from their Churches Answ. No but consent to improve the common Truths and perform our Duties even to such as differ from us in this Object 3. There is not one of an hundred of them that will consent to these Terms Answ. If they will not who can help it when we have tried them we have done our Duty and left them without Excuse Object 4. Shall we confess a Schismatical Church for a true Church Answ. Every Schism nulleth not the Church or Ministry that is guilty of it else most of the Churches in the World were nulled If they reject the Essentials of a Church they are none Object 5. Baptism is Essential to a Church The Apostle Heb. 6. 1. putteth it among the Principles Answ. 1. It is only the thing signified by Baptism that is Essential 2. The Apostle calls it a Principle because it is one of the first things taught but not because it is Essential to a Church 3. The Anabaptists have Baptism in their Churches though not of Infants Object 6. To make a League with Schsmaticks is to be guilty of their Schism Answ. True If by that League you own approve or consent to their Schism But not by agreeing with them to perform Common Duties Object 7. They are undermining the Church and Ministry and shall we seek peace with such Answ. 1. Those that we speak of are not such 2. If they were yet it is our Duty to hinder them by agreeing to moderate Ways and Common Duties Object 8. They are guilty of their Infants Damnation as much as in them lyeth by not believing their part in the Covenant nor dedicating them to God Answ. They virtually consent for their Infants in that they would actually do it if they knew the Promise Object 9. They are under God's visible Displeasure Ergo c. Answ. So far as God disowneth them we must do so but no further Object 10. We shall be reproached as complying with them Answ. Slanderous Tongues cannot excuse us from plain Duties Object 11. Those whom we should Excommunicate we may not have Communion with But the Anabaptists should be Excommunicated Ergo c. Answ. I deny the Minor taken of such Anabaptists as we have now in question Object 12. It is a scandalous Sin unrepented of Answ. 1. So is many a greater Errour which Men must not be Excommunicated for 2. It is virtually repented of seeing if they knew the Evil of it they would repent Object 13. You would have a looser Discipline than the Prelates or Papists for they would not Communicate with Anabaptists Answ. 1. I only avoid dividing rigour and cruelty 2. They have Multitudes in their Communion that know not what Baptism is nor to what use nor who Christ is whether God or Man nor many other Fundamentals Ergo Their Discipline is far looser than I desire but too partial also The Anabaptists object We are bound to propagate the Truth and if you will have Communion with us you must be baptized Answ. 1. You are bound to propagate first the greatest Truths that Salvation lyeth on and to do nothing that may hinder this by promoting your own Opinions 2. If you reject Communion with all but Anabaptists you reject all the Church through most Ages of the World And no Church no Christ and no Christ no Christians nor any Salvation 3. Blame us not if we be not easily brought to your Opinion if we had but these Reasons 1. You confess no thanks to you that Infants were once Church-Members by God's appointment and have never yet proved that he cast them out again And we must have good proof of that before we can be satisfied with your way 2. We cannot be hasty to believe an Evil and we know that it is a sad Penal Evil for Infants to be put out of the Church And Ergo we will have proof of it before we believe it 3. It must be no easie matter with us to believe that the Head and Shepherd of the Church hath de facto had a Church of a false Constitution as to the very Materials and Enterance from the beginning to this day except a few within this twenty years that troubled it in a Corner of the World and that now in the end of the World we must expect a right Constitution as if Christ had slept or regarded not his Church or been the Head of a Body which he disowned We cannot hastily believe such things I say again No Church no Christ for No Body no Head And if no Christ then there is no Christ now Take heed therefore how you unâChurch or difown the whole Church of Christ in the very frame for so many Ages An Offer of Christian fraternal Communion to the Brethren that are against or doubtful about Baptizing Infants of Believers IT is our exceeding Joy that we have all one God one Saviour one Spirit one Faith and one Baptismal Covenant one Rule of Faith and Life one End and Hope and are Members of one Catholick Church and agree about God's Worship in the most and greatest parts And it is our Grief and the Matter of our great Humiliation that we can come no nearer and that by the Remnants of our Differences the Wicked are so hardened the Weak offended our Charity hindered our holy Communion and mutual Edification disturbed our Minds discomposed and the Gospel the Catholick Church and our Saviour dishonoured Lamenting this with the rest of our Unhappiness while we are in the Flesh and absent from the Lord the Centre of Perfect Unity and Concord and knowing it to be our Duty to walk by the same Rule and mind the same things so far as we have attained and being taught of God to love one another and observing how frequently and urgently Brotherly Love and Forbearance and the Unity and Concord of Christians is prest in the holy Scriptures and Uncharitableness and Divisions condemned that as far as may be we may promote our Common Ends of Christianity and with one Mind and Mouth may glorifie God We whose Names are under-written do make this following Offer of Communion 1. To all those that joyn with us in the foregoing Profession of the Christian Faith and have been Baptized since their Infant-Baptism as thinking it unlawful or insufficient we offer free Communion in our particular Churches with leave to Enter your dissent from our Infant-Baptism into the Church-Register or Records so be it you will thence-forth walk in that Love and Holiness and that Obedience to the faithful Overseers of the Flock and that Concord and Brotherly Communion with the Church as is required in the holy Scriptures according to your power and will resist Uncharitableness Discord and Divisions and joyn with us in our Common Work for the Common Ends. 2. To all those that joyn with us in the foregoing Profession of Faith though they have been baptized since their Infant-Baptism or think that Baptism unlawful and dare not hold Local Communion with us in
pursued me to this very day 2. But it is the Reasons against our full Obedience to the Imposition of this Conformity which I am now to rehearse but I must desire the Reader to remember that my bare Recital is no sign of my Approbation of all that I recite though I be one of those that dare not Conform § 304. And first there are divers general Reasons which keep some of them more than others from Conformity and drive them further even from joyning with them in Liturgy or Sacrament 1. Some of them look upon the Principles and Lives of many of those who fall in with the establisht Church as furnishing them with a sufficient Plea against Conformity For say they it 's easie to observe how the Prophane and Vitious and Debaucht and Scandalous which makes up but too great a part of the Nation fall in with that Party in the Church that are for Prelacy and Liturgy c. and for oppressing those who differ in their Sentiments from them about these Matters Now how say they can we safely joyn in with that Body of Men that harbours so many open Enemies to all Religion as the prophane part of the Nation comprehends But some who are more considerate reply That this is no other than what is the usual Attendant of a National Establishment it being a common thing for all those in a State who are really of no Religion in appearance to fall in with that Mode of Religion that is favour'd by the Law and most encouraged by the Prince § 305. 2. The same Persons say That by Conforming they shall own and strengthen Usurpers who have made a New Office which Christ never made and to the great wrong of Christ and the peril of the Church have made themselves Lords of God's Heritage And as he that obeyeth the Pope's Law is guilty of his Usurpation so is he that obeyeth the Prelates Laws though the Matter commanded were lawful in it self But the moderater Nonconformists are not for this Reason because say they it is but Counsel as it cometh from the Convocation and it is the King and Parliament that make a Law of it whom we must obey in lawful things And they say further That we must not forbear a Duty for fear of Encouraging Men's Usurpations § 306. They say also 3. That these Impositions are done by the Prelates in meer design to root out godly Ministers and Christians And that when they feared that the old Conformity would not serve turn they have added such new Materials of set purpose which keep out a Thousand at least that would have yielded to the Old Conformity And what they aim at further when they have thus driven out all the able faithful Ministers God knoweth But if we set in with them and use the very means which they have ââbricated for this very end to destroy the Interest of Godliness though the Act commanded were indifferent we are made guilty of their Sin But the moderate Nonconformists say That such Reasons as these are good Seconds where the Matter is first proved evil but 1. That Mens Designs are lateât in their hearts and the strongest Conjectures will not serve instead of Proof 2. If that it were known to any one of us not by the Evidence of the thing but by some other Discovery that a lawful thing is Commanded with a pernicious design that will not excuse us from our Obedience unless it be probable that the Church is like to be saved from ruine by our forbearance to obey And we may do the thing commanded without any participation of the Guilt of Mens private malicious Intentions § 307. 4. Also they say That we have Covenanted to endeavour a Reformation and had begun it and therefore shall be Covenant-breakers and Backsliders if we yield to any thing which was to be reformed But here the more moderate have many Distinctions between things unlawful and things only inconvenient and between those that have opportunity to do better and those that have not and between seldom Communion and most ordinary And they say that things unlawful must not be done whether we have covenanted against them or not But for things only inexpedient or evil by a superable Accident they become our Duties and no Covenant disobligeth us from our Duty and that the Covenant never was intended to oblige us to prefer no Worship before that which is defective but only to prefer that which is better before it And that it may be a duty to Communicate sometime with a very faulty Church in order to our Catholick Communion with the whole so be it our ordinary particular Communion be in the purest Church and Order caeteris paribus that we can have § 308. 5. And another Reason given is That the Aggravation of the Sin of these Imposers is very great that they have been Persecutors heretofore and seen and felt God's Judgments for it and have been convinced and intreated to return to Charity and yet they have with renewed Malice set themselves to the debauching of the Consciences of the Kingdom and to the extirpation of Natural Honesty and have branded all their Party with the Mark of Perjury Perfidiousness and Persecution while they brand the Consciencious with the Name of Puritans And therefore they are a Generation ready for perdition and certainly near some heavy Curse And for us to joyn with them that are in the way to Wrath is the way to be partakers of their Plagues But the moderate say to this 1. That the Extenuation as well as the Aggravation of their Sin must be considered And that it must be remembred that among the Nonconformists there is a Party of Sectaries that Rebelled against all the Governours that were over them and cut off the King's Head when they had conquered those that are now against them in the Field and sequestred their Estates And that such great Provocation may not only sublimate Malice where it findeth it but greatly exasperate even temperate Men. 2. That it 's true that we must partake with no Men in their Sin as ever we would escape their Plagues but when that which is the Imposers Sin is become the Subjects Duty God will not plague us with them for doing our Duties 3. That it is dangerous to presume to foreteâ on whom God will bring his Judgments in this Life and to preâume that we are safe and they are near perdition while all things come alike to all and the differencing Day of Judgment is not yet come Therefore it is dangerous on such Prophesies or Presumptions or Fears to go out of the way of any Duty or to avoid any lawful Communion with the Church § 309. 6. Again it is said That these Impositions being the Engines of Division in the Church as Mr. Hales himself affirmeth we shall be partakers of the Schisms if we use them But the moderate say That indeed if we partake in the Imposition we partake in the
vain If they do then they prove the Duty if not the Necessity of Infant Baptism 3. Ceremonies have not so much laid on them under the Gospel as under the Law Mercy before Sacrifice is the Gospel Canon Ad 2 m 2. That Command Matth. 28. commandeth the baptizing of Disciples I doubt not but it commandeth thereby the baptizing of Infants who are Disciples and made Disciples while proselyted Parents enter them into the Covenant of God according to his express unrepealed Law and Promise 2. But suppose it did not command Infant-Baptism nay suppose it had consequentially forbidden it it proves no more than that it is a sin not a nullity 3. But suppose it had made it a Nullity how are you guilty of other mens omission of Baptism by holding Communion with them when you may at your Enterance declare your dissent from them in that point Your Argument would lead you to avoid Communion with all Churches in the World even the re-baptized that held not all that you take to be the Institutions of Christ because you are bound to hold them But when you have leave to do your own Duty if you will shun all that you think do not theirs you will abhor Catholicism Ad 3 m 1. As to Iohn 3. 5. doubtless that Text speaks of more than the visible Church even the Mystical and the Triumphant And therefore if you will from thence exclude Infants from Baptism and the visible Church you must needs shut them all out of Heaven but Christo dissentiente you shall have none of Christ's consent 2. It is both Water as the sign and the holy Covenant and Cleansing of the Soul as the thing signified that are convincingly meant in the Text. But how one only as a sign and the other as the thing signified and therefore not as equally necessary in point of means though equally commanded Alas how easily understand we such Speeches among Men. If a General say to the Rebels I will spare none of you that will not come and list himself under me every Body will understand that becoming a Soldier and the Military Engagement or Sacrament as the Oath was anciently called is the thing here signified to be absolutely necessary and the Listing or Colours but as a sign for Order and in Cases of Necessity dispensable and regarded but in order unto the thing signified Your Arguments from personal Inconveniencies are none Ad 1 m 1. Do not you startle to hear the Catholick Church called the World and a retirement into its Communion called a Returning to the World I have read Come out from among them that is the World but not Come out of the Catholick Church 2. And do you not startle to hear them call their way Strictness and the other Loosness If they mean a sinful strictness so every Vice or many may have a strictness Malice hath a strictness and Covetousness and Oppression hath a strictness and Superstition hath a strictness But if they mean it of a holy strictness are not they the strictest that are likest to Christ and most conformable to his Will and most accurate in their Obedience And is not Love the new and great Commandment Are not your People loose that are so far from holy Love and Catholick Communion God is Love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God They are strict then in opposing God and the Unity or sweet Communion of the Members of the Lord. Is it an honour to be strict Sinners and Destroyers of the Church and Holy Love Let some take heed least they be too strict to come into Heaven among so many Millions of Souls that never owned any but Infant Baptism which is I think since Christ many hundred to one that is there that never were against Infant Baptism whether do you think Christ or the Phaâisees were the stricter when they condemned him for eating with Publicans and Sinners and his Disciples for breaking the ears of Corn and him for Sabbath-breaking c. Sure he more accurately observed his Father's will even the blessed Rule of Love and Mercy though they were more superstitious and strict was it the weak or the strong Christians Rom. 14. 15. that were the stricter about meats and drinks and days The weak superstitiously but the strong did more strictly adhere to the Law of Christ. Do you think that Man that shall say Christ died but for half the Saints themselves to be ever the better for that strict Opinion If you are for such forbidden strictness of Practice why do you not answer it in your Opinions about Grace c. 2. You have cause to be much humbled before the Lord for bringing your People into this Snare and Misconceit and ergo should not be guilty of continuing them in it nor make the fruit of your Sin an Argument to go on Impenitently 3. So great a Truth and Duty as Christian Catholick Love and Communion is not to be bawked for fear of danger Tell you of it plainly and trust God with the Issue It 's doubt those that will turn Quakers that is Infidels or near rather than be reduced to Catholick Love and Communion are never like to come to good if you keep them where they are It 's a fearful thing that any Man should think the better of his Spiritual state because he flieth furthest from the Catholick Love and Communion of Saints that is from the Church from Christ from God from Heaven Ad 2 m Your Communion with differing Saints is not a sinning against your Opinion about Baptism nor a leaving your station You may own your way and yet own Catholick Communion Dear Brother I think the Lord of Love and Peace is laying hands on you and will have you away out of your dangerous Schisms into the Paths of Love and Peace It is Uncharitableness and Separation that hath made the Rebaptized so odious throughout the World Love breedeth Love as Heat breedeth Heat The Christian Charity that appeareth in your Lives I sensibly feel draws out my own Heart in love to you All God's Saints will love you if you will but turn into the way of Love I hear that the Rebaptized in Ireland that grew to the reputation of Turbulent in their height begin now to be thought more peaceable and tolerable than some others there that being lately in the Saddle possessed their Prosperity and unquietness O! if days of Persecution come it will cut your hearts to think how you have refused Communion with your Brethren in days of Peace If we all lay our Heads and Hearts and Hands together for God's Church and Cause it will be too little My motion to you is That you will joyn with us for a Brotherly Agreement between the Men of your mind and ours The Articles shall be but these three 1. That all that can being satisfied in Conscience with their being Rebaptized shall continue loving Communion in the Church 2. That those that cannot be brought
think so by your Words do they not imply it 2. If you think our Nonconformity our Duty what meaneth your Address to us as such and your Counsels aforementioned and how cometh our Silence and forsaking the Preaching of the Gospel to be our Duty during the need of so many Thousand Souls As for unwarrantable Separation and Accusation of the Parish-Churches and Liturgy we are many of us as truly though not as far from them as you If what I have written displease you it will but tell you that I prefer Truth and Conscence and the Churches Good before my very dear and much valued Friends Opinion or Will and the Welfare and Peace of his own Soul before the pleasing of him I am past doubt that you do in Sincerity seek the same thing that I and others do that is the healing of a divided People and the Cure of those Distempers which have drawn many to sinful Separations Three sorts of Schism we disclaim as well as you 1. Making Factions and Parties in a Church to the Hindrance of Love Peace and Concord 2. Separating from a Church on the Account that its Communion is unlawful when it is not so 3. Much more separating from a Church as no Church and a Ministry as none when it is not so In none of these respects do we separate or divide from the Church or Churches that we should hold Communion with 1. We separate from the Catholick Church 2. Nor from the Church of England as accidentally headed by the King 3. Nor as a number of Churches associated for Concord 4. Nor as a meer Community part of the Church Universal 5. We separate not from the Parish-Churches that have true Pastors either as no Churches or as holding Communion with them in ordinary publick Worship to be simply or commonly sinful 6. Nor would we make any Division in the Churches by unjust contention but that there are Separatists that do so and deserve all your reproof and need all your Admonitions we doubt not But by overdoing the ordinary way of undoing I doubt you have lost your labour and much worse Not but that all of us have great cause to thank you if truly you do detect any guilt of ours as well as others but if you have done much to increase the Schism and made your self guilty of it you have crost your own end notwithstanding your good meaning 1. We are not for building up any Walls of Separation some Masters of Schism are 2. We think that no Humane Churches have power to abrogate the Priviledges or Duties of the Churches of Christ's own institution Some Schismaticks think otherwise 3. We hold that Christians should live in holy Love and Peace when tolerable Differences of Opinion placeth them in divers Congregations but some Schismaticks think otherwise and make such a peevish unreasonable noise against all that do not meet with them and subject themselves to them as that their Clamour is the scandal to the Infidels Atheists and Papists making them believe that we are mad or all in pieces when we differ but in little things and so they reproach the Frailty of Humane Nature and the common Imperfection of Believers with calumniating Censures and Accusations as if they were a greater evil than they are 4. We hold that Love and Tenderness and Self-denial should pardon honest Christians for choosing such Pastours as are really most serviceable to their Salvation and their own Experience find to be so rather than unsuitable Men to say no worse that are thrust on them against their wills and that other Ministers should be glad if they will live peaceably under others and profit by them though they choose not them but some turbulent Self-seekers are of another mind and way 5. We think as is said that the Parishes are or should be true Churches and we hold Communion with them as such but some Conformists un-un-Church them and make them but parts of a Church and hold no Communion with them otherwise 6. We go upon certain and plain grounds in determining what Schism is as the three sorts e. g. aforesaid but so do not many Schismaticks that yet cry down Schism 1. Some of them make it Schism not to obey the Pope as Universal Monarch 2. Some make it Schism not to be subject to a true Universal Council as the Collective Head of the Church when there neither was is or ever will be such a thing in the World much less the rightful Head of the Church 3. Some with Bishop Bromhall and his Advocates and others would have the Pope to be Principium Unitatis and Patriarch of the West and so it shall be Schism not thus to submit to him 4. Some as Mr. Thorndike would have these Councils and Canons to rule us for Concord which were till the time of Charles the Great 5. Some are for Concord on the reception of the four first Councils some of six some of eight Grotius of all well expounded 6. Some hold that its Schism to disobey the King's Church-Orders and to refuse any Bishop or Minister that the King or a Patron choose for us 7. Some hold that it's Schism to obey the King in the circa sacra as aforesaid in choice of Pastours Time Place Translation Meetre c. if the Bishops or Bishop be against it and command the contrary and that these must rather be obeyed 8. Shme hold that it's Schism to separate from a Parish Church as no Church others think it none 9. If the Archbishop command one thing and the Bishop another and the Parish Pastor another and a Parent another as when to Communicate and in what Gesture Habit c. they are not agreed what Disobedience here is the Schism 10. Some take it for Schism if a prohibited Minister speak to God in Prayee or to the People in teaching them in any words but what Bishop or Bishops write them down or if he obey not a Bishop never truly chosen by the Clergy or the People even in every commanded Form and Ceremony 11. Some think it Schism if we hold Communion with those whom a Laâ-Chancellour Excommunicateth or if we deny our Communion to those that he absolveth yea if we publish not his Sentence as in the Bishop's name that perhaps never knew of it 12. Some say it is Schism if we preach in another Man's Parish be there never so great need without his consent 13. Some say it is Schism if we preach without the Bishops licence though we have the King 's or at least be Ordained even by the Bishops 14. Some say that if we be licenced it 's Schism to preach to above four in an unlicensed place 15. Some say if Person and Place be licenced it is Schism to preach without the Common Prayer 16. Some say that if the Bishop command us rebus sic slantibus to preach or meet only at midnight or twenty miles off or but once a month or if they forbid all God's
for such as Age or Persecution hindered to come to the more solemn Meetings yet Churches then were no bigger in number of Persons than our Parishes now to grant the most And that they were Societies of Christians united for Personal Communion and not only for Communion by Meetings of Officers and Delegates in Synods as many Churches in Association be And I saw if once we go beyond the bounds of Personal Communion as the end of particular Churches in the Definition we may make a Church of a Nation or of ten Nations or what we please which shall have none of the Nature and Ends of the Primitive particular Churches Also I saw a commendable care of serious Holiness and Discipline in most of the Independant Churches And I found that some Episcopal Men as Bishop Usher himself did voluntarily profess his Judgment to me did hold that every Bishop was independant as to Synods and that Synods were not proper Governours of the particular Bishops but only for their Concord § 6. 5. And for the Anabaptists themselves though I have written and said so much against them as I found that most of them were Persons of Zeal in Religion so many of them were sober godly People and differed from others but in the Point of Infant Baptism or at most in the Points of Predestination and Free-will and Perseverance as the Iesuits differ from the Dominicans the Lutherans from the Calvinists and the Arminians from the Contra-Remonstrants And I found in all Antiquity that though Infant Baptism was held lawful by the Churchâ yet some with Tertullian and Nazienzen thought it most convenient to make no haste and the rest left the time of Baptism to every ones liberty and forced none to be baptized Insomuch as not only Constantint Theudâsius and such other as were converted at Years of Discretion but Augustine and many such as were the Children of Christian Parents one or both did defer their Baptism much longer than I think they should have done So that in the Primitive Churchi some were Baptized in Infancy and some at ripe Age and some a little before their Death and none were forced but all left free and the only Penalty among men of their delay was that so long they were without the Priviledges of the Church and were numbred but with the Catechumens or Expectants § 7. 6. As to Doctrinal Differences also between Arminians and Anti-Arminians I soon perceived that it was hard to find a Man that discerned the true State of the several Controversies and that when unrevealed points uncertain to all were laid aside and the Controversies about Words were justly separated from the Controversies about things the Differences about things which remained were fewer and smaller than most of the Contenders perceived or would believe § 8. 7. Yea I found that our Doctrinal Controversies with the Papists themselves were very much darkned and seldom well stated and that in the Points of Merit Justification Assurance of Salvation Perseverance Grace Free-will and such others it was common to misunderstand one another and rare to meet with any that by just Distinction and Explication did well state the Controversies and bring them out of the Dark § 9. What I begin to write about any of these Doctrinal Differences in my Aphorisms Confession Apologie c. I will now pass by and the manifold Censures and Encounters which I had thereupon and the many Manuscripts of worthy Brethren animadverting upon my Aphorisms which I was privately put to answer Because it is not such Differences that now I am to speak of § 10. I perceived then that every Party beforementioned having some Truth or Good in which it was more eminent than the rest it was no impossible thing to separate all that from the Error and the Evil and that among all the Truths which they held either in Common or in Controversy there was no Contradiction And therefore that he that would procure the Welfare of the Church must do his best to promote all the Truth and Good which was held by every part and to leave out all their Errors and their Evil and not take up all that any Party had espoused as their own § 11. The things which I disliked as erroneous or evil in each Party were these 1. In the Erastians I disliked 1. That they made too light of the Power of the Ministry and Church and of Excommunication and did not distinguish sufficiently of a persuasive Power which is but private and is founded only in the Reason of the Speaker and a persuasive Power which is publick in an Officer of Christ which Camero well calleth Doctoral and is founded conjunctly in his Authority by God's Commission and his Arguments 2. That they made the Articles of the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints too insignificant by making Church Communion more common to the impenitent than Christ would have it and so dishonoured Christ by dishonouring his Church and making it too like to the Heathen World and breaking down the Hedge of Spiritual Discipline and laying it almost in common with the Wilderness 3. That they misunderstood and injured their Brethren supposing and affirming them to claim as from God a coercive Power over the Bodies or Purses of Men and so setting up Imperium in Imperio whereas all temperate Christians at least except Papists confess that the Church hath no Power of Force but only to manage God's Word unto Mens Conscienceââ § 12. In the Diocesane Party I utterly distiked 1. Their Extirpation of the true Discipline of Christ as we conceive by consequence though not intentionally not only as they omitted it and corrupted it but as their Principles and Church State had made it unpracticable and impossible while one Bishop with his Consitory had the sole Government of a thousand or many hundred Churches even over many thousands whose Faces they were never like to see not setting up any Parâchia Government under them But just as if the Archbishopsâ or rather the Patriarchs in Cânstantiââ's days should have deposed all the Bishops in the Empire and have taken all their Charges upon themselves 2. That hereby they altered the Species of Churches and either would deâ all particular Churches and have none but associated Diocesane Churches who hold the Communion by Delegates and not personally or else they would turn all the particular Parochial Churches into Christian Oratories and Schools while they gave their Pastors but a Teaching and Worshiping Power but not a Governing 3. That hereby they altered the ancient Species of Presbyters to whose Office the Spiritual Government of their proper Folks as truly belonged as the Power of preaching and worshipping God did 4. That they extinguished the ancient Species of Bishops which was in the times of Ignatius when every Church had one Altar and one Bishop and there were none but Itinerants or Archbishops that had many Churches 5. That they set up Courts that were more Secular
