God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Let us therefore take up with this Description in our future Agreements and in the practice the Prudent and Charitable will not presume to censure any Mans Profession as Incredible coram Ecclesiâ without proof Let us therefore unanimously set up Confirmation or if you dislike the Name the Tryal and Approbation of the Profession of all that are entered among the Adult Church Members And if any are too loose on one side or too rigid on the other in the practical part the judging and accepting or refusing of the tryed let the Matter be debated at the Synods of the Consociate Pastors if there be any Accusatio◠put in 2. We are Agreed that Consent is necessary to Church-Membership And that it must be a signified consent And that the most express consent is best to the well being of the Church caeteris paribus but yet that a darker way of signifying may serve to the Being of the Church Let us therefore thank God that we live in days of Liberty wherein we may all use the most edifying way and accordingly let us Agree to call our people to an express consent But if any deny this let them not be thereupon disowned but forborn so be it they will perform the whole work of their Ministry faithfully towards all that they take for their Charge 3. We are Agreed that it 's lawful for a particular Church to consist of no more than can meet in one place And yet that it is not necessary to its Being that actually they do all meet in a place Let us therefore resolve to confine our particular Churches ordinarily to a Parish Unless it be where Parishes are so small or fit persons so few that it is fit to lay divers of them together as to Church ends Yet so that if any refuse this Agreement and will needs take four or five Parishes for distinct worshipping Churches and yet but one Governing Church in the Officers we bear with them and allow them the liberty of their way so be it they will faithfully perform the work both of Worship and Discipline to them all 4. We are Agreed that it is lawful and meet that Neighbour Pastors be advisers and helpers in the Ordinations of Presbyters and yet that they are truly Presbyters if they be Ordained but by the Presbyters of a particular Church And in cases of Necessity if unordained Let us therefore Agree in practice that Ordinations be ordinarily performed by the Advice and Assistance of the Synod of the Associated Pastors or some deputed Members of it The case of Ordination by Bishops I handle elsewhere and not here And if any refuse this let them be forborn so be it they be Ordained by Lawful Presbyters of their own Church or any other with whom we be not bound to avoid Communion And if any Congregation through Error have no true Officers in the judgment of the Synod for want of true Ordination yet let us hold such Communion with that Congregation if other things correspond as is due to a Neighbour Community of Christians though not as is due to a Political Society 5. We are Agreed that the Pastors are by Commission from Christ appointed to be the Rulors of the Churches and the people commanded to obey them And that it is they that are the Authorized Teachers of the Flocks and are to Administer the Sacraments and Ministerially to bind or loose And yet that the people are to be Governed as Freemen and are not to obey apparently unrighteous censures and therefore are by an Obediential Judgment to discern what is fit to be obeyed and what not Let us therefore practise according to this Agreement and let the Pastors Rule and let the people Obey but not Obey against Gods Word And therefore let the people have so far cognizance of the Cause and their conse be required as is necessary to their free discerning safe Obedience and to the Churches Peace And if any Pastors will make more use of the peoples consent and others less let us forbear each other till some ill consequents produce an accusation at the Synod and then let the case be heard and judg'd 6. We are Agreed that a Pastor of one Church may Exercise divers acts of the Pastoral Office in another if he be called to such Exercise pro tempore We need not therefore mention this in our further Forms of Concord but leave each Man to his Liberty If any Pastor think he may not Exercise his Pastoral Office abroad let him stay at home But let them have Liberty that are otherwise minded 7. We are Agreed that a particular Church that hath a Presbytery may Exercise all Acts of Worship and Government within it self that are appertaining only to it self And that Synods should be used for Communion of Churches where things that concern the Churches in common or their Communion with one another should be heard and judged Let us therefore give way to particular Churches to enjoy their Liberty and let all the Churches be link'd together and the Pastors associate and meet in Synods for such Communion Yet so that if any one in weakness shall refuse to Associate or be an Ordinary Member of such Synods being caetera sanus we shall not therefore withdraw our Brotherly Love nor that distant sort of Communion of which he is capable Though we must disown his way lest others be tempted to the like Division 8. We are Agreed that no Men should bury their Talents and that the Gifts of our people that are suited to the profiting of others should be used to as publick benefit as may be so it be orderly regularly in their Callings in a due subordination to the Ministry and under their direction for the helping and not the hindering of their Work according to the forementioned limitations There is no Difference therefore among us here that is needful to be taken notice of in our Form of Concord it being between particular persons and not parties that the difference lyeth And actual miscarriages are to be enquired after as other Crimes in the several Churches and Associations 9. We are Agreed that all Parishes that have in them a people professing Christianity and consent to live as particular Churches in Communion for Gods Worship are true Churches as that word doth signifie a Community of Christians And if they have true Pastors they are true Churches as the word Church doth signifie a Political Society of Christians capable of the ordinary actual worshipping of God in the publick use of all Church Ordinances But because it is not to be expected that we should all be acquainted with the qualifications consent or practice of the people in all the Parishes of the Land nor of the Ministers call it is not therefore to be expected that we be made Judges of the state of all Parishes nor that we put our judgment of all or any of them by Name into our Form of Concord
such as expect the very Syllables of the Assertions in the proofs Therefore for brevity I take it to be the better way â—â— this time to offer here a full sufficient proof of any one of these Assertions which shall be questioned to such as shall soberly demand it A Servant of Christ for his Churches Unity and Peace Richard Baxter Acton Nov. 2â— 1688. Q. SEeing you have oft affirmed publickly that the Terms of Concord among Christians are easie to be known if their unwillingness to practise them were not the hinderance you are desired to answer these Questions following 1. What are the necessary Terms of Catholick Communion of Christians as Members of the Church Universal 2. What are the necessary Terms of the Communion of Christians personally in a particular Church 3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another 4. What are the Terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms 5. What is the Magistrates Power and Duty about Religion and the Churches and Ministers of Christ I. It is to be understood that the Universal Church is considered as Spiritual or as Visible As Spiritual it is the Universality of true Spiritual or Regenerate Believers as Headed by Jesus Christ. As Visible it is the Universality of the Baptized or Professors of true Faith as Headed by Christ the Author and Object of that Faith And accordingly Christians are to be distinguished And that the Question is of the Visible Church and Christians 2. This being supposed I answer that Catholick Visible Communion consisteth 1. Fundamentally in being all Baptized or entered into the same Covenant of Grace with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and so being joyned to the same Head and entered into the same Universal Body and professing the same Faith and Love and Obedience contained in that Covenant and not falling away from that Profession or any Essential part thereof 2. And consequently that we all acknowledge the extraordinary Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and receive their Testimony and Doctrine recorded in the Sacred Scriptures At least the foresaid Essentials of the Covenant and so much more as we understand and are convinced to be Canonical Scriptures or written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 3. And also that we acknowledge a stated ordinary Ministry in the Church appointed by Christ to Disciple and Baptize the Nations of the World and then to teach them to observe all his Commands And that we profess our willingness to join in Christian Assemblies under the conduct of such Ministers for the worshipping of God and furthering our own and others Salvation if we have opportunity so to do And that we do accordingly II. Q. 1. We speak only of Visible Christians in this second Question also of Church Communion 2. A Particular Church signifieth either 1. A Community of Christians agreed to live under Pastoraâ— Guidance before they have a Pastor or have practised that agreement This is not the Church here meanâ— 2. Or a Political Society of Christian Pastor and People professedly associated for Personal Communion Exercise of these Relations as such in the publick worshipping of God and for the furtherance of Love and Obedience in each other The Ends difference it from all Civil Societies of Christians and from the associations of many Churches for Communion by delegates The necessary Terms of this Church Communion are these 1. The Pastor whether one or more must have all things essential to his Office 1. As to his Qualifications that is 1. That he understand at least the Essential Points of Christianity and Church Communion 2. That he be able to teach them to others in some competent degree 3. That he be willing to do it and this for Gods Honour the Churches Good and Mens Salvation 2. As to his Call that he have a true notification of the will of God that he should undertake this Office which is ordinarily done 1. By the Ordination that is the Approbation and Investiture of Bishops or Pastors 2. And in this case of his relation to a particular Church by the peoples consent All this in truth is needful before God and in Appearance and Profession before the Church 2. The People must be Baptized persons Sacramentally engaged into Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and such as have not professedly deserted that Covenant by Apostasie nor are proved before a lawful Judicature to be deserters of any Essential part thereof Whether open professed Covenanting may not serve without Baptism in cases of Necessity where Baptism cannot be had is a case so extraordinary that we need not here meddle with it 3. He that was Baptized in Infancy and yet having opportunity at full age doth make no Profession of Christianity nor own his Baptismal Covenant openly by word or deed is to be numbered with Deserters 4. Though the most plain and open profession is usually best where it may be â—ad yet a profession less explicite may serve to the being of Church-members such as is their actual joyning with those Churches who purposely assemble to make publick profession of the Christian Religion Faith Love and Obedience 5. There must be also a signification of consent to their particular Church-Relation either more express and plain or at least by such actions which may be reasonably presumed to signifie it As ordinary joining in Church-worship with that particular Church and submitting to the necessary guidance of the Pastors 6. He that thus consenteth to his Relation to the Pastor and that Church is a Member though he consent not to the Membership or Presence of many particular Members thereof Because they are but Integral and not Essential parts of the Church 7. But if a usual mixture in the Assemblies of Hereticks or Strangers which are not Members of that Church or any other confounding cause do give the Pastors sufficient reason to call all or part of the people to an express signification of their consent to their Relation to put it out of doubt they that causelesly refuse such signification do seem to deny their consent and allow the Pastor and Church to judge of them accordingly 8. The office of the Bishops or Pastors is subordinate to the Teaching and Interceeding and Ruling office of Christ And their work is to Teach the people the Word of God to be their Mouth and Guide in publick Worship in Prayer and in Thanksgiving and Praise to God and to administer his holy Sacraments and to exercise that Power of the Keys which Christ hath committed to their trust in the Prudent and cautelous use of Church-Discipline And all this according to the Laws of Christ recorded in the holy Scriptures These therefore must be the Works and Ends for which these Churches must professedly assemble Especially on the Lord's Days which are separated to these holy Uses 9. The General Command in Nature and Scripture that all be done to Edification decently and
