Donatists took so much offence that it was the ground of their separation But to pass by these things By these three Considerations especially the sinfulness of Schism shews it self In respect of 1. Christ 2. The Parties separating 3. Those from whom they separate 1. In respect of Christ it is 1. An horrible Indignity offered to his Body it dividing Christ as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1. 15. and makes him to appear the Head of two Bodies How monstrous and dishonourable is the very conceit hereof 2. It 's Rebellion against his Command his great Command of Love The Grace of Love is by some called the Queen of Graces and it 's greater than Faith in respect of its Object not God onely but Man its duration which is eternal its manner of working not in a way of receiving Christ as Faith but of giving out the Soul to him and the Command of Love is the greatest Command in respect of its comprehensiveness it taking in all the Commandments the end of them all being Love and it being the fulfilling of them all 3. It 's opposite to one great End of Christ's greatest Undertaking his Death which was that all his Saints should be one 4. It tends to frustrate his Prayer for Unity among Saints John 17. and endeavours that Christ may not be heard by his Father 5. It opposeth his Example By this shall all men saith he know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another Love is the Livery and Cognisance which Christ gives to every Christian If there be no Fellowship among Christians there 's no following of Christ. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2. 5. 6. It 's injurious to his Service and Worship How can Men pray if in wrath and division How can Christians fight with Heaven and prevail when they are in so many divided Troops What worthiness can be in those Communicants who celebrate a Feast of Love with Hearts full of rancour and malice 2. In respect of the Parties separating For 1. It causeth a decay of all Grace By divisions among our selves we endeavour to divide our selves from him in and from whom is all our fulness All wickedness follows contention Upon the Stock of Schism commonly Heresie is grafted There is no Schism saith Jerome but ordinarily it inventeth and produceth some Heresie that so the Separation may seem the more justifiable The Novatians and Donatists from Schism fell to Heresies Our Times sadly comment upon this Truth they equally arising to both The farther Lines are distanced one from another the greater is their distance from the Center And the more divided Christians are among themselves the more they divide themselves from Christ. Branches divided from the Tree receive no Sap from the Root The Soul gives Life to Members which are joyned together not pluck'd asunder 2. Schism is the greatest disgrace to the Schismaticks A Schismatick is a Name much disowned because very dishonourable All Posterity loads the name of sinful Separatists with disgrace and abhorrency He spoke truly who said The sin and misery of Schism cannot be blotted out with the blood of Martyrdom He cannot honourably give his Life for Christ who makes divisions in his Church for which Christ gave his Life 3. In respect of the Church from whom this separation is made For 1. It 's injurious to the Honour of the Church whose greatest glory is Vnion How can a Body be rent and torn without the impairing of its Beauty Besides how disgraceful an imputation is cast upon any Church when we profess it unworthy for any to abide in it that Christ will not and therefore that we cannot have Communion with it 2. It 's injurious to the peace and quietness of the Church Schismaticks more oppose the Peace of the Church than do Heathens If the natural Body be divided and torn pain and smart must needs follow The tearing and rending of the Mystical Body goes to the Heart of all sensible Members They often cause the Feverish Distempers of Hatred Wrath Seditions Envyings Murders Schism in the Church puts the Members out of joynt and disjoynted Bones are painful All my bones saith David are out of joynt Church-divisions cause sad thoughts of heart True Members are sensible of these Schisms though artificial ones feel nothing None rejoyce but our Enemies Oh impiety to make Satan musick and to make mourning for the Saints 3. It 's opposite to the Edification of the Church Division of Tongues hindred the building of Babel and doubtless division in Hearts Tongues Hands Heads must needs hinder the building of Jerusalem While Parties are contending Churches and Commonwealths suffer In troublous times the Walls and Temple of Jerusalem went but slowly on Though Jesus Christ the Head be the onely Fountain of Spiritual Life yet the usual way of Christs strengthning it and perfecting thereof is the fellowship of the Body that by what every joynt supplies the whole may be encreased When Church-members are put out of joynt they are made unserviceable and unfit to perform their several Offices They who were wont to joyn in Prayer Sacraments Fasting and were ready to all mutual Offices of Love are now fallen off from all 4. It 's opposite to the future Estate of the Church in Glory In Heaven the Faithful shall be of one mind We shall all meet saith the Apostle in the unity of the faith Ephes 4. 