cohabit or dwell near The confutation is I conceive he is out Ans. What is he against Parish Churches after all this No He only denieth it of a transient Member pro tempore as a Traveller and granteth it as to a stated Member And yet I am out Many and many a time have I written of Churches and use to distinguish first of the Equivocal Name saying That an occasional meeting of Christians for Worship may be called a Church and a transient Christian pro tempore a Member I have written more this way than ever he did But declared that it is a settled Political Society that I defined when I speak of what he now accuseth And why should a wise and good Man thus hastily trouble the World and make discord by pretending because he cannot have leisure to know what he speaks against § 3. My third Error is That to the being of a particular Church there is necessary a mutual Covenant or exprest consent between Pastor and People even every Member and the more express the better And I define a Church to be a Society of Christians consisting of Pastor and People associated by consent The force of the Confutation is I conceive he is out But wherein is it We have here such work as I never met with before 1. He granteth that none are to each other Pastor and People against their Wills Good still And yet do I err But saith he as Christ is Christ and a Saviour by Office whether Sinners will or not So faithful Ministers are Pastors by Office whether the People accept them or no. Reader it is not the least blemish of my Writings that on divers occasions I oft repeat the same things And many a time have I distinctly said 1. That the Ordainers judge who shall be a Minister of Christ in general 2. The Magistrate is judge whom he will Countenance Maintain or Tolerate 3. And the People must be consenting judges to whom they will trust the conduct of their Souls As it 's one thing to be a Licensed Physician and another to be Physician to this Hospital or Person If this Brother mean otherwise what meant he by saying that No Man can be a Pastor to a People against their will Doth he say and unsay in the next Lines Is Christ any Man's actual Saviour whether they believe in him and accept him or not I have oft said that in divers Cases the People may be bound in duty to Consent as all are bound to be Christians But they are no Christians or Church-members till they do Consent What then is it that he meaneth as our Difference § 4. Yes He saith No more is necessary to the being or well-being of a particular Church than this A company of Christians met together in publick for the Solemn Worship of God by Iesus Christ having a Pastor or Minister with them to guide and govern the Congregation and edifie himself and them by the Word and Sacraments where there is no Assembly of Pastor and People there is no Church and no longer than the Assembly lasteth are they a Church Ans. Did the World ever here this Doctrine before When the Church at Ierusalem Corinth Cenchrea Colosse Laodicea c. and the Churches in Iudea Galatia c. are mentioned when the Apostles ordained them Elders in every Church Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 3 5. c. Is the word Church here taken for no Christians longer than they are Assembled Doth not Scripture Canons Fathers and all Writers speak of Churches as Associated Christians remaining Churches all the Day and Year and not only while Assembled If the word Church may be taken for a Transient Assembly doth it follow that there is no other Have we so many Books of Ecclesiastical Policie if there be no Political Society that is a particular Church What an unpleasing talk is it to be put on a defence against such an Opponent § 5. Saith he I would but ask Mr. Baxter what is it that you mean by Associated by consent Ans. Have I in the Books cited by you so largely told you what I mean and must you print the Question before you will take an Answer Saith he Either you mean bare Assembling or some other thing Ans. Will you better understand me if I write it again than you did before When I told you at large in what Cases express consent by words or other signs is meet and that where the Laws settle Parish Churches ordinary attendance and submission to the Pastor's Office must be taken for express Consent But then I do hold that there is such a Church as I describe and that the Parish is not Unchurcht when the Assembly is dismist § 6. He saith When the Assembly breaks up the Church for that time ceaseth till the Meeting be renewed till which time they remain Christian Inhabitants Neighbours Families Parishioners or Sojourners the Pastor of the place dwelling among them Ans. In your Equivocal sense of a Church this is true In the Political sense they are a Church still as the Parliament Citizens Souldiers are a Parliament City Army when they Assemble not If your wrangle be de re do you deny their continued Relation If it be de nomine let the Scripture and all Nations judge whether the name Church belong to them no longer than they are Assembled 1. Then all that stay at Home or are Sick are no Church-members 