Power of the Prince and Patron by his grant Who but Physitians are fit to judge who is meet to be a Licensed Physitian p. 127. Of the 2d Defence § 4. In case of meer different Modes Circumstances and Order of Worship see that you give Authority and the Consent of the Church where you are their due Christian Directory Part. 3. p. 13. § 5. Conform your selves to all the Lawful Customs and Gestures of the Church with which you joyn You come not thither proudly to shew your selves wiser than they in the Circumstances of Worship nor needlesly to differ from them much less to harden Men into a Scorn of strictness by seeing you to place Religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things but you come to Exercise Peace Love and Concord and with one Mind and Mouth to glorifie God stand when the Church standeth sit when the Church sitteth and kneel when the Church kneeleth in cases where God doth not forbid it Christian Directory p. 71. Part 3. § 6. Temples Utensels Lands devoted and lawfully separated by Man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that Separation Every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness and this expressed by such Signs and Gestures as are fit to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in a Church and use reverent Cariage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Christian Directory Part 3. p. 167. § 7. Plain intelligible Church Musick which occasioneth not Divisions but the Church agreeth in for my part I never doubted but to be lawful For 1. God set it up long after Moses's Ceremonial Law by David Solomon c. 2. It is not meerly an Instituted Ceremony but a Natural help to the Minds alacrity and it is a Duty not a Sin to use the helps of Nature and lawful Art As it is Lawful to use the help of Spectacles in reading the Bible so is it of Musick to exhilerate the Soul to God 3. Jesus Christ joyned with the Jewes that used it and spake not against it 4. No Scripture forbids it 5. Nothing can be said against it but what may be said against Tunes and melody of Voices yea it is not a humane Invention as the last Psalm and many others shew which call us to praise the Lord with Instruments of Musick § 8. Let not prejudice against Melody or Church-Musick possess you with a splenatick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work if you know how much the Incorporate Soul must make use of the Body in harmony and the joyful praises of Jehovah Do not then Quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporal Christian Direct p. 72. Part. 3. p. 167. Harmony and Melody are so high a Pleasure of the Sense that they are nearest to rational delight if not participating of them and exceedingly fitted to elevate the Mind and Affections unto God We the Ministers who drew up the Worcester Agreement required our People to declare in these Words IAB do consent to be a Member of the particular Church of Christ in D. whereof EF is Teacher and Overseer and to submit to his Teaching and Ministerial guidance and over-sight according to God's Word Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhearing to the Augustine method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things Page 483. of his Five Disputations Sect. 1. Lest Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just Obedience and preserve them from any sinful Nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But First I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them And so cannot obey them in Faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their Offices to command 2. It belongs not to their Office to make God a new Worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of Worship belongeth to their Office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general Rules 3. We must not take the lawful Commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our Sin and one sin will not excuse another Sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying Men. 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary Faith so much less can he disobey in Faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no Word of God against the act of Obedience now in quection It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful Cases it is our duty to use God's means for our Information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispence with us if it may not be dispensed without a greater injury to the Church or Cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their Office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a Humane Faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them ☞ being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer
great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the Sin of the Pastors in these days is by Division by this he hath promoted all the rest of his Designs Our Divisions gratifie the Papists greatly hazard the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to regard or believe it advantageth Profaneness and greatly hinders the Success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his Kingdom Preface to Confession The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the Journeys end and perfection of your Revolt By such fearful Dissertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the Unity of the Church Parties will arise in the Separate Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech you my Brethren to open their Eyes so far as to regard Experience How few separated Churches do now Exist that were in being 100 years ago Can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ dissolved Of Communion in the Lord's Supper Q. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons Answ It is your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the Members are capable of Church-Communion though there may some Infidels or Heathen or uncapable Persons violently intrude or scandalous Persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the Corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption If we Sin not by omitting our own Duty it will be no Sin of ours to communicate with the Church where Scandalous Sinners or Hereticks are permitted the Pastors and Delinquents Sins are not ours Q. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Answ I never yet heard any thing to prove kneeling unlawful there is no Word of God for or against any gesture Christ's example cannot be proved to oblige us in this and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours The nature of the Ordinance is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our Knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a Sealed Pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knees As for this Ceremony of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread-worship and the bodily Real-presence my judgment was ever for it God having made some gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper Work I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself in this as oligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace Mr. Perkins was for kneeling and Mr. Baines in his Letters writes for it and answers objections against it Pag. 133. of Mr. B' s Life I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church Communion as many are who are so much for a Liturgy or so much against it so much for Ceremonies or so much against them that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their mind or way If I were among the Greeks the Lutherans the Independants yea the Anabaptists I would hold sometime Communion with them as Christians I cannot be of their Opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Q. 4. But what if I cannot Communicate but according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book Answ 1. That it is not unlawful to receive according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book because it is a Form needs no proof to any that is Judicious 2. Nor yet for any evil in this particular Form for in this part the Common-Prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is imposed for a Command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with And for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light In general I must here tell the People of God in the bitter sorrow of my Soul that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation that hath in all Ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our Union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions And that true Humility and Acquaintance with our selves and Love to Christ and one another would shew some Men that it was but their Pride and Prejudice and Ignorance that made them think so heinously of other Mens manner of Worship And that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their Worship is not so odious as Prejudice and Faction and Partiality representeth it And that God accepteth that which they reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common People by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church and for Worshipping in that manner which he and his Party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every Party by this is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other Party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that Men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the Divisions among Christians and
tenderest of their Unity and Peace Own the best as best but none as a divided Sect espouse not their dividing interest confine not your especial love to a Party but extend it to all the Members of Christ Deny not local Communion when there is occasion for it to any Church that hath the Substance of True Worship and forceth you not to sin Love them as true Christians and Churches even when they drive you from their Communion I have found that Reformation is to be accomplished more by restoration of Ordinances and Administrations to their Primitive Nature and Use than by utter abolition Mr. Bagshaw objected to Mr. Baxter that he chose to communicate in a very populous Church upon Easter-day purposely that it might be known To this Mr. Baxter Answers p. 76. If a Man by many Years forbearing all Publick Prayer and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or thinks them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach by Example as well as Doctrine Of the Liturgy § 1. Mr. Baxter in the 2d page of his exceptions against the Liturgy urged an Objection of Mr. Hales in these Words To load our Publick Forms with Private Fancies on which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism See also p. 48. The Bishops gave this Answer to the Objection We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress private Conceptions of Prayer lest private Opinions be made matter of Prayer as it hath and will be if private Persons take liberty to make publick Prayers To this I agreed p. 201. Cure of Divisions in these words Every Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian doth too willingly put his Errors into his Prayers The Sense of which Mr. Bagshaw thus expounds p. 7. Of his Antidote by mentioning of Separatists as a distinct body of Men from the Antinomian Anabaptists c. It is evident he can mean no other but his Presbyterian and Congregational-Brethren § 2. That which God prescribed is lawful but God prescribed Forms of Prayer as the Titles and Matter of many of the Psalms prove which were daily used in the Jews Synagogues Christ Direct 2d Edit p. 139. Q. 74. Is it lawful to impose Forms on the Congregation in publick Worship Answ Yes and more than lawful It is the Pastors duty so to do for whether he forethink what to pray or not his Prayer is to them a Form of Words and they are bound to concur with him in Spirit or Desire and to say Amen So that every Minister by Office is daily to impose a Form of Prayer on all the People only some Men impose the same Form many times over or every day and others impose every day a new one pag. 140. Ibid. Pag. 142 143. Mr. Baxter shews the conveniencies and inconveniencies both of see and prescribed Prayers and adds My own judgment is that somewhat of both ways joyned together will best obviate the inconveniencies of both though by this I cross the conceits of prejudiced Men on both extremes I think I cross not the judgment of the Church of England which alloweth free Prayers in the Pulpit and at the Visitation of the Sick Nor of the Famous Non conformists Cartwright Hildersham Greenham Amisius Perkins Bains c. Mr. Cartwright all the time that he lived abroad used the same Form before Sermon and after and read Prayers in the Church and concluded with the Lords Prayer § 4. Pag. 102. Of Mr. Baxter ' s life Part 1. Under pretence of the purity of their Churches the Separatists set themselves against the same Men that the Drunkards and Swearers set against doing what they could to make them odious and put them down only they did it more profanely than the Profane in saying Let the Lord be glorified let the Gospel be propagated abusing Sacred Scripture to their purpose All this began in unwarrantable Separations and too much aggravating the faults of the Churches and Common People and Common-Prayer-Book and Ministry which because they thought they needed amendments it required their obstinate Separation and allowed them to make odious any thing that was amiss and if any Man had rebuked them for making it more faulty than it was they called him a pleader for Antichrist and Baal and every eror in the mode of Worship was Idolatry Popery Antichristianism Superstition Will-worship c. When many of their own Prayers were full of Carnal Passion Faction Disorder vain Repetitions unsound and loathsome Expressions and their Doctrine full of Errors and Confussion § 5. Pag. 169. Part. 3. Of B' s Life I wrote a Book called Cain and Abel intending a third Part to tell Dissenters why I went to the Parish Church and Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists least they suffer as Evil doers which a Bookseller importuned me to let him Print but for Reasons then given I delayed it but at last consented to publish the Reasons of my Communicating in the Parish Churches and against Separations But a Manuscript of Dr. Owen's containing Twelve Arguments against joyning with the Liturgy in Publick Churches was sent me which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers powred out their keenest Censures whom I answered Another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation whereupon I explained that Treatise and all these things together I Published in a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer such as desire farther Satisfaction § 7. I shall name but one Passage more on this Head in his Defence of the Principles of Love pag. 88. The Covenant he saith bindeth us to Reformation according to God's Word and the Example of the best Reformed Churches But to prefer no Publick Worship or a worse before the Liturgy is Deformation and Profaneness and it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgy before none than to prefer Extemporate Publick Worship before the Liturgy for all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgy if they come among us where it is used so that it seems in Mr. Baxter's Judgment a breach of the Covenant to prefer no Publick Worship before the Liturgy or to refuse Occasional Communion in the use of the Liturgy as if it were unlawful when in Mr. B's as well as in the Judgment of all the Reformed Churches it is to be preferred to Extemporate Publick Worsip My Opinion as to Liturgy in general is 1. That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful 2. That a stinted Liturgy in some parts of Publick Service is necessary 3. In the parts where in is not necessary it may not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it 4. It is not of such necessity to take the matter and words out of the
them How Forms may be imposed publickly on the Congregations of Believers and on the Ministers yea though the Forms imposed be worse than the exercise of their own gifts though among us no Man be forbidden to use his own gifts in the Pulpit The Pharisees long Liturgy it is like was in many things worse than ours yet Christ and his Apostles often joyned with them and never condemned them I shall now only add that the Lord's Prayer is a Form directed to God as in the Third Person and not to Man only as a directory for Prayer in the Second Person it is not Pray to God your Father in Heaven that his name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come c. But Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name c. And it seems by the Disciples words that thus John taught his Disciples to pray Luke 11. 1. and we have in the Scripture the mention of many Set Forms of Service to God which therefore we may well use And I desire the Reader again to Note that though Prayer was corrupted by the Pharisees yet Christ usually joyned in their Synagogues Luke 14. 17. and never medled with our controversie about the lawfulness of Set Forms This Mr. Baxter infers from Calvins note on Matth. 6. before the Preface to the Defence Pag. 76. Of Concord I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the Common-Prayer to be better incomparably than the Prayers or Sermons of many that I hear As for the Common Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would again in the like case He that separates upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate upon a reason common to almost all of the far greatest part of the Churches See the Defence p. 54. The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert Defence p. 68. Apology p. 9. Having perused all the Foreign and Antient Liturgies in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there That which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful because it is commanded Obedience to Superiors is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things p. 152. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of Obedience to our Pastors We are indangered by divisions principally because the self-conceited part of Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be rulers of the Church and them But pleasing the ignorant Professors humors is a Sin that shews us to be too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last It is a high degree of pride for persons of ordinary understandings to conclude that almost all Christs Churches in the World for Thirteen Hundred Years at least have offered such Worship to God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth at this day is below your Communion for using Forms Mark Is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of old experienced Christians I think till we have better taught even our godly People what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Church of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order We are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The People of the New Separation so much rule their Ministers that many of them have been forced to forsake their own judgments to comply with the violent Labour to maintain the Ordinances and Ministry in esteem The Church is bound to take many a Man as a True Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in Faith and expectation of Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it How much more then to respect their lawful Bishops and Pastors Of Lay-Elders For Lay-Elders As far as I understand the greatest part if not three for one of the English Ministers are of this mind That unordained Elders wanting power to Preach or Administer Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's appointment Of this number I am one and Mr. Vines was another In the Worcester Agreement Printed 1653. Mr. Baxter declared that neither Scripture nor Antiquity knew of any such Officers as Lay-Elders In the Third Defence p. 58. It was notorious that the Parliament yielded to Presbytery to exclude Episcopacy because they had no other way to uphold their Wars without which they had no way to hold up themselves but by help of the Scots My first Book Viz. the Preface to Saints Rest disclaims Lay-Elders Pag. 109. to Hinckly Of Bishops Page 832. of Mr. Baxter ' s Directory Q. 56. Mr. Baxter tells you in the Margin of those Reasons for a larger Episcopacy That in the Apostles Days there were under Christ in the Universal Church many general Officers that had the care of gathering and over-seeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation unto none And most Christian Churches think that though the extraordinary Gifts Privileges and Officers cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their Work the same Form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Ages tho' not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts were settled for all following Ages 1. Because we read of settling that Form viz. general Officers as well as Particular but never of any Abolition 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without Proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as setting a Form of Government for one Age only 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. 4. It was general Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. And in this Premonition he says he doth not dispute the Lawfulness of Arch-Bishops over Parochial-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and other general Officers of the first Age in the ordinary continued parts of their Office And in his Plea for Peace p. 263. Some of us incline much to think that Arch-Bishops i. e. Bishops that have over-sight of many Churches with their Pastors are lawful Successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their Work So also First Plea p. 35. and of his accepting two parts of Episcopacy not varying the Species in the Preface to the second Plea In Church-History p. 37. and in Plea for Peace p. 66. the Bishops in Cyprian's time had the best ordered Churches in the World
Divisions from a Church that separates not from it himself The sparks of Schism are kindled when proud Persons are brainsick with a fond estimation of their own opinions and heart-sick for propagating them Till Church Divisions be rightly apprehended as Whoredom Swearing and Drunkenness are they will never be well cured Imprint therefore on your minds the true Character of them and consider the Effects and then you will fear this confounding Sin as much as a consuming Plague Pag. 63 When you are tempted to separate from any Church for defectiveness in its manner of Worship enquire how God is Worshipped in all the Churches on Earth and then consider if you lived among them you would forsake communion with them all Read the Church History and consider what Heresies have been in times past and what havock Schisms have caused among Christians for if this had been known by well meaning Persons in our days we should not have seen those same opinions appleaded as New Lights which were long ago exploded as Old Heresies Nor should we have seen many honest People taking that same course to reform the Church now and advance the Gospel which in so many Ages and Nations destroyed the Church and cast out the Gospel A narrow Soul that taketh all Christs Interest in the World to lye in a few of their Separate Meetings and shuts up all the Church in a Nut-shell must needs be guilty of the foulest Schisms It is a Catholick Spirit and Principles loving a Christian as a Christian abhorring the very name of Sects and Parties as the Churches Wounds that makes a Catholick indeed Mr. Caudry in his Book of Schism against Dr. Owen p. 14. says that Toleration of separate Congregations had done more to the rooting out Religion from the hearts of many in Seven Years than the inforcing of Uniformity in Seventy Years before As to Separation Be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extreme necessity resolve with Augustine I will not be the Chaff and yet I will not go out of the Floor though the Chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour for Reformation and yet as long as you can possibly avoid it Forsake not the Church that you desire to reform as Paul said to them that were to forsake a Shipwrackt Vessel If these abide not in the Ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others Of Raising Churches against Churches Church gathering is Church scattering work p. 110. Christ Direct The Interest of the Christian Protestant Religion in England must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as is possible in the Parish-Churches Therefore In Parishes where all may hear the Parish-minister I would not have you without necessity to Preach at the same hour of the day but at some middle time that you may not seem to vie with him for Auditors nor to draw the People from him but let them go with you to hear him and after come and hear you Do not meet together in opposition to the publick meeting nor at the time of publick Worship nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are Members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its Ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hope of reforming it nor yet would I have you forward to vent your own supposed gifts and parts in teaching where there is no necessity of it nor as a separated Church but as a part of the Church more diligent than the rest in redeeming time Let all your private meetings be in subordination to the publick and by the approbation and consent of your Spiritual guides Remembring them which have the rule over you Heb. 13. 7 8 9. And I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them c. Rom. 16. 17 18. I would you would ponder every one of these words for they are the precious advice of the Spirit of God and necessary now as well as then The great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the sin of the Pastors in these later days is by division By this he hath promoted all the rest of his designs Our division gratifieth the Papist and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to believe or regard It advantageth Profaneness and greatly hindereth the success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his kingdom The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare Persons for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the journeys end and perfection of your revolt By such fearful desertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the unity of the Church And separation will ruine the separated Churches themselves it will admit of no consistency Parties will arise in the separated Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech my Brethren to open their eyes so far as to regard experience How few separated Churches do now exist that were in being an hundred years ago can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ to be dissolved In the year 1634. Roger Williams of New-England an Assistant to Mr. Kalph Smith Pastor at Plymouth where having vented divers singular opinions he was dismissed went to Salem which place in a years time he filled with Principles of rigid Separation tending to Anabaptistry as that it is not lawful for an unregenerate Man to pray or take an Oath in special not the Oath of Fidelity to the Magistrate He forbad any of his Church-members to hear the godly Ministers of England when occasionally they went thither He taught that the Magistrate had nothing to do in matters of the First Table that there should be an unlimited Toleration of all Religions that to punish any Man for his Conscience was Persecution He separated not only from the Churches of Old but of New-England also as Antichristian After that he would not pray or give thanks with his own Wife or Family because they went to the Church-Assemblies He kept private Meetings by way of separation from and opposition to the Church-Assembly and being banished as a disturber of the Peace he sat down at a place called Providence and there fell to Anabaptistry renouncing Infant Baptism And after a while he told his People that he was out of the way himself and had misled them for he could not find that any on Earth had power to administer Baptism and therefore their last Baptism was a nullity as well
Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY IN SELECT ADMONITIONS AND DIRECTIONS TO ALL Sober Dissenters To whom Being dead he yet speaketh LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationer's Hall 1697. THE PREFACE TO DISSENTERS THE Instructions here recommended as Mr. Baxter's Legacy were collected out of his own genuine Writings and perused by him in his Life-time and being much for his Reputation with all sober Persons he seemed well pleased with them notwithstanding much obloquy and reproach from divers Dissenters for in the Preface to his Christian Directory he says It was objected that his Writings differing from the common Judgment had already caused offence to the Godly to which he answers If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such Men much more by endeavouring farther than ever I have done the quenching of that Fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the Folly and Mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tear the Church of God And in his Second Admonition to Bagshaw he stiles himself a Long-maligned and resisted endeavourer of the Churches Vnity and Peace and in p. 11. of that Book he thus declares his Christian temper and resolution If Injuries or Interest would excuse any Sin I think their are few Ministers in England who have more inducement to the angry separating way than I have But shall I therefore wrong the Truth God forbid and p. 52. He further tells Bagshaw I repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiours and Church Orders and though I ever disliked it and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much encourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions and was too loth to displease the Contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good meeting with too few Religious Persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives and when Mr. Bagshaw objected that he chose to communicate on Easter-day in a very populous Church purposely that it might be known he answered p. 76. If a Man by many years forbearing all publick Prayers and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or counts them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly and pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach the People by Example as well as Doctrine The Question which he maintained against Mr. Bagshaw was Is it lawful to hold communion with such Christian Churches as have worthy or tollerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial order of the Ministers Conformity and use of the Common Prayer-Book And concludes p. 89. That we ought to do so when some special Reasons as from Authority Scandal c. do require it He saith I wrote a Book at the end of my Cain and Abel on purpose to shew the lawfulness of communicating with the Church of England but before it was printed Dr. Owen having heard of it sent me 12 Arguments against joyning with the Church of England which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers poured out their keenest Censures upon me one said I was an Apostate another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation and I were reported to be a pleader for Baal and Anti-christ in Answer to all which I published a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer you I will tell the World a certain Truth I Preach I Write I frequently and openly talk against Separation and for the lawfulness of joyning with the Church in the use of the Liturgy and to rebuke Mens extreams and censures of the Episcopal Clergy and for an impartial Love of all true Christians I sharply reprove the weak Reasonings of those that are otherwise minded and by this I occasion the true Sectarians every where to speak against me Apol. p. 62. I take it for a duty to Preach against Schism Sedition and Rebellion and all Principles that tend to breed or feed them and to use all Opportunities and Interest in the People to promote their Loyalty and Publick Peace p. 18 19. I did not vary from my most early Opinion concerning these things for in my Epistle to the Saints Rest I gave the same Admonition to my Flock at Kidderminister in these words I charge you in Christ's name as you will answer it when we shall meet at Judgment that you faithfully and constantly practise these Directions Above all see that ye be followers of Peace and Vnity in the Church and among your selves I differ from many in several things of considerable moment yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others so as to disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear least I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I charge you that if God should give me up to any Factious Church-rendring course that you forsake me and follow me not a step believe not those to be Friends of the Church who would cure her by cutting her Throat Vpon writing my Cure of Church Divisions Mr. Bagshaw p. 152. Published other Invectives against me as that one worthy of credit told him that the Learned and Judicious Mr. Herle having read that Book said That it had been better for the Church of God if Mr. Baxter's Friends had never sent him to School and that Mr. Cawdry had a like opinion of that Book and that another Person as knowing in the Mystery of Godliness as either of them told a Friend of his that notwithstanding the noise about Mr. Baxter he would end in Flesh and Blood But Mr. Baxter was well fortified against these obloquies having been surfeited as he says with humane Applause But notwithstanding all these Clamours and vexatious Troubles Mr. Baxter kept a constant course pleading for Concord and Vnity almost in every Book which he set forth and that with such cogent Arguments as the like are scarce to be found on any other Subject which he hath written upon as from the following Admonitions collected out of a few of his many Treatises will appear to the Judicious Reader and many more may be observed in those that are conversant in his Writings wherein although some things accidentally written may seem to be contradictory yet as he told Mr. L'Estrange he was well able to reconcile them And by his distinctions he hath reconciled many seeming Contradictions by help whereof as Mr. Silvester observed in the Preface to his Life as he could speak what he would so he could prove what he spake I am well perswaded that by the following Collections any impartial Separatist may find sufficient Arguments to resolve all his Scruples and Objections against Conformity to the Established Worship for which end they are
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
side 9. Yet must we in great and doubtful cases not take up with the suspected judgment of a single Pastor but apply our selves to the unanimous Pastors of other Churches 10. Christians should not be over busie in prying into the ☞ work of their Governours nor too forward to suspect their determinations But when they know that it is their Rulers work to guide them by determining of due Circumstances of Worship they should without causeless scruples readily obey till they see just reason to stop them in their obedience They must not go out of their own places to search into the Actions of another Man's Office to trouble themselves without any cause No reason can be given why a lawful thing should become unlawful Because a lawful Superior doth command it else Superiors may take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful by commanding them you would take it ill from a Child or Servant when you bid them learn a Form of Prayer or Catechism if they should say it was lawful for us till you commanded it but because you bid us it is unlawful § 4. And now I intreat all humble Christians readily to obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all lawful things and to consider to that end of these Reasons following Reas 1. If you will not obey in Lawful things you deny Authority or overthrow Government it self which is a great Ordinance of God established in the fifth Commandment with promise And as that Commandment respecting Societies and common good is greater than the following commands as they respect the private good of our Neighbours or are but particular means to that Publick good whose Foundation is laid in the Fifth Commandment so accordingly the sin against this Fifth Commandment must be greater than that against the rest § 5. Reas 2. In disobeying the lawful commands of our Superiors we disobey Christ who ruleth by them as his Officers Even as the disobeying a Justice of Peace or Judge is a disobeying of the Soveraign Power yea in some cases when their Sentence is unjust Some of the Ancient Doctors thought that the Fifth Commandment was the last of the First Table of the Decalogue and that the Honouring of Governors is part of our Honour to God they being mentioned there as his Officers with whom he himself is honoured or dishonoured obeyed or disobeyed For it is God's Authority that the Magistrate Parent and Pastor is endued with and empowred by to rule those that are put under them § 6. Reas 3. What confusion will be brought into the Church if Pastors be not obeyed in things lawful For instance If the Pastors appoint the Congregation to Assemble at one hour and the People will scruple the time and say it is unlawful and so will choose some of them one time and some another what disorder will here be and worse if the Pastors appoint a Place of Worship and any of the People scruple obeying them and will come to another place what confusion will here be People are many and the Pastors are few And therefore there may be some Unity if the People be ruled by the Pastors but there can be none if the Pastors must be ruled by the People for the People will not agree among themselves And therefore if we obey one part of them we must disobey and displease the rest And their ignorance makes them unfit to rule § 7. Reas 4. Moreover Disobedience in matters of Circumstance will exclude and overthrow the Substance of the Worship it self God commandeth us to pray If one part of the Church will not joyn with a stinted form of Prayer and the other part will not joyn without it but both Parties cannot be pleased and so one part must cast off Prayer it self or separate from the rest God commandeth the Reading and Preaching and Hearing of the Scripture and the Singing of Psalms But he hath left it to Man to make or choose the best Translation of Scripture or Version of the Psalms Now if the Pastor appoint one Version and Translation and the Church joyn in the use of it if any Members will scruple joyning in this Translation or Version they must needs forbear the whole duty of Hearing the Scripture and Singing Psalms in that Congregation If they pretend a scruple against the appointed time or place of Worship they will thereby cast off the Worship it self For if they avoid our Time or Place they cannot meet with us nor Worship with us § 8. Reas 5. And when they are thus carried to separate from the Congregation upon such grounds as these they will be no where fixt but may be still subdividing and separating from one another till they are resolved into individuals and have left no such thing as a Church among them For they can have no assurance or probability that some of themselves will not dissent from the rest in one Circumstance or other as they did from their Pastors and the Church that they were of before § 6. Reas 9. By this means the Wicked that are Disobedient to their Teachers and reject the Worship of God it self will be hardened in their Sin and taught by Professors to defend their Ungodliness For the very same course that you take will serve their turns They need not deny any Duty in the Substance but deny the Circumstance and so put off the Substance of the Duty If a Wicked Man will not hear the Word Preached he may say I am not against Preaching but I am unsatisfied of the lawfulness of your Time or Place I am in judgment against coming to your Steeple-house or against the Lord's Day And so he shall never hear though he say he is for Heating If a Wicked Man will not be personally instructed or admonished or be accountable to the Church or Pastors for any scandals of his life nor submit to any Discipline he may say I am for Discipline I know it is my duty to be instructed but I am not satisfied that I am bound to come to you when you send for me or to appear at such a place as you appoint the Word of God nameth no time or place and you shall not deprive me of my Liberty If a Wicked Man would not hear or read the Scripture or sing Psalms he may say that he is for the Duty but he is only against this and that Translation and Version And so while every Version is excepted against the Duty is as much evaded as if it were denied it self By this device it is that the Rebellion of unruly People is defended They run to the Circumstances of the Duty and ask Where are they bound to come to a Minister or to be examined by him in order to a Baptism or Lord's Supper or to speak their consent to be Church-members or to subscribe to a Profession or to read an English Bible or to hear in a Steeple-house with many such like Thus also it is that they put off
People commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the Congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the People do it Of Bowing at the Name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the Name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive Scandalous or offensive I will bow at the Name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names which we Translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our Translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are Subordinate to Christ in his Priestly Office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Rom. 12. 1. and Heb. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any Question oa Scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their Followers that all Antiquity is on their side The Lord's Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion-Table c. Q. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the Rails to Communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these Circumstances but only general rules for Edification Unity Decency and Order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw Men to Popery or to incourage Men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away Dogs keeping Boys from sitting on it and the professed Doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real Corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the Place Name Scituation and Rail is unsound for we Assemble there to Communicate in and according to the professed Doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private Opinion and Error of the Minister Whether we shall receive the Lord's Supper at a Table or in our Seats Whether the Table shall be of Wood or Stone Round or Long or Square Whether it shall stand on the East or West side of the Temple or in the middle Whether it shall have Rails or no Rails All these are left to Humane Prudence As for standing at the reading of the Gospel Page 148. he says If I live where Rulers peremtorily command it as a signified consent to the Gospel I would obey them rather than give offence And for kneeling when the Decalogue is read That the thing it self is lawful is past doubt and if it be commanded and the omission would be offensive I would use it though mistaken Persons were present because I cannot disobey nor differ from the whole Assembly without a greater hurt and scandal than seeming to harden the mistaking Person and because I could and would by other means remove that Persons danger as from me by making him know that it is no Prayer And the rather because in our times the Minister may in the Pulpit tell the People the contrary We must not lightly differ from the Churches where we live in such things I like best to kneel in Prayer and Confession of Sins To stand up in Praises to God at Singing and Reading Psalms of Praise and other Hymns to set at Hearing the Word because the body hath necessity of some rest Of the Creed Q. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed Is it of the Apostle framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant And for the satisfation of the Church that Men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or Composition of the Words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the Three Articles of Christ's own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach Men to vary the matter And Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the Tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Q. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound Doctrine and fitted to the Peoples Edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's Book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scripture or other necessary Church duty 4. So they
be not read read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Q. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear them to them not as Officers claming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal Obedience to a Prelate Read Bradshaw against Can concerning this Pag. 181. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of the Holiness of Churches Q. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers Holy And what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by Man for Holy uses are Holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more Holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more Holy than those justly separated by Man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness And this expressed by such Signs Gestures Actions as are fittest to Honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in the Church and use reverent Carriage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due Reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the Power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials We flatly affirm that the Kings Laws do bind the Mind Soul or Conscience to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands Apol 4. We are so tender of obeying our Rulers that we will do any thing to obey and please them except disobeying God Page 111. We doubt not but Magistrates may restrain false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them to Sin Of Episcopacy Page 193. Princes and Rulers may for Orders sake distribute their Christian Kingdoms into Parishes which shall be the Ordinary Bounds of particular Churches And such distribution is very Congruous to the ends of the Ministry and Churches and conduceth to Order and Peace Non-confor Plea Pag. 31. When Pastors by Concord or Magistrates by Laws have setled lawful Circumstances or Accidents of Church Order or Worship or Discipline though they be in particular but Humane Institutions it is sinful Disobedience to violate them without necessity as Parochial Order Associations Times Places Ministers Scripture Translations c. Page 49. God's Laws bind us to keep Love and Concord and the Agreement of Councils may determine of the matter in alterable Points and so absent and present Bishops may for Concord sake be obliged by God's Law to keep such Canons and they are matter of Duty Page 266. The true interest of a meer Non-conformist requireth him to live in Loyalty Peace and Patience and in Love and Communion with the Parochial Churches Page 251. N. 11. I deny not but Magistrates may moderately drive Men to hear God's Word and to do the immediate Duties of their Places Of Episcopacy Page 144. Those Modes or Circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the Publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the Publick Worship Of the Surplice Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not aliene work but his own work amiss and therefore the thing in it self being lawful I would obey him and use that garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey And see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of the Ring in Marriage for though the Papists make a Sacrament of Marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any Ordinance of Divine Worship more than the solemnizing a Contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the Pure And for Organs or other Instruments of Musick in God's Worship they being a help partly naturally and partly artificial to the exhilarating the Spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the Tune and Metre and Melody of Singing unlawful Here therefore we thus conclude Page 423. That every misordering of such great Affairs is the Sin of them that do it yet the Subject is not exempted from Obedience by every such mistake of the Governour And § 67. If the Mischoosing of such Circumstances by the Governors be but an inconvenience and destroy not the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey for he the judge of his own Works and not we The thing is not sinful though inconvenient Page 398. Of Five Disputations § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very Sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used when they are commanded And Prop. 14. Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the command of their Lawful Governours in such things If the Prince command one thing not contrary to God's Law and the Pastors command the contrary we must obey the Prince before the Pastor We must obey the Magistrate We know not that their Commands are lawful as long as we have no sufficient Reason to believe them unlawful Page 356. of Holy Common-wealth and Page 357. Of Holy-Days The Holy Doctrine Lives and Sufferings of the Martyrs and other Holy Men hath been so great a Mercy to the Church that for any thing I know it is lawful to keep Anniversary Thanksgiving in remembrance of them and to encourage the weak and provoke them to constancy and imitation No Christian should refuse that which is lawful nor to joyn with the Church in Holy Exercises on the days of thankful Commemoration of the Apostles and Martyrs and Excellent
Instruments of the Church much less pertulently to work and set open their Shops to the offence of others but rather to perswade others to imitate their Holy Lives to whom they give such honours Chr. Direct p. 167. Part. 3. Nor do I scruple to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent Servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their Doctrine or Example and honour their Memorial I am resolved if I live where such Holy-days Christ's Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascension and such like are observed to censure no Man for observing them But if I lived under a Government that peremprorily commanded it I would observe the outward rest of such a Holy-day and I would Preach on it and joyn with the Assemblies in God's Worship yea I would thus observe the day rather than offend a weak Brother or hinder any Man's Salvation much more rather than I would make any division in the Church Of the Cross in Baptism Of all our Ceremonies there is none that I have more suspected to be simply unlawful than the Cross in Baptism yet I dare not peremptorily say that the Cross in Baptism is unlawful nor will I condemn Ancients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it more than my own forbearance will make I presume not to censure them that judge it lawful but only give the Reasons that make me doubt and rather think it to be unlawful though still with a suspicion of my own Understanding P. 123. of Christ Direct Q. 49. May one offer his Child to be baptized with the sign of the Cross the use of Crisme and the white Garment Milk and Honey or Exorcism as in the Lutheran Churches Answ 4. When he cannot lawfully have better he may and must offer his Child to them that will so baptize him rather than not at all because Baptism is God's Ordinance and the Sin is the Ministers and not his Another Man 's sinful mode will not justifie the neglect of our Duty else we might not joyn in Prayer or Sacrament in which the Minister modally sinneth i. e. in none Mr. B. grants p. 161. of Christ Direct Edit 2. That it is not unlawful to make an Image to be objectum vel medium excitans ad Cultum Dei an object of our Consideration exciting our Minds to worship God as a Death's-head or Crucifix to stir up in us a worshipping Affection and that it is lawful by the sight of a Crucifix to be provoked to worship God I durst not to have reproved any of the ancient Christians that used the Sign of the Cross meerly as a Professing Sign to shew the Heathen and Jews that they believed in a Crucified Christ and were not ashamed of his Cross Of Church Government p. 404. Mr. Baxter's Judgment concerning Confirmation agreeable to the practice of the Church of England may be seen in a particular Treatise on that Subject Of Conventicles Q. 172. Are all religious and private Meetings forbidden by Rulers unlawful Conventicles Answ 1. It is more to the Honour of the Church and of Religion and of God and more to our Safety and Edification to have God's Worship performed solemnly publickly and in great Assemblies than in a corner secretly and with few 2. It is a great mercy where Rulers allow the Church such Publick Worship 3. Caeteris paribus all Christians should prefer such Publick Worship before Private and no private Meetings should be kept up which are opposite or prejudicial to such publick Meetings And therefore if such Meetings or any that are unnecessary to the ends of the Ministry the Service of God and good of Souls be forbidden by lawful Rulers they must be forborn And it must be remembred that Rulers that are Infidels Papists Hereticks or Persecutors that restrain Church-Meetings to the injury of Men's Souls must be distinguished from pious Princes that only restrain Hereticks and real Schismaticks for the Churches good 2. And that times of Heresie and Schism may make private Meetings more dangerous than quiet times And so even the Scottish Church forbad private Meetings in the Separatists days of late And when they do more hurt than good and are justly forbidden no doubt in that case it is a duty to obey and to forbear them P. 117. of the first Plea If the generality of the Ministry obtain their Liberty by some small tolerable Sin or Errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that Country Prudence bindeth them to go to some other place that needeth them and never to exercise their Ministry in that place where in true Reason it is like to do more hurt than good Holy Common-wealth Thesis 240. It is necessary to the Churches Peace that no private Congregations may be gathered or Anti-Churches erected without approbation or Toleration from the Magistrate If private Assemblies be permitted promiscuously and unlimitedly it will then be impossible to restrain Heresie and Impiety yea they may meet to plot against the Magistrate And no Assemblies whatsoever besides the Parish Churches are to be allowed by the Magistrate It is a dangerous thing to be ensnared in a Sect it will before you are aware possess you with a feaverish sinful Zeal for the Opinions and Interest of that Sect it will make you bold in bitter Invectives and Censures against those that differ from you it will corrupt your Church-communion and fill your very Prayers with Partiality and Human Passions it will secretly bring Malice under the name of Zeal into your minds and words In a word it is a secret but deadly Enemy to Christian Love and Peace Let them that are wiser and more Orthodox and godly than others shew as the Holy Ghost directeth them James 3. 13 14 c. out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying or zeal and strife in your hearts Glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devillish P. 36. of the Defence The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as is possible in the Parish Churches Sacril Desertion p. 92. In Parish-Churches where all may hear the Parish Minister I would not have you without necessity to preach the same hour of the day but at some middle time that you may not seem to vye with him for Auditors nor to draw the People from him but let them go with you to hear him and after come to hear you Saints Rest p. 518. Do not meet together in opposition to the Publick Meeting nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are a Member nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hope of reforming it The
as the first and that they must wait for the coming of new Apostles and so they dissolved and turned Seekers The case of the Summer Islands as related by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister come from thence upon discouragement would make a Christians heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that Plantation once was and how one godly Minister by Separation selecting a few to be his Church rejecting all the rest from the Sacrament the rejected party were dolefully estranged from Religion and the selected party turned Quakers But our own case is yet a more lamentable proof what Separation hath done against Religion so that it is my wonder that any good man can over-look it Above all things I intreat the dividing Brethren if they can so long lay aside partiality to judge of the reasons of their separation The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert But when many of us vent untruths and slanders against our Brethren and multiply publick untruths we never make scruple of communion with such Suppose one should say that a People guilty of such sins as are condemned Exod. 23. 1 2. Psal 15. 3. Rom. 1. 30 c. i. e. raising false reports reproaching our Neighbours strife and debates should not be communicated with especially when not one of those offenders is called to repentance for it what answer will you give to this which will not confute your own objections against communion with many Parish Churches in this Land As to Popery The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Nor am I causelesly afraid that if we suffer the Principles and Practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several Parties do contend about Three ways especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied Sects they will perswade People that we must either come for unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this Argument already And I am perswaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multititude of Sects among our selves Some Professors of Religious strictness and great esteem for Godliness having run from Sect to Sect and finding no consistency turned Papists themselves 2. Who knows not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on both Parties saying to one side Lay more upon them and abate them nothing And to the other Stand it out and yield to nothing hoping that our divisions will carry us to such practices as shall make us accounted Seditious Rebellious and dangerous to the Publick Peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that they may get a Toleration together with us And shall they use our hands to do their work We have already served them unspeakably both in this and in abating the odium of the Gunpower-Plot and other Treasons 3. It is not the least of our danger lest by our Follies Extremities and rigors we so exasperate the common People as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in in case of competitions invasions or insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace The Papists account that if the Puritans get the day they shall make great advantage of it for they will be unsetled and all in pieces and not know how to settle the Government Factions and Distractions say they give us footing for continual attempts To make all sure we will secretly have our party among Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our interest Let the Magistrate cherish the disputations of the Teachers and let him procure them often to debate together and reprove one another For when Men see that there is nothing certain among them they will easily yield saith Contzen the Jesuit Of Toleration Shall the meer pretence of Carnal Liberty be thought an Argument for a wicked damning Liberty a Liberty to destroy and deceive as many as they can will merciful Rulers set up a Trade for Butchering Souls and allow Men to set up a Shop of Poyson for all Men to buy and take what they will yea to proclaim this Poyson for Souls in the Streets and Church Assemblies Saints Rest p. 133. Could I have believed him that would have told me five years ago that when the Scorners of Godliness were subdued and the bitter Persecuters of Church were destroyed that such should succeed them who suffered with us and were our intimate Friends which we took sweet councel and went up together to the House of God should draw their Swords against each other and seek each others blood so fiercely O what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided Conscience when it is set at Liberty Of Spiritual Pride Proud Men will not grow in the same Field or Church where Tares do grow but will transplant themselves because God will not pluck up the Tares especially if any Ministerial neglect of Discipline be conjoyned and instead of blaming their own Pride lay the blame on the corruptions of the Church The Pharisees Liturgy is frequent in separate Assemblies God I thank thee I am not as other men But this is very remarkable that it is a pretence of our impurity and a greater purity with you that is pleaded by such as first turn over to you and that this height of all impieties should be the usual issue or a way pretended so exact and clean doubtless it is not Gods mind by this to disâ—ouragâ— any from purity and true Reformation but to shew his detestation of that spiritual pride which maketh Men to have too high thoughts of themselves and too much to contemn others and to desire to be further separated from them than God in the day of grace doth allow of Consider this it is the judgment of some that Thousands are gone to Hell and Ten Thousands on their march thither that in all probability had never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for injoyment of communion in a purer Church He that causeth differences of Judgment and Practice and contendings in the Church doth cause divisions though none separate from the Church If you may not divide in the Church nor from it then you may not causelesly divide from it your selves And commonly Appearance Advantage
the Question in the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kind of Rule even that which themselves set up have been committed and justified and profanely fathered upon God these with much more such fruits of love-killing Principles I have seen If you converse with Censorious Separatists you shall hear so many invectives against them that are truly Catholick and sober as will make you think that Love and Peace and Catholick Communion are some sinful and mischievous things The experience of Twenty six Years in this Kingdom may convince the World what crimes may stand with high professions such as the generation springing up will scarce believe What high Professors were the proudest overturners of all Government and resisters and despisers of Ministry and Holy Order in the Churches The most railing Quakers and most filthy blaspheming Ranters to warn the World to take heed of being proud of superficial gifts and high profession and that he that stands in his own conceit should take heed lest he fall I have much ado to forbear naming some high Professors known lately at Worcester Exeter and other places who died Apostate Infidels deriding Christianity and the Immortality of the Soul who once were Separatists And I have heard of some Separatists who when others of a contrary judgment were going to the Churches at London looked in at the Doors saying The Devil choak thee art thou not out of thy pottage yet I commend to all that of the Apostle Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Read this Verse over on your Knees and beg of God to write it on your Hearts And I would wish all Assemblies of dividers and unwarrantable Separatists to write it over the Doors of their Meeting places and join with it Rom. 12. 10. but especially study James 3. In a word if God would cure the Church of Religious Pride the Pride of Wisdom and the Pride of Piety and Goodness the Church would have fewer Heresies and Contentions and much more Peace true Wisdom and Goodness The forwardness of many to keep open Divisions and to affect communion with none but such as say as they do is a down right mark of a Schismatick And I know that dividing Principles and Dispositions do tend directly to the ruine and damnation of those in whom they do prevail When Men fall into several Parties burning in Zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely on each other as being of several sides as if they were not Children of the same Father nor Members of the same Body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo c. and every one of a Faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to present one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these People whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore it is Schism in the bud S. 16. When People in the same Church do gather into private Meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their single opinions and increase their Parties and speak against those that are not on their side Schism is then ready to increase and multiply and the Swarm is ready to come forth and be gon S. 17. When these People actually depart and renounce or forsake the communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated Body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause when thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is Schism ripe and fruitful the Swarm is gone and hived in another place S. 19. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the Body of Christ by an unrighteous Censure and condemn the innocent and usurp Authority over their Guides this is Disobedience and Uncharitableness with Schism A true Christian that hateth Fornication Drunkenness Lying Perjury because forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also which are so frequently and vehemently forbidden Jo. 17. 21 22. Ro. 14. throughout Ro. 15. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Eph. 4. 1 2 c. 1 Cor. 12. Phil. 3. 15. Ro. 16. 17 18. 1 Tim. 1. 4. James 3. The mischief of Divisions may be seen at large p. 739. Q. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to preach the Gospel go on still to preach it against the Law Answ He that is silenced by just power though unjustly in a Country that needeth not his Preaching must forbear there and if he can must go into another Country where he may be more serviceable We must do any lawful thing to procure the Magistrates licence to preach in his Dominions How Humane Laws bind the Conscience Q. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience Answ p. 37. Taking Conscience in a stricter sense as including essentially a relation to God's obligation the full sense of the the question is this Whether it be a sin against God to break the laws of man Answ It is a sin against God to break such Laws as Rulers are authorized by God to make First because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers God commandeth us to obey in general and their Law determineth of the particular matter therefore God obligeth us in conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God therefore they can command us by a power derived from God therefore to disobey is to sin against a Power derived from God Man being God's Officer First his own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine for it is no Law which hath no Obligation and it is no Authoritative Obligation which is not derived from God 2. God's own Law bindeth us to obey Man's Laws Rom. 13. And it may be a good reason to perswade Obedience to our Ecclesiastical Governours because Preaching is a cheap and easie