a prophane contempt or neglect of any part of publick worship for every imperfection and blemish nor to separate from a Church though never so corrupt so long as the Word Sacraments and Doctrine of Salvation may there be enjoyed Corruptions of a Church are commonly by Divines distinguished into two sorts They are either such as concern the matter of Religion which the Apostle calls demnable Heresies in fundamental points of Faith and Holiness which tend to the destroying of the very being of a Church Or else such as concern the manner of Religion in circumstantials and ceremonials which are matters of lower concern and inferiour alloy Such as to use the words of Learned Bp. Davenant Non continuo ad fidem fundamentalem spectant sed ad peritiam theologicam fortasse ne ad hanc quidem sed aliquando ad curiositatem theologorum belong not to the fundamentals of Faith but skilfulness in Divinity and not to that neither but rather to the curiosity of Divines Now errours even in fundamentals may be in a Church upon a double account either through infirmity and humane frailty the best of us knowing but in part in this Life God allows no separation in such a case The Church of Galatia through infirmity was quickly turned to another Gospel and erred even in matters fundamental holding justification by works and was fallen to the observation of Iewish Ceremonies which St. Paul calls beggarly Elements Their Apostle was become their Enemy and that for telling them the truth He was afraid of them lest all the labour he had bestowed amongst them was in vain and was fain to travel in birth with them again yet he owns them and writes to them as a Church notwithstanding Or else vitioso affectu immorigeroe voluntatis out of malice when men know they doe amiss and yet persist obstinately in so doing In such a case separation may be with a good Conscience When St. Paul had preach'd in the Synagogue of the Iews and they would not believe but began to blaspheme and speak evil of the ways of God then he withdrew and separated from them So that it must be no small matter that must be a sufficient ground to any one that means to keep a good Conscience to warrant his withdrawing from the publick Congregation in any part of God's worship If a man have not discretion he may easily run himself into a great evil of sin whilst he seeks to shun a light inconvenience and in avoiding that which he thinks to be superstition he may soon become really Schismatical and prophane which is as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Suppose there were some evil mixtures in our administration of Church-worship yet in the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves this is not a sufficient ground of a negative much less of a positive separation For say they the learned Authour before mentioned that is Camero tells us that corruption in manners crept into a Church is not a sufficient cause of separation from it This he proves from Matt. 23. 2 3. And he also gives this reason for it Because in what Church soever there is purity of Doctrine there God hath his Church though overwhelmed with scandals And therefore whosoever separateth from such an Assembly separateth from that place where God hath his Church which is rash and unwarrantable And in the next Page they say He that will never communicate with any Church till every thing that offendeth â—e removed out of it must tarry till the great day of Judgment when and not till then Christ will send forth his Angels and gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offendeth and them that doe iniquity And though to excuse themselves from the guilt of Schism they that do separate may pretend that they make not aâ— open breach of Christian Love wherein the nature of that great sin doth consist Let their own words answer themselves We grant that to make up the formality of a Schismatick there must be added uncharitableness as to make up the formality of an Heretick there must be added obstinacy But yet as he that denieth a fundamental Article of Faith is guilty of Heresie though he add not obstinacy thereunto to make him an Heretick so he that doth unwarrantably separate from a true Church is truly guilty of Schism though he add not uncharitableness thereunto to denominate him a complete Schismatick How unjustifiable then is the separation which some make themselves and cause others to make in these days from our Churches which in their Constitution for Doctrine Discipline and Worship are the envy of Rome and the admiration of the rest of the Christian World where there is nothing Idolatrous in Worship nothing Heretical in Doctrine nor Antiscriptural in Discipline where there is nothing taught believed or done but what is agreeable with the word of God or not contrary thereunto And to speak in the words of the learned and godly Dr. Henry More a Church so throughly purged from whatsoever can properly be styled Antichristian and is I am confident so Apostolical that the Apostles themselves if they were alive again would not have the least scruple of joyning in publick worship with us in our common Assemblies Separation from it can be no less than the fruit of Pride or bitter Zeal which tends to strife And where envy and strife is there is confasion and every evil work I have heard some Church-forsakers when they have been told of their Apostasie and falling off from the Church whereof they were Members excuse and please themselves in this that they are not Apostates from the Faith they hold the same Doctrine and believe the same Creed we do Though in that they doe no more than Papists doe But in the mean time they consider not That 1. This is an improvement and aggravation of their sin so far is it from excusing the fault to depart from a Church wherein they were born and baptized and which by their own confession continues sound in the Faith Separation is allowed by no Divines no not by the Presbyterians themselves but either in case of cruel Persecution damnable Heresie or down right Idolatry They then that separate from a Church where there is neither of these have the greater sin 2. That the hainousness of the sin of Schism doth not consist in renouncing the Faith but in the breach of Christian Charity without which all Faith is nothing A man may be very Orthodox in his Judgment and yet be a damnable Schismatick if he break that Union which ought to be religiously kept amongst Christians in God's worship especially And because this breach is manifestly perfected in refusing due Ecclesiastical Communion together therefore that separation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Schism 3. That the breach
Christ to become followers of him Then amongst others as they were added to the Church they were called by the word witness that great work of conversion wrought by the Ministry of St. Peter At one Sermon three thousand were severed from the rest of the world and added to the Church Next for the Sacraments these rightly administred are certain marks of a true Church for they are the Seals set by God to his word the signs of his Covenant whereby he binds himself to be our God and receives us to be his People They are sure pledges of his love to us which we really have till we come actually to be possessed of perfect holiness and glory with Christ Whilst we have these blessed ordinances of his amongst us his word truly preached and his Sacraments rightly administred it is not the rash censure of a few giddy heads that can unchurch us If they say we are a true Church then God is ever with us Es. 45. 14. in our assemblies at all times and in all parts of his worship Lo I am with you always to the end of the world Anâ— I will dwell in theâ— and walk in them and will be their God and they shall 〈◊〉 my People Thence the Holy Ghost iâ— Scripture calls the Church his house the dwelling place of his Name thâ— place where his honour dwells the Presence Chamber of the great King c. And as the glory of the Lord did Sensibly appear in the Tabernacle Exod. 40. 34. and in the Temple 1 kings 8. 10. So doth it now in our Church-assemblies as really and truly though not as visibly as then For if the Ministration of Death was glorious how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be glorious If the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory If that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Now if God be present with and in our assemblies how dare any that are or ought to be Members thereof absent themselves Dare ye to withdraw at any time from God's presence whose face at all times ye are commanded to seek I speak not of his omnipresence in regard of the immensity of his essence which fills all places God fills every place and fills it by containing that place in himself But I speak of that special presence which he hath promised to afford to his Church manifesting himself in that place and assembly more graciously than elsewhere If then we retain our Conjunction with Christ why do ye refuse Communion with us May we not therefore justly charge you as guilty of making a Schism in the Body of Christ That we may by your own Doctrine For say the Presbyterian Divines If the Apostle calls those divisions of the Church of Corinth wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Schism 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us and profession that ye cannot joyn with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism And presently after they distinguish out of Camero of a twofold Schism negative and positive The former is when men do peaceably and quietly draw from Communion with a Church not making a head against that Church from which they are departed The other is when persons so withdrawing do consociate and draw themselves into a disitinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church which Camero calls Schism by way of Eminency Now if this were true Doctrine in those days against those who were then concerned in it I know no reason why the space of a few years should so alter the case but that it is as true now against themselves who now doe what they then condemned in others viz. not onely withdraw from our publick assemblies but set up Church against Church And therefore to use their own words Ye must not be displeased with us but with your selves if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism And that is no small fault in the judgment of any sound Divine but a far greater than the fault upon which they pretend separation The things for which they make a rent are not so great a fault in the Church as the want of Charity in them which prompts them so to doe It is a sin of the first rate and one of the greatest size that a Christian can commit in the judgment of the Brethren of the Nonconformists themselves though now it goes down gliâ— with too many of them who not withstanding are obliged to the extirpation thereof not onely by the common bond of Religion and Christianity but also by the second Article of their solemn League and Covenant taken with hands lifted up to the most high God wherein they rank it with Popery Superstition Heresie Profaneness and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness Let the words of Mr. Baxter be noted as an evidence of this truth If the Scripture were Conscionably observed men would take Church-divisions for a greater sin than Adultery or Theft Mutinies and Divisions do more infallibly destroy an Army than almost any other fault or weakness and therefore all Generals do punish Mutineers with death as well as flat Traytors Our Union is our strength and beauty commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice do but destroy that truth and piety that was there before I like not him that will cure the head-ach by cutting the throat yea it is a greater sin than Murther saith Mr. Paget A Murtherer killeth but one man or two but a Schismatick goes about as much as in him lies to destroy the Church of God Yea it is worse to make a Schism in the Church than to Sacrifice to an Idol saith Mr. Calamy out of St. Cyprian And may Christians then play at sast and loose with the bonds of holy Communion at their pleasure St. Peter could say Lord whither shall we goe thou hast the words of Eternal Life Where this word is truly Preachâ—d in the way of Christ's appointment and the rest of his worship celebrated accordingly wo be to those that are not found there also Christians in the pure and primitive times did not take this Liberty in point of Church-fellowship but by the acknowledgment of the Divines before mentioned and Oh that their Practices now did not contradict their words then All such who professed Christianity held Communion together as one Church notwithstanding the difference in judgment in lesser things and much corruption in Conversation Cain was the first that ever separated from the Church he went out from the presence of God God is every where the meaning therefore is from his Church the place of his publick worship which was then in his Father's Family And will it be