2. Then the Bishop or Pastor hath no Church but while Assembled And he hath no Duty to perform for his Church but while Assembled 3. This is quite contrary to our Diocesans who say as honest Mr. Cawdry himself that a Diocess is the first particular Church and that it is no matter how many Assemblies it consist of and that there is no Church without a Bishop and so that we have no more Churches than Bishops 4. If a Bishop build a Temple on London Road where Travellers shall be his ordinary Hearers whom he shall never see again this is a Temporary Transient Church but verily it is another sort Church that is described in Scripture and by Ignatius Cyprian and all Church-writers And when the Bishop was to visit the Sick and take care of the Poor and to exhort from House to House it was as for a Church and not meerly as for Christian Neighbours And do you think no more consent was necessary to his special Duty to these more than to others and theirs to him than bare Assembling Atheists Infidels Hereticks may Assemble with the rest and Catechumens ordinarily did so and were never made themselves the judges whether and when they should be Baptized and admitted to Communion but the Pastors were the judges § 7. As to your oft mentioning the words Covenants and Oaths for such Church Associations as if I had written for Oaths or had not written against all needless Covenants which though you say not your words would make the Reader believe whilst over and over it is
but Consent competently expressed which I require those that know not your Honesty as I do I doubt will judge it to savour of some worse Cause than I am willing to name If Consent be not expressed how shall it be known And I still say Caeteris paribus the plainest Expressions are fittest to attain their End as the plainest Language is counted the best for Communication Oh! how much did Cyprian and all the old Churches differ from you about consent § 8. Another of my Errors is to say He is an Invader that without consent intrudeth into their Priviledges Ans. 1. But it is not he that transiently cometh into the Temple 2. But he that will make himself one of my special Charge and oblige me to all the duty which I owe to my Charge and cannot pay to all Men and he that will claim a Vote in choosing the Bishop c. And if of old one of your mind had said That every Traveller or Stranger that cometh within the Room may claim the Sacrament without any Literae Communicatoriae upon his bare word the Bishops or Churches would not have believed you so singular are you in all this You tell us God hath made no such Corporations and every Christian is a Freeman c. Ans. But how shall I know whether every Stranger that cometh in be a Christian or was ever Baptized Or be not a Heretick Excommunicate by other Churches Or if I am able to do the Office of a Pastor but for 500 and thousands more will come and claim it § 9. Another of my Errors is that Parish Chappels and Oratories are no true Churches Ans. You should not thus become an Incendiary by pretending things that you will not first understand Where do I say what you affirm I say That there may be several Chappels that are but parts of one Church 2. And I say That if a Bishop be Essential to a Church then none below a Diocess is a Church and therefore that they that so affirm do put down all Parish Churches and turn them into meer Chappels and Oratories which are but parts of a Church 3. I never said That if a place called in English a Chappel yea if a Barn or Field or Ship have such a Pastor and People meeting as a Church must be Constituted of that they are no true Church 4. But if such Pastors and People related as one Church are by Persecution forced to meet in several Houses or the Sick Weak or Distant to meet sometime at a Chappel or without a true Pastor if a Deacon pray with some of them in a House or Oratory this maketh not a Church Political in the sense that I told you I used that word in but in another Equivocal sense it may be called a Church and so a Family may be If this be false you should have confuted it and not wrangle in the Dark § 10. You say that I blame the Bishops for putting down all the Parish Bishops and Churches when I my self do no less by putting down all the Chapple Ministers Chappel Meetings and Oratories and denying them to be proper Pastors and Churches Ans. All false or a meer Game at Equivocal words The word Chappel usually signifieth a place for the Assembling of some small part of a Church with a Curate or Houshold Chaplain who hath only power to Preach and Pray and sometimes to give the Sacrament but not to Govern Sometime a Chappel may have a Governing Pastor and People subject to him in that relation and differeth but in name from the Parish Church It is a meer Chappel or Oratory in the common sense which I say is not a Political Church The falshood of your pretended parity of the Cases I prove Those Congregations which are Constituted of Ministers of different Species are not of the same Species and Definition But meer Oratories or Chappels which have no Pastors that have