Politick informed by Christ the Divine-Humane Head and particular Churches are subordinate Bodies Politick parts of it as such but not as Christian constitutively informed by their proper Pastors which all those Episcopal men believed that used the old description Ecclesia est plebs Episcopo adunata This is all plain to other men § 49. P. 201 202. He finds nothing like proof but my Assertion That the Regent part is the Informing part and if it have not one Regent part it is not one Society as Political If it have none it is no Polity If it have many it is many Ans. Reader his own words are What a Drudgery it is to dispute with such If he had talkt of these things at School he would not have challenged his Master to prove the signification of the words in his Dictionary but now he is a Disputer there is no end with him If he challenge me to prove that Rex signifieth a King and Subditus a Subject and so of the rest he will get the better by tiring me I can only refer him to books and use and men of that profession And so I do here If Politia do not signifie the Government and Governed Societies informed by Government all the Politicks and Dictionaries and use of Politick-Professors have deceived me I know Politria is sometime used Tropically for any cause of life any rules of living yea for good works by Chrysostome c. But I said enough to make him know that I spake of it in the usual proper sense of Politicians And so it is taken 1. For the stated Form of â—â—vernment in Civiiate 2. For the administration of that Government 3. For the Ius Civitatis or Burgesship in a governed City 4. For the â—nverâ—ation of men in such a governed Society What is Politica but civilis scientia What is Politicus but civilis respublicae gerendae peritus or â—ui rempublicam gerit Tho it be called Respublica a fine from the publick â—â—od yet men of that profession have appropriated the Names of Respublâ—ca Civitas and Politia to governed Societies only and analogum per se pâ—situm stat pro famosiâ—re analogato Saith he ' This I grant is true of such Societies as are One by one supreme 〈◊〉 power but not of such a Society as is One not by one supreme power over the whole but by one Communion And such a Society the Church is Ans. This is downright Heresie But he meaneth not as he speaks For he often confesseth that Christ is the Soveraign Head of the Church And to confess that and yet say That tho Christ be the Regent Head and Soveraign yet this doth not inform it or unifie it is gross contradiction as if the Fâ—rm did not give the specifying and unifying esse nemen We may next come to deny that Master and Scholars are a School or King and Subjects a Kingdom or Soul and body united a Man or that Two and Two are Four 2. He here plainly makes the Church to be but a Community which is false 3. And yet he will have it a Political Society For he saith That for a Politicaâ— Sâ—ciety to be informed by the One Regent part is not true of the Church which plainly includeth That the Church is a Political Society and yet hath not One Regent Head which is a contradiction He saith The Church must be excepted from Mr. B 's Rules and Definitions of 〈◊〉 Ans. You see to what a pass these men would bring us As we must have New Rules and Laws of salvation if we will be of their Church-state so we must have New Politicks and New Dictionaries The Church cannot be a species of a Politick Society without New Definitions of Polity Next say God's Laws are no Laws unless you make a New Definition of Laws in genere and Christians are no Men without a New definition of a Man I will not pretend to teach this Doctor but if he will go to School again I may hope he may meet with a Tutor that will teach him these Things following I. That a meer Community is not a proper Body Politick Civitas vel Respublica but an ungoverned Society of Equals in hoc associated for common good So are a company of men that venture all their Goods and Lives in one Ship as Equals agreeing on some means of common safety or any combined Body without Government 2. That no Community can make a true Law in proper sence but meer contracts tho the Names of Laws may be abusively so used For a Law is only the signification of a Rector's Will making the Subjects duty with due reward or punishment And it is the first part of the Administration in Government Legislation is the Prerogative of Rulers and never belongs to Equals in Community III. That a proper Political Body is only a Society consisting of Governour and Subjects united relatively IV. That if Twenty Governors Kings or States that are each supreme in their Republick confederate so as to set up one in rule over all the rest or the Major Vote of themselves to be Governor of the rest they make a new Kingdom or Republick by it But if they only confederate for the strictest Concord Offensive and Defensive this makes no new Polity nor Law but meer Contract of Equals tho all are Kings each one may make Laws for his own Kingdom according to those Contracts but they are Laws only by the Authority of their proper Soveraign V. That Cities are Bodies Politick and in a Kingdom are subordinate parts headed per modum formae by their proper chief Governour but supposing the superior Headship of the Kingdom and that Kingdoms are informed by Union with their Soveraigns specified as the Soveraigns are Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or mixt and unified by them But no man's Soveraignty is unlimited independent or absolute God being only such over all and Earthly Soveraigns more dependent under him than Mayors and Justices under the King VI. That even so it is in the Church which is one Political Body under Christ containing particular Churches subordinately inâ—ormed by their proper Pastors VII That a Confederacy of these Pastors is very useful for agreement to observe the Laws of Christ and to make such Local By-Laws as Corporations may do by Charter to determine their own Circumstances which the Law of the Land determines not each Church hath power which many may agree to use allowing necessary variety And the Magistrate may determine that which is not proper to the Pastor's Office for many But the concord of these Associated Confederates can make no Law but contract nor any proper new Church-form save as improperly called a Church from Accidents If the Saxon Heptarchs had agreed to govern all their Kingdoms by strict consent this had not made another Kingdom or Law they had not been made One Kingdom by such a Confederacy but many Kingdoms agreeing as one Community of Equals VIII The Relation that all
