many superstitious Ceremonies the observation whereof were more strictly urged than the Commandments and Ordinances of God the Temple made a Den of Thieves the Discipline and censures shamefully abused the Doctrine was corrupt in many points yet the word tells you Christ whose example it binds you to follow and you profess your selves followers of him in all imitable things made no separation from this Church professed himself a Member of it was by Circumcision incorporated a Member received Baptism in a Congregation of that People was a hearer of their common Service and their Teachers allowing and commanding his Disciples to hear them communicated in the Passover with the People and the Priest no more did his Apostles make separation from this Church after his Ascension till their day had its Period c. By their example it appears that till God hath forsaken a Church no man may forsake it c. So that we may conclude from hence with M r Hildersham Those Assemblies that enjoy the Word and Doctrine of Salvation though they have many corruptions remaining in them are to be acknowledged as true Churches of God and such as none of the faithful may make Separation from We shall need no further proof of this Doctrine than the example of our Saviour himself c. For why should our Saviour use it if it was unlawful or why should it be a Sin in us who have not such Eyes to pierce into the impiety of mans Traditions as he had as M r Bradshaw argues The same measures were observed also by the Apostles after the establishment of the Christian Church This is not to be gainsaid and is therefore granted by one in other things rigid more than enough I do not say that every corruption in a true Church is sufficient ground of Separation from it The unsoundness of many in the Church of Corinth touching the Doctrine of the Resurrection and in Galatia touching the Doctrine of Circumcision and the necessity of keeping the Ceremonial Law were not sufficient ground of Separation from them for the Apostles held Communion with them notwithstanding these corruptions Now by parity of reason it will follow that if Separation was not to be allowed from those corrupted Churches then surely not from such as are not so corrupted as they So M r Cawdrey pleads Corinth had we suppose greater disorders in it than are to be found blessed be God in many of our Congregations why then do they fly and separate from us And if our Saviour and his Apostles did not separate from such Churches much less should we who may without doubt safely follow the advice given by an Author above-quoted When you are at a stand think how Christ would have carried what he would have done in the like case with yours and we may thereby be concluded Thirdly They further argue that Christ doth still hold Communion with defective Churches and not reject the Worship for tolerable corruptions in it and so neither ought we It is supposed by a worthy person that there is no such society of Christians in the World whose Assemblies as to instituted Worship are so rejected by Christ as to have a Bill of Divorce given unto them until they are utterly as it were extirpate by the Providence of God c. For we do judge that where-ever the Name of Jesus Christ is called upon there is Salvation to be obtained however the ways of it may be obstructed unto the most by their own sins and errors And if this may be said of Churches though fundamentally erroneous in Worship then who shall dare as another saith to judge when Christ hath forsaken a People who still profess his Name and keep up his Worship for substance according to his word though they do or are supposed to fail in circumstances or lesser parts of duty Now this granted the other will follow that then we are not to separate from such Churches Thus M r Hildersham concluded of old from the practice of Christ and observes 1. So long as God continueth his word and the Doctrine of Salvation to a People so long it is evident that God dwells among them and hath not forsaken them c. And till God hath forsaken a Church no man may forsake it 2. No Separation may be made from those Assemblies where men may be assured to find and attain Salvation but men may be sure to find and attain Salvation in such Assemblies where the Ministry of his word and the Doctrine of Salvation is contained So M r Vines The Argument saith he of M r Brightman is considerable if God afford his Communion with a Church by his own Ordinances Grace and Spirit it would be unnatural and peevish in a Child to forsake his Mother while his Father owns her for his Wife I might heap up Authorities of this kind but shall content my self with a considerable one from M r Cotton who reasons after this manner The practice of the Brownists is blame-worthy because they separate where Christ keeps fellowship Rev. 1.18 And that he walks with us we argue because he is still pleased to dispense to us the word of life and edifies many Souls thereby and therefore surely Christ hath fellowship with us and shall man be more pure than his Maker where Christ vouchsafes fellowship shall man renounce it Upon this are grounded the wholesome exhortations of many eminent Non-Conformists as that of M r Calamy You must hold Communion with all those Churches with which Christ holds Communion you must separate from the sins of Christians but not from the Ordinances of Christ. Of M r R. Allein Excommunicate not them from you excommunicate not your selves from them with whom Christ holds Communion Judge not that Christ withdraws from all those who are not in every thing of your mind and way Methinks saith a Reverend Person in his Farewel Sermon where a Church as to the main keeps the form of sound words and the substantials of that Worship which is Christs some adjudged defects in order cannot justifie separation I dare not dismember my self from that Church that holds the head I think whilst Doctrine is for the main sound Christ stays with a Church and it is good staying where he stays I would follow him and not lead him or go before the Lamb. To such we find a severe rebuke given very lately by a Reverend Person Proud conceited Christians are not contented to come out and separate from the unbelieving idolatrous World but they will separate also from the true Church of Christ and cast off all Communion with them who hold Communion with him Fourthly They argue that to separate for such defects and corruptions would destroy all Communion If this should be saith M r Bradshaw then no man can present himself with a good Conscience at any publick Worship of God wheresoever because except it should