it ought to be nothing else as if the whole day were to be spent at Church and in keeping publick Assemblies so far as conveniency and edification of the people will permit Why else did Holy David desire to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Why prayed he that he might be so happy One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Therefore if Conscience to obey God or desire to doe him service did draw them to his house at any time or to any part of his Worship the same would induce them at all times and to all parts of it The liberty then that such persons take in God's service as if all were Arbitrary argues much of hypocritical wantonness nothing of sound or sincere godliness They who are fed with Corn from Heaven meat to the full are thus faln to loath the Mannah that Rained down upon them twice every Sabbath-day Of a third sort I could inform the Reader who being weak yet I hope well-meaning Christians not knowing the depths of Satan under a specious pretence of Piety are not content with what they hear at Church but must afterwards fill their heads with notions which they hear at Conventicles wherewith they feast themselves without fear after they have been fed to the full in God's house with Angels food Without fear I say of offending God by breaking the order he hath set in his Church by countenancing abetting or joining themselves with such unlawfull and ungospel-like Assemblies without fear of offending or provoking the Rules of the Church which they are bound to obey by seeing their Laws despised and affronted without fear of exposing themselves to the temptation and hazard of falling so fearfully as they cannot but see that some of their Brethren and Neighbours have done And without fear of losing what they have heard in publick by departing immediately from the Church to a Conventicle as if all Religion did consist in nothing but hearing and all the Service of God were but according to the French scoff a mere Preach If this be the way of keeping the Sabbath where is room then for Meditation which the Scripture as much enjoins as hearing Thou shalt meditate on the Law that thou mayst observe to doe according as is written Mary therefore kept Christ's sayings because she pondered them in her heart David therefore grew to be wiser than his teachers because God's Law was his meditation Conference with Neighbours and Family-instructions will by this means also be issued out Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour and every one to his brother what hath the Lord answered and what hath he spoken The best of Hearers even Christ's own Disciples took another course than these now doe When they had heard their Master Preach they spent their time after Sermon in conferring among themselves about what they had heard and went to their Teacher to be better informed and to have all doubts resolved For want of so doing it comes to pass with too many as sometimes it did with some of them that though they had seen their Lord's mighty power in feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes yet their Faith was never the stronger And this was the reason They considered not the miracle of the Loaves for their heart was hardned They had seen the miracle but they had not considered it nor meditated on it and therefore it did them no good at all In the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves the way these people take is not the right For the Assembly of Divines in their Directory for Worship give this rule for the Sanctification of the Lord's day that what time is vacant between or after the Solemn meetings of the Congregation in publick be spent in Reading Meditation Repetition of Sermons especially by calling their Families to an account of what they have heard and Catechising of them holy conferences prayer for a blessing upon the publick Ordinances singing of Psalms visiting the Sick relieving the Poor and such like duties of piety charity and mercy accounting the Sabbath a delight In a word I could inform the Reader what impious devices have been used not onely to make a rent in the Church but also to keep it open that it should never close again by endeavouring that an irreconcileable prejudice might be perpetuated in the minds of people against the publick Ministry and Ministers of the Church And to the end that those poor deluded Souls which have been drawn off from their due attendance to God's publick Ordinances to wait on these men in their clanculary and irregular conventions might never return to the Church any more I have observed that the absence of one of these Masters of Conventicles in the places where they are held have ever been carefully supplied by the presence of some other Domestick Chaplain to keep up their House-meetings As if Ieroboam's impious policy should never be forgotten who not daring to trust his new divided Tribes in a joint resort to the Temple at Ierusalem set up his Calves to be Worshipped by them nearer home But I will not rake any longer in this puddle lest it stink in the nostrils of pious and sober Christians as it cannot but doe in God's already Now I appeal to all my judicious and learned Brethren of the Clergy and to all persons else of stayed principles and piety whether for a stranger thus to pluck the work of a Pastour of a Congregation out of his hands be tollerable in the Church of Christ or no Whether this practice that tends thus to divide betwixt Minister and People breaking the near bond of relation that is and ought to continue between them robbing him of his flock and taking them off from dependance on him for the enjoyment of the work of his ministry be of God or no And whether he hath ordained any such course as the means of Grace in his Church or whether this be not rather a strategem of Satan to introduce all manner of impiety and ungodliness The Presbyterian Divines themselves have given their judgment on my side already in this case In these words To make a Rupture in the body of Christ and to divide Church from Church and to set up Church against Church and to gather Churches out of true Churches And because we differ in something therefore to hold Communion in nothing this we think hath no warrant out of the word of God and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and Families and not onely disturb but in a little time destroy the power of Godliness purity of Religion peace of Christians and set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism Popery Heresie and all manner of wickedness So also in their Preface to the Ius divinum of Church-government
are baptized into one body so by the other we are made to drink into one spirit And therefore the Apostle from our Communion together at the Lord's Table concludes our Union one with another incorporation into not the essential but the spiritual body of Christ. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread A Father thus comments on that place Omnes unum corpus sumus in Christo quia etsi multi sumus unum támen in eo sumus omnes enim de uno pane participamus We are therefore all one body in Christ because though we are many in our selves yet in him we are all one for we all partake of one bread Nam si in humanis mensoe salis communicatio amoris causa est signum quanto magis id erit in communione mensoe panis Domini If among men the communicating together at one table and in one dish is both a cause and sign of love how much more then would it be so in the communicating together at the Table and of the bread of the Lord Yea the very assembling of Christians together in the Church is by St. Chrysostome called the Communion of Saints That then which tends to make rents and parties in the Church and divides Christians each from other in external Conjunction of publick duties as well as internal concord of hearts and affections as the practice in question hath been proved and by experience is found to doe must needs hinder the Communion of Saints Union being broken there can be no Communion for it flows from Union and is no other in the Etymology of the word than common Union And as there is nothing that obstructs Christian Communion so much as divisions do so when once they are made there is nothing more hard to be composed again A Brother offended is harder to be won than a strong City and their contentions are like the barrs of a Castle For as no bond is so strong as that of Religion so no Hostility so cruel and outragious as that which difference in Religion occasioneth Think not saith our Saviour that I am come to send peace on the earth I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and a man's foes shall be they of his own house This is commonly through the policy of Satan and malice of men the fruit of divisions in point of Religion amongst Brethren And if the bond of Communion betwixt the members be broken I see not but that the bond of Union with Christ their head must be broken also How can they exist as members of Christ's body which have left their coupling and conjunction with the other members of the same Neither they nor those that cause it can in the judgment of St. Austine Ii qui a compage corporis membra alia avellere conantur seipsos a Christi unitate separant They that draw the members from Communion one with the other do cut off themselves from their Union with Christ. Impium enim sacrilegum divortium est eos qui in Christi veritate consentiunt distrahere Saith Calvin It is an impious and sacrilegious divorce to divide those who would otherwise agree in the truth of Christ. The same is acknowledged by the Presbyterian Divines If we be the body of Christ do not they who separate from the body separate from the head also And by the unanimous consent of the ancient godly and learned Nonconformists in their grave and modest confutation of the errours of the Brownists and Separatists where in the first words of their Book they say That the Church of England is a true Church and such a one as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself cutteth himself off from Christ. And they prove it at large by unanswerable arguments in the following pages of their Book A proesumptione igitur illicitâ excusari nequeunt qui nimis amando sententiam suam usque ad proecidendoe communionis audaciam perveniunt They are therefore no way to be excused from sinfull presumption who out of a fondness to their own opinion proceed to that boldness and hardiness as to interrupt Christian Communion Malunt nullam habere quam non suam They had rather there should be no Religion at all than that their own should not take place They that are any way instrumental to break unity that true-Lovers knot which every Christian should wear in his breast all days of his life will find at last by miserable experience that destruction will follow it if repentance precede not to prevent it For if the God whom we serve be the God of peace Iesus Christ our head and Saviour be the Prince of peace the spirit of Holiness the worker of peace the Blessed Trinity in Unity of Deity the authour of peace and lover of concord as our Church expresseth it how then can it join it self with the disturbers of both and not rather separate from those which separate from their Brethren and are instrumental to draw as many after them as they can Fourthly It gratifies at least two main sinfull Corruptions to which people are naturally prone both mentioned together by St. Paul in one place The first is their discontent with their own Pastors who are regularly and orderly sent of God to them After their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers 1. The great fault here prophesied to be in the latter times was heaping up many teachers One will not serve a peoples turn but they must have a multitude A woman that forsakes her Husband's bed will be ready to pour out her fornications to every one that passeth by and not content her self with the embraces of one single stranger alone but be ready to prostitute her body to any one 2. And there is an Emphasis in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to themselves They will be their own chusers They will not accept nor submit to those who by the hands of the Rulers of the Church God shall place over them but take to themselves upon their own judgment and choice whom they please This is according to his opinion who expounding the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place by St. Paul saith quod sine judicio temere sunt collecturi doctores suos They shall rashly gather together teachers of their own 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers as they esteem and use them in contradistinction to Pastours for they will not admit of any to have a pastoral rule and care over them but teachers to tickle their Ears and please their fancies And which is yet worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own Lusts. Such as do best please their humours such as are of the same party with themselves that are in