13. when we are come to our Manly age Wrangling is the work of our Childhood Luther and Calvin are of one mind in Heaven though their Disciples wrangle here on Earth Observations Obs 1. Naturally men love to be boundless they will not be kept within any Spiritual compass Obs 2. Our separation from Rome cannot be charged with Schism This will evidently appear if we consider either the ground or the manner of our Separation 1. For the ground and cause thereof Our separation from Rome was not for some slight and tolerable Errours but damnable Heresies and gross Idolatries The Heresies Fundamental and Idolatries such as those who hold Communion with her cannot but partake of In respect of both which the Church of Rome was first apostatized before ever we separated Nor was there any separation from it as it had any thing of Christ or as it was Christian but as it was ROMAN and POPISH c. 2. For the second the manner of our Separation it was not uncharitable rash heady and unadvised nor before all means were used for the Cure and Reformation of the Romanists by the discovery of their Errours that possibly could be thought of notwithstanding all which though some have been enforced to an acknowledgement of them they still obstinately persist in them Our famous godly and learned Reformers would have healed Babylon but she is not healed Many skilful Physicians have had her in hand but like the Woman in the Gospel she grew so much the worse By Prayer Preaching Writing yea by sealing their
what in another case he once said in his Sermon of the Saints Worth pag. 11. viz. If a man takes the Picture of another he will not take it of his Back-side Leg or Hand or the like but of his Face his beautifullest Part yet that you and others will observe it that the World be no more troubled with such Narratives as can serve to no good End but will effectually promote a bad which is to expose Religion and make it mean and contemptible For my part I could heartily wish that all Differences about little things were laid aside it being as he observes pag. 252. on Jude very unsuitable that a greater Fire should be employed in roasting of an Egg than an Ox and to be more contentious for Bubbles than Blessedness As for greater Differences I could as heartily wish they were composed that the Love of God did more encrease and that would be the encrease of Vnity For what he saith Vol. 2. on Jude pag. 630. is very true The preserving of our Love to God is an excellent preservative against Sectaries and false Teachers He who loves God will fear to break the Vnity and Peace of the Church I cannot conclude better As for the great Case I refer you to the Sermon it self by which methinks I could stand and fall as being confident that either that will justifie Mr. Jenkin or that he will be able to justifie that and so shall be impatient till you give your Opinion of it to SIR Your Servant H. N. THE SERMON JUDE ver 19. These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit IN the 17 verse Jude produceth the Testimony of the Apostles of Jesus Christ in confirmation of what he had before said In which Testimony I note five Particulars 1. To whom it is commended to his beloved 2. How it was to be improved by remembring it 3. From whom it proceeded the Apostles of our Lord Jesus 4. Wherein it consisted in a Prediction That there should be mockers walking after their ungodly lusts 5. To whom it is opposed viz. to these Seducers These are they who separate themselves In which Words the Apostle shews That these who separate themselves from the Church were Scorners and that these who were sensual and void of the Spirit did follow their ungodly lusts Or in the Words Jude expresseth 1. The Sin of these Seducers in separating themselves 2. The Cause thereof which was 1. Their being sensual And 2. Their not having the Spirit For the first their Separation Two things are here to be opened 1. What the Apostle here intends by separating themselves 2. Wherein the Sinfulness of it consists 1. For the first The Original word may signifie the unbounding of a thing and the removing of a thing from those Bounds and Limits wherein it was set and placed c. Or it imports the parting and separating of one thing from another by Bounds and Limits put between them and the putting of Bounds and Limits for distinction and separation between several things it being thus a Resemblance taken from Fields or Countries which are distinguished and parted from each other by certain Boundaries and Land-marks set up to that end and thus it 's commonly taken by Interpreters in this place wherein these Seducers may be said to separate themselves divide or bound themselves from others either first Doctrinally or secondly Practically 1. Doctrinally by false and Heretical Doctrines whereby