maimed in Discipline So D r T. Goodwin Whereas now in some of the Parishes of this Kingdom there are many Godly Men that do constantly give themselves up to the Worship of God in publick c. These notwithstanding their mixture and want of Discipline I never thought for my part but that they were true Churches of Christ and Sister Churches and so ought to be acknowledged So that if Discipline be not essential to a true Church and a true Church is not to be separated from as has been proved above then the want of Discipline is no sufficient reason for Separation Secondly This they further prove by an induction of particulars This way Mr. Blake proceeds in Discipline was neglected in the Church of Israel yet none of the Prophets or men of God ever made attempt of getting up purer select Churches or made separation from that which was in this sort faulty All was not right in the exercise of Discipline in the Churches planted by the Apostles some are censured as foully faulty c. yet nothing heard by way of advice for any to make Separation nor any one instance of a Separatist given To come lower we are told by a learned person that the Helvetian or Switzerland Churches claim to be Churches and have the Notes Word and Sacraments though the order of Discipline be not settled among them and I am not he that shall blot out their name To come nearer home it was so in the late times when this was wanting as was acknowledged and of which Mr. Vines saith we know rather the name than the thing And if we shall look into the several Church-Assemblies amongst the Dissenters we shall find that there are many Preachers without full pastoral charge as it is acknowleded and that have little authority over their flocks in this kind that have not so much as the name of Discipline amongst them And so they have little reason to justifie themselves in a Separation by such an argument that will as well wound themselves as those they bend it against and they that do so are guilty of Sin So Mr. Baxter Many that observe the pollution of the Church by the great neglect of holy Discipline avoid this error by turning to a sinful Separation I shall conclude this with that grave advice of Dr. Owen When any Church whereof a man is by his own consent antecedently a Member doth fall in part or in whole from any of those Truths which it hath professed or when it is overtaken with a neglect of Discipline or Irregularities in its Administration such a one is to consider that he is placed in his present state by Divine Providence that he may orderly therein endeavour to put a stop unto such defections and to exercise his Charity Love and Forbearance towards the persons of them whose miscarriages at present he cannot remedy In such cases there is a large and spatious Field for Wisdom Patience Love and prudent Zeal to exercise themselves And it is a most erverse imagination that Separation is the only cure for Church disorders If this advice be good in one case it is so in another and if it were well understood and faithfully followed this argument would be of little or no force 2. I shall shew how little this plea of the Defective Discipline reaches the case It s granted that there is such a Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Discipline resident in the Church of England that if open and scandalous persons are not cast out the fault is in the Governours for the Law takes order they shall be as D r Bryan saith And the power of suspension put thereby into the Ministers hands is so evident that after D r Collins had proved it from the Rubricks Canons c. he concludes its plain that the judgment and practice of the Church of England in all times ever since it was a Church hath been to suspend some from the Table of the Lord. So that if there be defects through some past and present obstructions in the exercise of Discipline yet cannot the Church properly stand charged with them as is acknowledged or whatever may be charged upon the Church there can be no sufficient cause from a defect remisness or corruption therein for a Separation from it This was the constant judgment of the old Non-Conformists which I shall transcribe from a grave Author Those saith he that for many Years together during the Reign of the three last Princes denied to come up to a full Conformity to this Church had a low opinion of the Discipline then exercised of which they have left behind them large evidences yet how tender were they of the Churches honour to keep Christians in Communion how zealous were they against Separation as may appear in the labours of M r Parker M r Paget M r Ball. M r Brightman laid us low enough when he did not only parallel us with luke-warm Laodicea but made that Church the Type and we the Antitype by reason of our Discipline yet how zealous is he against Separation from these Assemblers and breaks out in these words Therefore their error is wicked and blasphemous who so forsake the Church as if Christ were altogether banished thence Having thus far considered what opinion the graver sort of the Non-Conformists have of Communion with a Church and what rules they do lay down about it and shew'd that according to those rules Separation from the Church is unlawful I shall close all with the last advice given by a Reverend Person to his Parishioners in a Farewel Sermon in these words Take heed of extreams It is the ordinary Temptation in a time of differences to think we cannot run too far from them we differ from and so whilst we decline one Rock we split upon another Remember the old Non-Conformists were equal Enemies to Superstition and Separation Maintain I beseech you sober Principles such as these are that every defective Ministry is not a false Ministry that sinful super-additions do not nullifie Divine institutions that sinful defects in Ordinances do not hinder the saving effects of them That there is a difference betwixt directing a Worship prescribing things simply evil and manifestly idolatrous and directing about Worship things doubtfully good being injoyned but the unquestionable substance of Worship being maintained This latter doth not justifie Separation And that the supposed corruptions in the Church of England are of that nature as do not affect the substance of it nor are such but what may be safely communicated in I shall now proceed to shew from them 3. I shall consider what opinion the eminent Non-Conformists have had of the several practices in the Church of England that are injoyned upon those that hold Lay-Communion with it which respect Forms Gestures Time c. In general they acknowledge that they are things