baptised without the transient Image of the Cross which hath at least the Semblance of a Sacrament of human Institution being used as an ingaging Sign in our first and solemn Covenanting with Christ and the Duties whereunto we are really obliged by Baptism being more expresly fixed to that airy Sign than to this holy Sacrament 3. That none may receive the Lord's Supper that dare not kneel in the act of receiving but the Minister must exclude all such from the Communion although such kneeling not only differs from the practice of Christ and of his Apostles but at least on the Lord's Day is contrary to the practice of the Catholick Church for many hundred Years after and forbidden by the most venerable Councils that ever were in the Christian World All which Impositions are made yet more grievous by that Subscription to their Lawfulness which the Canon exacts and by the heavy Punishment upon the Non-observance of them which the Act of Uniformity inflicts And it being doubtful whether God hath given power unto Men to institute in his Worship such Mystical Teaching Signs which not being necessary in genere fall not under the Rule of doing all things decently orderly and to edification and which once granted will upon the same reason open a door to the Arbitrary Imposition of numerous Ceremonies of which St. Augustine complained in his days and the things in Controversie being in the Judgment of the Imposers confessedly indifferent who do not so much as pretend any real Goodness in them of themselves otherwise than what is derived from their being imposed and consequently the Imposition ceasing that will cease also and the Worship of God not become indecent without them Whereas in the other hand on the Judgment of the Opposers they are by some held sinful and unlawful in themselves by others very inconvenient and unsuitable to the Simplicity of Gospel Worship and by all of them very grievous and burthensome and therefore not at all fit to be put in ballance with the Peace of the Church which is more likely to be promoted by their removal than continuance Considering also how tender our Lord and Saviour himself is of weak Brethren declaring it much better for a Man to have Milstone hang'd about his neck and be cast into the depth of the Sea than to offend one of his little Ones And how the Apostle Paul who had as great a Legislative Power in the Church as any under Christ held himself obliged by that Common Rule of Charity not to lay a stumbling block or an occasion of offence before a weak Brother chusing rather not to eat flesh whiles the world stands though in it self a thing lawful than offend his Brother for whom Christ died We cannot but desire that these Ceremonies may not be imposed on them who judge such Impositions a Violation of the Royalty of Christ and an Impeachment of his Laws as insufficient and are under the holy awe of that which is written Deut. 12. 32. what thing soever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it but that there may be either a total Abolition of them or at least such a liberty that those who are unsatisfied concerning their lawfulness or expediency may not be compelled to the Practice of them or Subscription to them But may be permitted to enjoy their Ministerial Function and Communion with the Church without them The rather because these Ceremonies have for above an hundred years been the Fountain of manifold Evils in this Church and Nation occasioning sad Divisions between Ministers and Ministers as also between Ministers and People exposing many Orthodox Pious and Peaceable Ministers to the displeasure of their Rulers casting them on the edge of the Penal Statutes to the loss not only of their Livings and Liberties but also of their Opportunities for the Service of Christ and his Church and forcing People either to Worship God in such a manner as their own Consciences condemn or doubt of or else to forsake our Assemblies as thousands haâe done And no better Fruits than these can be looked for from the retaining and imposing of these Ceremonies unless we could presume that all his Majesty's Subjects should have the same Subtilty of Judgment to discern even to a Ceremony how far the Power of Man extends in the Things of God which is not to be expected or should yield Obedience to all the Impositions of Men concerning them without inquiring into the Will of God which is not to be desired We do therefore most earnestlyâ entreat the Right Reverend Fathers and Brethren to whom these Papers are delivered as they tender the Glory of God the Honour of Religion the Peace of the Church the Service of his Majesty in the Accomplishment of that happy Union which his Majesty hath so abundantly ãâã his Desires of to joyn with us in importuning his most Excellent Majesty that his most gracious Indulgence as to these Ceremonies granted in his Royal Declaration may be confirmed and continued to us and our Posterities and extended to such as do not yet enjoy the Benefit thereof 19. As to that Passage in his Majesty's Commission where we are authorized and required to compare the present Liturgy with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church in the most purest and primitiveâ Timesâ We have in Obedience to his Majesty's Commission made Enquiry but cannot find any Records of known Credit concerning any entire Forms of Liturgy within the first Three hundred years which are confessed to be as the most primitive so the purest Ages of the Church Nor any Impositions of Liturgies upon any National Church for some hundreds of years after We find indeed some Liturgical Forms fathered upon St. Basil St. Chrysostome and St. Ambrose but we have not seen any Copies of them but such as give us sufficient Evidence to conclude them either wholly spurious or so interpolated that we cannot make a judgment which in them hath any primitive Authority Having thus in general expressed our Desires we come now to particulars which we find numerous and of a various nature some we grant are of inferiour Consideration verbal rather than material which were they not in the Publick Liturgy of so famous a Church we should not have mentioned others dubious and disputable as not having a clear Foundation in Scripture for their warrant but some there be that seem to be corrupt and to carry in them a repugnancy to the Rule of the Gospel and therefore have administred just Matter of Exception and Offence to many truly religious and peaceable not of a private station only but learned and judicious Divines as well of other Reformed Churches as of the Church of England ever since the Reformation We know much hath been spoken and written by way of Apology in Answer to many things that have been objected but yet the Doubts and Scruples of Tender Consciences still continue or rather
that all the Snares that ever they could lay for us never procured them just advantage once truly to say that we disagreed among our selves For though there were enow at a distance who could not have agreed to all that we did yet we so far left them out though to the displeasure both of the Prelatists and them that no discord was found in any of our Proposals or Debates which cut some of them more to the heart than all that else we did to their displeasure § 209. By this time our frequent crossing of their Expectations I saw had made some of the Bishops angry above all Bishop Morley who over-ruled the whole business and did interess himself in it deeplier than the rest and was of a hotter Spirit and a readier Tongue But that which displeased them most was the freedom of my Speeches to them that is that I spake to them as on terms of Equality as to the Cause yet with all honourable Titles to their Persons For I perceived that they had that eminency of Power and Interest that the greatest Lords were glad of their favour did expect that the presence of so many of them should have awed us into such a silence or cowardliness as should have betrayed our Cause or at least that their Vehemency and Passions and Interruptions should have put us out of Countenance But I intreated them to give us leave with the due honour of their Persons to use that necessary liberty of Speech to them as beseemed such as are very confident that they plead for the Cause of God and the happiness and healing of a bleeding Church and that upon the warrant of the King's Commission And I must say that though they frowned at my freedom of Speech they never once accused me of any unmannerly or unreverent Language § 210. When we were going to our Disputation Dr. Pierce asked whether he that was none of the three deputed by them to that Service might joyn with the rest And we told that we cared not how many joyned the more the better for if any one of them could see any Evidence of Truth which the rest did overlook it would redound to our Benefit who desired nothing but the Victory of Truth § 211. And before he began with them he would fain have had one bout with me himself Whereas I moved them to some Christian Charity to all those Consciencious Christians that were to be put away from the Communion of the Church if they did but scruple the lawfulness of kneeling in the reception of the Sacrament though I still profest to them that I held it not unlawful my self when the Sacrament could not be otherwise had Dr. Pierce offered himself to a Disputation to prove that let them be never so many it is an Act of Mercy to them to put them all from the Communion of the Church I easily perceived what advantage his Confidence and Passion gave me and I intreated him to try his skill but his Brethren would not give him leave I earnestly entreated them to give him leave but to try one Argument but I could not prevail with them being wiser than to suffer his Passion to expose their Cause to Laughter and Contempt But yet he could not forbear to cast out his medium and tell us how he would have argued viz. That they that receive the Sacrament being in judgment against kneeling in the Act of Receiving do receive it Schismatically and so to their own Damnation Ergo it is an Act of Charity to keep them from the Communion of the Church Where note That our Dispute was only whether the Legistators should by Laws or Canons keep them away and not whether a Pastor supposing such Laws existent should keep them away And therefore by making it damnable Schism antecedently to our Laws he must needs mean that some Foreign Laws or General Councils do prove it Schism or else the Custom of the Universal Church And as to the first I did at large there prove that the Twentieth Canon of the Council at Nice and the Concil Trull and the most ancient Writers do unanimously decree against kneeling and make it universally unlawful and that by Apostolical Tradition to adore kneeling on any Lord's Day in the Year and on any other Day between Easter and Whitsunday and that no General Council hath reversed this till meer Disuse and contrary Custom did it And for Custom the Protestant Churches concur not in that Custom nor are they Schismaticks for differing from the Papists and others that do so nor is it better for them all to be without any Church Communion than not to kneel in the Act of Receiving Nor do the Papists themselves make every Man a Schismatick that followeth not the Custom of their Church in every particular Gesture unless he separate from their Church it self much less do they pronounce Damnation on all such But if it were the Law of our own Land or Church which he thought made it Schism then he might as well have so argued for sitting or standing and against kneeling viz. That it is Charity to make a Law is keep all from Churchâ Communion that will kneel because when such a Law is made it is damnable Schism to kneel But the very truth is I perceived so little Compassion to Souls in the zealous and swaying Managers of these Controversies and so little regard of the Scruples and Tenderness of Godly People who were afraid of Sinning aâ that I scarce thought among Protestants there had been any such Whether they would have abated one Ceremony if they had had an hundred more to keep all the Dissenters in three Nations from being cast out of the Ministry and Church I know not but of those they have they would not abate one which made me oft think that their Spirits are much more like the Papists than their Formal Worship and Discipline is so much do they agree in destroying Men for their Opinions and Ceremonies sake and in Building the Tombs of the Prophets and over-honouring the dead Saints while they go on to hate and destroy the living And it made me oft remember Bishop Hall's Character of an Hyprocrite who boweth at the Name of Iesus and sweareth by the Name of God and would set all the World on fire for a Circumstances And it made me remember what that learned godly Minister Mr Spinage hath oft told me and many others and is still ready to justifie upon Oath that being heretofore familiar with this Mr. Thomas Pierce and saying once to him These Men that you so abhor are very godly Men and have much Communion with God he brake out into this Answer A pou on this Communion with God And it made me think of Augustine's Description of the sottish Worldlings that had far rather thus were one Star fewer in Heaven than one Cow or one Tree the fewer in their Grounds So had these Men rather One thousand eight hundred godly
Guilt of the Division caused by it But when they are Imposed we may do that which in it self is lawful without any consent to the Imposition at all Yea and that which as imposed tendeth to Division may upon supposition that it will be and is imposed be practised sometimes as the way to Unity and to avoid Division § 310. 7. Lastly it is said That the Necessity which is pretended for this Conformity is none at all For 1. As to a Necessity of Communion with the Church Catholick it requireth not Personal Local Communion with each particular Congregation but that at a distance we own them so far as they are to be owned 2. And for the Escaping of Punishment from Men there is no necessity of it nor yet of our Personal Liberty to preach the Gospel when we cannot do it upon lawful Terms But to this the moderate Nonconformists say That 1. our Catholick Communion requireth that we in Judgment or Practice separate from no Church of Christ which forceth us not to sin but hold Communion with them as we have a Call and Opportunity And that we must not separate from one upon a Cause that is common to almost all 2. That though there be no Necessity of our escaping Persecution nor any absolute Necessity of our Personal Preaching yet there is of this last an ordinate Hypothetical Necessity laid upon us by God himself and wo to us if we preach not when we may So that you see that these general Reasons which some Nonconformists extend to all the moderate allow only as Seconds against those things which first are proved unlawful § 311. I. For the particular Controversie about Diocesans 1. Some of the Nonconformists are against all Bishops as distinct from Presbyters by any other than a Temporary Presidency or Moderatorship But the most of them of my Acquaintance are for the lawfulness of some stated Episcopacy that is that there be fixed Presidents or Bishops in every particular Church they take to be lawful as of Humane Constitution and Ecclesiastical Custom contrary to no Law of God 2. That there be more general Overseers of many of these Bishops and Churches as the Apostles were though without their extraordinary Call and Priviledges they think also lawful if not in some fort of Divine Institution 1. Because Church-Government being an ordinary standing work in that the Apostles were to have Successors 2. Because they think it incredible if the Apostles had been against particular Primitive Episcopacy that no Church or Person would have been found on Record to have born witness against it till it had been so universally received by all the Churches But they are all agreed that the English Diocesan Frame of Government and so the Popish Prelacy is unlawful and of dangerous tendency in the Churches And that this Controversie may be understood the English Frame must here be opened § 312. There are in England two Archbishops and under one of them four Bishops and under the other One and twenty Bishops In all Five and twenty Bishops with Two Archbishops Every Bishop hath a Cathedral Church which is no Parish Church nor hath any People appropriated to it as Parishioners But a Dean with a Chapter of Prebends or Canons are the Preachers to it and Governours of I know not whom In some Bishopricks are Three hundred some Four hundred some Five hundred some One thousand some Twelve hundred Parishes and some more In the greatest Parishes of London are about Threescore thousand Souls as Martyns Stepney Giles Cripplegate in others about Thirty thousand as Giles's in the Fields Sepulchres in others about Twenty thousand and in the lesser Parishes fewer Usually the greater Country Parishes in Market Towns have about Four thousand or Three thousand or Two thousand Souls and the ordinary Rural Parishes about One thousand in the bigger sort and Two hundred or Three hundred in the lesser some more and some less In these Parishes the Ministers who have watched over them and of late times instructed and catechised every Family and Person young and old apart in many places do find that the number of those that are ignorant of the Person and Office of Christ and the Essentials of Christianity and of all Religion and of those that are ordinary Drunkards Whoremongers Prophane Swearers Cursers Railers or otherwise notoriously Scandalous or Ungodly is not small For the Government of these besides preaching to them and exhorting them and giving them the Sacraments the Parish Minister hath no power He hath no power of judging whole Children he shall baptize but must refuse none though the Parents be professed Heathens or Infidels if Godfathers and Godmothers bring them to be baptized who yet never adopt them nor meddle more as Owners of them with their Education and perhaps know not what Baptism or Christianity is themselves They have no power to judge what Persons of their Parish shall be confirmed or admitted into the number of Adult Communicants so that all their Flocks are imposed on them They have no more power than any private Man to admonish the Scandalous before Witness or to admonish them before the Church or pray for their Repentance by Name or to judge who is to be cast out of the Communion of the Church or to be Absolved nor to deny the Sacrament to any unless for a particular time when he is just going to Administer it he see any there that are notoriously guilty and he take them then aside and they will not so much as say We will do better And it is uncertain whether he may Suspend any of these but the Malicious that will not be reconciled So that the Ministers may read Prayers and Preach and may read an Excommunication or Absolution when it is sent them and may if they please joyn with the Churchwarden as Informers to present some Men to the Bishops Court but Church-Government is denied them The Government then of all these Churches and Exercise of Holy Discipline belongeth to the Bishops in Title but the Bishops do and must Exercise it in their Courts or Consistories In every Diocess there is one of these Courts where the Ordinary Judge is the Bishop's Chancellour a Lay-man and a Civil Lawyer though in many Cases the Bishop may fit himself if he please The Court hath also a Register and Proctors to plead Mens Causes as Counsellers in Civil Courts And they have some Fellows called Apparators who are their Messengers for Citation besides the Churchwardens Presentments who bring them in Custom This Court is to hear all considerable Causes and determine them by Excommunications or Absolutions and to send their Excommunications or Absolutions written to the Parish Priest who is to read them But pro forma when the Lay-Chancellour hath resolved who shall be Excommunicated they have a Clergy-Presbyter present to speak the Sentence in the Court who yet hath no power but of meer Pronunciation but is a Ceremony to put off the Odium from
to put up to God in all which they are meer Executioners of other Mens Judgments as a Cryer or such other Messenger § 316. 2. The second Charge against this Diocesan Prelacy is That it introduceth a New Humane Species or Presbyters or Spiritual Officers instead of Christ's which it destroyeth that is a sort of meer Subject Presbyters that have no power of Government but meerly to Teach and Worship That this is a distinct Species is proved in that 1. It wanteth an essential part which the other Species hath 2. From the Bishop's own profession who in the beginning of the Book of Ordination Subscribed to do declare it plainly determined in Scripture viz. That Bishops Priests and Deacons are three distinct Orderâ which word Orders is the common term to signifie a Species of Church Officers distinct from a meer degree in the same Order or Species That this Office is New is proved 1. In that Scripture or Antiquity never knew it 2. Dr. Hammond Annot. in Act. 11. and in his Latin Book against Blondell Dissertat professeth that it cannot be proved that the word Bishop Presbyter or Pastor signifieth in all the Scripture any other than a proper Bishop or that there was any such as we now all Presbyters in Scripture times And in his Answer to the London Ministers he saith That for ought he knoweth all his Brethren of the Church of England are of his mind So that Presbyters that had no Governing Power were not in Scripture times And though he says that the other sort came in before Ignatiu's time yet 1. He saith not that this sort had no Government of the Flock but that they were under the Bishop in Government so that yet they are not the sort that we are speaking of 2. And he doth not prove any more § 317. 3. A third Charge which they bring against our Prelacy is That it destroyeth the Species or Form of particular Churches instituted by Christ The Churches which Christ instituted are Holy Societies associated for Personal holy Communion under their particular Pastors But all such Societies are destroyed by the Diocesan Frame Ergo it is destructive of the Form of particular Churches instituted by Christ. The distinguish between Personal Local Communion of Saints by Pastors and their Flocks and Communion of hearts only and Communion by Delegation or Deputies 1. We have heart-Heart-Communion with all the Catholick Church through the World 2. Particular Churches have Communion for Concord and mutual Strength in Synods by their Pastors or Deputies 3. But a holy Communion of Souls or individual Persons as Members of the same particular Church for publick Worship and a holy Life is specifically distinct from both the former as is apparent 1. By the distinct end 2. The distinct manner of Communion yea and the matter of it And that this Form of Churches or Species is overthrown by this Prelacy they prove The Churches of Christ's institution were constituted of Governing Pastors and a Flock governed by them in Personal holy Communion every Church having its proper Pastor or Pastors But such Churches as are thus constituted are destroyed by our Frame of Prelacy Ergo The Major is confessed de facto by Dr. Hammond ubi supra as to Scripture times and sufficiently cleared in my Treatise of Episcopacy Ignatius his Testimony alone might suffice who saith That to every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and Deacons his Fellow Servants A Church of one Altar and of a thousand Altars A Church that is for Personal Communion and a Church that hath no Personal Communion with her Pastor or Bishop or with one of a hundred of her Fellow-Members a Church which is a Church indeed and that which is no Church but only a part of a Church are more than specifically distinct for indeed the Name is but equivoeally applied to them as distinct Natures or Societies Every Church univocally so called in sensu politico as a governed Society hath its pars gubernaâs and pars gubernata to constitute it But so have not our Parish Churches as such indeed as Oratories and Schools as instructed and worshipping Societies they have their Parochial Heads but as governed Societies they have no Heads proper to themselves nor any at all as Churches but as parts of a Church For the Diocesan is Head of the Diocesan Church as such and not of a Parochial Church as such but only as a part of the Diocesan Church And as it is no Kingdom which hath no King so it is no Political Church which hath no Governour or Pastor So that Diocesans destroy particular Churches as much as in them lyeth Unless any will say that as one King as he is persona naturalis may be three or twenty Kings as persona civilis as related to several Kingdoms and so one Bishop as persona naturalis may yet be a thousand Ecclesiastical Persons as Pastor of so many Churches But this being ridiculous and yet said by none that I have heard of I shall not stand to confute it But were it so yet a Pastor that never seeth or speaketh to his People nor hath any personal Communion in Worship with them and this according to the Constitution it self is not of the same sort with a Scripture Pastor 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Hebr. 13. 17 c. which labour among them and preach to them the Word of God and watch for their Souls c. And consequently the Churches constituted by them are not of the same Species It is one Office personally to Teach Oversee Rule and Worship with them and another to do none of these to one of a thousand but to send the Churchwardens a Book of Articles § 318. 4. A fourth Charge is That it setteth up a New Church-Form which is unlawful instead of that of Christ's institution that is a Diocesan Church consisting of many hundred Parishes which none of them are Churches according to the Diocesan Frame but parts of one Church It hath been shewed that this Diocesan Church is of another Species than the Parochial one being for personal Communion which the other is uncapable of the far greatest part of the Members never seeing their Pastor nor knowing one another any more than if they lived in several parts of the World And that this Church Form is new is proved already that is that there was no Diocesan Church having many stated Congregations and Altars much less many hundreds and all under one only Bishop or Governour either in Scripture time or two hundred years after excepting only that in Alexandria and Rome some shew of more Assemblies than one under one Bishop appeared a little sooner Here note That it is not an Archbishop's Church that we are speaking of who is but the General Pastor or Bishop having other Bishops and Churches under him but it is a Church infimae Speciei commonly called a particular Church which hath no other Churches or Bishops under it