they divided themselves from the Truth and Faithful who were guided by the Truth of Scripture and walked according to the Rule of the Word c. 2. Practically they might separate themselves as by Bounds and Limits 1. By Prophaneness and living in a different way from the Saints namely in all loosness and uncleanness 2. By Schismaticalness and making of separation from and divisions in the Church Because they proudly despised the Doctrines or Persons of the Christians as contemptible and unworthy or because they would not endure the holy severity of the Churches Discipline they saith Calvin departed from it They might make Rents and Divisions in the Church by Schismatical withdrawing themselves from Fellowship and Communion with it Their Heresies were perverse and damnable Opinions their Schism was a perverse separation from Church-communion The former was in Doctrinals the latter in Practicals The former was opposite to Faith this latter to Charity By Faith all the Members are united to the Head by Charity one to another And as the breaking of the former is Heresie so their breaking of the latter was Schism And this Schism stands in the dissolving the Spiritual Band of Love and Union among Christians and appears in the withdrawing from the performance of those Duties which are both the Signs of and Helps to Christian Vnity as Prayer Hearing Receiving of Sacraments c. For because the dissolving of Christian Vnion chiefly appears in the undue separation from Church-communion therefore this rending is rightly called Schism It is usually said to be twofold Negative and Positive 1. Negative is when there is onely simplex secessio when there is onely a bare secession a peaceable and quiet withdrawing from Communion with a Church without making any head against that Church from which the departure is 2. Positive is when Persons so withdrawing do so consociate and draw themselves into a distinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church or as Divines express it from Augustine an Altar against an Altar And this it is which in a peculiar manner and by way of eminency is called by the name of Schism and becomes sinful either in respect first of the groundlesness or secondly the manner thereof 1. The groundlesness when there is no casting of Persons out of the Church by an unjust Censure of Excommunication no departure by unsufferable Persecution no Heresie nor Idolatry in the Church maintained no necessity if Communion be held with a Church of communicating in its Sins and Corruptions 2. The manner of Separation makes it unlawful when 't is made without due endeavour and waiting for Reformation of the Church from which the departure is and such a rash departure is against Charity which suffers both much and long all tolerable things It is not presently distasted when the justest occasion is given it first useth all possible means of remedy The Chyrurgeon reserves Dismembring as the last remedy It looks upon a sudden breaking off from Communion with a Church which is a Dismembring not as Chyrurgery but Butchery not as medicinal but cruel 2. The Sinfulness of this Schismatical separation appears several ways I shall not spend time to compare it with Heresie though some have said that Schism is the greater Sin of the two August cont Donat. lib. 2. cap. 6. tells the Donatists that Schism was a greater Sin than that of the Traditores who in time of Persecution through fear delivered up their Bibles to the Persecutors to be burnt A Sin at which the
Doctrine with their Bloods have sundry eminent Instruments of Christ endeavoured to reclaim the Popish from their Errours but in stead of being reclaimed they anathematized them with the dreadfulest Curses excommunicated yea murdered and destroyed multitudes of those who endeavoured their Reducement not permitting any to trade buy or sell to have either Religious or Civil Communion with them except they received the Beasts mark in their hands and foreheads All which considered we might safely forsake her nay could not safely do otherwise Since in stead of our healing of Babylon we could not be preserved from her destroying of us we did deservedly depart from her and every one go into his own Country and unless we had done so we could not have obeyed the clear Precept of the Word Apoc. 18. Come out of her my people c. Timothy is commanded to withdraw himself from perverse and unsound Teachers 1 Tim. 6. 3 5. Though Paul went into the Synagogue disputing and persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of God yet when divers were hardened and believed not but spake evil of that way he departed from them and separated the Disciples Acts 19. 9. And expresly is Communion with Idolaters forbidden 2 Cor. 6. 14 17. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness what communion hath light with darkness what concord hath Christ with Belial what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols Come out from among them and be ye separate And Hos 4. 