that cannot joyn with the Parish-Churches to have leave to meet among themselves and worship God together in peace 28. As the weakness of the people inclineth them to causeless separations and disjunctions so the doleful Pride and Selfishness of the carnal part of the Clergie hath in most Ages made them too impatient with the peoples weakness and make such a noise and stir in the World if a few do but withdraw from their Communion as if all that disowned them disowned Christ And all because Pride would make every man a God to the World on whom all must depend whom all must honour and obey and no man must contradict and all that depart from them are supposed to accuse and undervalue them And thus as of our own selves some men arise to draw Disciples after them so others set the Churches in a flame for fear of losing any of their Disciples or esteem and between both how sadly and for how many Ages have the people of Christ been torn in pieces What harm doth it me or any other if my Pride will let me be quiet if men that differ from me in some Points of Judgment do quietly Worship God by themselves But it is so rare for Separated Assemblies not to make it their Religion and work to make others odious and factiously to draw Disciples and associates to themselves that they must also thank themselves that others are so impatient with them so certain it is that all sides are too blame 29. The right Diocesan holdeth that a Bishop is essential to a Church and consequently that we have no more Churches than Diocesses and that parish-Parish-Churches are properly no Churches but Chappels or Parts of the diocesan-Diocesan-Church And if so 1. Then he that separateth from a parish-Parish-Church separateth from no Church though we think otherwise 2. And as he that went to any Parish in the Diocess kept still in his own Church so a tolerated Church may be as good a Church as such a Parish and it should not be made a hainous matter for any to go to it by them that allow men to go from Parish to Parish 30. The Nonconformists hold that the Ministerial Office is not to be taken up on tryal or for a time but durante vitâ cum capacitate And that it is no less than 1. Horrid Sacriledge 2. Perfidious Covenant-breaking 3. Disobedience to God 4. Cruelty to Souls 5. And unthankfulness for great mercies if any of us shall desert our undertaken Offices yea though a silencing Diocesan should forbid us the exercise of it unjustly Therefore Preach and Officiate while we can we must 31. Having told you thus far the Nonconformists Principles I will add that If there be any such Conformable Clergie men as first will do all they can to silence and eject us and forbid us to Preach the Gospel of Salvation whil'st many hundred thousands that lie in ignorance and impenitency need more help and then will do all they can to hinder our Restauration and to keep us silent And lastly when His Majesties Prudence and Clemency giveth us liberty to Preach when they can no longer hinder us by force would stroak us into silence and neglect of our Office by a few such silly and confident reasonings as this Author useth as if to hinder our Ministry and Labour one way or other were their interest and work I will not offend the Readers Ears by giving them the name that I think they deserve but wish them to read 1 Thes 2. 15 16. And to tell them by what names or Titles soever they be distinguished that I that am a dying man would be loth to stand in their case before God and that if they and I were well agreed that there is indeed a God a Christ a Heaven and a Hell I think we should the easilier be agreed in all the rest of our differences Some Teachers need these plain Admonitions CHAP. III. The Questionists stating of his Question considered Sect. 1. HAving disclaimed the Approving and Censuring His Majesties Declaration he questioneth Whether it be adviseable especially for the Presbyterians either in Conscience or Prudence to take advantage from His Majesties Declaration to deny or rebate their Communion with the Parochial Congregations and to gather themselves into distinct and separate Churches Sect. 2. Here note 1. That the Episcopal or Erastian Nonconformists have none of his especial advice 2. That he seemeth to speak to none in London or elsewhere who denied their Communion with the Parish-Churches before but only to those that would take advantage so to do from His Majesties Declaration 3. That he calleth them not Parochial Churches but Congregations 4. That he joyneth two questions into one which therefore must be distinctly answered Sect. 3. My Answer is 1. It is not adviseable for any Nonconformists who before held the Parish Congregations to be true Churches and their communion lawful and used to communicate with them to change these principles nor to renounce or totally forbear such communion 2. But it is adviseable for them when they are cast out of the Parish-Ministry and forbidden to Preach in the Parish-Temples but have leave to exercise their Ministry elsewhere accordingly elsewhere to exercise it either in stated or occasional Assemblies that shall be parts or no parts of the Parish-Congregations as the variety of places and cases shall require which Assemblies shall be distinct and separate from the said Perish-Congregations either as Chappels be or somewhere as one Parish-Congregation is separate from another being not one nor in one place if you will call that separation But this but for a time with Profession of great unwillingness and of a desire to return into the Parochial Ministery as soon as you can procure them leave But resolving not to be Idle Cruel Sacrilegious and Perfidious till then but to live with all godly conformable Ministers with Christian Love and Peace and Concord if it be possible and you will give them leave