the power of the Keys for Government and Parish Churches which have such Pastors according to the Divine Institution are constituted of Ministers of different Species Ergo They are not of the same Species and Definition as you affirm 2. Those Assemblies which intentionally meet but as parts of the lowest Political Church and those that intentionally meet as the whole or main Body of that Political Church are not of the same Species and Definition No more than a Squadron and a Captain 's Company or Troop or a Family and a Village or Town But c. If Bishops deny all the Lord's Chaplains to have the governing power of the Keys and their Family-Chappels to be true Political Churches of the same Species and Definition with a Diocesan Church or a Parochial do you confute them if you can I cannot But if I prove that every Parochial or other proper Political Church infimae Speciei should by Divine Order have a Pastor that hath the governing power of the Keys and the Bishops deny them any such and will have but one such in a Diocess do you defend them if you can I cannot Nor are these Cases the same § 11. My next Error He cannot tell whether I hold or no But it seems I do against compelling Men to take whom the Magistrate please for their Pastors For I make Covenanting Essential as between a Husband and Wife likening the Church Universal to a Kingdom and particular Churches to Cities and Corporations And here he talks of the Corporation Oath and exclaimeth Is this the way of curing Church Divisions And is this the true and only way of Concord Ans. Had you published and proved to us a better way I hope we should have been thankful and so will I if you will truly shew me the Errors of the way that I commended 1. He that hath read my Books which plead for no Oaths nor for any Covenanting but exprest consent to the Relations and Offices will perhaps think that here you were tempted to Injustice at the least 2. Is not the Church Universal Christ's Kingdom I rather liken it to a Kingdom than to the World because whatever you think I think it is not by Christ subdivided into many particular Kingdoms as the World is but only into many particular Churches keeping necessary Concord and Obedience to Magistrates It is not one sort only that militate against the Cure of Divisions by true Concord but I am sorry that you are become one Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall § 12. He saith It is Qualification that maketh Christians Ans. No Qualifications without Consent and Covenanting with Christ. And It is Qualification and just Ordination which makes Christian Pastors and Ministers at large Ans. Do you confute me by repeating my one words And saith he It is their being placed by the Magistrate in the several Parishes which makes them Pastors by Office and relation to all the Christian Souls in the Parishes respectively If Iesus Christ shall by the Hand of the Magistrate
set a faithful Minister in the Parish he becomes as to Office and Right a Pastor a Guide a Minister and Teacher to their Souls If they receive him not they are Rebels and Traytors against Christ and are no longer Christian People save as an Adulterous Wife c. Ans. Alas where can we say a Man will stop when he is once tumbling down the Hill 1. Why did you think your bare word should serve for this That it is Jesus Christ that made this the Office of the Magistrate 2. Is it all Magistrates or some only that have this Power and Jesus Christ chooseth us Pastors by If but some what the better are we for your Discourse if you tell us not how to know them And 3. Will you not then put the People upon a harder and more perilous Task to judge of all Magistrates fitness for this Trust than it would be to judge of their Pastor 4. If it be all then Heathens and Turks must choose Christians their Pastors If you say It is all Christian Magistrates then the Protestants in France are Rebels and not Christians for refusing Papists Priests If it be not Papists who are they Must all receive Lutherans or Socinians or Anabaptists or such like Pastors that live under Imposing Princes of those minds 5. Why do you limit it to faithful Ministers who must judge of their Faithfulness and Qualifications If the Magistrate Papists Socinians Prophane Magistrates or Heretical will judge as they are If the People we are wheeled about to that which is resisted And then When is it that they must judge before they receive him or after If before then must they have trial of him or take all for Faithful that are ordained by a Bishop or that Being Strangers they know no harm by him or all the Patrons present If so we come to the forementioned Misery If they must receive them first and try them after and depart from them when they shew themselves unfaithful then the People must either depose their Pastors or separate And most that separate from the Parish Churches do it as thinking the Ministers unfaithful And is this your Cure of Church-divisions And if never Preaching be a proof of the Unqualified the Canon forbids us to go from such And in some Countrys there are none