15. Though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend and come ye not unto Gilgal neither go ye up to Bethaven Though in name that place was Bethel the House of God yet because Jeroboam's Calf was set up there it was indeed Bethaven the House of Vanity If Rome be a Bethaven for Idolatry and corrupting of Gods Worship our departure from it may be safely acknowledged and justified In vain therefore do the Romanists Stapleton Sanders c. brand our separation from them with the odious name of Donatism and Schism it being evident out of Augustine that the Donatists never objected any thing against nor could blame any thing in the Church from which they separated either for Faith or Worship whereas we have unanswerably proved the Pseudo-Catholick Roman Church to be notoriously guilty both of Heresie and Idolatry and our Adversaries themselves grant in whatever Church either of these depravations are found Communion with it is to be broken off I shall conclude this Discourse with that Passage out of Musculus concerning Schism There is saith he a double Schism the one bad the other good the bad is that whereby a good Vnion the good whereby a bad Vnion is broken asunder If ours be a Schism it is of the latter sort Obs 3. The voluntary and unnecessary dividing and separation from a true Church is Schismatical When we put bounds and partitions between it and our selves we sin say some as did these Seducers here taxed by Jude If the Church be not Heretical or Idolatrous or do not by Excommunication Persecution c. thrust us out of its Communion If it be such as Christ the Head hath Communion with we the Members ought not by separation to rend and divide the Body To separate from Congregations where the Word of Truth and Gospel of Salvation are held forth in an ordinary way as the Proclamations of Princes are held forth upon Pillars to which they are affixed where the Light of the Truth is set up as upon a Candlestick to guide Passengers to Heaven To separate from them to whom belong the Covenants and where the Sacraments the Seals of the Covenant are for substance rightly dispensed where Christ walketh in the midst of his golden candlesticks and discovers his Presence in his Ordinances whereby they are made effectual to the Conversion and Edification of Souls in an ordinary way where the Members are Saints by a professed subjection to Christ and his Gospel and haply have promised this explicitly and openly where there are sundry who in the judgment of Charity may be conceived to have the work of Grace really wrought in their Hearts by walking in some measure answerable to their Profession I say to separate from these as those with whom Church-communion is not to be held and maintained is unwarrantable and Schismatical Pretences for Separation I am not ignorant are alledged frequently and most plausibly that of Mixt Communion and of admitting into Church-fellowship the vile with the precious and those who are Chaff and therefore ought not to lodge with the Wheat Answ 1. Not to insist upon what some have urged viz. That this hath been the stone at which most Schismaticks have stumbled and the Pretence which they have of old alledged as having ever had a Spiritum Excommunicatorium a Spirit rather putting them upon dividing from those who they say are unholy than putting them upon any godly endeavours of making themselves holy as is evident in the Examples of the Audaeans Novatians Donatists Anabaptists Brownists c. 2. Let them consider Whether the want of the exact purging and reforming of these Abuses proceed not rather from some unhappy Obstructions and political Restrictions whether or no caused by those who make this Objection God knows in the exercise of Discipline than from the allowance or neglect of the Church it self Nay 3. Let them consider Whether when they separate from sinful mixtures the Church be not at that very time purging out those sinful mixtures And is that a time to make a separation from a Church by departing from it when the Servants of Christ are making a separation in that Church by reforming it But 4. Let it be seriously weighed That some sinful mixtures are not a sufficient cause of separation from a Church Hath not God his Church even where corruption of Manners hath crept into a Church if purity of Doctrine be maintained And is separation from that Church lawful from which God doth not separate Did the Apostle because of the sinful mixtures in the Church of Corinth direct the Faithful to separate Must not he who will forbear Communion with a Church till it be altogether freed from mixtures tarry till the day of Judgement till when we have no promise that Christ will gather out of his Church whatsoever doth offend 5. Let them consider Whether God hath made private Christians Stewards in his House to determine whether those with whom they Communicate are fit Members of the Church or not Or rather Whether it be not their duty when they discover Tares in the Church in stead of separating from it to labour that they may be found good Corn that so when God shall come to gather his Corn into his Garner they may not be thrown out Church-Officers are ministerially betrusted with the Ordering of the Church and for the opening and shutting of the doors of the Churches Communion by the Keys of Doctrine and Discipline And herein if they shall either be hindred
