Crook Dike Stock Smith Dr. Preston Sibbs Stoughton Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Jewel Grindal Hall Potter Davenant Carleton c. Dr. Field Smith Jo. White Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Fillpot Sanders c. Could I separate from all these on the Reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the Separatists of their times And though Ministerial Conformity is now much altered as to Ingagements many of the Assembly of Divines that are yet living do Conform again nor would I shun Communion with the Reverend Members of that Assembly Twiss Gataker Whitaker and the rest if again they used the Liturgy among us And if the old Conformists such as Bolton c. were alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then which was worse than now I could not think their Communion in Prayer and Sacraments unlawful nor Censure that Man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them Read over some of the old Non-conformists Books against Separation as Mr. Jacob's the Independent against Johnson and Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Gataker's Defence against Cann Mr. Gifford Darrell Paget c. and fullest of all at the beginning of our Troubles Mr. John Ball in Three Books In these you will find the same Objections answered or more and greater And I profess my Judgment That our ordinary Boasters that think they know more in this Controversie than the old Non-conformists did as far as I am able to discern are as far below them almost as they are below either Chamier Sadeel Whitaker or such other in dealing with a Papist Objections answered But what if there be gross and scandalous Sinners are Members of the Church Answ If you be wanting in your Duty to reform it it is your sin but if bare Presence made their sin to be ours it would also make all the sins of the Assembly ours But what if they are sins committed in the open Assembly even by the Minister himself in his Praying Preaching and other Administrations Answ 1. A Ministers personal Faults may damn himself and must be matter of lamentation to the Church who ought to do their best to reform them or get better by any lawful means But in case they cannot his sin is none of theirs nor doth it make his Administration null or ineffectual nor will it allow you to separate from the Worship which he administreth You may not separate from him unless you can prove him or his Ministry utterly intolerable by such Faults as these 1. An utter insufficiency in Knowledge or Utterance for the necessary parts of the Ministerial Work as if he be not able to Teach the necessary Points of Christian Religion nor to Administer the Sacraments and other parts of Publick Worship 2. If he set himself to oppose the ends of his Ministry and preach down Godliness or any part of it that is necessary to Salvation Or be a Preacher of Heresie preaching up any damning Errour or preaching down any necessary saving Truth 3. If he so deprave the Publick Worship as to destroy the Substance of it as in putting up Blasphemy for Prayer or Praise or commit Idolatry or set up new Sacraments or impose any Actual Sin on the People But there are other Ministerial Faults which warrant not our Separation as 1. Some tolerable Errours of Judgment or Envy and pettish Opposition to others Phil. 1. 15. 2. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath many Defects in his Ministration or manner of Worship as if he preach with some Ignorance Disorder unfit Expressions or Gestures and the like in Prayer and Sacraments 3. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath some material Errour or Untruth in Preaching or Praying sobeit we be not called to approve it and so it be not pernicious and destructive to the ends of his Ministry If we run away from all that vent any Untruth or Mistake in Publick or private Worship we shall scarce know what Church or Person we may hold Communion with For 1. a small Sin may no more be done or owned than a greater 2. And then another Man's Weakness may disoblige me and discharge me from my Duty Of Subscription with Assent and Consent particularly concerning Infants baptized Q. 152. Is it lawful to subscribe or profess full assent and consent to any religious Books beside the Bible seeing all are fallible Answ 3. It is lawful to Profess or Subscribe our Assent and Consent to any Humane Writing which we judge to be true and good according to the Measure of its Truth and Goodness As if Church-Confessions that are sound be offered us for our Consent we may say or subscribe I hold all the Doctrine in this Book to be true and good And by so doing I do not assert the infallibility of the Author but only the verity of the Writing I do not say that he cannot err but that he erreth not in this as far as I am able to discern Q. 35. Is it certain by the word of God that all Infants baptized and dying before actual sin are undoutedly saved Answ I think that all the Children of true Christians do by Baptism receive a publick investiture by God's appointment into a state of Remission Adoption and right to Salvation at present though I dare not say I am undoubtedly certain of it But I say as the Synod of Dort Art 1. That believing Parents have no cause to doubt of the Salvation of their Children that die in Infancy before they commit actual sin that is not to trouble themselves with fears about it For if such Infants were admitted to outward Priviledges only then which is my second Reason we have no Promise or Certainty or Ground of Faith for the Pardon and Salvation of any individual Infants in the World and if there be no Promise there is no Faith of it nor no Baptism to Seal it and so we make Anti-paedobaptism unavoidable Whereas some mis-interpret the words of the old Rubrick of Confirmation in the English Liturgy as if it spake of all that are baptized whether they have right or not the words themselves may serve to rectifie that mistake And that no Man shall think any detriment shall come to Children by deferring of their Confirmation he shall know for truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved where it is plain they mean they have all things necessary ex parte Ecclesiae or all God's applying Ordinances necessary though they should die unconfirmed supposing they have all things necessary to just Baptism on their own part which is but what the Ancients were wont to say of the baptized Adult but they never meant
