Wife in opposition to her Husband for many years together goe to another Congregation In a Word my Brethren the Church of Christ among us which was once as Seamelesse as his Coate is now so rent by Schismes so torne by Separations that 't is become like the Coate of Ioseph which you reade of in the 37. Chapter of Genesis at the 3. verse scarce one piece is colourd like another And I pray God it prove not like the Coat of Ioseph in one particular more I pray God the Weaker be not sold by his Brethren and his Coate be not once more dyed red once more imbrued in Bloud This you will say is very sad and yet this is not all That which extremely adds to the Misery of our Rents and Separations is that the wisest cannot hope they will ere be peeced or reconciled For the persons who thus Separate are so far from beleeving themselves to be in an Errour that they strongly thinke all Others erre who separate not too They thinke themselves bound in Conscience to doe as they doe Nay zealous Arguments are urged and Texts of Scripture quoted to prove that 't is a damning sinne not to goe on in Separation The Churches where their Neighbours met are now contemned and Scorned Nay I have with mine owne Ears heard a Dining Room a Chamber a Meeting under Trees Nay I have heard a Hog-stye a Bâ—…rne called places more sanctified then they In a word one of the great Reasons which they urge why they thus forsake our Churches and make divided Congregations is because They say the people which assemble there are so wicked so prophane that they turne Gods House of prayer into a den of Theeves To keep this infection from spreading in my Parish and to keepe this piece of Leaven from sowring the whole Lumpe And withall to satisfie one whom I looke upon as a well-meaning though a seduced and erring person who hath ingaged her selfe by promise that if I can take the mist from her Eyes and cleerly let her see her Errour she will returne back to the Church from which she hath for some yeares gone astray and being invited to doe this in a way of Christian challenge which hath raised a great expectation in the Countrey I have taken up the Gauntlet and here present my selfe before you and before I enter the Lists to let you all see the Justice of the Cause which I here stand to defend I have chosen this Text for my shield where He who wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews sayes Let us consider one another to provoke one another to love and to Good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is The Division IN which words the only poynt which I shall insist upon as the fittest and most seasonable to be preacht to this divided Congregation shall be the point of Schisme or in plaine English Separation as 't is exprest to us in these Words Let us not forsake the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is In the pursuit and handling of which words I will proceed by these two plaine and easie steps First I will prove to you by Arguments which have a sun-beame for their parent That the Rent or Separation which is now made in the Church is a very grievous sinne Indeed a sinne so grievous that I scarce know whether Christians can be guilty of a greater Next I will Examine and answer their Arguments and Texts of Scripture who doe perswade themselves and others that their separation is no sinne Nay that would be a grievous sinne not to separate as they doe In the meane time I beseech you to lend me a quiet and favourable Attention whilest I begin with the first of these parts and that shall be to prove to you that the separations of our Times are great and grievous sinnes Among the other Characters and Descriptions which have been made of us Men we have been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is a Creature borne and made and created for Society Towards the preservation and maintenance wherof God at the Beginning ordered his Creation of us so that whereas other Creatures take their Originall and Birth from a Diversitie of parents He made us Men to spring from one undivided single payre One Adam and one Eve were the two joyn'd parents of Mankinde And the Reason of this was That there might not onely be among us one common Kinred and Alliance but that we might hold a firme and constant League and Friendship with each other too And hence 't is we see that without any other Teacher but their owne Naturall Instinct Men in all Ages have avoided seperation by gathering themselves into formed Bodyes of Cittyes Towns and Commonwealths Neighbourhood Society mutuall help and Conversation being one of the great Ends for which God made us Men. And upon this Ground it hath been disputed whether a Hermit or Monastic man breake not the Law of Nature because he separates himselfe from the company of Men And 't is clearly stated by some great Casuists That if he seperate from others for no End but separation if he retire himselfe into a Cave or Wildernesse or Desart as some of the Ancient Hermits did not for Devotion but out of a hatred or distaste of the rest of Mankinde In that particular he cannot well be called a Man but some wilder Creature made to dwell in Caves Desarts Forrests Dens As then the Law of Nature doth require us to preserve society and Friendship so the Law of Christ hath tyed and woven this knot much faster We are all of Kinne