Power and Duty about Religion and the Churches and Ministers of Christ and the Peoples to Magistrates further opened in a Treatise of NATIONAL CHURCHES Chap. I. The Necessity of Concord THE Judgments of all wise and sober men must needs disallow both the Practice of Division and unwarrantable Separation from the Churches of Christ and the common Liberty for Gathering Churches out of Churches now pleaded for and too much practised by many and also the Occasioning of Divisions and Separations by over rigorous proceedings with tender Consciences and imposition of unnecessary things and too much severity against those that through infirmity are guilty of some culpable Divisions and Uncharitableness For it 's not this Oil that will quench these flames In order to the healing of our dangerous Divisions I think it meet to deliver my thoughts in the ensuing Method 1. To shew the Evil of our Divisions and of the common practice of Private Separated Churches where in Publick there are able godly faithful Ministers and such Publick Churches as may lawfully be owned For I meddle with no other case 2. To shew what the agreeing Publick Ministers should do on their parts for the prevention and cure of these Distractions 3. To give you the true state of the Differences that have occasioned them 4. To propound those Terms by which a safe Reconciliation may be made 5. To which I should add if it were not for being thought too bold or confident the Magistrates Duty both in order to our Agreement and in case we will not be agreed I. Though I take not a Private Meeting or a Tolerated Private Church for so odious a thing in it self considered as some do but confess that such may be Good or Evil as the Cause of the Assemblies the Aspect of the Times and other Circumstances and Accidents shall make them and doubt not but there may be warrantable Separations from one or many particular Churches where the blame may lie upon the Churches and the Private Assemblies sometimes may be more justifiable than the allowed Publick ones yet as unnecessary Separations and Divisions are a great transgression so what the Aggravations of that transgression are and what wrong the Cause of God receives from the Differences among the godly themselves and the Divided and Private Congregations that are gathered by occasion of these differences in many parts of England I shall briefly shew 1. When in one and the same Parishes the boundaries of the ordinary Churches as to habitation there shall be divers Churches one Publick and one Private it will ordinarily cause great Disaffection and Contention among the Christians of that place There will be Pastor against Pastor and People against People and one will be accusing another according to their several apprehensions and making the waies and consequently the persons of each other to he odious or unacceptable to others And hereby Christian Love will be much quenched and Unity and Concord much overthrown and all the Effects of Love abated and the odious remnants of Uncharitableness Malice and Emulations will revive Too common and sad experience puts this out of doubt Alas what Factious Doctrine for Parties and against Parties are usually managed in Publick and Private where these Divisions once appear What unconscionable Censures pass too often on one side or both What bitter unchristian taunts and scorns and reproachful words When publick Writings so abound with these and the Press is become the common scold and the most unchristian Language is spoken so familiarly to all the Land and uncharitableness and fury are afraid of being concealed no wonder if in private among those that are pleased with such discourse the Preacher sit in the Scorners Chair 2. Uncharitableness and Divisions are as plainly urgently and frequently prohibited and condemned in the Word of God as almost any sins that are And Love and Unity Peace and Concord are prest as much as any Duty of Man to Man Certainly these Great Obligations are such as smaller matters cannot dispense with And wonderful it is that so many thousand that abhor the Popes dispensing with Oaths and Promises and Subjects Duties and with some of the positive commands of God can yet without remorâ—e of Conscience so easily so long so confidently dispense with the greatest Duties of Man towards Man even with Charity it self and the effects of Charity He that must owe nothing else must owe Love Rom. 13. 8. Love is the fulfilling of the Law Verse 10. Every Commandment of the Second Table is briefly fulfilled in Loving our Neighbours as our selves Verse 9. Yea he loveth not God that loveth not his Brother 1 Iohn 4 21. Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God He that loveth not knoweth not God For God is Love 1 Iohn 4 7 8. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his Love is perfected in us Verse 12. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Verse 16. If any Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a Liar For he that Loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he Love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he that Loveth God Love his Brother also Verse 20 21. Every one that Loveth him that begat Loveth him that is begotten also 1 Iohn 5. 1. We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we Love the Brethren He that Loveth not his Brother abideth in death Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murderer and you know that no Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him 1 Iohn 3. 14 15. Yea we ought to lay down our Lives for the Brethren Verse 16. This is the New and frequently urged Command of Christ that we Love one another Iohn 13. 34. and 15. 12 17. Gal. 5. 14. Iam. 2. 8. This is it that we must provoke each other to Heb. 10. 24. and that must continue Heb. 13. 1. We must Love one another with a pure Heart â—ervently 1 Pet. 1. 2â— Yea by Love we must serve one another Gal. 5. 13. And Paul took this to be so Essential to our Sanctification that he tells the Thessalonians 1 Thes. 4. 9. that as touching Brotherly Love he need not write to them for they were taught of God to love one another And can that be the way of God that dispenseth with so Essential a part of Holiness or that secretly and unobservedly extinguisheth this holy Love Let Experience teach you whether the present way of private separated Churches be not the opening a Shop or Forge for Military Engines against each other And under pretence of defending Truth whether they be not the Nurseries of uncharitable Wars among the Servants of the Lord And then as Love is extinguished so the sinful fruits of the contrary Vice do by such Divisions prosper and abound And what weekly Bills of heinous sins might we see that are
us They have taken it up as their common Argument to draw men to Popery and now at last to Infidelity that we are a Babel of Confusion and have no Unity among us and they point to our several Parties and ask men How they know that this is in the right more than all the rest and why he will cleave rather to one of them than to another Can a tender Conscience and one that regardeth the interest of Christ forbear to mourn while the Name of God is daily reproached and his Servants made the Song of Drunkards the Scorn of Papists and all their Adversaries and the by-word of the Prophane by our Divisions 10. These Divisions and Antichurches do hinder the Holy Order and Discipline of Families when the Husband is of one Church and the Wife of another or the Parents of one and the Children of another or the Master of one and the Servants of another or one Child and Servant of one Church and another of another This hindereth the Governours from seeing effectually that their Families be soundly instructed and kept from Heresies or neglect of Ordinances It hindereth them from taking a due account of their Children and Servants of what they learn It divideth Families and induceth the Children and Servants to refuse to joyn in Family Prayer and other Duties with their Parents and Masters and to refuse to hear them repeat those Sermons which they refused to hear from the Minister himself And it turneth the Holy Conference and charitable Communion of Families into perverse Contendings about their several ways 11. And these separated Churches do much hinder the Labours of the Ministers of Christ and the true Reformation of the Churches It grieveth the Souls of Faithful Pastors to see that their Children or those that they hope have somewhat of Christ in them shall be the Instruments of Satan to hinder their Labours and it grievously weakeneth the Builders hands when they are thus opposed by those for whom they have spent themselves and in whom they should have Comfort after their Travels and from whom they should have help for the promoting of their work with others Drunkards and Swearers in some places hinder not the Ministers work so much as Antichurches that make it their work to draw men to themselves and to that â—nd do find themselves engaged to speak against the Publick Church and Ministry and to that End to quarrel with or reproach the Doctrine or Worship there performed And how can thâ—se Ministers reform their Churches that are forsaken yea and opposed by so many of those that should be the Materials of their Churches and should be their strength against the Prophane and help them in Reforming and in the exercise of Discipline It making Discipline it self on both parts also to be of almost no Effect when he that is cast out of one Church can presently step into another and perhaps under pretence of greater Holiness and there reject those that rejected him and seem more Innocent than they 12. These private separated Churches also do give great advantage to the secret Enemies of the Truth and Corrupters of Sound Doctrine to creep in and sow the Tares of Heresies among poor Christians that have no Pastor at hand to contradict Deceivers And most of the horrid Errours of these times that have poysoned Souls dishonoured God divided us and disturb'd our Peace have crept in at these back Doors Few have made their Entrance at the Publick Assemblies in comparison of those that have come in at private Meetings And here it is that Papists and other Adversaries have opportunity to Play their Games and to lay their Trains of Gun Powder to blow up both Church and State without the Odium of being Traitors and Powder-Plotters yea by the Countenance and Favour of the State It will not secure us that Papists are excepted from Liberty among us as long as a Vizir or another Name and some Equivocation shall be to them a Patent for Liberty and Toleration 13. Moreover our Separations tend to the grievous Pollution of the Ordinances of God by setting up prophane Persons as Ministers and encouraging prophane Administrations and Societies and so disâ—oâ—ouring the Christian Name and hardening the Ignorant and Ungodly by these means For when those that are most Zealous against Prophaness are withdrawn and leave the ignorant careless People to themselves they will have Ministers like themselves if such are toâ—erated and they will make up such Churches as are uncapable of Discipline and will go on as smoothly in the Abuse of Sacraments and the Praises of God and all Holy Ordinances as if they were the only Christians in the Land and theirs the only regular Churches and none but Sectaries differed from them Or if they were not allowed the Publick holding of Undisciplined Churches and prophanation of Holy Ordinances yet as long as all may have what private Assemblies they please they will there at least have