condescend to their Weakness and so to give it them So that no one of them shall be ever able to say that I wronged a truly tender Conscience or deprived them of that holy Ordinance My Reasons are because I take not their Errours to be so heinous a thing as to deserve their total Exclusion from the Sacrament Nor do I suppose it a Sin in me so far to yield to them in case of such Weakness Though I know Inconveniencies will follow which they and not I are guilty of And thus much as far as is necessary I should make known 4. But then these Persons must not expect that I should never give them my Judgment and Reasons against their Opinion for that were to cease teaching them the Truth as well as to yield to their Errours 5. And I shall expect that at the first Receiving they will openly profess that they take not the Bread for the Substantial Body of Christ nor Worship the Bread 6. But as for those that are not of my Pastoral Charge I must say more whether they live in this Parish or another Either they are such as are Members of some other particular Church or of none For the former sort 1. Ordinarily it is fit and necessary that they Receive the Sacrament of their own Pastor and in that particular Church of which they are Members or else how are they Members of it 2. And in Extraordinary Cases I shall not deny any of them the Sacrament on these Conditions 1. If they bring Certificates from the Pastor under whose Guidance they are that they are of his Flock and walk as Christians supposing the Pastor faithful that certifieth it 2. Or if they do not this yet if they will come to me and acquaint me who is their Pastor and what Church they are Members of and what Reasons they had to withdraw from this Church I shall not refuse them if their account be such as may justly satisfie But as for those of this Parish that have after this two years Invitation and Expectation refused to profess themselves to be Members of this particular Church and to take me for their Teacher or Pastor and yet are not Members of any other Church nor under any particular Pastor and Discipline I shall desire to speak with them before I give them the Sacrament And if they can give me any tolerable Reason of it I shall willingly receive it and if they prove the blame to be in me I shall endeavour to reform it But if they give me no sufficient reason I cannot admit such to the Lord's Supper specially ordinarily and the multitude of them for these Reasons following 1. Because I take it to be a heinous scandalous sin to live from under Discipline as a Stragler and in Disorder having no Pastor nor being a Member of any particular Church And therefore I dare not admit such till they repent no more than I would do a Drunkard or Adulterer 2. I dare not be an Instrument of hindering Reformation and the Execution of just Discipline by gratifying the Unruly that fly from it and set themselves again it And as for all those that either will not give me an account why they live from under Discipline or can give no just account yea and those that think their own Reasons for it good when I do not or on any ground are from under my Pastoral Charge without my Fault I say for all these I dare not admit them ordinarily to the Sacrament because I dare not spend so much time on them as is necessary for Preparation I may not do it without some previous Instruction and I have so much more work already than I can well do that I have not a minute of time to spare And except in publick or extraordinary Cases I take my self to be more strictly tied to those of my Charge than to any others and having made my self theirs I dare not rob them of my Labours nor neglect them to attend on others that are no part of my Charge nor will be If you say that if they did become Members of my Charge I must then as much neglect others for them I answer but then I could do it innocently when I have the same Relation to them and Obligation to help them as others If I were your Steward and you trust me to distribute Money or Bread to all that are under my Stewardship if there were but few I must give it them all and if many they can have but all If I had ten Children and had but ten Pounds to give them I might justly give them but each one a Pound But if I had but two I should think the whole little enough for them two I am first bound to watch over my Flock and if they be never so many they can have no more of me than I have But if they were fewer each one might have more of my help and might challenge it as their due before another that is not of my Charge The summ of all then in two Words is this 1. I dare condescend to give the Sacrament kneeling and into the hands of those that live orderly under Christian Discipline that is ordinarily to those of my own Charge and occasionally to those of another Mans. 2. But I dare not I profess seriously I dare not ordinarily at least give the Sacrament to those unruly scandalous Persons that will live under no just Discipline and I dare not defraud my Charge of my Labours while I attend ordinarily upon those that are not of my Charge If any should say that their coming to Church and receiving the Sacrament is a sufficient Signification that they take us for their Pastors and therefore they will do no more I answer 1. Many Strangers receive the Sacrament that are not of my Charge and many that are Members of another Church or no particular Church do ordinarily come to our Assemblies This therefore is no certain Sign 2. And though it were a probable Sign heretofore yet when we have called our Parishes to a plain discovery of their Minds and they refuse to signify their Consent so much as by a Word of their Mouths in Publick then the former ceaseth to be any probable Sign of Consent We had just Reason to call our People to express their Consent which Reasons we printed in our Agreement to which I refer you and we explained all to them and told them over and over that we must take those only for our special Charge that would express their Consent and we waited now two Years to see whether they would do it And if after all this they forbear or refuse let the World judge whether this be not an open plain disclaiming of our Oversight and their Membership What would you have us do can we know Mens Hearts that will not open them to us Nay shall the same Man so long refuse to tell us his Mind and when he hath done blame
take their Resolutions not as Laws but as Agreements And that before they took any Member out of any other Parish it should be debated in such Assemblies or Synods and there it should be tryed whether the Person had sufficient Cause to withdraw his Communion from the Parish of which he was a Member And if the Cause were just he might be allowed but if the Cause were heretical or truly Schismatical they should hear what the Synod could say against it and if they judg'd the Error tollerable they would tollerate it if their Reasons could not satisfie if they judged it intollerable the worse could be but our disowning the Fact and again receding from their Communion He told me that it would cast a Slurr on them to be as it were excommunicated by us that were the greater Number I told him 1. That it was not likely that Men who so much desired their Communion would excommunicate them for the very same things which we knew they held before we desired it 2. That whether they associated with us or not we could publish and practice Non-communion with them on the same Causes And it was likelier to be avoided if they would be present with us and plead their own Cause 3. That a stated Alienation or Division should not be kept up for fear of a possible removal again of some one Person Next he told me that the Point of Ordination was not yet accommodated which he comprised under Church-Power I offered him that if any of their Pastors died or removed if the succeeding Pastor were ordained either by any remaining Pastor of that Church or by any Pastors of other Churches of their own Party or the other we would hold Communion with them as Pastors He denied to yield to this and required that if neither any Pastor of their own Church or any other ordained them they might be held as Pastors I told him 1. He knew that was against the Judgment of those that they were to agree with 2. That Mr. Norton and others of their own way confess that it is lawful for Pastors of another Church to lay on Hands in their Ordination and why should he not yield for Peace in a Point which they confessed lawful as long as they are not obliged thereby to acknowledge any Subjection to any other Church but might receive it on their own Grounds 3. Or if they would not yield to this at all we might have Communion with them as Christians without acknowledging them for Pastore But upon this he receded and came no nearer to any Agreement with us In this interval I wrote to him the following Letter Reverend Sir I Have adventured according to my Promise to send you my Thoughts of the ready way of Agreement between the Honest and Moderate of the Presbyterian Congregational yea and Episcopal way I purposely avoid the wording of a Form of Agreement it being none of my Task and such an Anticipation may do hurt and therefore I shall give you only the Materials unpolished Prop. 1. About the Matter of particular Churches as you express no Disagreement so I find none in the printed Debates and therefore take it for granted that we are at one That cohabiting Christians are the fit matter of such Churches or visible Believers visible Saints professing Believers and Saints c. which come all to one As to the Execution there will be a Difference even among Congregational Men or Presbyterians themselves according to their several Tempers some more Charitable some more Censorious some more Strict and some more Remiss With the Anabaptists we are agreed of the Matter as to the Membra perfecta except with them that make re-baptising essential but not as to Infants who are Membra imperfecta 2. We are agreed that every Christian where such a Benefit may be had should be or seek to be a Member of some particular Church and know his own Oversâers and every overseer should endeavour to know all his Flock 3. We are agreed that as some Discovery of Consent on both Parts the Pastors and People is necessary to the being of the Members of a political particular Church So that the most express Declaration of that Consent is the most plain and satisfactory Dealing and most obliging and likest to attain the Ends and therefore caeteris paribus where it may be had is the best 4. We are agreed that all fit means should be used even in the Determination of Circumstances to preserve the Union and Peace of Christians and Churches and that ordinarily the bounding of Churches as to Habitation is a meet means to these Ends and that ordinarily Parishes are fit Bounds Or at least we are agreed that these shall be ordinarily taken for the Bounds to avoid Inconveniencies not including all in the Parishes but confineing Churches to those Circuits ordinarily Yet we agree that this ordinary Rule hath its Exceptions as for Example 1. If Parishes be so spacious that all the People are not Co-habitants capable of the Ends of Communion 2. If the Parish be so populous of fit Persons as that there are more than are fit for a Particular Church 3. If the Parish be so small or bad that there are not enough to be Materials of a Church it may be joined by consent to the next 4. If there be no Pastor or none fit to be owned 5. If any Ordinance be statedly wanting which may be had elsewhere and is needful to the Person 's Edification and if he cannot procure it in the Church where he is and yet cannot remove his Habitation to another without more loss to himself and to the Christian Interest then it is like to receive by his joining to another without Removal 6. If he cannot have personal Communion with them without his own actual Sin and yet cannot remove his Dwelling but as aforesaid 7. If Difference in some small Opinion ill managed shall make him burdensom to the Church where he is who yet may live peaceably with a Neighbour-Church of his Opinion and cannot remove out as aforesaid 8. To comprehend all in this General we are agreed that no Man that is a Member of another Parish should be received into our Churches where it can be proved that it is to the Wrong of the common Good or Christian Interest especially when he is a Member of another Church as well as another Parish The Sum is Parishes shall be the ordinary Bounds but in necessary Cases and no other you shall except and be free from them 5. Whereas the Presbyterians say that the Ecclesiâ prima particularis politics may consist of one only Congregation and the Congregational say it must consist of one only Congregation The licet shall yield to the opportat and it will be agreed that de facto our particular political Churches shall consist but of one Congregation ordinarily allowing the Liberty either of Chappels or private Meetings for those of the Church that by reason of Age
Worship Ans. 1. And who shall make that Rule The Bishops And who shall be Bishops You And so the Sum is The only certain and safe way of Healing is for no Man to differ from our Judgment or Will in our Agendis or Credendis Circumstance or Substance manner or matter of Worship nor say a Word to God in publick but what we write down for him or allow him What Sectary would not be such a Healer 2. But I am sorry that any Christian much more Pastors can believe that ever all the Church will be such Idolizers of Man as to stretch their Consciences to own all that for matter and manner substance or Circumstance he shall prescribe or else will all be so ripe in Knowledge as all to know which are the right Modes and Circumstances and so come to be of one mind The Church of Rome had not needed Inquisitions Flames and Racks nor lost so many Kingdoms if this could have been done But if ever the Church be heated by Men of your Opinion by this which you account the only way neither God nor Reason have herein spoken by me Wonderful that near one Thousand three Hundred Years Experience of the Churches doth not convince you and teach you better Strict For though an Agreement in the Essentials only be enough to make any Man a Member of the Catholick or universal Church yet is it not enough to make a Man a Member of this or that particular National Church For all the Reformed Churches agree as appears by the Corpus Confessionum in the Essentials of Faith and Worship and therefore in that respect they are all Members of the Church-Catholick but they do not agree either in the same form of Government or in the same outward form of Worship or in the same Ecclesiastical Discipline or in the same Rites and Ceremonies And it is the Agreement in such things as these as well as in Essentials which constitutes and giveth Denomination to the several National Churches which all of them taken together do make up the Church Catholick Thus to make up one Member of the French Dutch or any other Reformed Churches it is not enough to be a Catholick no nor a Protestant-Catholick neither but he must subscribe and conform not only in point of Judgment to their Confession of Faith but in point of Practice also to all their Rules Orders and Usages in Preaching Praying Administration of the Sacraments and all External Rites and Ceremonies prescribed by publick Authority to be used in the publick Worship of God for the more solemn more unanimous more decent and more edifying performance of the same which if any Man upon any pretence whatsoever refuse to do he cannot be of such or such a National Church where a Conformity to all such things is indispensably required of all that will be of or continue in the aforesaid respective Churches And is it not as Lawful and reasonable for our Church to prescribe Conditions of her Communion to those that will be of it and continue in it as it is for any other of the Reformed Churches to prescribe to those that are of theirs Ans. 1. It 's well that Christ is more merciful than Men His easie Yoke and light Burden Mat. 11. 29. and the necessary things Act. 15. is enough to make Men Members of him and his Body the Church Catholick that they may be saved But he that will be of a National Church must bear and do no Man knows what 2. But how will this stand with Christ's Catholick Laws A true Catholick Christian shall be saved But he that is no more with you is guilty of one of the greatest Crimes viz. Contempt of your Authority and can he then be Saved Christ's Catholick Members must love honour and cherish each other But with you he that obeyeth you not in every Word Mode and circumstance or ceremony is to be silenced and persecuted Christ's Laws are that he that is weak even in the Faith be received but not to doubtful disputations and that for smaller difference we neither despise nor judge each other but receive one another as Christ received us and that so far as we have attained we walk by the same Rule and mind the same things and if in any thing we be otherwise minded God will reveal even this unto us And that we must love one another with a pure Heart fervently and by this be known to all Men to be Christ's Disciples But your National Process carrieth it beyond this Line you will first break this Catholick Law as if your National Church were not part of the Universal and make Laws for judging the foresaid Dissenters and then plead yours against Christ's Laws and say he meant not those that are under a Law while he forbad such Laws And so you may Excommunicate reproach avoid imprison undo and silence those that Christ commanded you tenderly to Love and say they are Schismaticks for they obey us not in every Circumstance O! how much easier is Christ's Yoke than yours 3. But what is this National Church which is so contrary to Christ's Catholick Church If it be all the Churches and Christians that are under one Christian Prince we own it as such But this needs no such conditions as you name And it is not true that the Catholick Church consisteth only of such for the Subjects of the Turks and Heathens are part of the Catholick Church If it be all the Churches of a Kingdom as voluntarily associated for Communion or Concord I repeat the same as aforesaid But if you mean all the Churches of a Kingdom as under one Constitutive Ecclesiastical Head and Pastor few Protestants will say that it is of God's Institution Bilson and others usually say Patriarchs Metropolitans c. are humane Creatures And verily I had rather be no Member of a Church of Man's making till I better know the Maker's Authority than renounce all that mutual Love and Brotherly concord and forbearance and kindness and all Christ's Promises of Salvation to such which he hath settled upon his Catholick Members And if what you say be true who would not rather far be a meer Catholck Christian out of all National Churches than be in them But I yet hold that though your particular Canon bind not the Church universal yet Christ's universal Laws bind all particular Churches and Christians 4. And that which maketh me dissent is that I am not able to discern how all Men can obey such Laws as you mention and live in any concord with you without renouncing all Conscience Christianity and Religion Not that I judge all to do so that agree with you For those that agree in Iudgment may agree in Practice But you must make me mad or unacquainted with Mankind before you make me believe that a whole Kingdom will ever be so perfect in Judgment or so much of the same temper Education condition converse c. as to be all of
you so far as Christ appeareth in them let them have your special Love The Despondencies you mention are unreasonable Will you conclude you cannot suffer before you are called to Suffering Deny the Baits of fleshly Pleasure vain Glory and worldly Gain and live sincerely to God in your Prosperity and I dare say you may boldly expect his confirming sustaining Grace if he call you to Adversity I had almost said that with most Men it requireth greater Grace to overcome the Temptations of Prosperity and to contemn a flattering World for Christ than to die for him At least the one will prove you possessed with his Spirit and an Heir of Promise as well as the other And therefore the Spirit and Promise that enable you now to live to God would enable you to die for him if he required it Look you to your present Work and trust God for Strength for what he calls you to If my Advice be worth your regard it 's this 1. That you do as you have done offer Communion to other Churches but forbear yet a while to join your self as a Member to any 2. That if you like the Proposals I shall send and Mr. Goodwin like them you both with him do signifie so much and I will take some course that they may be the Introduction to a more general Agreement 3. And that at the time when we publish such Agreement you and your Fellow-labourer join in publishing your Reasons for Catholick Communion For I thank him he hath communicated his and yours set together will give much Evidence in the Cause But I must a little while crave your Patience before I send my Papers by reason of a Crowd of pressing Businesses But the Sweetness of the work will draw me from all wilful Delays Your Brother also I perceive is not yet ready for my Proposals I rest Your unworthy Fellow Servant Rich. Baxter To Mr. Lambe Jan. 22. 1658. Numb IV. Letters and Papers between Mr. Baxter and Mr. Allen. Dear Brother I Bless the Lord for the great Consolation I had in the perusal of your Papers All the Motions and Operations of Holy Love are lovely That is the way of God hat is the way of Love and that to be much suspected that quencheth it What is so much predicated through all the Gospel Above all other ways what a mellow sweetness doth the way of Love communicate to all the Duties and Conversings of those that are abounding in this Grace And it is the Manhood and Maturity of Christianity The Infancy of the Law had less of it than the full Age of the Gospel And young Christians usually are like young Fruit austere and unpleasant whom Age and Holy Experience must mellow by the growth of Love produced by the Sun-shine of Heavenly Love I had thought to have presently returned you my Answer to your Reasons about Infant Baptism but when I had read your other Papers I could not find in my Heart least Disputing should in any Measure abate in the Love that God was kindling Yet shortly if I can find the least leisure I shall give you a few Words to them if God will when that which hath a shew of contending will be more seasonable Your Arguments for Communion are very weighty My next Work to these Ends shall be to persuade some godly Ministers that differ from you to a more charitable Iudgment and walking towards them of your Opinion and if I live so long to persuade our Parliament Men against excessive Rigour and Bitterness against them Do you do the like with those of your way If Love reign in us it must command our Tongues to plead its Cause and to endeavour the promoting of it in the World And when Love shall Reign among the Nations the Lord shall Reign in a way of Love And this is the way to those glorious Times that some expect by other Ways And as the abounding of Iniquity and the cooling of Love are coupled by Christ as Cause and Effect so will the abounding of Love and the decay of Iniquity be conjoined The God of Love carry on this blessed Work in our frozen Souls and in all the Churches by keeping us under the Light of his Countenance and the the Sunshine of his most glorious Love I remain Your Brother Rich. Baxter To Mr. William Allen. Jan. 7. 1658. The Case of Separation Quest. 1. WHether Particular Churches be of Divine Institution Answ. Yea that is Christians associated for Personal Communion in Doctrine Worship and Discipline under the same Pastors one or more are a Church of Divine Institution Proved Act. 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. Phil. 1. 1 2. 1 Thes. 5. 16 17. Heb. 15. 17. 24. and many other Texts Quest. 2. Whether the Parish Assemblies are such Answ. Parish-Assemblies are not of one sort some are not such that is Parish Assemblies which deny the Essentials of Christianity and are Hereticks or deny Church Essentials or that have no Pastors or such as want some Essentials of the Office as visible to Man's Judgment But Parish Assemblies are true particular Churches who profess the Essentials of Christianity and of Churches and have Pastors who visibly want not any thing essential to their Office though otherwise faulty 2. Churches are called true 1. In point of Essence as aforesaid 2. In point of Soundness and Integrity as a sick Man or a maimed Man or a Thief is a true Man in Essence but not in Soundness in Integrity and Honesty The Parish Churches as constituted by our Laws Articles Ordination and Canons are true Churches as to Essence but not without some Wants and Diseases that need a cure 3. Churches may be called True 1. In their Constitutions Or 2. In their Administration Ours in England as afore described are true in their Constitution But in the Administration some are excellent some are laudable some are tolerable and perhaps some have Ministers intolerable as the Parsons differ 4. The Society called the Church of England hath Pastors of several Minds most I hope hold all that is Essential to Christianity Ministry and Communion But some late Innovators and Corruptors seem to deny somewhat Essential to particular Churches and Ministry but these impeach no Mens Ministry but their own against these I wrote in my Treaties of Episcopacy 5. Distinguish between the Office as instituted by Christ and owned by the Church of England and the Exercise of the Office as restrained and hindred by Canons and by Laws the Parish Ministers and Churches are true Ministers and Churches as described by Ordination and the Church Doctrine but many Canons and some Laws dolefully fetter them and hinder the Exercise of their Office on pretence of governing them but neither do nor can destroy the Essence of the Office it self The Ministers have all essential Qualifications and the Consent of the People though not the first Choice and the People are professed Christians 6. A Parish and a Parish-Church are not
and perswading all the Families House by House they saw the Body of Town and Parish in love with serious Religion they told me they had been undone if I had followed their Counsel William Allen who with Mr. Lamb were Pastors of an Anabaptist Arminian Church first separated from the Parish-Churches and next from the Independents was turned from Independency much by seeing being our Kidderminster Factor that Parish-Churches may be made as holy as separated ones and the People not left by lazy Separatists to the Devil So that this Experience made him and his Companion more against Independency than I am 11. They abuse the People in indulging them in works that they were never called to nor are capable of nor can give any comfortable account of to God that is To be the Judges of Persons admitted to Communion and of Mens Repentance and Fitness for the Sacrament c. whenas God hath put this Power called The Church Keys into the Pastors and Rulers hands the not over-forced Men but Voluntiers Baptism is the true Churches Entrance and the Baptizer is the Judge of the Capacity of the Baptized no more but Consent to particular Church Relation and Duty is necessary to Membership of Neighbour Christians in particular Churches And nothing but proved nullifying the Baptismal Covenant by Heresie or Sin impenitently maintained or contained in doth forfeit their visible right to Communion And if the People must judge of all these they must have their Callings to examine every Person and they must grow wiser and abler then many of their Leaders are 12. Their Churches have among them no probable way of Concord but they are as a heap of Sand that upon every Commotion fall in pieces The Experience of it in Holland broke them to nothing And it so affected the Sober in New-England that in 1660. or 1661. Mr. Ash and I were fain to disswade Mr. Norton and Mr. Broadstreet whom they sent hither as Commissioners from inclining to our English Episcopacy foretelling them what was doing and we have seen so deeply were they afraid of being received by that Peoples uncurable Separation from their ablest Pastors whenever any earnest erroneous Teachers would seduce them Their Building wanteth Cement 13. God hath so wonderfully by his Providences disowned the way of Schism and Separation on how good pretences soever that I should be too like Pharaoh in hardness if I should despise his warnings For Instance 1. In the Apostles days all are condemned that separated from the setled Churches even when those Churches had many heinous Scandals and St. Paul saith That all they in Asia were turned from him The Authority and Miracles of the Apostles did not serve to keep Men from Separation and raising Schisms 2. Even when the Church lay under Heathen Persecutors for 294 years yet Swarms of Condemned Sects arose to so great a number as that the naming and confuting them filleth great Volumes to the great Reproach of the Christian Churches and Scandal of the Heathens 3. As soon as Constantine delivered the Churches from the Flames of cruel Persecution and set up Christians in Power and Wealth separating Sects grew greater than before each Party crying up their several Bishops and Teachers and grew worse by Divisions till thereby they tempted the Papal Clergy to unite Men carnally by force 4. At Luther's Reformation Swarms of Separatists arose in Germany Holland Poland c. to the great dishonour of the Protestant Cause 5. Here in England it hath been ill in Queen Elizabeth's time by the Familists and Separatists and far worse since It was such as Quarterman and Lilburn and other Separatists that drew Tumults and Crowds down to Westminster to draw the Parliament to go beyond their own Judgment and thereby divided the Parliament-men and drove away the King which was the beginning of our odious War It was the Separating Party that all over the Land set up Anti-Churches in the Towns that had able godly Ministers when they had nothing imposed on them to excuse it neither Bishops Liturgies nor Ceremonies So that Churches became like Cockpits or Fencing-Schools to draw asunder the Body of Christ. It was the Separating Party that got under Cromwell into the Army and became the common Scorners of a godly able Ministry by the Names of the Priest-byters the Driviners the Westminster-sinners the Dissembly-men as Malignant Drunkards did and worse It was these that thought Success had made them Rulers of the Land that caused the disbanding of all the Soldiers that disliked their Spirit and Way and then pull'd down first eleven and then the major part of the Parliament imprisoning and turning out Men of eminent Piety and Worth and making a Parliament of the minor part and their killing the King and afterward with scorn turning out that minor part that had done their work and to whom they had oft profest themselves Servants It was these Men that set up a Usurper that made a thing called a Parliament all of his and his Armies nomination If this should ever be imitated whom may we thank It was these Men that set up the Military Government of Major-Generals It was they that set up and pull'd down so many feigned Supream Powers in a few years as made themselves the Scorn of the World and by a dreadful warning of Divine Justice all their victorious Army and Power dropt in pieces like Sand as they would have used the Church and was dissolved without one Battle or drop of Blood save the after-Blood of their Leaders that were hang'd drawn and quarter'd by Parliament Sentence It is these Men and these doings that have hardened thousands against Reformation and turned all that was done for it O what did it cost and what raised hopes had many of the Success into Reproach quieted the Consciences of those that have thought they served God by silencing hating and persecuting those that they thought had been of this guilty Sect. In a word the spirit and way of causeless Separation whether by violent Prelatists Pursuits and Excommunications or by self-conceited Sectaries was never owned or blest by God If any say truly or falsly You have had a hand in some such thing your self I answer If I had I will hate it and write against it so much the more To thrust ones self into a way so disowned by God by such a course of fearful warnings is to run with Pharaoh into the Red-Sea especially when Impenitence so fixeth the guilt on them that cannot endure to hear of it as may make us fear that the worst ãâã behind and Sin and Judgments yet continue The Sum of what is said to you on the other side is that the Church of England and the Parish Churches have no true Ministry and therefore are no true Churches That they confess there is no Church without a Bishop and no Bishop below the Diocesan and so no Church below the Diocesan Church That those are no Scripture Bishops and Churches
Spirit among others is a great rejoicing to me And I hope I may tell you that it is in vain as I am sure I may tell you it is no small Sin any more to resist and strive against him If the Hand of our dear and tender Lord be setting you in joint again shrink not on account of present pain much less should you fear the Reproach of being in Communion with the Body but impartially hearken unto him and yield but lay by all Tumults of Spirits and Passions and get out of the Noise of vulgar Clamours for the Voice of Peace is a still Voice and in Calmness must be attended unto And when you are restored if you find not the Sweetness and Advantages of Peace if you are indeed restored in Mind as well as Practice the Lord hath not spoken in this by me I can hardly think that he that hath raised these Thoughts within you and begun these Convictions will let them die In order to the Ends desired and hoped for I shall offer you so much of my present Thoughts as your described Case requires And 1. though I desire not to dispute the Case of Infant Baptism with you now yet I may say we believe you live in a constant Sin against the Lord in neglecting denying and opposing it and that if you will by one erroneous Supposition draw on a Chain of hurtful Consequences you are the Cause of your own Disorders At a fitter Season I should desire you but to answer me this one Argument All that should be sacramentally or solemnly inticed into the Holy Covenant with God as his People should be Baptized or at least be taken as true Members of the Church and their Entrance just but the Infants of believing Parents should be sacramentally and solemnly entred into Covenant with God or his People Ergo c. The Minor we give you the abundant Proof of Law and Promise for before Christ. It was Abraham's Duty and Priviledge according to the Tenour of the Promise which was made with him before the Law to enter his Children sacramentally and solemnly into the holy Covenant It was all the Churches Duty after both Jews and Proselytes both the uncircumcised Females and the circumcised Males and all the uncircumcised Church in the Wilderness Deut. 29 c. Tell me now how I should answer it before the Lord if I tell Parents that they are absolved from this Duty of solemn entring their Children into the Covenant and are divested of the blessed Priviledge especially when you here tell me well that you know of none but his Body that Christ is the Saviour of and that the Church is this Body Ergo you know of no Salvation for Infants if they be not of the Church Ergo Exclussion would be a heavy Case shall I say that Christ hath recalled this Law and Grant but how should I prove it I shew you the Law and Grant do you shew me the Repeal and we have done Christ never speaks a word to repeal it nor any of his Apostles Entring our Children into the holy Covenant is not a Ceremony If God say to a Father why didst thou not dedicate this Child to me and solemnly enter him into Covenant with me what can he say The Precept Promise and long Practice were plain was the Repeal also plain Yes if it be a Repeal for Christ to take such Children into his Arms and bless them and tell us of such is his Kingdom and to be offended with those that would have kept them from him and to command that all Disciples be Baptized He knew well enough when he instituted Baptism and exercised it first upon the adult that the Iews did so too with their Proselites And Ergo when he did in that no more than they did that yet admitted the Infants of Church-Members his baptizing the Adult could no more signify his Denial of Infants to be baptized than the Iews baptizing the Adult could signify it who at that time baptized Infants also nor could the Disciples interpret Christ's Doctrine and Will to be contrary to the Iews when his Practice was no more than theirs And when he never uttered a Syllable to intimate a Repeal of that great Mercy and Duty of entring Infants solemnly into the Covenant which by God's Appointment had continued so long And the Covenant was I will be thy God and thou shalt be my People But all this falls in besides my first intent and therefore I rather expect your Pardon than your regard of it at the present though time may shew you Light in that which now seems Darkness 2. But if our Infant Baptism were irregular how will you prove it a Nullity never by any sound Argument every Irregularity is not a Nullity Whether you take the Word as signifying Faedus Sacramentale a Sacramental Covenant as Scripture commonly doth more notably intending the Covenant than the outward Act or Sacramentum Faederale a Federal Sacrament or Action most notably signifying the Sign or Act it 's all one to our purpose for Infants are capable of both the Covenant and the outward Sign and of all that is essential to Baptism That they are capable of being entred into Covenant 1. Nature tells us we commonly enter them under Princes as their Subjects and into private Contracts with Landlords for Possessions 2. The ancient Law Promise and Practice of the Church before Christ tells us for then it was actually done by God's Command And that they are capable of the outward Sign is undeniable Prove it a Nullity if you can though it were a Sin 3. But if both were granted the Sin and Nullity I come now to give you my Reasons why it warrants you not to deny Communion with the Churches that were thus Baptized in Infancy And 1. I beseech you note that Baptism is as necessary if not much more to the Admission of Men into the universal visible Church as such or into a particular Church Ergo If Men may be admitted into the universal visible Church without adult Baptism then he may be admitted into a particular Church without it But yet here grant that he may be a Member of the universal Church without it Ergo Baptism is indeed appointed to be our regular entrance by way of Sacramental Covenant and Investiture into the Church Universal and not into a particular Church necessarily though it may be into both yet it is but indirectly into the particular Church The Eunuch and all that were baptized first in any place by the Apostles were baptized only into the Church universal and afterward setled in Order under Pastors in particular Churches Baptism as such as it was called our Christening doth only list Men under Christ as Christians and if it do any more as to the thing in Question it is accidentally and not always nor necessarily We are not directly sure baptized to our Pastors and so not to that Particular Church nothing then is more plain
to Troas Acts 20. he and all his Company are admitted among the Disciples in breaking Bread and that not as Members of any particular Church but as Christians Some Christians are lawfully excused and necessarily deprived of stated Church-Membership in a particular Church as Princes Ambassadors that may spend their Lives in motion and action in several places c. And shall all these Christians be deprived of actual Communion Sacraments c. in the Places where they come because they are uncapable of any fixed station Yea when perhaps it may be the Work or Cause of God that is the Cause of their unsettledness 10. Dare you undertake to exempt all but those that you judge Baptized from the frequent Precepts of knowing those that are over them in the Lord and submitting themselves and esteeming them highly in love for their work sake and being at peace among themselves 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. and from giving double honour to the Elders 1 Tim. 5. 17. and obeying those that rule over them c. Hebr. 13. 7 17. All Christians that have opportunity are bound to submit to and obey their Guides and Pastors and that cannot be statedly but in a particular Church And then if you look to the beneficial part it 's plain that when Christ ascended up on high and gave gifts to men it was for the perfecting of the Saints and the work of the Ministry and edifying of the Body of Christ even that Pastors and Teachers were given till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man Ephes. 4. 9 11 12 13. And will you exclude twenty if not five hundred parts of the Church from this all this benefit of Pastors and Teachers when Christ provided them for all Consider what you do 11. The Unity of the Catholick Body and their commanded correspondency requireth a Fellowship with all the Parts according to opportunity From Christ the whole Body fitly joyned together or jointed which is by Officers Order and Love and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part when you exclude a hundred or many hundred parts from their Communion maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it self in love not only secret unknown love but love appearing in Communion Ephes. 4. 16. 12. Excommunication out of particular Church-Communion in instituted Ordinances is a grievous Censure and never inflicted on the holy Servants of Christ that never wilfully resist or reject his Truth or Precepts No nor on Offenders but for impenitency or grievous Crimes Durst you Excommunicate me out of your Church if I were in it and professing my owning of Baptism and my hearty longing to know and obey the will of Christ. There is many an honest humble Christian in this Town that I conjecture you may know and deal for that if you should cast out on such an account I am confident infinite Love would be offended with you and say you have toucht the Apple of mine Eye Inasmuch as you cast out these my Members you did that which was too like casting out me And sure you must cast them out upon your grounds if they were in your Church because you judge them uncapable of a station and communion with you and judge your selves bound to separate from such 13. You seem to exalt an outward Act even when the heart disclaims it before a heart that is right with God without the Act. For if you had one twice or thrice Baptized in your Church that afterward disclaimed it and owned none but his Infant Baptism what would you do with this Man If you would retain him you would lay more stress on a disclaimed outward Action than on the Life of Grace If you would reject him then it seems you judge not the Baptism and Entrance which you suppose right to be enough in Fact and Existence but you think a belief of its Necessity necessary and so you put it among the Credenda and not the Agenda only when it was never in the Churches Creed For if it be a necessary Article of Faith they must perish that reject it 14. Paul and other Penmen of the Scripture telling us of many greater Errours than the thing you oppose doth not require an avoiding of the Communion of the Erroneous yea commandeth us to receive them that are weak in the faith but not to doubtful Disputations Rom. 14. 10. and dare you reject a strong Believer upon a doubtful Disputation 15. Search observe and judge whether the abundant earnest Precepts for Special Love and Company and Endearedness of Saints as Saints I could soon fill a Sheet with pertinent Citations will possibly consist with your rejecting them from special Communion and Separating from them Is this the appearance of your honouring them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. and your Loving the Brethren and that with a pure heart fervently Can all Men know you by this to be Christ's Disciples Communion is but the expression of this special Love and holy Improvement of each other for God and our mutual Benefit As he contradicts himself that saith He loveth God and hateth his Brother so doth he that saith he loveth his Brother and yet separateth from him or rejecteth him and most such on Earth for an unavoidable infirmity If you that are strong or think so are bound to bear the Infirmities of the weak then not to Excommunicate them Rom. 15. 1. Though this Body hath some Parts which we think less honourable yet must there be no Schism in it but the Members must have the same care one of another as Suffering being honoured and rejoycing together 1 Cor. 12. 24 25 26. nor must one part say to another I have no need of thee nor cut it off from the Communion of the Body The general command of Love Company Familiarity Edifying and Admonishing one another comprehends the Means in which this Communion must be held or will not be fulfilled in rejecting such Persons 16. When you are in doubt between two Difficulties the clearest and greatest Truth should prevail against the less But much more when on one side there is great weight and no difficulty and on the other much difficulty and far less weight the uncertain smaller Point should give place to the greater and more certain But it is of clearest certainty and greatest weight that we dearly love the Saints as Saints and use them as Saints and have Communion with them as Saints But you are not so sure that you must not reject almost all the Saints on Earth for want of your season of Baptism nor hath God laid weight by Promise upon such a Duty or by a Threatning driven you to it but contrarily condemned it as a sin 17. Doth not your Cause plainly bear an Image contrary to that of God Love is likest him that is Love Charity covereth infirmities and thinketh no evil and
me for which I thank you and rest Yours in the best Bonds R. Vines § 27. Something also I wrote to Reverend and Learned Mr. Th. Gataker whose Judgment I had seen before in his own Writings And having the encouragement of such Consent I motioned the Business to some London Ministers to have it set on foot among themselves because if it came from them it would be much more taking than from us But they thought it unfit to be managed there for several Reasons and so we must try it or only sit still and wish well as we had done § 28. Next this the state of my own Congregation and the necessity of my Duty constrained me to make some Attempt For I must administer the Sacraments to the Church and the ordinary way of Examining every Man before they come I was not able to prove necessary and the People were averse to it So that I was forced to think of the matter more seriously and having determined of that way which was I thought most agreeable to the Word of God I thought if all the Ministers did accord together in one way the People would much more easily submit than to the way of any Minister that was singular To attempt their Consent I had two very great Encouragements The one was an honest humble tractable People at home engaged in no Party Prelatical Presbyterian or Independant but loving Godliness and Peace and hating Schism as that which they perceived to tend to the ruine of Religion The other was a Company of honest godly serious humble Ministers in the Country where I lived who were not one of them that Associated Presbyterian or Independant and not past four or five of them Episcopal but dis-engaged faithful Men. At a Lecture at Worcester I first procured a Meeting and told them of the Design which they all approved They imposed it upon me to draw up a Form of Agreement The Matter of it was to consist So much of the Church Order and Discipline as the Episcopal Presbyterian and Independant are agreed in as belonging to the Pastors of each particular Church The Reasons of this were 1. Because we all believed that the practice of so much as all are agreed in would do very much to the Order and Reformation of the Churches and that the controverted Parts are those of least necessity or weight 2. Because we would not necessitate any Party to refuse our Association by putting in a word which he disowneth for we intended not to dispute one another into nearer Agreement in Opinions but first to agree in the practice of all that which was owned by us all According to their desire I drew up some Articles for our Consent which might engage us to the most effectual practice of so much Discipline as might reduce the Churches to order and satisfie Ministers in administring the Sacraments and stop the more religious People from Separation to which the unreâormedness of the Churches through want of Discipline inclined them and yet might not at all contradict the Judgments of any of the three Parties And I brought in the Reasons of the several Points which after sufficient Deliberation and Examination with the alteration of some few words were consented to by all the Ministers that were present and after several Meetings we subscribed them and so associated for our mutual help and concord in our Work The Ministers that thus associated were for Number Parts and Piety the most considerable part of all that County and some out of some neighbouring Counties that were near us There was not that I know of one through Presbyterian among them because there was but one such that I knew of in all the County and he lived somewhat remote Nor did any Independant subscribe save one for there were that I knew of but five or six in the County and two of the weightiest of them approved it in words and the rest withdrew from our Debates and gave us no reason against any thing proposed Those that did not come near us nor concur with us were all the weaker sort of Ministers whose Sufficiency or Conversation was questioned by others and knew they were of little esteem among them and were neither able or willing to exercise any Discipline on their Flocks As also some few of better parts of the Episcopal way who never came near us and knew not of our Proposals or resolved to do nothing till they had Episcopacy restored or such whose Judgments esteemed such Discipline of no great necessity And one or two very worthy Ministers who approved of our Agreement subscribed it not because they had a People so very Refractory that they knew they were not able to bring them to submit to it Having all agreed in this Association we proposed publickly to our People so much as required their Consent and Practice and gave every Family a Copy in Print and a sufficient time to consider and understand it and then put it in Execution and I published it with the Reasons of it and an Explication of what seemed doubtful in it in a Book which I called Christian Concord which pleased me and displeased others § 29. There were at that time two sorts of Episcopal Men who differed from each other more than the more moderate sort differed from the Presbyterians The one was the old common moderate sort who were commonly in Doctrine Calvinists and took Episcopacy to be necessary ad bene esse Ministerii Ecclesiae but not ad esse and took all those of the Reformed that had not Bishops for true Churches and Ministers wanting only that which they thought would make them more compleat The other sort followed Dr. H. Hammond and for ought we knew were very new and very few Their Judgment was as he afferteth in Annot. in Act. 11. in Desertat that all the Texts of Scripture which speak of Presbyters do mean Bishops and that the Office of Subject-Presbyters was not in the Church in Scripture Times but before Ignatius wrote it was but that the Apostles planted in every Church only a Bishop with Deacons but with this intent asserted but never proved that in time when the Christians multiplied these Bishops that had then but one Church a piece should ordain Subject-Presbyters under them and be the Pastors of many Churches And they held that Ordination without Bishops was invalid and a Ministry so ordained was null and the Reformed Churches that had no Bishops nor Presbyters ordained by Bishops were no true Churches though the Church of Rome be a true Church as having Bishops These Men in Doctrine were such as are called Arminians And though the other sort were more numerous and elder and some of them said that Dr. H. Hammond had given away their Cause because hereby he confesseth that de facto the Churches were but Congregational or Parochial and that Every Church had a Bishop and no Subject Presbyters were ordained by the Apostles or in Scripture
