Convocations govern but as their Representatives 2. All that say that it is only the Bishops and not the Presbyters in Convocation that are the Governing Canon-making Church 3. All that say that the Clergy represent not King Nobles Parliaments Laiety and that these are true parts of the Church of England All these are ipso facto excommunicate 45. The 140. Canon Excommunicateth them that deny the Canons obligation of absent Dissenters which yet even many Papists deny of Councils Canons 46. The last Canon Excommunicateth all that contemn these Canons as taking them to be the work of a Company of Persons that conspired against Religious Godly men All this huge Catalogue are here excommunicate 47. If any part of all this be Schism Mr. Dodwell and this man seem to teach Separation from the Church of England Or if the late silencing hunting and ruining of two thousand Ministers were Schism and as bad as Bishop Taylor in Duct Dubit Mr. Hales of Eaton Chillingworth c. say of the like then these men make all the Church of England to be in as damnable a State as Adulterers and Murderers Yea they make all damnable Schismaticks that hold Communion with the Church of England for that is their Sentence on them that communicate with Schismaticks viz. that they are guilty of their Schism 48. They unchurch and damn the Churches of Corinth Galatia Laodicea Ephesus Smyrna c. in the Apostles dayes For the Scripture tells us of many guilty of Schism in all these and yet the rest communicated with them for the Scripture speaks more of Schism in a Church than of Schism or Separation from a Church Rom. 16.17 1 Cor. 1.10 3.3 11.18 Mat. 12 25. Luke 12. 52 53. 1 Cor. 12.25 Iam. 3.15 16. And yet no one was commanded to separate from those Churches no not from those that had Heresies among them such as denyed the Resurrection and taught Fornication and eating things offered to Idols that were drunk at the Sacrament or Love-Feasts nor those that had Jewish Schismaticks who talkt like ours Act. 15. Except ye be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses ye cannot be saved The Churches were not all unchurcht and damn'd that communicated with such Yea Peter was guilty of encouraging them in Schism that would not eat with the Christian Gentiles but he was not unchristened by this 49. They separate from or unchurch almost all the Ancient Churches in the dayes of the most famous Emperours and Councils For I have manifested past doubt that they almost all did Hereticate or separate from one another It was Schism either in Victor to Excommunicate the Asian Bishops or in them to deserve it and be excommunicate The owning or disowning several Councils specially that of Calcedon and that at Const. de tribus Capitulis c. was the Schism of almost all the Imperial Churches one part condemning the other And if either were in the Right it salves not the Case with them For most of the same men that went that way call'd the Right in one Princes Reign went contrary in the next and so condemned each other round especially about Images adoration 50. Hereby they cut off that Succession of that sort of Ordination which they say must be uninterrupted while it came down from Churches excommunicated by one another or make the Proof of it impossible 51. They separate from all the Greek Church at this day as guilty of Schism both in their Succession from Schismaticall Bishops at Constant Alexand. Antioch Ierusalem c. and in their excommunicating not only the Church of Rome for a wrong cause the filioque but other Churches and for divers Acts of Schism 52. They must by their Principles Separate from the Abassines Aegyptians Syrians and all the Eastern and Southern Churches that are called Iacobites and Nâ—storians For Councils and other Churches condemn them And they condemn the Councils of Ephesus and Calcedon and all since And they must separate from and condemn the Churches of Armenia Georgia Circassia c. because they separate from others and are separated from 53. Their Principles utterly unchurch the Church of Rome 1. Especially because it is guilty of the greatest Schism on earth by setting up a false Church form and head 2. And because they Schismatically condemn and Unchurch three parts of the Church on earth even all save their Sect 3. And for their many other Schismatical Doctrines and Practices 4. And as being condemned by the Greek Protestants and most Churches and separated from by the Church of England which they own 54. They separate in Principles from all or near all General Councils save the first as having separated from other Councils and condemned them and being again condemned by them 55. Some of them condemn and separate from all the Protestant Churches that have Bishops in Sweden Denmark Germany Transylvania c. because they had not their Ordination Successively from Bishops but Presbyters at the Reformation And because they have been guilty of Schism against others 56. The Principles of Mr. Dodwel and his Associates condemn the Church of England as Schismatical 1. Those that claim Succession from Rome whose own Succession hath been oft and long interrupted by incapacities and Schisms 2. For holding Communion with those Protestant Churches which these men call Schismaticks 57. They condemn and separate from all the Churches called Presbyterian in France Holland Geneva Scotland formerly and those in Helvetia that have no Bishops Thô some would threat kindness on them by saying that they would have them and cannot And why cannot they 58. Their Principles make the Bishop of Oxford Bristol c. Schismaticks For their Dioceses are Churches taken out of Churches being lately parts of other Dioceses 59. And they condemn all the Parish Churches in England as Churches distinct from Cathedrals For they are all Churches gathered out of Churches At first the Cathedrals were the only single Churches Next Monasteries were gathered and next our Parish Churches And the Parish Church of Covent-garden is a Church taken out of a Church 60. Their Principles damn St. Martin that separated to the death from all the Bishops Synods and them that were near him save one Man because they perswaded Maximus to use the Sword against Priscillian Gnosticks and brought men of strict Religion under Suspicion of Priscillianism And sure the ruined persecuted Protestants here are more Orthodox than the Priscillians And they damn Gildas that told the English Clergy that he was not eximius Christianus that would call them Ministers Do they not disgrace the many Churches dedicated to the Memory of St. Martin if he be a damned man I doubt they damn Paul and Barnabas for local angry separating from each other Whatever they do by Peter and Barnabas for the Separation blamed Gal. 2. 61. If all are Schismaticks that here conform not all those called Conformists are such that conform to the words in a false sence 62. They separate from