that the Infidel and Impenitent were in a state of Life because he was baptized but that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying Confirmation but it never said that they received no detriment by their Parents or Responses Infidelity or Hypocrisie or by their want of true Right coram Deo to be baptized Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors or Godfathers and is it lawful to make use of them Answ My Opinion is that they did both witness the probability of the Parents fidelity and also promised that if they should either apostaize or die they would see that the Children were piously educated If you take them but as the ancient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your Duty and next to take care of their pious Education if you die I know no reason you have to scruple this much yea more it is in your power to agree with the Godfathers that they shall represent your own Persons and speak and promise what they do as your Deputies only in your Names and what have you against this Object When the Church-men mean another thing this is but to juggle with the World Answ How can you prove that the Authority that made or imposed the Liturgy meant any other thing 2. If the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your Conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient Profession of your better Sense As for the Antiquity of God-fathers the current consent of Historians assures us that Hyginus Bishop of Rome did first ordain God-fathers at the Baptism of Infants He lived but forty years after St John Preface to Infant Baptism Christ Direct p. 116. Part 3. Q. 41. Whether they are really baptized who are baptized according to the English Liturgy and Canons where the Parents seem excluded and those to consent for the Infant who have no power to do it Answ p. 117. That the Parents Consent is supposed though he be absent 2. The Parent is not required to be absent 3. The Reason of that Canon seems to be their jealousie lest any would exclude God-fathers 4. While the Church hath not declared what Person the Sponsors bear nor any farther what they are to do than to speak the Covenanting words and promise to see the pious Education of the Child the Parents may agree that the God-fathers shall do all this as their Deputies primarily and in their steads and secondly as Friends that promise their Assistance 5. While Parents really consent it is not their Silence that nullifieth the Covenant 6. All Parents are supposed and required to be themselves the Choosers of the Sponsors and Sureties and also to give notice to the Ministers before hand by which it appears their Consent is presupposed And though my own Judgment be that they should be the principal Covenanters for the Child expresly yet the want of that expresness will not make the Persons to be unbaptized Q. 42. How is the Holy Ghost given to Infants in Baptism whether all the Children of true Christians have inward sanctifying Grace c. Answ My judgment agreeth more in this with Davenant's than any others saving that he doth not appropriate the Benefits of Baptism to the Children of true Believers so much as I do And though by a Letter impleading Davenant's Cause I was the occasion of printing good Mr. Gataker's Answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgment Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized Seed of true Christians are pardoned justified adopted and have a title to the Spirit and Salvation And we must choose great Inconveniences if this Opinion be forsaken viz. That all Infants must be taken to be out of Covenant with God and to have no promise of Salvation whereas surely the Law of Grace as well as the Covenant of Works included all the Seed in their Capacity Of the Responses Q. 83. May the People bare a Vocal part in Worship and do any more than say Amen Answ The People bare an equal part in singing the Psalms which are Prayer and Praise and Instruction if they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can be no reason given but they may lawfully do so in Psalms in Prose for saying them and singing them are but modes of Utterance and the ancient Singing was liker our Saying than our Tunes The Primitive Christians were so full of zeal and love to Christ that they would have taken it for an Injury and a quenching of the Spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the Praises of the Church The use of the Tongue keepeth awake the Mind and stirreth up God's Graces in his Servants It was the decay of Zeal in the People that first shut out the Responses while they kept up the Ancient Zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the Pride and Usurpation of the Priests thereupon who thought the People of God too prophane to speak in the Assemblies and meddle so much with Holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors even when they lost the Life and Spirit which should animate them and so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their Ancestors had used in the servour of their Souls And if it were not that a dead-hearted formal People by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of Seriousness I think few good People would be against them now It is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the Words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore Exod. 19. 8. In as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God gave Moses a form of words to preach to the People all the People answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do So Exod. 24. 3. and Deuter. 5. 27. which God approved of v. 28 29. See Levit. 9. 24. 2 Kings 23. 2 3. 1 Chron. 1. 35 36. It is a command Psal 67. 3 5. Let all the People praise thee O God c. And he that will limit this to single Persons or say that it must not be vocally in the Church or it must be in metre only and never in prose must prove it lest he be proved one that addeth to God's Word Q. 84. Is it not a Sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the People Answ The Clerks are not appointed to be the Mouth of the People but each Clerk is one of the