one without being active in or approving the other there God is yet present there he may be spiritually worshipped served acceptably and really enjoyed 3. They grant that the being present at Divine Worship is no consent to the corruptions in it Thus M r Robinson He that partakes with the Church in the upholding any evil hath his part in the evil also But I deny as a most vain imagination that every one that partakes with a Church in things lawful joyns with it in upholding the things unlawful to be found in it Christ our Lord joyned with the Jewish Church in things lawful and yet upheld nothing unlawful in it So M r Nye Approbation is an act of the mind it is not shewed until it be expressed outwardly by my words and gestures This M r Baxter undertakes to prove by several Arguments as that no man can in reason and justice take that for my profession which I never made by word or deed That the profession made by Church-Communion is totally distinct from this That this opinion would make it unlawful to joyn with any Pastor or Church on Earth since every one mixeth Sin with their Prayers 4. They say that corruptions though foreknown do not yet make those that are present guilty of them Thus the old Non-Conformists declare It is all one to the People whether the fault be personal as some distinguish or otherwise known before-hand or not known For if simple presence defile whether it was known before-hand or not all presence is faulty And if simple presence defile not our presence is not condemned by reason of the corruptions known whereof we stand not guilty If the error be such as may be tolerated and I am called to be present by such fault I am not defiled though known before M r Baxter replys to those of a contrary opinion after this manner Take heed that thus by affirming that foreknowing faults in Worship makes them ours you make not God the greatest sinner and the worst Being in all the World For God foreknoweth all mens sins and is present when they commit them and he hath Communion with all the Prayers of the faithful in the World what faults soever be in the words or forms he doth not reject them for any such failings Will you say therefore that God approveth or consenteth to all these sins I know before-hand that every man will sin that prayeth by defect of desire c. But how doth all this make it mine c. And he otherwhere adds It is another mans fault or errour that you foreknow and not your own 5. It s granted that the fault of another in the ministration of Divine Worship is none of ours nor a sufficient reason to absent from it or to deprive our selves of it Thus M r Baxter The wording of the publick Prayers is the Pastors work and none of mine c. And why should any hold me guilty of another mans fault which I neither can help nor belongeth to any office of mine to help any farther than to admonish him And that the faults of him that Ministers are no sufficient reason to debar our selves of Communion in the worship Mr. Nye affirms and proves by this Argument If I may not omit a duty in respect to the evil mixed with it which is my own much less may I thus leave an ordinance for the evil that is another mans no way mine or to be charged upon me This were to make another mans sins or infirmities more mine than my own Thus is the case resolved with respect to the Cross in Baptism I may not only saith one do that which I judge to be inconvenient but suffer another to do that which I judge to be unlawful rather than be deprived of a necessary ordinance e. g. If either I must have my Child baptized with the sign of the Cross or not baptized at all I may suffer it to be done in that way though I judge it an unlawful addition because the manner concerns him that doth it not me at least not so much so long as there is all the essence He must be responsible for every irregularity not I. Thus Jacob took Laban's Oath though by his Idols c. After the same manner doth Mr. Baxter resolve the case in his Christian Directory p. 49. Seventhly They grant that it is a duty to joyn with a defective and faulty Worship where we can have no better Thus the Presbyterian Brethren at the Savoy An inconvenient mode of Worship is a sin in the Imposer and in the chuser and voluntary user that may offer God better and will not And yet it may not be only lawful but a duty to him that by violence is necessitated to offer up that or none This is acknowledged by an Author that is far from being favourable to Communion with the Church If the word of God could be no where heard or Communion in Sacraments no where enjoyed but only in such Churches that were so corrupt as yours is conceived to be it might be lawful yea and a duty to joyn with you so far as possibly Christians could without sin Accordingly Mr. Baxter declares that it is a duty to hold Communion constantly with any of the Parish Churches amongst us that have honest competent Pastors when we can have no better and professeth for his own part Were I saith he in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective Form than our Liturgy rather than none And he adds That this is the judgment of many New England Ministers to joyn with the English Liturgy rather than have no Church Worship I have reason to conjecture from the defence of the Synod c. Now in what cases this is to be presumed that we can have no better he shews 1. When it is so by a necessity arising from Divine Providence 2. A necessity proceeding from humane Laws which forbid it 3. A necessity from the injury done to the publick And 4. When it is to our own greater hinderance than help as when we must use none or do worse In these and the like cases it becomes a duty and what is otherwise lawful is thereby made necessary And he that cannot joyn with a purer Worship than what is publickly established without the breach of humane Laws or the disturbance of the publick Peace or dividing the Church of God or the bringing danger upon himself is as much where any of these or the like reasons are restrained from so doing as if it did proceed from a natural or providential necessity that is the one he cannot do Physically and naturally the other he cannot do morally honestly and prudently Having thus far stated the case and shew'd that its universally owned by those that dissent from the Church of England that Communion in a Worship not essentially defective and corrupted is lawful
