forward to meddle with more publick Church matters without our Superiors invitation or consent but we may say that it is our judgment that these additions following would greatly strengthen the Interest of Religion Church and Concord I. That the Parish Churches be acknowledged True Churches and their Ministers such Overseers as are necessary to Essentiate True Churches that is That all Presbyters be Episcopi Gregis Overseers of the Flock and the Incumbent the President among his Curate Presbyters where there be such And that the Diocesan is not the sole Essentiating Church Pastors and the Diocesan Church the lowest particular Church and the Parish Assemblies but his Chapels or Parts of the lowest Church and the Parish Ministers his Curates and no true Pastors II. That no Lay-Elder Chancellour or Civilian have or use the Decretive Power of Excommunication or Absolution called the Keys III. That New and more Peaceable Canons be made instead of that Book which now obtaineth according to the Scripture Canons Or that there be no Canons but Scripture besides Statute Laws IV. That Bishops have no Forcing Power nor the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo or any Force by the Sword be Annexed to Excommunication as such but that the Magistrates hear and judge before they punish and Obedience to Bishops be unconstrained and voluntary V. That Bishops judge Church-Causes in Session with their Presbyters and not alone nor with some few of their own Choice or with Lay-men but in regular Synods and Ordain there by their consent and after sufficient trial of them that seek Ordination And so of Institution VI. That Diocesses be not greater than the Diocesan is able to Oversee and that he forbid not the Parish Pastors their particular works but only use his general overcight and power on Appeals VII That Bishops oft visit the inferior Pastors and Churches and instruct the Juniors by direction and Example how to Preach and guide the Flock and rebuke the Erroneous Scandalous Unpeaceable and Negligent VIII That the Bishops be Chosen by the Diocesan Synod and Consented to freely without force by their City flocks where they reside and Invested by the King who hath the power of Temporal Privileges IX That the City and neighbour Pastors be the Cathedral Dean and Prebends at least where City Churches want maintenance or that they ambulatorily Preach abroad where there is most need X. If Arch-Bishop Usher's Form or Reduction of Government to the Primitive state or else King Charles the Second his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs be but setled by Law it will be a Healing and Great Reformation inferior Synods not hurtfully fettered being allowed under the Diocesan Synods And whether the Diocesans be Called Bishops or Arch-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists in the ordinary parts of their Office a general care of many Churches the name is to be left to each mans free judgment As to the ignorant clamors for a real or seeming Re-ordination 1. I have said so much against it in my Treatise of Episcopacy and my Disputation of Ordination in my Dispute of Church-Government and my Christian Concord that while the objectors by contempt refuse to read and answer them it will be no cure of their pride and partiality to repeat the same again But I say that I have fully proved unanswered that they that were Ordained by Synods of Incumbent Pastors and specially those also then approved by the Westminster Assembly had a better Ordination and that by true Bishops than either Papists or meer English Diocesans that are not Arch-bishops can give And yet they Re-ordain not Papists 1. Either they take the Parish-Churches that is the Pastor and Communicants distinct from the meer Auditors and Catechumens and from the Aliens to be true proper Churches in political Sense or not If yea Then those Churches have Bishops For Ecclesia est plebs Episcopo adunata ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia Their own Principle is That it is no proper political Church without a Bishop There are three degrees of Bishops 1. All Presbyters are Episcopi Gregis by the consent of Papists and Protestants 2. The chief Incumbents that have Curates or may have are Episcopi Praesides The Ordination without Diocesans was by these two sorts of Bishops 3. True Diocesans are Arch-bishops Episcopi generales plurium Ecclesiarum We refuse not their Ordination but Men have true Episcopal Ordination without it But if they say that the Diocesan is the lowest Bishop of a particular Church and that the Parish-Incumbent Rectors are no true Bishops and their Assemblies no true political Churches formed of Bishops but only parts of one Diocesan Church infimi Ordinis we abhor such Tyrannical Schismatical Diocesans and their pretence of proper power to Ordain and the Primitive Church had never any such Ordaniers or Bishops And I advise all Ministers neither to be Re-ordained by such nor to yield to the appearance of such an evil by coming under their equivocating imposition of hands lest they take God's Name in vain and harden Papists and Church-Tyrants in their false condemnation of the Reformed Churches If it be want of a legal right in England that they pretend let the Magistrate give you a Licence or Legal right I write not this for my own interest for I was Ordained by a Diocesan and am past all hopes or fears of Man. CHAP. LX. The Reasons of these ten Articles L. YOV must give me leave to tell you what objections are like to be raised against your proposed Articles of Reconciliation And first your own party will be unsatisfied in them and so they will do no good because here is not a word against Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Arch-deacons and the rest that bear office in their Courts which yet is the thing that you your self seem most to dissent from and which the Covenant did renounce M. 1. We have so much swearing and unswearing and forswearing that I will meddle as little as I can in things that look like Perjury You know that as the last Generation was sworn against Prelacy this new Generation is sworn to it Yea in a manner the whole Land is sworn or covenanted never to endeavour any alteration of it And how much soever I am against that Oath yet I will meddle as little as I can in urging men to that which they take for Perjury And I have elsewhere told you that the Covenant renounced not all Episcopacy many of the Assembly of Divines declared their dissent from any such renunciation and had entred their protestation against it as Dr. Cornel. Burges told me had not the Explication been added which confineth the Renunciation to the English frame And that the present Non-Conformists would have thankfully received the Primitive Episcopacy they shewed by their motion 1660. 2. We offer this form on supposition that we may not have what we think best but what we can joyfully submit to for our Concord and the Churches safety 3. I have
the Ordainers investing action This is it which we mean in the Controversie which may not be done twice 2. Or it may signifie the meer words of the Ordainers and Ordained which make up the said Moral action We deny not but the same words repeated may make up one Moral Ordination If the Bishop by tautology repeat them twice or thrice Or if they should to satisfie men of divers Languages that are present be first spoken in English and after in French or when some that doubted require it should go over them again all this is but one Ordination L. How prove you that our Bishops intend any more when they say it is only to satisfie the Law that you may be capable in England M. 1. That it is not a meer relation to some particular cure that they mean is undenyable 1. Because they call that by the name of Institution and Induction and not of Ordination 2. Because they never ordain any over and over upon removals 3. Because the words of Ordination in the Book tell it us 2. That they do it not as a Repetition of the same valid Ordination is past doubt 1. Because the same repeated by the same men will not serve 2. It is to be done again ten or twenty years after the first 3. He is to be fined in an hundred pound that administreth the Sacrament without it 4. He is taken for no true Minister without it which cannot be true of a bare repetition of words No reasonable men would lay so much on that 3. It is undeniable that they take men for unordained and no Ministers till they ordain them 1. Because they all disown reordaining they know that the Canons called the Apostles and the whole antient and later Church condemn it as like Anabaptistry and no one Bishop in England will not renounce it Therefore its certain that they take the first Ordination for null 2. And they have so declared their judgment in many words and writings and in the Act of Uniformity it is plainly intimated in the penalty L. And what harm is there in being twice Ordained M. 1. Ad hominem I need not dispute it All the Bishops disclaim it as unlawfull so that we have their confession 2. It is the same fault as Anabaptistry If they be blameless why make you such a noise against the Anabaptists To be twice made a Christian and twice made a Minister is of the like kind 3. It is something causelesly to cast our selves under the Censure of all the Church that hath been against it and to be condemned by them 4. It is a plain prophanation of God's holy name and of a great and holy Ordinance by Lying and taking Godâ—s name in vain For they are said to be now admitted to the Office and this day to receive it and God is told that they are now called to it And all their Examinations and Answers imply that they were no Ministers before and the Bishop saith Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Priest now committed to thee by the Imposition of our hands which all imply it not done before And in so sacred a contract with God to lie to him and prophanely abuse his name and the holy Ghosts and the Duty of Prayer and Praise is tremendous Be not deceived God is not mocked 5. It is a confederacy with Corrupters and Usurpers that arrogate and appropriate valid Ordination to themselves and a confirming all their injury to posterity that all that shall hereafter imitate them may be encouraged by alledging our Re ordination 6. It is a hainous injury to all the other Reformed Churches as if we degraded their Ministers and separated from them all as no Churches For one part of them have no Diocesans and the rest have Bishops that at the Reformation were Ordained by Presbyters 7. It is contrary to one of the Articles of our Religion 23. These we ought to judge them lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick authority given to them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers c. But in other Countries Presbyters have publick authority given them And Art. 36. The book of Consecration doth contain all things necessary to such consecration and Ordaining But it hath nothing for Re-ordaining those before Ordained 8. It is a plain condemnation of the Church of England which hath professed Communion with the Reformed abroad as with true Ministers and Churches of Christ. And we are now told that to communicate with Schismaticks induceth the guilt of Schism 9. It introduceth Anabaptistry or utter confusion into the Nation leaving men in doubt whether for fourteen years the people had any true Baptism while it's a controversie whether Lay-mens Baptizing be valid and Mr. Dodwell maketh all men to be out of any Covenant-title to