards And this is the visible Kingdome of Christ which on the account of its profession and thereby is distinguished from that world which lyeth in evil and is absolutely under the power of Satan And so in common use the Church and the world are contradistinguished Yet on other accounts many who belong unto this Church by reason of some kind of profession that they make may justly be esteemed to be the world or of it So our Lord Jesus Christ called the generality of the professing Church in his time The world saith he hateth me And that we may know that he thereby intended the Church of the Jewes besides that the circumstances of the place evince it he puts it out of question by the Testimony which he produceth in the confirmation of his Assertion concerning their unjust and causless hatred namely It is written in their Law they have hated me without a cause which being taken out of the Psalms was part of the Law or Rule of the Judaical Church only Now he thus terms them because the generality of them especially their Rulers although they professed to know God and to worship him according to his Word and the Tradition of their Fathers yet were not only corrupt and wicked in their Lives but also persecuted him and his Disciples in whom the Power and Truth of God were manifested beyond what they were able to bear And hence a General Rule is established that what Profession soever any men do make of the Knowledge and Worship of God to what Church soever they do or may be thought to belong yet if they are wicked or ungodly in their Lives and Persecuters of such as are better than themselves they are really of the World and with it will perish without Repentance These are they who receiving on them a Form or Delineation of Godliness do yet deny the Power of it from whom we are commanded to turn away But yet we acknowledge that there is a real difference to be made between them who in any way or manner make profession of the Name of Christ with subjection unto him and that Infidel world by whom the Gospel is totally rejected or to whom it was never tendred In the Catholick visible Church as comprehensive of all who throughout the world outwardly own the Gospel there is an acknowledgment of one Lord one Faith one Baptism which are a sufficient Foundation of that Love Union and Communion among them which they are capable of or are required of them For in the joynt Profession of the same Lord Faith and Baptism consists the Union of the Church under this consideration that is as Catholick and visibly professing and in nothing else And hereunto also is required as the principle animating that Communion and rendring it acceptable mutual Love with its occasional Exercise as a fruit of that Love which we have unto Jesus Christ who is the Object of our Common Profession And setting aside the consideration of them who openly reject the Principal Fundamentals of Christian Religion as denying the Lord Christ to be the Eternal Son of God with the use and efficacy of his death as also the Personal subsistence and Deity of the Holy Spirit and there is no known Community of these Professors in the world but they own so much of the Truths concerning one Lord one Faith and one baptism as are sufficient to guide them unto Life and Salvation And hereon we no way doubt but that among them all there are some really belonging to the Purpose of Gods Election who by the means that they do enjoy shall at length be brought unto everlasting Glory For we do not think that God by his Providence would maintain the Dispensation of the Gospel in any Place or among any People among whom there are none whom he hath designed to bring
Empire under himself by their common consent In the mean time by the Original Divisions of the Empire and the Revolutions that happened afterwards amongst the Nations of the World the greatest number of Christians were wholly inconcerned in this new Church Soveraignty which was erected in the Western Provinces of that Empire So was the Mystery of Iniquity consummated for whereas the Pope to secure his new Acquisitions endeavoured to empale the Title and Priviledges of the Catholick Church unto those Christians which professed Obedience unto himself unto an exclusion of a greater number there ensued such a confusion of the Catholick and a particular Church as that both of them were almost utterly lost Concerning these several sorts of conceited particular Churches it is evident that some of them as to their nature and kind have no Institution in nor warrant from the Scripture but were Prudential Contrivances of the men of the Dayes wherein they were first formed which they effected by various degrees under the conduct of an Apprehension that they tended unto the increase of Concord and Order among Christians Whether really and effectually they have attained that end the event hath long since manifested And it will be one day acknowledged that no Religious Vnion or Order among Christians will be lasting and of spiritual use or advantage unto them but what is appointed and designed for them by Jesus Christ. The truth is the mutual intestine Differences and Contests among them who first possessed the Rule of such Churches about their Dignities Pre-eminences Priviledges and Jurisdictions which first apparently let in Pride Ambition Revenge and Hatred into the Minds and Lives of Church-Guides lost in the peace of Christendome and the degeneracy of the●r Successors more and more into a secular Interest and worldly frame of Spirit is one great means of continuing us at a loss for its retrival How far any man may be obliged in Conscience unto communion with these Churches in those things wherein they are such and as such behave themselves in all their Rule and Administrations may be enquired into by them who are concerned What respect we have unto them or what Duty we may owe them as they may in any place be established by the Civil Laws of the Supream Magistrate is not of our present consideration But whereas in their Original and Rise they have no other warrant but the Prudential contrivance of some men who unquestionably might be variously influenced by corrupt Pre●ud●ces and Affections in the finding out and mannagement of their Inventions what ground there is for holding a Religious communion with them and wherein such communion may consist is not easie to be declared For the notion that the Church-communion of the generality of Christians and Ministers consists only in a quiet subjection unto them who by any means may pretend to be set over them and claim a right to rule them is fond and impious In the mean time we wholly deny that the Mistakes or Disorders of Christians in complying with or joyning themselves unto such Churches as have no warrantable institution ought to be any cause of the diminishing of our Love towards them or of withdrawing it from them For notwithstanding their Errors and Wanderings from the Paths of Truth in this Matter they do or may continue interested in all that Love which is due from us unto the Church of Christ upon the double account before insisted on For they may be yet persons born of God united unto Christ made partakers of his Spirit and so belong to the Church Catholick Mystical which is the first principal Object of all Christian Love and Charity The Errors wherewith they are supposed to be overtaken may befal any persons under those Qualifications the admittance of them though culpable being not inconsistent with a state of Grace and acceptation with God And they may also by a due profession of the fundamental Truths of the Gospel evince themselves to be professed Subjects of the visible Kingdom of Christ in the world and so belong to the Church Catholick v●sibly professing under which notion the Disciples of Christ are in the next place commended unto our Love And it is the fondest imagination in the world that we must of necessity want Love towards all those with whom we cannot join in all acts of Religious Worship or that there need be any Schisme between them and us on the sole account thereof taking Schisme in the common received notion of it If we bear unkindness towards them in our minds and hearts if we desire or seek their hurt if we persecute them or put them to trouble in the world for their Profession if we pray not for them if we pity them not in all their Temptations Errors or Sufferings if we say unto any of them when naked be thou cloathed and when hungry be thou fed but relieve them not according unto our abilities and opportunities if we have an aversation to their Persons or judge them any otherwise than as they cast themselves openly and visibly under the sentence of Natural Reason or Scripture-Rule we may be justly thought to fail in our Love towards them But if our Hearts condemn us not in these things it is not the difference that is or may be between them and us about Church-Constitutions or Order that ought be a cause or can be an evidence of any want of Love on our parts There will indeed be a distinct and separate practice in the things wherein the difference lies which in it self and without other avoidable evils need not on either side to be Schismatical If by censures or any kind of power such Churches or Persons would force us to submit unto or comply with such things or ways in Religious Worship as are contrary unto our Light and which they have no Authority from the Lord Christ to impose upon us the whole state of the Case is changed as we shall see afterwards As for those Particular Churches which in any part of the world consist of Persons assembling together for the worship of God in Christ under the Guidance of their own Lawful Pastors and Teachers we have only to say that we are full well assured that where-ever two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ there he is present with them and farther than this there are very few concerning whom we are called to pass any other Censure or Judgment So we hope it is with them and so we pray that it may be And therefore we esteem it our Duty to hold that Communion with all these Assemblies when called thereunto which is required of any Christians in the like cases and Circumstances Unless we are convinced that with respect unto such or such Instances it is the Mind of Christ that neither among our selves nor in Conjunction with others nor for the sake of present Communion with them we should observe them in his worship we judge our selves under an Obligation