is a Peace of Actual Communion in the Worship of God as Members of the same particular Church Thus we owe not to every Christian though sincere in the main 3. There is a Peace which is among the Members of all particular Political Churches in the World as related to each other and obliged to hold Communion as far as is necessary for the Common Good 4. There is a Peace which is common to all professed Christians Members of the Universal Church though perhaps of no particular Political Church 5. There is a Peace to be kept with sober Heathens or Infidels 6. And there is a Peace to be kept with Enemies both of us and the Gospel as far as we can I shall give you my Thoughts about the present Question in these following Propositions Premising that 1. It is not the Peace of bosom Friendship that the Question intendeth and Ergo we need not stand on that 2. Nor is it the Peace that is due to Enemies or that is due to Infidels and those without but it is the other sorts due to the several sorts of Christians Prop. 1. We may not have that Peace which is proper to Christians much less that which is proper to Christians in Church-Order with any that deny the Essentials of Christianity Prop. 2. As for those Anabaptists that in zeal for their Opinion do endeavour the Extirpation of the Ministry or of those of them that are against their Opinions or any other way do attempt that which would tend to the ruine or great damage of the Church we may not have that Peace and Communion with them as with inâffensive Brethren but must admonish them as scandalous and gross Sinners and avoid them if after due admonition they desist not and repent not Prop. 3. Those that deny the Divine Institution or present Existence of Ministry or Worship and Ordinances or governed Churches are uncapable of being Members of any true Political Church and Ergo we cannot have such Church-Communion with them and because their Doctrine is of heinous Consequence as tending to the destruction of all Church-Order Worship and Communion we must reject them if they shall teach it after due Admonition Prop. 4. As for them that think it unlawful to have Communion with us unless we will renounce our Infant Baptism and be rebaptized we cannot have Communion with them in that Case though we would because they refuse it with us Prop. 5. We cannot lawfully disown the Truth of God nor own their Errours for Communion with them nor may we yield for any such Ends to be rebaptized Prop. 6. We may not lawfully be Members of a Church of Anabaptists separated on that Account from others nor of any other unlawfully separated Church nor ordinarily Communicate with them in their way of Separation though we might be admitted to it without any other disowning the Truth or owning their Mistakes Except it were in a case of Necessity as if such a Church were removed among Infidels or gross Hereticks where we could have no better Communion in worshipping God Prop. 7. If any one that Erreth but in the bare Point of Infant Baptism or other Errours that subvert not the Christian Faith shall yet take it to be his duty to propagate those Errours it will be the duty of every Orthodox Minister when he hath a Call and findeth it Necessary to defend the Truth of such Errours and to endeavour the establishing of the Minds of the People and not to let them go on without Controll or Contradiction lest he be guilty of betraying the Truth and Peace of the Church and the Souls of the People who are usually sorely endangered hereby The like must be done by Private Christians privately or according to their Places and Capacities So much for the Negative The Affirmatives follow Prop. 1. The Common Love which is due to all Men and the Common Peace which must be endeavoured with all must be held or endeavoured as to them that deny the Essentials of Christianity But as is before said this is not it that the Question doth intend Prop. 2. It is our Duty to do the best we can to reclaim any Erroneous or Ungodly Person from his Errour or Impiety that so they may be capable of that further Love and Peace and Communion with us which in their present state they are uncapable of Prop. 3. Those that believe not some Points that are necessary to the Constitution or Communion of Political Churches if yet they believe in Christ and worship God so far as they know his Will and live uprightly may be true Christians and so to be esteemed even when they make themselves uncapable of being Members of any Political Church Prop. 4. Some Anabaptists and others that make themselves uncapable of being Members of the same particular Churches with us or of local Communion in God's Worship may yet be acknowledged to be Christian Societies or truly particular Political Churches though in tantum corrupt and sinfully separated I mean this of all those that differ not from us in any Article of our Creed or Fundamental of Christian Religion nor yet in any Fundamental of Church Policy As e. g. those that only re-baptize and deny Infant Baptism or also hold some of the less dangerous Points of ãâã or Pâlagianism but withal hold all the Fundamentals necessary to Salvation and Church Policy or Communion Prop. 5. If any Person disclaim his Infant Baptism and be Re-baptized and then having so satisfied his Conscience shall continue his Communion with the Church where he was a Member and not separate from them and shall profess his willingness to embrace the Truth at soon as he can discern the Evidence of ãâã and shall live ãâã and inoffensively under the Oversight of the Church-Guides ãâã may not Exclude such a one from ãâã Communion but must continue him a Member of that particular Church and live with him in that love and peace as is due to such Prop. 6. If such an one should also mistake it to be his Duty publickly to enter his Dissent to the Doctrine of Infant Baptism and so to acquiesce and live quietly under the oversight of the Ministry and in the Communion of that Church he ought not to be rejected Prop. 7. It is our Duty to invite those called Anabaptists now among us to loving familiar Conferences of purpose 1. To narrow our Differences as far as is possible by a true stating of them that they seem not greater than they are 2. And to endeavour if possible yet to come nearer by rectifying of Mistakes 3. And to consult how to improve the Principles that we are all agreed in to the Common Good and to manage our remaining Differences in the most peaceable manner and to the least disturbance or hurt of the Church Here come in two more Questions to be resolved 1. How should such an Attempt be managed 2. What hope is there of Success For the first I shall
And that none such was in Scripture times Dr. Hammond hath manifested there being then no Presbyters distinct from Bishops as he faith on Act. 11. And that there was none such of long time after is abundantly proved in my Treatise of Episcopacy § 319. 5. The fifth Charge against the Diocesan Form is That it extirpateth the ancient Episcopacy which they prove by what is said already The ancient Bishops were the Heads of the Presbyters and People of one single Church only To every Church saith Ignatius there is one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and the Deacons my Fellow Servants There was then no Bishop infimae Speciei as distinct from an Archbishop that had more than one Altar and Church But now all these Bishops of particular Churches are put down and no Church of one Altar hath a Bishop of its own but only a Church consisting of many hundred Worshipping Churches In the ancient times every City that had a Congregation of Christians had a Bishop But now every Bishop hath many Cities under him which have all but one Bishop For all our Corporations called Oppida Towns or Burroughs were then such as the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signified though we have appropriated the English word City to some few that have that Title as honorary in favour from the Prince § 320. 6. The sixth Charge is That instead of the ancient Bishops a later sort of Bishops is introduced of a distinct Species from all the ancient Bishops for then there were none but meer Bishops of particular Churches and the Archbishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs that had the general oversight of these But ours are of neither of these sorts They are not Bishops of particular worshipping Churches that have one Altar but have hundreds of such Nor are they Archbishops for they have no Bishops under them But they are just such as the Archbishops or Metropolitans in those days would have been if they had put down all the Bishops that were under them and taken all the Charge of Government on themselves leaving only Teaching Priests with the People Even as the Papists feign Gregory to have meant when he so vehemently denied the Title of Universal Bishop as putting down the Inferiour Bishops Now any Man that thinketh the Species of Episcopacy described by Ignatius and used in the Primitive times to be of Divine or Apostolical Institution must needs think that a Species which having deposed them all doth stand up in their stead is utterly unlawful And therefore this Argument against Diocesans is not managed by the Presbyterians as such but by those that are for the Primitive Episcopacy § 321. 7. The seventh Charge against the Diocesan Form and that which sticketh more than all the rest is That it maketh the Church Goverment or Discipline which Christ hath commanded and all the ancient Churches practised to be a thing impossible to be done and so excludeth it and therefore is unlawful For to dispute Who shall be the Governours of the Church when the meaning is Whether there shall be any Government at all of that sort which Christ commandeth is the present practise For the clearing of this these Questions are to be debated Quest 1. Whether Christ hath instituted any Church-Discipline 2. What that Discipline is which he hath instituted 3. How many Parishes there be in a Diocess and Persons in a Parish who are to be the Objects of this Discipline 4. Who they be that in England are to exercise this Discipline § 322. 1. And for the first Question It is agreed on by all Protestants that I know of except some of those that are called Erastians I say some of them for I think there are very few even of the Erastians that deny it Dr. Hammond hath written a Treatise for it Entitled Of the Power of the Keys yea the Papists differ not from the Protestants in this point It will therefore be labour in vain to prove it § 323. 2. And as to the second Question What this Discipline is It is considerable 1. As to the Matter 2. As to the Persons 3. As to the Place 4. As to the Manner and 5. As to the End 1. As to the Matter We are agreed that it consisteth in receiving Persons into the Church in preserving and healing those that are in the Church and in casting out those from the Communion of the Church which are unfit for it and in Absolving and Restoring the Excommunicate when they are penitent And therefore it is called The Power and Exercise of the Keys By these Keys the Door is first opened to Believers and their Seed and the Bishops judge who are fit to be let in by Baptism When any are lapsed into scandalous sin they are to be proceeded with as Christ hath directed Matth. 18. 15 16 17. We must first tell men privately of their private Faults and if they hear us not we must take with us two or three if they hear not them we must tell the Church and finally if they hear not the Church they must be to us as Heathens and Publicans And whatsoever is thus bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever is loosed on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven vers 18. The Church is the Body of Christ his Spouse his Family his Garden It is a Communion of Saints which is to be held in it It is commanded to put away wicked Persons from among them and not to keep company if any that is called a Brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no not to eat 1. Cor. 5. 11 13. And we are to withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and to note them and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed 2. Thess. 3. 6 14. If any come to us and bring not sound Doctrine we must not receive him into our houses nor bid him good speed lest we be partakers of his evil deeds 2 John 10. 11. A Man that is an Heretick must after the first and second Admonition be avoided as Self-condemned Tit. 3. 10 11. And the penitent must be restored and re-admitted All this is agreed on § 324. 2. And as to the Persons who are Parties in this Transaction we are agreed 1. That it is such Persons as desire Communion with us that are to be admitted being fit and such as having Communion with us become unmeet for it that are to be cast out c. so that it is to be exercised on Persons so far as they are to have Communion with us and not on those that are uncapable of that Communion 2. That sententially it must be done by the Pastor or Governour of that particular Church which the Person is to be admitted into or cast out of And by the judgment of the Pastors of other neighbour Churches when they also as Neighbours are to refuse Communion with
those Vices which are the shame of Infidels and Heathens and those of our Communion are in their Lives no better than the Unbelieving World All Men will think that that is the best Society which hath the best People and will judge rather by Mens Lives than their Opinions § 345. 7. And hereby it greatly dishonoureth Christianity it self and when the Church is as full of Vices as the Mahomiran Societies are or the Heathen it is a publick perswading the World that our Religion is as false or bad as theirs § 346. 8. And hereby God himself and our blessed Redeemer are greatly dishonoured in the World As his Saints are his honour so when the Communion of Atheists and Prophane Persons and Oppressors and Deceivers and Fornicators and Drunkards is called by us The Communion of Saints it tendeth to make the Church a Scorn and to the great dishonour of the Head of such a Body and the Author of the Christian Faith § 347. 9. And it lamentably conduceth to the hardening of the Heathens and Infidels of the World and hindering their Conversion to the Christian Faith It would make a Believer's heart to bleed if any thing in all the World will do it to think that five parts in six of the World are still Heathens Mahometans and Infidels and that the wicked Lives of Christians with Popperies Ignorance and Divisions is the great Impediment to their Conversion To read and hear Travellers and Merchants tell that the Banians and other Heathens in Indostan Cambaia and many other Lands and the Mahometans adjoyning to the Greeks and the Abassines c. do commonly fly from Christianity as the Separatists among us do from Prelacy and say God will not save us if we be Christians for Christians are Drunkards and proud and Deceivers c. And that the Mahometans and many Heathens have more both of Devotion and Honesty than the common fort of Christians have that live among them O wretched Christians that are not content to damn themselves but thus lay stumbling blocks before the World It were better for these men that they had never been born But if all these notorious ones were disowned by the Churches it would quit our Profession much from the dishonour and shew poor Infidels that our Religion is good though their Lives be bad § 348. 10. Lastly it galleth the Consciences of the Ministers in their administrations of the Sacraments to the openly ungodly and grosly ignorant It hindereth the Comfort of the Church in its Communion It filleth the Heads of poor Christians with Scruples and their Hearts with Fears and is the great cause of unavoidable Separations among us and consequently of all the Censures on one side and wrathful Penalties on the other and uncharitableness on both sides which follow thereupon If the Pastors will not differ between the precious and the vile by necessary regular Discipline tender Christians will be tempted to difference by irregular Separations and to think as Cyprian saith That it belongeth to the People to forsake a sinful Pastor They will separate further than they ought and will take our Churches as Sinks of Pollution and fly from the noisomness of them and come out from among us for fear of partaking in our Plagues as men run out of a ruinous House lest it fall upon their Heads And then they will fall into Sects among themselves and fall under the hot displeasure of the Bishops and then they will be reproached and vexed as Schismaticks while they reproach our Churches as Hypocritical and Prophane that call such Societies the Communion of Saints This hath been and this is and this will be the Cause of Separations Sects Persecutions Malice and Ruins in the Christian World And it will never be cured till some tolerable Discipline cure the Churches § 349. 10. The tenth and last Charge against our Frame of Prelacy is That by is use of Civil or Coercive Power it at once breaketh the Command of Christ and greatly injureth the Civil Government Both which are thus proved by the Nonconformists § 350. 1. It violateth all these Laws of Christ Luke 22. 24 25. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest And he said unto them the Kings of the Gentles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors but ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve That is it is a Ministerial Dignity and not a Magistratical which you are called to that which is allowed to Kings here is denied to Ministers even Apostles But it is not Tyranny or Abuse of Power but Secular Magistratical Power it self which is all owed to Kings Ergo it is this which is forbidden Ministers This is the very sence of the Text which is given by Protestant Episcopal Divines themselves when they reject the Presbyterians sence who say that it forbiddeth Ecclesiastical Superiority and Power of one Minister over another as well as Coercive Therefore the old Rhymer said against the Prelates Christus dixit quodam loco Vos non sic nec dixit joco Dixit suis Ergo isti Cujus sunt non certo Christi So 1. Pet. 5. 1 2 3. Feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly Not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but being ensamples to the Flock But our Bishops take the oversight of those that are not among them and whom they feed not and they rule them by constraint and not as voluntary Subjects not by Ensample for one of an hundred never seeth or knoweth them but as Lords by Secular Force Dr. Hammond taketh the word Constraint here Actively not Passively not as forbidding them to Bishops against their own Wills but to Rule the People by constraint against the Peoples wills It would be tedious to recite all those Texts which command the People to imitate the Apostles as they imitated Christ who never used Magistratical force nor did any of his Apostles and say that the Weapons of our warfare are not carnals and that he that warreth entangleth not himself with the Affairs of this Life and that the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle c. § 351. 2. And that this Coercive Church Government is an heinous Injury to Christian Magistrates even where it seemeth to be subordinate to them appeareth thus 1. Though they do mostly confess that they can exercise no Power of Coercion of themselves but by the Magistrates consent yet do they take it to be the Magistrates duty to consent to it as if he were not else a tender Nursing Father to the Church and so they lay his Conscience in Prison till he trust them with his Sword or serve them by it 2. They call their Magistratical Government by the
the King's Quarters and never were drawn the other way as Dr. Conant lately one of them and others in Oxford and so in other parts XI Some of the Non-conformists were in the King's Army Poor Martin of Weeden lost an Arm in his Army and yet the other Arm lay long with him in Warwick Jail for Preaching XII Almost all the Non-conformists of my acquaintance in England save Independents and Sectaries refused the Engagement and took Cromwell and the Common-wealth-Parliament for Usurpers and never approved what they did nor ever kept their daies of Fasting or Thanksgiving To tell you of the London Ministers prinâed Declarations against the intended Death of the King you will say is unsatisfactory because too late XIII Most of the Non-conformable Ministers of my acquaintance were either boys at School or in the University in the Wars or never medled with it so that I must profess that setting them altogether I do not think that one in ten throughout the Kingdom can be proved to have done any of these things that you name against the King XIV We have oft with great men put it to this trial Let them give leave but to so many to Preach the Gospel as cannot be proved ever to have had any hand in the Wars against the King and we will thankfully acquiesce and bear the Silence of the rest make but this Match for us and we will joyfully give you thanks XV. Who knoweth not that the greatest Prelatists were the Masters of the Principles that the War was raised on Bilson Iewel c. and Hooker quite beyond them all XVI But because all proof must be of individuals I intreat you as to our own Countrey where you were acquainted tell me if you can I say it seriously if you can what ever was done or said against the King by Mr. Ambrose Sparre Mr. Kimberley Mr. Lovell Mr. Cowper Mr. Reignalds Mr. Hickman Mr. Trusham Mr. Baldwin senior Mr. Baldwin junior Mr. Sergeant Mr. Waldern dead Mr. Ios. Baker dead Mr. Wilsby Mr. Brain Mr. Stephen Baxter Mr. Badland Mr. Bulcher Mr. Eccleshall Mr. Read Mr. Rock Mr. Fincher of Wedbury Mr. Wills of Bremisham Mr. Paston c. I pass by many more And in Shropshire by old Mr. Sam. Hildersham old Mr. Sam. Fisher Mr. Talents Mr. Brain of Shreusbury Mr. Barnet Mr. Keeling Mr. Berry Mr. Malden of Newport Mr. Tho. Wright dead Mr. Taylor c. These were your Neighbours and mine I never heard to my remembrance of any one of them that had any thing to do with Wars against the King It is true except Mr. Fisher and some few they were not ejected but enjoyed their places And did not you as well as they If I can name you so many of your Neighbours that were innocent will you tell the King and Parliament and the Papists and Posterity that all the Non-conformists without any exception had their hands stained with the Royal blood What! Mr. Cooke of Chester and Mr. Birch c. that were imprisoned and persecuted for the King What! Mr. Geery that died at the news of the King's Dearh What! Sir Francis Nethersole and Mr. Bell his Pastor who wrote so much against the Parliament and was their prisoner at ãâã Castle almost all the Wars What may we expect from others when Dr. Good shall do thus I put not in any Excuse for my self among all these It may be you know not that an Assembly of Divines twice met at Coventree of whom two Doctors and some others are yet living first sent me into the Army to hazard my life after Nasby Fight against the Course which we then first perceived to be designed against the King and Kingdom nor what I went through there two years in opposing it and drawing the Soldiers off Nor how oft I Preached against Cromwel the Rump the Engagement but specially their Wars and Fasts and Thanksgivings Nor what I said to Cromwel for the King never but twice speaking with him of which a Great Privy Counselloâr told me but lately that being an Ear-witness of it he had told his Majesty But yet while I thought they went on Bilsone's Principles I was then on their side and the Observator Parker almost tempted me to Hooker's Principles but I quickly saw those Reasons against them which I have since published His Principles were known by the first Book before the last came out And I have a friend that had his last in M.S. But I am willing unfeignedly to to be one of those that shall contiue Silenced if you can but procure leave to Preach Christ's Gospel only for those that are no more guilty of the King's blood than your self and that no longer than there is real need of their Ministerial Labour Reverend Sir If you will but so long put your self as in our Case I shall hope that with patience you will read these Lines and pardon the necessary freedom of Your truly Loving friend and obliged Servant Rich. Baxter London Feb. 10. 1673. § 270. Taking it to be my duty to preach while Toleration doth continue I removed the last Spring to London where my Diseases increasing this Winter a flatulent constant Headach added to the rest and continuing strong for about half a year constrained me to cease my Fryday's Lecture and an Afternoon Sermon on the Lord's daies in my house to my grief and to Preach only one Sermon a week at St. Iames's Market-house where some had hired an inconvenient Place But I had great encouragement to labour there 1. Because of the notorious Necessity of the people for it was noted for the habitation of the most ignorant Atheistical and Popish about London and the greatness of the Parish of St. Martins made it impossible for the tenth perhaps the twentieth person in the Parish to hear in the Parish-Church And the next Parishes St. Giles and Clement Daines were almost in the like case Besides that the Parson of our own Parish St. Giles where I lived Preached not having been about three years suspended by the Bishop ab Officio but not a beneficio upon a particular Quarrel And to leave ten or twenty for one untaught in the Parish while most of the City Churches also are burnt down and unbuilt one would think should not be justified by Christians 2. Because beyond my expectation the people generally proved exceeding willing and attentive and tractable and gave me great hopes of much success § 271. Yet at this time did some of the most Learned Conformists assault me with sharp accusations of Schism meerly because I ceased not to Preach the Gospel of Christ to people in such necessity They confess that I ought not to take their Oaths and make their imposed Covenants Declarations and Subscriptions against my Conscience but my Preaching is my sin which I must forbear though they accuse me not of one word that I say They confess the foresaid Matters of fact that not one of a multitude can possibly hear in
enjoy what Success is such a Dispute like to have either with the People or with the Adversary will they not tell us our Church is invisible especially when these few Bishops are dead Except to Sect. 6. 2. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whosoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge that Presbyters while there remain alive fourteen or thirteen or twelve Catholick Protestant Bishops may proceed to publick Excommunications and Absolutions in foro Ecclesiastico without asking those Bishops Consent allowance or taking any notice of them See Resolution 12 13 14 15. and the Scope of the whole Book Reply to Sect. 6. To your second Question I answer The Term Excommunication we use not This Term is used to signify sometimes a delivering up to Satan and casting out of the Catholick Church sometimes only a Ministerial Declaration that such a Person should be avoided by the People acquainting them with their Duty and requiring them to perform it sometimes it signifies the Peoples actual Avoidance In the former Sense we have let it alone and that which you call your Excommunicatio Major we meddle not with much less do we usurp a compelling Power for the Execution The other we know to be consistent with the Principles of Episcopal Protestants if not also with Papists yea even when there is a Bishop resident in the Diocess it being but part of our teaching and guiding Office as Presbyters of that Congregation but I have said enough of this in my Explications already 2. But what if there be twelve latent Bishops in England when for my part I I hear not of above two or three have they Power not only to ordain but also to govern other Diocesses which have no Bishops Yea must they needs govern them 1. Woe then to the Churches of England that must live under such Guilt devoid of all Government 2. Woe to the Sinners themselves that must be left without Christ's Remedy 3. Woe to particular Christians that must live in the continual Breach of God's known Law that saith with such go not to eat c. for want of a Bishop to Execute it 4. Woe to the few Bishops that be for it all the Authority be in them then the Duty and Charge of executing it is only on them and then they are bound to Impossibilities one Bishop must Excommunicate all the Offenders in a great part of the Land when he is not sufficient to the hundredth part of the Work Then when all the Bishops in England are dead save one or two they are the sole Pastors of England and all Discipline must be cast away for want of their Sufficiency Then it seems the Death of one Bishop or two or three doth actually devolve their Charge to another and who knoweth which other This is new Canon Not only Protestant Bishops but some Papists confess that when a Bishop is dead the Government remains in the Presbyters till another be chosen sure they that govern the People at least with him whilst he is living as is confessed need not look on it as an alien supereminent transcendent Work when he is dead Bishop Bromhall against Mil. p. 127. gives People a Judgment of Discretion and Pastors a Judgment of Direction and to the chief Pastors a Judgment of Jurisdiction You may go well allow us by a Judgment of Direction to tell the People that they should avoid Communion with an open wicked Man even while a Bishop is over us Selden de Syne c. 8 9 10. and will tell you another Tale of the way of Antiquity in Excommunication and Absolution than you do hear But of this enough in the Books Except to Sect. 7. 3. Doth not he oblige himself also to acknowledge that not only Presbyters incommuni governing but one single one of them may proceed to Excommunicatiand Absolution in foro Ecclesiastico Reply to Sect. 7. Your third Question I answer by a Denial There is no such Obligation The Declaration of the Peoples Duty to avoid such an one is by one so is every Sermon so is your Episcopal Excommunication Doth not one and that a Presbyter declare or publish it But for advising and determining of it we have tyed our selves not to do it alone though for mine own private Opinion I doubt not easily to prove that one single Bishop or Pastor hath the Power of the Keys and may do all that we agree to do Except to Sect. 8. 4. That not only one single Presbyter but one whose Ordination was never by any Bishop to be Presbyter where also Bishops were that might have been sought unto hath that Power also of Excommunication c. Reply to Sect. 8. Your fourth is answered in the rest if his Ordination have only in the Judgment of Episcopal Protestants yea of some Papists an Irregularity but not a Nullity then he hath Power to do so much as we agree on Your Exception is as much against his other Ministrations Except to Sect. 9. I speak only of the Essence of their Association not insisting on what Mr. Baxter declares to the World that in some Cases the People not satisfied with the Bishops or Presbyters Ordination may accept or take a Man of themselves without any Ordination by Bishops or Presbyters to be their Pastor and Presbyter with Power of Excommunication and Absolution in himself alone without the People see p. 83. Reply to Sect. 9. That this may be done in some Cases I have lately disputed it with a learned Man of your Party and convinced him And methinks Nature should teach you if you were unordained but qualified by Gifts cast among the Indians that you should not let them perish for want of that publick constant teaching which is Ministerial or of Sacraments and Discipline only for want of Ordination that the Substance of Duty should not be thrown by for want of that Order which was instituted for its Preservation and not for its Destruction You dare scarce openly and plainly deny that Necessity warrants the Presbyters of the Reformed Churches to ordain And I doubt you allow it them then on no other grounds then what would warrant this that I am now pleading for Except to Sect. 10. And for any Votum or desire of Bishops Protest Bishops if they might have them or access unto them which was so oft the publick avowed Desire of the chiefest Reformers and Protestants beyond Sea much unlike the Spirit of our Presbyterians see what Mr. Baxter gives us to know p. 85. where comparing our present Bishops with a Leader in an Army he faith Nay it is hard trusting that Man again that hath betrayed us and the Church ibid. These have so apparently falsified their Trust that if we were fully resolved for Bishops yet we cannot submit to them for Ordination or Jurisdiction and then he proves it by Canon he thinks that the Presbyters now should not submit to the present Bishops by Canon Concilii Rbegien ut
say that God will make their Acts as useful to the honest Receiver as if the Ordainer had done it by just Authority and another to say that such an Ordainer had Authority because his Incapacity was not known or judged that is because it was not then known that he had none 2. Moreover if the Catholick Churches Acceptation and Reputation which you mention would serve turn then 1. It were well worth the knowing what you mean by the Catholick Church do you mean the whole or only a Part If the whole then few Ministers or Bishops must be so accepted for who is known to all Christians in the World If a Part then what Part must it be what if one Part repute him a true Minister or Bishop and the other a false or none which is very common If you say it is the People over whom he is Pastor then nothing more common then for them to be divided in their Judgments If you say it is the greater part then we shall be at utter Uncertainties for our Succession as little knowing what the greater part of the People thought of our Predecessors if you mean the Superior Bishops then a Metropolitan it seems is the Catholick Church when a Bishop is to be judged of and it is like a Patriarch for a Metropolitan and the Pope for him But as 1. We know not how these judged of our Predecessors 2. So we little believe that these Mens Judgments can make a Man to be a Bishop that is none or make him have a Power which else he had not this is worse than the Doctrine which hangs the Efficacy of the Sacraments on the Priests Intention It 's like the Faith of some that think to make a Falsehood become true by believing it true 3. And you know it is the Pope whose Succession we are questioning and which is the Catholick Church that must accept and repute him a true Pope If the Council of Basil were the Catholick Church then you know how Eugenius was reputed and then where is our Succession I doubt not but true Christians that are not guilty of the Nullity of the Ordination nor knew it may have the Benefit and Blessing of such a Man's Administrations and they may be valid to the Receiver But that is on another ground which I have lately manifessed to another in debating this Cause and not that the Administrator had any true Ministerial Authority from God Again I refer you to my Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers Except to Sect. 18. V.G. Put case one not baptized thought to have been baptized had per ignorantiam facti been promoted to be Bishop Archibishop or Patriarch yet so long as the Church knew it not nor himself perhaps but did accept him bona Fide though ipso Facto had it been known such had been uncapable of Episcopal Order yet being so accepted by the Catholick Church Ordinations done by him were not null nor did he interrupt the Succession but latente omni defectu baptismi he was a true Bishop though after his Death by any Writing they had come to discover it for the Church as all Judicatures rightly proceeds secundum allegata probata the same I say of secret Symony V. S. But on the other side to speak now to the Presbyterian Case Reply to Sect. 18. Nay then put Case the Man were not Ordained and the Church took him to be Ordained you say the Church must proceed secundum allegata probata doth not this give up your Cause and yield all that I plead for which is that an authoritative Ordination and so an uninterrupted Succession is not simply and absolutely necessary to the being of the Ministry For you confess your Churches Reputation may serve without it By the way take head least you either make the People to be none of the Catholick Church or at least you give a Power to the People to make Ministers Bishops and Popes by their bare Thoughts without Ordination or so much as Election But then you will remember that if Reputation without just Ordination may serve turn I know not but those among us may be Ministers whom you disclaim For the Pastors and People of all the Protestant Churches in Europe except your selves here do take such for Ministers so far as it is possible by Writings Professions and Practices to know their Minds and I hope they are as good a part of the Catholick Church as the Pope and his Consistory are If Reputation then will make Pastors without Ordination we may have as good a Plea as those you plead for For the case of Symony you mention see what I cited out of Dr. Hammond and you know sure that many Canons make Ordinations null and the Office null ipso Facto whether ever the Party be questioned in Judgment or not such Canons and Laws are equal to Sentences A Case also may be known that is never questioned and Judged who could question the Sodomitical unclean murderous Popes though it was commonly known I take it for granted therefore that the Knowledge degraded them without a Judgment according to your own Words here unless one part of them contradict the other Except to Sect. 19. The same ancient Church which did make void and annul constantly all Ordinations made by meer Presbyters whether they Schismatically arrogated to themselves to be Bishops and were not nor so reputed by the Church or otherwise upon any Pretention whatsoever for at that time no necessity could be with any Colour nor was pretended Reply to Sect. 19. 1. But is it the Judgment of the Ancient Church that will serve to degrade or null a Minister of this Age If so then all your former Arguing is in the Dust For though your Popes had none to Judge them Wicked and Uncapable then yet the ancient Church before them did make void and null the Office and Ordinations of such as they If it must be a present Power that must do it we have not yet been called to any Judicature about it 2. Your Parenthesis seems to intimate that if the Presbyters be but Reputed Bishops by the Church then their Ordinations are not null All 's well on our side then except you only or the Romanists be the whole Western Church For not only Pastors and People here do take Presbyters to be Bishops having Power of Ordination but so do the rest of the Reformed Churches or at least most of them They think that the primitive Bishop was the Bishop of one particular Church and not of a Diocess or many Churches 3. You talk of necessity again but you would not say that necessity would have excused them then if there had been such though it seems you would be thought to judge of the Reformed Churches as the Protestant Bishops do or else hide your Judgment in part Except to Sect. 20. These Three Fallacies are the Summ of all his Arguments rather popular Calumnies for want of Argument
grant the Necessity of such Succession yet we need not grant the Nullity of our Calling 2. I deny that the English Bishops much less the Church of England did ever judge it necessary any farther than ad Hominem 1. Because it is apparent that they do ordinarily in their Writings speak against the Papists supposed Necessity of Ordination as I instanced out of some of them in my Book It is known to be a Point wherein the Protestants have commonly opposed the Papists 2. It is known to be but the later declining Generation of Bishops such at Montague Laud and their Confederates most in King Charles his Days very few in King Iames's and scarce any at all in Queen Elizabeth's that do join with the Papists in pleading the Necessity of Succession Even such Men as were as zealous against Queen Elizabeth's Episcopal Protestants as against the Papists at least many of them 3. The rest do expresly mention Succession and confute the Fâble of the Nag's-Head Ordination in Cheapside to prove the Papists Slanderers So much to your Minor 3. If that will not serve I deny your Major All is not necessary that they thought necessary Protestants pretend not to Infallability in Controversals Many more perhaps ten to one at least of the English Clergy held it not necessary unless as aforesaid Ad 2 um Your second Argument hath all the Strength in it or rather shew of Strength â first we must needs distinguish of your Terms Mediately and Immediately A Constitution may be said to be from Christ mediately either in Respect to a mediating Person or to some mediating Sign only Also it may be said to be mediante persona 1. when the Person is the cause totalââ subordinata constituendi as having himself received the Power from God and being as from himself to convey it unto Man 2. Or when the Person is but Causa per accidens 3. Or when he is only Causa sive qua non vel quatenus impedementa âemovit vel quatenus ejus Actiones sunt conditiones necessarie And so I answer 1. Immediately in the first absolute Sense excludendo personââ res no Man ever had any Right communicated or Duty imposed on him by God unless perhaps the immediate Impress or supernatural Revelation of the Holy Ghost to some Peophet or Apostle might be said to do this Moses himself had the Ten Commandments written in Stone which were signa mediantia Those that heard God speak if any immediately without Angelical Interposition did receive God's Commands mediante verborum signo So did the Apostles that which they had from the Mouth of Christ. 2. God is so absolutely the Fountain of all Power that no Man can either have or give any Power but derivatively from him and by his Commission Man being no farther the Efficient of Power than he is so constituted of God the general way of his giving it must be by the Signification of God's Will and so far as that can be sufficiently discovered there needs no more to the Conveyance of Power Whether Men be properly efficient Causes of Church Power at all is a very hard Question especially as to those over whom they have no superior governing Power As Spalatensis hath taken great pains to prove that Kings or other Sovereigns of the Common-wealth have their Commission and Power immediately from God though the People sometimes may choose the Man for the Power was not given to the People first and then they give it the King but God lets them name the Man on whom he will immediately confer it so possibly may it be in Ordination of Church-Officers Three ways do Men mediate in the Nomination of the Person 1. When they have Authority of Regiment over others and explenitudine potestatis do convey efficiently to inferior Officers the Power that these have Thus doth the supream Rector of the Commonwealth to his Officers and Ergo they are caled the Kings Officers and he hath the choice of the very Species as well as of the individual Officers Now this way of mediating is not always if at all necessary or possible in the Church for the Papists themselves confess that the Pope is Ordained or authorized without this way of Efficiency for none have a Papal Power to convey to him His Ordination cannot be Actus Superioris And the Council of Trent could not agree whether it were not the Case of all Bishops to hold their Office immediately from Christ though under the Pope or whether they had their Power immediately from the Pope as the prime Seat on Earth of all Church Power who is to convey their Parts to others How the Spanish Bishops held up their Cause is known And it was the old Doctrine of the Church that all Bishops were equal and had no Power one over another but all held their Power directly from Christ as Cyprian told them in the Council of Carthage Add to this that the true old Apostolical Episcopacy was in each particular Church and not over many Churches together I speak of fixed Bishops till the matter becoming too big to be capable of the old Form Corruptio unius fuit generatio alterius and they that upon the increase of Christians should have helpt the Swarm into a new Hive did through natural Ambition of ruling over many retaine divers Churches under their Charge and then ceased to be of the Primitive sort of Bishops Non eadem fuit res non munus idem etiamsi idem nomen retinerent So that truly our Parish Ministers who are sole or chief Pastors of that Church are the old sort of Bishops for as Ambrose and after him Grotius argues qui ante se alterum non habebat Episcopus er at That is in eadem Ecclesia qui superiorem non habet So that not only all Diocesan Bishops but also all Parochial Bishops are Ordained per pares and so not by a governing Communication of Power which is that second way of Ordination when men that are of equal Authority have the Nomination of the Person Now whether or no he that ordaineth an Inferior as a Deacon or any other do convey Authority by a proper Efficiency as having that first in himself which he doth Convey yet in the Ordination of Equals it seems not to be so for they have no Government over the particular Persons whom they Ordain or Churches to whom they Ordain them nor could they themselves exercise that governing Power over that other Congregation which they appoint another to so that they seem to be but Causae Morales or sine quibus non as he that sets the Wood to the Fire is of its burning or as he that openeth you the Door is of your bringing any thing into the House So that if you will call the Ordainer of an Inferior causam equivocam and the Ordainer of an Equal causam univocam yet it is but as they morally and improperly cause The Third way of Mediating in the
were all distinguished by the Limits of their Habitation or Proximity so that there was never two Churches in the same City or Bounds save Hereticks and Men of divers Tongues at least where one could hold them all But it 's otherwise with the Separatists 4. No lawful Church in Scripture was gathered out of a true Gospel-Church But theirs are 5. Scripture Churches had fixed known Tests to know qualified Members by which was consent to the Baptismal Covenant explained in the Creed Lord's-Prayer and Commandments So that all Churches had the same Test and Terms of Qualification and so had one Profession But these Men leave this Arbitrary to the Pastor or People to try whether Men are converted by uncertain Terms and Words devised by every Minister so that the Terms are unknown and not agreed on among their Churches and may be as various as Ministers 6. Scripture-Churches never divided the Christians of the same Family some to one Church and some to another But these Men do so to great Confusion 7. They are not agreed on any Form of Doctrine to be a Test of their Agreement with other Churches with whom they will have Communion If they say that the Scripture is that Test I answer a General Belief that Scripture is the Word of God is neither sufficient to Salvation nor to Communion Many have this who deny the Essentials of Christianity And an explicite Understanding and Belief of every Text no Man hath Thousands of Texts are not understood by most Christians or Teachers therefore there must be some Collection of the Essentials in a Creed or else there can be no certain Notice whether so much of Scripture Truth be explicitely believed as is necessary to Salvation And if single Pastors require more it must be only in order to Growth and Edification and not as a necessary Qualification for Membership or Communion of Churches I have great Cause to know what I say of them A Parliament once chose Fourteen Ministers to draw up the Fundamentals of Religion as a Test of such as were to be tollerated in Union There were Dr. Owen Mr. Nye Dr. Thomas Goodwin Mr. Sydrak Sympson Dr. Cheynel and others Bishop Usher was chosen and refused and I was chosen in his stead Before I came they had drawn up Fourteen or Fifteen Articles all in new Terms of their own and some neither Essential nor true I told them that we were not to make a new Christianity or Creed but must own that which the Christian Church was known by in all Ages But I could not be heard though Mr. Vines and Mr. Mantân joined with me At last they wrote this for a Fundamental That they that allowed themselves or others in any known Sin cannot be saved I told them that though I could not be heard by them I durst say that I would make them presently blot it out They bid me do it if I could I said The Parliament taketh Independency Separation Anabaptistry and Antinomianism for Sin And they will say These Divines pronounce us all Damned if we allow them They said not a Word but threw away their Fundamental The rest of them they printed But the Parliament were glad with silence to pass by all their Works and take no notice of it lest it should be a publick Reproach that we could not agree on the Fundamentals And I am glad that I hindered such an Agreement as they would have made instead of the old Creeds which they would not rest in And can such Churches be of any known Consistency or Concord If you join with them how know you what Religion they are of Or how know they what other particular Churches are in their Communion for I hope they hold a Communion of Churches Arrians and Socinians say they believe the Scripture No Man understandeth all the Scripture The necessary selected Articles they have no known Agreement in If they say that they own the same Creed that we do why then do they not use it as the Test of Christian Profession but instead of it leave every Pastor to make one in Terms that is only his and no two Churches have the same To agree in Independency or Separation is not to agree in Christianity There are abundance of Books written for very false Doctrines by men called Independents it 's odious to name them Are all the Author of their Communion or not The Assembly could never get them to tell whom they would take to be of their Communion and whom not 8. Therefore their Churches are not compaginate nor confederate so as the Members of our Body should be and as Scripture-Churches were and as Christ would have had the Jewith National Church to be 9. They have no Certainty and Concord in their Church-Worship which they have little more than such Preaching and Praying which cannot be known for true or false sound or unsound till the Words are past And it may justly be expected that Separatists Antinomians Anabaptists Socinians and all erroneous Men should put their Errors into their Sermons and Prayers and sinfully father them all on God And so all God's Worship must be contiually uncertain to the Flocks and of as many different Strains as the Preachers differ in Parts and Wisdom And it must be low and poor and confused wherever the Ministers are young raw erroneous or ignorant They once met at the Savoy and drew up an Agreement of many Pastors But in that they differ from many other Churches called Independants and from the Anabaptists And they expresly contradict the Scripture 1. In saying that we have no Righteousness but Christ's which is imputed to us when as Scripture many Hundred times mentioneth also another personal inherent or acted Righteousness 2. They say that Faith is not imputed for Righteousness I think they mean well But they should rather expound Scripture than flatly deny or contradict what it saith and after defame those falsly that would help them more distinctly to understand it Their People are taught to speak evil of what they understand not and to represent Men as dangerous or odious who think not of many wordy Controversies as confusedly and ignorantly as they Their Churches are too usually constituted of such Novices in Knowledge of both Sexes as are like a School where the Boys call their Teacher a Deceiver for every word by which he would deliver them from their Errours and teach them more than they knew before 10. They lazily gather a few that seem so much better than the rest as will put them to no great labour in Teaching and Discipline But if all the rest of the Parishes lye in Ignorance how little are we beholden to these Separatists for the Cure When I came to Kidderminster some inclined that way importuned to me to take a few Professors of Zeal for my Flock and let the rest follow their ignorant Readers But when I renounced their Counsel and after my own and my Assistants long Catechizing them
in Scripture than that Baptism was appointed for our Entrance upon our State of Disciples in general And Ergo if a Man may be a visible Disciple without it where it seemeth most necessary then much more may he be admitted into a particular Church afterward without it when at least it is no more necessary and indeed much less and not at all save only as universal Church-Member this is pre-requisite to particular The Ministers of Christ Baptized 2000 without asking the Consent of any particular Church 2. They that are under both a Precept making the use of instituted Ordinances their Duty and a Promise of Acceptance in the Performance must perform these Duties with belief of their Acceptance But such are these that you account unbaptized Ergo That they are under a Command is plain All the Precepts for Christian Communion and not forsaking the assembling of our selves and obeying those that rule over us c. are made to the whole visible Church that hath Opportunity for such Communion you will not think that our Sin as you take it can except us from an Obligation to Duty But all the Question is whether such Duty will be accepted if performed by the unbaptized as you now suppose them and this you grant professing your self that you are out of doubt that we are very well accepted of God and you think that it is accounted for Baptism to us And if you yield both that we are bound to the Duty and shall have Acceptance in particular Church Communion what is it then besides the regularity that you deny Do you not grant the Cause in Hand And we have many Promises of Acceptance of Believers in their sincere Endeavours and all things are pure to the Pure And if involuntary unavoidable Mistakes shall hinder our Acceptance when we are sincere then we can never be sure that we are accepted 3. It is but visibility that is requisite in a Church or Member to make them capable of our Communion If it be a Communion of Christians as Christians or Saints as Saints that particular Churches are to hold withal that consent and are Members of their Churches then Christianity or visible Sanctity in such Consenters is all that is of Necessity to such Communion But the Antecedent is plain As it is as Christians that we must inwardly love one another so it is as Christians that we must manifest that Love in holy Communion Communion is the Demonstration of Love and all Men must know us to be Christ's Disciples by our loving one another and therefore if any Man be but a visible Christian it 's plain that he 's capable of your Communion if he cohabits and consent else it were not formalitur a Communion of Saints or Christians but of something else Now you confess that Men are visible Christians that are to you unbaptized 4. There is no such thing as a universal visible Church that is not to use Eucharistical Communion nor any parts of it that have opportunity Your similitude of Corporations in a Republick holds in some things but hath this dissimilitude that all Christ's Republick should consist of such Corporations except a Person that is a Merchant Traveller Embassador or by some extraordinary Necessity is denied Opportunity which Rarities are not here of Consideration And whereas in Republicks it may be as commodious for rural Villages to be not incorporate as for Cities to be incorporate and their Priviledges in their Nation may be as great and they are not obliged to incorporate none of this is so in our Case But every visible Christian not hindered by Necessity is bound to incorporate and charged not to forsake the Assemblies but all to join and speak the same things and Glorify God with one Mouth c. And he that is not a visible Christian hath no visible Right to our Christian Communion And he that is a visible Christian and depriveth himself of this Communion sinneth and wrongeth his own Soul and as it were out-laws himself and is not as you suppose in your Comparison of the not-incorporate But though in some Cases such may be saved as deny instituted Communion and Worship or neglect it yet they do so far put themselves into the State of those without 5. Your Opinion sets up a new kind of Church or Christian Assemblies and Communion of such as may only hear and Pray and not have Eucharistical Communion and be under Church-Guidance Shew us any such in Scripture if you can 6. Heathens or Infidels are called to a natural Worship of God Ergo visible Christians are called to more 7. Faith it self hath its Office formally by Institution though its aptitude thereto be in the Nature of the thing And if the Gospel it self be supernatural and our Christianity and Faith an instituted thing as well as Sacrament and Governors and so the universal visible Church an Institution as well as a particular then certainly want of Baptism will no more keep a visible Christian out of the particular instituted Church than out of the universal because as to the Point of Institution there is no such Reason as can make a Difference 8. The great and excellent part of Church Communion is that which you call natural Worship as performed by Believers in the loving God in Christ and admiring and magnifying his Love in the Riches of the Grace of Redemption and seeking with all Saints to comprehend it hearing his Counsels and Commands praying for his Grace and Glory and praising and magnifying him in Faith and Hope and Love with our Eye upon the second Coming of our Lord. And that which you call Instituted Order and Worship is but the means to this and without this but a Shell It is subservient to it And therefore 1. They that are capable of the greater are capable of the less Heathens are bound to meer natural Worship and their Hearing and Praying is another thing and Obligation and Capacity differ 2. They that must do the work must do it in God's way and by his means The great internal Worship is as the Soul and the external as the Body which are to be distinguished but not separated Must one sort of Christians have the Soul of holy Communion without the Body and carry the Knife naked while you deny them the Sheath 9. If a Member of the Universal visible Church as such is pro tempore to be admitted to Communion in all Ordinances with any particular Church where they come then these that you acknowledge such visible Members must by you be so admitted and so are capable of Communion in instituted Ordinances but the Antecedent is true beyond Dispute None of the Apostles were Members of particular Churches but were as Itinerants to do their work in many Countries so was it with abundance of Itinerant Preachers of those times called their Companions and Fellow Labourers and Helpers as Barnabas Luke Mark Silus Timothy Titus Epaphroditus Apollos c. When Paul came