their Ignorant unworthy Ministers to fit all their Humours and there they will Prophane the Name and Holy things of God And O what abundance of provoking Sin will be committed in England every Week and this through the Separations of Pious Persons and the toleration of the State as for their Indulgence Do we make Laws against the Prophanation of the Holy Name of God by Swearing and Cursing and shall men fearing God let loose yea further the Rabble of the Ungodly through the Land in the Prophaning of the same Name and Holy Ordinances and the Office of the Ministery under a pretence of Worship The case of Nadab and Abihu and the Bethshemites and Uzza do tell us that God is more jealous about his Holy Things than in our common Affairs 14. Moreover It is an actual Reproaching of all our Solemn Assemblies to separate from them as if you openly proclaimed them to be such that an honest man may not lawfully hold Communion with Whereas the Interest of Christ is so great among them so much of his acceptable Worship and so many of his faithful beloved ones are there that he will not take such usage well If we must needs have private separated Assemblies let the Servants of Christ so close together that the Ungodly and not they may be the separated part and may be driven into Corners Let the Holy ordered Assemblies of the Saints be the Publick Assemblies and let not the ungoverned have that honour 15. It is an unspeakable Mischief of these Antichurches and Divisions that they are the great Impediment to Universal Communion of all the Servants of Christ in the Land which is a work of great Necessity to the common good and exceeding desirable to all Christians Were we but one One Body by some common Bond and Communion our Rulers would quickly be resolved in the Point of Toleration Heresies might be easier extinguished and Prophaneness might through all the Land lye under such Discouragement as might much abate it whilest every where
Error 3. They do not pretend to sorce themselves into our Parish Churches ordinarily against his will that is the allowed Teacher there 4. While they do in Name disclaim Ordaining them they actually Ordain them For they set them apart to the Office of the Ministry and it is Pastors that do it And this is the substance of Ordination Imposition of Hands is but the Investing Ceremony And if they say that A stated Preacher is no Officer that makes him not to be none And if they say that they Ordain him not when they Approve and Appoint him by an Instrument to that Office that makes it not to be no Ordaining no more than if they should Appoint Men to a Pastoral Charge in one of their own Churches and say It is no Office or Ordination 5. And when the peoples consent is afterward added the Man is more fully separated to the Work 6. But however as long as they allow us our liberty of Ordination and thrust none upon our Communion as Pastors that are no Pastors we have no pretence to make this a stop to our Communion Let us close together and pass this by and God will further inform us and dispel our darkness when we walk together in holy Love and Peace Chap. XI Difference IX THE Ninth seeming Difference is about our Parishes in England whether they are true Churches of Christ or not But here is little or no difference that is stood to whatever any particular persons may think it is not a difference between the parties For 1. It is not desired of them to grant that a Parish as a Parish that is the people yea the Christians inhabiting such a space of ground is a Church It 's possible they may be of many Churches or of none but the Universal 2. Nor is it desired that they take every Member of the Parish no nor every Hearer for a Member of the Church Men of several Churches or of no Church may live in the Parish and hear together 3. Nor are they desired to take any Parish for a true Political Church that hath not a true Pastor with a competent number of professed Christians joined together for personal Communion in Gods Worship But that our ordinary Parishes in England that have true Ministers are true Churches is so familiarly granted by the Congregational party that to recite their words seems needless And therefore they utterly disclaim separating from us as no true Churches 1. That our want of a Church Covenant nullifieth not these Churches I told you before they grant because our consent is our Covenant And our ordinary practice tolerably signifieth that consent Saith Mr Norton p. 21. Siuna externa fidei professione veritatis sanctitatis praxi eodem baptismate uniantur eundem publicum cultum uno in loco frequentent iisdem inspectoribus Ecclesiae subsint c. See the place where he acknowledgeth this a Church without an Explicit Covenant 2. And that the impiety of our Parishes or other incapacity of the Members is not such as to nullifie our Churches they confess Because a good Church may have some bad Members And where the greater number are bad the Pastor and the better smaller part may denominate the Church and it may be true though polluted What Doctrinal and Practical Corruptions were in the Churches of Corinth Galatia and divers of the Asian Churches Rev. 2. and 3. is so plain and hath been so often mentioned that it 's needless to recite the Texts Saith Mr. Norton 28 29. Immo tantum abest ut ob defectum foederis expliciti salva vel ungulae religione in rebus Iesu Christi ullas Congregationes ex Ecclesiarum albo expungamus ut Caetus multò graviora passos essentialibus Dei gratia adhuc in tuto positis tanquam non Ecclesias judicare salvâ conscientiâ nullos posse sanctè testemur Distinguendum inter Ecclesiam puram impuram impurissimam nullam Fundamentalia sive Essentialia sunt materia forma Ecclesiae particularis Materia sunt homines profitentes Doctrinam salutaris fidei Forma est mutuus consensus politicus ad incedendum in illa fide vel verbis vel factis modo aliquo visibiliter significatus Adeo ut non sufficit subitanea aliqua conjunctio sanctae communionis exercitium ad Ecclesiam constituendam nisi constantia illa accedat saltem quoad intentionem quae statum adfert Corporis Membrorum in spirituali quadam politia Qualem consensum nos foedus vocare jam toties diximus As this proveth our Parishes true Churches so that greater corruptions than the Vices of some even Fundamental Errors in the Church it self doth not presently destroy the Church is his Opinion and Parker's cited by him Ibid. saith he Neque tamen Ecclesiam errores fundamentales statim destruunt donec eis addatur contumacia in foro exteriori Ecclesia in fundamento aberrans tamdiu manet Ecclesia quamdiu non est pertinax Certainly here is as large a judgment of Charity as we can reasonably expect and so large as without some distinction will be liable to controversie We easily confess that most of our Churches need much Reformation and that all in our Parishes are not Church Members But yet I may well suppose that we are Agreed that those of them that have true Pastors are true Churches and that this is the case of our Parishes ordinarily or very many at least yea some such Dissenters think that they may be true Churches without Pastors so that here between the parties there is no disagreement whatever particular persons hold Many are more afraid lest a great many Parishes should be Made no true Churches in a Political sense by setting over them such as are no true Ministers than be proved none before they are made None But I see no danger of this while we have liberty of Election and Ordination Chap. XII Difference X. THE Tenth Controversie is about 1. Taking Members out of other Churches 2. And separating from the Parish Churches by gathering out of them a select number to be a distinct Church And here there is a Practical Difference to our woe But in order to Reconcilement I should hope that I might suppose our Agreement in all the other points of Difference to be sufficient and that being satisfied in those the Brethren that have been for withdrawing from our Churches will be satisfied to join with us for their Reformation and not do as they have some of them done For we have therefore come as near them as we can in the rest that they might have no just occasion to depart from us And if that yet they will depart when the offence is removed then it would be as if they should say We are against Concord and Unity as such And our judgment for Division as such that is for Dividing without cause When we have answered all that our Brethren alledge for their withdrawing we may expect that
and Betrayers of the Gospel and our Liberties to the Enemies by our obstinate Divisions and Contentions If the worst be supposed of a resolved distance which we dare not be so uncharitable as to suppose we may yet expect an Agreement to such terms as are here after offered to the Anabaptists If yet it be insisted on by any that by holding Communion with us in Synods and being there responsible for offences you shall be proceeded against to a Non-Communion I further answer 1. Will you choose a Non-Communion to escape it yea to escape a possibility of it And shall it be by your own act and guilt lest it should be by other mens 2. Again I tell you they can declare their avoiding your Communion whether you Associate or not And will have the more occasion when you wilfully divide and refuse to be responsible than when you live among them as Brethren in Charitable Correspondencies and Communion and walk in order And there will be far more probability that things will be carried on against you in their Synods in your absence than in your presence when you speak for your selves 3. They will allow you in any of the ten fore-allowed Cases to take Members out of other Parishes and Churches and also out of all those Parishes that have no tolerable Pastors or where the People have any warrantable cause to depart yea in case the person will but remove his Habitation they will not contend though he do it causelesly And surely the Publick Order and Peace of the Churches is of greater moment than the Riches and worldly Accommodations of a particular man and therefore in most cases reason it self will tell us that it is fitter such incur some incommodity by removing their Habitations than that the Church incurr dammage by their breaking Order and crossing all the Scripture Presidents where men were ever Members of the Church that was in the Places where they lived or next to them and there none but Hereticks had Antichurches or separated Assemblies Moreover if you do disorderly receive any Members out of other Churches the Brethren associated may by Evidence of Reason satisfie and reduce you If they do not so they will understand on what account you do it and so if it be but on some tolerable Mistake or Infirmity they will be satisfied in the disowning your Sin without disowning your Communion But if it be on an intolerable ground and such as signifieth you to be uncapable of their Communion as if you â—hould cherish Heresie or Ungodliness and cast out men for sound Belief and Piety they can but in the extremity declare you uncapable of their Communion and warn your People to take heed of you and so they can do whether you associate or not So that I may conclude 1. That difference in Practice will necessitate a Toleration of Postors taking Members in certain cases out of other Parishes 2. But differences in any Principles between the several Parties will occasion none if we could exactly practise our own Principles 1. That difference in Practice will is evident 1. Because it is impossible that all men of the same Parties should have the same degrees of Prudence Moderation Charity Zeal c. which will make some to exclude abundance of persons that others of the same Party will admit 2. Because if the Pastor should be moderate he cannot promise that his Congregation will be so And if they too rigorously refuse any Members he is not able alone to retain them 3. And if abundance of tolerable Christians be refused there is no reason that for the rigour of others they should wholly be deprived of the Communion of the Church and the Ordinances of God I easily foresee that whoever was first guilty of it it is the more Charitable Churches that will be put most upon the receiving of Members out of other Parishes For the uncharitable will take perhaps an Hundred and leave out and reject two Hundred of their Parishioners that should be accepted And then the next adjoyning Church cannot conscionably refuse their Entertainment But let us have these three Points at least agreed on 1. That the Neighbour Pastors and Churches may be