429. And now came in the Peoples Trial as well as the Ministers While the Danger and Sufferings lay on the Ministers alone the People were very couragious and exhorted them to stand it out and Preach till they went to Prison But when it came to be their own Case they were as venturous till they were once Surprized and Imprisoned but then their Judgments were much altered and they that censured Ministers before as Cowardly because they preached not publickly whatever followed did now think that it was better to preach often in secret to a few than but once or twice in publick to many and that Secrecy was no sin when it tended to the furtherance of the Work of the Gospel and to the Churches Good Especially the Rich were as cautelous as the Ministers But yet their Meetings were so ordinary and so well known that it greatly tended to the Jailor's Commodity § 430. It was a great Strait that People were in especially that dwell near any busie Officer or malicious Enemy as who doth not Many durst not pray in their Families if above four Persons came in to dine with them In a Gentleman's House it is ordinary for more than four of Visitors Neighbours Messengers or one sort or other to be most or many days at Dinner with them and then many durst not go to Prayer and some durst scarce crave a Blessing on their Meat or give God thanks for it Some thought they might venture if they withdrew into another Room and left the Strangers by themselves But others said It is all one if they be but in the same House though out of hearing when it cometh to the Judgment of the Justices In London where the Houses are contiguous some thought if they were in several Houses and heard one another through the Wall or a Window it would avoid the Law But others said It is all in vain whilst the Justice is Judge whether it was a Meeting or no. Great Lawyers said If you come on a visit or business though you be present at Prayer or Sermon it is no breach of the Law because you met not on pretence of a Religious Exercise But those that tried them said Such Words are but Wind when the Justices come to judge you § 431. And here the Fanaticks called Quakers did greatly relieve the sober People for a time for they were so resolute and gloried in their Constancy and Sufferings that they assembled openly at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate and were dragged away daily to the Common Jail and yet desisted not but the rest came the next day nevertheless So that the Jail at Newgate was filled with them Abundance of them died in Prison and yet they continued their Assemblies still And the poor deluded Souls would sometimes meet only to sit still in Silence when as they said the Spirit did not speak And it was a great Question Whether this Silence was a Religious Exercise not allowed by the Liturgy c. And once upon some such Reasons as these when they were tried at the Sessions in order to a Banishment the Jury acquitted them but were grievously threatned for it After that another Jury did acquit them and some of them were fined and imprisoned for it But thus the Quakers so employed Sir R. B. and the other Searchers and Prosecutors that they had the less leisure to look after the Meetings of Soberer men which was much to their present ease § 432. And now the Divisions or rather the Censures of the Non-conforming People against their Ministers and one another began to increase which was long foreseen but could not be avoided and I that had incurred so much the displeasure of the Prelates and all their Party by pleading for the Peace of the Non-conformists did fall under more of their displeasure than any one man besides as far as I could learn And with me they joyned Dr. Bates because we went to the Publick Assemblies and also to the Common Prayer even to the beginning of it Not that they thought worse of us than of others but that they thought that our Example would do more harm For I must bear them witness that in the midst of all their Censures of my Judgment and Actions they never Censured my Affections and Intentions nor abated their Charitable Estimation of me in the main And of the leading Prelates I had so much favour in their hottest Indignation that they thought what I did against their Interest was only in obedience to my Conscience So that I see by experience that he that is impartially and sincerely for Truth and Peace and Piety against all Factions shall have his Honesty acknowledged by the several Factions whilst his Actions as cross to their Interest are detested Whereas he that joyneth with one of the Factions shall have both his Person and Actions condemned by the other though his Party may applaud both § 433. My Judgment was for the holding of Communion with Assemblies of both Parties and ordinarily I went to some Parish Church where I heard a Learned Minister that had not obtruded himself upon the People but was chosen by them and preached well as Dr. Wilkins Dr. Tillotson Mr. Nest c. and I joyned also in the Common Prayers of the Church And as oft else as I had fit opportunity I privately preached and prayed my self either with Independents or Presbyterians that desired me And I professed to all upon all occasions that though I justified not all things which they held or did in any of their Churches yet as long as they made not any Sin of mine a Condition of my Communion with them I would occasionally joyn with any true Church in publick or private so be it they preached not for Heresie nor against a holy and peaceable Life nor turned not their Strein to Sedition or uncharitable Reviling one another Even as I would hold occasional Communion with a Church of Lutherans or Greeks or Abassines if I passed through their Countreys Though caeteris paribus I preferred Publick Assemblies which have the Magistrates Countenance before Private yet I more preferred those that have pure Worship and Discipline and powerful Preaching before the scandalous undisciplined ignorant Churches of ignorant and formal lifeless Ministers And so far as I had my choice my most usual Communion should be with those Assemblies that I thought the best yet would I have occasional Communion with others as Members of the Catholick Church to shew my Catholick Communion with all the Body of Christ. Yea and my ordinary Communion should be with a Church that used the Common Prayer rather than with none or with a worse And the Lord's Day I would spend in Church Communion it being principally appointed to that end and not in any meer Family Worship or Meetings with a few Christians occasionally which met not as a Church This was my Resolution But the confidence of many on the other side was as great as mine
under the Profession of being a Church distinct from the Church of England and neither of these is my Case 2. The Statute of the 35 of Eliz. expoundeth it accordingly charging none of Unlawful Assembling but such as Separate or Communicate not with the Church 3. There is no other Statute that saith otherwise 4. The Rubrick and Law alloweth Conformable Ministers to keep many Religious Assemblies which are not in the Church being but Subordinate as 1. At the Visitation of the Sick where no numbers of Neighbours are prohibited to be present Sermons at the Spittle Sturbridge-Faire c. 2. At private Baptisms 3. At private Communions where any Family hath an impotent Person that cannot Communicate at Church 4. At the Rogation Perambulations where it was usual to Feast at Houses in their way and there for the Minister to instruct the People and to Pray and sing Psalms 5. The Laborious sort of Conformable Ministers have many of them used to repent their Sermons to all that would Assemble at their Houses Which Repeating was as truly Preaching as if they had Preached the same Sermon in several Pulpits Therefore all Meetings besides Church-Meetings are not Conventicles nor those that are in Subordination to them 5. Even the late Expired Act against Conventicles forbiddeth no Religious Exercises but such as are otherwise than the Liturgy or Practice of the Church and distinguishing expresly between the Exercises and the Numbers doth forbid no number when the Exercises are not otherwise as aforesaid tolerating even unlawful Exercises to the number of Four but not to more The Second Proposition That my Meetings were never Unlawful Conventicles is proved 1. I do constantly joyn with the Church in Common Prayer and go at the beginning 2. I Communicate in the Lord's Supper with the Church of England 3. I am no Nonconformist in the Sense of the Law because I Conform as far as the Law requireth me having been in no Ecclesiastical Promotion May 1. 1662. the Law requireth me not to subscribe declare c. till I take a Cure or Lecture c. 4. I sometimes repeat to the Hearers the Sermon which I heard in the Church 5. I exhort the People to church-Church-Communion and urge them with sufficient Arguments and Preach ordinarily against Separation and Schism and Sedition and Disloyalty 6. I have commanded my Servant to keep my Doors shut at the time of Publick Worship that none may be in my House that while 7. I go into the Church from my House in the Peoples sight that my Example as well as my Doctrine may persuade them 8. In all this I so far prevail that the Neighbours who hear me do commonly go to Church even to the Common-Prayer and I know not three or two of all the Parish that use to come to me who refuse it which success doth shew what it is I do 9. I have long offered the Pastor of the Parish the Dean of Windsor that if he would but tell me that it is his Judgment that I hinder his Success or the People's Good rather than help it I will remove out of the Parish which he never yet hath done 10. I have the Now-Arch-Bishop's License not reversed nor disabled to Preach in the Diocess of London which I may do by Law if I had a Church And I offered the Dean to give over my Meetings in my House if he would permit me to Preach without Hire sometimes occasionally in his Church which I am not disabled to do By all this it appeareth that any Meetings are not Unlawful Conventicles 11. And riotous they are not for my House being just before the Church Door the same Persons go out of the Church into my House and out of my House into the Church so that if one be riotous both must be so And I perform no Exercise at all contrary to the Doctrine or the Practice of the Church but when the Curate readeth only in the Evening and doth not Preach or Catechize when he hath done one part I do the other which he omitteth 2. The Oath cannot be imposed on me because I am none of the three sorts of Offenders there mentioned The first sort in the Act are such as have not Subscribed Declared and Conformed according to the Act of Uniformity and other Acts I am none of them because the Laws require it not of me being as aforesaid in no Church Promotion on May 1. 1662. The second sort are other Persons not Ordained according to the Order of the Church but I am so Ordained The third sort is School-Teachers which is not my Case though I have also a Liceâse to Teach School And that the two Descriptions of the Conventicles in the Preamble are to be the Expositions of the following prohibitous Parts of the Act is plain by the answerable distinction of them And also 1. Because the very Title and plain design of this Act is only to restrain Nonconformists 2. Because the express end and business of it is to preserve People from Seditious and Poisonous Doctrine But the Clergy which are not Nonconformists are not to be supposed to be defamed or suspected by the Laws of Preaching poisonous seditious Doctrine nor can it be imagined that they mean to drive them five Miles from all their Parishes in ângland if they should once be at a private Meeting or put the 40 l. Fine on them if they preach one Sermon after such Meeting to their Parishes before they have taken the Oath though no Man offer it them which would follow if it extended to them And I am exempted from the Suspicion of that Preaching 1. By being chosen and Sworn His Majesty's Chaplain in ordinary and Preaching before Him and Publishing my Sermons by His Special Commands and never since accused of ill Doctrine but the sharpest Debates written against Nonconformists do quarrel with them for quarrelling with my Doctrine 2. Some think the words have kept in the Act refer to the time past before the Act and then 't is nothing to me 3. Should I not have been Convict in my presence of some one unlawful Conventicle and of not departing after five Miles from the place for how should I be bound to forsake my Dwelling as an Offender before I knew of my Offence Lastly I told the Justices That I did not refuse the Oath but professed that I understood it not and desired time to learn to understand it if I could which they denyed me and would neither tell me who were my Accusers or Witnesses nor shew me the Words of the Accusation or Depositions nor suffer any Person but us three themselves and me to be at all present or to hear any thing that was said by them or me And though I shall never take Oaths which I cannot possibly understand nor in a Sense which is contrary to the plain importance of the Words till they are so expounded nor shall ever number deliberate Lying or Perjury with things indifferent yet
adhere to The same Sence is exprest also in Can. 10. which describeth Schismaticks Whosoever shall affirm that such Ministers as refuse to subscribe to the Form and manner of God's Worship in the Church of England prescribed in the Communion-Book and their Adherents may truly take unto them the Name of another Church not established by Law and dare presume to publish that this pretended Church hath long groaned under c. And in the 9th Canon where the Authors of Schism are thus described Whosoever shall separate themselves from the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostle's Rules in the Church of England and combine themselves together in a new Brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be prophane and unmeet for them to join with in Christian Profession Pro. 3. If our manner of Religious Exercises did differ in some meer degrees or Circumstances from that which is allowed by the Liturgy and Practice of the Church it ought not no be taken to be the thing condemned in this Act. Arg. 1. Otherwise the Justices themselves and almost all his Majesty's Subjects either are already obnoxious to the Mulcts Imprisonments and Banishments or may be they know not how soon Arg. 2. And otherwise no Subject must dare to go to Church for fear of incurring Imprisonment or Banishment The reason of both is visible 1. Almost all conformable Ministers do either by some omissions of Prayers or other parts of the Liturgy or by some alterations many times do that which is dissonant from the Liturgy and practise or Canons of the Church I have seldom been present where somewhat was not contrary to them 2 Because most conformable Ministers do now Preach without Licenses which is contrary to the express Canons of the Church 3. Because few of the King's Subjects or none can tell when they go to Church but they may hear one that hath no License or that will do somewhat dissonant from the manner of the Church Pro. 4. Preaching without License bringeth me not within the Penalty of the Act. Arg. 1. Because I have the Archbishop's License Arg. 2. Because a License is not necessary for Family Instruction Arg. 3. Because else most of the Conformists would be as much obnoxious which is not so judged by the Bishops themselves § 124. 3. The Errors of the Mittimus with the explication of the Oxford Act. THis Act containeth 1. The end and Occasion that is the preserving of Church and Kingdom from the Danger of poisonous Principles II. The Description of the dangerous Persons 1. in the Preamble Where they are 1. Nonconformists or such as have not subscribed and declared according to the Act of Uniformity and other subsequent Acts. 2. They or some of them and other Persons not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England who have since the Act of Oblivion preached in Unlawful Assemblies and have settled themselves in Corporations 2. In the Body of the Act where are two parts answering the two aforesaid in the Preamble 1. The first Subject described is Non-subscribers and Non-declarers according to the Act of Uniformity c. That is Non-conformists who also have not taken the Oath which is here prescribed as a preventing Remedy 2. The second Subject is All such Persons as shall Preach in unlawful Meetings contrary to Laws which must needs refer to the second branch of the Preamble and mean only such Nonconformists and unordained Persons as shall so Preach the Word shall signifying that it must be after the passing of this Act. III. The Offence prohibited is being or coming after March 24. 1665. within five Miles of any Corporation or of any place where since the Act of Oblivion they have been Parsons Vicars Lecturers c. Or have preached in an unlawful Assembly contrary to the Laws before they have in open Sessions taken the Oath That is who have done this since the Act of Oblivion before this Act it being the purpose of this Act to put all those who shall again after this Act preach in Conventicles in the same Case with them who since the Act of Oblivion were Parsons Vicars c. That is that none of them shall come within five miles of any place where they were either Incumbents or Conventiclers before this Act since the act of Oblivion IV. The Penalty is 1. 40 l. for what is past which the after taking of the Oath will not save them from 2. And six months Imprisonment also for such of them as shall not Swear and subscribe the Oath and Declaration offered them So that in this Act the Offence it self prohibited is Coming within five miles c. But the qualification of the subject offending is absolutely necessary to it So that the Mittimus for an offence against this Act must signifie That N. N. having not subscribed and declared according to the Acts of Uniformity and other subsequent Acts or being not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England having since the Act of Oblivion preached in an unlawful Assembly and also hath so preached since this Act and hath not taken the Oath here required is proved by Oath to us to have been or come since Mar. 24. 1665. Within five Miles of a Corporation or a place where he was an incumbent or preached in a Conventicle before this Act since the Act of Oblivion and also hath refused before us to swear and subscribe the said Oath c. Now in this Mittimus 1. Here is no mention that R. B. hath not subscribed and declared already according to the Act of Uniformity or is a Non-conformist nor yet that he is not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England 2. Nor is there any mention that he hath preached in an unlawful Assembly since the Act of Oblivion much less since this Act which must be said 3. Nor that ever they had proof of his not taking the Oath before or that ever he was Convict of Preaching before he took it 4. The Offence it self is not here said to be proved by Oath at all viz. Coming or being within five Miles c. But another thing viz. his Preaching in an unlawful Meeting is said to be proved by Oath which this Act doth not enable them to take such proof of As for the Word in the Mittimus where he now dwelleth it cannot be understood as a part of Deposition 1. Because it is expressed but as the Justice's Assertion and not so much as an and or Conjunction put before it to shew that they had Oath made of it as well as of Preaching 2. Because the Word now dwelleth must be taken strictly or laxly if strictly it referreth but to the time of the Writing of the Mittimus which was two days after the Constable's Warrant and no Accuser Witness or other Person was suffered to be present and therefore it must needs
Constitutive Essential Part of the Kingdom But we are not willing accordingly to Swear Subscribe or Covenant to every petty Officer in the Kingdom nor to approve of every Law Custom or Exercise of Government in it tho we would live peaceably under what we approve not And if a Law were made that he shall be Banished as an Overthrower or Vnderminer of the Government who would not so Covenant or Subscribe Houses and Lands would be cheaper than they are and the King have fewer Subjects than he hath For I am not acquainted with one Conscionable Man that I think would Subscribe it And why should all the King's Subjects be bound more strictly to the Human Part of Church Government than of State or Civil Government and to approve of Lay-Chancellours than of Civil Officers Or of the matter of Canons than of Civil and Common and Statute Laws 3. If it be a Crime to know it is a Crime to Iudge or to use our Reason and Observation If it be not it is no Crime for us to know that Clergy-Pride imposing a multitude of things small and doubtful on the Churches as the Conditions of Ministry and Communion and forcing Magistrates Ministers and People to consent to many unnecessary things in their Humane part of Government Liturgies and Ceremonies hath been so great an Engin of Schism and Blood and Confusions in the Roman Church as assureth us that it is no desirable thing that by us any thing like it should be consented to 4. And it is no Crime in us to be sure that if Subscribing to all the present Church-Government Liturgy and Ceremonies be the thing that shall be necessary to our Ministry and Union and Communion our present Dissentions and Divisions will not be healed unless by Killing or Banishing the Dissenters and as Tertullian speaketh Making solitude and calling it Peace 1. Prop. His Majesty's Subjects Legal Commission any other of his Subjects Stic c Deleatur Answ. 1. We did not think that it had been your meaning that we must make our selves Judges of the Case not only of all his Majestie 's Subjects but of all others in the World If the Judges will give it us under their Hands that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever for the Subjects of any Prince on Earth to take Arms against any King of England or any Commissioned by him or that it is not possible for any War against us in any Age on any pretense whatever to be Lawful or else that they are sure that all the Kingdoms on Earth are so Constituted as that no where any Subjects may on any pretence take Arms against their Kings we shall accordingly submit to their Judgment But seeing Papists and Protestants Lawyers and Divines even Monarchical and Conformable say the contrary it were not modesty in us that are ignorant of Matters of Law to say that they are all mistaken till we are instructed to know it to be so For our parts we must profess our selves not acquainted with the Constitution of every Kingdom in the World 2. If Legal must be obliterated we shall our selves quietly submit to the Exercise accordingly and suffer from any one that saith he is Commissioned to hurt us if it be required of us But we are not skill'd in Law and thefore cannot say that all others are bound to do the like To deal plainly seeing Legal must be obliterated we understand not what the word Commission meaneth Whether it must have the King 's Broad-seal or the Lesser-seal or his Name only Whether the Commission and Seal must be shewed to those that are not to resist or proved to be Currant and how But that which causeth us to forbear subscribing is 1. We have taken the Oath of Allegiance and think that the King's Subjects are bound to defend his Life Crown and Dignity And we fear left by this the Lord Chancellour if not others may have power at his Pleasure to Depose the King that is to Seal Commissions to Confederates to take Possession of all his Navy Forts Garrisons Arms if not his House and Person and no man must resist them 2. We are not certain that a Commission can Repeal all that Law of Nature who obligeth a Man to preserve the Life of his Parents or Children or Neighbour We have not indeed any reason to fear that our King should grant such a Commission But who can deny but that it 's possible for some King or other to do it And seeing we know not when a Commission is counterfeit if two or three men come to my House and say they have a Commission to Kill my Father Mother Wife and Children and my self and shew it or if they Assault me and my Company on the High-way and shew a Commission to take our Purses and Kill us we are not sure that God will excuse us from the Duty of defending the Lives of our Parents Children and Friends Or if half a dozen should come to the Parliament and shew a Commission presently to kill them all or Burn the City and Kill all the Citizens or Kingdom we are not wise enough to know that neither Parliament City nor Kingdom may resist them And we find Parliaments so conceited that they have Propriety in Life and Goods and that none may at pleasure take them away and lay Taxes without their consent and that we fear if we should plainly say that whatever Taxes are laid or Estates or Goods or Persons seiz'd on or Decrees of Judges rejected by such Execution it were unlawful for the Sheriff or any others to resist they would trouble us for so saying And if an Admiral General or Lieutenant should be made by Act of Parliament Durante Vita and Authorized to resist any that would dispossess him we are not so Wise as to know whether he may not resist one to whom the Chancellour Sealeth a Commission to dispossess him And though we are confident that the Person of the King is inviolable yet if King Iohn did deliver up his Kingdom to the Pope we are not sure that the Kingdom might not have resisted any of the Pope's or any Foreign Prince's Agents if they had been Commissioned by the King to seize upon the Kingdom Or that no Subjects of any Foreign Prince may be resisted if they should come against us by such a Commission Had we the Judgment of the Judges in this Case we should submit as far as any reason could require us But tho we justify not Barclay Grotius Bishop Bilson and others of the contrary mind we must confess our selves not wise enough to Condemn them 1. Prop. Nor by any other unlawful means to endeavour Reformation Stric d Deleatur Vnlawful Ans. 1. Here we may see how many minds the Conformists are of or how unjustly all that I have debated the Case of Subscription with do affirm That by not endeavouring any Alteration is meant only not endeavouring by unlawful meanst which is here contradicted by a
Worship Ans. 1. And who shall make that Rule The Bishops And who shall be Bishops You And so the Sum is The only certain and safe way of Healing is for no Man to differ from our Judgment or Will in our Agendis or Credendis Circumstance or Substance manner or matter of Worship nor say a Word to God in publick but what we write down for him or allow him What Sectary would not be such a Healer 2. But I am sorry that any Christian much more Pastors can believe that ever all the Church will be such Idolizers of Man as to stretch their Consciences to own all that for matter and manner substance or Circumstance he shall prescribe or else will all be so ripe in Knowledge as all to know which are the right Modes and Circumstances and so come to be of one mind The Church of Rome had not needed Inquisitions Flames and Racks nor lost so many Kingdoms if this could have been done But if ever the Church be heated by Men of your Opinion by this which you account the only way neither God nor Reason have herein spoken by me Wonderful that near one Thousand three Hundred Years Experience of the Churches doth not convince you and teach you better Strict For though an Agreement in the Essentials only be enough to make any Man a Member of the Catholick or universal Church yet is it not enough to make a Man a Member of this or that particular National Church For all the Reformed Churches agree as appears by the Corpus Confessionum in the Essentials of Faith and Worship and therefore in that respect they are all Members of the Church-Catholick but they do not agree either in the same form of Government or in the same outward form of Worship or in the same Ecclesiastical Discipline or in the same Rites and Ceremonies And it is the Agreement in such things as these as well as in Essentials which constitutes and giveth Denomination to the several National Churches which all of them taken together do make up the Church Catholick Thus to make up one Member of the French Dutch or any other Reformed Churches it is not enough to be a Catholick no nor a Protestant-Catholick neither but he must subscribe and conform not only in point of Judgment to their Confession of Faith but in point of Practice also to all their Rules Orders and Usages in Preaching Praying Administration of the Sacraments and all External Rites and Ceremonies prescribed by publick Authority to be used in the publick Worship of God for the more solemn more unanimous more decent and more edifying performance of the same which if any Man upon any pretence whatsoever refuse to do he cannot be of such or such a National Church where a Conformity to all such things is indispensably required of all that will be of or continue in the aforesaid respective Churches And is it not as Lawful and reasonable for our Church to prescribe Conditions of her Communion to those that will be of it and continue in it as it is for any other of the Reformed Churches to prescribe to those that are of theirs Ans. 1. It 's well that Christ is more merciful than Men His easie Yoke and light Burden Mat. 11. 29. and the necessary things Act. 15. is enough to make Men Members of him and his Body the Church Catholick that they may be saved But he that will be of a National Church must bear and do no Man knows what 2. But how will this stand with Christ's Catholick Laws A true Catholick Christian shall be saved But he that is no more with you is guilty of one of the greatest Crimes viz. Contempt of your Authority and can he then be Saved Christ's Catholick Members must love honour and cherish each other But with you he that obeyeth you not in every Word Mode and circumstance or ceremony is to be silenced and persecuted Christ's Laws are that he that is weak even in the Faith be received but not to doubtful disputations and that for smaller difference we neither despise nor judge each other but receive one another as Christ received us and that so far as we have attained we walk by the same Rule and mind the same things and if in any thing we be otherwise minded God will reveal even this unto us And that we must love one another with a pure Heart fervently and by this be known to all Men to be Christ's Disciples But your National Process carrieth it beyond this Line you will first break this Catholick Law as if your National Church were not part of the Universal and make Laws for judging the foresaid Dissenters and then plead yours against Christ's Laws and say he meant not those that are under a Law while he forbad such Laws And so you may Excommunicate reproach avoid imprison undo and silence those that Christ commanded you tenderly to Love and say they are Schismaticks for they obey us not in every Circumstance O! how much easier is Christ's Yoke than yours 3. But what is this National Church which is so contrary to Christ's Catholick Church If it be all the Churches and Christians that are under one Christian Prince we own it as such But this needs no such conditions as you name And it is not true that the Catholick Church consisteth only of such for the Subjects of the Turks and Heathens are part of the Catholick Church If it be all the Churches of a Kingdom as voluntarily associated for Communion or Concord I repeat the same as aforesaid But if you mean all the Churches of a Kingdom as under one Constitutive Ecclesiastical Head and Pastor few Protestants will say that it is of God's Institution Bilson and others usually say Patriarchs Metropolitans c. are humane Creatures And verily I had rather be no Member of a Church of Man's making till I better know the Maker's Authority than renounce all that mutual Love and Brotherly concord and forbearance and kindness and all Christ's Promises of Salvation to such which he hath settled upon his Catholick Members And if what you say be true who would not rather far be a meer Catholck Christian out of all National Churches than be in them But I yet hold that though your particular Canon bind not the Church universal yet Christ's universal Laws bind all particular Churches and Christians 4. And that which maketh me dissent is that I am not able to discern how all Men can obey such Laws as you mention and live in any concord with you without renouncing all Conscience Christianity and Religion Not that I judge all to do so that agree with you For those that agree in Iudgment may agree in Practice But you must make me mad or unacquainted with Mankind before you make me believe that a whole Kingdom will ever be so perfect in Judgment or so much of the same temper Education condition converse c. as to be all of
