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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35047	Reformation not separation, or, Mr. Crofton's plea for communion with the church ... in a letter, written July 20, 1661 ... / by the said R.S. to whom it was written ; unto which, is added the copy of another letter, written on the same occasion and subject.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.; P. E., Reverend.; R. S.	1662 (1662)	Wing C7000; ESTC R12168	52,912	78

parish Churches to which I could not but Reply by way of advice not to deny the being of the Church nor renounce union and Communion with it because of the corruptions in it but their zeal brake into rage and railing thou Antichrist wilt thou yet uphold the Beast and Whore of Rome are you Antichrist still with many more invectives and expressions of outrage which provoked me to give them this short farewell Freinds reconcile your selves to your selves am I a sufferer for Christ and yet Antichrist if you come not to visit me come not to vex me to all dissenting friends I cannot but by way of thanks for all their kindnesse intreate them to study the truths of God I have asserted and embrace not their force against me but against both extreames for that love will not last which is founded in present contradiction without consent in positives asserted Love the Truth and me for the Truths sake then shall ye have the comfort of loving indeed and in truth It was my hope and is my prayer that our retrogradation in Reformation would have made such who departed from us to reflect with seriousnesse even unto Repentance the experienced remorce of separating and Church confusion to which Church-gathering hath resolved us but if men harden themselves to uphold their sin and strengthen their party to the utter subversion of this poor Church and paganizing this Nation they must give leave to trust God with their love and kindnesses whilst to my power I resist their lusts and let them know I cannot be a Martyr of Faction I hope I can do all things and suffer all things for the truth and nothing against the truth and must all my days pursue Reformation of Gods Ordinances in Union and Communion with the Church leaving my self principles and practises to the judgment of God knowing it is an easie matter for me to be judged and misjudged by men and yet abide what I am A servant to God his Truth and Church Z.C. Julij 20. 1661 AN APPENDIX To the foregoing LETTER IN A LETTER Written in answer to one signifying to Mr. CROFTON the Offence which was taken at his going to CHURCH And being present at the COMMON-PRAYERS IN THE CHAPPEL IN THE TOWER OF LONDON For Mr. Z. C. Prisoner in the TOWER DEAR BROTHER YOU cannot enough believe how much your renewed publick Communion with we know not whom in the Ordinances which they think cannot but be materially corrupt especially in that place hath grieved and alienated the hearts of the Godly not only Members but Ministers Defend it how we can They censure it not only Impolitick but Impious hardning our Enemies weakning our Friends undoing your good Testimony and giving away the CAUSE it being aeque if not aequaliter as if you should Read and Administer the Form They think there can be no Obligation of Duty or Edification warranting the one which may not also justifie the other The matter of Doctrine and worship of Prayer seems to be not only the objectum ad quem but also per quibus whether things or persons wherein they take it for granted the Common-Prayer is corrupt As when you pray for Arch-Bishops Bishops as Ministers of a superiour Degree and indeed according to the new corrected Form of Ordination of the only Holy Order and Institution wherein they are an Antichristian Order c. Or if only the Circumstance of the Form were exceptionable yet you judge the Nurse may as well be bound in Duty and Necessity to give the Child his bread out of a Chamber pot as she her self or the Child feed themselves out of it Plead then you must necessity for both or neither and they expect you should do th' other too se defendendo or else supersede this for the time to come But if you proceed I perswade my self of that very many Brethren which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the rest you will be alone in this for they can with more patience brook to the present where there be personal corruptions in the Matter than where there are circumstantial material Offences in the Form Yours bound in your Bonds P. E. For the Reverend Mr. P. E. to be communicated to other Christian Friends and the Brethren of the Ministry concerned in his Letter as scandalized at my Communion with the Church in the Order of Service by which I cannot administer Good Brother GRace and peace abound yours no little aggravation of mine affliction I received I thereby understand the grief not only of Brethren in Christianity but in the Ministry because of what you call renewed my Communion with their Church in that Service by which I cannot administer and what is to me more greivous their Censures of my act as impolitick yea impious hardning our enemies weakning our friends undoing my good testimony and giving away the Cause Sir such is my esteem of the affections of the godly that their grief must needs be mine God is my witnesse I desire seek study their joy their grief for my duty can only grieve me in by being groundless whereby they wound themselves by wounding him whom God hath greived and that by most bitter words