it unlawful to reproach all Churches that we see to be faulty but it is our duty to keep peace with all XXVIII VVe hold mental distant Communion in Faith and Love with many Churches that by imposing sin do deny us local Communion XXIX Though I here tell you once for all that I justifie not all that I can thus bear with yet we can submit by peaceable silence to many abuses in a Church which we dare not subscribe to and approve and use also passive Obedience where active is unlawful XXX VVe are not against God-Fathers and God-Mothers as used of old that is when the Parents are the Covenanters for their Child and their Death or Apostasie is feared for others to promise if they dye or apostatize to take care of the Child or for any Adopters or Owners to do it that take the Child as theirs XXXI VVe are so far from being against true confirmation as it is the taking persons that own their Baptismal Covenant solemnly into the number of adult Members and Communicants that we desire it and have written for it as a chief means of the true Reformation of all our Churches in the Land. XXXII VVe differ not in Faith or meer Doctrine from the Church of England as it 's in the Thirty Nine Articles but only in One new Article put into the new Liturgy of the Salvation of Baptized Infants as undoubtedly certain by the Word of God without any exception if they then dye XXXIII VVe are not against reading the profitable part of the Apocrypha as other Humane VVritings may be read sufficiently distinguished from the word of God. XXXIV VVe are for Corporal VVorship as a due expression of Spiritual And we are against all undecent expressions in Praying or Preaching and all undecent Habits Gestures or Actions XXXV VVe blame not the Liturgy for extending the words of Charity and Hope as far as there is any reasonable ground in Sacraments Absolution and Buryal XXXVI VVe are not for mens invading the Ministry unordained but believe that Senior Pastors or Bishops are ordinarily the regular Judges of the fitness of Candidates for the Ministry XXXVII VVe are not for unlimited Toleration But that the Rulers justly distinguish in Law and License 1. The approved whom they must own and maintain 2. The tolerable whom they must tolerate 3. The intollerable whom they must restrain from doing hurt XXXVIII VVe are for making true Religion as National and extensive as may be and for a National Church 1. As the associated Community of Churches in a Nation is so called 2. And as they are all accidentally united under one Christian Soveraign Though we abhor the casting out all that be not of our opinion and measure and that cannot submit to all that I here enumerate which I and others of my mind can submit to XXXIX VVe are so far from desiring to draw people from the Parish Churches into Conventicles that we would keep up the honour of them to the utmost of our power as knowing how greatly the countenance and maintenance of Rulers conduceth to the furtherance of Religion and that the publick Religion will be the common and National Religion and most will be there And if the Protestant Religion were reduced to Tolerated Conventicles Popery would possess its place and become National and soon withdraw even private Toleration as we see in France XL. VVe are not for Preaching when we are forbidden where there is not a real and evident need of our Labours XLI VVe believe not that the Scots Covenant or any other doth oblige us to Sedition Rebellion Schism or any sin nor doth disoblige us from any Obedience due to any Superior XLII VVe refuse not the Oxford Oath or any such because it is an obligation to obey our Rulers in Lawful things nor because it restraineth us from resisting Authority for we give as much to Humane Soveraignty and confess as much obedience due to them from Subjects 1. As any Text of Scripture speakes 2. Or any General Council save what they give to the Pope and his Vassals 3. Or as any Confessions that we know of of any Christian Churches agree in 4. Or which Lawyers Politicians and Historians Protestants Papists or Heathens agree in as far as we are acquainted XLIII VVe are not against the use of Synods or Councils nor against Princes using their advice for such Laws circa sacra as belong to them to make VVe believe Councils should be used as far as the common good and Communion of the Catholick Church requireth it though no Foreigners have Jurisdiction over us And we hold that if they agree of any thing conducible to the common good though their agreement be not a Law but a Contract yet the general command of keeping the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace obligeth all to hold such concord for the ends sake that have no special reason against it In these Forty three things we oppose not conformity L. And if yet after all this Agreement we must be destroyed by divisions the heavy Curse of God is on us and will surely fall on them that are the causes of it who ever they be CHAP. IV. A brief enumeration of the things imposed on us which is the matter of our Nonconformity M. DO you know what it is that we are required to conform to L. I know it is to use the Liturgies Ceremonies and submit to the Bishops as your Governours I know no more M. And yet dare you become our Judge If you are no more exact and just in matters of Law your Clients must pay for it Before I come to handle the particulars I will set together here the things required of us and how much of them we refuse I will tell you when I try them and give you our Reasons against them I. Whereas few of the Nonconforming Ministers were at Age and Ordained till Diocesans were put down in England and were Ordained by an Assembly of Senior Pastors which were then in possession of the Power and had many years the Approbation of the whole National Assembly of Divines at Westminster before they were admitted to any Incumbency none of these may now exercise their Ministry unless they be Re-ordained by Diocesans II. No man can be Ordained by them and admitted to any Cure that will not take the Oath of Canonical Obedience as they call it and in his Ordination Covenant to obey his Ordinary III. No man must Preach the Gospel by the authority of his Ordination and Office till moreover he have got a Licence from the Bishop to Preach and till he have got that Licence to Preach he may not take upon him to Expound in his own Cure OR ELSEWHERE ANY SCRIPTURE OR MATTER OR DOCTRINE but shall only study to read plainly and aptly without glossing or adding the Homilies already set forth or hereafter to be published by lawful Authority Can. 49. IV. No man may be Ordained or be a Licenced
the Ordainers investing action This is it which we mean in the Controversie which may not be done twice 2. Or it may signifie the meer words of the Ordainers and Ordained which make up the said Moral action We deny not but the same words repeated may make up one Moral Ordination If the Bishop by tautology repeat them twice or thrice Or if they should to satisfie men of divers Languages that are present be first spoken in English and after in French or when some that doubted require it should go over them again all this is but one Ordination L. How prove you that our Bishops intend any more when they say it is only to satisfie the Law that you may be capable in England M. 1. That it is not a meer relation to some particular cure that they mean is undenyable 1. Because they call that by the name of Institution and Induction and not of Ordination 2. Because they never ordain any over and over upon removals 3. Because the words of Ordination in the Book tell it us 2. That they do it not as a Repetition of the same valid Ordination is past doubt 1. Because the same repeated by the same men will not serve 2. It is to be done again ten or twenty years after the first 3. He is to be fined in an hundred pound that administreth the Sacrament without it 4. He is taken for no true Minister without it which cannot be true of a bare repetition of words No reasonable men would lay so much on that 3. It is undeniable that they take men for unordained and no Ministers till they ordain them 1. Because they all disown reordaining they know that the Canons called the Apostles and the whole antient and later Church condemn it as like Anabaptistry and no one Bishop in England will not renounce it Therefore its certain that they take the first Ordination for null 2. And they have so declared their judgment in many words and writings and in the Act of Uniformity it is plainly intimated in the penalty L. And what harm is there in being twice Ordained M. 1. Ad hominem I need not dispute it All the Bishops disclaim it as unlawfull so that we have their confession 2. It is the same fault as Anabaptistry If they be blameless why make you such a noise against the Anabaptists To be twice made a Christian and twice made a Minister is of the like kind 3. It is something causelesly to cast our selves under the Censure of all the Church that hath been against it and to be condemned by them 4. It is a plain prophanation of God's holy name and of a great and holy Ordinance by Lying and taking Godâ—s name in vain For they are said to be now admitted to the Office and this day to receive it and God is told that they are now called to it And all their Examinations and Answers imply that they were no Ministers before and the Bishop saith Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Priest now committed to thee by the Imposition of our hands which all imply it not done before And in so sacred a contract with God to lie to him and prophanely abuse his name and the holy Ghosts and the Duty of Prayer and Praise is tremendous Be not deceived God is not mocked 5. It is a confederacy with Corrupters and Usurpers that arrogate and appropriate valid Ordination to themselves and a confirming all their injury to posterity that all that shall hereafter imitate them may be encouraged by alledging our Re ordination 6. It is a hainous injury to all the other Reformed Churches as if we degraded their Ministers and separated from them all as no Churches For one part of them have no Diocesans and the rest have Bishops that at the Reformation were Ordained by Presbyters 7. It is contrary to one of the Articles of our Religion 23. These we ought to judge them lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick authority given to them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers c. But in other Countries Presbyters have publick authority given them And Art. 36. The book of Consecration doth contain all things necessary to such consecration and Ordaining But it hath nothing for Re-ordaining those before Ordained 8. It is a plain condemnation of the Church of England which hath professed Communion with the Reformed abroad as with true Ministers and Churches of Christ. And we are now told that to communicate with Schismaticks induceth the guilt of Schism 9. It introduceth Anabaptistry or utter confusion into the Nation leaving men in doubt whether for fourteen years the people had any true Baptism while it's a controversie whether Lay-mens Baptizing be valid and Mr. Dodwell maketh all men to be out of any Covenant-title to Salvation that have not the Sacraments from a Minister that hath successive Episcopal Ordination And all Christians must question whether they have not so long here lived out of the Church of Christ without Ministery and Communion Do you think that none of these nine Reasons prove Re-ordination sinful L. But because the Bishops deny it let me hear your proof that the former Ordination here by Presbyters is not a nullity M. I. Ad hominem the Church of England hath as I said judged the like valid in the Reformed Churches by holding Communion with them I cited a great number of Bishops and Doctors in my Christian Concord L. But they say that necessity differeth their case from ours here And even Doctour Sherlock tells you that if God make necessity necessity will make Ministers But ours Schismatically pull'd down the Bishops and now disown the very Order M. There is a satisfactory concession in these words but the accusations are made up of falsehood and deceit 1. Archbishop Vsher and others that thought the Ejectors of Episcopacy were guilty of Schism yet maintained that their Ordination was valid He told me how he pleaded it to the King. 2. Do they think that Salmasius Blundel and all others that have written more against our Prelacy than the English were deprived of it against their wills by necessity 3. What necessity can they pretend to the Hollanders Helvetians Geneva Embden Bremen the Palatinate and Scotland heretofore might they not have had Prelates when they would 4. Was not the necessity far more notorious to those that I now plead for They lived in a Land where Episcopacy was cast out and kept out by a potent Army I think there were but four or five Bishops alive when it was restored 5. It is false that they cast out the Bishops Those Ministers that joyned with the Parliament to cast them out were Ordained by Bishops and therefore are none of the men that we are speaking of These that were Ordained by Presbyters were then young men at School or in the Universities And what are other mens actions to them L. But
doth the Church make Kneeling in Receiving necessary to Salvation but enjoyne it as a decent Ceremony M. They that make this Kneeling necessary to Church Communion and avoiding Schism and make church-Church-communion and avoiding Schism necessary to Salvation do make the said Kneeling necessary to Salvation But so do the Canonists here Ergo. How usually do they apply Christ's words to the Sacrament Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you If Communion herein be not necessary how come all the dreadful Sermons and Volumnes to thunder damnation against those that do but stay away through fear of unpreparedness and they must be Excommunicated that Communicate not twice a year with them yea though they communicate elsewhere with Nonconformists L. Wherein lyeth the sinfulness of Conformity here M. I. In subscribing Assenting and Consenting to this II. In practising it against Godly Believers L. I have heard that 1661. at the Savoy they maintained that the Liturgy did not bind you to put away them that do not Kneel and so you might subscribe to it M. This quibble served mens turn that were resolved it should be served The case was this They required us to lay by inconveniencies and name only flat sins which the Liturgy required we gave them in a Catalogue of eight This was the first Denying the Lord's Supper to all that durst not receive it Kneeling They were hereupon divided among themselves Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning and Sparrow who were the Disputants in policy finding that they should be hard put to it to justifie such rejections devised this evasion that the Liturgy did only bid them give it Kneeling but did not forbid them giving it to others Dr. Morley and others were against their opinion and so they were divided But they permitted the Disputers to go on it being the last day in the way that served their present turn But the case is clear 1. The Canon forbids them on pain of Suspension to give the Sacrament to any that Kneel not And they all take the Oath of Canonical obedience And though in Licitis honestis be added the terms signifie that they are to take the Canons as Licita honesta And these Canons ipso facto Excommunicate all professed Nonconformists 2. They all subscribe to use the form of administrating Sacraments in the Common-Prayer book and no other 3. The Church therefore expounds its own meaning in the Liturgy by the Canon that give it to them Kneeling signifies give it only to such 4. If any doubt of it let them try and their Suspension