consulted with and heard before such rejections be made or at least afterward upon the Complaint of the rejected 2. That those that are refused in one Parish joyn with the Publick Church in the next and that without necessity they do not either draw into private Churches nor yet joyn themselves to publick Churches so distant as are uncapable of holding such Communion with them as Church-ends require 3. And that the Neighbour Pastors do not promiscuously receive all that are rejected by the Publick Pastor at home but only such as upon just tryal are found fit Q. But what shall the people of the Parish do that are put upon such straits as to joyn with another Parish far off because they have a Minister at home that refuseth them as possibly an Anabaptist that requireth them to be rebaptized or an uncharitable rejecter of all except such as have voluble Tongues c. Answ. 1. He that is chosen to be the Pastor is chosen to the Pastoral work and therefore is trusted with the oversight and government of the Church which must not be taken out of the Pastors hands because of the Miscarriages of some 2. But this must be prevented in the choice Patrons must choose none but Prudent Pious men that will not intolerably wrong the Church And the Approvers must let no others in But if Patrons or People choose such men and the Approvers let them in there 's no Remedy but shift for your selves unless you can get them out again 3. If therefore they be so grosly injurious procure the Magistrates to punish such for maleadministration For to them it doth belong Though it should be a very gross and proved abuse that must warrant them to punish the Pastors Let the Cause be heard and the Commissioners have Power to remove them if after warning they are uncurable 4. And if the Magistrates will not do so but keep them in all that the Neighbour Churches can do is to hear the Case and if it be gross and intolerable to disclaim Communion with them and receive such Christians as the uncharitable do reject This is all that can be done But the best way is to be careful in the Choice For it is an intolerable course that some are harping on that Pastors should not be trusted with Church Guidance and Administrations that is to do the work of Pastors any further than Magistrates make them Rules because they may possibly be too imprudent or injurious to the People Surely as long as the Patrons or People choose and the Magistrate Guards the Door and also may punish or reject maleadministrators as the Cause requireth there needs no more 2. And that difference in Principles between the Parties as thus principled cannot be here a cause to break us I
Church Concord CONTAINING I. A Disswasive from unnecessary Division and Separation and the Real Concord of the Moderate Independents with the Presbyterians instanced in Ten seeming Differences II. The terms Necessary for Concord among all true Churches and Christians The First Part written 1655. The Second Part 1667. And Published this 1691. To second a late Agreement of the London Protestant Nonconformists And a former Treatise called The true and only terms of Church-Concord By RICHARD BAXTER Mat. 5. 9. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. We beseech you Brethren to know them who labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their Works sake and Be at Peace among your selves Phil. 2. 1 2 3. If there be any Consolation in Christ If any Comfort of Love If any Fellowship of the Spirit If any Bowels and Mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love being of one accord of one Mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of Mind let each esteem other better than themselves 1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3. And I Brethren could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to carnal to Babes in Christ For whereas there is among you envying and strife are ye not carnal and walk as men LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. THE PREFACE § 1. IOwe some satisfactory account to the Reader of the Reasons of my Publishing this Book which I have cast by about Thirty four Years It cannot be well understood without the knowledge of the Case we were then in and the Occasion of my Writing it The Ministers of the Churches were then as is usual of divers Opinions about Church-Government 1. Some men for our Diocesane Episcopacy as stated by the Reformation 2. Some were for a more Reformed Episcopacy described by Bucer in Script Angl. 1. Archbishop Usher c. 3. Some were for Diocesans in a higher strain as subject to a foreign Iurisdiction and as parts of an Universal Church Headed by a humane Head the Pope being Principium Unitatis 4. Some were for National and Classical Government by Presbyters only without Bishops 5. And some were for a parity of Ministers and Churches without any superior Bishops or Synods or Governours but to have every Congregation to have all Governing Power in their proper Pastors 6. And some were for each Congregation to be Governed by the Major Vote of the people the Pastor being but to gather and declare their Votes Among all these the 3d sort the Foreigners were utterly unreconcileable and of the 6th we had no great hopes But with the other four we attempted such a measure of Agreements as might be useful in a loose unsettled time to keep up Christian Love and so much Concord as that our Differences should not so much weaken us as to frustrate all our Ministerial Labours § 2. To this end I attempted a double work of Concord in Worcester-shire 1. For the willing Ministers Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent to Associate in the Practice of so much of the Ministerial Office as they were agreed did belong to Presbyters II. To Catechize or personally by Conference instruct all the Families and capable Persons in our Parishes who would come to us or admit us to come to them in order at due appointed times God gave our People in many Parishes willing Minds and encouraged us by unexpected great success The most laborious Ministers took the hint and seconded us in many Counties First and chiefly in Westmorland and Cumberland and then in Dorsetshire Wilâ—shire Hampshire and Essex and Dr. Winter and others in Ireland The terms of our Association the Reader may see Printed at large 1653. But theirs of Westmorland and Cumberland more large and worthy the Consideration of the present tolerated Churches I pray you read them § 3. But when it came to closest Practice As the Foreigners Prelatists and Popular called Brownists kept off so but few of the rigid Presbyterians or Independents joyned with us And indeed Worcestershire and the adjoyning Counties had but few of either sort But the main Body of our Association were men that thought the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independents had each of them some good in which they excelled the other two Parties and each of them some mistakes And that to select out of all three the best part and leave the worst was the most desireable and ancient Form of Government But that so much as might Unite them in the Comfortable Service of Christ was common to them all The most of our Ministers were Young men bred at the Universities during the Wars and engaged in no Faction nor studied much in such kind of Controversies but of solid Iudgment and zealous Preachers and eminently Prudent Pious and Peaceable And with them there joyned many that had Conformed and thought both the Common-Prayer and the Directory Episcopacy and Presbytery tolerable And these in 1660. did Conform but most of the rest were ejected and silenced Though of near Ten Thousand that the Parliament left in possession there were but Two Thousand cast out by the Prelates we strongly conjectured before hand who those would be Satan desired to have Power to sift us as wheat And the chaff and the bran stayed in and made that which some called the best in the World And indeed much of the bran is honoured by us as very useful But the simila was too fine and precise for the pallates of the Great Churchmen and was cast out in the sifting And the Sifters did but call the Similago Simulatio and such other names and out it went with Scorns and Devestation And the hatred of it is propagated as the natural Progeny of revived true simulation and revenge But though fur-fur be a name of no honourable sound or sence as it looks to Brethren and the Church yet for my part I do with thanks for England and with lamentation for other Lands consent with them that say Few Churches are so well fed God can use this for the cleansing and drying up the Hydropical tympanite of this Land And Christ I hope will Remember the Penitent part of them when he cometh in his Kingdom and they that rob'd others of their Civil and Church Rites may yet be with Christ in Paradise Furfure pinguescunt pulli si lacte madescat Even those that read this Praise with displeasure taking Repentance for a Disgrace and being loth to think they need it may yet by Grace repent and live Through God's great Mercy the excussed simila hath been Childrens food though the Milstones have made it unfit for seed But God will aliunde provide seed Though we cannot but dread the abundance and malignity of the Seminary Tares § 4. But our trouble next to the ignorance and badness
of a further Agreement with those that have been their Ejecters They have agreed to take no Members out of any of your true Pastoral consenting Churches without a just hearing and satisfactory Reasons to them But I hope you take not all your Parishioners even Atheists Papists and Infidels for your Church Members Noâ— yet all your Auditors and Catechumens but only your Communicants And is it not better that they be Members of Nonconformists Churches than of none I have elsewhere cited you the Canons of a Council decreeing That if the Bishop of the place convert not any Heathens or Unbelievers and another convert them they shall be his Flock that did convert them in my Hist. of Councils Would they but first admit the Excluded to Publick Lectures where the Incumbent consenteth it would prepare the way for further Concord The Great Reconciler will in due time reconcile and closely Unite his own Amen Apr. 11. 1691. Ri. Baxter To the UNITED Protestant Nonconformists IN LONDON THough I was by the Confinement of decrepit Age and Pain hindred from having any part in the Form or Contract of your Agreement I think it my Duty to signifie my Sence of what you have done and by the Publication of my old Endeavours of that Kind to promote the Execution I greatly rejoyce in your very Attempt That God exciteth you to a practical desire of speedy healing our pernicious shameful Strifes Much more that you have so Skilfully made the present Plaister for the Wound No man doth any thing so well but it might be better done You must look that it should be assaulted by Cavil and Reproach Those that these Thirty Years have denied you Brotherly Communion with them will be loth you should be thought to have any Union among your selves And the Potent Schismaticks that to divert the Infamy from themselves have Stigmatized you with their own Name will be loth that your Concord should confute them while you offer your Reasons to prove that what they make necessary terms of Ministration and Communion would be to you if obeyed not medling with them no less than deliberate Covenanted Perjury or Lying and renunciation of repentance and amendment of Church-Corruptions and of the Law of Nature and Nations and the Kingdoms Self-defence they must stretch their Wits and gift of Tongue to make all this seem but a melancholy or feigned Fear and that it is but things indifferent that you refuse As they call me Antiepiscopal and against the Church because I would have more Bishops over a Thousand or many Hundred Churches than One and would have as many hands to do the work at least as are necessary to the Hundredth part of it and would have more Churches in a Diocess than one and would have Incumbents to be Pastors and Rectors But dreaming Men that build Cities or Travel in their Sleep can build more or go further in an hour specially if they lye soft in a University or a Great man's House than a waking Man can do in a Year or in his Life My own Judgment of Episcopacy and Church Constitution I have oft Published and you may see it in Lascitius and Commenius Books of the Bohemian Waldenses Church-Government Brethren I hope you fix not your Bounds of Pacification in the words or limits of this Form of Concord with a ne plus ultra Either when I am dead the Publick Church Doors will be unlock'd to your lawful Communion or not If yea it will be so great a Mercy that the Prospect of a Possibility of it will justifie my Publishing my old Reasons against unnecessary Antichurches or Militant contentious Gatherings But if God have not so much Mercy for this Land but that the Doors be lock'd up against desired Concord or Venient Romani our Foreign Jurisdiction men will prevail to deliver up the Land to a pretended Universal Foreign Power and make all believe that it is Treason to resist either a French or Irish Army if they be but Commissioned to perform it Then your Concord with such as are not Enemies to Peace will be a comfortable help to your patient Sufferings and may keep up some sparks of the Reformed Religion from being utterly extinguished And while you dwell in the Secret of the most High you may lodge under the shadow of the Almighty And may enter into your Chambers and shut the Doors on you for a little moment till the indignation be over-past and God be known by the Judgments which he executeth when the wicked are insnared in the work of their own hands Thus praying God to save you from violating the Concord you consent to and from being perverted by the ignorant Dividing sort of Teachers or People and that you will study Mr. Meade's Reasons against Division well and seasonably urged I bid you Farewel Your Quondam Fellow-Labourer Ri. Baxter London April 23. 