THE CASE OF Lay-Communion WITH THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND CONSIDERED And the Lawfulness of it shew'd from the Testimony of above an hundred eminent Non-Conformists of several Perswasions Published for the satisfaction of the scrupulous and to prevent the sufferings which such needlesly expose themselves to LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms in the Poultry 1683. TO THE DISSENTERS FROM THE Church of England Dear Brethren YOU being at this time called upon by Authority to joyn in Communion with the Church and the Laws ordered to be put in Execution against such as refuse it it s both your Duty and Interest to enquire into the grounds upon which you deny Obedience to the Laws Communion with a Church of God and thereby expose our Religion to danger and your selves to suffering In which unless the cause be good the call clear and the end right it cannot bring Peace to your selves or be acceptable to God Not bring Peace to your selves For we cannot suffer joyfully the spoiling of our Goods the confinement of our Persons the ruine of our Families unless Conscience be able truly to say I would have done any thing but sin against God that I might have avoided these sufferings from men Not be acceptable to God to whom all are accountable for what portion he hath instrusted them with of the things of this life and are not to throw away without sufficient reason and who has made it our duty to do what we can without Sin in Obedience to that Authority which he hath set over us as you are told by some in the same condition with your selves To assist persons in this enquiry I have observed that of late several of the Church of England have undertaken the most material points that you do question and have handled them with that Candor and Calmness which becomes their profession and the gravity of the Arguments and which may the better invite those that are willing to be satisfied to peruse and consider them But because Truth and Reason do too often suffer by the prejudices we have against particular persons to remove as much as may be that obstruction I have in this Treatise shewed that these Authors are not alone but have the concurrent Testimony of the most eminent Non-Conformists for them who do generally grant that there is nothing required in the Parochial Communion of the Church of England that can be a sufficient reason for Separation from it The sence of many of these I have here collected and for one hundred I could easily have produced two if the Cause were to go by the Pole so that if Reason or Authority will prevail I hope that yet your satisfaction and recovery to the Communion of the Church is not to be despaired of Which God of his infinite mercy grant for your own and the Churches sake Amen THE CONTENTS THE difference betwixt Ministerial and Lay-Communion pag. 1 The Dissenters grant the Church of England to be a true Church p. 4 That they are not totally to separate from it p. 12 That they are to comply with it as far as lawfully they can p. 16 That defects in Worship if not essential are no just reason for Separation p. 23 That the expectation of better edification is no sufficient reason to with-hold Communion p. 39 The badness of Ministers will not justifie Separation p. 48 The neglect or want of Discipline no sufficient reason to separate p. 59 The opinion which the Nonconformists have of the several practices of those of the Church of England which its Lay-Members are concerned in p. 64 That Forms of Prayer are lawful and do not stint the Spirit ibid. That publick prescribed Forms may lawfully be joyned with p. 66 That the Liturgy or Common-Prayer is for its matter sound and good and for its Form tolerable if not useful p. 69 That kneeling at the Sacrament is not idolatrous nor unlawful and no sufficient reason to separate from that Ordinance p. 71 72 That standing up at the Creed and Gospel is lawful p. 73 The Conclusion ibid. THE NON-CONFORMISTS PLEA FOR Lay-Communion With the CHURCH of ENGLAND THE Christian World is divided into two Ranks Ecclesiastical and Civil usually known by the names of Clergy and Laity Ministers and People The Clergy besides the things essentially belonging to their Office are by the Laws of all well-ordered Churches in the World strictly obliged by Declarations or Subscriptions or both to owne and maintain the Doctrine Discipline and Constitution of the Church into which they are admitted Thus in the Church of England They do subscribe to the truth of the Doctrine more especially contained in the Thirty Nine Articles and declare that they will use the Forms and Rites contained in the Liturgy and promise to submit to the Government in its Orders The design of all which is to preserve the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Christians which doth much depend upon that of its Officers and Teachers But the Laity are under no such Obligations there being no Declarations or Subscriptions required of them nor any thing more than to attend upon and joyn with the Worship practised and allowed in the Church Thus it is in the Church of England as it is acknowledged by a worthy Person to whom when it was objected that many Errours in Doctrine and Life were imposed as Conditions of Communion he replies What is imposed on you as a Condition to your Communion in the Doctrine and Prayers of the Parish-Churches but your actual Communion it self In discoursing therefore about the lawfulness of Communion with a Church the difference betwixt these two must be carefully observed lest the things required only of one Order of Men should be thought to belong to all It 's observed by one That the original of all our mischiefs sprung from mens confounding the terms of Ministerial Conformity with those of Lay-Communion with the Parochial Assemblies there being much more required of Ministers than of the People private persons having much less to say for themselves in absenting from the Publick Worship of God though performed by the Liturgy than the Pastor hath for not taking Oaths c. Certainly if this difference was but observed and the Case of Lay-Communion truly stated and understood the people would not be far more averse to Communion with the Parish-Churches than the Non-Conforming Ministers are as one complains and whatsoever they might think of the Conformity of Ministers because of the previous terms required of them they would judge what is required of the people to be lawful as some of them do And as the Ministers by bringing their Case to the Peoples may see Communion then to be lawful and find themselves obliged to maintain it in a private capacity so the People by perceiving their Case not to be that of the Ministers but widely different from it would be induced to hold Communion with the Church