according to the Canon will expound it to them L. If the practice be sinful in rejecting such Assenting and Consenting and Subscribing to do it must be sinful M. The sin lyeth in what I before said about refusing Baptism 1. It maketh new terms of Church Communion 2. It contradicteth Christ's appointed terms which require all Christians to receive each other in Love and Concord And Paul expresly decideth such cases Rom. 14 and 15. Receive one another as Christ received us to the Glory of God. Will Christ that receiveth them to pardon grace and endless Glory own these Rejecters and Condemners Or will he not say In as much as ye did it to one the least of these my brethren ye did it to me And who is he that condemneth when it is Christ that justifieth 3. They shall answer for depriving Christ's Members of their right as truely as if they oppressed Widows and Orphans and turned them out of their houses and inheritance 4. They shall answer for Schismatical tearing the Church by their Engines 5. And for usurping a needless and hurtful dominion over mens faith and consciences by their Church Legislation 6. And for using that office which is made for the edifying and comfort of the Faithful to drive conscience and obedience to God out of the world by making doubtful ensnaring impositions and then persecuting and rendring odious all that dare not obey them for fear of sin while they bear with the Rabble that hate serious godliness and encourage them by preferring them in their communion L. But what pretence have any against Kneeling M. 1. It is not a necessary point of Salvation or communion and therefore if they err they are not therefore to be Excommunicate unless you will Excommunicate all that have errour and sin that is your selves and every living man. 2. They have the pretence of real fearing that it is a sin to differ in the Gesture from Christ's administration thinking that a Table gesture was intended by him to signifie his sacrifice-Feast 3. They fear breaking the Second commandment which is against corporal seeming to worship as Idolaters do though the heart mean better and so against symbolizing with Idolaters and against scandalous hardening them in their sin Because Papists are known to kneel to the Bread as unto God and worship it And these Papists live among us and are now hoping to set up their Idolatry Though for my part I think that the publick Doctrine of the Church takes off this argument of Scandal yet it is such as very Learned and holy men think valid as you may see in Mr. Rutherford's Letters and many others 4. And ad hom̄inem I see not what the Excommunicators can say for themselves while they condemn all of Schism that obey not General Councils especially the four first and that differ from the Universal Churches customes And yet the very first Nicene Council and divers after forbid all Kneeling in adoration on any Lord's day in the year and on any weeks day between Easter and Whitsunday And all the Ancients assure us that this was one of the chief ceremonys that the Church then called Universal agreed in And it was never put down by any other General Council but at Rome grew out of custome by degrees and that not till a thousand years after Christ as Dr. Heylin confesseth And shall these same men that cry up the Church and the Laws of Councils Excommunicate those that obey them as Schismaticks and pass for the followers of the Church themselves In a word I dare no more cast godly Christians from Christs Sacrament for fearing least Kneeling in Receiving be a symbolizing with Idolaters contrary to the Second Commandment than I durst turn Widows and Orphans out of their inheritance for not speaking the same language or wearing the same fashions as I do CHAP. XV. Point XII Of Consenting to the false Rule to find out Easter-day in the Liturgy M. THE next Point is materially a trifle but formally so palpable an untruth that we cannot deliberately declare that we Assent to it viz. They tell us in their Calender truly how to find Easter-day and they add another Rule to find it always which is frequently false as every Almanack will tell you viz. that it is always the first Sunday after the first full Moon which happens next after the
to be cast out as an impenitent wicked man for this when they that will say all 's well that the Bishops do may live quietly in open vice or ungodliness As Dr. Sloughton saith If you strike a Schismatick and Christ find a Saint lye bleeding and you be to answer for it I would not be in your case for all your wealth If you must kill a Fly on the Forehead of a Child of God with a Beetle or a Butchers Axe you shall not use my hand to give the blow If Chrysostom would rather have his hand cut off than give the Sacrament to a wicked man tho' a Prince I will rather have mine cut off than reject a Saint or my Tongue cut out than curse Christs Members lest he say I cursed him in them Chap. XXVIII Point XXV Of Publishing the Excommunications of Canon 9th 10th 11th Of such as call Dissenters a Church M. THese Canons made against Schismaticks and Conventicles do Excommunicate all that say such are true Churches that have groaned under the burden of grievances c. And is this a just cause of Excommunication I wish they had no such burden laid on them to make them groan But suppose them quite mistaken if a weak mistaken Christian may be a true Christian tho' faulty why may not a mistaken Congregation be a true Church tho' faulty I hope no man of Protestant Faith and Charity will take the Errors of such as they describe for worse than the Papists and yet how many have written tho' confusedly to prove the very Church of Rome a true Church tho' sinful Yea I hope few Protestants will say that our Separatists have half so great Ignorance Error and Corruption as the Moscovites Greeks Abassines Copties Iacobites Nestorians Armenians who yet are commonly by us confessed to be true Churches If they be no true Churches it is either because of the greatness of their Errors or because they go against the Law or Will of Governors not the first as the foresaid instances shew not the latter for no man ever yet owned that Principle that it can be no true tho' faulty Church that is gathered against the Rulers wills For many hundred years the Orthodox did it justly and afterward when some did it unjustly the culpability made it not a nullity Else what a case was the Roman Church in that for many hundred years was kept up by Rebellion against their Lawful Emperors and Princes And how oft have a great part of the Greek Churches been guilty of it And do not the Condemners hereby imitate the Separatists in the sin and reviling as they are reviled The Separatists falsly say that you are no true Churches and you requite them with saying falsly the same by them Chap XXIX Point XXVI Of Executing Canon 27. rejecting Nonconformists from Communion L. THis is but the same that we heard before M. Before I speak against publishing Excommunications This Canon commandeth the Minister executively before they are Excommunicated to give the Sacrament to no one that receiveth it not kneeling or that is guilty of any of the foresaid Points of Dissent unless he confess his fault and promise to do so no more So that here the Minister is to be himself the prime Executioner against such Dissenters before the Courts or Ordinaries Excommunicate or meddle with them L. But none subscribe to this Canon M. I told you they Swear Canonical Obedience and the Canon suspendeth them if they do not do it Therefore it is a necessary part of Conformity But of this I spake before about Assent and Consent Chap. XXX Point XXVII Of refusing Communicants from other Parishes Canon 28. L. VVHY may not this be obeyed M. In some cases it may when Persons straggle without cause But there is frequent need that will justifie it as a Duty Parish Bounds are a humane Order for conveniency but the benefit of an able faithful Minister and the choice and use of such where they may be had is of Divine Appointment and a matter of far greater weight The Canon supposeth Ministers that neither can nor may be suffered to Preach or Expound any Doctrine If a Neighbour Parish have an able Teacher must he drive away poor hungry Souls that seek his Consolatory Communion and Help If Parishes that are bound to maintain their own Poor suffer any of them to be in danger of perishing by cold or hunger a Neighbour Parish tho' forbidden by men is bound by God to relieve them in distress Every Christian is related to all the Catholick Church and as he hath need hath right to the Communion of Saints out of his Parish In London where some Churches have excellent men if a Lord or Gentleman live in a Parish where a Patron hath set over them one that Preacheth not sincerely but railingly in strife contention or gross Error why may not such a man go to a Neighbour Church And why must that Neighbour Minister repel him When yet our Antagonists in this case maintain that the Catholick Church being but one every Christian must Communicate in every place where he hath occasion And that a Diocess is the lowest sort of Church of which Parishes are but parcels And consequently a man never separateth from his Church that separateth not from the Diocesan Chap. XXXI Point XXVIII Of Canon 38. Excommunicating Ministers that repent of Subscribing M. IF Subscribing prove a Sin of which I am past doubt this Canon commandeth the Excommunicating Men for repenting of Sin. Whereas Christ's Law of Excommunication is to Excommunicate none but for not repenting of Sin. Are not these two very contrary And do you think that Christ will stand to such an Excommunication or disown them that are thus cast out Some Mens abuse of Excommunication is such as if at last if all their Canons be executed they would tempt Men to doubt whether they live like Christians because they are not Excommunicate and would make it a good argument He is cast out of the Church for Conscience sake ergo it is a good sign that he is a Man of Conscience Or as if they were but fulfilling They shall cast out your names as Evil doers c. L. Why should you put Cases that may never come to pass I do not think you were ever commanded to Publish an Excommunication against any such M. But to Promise and Swear Canonical Obedience is a thing that is required of us all And promising to Sin is Sin and oft worse than a sudden act Yea if a Minister do but omit some Forms or Ceremony by this Canon he must be first Suspended and then Excommunicate and I must publish it if required Chap. XXXII Point XXIX Of the Execution of the 57th Canon L. VVHat is the 57th Canon and its Execution M. It Suspendeth and after a Month Excommunicateth all that go for Baptism for their Children or Communion themselves from their own Parish because the Minister is no Preacher to another Parish
for Church Communion and may be forced to it No nor any that do not desire Christ Grace and Glory before all the Baits of sin 2. Did you think I had pleaded that Men may without punishment do what they list and live in wickedness It 's one thing to restrain them from sin and another to constrain them to sin under the name of Religion 3. Nor did I speak against constraining Atheists and Infidels and Malignant Enemies to hear the Gospel 4. But your force cannot constrain them to believe And 5. You ought not constrain them to Lie and say they believe 6. And you ought not prophanely to Lie in Christ's Name by telling an unwilling Communicant that all his sins are pardoned and that you Seal it to him Do as much good by force as you can but do no mischief L. But hath not the King more power over your Family than you have Sure the highest power is the greatest and containeth all the lower in it The last words are a great mistake Political Power doth not contain Natural Personal and Oeconomical and Ecclesiastical in it but supposeth them all unalterable and pre-existent and only useth them to Political ends that is the safety and good of the Common-wealth And as far as this end requireth the King hath more power of my Wife Children Estate Life than I have That is He may see that I use my Personal and Family Government so as may not hurt the Commonâ—wealth and do more harm than good But that Politick Power doth neither contain nor abrogate the other is evident 1. The King doth not eat and drink for me nor digest my Meat nor rejoice or grieve for me 2. The King doth not sin by my sinning nor shall be judged saved or damned for me 3. The King may not chuse my Wife Diet c. As aforesaid Nor hath he right to lye with your Wife as you have nor to dispose of your Children or Propriety 4. The King that ruleth Priests may not do what the Priest doth administer Sacraments use the Church Keys c. So that all that he can do is to over-rule Personal Family and Church Governors to the common good without destroying them L. It is for the Common good that all be forced to Communion M. Yes if you can first force them to Faith and Holiness else it is for the common Church-confusion Corruption and Mens deceit and damnation and not the common good Chap. XLVI Point III. Of forcing Men to Schism by renouncing Communion with true Churches and Members of Christ. M. III. THe Third unlawful part of Lay-Conformity is that they must be forced from Local Communion with all the Nonconformists that Assemble any where save in the parish-Parish-Churches or Chappels and so under pretence of driving them from Schism they are driven into notorious Schism L. How prove you that it 's their Duty to have any such Communion with Nonconformists Conventicles If you are Scismaticks it 's a Sin to Communicate with you M. 1. I prove Communion with us a Duty Tho' it be not every Man's Duty to be Locally present with us it is every Man's Duty not to avoid it as an unlawful thing but to be willing of it as he hath occasion 2. It is a Duty for all Christians to own Communion with all true Members of the Body of Christ. But Nonconformists and their Assemblies for Worship are true Members of the Body of Christ. Ergo The major is most fully proved by Christ Ioh. 17. 24. and Paul 1 Cor. 12. throughout and Eph. 4. 1 2 3 to the 17. and Rom. 14. and 15. and many other Scriptures The minor I prove All those are true Members of the Body of Christ who have all the Essentials necessary to the Constitution of such Members But so have the Nonconformists and their Church Assemblies as afore described Ergo. The major none but the ignorant of Logick will deny As to the minor They that have true Christian Faith Hope and Love have all that is Essential to personal Members And the Churches that have Pastors and People communicating in that Faith Hope and Love in Doctrine Worship Sacraments and tolerable Discipline are true Churches parts of the Universal Church But such are many Persons and Churches of Nonconformists Ergo. The major all sound and knowing Christians grant For the minor no proof is necessary but our Profession till it be disproved And let the Accusers of the Brethren as they love themselves take this warning before they undertake to disprove it Do it by no Argument that will ten times more condemn your selves and your Church than such Nonconformists 2. The second Argument is this It is a Sin of Schism to refuse Communion with those that Christ receiveth so we own not any of their sin Rom. 15. 6. c. But Christ receiveth into his Communion the foresaid Nonconformists and their Worshipping Assemblies Proved as before 3. It is a Sin to deny the lawfulness of Communion with Christians and their Assemblies for lesser faults than those Persons and Assemblies had whose Communion Christ and his Apostles were for But so must they that will deny the lawfulness of Communion with the said Nonconformists and their Assemblies The major none will deny that take Christ and his Apostles for their Teachers The minor is easily proved The Church of the Jews had Priests unlawfully introduced and corrupt Teachers and Worship and yet Christ disowned not Communion with them in Synagogues and Temple and Houses save only that he Conformed not to their sinful Traditions and Corruptions The Church of the Corinthians had men guilty of Schism and Faction and quarrelling with the Apostle wronging each other sinful Law Suits Scandalous Persons denying the Resurrection grosly abusing the Sacrament and Communion c. The Churches of Galatia Ephesus Smyrna Thyatira Sardis c. had such faults as I need not tell you of Yet no Man is bid or allowed to disown Communion with them You can truly prove no such by those in question Arg. 3. Ad hominem It is lawful to communicate with the Churches of England that have more Faults than the Nonconformists Ergo it is lawful to communicate with them that have fewer We challenge any to prove so many and such Faults by us as I have here before proved by your Church And if for ours Separation from us be a Duty from yours it proves a Duty much more Arg. 4. It is a Schismatical Doctrine which would teach Men by parity of Reason to renounce communion with all Churches and Christians on Earth or near all But such is that which would teach Men to renounce communion with all the Nonconformists and their Worshipping Assemblies The major is unquestionable The minor is proved In that all or near all the Christians on Earth have as great Faults as the Nonconformists and their Assemblieâ— O that God would so bless the World as to make all the Churches of the Armenians Abassians Syrians