they may be laid aside and made use of in another way Much more may any refuse the communion of such Churches if they impose on them their Corruptions Errors Failings and Mistakes as the coudition of their Communion For hereby they directly make themselves Lords over the Faith and Worship of the Disciples of Christ and are void of all Authority from him in what they so do or impose And it is so far that any mens withdrawing of themselves from the communion of such Churches and entring into a way of Reformation for their own good in obedience to the Laws of Christ should infer in them a want of Love and Peaceableness or a Spirit of Division that to do otherwise were to divide from Christ and to cast out all true Christian Love embracing a Cloud of slothful negligence and carelesness in the great concernments of the Glory of God and their own Souls in the room thereof We are neither the Authors nor the Guides of our own Love He who implants and worketh it in us hath given us Rules how it must be exercised and that on all emergencies It may work as regularly by sharp cutting Rebukes as by the most silken and compliant expressions by manifesting an aversation from all that is evil as by embracing and approving of what is good In all things and cases it is to be directed by the Word And when under the pretence of it we leave that Rule and go off from any Duty which we owe immediately unto God it is Will Pride and Self-conceit in us and not Love And among all the Exhortations that are given us in the Scripture unto Unity and Concord as the Fruits of Love there is not one that we should agree or comply with any in their sins or evil practices But as we are commanded in our selves to obtain from all appearance of evil so are we forbidden a participation in the sins of other men and all fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness Our Love towards such Churches is to work by Pity Compassion Prayer Instructions which are due means for their healing and recovery not by consent unto them or communion with them whereby they may be hardned in the Error of their way and our own Souls be subverted For if we have not a due respect unto the Lord Christ and his Authority all that we have or may pretend to have unto any Church is of no value Neither ought we to take into consideration any terms of Communion whose foundation is not laid in a regard thereunto Moreover as hath been declared there is no such society of Christians in the world whose Assemblies as to Instituted Worship are rejected by Christ so that they have a Bill of Divorce given unto them by the Declaration of the Will of the Lord Jesus to that purpose in the Scripture but that until they are utterly also as it were extirpate by the Providence of God as are many of the Primitive Plantations we are perswaded of them that there are yet some secret hidden ones among them that belong unto the purpose of Gods Grace For we do judge that where-ever the Name of Jesus Christ is called upon there is salvation to be obtained however the wayes of it may be obstructed unto the most by their own Sins and Errors They may also retain that Profession which distinguisheth them from the Infidel world In these things we are still to hold communion with them and on these accounts is our Love to be continued unto them Some kind of communion we may hold with them that that are of no Instituted or Particular Churches or whose Church-State is rejected even as a person excommunicated is to be admonished as a Brother And some kind of communion we may lawfully refuse with some true Churches Instances whereof shall be given afterwards There is therefore no necessity that any should deny all them to be true Churches from whom they may have just reason to withdraw their communion For such as are so may require such things thereunto as it is not lawful for them to accept of or submit unto What Assemblies of Christians we behold visibly worshiping God in Christ we take for granted to be true visible Churches And when we judge of our own communion with them it is not upon this Question whether they are true Churches or no as though the determination of our practice did depend solely thereon For as we are not called to judge of the being of their Constitution as to the substance of it unless they are openly judged in the Scripture as in the case of Idolatry and Persecution persisted in so a determination of the Truth of their constitution or that they are true Churches will not presently resolve us in our Duty as to communion with them for the Reasons before given But in such a càse two things are by us principally to be considered 1. That nothing sinful in it self or unto us be required of us as the condition of communion 2. That we may in such Churches obtain the immediate end of their Institution and our Conjunction with them which is our Edification in Faith Love and Obedience And the things whereof we have discoursed comprize our Thoughts concerning those Societies of Christians whose degeneracy from their primitive Rule and Institution is most manifest and notorious Whilst there is any Profession of the Gospel any subjection of Souls unto Jesus Christ avowed or any expectation of help from him continued among them we cannot but hope that there are in all of them at least some few Names that are written in the Lambs Book of Life and which shall be saved eternally For as a Relation unto a particular visible Church walking according to the Order and Rule of the Gospel is the Duty of every Believer to give himself up unto as that which is a means appointed and sanctified to the furtherance of his Edification and Salvation so where it cannot be obtained through invincible outward Impediments or is omitted through ignorance of Duty or is on just Causes refused where opportunities make a tender of it or where the being and benefit of it is lost through the Apostasie of those Churches whereunto any persons did belong the utter want of it and that alwayes is not such as necessarily infers the eternal loss of their Souls who suffer under it Other Churches there are in the world which are not evidently guilty of the Enormities in Doctrine Worship and Discipline before discoursed of These all we judge to be true Churches of Christ and do hope that his promised presence is with them in their Assemblies Answerable hereunto is our Judgment concerning their Officers or Rulers and all their Sacred Administrations It becomes us to think and believe that the one have Authority from Christ and that the other are accepted with him For it is most unwarrantable rashness and presumption yea an evident fruit of Ignorance or want of Love or secular private Interest
when upon lesser Differences men judge Churches to be no true Churches and their Ministers to be no true Ministers and consequently all their Administrations to be invalid So do some judge of Churches because they have 〈◊〉 Bishops and so do more of others because they have none But the Validity or Invalidity of the Ordinances of Christ which are the Means of Union and Communion with him unto all his Disciples depend not on the determination of things highly disputable in their Notion and not inconsistent with true Gospel-Obedience in their Practice And we are unduly charged with other Apprehensions God forbid that any such thought should ever enter into our heorts as though the Churches constituted in all things according unto our Light and the Rules we apprehend appointed in the Scripture for that purpose should be the only true Churches in the world They do but out of design endeavour to expose us to popular envy and hatred who invent and publish such things concerning us or any of us But whatever be the Judgment of others concerning us we intend not to take from thence any such provocation as might corrupt our Judgments concerning them nor to relieve our selves by returning the like censures unto them as we receive from them Scripture Rule and Duty must in these matters regulate our thoughts on all occasions And whilst we judge others to be true Churches we shall not be much moved with their judgment that we are none because we differ from them We stand to the judgment of Christ and his Word We cannot but judge indeed that many Churches have missed and do miss in some things the precise Rules of their due constitution and walking that many of them have added useless superfluous Rites to the Worship of God among them that there is in many of them a sinful neglect of Evangelical Discipline or a carnal Rule erected in the stead of it that Errors in Doctrines of importance and danger are prevalent in sundry of them that their Rulers are much influenced by a spirit of bitterness and envy against such as plead for Reformation beyond their measure or interest yet that hereupon they should all or any of them immediately forfeit their Church-State so as to have no lawful Ministers nor acceptable sacred Administrations is in it self a false Imagination and such as was never by us entertained In particular as to those Churches in Europe which are commonly called Reformed we have the same