1691. The Contents of the First Part. Chap. I. THe Necessity of Concord and Mischief of unnecessary Separations manifested in Twenty of the ill Effects Pag. 1. Ch. II. What is Incumbent on the Pastors for the Prevention and Cure hereof p. 13. Ch. III. The first Difference with the Independents Reconciled viz. Of the necessary qualification of Church Members p. 15. Ch. IV. The second Difference reconciled Of a Church Covenant p. 19. Ch. V. The third Difference reconciled Of the extent of a particular Church p. 21. Ch. VI. The fourth Difference reconciled whether a particular Church hath Power in it self to Ordain and impose hands on their chosen Pastors p. 23. Ch. VII The fifth Difference reconciled Of the first subject of the Power of the Keys Or of Right to Govern and Censure p. 25. Ch. VIII The sixth Difference reconciled Whether a Pastor of one Church may do the work of a Pastor in other Churches for that time being called to it p. 32. Ch. IX The seventh Difference reconciled Whether each particular Church hath Power to exercise all Government and Church Ordinances within it self without subjection to Synods or any other Clergy Governours as over them p. 33. Ch. X. The eighth Difference reconciled Whether Lay-men may Preach in the Church or as sent to gather Churches p. 38. Ch. XI The ninth Difference reconciled Whether the Parish Churches are true Churches p. 41. Ch. XII The tenth Difference reconciled Of taking Members out of other Churches and of Gathering Churches in other mens Parishes p. 42. Ch. XIII The sum of this Agreement reduced to Practice p. 55. The Contents of the Second Part. Q. 1. VVHat are the necessary terms of Communion of Christians as Members of the Universal Church p 62. Q. 2. What are the necessary terms of the Communion of Christians personally in a particular Church Q. 3. What are the terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another Q. 4. What are the terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms Foreign Iurisdiction is confuted in another Book Q. 5. What is the Magistrates
the beginning until now Had it not been the greater Sin to have separated from the Jewish Church much worse than English Congregations when all the rest of the World were Aliens and much further from God than they Five Parts of the World are Idolatrous Heathens and Mahometans A Sixth part only make any Profession of the Christian Name Not a quarter I think of that Sixth part are Protestants How ignorant and rude the Eastern and Southern Churches are is lamentable to relate Few of them have any Preaching but only Homilies and Liturgies read What the Papists are I need not tell you Not the Twentieth part of the World â—â—â— admâ—â—â—nts And among these alas how few have so much of the life of â—ining thâ—â—â—mong them as the meaner sort of our English Congregations And hath Goâ— called this spot of Earth this narrow Island a corner of the World to honour with the greatest lustre of the Gospel and true Reformation and Godliness and yet will these men withdraw from the Publick Churches here as if no Publick Church on Earth but the few of their way were worthy of their presence Are they no more thankful for England's singular Privileges nor no more humbly sensible of their own unworthiness And would they separate from all the Publick Churches almost in the World 19. These continued Divisions among our selves are a great discouragement to our highest Rulers from seeking the healing of the Churches abroad The greatest Service they can do to God is to reconcile the Churches and bring them to Agreement and strengthen them thereby against their Adversaries And all good men desire this of them that they would improve their interest to this end But alas with what heart can they set upon it as long as they are unable to reconcile and unite the best of the Subjects here at home It was the Grecians Jest upon a great man among them that he went about to reconcile all the Princes and States of Greece and could not reconcile his Wife and her Maid that lived unquietly at home And do not we prepare such Entertainment for our Governours attempts in so good a Work 20. Lastly I heartily desire that our Divisions and Antichurches may not prepare renewed Wars and Calamities to the Commonwealth Certainly the Body of the Nation is much disaffected to them And I wish that for their sakes they grow not disaffected to the Government and ready for Enterprizes that beseem them not But I much more fear left animosities among the several Parties should make them busie and bold in their Enterprizes against each other and still seeking opportunities to oppress one another and to advance themselves And lest the several Parties be to their Prince like the many Wives that some of the Jews had to their Husbands that were still jealous of his Affections lest he loved this or that Wife better than the rest Every one looketh to be most esteemed And jealousie is apt to break its bounds But I will not Prognosticate but forewarn If Unity be our Strength and Division our Destruction let us pity the calamitous Church and not set fire on the Commonwealth And let all Christians that are such indeed lament our distances and lay to heart the Sin and Calamity of our long Divisions and at last let Catholick Principles and Affections be entertained by us and let us pray and study and seek and submit and deny our selves for the Unity of Christians and the Churches Peace For my part I have spoken much of this from certain Experience The Evils of Divisions and Antichurches I have seen abroad The Ease and Comfort of Unity and Peace I enjoy at home O what a Mercy is it to me and the poor Flock that Christ hath committed to my Charge what a help to my Labours and to their Souls that we have not Minister against Minister nor Church against Ch 〈…〉 any separating Parties to ensnare men but that we Serve the Lord â—â—â— to â—â— Heart and Soul one Mind and Mouth If I can procure the eâ—â—â—â—t of this Mercy no further I will compassionate the Church and rejoyce in it at home Chap. II. THE Second part of my Task I shall briefly dispatch which is to shew what is incumbent on the Pastors of the Church for the prevention of such Separations or their increase Having spoken the most that I think necessary of this in the end of my Catholick Key Part 2. I shall refer the Reader thither for the Rules of the Churches Peace and the terms on which they must be put in execution I shall only here reassume these few particulars suitable to our case I. If we would prevent our Peoples Separations we must not make the door of the Church so narrow as to shut out the faithful though infirm If we keep them ouâ— we cannot for shame childe them for not coming in The principal thing that here we must avoid is large and particular Professions of Faith containing Controvertible Opinions and Points that many true Believers are unsatisfied in and also the imposing of unnecessary Ceremonies The Holy Ghost hath decided this difficulty to our hands and left it us as a standing Rule Rom. 14. 1. That we must receive even him that is weak in the Faith but not to doubtful Disputations And that we must be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus and therefore receive one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God Rom. 15. 6 7. Men must be called to no Profession but of Points plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures and the ancient simplicity must recover us to the ancient Charity and Unity And though more knowledge be necessary to the Pastors than to all the Flock yet must the Scripture sufficiency be maintained and necessary things distinguished from unnecessary and those that are necessary to the being of the Ministry from those that are necessary but to the Better being and nothing should be imposed on Pastors themselves as necessary to the Communion of Churches but Points that indeed are necessary to such Communion and those if possible in Scripture phrase But because Hereticks will subscribe to Scripture and to ancient Creeds and simple Confessions of Faith therefore many have thought that other kind of Confessions must be made which they cannot subscribe to But by that course the mischief of Heresie is not so much avoided as the mischief of Divisions caused and all because the right way of obviating Heresies is mistaken and overlookt Heresie in the Mind is cured only by Doctrine and is not it that we have here to obviate but Heresie in the Mouth must be corrected by Discipline and it is not a better Rule or Law than Scripture for them to Subscribe that is the Remedy but a careful Execution of that Law against them 1. By casting them out of our Communion after a first and second admonition when they are proved guilty and 2. By the Magistrates restraining them according to
words and that withal make the most imperfect Credible Profession of Faith and Repentance and Resolution for Obedience And that we must not break the bruised Reed nor reject the least of the Lambs of Christ but receive them that are weak in the Faith and not of our own Heads reject any persons Profession as Incredible without sufficient Reasons for such a judgment of it Indeed there is abundance of difference in these points but 1. It is in the Iudgment of particular Persons and Cases and not in the Law or Rule of our Proceedings And 2. It is a difference between Persons and not between Parties Some of the Congregational way are more rigid than many of the Presbyterians in Iudging who are Credible Professors and who not Some will hear the Reports of a change when most Presbyterians will be satisfied with the profession of Holiness though it have grown up with the person from his Infancy and he knew of no change Some look for such Evidence from a Holy Life as may it self directly suffice to ingenerate in the Church a persuasion that the person hath Saving Grace and so they make the Life to be Testimonium primarium vel primario aequale When most Presbyterians take the Profession for the Primary Testimony or condition of Right and so receive it directly as Credible by such a Humane Faith as one Man Credits another by in all Civil Transactions in the World And they look at the Life but as a Secondary Testimony which may Confirm or Invalidate the former Though after Church entrance the Life is directly looked after in the Discipline of the Church But this difference is between Men of the same parties Independents differ from Independents and Presbyterians from Presbyterians and perhaps a hundred Men of the same Congregational way may most of them gradually differ from each other in the strictness or laxness of their Executions as one is more or less Charitable than another or more or less Tender Compassionate Strict or Rigid Censorious or Remiss c. which may occasion difference I conclude therefore that about the great disturbing point viz. The Matter of the Church or Qualification necessary to Members Presbyterians and Independents differ not Doctrinally though practically persons of each party differ among themselves and therefore that here is No Need of a Reconciliation Chap. IV. Difference II. THE second Point