whose capacity will scarce serve him to utter five words in sensible manner blusheth not in any doubt concerning matter of Scripture to think his own bare Yea as good as the Nay of all the Wise Grave and Learned Judgments that are in the whole World which insolency must be represt or it will be the very bane of Christian Religion And therefore he concludes The certain commands of the Church must be obeyed in all things not certainly unlawful And page 144. That which the Church by her Authority shall probably think and define to be true and good must in congruity of reason over-rule all other inferior judgments whatsoever And as to Orders established by the Church sith equity and season favour that which is in being till orderly judgment of Decision be given against it it is but Justice to Exact of you and perversness in you it would be to deny thereunto your willing obedience Not that I judge it a thing allowable for Men to observe those Laws which in their hearts they are stedfastly perswaded to be against the Laws of God but your perswasion in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend and in otherwise doing ye offend against GOD by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause Be it that there are some Reasons inducing you to think hardly of our Laws are those Reasons demonstrative are they necessary or but meer probabilities only An argument necessary and demonstrative is such as being proposed unto any Man and understood the mind cannot choose but inwardly assent But if the skilfullest among you can shew that all the Books ye have hitherto written be able to afford any one Argument of this nature let the instance be given As for probabilities what thing was there ever set down so agreeable with sound reason but some probable shew against it might be made Is it meet that when publickly things are received and have taken place general obedience thereunto shall cease to be exacted in case this or that private person led with some probable conceit should make open protestation Peter or John disallow them and pronounce them naught So that of peace and quietness there is not any way possible unless the probable voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over rule all private of like nature in the same Body Which thing effectually proveth that GOD being Author of Peace and not of confusion in the Church must needs be Author of those Mens peaceable resolutions who concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of Decreeth till they see Necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary And p. 144 145. Mr. Hooker saith That which the Church by her Authority shall probably think and define to be true and good must in congruity of reason over-rule all other inferior judgments whatsoever And where our duty is Submission weak oppositions betoken Pride Now as the Name of Mr. Hales prevailed with Mr. Chillingworth to imbrace some unsound Opinions of his so hath it done with others of great note The Author of the Irenicum p. 108. repeats the first and part of the second Page of this Tract with this Commendation It is well observed by a Learned and Judicious Divine That Heresie and Schism c. And p. 120. I shall subjoyn the judgment of as Learned and Judicious a Divine as most our Nation hath bred in his Excellent though little Tract of Schism And then he repeats p. 210. In those Schisms c. to p. 212. And in p. 120 and 121. of the Irenicum he quotes Mr. Hales from p. 215. And were Liturgies c. to p. 218. and adds So far that Excellent Person whose words I have taken the pains to transcribe because of the great wisdome judgment and moderation contained in them and the seasonableness of his Counsel and Advice to the present posture of Affairs among us And p. 394. Thus that incomparable Man Mr. Hales in his often quoted Tract of Schism p. 223. to p. 225. adding Thus that grave and wise Person whose words savour of a more than ordinary tincture of a true spirit of Christianity that scorns to make Religion a footstool to pride and ambition The Author of the Rehearsal Transpros'd speaks marvellously of Him I shall conclude says he with a Villanous Pamphlet of which a great Wit was the Author and whereas Mr. Bayes is alwayes defying the Non-conformists with Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity and the Friendly Debate I am of Opinion though I have a great reverence for Mr. Hooker that this little Book of not full Eight Leaves hath shut that Ecclesiastical Polity and Mr. Beyes too our of Doors It is one Mr. Hales of Eaton a most Learned Divine and one of the Church of England and most remarkable for his sufferings in the late times and for his Christian patience under them And I reckon it not one of the least ignominies of that Age that so eminent a Person should have been by the iniquity of the times reduced to those necessities under which he lived As I account it no small honour to have grown up into some part of his acquaintance and conversed a while with the living Remains of one of the clearest Heads and best prepared Breasts in Christendom I hope it will not be tedious though I write some few and yet whatsoever I omit I shall have left behind more material passages And then he fills up near Eight Pages of his Book out of Mr. Hales his Eight Leaves It was not amiss in the Scribes and Pharisees to build the