be as dear to us as any other and that if I were a Member of Mr. Tombeis Church if he would permit me I would live obediently under his Ministry allowing me the Liberty of my Conscience I hope God is working for our Unity and Peace I have been long preaching of the Unity of the Catholick Church containing all true Christians as Members and the last Week save one Mr. Tombes came to the Re-baptized Church at Bewdley and preacht on the same Subbject and so excellently well as I hear for Unity among all true Christians to the same purpose with your Husband's Arguments that I much rejoiced to hear of it though I hear some of his People were offended And now that this should be seconded with your Husband 's peaceable Arguments puts me in some Hopes of a little more healing I have strong Hopes that if I were in London I should persuade such as your Husband and Mr. Iohn Goodwin and many an honest Presbyterian Minister as great a distance as seems to be between them all to come yet together and live in Holy Communion But be sure God will drive us together before he hath done with us Living Members will smart by distance and be impatient till the Wound be closed what a Damp is upon the Spirits of those Christians that can separate interpretatively from a thousand parts to one of the Church of Christ. The Papists would desire no better sport nor the Infidels neither than to reduce the Church of Christ to the Antipaede Baptists or the baptized at Age and so to deny him to have had any visible Church in the World that we can prove for so many Years Would they have held Communion with the Catholick Church for a thousand Years together or would they not if they had lived in those times If they would then why not with us also that are of the same Judgment Was it a Duty then and is it unlawful now or are they Respecters of Persons If they would not in all those Ages have held Communion with the visible Church what would they have done but separated from the Body and so from the Head and cast off Christ in all his Members and taken him to be a Head without a Body which is no head and so no Christ what would they have done but denied his Power and Love and Truth and consequently his Redemption and his Office Hath he come at the end of Four Thousand Years since the Creation to redeem the World that lay so long in Darkness and hath he made such wonderful Preparations for his Church by his Life and Miracles and Blood and Spirit c. and promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that his Kingdom shall be an Everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion endureth from Generation to Generation and yet after all this shall he have a Church even as the Seekers say but for an Age or two For doubtless tho' where Heathens were the Neighbours of the Church many were baptised at Age yet no Man can name or prove a Society or I think a Person against infant Baptism for One Thousand Two Hundred Years at least if not One Thousand Four Hundred And for many Ages no other ordinarily baptized but Infants If Christ had no Church then where was his Wisdom his Love and his Power What was become of the Glory of his Redemption and his Catholick Church that was to continue to the End That Man that can believe that Christ had no Church for so long time or any one Age since his Ascension must turn an Infidel and deny him to be Christ if he be a rational Man Did all the Gospel Precepts of Love and Holy Communion cease as soon as Infant Baptism prevailed doubtless though it be be his Ordinance Christ never laid so great a stress on the outward Washing as Dividers do Whenever Baptism is mentioned in Scripture it means The Engagement of the Person to Jesus Christ by solemn Covenant which Washing is appointed to Solemnize and 1 Cor. 12. 13. doth plainly mean That one Holy Spirit which is usually given to the Baptized either in or near their outward Baptism doth inwardly animate all the Body and unite them and assimilate them and prove them Members Constantine the Great was the Glory of the Church in his Generation maintaining Holiness and Peace when the Pastors were some Corrupters and some Dividers and would have broken all in Pieces but for him He ordinarily Preached or made Holy Prayers and Speeches in Meetings and yet was never baptized all this while till near Death and none ever scrupuled his Communion I would know of the Dividers why they should think Baptism more necessary to be believed than the other Sacrament the Supper of the Lord Yet it is certain that all the ancient Church did purposely conceal the Lord's Supper from the Knowledge of the Catechumens by which it appears they judged not the Belief of it essential to a Church Member Yet I know the great thing meant by the Word Baptism in Scripture is essential to the Church-Membership of the Adult that is the giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Covenant but the Sign is only necessary as a Duty but not as a means without which the thing cannot be had This is voluminously proved against the Papists with whom the contrary minded do comply Circumcision in the Wilderness was separated from Church-Membership and Communion And is the outward part of Baptism more necessary under the Gospel which setteth less by Externals and where God that is a Spirit will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and where neither Circumcision nor Un-Uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new Creature and Faith that worketh by Love But our main Argument against them is That no true Definition can be given of Baptism that will not agree with Infant-Baptism if it were granted to be unlawful were it proved an unmeet Age it will never prove the Baptism null But I do but go besides your Expectation I suppose in all this which is occasioned by your Husbands Paper and the main Cause I shall therefore come at last to your Case But will Mr. Lambe regard the Judgment of one that differeth from him as I do You know according to my Judgment what I must advise him to but though still it is my Judgment that Infants of Believers should be solemnly given up to Christ by Baptism yet I shall deal as impartially as I can and put my self in Mr. L's Case and supposing I were of his Opinion against Infant-Baptism I shall answer your particular Questions To the two first I answer 1. We have a sure Word to fly to for Direction and many great and evident Principles as here the Nature of the Catholick Church c. to give us Light in the darker Points that depend upon them and in such a Case it is dangerous gathering our Informations about Truth or Duty or
Church of Christ such danger will be but by Accident as every necessary Duty hath its Danger A loving melting Lamentation for that Violation of Charity which your own and their Division hath been guilty of is like to profit humble Souls that love the Truth and if they are such as will not indure the Doctrine of Love and Unity what are they better than our Parishes 7. None will be sad for the Return of a Brother to Unity or Love but those that grieve for your Felicity not knowing what they do You would not forbear a Return to God from any gross Sin for fear of grieving Men Is not Schism a gross Sin Are they not great that are directly against Love and Unity the Soul and Life of the Church of Christ and were you no whit partial you would think that Twenty Hearts made glad at your Recovery for one that 's made sad should at least here leave the Ballance even A Publish'd Exhortation from you such as it seems you intended to draw your Party to Unity and Communion with all true Christians and dissuade them hereafter from Censoriousness opposition to the Ministry and Separation upon the Account of so difficult a Point and so far from the Heart of the new Man might do more good than your overseeing that Church an Hundred Years it is not a Trifle to hold an Opinion that would warrant a Man to have denied or separated from the universal visible Church for so many Hundred Years even for almost all the time of its Existence since Christ. I forbear sending you the Form of Concord mentioned till you are readier for it and shall desire it as judging it useful and then God willing I shall send it The Lord I hope will clear up to you his Mind concerning the way in which he would have you walk and in the way of Duty give you the Peace which you desire and expect I rest Your unworthy Brother Rich. Baxter To Mr. Lambe Sept. 29. 1658. London the 15th of Ianuary 1658. Dear Sir THESE are to return you many Thanks for your two Letters which have been a very great Comfort to me in my Affliction and Warfare that I am now ingaged in Sir I thought good to be silent a while and not to trouble you with any more Letters till I had some new thing to say to you Now what I have to say is reducible to Three Heads 1. I would inform you what God hath done for me since my last 2. What I have done I hope in his Strength and that I may not doubt to say 't is for him in the Point of Union And 3. The present Frame of my Spirit and State 1. For God's dealing with me Sir after waiting on the Lord in his way sighing for Light and panting after him for refreshing as the Heart panteth after the Water Brook My Light hath broke forth as the Morning It hath rose in obscurity and my Darkness became as the Noon Day I see by Experience that though I am dark God is Light and though I am poor he is Rich and I believe there is nothing I want but Heaven is full of it The right Notion of God's Universal Church and the Unity he would have amongst the Members and indeed the necessity thereof upon the Penalty of infinite Dammage to the most excellent Body of Christ is that God hath blest me with the Sght of and shewn me as in a Glass the Condition of all our Congregations that refuse Communion with other Churches of Christ standing off from the main body of the Church militant as Christ's Part of that Body as Antichristian and so refusing to give or take Influences for their Comfort and Succour It healeth the whole but dreadfully endangereth those small Parts so divided Just as it would endanger a Troop or Company that should stand off from the main Body of a great Army that hath a potent Enemy engaged in the Field against them By this Light I perceive our Case namely that we are as you say guilty of Schism The Light in this Matter being clear to me I now begin to be satisfied that the Lord hath visited me from an high in Mercy and that all my inward Oppositions and outward too from my Friends are of Satan to stop me in a blessed Work I praise God I am now help'd to bear the Reproaches of my dear Friends that pour Contempt upon me daily as a most dreadful Apostate a Iudas one that it had been good for never to have been born one that though I were as the Signet on God's Right Hand I should be pluck'd from thence others wishing they had followed me to my Grave when they went with me to Baptism But it stirreth me not much for though their Zeal for God and his Truth and their Love to Christ and Holiness and Ability to suffer for Christ be more than mine yet my Conscience telleth me they are in an Error and that I am sincere in all I do not swayed by carnal Considerations in which I am so manifest to their Consciences that they are more troubled with me for that things sake Oh Sir I admire how a Man without the Brest-plate of Righteousness holdeth up his Head in such a Day But withal I experience the Worth and Excellency thereof By the Grace of God my Righteousness I will hold fast and my Heart shall not reprove me all my Days My conscience telleth me which is my great Comfort that I have not wickedly departed from my God that I would not break the least of his Laws willingly to gain a Thousand Worlds That the Love I bear to my Saviour and his most excellent Body the Church is the chief thing that inspireth me in all I do Now 2. Touching what I have done towards Union since I wrote last it is as followeth 1. I have been at Mr. G.'s Congregation from whom I departed to acknowledge my Sin in separating from them upon such silly Grounds and have offered my self to break bread with them if they pleased But withal told the whole Church that for two Reasons I could not come so close to them as heretofore 1. because of my Relation to the poor People I now serve being not yet well lodged in some safe Place And 2. because of some Scruples in my Mind whether Independency did not infer Schism in the Church Universal As that Independency upon the narrow foot I mean that which divideth Communion with Saints as Saints doth so my refusing Communion with them made me guilty of Schism in respest of that particular I do not doubt it and our Anabaptists are their natural Offspring But how to determine my Duty in respect of Mr. Goodwin's Church from whom I separated and with whom I was for many Years joined I know not considering their Principles are larger for Communion than others 2. Amongst our selves I have privately urged to my Friends enlarging considerably 3. I have my self with my Family frequented
the same all are not of the Church that are in the Parish there are three sorts of the Parish 1. Communicants and those are the Church 2. Meer Hearers and Catechical Persons and these are Candidates 3. Aliens Atheists Infidels and Papists Hereticks Men of no Church or other Churches Parish-Churches as combined parts of a Christian Kingdom or National Church thus distinguished from Aliens Auditors and not only tolerated but orderly combined maintained encouraged are the most regular Churches agreeable to Scripture Reason and Antiquity Quest. 3. Suppose the Parish-Churches should be no true Churches is it destructive to particular Churches to join with the Parish-Assemblies Answ. No who can dream that Families and Neighbours and occasional Meetings may not Worship God or that such Worship destroys Churches Did Corâlius's Meeting Acts 18. or those Acts 12. 12. or these that Acts 20. prayed at an Oratory nor the Water destroy the Church 2. Occasion Communicants are not bound to try the Call of the Ministers where they come and have no Vote but to take them according to visible Profession and Possession and if the Ministers should prove uncalled the Loss would be to themselves and not to the Faithful that are blameless and have right to the Childrens Bread though a Iudas or a Pharisee distribute it But the Separatists Object that pretended Churches which are not true are worse than occasional Assemblies that pretend it not Answ. 1. whether they are worse or better is nothing to this Question of destroying Churches 2. The liker they are to true Churches the liker they are to be better than those that are unlike them 3. The Officiating of a true Minister may make that a true temporary Church which is not a constant setled Church 4. It is far liker that many separating Congregations will prove no true lawful Churches for want of true Ministers and other Causes and yet it will not follow that all that join with them destroy true Churches for some under Government may do it blamelesly and they that do it sinfully may yet own true Churches every Sin destroys not other Churches 5. It is a Duty for Members of a Church to get what good they can by all Christians whether they be regular Churches or not Quest. 4. Suppose the Parish-Assemblies to be particular Churches are the Corruptions in them so great as that we must separate from them or would it not be Schism so to do Answ. There are many sorts of Separation It is Schism to call them no true Churches of Christ or such as it is not lawful to hold Communion with and to separate on that account and this I have oft proved in Print so fully that I must not now repeat it But there are many Occasions which may warrant and necessitate a meer local Separation as I have fully proved in many Treatises as if any Sin be imposed and Communion denied to those that will not Sin those Men do not separate but are driven out by Separatists or Tyrants and must not give over all Church Worship of God because Tyrants forbid it them Many other Instances of lawful local Separation I have published which I cannot find any have confuted no nor denyed Quest. 5. Whether there are not in congregational Churches such things which are not plainly instituted in Scripture Answ. Congregational is a sorry Word as here used in distinction from Parish-Churches Parish-Churches are Congregational they consist of Pastors and Christian Communicants joined for Personal Communion and Independents and Separatists much differ many Independants are against Separation the old Nonconformists both Presbyterians and Independants were judged the Parish-Churches that had tolerable Ministers to be true Churches and Independents greatly differ among themselves some are sound in the Faith and some are unfound some are for Infant Church-Membership and Covenant Grace and some against it some are for self-made Covenants and Terms of Church-entrance and Communion and for the Peoples Power of the Keys and against Ordination and many other Errors which others do renounce And remember it is one thing to be Independants by Agreement as Neighbour Churches and another thing to be dependant as Subjects on governing Churches And it is one thing to be Independant on equal Neighbour Churches and another thing to be independant on a superior Ministry The Churches of Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus and the rest were independant on each other as to Government but they were dependant on the Apostles and Evangelists Paul Barnabas Luke Mark Silas Timothy Titus and Apollos c. as to Oversight and dependant on other Churches as Fellow-members of the same Universal Body as the Members of our Bodies are 3. I know no Churches to happy as to have nothing that is not particularly yea or generally instituted in Scripture yea and that obtruded on the People O! when will God make them wiser some Independant Ministers and Churches have Catholick Charitable Uniting Principles But the separating part who are they that have so many and great Defects and Faults as I have in my former Writing enumerated and need not here again recite but advise you impartially to review them Quest. 6. Whether every Person who doth join with such a Church doth not become as guilty of the Sin of such a Church as those do that join with the Church of England Answ. This Question intimateth that you know not what the Church of England is It is nothing but a Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian supreme Power and combined Christians and Churches governed by that Power it is not Liturgies nor Ceremonies that essentiate the Church of England Orthodox Godly Presbyterians and Independants who deny not a Christian Kingdom of Christian Churches though differing in many thing are all parts of the true Church of England But I suppose you mean the Conformists which are but a part 2. One is guilty of the Faults of the Conformists by their bare Presence and Communion who do not consent to those Faults and if bare Presence signified Consent we must avoid Communion with all Churches on Earth for who are Sinless And all must avoid us and how shall we avoid our selves who sin in all we do 3. But when People causelesly separate and unchurch other Churches far âounder than their own and falsely accuse them yea and almost all Christ's Churches these Fifteen Hsndred Years as those now called Separatists usually do I think your ordinary joining with such when you may have sounder Communion is a sinful Encouragement of them in their Schism justly leaveth you under the Imputation of Schism and requireth great Humiliation and Reformation being greater than some great private Sins as publick Cases are more important than private but I am loath to say all that I judge true against the present separating Way lest I be mistaken as if I would render them odious or be against the necessary Toleration of the Week I have truly told the World near Forty Years ago that I am past
Publick Worship which yet Mahometans offer him some it is Schism not to obey But if the Bishop do but say the word we may meet daily without Schism and the Place Person Exercise that before was Schismatical if he do but licence them are presently lawful So that the Bishop's word against the King's yea against God's command to preach in season and out can make a thing Schism and his word can make it none again in a moment 17. Whether it be Schism to go to a better Minister in another Parish in the same Diocess though we separate from no Church in their sense the Diocesan being the lowest proper Church is not well agreed on Feigning Schisms is making Schism by turbulent noise and ãâã Accusations We that impose on no Man and that obey them in lawful things that we for Universal Love and Peace even with that meet in different Assemblies and in different Forms we that hold Communion with all true Churches as aforesaid and yet because we can be but in one place at once do choose the best obeying God's Command Let all things be done to edification and knowing best what edifieth our selves we suppose are farther from Schism than those that as from the Throne of Authority pronounce Schism and never help us to understand the sense and reason of their words but use it as for the advantage of their Cause And as one lately writeth Have led that Bear so long about the streets till the Boy lay by fear and do but laugh at it Nor are there many more effectual Causes of Schism and that harden true Schismaticks against all Conviction then when it is seen that Men of Contention Pride and Worldly Interest first make the Schism by sinful or impossible terms of Unity and next falsly call the most Innocent that obey not their Domination Schismaticks and the greatest Duties even Preaching where many and many thousands have no Preaching nor no Publick Worship of God by the Name of Schism as if we must let London turn Heathens for fear of being Schismaticks Dear Friend though these things have these Forty years had my deep and I hope impartial thoughts and I dare not for a thousand Worlds think to do otherwise than I do in the main yet I shall heartily thank you if by true light you help me to see any Errour which I yet perceive not And seeing Experience hath justly taught you to dread Anabaptistry and Separation think further 1. Whether they that forbid Parents to enter their Children into Covenant with God in Baptism and lay all that Office on those that have no power to covenant in their names nor shew any purpose to perform what they promise and deny Baptism as aforesaid to the Children of such as submit not to this and the Cross be not quantum in se Destroyers of Infant Baptism which is no Baptism if there be no Covenant 2. Again Whether they be not Separatists that both un-Church all the Parish-Churches quantum in se and also deny Communion with the Nonconformists Churches as null or unlawful even when they had his Majesties Licence Be impartial against Antipedobaptists and Separatists I constantly heard and communicated with the Parish-Church where I lived but the Conformists usually fly from the Nonconformists Assemblies as unlawful but if both sides were heard in their Charge against the other I know which would have the more to say Accept this freedom from the unfeigned Love of Your much obliged Friend Rich. Baxter May 13. 1626. The Instances promised you I. WHen I was cast out at Kidderminster and you know what a Minister was there I offered while the Indulgence of the King's Declaration continuâd to have been the Reading Vicar's Curate and to have preached for nothing and could not prevail I was by the Bishop forbidden to preach in his Diocess and when I offered him to preach only Catechistical Principles to some poor Congregation that else must have none he told me It was better they had none than me My presence at Kidderminster was thought so dangerous that Force was assigned to have apâââhend me and had I stayed it must have been in the Jail and many another for my sake When I was forced away at Venner's Rising I wrote but a Letter to my Mother in-âaw and it was way-laid intercepted opened and sent up to the Court though there was nothing concerning them in it but some sharp Invectives against the Rebellion which my Lord Chancellour acknowledging caused my Lord Windsor personally to bring me back my Letter so that I durst not write to them of many years My Neighbours I had perswaded to do as you advise to joyn in the Publick Church and help each other as private Men and for so doing repeating Sermons and praying and singing a Psalm many of them lay long among Rogues in the Common Jail and others of them impoverished by Fines II. When I came to live at Acton I drew all the People constantly to Church that were averse sometime I repeated the Parsons Sermon and sometimes taught such as came to my House between the Sermons When the Reverend Parson saw them come into Church he would fall upon them c. And not being able to bear my little Endeavours for their Instruction he caused me to be sent to the Common Jail not one Witness or Person being suffered to come into the Room while I was examined and committed III. I am now in a Parish where some Neighbours say that there are Fourscore thousand Souls suppose they be fewer Not above Two thousand of all these can hear in the Parish Church so that it 's like above Sixty thousand have no Church to go to no not so much as to hear the Scripture or the Common-Prayer Here I need not tell you what Prohibitions I have had and what my Endeavours to teach a few Publickly have lost me and others And lately because one that preached for me did without my knowledge at the importunity of a Parent Baptize a poor man's Child when they told him it was in danger of death the Curate of the Parish came to my House to expostulate the matter when yet many are baptized by Papist Priests for want of others to do it as they say I never my self Baptized a Child or administred the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper these fifteen years but ordinarily received it in the Parish Church at Totterridge and elsewhere one of the first times that I received it in private a Bullet was shot into the Room among us and came near to the Heads of divers of us I never gathered any Church from among them and yet have been usually the first sought after to be imprisoned or ruined in each assault and was put to sell my Goods and Books to save them from Distress Near me in the same Parish liveth Mr. Gabriel Sanger the late Incumbent Pastor of the Parish a Man of Age and Gravity great Moderation and Peaceableness and far from
see the Examples of Tyranny and rash Excommunication let him read Iohn's Epistle to Diotrephes and the pious Admonitions of Irenaeus to Victor The Examples of Schisms we have in others not a few To which Optatus Melev prudently ascribeth three Causes Wrath Ambition and Covetousness But how many score Canons Interdicts and Bloody Wars do prove all this XXVIII And had not these Vices conquered Common Reason with Christianity in such men it were a Wonder that so unprofitable and causeless a thing as forcing all Christians to Unite on the profest Approbation and Practice of all the needless Things which such impose and denying them Communion and Peace on the Terms that Christ prescribed for all his Servants to own and love each other on should be thought a sufficient Justification of all that Dividing Cruelty of which it hath been guilty And that Church-Grandees should make such Schisms as are yet in East and West and then hate and persecute the Sufferers as Schismaticks Saith Grotius on Luke 6. 22. Scitum est Veterum Iudaeorum cujus Maimonidememinit siquis Innocentem à Communione arcuerit ipsum excidere jure Communionis And Dr. Stillingfleet on Archbishop Laud and before him Chillingworth conclude That if a Church deny Communion to her Members on those Terms that give them Right to Communion with the Church Universal that Church is guilty of the Schism Were it not more Christian-like easie and sweet to joyn all in the practice of the Laws of Christ by which we shall be judged with the needful use of edifying Order and Circumstances that all Sizes and Ages of Christians might live in Unity and Love than to cast out all that cannot Unite on Terms so far beyond meer Christianity as most Churches on Earth require When the Volume of Councils and Canons were unknown and plain Familiar Discipline was used in the open Church-Meetings Christians were less divided saith Grotius in Luc. 6. 22. Apud Christianos Veteres praesidente quidem Episcopo Senioribus sed Conscia Consentiente Fratrum multitudine morum judicia exercebantur If Christians be partial hear an impartial Heathen Ammianus Marcellinus who scandalized with the murder of Men kill'd in the Church for the Election of Pope Damasus concludeth how well it would have gone with Christianity if those great Roman Prelates had lived like the poor humble inferiour Bishops See his words But if Paul's full Decision on Romans 14. will not bring us to necessary forbearance no Plainness not Authority will serve Numb IX An Act for Concord by Reforming Parish Churches and Regulating Toleration of DISSENTERS I. THE Qualification requisite to Baptism in the Adult for themselves and in one Parent at least or Pro-Parents for Infants is Their understanding Consent to the Baptismal Covenant in which they are solemnly devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Father Saviour and Sanctifier Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil so far as they are adverse And the requisite Qualification of the Adult for proper Church Priviledges and Communion in the Lord's Supper is That they forsake not the said Covenant or Christianity but publickly own it not rendering their Profession invalid by any Doctrine or Practice inconsistent therewith And that they understandingly desire the said Communion II. The Christian Churches have universally taken the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments as delivered by Christ for the Summary of the Christian Belief Desire and Practice expounding the Matter of the Baptismal Covenant Therefore all Pastors shall Exhort all Housholders to learn themselves and teach their Families the words and meaning of the Baptismal Covenant and of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments And shall also thus Catechize such themselves as need their help as far as they or their Assisstants can do it III. No Minister shall Baptize any Person Adult or Infant till the Adult for themselves and the Parent or Pro-Parent who undertaketh the Education of the Child as his own have there professed their Belief of the Christian Faith and their fore-described Consent to the Christian Covenant in which they are to be solemnly devoted to God And such they shall not refuse Nor shall the Pastors admit any to the proper Priviledges of Church Communion and partaking of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but those who have made Profession that they resovedly stand to their Baptismal Covenant in the foresaid Belief of the Christian Faith and Desire and Obedience to Christ. Which Profession shall be made in the Church or to the Pastor before sufficient Witness or to the Diocesan or some other Pastor who shall give Testimonial of it And if any shall go from the Parish-Church Pastor to be Confirmed by the Bishop or received by any other Minister without the Certificate or Consent of his own Parish Pastor the said Pastor shall not be obliged to admit him to Communion till to him also before Witness he have made the said Profession IV. Because in great Parishes and Cities where Persons live unknown and as Lodgers are transient and too great a Number desire not Communion and many Communicate only with other Churches and it is needful for Order that all Pastors know their Communicating Flock from the rest the Pastor may for his memory keep a Register of the stated Communicants of his Parish and put out the Names of those that deny or remove or are lawfully Excommunicate or that wilfully forbear Communion above fix Months not rendering to the Pastor a Satisfactory Excuse But occasionally he ought not to refuse any Stranger who hath Testimony of his Communion with any other approved Christian Church V. If by the Pastor's knowledge or by just accusation or same any Communicant be strongly suspected of Atheism Infidelity or denying any Essential part of Christian Faith Hope or Practice or to live in any heinous Sin the Pastor shall send for him and enquire of the Truth and if he be proved Guilty gently instruct him and admonish him and skilfully labour to bring him to Repentance And if he prevail not shall again send for him and do the same before some Witnesses And if he yet prevail not or if he wilfully refuse to come or to answer him shall open his Case before the Church Vestry or Neighbour Pastors and if he be present there admonish him and pray for his Repentance And if yet he prevail not to bring him to the profession of serious Repentance he shall declare that he judgeth him a Person unmeet for Church Communion till he Repent and shall till then forbear to give him the Sacrament But when he professeth serious Repentance shall receive him But if after such oft Professions he continue in such heinous Sin he shall not again receive him till actual Amendment for a sufficient time to make valid his Profession VI. Ordination to the Priesthood shall be a valid License to Preach And every just Incumbent being the Pastor Overseer or