jealous of your Hearts when Contentions begin stifle them in the Cradle Paul and Barnabas separated about a small matter the taking of an Associate 7. Beware of Pride the Mother of Contention and Separation Love not the preheminence Rather be fit for than desirous of Rule Despise not the meanest say not I have no need of thee All Schisms and Heresies are mostly grafted upon the Stock of Pride The first rent that was ever made in God's Family was by the Pride of Angels ver 14. and that Pride was nothing else but the desire of Independency 8. Avoid Self-seeking He who seeks his own things and profit will not mind the good and peace of the Church Oh take heed lest thy Secular Interest draw thee to a new Communion and thou colour over thy departure with Religion and Conscience Thus have we spoken of the first viz. What these Seducers did viz. separate themselves 2. The Cause of their separation or what they were in these words sensual not having the Spirit This I will onely give the Breviate of still keeping to his own words leaving it to his Commentary on Jude since printed By the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle seems to me to make their bruitish sensuality and propensions to be the cause of their separation as if he had said They will not live under the strict Discipline where they must be curb'd and restrain'd from following their lusts no these Sensuallists will be alone by themselves in Companies where they may have their fill of sensual pleasures and where they may gratifie their genius to the utmost The Apostle seems to add this their sensuality and want of the Spirit to their separating themselves not onely to shew that sensuality was the cause of their separation and the want of the Spirit the cause of both but as if he intended directly to thwart and cross them in their pretences of having an high and extrordinary measure of spiritualness above others who as these Seducers might pretend were in so low a Form of Christianity and had so little spiritualness that they were not worthy to keep them company whereas Jude tells these Christians that these Seducers were so far from being more spiritual than others that they were meer Sensuallists and had nothing in them of the Spirit at all c. Observations Obs 1. Commonly sensuality lies at the bottom of sinful separation and making of Sects Separate themselves sensual c. Obs 2. It 's possible for those who are sensual and without the Spirit to boast of Spiritualness Of these before Obs 3. Sanctity and Sensuality cannot agree together Obs 4. They who want the Spirit are easily brought over to Sensuality To his Worthy Friend H. N. SIR I Heartily thank you for putting me in mind of our late Discourse and for giving me so fair an opportunity to pursue it by the Sermon that you sent me which I greedily read and had no sooner run over but I bless'd my self to find that you should put the Cause upon this Issue and to appeal to that for the justification of the present Separation I look'd again and thought that you might be mistaken and had sent me a Sermon against Mr. Jenkin rather than one for him It was a Discourse that I do acknowledge my self not to be altogether a Stranger to and what I then retained some remembrance of but yet wholly to undeceive my self I sent for the Book which you say you compared it with and to my no small satisfaction found them as to what concerns the matter of our Dispute honestly to agree and that you may as well bring the one to vouch for the credit of the other as he himself may if there were occasion Mr. Brinsley's Arraignment of Schism from whence he hath borrowed the substance of this Sermon in the justification of what he hath said here upon that Subject And now Sir I am glad that I have brought you thus far for I desire no better advantage than what this Sermon will afford me and shall decline the Order that we observed in our Discourse on purpose to comply with it You may remember that I then undertook to shew 1. That the old Nonconformists did themselves hold Lay-Communion with the Church of England and accounted those that did not guilty of Schism as by their Writings yet extant doth appear 2. That the present Nonconformists who are Presbyterians did plead their Practice and use their Arguments against the Independents and others that did in the late Times separate from themselves 3. That Lay-Communion with the Church of England is the same in our Times that it was in the Times of the old Nonconformists and that the Church of England hath as much to say for it self now as it had then 4. That therefore the new Separation doth not in reality differ from the old and is truly Schism if either they or the old Nonconformists spoke true Now this I look upon as a very