to be no more than of a society of men united together for their Order and Government according to the Rules of the Christian Religion Now Faith and Worship are quite excluded the notion of a Church And Order and Government and the Rules of the Christian Religion but as they refer to these only included Whence it will come to pass that we can have no notion of one Catholick Church from which yet he argues at the bottom of the same page Nor though I dislike the thing do I understand the strength of the Doctors Argument against making the notion of the Church barely to relate to Acts of Worship viz. That if this held true the Church must be dissolved as soon as the Congregation is broken up For will it not also follow as well that if the notion of a Church relate only to Order and Government every time any meeting for Affairs of Order and Government is broken up the Church is dissolved And that an Assembly of the States in any Kingdom or Nation cannot break up without a dissolution of the Government A Parliament at least not Adjourn or be Prorogued without being dissolved And whereas he adds But if they retain the nature of a Church when they do not meet together for worship then there is some other Bond that unites them and whatever that is it Constitutes the Church Is it not possible there may be such a Bond for Worship as well as for Government an Obligation to meet at stated times for that purpose when they are not met And then if this were all that were to be said to the contrary why might not that Bond as well serve to Constitute the Church But secondly For his reasonings ad hominem they need not detain us long he argues from the Judgment of the Assembly of Divines and others All which arguing must suppose if it concern us That we are bound to be of the same Judgment with the Ministers that are and have been so and so minded which I for my part understand not But I perceive here his intention is having endeavoured to draw us off from our Ministers now to move another Stone and try if he can draw them off from us For the Assembly I think it fit those that survive of them should be as much concluded by what they then determined as this reverend Author by the Irenicum But I know no reason that such as they never represented nor who ever pretended to be of their Party should be so concluded to the Worlds end Nor do understand why even the same Party may not be as well supposed in a possibility to vary from it self in fourty years as the same man from himself in less than twenty If they did incline to deal too hardly with their Brethren that will not justifie them who deal more hardly 'T is hoped such as have been so inclin'd have being smitten and suffered the rebukes of the Almighty repented it and are become wiser And when some think themselves grown wiser by prosperity others by adversity there is less reason to suspect the latter Yet also this reverend Author ought to have considered the great disparity of the Cases he would parallel For when one sort of men are considering of having only such a frame of things settled as are imposed by Christ himself whether they judge rightly or no that he hath imposed every part of that frame yet while they think and judge that he hath and consequently that nothing is to be abated of it 't were very unfitly argued that therefore another sort professing to impose many things never imposed by Christ should abate nothing of their unnecessary impositions For such as the Doctor quotes besides of the Non-conformists acknowledging the Parish Churches true Churches and the lawfulness of holding sometimes Communion with some of them It is not to be thought but among so many Parties as come all under one Common Notion of dissenters from the publick rule and whom that Rule did not find one but made them so in that Common Notion there must be great diversity of Opinions and proportionably differing practices in these matters I heartily prefer the most moderate as I believe you do But here this reverend Author takes occasion for so ignominious reflections upon our Preachers as insincere dishonest and unconscientious as I doubt not in one 20 Years more his ingenuity will oblige him to repent more heartily than ever it permitted him to do of his Irenicum Because he can alledge a very few persons that have spoken to this purpose therefore first it must be represented to the World as their common judgement next they are charged with concealing this judgment why is this kept up as such a mighty secret in the breasts of their Teachers p. 37. and then it is endeavoured to make men think they practice against their own judgments in preaching to seperate Congregations Surely you and I are concern'd as we have occasion to say what we truly can for the just vindication of our Ministers I doubt not but you believe and you have for some particular reason to be confident it is for our sakes they expose themselves to the displeasure of such men as D. St. I must for my part say 1. That I beleive it to be the judgement of very few that every Parish is as such a true Christian Church I am sorry I have such a ground to fear it of one kind viz. that some may not be so as not having among them any tolerable understanding of the most confessedly fundamental Principles of Christian Religion What say you to such where the Minister is grosly ignorant of the Principles of Religion or habitually vicious and of a prostigate life Do meer Orders make him a Minister who perhaps since he received them is become destitute of the most essential qualifications any more than the habit a Monk or a Beard a Philosopher Can a Mercury be made of every Log Not to insist that this reverend Author can scarce think they are from a ground of another kind because they assemble only for Worship and not for Government 2. And surely a Church may be unfit to be Communicated with although it be a true Church Those words of the reverend and worthy Dean of Canterbury carry their own light with them to this purpose As a man may be truly and really a man though he have the plague upon him and for that reason be fit to be avoided by all that wish well to themselves 'T is true there are vastly different degrees of that unfitness But I see not how they can apprehend there is the fitness which is simply necessary who judge there are conditions of Communion imposed that are sinful And I beleive this reverend Author will think it possible a true Church may impose some sinful conditions of her Communion in which case he hath determined a Non-communion with her necessary and unavoidable 3. For those that are
