the Saints as Fellow Members I desire to be resolved who those Saints are Not the reformed Protestants not the Primitive Christians you exclude both their Church being not separate if they be acknowledged Members of the Catholick Church they are interested in the Communion of Saints expressed in the Creed And then your separation from them amounts to a separation from the Church and the Communion specified in the Creed To ascend higher are the Apostles the Saints you own a Communion with Then prove they made such separations from Christian Congregations as you do But you admit them not the Title of Saints let me inoffensively ask for my own satisfaction if they be real Saints why not Titular If your selves as real assume the Title why may not the Apostles be indulged that privilege in regard you plead to be Saints of the same extraction especially since us to the judgment of others at least there is greater certainty infallibility of their Saintship than of yours As for your desire of company comfortably to partake the things of God those Assemblies you have quitted do afford those sacred Comforts you have deserted them for wherein sacred Ordinances are most comfortably because most charitably celebrated Being private Persons or Pastors of a Parochial Church we are principled to be Converts not Judges to exercise severity in repentance not censure to be inquisitors in our own Breasts to condemn none but our selves Religion is not tainted with Faction among us nor Zeal stained with Schism We bewail the practical prophaneness of any that the same tincture of Grace is not visible in Worship and in Life however our wickedness is not in Gilgal as to this charge God's pure Ordinances are not slurred not vitiated much less vacated rendred ineffectual by mens impure desailances unless to themselves only To the pure all things are pure The LETTER Therefore do humbly offer these ensuing grounds to your serious consideration desiring your judgement on them and thoughts of them The ANSWER I take no felicity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Nazianzens expression to mould Divinity into a Comedy I shall not by the Divine assistance fail of a serious Discussion of your Advertisements weighing them in the ballance of Reason and Religion I am not so improvident an Enemy to a numerous Family as to be peevishly wedded to clouded Tenets could I be rationally and conscienciously divorced from them I should not stick to pen my own Retractations according to the laudable Example of St. Austin The LETTER That there is a Church of God here on Earth all do agree in concerning the Matter and Form in general there is no great difference That it is coetus fidelium a company of people called out and segregated from the World by the Word to walk together in the Gospel of Jesus is granted The ANSWER The quod sit that there is a Church is uncontrolled undiscussed the quid sit what that Church is is the subject of Ancient and Modern Debates Here the Logick Rule is to be observed Ambiguous words are first to be distinguish'd then defined The Church is either Universal or Particular Grand Differences being loudly prosecuted touching the Matter and Form of both The Romanists comprehend Miscreants Reprobates for material parts and Members of the Catholick Church the Reformed allow only Elect Persons to be true and real Members of this Church yet they avouch vitious Christians nay scandalous till excommunicated to be Members of a particular visible Church but the Separatists do quite expunge raze them out The Romanists exact not as a consecutive but a constitutive essential Note as a formal mark of every particular Church Subjection to the Pope The Separatists require a Church Covenant an evidence if not assurance of the grace of every Member The Reformed Protestants dissent from both But not to tread out of your track Your Latin definition of the Church coetus fidelium is accommodated to the inward Church invisible Though an Assembly if particular be an object of Sense Believers properly are not But your English illustration of it is the Character of the outward visible Church that walk in the profession of the Gospel of Jesus If they walk whether in the Notion of Nature or Scripture if they profess they must be visible This is to shuffle together Disparata The LETTER 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints by calling is Scripture Definition Rom. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 33. but how far these terms may be understood how far extended and wherein restrained is the controversie The ANSWER I shall not except at the Etymologie nor the Scripture definition but the Restriction of it That 's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main hinge of the Question If you understand Saints by calling of an inward effectual vocation the Testimony is an impertinency as to our debate touching an outward visible Church If you understand it of an outward Vocation remember our Saviours uncontrolled Maxime many are called but few are chosen This suites with a mixt Communion with an outward profession take Aretius his rational descant on St. Pauls Character How are they called Saints since it is certain many Novices in belief yea