Jurisdiction by right in this Land And all that by mistake say the King hath not chief Power in all his Dominions meaning in France of which he professeth to be King and we so call him even in our Prayers to God All that say contrary to Art 38. that it is not their Duty liberally to give Alms according to their ability All that contrary to Art 39 think men in conforming may swear upon trust of their Superiours words without judgment and true understanding of Justice and Truth Aâ—l these are already ipso facto Excommunicated by this one Canon and if they elsewhere worship God are called Separatists and Schismaticks in danger of Damnation as Adulterers and Murtherers are And how great a number are these 10. All are ipso facto Excommunicate by the sixth Canon who affirm that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by Law established are superstitious or such as now commanded men who are zealously and godly affected may not with a good Conscience APPROVE use and subscribe as occasion requireth That is all that thus mistake kneeling at the Sacrament on the reasons aforenamed to be against the second Commandment or that judge so of the Surplice or that think the Cross as described by the Canon and Liturgy hath all the Essentials of a humane unlawful Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace And all that are against the Rites of Godfathers that never owned the Child as theirs to be the only Sponsors in its Name and to Vow its Christian Education when I never knew one living that so much as made the Parents believe that he intended it And all that think the words of the Liturgy making Imposition of hands an assuring sign of Gods Gracious acceptance make Confirmation a humane unlawful Sacrament and say so All these are cut off 11. By Canon seventh all are ipso facto excommunicate that affirm that the Government of the Church of England under his Majesty by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons and THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE in the same is repugnant to Gods word that is all Bishops Ministers Noblemen Gentlemen or People that say that it is against Gods word for Lay Civilians or Chancellours to govern by the Church Keyes excommunicate or absolve And all that think it unlawful for Surrogates that are not Bishops but Presbyters either as a Cryer pro forma to pronounce all excommunicate or absolved who are so decreed by the Lay Chancellor or else for them or a Priest-Chancellour to govern a Diocess by the Keyes of Excommunication and Absolution being no Bishops and all that think it sinful for Archdeacons Commissaries Officials c. who are no Bishops to exercise the same Government by the Keyes over so many Pastors or Churches or for a Bishop to do his Office by others that are no Bishops any more than a Priest by those that are no Priests or for a Diocesan with his Lay Court to Govern many score or hundred Churches under him without any subordinate Bishop in those Churches that is to set up the Name and shew and make Christs Discipline impossible Or for Lay Chancellors or Surrogates to publish Excommunications in the Bishops Name which he never knew of nor tryed the cause Or for such Chancellours to oblige all Parish Ministers to publish all their Excommunications which are agreeable to these Canons What quality and number they are of that call any of this sinful I pretend not to know But they are all now excommunicate men 12. The eight Canon ipso facto excommunicateth all that affirm that the form and manner of making and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons hath any thing repugnant to Gods Word c That is all those that hold Bishops and Presbyters to be the same Order contrary to the words of that Book Which yet even the Church of England while Papists declared in King Aelfriks Canons see Spelman And all such as Thorndike who say the People and Clergy should choose their Bishops or that say the Peoples consent is necessary to the Pastoral Relation to them and that the old Canons for this are in force 13. The ninth Canon ipso facto excommunicateth the Separatists 14. The tenth Canon excommunicateth all that affirm that Ministers that refuse to subscribe to the Liturgy c. and their Adherents may truely take to themselves the Name of another Church not established by Law and dare publish that this their pretended Church hath long groaned under the burden of imposed grievances by the Church of England and the Orders and Constitutions therein by Law established Ipso facto is not here This reacheth to all that confine not Gods Church in England to the Party that subscribe and their Adherents If any say that if such as Blondel Rivet Amesius or any other the most Learned holy peaceable men that dare not subscribe as aforesaid should with any Christians worship God together and that these are a true Church though he judge them faulty and that these Canons are grievances such are to be excommunicated Though it be gross Schism in others to confine not onely the Purity but the Verity of a Church to their own Party For such to feel and groan loud here is Excommunication 15. The eleventh Canon much to the same purpose requireth the Excommunication of all that affirm that any Subjects in England may rightly challenge the Name of true and lawful Churches besides those allowed by Law though the King should License them 16. The twelfth Canon ipso facto excommunicateth all that make Rules and Orders in Causes Ecclesiastical without the Kings Authority and submit to them e. g. All that without the Kings authority agree to turn the Table Altar-wise to require People to kneel at the Rails or to bow toward the Alter or East or to set up Organs c. All these are now excommunicate by an Authority above the Bishops which no Bishop or Priest can dispense with but only forbear to publish and execute it but not nullifie it no nor absolve any that publickly repent not of it as a wicked Errour 16. By Canon fourteenth if any Minister shall diminish any part of the Orders Rites Ceremonies Prayers c. in regard of Preaching or ANY OTHER RESPECT or shall adde any thing in matter or form e. g. If he let the Parent express the dedication of his Child to God or lay any charge on any Parent he breaketh the Church Law and so far separateth from it 17. By Canon fifteenth when twenty or thirty thousand are commanded to come to a Church that cannot receive six thousand and the Alleys and Pewes are wedg'd so that they cannot all kneel yet all that kneel not at the Prayers and all that say not audibly the Confession Lords Prayer Creed and Responses disobey the Laws of the Church and so far separate from it 18. When twenty thousand Persons are commanded to come in more than can if ten thousand of them or any number should come to the