sharper then Swords or Razors hardning our enemies weakning our friends are easily borne they are events by accident beyond the nature and intent of the Act or the intention of the Agent resulting from the wickednesse of the one and weaknesse of the other to deem this Act Impolitick I take not ill all my acts and writings have been such in their account the Censures of the Committee of discretion are to me so common that they passe on me as things of course branding with folly what could never be convinced of iniquity but impious doth pierce mine intrails to shun sin hath been my study my smart did not piety bar may policy I could sleep in as whole a skin as my more prudent Brethren the fear of God conscience of duty provokes this impious act what a Monster of man hath God made me my course is nothing but contradictions treasonable loyalty schismatical unity impious piety yet this is not all an undoing of my good testimony and giving away the Cause and so an Apostate can any thing cut deeper be more clouding to my sufferings more deprive God of the glory thereof it pierceth my soul to cry Lord judge between me and Brethren my witnesse is on high my Record is above I have charity for Jobs miserable comforters they spake well of God though their arguing reproved not Job for they spake with a mistaken zeal I believe they were Saints against whom Paul appealed it is an easie thing for me to be judged of men my judgment is of the Lord The Lord strengthen my patience under this most provoking temptation that I may with sobriety reason against clamatous censorious Brethren My good Brother where is sobriety charity is zeal for purity a Moses Serpent to devour these Graces of the Spirit Cave

the people who sate under my Ministry will say I now undo the good Testimony I gave and give away the Cause for which I appeared Do I now practice otherwise than I have preached Who hath read the Books for which I suffer and will say I by this Act Give away the Cause and undo my good Testimony Read my Bonds pag. 35. Whatever shall be the establishment in the Church though never so corrupt yet whil'st consistent with Salvation though it may occasion to me Suffering and Suspention of my Ministry by Gods Grace it shall not effect in me Schism from the Church Read my Fetters pag. 49 50. This Reformation cannot justifie the Separation for that the Corruptions established were never made a sufficient ground for Separation sober serious Non-conformists who groaned under the burden of th●se Corruptions and for this Reformation were grieved by and greatly contended against this Separation as that which wanted sufficient ground Read again mine Epistle to Mr. Firmins Lyturgical Considerator in pag. 3. I can keep Communion under that Form of Worship whereby I cannot Administer and I can heartily say Amen to the Matter of those Petitions which are put up in an Order so confused preposterous and indigested that it seemeth to me to be so much below the Gravity of the Church whose mouth I must be the Seriousness of the Office whereby I administer the Sanctity of the Duty I am to perform and the Sacred Nature of the Object to whom they are presented that I dare not stand between God and his people with the same This last is part of my Testimony concerning and against the Lyturgy it self Now Sir What is my good Testimony Wherein is it undone Am I not practising the Cause in the express state in which I stated it It was ever far from mine intentions to be an Advocate much less a Martyr for Non-communion and Separation Non-conformity and Reformation is my Cause hath made my Testimony if I undo or give away this Inculca me tanquam salem insipidum Good Brother read me right and charge me not with Apostacy who drive with all my main my good Testimony against the one as well as the other extream of Reformation You wound your selves and engage Enemies by your Censures to Clamour and call me Apostate But you cannot convince me nor any that know me and my Testimony that I am started one hairs breadth from my Cause this condemned practice is the formal pursuit of my Contest I must therefore see very good grounds before I give back Having answered your Charge of Impolicy and Impiety I must consider your suggested Arguments against mine attendance on Gods Solemn Publick Worship in this place and order And truly Brother these are few and obscure I understand them not You speak of Ordinances which the Brethren think to be materially corrupt I can say no more to this but only to request they will speak out their thoughts and specifie the seeming corrupt matter and then I will judge concerning it And when they come to do this I think they will find Secundae Cogitationes sunt meliores they will find it is the Mode not Matter that is corrupt You say The Matter of Doctrine and Worship of Prayer seemeth not only to be the objectum ad quem I think quod more proper but pro quibus whether things or persons wherein they take it for granted the Common-Prayer is corrupt This I profess I understand not What do you mean by the Matter of Doctrine and Worship of Prayer Are these terms Synonimous Intend you by them Doctrine suggested in and by Prayer Or the Credentials of the Common-Prayer-Book distinct from the Worship of Praye I pray you explain yourself and then know Think so Seemeth so and take for granted may be supposed grounds for your Censures but signifie nothing to my Conviction which must be on certainty if it supersede what I conclude