famous Troop which he began his Army with his Officers purposed to make their Troop a gathered Church and they all subscribed an Invitation to me to be their Pastor and sent it me to Coventry I sent them a Denial reproving their Attempt and told them wherein my Judgment was against the Lawfulness and Convenience of their way and so I heard no more from them And afterward meeting Cromwell at Leicester he expostulated with me for denying them These very men that then invited me to be their Pastor were the Men that afterwards headed much of the Army and some of them were the forwardest in all our Changes which made me wish that I had gone among them however it had been interpreted for then all the Fire was in one Spark § 75. When I had informed my self to my sorrow of the state of the Army Capt. Evanson one of my Orthodox Informers desired me yet to come to their Regiment telling me that it was the most religious most valiant most succesful of all the Army but in as much danger as any one whatsoever I was loth to leave my Studies and Friends and Quietness at Coventry to go into an Army so contrary to my Judgment but I thought the Publick Good commanded me and so I gave him some Encouragement whereupon he told his Colonel Whalley who also was Orthodox in Religion but engaged by Kindred and Interest to Cromwell He invited me to be Chaplain to his Regiment and I told him I would take but a days time to deliberate and would send him an Answer or else come to him As soon as I came home to Coventry I call'd together an Assembly of Ministers Dr. Bryan Dr. Grew and many others there being many as I before noted fled thither from the Parts thereabouts I told them the sad News of the Corruption of the Army and that I thought all we had valued was like to be endangered by them seeing this Army having first conquered at York where Cromwell was under Manchester and now at Naseby and having left the King no visible Army but Gorings the Fate of the whole Kingdom was like to follow the Disposition and Interest of the Conquerours We have sworn to be true to the King and his Heirs in the Oath of Allegiance All our Soldiers here do think that the Parliament is faithful to the King and have no other purposes themselves If King and Parliament Church and State be ruined by those Men and we look on and do nothing to hinder it how are we true to our Allegiance and to the Covenant which bindeth us to defend the King and to be against Schism as well as against Popery and Prophaneness For my part said I I know that my Body is so weak that it is like to hazard my Life to be among them and I expect their Fury should do little less than rid me out of the way and I know one Man cannot do much upon them But yet if your Judgment take it to be my Duty I will venture my Life among them and perhaps some other Ministers may be drawn in and then some more of the Evil may be prevented The Ministers finding my own Judgment for it and being moved with the Cause did unanimously give their Judgment for my going Hereupon I went strait to the Committee and told them that I had an Invitation to the Army and desired their Consent to go They consulted a while and then left it wholly to the Governour saying That if he consented they should not hinder me It fell out that Col. Barker the Governour was just then to be turned out as a Member of Parliament by the Self-denying Vote And one of his Captains was to be Colonel and Governour in his place Col. Willoughby Hereupon Col. Barker was consent in his discontent that I should go out with him that he might be mist the more and so gave me his consent Hereupon I sent word to Col. Whalley that to morrow God willing I would come to him As soon as this was done the elected governour was much displeased and the Soldiers were so much offended with the Committee for consenting to my going that the Committee all met again in the Night and sent for me and told me I must not go I told them that by their Consent I had promised and therefore must go They told me that the Soldiers were ready to mutiny against them and they could not satisfie them and therefore I must stay I told them that I had not promised if they had not consented though being no Soldier or Chaplain to the Garrison but only preaching to them I took my self to be a Free-man and I could not break my word when I had promised by their Consent They seemed to deny their Consent and said they did but refer me to the Governour In a word they were so angry with me that I was fain to tell them all the truth of my Motives and Design what a case I perceived the Army to be in and that I was resolved to do my best against it I knew not till afterward that Col. William Purefoy a Parliament Man one of the chief of them was a Confident of Cromwells and as soon as I had spoken what I did of the Army Magisterially he answereth me Let me hear no more of that If Nol. Cromwell should hear any Soldiers speak but such a word he would cleave his crown You do them wrong it is not so I told him what he would not hear he should not hear from me but I would perform my word though he seemed to deny his And so I parted with those that had been my very great Friends in some displeasure But the Soldiers threatned to stop the Gates and keep me in but being honest understanding Men I quickly satisfied the Leaders of them by a private intimation of my Reasons and Resolutions and some of them accompanied me on my way § 76. As soon as I came to the Army Oliver Cromwell coldly bid me welcome and never spake one word to me more while I was there nor once all that time vouchfaced me an Opportunity to come to the Head Quarters where the Councils and Meetings of the Officers were so that most of my design was thereby frustrated And his Secretary gave out that there was a Reformer come to the Army to undeceive them and to save Church and State with some such other Jeers by which I perceived that all that I had said but the Night before to the Committee was come to Cromwell before me I believe by Col. Purefoy's means But Col. Whalley welcomed me and was the worse thought on for it by the rest of the Cabal § 77. Here I set my self from day to day to find out the Corruptions of the Soldiers and to discourse and dispute them out of their mistakes both Religious and Political My Life among them was a daily contending against Seducers and gently arguing with the more Tractable and
System of Divinity which having never yet had time to write I have omitted the reprinting of them to this day But some have surreptitiously printed them against my will In my Confession I opened the whole Doctrine of Antinomianism which I opposed and I brought the Testimonies of abundance of our Divines who give as much to other Acts besides Faith in Justification as I. And I opened the weakness of Dr. Owen's Reasonings for Justification before Faith in his former Answer to me To which he wrote an Answer annexing it to his Confutation of Biddle and the Cracovian Catechism to intimate that I belonged to that Party that I thought it unfit to make any Reply to it not only because I had no vacancy from better work but because the quality of it was such as would unavoidably draw me if I confuted it to speak so much and so offensively to the Person as well as the Doctrine that it would have been a Temptation to the further weakening of his Charity and increasing his desire of Revenge And I thought it my duty when the Readers good required me not to write to forbear replying and to let him have the last word because I had begun with him And I perceived that the common distast of Men against him and his Book made my Reply the more unnecessary But for all the Writings and Warth of Men which were provoked against me I must here record my Thanks to God for the Success of my Controversal Writings against the Antinomians when I was in the Army it was the predominant Infection The Books of Dr. Crisp Paul Hobson Saltmarsh Cradock and abundance such like were the Writings most applauded and he was thought no Spiritual Christian but a Legalist that savoured not of Antinomianism which was sugared with the Title of Free-grace and others were thought to preach the Law and not to preach Christ. And I confess the darkness of many Preachers in the Mysteries of the Gospel and our common neglect of studying and preaching Grace and Gratitude and Love did give occasion to the prevalency of this Sect which God no doubt permitted for our good to review our apprehension of those Evangelical Graces and Duties which we barely acknowledged but in our practice almost over-lookt But this Sect that then so much prevailed was so suddenly almost extinct that now they little appear and make no noise among us at all nor have done these many years In which effect those ungrateful Controversal Writings of my own have had so much hand as obligeth me to very much Thankfulness to God § 164. About that time having been at London and preached some Sermons there one scrap of a Sermon preached in Westminster-Abbey to many Members of Parliament was taken by some one and printed which is nothing but the naming of a few Directions which I then gave the Parliament Men for Church Reformation and Peace according to the state of those Times which it was preached in In Oliver Cromwell's time § 165. 10. And when I was returned home I was sollicited by Letters to print many of the Sermons which I had preached in London and in some of them I gratified their desires One Sermon which I published was against Mens making light of Christ upon Matth. 22. 5. This Sermon was preached at Lawrence Iury where Mr. Vines was Pastor where though I sent the day before to secure room for the Lord Broghill and the Earl of Suffolk with whom I was to go in the Coach yet when I came the Crowd had so little respect of Persons that they were fain to go home again because they could not come within hearing and the old Earl of Warwick who stood in the Abbey brought me home again And Mr. Vines himself was fain to get up into the Pulpit and sit behind me and I to stand between his Legs which I mention that the Reader may understand that Verse in my Poem concerning him which is printed where I say That At once one Pulpit held us both § 166. 11. Another of those Sermons which I published was A Sermon of Iudgment which I enlarged into a small Treatise This was preached at Pauls at the desire of Sir Christopher Pack then Lord Mayor to the greatest Auditory that I ever saw § 167. 12. Another Sermon which I preached at Martin's Church I printed with enlargement called Catholick Unity shewing the great necessity of Unity in real Holiness It is fitted to the prophane and ignorant People who are still crying out against Errours and Divisions about lesser matters while they themselves do practically and damnably err in the Foundation and divide themselves from God from Christ from the Spirit and from all the living Members of Christ And it sheweth how greatly Ungodliness tendeth to Divisions and Godliness to the truest Unity and Peace § 168. 13. About that time I had preached a Sermon at Worcester which though rude and not polished I thought meet to print under the Title of The true Catholick and The Catholick Church described It is for Catholicism against all Sects to shew the Sin and Folly and Mischief of all Sects that would appropriate the Church to themselves and trouble the World with the Question Which of all these Parties is the Church as if they knew not that the Catholick Church is that whole which containeth all the Parts though some more pure and some less especially it is suited against the Romish Claim which damneth all Christians besides themselves and it detecteth and confuteth dividing Principles For I apprehended it a Matter of great Necessity to imprint true Catholicism on the Minds of Christians it being a most lamentable thing to observe how few Christians in the World there be that fall not into one Sect or other and wrong not the common Interest of Christianity for the promoting of the Interest of their Sect And how lamentably Love is thereby destroyed so that most men think not that they are bound to love those as the Members of Christ which are against their Party and the Leaders of most Sects do not stick to persecute those that differ from them and think the Blood of those who hinder their Opinions and Parties to be an acceptable Sacrifice to God And if they can but get to be of a Sect which they think the holiest as the Anabaptists and Separatists or which is the largest as the Greeks and Papists they think then that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's Church or at least to deny them Christian Love and Communion To this small Book I annexed a Poscript against a ridiculous Pamphlet of one Malpas an old scandalous neighbour Minister who was permitted to stay in by the Parliament so far were they from being over-strict in their Reformation of the Clergy and now is a considerable Man among them § 169. 14. When we set on foot our Association in Worcestershire I was desired to print our Agreement with an Explication of
186. 30. The third Sheet was called One Sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts containing those Reasons for the present Ministry which shew the greatness of the Sin of those that set against them It was intended then against the Quakers and other Sectarian Enemies to the Ministry but is as useful for these Times and against those that on other pretences hate and silence and suppress them and might tell their Consciences what they do § 187. 31. The fourth Sheet I called A Second Sheet for the Ministry being a Defence of their Office as continued against the Seekers who pretend that the Ministry is ceased and lost And it may serve against the Papists that question our Call for want of a Succession and all their Spawn of Sectaries that are still setting themselves against the Ministry and against the Sacred Scriptures § 188. 32. Mr. William Montford being chosen Bayliff of Kiderminster desired me to write him down a few brief Instructions for the due Execution of his Office of Magistracy that he might so pass it as to have Comfort and not Trouble in the Review which having done considering how many Mayors and Bayliffs and Countrey Justices needed it as well as he I printed it in an open Sheet to stick upon a Wall Entituled Directions for Iustices of Peace especially in Corporations for the Discharge of their Duties to God suited to those Times § 189. 33. Mr. Iohn Dury having spent thirty Years in Endeavours to reconcile the Lutherans and Calvanists was now going over Sea again upon that Work and desired the Judgment of our Association how it should be successfully expedited which at their desire I drew up more largely in Latin and more briefly in English The English Letter he printed as my Letter to Mr. Dury for Pacification § 190. 34. About that time Mr. Ionathan Hanmer of Devonshire wrote a Treatise for Confirmation as the most expedient means to reform our Churches and reconcile all that disagree about the Qualification of Church Members I liked the Design so well having before written for it in my Treatise of Baptism that being requested I put a large Epistle before it and after that when some Brethren desired me to produce more Scripture Proof for it than he had done I wrote a small Treatise called Confirmation and Restauration the necessary means to Reformation and Reconciliation But the times changed before it could be much practised § 191. 35. Sergeant Shephard an honest Lawyer wrote a little Book of Sincerâty and Hypocrisy and in the end of it Mr. Tho. Barlow afterward Bishop of Lincoln wrote without his Name an Appendix in Confutation of a supposed Opinion of mine that Saving Grace differeth not Specie but Gradu from Common Grace To which I replied in a short Discourse called Of Saving Faith c. I had most highly valued the Author whom I wrote against long before for his Six Exercitations in the end of Schibler's Metaphysicks But in his Attempt against me he came quite below himself as I made manifest and he resolved to make no Answer to it In this Tractate the Printer plaid his part so shamefully that the Book is scarcely to be understood § 192. 36. Being greatly apprehensive of the Commonness and Danger of the Sin of Selfishness as the Summ and Root of all positive Evil I preached many Sermons against it and at the Request of some Friends I published them entituled A. Treatise of Self-denial which found better acceptance than most of my other but yet prevented not the ruine of Church and State and Millions of Souls by that Sin § 193. 37. After that I published Five Disputations about Church-Government in order to the Reconciliation of the differing Parties In the first I proved that the English Diocesance Prelacy is intollerable which none hath answered In the Second I have proved the Validity of the Ordination then exercised without Diocesanes in England which no Man hath answered though many have urged Men to be re-ordained In the third I proved that there are dives sorts of Episcopacy lawful and desirable In the fourth and fifth I shew the lawfulness of some Ceremonies and of a Liturgy and what is unlawful here This Book being published when Bishops Liturgy and Ceremonies were most decryed and opposed was of good use to declare my Judgment when the King came in for if I had said as much then I had been judged but a Temporizer But as it was effectual to settle many in a Moderation so it made abundance of Conformists afterwards or was pretended at least to give them Satisfaction Though it never medled with the greatest Parts of Conformity Renouncing Vows Assent and Consent to all things in three Books c. and though it unanswerably confuted our Prelacy and Re-ordination and consequently the Renunciation of the Vow against Prelacy and opposed the Cross in Baptism But Sicvitant Stulti Vitia as my Aphorisms made some Arminians If you discover an Error to an injudicious Man he reeleth into the contrary Error and it is hard to stop him in the middle Verity § 194. 38. At the same time I published another Book against Popery fit for the defensive part and instructing Protestants how to answer any Papist It is entituled A Key for Catholicks to open the jugling of the Iesuits and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand whether the Cause of the Roman or Reformed Churches be of God In this Treatise proving that the Blood of the King is not by Papists to be charged upon Protestants I plainly hazarded my Life against the Powers that then were and grievously incensed Sir H. vane as is before declared And yet Mr. I. N. was so tender of the Papists Interest that having before been offended with me for a Petition against Popery and a Justice of all times spake against it on the Bench and his Displeasure encreased by this Book he took occasion since the King came in to write against me for those very Passages which condemned the King-killers Because comparing the Case with the Doctrine and Practice of the Papists I shewed that the Sectarians and Cromwelians had of the two a more plausible Pretence which I there recited he confuteth those Pretence of theirs as if they had been my own thereby to make the World believe that I wrote for the King's Death in the very Pages where to the hazard of my Life I wrote against it when he himself took the Engagement against the King and the House of Lords and was a Justice under Oliver and more than so signed Orders for the sequestring of others of the King's Party But the great Indignation against this Book and the former is that they were by Epistles directed to Ri. Cromwell as Lord Protector which I did only to provoke him that had Power to use it well when the Parliament had sworn Fidelity to him and that without any Word of Approbation to his Title Yet those that were
the Saints Rest where I have not said half that should have been said and the Reason was because that I had not read any of the fuller sort of Books that are written on those Subjects nor conversed with those that knew more than my self and so all those things were either new or great to me which were common and small perhaps to others and because they all came in by the way of my own Study of the naked matter and not from Books they were apt to affect my mind the more and to seem greater than they were And this Token of my Weakness accompanied those my younger Studies that I was very apt to start up Controversies in the way of my Practical Writings and also more desirous to acquaint the World with all that I took to be the Truth and to assault those Books by Name which I thought did tend to deceive them and did contain unsound and dangerous Doctrine And the Reason of all this was that I was then in the vigour of my youthfull Apprehensions and the new Appearance of any sacred Truth it was more apt to affect me and be highlyer valued than afterward when commonness had dulled my Delight and I did not sufficiently discern then how much in most of our Controversies is verbal and upon mutual Mistakes And withal I know not how impatient Divines were of being contradicted nor how it would stir up all their Powers to defend what they have once said and to rise up against the Truth which is thus thrust upon them as the mortal Enemy of their Honour And I knew not how hardly Mens Minds are charged from their former Apprehensions be the Evidence never so plain And I have perceived that nothing so much hindreth the Reception of the Truth as urging it on Men with too harsh Importunity and falling too heavily on their Errors For hereby you engage their Honour in the business and they defend their Errors as themselves and stir up all their Wit and Ability to oppose you In controversies it is fierce Opposition which is the Bellows to kindle a resisting Zeal when if they be neglected and their Opinions lie a while despised they usually cool and come again to themselves though I know that this holdeth not when the Greediness and Increase of his Followers doth animate a Sectary even though he have no Opposition Men are so loth to be drenched with the Truth that I am no more for going that way to work and to confess the Truth I am lately much prone to the contrary Extream to be too indifferent what Men hold and to keep my Judgment to my self and never to mention any thing wherein I differ from another or any thing which I think I know more than he or at least if he receive it not presently to silence it and leave him to his own Opinion And I find this Effect is mixed according to its Causes which are some good and some bad The bad Causes are 1. An Impatience of Mens weakness and mistaking frowardness and Self-conceitedness 2. An Abatement of my sensible Esteem of Truth through the long abode of them on my Mind Though my Judgment value them yet it is hard to be equally affected with old and common things as with new and rare ones The better Causes are 1. That I am much more sensible than ever of the necessity of living upon the Principles of Religion which we are all agreed in and uniting these and how much Mischief Men that over-value their own Opinions have done by their Controversies in the Church how some have destroyed Charity and some caused Schisms by them and most have hindered Godlyness in themselves and others and used them to divert Men from the serious prosecuting of a holy Life and as Sir Francis Bacon saith in his Essay of Peace that it 's one great Benefit of Church-Peace and Concord that writing Controversies is turned into Books of practical Devotion for increase of Piety and Virtue 2. And I find that it 's much more for most Mens Good and Edification to converse with them only in that way of Godliness which all are agreed in and not by touching upon Differences to stir up their Corruptions and to tell them of little more of your knowledge than what you find them willing to receive from you as meer Learners and therefore to stay till they crave Information of you as Musculus did with the Anabaptists when he visited them in Prison and conversed kindly and lovingly with them and shewed them all the Love he could and never talkt to them of their Opinions till at last they who were wont to call him a Deceiver and false Prophet did intreat him to instruct them and received his Instructions We mistake Mens Diseases when we think there needeth nothing to cure their Errors but only to bring them the Evidence of Truth Alas there are many Distempers of Mind to be removed before Men are apt to receive that Evidence And therefore that Church is happy where Order is kept up and the Abilities of the Ministers command a reverend Submission from the Hearers and where all are in Christ's School in the distinct Ranks of Teachers and Learners For in a learning way Men are ready to receive the Truth but in a Disputing way they come armed against it with Prejudice and Animosity 3. And I must say farther that what I last mentioned on the by is one of the notablest Changes of my Mind In my youth I was quickly past my Fundamentals and was running up into a multitude of Controversies and greatly delighted with metaphisical and scholastick Writings though I must needs say my Preaching was still on the necessary Points But the elder I grew the smaller stress I layd upon these Controversies and Curiosities though still my intellect abhoâreth Confusion as finding far greater Uncertainties in them than I at first discerned and finding less Usefulness comparatively even where there is the greatest Certainty And now it is the fundamental Doctrines of the Catechism which I highliest value and daily think of and find most useful to my self and others The Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments do find me now the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my Meditations They are to me as my daily Bread and Drink And as I can speak and write of them over and over again so I had rather read or hear of them than of any of the School Niceties which once so much pleased me And thus I observed it was with old Bishop Usher and with many other Men And I conjecture that this Effect also is mixt of good and bad according to its Causes The bad Cause may perhaps be some natural Infirmity and Decay And as Trees in the Spring shoot up into Branches Leaves and Blossoms But in the Autumn the Life draws down into the Root so possibly my Nature conscious of its Infirmity and Decay may find it self insufficient for numerous Particles and
