this time how many excellent Discourses have been Published for the satisfaction of Dissenters written with the greatest Temper and Moderation with the utmost plainness and perspicuity with all imaginable evidence and strength of Reasoning so short as not to require any considerable portion either of Time or Cost so suited to present Circumstances as to obviate every material Objection that is made against Communion with us and yet there is just cause to fear that the far greatest part of our Dissenters are meer strangers to them and are not so just to themselves or us as to give them the reading And that those few that do look into them do it rather out of a design to pick quarrels against them and to expose them in scurrilous or cavilling Pamphlets then to receive satisfaction by them I do heartily and from my Soul wish an end of these Contentions and that there were no further occasion for them but if our Dissenting Brethren will still proceed in this way we desire and hope 't is but what is reasonable that the things in difference may be debated in the most quiet peaceable and amicable manner that they may be gravely and substatially Managed and only the Merits of the Cause attended to and that the Controversie may not be turned off to mean and trifling Persons whose highest attainment perhaps it is to write an idle and senceless Pamphlet and which can serve no other use but only that the People may be born in hand that such and such Books are Answered Which is so unmanly and disingenuous a way and so like the shifting Artifices of them of the Church of Rome that I am apt to persuade my self the wiser Heads of the Dissenting Party cannot but be ashamed of it If they be not 't is plain to all the World they are willing to serve an ill Design by the most unwarrantable Means But however that be we think we have great reason to expect from them that they should hear our Church before they condemn Her and consider what has been said for the removing of their Doubts before they tell us any more of Scruples Tender-Consciences and the hard Measure that they meet withal I confess could I meet with a Person that had brought himself to some kind of unbyasdness and indifferency of Temper and that design'd nothing more then to seek and find the right way of Serving God without respect to the Intrigues and Interests of this or that particular Party and in order thereunto had with a sincere and honest Mind read whatever might probably conduce to his satisfaction fairly proposed his Scruples and modestly consulted with those that were most proper to advise him and humbly begged the guidance and direction of the Divine Grace and Blessing and yet after all should still labour under his old Dissatisfactions I should heartily pity and pray for such a Man and think my self obliged to improve all my Interest for Favour and Forbearance towards him But such Persons as these I am afraid are but thin Sowed and without breach of Charity it may be supposed there is not One of a Thousand III. Thirdly We desire that before they go on to accuse our Church with driving them into Seperation they would directly charge her with imposing sinful terms of Communion And unless they do this and when they have done it make it good for barely to accuse I hope is not sufficient I see not which way they can possibly justifie their Separation from us 'T is upon this account that the whole Protestant Reformation defends their departure from the Church of Rome They found the Doctrine of that Church infinitely corrupt in several of the main Principles of Religion New Articles of Faith introduced and bound upon the Consciences of Men under pain of Damnation its Worship overgrown with very gross Idolatry and Superstition Its Rites and Ceremonies not only over-numerous but many of them advanced into proper and direct acts of Worship and the use of them made necessary to Salvation and besides it's Members required to joyn and communicate in these corruptions and depravations nay and all proposals and attempts toward a Reformation obstinately rejected and thrown out in which case they did with great Reason and Justice depart from her which we may be confident they would not have done had no more been required of them than instead of Worshipping Images to use the Sign of the Cross in Baptisme or instead of the Adoration of the Host to kneel at the Receiving of the Sacrament A learned Protestant Divine of great Name and Note has expresly told us That had there been no other faults in the Church of Rome besides their useless Ceremonies in Baptisme and some other things that are beyong the measure and genius of the Christian Religion they had still continued in the Communion of that Church Indeed did the Church of England command any thing which Christ has prohibited or prohibite any thing which Christ has commanded then come ye out from among them and be ye seperate saith the Lord were good Warrant and Authority But where do we meet with these prohibitions not in the word of God not in the nature and reason of the things themselves nor indeed do we find our Dissenting Brethren of late very forward to fasten this charge and much less to prove it whatever unwary sayings may fall from any of them in the heat and warmth of Disputation or be suggested by indirect consequences and artificial insinuations And if our Church commands nothing that renders her Communion sinful then certainly Seperation from her must be unlawful because the Peace and Unity of the Church and obedience to the commands of lawful Authority are express and indispensable duties and a few private suspicions of the unlawfulness of the thing are not sufficient to sway against plain publick and necessary Duties nor can it be safe to reject Communicating with those with whom Christ himself does not refuse Communion This I am sure was once thought good Doctrine by the cheifest of our Dissenters who when time was reasoned thus against those that subdivided from them If we be a Church of Christ and Christ hold Communion with us why do you Seperate from us If we be the Body of Christ do not they that Seperate from the Body Seperate from the Head also we are loath to speak any thing that may offend you yet we entreat you to consider that if the Apostle call those Divisions of the Church of Corinth wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Schisms 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us and professing you cannot join with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism You gather Churches out of our Churches and set up Churches in an opposite way to our Churches and all this you do voluntarily and unwarrantably not having any
of Christ that they were Signed on their Foreheads who were thought worthy to be admitted into the fellowship of our Lords Religion And St. Basil plainly puts it amongst those Ancient Customs of the Church which had been derived from the Apostles Nay Tertullian assures us that they used it in the most common Actions of Life that upon every motion at their going out and coming in at their going to Bath or to Bed or to Meals or whatever their Occasions called them to they were wont to make the Sign of the Cross on their Fore-heads and therefore 't is no wonder that they should never omit it in the most Solemn Act of their being initiated into the Christian Faith And now let our Dissenting-Brethren seriously reflect whether the Constant and Uniform Practice of the Church in all times be not a mighty Testimony against their Separating from us upon the account of those things which were used in the wisest best and happiest Ages of the Gospel and when their Separation upon this account can in point of Example pretend not to much more then a Hundred Years Countenance and Authority to Support and Shelter it And yet it has not that neither for I could easily shew that most if not all the Usages of our Church are either practised in Foreign Churches or at least allowed of by the most Learned and Eminent Divines of the Reformation whose Testimonies to this purpose are particularly enumerated and ranked under their proper Heads by Mr. Sprint in his Cassander Anglicanus which they that are curious may Consult VI. Sixthly We beg that those who by their Conformity have declared that they can close with our Communion would still continue in the Communion of our Church This is a Request so reasonable that I hope it cannot fairly be denied Whatever Dissatisfactions others may alledg to keep them at a distance from us these Men can have nothing to pretend having actually shewed that they can do it For I am not willing to think that herein such Men acted against their Consciences or did it meerly to secure a gainful Office or a place of Trust or to escape the Lash and Penalty of the Law These are Ends so very Vile and Sordid so Horrible a prostitution of the Holy Sacrament the most Venerable Mystery of our Religion so deliberate a way of Sinning even in the most Solemn Acts of Worship that I can hardly suspect any should be guilty of it but Men of Profligate and Atheistical Minds who have put off all Sence of God and Banished all Reverence of Religion I would fain believe that when any of our Brethren receive the Sacrament with us they are fully persuaded of the lawfulness of it and that the Principle that brings them thither is the Conscience of their Duty But then I know not how to Answer it why the same Principle that brings them thither at one time should not bring them also at another and that we should never have their company at that Solemn and Sacred Ordinance but when the fear of some Temporal Punishment or the prospect of some Secular Advantage prompts them to it 'T is commonly blamed in those of the Romish Church that they can dispense with Oaths and receive Sacraments to serve a turn and to advance the Interest of their Cause But God forbid that so heavy a Charge should ever lie at the Doors of Protestants and especially those who would be thought most to abhor Popish Practices and who would take it ill to be accounted not to make as much if not more Conscience of their ways then other Men. Now I beseech our Dissenting or rather Inconstant Brethren to reason a little if our Communion be sinful why did they enter into it if it be lawful why do they forsake it is it not that which the Commands of Authority have tied upon us and whose Commands we are bound to submit to not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake Are not the Peace and Unity of the Church things that ought greatly to sway with all Sober Humble and Considering Christians Does not the Apostle say that if it be possible and as much as in us lies we are to live Peaceably with all Men And shall Peace be broken only in the Church where it ought to be kept most entire And that by those who acknowledg it to be possible and within their power Are they satisfied in their Consciences to join in Communion with us and will they not do it for the sake of the Church of God Or will they refuse to do what is lawful and as the Case stands necessary in order to Peace only because Authority Commands it and has made it their Duty Oh Sirs I beseech you by all that 's Dear and Sacred to assist and help us and not strengthen the Hands of those who by a Causeless and Unjustifiable Separation endeavour to rend and destroy the best Church in thr whole Christian World VII Seventhly We beg of them that they would Consider what Sad and Deplorable Mischiefs have ensued upon bearing down the Constitution of the Church of England This is matter of Fact and whereof many yet alive were made sensible by Woful Experience Omitting what may seem of a little more remote Consideration the Blood and Treasure the Spoils and Ravages of the late War the Enslaving and Oppressing all Ranks of Men and what is above all the Murder of an excellent and incomparable Prince I shall instance in a few particulars which were the more immediate Effects of it And First No sooner was the Church of England thrown down but what Monstrous Swarms of Errours and Heresies broke in upon us both for Number and Impiety beyond whatever had been heard of in the Church of God And here I need go no further then the sad Account which Mr. Edwards has given us in the several parts of his Gangraena He was an Eminent Minister of the Presbyterian Party One who as he tells the Parliament had out of Choice and Judgment from the very beginning Embarqued himself with Wife Children and Estate and all that was dear to him in the same Ship with them to sink and perish or to come safe to Land with them and that in the most doubtful and difficult Times not only in the beginning of the War and Troubles in a Malignant place among Courtiers where he had Pleaded their Cause Justified their Wars and Satisfied many that Scrupled but when their Affairs were at lowest had been most Zealous for them Preaching Praying stirring up the People to stand for them and had both gone out in Person and lent Mony to them He held Correspondence with considerable Persons in all parts of the Nation and was careful to have the best Intelligence from all Quarters and professes to lay down the Opinions and Errours which he mentions in terminis and in their own Words and Phrases Syllabically and as near as might be Now amongst infinite
persons then those of his own Family nor Administer Baptism or the Lords Supper or Marry any persons or use the Book of Common-Prayer or the Forms of Prayer therein contained upon pain that every Person so Offending in any of the premisses shall be proceeded against as by the said Order is provided and directed There needs no Comment upon these Proceedings they do not only Whisper but speak aloud to the present Generation of Dissenters to tell them how little reason they have to complain X. Lastly We beg of them that before they pull down any further Trouble or Suffering upon themselves they would Consider Whether the Cause they engage in be such as will bear them out with Comfort before God another Day 'T is not Suffering for refusing to comply with the External Circumstances of our Religion that can be said to be a Persecution for Righteousness sake it not being the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr Then I Suffer as a Christian when the Honour of Christ or something that offers Violence to my Religion and Christianity is concerned in it when I Suffer for that which I cannot avoid without disowning my self to be a Christian and making Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience But where the Case is not evidently this a Man may draw Miseries upon himself and yet not Suffer as a Christian because it may proceed from Humour or Interest or the Conduct of a misinformed Judgment mistaking things for what they are not Men very often place Religion in doing or not doing what is no part of it and then think they may safely Suffer upon that account when there is more it may be of Passion or Prejudice of Fancy or Opinion of Humour or Mistake then of the real Concerns of Piety or Religion I am very sure neither the Ancient Christians would have passed through the Fiery-Tryal every Day nor the Holy Martyrs in Queen Mary's Days have thought themselves obliged to Forfeit their Estates much less their Lives had no more been required of them then there is of us to come to Church or to Kneel at the Sacrament but would rather have Blessed God and thankfully owned the Favour of the Governours under which they lived might they have enjoyed both upon the same Terms as we do In Cases that only concern indifferent things and meer Circumstances of Worship stiffly and obstinately to stand out is rather for a Man to be a Martyr to his own Humour and Opinion then to the Cause of Christ Whether this be not the Case of our Dissenting-Bretren they themselves might quickly see would they but lay aside the unreasonableness of their Prejudices and lay no more stress upon things then they ought to bear Let us hear what Mr. Baxter in a late Book says to this matter I am One that have been first in all the Storms that have befallen the Ministry these Twenty Years past to look no farther back and yet my Conscience commandeth me to say as I have oft done that many through mistake I am persuaded now Suffer as Evil-doers for a Cause that is not Good and Justifiable I shall leave with them the Wise and Excellent Counsel which was given by one in the time of the Elder Puritanes Follow true Antiquity and the general Practice of the Church of God in all Ages where they have not Erred from the evident Truth of God If thou Sufferest let it be for known Truth and against known Wickedness for which thou hast Example in Gods Word or of the Holy Martyrs in Church-Story But beware of far-fetched Consequences or for Suffering for new Devices and for things formerly unto all Ages unknown seem they never so Holy and Just unto Man All that now remains is to call upon our Dissenting-Brethren by all the Considerations of Love and Kindness to themselves of Tenderness for the Honour of Religion the Edification of their Brethren and the Peace Security and Welfare of the Church and State wherein they Live that they would duely and impartially Weigh and Consider things put a stop to the Separation wherein they are engaged return to and hold Communion with us and keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Let them bethink themselves what a mighty Evil Schism is and will be so found before God at the last Day and whether any thing can be meet to be put in the Ballance with the Peace and Unity of the Church and those Vastly-important Consequences that depend upon it Let us Consider a little what a deep Sence the Best and most Pious Christians that ever were had of it It 's better to Suffer any thing then that the Church of God should be Rent asunder it is every whit as Glorious and in my Opinion a far greater Martyrdom to Die for not Dividing the Church then for refusing to Sacrifice to Idols says Dionysius the good Bishop of Alexandria in his Letter to Novation And St. Cyprian speaks very severe things to this purpose That a Person going from the Church to Schismaticks though in that Capacity he should Die for Christ yet can he not receive the Crown of Martyrdom And how oft elsewhere doth he tell us That such a One has no part in the Law of God or the Faith of Christ or in Life and Salvation that without this Unity and Charity a Man cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that although he should deliver up himself to the Flames or cast his Body to Wild Beasts yet this would not be the Crown of his Faith but the Punishment of his Falshood not the Glorious Exit of a Religious Courage but the Issue of Despair such a One may be Kill'd but he cannot be Crown'd He Rents the Unity of the Church Destroys the Faith Disturbs the Peace Dissolves Charity and Profanes the Holy Sacrament And were it necessary I could shew that the Ancient Fathers generally say the same thing And can we now be such Degenerate Christians if we can be said to be Christians at all as to make nothing at all of Schism and Separation Are not the Glory of God the Peace of the Church and the Good of Souls things as considerable as necessary and indispensable now as they were of old I beseech you Brethren return from whence you are fallen and let us all with one Shoulder set our selves to Support that Church with whose Ruin we are all likely to sink and fall Let us lay aside Envying and Strife Confusion and every Evil Work and let us follow after the things which make for Peace and things wherewith one may Edifie another FINIS ERRATA Page 30. l. 14. for Books r. Boots p. 39. l. 22. r. Obedience Amyrald de Secess ab Eccles Râ—m pag. 233. A Vindication of the Presbyterial Government c. 1649. p. 130. Institut lib. 4. Sect. 10 11 12. fol. 349. Vid. Aug. Epist 17â— ad Crisp Edward's further Discovery p. 185. Idem Presbyter qui Episcopus antequam diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent c. Hier. in Epist ad Tit. c. 1. Cont. Aer haeres 75. De vit Constant lib. 4. c. 17. In Sanctum Basilium Orat. 20. Bas Epist 63. Can. 18. conf Conc. Milev can 12. Conc. Carth. 3. c. 23. Serm. compend de Expos fid p. 466. adv Aer Haeres 75. Cypr. adv Demetr p. 203. de Vnit Eccl. p. 185. vid. de Laps p. 169. Bas. de Spir. S. c. 27. Tert. de Coron mil. c. 3. See Durels view of the Government and publick worship of God 1662. * p. 123 124 ctc. Epist Dedicat to Gangraen print 1646. Catal. and discov of Errors p. 15. c. vid. 2d Part. p. 5. 22. 24 27 105 110. fresh discov p. 115. 162. alibi passim View of the late troubles in Eng. cap. 43. p. 567 c. See also Edwards Gang. 3d. Part a little before p. 17. July 19. 1644. Further discov p. 187. 3d. Part p. 185 c. Fast Sermon Jan. 27. 1646. p. 29. Cat. and discov p. 73. 74 76. Vbi Supra p. 73. A Letter from a Noble Venetian to Card. Barbarino translated and Printed 1648. p. 19. Cat. and Discov Part 3d. p. 52. 53. 57. 70. Further Discov p. 195. 203. Foxes and Firebrands Print 1680. p. 7. c. Polit. l. 2. c. 18. Sect. 6. Octob. 23. 1642. vid. Collect. of the Kings works Part. 2. fol. 213. L'Historie des troubles c. p. 165. see the short view of the late troubles in England c. 43. p. 564. See Dr. Stillingfleets Preface to the imreasonableness of Separation p. 20. c. Coleman Tryal p. 101. Def. of his Answ to the Admonit p. 349. Bez. Epist 8. Sir G. Paul Life of A. B. Whitgift Numb 53. p. 29. Dr. Peirce New Discov against Mr. Baxt. 1659. Ch. 5. Sect. 12. p. 109. See a Book called The Protestation of the Kings Supremacy 1605. Numb 8 9 11. An Ordinance for putting in Execution the Directory August 11. 1645. 24 November 1655. Obed. Patience p. 79. R. Bernards Christian Advert Councels of Peace 1608. Ap. Euseb lib. 6. cap. 45. Epist 52. ad Antonian de Vnit Eccles fol. 181 184 c.