Salvation that have not the Sacraments from a Minister that hath successive Episcopal Ordination And all Christians must question whether they have not so long here lived out of the Church of Christ without Ministery and Communion Do you think that none of these nine Reasons prove Re-ordination sinful L. But because the Bishops deny it let me hear your proof that the former Ordination here by Presbyters is not a nullity M. I. Ad hominem the Church of England hath as I said judged the like valid in the Reformed Churches by holding Communion with them I cited a great number of Bishops and Doctors in my Christian Concord L. But they say that necessity differeth their case from ours here And even Doctour Sherlock tells you that if God make necessity necessity will make Ministers But ours Schismatically pull'd down the Bishops and now disown the very Order M. There is a satisfactory concession in these words but the accusations are made up of falsehood and deceit 1. Archbishop Vsher and others that thought the Ejectors of Episcopacy were guilty of Schism yet maintained that their Ordination was valid He told me how he pleaded it to the King. 2. Do they think that Salmasius Blundel and all others that have written more against our Prelacy than the English were deprived of it against their wills by necessity 3. What necessity can they pretend to the Hollanders Helvetians Geneva Embden Bremen the Palatinate and Scotland heretofore might they not have had Prelates when they would 4. Was not the necessity far more notorious to those that I now plead for They lived in a Land where Episcopacy was cast out and kept out by a potent Army I think there were but four or five Bishops alive when it was restored 5. It is false that they cast out the Bishops Those Ministers that joyned with the Parliament to cast them out were Ordained by Bishops and therefore are none of the men that we are speaking of These that were Ordained by Presbyters were then young men at School or in the Universities And what are other mens actions to them L. But
Ministry on such terms V. They never accused the use of Holy dayes as dayes of Thanksgiving to God for giving such Holy Apostles to the Church and whose memory we honourable commemorate VI. They never accused our Kneeling at the Lords Supper as unlawful but only the casting Godly persons from Communion for not using it when they take it to be sin About the Kneeling the old Nonconformists were not of one mind some thought that every objectum motivum of Adoration was forbidden that was a Creature But others said that every Creature in the World may be such an object Our Meat is objectum motivum when we pray for a Blessing on it If I see the Relicts or Picture of a Friend that I wronged while he was alive I may well be moved by it to beg pardon of God. All his works must move me to adore and praise him But we may not make any Image objectum terminativum or ad quod to which we direct our Divine Worship as a Medium of our sending it to God. The only great difficulty about this is from the argument of scandalous hardening the Papists that live among us Though indeed our Doctrine avoideth that scandal VII They never accused the Ceremony of laying the hand on the Book and kissing it in taking an Oath VIII They never spake against the Ring in Marriage IX They meddled not with the Surplice Tippet Hood Rochet Cope but only the casting men out of the Ministry that dare not use them thinking them unlawful Though we justifie them not X. They accused not all significant use of the Cross but only that in Baptism it seemed to have all or most of the nature of a Humane Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace as it is expounded in the Liturgy and Canon XI They spake not against Episcopacy as it is a presidency among and over Presbyters differing in Degree and not in Office called ORDER and that in a Church of the lowest Species XII They opposed not Arch-Bishops as over many such Churches and Bishops nor Diocesans as Arch-Bishops ruling but by Gods Word XIII They said nothing against Metropolitans Patriarchs Lay-Chancellors Commissaries Officials Surrogates Archdeacons c. as Officers of the King appointed to do nothing besides the Sacred Ministry if they be Clergy-men but what belongs to Magistracy XIV They said nothing against any promise of Obedience to them only in the capacities and in the exercise of the power forementioned XV. Much less did they ever oppose or question Swearing to the King according to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And I with divers others also being for some ends entered as his Chaplains in Ordinary took also that Oath of Fidelity which the Kings Houshold Servants take XVI We never were for any dishonouring of Kings by publick Excommunications much les by Subjects or Forreigners whom Kings never choose to be their Pastors but only in case of necessity for such a denyal of Sacramental Communion to them as Bishop Andrews in Fortura Torâ— and Bishop Bilson plead for which is but to forbear our selves a sinful act XVII We never pleaded for any Elders or Chancellors power of the Keys who are but Lay-men XVIII We never held that Magistrates are bound to add their force by the Sword to the censures of the Church as such and to punish men more because the Church hath by Excommunication cast them out or because they are not reconciled XIX We never thought that things indifferent do become unlawful to us because the Magistrate commandeth them XX. We never held that the Scripture is a particular Rule commanding every accident and circumstance about Gods Worship but only a general Rule requiring all to be done in Love and Peace and to edification and decently c. in those circumstances which must be some way determined and God hath left to variable Humane determination Such as are Time Place Utensils Translations Sections Metres Tunes Methods and Words in Preaching and Prayer Habit Gesture and many such XXI We never held it unlawful to do one of these actions though it were by mistake unlawfully commanded e. g. If the Rulers prescribe a Time Place Metre Tune c. unfit if it be not so bad as to overthrow the ends and use of the Worship the fault of the Commander will not disoblige us from the duty of obeying And whereas some argue that no man hath authority to sin ergo we are not bound to obey that which is no act of authority I answer Rulers have authority to command that which is good though not in a faulty manner and when we cannot do the good without the faulty manner it is their fault and not ours e. g. If an inconvenient Time Place Text Tune c. be chosen the Union and Concord which is held by agreeing in those Modes is necessary He that will not joyn in them cannot joyn in the Worship So that we obey the Ruler or Guide as a determiner of the means of Concord which is necessary and not sub ratione erroris as misdetermining though in that which is misdetermined If a Master bid his Servant go at an unseasonable time about his work it 's his duty to go at that time We never pray without some fault in the manner and yet must rather do it so than not at all The mistaken Ruler bids us not sin It 's his sin to choose a mis-circumstance and it is not his own action that he bids us do but ours And it s to us a lawful circumstance because necessary to Concord and commanded though mistakingly XXII We never held it unlawful to joyn with a Church or Minister that hath some faults both Personal and in their acts of Worship as if all that joyned were guilty of all the faults there committed No not though we knew before hand that some false Doctrine would be uttered or fault committed Else we must separate from all the world and all from us XXIII We never thought it a duty to separate from every Church that culpably neglecteth Discipline and hath open wicked men therein If we be not guilty of it and cannot lawfully live in the Communion of a more obedient reformed Church XXIV We never judged needless affected singularity a duty but judge it best in lawful things for Concord sake to Conform to the custom of the Churches where we live or come XXV Though we think not that men may command us to destroy our Neighbours Souls by scandal yet when disobedience to a Rulers Law is like to do more hurt than the scandal taken at it comes to we are for avoiding the greater hurt XXVI We never separated from any tolerable Parish Ministers or Churches as if they were no true Ministers or Churches nor perswaded any so to do nor to take the Communion of such Churches for unlawful to us either occasionally or constantly when we can have no better without more hurt than benefit to our selves and others XXVII We hold
that subscribe that nothing is necessary to Salvation but what is contained in the Scripture or may be proved by it would impose this belief on us and never tell us so much as by a Marginal citation of any one text of Scripture where it may be found All that ever by talk I could hear of them is Gal. 3. 26 27. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. As if they would have us believe 1. That all Atheists and Infidels children have faith in Christ Iesus if they be but baptized 2. Or that all the Galathians that Paul wrote to were in a state of certain Salvation when it is apparent that he spake to the adult whom elsewhere he saith he feareth lest he have bestowed on them labour in vain and as bewitched men they had disobeyed the truth c. 3. Or that all that put on Christ Sacramentally by Profession and Baptism were in a state of certain salvation even Simon Magus How commonly when they confute the Separatists that alledge the titles of Saints holy children of God c. given to all the Churches by the Apostles do they themselves expound it of a sanctity of Profession and Relation as distinct from a saving state of Grace as to many of the visible members of the Church And must we now believe that the visible and the invisible membership are of equal extent If this prove that all the baptized adult have put on Christ savingly and have right to Heaven it will confute the universal Church that hath ever believed the contrary and it will be good news to all worldly hypocrites But St. Peter saith It is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience to God. And he told Simon Magus that he had no part in that matter not for apostacy but because his heart was not right in the sight of God. And sure it is no streight gate by which men enter into a state of Salvation if all the hypocrite flagitious sinners are in it that will but be baptized But if this Text say not that all adult hypocrites baptized so dying are saved much less doth it say it of all the children of them and of all Infidels that are baptized Is this to give us proof of undoubted certainty They alledge also Mar. 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved what then Ergo all Infants that are baptized that neither believe nor are the seed of believers shall be saved This is a new Gospel and no proof that the authors of it say true Another is Ioh. 3. 3 5. Except a man be born again of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Doth this prove that all are born again of the Spirit that are baptized Is this proving by God's word L. What is your other proof that it 's a false profession of them that declare Assent to this Doctrine M. 2. It is this He that saith a thing is undoubtedly certain by God's word which God's word contradicteth doth certainly speak falsely But so doth he that maketh this profession That God's word contradicteth it I have proved so fully in my two Disputations of original sin and my Treatise of Infant Baptism and Methodus Theologia that I must not here repeat it viz. by abundance of plain Texts that appropriate the Covenant-blessings to the Faithful and their Seed and exclude or curse the seed of the wicked at least as out of the Covenant of God I will now repeat but one 1 Cor. 7. 