Sect. 4. When you say They cannot but understand the Declaration to be a very strict Prohibition of all such private Meetings as the Law stiles Conventicles you know not whose understandings you talk of 1. We know not that the Law doth not call our House-Meetings now tolerated though the door be open Conventicles If not it had been well for us if you would have proved it sooner 2. And if you are sure that the Law calleth none of the Papists tolerated private Meetings Conventicles we knew not so much And why should you feign us to be as wise as your self Sect. 5. As to your three wayes I answer â—ou 1. I believe the Presbyterians will joyn with the Independents not as a Sect as you call them but in all that they think good and warrantable 2. That they will exercise their Ministery as they are by Covenant engaged for Christ and mens Souls and will bear with you if you call that setting up for themselves hoping yet that
between a Parish-Church that is such and owneth it self for such And a Parish-Congregation that hath no proper Bishop nor Pastor who hath the power of the Keys of Government but is called by its Rulers only a part of a Church Diocesan and the Minister but the Diocesan Bishops-Curat 5. They distinguish between a parish-Parish-Church where the Ministers in question are forbidden to preach and the People to have the Sacrament or their Children to be baptized unless they will say and do such things as they dare not do for fear of God's displeasure And a Parish-Church that driveth none such away from Ministry or Communion And now will this Adviser prove that what any Presbyterians ever said in one case must reach to all others that are so different Sect. 2. He next questioneth 1. Do you not allow our Parochial Churches to be true Churches Answ Yea those of them that have true Pastors but no others in a political or organized sense 2. Quest And will you not account such Congregations as shall be gathered to your allowed places to be true Churches also Answ In some places we will and in some we will take them but as parts of the Parish-Church And in some we will take them but for temporary Assemblies waiting for a fixed better state And in some we will take them for Churches secundum quid but not simpliciter Even as the case of each particular place requireth Sect. 3. And hence follows the cry of Schism Independents Brownists rank Separatists c. As if the Ministers of Christ did know no difference between noise and sense Yea we are told of Schism from the Church of England when I would give him all the money in my purse to make me understand what the Church of England is 1. I know that the King is the Civil-Head or Governour of it But it is a Constitutive Ecclesiastical Head that must denominate it as an essential part 2. I take it for granted he speaks of a Church organized in a proper political sense as constituted of a Pars regens and a Pars subdita and not as an ungoverned Community 3. I take it for granted that we have two Archbishops and they tell me that one is not under the Government of the other And if that be true we may have a Church of Canterbury and a Church of York but no one Church of England as denominated from one of them as Head 4. I take it for granted that the Convocation is not the Constitutive-Head 1. Because it is so seldom in being that then we should seldom have a Church of England For the Essence ceaseth with the essential part 2. And the Canon thundreth against them that deny the Convocation to be the Representative-Church of England If it mean of the whole Church Pastors and People then the People rule and make Canons by them as the Separatists hold And it is the Head of the Church only that we enquire after If they mean the Clergy then the Representative-Church or Head must be somewhat distinct from the Real represented If it be the whole Clergy that is the Real Represented-Church or Head then we are Popular or Presbyterian for the Presbyters are the major part by far And what Rulers are they that never rule the Church as one by themselves but only by Representatives I confess easily that many Churches united under one King and living in one Kingdom and having thereby special opportunity for Synods and Correspondence and Concord may be called one Church by a denomination 1. accidental 2. and humane not used in Scripture And we will not be so quarrelsome as to avoid that language where men will needs use it But it is the Thing and not the Name that we enquire of What is that One Essential Constitutive-Head which maketh the Churches of England to be all one Church in a proper political sense that is as a Governed-Society None question the Civil-Head none question the need of Communion and Agreement among all these Churches But the Question is only of the one Ecclesiastick Constitutive Head And if you will have the Question to be de nomine pardon us for holding that forma denominat But if you will denominate many Churches One from One Accident instead of One Individual Form or Essence and if you will use terms in Divine Matters which God never so used in his Word we contend not against you but only desire to understand you when you charge us with Schism from the Church of England We have observed what hath been the effect of such another enterprize in the Roman Empire It was thought meet by Princes that where the Empire was One the Church should be in some sort One also which was under them Whereupon Rome had the chief Patriarchate But in time 1. this Humane-Unity name and thing is pretended to be Divine 2. And this One Imperial Church under one Emperour is taken to be One Vniversal Church as if the Indians Persians and all other Christians even the Abassian Empire had been part of it and the Orbis Romanus had been Orbis Universalis 3. And then no man is a Christian