offer according to the Law of Moses confined his Ministry and Apostles to them till after the vaile of the Temple was rent in token of the expiration of their worship and departure of God accounting them children and all others dogs and charged the Disciples to hear them who sate in Moses seat under all their God-provoking Church annihilating corruptions he neither practised or prescribed a non-communion or separation 1 John 2.6 And in all extreams I desire to make him my pattern and walk as he walked who never went astray Do any stumble at the prophanenesse of the members and the neglect of corrective discipline rudenesse and irreverence in the use of Gods Ordinances Prophadess of members and disorder in Ministration confused method and the disorder of popular acclamations in publick prayer and other acts of worship I wish I could say these stones lay not in their way or that they were in my power to remove them but I think they run on a much greater Rock who run out of Gods Church or from solemn publick worship because thereof for the Church at Corinth was greatly corrupt and provoked the severity of Apostolical reprehension and that once and again 1 Cor. 5.1 2.10.21.11.20.21.14.26 2 Cos. 12.20 21 there being amongst them incest not to be named among the Gentiles and an heaven-daring ostentation in it instead of correction of it a participation with the table of Divels by their attendance on the Idol-feasts of the Infidels a rude and deboist drunken Communion at the Lords Supper intermingled and confounded with the Love-feasts intollerable disorder in their publick Assemblie all speaking at one and the same moment their very women not keeping silence and that in different matters and tongues every one had his Psalm his Prayer his Revelation his Prophesie his gift of Tongues in all which respects they were more confused than our popular acclamations and constrained the Apostles to check them by the nature of God as a God of order and not of confusion in all these the Apostle advised and endeavoured with all authority a Reformation but not separation or non-non-communion nor transplantation into a new gathered Church I cannot imagine he would make Schism from the Church 1 Cor. 3.4 a signe of a spiritual who judged Schism in the Church an evidence of a carnal mind Do men complain as they have cause that some Roman Rites and order was retained Rom. Rites when this Church was reformed let them consider many pious Kings of Judah have their reforming governments stained with a but the high places were not taken away but the people went thither to worship yet I finde not that any God-fearing Israelite who loathed those Reliques of Idolatry ever barred themselves because thereof from Gods Altar and worship My very soul is grieved to consider Englands back-sliding Backsliding Lukewarmness Indulgence of erronious Doctors and doctrines formality and lukewarmnesse in Religion yet when I observe that Ephesus who lost her first love Pergamus indulging the doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans Thyatira suffering the woman Jezabel who called her self a prophetesse to teach and to deceive Gods people Sardis having a name to live but being dead and Laodicea Englands Counterpart so lukewarm that no good is spoken of her by all which these Asian Churches were rusted and therefore reproved by the Lord yet not rejected but represented to the world as the Starres he held in his right hand and golden Candlesticks among which he walked I dare not disown her relation to God disclaim mine own relation to her nor voluntarily decline communion with her Corruptions are not all alike My good friend all corruptions in Gods Church and worship are displeasing to God and distastful to his people imbracing the simplicity of the Gospel but all corruptions are not alike in operation quality and extent nor of a like influence on Gods Church and worship consider therefore some corruptions are substantial and intrinsecal vitiating the very subject and so universally spread through the worship of God that it cannot be used without sin others are circumstantial and extrinsecal to the same vain needlesse appendants superadded by mans will but which notwithstanding Gods Ordinances remain entire and exactly his and may be used without participation in the affixed corruption Some corruptions incident to Gods Church and worship I say are substantial and intrinsecal not arising out of Gods Ordinance as the genuine product and effect thereof but entring into the very body of the Church and substance of Gods worship Corruptions substantial and intrinsecal as a Spider into wine or venemous Worme into an Apple so as to vitiate the subject that it cannot be used with safety and nullisie the very Ordinances of God that it altereth their very nature to the losse of their efficacie and transmit certain destruction to such as sit under the same yea which is done either by changing the matter and retaining the essential constitutive form as by a solemne regular cutting off a Dogs head or offering swines blood instead of a Lamb or a Kid a baptizing as some have done by fire iâ—stead of water or retaining the matter but changing the essential forme as did Jeroboam and the Samaritans worshipping the true God by the very Sacrifices and in the very order himself appointed but before self-devised Symbols Calves to the one and the Dove to the other in a self-appointed place Dan and Bersheba to the one Mount Gerizim to the other and by self-consecrated Priests the lowest of the people and so departing