within reach to go to from them And if there be the Canon suspendeth them if they receive one to their Communion that goeth from a Non-preaching Minister 6. Did any one Church on Earth receive a Pastor by the Magistrates imposition for the first 300 Years Or had not the Churches then rightly called Pastors 7. Did not the Orthodox Churches commonly refuse Bishops which Valens and such Erroneous Emperors set over them 8. Were not Parish Ministers chosen by the Bishops and People and not by Magistrates for 1400 Years in all known Churches in the World It was but the Patriarchs at first that were imposed on the People by the Emperors and afterwards when the Henrys contended with the Pope it was not for choice of Priests but for the Investiture of Bishops and Abhots only and in this they left the choice to the People and Clergie and pleaded but for Investiture per baculum annulum so that for ought I know Magistrates never imposed Priests on Parish Churches till the Reformation And since then besides Helvetia and Belgia it is but few that do it And even in England it is not done by Magistracy but by Patrons presenting and Diocesan Prelates Instituting So that if this be Christ's Way of making Pastors to particular Churches there were no true Pastors or Churches for 300 Years and perhaps none or next none for 1400 Years in Parishes And if this Doctrine be true the Catholick Christians in many Princes Reigns that rejected imposed Bishops if that were as bad as rejecting Parish Priests were Rebels and Traytors against Christ and no Christians And whether he so Stigmatize not the Universal Church for want of such Reception of Priests in almost all Ages I wish him to consider And whether that be like to be a better way of Concord which he and few such in the end of the World devise to the condemning of the Churches of all the former Ages that never had any such Concord 9. Hereby also he leaveth the Tolerated Churches in France Germany and all the Greek Churches and Copties and Syrians c. that are under adverse Princes to be without Pastors sent in the way of Christ's Appointment And yet vouchsafeth not to name one Text where Christ ever Appointed it 10. And when he maketh all in a Parish to be the Pastors Flock or Charge that are Christians he condemneth those Canons that ordained that if Any Bishop convert not the Hereticks in his City they shall be his Flock who doth convert them and all that have had two Churches in one Parish Or else he maketh Parish Priests to be Pluralists and if there be many Chappels and Churches in his Parish he is the Pastor to them all And yet he never tells us whether the Chappel Priest be also Pastor of the rest of the Parish And if so whether each be to Govern distinctly or one subordinately as Governed by the other Or whether both must agree each being but part of the Governing power 11. The same Man saith That multitudes of Parishioners are Rebels Traytors and no Christians c. and yet that we must give them all the Sacrament if demanded For multitudes demand the Sacrament to satisfie Law and Custom who declare that they take not the Priest for their Pastor nor as Authorized by Christ and multitudes that know not what Christianity or a Sacrament is and will not speak with the Minister about it 12. Did not he say before that the Man cannot be their Pastor without his own and the Peoples consent And yet the Magistrate may make me a Pastor to the Parish What Whether I will or not Am I also a Rebel Traytor and no Christian if I refuse What if the Parish have 60000 or 40000 Souls and I am not able to do a Pastor's Office for 500 What if I think it is a Sin to be obtruded on dissenting unwilling People And if my Dissent do not Unchristen me why doth the People's Unchristen them The Lord pity us we need no Enemies but our selves to seduce us and destroy nor any to make the most odious Schisms than the decryers of Schism What Schismatick doth condemn so many Christians and Churches as this Censure I can scarce except Mr. Dodwel whom in his last Book he called an odd disowned Man § 13. He tells us after of the Pastor's Duty to teach Publickly and from House to House And yet it 's no Church but when Assembled and he hath equal charge of all Christians though Papists in the Parish § 14. He saith No thing cuts off from a Church particular but what cuts off from Christ Christianity and the Church Universal Ans. 1. What if