Georgians Circassians Greeks Moscovites Papists Lutherans and all other Protestants c. but as knowing sincere faithful obedient c. as those in England that you revile cast out and prosecute L. But Communion in Schism is unlawful But you are accused of Schism and so are your Assemblies M. And the Church of England is as loudly accused of Schism and Heresie by the Papists and too much by the Greeks if the Patriarch Ieremy spake their Sence Art they therefore Schismaticks indeed None forwarder to accuse than the Ignorant or Guilty Judge by what I have said of our Judgment in my Search for the Schismatick We abhor Schism and have laboured to have healed the Wounds of the Church with all our power these 22 years and more And who be they that have resisted it and hate the only healing Balsam 2. It is not true that we must have Communion with no Church that is guilty of Schism tho' we must not be guilty of Schism it self If the Schism be Apostasy that cuts them off from Christ and the Church universal we must not have Christian communion with such that are no Christians But if they are only guilty of Schism from some particular Church and of Schism in the Universal Church and not from it wounding and not dismembring we must not renounce communion with such save only as with any other scandalous Sins so far as impenitence proveth ungodliness The Church of Corinth was much guilty of Schism and so was that of Galatia and yet none were therefore to renounce their Communion Was not Peter guilty of some Schism Gal. 2. I doubt there are few Churches on Earth that are not herein guilty either in East South West or North. And must we renounce communion with them all That is to commit tenfold greater Schism for fear of Schism 3. Read impartially my Search for the Schismatick and if the Prelates thus mentioned be not far more guilty of Schism than we are I despair of ever understanding what Schism is This would be the strongest Argument for separation from them and is so used by many Separatists Chap. XLVII Point IV. Of obliging the Laity to live without any more benefit of Disciplinâ— than is in the Publick Churches M. IV. THe next part of Lay-Conformity is this Christ who instituted Ministry Word and Sacraments hath also instituted a certain determinate Discipline in his Church of great use to the Church and to particular Souls And this is considerable 1. As a Duty 2. As a Benefit And no Man hath authority 1. To disoblige us from a Duty of Christ's imposing 2. Or to deprive us of a Benefit of Christ's giving But Conformity doth both these to the Laity in a great degree L. What mean you by that Discipline I thought our Church had rather too sharp Discipline I hope you mean not the Geneva Discipline or the Scots Presbyteries and Stool of Repentance M. I mean nothing but what as to the Matter the Episcopal Party write for as the Ordinance of Christ The true exercise of the Keys and the previous Acts. That is That God hath made the Church to be as it were the Porch of Heaven a Society gathered out of the Infidel World sanctified to God and prepared for Glory and therefore he would have none in his Church but such as profess Faith Love and Holiness and renounce a fleshly sensual worldly and profane Life And the Pastors bear the Keys of Trust and Government to judge of such that is who are to be taken in and who to be cast out and who to be admonished and cured of scandalous Sins And all the Members are bound to preserve the Purity of themselves and the Society in their places And therefore if a Brother live scandalously contrary to his Profession his Neighbour that hath notice of it is to tell him of his fault and if he hear not and repent not to warn and admonish him before witnesses and if yet he repent not to tell the Church and if yet he repent not and hear not the Church he is to be avoided as one that is none of their Communion But if warning perswasion Prayers and Patience bring him to Repentance the Church is gladly to pronounce his forgiveness by God and to receive him This is the Discipline which Christ hath instituted and the Christian Churches have Professed L. This calling Men to Repentance personally will but disturb and distract the Parishes Men will never endure it And that 's no Duty that will do harm M. They are not fit to be Communicants or Members of a Christian Church that will not endure it It is the Crime of the Church-Governours that they receive yea drive such into the Church as will not endure the Laws of Christ and Church-Duties and then cast by such Duties because Men will not endure them As if you took Scholars into a School that will not endure Government and Correction or Soldiers into an Army that will not endure Command and Discipline and then omit it and leave them to their wills because they will not endure it Or as if you would take Servants that will not be commanded nor endure Labour and then let them be masterless and idle because they will not endure service Who allow'd you to take and keep such in Christ's Church that will not endure either to live obediently or be called to Repentance I confess that to let all Men alone in their sin is the way to some kind of Peace in the Parish But it is not Christ's Peace but the Devils by which he keeps possession of Souls and Countries till Christ break his peace and cast him out such peace will end in endless sorrow L. What Reasons can you give for the necessity of such a sort of Discipline and why it may not be fâ—rborn M. 1. It is Christ's Law and Institution and that is the same reason that we give for our Christianity it self L. But I have read in Erastus Selden Ludov. Moulin and Prin that Christ did but tell his Disciples how they should carry themselves under the Jewish Government and use their Sanedrims or Iudicatures and did not institute any new sort of Church-Discipline M. Christ's taking occasion from the Iewish Judicatures to institute his Discipline doth no more prove that he did not obligatorily institute it than his calling twelve Apostles according to the number of the Tribes and his taking occasion from former practice for Baptism Ministry Elders c. doth prove that he ordained no such things 2. What need Christ command his Disciples to use that Iewish Government which was in use before and they could not avoid 3. Christ knew that the Iewish Government was presently going down and tells his Disciples that they should be judged and scourged as Malefactors in those Synagogues And is it like then that he is calling them to exercise their discipline in those Synagogues 4. If it were so it will hold à fortiore that if Christ
That 's his act and not theirs and they cannot hinder him They send their Children to be Baptized and not to be Cross'd M. But we have many Antipadobaptists and converted Iews to be Baptized at Age. 2. And tho' I am much of your mind in this yet all wiser Men are not and the case is very difficult as to Infants If one knew beforehand that the Priest would use Oil and Spittle and Exorcism and invocate Saints and Angels over the baptized Child it were hard to say I send him only to be Baptized when he knew how sinfully it will be done The truth is I can justifie no Man that will submit his Child to such a crossing at Baptism that can caeteris paribus have it by another better done tho' Prohibited by Man We must not be guilty of other Mens Sins nor of Church Corruptions L. Christ that will have mercy and not sacrifice would not have men refuse Christendom for fear of a Cross. M. Christ who would have Teachers learn that Lesson I will have mercy and not sacrifice would have no Minister deny Christendom to such as think their crossing sinful And yet he would have no Man commit any Sin to gain Baptism but will save the unbaptized that desired it so they might have had it without and will himself shew Mercy to such as consent not to a polluted Sacrifice And would have us prefer a lawful way when we can have it Baptism is our Renunciation of Sin. CHAP. LI. POINT VIII Of Rejecting not-Kneelers from Communion L. AND well they deserve it that will not reverently receive so great a Gift upon their knees from God. M. Do you think it is for want of humble Reverence Do they not kneel after and longer to God in Prayers publickly and in their Families and Chambers than most that blame them Were Christ's Apostles unreverent that did not kneel at receiving it in his own visible presence Was all the universal Church unreverent that for 600 Years if not 1000 after Christ forbad strictly all Adoration by kneeling every Lords Day because they would use a Laudatory Gesture denoting their belief of Christs Resurrection Do those men shew more Reverence to God and Religion that will kneel at the Altar and scarce ever kneel to God at home and seldom use his Name but with prophanation It is not unreverence that causes their dissent L. I know no just cause they have of this dissent M. I confess nor I while the open Doctrine of the Church renounceth all Bread-worship and Idolatry But were it among Papists where the Doctrine expounds the action I durst not do it But I told you before what moveth them which I must not again repeat But I will repeat it that it is a heinous injury to the Church and the particular Persons that on the account of so small and doubtful a circumstance wherein all antiquity is against the imposers they should deny Communion with Christ and his Church as much as in them lieth to faithful Christians and should turn the Sacrament of Love for no just cause into an occasion of hatred and persecution and the Sacrament of Unity into an Engine of division by their own needless impositions to perplex mens Consciences and set people one against another O what a snare and instrument of wrath and discord and inhumane usage of other men do many turn that blessed Sacrament into which is instituted for the Communion of Saints in unfeigned Love. The more such magnify the Sacrament as the very Flesh and Blood of Christ the more do they condemn themselves CHAP. LII POINT IX Of denying Lay-men Communion in a Neighbour Parish Church when they dare not Communicate in their own Parish for the Reasons aforesaid M. IX DO you think it is a sin deserving exclusion from Christian Communion for a man to think it unlawful for him to own and encourage the Ministry of an ignorant insufficient or grosly scandalous or hurtful Teacher A poor Christian that is unwilling to be damned and readeth that he should love his Neighbour as himself perhaps heareth the Priest tell the People what hypocrites and odious persons Non-conformists are and exhorts them to avoid such and to prosecute them and root them out as the intolerable enemies of Church and State and as unfit to be Members of any Society He is acquainted with divers Non-conformists their Lives and their Books and Doctrines and finds the clean contrary He reads in Scripture See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently He heareth from the Pulpit See that ye hate one another and seek the destruction of one another Christ saith Love your enemies the Priest exhorts them to root out their friends Christ saith He that receiveth you receiveth me and shake off the dust of your Feet against them that receive you not It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for such the Priest saith He that receiveth such Ministers sinneth against Christ and he that hath any communion with them is a Schismatick The man readeth Beware of false Prophets and thinks it a sin to encourage the teachers of lies and wickedness and he readeth He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and hath not eternal Life and if I have not charity I am but as sounding Brass c. He thinks him a false teacher that contradicteth Christ and that seeks to damn the hearers And he thinks that no tongue can more contradict Christ than that which Preacheth down Love and Preacheth for hating godly Men tho' on slanderous pretences and that no man can do more to damn the People than he that draweth them from love to such hatred Another liveth in a Parish where a dry ignorant fellow affords him no such help as he is conscious his soul needeth and where the Common-Prayer is so much better than the Sermon that were it not for that he might better stay at home And where the Priests Conversation encourageth the Drunkards and Prophane and vilifieth godly Men. This man is for the Church-way but for a better Minister The question is whether for this he be so great a sinner that all neighbouring Ministers must drive him away and deny him Communion Another honest Christian taketh it for a sin to kneel at the Railes or to join with the Organs or to receive or desire the Diocesan manner of Confirmation or to forbear Communion with all Christians whom the Church-men here condemn or cast out The question is whether it be no wrong to any of these to be denied Communion at a neighbour Parish where his doubts are removed I prove that he hath right to such neighbour Communion 1. Because he is a Member of Christs Body the Catholick Church and therefore hath right to the Communion of Saints And to believe that in the Creed and condemn it in Practice is to believe to condemnation 2. They themselves teach that a true Christian hath right to Communion with all Churches where he hath