from the Temple in Jerusalem Gods Ark in it and the Tribe of Levi all which were essentiall to the form of divine worship and thus did the Corinthians eating and drinking at the Idol Sacrifices which the Apostle severely corrected with a ye cannot parâ—ake of the Table of the Lord and the table of Devils ye cannot drink of the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils and by pointing them unto the essential form of the Sacrament the Cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Of this nature is Baptism 1 Cor. 10.16 by a Midwife or any other private hand though with water and in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost or by water and a lawful Minister but in the name of God the Father of all things and Truth the Mother of all things as I have read some have done Corruptions extrinsecal Corruptions extrinsecal and circumstantial and c'rcumstantial are Ordinances superadded unto and so concomitant with or conversant about Gods Ordinances but enter not into nor do vitiate their subject the which these notwithstanding doth exist in matter and essential form perfect and entire capable of due operation in their own course and nature as stinking fish doth nourish or water pudled or in an unclean
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 Mâ—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 iniquiâ—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 wiâ—l not alter the nature of the Act in it self impiâ—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-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
sense and Grammatical Construction thereof from whom and which you know I was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath been mine unhappiness that few of the Brethren have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present concernments of Reformation nor could I expect it whilst I could not be heard to speak nor was worth reading when I had written Again I must tell you that it is my Grief to observe that many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Negatives who are and are resolved to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Positives These agree with me in and against the Disorders which should not be but dissent from me in that Order which should be in the Church They consent when I say Ministers must not conform but understand me not or affirm me Antichristian when I say Members must communicate They own me as Zealous when I cry to the sons of Eli You do wickedly thus rudely to Administer but disown me as impious when I tell Israel You must bring your Offerings to the Lord though by reason of the profane Priests and rude Administration thereof your Soul doth loath them They like me well and cry me up when I say The Image of Jealousie provoketh God and hath brought him down from his Mercy-seat to the Threshold of the Temple but look a squint and cry down when I tell them I will follow not go before God Israel must know and appear in the Temple as Gods house though he be at the Threshold ready to depart but not yet gone How long shall we represent the Spirit of Reformation to be a Spirit of Contradiction and verifie that odious Scandal That Non-conformists condemn every thing but cannot tell what they would have I have observed new light is only reprehensive but true light is also discretive and directive Good Brother Desire such who in this are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast an eye on that Tract almost lost in our late Confusions which Cartwright Geree Hildersham Dod Ball Hind Nicholls Langley did tread out between the Conformity thou as now required and the non-Non-communion by the Brownists and Semiseparatists then as now pressed practised and contested for with more reviling Censures than convincing Reasons I wish all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brethren would seriously study the Nature of Separation and non-Non-communion and observe the quality and quantity of Corruptions which all who have written on that Subject have concluded may be in a Church before they constitute a warrantable Cause of Separation or non-Non-communion I have not met with any who would not allow yea require Communion as a Duty with a Church whose Ministers are vile Members wicked Ministration rude and disorderly Censures wanting or warding against the power of Godliness Worship polluted and in which Idolatry is practised but conjunct with Gods true Worship their Altars standing by Gods Altar their Post by his Post their Groves and high Places in his holy Mountain near unto his very Temple I will not in these Cases except Cotton or H oker by whose Principles the being of the Church admitted I will be bound to defend my present Practice Good Brother Remember Consider our difference from the former state of these holy men is Gradual not Real the Duty or Impiety was in nature the same to them the measure and aggravation is more to us They indeed acted beyond what I can allow and in what I can better excuse than justifie them but their Arguments for Communion are armed with Religious Reason beyond what can be resisted If now I am left alone for I must yet proceed I shall only note paucity of Professors is attendant on all Criticisms of Christianity strait is the Gate Joshua and Caleb must follow God throughly not turning to the right or left hand Gods Worship disorder'd in its Ministration and Mode I attend with Grief but the Corruptions being extrinsecal not vitiating the Subject under which Gods Worship is for Matter and constitutive