supposed to be a Difference is about the Necessity of a Church Covenant Here is no Difference at all between the Learned of each Party that I am able to discover We are Agreed 1. That our consent to the Covenant of Grace is it that makes us Christians and so Members of the Universal Church and the Profession of that Consent which regularly is to be done in Baptism Parents professing their Consent for their Infants benefit and the Adult professing their own Consent doth instate them in their Visible Membership 1. The baptized Person being Offered to God and so solemnizing his own Covenant Act and God by his Minister accepting him into his Church 2. And we are Agreed that a signified Consent is necessary to Membership in a particular Church that is A Consent to the Relation of a Member which includeth a Consent to the necessary Duties of that Relation and an acceptance of the Benefits 3. And we are Agreed that any tolerable signification of this Consent is all that is absolutely necessary And that an express Church Covenant is not necessary to the Being of a Church or Member but that one that by actual Submission and Communion hath signified his Consent may be truly a Member 4. And yet we are Agreed because Ignorantis non est Consensus and for many other weighty Reasons expressed in my Book of Confirmation that where we can require and procure it without a greater accidental Detriment to the Church it is needful ad bene esse to the Churches Reformation and to the Persons firmer engagement to the satisfaction of others and the due execution of Discipline c. that the Consent be as open and express as may be As nothing is more necessary excellent honourable reasonable than a Holy Life and nothing that less feareth the light than the Cause of God so he would have his Cause to be openly owned and managed above board and would be confessed before men and have all men know what they do that take him for their Master It is an honour to God and the Gospel and an excellent advantage to the ordering of the Church and the saving of the People to have all brought to as serious and solemn an Engagement to the Living God as conveniently can be procured I doubt not but the Presbyterians would joyn with their Brethren to Petition the Soveraign Rulers that all our People may be brought to this Let no man think so uncharitably of them as if they desired that Christ should be but darkly and implicitely owned by the Churches and as if they would not have Church Members know what they do Doubtless they cannot but be sensible how much it would further their Ministry with the People if Magistracy would but assist them herein against the stubborness of ignorant and wilful men that men might be compelled to submit to Instruction and Approbation and make a credible Profession of Christianity owning their Baptismal Covenant and by this engage themselves to submit to the Officers Discipline and Ordinances of Christ in the Churches where they desire Communion The thing that the Presbyterians have stood upon is no more but to vindicate the Truth of our Churches against Separatists that have denyed them to be true Churches because they had not an explicite Covenant They deny not that such a Covenant may conduce much to the well-being of the Church especially if we have the Magistrates help to take off the Peoples prejudice Note here also that by a Covenant we mean nothing but exprest Consent and that exprest Consent is indeed a Covenant And that by an Implicite Covenant we mean but a Consent that is less express and not that is not exprest at all For Consent cannot be known to the Church without some Expression I conclude therefore that whatever some particular persons may be guilty of there is no real difference between the Presbyterians and Independents in the Point of a Church Covenant and therefore here is no work for a Reconciler God forbid that any faithful Ministers of Christ should fight against that much which is profitable to the well being of the Church meerly because without it the Church may have a Being Then must we Plead for hunger and want and calamitous Diseases that leave us but the being of men Nature and the Scripture Presidents in the Old Testament and the Doctrine of the Apostles and ancient Practice of the Churches do satisfie us of the usefulness of Holy Covenants prudently seasonably and seriously made Of this I have said more in my Treatise of Confirmation
But if practically any of us shall either slander any particular Church to be No Church or shall use it as no Church the case must be heard and judged of in our Churches and Associations 10. We are Agreed that no Member should forsake a Church and be received into another without sufficient Reason to be given to the Church that he forsaketh if they require it And that much less should any part of a Church make an unnecessary Separation from the rest and become a distinct Church by themselves And we are Agreed that private Antichurches I mean separated Assemblies set up against the publick Assemblies and as Rivals drawing persons to themselves and keeping up Faction and Contention in the place should be carefully avoided by us all unless there were a certain Necessity of such Separations We are Agreed also that no publick Pastors or Churches should refuse the Communion of any of their Neighbours that are Credible Professors of Faith and Repentance and Holiness of Life much less should they cast off the greatest part of their Parishes that are such And yet we are Agreed that there are several cases in which Persons may withdraw from Churches or for those of one Parish to join with a Church in another Parish though the bounds of our Habitations are usually meet to be observed for the bounding of our Churches not that all in the Parish be therefore of the Church but that ordinarily none be of the Church that is not in the Parish Let us therefore put only the necessary Generals into the Form of our Agreement and leave the particular cases of any that shall be accused of any violalation thereof to be heard at the Synods of the Associations Where if the Accused will appear they may have a Brotherly hearing if not the case may be judged according to the Evidence that shall be given in and the Associated Brethren proceed accordingly in admonishing the Offenders and holding or not holding Communion with them and declaring this The yet Briefer Sum of our Agreement is 1. To avoid Unnecessary Separations and Contentions 2. To hold an Ordinary course in Synods for the Communion of Churches and strengthning each other for the work of God For the attainment of these we must yield as far as Lawfully we may in lesser things But to deny us these viz. Union and Communion and Peace is to-deny us our end and all Yet Note that it is not our Intention to impose upon all others all points that these two parties are agreed in nor to put all their Agreements into our Form of Concord as if we regarded Agreement with no others For instance both parties are Agreed of the Divine Institution of meer Ruling Elders But so are not all others that are fit for their Communion And therefore let that point be left out to the liberty of each Church So both parties are Agreed that the Moderators or Presidents of the Associated Synods should rather in point of convenience at least be temporary than stated and that they should have no Negative Voice in Ordination But others that are fit for our Communion think otherwise And therefore let this be left out of the Form of Concord to our Brethrens Liberty If they will hold Communion in the Associations that have but temporary Presidents let them be received And if those that own not stated Presidents or at least such as Exercise a Negative Voice in Ordination will yet hold Communion in Synods with a signification of their dissent in that point with them that are of a contrary mind they are to be received and will be by such as more regard the honour of God and the Churches peace and the Interest of Christian Charity Piety and common Truths than their own conceits and carnal Interests I shall therefore next adjoin the Necessary Terms of an Universal Concord between all the Faithful Pastors and Churches of Christ in these Nations which yet need not be subscribed but taken as presupposed there being in the following Form of Concord for the General Peace and Communion of the Churches enough for Subscription or Express Consent Church Concord ABOUT Government and Order The Second Part. The Just Terms of Agreement between all Sober Serious Christians by what Names soever now distinguished In point 1. Of Catholick Communion 2. Of particular Church Communion 3. Of the Communion of Neighbour Churches 4. And of Churches of several Kingdoms 5. And of their Duty as good Subjects to their Prince Humbly offered to all the Christian Churches as the true and sufficient remedy of their Divisions if not rejected or neglected And as a standing Witness before God and Man against Dividing Zeal and Church Tyranny By RICHARD BAXTER a Servant of the God of Love and Peace We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification That ye may with One Mind and One Mouth glorifie God Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God Rom. 15. 1 2 6 7. Be of One Mind Live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13. 11. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. To the READER Countreymen MY Saviour having made me Believe that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation Mat. 12. 25. I shall the less regard the Ministers of Satan who will say that such attempts to unite the true Subjects of Christ and the King is a dangerous Plot to strengthen Rebels against the King by their Union If such Fiends should do their will upon me as Faith is but a means to the final perfective Grace of Love so I shall as much rejoice to be a Sacrifice or Martyr for Christian Love as for the Christian Faith And if Peacemakers shall be called the Children of God by those that are his Children at least I am contented with that blessedness Mat. 5. 9. and envy not their kind of Honour or Prosperity If this attempt shall speed no better than many which I have formerly made have done as to any publick Reconciliation I shall not yet think it vain while the private minds of many Christians are formed into more peaceable Apprehensions and Dispositions But if it should succeed for any publick or common healing how great would be my Ioy While the Conciliatory Writings and Precious Names of Usher Hall Davenant Dury Bergius Burroughs c. are so sweet to me Let Envy gnash the Teâ—th and dividing Malice do its worst I hope in this delightful work to live and die One thing I must warn the Reader of that I have omitted Scripture proofs of my Assertions because they are self-evident or past Controversie and because that the proofs which are fetcht from two or three Texts compared will not be understood by the usual sleighty Readings of