a Man disown only the Pastor of that Church 2. What if he will not joyn with them in the Liturgy or Mode of Worship there used 3. What if that Church be Nestorians or Eutychians or Papists and he separates from them or they cast him out 4. What if he remove his Dwelling § 15. Next I am censured for demanding the People of Kederminster ' s consent to my Ministry and their Church Relation And he will now be distinct and maketh Answers to `distinct Questions for them But never tells us whether such Answers had been true or false if they had given them His first Question is Do we take you to have the just qualifications of a Pastor And the Answer is Learning is one qualification of which the Ignorant are incompetent Iudges And for Wisdom Holiness and Ministerial skill of Fidelity you are to make proof of them This is to be answered some Years after and not ask before-hand And so under Papists Socinians prophane Imposers you are to take all as Wise Holy Faithful till some Years after you find them otherwise Here he expoundeth his former words for rejecting the unqualified and unfaithful But who shall be judge at some Years after His second Question is Do we take you to be duly ordained And the Answer is We are bound to judge those to be justly Ordained which are so reputed and we have no reason to suspect Ans. 1. But whose reputation is it that you rest on Half the Parish say you are not justly ordained but by a Bishop The other half say you are justly ordained by Presbyters You falsifie if you feign them all of a mind 2. And who knows how to define and bound your Reasons of Suspicion 3. The Canons and Bishops say you have sorfeited your License if you conform not and without a License you may not Preach 4. And if you will question no mens orders you will have many Lay-Pastors To his 3d Quest. he answereth We question not your presentation Ans. And yet it is the Magistrate that must impose Ministers and in times of Usurpation he feigneth them to be unquestioned The sum hitherto is We must take any Man for our Pastor that is Ordained and presented But what if I knew that multitudes do not so doth it make them of that Church because they should consent and do not Of 1800 or 2000 only 600 would come to the Sacrament though they usually heard unless all the rest would receive it kneeling and administred by the Liturgy though they were left free to use that Gesture themselves and withal they were told that we had not a Bishops license The 4th Quest. is If we take you alone for our Pastor And it 's answered We know of no other in view but you Ans. All these are Fictions 1. I never desired nor consented to be their Pastor but to be one of three 2. I agreed with them in the Town-Hall publickly in writing to undertake only a Lecture which I had before the War in conjunction with another that should have the Presentation or Sequestration And yet honest Mr. Durel tells the World that it was a rich Benefice given me for my Service under Cromwel who would never endure me to speak to him 3. There were three Competitors One an old Vicar that somehow preacht once a Quarter that had the Presentation and was Sequestred 1. I will not tell you here for what 2. His Curate sequestred and removed 3. An old Chappel Curate grosly ignorant and vicious that lived by unlawful Marrying 4. And by all this you determine that of three of us none was Pastor but only that one that had the Presentation and so you depose all other Curates not presented And yet the Chappels that have such Curates put in only by the Parsons are true Churches such are your frequent Contradictions Sect. 16. Next as a meek Questioner he askt me Why I will not baptize their Infants if I take them for Christians and Parishioners He saith after If they make not a tolerable profession of Christianity in the publick Assembly they produce no valid claim we are not to admit them Ans. I suppose there are in the three next Parishes here 80000 Persons whom the Pastors never had any other account of as to their knowledg but by their coming to Church and half of them that rarely come And those of us that have talkt with almost all our Parishioners find that multitudes know not what Christianity or a Sacrament is A man about 80 years old in Kederminster said Christ was the Sun and the Holy Ghost the Moon Is standing up at the Creed then or sitting in the Church a tolerable profession Hobbes and his followers would do the same 2. But what obligation is on me to baptize all the Children of those that take me for none of their Pastor The Parish may have 20000 more than I am able to do the Pastoral Office for I cannot tell whether they come to Church or not If they do they are strangers to me some come into the Parish and others go out and many are Lodgers And he that as a Pastor is to Baptize is also to do abundance more to Catechize visit the Sick the Poor c. Am I bound to impossibilities for every stranger that I never knew Nor can I know so much as whether he be Christened or be indeed a Parishioner Yea a Church with you is only a present Assembly What if these persons assemble not or but twice or thrice a Year What if Travellers be that day of the Church Bishop Taylor saith Pref. of Repen No one can give account of those that he knoweth not Sect. 17. His talk of the Tares again deserveth no answer but read Expositors His repeated insinuation by the word Oaths and Covenants tell us that a good man may become un insinuater of Calumnies His two Conclusions pag. 55. from my words are 1. That they are no Churches that want this cementing Covenant Ans. They are none that are not so related by consent expressed by one way or other If you turn this into cementing Covenant when you had newly cited my express denial that express Covenanting was necessary ad esse it 's worse than Ceremony which you are already come to think lawful The 2d Concl. is The Churches that have it not in the most plain obliging way are defective spotted and ill-favoured because I said that the more express way is laudable ad bene esse As if all were called spotted and ill-favoured that want any thing laudable ad bene esse And will Christ take away his Churches spots and wrinkles Ephes. 6. when there were none And he saith This he calls the true and only way of the Churches Concord As if every word in the Book were called the true and onely Way It rather tendeth saith he to Discord and to make every single Minister a Pope or Church-tyrant and to make Churches Schismatical and traiterous Combinations dividing themselves from all other Churches and Christians c. Ans. 1. And yet he before said himself that the unwilling cannot be Pastor and Flock And is not this the same 2. Thus all Christ's Churches that ever I read of for 300 yea a 1000 Years are Stigmatized who still made expressed consent necessary 3. A Pope is one that claimeth Soveraignty over all the Church on Earth Doth he do so that taketh none for his Flock but Consenters 4. Which is liker Tyranny not to pretend to Government over any but Volunteers or to say I will Govern you whether you will or not 5. Is it Dividing and Schism to know my Flock as Consenters and not to take other Mens Flocks Sine literis Communicatâ—riis as oft as they will dwell or lodg in my Parish The words Oaths and Covenants are oft again so mentioned by him and his profession that he hath the Episcopal and Presbyterian on his side and other untruths so rashly uttered that I am heartily grieved for the success of his Temptation And whether he or I be Schismatical and differ from the Ancient Churches I refer the Reader to my Abridg. of Church History and to my Citations in my Book of Right to Sacraments My Preface to Mr. Rawlet's Book of the Sacrament confutes some of his Intimations I thank God that I am going to a more peaceable World FINIS
Of the use of the Apocryphal writings as they are imposed by the Calendar and Rubrick to be approved of and consented to CHAP. XII Concerning consenting to the Imposition of Reading the Liturgy every day CHAP. XIII About denying Christian burial to unbaptized Infants and persons excommunicated CHAP. XIV Touching Confirmation CHAP. XV. Whether we may declare our Consent that none should be admitted to the Communion till he be confirmed or desirous and ready to be confirmed CHAP. XVI Concerning the sole sponsion of God-Fathers in the Liturgie CHAP. XVII Concerning the imposing of kneeling at the Lords supper CHAP. XVIII Of the Cross in baptism as a Consecrating dedicating sign § 1. Reasons against it ibid. The silence of Christ in this matter 2. It seemeth to accuse Christ's Law of imperfection 3. Christ commissioned not his Apostles to institute any new Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace Whether it be made a Sacrament § 2. Of Gods prohibition 12 Deut. of adding or diminishing § 3. Mr. C's Argumentum ad hominem considered § 4. The antient Christians practise § 5. Mr. C's objection removed § 6. The meaning of the second commandment in forbidding Images § 7. Mr Cheney's concession § 8. A full explication of the nature of that sign § 9. Answer to the great Bishops notions § 10. Of the efficacy of Sacraments from Aquinas c. § 11. More objections answered and cavils removed § 12. c. CHAP. XIX About giving the Sacrament to all parishioners thrice a year CHAP. XX. Of accusing those that are refused the communion within 14 dayes The true case of the parish minister's power to suspend his own act and not give the Sacrament against his conscience in 22 particulars § 2. CHAP. XXI Of the Chancellor's office Of Mr. C. thirteen parts of discipline § 2. Proved to be defective § 3. Objection answered § 4. What power the parish minister hath in publishing an excommunication § 5. CHAP. XXII Of the Surplice CHAP. XXIII Of the Rule for finding Easter day CHAP. XXIV Concerning our Assenting Consenting to and approving of the many disorders and defects in the Liturgy CHAP. XXV Whether we may assent to the Preface for justifying all that was in the Book before CHAP. XXVI Whether the Act of Uniformity be any part of the book to which we are required to give our consent CHAP. XXVII About declaring it unlawful to take arms by the Kings authority against any commissionated by him CHAP. XXVIII Of the Obligation of the Covenant handled at large per tot CHAP. XXIX About the exposition of Oaths and Laws CHAP. XXX Several false devices of Mr. Ch. for stretching of Subscriptions Covenants and Professions The vanity of which is discovered CHAP. XXXI Mr. Cheney ' s conclusion evidenced to be a bundle of mistakes and impertinencies CHAP. XXXII A full and clear answer to Mr. Ch's supplement The second part Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings considered 1 Quest. Whether it be certain by Gods word that Infants baptized dying before actual sin be undoubtedly saved 2 Quest. Whether may unconverted ones