14. Else were your children unclean but now are they holy If the children of Infidels are not holy but unclean they have no right to the promise of Life or to the Seal and Investiture by Baptism But c. Ergo. I know Dr. Hammond will have Holiness here to be nothing but the Church useth to baptize such on presumption that they will be educated to Christianity and uncleanness to be but the Churches use to refuse such supposing they will not be so educated And so that the Seed of the Faithful have no special promise of pardon and life But 1. I have as aforecited and to Mr. Tombes proved many such promises to the Seed of the Faithful which Divines should not unthankfully like Anabaptists deny 2. And I ask such Doctors what baptism doth for the Infants at present and on what account Doth it put them in a present right to Salvation If not why are they at present baptized when God instituted no baptism but one which is for signification and investiture in the present remission of sinâ— And so saith the Liturgie And if so then on what account is an Infant saved Is it meerly because another undertaketh to teach him hereafter No man can undertake that he shall believe or live If he could that would but prove that he shall be pardoned when be believeth and not before And if all Infants whom any Christian will undertake hereafter to teach though they never live to be taught or will never believe be by this put into a present right to Salvation a stranger's undertaking of meer teaching upon utter uncertainty of life and success is supposed to have such a promise which yet these Doctors deny to be made on the accounts of their own parents interest in Christ and them and his dedicating them to Christ. And if these promising Godfathers be meer Lyers the Child is supposed to be baptizable and savable by it But if they say that the right to Salvation comes ex opero operato by meer baptizing whether the Child have undertakers or not I answer that a prophanation of God's ordinance is not a saving act God hath said no such thing but that the Children of Infidels are unclean and unholy and doth not say except some body will baptize them And why should not the Church baptize as many Infidels Children as they can catch up though none undertake for them if baptizing them do certainly save them if they so die I conclude therefore that seeing no man can be certain that all the baptized Children of Heathens Infidels Jews Atheists or Diabolists are in a state of Salvation God never promising it but saying the contrary whoever professeth this undoubted certainty speaketh falsely that which he hath not L. But they say not I am undoubtedly certain of it but only that it is undoubtedly certain in it self M. This is to jest with holy things To be certain is to be a Truth that hath ascertaining evidence if you mean objective certainty and how can any man profess or affirm that who knoweth it not He that affirmeth that it is objectively certain doth therefore affirm that he knoweth it to be so and is subjectively certain if he mean that it is evident and certain to others and not to him it 's a contradiction for if he know it not
time The Law refuseth them and it is in vain for the Parents to send them to a Minister who they know hath solemnly covenanted to reject them Hundreds have been baptized by Nonconformists because the Church refuseth them 2. And as to their compelling men to get Godfathers I answer 1. Those that think it a sin will not obey that compulsion but rather suffer 2. If any yield against conscience to escape suffering such compulsion doth but drive them towards damnation 3. But those that yield to it by compulsion do but seem to do it and do it not For they agree before hand with the Godfathers to represent them and speak in their names and to be themselves no undertakers Though all this is very hard shifting L. I confess this is a case so distant from things indifferent that were there but this one reason I will no more persuade any to Assent and Consent to all things contained and prescribed even to the use M. And what think you if the same men that made these Canons and subscribe to all this are the sharp condemners of Schism and Anabaptistry 1. What is Schism if this be not causelessly to keep out so many from the Church And have not the Anabaptists a far more excusable pretence to deny the baptizing of Infants than this in question is The case is of great difficulty to them and it is Christ's will that they doubt of But here is no difficulty And these men set the will and devise of man against Christ who said Forbid them not and was Angry with those that forbad them to come to him CHAP. XII Point IX Of the Cross in Baptism L. I Have oft wondred what any man can say against the use of the Cross in Baptism which signifieth our resolution to be true to a crucified Christ. M. I have oft thought many things absurd in you Lawyers to which I have been reconciled when I was well informed of the reason of them I ask you 1. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the King and only universal Lawgiver to his Church L. Yes but men under him may make local Laws M. 2. Do you believe that he is the Author of the Christian Baptism L. Yes no doubt I find it Mat. 20. 19. M. 3. Do you believe that he did it so defectively that men may amend it L. No doubt but he did his own work perfectly M. 4. Do you not believe that it is his Prerogative to institute Sacraments of the covenant of Grace L. Yes no doubt for our Church holdeth that there are but two and disowneth the five Roman Sacraments And yet I think most of them may be called Sacraments especially Ordination and Matrimony and so may the Kings Coronation but not Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace M. Let us now enquire 1. What a Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace is 2. Whether our crossing be not such I. The Romans used the word Sacraments for an external obliging covenanting ceremony especially for the Act of soldiers ceremony by binding themselves to military relation and fidelity to their captains A Sacrament of the covenant of grace is an outward visible Act or ceremony by which we oblige our selves in covenant to Christ as our Saviour promising fidelity and by which we are told by Christs ministers that his Grace is signified which is given by his Covenant The Catechism indeed saith It is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof But it 's obvious to any man of reason that the words Ordained by Christ himself signifie not a Sacrament as such but as Divine distinct from humane Else it were impossible for man to be guilty of making false humane Sacraments If they should make more just such as Baptism and the Lords Supper they would be no sinful Sacraments if none be Sacraments but Christs If there be all these things there is a Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace falsely instituted by man. 1. If there be an outward visible sign 2. If both the purchased and conveyed Grace of the Covenant of Christ be signified by it 3. And so signified as to be an instituted means of conveying it 4. If it be a sign obliging the covenanting person to his Covenant duty 5. And if thus it be a symbol or badge of the Order professed I. The outward visible sign is crossing or the transient Image of a Cross made by one that acteth as a Minister of Christ by his pretended Commission and received in his forehead by the baptized II. The thing signified is both the work of Redemption purchasing grace and grace given by that purchase Both these are fully expressed Can. 30. The holy Ghost by the mouthes of the Apostle did honour the name of the Cross so far that under it he comprehended not only Christ crucified but the force effect and merits of his death and passion with all the comforts fruits and promises which we receive or expect thereby The Church of England hath retained still the sign of it in baptism following therein the Primitive and Apostolical Churches and accounting it a lawful outward ceremony and honourable badge whereby the Infant is dedicated to the Service of him that dyed on the Cross as by the words of the Common-Prayer book may appear which words are we receive this Child into the Congregation of Christ's Flock and do sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the devil and to continue Christ's faithful Souldier and Servant to his lifes end Amen And in the Preface of Ceremonies They serve to a decent order and godly discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and spiritual signification whereby he may be edified So that the thing signified is Christ crucified with the benefits of his Cross and the Grace of edification by stirring up our dull minds by the moral causality of the cause and binding us to constancy to Christ. L. But moral causing by objects works not on Infants M. True no more doth washing in water and yet this is used for the benefit of the Parents at present and of Infants when they are at the use of reason Indeed Christ by his own Sacrament giveth Right and Relative grace which he will not do by mens inventions III. But man plainly appointeth the Cross to work this grace by way of exciting signification IV. And it is expresly made man's covenanting sign by which he bindeth himself to covenant fidelity that he will not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight c. The whole duty of the covenant on man's part is promised hereby V. And the