indispensable Duty Indeed your annexed instance maketh me think you mean the Matter of Doctrine suggested by Prayer for you specifie Arch-Bishops and Bishops as a superiour Degree of Ministry and if so you will give me leave to tell you you have antidated your Objection for our Books pray for none but Bishops and Curates or Pastors and Curates so that till the time of change come I may notwithstanding this Exception continue my Communion when the new Book cometh I may consider the weight of this Plea in the mean time I pray you resolve me Will single Errours preached much less suggested in Prayer warrant Non-communion with a true Church Non-attendance on Gospel-Ministry and Gods Solemn Publick Worship What meaneth when bindeth that Rule of our Redeemer Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees I cannot understand by take heed what you he●r hear not them who teach for Doctrines the Traditions of men May not a personal Dissent be entered to a Petition for a mistaken Object and suggesting an Errour as its Basis Or must the whole Prayer for Matter generally good therefore be disowned This will necessitate and was the first cause of S t-forms of Prayer and require that they composed be not only communicated fratr●bus doctioribus but also to every indiv●dual Member of the Church who must join in Prayer and so Sir we fight well to flie upon by flying from a Common-Prayer Book You add The Brethren think mine attendance on it is aequ● if not aqualiter As if I should read or administer by this Form and that there can be no Obligation of Duty or Edification warranting the one which may not also justifie the other To this I say Th●nk so will not convince but of such who thus think I would enquire Is the common state of a Christian different from the special state of a Minister And so the Capacities Duties and Obligations of each different so that the one may be continued while the other doth cease The one may and must be acted when the other is arrested superseded or violently barred if men of power in the Church will discapacitate me for the one doth it ipso facto discharge me from the other Do our discapacitated Common Councel-men cease to be Citizens Or be they not bound to retain their Relation and participate or communicate in the common good of the City under what they judge to be the rude and disordered Government thereof I do not believe the Obligation of my Minist●y to be aeque or aequaliter necessitous and extensive with that of Christianity I must be and act as a Christian when those conditions are required from me which I cannot yield and without which I may not be permitted to act as a Minister and those conditions will not discharge the Duties of the one nor bar the Exercise of them which do bar the other I a Minister stand in a general and special Relation to the Church and am charged with Duties proper and peculiar to each of these I may be sinfully imposed on and restrained

most zealous Reformers did often and openly and with much authority rebuke and resist the disorder of the Churches and corrupt administration of Gods worship yet were so farre from approving or advising separation that they have branded the subjects thereof with these and the like odious epithites they were not of us John 2.19 Jude 19. Heb 10.25 and therefore went out from us these are they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit and taxeth the voluntary non-communicants with a defect forsake not the assembling of your selves as the manner of some is I cannot without trembling consider the circumcised Sects in the Church of Colosse are charged to have left the head Coll 2.19 by leaving the body in which all the joynts are knit together to the nourishment of the whole I cannot but assent to that maxim as most true ex Ecclesia nulla salus the Church is Gods Arke of salvation out of which none but mad men will leap or leave it on pretence of purging it or putting out of it unclean birds and beasts in this case of contest for Reformation and communion with the Church under many and great corruptions I must say as our Saviour of the lesser and more weighty matters of the Law Luke 11.42 these things ye ought to have done and not leave the other undone for Superstition and Separation are extreams equally odious and ominous to Reformation is it not obvious to every wise observer that the Devil and wicked men do make the one the advantage of the other and cast the odium and direct the force of each as the turn cometh and opportunity serveth against such who steering by Scripture Compasse desire according to their capacity to guide Gods Church and themselves in her between these two dangerous Rocks into the Haven of rest and holinesse Whilest poor despicable I in our late years in my place and Calling withstood our Church-wasting separation many professing piety and pursuing purity in Gods House and Ordinances were prejudiced unto an high and open persecution of me by their own fancy that I asserted and advanced the superstitions and disorders of our Church by the return whereof God hath convinced them of their rashnesse and constrained them to correct their mistake of his unworthy reproached servant and now God blessed be his name having animated me with zeal for perfect and compleat Reformation and acted me in my place and sphere as a Minister of the Gospel to debate the obligations thereunto beyond my mean abilities or the logical reply of the adversaries thereof who bear away the victory by a thou