there being somewhat opposite in all men and Churches on Earth you damn your selves for Communicating with them 9. That a man may have more Communion with the Church which he Locally separateth from even for sin than with that which he is present with E. g. A Congregation or Nation of men of eminent Sanctity and Order â—ound Doctrine and Worship may by humane frailty take some one falsehood or uncertain thing to be necessary to Ministry or Communion as they say some Churches unhappily of late reject all that own not the Antiquity of the Hebrew Points I cannot have local Communion with that Church for they will not receive me unless I subscribe either a falshood or that which I judge false but yet I highly honour and love them and have mental Catholick Communion with them when perhaps necessity may make me Locally join with a Church of far worse men and Order that will impose no sin on me 10. And I would advise these men did they not despise my advice for the Church of Englands sake and their own to retract their Errours and not lay such a Snare before the People Should you say in the Pulpit If the Church be guilty of any Schism by her Impositions oft-named Excommunications and silencing of Christs Ministers and afflicting good people without just Cause then I and all that communicate with it and me communicate in the guilt of Schism and are all in as much danger of Damnation by it as Adulterers and Murderers tell not your hearers this for if you do some will think you bid them separate or be damned and only make a doubt whether most men have Noses or not XCII Qu. But is not the Inference true Ans. No it 's false There are twenty cases in which 1. One may be guilty of Schism and not be a Schismatick as denominated from what predominateth 2. And as many in which he is not at all guilty that communicateth with the guilty And let the world that is sober and awake judge now whether these men or we be the greater Schismaticks and which more condemneth or separateth from the Church of England We say that all Churches have some degree of Schism and so hath the Church of England as it hath imperfection Errour and Sin but that it is not therefore no Church nor is it unlawful to communicate with it All Christians and Churches must not be separated from that are guilty of some degree of Schism If any will turn these Serious matters into Jest and say as Dr. Sayâ—â—ll that they will receive Greeks Lutherans c. that come to their Communion his Serious Readers will tell him that so will most Sects receive those that approve of their Communion and come to them Joyning with you signifyeth that they are of your way therein But will you go to their Churches and Communicate with them You will receive the damned Schismaticks if they come to you when yet you make it damnable to joyn in their meetings with them This quibbling beseems not grave men in great matters To conclude Reader God having allowed more Legislative Power to men in things Secular than in Religion I may say this case is like ours in debate I. Some Judges and Lawyers say that the Oath of Allegiance makes a Subject in this Kingdom that the Renouncing or Violating it by Treason or Rebellion or deserting the Kingdom overthrows the Relation But that other particular faults or quarrels against Neighbours Justices Judges yea the King himself are punishable according to the Laws but are not all Rebellion nor dissolve Subjection nor oblige the Subjects to renounce civil converse with each other though some contempt and obstinacy may outlaw them Such is our Judgment of Church Relation and Communion which I need not rehearse II. Suppose a sect of Lawyers and Judges arise that say no men are the Kings Subjects but are Rebels that break any of his Laws that Shoot not in long Bows that Bury not their dead in Woollen that swear prophanely that eat flesh in Lent unlicensed that have any unjust Law-Suit that wrong any Neighbour that oppress any Poor man all these are Rebels yea all that plead opposite Causes at the Bar and all Judges that judge contrary to one another and all that misunderstand any point of Law and Practice accordingly and all that besides the Oath of Allegiance do constitute Marriages Families Schools Societyes by any other Covenants of their own and all that are of different Cities and Companies parts of the Kingdom or all whose Justices Mayors Sheriffs c. differ from one another in any point of Law and practice Or all that obey not every Constable and Justice or that go to divers Justices in the same Precincts or that go from one Justice to another to avoid unrighteous Judgment or that go from the Physician of the Place for Health and from the Schoolmaster of the Town for greater edification or that Travel beyond Sea for Knowledge yea all that understand not every word in the Law that may concern them If any say none of these are the Kings Subjects but Rebels opposite to him and one another and deserve to be all hang'd as Murderers and so are all that have Communion with them Quaere 1. Whether these men are for the Unity of England 2. And are Friends to the King that deprive him of all his Subjects as much as those that would have him have no Subjects that be not of the same Age Stature Complexion and Wit 3. And whether they are Friends to Mankind 4. And whether they condemn not themselves if they live not as Anchorets out of humane Society 5. And whether that Nation be not by infatuation prepared for Destruction that would believe them and would hate scorn and ruine them that are of the first mentioned opinion according to the saying Quos perdere vult Iupiter hos dementat As to the more dangerous Doctrine now threatning this Land that would subject England to a Foreign Jurisdiction on pretence of a Necessity of either an Universal Church Monarch or Church-Parliament Senate or Council or of all the Church on Earth represented by Patriarchs or Metropolitans or that plead for Subjection to them under the Name of Communion they require a distinct Answer But Dr. Is. Barrow and Mr. Beverley's Catholick Catechism have effectually done it FINIS THE SECOND PART AGAINST SCHISM BEING ANIMADVERSIONS On a Book famed to be Mr. Raphson's LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1684. TO THE READER Reader WHEN I had Written the first of these Discourses I came after to know more of the Authors Iudgment by another Book against me which I also Answered but it lyeth by unprinted I also wrote for the use of some private Friends my Reasons for Communion with those Parish-Churches who have Capable Ministers which many Importuned me to Print but that also is yet undone But a Book famed to
have not met with them § 3. But though little Sects for this use some appearance of Scripture-reason as the Anabaptists that say The unbaptized are no Church-Members but you are all unbaptized c. yet there are few big Sects but worldly advantage and cheating Words and Names are the strength of their Cause by which they do more than by any sober shew of reason The assumed names of the Church and Catholicks and Ancient and the Names of Hereticks and Schismaâ—icks and Lutherans and Calvinists and Novelists falsly imposed on their Adversaries next to the Sword and Flames are the Engines of the Popish Sect by which they defend their Separation from all other Christians in the World And such use the gross Schismatical parts do make of the names of The Church of Enâ—land and Catholick Communion appropriated to themselves and the names of Seperatists and Schismaticks imposed arbitrarily on others Next to the Sword this is their chief proof That men are Separatists if they will not separate from all save them and such as they § 3. Among all the Casuists I found none abound with this sort of Logick so much as the Resolver of three Cases about Church-Communion which when I had read I am so much against Separation that I thought meet to joyn with the rest of the Casuists who unite against Schism so far as to disswade Men from this Man's and Mr. Dodwells extraordnary Schismatical Doctrine § 4. But when I had written a just Confutation of him hearing by fame who he is I thought it my duty before I publisht it to see the Book which he wrote against Mr. Humphrey and Me because he may perhaps be there more