shall we find them and make them in our Brethren Christ gathereth and will you scatter he reconcileth and uniteth and will you divide he justifieth and will you be he that shall condemn Even them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and all for want of delaying Baptism till your time when in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth nothing nor uncircumcision but the New Creature and Faith that worketh by Love Have you mark'd how Unity and Love is inculcated in the New Testament and that as Omnipotency is most eminently engraven upon the Creation and Wisdom on the Laws of God so Goodness is most eminently engraven on the Redeemer and that in this Glass the Father in his Love and Goodness must be known and hereby the Impress and Image of Love must be made upon our Souls They that are least for Love and holy Unity are least like God and least for him and most like his Enemy and ours 18. Christ is both King Prophet and Priest and no one is sincerely related unto him in any of these respects but is related to him in all And Ergo all Christians are to be under his Church-Government and Protection in his Family as well as under his Teaching If they are by your own confession Fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God do not disfranchise them nor deny them their Priviledges 19. Will not your Principles lead to narrowness of holy Charity in Communication of worldly Goods and destroy Christian Communion in this Those that were in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayer not through levelling but charitable Community had all things as common sure you will refuse this when you refuse Communion in Sacrament you will on the same ground think that those few only of your Opinion are to partake of this Special Communication For the Reason is the same 20. Contrary to the Spirit and Scope of the Gospel you lay greater stress upon the very timing of a holy Ceremony than under the Law was laid upon the being of the Ceremony it self Women had Communion without Circumcision The Males in the Wilderness did hold all holy Communion even in the Passover without Circumcision To all this let me add these few Questions to you 1. Do you think in the most humble frame of your Soul that you have no failing as great as you suppose the mis-timing of our Baptism to be and would you be rejected for it 2. Is this norrowness of special loving Communion answerable to the Principles of Universal Redemption and Grace wherein I suspect you go beyond me 3. Have you well considered that God's Unity is the first of his Attributes next his Being The Lord our God is one God And so the Unity of the Church is next the very Essence of it so to be regarded and maintained The Unity cannot be destroyed without destroying the Essence and therefore many Truths and Duties must be put behind the Churches Unity when accidentally the use of them is made inconsistent with it 4. It hath been the common frame of the Church since the Apostles days till of late to consist of a mixture one half baptized at Age being converted at Age from Infidelity and their Baptism before neglected and the other half that were born of Christian Parents baptized in Infancy And both sorts lived in Peace and Love and no Church History that ever I read doth give us any the least intimation that ever these two Sorts disagreed hereupon or accused one anothers way or made it any occasion of a Division And will you advance Knowledge and Holiness in the end of the World by advancing Uncharitableness and Division 5. Bethink you with sobriety as before the Lord if you had lived in the Church in the second third fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth Century or lower in all which though many were baptized at Age being not Christians by any Infant Covenant yet no Writer that ever I saw doth tell us of one Church or one Pastor no nor of one Man that was a Catholick Christian no nor of one Heretick that I remember that was against the lawfulness of Infant Baptism I say if you had then lived would you have separated from all the Churches on Earth What! from the Universal Church in your Communion or would you have had all these Ages have laid by all instituted Church Order and Worship The consequences of this would rise so high that I will not name them to you Only I would further ask you 6. If you think their Baptism a Nullity and consequently the instituted Churches Ministry Order Sacraments Nullities that were used in all those Ages the seventh eighth ninth tenth c. when almost none but such as were baptized in Infancy were Church Members how far then do you differ from the Seekers that tell us All these were lost in the Apostacy 2. And how easily will a Papist trample you in the dirt and laugh you to scorn when he puts you to prove Successive Church and Ordinances and Ministry 3. And what advantage give you the Infidels and our own Remnants of Infidelity to deny the Head by so far denying the Body 7. Would you have a Unity and do you ever expect such a thing or not If not If you do on what terms do you expect it You can never with the least Encouragement of Reason expect that all should deny Infant Baptism and come to you These late years have given you as much advantage as you can well expect and yet you see the most of the Godly dare not come to you If therefore you will neither come to them in Judgment nor yet close in Communion with Christians of different Judgment what do you but give up Unity as desperate and fix in your divided State 8. And will you give the Papist Disputants so much Encouragement as to confess to them that among us there is not any hopes of Unity or loving Christian Church Communion I have been longer than I intended upon these Reasonings but it is because I would not neglect you but some one of them at least may stick upon you of which success your lives declaring you so honestly impartially and happily disposed to Love and Peace I make no doubt And now to your Objections which should have been my whole Task but that I would make sure the Issue And 1. to your first Argument I answer 1. It is against you and overthrows your Cause for as ordinarily Women were admitted to the Passover without Circumcision but not without the Covenant and as in extraordinary Cases offered as of all Israel 40 years in the Wilderness the Males also were admitted uncircumcised so much more may it be now in case of Baptism 2. Either the Ordinances and Examples of the Jews about Circumcision afford us Arguments for regulating our Baptism and Communion or not If not then you urge them in
think so by your Words do they not imply it 2. If you think our Nonconformity our Duty what meaneth your Address to us as such and your Counsels aforementioned and how cometh our Silence and forsaking the Preaching of the Gospel to be our Duty during the need of so many Thousand Souls As for unwarrantable Separation and Accusation of the Parish-Churches and Liturgy we are many of us as truly though not as far from them as you If what I have written displease you it will but tell you that I prefer Truth and Conscence and the Churches Good before my very dear and much valued Friends Opinion or Will and the Welfare and Peace of his own Soul before the pleasing of him I am past doubt that you do in Sincerity seek the same thing that I and others do that is the healing of a divided People and the Cure of those Distempers which have drawn many to sinful Separations Three sorts of Schism we disclaim as well as you 1. Making Factions and Parties in a Church to the Hindrance of Love Peace and Concord 2. Separating from a Church on the Account that its Communion is unlawful when it is not so 3. Much more separating from a Church as no Church and a Ministry as none when it is not so In none of these respects do we separate or divide from the Church or Churches that we should hold Communion with 1. We separate from the Catholick Church 2. Nor from the Church of England as accidentally headed by the King 3. Nor as a number of Churches associated for Concord 4. Nor as a meer Community part of the Church Universal 5. We separate not from the Parish-Churches that have true Pastors either as no Churches or as holding Communion with them in ordinary publick Worship to be simply or commonly sinful 6. Nor would we make any Division in the Churches by unjust contention but that there are Separatists that do so and deserve all your reproof and need all your Admonitions we doubt not But by overdoing the ordinary way of undoing I doubt you have lost your labour and much worse Not but that all of us have great cause to thank you if truly you do detect any guilt of ours as well as others but if you have done much to increase the Schism and made your self guilty of it you have crost your own end notwithstanding your good meaning 1. We are not for building up any Walls of Separation some Masters of Schism are 2. We think that no Humane Churches have power to abrogate the Priviledges or Duties of the Churches of Christ's own institution Some Schismaticks think otherwise 3. We hold that Christians should live in holy Love and Peace when tolerable Differences of Opinion placeth them in divers Congregations but some Schismaticks think otherwise and make such a peevish unreasonable noise against all that do not meet with them and subject themselves to them as that their Clamour is the scandal to the Infidels Atheists and Papists making them believe that we are mad or all in pieces when we differ but in little things and so they reproach the Frailty of Humane Nature and the common Imperfection of Believers with calumniating Censures and Accusations as if they were a greater evil than they are 4. We hold that Love and Tenderness and Self-denial should pardon honest Christians for choosing such Pastours as are really most serviceable to their Salvation and their own Experience find to be so rather than unsuitable Men to say no worse that are thrust on them against their wills and that other Ministers should be glad if they will live peaceably under others and profit by them though they choose not them but some turbulent Self-seekers are of another mind and way 5. We think as is said that the Parishes are or should be true Churches and we hold Communion with them as such but some Conformists un-Church them and make them but parts of a Church and hold no Communion with them otherwise 6. We go upon certain and plain grounds in determining what Schism is as the three sorts e. g. aforesaid but so do not many Schismaticks that yet cry down Schism 1. Some of them make it Schism not to obey the Pope as Universal Monarch 2. Some make it Schism not to be subject to a true Universal Council as the Collective Head of the Church when there neither was is or ever will be such a thing in the World much less the rightful Head of the Church 3. Some with Bishop Bromhall and his Advocates and others would have the Pope to be Principium Unitatis and Patriarch of the West and so it shall be Schism not thus to submit to him 4. Some as Mr. Thorndike would have these Councils and Canons to rule us for Concord which were till the time of Charles the Great 5. Some are for Concord on the reception of the four first Councils some of six some of eight Grotius of all well expounded 6. Some hold that its Schism to disobey the King's Church-Orders and to refuse any Bishop or Minister that the King or a Patron choose for us 7. Some hold that it's Schism to obey the King in the circa sacra as aforesaid in choice of Pastours Time Place Translation Meetre c. if the Bishops or Bishop be against it and command the contrary and that these must rather be obeyed 8. Shme hold that it's Schism to separate from a Parish Church as no Church others think it none 9. If the Archbishop command one thing and the Bishop another and the Parish Pastor another and a Parent another as when to Communicate and in what Gesture Habit c. they are not agreed what Disobedience here is the Schism 10. Some take it for Schism if a prohibited Minister speak to God in Prayee or to the People in teaching them in any words but what Bishop or Bishops write them down or if he obey not a Bishop never truly chosen by the Clergy or the People even in every commanded Form and Ceremony 11. Some think it Schism if we hold Communion with those whom a Laâ-Chancellour Excommunicateth or if we deny our Communion to those that he absolveth yea if we publish not his Sentence as in the Bishop's name that perhaps never knew of it 12. Some say it is Schism if we preach in another Man's Parish be there never so great need without his consent 13. Some say it is Schism if we preach without the Bishops licence though we have the King 's or at least be Ordained even by the Bishops 14. Some say that if we be licenced it 's Schism to preach to above four in an unlicensed place 15. Some say if Person and Place be licenced it is Schism to preach without the Common Prayer 16. Some say that if the Bishop command us rebus sic slantibus to preach or meet only at midnight or twenty miles off or but once a month or if they forbid all God's
est ut res ita tempora rerum c. The Lord Bacon nameth Four Causes of Atheism 1. Many Divisions in Religion 2. The Scandal of Priests 3. A Custom of Prophane Scoffing about Holy Matters 4. Corrupting prosperity Essay 16. p. 91. * Mr. Mitchel as it s said And since this Mr. Elliot of New-England hath sent me a printed Paper of his own contriving a Healing Form of Synods for constant Communion of particular Churches * This is since published She is since married to the Earl of Argyle * Of what is since published see after-ward * Since printed twice * Since printed Since printed as Directions for weak Christians * Now dead * Publisht since the Author's Death by Mr. Ios. Read * Since Printed * Since Printed * Archbishop Bilâon frequently and fully professeth See this matter fully cleared in Le Blancis Thesis * ãâ¦ã In the Appendâx Pardon the tediousness of three or four Sections which repeat some of that which was mentioned before because it is here put in as part of my Pacificatory Endeavours only Though the Conjunction of the matter caused me to speak together of these things yet the matter of this Section and the following was for time about two or three Years after that which followeth In Ian. 1659. the Committee of Parliament the Rump as they were called Voted Liberty of Religion for all not excepting Papists Feb. 28. 1655 6. * This Writing being some how or other mistard cannot as yet be found March 10. 16â9 A Petition was sent up from Worcestershire to have ãâã the Long Parliament âate till they had done that for King and Church and Country which they were restored for But it was not delivered because Mââk that recalled them was otherwise benâ March 16. The Long Parliament âââtlolâed it self March 25. Dr. Hammond died The last Day of April 1660. I preached to the Parliament May 1. 1660. the Parliament owned the King and voted his Recall This was in the end of Nov. 1660. Iune 25. 1660. I was Sworn the King's Chaplain in Ordinary This was put in because the serious practice of Religion had been made the common Scorn and a few Christians praying or repeating a Sermon together had been persecuted by some Prelates as a heinous Crime This was added because we knew what had been done and was like to be done again This was added because that the utter neglect of Discipline by the over-hot Prelates had caused all our Perplexities and Confusions and in this Point is the chiefest part of our Difference with them indeed and not about Ceremonies This was added because abundance of Ministers had been cast out in the Prelates Days for not reading publickly a Book which allowed Dancing and such Sports on the Lord's Day a a The Form of ordering of Priests b b Ibidem Acts 20 17 18. * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so taken Matth. 2. 6. Rev. 12. â 19. 15 c c Rev. 2. 1. e e Ibidem etiam exhortationes castigationes censurae divinae nam indicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri Iudicii praejudicium esse Si quis ita deliquerit ut a communione orationis conventus omnis Sancti commercii relegatur Praesident probati quique seniores hoc norem istum non precio sed testimonio adepti Tert. Apol. Cap. 39. f f Nec de aliorum manibus quam praesidentium sumimus idem de corona militis Cap. 3. g g Dandi quidem baptismi habet jus Summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus desint Presbyteri Diaconi Idem de Baptismo Cap. 17. h h Omni actu ad me periâto ãâã coâtrahi Presbyterium Cornel apud Cyprian Epis. 46. i i Florentissimâ illi clero lecum praesidenti Cyprian Epist. 55. ad Cornel. k k Vt Episcopus nullus caââsam audiat absque presentiâ clericorum suorum alioquin irrita erit sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum presentiâ confirmetur Concil Carthag 4. Cap. 23. l l Encerption Egberti Cap. 43. m m 15. qu. 7. Cap. Nullus The Parochial Government answerable to the Church-Session in Scotland The Presbyterical or Monthly Synods answerable to the Scottish Presbytery or Ecclesiastical Meeting Diocesane Synods answerable to the provincial Synods in Scotland * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i.e. Superintendentes unde nomen Episcopi tractum est Hieron Epist. 85. ad Evagrium See Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions and our 39 Articles This is spoken of the Old Common Prayer Book and not of the New where the Doctrine in point of Infants Salvation is changed All this enclosed part was left out of the Petition as presented to his Majesty This only being inserted in the room of it And on the contrary should we lose the Opportunity of our desired Reconciliation and Union it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful Effects our Divisions would produce which we will not so much as mention in particulars lest our Words should be misunderstood And seeing all this may safely and easily now be prevented we humbly beseech the Lord in Mercy to vouchsafe to your Majesty an Heart to discern a right of Time and Judgment * * This was thus expressed in the Petition that was presented not presuming to meddle with the Consciences of those many of the Nobility and Gentry c. â â What follows in this double inclosure was omitted in the Copy presented this only being inserted in the room of it We only crave your Majesty's Clemency to our selves and others who believe themselves to be under its Obligations And God forbid that we that are Ministers of the Word of Truth should do any thing to encourage your Majesty's Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath * * This enclosed part was quite left out of the Copy that was presented * Dr. Wallis Declar. p. 11. p. 11. p. 11. p. 12. p. 12. p. 12. p. 12. p. 13. p. 14. This occasioned Mr. Durel after to say how hardly I was persuaded to let go the Place * But since it is licensed and printed called Directions for weak Christians c. Mr. Hales * Since Bishops of Chester Ely and Norwich upon enquiry of the Inhabitants since I understand that it is no such thing but that Aylesbury was well supplied either by a setled Incumbent or the Preacher of the Garison For somewhat the like Passage see Rushw. Hist. Callect 3 part Vol. 1. 134. Our Arguments Their Answer Note this great Bishop's Acquaintance with Antiquity * Here we had a great Debate they should have proved their penal Imposition lawful but I could get them to no more * This was a mistake in the Speaker or the Scribe * Frewen * Since of his death he made it his request that the ejected Ministers might be used again but his request was rejected by them that had overwitted him as being too late * Referring to something that past
Conversation amongst all Protestants and upon avoiding Divisions amongst Christ's Followers as that whatever obstructed these Concerns he was impatient of and warm against Truth Peace and Love was he a Votary to and Martyr for and hereunto did he devote most of his Life and Labours Dicam quod res est It is scandalous that there should be Divisions Distances Animosities and Contentions amongst Christians Protestants Dissenters against each other and in the Bowels of each Party But much hereof arises from unhappy Tempers Self-ignorance Confidence and Inobservance want of frequent patient and calm Conference and impartial Debates about things controverted addictedness to Self-Interest and Reputation with our respective Parties impatience of severe Thoughts and Studies and of impartial Consideration before we fix and pass our Judgment taking things too much upon Trust Prejudice against those whose Sentiments are different from our own laying too great a weight upon eccentrical and meaner things prying too boldly into and talking too confidentlyâ about things unrevealed or but darkly hinted to us in the Sacred Text and representing the Doctrine of our Christianity in our own Artificial Terms and Schemes and so confining the Interest Grace and Heart of God and Christ to our respective Parties as if we had forgot or had never read Rom. 14. 17 19. Acts 10 34 35. Gal. 6. 14 16. and Eph. 4. 1 ãâã That Person whose Thoughts Heart and Life shall meet me in the Spirit and Reach of 2 Pet. I. I II. shall have my hearty Love and Service although he determine never to hear me Preach or to Communicate with me all his days through the Impression of his Education or Acquaintance though at the same time I should be loth that such a narrow Thought should be the Principle Poise and Conduct of my Church Fellowship Spirit or Behaviour God hath I doubt not his eminent and valuable Servants inâall Parties and Perswasions amongst Christians An heavenly mind and Life is all in all with me I doubt not but that God hath many precious faithful Ones amongst the Men called Independants Presbyterians ââânabapâists Prelatical And I humbly judge it reasonable that 1. The Miscarriages of former Parties be not imputed to succeeding Parties who own not nor abet their Principles as productive of such practical Enormities 2. That the Miscarriages of some particular Persons be not charged on the rest until they profess or manifest their Approbation of them 3. That what is repented of and pardoned be not so received as to foment Divisions and Recriminations 4. That my trust from Mr. Baxter and faithfulness to him and to Posterity be not constrâed as the Result of any Spleen in me against any Person or Party mentioned in this following History 5. And that we all value that in one another which God thinks lovely where he forms and finds it And 6. O Utinam that we form no other Test and Canon of Christian Orthodoxy and Saving Soundness and Christian Fellowship than what the Sacred Scriptures give us as Explicatory of the Christian Baptismal Creed and Covenant as influencing us into an holy Life and heavenly Hopes and Joys I thought once to have given the World a faithful Abstract of Mr Baxter's Doctrines or Judgment containing the Sence of what he held about Justification Faith Works c. and yet laying aside his Terms of Art that hereby the Reader might discern the Consonancy of it to the Sacred Text and to the Doctrinal Confessions of the Reformed Churches his Consistence with himself and his nearer approach in Judgment to those from whom he seems to differ much than the prejudiced Adversaries are aware of But this must be a Work of Time if not an Enterprize too great for me as I justly fear it is But I will do by him as I would do by others and have them do by me viz. give him his owned Explication of the Baptismal Creed and Covenant as a fit Test to try his Judgment by and if his Doctrines in his other Treatises consist herewith others perhaps will see more Cause to think him Orthodox in the most weighty Articles and less to be suspected notwithstanding his different Modes of Speech The Things professedly believed by him as may be seen in his Christian Concord were THat there is one only God The Father Infinite in Being Wisdom Goodness and Power the Maker Preserver and Disposer of all things and the most just and merciful Lord of All. That Mankind being fallen by Sin from God and Happiness under the Wrath of God the Curse of his Law and the Power of the Devil God so loved the World that he gave his only Son to be their Redeemer who being God and one with the Father did take to him our Nature and became Man being conceived of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary and born of her and named JESUS CHRIST and having liv'd on Earth without Sin and wrought many Miracles for a witness of his Truth he gave up himself a Sacrifice for our Sins and a Ransom for ãâã in suffering Death on the Cross and being buried he is Lord of all in Glory with the Father And having ordained that all that truly repent and believe in him and love him above all things and sincerely obey him and that to the Death shall be saved and they that will not shall be damned and commended his Ministers to preach the Gospel to the World He will come again and raise the Bodies of all Men from Death and will set all the World before him to be judged according to what they have done in the Body and he will adjudge the Righteous to Life Everlasting and the rest to Everlasting Punishment which shall be Executed accordingly That God the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and the Son was âânt from the Father by the Son to inspire and guide the Prophets and Apostles that they might fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ And by multitudes of Evident Miracles and wonderful Gifts to be the great Witness of Christ and of the Truth of his Holy Word And also to dwell and work in all that are drawn to believe that being first joyned to Christ their Head and into one Church which is his Body and so pardoned and made the Sons of God they may be a peculiar People sanctified to Christ and may mortifie the Fesh and overcome the World and the Devil and being zealous of good Works may serve God in Holiness and Righteousness and may live in the special Love and Communion of the Saints and in hope of Christ's Coming and of Everlasting Life In the belief hereof the Things consented to were as followeth THat he heartily took this one GOD for his only GGD and his chief Good and this IESUS CHRIST for his only Lord Redeemer and Saviour and this HOLY GHOST for his Sanctifier and the Doctrine by him revealed and sealed by his Miracles and now contained in the Holy Scriptures he took for the Law of God
conciliatory endeavours and yet gives an Account how he resolv'd to set upon reconciling work in order whereto the Worcestershire Agreement was form'd which was not altogether without its success from p. 139. to p. 150. Nineteen Quaeries about Ecclesiastical Cases drawn up by an Episcopal man in the late Times and convey'd to him by Sir Ralph Clare with his Answer to them from p. 151. to p. 157. A Letter of his in answer to Sir Ralph Clare his Parishioner who would not Communicate with him unless he might receive kneeling and on a distinct day and not with those who received sitting p. 157 c. A Letter from the associated Ministers in Cumberland and Westmoreland to the associated Ministers in Worcestershire p. 162. an Answer to it p. 164. Many other Counties begin to associate for Church Discipline the Articles agreed to by the Ministers in Wiltshire p. 167. A Letter from the associated Churches in Ireland to Mr. Baxter and the associated Ministers in Worcestershire p. 169. the Answer to it p. 170. A second Letter from the Irish Ministers p. 171. A Letter of Mr. Baxter's to Bishop Brownrigg about an Agreement between the Presbyterian and Episcopal Party p. 172. The Bishops Reply to it containing his Iudgment about Church Government p. 174 175 c. Mr. Baxter's Notes on the Bishop's Answer p. 178. After this he upon occasion of the passing of Letters between him and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen two Anabaptist Freachers to disswade them from separation propounds and answers this Question Whether it be our duty to seek peace with the Anabaptists and proposes a method of managing a Pacificatory attempt with them p. 181. c. A personal Treaty of his with Mr. Nye about an Agreement with the Independants and a long Letter to him about that affair p. 188 c. Proposals made by him in Cromwell's time for a general holy Communion Peace and Concord between the Churches in these Nations without any wrong to the Consciences or Liberties of Presbyterians Congregational Episcopal or any other Christians p. 191 c. The occasion of choosing a Committee of Divines to make a Collection of Fundamentais of which Mr. Baxter was one p. 197. His own Iudgment of Fundamentals ib. and p. 198. The proceedings of the Divines in this matter p. 199. Papers deliver'd in by Mr. Baxter to them on points wherein he differ'd from them p. 200 c. An Account of his preaching before Cromwell and personal Conference with him afterwards in private and a second Conference with him in his Privy Council p. 205. of what past between him and Dr. Nich. Gibbon ibid. Of his Acquaintance and Conversation with Archbishop Usher while he continued at my Lord Broghil's where a particular account is given of the Learned Primates Iudgment about Universal Redemption about Mr. Baxter's terms of Concord and about the validity of Presbyters Ordination p. 206. Of the Carriage of the Anabaptists after the Death of Cromwell p. 206. and the general Confusion of the Nation p. 207. New Proposals he made to Dr. Hammond about an Agreement with the Episcopal Party by Sir Ralph Clare's means p. 208. Dr. Hammond's Answer and Mr. Baxter's Reply p. 210. Of General Monk's march to London and the common sentiments and expectations of people at that time p. 214. of his preaching before the Parliament the day before they voted the King back p. 217. of his Conference with Dr. Gauden and Dr. Morley p. 218. What past between one William Johnson a Papist and Mr. Baxter in particular with reference to the Lady Anne Lindsey daughter of the Countess of Balcarres whom he had seduc'd and afterwards stole away and convey'd into France p. 218 c. Two Letters of Mr. Baxter's to this young Lady one before she was stole away and the other while she was in a Nunnery in France p. 221 c. Of peoples various expectations upon the King's return p. 229. Of some of the Presbyterian Ministers being made the King's Chaplains and Mr. Baxter among the rest ibid. several of them together wait on his Majesty The sum of Mr. Baxter's Speech to the King p. 230. the King receives them graciously and orders them to bring in Proposals in order to an Agreement about Church Government p. 231. where upon they daily met at Sion Colledge for Consultation p. 232. Their first Address and Proposals to his Majesty about Concord p. 232 c. the brief sum of their judgment and desires about Church Government p. 237. Bishop Usher's Model of Government to which they all agreed to adhere p. 238. Five Requests made to the King by word of mouth suiting the Circumstances of Affairs at that time p. 241. The Answer of the Bishops to the first Proposals of the London Ministers p. 242. the Ministers defence of their fore-mention'd Proposals p. 248. His Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs as it was first drawn up and shown to the Ministers by the Lord Chancellour p. 259. The Ministers Petition to the King upon their sight of the first draught of this Declaration p. 265. the Alterations of the Declaration which they offer'd p. 275. a Conference between several Divines of each side about the fore-mention'd Declaration before the King at the Lord Chancellours and the effects of it p. 276. of the coming out of the Declaration with amendments p. 279. Of Mr. Baxter's preaching before the King and printing his Sermon and the false accusation of him by Dr. Pierce on that occasion p. 279. a Character of Dr. Pierce and Account of his enmity against Mr. Baxter p. 280. of the offer of a Bishoprick made to Mr. Baxter with some others who joyntly demurr'd about the acceptance p. 281. Mr. Baxter refuses to accept the terms proposed in the fore-mention'd Declaration and sends a Letter to the Lord Chancellour containing his Reasons p. 282. Dr. Regnolds accepts a Bishoprick other Preferments offer'd to other Presbyterians who refus'd them p. 283. An Address of Thanks to the King from the London Ministers for his Declaration p. 284. a Censure of this Declaration p. 286. How well this Declaration was put in Execution p. 287. Mr. Crofâon's writing for the Covenant and imprisonment in the Tower p. 288. A false report spread about of Mr. Baxter by Mr. Horton Chaplain to the Earl of Manchester p. 289. an account of Mr. Baxter's transactions with the Lord Chancellour about the Affairs of New-England p. 290. a Letter to Mr. Baxter from the Court and Government of New-England p. 291. another from Mr. Norton p. 292. another from Mr. Elliot p. 293. Mr. Baxter's answer to Mr. Elliot p. 295. Mr. Baxter's endeavours to be restor'd to the People of Kidderminster from whom he was separated upon the return of the sequestred Ministers to their Livings p. 298. A Letter of my Lord Chancellours to Sir Ralph Clare about Mr. Baxter's return to Kidderminster p. 299. Of the Rising of the Fifth Monarchy men under Venner about this time p. 301.
indeed I had such clear Convictions my self of the madness of secure presâmptuous Sinners and the unquestionable Reasons which should induce men to a holy Life and of the unspeakable greatness of that Work which in this hasty Inch of Time we have all to do that I thought that Man that could be ungodly if he did but hear these things was fitter for Bedlam than for the Reputation of a sober rational Man And I was so foolish as to think that I had so much to say and of such Convincing Evidence for a Godly Life that Men were scarce able to withstand it not considering what a blind and sensless Rock the Heart of an obdurate Sinner is and that old Adam is too strong for young Luther as he said But these Apprehensions determined my choice § 17. Till this time I was satisfied in the Matter of Conformity Whilst I was young I had never been acquainted with any that were against it or that questioned it I had joyned with the Common-Prayer with as hearty âervency as afterward I did with other Prayers As long as I had no Prejudice against it I had no stop in my Devotions from any of its Imperfections At last at about 20 years of Age I became acquainted with Mr. Simmonds Mr. Cradock and other very zealous godly Nonconformists in Shrewsbury and the adjoyning parts whose fervent Prayers and savoury Conference and holy Lives did profit me much And when I understood that they were People prosecuted by the Bishops I found much prejudice arise in my heart against those that persecuted them and thought those that silenced and troubled such Men could not be the genuine Followers of the Lord of Love But yet I resolved that I would study the Point as well as I was able before I would be confident on either side And it prejudiced me against the Nonconformists because we had but one of them near us one Mr. Barnel of Uppington who though he was a very honest blameless Man yet was reputed to be but a mean Scholar when Mr. Garbet and some other Conformists were more Learned Men And withal the Books of the Nonconformists were then so scarce and hard to be got because of the danger that I could not come to know their reasons Whereas on the contrary side Mr. Garbet and Mr. Samuel Smith did send me Downham Sprint Dr. Burges and others of the strongest that had wrote against the Nonconformists upon the reading of which I could not see but the Cause of the Conformists was very justifiable and the reasoning of the Nonconformists weak Hereupon when I thought of Ordination I had no Scruple at all against Subscription And yet so precipitant and rash was I that I had never once read over the Book of Ordination which was one to which I was to Subscribe nor half read over the Book of Homilies nor exactly weighed the Book of Common-Prayer nor was I of sufficient Understanding to determine confidently in some Controverted Points in the 39 Articles But my Teachers and my Books having caused me in general to think the Conformists had the better Cause I kept out all particular Scruples by that Opinion § 18. At that time old Mr. Richard Foley of Stourbridge in Worcestershire had recovered some alienated Lands at Dudley which had been lest to Charitable Uses and added something of his own and built a convenient new School-House and was to choose his first School-Master and Usher By the means of Iames Berry who lived in the House with me and had lived with him he desired me to accept it I thought it not an inconvenient Condition for my Entrance because I might also Preach up and down in Places that were most ignorant before I presumed to take a Pastoral Charge to which I had no inclination So to Dudley I went and Mr. Foley and Iames Berry going with me to Worcester at the Time of Ordination I was Ordained by the Bishop and had a Licence to teach School for which being Examined I Subscribed § 19. Being settled with an Usher in the new School at Dudley and living in the House of Mr. Richard Foley Junior I there preached my first Publick Sermon in the upper Parish Church and afterwards Preached in the Villages about and there had occasion to fall afresh upon the study of Conformity For there were many private Christians thereabouts that were Nonconformists and one in the House with me And that excellent Man Mr. William Fenner had lately lived two miles off at Sedgeley who by defending Conformity and honouring it by a wonderfully powerful and successful way of Preaching Conference and holy Living had stirred up the Nonconformists the more to a vehement pleading of their Cause And though they were there generally godly honest People yet smartly censorious and made Conformity no small fault And they lent me Manuscripts and Books which I never saw before whereupon I thought it my Duty to set upon a serious impartial Trial of the whole Cause The Cause of Episcopacy Bishop Downham had much satisfied me in before and I had not then a sufficient Understanding of the difference betwixt the Arguments for an Episcopacy in general and for our English Diocesans in particular The Cause of Kneeling at the Sacrament I studied next and Mr. Paybody fully satisfied me for Conformity in that I turned over Cartwright and Whitgift and others but having lately procured Dr. Ames fresh suit I thought it my best way to study throughly Dr. Burges his Father-in-law and him as the likeliest means to avoid distraction among a multitude of Writers and not to lose the Truth in crowds of Words seeing these two were reputed the strongest on each side So I borrowed Amesius his Fresh Suit c. and because I could not keep it I transcribed the strength of it the broad Margin of Dr. Burges his Rejoynder over against each Paragraph which he replied to And I spent a considerable time in the strictest Examination of both which I could perform And the result of all my Studies was as followeth Kneeling I thought lawful and all meer Circumstances determined by the Magistrate which God in Nature or Scripture hath determined of only in the General The Surplice I more doubted of but more inclined to think it lawful And though I purposed while I doubted to forbear it till necessity lay upon me yet could I not have justified the forsaking of my Ministry for it though I never wore it to this day The Ring in Marriage I made no Scruple about The Cross in Baptism I thought Dr. Ames proved unlawful and though I was not without some doubting in the Point yet because I most inclined to judge it unlawful never once used it to this day A Form of Prayer and Liturgy I judged to be lawful and in some Cases lawfully imposed Our Liturgy in particular I judged to have much disorder and defectiveness in it but nothing which should make the use of it in the ordinary Publick
advantage to violate that which he is forced to and to be avenged on you all for the displeasure you have done him He is ignorant of the Advantages of a King that cannot foresee this These were the Reasons of many that were for pleasing the King But on the other side there were Men of divers tempers Some did not look far before them but did what they thought was best at present whether any designed the subduing of the King and the change of Government at that time I cannot tell For I then heard of no notable Sectary in the House but young Sir Henry Vane whose Testimony was the Death of the Earl of Strafford when other Evidence was wanting and of whom I shall say more anon But the leading and prevailing part of the House were for the Execution of Strafford and for punishing some Delinquents though it did displease the King And their Reasons as their Companions tell us were such as these They said If that be your Principle that the King is not to be displeased or provoked then this Parliament should never have been called which you know he was forced to against his Will and then the Ship-money should have gone on and the Subjects Propriety and Parliaments have been overthrown And then the Church Innovations should not have been controuled nor any stop to the Subverters of our Government and Liberties attempted then no Members should speak freely against any of these in the House for you know that all these are very displeasing And then what do we here Could not the King have pleased himself without us Or do we come to be his Instruments to give away the Peoples Liberties and set up that which was begun Either it is our Duty to reform and to recover our Liberties and relieve our Country and punish Delinquents or it is not If it be not let us go home again If it be let us do it and trust God For if the fears of foreseen Oppositions shall make us betray our Country and Posterity we are perfidious to them and Enemies to our selves and may well be said to be worse than Infidels much rather than they that provide not for their Families when Infidels have not thought their Lives too good to save the Commonwealth And as for a War the danger of it may be avoided It is a thing uncertain and therefore a present certain Ruine and that by our own hand is not to be chosen to avoid it The King may fee the danger of it as well as we and avoid it on better Terms Or if he were willing he may not be able to do any great harm Do you think that the People of England are so mad as to fight against those whom they have chosen to represent them to destroy themselves and the hopes of their Posterity Do they not know that if Parliaments be destroyed their Lives and Estates are meerly at the Will and Mercy of the Conquerour And do not you see that the People are every where for the Parliament And for Revenge what need we fear it when the Parliament may continue till it consent to its Dissolution And sure they will not consent till they see themselves out of the danger of Revenge Such as these were the Reasonings of that Party which prevailed But others told them That those that adhered to the Bishops and were offended at the Parliaments Church Reformations would be many and the King will never want Nobility and Gentry to adhere to him and the Common People will follow their Landlords and be on the stronger side and the intelligent part who understand their own Interests are but few And when you begin a War you know not what you do Thus were Mens minds then in a Division but some unhappy means fell out to unite them so as to cause them to proceed to a War § 39. The things that heightned former Displeasures to a miserable War were such as follow on both Parts On the Parliaments part were principally 1. The Peoples indiscretion that adhered to them 2. The imprudence and violence of some Members of the House who went too high 3. The great Diffidence they had of the King when they had provoked him On the other side it was hastened 1. By the Calling up of the Northern Army 2. By the King 's imposing a Guard upon the House 3. By his entring the House to accuse some Members 4. By the miscarriage of the Lord Digby and other of the King's Adherents 5. But above all by the terrible Massacre in Ireland and the Threatnings of the Rebels to Invade England A little of every one of these § 40. 1. Those that desired the Parliaments Prosperity were of divers sorts Some were calm and temperate and waited for the Fruits of their Endeavours in their season And some were so glad of the hopes of a Reformation and afraid left their Hearts and Hands should fall for want of Encouragement that they too much boasted of them and applauded them which must needs offend the King to see the People rejoyce in others as their Deliverers and as saving them from him and so to see them preferred in Love and Honour before him But some were yet more indiscreet The remnant of the old Separatists and Anabaptists in London was then very small and scarce considerable but they were enough to stir up the younger and unexperienced sort of Religious People to speak too vehemently and intemperately against the Bishops and the Church and Ceremonies and to jeer and deride at the Common Prayer and all that was against their minds For the young and raw sort of Christians are usually prone to this kind of Sin to be self-conceited petulant wilful censorious and injudicious in all their management of their Differences in Religion and in all their Attempts of Reformation scorning and clamouring at that which they think evil they usually judge a warrantable Course And it is hard finding any sort of People in the World where many of the more unexperienced are not indiscreet and proud and passionate These stirr'd up the Apprentices to joyn with them in Petitions and to go in great numbers to Westminster to present them And as they went they met with some of the Bishops in their Coaches going to the House and as is usual with the passionate and indiscreet when they are in great Companies they too much forgot Civility and cried out No Bishops which either put them really into a fear or at least so displeased them as gave them occasion to meet together and draw up a Protestation against any Law which in their Absence should be passed in the Parliament as having themselves a place there and being as they said deferred from coming thither by those Clamours and Tumults This Protestation was so ill taken by the Parliament as that the Subscribers of it were voted Delinquents and sent to Prison as going about to destroy the power of Parliaments and among them even Bishop Hall
had impelled him and as in a Rapture went into the House and reproveth the Members for their Faults and pointing to Vane calls him a Juglar and to Henry Martin and calls him Whoremaster and having two such to instance in taketh it for granted that they were all unfit to continue in the Government of the Commonwealth and out he turneth them And so ended the Government of the Rump and no sort of People expressed any great Offence that they were cast out though all save the Sectaries and the Army almost did take him to be a Traitor that did it § 113. The young Commonwealth being already Headless you might think that nothing was left to stand between Cromwell and the Crown For a Governor there must be and who should be thought fitter But yet there was another Pageant to be played which had a double end 1. To make the Necessity of his Governing undeniable And 2. To make his own Souldiers at last out of love with Democracie or at least to make them hateful that adhered to it A Parliament must be called but the ungodly People are not to be trusted with the choice therefore the Souldiers as more religious must be the Choosers And two out of a County are chosen by the Officers upon the Advice of their Sectarian Friends in the Country This was called in Contempt The Little Parliament This Conventicle made an Act as I remember that Magistrates should marry People instead of Ministers yet not prohibiting the Ministers to do their part And then they came to the Business of Tythes and Ministers and before this Harrison being authorized thereto had at once put down all the Parish-Ministers of Wales because that most of them were ignorant and scandalous and had set up a few iânerant Preachers in their stead who were for Number incompetent for so great a Charge there being but one to many of those wide Parishes so that the People having but a Sermon once in many Weeks and nothing else in the mean time were ready to turn Papists or any thing And this Plight would the Anabaptists and other Sectaries have brought England to And all was 1. That the People might not be tempted to think the parish-Parish-Churches to be true Churches 2. Nor Insant Baptism to be true Baptism and so themselves to be true Christians but must be made Christians and Churches in the Anabaptists and Separatists way Hereupon Harrison became the Head of the Sectaries and Cromwell now began to design the heading of a soberer Party that were for Learning and Ministry but yet to be the equal Protector of all Hereupon in the Little Sectarian Parliament it was put to the Vote whether all the Parish Ministers of England should at once be put down or no And it was but accidentally carried in the negative by two Voices And it was taken for granted that the Tythes and Universities would at the next Opportunity be voted down and now Cromwell must be their Saviour or they must perish when he had purposely cast them into the Pit that they might be beholden to him to pull them out But his Game was so grosly play'd as made him the more loath'd by Men of Understanding and Sincerity So Sir C. W. and some others of them take their time and put it to the vote whether the House as uncapable of serving the Commonwealth should go and deliver up their Power to Cromwell from whom they had received it and they carried it in the Affirmative and away they go and solemnly resign their Power to him and now who but Cromwell and his Army § 114. The intelligent Sort by this time did fully see that Cromwell's design was by causing and permitting destruction to hang over us to necessitate the Nation whether they would or not to take him for their Governour that he might be their Protector Being resolved that we should be saved by him or perish He made more use of the wild headed Sectaries than barely to fight for him They now serve him as much by their Heresies their Enmity to Learning and Ministry their pernicious Demands which tended to Confusion as they had done before by their Valour in the Field He can now conjure up at pleasure some terrible apparition of Agitators Levellers or such like who as they affrighted the King from Hampton-Court shall affright the People to fly to him for refuge that the hand that wounded them may heal them For now he exclaimeth against the giddiness of these unruly Men and earnestly pleadeth for Order and Government and will needs become the Patron of the Ministry yet so as to secure all others of their Liberty Some that saw his Design said We will rather all perish and see both Tythes and Universities overthrown than we will any way submit to such deceitful Usurpations Others said It is the Providence of God whoever be the Instruments which hath brought us into this Necessity which we were unable to prevent and being in it we are not bound to choose our own destruction Therefore Necessity requireth us to accept of any One to rule us that is like to deliver us But the generality of the Ministers went the middle way and our Consciences thus apprehended the state of our present Duty We acknowledge that God Almighty hath over-ruled in all these great Mutations and hath permitted the perfidiousness of Men and their Success And the Common Good being the end of all just Government we may not do any thing against the Common Good much less to the Destruction of it under pretence of resisting an Usurper or of Restoring him who is our rightful Governour If the Universities be overthrown the Fabricks demolished the Lands alienated the Ministry put down the Tithes sold or given to the People to engage them all to be against any means which tend to a Recovery whatever we contribute to this we do against the King and Kingdom and do but cut his Throat in kindness For we pull down the House that he may be Master of it and destroy the Commonwealth that he may be the Head of it We strengthen his Enemies by our imprudent Passions But yet we must neither do nor approve of Evil for any Good End nor forbear in our Places seasonably to reprehend it Therefore it is unlawful for us to Consent to any Governour but the King or take any Engagement or Oath of Allegiance to any But it is not unlawful for us to submit to them by living quietly in our Places and to make use of the Courts of Justice established by Law yea and to demand protection from the Usurper For his stepping into the Ruler's place and Usurping the Government obligeth him to do all the parts of a Governour 's Office while he is there and warranteth us to demand it and accept it of him but it doth not at all oblige us to obey him or consent to his Usurpation Even as we may demand Justice of a General of Rebels or a