not savouring the things of God but of men for dissuading his Master from going up to Ierusalem The means as well as the intention must be good if we would have our actions pleasing to God We grant God may and doth often bring good out of evil but that is no thanks to those that doe it Evil can naturally produce nothing but evil It must be no lese than the infinite Wisdom and Almighty power of God that must over-rule it into good As good Ends cannot justifie Evil means so neither will evil beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions unless God by a miracle of mercy create light out of darkness order out of confusion and peace out of our passions And as he hath not allowed us to doe any evil for the obtaining or procuring of the greatest good so he needs it not Wilt thou speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him q. d. his cause his glory needs not any â—in of ours to promote it He will never thank any man for seeking his honour by sinfull means he can get himself glory and save mens souls otherwise He will say as Achish Have I need of mad-men that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad-man in my presence The way God hath taught us to gorifie him by in seeking or procuring the salvation of our own or the souls of others is always to doe that which is good and though he can bring good out of evil yet he never Commands ordains or allows our evil for that end But such Preaching and Meetings as are in question are sinfull acts Which will appear as by other reasons which shall be shewed hereafter so in this place onely because they are done in disobedience and opposition to the known Laws of the Church and Kingdom wherein we live and which we stand bound in Conscience towards God to observe and obey I begin with the Laws of the Church The Eleventh Canon of the Church of England saith Whosoever shall affirm or maintain that there are in this Realm other Meetings Assemblies or Congregations of the King's born-subjects than by the Laws of this Realm are held and allowed which may rightly challenge to themselves the names of true and lawfull Churches Let him be excommunicated and not restored but by the Arch-bishop after his repentance and revocation of such his wicked errour The sense of this Canon is large and comprehensive and contains in it virtually a prohibition of all Meetings Assemblies or Congregations whatsoever which are not allowed by the Laws of the Land as the Meetings in question will and God willing shall be made appear to be Neither can it be restrained onely if at all to any other Meetings than such as are under pretence of joyning in religious worship not authorized by the Laws of the Land which according to the title of the Canon are called Conventicles for there can be no other unlawfull Meetings so called for any other end but onely these two viz. First for Ministers and Lay-men or either of them to joyn together to make Rules Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical without the King's authority And that is censured and forbidden as unlawfull in the twelfth Canon Or else Secondly to consult about a course to be taken to impeach or deprave the Doctrine of the Church of England the book of Common Prayer or any part of the Government or Discipline established in the Church And this is forbidden under pain of Excommunication in the 73 Canon Any other end for any other unlawfull Meeting or Assembly other than what is aforesaid cannot easily be imagined therefore unless we will make the Reverend Pious and Learned Authors and Composers of those Canons and Constitutions which are so solemnly established by Supreme authority guilty of a gross tautology this Canon flatly prohibits all Meetings Assemblies or Congregations except the publick which are commanded and allowed by the Laws of the Land of any manner of persons in private houses or elsewhere which under pretence of religious worship take upon them to be called Churches Besides it is expressed in such terms as are commonly competible to none but such Meetings as are under pretence of religious worship What other Meetings are commonly called Congregations or do challenge to themselves the name of Churches but such Meetings as are in question The place and order of the Canon do prove the same for immediately after the impugners of the King's Supremacy the publick worship of God Articles of Religion Rites and Ceremonies Government established in the Church of England the Authours of Schism and maintainers of Schismaticks in the Church are censured is subjoyned this Canon censuring Conventicles as being the Nursery of all the former In the 71 Canon all Ministers whatsoever are forbidden to preach or administer the holy Communion in any private house except in be in time of necessity when any is either so impotent as that he cannot go to the Church or very dangerously sick under pain of Excommunication In the 72 Canon it is ordained that no Minister whatsoever shall without licence from the Bishop of the Diocese first obtained and had under his hand and seal presume to appoint any meetings for Sermons or Exercises in Market-Towns or other places either publickly or in private houses under pain of Suspension for tho first fault Excommunication for the second and Deposition for the third Now if a Minister may not doe this in his own Parish but onely in a case of necessity much less may a stranger intrude himself into another man's Parish where there is a Preaching Ministry established by Law and there set up a course of private house-preaching administring of Sacraments and performance of all Ministerial acts where there can be no need of his so doing so much as pretended But is will be thought by some that the Laws and Constitutions of the Church are not so greatly to be regarded as that the breach of them should be sinfull and that her Canons lay no such obligation on Conscience as that the neglect of their observation and contrary practice should be criminal Nay such is the state and condition of our times that is is rather thought a vertue to despise them than any fault to disobey them And they are reputed most pure and holy who with greatest boldness quarrel and cavil against the Authority Government and Lawfull Precepts of the Church Yet certainly the judgment and practice of Christians in former ages was otherwise When vertue and true piety did more abound they made more conscience of observing the Precepts and Constitutions of the Church which were made for decency order and good government And if any frowardly wilfully or constantly lived in any opposition or contrariety thereunto they were adjudged as evil doers Nec his quisquam contradicit quisquis sane vel tenuiter expertus est quae sunt jura Ecclesiastica And truly I see not why the same regard and respect
ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the Laws of our Church now as hath been to the like Laws and Canons in former and purer times Especially if we enquire into these four things 1. What Power the Church hath to make Laws Canons and Constitutions 2. Who were the Authours and Composers of these of our Church 3. What is the subject matter of them 4. What hath been the judgment of Divines of unquestionable learning judgment and piety concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature Concerning the first That the Church hath a maternal power to decree and make Laws to bind all her children is such a clear truth as no sober person I think will question By Church I understand not all the number of the faithfull but those that have the lawfull rule and government of the Church Which is the sense that our Saviour Christ useth it in when he saith Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church for there is Ecclesia collectiva and Ecclesia representativa I take it in the latter sense By Laws I understand not any new Article of faith or any thing contrary to what God hath commanded in the holy Scriptures For it is a true maxim whoever was the Authour of it Potestas descendit non ascendit None have power in those things that are above them but in those things which are beneath them So the Church hath no power in those things which are above her but in those things which are below her Now all Doctrines of faith and other things already commanded of God are above the Church and out of her reach so that the cannot meddle with them by any Law de novo otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed But as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature serving to external order and decency in these she hath power to ordain and make Laws and Constitutions though not contrary to yet other than what are already made in God's word holding still as near as the can to the general rules of Scripture The doctrine of Salvation is always in all places the same and can never be changed But external rites and order are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place and the variety of the minds and manners of men The Church of the Jews had power of ordaining other things than what were expresly set down in God's word and that for perpetual observation She ordained the two days of Purim as perpetual festivals Moreover Iudas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained that the days of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu with mirth and gladness This feast was instituted by Iudas Machabeus and his brethren when Antiochus Epiphanes was expelled out of Ierusalem the worship of God restored and the Temple prophaned by the Heathen again consecrated which was about 167 years before the Coming of Christ. Which feast was yearly kept ever after and our Saviour Christ himself honoured it with his own presence And if the Jewish Church had that power why then hath not the Christian the like And that the Primitive Church of Christians had and did exercise the like power is plain to any that shall reade Act. 15. and 1 Cor. 11. Secondly The Authours and Composers of these Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical were the reverend learned and godly Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons and other Clergy-men of every Diocesee within the Province of Canterbury met together neither with multitude nor with tumult but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned by virtue of the King's Majesties Writ and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them So then the composers of those Canons were such persons as were ordained of God to rule the Church and to order what in their Wisedom should be thought convenient to whom in all things not contrary to God's will revealed in his word we are commanded obedience Luk. 12. 42. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Thirdly The subject matter of these Canons and Consitutions is of such things as concern External order decency and edification which God hath not particularly determined in Scripture but hath left to the rulers and governours of the Church to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the Apostle Let All things be done unto edifying and in order In which place those things that concern the external polity of the Church are generally expressed but the particulars are not mentioned but left to the wisedom and liberty of the Church Fourthly What have been the judgment of Divines of whose learning and piety and Church of God never yet since their times made the least doubt or question concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature They have always thought them sacred and venerable and their observation an act of Religion and Obedience to the general commands of God Instead of many take a few testimonies of Divines of the highest rank both foreign and domestick Two I shall quote out of learned Zanchy Quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum Sacris Literis aut saltem non sunt dissentaneae Eatenus verae sunt Ecclesiasticae eoque admittendae nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam So far forth as these Constitutions are agreeable with the Scriptures or at least not disagreeing with them so far forth they are truly Ecclesiastical and to be received and we owe reverence and obedience to them And he gives his reason in these words Si Consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo Dei qui illas rejicit verbum Dei rejicit Si non repugnant contemnit Ecclesiam Dei qui illas contemnit Contemptus autem Ecclesiae quam Deo ingratus sit apparet cum aliis ex locis Sacrarum Literarum ubi illam magnificat tum maxime ex Evangelio Mat. 18. 17. If those Laws are agreeable with the word of God he that rejecteth them rejecteth the word of God if they are not contrary to the word of God he that rejecteth them despiseth the Church of God and how odious a thing unto the Almighty it is that any should despise his Church as it appears in many places of Scripture where the Church is magnified so especially in Mat. 18. 17. whrere God hath commanded that that person should be accounted as an heathen man and a Publican who hears and obeys not the Church Hear the same Learned Authour again Credo ea quae a piis patribus in nomine Domini congregatis communi omnium Consensu citra ullam Sacrarum Literarum Contradictionem definita recepta fuerunt Ea etiam quanquam haud ejusdem cum Sacris Literis authoritatis A SPIRITV SANCTO ESSE Those things saith he which have been concluded and received by the Holy Fathers gathered together in the