Tombes of the Prophets and garnish their Sepulchres but to persecute their Successors and Christ himself under pretence of honouring the Ancients was an impiety full fraught with malice and envy And a usual thing it is for such as intend to trample on such Worthies as are present and stand in their way to express great respect to those that are removed out of it Sed nisi quae terris semota suisque Temporibus defuncta videt fastidit odit Yet by that Author's leave I have quoted much less out of the Reverend Mr. Hooker in this Parergon yet enough to confute all that he or Mr. Hales have said in Defence of Schism There is another late Pamphlet called Separation no Schism which in p. 40. telleth us That a meer suspicion of sin is a sufficient ground for withdrawing Communion in the judgment of very learned Men and then quotes Mr. Hales So says that Universally admired Man p. 210. and p. 216 217 218. and infers These Testimonies are so clear and backt with such Unanswerable Reasons that not only where the Commission of Sin but the doing any thing that is suspected to be sinful is required as a condition of Communion there a withdrawing is lawful and not at all Schismatical Now when Men of so much Learning and Judgment as some of those whom I have mentioned have upon the reputation
of the Venerable Mr. Hales improved such Notions and Arguments as are destructive to the Government and Peace of the Church of England it is not strange that Men of little Learning and great Prejudices should assume them whereby as far as they are able to justifie their Schismatical practices nor that the Scepticke of this Age should be fond of such Notions as may tend to the Subversion of what hath been so long and so well established among us We may rather wonder how so Villanous a Pamphlet as the Rehersal calls it yet so obnoxious to just exceptions should have continued so long in Vogue without a Confutation from some more Learned Hand that the Infection of it might proceed no farther but its weakness be made manifest to all Men. As for Doctor Parker he hath no less judiciously and successfully acquitted Himself against any thing objected by Master Hales or Marvel than Master Hooker To instance in that one particular of pretending Scruples of Conscience against the Commands of Publick Authority he faith more in One Page than all the Objectors will be able to Answer Though this pretence saith he might be allowed of in the Dayes of Queen Elizabeth when it was first started yet after so long time and so much enquiry it is intolerable For if after all their search and examination they have not been able to descry the evils they suspected this is a sufficient Principle of Presumption that their Jealousies are ungrounded so that if they are now able to object any certain crime against them then this Plea of a Doubtful Conscience ceaseth and the Certainty is to be pleaded in stead of the Doubt if not an Hundred and Fifty Years is a sufficient time to satisfie or to cancel scruples And a scrupulous Conscience is of a modest yielding and plyable temper as arising from a diffidence and distrust of it self And Doubts and Scruples are rarely imployed but upon trifling and inconsiderable matters the material parts of Duty being too plain and easie to be liable to so much uncertainty And therefore obedience to Authority being one of the greatest and most indispensable Duties of Mankind in that it is so absolutely necessary to their well being and injoyned upon them by the most Positive Precepts and severest Penalties of the Gospel Nor is it fit that in Doubtful cases of a Publick concern Men should talk too peremptorily of their private Perswasions because they are incompetent Judges of the Publick good and therefore are to be determined and over-ruled by the Judgment of those to whose care the management of Publick Affairs is intrusted unless in case of certain and unquestionable Disobedience to the Law of GOD For we are no otherway free from the Supreme Authority on Earth but as we are subject to a Superior in Heaven AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. HALES's TREATISE of SCHISM Q. WHat is the benefit of Communion Answ Communion is the strength and ground of all society Sacred and Civil whoever therefore causeth a breach if in civil occasions is guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if in Ecclesiastical differences is guilty of Schism so that Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a Lay-schisme p. 193. Q. What is the definition of Schism Answ Schisme is an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once Members Q. When is Separation necessary Answ Separation is then necessary when nothing will save us from the guilt of Conscience but open separation p. 195. Q. When is Schisme complete Answ These two things make Schism complete First The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2ly The erecting a new Church and Oratory for the dividing Party to meet in publickly As in the late famous controversie in Holland de Praedestinatione as long as the disagreeing Parties went no further than disputes the Schisme was unhatched but as soon as one Party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating Party to meet in what before was a Controversie became a formal Schisme p. 197. Q. What is the danger of Schism Answ What