System of Divinity which having never yet had time to write I have omitted the reprinting of them to this day But some have surreptitiously printed them against my will In my Confession I opened the whole Doctrine of Antinomianism which I opposed and I brought the Testimonies of abundance of our Divines who give as much to other Acts besides Faith in Justification as I. And I opened the weakness of Dr. Owen's Reasonings for Justification before Faith in his former Answer to me To which he wrote an Answer annexing it to his Confutation of Biddle and the Cracovian Catechism to intimate that I belonged to that Party that I thought it unfit to make any Reply to it not only because I had no vacancy from better work but because the quality of it was such as would unavoidably draw me if I confuted it to speak so much and so offensively to the Person as well as the Doctrine that it would have been a Temptation to the further weakening of his Charity and increasing his desire of Revenge And I thought it my duty when the Readers good required me not to write to forbear replying and to let him have the last word because I had begun with him And I perceived that the common distast of Men against him and his Book made my Reply the more unnecessary But for all the Writings and Warth of Men which were provoked against me I must here record my Thanks to God for the Success of my Controversal Writings against the Antinomians when I was in the Army it was the predominant Infection The Books of Dr. Crisp Paul Hobson Saltmarsh Cradock and abundance such like were the Writings most applauded and he was thought no Spiritual Christian but a Legalist that savoured not of Antinomianism which was sugared with the Title of Free-grace and others were thought to preach the Law and not to preach Christ. And I confess the darkness of many Preachers in the Mysteries of the Gospel and our common neglect of studying and preaching Grace and Gratitude and Love did give occasion to the prevalency of this Sect which God no doubt permitted for our good to review our apprehension of those Evangelical Graces and Duties which we barely acknowledged but in our practice almost over-lookt But this Sect that then so much prevailed was so suddenly almost extinct that now they little appear and make no noise among us at all nor have done these many years In which effect those ungrateful Controversal Writings of my own have had so much hand as obligeth me to very much Thankfulness to God § 164. About that time having been at London and preached some Sermons there one scrap of a Sermon preached in Westminster-Abbey to many Members of Parliament was taken by some one and printed which is nothing but the naming of a few Directions which I then gave the Parliament Men for Church Reformation and Peace according to the state of those Times which it was preached in In Oliver Cromwell's time § 165. 10. And when I was returned home I was sollicited by Letters to print many of the Sermons which I had preached in London and in some of them I gratified their desires One Sermon which I published was against Mens making light of Christ upon Matth. 22. 5. This Sermon was preached at Lawrence Iury where Mr. Vines was Pastor where though I sent the day before to secure room for the Lord Broghill and the Earl of Suffolk with whom I was to go in the Coach yet when I came the Crowd had so little respect of Persons that they were fain to go home again because they could not come within hearing and the old Earl of Warwick who stood in the Abbey brought me home again And Mr. Vines himself was fain to get up into the Pulpit and sit behind me and I to stand between his Legs which I mention that the Reader may understand that Verse in my Poem concerning him which is printed where I say That At once one Pulpit held us both § 166. 11. Another of those Sermons which I published was A Sermon of Iudgment which I enlarged into a small Treatise This was preached at Pauls at the desire of Sir Christopher Pack then Lord Mayor to the greatest Auditory that I ever saw § 167. 12. Another Sermon which I preached at Martin's Church I printed with enlargement called Catholick Unity shewing the great necessity of Unity in real Holiness It is fitted to the prophane and ignorant People who are still crying out against Errours and Divisions about lesser matters while they themselves do practically and damnably err in the Foundation and divide themselves from God from Christ from the Spirit and from all the living Members of Christ And it sheweth how greatly Ungodliness tendeth to Divisions and Godliness to the truest Unity and Peace § 168. 13. About that time I had preached a Sermon at Worcester which though rude and not polished I thought meet to print under the Title of The true Catholick and The Catholick Church described It is for Catholicism against all Sects to shew the Sin and Folly and Mischief of all Sects that would appropriate the Church to themselves and trouble the World with the Question Which of all these Parties is the Church as if they knew not that the Catholick Church is that whole which containeth all the Parts though some more pure and some less especially it is suited against the Romish Claim which damneth all Christians besides themselves and it detecteth and confuteth dividing Principles For I apprehended it a Matter of great Necessity to imprint true Catholicism on the Minds of Christians it being a most lamentable thing to observe how few Christians in the World there be that fall not into one Sect or other and wrong not the common Interest of Christianity for the promoting of the Interest of their Sect And how lamentably Love is thereby destroyed so that most men think not that they are bound to love those as the Members of Christ which are against their Party and the Leaders of most Sects do not stick to persecute those that differ from them and think the Blood of those who hinder their Opinions and Parties to be an acceptable Sacrifice to God And if they can but get to be of a Sect which they think the holiest as the Anabaptists and Separatists or which is the largest as the Greeks and Papists they think then that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's Church or at least to deny them Christian Love and Communion To this small Book I annexed a Poscript against a ridiculous Pamphlet of one Malpas an old scandalous neighbour Minister who was permitted to stay in by the Parliament so far were they from being over-strict in their Reformation of the Clergy and now is a considerable Man among them § 169. 14. When we set on foot our Association in Worcestershire I was desired to print our Agreement with an Explication of
their own Infirmity nor yet the nature of Pastoral Government which ought to be Paternal and by Love nor do they know the way to win a Soul nor to maintain the Churches Peace 23. My Soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of the miserable World and more drawn out in desire of their Conversion than heretofore I was wont to look but little further than England in my Prayers as not considering the state of the rest of the World Or if I prayed for the Conversion of the Jews that was almost all But now as I better understand the Case of the World and the method of the Lord's Prayer so there is nothing in the World that lyeth so heavy upon my heart as the thought of the miserable Nations of the Earth It is the most astonishing part of all God's Providence to me that he so far forsaketh almost all the World and confineth his special Favour to so few That so small a part of the World hath the Profession of Christianity in comparison of Heathens Mahometans and other Infidels And that among professed Christians there are so few that are saved from gross Delusions and have but any competent Knowledge and that among those there are so few that are seriously Religious and truly set their hearts on Heaven I cannot be affected so much with the Calamities of my own Relations or the Land of my Nativity as with the Case of the Heathen Mahometan and ignorant Nations of the Earth No part of my Prayers are so deeply serious as that for the Conversion of the Infidel and Ungodly World that God's Name may be sanctified and his Kingdom come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Nor was I ever before so sensible what a Plague the Division of Languages was which hindereth our speaking to them for their Conversion nor what a great Sin Tyranny is which keepeth out the Gospel from most of the Nations of the World Could we but go among Tartarians Turks and Heathens and speak their Language I should be but little troubled for the silencing of Eighteen hundred Ministers at once in England nor for all the rest that were cast out here and in Scotland and Ireland There being no Employment in the World so desirable in my Eyes as to labour for the winning of such miserable Souls which maketh me greatly honour Mr. Iohn Eliot the Apostle of the Indians in New-England and whoever else have laboured in such work 24. Yet am I not so much inclined to pass a peremptory Sentence of Damnation upon all that never heard of Christ having some more reason than I knew of before to think that God's dealing with such is much unknown to us And that the Ungodly here among us Christians are in a far worse Case than they 25. My Censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at first I then thought that their Errours in the Doctrines of Faith were their most dangerous Mistakes as in the Points of Merit Justification by Works Assurance of Salvation the Nature of Faith c. But now I am assured that their mis-expressions and mis-understanding us with our mistakings of them and inconvenient expressing our own Opinions hath made the difference in these Points to appear much greater than they are and that in some of them it is next to none at all But the great and unreconcilable Differences lye in their Church Tyranny and Usurpations and in their great Corruptions and Abasement of God's Worship together with their befriending of Ignorance and Vice At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved that a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate but now I doubt not but that God hath many sanctified Ones among them who have received the true Doctrine of Christianity so practically that their contradictory Errours prevail not against them to hinder their Love of God and their Salvation but that their Errours are like a conquerable Dose of Poyson which Nature doth overcome And I can never believe that a Man may not be saved by that Religion which doth but bring him to the true Love of God and to heavenly Mind and Life nor that God will ever cast a Soul into Hell that truly loveth him Also at first it would disgrace any Doctrine with me if I did but hear it called Popery and Antichristian but I have long learned to be more impartial and to dislike Men for bad Doctrine rather than the Doctrines for the Men and to know that Satan can use even the Names of Popery and Antichrist against a Truth 26. I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreements of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the Case of the Infidel World nothing is so sad and grievous to my thoughts as the Case of the divided Churches And therefore I am more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those Prelates and Pastors of the Churches who are the principal Cause of these Divisions O how many millions of Souls are kept by them in ignorance and ungodliness and deluded by Faction as if it were true Religion How is the Conversion of Infidels hindered by them and Christ and Religion heinously dishonoured The Contentions between the Greek Church and the Roman the Papists and the Protestants the Lutherans and the Calvinists have wofully hindered the Kingdom of Christ. 27. I have spent much of my Studies about Terms of Christian Concord and have over and over considered of the several ways which several sorts of Reconcilers have devised I have thought of the Papists way who think there will be no Union but by coming over wholly to their Church and I have found that it is neither Possible nor desirable I have thought and thought again of the way of the moderating Papists Cassander Grotius Balwin c. and of those that would have all reduced to the state of the Times of Gregory the First before the Division of the Greek and Latin Churches that the Pope might have his Primacy and govern all the Church by the Canons of the Councils with a Salvo to the Right of Kings and Patriarchs and Prelates and that the Doctrines and Worship which then were received might prevail And for my own part if I lived in such a state of the Church I would live peaceably as glad of Unity though lamenting the Corruption and Tyranny But I am fully assured that none of these are the true desirable Terms of Unity nor such as are ever like to procure an Universal Concord And I am as sure that the true Means and Terms of Concord are obvious and easie to an impartial willing mind And that these three Things alone would easily heal and unite all the Churches 1. That all Christian Princes and Governours take all the Coercive Power about Religion into their own hands though if Prelates and their Courts must be used as their Officers in exercising that Coercive Power so be it And that they make a difference between the approved
and the tolerated Churches and that they keep the Peace between these Churches and settle their several priviledges by a Law 2. That the Churches be accounted Tolerable who profess all that is in the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue in Particular and generally all that they shall find to be revealed in the Word of God and hold Communion in Teaching Prayer Praises and the two Sacraments not obstinately preaching any Heresie contrary to the particular Articles which they profess nor seditiously disturbing the Publick Peace And that such Heretical Preaching and such Seditious unpeaceableness or notorious Wickedness of Life do forfeit their Toleration 3. And that those that are further Orthodox in those Particulars which Rulers think fit to impose upon their Subjects have their publick Maintenance and greater Encouragement Yea and this much is become neccessary but upon supposition that Men will still be so self-conceited and uncharitable as not to forbear their unnecessary Impositions Otherwise there would be found but very few who are Tolerable that are not also in their measure to be approved maintained and encouraged And if the Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine Government and Worship might serve turn for the Terms of the Churches Union and Communion all would be well without any more ado supposing that where Christian Magistrates are they keep the Peace and repress the Offenders and exercise all the Coercive Government And hereticks who will subscribe to the Christian Faith must not be punished because they will subscribe to no more but because they are proved to preach or promote Heresie contrary to the Faith which they profess 28. I am farther than ever I was from expecting great matters of Unity Splendor or Prosperity to the Church on Earth or that Saints should dream of a Kingdom of this World or slatter themselves with the Hopes of a Golden Age or reigning over the Ungodly till there be a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness And on the contrary I am more apprehensive that Sufferings must be the Churches most ordinary Lot and Christians indeed must be self-denying Cross-bearers even where there are none but formal nominal Christians to be the Cross-makers And though ordnarily God would have Vicissitudes of Summer and Winter Day and Night that the Church may grow extensively in the Summer of Prosperity and intensively and radicatedly in the Winter of Adversity yet usually their Night is longer than their Day and that Dây its self hath its Storms and Tempests For the Prognosticks are evident in their Causes 1. The Church will be still Imperfect and Sinful and will have those Diseases which need this bitter Remedy 2. Rich Men will be the Rulers of the World and Rich Men will be generally so far from true Godliness that they must come to Heaven as by Human Impossibilities as a Camel through a Needles Eye 3. The Ungodly will ever have an Enmity against the Image of God and he that is born of the Flesh will persecute him that was born after the Spirit and Brotherhood will not keep a Cain from killing an Abel who offereth a more acceptable Sacrifice than himself And the Guilty will still hate the Light and make a Prey to their Pride and Malice of a Conscionable Reprover 4. The Pastors will be still troubling the Church with their Pride and Avarice and Contentions and the worst will be seeking to be the Greatest and they that seek it are likest to attain it 5. He that is highest will be still imposing his Conceits upon those under him and Lording it over God's Heritage and with Diâtrephes casting out the Brethren and ruling them by constraint and not as Volunteers 6. Those that are truly judicious will still comparatively be few and consequently the Troublers and Dividers will be the Multitude and a judicious Peace-maker and Reconciler will be neglected slighted or hated by both Extreams 7. The Tenour of the Gospel Predictions Precepts Promises and Threatnings are fitted to a People in a suffering State 8. And the Graces of God in a Believer are mostly sured to a State of Suffering 9. Christians must imitate Christ and suffer with him before they reign with him and his Kingdom was not of this World 10. The Observation of God's dealing hitherto with the Church in every Age confirmeth me and his befooling them that have dreamed of glorious Times It was such Dreams that transported the Munster Anabaptists and the Followers of David George in the Low Countries and Campanella and the Illuminati among the Papists and our English Anabaptists and other Fanaticks here both in the Army and the City and Country When they think the Golden Age is come they shew their Dreams in their extravagant Actions And as our Fifth Monarchy Men they are presently upon some unquiet rebellious Attempt to set up Christ in his Kingdom whether he will or not I remember how Abraham Scultetus in Curriculo Vitae suae confesseth the common Vanity of himself and other Protestants in Germany who seeing the Princes in England France Bohemia and many other Countrys to be all at once both Great and Wise and Friends to Reformation did presently expect the Golden Age But within one year either Death or Ruines of War or Back-slidings had exposed all their Expectations to Scorn and laid them lower than before 29. I do not lay so great a Stress upon the external Modes and Formes of Worship as many young Professors do I have suspected my self as perhaps the Reader may do that this is from a cooling and declining from my former Zeal though the truth is I never much complyed with Men of the Mind But I find that Iudgment and Charity are the Causes of it as for as I am able to discover I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church-Communion as many are that are so much for a Liturgy or so much against it so much for Ceremonies or so much against them that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their Mind and Way If I were among the Greeks the Lutherans the Independants yea the Anabaptists that own no Herisy nor set themselves against Charity and Peace I would hold sometimes occasional Communion with them as Christians if they will give me leave without forcing me to any sinful Subscription or Action Though my most usual Communion should be with that Society which I thought most agreeable to the Word of God if I were free to chuse I cannot be of their Opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Nor yet can I be of their Mind that say the like of extemporary Prayers 30. I am much less regardful of the Approbation of Man and set much lighter by Contempt or Applause than I did long ago I am oft suspicious that this is not only from the increase of Self-denial and Humility but partly from my being glutted and
for such as Age or Persecution hindered to come to the more solemn Meetings yet Churches then were no bigger in number of Persons than our Parishes now to grant the most And that they were Societies of Christians united for Personal Communion and not only for Communion by Meetings of Officers and Delegates in Synods as many Churches in Association be And I saw if once we go beyond the bounds of Personal Communion as the end of particular Churches in the Definition we may make a Church of a Nation or of ten Nations or what we please which shall have none of the Nature and Ends of the Primitive particular Churches Also I saw a commendable care of serious Holiness and Discipline in most of the Independant Churches And I found that some Episcopal Men as Bishop Usher himself did voluntarily profess his Judgment to me did hold that every Bishop was independant as to Synods and that Synods were not proper Governours of the particular Bishops but only for their Concord § 6. 5. And for the Anabaptists themselves though I have written and said so much against them as I found that most of them were Persons of Zeal in Religion so many of them were sober godly People and differed from others but in the Point of Infant Baptism or at most in the Points of Predestination and Free-will and Perseverance as the Iesuits differ from the Dominicans the Lutherans from the Calvinists and the Arminians from the Contra-Remonstrants And I found in all Antiquity that though Infant Baptism was held lawful by the Churchâ yet some with Tertullian and Nazienzen thought it most convenient to make no haste and the rest left the time of Baptism to every ones liberty and forced none to be baptized Insomuch as not only Constantint Theudâsius and such other as were converted at Years of Discretion but Augustine and many such as were the Children of Christian Parents one or both did defer their Baptism much longer than I think they should have done So that in the Primitive Churchi some were Baptized in Infancy and some at ripe Age and some a little before their Death and none were forced but all left free and the only Penalty among men of their delay was that so long they were without the Priviledges of the Church and were numbred but with the Catechumens or Expectants § 7. 6. As to Doctrinal Differences also between Arminians and Anti-Arminians I soon perceived that it was hard to find a Man that discerned the true State of the several Controversies and that when unrevealed points uncertain to all were laid aside and the Controversies about Words were justly separated from the Controversies about things the Differences about things which remained were fewer and smaller than most of the Contenders perceived or would believe § 8. 7. Yea I found that our Doctrinal Controversies with the Papists themselves were very much darkned and seldom well stated and that in the Points of Merit Justification Assurance of Salvation Perseverance Grace Free-will and such others it was common to misunderstand one another and rare to meet with any that by just Distinction and Explication did well state the Controversies and bring them out of the Dark § 9. What I begin to write about any of these Doctrinal Differences in my Aphorisms Confession Apologie c. I will now pass by and the manifold Censures and Encounters which I had thereupon and the many Manuscripts of worthy Brethren animadverting upon my Aphorisms which I was privately put to answer Because it is not such Differences that now I am to speak of § 10. I perceived then that every Party beforementioned having some Truth or Good in which it was more eminent than the rest it was no impossible thing to separate all that from the Error and the Evil and that among all the Truths which they held either in Common or in Controversy there was no Contradiction And therefore that he that would procure the Welfare of the Church must do his best to promote all the Truth and Good which was held by every part and to leave out all their Errors and their Evil and not take up all that any Party had espoused as their own § 11. The things which I disliked as erroneous or evil in each Party were these 1. In the Erastians I disliked 1. That they made too light of the Power of the Ministry and Church and of Excommunication and did not distinguish sufficiently of a persuasive Power which is but private and is founded only in the Reason of the Speaker and a persuasive Power which is publick in an Officer of Christ which Camero well calleth Doctoral and is founded conjunctly in his Authority by God's Commission and his Arguments 2. That they made the Articles of the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints too insignificant by making Church Communion more common to the impenitent than Christ would have it and so dishonoured Christ by dishonouring his Church and making it too like to the Heathen World and breaking down the Hedge of Spiritual Discipline and laying it almost in common with the Wilderness 3. That they misunderstood and injured their Brethren supposing and affirming them to claim as from God a coercive Power over the Bodies or Purses of Men and so setting up Imperium in Imperio whereas all temperate Christians at least except Papists confess that the Church hath no Power of Force but only to manage God's Word unto Mens Conscienceââ § 12. In the Diocesane Party I utterly distiked 1. Their Extirpation of the true Discipline of Christ as we conceive by consequence though not intentionally not only as they omitted it and corrupted it but as their Principles and Church State had made it unpracticable and impossible while one Bishop with his Consitory had the sole Government of a thousand or many hundred Churches even over many thousands whose Faces they were never like to see not setting up any Parâchia Government under them But just as if the Archbishopsâ or rather the Patriarchs in Cânstantiââ's days should have deposed all the Bishops in the Empire and have taken all their Charges upon themselves 2. That hereby they altered the Species of Churches and either would deâ all particular Churches and have none but associated Diocesane Churches who hold the Communion by Delegates and not personally or else they would turn all the particular Parochial Churches into Christian Oratories and Schools while they gave their Pastors but a Teaching and Worshiping Power but not a Governing 3. That hereby they altered the ancient Species of Presbyters to whose Office the Spiritual Government of their proper Folks as truly belonged as the Power of preaching and worshipping God did 4. That they extinguished the ancient Species of Bishops which was in the times of Ignatius when every Church had one Altar and one Bishop and there were none but Itinerants or Archbishops that had many Churches 5. That they set up Courts that were more Secular
than Spiritual in the manner of other Secular Courts and that the Government of the Church by Excommunication Suspensions Absolutions c. was exercised by a Chancellor who was a civil Lawyer and a Lay-man even against Ministers themselves unless for a blind some Priest did formally pronounce the Sentence 6. That the great Church Business of these Bishops and Courts was to vex honest Christians that durst not worship God by such Ceremonies as their Consciences thought unlawful and to silence able godly Preachers that durst not subscribe and swear Obedience to them and use every one of their Formes and Ceremonies and profess the Lawfulness of all this and that by gratifying the multitude of the ungodly and espousing a Cause so perniceous to the Church which multitudes of sober Christians would dislike they had engaged themselves into a way of Enmity and Violence against a very considerable Number of as able Ministers and holy Christians as any were in the Land or in the known World 7. And hereby it came to pass that the Multitude of the Ignorant and ungodly People were become the zealous Pleaders for the Prelacie and made it the Brest-work to exercise their Enmity against the serious Practice of Religion 8. And that ignorant drunken Readers unfit to live in Christian Communion were the only Pastors under the Prelates of abundance of the Churches in the Land 9. And that their zeal for Formality and Ceremonies and their Enmity to the most serious way of Preaching Praying yea and Living did greatly tend to the suppressing of Godliness and the increase of Ignorance and Prophaneness in the People 10. And lastly That they were set upon a way of uncharitable Censuring Reproaching Cruelty and Force for the carrying on of so ill a Cause wherein their carnal Interest did evidently manage a War against the Interest of Christ and Godliness and the Souls of Men. § 13. 3. In the Presbyterian way I disliked 1. Their Order of Lay-Elders who had no Ordination nor Power to Preach nor to administer Sacraments For though I grant that Lay-Elders or the Chief of the People were oft imployed to express the Peoples Consent and preserve their Liberties yet these were no Church-Officers at all nor had any Charge of private Oversight of the Flocks And though I grant that one Church had oft more Elders than did use to preach and that many were most employed in private Oversight yet that was but a prudent dividing of their Work according to the Gifts and parts of each and not that any Elders wanted Power of Office to preach or Administer Sacraments when there was Cause 2. And I disliked the Course of some of the more rigid of them that drew too near the way of Prelacie by grasping at a kind of secular Power not using it themselves but binding the Magistrates to confiscate or imprison Men meerly because they were excommunicate and so corrupting the true Discipline of the Church and turning the Communion of Saints into the Communion of the Multitude that must keep in the Church against their Wills for fear of being undone in the World When as a Man whose Conscience cannot feel a just Excommunication unless it be back'd with Confiscation or Imprisonment is no fitter to be a Member of a Christian Church in the Communion of Saints than a Corps is to be a Member of a Corporation It 's true they claim not this Power as Iure Divino though some say that the Magistrate is bound to execute these Penalties on Men meerly as excommunicate nor no more do the Prelates when yet the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo is the Life of all their Censures But both Parties too much debase the Magistrate by making him their meer Executioner when as he is the Iudge where-ever he is the Executioner and is to try each Cause at his own Barr before he be obliged to punish any and they corrupt the Discipline of Christ by mixing it with secular Force and they reproach the Keys or Ministerial Power as if it were a Leaden Sword and not worth a Straw unless the Magistrates Sword enforce it And what then did the Primitive Church for Three hundred Years And worst of all they corrupt the Church by forcing in the Rabble of the unfit and unwiling and thereby tempt many Godly Christians to Schisms and dangerous Separations In all this I deny not but that the Magistrate must restrain all sorts of Vice But not as a Hangman only that executeth the Judgment of another nor eo Nomine to punish a Man because he is Excommunicate that is most heavily punished already by others Till Magistrates keep the Sword themselves and learn to deny it to every angry Clergyman that would do his own Work by it and leave them to their own Weapons the Word and Spiritual Keys valeant quantum valere possunt the Church shall never have Unity and Peace hucusque probatum est 3. And I disliked some of the Presbyterians that they were not tender enough to dissenting Brethren but too much against Liberty as others were too much for it and thought by Votes and Number to do that which Love and Reason should have done 4. And when the Independents said A Worshiping Church and a Governed Church is and must be all one And the Presbyterians said They may be all one though it be not necessary yet in their Practice they would have so setled it that they should no where be all one but ten or twelve worshipping Churches should have made one Governed Church which prepared the way to the Diocesane Frame though I confess it is incomparably better because ten or Twelve Churches is not so many as a thousand or many hundred and because the Pastor of every Church had the Government of his own Flock in Conjunction with the Presbytery or Synod though not alone § 14. 4 And in the Independent way I disliked many things As 1. That they made too light of Ordination 2. That they also had their Office of Lay-Eldership 3. That they were commonly Stricter about the Qualification of Church Members than Scripture Reason or the Practice of the Universal Church would allow not taking a Man 's bare Profession as Credible as a sufficient Evidence of his Title to Church Communion unless either by a holy Life or the Particular Narration of the Passages of the Work of Grace he satisfied the Pastors yea and all the Church that he was truly Holy whereas every Man's Profession is the valid Evidence of the thing professed in his Heart unless it be disproved by him that questioneth it by proving him guilty of Heresies or Impiety or Sins inconsistent with it And if once you go beyond the Evidence of a serious sober Confession as a credible and sufficient sign of Title you will never know where to rest but the Churches Opinion will be both Rule and Judge and Men will be let in or kept out according to the various Latitude of Opinions
no fixing any more Diocesses in the World than Twelve or Thirteen and whoever since pretended to succeed them in those Twelve or Thirteen Diocesses 3. And if following Bishops or Princes fixt Diocesses that is no divine nor unalterable Law 4. We never read that an Apostle claimed any Diocess as proper to him or forbad any other to officiate in it or blamed them for so doing 5. It is certain that while they went themselves from Country to Country they fixed Bishops to every Church or City Act. 14. 23. Yit 1. 5 6. Ad 9. 1. The Apostles fixed not Bishops of the lowest Rank Vicatim nor Rigionatim but in every Church which was then in every City where were Christians even the same Church that had Deacons and Presbyters fixed 2. Bishops preached to Infidels to whom they were not Bishops but Preachers 3. The Christians of neighbour Villages came to the City-Church and when they had Oratories or Chappels there it made them not another Parish and excluded not such from personal Communion with the Bishops Church nor extended to such as by Distance or Numbers were uncapable of such personal Communion 4. Titus was either an ambulatory Evangelist to go about as the Apostles gathering and Setling Churches as I think or if fixed he was an Archbishop who was to settle Bishops under him in every City as Dr. Hammond judged It followeth not that a meer Bishop may have a Multitude of Churches because an Archbishop may who hath many Bishops under him 5. As the Magnitude of human Body so also of a particular Church hath its Limitation suited to its Ends Communion by Delegates or Officers only is the Case of many Churches associated But Personal Communion in Doctrine Worship Conversation and Discipline is the End of each particular Church and if you extend the Form to more than are capable of that End even to many such Societies by so doing the Species is changed § 38. About this time a reverend learned Brother Mr. Martin Iohnson being of the Judgment of Dr. Hammond and Dr. Gunning and yet a Lover of all honest peaceable Men and constant at our Meetings Lectures and Disputations was pleased to write to me about the Necessity of Episcopal Ordination I maintained that it was not necessary ad esse Ecclesiae and that he might be a true Minister who was ordained by Presbyters and that in Cases of Necessity it was a Duty to take Ordination from them He opposed this with Modesty and Judgment being a very good Logician till at last he yielded to the Truth These Letters with their Answers are added in the Appendix § 39. A little after this an Accident fell out that hindered our Concord with the Episcopal Party and is pretended at this Day by many to justifie the Silencing of all the Ministers that were afterward put out Oliver Cromwell who then usurped the Government being desired by some to forbid all Ministers of all Parties whatsoever to officiate who were notoriously insufficient or scandalous taketh hence Occasion to put in with the rest all those that took part with the King against the Parliament and so by offending them hindred our Agreement with them which provoked me then to protest against it and publish my Judgment against the hindering of any Man to preach the Gospel upon the Ground of such Civil Controversies as those § 40. And about the same time Experience in my Pastoral Charge convinced me that publick Preaching is not all the ordinary Work of a faithful Minister and that personal Conference with every one about the State of their own Souls together with Catechising is a Work of very great Necessity For the Custom in England is only to catechise the younger sort and that but by teaching them the Words of the Catechism in the Liturgy which we thought besides the Doctrine of the Sacrament had little more explicatory than the Words themselves of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue Therefore I propounded the Business to the Ministers and they all upon Debate consented that I should âârn our brief Confession into a Catechism and draw up a Form of Agreement for the Practising of that Duty I drew up the Catechism in Two leaves in 8 vâ comprehending ãâã is necessary to be believed consented to and practised in as narrow â room and just a Method as I thought agreeable to the Peoples Understandings And I proposed a Form of Agreement for the Practice which might engage the ãâ¦ã to go through with the Work And when I brought it in it was conseââed to and subscribed and many neighbouring Ministers of other Countries desired to join with us and we printed the Catechism and Agreement together § 41. Of all the Works that ever I ãâã this yielded me most Comfort in the practice of it All Men thought that the People especially the ancienter sort would never have submitted to this Course and so that it would have come to nothing But God gave me a ãâã willing People and gave me also interest in them and when I had ãâã and my People had given a good Example to other Parishes and especially the Ministers so ãâã concurring that none gainsayed us it prevailed much with the Parishes ãâã I set two Days Week apart for this Employment ãâã faithful unwearied Assistant and my self took fourteen Families every Week those in the Town came to us to our Houses those in the Parish my Assistant ãâ¦ã to ãâã Houses besides what a Curate did at a ãâã ãâã they ãâã the ãâã to us a Family only being present as a ãâã and no Stranger admitted after that I first helpâ them to understand it and next enquired modestly into the State of their Souls and lastly endeavoured to set all home to the convincing awakening and resolving of their Hearts according to their several Conditions bestowing about an Hour and the Labour of a Sermon with every Family and I found it so effectual through the Blessing of God that few went away without some seeming Humiliation Conviction and Purpose and Promise for a holy Life and except half a dozen or thereabouts of the most ignorant and senseless all the Families in the Town came to me and though the first time they came with Fear and Backwardness after that they longed for their turn to come again So that I hope God did good to many by it And yet this was not all the Comfort I had in it § 42. For my Brethren appointing me to preach to them about it on a Day of Humiliation at Worcester when we set upon it I printed the Sermon prepared for that use with necessary Additions containing Reasons and Directions for this Work in a Book called The Reformed Pastor which excited so many others to take the Course that we had taken that it was a far greater Addition to my Comfort than the profiting of the Parish or County where we lived Yea a Reverend Pastor from Switzerland wrote me word that it excited
them to Thoughts of practising it there though the dulness of some Pastors and the backwardness of the People were their great Discouragements § 43. But all these Beginnings which so comfortably smil'd upon us from all parts of the Land were clowded and obstructed by the proud Commotions and rebellious unquiet Humour of the Fanaticks especially the Military Anabaptists who thinking it lawful because it seem'd to set up their Sect did oppose the Ministry and trouble the Peace of the Nation and raise Stirs against all setled Government even against the Usurper whom they had themselves set up And when Cromwell was dead they set up his Son and pull'd him down again and set up others and pull'd down them and never ceased rebelling and overturning all before them till they had not left themselves a Bow to stand upon And Harrison's Party in the Conventicle called The Little Parliament as they cast out all the Ministers in Wales at once who though very weak and bad enough for the most part were better than none or so few Itinerants which they set up so they attempted and had almost accomplish'd the same in England The Independants thought that the Parishes were no true Churches and the Anabaptists thought that those baptised only in their Infancy were no Christians and so that they might have true Churches and Christians many Independants secretly and the Anabaptists openly promoted the Ejection of all the Parish ministers in England at one Vote that so they might set up the best of them again in an other way to make Men Christians and gather New Churches which they thought was better than to reform the old § 44. These Endeavours having been on foot all the time of Oliver's Usurpation and before promoted the Generation of Seekers Ranters Quakers and such others who sent forth many railing Words and Pamphlets and the Scope of all was against the Ministry which yet got ground even in these licentious times and prevailed against them and carried on their Work This was some Diversion to us while I and others were fain to dispute against Anabaptists and Quakers and Seekers and to answer their railing Invectives and to build with our Weapons in our Hands So that besides my Writings against them I seldom preached a Lecture but going and coming I was railed at by a Quaker in the Market-place in the way and frequently in the Congregation bawled at by the Names of Hireling Deceiver false Prophet Dog and such like Languge But all this in the Issue furthered our Work § 45. Before this there were two very sober Men in London Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen who were Pastors of an Anabaptist separated Church The Wife of one of them an extraordinary intelligent Woman wrote me a Letter that her Husband was in troubled Thoughts not about Anabaptistry but about Separation upon that account and that if I would write to him now it might do him good which I did and gave him many Arguments to prove that though he should continue in his Opinion against Infant-Baptism yet he ought not to make it a Reason of denying Communion with his Brethren of another Mind These Arguments met with Thoughts of his own that tended the same way and in conclusion he was satisfied Afterwards the same Woman perswaded me to try with Mr. Allen also who in conclusion was satisfied And they dissolved their Church When this was done the Men being of extraordinary Sincerity and Understanding were very zealous for the reduction of their Brethren of the Anabaptists way And to that end they had a Meeting with divers of the most moderate Pastors of the Rebaptized Churches And they desired my Proposals or Terms on which we might hold Peace and Communion with them I sent them these Terms and they entered into Consultation of them and were in a very hopeful way of Agreement I saw no likelyhood of the contrary And suddenly the Broils of the Army pulling down Richard Cromwell and setting up I know not what and keeping all in Confusion broke off all our Consultations till the King came in And since then Men dare not prosecute the Agreement left they be taken as Conspirators that do it in preparation to a Plot so unhappily are the Affairs of the Church oft crossed by Secular Interests and Divisions in the World But these two Brethren at last cast off their Anabaptistry also and are now more zealous than other Men against Independency and Separation by how much the more they smarted by it The Terms of Agreement here ensue with a short Disputation preparatory thereto The Letters that pass't on this Occasion betwixt Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen are inserted in the Appendix Whether it be our Duty to seek Peace with the Anabaptists Because I conceive it no very difficult matter to resolve this Question I shall the more briefly dispatch it Only two Terms do need some Explication 1. What we mean by Anabaptists We do not here use the word with an intention of Reproach for that doth less besee â a Disputation of Peace but we are fain to make use of it as that Name by which that sort of Men are already commonly known and distinguished from all others as not knowing otherwise how to speak intelligibly of them without using Descriptions and Circumlocutions instead of well-known Names or Titles which would be contrary to the Common Rules of Discourse The Persons called by that Name in General are all that are for the Baptizing of those who were baptized in Infancy as supposing it null or unlawful Of these there are more Subdivisions than I will undertake to enumerate As to our present purpose it may suffice us to take distinct notice of these four sorts of them 1. Those that only deny Infant Baptism and are for the Necessity of Re-baptizing 2. Those that upon this account do also gather Separated Churches withdrawing from the Churches whereof they were Members and receiving none into Communion but the Re-baptized 3. Those that with the two former do hold many dangerous Errours either Pelagian or Antinomian or any other which yet do not so overthrow the Foundation but that the Persons holding them may be saved 4. Those that had such Errours as are inconsistent with a true Belief of the Fundamentals and consequently with Salvation And among the three former sorts we must distinguish between those that are peaceable temperate and willing of Communion with us and that endeavour not the ruine of the Church in their practice and those that are unpeaceable and refuse our Communion and set themselves to root out the Ministry or to destroy the Faith or Church of Christ. 2. The word Peace signifieth several things according to the several sorts of Men that we are related to with whom we must seek it 1. There is a Peace of bosom Friendship and this we owe not to many of the Saints themselves For of bosom Friends we must have but few 2. There
from their Churches Answ. No but consent to improve the common Truths and perform our Duties even to such as differ from us in this Object 3. There is not one of an hundred of them that will consent to these Terms Answ. If they will not who can help it when we have tried them we have done our Duty and left them without Excuse Object 4. Shall we confess a Schismatical Church for a true Church Answ. Every Schism nulleth not the Church or Ministry that is guilty of it else most of the Churches in the World were nulled If they reject the Essentials of a Church they are none Object 5. Baptism is Essential to a Church The Apostle Heb. 6. 1. putteth it among the Principles Answ. 1. It is only the thing signified by Baptism that is Essential 2. The Apostle calls it a Principle because it is one of the first things taught but not because it is Essential to a Church 3. The Anabaptists have Baptism in their Churches though not of Infants Object 6. To make a League with Schsmaticks is to be guilty of their Schism Answ. True If by that League you own approve or consent to their Schism But not by agreeing with them to perform Common Duties Object 7. They are undermining the Church and Ministry and shall we seek peace with such Answ. 1. Those that we speak of are not such 2. If they were yet it is our Duty to hinder them by agreeing to moderate Ways and Common Duties Object 8. They are guilty of their Infants Damnation as much as in them lyeth by not believing their part in the Covenant nor dedicating them to God Answ. They virtually consent for their Infants in that they would actually do it if they knew the Promise Object 9. They are under God's visible Displeasure Ergo c. Answ. So far as God disowneth them we must do so but no further Object 10. We shall be reproached as complying with them Answ. Slanderous Tongues cannot excuse us from plain Duties Object 11. Those whom we should Excommunicate we may not have Communion with But the Anabaptists should be Excommunicated Ergo c. Answ. I deny the Minor taken of such Anabaptists as we have now in question Object 12. It is a scandalous Sin unrepented of Answ. 1. So is many a greater Errour which Men must not be Excommunicated for 2. It is virtually repented of seeing if they knew the Evil of it they would repent Object 13. You would have a looser Discipline than the Prelates or Papists for they would not Communicate with Anabaptists Answ. 1. I only avoid dividing rigour and cruelty 2. They have Multitudes in their Communion that know not what Baptism is nor to what use nor who Christ is whether God or Man nor many other Fundamentals Ergo Their Discipline is far looser than I desire but too partial also The Anabaptists object We are bound to propagate the Truth and if you will have Communion with us you must be baptized Answ. 1. You are bound to propagate first the greatest Truths that Salvation lyeth on and to do nothing that may hinder this by promoting your own Opinions 2. If you reject Communion with all but Anabaptists you reject all the Church through most Ages of the World And no Church no Christ and no Christ no Christians nor any Salvation 3. Blame us not if we be not easily brought to your Opinion if we had but these Reasons 1. You confess no thanks to you that Infants were once Church-Members by God's appointment and have never yet proved that he cast them out again And we must have good proof of that before we can be satisfied with your way 2. We cannot be hasty to believe an Evil and we know that it is a sad Penal Evil for Infants to be put out of the Church And Ergo we will have proof of it before we believe it 3. It must be no easie matter with us to believe that the Head and Shepherd of the Church hath de facto had a Church of a false Constitution as to the very Materials and Enterance from the beginning to this day except a few within this twenty years that troubled it in a Corner of the World and that now in the end of the World we must expect a right Constitution as if Christ had slept or regarded not his Church or been the Head of a Body which he disowned We cannot hastily believe such things I say again No Church no Christ for No Body no Head And if no Christ then there is no Christ now Take heed therefore how you unâChurch or difown the whole Church of Christ in the very frame for so many Ages An Offer of Christian fraternal Communion to the Brethren that are against or doubtful about Baptizing Infants of Believers IT is our exceeding Joy that we have all one God one Saviour one Spirit one Faith and one Baptismal Covenant one Rule of Faith and Life one End and Hope and are Members of one Catholick Church and agree about God's Worship in the most and greatest parts And it is our Grief and the Matter of our great Humiliation that we can come no nearer and that by the Remnants of our Differences the Wicked are so hardened the Weak offended our Charity hindered our holy Communion and mutual Edification disturbed our Minds discomposed and the Gospel the Catholick Church and our Saviour dishonoured Lamenting this with the rest of our Unhappiness while we are in the Flesh and absent from the Lord the Centre of Perfect Unity and Concord and knowing it to be our Duty to walk by the same Rule and mind the same things so far as we have attained and being taught of God to love one another and observing how frequently and urgently Brotherly Love and Forbearance and the Unity and Concord of Christians is prest in the holy Scriptures and Uncharitableness and Divisions condemned that as far as may be we may promote our Common Ends of Christianity and with one Mind and Mouth may glorifie God We whose Names are under-written do make this following Offer of Communion 1. To all those that joyn with us in the foregoing Profession of the Christian Faith and have been Baptized since their Infant-Baptism as thinking it unlawful or insufficient we offer free Communion in our particular Churches with leave to Enter your dissent from our Infant-Baptism into the Church-Register or Records so be it you will thence-forth walk in that Love and Holiness and that Obedience to the faithful Overseers of the Flock and that Concord and Brotherly Communion with the Church as is required in the holy Scriptures according to your power and will resist Uncharitableness Discord and Divisions and joyn with us in our Common Work for the Common Ends. 2. To all those that joyn with us in the foregoing Profession of Faith though they have been baptized since their Infant-Baptism or think that Baptism unlawful and dare not hold Local Communion with us in
our particular Churches we yet offer that we may at that distance that our Infirmities have set us maintain unfeigned Brotherly Love and acknowledge our several Churches for Christian Congregations and hold a Correspondency by Delegates or other convenient Means for the strengthening of each other and observe the Rules exprest in the following Offer 3. To all those that joyn with us in the foregoing Profession of Christianity and yet through their dissent from our Baptizing the Infants of Believers dare not hold Local Communion with us nor yet acknowledge our Churches to be true Instituted Particular Churches we yet offer 1. That we may acknowledge each other for Members of Christ supposing the foresaid Profession of Christianity to be solemnly and credibly made and Members of the Church Universal 2. And that we may converse in the World together in a faithful Observance of these following Rules 1. That we addict our selves heartily to the promoting and exercising of Brotherly Love towards one another and take heed of all things contrary thereto in Word and Deed. 2. That we addict our selves to preserve the Unity of the Church Catholick and Concord of true Christians and the Common Interest of the Godly and to farther the Cause of Christ in the World and take heed of so managing our different Opinions as may be a hinderance to these 3. That we study and addict our selves to promote the Conversion of ignorant ungodly People and the building up of the Weak and that we take great heed lest in the managing of our different Opinions or opposing one another we should hinder these Works hardening the Wicked and offending the Weak 4. That we always in our esteem and industry prefer the greater common Truths that we are all agreed in before the lesser Points that we differ in And that we take heed of so managing our Differences publickly or privately as may tend to hinder the Reception or Success of those greater common Truths in which we are agreed 5. That we publish our Agreements and profess our Christian Love and Resolutions for Peace in our several Congregations and profess there our joynt disowning and detestation of all Errours Heresies and Ungodliness contrary to the Profession wherein we are agreed 6. That we will not preach publickly for our differing Opinions in each others Congregations without the Pastor's consent nor privately to speak for them as is like to tend to the hinderance of God's greater Work in that Place nor hold any private Assemblies in one anothers Parishes which shall be more to the distracting of each others Societies than for common Christian Edification 7. That in our Preaching and Conference we will allow the greater and common Truths such a proportion of our Time and Zeal and Speech as the Nature Necessity and Number doth require and not lay out inordinately such an undue proportion of Zeal and Time and Speech for our different Opinions as shall be injurious to those Truths 8. That we will avoid in Publick and Private all unbrotherly scornful reproachful Speeches of each other especially before ungodly People And that we will not to them dishonour one anothers Ministry so as may hinder their profiting by it but will rebuke all such ungodly Persons that we hear reproaching the Ministers or Brethren of either part 9. That we will not receive into any of our Churches any Scandalous Persons that fly from the Discipline of other Churches and pretend a Change of Opinion to cloak their Scandals but will impartially hear what Accusations shall be sent in against them and proceed accordingly 10. That we will upon any Defamations or Accusations or Rumours of Injury against one another or of violating our Profession by contrary Doctrine or breaking this Agreement be responsible to each other as Brethren and will forbear divulging private or uncertain Faults or censuring or reproaching one another till we have either conferred together to give and receive Satisfaction and duly admonished each other or tendered such Conferences and Admonitions seasonably till we see they are wilfully rejected OFFERERS Richard Baxter Pastor of the Church at Kiderminster c. c. c. WE whose Names are Subscribed dissenting from Infant-Baptism heartily accept this Offered Agreement as followeth In the first Rank In the second Rank In the third Rank Optatus Adv. Parm. l. 3. p. 75. EUM qui ad Deum so conversum esse professus est Paganum vocas Paganum vocas eum qui Deum Patrem per filium ejus ante eram rogaverit ãâã enim crediderit in nomine Patris Filii Spiritââ Sancti credidit Et tu eum Paganum vocas post confessionem Fidei Siâaliquid Christiââââ quod absit unâsquisque delinquerit peccator dici potest Paganus iterum esse non potest Sed haeâ omnia vultis nullius esse momenti At si tibi ipsi consenserit quem seducis unus consensus manââ tuae porrectio pauca Verba jam tibi Christianum faciunt de Christiano Et ille vobie videbitur Christianus qui quod vultis fecerit non quem fides adduxerit Lib. 5. p. 86. Denique vos qui baptisma quasi libenter duplicare contenditis si datis alterum baptisma date alteram fidem si datis alteram Fidem alterum Christum Sidatis alternum Christum date alterum Deum Deus Unus est De Uno Deo Unus est Christus Qui rebaptizatur jam Christianus fuerat Quomodo dici potest iterum Christianus Lib. 4. p. 76. Sâ tu non vis esse Frater ego esse incipio Impius si de nomine isto ââcuero Vid. Lib. 1. Fol. 1. § 46. Before this I had occasion to make a more particular tryal for Union with the Independent Brethren I knew Mr. Phil. Nye had very great power with them and he being in the Country I desired him to give me in Writing all those things which of necessity must be granted them by the Presbyterians in order to Concord and Conjunction in the same Associations and Communion He referred me to the Debates in the Assembly at Westminster which are in print I urged him to give them me under his Hand which at that time he did not but the next Year I prevailed with him and he wrote down these two as sufficient Concessions to our desired End The first was that they might have Liberty to take Church-Members out of other Parishes And the second that they might have all Church Power within themselves in their several Congregations I asked him if I accommodated them in both these whether really they would unite with us as aforesaid And he told me that they would Whereupon I drew up this Form of Agreement following which I thought granted them both these But so as that they should be Members of constant Associations and meet with us in our Synods and that they should do this not as subject to the Government of those Synods but as using them for Concord between the Churches and so