Offices as a Body of many Members or a Chain of many Links as we say Bonum est ex Causis integris And he that wounds any one Member wounds the Man and he that breaketh one Link breaketh the Chain And he that accuseth any one part of the Government accuseth the Government thereby And there is no doubt in the World but they so intended that made this Canon L. And what have you against your Obedience to this M. You may easily know what by what is already said 1. I have fully proved as aforesaid in my Treatise of Episcopacy that if Episcopacy were never so certainly of Divine Institution this Form of Diocesan Prelacy deposeth quantum in se the old Church Form the old Episcopacy the old Presbytery and almost all true Discipline and in stead of each sets up that which is repugnant to the Word of God. And must we all confederate to maintain this Church Corruption and all agree to renounce Reformation or any Conviction tending to Repentance 2. I have told you what it is for Lay-men and Courts to arrogate the Decretive Power of the Church Keys and for single Priests and Officials to rule all the Clergy and People as under them And for our Prelate to undertake to be the sole Bishop over many Hundred Clergy And then to Govern per alios in a secular manner even by Lay-men that do that in his Name which he knows not of and this in order to Gaols and Ruine If all this be agreeable to God's Word what is contrary to it 3. I have told you what it is to make every Church Officer so necessary as that it should be Excommunication to say Any one of them is sinful when as Learned good Men as most the World hath have written to prove almost all of them sinful corrupt Inventions of Arrogance and that it 's far worse for Men to presume to make new Forms and Offices of Church Government than new Ceremonies 4. The Parliament of England condemned the Oath called the caetera Oath in the Canon of 1640. And the late long Parliament of 1662. never restored it nor any since And was it not formed according to this Canon What 's c. but And the rest that bear Office therein reliquos ad ejusdem gubernaculum constitutos For my part tho' I have oft read over Cousins Tables and the Canons I do not yet know and remember all the Church Governing Courts and Offices How many there be besides the Bishop the Chancellors Court the Arches the Prerogative Court the Arch-deacons Commissaries Officials Surrogates I know not And are every one of these become as necessary to be taken for lawful as the twelve Apostles or the Articles of our Creed For my part I am far from thinking that those Bishops and Doctors should be Excommunicated or Damned who by Faction are drawn to deny the Ministry and Churches that have not Prelatical Ordination and Government and shall all be condemned that think as ill of Civilians Excommunicatings 5. I have told you what it is for every Lord Knight and Gentleman that doth but say that any of these Church Governing Offices are against the Word of God to be ipso facto an Excommunicate man. And for the people to be put to question whether they may chuse them for Parliament men and whether they may sit in Parliament while Excommunicate L. This Canon with the three or four adjoining make me begin to think hardlier of the Canoneers than I thought I should ever have done as to their honesty M. I would not have you think too hardly of them but only to think truly of Nonconformity Chap. XXVII Point XXIV Of Publishing the 8th Canons Excommunications L. VVHat is the Eighth Canon and its Excommunication M. Whoever shall hereafter affirm or teach that the Form and Manner of Making and Consecrating Bishops Priests or Deacons containeth ANY THING in it that is repugnant to the Word of God Let them be Excommunicated ipso facto and not to be restored until he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked Errors L. What have you against the Execution of this M. A great deal In sum it is unrighteous oppressing and dividing to cast out all Persons from the Church of Christ who think that nothing is faulty in the Book of Ordination or in their Principles or Practice there expressed And we dare not curse those that Christ doth bless should we do this for a Benefice in what should we differ from the sin of Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousness whose iniquity and madness his Ass rebuked saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 2. 15. Yea shall we not be far worse than he that for an House full of Silver and Gold could not go beyond the Word of the Lord and did not curse but bless Gods people And it is not proud malignant Tongues reviling Gods Servants and calling their Opinions wicked Errors that will make Christ disown his Members or will warrant Balaam or us to curse them O how unlike is this to the Spirit and Ministry of Christ for Prelates and Priests to curse and cast out the Children of God for saying that they go against his Law. L. But what is amiss in the Book of Ordination M. I am anon to tell you that But if there were nothing amiss in it yet the belief of its innocency is not necessary to Salvation L. But if every man have leave to accuse the Orders of the Church what Order can be maintained M. 1. Leave modestly to express dissent in a doubtful case may stand with Order 2. If men do it disorderly there be other Penalties besides ipso facto Excommunication Every breach of the peace is not Rebellion nor punisht with Death But I 'll tell you briefly what may occasion good men to say that their Ordinations are sinful 1. In that they thereby obtrude Pastors on the Churches upon the bare choice of a Patron without or against the peoples wills 2. In that they professedly ordain such as their Canon forbids to Preach or Expound any Doctrine 3. In that they determine that Bishops Priests and Deacons are three distinct Orders which yet is an undetermined Controversie among even the Learnedst Papists And must we damn and cut off men for that which the very Papists leave at liberty 4. In that they ordain men to an Office which Scripture maketh no mention of Dr. Hammond saith that it cannot be proved that there were any Presbyters subject to Bishops in Scripture times nor any but Bishops None that had not power of Ordination and the Keys nor any Bishops of a multitude of Churches and Presbyters both which are here ordained 5. In that they Swear Obedience to Arch-bishops and their Sees and make Priests Covenant Obedience to their Ordinaries as aforesaid If a godly man do as Bucer did to King Edward the Sixth as you may see in his Scripta Anglic. and desire some of these faults to be amended doth he deserve
Atheistical L. You lay heavy Charges on the Parliament and Bishops that have silenced you you are best take heed what you say M. No honest heed will secure a man in this Age of malignity and perjury But you mistake me I meddle not with the Parliament Laws or Bishops much less with the King I leave all men to their righteous Judge who is at the door To his Judgment they stand or fall I only tell you what I think it would be in us that are Vowed to the sacred Ministry if we desert our Office and Work for Man's Prohibition L. But all these People that you talk of may find room in other Parish Churches Many Churches in London are half empty or have room enough M. Do you not know that the London Churches were burnt down 1666 and to this day it 's but few of them that are built again but Ministers preach in small inconvenient Tabernacles And those that are built the Seats are commonly all taken up long ago and lock'd up I heard the last Week an Eminent Esquire say that he offer'd Five Pound for a Seat and could have none and he was not able to stand so long with the Lads in the Alley People will not let Strangers into their Seats when they are Crowded with the Owners I come into no Church that hath a competent sober Preacher that is not full Alleys and Seats And I pray you if ten Thousand out of Stepney or Martins or Giles would go about the City to seek for Church-room 1. How shall they know before hand in what Churches to find it 2. When they miss it in three or four the time will be over before they find it in a fifth 3. Few but strong men are able to stand so long in the Alleys without Seats 4. And this supposeth them to be honest thirsty Souls that have least need whereas the worser sort that have no such appetite are the Multitude who will stay at home if they have not convenience near them 5. And the most willing People will hardly travel far to hear a man rail at them and slander them as some do L. But what great supply of this defect do your Meetings make Are not most of them in the Parishes where there is room And are not most of your hearers such as you think have least need M. 1. As many Meetings are held in the Greater Parishes as will be endured and more would be could they be suffered at any possible rate 2. Those that dwell in the greater Parishes can go further into the less when they know before-hand that they have there room and hired Seats The Meetings that have been kept up in the City Parishes were as much for others as for the Parishioners and were there continued because there was till of late the least disturbance and gentlest prosecution 3. Those that have least need yet have so great need as is more regardable than any bodily want Souls and Heaven are precious and all Men have Sins and Weaknesses and Temptations and all helps possible are little enough to secure our Salvation 4. When godly Persons are at our Assemblies they take not up that room in the Parish-Churches which others would have and so exclude not others L. But after all your Meetings there are still as many thousands as you talk of that go to no Church M. We are unwilling to be found any Cause of that The more need there is the greater is our guilt if we neglect what we can do for the supply L. But what 's this to the common Case of Country Parishes M. For my part I would have no silenced Minister preach where there is not evident need But the Country alas is not without need 1. Some Parishes are so great that part of the Inhabitants have more miles to come to Church than the Aged Women Weak and Children can Travel 2. Too many have such Teachers as the people dare not take for their Pastors any more than an Ignorant Quack for their Physician or one for their Schoolmaster that cannot read 3. Some had able Learned Pastors turned out and they cannot prove that their relation to them as such is dissolved 4. Some by the ruining Prosecutions of the Clergy and Bishops Counsils are cast into an over-great aversness to them and will not take such for their Pastors as they think have the Teeth and Claws of Wolves And will not travel far to seek Figs and Grapes on Thorns and Thistles And if these err and be to be blamed they are not therefore to be forsaken any more than our Children if they cannot eat Cheese are to be famished and denied all other food But I must refer you to a full Treatise which I have written to justifie our Preaching called An Apology for it At least I pray you Study these Texts of Scripture Mat. 5. 13 14 15 16. and 28. 19 20. Fph. 4. 10 to 17. 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. Mat. 24. 45 46 47 48. Act. 4. 19 and 5. 28. 1 Cor. 9. 14 16. Act. 4. 29. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. 1 Tim. 6. 13 14. 2 Tim. 1. 8 11 12 13. Tit. 2. 15. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. 2 Tim. 2. 2 24 25. Eph. 6. 19 20. Mat. 10. 7 8. 16 17 c. and 9. 38. Luk. 9. 62. and 10. 2. L. But why may you not keep away five miles from Corporations and places where you have Preached M. Did you not say even now That small Countrey Parishes have no need of us One Man may serve for two Hundred or a Thousand better than for many Thousands 2. The Reasons of our Preaching is Men's real need and the Churches good Therefore we are most obliged caeteris paribus where there is most need and most probability of doing good 3. Christ bids us When they persecute you in one City fly to another And the Apostles first planted their Churches in Cities If you know the Reasons of these you know our Reasons To conclude whose Service is it think you to perswade 2000 such Ministers to give over their Preaching and Ministry whose interest requireth it Did Christ or his Apostles ever do or perswade such a thing But the way to bring us all to Popery is to disable its chief Adversaries and to obliterate all Religion first that Ignorance and Unconscionableness may be receptive of a new Form. You must take your Church-Bells and break and melt them if you will cast them anew to bring them to a new sound and use Chap. XLIV Of Lay Conformity Point I. Whether all Men must trust their Souls only on the Pastoral Care of such as our Patrons choose and Bishops institute L. I Thought you would have objected only against Forms and Gestures and you talk of Matters that affright one at the very stating of the Case But how are all Lay-men thus obliged M. I have before cited the express words of the Canon They must be presented and prosecuted
