the Question in the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kind of Rule even that which themselves set up have been committed and justified and profanely fathered upon God these with much more such fruits of love-killing Principles I have seen If you converse with Censorious Separatists you shall hear so many invectives against them that are truly Catholick and sober as will make you think that Love and Peace and Catholick Communion are some sinful and mischievous things The experience of Twenty six Years in this Kingdom may convince the World what crimes may stand with high professions such as the generation springing up will scarce believe What high Professors were the proudest overturners of all Government and resisters and despisers of Ministry and Holy Order in the Churches The most railing Quakers and most filthy blaspheming Ranters to warn the World to take heed of being proud of superficial gifts and high profession and that he that stands in his own conceit should take heed lest he fall I have much ado to forbear naming some high Professors known lately at Worcester Exeter and other places who died Apostate Infidels deriding Christianity and the Immortality of the Soul who once were Separatists And I have heard of some Separatists who when others of a contrary judgment were going to the Churches at London looked in at the Doors saying The Devil choak thee art thou not out of thy pottage yet I commend to all that of the Apostle Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Read this Verse over on your Knees and beg of God to write it on your Hearts And I would wish all Assemblies of dividers and unwarrantable Separatists to write it over the Doors of their Meeting places and join with it Rom. 12. 10. but especially study James 3. In a word if God would cure the Church of Religious Pride the Pride of Wisdom and the Pride of Piety and Goodness the Church would have fewer Heresies and Contentions and much more Peace true Wisdom and Goodness The forwardness of many to keep open Divisions and to affect communion with none but such as say as they do is a down right mark of a Schismatick And I know that dividing Principles and Dispositions do tend directly to the ruine and damnation of those in whom they do prevail When Men fall into several Parties burning in Zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely on each other as being of several sides as if they were not Children of the same Father nor Members of the same Body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo c. and every one of a Faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to present one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these People whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore it is Schism in the bud S. 16. When People in the same Church do gather into private Meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their single opinions and increase their Parties and speak against those that are not on their side Schism is then ready to increase and multiply and the Swarm is ready to come forth and be gon S. 17. When these People actually depart and renounce or forsake the communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated Body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause when thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is Schism ripe and fruitful the Swarm is gone and hived in another place S. 19. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the Body of Christ by an unrighteous Censure and condemn the innocent and usurp Authority over their Guides this is Disobedience and Uncharitableness with Schism A true Christian that hateth Fornication Drunkenness Lying Perjury because forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also which are so frequently and vehemently forbidden Jo. 17. 21 22. Ro. 14. throughout Ro. 15. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Eph. 4. 1 2 c. 1 Cor. 12. Phil. 3. 15. Ro. 16. 17 18. 1 Tim. 1. 4. James 3. The mischief of Divisions may be seen at large p. 739. Q. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to preach the Gospel go on still to preach it against the Law Answ He that is silenced by just power though unjustly in a Country that needeth not his Preaching must forbear there and if he can must go into another Country where he may be more serviceable We must do any lawful thing to procure the Magistrates 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 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 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 Rom. 13. And it may be a good reason to perswade Obedience to our Ecclesiastical Governours because Preaching is a cheap and easie
as the first and that they must wait for the coming of new Apostles and so they dissolved and turned Seekers The case of the Summer Islands as related by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister come from thence upon discouragement would make a Christians heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that Plantation once was and how one godly Minister by Separation selecting a few to be his Church rejecting all the rest from the Sacrament the rejected party were dolefully estranged from Religion and the selected party turned Quakers But our own case is yet a more lamentable proof what Separation hath done against Religion so that it is my wonder that any good man can over-look it Above all things I intreat the dividing Brethren if they can so long lay aside partiality to judge of the reasons of their separation The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert But when many of us vent untruths and slanders against our Brethren and multiply publick untruths we never make scruple of communion with such Suppose one should say that a People guilty of such sins as are condemned Exod. 23. 1 2. Psal 15. 3. Rom. 1. 30 c. i. e. raising false reports reproaching our Neighbours strife and debates should not be communicated with especially when not one of those offenders is called to repentance for it what answer will you give to this which will not confute your own objections against communion with many Parish Churches in this Land As to Popery The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Nor am I causelesly afraid that if we suffer the Principles and Practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several Parties do contend about Three ways especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied Sects they will perswade People that we must either come for unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this Argument already And I am perswaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multititude of Sects among our selves Some Professors of Religious strictness and great esteem for Godliness having run from Sect to Sect and finding no consistency turned Papists themselves 2. Who knows not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on both Parties saying to one side Lay more upon them and abate them nothing And to the other Stand it out and yield to nothing hoping that our divisions will carry