Christ to become followers of him Then amongst others as they were added to the Church they were called by the word witness that great work of conversion wrought by the Ministry of St. Peter At one Sermon three thousand were severed from the rest of the world and added to the Church Next for the Sacraments these rightly administred are certain marks of a true Church for they are the Seals set by God to his word the signs of his Covenant whereby he binds himself to be our God and receives us to be his People They are sure pledges of his love to us which we really have till we come actually to be possessed of perfect holiness and glory with Christ Whilst we have these blessed ordinances of his amongst us his word truly preached and his Sacraments rightly administred it is not the rash censure of a few giddy heads that can unchurch us If they say we are a true Church then God is ever with us Es. 45. 14. in our assemblies at all times and in all parts of his worship Lo I am with you always to the end of the world Anâ— I will dwell in theâ— and walk in them and will be their God and they shall 〈◊〉 my People Thence the Holy Ghost iâ— Scripture calls the Church his house the dwelling place of his Name thâ— place where his honour dwells the Presence Chamber of the great King c. And as the glory of the Lord did Sensibly appear in the Tabernacle Exod. 40. 34. and in the Temple 1 kings 8. 10. So doth it now in our Church-assemblies as really and truly though not as visibly as then For if the Ministration of Death was glorious how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be glorious If the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory If that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Now if God be present with and in our assemblies how dare any that are or ought to be Members thereof absent themselves Dare ye to withdraw at any time from God's presence whose face at all times ye are commanded to seek I speak not of his omnipresence in regard of the immensity of his essence which fills all places God fills every place and fills it by containing that place in himself But I speak of that special presence which he hath promised to afford to his Church manifesting himself in that place and assembly more graciously than elsewhere If then we retain our Conjunction with Christ why do ye refuse Communion with us May we not therefore justly charge you as guilty of making a Schism in the Body of Christ That we may by your own Doctrine For say the Presbyterian Divines If the Apostle calls those divisions of the Church of Corinth wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Schism 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us and profession that ye cannot joyn with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism And presently after they distinguish out of Camero of a twofold Schism negative and positive The former is when men do peaceably and quietly draw from Communion with a Church not making a head against that Church from which they are departed The other is when persons so withdrawing do consociate and draw themselves into a disitinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church which Camero calls Schism by way of Eminency Now if this were true Doctrine in those days against those who were then concerned in it I know no reason why the space of a few years should so alter the case but that it is as true now against themselves who now doe what they then condemned in others viz. not onely withdraw from our publick assemblies but set up Church against Church And therefore to use their own words Ye must not be displeased with us but with your selves if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism And that is no small fault in the judgment of any sound Divine but a far greater than the fault upon which they pretend separation The things for which they make a rent are not so great a fault in the Church as the want of Charity in them which prompts them so to doe It is a sin of the first rate and one of the greatest size that a Christian can commit in the judgment of the Brethren of the Nonconformists themselves though now it goes down gliâ— with too many of them who not withstanding are obliged to the extirpation thereof not onely by the common bond of Religion and Christianity but also by the second Article of their solemn League and Covenant taken with hands lifted up to the most high God wherein they rank it with Popery Superstition Heresie Profaneness and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness Let the words of Mr. Baxter be noted as an evidence of this truth If the Scripture were Conscionably observed men would take Church-divisions for a greater sin than Adultery or Theft Mutinies and Divisions do more infallibly destroy an Army than almost any other fault or weakness and therefore all Generals do punish Mutineers with death as well as flat Traytors Our Union is our strength and beauty commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice do but destroy that truth and piety that was there before I like not him that will cure the head-ach by cutting the throat yea it is a greater sin than Murther saith Mr. Paget A Murtherer killeth but one man or two but a Schismatick goes about as much as in him lies to destroy the Church of God Yea it is worse to make a Schism in the Church than to Sacrifice to an Idol saith Mr. Calamy out of St. Cyprian And may Christians then play at sast and loose with the bonds of holy Communion at their pleasure St. Peter could say Lord whither shall we goe thou hast the words of Eternal Life Where this word is truly Preachâ—d in the way of Christ's appointment and the rest of his worship celebrated accordingly wo be to those that are not found there also Christians in the pure and primitive times did not take this Liberty in point of Church-fellowship but by the acknowledgment of the Divines before mentioned and Oh that their Practices now did not contradict their words then All such who professed Christianity held Communion together as one Church notwithstanding the difference in judgment in lesser things and much corruption in Conversation Cain was the first that ever separated from the Church he went out from the presence of God God is every where the meaning therefore is from his Church the place of his publick worship which was then in his Father's Family And will it be
then whosoever he be that doeth that to others which he would not have done to himself nay which he hath opposed and disliked in others is as the Apostle calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of himself as sinning wittingly and wilfully spurning against a known truth sparkling and shining in his Conscience The waiting on such Mens Ministry is so far from being the Ordinance of God that he commands all men to avoid them ARGUMENT V. THat cannot be the Ordinance of God for the working of Grace that hath no Scripture President or warrantable Example to ground it on For all the Ordinances of God of this kind besides his Mandate have also their exemplification in Scripture God ordinarily working Grace in the hearts of Men then as he doth now But this private and house-preaching by an intruder in a constituted Church where there is a Preaching Minister established hath none I deny not but it may be lawfull in some Cases to have all the parts of God's Worship used in a private House As 1. In case of infirmity of Body when People are not able to come to Church Ecclesiastical History tells us that in the primitive times divers of the new converted Christians were Baptized some in Prison as appears in the story of Basilides in Eusebius And the sick in their beds as Cyprian declares at large And if any were hindered by Sickness that they could not partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with the Church it was sent home to them by a Priest or Deacon if it might be if not by some other As appears by the example of Serapion in an Epistle of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria to Fabius 2. In time of Persecution when the doors of God's House are shut up against us so as that we cannot have free access to it or liberty to joyn together with the Congregation in Prayers hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments as it was in the days of King Ahaz Thus Victor reports that in the Persecution by the Vandals the Congregations of Christians in Africa being through the vastations of War deprived of their Churches did hold their Assemblings together for Divine Worship whereever they could And the same Authour tells us that because of the rage of the Arian Hereticks the Orthodox Christians had their Meetings in private Houses Or in such other like Cases of special necessity Yet our Saviour Christ in the Iewish Church as before he was a Preacher his custome was to frequent the publick Assembly in the Synagogue every Sabbath-day so after he set upon the execution of that Function he never used to Preach privately in Houses Hear what he saith himself when the High-Priest asked him of his Disciples and Doctrine Iesus answered him I spake openly to the World I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Iews always resort and in secret have I said nothing His words are plain yet because with some Men Fancy and Affection do prevail over their Judgments and Reason according to that saying of St. Austin periit siquidem judicium postquam res transiit in affectum nostram qualemcunque quia nostra jam facta est praevalere volumus sententiam Therefore I shall endeavour to clear the truth of our Saviour's Speech in that saying of his to the High-Priest and shew that he was always a publick orderly Preacher and never a private irregular Conventicler And though the contrary could be proved yet it would make nothing for the irregular Practice of some in this Age whom I am disputing against seeing the question is of such Persons onely as have an ordinary calling to the Ministry whereas our Saviour Christ's was extraordinary in a setled Gospel-Church whereas the Iewish-Church was in Christ's time expiring and the Gospel-Church beginning and are intruders into other Mens Charges and Congregations as our Saviour neither was nor could be seeing he was the supreme Lord of his Church and Heir of all things In those words of his First saith he I spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 openly The word properly signifies freedom and liberty of Speech which Piscator thus explains Cum quis omne id dicit quod ad rem pertinet nihil veritus offensionem eorum quibuscum loquitur When a Man speaks that which properly pertains to the matter in hand not fearing though it offend those to whom he speaks Oftentimes in Scripture it signifies oâ—enly And in this place Tremelius renders it by apertè and Beza by palam both openly So that our Saviour professeth here that his Doctrine as it was heavenly truth and delivered without fear of danger or hatred of Men or persecution of the World so not in a Corner or Conventicle but openly and in publick Secondly I spake saith he not to a few Select Persons to a gathered Church but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the World i. e. To all sorts of Men in the World without any difference or distinction either of Nation Place of State even to as many as would come to hear me Though indeed for the most part he Preach'd in Iudaea and Galilee whence he was called a Minister of the Circumcision and saith that he was not sent save unto the lost Sheep of the house of Israel yet doubtless sometimes he Preached to a promiscuous Company both of Iews and Gentiles without making any difference Matt. 15. 21. Thirdly I taught saith he in the Synagogue There was one onely Temple among the Iews and that was at Ierusalem but as in other Cities and Towns of the Iews so also in the Metropolitan City besides the Temple there were Synagogues which were publick places appointed for Prayers Sermons Reading and exposition of the Law and the Prophets to the People And in the Synagogues at Ierusalem and other Towns and Cities Christ did most frequently and constantly Preach as the Scriptures do abundantly testifie Matt. 4. 23. Matt. 13. 53 54. Matt. 21. 23. Matt. 9. 35. Matt. 12. 9. Mark 1. 21. Mark 6. 2. Luk. 4. 16. 21. and 44. Luk. 6. 6. Ioh. 6. 59 c. Fourthly He saith I not onely taught in the Synagogues but in the Temple the most solemn and publick Place The Temple at Ierusalem was the place where the Priests did offer daily Sacrifices and taught the People to which thrice in the year all the Males from all the Coasts of Iudaea were to resort In this Temple did our Saviour Christ very frequently Preach Matt. 21. 23. Luk. 19. 47 c. Fifthly I taught saith he where the Iews always resort where there was a full and free Concourse of all the Nation of the Iews and many Gentiles also from all Parts and Quarters of Iudaea Lastly And in private saith he I have said nothing As if he had purposely and expressly denied himself to be what they were apt to charge him with a private seditious and Schismatical Conventicler 'T is true that
Some of the brethren of the Nonconformists have been of the same Judgment whatever this or their practice now is Memorable to this purpose is that saying of Mr. Baxter to his People of Kiderminster I ever loved saith he a Godly peaceable Conformist better than a turbulent Nonconformist and should I make a party or disturb the peace of the Church I should fear lest I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And by all the interest I have in your judgments and affections I here charge you that if God should give me up to any factious Church-renting course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step It is an unhappy degree of wickedness to be a ring-leader in any schism Every accessory is faulty enough but the first Authour abominable Those who either by his example suggestion advice connivence or otherwise are taught to doe ill increase his sin as fast as they do their own Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven An unruly beast breaks the hedge and feeds in forbidden Pasture the whole herd follows but the owner must answer for all the trespass that is committed Therefore is Ieroboam so often branded in holy Writ with this note of infamy Ieroboam the Son of Nebat that made Israel to sin His fault lived when he himself was dead and 't is often said by Divines that his torment increased in Hell according as his sin increased upon earth and that the wickedness of Israel will not be taken off from his Soul for ever It was shame enough to Israel that they were made to sin by Ieroboam but O the miserable Estate of Ieroboam that made Israel to sin his pretence was fair enough but that was no excuse to the foulness of his crime nor is it any mitigation to his present torment Let the Authours of schism in the Church pretend what they please to Religion and Truth yet how they can have the true love or power of either in thier hearts or lives that seek not the Church's Peace and Unity withall I cannot understand The Holy Ghost in Scripture joins both together Love truth and peace And speak the truth in love He follows neither that persues them not both It was an unquestionable Maxime amongst Christians in the ancient Church which is no less a truth now than ever non habet Dei charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem The Love of God abides not in them who do not love and keep the Unity of the Church Nay the practice in question tends not onely to the dividing and distracting the Church but even to the dissolving and destroying her being It puts the members of the body of Christ out of joint and causeth a Luxation of the parts and so hinders that spiritual Nutrition thriving and growth in grace that ought to be in the body of Christ. For as in the natural body of man if a member be separated from it it can receive no nourishment or growth nay if there be but a dislocation of a part so that it be onely out of joint it will not thrive or prosper but wither and consume till it be set right again so the mystical body of Christ can never increase with the increase of God if either there be not a right Union of the joints to the head or if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ligament and bond that knits and fastens one member to another be broken Now this Union of the members the Apostle saith is made by the Ligament of Love which he therefore calls the bond of perfection because as it unites Church-members among themselves so it is the cause that they communicate mutual help to the profit and preservation of the whole The members of the Church then being made so loose and set at such distance so divided and distracted one from another some hurried this way and some that it must needs argue that this bond is either quite broken or much loosned And if it be a truth which Philosophers affirm that every natural body desires no less its unity than its entity I fee no reason why the spiritual and mystical body of Christ the Church should not in like manner desire its unity since if it be and continue thus unhappily divided it cannot long subsist in its entity As a tottering wall of stones heaped up together without mortar or binding is easily shaken and thrown down so must the Church be soon brought to ruine if this distracting and dividing course be suffered and practised By concord and good agreement among Christians the Church grows and is enlarged So by their discords and divisions it will in short time perish and come to nothing Say I this onely Or say not the brethren of the Nonconformists the same He that is not the Son of peace is not the Son of God saith Mr. Baxter all other sins destroy the Church consequentially but division and separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joining the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Believe not those to be the Church's friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Pro Ecclesia clamitant saith St. Cyprian of such they cry out for the Church but contra Ecclesiam dimicant their practice is a fighting against the Church And that not by open and professed hostility but by secret and unseen Policy Their pretences are friendly but their actions mischievous their voice like Iacob's but their hands like Esau's Thirdly it hinders the Communion of Saints that holy and sweet fellowship which all the Members of Christ's Church ought to have both with Christ their head and each with other When in the natural body of man the members are joined to the head and one with another they have by virtue of that Union Communion also and do impart bloud spirits and life from one to the other So in the mystical Body of Christ the members being joined to the Lord and one to another there will be a sweet Communion among themselves in heart and affections joy with them that rejoice and forrow with them that weep prayer each for and each with other the multitude of them that believe will be of one heart and one soul. Now one of the closest bonds of Union amongst Christians is in their communicating together in holy duties We are then most one when with one mind and with one mouth we glorifie God together When holy David would set forth the greatest intireness of facred friendship he described it by walking to the house of God in company together The end and effect of our joint partaking in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to seal up this Unity As by one of the Sacraments we
are baptized into one body so by the other we are made to drink into one spirit And therefore the Apostle from our Communion together at the Lord's Table concludes our Union one with another incorporation into not the essential but the spiritual body of Christ. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread A Father thus comments on that place Omnes unum corpus sumus in Christo quia etsi multi sumus unum támen in eo sumus omnes enim de uno pane participamus We are therefore all one body in Christ because though we are many in our selves yet in him we are all one for we all partake of one bread Nam si in humanis mensoe salis communicatio amoris causa est signum quanto magis id erit in communione mensoe panis Domini If among men the communicating together at one table and in one dish is both a cause and sign of love how much more then would it be so in the communicating together at the Table and of the bread of the Lord Yea the very assembling of Christians together in the Church is by St. Chrysostome called the Communion of Saints That then which tends to make rents and parties in the Church and divides Christians each from other in external Conjunction of publick duties as well as internal concord of hearts and affections as the practice in question hath been proved and by experience is found to doe must needs hinder the Communion of Saints Union being broken there can be no Communion for it flows from Union and is no other in the Etymology of the word than common Union And as there is nothing that obstructs Christian Communion so much as divisions do so when once they are made there is nothing more hard to be composed again A Brother offended is harder to be won than a strong City and their contentions are like the barrs of a Castle For as no bond is so strong as that of Religion so no Hostility so cruel and outragious as that which difference in Religion occasioneth Think not saith our Saviour that I am come to send peace on the earth I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and a man's foes shall be they of his own house This is commonly through the policy of Satan and malice of men the fruit of divisions in point of Religion amongst Brethren And if the bond of Communion betwixt the members be broken I see not but that the bond of Union with Christ their head must be broken also How can they exist as members of Christ's body which have left their coupling and conjunction with the other members of the same Neither they nor those that cause it can in the judgment of St. Austine Ii qui a compage corporis membra alia avellere conantur seipsos a Christi unitate separant They that draw the members from Communion one with the other do cut off themselves from their Union with Christ. Impium enim sacrilegum divortium est eos qui in Christi veritate consentiunt distrahere Saith Calvin It is an impious and sacrilegious divorce to divide those who would otherwise agree in the truth of Christ. The same is acknowledged by the Presbyterian Divines If we be the body of Christ do not they who separate from the body separate from the head also And by the unanimous consent of the ancient godly and learned Nonconformists in their grave and modest confutation of the errours of the Brownists and Separatists where in the first words of their Book they say That the Church of England is a true Church and such a one as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself cutteth himself off from Christ. And they prove it at large by unanswerable arguments in the following pages of their Book A proesumptione igitur illicitâ excusari nequeunt qui nimis amando sententiam suam usque ad proecidendoe communionis audaciam perveniunt They are therefore no way to be excused from sinfull presumption who out of a fondness to their own opinion proceed to that boldness and hardiness as to interrupt Christian Communion Malunt nullam habere quam non suam They had rather there should be no Religion at all than that their own should not take place They that are any way instrumental to break unity that true-Lovers knot which every Christian should wear in his breast all days of his life will find at last by miserable experience that destruction will follow it if repentance precede not to prevent it For if the God whom we serve be the God of peace Iesus Christ our head and Saviour be the Prince of peace the spirit of Holiness the worker of peace the Blessed Trinity in Unity of Deity the authour of peace and lover of concord as our Church expresseth it how then can it join it self with the disturbers of both and not rather separate from those which separate from their Brethren and are instrumental to draw as many after them as they can Fourthly It gratifies at least two main sinfull Corruptions to which people are naturally prone both mentioned together by St. Paul in one place The first is their discontent with their own Pastors who are regularly and orderly sent of God to them After their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers 1. The great fault here prophesied to be in the latter times was heaping up many teachers One will not serve a peoples turn but they must have a multitude A woman that forsakes her Husband's bed will be ready to pour out her fornications to every one that passeth by and not content her self with the embraces of one single stranger alone but be ready to prostitute her body to any one 2. And there is an Emphasis in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to themselves They will be their own chusers They will not accept nor submit to those who by the hands of the Rulers of the Church God shall place over them but take to themselves upon their own judgment and choice whom they please This is according to his opinion who expounding the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place by St. Paul saith quod sine judicio temere sunt collecturi doctores suos They shall rashly gather together teachers of their own 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers as they esteem and use them in contradistinction to Pastours for they will not admit of any to have a pastoral rule and care over them but teachers to tickle their Ears and please their fancies And which is yet worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own Lusts. Such as do best please their humours such as are of the same party with themselves that are in