many worthy men such as Mr. Gurnal and others known to us were drawn in by having leave to declare that they took the impositions in such a sence as they thought Lawful as the Arians at the Council of Seleuciâ— and the Acacians drew many in to them by giving them all leave to subscribe in their own sence And though I can justifie none of this yet what ever their words were and though they were not faultless their hearts abhorred Perjury But I pray you ask your friend these Questions 1. Did none that are for separation from the Church of England take the Corporation-Oath and Declaration You know that many of them did 2. Do they ever since avoid Communion with all those men You know they do not And yet none of the Ministers Subscriptions to me seem half so frightful as the Corporation Declaration Do they not then here shew Partiality and themselves justify our Communion with the Conformists Yea when Mr. Eaton and some other Independants wrote against the obligation of the Covenant and of the Oath of Allegiance and many called the Covenant an Almanack out of date did the rest avoid communion with these L. But briefly tell me why you Communicate in the Parish Churches M. Briefly 1. Because Christ hath Commanded us to live in the utmost Love Union and Concord with all his Church on Earth that we possibly can 2. Because they hold all the essentials of Christianity which constituteth them Members of Christ's Church and no errour that nullifieth their Christianity or maketh their Communion unlawful to me 3. Because my own edification hath required it I have long lived where I could have no better Communion and after I found Communion with both sorts most profitable to me I found the Liturgy in the main fit for my serious desires and praises to God and the Preachers that I heard were profitable Preachers and if some words were amiss I past them by and the very Concord and Presence of Christians though faulty is pleasant to me 4. I lived where and when these Parish Churches were slandered by mistakes to be such whose Communion was unlawful and my constant avoiding them would have made me seem a consenter to the slanders and so to be guilty of scandal 5. I lived in a time and place where the Rulers and Laws Commanded Parish Communion and to forbear it against such commands and penalties seemeth plainly to tell the world that I hold it unlawful which is an untruth 6. I had seen whither this extream of separation had brought this Nation formerly and of late and what a hopeful Reformation it shamed and destroyed and that by such Rebellious and mad actions as made them and accidentally others the scorn and hatred of the World and have occasioned all our sufferings 7. I lived where men that I thought guilty of our sinful persecution and the danger of the land did discern the mistake of them that overcharged the Liturgy and Parish Communion and thereupon took them for a proud Fanatick sort of People worthy of all that doth befal them and think they do God service in ruining us all as if we were such And I durst not thus scandalize and harden men in grievous persecutions 8. I was loth to misguide others by my example and I doubted not but when necessity drove them to it many would see cause to Communicate with the Parish Churches And I was willing that they should sooner see these Reasons and not seem to do it only to save themselves 9. I had read the writings of those excellent men of God against Brownists or Separation heretofore who then were the Non-Conformists that did suffer so much for Reformation He that will read what is written by Mr. Iohn Paget Mr. William Bradshaw Mr. Gifford Mr. Hildersham Mr. Brightman Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Rathband Dr. Ames First and Second Manuduction c. and lately Mr. Iohn Tombes the Pillar of the Anabaptists and for hearing by Mr. Philip Nye may see enough for just satisfaction especially in Mr. Ball 's Trial of Separation And though the case of Conformity be since made much harder to the Ministers to the Laity the change is not so great as herein alters the case of Lawfulness or Duty 10. I found that St. Paul charged the Church of Corinth as having among them men Carnal guilty of Schism slandering the Apostles guilty of sinful Law-Suits and defrauding each other bearing with incest disordered profane and drunk at Sacramental Communions some decryed the Resurrection c. The Galatians seem more to be accused than they as depraving the Christian Doctrine The Colossians faulty almost all the Seven Churches of Asia charged with grievous corruption And yet in all these no man is commanded to separate from any one of these Churches nor blamed for not doing it 11. And which is most of all I find that Christ himself who was certainly sinless held open Communion with the Iewish Church in Synagogues and Temples and Commanded the people their duty even to the falsly obtruded Priests and to hear the Pharisees while they delivered Moses's Law though he condemned and separated from their false Doctrine and superstitious traditions and corruptions These are my Reasons for Lay-Parish-Communion L. But you did not answer from such turn away and with such not to Eat c. M. The answer is obvious 1. It is the duty of the Church to cast out wicked impenitent men and this Christ commandeth them but he never bids particular Christians to separate from the Church where some such are because the Church omits its duty For then you should separate from duty from Gods Worship and holy Communion on pretence of separating from sinners 2. But for Family and Private Converse every Christian is judge himself and must refuse all familiarity with scandalous Christians which encourageth them in sin or seemeth to own it God Commandeth no man to do that which is not in his power to put a scandalous impenitent man from the Church is in the Churches power and so that command belongs to them it is not in your power and therefore belongs not to you save to admonish men and tell the Church but to put men from your table and familiarity is in your power and belongs to you Suppose the King write to the City of London to put all Rebels out of their Company and Converse its easie to understand that every one must do it only in his own place Every single man cannot turn such out of the Common-Council The City Rulers must do that and till it be done single men may not deny obedience to the Governours But all may turn them out of their houses shops and familiarity L. But they say it is a receding from our former Reformation and pulling down what we built M. The Separators pull'd it down with a witness but it is no such thing Did the Covenant or our Profession ever bind us to take the Liturgy to be worse than
pretence of concord or decency in God's service we can but wish and speak for better L. But they say if nothing unlawful be imposed it is disobedience to refuse it And if disobedience be endured no Government can stand M. 1. Judge by what is said whether no Sin be imposed 2. Obedience to God being more necessary than to man all just Rulers should encourage a due fear of sin and do nothing that tempts men from obeying God. 3. God himself doth not silence eject or condemn men for all disobedience else none could be saved All sin is disobedience to God. There is disobedience in small things as well as in great and of ignorance and infirmity as well as of malicious wilfulness And what smaller matter can there be than Humane Forms and Ceremonies and where is ignorance more excuseable than in things so minute and so uncertain and hard that they must all be wiser than you and I that know them to be lawful and what Unity will be in that Church and Kingdom that will endure none but such as are wiser than you and I L. 8. Your 8th Article preventeth all the objections against Ministers power and liberty while all are under Law responsible But what if the Rulers be Bishops or men that distaste your desired discipline M. We are not choosing Rulers by the sword but only Pastors to guide us by God's word and if we shall have bad ones we must patiently suffer we cannot remedy such infelicities L. But both Papists and many others say That the Iudgment of Ministers Doctrine and Ministry belongeth not to the Magistrate but to the Church M. Iudgment is as various as Execution e. g. If one be a Heretick or turbulent in Schism 1. The Magistrate is judge whether and how he shall be Corporally Punished 2. The neighbour Churches are Judges whether they will owne his Communion as approved 3. His own Flock are discerning Iudges whether he be fit to be trusted and owned as their Pastor or to be forsaken by them We must not imitate Papists in exempting Ministers from the Magistrates Government L. 9. I confess your Reasons against Constraining Infidels to Profess Christianity are undeniable and agree with the sence of the Antient Church and Fathers But the Papists and many Protestants hold that when once men are Baptized they may be forced to Communion and all other Christian Duty M. What if they openly apostatize and turn Infidels Iews or Mahometans will they yet force them to Communicate in the Lord's Supper L. No but they will put them to Death as they Burn Hereticks M. That 's their way but not Christ's way Why should they put Apostates or Hereticks to death any more than Infidels that never believed L. Because they break their Covenant and because they sin against the Laws which they consented to M. And doth not sinning against God's Law In neither Consenting to nor Obeying it deserve as bad If God by many years Preaching call one man to Christianity and he derides it to the last and another took it up but by Education and the Law of the Land and never heard and understood the Reasons of it and turneth from it being taken prisoner by the Turks which of these is the greater sinner God binds them to Believe and Consent that do not and they sin against God's Law which is more than to break their own Covenant as such But both these deserve death and worse from God But if it were Christ's way to have men put one of them to death I see not but why they should do so by the other Torment or Death is no fitter way to make an Apostate believe than other Infidels It 's known that all the ancient Churches abhorred this forcing and punishing way I have wondered at the Impudence of Baronius Binnius and other Papists and justifie Martin for separating from the Communion of the Bishops that were for punishing the Priscillianists by the sword and Canonize him as a Saint and condemn these Bishops for it and yet are for for more cruelties themselves to far better men than the Priscillianists But where Fleshly interest is a mans Religion no wonder if it have neither consistency with Reason nor Modesty L. But if none but Volunteers be Christians or Communicants most will despise the Church and it will be empty M. All that are fit to be there will come in And those few will give the Pastors more comfort and lesser trouble than the multitude of the uncapable If your purse be not quite full of Gold will you fill it up with dung or stones The uncapable will do better for themselves and the Church among the Audientes or Catechumens It is their forcing in the uncapable that hath corrupted the Church and deprived the Flock of their due privileges choosing their Pastors c. because it 's made up of men unworthy of them And doubtless if you but countenance and preferr the Communicants before the rest it will draw in more than are capable without force L. If the Excommunicate be no further punished nor forced to repent the Church censures will be despised How little will men care for an Excommunication M. This is commonly said and much of it is true But 1. Can you force men to Repent or rather Lye You make him Repent that he brought himself into your hands and into suffering But that is not to Repent of Sin. Will you tell a man before hand If thou wilt but say thou repentest rather than lye in Gaol till death we will pronounce thee absolved and forgiven in Christ's Name Who can think ill enough of such an Absolution 2. Do not they scorn Christ that say he hath advanced his Church to the Dignity of Government by putting into their hands a Reed for a Scepter and a Leaden Sword that will do nothing without the Magistrate's Sword of Steel Hath he set up an useless mock-power in the Church 3. Did the Primitive-Churches for 300 years use any Sword but Spiritual Or did they find it so uneffectual and vain 4. Yea for some hundred years after there were Christian Magistrates did not the Church abhorr such a thing as forcing the Excommunicate to repent by imprisonment or the Sword 5. No man is meet to be a just Member that careth not for a just Excommunication And still this sheweth what a wickedness it is to force in the unmeet that despise God's Ordinance and the Church that they are in And then God's Ordinance must be debauched for their unfitness 6. The Sword doth the Keys much more hindrance than help when it is thus annexed to them for then it cannot be discerned whether Excommunication do any Good or none or whether it be only the Sword that doth the cure And do not they that profess Excommunication to be vain without the Sword teach men to call them as Church Governours Vain and to despise them And is it not all one as to say if any good be done
THE ENGLISH Nonconformity As under King Charles II. and King Iames II. TRULY STATED and ARGUED By RICHARD BAXTER Who earnestly beseecheth Rulers and Clergy not to Divide and Destroy the Land and cast their own Souls on the dreadful Guilt and Punishment of National PERJVRY Lying deliberate Covenanting to Sin against God corrupt his Church and not Amend nor by Laws or blind Malignity to reproach faithful Ministers of Christ and Judge them to Scorn and Beggery and to Lie and Die in Jails as Rogues and so to strengthen Profaneness Popery and Schism and all for want of WILLINGNESS and PATIENCE to READ and Hear their just Defence while they can spend much more time in Sin and Vanity The Author humbly begs that he and his Books of unconfutable Defence of a Mistaken persecuted Cause may not be Witnesses against them for such great and wilful Sin to their Condemnation Mat. 12. 25. Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to Desolation Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise Perish LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside 1689. The Preface IT is agreed on by all real Christians that Man being made an Intelligent Free Agent not under bruitish necessitating Determination by Objects is governed by God by the Moral way of Law that is by the Signification of his Ruler's Will making his Duty and not by meer natural or forcible Motion And it is agreed that GOD himself is his only absolute Universal Ruler and his Laws given in Nature and by Revelation are the only Universal Laws which no Humane Power can abrogate or dispense with And that Kings and Magistrates are his Ministers for Mens good and have no Power but from him and none against him or his Laws and that it is not Man but God by whom we must all be judged to everlasting Reward or Punishment And therefore that all men must obey God before Men and must not fear them that can but kill the Body but him who is able to cast both Soul and Body into Hell. And it is agreed on by all Sober Christians that therefore as Subjects must use their own Reason as discerning Self-Governours to Iudge who is their King and who is a Usurper and what Actions are commanded or forbidden by Man's Laws so must they first and chiefly use their own reason to judge discerningly what Actions are commanded or forbidden by God and must do accordingly whoever is against it This Iudgment is commonly called Conscience which if it err not must be followed but if it err it must be rectified for then it is not God indeed that is obeyed for God's Law changeth not as Conscience doth yet to go against such a Conscience is Sin because it iâ— interpretatively to go against God while the Man thought this had been God's Will. On Supposition of this certain truth all that ever I yet read that Condemn the Nonconformists and Preach for their Reproach and Ruine do confess that If any one thing required of us as necessary to our Ministry or Communion be Sin our Nonconformity is but our Duty and all the whole Ministry of England on whom this was imposed by the Act of Uniformity on Baâ—tholomew-Day 1662. were bound in Conscience to have been Nonconformists Whether also to bave all ceased to Preach the Gospel I leave to their Consideration This being the Confession of all that Silence us and