Form his own I dare not leave it I dare not but attend it violent Restraint removed I have no ground of Faith in neglect hereof to expect special Grace or Presence I cannot with Confidence appeal to God with Lord Thou wilt have Meâ—cy not Sacrifice As a common Christian I am charged to judge the Matter as a Minister the Mode and Order of Gods Worship when it is convincingly demonstrated that these two are aeque or aequaliter necessitous and obliging I shall either Conform or cease to Communicate till then I pray you Brethren receive my Practice as a Comment on my Cause and Testimony and give me leave without your Censures provoking justifying the Clamours of the wicked to walk with my God in Communion with his Church visible conform to the commanding Dictates of my Conscience This is the Desire of Sir Your Brother Constant to God And his Covenant ZACHARY CROFTON FINIS
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 sâ—… 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 raâ—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 â—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 desâ—e and endeavour the casting out corruption and disorder from Gods house
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
Why is my now attendance on solemn publick worship branded to be renewed communion with you know not whom if you mean this of persons individual truly as to the most I know not whom nor can I think you judge it necessary I cannot in my first communion know it in any Congregation is Church gathering become a Presbyterial principle is it the work of every age is seven not seventy years an age is non knowledge of Members a cause of non communion would not common charity make me know them to be a society of Christians worshippers of the true God in Jesus Christ and are they not hereby members of the Church Catholick visible particularly divided by local circumscription or have we renounced this principle is not the Liberty of the Tower a particular Church in a Presbyterial sence as well as Christ Church or Alhallows Breads street If I communicate in these must I not communicate with I know not whom may I not hear the Gospel preached and in calling on God in the name of Christ for things agreeable to his will communicate with I know not whom But why is my communion râ—newed I never denied I never ceased from I never was cut off from communion with the English Reformed Church and its particular Assemblies must Independents be verified in the false reproach viz. Presbyterial Churches wâ—re gathered Churches Presbytery interrupted was the Church dissolved and Communion abandoned Cave We have disowned denied determined sin and danger in these Notions I have more charity than to think my self out of Communion because violently debarred from Convention with the particular Assemblies of the Reformed English Church God having at length opened me a door of liberty to attend his solemn publick worship in this place with this Assembâ—y why is my acceptance and use thereof clamorously condemned as an act not only impoliti k but impious do not you know this is the execution of a resolution neither new nor rash not new for I thus determined and thus practised in my youth when piety was reproached by profane men as Puritanism and by the Brownists as corrupt Communion I thus determined and declared in my publick Ministery and preaching for Reformation I thus determined in all my late disputes and writings whilest I was at liberty I thus practised on accidental occasions I herein convinced and hereof perswaded prayed the liberty I now enjoy the first day I was committed prisoner to this place and have ever since petitioned to enjoy it this act you know is not rash but the result of mature and deliberate thoughts besides what hath passed between God and mine own soul I have heard and weighed the objections of separating as well as reforming brethren and after many expostulations I have you know it stated my Case of Conscience drawn up my reasons communicated them to Brethren and Christian Friends craved a Confutation from more than one prayed fraternal Correption by solid and serious Argumentation and professed a readiness to hear and obey Conviction I wonder after all this and Nine Months time to have corrected convinced my Judgment I shall be censured for bringing it to Act and you should now call for an Apology Dear Brother How long shall I complain when shall I be known and dealt with as a Brother Is it fair Play to revile and not reprove To condemn and not confute Will you neither convince my Conscience nor be content without Censures to see me obey it Are you angry to be imposed on and yet expect I should live by an implicite Faith and forbear what is to me a positive Duty on this bare Reason The Brethren will be displeased Let me say it without Prophaneness or Levity Be not wise overmuch The Offence of Brethren hath its place and weight in my Soul but must be well grounded before it counterpoize Conscience of positive indispensable Duty I well understand not the Epithites which vilifie my present Act because they are general and without Reason That it is Impolitick I may not deny I have ever been estranged to and at enmity with the Brethrens Policies and Fancy If they had in some things been as foolish as silly I God might have had more Glory Truth more Strength the Church more Purity and Order my self more Liberty their Comforts I know not nor will adventure to judge What Policies this Act must relate unto I know not unless it be the strengthning and so