in that regard forbid us to minister to our Church I see not by what warrant in God's word we should think our selves bound notwithstanding to exercise our Ministry still except we should think such a Law of Ministry to lie upon us that we should be bound to run upon the Swords point of the Magistrate or oppose Sword to Sword which I am sure Christianity abominates 2. Yea suppose the Magistrate should doe it unjustly and against the Will of the Church and should therein sin yet doth not the Church in that regard cease to be a Church nor ought she therein resist the Will of the Magistrate nor doth she stand bound in regard of her affection to her Minister how great and deserved soever to deprive her self of the protection of the Magistrate by leaving her publick standing to follow her Minister in private and in the dark refusing the benefit of other publick Ministers which with the good leave and liking of the Magistrate she may enjoy 3. Neither do I know what Warrant any ordinary Minister hath by God's word in such a case so to draw any such Church or People to his private Ministry that thereby they should hazard their outward Estate and quiet in the Common-wealth where they live when in some competent measure they may publickly with the grace and favour of the Magistrate enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another And except he hath a Calling to minister in some other Church he is to be content to live as a private member untill it shall please God to reconcile the Magistrate unto him and to call him again to his own Church From which words of this learned Non-conformist it may easily be gathered that those persons who are now by the unquestionable Legitimate power of the Kingdom for their Non-compliance with the present legal Establishment in the Church deposed from their Ministry if they contain not themselves in quietness and silence as other private Christians do and ought but will without a Call of Authority undertake still to preach the word and draw People after them to their private Ministry they are condemned by the most sober and judicious of their own party and the case of them and their followers is adjudged to be far different from that of the Apostles and primitive Christians their practice unwarrantable by the word of God and manifestly tending to Sedition and Schism But what speak I of the single Testimony and Judgment of one man of that way and perswasion though a learned and judicious one whenas we have extant to the World the like verdict agreed upon long since by the joint consent of sundry Godly and learned Ministers of this Kingdom then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity and published by Mr. William Rathband for the good of the Church and the better setling of mens unstable minds in the truth against the subtile insinuations and plausible pretences of that pernicious evil of the Brownists or Separatists For in the 4 th page of that Book First they justifie themselves against the objection of that faction in yeilding to the suspensions and deprivations of the Bishops acknowledging their Power to depose who did ordain them and their own duty to acquiesce therein and in quietness and silence to subject themselves thereunto in expressions so full to my present purpose that I should have transcribed them for the Reader 's satisfaction were it so that I had not been prevented by the reverend and worthy Authour of the Continuation of the Friendly Debate As to that place of Scripture Act. 4. 19. 20. which they acknowledge to be very unskilfully alledged by the adversary they make this threefold answer to shew the difference betwixt the Apostles case and theirs First they say they that inhibited the Apostles were known and professed Enemies of the Gospel Secondly the Apostles were charged not to teach in the Name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel Which Commandment might more hardly be yeilded unto than this of our Bishops who are not onely content that the Gospel should be preached but are also preachers of it themselves Thirdly the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediately from God himself and therefore also might not be restrained nor deposed by men whereas we though we exercise as function whereof God is the Authour and we are also called of God to it yet are we also called and ordained by the hands and ministry of men and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry I cannot think that any of the Learned sort of the Non-conformists now are ignorant of these things nor that if their hearts were known their Judgments differ in this case from that of their ancient brethren but I fear the busie upholders and promoters of Conventicles in our Age notwithstanding their prohibition by Law to preach at all sin against their own light and conscience in so doing But I proceed 4. Now Laws being thus made against all such unlawfull Meetings and all such His Majestie 's Laws being no way contrary to God's word all his Subjects stand bound in the obligation of obedience to them and that for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Tit. 3. 1. And under pain of Damnation if they wilfully resist and disobey Rom. 13. 2. And therefore it is that in the Schools they call disobedience to the King's Laws Sacrilege for though the trespass seem to be directed but against a man yet in that man whose Office and consequently his person is sacred God is opposed and his ordinance violated The King's Laws though in themselves in regard of their particular Constitution they put no special obligation upon us under pein of sin and damnation yet in a general relation to that God who is the original of all Power and hath commanded us to obey Authority their neglect or disobedience involves us in guilt and exposeth us to Sin and consequently to Damnation Civilibus legibus quae cum pietate non pugnant eo quisque Christianus paret promptius quo fide Christi est imbutus plenius Every Christian by how much the more he hath of the grace of faith by so much the more ready he is to conform to the Laws of men which are not contrary to the Laws of God All power is of God That therefore which Authority enjoins us God enjoins us by it the Command is mediately his though passing through the hands of men Hoc jubent imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non nisi Christus jubet When Kings command what is not disagreeable with Christ's Commands Christ commands by them and we are called to obey not onely them but Christ in them But is not suffering obedience And if men are willing to submit
to the Penalty of the Law is not that sufficient to discharge the Conscience from the guilt of disobedience Casuists that are of that Judgment say it holds true onely in those Laws whereof there are but very few in the World that are purely penal And the Laws which we now speak of are not such for these are partly Moral binding to doe or to leave undone some moral Act and partly Penal in case of Omission of what the Laws command or Commission of what the Laws forbid then to undergoe the Punishment the Laws inflict Now in these mixt Laws suffering the Penalty doth not discharge the Conscience from the guilt of sin For it is a rule of sure truth which Casuists give in such cases Omnis praeceptio obligat ad culpam Every just Command of those who have lawfull Authority to command leaves a guilt of sin upon those mens Consciences who do not obey The reason is because where a Law made by lawfull Authority requires active obedience and imposeth a Penalty in case of disobedience the Conscience of the subject stands bound primarily and intentionally to the performance of the duty therein enjoined As for the Penalty threatned that is a secondary and accidental thing to the Law added to keep up the reputation and esteem thereof in the minds of those who are concerned in it and to affright them from the neglect and disobedience of it So that though the suffering the Penalty of the Law in case of the transgression of it be as much as can be required of the Law-giver yet God by whom Kings reign and who requires subjection to Authority and that for Conscience sake will not hold such persons guiltless that doe not the things commanded in the Law The malefactour satisfies the Law at the time of his execution but who will say that without repentance of his fact the guilt of sin remains not still upon his Conscience or that he shall be acquitted at God's tribunal 5. Neither are they the Laws of the Church and Kingdom of England onely that are against such Meetings and Ministry as are in question But the godly Kings and Princes of the primitive Christian-Church have ever made the like Eusebius tells us that Constantine the Great made a Law that no Separatists or Schismaticks should meet in Conventicles and commanded that all such places where they were wont to keep their Meetings should be demolished and that they should not keep their factious Meetings either in publick places or private houses or remote places but that they should repair to their parochial Churches And in the next Chapter he saith that by that Law the memory of most of those Sectaries was forgotten and extinguished Sozomen reports that Theodosius the great decreed that the Sectaries whose petition for liberty he had first torn in pieces should not assemble together but all of them repair to their own publick Congregations otherwise to be banished their Country to be branded with some infamy and not to be partakers of Common privileges and favours with others And our neighbours and brethren of Scotland of the Presbyterian judgment did in one of their late general Assemblies since the enacting of their solemn League and Covenant make a special Canon against all private Meetings the direct tendency there of being to the overthrow of that Uniformity by them covenanted to be endeavoured in all the Churches of the three Kingdoms The very Heathens themselves by their Laws have made all such Assemblies illegitimate which the highest Authority did not cause to meet though they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to doe solemn Sacrifice to their Gods as may appear by Solon's Laws and in their practice they have shewed themselves ready to yeild obedience to their Governours in desisting from such irregular Conventions when they have been required Though Demetrius his Assembly came together disorderly and of their own heads rushed into the Theatre and there kept a shouting and Crying two hours together some one thing some another not knowing most of them wherefore they came together Yet when the Town-clark who had Authority did dismiss them they added not one fault to another but broke off their disorderly Meeting presently And they shew themselves more refractary than Demetrius himself who doe otherwise And if it be well considered the practice in question will be found to interfere with it self and to carry in the very face of it a convincing Testimony of its evil and unwarrantableness For if it be lawfull for these men to preach in private Meetings as they do and have a long time done why do they not take upon them to adventure to preach in the publick and Church-assemblies also What is it that makes them abstain from the latter and yet take liberty in the former Is it in obedience to the Law of the Land which forbids them to preach in publick The same Law forbids them to preach in private also It cannot be denied but that one is forbidden as well as the other Then this must needs be turned upon them why do they not obey in the one as well as in the other since they cannot but acknowledge that both are forbidden in the same Law surely if it were the Care and Conscience and desire to obey lawfull Authority according as Christian duty binds them that makes them silent in publick the same Conscience the same care and desire would make them sit down in silence in private also If it be said that they therefore abstain from publick preaching because it more exposeth them to the danger and penalty of the Law than private doth Then this must be retorted upon them also that their obedience is not such as God requireth for Conscience but for wrath Good men obey for Conscience but those that obey for wrath have not the fear of God before their Eyes For none contemns the power of man unless he hath first despised the Power of God And shall that be accounted by any sober Christian to be the ordinance of God or means of his appointment to beget grace in mens souls that is so repugnant to good Laws both of Church and State which we all stand bound in Conscience to observe and obey is contradictory to it self and hath in it that which proclaims to all that will open their Eyes to look into it its unlawfulness and sin God forbid ARGUMENT II. THAT cannot be the ordinance of God or means of grace that is contrary to that order which God himself by his word hath established in his Church For God is not the Authour of disorder and confusion But the Devil In the Church God's Command is for order in all things Let all things be done decently and in order And St. Paul did as well rejoice to see the order as the faith of the Church of Coloss. Onely Death and Hell have no order And it is a kind of death to a godly Christian to see