liest Bellarmine and have confuted me argumento baculino enforced by the severe moderation of authority incensed by the suggestion of Treason and Sedition secretly whispered and generally charged against me whose loyalty is most legible by both active and passive characters and who have in all the writings which bear my name declared my abhorrency of Sedition and popular tumults and having blessed me with an heart and opportunity to withstand and witnesse against the deluge of Superstition and Corruptions which breaking over and bearing down sacred banks doth to our s●… and shame again overflow our Church and Nation how many do now dream I will indulge and embrace Separation or at least by my voluntary non-communion the first act thereof give some countenance unto it as if between these there were no medium but that the corruption of the one must necessarily generate the other give me therefore leave to tell you and by you to tell others in me concerned I cannot but withstand the one with abhorrency of the other and keep my distance from separation whilst I desire and endeavour to stave off Superstition lest I Shipwrack my self or others on either rock Superstition and separation strengthen each other I have observed and our Church hath experienced the same that as Superstition Corruptions and disorder in Gods house and worship do and therefore call for the zeal and rebukes of Gods Ministers and carefull Remedy by his Majesties Prelates by him entrusted with the Ecclesiasticall good of his Subjects very much harden men of strong affections and weak Judgements to separate furnishing them with a clamourous accusation who discerne not the proper and genuine cause of their sinfull Shisme but readily father 1 Cor. 3.3 4. Gal. 5.19.20.21 what the Apostle hath determined to be the brat of their own lust on any thing which beareth relation thereunto though but a remote and accidentall occasion thereof so non communion and separation is the grand Removal and most Plain ruin to reformation that ever could be devised Subverting the house on pretence and instead of sweeping it as if an house forsaken and pulled asunder one running away with a post another with a beam to patch up their own self-founded fabricks were ever like to be purged and preserved from uncleaness and disorder my good friend take notice of this God determined and his people deserved the destruction of the ten tribes of Israel before those who feared God fled from among them or forsooke them Babylon is fallen she is fallen was the voice uttered by the Angel before Come ye out of her my people was sounded to the Saints which follow the Lamb Conservation is the end of burdensome Communion Ier. 13.2.7 and carefull Reformation but dissolution is the most certain sequell of desertion It is Gods and mush be his peoples last work to depart from and forsake his Sanctuary he stayes long with a grieved striving Spirit and stands on the very threshold with a wooing expostulation Be thou instructed O Jerusalem Ier. 6.8 least my Soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate the very issue of departure let it be seriously resolved did not Corah in his separating from the Camp of Israel gathering a Congregation out of the Congregation and the Circumcised Sectaries among the primitive Christians strike at the foundations and seek to subvert the very societies from whence they separated and do not the practices and some principles of the semi-separating as they would be deemed selfe constituting Independents of our age determine a non-entity by the non-formality of a Church in England and ra●e the very foundation thereof and so condemn the very generation of the just who have lived and dyed members thereof yea Martyrs to the truths of ●esus Christ against Papall as well as Pagan power and errors The Anabaptists in Germany have not been more odious and obstructive to Luthers reformation then the Church gathering separatists of all Sects have been retarding unto a retrogradation of that in England in that the odium of their schisms seconded with seditien and centred in Rebellion un o Regicide with the confusion and subversion of our Church and Kingdom is most sadly and shamefully though unjustly imputed to all who with humble and peaceable spirits des●e and endeavour the casting out corruption and disorder from Gods house

Separation and thath they would ponder the Honour and Benefit of Non-conformity protesting and practising against Non-communion in this day when its Enemy doth confound and destroy this for the sake and under the name of that But whither am I gone I must come back like a Fool and tell you I could never beat it into my Brains That it was good Policy to run out of an unclean disordered House under pretence of cleansing and regulating the same My little will led me to abide in it and by a Scrub Beesom of a reproving M●nistry such as I can get to bring the Dust about mine Ears I judge it prudent filth which hangs on my Cloaths in a regular endeavour to get it out of my House I am mistaken if ever my House will cleanse it self if I run and call all others out of it Once more and all my wit is wasted I am an Irish man and never yet was so wise to lie in the Field open to cold and wet because the Beasts not only stood but unhandsomly dung d in my lodging Chamber I have been used to Impoliticks but am unwilling to be better advised Impolitick That is nothing Fools may go to Heaven but my Act is impious This cannot be endured