Christian World viz. the adding other conditions of Church-communion than Christ hath done And though he hath lately told the World there are some passages in that book that shew only the inconsiderateness of Youth and that he seems to wish unsaid yet he hath not that we know declared that these are some of them However since this present determination and judgement of his against us is so peremptory and positive as well as severe let us in the next place 2. Consider and carefully examine as we are concerned what he hath performed in defence of it and it is to be hoped the inefficacy and weakness of his attempt therein will sufficiently appear What I can find in his Sermon hath any aspect or design that way is either ad rem or ad hominem And to my apprehension his reasonings of the one kind or the other are altogether unconcluding 1. As to what may be supposed to be ad rem if you look narrowly you will find that the principal things alledged by him that can under that notion give support to his Cause are only affirmed but not proved For instance p. 9. When he tells us that the Apostle supposed the necessity of one fixed and certain Rule c. This had been very material to his purpose if 1. He had told us and had proved the Apostle meant some Rule or other super-added to the Sacred Scriptures For then he might it is to be presumed as easily have let us know what that Rule was which most probably would have ended all our controversie it being little to be doubted we should all most readily have agreed to obey it Or 2ly If he had proved that because the Apostle had power to make such a Rule and oblige the Churches to observe it that therefore such Church-Guides as they whose cause the Doctor pleads have an equal power to make other Rules divers from his containing many new things which he never enjoyn'd and to enforce them upon the Church though manifestly tending to its destruction rather than edification But these things he doth but suppose himself without colour of proof Again for his Notion of Churches p. 16 17 18 19. examine as strictly as you will what he says about it And see whether it come to any thing more than only to represent a National Church a possible thing and whereto the name Church may without absurdity be given His own words seem to aim no higher Why may there not be one National Church from the consent in the same Articles of Religion and the same order of Worship pag. 18. The word was used in the first Ages of the Christian Church as it comprehended the Ecclesiastical Governours and the people of whole Cities And why many of these Cities being united together under one Civil Government and the same Rules of Religion should not be called one National Church I cannot understand p. 19. But can it now be infer'd thence that therefore God hath actually constituted every Christian Kingdom or Nation such a Church Can it further be infer'd that he hath invested the Guides of this Church not chosen by the people according Scripture and Primitive practice for some ages with a power to make Laws and Decrees prescribing not only things necessary for common order and decency but new federal Rites and teaching Signs and Symbols superadded to the whole Christian Institution with many more dubious and unnecessary things besides and to exclude sober and pious Christians from the Priviledges that are proper to the Christian Church as such meerly for that out of conscience towards God they dare not admit into their Worship those Additions to the Christian Religion To take order they shall have no Pastors no Sacraments no Assemblies for Worship and because they will not be so much more than Christians that they shall not be Christians at all He that would go about to make these Inferences meerly from the forementioned ground would gain to be laught at by all sober men instead of a conclusion whatsoever better success he should have who should undertake to prove the same things any other way This Reverend Author was so wise as not to attempt either of these But then in the mean time what doth the meer possible notion of such a Church advantage his Cause Because it is possible there might have been such a Macedonian or such a Lydian Church is such a one therefore necessary and any other Constitution of a Christian Church impossible or unlawful Or because the General meeting of the Magistrates of the whole City and People together in Pagan Athens was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore such must be the constitution of a Christian Church And therefore such a Church hath such powers from Christ as were above mentioned Here howsoever we make our stand and say that till the Doctor hath proved these two things 1. That such a Church as he hath given us the notion of as of a thing meerly possible is actually a Divine Institution And 2ly That God hath given to the Ecclesiastical Governours in it never chosen by the Christian Community or to any other Power to super-add Institutions of the nature above mentioned and to enforce them under the mentioned Penalties All his reasonings that pretend to be ad rem are to no purpose and do nothing at all advantage his Cause Yet there are some passages in this part of his Discourse that though they signifie nothing to his main purpose are yet very remarkable and which 't is fit we should take some notice of As when pag. 16. He tells us what he means by whole Churches viz. The Churches of such Nations which upon the decay of the Roman Empire resumed their just power of Government to themselves and upon their owning Christianity incorporated into one Christian Society under the same common tyes and rules of Order and Government As if there could be no whole Churches in the world that had not been of the Roman Empire Or as if those of the Roman Empire could not have been whole Churches without resumption of the Civil Government Or as we suppose he means as if which he intimates p. 19. we needed this so dearly espoused notion as a ground to acquit us from the imputation of Schism in our separating from the Church of Rome Which certainly it were not for the advantage of the Protestant Cause to admit For then all that remain within the Empire were bound to continue in the Communion of the Roman Church And in the other Kingdoms where Princes have not resumed their just right of reforming Errors in Doctrine and Corruptions in Worship all should be Schismaticks that should separate from the Church of Rome Again when p. 17. He would confute that great mistake the making the notion of a Church barely to relate to Acts of Worship A mistake whereof I never knew any man guilty He surely runs into as great an opposite mistake in making the notion of a Church