thoughts of them the same Love towards them the same readiness for communion with them as we would desire any Disciples of Christ in the world to have bear or exercise towards our selves If we are found negligent in any Office of Love towards them or any of their Members in compassion help or assistance or such supplies in outward or inward things as we have opportunity or ability for we are willing to bear the guilt of it as our Sin and the reproach of it as our shame And herein we desire to fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self The same we say concerning all the Churches in England of the same mould and constitution with them especially if it be true which some say that Parochial Churches are under a force and power whereby they are enjoyned the practice of sundry things and forbidden the performance of others wherein the compliance of some is not over-voluntary nor pleasing to themselves Neither is there a Nullity or Invalidity in the Ordinances administred in them any otherwise than as some render them ineffectual unto themselves by their unbelief And this is the Paganizing of England which some of us are traduced for We believe that among the visible professors in this Nation there is as great a number of sincere Believers as in any Nation under Heaven so that in it are treasured up a considerable portion of the invisible Mystical Church of Christ. We believe that the Generality of the Inhabitants of this Nation are by their Profession constituted an eminent part of the Kingdome of Christ in this world And we judge not we condemn not those who walking according to their Light and Understanding in Particularities do practise such things in the Worship of God as we cannot comply withal For we do not think that the things wherein they fail wherein they miss or out go the Rule are in their own nature absolutely destructive of their particular Church-state And what more can reasonably be required of us or expected from us in this matter we know not The causes of the Distance that doth remain between us them shall be afterwards enquired into For our Duty in particular presential communion at the celebration of the same individual Ordinances with such Churches as are remote from us in Asia or Africa we shall we hope be directed to determine aright concerning it when we are called thereunto In the mean time what are our Thoughts concerning them hath been before declared To love them as Subjects of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the world to pray for them that they may have all needful supplies of Grace and the Holy Spirit from above that God would send out his Light and Truth to guide them in their Worship and Obedience and to help them in things spiritual and temporal as we have opportunity is the Sum of the Duty which is required in us towards them Those we are more concerned in who are within the Lines of our ordinary Communication among whom we walk and converse in the world Unto any of these it is in the Liberty and power of every Believer to join himself by his own consent And no more is required hereunto in the present constitution of Churches among our selves but that a man remove his habitation to comply with his own desires herein And this choice is to be regulated by a judgment how a man may best improve and promote his own Edification We see not therefore how any man with the least pretence of Sobriety or Modesty can charge us with the want of an esteem and valuation of Evangelical Vnity For we embrace it on all the Grounds that it is in the Gospel recommended unto us And we do know within what narrow bounds the Charity and Vnity of some are confined who yet advantage themselves by a noise of their pretence But that we do not in the least disturb break or dissent from the Catholick Church either as it is invisible in its internal form by Faith and the Renovation of the Holy Ghost or as visibly professing necessary Fundamental Truths of the Gospel we have sufficiently evinced And the Principles laid down concerning particular Churches Congregations Assemblies or Parishes have not as yet been detected by any to spring from want of Love or to be obstructive of the exercise of it Having therefore thus briefly given some account of what we conceive to be our duty in relation unto the whole Church of
God we can with confidence and much assurance of mind own as dear a valuation of Love Unity and Peaceableness in the Profession of the Gospel as any sort of Professors whatever And we are perswaded that our Principles do as much tend and and conduce unto the improvement of them as any that are or can be proposed unto that end For we either do or are in a readiness to embrace every thing or way that the Lord Christ hath appointed or doth bless thereunto We doubt not as hath been before acknowledged but that there have been many failings and sinful miscarriages among all sorts of Professors who separate or are rather driven from the present Publick worship There is no question but that in them all there are some remainders of the bitter Root of corrupt affections which under the various temptations and provocations they have been exposed unto hath brought forth fruit of an unpleasant relish It is no new thing that irregular prejudices should be found acting themselves in Professors of the Gospel It hath been so among them from the Beginning And we hope that where there is or hath been any guilt of this nature that the Reproofs which have been publickly given unto it with what Spirit or Intention soever mannaged may be useful to the amendment of them who have offended But for our own Parts we must bear this Testimony unto our sincerity that we not only condemn but abhor all evil surmises among Professors all rash and uncharitable censures all causless aversations of Mind and Affections all strife wrath anger and debate upon the account of different apprehensions and practises in and about the concerns of Religious worship Much more do we cast out all thoughts of judging mens eternal state and condition with respect unto such differences nor do we nor dare we give countenance unto any thing that is in the least really opposite to love Peace Unity or Concord amongst the Disciples of Christ. And as we shall not excuse any of those Extravagancies and intemperate Heats in words or otherwise which some it may be have been guilty of who until their Repentance must bear their own Judgment so we will not make a recharge on others who differ in Perswasion from us of the same or the like crimes nor indeed need we so to do their Principles and Practises contrary unto all Christian Love and Charity being written as with the beams of the Sun And we do not complain of our Lot in the world that the appearance of such things iu any of us would be esteemed a scandalous crime which others that condemn them in us indulg in themselves without the least check or controul The Law of this condition is put upon us by the Profession which we do avow Only we are not willing that any should make advantage against us by their Pleas for Love Unity and Concord as if indeed they were for Peace but that we make our selves ready for warr Could they convince us that we come behind them in the valuation and secking after these things by all ways and means blessed by Christ to that purpose we should judge our selves with a severity at least commensurate to the utmost they are able to exercise against us whilst free from malice and evil designs Only we must adde that there is no true measure of Love to be taken by the Accessions that men can make towards them who depart from Truth If it were so those must be judged to abound most with it who can most comply with the practises of the Church of Rome But we are perswaded that such Discourses with the application of them unto those who differ from their Authors do proceed from sincerity in them only as we fear somwhat leavened with an apprehension that their Judgments and Practices being according unto truth ought to be the Standard and Measure of other mens perhaps no less sincere and confident of the Truth than themselves though differing from them And hence it is unhappily fallen out that in the Reproofs which some do mannage on the foundations mentioned and in the way of their mannagement many do suppose that there is as great an appearance if not evidence of evil surmises ungrounded temerarious censures of self-conceit and elation of mind of hard thoughts of undue charges on and the contempt of others and in all of a want of real love condescention and compassion as in any things that are true and to be really found among Professors blamed by them For these things both as charged and recharged have a double appearance Those from whom they proceed look on them in the light of that sincerity and integrity which they are conscious of to themselves wherein they seem amiable useful and free from all offence whereas others that are concerned viewing of them in the disordered Reflections of their opposition unto them and the disadvantage which they undergo by them do apprehend them quite of another nature And it is a matter of trouble unto us to find that when some are severely handled for those Principles and ways wherein they can and do commend their Consciences unto God and thereby apprehending that their Intentions Purposes Principles and Affections are injuriously traduced and perverted they fall with an equal severity on them by whom they are reproved though their Reproofs proceed from an equal Sincerity unto what themselves profess and expect to be believed in Especially are such mutual Reflections grievous and irksome unto Men when they apprehend that in them or by them Professed Friends do industriously expose them to the contempt and wrath of Professed Adversaries CHAP. IV. Want of Love and Vnity among Christians justly complained of Causes of Divisions and Schisms 1. Misapprehensions of Evangelical Vnity Wherein it doth truly consist The ways and means whereby it may be obtained and preserved Mistakes about both 2. Neglect in Churches to attend unto known Gospel-Duty Of preaching unto Conversion and Edification Care of those that are really Godly Of Discipline How neglected how corrupted Principles seducing Churches and their Rulers into miscarriages 1. Confidence of their place 2. Contempt of the people 3. Trust unto worldly Grandeur Other causes of Divisions Remainders of corruption from the General Apostacy Weakness and Ignorance Of Readiness to take offences Remedies hereof Pride False Teachers UPon the whole matter it is generally acknowledged that there is a great Decay of Love a great want of Peace and Unity among Professors of the Gospel in the world And it is no less evident nor less acknowledged that these things are frequently commanded and enjoyned unto them in the Scripture Might they be obtained it would greatly further the Ends of the Gospel and answer the mind of Christ And their Loss is obstructive unto the one and no less dishonourable unto that Profession which is made of the Name of the other For the Divisions of Christians occasioned chiefly by false notions of Unity and undue means
