now Published by the Collector But I foresee it will be necessary to obviate two Objections that will be made against these Admonitions First That Mr. Baxter hath written plain Contradictions to them and the Separating Brethren will adhere to his First Sentiments which lead them to their Non-conformity to which I Answer That Mr. Baxter gave them this Precaution in one of his first and best Treatises charging them strictly that if God should give him over to any Church-rendring course that they would forsake him and not follow him a step Secondly That what they interpret as Contradictions were in Truth no other then Confessions of his former mis-apprehensions and passionate heats of his intemperate Zeal but these are the Results of his sedate and rational Deliberation The great Apostle St. Paul was not ashamed to record in Holy Writ what enormities a misgrounded Zeal had hurried him into while he was in an estate of Ignorance and Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. and this doubtless was Mr. Baxter's practice for reflecting upon what he had said or done to countenance the Separating way he saw it had done more hurt than good for which reason he recanted them But these instructions of his are like the Coelestial Bodies which carry light and benign influences with them they are self-evident and speak home to the Judgment and Consciences of all unprejudiced Men who cannot resist the force of that Reason and Demonstration which inspires every part of them with so much Life and Power Beauty and Ornament Consistency and Symmetry as will render them highly Acceptable Amiable and Beneficial to such as shall embrace and practise them As for such Dissenters as have conceived any hard thoughts of Mr. Baxter or these his Admonitions I intreat them to consider whether they can answer or confute them to the satisfaction of their own Consciences and if they cannot then whether it be not rational and pious to walk by these directions which tend so much to the establishment of the publick Peace of this divided Church and Nation and to their own present and eternal welfare 2. Objection It may be said that these Amonitions are now become unseasonable there being a Toleration granted to Men of all Perswasions to Worship God after their several modes Answ To this I say that Schism is a Sin antecedent to all Humane Constitutions as being directly forbid in the Holy Gospel and consequently will continue to be sinful tho' all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth should indulge and tolerate them for the Laws of Men cannot make void the Law of God nor alter the nature of things and justifie or make that to be good which the only Lawgiver of Christians hath condemned as unlawful and as it is said of Poligamy among the Jews that the Law of Moses connived at it for the hardness of their hearts so it is for the hardness and uncharitableness of Mens Spirits that Rulers are constrained for a time to tolerate and bear with many things that are Offensive and Prejudicial to the prosperity of their Government For Toleration far differs from the approbation of a thing and implieth the unlawfulness thereof rather than the Justification of it Besides the present Toleration is far from intending or making an establishment of the Practises which are tolerated to the prejudice of the Church which hath for many Ages and now doth continue in actual possession of all its Powers and Priviledges as in time past So that as the present Schism and Separations is possitively condemned by the Laws of the Gospel so they have not any approbation from the Laws of Men but what the corruptions of Men and their ungovernable Tempers make tolerable on some pressing occasions and unhappy juncture of Affairs I beseech you therefore read the following Admonitions without Prejudice and judge of them by the end for which they were first written by Mr. Baxter and are now published by c. Mr. RICHARD Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters Of the Church IN a Petition drawn by Mr. B. to be presented to the King He makes this a part of the Profession of his Religion I do willingly profess my consent to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sense agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Errors or Heresies contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common-Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it Mr. Baxters Life Part 3. p. 161. Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. Sect. 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but Unity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church § 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the Worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the Several Members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it tho' we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion § 1. We do not say you are no true Ministers nor Churches nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you Apology p. 82. See also p. 87. 89. § 2. Where Parish Bounds are judged necessary all Persons living in the Parish may be constrained to hear Publick Teaching and to Worship God either in that or in some other approved or tolerated Church within their convenient reach or Neighbourhood Way of Concord Part 3. p. 139. § 3. The People are no Judges who is fit to be and shall be a Minister of Christ the Supream Civil Magistrate is Judge whom he must countenance maintain and tolerate The disposal of the Tithes and Temples is in the