E. g. The Time and Place of their Convention must be agreed on by them and the lesser part must yield to the greater or else by diffent no time or place may ever be agreed on So that if the greater part agree on one Translation of the Bible to be used in all the associated Churches or on one Version of the Singing Psalms it will tend much to Edification and agrees with the Scripture Commands of Unity If therefore that which they agree on seem to a particular Church or Pastor no better than another Version or scarce so good yet for Unity if it be not unlawful or like to be more hurtful than the Diversity will be they ought to concur But still be it remembred that the Churches Peace or Unity should be laid by Agreements on nothing unnecessary And therefore all agreements may not be seconded with an avoiding all Dissenters 17. Because in the great Case of taking Members from other Churches or Parishes the Exception from the general Rule of Parish Limits cannot be so enumerated as punctually to resolve each Doubt that may occur let us first lay down what Rules or Exceptions we can agree on at least this general that we will take no such Person into our Churches when it tendeth more to the hurt than the furtherance of the common Good and Christian Cause And therefore that we will first bring the particular case to the Association or at least be there responsible concerning it as we are about other Church Affairs Accordingly when any is actually offended that another hath taken a Member out of his or another's Church or Parish let the Association hear the case on both sides and if they justifie the accused there is an End if not they are to convince him or them that they go against some Rule of Scripture or Nature e. g. against the Honour of Christ and good of the Churches or christian Cause And if neither he nor they can be convinced nor brought to reform after sufficient Admonition it must be considered whether the case be small and tollerable or great and intollerable If the former we must bear with it yet professing our Judgment against it if intollerable we must proceed to disclaim Communion with the guilty and so to exclude them from the Association and common Communion which yet must not be done but in heinous cases And thus the particular cases must be tryed and concluded as they fall out for there is no laying down any Rule beforehand that will fit all cases particularly 18. Those first Associations being composed of such Pastors and Churches as are near and within a capacity of such Communion as aforesaid voluntarily combined should also hold correspondence with Neighbour Associations either by Delegates in some more general Meetings as in each County one or at least by Letters and Messengers which Communion is to be extended even as far as our Natural Capacity extendeth and the Edification or Preservation of the Churches shall require it And thus the Presbyterians and Congregational Men are agreed if they are willing If all will not let those agree that have hearts and not stay for the rest And here you see a Satisfaction to your two Demands My Question was What are the things that the Congregational must have and will insist on the denial whereof doth binder our Unity and Agreement Your Answer was in these words To manage all Church Affairs by the Elders and Brethren within themselves and without dependance unless for Advice on any other Ecclesiastical Power 2. To take in such as are qualified and freely offer themselves to joyn though of other Parishes Yet so as if a particular Church in that Parish which for the Substance is gathered according to the Order of the Gospel and the Party a Member thereof an account is to be given to the Church or the Elders of it of the Cause of his removal that it may be if possible with consent And this is all that hinders our Agreement it seems Alas 1. For the first it is granted you in terminis only in point of Ordination yield but to be Ordained by Teaching Elders which you confess lawful and others think necessary And remember 1. That to depend on other Ecclesiastical Power even for Advice is a great dependance 2. That to depend on them not as a Superiour Power but as a Link upon the Chain for Union and Communion we can never exempt you from nor will you sure desire it There is a fourfold Advice 1. An Authoratative Advice of Governours as Parents Schoolmasters Pastors to their Inferiours who are bound to obey them on a double account ratione materiae authoritatis Thus the Pastors in a Synod advise their Flocks conjunctly 2. The Authoratative Advice of one Officer to another And so as we preach to one another I think as Christ's Ministers we must advise one another 3. An Advice of a Major part among Equals in Order to Union and Concord and this is the Principal to be respected in these Conventions 4. An Advice of a private Person not authorized by Office and this binds but ratione materiae c. 2. To your second you will grant as I hope by the printed Debates that ordinarily Parish-bounds shall be the Rule for Limitation alter Parishes if they be amiss and that you 'l not swerve from this Rule but upon necessary Cause and not when it is to the apparent wrong of the Cause and Interest of Christ and you will yield to be responsible to the Association which you are a Member of concerning the Case when you are questioned And this shall agree us And why should I not add two Propositions for Peace with the Episcopal That way or the Persons are not so contemptible if you consider the Antiquity the great Difficulty their Number and Extent and the Works of many of them as to be refused our Communion though on some Abatements to them Prop. 19. Let therefore these Presbyteries of particular Churches have one to be the stated President as long as he is found fittest and let all the Associations at least where Episcopal worthy Men require it have such fixed Presidents quam diu bene se gesserint as your Assembly at Westminster had by common Consent Bishop Hall and Usher say this will satisfie but it will not without the next Prop. 20. Seeing the Presbyterians and Congregational say That except in case of necessity it 's lawful to forbear Ordination till the President be there and One and to take him with you and the Episcopal say That it 's of necessity therefore let the Case of Necessity and the Title be purposely silenced and left to each Man's Judgment but de facto let your Licet yield for Peace to their Oportet at least for some years trial And agree to Ordain none but in necessity without the President as he shall Ordain none without the Consent of the Association or at least the Elders of the
Church where he is President and where he Ordaineth if there be any left I suppose as to a Parochial or Congregational President in one Eldership you will grant this and why not to the President of the Association for Peace when he that is Ordained a Pastor of your particular Church is thereupon made an Officer in the Universal therefore others should have some care of it or else I 'le let Objections pass in silence only desire you if these two last dislike you not therefore presently to reject the rest but lay these by On these Terms in the two last Propositions Bishop Usher when I propounded them to him told me That the Episcopal Party might well agree with us and the moderate would but the rest would not To my Reverend Brother Mr. Philip Nye § 47. After this I was yet desirous to make a fuller Attempt for the reconciling of those Controversies so far as that we might hold Communion together And I drew up a larger Writing instancing in about Ten Points of Difference between the Presbyterians and Independants proving that the Differences were not such as should hinder Concord and Communion The Writing being too large to be here inserted you shall have with the rest at the end of the History Since Prelacy was restored there hath been no Opportunity to Debate these Matters for the Reasons aforesaid and many others Only I put these Papers into Mr. G. Grissith's hand who speaketh much for Reconciliation And when I call'd for them about a year after he had shewed them to none nor made any use of them which might tend to the desired Concord and so I took them away as expecting no more success § 48. About the same time the great Controversie that troubled all the Church being about the Qualification of Church Members I apprehended that the want of a due and solemn manner of Transition from the Number of Infant-Members into the Number of the Adult was the cause both of Anabaptistry and Independency and that the right performance of this as Calvin and our Rubrick in the Common Prayer would have Confirmation performed would be the most excellent Expedient both for Reformation and Reconciliation finding that the Independants themselves approved of it I meditated how to get this way of rectified Confirmation restored and introduced when in the mean time came forth a Treatise for this way of Confirmation by Mr. Ionathan Hanmer very judiciously and piously written And because it was sent me with a Request to write my Judgment of it I put an Epistle before it further to prove the desirableness of the thing The Book was very well accepted when it came abroad but some wrote to me desiring me not only to shew the usefulness of it but also to produce some fuller Scripture Proofs that it is a Duty whereupon I wrote a little Treatise that is called Confirmation the way to Reformation and Reconciliation And in my own Congregation I began so much of the Practice of it as is acknowledged to belong to Presbyters to do § 49. And about the same time while Cromwell professed to do all that he could for the equal promoting of Godliness and Peace and the Magistrates Assistance greatly facilitating the Work of the Ministers and many Ministers neglected their Duty because the Magistrate compelled not the People to submit to them and some never administred the Lord's Supper because they thought nothing but Constraint by the Magistrate would enable them to do it aright And on the other Extream Cromwell himself and such others commonly gave out that they could not understand what the Magistrate had to do in Matters of Religion and they thought that all Men should be left to their own Consciences and that the Magistrate could not interpose but he should be ensnared in the Guilt of Persecution I say while these Extreams prevailed upon the Discourses of some Independants I offered them a few Proposals suited to those Times containing those few Duties by which a willing Magistrate might easily settle the Church in a safe and holy Peace without incurring the guilt of Persecution or Profaneness or Licentiousness but having no Correspondency with Cromwell or any of his Council they were never shewed or made use of any further than for the perusal of him to whom I gave them who being one of their Faction I thought it possible he might have further improved them The Paper was this which followeth By the Establishment of what is contained in these Twelve Propositions or Articles following the Churches in these Nations may have a Holy Communion Peace and Concord without any Wrong to the Consciences or Liberties of Presbyterians Congregational Episcopal or any other Christians 1. FOrasmuch as God hath appointed Magistracy and Ministry as Functions of a different kind but both necessary to the welfare of Mankind and both for the Church and the Salvation of Men and the maintaining of due Obedience to God Therefore let not either of them invade the Function of the other Let Ministers have no Power of Violence by inflicting Corporal Penalties or Mulcts nor be the Judges though in Cases of Heresie or Impiety who is to be ãâã punished and who not but let them not be denied to be the Ministers of Christ and Guides of the Church And therefore let the Word of God be their only Rule what they must Preach and whom they must Baptize and receive into the Church and to whom they must Administer the Lord's Supper and whom they must Reprove Admonith Reject or Absolve and so for the rest of their Ministerial Work And let not Princes or Parliaments make them Rules and tell them whom to admit or reject otherwise than from the Word of God for according to this Rule we are bound to proceed whatever we suffer for it But yet as the Magistrate is by us to be instructed and guided according to the Word of God so we are by him to be commanded and punished if we offend And therefore we acknowledge it his Duty to command us to Teach and Govern the Churches according to the Word of God and to punish us if we disobey and we must submit to such commands and punishments And therefore if the Parliament see cause to make any Laws according to which their Judges and Officers shall proceed in punishing Ministers for Male-administration we shall not disobey them if agreeable to God's Word if not we shall obey God and patiently suffer from them 2. Seeing there is very much difference between an Infant state of Church-Membership and an Adult one being but imperfect Members in comparison of the other and one being admitted on the Condition they be but the Seed of the Faithful and the others Title having another Condition even a Faith or Profession of their own and one having right only to Infant Priviledges and not to the Lord's Supper and other parts of Communion proper to the Adult because they are not capable of it And seeing
the great pollution of our Churches and much of our Distraction in Matters of Church-Order is from the careless unobserved irregular Transition out of the state of Infant Membership into the state of Adult Membership every ignorant Man almost taking himself for an Adult Member because by Baptism he was made an Infant Member and hath customarily been present at Publick Worship Let the distinction therefore between Infant Members and Adult be more observed in every Parish and let the Transition out of the one state into the other be more solemn and regular under the Judgment of the Guides of the Church That no Person may be admitted to be an Adult Member but by the Minister in the face of the Congregation ordinarily after a Solemn Profession of the Faith Repentance and Resolution for a Holy Life of the Person admitted to which there must be the preparation of Catechising and of a Conversation that contradicteth not the Profession so made 1. This was the Course of the Ancient Churches who catechized Children and admitted them among the Confirmed Members by Imposition of Hands 2. The Divines of the Reformed Churches commonly own it and with for it in their Writings 3. The Episcopal Divines in the Rubrick of the Common Prayer Ordained that none should be admitted to the Sacrament till after Catechising and a Certificate under the Minister's or Curate's hand he were confirmed by the Bishop though it was done to little purpose by them 4. The Presbyterians Examination of Men before the Sacrament intimateth the like 5. The Congregational Men's trial of particular Church-Members importeth their approbation of this 6. The Anabaptists by going farther do seem to be permitted of God of purpose to awaken us to this Duty and I think they will continue to be our Scourge till this be done and this will half satisfie some among them that are moderate and silence many Objections of the rest 3. Let the Ministers approved by the State be constrained to Catechize and personally instruct and publickly preach to all the Persons in their Parishes according to their strength and opportunity in order to prepare such as are willing to learn for an Adult state of Christianity as the ancient Churches did their Catechumens And let the young and ignorant and ungodly of this Rank be compelled by some moderate Penalty to hear and confer with the Teachers and be instructed and catechized by them And let not any Ministers be suffered to administer the Lord's Supper to any that have not been admitted as aforesaid upon a Profession of Faith and Holiness into the number of Adult Members 4. Seeing a particular Church must consist of Christians cohabiting and consenting let Parishes be the ordinary Bounds of Churches so that all the Adult Members of the Universal Church and no other at Age within that Parish who do consent be Members of that particular Church into which they are first admitted or whether into both at once we need not determine And if any be taken out of other adjoyning Parishes let it be by exception from the common Rule And seeing there are many Cases in which Members may be taken out of other Parishes the Differences thereabout may be denied as is after declared Prop. 8. § II. 5. The Pastors of particular Churches have power to Teach and Rule those Churches according to the Word of God and the People are bound to esteem them love them honour them and obey them I Tim. 5. 17. I Thess. 5. 12. Heb. 13. 7 17. Therefore let them use the Power of Administring all Congregational Worship and the Keys for Binding and Loosing within their own Congregationsâ And let it be granted to them that desire it at least for Peace and Concord sake that they be not forced to Subjection to any pretending to a Superiour Governing Power besides the Magistrate 6. As particular Christians must hold Communion in particular Churches for the Worship of God and their mutual Edification so particular Churches must all hold such a Correspondency and Communion with one another so far as their Capacity extends as most tendeth to the Edification Strengthening Peace and Concord of them all and to the Publick Prosperity and the Success of the Gospel among them and in the World The whole Church being one Body must maintain the Union and Communion of the Parts and do God's Work in the greatest Concord that they can and with the best Advantages 7. This cannot de done well without Meetings to these Ends nor those Meetings be improved to the best advantage unless the Times and Places be fixed and commonly known And as the use of them is ordinary so the Assemblies should be ordinary and not only seldom in some extraordinary Cases Nor is any sort of Men so fit to manage them as Ministers who have most Ability and Leisure being wholly set apart to the Work of the Gospel It is therefore meet that there be known Times and Places of Meeting where Ministers and as many more as the Churches shall think fit may assemble Every Minister or Church according to their conveniency choosing of what Association they will be which ordinarily they should frequent and which should consist of such and only such as for Piety Ability and faithful Diligence are fit for the Ministry and such Communion 8. If it be the Judgment of some that these Assemblies have a Superior governing Power over the particular Pastors and of others that they are only for Communion and mutual Assistance they shall either keep their several Opinions to themselves or at least having professed and recorded them shall continue their Presence and Assistance to those lower ends that all are agreed upon Not to make new Laws for the Churches or any of the Members of the Assemblies to bind by a ruling Power but to consult and advise and agree nor yet to agree upon things unnecessary nor lay the Churches Unity upon such much less to exercise any magisterial coersive Power But 1. To open any occurrent difficult Cases in Doctrine or Practice that befal any particular Church or Pastor wherein they need their Brethrens Advice 2. To agree upon the best and profitablest manner of managing the Work of God in regard of undetermined Circumstances in cases where Uniformity will further the Work As for Example what Translation of Scripture to use what Version of the Psalms to sing c. 3. To communicate those Affairs of the Churches that are of common concernment to give notice of such as one Church hath excommunicated that other Churches may avoid them or else they may have Familiarity with all other Christians about them and be entred among them as Members and so Excommunication will lose its force and miss of its Ends. 4. To maintain personal Unity among Ministers by Familiarity and Correspondency and to heal Divisions and Dissentions and Estrangedness and cherish Brotherly-love 5. In case any be injuriously cast out of any Neighbour-church as for professing sound Doctrine against
some Errors of that Church or the like to consult of it that we may not also injuriously exclude him from our common Communion 6. In such cases of Error or Male-administratition to admonish Neighbour Ministers and Churches as also in case of any Abuse of their Pastors or choice of unsound heretical or ungodly Pastors or cherishing Seducers or ungodly Persons in their Churches or neglecting Discipline or faling to looseness or in case of Scandals among them or of Offences and Divisions among themselves or between them and some Neighbour-church or many the like cases the Advice and Admonitions of the Neighbour associated Pastors should be directed to them for their Recovery which cases single Ministers cannot so well be informed of nor perform their Duty with so much Advantage as the Association may 7. To concur in some Admonitions to the intractable and incorrigible of our several Parishes that they that will not hear their own Teachers through any Prejudice may be prevailed with by many and to strengthen our Hands and the Reputation of our Doctrine and common Duties with the People by our Unity and Concord 8. To help one another but especially the younger sort of Ministers to whom it may be as an Academy by Conference Disputations and other profitable Exercises and preaching they that ordinarily preach have need sometimes to hear and to have a Communication from their Brothrens Gifts as well as the People have from them 9. Those Ministers that scruple censuring any Offender without the consent of other Ministers may here take their consent and young Ministers that are unskilful in managing such Works may take Advice 10. We may here agree upon the fittest manner and season and persons and places in our helping the Congregations that are ignorant ill-provided or unprovided of Ministers or dangerously corrupted and may advise any Neighbour Churches that send to us to help them to a fit Minister or in the like cases 11. Because it is impossible to enumerate punctually the cases in which it is lawful to take Members to a particular Church out of another Church or Parish all Churches and Pastors shall give an account of any such Action to these Associations if any be offended with them Where it shall be enquired whether the Action be dishonourable to God and injurious to the publick Good of the Churches if it be not the Offence is removed If they find it be the Parties offending are to be admonished and if they give not Satisfaction it is to be enquired whether there be any thing in the Principles and manner of the Action that makes it an intollerable Offence to the Churches If there be then after sufficient Admonition and waiting the Guilty if impenitent are to be cast out of our common Communion or the Churches to resolve to have no Christian Communion with them But if there be no such heinous intollerable Ingredient we must be content only to admonish them and disown the Sin and continue Communion with them In like manner if any Scandal be raised of any Brother of the Association or if any have an Accusation against him we must hear them and he must be responsible and give account of his Ways though not as to his Governors yet as to his Brethren to remove Offence and to keep clear the way of holy Communion 12. It will be most regular and avoid the hurt of the Churches if Ordination of Ministers be either performed by these Assemblies on the Ministers to be ordained be here tried and approved and the Ordination to be performed in the Church to which he is ordained by such as they appoint or by the teaching Elders of that Church it self after their Approbation of the Person In these Twelve Particulars you may see what use there is of these Misterial Associations and Assemblies without medling with a superior governing Power and how great Reason there is that all sober godly peaceable Ministers should join in them even for communion of Pastors and Churches and the promoting of our common Work and Welfare 9. Let these Associations chuse their Presidents or Moderators and any fit Name by which they will call him and determine whether he shall be pro tempore or how long or fixed as long as he liveth and is the fittest according to the Judgment of the Ministers For this is not a case in which Men can be forced from their Liberty And if any will so far make use of his Advice as to be guided by him as none can deny him that Liberty of his own Mind so he must not seek to bind all others to the same Subjection but those that bring themselves to it by the same Estimation have their Liberty as he 10. Though it be not of necessity yet would it be of great conveniency and use if the Magistrate would be with us or appoint some Substitute to represent him in all our Assemblies that he may be a Witness of our Proceedings and see that we do no wrong to the Commonwealth and avoid all Suspicions that may be occasioned by Rumors But principally that he may see how far it is meet for him in any case to second us by his Power For as in many cases the Power of the Magistrate ought to be used to second the Ministry as to restrain Men from publishing demnable Heresies from disturbing the Churches Peace c. so we think it a vile abuse of Magistrates to require them to be the meer Executioners of our Sentences and to punish Men only because we have Excommunicated them before he know the justness of the cause As the Church or Ministers are Judges when the Question is whether such a Man is to be avoided rejected or excommunicated for Heresie or any Sin so the Magistrate only is Judge when the Question is whether he be to be corporally punished for Heresie or any Sin and therefore he must know the cause 11. As those Neighbour-Ministers that live at convenient Distance for such Communion should hold such Associations as aforesaid so the Communion of Christians and Pastors in special being to be extended as far as natural and moral capacity will permit it is meet that there be for more extensive Communion some more general Assemblies of the Ministers to be held by the Delegates of these Associations for matters that are of more general Concernment yea and that by Messengers and Letters we hold such correspondency with the Churches of Christ abroad as is necessary to promote the common Cause and the Love and Communion of the Saints 12. If these Associations should attempt any thing unjust and injurious to the Commonwealth or a corrupt Majority should grow in time to countenance either Heresy or Ungodliness or they should by Contentions among themselves disturb the Peace of the Churches and divide them and fall a railing at or excommunicating personately one another it is here the Magistrates Duty to interpose and reprehend and correct them and displace the unworthy and
Presbyterians and Episcopal Men had but before come to some Agreement they would the more unanimously join against the Fanaticks But since the War the Diocesane Party by Dr. Hammond's means was gone to a greater Distance and grown higher than before and denyed the very being of the Reformed Churches and Ministry and avoided all ways of Agreement with them but by an absolute Submission to their Power as the Papists do by the Protestants and that there is a wonderous difference between the Cause of the one Party and the other For though they are born equally capable of Government or Subjection yet all that the Presbyterians for the most part of them desire is but to have leave to worship God and guide their Flocks in ways of Piety and Concord without being persecuted for it And the Prelatical Mens Cause is that they may be the Governors of all and that no Man have leave to serve God but as they prescribe to him nor to rule his Flock but as ruled by them Yea as soon as a Man doth but side with the Men of that Opinion he presently carryeth it as if by his Opinion he had acquired a right to be the Governor of others But especially I told him that the Number of the Ignorant and Scandalous was so great which the Diocesane Party would restore and set up and the Number of the godly learned able Ministers so great which they would cast out and silence that we look'd on it as the ruine of the Church that we had not any Animosity against them that we desired no Man should be hindred in his Ministry for any thing he had done in the Wars against the Parliament But we desired that the People might have faithful Pastors and not drunken ignorant Readers as he knew in this Country they had had And that every ceremonial Difference might not again be thought a sufficient Reason to cast out hundreds of the ablest Men and put in such insufficient Persons in their steads Persecution and the Ruine of the Ministry and Churches were expected by most if Prelacie got up again and if such leading Men as Dr. Hammond would but before-hand come to Terms of some Moderation and promise to endeavour faithfully to bring things to that pass as now should be thought indifferent it would greatly facilitate Mens Conjunction against the turbulent Sectaries and Souldiers I told him he had long lived here among us and saw the worst of us he saw that our private Meetings were only in due Subordination to the Publick and that they were only spent in such Actions as every Christian might do to repeat a Sermon and Pray and propose his Doubts to his Pastor and sing Psalms and not to any Faction or Sedition and that we had not a Sectary in the Town but were all of a Mind and walked in Humility and Blamelesness and Charity toward all all which he did freely acknowledge and I asked him then whether he thought we were fit to be endured or to be supprest And whether it were not hard that Men who had prevailed in Arms as the Parliaments past had done should beg but for Liberty to live quietly by them or those that were now kept under and not obtain it But we cared little for this as it is our own Interest so that the Souls of Men even Thousands in all Countries might not be injured and undone by an ignorant vitious persecuting Ministry To this he confidently affirmed that he being most throughly acquainted with Dr. Hammond who received Letters from Dr. Morley then with the King could assure me that all Moderation was intended and that any Episcopacy how loââsoever would serve the turn and be accepted And a bare Presidency in Synods such as Bishop Usher in his Reduction did require was all that was intended Yea Bishop Hall's way of Moderation would suffice that there should be no Lord Bishops nor so large Diocesses or great Revenues much less any persecuting Power but that the Essentials of Episcopacy was all that was expected that no godly able Minister should be displaced much less silenced nor unworthy Men any more set up that there should be no Thoughts of Revenge for any thing past but all be equal In Conclusion we agreed that I should make some Proposals to Dr. Hammond containing the Terms of our Agreement and he would bring them to him for he lived but seven Miles from us and procure me an Answer Whereupon I drew up a few Proposals and Sir Ralph Clare shortly brought me back an Answer to them by which I saw that there was no Agreement that way to be made For Dr. Hammond cast all the Alterations or Abatements upon the King and Parliament when as the thing that I desired of him was but to promise his best Endeavours to accomplish it by persuading both the Clergy and the Civil Governors to do their Parts Yet I must say I took the Death of Dr. Hammond who died just when the King came in before he saw him or received his intended Advancement for a very great loss for his Piety and Wisdom would sure have hindred much of the Violence which after followed I wrote him a Reply but never sent it because the Tumults presently interrupted us The Papers on both sides were these following R. Baxter's Proposals sent by Sir R. Clare to Dr. Hammond HAving premised the Terms on which the Episcopal Presbyterian and Independant c. may maintain a Brotherly Agreement in case the Magistrate gives Liberty to them all I shall add some Propositions containing those things that we desire the Brethren of the Episcopal way will grant us as necessary to the Peace of these Churches and the avoiding of Persecution to the hindrance of the Gospel in case the Magistrate should establish their way 1. We desire that private Christians may not be hindered from praying in their Families according to the sense of their Necessities without imposed Forms nor from reading Scripture and good Books catechising and instructing their Families and restraining them from dancing and other Vanities which would withdraw them from holy Exercises on the Lord's Day And that Neighbours be not hindred from meeting at convenient times in each others Houses to edifie themselves by Godly Conference Reading repeating Sermons Prayer singing Psalms so be it they refuse not the oversight of their faithful Pastors in the management hereof nor set up these Meetings in Opposition to the publick Assemblies but in due Subordination to them and be responsible to Governors for all Miscarriages 2. We desire that the ungodly sort of People may not be suffered to make the serious practice of Godliness an open Scorn or to deride the Practice of such holy Duties as by God and our Governors we are allowed to perform 3. That the most able Godly faithful Men be Pastors of the Flocks and the insufficient ungodly negligent scandalous and Heretical be kept and cast out the Welfare of the Church consisting so much in
Duties will permit I have done my part in urging you and them with my offer till you call me unto more In the mean time Madam may I intreat you to read impartâally and deliberately 1. My little Book called The Trââ Catholick and Catholick Church c. which I shall send or bring you 2. My Preface before the Disputation with Mr. Iohnson and the Letters in the end and the Second Part and then the first 3. My two first Books against Popery The Safe Religion and The Key For your former reading of them before any doubting had made you observe the stress of Arguments is nothing if you will but now read them again impartially after your contrary Conceptions continue a Papist if you can And truly if you will not do thus much for your own Soul because Men engage you to the contrary that dare not appear to make good their own Cause I must be a Witness against you before the Lord that you wilfully resused Instruction and sold your Soul at too cheap a rate I tried when I was last with you to revive your Reason by proposing to you the Infallibility of the Common Senses of all the World and I could not prevail though you had nothing to answer that was not against Common Sense And it is impossible any thing controverted can be brought nearer you or made plainer than to be brought to your Eyes and Taste and Feeling and not yours only but all Mens else Sense goes before Faith Faith is no Faith but upon Supposition of Sense and Understanding if therefore Common Sense be fallible Faith must needs be so But methinks yet I should have hope of reviving your Charity You cannot be a Papist indeed but you must believe that out of their Church that is out of the Pope's Dominions there is no Salvation and consequently no Justification and Charity or saving Grace And is it possible you can so easily believe your religious Father to be in Hell your prudent pious Mother to be void of the Love of God and in a state of Damnation and not only me that am a Stranger to you but all the Millions of better People in the World to be in the same State of Gracelesness and Damnation and all because we believe not that the Pope is Christ's Vicar General or Deputy on Earth and dare not subject our selves to his usurped Dominions When we are ready to protest before the Lord as we shall answer it at his Bar that we would be his Subjects but for Fear of the high Displeasure of the true Head and King of the Church and for fear of sinning and Damning our own Souls And that we are heartily willing to read and study and pray and hear all that can be said for them and some of us read as much of their Writings as of our own and more and would not stick at Cost or Pains or Loss or Shame were it to travail over Land and Sea to find out that they are in the Right if that would do it and they be so indeed But the more we study the more we pray to God for his Assistance the more diligently we search we are the more resolved and convinced that their way as it differeth from ours is false and that they are the most Superstitious Tyrannical Leprous part of the Catholick Church condemning the main Body because they will not be under their abominable Dominion and will not sin as much as they We hold all that was held necessary by the Apostles and the ancient Church and we dare not make a new Faith to our selves as the Papal Sectaries have done Must we renounce both our Sense and Reason and put out the Eye of Natural Understanding and also renounce the Catholick Church and Christian Charity and step into the Throne and pronounce Damnation not only upon all the Saints of God that we have been acquainted with our selves but also on the Body of Christ which he died for even on the far greatest part of the Universal Church and all this because they will not depart from the Word of God to corrupt his Doctrine Discipline and Worship and herein obey an usurping Vice Christ must we do all this or else be judged to Damnation by the Sectaries of Rome For my part I shall be so far from fearing their Sentance that I appeal to Christ whose Body they condemn and I had rather be tortured in their Inquisition and cut as small as Herbs to the Pot and be accounted the odiousest Wretch on Earth than be guilty of being a Papist at all but especially on such hellish Terms as these If the greater part of the Church must be damned as no part of the Church it will be impossible to prove your Sect or Fragment to be the Church any more than any other Christ is the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5. 23 and to him as to its Head it 's subject ver 24. and this Body is that which is sanctified by him ver 26. And by one Spirit all his Members are baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. Did you never note where the Unity of the Body is fulliest described that Apostles themselves are made but Members and Christ only the Head 1 Cor. 27 28 29. Eph. 4. 4 5 7 11. There is but one Lord c. but diversity of gifts of whom the Apostles are the chief And when Thousands were added to the Church even such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. what made them Christians but the Baptismal Covenant and what were they Baptized into but into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Peter or Paul baptized none into their own Names nor dare the Pope himself lest his Innovation be too visible Christ hath said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. Did they ever then subject any Baptism to the Bishop of Rome Was the Eunuch Acts 8. subjected to the Pope that only saith I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and was Baptized If men could not be saved without believing in the Pope and being subject to the Church of Rome how comes it to pass that none of the Apostles preached this necessary Article of Faith Why did they never say You must believe in or be subject to the Pope of Rome or you cannot be saved Would they be so unfaithful as to hide a necessary Article Why did Peter himself Acts 2. by Baptism take Three thousand into the Church without preaching any of this Doctrine to them The Gospel professeth that he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. and that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now up steps a Man of Rome and presumeth to Reverse the Gospel and say It 's no such matter for all this they shall not be
saved unless they will be my Subjects If you say that those may be saved that Sin for want of Light I answer 1. On this account your Doctors teach the Salvation of Heathens Are those of your Church and so no otherwise of Christians than of Heathens 2. Either these wanting your Light are in the Church or out If in it then a Man may be of the Church without being a Papist which is against your Faith If out of it then it seems Men out of the Church may be saved and Christ is the Saviour of more than his Body which is against your Faith and ours 3. Who is it that hath sufficient Light if all that have heard or read the frivolous Reasonings of the Papists then your Parents and almost all of us must perish But if it be any other Light which must be had you know not what measure to give us to discern it nor ever will know and so you make your Church invisible while the Members of it cannot be known For none can know of another by your Rule whether his Light be sufficient or not And I pray you are not all the Indians of America that never heard of Christ the Members of your Church for their Light sure is not sufficient to shew them either the Pope or Christ. Hath he the heart of a right Christian that can thus damn two or three parts of all the Christians in the World for not believing in a Wretch at Rome that sometime is an Infidel himself for so was Pope Iohn 23. judged to be by the great General Council at Constance even one that believed no Resurrection which is worse than a Turk or Jew or some Heathens And it 's a wonder to me that if your own Soul hath ever been seriously conversant with God in Holy Worship you can savour and suit with the Cantings and Repetitions and Stage Devotions of the Papists and that a Latin Mass should be believed to be the acceptable way of Worship when the Holy Ghost hath so plainly and copiously disowned that serving of God in an unknown tongue 1 Cor. 14. Pardon me if I intreat you to make a deliberate search into your Heart and former Ways and try whether you conversed with God in the Spirit and were serious in your Faith and Love and Worship If you were not no wonder if an unsound superfical Religion be easily let go and such an unexperienced Heart can suit with a Canting Carnal Iudicrous kind of Devotion or if God so far forsake a Soul that was not sound and serious in the Religion once professed by you But if it was better with you then its strange your Soul can so lose its relish and its stranger that one that was a Member of Christ and in the Church and justified before should turn to a Sect that tells them they were not what they were and must come to them for what they had already And whereas all the pretence you shew me for your Change was the difference that you found amongst us Protestants and our condemning one another do you not know that in Policy greater Differences are tolerated among the Papists under the Names of divers Orders by far than any are between the Presbyterian Independant and Episcopal Protestants And that none but ungodly or uncharitable passionate People with us do deny any of these Parties to be true Members of the Universal Church If you here met with any one that doth condemn the other as no parts of the Church of Christ they spake not according to the Protestant Religion and you can no more charge us with the Railings of every Fellow that is drunk with domineering Pride or Passion than with the words of the next Scold or Quaker or Papist that you shall hear Reviling us I have said more to you than at first I intended I look on you as one about that Age when Conscience useth to receive its first serious deep Impressions and the Papists falling in with you just at that time I doubt before you had heartily received the Life of what before you professed and had time to be rooted and stablished in the Truth the opportunity served them to your Delusion That it may not prove to your everlasting Destruction shall be the Prayers and if you admit them the faithful Endeavours of Your Servant in obedience to Christ though to no Vice-Christ Rich. Baxter Dec. 1. 1660. The Answer to the Lady Anne Lindsey's Letter to her Mother Madam IT pleased the truly honourable Lady your Mother to shew me your Letter directed to her from Calice and to give me leave to send you my Animadversions upon it which I am the willinger to do because I perceive you have there contracted the Reasons most commonly used for the perverting of the Ignorant and which its likely have prevailed most with your self You must give me leave to be free and plain with you in the Matters of God and of Salvation I think it meet to leave the first part of your Letter of the Point of Obedience to your Mother's Animadversions It is the Doctrinal Part that I shall speak to You say that Heresies against Faith expressed by the Name of Sects cut us off from Heaven and that an Aâathema is on them that preach any other Doctrine than what was preached by the Apostles How far Heresie cuts off from the Church I have distinctly shewed you in the end of my Book against Mr. Iohnson on that Question but while you expect your Mother should consider of your Reasons you will not your self peruse an Answer to them which before was tendered you whom then can you blame if your Soul be cheated Briefly you err in Confounding Sects and Heresies which are not the same Heresies indeed which are false Doctrines practically inconsistent with the Essentials of Christian Faith do cut Men off from a state of Life or shew them to be Aliens but lesser Errours called Heresies by ignorant or uncharitable Men do un-Church none Herein I plead for you for if they did then wo to the Church of Rome that hath so many Errours And if it be damnable to be a Sect all Papists must be damned they being as certainly a Sect as there is any in the World A corrupt part of the Universal Church condemning the rest and pretending to be it self the whole is a Sect or Party of Schismaticks but such are the Papists Therefore they are a Sect c. But this is not the worst You consequently Anathematize all Papists by your Sentance for Heresies by your own Sentance cut off Men from Heaven But Popery is a bundle of Heresies Therefore it cuts off Men from Heaven The minor I prove according to your Churches Principles that Doctrine is Heresie which is contrary to a point of Faith But many of the Papists Doctrines are contrary to Points of Faith Ergo c. To pass by now all those Points of Popery which are contrary to what the Holy
Scripture revealeth for us to believe which are many I only instance in the Point of Sovereignty is contrary to the Determination of our General Councils That which is contrary to what a General Council pronounceth to be believed is in the Papists sence a Heresie But that the Pope is above a General Council and that a General Council is above the Pope are both determined to be believed by General Councils The first by the Councils at the Laterane and Florence and the second by the Councils at Constance and Basil They are both Heresies therefore because they are both against General Councils and they are both Points of Popery because both determined in General Councils as I have proved in my Key c. If you will peruse a Catalogue in the End of my Book called The Safe Religion or the Thirty two Novelties mentioned in my Key pag. 142 143 144. you will see whether Popery be Error If any other Doctrine contrary ãâã Christ's do infer an Anathema then everlasting Woe to Papists And here you may see the Safety of the true Catholicks that have rejected Popery Our Religion is all contained in the Holy Scripture we profess to have no other Rule and you charge us not that I know of with believing too much by holding any positive Error but with believing too little because we believe not your supernumerary Articles And therefore you cannot say that we teach any other Doctrine than Christ's though you fancy that we teach not all because we teach not your Traditions But on the contrary we prove that you teach another Doctrine and many such which Christ never delivered to the Church But yet to abate your severe Selâcondemnation let me excuse you thus far as to say that you do it upon mistake For Gal. 1. saith not Let him be accursed that preacheth another Doctrine but another Gospel While it is the same Gospel in the Essentials that is preached and believed this Anathema belongs not even to you that err till you come to contradict the Essence and make it another Gospel as well as another Doctrine If you have made it your whole business till seventeen Years of Age to pray to God to direct you to follow his Doctrine it 's like that I and many another have made it at least as much of our Business till forty six Years of Age as ever you did and with better Advantage and yet are as confident of the Falseness of your Doctrine as we are that the Earth doth bear us here therefore you are not beforehand with us But what have you found that cheated or frighned you into Popery 1. The variety of Iudgments But you never found the far greater variety among Papists You never read the voluminous Dispute between the Dominicanes and Jesuits to overpass the rest or perhaps you will as others do expect that the very same Opinion be a Heresy in a Calvanist and none in a Dominicane or Iansenist or a Heresy in a Lutheran and none in a Iesuit You will run out of England because of Mens diversity of Complexions and finding a greater Diversity in France expect it should be esteemed none If I prove not before any impartial Judge that the Papists have far more and greater Differences amongst themsââves than the reformed Churches called Protestants yea I doubt not I may add than Greeks Calvinists Lutherans and many more such set together then let your Imagination go for Truth Bellarmine himself hath enumerated enough 2. You say the Scripture admits of no private Interpretation But 1. You abuse the Text and your self with a false Interpretation of it in these Words An Interpretation is called private either as to the Subject Person or as to the Interpreter You take the Text to speak of the latter when the Context plainly sheweth you that it speaks of the former The Apostle directing them to understand the Prophesies of the Old Testament gives them this Caution That none of these Scriptures that are spoken of Christ the publick Person must be interpreted as spoken of David or other private Persons only of whom they were mentioned but as Types of Christ It is subjectively a private Interpretation to restrain that Scripture e. g. the Second Psalm to David or other ordinary Men which the Holy Ghost intended of the Messiah But here 's no talk against Private Interpreters but only against a Private Interpretation 2. But suppose it were as you imagin and the publick Judgment of any Case suppose a Publick Interpreter yet every Man must see with his own Eyes and their private Judgment of Discretion must be according to their private that is personal Interpretation Or else your Churches Interpretation must have another publick Interpretation and that another and so endlesly If we can understand your Councils which your Doctors disagree about without another publick Interpretation we may as easily understand the Scripture or at least much of it And therefore that can be none of the Sence which you imagine no Scripture c. 3. Yea suppose all Interpretation must be publick and you may not presume to misunderstand the Commands of Repentance Faith or Love without a publick Commentary do you think this doth not make against you Is not the Interpretation of the Papal Sect a more private Interpretation than that of the whole Church The Greek Arminians Abassines Protestants and so all the far greatest part of the Church interpret those Texts which you wrest for the Papal Soveraignty in a quite other Sense And is not the Interpretation of your Fourth or Third part of the Church that 's partial in the Cause more private than that of all the rest would you have Men care no more for their Souls than to cast them away upon the Delusion of such Reasonings as these 3. You next speak of Interpretations by Apostolical Tradition But are sober People capable of such a Bafflle as to lay their Salvation on a Dream that never had a Being Was there ever such a thing as an Interpretation of the Bible by Apostolical Tradition without which no Scripture must be interpreted Where is that Commentary that the World never knew and yet all must know it that will be saved Written it is not by Fathers Popes or Councils and if unwritten in whose Memory is it and how learnt they it Not in the Peoples nor the generality of Pastors for they that were most learned presume to write their private Interpretations and Commentaries never giving us the publick Commentary and take Liberty to differ about many hundred Texts among themselves and are not these then gross Delusions 4. You say the Church is a City set upon a Hill Christ speaks there of Preachers but let it be of the whole Church In good sadness can you believe that the Universality of Christians which is the true Catholick Church is not more conspicuous than the Papal Faction or any one particular Part Should your Sect be judged more visible than the