and godly Ministers in the Parish-Churches and some have such as I would never own or encourage in the Ministry by seeming to own them Some can remove their Dwelling and some cannot Some had Liberty the last year that cannot have it this year without more hurt than their benefit will compensate In these Cases where God hath not at all tied us to a Book or no Book to this Church or to that he that can truly tell which way he shall do and get most good or hurt may by that better know his Duty than by these Arguments or Mens Censures But verily my chief Reason for Communion in publick is the very same which you bring against it Even the avoiding of hainous Scandal I have told the World 1. That Scandal is not displeasing men but laying before them a temptation to sin 2. That if the Separatists be the best Christians they are farthest out of the danger of Scandal It is the worst that are easiliest tempted to Sin and so whom we should be most fearful to scandalize 3. And it 's a greater Sin to scandalize many than few 4. And worse by scandal to tempt men to the mortal Sins of persecuting or scorning godly men than merely to tempt them to some small mistakes or to grieve them 5. And to scandalize our Rulers is worse than to scandalize Inferiors Caeteris paribus And now I tell you I the rather joyn in Publick 1. Lest I should harden thousands in the Opinion That we take that to be unlawful which is not and that we are for sinful Separation and that we separate from and unchurch almost all Christs Church and that we are Enemies to Order and Peace and Concord and that we are unruly enemies to Government and giddy ignorant self-conceited people 2. And so lest we breed throughout the Land such a contempt of Conscience in Gods service as they have of Quakers and thousands by this should be alienated from the Reverence of serious Religion and Youth should be educated to the like contempt under these temptations 3. And lest if any in Church-matters be guilty of sinful Extreams on the other side in Oaths Professions Ceremonies or Practices we should harden them therein by tempting them to think that we have no worse against their way than the Use of a Liturgy 4. Lest the Conceit that we are but a company of giddy Fanaticks encourage any contentious Preachers to render us odious and rail at us in the Pulpits to their own shame and the widening of our Breaches 5. And lest the same Error should tempt any Bishops or Magistrates to think they do God and their Church and Countrey service in silencing imprisoning reproaching and ruining Gods faithful Servants without cause and bring the Land under Gods wrath by persecution Are these no Scandals or not greater than offending or displeasing the dissenting Separators to say nothing of ocsioning our Reproach in all the Foreign Churches which have a Liturgy If against all this the displeasing your mistaken Flocks should prevail then their weakness and error would constitute them our chief Governours D. O. Argument 9. That Worship which is unsuited to the spiritual relish of the New Creature which is inconsistent with the conduct of the Spirit of God in Prayer is unlawful For the Nature Use and Benefit of Prayer is overthrown hereby in a great measure Now let any one consider what are the Prâ—mises Aids of the Holy Spirit with respect to the Prayers of the Church whether as to the Matter of them or as unto Ability for their performance or as unto the Manner of it and he shall find that they are all rejected and excluded by this Form of Worship as is pretended comprizing the whâ—le Matter limiting the whole Manner and giving all the Abilities of Prayer that are needful or required This hath been proved at large § 25. TO your Ninth Argument I answer 1. O! confine not the New Creature to those of your Opinion Do you think none of the Old Nonconformists or Conformists none of the Reformed Churhes and no Church on Earth for a Thousand years had any of the New Creature When you have affrighted People with telling them it is heinous sin and returning to Babylon and also by long disuse made a Liturgy uncouth to them do not ascribe all their averseness to the New Creature which is from prejudice and disuse For my part when God taught me first to pray I had no averseness to a Form When I heard it charg'd with sin I began to be averse to it When I had studied the case I was cured of that aversness but never reconciled to the forbidding of all other Prayer nor to the faults of any Forms And who knoweth not that Man 's culpable Nature loveth Novelties and are hardly kept in lively Affections under any thing that is very often said A Book or Sermon tho never so good affecteth us not so much after many times reading and hearing as at the first We must not lay this weakness on the New Creature tho it should teach Imposers to suit the Remedy to the Disease and give children such food as is not too displeasing to their Appetites And yet I find not the generality of Appetites even in your Flocks is against the Forms of Psalms being not prejudiced against them It is not true that Liturgies are inconsistent with the conduct of the Spirit in Prayer It is a Mistake also XL. Error That this Form of Worship rejecteth and excludeth the matter of Prayer whenas the Visible Book tells all the contrary Do all those words express none of the Matter of Prayer It is untrue That it rejecteth and excludeth the Manner as to the chief part For the Lord's Prayer is a perfect Form for Matter Order and Method And the Psalms read and sung are for Matter and Manner neither evil nor excluded And sure there is much of the rest laudable If all Matter and Manner be rejected and excluded then the Martyrs that used it and all the Churches on Earth almost have no Church-Prayers But again I tell The use of Forms and the forbidding all other Prayers are Two different things which you ill confound D. O. Argument 10. That which overthrows and dissolves our Church-Covenant as unto the principal end of it is as to us unlawful This end is the professed joynt subjection of our souls and consciences unto the Authority of Christ in the observasion of whatever he commands and nothing else in the Worship of God But by this practice this end of the Church-Covenant is destroyed and thereby the Church-Covenant it self broken For we do and observe that which Christ hath not commanded And while some stand unto the Terms of the Covenant which others relinquish it will fill the Church with confusion and disorder § 26. TO your Tenth Argument I answer 1. What your Church-Covenant is I know not But if it profess subjection to nothing in Worship but what