and the Bishops were the most Godly Faithful Peaceable company of Bishops since the Apostle's times In Preface to the Second Plea we offered Arch-Bishop Usher's Model and when his Majesty would not grant us that he prescribed the Episcopacy of England as it stood with little Alteration this we joyfully and thankfully accepted as a hopeful means of a common Conformity and Concord See more p. 3. of his Apology and p. 161. I shewed that there are in Directory p. 832. such general Officers in the Church as an Army that is headed by the general himself and a Regiment by the Colonel and a Troophy a Captain there was no parity then in the Church-Officers In the Preface to the Five Disputations p. 9. Two sorts of Episcopacy are allowed first such as St. Hierome says were brought into the Church for a Remedy against Schism the Bishop of this Constitution was to preside over Presbyters and without him nothing was to be done in the Church that was of Moment S. 58. of Church Hist The Second is that which succeeds the Apostles in the ordinary parts of Church-Government while some Senior Pastors have the care of Supervising many Churches as the Visitors had in Scotland and are so far Episcopi-Episcoporum having no constraining Power of the Sword But a Power to admonish and instruct the Pastors and to Regulate Ordinations Synods and all great and common Circumstances that belong to Churches For if there were one Form of Government in which some Pastors had such extensive Work and Power as Timothy Titus and the Evangelists had as well as Apostles we must not change it without Proof that Christ himself would have it changed Many wise Men think that the Presbyterians rejecting all Episcopacy setting up unordained Elders and National Churches headed by National Assemblies are divisive and unwarrantable as their making by the Scots Covenant the renouncing of Episcopacy to be the test of National Concord was divisive Page 72. of the Third Defence Part the last Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hoper Jewel Davenant Usher Moreton Abbot Hall Potter Charleton were all Pious as well as Learned Bishops and so were many Conformist Ministers Sibs Preston Fenner Bolton Whately Dent Crook Pike Stock Stoughton Taylor c. My Judgment is that a Peace with the Divines of the Episcopal Judgment is much to be desired and earnestly endeavoured If it be Objected that he calls the Bishops their Silencers and Persecutors p. 104. of his Apology he says no Bishops have Silenced us by Spiritual Government that we know of but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which some of them gave their Votes for Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth all did not As for Bishops viz. a Diocesan ruling all the Presbyters but leaving the Presbyters to rule the People and consequently taking to himself the sole or chief power of Ordination but leaving censures and absolution to them except in case of Appeal to himself I must needs say that this sort of Episcopacy is very ancient and hath been for many Ages of very common reception through a great part of the Church And if I lived in a place where this government were established and managed for God I would submit thereto and live peaceably under it and do nothing to the disturbance disgrace or discouragement of it You may see how far Mr. Vines and Mr. Baxter did agree in the notion of a Bishop over many Presbyters Of which Grotius in his Commentary on the Acts and particularly chap. 17. saith that as in every particular Synagogue many of which were in some one City in Jerusalem 480. there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such was the Primitive Bishop And doubtless the first Bishops were over the community of Presbyters as Presbyters in joynt relation to one Church or Region which Region being upon the increase of Believers divided into more Churches and in after-times those Churches assigned to particular Men yet he the Bishop continued Bishop over them still For that you say he had a negative Voice that is more then ever I saw proved or I think ever shall for the first 200 Years and yet I have laboured to enquire into it That makes him Angelus Princeps not Angelus Praeses as Dr. Reinolds saith Calvin denies that and makes him Consul in Senatu or as a Speaker in the House of Parliament which as I have heard that D. B. did say was but to make him foreman of the Jury As touching the Introduction of ruling Elders such as are modelled out by Parliament my judgment is sufficiently known I am of your Judgment in the point There should be such Elders as have power to Preach as well as Rule On this Mr. Baxter reflects p. 353. Though Mr. Vines here yield not the negative Voice to have been de facto in the first or second age nor to be de jure yet he without any question yielded to the stating of a President durante vitâ if he prove not unworthy which was one point that I propounded to him and I make no doubt but he would have yielded to a voluntary consent of Presbyters de facto not to ordain without the President And the difficulties that are before us de facto in setting up a Parochial Episcopacy which he mentioneth I have cleared already in these Papers shewing partly that the thing is already existent and partly how more fully to accomplish it The Instances which he gives are in the Episcopacy of the Protestant Churches in Poland from Adrian Regenvolscius Hist Eccles Sclavon l. 3. p. 424. N. B. Whereas from the first Reformation of the Churches in the Province of the lesser Polonia it hath been received by Use and Custom that out of the Elders of all those Districtus Divisions which are 36 in Number one Primate or Chief in Order who is commonly called Superintendent of the Churches of lesser Poland and doth preside over the Provincial Synods be chosen by the Authority Consent and Suffrage of the Provincial Synod and that he be inaugurated and declared not by imposition of Hands to avoid the suspicion of Primacy and the appearance of Authority and Power over the other Elders only by Benediction and fraternal Prayers and by reading over the Offices which concern this Function and the Prayers of the whole Synod for the sake of Government and good Order in the Church of God c. The other instance is of the Churches of the Bohemian Confession who have among the Pastors of the Churches their Conseniors and Seniors and one President over all related by the same Regenvolscius p. 315. The Elders or the Superintendents of the Bohemian and Moravian Churches c. are for the most part chosen out of their Fellow-Elders and are Ordained and Consecrated to the Office of Seigniory by Imposition of Hands and Publick inauguration c. Mr. Baxter dislikes our Species of Diocesan Bishops because of their Chancellors which is very groundless for the power of Legislation the
