for encouraging of such as shall be sent out to the several parts of the Nation in this great Work 2. There is a sum of Doctrinal Truths which in the Enlargement and Application are sufficient both for Conversion and Edification to which the Preachers are to assent and there is provision made by our Laws that such Persons only who are sound in the Faith be imployed therein 3. The Inhabitants of this Nation are required to be present and to give attendance to Instruction that they may Learn the Fear of the Lord. Assertion These things being so although some of us do enjoy the Instruction of our Pastors being in a Church-Relation yet it is a Duty that we and our Families frequent also as we have Liberty and Opportunity the more Publick and National Ministry for these Reasons Reason 1. Where the Lord hath appointed various Ways and Methods in which he will draw near to us and manifest himself we ought to make use of all in their place and season This is a several and distinct way or appointment of God not only in respect of God's Works and our Consciences but also in respect of the teachings of Church Officers as appears in these Particulars 1. The one is Cultus Naturalis from the first Commandment directed by the Light of Nature and the other is Cultus Institutus and a Duty of the second Commandment and our direction herein is only from Gospel Light 2. In respect of the Persons that are the primary Object of each Prophesying that is Church-Preaching serveth not for them that believe not but for them which believe It is principally for building for a Church-State supposeth them Believers though such preaching hath occasionally its efficacy in converting the Weak and more directly in relation to the Children of Members This National or Providential Preaching is principally for Conversion and hath for its primary and main Object Persons in their natural Condition such a Preacher was Noah 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 4.6 Mat. 16.3 Preaching is before Believing and Believing before any Church-Ordinance There were Preachers in all Nations and in every City before there were Churches in every City 3. The one is from Gifts only as necessarily requisite but Church-Instruction supposeth the Person to be not only of some eminency in Gifts but Grace also and set apart to Office according to Christ's appointment And now having seen the difference of these two Methods the Consequence will follow they ought to be attended with due reverence each of them Reason 2. As we are Members of Churches so we are Subjects and Members of this Common-Wealth and are obliged thereby to observe the lawful Command of our Governors and to be Examples therein to others As Members also of this Civil Body we ought to join with it in a thankful acknowledging this happy Providence of God by which we and our Children after us may be instructed which may be a means to have it continued and a neglect thereof would give just cause to fear the contrary Reason 3. If Church-Members or any one Godly Man hath a Warrant to forbear hearing such Ministers upon this account of unlawfulness then all Godly Men ought at all times so to do and if so the Examples of the Godly to the generality being very leading in the Matters of God this Ordinance thereby will be little frequented and of less efficacy to those that do come to it And by asserting it unlawful to hear such Ministers we imply it were better for the Nation there were no preaching but in particular Churches and if so what can we expect will become of many thousands in an ordinary way of Salvation that have no benefit at all by our Church-Instructions We are to walk wisely yea mercifully towards them that are without Objections Answered Object 1. Where there is no true Church there can be no true Ministry the Church of England is no true Church Ergo c. Answer There may be a Lawful and True Ministry or Administration of the saving Truths of God though the Nation or any parcels of it as yet be in no Church-State We say each particular Church materially considered is part of the Church Catholick The Matter must needs have being before the Form can be introduced No Man becomes a Member of the Catholick Church but by his effectual Calling and that is by preaching the Word I conclude therefore each particular Church to have its production from such an Administration and not this Ministry to have its original or state from the Church Object 2. The National Ministry is Antichristian derived from Rome Answer If Antichristian it 's either so from their Standing as deriving their Ordination thence of which in the third Consideration or from their Doctrine If any such Doctrine be preached it 's the miscarriage of particular Persons and contrary to the National Provision The Articles of Religion to which the Ministers are to conform their Instructions are Orthodox framed for the casting and keeping out of Popery Object 3. It offends our weak Brethren it is a complying with the Corruption of the Times it 's an approbation and encouragement to Conformity Answer These and other Objections of the like nature have their weight and place in practice when the matter is indifferent and may be done or left undone without Sin and not in relation to any