that is not baptized into this Papal Church and made a Subject of the Pope Tell us what you mean by our Schism from the Church of England We divide not our selves from the King or Kingdom or from the particular Churches as concordant in any necessary thing If it be only that we agree not with the Major Vote in all Subscriptions Oaths Discipline or Ceremonies No more did the Bishops in the Roman Empire who had various Liturgies nor Gildas with the Britains nor Ambrose and Martin with the French and Italian Bishops nor the Episcopal party in Scotland heretofore with the Presbyterians when they were the major part Is every difference in things unnecessary from the major part a Schism from them The Bishops thought not so in England fifteen years ago We do not go so far with you as Gildas with his British Clergy who pronounced him non eximium Christianum no excellent Christian that called them Priests or Ministers and not rather Proditores Traitors as he himself did Nor do we make such a Schism as Martin seemed to do who renounced Communion with the Bishops and their Synods all his life who had prosecuted the Priscilianists with the Secular Sword Yet neither of these holy men are called Separatists or Schismaticks But perhaps it is our Disobedience to the Church that is our Schism from it 1. But every one that maketh himself an Ecclesiastical Governour over other Pastors and Churches is not therefore their rightful Lord. The King we know and his Officers we know but we know not all that call themselves our Lords or Masters Not but that obedience is the easiest course of life to a quiet humble mind But fidelity to our King commandeth the disowning of Usurpers 2. We confess that we do not actually obey the Civil unquestionable Power in every particle
Sacrilegious Desertion OF THE HOLY MINISTERY REBUKED AND Tolerated Preaching of the GOSPEL VINDICATED Against the Reasonings of a Confident Questionist in a Book called Toleration not to be abused With Counsel to the NONCONFORMISTS And Petition to the PIOUS CONFORMISTS By one that is Consecrated to the Sacred Ministery and is resolved not to be a wilful Deserter of it in trust that any undertakers can justifie him for such desertion at the Judgment of God till he know better how those can come off themselves who are unfaithful Pastors or unjust Silencers of others 1 Cor. 9. 16. For though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of For necessity is laid upon me yea woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Tim. 1. 12. 2. 9. 3. 6. For which cause I suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed c. 1 Thes 2. 15 16. Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us c. Printed in the Year 1672. Tolerated Preaching OF Christs Gospel VINDICATED CHAP. I. Of the Author and the Title SECT I. I Am one my self that am so greatly desirous of His Majesties Clemency and that this present Toleration should not be abused by any especially silenced Ministers that if this had been all that Author endeavoured I should earnestly â—e seconded him And I am not without fear of the Weakness Rashness Injudiciousness and Imprudence of some that yet are earnest and profitable Preachers But when I find that by not abusing our Liberty he meaneth not-using it and that he hath the face to exhort us to desert our Office when the King doth hinder them from forcible restraining us and that when it is Gods work which we are vowed to he cometh to us as the old Prophet in Gods name to charge us to forbear it my Conscience bids me help to save the weaker sort that need it from such pernicious fallacies And if I speak plainly of the quality of his arguings I desire the Reader not to interpret it as if I had not the heartyest desire of Peace and all Brotherly Love and Concord with all conformable godly faithful Ministers But words are not answered according to their nature when the nature of them is not opened Sect. 2. Who the Author is and why he resolveth his Question on the Presbyterian Principles and passeth by the Episcopal Non-conformists as if he were so ignorant of the present State of England as not to know that there are many such when at the Kings return 1660. it was Bishop Ushers Form of Episcopal Government which they all offered for Concord who were employed in that work these are little matters not to be insisted on Only I shall tell him that I have met with few Presbyterian Ministers in England though most have that name given them in their Licenses A Presbyterian is one that is For the Divine Right of Ruling-Elders unordained having no Power to Preach and Administer Sacraments and for the Government of the Church by Presbyteries Classes and Synods composed of Teaching-Elders in Parity with these Ruling-Elders Conjunct so that a General Assembly of them is the true Ecclesiastical Head of a National-Church Of late a Presbyterian is like the Puritan of old A word which hath as many and as bad significations as speakers have diversity of designs or intents In one mans mouth a Presbyterian is an Episcopal Protestant of the soberest sort who is neither for Sects nor for Church-Tyranny and so impudency hath called them Presbyterians many years who offered the said Episcopal Form which A. Bishop Usher proved to be the true Government of the ancient Churches And so we have made Episcopal Presbyterians who are against unordained Elders and for Bishops In anothers mouth a Presbyterian is one that is resolute against Popery In anothers mouth a Presbyterian is one that is for the serious practice of a holy life In another mans mouth a Presbyterian is one that is against Bishops And so Independents and many others Sects would be Presbyterians too And in other mens mouthes a Presbyterian is one that is of Bishop Reynolds and Dr. Stillingfleets judgment that no