the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schisme in general is most true and they spake most strange things of it for they saw that unadvisedly and upon fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially among Christians upon whom the tye of love and communion doth especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves a Man from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience And p. 192. Heresie and Schisme are things of great moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and both are deadly Q. Was the Schisme of the Donatists any way excusable Answ No they were compleat Schismaticks upon the grounds before mentioned nor was there any necessary cause for their Separation for the occasion of the Schisme was an Opinion that where good and bad were mixed there could be no Church by reason of pollution evaporating as it were from sinners which blasted the righteous and made all unclean whereas in his Congregations he pretended that wicked persons found no shelter p. 206. Q. How was this Schisme of the Donatists refuted Answ By this one maxime of Saint Augustine which was irrefragably asserted Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam That the unity of the Catholick Church is not to be forsaken for the sins of some that are within it p. 206. Q. Though in this Schism the Donatist was the Schismatick yet might not any one communicate with them if occasion so required if so be they did not flatter them in their Schisme for why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist if occasion so required since neither Nature nor Religion suggest the contrary why may I not be present at such publick Meetings as pretend Holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook Yea why may I not go to an Arian Church if occasion require so there be no Arianism expressed in the Liturgy Answ 1. You may not communicate with such because of the danger of Schisme before mentioned 2ly Because it is not lawful no not for prayer hearing conference or any other religious office whatsoever for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which may be performed warrantably in publick p. 229 230. Q. But what if they to whose care the execution of the publick service is committed do some things unseemly suspicious or unlawful if their Garments be censured as or indeed be superstitious what if the Gesture of Adoration be used at the Altar what if the Homilist or Preacher deliver any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well
Schismaticks as often as they endeavour to vindicate their authority in lawful things against such as find any Scruples against obedience to their commands Which Mr. Hales shall Answer for me The taste of Liberty is so sweet that except Kings maintain their Authority with as great violence as the people affect their Liberty all things will run to confusion Sermon on John 18. 36. p. 149. THE END Mr. BAXTER's ARGUMENTS FOR Conformity AGAINST SEPARATION BY WHICH The most Material Parts OF Mr. HALES's TRACT of SCHISM ARE CONFVTED Every tender Conscience should be as tender of Church-division and real Schism as of Drunkenness Whoredom or such other enormous Sins James 3. 14 15 16 17. Mr. Baxter 's Reasons for Christian Religion p. 485. S. 34. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby 1678. Imprimatur C. Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domesticis TO THE READER Concerning the Pretence OF Conscience for Separation THE Conscience of Man is a very sacred thing the great King hath made it his Chancellor to determine of such cases as are not plainly determinable by his Law and hath given it a large Empire and Power to absolve or condemn Of this Seneca divinely informs his Lucilius Epist 41. Ita dico mi Lucili sacer intra nos spiritus sedet malorum bonorúmque nostrorum observator custos hic prout à nobis tractatus est nos tractat There is a Sacred spirit residing within us observing and recording all our good and evil actions and as this is dealt with by us so it deals with us If our Consciences be first rightly informed and then duly consulted with and obeyed there is not a safer Guide a better Comforter nor a more impartial Judge for it is magni illius Judicii praejudicium as that acquits or condemns us so have we confidence towards God 1 Jo. 3. 20. It ought therefore to be our great care that our hearts do not reproach us for any wilful transgression of the Laws of God or such as he hath set over us whom he hath required us to obey for Conscience sake And in the next place it is our duty tenderly to commiserate such weak Brethren whose Consciences being really doubtful of the lawfulness of those actions which are required of them dare not obey till they obtain a fiat from them but while they suspend their duties are peaceable and faithful in the Land and humbly and industriously seek for satisfaction from them whom God hath set over them And truly I have not more Charity for many thorow Conformists than for such meek and teachable Dissenters And I doubt not but their Rulers and Spiritual Fathers would deal with them in all gentleness and long-suffering with familiar and easie methods to inform their judgments and reconcile their affections to the knowledge and practice of the truth But alas how small is the number of such among them that pretend conscience not in things doubtful