within the Church demand and receive the Lords supper 3 Quest. Whether a minister may put from the Sacrament those of his parish who be Christned People and come to Church and joyn in the publick worship and tender themselves to receive being under no sentence of Excommunication 4 Quest. Whether the common sort of ungodly Christians are to be cast out of the Church by penal excommunication and used as excommunicate ones 5 Quest. Whether Mr. Baxter's Doctrine and principles concerning particular Churches be sound and good A DEFENCE OF THE NON-CONFORMIST'S Plea for Peace AGAINST Mr. J. CHENY THE Non-conforming Conformist CHAP. I. § 1. DEar Brother I have diligently read and considered your Book and think it my duty to give a short Account of the Effect I have reproved many that blame you for not telling me first of it and knowing what I could say to it before you ventured to publish it 1. Because of our true Love and Acquaintance 2. Because a man should be willing to try and hear the utmost before he engage too deep 3. Because if you mistake it is many and heinous sins that you may be guilty of by hardening multitudes in impenitency To which I answer then 1. I consulted not you before I wrote and why then must you needs consult me 2. A wise man can conjecture what may be said against him without asking 3. You might suspect some hinderance to that which you judged a necessary duty 4. You have heard and read what the Non-Conformists say as I did what the Conformists say without any further consultation But I am most impatient with them that suspect your intention and design and do hereby profess to them that know you not so well as I do that I do from my heart believe you to be a better man than my self of good judgment in other things of greater meekness patience humility and self-denyal and do verily believe that your End was to promote Christian Love and Concord which was mine And as I wrote to cure mens uncharitable thoughts of the Non-Conformists so did you to cure or prevent mens thinking worse of the Conformists than they do deserve an End that 's good and necessary § 2. But our measures of understanding are so various that it is no wonder that we differ about the means And therefore lest I should be guilty 1. Of deserting the Truth and Cause of Righteousness 2. And of the loss of the Plaister which I made to heal the ulcerated minds of the haters and reproachers and silencers of them that deserve it not 3. And of the sin of such as be drawn by your Book to that which hath the aggravations which I named and fear my self I shall take the freedom of telling you and others my thoughts of your performance in your Book § 3. I. I perceive it is not your design to draw any man into so much Conformity as will procure him allowance in the Publick approved Ministry And then what the better will the Church be for his change in all the rest while one point of Non-conformity will keep him out as well as a hundred For 1. You profess that you cannot justifie all though you fain would 2. You over-pass some in your defence 3. You call your self a Non-conforming Conformist 4. You are fain to fly from your Country being an excommunicate man and to live in a poor condition among strangers to keep out of the Goal to avoid the Writ de excommunicato capiendo and yet you lived under the Worthy and Learned Bishop Pearson accounted one of the most moderate and best in England And what good would so much Conformity do the Church Can we serve them in a Prison any better than Non-Conformists may But let us consider of your Defence it self § 4. II. You would have your Reader have my Book before him and you profess to answer it and yet you profess
sincerely Penitent thy Sin is pardoned and thou hast right to Salvation and mayst come to the Lord's Table Ans. And doth not this imply that else he should not come And is such a Man Unconverted It is too irksome to rake up the rest of your Contradictions and examine your slight words of the Parable of the Tares But that rooting up the Tares forbidden is Excommunicating or denying Sacramental Communion to any Parishioner of your Description who will believe that knoweth 1. What Christ saith Mat. 18. 15. c. and Paul 1 Cor. 5. and 2 Thess. 3. Tit. 3. 10 11 c. 2. Or he that knoweth that the Universal Church of Christ in all Ages hath been of another mind and indeed went at last too far against it having no punishment for Christians but Suspension and Excommunication 3. And that the Christian World at this day is of another mind though the Helvetians are too remiss in the Principles and most in the Practice 4. And that the Canons of this Church requireth the Minister to deny the Sacrament to some such as you describe And in your former Book you pleaded this as for Conformity And are you changed already And shall any Wise Man follow such quick Changes 5. The Church of England forbids us to give the Sacrament to any that are not Confirmed and desire it not or are not ready But such are many of your Description 6. If the power of Excommunicating over a thousand or many hundred Churches