by Nature but we are all Brethren as Christians Men allyed to one another by one common Hope one common Faith one common Saviour one common God and Lord and Father of us all And upon this Ground when one Christian shall divide or forsake the society of Another unlesse it be upon a just principle of Conscience and to avoid a sinne the Scripture calls it not barely Separation but Separation which is Schisme That is such a Separation as is a Gospel-sinne too Which that you may the more clearly understand give me leave to aske you in truth what is Schisme Why the best Definition of it that was ever yet given is this That Schisme is nothing else but a separation of Christians from that part of the Visible Church of which they were once Members upon meere fancyed slight unnecessary Grounds In which Definition of Schisme three things doe offer themselves to your serious observation to make it formall Schisme or a signe of Separation First it must be a separation of Christians from some part of the Visible Church of which they were once Members That is according to the Definition a visible Church as it concerns this present purpose it must be a Deniall of Communion with that Congregation of Christians with whom they were once united under a rightly-constituted Pastor Next they who
thus separate must betake themselves to some other Teacher whom in opposition to the former they chuse to be their Guide and so make themselves his Followers Thirdly they must erect a New Assembly or place of Congregation as a New Church distinct from that from which they doe divide Lastly This choyce of a New Guide and Separation from the Old this Erection of a New Church and Division from the former must be upon slight unnecessary Grounds For if the Cause or Ground of their Separation be needlesse vaine unnecessary if it spring more out of Humour Pride desire of change or Hatred of their Brethren then out of any Christian love to keepe themselves from sinnes 'T is in the Scripture-Language Schisme That is a sinne of Separation Or if you will heare me expresse my self in the language of a very learned Man who hath contrived a clue to lead us through this Labyrinth This breach of Communion This separation from a Church rightly constituted This choyce of a New Guide New Teacher New Instructer Lastly This setting up of a New Congregation or place of private Meetings is the same sinne in Religion which Sedition or Rebellion is in the Commonwealth or State For upon a right examination of the matter 't will be found That Schisme is a Religious or Ecclesiasticall Sedition as Sedition in the State is a civill Lay-schisme Which two sinnes though they appeare to the World in diverse shapes the one with a Sword the other with a Bible in his Hâ—…nd yet they both agree in this that they both disturbe the publick peace The one of the State where men are tyed by Laws as Men The other of the Church where men should be tyed by Love as Christians To let you yet farther see what a grievous sinne this sinne of Schisme or Separation is If the time would give me leave I might here rayse the Schoolemen Antient Fathers and Generall Councells from the dead and make them preach to you from this Pulpit against the sinne of Separation I might tell you that in the purest Times of the Church a Schismatick and Hereticke were lookt upon as Twinnes The one as an Enemy to the Faith the other to Communion But because in our darke Times learning is so grown out of date that to quote an Ancient Father is thought a piece of Superstition And to cite a Generall Councell is to speake words to our New Gifted men unknowne I will say nothing of this sinne but what the Scripture sayes before me First then I shall desire you to heare what S. Paul sayes in this case in the last Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans at the 17. verse Turne to the place and marke it well I beseech you Now I beseech you brethren sayes he there Marke them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which â—…e have learned and avoid them That is in other words Separate your selves from them And then he gives you a Character and Description of those Separaters at the 18. verse of that Chapter And sayes For they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their owne Belly And by good words and faire speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple In which words Foure things are so exactly drawn to life as makes them a perfect Prophecye or rather picture of our Times The first is that there were some in S. Pauls dayes who caused Divisions in the Church Men who in a way of Schisme and Separation made themselves the Heads and Leaders of divided Congregations Next The Ground upon which they built their Separation 't was not upon any just true lawfull Scripture Ground For the Text sayes 'T was contrary to the Doctrine which the Apostles taught and preacht But the true cause or Ground why they thus caused Separations was meerly self-Interest And that they might gaine by their Divisions Nay 't was such a poore base unworthy selfe-Interest that 't is there said they did it in compliance to their Belly The third thing which will deserve your observation is the cunning Art they used to draw the weaks to be their Followers 'T is there sayd that by good Words and faire Speeches they deceived the