Congregation and yet afterwards on the same page he so well agrees with himself as to bid them if they would acquit themselves like honest and conscientious men tell the people plainly that they look on our Churches as true Churches and that they may lawfully communicate with us in Prayers and Sacraments And where are they to tell them so but in the separate Congregations singly and severally he knows it were impossible Nor do I think he would reckon Honesty and Conscience obliging them to come and tell the people so in their Congregations Now I am afraid there are but a very few honest and conscientious men in the World at this day if none are to go for such but who can perceive the strength and reasonableness of the above-mentioned consequence And that you may further see what reason our Ministers may have notwithstanding all the alledged Concessions to administer in the Worship of God in our Assemblies though it were never so much their common universal judgment that they and we might sometimes communicate in some of the Parochial let us consider That in the more populous and frequented places as with you at London for instance the Churches cannot receive some not a tenth part some not half of the people belonging to them few can receive all Methinks good men should not be offended that multitudes do in this distress relieve themselves by resorting to other places for necessary instruction And though it be the inclinations of the people that divide them this way and that as it can be nothing else and though places for their resort be not every where most conveniently situate for their resort where there is most need which must be taken not always where it were most desirable but where they can be had yet they that have a mind had better go to places at a more inconvenient distance than have no whither to go and it is better the necessities of many should be provided for in such an exigency than of none In the mean time the Churches of worthy conforming Ministers in such populous places are generally fill'd as I have been inform'd and have sometimes had occasion to observe Do not necessities of a much lower nature oblige us to recede from stated humane rules It is well known there is a law against relieving such as beg out of their own Parishes But if one find upon the road such a poor wretch ready to perish am I not bound notwithstanding if I can to releive him And who would think in such a case I transgrest the true intention of the Law Yea and Gods own Laws respecting Rituals Common Order and the external part of Religion were by his own direction to yield to far less urgent necessities To the plucking an Ass or Ox out of Ditch how much more the souls of men Have we not read what David did when he was an hungred and they that were with him how he entred into the House of God and did eat the shew-bread which it was not lawful for him to eat neither for them which were with him but only for the Priests How expresly is it alledged by our blessed Saviour against those nice and punctilious Observers and Urgers of the latter of the Law the Pharisees I will have mercy and not sacrifice And if he were willing to abate a sacrifice to himself that there might be room for the exercise of mercy towards mens bodies how monitory and reprehensive should that be to such merciless persons as would have the very souls of men themselves be sacrifices to their stiff and unyielding humors Positive Laws cease to bind when by accident they thwart the Law of Nature Which binds to nothing more deeply than the endeavour of saving ones own Soul and within the bounds of his calling his Neighbours as his own What if many of our Ministers think it lawful and at some times a duty to joyn in some of the publick Assemblies It is not then their duty when an inviting oportunity and so urgent necessities lay before them greater duty This reverend Author tells us very pertinently to this purpose when he was declaiming against us and our Ministers p. 31. of his Sermon It is a great fault among some who pretend to great niceness in some positive duties that they have so little regard to comparative duties For that which may be a duty in one case when it comes to thwart a greater duty may be none This Doctrine we learn from our blessed Saviour in the case of the obligation of the Sabbath which he makes to yield to duties of mercy And can we think that a Duty lying upon us which in our circumstances makes a far greater Duty impractible We acknowledge Order and Unity very lovely and desirable things but we think it of greater importance that the Ministers with whom such fault is found conduct men though not in so accurate Order which they cannot help to Heaven than let them go in the best Order yea and as the case is without any at all to hell And what though the necessity of many of us arise from our own Scruples and what though those scruples were without ground doth it therefore follow we must be abandoned to perish When our very Error if we be willing to admit conviction as we sincerely are could the matter admit it is not imputable to us for a sin This Author was once pleased to make it one of his proposals for accommodation p. 64. of his Irenicum That no sanctions be made nor mulcts or penalties be inflicted on such who only dissent from the use of some things whose lawfulness they at present scruple till sufficient time and means be used for their information of the nature and indifferency of the things that it may be seen whether it be out of wilful contempt and obstinacy of Spirit or only weakness of conscience and dissatisfaction concerning the things themselves that they disobey And if it be made evident to be out of contempt that only such penalties be inflicted as answer to the nature of the offence Where he adds I am sure it is contrary to the Primitive practice and the moderation then used to suspend and deprive men of their Ministerial function for not conforming in habits gestures or the like Which he makes good by following instances beyond his own present contradiction It is strange that for such like things now it is thought so highly just that our Ministers are totally to be kept out of the Ministery and we out of the Church and the way of Salvation are these unproportionable penalties even where contempt appears and what are they when through Gods mercy there appears not the least colour of it Is meer scrupling an humane device in the worship of God and an inability to see with other mens eyes and to mould and form our judgements and consciences as some other men can do theirs a crime so inexpiable that nothing less than our