be not read read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Q. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear them to them not as Officers claming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal Obedience to a Prelate Read Bradshaw against Can concerning this Pag. 181. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of the Holiness of Churches Q. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers Holy And what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by Man for Holy uses are Holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more Holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more Holy than those justly separated by Man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness And this expressed by such Signs Gestures Actions as are fittest to Honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in the Church and use reverent Carriage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due Reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the Power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials We flatly affirm that the Kings Laws do bind the Mind Soul or Conscience to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands Apol 4. We are so tender of obeying our Rulers that we will do any thing to obey and please them except disobeying God Page 111. We doubt not but Magistrates may restrain false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them to Sin Of Episcopacy Page 193. Princes and Rulers may for Orders sake distribute their Christian Kingdoms into Parishes which shall be the Ordinary Bounds of particular Churches And such distribution is very Congruous to the ends of the Ministry and Churches and conduceth to Order and Peace Non-confor Plea Pag. 31. When Pastors by Concord or Magistrates by Laws have setled lawful Circumstances or Accidents of Church Order or Worship or Discipline though they be in particular but Humane Institutions it is sinful Disobedience to violate them without necessity as Parochial Order Associations Times Places Ministers Scripture Translations c. Page 49. God's Laws bind us to keep Love and Concord and the Agreement of Councils may determine of the matter in alterable Points and so absent and present Bishops may for Concord sake be obliged by God's Law to keep such Canons and they are matter of Duty Page 266. The true interest of a meer Non-conformist requireth him to live in Loyalty Peace and Patience and in Love and Communion with the Parochial Churches Page 251. N. 11. I deny not but Magistrates may moderately drive Men to hear God's Word and to do the immediate Duties of their Places Of Episcopacy Page 144. Those Modes or Circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the Publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the Publick Worship Of the Surplice Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not aliene work but his own work amiss and therefore the thing in it self being lawful I would obey him and use that garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey And see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of the Ring in Marriage for though the Papists make a Sacrament of Marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any Ordinance of Divine Worship more than the solemnizing a Contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the Pure And for Organs or other Instruments of Musick in God's Worship they being a help partly naturally and partly artificial to the exhilarating the Spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the Tune and Metre and Melody of Singing unlawful Here therefore we thus conclude Page 423. That every misordering of such great Affairs is the Sin of them that do it yet the Subject is not exempted from Obedience by every such mistake of the Governour And § 67. If the Mischoosing of such Circumstances by the Governors be but an inconvenience and destroy not the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey for he the judge of his own Works and not we The thing is not sinful though inconvenient Page 398. Of Five Disputations § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very Sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used when they are commanded And Prop. 14. Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the command of their Lawful Governours in such things If the Prince command one thing not contrary to God's Law and the Pastors command the contrary we must obey the Prince before the Pastor We must obey the Magistrate We know not that their Commands are lawful as long as we have no sufficient Reason to believe them unlawful Page 356. of Holy Common-wealth and Page 357. Of Holy-Days The Holy Doctrine Lives and Sufferings of the Martyrs and other Holy Men hath been so great a Mercy to the Church that for any thing I know it is lawful to keep Anniversary Thanksgiving in remembrance of them and to encourage the weak and provoke them to constancy and imitation No Christian should refuse that which is lawful nor to joyn with the Church in Holy Exercises on the days of thankful Commemoration of the Apostles and Martyrs and Excellent