Hearts of the simple especially the simple of the weaker sex And who these were S. Paul in other words but to the same purpose tells you in the 3. Chapter of his second â—…pistle to Timothy at the 5 6 7. verses of that Chapter Where speaking of such Coseners he sayes they had a Forme of Godlinesse an outward seeming Holynesse to deceive and cosen by And that under this Forme of Godlynesse they crept into Houses and there led Captive silly Women loaden with sinnes and drawne away with divers Lusts. Women so unable to distinguish Right from Wrong that they were alwayes learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And certainly my Brethren 't is no new thing under the sunne to see the weaker sexe misled by holy Formes and Shews 'T is no new thing I say under the Sunne for a man that makes long prayers to eat up a Widdows House Or for a cunning Angler to catch the fillyer sort with a hooke bayted with Religion 'T was so in our Saviours time and 't was so in S. Pauls And whether their demure lookes their precise carriage their long prayers their good words and fayre speeches be not the Hooke and snare by which weake people are caught now whether the feasting of their Bellyes or the making Gayne of Godlinesse Or whether the Itch and pride of being the Leaders of a Faction Or whether the vaine Ambition of being thought more holy or more gifted than the rest be not the true end of those who doe now cause Separations I will not rashly censure but I have some reason to suspect But this is not all The fourth and last thing which most deserves your observation is that Separation in that place is such a Scripture-sinne that S. Paul commands us to separate from those who doe thus cause Separations Heare the place I pray once more repeated to you I beseech you Brethren sayes he Marke them who cause Divisions among you and avoid them That is as I said before Separate your selves from them If they who upon no just cause doe Separate must be Separated from I hope you 'l all confesse that Separation is a sinne And what sinne thinke you is this sinne of Separation Why I know some of you will thinke it strange if I should say 't is a sinne of the Flesh. And yet S. Paul sayes that 't is a sinne of the Flesh in the 3. Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians Marke I beseech you what he sayes in that place Are ye not carnall sayes he there For whereas there are among you Envyings and Strifes and Divisions Are ye not carnall and walke as men Sayes He at the 3. verse Againe when one saith I am Paul And when another saith I am of
depend for their credit and evidence of their truth upon the authority of Christs miracles conveyed along in tradition and story pag. 16. and therefore I say your Religion leanes too hard and too heavy upon Tradition You are offended that I spoke not distinctly concerning Prelacy you may if you please try your strength and endeavour to prove that Christ hath put the sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction in the hand of a Prelate 2. You may if you can justifie that no Church that ever the Sun look'd upon hath been more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrine of it or better establish'd for the Government and Discipline of it then the Church of England pag. 7. if you believe this confident assertion you may proceed and justifie all the Doctrines which were publikely countenanced or approved all the superstitious practises and prelaticall usurpations nay the delegation of the Prelates usurped power to Chancellors and all the Tyranny of the high Commission together with all the corruptions and innovations introduced into the State Church University from the yeare 1630. till 1640. by a prevailing faction who were not the Church or University but the disease indeed the plague of both If you dare not undertake so sad a taske you cannot justifie the 17. 18. 22 23. 27. 35. pages of the False Prâ—…het you must prove that the proceedings of the Parliament are Turkish pag. 15. 17. that none of the Members of either House of Parliament who complaine of the blemishes of the Church are to be esteemed good Protestants pag. â—…8 that the Reformation which they have made is vanity of vanities pag. 20. that they are guided by no other principles but such as are contrary to all rules of right judgement either common to men or Christians pag. 21. that the Ministers who have appeared for the Parliament are all of them False Prophets who have encouraged the Parliament to oppression sacriledge murther and to make all names that are great and sacred cheap and odious in the eares of the people That the Ministers are the liars and the Parliament-men the compliers as appears by all your unworthy insinuations hints intimations quite throughout your Scurrillous Libell falsly called a Sermon let any prudent man judge whether this be not your maine drift and scope à carceribus usque ad metam You talke of a Religion in which you were borne were you borne in a Surplice or a Cope Christiani non nascuntur sed fiunt Sir the Parliament doth not defame nor will they suppress the true Protestant Religion and therefore if you fall in this quarrell I said that you must be sacrificed in the defence of Tyranny Prelacy Popery if you put not Religion in Copes Images Prelates or Service-Booke quorsum haec perditio