till it be effectually reformed by Divines of both Perswasions equally deputed thereunto And that your Majesty would procure that Moderation in the Imposition hereafter which we before desired 4. Concerning Ceremonies Returning our humble Thanks for your Majesty's gracious Concessions of which we are assured you will never have cause to repent we further crave 1. That your Majesty would leave out those words concerning us That we do not in our Iudgments believe the practice of those particular Ceremonies which we except against to be in it self unlawful for we have not so declared our Judgments Indeed we have said that treating in order to a happy uniting of our Brethren through the Land our Work is not to say what is our own Opinion or what will satisfie us but what will satisfie so many as may procure the said Union And we have said that some think some of them unlawful in themselves and others but inconvenient And while the Imposers think them but indifferent we conceived they might reasonably be entreated to let them go for the saving of their Brethrens Consciences and the Churches Peace We are sure that a Christian's Conscience should be tender of adding to or diminishing from the Matter of God's Worship in the smallest Point the Laws of God being herein the only perfect Rule Deut. 12. 32. And that a Synod infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost would lay upon the Churches no greater burden then necessary things Acts 15. 28. And that for things indifferent Christians should not despise or judge each other Rom. 14. much less by silencing the able and faithful Ministers of the Gospel to punish the Flocks even in their Souls for the tolerable Differences and supposed Mistakes of Ministers We doubt not but Peter and Paul went to Heaven without the Ceremonies in question And seeing your Majesty well expresseth it That the Universal Church cannot introduce one Ceremony in the Worship of God that is contrary to God's Word expressed in the Scriptures and Multitudes of Protestants at home and abroad do think that all Mystical Sacramental Rites of Humane Institution are contrary to the perfection of God's Law and to Deut. 12. 32. c. though the Determination of meer Circumstances necessary in genere be not so and therefore dare not use them for fear of the Displeasure of God the Universal Sovereign it must needs be a great Expression of your Majesty's wisdom and tenderness of God's Honour and the Safety of your Peoples Souls to refuse in things unnecessary to drive Men upon apprehended Sin and upon the Wrath of God and the Terrours of a Condemning Conscience 2. We beseech your Majesty to understand that it is not our meaning by the Word abolishing to crave a Prohibition against your own or other Mens Liberty in the things in question but it is a full Liberty that we desire such as should be in unnecessary things and such as will tend to the Concord of your People viz. That there be no Law or Canon for or against them commanding recommending or prohibiting them As now there is none for any particular Gesture in singing of Psalms where Liberty preserveth an uninterrupted Unity For the Particular Ceremonies 1. We humbly crave as to kneeling in the Act of Receiving that your Majesty will declare our Liberty therein that none should be troubled for receiving it standing or sitting And your Majesty's Expressions upon Reasons best known if not only to themselves command us to render some of our Reasons 1. We are sure that Christ and his Apostles sinned not by not receiving it kneeling and many are not sure that by kneeling they should not sin and therefore for the better Security though not for absolute Necessity we crave leave to take the safer side 2. We are sure that kneeling in any Adoration at all in any Worship on any Lord's Day in the Year or any Week-day between Ester and Pentcost was not only disused but forbidden by General Councils as Concil Nicen. 1 Can. 20. and Concil Trull c. and disclaimed by ancient Writers and this as a general and uncontroled Tradition And therefore that kneeling in the Act of receiving is a Novelty contrary to the Decrees and Practice of the Church for many hundred Years after the Apostles And if we part with the venerable Examples of all Antiquity where it agrees with Scripture and that for nothing we shall depart from the Terms which most Moderators think necessary for the Reconciling of the Churches And Novelty is a Dishonour to any part of Religion And if Antiquity be Honourable the most ancient or nearest the Legislation and Fountain must be most honourable And it is not safe to intimate a Charge of Unreverence upon all the Apostles and primitive Christians and the Universal Church for so many hundred Years together of its purest Time 3. Though our meaning be good it is not good to shew a needless Countenance of the Papists Practice of Adoring the Bread as God when it is used by them round about us Saith Bishop Hall in his Life pag. 20. I had a dangerous Conflict with a Sarbonist who took occasion by our kneeling at the Receipt of the Echarist to persuade all the Company of our Acknowledgment of a Transubstantiation 4. Some of us that could rather kneel than be deprived of Communion should yet suffer much before we durst put all others from the Communion that durst not take it kneeling which therefore we crave we might not be put upon it 2. We humbly crave also that the religious Observation of Holy-days of human Institution may be declared to be left indifferent that none be troubled for not observing them 3. We humbly tender your Majesty our Thanks for your gracious Concession of Liberty as to the Cross and Surplice and bowing at the Name Iesus rather than Christ or God But we farther humbly beseech your Majesty 1. That this Liberty in forbearing the Surpliââ might extend to the Colledges and Cathedrals also that it drive not thence all those that Scruple it and make not those Places receptive only of a Party and that the Youth of the Nation may have just Liberty as well as the Elder If they be engaged in the Universities and their Liberties there cut off in their beginning they cannot afterwards be free many hopeful Persons will be else diverted from the Service of the Church 2. That your Majesty will endeavour the repealing of all Laws and Canons by which these Ceremonies are imposed that they might be left at full Liberty 4. We also humbly tender our Thanks to your Majesty for your gracious Concession of the Forbearance of the Subscription required by that Canon But 1. we humbly acquaint your Majesty that we do not dissent from the Doctrine of the Church of England expressed in the Articles and Homilies But it is the controverted Passages about Government Liturgy and Ceremonies and some Byâpassages and Phrases in the doctrinal Part which are scrupled by
granted us by our Reverend Brethren who here openly consess that the Text speaketh of Church-Members and of Receiving them to Church-Communion though they unwarrantably interpret it of such a Communion as extendeth not to the Sacrament of the Eucharist 3. If the Text Rom. 14. 15. forbid not one part to put away others from Communion in the Sacrament of the Eucharist then it forbiddeth not the other Party to separate from their Brethren in the Sacrament of the Eucharist But the Consequent is false Ergo so is the Antecedent The Reason of the Consequence of the Major is because if it speak not of that part of Communion to one Party it cannot speak of it to the other it being plainly the same Communion that it speaketh of to both The Minor is ordinarily granted us by the Dissenters when they apply this Text against Separatists that upon the Account of Ceremonies and Things indifferent condemn the Church and judge their Brethren and separate from their Communion in the Eucharist II. From other Scriptures If in all the Word of God there be no mention of such a Receiving into Church-Communion much less with all these Prohibitions of Judging Despising Offending c. as consisteth with Rejecting from Communion in the Eucharist of any Person naturally capable then the word Receiving is not to be so expounded here But in all the Word of God there is no mention of such a Receiving into Church-Communion much less with all these Prohibitions c. as consisteth with Rejecting from Communion in the Eucharist of any Person naturally capable Ergo the word Receiving is not to be so expounded here The Reason of the Consequence of the Major is because here is no apparent ground in this Text for us to understand the Receiving spoken of as different from what is mentioned in all other places of the holy Scripture And if without any such ground we should allow our selves a singular Interpretation we should open a way to Men to make what they please of Scripture The Minor being to be proved by an Induction of all particular Texts is will be the briefer way for the Respondent to instance in any one which he thinks hath such a sence and then we shall be ready to prove the contrary III. For the sence of Expositors We shall begin with the Learned Dr. Hammond who expoundeth the Text of Church-Communion and such Communion as cannot consist with Excommunicating from the Sacrament of the Eucharist or the other heavy Penalties upon Ministers and People which we now plead against as may be seen in these his plain Expressions V. 1. And for the preserving of that Christian Charity among all mentioned Solemnly Cb. 13. 8 9 10. vid. loc I shall enlarge to give these Rules The Jewish Believer on the other side the Gentile Believers seeing the Jewish stand upon such things are apt to separate and so betwixt one and other the Communion is like to be broken The Scrupulous or Erroneous Judaizer do the Gentiles not reject but receive to your Communion Yet not so that he thereby thinks himself encouraged or authorized to quarrel with other Mens Resolutions and to condemn others V. 3. The Scrupulous Judaizer must not reject and cast out of his Communion the Gentile Christian for God hath admitted him into his Church without laying that yoke upon him as a Servant into his Family and he is not to be excluded by the Judaizer for such things as these V. 4. What Commission hast thou O Jewish Christian to judge God's Servant received and owned by him to exclude him out of the Church God is able to clear him if he please and he certainly will having by receiving him into his Family given him this liberty V. 5. In such things every Man must act by his own and not by another Man's Judgment or Conscience what he is verily perswaded he ought to do and therefore Unity and Charity ought not to be broken by you for such things V. 6 7. and this sure is well done on both sides For no Man of us is to do what he himself likes best but what he thinks is most acceptable to God V. 9. And all the Fruit of Christ's Death and Suffering and Resurrection which accrues to him is only this that he may have Power and Dominion over us all to command or give what liberry he pleaseth V. 10. But why dost thou Jewish condemn the Gentile Christian or exclude him from thy Communion because he useth his Christian Liberty c. Or thou Gentile Christian why dost thou think it a piece of sensless Stupidity in the Jew to abstain and thereupon despite and vilifie him which also is a kind of judging him Whereas indeed neither of you is to be the Judge of the other but Christ of you both V. 13. Do not any longer censure and separate from one anothers Communion for such Things as these V. 14. The perswasion of its being forbidden him is as long as he is so perswaded sufficient to make it to him unlawful to use that liberty see V. 15 16. V. 17. For Christianity consists not in such External Matters but in mercifulness and peaceableness and delight to do good one to another Not dividing and hating and excommunicating one another V. 19. Let us most zealously attend to those things which may thus preserve Peace among all sorts of Christians though of different perswasions V. 20. Do not thou for so inconsiderable a Matter as Eating is or because another will not or dares not make use of that Christian Liberty disturb that Peace that Unity which God hath wrought V. 21. It is not charitable to make use of any part of Christian Liberty when by this so doing any other Man is kept from receiving the Faith or any way wounded or hurt i.e. brought to any kind of sin V. 23. And indeed for the Scrupulous Jew there is little reason he should be so ill used for his daring to eat when he thinks himself otherwise obliged for it were a damning Sin for which his own Conscience already condemns him should he eat or do any indifferent thing as long as he thinks in Conscience that it is not so Chap. 15. V. 5 6 7. And that God for whom we ought to suffer give you the Grace of Unity and Charity Such as Christ commanded and expects from you that ye may joyn unanimously Jews and Gentiles into one and assembling together Worship and Serve the Lord in all Unity of Affections and Form of Words Wherefore in all Humility of Condescension and Kindness embrace and succour one another help them up when they are fall'n instead of despising and driving them from your Communion after the Example of Christ's usage towards Men who came from Heaven and laid down his Life to relieve us and there is nothing by which God is more glorified than this If all this may consist with rejecting from all Communion in the Eucharist and afterwards Excommunicating
as unnecessary small and doubtful as kneeling in the Reception of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper are to be made necessary to the Communion of the Church Ergo To enjoyn all c. is to maintain and exercise a Principle of Church-Division The Major which only needs proof is thus proved To maintain and exercise such a Principle as 1. Never yet was exercised but it did divide the Church 2. and by which its Divisions have been caused or cherished ever since the Roman Usurpation begun 3. and which cannot possibly consist with Unity whilst Christians are of such different 1. Educations 2. and degrees of Natural Understanding 3. and degrees of Grace is to maintain and exercise a Principle of Church Division But to maintain and exercise this Principle That Things as unnecessary small and doubtful as kneeling in the Reception of the Sacrament are to be made necessary to the Communion of the Church is to maintain and exercise such a Principle as 1. never yet was exercised but it did divide c. Ergo And thus our Dispute at the Savoy ended and with it our Endeavours for Reconciliation upon the Warrant of the King's Commission § 236. Were it not a thing in which an Historian so much concerned in the business is apt to be suspected of partiality I would here annex a Character of each one that managed this business as they shewed themselves But because it hath that inconvenience I will omit it only telling you what part each one of them acted in all this Work The Bishop of London since Archbishop of Canterbury only appeared the first day of each Conference which besides that before the King was but twice in all as I remember and medled not at all in any Disputations But all Men supposed that he and Bishop Morley and next Bishop Hinchman were the doers and disposers of all such Affairs The Archbishop of York spake no more than I have told you and came but once or twice in all Bishop Morley was oft there but not constantly and with free and fluent words with much earnestness was the chief Speaker of all the Bishops and the greatest Interrupter of us vehemently going on with what he thought serviceable to his end and bearing down Answers by the said fervour and interruptions Bishop Cosins was there constantly and had a great deal of talk with so little Logick Natural or Artificial that I perceived no one much moved by any thing he said But two Vertues he shewed though none took him for a Magician One was that he was excellently well versed in Canons Councils and Fathers which he remembred when by citing of any Passages wotried him The other was that as he was of a Rustick Wit and Carriage so he would endure more freedom of our Discourse with him and was more affable and familiar than the rest Bishop Hinchman since Bishop of London was of the most grave comely reverend Aspect of any of them and of a good insight in the Fathers and Councils Cosins and he and Dr. Gunning being all that shewed any of that skill among us considerable in which they are all three of very laudable understandings and better than any other of either of the Parties that I met with And Bishop Hinchman spake calmly and slowly and not very oft But was as high in his Principles and Resolutions as any of them Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln was some time there but never spake that I know of but what I have told you before But his great Learning and Worth are known by his Labours and his aged Peevishness not unknown Bishop Gauden was our most constant helper He and Bishop Cosins seldom were absent And how bitter soever his Pen be he was the only Moderator of all the Bishops except our Bishop Reignolds He shewed no Logick nor medled in any Dispute or Point of Learning but a calm fluent Rhetorical Tongue And if all had been of his mind we had been reconciled But when by many days Conference in the beginning we had got some moderating Concessions from him and from Bishop cosins by his means the rest came in the end and brake them all Bishop Lucie of St. David's spake once or twice a few words calmly and so did Bishop Nicholson of Glocester and Bishop Griffiths of Asaph though no Commissioners and did no more Bishop King of Chicbester I never saw there Bishop Warner of Rocbester was there once or twice but medled not that I heard Bishop Lany of Peterborough was twice or thrice there and talked as is before recited for I remember no more Bishop Walton of Chester was there once or twice and spake but what is before recited that I know of Bishop Sterne of Carlisle since Archbishop of York was of a most sober honest mortified Aspect but spake nothing that I know of but that weak uncharitable word before mentioned so that I was never more deceived by a Man's Face Bishop Reignolds spake much the first day for bringing them to Abatements and Moderation And afterwards he fate with them and spake now and then a word for Moderation He was a solid honest Man but through mildness and excess of timerous reverence to great Men altogether unfit to contend with them Mr. Thorndike spake once a few impertinent passionate words confusing the Opinion which we had received of him from his first Writings and confirming that which his second and last Writings had given us of him Dr. Earle Dr. Heylin and Dr. Barwick never came Dr. Hacket since Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield said nothing to make us know any thing of him Dr. Sparrow said but little but that little was with a Spirit enough for the imposing dividing Cause Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning did all their Work beside Bishop Morley's Discourses but with great difference in the manner Dr. Pierson was their true Logician and Disputant without whom as far as I could discern we should have had nothing from them but Dr. Gunning's passionate Invectives mixt with some Argumentations He disputed acurately soberly and calmly being but once in any passion breeding in us a great respect for him and a perswasion that if he had been independent he would have been for Peace and that if all were in his power it would have gone well He was the strength and honour of that Cause which we doubted whether he heartily maintained Dr. Gunning was their forwardest and greatest Speaker understanding well what belonged to a Disputant a Man of greater Study and Industry than any of them well read in Fathers and Councils and of a ready Tongue and I hear and believe of a very temperate Life as to all Carnal Excesses whatsoever but so vehement for his high imposing Principles and so over-zealous for Arminianism and Formality and Church Pomp and so very eager and servent in his Discourse that I conceive his Prejudice and Passion much perverted his Judgment and I am sure they made him lamentably over-run himself in
August 24. 1662. and then they must be all cast out This fatal Day called to remembrance the French Massacre when on the same Day 30000 or 40000 Protestants perished by Religious Roman Zeal and Charity I had no place but only that I preached twice a Week by Request in other Men's Congregations at Milkstreet and Blackfriars and the last Sermon that ever I preached in Publick was on May 25. The Reasons why I gave over sooner than most others was 1. Because Lawyers did interpret a doubtful Clause in the Act as ending the Liberty of Lecturers at that time 2. Because I would let Authority soon know that I intended to obey them in all that was lawful 3. Because I would let all Ministers in England understand in time whether I intended to Conform or not For had I stayed to the last day some would have Conformed the sooner upon a Supposition that I intended it These with other Reasons moved me to cease three Months before Bartholomew-day which many censured me for a while but after better saw the Reasons of it § 279. When Bartholomew-day came about One thousand eight hundred or Two thousand Ministers were Silenced and Cast out And the Affections of most Men thereupon were such as made me fear it was a Prognostick of our further Sufferings For when Pastors and People should have been humbled for their Sins and lamented their former Negligence and Unfruitfulness most of them were filled with Disdain and Indignation against the Prelates and were ready with Confidence to say God will not long suffer so wicked and cruel a Generation of Men It will be but a little while till God will pull them down And thus Men were puft up by other Mens sinfulness and kept from a kindly humbling of themselves § 280. And now came in the great Inundation of Calamities which in many Streams overwhelmed Thousands of godly Christians together with their Pastors As for Example 1. Hundreds of able Ministers with their Wives and Children had neither House nor Bread For their former Maintenance served them but for the time and few of them laid up any thing for the future For many of them had not past 30 or 40 l. per Annum apiece and most but about 60 or 80 l. per Annum and very few above 100 l. and few had any considerable Estates of their own 2. The Peoples Poverty was so great that they were not able much to relieve their Ministers 3. The Jealousie of the State and the Malice of their Enemies were so great that People that were willing durst not be known to give to their ejected Pastors least it should be said that they maintained Schism or were making Collections for some Plot or Insurrection 4. The Hearts of the People were grieved for the loss of their Pastors 5. Many places had such set over them in their steads as they could not with Conscience or Comfort commit the Conduct of their Souls to And they were forced to own all these and all others that were thrust upon them against their Wills and to own also the undisciplined Churches by receiving the Sacrament in their several Parishes whether they would or not 6. Those that did not this were to be Excommunicated and then to have a Writ sued out against them de Excommunicatio capiendo to lay them in the Jail and seize on their Estates 7. The People were hereupon unavoidably divided among themselves For some would have nothing to do with these imposed Pastors but would in private attend their former Pastors only Others would do both and take all that they thought good of both Some would only hear the Publick Sermons Others would also go to Common Prayer where the Minister was tolerable Some would joyn in the Sacrament with them where the Minister was honest and others would not And this Division they long foresaw but could not possibly prevent 8. And the Ministers themselves were thus also divided who before seemed all one for some would go to Church to Common Prayer to Sacraments and others would not Some of them thought that it was their Duty to preach publickly in the Streets or Fields while the People desired it and not to cease their Work through fear of Men till they lay in Jails or were all banished Others thought that a continued Endeavour to benefit their People privately would be more serviceable to the Church than one or two Sermons and a Jail at such a time when the Multitudes of Sufferers and the odious Titles put upon them obscured and clog'd the benefit of Sufferings And some thought that the Covenant bound all to separate from Common Prayer and Prelates and Parish Communion And others thought that it rather bound them to this Communion and Worship in case they could have no better and that to teach from House to House in private and bring the People to attend in publick was the most righteous and edifying way where the imposed Minister was tolerable 9. Hereupon those Ministers that would not cease preaching were thrust into Prisons and Censured some of them the rest that did not do as they 10. The rest that preached only secretly to a few were lookt on as discontented and disaffected to the Government and on every rumour of a new Plot or Conspiracy taken up and many of them laid in Prison 11. The Prelatists and they were hereby set at a further distance and Charity more destroyed and Reconciliation made more hopeless and almost any thing believed that was said against a Nonconformist 12. The Conforming Part of the Old Ministry was also divided from the rest and Censures set them further at a distance But yet where serious Godliness appeared it kept up some Charity and Respect and united them in the main All these Calamities brought another 13. That the People were tempted to murmur at their Superiours and call them cruel Persecutors and secretly rejoyce if any hurt befel them and many forgot that they are to Honour their Governours even when they suffer by them and not only to forbear evil Thoughts and Words against them but to endeavour to keep up their Honour with their Subjects 14. By all these Sins these Murmurings and these Violations of the Interest of the Church and Cause of Christ the Land was prepared for that fârther Inundation of Calamities by War and Plague and Scarcity which hath since brought it near to Desolation § 281. It fell out one day in Mr. Calamy's Church at Aldermanbury that the Preacher failed and the People desired Mr. Calamy to preach Which he did upon confidence that the Act did not extend to such an Occasional Sermon some Lawyers had told him so But for this he was sent to Newgate Jail where he continued in the Keeper's Lodgings many daily flocking to visit him till the Lord Bââdgman as is said had given it as his Judgment That his Sermon was not within that Penalty of the Act. And O what insulting there was by
429. And now came in the Peoples Trial as well as the Ministers While the Danger and Sufferings lay on the Ministers alone the People were very couragious and exhorted them to stand it out and Preach till they went to Prison But when it came to be their own Case they were as venturous till they were once Surprized and Imprisoned but then their Judgments were much altered and they that censured Ministers before as Cowardly because they preached not publickly whatever followed did now think that it was better to preach often in secret to a few than but once or twice in publick to many and that Secrecy was no sin when it tended to the furtherance of the Work of the Gospel and to the Churches Good Especially the Rich were as cautelous as the Ministers But yet their Meetings were so ordinary and so well known that it greatly tended to the Jailor's Commodity § 430. It was a great Strait that People were in especially that dwell near any busie Officer or malicious Enemy as who doth not Many durst not pray in their Families if above four Persons came in to dine with them In a Gentleman's House it is ordinary for more than four of Visitors Neighbours Messengers or one sort or other to be most or many days at Dinner with them and then many durst not go to Prayer and some durst scarce crave a Blessing on their Meat or give God thanks for it Some thought they might venture if they withdrew into another Room and left the Strangers by themselves But others said It is all one if they be but in the same House though out of hearing when it cometh to the Judgment of the Justices In London where the Houses are contiguous some thought if they were in several Houses and heard one another through the Wall or a Window it would avoid the Law But others said It is all in vain whilst the Justice is Judge whether it was a Meeting or no. Great Lawyers said If you come on a visit or business though you be present at Prayer or Sermon it is no breach of the Law because you met not on pretence of a Religious Exercise But those that tried them said Such Words are but Wind when the Justices come to judge you § 431. And here the Fanaticks called Quakers did greatly relieve the sober People for a time for they were so resolute and gloried in their Constancy and Sufferings that they assembled openly at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate and were dragged away daily to the Common Jail and yet desisted not but the rest came the next day nevertheless So that the Jail at Newgate was filled with them Abundance of them died in Prison and yet they continued their Assemblies still And the poor deluded Souls would sometimes meet only to sit still in Silence when as they said the Spirit did not speak And it was a great Question Whether this Silence was a Religious Exercise not allowed by the Liturgy c. And once upon some such Reasons as these when they were tried at the Sessions in order to a Banishment the Jury acquitted them but were grievously threatned for it After that another Jury did acquit them and some of them were fined and imprisoned for it But thus the Quakers so employed Sir R. B. and the other Searchers and Prosecutors that they had the less leisure to look after the Meetings of Soberer men which was much to their present ease § 432. And now the Divisions or rather the Censures of the Non-conforming People against their Ministers and one another began to increase which was long foreseen but could not be avoided and I that had incurred so much the displeasure of the Prelates and all their Party by pleading for the Peace of the Non-conformists did fall under more of their displeasure than any one man besides as far as I could learn And with me they joyned Dr. Bates because we went to the Publick Assemblies and also to the Common Prayer even to the beginning of it Not that they thought worse of us than of others but that they thought that our Example would do more harm For I must bear them witness that in the midst of all their Censures of my Judgment and Actions they never Censured my Affections and Intentions nor abated their Charitable Estimation of me in the main And of the leading Prelates I had so much favour in their hottest Indignation that they thought what I did against their Interest was only in obedience to my Conscience So that I see by experience that he that is impartially and sincerely for Truth and Peace and Piety against all Factions shall have his Honesty acknowledged by the several Factions whilst his Actions as cross to their Interest are detested Whereas he that joyneth with one of the Factions shall have both his Person and Actions condemned by the other though his Party may applaud both § 433. My Judgment was for the holding of Communion with Assemblies of both Parties and ordinarily I went to some Parish Church where I heard a Learned Minister that had not obtruded himself upon the People but was chosen by them and preached well as Dr. Wilkins Dr. Tillotson Mr. Nest c. and I joyned also in the Common Prayers of the Church And as oft else as I had fit opportunity I privately preached and prayed my self either with Independents or Presbyterians that desired me And I professed to all upon all occasions that though I justified not all things which they held or did in any of their Churches yet as long as they made not any Sin of mine a Condition of my Communion with them I would occasionally joyn with any true Church in publick or private so be it they preached not for Heresie nor against a holy and peaceable Life nor turned not their Strein to Sedition or uncharitable Reviling one another Even as I would hold occasional Communion with a Church of Lutherans or Greeks or Abassines if I passed through their Countreys Though caeteris paribus I preferred Publick Assemblies which have the Magistrates Countenance before Private yet I more preferred those that have pure Worship and Discipline and powerful Preaching before the scandalous undisciplined ignorant Churches of ignorant and formal lifeless Ministers And so far as I had my choice my most usual Communion should be with those Assemblies that I thought the best yet would I have occasional Communion with others as Members of the Catholick Church to shew my Catholick Communion with all the Body of Christ. Yea and my ordinary Communion should be with a Church that used the Common Prayer rather than with none or with a worse And the Lord's Day I would spend in Church Communion it being principally appointed to that end and not in any meer Family Worship or Meetings with a few Christians occasionally which met not as a Church This was my Resolution But the confidence of many on the other side was as great as mine
I so far defie any Accuser who will question my Loyalty that as I have taken the Oaths of Supremacy and of Allegiance and a special Oath of Fidelity when I was Sworn I know not why as His Majesty's Servant so I am ready to give a much fulleâ signification of my Loyalty than that Oath if I had taken it would be And to own all that is said for the Power of Kings and of the Subject's Obedience and Non-resistance by any or all the Councils and Confessions of any Christian Churches upon Earth whether Greeks or Romans Reformed Episcopal Presbyterian or any that are fit to be owned as Christians that ever came to my notice besides what is contained in the Laws of our own Land And if this will not serve I shall patiently wait in my Appeal to the Un-erring Universal Judgment § 123. 2. In other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy or Practice of the Church of England At which Conventicle Meeting or Assembly there should be Five Persons or more Assembled over and above those of the Houshold Pos. 1. To Preach or Teach in a House not Consecrated for a Temple is not contrary to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England Arg. 1. That which the Scripture expresly alloweth is not contrary to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England But to Preach and Teach even Multitudes in Houses and other places not so Consecrated the Scripture expresly alloweth Ergo. The Major is proved 1. Because the Book of Ordination requireth that all that are Ordained shall promise to Instruct the People out of the Holy Scripture being persuaded that they contain sufficiently all Doctrine required of Necessity to Salvation and to teach no other And with all Faithful Diligence to banish all Doctrines contrary to God's Word And to use both publick and private Monitions and Exhortations as well to the Sick as to the whole as need shall require and occasion shall be given 2 The same Sufficiency of the Scripture is asserted in the 6th Article of the Church And Article 20. bindeth us to hold That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing contrary to God's written Word So Art 21. more 3. The said Scriptures are appointed by the Rubrick to be read as the Word of God himself 4. The Law of the Land declareth That nothing shall be taken for Law which is contrary to the Word of God 5. The First and Second Homily shew the sufficiency of it and necessity to all Men. The Minor is proved 1. from Acts 20. 20. 7 8 28. last 8. 4 25 35. 10. 34. 12. 12. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. Mat. 5. 1 2. Mark 2. 13. 10. 1. Luke 5. 3. 13. 26. 2. From those Texts which command Christ's Ministers to Preach and not forbear Therefore if they be forbidden to Preach in the Temples they must do it elsewhere Iohn 21. 15 16 17. 1 Cor. 9. 16. Acts 4. 18 19 20. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. Luke 9. 62. 3. From the Expository Practice of the Church in all Ages 4. From the Expository Practice of the Universal Church of England who Preached in Houses in the time of their late Restraint by Cromwel Arg. 2. The Church of England bindeth Ministers to Teach both publickly and privately in their Ordination as afore recited 2. In the Liturgy for the Visitation and Communion of the Sick it alloweth private Exhortation Prayer and Sacraments 3. The 13 Canon requireth that the Lord's Day and other Holy-Days be spent in publick and private Prayers And the very Canon 71. which most restraineth us from Preaching and Administring the Sacrament in private Houses doth expresly except Times of necessity when any is so impotent as he cannot go to Church or dangerously sick c. 4. The instructing of our Families and Praying with them is not disallowed by the Church And I my self have a Family and Persons impotent therein who cannot go to Church to Teach Arg. 3. The 76 Can. condemneth every Minister who voluntarily relinquisheth his Ministry and liveth as a Lay-Man Ergo We must forbear no more of the Ministerial Work than is forbidden us Pos. 2. The number of Persons present above Four cannot be meant by this Act as that which maketh the Religious Exercise to be in other manner than allowed by the Liturgy or Practise of the Church Arg. 1. Because the manner of the Exercise and the number of Persons are most expresly distinguished And the restraint of the number is expresly affixed only to them who shall use such unallowed manner of Religious Exercises not medling at all with others The Words at which Conventicle c. do shew the Meeting to be before described by the manner of Exercise Otherwise the Words would be worse than Non-sense 2. Because if the Words be not so interpreted then they must condemn all our Church Meetings for having above four As if they had said where Five are met it is contrary to the Liturgy of the Church which cannot be If it be said That for above Four to meet in a House is not allowed by the Church I Answer 1. That is a Matter which this Act meddleth not with as is proved by the foresaid distinguishing the manner of Exercise from the number of Persons 2. Nor doth the Act speak of private Houses or put any difference between them and Churches but equally restraineth Meetings in Churches which are for disallowed Exercises of Religion 3. Nor is it true in it self that the Church disalloweth the number of Five in private Houses as is proved before But it contrarily requireth that at private Communions there shall be Neighbours got to Communicate and not fewer than three or two And at private Baptisms and other occasions the number is not limited by the Church at all 3. Because the Act is directed only against seditious Sectaries and their Conventicles 4. Because the Words of the Act shew that the Law-makers concur with the sence of the Church of England which is no where so strict against Nonconformity as in the Canons And in these Canons viz. 73 and 11. A Conventicle is purposely and plainly descibed to be such other Meetings Assemblies or Congregations than are by the Laws held and allowed which challenge to themselves the Name of true and lawful Churches Or else secret Meetings of Priests or Ministers to consult upon any matter or course to be taken by them or upon their motion or direction by any other which may any way tend to the impeachment or depriving of the Doctrine of the Church of England or the book of Common-Prayer or of any part of the Government and Discipline of the Church So that where there is no such Consultation of Ministers nor no Assemblies that challenge to themselves the Name of true and Lawful Churches distinct from the allowed Assemblies there are no Conventicles in the sence of the Canons of the Church of England which this Act professeth to
adhere to The same Sence is exprest also in Can. 10. which describeth Schismaticks Whosoever shall affirm that such Ministers as refuse to subscribe to the Form and manner of God's Worship in the Church of England prescribed in the Communion-Book and their Adherents may truly take unto them the Name of another Church not established by Law and dare presume to publish that this pretended Church hath long groaned under c. And in the 9th Canon where the Authors of Schism are thus described Whosoever shall separate themselves from the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostle's Rules in the Church of England and combine themselves together in a new Brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be prophane and unmeet for them to join with in Christian Profession Pro. 3. If our manner of Religious Exercises did differ in some meer degrees or Circumstances from that which is allowed by the Liturgy and Practice of the Church it ought not no be taken to be the thing condemned in this Act. Arg. 1. Otherwise the Justices themselves and almost all his Majesty's Subjects either are already obnoxious to the Mulcts Imprisonments and Banishments or may be they know not how soon Arg. 2. And otherwise no Subject must dare to go to Church for fear of incurring Imprisonment or Banishment The reason of both is visible 1. Almost all conformable Ministers do either by some omissions of Prayers or other parts of the Liturgy or by some alterations many times do that which is dissonant from the Liturgy and practise or Canons of the Church I have seldom been present where somewhat was not contrary to them 2 Because most conformable Ministers do now Preach without Licenses which is contrary to the express Canons of the Church 3. Because few of the King's Subjects or none can tell when they go to Church but they may hear one that hath no License or that will do somewhat dissonant from the manner of the Church Pro. 4. Preaching without License bringeth me not within the Penalty of the Act. Arg. 1. Because I have the Archbishop's License Arg. 2. Because a License is not necessary for Family Instruction Arg. 3. Because else most of the Conformists would be as much obnoxious which is not so judged by the Bishops themselves § 124. 3. The Errors of the Mittimus with the explication of the Oxford Act. THis Act containeth 1. The end and Occasion that is the preserving of Church and Kingdom from the Danger of poisonous Principles II. The Description of the dangerous Persons 1. in the Preamble Where they are 1. Nonconformists or such as have not subscribed and declared according to the Act of Uniformity and other subsequent Acts. 2. They or some of them and other Persons not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England who have since the Act of Oblivion preached in Unlawful Assemblies and have settled themselves in Corporations 2. In the Body of the Act where are two parts answering the two aforesaid in the Preamble 1. The first Subject described is Non-subscribers and Non-declarers according to the Act of Uniformity c. That is Non-conformists who also have not taken the Oath which is here prescribed as a preventing Remedy 2. The second Subject is All such Persons as shall Preach in unlawful Meetings contrary to Laws which must needs refer to the second branch of the Preamble and mean only such Nonconformists and unordained Persons as shall so Preach the Word shall signifying that it must be after the passing of this Act. III. The Offence prohibited is being or coming after March 24. 1665. within five Miles of any Corporation or of any place where since the Act of Oblivion they have been Parsons Vicars Lecturers c. Or have preached in an unlawful Assembly contrary to the Laws before they have in open Sessions taken the Oath That is who have done this since the Act of Oblivion before this Act it being the purpose of this Act to put all those who shall again after this Act preach in Conventicles in the same Case with them who since the Act of Oblivion were Parsons Vicars c. That is that none of them shall come within five miles of any place where they were either Incumbents or Conventiclers before this Act since the act of Oblivion IV. The Penalty is 1. 40 l. for what is past which the after taking of the Oath will not save them from 2. And six months Imprisonment also for such of them as shall not Swear and subscribe the Oath and Declaration offered them So that in this Act the Offence it self prohibited is Coming within five miles c. But the qualification of the subject offending is absolutely necessary to it So that the Mittimus for an offence against this Act must signifie That N. N. having not subscribed and declared according to the Acts of Uniformity and other subsequent Acts or being not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England having since the Act of Oblivion preached in an unlawful Assembly and also hath so preached since this Act and hath not taken the Oath here required is proved by Oath to us to have been or come since Mar. 24. 1665. Within five Miles of a Corporation or a place where he was an incumbent or preached in a Conventicle before this Act since the Act of Oblivion and also hath refused before us to swear and subscribe the said Oath c. Now in this Mittimus 1. Here is no mention that R. B. hath not subscribed and declared already according to the Act of Uniformity or is a Non-conformist nor yet that he is not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England 2. Nor is there any mention that he hath preached in an unlawful Assembly since the Act of Oblivion much less since this Act which must be said 3. Nor that ever they had proof of his not taking the Oath before or that ever he was Convict of Preaching before he took it 4. The Offence it self is not here said to be proved by Oath at all viz. Coming or being within five Miles c. But another thing viz. his Preaching in an unlawful Meeting is said to be proved by Oath which this Act doth not enable them to take such proof of As for the Word in the Mittimus where he now dwelleth it cannot be understood as a part of Deposition 1. Because it is expressed but as the Justice's Assertion and not so much as an and or Conjunction put before it to shew that they had Oath made of it as well as of Preaching 2. Because the Word now dwelleth must be taken strictly or laxly if strictly it referreth but to the time of the Writing of the Mittimus which was two days after the Constable's Warrant and no Accuser Witness or other Person was suffered to be present and therefore it must needs
it Of which in that Book he saith so much to the pity rather than satisfaction of the Judicious his Book being otherwise the soundest and most abounding with Light of any one that I have seen But the very necessity of explaining the Three Articles of Baptism and the Three Summaries of Religion the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue hath led all the common Catechisms that go that way of which Vrsine Corrected by Paraeus is the chief into a truer Method than any of our exactest Dichotomizers have hit on not excepting Treleatius Solinius or Amesius which are the best § 147. The Nature of things convinced me That as Physicks are presupposed in Ethicks and that Morality is but the ordering of the Rational Nature and its Actions so that part of Physicks and Metaphysicks which opened the Nature of Man and of God which are the Parties contracting and the great Subjects of Theology and Morality is more neerly pertinent to a Method of Theology and should have a larger place in it than is commonly thought and given to it Yet I knew how Uncouth it would seem to put so much of these Doctrines into a Body of Divinity But the three first Chapters of Genesis assured me That it was the Scripture-Method And when I had drawn up one Scheme of the Creation and sent it the Lord Chief Baron because of our often Communication on such Subjects and being now banished from his Neighbourhood and the County where he lived he received it with so great Approbation and importuned me so by Letters to go on with that work and not to fear being too much on Philosophy as added somewhat to my Inclinations and Resolutions And through the great Mercy of God in my Retirement at Totteridge in a troublesome poor smoaky suffocating Room in the midst of daily pains of the Sciatica and many worse I set upon and finished all the Schemes and half the Elucidations in the end of the Year 1669. and the beginning of 1670. which cost me harder Studies than any thing that ever I had before attempted § 148. In the same time and place I also wrote a large Apology for the Nonconformists Partly to prove it their Duty to Exercise their Ministry as they can when they are Silenced and partly to open the State of the Prelacy the Subscriptions Declarations c. which they refuse for the furious Revilings of Men did so increase and their Provocations and Accusations and Insultings were so many and great that it drove me to this work as it were against my will But when I had done it I saw that the Publication of it would by Imprisonment or Banishment put an end to my other Labours which made me lay it by for I thought that the finishing of my Methodus Theologiae was a far greater work But if that had been done I think I should have published it whatever it had cost me § 149. This Year 1670 my forementioned Cure of Church Divisions came out which had been before cast by which occasioned a storm of Obloquy among almost all the separating Party of Professors and filled the City and Country with matters of Discourse which fell out to be as followeth I had long made use of two Booksellers Mr. Tyton and Mr. Simmons the former lived in London and the later in Kiderminster But the latter removing to London they envyed each other in a meer desire of gain one thinking that the other got more than he was willing should go besides himself Mr. Tyton first refused an equal Co-partnership with the other Whereupon it fell to the others share to Print my Life of Faith and Cure of Church Divisions after my Directions to weak Christians together Which occasioned Mr. Tyton to tell several that came to his Shop that the Book as he heard was against private Meetings at least at the time of Publick and made those Schimaticks that used them Mr. Simmons met with a credible Citizen that gave it him under his Hand that Mr. Tyton said that he might have had the Printing of the Book but would not because it spake against those things which he had seen me Practise c. which were all gross Untruths for the Book was never offered him nor had he never seen a word of it or ever spoken with any one that had seen it and told him what was in it Mr. Tyton being a Member of an Independent Church this sort of People the eaâilier believed this and so it was carried among them from one to one first that I wrote against private Meetings and then that I accused them all of Schism and then that I wrote for Conformity and lastly that I conformed so that before a Line of my Book was known this was grown the common Fame of the City and thence of all the Land and sent as certain into Scotland and Ireland yea they named the Text that I preached my Recantation Sermon on before the King as stirring him up to Cruelty against the Nonconformists So common was the Sin of Back-biting and Slandering among the Separating Party so it were but done at the second hand and they that thought themselves too good to joyn with the Conformists or use their Liturgy or Communion yet never stuck at the common carrying of all these Falshoods because they could say a good Man told it me So that Thousands made no bones of this that would not have defiled themselves with a Ceremony or an imposed Form of Prayer by any means Yea the Streets rang with Reproaches against me for it without any more proof Some said that I took part with the Enemies of Godliness and countenanced their Church-Tyranny and some said that I sought to reconcile my self to them for fear of further Suffering And thus the Christians that were most tenderly afraid of the Liturgy and Ceremonies were so little tender of receiving and vending the most disingenuous Falshoods as if they had been no matter of Scruple So easie is a sinful Zeal and so hardly is true Christian Zeal maintained § 150. At the same time there fell out a Case which tended to promote the Calumny The old Reading Vicar of Kiderminster dyed about the Day of the Date of the Act against Conventicles Sir Ralph Clare his chief Friend and my Applauder but Remover being dead a little before the old Patron Collonel Iohn Bridges Sold the Patronage to Mr. Thomas Foley with a condition that he should present me next if I were capable which he promised as also that he would Present no other but by my consent Because I had done so much before to have continued in that place and had desired to Preach there but as a Curate under the Reading Vicar when I resused a Bishoprick and the Vicaridge was now come to be worth 200 l. per Ann. and this falling void at the same time when the Independents had filled the Land with the Report that I was Writing against them for Conformity hereupon the Bishops