them How Forms may be imposed publickly on the Congregations of Believers and on the Ministers yea though the Forms imposed be worse than the exercise of their own gifts though among us no Man be forbidden to use his own gifts in the Pulpit The Pharisees long Liturgy it is like was in many things worse than ours yet Christ and his Apostles often joyned with them and never condemned them I shall now only add that the Lord's Prayer is a Form directed to God as in the Third Person and not to Man only as a directory for Prayer in the Second Person it is not Pray to God your Father in Heaven that his name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come c. But Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name c. And it seems by the Disciples words that thus John taught his Disciples to pray Luke 11. 1. and we have in the Scripture the mention of many Set Forms of Service to God which therefore we may well use And I desire the Reader again to Note that though Prayer was corrupted by the Pharisees yet Christ usually joyned in their Synagogues Luke 14. 17. and never medled with our controversie about the lawfulness of Set Forms This Mr. Baxter infers from Calvins note on Matth. 6. before the Preface to the Defence Pag. 76. Of Concord I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the Common-Prayer to be better incomparably than the Prayers or Sermons of many that I hear As for the Common Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would again in the like case He that separates upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate upon a reason common to almost all of the far greatest part of the Churches See the Defence p. 54. The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert Defence p. 68. Apology p. 9. Having perused all the Foreign and Antient Liturgies in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there That which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful because it is commanded Obedience to Superiors is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things p. 152. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of Obedience to our Pastors We are indangered by divisions principally because the self-conceited part of Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be rulers of the Church and them But pleasing the ignorant Professors humors is a Sin that shews us to be too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last It is a high degree of pride for persons of ordinary understandings to conclude that almost all Christs Churches in the World for Thirteen Hundred Years at least have offered such Worship to God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth at this day is below your Communion for using Forms Mark Is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of old experienced Christians I think till we have better taught even our godly People what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Church of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order We are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The People of the New Separation so much rule their Ministers that many of them have been forced to forsake their own judgments to comply with the violent Labour to maintain the Ordinances and Ministry in esteem The Church is bound to take many a Man as a True Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in Faith and expectation of Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it How much more then to respect their lawful Bishops and Pastors Of Lay-Elders For Lay-Elders As far as I understand the greatest part if not three for one of the English Ministers are of this mind That unordained Elders wanting power to Preach or Administer Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's appointment Of this number I am one and Mr. Vines was another In the Worcester Agreement Printed 1653. Mr. Baxter declared that neither Scripture nor Antiquity knew of any such Officers as Lay-Elders In the Third Defence p. 58. It was notorious that the Parliament yielded to Presbytery to exclude Episcopacy because they had no other way to uphold their Wars without which they had no way to hold up themselves but by help of the Scots My first Book Viz. the Preface to Saints Rest disclaims Lay-Elders Pag. 109. to Hinckly Of Bishops Page 832. of Mr. Baxter ' s Directory Q. 56. Mr. Baxter tells you in the Margin of those Reasons for a larger Episcopacy That in the Apostles Days there were under Christ in the Universal Church many general Officers that had the care of gathering and over-seeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation unto none And most Christian Churches think that though the extraordinary Gifts Privileges and Officers cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their Work the same Form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Ages tho' not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts were settled for all following Ages 1. Because we read of settling that Form viz. general Officers as well as Particular but never of any Abolition 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without Proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as setting a Form of Government for one Age only 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. 4. It was general Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. And in this Premonition he says he doth not dispute the Lawfulness of Arch-Bishops over parochial-Parochial-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and other general Officers of the first Age in the ordinary continued parts of their Office And in his Plea for Peace p. 263. Some of us incline much to think that arch-Arch-Bishops i. e. Bishops that have over-sight of many Churches with their Pastors are lawful Successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their Work So also First Plea p. 35. and of his accepting two parts of Episcopacy not varying the Species in the Preface to the second Plea In Church-History p. 37. and in Plea for Peace p. 66. the Bishops in Cyprian's time had the best ordered Churches in the World