why doe you talk of being Martyr'd say that if the King will give you leave you will burne your Copes and Surplices throw off the Bishops and Common-Prayer Booke you 'l break your windowes and take the Covenant and make it evident that you are and ever will be of the Kings Religion for you hold none of these things necessary now whatever you have said heretofore unless they be made necessary by right Authority Sir if I made any prediction it was that your Sermon would be confuted before it was burnt you know Paraeus was burnt before he was confuted and if you be not guilty of any doctrine received in Poland I wonder First why you did endeavour to incense an Officer of this Garrison against me because I had refuted M. Yerburies blasphemous errors 2. Why you did maintaine those damnable Doctrines on the last Sabbath forgive me this injurie for I heare you did but vent them and were no way able to maintain them Sir I acknowledge that I doe contend for the restitution of the true Protestant Religion and contend for the civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion we were in manifest danger to lose our right by the force and violence of potent Enemies whereupon the high Court of Parliament judged it fit to repell force by forces be pleased to shew how the Parliament doth hereby canonize the Alchoran or declare themselves to be of the Mahumetan perswasion the Parliament will not compell you to be happy onely take heed that you do not compell them to make you miserable Though you renounce all Doctrines that M. Yerberie maintaines yet I thinke you are too great a friend to the Rebels in Ireland you contend for a Vorstian liberty not for a liberty of conscience for you desire a liberty for men that have no conscience such as turne from being Protestants to be Infidels There is one of M. Yerburies opinion who saith that the righteous are at liberty he that is righteous let him be righteous still and the wicked are at liberty he that is wicked let him be wicked still but you are of a more dangerous opinion the wicked as as you think are at liberty to kill and slay but the godly are not at liberty to defend themselves by the power of the highest Court of Justice in the Kingdome from illegall and unjust oppression violence I am convinced by many passages in your Sermon especially the 15 16 17. pages that you think we ought not to fight against the Rebells in Ireland because it is part of their Religion as it was of your brethren the Cavaliers to put all Roundheads as you terme them to the sword missajam mordet the Mass may be armed but the Gospel must not What thinke you of the War fore-told in the book of the Revelation Sir you abuse your betters when you talk of the Scruple-house You are not worthy to carrie the books of those Reverend Ministers after them nor could your Carfax-Sermon have ever silenced the ungifted Preachers you would have found them gifted Disputants if you think otherwise try one or two of them in some of their beaten points Sir I speake thus freely because I was not present at the famous meeting Novemb. 12. but I see you can cite one of your owne Prophets Poets I should say but he is no truer a Prophet then you are like to prove a Martyr a Cretian Prophet Sir the knowledge of my Brethrens worth and your famous pride and self-conceitedness hath provoked me to let my pen loose that I might disabuse and humble you It seems you are unwilling to come upon the stage though that be a fitter place for you then the pulpit to appear before a Theater of men and women Sir you love the stage too well take heed you doe not love women too ill there is a friend of yours that doth entreat you to beware of dark rooms and sight women for though a great Physitian doth advise you to the use of such pleasing physick yet the Frenchmen will assure you that it is not wholsome for the body and the English can assure you that it is not good for the soul your kind
your running negligence which should help to make your sophisticall criticisme perfect sense Truly Sir if it be so high a fault to picture God I may justly wonder that any picture of a Saint turned into an Idoll should be retained and pleaded for by any man that pretends to be a Protestant and if it be impossible to picture God it is also impossible to picture God-man And I beleeve that you will acknowledge our Mediatour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. That the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of a comparison in point of fitness to be preserved is a truth written with a Sun-beame Sir I never durst argue from the abuse of a thing against the use of it if the thing be necessary But the Sun is necessary and Images are not necessary ergo there is no parity of reason betweene the termes of your comparison 5. It appeares to me by your shifting fallacy that you make Copes as necessary as clean Linnen 6. You will never be able to prove that all that the prelates and their Faction have borrowed out of the Missall Ritualls Breviary Pontificall of Rome are to be found in any Lyturgie received by the Primitive Church And I would intreat you to consider whether they who doe profess a seperation from the Church of Rome can in reason receive and imbrace such trash and trumpery And yet though you would willingly be esteemed a Protestant I find you very