Christ commandeth XLI Error it is your Church-Error For then you are in Covenant not to obey the Pastor even your self if he set a Psalm a Tune a Translation of Scripture nor if he appoint Time Place and Utensils for Worship For these are in the Worship Then you are covenanted to disobey the Magistrate if he command any of these or command men not to put on their Hats or sit at Prayer or for concord tâ—e all the Land to one Translation of Scripture or any such undetermined Mode 2. It is a greater disgrace to your Churches than ever I knew of before not only to covenant against God's Word Heb. 13.7 17. 1 Thes. 5.12 13. c. and against the Fifth Commandment but also to make this necessary to Concord That your Churches must break if the Members agree not all herein This is a plain demand of Conformity to an Humane unsound imposition No wonder if they are Dividers who set up by Church-Covenants false Terms of Unity D. O. Argument 11. That which contains a virtual renunciation of our Church-state and of the lawfulness of our Ministry and Ordinances therein is not to be admitted or allowed But this also is done in the practice enquired into For it is a professed conjunction with them in Church-Communion and Worship by whom our Church-state and Ordinances are condemned as null And this Iudgment they make of what we do affirming that we are gross Dissemblers if after such a conjunction with them we return any more unto our own Assemblies In this condemnation we do outwardly and visibly joyn § 27. IF your Church-state be essentiated by a Covenant to be subject to nothing else in Worship even the Accidents which God bids men determine by his general Rules of Edification Order Decency Love Peace Church-Custom c. then I commend the generality of Nonconforming Ministers that they set up no such Church-state And they do well to renounce all that you do ill to invent and impose while you talk against Imposition and adding to God's Word such Humane Forms But yet it 's an Error to hold That if any unjustly condemn other Churches XLII Error it is a renunciation of that condemned Church-state to have Communion with them that condemn Who would have thought the Two separating Extreams had so agreed in their Principles This is just the very Core of the evil of the Book of the contrary party which I here answer Alas how few Churches on Earth have not peevishly condemned one another it may be for Easter-day for the choice of a Bishop as the Donatists striving whose Bishop was the right The case of the Novatians Audians Luciferians and even of most in East and West are sad Instances And will such censoriousness unchurch them and forbid us Communion with them This is plain revenge and to curse them that curse us and abuse them that abuse us I lâ—ke Calvin's Spirit better than this who said Tho Luther should call me a Devil I would call him the Excellent Servant of God Too many Lutherans now renounce Communion with the Calvinists who yet renounce not Communion with them D. O. 12. Argument That which deprives us of the principal Plea for the Iustification of our Separation from the Church of England in iâ—s present state ought not justly to be received or admitted But this is certainly done by a Supposition of the lawfulness of this Worship and a practice suitable thereunto as is known to all who are exercised in this Cause Many other heads of Arguments might be added to the same purpose if there were occasion § 28. TO your 12 th Argument I answer 1. That which discovereth the unsoundness of any ones Plea for Separation is to be received There are several Cases in which Separation from the Church of England is sinful As 1. If any separate as the Papists do because they are against sound Doctrine or any good that is in the Church 2. If any renounce Communion with all the Parish Churches under the name of the Church of England 3. If any renounce Communion with the Church of England as it is a Christian Kingdom headed by one Christian Protestant King 4. If they renounce Communion with the Church of England as it is called one from the Association or Concord of its Pastors or Church Governours 5. If any renounce Communion with faulty Bishops or Worship or Discipline simply and absolutely and not only secundum quid and so forsake the good that is in them for the sake of the evil In a word 1. All that Separate for a wrong cause 2. Or further than they Separate from Christ or than Christ would have them separate do sin 2. But they that renounce any corruption as such and the Church no further than secundum quid as it is faulty do well For we must so renounce the faults of all Churches and Christians in the World and our own first But not the Churches and Christians for any tolerable faults so we commit no Sin our selves which they impose as the condition of their Communion Reader I displease my own disposition as well as others in the answering of these Arguments But when I had read them my Conscience would not suffer me to see many thousand good People so misguided who have not skill themselves to discern the Fallacies and by Silence to betray them Let it be noted That it is not all nor the greatest Objections I confess which I here deal with having done it oft elsewhere but these Twelve militate so much against all the Liturgies in the World as well as ours that I durst not pass them by in Silence 1. Some object against the faults which they supposed very great in divers By-offices Baptizing Confirmation the Lords-Supper-Impositions Burial Circumstances and Forms But these are nothing to the common Worship of the Church on the Lords days 2. Some object against the Ministers as Usurpers being chosen by Patrons and not consented to by the Flocks But this is nothing against them that are consented to by Acceptance tho not by Election 3. Some Object the heniousness of the Sins of Ministers Conformity as being deliberate Covenanting to I am loath to name them and so the command from such turn away with such not to eat And the case of Martiall and Basilides in Cyprian and that of Miracle-working Martin which on another occasion I have mentioned But were these Sins never so surely proved as great as alledged 1. Every Minister cannot be proved guilty of the worst part 2. And the Matter of a Sin may be heinous and yet ignorance take off much of the guilt as it did of Paul's Persecution An unlawful War in which thousands were murdered and Countries ruined is Materially one of the greatest Sins in the World And yet wo to abundance of Princes and People if Ignorance excuse it not and if we must renounce Communion with all Countries and Persons that are guilty of it 3. And when