in order do require the Church with Prudence to determine of such undetermined Circumstances Modes and Orders as fall under those Generals As what Translation of the Scriptures to use what Metre of the Psalms what Tunes whether to divide the Scriptures into Chapters and Verses what Chapters to read what Psalms to Sing and when and how many what particular Method to use in Preaching and what words what helps for Memory whether written Notes in length or briefly At what Hour to begin How long to Preach and Pray In what words to Pray In what decent habit and in what gesture to Preach or Sing God's Praises c. what Utensils to use as Pulpit Font Table Cloth Cups c. In what Place c. In all which the Pastors are the Guides by Office and in many the Agents And it is no sinful Will-worship or adding to the Word of God to determine in such cases And they that will not stand to such Determinations cannot be Members of their Flocks As if any will not meet at that time or place where the Church doth meet or will not use the same Psalms or Translations or hear the Pastor in such a Method or with such Notes c. he thereby refuseth the Communion of that Church which must have some determinate time and place c. But yet the Pastors Power being for Edification and not for Destruction he must take the Peoples consent in all so far as the Churches good requireth it to their Edification and Peace and guide them as a Father by Love and in Humility as the Servant of all and not as Lording it over the Flock And if his Determination should be so perverse as to be destructive of the Church or of the Worship of God the people must seek the due Remedy of which more anon 10. As the Keys of the Church are committed by Christ to the Pastors for intromission Guidance and Sentential Excommunication that is for the Government of the Church so the People must not usurp any part of their office They are not obliged to try the Faith or Holiness of such as are to be Baptized or such as are to be received into their Publick Communion but may rest in the Pastors Judgment whose office it is to try them supposing still that they have their due remedy in case of corrupting or destructive Male administration And that their needful assistance in their Places should be used 11. If any Member of the Church do live in any Heresie or other great Sin contrary to his Covenant with God those who are acquainted with it must admonish him and seek to bring him to Repentance in the order appointed by Christ And if he repent not they must tell the Church And if being duely admonished by the Pastors he yet repent not the Pastors as the Church Guides must pronounce him unfit for the Communion of the Church and require him to forbear it and the people to avoid him which the people must obey Yet so as that if the people have sufficient cause to doubt whether a censure be not contrary to the Word of God they may enquire into the cause And if they find it contrary indeed they must not execute that Sentence by any of those private Acts of alienation which are in their own Power And they may seek due reparation of the publick breach 12. If one Pastor of a Church where there are many do perniciously and notably corrupt the Faith or the Worship or the Discipline of the Church the other Pastors must admonish him and both they and the people disown him if after a first and second Admonition he repent not And the same must the people do by all the Pastors if all be guilty in the same kind and must trust their Souls with more faithful Pastors But this must not be done mistakingly headily or rashly nor as an Act of Government over the Pastors or the Church but as an Act of Obedience to God for the preservation of their Souls and of the interest of Christ Nor must it be done without such consultation with and assistance of the Neighbour Churches or the Magistrates as their case shall make necessary or profitable to their right Ends. Nor by a violation of any lawful Orders of the Magistrates 13. If a Pastor preach some unsound Doctrines or faultily perform the publick Worship or neglect just Discipline and receive the unworthy to the Communion of the Church or reject the worthy the presence of the innocent Members who make not the fault their own by consent or by neglecting their Duties to reform it maketh none of this to be their Sin nor is to be taken for a sign of their consent Nor will the presence of the unworthy deprive the Godly of the Blessing or Comfort of God's Ordinance Nor are they bound to separate from that Church because of these Corruptions unless they are so great as to unchurch that Church or make their Worship and Communion such as God himself rejecteth and will not accept or unless by imposing Sin upon them or some other way the Church expel them or they have accidentally some other reason to remove 14. The Members of the same Church must live so near to one another as that they may be capable of the Communion and Duties of their relation But whether Parish-bounds shall be Church-bounds and whether there shall be one Church only or more in the same Parish is a thing which God hath not directly determined but only by general Rules to direct our Prudence as cases are by Circumstances varied Where the Magistrates Laws thus bound the Churches and the conveniences of Numbers Maintenance Place and common Expectation require it And where it is commonly taken for scandalous Disobedience or Disorder or Schism to do otherwise Prudence forbiddeth us to violate these Bounds and Orders without true necessity Not taking all for Church-Members who are Parishioners but taking none but Parishioners into that Church nor setting up other Churches in that Parish But when there are no such Laws and Reasons for it and where there are plainly greater Reasons or necessity to do otherwise we should not make such a Law to our selves 15. When true sound Churches are first settled all unneoessary and causeless Separation from them or setting up of new Churches in the same Towns or Parishes by way of disclaiming them or in opposition to them should be avoided by all Christians Because 1. We find not in Scripture times that any one City had many such Churches approved of God The numbers of Christians being but enow for one 2. Because it taketh up more Ministers than the interest of the Universal Church can allow to so few 3. Because it proceedeth from a sinful want of Love and Unity and tendeth to the further decrease of both Long and sad Experlence having shewed that each of those Churches think it to be their Duty to stablish their several perswasions and oppose the contrary
whereby they are carried as for the interest of the truth to make their Adversaries be thought to be ignorant erroneous or bad and so to make one another seem less amiable to the ruine of Love and the division and danger of the Churches And because Love and Unity are so frequently and vehemently pressed in the Scriptures and Divisions or Schism so much forbidden 16. All these are sinful Schismatical Separations but in very different degrees 1. When the interest of some Heresie or lesser Errour and the disclaiming of some truth doth cause men to separate 2. When they slander a true Ministry as no true Ministry and so separate 3. When they slander a true Church as no true Church 4. When they separate because they accuse true worship to be Idolatry or lawful worship to be unlawful 5. When they falsly accuse the Churches Faith Worship or Order to be defective and to want some necessary part As the Papists do by the Protestants who take up with the Scripture-Religion alone 6. When they accuse some tolerable failing in the Church to be intolerable and such as maketh their Communion unlawful 7. When they separate from the Church because of the Holiness and Strictness of its Doctrine and just Discipline which crosseth them in their Sin or because they hate the Purity of its Worship and Obedience 8. When they separate because that they have not a part in the Government of the Church themselves in receiving Members or censuring them or because they may not be Teachers of the Church or otherwise invade the Pastoral Office 9. When Pride or Coveteousness maketh them separate through personal distaste at the Pastors or any Members for want of respect or honour or gain or upon supposed injuries 10. When the Minor part separate because they have not their own will against the Major part in the choice of Ministers or in other Church-Affairs in which they have just cause to acquiesce 11. When they over-value their own Conceits and doubtful Opinions and their own indifferent Modes or words of Circumstances of Worship or Order so that they think it needful to separate to enjoy them 12. When they expect that the Pastors should Excommunicate or deny the Communion of the Church to such as they account unfit without any accusation and proof or true Church-justice And do separate from the Communion where such are received as unlawful for themselves 13. When they separate upon this false Supposition that their presence maketh them guilty as Consenters of all the Ministers Errours in the Doctrine or Method or words of his Preaching Praying or other Administrations 14. When they separate because the Church will not forbear the Singing of David's Psalms the Baptizing of Infants or some other such part or order of God's Worship 15. When they separate because they will not consent to the lawful Circumstances of Time Place Translation Metre Tunes Utensils or Methods which the Church doth use These all are unlawful Separations But the great aggravations are when they separate to set up Heretical Doctrine and Teachers or false Church-Orders and Worship corrupted in the Essentials or to promote ungodliness or to rail at others from whom they separate and to cherish Divisions to the injury of the common Christian Cause 17. These following are lawful Causes of Separation 1. When the Pastors are really no Ministers of Christ but uncapable or uncalled Usurpers or Hereticks or Infidels or open Enemies to Piety who do more harm than good and set themselves to destroy the Church of God and the ends of their Ministry 2. When the Church maketh not Profession of the Christian Faith or are not baptized or visible Christians 3. When the worship of the Church is Idolatry or such for the Substance as God will not accept nor it is not lawful to joyn in 4. When the Church renounceth or omitteth any Ordinance of God which the whole Church must ordinarily perform and which all things considered it is not lawful to omit 5. When after due admonition the Church is turned into a Theatre of Contention and a School of Malignity and reviling the Brethren and of destroying Christian Love to others or of promoting Schism to the intolerable wrong of the people and of others and of the Cause and Churches of Christ. 6. When after due Admonition and Patience the Church so far renounceth Discipline as openly to own and justifie such wickedness or heinous Sins as are inconsistent with the true Profession of Christianity and Godliness 18. And if the unsoundness badness or weakness of the Pastors and the faultiness of the Worship Order or Discipline be not so great as to make Communion with the Church sunply unlawful yet any free man whose Edification is greatly hindered by it and can elsewhere have far greater helps for his Salvation and joyn with a Church which walketh more conformably to the Christian Rule may lawfully remove himself to such a Ministry and Church when it is not to the greater hurt of others than his own good Especially such whose ignorance weakness and deadness maketh a lively and convincing Ministry more needful to their safety and welfare than it is to others For it is a Sin Caeteris paribus to prefer the worse before the better and a sin to neglect the best means for our Souls which we can lawfully enjoy And the Soul is more precious than to be hazarded or left in sin and darkness for an unnecessary Circumstance Nor is it any sinful Separation or Disorder for the Members of one Church to communicate occasionally with other Churches of Christ seeing our relation to the Universal Church is more strict and inviolable than to any particular Church as such Also in case of removal of our Habitations or change of our Family Relations or other the like Reasons it is lawful to remove from one Church to another without any unjust censuring of that which we remove from And if the first Church will not consent after due means for their satisfaction we may remove without their consent 19. He that is denied Communion with the Church unless he will speak or subscribe some falshood or take any false Oath or make any unlawful promise or commit any other sin is sinfully cast out or repulsed by the Imposer and is not guilty of Schism or sinful Separation by denying to commit such imposed sin And he that only removeth from the place of meeting with the Pastor and Church when they remove and doth not withdraw from the Church it self or that adhereth to his lawful Pastor and part of the Church when the rest of the Church adhere to an Usurper is not to be judged guilty of Schism for such avoiding of Schism 20. The principal care for the avoiding of Schism and for maintaining Unity and Love is incumbent on the Pastors of the Church whose first work must be to preserve this Love and Unity in their particular Churches to prevent withdrawing into separating Churches
