REFORMATION NOT SEPARATION OR Mr. CROFTON'S Plea for Communion with the CHURCH under those Corruptions and by that disorderly Ministration to which he cannot Conform nor by it Administer IN A LETTER Written JVLY 20. 1661. In and from the TOWER of LONDON to R. S. To satisfie the Weak and silence the Wicked who insulted in or were offended at his endeavoured and clamorously reported as obtained attendance on Gods PUBLICK WORSHIP in that Place during his Confinement NOW PUBLISHED To silence Censures and Calumnies satisfie such who would walk uprightly in this houre of Temptation By the said R. S. to whom it was written Unto which is added the Copy of another LETTER Written on the same Occasion and Subject Printed in the YEAR M.DC.LXII TO THE READER READER IT is more than a Year since it was clamoured Mr. CROFTON goeth to the Church and heareth Common-Prayer in the Tower of LONDON Whereupon he was not little Censured by some whose Profession of Religion and Relation to him required much more Charity Mr. CROFTON did then write unto me this ensuing LETTER with Advice to Communicate the same for the Satisfaction of the Weak who stumbled to their own wounding and Silencing of the Wicked who insulted to the Grief of him and Gods Church In Observation of this Instruction I did to save the labour of the Pen and make this Paper more profitable to the Church put it into the Press where some good Friends did seize and for present stisle it choosing rather to Communicate the written Copy as they could This Copy was imparted to many Christian Friends and Ministers who seemed to be in this matter otherwise perswaded in special Those of the Congregational way who seemed most concerned in the same these were all requested to Correct Mr. CROFTON'S Errour and Rectifie his Judgment but none would or did undertake the work though assured he had an hearing Ear Horresco referens though he hath been most bitterly Censured he never received any the least Admonition concerning this matter one excepted a Copy whereof with his Answer thereunto being come to my hands I have presumed to annex unto this LETTER I presume without Mr. CROFTON'S knowledge First To make these Papers publick to evidence the little Cause men have to represent Mr. CROFTON'S Non-conforming Communion to be a Defection from the Cause of Reformation and Result of his Temptation Secondly To let men see on what Grounds Mr. CROFTON hath satisfied himself in his solitary Estate when he could neither Confer with Men and Books that so if they appear weak some serious man may by word or letter whilst the Press will not be allowed to speak help him to Conviction I cannot but determine it unchristian to condemn without Fraternal Correption or an Essay for Conviction those Censures do reflect with Violence on the Censurers which are retorted with a what doth your arguing reprove Thirdly To help others to discover that Point of Piety which is proper for their places and capacities under the present Providences of God in and towards his Church in these Nations What lately was Mr. CROFTON'S Case is now our own we must either withdraw from the Prayers and Publick Worship of God in this Church or attend it by this disguised Ministerial Mode and Order and with Grief I speak it we are in the dark and we are left in the dark our Prophets are gone who should tell us and before their going have not told us how in this Case Christianity doth require us to carry Some general Cautions we indeed received in their last Councels but no clear Directions in reference to the special Case and Condition into which we are resolâ—ed I well know most Presbyterian Divines to be in Judgment the same with Mr. CROFTON but their Prudence doth prohibit the Publication thereof to us or at least in a particular Specification of our present Condition I will not say Mr. CROFTON by his Act or Apology appeareth any very wise Pilate I leave those to whom it doth belong to judge his skill in the Compass but I cannot but say he seemeth to be most Simply Faithful in fufilling his Ministry proposing himself a pattern and perswading his friends and people to walk in the Exactness of Truth against all Extreams though his worldly and carnal Interest lieth on either hand and might easily induce him to advance or at least by his silence to abett the same I cannot but observe this is not the first time Mr. CROFTON hath divided from the Policies of them who could not disown his Principles or Scripturally determine against his Practice And truly I wish men may consider whether the Serpent do not out-stretch and over-reach the Dove in those Policies which make Religion unto its reproach a matter of Faction and study to save and recover Reformation by the appearance of a Bulky Party for Separation I cannot but let thee know I am thus far clear of Mr. CROFTON'S mind Unwarrantable Non-communion may not be allowed no not for a day though to saving Reformation for we may not do Evil that Good may come thereof and I cannot be perswaded I am disbanded from Christs Army so soon as I am superseded to my Conduct I must march under his Banner when I may not be permitted to march at the Head of a Company And sure I am it is more easie to fall into either Extream than to walk between both uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel Reader I will stay thee no longer only know That this Season of Publication of this LETTER is by me chosen or rather constrained by the over-prudent Supersedeas before mentioned and silence our over-general Cautions of our pious Ministers in this Case and houre of Temptation which is come upon us If any Minister be hereby provoked to beat out the Truth which must guide the Churches Practice If any Christian do hereby receive Direction to dispel his Doubts and steer his Conversation Or if any rashly censorious Saint be hereby convinced of their uncharitable unchristian Censures and bitter words by which they have wounded themselves and grieved him whom God hath smitten be hereby convinced of their fault so as to give Glory to God and with Jobs Comforters confess their Guilts I have obtained mine End and hope it shall not much displease my Pastor on whom I confess I have herein too much presumed I am thine in Union with the Church And Simplicity of the Gospel R. S. Sept. 1. 1662. REFORMATION no SEPARATION OR Zachary Croftons Plea for Communion with the Church of England In a Letter to a Christian Friend Christian Friend COnsidering we live in an Age exceeding scrupulous and the actions of a Prisoner are subject to Observation and Censure without the least enquiry into the reasons end and inducements thereof And well knowing my unhappy self to be a man much mistaken and misrepresented obnoxious to and afflicted with the groundless calumnies of the wicked and censures of the weak
be the Church and Spouse my heart would condemn me in the guilt of a notorious lye groundlesse and uncharitable Censure and so make my wilful solitary devotion exceeding sad because exceeding sinful Secondly I hitherto could not nor yet can 2. Englands corruptions no sufficient bar to Communion conceive the corruptions of the Church of England to be a sufficient ground or warrantable barre to my non-non-Communion with her solemn assemblies in her publick worship I do not say that Separation in all Cases is unlawful Separation from the world and Babylon allowed I well know Christians are called out of and separated from the world in their first accession to the Church of Christ but this is not our Case who do as is before noted own the Church of England as resolved into that capacity I know also separation from Babylon the seat of Antichrist is a duty directed and charged by the Lord on all his people and unto this also the Church of England doth professe Englands corruptions paralleld with Israels and others and cannot be denied to have attained and therefore stands distinct from the one under the Epithite Reformed as well as from the other by the Appellation Church so as tâ—at I dare not deeme England the world or Babylon those objects of a serious sacred separation and non-communion to both which she is found contradistinct That there are in the Church of England especially in her present relapsed estate many and grosse corruptions grievous to the Spirit of God and his people calling for the zealous admonitions and most faithful rebukes of his Ministers is alas too too legible and apparent to be denied by any yet when I consult the Scriptures I cannot but finde as great yea if possible greater corruptions in those whom God and his people owned as his Church and Spouse and yet separation or voluntary non-communion was never practised advised or indulged but the contrary thereunto Will any object unto us the prophanenesse of the Ministers Prophanenesse of Ministers ministration rudenesse and disorder of the ministration of Gods worship we yeild it is too visibly true but more vile administrators or irregular administrations cannot be than were the sons of Eli in their service who made the people to loath the offerings of the Lord and were rebuked and described by Samuel in 1 Sam. 2.12 13 14 15 16 17. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord and the Priests custome with the people was this when any man offered Sacrifice the Priests servant came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh-hook in his hand and he struck it into the pan or kettle or Caldron or pot all that the flesh-hook brought up the Priest took for himself so they did in Shilo unto all the Israelites that came thither also before they burned the far the Priests servant came and said to the man that sacrificed give me flesh for to rost for the Priest for he will not have sodden flesh of thee but raw and if any man said unto them let them not faile to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul desireth then he would answer him nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force wherefore by this horrid disorder defended by violence the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord and in verse 22. it is reported that Eli's sons lay with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation O horrid uncleannesse most heaven-daring villany yet I find not that any God-fearing-Israelite forsook the Sanctuary or durst forbear their Sacrifice nor did Samuel who reproved and denounced Gods judgment against this prophanenesse ever advise or direct the same the Scribes and Pharisees in the dayes of our Saviour said but did not laid heavie burdens on the people Matth. 23. which themselves would not touch with one of their fingers they under pretence of long prayers devoured widows houses they would neither enter into heaven themselves nor suffer such as would yet the Lord himself who reproved them heard them and charged his Disciples to hear them because they sate in Moses seat Let it be observed and remembred the Authority may but the quality of the Minister doth not adde to or abstract from the entity or efficacy of Gods Ordinances 1 Cor. 9.27 he may preach to my salvation who is himself a castaway Do any object the preaching false doctrine Corruption in Doctrine and Worship publick reading the Apocripha as part of Gods Word innovations in worship polluting Gods Ordinances or injustice in discipline I shall neither deny nor excuse the same only say as the Apostle Peter to the Church in his dayes there were false Prophets among the people even as there are false Teachers among you the true Prophets of God in Israel 2 Pet. 2.1 were ordinarily confronted by the false there wanted not an Hannaniah to break the Yokes of Jeremiah nor a proud Pashur to put him in the Stocks in the Gate of Benjamin when he only declared Gods mind warned of Gods approaching judgments and withstood the perjurious breach of the Oath of God which was upon the King and Kingdom nor is any thing more plain than Israels setting their posts by Gods posts their Altars by Gods Altars Ezek. 8.6.43.8 setting up in Gods house the very Image of Jealousie insomuch that Gods Prophets were ordinarily invective and vehemently reproving in their Ministery and indeed extraordinarily raised up to that very end yet we find not in all their Cals to Repentance one Caution against Communion with the Church or Call unto sâ—paration Mark 8.15.7.3 In the dayes of our Saviour the Jews were so corrupt in their doctrine that he Cautioned his Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees they made the Word of God of none effect by their traditions of the Elders they enervated the Law by most strait and false interpretations thereof In worship they innovated and with great severity imposed their own Inventions Pharisaical Rites and Superstitions they prophaned the Temple and made Gods house a Den of Thieves and in their Discipline they made acts of Necessity Charity and piety censurable unto a casting out of the Synagogues against all which the whole Ministery of the Lord Jesus was highly invective and severely rebuking yet he neither disowned them as a Church denyed communion with them all his time on earth or directed any of his Disciples so to do so long as God continued his presence and Ordinances to and among them but on the contrary pleaded for them as the very fountain of Salvation in opposition to the Samaritans You worship you know not what but we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews he sent his cleansed Lepers to shew themselves to the Priests John 4.22 and
vessel doth quench the thirst and these are either some matter superadded not intermingled with or destructive to Gods Ordinances such as were the high places posts by Gods posts thresholds by his thresholds Altar by his Altar in Israel unto the very Image of Jealousie set up in Gods house which yet remained his and as such was continued preserved and acknowledged The Lord Jesus found the Temple his Fathers house of Prayer though made a Den of theeves and such is our Crosse in Baptism though seemingly sacramental yet distinct from Gods imitating Seal of the Covenant and such is a Roman linnen vesture in ministration of Gods worship by a lawfull Minister or some corrupt rude and unsutable ministerial method and order which is the vessel and only instrument of conveiance though unclean of administration such was the violent and unfitting snatching of the Priests part of the Sacrifice by the sons of Eli the confused acclamations of the Church of Corinth speaking all at once different matters in different tongues and our imposed method disorderly method of publick Prayer by Versicles Responds abruptions abreviations and popular acclamations with artificial singing by boyes and base fellows thereunto appointed under all which Gods Ordinances abide a subject compleat truly and formerly existent and distinct from these superadded corruptions operative unto salvation and therefore may not be declined or disowned Corruptions intrinsecal are indeed such as do not only warrant but necessitate non-communion yea separation of the highest nature as a duty indispensable In sence hereof all those in Israel who feared God and set their hearts to seek the Lord prayed for and according to divine directions departed from Dan and Bersheba forsook the solemn Assemblies Jeroboam had constituted and followed the Tribe of Levi Gods only Ministers unto Jerusalem Gods only place of publick solemn worship and our Saviour resolved the woman of Samaria her enquiry concerning the place of worship with a ye know not what ye worship for salvation is of the Jews This is the very ground of the Reformed Churches departure and non-communion with Rome who though she be by original constitution the Temple of God is become the very seat of Antichrist and by the same so vitiated that her Ministrations are the cup of abomination by which she hath made the Nations drunk having by her intercessions of and to Saints the Popes infallibility divine power and properties and by her expiatory Sacrifices disowned and nullified as much as in her lieth Christs mediatory offices and by dividing the elements destroying the outward signe essential to a Sacrament and on a fancied transubstanciation turning it into a Sacrifice for quick and dead nullified Christs Ordinances and by many other intrinsecal evils poysoned Gods whole worship and rendred it directly destructive to salvation and is therefore presented to us under the Appellation Babylon in the very abstract spiritual Sodom and Egypt and so the object of our departure advised with a lest ye partake of her sins which were and are so universally diffused and hath so farre vitiated the subject that a guilt will be contracted by meer Communion Corruptions extrinsecal may Extrinsecal corruptions warrant no separation and must grieve the spirits of Gods people occasion their loud complaints his Ministers most zealous reproofs and the studâ—ous endeavours of all to prevent and remove them because scandals to the Church prejudicial though not directly destructive to salvation dishonourable to Religion and the God whose prerogative it is to prescribe every pin and the very snuffers to be used in his House 1 King 11 3â— and is therefore highly displeasing to God provoking him to rend a Kingdom from the house of David to loath and at least to leave his holy place and remove his Candlestick from such as will not fear him in the simplicity of his own institutions without the vain and needlesse Appendants of their own inventions But yet these cannot warrant separation or voluntary non-communion because the Church abideth related to God as his Spouse his worship and Ordinances remain for matter and essential form entire and exactly his own notwithstanding the concomitancy of some super-added matter or the unfit ministerial method and order by which they are dispensed and Gods presence is to them continued though with a grieved striving spirit threatning his departure and thereby we are under a possibility of salvation though engaged to more care and industry this was the case of the Prophets our Saviour and his Disciples the Church of the Jews and Primitive Christians under the many parallel yea transcending to ours corruptions before mentioned without any prescript or practice of Separation or non-Non-Communion Christian Friend it is too evident That many and great Corruptions are to our sin and shame retained The Case of England under corruption and to the aggravation thereof with an high hand and defiance of the God of Jealousie returned after a Solemn and Sacred Expulsion into our Church but yet they are extrinsecal and not of the substance of Gods Worship which for Matter and essential Form remaineth entire and properly his own though not so acceptable under as well as without them and will not therefore warrant my Separation or Non-Communion so far as to lie at Home or loyter in the Church-yard until the Common-Prayer whereby God is truly though not orderly invocated and worshipped wherein I as a Member of that Church am interested and unto which as it is Publick Solemn Prayer though in an unsutable Method my Amen is an indispensable Duty being ended The Administrations of Gods Worship among us are indeed nauseous and unhealthful but not void or venemous our waters are bitter and pudled but not poysonous our Pastures are trodden down and the proud of the Flock do push us with Horn Ezek. 34.18 19 20 21. and with Hoof but we are not yet driven out of Christs Fold not dare not we say our Pasture is quite taken from us To be plain Under all our Corruptions we must not we cannot we dare not deny the Matter and essential Form of Gods Ordinances and Worship is continued to us though some superstitious Rites are unto them annexed which are apparent Appendants redundant to and separable from and not vitiating destructive or annihilating to their Subject and are therefore pretended and professed by the Canons appropriated to this Church to be Acts of Order and Ornament rather than of Worship and Adoration to God and they are such wherein the people are generally passive not active Baptism is fully and formally Gods Ordinance though the Cross be needlesly and superstitiously added thereunto and the Parent by virtue of whose interest in Gods Covenant the Child receiveth the Seal is unjustly excluded and a deputation of Godfathers and Godmothers is groundlesly imposed The Word of God is not excluded though now and then a piece of Apocripha is unwarrantably read in the publick Assembly nor doth it cease to be
Why is my now attendance on solemn publick worship branded to be renewed communion with you know not whom if you mean this of persons individual truly as to the most I know not whom nor can I think you judge it necessary I cannot in my first communion know it in any Congregation is Church gathering become a Presbyterial principle is it the work of every age is seven not seventy years an age is non knowledge of Members a cause of non communion would not common charity make me know them to be a society of Christians worshippers of the true God in Jesus Christ and are they not hereby members of the Church Catholick visible particularly divided by local circumscription or have we renounced this principle is not the Liberty of the Tower a particular Church in a Presbyterial sence as well as Christ Church or Alhallows Breads street If I communicate in these must I not communicate with I know not whom may I not hear the Gospel preached and in calling on God in the name of Christ for things agreeable to his will communicate with I know not whom But why is my communion râ—newed I never denied I never ceased from I never was cut off from communion with the English Reformed Church and its particular Assemblies must Independents be verified in the false reproach viz. Presbyterial Churches wâ—re gathered Churches Presbytery interrupted was the Church dissolved and Communion abandoned Cave We have disowned denied determined sin and danger in these Notions I have more charity than to think my self out of Communion because violently debarred from Convention with the particular Assemblies of the Reformed English Church God having at length opened me a door of liberty to attend his solemn publick worship in this place with this Assembâ—y why is my acceptance and use thereof clamorously condemned as an act not only impoliti k but impious do not you know this is the execution of a resolution neither new nor rash not new for I thus determined and thus practised in my youth when piety was reproached by profane men as Puritanism and by the Brownists as corrupt Communion I thus determined and declared in my publick Ministery and preaching for Reformation I thus determined in all my late disputes and writings whilest I was at liberty I thus practised on accidental occasions I herein convinced and hereof perswaded prayed the liberty I now enjoy the first day I was committed prisoner to this place and have ever since petitioned to enjoy it this act you know is not rash but the result of mature and deliberate thoughts besides what hath passed between God and mine own soul I have heard and weighed the objections of separating as well as reforming brethren and after many expostulations I have you know it stated my Case of Conscience drawn up my reasons communicated them to Brethren and Christian Friends craved a Confutation from more than one prayed fraternal Correption by solid and serious Argumentation and professed a readiness to hear and obey Conviction I wonder after all this and Nine Months time to have corrected convinced my Judgment I shall be censured for bringing it to Act and you should now call for an Apology Dear Brother How long shall I complain when shall I be known and dealt with as a Brother Is it fair Play to revile and not reprove To condemn and not confute Will you neither convince my Conscience nor be content without Censures to see me obey it Are you angry to be imposed on and yet expect I should live by an implicite Faith and forbear what is to me a positive Duty on this bare Reason The Brethren will be displeased Let me say it without Prophaneness or Levity Be not wise overmuch The Offence of Brethren hath its place and weight in my Soul but must be well grounded before it counterpoize Conscience of positive indispensable Duty I well understand not the Epithites which vilifie my present Act because they are general and without Reason That it is Impolitick I may not deny I have ever been estranged to and at enmity with the Brethrens Policies and Fancy If they had in some things been as foolish as silly I God might have had more Glory Truth more Strength the Church more Purity and Order my self more Liberty their Comforts I know not nor will adventure to judge What Policies this Act must relate unto I know not unless it be the strengthning and so justifying those Schisms which supplanted subverted our Reformation by those Seditions Rebellions Treasons which have made it Odious and scandalized the endeavours thereof that the most Upright and Innocent among us are pressed under it If Brethren were sensible That my Zeal for Reformation is reproached repelled and my self thus oppressed by these Schisms they would not sure think it Policy to strike hands with them or Impolitick to appear really as well as verbally against them God knoweth I may not long speak let me speak freely Truly Brother foolish I think it aque and aequaliter politick for serious sober Reformers to unite with Non-communicating Separating Congregational Brethren in the Church-confounding nullifying principles and practises As for our late King-Killers to cry up the COVENANT and confound the Quarrel of the Parliament with the Good Old Cause Confound 62. with 52. and you may reconcile 48. to 43. and soon return to 48. again Agree these in Ecclesiasticks and divide them in Civils if you can I wish I could not scent some Brethren offended at my Act as tainted already in their Civils But I am a Fool be it so yet a Fools Bolt is soon shot If Presbyters will wisely serve Gods providence and do his Church proper Service Now it is their Time and Business to witness Corruptions circa cultum publicum will not warrant Non-communion with secession or separation from a true Church and such I yet deem England Correct this folly and I may become wise till then I will through Grace joy in my folly I have observed indeed Gods and the Kings Fools were never many But truly foolish I could never judge it good Policy That Non-communion Separation and the Sectarian Spawn should shroud themselves and be sheltered by Non-conformity and Reformation Hath not our dear-bought Experience taught us That the Repute of being the Parent of these hath been the Remora and Retroversion of that Can we forget how these when in Power did divide divert and destroy Reformation Paganize all England and plant One hundred and twenty gathered Churches and thereby proclaim Entity not Purity of the Churches was their Quarrel And shall we not now be so wise as to disown and deny them as a Bastard brood Now they are taken as Vagrants and whip't up to Non-conformists as their reputed Parents Can we ever witness Relation more than by these affectionate embraces in this day of Discrimination O! that my Brethrens Policy were so wise as to consider the Duty and Necessity of differing Reformation and
John 20.19 26. 1 Cor. 16.2 held solemn Assemblies on the Lords day the first day of the Week and charged the Saints of their age and in them all others not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together Heb. 10.25 taxing the defect of some therein as the manner of some is As Solitary Sabbaths are in themselves so God knoweth they have been and are to me the sting of an imprisoned condition I hope I can say without vanity as David in his exile Psa 42.1 2 3. As the Hart panteth for the water Brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for the living God When shall I come and appear before God when I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I have gone with the multitude I went with them to the House of God with the voyce of joy and gladness with the multitude that kept the holy day I deny not God to be served and enjoyed in Solitary Worship Psal 84.7 but must needs observe in Zion the Saints pass from strenth to strength every one appearing before God Solemn publique Worship is Gods chief Ordinance for the support of his peoples faith this is denominated the Beauty of Gods Holiness Psal 27.4 96.9 and 110.3 To this his presence and power is promised and in it chiefly predicated attendance on this is charged as his peoples duty and discharged as their joy The want of this is the Sacra fames Spiritual famine Amos 8 11. under want of which Davids faith was ready to faint had it not been prevented by a speedy and seasonable supply When I sought to know this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary then understood I their end Psal 73.16 17. This therefore is not to be slighted or neglected or superficially desired or used but most highly prized earnestly desired and joyfully imbraced and not voluntarily declined on every light occasion and trivial exception or friendly perswasion but the grounds must be plain clear certain and weighty such as I may with confidence plead unto my God as the apology of my absence of choice not constraint in which I expect God should have mercy on me because and for that he cannot have Sacrifice from me which can be nothing but the restraining necessity of my condition or my running into sin to possess it My good Friend you see my case is hard and what now is my case may ere long be yours and others of Gods people You yet enjoy a liberty of worshipping God in due and right order and may drink the Waters of the Sanctuary in clean Vessels long may you enjoy it and if God take pleasure in me he will in due time restore me to it but if not let him do what seemeth him good At the present I have no choice if I will attend Gods publique Solemn Worship I must do it in this place and order or not at all whilest I dread to give the least occasion of insultation to the wicked or offence to the weak my conscience is under the apprehension and aw of a positive indispensible duty which I dare not decline unless on reasons constituting a clear and unavoidable necessity my present restraint doth indeed acquit me and carry the guilt of my absence from Gods House from off me to others I duly endeavouring by all just means to have the same removed which once effected what moral bar will lie upon my minde and in my way as a formal sin which I cannot without guilt break thorow that is the question I have desired seriously to consult and by Scripture to resolve And on mature thoughts I must profess I finde not any which will bear weight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as that which I shall dare to produce before the Lord when demanded a reason of my voluntary absence on which he may not pronounce He was bidden to the feast but would not come and therefore is not worthy and hereafter shall not For I must profess First I never did could or yet can deny 1. The Church of England a true Church and I a member the being of the Churâ—h of England that is the community of Christians in this Nation incorporated by Baptism professing the true God and Jesus Christ and subjected to the Word and Sacraments in the Ministery of Christs lawful Ministers for I never believed any National Priviledge such as was peculiar to the Jews or the Hierarchical Order and collective Constitution which cannot be denied to be a meer humane and separable adjunct and is neither an equal nor regular Representation could or did give that appellation nor disown my own relation to it and must therefore see some good ground for my non-communion with it and for my choice of Solitary Worship of God rather then fellowship in its Solemn publique Worship where and whilest God affords his presence though with a grieved striving spirit I dare not be absent though thereby I might avoid some burthen It is well known I am not unacquainted with the Church renouncing rending ruining principles of the Anabaptists and old separating Brownists nor with the Paganizing practice of the seemingly more sober and serious Independent or Congregationalist who sometimes indeed pretend to own the being of this Church but by their Church-gathering Self-Constitution dispencing Ordinances by their self-consecration professed principle that in England there is much matter for but not the form of a Church and so no Church at all for forma dat essentiam and with the height of confidence to say no more of it proclaiming themselves the gathered Churches contradistinct to the Nation and all Christians in it as if they onely were the first fruits of Achaia I mean England an infidel Nation who had never received the Gospel or Christ had not been preached among them and professed by them nor any of her Inhabitants had been incorporated by Baptism into Christs Catholique Body but were to this day aliens and strangers to the Houshold of Faith and Commonwealth of Israel do plainly declare so to all rational men able and willing to discern that the being of a Church in England is by them disputed yea denied But these I never did nor could approve and therefore I must presume none that ever knew me and my constant contests by preaching writing and suffering under and against them can conceive this to be now any scruple to my conscience doubt to my soul demur to my duty or diversion to my Communion with them whose being a Church of Christ I have ever and openly asserted and defended and to whom I have ever professed my own relation Prophane members destroy not the Church That these men urge That many members in the Church of England are rude and prophane in their Conversation with their mouthes confessing but in works denying God and are not therefore fit matter for a Church I do well know and to my grief and
and ordinances and reflectes on the work of reformation it selfe as if their proper genuine and natural parent The reformation of the Church is a duty incumbent on every man and member thereof Reformation must be by lawfull means onely it must be pursued in their places and capacities by just and lawful means without schism from or if possible in the Church or sedition in the Common-wealth both which my soul ever did abhor as disgraceful to Religion dishonourable to God and destructive to Reformation I never did nor yet can allow or advise other means of reformation then Ministerial admonition to the Church Logical dispute and Theological argumentation and redaurgtion among equals humble proposal petition and supplication to superiors with a patient and submisse attendance on their pleasure and on God acting the same such as receive Kings as nursing Fathers to the Church will rejoyce in them as Christians much more as professedly reformed and with all peaceable submission embrace such degrees of Reformation of the extrinsecall order and ministerial method of Gods worship enjoying the substance in the essential form thereof as they will allow untill God encline their hearts to allow what himselfe expecteth and his people desire soberly pursuing the bene esse with joy in the esse of Religion and in communion with the Church waiting on the truth of Gods ordinances quietly attending their Superiors for purity and regularity of dispensation I find not that the men fearing God in Iudah did tumultuously tumble down the high places nor turn away from Gods Temple because of them yet their standing was the stain of Government to their reforming Kings to flye out of Gods house or in the face of Gods Vicegerents because his own appointments are administred by instruments in order to his service unsuitable and to us offensive is a frowardness which God cannot nor will not admit or indulge in any of his children Ministerial reproofs and admonitions and vulgar mournings and murmurations are loud alarums to God and the consciences of men and strong enforcements of Reformation preces Iacrymae ever were and still are the onely weapons of the truly Godly Our state and time calleth for an higher degree of Reformation under and against the oppositions of just authority and lawful Princes such as God hath in his mercy and by his miraculous providence restored to our Church and Nation I am afflicted by and ashamed of the slow progress and shameful retrogradation of Englands Reformation under and against publike national solemn sacred bonds whose obligation will abide before God and conscience though the affirmations thereof may be interdicted by men If Calvini in his days could say If Godly Religion had flourished in England till that day the time of Queen Mary her Raign there ought to have been an order of service better corrected Epistle to the Ch. at Frankford and many things quitte taken away Can we without grief consider our Church hath enjoyed true Religion more then eighty years since that time and yet we ignorantly continue and violently contend for that order of service as if ashamed to give place unto better things yet I dare not deny her to be a reformed Church or as such decline Communion with her in and for whom the Lord hath emminently appeared and out of whom he hath gratiously purged all things venentous and destructive though some things nauseous and distastfull were continued and are returned into her having defended her against the Spanish Ariâ—ado and Popish Conspiracy by Gunpowder and other agitations and attempts of Papall power and Antichristian rage with an Almighty hand and outstretched Arme. I do beleive the infancy of Reformation might rejoice in and grow up under that order of divine service which the adult estate thereof ought to cast off as puerile and unsutable First degrees were matter of Comfort though not of Content to such who seek the simplicity of the Gospell remaining dreggs ought to be discharged and I doubt not God will notwithstanding mens aversness and opposition in due time effect it In the mean time i see no reason to refuse to drink because my waters are pudled or presented in an unclean Vessel and I can come by no purer remaining degrees of Reformation must be so purified that those obtained may not appear to be disowned or despised though our order of Divine Service be a Roman dregge of some dangerous distastfull influence yet it is not Popery shall we not blesse God and rejoyce in England as brought out of Babylon though some Babylonish Vestures Rites and Orders which ought to be abandoned are yet retained I conceive them ingratefull for the purity obtained who run out of Gods house for the Corruptions continued and obtruded I cannot but repute them over forward who shall refuse the Substantials of true Religion and Christs Institutions because of some rude Rough Appendants shall we not acknowledge Gods mercy in affording us and humbly use the truth of Gods word because transmitted unto us with some humane traditions and the substance of his own worship celebrated in a disorderly way and method with some foolish Appendants of mens inventions My good friend my zeal care and contests for Reformation of this poor Church have cost me dear yet if God suffer the Charge to rise as hâ—gâ— as did that of my namesake by the unkindness of King Joash not one mite too dear I blesse God however my passions worke I see no cause to repent my bargain I pray God glorifie himself and edifie his people by my bonds onely I must professe to all that fear God I see no sufficient cause to satisfie my Conscience or to plead before my God on which to refuse Communion with her and attendance on Gods solemn publique worship under her rude Ministerial method for that duty is not warantably superseded by the iniquity of another man my sufferings nor other mens sin under which I mourn because I cannot mend it must not turn me out of Gods way to the right or left hand superstition and separation must be shunned as Rocks equally dangerous to Gods Church and worship the prophanesse of this and its Subjects must not drive me nor the pretended purity and piety of the other and its Subjects allure or draw me unto the positive evil of separation or privative evil of voluntary non-Communion I pray and hope God will keep me upright under and against all temptations from falling into the extreams of our unhappy age and Church and yet give me to see the purity of his worship in Union and Communion with his Church here on earth or possesse me with his undefiled unstained glory in Heaven for from the one I dare not depart untill I arrive at the other least by shipwarck I should be deprived of both Fourthly Let it be considered Consi 4th Scandall is an argument of no strength when pleaded to supersede or condemn a positive duty Jobs friends