Catholick Church representative must say that the Catholick Church separated from Christ and it self When another Council wrongfully deposed Chrysostome and separated from him and Cyril Alexandr perswaded the continuance of it did the universal Church separate from it self and Christ If a General Council which should be wisest be excusable from damning Schism whenever it misjudgeth and separateth from a rightful Bishop sure every Lay-man and woman that doth the same doth not separate from Christ. If it prove that a General Council deposed Nestorius as unjustly as David Derodon thought or Dioscorus as unjustly as others thought or Flavian as unjustly as the Orthodox think this proveth them Guilty of some Schism but not of separating from the universal Church When Menna of Constantinople and the Pope excommunicated each other when a Synod in Italy renounced Vigilius and all his Successors were an hundred years deposed from their Primacy and a Patriarch at Aquileia set up in his stead for a great part of Italy because Vigilius subscribed to a General Council de tribus Capitulis this was Schism somewhere but not separating from Christ. LXXII 22. If a man in England should think that all the old Councils were obligatory which decree that he shall be taken for no Bishop that comes in by the choice yea or Mediation of Courtiers Princes or great men or any that have not the true Consent of Clergy and People and thereupon should conclude that Bishops Deans Prebends c. so chosen and imposed are Lay-men and no true Bishops and Pastors this were a separating from those Persons but not from Christ and the Vniversal Church when as Mr. Thorndike saith that till the right of Electing Bishops by the Clergy and People be restored we need look no further for the reason of the Contempt of Episcopacy here So if a man think that God never trusted every Ignorant Wicked man that can but get Money and buy an Advowson to choose those Pastors to whose conduct all the People are bound to trust their Souls and the Bishop to admit them for fear of a Quare impedit if they have but a Certificate and can speak Latine This is not damning Separation LXXIII 23. If a Bishop set up a seeming Convert really a Papist e. g. Mr. Hutchinson alias Berry or one of them that lately Confessed themselves Papists the People that find by experience what the man is are not damned Schismaticks for not taking him for their Pastor or for going from him If Godfrey Goodman Bishop of Gloucester was a Papist did he separate from Christ that separated from the Diocesan Church of Gloucester while he was an Essential part Or that did not implicitely trust all the Priests that he ordained LXXIV 24. If in a Cathedral Church one withdraw from their Service because of their difference in singing Ceremonies c. from the Parish Churches thô it be the Bishops Church that he separateth from it is not as a Church nor from any thing essential to it e. g. Miles Smyth Bishop of Gloucester the famous Hebricâ—â—n and chief in our Bibles Translation declared and performed iâ— that he would never come more to his Cathedral because the Dean in Laud time kept up the Altar Qu. Whether he separated from himself or his Church Vbi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia Who were the Separatists They that followed the Bishop or they that separated from him and kept to the Cathedral The same I â—ay of Williams Bishop of Lincoln that wrote against Altars LXXV 25. If faithful Pastors and People are setled in concord and the higher Powers make a Law to depose and eject them without just cause as Multitudes were in many Emperours dayes and Multitudes by the Interim in Germany in Charles the fifths time and Multitudes in the Palatinate by Ludovicus and in too many other Countreys those that leave the Temples and Tythes to the Magistrate but cleave to their old Pastors in forbidden meetings called Conventicles supposing the Pastoral Relation not dissolved as the Ioannites clave to Chrysostom do not thereby separate from the Catholick Church Had the Power been lawful that set up another way when Dr. Gunning kept up his Meetings at Exeter House it had not been a Separation from Christ that he then made LXXVI 26. If the Law command all to take one man for his Pastor and a Parent command his Child or a Husband his Wife to take another and not that and the Child or Wife know not which should be obeyed and whether the choice belong more to the Domestick or the Publick Government it is not a separating from Christ which way ever such an one shall go LXXVII 27. Yea if I should think that self-Interest and self-Government bind me rather to choose a Pastor for my self than to stand to such a choice by Prince Patron or Prelate which I think intolerable as well as against their will I may choose a Wife or a Physician or a Tutor or a Book or my daily food this is not separating from the Universal Church LXXVIII 28. If owning the same Diocesan make them of one Church who differ more than Nonconformists and Conformists do then owning the same Christ Faith Scripture c. maketh them of one Catholick Church who differ less But c. Iesuites Dominicans Iansenists and all the Sects of Papists are taken for one Church because they own the Pope and Councils In England the Diocesan Conformists are taken for one Church thô some of them are as much for a Foreign Jurisdiction as Arch-bishop Laud Arch-bishop Bromhall Bishop Gunnings Chaplain Dr. Saywell Mr. Thorndike Dr. Heylin and many more have manifested in their words and writings And some that subscribe the Articles of General Councils erring in Faith and against Heathens Salvation and against free will and for Justification by Faith only c. do shew that they differ in the Doctrines of Religion unless the sound or syllables be its Religion while one and another take the words in contrary sences Some are for Diocesans being a distinct Order from Presbyters some as Vsher and many such deny it Some hold them to be of Divine Right and some but of humane some think the King must choose them some rather the Clergy and People some hold them Independent others rather subject to the Arch-bishops and Convocation some think all that bear Office in their Church Government are lawful others think Lay-Civilians Government by the Keyes unlawful and so are ipso facto excommunicate by their own Canons some that promise Canonical Obedience to their Ordinary take the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts for their Ordinaries and others only the Bishops some think they are sworn to obey their Ordinaries if they rule according to the Canons and so to pronounce all Excommunicate that the Canon excommunicates if commanded Others think otherwise that they are judges themselves whether the Canons command licita honesta some take the Pope to be Antichrist and the Church of