To which end their first care must be to give no just cause by corrupting of Doctrine Worship or Discipline to any to withdraw and not to impose any unnecessary thing as necessary to Communion but to unite in things necessary and to give liberty in things unnecessary A means approved in all Ages by Peacemakers And to guide the Church by the paternal Government of Reason and Love and not by Tyranny to make themselves hateful And to be much in preaching Love and Concord that the people may know the sin and danger of Factions and Divisions and to avoid all Factiousness and Contentiousness themselves And their next care must be to labour after a laudable if they cannot reach an eminent degree of ability in teaching and exemplariness in a holy and charitable Life that they may win the esteem and love of the Flock and may give them no occasion to think that the necessity of their Souls requireth them to seek for better helps But if differing though tolerable Opinions do so possess any of the peoples minds that no means can satisfie them to continue in the same Assemblies and their presence will be more hurtful than their absence or if the Pastor or Church be so over-rigid as not to tolerate their dissent the next thing to be done is to permit them to Worship in other Assemblies though their withdrawing may not be justifiable and to take care that Love and Peace be maintained with them as with Neighbour Churches though perhaps weak and faulty which bringeth us up to the next Question Q. 3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another A. What these particular Churches in the question are is shewed before The Communion in question consisteth 1. In holding the same Faith 2. In the same Worship of God in the necessary parts 3. In the same profession of Obedience to God 4. In a professed estimation of each other as Brethren and as true Churches of Christ. 5. And in a professed Love to one another as such 6. And in such Communion and mutual Assistance as tend to the preservation of the Church Universal and the benefit of each other The Terms therefore and means must be these following 1. They must publickly profess the same Christian Religion in all the Essential parts which is no more but That we continue our consent to our Baptismal Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Devil the World and the Flesh Particularly professing to believe all the Articles of the Ancient Creed and to Desire all that is contained in the Lords Prayer and sincerely to endeavour to live towards God and Men according to the Ten Commandments Believing also the Sacred Canonical Scriptures to be true and taking them for the intire Rule of our Divine Belief and Worship and Obedience And we renounce so far as we can know them all Heresies Errors and Practices contrary hereto This is all the Profession that is to be required of any person in order to the Catholick Communion of Christians as such or of the Members of a particular Church besides their consent to their particular Church relation or of Neighbour Churches for their Communion with each other Except when any scandal obligeth us to clear our selves whether it be suspected Heresie or wickedness of Life by a just Purgation or Repentance And the requiring of larger unnecessary Professions hath been the grand Engine of Church Divisions through many Generations 2. Yet as there are Christians of divers degrees of knowledge and soundness in the same Church so there are Churches also as different And though we must own them all as Christian Churches which are such indeed yet must we not judge them equally sound or pure but must disown the gross corruptions of Doctrine Worship or Discipline which are proved to be in any of them and must specially honour those that are more faithful pure and entire 3. No one particular single Church must claim or usurp a Right of Dominion or Government over other Churches as given them by God seeing that all such true Churches are as Cities or Corporations in one Kingdom which are all governed by one King but are none of them rightful Rulers of the rest Nor must any Men of their own heads set up such Forms of Government as of Humane right in Conformity to the Secular Governments of the World and this as Spiritual in the Exercise of the Keys which Christ committed to his Ministers tho' one eminent Minister may instruct and admonish many others and have some care of many Churches contrary to or inconsistent with the Orders setled by Christ or his Apostles who were commissioned by him for the setling of all Universally necessarily Church Government and infallibly guided therein by the Holy Ghost Much less may the Unity and Peace of the Church be laid upon such invented policies as it is by the Papists who make their forged Head Pope or Council a constitutive essential part of the Catholick Church and seign all the Christian World to be Schismaticks who will not be his Subjects 4. But Love and Concord and Peace must be maintained among the equal parts of the Catholick Church Seeing it is the strength of the Churches and their Beauty and the Exercise and help of the Life and Holiness of all the parts Therefore such correspondencies must be maintained among them as tend to a right understanding of each other and to a just furtherance of these happy ends And as in particular Churches the determinations of useful circumstances according to Gods general Rules is no sinful addition to Gods Word or Ordinances so neither is it here to be so judged if Magistrates by Laws or Churches by consent do determine of useful undetermined circumstances for the ordering of these Correspondencies and preventing Contentions Factions and Divisions 5. The ordinary means of these correspondencies are Messengers and Synods or Councils and Letters Testimonial or Certificates If one Church be offended with another upon suspicion of Heresie or scandalous Practices they may by Messengers admonish them and these may by Messengers make their Purgation or Confession As also if they desire Advice or Help from one another but if in common and weighty cases there be need of more common and judicious consultations or significations of Consent and Concord Synods are the means thereto And if one Member Travel into other parts or remove his dwelling or be to be received by other Churches especially in Suspicious Times and Cases Communicatory Letters and Certificates are the means that Hereticks and Deceivers abuse not the Churches 6. Whether these Synods shall be held at certain stated times or variously as occasions vary And whether they shall have a President And whether he shall be mutable or fixed And of how many Churches they shall be composed And how oft they shall meet and how long they shall sit with such like are circumstances left to Humane Prudence
or Lands which are not so nearly related to a holy use And seeing we took not up our calling upon meer tryal for a time And seeing it is more Cruelty in us to see Thousands perish in ignorance and ungodliness while we deny them our necessary help than to shut up the Bowels of our Compassion to them who are in corporal distress And seeing Christ's threefold charge to Peter doth teach us also as we love him to feed his Lambs And all that are truly called to the Ministry may say of their duty as Paul of his Apostolical Works Necessity is laid upon me yea woe is unto me if I Preach not the Gospel Joh. 21. 15 16 17 18. 1 Cor. 9. 16. But there is no absolute necessity of our Liberties Maintenance Ease or Lives And those that are indeed the Servants of God and fear his Judgment and look for their Reward and Felicity from him must with Dan. ch 6. and the Apostles Act. 4. 18 19. 5. 29. hear God and obey him before men Luk. 12. 4. and fear hell fire more than death as Christ commandeth and love mens Salvation and Christ's Kingdom better than our lives Luk 14. 26. 33. 1 Ioh. 3. 16. Yet must we take heed that we over-value not our own labours and that we pretend not a necessity of them when there is none And that we invade not the publick Temples or Maintenance which are at the Magistrates disposal And that we be not too querulous under our own sufferings to make the Rulers odious to the People nor any way stir up Sedition under pretence of saving Souls nor carry on any carnal interest and work of our own under the name of the work and interest of Christ. And as to the places seasons numbers and other circumstances of our Ministerial Duties they must be fitted to the Churches good which is their end and varied according to the variety of Cases and we must not expect that all men and in all cases do observe the same which some must do 14. But where we may not actively obey we must either fly to another City Mat. 10. 23. or patiently suffer and not resist Rom. 13. 3. 5. Matth. 5. 10 11 12. We must not revile when we are reviled nor curse no not in our hearts the Rulers of our people nor secretly or openly dishonour them Because their honour is more necessary to the common good than our vindication is 1. Pet. 2. 23. Act. 23. 5. Eccl. 10. 20. Much less may we raise any Seditions or Rebellions or revenge or defend our selves by Wars against them or against their truly authorized Officers The Christian Religion being so far from justifying any disloyalty that it most strongly obligeth us to honour our Superiours upon the highest accounâ—â— and to give place to wrath and evil Rom. 12. 17. 19. 21. and to pray for Kings and all in authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And though among Christians as some thaâ— bear that Name are vicious and sensual so some are tâ—rbulent and seditious and some that are better may be ensâ—ared by the Differences of Statesmen and Lawyers and it hath ever been Satan's grand design to raise jealousies against Christianity and Godliness in the Rulers of the Earth and to make them believe that the most serious and godly Christians are the worst and most dangerous Subjects yet the very Nature and Laws of Christianity do make it most evident that the best and the entirest Christians and the most Godly and Heavenly Men must needs be the most loyal faithful Subjects and he that is truest to God will so far as he understandeth be truest both to King and Kingdom And as our Obedience to the fifth Commandment is part of our Religion so the promoting of all due Obedience unto our Governours and the preventing of all Rebellions and Disloyalty must be part of the work of all true Pastors in their publick Teaching and their private converse 15. All Christian Magistrates must know that their Subjects are I. Approveable II. Tolerable III. Intollerable specially as Teachers I. The Approveable they must encourage and maintain II. The Tolerable they must Tolerate III. The Intollerable they must Suppress But if they mis-judge God will judge them for it 16. It is not credible that all the Patrons in England are such men as God hath entrusted to choose Pastors for all mens Souls and as will choose such as all are bound to commit the Pastoral conduct of their Souls to And that Bishops will institute no others nor yet impose any thing which a good Christian may think sinful Nor yet that all Christians are bound to venture their Souls on the conduct of any that Patrons choose or on the practice of all that is imposed Therefore Pastors of their own choosing should be Licensed to tolerated Churches 1. Subscribing the Essentials of Christianity 2. Living under Laws of Peace and Loyalty 3. Paying their Parish Dues 17. They whose Labours do more good than their Mistakes and Faults do hurt should be corrected only by such moderate Penalties as hinder them not from their Ministerial Work 18. When all 's done Good Rulers will do good and promote Truth Piety and Peace and suppress the intolerable and restrain the envious proud tyrannical Clergy And Bad Rulers will judge the best Men to be the worst and take them for intolerable and serve Satan by labouring to disable or destroy them The God of Love and Peace make Rulers Teachers and People to be Men of Love and Peace or make us long for that World where all are such in full Perfection Amen FINIS ☜ ☞ See Rutherford Peaceable Plea p. 92. c. Noâ—es Temple Measured p. 62 63 64 65 66. excellently disputeth this Point Of the Judgment of all sorts of Protestant Divines on this see my Dispuâ— of Right to Sacraments Twisse Vind. Grat. l. 3. Er. 8. § 6. p. 77. Agnosco libenter Fidâ—les dici minimè merenter apud illos quotquot fucatam ipsorum professionem poâ—â—runt dignoscere Gilespiâ— Aar Rod p. 514. I believe no Consciencious Minister would adventure to Baptize one who hath manifest and infallible Signs of Unregeneration Sure we cannot be answerable to God if we should Minister Baptism to a Man whose Works and Words do manifestly declare him to be an Unregenerated Unconverted Person And if we may not initiate such a one how shall we bring him to the Lords Table Thes. Sâ—lmur Vol. 3. p. 59 Th. 39. Sacramenta non conseruntur nisi iis qui vel fidem habent vel saltem â—am prae se ferunt adeo ut nullis certis argumentis compertum esse possit eam esse ementitam Rutherford Due Right p 231. Such as are ignorant of the first Rudiments and Foundation of Religion are materially not of the Visible Church and have not a Profession and are to be taught and if they willfully remain in that darkness are to