and undetermined but against plain and express commands in the Laws of God and their Superiors and under that pretence seek to be justified in notorious and scandalous impieties Who can without indignation recount the horrible villanies and mischiefs that have been acted in our Generation under this pretence or who can sufficiently deplore the contumacy and opposition of such as pretend Conscience against the means which God hath appointed for their information The case seems to be well represented in the entertainment of the Angels among the Sodomites for Conscience as an Angel of God is with a Commission to save or to destroy And in Genesis 19. we read only of Lot who with great humility and respect met them and bowing his Face to the ground with great importunity pressed them to take their repose with him and he washed their Feet and feasted them and they delivered him from that great overthrow But the Men of Sodom old and young from all quarters offered violence to them and would have prostituted them to their unnatural lusts And do not they declare their sin to be like that of Sodom who stifle the good motions of this Guardian-Angel and make it an instrument and Pander to their carnal lusts incessantly abusing it as the Gibeathites did the Levites Concubine even to Death Judges 19. And if a righteous Lot intercede for it how do they reply as the Sodomites did This fellow is come to sojourn and he will needs be a Judge Now will we deal worse with thee than with them Gen. 19. 9. But the punishment of the one should make the other to tremble and do no more so wickedly lest those Angels of Light leave them in darkness and rain something most like to fire and brimstone even horror and despair into their Souls But beside these wilful persons there is a sort of weak people among us who have so intangled themselves in nets of their own weaving partly through ignorance prejudice and evil education and partly by melancholy and superstitious apprehensions fearing where no fear is and taking their own fancies and shadows for Ghosts and spectres and lastly by the dark suggestions of seducing spirits who despair of making any to be of their perswasion till they have frighted them out of their wits that it is with them as sometime it was with the people of Rome nec ferre vulnera possunt nec remedia they can neither endure their wounds nor suffer the remedies By their long striving against their Prince their Priests and their own Reason they are so wounded and ensnared that though their grievances be almost intolerable yet they dread to disclose them or to use the advice of such Physicians as upon their submission might through God's blessing heal and restore them Every Quack that can administer Opium or stupifie the part affected is more acceptable to them than a Colledge of able Physicians who discerning the cause could with more easie methods and at a cheaper rate cure their distempers For the Nets that entangle most of these are but like the spiders webs strong enough to captivate them out of whose bowels they were spun But a man of reason may dissipate them with the breath of his mouth The Lion in the Fable was once thus intangled and all his strugling did but involve him more yet when he was toyled and lay quiet a very little Animal came and corroding the threads set the Royal Captive at liberty There needs no great art if they would be patient and follow regular prescripts to reduce such men to a sense and enjoyment of their Christian Liberty If they would but follow the best of their own Leaders two of which I have hereafter proposed to them their Arguments and practices might soon undeceive them For in truth it is not Conscience but nice scruples false opinions and prejudice and disaffection to the Lawful Guides and Physicians of their Souls and a fond admiration of some cunning persons that lay in wait to ensnare them and keep them in
that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhering to the Augustane method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things page 483. of his five Disputations § 1. LEST Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just obedience and preserve them from any sinful nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But first I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them and so cannot obey them in faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their offices to command 2. It belongs not to their office to make God a new worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of worship belongeth to their office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general rules 3. We must not take the Lawful commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our sin and one sin will not excuse another sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying men 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary faith so much less can he disobey in faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no word of God against the act of obedience now in question It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful cases it is our duty to use God's means for our information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispense with us if it may not be dispensed with without a greater injury to the Church or cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a humane faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer side 9. Yet must we in great and doubtful cases not take up with the suspected judgment of a single Pastor but apply our selves to the unanimous Pastors of other Churches 10. Christians should not be over-busie in prying into the work of their Governours nor too forward to suspect their determinations But when they know that it is their Rulers work to guide them by determining of due Circumstances of worship they should without causless scruples readily obey till they see just reason to stop them in their obedience They must not go out of their own places to search into the Actions of another Man's office to trouble themselves without any cause § 4. And now I intreat all humble Christians readily to obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all lawful things and to consider to that end of these Reasons following Reas 1. If you will not obey in Lawful things you deny authority or overthrow Government it self which is a great ordinance of God established in the fifth Commandment with promise And as that commandment respecting societies and common good is greater than the following commands as they respect the private good of our neighbours or are but particular means to that Publick good whose foundation is laid in the fifth commandment so accordingly the sin against this fifth commandment must be greater than that against the rest § 5. Reas 2. In disobeying the lawful commands of our Superiors we disobey Christ who ruleth by them as his officers Even as the disobeying a Justice of Peace or Judge is a disobeying of the soveraign Power yea in some cases when their sentence is unjust Some of the ancient Doctors thought that the fifth commandment was the last of the first Table of the Decalogue and that the Honouring of Governors is part of our Honour to God they being mentioned there as his officers with whom he himself is honoured or dishonoured obeyed or disobeyed For it is God's Authority that the Magistrate Parent and Pastor is endued with and empowred by to rule those that are put under them § 6. Reas 3. What confusion will be brought into the Church if Pastors be not obeyed in things lawful For instance If the Pastors appoint the Congregation to Assemble at one hour and the People will scruple the time and say it is unlawful and so will choose some of them one time and some another what disorder will here be and worse if the Pastors appoint a Place of worship and any of the People scruple obeying them and will come to another place what confusion will here be People are many and the Pastors are few and therefore there may be some unity if the People be Ruled by the Pastors but there can be none if the Pastors must be ruled by the People for the People will not agree among themselves and therefore if we obey one part of them we must disobey and displease the rest And their ignorance makes them unfit to rule § 7. Reas 4. Moreover disobedience in matters of Circumstance will exclude and overthrow the substance of the worship it self God commandeth us to pray If one part of the Church will not joyn with a stinted form of
Mr. Hildersham Mr. R. Rogers and such old Non-conformists are in so good esteem among good People where they will read them urging the People not only against Separation but to come to the very beginning of the publick Worship and preferring it before their private duties When I think what holy Learned Men the old Conformists were my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them If I had come to their Churches when they used the Common Prayer and administred the Sacrament could I have departed and said It is not lawful for any Christian here to communicate with you What! to such Men as Mr. Bolton Whateley Fenner Dent Crook Dike Stock Smith Dr. Preston Sibbs Stoughton Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Jewel Grindal Hall Potter Davenant Carleton c. Dr. Field Smith Jo. White Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Fillpot Sanders c. Could I separate from all these on the Reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the Separatists of their times And though ministerial Conformity is now much altered as to ingagements many of the Assembly of Divines that are yet living do conform again nor would I shun communion with the Reverend members of that Assembly Twiss Gataker Whitaker and the rest if again they used the Liturgy among us And if the old Conformists such as Bolton c. were alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then which was worse than now I could not think their communion in Prayer and Sacraments unlawful nor censure that man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them Read over some of the old Non-conformists Books against Separation as Mr. Jacobs the Independent against Johnson and Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Gataker's defence against Cann Mr. Gifford Darrell Paget c. and fullest of all at the beginning of our troubles Mr. John Ball in three Books In these you will find the same objections answered or more and greater And I profess my judgment That our ordinary boasters that think they know more in this controversie than the old Non-conformists did as far as I am able to discern are as far below them almost as they are below either Chamier Sadeel Whitaker or such other in