justifying those Schisms which supplanted subverted our Reformation by those Seditions Rebellions Treasons which have made it Odious and scandalized the endeavours thereof that the most Upright and Innocent among us are pressed under it If Brethren were sensible That my Zeal for Reformation is reproached repelled and my self thus oppressed by these Schisms they would not sure think it Policy to strike hands with them or Impolitick to appear really as well as verbally against them God knoweth I may not long speak let me speak freely Truly Brother foolish I think it aque and aequaliter politick for serious sober Reformers to unite with Non-communicating Separating Congregational Brethren in the Church-confounding nullifying principles and practises As for our late King-Killers to cry up the COVENANT and confound the Quarrel of the Parliament with the Good Old Cause Confound 62. with 52. and you may reconcile 48. to 43. and soon return to 48. again Agree these in Ecclesiasticks and divide them in Civils if you can I wish I could not scent some Brethren offended at my Act as tainted already in their Civils But I am a Fool be it so yet a Fools Bolt is soon shot If Presbyters will wisely serve Gods providence and do his Church proper Service Now it is their Time and Business to witness Corruptions circa cultum publicum will not warrant Non-communion with secession or separation from a true Church and such I yet deem England Correct this folly and I may become wise till then I will through Grace joy in my folly I have observed indeed Gods and the Kings Fools were never many But truly foolish I could never judge it good Policy That Non-communion Separation and the Sectarian Spawn should shroud themselves and be sheltered by Non-conformity and Reformation Hath not our dear-bought Experience taught us That the Repute of being the Parent of these hath been the Remora and Retroversion of that Can we forget how these when in Power did divide divert and destroy Reformation Paganize all England and plant One hundred and twenty gathered Churches and thereby proclaim Entity not Purity of the Churches was their Quarrel And shall we not now be so wise as to disown and deny them as a Bastard brood Now they are taken as Vagrants and whip't up to Non-conformists as their reputed Parents Can we ever witness Relation more than by these affectionate embraces in this day of Discrimination O! that my Brethrens Policy were so wise as to consider the Duty and Necessity of differing Reformation and
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 thâ—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-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 heâ—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 fratrâ—bus doctioribus but also to every indivâ—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 aequâ— 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 Thâ—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 Ministâ—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
consider Knowledge of a Church it first constitution not necessary whether the knowledge of the mode and order of first planting and gathering the Church be necessary to every member related to it In England we finde societies professing the true God and Christ baptized into his name worshipping him by his own Ordinances this is the forme of a Church and doth suppose and imply a Root and Foundation by which it is animated and preserved But must we needs know how it was at the first laid or planted though by length of time it is worn out of sight and over-grown with earth and weeds are we bound to renounce the Vine and run out of the house unlesse we pluck up the root and raze the foundation to satisfie our selves herein if so God help the illiterate souls and weak capacities not capable to conceive or well understand the same is Christs Church planted for an age only that every succeeding generation must transplant gathering of Churches did indeed begin the Acts of the Apostles must it needs be continued to the end of the Revelation to the coming of the Lord to judgment I finde not Paul in his joyning himself to the Church nor Priscilla and Aquila in their travels and communion with different Churches make any demurre on this enquiry and I dare not think the holy Ghost would have concealed from us a point of so great importance My good friend upon the whole of this Objection I must let you know that my serious and deliberate thoughts do dissent from the Conclusions concerning the matter and form of a Church stated by the self-consecrated Officers of the hundred and twenty self-constituted gathered Churches which of late years met at the Savoy but assent unto the determination of Mr. Cotton in his advice to the brethren of old England at the close of his way of the Churches in New-England viz. The work is not to make them Churches which were none before for the Gospel having been preached in England by Apostles or Apostolical men they were without doubt rightly planted but to reduce them to the Primitive purity they had in their first constitution And here my friend I must desire the Independents will not be offended that I propose them as the present prime promoters of the nonentity of the Church of England by way of barre to Communion with her and a principle of separation from her for that notwithstanding their contrary professions of what they cannot soberly charitably and rationally deny their common suggestion in England is fit matter but not the form which is the esse of the Church their