building and unsafe unto its self or like a dead mortifyed part of the Body which neither receives any vital Influence from the Head nor administers nourishment unto any other part Now it cannot be denyed but that in the Contests that are in the world about Church Vnion and Divisions with what is pleaded about their nature and Causes there is little or no consideration had thereof Yea those things are principally insisted on for the constituting of the One atd the according of the Other which cast a neglect yea a contempt upon it It is the Romanists who make the greatest outcryes about Church Union and who make the greatest Advantage by what they pretend so to be But hereunto they contend expresly on the one side that it is indispensibly necessary that all Christians should be subject to the Pope of Rome and united unto him and on the other that it is not necessary at all that any of them be spiritually and savingly united unto Christ. Others also place it in various Instances of Conformity unto and Complyance with the Commands of Men which if they are observed they are wondrous cold in their enquiries after this Relation unto the Head But the truth is that where any one is interested in this Foundation of all Gospel Unity he may demand Communion with any Church in the world and ought not to be refused unless in Case of some present Offence or scandal And those by whom such Persons are rejected from Communion to be held on Gospel terms on the account of some Differences not entrenching on this Foundation do exercise a kind of Church Tyranny and are guilty of the Schism which may ensue thereon So on the other side where this is wanting mens complyance with any other terms or conditions that may be proposed unto them and their obtaining of Church-Communion thereon will be of little Advantage unto their Souls Secondly Unto this Foundation of Gospel Unity among Believers for and unto the due improvement of it there is required an Vnity of Faith or of the belief and Profession of the same Divine Truth For as there is one Lord so also one Faith and one Baptism unto Believers And this ariseth from and followeth the other For those who are so united unto Christ are all taught of God to believe the Truths which are necessarily required thereunto And however by the Power of Temptation they may fall in it or from it for a season as did Peter yet through the Love and care of Jesus Christ they are again recovered Now unto this Vnity of Faith two things are required First a precise and express Professio 1 of the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion For we outwardly hold the Head by a consent unto the form of wholsome words wherein the Doctrine of it is contained Of the Number and Nature of such Fundamental Truths whose express Acknowledgment belongs unto the Unity of Faith so much hath been discoursed by others as that we need not add any thing thereunto The sum is that they are but few plainly delivered in the Scripture evidencing their own necessity all conducing to the begetting and increase of that Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God Secondly It is required hereunto that in other things and Duties every man be fully perswaded in his own mind and walking according to what he hath attained do follow Peace and Love with those who are otherwise perswaded than he is For the Vnity of Faith did never consist in the same precise Conceptions of all revealed Objects Neither the nature of Man nor the means of Revelation will allow such a Unity to be morally Possible And the figment of supplying this variety by an implicit Faith is ridiculous For herein Faith is considered as professed and no man can make profession of what he knoweth not It is therefore condescention and mutual forbearance whereby the Vnity of Faith consisting in the joynt belief of necessary Truths is to be preserved with respect unto other things about which Differences may arise Yet is not this so to be understood as though Christians especially Ministers of the Gospel should content themselves with the knowledge of such Fundamentals or confine their Scripture inquiries unto them Whatever is written in the Scripture is written for our instruction and it is our duty to search diligently into the whole Counsel of God therein revealed Yea to inquire with all diligence in the use of all means and the improvement of all advantages with fervent supplications for light and aid from above into the whole Mistery of the will of God as revealed in the Scripture and all the Parts of it is the principal duty that is incumbent on us in this world Aud those who take upon them to be Ministers and Instructors of others by whom this is neglected who take up with a superficiary knowledg of general Principles and those such for the most part as have a coincidence with the Light of Nature do but betray the souls of those over whom they usurp a charge and are unworthy of the Title and Office which they bear Neither is there any thing implyed in the means of preserving the Vnity of Faith that should hinder us from explaining confirming and vindicating any Truth that we have received wherein others differ from us provided that what we do be done with a spirit of meekness and love Yea our so doing is one principal means of ministring nourishment unto the Body whereby the whole is increased as with the increase of God But in the Room of all this what contendings fightings destructions of men body and soul upon variety of Judgments about sacred things have been introduced by the Craft of Satan and the carnal interest of men of corrupt minds is known to all the world Thirdly There is an Vnity of Love that belongs unto the Evangelical Unity which we are in the description of For Love is the bond of perfection that whereby all the Members of the Body of Christ are knit together among themselves and which renders all the other ingredients of this Unity useful unto them And as we have discoursed of the nature of this Love before so the exercise of it as it hath an actual influence into Gospel Vnity among Christians may be reduced unto two Heads For First it worketh effectually according to the measure of them in whom it is in the Contribution of supplyes of Grace and Light and helps of obedience unto other Members of the body Every one in whom this Love dwelleth according to his Ability Call and Opportunities which make up his measure will communicate the spiritual supplies which he receiveth from the Head Christ Jesus unto others by Instructions Exhortations Consolations and Example unto their Edification This he will do in Love and unto the ends of Love namely to testifie a joynt Relation unto Christ the Head of all and the increase of the whole by supplyes of life
Schismatick a Divider of the Churches Vnity and an enemy unto the Peace and Order of it Howbeit of Conformity unto such Institutions and Orders of men of Vniformity in the observation of such external Rites in the worship of the Church there is not one word spoken nor any thing of that nature intimated in all the Commands for Vnity which are given unto us nor in the Directions that are sanctified unto the due preservation of it Yet such an Vniformity being set up in the room of Evangelical Unity and Order Means suited unto the preservation of it but really destructive of that whose name it beareth and whose Place it possesseth have not been wanting And it is not unworthy consideration how men endeavour to deceive others and are deceived themselves by manifold Equivocations in their arguings about this Matter For first they lay down the necessity of Vnity among Christians with the evil that is in Breaches Divisions and Schismes which they prove from the Commands of the one and the Reproofs of the other that abound in the Scripture Then with an easie deduction they prove that it is a Duty incumbent on all Christians in their several Capacities to observe keep further and promote this Vnity and to prevent oppose resist and avoid all Divisions that are contrary thereunto If so the Magistrate must do the same in his place and capacity Now seeing it is his Office and unto him of God it is committed to exercise his power in Laws and Penalties for the promoting of what is good and the punishing of what is contrary thereunto it is his Duty to coerce restrain and punish all those who oppose despise or any way break or disturb the Unity of the Church