disorder in the Church of Christ and his Service For what is a Church without order but a kind of an Hell above ground Where order is wanting what is a Kingdom but a Chaos of Confusion Yea But such a Ministry and such Meetings and Assemblies as are in question are contrary to the order God hath in his word established in his Church For the order God hath set in his Church is that his People should be distinguished into flocks and that every flock should have its own shepherd It is God's ordinance saith Mr. Hildersham as it is agreeable to good order that Christians should be sorted into Congregations according to their dwellings that they who dwell next together should be of the same Congregation and from thence the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a parish first came As it is against all reason and scripture that a people scattered about some here and some there in several parts of the Country should voluntarily associate and combine themselves in a distinct body under what Ministry they please and that best suits with their humour and call themselves a Church as the manner of some is So it is agreeable with the very light of nature and dictates of right reason that a people in a vicinity and neighbourhood dwelling together ought to join together with those of that neighbourhood according as most conveniently they may for the worship and service of God We reade of the Church of God at Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus c. And of seven Epistles written from Heaven to seven several Churches all which had their abode at the places whence the Churches bare their Names these are scripture Churches saith a Presbyterian It is the ordinance of God that every Flock or Congregation should have their own pastour Take heed to the flock over whom the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Timothy appointed Titus to ordain Elders in every City i. e. wheresoever there was a body of people for a fit Congregation there must be a Pastour or Elder placed Whence it appears that even in the Apostles days there was a distinction of Churches and Congregations for the Elders had their flocks over whom the Holy Ghost made them Overseers The like is said of Paul and Barnabas that they ordained Elders in every Church Hence saith Calvin may be gathered the difference betwixt the office of those Elders and that of the Apostles These had no certain station in the Church but still went up and down hither and thither to plant new Churches Rom. 15. 19. 20. 23. 24. 1 Cor. 4. 17. Act. 1. 8. Rom. 1. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 14. 16. But the other were by God's appointment fixed and tyed to their own proper Congregations and Flocks Act. 14. 23. Act. 20. 28. Tit. 15. â—1 Pet. 5. 1. The diminutive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Luc. 12. 32. Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. 3. Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth intimate as much for parvum gregem significat it signifies a small part of the great flock distinguished from the rest And indeed the state and condition of the Ministers and Ministry of the Church requires that every Pastour should not take care of all the Flock or Church but that rather they should have certain portions or Congregations of God's People committed to them particularly amongst whom they should bestow their care and pains For this cause St. Paul took course to send certain Ministers to certain particular Churches as Crescens to Galatia Titus to Dalmatia and Tychicus to Ephesus Vnde rectissime colligimus saith a Learned Casuist auditores ordinariis pastoribus contentos esse oportere ne eos in crimen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conjiciant So 't is God's ordinance that Flocks Congregations should be contented with and depend on their own Pastours This appears by that charge of the Apostle We beseech you brethren to know them to own and acknowledge them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake Again remember them that have the rule over you which have spoken to you the word of God And again obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account that they may doe it with joy and not with grief In both places the Command of God is for Obedience to Pastours not any such as people themselves according to their own humours shall chuse but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the seventh verse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 17 th verse In both places YOVR RVLERS such as are lawfully set over you by those that are in Authority in the Church And even as St. Paul commends Epaphroditus to the Philippians as their ordinary Pastour and commands them to receive him in the Lord with all gladness and to hold such in repâ—tation So he doth the like to other Churches commanding them to honour and obey their own Pastours which he would never have done if it had been lawfull for people with neglect of their own Ministers to follow whom they please People are much mistaken if they think they are so much at their own disposal as that they may put themselves under the teaching and care of what Minister they have a mind to though never so excellent and orthodox For 1. First God is not so careless of the precious Souls of his People in his Church as to leave them at random to shift for themselves every one according to his own foolish fancy but doth dispose of them himself by his good providence by the hand of those who from and under him have Authority so to doe to the care and charge of Pastours of his own appointment the respective Ministers of those Parishes and places where they with other of his People do cohabite And therefore the form of our institutions to our several charges runs in these words Curam regimen omnium animarum parochianorum tibi plenarie in Domino committimus The definition that our Saviour Christ gives of a Church is a Shepherd and his Sheep that will hear his voice A lawfull Minister and a Flock or Congregation lawfully committed to his charge make up a true Church Hereunto accord the Judgment of the Fathers St. Chrysostome in an homily de recipiendo Severiano begins thus Sicuti capiti Corpus cohaerere necessarium est ita Ecclesiam Sacerdoti Principi Populum As it is necessary that the body cleave to the head so it is likewise of necessity that the Congregation cleave to the Priest and the People to their Prince To which the saying of St. Cyprian agrees Illi sunt Ecclesia plebs sacerdoti adunita pastori suo grex adhaerens The Church is a Congregation of believers united to their Minister and a
War with Benjamin And this they did more than once and till they did so they prevailed not The like course took king Hezekiah at his keeping the Passover to make the Congregation in the house of the Lord the Temple at Ierusalem as great as he could Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Iudah and wrote Letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Ierusalem and keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel And as there they have prevailed with God in Prayer more than they could any where else so there God hath taught them more than they could learn any where else When I sought to know this viz. the Doctrine of God's providence and wisedom in the just and righteous management of the affairs of the world it was too painfull for me saith David till I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end When all means else did fail the publick Ministry through God's blessing on it became effectual to bring him to understanding in this Mystery Therefore he concludes thy way O God is in the Sanctuary And as in Gospel-times we have the like promises of God's special presence in the publick Congregations of his People Mat. 28. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 1. 13. so it was professed long before that there the Godly should exhort and stir up one another to seek the true Knowledge of God and his ways Es. 2. 3. Mic. 4. 2. which was fulfilled accordingly both in the Disciples of Christ after his Ascension who continually were in the Temple And also in the converted Jews and Gentiles who continued daily in the Temple with one accord So did the Christians in the primitive times in their Churches their Ministers did preach as frequently as the persecution of those times would permit And there the People assembled themselves together to hear They did not divide themsleves some of the Congregation going one way and some another but they came together in one place And that place was the Church If not the publick place of worship so called as most think yet the place where by reason of the hot persecution of those times the whole Church did or could meet together And St. Hierome gives this commendations of the Faith of the primitive Christians at Rome Vbi alibi tanto studio frequentia ad Ecclesias concurritur ubi sic ad similitudinem Coelestis tonitrui Amen reboat vacua Idolorum templa quatiuntur non quod aliam habeant Romani fidem nisi hanc quam omnes Christi Ecclesiae sed quod devotio in iis major sit simplicitas ad credendum In what part of the World else is there such studious flocking and resort to Christian Churches as here Where else doth the Amen of the Congregation sound so loud as that it seems to equalize a Clap of Thunder in the Air insomuch that the Idol-temples being left empty are made to tremble therewith Not that the Romans had any other Faith than the other Churches of Christ but they had more devotion and singleness of heart in believing To this also agrees the Testimony of St. Augustine primi credentes in templo veteri Domino servierint the first and new Christians did serve God in the old Temple It will be said by some to what purpose is all this that hath been alledged out of the old Testament touching God's promises to or benediction of the Church-assemblies of the Iews Their Tabernacle and Temple were holy places and the sanctification of them was Levitical and therefore now abolished and not to be applied to our Churches This passeth with some for an objection that hath force enough in the bowels of it to overthrow and demolish the whole fabrick of this my third Argument But if we carefully look into the inside of it and not tamely deliver up our hold we shall find no such formidable matter in it For as for the City of Ierusalem the Tabernacle and Temple they were in themselves places no more holy or religious than any other places in the Land of Canaan were or than any other places now in England are But they were therefore holy Partly because they had many things in them and their worship that were typical and ceremonial which are now abolished The Temple and Tebernacle were types of the body and humane Nature of Christ. Ioh. 2. 19. 21. Heb. 8. 2. Heb. 9. 11. And this I grant might be one reason that moved David in his banishment so earnestly to desire his return to the Temple Ps. 42. 3. And in the beginning of the New Testament we reade of certain holy and devout persons that when they prayed they went up to the Temple to perform their devotion And those that could not repair to Ierusalem they might and did pray elsewhere but it was with their faces towards the Temple And Partly because God placed a memorial of his Name there or caused his Name to be remembred there i. e. did set apart those places for his publick worship and service as monuments of him For as Absolom erected a Pillar to keep his Name in remembrance so did God chuse out those places to put his Name there And therefore they were called his habitation In this respect our Churches now are every whit as holy as Ierusalem the Tabernacle or Temple there was being places lawfully set apart for God's publick worship to have his Name remembred and placed there And so the Tabernacle and Temple had this in them and their worship that was moral and consequently of equal concernment to us now as to the Jews then that publick places ought to be assigned for God's publick worship every way fitting and convenient for Ecclesiastical conventions where all the Congregation ought to meet as in a place where God will vouchsafe to be more graciously present in his worship than elsewhere according to all those his gracious promises And touching the holiness of the Tabernacle and Temple that is excepted against in the objection as being not to the present purpose Let the answer of that learned and pious Gent. Sir Henry Spelman in his book de non temerandis Ecclesiis be heard and well considered and the reader will easily find what hath been alledged out of the Old Testament maketh much for my present purpose his words are these The Temple was sanctified unto three functions which also had three several places assigned to them The first belonging to the divine presence and had the custody of the holiest types thereof the Oracle the Ark the Mercy-Seat c. And was therefore called Sanctum Sanctornm the Holiest of all The second was for ceremonial Worship and Atonement viz. by Sacrifices Oblations and other Levitical Rites the place thereof being the Sanctuary wherein were the holy Vessels and the Court of Priest wherein the Altar of burnt Sacrifice did stand The