the old Non-Conformists as M r Hildersham There is nothing in our Assemblies but we may receive profit by it c. And again There is nothing done in God's Publick Worship among us but what is done by the Institution Ordinance and Commandment of the Lord. So among the present it is own'd by both Presbyterians and Independents by the former in the Morning-Exercise Why may it not be supposeable that Christians may be moved by reasonable considerations to attend the Publick Forms the substantial parts of them being thought agreeable to a Divine Institution though in some Circumstantials too disagreeable So it 's acknowledged That in private Meetings the same Doctrine and Worship is used as in the Parish Churches only some Circumstances and Ceremonies omitted By the latter We know full well that we differ in nothing from the whole form of Religion established in England but only in some few things in outward Worship But I shall have further occasion to treat of this under the third General As for the Ministry of the Church 1. It is acknowledged to be true and for substance the same which Christ hath established So M r Bradshaw I affirm That the Ministry of our Church-Assemblies howsoever it may in some particular parts of the execution happily be defective in some places is for the substance thereof that very same Ministry which Christ hath set in his Church This he speaks as he saith of those that do subscribe and conform according to the Laws of the State 2. That they have all things necessarily belonging to their Office so the grave and modest Confutation maintains The preaching of the whole truth of God's Word and nothing but it the administration of the Sacraments and of publick Prayer as they are all parts of the Ministers Office prescribed in the Word so they are all appointed to our Ministers by the Law 3. They owne That all the defects in it whether in their Call or Administration do not nullifie the Office Thus much M r Bradshaw doth contend for So many of our Ministers who in the Book of Ordination are called Priests and Deacons as in all Points concerning the substance of their Ministry are qualified according to the intent of the Laws have their Offices Callings Administration and maintenance for the substance thereof ordained by Christ. And yet I deny not but there may be some accidental defects or superfluities in or about them all yet such as do not or cannot be proved to destroy the nature and substance of any of them This is maintained at large in the Letter of the Ministers in Old England c. p. 86 87. And the like is also affirmed even by those of the Congregational way so the Brethren in their Apology The unwarrantable power in Church-Governours did never work in any of us any other thought much less opinion but that the Ministry thereof of the English Churches was a true Ministry So M r Cotton The power whereby the Ministers in England do administer the Word and Sacraments is either spiritual and proper essential to their Calling or adventitious and accidental The former they have received from Christ c. The latter from the Patron who presents or the Bishop who ordains c. Whoever has a mind to see their Ordination defended may consult Jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici part 2. p. 12 16 17 25 c. Jus Divinum Râ—gim Eccles. p. 264 c. Cawdry's Independency a great Schism p. 116. and his Defence of it p. 35 37. Thus far therefore we see how far it is agreed that the Church of England is a true Church in its Doctrine Worship and Ministry But when we come to consider what the Church is they own thus to be true there we shall find that they do differ The Presbyterians generally own a National Church and have writ much in the behalf of it as may be seen in the Books quoted in the Margin others look upon it as a prudential thing and what may lawfully be complyed with So Mr. Tombs It is no more against the Gospel to term the believers of England the Church of England than it is to term believers throughout the World the Cahtholick Church nor is it more unfit for us to term our selves Members of the Catholick Church nor is there need to shew any institution of our Lord more for the one than the other But those that will not own it to be a true Church in respect of such a constitution or that speak doubtfully of it do yet assert as much of the Parish Churches It s acknowledged by all that the distribution into Parishes is not of divine but humane institution but withal its thought by some agreeable to the reason of the thing and somewhat favoured by Scripture and by experience has been found to be of such convenience advantage and security to Religion that a person of great eminence hath more than once said I doubt not but he that will preserve Religion here in its due advantages must endeavour to preserve the soundness concord and honour of the Parish Churches And another very worthy person saith that the nullifying and treading down the Parish Churches is a Popish Design But whatever opinion others may have of that Form yet all of one sort and another agree that the Churches so called are or may be true Churches This was the general opinion of the old Non-Conformists Thus saith a late Writer who though he is unwilling to grant that they did own the National Church to be a true Church yet doth admit as he needs must at least that they did own the several Parishes or Congregations in England to be true Churches both in respect of their constitution and also in respect of their doctrine and worship and that there were in them no such intollerable corruptions as that all Christians should fly from them And even those that were in other respects opposite enough to the Church did so declare It was saith Mr. Baxter the Parish Churches that had the Liturgy which Mr. H. Jacob the Father of the Congregational party wrote for communion with against Fr. Johnson and in respect to which be called them Separatists against whom he wrote The same I may say of Mr. Bradshaw Dr. Ames and other Non-Conformists whom the Congregational Brethren think were favourable to their way And if we will hearken to the abovesaid Author he saith again and again that the general sence of the present Non-Conformists both Ministers and People is that the Parishes of England generally are true Churches both as to the matter of them the people being Christians and as to the form their Ministers being true Ministers such as for their doctrine and manners deserve not to be degraded But left he should be thought to incline to one side I shall produce the testimony of such as are of the Congregational way