moral Duty Though I know gathering of Churches in a Congregational way preaching without Ordination Baptizing of Infants and the like as well as hearing a Conforming-Minister are a great offence to some that are truly Godly yet may I not say If such a Fellowship if such Baptizing and the rest offend my Brother I will do no such thing while the World standeth lest I should offend It were sin so to resolve because these are moral Duties and not left to my liberty as Meats and the rest 1 Cor. 8.13 and Acts 8. wherein the nature of indifferent things is laid down Consideration II. About refraining a Moral Duty for the Evil mixed with it or in the Persons performing it 1. As we are not to do Evil that Good may come of it no more ought we to leave what is morally Good undone for the Evil that is some-way mixed with it Zeal for Good is to be preferred to that which is against Evil. The greatest Good is better than the greatest Evil is back What-ever good thing we do tends towards our Union with the chiefest Good the refraining of Evil not so immediately 2. Betwixt things indifferent and what is morally good you have this difference If there be any mixture of evil with the one it becomes wholly evil there is nothing of good in it to give stop or preponderate but what is morally good will remain so still though mixed with evil We may allay the worth of it as baser Metals mixed with Gold but yet it is Gold still and may be perfectly severed 3. When I would do good saith the
receiving to which they are sent by them And so I profess I hear them as the Ministers of the Bishop's sending and of the Parishes sent to but not as my Ministers either sending or sent to except I be of those Parishes or at least in Ecclesiastical Union with them Every one whether of a false Church or no Church or excommunicated from the Church that hears me hears me as the Pastor of the Church which I serve but not as his Pastor I suppose nor in way of any his spiritual Communion with mine Office of Pastorship Secondly By hearing and receiving there Christ's means properly the hearking to believing and obeying the Doctrine taught by the Apostles which many despised unto whom he opposeth the former that heard it Now the Ministers in the Parishes have not the Doctrines of the Gospel from the Bishops as they have their Office but from God in his Word and so far forth as a Man hears that is hearkens to and receives them by receiving it he so far hearkens to and receives Christ Object 5. Yet such as hear them have Communion with their Office of Ministry what in them lies Answ That is they have no Communion at all with it if it lie not in them to have any as it doth not If I hold up my Hand as high as I can I touch Heaven with my Finger what in me lies Do I therefore at all touch it If such think to have any such Communion it is their Error and Ignorance but makes not the thing to be the more than if they thought not so Object 6. Is there then no Communion at all between the Teacher and taught What Profit then comes there by such Hearing Answ The Church-Officer feeds the Flock and Church over which he is set as the Object of his Ministry such as come in being not in Church-Union therewith hear him so doing and as a Stander-by hearing me talk to or dispute with another tho I speak not a word to him may reap as much and more Fruit by my Speech than he to whom I direct it so may and doth it often come to pass with him that hears the Minister feed the Flock whose Minister he is tho he be no part of it He may reap Fruit by hearing him feed his Flock or seeing him minister Baptism to any Member thereof Here is Communion only in the effects of the Truths taught It were Usurpation in any to partake in a Church-Priviledg which the Office of Ministry is that were not in a Church-State first and so if hearing simply imported Church-Communion none but Church-Members might lawfully hear Object 7. In the true Church indeed is Order that the Church-Covenant go before Church-Communion but not so in the false Answ In the true Church there may be unlawful Church-Communion without a preceeding Church-Covenant as well as in the other to wit if an Act of Communion properly pass between the Church and him that is no Church-Member as for Example Participation in the Sacraments but hearing being not properly an Act of Communion cannot import Communion necessarily with the one or other not otherwise then according to a fore-going Church-Union whereas to partake in the Lord's Supper imports Communion in both lawful in him that is a lawful church-Church-Member and unlawful in him that is not in such a Church-State Object 8. But it is the Order of the Church of England that all that hear are and so are reputed Members of that Church Answ I deny that there is any such Order let the Law or Canon either be shewed that so orders things Excommunicates are permitted to hear Sermons tho not Divine Service as they call it 2. What if there were such an Order It no more either made or declared me to be a Member there than doth my dwelling in such or such a Parish make me a Member of that Parish-Church which latter is indeed the Law and Order there If the Church with me should make a Law Canon or Order that all that come in and hear me preach