Form of Government besides the meer Pastoral Office and Church-Assemblies is prescribed in the Word of God but variously left to variety of occasions Among all these when you speak with a Railing Ruffian he must tell you which he means himself But when we meet with a Divine that understandeth the common use of the Word we must take him to use it in the first proper sense In which sense I say again that I am acquainted with few comparatively that are for Presbytery but I know many that are for Pastoral Administration without Church-Tyranny or Schism Sect. 3. As the Author honoureth himself with the praise of being a Lover of the Truth and Peace which commendation all the contending parties from the Papist to the Quaker are as ready to give themselves so I hope I shall the easilier obtain his pardon if believing him I shall prove that it is Truth and Peace which he opposeth And if I offer him a better way to secure them assuring him that I agree with him in his main design to bring the Conformists and Non-conformists nearer and to a more amicable concord in the Work of God and not to drive any further from mutual Communion than they are CHAP. II. The Nonconformists Resolutions and the true State of the Case to be debated Sect. 1. BE it known to the Reader that the name of Nonconformists was not made by our selves but by others as the names of the four Confessors Dan. 1. was The Titles which we assume as signifying our own professed Religion are but these our Religion is Christian and no other In opposition to dividing Sects we are Catholicks In contradistinction from Hereticks we cleave to the Scripture as our Rule In contradistinction from the Roman Schism and Corruptions we are Protestants that is we protest to cleave to simple Christianity and to the Primitive purity and simplicity against their introduced Novelties and Vanities Sect. 2. As to the Point of Church-Government Worship the quarrel of the present age 1. We easily confess that we are not all of a mind which is no cause of alienation of affections nor should be a cause of mutual persecutions It being our judgment that Christians are to bear with one another in greater matters than Episcopal Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists disagree in And if any among us have done otherwise heretofore it was from a Vice Homogeneal to that of the present Conformists which now they smart for and the Conformists may repent of in due time Sect. 3. We take not the name of Nonconformists to be such a Cothurnus or Hose drawn over the several parties by your prudence as shall make them one or tye them closer together than Conformists and Nonconformists are I pray you try if you will not believe us whether
you set not up wholly for your selves that speak so 3. And they will worship God with the Sect of the Diocesan Prelatists in the Parish-Churches also as far as will stand with the due exercise of their proper Ministery But will not promise you to give over Preaching to become your constant Auditors or Disciples Sect. 6. You understand neither the Men that you talk of nor their Cause they take not the Independents Assemblies to be the Tents of Enemies they leave terms of Enmity among Brethren to those that have enmity in their hearts Nor do they tamely deliver up the Cause The most Nonconformable Ministers of my acquaintance whose judgment I ever asked of that matter do seem to think as I my self do that the Episcopal Pretbyterians Independents and Erastians have each of them some Truth and Good which above the rest they do defend and each of them some special mistake where they err above the rest And if we could know it we would take the Best from among them all and leave the worst And not maintain Church-quarrels under pretense that we must not flie to the Enemy and give up the Cause Sect. 7. O the confidence of this Adviser in his own understanding that dare say That he is sure that the Presbyterians have no reason to engage in a way of publick Worship contradistinct to our Parochial Congregations 1. That is contradistinct which is not opposite or adverse but either co-ordinate as one Parish to another or subordinate as a Chappel 2. And what man Is a Vow and Dedication to Preach the Gospel no reason to Preach it elsewhere when its forbidden us in your Assemblies Is the alienation of Consecrated persons no Sacriledge Is the notorious need of many hundred thousand Souls no reason Is the exercising of a Worship and Discipline more agreeable to Gods Word than yours we are ready to give you the proof when we have leave no reason Is the relieving of many godly Christians who are cast out of your communion because they dare not Conform no reason Had we had leave to have conted the silly reasonings of Mr. Fulwood and some such other Pamphleteers produced against the Nonconformists we had long ago shewed you cause to repress such self esteem which dare say I am sure they bave no reason Sect. 8. And this man that is sure they have no reason for it could instance in no greater than the Objection that It will seem an undervaluing their liberty and ingratitude to the King 1. We have no reason to be ungrateful to the King nor to undervalue our Liberty 2. But did that move the London Ministers and others to Preach all this while before the Declaration 3. When you have proved that Greater Hurt than Good will follow our Preaching and Ministry and when you have proved that though all the Papists in England do use the liberty of the Toleration in the Declaration yet the Nonconformists must not but silently leave our sufficient Conformists to do all the work against Ignorance Infidelity Popery and Sensuality themselves I say when you have proved this well you may again bless the people with our silence and perswade us to silence our selves when you cannot