notorious lewd wretches in life were among them whereto he frames a double answer They were Saints by calling because called to Sanctity and endowed with preparatory Graces Because the better part were Holy the rest were Saints in the judgement of Charity though not of Infallibility It is the Candor the Rhetorick of the Apostle that the Title might be a Lecture the name a charm to Holiness Zanchy under the name of Saints apprehends titular professing Christians but the faithful distinguish'd severed from these by the Apostle to be sincere Believers Thus your first Citation is a Nominal definition of Christians nominal professional not real habitual outwardly interested by Baptism though not inwardly regenerated Saints by destination by designation not in conversation not in the least perfection of parts much less of degrees Your second Citation 1 Cor. 14. 33. is less advantageous to advance your design God is not the Author of confusion not of dissention in the vulgar Latin not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of tumult but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints That is in all Christian Churches that are called obliged to be Saints If you observe your separation to be the source of dissention of confusion admitting no dependance no subordination it will appear at a great distance from those Apostolical Churches of the Saints especially if you note the coherence in the Claromonte Edition approved by Beza and other Reformed Divines immediately adjoyning to the 33 verse the 36 37 38 39 40 th vers and annexing 34 35 vers to the 40 th What came the Word of God from you or to you only The ophylact thus illustrates it You are neither the prime nor the sole Believers It behooves you to entertain that with affection with submission which hath
the approbation of the Christian World St. Paul conjures the Corinthians by the Examples of all Churches The same Argument unsinews your separation not to run counter with all Christian Churches Produce one Christian undoubted Church of your separate strain not universally branded for Schismatical Phyllida solus habebis The true Church shall be yours You may derive your Pedigree from the Novatians and Donatists who boulted some of your Tenets for Separation and Constitution These will discover some lineaments of your Complexion not the intire proportion However if you are Saints upon their account they were not Hereticks and if they were Hereticks upon your account your selves are not Saints If you acknowledge them not Hereticks you reject the Judgement of all Christian Churches in all Ages since their Heresies were broached Sysinnius counsel to Theodosius was prudent to move Innovators to stand to the Judgement of the Church before Division I tender to you the determination of our Question by the suffrage and practice of the Reformed Churches before your separation was raked out of the Embers it was enwrapped in or else to the Primitive Churches either before the flame of the Novatians and Donatists was kindled or after it was extinguish'd by the vigorous Confutations of the Fathers and the Pious Sanctions of Christian Emperors and Councils If in despight of these you will persist in contention in separation my Refuge is the Apostles Apology We have no such custome nor the Churches of God The LETTER Visible Saints must be but how far Saints must be discovered The Word I suppose carries in it a holy separation to God a people separated for his service for his glory and how wicked men having only a bare outward profession may be such is unknown to me whom the Scripture speaks otherwise of Tit. 1. Prov. 8. 9. The ANSWER There is not an exact necessity of that Visibility so far as to conclude no Sanctity if no Visibility no Church if no lustre There may be Gold in the Ore obscured not yet resplendent refined Bullion Where was the Visibility when the Primitive Christians during the brunt of Pagan persecution betook themselves for security to remote Deserts to obscure Caves when Prisons were the sole Oratories and Temples when the Churches were universally demolished the Sacred Scriptures burnt the Christians disrobed disfranchised stript of their Dignities immunities deprived of their liberties and lives by the fierce Edicts of Dioclesian Where was the Church visible when it was o'erspread with a cloud of Arrianism Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius Eliah discovered not one Saint but himself yet God vindicated seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal We are not visible Saints to you nor you perhaps to us Veniam damus petimusque vicissim I pray God we may be all visible Saints to him I confess that to be a Saint imports a holy separation a people separated for the Divine Service and Glory Those you have abandoned are so servered dedicated by Baptism They who demonstrate only a bare outward profession may be Saints outwardly formally for profession though not inwardly really as touching affection touching sincere Religion Yet in this defect of entire genuine Purity the good are not to be eschewed for the evil but the evil are to be tolerated for the good I shall wave your first Quotation Tit. 1. no verse being specified I shall not contend in a roving conjecture in a dark conflict like the Andabates I presume you intended not the whole Chapter for a Proof this were a fondness of separation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the vehement affection of the Platonists whose intellectuals being prepossest with numbers imagined number an Essential in every constitution Your second Appeal is to Prov. 15. 