third was for simple Worship Prayer and Doctrine without any pomp or ceremony And the place of this was the outward Court called Atrium populi and Solomon's Porch which had therefore in it no ceremonial implement at all The two first of these functions with the places belonging to them were indeed particularly appropriated to the Law for they were Ceremonial Mystical Secret Levitical Iudaical and Temporal Ceremonial as celebrated with much worldly pomp Mystical as figuring some spiritual things Secret as either performed behind the veil or curtain or else sequestred and remote from the People Levitical as committed onely to the administration of that tribe Iudaical as ordained onely for the salvation of that people And Temporal as instituted onely for a season and not to continue But the sanctification of the third function and the place thereunto appointed was directly contrary to all the points alledged to the former two First it was for simple Worship Prayer and Doctrine which were there to be performed and delivered in all sincerity without any Ceremony or ceremonial Implement used therein Secondly there was no matter of Mystery therein to be seen but whatsoever was Mystical in the Law or the Prophets was there expounded Thirdly nothing was there hidden or secret from the People but acted wholly without the veil and publickly for every man Fourthly it was not appropriated to the Levites but common alike to all the tribes Fifthly not ordained for the Iews particularly but for all Nations in general And lastly not to endure for a time as those other two of the Law but to continue for ever even after the Gentiles were called as well as the Jews that is during the time of the Gospel as well as of the Law Therefore saith God by Esaias the Prophet my house shall be called an house of prayer to all Nations He said not an house of sacrifice to all Nations for the sacrifice ended before the Calling of the Gentiles and so they could have no part thereof Nor an house of prayer for the Iews onely for then had the Gentiles when they were called been likewise excluded But an house of prayer to all Nations i. e. Jews and â—â—â—ntiles indifferently which therefâ—â—e must have relation to the times of the Gospel and consequently the sanctification of that house and of that function is also a sanctification of the Churches of the Gospel We reade not therefore that Christ reformed any thing in the other two functions of the Temple for they were now as at an end But because this third function was for ever to continue in his Church therefore he purged it of that which prophaned it restored it to the original sanctity And that the future world which was the time of the Gospel might better observe it than the precedent and the time of the Law had done he reporteth and confirmeth the decree whereby it was â—anctified It is written saith he my house shall be called an house of prayer to all people He saith my house excluding all other from having any property therein for God will be joint-tenant with no man And it shall be an house of prayer for all people i. e. publick for ever and not private The time also when our Saviour pronounced those words is much to the purpose for it was after he had turned out the Oxen and Doves that is the things for sacrifice As though he thereby taught us that when the sacrifical Function of the Temple was ended yet the sanctification of it to be an house of prayer ever remained Thus far this learned Gentleman whose words because every one to whom this may come may not have that Book in readiness to peruse for the readers satisfaction I have faithfully transcribed By which judicious and learned discourse it doth plainly appear that the holiness of the Jews Tabernacle and Temple was not altogether Levitical nor abolished but of perpetual duration in Gospel-times and that our Churches now are holy as theirs were then the sanctification of theirs was the sanctification of ours and therefore those promises of divine presence and blessing made to them in their Church-assemblies do belong to us as well as to them To such therefore as neglect the Church now and say they can serve God as well elsewhere as there I say 'T is true as we are private Christians and single persons so no doubt according as the exigence of our affairs require we may any where or at any time doe God acceptable service It was foretold that in Gospel-times In every place incense shall be offered to the Name of the Lord. And as St. Paul bids us pray continually so our Saviour when you pray enter into your Closets But as we are members of the visible Mystical body which is the Church of Christ so we are bound to constant attendance on the publick service of God in his house Though not altogether now in respect of the place yet still in respect of the Congregation that do and ought to meet in that place and the worship of God that is and ought there to be publickly performed And very much in regard of the place too 1. As it is a place freely given and surrendred up into the hands of God the great Land-lord of the whole world by the donation of the right owner under God of the Land and Founder of the Edifice 2. As it is hallowed and dedicated to the publick service of God in such a solemn manner as hath been the custom and usage of God's people in all ages of the world both of the Iews in the Old Testament and of the Christians in the New from the beginning in the purest times untill now at the time when it was delivered up into God's possession and when the use whereunto it shall ever serve is established 3. As it is accepted and owned by God being thus given and set apart for him and he is pleased to take Livery and Seisin of it as his house which is as really true of our Churches at their Consecration though not as visibly as it was of Solomon's Temple at its dedication for the performance of his publick worship and service and intitles it himself My house of prayer And the Argument which our Saviour useth to prove his property in that house is taken from the use for which it was appointed which extends its force equally to our Churches now as to the Temple at Ierusalem seeing they are both set apart to the same purpose even for publick prayer to and worship of God 4. As 't is a place to which God hath by promise assured his own gracious and heavenly presence and blessing and where he may be and is enjoyed in a more special manner than elsewhere and consequently where there is more profit and good to be received by the service of God done in the Congregation and assembling together of his people there than in any other house whatsoever And
quietness which Christians are to study a manifest breach of this great Gospel-command and consequently inconsistent with the ordinance of God A Third Evangelical precept is that of our blessed Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe ye even so to them It is a principle both natural and divine enjoyned by our heavenly Law-giver as a ground and rule of all equity amongst men Lactantius thus comments on it Radix omnis fundamentum aequitatis est illud vide ut ne facias ulli quod pati nolis sed alterius animum de tuo metieris This is the root and foundation of all equity for a man to be carefull no to doe that to another which he would not suffer himself but to measure another man's mind by his own Now I appeal to the hearts and consciences of those Ministers that thrust themselves now into other mens Congregations and Parishes and there in private houses gather together a company of disciples and followers of the more giddy and unstable sort of People for such they are for the most part that not content with the publick labours of their own Pastors flock to private Conventicles and set up a course of Preaching and other Ministerial Acts whether if they were Pastors of Congregations as sometimes they were and had a charge of a flock of God's People committed to them for whose Souls they and none else must be accountable they would take it well or permit it if they could otherwise help it that a stranger should thrust himself into their Parishes and lead away a number of their People to private Assemblies in corners to a dependence on them for teaching and other duties which they obtrude upon them as the worship and service of God even to the forsaking and loathing of that which is publickly established for waiting on them in private And whether when those men were in their Pastoral charges and in the late time Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries did the like as they themselves now doe set up private Conventicles in several Towns and Parishes they did not account themselves much injured thereby and made their Pulpits sound loud against it nay oppose it by all means they possibly could Which is a truth sufficiently known to all that have been hearers of them or know their practices Neither will it suffice them to say those whom they then opposed were Persons heterodox in their judgments and corrupt in their opinions For 1. So may these House-creeping Preachers be also for ought any one knows If it be sound Divinity they Preach it is avowable and publication is a fair Argument of truth Truth seeks no corners it is onely ashamed to be hidden as the Sun to be clouded or eclipsed The desire of Secreâ—ie and Privacy renders their Doctrines suspicious of falshood and errour In the dark gross faults are not perceived and they are evil-doers onely that are said by our Saviour to hate the light While men doe nothing but well they need not conceal and hide their doings The very Heathen as a Divine of ours observes did worship their Gods sub dio without Roofs or Coverings in a free openness and where they could in Temples made with Specular Stone that was transparent as Cristal so as that they that walked without in the Streets might see all that was done within And even nature it self taught the natural man to make that an Argument of a man truly Religious aperto vivere voto that he durst pray aloud and let the world hear what he asked at God's hands which duty saith he is best performed when we joyn with the Congregation in publick Prayers St. Austin hath made that note upon the Donatists that they were clanculary clandestine Divines Divines in corners And in Photius we have such a note almost upon all Hereticks as the Nestorian was called Coluber a Snake because though he kept in the Garden in the Church he lurked and lay hid to doe mischief And truly so long as the Preaching of the Gospel is not persecuted and there is no prohibition to the contrary as sometimes there was it seems to me to be contrary to the very nature of it herein differing from the Law that it is not confined to any one Nation or Place nor is subject to bonds or restraint to be shut up in private houses and taught in secret and not rather to be published in Churches and open Places of free and common resort The command to the Apostles was Go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life And accordingly was their Practice Act. 9. 20. Act. 13. 14. 44. 'T is true the godly in times past had their private Meetings in Deserts Mountains Dens and Caves of the Earth But the case is not alike with us as with them The times then were of most bloudy Persecution when neither Preacher nor Professour escaped the Fire and therefore were enforced to conceal themselves and privately to enjoy those Comforts and discharge those Duties and Exercises of Religion which they could not publickly be suffered to doe But those who set up and frequent private Meetings now may enjoy the preaching and reading of the Word prayers to God confession of Sin profession of Faith and benefit of the Sacraments in the publick Assemblies of the Saints Yea they are not onely allowed but commanded by Authority so to doe but they will not Those Teachers then that in these Halcion days of the Gospel creep into corners to vent their Doctrines discover themselves to be either First Seditious and Schismatical seeking to make Parties and Divisions in the Church Or Secondly Proud and Arrogant preferring their own Opinions and Doctrines Assemblies and Persons before all other Or Thirdly False and Erroneous for all damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Perdition which pervert and destroy Souls are thus brought in underhand privily by such as creep into the Church of God by stealth At least they are destitute of that means of justification and defence of the truth which our Saviour Christ had and which all Christ's Ministers in a setled Church ought to have viz. to appeal to the publick Audience That which is publickly Preached may be proved and tryed but not so well that which is taught in obscurity 2. What the Judgments and Opinions of these Men have been and that in all those things wherein the Peace of the Church and the Salvation of Souls of Christians are concerned I mean the Doctrine Discipline and Worship as it stands established in the Church of England the World hath had sufficient knowledge and experience by the late bloudy Wars and Persecutions raised thereabout 3. Lastly The question is not as hath been said de facto what Doctrine these men deliver in their private Conventions but de jure what right they have to Preach any in other Mens Parishes as they doe Such a Person