far meaner thoughts of my own Understanding though I must needs know that it is better furnished than it was them 11. Accordingly I had then a far higher opinion of Learned Persons and Books than I have now for what I wanted my self I thought every Reverend Divine had attained and was familiar acquainted with And what Books I understood not by reason of the strangeness of the Terms or Matter I the moreâ admired and thought that others understood their worth But now Experience hâth constrained me against my will to know that Reverend Learned Men are imperfect and know but little as well as I especially ãâã that think themselves the wiseâââ And the better I am acquainted with them the more I perceive that we are all yet in the dark And the ãâã I am acquainted with holy Men that are all for Heaven and pretend not much to Subtilties the more I value and honour them And when I have studied hard to understand some absâruse admired Book as De Scientia Dei De ãâ¦ã Praedeterminatione de Libertâ to Creature a c. I have but attained the Knowledge of Humane Imperfection and to see that the Author ãâã but a Man as well as ãâã 12. And at first I tookâ more upon my Author's Crâdit ãâã now I can doâ And when an Author was highly commendâd to me by ãâã or pleased me in some part I was ready to entertain the whole whereas now I take and leave in the same Author and dissent in some things fromâ him that I like best as well as from others 13. At first I was greatly inclined to go with the highest in controversies on one side or other as with Dr. Twisse and Mr. Rutherford and Spanhemiââ de Providentia gratia c. But now I can so easily see what to say against both extreams that I am much more inclinable to reconciling Principles And whereas then I thought that Conciliators were but ignorant men that were willing to please all and would pretend to reconcile the World by Principles which they did not understand themselves I have since perceived that if the amiableness of Peace and Concord had no hand in the business yet greater Light and stronger Judgment usually is with the Reconcilers than with either of the contending Parties as with Davenant Hall Usher Lud. Crocius Bergius Strangius Camero c. But on both accounts their Writings are most acceptable though I know that Moderation may be a pretext of Errors 14. At first the Stile of Authors took as much with me as the Argument and made the Arguments seem more forcible But now I judge not of Truth at all by any such Ornaments or Accidents but by its naked Evidence 15. I now see more Good and more Evil in all Men than heretofore I did I see that Good men are not so good as I once thought they were but have more Imperfections And that nearer approach and fuller trial doth make the best appear more weak and faulty than their Admirers at a distance think And I find that few are so bad as either their malicious Enemies or censorious separating Professors do imagine In some indeed I find that Humane Nature is corrupted into a greater likeness to Devils than I once thought any on Earth had been But even in the wicked usually there is more for grace to make advantage of and more to testifie for God and Holiness than I once believed there had been 16. I less admire Giftes of Utterance and bare Profession of Religion than I once did and have much more Charity for many who by the want of Giâts do make an obscurer Profession than they I once thought that almost all that could pray movingly and fluently and talk well of Religion had been Saints But Experience hath opened to me what odious Crimes may consist with high Profession and I have met with divers obscure Persons not noted for any extraordinary Profession or forwardness in Religion but only to live a quiet blameless Life whom I have after found to have long lived as far as I could discern a truly godly and sanctified Life only their Prayers and Duties were by accident kept secret from other mens observation yet he that upon this preâence would confound the Godly and the Ungodly may as well go about to lay Heaven and Hell together 17. I am not so narrow in my special Love as heretofore Being less censârious and talking more than I did for Saints it must needs follow that I love more âs Saints than I did before I think it not lawful to put that Man off with bare Church Communion and such common Love which I must allow the Wicked who professeth himself a true Christian by such a Profession as I cannot disprove 18. I am not too narrow in my Principles of Church Communion as once I was I more plainly perceive the difference between the Church as Congregate or visible and as Regenerate or Mystical and between Sincerity and Profession and that a Credible Profession is proof sufficient of a Man's Title to Church Admission and that the Profession is Credible in foro Ecclesiae which is not disproved I am noâ for narrowing the Church more than Christ himself alloweth us nor for robbing him of any of his Flock I am more sensible how much it is the Will of Christ thâât every Man be the chooser or refuser of his own felicity and that it liâth most on his own hands whether he will have Communion with the Church or not and that if he be an hypocrite it is himself that will bear the loss 19. Yet am I more apprehensive than ever of the great use and need of Ecclesiastical Discipline and what a sin it is in the Pastors of the Church to make no distinction but by bare Names and Sacraments and to force all the unmeet against their own wills to Church Communion and Sacraments though the ignorant and erroneous may sometime be forced to hear instruction And what a great dishonour to Christ it is when the Church shall be as vicious as Pagan and Mahometan Assemblies and shall differ from them only in Ceremony and Name 20. I am much more sensible of the Evil of Schism and of the Separatingâ Humour and of gathering Parties and making several Sects in the Church than I was heretofore For the Effects have shewed us more of the mischiefs 21. I am much more sensible how prone many young Professors are to Spiritual Pride and Self-conceitedness and Unruliness and Division and so to prove the Grief of their Teachers and Firebrands in the Church and how much of a Minister's work lieth in preventing this and humbling and confirming such young unexperienced Professors and keeping them in order in their progress in Religion 22. Yet am I more sensible of the Sin and Mischief of using Men cruelly in Matters of Religion and of pretending Mens good and the Order of the Church for Acts of Inhumanity or Uncharitableness Such know not
than Spiritual in the manner of other Secular Courts and that the Government of the Church by Excommunication Suspensions Absolutions c. was exercised by a Chancellor who was a civil Lawyer and a Lay-man even against Ministers themselves unless for a blind some Priest did formally pronounce the Sentence 6. That the great Church Business of these Bishops and Courts was to vex honest Christians that durst not worship God by such Ceremonies as their Consciences thought unlawful and to silence able godly Preachers that durst not subscribe and swear Obedience to them and use every one of their Formes and Ceremonies and profess the Lawfulness of all this and that by gratifying the multitude of the ungodly and espousing a Cause so perniceous to the Church which multitudes of sober Christians would dislike they had engaged themselves into a way of Enmity and Violence against a very considerable Number of as able Ministers and holy Christians as any were in the Land or in the known World 7. And hereby it came to pass that the Multitude of the Ignorant and ungodly People were become the zealous Pleaders for the Prelacie and made it the Brest-work to exercise their Enmity against the serious Practice of Religion 8. And that ignorant drunken Readers unfit to live in Christian Communion were the only Pastors under the Prelates of abundance of the Churches in the Land 9. And that their zeal for Formality and Ceremonies and their Enmity to the most serious way of Preaching Praying yea and Living did greatly tend to the suppressing of Godliness and the increase of Ignorance and Prophaneness in the People 10. And lastly That they were set upon a way of uncharitable Censuring Reproaching Cruelty and Force for the carrying on of so ill a Cause wherein their carnal Interest did evidently manage a War against the Interest of Christ and Godliness and the Souls of Men. § 13. 3. In the Presbyterian way I disliked 1. Their Order of Lay-Elders who had no Ordination nor Power to Preach nor to administer Sacraments For though I grant that Lay-Elders or the Chief of the People were oft imployed to express the Peoples Consent and preserve their Liberties yet these were no Church-Officers at all nor had any Charge of private Oversight of the Flocks And though I grant that one Church had oft more Elders than did use to preach and that many were most employed in private Oversight yet that was but a prudent dividing of their Work according to the Gifts and parts of each and not that any Elders wanted Power of Office to preach or Administer Sacraments when there was Cause 2. And I disliked the Course of some of the more rigid of them that drew too near the way of Prelacie by grasping at a kind of secular Power not using it themselves but binding the Magistrates to confiscate or imprison Men meerly because they were excommunicate and so corrupting the true Discipline of the Church and turning the Communion of Saints into the Communion of the Multitude that must keep in the Church against their Wills for fear of being undone in the World When as a Man whose Conscience cannot feel a just Excommunication unless it be back'd with Confiscation or Imprisonment is no fitter to be a Member of a Christian Church in the Communion of Saints than a Corps is to be a Member of a Corporation It 's true they claim not this Power as Iure Divino though some say that the Magistrate is bound to execute these Penalties on Men meerly as excommunicate nor no more do the Prelates when yet the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo is the Life of all their Censures But both Parties too much debase the Magistrate by making him their meer Executioner when as he is the Iudge where-ever he is the Executioner and is to try each Cause at his own Barr before he be obliged to punish any and they corrupt the Discipline of Christ by mixing it with secular Force and they reproach the Keys or Ministerial Power as if it were a Leaden Sword and not worth a Straw unless the Magistrates Sword enforce it And what then did the Primitive Church for Three hundred Years And worst of all they corrupt the Church by forcing in the Rabble of the unfit and unwiling and thereby tempt many Godly Christians to Schisms and dangerous Separations In all this I deny not but that the Magistrate must restrain all sorts of Vice But not as a Hangman only that executeth the Judgment of another nor eo Nomine to punish a Man because he is Excommunicate that is most heavily punished already by others Till Magistrates keep the Sword themselves and learn to deny it to every angry Clergyman that would do his own Work by it and leave them to their own Weapons the Word and Spiritual Keys valeant quantum valere possunt the Church shall never have Unity and Peace hucusque probatum est 3. And I disliked some of the Presbyterians that they were not tender enough to dissenting Brethren but too much against Liberty as others were too much for it and thought by Votes and Number to do that which Love and Reason should have done 4. And when the Independents said A Worshiping Church and a Governed Church is and must be all one And the Presbyterians said They may be all one though it be not necessary yet in their Practice they would have so setled it that they should no where be all one but ten or twelve worshipping Churches should have made one Governed Church which prepared the way to the Diocesane Frame though I confess it is incomparably better because ten or Twelve Churches is not so many as a thousand or many hundred and because the Pastor of every Church had the Government of his own Flock in Conjunction with the Presbytery or Synod though not alone § 14. 4 And in the Independent way I disliked many things As 1. That they made too light of Ordination 2. That they also had their Office of Lay-Eldership 3. That they were commonly Stricter about the Qualification of Church Members than Scripture Reason or the Practice of the Universal Church would allow not taking a Man 's bare Profession as Credible as a sufficient Evidence of his Title to Church Communion unless either by a holy Life or the Particular Narration of the Passages of the Work of Grace he satisfied the Pastors yea and all the Church that he was truly Holy whereas every Man's Profession is the valid Evidence of the thing professed in his Heart unless it be disproved by him that questioneth it by proving him guilty of Heresies or Impiety or Sins inconsistent with it And if once you go beyond the Evidence of a serious sober Confession as a credible and sufficient sign of Title you will never know where to rest but the Churches Opinion will be both Rule and Judge and Men will be let in or kept out according to the various Latitude of Opinions
may read them After this I received from Sir Ralph Clare these ensuing Papers as from some Courtiers which are of the same Strain with Dr. Gunning's which with my brief Answer I adjoin SIR THE Influence and Power you have in the present Pastor of your Church who is much famed abroad and had in a reverend Esteem as well for Piety of Life as for his Learning Moderation and desiring the Peace of the Church gives Encouragement to your old Acquaintance and Associate in that One-glorious Court of England to desire the Favour that this inclosed Paper may be presented to his Christian View and Consideration presuming so great is his Charity that he will not leave any wounded Soul unhealed wherein he is able to bestow his Balm In this he extends not his Charity alone as to a single Person but in me there are many more of your Friends included who would have appeared in Person or met in Conference were is not our Mansions are at too great a distance and the Malignity and Iealousy of Times challenges Retirements rather than Assemblies It is not civil in us to chalk the Method of Answering the Queries yet for Easement Sake and Brevity it will be satisfactory his free Concession of any Proposals in the Affirmative to be true without any Enlargement of Reasons and for those Queries which may and must admit Divisions Distinctions and Discourse on the Case let the reverend Gentleman use his own Form Iudgment and Discretion as believing he will proceed with such Candor and Impartiality as becometh a Man of his Calling and Eminency waving all By-Interests and Relations to any Party or Faction either regnant or eclipst which Act will deservedly heighten the high Esteem he is valued at and your self by this Honour done engage me and many more of your old Friends in me to subscribe our selves Your Servants Theophilus Church A feigned Name April 20. 1655. Certain Queries and Scruples of Conscience offered to some Learned Divines for Resolution and Satisfaction 1. WHETHER may a Christian Magistrate tolerate Liberty of Conscience in Religion and Church Discipline without Scandal 2. Whether may and ought a tender Conscience exercise and use his Liberty and Freedom without Violence inforced by Superiors 3. Whether in Matters of Government Ecclesiastical depending only of Fact the general and perpetual Practice of the Church from Age to Age be not a sufficient Evidence and Warrant of the Right Truth and certainty of the thing 4. Whether the Vocation of Bishops be an Order Lawful in it self 5. Whether the Regiment Ecclesiastical by Bishops hath not continued throughout the Christian Church ever since the Apostles untill Calvin's days No Church Orthodox dissenting 6. Whether was there ever since the Apostle's days so much as one national Church governed by a Presbytery without a Bishop untill Calvin's Days If so where was the Original in what Place by what Persons of what continuance and how was it lost or changed into Episcopacy and upon what Grounds or Motives 7. Whether the present Ministry in the Church of England as it now separated from their lawful Superiors or Bishops be not Schismatical 8. Whether all these Ministers that have taken the Oath of Canonical Obedience to their Bishops and have backsliden and submitted to those Powers that violently deprived the said Bishops of their legal Powers and Iurisdictions by yielding a voluntary Obedience to their Ordinances are not under a high Censure of Perjury and Schism 9. Whether those Ministers now pretended to be made and ordained in the Church of England only by their Fellow Ministers without a Bishop be true Ministers or no or else meer Lay Persons and bold Usurpers of the Sacred Function and Order like Corah and his Complices 10. Whether all those Ministers which are now in actual possession of the late Incumbents Parsonages and Cures of Souls and deprived for their only adhering and assisting their late lawful Prince and their Governour and also their Bishops to whom they owed all Canonical Obedience without and beside any Legal Induction or Admission may not be reputed as Intruders and false Shepherds 11. Whether it had not been an excellent part of Christian Perfection rather to endure passively lost of Liberty Estate and even of Life it self for the maintenance and defence of the Iust and Legal Rights invested in the Church and the Bishops it 's Superintendent Pastors and the Liturgy and Service of the Church than carnally for Self-interest and Ends to comply and submit even against their knowing Consciences to a violent and meer prevailing power and force in the abolishing of Episcopal Power and the daily Prayers and Service used in the Church 12. Whether all such Persons be not guilty of Schism and of Scandal given which Communicate and be present in such Ministers Congregations and Assemblies whether in Church or in private Meetings to hear their Prayers or Sermons or receive their Sacraments according to the now present mode and form more especially in the participation with them in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Or how far may a good Christian Communicate with such without just Scandal given or taken 13. Whether it be lawful and just for any Orthodox Minister or Episcoparian to accept of any Benefice with Cure of Souls as the state of the English Church now standeth visible and ruling without guilt of Schism by compliance to their Form 14. Whether as the Condition of the present Church of England is The Ministers thereof may not legally and so justifiably exercise and use against the late Liturgy of the Church there being no Statute Law prohibiting the same And whether those that continue the Observation of the late Directory be not perturbers of the Peace of the Church especially since the limitation of trial by a pretended Legality and Command for its observance is expired and not reconfirmed 15. Whether the old Iewish Church had not set Forms of Prayer whether St. John the Raptist our Saviour's Praecursor and our blessed Saviour himself taught not their Disciples set Forms of Prayers and whether the Christian Church especially since the time of Peace from the violence of Heathenish Persecution had not nor generally used set Forms of Prayer And whether the Ministers now ex tempore Prayers in the Church be not as well a set Form of Prayers to the Auditors whose Spirits are therein bounded as any set Form of Prayer used in the Church 16. Whether may a Christian without Scandal given appear to be a Godfather or Godmother to a Child in these New Assemblies where the Minister useth his own Dictates and Prayers and not of the ancient Liturgy except the Words of Baptism I Baptize thee A. B. in the Name of the Father c. 17. Whether any Supream Earthly Power or Powers Spiritual or Temporal joint or separate can alienate and convert to secular uses or imployments any Houses Lands Goods or Things once devoted offered and dedicated to God and his Church
without grand Sacriledge and Prophaneness although by Corruption of Persons and Times they have been either superstitiously abused or too prophanely employed but rather to reduce them to their primitive Use and Donation 18. Whether the ancient Fasting Days of the Week and Festivals of the Church setled both by Provincial Synods in the Year 1562. and 1640. and confirmed by the then Regal Power and also by several Statutes and Laws ought not by all persons in Conscience to be still observed until they be abrogated by the like Powers again or how far the Liberty of Conscience therein may be used in observing or not observing them the like for the usage of the Cross in Baptism and the humble posture of Kneeling at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 19. Which way of security and peace of Conscience may a quiet Christian order and dispose himself his Wife Children and Family in his Duty and Service towards God and enjoy the right use and benefit of the Sacraments and other holy Duties as long as that part of the Catholick Church wherein he lives is under persecution and the visible Ruling Church therein is faln Schismatical if not in many particulare Heretical April 20th 1655. May 14th 1655. An Answer to the foregoing Questions sent to Sir R. Clare Ad Quest. 1m. EIther that Conscience owneth the right Religion and Discipline only or the right with some tolerable accidental Errours or a wrong Religion and Discipline in the Substance The first the Magistrate must not only tolerate but promote The second he must tolerate rather than do worse by suppressing it The third he must suppress by all lawful means and tolerate when he cannot help it without a greater Evil. I suppose no Judicious Man will expect an exact Solution of so Comprehensive a Question in few words And I find not that a large Discussion is now expected from me There are four or five Sheets of my Manuscripts in some hands abroad on this Point which may do more towards a satisfactory Solution than these few words Ad 2m. Either the tender Conscience is in the right or in the wrong If in the wrong the Magistrates Liberty will not make a Sin to be no Sin but the Party is bound by God to rectifie his Judgment and thereby his Practice If in the right it is a strange Question Whether a Man may obey God that hath the Magistrates leave till he be enforced by Mens violence Doth any doubt of it Ad 3m. Matter of Government depending only on Fact is a Contradiction Seeing Government consisteth in a Right and the Exercise of it I am not able therefore to understand this Question Yet if this may afford any help toward the Solution I affirm That the general and perpetual practice of the Church from Age to Age of a thing not forbidden by the Word of God will warrant our imitation I say of a thing not forbidden because it hath been the general and perpetual practice of the Church to Sin by vain Thoughts Words imperfect Duties c. wherein our imitation is not warrantable The general and perpetual practice includeth the Apostles and that Age. But what is meant by Evidencing the Right of a thing that dependeth only of Fact or by Evidencing the Truth and Certainty of a Fact by general and perpetual practice which is to prove idem per idem I will not presume that I understand Ad 4m. I know not what Bishops you mean A Congregational Bishop overseeing the People is undoubtedly lawful so is a Congregational Bishop being President of a Presbytery which is over that Congregation Where many Congregational Officers are associated I do not think that a President for a time or during his fitness standing and fixed is unlawful The like I may say of a President of many of those Associations again associated as in a Province or Diocess And I believe it were a very easie work for wise godly moderate men to agree about his Power And I would not seem so censorious as to proclaim that England wanteth such further than the actual want of such Agreement or just endeavours thereto doth proclaim it I am satisfied also that the Apostles themselves have de jure Successors in all that part of their work which is to be perpetuated or continued till now though not in their extraordinary Endowments and Priviledges But if the sence of your Question be Whether one Man may be the standing chief Governour of many particular Churches with their Officers having either sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction as some would have or a Negative Voice in both as others it would seem great arrogancy in me to be the confident Determiner of such a Question which so wise learned godly sober Men have said so much of on both sides already Ad 5m. 1. He that knows how short Church History is in these Matters for the first Age after the Apostles at least and hath read impartially what Gersom Bucerus Parker Blondellus Salmasius Altare Damascen have said on one side and Saravia Downham Dr. Hammond c. on the other would sure never expect that I should presume to pass any confident Sentence in the Point And it 's like he would be somewhat moderate himself 2. I say as before I know not what you mean by Bishops I am confident that the Church was not of many Hundred years after Christ governed as ours was lately in England by a Diocesan Bishop and a Chancellor excluding almost all the Presbyters 3. Why do you say Since the Apostles days when you before spoke of the General and perpetual practice of the Church Ad 6m. The word National Church admits of divers sences As it was usually understood in England I think there was none for divers hundred years after Christ either governed by Bishops or without them They that will look after the most encouraging Presidents must look higher than National Churches Ad 7m. The Question seems not to mean any particular truly-schismatical Party of Ministers but the generality that live not under the Bishops and so I answer negatively waiting for the Accusers proof Ad 8m. 1. I know not what the Oath of Canonical Obedience is therefore cannot give a full Answer I know multitudes of Ministers ordained by Bishops that never took any such Oath 2. The Powers that violently took down the Bishops were the Secular Powers None else could use violence And it were a strange Oath for a Man to swear that he would never obey the Secular Powers if they took down the Bishops when the Holy Ghost would have us obey Heathen Persecutors 3. If it were so great a Sin to obey those Powers I conceive it must be so to the Laity as well as the Ministry And I knew but few of the Episcopal Gentry or others called to it that did refuse to take the Engagement to be true and faithful to that Power when the Presbyters here accused durst not take it
he lived in the House of a certain Nobleman near our parts and that being much in London he is there the chief Hector or great Disputer for the Papists and that he was the chief of the two Men who had held and printed the Dispute with Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning And when I saw what Advantage he had got by printing that Dispute I resolved that he should not do so by me and so I printed all our Papers but before I printed them I urged him to some farther Conference and at our next meeting I told him how necessary it was that we should agree first of the meaning of our Terms and I wrote down some few as Church Pope Council Bishop Heresy Schism c. which I desired him to explain to me under his Hand promising him the like whenever he desired it which when I had got from him I gave him some Animadversions on it shewed their Implications to which he answered and to that I replyed And when he came no more to me nor gave me any Answer I printed all together which made him think it necessary at last to write a Confutation whereto I have since published a full Rejoinder to which I can procure no Answer § 84. And not long after hearing that the Countess of Balcarres was not well I went to visit her and found her grievously afflicted for her eldest Daughter the Lady Ann Lindsey about sixteen or seventeen Years of Age who was suddenly turned Papist by she knew not whom She told me that when she first heard of it she desired Dr. Gunning to meet with the Priest to dispute with him and try if her Daughter might be recovered who pretended then to be in Doubt And that Dr. Gunning first began to persuade her Daughter against the Church of Scotland which she had been bred in as no true Church and after disputed but about the Pope's Infallability and âeft her Daughter worse than before and that she took it to be a strange way to deliver her Daughter from Popery to begin with a Condemnation of the Reformed Churches as no true Churches and confess that the Church and Ministry of Rome was true She desired me that I would speak to her Daughter and try whether she would yet enter into Conference about the Reason of her Faith But she utterly refused it and would say nothing to that purpose but refer us to the Church and profess her acquiescence in its Judgment and when I desired to know of her how she knew what was the Judgment of the Church whether it were not meerly the Word ãâã the Priest that satisfied her in this and therefore desired her that she would hear that Priest or Jesuit on whose Word she built all her Faith in the Presence of some one that was fit to help her in the Tryal of his Assertions and intreated her to procure a Conference in her hearing between him and me she promised readily that it should be done The next time I came again and askt whether she had spoke with him about it and whether time and place were agreed on she confidently told me that he was ready to do it when I pleased and that all he desired was that my Promise might secure him from Accusation and from the danger of the Law and that was all that he was solicitous for I offered her to bring only two Witnesses on each side and that we might have two days Conference or Dispute in one of which he should give his Reasons why she ought to change her Religion and I would answer them and in the other I would give my Reasons why she ought not to change and he should answer me and I thought this the clearest and most impartial Method for the discerning of the Truth And I promised her all the Security which I could procure him from any danger The next time I came to know the Day she told me the Gentleman would not meet nor dispute I desired to know the Reason But she told me that she did not know her self I intreated her to procure some other to do it in whom she put the greatest Confidence and desired her to take the ablest she could get among all the Jesuits or Priests of the Queen or the Queen-Mother with whom I knew she was not unacquainted But she would not undertake for any whereupon I was forced to urge her with Provocations and tell her that seeing she was forced to resolve all her Faith into the Word of particular Priests by which only she knew the Sense of the Church and all that History which induced her to believe that Rome was the true Church she seemed very little to regard her Soul who would so far venture it upon the Words of Men that would not be provoked to an equal Conference in her hearing The next day I came I urged her again to procure a Conference She told me that the Gentleman would not consent And when I urged her to tell me his Reason she told me that he knew me very well and that he had very high Thoughts of me and that it was not now through any fear of Danger for he durst venture his Life in my Hands but since he knew it was me that he was to meet with he would not come but would not tell her why And though still I told her that there were more enough if he refused I could not procure her to bring any of them to a Dispute But at last when I purposely continued to provoke them she told me that he would yield to Dispute so it might be done only in Writing and not a Word spoken nor any thing written but Syllogistically and according to the strictest Rules of Disputation I told her 1. That I supposed that she understood not when an Argument was in Mood and Figure nor what a Fallacy was and therefore that this was not designed to her Edification 2. That I supposed that she had not read one of many of all those Books already written against them which are unanswered And if Writing will serve turn a printed Argument is as good as a written one Nor had she read the late Disputation between Mr. Iohnson and me nor were any one of my Books against them yet answered and why then should I write more till those were answered 3. I told her that Mr. Iohnson's Writing and mine held us above a Twelvemonth and yet was not driven to the Head And I asked her whether she would be willing to wait a Year or two and suspend her Resolution in Religion till she saw the Issue of our Disputation in Writing 4. I told her that it was like that he that offered this understood that by his Majesty's Pleasure I was then newly engaged in another Work which occasioned him to make this Offer 5. But yet that her Deceiver might have no Excuse I offered her that I would do all that he desired and manage it in Writing so be it