Savoy conclusions and paganizing Church-gathering practice do loudly proclaim them the off-spring of the Brownists and posterity of the rigid Separatists ever withstood by the sober and serious Non-Conformists since Englands Reformation and in this point the summum genus of those several specifical self-constituted Sects which have confounded our Church the odium of whose Schism from it defended by Rebellion Schism and horrid Treason is at this day most sadly though falsly reflected on the most loyal sober serious reforming non-conforming Presbyterians to the weakning their hands and retarding yea diverting their progresse in an humble argumentative and patient pursuit of Christs Ordinances and due authority of Christs Officers to be restored and exercised in the Church of England by me ever owned and now lamented but not to be deserted Such as fancie the Church of England was lost in the deluge of Popery and Antichristianism Englands Church lost not its being in Popery may by their own observation correct the same and be constrained to confesse there is in this respect no more cause of stumble as to the entity of this Church then was as to the being of the Jews when overspread with Idolatry in their many defections from God for in Englands worst times they may finde a persecuted Elias a John Wickliffe with many other most eminent branches bringing forth the Clusters of Gospel Grapes to the bleeding out their very lives besides Obadiah's fifties hidden in Caves by the violence of persecution certainly the Root must abide or how or whence could these branches spring Yea the winter storms of Popery passing away and the floods of Antichristianism asswaging though not dryed up and the chief weeds of superstition being plucked up though some remain how hath this Church revived flourished and sent out many most eminent and pious branches without any new plantation Yea conveyed unto themselves who question her being the truth of Grace and Faith in Christ Jesus if ever they receiv'd it I blesse God I have learned to discern between the subject and its separable adjuncts though never so vile and do believe the Church to be Christs Church though vitiated and defiled with Idolatrous administrations all nor indeed any defection is an actual divorce if adulterous Judah Jet 3. on a summons to repentance do return and put away her abominations she loseth not her relation to God nor doth the high places continued under his reformation make God or his people to forsake her the Temple of God abides his when given to be trodden under the feet of the Gentiles yea when the Antichrist the man of sin sitteth therein this notion may possibly sound better to some eares from New-England than from the Tower of London let it therefore be thence receiv'd If Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and the Courts of the Temple be given to the Antichristiaen Gentiles for a certain time to tread under foot then there was a true Church state where he sate and whilest he sate there and it was the true measured Temple whose Courts he did tread under fo t nor can there be Antichrist unlesse there be the Temple of God and Courts thereof where he is and if ever Antichrist sate in England then there was the Temple of God there before he sate in it and whilest he sate in it as was also in other reformed Churches the Temple or Church is the subject wherein he must sit the Antichristian seat is not the subject nor constituteth it but is an accident vitiating the subject and separable from it the removing therefore of Antichristianity doth not destroy the subject or make it cease to be but changeth it into the better state in which it was before thus accidentally vitiated this is the assertion of Mr. Phillips of Water-town in New England England was Christs Church before the Antichristian deluge under the power of Popery and since it was purged out and so she at this day notwithstanding her backsliding doth abide God provoked hath not yet removed his Candlestick or given her a bill of divorce as he justly may and I fear yet will if I then deny Communion with such of her assemblies I have a liberty to attend and frequent and make my appeal to God on the account of her non-entity with a Lord she was not or I know her not to
and ordinances and reflectes on the work of reformation it selfe as if their proper genuine and natural parent The reformation of the Church is a duty incumbent on every man and member thereof Reformation must be by lawfull means onely it must be pursued in their places and capacities by just and lawful means without schism from or if possible in the Church or sedition in the Common-wealth both which my soul ever did abhor as disgraceful to Religion dishonourable to God and destructive to Reformation I never did nor yet can allow or advise other means of reformation then Ministerial admonition to the Church Logical dispute and Theological argumentation and redaurgtion among equals humble proposal petition and supplication to superiors with a patient and submisse attendance on their pleasure and on God acting the same such as receive Kings as nursing Fathers to the Church will rejoyce in them as Christians much more as professedly reformed and with all peaceable submission embrace such degrees of Reformation of the extrinsecall order and ministerial method of Gods worship enjoying the substance in the essential form thereof as they will allow untill God encline their hearts to allow what himselfe expecteth and his people desire soberly pursuing the bene esse with joy in