then whosoever he be that doeth that to others which he would not have done to himself nay which he hath opposed and disliked in others is as the Apostle calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of himself as sinning wittingly and wilfully spurning against a known truth sparkling and shining in his Conscience The waiting on such Mens Ministry is so far from being the Ordinance of God that he commands all men to avoid them ARGUMENT V. THat cannot be the Ordinance of God for the working of Grace that hath no Scripture President or warrantable Example to ground it on For all the Ordinances of God of this kind besides his Mandate have also their exemplification in Scripture God ordinarily working Grace in the hearts of Men then as he doth now But this private and house-preaching by an intruder in a constituted Church where there is a Preaching Minister established hath none I deny not but it may be lawfull in some Cases to have all the parts of God's Worship used in a private House As 1. In case of infirmity of Body when People are not able to come to Church Ecclesiastical History tells us that in the primitive times divers of the new converted Christians were Baptized some in Prison as appears in the story of Basilides in Eusebius And the sick in their beds as Cyprian declares at large And if any were hindered by Sickness that they could not partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with the Church it was sent home to them by a Priest or Deacon if it might be if not by some other As appears by the example of Serapion in an Epistle of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria to Fabius 2. In time of Persecution when the doors of God's House are shut up against us so as that we cannot have free access to it or liberty to joyn together with the Congregation in Prayers hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments as it was in the days of King Ahaz Thus Victor reports that in the Persecution by the Vandals the Congregations of Christians in Africa being through the vastations of War deprived of their Churches did hold their Assemblings together for Divine Worship whereever they could And the same Authour tells us that because of the rage of the Arian Hereticks the Orthodox Christians had their Meetings in private Houses Or in such other like Cases of special necessity Yet our Saviour Christ in the Iewish Church as before he was a Preacher his custome was to frequent the publick Assembly in the Synagogue every Sabbath-day so after he set upon the execution of that Function he never used to Preach privately in Houses Hear what he saith himself when the High-Priest asked him of his Disciples and Doctrine Iesus answered him I spake openly to the World I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Iews always resort and in secret have I said nothing His words are plain yet because with some Men Fancy and Affection do prevail over their Judgments and Reason according to that saying of St. Austin periit siquidem judicium postquam res transiit in affectum nostram qualemcunque quia nostra jam facta est praevalere volumus sententiam Therefore I shall endeavour to clear the truth of our Saviour's Speech in that saying of his to the High-Priest and shew that he was always a publick orderly Preacher and never a private irregular Conventicler And though the contrary could be proved yet it would make nothing for the irregular Practice of some in this Age whom I am disputing against seeing the question is of such Persons onely as have an ordinary calling to the Ministry whereas our Saviour Christ's was extraordinary in a setled Gospel-Church whereas the Iewish-Church was in Christ's time expiring and the Gospel-Church beginning and are intruders into other Mens Charges and Congregations as our Saviour neither was nor could be seeing he was the supreme Lord of his Church and Heir of all things In those words of his First saith he I spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 openly The word properly signifies freedom and liberty of Speech which Piscator thus explains Cum quis omne id dicit quod ad rem pertinet nihil veritus offensionem eorum quibuscum loquitur When a Man speaks that which properly pertains to the matter in hand not fearing though it offend those to whom he speaks Oftentimes in Scripture it signifies oâ—enly And in this place Tremelius renders it by apertè and Beza by palam both openly So that our Saviour professeth here that his Doctrine as it was heavenly truth and delivered without fear of danger or hatred of Men or persecution of the World so not in a Corner or Conventicle but openly and in publick Secondly I spake saith he not to a few Select Persons to a gathered Church but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the World i. e. To all sorts of Men in the World without any difference or distinction either of Nation Place of State even to as many as would come to hear me Though indeed for the most part he Preach'd in Iudaea and Galilee whence he was called a Minister of the Circumcision and saith that he was not sent save unto the lost Sheep of the house of Israel yet doubtless sometimes he Preached to a promiscuous Company both of Iews and Gentiles without making any difference Matt. 15. 21. Thirdly I taught saith he in the Synagogue There was one onely Temple among the Iews and that was at Ierusalem but as in other Cities and Towns of the Iews so also in the Metropolitan City besides the Temple there were Synagogues which were publick places appointed for Prayers Sermons Reading and exposition of the Law and the Prophets to the People And in the Synagogues at Ierusalem and other Towns and Cities Christ did most frequently and constantly Preach as the Scriptures do abundantly testifie Matt. 4. 23. Matt. 13. 53 54. Matt. 21. 23. Matt. 9. 35. Matt. 12. 9. Mark 1. 21. Mark 6. 2. Luk. 4. 16. 21. and 44. Luk. 6. 6. Ioh. 6. 59 c. Fourthly He saith I not onely taught in the Synagogues but in the Temple the most solemn and publick Place The Temple at Ierusalem was the place where the Priests did offer daily Sacrifices and taught the People to which thrice in the year all the Males from all the Coasts of Iudaea were to resort In this Temple did our Saviour Christ very frequently Preach Matt. 21. 23. Luk. 19. 47 c. Fifthly I taught saith he where the Iews always resort where there was a full and free Concourse of all the Nation of the Iews and many Gentiles also from all Parts and Quarters of Iudaea Lastly And in private saith he I have said nothing As if he had purposely and expressly denied himself to be what they were apt to charge him with a private seditious and Schismatical Conventicler 'T is true that
preaching abroad out of his own precincts whether upon intreaty or otherwise we need not inquire seeing he had an Apostolical power which was of universal extent in it self and such as no Minister now can lay claim to His Commission was as the rest of the Apostles were general and originally not confined to any one place as other Ministers are but they were to teach all Nations Yet because every one of them could not travel and preach in every Countrey therefore it pleased the Lord afterwards in Wisedom for good Causes to order it as it were by a second Decree that Paul should specially have a care of and preach to the Gentiles Yet this did no way diminish his Apostolical Authority nor forbid him from preaching at all to the Iews or Peter to the Gentiles if occasion did serve for of Paul it is expresly said that he was to carry Christ's Name both to the Gentiles and to the Children of Israel And it is generally believed that he was the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews And of St. Peter it is not doubted that he both at Antioch and elsewhere preached the Gospel both to Iews and Gentiles The Apostolical power did extend to all Nations but the Conveniency of the Church did require that some of them should be fixed to one sort of People in one place and some to another 'T is true St. Paul saith he was troubled with the care of all the Churches i. e. as he was an Apostle so the care of all the Churches lay upon him quod ad jus attinet potestatem saith Camero he had right and power to take care of all the Churches as an Apostle and so differing from all Bishops and Presbyters now And doubtless as all good Ministers of Christ do he did take all the care that lawfully he might or could of the whole Church of Christ especially of all those within his own precincts and of his own planting which by an usual Synecdoche in Scripture are termed all Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for order and peace sake it pleased God that their persons and labours should be appointed for several distinct parts of the World as in his infinite Wisedom he saw was most convenient for the better propagation of the Gospel of Christ in all the World And it is the observation of the Excellent Divine Martin Chemnitius in his Commentary on that temporary precept of our Saviour Christ to his Disciples Goe not into the way of the Gentiles c. Hoc temporarium praeceptum fideles verbi Dei ministros admonet ut singuli se intra metas legitimae suae vocationis ad pascendum illum Dei gregem qui ipsis commissus est 1 Pet. 5. 2. contineant nec latiùs evagentur aut falcem suam in alterius pastoris messem nisi speciali concessione vel vocatione mittant This temporary percept doth warn all the faithful Ministers of God's word that all of them should contain themselves within the bounds of their lawfull Calling to feed that flock of God that is committed unto them and not to wander abroad or thrust their hook into the harvest of another Pastour without his special leave or calling By all which it appears that a forcible or surreptitious entry of one Minister into another's charge is destitute of all Scripture president or allowance and therefore cannot be the Ordinance of God The Example of the Apostles meeting and preaching sometimes in private Houses I conceive cannot but most impertinently be urged to defend the practice I here dispute against For 1. 'T is not to the question which is of a setled constituted Church where a preaching Ministry is established by Law The Christian Church in the Apostles days was not â—etled and established as is ours but in a way to be so 2. The Magistrate was then heathen all the World over ours now Christian Publick preaching and Christian meetings were not then suffered our Church-Assemblies are not onely allowed and protected but commanded by Sovereign Authority 3. They had then either none at all or very few Christian-Churches erected and so were forced to meet where they could we want not Churches but hearts to resort to them 4. The Apostles had a general and extraordinary call to preach any where through all Coasts and Parts of the World where they were appointed to plant Churches so have not the Persons in question The office of an Apostle or Evangelist is now ceased 5. It can never be proved that the Apostles did or would have made use of their private meetings either in competition with or opposition to the publick Ordinances of God as our modern Conventicles are but in subserviency according as the necessity of those times did require to what publick and solemn Assemblies they could then or might in after-times enjoy For as our Saviour made use of all private Conferences and Meetings not in separation from competition with or opposition against but in professed subserviency to the Synagogue-service and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church so I am perswaded that the Apostles of Christ together with the primitive Christians would have done the like had the case in their time with respect to the publick exercise of Christian Religion been the same or the like to what it was in our Saviour Christ's time with respect to the publick exercise of the Religion of the Iews But forasmuch as there were no Conventions for publick exercise of Christian Religion permitted or commanded in those times untill the Roman Empire and other Kingdoms of the World became Christian it was therefore a thing impossible that the private Meetings of the Apostles and those primitive Christians should be so made use of in subordination to the publick Assemblies as were the private Meetings of our Saviour and his Disciples in the Jewish Church So that the case and condition of Christianity in the primitive times is so different from and contrary to what it is in the Church of England where the publick worship is protected and commanded by Authority that their private Meetings cannot possibly hold any proportion or similitude with ours So that to argue from private Meetings in those times of persecution of Christianity to private Meetings in England in these days is to take away the subject of the question and then to argue the case 6. Neither did one Apostle then thrust himself into the place where another was to labour but contained himself within the compass of his Line and portion of God's People that he was appointed to preach to But the matter in question is of a quite contrary nature viz. of a silenced Minister's intruding himself in amongst a People over whom there is a preaching Ministry established and there taking upon him to gather Conventions teach that People and perform ministerial Acts amongst them contrary to good Laws without the consent yea against the allowance of the Pastour of the place So that neither the