without good Evidence it is an high Charge I pray wherein lies its impiety This seemeth contrary to the general nature of the Act for that is a Religious Attendance on the Solemn Publick Worship of the true God in Jesus Christ Irregularity and Disorder may be an iniqui●y in the Administrator but that the Attendance on Gods Worship disorderly dispensed is impious in Gods People my Bible doth not teach lend me yours for I will not persist in any thing that writeth impiety on my Soul my Charity will not allow me to charge them with impiety who voluntarily attend this Service only because they do so misguided Zeal is not alwayes impious I dare not charge our first R formers and Marian Martyrs to have gone to the Stake under the Guilt and in the very Act of impiety and yet many of them went embracing commending chanting and concluding their last Devotion and Breath in the Words and Order of the Common-Prayer Gradual Defect will not acquit their Act from impiety if it now be it then was an Act impious to serve God by the Common-Prayer Our measure of increased light and many Obligations may aggravate our persistance in it but wi●l not alter the nature of the Act in it self impi●us Conscience bindeth me to be present in the Solemn Convocation and personally attend his Publick Worship the which when I come to it is by the impious Administrator dispensed in a rude disorderly irreverend Mode which maketh it my burden and my Soul to loath what I dare not leave because it is for Matter and essential Form the Lords Ordinance Is this an Act impious Let Brethrens Piety work by Charity to evince the Impiety I will give Glory to God and return till then let me proceed without Censure You specifie some Sequels of this mine attendance on Solemn Publick Worship in this Mode and Order but they are such as will not convince the same of impiety you say I hereby weaken Friends and strengthen Enemies I pray you how and wherein The Friends and Enemies of Non-Communion and Separation from the English Reformed Church never came into the Calender of my Friends or Enemies nor were they ever owned by sober Non-conformists contesting for gradual Reformation If such be hereby strengthned and weakned I bless God that I have done my Duty and that my practice doth edifie whilst I am not permitted to preach I must confess it is one end of my Action I account it mine Honour really to witness against Non-communion in my very Conflicts for Reformation But if Friends and Enemies to that Gradual Reformation incumbent on our age and hands be weakned or strengthned it may be mine Affl ction it is not mine Impiety for this Event is by accident not naturall and genuine the result of weakness in the one and wickedness in the other who consider not that Non-conforming Communion is an indispensable Duty and essential to Church-Reformation I must keep in my house if I will cleanse it though the filth in it is mine Annoyance Circumstantial Defects Redundant Appendants and Disorders will not warrantably discharge mine attendance on the substantial and truly existing worship of God In this Case give me leave to say to stumbling Friends and Brethren you have Zeal but not according to knowledge I must by Union with the Church seek Purity of Ordinances and none but wilful Fools or mad Men will run to the Channel to drink because men at Sea are glad to drink stinking water or deny to wash the Vessel or force all for ever to drink in such unclean Vessels because some through necessity can and do drink in such And yet Brother I cannot but tell you I have the comfort of my own Endeavours to anticipate this accidental Event by those Papers which I passed into the City with an intent to have passed them into the World in which you have my Apology for this Act And in Answer to this Objection I pray God they who stopped their Publication when they might have done it may seriously consider the service they have done the Church of God I could do no more to make even paths to weak feet if those who should would not pave it I cannot help it I am innocent of the blood of all men who stumble at this Act in it self lawful and indispensably necessary because of those accidents which I have done my part to anticipate But you say I hereby undo my good Testimony and give away the Cause in which I appeared This beareth indeed an Aspect of Impiety an Apostate is odious to God and men I have ever resolved and may ere long prove it to dye rather than do this my Conscience beareth me witness All this is come upon me yet have I not dealt falsly in the Covenant Had this been objected by men who knew not Mr. Crofton who never read the Writings for which he suffered it had been a tolerable mistake well may others when my Familiars and Brethren so much mistake my Testimony and misread my Cause well might Thomas Tomkins confound me with our late Usurping Traytors when my Fellow-Presbyters confound me with Separatists I observe you grant my Testimony given is good I wish it had been owned with less fear and shame I had been then more encouraged in it But I pray Brother what was it Was it the Cause of separation from or Non-communion with the English Reformed Church because corrupt or Backslider in its Reformation Have I been all this time a Martyr for Independency nothing less Zachary Crofton a Separatist from or Non-communicant with a backsliding corrupt disordered Church is as great as clear a Contradiction as Zachary Crofton a Traytor to King Charles the Second Which of