allowed by the Magistrate Again Thes 263 saith he If Magistrates forbid Ministers to preach or exercise the rest of their Office in their Dominions they are to be obeyed For which he instances in David Solomon and other Kings taking down and setting up Priests and ordering the Officers of the House of God And what he says in his Plea p. 218. That where there is no necessity of their preaching Nonconformists should forbear it condemns the practice of most Nonconformists in England 5. 'T is a little regardable that many of these Antichurches are kept up by those very persons who blew the Trumpets of Rebellion in XLIII and were the most active Pulpiteers in setting forward the late Civil War and after that the Regicide which will be made evident in the ninth Section following And that these Meetings are all kept up by those who look upon themselves as bound by Oath the Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour all the days of their lives the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops Deans c. i.e. to endeavour the Overthrow of that Government in the Church which is by Law establisht and so to act over again the Tragedies of Civil War when opportunity and power shall give them leave SECT III. Of Bishops THe Pleader comes next to Bishops and tells us p. 6. 13 14 15. That in Scripture times a Bishop had but one fixed Society one Church or worshipping Assembly under him and that the greatest defenders of Prelacy have affirmed that Churches Provincial Patriarchal National c. are but of Humane Institution Answ So have the greatest defenders of Nonconformity affirmed Churches Congregational Classical and all others as well as Diocesan Provincial c. to be of Humane Institution onely The ordering of such distinction of Churches are left saith Mr. Tombs Theodul p. 21. to divine Providence and humane Prudence Among those great defenders of Prelacy he mentions none but Dr. Hammond Dr. Ham. Annot. on Acts 11.6 which Mr. B. mistakes for Acts 11.30 and that most falsly and injuriously thus That though this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath been extended to a second Order in the Church and is now onely in use for them under the name of Presbyters yet in Scripture-time it belonged principally if not onely to Bishops there being no Evidence that any of that second Order were then instituted though soon after there were such instituted in all Churches From which words the Pleader infers two things 1. That the Office of a Presbyter that was no Bishop was not in being in Scripture-times 2. That no Bishop had more than one worshipping Assembly at once To the first Answ The Doctor in the next page renders this reason for it That while there was no multitude of Christians there were found none among them that were fit to be constituted Presbyters in our use of the word and therefore contented themselves with a Bishop onely and a Deacon or Deacons to assist him there being saith he then so small store out of which to take more and so small need of ordaining more Intimating that when the number of Christians encreased and there was need of ordaining more that Order should be set up in the Church as it was soon after So that his first conclusion from the Doctor 's words is very falsly inferr'd The other thing that he infers from them is That a Bishop had but one Church or one Worshipping Assembly at once Answ Of which there is not one syllable in the Doctor 's words and how far it is from his meaning and opinion will appear to any that will but turn over his Annotations to the page preliminary to Titus where from Eusebius he affirms Titus to have been Bishop of the Churches of Crete and from St. Chrysostom that Titus had committed to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an intire Island So his Annotations on Tim. 1.3.15 and other places shew how grosly he miscites the Doctor and how falsly he asserts from him That Episcopal Churches in Scripture-times were but single Congregations And 't is strange that Mr. Baxter should say that he knows no proof ever produced of Gods instituting Churches Provincial Patriarchal c. since he himself hath produced such full and solid proof of it and that but lately as in his Christian Directions part 7. p. 127. And N. 4. having proved the particular Orders of Presbyters and Deacons he tells us That besides those in the universal Church in the Apostles days there were many general Officers under Christ that had the care of governing and overseeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation to none Which shews that beside the fixed Pastors and Deacons of every Church Congregational or Parochial there was in the Apostles times a larger Episcopacy in Gods Church and more general Officers and Overseers to preside and visit the Churches like Colonels and chief Commanders in an Army Officers different from the Captains and stated Officers of every single Company Thus Mr. Baxter and yet now he never saw proof produced of Churches Provincial Patriarchal c. divine institution It hath been proved ex abundanti by Bishop Hall and others particularly Dr. Stillingfleet's Vnreasonableness of Separation