As for those of New-England Mr. Baxter doth say that their own expressions signify that they take the English Parishes that have godly Ministers for true Churches though faulty Mr. Cotton professeth that Robinson's denial of the Parishional Churches to be true Churches was never received into any heart amongst them and otherwhere saith we dare not deny to bless the womb that bare us and the paps that gave us suck The five Dissenting Brethren do declare We have this sincere profession to make before God and the World that all the conscience of the defilements in the Church of England c. did never work in us any other thought much less opinion but that multitudes of the Assemblies and Parochial Congregation thereof were the true Churches and Body of Christ. To come nearer Dr. T. Goodwin doth condemn it as an error in those who hold particular Churches those you call Parish-Churches to be no true Churches of Christ and their Ministers to be no true Ministers and upon that ground forbear all Church-Communion with them in hearing or in any other Ordinance c. and saith I acquitted myself before from this and my Brethren in the Ministry But the Church of England is not only thus acknowledged a true Church but hath been also looked upon as the most valuable in the World whether we consider the Church it self or those that minister in it The Church it self of which the Authors of the grave and modest confutation thus write All the known Churches in the world acknowledge our Church for their sister and give unto us the right hand of fellowship c Dr. Goodwin saith If we should not acknowledge these Churches so stated i. e. Parish-Churches to be the true Churches of Christ and their Ministers true Ministers and their order such and bold Communion with them too in the sence spoken of we must acknowledge no Church in all the Reformed Churches c for they are all as full of mixture as ours And Mr. J. Goodwin saith that there was more of the truth and power of Religion in England under the late Prelatical Government than in all the Reformed Churches in the World besides If we would have a Character of the Ministry of the Church of England as it was then Mr. Bradshaw gives it Our Churches are not inferiour for number of able men yea and painful Ministers to any of the reformed Churches of Christ in foreign parts c. And certainly the number of such is much advanced since his time But I cannot say more of this subject than I find in a page or two of an Author I must frequently use to which I refer the Reader Before I proceed I shall only make this inference from what hath been said that if the Church of England be a true Church the Churches true Churches the Ministry a true Ministry the Doctrine found and Orthodox the worship in the main good and allowable and the defects such as render not the Ordinances unacceptable to God and ineffectual to us I think there is much said toward the proving Communion with that Church lawful and to justifie those that do join in it which brings to the second general which is to consider 2. What opinion the sober and eminent Non-Conformists have of Communion with the Church of England And they generally hold 1. That they are not totally to separate from it this follows from the former and must be own'd by all them that hold she is a true Church for to own it to be such and yet to separate totally from it would be to own and disown it at the same time So say the members of the Assembly of Divines Thus to depart from true Churches is not to hold Communion with them as such but rather by departing to declare them not to be such And saith Mr. Baxter nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church which yet is the case in total separation but the want of something essential to a Church But if the Church have all things essential to it it is a true Church and not to be separated from When the Church of Rome is called a true Church it s understood in a metaphysical or natural sence as a thief is a true man and the Devil himself though the Father of lies is a true spirit But withal she is a false Church as M r Brinsly saith from Bishop Hall an Heretical Apostatical Antichristian Synagogue And so to separate from her is a duty But when the Church of England is said to be a true Church or the Parochial Churches true Churches it s in a moral sense as they are found Churches which may safely be communicated with Thus doth D r Bryan make the opposition The Church of Rome is a part of the universal visible Church of Christians so far as they profess Christianity and acknowledge Christ their head but it is the visible society of Traiterous Usurpers so far as they profess the Pope to be their Head c. From this Church therefore which is Spiritual Babylon God's people are bound to separate c. but not from Churches which have made separation from Rome as the reformed Protestant Churches in France and these of Great Britain have done in whose Congregations is found truth of Doctrine a lawfull Ministry and a people professing the true Religion submitting to and joyning together in the true Worship of God Such a separation would as has been said unchurch it This would be deny Christ holds Communion with it or to deny Communion with a Church with which Christ holds Communion contrary to a principle that is I think universally maintained The errour of these men saith Mr. Brightman is full of evil who do in such a manner make a departure from this Church by total separation as if Christ were quite banished from hence and that there could be no hope of salvation to those that abide there Let these men consider that Christ is here feasting with his members will they be ashamed to sit at meat there where Christ is not ashamed to sit Further this would be a notorious Schism so the old Non-Conformists Conformists conclude because we have a true Church consisting of a lawful Ministry and a faithful people therefore they cannot separate themselves from us but they must needs incur the most shameful and odious reproach of manifest Schism for what is that saith another but a total separation from a true Church This lastly would not diminish but much increase the fault of the separation as another saith For it is a greater sin to depart from a Church which I profess to be true and whose ministry I acknowledge to be saving than from a Church which I conceive to be false and whose ministers I take to have no calling from God nor any blessing from his hand This therefore is their avow'd principle that