send us to Gaols and call out for our utter Extirpation I know no shorter or likelier way to stop all this burning Wrath and end our Mischievous Dissentions than to try whether no one thing required of us be Sin. Forty of the things required of Ministers and Twelve of those required of the Laity in all Fifty two I have proposed to Examination not as accusing the Laws or the Conformists whatever I think of them but only rendering briefly the Reasons of our own refusals And Forty three Points in which many falsly suppose we Conform not and some may perhaps be found that do not Conform to them all I have first instanced in as being such as we oppose not nor are any Parts of our Nonconformity If all the Iustices and Ministers of England who censure us and prosecute us as intolerable Sinners for our fearing these as Sin have impartially tryed all these Points and Reasons or yet will do and can find no Sin in any one of the Fifty two and it prove so indeed I must say that all the Two Thousand Ministers that in 1662. were Silenced were as unhappy and strangely blinded Men as most in the World that are true Christians that after all their Study and Prayers they should affright themselves into so calamitous a State against all the reason of their Worldly Interests as well as against the welfare of the Church and their Duty to God 2. But I must say past doubt that the accusing Clergy are deeply guilty of it who these Twenty one years have no better answered the Reasons of our fear nor used more Wisdom and Charity for our just Conviction For our Consciences are of such a temper as will not be convinced with a Scorn or a Iail nor take all Writings or Words as satisfactory that are poured out with supercilious Confidence and called Satisfactory by the Self-esteeming Authors I am told by divers That I have written enough already on these Subjects were it only my first and second Plea for Peace my Treatise of Episcopacy and that of Concord and my Apology for our Preaching And they say You must expect to do no good nor so much as to be read by Adversaries much less with Diligence and impartial Willingness to know the Truth but contrarily to be hated and accused of some odious Crime and laid in Iail among Malefactors till you die and a Prison will be more grievous to one in your pain and languishing than to another On the other side I have been long importuned to give an account of the Reasons of our Nonconformity I have by Bishops been reproved for not doing it Lords and Persons of great Quality have been perswaded that we keep up a dangerous Schism in the Land to the cherishing of Discontents and Sedition only for things which we confess to be indifferent and no Sin the Laws accuse us The numerous Addresses of Counties Cities and Corporations revile us as the Nurses of Rebellion No small number of Preachers plead for our Ruine on the same Supposition and tell the People that it is no Sin that we stick at but Humour Pride and Faction make us disobedient Schismaticks without any reason for what we do The Iails are fill'd with Nonconformists Nine Ministers are now in Newgate and many more in other Places And almost all of them Mulct and Fined in far more than ever they were worth Their Goods and Books taken by Distress They are fain to fly or abscond that are not in Prison Their Wives and
M. 1. There is no place of doubting of their universal sence For an Indefinite term in re necessaria is equal to an Vniversal And they except the unbaptized from Christian Burial 2. It is Baptized Infants as such that they speak of and that under no other Character nor with the least exception And a quatenus ad omnes valet argumentum 3. The Canon commandeth Ministers to baptize all Infants without exception that are brought to them on any Sundays or Holy-days to be baptized after the Manner of the Church of England 4. I have spoken with the Bishops that brought in and promoted this Article and they own the universal sence supposing the true form of Baptisme and say that as any man hath right to take up an exposed Infant in the streets and take it in so hath any one to bring the Child of a Heathen Infidel Atheist or Sadducee to baptisme 5. If they had meant it only of some baptized Infants and not all they knew the Non-conformists were of the same mind and then they would have told us what sort they mean. L. I. And why may not an Article of Faith be newly declared we have not read the Fathers It may not be unknown to them And I have heard that they are for it M. The most ancient Churches were so much employed in baptizing the adult Converted from Infidelity that we read little or nothing expresly and particularly what they did about Infants in Baptisme They baptized none at age without a serious Profession of true Faith and Repentance and holy Dedication to Christ They used to keep these as Learning Catechumens long before they baptized them save in case of necessity near death Therefore they had their set-times of the year for baptizing two or three times as our Bishops have now for ordaining And after all this strict preparation they pronounced the baptized in a state of Salvation but it was only on supposition that he was a sincere penitent covenanting Believer Even Hildebrand Pope Greg. 7. in his time concludeth that baptisme saveth none that dissemble or have not the Faith and Repentance which they profess which the Papists do ordinarily confess and Protestants much more And as for Infants the Ancients compelled not Christians themselves to baptize them but left them to their own choice Tertullian is for long delay till-they understand saying Cur festinat innocens at as Greg Nazianzene would have them stay at least three years In danger of Death they alway hastened Augustine and many others that had Christian Parents were not baptized till at Age. And they took Christians Infants as Paul did to be not unclean but holy and would receive others brought by such as adopted or owned them as Pro-parents But it was never the judgment of the ancient Churches that all Heathens or Infidels Children have right to Baptisme and Salvation if any will but offer them to Baptism Much less that it is certain by Gods Word that all such are saved 2. Articles of Faith are all contained in the Scripture and that is not new therefore nothing that is new can be an Article of Faith nor can it be said to be newly declared which was there from its beginning L. II. And why call you it arrogant and dividing M. Because it presumptuously condemneth the Reformed Churches and the Christian World determining that to be so certain by Gods Word that none should doubt of it that will be a Minister when the Christian World is of many several opinions about it L. What be those Opinions about it M 1. Some hold that the Covenant being the same pardoning saving Covenant that is made to the faithful and their Seed and their Children expresly called Holy they are all in a state of pardon and salvation before baptisme and baptisme doth but celebrate and invest them in it before the Church and solemnly seal their Covenant right And that this saving right is given only to the seed of the sincerely faithful or at most to those that have such Pro-parents though the Seed of Hypocrites must be received by the Church that know not mens hearts And this I take to be the Truth 2. Some others hold that this right to Salvation belongeth to them that have Grand-fathers and Grand-mothers or remote Ancestors that were truly Godly Christians 3. Some hold that it belongeth to all the Seed of professed Christians how bad soever the Parents be 4. Some hold that it belongeth only to the Children of true Believers that are baptized but not to the unbaptized 5. Some hold that it belongeth to Hypocrites Children that are baptized but not to the unbaptized 6. Some hold that it belongeth to all baptized ones if they have God-fathers that profess Christianity 7. Some hold that it belongeth to all baptized by a true believing Minister for the Faith of the Church 8. Some hold that it belongeth to none that by Baptism are taken into any Congregation guilty of Heresie or Schism 9. Some hold that it belongeth to all that are baptized by a Minister who is ordained by Bishops that have uninterrupted Canonical Succession and not to others 10. Some hold that the Baptisme of a Lay-man or a Woman may be effectual to the Salvation of such 11. Some Conformists hold that all Infants in the World are saved baptized and unbaptized 12. The most of the Papists hold that the baptized are saved both from the pain of Sense and of Loss but the unbaptized are saved from the pain of sense only but not of loss and so have neither Joy nor Sorrow 13. Many wise Men hold that Salvation is certain according to the first Opinion to the Seed of Sincere Believers but that we have no certain notice at all what God will do with all the rest baptized or unbaptized 14. Many think that God hath a certain number of Infants Elect whom he will save and will cast away the rest but that no man can know who they be though the Faithful may have some uncertain hopes for their Children more than others but no Promise 15. Some think that the Common state of Infants in the Life to come is utterly unrevealed and unknown to us I do not say that none of these opinions should be disclaimed But among all which Learned godly men of all Countries hold to say he that is not certain of some one of them as God's word is unmeet to be a Minister is dividing arrogance of men that overvalue themselves L. III. How then can you make good your charge of falsehood May it not be true among many false ones M. I make it good two ways men must say they are certain that are not certain 1. No man can be certain that God's word saith that which it doth not say But God's word doth not say directly or by consequence that all baptized dying Infants are undoubtedly saved He that saith there is such a word let him produce it It is suspicious that these same men
containeth ANY THING in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures let him be Excommunicated ipso facto and not restored but by the Bishop of the place or Arch-bishop after his Repentance and publick Revocation of such his wicked Error And when this Excommunication is sent from the Ordinary to the Minister you heard he must publish it twice a year L. And what have you against this M. Do I need to tell you 1. Judge by this with what Face the Prelates call us Puritanes or Catharists as if we pretended to perfection and to be without sin And whether it be not they that are far liker to the Catharists We confess that the best of our Prayers Preaching or Works hath somewhat in them repugnant to the Word of God For Gods Law is perfect and every sin in matter or manner or end or degree is repugnant to it Far be it from us Pharisaically to justifie any Book that ever we write as if we had no sin in it But these men that call themselves the Church of England do not only justify a large Volume of Forms Orders Rubricks and Kalenders c. but also force all other men to justifie it all as sinless and he shall be no Minister that will not do it nor a Christian Member of the Church that denieth it As if the perfection of their works were an Article of the Creed and necessary to Salvation to be believed Is not this Puritanism Pharisaical and Justification of Works 2. Judge by all that I have in this Book cited whether there be nothing at all in their Books that is repugnant to the Word of God. If I have made it past all modest denial then what a dreadful thing is this Renunciation of Repentance when Repentance is the condition of the pardon of all our sin even that which cleaveth to our Worship of God. But they that tell the World that their Works have no sin yea and force all the Kingdom to stand to that justification do in a very high degree renounce Repentance Yea they not only forbid all men to call them to repent or to amend any sin that is in their Book but Excommunicate them as wicked that do it 3. I told you before that this Excommunicating ipso facto is in it self a prophane subversion of the very nature of true Excommunication which supposeth due means to convince the Person that his words or deeds are sin and that of an intollerable degree and that he be heard speak for himself and be admonished and earnestly perswaded to repent and not Excommunicated till after all this he continue impenitent But here men are Excommunicated for saying that there is somewhat faulty in mens works and that before ever they are heard speak for themselves or ever told of their sin or called to repent I before referr'd you to what Spalatensis de Rep. Eccles. hath written to prove the great sinfulness of such Excommunicating Bishop Ier. Taylor writing against it yet feigneth this excuse that it must be understood but of the Minor Excommunication But Excommunication it is and I do not think that they can make any good sense of their distinction of Major Minor Excommunication unless it be that the Major declareth men to be no Christians and the Minor only to be scandalous Christians not cut off from the Catholick Church but only for the present suspended from being owned while they are under patient tryal whether they will prove impenitent or not that shame may drive them to Repentance But this Suspension is properly called Excommunication But both of them require a just tryal 4. It is a heinous injury and injustice to Excommunicate and Ruin men for Truth and Duty He that robbeth them by the High-way doth but take their Money and doth not also accuse them falsly and make their duty to be their sin Doubtless he that will take all that I have because I do my duty to God in Praying or Preaching doth me more wrong than he that will take all without accusing me 5. It is a publick turning Christs Ordinance against himself and serving Satan by it to make faithful Christians odious in the World as unworthy to live in humane Society out of Jayls if they do but exhort others to repent If a man but know and detect the least sin in their Books of Service he must be condemned of wicked Error and Drunkards and Whore-mongers and Perjured Rogues do seem to be no worse than he 6. If it were an Error to say that their Book is not faultless yet it can never be proved an Error of that magnitude and wickedness as to deserve Excommunication ipso facto For all men on Earth have Errors worse than that and so by proportion they virutally or consequentially Excommunicate all men L. But all this is their fault and not yours M. It 's mine if I publish their Excommunication L. If an Innocent Man be hang'd the Hang-man is Innocent He doth but his Office. M. Whatever he may be in Cases unknown to him and which he was not bound to know I will not believe you in a known or knowable Case If I had been commanded to Crucifie Christ to Stone Stephen to burn the Martyrs I do not believe that I could have done it without the guilt of Murder Else you may make a Man's command to Justifie the Execution of any Murder or Injustice in the World. L. But you may shift off such wicked Excommunications and leave the Publishing them to your Curate M. 1. I may not draw another into such heinous Guilt nor connive at his doing it in my Charge 2. There are but few Country Ministers that have Curates 3. If I do it not I am guilty of it if I declare my Consent to Accuse all such within fourteen days that the Ordinary may do it and to Covenant and Swear Canonical Obedience to him 4. What can be more pernicious to the Church of God than to cast good Men out of it and dismember Christ's Body and lay those in Jayls as unsufferable wicked Men whom Christ takes for his Members whom he will save and all this for telling Prelates that their Book is faulty and desiring any amendment of their work while Swarms of flagitious Men are endured and by this encouraged to scorn at Conscience and fear of Sinning and to take their wicked lives to be better than the Godly Conversation of those that are used far worse than they Thus Christ foretold his Apostles that they should be cast out of the Synagogues But as he found and saved the healed Man Ioh. 9. whom the Pharisees had cast out so he will own and gather his Flock and take their wrong as done to him Chap. XXIV Point XXI Of Publishing Excommunications according to the Fifth Canon about the Articles L. WHat is the Fifth Canon and its Excommunication M. Whosoever shall affirm that Any of the 39 Articles agreed on 1562. are in any part Superstitious or Erroneous or