should thereby become Members of it we were the more foolish in making such an Order but they never a whit the nearer either for Membership or Communion Object 9. He that hears appears to have Communion with the Church and Ministry and all Appearance of Evil is to be avoided 1 Thess 5.22 Answ The Scripture is not to be understood of all that appears Evil to Others out of an erroneous and deceived Judgment for then we must abstain from almost all Good seeing there are some to whom almost all Good seems Evil but it is meant either of the Doctrine in Prophesy of which I have some probable Suspicion of which the Apostle seems properly to speak or of that which appears Evil to a rightly discerning eye By this imagined Exposition I might not hire a House in a Parish where I were not known seeing thereby I appear a Parish-member Object 10. None can hear without a Preacher nor Preach except he be sent Rom. 10.14 15. Therefore I cannot lawfully hear him that hath nat a lawful sending Answ That conclusion is neither in Text nor sound I may lawfully hear him that hath no lawful Calling as I have formerly shewed 2. The Apostle's meaning there is not to shew what is unlawful but what is impossible It is impossible to believe without hearing and impossible to hear without preaching and impossible to preach without the sending there intended that is without God's gracious work of Providence in raising up of Men by enabling and disopsing them to preach for the effectual calling of the Elect of God of which he there speaks If any make a Question Whether Faith come by the hearing of the Preachers there It is more questionable whether they themselves want not Faith which are so barren of Charity in which true Faith is fruitful If Faith come by the Preaching in England to any it follows thereupon that such Preachers are sent in the Apostle's sense Object 11. The Sheep of Christ hear his Voice but strangers they will not hear John 10.3 8 27. Answ Christ does not there speak of the outward Hearing but of the hearkning unto that is as he expounds himself ver 3 4 5 14 15 16 17. of the knowing and beieving of his Voice and following it So Chap. 9. I told you before and ye did not hear that is not believe ver 27. And God hears not Sinners ver 31. that is approves not of them and their Prayers So Chap. 11. I know that thou hearest me always and a thousand times in the Scriptures The drift of Christ in the place is without question to shew the difference between such as were his Sheep and such as were not his Sheep His Sheep heard his Vioce and they which were not his Sheep heard not his Voice But they which were not his Sheep nor heard his Voice as there he speaks heard him preach outwardly as well as the rest which were his Sheep
THE LAVVFULNES OF Hearing the Publick Ministers OF THE Church of England PROVED By Mr. PHILIP NYE AND Mr. JOHN ROBINSON Two Eminent Congregational Divines Together with the Judgment of Dr. Goodwin Dr. Owen and other INDEPENDENTS as well Ancient as Modern concerning Forms of Prayer Parish-Churches and Communion with them And the Judgment of other Nonconformists about Kneeling at the Sacrament Published as well to satisfy those that yet scruple Communion with the Church as to vindicate those that have complied from the uncharitable Censures of those that vilify them as Temporizers or that they have done so to qualify themselves for an Office to serve a Turn or to save themselves from the Penal Laws LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1683. TO THE READER THe design of these Sheets is to satisfy the Consciences of those Dissenters that hold Communion with the Church of England unlawful beseeching them seriously to consider what is here said in order to the Church's Peace and to prevent their designed ruin by Learned and Holy Men that are of the Separation commonly called Independents I have quoted none of the Presbyterian Perswasion only in the business of kneeling at the Sacrament because it would be an endless work they generally both Ancient and Modern having asserted the lawfulness of at least Lay-Communion with the Church of England And besides I perceive their Arguments will not prevail with Independents who deny a National Church I know there are many that are convinced it is lawful to Hear Sermons but not the Liturgy as an imposed Form They may find here what the Reverend and Learned Dr. Owen says concerning Forms of Prayer in the latter end of these Sheets And whereas they complain the Church-Prayers are empty Forms I wish they would come and fill them with Spirit and Zeal But the greatest Scruple that hinders them is kneeling at the Sacrament and that which pinches them most is that this Gesture is said to be Adoration given to the Elements but they should consider what the Church says concerning that Gesture which me thinks should remove that Scruple and satisfy every reasonable Man in that particular which for their satisfaction I here quote at large Viz. Whereas it is ordained in this Office for the Administration of the Lord's Supper that the Communicants should receive the same Kneeling which Order is well meant for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the Benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receivers