which men's minds have been corrupted I find in whatsoever they differ one from another yet in this they agree That it 's unlawful to hear in publick which I am perswaded is one constant design of Satan in the variety of ways of Religion he hath set on foot by Jesuits amongst us Let us therefore be the more aware of whatsoever tends that way Of this Opinion also is M r Tombs though he continued an Anabaptist who has writ a whole Book to defend the Hearing of the present Ministers of England and toward the Close of the Work hath given forty additional Reasons for it and in opposition to those he writes against doth affirm Sure if the Church be called Mount Sion from the preaching of the Gospel the Assemblies of England may be called Sion Christ's Candlesticks and Garden as well as any Christians in the World I shall conclude this with what M r Robinson saith in this Case viz. For my self thus I believe with my heart before God and profess with my tongue and have before the World that I have one and the same Faith Spirit Baptism and Lord which I had in the Church of England and none other that I esteem so many in that Church of what state or Order soever as are truly Partakers of that Faith as I account thousands to be for my Christian Brethren and my self a Fellow-member with them of that one Mystical Body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout the World that I have always in spirit and affection all Christian Fellowship and Communion with them and am most ready in all outward Actions and Exercises of Religion lawful and lawfully done to express the same And withal that I am perswaded the hearing of the Word of God there preached in the manner and upon the grounds formerly mentioned both lawful and upon occasion necessary for me and all true Christians withdrawing from that Hierarchical Order of Church-Government and Ministry and the uniting in the Order and Ordinances instituted by Christ. Thus far He. From what hath been said upon this Head we may observe that though these Reverend Persons do go upon different Reasons according to the Principles they espouse though they agree not in the Constitution of Churches c. yet they all agree that the Parochial Churches are or may be as I have observed before true Churches of Christ that Communion with such Churches is lawful and that we are to go as far as we can toward Communion with them Though they differ about the Notion of Hearing as whether it be an Act of Communion and about the Call of those they hear yet they all agree in the lawfulness of it And therefore to separate wholly in this Ordinance and from the Parochial Churches as no Churches are equally condemned by all 3. They hold that they are not to separate from a Church for unlawful things if the things accounted unlawful are not of so heinous a nature as to unchurch a Church and affect the Vitals of Religion or are not imposed as necessary terms of Communion 1. If the Corruptions are such as do not unchurch a Church or affect the vital parts of Religion So saith M r Tombs Not every not many Corruptions of some kind do un-church there being many in Faith Worship and Conversation in the Churches of Corinth and some of the Seven Churches of Asia who yet were Golden Candlesticks amidst whom Christ did walk But such general avowed unrepented of errours in Faith as overthrow the foundation of Christian Faith to wit Christ the only Mediator betwixt God and man and salvation by him Corruptions of Worship by Idolatry in Life by evil manners as are utterly inconsistent with Christianity till which in whole or in part they are not unchurched For till then the Corruptions are tolerable and so afford no just reason to dissolve the Church or to depart from it So M r Brinsley Suppose some just grievances may be found among us yet are they tolerable If so then is Separation on this ground intolerable unwarrantable in as much as it ought not to be but upon a very great and weighty cause and that when there is no remedy So M r Noyes Private Brethren may not separate from Churches or Church-Ordinances which are not fundamentally defective neither in Doctrine or Manners Heresy or Prophaness To all which add the Testimony of D r Owen and M r Cotton The former asserts That many errours in Doctrine disorders in sacred Administrations irregular walking in Conversation with neglect and abuse of Discipline in Rulers may fall out in some Churches and yet not evacuate their Church-state or give sufficient warrant to leave their Communion and separate from them The latter saith Vnless you find in the Church Blasphemy or Idolatry or Persecution that is such as is intolerable there is no just ground of separation This is universally own'd But if any one should yet continue unconvinced let him but peruse the Catalogue of the faults of nine Churches in Scripture collected by M r Baxter and I perswade my self he will think the Conclusion inferr'd from it to be just and reasonable Observe saith he that no one member is in all these Scriptures or any other commanded to come out and separate from any of all these Churches as if their Communion in Worship were unlawful And therefore before you separate from any as judging Communion with them unlawful be sure that you bring greater reasons for it than any of these recited were 2. They are not to separate if the Corruptions are not so made the Conditions of Communion that they must necessarily and unavoidably communicate in them M r Vines speaks plainly to both of these The Church may be corrupted many ways in Doctrine Ordinances Worship c. And there are degrees of this Corruption the Doctrine in some remote Points the Worship in some Rituals of mans invention or custom How many Churches do we find thus corrupted and yet no Separation of Christ from the Jewish Church nor any Commandment to the Godly of Corinth c. to separate I must in such a Case avoid the Corruption hold the Communion But if Corruptions invade the Fundamentals the foundation of Doctrine is destroyed the Worship is become idolatrous and what is above all if the Church impose such Laws of her Communion as there is a necessity of doing or approving things unlawful in that Case Come out of Babylon The Churches of Protestants so separated from Rome But if the things be not of so heinous a nature nor thus strictly required then Communion with a Church under defects is lawful and may be a Duty So saith M r Corbet in the name of the present Non-Conformists We hold not our selves obliged to forsake a true Church as no Church for the corruptions and disorders found therein or to separate from its Worship for the tolerable faults thereof while our personal profession