the esse of Religion and in communion with the Church waiting on the truth of Gods ordinances quietly attending their Superiors for purity and regularity of dispensation I find not that the men fearing God in Iudah did tumultuously tumble down the high places nor turn away from Gods Temple because of them yet their standing was the stain of Government to their reforming Kings to flye out of Gods house or in the face of Gods Vicegerents because his own appointments are administred by instruments in order to his service unsuitable and to us offensive is a frowardness which God cannot nor will not admit or indulge in any of his children Ministerial reproofs and admonitions and vulgar mournings and murmurations are loud alarums to God and the consciences of men and strong enforcements of Reformation preces Iacrymae ever were and still are the onely weapons of the truly Godly Our state and time calleth for an higher degree of Reformation under and against the oppositions of just authority and lawful Princes such as God hath in his mercy and by his miraculous providence restored to our Church and Nation I am afflicted by and ashamed of the slow progress and shameful retrogradation of Englands Reformation under and against publike national solemn sacred bonds whose obligation will abide before God and conscience though the affirmations thereof may be interdicted by men If Calvini in his days could say If Godly Religion had flourished in England till that day the time of Queen Mary her Raign there ought to have been an order of service better corrected Epistle to the Ch. at Frankford and many things quitte taken away Can we without grief consider our Church hath enjoyed true Religion more then eighty years since that time and yet we ignorantly continue and violently contend for that order of service as if ashamed to give place unto better things yet I dare not deny her to be a reformed Church or as such decline Communion with her in and for whom the Lord hath emminently appeared and out of whom he hath gratiously purged all things venentous and destructive though some things nauseous and distastfull were continued and are returned into her having defended her against the Spanish Ariâ—ado and Popish Conspiracy by Gunpowder and other agitations and attempts of Papall power and Antichristian rage with an Almighty hand and outstretched Arme. I do beleive the infancy of Reformation might rejoice in and grow up under that order of divine service which the adult estate thereof ought to cast off as puerile and unsutable First degrees were matter of Comfort though not of Content to such who seek the simplicity of the Gospell remaining dreggs ought to be discharged and I doubt not God will notwithstanding mens aversness and opposition in due time effect it In the mean time i see no reason to refuse to drink because my waters are pudled or presented in an unclean Vessel and I can come by no purer remaining degrees of Reformation must be so purified that those obtained may not appear to be disowned or despised though our order of Divine Service be a Roman dregge of some dangerous distastfull influence yet it is not Popery shall we not blesse God and rejoyce in England as brought out of Babylon though some Babylonish Vestures Rites and Orders which ought to be abandoned are yet retained I conceive them ingratefull for the purity obtained who run out of Gods house for the Corruptions continued and obtruded I cannot but repute them over forward who shall refuse the Substantials of true Religion and Christs Institutions because of some rude Rough Appendants shall we not acknowledge Gods mercy in affording us and humbly use the truth of Gods word because transmitted unto us with some humane traditions and the substance of his own worship celebrated in a disorderly way and method with some foolish Appendants of mens inventions My good friend my zeal care and contests for Reformation of this poor Church have cost me dear yet if God suffer the Charge to rise as hâ—gâ— as did that of my namesake by the unkindness of King Joash not one mite too dear I blesse God however my passions worke I see no cause to repent my bargain I pray God glorifie himself and edifie his people by my bonds onely I must professe to all that fear God I see no sufficient cause to satisfie my Conscience or to plead before my God on which to refuse Communion with her and attendance on Gods solemn publique worship under her rude Ministerial method for that duty is not warantably superseded by the iniquity of another man my sufferings nor other mens sin under which I mourn because I cannot mend it must not turn me out of Gods way to the right or left hand superstition and separation must be shunned as Rocks equally dangerous to Gods Church and worship the prophanesse of this and its Subjects must not drive me nor the pretended purity and piety of the other and its Subjects allure or draw me unto the positive evil of separation or privative evil of voluntary non-Communion I pray and hope God will keep me upright under and against all temptations from falling into the extreams of our unhappy age and Church and yet give me to see the purity of his worship in Union and Communion with his Church here on earth or possesse me with his undefiled unstained glory in Heaven for from the one I dare not depart untill I arrive at the other least by shipwarck I should be deprived of both Fourthly Let it be considered Consi 4th Scandall is an argument of no strength when pleaded to supersede or condemn a positive duty Jobs friends