now Published by the Collector But I foresee it will be necessary to obviate two Objections that will be made against these Admonitions First That Mr. Baxter hath written plain Contradictions to them and the Separating Brethren will adhere to his First Sentiments which lead them to their Non-conformity to which I Answer That Mr. Baxter gave them this Precaution in one of his first and best Treatises charging them strictly that if God should give him over to any Church-rendring course that they would forsake him and not follow him a step Secondly That what they interpret as Contradictions were in Truth no other then Confessions of his former mis-apprehensions and passionate heats of his intemperate Zeal but these are the Results of his sedate and rational Deliberation The great Apostle St. Paul was not ashamed to record in Holy Writ what enormities a misgrounded Zeal had hurried him into while he was in an estate of Ignorance and Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. and this doubtless was Mr. Baxter's practice for reflecting upon what he had said or done to countenance the Separating way he saw it had done more hurt than good for which reason he recanted them But these instructions of his are like the Coelestial Bodies which carry light and benign influences with them they are self-evident and speak home to the Judgment and Consciences of all unprejudiced Men who cannot resist the force of that Reason and Demonstration which inspires every part of them with so much Life and Power Beauty and Ornament Consistency and Symmetry as will render them highly Acceptable Amiable and Beneficial to such as shall embrace and practise them As for such Dissenters as have conceived any hard thoughts of Mr. Baxter or these his Admonitions I intreat them to consider whether they can answer or confute them to the satisfaction of their own Consciences and if they cannot then whether it be not rational and pious to walk by these directions which tend so much to the establishment of the publick Peace of this divided Church and Nation and to their own present and eternal welfare 2. Objection It may be said that these Amonitions are now become unseasonable there being a Toleration granted to Men of all Perswasions to Worship God after their several modes Answ To this I say that Schism is a Sin antecedent to all Humane Constitutions as being directly forbid in the Holy Gospel and consequently will continue to be sinful tho' all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth should indulge and tolerate them for the Laws of Men cannot make void the Law of God nor alter the nature of things and justifie or make that to be good which the only Lawgiver of Christians hath condemned as unlawful and as it is said of Poligamy among the Jews that the Law of Moses connived at it for the hardness of their hearts so it is for the hardness and uncharitableness of Mens Spirits that Rulers are constrained for a time to tolerate and bear with many things that are Offensive and Prejudicial to the prosperity of their Government For Toleration far differs from the approbation of a thing and implieth the unlawfulness thereof rather than the Justification of it Besides the present Toleration is far from intending or making an establishment of the Practises which are tolerated to the prejudice of the Church which hath for many Ages and now doth continue in actual possession of all its Powers and Priviledges as in time past So that as the present Schism and Separations is possitively condemned by the Laws of the Gospel so they have not any approbation from the Laws of Men but what the corruptions of Men and their ungovernable Tempers make tolerable on some pressing occasions and unhappy juncture of Affairs I beseech you therefore read the following Admonitions without Prejudice and judge of them by the end for which they were first written by Mr. Baxter and are now published by c. Mr. RICHARD Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters Of the Church IN a Petition drawn by Mr. B. to be presented to the King He makes this a part of the Profession of his Religion I do willingly profess my consent to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sense agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Errors or Heresies contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common-Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it Mr. Baxters Life Part 3. p. 161. Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. Sect. 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but Unity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church § 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the Worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the Several Members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it tho' we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion § 1. We do not say you are no true Ministers nor Churches nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you Apology p. 82. See also p. 87. 89. § 2. Where Parish Bounds are judged necessary all Persons living in the Parish may be constrained to hear Publick Teaching and to Worship God either in that or in some other approved or tolerated Church within their convenient reach or Neighbourhood Way of Concord Part 3. p. 139. § 3. The People are no Judges who is fit to be and shall be a Minister of Christ the Supream Civil Magistrate is Judge whom he must countenance maintain and tolerate The disposal of the Tithes and Temples is in the