covenient Method to bring the Case to a Decision but because I will shew how willing I am to meet you and how confident I am in the goodness of my Cause I shall take that course which will more readily lead me to make use of the Sermon though in the pursuing of that I shall also say what will serve for the proof of the Propositions before laid down In the first place it will be necessary to shew what Schism is Now that as may be collected from Mr. Jenkin here is a perverse or undue separation from Church-Communion pag. 21 22. or a voluntary and unnecessary dividing and separation from a true Church pag. 31. And upon this Definition I shall proceed and shew 1. That the Church of England is a true Church 2. That there is a Separation from it 3. That this Separation is voluntary and unnecessary 4. That therefore the present Separation is schismatical 1. That the Church of England is a true Church But here we are put to it to tell what the Church of England is by the Author of Sacrilegious Desertion pag. 35. We are told saith he of Schism from the Church of England when I would give all the Money in my Purse to make me understand what the Church of England is I might here without any more ado refer him to Mr. Baxter for resolution of whom Mr. Hickman saith in his Bonasus Vapulans printed the same Year pag. 138. That he has Communion with the Church of England in all Ordinances who cannot but certainly know what that Church is or else how can he hold Communion with it But because there is so great a Profit like to attend it and in compassion to him that hath there raised so much dust that he cannot see his own way I shall for once tell him what it is by Wise Men thought to be viz. That Company of Persons in this Nation that doth joyn together in the Ordinances of God according to the Laws established amongst us
of Discipline than from the allowance or neglect of the Church it self If you would see more of their Opinion formerly as to this case I refer you to Mr. Brinsley in his Arraignment of Schism pag. 32. to Mr. Firmin in his Separation examined pag. 28. the Confutation of the Brownists published by Mr. Rathband pag 18. and Mr. Vines on the Sacrament pag. 22. 6. We must not separate from a Church as long as Christ holds Communion with it So Mr. Jenkin here pag. 36. saith Separation from Churches from which Christ doth not separate is Schismatical So Mr. Vines on the Sacrament pag. 242. If God afford his Communion with a Church by his own Ordinances and his Grace and Spirit we are not to separate It would be unnatural and peevish in a Child to forsake his Mother while his Father owns her for his Wife Now whether Christ holds not Communion with our Church I refer you to the several Marks given in this Sermon by Mr. Jenkin p. 32. such as the having the Gospel of Salvation preached in an ordinary way c. which you may compare with what is said in the Vindication of the Provincial Assembly pag 141. And so much is expresly granted by T. P. or rather D. as Mr. Crofton unriddles it in his Jerubbaal wrote in answer to Mr. Crofton 1662. pag. 18. The Essentials constitutive of a True Church are 1. The Head 2. The Body 3. The Union that is between them Which three concurring in the Church of England Christ being the professed Head She being Christs professed Body and the Catholick Faith being the Union-bond whereby they are coupled together She cannot in justice be denied a True though God knows far from a pure Church So much is granted by the Author of Nonconformists no Schismaticks pag. 13. who having started an Objection viz. You own the Church of England to be a true Church of Christ and if so Christ is in it and with it and why will you leave that Church from which Christ is not withdrawn Replies after this sort We acknowledge the Church of England to be a true Church and that we are Members of the same visible Church with them but it 's one thing to leave a Church and another thing to leave her external Communion To leave a Church is to disown it and cease to be a Member of it or with it by ceasing to have those Requisites that constitute a Member of it as Faith and Obedience I will not quarrel at this time with the distinction but I do not understand what service it can be of to them when after all the accuracy of it such that have nothing more to say will notwithstanding that be Schismaticks if his own Definition of Schism hold true for pag. 12. he saith That Schism is a causeless separation of one part of the Church from another in external Communion Now if the Church of England is so a Church that Christ holds Communion with it and they Members of that Church as he acknowledgeth then they that leave her external Communion are guilty of Schism and then it 's no matter whether there be any difference betwixt leaving a Church and leaving her external Communion when the least of them makes those that are guilty of it to be Schismaticks To sum up now what hath been said Though there be Errors in a Church if not fundamental though there be corruption of Manners