Deleatur unlawful 2. I crave an Answer to these Questions 1. Can you certainly say That the Church-Government is so purely Divine and Perfect as that no Reformation is either necessary or lawful Is all the Diocesan Frame such and the Lay-Chancellors Power of the Keys also 2. If there be need of any Reformation is it not a Covenant against Repentance and Obedience to God to covenant never to endeavour it at all 3. What if the King should by Commission require some Alterations or command us to endeavour it are you sure that we are all bound to disobey him 4. What if a Parliament-man make a Speech or pass a Vote for it are you sure that he sinneth 5. Are you sure that the King may not lawfully endeavour any Reformation Or was his Declararation about Ecclesiastical Affairs a sin 6. What if any humbly petition the King and Parliament for any such Reformation as that Laymen may not have the Power of the Keys over a whole Diocess and all the Parochial Pastors be denied it is it certainly a sin 7. If a man Vow though sinfully to do a thing which he may lawfully do if he had not vowed it are you sure it is a sin and not Duty to keep that Vow in Materia Licita which he thinketh Necessaria I put the Question as de futuro if I and Millions should make such a Vow culpably without and against the Will of my Superiours for the time to come are you sure that it bindeth no man of them all I believe that no private arbitrary Vow can forestall my due Obedience to my Governours But antecedent Duty so made by God as Reforming by lawful means of Endeavour it is supposed they do not forbid For every Member of the Church is in his place obliged to promote the Common Good by lawful means as they might forbid us all to exhort or admonish any sinner or to pray or preach or dispute against sin as well as to petition against it 2. And 't is supposed that every Bishop or Parliament-man or Ruler is not forbidden all sueh lawful Endeavours and so that a Prohibition rendereth it not to them at least unlawful For I speak of no other Case But how sad a Case is that Nation in where the Clergy would have all men take them for so infallible and perfect without the smallest Fault or Errour in their Government as that neither Parliament-man Clergy-man nor any one of the People may by lawful means endeavour the least Reformation of them when even the Roman Bishop of Gloucester Godfrey Goodman writeth so sharply against the Lay-Chancellor's Power of the Keys 2. Prop. The Nonconformists hold it high Sacriledge to alienate themselves Strict e But what if they be suspended or silenced by Authority Ans. 1. When it is by true Authority doing it either justly or else unjustly in case their preaching be unnecessary or less necessary than Obedience to the unjust prohibition we will surcease and take it as a sickness or disablement But if it be done by Vsurpers like Papal Prelates or by our Governours uâlawfully in case that our preaching remain more necessary to the Publick Good than obedient forbearance we will exercise our Ministry till Death Prison or other Force disable us If you ask Who shall be Iudge I answer 1. The Magistrate by publick Decision in Order to his own Execution and if he do it unjustly God is the Avenger 2. And the Minister by a private Rational Judgment of Discretion discerning Duty from Sin and if he were God and Man will punish him if not God will reward him 2. I also ask Were not Constantius and Valens tho Erroneous Lawful Princes And did not the holy Bishops of the East refuse to surcease their Ministration when they prohibited them And do not Papists and other Protestants as well as Bp. Bilson and Andrews agree That we must do the like upon such unjust Prohibitions And hath our Diocesan more power to silence us than the King Or were we Consecrated to the Ministry in our Ordination on that Condition to preach till forbidden unjustly And did not the Apostles and all Pastors for 300 Years Exercise their Ministry against the Wills of Lawful Magistrates tho Heathens 2. Prop. To preach Lectures with the Incumbent's Consent Strict f And with the Allowance of the Bishop Ans. And that is Let King and Parliament by Law allow us to preach Christ's Gospel if the Bishop will allow us so to do and let the Law leave it to his power to forbid us And what Good will Laws then do us for our Ministry when these Eleven Years have already told us what we must trust to from the Bishops some at least Provide such supply for the Subjects Souls as their Numbers and Necessities require that the meaning may not be Let men be saved if the Bishop consent and for my part I `ll Joyfully be silent But I will not so far deny my Sense and Reason and the Sense of the Countrey also as to believe this is done if another will but confidently say it 's done or say that we do more harm than good no more than I will believe there are no Englishmen in England 2. Prop. Let not the Incumbent be discouraged by the Bishop from receiving them Strict g So they will conform Ans. So they will conform as far as aforesaid or as in the Proposals But otherwise if it be present full Conformity that must still be necessary what are we speaking for This was written in order to our Concord by the means of some Alterations or Abatements of Conformity because it was told abroad that some Bishops were willing of such a thing And is it meant that if we Conform they will abate us some Conformity 3. Prop. Let it be forbidden c. about joyning in Family Worship Strict h That is let Conventicles be allowed in all places Answ. Yes if needful and orderly Worshipping God and helping each other towards Heaven be Conventicling the Heathens so called the Christian Assemblies This Stricture more mortifyeth our hopes of healing than any of the rest For we see here that the Silencing and Imprisoning and Undoing of the Ministers will not satisfy the People also must have their Cross and Conventicles must be Written on it One would think the Limitations here put should have satisfied any man that is for Faith Hope and Charity 1. We moved it for none but those that attend the Publick Assemblies 2. And so it be not at the Hours of Publick Worship 3. And but for Neighbours of the same Parish because many cannot Read nor remember what they have Read nor help their own Families nor understand themselves the Christian Faith 4. We desired this Liberty in no Exercises but reading the Scriptures or Licensed Pious Books and repeating the Publick Sermons of their Pastors and Praying and Singing Psalms 5. We motioned this much for none but those that herein refufe not the Inspection of
it exposeth the Magistrate to the reproach or Contempt of the Subjects and so shaketh the very frame of the Kingdom or Government The Magistrate's honour for the good of the Kingdom is more necessary than his Dishonour and shame can be to the Order of that particular Church 2. And a suspending of the Pastor's Act of delivering him the Sacrament with an humble admonition may better attain the Lawful end 3. Christ himself hath oft taught us this Exposition of his Law When he did eat with Publicans and sinners he preferred their repentance before the positive Order of not being familiar with such as being never intended in such a Case When the Disciples pluck't the Ears of Corn and himself cured the sick on the Sabbath day he proveth that the positive Law of Rest was intended to give place to the Moral Law of Necessity and Charity and proveth it by the instance of David and the Officiating Priests and twice sendeth the contrary minded Pharisees to learn what that meaneth I will have mercy a Natural Duty and not at that time sacrifice a positive institution And they that will pretend a positive Law of Order for a Congregation to the dishonouring of Kings and Iudges and Magistrates and making them contemptible and so unable to govern do Pharisaically set up Positives against natural moral Duties By which means Popes and Patriarchs and other Prelates have wronged Princes and troubled the world too much already Do you no better justifie the Common slander how much the Non-conformists are against the honour of Magistrates in comparison of the Church of England I know some Non-conformists think as you but others do not See the old Non-conformists judgment against excommunicating Kings in a Latin Treat De vera Genuina Christ. Relig. Authore Ministro Anglo An. 1618. pag. 280. 4. Moreover the execution of the sentence of Excommunication on Princes and Rulers will less consist with the honour that is due to them than the sentence it self For to avoid them that they may be ashamed to turn away from not to be familiar with them to keep them out of the Church at all God's special Church-worship are things that we cannot do without neglect of much of our duty to them We must attend them and obey them with honour I know a General Council hath forbidden Bishops to carry themselves with Lowliness at the tables and in the presence of Princes and great men And I know that some think that Excommunicate Princes have forfeited their honour and it is lawful to dishonour them yea and all wicked Princes who deserve Excommunication and I know Mr. Hooker in his Eccles. Polit. saith that it is supposed that a Prince that is the Head of a Christian Church be himself a Christian But all these are Errours tending to the subversion of Order and Government And the Higher Powers whom God's Spirit commandeth us to honour and be subject to were Nero and the Roman Senate and other Enemies of Christianity even Idolatrous Heathens And if these must be honoured much more a Christian King or Judge who were he a private man might deserve an Excommunication At least I hope that the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo shall not be issued out against the King or his Judges though the Canon 65. command that every six months in Cathedrals and Parish-Churches the Excommunications be declared of those that obstinately refuse to frequent the Divine Service established by publick Authority and those especially of the better sort and Condition who for notorious contumacy or other notable Crimes stand Excommunicate c. Though the Better sort are singled out especially for the sentence and shame yet if it should be Judges and Sheriff who shall Judge and apprehend them Prop. id Not silence suspend c. Arbitrary but by a known Law Strict No Bishops do or can do so Neither is there any Law or Canon to that purpose that I know of Answ. I am loth to Name Iustances lest it provoke Mr. Potter is dead Dr. Willes of Kingsion now Chaplain to the King they say I am sure hath complained much of his suspension at Shadwell I remember Bishop Reighnolds was so sensible of the necessity of this Provision that at the Savoy Treaty he was most earnest to have it inserted and insisted on It may be it is Minister's ignorance in the Law that maketh them when suspended not know where to seek for a remedy unless in vain or to their undoing Postscript If Sacraments were left free c. It would take in the Independents c. Strict If Independents may be taken in by us now why did not you take them in when you were in power but preach and write so much as you did against Toleration of them But you that would have us dispense to all things now would your selves dispense with nothing then Answ. It 's pity that matters of publick fact should be so much unknown and that when such inference follow 1. I was never in power Nay my Lot never fell out to be of any side that was Vppermost in Church matters nor in State-Usurped power but I always was of the under side 2. It was the Toleration of all Sects unlimitedly that I wrote and preacht against and not that I remember of meer Independents 3. Those that did oppose the Toleration of Independents of my acquaintance did not deny them the liberty of Independency but opposed separation or their Gathering other Churches out of Parish-Churches that had faithful Ministers If they would have taken Parish-Churches on Independent Principles without separation neither I nor my aquaintance did oppose them no nor their Endeavours to reform such Churches 4. The Case greatly differed For an Independent to refuse Parish-Churches when no Ceremony no Liturgie no Oath or Subscription is required of him which he scrupleth is not like his refusing Oaths Subscriptions Liturgie Ceremonies c. 5. But in a Word Grant us but as much and take us but in as we granted to and took in the Independents and we are content Make this agreement and all is ended we desire no more of you We never denyed the Independents the liberty of preaching Lectures as often as they would Nor yet the liberty of taking Parish-Churches They commonly had Presentations and the publick Maintenance And no Subscription Declaration Liturgie or Ceremony was imposed on them Again I say I ask you no more Liberty than was given the Independents by their brethren called Presbyterians Let your Grant now agree but with your intimations 6. And how then say you we would dispence with nothing For my part and those of my mind we never imposed nor endeavoured to impose any thing on any man as necessary to Ordination Ministry or Communion but The owning of the Scripture Generally and the Creeds Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and Sacraments particularly with that measure of understanding them and ability to teach them which is necessary to a Minister and fidelity therein
his Conscience to baptize any Child who is not thus offered to God by one of the Parents or by such a pro parent as taketh the Child for his own and undertaketh the Christian Education Be it also Enacted that no person shall be constrained against his Conscience to the use of the Cross in Baptism or of the Surplice nor any Minister to deny the Lord's Supper to any for not receiving it kneeling nor read any of the Apocrypha for Lessons nor to punish any Excommunication or Absolution against his Conscience but the Bishop or Chancellour who decreeth it shall cause such to publish it as are not dissatisfyed so to do or shall only affix it on the Church-Door Nor shall any Minister be constrained at Burial to speak only words importing the salvation of any person who within a year received not the Sacrament of Communion or was suspended from it according to the Rubrick or Canon and satisfyed not the Minister of his serious Repentance III. And whereas many persons having been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors in the times of Usurpation and Distraction hath occasioned many Difficulties for the present remedy hereof be it Enacted That all such persons as before this time have been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors only and are qualifyed for that Office as the Law requireth shall receive power to exercise it from a Bishop by a written Instrument which every Bishop in his Diocess is hereby impowered and required to Grant in these words and no other To A. B. of C. in the Country of D. Take thou Authority to exercise the Office of a Presbyter in any place and Congregation in the King's Dominions whereto thou shall be lawfully called And this practice sufficing for present Concord no one shall be put to declare his Judgment whether This or That which he before received shall be taken for his Ordination nor shall be urged to speak any words of such signification but each party shall be left to Judge as they see cause IV. And whereas the piety of Families and Godly Converse of Neighbours is a great means of preserving Religion and Sobriety in the World and lest the Act for suppressing seditious Conventicles should be mis-interpreted as injurious thereto be it declared that it is none of the meaning of the said Act to forbid any such Family Piety or Converse tho more then four Neighbours should be peaceably present at the Reading of the Scriptures or a Licensed Book the singing of a Psalm repeating of the publick Sermons or any such Exercise which neither the Laws nor Canons do forbid they being performed by such as joyn with the allowed Church-Assemblies and refuse not the Inspection of the Ministers of the Parish Especially where persons that cannot read are unable to do such things at home as by Can. 13. is enjoyned V. And whereas the form of the Oath and Declaration imposed on persons of Office and Trust in Corporations is unsatisfactory to many that are Loyal and peaceable that our Concord may extend to Corporations as well as Churches Be it Enacted That the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Declaration against Religion and Disloyalty here before prescribed shall to all Ends and purposes suffice instead of the said Oath and Declaration VI. And whereas there are many peaceable Subjects who hold all the Essentials of the Christian Faith but conform not to so much as is required to the Established Ministry and Church-Communion Be it Enacted that All and only they who shall publickly take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy before some Court of âustice or at the Open Sessions of the County where they live and that then and there Subscribe as followeth I. A. B. do unfeâgnedly stand to my Baptismal Covenant and do believe all the Articles of the Creeds called the Apostles the Nicene and Constantinopolitane and the truth of the holy Canonical Scriptures and do renounce all that ãâã contrary hereto shall be so far tolerated in the Excercise of their Religion as His Majesty with the advice of his Parliament or Council shall from time to time find consistent with the peace and safety of his Kingdoms VII And lest this Act for Concord should occasion Discord by emboldening unpeaceable and unruly or heretical men be it enacted that if any either in the allowed or the Tolerated Assemblies that shall pray or Preach Rebellion Sedition or against the Government or Liturgy of the Church or shall break the Peace by tumults or otherwise or stir up unchristian hatred and strife or shall preach against or otherwise oppose the Christan verities or any Article of the sacred Doctrine which they subscribe or any of the 39. Articles of Religion they shall be punished as by the Laws against such Offences is already provided I will here also Annex the Copies of some Petitions which I was put to draw up which never were presented I. The first was intended while the Parliament was sitting to have been offered but wise Parliament-Men thought it was better forbear it II. The second was thought fit for some Citizens to have offered but by the same Councel it was forborn III. The third was thus occasioned Sir Iohn Babor told Dr. Manton that the Scots being then suspected of some insurrection it was expected that we renewed the profession of our Loyalty to free us from all suspicion of Conspiracy with them We said that it seemed hard to us that we should fall under suspicion and no cause alledged We knew of no occasion that we had given But we were ready to profess our continued Loyalty but desired that we might with it open our just resentment of our Case They put me to draw it up but when it was read it was laid by none daring to plead our Cause so freely and signify any sense of our hard usage I. May it Please Your Majesty with the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament WHen the Common profession of resolved moderation had abated Men's fears of a Silencing Prelacy and the published Declarations of Nobilitie and Gentry against all dividing violence and revenge had helpt to unite the endeavours of Your Subjects which prospered for Your Majestie 's desired Restoration when God's wonderful providence had dissolved the Military Powers of Usurpers which hindered it and when Your welcome appearance Your Act of Oblivion Your Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs for which the House of Commons solemnly gave you thanks did seem to have done much to the Cure of our Divisions we had some hopes that our common revived Love and Concord would have tended to Your Majesty's and our common joy in the harmony strength and prosperity of Your Kingdoms and that we might among your inferiour Subjects have enjoyed our part in the common tranquility But the year 1662. dissolved those hopes fixing our old Difficulties and adding more which since then also have been much increased Beeing consecrated and vowed to the sacred Ministry we
years importuned me to let him Print it 1. The sharp execution of the Law had then brought Multitudes into Prison and Poverty 2. Nonconformists both Presbyterians and Independents had taken the Corporation Oath and Declaration and Communicated in the Parish Churches for to make them capable of Trust and Office in the City And because it seâm'd to tend to their protection and advantage we heard of no noise made against them by the Independents but they admitted them as their Members to their Communion as before I was against their taking the Declaration but not against their Communicating but I medled not with them At last when the Earl of Shaftsbury was broken and gone and the City Power and Common Council subdued to the will of the King the foresaid Communion in publick was more freely blamed by the Independents and Anabaptists and some few hot Scots Men. And the private Church Meetings were so much supprest and the prisons so full that my Conscience began to tell me that I should be guilty of injuring the truth the Church and the Souls and Bodily welfare of my brethren if I should by silence harden them against publick worship Specially the Case of the Countrey moved me wherein a great part of the Kingdom scarce two hundred men in a whole Country can have the liberty of any true Church Worship besides Parochial I remembred the Case of the Old Nonconformists against the Brownists and the Writings of Mr. I. Ball Paget Hildersham Bradshaw Gifford Brightman Ames c. I could not but remember what work the separating party had made in England and Scotland in my days from 1644. till 1660 against Government Religion and Concord I saw what I long foresaw each extreme party growing more extreme and going further still from one another And so great a Change is grown on London that the Terms which we offered the Bishops for Concord 1660 are now abhorred as Antichristian I saw multitudes like to be Imprisoned and Ruined for refusing their Duty as if it were sin and disgracing Religion by fathering these Errours on it The Conformists seeing the Errour of the Separatists derided them all and were confirmed in the Justification of all their Conformity thinking that it was but a just differing from a crazed Company of Fanaticks Those that imprisoned and ruined both them and the rest of the Nonconformists thought they did God service by it against an unruly sort of Men The Common people were made believe that this was the true Complexion of all the Dissenters from whatever the Law Commanded The distance growing wider and great sufferings increasing hard thoughts of those by whom Men suffered all real Love did seem to be almost utterly destroyed and Neighbours dwelt together like unplacable Enemies And worst of all Men were frightened to think that they must rather give over all Church Worship than they must Communicate with the best Ministry in the Parish Churches and so the main body of the Land would live like Atheists who can have no other Church-Worship but the Parochial For the Nonconformists Churches were in almost all Countries so suppressed that no considerable Numbers could enjoy them And by this means the Papists were like to have their Wills The Protestants must be told that Recusancy is all their Duties And going to the Publick Churches a sin And who can for shame drive Papists to sin And if thus they could draw all Protestants to forsake the said Churches they would like a deserted City and Garrison'd Fort be open and ready for their possession And while the Papists and Malignants are studying how to cast out all the Godly Conforming Ministers that the Ductile remainder might be prepared for Popery the separating part of the Independents and Anabaptists and some few hot Scotch Presbyterians go before them and tell all the People that it is unlawful to hear them and to own them as Ministers or Churches and to have Communion with them in the Liturgy or Sacraments Even when the rigour of Prosecutors hath brought it to that pass that they must have such or none as to Church worship Seeing so many in prison for this Error to the dishonour of God and so many more like to be ruin'd by it and the separating party by the temptation of suffering had so far prevailed with the most strict and zealous Christians that a great Number were of their mind and the Non-conformable Ministers whose Judgment was against this separation durst not publish their dislike of it partly because of sharp and bitter Censures of the Separatists and who took them for Apostates or Carnal Temporizers that communicated in publick and partly for fear of Encouraging Persecution against the Separatists and partly for fear of losing all opportunity of teaching them and some that had no hope of any other friends or maintenance or Auditors thought they might be silent On all these accounts I that had no gathered Church nor lived on the Contribution of any such and was going out of the world in pain and Languor did think that I was fittest to bear men's Censures and to take that reproach on my self which my brethren were less fit to bear who might live for farther Service And at the Importunity of the Bookseller I consented to publish the Reasons of my Communicating in the Parish-Churches and against Separation Which when it was coming out a Manuscript of Dr. Owen's who was lately dead containing Twelve Arguments against such joyning with the Liturgie and publick Churches was sent me as that which had satisfyed Multitude I thought that if this were unanswered my labour would be much lost because that party would still say Dr. Owen's Twelve Arguments confuted all Whereupon I hastily answered them but found after that it had been more prudent to have omitted his Name For on that account a swarm of revilers in the City poured out their keenest Censures and three or four wrote against me whom I answered I will not name the men that are known and two of them are yet unknown But they went on several Prineiples some Charged all Communion with the Liturgie with Idolatry Antichristianity and perjury and backsliding One concealed his Judgment and quarrel'd at by-words And another turned my Treatise of Episcopacy against me and said it fully proved the Duty of Separation I was glad that hereby I was called to explain that Treatise lest it should do hurt to mistakers when I am dead and that as in it I had said much against one extream I might leave my Testimony against the other I called all these writings together a Defence of Catholick Communion And that I might be Impartial I adjoyned two piece against Dr. Sherlock that ran quite into the contrary Extreames unchurching almost all Christians as Schismaticks I confess I wrote so sharply against him as must needs be liable to blame with those that know not the man and his former and latter Virulent and ignorant Writings § 81. About this time
be Schismaticks with them that unite not in their Center or at least be not tyed to union by their ligaments So he is a Schismatick to a Papist that Centers not in the Pope as the Principium unitatis and visible Head of the Church and in the Roman Church as the Heart of the Church Catholick denominating the whole He is a SchismatiÌck with some others that owns not every Order or Ceremony which they maintain For my part I should think that he that ãâã in âhrâât and âââdeth the sound and wholsome Doctrine contained in the Creeds of the Church and maintaineth love and unity with all Christians to the utmost extent of his natural capacity even with all that he is capable of holding Communion with is no Schismatick nor his attempts for that end Schismatical Combinations If there were a Bishop in this Diocess and he should go one way suppose he command that all Church Assemblies be at such a time and all worship in such a form and all the Presbyters and People go another way whether they do well or ill so the thing itself be tollerable and will not meet at the time nor worship God in the form which he prescribeth I should think I were guilty of Schism if I separated from all these Churches and guilty of ungodliness if I wholly forsook and forbore all publick worship of God because I could have none according to the Bishops commanding Much more if there were no Bishop in the Diocess at all This seems to be our case in respect of both Worship and Discipline at least for the most part Is that man guilty of no Schisme nor Impiety who will rather have no Discipline exercised at all on the profane and scandalous but all Vice go without controul and the rage of Mens sins provoke Heaven yet more against us who will rather have no Ministerial Worship of God in Prayer or Praise no Sacraments no Solemn Assemblies to this end no Ministerial Teaching of the people but have all Mens Souls given over to perdition the bread of life taken from their mouths and God deprived of all his Worship then any of this should be done without Bishops That had rather the Church doors were shut up and we lived like Heathens than we should Worship God without a Bishops Commands and that when we have none to command us 3. We distinguish of the necessity of Bishops either it is a necessity ad bene esse for the right ordering of the Church when it may be had or it is a necessity ad esse to the very being of a Church or of Gods Worship without which we may not offer God any publick Service or have any Communion with any Congregation that so doth The former we leave as not fit for our determination and therefore we do not contradict you in it nor seek to draw you to own any Declaration against it The latter we do deny there is no such necessity of Bishops as that God can have no Church without them and that we must rather separate from all our Assemblies and never offer God any publick Worship then do it without them remembring still that we speak of those Bishops whom we are charged with rejecting and not the Pastors of particular Congregations And in this distinction of necessity and in this conclusion I have the consent of the generality of the Protestant Bishops so far as I know to a Man as far as their Writings declare to us their Minds and therefore Episcopal Divines may consent Except to Sect. 2. 1. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge those for Presbyters and Pastors of Churches who profess themselves to have been made such in a Church where there are and were Bishops that never denyed them Orders without the Hands Consent or Knowladge of the Bishop yea in a time when Bishops were without any accusation before any Ecclesiastical Superiour Synod or other unheard ejected laid by by their own sheep and Presbyters that owed them obedience Reply to Sect. 2. To your first Question I answer 1. You must distinguish of punishing and ejecting Bishops that deserve it and casting out their Order 2. Between casting out the appurtenances and corruptions which made up the English sort of Prelacie as differing from the Primitive and casting out the Order and Office of Bishops simply in itself 3. Between those Men that do cast them out and those that do not 4. Between a Church that hath Bishops and one that hath none 5. Between them that can have Ordination by them and those that cannot 6. Between those Ministers of this Association that were Ordained by Bishops and those that were not 7. Between the Irregularity and sinfulness or Ordination and the nullity thereof and so between a Minister regularly Ordained and a Minister Irregularly Ordained who is a Minister still Hereupon I answer further in these conclusions 1. That too many of the Bishops lately ejected did deserve it is beyond dispute 2. Whether the Parliament in the state that they were in had not power to punish them by Imprisonment or Ejection as Solemon did Abiathar without an Ecclesiastical Superior or whether the Clergy be exempted from such punishment by the Secular power till they are delivered up to them by the Ecclesiastical Head hath been voluminously disputed in the world already Sutcliffe Bilson Iewel and a multitude more have proved that Kings have power in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that the Pope hath no power of Jurisdiction in England let the Oath of Supremacy judge and if the Metropolitan of Canterbury or the highest Ecclesiastical Power miscarry who shall restrain or eject them but the Civil Power unless we go to the Pope for more acceptable witnesses I commend to you Spalatensis Grotius and Saravia yea Fr. de Victoria and several Parisians The two former one de Republ. Eccles. the other de Imperio summarum potestatum will never be well answered If it be said the King did it not I answer I think the Authority by whom that much was done that we now speak of will be acknowledged sufficient by most that were against the fact and that fought against the Parliament that understood the Laws It was long before the King withdrew 3. Many of those that approved of the Ejection of those unworthy men yet approved not of the dissolution of the Office and such may be many and for ought you know most or all of the Ministers here Associated Though I suppose rather it is otherwise yet while Men do for peace silence their opinions who knows what they are And sure I am many among us had no hand in the downfall of the Bishops and whether any at all be lyable in this to your Charge besides my self whereof more anon I know not most of our Association were in the Universities in the Wars and the rest were some I
to leave God unworshipped Publickly and our People untaught and set Satan raign and Souls perish by Thousands for fear of saving them without Episcopal Ordination If you still say that we should be of your Mind and be ordained by Bishops we again say our judgments are not at our Command we cannot believe what we list I know multitudes of Anti-Episcopal Men that study as faithfully and seek God's Direction as heartily as any of you all and yet cannot see the Justness of your Cause though whether it be just or not I purposely forbear to pass my Censure if still you say it is our Wilfulness or Peevishness I leave you as Usurpers of God's Prerogative and pretending to that Knowledge of our Hearts which is a step above the Papal Arrogation of Infallability Nay seeing I have gone so far I will add this do you not imitate the Papists in the main Point of Recusansy by which we were wont to know them in England Nay we had many Church Papists that went not so far must not you as they have People disclaim our Ministry and Assemblies and not join in them for fear of owning unordained Men. Be not too angry with us I pray you if we call not such Protestants or at least if we take it for impossible to have Concord with them 2. I must also tell you that are offended at my Saying that those particular Bishops named deserved to be cast out that if you be one that dare own them in their Ways or would have the Church have such as they yea that do not detest and lament their Miscarriages seem to your self as Pious as you will you are no Man for our Company and Concord Do you complain of me for want of Christian Charity and yet would you have the Church have such Bishops as would cast out such Men as Aims Parker Baines Bradshaw Dod Hildersham with Multitudes of as painful able Godly Men as the World knew and leave so many drunken reading Sots some thereabouts Faggot Makers or Rope Makers many that did and that lately whether we will or not till the late Act get their Living by unlawful Marriages and such Courses as is a Shame to Mention yea would you have Bishops that would do as your Bishop Wren Pierce and the others did whose Accusations are upon Record For my part I think such Mens destroying the Church was the cause of all our wars and Misery and he that dare own them in it after all this is no Man for our Association I love no Man the worse for being for Bishops but for being for such Bishops and such Practices I do They are yet alive enquire what Men Mr. Dance and Mr. Turner are who were the Teachers of this Parish and what the People were then and what they are now Grant but Piety Love and Concord to be better than Ignorance and Debauchery and then judge of them Except to Sect. 22. Page 64. Speaking of Episcopal Divines he saith and if Liberty of Sects and Separations be publickly granted and confirmed to all you shall soon find that the Party that I am now dealing with will soon by their Numbers obscure all other Parties that now trouble our Peace ibid. pag. 64. n. 13. Reply to Sect. 22. It was my necessary care to distinguish between Protestant Bishops and Popish of Cassender's strain and it is your Care with all subtilty to obscure the Distinction that you may involve the honest Party in your Guilt and Snares That which I there spoke only of Popish Bishops and their Party you would intimate that I spake of the Episcopal Protestants then which nothing less is true as my Words fully shew I tell you plainly such Bishops as Usher Hall Morton Iewel c. are twenty fold nearer me in Judgment than they are to you if you be one of the Cassandrian Papists that there I speak against why then should they not sooner join with us than with you If ever God set up Episcopal Government where I live yea though I wer unsatisfied of its right I will obey them in all things not against the Word of God were it but for Peace and Unity Except to Sect. 23. They would have all the People take us for no Ministers c. and so all God's Worship be neglected in publick where no Bishops and their Missionaries are and so when all others are diseased or turned out the Papists may freely enter there being none but these few faithful Friends of their own to keep them out which how well they will do you may by these conjecture and n. 15. of the same Page But it is a higher Charge than Popery that these Episcopal Doctors that I now speak of are liable to c. Reply to Sect. 23. Is not this true How much of it do you plainly maintain in this Writing I had rather you had freed your selves of the Charge then called it Uncharitable Excep to Sect. 24. Pag. 66. N. 5. Speaking to those same Men he saith You must be certain that those same Men had Intentionem Ordinationis if you be right Papists indeed did ever any one ever hear and read any one single English Episcopal Doctor require Intention as necessary to Ordination If not call you that Speech of Mr. Baxter's Christian Charity Reply to Sect. 24. Remember this that no Protestants say Presbyters have no more Power than the Ordainer intended them You may see by that that I speak to Papists why then would you intimate that it was to Protestant Bishops Except to Sect. 25. Pag. 67. Do not these Mens Grounds leave it certain that Christ hath no true Church or Ministry or Ordinances or Baptized Christians in England nay in all the Western Church and perhaps not in the whole World and then see whether these Popish Divines must not prove Seekers Reply to Sect. 25. O that you would vindicate them from that Charge though heavy by proving the uninterrupted canonical Succession from the Apostles Except to Sect. 26. Pag. 47. Speaking of some under the Name of Episcopal Divines saith that they withdraw the People from obeying their Pastors by pretending a Necessity of Episcopacy c. and partly instil into them such Principles as may prepare them for flat Popery and yet in the next Page 48. saith that those same Men do themselves viz. Mr. Chisenhall against Vane Mr. Waterhouse for Learning Zealous Men for Episcopacy publish to the World what a pack of notorious ignorant silly Souls or wicked unclean Persons those are that are turned Papists How now can Mr. Baxter call those Men that so publish c. faithful Friends to Rome pag. 64. See how Uncharitableness betrays and accuses it self in its busy Accusations of others and must justify them per Force of Truth when it would condemn Reply to Sect 26. Why what is the Scope of this your Writing but to prove that we are not Pasters and would you not then draw the People from acknowledging us such
Ordainer to do it where it will be needful to consider what is of Necessity to the Constitution of such Authority and what destroys it Before all which it would be necessary to know what the Ordainer's Work is and to what and how far his Power extends But this I am not now to meddle in That a Divine Ordination is of Necessity to the Ligitimation of our Calling in foro Dei I grant as also in foro Conscientiae Ministrantis That authoritative Ordination of Men is necessary Ordinis Gratiâ when it may be obtained and where God's Providence doth not make it naturally or morally impossible I also grant That Imposition of Hands with solemn Prayer is the most convenient manner and necessary for the Ordainer to use Necessitate Praecepti Medii ad bene esse Ordinationis I also grant That the Power of Ordaining is ordinarily only in the Hands of Christ's Ecclesiastical Ministers I acknowledge whether Bishops or Presbyters we now question not and that it is not divolved to any others but in Case of Necessity The Things then that I deny are that Imposition of Hands or present Prayer or the Presence of the Ordainer are of Necessity to our Office That the true just Authority of an Ecclesiastical Ordainer is of Necessity to the being of our Office And consequently that an uninterrupted Succession of Just Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination from the Apostles is of absolute necessity to the being of our Calling Nay that any Authoritative Human Ordination at all besides the Peoples meer Consent is of such absolute indispensable Necessity ad esse Officii all this I deny And my Opinion is that in Case of a failing of all Ecclesiastical Authoritative Ordination the Magistrates Ordination may suffice ad esse Officii And in case both fail the Peoples meer Acceptance Consent or Election may suffice supposing the Person meetly qualified And whether you will call this act of the People a Constitution or Ordination or not I am indifferent Certainly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã oft signifies the Constituting which is not an Act of Government or superior Authority But no Term hath so much need of Explication as the Word Office or Ministry which is the Terminus of Ordination An Office is a stated Power or Authority or Faculty with Duty of doing certain Works to certain Ends. The Ministerial Office of a Presbyter is to be differenced ab objecto a fine The Authority and the Duty in a lawful Officer go together Such a one only is in sensu primario proprio an Officer But he that is a Usurper or hath no lawful Call may yet both 1. Have all the Duty of that Office lying upon him and by his own Intrusion oblige himself to the Performance and yet want the true Authority for performing it seeing he came in without God's Call and there is no Power but of God 2. And he may have the Name of an Officer though given him but analogically or in sensu secundario ecclesiastico 3. And the Church may owe him that Respect and Observance due to a lawful Officer the Reason is because it is one thing to know who is a truly lawful Officer as in Matter of Membership I am bound to use many as true Christians even all that have the Profession of such who yet are not such So am I bound to take all those for lawful Officers that have the external Tokens of such seeing we cannot know any further though they be not such indeed 4. And all that Man 's Ministerial Actions are valid to the Church that doth her Duty in observing him and yet they are all null or unlawful and flat Sins to the Performer The Reason of the later is both because no Mna can lawfully do that which he hath no Authority given him for and because nemini ex proprio crimine debetur beneficium and Ergo his Usurpation cannot secure him The Reason of the former is because Duty and Benefit go together and therefore the Church that performeth but her Duty in taking those to be truly called Pastors that seem so to be having those Tokens which she is bound to judge by as probable must needs have the Benefit of his Ministry in their way of Duty for God requireth no Duty in vain As also because nemini debetur pâna ex aliena culpa qua talis est Now whether we shall dispute de necessitate ordinationis ad officium verum legitimum proprie primario sic dictum in foro Dei Or only as ad Officium analogicum secundario minus proprie in foro tantum ecclesiae sic dictum is to be considered How far your Sense will concur I know not but in respect of both these do I hold my former Negations Yet further before I either answer your Arguments or determine of the Sense of our Question it is very necessary that the end of our Enquiry be understood which in order must go before the means I take it for granted that you do not dispute this question as necessary to be determined in order to our Association before you can join with the present Ministry Or yet as necessary to the Determination of that further Question whether those are true Ministers that are not Ordained by Bishops and those true Organized Churches that have only such Ministers for if I thought this were your end ãâã would dispute many other Questions first before we came to this and try first whether you could prove that the Presbyterian Churches cannot produce a Succession of true Ordination on the same Grounds as the Episcopal for the main But I suppose your Ends are some other and in special those mentioned in your Paper I conjecture that I shall nearest approach your Sense if I state the Question thus Whether an Ordination by Ecclesiastical Men having just Authority thereto be in all Times and Cases since the Apostles of absolute Necessity to the very being of the Ministerial Office both coram Deo coram Ecclesiâ and consequently an uninterrupted Succession of such Ordination be of the same Necessity For if I should put the Question about Imposition of Hands or de modo aliquo ordinandi I know not but I might miss of your Sense on one Side and on the other if I should extend it to all Ordination whether by Magistrates or others Ad 1 um Your First Argument I suppose should be formed thus That which the English Bishops thought necessary to prove against the Papists that is necessary to be proved against them But the English Bishops thought it necessary against the Papists to prove the Non-interruption of their Succession in just Ordination Ergo Resp. 1. Concedo totum It was necessary to prove it against the Papists arguing ad Hominem because it is the way of fuller Conviction and Satisfaction when a Man can confute an Adversary on his own Grounds It will much shorten the Dispute when we shew them that though we should
be as dear to us as any other and that if I were a Member of Mr. Tombeis Church if he would permit me I would live obediently under his Ministry allowing me the Liberty of my Conscience I hope God is working for our Unity and Peace I have been long preaching of the Unity of the Catholick Church containing all true Christians as Members and the last Week save one Mr. Tombes came to the Re-baptized Church at Bewdley and preacht on the same Subbject and so excellently well as I hear for Unity among all true Christians to the same purpose with your Husband's Arguments that I much rejoiced to hear of it though I hear some of his People were offended And now that this should be seconded with your Husband 's peaceable Arguments puts me in some Hopes of a little more healing I have strong Hopes that if I were in London I should persuade such as your Husband and Mr. Iohn Goodwin and many an honest Presbyterian Minister as great a distance as seems to be between them all to come yet together and live in Holy Communion But be sure God will drive us together before he hath done with us Living Members will smart by distance and be impatient till the Wound be closed what a Damp is upon the Spirits of those Christians that can separate interpretatively from a thousand parts to one of the Church of Christ. The Papists would desire no better sport nor the Infidels neither than to reduce the Church of Christ to the Antipaede Baptists or the baptized at Age and so to deny him to have had any visible Church in the World that we can prove for so many Years Would they have held Communion with the Catholick Church for a thousand Years together or would they not if they had lived in those times If they would then why not with us also that are of the same Judgment Was it a Duty then and is it unlawful now or are they Respecters of Persons If they would not in all those Ages have held Communion with the visible Church what would they have done but separated from the Body and so from the Head and cast off Christ in all his Members and taken him to be a Head without a Body which is no head and so no Christ what would they have done but denied his Power and Love and Truth and consequently his Redemption and his Office Hath he come at the end of Four Thousand Years since the Creation to redeem the World that lay so long in Darkness and hath he made such wonderful Preparations for his Church by his Life and Miracles and Blood and Spirit c. and promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that his Kingdom shall be an Everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion endureth from Generation to Generation and yet after all this shall he have a Church even as the Seekers say but for an Age or two For doubtless tho' where Heathens were the Neighbours of the Church many were baptised at Age yet no Man can name or prove a Society or I think a Person against infant Baptism for One Thousand Two Hundred Years at least if not One Thousand Four Hundred And for many Ages no other ordinarily baptized but Infants If Christ had no Church then where was his Wisdom his Love and his Power What was become of the Glory of his Redemption and his Catholick Church that was to continue to the End That Man that can believe that Christ had no Church for so long time or any one Age since his Ascension must turn an Infidel and deny him to be Christ if he be a rational Man Did all the Gospel Precepts of Love and Holy Communion cease as soon as Infant Baptism prevailed doubtless though it be be his Ordinance Christ never laid so great a stress on the outward Washing as Dividers do Whenever Baptism is mentioned in Scripture it means The Engagement of the Person to Jesus Christ by solemn Covenant which Washing is appointed to Solemnize and 1 Cor. 12. 13. doth plainly mean That one Holy Spirit which is usually given to the Baptized either in or near their outward Baptism doth inwardly animate all the Body and unite them and assimilate them and prove them Members Constantine the Great was the Glory of the Church in his Generation maintaining Holiness and Peace when the Pastors were some Corrupters and some Dividers and would have broken all in Pieces but for him He ordinarily Preached or made Holy Prayers and Speeches in Meetings and yet was never baptized all this while till near Death and none ever scrupuled his Communion I would know of the Dividers why they should think Baptism more necessary to be believed than the other Sacrament the Supper of the Lord Yet it is certain that all the ancient Church did purposely conceal the Lord's Supper from the Knowledge of the Catechumens by which it appears they judged not the Belief of it essential to a Church Member Yet I know the great thing meant by the Word Baptism in Scripture is essential to the Church-Membership of the Adult that is the giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Covenant but the Sign is only necessary as a Duty but not as a means without which the thing cannot be had This is voluminously proved against the Papists with whom the contrary minded do comply Circumcision in the Wilderness was separated from Church-Membership and Communion And is the outward part of Baptism more necessary under the Gospel which setteth less by Externals and where God that is a Spirit will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and where neither Circumcision nor Un-Uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new Creature and Faith that worketh by Love But our main Argument against them is That no true Definition can be given of Baptism that will not agree with Infant-Baptism if it were granted to be unlawful were it proved an unmeet Age it will never prove the Baptism null But I do but go besides your Expectation I suppose in all this which is occasioned by your Husbands Paper and the main Cause I shall therefore come at last to your Case But will Mr. Lambe regard the Judgment of one that differeth from him as I do You know according to my Judgment what I must advise him to but though still it is my Judgment that Infants of Believers should be solemnly given up to Christ by Baptism yet I shall deal as impartially as I can and put my self in Mr. L's Case and supposing I were of his Opinion against Infant-Baptism I shall answer your particular Questions To the two first I answer 1. We have a sure Word to fly to for Direction and many great and evident Principles as here the Nature of the Catholick Church c. to give us Light in the darker Points that depend upon them and in such a Case it is dangerous gathering our Informations about Truth or Duty or
fittest manner and Season of your coming off Therefore it seems to me your Duty freely lovingly compassionately to communicate your Reasons to your Auditors if they can prove them unsound which I am sure they cannot in the main then yield to them if they cannot then beg their Pardon for misguiding them and beseech them to return not to any Sin against God but to the Love of the Saints and the Unity of the universal Body of Christ and the Communion of Brethren 3. To return to Mr. I. Goodwin's Church again I dare not dissuade you or advise you but I would not do it if I liv'd in another Parish where I could have Lawful Communion yea or if I could live in such a Parish I would not be a Member of a Church gathered out of many Parishes in such a Place as London Co-habitation is in Nature and Scripture Example made the necessary Disposition of the Materials of a Church 4. My Thoughts still are that you should Preach the Gospel in some Congregation most suitable to you But I am very glad that you give me the Reasons of your Trouble for it is a sad kind of Work for you or another to plead against Troubles in the dark which a Man can give no Reason for 1. Your First I need say nothing to If you had ever had a Temptation to thrust in a wrong Motive into a good Cause it neither proves the Cause bad else all our Preaching were too bad or your Heart bad as you see your Sin I hope you see your sufficient Remedy 2. The Second is carnal to resist so great a Truth and Duty lest good People be displeased what are they your God God must be enough for you if ever you will have enough and it must satisfie you that he is pleased if ever you will be satisfied Tell those Christians you will not cease to Love them by Loving more nor cease any due Communion with them by having Communion with more Keep in with them by Love and Correspondency even whether they will or no even when you have left their Separation Do not reproach them when you leave them but enjoy the Good of their Communion still as you have Opportunity God's House hath many Mansions if your Friends think that their Closet is all the House convince them of their Mistake and confine your self to that Closet no longer but yet renounce it not it may be a part though sinfully divided though it be not the whole 3. The way that you are called to is God's High way and though the Churches have many in them that are dead yet have they with them as many living Members as yours and many more if these parts may be Witnesses I would not be a Member of that Church willingly that is composed of none but not able Christians though I most Love the best and delight most in their Fellowship and wish that all were such yet when I see a Church so gathered I easily find it is a wrong Constitution and not according to the Mind of Christ. I will never join with them that will have but one Form in Christ's School I would have the A B C there taught as well as the profoundest Mysteries 'T is no Sign of the Family of God to have no Children what if I said Infants in it but strong Men only Nor of the Hospital of Christ to have none Sick nor of his Net to have no Fish but Good nor of his Field to have no Tares Flesh and Blood hath ticed me oft to Separation for Ease but it s too easy a way to be of God I undergo another kind of Life you are extreamly mistaken if you think that you are put on so much Duty and Self-denial by many Degrees among your Hundred Professors as we must undergo Your Work is Idleness to ours how then is yours the streighter way 4. For Riches and gay Apparel you may help to cure Excess where you find it What! a Physician fly because his Patients are Sick O that we had no sorer Diseases to encounter than fine Cloaths If you were with me I could tell you quickly where to find Forty Families of humble godly Christians that are as bare and Poor as you would Wish and need as much as you can give them or procure them that scarce lose a Day 's Work by Sickness but the Church must maintain them And I could send you to Sixty Families that are as poor and yet so Ignorant as more to need your spiritual Help When they have sat by me to be instructed in my Chamber they sometimes leave the Lice so plentifull that we are stored with them for a competent space of time Never keep in a Separated Church to avoid Riches and fine Cloaths and for fear lest you cannot meet with the Poor I warrant you a Cure of that Melancholy Fear in most places in England 5. The next is the great Block 1. If you gather out the choicest Members that should help the rest and then complain of Parishes when you have marr'd them you do not justly 2. If you will not do your Duty in a Parish because some Ministers do not theirs your excuse is frivolous 3. If I durst have gathered a separated Church here I could have had one large and numerous enough or such as would allow me ease but I think Parish Work the best We here agree on these Four Heads 1. To teach all In which Work in my Parish I could find Work for Ten Ministers if I could maintain them 2. To admit none as adult Members without a personal credible Profession of Faith and Holiness of which I refer you to my Treatise of Confirmation 3. To exercise Discipline with these 4. To hold Communion of Churches by Associations and Assemblies of the Officers And I bless God I find not my Parish such a dead Body as you speak of Among Eight Hundred Families Six Hundred Persons are Church-Members I hope there is not very many of these without such a Profession as giveth us good Hopes of their Sincerity and none whose Profession I am able any way to disprove and this satisfieth me as God's Way and many I hope Scores there be of those that join not with us on divers Accounts that I hope fear God If you have Charity to judge that our Parishes have Christians you may have Charity to judge that they have Life and some fit for Communion How tender is Christ of his weakest Members and shall not I imitate him yea shall I judge them that am so bad my self and pluck them from his Arms that designeth it as his highest Honour to be admired and glorified in the freeness and fulness of his Grace and Love to the Unworthy 6. Your Followers Souls are by you endangered while you leave them in their Sin will it endanger them to tell them of that Danger and help them out What! to lead Men to Holy Love and Unity with the Catholick