he would first but spend two Hours in verbal Disputation in the way I had proposed viz. That he should spend one Hour in giving his Reasons for her Change and I might answer them and the other Hour I would give my Reasons against it and he should answer me And after that we would go to it by Writing But a Day or two after when I came for Answer to this Proposal the Lady was gone being secretly stolen from her Mother in a Coach and so I understood the meaning of this Offer and never could see the Face of any of her Priests § 85. At last it was discovered that the Man that seduced her and refused Disputation was this Mr. Iohnson oâ Terret the same Man that I had before conferred and wrote with And yet when I asked her whether it were he she plainly and positively said it was not and when a Servant went after her Coach and overtook her in Lincolns-Inn-Fields she positively promised to come again and said she went but to see a Friend Also she complained to the Queen-Mother of her Mother as if she used her hardly for Religion which was false in a Word her Mother told me that before she turned Papist she scarce ever heard a Lye from her and since then she could believe nothing that she said This was the Darling of that excellent wise religious Lady the Widow of an excellent Lord which made the Affliction great and taught her to moderate her Affections to all Creatures This Perversion had been a long time secretly working before she knew of it all which time the young Lady would join in Prayer with her Mother and jeer at Popery till she was detected and then she said she might join with them no more § 86. They that stole her away conveyed her to France and there put her into a Nunnery where she is ãâã dead Not long after her departure she sent a Letter superscribed to her Lady Mother c. and subscribed Sister Anna Maria c. It contained the Reasons of her Perversion And though I knew they were not like to suffer her to read it I wrote an Answer to it at her Mother's desire which was sent to her by her Mother The Letter which I sent her the day before she was stoln away and tthe Answer to that her Letter from the Nunnery I thought meet here to insert which are as followeth The Letter to the Lady Anne Lindsey Madam THE Reasons that moved me to be so importunate with you for a Conference in your hearing with the ablest Jesuit Priest or other Papist you could get were as I told you 1. My very high esteem of your truly Honourable Mother whose Sorrow hath been so great for your Delusion that I must confess though but a Stranger I suffer much with her by Compassion And as it would much relieve her if you were recovered so if God deny her that Mercy it will somewhat satisfie her Conscience that she hath not been wanting in the use of means 2. And for your own sake whom I the more compassionate because you are not only the Daughter of such Parents but of so modest and sober a Disposition your self that I am not out of hopes of your Recovery though the Disease be such as few are cured of that catch it by relapse and desertion of the Truth I can imagine nothing but Consciousness of a bad Cause that can cause them thus to decline a Conference You say the Person well knoweth me though I know not him and dare trust himself c. why then will he not meet me to debate the Case He cannot but have exceeding great odds or advantages of me as to personal preparations for they are trained up meerly to this work I am loath to say to deceive and have all the helps that Art can afford them I was never of any Universitie nor had one Months assistance of any Tutor in all my Studies of Sciences or Theology If you can get no Jesuit Fryar ãâã Priest that will fairly debate his Cause with one of so poor Preparations and Abilities doth it not shew that they are lamentably diffident of their Cause All the Conditions or Terms that I desire to be before agreed to are but these 1. That I may one day produce my Reasons why you should not have turned Papist and therefore should return and he Answer them as I urge them And that the next day or the first if he desire it he will produce his Reasons why you ought to turn to them as you did and I answer them 2. That we may speak by turns without interrupting one another 3. That whatever Passages must be determined by Books or Witnesses that are not at hand they may be noted down and left till there be leisure to peruse them 4. That there be two Witnesses on each side of whom one to be a Scribe and as many more as he desireth And I and those with me shall be engaged to do him no wrong by any discovery of his Person to endanger him as to the Law or Governours This is all that I should oblige him to beforehand I again intreat you if one will not get another to moderate the Work I understand by you that the Person you depend on avoideth me not in any Contempt for you tell me he hath honourable thoughts of me and well knoweth me If so why will he not confer with me as well as he hath done with Dr. Gunning For Writing 1. It 's like he knoweth that I am here engaged in so much unavoidable Work that I have scarce time to eat or sleep 2. You cannot but know that by Writing it's like to be a year or many years work And themselves have cut me out Work enough already for my Pen if I had no more and now would take me off it that I might be forced to omit one I look not to live to end a Dispute by Writing so many are my Infirmities and are you content to stay so long before you have the benefit 3. If Writings will be useful to you may you not as well read what is written already Many great Volumes are yet unanswered by them 4. I have already written divers Writings against their Delusiâns viz. The Safe Religion A Key for Catholicks c. A Winding sheet for Popery The true Catholick and the Catholick Church described A Disputetion with Mr. Johnson about the Successâââ Visibility of the Church and they never answered any one of them no not so much as the single Shet that ever I heard oâ When they have answered them all let them call for more or offer writing 5. But yet rather than be wanting to you let the Person but vouchsafe ãâã this Verbal Conference first and try what we can do in a few hours there and if there shall then appear to be cause âo prosecute it by Writing I intend not to fail of taking the first opportunity for it that greater
Duties will permit I have done my part in urging you and them with my offer till you call me unto more In the mean time Madam may I intreat you to read impartâally and deliberately 1. My little Book called The Trââ Catholick and Catholick Church c. which I shall send or bring you 2. My Preface before the Disputation with Mr. Iohnson and the Letters in the end and the Second Part and then the first 3. My two first Books against Popery The Safe Religion and The Key For your former reading of them before any doubting had made you observe the stress of Arguments is nothing if you will but now read them again impartially after your contrary Conceptions continue a Papist if you can And truly if you will not do thus much for your own Soul because Men engage you to the contrary that dare not appear to make good their own Cause I must be a Witness against you before the Lord that you wilfully resused Instruction and sold your Soul at too cheap a rate I tried when I was last with you to revive your Reason by proposing to you the Infallibility of the Common Senses of all the World and I could not prevail though you had nothing to answer that was not against Common Sense And it is impossible any thing controverted can be brought nearer you or made plainer than to be brought to your Eyes and Taste and Feeling and not yours only but all Mens else Sense goes before Faith Faith is no Faith but upon Supposition of Sense and Understanding if therefore Common Sense be fallible Faith must needs be so But methinks yet I should have hope of reviving your Charity You cannot be a Papist indeed but you must believe that out of their Church that is out of the Pope's Dominions there is no Salvation and consequently no Justification and Charity or saving Grace And is it possible you can so easily believe your religious Father to be in Hell your prudent pious Mother to be void of the Love of God and in a state of Damnation and not only me that am a Stranger to you but all the Millions of better People in the World to be in the same State of Gracelesness and Damnation and all because we believe not that the Pope is Christ's Vicar General or Deputy on Earth and dare not subject our selves to his usurped Dominions When we are ready to protest before the Lord as we shall answer it at his Bar that we would be his Subjects but for Fear of the high Displeasure of the true Head and King of the Church and for fear of sinning and Damning our own Souls And that we are heartily willing to read and study and pray and hear all that can be said for them and some of us read as much of their Writings as of our own and more and would not stick at Cost or Pains or Loss or Shame were it to travail over Land and Sea to find out that they are in the Right if that would do it and they be so indeed But the more we study the more we pray to God for his Assistance the more diligently we search we are the more resolved and convinced that their way as it differeth from ours is false and that they are the most Superstitious Tyrannical Leprous part of the Catholick Church condemning the main Body because they will not be under their abominable Dominion and will not sin as much as they We hold all that was held necessary by the Apostles and the ancient Church and we dare not make a new Faith to our selves as the Papal Sectaries have done Must we renounce both our Sense and Reason and put out the Eye of Natural Understanding and also renounce the Catholick Church and Christian Charity and step into the Throne and pronounce Damnation not only upon all the Saints of God that we have been acquainted with our selves but also on the Body of Christ which he died for even on the far greatest part of the Universal Church and all this because they will not depart from the Word of God to corrupt his Doctrine Discipline and Worship and herein obey an usurping Vice Christ must we do all this or else be judged to Damnation by the Sectaries of Rome For my part I shall be so far from fearing their Sentance that I appeal to Christ whose Body they condemn and I had rather be tortured in their Inquisition and cut as small as Herbs to the Pot and be accounted the odiousest Wretch on Earth than be guilty of being a Papist at all but especially on such hellish Terms as these If the greater part of the Church must be damned as no part of the Church it will be impossible to prove your Sect or Fragment to be the Church any more than any other Christ is the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5. 23 and to him as to its Head it 's subject ver 24. and this Body is that which is sanctified by him ver 26. And by one Spirit all his Members are baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. Did you never note where the Unity of the Body is fulliest described that Apostles themselves are made but Members and Christ only the Head 1 Cor. 27 28 29. Eph. 4. 4 5 7 11. There is but one Lord c. but diversity of gifts of whom the Apostles are the chief And when Thousands were added to the Church even such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. what made them Christians but the Baptismal Covenant and what were they Baptized into but into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Peter or Paul baptized none into their own Names nor dare the Pope himself lest his Innovation be too visible Christ hath said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. Did they ever then subject any Baptism to the Bishop of Rome Was the Eunuch Acts 8. subjected to the Pope that only saith I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and was Baptized If men could not be saved without believing in the Pope and being subject to the Church of Rome how comes it to pass that none of the Apostles preached this necessary Article of Faith Why did they never say You must believe in or be subject to the Pope of Rome or you cannot be saved Would they be so unfaithful as to hide a necessary Article Why did Peter himself Acts 2. by Baptism take Three thousand into the Church without preaching any of this Doctrine to them The Gospel professeth that he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. and that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now up steps a Man of Rome and presumeth to Reverse the Gospel and say It 's no such matter for all this they shall not be
Scripture revealeth for us to believe which are many I only instance in the Point of Sovereignty is contrary to the Determination of our General Councils That which is contrary to what a General Council pronounceth to be believed is in the Papists sence a Heresie But that the Pope is above a General Council and that a General Council is above the Pope are both determined to be believed by General Councils The first by the Councils at the Laterane and Florence and the second by the Councils at Constance and Basil They are both Heresies therefore because they are both against General Councils and they are both Points of Popery because both determined in General Councils as I have proved in my Key c. If you will peruse a Catalogue in the End of my Book called The Safe Religion or the Thirty two Novelties mentioned in my Key pag. 142 143 144. you will see whether Popery be Error If any other Doctrine contrary ãâã Christ's do infer an Anathema then everlasting Woe to Papists And here you may see the Safety of the true Catholicks that have rejected Popery Our Religion is all contained in the Holy Scripture we profess to have no other Rule and you charge us not that I know of with believing too much by holding any positive Error but with believing too little because we believe not your supernumerary Articles And therefore you cannot say that we teach any other Doctrine than Christ's though you fancy that we teach not all because we teach not your Traditions But on the contrary we prove that you teach another Doctrine and many such which Christ never delivered to the Church But yet to abate your severe Selâcondemnation let me excuse you thus far as to say that you do it upon mistake For Gal. 1. saith not Let him be accursed that preacheth another Doctrine but another Gospel While it is the same Gospel in the Essentials that is preached and believed this Anathema belongs not even to you that err till you come to contradict the Essence and make it another Gospel as well as another Doctrine If you have made it your whole business till seventeen Years of Age to pray to God to direct you to follow his Doctrine it 's like that I and many another have made it at least as much of our Business till forty six Years of Age as ever you did and with better Advantage and yet are as confident of the Falseness of your Doctrine as we are that the Earth doth bear us here therefore you are not beforehand with us But what have you found that cheated or frighned you into Popery 1. The variety of Iudgments But you never found the far greater variety among Papists You never read the voluminous Dispute between the Dominicanes and Jesuits to overpass the rest or perhaps you will as others do expect that the very same Opinion be a Heresy in a Calvanist and none in a Dominicane or Iansenist or a Heresy in a Lutheran and none in a Iesuit You will run out of England because of Mens diversity of Complexions and finding a greater Diversity in France expect it should be esteemed none If I prove not before any impartial Judge that the Papists have far more and greater Differences amongst themsââves than the reformed Churches called Protestants yea I doubt not I may add than Greeks Calvinists Lutherans and many more such set together then let your Imagination go for Truth Bellarmine himself hath enumerated enough 2. You say the Scripture admits of no private Interpretation But 1. You abuse the Text and your self with a false Interpretation of it in these Words An Interpretation is called private either as to the Subject Person or as to the Interpreter You take the Text to speak of the latter when the Context plainly sheweth you that it speaks of the former The Apostle directing them to understand the Prophesies of the Old Testament gives them this Caution That none of these Scriptures that are spoken of Christ the publick Person must be interpreted as spoken of David or other private Persons only of whom they were mentioned but as Types of Christ It is subjectively a private Interpretation to restrain that Scripture e. g. the Second Psalm to David or other ordinary Men which the Holy Ghost intended of the Messiah But here 's no talk against Private Interpreters but only against a Private Interpretation 2. But suppose it were as you imagin and the publick Judgment of any Case suppose a Publick Interpreter yet every Man must see with his own Eyes and their private Judgment of Discretion must be according to their private that is personal Interpretation Or else your Churches Interpretation must have another publick Interpretation and that another and so endlesly If we can understand your Councils which your Doctors disagree about without another publick Interpretation we may as easily understand the Scripture or at least much of it And therefore that can be none of the Sence which you imagine no Scripture c. 3. Yea suppose all Interpretation must be publick and you may not presume to misunderstand the Commands of Repentance Faith or Love without a publick Commentary do you think this doth not make against you Is not the Interpretation of the Papal Sect a more private Interpretation than that of the whole Church The Greek Arminians Abassines Protestants and so all the far greatest part of the Church interpret those Texts which you wrest for the Papal Soveraignty in a quite other Sense And is not the Interpretation of your Fourth or Third part of the Church that 's partial in the Cause more private than that of all the rest would you have Men care no more for their Souls than to cast them away upon the Delusion of such Reasonings as these 3. You next speak of Interpretations by Apostolical Tradition But are sober People capable of such a Bafflle as to lay their Salvation on a Dream that never had a Being Was there ever such a thing as an Interpretation of the Bible by Apostolical Tradition without which no Scripture must be interpreted Where is that Commentary that the World never knew and yet all must know it that will be saved Written it is not by Fathers Popes or Councils and if unwritten in whose Memory is it and how learnt they it Not in the Peoples nor the generality of Pastors for they that were most learned presume to write their private Interpretations and Commentaries never giving us the publick Commentary and take Liberty to differ about many hundred Texts among themselves and are not these then gross Delusions 4. You say the Church is a City set upon a Hill Christ speaks there of Preachers but let it be of the whole Church In good sadness can you believe that the Universality of Christians which is the true Catholick Church is not more conspicuous than the Papal Faction or any one particular Part Should your Sect be judged more visible than the
whole Christian World 5. That the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth the Possessors Keepers and Teachers of God's Oracles and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it is most sure and comfortable Truth But what is this to Rome any more than to Ierusalem or Alexandria The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Body of Christ the Universality of Christians the true Catholick Church But it may prevail against Corinthians Gallateans Romans or any particular part As it prevailed against Pope Iohn XXII alias XXIII to make him deny the Resurrection and against Pope Eugenius to make him a Heretick if General Councils are to be believed 6. As to what you say of Apostles still placed in the Church When any shew us an immediate Mission by their Commission and by Miracles Tongues and a Spirit of Revelation and infallability prove themselves Apostles we shall believe them Till then we remember that Church that was commended for trying them that said they were Apostles and were not and finding them Lyers Rev. 23. Peter and the Twelve Apostles with him we acknowledge and Paul we acknowledge but know none properly called Apostles living now But if it be only the Name and not the Office that you differ about and by Apostles you mean not Men immediately sent by Christ to preach the Gospel with a Spirit of Miracles and Infallability which is our Sense of that Word but some other sort of Men then if they be ordinory Pastors or Bishops it s no matter of Difference if not you must describe them before we can know them They are to blame whoever they be that they call not themselves Apostles and tell us where who and how many they are if they are so indeed 7. They were to be accounted Heathens and Publicans that heard not the Church admonishing them But sure other Pastors besides Apostles must admonish and be heard And other Churches besides the Roman must hold or refuse Communion as is there signified either you will erroneously have that Text understood of the Universal Church or else truly of a Particular Church If the former what 's that to the Roman Church that is but a corrupted Part If the latter it 's no more to the Roman than any other which are particular Churches also surely this is plain Truth if you are willing to see 8. You say The Faith of which Believers were was that of the Romans spread through the World Answ. Yes and it was the Faith of the Ephesians Philippians Colâssians too and all one The Romans had not a Faith of their own specifically different from others Nor did the Holy Ghost by the Apostles ever give one Word of Command to other Churches to conform their Faith to Rome or take that Church for their Mistress or Sovereign These Fancies Pride hath set up against Christ The Faith of Ierusalem was as much known through the World as that of Rome and sure you think not that being known through the World made them the Rule or Rulers of the World 9. Upon Observation you find this Church shining as a Light and set as a City on a Hill And was not Ierusalem Antioch Alexandria Ephesus c. so too Sure they were All faithful Preachers of the Gospel especially the Apostles were observable as such Lights and City to the World that wondred at their Doctrine which is all that Christ there saith and as I said the universal Church is more observable than the Roman Sect And other particular Churches are and were as Light and Conspicuous as it And the most conspicuous Church hath from thence no Pretence to be the rule or Ruler of the rest 10. You say This Church hath been ever triumphant ever Heresies Answ. 1. What! when Honorius was by two or three General Councils condemned for a Heretick Pope Iohn XXII and Eugenius as beforesaid for that and worse with many more 2. Woe to the Churches if others had not conquered Heresy better than the Roman Party hath done 3. And veriây did you think that a particular Church is therefore the Rule or Ruler to the rest because it triumpheth over Heresy 11. You add immoveable in Persecutions Answ. 1. For they have been the great Persecutors as Leeches sucking and swell'd with the Blood of Thousands and Ten Thousands of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus O the Blood that will be found among them when the righteous Judge of all the World shall make Inquisition for Blood among their Massacrees and Inquisitions 2. Was that Church unmoveable in Persecution when the Head of it Pope Marcellinus offered Incense to Idols And Liberius subscribed to the Arrians and against Athenasius What should I tell you of more who I perceive are made believe the Crow is white 3. Again it is a pitiful Proof of their Rule to prove them immutable in Persecution The Church hath many Heads if every Church or Bishop be its Head that hath stood fast in Persecution 12. You add And always watchful in the Succession of Pastors I give you the same Answers 1. watchful indeed when their own Church Histories tell us of such Multitudes that came in by Symony or Poison or other Murder or Violence that have been Hereticks as aforeshewd or Adulterers Murderers and such impious Wretches as the Cannons depose and when Iohn XII or XIII was deposed by a Councell for ravishing Maids and Wives at his Doors and abundance more such Villanies and Iohn XXII for worse and when Eugenius continued the Succession when a general Council bad judged him a Heretick wicked deposed c. and when they have had such abundance of Schisms having two three or four Popes alive at once and one Schism of Forty Years in which no Man knew or knows to this Day which was the true Pope and when meer Possession is it that must prove their Succession For besides these Incapacities Mr. Iohnson you may see confesseth that no one way of Election by Cardinals People Emperors Bishops Councils c. hath been held or is necessary nor any Consecration necessary at all to the being of the Pope And if a Succession of bare Possession serve how many Churches have the like Yea 2. Constantinople Ethiopia Armenia and many other Churches have had a far more regular Succession than Rome of at least as good 3. And it 's a pitiful Argument that because a Church hath had a Succession of Pastors therefore they are the whole Church and others are no part or therefore they are the ãâã and Rulers to the rest or therefore we must be of that Particular Church only Surâ none denies the Succession of Pastors in England as to meer possession of the Place if that will serve the turn 13. To what you say of being ãâã Holy Catholick and Apostolick and cannot deceive you I answer 1. O dreadful Delusion that a Church headed with horrid Monsters and not Men ãâã their own Histories describe a multitude of their Popes should
call it self and such Men Holy Dare you read what I have written of their Holiness in my Key chap. 34. Detection 25. or procure them to answer that and the rest there 2. Are all that are Holy the Rule or Rulers to all others when you have conversed among the Papists one seven Years if Delusion leave you Reason and impartiality you will be more capable of comparing them with your own Parents and such as you lived amongst here and judging which were the more holy 3. As Catholick signifieth a Member of the Church Catholick or such is hold the Catholick Faith so other Churches are much more such than Rome As it signifieth the universal Church Rome is none such The same I say of Apostolick Those that are most exactly of the Apostolick Faith are to be called Apostolick but Woe to us if we were in that no better than Rome 14. You may see now what pitiful Grounds you have for flying into a Pest-house as a City of Refuge or for ãâã all the cleanest Rooms in the House of God and ãâã your self to that Room that hath the most leprous infected Persons in it as if it were the only Church of God And for Novelties O that the whole Case ãâã there be tried and let that Church that hath introduced most Novelties in Faith and Discipline and Worship be most rejected as unclean Were you impartial the several ãâã of our Religion might put that part of the Controversy ãâ¦ã you For our Rule of Religion is only the Holy Scripture if you shew ãâã that we misunder stand it we shall renounce that misunderstanding but to misunderstand Scripture is to make a new Rule no more than to understand your Councils And you know the Scripture is no Novelty but the Eldest Your Rule is Councils and Papal Decrees which are new contradictory and endless and you never know when you have all and when your Faith is at its maturity and no more to be added under pretence of Determinations If you dare read my 24th 25th and 35th Decection in my Key you may see quickly who are the Novelties One chief Reason of my abhorring Popery is that I am absolutely certain of its Novelty Madam I must take the freedom to say That when your Priests dare neither Dispute in your hearing upon all the provoking offers that I made not yet will answer the Books that I have written nor yet give you leave to read them they have imprisoned your Soul in the partiality of a Sect and while you are so unfaithful to your self if you be miserable because you would not make use of the Remedy and deluded because you are resolved or obliged from coming into the Light your Friends will have an easier account to make for you before God than your self as having discharged their Duty when you wilfully refuse yours What you read formerly against Popery before you doubted or heard their Fallacies was as nothing I suppose for I do not think you observed or remember the stress of the Argumentation which you read We will have leave to pray for you though we cannot have leave to instruct you and God may hear us when you will not which I have the more hopes of because of the Piety of your Parents and the Prayers and Tears of a tender Mother poured out for you and your own well-meaning pious disposition I have known some such Piety bred among us carried by mistake into their Church but little initially bred there Though they pretend that Persons of Charity and the Spirit of God with us must go to them to receive it I would I knew whether you can say by true Experience I felt no true Love of God in my Soul before but as soon as I turned Papist I did and have now the Spirit of God and his Image which before I never had Sure the Change of an Opinion about your Pope and Church is one thing and the Renewing Grace and Love of God and Heavenly mindedness is another I fear not your Prayers bringing your Delusions and Idolatry in your Mother's Chamber as to her self while she walks uptightly with God Nothing that I find in your Manual or the Mass-Book will ever have that power For the Liberty of your Religion which you say you hope for on the Grounds of the King's Declaration I have no more to say but 1. That I never loved Cruelty in any and it hath increased my version to Popery that I still observed that lying and uncharitable cruelty have been the two Hands by which it makes such a bustle in the World 2. And that iâ Italy Spain and Austria Bavaria c. would grant Liberty to Protestants we should see more Equality in the Expectations of it here but if you get Dominion as well as Liberty it will be no Evidence of the Truth and Goodness of your Cause Our God our Rule our Hope our End and Portion are the same in the Inquisition Prison and Flames as in Prosperity We have a Kingdom that cannot be moved and Treasure that none can rob us of It is for that and not for Worldly Prosperity that we renounce all Sensuality Heresie Superstition Idolatry Tyranny and false Worship and desire in Pure and Spiritual Worship with Faith and Patience to wait for the Coming and Righteous Judgment of the Lord. Who with the Spirit of his Mouth and the brightness of his Coming will destroy that wicked One the Son of Perdition 2 Thess. 2. Madam I rest your Servant for and in the Truth of Christ Rich. Baxter London Ian. 29. 1660. Since the Writing of this I am informed that Mr. Iohnson is the Person that you would have had to Dispute for you and that did now and formerly Dispute with Dr. Gunning If so I like your Condition or Religion never the better for your denying itâ when you confessed he feared not any injury from me Our Religion is more a Friend to Truth For the honourable Lady Anne Lindsey at Calice This. § 87. When the King was received with the General Acclamation of his People the Expectations of Men were various according to their several Interests and Inducements Some plain and moderate Episcopal Men thought of Reconciliation and Union with the said Presbyterians yea and a Reward to the Presbyterians for bringing in the King The more Politick Men of the Diocesan way understood that upon the King's Return all the Laws that had been made in Nineteen Years viz. since his Father's departing from the Parliament were void and so that all their Ancient Power and Honour and Revenues would fall to them without any more ado and that they had nothing to do but to keep the Ministers and People in quietness and hopes till Time should fully do the work Some few Presbyterians thought the King would favour them as well as others for stirring up the Soldiers and City to restore him In London I found that Mr. Calamy for his Age and Political Understanding and