intelligible for I had never before seen it and would not seek it because I would not tempt my self to a work which I have so little pleasure in as is the confutation of such men But when I had read it I found the Author a great deal sounder in his opinions than in his words and than he was represented to me to be There is a great deal that 's good and worthy the reading in his Book when he doth but keep off from his Schismatical cause He handsomely openeth some Doctrinals and so fairly alloweth forbearance of others in Doctrinal differences that were he as Catholick and equal in his opinion about Government and that which he calleth Catholick Communion he would be against Schism a Catholick indeed He doth fairly disclaim even Archbishop Bramhall's concession to the Papists And he handsomely confuteth Mr. Dodwell and maintaineth the validity of Sacraments and the duty of our Communion with the foreign Churches that have no Bishops and justifieth the Church of England that hath still owned Communion with them He hath proved the no necessity of continued Successive ordination by Bishops He hath defended the Independency of Diocesan Churches in point of Government and that one Church hath not proper Governing Power over another but only an obligation to Communion of which more anon § 5. But I must say That though he hath a smooth and handsom Stile for an Orator either He or I which of us I am no fit Judge is so wofully defective in Logick and Politicks that of these Subjects one of us is utterly unfit for a strict dispute not knowing the usual Sense of ordinary terms nor explaining them aright nor seeming to know what a true Definition is nor proceeding in any Scholar-like method But that little explication of Terms which he giveth is usually near the end of the â—ook when a confused dispute before hath tended but to seduce which ever of us it is that is in the fault it 's a great wrong to the Reader And if it be he I find no likelihood that any should cure him but himself or some one that he hath a very high opinion of For when his mistakes are discovered the substance of his Answer is a haughty ignorant scorn at the discovery Had he happily learnt to Explain Define and Distinguish and Methodize when he was young enough to submit to his Tutor it had been well for him But it being now to be learnt when he is a Doctor and such a Doctor Scorning and ignorant Wrangling will take the place of necessary Learning § 6. This I must tell the Reader That the Man speaketh so much worse than he seemeth by after Contradictions to think and hath so little Skill in exact expressing the matter or his mind that I can scarce ever pretend with any confidence to know his meaning For when he hath said worst and is confuted he comes over it again and scorneth us for misunderstanding him and tells us that he meant as we do So that it is his Words that I only undertake to confute and not his meaning till I am better able to say that I know it Nor would I think it a work beseeming me to write a Book to tell the World how unskilful this man is in speaking intelligibly and aptly if I did not find that others are seduced by receiving his words in the usual sence of such not knowing that he meaneth not as he speaketh So far as he meaneth well I think I am his Friend in perswading people to be of his mind and to believe what he thinks and not what he saith And if he hold on his way and fall not out with the Truth for my sake I am in hope that the effect also of this Survey will be that in the next he will renounce all his Errors save the terms and will say that he meant as I did And then if he do rail and scorn at me only as misunderstanding him I can bear it § 7. Nor should I think it a Duty in my condition to save Readers from his real errors were it not that they notoriously tend to perswade the Land to think of Thousands of the faithfullest Christians that I know as damnable intollerable Schismaticks guilty of the sin that will damn them as soon as Adultery and Murder and consequently to call Men to hate them as such and to proceed in silencing ruining and imprisoning them which is to tell all them that do so that they do well which if it should prove otherwise who can express the greatness of his sin against the Souls of one party and the Lives Estate and Ministry of the other § 8. His scorn p. 11 12. for my purpose to have medled with such Men in the Cause of Conformity no more seems some invitation to me to prevent the like But the foresaid Motives are far greater P. 35 36. While he over and over repeated the confused words of One Communion which must excuse us from Schism as dangerous as Murder and we that live among Men that use to distinguish Union from Communion and know that Communion yea and Union too hath a Multitude of degrees and our desire was that he would but explain in what he fixt it that we might understand his accusation he tells
us that he did not place this Communion in any transient Acts but in a fixed permanent state Ans. But 1. Taking the Bishops for true authorised Pastors and the Church for a true Church are transient acts Believing in Christ and repenting of sin are transient acts quoad objectum tho immanent quoad subjectum effectum Baptism and Profession of Christianity and of love and obedience to others are transient both quoad objectum effectum Coming to Church communicating obeying Bishops and departing from Schismaticks are transient in both respects You see that by Catholick Communion the Doctor meaneth none of all these 2. What meaneth he then a fixed permanent state But 1. Which Predicament can you conjecture that word state is in It 's commonly applied to Relation Quality and Scite and Place These latter I am confident he meaneth not If he mean Quality it is Dispâ—sitiâ—n or Habit sure But those come by Acts and he tells us not what he meaneth nor is it probable that this is it Relation is most likely to be that fixed state which is indeed the true form of a Church and a Church-Member and saith Durandus is meant by Baptism's indelible Character Supposing this his meaning 2. Are not transient acts the fundamentum of this Relation as verily as of Paternity Marriage-Relation c. Is any Man a Church-Member or Christian but by the transient acts of Baptism Profession Covenanting c. And do you define a Relation without the Fundamentum 3. But if Relation be all wherein lieth our damning Schism We profess Catholick Communion then somewhat more than you do For as we profess the same Relation that you do to Jesus Christ so we profess our Relation of Fellow-Members to all his Body even to those that in such Matters depart from each others and if I can understand you to the greatest part of Christ's Church on Earth which you damn as Rebels This is our profest Relation If you can disprove it 〈◊〉 § 9. He adds I conclude it 's sufficient to let you understand what the Ancients meant by Christian-Communion which in a large Notion signifies the Christian Church or Society which is called Communion from Communication which all the Members of it had with each other The plain and obvious sense is All the Churches of the World are but one Church or Society and have the same right and the same obligation on them to communicate with each other for the sake of which Christian Churches are instituted as the members of a particular Church are Ans. 1. Such large Notions may be sufficient to you but they signifie little more than noise to me Here we are told that by Communion he meaneth the Church And so when we read of Communion with the Church it meaneth the Church with the Church and Church-Communion are Two Synonimal words and signifie Church Church And in the Creed the Catholick Church and Communion of Saints is a Tautology 2. But the Church is called Communion from Communication And is Communication no transient act but a fixed state 3. If the plain sense be That all Churches in the World are one Church as parts in the whole who differs from you in that We are all then of one Catholick Communion and shall believe that all true Christians are of one Church till the Excommunicators better disprove it 4. But have all the same right and obligation to communicate with each other 1. All do actually communicate with each other 1. In their Union with and Relation to our Saviour and Head 2. And in having one holy Spirit 3. Being the adopted children of one God 4. Being of that one body formally related to Christ. 5. Believing in the same God and Father Saviour and holy Spirit And 6. Consenting to the same Baptismal Covenant 7. Having the same hope of everlasting life These are the Instances of Christian Union and Communion in Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. And 8. They have also Communion in the same common benefits Pardon and Justification and right to life 9. And besides all this when they may be had they have Communion in the same species of necessary worship the use of the same Gospel and Sacred Scriptures and Creed of the same sort of Eucharistical Sacrament and Prayer and Praise and Thanksgiving in all parts of absolute necessity and holy Assemblies to that end consisting of several Pastors with their Flocks 10. Yea and all true Christians love one another as such and live in sincere tho imperfect obedience to the same holy Laws of Christ. In all this all Christians have Communion 2. And all have right to such measures of Local Communion where they come as they are in a more immediate capacity of 3. And all are obliged to exercise so much Mental and Local Communion as is necessary to edification and to the exercise of Christian love and peace besides what is forementioned But yet 1. All Churches on Earth are separate by distance as to Local Communion 2. No Two Churches or Men on Earth are perfectly united as to Mental Câ—mmunion There are Multitudes of degrees of differences in this 3. There are very many just causes of diversifying Local Communion in the same City Diocess or other Precincts and of diversifying individual Pastoral Relation and single proper Church-Communion Diversity of Languages is a cause that no man can deny The excessive Magnitude of a Church that is the Multitude of Persons is another Suppose that I were first and alone made Pastor of a Church in Mexico or Quinsay and I am not able to do the work of a Pastor for a Thousand Souls I get the help of Three or Four Presbyters and Deacons and we all are utterly unable to do the Pastoral work for Four Thousand may Four Thousand or Forty Thousand more claim of me the performance of the Pastoral Office Am I bound to undertake Tenfold more than I am able to perform Then Men may not only enslave me but damn me at their pleasure and pretend their right to Communion with me If you say I am bound to multiply Presbyters in the same Church to sufficiency I answer 1. What if I can neither have Men nor Maintenance 2. What if I think that when the Multitude is so great that I cannot know them nor they ever speak with me or know one another any more than Men of several Countreys that I ought not to undertake a personal oversight of them but perswade them to associate in Churches capable of such oversight It 's no breach of Charity for one School-Master or Physician to refuse a personal Relation as School-Master to Five Hundred Schools or Physician to all the City or Five Hundred Hospitals tho he have Apothecaries or others under him No Man hath right to more of my labour than I am able to perform If I be a Bishop and bound to hear and try the Causes of all that ought to come under Church Censure in a whole Diocess and am
Laws and Man's interfere Christ's are to be obeyed against Man's 4. And we take not the Church of England to be cut off from Christ's Church if it should be proved that they observe not all the Laws and Institutions of Christ In this you preach Separation too blindly There are some Laws and Institutions of so low a Nature that Error and Offence against them cuts not Men off from the Church But what is his other Notion of a Christian Church Why It 's that which contains the Conventicles of Hereticks and Schismaticks which are a middle thing between the true Catholick Church and the World of Infidels as Rebels in a Kingdom Ans. This is the effect of Confusion When such men are got into a Labyrinth they go the further the worse The Truth of the case is this The Church is usually likened to a Corn Field that hath 1. Corn 2. the Straw and Chaff that feeds and covers it 3. Stricken Ears in whole or in part 4. Weeds All is but one Corn Field so denominated from the Corn But the Straw and unsound Ears are Integral Parts and Accidenâ—s But the Weeds are no part at all but noxious Adjuncts So 1. True Believers and Heart-Covenanters are the Christians in famosiore propriâ significatione analogati to whom the denomination of the Church is ordinarily given in the New-Testament 2. Verbal profession and covenanting is common to the sound and unsound as the Straw and Chaff to the Grain and Ears It constituteth the Church as visible matter as it is supposed to serve and contain the Grain 3. The Ears totally and visibly smitten are but equivocally parts that is the persons whose profession or notorious practice containeth a renunciation of their Baptismal Covenant or Christianity are but equivocally called Christians and Church-Members 4. Those that deny some Article of Faith consequentially nororiously and ignorantly thinking their Opinion consistent with all the Essentials which they practically profess are not thereby cut off from the Church but they having made their Title litigious may be suspended from some Communion till it be tryed 5. All good Christians are sinners and have errors and if any judg them Hereticks and Schismaticks for such they are still in the Church of Christ. The word Heretick and Schismatick are now become what the speaker please He is a true Heretick that separateth from something essential to Faith Love or Obedience to Christ and from the Church for that or thereby Persecutors separate from Christian Love and Communion So that here is but one Catholick Church and some called by men Hereticks and Schismaticks are true Members but all that notoriously renounce any Essentials are no Members of it Rebels is a word that may signifie such as cast off the Soveraign By which renouncing subjection they renounce being Members of the Kingdom and are as an Army of invading Enemies who are in the Land but not of the Kingdom But if any will call those Rebels that do but break a penal local Law or that are disobedient to a Constable a Justice or a Master this proveth them not to be no part of the Kingdom But he numbreth the excommunicate with those that are cut off from Christ. Ans. Yes upon these Suppositions following 1. That they be excommunicate not only for sin but for such sin by which they first cut off themselves from Christ the Excommunicator only declaring it by his Sentence else Excommunicators will be worse than Devils if they damn men or cut them off from Christ who do not first cut off and damn themselves 2. That it be not only proved an heinous sin in it self but that they are proved after due instruction and patient warning to be so impenitent in it by wilful ignorance or obstinacy against Knowledg as will not stand with sincere Faith and Obedience to Christ. 3. That it 's no cutting off a man's self from Christ to say that there is somewhat sinful in your Church Government Liturgy or Ceremonies or to be afraid to assent and consent to all imposed or to take an Oath never to endeavour any reforming-alteration of Church Government nor will it prove a renouncing Christ to separate from a Usurper or a false Teacher or run out of Dunstans Church as they did for fear it should fall on their heads If therefore any will cut men off from Christ for any such thing or for observing the 20 th Canon of the Council of Nice or for the fashion of his Cloke or for not paying the Court his Fees they either condemn themselves instead of others or do much worse than the Devil that can damn none such It 's Two to One but this Doctor that here damns the excommunicate without distinction will next say he meant well tho he said ill and that he supposed the Excommunication just The best is it 's no great matter what he meaneth while he is none of our Judg except as to himself and the seduced 1. And I add That we will suppose the Excommunicator to be no Usurper but a justly called Pastor and not a proud ignorant Obtruder nor a Stranger that cannot try the Cause nor is called to try it Much less a Lay-Civilian usurping the power of the Keys These men have so many things to say before they can accomplish their work as bespeâ—ks such Auditors whom darkness and interest hath made monstrously credulous As 1. We are yâ—ur lawful Pastâ—rs 2. The Patron 's had power to choose and the 〈…〉 us so whether you 〈…〉 3. No 〈◊〉 are your lawful 〈◊〉 buâ— we 4. We have power to câ—mmand things indifferent and if we câ—mmand a Suâ—â—lice or a pair of Oâ—gans or â—â—ruâ—ue you are cut off from Christ if you 〈◊〉 us or at least if we excommunicate you for it 5. If yâ—u think any of our Oaâ—hs or other Impâ—sitions to be sins that would damn you yet if you refuse them and we excommunicate yâ—u fâ—r it you are cut off from Christ and in a state of damnation 6. If one Chancellor or Priest cut you off all the Church on Earth must judg you accordingly Reader when so small a part of Christians in a thousand years have escaped Excommunication from one or other what have these men done in the World Is it any wonder if Kings and Kingdoms were subjected by Excommunication and to say St. Peter will be angry else frightned the Nations into obedience Did not Christ and Paul speak gently when they called such grievous Wolves in Sheeps cloathing devouring the Flocks § 32. Yet p. 69 70. his cause leads him to say that this Church which is wider than the Catholick taking in Rebels yea those Rebels themselves and Hereticks and Schismaticks May have the power of Orders or else I know what would follow and Officers rightly constituted Christian Sacraments and all the Essentials of a true Church except Christian Peace and Unity and Catholick Communinion Ans. Reader pretend not to understand him but answer him
prove If the Blind lead the Blind both fall into the Ditch 4. And this is quite contrary to the Ordination and bounty of our Lord who gave men gifts for the Edification of his Church and our Salvation if we may not use the publick Pastoral help of any better than many Patrons will chuse I would fly from that Kingdom as from a Bondage where I may use no Physician no Tutor no Food but what is chosen for me by any one that can purchase such a chusing-power And my Soul is more to me than my Body and less in the Power of Man And it is not the talk of a Magisterial Ranter that shall perswade me to be indifferent what Teacher I use as if God would work by all alike § 4. 2. On the other side 1. It is of absolute necessity that every man consent before another man can do the work of a Pastor for his Soul And God in Nature and Scripture hath ordained that he who must be saved or damned according to the Ministers success should be the chuser or refuser of that which so unspeakably concerneth him and not have his salvation more in anothers power than his own if he be at Age and in his Wits 2. And yet this may be run into Extreams and these are not easily avoided 1. Infants that is all short of an Understanding chusing Age and Ideots and Mad-men are half Brutes in act and to be governed accordingly by force so far as they are uncapable of Reason But these are not capable of the Church-Communion of the Adult Yea not only Children but all Subjects who are not Communicants may be forced to hear and learn as Catechumens as is said And they must not pretend a power to chuse their Teachers to excuse them from all Learning But if they say that they can learn better of another than the Parish-Minister if they are able they may remove to another Parish If not they must give proof that they live as Learners under some Teacher who is capable to instruct them approved or tolerated by Authority where Rulers own the Truth 3. And if Communicants will be at the charge of maintaining a Pastor whom they can better trust their Souls with than him whom the Patron chuseth for them the Orthodox or tolerating Magistrate must see that he be not an Heretick that doth more hurt than good and must keep them under the Laws of Loyalty and Peace and see that they sow not Sedition and revile not others under pretence of worshipping God 4. And no men should without necessity lose the advantages of a publick Ministry which the most consent to and which hath the Magistrates countenance and maintenance because gathering singular Churches within Parish-bounds seems some accusation of the Parish-Minister or Church and such Churches are oft tempted to Envy and Censoriousness and are usually envied and censured by others And Unity is much of our strength and beauty But in case of necessity it may be done § 5. In short 1. A good Ruler chusing a worthy Teacher for the Parish will thereby do much to draw all the sober to consent to him as their Pastor 2. Bad Rulers and Patrons chusing ignorant unskilful furious malicious or scandalous Teachers will drive those that love their souls to chuse better for themselves whatever it cost them 3. Where the Ministry and Churches are so vitiated in publick that their Communion is unlawful there God's worship must be kept up only in other voluntary Churches 4. Where publick Ministers or Worship are not utterly intolerable but greatly insufficient for the preservation of Religion and good of Souls by Disability or unsound Doctrine or Vice there the chief preservation of Religion must be in Voluntary Churches but so that the Parochial be no further disowned than there is cause 5. Where the publick Ministry and Worship are sound but impose some unnecessary doubtful things as conditions of Communion in justice they bind themselves thereby to allow Voluntary Churches to such as take these terms to be sin 6. When the Ministry and Church-Worship and State are sound and the conditions lawful and weakness maketh conscionable Christians think otherwise there private Churches must be tolerated but as Hospitals for the sick under the care of the Magistrate keeping peace The strife in England at this day is chiefly about the choice of Pastors in which good people will never be indifferent And few that I have known refuse audience and honour to able godly profitable Preachers that differ from them We are not at all of different Relâ—gions tho some say so to the dishonour of the National Church as if their Forms their Cross and Surplice and their New Oaths and Subscriptions were their Religion and so their Religion were Ceremony or Novelty § 6. III. As to the Third Case For what Reasons I and such other join in Worship and Communion with Parish-Churches And whether our practice be a sin or a duty or a thing indifferent For answer I. I shall shew what I am not pleading for II. What it is that I hold and plead for or defend III. What are the Reasons of my practice IV. Why it is that I now give out my Reasons § 7. I. For the First 1. I am far from perswading any one to commit the least sin on pretence of Concord or Communion with any Church on earth Their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Sin may seem to serve us for a Job but it will be bitter in the latter end 2. I would not have any to stretch their Consciences for Worldly Interest to believe that Sin is no Sin or that they may do it because it is a little one It is no little one to him that does it wilfully for Worldly Ends. 3. If an honest Christian mistake an indifferent thing to be a Sin I would have him do his best to get a truer apprehension But if he cannot I would not have him do the thing For he that can do that which he thinks a sin tho by mistake can as easily commit a real sin And it is a real sin to him for St. Paul saith He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatever is not of faith is sin Qu. But is such a man a martyr or rewardable who suffereth for his error Ans. He is rewardable as he suffereth for fearing to disobey God and for that which is formally obedience tho materially it was a mistaken thing If you had a Servant who mistook your command but died in the performance of that mistake you would commend his fidelity And if another that mistook you did what you bid him by that mistake but treacherously for hire crossed what he thought you meant you would take him for a perfidious knave Qu. But must a man then do all that he taketh to be a duty or avoid all which he taketh for a sin Ans. A culpable erring
judgment entangleth a man in sin whether he follow it or not And there is no possibility of avoiding the sin but by using God's helps till his judgment be set right For Conscience is not the Maker of the Law but the Discerner of it And the Law-maker changeth not his Law because men change their thoughts of it But while men are under a self-made necessity of sinning the lesser sin and the greater may be distinguished e. g. If you mis-judg it unlawful to keep a Saints day holy to eat Flesh on Fridays to use a Cross as a sign of Christianity it is a greater sin to do these than to omit them But if you judg it unlawful to pray or hear God's Word or worship him or to feed your self or children your error is the aggravation and no extenuation of the sin And if you think it a duty to keep a Fast once a week to wear a course garment or to do any indifferent thing it 's a greater sin to omit them than to do them But if you take it to be a duty to lie slander steal be drunk murder persecute it aggravateth the sin that both mind and practice are defiled with it 4. I perswade no one to own the Ministry of an uncapable Person viz. one utterly Insufficient Heretical or Malignant who doth more harm than good The Conformists own this Rule while they silence so many and tell men that those that have not Ordination by Diocesans are not to be communicated with or owned as Ministers Both sides then confess that uncapable persons are not to be owned 5. I perswade none to be indifferent in the matters which concern their souls as whom they hear or chuse to be their Pastor nor in what manner they worship God nor to prefer any person or mode which all things considered is worse before better nor to deny themselves the great help of a learned skilful godly faithful Pastor to teach them publickly and counsel them privately when they may have such meerly because it is forbidden them by men and the Patron hath chosen them another who hath no such qualifications 6. I am perswading none that are under the government of their Parents or Masters to disobey them in the choice of the Pastor whom they shall ordinarily attend as long as they perswade them to a safer choice than the Patron hath made for them 7. I perswade none by Profession or Subscription to justifie as true or good the least untruth or evil in the Doctrine or Worship or Discipline of any Church or in any extemporate performance of the Minister 8. I perswade no Minister to conform to the Act of Uniformity and all the Canons 9. I perswade none to make light of any Church-corruptions nor to forbear endeavouring by lawful means in their place and calling to reform them much less to swear or promise it were that any where required or to renounce any Oath as not obliging them to any thing which God had made their duty 10. I perswade none to the sinful fear of man or to abate Christian fortitude constancy and patience in a good Cause nor to be over-tender of the Flesh or make too great a matter of their suffering Alas what are Worms that in the way to the Grave they should be feared more than God Poverty and Prisons may be as safe and near a way to Heaven as Wealth and Liberty None of all these are the things that I am for § 8. II. That you may know the Reasons of my own practice I shall next tell you what it is that my judgment is for which leads me to it And 1. I think all persons are visible Christians who are Baptized and profess their continued consent to the Baptismal Covenant and are not proved to have renounced or forsaken it by Word or Deed. 2. I think that the Pastor is by Office made the Church-Judge whether the persons Profession be understanding serious and credible or not and whether he be proved to forsake it And if the man dissemble or the Pastor judge falsly it 's their Sin and not mine if I contribute not to it by omitting any Monitory duty of my own nor is it lawful for me to usurp the Pastors judging power Nor am I bound to know my self the Case and Lives of all in the Church that I joyn with much less where I occasionally or seldom come 3. I think that a tollerable man though unduly chosen yet after received and consented to by the Parish Communicants is a true Pastor supposing his own Consent And that he and they are a true Church 4. I hold that Christ commanded his Apostles to endeavour to Disciple to him all Nations and Baptize and Teach them Mat. 28.19 20. And that we should pray and endeavour that the Kingdoms of the World may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. And that all Christian Kings are bound to do their best to make all their Subjects the Subjects of Christ more than the Jewish Kings were bound to promote the Iews Religion And that Christian Kingdoms are much more honourable and desirable than Christian Churches in an Heathen Kingdom And that the Civil State and Interest should be sanctified and made religious and more than a Shell or Body to the Religious State as the Kernel or the Soul And so they should be as far coherent and commensurable as can be procured Yet not so as to corrupt the religious state on that pretence by crookening it to any carnal interest The Body formeth not the Soul nor is it to be cut meet to the Cloathes nor the Foot fitted to the Shooe I intreat those that be not sensible of the great importance of National Christianity to read a little Book called The whole Duty of Nations written by a Conforming Minister who is much more Honourable by his Extraordinary Worth than his Great Estate and Birth which will bear down dissent by a stream of Evidence 5. In order to the promoting of this National Concord in Religion I have still resolved to conform to all the National Laws and Orders about Religion which corrupt it not nor command any sinful thing 6. Tho I renounce all Forreign Jurisdiction Monarchical or Aristocratical and usurpation of an Universal Government over all the Christian World which hath no civil or religious Universal Lawgiver or Judg but Christ neither Monarch nor Senate being capable of it yet I much more value the concord of the Universal Church than of one Nation And do more abhor doing any thing which is a sinful separation or discord from the Church Universal And I take the unchurching of the Univerâ—al Church to be a denying or deposing Christ. 7. All Christians must be known to be Christ's Disciples by loving one another as themselves And love judgeth no evil till constrained 8. Therefore I will separate from no Christian or Church without necessity no further than they separate from Christ. 9. I do not
for reading the Psalms Chapters Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue c. But I have come into so few of their Churches that do any more than the common Pulpit work sing a Psalm Pray and Preach there that I have in that respect preferred the Churches that do all that and add all the Liturgy besides more than you use D. O. Argument 6. That which hath been and is obstructive of the edification of the Church if it be in Religious Worship it is false Worship For the end of all true publick Worship is edification But such hath been and is this Liturgical Worship For § 21. YOur Sixth Argument is but a Former repeated To the Major I grant it All that is bad is so far false To the Minor 1. And such is all your Errors and all the Disorder ill Reflections slovenly Expressions which any weak Minister useth and the faults that all men have in some degree D. O. 1. It puts an utter stop to the progress of Reformation in this Nation fixing bounds unto it that it could never pass 2. It hath kept multitudes in ignorance c. 3. It hath countenanced and encouraged many in reviling and reproaching the holy Spirit and his Work 4. It hath set up and warranted an ungifted Ministry 5. It hath made great desolations in the Church 1. In the silencing of painful Ministers 2. In the ruin of Families innumerable 3. In the destruction of souls It is not lawful to be participant in these things yea the glory of our profession lies in our testimony against them § 22. TO your Reasons 1. It 's not the use of a Liturgy that hinders Reformation but the abuse of it and forbidding other ways of duty 2. The same I say of keeping men in ignorance Use all other means and the Liturgy with it and it will keep none in ignorance Some Helvetia Ministers who endeavoured to have practised my Reformed Pastor in personal conference told me That there the common people go customarily almost every day in the week to a Sermon without Ceremonies or Liturgies usually with a Bible in their hands and continue as ignorant as those here that have no preaching 3. I think it was not the esteem of a Liturgy that made Quakers and Separatists here revile and scorn the best Ministry I think in all the World 4. Nor was it the Liturgy that set up and warranted such ill-gifted Teachers as Mr. Erbury Dell Den Paul Hobson Chillington Lilhurne Prince Wallwin William Sedgwick no nor Mr. Saltmarsh who wrote for comfort That Christ hath repented and believed for us and we should no more question our Faith and Repentance than we would question Christ. I pass by multitudes of Army-Preaching-Soldiers such as those in Major Bethel's Troop in the same Regiment that I was with against whom one day in Amersham-Church I was put to dispute from morning till near night to save multitudes whom they drew every week to hear them from their absurd Errors and at last they turned Levellers and Cromwell was put to hunt them to death The like I was put to with Brown an Army-Chaplain and an Arrian that maintained That Christ was not God in a Church at Worcester And this life I had with them long Was all this caused by a Liturgy 5. The desolations made in the Church malignant men would make with or without a Liturgy What may not be abused The Authors must answer for it Such as aforesaid Iewel Grindal Usher c. Preston Sibs Bolton and a Thousand such made no such havock It is not lawful to partake in persecution but we must partake in much good which bad men will abuse to persecution An excellent forreign Church hath decreed to reject all Ministers that are not 1. For the Antiquity of the Hebrew Points 2. Against Universal Redemption Our Learned Author here was for both these tho men abused them to persecution D. O. Argument 7. That practice whereby we condemn the suffering Saints of the present Age rendering them false Witnesses of God and the only blamable cause of their own sufferings is not to be approved But such is this practice And where this is done on a pretence of liberty without any plea of necessary duty on our part it is utterly unlawful § 23. TO your Seventh Argument The Major meaneth either Saints that suffer for well-doing or for ill-doing If the Anabaptists should be suffering-Saints I would be none of those that they suffer by But yet I would not be for Anabaptistry for fear of condemning them as the cause of their own suffering By that Rule I must own every error or sin that any Saint suffereth for 2. The Truth bids me say more than I am willing to confute this Error I have heard Army-Officers say That they believed abundance of the Ten Thousand Scots killed at Dunbar were godly men And yet you were one that publickly in Pulpit and Print accused them and did not justifie their cause for being Saints Do you think none of the Ministers in England were Saints that refused the Engagement and were sequestred for that and not keeping Fasts and Thanksgivings for Blood Are you sure that Christopher Love beheaded was no Saint Or did you therefore own their Causes To your Minor It is a gross Mistake to say That going to the Liturgy maketh the Refusers the only blamable cause of their own sufferings What! XXXVIII Error are you one that acquit all their Prosecutors if it be but proved that the Refusers are mistaken Who could have suspected this What if Presbyterians Anabaptists and such others err as you believe they do If any would therefore silence imprison banish or hang them dare you justifie it and say That the Dissenters are the only blamable cause of their own sufferings Sure you consider not what you wrote You thought not so 2. But are there no Saints that go to Common-Prayer Why do not you distinguish Saints I hope there are many times more Saints and wiser that separate not than that do And are not you as faulty for saying They sin as they for saying You sin if their cause be true This soundeth as too much of a Sect. 3. The Truth is Repentance is so hard a work that I see both Extreams fly from it on a proud pretence of Constancy and that they may not confess that they have erred It was the grand Argument that bore down me and others when we pleaded with some Bishops to have prevented our Divisions by some alterations Oh then it will be thought that we erred and gave cause for old complaints And now we must none of us hold Communion with the Parish-Churches lest some Saints that separate should be rendered False Witnesses of God and blamable But were not the old Nonconformists and Conformists as real Saints as the old Separatists and a Thousand for One And do not you now make them all as False Witnesses If really you have fathered any Love-killing dividing Error on God
Christ commandeth XLI Error it is your Church-Error For then you are in Covenant not to obey the Pastor even your self if he set a Psalm a Tune a Translation of Scripture nor if he appoint Time Place and Utensils for Worship For these are in the Worship Then you are covenanted to disobey the Magistrate if he command any of these or command men not to put on their Hats or sit at Prayer or for concord tâ—e all the Land to one Translation of Scripture or any such undetermined Mode 2. It is a greater disgrace to your Churches than ever I knew of before not only to covenant against God's Word Heb. 13.7 17. 1 Thes. 5.12 13. c. and against the Fifth Commandment but also to make this necessary to Concord That your Churches must break if the Members agree not all herein This is a plain demand of Conformity to an Humane unsound imposition No wonder if they are Dividers who set up by Church-Covenants false Terms of Unity D. O. Argument 11. That which contains a virtual renunciation of our Church-state and of the lawfulness of our Ministry and Ordinances therein is not to be admitted or allowed But this also is done in the practice enquired into For it is a professed conjunction with them in Church-Communion and Worship by whom our Church-state and Ordinances are condemned as null And this Iudgment they make of what we do affirming that we are gross Dissemblers if after such a conjunction with them we return any more unto our own Assemblies In this condemnation we do outwardly and visibly joyn § 27. IF your Church-state be essentiated by a Covenant to be subject to nothing else in Worship even the Accidents which God bids men determine by his general Rules of Edification Order Decency Love Peace Church-Custom c. then I commend the generality of Nonconforming Ministers that they set up no such Church-state And they do well to renounce all that you do ill to invent and impose while you talk against Imposition and adding to God's Word such Humane Forms But yet it 's an Error to hold That if any unjustly condemn other Churches XLII Error it is a renunciation of that condemned Church-state to have Communion with them that condemn Who would have thought the Two separating Extreams had so agreed in their Principles This is just the very Core of the evil of the Book of the contrary party which I here answer Alas how few Churches on Earth have not peevishly condemned one another it may be for Easter-day for the choice of a Bishop as the Donatists striving whose Bishop was the right The case of the Novatians Audians Luciferians and even of most in East and West are sad Instances And will such censoriousness unchurch them and forbid us Communion with them This is plain revenge and to curse them that curse us and abuse them that abuse us I lâ—ke Calvin's Spirit better than this who said Tho Luther should call me a Devil I would call him the Excellent Servant of God Too many Lutherans now renounce Communion with the Calvinists who yet renounce not Communion with them D. O. 12. Argument That which deprives us of the principal Plea for the Iustification of our Separation from the Church of England in iâ—s present state ought not justly to be received or admitted But this is certainly done by a Supposition of the lawfulness of this Worship and a practice suitable thereunto as is known to all who are exercised in this Cause Many other heads of Arguments might be added to the same purpose if there were occasion § 28. TO your 12 th Argument I answer 1. That which discovereth the unsoundness of any ones Plea for Separation is to be received There are several Cases in which Separation from the Church of England is sinful As 1. If any separate as the Papists do because they are against sound Doctrine or any good that is in the Church 2. If any renounce Communion with all the Parish Churches under the name of the Church of England 3. If any renounce Communion with the Church of England as it is a Christian Kingdom headed by one Christian Protestant King 4. If they renounce Communion with the Church of England as it is called one from the Association or Concord of its Pastors or Church Governours 5. If any renounce Communion with faulty Bishops or Worship or Discipline simply and absolutely and not only secundum quid and so forsake the good that is in them for the sake of the evil In a word 1. All that Separate for a wrong cause 2. Or further than they Separate from Christ or than Christ would have them separate do sin 2. But they that renounce any corruption as such and the Church no further than secundum quid as it is faulty do well For we must so renounce the faults of all Churches and Christians in the World and our own first But not the Churches and Christians for any tolerable faults so we commit no Sin our selves which they impose as the condition of their Communion Reader I displease my own disposition as well as others in the answering of these Arguments But when I had read them my Conscience would not suffer me to see many thousand good People so misguided who have not skill themselves to discern the Fallacies and by Silence to betray them Let it be noted That it is not all nor the greatest Objections I confess which I here deal with having done it oft elsewhere but these Twelve militate so much against all the Liturgies in the World as well as ours that I durst not pass them by in Silence 1. Some object against the faults which they supposed very great in divers By-offices Baptizing Confirmation the Lords-Supper-Impositions Burial Circumstances and Forms But these are nothing to the common Worship of the Church on the Lords days 2. Some object against the Ministers as Usurpers being chosen by Patrons and not consented to by the Flocks But this is nothing against them that are consented to by Acceptance tho not by Election 3. Some Object the heniousness of the Sins of Ministers Conformity as being deliberate Covenanting to I am loath to name them and so the command from such turn away with such not to eat And the case of Martiall and Basilides in Cyprian and that of Miracle-working Martin which on another occasion I have mentioned But were these Sins never so surely proved as great as alledged 1. Every Minister cannot be proved guilty of the worst part 2. And the Matter of a Sin may be heinous and yet ignorance take off much of the guilt as it did of Paul's Persecution An unlawful War in which thousands were murdered and Countries ruined is Materially one of the greatest Sins in the World And yet wo to abundance of Princes and People if Ignorance excuse it not and if we must renounce Communion with all Countries and Persons that are guilty of it 3. And when