us that he did not place this Communion in any transient Acts but in a fixed permanent state Ans. But 1. Taking the Bishops for true authorised Pastors and the Church for a true Church are transient acts Believing in Christ and repenting of sin are transient acts quoad objectum tho immanent quoad subjectum effectum Baptism and Profession of Christianity and of love and obedience to others are transient both quoad objectum effectum Coming to Church communicating obeying Bishops and departing from Schismaticks are transient in both respects You see that by Catholick Communion the Doctor meaneth none of all these 2. What meaneth he then a fixed permanent state But 1. Which Predicament can you conjecture that word state is in It 's commonly applied to Relation Quality and Scite and Place These latter I am confident he meaneth not If he mean Quality it is Dispâ—sitiâ—n or Habit sure But those come by Acts and he tells us not what he meaneth nor is it probable that this is it Relation is most likely to be that fixed state which is indeed the true form of a Church and a Church-Member and saith Durandus is meant by Baptism's indelible Character Supposing this his meaning 2. Are not transient acts the fundamentum of this Relation as verily as of Paternity Marriage-Relation c. Is any Man a Church-Member or Christian but by the transient acts of Baptism Profession Covenanting c. And do you define a Relation without the Fundamentum 3. But if Relation be all wherein lieth our damning Schism We profess Catholick Communion then somewhat more than you do For as we profess the same Relation that you do to Jesus Christ so we profess our Relation of Fellow-Members to all his Body even to those that in such Matters depart from each others and if I can understand you to the greatest part of Christ's Church on Earth which you damn as Rebels This is our profest Relation If you can disprove it 〈◊〉 § 9. He adds I conclude it 's sufficient to let you understand what the Ancients meant by Christian-Communion which in a large Notion signifies the Christian Church or Society which is called Communion from Communication which all the Members of it had with each other The plain and obvious sense is All the Churches of the World are but one Church or Society and have the same right and the same obligation on them to communicate with each other for the sake of which Christian Churches are instituted as the members of a particular Church are Ans. 1. Such large Notions may be sufficient to you but they signifie little more than noise to me Here we are told that by Communion he meaneth the Church And so when we read of Communion with the Church it meaneth the Church with the Church and Church-Communion are Two Synonimal words and signifie Church Church And in the Creed the Catholick Church and Communion of Saints is a Tautology 2. But the Church is called Communion from Communication And is Communication no transient act but a fixed state 3. If the plain sense be That all Churches in the World are one Church as parts in the whole who differs from you in that We are all then of one Catholick Communion and shall believe that all true Christians are of one Church till the Excommunicators better disprove it 4. But have all the same right and obligation to communicate with each other 1. All do actually communicate with each other 1. In their Union with and Relation to our Saviour and Head 2. And in having one holy Spirit 3. Being the adopted children of one God 4. Being of that one body formally related to Christ. 5. Believing in the same God and Father Saviour and holy Spirit And 6. Consenting to the same Baptismal Covenant 7. Having the same hope of everlasting life These are the Instances of Christian Union and Communion in Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. And 8. They have also Communion in the same common benefits Pardon and Justification and right to life 9. And besides all this when they may be had they have Communion in the same species of necessary worship the use of the same Gospel and Sacred Scriptures and Creed of the same sort of Eucharistical Sacrament and Prayer and Praise and Thanksgiving in all parts of absolute necessity and holy Assemblies to that end consisting of several Pastors with their Flocks 10. Yea and all true Christians love one another as such and live in sincere tho imperfect obedience to the same holy Laws of Christ. In all this all Christians have Communion 2. And all have right to such measures of Local Communion where they come as they are in a more immediate capacity of 3. And all are obliged to exercise so much Mental and Local Communion as is necessary to edification and to the exercise of Christian love and peace besides what is forementioned But yet 1. All Churches on Earth are separate by distance as to Local Communion 2. No Two Churches or Men on Earth are perfectly united as to Mental Câ—mmunion There are Multitudes of degrees of differences in this 3. There are very many just causes of diversifying Local Communion in the same City Diocess or other Precincts and of diversifying individual Pastoral Relation and single proper Church-Communion Diversity of Languages is a cause that no man can deny The excessive Magnitude of a Church that is the Multitude of Persons is another Suppose that I were first and alone made Pastor of a Church in Mexico or Quinsay and I am not able to do the work of a Pastor for a Thousand Souls I get the help of Three or Four Presbyters and Deacons and we all are utterly unable to do the Pastoral work for Four Thousand may Four Thousand or Forty Thousand more claim of me the performance of the Pastoral Office Am I bound to undertake Tenfold more than I am able to perform Then Men may not only enslave me but damn me at their pleasure and pretend their right to Communion with me If you say I am bound to multiply Presbyters in the same Church to sufficiency I answer 1. What if I can neither have Men nor Maintenance 2. What if I think that when the Multitude is so great that I cannot know them nor they ever speak with me or know one another any more than Men of several Countreys that I ought not to undertake a personal oversight of them but perswade them to associate in Churches capable of such oversight It 's no breach of Charity for one School-Master or Physician to refuse a personal Relation as School-Master to Five Hundred Schools or Physician to all the City or Five Hundred Hospitals tho he have Apothecaries or others under him No Man hath right to more of my labour than I am able to perform If I be a Bishop and bound to hear and try the Causes of all that ought to come under Church Censure in a whole Diocess and am