do it otherwise Sect. 9. But he saith p. 6. Their ingenuity and gratitude to God and the King will be better expressed by their Conformity and Loyal obedience to the known Laws than by the use of the Liberty permitted to the contrary Answ He knoweth that we must not give him our Reasons against Conformity He cannot but know that many that Conform nor in all the matters of Subscriptions Declarations Oathes Discipline c. not medling with other mens Consciences do think it would be in them a composition of such hainous crimes as they do forbear to name them for fear of seeming to be accusers of others and to be unpeaceable And if he think that such toys as Mr. Fulwoods Mr. Stilemans and Mr. Hinkleys c. should satisfie them he thinks contemptibly of their understandings And he that by such poor temptations as those will yield to what their Consciences fear can scarce tell what he may not yield to before he dieth Let him procure us leave but to publish ours Reasons against Conformity and then let him tell us that we were better Conform when he hath answered them It 's easie to talk when none must confute him and to brave it against one whose tongue is tyed Sect. 10. His next Supposition is that the matter of this Liberty is evil I am glad it is not evil for the Conformists to Preach and Worship God lest it would have been lawful to none at all We are glad that Christ is Preached even by them that do it contentiously in envy and strife to add to our Afflictions and Bonds But we will not our selves give over Preaching Praying nor the rest of the Christian Religion because such men can call it evil He that saith our Preaching is evil may tempt men to think that the Gospel which we Preach is evil or that Infidelity Atheism Sensuality and Wickedness which we Preach against is good or harmless Is it good in you and evil in us to Preach the same Gospel If you turn to them that Calumniate us of Preaching Errour or Sedition the Law is open our Writings and Doctrine are easily tryed If we say evil bear witness of the evil If not take heed of calling it evil Isa 5. 20. CHAP. IV. Whether to gather themselves into distinct and separate Congregations is unlawful in the judgment of the Presbyterians themselves Sect. 1. THe proving the Affirmative is his work pag. 7 c. But the Presbyterians do not love confusion nor to dispute such blindly-stated Questions They distinguish 1. Between bare Local distinction and separation and that which is eminently called Separation in England and denominated from the Separatists which is separating from the Parish-Churches Ministry Worship as being no true Churches Ministry and Worship or at least such as no Christians may lawfully Communicate with in Doctrine Prayer and Sacraments when they can have no better In the former sense as is said one Parish-Church is separate from another And if there be any difference in their Forms or Modes of Worship so was there between Basil at Caesarea and the Church at Neocesarea and between Rome and Millane and between almost all the Catholick Bishops for many hundred years And so now one Parish-Minister prayeth freely in the Pulpit after Sermon and before another by a Form a third biddeth prayer before and a fourth prayeth not afterward at all And yet these are not separated Churches any otherwise than Locally and in such Modal differences 2. They distinguish between a Parish-Church that imposeth nothing on the Ministers or People that God forbiddeth and one that doth 3. And between a Parish-Church that is Reformable in that which notoriously needeth Reformation and one that solemnly Covenanteth against Reformation 4. They distinguish
about Gods Worship which hath been commanded us I need not tell you why No more did the Christians for three hundred years after Christ nor the Orthodox Bishops in the dayes of Constantius Valens c. nor the Protestants now in France nor the Calvinists now in Sweden Denmark Saxonie nor the Lutherans under Calvinist Governours c. We compare not our Rulers to any of these in any other respect but only as Rulers but if you your selves are resolved to say and subscribe and swear and do whatever lawful Rulers bid you its possible that before you dye you may shew that indeed you are not of our minds 3. But who ever took every act of disobedience in a Circumstance in a Family or Kingdom to be a Schism from that Family or Kingdom Do you rule by such a Law of Works or Innocency which cuts off men for every disobedience and censureth him that obeyeth not perfectly in all things 4. And methinks this should not be your meaning because by Nonconformity we more disobeyed our Rulers before their Toleration than since and yet it is our preaching after that you call our Schism from the Church You see what trouble you put men to to understand you because you speak unintelligibly and confusedly If you tell me that the Presbyterians owned a National Church in Scotland I answer 1. So do I as before described that is as denominated 1 From an accident and not from an Individuating Form and therefore equivocally and improperly 2 And humanely and so unnecessarily 2. And if Scots or any Presbyterians do it otherwise that 's nothing to me who am no more bound to their Opinion than yours And sure the Church of England is not called One in the Presbyterian sence as an Aristrocracie or as Headed by the whole Clergie conjunct Sect. 4. The rest p. 8 9 10. need no other answer then 1. That the old Puritanes never held it unlawful for them to preach in houses even when they had no Toleration 2. As they held it lawful to hold Lay-communion with Parish-Churches that have true Ministers so do we 3. They never said it was unlawful to hold communion with any besides the Parish-Churches no more will we What Law tyeth us to be such Schismaticks as to renounce