Foundation and Form of Government which being wholly in the Bishops and Clergy who in Convocation have the sole Power of making Canons for the Government of the Church and there being no Censure to be inflicted but according to those Canons the Lay-Chancellor are but inferior Officers intrusted by their Bishops with some part of the Executive Power the Bishops themselves as well as their Chancellors having the Canons to direct and over-rule them in the Execution and if there be any extra-judicial Process there lye Appeals from them both Moreover the Chancellors being bred up to the Study and Practice of the Canon and Civil Laws are most fit for Executing the Canons being acquainted with the Nature of Evidences Probations and judicial Process which meer Presbyters cannot be presused to understand so well and this Office of Chancellors being allowed by the Laws of the Land they may be submitted to as they are the King's Officers by Mr. Baxter's own Concessions This may satisfie the impartial Reader against those bitter Invectives of Mr. Baxter against the Species of Diocesan Bishops as being Anti-Christian and the Military Instruments of the Devil Those that treated with the Bishops 1660. did yield to such an Episcopacy as the old Nonconformists would scarce generally have consented to i. e. to Bishop Usher's Model Episcopacy is not such an upstart thing nor defended by such contemptible Reasons as that the Controversie is like to die with this Age undoubtedly there will be a Godly and Learned Party for it while the World endureth And it is a numerous Party All the Greek Church the Armenian Syrian Abassine and all others but a few of the Reformed For Denmark Sweden part of Germany and Transilvania have a Superintendency as high as that I plead for p. 11. If you know no Godly Persons of the Episcopal way I do and as my acquaintance increaseth I know more and more and some I take to be much better than my self I will say a greater word that I know those of them whom I think as Godly Humble Ministers as most of the Non-conformists whom I know p. 12. And I believe there are many hundred Godly Ministers in the Church of England and that their Churches are true Churches And I am confident most of the Ministers in England would be content to yield to such an Episcopacy as you may find in the Published Judgments of Bishop Hall Usher Dr. Forbes Hodsworth and others Preface to the Five Disputations p. 9. Christ Direct the Second Edition p. 189. Part 3. Q. How doth the Holy Ghost set Bishops over the Church Answ By making the Office it self so far as the Apostles had any hand in it Christ himself having made their Office The Holy Ghost in the Electors and Ordainers directeth them to discern the fitness of the Persons and so to call such as God approveth of and calleth by the Holy Ghost in them which is done by the ordinary help of God's Spirit in the wise and faithful Electors and Ordainers the Holy Ghost doth qualifie them for the Work by due Life Light and Love Knowledge Willingness and Activity and so inclining them to it and marking out the Person by his Gifts which was done at first by extraordinary Gifts and ever since by ordinary special and saving in some common and only fitted to the Churches Instruction in others so that whoever is not competently qualified is not called by the Holy Ghost when Christ ascended he gave gifts to Men some Apostles c. Eph. 4. 78 c. Of Sacriledge Q. 171. What is Sacriledge Ans It is a robbing God by the unjust alienation of Holy things As deposing Kings silencing true Ministers the unjust alienating of Temples Utensils Lands Days separated by God himself and justly consecrated by Man Mr. Vines his Letter to Mr. Baxter p. 35. of the 5 Disput concerning Sacriledge As for your Question about Sacriledge I am very near you in the present Opinion The point was never stated nor debated in the Isle of Wight I did for my part decline the dispute for I could not maintain the cause as on the Parliament side And because both I and others were unwilling it was never brought to open debate The Commissioners did argue it with the King but they went upon grounds of Law and Polity and it was only about Bishops Lands for they then averred the continuance of Dean and Chapter Lands to the use of the Church Some deny that there is any sin of Sacriledge under the Gospel and if there be any they agree not in the definition Some hold an Alienation of Church-goods in case of Necessity and then make the necessity what and as extensive as they please The most are of Opinion that while the Church lies so unprovided for the donations are not alienable sine Sacrilegio If there were a Surplusage above the competent maintenance it were another matter It is clear enough the Donors wills are frustrated and that their general intention and the general use Viz. the maintenance of God's Worship and Ministers should stand though the particular use might be superstitious I cited in my last Sermon before the Parliament a place out of Mr. Hildersham on Psal 51. touching Sacriledge it did not please If his description of it be true then you will still be of your own mind I dare encourage no Purchasers c. Mr. Baxter's Advice to separating Brethren Mr. B' s Epistle to separate Congregations Consider this It is the judgment of some that Thousands are gone to Hell and Ten thousands on their march thither that in all probability had not come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for injoyment of Communion in a purer Church Pag. 21. Of Defence The Interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by means of the Parish Ministers and by Doctrine and Worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists And I am perswaded that all the Arguments of Bellarmin and other Books that have been written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the Multitude of Sects among our selves Defence p. 21. In The Second Admonition to Bagshaw p. 78. It is Lawful to hold Communion with our Churches having but tolerable Ministers notwithstanding the Parochial Order and the Ministers Conformity and the use of the Common-Prayer-Book and that we ought to do so when some special reason as from Authority Scandal c. do require it A Ministers personal faults do not allow a People to separate from the Worship of God nor all Ministerial faults but only those that prove him or his Ministration utterly intolerable Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet p. 50. The word Schism signifieth any sinful Division among Christians there may be a Schism in a Church when no party divideth from it as when one says I am of Paul c. 1 Cor. 3. 3. A Man may cause