be confined to the Bishop and the Chancellor or Officials and so all the Parish Ministers denied it and disabled all these Churches must be Prophaned and Confounded at the will of one Man or because he cannot do an Impossibility And the reasons why Christ would have his Church to be visibly Holy and a Communion of Saints and openly differenced from the notoriously ungodly are so many and so great that I will not here attempt the opening of them having often elsewhere done it QUEST IV. WHether the common sort of ungodly Christians are to be cast out of the Church by Penal Excommunications and used as Excommunicate ones You say I conceive not Ans. Would any one that pretended to confute our Errors no better open the case in question 1. In your sense they are Christians that never professed consent to the Baptismal Covenant but only took the Water in order to Conversion hereafter These are no visible Christians And I suppose by parity of Reason the Council of Nice which decreed the Rebaptizing of the Paulmists would have been for Rebaptizing these 2. Is the Ordinariness the satisfying Character who is not to be Excommunicated In one Country those are ordinary that are extraordinary in others In some places Arrians are ordinary in some Socinians in some Papists in some open Scorners of the Scripture Christianity and Religion In some ignorant Persons that know not the Essentials of Christianity nor will learn or let the Minister instruct them any where but in the Pulpit in many Parishes here not one of many their Neighbours say go to Church about once or twice a Year 1 Cor. 5. 13. Put away from among you that wicked Person ver 11. If any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or on Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat Do not ye judg them that are within 2 Thess. 3. It is the idle and disorderly And these are ordinary in some places But we easily grant that Excommunications are not to be used Tyranically or when they do more hurt than good And if the Body of a Church turn e. g. Socinians or professedly ungodly and will not be Reformed the Excommunication which we plead for is but withdrawing from them and renouncing their Communion declaredly § 2. I have oft said that Perfidious Covenant-breakers who live in gross Sin and still tell the Minister they repent and will not be persuaded to leave their Sin e. g. Whoredom Drunkenness Stealing Perjury Blasphemy have so far forfeited the credit of their bare word that the Pastor should see their actual amendment before he Absolve them And now your Hand is in the World must be saved from this Doctrine too But because it is a common principle in Nature and in all Church Canons and the common judgment of Divines I will not stay to dispute it with you But when you are a Master of a Family if you think Family Discipline a Duty Experience will cure your credulity If your Servant or Son beat you or spit in your Face or Rob you once a Day or Week but for one Year together and say still after it I repent But what will not Men talk for QUEST V. WHether Mr. Baxter's Doctrine and Principles concerning particular Churches be sound and good And you confute them Ans. 1. Those that read them are in no danger by them And those that do may be confirmed by so slight a confutation as I said 2. As for my Book of Universal Concord of all Christian Churches I know that the Devil hateth it so much that I expect some far more subtile Assault than yours or else I shall think that the Devil wanteth wit or power more than is commonly believed But I am sorry that he hath drawn so good a Man to be his instrument § 1. My first mentioned Error is That a particular Church is a regular part of the Universal Church as a City is of a Kingdom The confutation is In this I conceive he is out A particular Church is to the Church Universal with a single Town consisting of a Magistrate Governing and People governed according to the general Rules and Principles of Society is to all the World Ans. The proof is I conceive he is out and an Assertion in other words of the same that is denied and so we are out both or neither 1. I used the Name and he the Definition It may be he thought that by City I had meant only such Towns as are so called in England But methinks he should know that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth all such Towns as he defineth and that it is the common definition of Civitas which he giveth us as all Politicks speak de Civitate It is therefore the same subject in the Similitude which we both speak of 2. The difference then must be between the words Kingdom and World I say A Church is such a part of the Universal as a City is of a Kingdom He saith no but as a City is of the World What a dangerous Error hath he detected But All the World is God's Kingdom And as it hath but one King so I thought I might liken it to a Kingdom that hath one King but a multitude of Corporations without stretching the Similitude to intend that This Kingdom is not a part of the World § 2. My second Error is He that will be a Member of a particular Church must