just occasion to seek it 3. They say that there is no Church without a Bishop and that the diocesan-Diocesan-Church is the least true political Church And if so he separateth not from any Church that separateth not from the Diocesan 4. These foresaid persons do nothing to forfeit the Communion of neighbour Churches therefore it is a sin and wrong to deny it them If it were proved an errour to avoid that as a sin which they avoid all mankind hath errours and to be over-fearful of Fire or Water or Plague or Poyson is a tolerable safe weakness and not like the sins that swarm in multitudes of tolerated Parishioners L. That which is not so immoral as Fornication Drunkenness Cursing and Swearing may be more hurtful to the Church and so deserve greater severity from Governours M. The Church-Keys are to be used with due relation to Heaven and those are to be taken in or cast out that Christ will take in or cast out from Heaven And if you think he will damn an obedient godly Christian for fearing to partake of the sin of wicked Priests or for fearing to be poysoned with love-killing Doctrine or for fearing the vain Worship of mens traditions rather than a prophane derider of Conscience and a filthy Fornicator Drunkard or Blasphemer I shall not think it worth my labour to dispute with you But men that take the Churches welfare to lie in the wealth and domination of such as they more than in the Holy Obedience Conscience and Piety of the People will object the same that you now do CHAP. LIII POINT X. Of Swearing never to endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church M. HOW far this extendeth objectively I before proved X. by 1. The words of the Oaths 2. The consent of the Bishops 3. And the words of the seven Canons and the Et Caetera Canon in 1640. so that there is no doubt of it 2. How far it extendeth as to the persons obliged I before told you and you may read 1. In the Corporation Act which imposeth it on all Corporations 2. In the Vestry Act which imposeth it on all Church-Vestries 3. In the Act of Vniformity which imposeth the subscription on all the Clergy 4. In the Oxford Act of Banishment which imposeth the Oath on Non-conformists and more 5. In the Militia Act which imposeth it on all the Military Commanders and Souldiers in the Land so that you may well say that is a National Covenant or Oath 3. What is amiss in the Church-Government that needeth an amending alteration I have so often told you that I will not repeat it Judge then what this Oath importeth L. It could never be the meaning of the Parliament that no man shall endeavour to amend the faults of any Officers Courts or Actions for they often amend their own Acts of Parliament and they reserve a Power in King and Parliament to make alterations even in Church Governments But that belongs not to the People nor should they endeavour it M. 1. I hope you will not confound Stated Offices and Mens Exercise of them in Practice I grant that they do not bind us by Oath never to endeavour that Bishops and all the Officers of their Courts may be honest men and slander and injure no man against Law c. But it is the Offices as here stated that are made thus far unalterable named in the Canon Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and the rest that bear Office therein 2. I grant that the Law is made to bind none but Subjects and that an altering power is reserved to King and Parliament But it doth not follow that all the Subjects be not bound by it Though They may change Laws yet We may not And as you say They suppose that it belongeth not to the People to endeavour it Which We grant as to any Rebellious Seditious or otherwise unlawful Endeavour But whether God bind not all men in their own Place and Calling by Prayer Conference Elections of Officers Petition c. to endeavour to amend all Crying Dangerous Common Sins is a farther Question L. They cannot mean to exclude Petitioning for that is the Subjects Right and is by them allowed with Restraints M. 1. It is meant in opposition to the Scots Covenant which tyed men to oppose Popery Prelacy and Schisme only in their several Places and Callings 2. It is expres'd in the most universal terms without the least Exception by men that knew how to speak 3. Reasons were given in Parliament against any Limitation and those Reasons carryed it 4. They were Men that were wholly for the Church of England whose Canon had before Excommunicated themselves and all men that accused any Office in the Church Government as sinful And they knew that should any of them when the Parliament is risen yea or there so say he is an Excommunicate Man. 5. It is most certain that they intended to bind all Subjects on whom these Oaths are imposed even from petitioning or any other Endeavour of Alteration though they allow petitioning in other Cases for they intended to fix and secure the Church-Government against all Alterations 6. Therefore as I said before they joined it with yea and set it before State-Government in all their Oaths and Covenants And do you think in Conscience they left men at liberty to petition against Monarchy or against the Life or Power or Honour of the King Far be it from us to think so ill of them I must profess to you that I do not think half so ill of well-order'd Monasteries of Men or Women as I do of our large Diocesses or our Lay-Excommunicators according to the Canons And yet even in the Times of Popery the Nation was not Sworn never to endeavour any alteration of Monasteries If you would have all Corporations Soldiers Vestries Ministers sworn never to endeavour to cure the Sick to relieve the Poor to seek more Wealth to reform all Play-houses Ale-houses and Taverns to Catechize their Families c. I would not join with you National Oaths and Covenants are Matters of great moment We have deeply suffered by rashness in such already And should any of them prove false and wicked and the Nation be stigmatized with Perjury you might more sadly write Lord have Mercy on us on the Land than on the Doors where the most dreadful Plague prevaileth CHAP. LIV. POINT XI Of Swearing an Abhorrence of taking Arms against any Commissionated by the KING M. THis also I have said enough of in the Case of the XI Ministers and told you that we are far from scrupling it in Disloyalty but in Loyalty only 1. Lest the Keepers of the Seals may by Commissions depose the King or deliver up the Kingdom to whom they please 2. Because the Authority of a Commission as above and against the King 's own Law is not a matter that Lawyers and Judges themselves are agreed of and therefore unfit for the unskilful Vulgar to determine by their
also many general and collateral and circumstantial considerations that make men fear the guilt of Conformity the more L. What are those I believe you will find as many of that sort of reasons on the other side to move you to Conform if you consider them M. I will tell you what I mean and then I will hear all that you have to say for it I. We are all agreed that no sin must be done for any commodity or on any pretence of good II. We are agreed that to pretend Gods Service or Name for our sin is a heinous aggravation To say I must do evil to please God to Preach and to win souls is Prophaneness and Hypocrisy III. We are agreed that it is worse in a Minister of Christ than in others because he is bound to be an example to the flock who are apt to imitate him IV. It is granted that God is jealous about his worship and that the profaning of Holy things and sinning openly in the Sacred Assemblies is caecris paribus worse than meer miscarriages in our Conversation V. Lying is by most acknowledged a great sin as overthrowing humane credit and converse But especially in a Preacher because it will tempt men never to believe him And to say that we assent and consent and that ex animo when we do not is heinous lying VI. It is granted that man hath not a despotical power of his own understanding to believe what he will And that if any of his errours be vicious vice and errour must have better cure than meer commands And if men could know and believe what they will they should will to believe nothing but what hath credible evidence without a carnal biass VII It is agreed that all men have errour and therefore that erring men or no men must be tolerated in our Communion and he that thinks otherwise condemneth himself and teacheth all men to condemn him VIII It is granted that it is a very low degree of knowledge that the universality of vulgar Christians do attain who hardly learn the common Catechism much less can it be expected that they should all be able to understand all indifferent things to be indifferent and to be judges of the minutissima IX If any errours be tolerable it 's like to be the errours about things indifferent and small X. St. Paul hath expresly determined the Controversy about loving and receiving such Rom. 14. 15. XI To encourage by compliance a generation and design of men that overthrow Christ's and his Apostles rule of Communion and by invented impositions of their own would make Church-Concord impossible and would propagate this way of certain Schism and stablish it in the World is to confederate for tearing the Church of Christ and making Schism common and uncureable XII It is granted that he that after his greatest study is perswaded that unnecessary Oaths Subscriptions Covenants Ceremonies are sinful is condemned if he go against his Conscience tho' he should mistake XIII Those therefore that make such snares for Souls and then tell us If you go against your Consciences you are damned for that and if you do not you are damned as Schismaticks for disobeying us are far unlike the Ministers of Christ or Men that help to save our Souls XIV We Non-Conformists offer cur solemn Oaths that we have by Prayer and earnest search and study laboured to know the truth herein And as our worldly interest would perswade us to conform so we would readily do it did we not believe that it is sin against God Yea we take it as to us to be no small but heinous sin by the aggravations which I am mentioning XV. Seeing then the way of our Condemners is either to cast all Christians out of the Church that have not a greater degree of Knowledge herein than I have and all men of my Rank or else to bring all men implicitly to believe all to be lawful that is commanded them we cannot consent to either of these two Measures for the Church XVI It is agreed that Perjury is so heinous a Sin as that few are greater It so taketh God's Name in vain as to engage his Justice in a special Revenge It depriveth Kings of due Security for their Lives and Crowns by the Oath of Fidelity It destroyeth all Trust and consequently all Commerce among Men as well as all Hope of publick Justice It exposeth the Estates and Lives of all men to the will of Perjur'd men so that he that dare be perjur'd may be supposed liable to any other Wickedness how great soever Therefore if we Ministers should be perjured we should make our selves utterly unmeet for our Office. XVII It is agreed that to sin deliberately by a Covenant under our Hands is one of the most heinous sorts of sinning and if it be done knowingly sheweth the person to be a wilful Servant of sin To sin by the sudden surprize of a Passion is too bad but to study it resolve it and covenant it is most dangerous To engage a Mans self by Covenant to be once a Month drunk or steal or commit Fornication is far worse than the bare Act. XVIII It is granted that Repentance is the condition of Forgiveness and for a man to swear or covenant that he will never repent or endeavour to amend or alter any thing that is amiss is to renounce Forgiveness XIX It is granted that publick common national Sins are far worse than private and personal in few and if heinous they are Prognosticks of the sorest Judgments and to promote them is to be the Enemy of the Land. XX. It is granted that if that prove Perjury which some Dissenters fear is such and the Kingdom should be stigmatized by it there could scarce be any greater Shame and Danger befall the Land to make it odious to GOD and Men and Recorded as such to all Generations As I said The Oaths and Covenants to endeavour no Alteration in Church Government is imposed on all Corporations all Souldiers in the Militia all Vesteries all Non-conformist Ministers that will take it and all Ministers as to covenant in the Act of Uniformity And he that without accusing others only studieth to be innocent of so mortal a feared Guilt sure is therein excusable if the fear of God and the love of our Souls and of the Church and State be not an unexcusable Crime Apply this no farther than I apply it XXI There is so much written for a foreign Iurisdiction over England in Church Affairs by Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell Bishop Gunning 's Chaplain and many others whose Words I am ready to produce as may assure us that it is in the same Mens thoughts to introduce it as the only way to Concord and that they therefore desire the Ejection and Ruine of such as we because we are against it And how far and how soon God will let these men prevail we know not But we