and for the avoiding of such prophanation and disorder in the Holy Communion as might otherwise ensue Yet lest the same Kneeling should by any Persons either out of ignorance and infirmity or out of malice and obstinacy be misconstrued and depraved It is here declared that thereby no adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or unto any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remains still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven and not here it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one This Caution which wholly denies Transubstantiation together with that Prayer about the Gunpowder-Treason being now incorporated in our Liturgie do as Dr. Goodwin told a Reverend Doctor of the Church of England now living make it impossible there should be any Reconciliation with the Church of Rome The Reverend and Learned Mr. Perkins an old Puritan says to this effect That that Adoration used in the Sacrament is not terminated in the Elements but a token of Godly Reverence to Christ himself sitting in Glory c. Mr. Cartwright says also That a Man must not refuse to receive the Sacrament kneeling when he cannot have it otherwise Mr. Fenner speaks to the same purpose And the Learned Mr. Vines says That Gestures at Receiving are Moveables and not of the Free-hold of this Ordinance In short whether Men are satisfied in whole or in part I wish they would consider seriously what that excellent Man Mr. Jer. Burroughs a Congregational Divine says in his Irenicon pag. 182. viz. That one great dividing Practice hath been this That because Men cannot join in all things with others they will join in nothing Mr. PHILIP NY's Resolution of this Case of Conscience Viz. Whether we may lawfully hear the Now Conforming Ministers who are Re-ordained and have renounced the Covenant and some of them supposed to be scandalous in their Lives Answer FOr the Resolution of this Case there is a three-fold Consideration pertinent Consideration I. About the Duty it self Hearing the Word There are four ways by which at this Day the Great God conveyeth the knowledg of himself and his Mind unto sinful Man 1. His Works of Creation and Providence Psalm 19.2 2. The suggest of Conscience even the remainder of God's Image in us 3. The Word or Law of God written expounded or applyed in ordinary Preaching 4. The Church which is the Ground and Pillar of Truth the Knowledg of God and his Mind is more especially there held forth by the Gifts given and Offices therein appointed by Christ These are distinct Ways and Methods of God by which he is pleased to make known himself and we are obliged even by the Law of Nature to attend when God doth speak it is therefore an undoubted moral Duty to attend the speaking of God in whatsoever way by Providence brought unto us The Scripture with the Interpretation and Application thereof commonly termed Prophesying or Preaching is one of the forementioned Means by which God makes known himself to us this is a National Gift according as God in his Providence shall dispose Psal 147.19 20. Such National or Publick Preachers may be said to have their Call from Christ he having a hand in ordering the Motions of Providence for the Good of his Church John 5.17 And particularly in this Providential sending of Ministers Mat. 9.38 and this is the calling and sending mentioned Rom. 10.15 The Lord in these Administrations by Preachers thus sent according to the good Pleasure of his Will finds out a People before they seek him This is a dispensation of God to Men as his Creatures For Application to the Case The Word of God interpreted and apply'd by preaching in this providential way is a choice Mercy and Gift wherewith God hath blessed this Nation for many Years to the Conversion and Edification of many thousands The Governors thereof have successively according to their Light made divers good Laws and Statutes for improving this Mercy for the best advantage of the Nation as appears in that 1. There are Schools and Universities maintained for the bringing up of Persons in Learning also there is a constant setled Maintenance
Besides they which were his Sheep and would not hear Strangers in the Lord's Sense heard outwardly those Strangers preach and by hearing them discovered them to be Strangers that is false Prophets The Strangers of whom he speaks were of the true Church and of Israel but brought false Doctrine tending to kill the Soul Such Strangers none should hear that is believe and follow Object 12. The Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament warn God's People of false Prophets which the Ministers of that Church are having an unlawful Calling Answ 1. They warn not to hearken unto them nor to believe them Deut. 13.3 1 John 4.1 but to try them which without hearing them cannot be done Not that all false Prophets are to be heard by all that they may try them for that were to tempt God But I now answer the Scripture cited which speaks of Prophets in the true Church which were to be heard till they were orderly repressed or at least plainly discovered by their Doctrine heard to be such 2. No Man's unlawful outward Calling makes him a false Prophet nor his outward lawful Calling a true but his true or false Doctrine only