dealing with a Papist Objections Answered But what if there be gross and scandalous sinners are members of the Church Answ If you be wanting in your duty to reform it it is your sin but if bare presence made their sin to be ours it would also make all the sins of the Assembly ours But what if they are sins committed in the open Assembly even by the Minister himself in his praying preaching and other administrations Answ 1. A Ministers personal faults may damn himself and must be matter of lamentation to the Church who ought to do their best to reform them or get better by any lawful means But in case they cannot his sin is none of theirs nor doth it make his administration null or ineffectual nor will it allow you to separate from the Worship which he administreth You may not separate from him unless you can prove him or his ministry utterly intolerable by such faults as these 1. An utter insufficiency in knowledge or utterance for the necessary parts of the ministerial work As if he be not able to teach the necessary points of Christian Religion nor to administer the Sacraments and other parts of publick Worship 2. If he set himself to oppose the ends of his Ministry and preach down godliness or any part of it that is necessary to Salvation Or be a Preacher of heresie preaching up any damning error or preaching down any necessary saving truth 3. If he so deprave the publick Worship as to destroy the substance of it as in putting up blasphemy for prayer or praise or commit idolatry or set up new Sacraments or impose any actual sin on the People But there are other ministerial faults which warrant not our Separation as 1. Some tolerable errors of judgment or envy and pettish opposition to others Phil. 1. 15. 2. It is not unlawful to join with a Minister that hath many defects in his ministration or manner of Worship as if he preach with some ignorance disorder unfit expressions or gestures and the like in Prayer and Sacraments 3. It is not unlawful to join with a Minister that hath some material error or untruth in preaching or praying so be it we be not called to approve it and so it be not pernicious and destructive to the ends of his ministry If we run away from all that vent any untruth or mistake in publick or private worship we shall scarce know what Church or Person we may hold communion with For 1. A small sin may no more be done or owned than a greater 2. And then another man's weakness may disoblige me and discharge me from my duty Of Subscription with Assent and consent particularly concerning Infants baptized Q. 152. Is it lawful to subscribe or profess full assent and consent to any religious books beside the Bible seeing all are fallible 3. Answ It is lawful to profess or subscribe our assent and consent to any humane writing which we judge to be true and good according to the measure of its truth and goodness As if Church-confessions that are sound be offered us for our consent we may say or subscribe I hold all the Doctrine in this book to be true and good Q. 35. Is it certain by the Word of God that all Infants baptized and dying before actual sin are undoubtedly saved Answ I think that all the children of true Christians do by baptism receive a publick investiture by God's appointment into a state of remission adoption and right to salvation at present sent though I dare not say I am undoubtedly certain of it But I say as the Synod of Dort Art 1. That believing Parents have no cause to doubt of the salvation of their children that dye in infancy before they commit actual sin that is not to trouble themselves with fears about it For if such Infants were admitted to outward priviledges only then which is my 2d Reason we have no promise or certainty or ground of Faith for the pardon and salvation of any individual Infants in the World and if there be no promise there is no faith of it nor no baptism to seal it and so we make Antipaedobaptism unavoidable Whereas some mis-interpret the words of the old Rubrick of Confirmation in the English Liturgy as if it spake of all that are baptized whether they have right or not the words themselves may serve to rectifie that mistake And that no man shall think any detriment shall come to children by deferring of their confirmation he shall know for truth that it is
licence to preach in his Dominions How Humane Laws bind the Conscience Q. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience Answ p. 37. Taking conscience in a stricter sense as including essentially a relation to God's obligation the full sense of the question is this Whether it be a sin against God to break the laws of man Answ It is a sin against God to break such Laws as Rulers are authorized by God to make First because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers God commandeth us to obey in general and their Law determineth of the particular matter therefore God obligeth us in conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his commission he hath given them a certain beam of authority which is Divine as derived from God therefore they can command us by a power derived from God therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God Man being God's officer first his own Law layeth on us an obligation on derivatively Divine for it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. God's own Law bindeth us to obey