for Church Communion and may be forced to it No nor any that do not desire Christ Grace and Glory before all the Baits of sin 2. Did you think I had pleaded that Men may without punishment do what they list and live in wickedness It 's one thing to restrain them from sin and another to constrain them to sin under the name of Religion 3. Nor did I speak against constraining Atheists and Infidels and Malignant Enemies to hear the Gospel 4. But your force cannot constrain them to believe And 5. You ought not constrain them to Lie and say they believe 6. And you ought not prophanely to Lie in Christ's Name by telling an unwilling Communicant that all his sins are pardoned and that you Seal it to him Do as much good by force as you can but do no mischief L. But hath not the King more power over your Family than you have Sure the highest power is the greatest and containeth all the lower in it The last words are a great mistake Political Power doth not contain Natural Personal and Oeconomical and Ecclesiastical in it but supposeth them all unalterable and pre-existent and only useth them to Political ends that is the safety and good of the Common-wealth And as far as this end requireth the King hath more power of my Wife Children Estate Life than I have That is He may see that I use my Personal and Family Government so as may not hurt the Commonâ—wealth and do more harm than good But that Politick Power doth neither contain nor abrogate the other is evident 1. The King doth not eat and drink for me nor digest my Meat nor rejoice or grieve for me 2. The King doth not sin by my sinning nor shall be judged saved or damned for me 3. The King may not chuse my Wife Diet c. As aforesaid Nor hath he right to lye with your Wife as you have nor to dispose of your Children or Propriety 4. The King that ruleth Priests may not do what the Priest doth administer Sacraments use the Church Keys c. So that all that he can do is to over-rule Personal Family and Church Governors to the common good without destroying them L. It is for the Common good that all be forced to Communion M. Yes if you can first force them to Faith and Holiness else it is for the common Church-confusion Corruption and Mens deceit and damnation and not the common good Chap. XLVI Point III. Of forcing Men to Schism by renouncing Communion with true Churches and Members of Christ. M. III. THe Third unlawful part of Lay-Conformity is that they must be forced from Local Communion with all the Nonconformists that Assemble any where save in the Parish-Churches or Chappels and so under pretence of driving them from Schism they are driven into notorious Schism L. How prove you that it 's their Duty to have any such Communion with Nonconformists Conventicles If you are Scismaticks it 's a Sin to Communicate with you M. 1. I prove Communion with us a Duty Tho' it be not every Man's Duty to be Locally present with us it is every Man's Duty not to avoid it as an unlawful thing but to be willing of it as he hath occasion 2. It is a Duty for all Christians to own Communion with all true Members of the Body of Christ. But Nonconformists and their Assemblies for Worship are true Members of the Body of Christ. Ergo The major is most fully proved by Christ Ioh. 17. 24. and Paul 1 Cor. 12. throughout and Eph. 4. 1 2 3 to the 17. and Rom. 14. and 15. and many other Scriptures The minor I prove All those are true Members of the Body of Christ who have all the Essentials necessary to the Constitution of such Members But so have the Nonconformists and their Church Assemblies as afore described Ergo. The major none but the ignorant of Logick will deny As to the minor They that have true Christian Faith Hope and Love have all that is Essential to personal Members And the Churches that have Pastors and People communicating in that Faith Hope and Love in Doctrine Worship Sacraments and tolerable Discipline are true Churches parts of the Universal Church But such are many Persons and Churches of Nonconformists Ergo. The major all sound and knowing Christians grant For the minor no proof is necessary but our Profession till it be disproved And let the Accusers of the Brethren as they love themselves take this warning before they undertake to disprove it Do it by no Argument that will ten times more condemn your selves and your Church than such Nonconformists 2. The second Argument is this It is a Sin of Schism to refuse Communion with those that Christ receiveth so we own not any of their sin Rom. 15. 6. c. But Christ receiveth into his Communion the foresaid Nonconformists and their Worshipping Assemblies Proved as before 3. It is a Sin to deny the lawfulness of Communion with Christians and their Assemblies for lesser faults than those Persons and Assemblies had whose Communion Christ and his Apostles were for But so must they that will deny the lawfulness of Communion with the said Nonconformists and their Assemblies The major none will deny that take Christ and his Apostles for their Teachers The minor is easily proved The Church of the Jews had Priests unlawfully introduced and corrupt Teachers and Worship and yet Christ disowned not Communion with them in Synagogues and Temple and Houses save only that he Conformed not to their sinful Traditions and Corruptions The Church of the Corinthians had men guilty of Schism and Faction and quarrelling with the Apostle wronging each other sinful Law Suits Scandalous Persons denying the Resurrection grosly abusing the Sacrament and Communion c. The Churches of Galatia Ephesus Smyrna Thyatira Sardis c. had such faults as I need not tell you of Yet no Man is bid or allowed to disown Communion with them You can truly prove no such by those in question Arg. 3. Ad hominem It is lawful to communicate with the Churches of England that have more Faults than the Nonconformists Ergo it is lawful to communicate with them that have fewer We challenge any to prove so many and such Faults by us as I have here before proved by your Church And if for ours Separation from us be a Duty from yours it proves a Duty much more Arg. 4. It is a Schismatical Doctrine which would teach Men by parity of Reason to renounce communion with all Churches and Christians on Earth or near all But such is that which would teach Men to renounce communion with all the Nonconformists and their Worshipping Assemblies The major is unquestionable The minor is proved In that all or near all the Christians on Earth have as great Faults as the Nonconformists and their Assemblieâ— O that God would so bless the World as to make all the Churches of the Armenians Abassians Syrians
That 's his act and not theirs and they cannot hinder him They send their Children to be Baptized and not to be Cross'd M. But we have many Antipadobaptists and converted Iews to be Baptized at Age. 2. And tho' I am much of your mind in this yet all wiser Men are not and the case is very difficult as to Infants If one knew beforehand that the Priest would use Oil and Spittle and Exorcism and invocate Saints and Angels over the baptized Child it were hard to say I send him only to be Baptized when he knew how sinfully it will be done The truth is I can justifie no Man that will submit his Child to such a crossing at Baptism that can caeteris paribus have it by another better done tho' Prohibited by Man We must not be guilty of other Mens Sins nor of Church Corruptions L. Christ that will have mercy and not sacrifice would not have men refuse Christendom for fear of a Cross. M. Christ who would have Teachers learn that Lesson I will have mercy and not sacrifice would have no Minister deny Christendom to such as think their crossing sinful And yet he would have no Man commit any Sin to gain Baptism but will save the unbaptized that desired it so they might have had it without and will himself shew Mercy to such as consent not to a polluted Sacrifice And would have us prefer a lawful way when we can have it Baptism is our Renunciation of Sin. CHAP. LI. POINT VIII Of Rejecting not-Kneelers from Communion L. AND well they deserve it that will not reverently receive so great a Gift upon their knees from God. M. Do you think it is for want of humble Reverence Do they not kneel after and longer to God in Prayers publickly and in their Families and Chambers than most that blame them Were Christ's Apostles unreverent that did not kneel at receiving it in his own visible presence Was all the universal Church unreverent that for 600 Years if not 1000 after Christ forbad strictly all Adoration by kneeling every Lords Day because they would use a Laudatory Gesture denoting their belief of Christs Resurrection Do those men shew more Reverence to God and Religion that will kneel at the Altar and scarce ever kneel to God at home and seldom use his Name but with prophanation It is not unreverence that causes their dissent L. I know no just cause they have of this dissent M. I confess nor I while the open Doctrine of the Church renounceth all Bread-worship and Idolatry But were it among Papists where the Doctrine expounds the action I durst not do it But I told you before what moveth them which I must not again repeat But I will repeat it that it is a heinous injury to the Church and the particular Persons that on the account of so small and doubtful a circumstance wherein all antiquity is against the imposers they should deny Communion with Christ and his Church as much as in them lieth to faithful Christians and should turn the Sacrament of Love for no just cause into an occasion of hatred and persecution and the Sacrament of Unity into an Engine of division by their own needless impositions to perplex mens Consciences and set people one against another O what a snare and instrument of wrath and discord and inhumane usage of other men do many turn that blessed Sacrament into which is instituted for the Communion of Saints in unfeigned Love. The more such magnify the Sacrament as the very Flesh and Blood of Christ the more do they condemn themselves CHAP. LII POINT IX Of denying Lay-men Communion in a Neighbour Parish Church when they dare not Communicate in their own Parish for the Reasons aforesaid M. IX DO you think it is a sin deserving exclusion from Christian Communion for a man to think it unlawful for him to own and encourage the Ministry of an ignorant insufficient or grosly scandalous or hurtful Teacher A poor Christian that is unwilling to be damned and readeth that he should love his Neighbour as himself perhaps heareth the Priest tell the People what hypocrites and odious persons Non-conformists are and exhorts them to avoid such and to prosecute them and root them out as the intolerable enemies of Church and State and as unfit to be Members of any Society He is acquainted with divers Non-conformists their Lives and their Books and Doctrines and finds the clean contrary He reads in Scripture See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently He heareth from the Pulpit See that ye hate one another and seek the destruction of one another Christ saith Love your enemies the Priest exhorts them to root out their friends Christ saith He that receiveth you receiveth me and shake off the dust of your Feet against them that receive you not It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for such the Priest saith He that receiveth such Ministers sinneth against Christ and he that hath any communion with them is a Schismatick The man readeth Beware of false Prophets and thinks it a sin to encourage the teachers of lies and wickedness and he readeth He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and hath not eternal Life and if I have not charity I am but as sounding Brass c. He thinks him a false teacher that contradicteth Christ and that seeks to damn the hearers And he thinks that no tongue can more contradict Christ than that which Preacheth down Love and Preacheth for hating godly Men tho' on slanderous pretences and that no man can do more to damn the People than he that draweth them from love to such hatred Another liveth in a Parish where a dry ignorant fellow affords him no such help as he is conscious his soul needeth and where the Common-Prayer is so much better than the Sermon that were it not for that he might better stay at home And where the Priests Conversation encourageth the Drunkards and Prophane and vilifieth godly Men. This man is for the Church-way but for a better Minister The question is whether for this he be so great a sinner that all neighbouring Ministers must drive him away and deny him Communion Another honest Christian taketh it for a sin to kneel at the Railes or to join with the Organs or to receive or desire the Diocesan manner of Confirmation or to forbear Communion with all Christians whom the Church-men here condemn or cast out The question is whether it be no wrong to any of these to be denied Communion at a neighbour Parish where his doubts are removed I prove that he hath right to such neighbour Communion 1. Because he is a Member of Christs Body the Catholick Church and therefore hath right to the Communion of Saints And to believe that in the Creed and condemn it in Practice is to believe to condemnation 2. They themselves teach that a true Christian hath right to Communion with all Churches where he hath
