that they are not and ought not to be members of our Churches or that they cannot continue so without sin Answ But neither of these can be bended to the present case for we speak especially of such as were Baptized and have for many years together worshipped God in their own persons in the Temples with us and thus have done as much to the making themselves members of our Parishs-Churches as the very Independents require Besides it ought to be considered seriously that they stand obliged to worship God with us by the laws of Order and Cohabitation by the civil and Ecclesiastical laws of the Church and Kingdom which do what they can will reach and bind their Consciences both by virtue of the natural laws of Government and the positive laws of Scripture Both which have Divine Authority sufficient to exact your obedience to your Rulers in all lawful things And that to worship God with us in the Temple is a lawful thing I appeal to your own present judgment if it agree with your late practice However I am sure I have the general consent of the Reformed Churches and of the Old Nonconformists Puritans and Presbyterians against both your judgment and practice if they be indeed both changed Object I know it is said they do not absolutely deny our Communion but they think they may serve God better in their gathered Churches This is the refuge of their cunning men Answer But can they be in earnest Our Communion then must be either corrupt or defective Defective you cannot say for we have all the same Ordinances that you have and a great many good Prayers that you have not Are we corrupt then Shew wherein there is nothing in our lay-Communion that you use to scruple but Kneeling at the Sacrament As for the Surplice and the Cross these belong to the Pastor's Office And shall not he have liberty to doe his duty as well as you to neglect yours Besides if you should imagine that you are concern'd about the Application of the Sign of the Cross to your Children I need not tell you of wayes to avoid it without gathering Churches If these things be so answer me like Christians You would Separate that you may have pure Ordinances i. e. that you may receive the Communion sitting And is it indeed all come to this And will this bear you out in a Total Separation and tearing our Churches in pieces as you do You cannot think it But what ever is amiss with us your late practice and this very Objection granteth that you believe it lawful to joyn in our Worship and if so nothing can excuse your Separation from Schism according to the Doctrine of Ames and indeed in the Judgment of all men but your selves if not very lately of your selves too Besides to Separate that you may serve God Inter nos quibus idem Christus una Religio eadem Sacramenta nihil in Christiana observatione diversum Donat. Aug. To. 7. p. 46. m. better is too like the pretence of all former Schismaticks that stand condemn'd in the Histories of the Church The Novatians Audeans Donatists the Soberer part of our own Separatists and Independents all these pretended for Reformation and purer Worship and Discipline which with you is to serve God better Lastly pardon me if I warn you of some danger in this Principle if left or trusted in their hands that are Cunning and know how to use it with Advantage It laies the Reins of Government upon the Peoples Neck and impels them to reform without their Rulers and consequently is plainly inconsistent with the Reason and order of all good Polity and opens a Gap for Division and Confusion in the Church how ever it fares with the State while every one is hurried by his own Wild Fancy set on fire by this Principle Yea it carries also in it the Ruine of the Separated Churches themselves It hath been formerly observed to ferment and work strangely in them and may do the like again It hath not been content to pill off the first black or browner Skin of the Onion but it would have it whiter and whiter and still hath pilled and pilled one after another till nothing has been left except tears in the eyes of the beholders but Skin and Husks thought fit only to be trodden under foot by Atheistical Swine while the Reformers themselves are prepared to be torn in pieces by Doggs as the Apostle stiles some Ravenous Antichristian Doctors 2. The Point hath yet force to defeat another great Argument for Separation for if our people cannot leave us without Sin and Schism how vainly it is said We must preach we may not preach in the Temples we cannot preach otherwhere without Auditours we can have no Auditours but out of the Parochial Congregations therefore we must gather Churches out of them One would think the Argument went better thus had we a People of our own there were a necessity of our preaching but seeing we have none there is no such necessity where there is no opportunity there is no duty saith Mr. Baxter The Argument as it is is in plain English no better than this We must provide for our Families we cannot doe this except we steal from our Neighbour therefore we must steal It seems ridiculous to plead an interest in or Pastoral Relation to the people you had ten years agon founded in the Independent Notion of the peoples Consent Where do you find one word in Scripture making the peoples Consent necessary to a particular Pastors Call or his relation to them Besides in a Christian