I durst no longer see Thousands of good Christians misguided into mistakes and like to be ruined for them and hereby hardening their Persecutors rejoycing the Papists who joyn with them in Separation reducing the Protestant Religion into corners and giving it up as publick to we may know whom censuring one another and dividing on these mistakes and fathering all this on God I say I durst not stand by in silence to see all this no more than to see men drowning or the City on fire without endeavouring to save men It is an exceeding great quiet to my Conscience under all the Confusions and Divisions that have befallâ—n us that in 1660 and 1661. I plainly and earnestly foretold the King and Bishops of them and did my best to have prevented them And the Author that I deal with necessitateth me to recite the late fruits of Separation in pulling down all Governments casting out all the Ministers in Wales and were near casting down those of England with Tythes and Universities persecuting and killing godly men and fathering all on God and now flying from the Bishops when they had opened them the door to return He layeth his main Cause on the ill fruits of Liturgies which indeed are rather the fruits of Pride and Malignity and constraineth me to shew the fruits of Separation I dare not bury that in silence which God so dreadfully disowned by their own dissâ—lution without any blood and that when multitudes are running into the old error by mistaking the Iudgment of the Nonconforming Ministers thinking that they took that for unlawful which they did not and condemning all the excellent old Nonconformists and Conformists and almost all the Churches on Earth Let wiser men deal wiselier I use the best wisdom that I have It 's true that abundance of good people fear and distaste Communion in the Liturgy What wonder when such Reasonings as these Twelve Arguments which how gross soever poor people have not the skill to answer perswade them it is false Worship and heinous sin and say others Idolatry They are conquered as the Mexicans were by the Spaniards by the frightful roaring of their Cannons the Militia used Acts 15.1 2. Ye cannot be saved and as the Pope conquered Kings and Kingdoms by threatning to keep them out of Heaven Even as since men tell me that they medicate their Wines with Arsenick and Mercury I am afraid to drink them which before I feared not so are honest souls affrightned from Liturgies and Communion How much in them I dissent from my self I have openly intimated to the World But he that will joyn in no good that is mixt by men with faultiness and evil must separate from all the World and all from him But how will he separate from himself England in her Articles and Ordination professeth to cleave to Scripture-sufficiency as being the Protestant Religion I go to joyn in this profest Religion If the Speaker of any side add any unwarrantable passages by book or without book let him answer for them I own them not Did my presence own all that I hear I would joyn with no man living The Lord fit us for a wiser and more loving World The Twelve Arguments said to be Dr. Owens impartially considered D. O. Posit It is not Lawful for us to go to and joyn in Publick Worship by the Common Prayer because that Worship it self according to the Rule of the Gospel is not Lawful 1. Ans. I Shall use the same Method that he hath used and first give you my Positions and then the supposed Matter of Fact and then consider his Arguments Posit It is not only Lawful but a Duty for those that cannot have better publick Church-worship without more hurt than benefit and are near a competent Parish Minister to go to and joyn in Publick Worship performed according to the Liturgie and in Sacramental Communion And for those that can have better to joyn sometime with such Parish Churches when their forbearance scandalously seemeth to signifie that they take such Communion for unlawful and so would tempt others to the same Accusation and uncharitable Separation The History of the Matter of Fact must be premised for the right deciding of the Case which is as followeth 1. God hath commanded us to Preach Pray Praise him and Administer his Sacraments and Discipline and hath told us what Doctrine we must preach what things we must pray and give thanks for and what Sacraments and Discipline we must Administer But he hath not told us in what Words we must do these nor in what Posture nor in what particular Method nor whether we must use oftest the same words or various nor whether they shall be before prepared or spoken immediately without preparation of words nor whether written or remembred nor whether prepared and composed by our selves or by others with such like 2. God prescribed divers Forms of Prayer Confession and Praise to the Iews in Moses Law and a Prophetical Song which they were all to learn Deut. 32. 3. The Psalms were a chief part of the Iews Liturgie in which there are many Forms of Prayer and Praise some made by David some by Asaph some by others and some in or after the Captivity no one knoweth by whom And those Psalms were not in Metre and sung in Tunes like ours now but loâ—dly said over 4. Iohn taught his Disciples to pray not only as to the Matter but as to the Words and so did Christ his Disciples at their Request who had not then the after-pouring out of the Spirit nay knew not that Christ must die for Sin rise and reign in Heaven c. and he said When ye pay say Our Father c. tho not tying them only to these words yet giving them a Form of Words to be used as they had occasion as well as a perfect Directory for Method 5. Christ himself joyned with the Iews in Synagogues and Temple when they used Forms and so did the Apostles and never blamed them for the use of such Forms 6. Christ prescribed a Form of Words in Baptism and in the Administration of the Lords Supper and used a Hymn in Form 7. There are divers Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving in the New Testament in Luke 1. 2. and the Acts and Pauls Epistles and the Revelations which its Lawful and Laudable to use 8. We are commanded to use Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs which are Forms of Prayer and Praise and was not then in Rhime And it was not every one in the Church that composed these Extempâ—re but some made them for the rest to use And if none Impose them by Office Authority or Perswasion the Churches will never use the same Christians in the primitive ages of the Church were known to the Heathen by their constant use of such Hymns sung to Christ and of Christ. 9. The Churches from Christs time to this had a Creed or Form of sound Words or necessary Articles of Faith