are past doubt that to subject a Nation to a foreign Iurisdiction is to stigmatize it with the most odious Perjury Seeing as the Oath of Supremacy sweareth all expresly against it so the foresaid Corporation Oath Vestery Oath Militia Oath Oxford Oath and Vniformity Subscription have sworn or engaged the Nation never to endeavour any Alteration of Government in Church or State And if a foreign Iurisdiction be no Alteration we know nothing capable of that Name And when we see some of the same men at once endeavour to make us take such Oaths on pain of Ruin and to design to bring all under the Guilt of breaking them when we have done men think it best to take no more of them than is necessary till they see whether they must be kept or broken XXII Plagues Flames Poverty Convulsions that have befaln Corporations of late years makes us the more afraid of the sins which are like to be the Cause And the Earl of Argyle 's Case makes us afraid of stretching Expositions of Oaths And the Londoners have sped so ill by such stretching Expositions as confirmeth us in our Purpose to avoid them XXIII If we wilfully sin on pretence of Liberty to preach the Gospel we cannot expect God's Blessing on our Labours And then what is our preaching worth XXIV We read how joyfully many Martyrs in Queen Mary's days endured the Flames rather than grant the real Presence in the Mass And we that fear far greater sin must rather suffer than commit them XXV As we dare not Conform against Conscience so to lay by our Ministry while we can exercise it we take to be Sacrilege Covenant-breaking with God and Treachery and Cruelty to the Souls of Men. XXVI We are sure if all the Ministers should conform it would be so far from healing the Church that it would widen the Breach For the Dissenting People would be tempted to go the further from us all and think that none of us were to be trusted as many have turn'd further already on some such Accounts XXVII We are Commonly agreed that no men have right from God to Silence all the Ministers in the Land And we are fully satisfyed that Conformity to the things aforesaid being a Sin all the Ministers in England ought to have been Non-Conformists and then the Act of Uniformity had silenced them all XXVIII Lastly the dreadful effects of Canonical and the like Impositions the sufferings of Godly Minsters Congregations Cities Countries and Persons thereupon our doleful divisions especially among Ministers the evil Spirit that possesseth multitudes to cry down Love and call for Vengeance and the prospect of what is going on do affright us from approving consenting to or using the Engines that thus divide us and the Canons that are battering down our Peace and consequently to be guilty of all the Atheism Prophaneness Malignity Popery Persecution and Calamity to this Land which are like to come in at the breach of our Walls which the battery of those Canons and Engines make A Jayl and a Fire or a Gallows is an easier place than a bed where Conscience shall charge such Evils home upon us much more then the Judgments which the True and Righteous Judge of the World will shortly execute on Lyers Malignants or Persecutors of his Flock yea of the least of those that Christ will call Brethren at that day I have oft said if any Church-History of one man be credible St. Martin wrought many Miracles and when the Bishops about him being bad men to get down the Priscillian Gnosticks worse than our Quakers did 1. Seek help of the Magistrate's Sword 2. And bring strict Godly persons under suspicion of being Priscillianists Martin renounced their Communion by resolved separation to his death save that once at the Emperour's desire he Communicated with them on condition the Emperour would spare the lives of some condemned as Priscillianists and even for this was rebuked and chastized by an Angel if his Scholar and Companion Sulpitius Severus a Learned Godly man be to be believed CHAP. LVII Of the Reasons for Conformity L. NOW I will tell you what I hear said against your Non-Conformity and I will give you leave to answer the Objections as we go on Obj. I. It 's commonly said that you are Fanatick persons that build all your dissent on your own private Spirits and pretended Impulses and In spirations M. Have I pleaded with you any such Impulses or Inspirations as the Reasons of our Dissent Is there any such thing in above 100 Books that I have written Did we use any such Argument in our Dispute with the Bishops but the Papists call every mans Faith that is his Own and not taken meerly on trust as the Churches Faith by the Name of a Private Spirit L. Obj. II. They say you make a Schism and Stir for meer tristes and things indifferent viz. Ceremonies and Liturgy confessing that they are not unlawful M. 1. And what if they say that we are Turks or Heathens or have Horns and are Brutes what remedy have we To their honour be it spoken we would not hope to confute them 2. Do you not know that so far are we from this that even under the old easier Impositions we protested to the Bishops in our Petitions for Peace That we would yield to any thing but Sin against God and we endeavoured to prove Conformity sinful And do they well agree with themselves when Dr. Stilling fleet saith that I would represent Conformity such as should make them seem a company of Perjur'd Villains 3. I pray you tell me whether the 52. Points now opened by me be nothing but Liturgy and Ceremonies and whether you take them all to be things indifferent Is it not an odd sort of Accusers that we have that sometimes say we suspect the Nation of common Perjury and the Church of Subverting Corruption and overthrow of Discipline and Excommunicating Christs Faithful Servants and shortly after say We Dissent only about things Indifferent God have mercy on those miserably Souls that take such things for Indifferent 4. Who is it troubles the Land with their things Indifferent Is it we Did we devise them Do we impose them on any and say Vse our things indifferent or we will Silence you or Excommunicate you and lay you in Iayl with Rogues Be such things imposed as Indifferent L. III. They say you hold your Opinions in obstinate wilfulness and have no Reason to give for them and therefore are not to be born with as weak Brethren M. So said the Arians of the Orthodox and the Heathens of the Christians It 's a fine World when ignorant ungodly Lads are heard tell such men as were Dr. Reignolds Iohn Fox Amesius Blondel Dailee Chamier c. We can't allow you so much as the esteem of weak Brethren I do not think but some of their School boys might soon be taught by a Bishop to say thus to their Masters 2. But do all
you be not for us you are against the King since all are sworn against altering the Church-Government before that of the State. Mr. Martin that lost an arm in the Kings service in the War lay in Gaol at Warwick for preaching when silenced and Mr. Francis Bampfield that was against the Parliament's War lay seven years in Gaol for preaching as a Non-Conformist and died in New-gate Non-Conformists that have been and are most for the King do suffer as much as others 3. Read my second Plea for Peace in which I declare our political Principles and tell us what you there dislike L. Obj. VII But why do you refuse to renounce all the Obligation of the Covenant if you are not disloyal M. If you reduce your objection to an argument it must run thus All those are disloyal to the King who think that this vow binds them to be against Prophaneness Popery or Schism or to endeavour any amending or alteration of the prelatical way of Church-Government But c. I deny the Major Is he an honourer of the King that dare affirm this We are ready to renounce all Obligation from that or any other Covenant to any disloyalty what ever L. Obj. VIII They say that your Preaching is unnecessary there being Ministers enough without you and therefore that you Praech but to keep up a party and your own Reputation and Interest in them M. And I think that Priest fitter for tears than for disputes that so little knoweth England or the work of the Office they undertake If I know the Church that hath such a Pastor I shall be past doubt that they have need of help I would as soon believe him if he undertook to build a Castle alone and said he had no need of help or that forty thousand of the poor of London have no need of relief and that it is rebellion to relieve them as that the forementioned two hundred thousand have no need of teaching or Ministerial help for their souls L. Obj. IX There are some that have written that it is Pride and Covetousness that makes you Non-Conformists to seem godly and to get livings for your Sons M. Satan is so impudent a disputant that I am aweary of answering him tho' in self-defence If it be pride to be scorn'd and toss'd about as Rogues why will these humble Lord Bishops and Masters so be-rogue us to make us proud Men use to take down that which feeds their enemies pride I pray get them to restore us from poverty and prisons and scorns and slanders to take down our pride And for covetousness get them one year to take our turns to have all their Goods and Books taken away on the penalty of 40 l. for every Sermon and that to be levied on their hearers which they cannot pay and in this case to ly in Gaol and tell us when they have tried it whether it gratified their covetousness As to mens Charity to our selves or Sons 1. I have said heretofore that the 2000 that were ejected were fit for Bedlam if they would go out and suffer that so forty Mens Sons that conform against their Fathers wills might get benefices 2. They will take it for a disgrace to their Church if we should not grant that the Lords Knights Rich Men and Patrons are far more of their Church than of Dissenters and therefore liker to preferr Conformists Sons than others And a Living for the Father another for the Son is more than a possibility for one But brazen-faced impudence cannot be confuted L. Obj. X. They say you are meer Hypocrites that have learnt a shew of Holiness and Iustice but have false proud self-conceited rebellious Hearts M. And truly we cannot confute them any otherwise than by an appeal to the Judge of Hearts We cannot shew them our Hearts And if they say that they see and know them let Men believe them as they see cause They did not craftily so much to praise our out-side for those that take them not for Gods will hardly believe that they see any deeper But as far as I understand their meaning is That no man on earth is truly honest and godly and therefore all are Hypocrites that profess it And so they confess themselves Hypocrites in professing Christianity if Professing be the mark of Hypocrites L. Obj. XI They say that you are Rebels and Schismaticks against the Church and that 's as bad as Murder or Adultery and so you are more vicious than they M. It 's well they made their Chancellours Officials Commissaries c. the Church first I confess I am not unapt to believe that they take it for worse than Adultery Murder Persecution or Perjury to cross their wills and worldly interest And if calling themselves the Church would make any needy or ambitious pack of men the masters of all mens consciences and persons and estates I should not wonder if more than Papists and Prelatists strove to be called The Church L. Obj. XII But they say all antiquity condemneth Schism and you are they that will not suffer the Church to have Vnity and Peace in disobeying the Bishops and Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and disobedience as Idolatery M. The sence of this last Clause is God calls it like Witchcraft and Idolatry to Obey Him and Rebel against His Laws Ergo it is like Witchcraft and Idolatry not to Rebel and Disobey Him if Bishops command us Prove the consequence 2. Do not Papists call them Schismaticks and Hereticks too as long and as loud as they call us so And will this prove them such indeed We appeal to the common reason of mankind whether they that make a multitude of sinful Canons to persecute Christs Church and Servants and add to his Laws an hundred forty one of their own with inhumane penalties casting out those that obey them not be not rather Schismaticks than they that say We will hold Concord in all that Christ commandeth or his Apostles practised but we dare not obey you against God. Read my Search for the Schismaticks and The English Schismatick Detected and Confuted and then blame the Schismatick and spare not L. Obj. XIII But they say that it is but a company of self-conceited bad rebellious People that befriend or fellow you and the sober People are for them M. These things are unfit matter for a controversy with any English-Men of this age but only with Foreigners and Strangers I thought once it would never have been so hard to know good Men from bad as these would make it But I remember how bad Christ and his Apostles were thought by their persecutors Wherein doth such mens badness lie In not coming to their Churches Thousands do and the rest go to other Churches But thousands of our adversaries go to none but very rarely Is it in any other Vice Why do they then charge them with avoiding Vice in Hypocrisie And what is that Vice Here are some say many hundreds that
such being Engines of Division and Persecution what promises are necessary is further to be opened nor is Re-ordination or Re-baptizing to be forced on the truly Ordained and Baptized VI. The just Ordainers must needs be the discerning Iudges whom they shall Ordain to the Ministry as such And the Magistrate is Iudge whom he shall approve and maintain as publick Teachers and whom to tolerate as tolerable And every man is a discerning Iudge to whom he shall trust the Pastoral care of his own-Soul as he doth what Physician he shall use for his Life to which Self-love and Self-government do Authorize and Oblige him and no erring judgment of Superiors can disoblige him much less every Patrons Choice VII Truly Ordained and Called Ministers must Preach to their Flocks though they have no other Licence and are by Office Authorized to choose their Subject due Method and Word And if a Form of Liturgy in Prayers Praise Psalms be imposed by Agreement or Authority that all the Church be not left at utter uncertainty what worship they meet to offer to God till it be pass'd out of the Minister's mouth let it be agreeable to Scripture-direction in Matter Method and Words blameless orderly and without just cause of suspicion or offence and let it not be made a snare for Contention and Division by the rigorous urging of needless things nor worthy men be silenced and cast out that cannot Declare Assent and Consent to all things contained in it and prescribed by it by fallible men nor for every omission or abbreviation through scruple or necessitated hast or for not officiating in a Surplice And let the Canons 6. 7. 8. 9. and others that unjustly fetter the Ministers and Flock be Altered or Repealed VIII Let no Minister be Silenced Suspended or Ejected for not publishing Excommunications pass'd by Bishops or Lay-Men against any of his Flock best known to the present Pastor whom be judgeth not guilty or for scrupleing a Ceremony especially upon such Canons as the 6. 7. 8. c. that Excommunicate ipso facto every man not excepting Parliament-ment Lords Iudges or Iustices Parents or Wives or Children that do but affirm That any thing is unlawful or repugnant to the word of God in the Liturgy or Ceremonies or Ordination or in the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Arch-Deacons and the Rest that bear Office therein seeing Wise and Godly Ministers judge such things too light to deserve an Excommunication and dare not so dishonour those Superiors whom God hath commanded us to honour yea and think all Excommunicating ipso facto sine sententia Judicis to be sinful and contrary to the use of Excommunication which supposeth Impenitence And let no Minister or People be forced to publish or execute any Excommunication Arbitrarily Decreed or against their Consciences And let none be forbidden to Preach the Gospel who do not more hurt than good while Iustice may be done by other Penalties IX As Christianity Baptism and Sacramental Communion are gifts from God of unspeabahle value so none at age but willing Consenters to the Covenant of God can have any right to them Therefore no unwilling person should be forced to Baptism or the Lord's Supper and so to profane Gods holy Ordinance and corrupt the Church But in each Parish the meer Auditors or Catechized must be distinguished from the Communicants as meer Catechising and Teaching is from Pastoral Oversight and Church-Conduct X. The Kingdom consisteth of Ministers and People Approvable Tolerable and Intolerable though the publick Temples and Maintenance be at the Dispose of the Sovereign Power and Magistrates yet are not all Laymen that can but Buy or Inherit a Patronage Advowson or Presentation either Authorized by God or Qualifyed with sufficient Wisdom and Piety to choose such as Pastors to whom though Ordained by a Bishop all men are bound to commit the Pastoral care and conduct of their Souls as is aforesaid Therefore to this Relation the Peoples Choice or Consent is necessary And because Parish Churches are by fixed Neighbourhood the most convenient Order the Rulers should either make those the Publick Teachers whom the People can take for their Pastors or the People after take those for their Pastors who are truly Capable whom the Rulers first choose for the Publick Teachers But in case they cannot so agree each man must be Tolerated to choose and join with some other Parochial or more private Minister for his Pastor so