also many general and collateral and circumstantial considerations that make men fear the guilt of Conformity the more L. What are those I believe you will find as many of that sort of reasons on the other side to move you to Conform if you consider them M. I will tell you what I mean and then I will hear all that you have to say for it I. We are all agreed that no sin must be done for any commodity or on any pretence of good II. We are agreed that to pretend Gods Service or Name for our sin is a heinous aggravation To say I must do evil to please God to Preach and to win souls is Prophaneness and Hypocrisy III. We are agreed that it is worse in a Minister of Christ than in others because he is bound to be an example to the flock who are apt to imitate him IV. It is granted that God is jealous about his worship and that the profaning of Holy things and sinning openly in the Sacred Assemblies is caecris paribus worse than meer miscarriages in our Conversation V. Lying is by most acknowledged a great sin as overthrowing humane credit and converse But especially in a Preacher because it will tempt men never to believe him And to say that we assent and consent and that ex animo when we do not is heinous lying VI. It is granted that man hath not a despotical power of his own understanding to believe what he will And that if any of his errours be vicious vice and errour must have better cure than meer commands And if men could know and believe what they will they should will to believe nothing but what hath credible evidence without a carnal biass VII It is agreed that all men have errour and therefore that erring men or no men must be tolerated in our Communion and he that thinks otherwise condemneth himself and teacheth all men to condemn him VIII It is granted that it is a very low degree of knowledge that the universality of vulgar Christians do attain who hardly learn the common Catechism much less can it be expected that they should all be able to understand all indifferent things to be indifferent and to be judges of the minutissima IX If any errours be tolerable it 's like to be the errours about things indifferent and small X. St. Paul hath expresly determined the Controversy about loving and receiving such Rom. 14. 15. XI To encourage by compliance a generation and design of men that overthrow Christ's and his Apostles rule of Communion and by invented impositions of their own would make Church-Concord impossible and would propagate this way of certain Schism and stablish it in the World is to confederate for tearing the Church of Christ and making Schism common and uncureable XII It is granted that he that after his greatest study is perswaded that unnecessary Oaths Subscriptions Covenants Ceremonies are sinful is condemned if he go against his Conscience tho' he should mistake XIII Those therefore that make such snares for Souls and then tell us If you go against your Consciences you are damned for that and if you do not you are damned as Schismaticks for disobeying us are far unlike the Ministers of Christ or Men that help to save our Souls XIV We Non-Conformists offer cur solemn Oaths that we have by Prayer and earnest search and study laboured to know the truth herein And as our worldly interest would perswade us to conform so we would readily do it did we not believe that it is sin against God Yea we take it as to us to be no small but heinous sin by the aggravations which I am mentioning XV. Seeing then the way of our Condemners is either to cast all Christians out of the Church that have not a greater degree of Knowledge herein than I have and all men of my Rank or else to bring all men implicitly to believe all to be lawful that is commanded them we cannot consent to either of these two Measures for the Church XVI It is agreed that Perjury is so heinous a Sin as that few are greater It so taketh God's Name in vain as to engage his Justice in a special Revenge It depriveth Kings of due Security for their Lives and Crowns by the Oath of Fidelity It destroyeth all Trust and consequently all Commerce among Men as well as all Hope of publick Justice It exposeth the Estates and Lives of all men to the will of Perjur'd men so that he that dare be perjur'd may be supposed liable to any other Wickedness how great soever Therefore if we Ministers should be perjured we should make our selves utterly unmeet for our Office. XVII It is agreed that to sin deliberately by a Covenant under our Hands is one of the most heinous sorts of sinning and if it be done knowingly sheweth the person to be a wilful Servant of sin To sin by the sudden surprize of a Passion is too bad but to study it resolve it and covenant it is most dangerous To engage a Mans self by Covenant to be once a Month drunk or steal or commit Fornication is far worse than the bare Act. XVIII It is granted that Repentance is the condition of Forgiveness and for a man to swear or covenant that he will never repent or endeavour to amend or alter any thing that is amiss is to renounce Forgiveness XIX It is granted that publick common national Sins are far worse than private and personal in few and if heinous they are Prognosticks of the sorest Judgments and to promote them is to be the Enemy of the Land. XX. It is granted that if that prove Perjury which some Dissenters fear is such and the Kingdom should be stigmatized by it there could scarce be any greater Shame and Danger befall the Land to make it odious to GOD and Men and Recorded as such to all Generations As I said The Oaths and Covenants to endeavour no Alteration in Church Government is imposed on all Corporations all Souldiers in the Militia all Vesteries all Non-conformist Ministers that will take it and all Ministers as to covenant in the Act of Uniformity And he that without accusing others only studieth to be innocent of so mortal a feared Guilt sure is therein excusable if the fear of God and the love of our Souls and of the Church and State be not an unexcusable Crime Apply this no farther than I apply it XXI There is so much written for a foreign Iurisdiction over England in Church Affairs by Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell Bishop Gunning 's Chaplain and many others whose Words I am ready to produce as may assure us that it is in the same Mens thoughts to introduce it as the only way to Concord and that they therefore desire the Ejection and Ruine of such as we because we are against it And how far and how soon God will let these men prevail we know not But we
you be not for us you are against the King since all are sworn against altering the Church-Government before that of the State. Mr. Martin that lost an arm in the Kings service in the War lay in Gaol at Warwick for preaching when silenced and Mr. Francis Bampfield that was against the Parliament's War lay seven years in Gaol for preaching as a Non-Conformist and died in New-gate Non-Conformists that have been and are most for the King do suffer as much as others 3. Read my second Plea for Peace in which I declare our political Principles and tell us what you there dislike L. Obj. VII But why do you refuse to renounce all the Obligation of the Covenant if you are not disloyal M. If you reduce your objection to an argument it must run thus All those are disloyal to the King who think that this vow binds them to be against Prophaneness Popery or Schism or to endeavour any amending or alteration of the prelatical way of Church-Government But c. I deny the Major Is he an honourer of the King that dare affirm this We are ready to renounce all Obligation from that or any other Covenant to any disloyalty what ever L. Obj. VIII They say that your Preaching is unnecessary there being Ministers enough without you and therefore that you Praech but to keep up a party and your own Reputation and Interest in them M. And I think that Priest fitter for tears than for disputes that so little knoweth England or the work of the Office they undertake If I know the Church that hath such a Pastor I shall be past doubt that they have need of help I would as soon believe him if he undertook to build a Castle alone and said he had no need of help or that forty thousand of the poor of London have no need of relief and that it is rebellion to relieve them as that the forementioned two hundred thousand have no need of teaching or Ministerial help for their souls L. Obj. IX There are some that have written that it is Pride and Covetousness that makes you Non-Conformists to seem godly and to get livings for your Sons M. Satan is so impudent a disputant that I am aweary of answering him tho' in self-defence If it be pride to be scorn'd and toss'd about as Rogues why will these humble Lord Bishops and Masters so be-rogue us to make us proud Men use to take down that which feeds their enemies pride I pray get them to restore us from poverty and prisons and scorns and slanders to take down our pride And for covetousness get them one year to take our turns to have all their Goods and Books taken away on the penalty of 40 l. for every Sermon and that to be levied on their hearers which they cannot pay and in this case to ly in Gaol and tell us when they have tried it whether it gratified their covetousness As to mens Charity to our selves or Sons 1. I have said heretofore that the 2000 that were ejected were fit for Bedlam if they would go out and suffer that so forty Mens Sons that conform against their Fathers wills might get benefices 2. They will take it for a disgrace to their Church if we should not grant that the Lords Knights Rich Men and Patrons are far more of their Church than of Dissenters and therefore liker to preferr Conformists Sons than others And a Living for the Father another for the Son is more than a possibility for one But brazen-faced impudence cannot be confuted L. Obj. X. They say you are meer Hypocrites that have learnt a shew of Holiness and