Common-wealth is there nothing required to give such relation but the peoples Consent if that be so Is the Consent of the Magistrate expressed in his Laws respectively nothing in this matter Is the Consent of the Overseers in the Church that give us Institution nothing It seems beyond all doubt that the Laws of the Church where we live must be the measure and standard of our spiritual Title as well as the Laws of the Land of our Temporal And if the King and the Bishop have a hand in our Introduction and Ejection we cannot be restored without them Besides the remedy is too too short were it good Have not the people generally consented to other Pastors How few of the Ejected Ministers do indeed apply themselves to their Antient Flocks as they should do by this Rule Yea they put their Sickle every where into others mens Harvest without all shadow of this poor pretense Give me leave to be plain This pretended necessity of preaching and drawing away our people from us the real necessity of peace and order condemns the necessity of obedience to the Laws condemns necessity of obedience to God's word requiring obedience to those Laws condemns Yea the necessity of keeping your Promises and Oaths if you were ordained by Bishops flatly condemns Lastly that we must preach though inhibited by Law and Law executed is a principle
are not only Rites of Custom but of positive Laws too Though our Rites are such as the Communion of the people is little concerned in Yea though they are such also as all former Non-Conformists stiffly contend none ought to Separate from our Churches for and much less to gather themselves into new Churches as it is at this day when you know you are indulged to omit them without penalty or Separation The last Charge of Schism in Corinth a dividing at the Communion in the Text. LAstly these Corinthians were guilty of Schism also by their Divisions in their Communions reproved in the Text explained in the Verse before it In eating every one taketh before other his own Supper and one is Hungry and another is Drunken i. e. saith Calvin they drank too freely and merrily at their feasts joyned with the Lords Supper wherein also the Rich excluded the Poor and Factiously denied them to Communicate with them and after the Rich had done the Poor were suffered to eat together only of what the Rich had left Thus they Divided in their Love-feasts as most consent but Pareus thinks also in the Lords-Supper it self Thus Vnity was broken and that 's Schism Thus saith Grotius it happen'd in their Times which is faln out much more in ours that the thing instituted for the incorporating and uniting of Christians in vexillum Schismatis vertitur is made the occasion of Division and Schism This kind of Schism is too easily applicable to our present Separation which cannot escape alike yea a far worse Accusation For do not our brethren avoyd Communion with us especially in the Eucharist Hath not this Communion been the only matter of their Division when they so long joyned with us in all things else None can deny it But their Schism is now commenced much higher by the following Circumstances 1. The Corinthians divided only in one Ordinance with partial Schism our brethren in all with total Separation 2. The Corinthians held their divided Communions in the same Publique Place our brethren Ver. 18. 20. leave our Publique Churches and have Private Houses for Publique Worship 3. Their divided Communions were successive and not at the same time but some before some after other v. 21. but our brethren set their new Verse 21. Altars directly against ours in point of time in plain opposition 4. The Corinthians communicated with the same Pastors in the same Modes of Worship and Government yet for dividing among themselves were Schismaticks and who can excuse those that renounce their Pastors and heap up new ones of another Ordination to serve another Altar under another Mode of Worship Government and Discipline The Sum is the Corinthians were Schismaticks for dividing only in one point But our brethren divide from us in all things in our Pastors Temples Assemblies Worship and Government Yea they have new Pastors Places Assemblies and all things else concurring both to Negative and Positive and Total Separation and if this be not Schism in the Rankest sence imaginable say what is Of the Contempt which falls upon Church as a Publique Place of Worship by Schism YOu have heard the first Evidence viz. Schism but because your patience would fail me to speak of the Second viz. Prophaneness though doubtless we have too much reason for that also I shall employ the time remaining in lamenting the Contempt which necessarily falls upon the Church of God by Schism and Separation beseeching you at last for Pitie's sake to have no hand in it Despise ye the Church of God Whether we understand the Locus or the Coetus the Place or the Assembly such as Separate shew plainly that they despise the Church of God First they despise the Publique Place of our God's usual Worship as the Synogogue is properly the Meeting of the People and improperly the Place in which they meet so the name Church saith Grotius hath both Significations but here as he conceives and is plain enough in Vid. ver 20. with 22. the Context we are especially to understand the Place For so early it seems the Church had Places peculiarly