the same all are not of the Church that are in the Parish there are three sorts of the Parish 1. Communicants and those are the Church 2. Meer Hearers and Catechical Persons and these are Candidates 3. Aliens Atheists Infidels and Papists Hereticks Men of no Church or other Churches Parish-Churches as combined parts of a Christian Kingdom or National Church thus distinguished from Aliens Auditors and not only tolerated but orderly combined maintained encouraged are the most regular Churches agreeable to Scripture Reason and Antiquity Quest. 3. Suppose the Parish-Churches should be no true Churches is it destructive to particular Churches to join with the Parish-Assemblies Answ. No who can dream that Families and Neighbours and occasional Meetings may not Worship God or that such Worship destroys Churches Did Corâlius's Meeting Acts 18. or those Acts 12. 12. or these that Acts 20. prayed at an Oratory nor the Water destroy the Church 2. Occasion Communicants are not bound to try the Call of the Ministers where they come and have no Vote but to take them according to visible Profession and Possession and if the Ministers should prove uncalled the Loss would be to themselves and not to the Faithful that are blameless and have right to the Childrens Bread though a Iudas or a Pharisee distribute it But the Separatists Object that pretended Churches which are not true are worse than occasional Assemblies that pretend it not Answ. 1. whether they are worse or better is nothing to this Question of destroying Churches 2. The liker they are to true Churches the liker they are to be better than those that are unlike them 3. The Officiating of a true Minister may make that a true temporary Church which is not a constant setled Church 4. It is far liker that many separating Congregations will prove no true lawful Churches for want of true Ministers and other Causes and yet it will not follow that all that join with them destroy true Churches for some under Government may do it blamelesly and they that do it sinfully may yet own true Churches every Sin destroys not other Churches 5. It is a Duty for Members of a Church to get what good they can by all Christians whether they be regular Churches or not Quest. 4. Suppose the Parish-Assemblies to be particular Churches are the Corruptions in them so great as that we must separate from them or would it not be Schism so to do Answ. There are many sorts of Separation It is Schism to call them no true Churches of Christ or such as it is not lawful to hold Communion with and to separate on that account and this I have oft proved in Print so fully that I must not now repeat it But there are many Occasions which may warrant and necessitate a meer local Separation as I have fully proved in many Treatises as if any Sin be imposed and Communion denied to those that will not Sin those Men do not separate but are driven out by Separatists or Tyrants and must not give over all Church Worship of God because Tyrants forbid it them Many other Instances of lawful local Separation I have published which I cannot find any have confuted no nor denyed Quest. 5. Whether there are not in congregational Churches such things which are not plainly instituted in Scripture Answ. Congregational is a sorry Word as here used in distinction from Parish-Churches Parish-Churches are Congregational they consist of Pastors and Christian Communicants joined for Personal Communion and Independents and Separatists much differ many Independants are against Separation the old Nonconformists both Presbyterians and Independants were judged the Parish-Churches that had tolerable Ministers to be true Churches and Independents greatly differ among themselves some are sound in the Faith and some are unfound some are for Infant Church-Membership and Covenant Grace and some against it some are for self-made Covenants and Terms of Church-entrance and Communion and for the Peoples Power of the Keys and against Ordination and many other Errors which others do renounce And remember it is one thing to be Independants by Agreement as Neighbour Churches and another thing to be dependant as Subjects on governing Churches And it is one thing to be Independant on equal Neighbour Churches and another thing to be independant on a superior Ministry The Churches of Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus and the rest were independant on each other as to Government but they were dependant on the Apostles and Evangelists Paul Barnabas Luke Mark Silas Timothy Titus and Apollos c. as to Oversight and dependant on other Churches as Fellow-members of the same Universal Body as the Members of our Bodies are 3. I know no Churches to happy as to have nothing that is not particularly yea or generally instituted in Scripture yea and that obtruded on the People O! when will God make them wiser some Independant Ministers and Churches have Catholick Charitable Uniting Principles But the separating part who are they that have so many and great Defects and Faults as I have in my former Writing enumerated and need not here again recite but advise you impartially to review them Quest. 6. Whether every Person who doth join with such a Church doth not become as guilty of the Sin of such a Church as those do that join with the Church of England Answ. This Question intimateth that you know not what the Church of England is It is nothing but a Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian supreme Power and combined Christians and Churches governed by that Power it is not Liturgies nor Ceremonies that essentiate the Church of England Orthodox Godly Presbyterians and Independants who deny not a Christian Kingdom of Christian Churches though differing in many thing are all parts of the true Church of England But I suppose you mean the Conformists which are but a part 2. One is guilty of the Faults of the Conformists by their bare Presence and Communion who do not consent to those Faults and if bare Presence signified Consent we must avoid Communion with all Churches on Earth for who are Sinless And all must avoid us and how shall we avoid our selves who sin in all we do 3. But when People causelesly separate and unchurch other Churches far âounder than their own and falsely accuse them yea and almost all Christ's Churches these Fifteen Hsndred Years as those now called Separatists usually do I think your ordinary joining with such when you may have sounder Communion is a sinful Encouragement of them in their Schism justly leaveth you under the Imputation of Schism and requireth great Humiliation and Reformation being greater than some great private Sins as publick Cases are more important than private but I am loath to say all that I judge true against the present separating Way lest I be mistaken as if I would render them odious or be against the necessary Toleration of the Week I have truly told the World near Forty Years ago that I am past
doubt that neither the Episcopal Presbyterian nor Independant way alone will well settle the Church But that each of the three Parties and those called Erastians have somewhat of the Truth in peculiar and somewhat of Faultiness and if ever the Church be well setled it must be by taking the best and leaving out the worst of every party and till that can be done we must bear with what we cannot amend Octobo 9. 1688. Mr. J BEcause your Friend refuseth Conference though I promised secrefie and a loving Debate I will for your sake answer your Questions my self which I take to be these Two I Whether you ought not presently to fix your self in a particular Church and not continue any longer occasional Communion with many II. What Church you should be a fixed Communicant in I. As to the First I know not well what is meant by fixed Membership by the Author of the Writing which you shewed me you must be a fixed Member of Christ and the Church Universal or else you are no fixed Christian But as to particular Pastors and Congregations Order and Concord and Edification are the general Rules which tell you where to fix and how far 1. You ought not to commit any real Sin for Communion with any Church 2. Though you may and must join with faulty Assemblies and Worship yet you must not justifie their Faults nor profess your Consent to them nor promise that you will never endeavour any Amendment of them 3. There must be no Self-obliging unnecessarily Liberty is not so contemptible a thing that we should cast it away for nought much less must you bind your self contrary to God's Providence or without excepting Alterations by it 4. Your Church-Membership as to particular Congregations must have no greater fixedness than your Habitation and other Obligations You may remove your Congregational Relation when you remove your Dwelling and none can hinder you from removing both when your Interest requireth it Suspect them that would make you their Propriety II. As to the Second where you should fix 1. You are in your Father's House under his Government and must obey him in all lawful things and must not go against his Consent 2. You are a Member of a Christian Family and no Scripture tells us of the Members of one Christian Family being of divers Churches nor alloweth it 3. Scripture knoweth no particular Churches but what were bounded by Neighbourhood and Cohabitation except Hereticks There were never Churches gathered out of Churches then nor two approved Churches of the same Language in the same Bounds 1. I do hereby undertake to prove against any Disputer that there is no Form so agreeable to God's Word as this following 1. A Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian King or supreme Power and particular confederate Churches being the Burgesses and peaceable Unbelievers that tolerated Aliens or Catechumens 2. A reformed Episcopacy Successors to the Evangelists that without the Sword or Force had the Care of many Churches 3. Reformed Parish-Churches consisting of Godly Pastors and professed Christian Cohabitants the incapable being Catechumens which made the old Nonconformists declare that they were so far from being against Parish-Churches that their Lives would be a burden to them if they were not restored to them The first Church State that Christ himself made was the Platform of a Christian Kingdom Church offering to make Iudaea such setting Twelve Apostles over the Twelve Tribes and Seventy two Disciples the Number of their great Council and so would have gathered all Ierusalem's Children to himself as a Hen gathereth her Chickens Mat. 23. which they refusing he declared that the Kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a Nation that would bring forth the fruit thereof and so they were cut off for their Unbelief and we graffed in to the same Olive or political State the Mosaical Law only changed for Christ's Law And as all the Prophets foretold this that Christ's Church should be a Davidical Kingdom so after Two Hundred Ninety Four Years Tryal it was set up and the Pagan Empire Babylon did fall and Christ reigned by Christian Emperors and his enemies were made his Footstool and the Kingdoms of the World became the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ consisting of Churches confederate for Unity and the Nations brought in their Glory to it and the Fulness of the Gentiles came in and all the Israel of God were saved Iudaea becoming the most Christian Nation in the World And Heaven and Earth rejoiced at the Fall of Babylon and this new Ierusalem's iniâial Sâaâe And sure it is such a Kingdom-Church which those expect that talk of the future Thousand Years Reign of Christ. As Teachers are under him as Prophet and Priests as he is Priest so are Christian Kings as he is King and bad Kings are no more Reason against his Institution than bad Teachers and Priests 2. There are Three Sorts of Pastors or Bishops in Christ's Church I. Such as were to gather many Churches out of Infideâs and to set Elders or fixed Bishops over them and then oversee both the Elders and People Such Christ made the Apostles whose Office was partly extraordinary and temporary and is so far only ceased and partly ordinary and continued and so Christ promised to be with them to the end of the World And such were Evangelists sent forth with and by the Apostles to gather and oversee many Churches and Pastors Such were Titus Timothy Luke Mark Barnabas Silas and many more God never recalled this Order of Ministers if any say he did it lyeth in them to prove it This was the first sort of Pastors II. The Second Sort were the fixed Elders which these ordained in every Church who were all Bishops over the Flocks and so called but under the general Ministers who yet had none of them any forcing Power by the Sword these two God instituted III. The Third Sort between these Two was a President Pastor in every particular Church like the President of a Colledge who had some moderating guiding Power among the rest of the Elders This was set up to avoid Division among the Elders every Church having usually many and received even in some of the Apostles Days and never rejected for a Thousand Years 3. Particular Churches in Scripture Times were distinguished by the places of their Neighbourhood as I said before and there were never two Churches in the same Bounds except Hereticks and Men of divers Languages From this it is plain that the most Divine From of Government is 1. A Christian Kingdom 2. With Reformed General Ministers 3. And Reformed Parish-Churches having fixed Pastors and where it may be our Chief c. Moreover as to your fixing the Churches in Question with you I suppose are not the Papists the Quakers the Familists c. But the Episcopal the Presbyterian the Independent and the Separatist if not the Anabaptists also I. The Episcopal are of Two Sorts
such Churches as Corinth Gallatia Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Laodicea c. defiled with odious Crimes and Errors though God command them to reform IV. Because hereby they tempt Men to infidelity when they hear that Christ hath no greater a Body and Church than they with which Men may lawfully communicate and rob him of almost his Kingdom V. By false accusing the Prayers of almost all Christ's Church and renouncing Communion with them they forfeit their Interest in the Benefit of their Prayers and of the Communion of Saints VI. Who but Satan would have all the People of England and all Nations to live without any publick Church-worship till they can have better than such as is in our parish-Parish-Churches as if none were better VII With whom would these Men have held Communion if they had lived in any Age till two hundred Years ago when as far as ever I could find there was not one Congregation of Christians or Hereticks in all the World that was against Forms of Worship or Bishops or all Ceremonies let them name one if they can what then will they say to the Question Where was your new Church before the two last Ages Had Christ no Church for One Thousand Two Hundred Years in all the World that a Christian ought to join with in local Communion Did Christ disown them all and yet was he their Head and they his Body Or are these Men as much stricter than Christ as the Pharisees were about his Converse and the Sabbath VIII They condemn themselves by their own Practice while some of them cry down Communion with imposed Forms of Liturgy they sing Psalms imposed by the Pastor or Clerk which are the chief part of imposed Liturgies They sing them in new Versions Metre and Tunes different from the Apostles Churches and yet better for us They use imposed Translations of the Scripture The Pastor imposeth his Words of Prayer as a Forme which the People ââst all join with This is but a different Mode of Liturgies IX Charity or Christian Love and Unity are the great vital Graces of the Christian Church And oh how wofully do these Men violate and destroy it when as is said they renounce Communion for a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Years at least with all known Churches on Earth as unlawful in point of local Presence 2. They bind all Christians that will hear them to do the like to this Day to almost all the Churches on Earth 3. Their Principles and Reasons make it sinful to have Communicated with the Reformers the Waldenses Wickliffe Luther Melancthon Zwinglius Calvin Bucer and the rest 4. And they condemn Communion with the Martyrs both under Heathens and of later Times who made or valued and used Liturgies 5. They condemn local Communion with all the late and former holy excellent Bishops and Conformists such as Archbishops Parker Grindall Abbot Usher c. Bishops Hall Morton Pilkinton Downame Davenant and many such All that glorious Tribe of Conformists Preston Sibbs Bolton Whately Crook Io. Downame Stoughton c. Oh how great a Number and how excellent almost matchless Men Almost all the late Westminster Assembly 6. And all the excellent old Nonconformists that were against Separation Dearing Greenham Perkins Bayn Reignolds Dod Hieldersham Bradshaw Ball and Multitudes of such of greatest Piety and Parts 7. All or near all the Reformed Churches 8. All the meer Independants that were against their Separation such as Dr. Tho. Goodwin aforesaid and many of his Mind 9. Yea they condemn the Old Brownists who Printed their Profession of Communion with many Parish-Churches and with Liturgies 10. And they utterly condemn all local Communion with the meer Nonconformists of this Age who offered Terms of Concord in Liturgy and Episcopacy 1661. None of all these are good enough for these Men especially their Women and Lads to have any present Communion with Do they know how little radical Difference there is between saying as Persecutors All these are Hereticks and as Separatists All these are unworthy of Christian Communion Yea the Pope rejecteth Communion but with two or three parts of the Christian World and these Men renounce local Communion with almost all Is this the way of Love and Unity in the Body of Christ X. Is Provoking Excommunicating them the way to reconcile the Publick Ministers and Churches Or is this a time to join with the Enemies of the Protestant Religion to draw all the People to forsake them That so the Reformation here may have only private Toleration as we have till some Disorder is said to forfeit it the King promiseth to defend them and shall separating Protestants pull them down XI The Weakness of these Mens Judgments and Dealings bring all the Nonconformists into Contempt and Scorn with Multitudes of undistinguishing Men as if we were all of the same Temper and hardeneth Thousands in hatred to them all and maketh them long to be persecuting us again and keepeth them from repenting of the Evil they have done Offence must come but woe to them by whom it cometh XII God hath most expresly decided this Controversy in Scripture and these Men seeming Adherents to Scripture cannot see it Rom. 14. and 15. and 16. 17. Ioh. 17. 22 24. Phil. 2. Eph. 4. In a Word in all those Texts that plead for Church Unity and Love and all those that speak of the sinfulness of Schism and that a kingdom divided cannot stand and all those that condemn Dividers and all that command mutual forbearance c. Do you think that receive one another as Christ received us even them that are weak in Faith it self doth mean no more than do not silence them or imprison or murder them No doubt but it meaneth receive them to Church-Communion XIII What a great Sin is unjust silencing worthy Preachers And do not these Men endeavour to silence more thousands than the Act of Uniformity or Bishops did when they tell all that it 's a Sin to hear them XIV If it be unlawful to join with others that are no worse than they it must be unlawful to join with them If I be guily of all that is said or done amiss in the Parish-Churches I shall be more guilty if I join with the Separatists I am not desirous to accuse any but to cover their Faults as far as I can But I cannot resolve your Question without telling you that I take their Church-State to be so far different from the Rule and in many Respects worse than the Parish-Churches as that to join with them as fixed covenanted Members will be a state of Sin 1. Scripture-fixed Ministers or Elders were all ordained by superior general Pastors either alone or with Presbyteries So are not theirs if by any at all 2. Scripture-flocks were ruled by their Pastors Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Thes. 5. 13 14. 1 Pet. 5. 1 Tim. 3 c. But many of their Flocks are the Rulers of themselves and Pastors 3. Scripture particular Churches
and Men cannot be Pastors against their wills and the will of their Diocesans That I contradict my Treatise of Episcopacy in denying this With more like this To which I say I. If the Parish Congregation were but part of a Church you might joyn with it as a part as well as with part of an Independent Church And they that can hear a Lay-man with the Separatists might hear the Ministers thereâ II. Whether I contradict my self or not is nothing to your Cause and Conscience I undertook not when I wrote that none should wilfully or ignorantly misunderstand me The formal Notion of a National Church is nothing but a Christian Kingdom The Matter is Christian Rulers and Subjects and as ordered Confederate particular Churches England hath been such for many Ages Here from the Reformation they owned the Sovereign Power as the Head of the Political National Church as Christ is of the Universal under him They owned Parish-Churches under Diocesans and true Ministers therein Their Books shew their Judgment their Articles Apology Homelies Liturgy Ordination Canons c. These Books are still owned by the Church But at last a new sort of Bishops rose up that would have made the Parish Churches to be no proper Churches but like Chappels under the Diocesan These called themselves the Church of England when there were but about four or five Bishops left alive who Dr. Hammond said were of his mind Some such domineered afterward and would have set up that way but never prevailed either to retract the Churches Books and Laws nor to get the major part of the Clergy to own them Now all the vain question here is Which of these two Parties shall be called The Church of England Neither of them alone They are two disagreeing parts of it I argued against the last professing not to do it against the first which your Counseller would take no notice of And what 's all this to you If you will not be of the National or Diocesan Church you may be of a Parish Church III. I proved that if all the Bishops and Parliament had said The Parish Ministers are no true Pastors this would not have made them none though they might be guilty of deposing them as far as they could no more than it would make the Nonconforming Ministers and Churches to be none Because we all take the Office as instituted by Christ and Men to be but investing Servants to him having no power to alter it And as in the Marriage the Husband shall have power over the Wife though he that marry them say Nay so shall an ordained Elder be a true Pastor though the Ordainer say Nay IV. I proved that the old Church Books and Doctrine are in force still by Law and the Kingdom and Church are sworn or bound not to endeavour any alteration in the Government of the Church Therefore not to put down the Parish Ministry and Churches Therefore this is the Sence of the Church of England though not of the new Faction that usurped that Name V. Though a Man cannot be a Pastor against his will yet he may be one without his knowledge if by Errour he think he is none For he may consent to all the Office while he thinks it is not all and denieth the Name If a Man think that a Deacon may do all essential to a Pastor and so that he is but a Deacon he is nevertheless a Pastor if he consented to the Work Many thousands are Christians that think they are not and do truly consent to Christianity while they think they do not And why may it not be so also to the Ministry VI. But our Case needeth none of these Reasons For where there is all that is essential to true Pastors and Churches there are true Pastors and Churches But by God's great mercy in many thousand Parishes in England there is all that is essential to true Pastors and Churches Therefore they are such When you will call me to dispute it with any Denier I will fully prove to you That there is great need of Reformation 1. That the Church of England as it is a Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Churches under a Christian King and Laws is that very Form that Christ offered to settle in Iudea and did settle by Constantine 2. That if the Diocesans be good Men and lawfully chosen as they are meer Successours of Timothy and Titus and others that had the oversight of many Churches and Pastors by the Word they are righter than the Opposers 3. That the Incumbents of the Parish-Churches have a valid Ordination by such Bishops and Presbyters righter than the Dividers 4. That many thousands of such Pastors are Men of competent Abilities and many of greater Ministerial Abilities than most of us Nonconformists yea that no known Nation under Heaven hath in so small a compass so many able Ministers as England And that to deny it and separate is great ingratitude towards God 5. That Parish Bounds are a laudable Distribution of Churches the capable Members being Communicants and the rest Catechumens 6. That the ordinary Communicants in multitudes of Parishes are Membrs that have all that is essential to Church-Membership 7. That the Pastors have power from God for all their Work and Mens denial even the Ordainers nullifieth not that Power when they are in general ordained Presbyters 8. That by the Law of the Land they have all Power essential to Pastors They may keep from Communion all that are not Confirmed and there have owned their Baptismal Covenant or are ready and desirous so to do and therefore may try their readiness This is required by the Liturgy And they may deny the Sacrament to all that live in scandalous Sin And they must prosecute such to the Bishops Courts The Law calleth them Rectors Rulers and they own themselves for such And even the Canons that are their worst restraints do own the same and so do the rest of the Church-Books and Laws that they all subscribe to and promise not to alter Ask them whether they take not themselves for true Pastors if you would know whether they consent to be such 9. Though some late Innovators that called themselves The Church of England would as far as they could have nullified in some part the Parish Ministry and Churches and the Canons themselves do sinfully limit the Exercise of their Power the Cause of our Calamities yet this nullifieth not the Office and Churches the Essential Power being setled both by God's Laws and the Churches and the restraint of Exercise nulleth not the Power 10. That to Exclude any from Communion that are Baptized and at Age have owned their Christianity and are not proved by sufficient witnesses to have nullified that Profession by Apostasie Heresie or a wicked or scandalous Life is Church Tyranny and Injustice of which all are guilty that do it or desire it 11. That if this Discipline be neglected by the Ministers sinful Sloth or by the
what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice You shall answer for your own Souls Neither Parents nor Princes have an absolute or a destroying Power over them nor any that divesteth you of the Charge or Government of your selves Prudence therefore in such Cases must look to Order to Publick Good and to your own Edification and preserve all as far as you are able and God will accept you if you do your best though interess'd Factions âe offended with you XXI It is a great Doubt among Casuists Whether and when the Breach of Humane Laws oblige Men to any other than Humane Penalties So far as God is offended and his Law broken by the breach of Mans so far Punishment from God also is deserved but no further And a Council at Toletum hath an express Canon that lest Subjects by the Churches Laws should have their Souls ensnared in Guilt towards God it is declared that their Provincial Canons bind only ad poenam non ad culpam to bear the Penalty but not to conclude men Sinners The Expressions want skill but the Meaning is manifest XXII The Persons belief that an evil Course is lawful maketh it not lawful to him The esse is before the scire If God's Law have forbidden or commanded Man's Errour may ensnare himself in sin but cannot change the Law of God XXIII Some that I love and honour that have heretofore been ensnared in Anabaptistry and Separation in the sense of their Errour as is usual warp to the contrary Extream and fear not the dreadful guilt of perswading Christ's faithful Ministers to lay by the Sacred Office which they are devoted to yea and would blind us to believe there is no need save only to speak to particular persons privately whereby they should be a year in speaking to those whom they may speak to in an hour and few be able to do it and perhaps be thrust out with wrath by the Parish Ministers as creeping into Houses to seduce silly women or reproached and suspected for it They say truly that he that hath gone their former way of unjust Separation is like one that an travel seeth here a Leg and their an Arm lye in his way and therefore should fear to go on in danger But I tell them further he that readeth Church History and Councils what work Church Tyranny and striving to be greatest hath made with Kings and Kingdoms Churches and Families and the Blood of an hundred thousand Christians for about a thousand years at least is like one that in his travel seeth here a hundred Carkasses and there an hundred and there a stream of Blood and there a City ruined and there a good King surrendring his Crown as an Act of Penance as Ludovicus Pius did and there the Streets covered with the Blood and Carkasses of Monks and others and then cast into the Rivers by the wars and broils of contending Bishops as at Antioch c and if this Man will go on he overcometh another kind of warning than here a Leg and there an Arm Read but the History throughly and judge But what will not Ignorance make men say XXIV Some think that if Sacramental Communion only were left free it would alone heal most of our English differences I confess I that think Men may be forced to hear and be catechized do think the great Priviledges of Sacramental Communion and a sealed Pardon should be given to none by Cramming or as a Drench I mean to none against their wills none but Volunteers or Consenters being capable of so great Benefits according to Christ the Donor's mind But this requireth many Cautions and belongeth not to the Case in hand Numb VII A Letter of Mr. Baxter's about the Case of Nevil Symmons SIR I Think not the Confuting of any of the Calumnies that are cast upon me by Backbiters whether from Ignorance or Envy worth any great care or labour were it not for the sake of the Guilty themselves and others whom they may draw into the same Guilt or hinder from profiting by my Labours in the Calling that God hath placed me in But I will not despise all these so much as not to think them worthy the labour of a few Lines It is not long since some Gentlemen at a Coffee-House affirmed That I had kill'd a Man in cold Blood with my own Hand that is a Tinker beating his Kettle at my Door and disturbing me in my Studies I pistoll'd him and was tired at Worcester for my Life But these Gentlemen were so ingenuous as to ask Forgiveness and confess their Fault and one of them openly to my Vindication Though Dr. Boreman Parson of St. Giles's in the Fields that in a printed Pamphlet led the way never did so Yet lived three or four years Suspended or supposing himself Suspended and so died Another caracterized Iames 3. reporteth that I am so hot a Disputant that at a Gentleman's Table I threw the Plate at him that I disputed with The whole Story feigned nor did I ever know the least occasion for the Report The greatest Reproach that 's laid on me is by Conformists for not Conforming or not giving over my Preaching and Ministry And if they accuse me for not turning Papist and for not giving over Prayer as they did Daniel it would have the same effect with me But now comes a new one my Sufferings are my Crimes my Bookseller Nevil Symmons is broken and it is reported that I am the Cause by the excessive Rates that I took for my Books of him and a great Dean whom I much value foretold that I would undo him Of all Crimes in the World I least expected to be accused of Covetousness Satan being the Master of this Design to hinder the Success of my Writings when I am dead it is part of my warfare under Christ to resist him I tell you therefore truly all my Covenants and Dealings with Booksellers to this day When I first ventured upon the publication of my Thoughts I knew nothing of the Art of Booksellers I did as an act of meer kindness offer my Book called The Saints Rest to Thomas Underbill and Francis Tyton to print leaving the Matter of Profit without any Covenants to their Ingenuity They gave me Ten pounds for the first Impression and Ten pounds apiece that is Twenty pounds for every after Impresion till 1665. I had in the mean time altered the Book by the Addition of divers Sheets Mr. Underhill dieth his Wife is poor Mr Tyton hath Losses by the Fire 1666. They never gave me nor offered me a Farthing for any Impression after nor so much as one of the Books but I was fain out of my own Purse to buy all that I gave to any Friend or poor Person that asked it This loosening me from Mr. Tyton Mr. Symmons stept in and told me That Mr. Tyton said he had never got Three pence by me and brought witness Hereupon I used Mr. Symmons only When I
Cause against those ravening Wolves and strengthen all thy Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage Let not thy Long suffering be an occasion to increase their Tyranny or to discourage thy Children c. The Homilies have many Passages liable to hard Interpretations The use of none of these is Sedition XXIV From 1650. to 1660. I had Controversies by Manuscript with some great Doctors that took up with Dr. Hammond's and Petavius's new singular way of Pleading for Episcopacy which utterly betrayed it They held that in Scripture time all called Presbyters were Diocesan Bishops and that there was no such thing as our Subject Presbyters and yet that every Congregation had a Diocesan Bishop and that it was no Church that had not such a Bishop and that there are no more Churches than there are such Bishops And so when Diocesses were enlarged as ours the Parishes were no Churches for no Bishop had more than one And that Subject Presbyters are since made and are but Curates that have no more power than the Bishop pleaseth to give them Dr. Hammond in his Vindication saith That as far as he knoweth all that owned the same Cause with him against the Presbyterians were come to be of his mind herein And we know not of four Bishops then in England And the Et caetera Oath and Canons of 1640. and the Writers that nullified the Reformed Churches Ordination and Ministry and pleaded for a Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and for our Re-ordination all looking the same way I thought they knew the Judgment of the few remaining Bishops better than I did and sometime called it The Iudgment of the present Church here that is of these Church-men and the English Diocesans but proved that the Laws and Doctrine still owned as the Churches was contrary to them and took the Parishes for true Churches and the Incumbents true Pastors and the Diocesans to be over many Churches and not one alone whereas the Men that I gainsayed overthrew the whole Sacred Ministry among us and all our Churches as of Divine Institution for our Presbyters they say were not in Scripture times Our Parishes are no Churches for want of Bishops our Diocesans are no Successors of such Apostolick Men as were over many Churches ours having but one And they are not like those that they call the Scripture Diocesans for they say these Doctors had but single Assemblies These Men I confuted in my Treatise of Episcopacy and other Books But the Scribe or Printer omitting my Direction to put still The fore-described Prelacy and Church instead of The English Prelacy and Church I was put to number it with the Errata and give the Reader notice of it in the Preface and Title Page and have since vindicated the Church of England hereform XXV I hear the angry Protestant Recusants say It is just with God that he that hath done more than all others to draw Men to the Parish-Churches and hath these Thirty years been Reconciling us to the Papists in Doctrinals and is now called Bellarminus junior for his Arguments for Liturgies and Forms and in his Paraphrase hath so largely and earnestly pleaded for Charity to Papists as not Babylonish or Antichristian should be the first that should suffer by them and that for this very Book that so extraordinarily doth serve their Interest To which I say take heed of mis-expounding Providence that Errour hath cost England dear If I be put to doath by them I shall not repent of any of those Conciliatory Doctrines and Endeavours I have reviewed my Writings and am greatly satisfied that I suffer not for running into either Extream nor for any false Doctrine Rebellion Treason or gross Sin but that I have spent my Labour and Life against both Persecuting and causeless Separating And that I shall leave my Testimony against both to Posterity and for what could I more comfortably suffer It is by decrying their Persecution and Cruelty that I have angred the hurtful Papists and by confuting their gross undoubted Crimes more effectually than you do by the Name of Antichrist Babylon and the Whore And if their Cruelty on me should prove my Charge against them true I shall not be guilty of it Nor will their Sin abrogate God's great Law of Love even to Enemies and if it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men follow peace with all men blessed are the peace-makers c. The disorderly tumultuous Cries and Petitions of such ignorant Zealots for Extreams under the Name of Reformation and crying down all moderate Motions about Episcopacy and Liturgies and rushing fiercely into a War and young Lads and Apprentices and their like pricking forward Parliament Men had so great a part in our Sin and Misery from 1641. till 1660. as I must give warning to Posterity to avoid the like and love Moderation I repent that I no more discouraged ignorant Rashness in 1662. and 1663. but I repent not of any of my Motions for Peace XXVI I am sure that my Writings besides Humane Imperfection have no guilt of what they are accused unless other Men put their sense on my words and call it mine and say I meant the Rulers when I spake of Popish Interdicts Silencings and Persecutions And by that measure no Minister must speak against any Sin till he be sure that the Rulers are neither guilty nor defamed of it lest he be thought to mean them and so our Office is at an end If the Text and the general Corruption of the World lead me to speak against Fornication Perjury Calumny Lying Murder Cruelty or any Vice must I tell Men whom I mean by Name I mean all in the World that are guilty And why must my meaning be any more confined when I with the Text speak against Persecution and unjust Silencing the faithful Ministers of Christ while I say that Rulers may justly Silence all that forfeit their Commission and do more hurt than good XXVII Can any Man that hath read Church-History Fathers and Councils be ignorant how dolefully Satan hath corrupted and torn the Church by the Ambition and Tyranny of many Popes Patriarchs and Metropolitans while the humble fort of Bishops and Pastors have kept up the Life and Power of Christianity Or can any Man that maketh not Christ and his Church a meer Servant to Worldly Interest think that this should not by all true Christians be lamented Let such read Nazianzen's sad Description of the Bishops of his time in striving for the highest Seats and his wish that they were equal And the same wish of Isidore Pelusiota and the sharp Reproof hereof by Chrysostom Great Grotius expoundeth Matth. 24. 29. of the Powers of Heaven shaken thus It is the Christian Laity who after the Apostles times began to be marvellously shaken by the Tyranny of the Prelates who loved Pre-eminence and to Lord it oyer the Clergy by rash Excommunications and a daily increase of Schisms He that will
see the Examples of Tyranny and rash Excommunication let him read Iohn's Epistle to Diotrephes and the pious Admonitions of Irenaeus to Victor The Examples of Schisms we have in others not a few To which Optatus Melev prudently ascribeth three Causes Wrath Ambition and Covetousness But how many score Canons Interdicts and Bloody Wars do prove all this XXVIII And had not these Vices conquered Common Reason with Christianity in such men it were a Wonder that so unprofitable and causeless a thing as forcing all Christians to Unite on the profest Approbation and Practice of all the needless Things which such impose and denying them Communion and Peace on the Terms that Christ prescribed for all his Servants to own and love each other on should be thought a sufficient Justification of all that Dividing Cruelty of which it hath been guilty And that Church-Grandees should make such Schisms as are yet in East and West and then hate and persecute the Sufferers as Schismaticks Saith Grotius on Luke 6. 22. Scitum est Veterum Iudaeorum cujus Maimonidememinit siquis Innocentem à Communione arcuerit ipsum excidere jure Communionis And Dr. Stillingfleet on Archbishop Laud and before him Chillingworth conclude That if a Church deny Communion to her Members on those Terms that give them Right to Communion with the Church Universal that Church is guilty of the Schism Were it not more Christian-like easie and sweet to joyn all in the practice of the Laws of Christ by which we shall be judged with the needful use of edifying Order and Circumstances that all Sizes and Ages of Christians might live in Unity and Love than to cast out all that cannot Unite on Terms so far beyond meer Christianity as most Churches on Earth require When the Volume of Councils and Canons were unknown and plain Familiar Discipline was used in the open Church-Meetings Christians were less divided saith Grotius in Luc. 6. 22. Apud Christianos Veteres praesidente quidem Episcopo Senioribus sed Conscia Consentiente Fratrum multitudine morum judicia exercebantur If Christians be partial hear an impartial Heathen Ammianus Marcellinus who scandalized with the murder of Men kill'd in the Church for the Election of Pope Damasus concludeth how well it would have gone with Christianity if those great Roman Prelates had lived like the poor humble inferiour Bishops See his words But if Paul's full Decision on Romans 14. will not bring us to necessary forbearance no Plainness not Authority will serve Numb IX An Act for Concord by Reforming Parish Churches and Regulating Toleration of DISSENTERS I. THE Qualification requisite to Baptism in the Adult for themselves and in one Parent at least or Pro-Parents for Infants is Their understanding Consent to the Baptismal Covenant in which they are solemnly devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Father Saviour and Sanctifier Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil so far as they are adverse And the requisite Qualification of the Adult for proper Church Priviledges and Communion in the Lord's Supper is That they forsake not the said Covenant or Christianity but publickly own it not rendering their Profession invalid by any Doctrine or Practice inconsistent therewith And that they understandingly desire the said Communion II. The Christian Churches have universally taken the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments as delivered by Christ for the Summary of the Christian Belief Desire and Practice expounding the Matter of the Baptismal Covenant Therefore all Pastors shall Exhort all Housholders to learn themselves and teach their Families the words and meaning of the Baptismal Covenant and of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments And shall also thus Catechize such themselves as need their help as far as they or their Assisstants can do it III. No Minister shall Baptize any Person Adult or Infant till the Adult for themselves and the Parent or Pro-Parent who undertaketh the Education of the Child as his own have there professed their Belief of the Christian Faith and their fore-described Consent to the Christian Covenant in which they are to be solemnly devoted to God And such they shall not refuse Nor shall the Pastors admit any to the proper Priviledges of Church Communion and partaking of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but those who have made Profession that they resovedly stand to their Baptismal Covenant in the foresaid Belief of the Christian Faith and Desire and Obedience to Christ. Which Profession shall be made in the Church or to the Pastor before sufficient Witness or to the Diocesan or some other Pastor who shall give Testimonial of it And if any shall go from the Parish-Church Pastor to be Confirmed by the Bishop or received by any other Minister without the Certificate or Consent of his own Parish Pastor the said Pastor shall not be obliged to admit him to Communion till to him also before Witness he have made the said Profession IV. Because in great Parishes and Cities where Persons live unknown and as Lodgers are transient and too great a Number desire not Communion and many Communicate only with other Churches and it is needful for Order that all Pastors know their Communicating Flock from the rest the Pastor may for his memory keep a Register of the stated Communicants of his Parish and put out the Names of those that deny or remove or are lawfully Excommunicate or that wilfully forbear Communion above fix Months not rendering to the Pastor a Satisfactory Excuse But occasionally he ought not to refuse any Stranger who hath Testimony of his Communion with any other approved Christian Church V. If by the Pastor's knowledge or by just accusation or same any Communicant be strongly suspected of Atheism Infidelity or denying any Essential part of Christian Faith Hope or Practice or to live in any heinous Sin the Pastor shall send for him and enquire of the Truth and if he be proved Guilty gently instruct him and admonish him and skilfully labour to bring him to Repentance And if he prevail not shall again send for him and do the same before some Witnesses And if he yet prevail not or if he wilfully refuse to come or to answer him shall open his Case before the Church Vestry or Neighbour Pastors and if he be present there admonish him and pray for his Repentance And if yet he prevail not to bring him to the profession of serious Repentance he shall declare that he judgeth him a Person unmeet for Church Communion till he Repent and shall till then forbear to give him the Sacrament But when he professeth serious Repentance shall receive him But if after such oft Professions he continue in such heinous Sin he shall not again receive him till actual Amendment for a sufficient time to make valid his Profession VI. Ordination to the Priesthood shall be a valid License to Preach And every just Incumbent being the Pastor Overseer or
Rector of his Parish Church shall as such have power to Preach to them without any further License and to judge according to God's Word to whom and how to perform the proper Work of his Office on what Text and Subject to Preach in what Words and Order to Teach and Pray But if Canons also be made a Rule they shall not oblige him against the Word of God And if for Uniformity or some Mens disability he be tyed to use the Words of prescribed Forms called a Liturgy he shall not be so servilely tyed to them as to be punishable for every Omission of any Collect Sentence or Word while at least the greatest part of the Service appointed for the Day is there read and the Substance and Necessary Part of the Offices be there performed no though he omit the Cross in Baptism and the Surplice and deny not Communion to those that dare not receive it kneeling And if any worthy Minister scruple to use the Liturgy but will be present and not Preach against it he shall be capable notwithstanding of preaching as a Lecturer or Assistant if the Incumbent Pastor do Consent VII No Oath Subscription Covenant Profession or Promise shall be made Necessary to Ministers or Candidates for the Ministry besides the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and Subscribing to the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and to the ancient Creeds or at the most to the Articles of the Church excepting to them that scruple the Twentieth Thirty fourth and Thirty sixth as they speak only of Ceremonies Traditions and Bishops and the necessary Renunciation of Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation and the Promise of Ministerial Fidelity according to the Word of God Or at least none but what the Reformed Churches are commonly agreed in And let none be capable of Benefices and Church-Dignities or Government in the Universities or Free-Schools who hath not taken the said Oaths Subscriptions and Renunciations VIII Let none have any Benefice with Cure of Souls who is not Ordained to the Sacred Ministry by such Bishops or Pastors as the Law shall thereto appoint for the time to come But those that already are otherwise Ordained by other Pastors shall not be disabled or required to be Ordained again And let no Pastor by Patrons or others be imposed on any Parish Church without the consent of the greater number of the stated Communicants And at his Entrance let some Neighbour Ministers in that Congregation declare him their Pastor as so Consented to and Ordained and preach to them the Duty of the Pastor and Flock and pray for his Success IX If any Pastor be accused of Tyranny Injury or Mal-administration he shall be responsible to the next Synod of Neighbour Pastors or to the Diocesan and his Synod or to the Magistrate or whomsoever the Law shall appoint and if guilty and unreformed after a first and second Admonition shall be punished as his Offence deserveth but only in a Course of Justice according to the Laws and not Arbitrarily Nor so as to be forbidden his Ministerial Labours till he be proved to do more hurt than good And if the supposed Injury to any who is denied Communion be doubtful or but to one or few let not for their sake the Church be deprived of their Pastor but let the Person if proved injured have power to forbear all his Payments and Tythes to the Pastor and to Communicate elsewhere X. Because Patrons who choose Pastors for all the Churches are of so different Minds and Dispositions that there is no certainty that none shall be by them Presented and by Bishops Instituted and Inducted to whom godly Persons may justly scruple to commit the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls whose Safety is more to them then all the World And because there may be some things left in the Liliurgy Church Government and Orders which after their best search may be judged sinful by such godly and peaceable Christians as yet consent to the Word of God and all that the Apostles and their Churches practised And Humanity and Christianity abhor Persecution and Human Darkness and great Difference of Apprehensions is such as leaveth us in Despair of Variety and Concord in doubtful and unnecessary Things Let such Persons be allowed to assemble for Communion and the Worship of God under such Pastors and in such Order as they judge best Provided 1. That their Pastors and Teachers do take all the foresaid Oaths Professions and Subscriptions before some Court of Judicature or Justices at Sessions or the Diocesan as shall be by Law appointed who thereupon shall give them a Testimonial thereof or a written License of Toleration 2. That they be responsible for their Doctrine and Ministration and punishable according to the Laws if they preach or practice any thing inconsistent with their foresaid Profession of Faith and Obedience or of Christian Love and Peace 3. That their Communicants pay all Dues to the Parish Ministers and Churches where they live And if such People as live where the Incumbent is judged by them unfit for the Trust and Conduct of their Souls shall hold Communion with a Neighbour Parish Church they shall not be punishable for it They paying their Parish Dues at home Nor shall private Persons be forbidden peaceably to pray or edifie each other in their Houses XI Christian Priviledges and Church Communion being unvaluable Benefits and just Excommunication a dreadful Punishment no unwilling Person hath right to the said Benefits Therefore none shall be driven by Penalties to say that he is a Christian or to be Baptized or to have Communion in the Lord's Supper Nor shall any be Fined Imprisoned or Corporally and Positively punished by the Sword meerly as a Non-Communicant or Excommunicate and Reconciled but as the Magistrate shall judge the Crimes of themselves deserve But if Non-Communicants be denied all Publick Trust in Churches Universities or Civil Government it is more properly the Securing of he Kingdom Church and Souls then a punishing of them But all Parishioners at Age shall be obliged to forbear reproaching Religion and profaning the Lord's Day and shall hear publick Preaching in some allowed or tolerated Church and shall not refuse to be Catechized or to confer for their Instruction with the Parish Minister and shall pay him all his Tythes and Church Dues XII The Church Power above Parish Churches Diocefan Synodical Chancellors Officials Commissaries c. we presume not to meddle with But were it reduced to the Primitive State or to Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Government yea or but to the King's Description in his Declaration 1660. about Ecclesiastical Affairs and if also the Bishops were chosen as of old for Six hundred years and more it would be a Reformation of great Benefit to the Kingdom and the Churches of Christ therein But if we have but Parish Reformation Religion will be preserved without any wrong or hurt to either the Diocesans or the Tolerated And if Diocesans be good Men