Iustice but have false proud self-conceited rebellious Hearts M. And truly we cannot confute them any otherwise than by an appeal to the Judge of Hearts We cannot shew them our Hearts And if they say that they see and know them let Men believe them as they see cause They did not craftily so much to praise our out-side for those that take them not for Gods will hardly believe that they see any deeper But as far as I understand their meaning is That no man on earth is truly honest and godly and therefore all are Hypocrites that profess it And so they confess themselves Hypocrites in professing Christianity if Professing be the mark of Hypocrites L. Obj. XI They say that you are Rebels and Schismaticks against the Church and that 's as bad as Murder or Adultery and so you are more vicious than they M. It 's well they made their Chancellours Officials Commissaries c. the Church first I confess I am not unapt to believe that they take it for worse than Adultery Murder Persecution or Perjury to cross their wills and worldly interest And if calling themselves the Church would make any needy or ambitious pack of men the masters of all mens consciences and persons and estates I should not wonder if more than Papists and Prelatists strove to be called The Church L. Obj. XII But they say all antiquity condemneth Schism and you are they that will not suffer the Church to have Vnity and Peace in disobeying the Bishops and Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and disobedience as Idolatery M. The sence of this last Clause is God calls it like Witchcraft and Idolatry to Obey Him and Rebel against His Laws Ergo it is like Witchcraft and Idolatry not to Rebel and Disobey Him if Bishops command us Prove the consequence 2. Do not Papists call them Schismaticks and Hereticks too as long and as loud as they call us so And will this prove them such indeed We appeal to the common reason of mankind whether they that make a multitude of sinful Canons to persecute Christs Church and Servants and add to his Laws an hundred forty one of their own with inhumane penalties casting out those that obey them not be not rather Schismaticks than they that say We will hold Concord in all that Christ commandeth or his Apostles practised but we dare not obey you against God. Read my Search for the Schismaticks and The English Schismatick Detected and Confuted and then blame the Schismatick and spare not L. Obj. XIII But they say that it is but a company of self-conceited bad rebellious People that befriend or fellow you and the sober People are for them M. These things are unfit matter for a controversy with any English-Men of this age but only with Foreigners and Strangers I thought once it would never have been so hard to know good Men from bad as these would make it But I remember how bad Christ and his Apostles were thought by their persecutors Wherein doth such mens badness lie In not coming to their Churches Thousands do and the rest go to other Churches But thousands of our adversaries go to none but very rarely Is it in any other Vice Why do they then charge them with avoiding Vice in Hypocrisie And what is that Vice Here are some say many hundreds that
many worthy men such as Mr. Gurnal and others known to us were drawn in by having leave to declare that they took the impositions in such a sence as they thought Lawful as the Arians at the Council of Seleuciâ— and the Acacians drew many in to them by giving them all leave to subscribe in their own sence And though I can justifie none of this yet what ever their words were and though they were not faultless their hearts abhorred Perjury But I pray you ask your friend these Questions 1. Did none that are for separation from the Church of England take the Corporation-Oath and Declaration You know that many of them did 2. Do they ever since avoid Communion with all those men You know they do not And yet none of the Ministers Subscriptions to me seem half so frightful as the Corporation Declaration Do they not then here shew Partiality and themselves justify our Communion with the Conformists Yea when Mr. Eaton and some other Independants wrote against the obligation of the Covenant and of the Oath of Allegiance and many called the Covenant an Almanack out of date did the rest avoid communion with these L. But briefly tell me why you Communicate in the Parish Churches M. Briefly 1. Because Christ hath Commanded us to live in the utmost Love Union and Concord with all his Church on Earth that we possibly can 2. Because they hold all the essentials of Christianity which constituteth them Members of Christ's Church and no errour that nullifieth their Christianity or maketh their Communion unlawful to me 3. Because my own edification hath required it I have long lived where I could have no better Communion and after I found Communion with both sorts most profitable to me I found the Liturgy in the main fit for my serious desires and praises to God and the Preachers that I heard were profitable Preachers and if some words were amiss I past them by and the very Concord and Presence of Christians though faulty is pleasant to me 4. I lived where and when these Parish Churches were slandered by mistakes to be such whose Communion was unlawful and my constant avoiding them would have made me seem a consenter to the slanders and so to be guilty of scandal 5. I lived in a time and place where the Rulers and Laws Commanded Parish Communion and to forbear it against such commands and penalties seemeth plainly to tell the world that I hold it unlawful which is an untruth 6. I had seen whither this extream of separation had brought this Nation formerly and of late and what a hopeful Reformation it shamed and destroyed and that by such Rebellious and mad actions as made them and accidentally others the scorn and hatred of the World and have occasioned all our sufferings 7. I lived where men that I thought guilty of our sinful persecution and the danger of the land did discern the mistake of them that overcharged the Liturgy and Parish Communion and thereupon took them for a proud Fanatick sort of People worthy of all that doth befal them and think they do God service in ruining us all as if we were such And I durst not thus scandalize and harden men in grievous persecutions 8. I was loth to misguide others by my example and I doubted not but when necessity drove them to it many would see cause to Communicate with the Parish Churches And I was willing that they should sooner see these Reasons and not seem to do it only to save themselves 9. I had read the writings of those excellent men of God against Brownists or Separation heretofore who then were the Non-Conformists that did suffer so much for Reformation He that will read what is written by Mr. Iohn Paget Mr. William Bradshaw Mr. Gifford Mr. Hildersham Mr. Brightman Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Rathband Dr. Ames First and Second Manuduction c. and lately Mr. Iohn Tombes the Pillar of the Anabaptists and for hearing by Mr. Philip Nye may see enough for just satisfaction especially in Mr. Ball 's Trial of Separation And though the case of Conformity be since made much harder to the Ministers to the Laity the change is not so great as herein alters the case of Lawfulness or Duty 10. I found that St. Paul charged the Church of Corinth as having among them men Carnal guilty of Schism slandering the Apostles guilty of sinful Law-Suits and defrauding each other bearing with incest disordered profane and drunk at Sacramental Communions some decryed the Resurrection c. The Galatians seem more to be accused than they as depraving the Christian Doctrine The Colossians faulty almost all the Seven Churches of Asia charged with grievous corruption And yet in all these no man is commanded to separate from any one of these Churches nor blamed for not doing it 11. And which is most of all I find that Christ himself who was certainly sinless held open Communion with the Iewish Church in Synagogues and Temples and Commanded the people their duty even to the falsly obtruded Priests and to hear the Pharisees while they delivered Moses's Law though he condemned and separated from their false Doctrine and superstitious traditions and corruptions These are my Reasons for Lay-Parish-Communion L. But you did not answer from such turn away and with such not to Eat c. M. The answer is obvious 1. It is the duty of the Church to cast out wicked impenitent men and this Christ commandeth them but he never bids particular Christians to separate from the Church where some such are because the Church omits its duty For then you should separate from duty from Gods Worship and holy Communion on pretence of separating from sinners 2. But for Family and Private Converse every Christian is judge himself and must refuse all familiarity with scandalous Christians which encourageth them in sin or seemeth to own it God Commandeth no man to do that which is not in his power to put a scandalous impenitent man from the Church is in the Churches power and so that command belongs to them it is not in your power and therefore belongs not to you save to admonish men and tell the Church but to put men from your table and familiarity is in your power and belongs to you Suppose the King write to the City of London to put all Rebels out of their Company and Converse its easie to understand that every one must do it only in his own place Every single man cannot turn such out of the Common-Council The City Rulers must do that and till it be done single men may not deny obedience to the Governours But all may turn them out of their houses shops and familiarity L. But they say it is a receding from our former Reformation and pulling down what we built M. The Separators pull'd it down with a witness but it is no such thing Did the Covenant or our Profession ever bind us to take the Liturgy to be worse than