devoted to divine Service and Eusebius observes it was evidently so in Dioclesians time These Churches or Temples were then distinguisht from their Private Houses by their proper uses these were to eat and to drink in Have you not houses to eat and to drink in and for Civil Conversation but the Church for divine things Prayers Doctrine Sacraments the Publique Exercises of Piety and Religious Worship therefore called as in the Text the Churches of God Despise you the Church of God Not that divine Worship is to be wholly shut out of our Private Houses Yet it ought to be such as agrees with the Nature of them viz. Family-Worship Publique Worship in Private Houses when we may have Publique hath been ever a Solecism in Religion So we must also eat and drink in the Church yet in such wise as agrees with the Place not after a common and carnal manner as these Corinthians did but in Christian Communion after our Lords Institution as the Apostle commands Now by Schism this Church or Publique Place of God's Worship was despised among them thereby they made it as their own houses they gave it nothing of its due Reverence they despised the Worship of it and the God of it by turning it into a Den of Thieves stealing from God and the Poor and a Sty of Swine by their Sensuality and Luxury a House of Pride and Faction of Envy and Division which ought to have been a House of Prayer and Piety a House of Purity and Unity in the Communion of Saints Did they thus despise God's House and do Applicat not we much more P. Martyr complains of his Times now the Temples lie open all the day long for walking news and all sort of prophane business and minds us of our Saviours whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple and it cannot but seem strange to us that such especially as despise the Temple in its holy uses should yet thus prophane it But this is not the Contempt I chiefly bewail for while men forsake this Publique House and build others for Divine Service can they more shamefully despise it While they forsake it especially upon such Grounds as they imagine should carry away all others as well as themselves can they take a more effectual course to render it contemptible If after these cross Examples others should be tempted to do so wickedly what would become of our Temples They may stand a while indeed as forlorn and neglected Monuments of our Irreligion and Atheism but at length must fall and the Magnificence of England fall with them to the imparallel'd reproach of our Church and Nation they may serve a while for meaner Offices than our own Houses as some of them lately did but too soon we may have cause to lament with the Prophet Lift up thy feet to the perpetual desolations
even all that the Enemy hath done wickedly in the Sanctuary they have defiled by casting down the Dwelling place of thy Name to the ground they said in their hearts let us destroy them together they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land O God how long shall the Adversary reproach Psal 74. 2. to 11. Yea it is not an Enemy that reproacheth us then we could have born it We took sweet counsel Psa 55. 12. 14. together and lately walked to the House of God in Company I know you will say that our brethren intend no such thing but this is plainly the intention of their Actions if not of their minds which ought chiefly to be observed and without which the intention of their minds is insignificant The Contempt of the Assemblies by Separation SEcondly suppose by the Church of God we understand the Coetus or Assembly of Christians how are these despised while you treat them as unworthy of your Company while you reject our Pastors our Members our Worship and Ordinances as well as our Temples What can be the Intention of your Separation but to reflect upon us as too too corrupt and to censure us as Assemblies of Sinners and Publicans though you heed not who are the Pharisees and plainly to expose our Bishops Pastors Government and Worship to Publique Scorn and highest Contempt and the Church of England and our Parochial Congregations to the certainest Method of Reproach and Ruine should others be perswaded to deal so spitefully with us as your selves I say this way of Separation as it immediately plucks up our Antient Land-marks and dissolves our Parochial Constitution so it leads directly to the tearing our Prayer-book again the trampling first upon our Government next upon our Governours and if wiser men than I am have any skill at ghessing a betraying our Church and the Reformation of it to Forraign Invasion and Usurpation the barbarous Captivity of spiritual Egypt and Sodom which God avert If not then this must be for a Lamentation How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people I am 1. How is she become as a Widow All her Friends have dealt treacherously with her they are become her Enemies Judah is gone into Captivity She dwelleth among the Heathen The ways of Sion do mourn because none come to her solemn feasts all her Gates are desolate her Priests sigh her Virgins are afflicted and she is in bitterness her Adversaries are the chief her Enemies prosper and from the Daughter of Sion all her beauty is departed The Application of the whole Discourse for Union and Parochial Worship THus you have heard what Schism is and the danger of it to the Church of God and that breach of Union and Division of the Parts threatens the dissolution of the whole Now what remains but that if you would avoid the Mischief you prevent it in the Cause which you see is Schism Separation and gathering Churches As you would preserve our Church you must preserve its Vnion the Case admits of no other Cure the Case is otherwise desperate Yet this is a sure Remedy carrying in it a continuity of Parts which is our Health Now there is but one way of maintaining this Vnion and that is necessary viz. the preserving our Parochial Constitution and Worship if this be once dissolved we are lost Parish-bounds were at first laid by the light of Nature for persons living together should worship God together and the general practice of Scripture where we still find Cities and Churches are Commensurate perhaps among so many Instances there may be some few just exceptions but generally the bounds of our Parish-Churches are convenient enough our very Adversaries being Judges However where they are inconvenient the people cannot be thought fit Reformers popular Experiments about Antient Foundations will be ever hazardous if not Ruinous What hand trembles not to touch a Constitution that hath been found so convenient and stood so firm for so many Ages Yea a friend of their own of no mean account affirms that the Protestant Interest in England depends very much upon the Piety Honour and Integrity of our Parish-Churches The Conclusion COnclude then there is no other visible remedy against the foresaid Mischiefs but our ordinary attending upon the Worship of God in the Temples If you regard the Common Safety and the Publique Peace or your Private Interest therein involv'd if the Prosperity of Sion your duty to and care of Religion if the great concerns of God and Mens Souls and the Reformation weigh any thing with you Yea as you abhor Schism and Heresie Popery and Anarchy Atheism Confusion and perpetual desolations in the Church of God take head of separating your selves break not our Parish-bounds forsake not sleight not our Publique Worship and Assemblies Take heed of giving Countenance to gathered Churches so far as to gratifie a Wanton itch of hearing their Teachers They are Schismatical in their Constitution and plainly design opposition and destruction to the Church of England and he that sees not this sees Nothing Let Houses retain their proper offices and be content with them but see that you Reverence the Sanctuary O contemn it not by withdrawing your selves and Gods Ark and Altar from it What! Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in Or despise ye the Church of God Do not dare to do it 't is a great Sin and of destructive Consequence and you have had Warning and to say no more you have no Assurance that either God or Man will always indulge it or let it go unpunished FINIS Some single Sermons and other Discourses touching the present differences in the Church Printed for James Collins 1. CAtholick Charity recommended in a Sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London in order to the abating the Animosities among Christians that have been occasioned by differences in Religion by Jos Glanvile Rector of Bath Price 6 d. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seasonable Recommendation and defence of Reason in the Assairs of Religion against Infidelity Scepticism and Fanaticisms of all sorts by Jos Glanvile Rector of Bath Price 6 d. 3. The Christians Victory over Death A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the most Honourable George Duke of Albemarle by Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum Price 6 d. 4. A Mirrour of Christianity and a Miracle of Charity or an exact Narrative of the Life and Death of the Lady Alice Dutches Dudley by R. Boreman DD. Price 6 d. 5. The General Assembly or the necessity of receiving the Communion in our publique Congregations evinced from the Nature of the Church the Word of God and Presbyterian Principles A Sermon by Francis Fulwood DD. Price 6 d. 6. Miserere Cleri A Sermon representing the Miseries of the Clergy and Assigning their true Causes in order to Redress by Edw. Westonhall B. D. Price 6 d. 7. Vrim Thummim or the Clergies Dignity and Duty recommended in a Visitation Sermon by Mal. Couvant B. D. Price 6 d. A Discouse of Toleration in answer to a late Book entituled A Discourse of the Religion of England Price 6 d. Indulgence not justified being a Continuation of the Discourse of Toleration in answer to the Arguments of a late Book entituled A Peace Offering or Plea for Indulgence and to another call'd The second Discourse of the Religion of England Price 6 d. Toleration not to be abus'd or a serious Question soberly debated and resolved upon Presbyterian Principles viz. whether it be adviseable especially for the Presbyterians either in Conscience or Prudence to take advantage from His Majesties late Declaration to deny or rebate their Communion with our Parochial Congregations and to gather themselves into distinct and separate Churches Price 6 d. The Judgment of the Learned and Pious St. Augustin concerning Penal Laws against Conventicles and for Unity in Religion delivered in his 48 Epistle to Vincentius Promiscuous Ordinations are destructive to the honour and safety of the Church of England written in a Letter to a Person of Quality