us to such practices as shall make us accounted Seditious Rebellious and dangerous to the Publick Peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that they may get a Toleration together with us And shall they use our hands to do their work We have already served them unspeakably both in this and in abating the odium of the Gunpower-Plot and other Treasons 3. It is not the least of our danger lest by our Follies Extremities and rigors we so exasperate the common People as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in in case of competitions invasions or insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace The Papists account that if the Puritans get the day they shall make great advantage of it for they will be unsetled and all in pieces and not know how to settle the Government Factions and Distractions say they give us footing for continual attempts To make all sure we will secretly have our party among Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our interest Let the Magistrate cherish the disputations of the Teachers and let him procure them often to debate together and reprove one another For when Men see that there is nothing certain among them they will easily yield saith Contzen the Jesuit Of Toleration Shall the meer pretence of Carnal Liberty be thought an Argument for a wicked damning Liberty a Liberty to destroy and deceive as many as they can will merciful Rulers set up a Trade for Butchering Souls and allow Men to set up a Shop of Poyson for all Men to buy and take what they will yea to proclaim this Poyson for Souls in the Streets and Church Assemblies Saints Rest p. 133. Could I have believed him that would have told me five years ago that when the Scorners of Godliness were subdued and the bitter Persecuters of Church were destroyed that such should succeed them who suffered with us and were our intimate Friends which we took sweet councel and went up together to the House of God should draw their Swords against each other and seek each others blood so fiercely O what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided Conscience when it is set at Liberty Of Spiritual Pride Proud Men will not grow in the same Field or Church where Tares do grow but will transplant themselves because God will not pluck up the Tares especially if any Ministerial neglect of Discipline be conjoyned and instead of blaming their own Pride lay the blame on the corruptions of the Church The Pharisees Liturgy is frequent in separate Assemblies God I thank thee I am not as other men But this is very remarkable that it is a pretence of our impurity and a greater purity with you that is pleaded by such as first turn over to you and that this height of all impieties should be the usual issue or a way pretended so exact and clean doubtless it is not Gods mind by this to disâ—ouragâ— any from purity and true Reformation but to shew his detestation of that spiritual pride which maketh Men to have too high thoughts of themselves and too much to contemn others and to desire to be further separated from them than God in the day of grace doth allow of Consider this it is the judgment of some that Thousands are gone to Hell and Ten Thousands on their march thither that in all probability had never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for injoyment of communion in a purer Church He that causeth differences of Judgment and Practice and contendings in the Church doth cause divisions though none separate from the Church If you may not divide in the Church nor from it then you may not causelesly divide from it your selves And commonly Appearance Advantage
Power of the Prince and Patron by his grant Who but Physitians are fit to judge who is meet to be a Licensed Physitian p. 127. Of the 2d Defence § 4. In case of meer different Modes Circumstances and Order of Worship see that you give Authority and the Consent of the Church where you are their due Christian Directory Part. 3. p. 13. § 5. Conform your selves to all the Lawful Customs and Gestures of the Church with which you joyn You come not thither proudly to shew your selves wiser than they in the Circumstances of Worship nor needlesly to differ from them much less to harden Men into a Scorn of strictness by seeing you to place Religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things but you come to Exercise Peace Love and Concord and with one Mind and Mouth to glorifie God stand when the Church standeth sit when the Church sitteth and kneel when the Church kneeleth in cases where God doth not forbid it Christian Directory p. 71. Part 3. § 6. Temples Utensels Lands devoted and lawfully separated by Man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that Separation Every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness and this expressed by such Signs and Gestures as are fit to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in a Church and use reverent Cariage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Christian Directory Part 3. p. 167. § 7. Plain intelligible Church Musick which occasioneth not Divisions but the Church agreeth in for my part I never doubted but to be lawful For 1. God set it up long after Moses's Ceremonial Law by David Solomon c. 2. It is not meerly an Instituted Ceremony but a Natural help to the Minds alacrity and it is a Duty not a Sin to use the helps of Nature and lawful Art As it is Lawful to use the help of Spectacles in reading the Bible so is it of Musick to exhilerate the Soul to God 3. Jesus Christ joyned with the Jewes that used it and spake not against it 4. No Scripture forbids it 5. Nothing can be said against it but what may be said against Tunes and melody of Voices yea it is not a humane Invention as the last Psalm and many others shew which call us to praise the Lord with Instruments of Musick § 8. Let not prejudice against Melody or Church-Musick possess you with a splenatick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work if you know how much the Incorporate Soul must make use of the Body in harmony and the joyful praises of Jehovah Do not then Quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporal Christian Direct p. 72. Part. 3. p. 167. Harmony and Melody are so high a Pleasure of the Sense that they are nearest to rational delight if not participating of them and exceedingly fitted to elevate the Mind and Affections unto God We the Ministers who drew up the Worcester Agreement required our People to declare in these Words IAB do consent to be a Member of the particular Church of Christ in D. whereof EF is Teacher and Overseer and to submit to his Teaching and Ministerial guidance and over-sight according to God's Word 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 adhearing to the Augustine 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 Sect. 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 quection 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 dispence with us if it may not be dispensed 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 and unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer