not Hereticks with Exceptions That they may yet possibly be saved Christians But those that I confute charging the whole Church on Earth for 1200. years with Idolatry or false Worship which God accepteth not and none may communicate therein do thereby call all men to come out from among them and be separate and to hate them with that hatred which is due to Idolaters and to afford them no other love than is due to Idolaters or men that we must renounce Communion with I write therefore but as a Defendant of Love and Unity and the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saintâ— and the Souls of Thousands young ignorant persons that being justly afraid of sin and Idolatry and Damnation are aâ—frightned from Christian Love and Unity and Forbearance into the Wilderness of sinful Divisions and Confusions by these false frightful Names As I renounce all Canons that ipso facto exccommunicate men for being against humane unnecessary Formalities Offices yea and Corruptions So do I for the same Reasons renounce them that at one blow woâ—ld cut off all Christ's Churches on Earth or renounce Communion with them if they have but really or conceitedly such Corruptions and Defects Yea I maintain in the First Part That such faulty seâ—arating from one another is not a separation of them all from Christ when they see not the Consequences of their own Errors and man on Earth is in so great darkness that we all swarm with multitudes of Errors Now Reader if opposing all this be not Peace-making I know not what is And if the Peace-makers be the Incendiaries for confuting the Excommunicators and to be taken for the Enemies of Peace for breaking Satan's factious Peace breaking Peace Christ was mistaken that calleth them blessed And if the Zeal of the Sects which inclineth men to speak evil of such Peace makers as Troublers of the Church be the Wisdom from above why did Christ call such the Children of God O that men would often read over Rom. 14 and 15. 1 Cor. 12. and Iames 3. with â—hil 2. The â—lain Consequents of the Cause which I confute are these which I charge on the ill Cause and not on the honest ignorant men that see them not 1. That is is unlawful to communicate with almost any Church on Earth 2. That Christ having no Church for 1200. years was no Head of it and so no Christ. 3 That men must covenant to disobey Rulers or Pastors if they bid them kneel be uncovered or any of the oft named Accidents and manner of Worship And Children must dâ—sobey Parents that command them a Form of Prayer Psalm or Catechism 4. The Scots Covenant and Independent Covenant Catalogue of Fundamentals c. are made Idolatry 5. The contrary Extream is encourag'd To charge all this falsly on the Nonconformists if we confute it not 6. The Nonconformists that 1660 1661. attempted Concord by reforming the Liturgy are made Idolaters or their Communion unlawful c. II. And whereas my Writing is judged unseasonable by some that own the Cause â— write for 1. â—t never will be so seasonable as to be liable to no inconveniencies or great abuse nor hath been this Three and Twenty years 2. It is when the Universaâ— Non-Communion is maintained in Print by many and more dangerously by an excellent man in Writing and multitudes by these drawn into the sin 3. And when thousands are possest with a false Opinion that the Nonconformists commonly are of these Opinions and are to be hated and destroyed our silence seeming to them to own them 4. And when by 20 years forbearing publick Communion tho commanded and persecuted for it our hearers are brought confidently to believe that we all this while took it for unlawful and that if any now say otherwise it is but cowardly backsliding 5. It is when the Papists assaults of us and of honest Conformists as Trimmers maketh it necessary to unite and encourage all honest men That we fall not all into Roman snares and not to bid all Christians forsake all such honest Parish-Ministers 6. It is at a time when thousands are in danger of being ruined for mistake and thousands to be drawn from all Church-Worship when they can have no other than in Parish Churches 7. It is when we are in danger of transmitting this dividing Error to posterity by suffering for it as for the cause of God 8. It is when other Ministers do it not and therefore some one must And I that have no great impediment from friends or outward temptations but wait for my change am fitter to bear the noise of Censures than they that I hope may labour longer 9. And if I do it it must be now or never For there is no work in the Grave and Darkness But of all this my Reasons say more III. As to the Manner of my writings I doubt not but all that ever I wrote are faulty I am imperfect and can do nothing perfectly I herein suspect this and all my self and which is worst I have not skill enough on the longest consideration to avoid the faultiness For I have a strong love to Truth and hatred of Lying and specially a love to historical Truth and hatred to the deceiving of the World and Posterity And I have a diseased Impatience above any ordinary Tryal to hear men rage and be confident in Error and pour out words for untruths with unconvincible Fallacy and speak evil most zealously of that Truth which they least understand And in this Impatience I am apt to fit my Confutations to the Cause taking words to be false that are not to be adapted to the Matter But when I have done the guilty yea and their favourers cannot bear them and the words fit not the hearer which fit the Matter but the Disease is exasperated by the Medicine But then I think what 's needful to save those that are not yet infected and to silence reproaching Enemies tho the guilt be not cured As to this writing it grieved me to write a Defence against Mr. Ralphson in Prison and more when I heard that he was dead But I knew no other means suitable against a printed Temptation and Accusation but a printed Antidote and Defence Mr. Warner hath since printed a further Accusation with the same charge of Idolatry and false Worship against all the Manner of Worship not instituted and gives no Answer to my Confutation of it in Mr. Ralphsâ—n and said so little that I will not write for him that cannot himself confute him The Twelve Arguments I understand are likest to prevail most by the honour of Dr. Owens name more than by any strength that is in them I was willing as long as I could to believe that they were not his they being as fallacious and frivolous as any of the rest and one Error managed with above forty Mistakes But when his own Friends that have more of his on the same Subject chiding me for Answering them
so of Politick Bodies of the same species But the Churches of Ephesus Smyrna Thyatira Philadelphia c. were of divers matter and form numerically Ergo they were divers Political Churches Sure God doth not commend Laodicea for Philadelphia's Church Virtues nor condemn the Church of Philadelphia for the other Churches Sins And if the Angels be Bishops why are some Bishops praised as the Bishops of such Churches and the Bishops of other Churches threatned But I confess this is a ready way to end the Controversies between the Bishops of several Churches which shall be greatest if they be all but one But I hope that when the Bishop of Rome and his Church was corrupted it is not true that every Bishop and Church fell with him or with any that hath turned to Mahumetanism To be no longer on this which I thought no Prelatist would ever have put me on if these men speak not notoriously against Scripture against the constant Language of Canons and Fathers Historians and Lawyers and all Antiquity and all Christian Countreys and Divines yea even those that at Trent would have had only the Pope to be of immediate Divine Right then I know not any thing by Reading And if poor Nonconformists must be put to defend themselves against such singularities and be Schismaticks unless they will differ from all the Christian World of all Ages there is no Remedy § 7. But p. 5 6. he tells us that a Church is made by a Divine Covenant God only can constitute a Church Such Persons if there be any so absurd are not worth disputing with who dare affirm the Church to be an humane Creature or the invention of men And no Church can depend on humane Contracts for then a Church would be a humane Creature and Constitution whereas a Church can be founded only on a Divine Covenant 1. Who would think but this man were a Nonconformist that talks so like them e. g. Amesius in Medul Theol. against humane Church Forms But what then will Bishop Bilson and almost all other Bishops and Christians be thought of who affirm Patriarchal and Metropolitical Churches and many of the Diocesane to be but humane Constitutions and Inventions And if these be not worth the disputing with it seems that you differ from them more than Separatists do and then were not all these Schismaticks and then are not you a Schismatick if you communicate with them yea your Mr. Dodwel himself maketh Diocesan Churches to be a humane Creature and A. Bishop Bromhall much pleadeth for mans power to make Patriarchal Churches and so do such others 2. But is it true that humane Contracts make not a Church Ans. No◠alone But I think that all Churches are made by mutual Contracts and humane is one part of that which is mutual I. As to the Vniversal Church 1. God as Legislator and Donor instituteth the species of Covenanting by Baptism and therein he commandeth mans consent to his offered Covenant and conditionally promiseth to be our God But Conditionale nihil ponit in esse This much maketh no Christian nor Church To command a man to be a Christian and conditionally to promise him life if he will be one proveth him not to be one else all were Christians that reject an offered Christ. 2. But when man consenteth and covenanteth with God then Gods conditional gift becomes actual and efficacious the man being a capable Recipient and not before and in this it is the Contract that is the Fundamentum Relationis but a single Promise is not a mutual Covenant or Contract So that it is no wiser Divinity to say Gods Covenant and not mans consent Covenant or Contract with God doth make Christians and the universal Church than it is sober Reason to say That Gods Institution of Marriage or Magistracie only doth make the Relation of Husband and Wife without their covenanting consent or doth make Common-wealths without the consent or Covenant of Sovereign and Subjects Did this Doctor think that Voluntariness is not as necessary to the Relation of Christianity as to the Relation of Prince and Subjects yea or of Husband and Wife if he do he is shamefully mistaken Baptism delivereth men possession of Pardon Grace and right to Glory and can men have this against their wills One would think by the Doctrine and course of some men that they could force men to Pardon and Salvation if I believed that their force could accomplish this I would never call it Persecution If they can force men to be true Christians they may force them to be justifyed and saved and then they are very uncharitable if they do not Let them then cease preaching and disputing us to their Opinion but bring us all to Heaven whether we will or not Yea the self-contradictor playing fast and loose confesseth p. 6. That no man at age can be admitted to Baptism till he profess his faith in Christ and voluntarily undertake the Baptismal Vow And is not that humane Covenanting Yea he knoweth that the Liturgie maketh even Neighbours or Strangers vow and covenant both in the name of the Child and for the Child And so necessary doth the Episcopal Church think humane Covenanting that without this no Child must be Baptized publickly though the Parents would covenant and that they can neither for Love nor Money for many poor men hire Godfathers get any one much less three who examined will seriously purpose to perform the Covenant for the Child 's holy Education which they make II. But is not humane Covenanting a cause of single Church Relation as well as of universal I see no cause to doubt it and I am sure that the Church for a thousand years before and since Popery came in have declared him no Bishop that comes in without consent of Clergie and People which Consent is their covenanting act To make a single Church manifold consent goeth to the Fundamentum Relationis 1. God commandeth single Church Officers order and consent and promiseth them his blessing where they are met The Lord and his Angels are among them No command is vain and without a virtual Promise 2. To this a threefold humane consent is needful Ordinarily 1. the Persons called 2. The Ordainers when it may be had 3. The Peoples He that formerly from the Apostles dayes for a thousand years should have said that neither the covenanting that is the consent of the Pastor or People or Ordainers is necessary to the Fundamentum of a single Church Relation or Form would have been taken for a wild-brain'd Schismatick at least § 8. But saith this Doctor and another of them p. 6. But the Independent Church Covenant between Pastor and people is of a very different nature from this Vnless any man will say that the voluntary Contract and Covenant which the Independents exact from their Members and wherein they place a Church state be part of the Baptismal vow if it be not then they found the Church upon a
tho those that in 1661. brought us into this state do manifest no repentance 10. Lastly I find that our mutual Censures and Separations greatly hinder the success of the whole Ministry against sin while they seek to bring each other into disesteem and teach the people to disesteem them all and some will not hear one sort and some the other The rest of my Reasons you may gather from the fore recited Reasons of my Practice § 12. I confess that ad hominâ—m the Canons Excommunicating us may stop the mouths of the severe Canonists if they accuse us Would they not have us take their Canons to signifie their will concerning the extent of their Church-Communion Or would they have Excommunicate persons come to Church All that do but own Non-conformity by a word are ipso facto Excommunicate till they publickly repent of it as a wicked Error And their Writers Damn those as Schismaticks that obey them not And so consequentially all that they call Indifferent and Impose are made necessary by some men to Salvation I haâ—e this at my heart But yet it is not all the Parish-Ministers that like these Excommunicating Canons And they are not bound to reject me till the Fact be proved and I am not bound to do Execution on my self but I am bound to all Offices for Love and Concord I doubt not but some of the Excommunicating Clergy will set these two Writings against each other and say as their Tutor and Advocate doth that R. is against B. and that I am hardly reconcilable with my self but if goggle Eyes judge each line to be a yard distant from another I cannot cure them but I can bear their Disease and the effects And if any will make use of my detection of the mistakes of conscionable peaceable Christians in some matters of Communion to have a pretence to revile and persecute them I enter my Protestation before God against them and warn them to remember that while they condemn others for Infirmities of so small a degree as few men are free from they raise up matter of terror to their own Consciences when awakened who have so much more heinous Sin to answer for before a holy dreadful God even those little 〈◊〉 of whose scandalizers and neglecters Christ spake so terribly were none of them without some Sin Though Paul and Barnabas differed to a parting neither of them was silenced for it nor called a Schismatick If all shall be ipso facto Excommunicated who have far greater Sin than humbly and peaceably saying There is something sinful in some part of the Liturgy Ceremonies Articles Subscription or in some that bear office in the Church as to Government I am past all doubt that there will no one living either Prelate or Priest Lord or Peasant be left to be a Member of their Church and that by parity of reason they have Excommunicated every person in the land however the predominancy of their Wills and Interests above the Will of Christ and the interest of the Church and Souls may still bewitch them into a confidence that those are the worst Men who most cross their carnal will and interest and that the most ungodly are fitter for their Church Communion than they Psal. 14.4 Have all the workers of Iniquity no Knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord Acts 28.30 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house at Rome and received all that came in unto him Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Iesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him 1 Thes. 2 15 16. Who hoth killed the Lord Iesus Christ their own prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost James 5.7 Be patient Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. And if both sides call me worse than I am for these displeasing Admonitions I say as St. Paul Gal. 1.10 If I yet pleased men I should not be the Servant of Christ. 1 Cor. 4.3 4. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment He that judgeth me is the Lord. Senec. Nemo pluris virtutem aestimat quam qui boni viri fâ—mam perdidit ne virtutem perderet Jan. 10. 1680. AN ACCOUNT OF THE REASONS WHY THE TWELVE ARGUMENTS Said to be Dr. IOHN OWEN's Change not my Judgment about Communion with Parish-Churches By RICHARD BAXTER 1 Thes. 5.21 Prove all things hold fast that which is good 1 Pet. 3.15 Be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a Reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear Gal. 2.11.12 13 14. When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed For he withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the circumcision And the other Iews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulations But when I saw that they walked not uprightly c. Acts 11.2 3. They that were of the circumcision contended with Peter saying Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them 2 Tim. 2.20 In a great house there are not only Vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honour and some to dishonour LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1684. THE PREFACE REader when the last sheet of the foregoing Paper was Printed I received these Twelve Arguments famed to be Dr. John Owen's Whether Fame truly or falsly father them I know not It is the Cause that I am concerned in After Three and Twenty years practice since the Bishops return I was by Accusations called to give the Reasons of my Practice which yet I had often done in part before They said That my communicating in the Parish-Churches even when my self and others were maliciously persecuted by a sort of proud and worldly Clergy-men did more harm than ever I did good Tho I am bound with meekness to â—ender them a Reason of my practice I have found by experience that neither side can bear the account which they call for Some wise and good men will blame me for making our differences to be so much known especially for remembring old miscarriages I obey my Conscience All these things are commonly known already and we hear sharply of them from God and Man because Men hear not our Repentance but our Iustification Had we confâ—st God is faithful to forgive Impenitence threatens our yet greater suffering When we give glory to God and take shame to our selves our hopes will revive Nothing bringeth so much scandal and armeth Enemies against us as owning sin or hiding it