communion with all other Churches except Parochial and Conformists or what Nonconformists ever held it 4. Whose conscience should sooner accuse him of Schism A Conformists that will hold Communion with none but his own party but separateth from all the other Churches in the Land Or ours that resolve to to hold communion seasonably with all true Christian Churches among us that teach not Heresie nor preach down Holiness Love or Peace and deny us not their communion unless we will sin Let the impartial judg which of us is the Schismatick and Separatist 5. Do you not hold it lawful for a Minister to remove from one Parish to another and for any man for his souls edification to remove his dwelling into another Parish where is a better Minister And what if forty Families do so who calleth any of this Separation And what if it had been into the Parish of Dedham Ashby Whitmore Preston when John Rogers Arthur Hildersham John Ball John Dod all Nonconformists were allowed to preach there without Conformity Had this been Separation and Schism or not If yea what Law of God or Man forbad it What Church did they divide from If nay why then is it Schism to joyn with such men in other places Where lyeth your Point of Schism or Separation Is it for going out of their own Parishes 1. So Men in London have ever done to other Parish-Churches 2. And who ever made a Parish and a Church Synonymal Jure Divino Shall mutable conveniencies be turned into immutable necessities What then Is it for going to a Nonconformist so did those before mentioned Is it for going to a private house 1. So did many Episcopal Pastors fourteen years ago 2. And some in London since the Fire 3. And it s an ill argument against them that would fain Preach in the publick Temples if they could have leave As far as I discern this dust of Schism which you would cast into other mens eyes obligeth you to wink hard lest it be blown back into your own Sect. 5. The love of peace and the fear of frightning any further from Parish-communion than I desire do oblige me to forbear so much as to describe or name the additional Conformity and that sin which Nonconformists fear and fly from which maketh it harder to us that desire it to draw many good people to communion with Conformists than it was of old But when both Law and Love of Peace and Concord forbid us so much as to name the Causes it is disingenious for the culpable to take that advantage against us and to urge us to do that which they themselves cannot bear Sect. 6. But with full sail of self-conceitedness he next comes upon us with this as an undeniable proof that our Members are taken out of true Churches Who would gainsay a man of such understanding But 1. Do not those as aforesaid that remove from one Parish Church to another remove from true Churches 2. How many Bishops have written that the Church of Rome is a true Church as Halls Collection against Burton sheweth you and must no Churches therefore be gathered out of them 3. What advantage then hath every foolish Superstitious Priest above God and over all good Christians God bids us worship him according to his Law and to do all things in order and decently and to edification And must not God be obeyed No if the Priest will not consent For if he will worship God foolishly with non-sence undecently disorderly against edification you cannot help it his followers may be a true Church still and then no man must remove to worship God better than pleaseth the Priest He that is fallen under such drunken Readers as I was bred under in my youth that were drunk many times oftner than they preached I am ready to prove it for they never preached but were drunk oft this poor man and his Family must venture their Souls on this sottish Drunkards conduct because it is a true Church and they must not go from a true Church What a trick hath the Devil found to bind men to constancy in his service so it be done in a true Church Alas poor England whose Teachers talk confidently at this rate because they can say that they do it in a true Church did not the Parliament take a Church out of a true Church when they separated Covent-Garden from Martins Parish And so it is when Parishes are divided into two one part is separated from the other Sect. 7. But factious Disputers see but on one side You thought not that you your self were all this while proving your selves Schismaticks I undertake to prove that Pastors and People are the Constitutive
and to the grief of our hearts then tell us that to avoid them we must Sacrilegiously and as Soul-murderers desert our Ministery we shall easilier answer them then they will shortly answer God Sect. 2. His first inconvenience is that We shall lay down the Cudgels and beg the peace c. of the rest of the Sectaries as well as the Independents Answ A hard point to that Sect that is Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti who know not how to lay down the Sworn But if we have been at Cudgels we mean not to live and die at a work so unsuitable to our Religion and our minds Reproach not him that said If it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men But if it be our dislike of Schism that are the Cudgels you mean you are answered already Pretend not to know our minds better than our selves When were we against our own Preaching as we had opportunity Sect. 3. He would next raise a suspicion That our Principles change with the times and yet saith It is a thing not easily observed in us in any thing else Condemn not your self then by suspecting it in this till you better know our minds Or else which is worst of all that our interest lay at the bottom and was the only Spring and Wheel of our zeal and all our motions c Answ Who had been the more accusable of this Carnality and Hypocrisie in the eyes of any standers by