makes him a true or false Prophet A Man may have a lawful Office of Ministry and yet be a false Prophet if he teach false Doctrine so may he be a true Prophet if he teach the Truth tho in an unlawful and Antichristian State of Ministry Yea Balaam was both a false Prophet in cursing in purpose where God would have him bless and in teaching Balack to put a Stumbleng-block before the People of Israel Numb 22.25 Josh 13.22 2 Pet. 2.15 26. Rev. 2.14 and yet a true Prophet in blessing Israel by the Spirit of Prophecy and Word of the Lord put into his Mouth Numb 25.5 9 10 c. and Chap. 24.23 c. He is a Prophet that speaks or declares a thing past present or to come And to prophesy in our Sense is nothing else but to speak to Edification Exhortation and Comfort 1 Cor. 14.3 He that doth this is a true Prophet he that speaks the contrary a false It were good if they in whose Mouths the challenge of false Prophets is rifest would better weigh how themselves expound and apply the Scriptures in their prophesying lest notwithstanding any outward lawful Church-state they be deeper wounded by the rebound of their Accusations this way then their Adversaries Object 13. The Lord forbids Judah going to Gilgal or to Bethel Hos 4.15 16. Answ The meaning is plain and the words express that they were not to go thither to offend and play the harlot in joyning to Idols vers 15 16 17. This I grant is to be done in no place but deny any such thing to be done in the Hearing by me pleaded for The Scriptures every where forbid the going or coming to such Places or Persons as in or by which some Evil is done to wit for the doing of any thing evil or unlawful in or with them Object 14. They that eat of the Sacrifice partake of the Altar 1 Cor. 10.18 so they that receive the Word from an unlawful Officer partake with his Office Answ I deny the Consequence The Office is not to the Word as the Altar is to the Sacrifice The Altar makes the things to be offer'd actually to become a Sacrifice which it was not before save only in Destination as Christ plainly teacheth saying The Altar sanctifieth the Gift Mat. 23.19 but so doth not the Office make that to become the Word of God which was not so actually before This Argument hath its special weight being applied to Sacraments or proper Institutions The Church and Ministry under God make in a good sence the Bread and Wine Sacramental in their use which before they were not And to the Sacraments especially the Supper of the Lord the Apostle in the place cited hath an eye shewing the proportion between the eating of the Sacrifices in Israel which in that use became their Sacraments and the eating the Sacrifice of the Heathens which were their Sacraments and the eating of the Lord's Supper as the Sacrament of Christians With these things join in the last place that Sacrifices considered as proper Institutions might not be offered or eaten but in the place chosen Deut. 12.5 6 7. and sanctified by the Lord for that purpose No more may Sacraments now be eaten but in the Church whereas the Word may be preached to any as well out of the Church as in it Object 15. The Places called Temples and Churches having been built for Idolatry should be demolished and therefore are not to be frequented specially being accounted and made Holy Places Deut. 12.3 Answ 1. The difference of Places under the Law when all other places for the most solemn Worship as opposed to that one place as holy were unholy is now taken away so as no place now is holy or unholy as then 2. Suppose it be the Magistrates Duty to destroy them of which I now dispute not nor how far he should proceed therein yet I deny the Consequence and that I may not use that lawfully which he ought to destroy The Magistrate ought to have destroyed such Cities in Israel as whose Inhabitants had been corrupted with Idolatry Deut. 13.12 13 14. Yet might the Cities if spared by the Magistrates lawfully be dwelt in afterwards and Synagogues in them both be built and frequented for God's moral Worship Jericho should have been an execration and heap for ever 2 King 2.3 5. yet being built again and standing was the Seat of the School of the Prophets The Murtherer ought to be put to death yet if he be spared and survive his Wife Children and Servants lawfully may and in Conscience ought to converse with him according to the natural and civil relations between them and him 3. I know no Law in force nor Doctrine received in the Church of England that ascribes any holiness to the places And for Errors and Abuses personal they rest in the persons so erring I suppose some such Holiness be abscribed unto them as to Holy Churches Holy Buildings Consecrated Places c. Yet I see no sufficient reason why I may not use lawfully a natural and civil place in them for any lawful Work Civil or Religious Private or Publick for there is one reason of all these If any think those places like the Idolathites he mistaketh therein The things offered to Idols and eaten in the Idols Temple and Feast were in proportion as the Bread and Wine being blessed in the Lord's Supper as both the Apostle and reason of the thing manifests Whereas the place which I use though for a religious Action to be performed in it whether in the Temple or in mine own House hath only the Consideration of a natural and civil Circumstance The Temple as a Temple which yet I do not think is done in England by any either received Doctrine or Law may be made an Idol