that Episcopacy is founded on no other than Scripture Reason Apostolick practice and Antiquity To which I adde but this That the Apostles and Disciples were distinct Orders of Church-Officers as is evident from that of Judas's forfeiting his Bishoprick and Matthias according to the prediction of the Psalm taking it up who being by lot declared to be his Successour was accordingly advanced from the lower Order of Discipleship to that higher one of being an Apostle According to which the Ancients used to compare the Episcopal Office to that of the Apostles and the Presbyters Office to that of the Seventy as Officers employed by and under Bishops And this name Apostle being at last thought too sacred as being fit onely for such as had seen the Lord and were according to the import of the word immediately sent by him therefore in the early times of Primitive Christianity this name Apostle was laid aside and that of Bishop used in its stead implying the same duty and dignity though not of person yet of place as that of Apostle So that what the Apostles were in Christ's own time that are Bishops ever since and what Rank the Seventy had in the Church in Christ's time the same and no other our Ministers have now As for that trite one of the names of Bishop and Presbyter being applied to the same persons it doth no more argue every Presbyter to be a Bishop than the King 's being a Gentleman argues every Gentleman to be a King For admit the names were used in common to both yet where do we finde that the powers are exercised in common also That the Presbyter as well as Bishop has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of ordaining inflicting Church-censures Conc. Nic. c. 5. Conc.
Papal Vsurpations and imposing of things unnecessary as necessary to Vnion and Communion hath been the great cause of Schisms throughout the Christian world for this thousand years And p. 226. that they who still obey such dividing Imposers do continue Schisms in the Church by encouraging the causes of them Where by dividing Imposers we must understand the King Parliament and Clergy of England for who else can he pretend to say imposes upon them And if no body imposeth on them why doth he clamour and complain of dividing Imposers What mean those black Characters he gives the conforming Clergy of England of deliberately perjured persons and a hundred the like What People fearing God would not abhor such a Ministry and in spite of all lawful Authority fight and die do and suffer any thing rather than hazard their Souls in trusting them to the care and conduct of such Ministers Interpret who will his meaning in suggesting it as the opinion of some Casuists That Humane Laws bind not when they are not for the common good of which good the people must be judge Adding That he had rather say When they are notoriously against the Laws of Christ and the common good intimating the Laws of England to be such for what Laws else are they concern'd with Had Mr. Baxter a mind to preach Sedition what would he say more None that designe Sedition will teach it openly and in terminis that will not take It must be done insinuatingly and disguisedly as c. Yet Mr. Baxter in the name of the rest of the Nonconformists would have Princes forbid and punish all that propagate seditious and disloyal Doctrine and would have the strictest Laws made to punish any Nonconformists that shall be proved guilty of Sedition or Disloyalty SECT X. Kneeling ANother Scruple of the Pleaders which the Impleader hath past by is kneeling at the Sacrament And of all the ugly Pimples that flush in the face of Nonconformist Churches there 's none looks worse than this upon the account of that great breach that of it self it makes in Church-Communion the Word and Sacrament being the two principal materials of Church-Communion And for this he urges nothing but the old Cant in four particulars First Sitting being the Table-gesture Sitting as men do at Meat saith he p. 150. is certainly lawful Answ As though the Lords Supper were a common Feast and the administration of it to be guided by the Rules of common Table-fellowship and if so why do not Dissenters receive it with their Hats on for that is as correspondent to the ordinary Table-gesture as sitting is Secondly He urges the Example of Christ Whereas 1. 'T is not certain what gesture Christ used All that we read of it is Luke 22.14 15 20. John 21.20 that he did eat the Passover with his Disciples in a tricliniary gesture which we now express by sitting Whereas 1. It was the ordinary custom of the Jews to change their gesture Buxt Syn. Judaic cap. 13. even during the Passover it self whereas the Sacrament was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Text Luke 22.20 Beside 't is nowhere said that Christ and his Disciples continued in the Table gesture at the blessing of the Holy Supper 2. There 's the same reason for our imitation of Christ in one circumstance as well as another and so if we must imitate Christ at the Sacrament in Gesture why not in Time and Place also and so as Christ did in an upper-room after Supper c. But 3. If we must imitate Christ's practice herein we