Some of the brethren of the Nonconformists have been of the same Judgment whatever this or their practice now is Memorable to this purpose is that saying of Mr. Baxter to his People of Kiderminster I ever loved saith he a Godly peaceable Conformist better than a turbulent Nonconformist and should I make a party or disturb the peace of the Church I should fear lest I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And by all the interest I have in your judgments and affections I here charge you that if God should give me up to any factious Church-renting course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step It is an unhappy degree of wickedness to be a ring-leader in any schism Every accessory is faulty enough but the first Authour abominable Those who either by his example suggestion advice connivence or otherwise are taught to doe ill increase his sin as fast as they do their own Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven An unruly beast breaks the hedge and feeds in forbidden Pasture the whole herd follows but the owner must answer for all the trespass that is committed Therefore is Ieroboam so often branded in holy Writ with this note of infamy Ieroboam the Son of Nebat that made Israel to sin His fault lived when he himself was dead and 't is often said by Divines that his torment increased in Hell according as his sin increased upon earth and that the wickedness of Israel will not be taken off from his Soul for ever It was shame enough to Israel that they were made to sin by Ieroboam but O the miserable Estate of Ieroboam that made Israel to sin his pretence was fair enough but that was no excuse to the foulness of his crime nor is it any mitigation to his present torment Let the Authours of schism in the Church pretend what they please to Religion and Truth yet how they can have the true love or power of either in thier hearts or lives that seek not the Church's Peace and Unity withall I cannot understand The Holy Ghost in Scripture joins both together Love truth and peace And speak the truth in love He follows neither that persues them not both It was an unquestionable Maxime amongst Christians in the ancient Church which is no less a truth now than ever non habet Dei charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem The Love of God abides not in them who do not love and keep the Unity of the Church Nay the practice in question tends not onely to the dividing and distracting the Church but even to the dissolving and destroying her being It puts the members of the body of Christ out of joint and causeth a Luxation of the parts and so hinders that spiritual Nutrition thriving and growth in grace that ought to be in the body of Christ. For as in the natural body of man if a member be separated from it it can receive no nourishment or growth nay if there be but a dislocation of a part so that it be onely out of joint it will not thrive or prosper but wither and consume till it be set right again so the mystical body of Christ can never increase with the increase of God if either there be not a right Union of the joints to the head or if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ligament and bond that knits and fastens one member to another be broken Now this Union of the members the Apostle saith is made by the Ligament of Love which he therefore calls the bond of perfection because as it unites Church-members among themselves so it is the cause that they communicate mutual help to the profit and preservation of the whole The members of the Church then being made so loose and set at such distance so divided and distracted one from another some hurried this way and some that it must needs argue that this bond is either quite broken or much loosned And if it be a truth which Philosophers affirm that every natural body desires no less its unity than its entity I fee no reason why the spiritual and mystical body of Christ the Church should not in like manner desire its unity since if it be and continue thus unhappily divided it cannot long subsist in its entity As a tottering wall of stones heaped up together without mortar or binding is easily shaken and thrown down so must the Church be soon brought to ruine if this distracting and dividing course be suffered and practised By concord and good agreement among Christians the Church grows and is enlarged So by their discords and divisions it will in short time perish and come to nothing Say I this onely Or say not the brethren of the Nonconformists the same He that is not the Son of peace is not the Son of God saith Mr. Baxter all other sins destroy the Church consequentially but division and separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joining the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Believe not those to be the Church's friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Pro Ecclesia clamitant saith St. Cyprian of such they cry out for the Church but contra Ecclesiam dimicant their practice is a fighting against the Church And that not by open and professed hostility but by secret and unseen Policy Their pretences are friendly but their actions mischievous their voice like Iacob's but their hands like Esau's Thirdly it hinders the Communion of Saints that holy and sweet fellowship which all the Members of Christ's Church ought to have both with Christ their head and each with other When in the natural body of man the members are joined to the head and one with another they have by virtue of that Union Communion also and do impart bloud spirits and life from one to the other So in the mystical Body of Christ the members being joined to the Lord and one to another there will be a sweet Communion among themselves in heart and affections joy with them that rejoice and forrow with them that weep prayer each for and each with other the multitude of them that believe will be of one heart and one soul. Now one of the closest bonds of Union amongst Christians is in their communicating together in holy duties We are then most one when with one mind and with one mouth we glorifie God together When holy David would set forth the greatest intireness of facred friendship he described it by walking to the house of God in company together The end and effect of our joint partaking in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to seal up this Unity As by one of the Sacraments we
potest The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone praying together with the multitude he shall obtain and why so for although not his own worthiness yet concord and unity prevaileth much When the whole Church joyned together in their devotions for St. Peter's enlargment Omnipotence exerted it self in a series of Miracles that their Prayers should not be unanswered Tunc est efficacior sanatior devotio quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesie unus est animus unus est sensus Prayer is then more holy and effectual when in the works of piety there is but one mind and one meaning of the whole Church Besides God hath promised as hath been before shewed to be more comfortably present in our Church-Assemblies than in any other houses or places whatsoever If it had been all one to pray in a private house or in the publick assemblies of the Church St. Paul and the Godly Christians with him would never have put themselves to an hazard of their lives in times of hottest persecution by meeting together in multitudes in a place where there was an House of Prayer or where they were wont to assemble together to pray For it is read both ways The first pleaseth Tremelius best the latter Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim orationem oratorium significat The word signifies both Prayer and an House of Prayer The House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of celestial powers there the Almighty doth sit to hear and his Angels intermingle with us as our associates and attend to further our Suits With reference hereunto the Apostle requires so great care to be had of decency in the Church for the Angels sake saith Mr. Hooker Sixthly it begets ill thoughts of his Majesty's most gracious Government as if he were a persecutor and suppressor of true Religion and an enemy to piety and godliness These meetings about in Barnes and private Houses look not as if we lived under a Christian Protestant Prince as if King Charles were upon the throne but as if Nero Dioclesian or Queen Mary were alive again and did rule Conventicles saith Bishop Lake make shew as if you had not freedom of Religion and thereby you derogate from the honour of the King 's most Christian Government and wrong your Pastour casting imputation upon him that he cannot or will not instruct you as he ought And indeed it lays the Axe to the Root and tends to the undermining and destruction of all Government and Governours Do not the Histories of all Ages give in evidence to the evil tendency of these private seditious and unlawfull meetings In the late years of war and confusion those meetings were effectually made use of by all parties as the great Engine to pull down the powers then in being By these means Presbytery did in a great measure prevail to the forceable and irregular throwing down of the legally established Episcopacy So by the same means Independency Anabaptism Fifth-monarchism hath been prevalent over and against Presbytery So that it is a wonder the Governours of our Church and State have not a more watchfull and jealous Eye upon all such illegal Schismatical and seditious conventions It is a sure rule of our Saviour A Kingdom divided cannot stand It was a principle of Machiavel divide impera divide and take all Whatsoever may be divided may be destroyed When a society is broken it may soon be brought to confusion 'T is Satan's way to destroy by dissolving unions Infirma est securitas ab alienis dissidiis nec unquam stabile est regnum vbi inter se discordant ii qui reguntur This practice then that tends so much to dividing tends as much to destroying both Church and State Seventhly Where this liberty is either taken or given there is or may be dissenting from yea contrariety of Doctrine to what is taught in publick And that can no way conduce to edification in faith and holiness but to the greatest confusion that may be The whole Church should be as the whole World was in Noah's time unius labii of one Language the building else will prove to be but a Babel and the Ministry for destruction and not for edification which is so far from being God's Ordinance that it is quite contrary thereunto This made St. Paul so earnestly to importune the Church of Corinth to speak all the same things And truly such is the condition of the Upholders and Masters of these unlawfull Assemblies in these days that there is great danger of their prevarication now and then in Doctrine and of suiting their discourses to their hearers palates I say they are under a very great temptation to gratifie mens vices by indulging their prejudices For as a worthy Prelate of our Church hath well observed Where Ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences if they do but upon some just reproof Gaul the conscience of a guilty hearer or preach some truth which disrelisheth the Palate of a prepossessed auditour he streightway flies out and not onely withdraws his own pay but the contribution of others also So as the free Tongue teacher must either live by air or be forced to change his Pasture Thereupon it is that those Sportulary Preachers are fain to sooth up their many Masters and are so gagged with the fear of starving displeasure that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing This is a truth easie to be apprehended For if even when the Laws enforce men to pay their dues to their Ministers they yet continue so backward in the discharge of them especially if never so little displeased at just reproofs and lawfull endeavours to reform their vicious lives how much less hope can there be that being left to their own free choice they will prove liberal or bountifull in their voluntary Contributions if never so little cross'd upon the like occasion by their new Masters Lastly it opens a door to all Errours and Heresies and is the ready way to bring all Religion to nothing For saith the Apostle when people heap up to themselves teachers to satisfie the itch of their Ears they will turn away their Ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables in a short time Elsewhere the Holy Ghost joins order and stedfastness together Though I be absent in the flesh yet am I present with you in the spirit joying to behold your order and stedfastness of your faith in Christ. It is impossible for men to be stedfast in Religion who keep not God's order How come so many in our days to fall from their stedfastness some to Anabaptism some to Quakerism and some to Atheism but by breaking first that order in Religion that God hath set If Souldiers in an Army keep their order every one abiding in