not oblige This M r Tombs hath undertaken to shew 1. Because this gesture seems not to have been of choice used by Christ. 2. Because S t Paul omits the gesture which he would not have done if it had been binding 3. He mentions the night and calls it the Lords Supper and if the time be not necessary much less the gesture 4. If the gesture doth oblige then Christians must use the self same that Christ used 3. It is granted that the nature of the ordinance doth not forbid kneeling So M r Bains kneeling is not unbeseeming a Feaster when our joy must be mingled with reverent trembling So M r Baxter The nature of the ordinance is mixed And if it be lawful to take a pardon from the King upon our knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knee Hence M r Bayley reckons it as an error of some Independents that they accounted sitting necessary as a rite significant of fellowship with Christ and a part of our imitation of him and for both these reasons declared it necessary to keep on their hats at the time of participation 4. It is granted not to be idolatrous So M r Bains Kneeling is neither an occasion nor by participation Idolatry kneeling never bred Bread-worship And our doctrine of the Sacrament known to all the world doth free us from suspicion of adoration in it To these M r Tombs adds 1. that the Papists adore not the bread at putting into their mouths but at the elevation It being inconsistent with their principles to worship that which is not above them 2. That the worship of God not directed to a creature but before it as an occasional object of adoration to God is not Idolatry 3. That yet in the Church of England the Elements are not occasionally so but the benefits of Christ in the Lords Supper and 4. Kneeling is not to the Bread but as the signification of an humble and grateful mind as he shews from the Rubrick 5 thly Those that do account it inconvenient yet account it not to be unlawful Thus M r Cartwright Kneeling in receiving the Sacrament being incommodious in its own nature and made far more incommodious by Popish superstition is not therefore so to be rejected that we should abstain from the Sacrament if we cannot otherwise be partakers of it because the thing is not in its own nature unlawful So it s said of the old Nonconformists Kneeling at the Sacrament was disliked by all but yet thought tolerable and that it might be submitted to by some of the most learned From all which we may conclude with Mr. Vines that the posture being a circumstance of action as well as the time and place is not of the Free-hold of the ordinance and with Mr. Baxter that those that think they must not receive kneeling think erroneously As for standing up at the Creed c. Mr. Baxter saith his judgement is for it where it is required and where not doing it would be divisive and scandalous Nay elsewhere he saith that t is a convenient praising gesture c. Thus I have considered the most material points in which the Lay-members of the Church of England are concern'd and shew'd that the lawfulness of the things injoyned upon such is declared and justified by the suffrage and judgement of as eminent Nonconformists as have lived in the several ages since that unhappy controversie was first set on foot amongst us And now what remains but that every one concerned set himself seriously and impartially to consider it and it becomes such so to do when they go against the stream of the most experienced writers of their own party who might pretend to understand the case as well if not better than any that were conversant in it It becomes such when they bury that under the condemnation of false worship which the Lord the author of all truth doth allow in his service When they forsake the prayers of the Congregation and depart from the Table of the Lord and break off society and communion with the Churches of Christ c. when they expose Religion to contempt and the truth of God to reproach by the rents and divisions in the Church as M r Ball doth represent it It becomes them when our division gratifieth the Papists and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion and by it we may lose all which the several parties contend about as Mr. Baxter hath proved It becomes them when the Church of England is the bulwark of the Protestant Religion amongst us at home and that according to the noted saying of Mr. Egerton The withdrawing totally from it would more effectually introduce Popery than all the works of Bellarmine It becomes them when this is the Bulwark of it abroad and all the reformed Churches in the world have a venture in this Bottom which if compar'd to a Fleet the Church of England must be acknowledged to be the Admiral And if it go ill with this Church so as that miscarry there is none of the Churches of Christ this day under Heaven but are like to feel it as M r Brinsley discourses Lastly It becomes them when divisions and separations draw down the displeasure of God and lay us open to his Judgements Therefore Dr. Bryan after he hath largely insisted upon the Argument and the present case amongst us doth thus apply himself O that I could prevail with you to lay sadly to heart the greatness of the sin of divisions and the grievousness of the punishment threatned against it and hath been executed for it and that the Leaders and encouragers of private Christians to make this sinful separation would read oft and me ditate upon S t Jude's Epistle to v. 20. and that the multitudes that are willing to be led by them would follow the prescription of the means here to preserve or recover themselves from this seduction v. 20 21. And that both would leave off their reviling the Government Ecclesiastical and the Ministers that conform and submissively behave themselves by the example of Michael c. I shall conclude the whole with the peaceable and pious advice of Mr. Bains Let every man walk within the compass of his Calling Whatsoever lyeth not in us to reform it shall be our zeal and piety to tolerate and with patience to forbear especially in things of this nature which concern not so much the outward Communion with God or man essentially required in a visible state as the due ordering of business in the said Communion wherein there be many superfluities and defects silvâ tamen Ecclesiâ yea and such a Church notwithstanding as wherein the best and truest Members circumstances considered may have more cause to rejoyce than to grieve ERRATA PAG. 5. l. 25. r. soundness p. 7.