mixture in Communion though there be not a perfect Constitution and Order and other Churches may be thought better yet if it hath the Scripture-Characters of a true Church upon it and Christ holds Communion with it it is not to be separated from and Separation from it is Schismatical So that as far as the Negative part holds we are secure 2. For what Reasons may a Church be separated from and Persons be justified in it Dr. Manton on Jude pag. 496. saith The onely lawful grounds of Separation are three viz. Intolerable Persecution Damnable Heresie and gross Idolatry To which Mr. Jenkin doth here pag. 23. add unjust Excommunication and a necessary Communion with a Church in its Sins All which I shall now consider and enquire whether they are Causes existent at the present amongst us and what they of the Separation have reason to plead 1. Damnable Heresie This I have before sufficiently acquitted our Church of and therefore conceive that I may without more ado proceed 2. Gross Idolatry I find those that deny the lawfulness of hearing the established Ministers are most forward to charge this upon us With this the confident Author of Prelatique Preachers none of Christs Teachers that he might possess the unwary Reader betimes thought safest to begin his Book viz. The Idolatrous madness of the Common-Prayer-Book-Worship hath of late been made so manifest to all the Houshold of Faith in this Nation As if it was a thing so certain plain and notorious that he must not be one of the Houshold of Faith that doth not discern it and abhor the Church for it With the like boldness are we assaulted by the Author of A Christian and sober Testimony against sinful Compliance or the unlawfulness of hearing the present Ministers of the Church of England pag. 55. printed 1664. An Author of great forwardness but of intolerable ignorance or malice that tells you pag. 44. That our Church doth own that Men ought to be made Ministers onely by Lord Bishops And then what a breach is made upon our Church by the Bishop of Soder in the Isle of Man that takes upon him to Ordain without that Title That the Office of Suffragans Deans Canons Petty-Canons Prebendaries Choristers Organists Commissaries Officials c. is not onely accounted by us lawful but necessary to be had in the Church And pag. 45. That Women may administer Baptism And pag. 94. reveals a further Secret That the Reformed Churches generally renounce the Ministry of the Church of England not admitting any by vertue of it to the Charge of Souls Now do you not think that such as these are able Champions and fit to enter the Lists of Controversie that take up things by hear-say By this you may guess to what Tribe they belong and you may learn it from Mr. Baxter in his Cure pag. 193. It is an ordinary sound to hear an ignorant rash self-conceited Person especially a Preacher to cry out Idolatry Idolatry against his Brothers Prayers to God But what occasion hath our Church given for this Out-cry Is it for the Matter or the Form of its Prayers Not the Matter for Mr. D. in his Jerubbaal pag. 35. doth thus say of it Most of the Matter I grant to be Divine And Mr. Crofton in his Reformation no Separation pag. 25. speaks more universally I confess their Common-Prayer is my Burden yet I must confess I find in it no Matter to which on a charitable Interpretation a sober serious Christian may not say nay can deny his Amen Not for the
i. e. Mr. Burroughs will by no means allow but condemns as the direct way to bring in all kind of disorder and confusion into the Church This both Presbyterians and Independents then are agreed in That Edification alone is no sufficient Reason to forsake one Church for another and that a Persons own Opinion of his Case in that matter will not make that lawful to him which will be the unavoidable means of bringing in confusion to the Churches which he either leaves or joyns himself to But the Author of Separation yet no Schism thinks he hath sufficient Reason for his Opinion who doth thus argue viz. You call it a Crime because you suppose it is a transgression the Law of visible Communion with some particular Church But I say That the Laws of visible Communion with this or that particular Church are but positive and therefore subordinate to Laws more natural and necessary such is that wherein we are commanded to take care of our Souls and Salvation So that if Christians do shift particular Churches for the obtaining of very apparent advantages to their Salvation above what they have had where they were I see therein no Crime at all committed I grant indeed that positive Laws must give way to natural but then there must be a plain necessity that must intervene to make them inconsistent for otherwise both remain in force as I conceive they do in the Instance here given If indeed Salvation was inconsistent with or what we run the apparent hazard of in Communion with a particular Church then there is sufficient reason for separation from it but if it be onely that I conceive the increase of Knowledge or the