is necessary for our sound and entire comfort with the Lord our God that our Obedience be entire in respect of all his Holy Commandments which we do or can discern to be such and to concern us according to that of the Man of God Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandments Psal 119.6 That so we may have our part in the Testimony given by the Holy Ghost of Zachary and Elizabeth which was that they were Righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Luke 1.5 6. That is both in the Moral Precepts and Sacred Ceremonies and Institutions of the Lord. Whose Examples we in our Place and Times are to follow not balking with the Lord in any thing great or small nor seeking starting-holes whereby to escape from him in his Word which is holy good and pure Good as coming from our good God good in it self and good for us if we converse therein as we ought in good Conscience towards God Zeal for his Ordinances Modesty in our Selves and Charity towards other Men specially towards them with whom God hath joined us in the most and best things taking heed lest by any uncharitable either judgment of or withdrawing from their Persons for such humane Frailties as unto which into one kind or other all Adam's sinful Posterity are subject we sin not more by our course held against them than they by theirs in them which God forbid To conclude For my self thus I believe with my Heart before God and profess with my Tongue and have before the World that I have one and the same Faith Hope Spirit Baptism and Lord which I had in the Church of England and none other that I esteem so many in that Church of what state or order soever as are truly partakers of that Faith as I account many thousands to be for my Christian Brethren and my self a Fellow member with them of that one Mystical Body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout the World that I have always in Spirit and Affection all Christian Fellowship and communion with them and am most ready in all outward Actions and Exercises of Religion lawful and lawfully done to express the same and withal that I am perswaded the heating of the Word of God there preached in the manner and upon the grounds formerly mentioned both lawful and upon occasion necessary for me and all true Christians withdrawing from that Hierarchical Order of Church-Government and Ministry and the appearances thereof and uniting in the Order and Ordinances instituted by Christ the only King and Lord of his Church and by all his Disciples to be observed And lastly That I cannot communicate with or submit unto the said Church-Order and Ordinances there established either in State or Act without being condemned of mine own Heart and therein proâ—oking God who is greater than my Heart to condemn me much more And for my Failings which may easily be too many one way or other of Ignorance herein and so for all my other Sins I most humbly crave pardon first and most at the Hands of God And so of all Men whom therein I offend or have offended any manner of way even as they desire and look that God should pardon their Offences Thus far Mr. Robinson ADDENDA The Judgment of several other Independent Ministers as well Ancient as Modern concerning this Matter MR. Henry Jacob a strict Independent in his printed Declaration 1612 annexed to his Book called The Divine Beginning and Institution of Christ's True Visible Church he hath this Assertion pag. 6. For my part I never was nor am separated from all publick Communion with the Congregations of England I acknowledg therefore that in England are true visible Churches and Ministers tho accidentally yet such as I refuse not to communicate with and those of the Separation in some Matters are streighter than I wish they were And the Brownists in their Confession of Faith printed 1616 they declare That a Minister receiving Prelatical Ordination if he be a Parish Minister it makes not a nullity of the Ministry of him in every respect besides That is it makes not void all truness of Ministry in him as a believing Congregation assenteth to hear him and useth him for their Minister when on some weighty occasion they joyn only to that which is true in the said Minister and testify in the best manner they can that they do so orrdinarily leaving the Parish Congregation and Ministry for their Error With all professing publishing and practising freely and constantly the simple Truth therein with our selves this quitteth us from all Evil and appearance of Evil in this Matter it being no Evil nor appearance of Evil to join with the Parish-Congregation and Ministry in such respects and so far forth as is aforesaid we ought sometimes on weighty Occasions so to join and we sin if we do not And though we do not think every form of Prayer sinful and absolutely unlawful yet we think it not so profitable and to some hurtful Mr. Norton of New-England upon those words of our Blessed Saviour The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all things that they say unto you that observe and do Which saith he not only permits