must receive it kneeling i. e. in conformity to the custom of the Church where we live so did Christ and his Apostles they received the Passover in that Gesture which was then in use in the Jewish Church Thirdly A third thing he urges against kneeling which I believe is as much against his own knowledge is the custom of the Church Catholick and the Canons of general Councils particularly Nice 1 Can. 20. that prohibiteth Adoration on any Lords-day in the year Answ Though Mr. Baxter alledge this to amuse his Followers yet he knows 1. That that same Council which forbad Genuflexion did require standing and not sitting And 2. That that injunction of the Church was onely to signifie their belief and joy concerning their own and Christ's Resurrection and not to continue in the Church after the Resurrection was sufficiently believed for if it were still binding we must receive the Sacrament standing and not sitting or kneeling But 3. Admit that the Primitive Christians did receive the Sacrament kneeling which they did not yet that would not prove kneeling unlawful upon this account because the Church is not bound to observe always the same indifferent Rites and Gestures for though Christ and his Apostles sate when they taught the people Act. 16.13 yet all Ministers are not bound thereby to the same Gesture Fourthly A fourth scruple he has against kneeling is its symbolizing scandalously with idolatrous Papists who signifie thereby Bread-worship or Idolatry Answ This same Argument is as good against sitting for that is as much a symbolizing with Papists Arrians and Heathens Durand rat l. 4. 1. Papists The Pope himself at some Solemnities Alt. Dam. c. 10. receives the Eucharist sitting And the Benedictine Monks the Thursday before Easter receive it sitting 2. Sitting is a symbolizing with Arrians The Arrians in Poland denying the Divinity of Christ Syn. Craco were the first Authors known to those Churches of this sitting gesture 3. 'T is a symbolizing with Pagans Sitting was the ordinary gesture of Worship in the Romish Pagan Idolatry Plutarch affirms That the ancient Laws of their Pagan-worship required ut adoraturi sedeant that they worship sitting Now if symbolizing with Papists be a sufficient Argument against kneeling why is not symbolizing with Papists Arrians and Heathens a good Argument against sitting and so Christ's institution of the Sacrament made void by admitting no gesture to be lawful Yet by this superstitious fear of sin in kneeling do they break Communion with us and scare many wholly from the Sacrament in publick and private both like that good Physician that out of tenderness to his Patient lest he should hurt himself by drinking stole his silver Cup. 'T is enough to shew that this scruple like the rest doth not arise from any tenderness of Conscience but peevishness and obstinacy that the Church of England hath so openly and plainly declared against all adoration of the Sacramental Bread and Wine Rubrick after the Communion or any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and bloud therein And is it not shameful obstinacy when men shall be so tempted to contemn that sacred Ordinance which the Primitive Christians so begg'd upon their knees that it shoul'd so superstitiously be made the cause of Strife and Division which was intended to unite us in love to one another That men should chuse to go to Goal rather than to the
Lords Table for fear of kneeling and all upon such feeble pretences as the best that the learned Pleader could produce This scruple hath been so oft so fully and so convincingly confuted that Mr. Baxter in his Book against Bagshaw tells us That the Nonconformists of London upon consult in this matter did generally determine to receive the Sacrament of the Parish-Minister and kneeling Which shews that they are convinced of the lawfulness of it and do act in this matter contrary to a known duty meerly to keep up the Separation And in his fifth Disput p. 411. That himself would kneel rather than disturb the Churches peace intimating that himself doth not believe it to be sinful though he would have his Followers to believe so I know one or more Nonconformists of the greatest note in Worcestershire who having acknowledged the lawfulness of kneeling ingenuously declared that they refused Communion with their Parish-Minister and gave the Sacrament in houses meerly in compliance with the people and for fear of losing them as much as to say For fear lest their Faction should return to Union and Church-Communion and as Mr. Zach. Crofton said serve God and do their duty leaving their Leaders to their dissembling tricks The rest of his Exceptions are for the most part such as do vanish in the very naming of them As 1. That every Parishioner should receive the Sacrament twice a year As though every Child or Ideot were thereby obliged to it or as though the Church meant any but persons duly qualified though the * Mr. Cartwright greatest Nonconformists in Queen Elizabeth's time and the †Alt. Dam. greatest in King James's time seemed to think three times a year too little and therefore would have all who were in the Churches Communion forc'd to