unwilling to part with any thing which the Prelates have borrowed from the Court rather then Church of Rome 7. Your next Paragraph doth concerne Tradition I shall give you leave to preferre the constant and universall consent of the Church of Christ in all ages before the reason of any single man but Sir you doe very ill to call the testimony of the spirit speaking in the word to the Conscience of private men a private spirit I thinke you are more profane in the stating of this point then Bellarmine himselfe 8. You have not yet proved that any Prelate can challenge the Sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction Iure divino 9. I should be glad to know for how many yeares you will justifie the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England I beleeve the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Prelaticall faction whom you call the Church was not excellent if you reckon from 1630. to 1640. and that is time enough for men of our time for to examine I beleeve that you will acknowledge that the Prelates did lay an Ostracisme upon those who did oppose them who were in the right both in the point of Doctrine and Disciplâ—…ne we shall in due time dispute Though Prelacy it selfe be an usurpation yet there were many other encroachments which may justly be called Prelaticall usurpations and the Parliament hath sufficiently declared its judgement in this point they have clearly proved that Prelacy had taken such a deepe root in England and had such a destructive influence not only into the pernicious evills of the Church but Civill State that the Law of right reason even Salus populi quae suprema lex est did command and compell them to take away both roote and branch you may dispute that point with them Sir you cannot prove that Prelacy is an Order of the Church as ancient as the Christian Church it self and made venerable by the never interrupted reception of it in all Ages of the Church but ours 10. I am no Turkish Prophet I never preacht any piece of the Alchoran for good Doctrine much less did I ever make it a piece of the Gospell all that I say is this that Christians incorporated in a Civill State may make use of Civill and naturall means for their outward safety And that the Parliament hath a Legall power more then sufficient to prevent and restrain Tyranny Finally the Parliament hath power to defend that Civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion this last point is sure of highest consequence because it concernes Gods immediate honour and the Peoples temporall and eternall good Pray Sir shew me if you can why he who saith the Protestants in Ireland may defend their Civill right for the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloudie Rebells doth by that assertion proclaime himself a Turke and Denison the Alchoran you talke of the Papists Religion Sir their faith is faction their Religion is Rebellion they think they are obliged in conscience to put Heretiques to the sword this Religion is destructive to every Civill State into which true Protestants are incorporated therefore I cannot but wonder at your extravagancy in this point Sir Who was it that would have imposed a Popish Service Book upon Scotland by force of Armes You presume that I conceive the King had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion Sir I am sure that they who did seduce or over-awe the King had such a designe I doe not beleeve that the Queene and her Agents the Papists in England who were certainly confederate with the Irish Rebells had any intent to settle the true Protestant Religion you cannot but beleeve that their intent was to extirpate the Protestant Religion by the sword and to plant Popery in its stead I know Christ doth make 〈◊〉 and breake the spirituall power of Antichrist by his word and spirit for Antichrist is cast out of the hearts and consciences of men by the spirit of the Lord Iesus but Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints and will breake the temporall power of Antichrist by Civill and naturall meanes If Papists and Delinquents are in readiness to resist or assault the Parliament by Armes how can the Parliament be defended or Delinquents punished but by force of Armes I know men must be converted by a spirituall perswasion but they may be terrified by force of Armes from persecution All that I say is the Parliament may repell force with force and if men were afraid to profess the truth because of the Queenes Army and are now as fearfull to maintaine errours for feare of the Parliament the scales are even and we may by study conference disputation and prayer for a blessing upon all be convinced and converted by the undenyable demonstrations of the Spirit Sir this is my perswasion and therefore I am sure far from that Mahumetan perswasion of which I am unjustly accused 11. I am glad that you speake out and give light to your darke roome I did not accuse you of Conventiâ—…les I beleeve you hate those Christian meetings which Tertullian Minutius Pliny and others speake of we had lights and witnesses good store at our meetings And as for your conceit that I deserve to be in Bedlam because of the predominancy of my pride and passion and the irregularity of my will Sir I confess that I deserve to be in Hell a worse place then Bedlam and if you scoffe at