be it 1. They fess the essentials of Christianity and Church Communion 2. And live peaceably and loyally in their Preaching and Practice 3. And pay the publick Teachers and Magistrates their dues renouncing Heresie and Popery and all Foreign Iurisdiction and Treason The TEST or Profession of the Maintain'd Ministers supposing the amendments of Discipline I Do sincerly as before God Profess that I believe the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the True word of God and supposing the Light and Law of Nature the Divine sufficient Rule of Faith and Holy Living according to which we shall be Iudged which no humane Laws or Power can Abrogate or Suspend being all but subordinate thereto And I will Preach nothing as necessary to Salvation which cannot be proved or warranted thereby And more particularly I believe all the Articles of the Creed called the Apostles as a summary of our Faith and Consent to the Lord's Prayer as the summary of our Desires and to the Decalogue as expounded by Christ as the summary of our obedient practice and I resolvedly Consent to the Gospel-Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which these summaries explain and which is celebrated in Baptism and the Lord's Supper And I do own and honour the Church of England that is This Christian Reformed Kingdom containing the Approved Pastors and their Flocks both the Publickly Maintained and the Duly Licensed and United under one Christian Reformed Sovereign and Renouncing all Foreign Jurisdiction And I do honour with thankfulness to God the Reformation and Concord of this Church in Doctrine Worship and Discipline and will labour to preserve its Unity and Peace renouncing all Treasons Seditions Popery Foreign Iurisdiction Heresy Schism and Profaneness And I do promise to Exercise my Ministry with diligence for the edification of the Church and the saving of mens Souls The Ministers being of three sorts 1. The Maintained or Promoted 2. The Licensed to Preach as Candidates or Lecturers without the publick maintenance or Helpers to Incumbents who desire them or occasionally such as sound Protestants continuing Non-conformists should be 3. The Tolerated that have only a Grant of Protection and Peace without either Mainterance or Approving Licence I leave it to Superiours how much of the aforesaid Profession shall be required of the two latter This would much reduce the Kingdom to a Holy and Happy Unity and Peace which yet containeth nothing that Protestants have any just cause to reject And we are not
much against it And what Learned men wrote against it read but Mich. Goldastus his many Volumes of Collections and you may see Yea the Papists are not agreed of the very essential Form and Constitution of their Church and therefore are indeed of several Churches One Party thinks that the supremacy is in the Pope another that it is in a General-Council and a third that it is in the Pope and General-Council agreeing and yet all these so far bear with one another as to cover over the difference with the Name of one Church and to repute each other as True Roman Catholicks Yea more it is by an Allowance of Dissenters or different ways of Worship that the Pope doth chiefly keep up 〈◊〉 Kingdom When any Religious people have fallen into a dissatisfaction with the loose Discipline and Conversation of the Bishops and their Churches the Pope alloweth them to set up by themselves and exercise a stricter Discipline Worship and Conversation of their own devising which he alloweth and no Bishop shall have power to impeach And thus he keepeth them in dependance on himself as the only Defender of their humours inventions and liberties of different ways On such accounts there are multitudes of Sects among them under the name of Friars and Fathers and Sisters c. The Benedictines Augustinians Dominicans Franciscans Iesuits Carthusians c. And all have their several ways of Discipline but it sufficeth that all depend upon one Pope In Rome it self Philip Nerius being a Serious Religious man was unsatisfied with the dead formal way of the Bishops and Mass-priests and to bring men to knowledge and seriousness in Religion he borrowed a Church and set up a Lecture or Course of Serious Extemporate Worship almost like the exercise called Prophecying that Arch-Bishop Grindal was for and the Lord St. Albans Bacon writes for Four Zealous men spent the whole day one in Extemporate praying and one in Preaching and Expounding Scripture and one in telling the people the History of the Church and the Lives and Miracles of Saints and one in Praying again just like those here hated as extemporate Puritans The Bishops said they were proud hypocrites that drew crowds of people after them for reputation of sanctity and they persecuted Nerius and accused them to the Pope and silenced him The silencing Bishop was presently struck with death and Nerius went on Baronius being his second The crafty Pope instead of calling them Fanatick Rognes and Rebels thinks it policy to turn this stream of Pious Zeal into his own channel to drive his own Mill and he rescueth them from the Prelates and alloweth their Exercises and calleth them by the name of the Oratorians and honoureth the leaders so that he drew them to depend on him and Baronius to write those many great Volumes of Ecclesiastical History which have done Rome greater service than any one Writer that I know of in the world and to this day the Oratorians are the most sober Puritan Papists Thus did he make use of the Sectarian singularity of Ignatius Loyola a Souldier turned to Superstition allowing them as others to set up by themselves from under the power of the Bishops in dependance on the Pope alone whereby he hath mastered Emperours and Kings and Kingdoms and made great attempts on Abbassines Greeks yea on Congo Iapan China and the Heathen World. And I have credibly heard that Dr. Tho. Goodwin Philip Nye and Dr. Owen the Leaders of our Independants did tell the King that as the Pope allowed these orders of Religious parties in meer dependance on himself without subjection to the Bishops all that they desired was not to be the masters of others but to hold their own liberty of Worship and Discipline in sole dependance on the King as the Dutch and French Churches do so they may be saved from the Bishops and Ecclesiastical Courts 2. But further Do you forget that the Spaniards by their sacred Cruelty and Inquisition have lost the Low Countries and had almost lost the seventeen Provinces 3. And do you not know that ever since the days that the Arrian Gothes possessed Spain they have been like Ireland a blind superstitious People whose Ignorance most fitteth them for such a kind of Concord And is there not a Concord in their way among the enslaved ignorant Muscovites and among the Turks and many Heathens Satan himself is against the dividing of his Kingdom 4. And do you think that the effect of Spanish and Italian Tyranny and Concord doth answer the cost The Cruelty of their Inquisition hath made their names as odious as of Cannibals or Wolves insomuch that the Lord Bacon thought that an Invasive War against them as the enemies of mankind that violate the Laws of Nature and Nations was just And the many millions that they most cruelly murdered and tormented in Mexico Peru Hispaniola c. among whom were divers Kings do tell the World what are the fruits of their Catholick fury and Arbitrary Government Their Arch-bishop Barth de Casa and their Jesuit Ioseph Acosta eye witnesses of undoubted credit report that which renders them liker devils than men And Gage that lived there among them seconds it And it was no small infamy to their King Philip that he put to death his Son and Heir Charles Are these the patterns that you would have us imitate And as for Italy 1. Read of all their Histories and then name that Country on earth if you can that for many Generations hath been infested with so much Civil War and Blood as Italy hath been yea Rome it self 2. And since policy hath setled it of late in Peace what a Peace is it and of what effect It is said by travellers that no Country more aboundeth with Atheists and Infidels that are indeed of no Religion And truly if it be God and Conscience that you would have banished out of England and Infidelity Sadduceism Hobbists Malignity Drunkenness Whoredom Perjury that you would have take the place I dare say that the Devil will not fight against such Concord but will promote it withal his policy and power by himself and all his agents Ecclesiastical Civil and Military 4. Yet further Why look you not on all the rest of the World as well as Spain and Italy Indeed Iapan restored Concord but it was by so devilish and cruel Torments of Christians and those that would not accuse them as rendreth their names odious to mankind of which Varenius will satisfy you But what France what Ireland and others have got by cruelty I have told you before And though I am far from justifying the Hungarians men that I know not or their case for flying to the Turks for help do you think that the Countries now ruined by War and the many thousands in Austria Silesia Moravia and Hungary killed and taken Captives and the thousands killed in Fight and the Famine that the next year is like to come on the ruined Countries where
Canon tells you it is a dedicating Sign and Badge of our profession So that I see not what is wanting to a Sacrament as far as man can make one by presumption which we cannot consent to L. But it 's said that Baptism is perfect without it M. So it is without the Lord's Supper and yet that is justly added It saith not that mans covenanting with God is perfect without it For it seemeth a Sacrament of man 's added to that of Christ to tie men faster to him L. Ancient Christians did use the Cross without scruple M. 1. It is not all use of the Cross that we speak against but using it as a Sacrament of the Covenant and badge of Christianity The King would not take it well if Subjects presume to make a new Badge of the Order of Knights of the Garter and add it to the Garter and the Star. To shew by an action as well as by a word to scorning Heathens that they were not ashamed of a crucified Saviour might be more excusable that this And they foresaw not to what abuse it would be after turned 2. But suppose we mistook in these our fears of sinning 1. Do you think that the case hath not difficulty enough to excuse a man for fear of sinning 2. And do you think that for such fear and not acting against them we deserve to be cast out as heinous uncapable delinquents CHAP. XIII Point X. Of denying Baptism to them that refuse the Cross. M. BUT the practice of Crossing is disputable and I lay not so sharp a censure on them that differ from us in it But what excuse can be made by a man of Christian charity and consideration for denying Baptism to all that refuse this crossing I confess I cannot imagine nor could ever hear L. Their excuse is that Crossing being lawful the Refusers are disorderly Schismaticks and they and their Children as theirs uncapable of Baptism They say it is not they but you that are the Refusers They offer to baptize you or your Child and you refuse it M. 1. They know that it is not Baptism but Crossing that is refused And if they will not administer one without the other they are the refusers If one refuse the Papists Exorcism Salt Spittle c. and they will not baptize without it do they not deny to Baptize unless one will receive all these If God will justifie them for rejecting all that think it a sin to receive their Crossing then it is not them to whom it is to be imputed But can that be true 1. Christ that instituted Baptism ordained the conditions of it and the qualifications of such as shall be baptized Mat. 28. and Mark 16. 16. He that believed was to be Baptized Act. 28. If thou believe with all thy heart thou mayest No saith the Canon you shall not though you repent and believe unless also you will take the covenanting Badge of the Cross. Is not this to alter the terms of Christ's Covenant and Sacrament and directly to contradict his very fundamental Law of Christianity Baptize all that are made disciples saith Christ and all that repent and believe No saith our Convocation baptize none of them that will not take the transient Image of a Cross for their farther obligation 2. Do you that think it is necessary to Christianity and Salvation know that this Federal Crossing is lawful if you affirm it you must say the same of all ceremonies of the same importance and so must make a hundred new Articles of Faith even of Ceremonies and such little things and make them all necessary to Christianity and Salvation And is not this to make a new Gospel Christianity and Church and to turn Christ's easie Yoke into a worse than the slavery of Pharisaical Traditions And is not this to shut all or almost all men out of Heaven No one on earth doth know that this and all such ceremonies and inventions of men are lawful And must every one know it that will be a Christian or have his child made one Or must we all as necessary to Christianity believe all such things lawful if the Clergy do but say they are And what if the Clergy in one Land say it is and in another say it is not Must both be believed Have wise Bishops no fitter penalty to enforce their usurping Canons by than denying Christendom and Salvation One would think it should be enough for the Preachers of humility to say We are so wise that he that differeth practically from us in that which we call an indifferent ceremony and he calls a sinful corruption of baptism shall be punished as much as Swearers Drunkards and Fornicators be or shall be made a slave with his Children without denying them Christianity and Salvation But the best is all cannot keep men out of Heaven that boast of the power of the Keys and there is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy L. You make a heinous cruelty of it as if it were oppression and tyranny to souls and they say that they impose nothing on you but things indifferent M. Must their indifferent things be enforced with so great penalty as damnation If every one cannot love every Dish that they love or get down every Pill that they give him but he be famish'd therefore or have his thro at cut wider I had rather live and die a Chimney-sweeper or a Channel cleanser or a Keeper of Swine than a Bishop that should put Christ's Disciples and their seed whom he commandeth them to baptize Mat. 28. 19. from his Covenant and Church and specially when themselves make Baptism more necessary and certainly saving than it is L. But you may venture to baptize such if you will. M. What when I have covenanted Assent and Consent to all things in their Book and subscribed to use no other form in baptizing and also must be cast out for it CHAP. XIV Point XI Of rejecting from Communion all that dare not kneel in the act of Receiving L. I Hear that you receive the Eucharist Kneeling your self and take it for lawful what then have you against the Canon or Liturgy for this M. I am my self for the lawfulness of Organs Railes and Coming up to them and for the lawfulness of Kneeling when we sing Psalms or read the Scripture or hear the Preacher But I am not for the lawfulness of hanging or damning men that herein are not of my mind Nor for turning unnecessary things because they are lawful into conditions sine quibus non of Church Communion and Engines for Satan to divide Christ's Flock by and persecute men for fearing sin Paul was for the lawfulness of using or not using the meats and days mentioned Rom. 14. 1 2. But he was not for either judging or despising one another about them much less for casting men from the Church and Heaven for them nor for saying except ye be Circumcised ye cannot be saved L. Nor