for reading the Psalms Chapters Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue c. But I have come into so few of their Churches that do any more than the common Pulpit work sing a Psalm Pray and Preach there that I have in that respect preferred the Churches that do all that and add all the Liturgy besides more than you use D. O. Argument 6. That which hath been and is obstructive of the edification of the Church if it be in Religious Worship it is false Worship For the end of all true publick Worship is edification But such hath been and is this Liturgical Worship For § 21. YOur Sixth Argument is but a Former repeated To the Major I grant it All that is bad is so far false To the Minor 1. And such is all your Errors and all the Disorder ill Reflections slovenly Expressions which any weak Minister useth and the faults that all men have in some degree D. O. 1. It puts an utter stop to the progress of Reformation in this Nation fixing bounds unto it that it could never pass 2. It hath kept multitudes in ignorance c. 3. It hath countenanced and encouraged many in reviling and reproaching the holy Spirit and his Work 4. It hath set up and warranted an ungifted Ministry 5. It hath made great desolations in the Church 1. In the silencing of painful Ministers 2. In the ruin of Families innumerable 3. In the destruction of souls It is not lawful to be participant in these things yea the glory of our profession lies in our testimony against them § 22. TO your Reasons 1. It 's not the use of a Liturgy that hinders Reformation but the abuse of it and forbidding other ways of duty 2. The same I say of keeping men in ignorance Use all other means and the Liturgy with it and it will keep none in ignorance Some Helvetia Ministers who endeavoured to have practised my Reformed Pastor in personal conference told me That there the common people go customarily almost every day in the week to a Sermon without Ceremonies or Liturgies usually with a Bible in their hands and continue as ignorant as those here that have no preaching 3. I think it was not the esteem of a Liturgy that made Quakers and Separatists here revile and scorn the best Ministry I think in all the World 4. Nor was it the Liturgy that set up and warranted such ill-gifted Teachers as Mr. Erbury Dell Den Paul Hobson Chillington Lilhurne Prince Wallwin William Sedgwick no nor Mr. Saltmarsh who wrote for comfort That Christ hath repented and believed for us and we should no more question our Faith and Repentance than we would question Christ. I pass by multitudes of Army-Preaching-Soldiers such as those in Major Bethel's Troop in the same Regiment that I was with against whom one day in Amersham-Church I was put to dispute from morning till near night to save multitudes whom they drew every week to hear them from their absurd Errors and at last they turned Levellers and Cromwell was put to hunt them to death The like I was put to with Brown an Army-Chaplain and an Arrian that maintained That Christ was not God in a Church at Worcester And this life I had with them long Was all this caused by a Liturgy 5. The desolations made in the Church malignant men would make with or without a Liturgy What may not be abused The Authors must answer for it Such as aforesaid Iewel Grindal Usher c. Preston Sibs Bolton and a Thousand such made no such havock It is not lawful to partake in persecution but we must partake in much good which bad men will abuse to persecution An excellent forreign Church hath decreed to reject all Ministers that are not 1. For the Antiquity of the Hebrew Points 2. Against Universal Redemption Our Learned Author here was for both these tho men abused them to persecution D. O. Argument 7. That practice whereby we condemn the suffering Saints of the present Age rendering them false Witnesses of God and the only blamable cause of their own sufferings is not to be approved But such is this practice And where this is done on a pretence of liberty without any plea of necessary duty on our part it is utterly unlawful § 23. TO your Seventh Argument The Major meaneth either Saints that suffer for well-doing or for ill-doing If the Anabaptists should be suffering-Saints I would be none of those that they suffer by But yet I would not be for Anabaptistry for fear of condemning them as the cause of their own suffering By that Rule I must own every error or sin that any Saint suffereth for 2. The Truth bids me say more than I am willing to confute this Error I have heard Army-Officers say That they believed abundance of the Ten Thousand Scots killed at Dunbar were godly men And yet you were one that publickly in Pulpit and Print accused them and did not justifie their cause for being Saints Do you think none of the Ministers in England were Saints that refused the Engagement and were sequestred for that and not keeping Fasts and Thanksgivings for Blood Are you sure that Christopher Love beheaded was no Saint Or did you therefore own their Causes To your Minor It is a gross Mistake to say That going to the Liturgy maketh the Refusers the only blamable cause of their own sufferings What! XXXVIII Error are you one that acquit all their Prosecutors if it be but proved that the Refusers are mistaken Who could have suspected this What if Presbyterians Anabaptists and such others err as you believe they do If any would therefore silence imprison banish or hang them dare you justifie it and say That the Dissenters are the only blamable cause of their own sufferings Sure you consider not what you wrote You thought not so 2. But are there no Saints that go to Common-Prayer Why do not you distinguish Saints I hope there are many times more Saints and wiser that separate not than that do And are not you as faulty for saying They sin as they for saying You sin if their cause be true This soundeth as too much of a Sect. 3. The Truth is Repentance is so hard a work that I see both Extreams fly from it on a proud pretence of Constancy and that they may not confess that they have erred It was the grand Argument that bore down me and others when we pleaded with some Bishops to have prevented our Divisions by some alterations Oh then it will be thought that we erred and gave cause for old complaints And now we must none of us hold Communion with the Parish-Churches lest some Saints that separate should be rendered False Witnesses of God and blamable But were not the old Nonconformists and Conformists as real Saints as the old Separatists and a Thousand for One And do not you now make them all as False Witnesses If really you have fathered any Love-killing dividing Error on God