engaging of my Affections may be better attained by separation from than continuance in its Communion this is far from a necessity and so no sufficient Reason to break it As it is in a Family If the Master takes no care to provide for his Children and Servants who of old were esteemed the Goods of their Master but that they must starve if they continue with him or if what he provides is such as will rather poyson than nourish them or what is absolutely forbid as Swines flesh under the Law in such a case they may shift for themselves and refuse to live with him till he mends their Condition But if what he provides is lawful wholesom and sufficient though not of so good nourishment as might be wished they are to content themselves and to keep within the bounds of Duty and Observance So it is here If we were in a Church that either denied us what is necessary to Salvation or that would engage us to do what will bring it into imminent hazard we have an unquestionable Reason to forbear Communion with her But when the means of Salvation that we enjoy are sufficient to it and what we deliberate about is onely the Degree and Measure what is better and fitter we cannot quit a Church without sin and our departure is unnecessary And that will further appear if we consider 1. That no further Knowledge or Edification is necessary than what we can attain to in a lawful way and what is otherwise lawful in it self by taking an undue course for it is made unlawful As Hearing Reading and Christian Converse are very fit Means for my Improvement but if I for it do injure my Family and neglect my Calling it is so far from being my duty that it is my sin So to edifie my self and to acquire a greater measure of Knowledge and Christian Vertues is a noble and most excellent End but if I for it break off Communion with the Church whereof I am a Member I make my self a Transgressor All which if well considered the falacy of our Author's Argument will appear For suppose I reason thus The Laws of particular Families are but postive and therefore subordinate to Laws more necessary such is that wherein we are commanded to take care of our Souls and therefore if I neglect the former for the good of the latter I see no Crime therein committed Would not this appear very conceited and imaginary And if it 's false here it is so in the Case that he offers The grounds of his mistake herein seem to be 1. That he was so intent upon the positive Laws of particular Churches that he had no respect to Church-communion in it self which is highly necessary by which means he did not consider that this Principle of shifting Communion for the expectation of further Improvement is what tends so to the dissolution of a Church that he that holds it is capable of continuing in no Communion whatsoever and what cannot be put in practice but confusion in and breaking up of Churches will most certainly follow This was what they of New-England had experience of and therefore provided against in their Platform of Church-Discipline cap. 3. Church-Members say they may not depart from the Church and so one from another as they please nor without just and weighty cause Such departure tends to the dissolution of the Body Just Reasons for a Members removal of himself are 1. If a man cannot continue without sin 2. In case of Persecution But not a word of a more profitable Ministry and greater edification Now if this be the necessary and constant Effect of this Principle it cannot be true 2. Another ground of his mistake seems to be That the notion of a particular Church led him to think that their separation into Societies distinct from our Church was no more than to go from one Parish-Church to another which is also the conceit of the Author of Sacrilegious Desertion This he insinuates pag. 66. But this is apparently false as I have shewed in part before and which will be further evident if you observe that their Agreement with us in Thirty six of our Articles makes them to be no more of us whilst they differ in the others that refer to our Constitution and which they separate from us for as they profess than that of the Independents made them one with the Presbyterians who in all matters of Faith did freely and fully consent to the Confession published by the Assembly the things of Church-Government and Discipline onely excepted as they say in the Preface to the Platform of Church-Discipline in New-England And much to the same purpose is that of the Congregational Churches met at the Savoy 1658. But yet for all this they neither of them think themselves one with the other and the Independents for their separation were notwithstanding accused of Schism by the other 2. This Course is unnecessary and so unlawful because even in the way in which a Person is whilst a Member of a true Church in the sense all along spoken of he may attain to all due Improvement The Author of Prelatique Preachers none of Christs Teachers pag. 31. to encourage People rather to sit at home than hear the Publick Ministers tells them That