but requires and implieth full Communion The five dissenting Brethren viz. Dr Goodwin Mr. Bridg. Mr. Ny Mr. Greenhill and Mr. Sydr Simpson in their Apologetical Narrative pag. 6. they say We have always professed and that in those times when the Churches of England were the most either actually overspread with Defilements or in the greatest danger thereof that we both did and would hold a Communion with them as the Churches of Christ Mr. Firmin argues about this Matter pag. 29. Suppose there should be some humane Mixtures are all the Ordinances of God polluted Why do you not communicate with them in those Ordinances which are pure And in his Separation Examined pag. 40. says Corrupt Members there were enough in the Jewish Church and so in the Christian Church soon after and in the Apostles Times but you have no Example of separating from them Dr. Thomas Goodwin on the Ephesians pag. 487 488 489. His Judgment concerning Parish Churches Ministry and Communion In my last Discourse I handled what was meant by the word Church There was a necessity that lay upon me to open that distinction of Church Universal and Particular I gave you two Cautions about two Errors concerning each of these both toward the Church Universal and toward Particular Churches Concerning which I must necessarily say something to take away some Mistakes and Misapprehensions of my meaning for I walk by this Rule to give no offence to Jew or Gentile or to the Churches of God as the Apostle speaks The first Error I told you was of the Donatists of old who denied the Church Catholock and restrained it to one part of the World and yet the imputation of this Error lieth
loseth them in all the rest and therefore if a Man do take what is good of all sides he is apt to lose them all but he pleaseth Christ by it and so will I for this particular Dr. Owen pag. 177. of Evangelical Love saith That it is pleaded indeed the Substance of the Worship of God ought to be no other than what Jesus Christ hath appointed yet the Manner and Mode of performance of what he doth command with other Rites and Ceremonies for Order and Decency may lawfully be instituted by the Rulers of the Church let it therefore at present be granted says he that so they may be by them who are perswaded of the lawfulness of those Modes and of the things wherein they consist Indeed he very much condemns Communion with such Apostatical Churches who are guilty of Idolatry and require unscriptural Terms of Communion but what Churches those are remains to be proved I am sure he asserts that many Errors in Doctrine Disorders in Sacred Administrations irregular walking in Conversation with neglect and abuse of Discipline in Rulers may fall out in some Churches and yet not evacuate their Church-State or give sufficient warrant for any Person to leave their Communion and to separate from them Pag. 76. Evang. Love And pag. 176. We wholly deny that the Mistakes of Christians in joining themselves unto such Churches as have no warrantable Institution ought to be any cause of the diminishing of our Love towards them for they may be Persons born of God united to Christ partakers of the Spirit and belong to the Church Catholick Mystical which is the first principal Object of all Christian Love and Charity notwithstanding their Errors and Wandrings from the Truth in this Matter And the said Dr. Owen who in his Discourse of the Work of the Spirit in Prayer writes against the making or composing of Forms of Prayer for our selves to be used privately desires the Reader p. 200. to observe that he doth not argue against Forms of Prayer as unlawful to be used And pag. 222. he grants that Men or Churches may agree upon a prescribed Form by common consent as judging and avowing it best for their own Edification Again pag. 228. Whether they are approved or disapproved of God whether they are lawful or unlawful we do not consider but only whether they are for Spiritual Benefit and Advantage for the good of our own Souls and the Edification of others as set up in competition with the Gift before described So that it seems the Doctor doth not judg such Forms of Prayer unlawful which are for the good of our own Souls and the Edification of others and which are not in competition with the Gift before described And therefore p. 231 232. supposing that those who make use of and plead for Forms of Prayer especially in Publick do in a due manner prepare themselves for it by holy meditation with an endeavour to bring their Souls into a holy frame of Fear delight and reverence of God let it also be supposed that they have a good End and Design in the Worship they address themselves unto namely the Glory of God and their own Spiritual Advantage the Prayers themselves tho they should be in some things irregular may give occasion to exercise those Acts of Grace which they were otherwise prepared for And I say yet further that whilst these Forms of Prayer are cloathed with the general Notions of Prayer that is are esteemed as such in the minds of them that use them are accompanied in their use with the Motives and Ends of Prayer express no Matter unlawful to be insisted on in Prayer directing the Souls of Men to none but lawful Objects of Divine Worship and Prayer the Father