the Conformists that take up the Principles that go along with Safety Wealth Preferments and Dignities or the Nonconformists that have near ten years been deprived of all Ecclesiastical maintenance some lived in extream poverty and some lain in Jails c. Sure if we accuse not you even you of hypocritical following carnall interest one would think a little modesty might have cured the Canker that moved these suspicions or accusations of us either as to these or former Opinions But my expectation of modesty I see by the following words needs a pardon Sect. 4. He addeth Consider I beseech you how like to Independent-Apeâ— your new Congregations will make you look c. Answ That is to say Come Nonconformists if you will not be beaten from your Masters work we will try whether we can scoff and scorn you out of it if that will not do we will pretend Christs Name and Authority as forbiding you For as Christ Matth. 4. so you must encounter a three-fold temptation But we take pleasure in infirmities and can bear to be made as the off-scouring of all things remembring who was cloathed in Purple and then mockt as being like a King If you will take my Spoon and Knife from me and then say that I eat like an Ape or a Beast I will not be so prated and fooled out of my meat If with Diogenes I had cast away my Dish to use my bare hands or forsaken my House to live in a Tub I had deserved your derision but if you take my house all my goods from me you shall not mock me out of my poor Tub also We would avoid all appearance of evil But only in things indifferent we will not cease Christianity preaching or praying when you can make it by your Artifice appear like evil Let 's hear the instances Sect. 5. 1. Your Churches will be gathered as theirs Answ As much as all the Churches for three hundred years were or the Meetings of Flavianus Meletius and others at Antioch when they were prohibited the Temple And as Dr. Wilds and Dr. Gunnings were fifteen years ago Or if you will as the Joannites were in Constantinople till Chrysostoms name and bones were honoured by wiser men than those that cast him out Sect. 6. 2. You can administer Baptisms or the Lords Supper to none but those of your select number Answ 1. Is it because we will not or because you will not give us leave Who then is it long of O for modesty Tye mens feet and reproach them for not going 2. But is it not better to give an Alms to the bodies or souls of some men than of none at all Argue thus with your Physicians You can medicate none but your select Patient Ergo you are to be scorned if you medicate any at all And I profess were it not for the poor peoples sake and my duty to God I would give you that desire it all my practice and all the gains 3. But why may we not in the allowed places exercise our Ministry in baptizing the Children of any one of your Flocks that shall desire it or giving them the Sacrament I yet understand it not unless for the avoiding of your envy and displeasure Sect. 7. 3. You cannot exercise Discipline but by the consent of your people Answ 1. We cannot be Pastors to any against their wills If you can and take that for your honour keep it for we will have no part with you We find indeed that it is your Opinion to exercise your Discipline on us against our wills 2. But though we cannot take men for Christians nor for our special Flock nor bring them to repentance nor yet absolve them against their wills we can admonish and excommunicate them against their wills and deny them the Lords Supper from us if they first voluntarily submit to our Ministry We take it not for our part or honour to do in these things so much as you can Sect. 8. 4. Neither can you have any Church Government but in your single Congregations and that too Independent on all others Answ 1. Who is that long of Is it not you that forbid it us 2. But indeed we never desired to play the Bishops in other mens Diocess If we pretended to govern you would you take it for our Orthodoxness I think not I would you were of the same Opinion I would the Pope were of the same Opinion and would let other men alone and exercise his Discipline over none that he hath nothing to do with Baxter whom you name hath told you that Bishop Usher profest his Judgment to him that even Bishops in a Council though they are there Governours of the Flocks yet meet not for Government of one another by Vote or of other Bishops but for Concord And Grotius de Imp. sum pot hath shewed you that Canons are not Laws but Agreements 2. But why may not many of us Ministers meet in one allowed place for such Agreements in our Pastoral Government And no greater dependance do we desire I assure you we should be glad if all the silenced Ministers these thirty years had been less dependant on the Diocesans Sect. 9. He addeth Thus as others are Independents by choice and Profession you will make your selves so by necessity and that necessity such as you wilfully throw your selves into against all the light of Presbyterian-Conscience Prudence and Interest by a needless and sinful a scandalous and mischievous separation