Man's Laws Romans 13. And it may be a good reason to perswade obedience to our Ecclesiastical Governours because Preaching is a cheap and easie work in comparison of Church-government Take heed of engaging your selves in a Sect or Faction a narrow Sectarian separating mind will make all the truths of God give place to the opinions of his Party and measure the prosperity of the Gospel by the prosperity of his Party he will not stick to persecute all the rest of the Church of Christ if the interest of his Sect require it Overvalue not any private or singular opinions of your own or others for if once spiritual pride and ignorance of your own weakness make you espouse particular opinions as peculiarly your own you will think your conceits more illuminating and necessary than they are as if Mens sincerity lay in the imbracing of them and their Salvation on the receiving of them and think all that are against your opinion deserve to be cast out as enemies to Reformation and perhaps Twenty Years after experience may bring you to your wits and make you see the falshood or smalness of all those points which you made so great a matter of and then what comfort will you have of your persecutions O the deceitfulness of the heart of man Little do the many real Separatists who cry out against Persecution suspect that the same spirit is in them Whence is Persecution but from thinking ill of others and abhorring or not loving them and do not you do so by those whom you causlesly separate from It is one and the same sin in the Persecutor and Divider or Separatist which causeth the one to smite their Brethren and the other to excommunicate them the one to cast them into Prison as Schismaticks and the other to cast them out of the Church as profane the one to account them intolerable in the Land and the other to account them intolerable in the Church the inward thoughts of both are the same that those whom they smite or separate from are bad and unlovely and unfit for better usage But I have observed that Professors of Religion did oppose and deride almost all that worship of God out of pretended conscience which others did out of profaness Saints Rest part 1. c. 7. Sect. 14. It was none of the old cause that the People should have liberty and the Magistrate should have no power in all matters of God's worship faith and conscience And as it is not the old cause so it is not the good cause For first it contradicteth the express revelation of the will of God in the Holy Scripture Moses as a Magistrate had to do in matters of Religion and so had the Kings of Israel and Judah Law and providence are both quite changed if toleration of false worship and other abuses of Religion tend not to the ruine of the Common-wealth If Magistrates must give liberty for all to propagate a false religion then so must Parents and Masters also which would be a crime so horrid in the nature and effects of it as I am loth to name with its proper titles The Magistrates will quickly find that the distractions of the Church will breed and feed such distractions in the Common-wealth as may make them wish they had quenched the fire while it was yet quenchable Our unity is not only our strength but their strength and the fire that begun in the Church may if let alone reach the Court. Pag. 423. of his 5. Disputations he lays down this as the summ of what he had said That Man may determine of modes and circumstances of Worship necessary and commanded in genere but not determined by God in specie Sect. 65. and then infers Sect. 67. If the mischoosing of such circumstances by Church-governors be but an inconvenience and do not destroy the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey 1. For he is the Judge in his own work and not we 2. The thing is not sinful though inconvenient 3. Obedience is commanded to our lawful Governors Sect. 70. And when we do obey in a case of miscommanding it is not a doing evil that good may come of it as some do misconceive but it is only a submitting to that which is ill-commanded but not evil in him that doth submit It is the determiner that is the cause of the inconvenience and not the obeyer Nor is it inconvenient for me to obey though it be worse perhaps to him that commandeth while he sinneth in commanding he may make it my duty to obey p. 461. Sect. 6. The reasons of this are obvious and clear even because it is the office of the Governors to determine of such circumstances It is the Pastor's office to guide and over-see the Flock and when he determineth these he is but in his own way and doth but his own work and therefore he is therein the Judge if the case be controvertible If none shall obey a Magistrate or Pastor in the works of their own office as long as they think he did them not the best way all Governours then would be presently overthrown and obedience denyed We are sure that God hath commanded us to obey them that are ever us in the Lord 1 Thess 5. 12. Hebr. 13. 7. 17 c. And therefore a certain duty may not be forborn on uncertain conjectures or upon every miscarriage of them that we owe it to This would un-church all Churches as they are Political Societies for if Pastors be taken down and the work of Pastors the Church is taken down S. 7. And the things in which the Pastor is now supposed to err are not of themselves unlawful but only by such an accident as being