Son and Holy Spirit and whilst Men make use of them with the true design of Prayer looking after due assistance unto Prayer I do not judg there is any such Evil in them as that God will not communicate his Spirit to any in the use of them so as that they should have no holy Communion with him in and under them Much less will I say that God never therein regards their Persons or rejects their praying as unlawful For the Persons and Duties of Men may be accepted with God when they walk and act in sincerity according to their Light tho in many things and those of no small importance sundry Irregularities are found both in what they do and in the manner of doing it Where Persons walk before God in their Integrity and practise nothing contrary to their Light and Conviction in his Worship God is merciful unto them altho they order not every thing according to the Rule and Measure of the Word So was it with them who came to the Passover in the days of Hezekiah They had not cleansed themselves but did eat the Passover otherwise than it was written 2 Chron. 30.18 And p. 235. he grants That such Forms of Prayer have not any intrinsecal Evil in the composition of them but argues against the setting up and prescribing such Forms of Prayer universally in opposition and unto the exclusion of free Prayer And p. 236. If they appear not contrary unto or inconsistent with or are not used in a way exclusive of that Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer which we have described from the Scripture nor are reducible to any Divine Prohibition I shall not contend with any about them Much more might have been collected even out of the Writings of the Congregational Ministers concerning these weighty Matters but this is sufficient I know the Reader will be sollicitous to know their Judgment about the Lord's Supper and kneeling thereat but I must confess at present I cannot find they say any thing particularly about it only the practice of some of them in receiving the Sacrament according to the manner of the Church of England does evince that all of them do not deny the lawfulness of it but that they may sometimes communicate there tho ordinarily they do with their own particular Churches for better-Edification as they judg Mr. Tombs a learned Minister and a great Anabaptist wrote a Book to prove it lawful both to Hear and Communicate with the Church of England and his practice at Salisbury was conformable thereunto Indeed the Nonconformists that are called Presbyterians both Ancient and Modern do generally allow the lawfulness of Communicating with the Church of England tho at the same Time they held the Ceremonies to be burthen some and therefore would avoid them if they could but if they could not have the Sacrament otherwise they took it as they could have it Thus says Mr. Baxter in his Christian Directory pag. 859. First Edition Had I my choice I would receive the Lord's Supper sitting but where I have not I will use the Gesture which the Church useth And it is to be noted that the Church of England requireth the Communicants only to receive it kneeling but not to eat and drink it kneeling when they have received it And his Resolution of this Case ought to be considered viz. Quest May the Communion-Tables be turned Altar-wise and railed in And is it lawful to come up to the Rails to Communicate Answ 1. God hath given us no particular Command or Prohibition about these Circumstances but the general Rules for Unity Edification Order and Decency Whether the Table should stand this way or that way here or there c. he hath not particularly determined 2. They that turn the Table Altar-wise and rail it in out of a design to draw Men to Popery or in a scandalous way which will encourage Men to or in Popery do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signify that the Vulgar or Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance when Christ in his Personal Presence admitted his Disciples to communicate at the Table with himself 4. But where there are no such Ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away Dogs keeping Boys from sitting on it c. The professed Doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real Corporal Presence c. as ours doth In this Case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them nor should any inforce them on any that think them unlawful 5. And to Communicate is not only lawful in this Case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an evil Design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal Interpretation of the Place Name Situation and Rails is unsound for we assemble there to communicate in and according to the professed Doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open Profession and not after every private Opinion and Error of the Minister As I may receive from an Anabaptist or Separatist notwithstanding his Personal Errors so may I from another Mans whose Error destroyeth not his Ministry nor the Ordinance as long as I consent not to it yea and with the Church profess my dissent 6. Yet caeteris paribus every free Man that hath his choice should chuse to Communicate rather where there is most Purity and least Error than with those that swerve more from regular Exactness FINIS