And this Ratiocination would seem reasonable were it not doubly defective For first the Vnity intended in the first Proposition whose necessity is confirmed by Scripture-Testimonies is utterly lost before we come to the Conclusion and the outward Vniformity mentioned is substituted in the room thereof And hereby in the second place are they deceived to believe that external force and penalties are a means to be used by any for the attaining or preserving of Gospel-Vnity It is not improbable indeed but that it may be suited to give countenance unto that external Vniformity which is intended but that it should be so unto the promotion of Gospel-Vnion among Believers is a weak imagination Let such persons keep themselves and their Argument unto that Vnion which the Scripture commends amongst the Disciples of Christ and his Churches with the means fitted and appointed unto the preservation of it and they shall have our compliance with any Conclusion that will thence ensue Herein therefore lies the Fundamental Cause of our Divisions which will not be healed until it be removed and taken out of the way Leave Believers or Professors of the Gospel unto their Duty in seeking after Evangelical Vnity in the use of other Means instituted and blessed unto that End impose nothing on their Consciences or Practice under that Name which indeed belongs not thereunto and although upon the Reasons and Causes afterwards to be mentioned there may for a season remain some Divisions among them yet there will be a way of healing continually ready for them and agreed upon by them as such Where indeed men propose unto themselves different Ends though under the same Name the use of the same Means for the compassing of them will but encrease their variance As where some aim at Evangelical Vnion and others at an External Vniformity both under the name of Vnity and Peace in the use of the same Means for these Ends they will be more divided among themselves But where the same End is aimed at even the debate of the Means for the attaining of it will insensibly bring the Parties at difference into a Coalition and work out in the issue a compleat Reconciliation In the mean time were Christians duly instructed how many lesser Differences in Mind Judgment and Practice are really consistent with the Nature Ends and genuine Fruit of the Vnity that Christ requires among them it would undoubtedly prevail with them so to mannage themselves in their Differences by mutual forbearance and condescention in Love as not to contract the guilt of being Disturbers or Breakers of it For suppose the Minds of any of them to be invincibly prepossessed with the Principles wherein they differ from others yet all who are sincere in their Profession cannot but rejoyce to be directed unto such a Mannagery of them as to be preserved from the guilt of dissolving the Unity appointed by Christ to be observed And to speak plainly among all the Churches in the world which are free from Idolatry and Persecution it is not different Opinions or a difference in Judgment about revealed Truths nor a different practice in sacred Administrations but Pride Self-interest Love of Honour Reputation and Dominion with the influence of Civil or Political Intrigues and Considerations that are the true cause of that defect of Evangelical Vnity that is at this day amongst them For set them aside and the real differences which would remain may be so mannaged in Love Gentleness and Meekness as not to interfere with that Vnity which Christ requireth them to preserve Nothing will from thence follow which shall impeach their common Interest in one Lord one Faith one Love one Spirit and the Administration of the same Ordinances according to their Light and Ability But if we shall cast away this Evangelical Vnion among the Disciples and Churches of Christ if we shall break up the Bounds and Limits fixed unto it and set up in its place a compliance with or an agreement in the Commands and Appointments of men making their Observations the Rule and measure of our Ecclesiastical Concord it cannot be but that innumerable and endless Divisions will ensue thereon If we will not be contented with the Union that Christ hath appointed it is certain we shall have none in this world For concerning that which is of mens finding out there have been and will be Contentions and Divisions whilst there are any on the one side who will endeavour its imposition and on the other who desire to preserve their Consciences entire unto the Authority of Christ in his Laws and Appointments There is none who can be such a Stranger in our Israel as not to know that these things have been the great Occasion and Cause of of the Divisions and Contentions that have been among us near an hundred years and which at this day make our Breaches wide like the Sea that they cannot be healed Let therefore those who have Power and Ability be instrumental to restore to the minds of men the true Notion and Knowledge of the Unity which the Lord Christ requireth among his Churches and Disciples and let them be left unto that Liberty which he hath purchased for them in the pursuit of that Vnity which he hath prescribed
unto them and let us all labour to stir up those Gracious Principles of Love and Peace which ought to guide us in the use of our Liberty and will enable us to preserve Gospel-Unity and there will be a greater Progress made towards Peace Reconciliation and Concord amongst all sorts of Christians than the spoiling of the Goods or imprisoning of the Persons of Dissenters will ever effect But it may be such things are required here unto as the world is yet scarce able to comply withal For whilst men do hardly believe that there is an efficacy and power accompanying the Institutions of Christ for the compassing of that whole end which he aimeth at and intendeth whilst they are unwilling to be brought unto the constant exercise of that spiritual Diligence Patience Meekness Condescention Self-Denial Renunciation of the world and Conformity thereunto which are indispensibly necessary in Church-Guides and Church-Members according to their measure unto the attaining and preservation of Gopel-Unity but do satisfie themselves in the disposal of an Ecclesiastical Vnion into a subordination unto their own secular Interests by external force and power we have very small expectation of success in the way proposed In the mean time we are herewith satisfied Take the Churches of Christ in the world that are not infected with Idolatry or Persecution and restore their Vnity unto the Terms and Conditions left unto them by Christ and his Apostles and if in any thing we are found uncompliant therewithal we shall without repining bear the reproach of it and hasten an amendment Another Cause of the evil Effects and Consequents mentioned is the great neglect that hath been in Churches and Church-Rulers in the pursuance of the open direct Ends of the Gospel both as to the Doctrine and Discipline of it This hath been such and so evident in the world that it is altogether in vain for any to deny it or to attempt an Excuse of it And men have no reason to flatter themselves that whilst they live in an open neglect of their own Duty others will always according to their wills or Desires attend with diligence unto what they prescribe unto them If Churches or their Rulers would excuse or justifie their Members in all the evils that may befal them through their Miscarriages and Mal-administrations it might justly be expected that they should go along with them under their conduct whither-ever they should lead them But if it can never be obliterated out of the Minds and Consciences of men that they must every one live by his own Faith and every one give an account of himself unto God and that every one notwithstanding the interposition of the help of Churches and their Rulers is obliged immediately in his own person to take care of his whole Duty towards God it cannot be but that in such cases they will judge for themselves and what is meet for them to do In case therefore that they find the Churches whereunto they do relate under the guilt of the neglect mentioned it is probable that they will provide for themselves and their own safety In this state of things it is morally impossible but that Differences and Divisions will fall out which might all of them have been prevented had there been a due attendance unto the Work Doctrine Order and Discipline of the Gospel in the Churches that were in possession of the Care and Administration of them For it is hard for men to believe that by the Will and Command of Christ they are inevitably shut up under spiritual disadvantages seeing it is certain that he hath ordered all things in the Church for their Edification But the consideration of some particular Instances will render this Cause of our Divisions more evident and manifest The first End of Preaching the Gospel is the Conversion of the Souls of men unto God Acts 26. 17 18. This we suppose will not be questioned nor denied That the work hereof in all Churches ought to be attended and pursued with Zeal Diligence Labour and Care all accompanied with constant and fervent Prayers for success in and by the Ministers and Rulers of them 1 Tim. 5. 17. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. is a Truth also that will not admit of any Controversie among them that believe the Gospel Herein principally do men in Office in the Church exercise and manifest their Zeal for the Glory of God their compassion towards the Souls of men and acquit themselves faithfully in the Trust committed unto them by the great Shepherd of the Sheep Christ Jesus If now in any Assembly or other Societies professing themselves to be Churches of Christ and claiming the Right and Power of Churches towards all persons living within the bounds or limits which they have prescribed unto themselves this work be either totally neglected or carelesly perfunctorily attended unto if those on whom it is immediately incumbent do either suppose themselves free from any Obligation thereunto upon the pretence of other Engagements or do so dispose of themselves in their relation unto many Charges or Employments as that it is impossible they should duly attend unto it or are unable and insufficient for it so that indeed there is not in such Churches a due representation of the Love Care and Kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ towards the Souls of men which he hath ordained the Administrations of his Gospel to testifie it cannot be but that great thoughts of heart and no small disorder of mind will be occasioned in them who understand aright how much the principal end of constituting Churches in this world is neglected among them And although it is their duty for a season patiently to bear with and quietly seek the Reformation of this Evil in the Churches whereunto they do belong yet when they find themselves excluded it may be by the very Constitution of the Church its self it may be by the iniquity of them that prevail therein from the performance of any thing that tends thereunto it will increase their disquietment And whereas men do not joyn themselves nor are by any other ways joyned unto Churches for any Civil or Secular Ends or Purposes but meerly for the promotion of Gods Glory and the Edification of their own Souls in Faith and Gospel-Obedience it is altogether vain for any to endeavour a satisfaction of their Consciences that it is sin to withdraw from such Churches wherein these ends are not pursued nor attainable And yet a confidence hereof is that which hath countenanced sundry Church-Guides into that neglect of Duty which many complain of and groan under at this day The second end of the Dispensation of the Gospel in the Assemblies of the Churches of Christ by the Ministers of them is the Edification of them that are converted unto God and do believe Herein consists that feeding of his Sheep and Lambs that the Lord Christ hath committed unto them And it is mentioned as the principal end for which the Ministry
utterly cease and become disused Hence Members of the same Church began to converse together as men only or at the best Civil Neighbours and if at all as Christians yet not with respect unto that especial relation unto a particular Church wherein their usefulness as Members of the same Organical Body is required Hence some persons looking on these things as intollerable and not only obstructive of their Edification but destructive unto all really useful Church-Communion we ought not to wonder if they have thought meet to provide otherwise for themselves Not that we approve of every departure or withdrawing from the Communion of Churches where things continue under such disorders but only shew what it is that occasioneth many so to do For as there may sometimes be just cause hereof and persons in so doing may mannage what they do according unto Scripture-Rule so we doubt not but that some may rashly and precipitately without due attendance unto all the Duties which in such Undertakings are required of them without that Charity and Forbearance which no Circumstances can absolve them from make themselves guilty of a blameable separation And these are some of those things which we look upon as the General Causes or Occasions of all the Schismes and Divisions that are at this day found among Professors of the Gospel Whether the guilt of them will not much cleave unto them by whom they are kept on foot and maintained is worth your enquiry For so doth it befall our Humane Nature apt to be deceived and imposed on by various Pretences and Prejudices that those are oftentimes highly guilty themselves of those miscarriages whose chiefest satisfaction and glory consists in charging them on others However if these things do not absolutely justifie any in a Secession from the Churches where unto they did relate yet they render the matter so highly questionable and the things themselves are so burdensome unto the minds of many as that Divisions will thereon undoubtedly ensue And when it is so fallen out to design and contrive the reduction of all unto outward Vnity and Concord by forcing them who on such occasions have dissented and withdrawn themselves from the Communion of any Church without endeavouring the removal of these Occasions of their so doing and the Reformation of those abuses which have given cause thereunto is severe if not unjust But when the Lord Jesus Christ in his Care towards his Churches and watchfulness over them shall be pleased to remove these and the like stumbling-Blocks out of the way there will we hope be a full return unto Gospel-Unity and Peace among them that serve and worship him on the Earth In this state of things where-ever it be found it is no wonder if the Weaknesses Ignorance Prejudices and Temptations of men do interpose themselves unto the encrease and heightning of those Divisions whose Springs and Occasions lye elswhere When none of these Provocations were given them yet we know there was enough in Professors themselves to bring forth the bitter fruit of Differences and Schisms even in the dayes of the Apostles How much more may we fear the like fruits and effects from the like Principles and corrupt affections Now the Occasions of drawing them forth are more Temptations unto them greater Directions against them less evident and powerful and all sense of Ecclesiastical Authority through its abuse and male-administration is if not lost and ruined yet much weakned and impaired But from the darkness of the minds of men and their unmortified affections as the best know but in part nor are they perfectly sanctified it is that they are apt to take offence one at another and thereon to judge and censure each other temerariously and which is worst of all every one to make his own understanding and perswasion thereon the Rule of Truth and Worship unto others All such wayes and courses are against us in the matter of Love and Union all tending to make and increase Divisions among us And the Evil that is in them we might here declare but that it falls frequently under the chastisement of other hands Neither indeed can it well meet with too much severity of reproof Only it were desireable that those by whom such reproofs are mannaged would take care not to give advantages of Retortion or self-justification unto them that are reproved by them But this they do unavoydably whilst they seem to make their own Judgments and Practises the sole Rule and measure of what they approve or disallow In what complyes with them there is nothing perverse and in what differs from them there is nothing sincere And on this foundation whilst they reprove censuring rash-judging and reproaching of others with pride self-conceitedness false Opinions irregular practices in Church worship or any other concerns of Religion backbiting easiness in taking up false reports with the like evils as they deserve severely to be rebuked those reproved by them are apt to think that they see the guilt of many of the crimes charged on themselves in them by whom they are reproved So on all hands things gendor unto farther strife whilst every Party being conscious unto their own sincerity according unto the Rule of their present Light which is the only measure they can take of it are ready to impeach the sincerity of them by whom they suppose themselves causlesly traduced and condemned This evil therefore is to be diligently watched against by all that love Unity Truth Holiness or Peace And seeing there are Rules and Precepts given us in the Scripture to this purpose it may not be unmeet to call over some of them One Rule of this nature and import is that we should all of us study to be quiet and to do our own business in things Civil and Sacred Who will harm men who will be offended with them whilst they are no otherwise busied in the world And if any attempt to do them evil what need have they to be troubled thereat Duty and Innocency will give peace to a worthy soul in the midst of all storms and whatever may befall it Now will any one deny or can they but that it is the duty and ought to be the business of every man to seek his own edification and the saving of his soul Deny this unto any man and you put your self in the place of God to him and make him more miserable than a Beast And this which no man can forbid no man can otherwise do than according to that Light and knowledg of the will of God which he hath received If this therefore be so attended to as that we do not thereby break in upon the concerns of others nor disturb them in what is theirs but be carryed on quietly and peaceably with an evidence in what we do that it is meerly our own personal duty that we are in the pursuance of all cause of offence will be taken away For if any will yet be offended