receive Statis temporibus omnes adigendi said the latter forc'd by civil punishment said the former 2. That all Priests and Deacons are to say dayly the Morning and Evening-prayer privately or openly not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause Where is the Exception or what is the evil of praying when they can awhile for the injunction intends no more 3. He excepts against the use of Godfathers and Godmothers though himself in Scripture proof of Infants Baptism page preliminary to his Epist Dedicatory hath proved sufficiently that the use of Godfathers and Godmothers is if not Apostolical yet of greatest antiquity in the Church it being used in Hyginus's time who lived as he proves from Helvicus Paraeus Prideaux and others within fourty years of St. John and convers'd with the Disciples and Familiars of the Apostles and so as he urgeth cannot be ignorant of the practice of the Apostles in baptizing Infants So that according to Mr. Baxter himself it 's probable enough that the use of Godfathers and Godmothers is Apostolical However that it is of greatest antiquity in the Church himself hath proved beyond the reach of scruple nor are any other of his scruples much less futile Is it not a shame then for those Dissenters to make such pitiful Pleas for Peace and Nonconformity to disturb the Churches Peace and endanger the Safety of the Kingdom on such frivolous pretences and scruples no more rational or religious than that of their Brethren in Scotland who once scrupled the lawfulness of sending sealed Letters into Spain lest the Wax should be employed in making Tapers to the Virgin Mary or other Saints and so they should be accessory to Idolatry or than that of a Worcestershire-Nonconformist who kill'd his Fathers Greyhound contrary to his Interdict and Intreaty because it was said he a profane creature SECT XI Now upon a due disquisition of these things judge who will of these Queries following Q. 1. WHether that which Mr. Baxter saith of Conformity be not much more true of Nonconformity viz. That there is more in Mr. Tombs for Anabaptistry in the late Hungarian for Polygamy in others for Drunkenness stealing and lying in cases of necessity than ever hath been published yet for the lawfulness of Nonconformity Q. 2. Whether the present sad Separation be not kept up chiefly by this Cheat viz. the Peoples supposing Nonconformists to know Communion with our Church to be unlawful and sinful whereas they do believe and know the contrary and accordingly some of the learnedest of them have declared publickly the innocence and lawfulness of our Church-Communion Liturgy and Ceremonies c. who yet could never be brought to say one word to the people of this their belief Q. 3. Whether Mr. Baxter's taking up with such frivolous Exceptions and being guilty of so many gross and palpable self-contradictions in defending Nonconformity be not some proof that he writes what he doth not believe and designes nothing in his Writings but to amuse the people and support the Separation and whether he could with all his Learning have devised any thing more whereby to perpetuate a rigid Separation Q. 4. Whether their being so studious of new Scruples and so busie at reviling Governours and Government at such a time as this when Indulgences to them abound when their Interest gets ground when they enjoy all that liberty that once they did pretend to desire when there are attempts of opening the doors of Toleration and Comprehension to them and when the attempters have been so scurrilously reproacht and so abusively requited for it as that excellent person Dr. Stillingfleet and others have been Whether this be not some signe that they affect Nonconformity and are fond of their Separation and to be satisfied with nothing but governing and that it is not Conscience as King James said at Hampton-Court but Contumacy that keeps them from conforming Q. 5. Whether their refusing to renounce the Covenant which Mr. Alsop calls the great Mountain in their way to Conformity whether this doth not import their belief of the obligation of that diabolical Sacrament and so that they look upon themselves as bound thereby to endeavour the alteration of the Government as soon as they can strengthen their Party and get power and opportunity so to do And whether the Government had not need to have a very watchful eye over such as so look upon themselves as obliged to endeavour all they can its overthrow who have sworn and stand to their Oath expresly thus never to give themselves to Neutrality or Indifferency in extirpating the Government as 't is now by Law establish'd but will zealously and constantly continue their endeavours all the days of their lives to extirpate the Church-government by Bishops c. That they will do this against all opposition against all lets and impediments whatever as the words of the Oath are Q. 6. Whether the Nonconformists would endure in the Kingdom a Party so combined against them as they are against the present Government had they the power that once they had Q. 7. Whether the like out-cries against Bishops and Ceremonies the like Paper-scuffles as these Pleas for Peace