sin of Pastors omitted the peoples ordinary attendance at Church and desiring the Sacrament is an obscure profession and may serve to the being of a Church tho' not to the well-being L. But some of your Non-conformists will as much blame you for requiring too little to Communion in that you demand not an account of Mens Conversation M. 1. He that truly consenteth to the Covenant of Baptism is Converted or Sanctified and he oweth the Church no account of that consent but his own Profession not nulled by word or deed And if you forsake this rule you will never know what terms to take up with 2. And as to the time or circumstances whether God Sanctified him in Infancy and he grew up in grace or when or how God wrought upon him he oweth no account to others L. 3. In your third Article again the chief exception will be against this trying men by the Minister for Communion M. I have proved to you the necessity of it ad bene esse And may I not hope that the Bishops will be for it When 1. They order that the Minister catechize and send to the Bishop such as are to be confirmed 2. That he give the Sacrament to none but those that are Confirmed or are ready and willing to be Confirmed And how can they know this without trial 3. When they know that the Bishops are not able to do it for all or the hundredth part themselves Why then should they be against it L. If all the Bishops in England be for it the Parish-Priests will some be unfit for it and few will be at so much labour and self-denial as it will cost them M. If the Bishops put or take in bad untrusty men I cannot help that Let them be encouraged to do well that will. L. But why must they make their profession before others M. Not but that the Pastors word may satisfy the Church but it is much fitter that he that is to have Communion with all should be known to some besides the Minister to be a professed Christian. I should have desired that it might be done as Baptism in the Congregation as best but that of these men we must ask as little as may be L. But many ignorant people have not words to express their own belief or thoughts M. It is not ornamental unnecessary knowledge that must be demanded of them They that want other words may by Yea and Nay make known their mind when the Minister expresseth the matter in his question And the Church requireth that they can answer as catechized L. Some other will say that you are too lax in admitting all confirmed formerly by Bishops or by other Pastors M. If we crave that each Minister may try his Flocks we cannot in modesty refuse those tried and received by the Bishop or other Pastors All Churches should live in such Communion with each other as to receive each others Members on just occasion without trying them all again And if Bishops or any do it superficially that 's their own fault L. Why do you impose the Registring of Communicants M. I impose it not but only commend it as a help to memory He that hath no more Communicants than he can remember needs it not But Bishop Ier. Taylor in his Pref. to Treatise of Repentance saith That a Man cannot take a Pastoral charge or give an account of them that he knoweth not L. 4. Your fourth Article sets Ministers on such work as few can well do and few will ever faithfully do And yet for every young raw Priest to have such power will never be granted by the Bishops or the Laity M. You may as well speak out and say that Christ hath appointed such a Ministerial office as the World will never endure Why then do they call themselves Christians This is the proper work of a Pastor as it is of a Physician to look particularly to the sick and not only to read a Physick Lecture to them If Bishops will put in ignorant lads or unfit men I say again we cannot help it nor must we for that deny the Ministerial office any more than we must put down Preaching and Praying because some are unfit The weight of this work should rather make all careful to get only fit men into the Ministry L. But shall every Priest have power to put men from the Sacrament M. If every Priest must administer it he must judge to whom It is not a common food for all but the Childrens Bread. If every Priest must judge whom to baptize so he must whom to give this Sacrament to 2. The Canons allow this as to the scandalous so we do but present them to the Bishop or Chancellour and it 's less offensive to suspend them without such prosecution If he wrong any they have their remedy L. But why do you mention no more solemn Excommunication but this Declarative one and Suspension M. Because I would ask no more than needs of men that will not grant so much And I know no just Excommunication but a Ministerial declaring according to God's word that a man hath made himself uncapable of Church-Communion and of the benefits of Gods Covenant and binding him over to answer his Impenitence at the barr of God and requiring the Church accordingly to avoid him L. 5. The main charge will be against your fifth Article that cuts off so many Oaths Subscriptions and Professions M. It 's pity that these will not serve the turn whenas they are more than Christ or his Apostles or the Church for 300 years imposed And yet must we have more even as necessary to Ministry Will not the experience of 1300 years yet teach us to forbear tearing the Church by unnecessary snares Yet I deny not but the Ordainers may try the ability of Ministers in more than the words that they must subscribe to And if any will draw up such Articles as none shall Preach against I oppose them not The greater Concord the better But we must not cause perpetual discord by unskilful and impossible terms of Concord L. But for ought I see you will let in Papists if they will but take the Oath of Supremacy and renounce all in general that is contrary to the Scripture and their Profession M. And all Churches will let in Heart-Papists that renounce Popery Who knows the heart But 1. The Oath of Supremacy is a most express abjuring of the Essence of Popery especially as extended against the Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Power of the Pope 2. And is not God's Word a sufficient Rule of Religion Deny this and you will turn Papists to keep out Papists 3. If it be if Popery be against Scripture it 's here renounced If not why should we be against it L. But should they not distinctly renounce Transubstantiation Pâ—rgatory Image-Worship Merit and the rest of their Errours M. There is no end of enumerating Errours They are numerous like Maggots in a Carcase
on Earth bound solemnly to worship the God that made them And do not all the Idolatrous Heathens and the Mahometans offer their God some publick Worship And must not Christians publickly worship Christ Are not holy Assemblies for Doctrine Prayer Praise and Communion Commanded to that end and the Lord's day separated thereto and all forbid to forsake such Assembling Q. 7. Let the Bills of Mortality and the knowing Inhabitants tell you Whether there be not some Hundred Thousands in the great Parishes in and near this City more than can come into their Parish-Churches and hear If they would all but shew their willingness to come in if they could and Twenty Thousand stood at St. Martin's in the Church-Yard and Streets and as many at Stepney and at St. Giles Cripplegate and Ten Thousand at Giles in the Fields and so of the rest and should say We are here desirous to come in and cannot What would you say to them Are they not more miserable that are content to stay at home Q. 8. What would you have all these Thousands do Multitudes of them are hardened already by this seeming necessity into self-excusing and a custom of neglecting all publick Worship And how think you do they spend their time at home Is it not the time for sinful Practices or Idleness at the best And would you have all these Thousands turn Atheists or live more impiously than Mahometans And are not these to pay to the Church that cannot come in it and the Weak that cannot stand and can get no Seats And are not the Church-wardens bound to present all these Thousands that have no Room And shall all these suffer as Recusants while the Rich that can pay for Seats escape If you say they should seek room in other Parish Churches do you know what it is for a man to wander into the City with his Family to seek room he knoweth not where The Tabernacles where Churches stood are small and we see the Church full already where is profitable Preaching and the Seats at least possest and the worse men are the more need they have but the less they feel it and are unlikely to seek help at such a rate who would come in if it were near them Q. 9. Are all these many Thousands that stay at home or worse hunted and prosecuted fined and imprisoned for it as seditious and Enemies to the King or to the Peace as some are that worship God as wisely as they can And do you believe that such a Worship of God as hath nothing in it contrary to the Holy Scripture or contrary to the Practice of the Apostles of Christ is worse than none at all or than meeting at Plays and Taverns and deserveth scorn imprisonment and ruine Q. 10. Suppose it be Ignorance and Errour in such Ministers as take it to be a sin against God yea a heinous sin to take all the Oaths Declarations Subscriptions and Covenants imposed for Conformity while they willingly take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and suppose it be an Errour in those People who think their Souls need better Pastoral Helps than they can have in many Parishes shall this Errour be punished with keeping them from all God's publick Worship unless they will sin against their Consciences or change their Judgments which they cannot change Yea suppose some Communion or Ceremony be indifferent which they mistake for sin will you forbid all men to worship God till they have no Sin or Errour Is there any one such a man on earth Are you such your selves And shall all the World be driven therefore from worshipping God Little do men know how great a part of the daily Thoughts even of Orthodox Learned men are Errours Q. 11. Can there be a more horrid thing in the world than either to condemn or excommunicate all men who dare not do that which after their best search they think to be more heinous Sin than they dare name lest the very naming of it offend and are desirous to have their Reasons heard and to make it necessary to Communion or to their Liberty to worship God that all Men and Women must know even all indifferent things to be indifferent or lawful in God's Worship which men may impose on them Have not all sober Peaceable Divines agreed that things necessary for all to know are few and that Christian Concord can never be expected on any other terms than by agreeing in those few plain necessary things And who knoweth not that indifferent things are numberless as well as small no mortal man knoweth them all And if a poor Christian that feareth the Justice of God do take that Oath that Covenant that Declaration or Subscription yea or that humane Symbolical Badge of Christianity or other Ceremony to be a heinous Sin which others say is a thing indifferent Must all as Atheists be kept from worshipping God till they know all these things to be indifferent Q. 12. Did not the Lord Iesus himself make it his prime Gospel Law That all that profess Repentance and Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost should by Baptism be made visible Christians and all Christians live in Love to one another and Holy Communion and jointly worship God Q. 13. Was it not the Nature of all the Old Heresies to depart from this Universal Christian Love and Unity and that on pretence of some singular Opinion of their own in which they thought they were wiser than others and would have had all to be of their mind and should those that cry down Heresie go the way of Hereticks if they can but get Number and Power to pretend Catholicism Q. 14. Did not the Holy Ghost by St. Paul as plain as the Pen of Man can write determine Rom. 14. and 15. and Eph. 4. 6 7 c. and 1 Cor. 12. that Christians should receive each other into Communion and live in Love and Peace notwithstanding differences about Meats Days and such indifferent things yea or Weaknesses in Faith and Holiness And did not Christ mind the Ceremonious Pharisees That God will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice and that they worshipped God in vain while they preferred their Ceremonies and Traditions to his Word Q. 15. Had it been Reason or Impudency rather in the Pharisees if they had cryed out against Christ and his Apostles for not Conforming to their Traditions You are Schismaticks and disturb the Church's and the Nation 's Peace and cast all into Confusion And was it not Turbulent Arrogancy that made the Iewish Christians so urgent with all the Gentiles to be Circumcised when they were left to their own Ceremonies and no body medled with them or hindred them If men love that Diet let them use it But must none live that cannot love the same Q. 16. Will you give men leave to open all the real Faults they can find in the Diocesan or Parish Churches And if they prove far more than they can prove in