upon him the form of a Servant and yet this way got a name above every name As sure as you live contending for honour is one of the readiest ways to loose it and giving it to others and contemning it your selves is one of the surest ways to get it It is its motto Quod sequitur fugio quod fugit ipse sequor Self-esteem and Pride is odious in all but in a Minister of Christ more odious than in any man but never so odious as when it riseth to such malignity as to envy or hinder the work of God because another more esteemed doth it It is a sin that I am readyer to tremble to think of than further to reprove And remember what work it hath made in the Churches of Christ already Read but what Eusebius Socrates Sozomen Evagrius Nicephorus c. say of the fewds of the old Bishops Read but the Acts of the Councils at Ephes 1 2. of Chalcedon at Ariminum at Sirmium at Nice 2d c. and if horrour and shame do not overwhelm you to think what Christian Bishops did and that so early in the face of the Heathens you are not men Read but how Nazianzene was used at Constantinople by a Synod of Orthodox Bishops when he had overcome the Arrians Read the Controversies between Basil and Anthymius and others Read the doleful story of Theophilus Alexandrinus and the Egyptian Monks and of the same Theophilus his manner of dealing against the Origenists and of his double Letters and Present which he sent by Ifidore a Priest to the Emperour and Maximus to be given to him that got the better Read the odious story of the said Theophilus and Epiphanius his proceedings against Chrysostome and his ejection by a Councel of Bishops Read the proceedings of Ithacius and Idacius and their Synods in Sulp. Severus There is no end of instances Read but the destruction of the many hundred Brittish Monks at Bangor and the great suspicions that Augustine caused it Look but on the face of the Greek and Latine Churches to this day from the begining and cause of their divisions And see what the Lutherans have done oft times against the Calvinists in Saxony and other parts of Germany as in Gasp Peucers sufferings for one And see what the Roman Papacy and Clergy have done in the world by Lordly Pride and selfishness And lastly See what hath bin done by it in this Land and at last learn by experience and judge of Church-mens Pride by the effects Brethren what harm will it do to you if a Non-Conformist preach by you if many follow him If some prefer him before you Do not others prefer you before him What if his followers think Conformity to be sin Do not you and yours think so of our Non-Conformity It is not your selves that you preach for but the peoples Souls And why may not Christs Gospel profit them from another as well as from you Nature teacheth men to relish their own food and partly to feel what doth them good Clemens Alexand Strom. 1. giveth it as the reason why the Church then not now left it to every Communicant at the Sacrament to Take their own part Because man having free will shall be the chooser or refuser of his own good If they choose a worse Teacher than you it is not you but they that are the loosers If they choose a better you have your end if you are Christians If you preach not so well as another you are not fit to be Ministers of Christ if you be not glad that another doth better and is a blessing to the Flock If you preach better it s two to one but goodness will have an insuparable attraction Or if mistake make them more capable of good from another than from you should you not desire that they might have it Will you say It is their partial humour I have heard many Ministers say so that had reason to have said It is my unskilfulness or dulness But suppose it be so A Physician will let his patient take his Medicine from one mans hand if he refuse it from another The Father will not let the Infant famish if he will take no meat from him but from the Mother If the people had no faults or weaknesses what need were there of you or other Ministers I am as apt to speak sharply against the humours and weakness of Religious people as most that are not envious and malignant But I must give them this Testimony that though many of them cannot well judge of judiciousness in their Teachers yet most of them love a serious Preacher and a Godly Liver And few of them distast either Prelates or Conformists if they preach seriously and live Holily But when in all the Countreys they see such Preachers and Livers chosen out for silencing all the world cannot keep them from disliking such Bishops as shall do thus I am most confident for those of my old acquaintance that if they had seen Bishops after their long disacquaintance with them to have Preached and Prayed in a sound and serious Holy manner and set themselves to promote the labours of Godly Preachers and to encourage piety in the people and repress iniquity they would generally have loved and honoured them without respect to Presbytery or Independency It is Godliness that Godly people care for But since I and abundance about us were ejected and since many of themselves have bin laid in Goals it is no more in my power to make them love such Bishops than to make them love the Goal it self Yea further Brethren what if the Non-Conformable Minister do give the Sacrament to some as you do to others What if they think their way best as you think yours What if they call themselves a Church and exercise Discipline which without need I would not have them do What harm will this do to you or others If it do them harm let them thank themselves But to you it can do none unless the unchristian sin of pride and envy cause it or unless by reproaches and contentiousness they hinder the success of your labours which is another thing I confess I have ever bin jealous of such Arbitrary Churches where there is room for all in one Church lest they should turn Anti-Churches and Theatres of emulation and contention which I charge all conscionable persons to abhor But all this may be avoided at cheaper rates than silencing so many laborious Ministers or excommunicating all the people that are Non-conformists III. Joyn lovingly with your Brethren as Servants of one Lord to promote one work Look not strange at them if they desire your friendship Yea if any of them prove censorious and pievish if you are the more patient condescending and forward to love and unity and to further the peoples good I shall take you for better men than them And so will all that judge by the fruits of the Spirit Try this way instead of wrath and I