as yet openly to oppose Such are the Causes and such are the Occasions of the Differences and Divisions in and about Religious Concerns that are among us by such means have they been fomented and encreased Heightned they have been by the personal faults and miscarriages of many of all sorts and parties And as the reproof of their sinful failings is in its proper season a necessary duty so no Reformation or Amendment of persons will give a full relief nor free us from the evil of our Divisions until the Principles and ways which occasion them be taken out of the way CHAP. V. Grounds and Reasons of Non-Conformity HAving briefly declared our Sense concerning the general Causes and Occasions of our Differences and that present want of Christian Love which is complained of by many we shall now return to give some more particular account concerning our Inconformity unto and Non-compliance with the Observances and Constitutions of the Church of England It is acknowledged that we do in sundry things dissent from them that we do not that we cannot come up unto a joint Practice with others in them It is also confessed that hereon there doth ensue an appearance of Schisme between them and us according as the common notion of it is received in the world And because in this distance and difference the Dissent unto Compliance is on our parts there is a semblance of a voluntary relinquishment of your Communion And this we know exposeth us in Vulgar Judgments and Apprehensions unto the Charge of Schisme and necessitateth us unto self-defence as though the only matter in question were whether we are guilty of this evil or no. For that advantage have all Churches which have had an opportunity to fix terms of Communion right or wrong just or unequal the Differences which ensue thereon they will try out on no other terms but only whether those that dissent from them are Schismaticks or not Thus they make themselves Actors oft-times in this Cause who ought in the first place to be charged with In●ury and a Trial is made meerly at the hazard of the Reputation of those who are causelesly put upon their Purgation and Defence Yea with many a kind of Possession and Multitude do render Dissenters unquestionably Schismatical so that it is esteemed an unreasonable Confidence in them to deny themselves so to be So deals the Church of Rome with those that are Reformed An open Schisme there is between them and if they cannot sufficiently fix the Guilt of it on the Reformed by confidence and clamours with the advantage of Prepossession yet as if they they were perfectly innocent themselves they will allow of no other Enquiry in this Matter but what consists in calling the Truth and Reputation of the other Party into question It being our present condition to lie under this Charge from many whose Interest it is to have us thought guilty thereof we do deny that there is any culpable secession made by us from the Communion of any that profess the Gospel in these Nations or that the blame of the appearing Schisme that is among us can duly or justly be reflected on us which in the Remainder of our Discourse we shall make to appear What are our Thoughts and Judgments concerning the Church-state and Interest of the Professors of the Gospel in this Nation we have before declared And we hope they are such that in the Judgment of persons sober and impartial we shall be relieved from those clamorous Accusations which are without number or measure by some cast upon us Our Prayers are also continually unto the God of Love and Peace for the taking away of all Divisions and their Causes from among us Nor is the satisfaction which ariseth from our sincerity herein in the least taken off or rent from us by the uncharitable Endeavours of some to rake up pretences to the contrary And should those in whose power it is think meet to imitate the Pastors and Guides of the Churches of old and to follow them in any of the wayes which they used for the Restauration of Vnity and Agreement unto Christians when lost or endangered we should not decline the contribution of any assistance by Counsel or Fraternal Compliance which God should be pleased to supply us withal But whilst some whose advantages render them considerable in these matters seem to entertain no other Thoughts concerning us but what issue in Violence and Oppression the principal duty incumbent on us is quietly to approve our Consciences unto God that in sincerity of heart we desire in all things to please him and to conform our Lives Principles and Practises to his Will so far as he is graciously pleased to make it known unto us And as for men we hope so to discharge the Duty required of us as that none may justly charge us with any Disorders Vnpeaceableness or other evils For we do not apprehend that we are either the cause or culpable occasion of those Inconveniences and Troubles which some have put themselves unto by their endeavours for our disturbance impoverishing and ruine Let none imagine but that we have considered the Evils and evil Consequents of the Schismes and Divisions that are among us and those who do so do it upon the forfeiture of their Charity We know how much the great work of Preaching the Gospel unto the Conversion of the Souls of men is impeded thereby as also what prejudice ariseth thence against the Truth wherein we are all agreed with what Temptations and mutual exasperations to the loss of Love and the occasioning of many sinful Miscarriages in persons of all sorts do hereon ensue But we deny that it is in our power to remove them or take them out of the way nor are we conscious unto our selves of any Sin or Evil in what we do or in what we do not do by our not doing of it in the Worship of God It is Duty alone unto Jesus Christ whereunto in these things we attend and wherein we ought so to do And where Matters of this nature are so circumstanced as that Duty will contribute nothing towards Unity we are at a loss for any progress towards it The Sum of what is objected unto us as hath been observed is our Non-Conformity or our forbearance of actual personal Communion with the present Church-Constitutions in the Modes Rites and Ceremonies of its Worship Hence the Schisme complained of doth ensue Unless this Communion be total constant without endeavour of any Alteration or Reformation we cannot in the judgment of some be freed from the guilt hereof This we deny and are perswaded that it is to be charged elsewhere For First All the Conditions of absolute and compleat Communion with the Church of England which are proposed unto us and indispensibly required of us especially as we are Ministers are Vnscriptural such as the Word of God doth neither warrant mention nor intimate especially not under any such consideration
cannot be but that Divisions and Schisms will ensue thereon so it will not be difficult for an indifferent by-stander to judge on whether side the occasion and guilt of them doth remain Secondly We have the Practise of the Apostles in the pursuance of the Direction and Command of their Lord and ours for our Guide in this Case And it may be well and safely thought that this should give a certain Rule unto the proceedings and actings of all Church-Guides in future Ages Now they did never make any thing unscriptural or what they had not received by divine Revelation to be a condition of Communion in Religious Worship Church Order among Christians For as they testified of themselves that they would co●tinually give themselves unto prayer and the Ministry of the word so it was of old observed concerning them that their constant labour was for the good of the souls of men in their conversion unto God and edification in faith and holiness but as for the Institution of Festivals or Fasts of Rites or Ceremonies to be observed in the Worship of the Churches they intermedled with no such things And thence it came to pass that in the first entrance and admission of Observances about such things there was a great and endless variety in them both as to the things themselves observed and as to the manner of their observation And this was gradually increased unto such an height and excess as that the burden of them became intolerable unto Christendome Nor indeed could any better success be expected in a relinquishment and departure from the Pattern of Church Order given us in their example and practise Neither is the Plea from hence built meerly on this consideration that no man alive either from their Writings or the approved Records of those Times can manifest that they ever prescribed unto the Churches or imposed on them the observance of any uninstituted Rit● to be observed as a measure and Rule of their Communion but also it so fell out in the good providence of God that the Case under debate was proposed unto them and joyntly determined by them For being called unto advice and counsel in the case of the difference that was between the Jewish and Gentile Converts and Professors wherein the former laboured to impose on the latter the observation of Moses Institutions as the condition of their joynt Communion as was mentioned even now they not only determine against any such Imposition but also expresly declare that nothing but necessary things that is such as are so from other Reasons antecedently unto their Prescriptions and Appointments ought to be required of any Christians in the Communion or Worship of the Church And as they neither did nor would on that great occasion in that Solemn Assembly appoynt any one thing to be observed by the Disciples and Churches which the Lord Christ had not commanded so in their Direction given unto the Gentile Believers for a temporary abstinence from the use of their Liberty in one or two Instances whereunto it did extend they plainly intimate that it was the avoydance of a present Scandal which might have greatly retarded the progress of the Gospel that was the reason of that Direction And in such Cases it is granted that we may in many things for a season forgo the use of our Liberty This was their way and Practise this the Example which they left unto all that should follow them in the Rule and Guidance of the Church Whence it is come to pass in After-Ages that men should think themselves wiser than they or more careful to provide for the peace and unity of the Church we know not But let the bounds and measures of Church Communion fixed in and by their Example stand unmoved and many causes of our present Divisions will be taken away But it may be it will be offered that the Present