8 9. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the righteous is acceptable to him The way of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth righteousness If you can dispense with Charity to brand those you separate from to be wicked If you can dispense with Humility to repute your selves righteous yet this is no Argument for separation The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination therefore The Sacrifice of the godly mingled with the wicked is abomination you conclude more than you premise Judas eating the Paschal Lamb as for his own personal action was an abomination but this had no reflection on his associates in that oblation the Apostles Their Piety did not sanctifie and acquit him nor did his iniquity defile and condemn them The LETTER The manner also of their coming into such a condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints called not Saints compelled or Saints making their Saintships their Calling their Profession not enemies to Holiness This by the way The ANSWER It is true Religion ought to be perswaded not constrained Faith and Innocence are not the products of power and violence Piety is not savoury if not voluntary Yet tempers are to be distinguished mens dispositions being as different as their complexions Some are moulded like Wax for the impressions of the Sacred Spirit Others are to be hewen like stones to be squared and polished Materials for the Temples of the holy Ghost Of some take compassion making a difference or commiserate those that are staggering according to a famous Manuscript others save with fear Beza interprets it with terrour pulling them out of the fire Though compulsion is not allowable in the grafting the planting of Religion yet it is in the fencing and pruning of it It cannot be compelled secundum actum imperatum for the inward apprehension it may to outward profession secundum actum elicitum I grant that Saints ought to make Saintship their Calling or rather their Calling makes them Saints When their conversation contradicts their Vocation their Profession the crime is the greater when our works confound our words our lives check with our names The title of a Saint is the impeachment of a Miscreant Your Proof if logically examined is fallacious Wicked men are enemies to holiness therefore not Saints Members of a Church It is ignoratio Elenchi In the same consideration they are not Saints and Enemies to Holiness Their Saintship is in appearance their enmity to Sanctity in substance Holy at least as Professors though unholy as Malefactors This by the way as you express it is indeed a by way out of the Orthodox road of the Jews and Christians It is with new Tenets saith St. Epiphanius as with new ways wherein when men are once engaged they will proceed on with hazard of safety rather than return with any fear of infamy The LETTER I shall briefly speak something concerning a separation from the Church of England in propounding these two Queries First whether ever the Church of England was as a Nation or National Church constituted according to the Word of God and
those Christian Brethren you account unholy in those Ordinances you acknowledge holy discovers no stamp of the Sacred Spirit no warrant out of those Prophets you cite and therefore cannot pass for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Ignatius words for Gods current uncontrolled Coin having not the true image superscription of the Sanctuary Your two next Quotations Matth. 7. 6. Matth. 18. are repeated and reinforced within a few lines where they shall be discussed The 5 th Quotation is Acts 19. 9. But when divers were hardned and believed not but spake evil of the way before the multitude he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the School of one Tyrannus After three Months ineffectual trial not a private ordinary person but an Apostle who had an immediate vocation and commission an infallible inspiration an universal jurisdiction quitted obdurate obstinate Jews who undermined the foundation who blasted the superstruction of Christian Religion who were branded for notorious scandalous blasphemy infidelity impenitency In this exigency he withdrew the Disciples from a Synagogue to the School of Tyrannus a sort of Seminary of Piety and Literature according to Maimonides A private collegiate Academy for the Prophets and the Prophets Sons what will you hence infer Therefore you ought to separate from profest Christian Believers for their practical defailances The proof fits the conclusion as well as Goliahs Armour did Davids body or Elisha's demensions stretch'd upon the the Child The next Citation is Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues I shall not examine the literal restriction as a prediction of Alaricus Siege wherein the Emperor Honorius with others escaped from Rome to Ravenna Take this Testimony in the most advantageous Latitude yet there is to be distinguish'd a Negative Separation of not approving and a positive of deserting There may be an egress out of Babylon not by the paces of the body but the affections of the souls It is emphatically expressed that ye be not partakers of her sins of her sins not of her virtues of her sinners not with her sinners especially in those exercises wherein they are not sinners I need not perplex my self to enervate the force of your Argument This will not prop your separation till you prove the Church of England to be Babylon at least in a figurative acception to be ranked parallel'd with it for infidelity for idolatry Till then your supposition is an imputation It is Aristotles Maxime One absurdity being granted a thousand may be inferred Take heed lest you desert Bethel for Babel Jerusalem for Samaria lest like Ixion you embrace a Cloud for Juno lest you exchange a beautified paradise for a Tohu bohu a disordered Chaos an uniform exquisite Garden for an unnurtured confused Wilderness lest your Flowers be not Roses but Nettles your Plants not Vines but Briars The last Citation is of the same grain 2 Cor. 6. 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you This as the former Testimony is a Transcript of Isaiah 52. 11. Depart depart ye go out from them and touch no unclean thing go out of the midst of her be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. This charge at the first blush is confined to the Priests and Levites The Jewish Rabbines expound it as a Precept not to wave the opportunity of Cyrus consent for the Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem The Fathers of the Church enlarge this Precept to a Prophesie a mixture of both for the Christians retiring from Jerusalem to Pella before the destruction of it which is testified by Eusebius to have been accomplish'd The further application of it extends not to your separation Take the English Marginal Annotations He warns the faithful not to pollute themselves with the superstitions of the Babylonians Junius and Tremelius interpret the departure repentance the separation sanctification What our English Translation renders Be ye clean The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye separated Estius observes the separation prescribed to be for opinion and affection The Geneva Divines run the same descant that this separation ought to be purifying sanctifying The Apostle doth no otherwise press it to the Corinthians for a mental not a local discession spiritual as Aquinas distinguisheth not corporal Not to touch an unclean thing is not like the Jews shy distance from the Gentiles the Samaritans who upon a sudden approach startled and admonish'd touch me not but not to touch is to disgust to reprehend not to gloze not to palliate offences I pray observe the object of the separation expressed by the Apostle in that sixth Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians cited by you It is the Infidel in verse 15 Darkness in verse 14. for the spirits of darkness idols in verse 16. for idolaters according to Theophylacts Rule of Exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things for persons Because the Christian Corinthians were required to separate from the damned Fiends from branded Idolaters Pagan Infidels in their unrighteous idolatrous Sacrifices and Feasts Will you hence induce a justification of your separation from Professors in Christian Sacramental Actions It is a very lame consequence Lastly it is observable what kind of mixture is taxed prohibited in the Apostles perswasive invective in the sixth Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians It is a yoking which imports binding and linking jugum à jungendo an unequal yoking of Piety with Infidelity of Christianity with Paganism like that of the Tuscan Tyrant of the living with the dead It is not only expressed a participation or Fellowship not only a Communion or rather Communication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in verse 14. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not convention according to the vulgar Latin but consent not an Assembly but an Harmony in verse 15. like several Musical Instruments tuned to an exact melody saith Aretius nay entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not barely an agreement not meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an assimilation a resemblance as the old Scholiast illustrates it but it denotes an entire confederacy in infidelity This variety of Eloquence-is the Apostles pregnant Rhetorick to present an absolute correspendence heightned to complacence of Society This we allow not with profest Believers whose lives are notoriously vitious scandalous But this Apostolical severity reflects upon Pagan not Christian Professors I have sifted this Testimony the rather because as it hath been managed it hath been a specious snare to men of honest upright hearts though not of discerning piercing intellectuals The LETTER Who those are and what the things are we must separate from I speak here of separation from men professing not heathens The persons are Brethren the things are Offences scandals The unclean were to be separated of old