state of things in the World requires some alteration in or variation from the precise Example of the Apostles in this matter The due observation of the Institutions of Christ in such manner as the nature of of them required was then sufficient unto the Peace and Unity of the Churches But Primitive Simplicity is now decayed amongst the most so that a multiplication of Rules and Observances is needful for the same ends But we have shewed before that the Accommodation of Church Rule and Communion to the Degeneracy of Christians or Churches or their Secular Engagements is no way advantagious unto Religion Let them whose Duty it is endeavour to reduce Professors and Profession to the Primitive Standard of Light Humility and Holiness and they may be ordered in all Church concerns according to the Apostolical Pattern Wherefore when Christians unto the former Plea of their readiness to observe and do whatsoever Christ hath commanded them do also adde their willingness to comply with whatever the Apostles of Christ have either by Precept or Example in their own practise commended unto them or did do or require in the first Churches and cannot be convinced of failing to make good their Profession we do not know whence any can derive a Warranty enabling them to impose any other conditions of communion on them The Institution therefore of the Lord Christ and the Practise of the Apostles lye directly against the imposing of the conditions enquired about And first to invent them then to impose them making them necessary to be observed and then to judg and censure them as Schismaticks as enemies to Love and Peace who do not submit unto them looks not unlike the exercise of an unwarrantable Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of the Disciples of Christ. Thirdly not only by their Example and Practice but they have also Doctrinally declared what is the Duty of Churches and what is the Liberty of Christians in this matter The Apostle Paul discourseth at large hereon Rom. 14. 15. Chap. The attentive Reading of those two Chapters is sufficient to determine this Cause among all uninterested and unprejudiced Persons He supposeth in them and it is the Case which he exemplifies in sundry Instances that there were among Christians and Churches at that time different Apprehensions and Observances about some things appertaining unto the worship of God And these things were such as had some seeming Countenance of a Sacred and Divine Authority for such was their Original Institution Some in the consideration hereof judged that they were still to be observed and their Consciences had been long exercised in an holy subjection unto the Authority of God in the Observance of them Nor was there yet any express and Positive Law erected for their Abrogation but the ceasing of any Obligation unto their Observance from their Primitive Institution was to be gathered from the nature of Gods Oeconomy towards his Church Many therefore continued to observe them esteeming it their Duty so to do Others were perswaded and satisfied that they were freed from any Obligation
unto May any make a Judgment but themselves who impose them when the number of such things grows to a blameable excess If others may judge at least for themselves their own practice and so of what is lawful or not it is all that is desired If themselves are the the only Judges the case seems very hard and our secession from the Church of Rome scarcely warrantable And who sees not what endless Contests and Differences will ensue on these Suppositions if the whole Liberty of mens Judgments and all apprehensions of Duty in Professors be not swallowed up in the Gulph of Atheistical Indifferency as to all the Concerns of outward worship The whole of what hath been pleaded on this Head might be confirmed with the testimony of many of the Learned writers of the Church of England in the defence of our Secession from that of Rome But we shall not here produce them in particular The sum of what is pleaded by them is That the Being of the Catholick Church lies in Essentials that for a particular Church to disagree from all other particular Churches in some extrinsecal and accidental things is not to separate from the Catholick Church so as to cease to be a Church but still whatever Church makes such extrinsecal things the necessary conditions of Communion so as to cast men out of the Church who yield not to them is Schismatical in its so doing and the Separation from it is so far from being Schisme that being cast out of that Church on those terms only returns them unto the Communion of the Catholick Church And nothing can be more unreasonable than that the Society imposing such conditions of communion should be Judge whether those conditions be just and equitable or no. To this purpose do they generally plead our common Cause Wherefore from what hath been discoursed we doubt not but to affirm that where unscriptural conditions of communion indispensibly to be submitted unto and observed are by any Church imposed on those whom they expect or require to joyn in their Fellowship Communion and Order if they on whom they are so imposed do thereon with-hold or withdraw themselves from the communion of that Church especially in the Acts Duties and Parts of Worship wherein a submission unto these conditions is exdressed either verbally or virtually they are not thereon to be esteemed guilty of Schisme but the whole fault of the Divisions which ensue thereon is to be charged on them who insist on the necessity of their Imposition That this is the condition of things with us at present especially such as are Ministers of the Gospel with reference unto the Church of England as it is known in its self so it may be evidenced unto all by an enumeration of the Particulars that are required of us if we will be comprehended in the Communion and Fellowship thereof For 1. It is indispensibly enjoyned that we give a solemn Attestation unto the Liturgy and all contained in it by the subscription or declaration of our Assent and Consent thereunto which must be accompanied with the constant use of it in the whole Worship of God As was before observed we dispute not now about the Lawfulness of the use of Liturgies in the publick Service of the Church nor of that in particular which is established among us by the Laws of the Land Were it only proposed or recommended unto Ministers for the use of it in whole or in part according as it should be found needful unto the edification of their people there would be a great Alteration in the case under consideration And if it be pretended that such a Liberty would produce great diversity yea and confusion in the Worship of God we can only say that it did not so of old when the Pastors of Churches were left wholly to the exercise of their own Gifts and Abilities in all Sacred Administrations But it is the making of an Assent and Consent unto it with the constant use of it or attendance unto it a necessary condition of all Communion with the Church which at present is called into question It will not we suppose be denied but that it is so made unto us all both Ministers and People and that by such Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical as are sufficiently severe in their Penalties For we have Rules and Measures of Church-communion assigned unto us by Laws meerly Civil Were there any colour or pretence of denying this to be so we should proceed no farther in this Instance but things are evidently and openly with us as here laid down Now this condition of communion is unscriptural and the making of it to be such a condition is without warranty or countenance from the word of God or the practice of the Apostolical and Primitive Churches That there are no footsteps of any Liturgy or prescribed Forms for the administration of all Church-Ordinances to be imposed on the the Disciples of Christ in their Assemblies to be found in the Scripture no intimation of any such thing no direction about it no command for it will we suppose be acknowledged Commanded indeed we are to make Prayers and supplications for all sorts of men in our Assemblies to instruct lead guide and feed the Flock of Christ to administer the holy Ordinances instituted by him and to do all these things decently and in order The Apostles also describing the work of the Ministry in their own attendance unto it affirm that they would give themselves continually unto Prayer and the Ministry of the Word But that all these things should be done the Preaching of the word only excepted in and by the use or reading of a Liturgy and the prescribed Forms of it without variation or receding from the Words and Syllables of it in any thing that the Scripture is utterly silent of If any one be otherwise minded it is incumbent on him to produce Instances unto his purpose But withall he must remember that in this case it is required not only to produce a warranty from the Scripture for the use of such Forms or Liturgies but also that Rules are given therein enabling Churches to make the constant attendance unto them to be a necessary condition of their communion If this be not done nothing is offered unto the Case as at present stated And whatever confidence may be made use of herein we know that nothing unto this purpose can be thence produced It is pleaded indeed that our Saviour himself composed a Form of Prayer and prescribed it unto his Disciples But it is not proved that he enjoyned them the constant use of it in their Assemblies nor that they did so use it nor that the repetition of it should be a condition of communion in them though the owning of it as by him proposed and for the Ends by him designed may justly be made so least of all is it or can it be proved that any Rule or just encouragement