and Government in Ecclesiastical Affairs is evident to the World and this little part of the World our own Dominions hath had so late Experience of it that we may very well acquiesce in the Conclusion without enlarging our self in discourse upon it it being a Subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon and to lament abroad as well as at home In our Letter to the Speaker of the H. of Commons from Breda we declared how much we desired the Advancement and Propagation of the Protestant Religion That neither the Unkindness of those of the same Faith towards us nor the Civilities and Obligations from those of a contrary Profession of both which we have had abundant Evidence could in the least degree startle us or make us swerve from it and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily consent And we said then That we did hope in due time our self to propose somewhat for the propagation of it that will satisfie the World that we have always made it both our Care and our Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it And the truth is we do think our self the more competent to propose and with God's assistance to determine many Things now in difference from the time we have spent and the Experience we have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France in the Low Conntreys and in Germany where we have had frequent Conferences with the most Learned Men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the Distempers and too notorious Schisms in Matters of Religion in England And as the most Learned amongst them have always with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the Established Government of the Church of England and the great countenance and shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times so many of them have with great ingenuity and sorrow confessed That they were too easily mislead by misinformation and prejudice into some disesteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledge it to be the best fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World And we are perswaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration When we were in Holland we were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom we had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have and to our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they have been given out to be of Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which the Indisposition of the Times and the Tenderness of some Mens Consciences had contracted For the better doing whereof we intended upon our first Arrival in this Kingdom to call a Synod of Divines as the most proper Expedient to provide a proper Remedy for all those Differences and Dissatisfactions which had or should arise in Matters of Religion and in the mean time we published in our Declaration from Breda A Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as shall upon mature deliberation be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Whilst we continued in this Temper of Mind and Resolution and have so far complyed with the Perswasion of particular Persons and the Distemper of the Time as to be contented with the Exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant Practice and Laws established without enjoyning that Practice and the Observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that Zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by God's Grace we shall always retain we have found our self not so candidly dealt with as we have deserved and that there are unquiet and restless Spirits who without abating any of their own Distempers in recompence of the Moderation they find in us continue their bitterness against the Church and endeavour to raise Jealousies of us and to lessen our Reputation by their Reproaches as if we were not true to the Professions we have made And in order thereunto they have very unseasonably caused to be printed published and dispersed throughout the Kingdom a Declaration heretofore printed in our Name during the time of our being in Scotland of which we shall say no more than that the Circumstances by which we were enforced to Sign that Declaration are enough known to the World That we did from the moment it passed our Hand askt God forgiveness for our part in it which we hope he will never lay to our Charge and that the worthiest and greatest part of that Nation did even then detest and abhor the ill usage of us in that particular when the same Tyranny was exercised there by the power of a few ill Men which at that time had spread it self over this Kingdom and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should at this season when we are doing all we can to wipe out the Memory of all that hath been done amiss by other Men and we thank God have wiped it out of our own remembrance have been our self assaulted with those Reproaches which we will likewise forget Since the printing of this Declaration several Seditious Pamphlets and Queries have been published and scattered abroad to infuse Dislike and Jealousies into the Hearts of the People and of the Army and some who ought rather to have repented their former Mischief they have wrought than to have endeavoured to improve it have had the hardiness to publish That the Doctrine of the Church against which no Man with whom we have conferred hath Excepted ought to be reformed as well as the Discipline This over-passionate and turbulent way of Proceeding and the Impatience we find in many for some speedy Determination in these Matters whereby the Minds of Men may be composed and the Peace of the Church established hath prevailed with us to invert the Method we had proposed to our self and even in order to the better Calling and Composing of a Synod which the present Jealousies will hardly agree upon by the assistance of God's blessed Spirit which we daily invoke and supplicate to give some determination our self to the Matters in difference until such a Synod may be called as may without
it formerly was involved Yet considering that all human Works do gradually arrive at their Maturity and Perfection and this in particular being a Work of that Nature hath already admitted several Emendations since the first compiling thereof It cannot be thought any Disparagement or Derogation either to the Work it self or to the Compilers of it or to those who have hitherto used it if after more than an hundred Years since its first composure such further Emendations be now made therein as may be judged necessary for satisfying the Scruples of a multitude of sober Persons who cannot at all or very hardly comply with the use of it as now it is and may best sute with the present times after so long an Enjoyment of the glorious light of the Gospel and so happy a Reformation Especially considering that many Godly and learned Men have from the beginning all along earnestly desired the Alteration of many things therein and very many of his Majesty's pious peaceable and loyal Subjects after so long a discontinuance of it are more averse from it than heretofâââ The satisfying of whom as far as may be will very much conduce to that Pââce and Unity which is so much desired by all good Men and so much endeavoured by his most excellent Majesty And therefore in pursuance of this his Majesty's most gracious Commission for the satisfaction of tender Consciences and the procuring of Peace and Unity amongst our selves we judge meet to propose First That all the Prayers and other Materials of the Liturgy may consist of nothing doubtful or questioned amongst pious learned and orthodox Persons inasmuch as the professed end of composing them is for the declaring of the Unity and Consent of all who join in the publick Worship it being too evident that the limiting of Church-Communion to things of doubtful Disputation hath been in all Ages the ground of Schism and Separation according to the saying of a learned Person To load our publick Forms with the private Fancies upon which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism to the World's End Prayer Confession Thanksgiving reading of the Scriptures and administration of the Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church-pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many Superfluities which creep into the Church under the Name of Order and Decency did interpose it self To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all Superstition and when Scruple of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schism began to break in If the special Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbering Churches with Superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there would be far less Cause of Schism or Superstition and all the Inconvenience were likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while wheresoever false or suspected Opinions are made a piece of Church-Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick for it is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected Falshood as to put in practice unlawful or suspected Action 2. Further we humbly desire that it may be seriously considered that as our first Reformers out of their great Wisdom did at that time so compose the Liturgy as to win upon the Papists and to draw them into their Church-Communion by varying as little as they well could from the Romish Forms before in use so whether in the present Constitution and State of Things amongst us we should not according to the same Rule of Prudence and Charity have our Liturgy so composed as to gain upon the Judgments and Affection of all those who in the Substantials of the Protestant Religion are of the same Persuasions with our selves Inasmuch as a more firm Union and Consent of all such as well in Worship as in Doctrine would greatly strengthen the Protestant Interest against all those Dangers and Temptations which our intestine Divisions and Animosities do expose us unto from the common Adversary 3. That the Repetitions and Responsals of the Clerk and People and the alternate reading of the Psalms and Hymns which cause a confused Murmur in the Congregation whereby what is read is less intelligible and therefore unedifying may be omitted The Minister being appointed for the People in all publick Services appertaining unto God and the Holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament intimating the Peoples Part in publick Prayer to be only with Silence and Reverence to attend thereunto and to declare their Consent in the Close by saying Amen 4. That in regard the Litany though otherwise containing in it many holy Petitions is so framed that the Petitions for a great part are uttered only by the People which we think not to be so consonant to Scripture which makes the Minister the Mouth of the People to God in Prayer the Particulars thereof may be composed into one solemn Prayer to be offered by the Minister unto God for the People 5. That there be nothing in the Liturgy which may seem to countenance the Observation of Lent as a Religious Fast the Example of Christ's fasting Forty Days and Nights being no more imitable nor intended for the Imitation of a Christian than any other of his Miraculous Works were or than Moses his forty Days Fast was for the Jews And the Act of Parliament 5 Eliz. forbidding abstinence from Flesh to be observed upon any other than a Politick Consideration and punishing all those who by Preaching Teaching Writing or open Speeches shall notifie that the forbearing of Flesh is of any necessity for the saving of the Soul or that it is the Service of God otherwise than as other politick Laws are 6. That the religious Observation of Saints-days appointed to be kept as Holy-days and the Vigils thereof without any Foundation as we conceive in Scripture may be omitted That if any be retained they may be called Festivals and not Holy-days nor made equal with the Lord's-day nor have any peculiar service appointed for them nor the People be upon such Days forced wholly to abstain from Work and that the Names of all others now inserted in the Calender which are not in the first and second Books of Edward the sixth may be left out 7. That the Gift of Prayer being one special Qualification for the Work of the Ministry bestowed by Christ in order to the Edification of his Church and to be exercised for the profit and benefit thereof according to its various and emergent necessity It is desired that there may be no such imposition of the Liturgy as that the exercise of that gift be thereby totally excluded in any part of Publick
in Darbyshire upon no known Cause in Winter the Earth opening and swallowing a Woman near Ashburn in the same County upon her own Imprecation the Appearance of an Army to many near Montgomery and abundance more yet were Falshoods thrust in through their heady Temerity and Credulity whereby it came to pass that these Wonders were so far from moving Men to Repentance or the fear of God's Judgments that they greatly hardened them and made them say These Fanaticks are the odious lying Deceivers of the World that to cheat the poor People into a seditious Humour care not to bely even God himself And what the Fanaticks had been guilty of was imputed to the ejected Ministers and their Followers by them who thought it their interest to do so So that the poor obdurate Enemies of Godliness did not only lose the benefits of God's strange and dreadful Warnings but were much hardened by them to the increase of their Enmity § 425. In the beginning of Iune 1663. the old peaceable Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Iuxton died and Dr. Gilbert Sheldon Bishop of London succeeded in his room § 426. About these Times the talk of Liberty to the silenced Ministers for what ends I know not was revived again and we were blamed by many that we had never once petitioned the Parliament for which we had sufficient Reasons and it was talkt about that they were resolved to grant us either an Indulgence by way of Dispensation or a Comprehension by some additional Act taking in all that could Conform in some particular Points Hereupon there was great talk upon the Question Whether the way of Indulgence or the way of Comprehension were more desirable And it was debated as seriously as if indeed such a thing as one of them had been expected And Parliament Men themselves perswaded them that it would be done The Sectarians as they then called all that were for Liberty of Sects and for separated Churches were for the way of Indulgence that the Act might not enlarge the Terms of the Publick Ministry but give Liberty for gathering private Churches to all Else they thought that the most considerable of the Ministry were embodied with the Conformists their own Exclusion and Suppression would be unavoidable The most of the Independents yet were resolved against Petitioning for the Papists Liberty as well as the Presbyterians But some of the Politick Leaders of them said You are blind if you see not that this very Act of Uniformity was made so rigorous and the weight of Conformity so much increased that so the Number of the ejected Ministers might be so great as to force them to be glad of a general Toleration which might take in the Papists And if you think to stand it out they will yet bring you to it in despight of you They will increase your Burdens and lay you all in Prisons till you are glad to petition for such a Toleration and stand it out as long as you can you shall be forced to procure the Papists Liberty and the odium of it shall not lye on the Bishops but on you that are so much against it The Bishops shall speak against it and they will force you to beg for it who are against it And if you will not do it now you do but stay till the Market rise and your Sufferings be made greater and you shall be glad to do it at dearer rates On the other side the Presbyterians said It is against our Covenant to promote Popery and Sehism and whatever we suffer we will never do it nor will we contract that odium with the People nor contribute so much to betray them by deceiving them And if we should do it we are assured we shall be never the better for it for the Toleration shall be clogged with the Renunciation of all Obligations from the Covenant or some one other particular Condition which shall seem no matter of Religion which they know we will not conform to and the Papists will and so when we have petitioned for a Common Liberty we shall have the odium and they only the Liberty And thus they sate still and medled not with that Business § 427. For my own part I medled but little with any such Business since the failing of ãâã at which incurred so much displeasure and the rather because though the Brethren Commissioned with me stuck to me as to the Cause yet they were not forward enough to bear their part of the ungrateful part in the management nor of the consequent displeasure But yet when an Honourable Person was earnest with me to give him my Judgment Whether the way of Indulgence or Comprehension was more desirable that he might discern which way to go in Parliament himself I gave him my Thoughts in the following Paper though I thought it was to little purpose SIR YOur first Question is Whether the way of Comprehension or Indulgence be more desirable Answ. If the Comprehension were truly Charitable and Catholick upon the Terms of the Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine Discipline and Worship extending to all that the Apostolick Churches in their times received it would end all our Differences and Miseries except what in this imperfect state of the Church Militant must be still expected and it would prevent the sin and everlasting woe of multitudes of Souls But because there is no hope of this by reason of the ignorance impiety uncharitableness malice and factiousness of the Times rebus sic stantibus it is most evident that no Friend of the Church should be for Comprehension without Indulgence nor for Indulgence without the Enlargement of the Act of Uniformity to a greater Comprehension but for the Conjunction of both which will attain the ends of both and avoid the chief Inconveniencies of either alone 1. The way of Comprehension alone is not sufficient on Terms not Catholick which must be expected 1. Because such Comprehension will still leave out many worthy Persons whose Gifts God would have exercised for his Churches Service And he that rightly valueth the preaching of the Gospel and the saving of Souls would rather choose to have a Milstone hang'd about his Neck and be cast into the Sea than unnecessarily to silence any faithful Ministers of Christ. 2. Because even the Culpable should be punished but according to the measure of their offence Those therefore whose Labours are like to do more good in the Church than their Faults to do harm should be Corrected for those Faults with such personal gentle Chastisement as may not take them off their Labours for the Church It is a lighter Punishment to honest Ministers to make Brick as the Israelites in Egypt so they may withal but preach the Gospel than to be forbidden to preach for the Saving of the People See 1 Thess. 2. 14 15 16. 3. Especially considering that the loss by silencing them redoundeth to the Souls of others especially the ignorant and prophane and why should other Men be
gravissime mihi succenseres meque judicares indignum iis laudibus iisque benevolentiae tuoe significationibus quibus me prosequi ac decorare voluisti Illico igitur calamum arripui nulla interposita mora scripsi ad D. Simonium Gallice quoe velim à te legi atque intelligi posse ut qualis sit animus erga te meus liquido cognosceres Tibi vero Vir Reverende hanc Epistolam destino in qua quantâ possum bonâ fide luculentis verbis testor atque pronuntio falsa illa omnia esse emendacii officina profecta quoe vel audivisti vel legisti quasi dicta de te à me secus quam oportuit Non enim te novi nisi de fama quoe de tua pietate atque eruditione eloquentia egregie loquitur nec aliter erga te sum affectus quam ut decet erga virum multis laudibus ornatum proeterea de me optime meritum cui eo nomine multum debeo Noli ergo quaeso Vir Reverende quidquam istiusmodi credere ubicunque id vel occasio feret vel necessitas postulabit ostende hasce literas me à manu ex Animi mei Sententia conscriptas ut post hocce testimonium quid de te judicem nemo dubitare queat Vale Vir Reverende communis ille noster Doctor atque Dominus qui nos redemit sanguine suo cum Ecclesioe Anglicanoe tum tui perculiarem curam suscipere dignetur Quid de rebus vestris existimemâ scire potes ex Epistola quâ Paraphrasmi meam in Psalmos serenissimo vestro Regi dicavi Itaque nihil hic addam nisi quod qui ad te scribit est tibi Vir Reverende Ad omne obsequium paratissimus AMYRALDVS To the Reverend and most Learned Mr. Richard Baxter a Zealous Minister of the Gospel of Christ his most worthy and most honoured Brother in Christ at Kidderminster Recommended to the care of Mr. Dorvile The Grace of our Lord Iesus and the Peace of God be increased among us Most worthy and most honoured Sir THE Occasion of two Cosins of mine going for London invites me to take the liberty to write this Letter to you most honoured Sir and hope you will excuse my boldness in so doing being unknown to you I should have forborn troubling you in your weighty Affairs which besides the great zeal and care for your Parishioners yea for the whole Church of God are made known But I could not pass by so good an Opportunity to acquaint you how much your Name and your Person although with your Body so far from us is esteemed by me an unworthy Servant of Jesus Christ and by many other faithful Brethren in the Lord in this our Town and also in our Neighbour Protestant Confederate Cities of Zuric and Schaffhousen insomuch that we often remember one another the great cause we have to pray the Lord joyntly and constantly with your beloved Parishioners yea with whole England for your health and long life that you may further continue to us all your edifying Doctrines and Admonitions I dare not write to you most godly Sir in what fame you are among us that you may not suspect me of flattery which doubtless you despise as a great vanity But I pray Sir to believe me confidently that after Providence had led me some years agone into England but time would not permit to stay long there but as speedily as possible to learn the English Tongue and am heartily sorry I did not visit you most worthy Sir at Kidderminster that time for to take upon several Points your godly Advice being in ten Months time as long as I stayed in London Oxford and Cambridge I did learn God be thanked so much English that I could understand reading and preaching And by the Advice of the most zealous and worthy Men Mr. Edmund Calamy Mr. Cranford Mr. Nalton of whom I received great Courtesie and Friendship though a Stranger I bought a good number of English Divinity Books of your most solid and selected Divines and among others your Everlasting Rest Item Gildas Salvianus or Reformed Pastor Item True Christianity Item A Sermon of Iudgment c. being at that time recalled to my own Country I had no time to peruse those heavenly Meditations but since have made it my chief work and cannot express the great Advantage I received by them so that I commended the very same Books to others of our Brethren who have endeavoured without delay to get them by means of some of our Merchants here and also the remainder of your Works that we could bring to our notice viz. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity your Confession of Faith The right Method for a setled Peace of Conscience The safe Religion Key for Catholicks The Crucifying of the World Item of Self-denial Item A Treatise of Conversion Call to the Unconverted your Apology against Mr. Blake c. Item your Holy Commonwealth The Catholick Unity your Treatise of Death For which Works we thank God with one accord for the great and heavenly Gifts he hath so largely bestowed upon you for the common good of his Church and wish that by this occasion we might also be partakers of what we want of your Works that are extant Sermons or other Treatises Particularly I must acquaint you with the high esteem we make of those two Chief Pieces the Everlasting Rest and Reformed Pastor in which latter you strike home to the very heart many Ministers and we must needs confess that living among a rude and unlearned People ignorant and self-conceited that according to your Advice in the Reformed Pastor it is most necessary to take in hand with all speed and care the private Instruction and Catechizing But we can find no way to obtain it And being your Admonitions and Perswasions to the Practice thereof are very home and close upon all Ministers that they must make it their chief Business and neglect nothing until they have perswaded and brought their Flock to it I pray you most worthy Sir to resolve this Enquiry to me and others of my Neighbours and fellow Brethren who in reading your Reformed Pastor made the same Scruple of Conscience viz. Whether a Minister that heartily strives for the honour of God and the Edification of his Church doth not discharge his Duty when according to your wholsome and true Doctrine he hath conferred and made known his mind and willingness to the performance of it to his Fellow-Brethren that joyntly with him are Shepherds of the same Flock yea perswaded them of the necessity and usefulness of it yet can get no Assistance by Ministers nor Magistrates We long also heartily to know being you have perswaded the Ministers of the County of Worcester to that most necessary and useful Catechizing and Private Instruction Whether by the present great Change in England both in Churches and Government and chiefly being that we hear that Episcopacy prevaileth the
Prelatical Dignity is not some way retrenched and whether they bear still that irreconcileable hatred against good and godly Presbyterians that they may not be suffered to exercise their Charge and Duty Or if they are wholly deprived of the power and authority to serve their Parishes as to our great Scandal we are informed I had many things more to write to you but dare not trouble you most worthy Sir any further fearing to keep you from your weighty Business Only I crave very humbly your Answer and as much Information of the true present Estate as opportunity will give you leave Whether we have so much cause to fear the Introduction of Popery in England as some by the News amongst us are wholly perswaded In the mean while we will continue to pray the Lord our God and most merciful Father with all our Hearts and Souls to preserve your Person for the General Good and Edification of his whole Catholick Church that your great Light may shine more and more and so I remain Reverend and most worthy Sir Your humble and most Affectionate Servant Iohn Sollicâffer unworthy Servant of Christ. Saingall in Helvetia Reformatâ 16 April 1663. The vigilant Eye of Malice that some had upon me made me understand that though no Law of the Land is against Literate Persons Correspondencies beyond Seas nor have any Divines been hindered from it yet it was like to have proved my ruine if I had but been known to answer one of these Letters though the Matter had been never so much beyond Exceptions So that I neither answered this nor any other save only by word of mouth to the Messenger and that but in small part for much of this in the latter part was Matter not to be touched Our Silencing and Ejection he would quickly know by other means and how much the Judgments of the English Bishops did differ from theirs about the Labours and Persons of such as we § 443. About this time I thought meet to debate the Case with some Learned and Moderate Ejected Ministers of London about Communicating sometimes in the Parish Churches in the Sacraments For they that came to Common Prayer and Sermon came not yet to Sacraments They desired me to bring in my Judgment and Reasons in writing which being debated they were all of my mind in the main That it is lawful and a duty where greater Accidents preponderate not But they all concurred unanimously in this That if we did Communicate at all in the Parish Churches the Sufferings of the Independents and those Presbyterians that could not Communicate there would certainly be very much increased which now were somewhat moderated by concurrence with them I thought the Case very hard on both sides That we that were so much censured by them for going somewhat further than they must yet omit that which else must be our Duty meerly to abate their Sufferings that censure us But I resolved with them to forbear a while rather than any Christian should suffer by occasion of an action of mine seeing God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and no Duty is a Duty at all times § 444. In Iuly 1665. the Lord Ashley sent a Letter to Sir Iohn Trevor That a worthy Friend of his in whose Case the King did greatly concern himself had all his Fortunes cast upon my Resolution of the enclosed Case which was Whether a Protestant Lady of strict Education might marry a Papist in hope of his Conversion he promising not to disturb her in her Religion It came at Six a Clock Afternoon and knowing it was a Case that must be cautelously resolved at the Court I took time till the next Morning that I might give my Answer in Writing The next day the Lord Ashley wrote again with many words to incline me to the Affirmative for the Lady told them she would not consent unless I satisfied her that it was lawful Who the Lord and Lady were I know not at all but have an uncertain Conjecture So I sent the following Resolution The Case was thus expressed Whether one that was bred a strict Protestant and in the most severe ways of that Profession lived many years without giving offence to any well known in her own Country to be such may without offence to God or Man marry a profest Roman Catholick in hopes of taking him off the Errour of his ways he engaging never to disturb her My Lord's Letter was as follows SIR THere is a very good Friend of mine and one his Majesty is very much concerned for that this enclosed Case has the power of his Fortunes None but that worthy Divine Mr. Baxter can satisfie the Lady this has been the way by which the Romanists have gained very much upon us they are more powerful in perswasion than our Sex besides the putting this Case shews some inclination to the Person though not to the Religion Sir If Mr. Baxter be with you pray let me have his Opinion to this Case in writing under it Wherein you may oblige more than you think for Your very affectionate Friend to serve you ASHLEY For his much honoured Friend Sir Iohn Trevor at Acton To this Case I drew up the following Answer and sent it to Sir John Trevor to be by him conveyed to my Lord Ashley SIR THough I cannot be insensible how inconvenient to my self the Answer of this Case may possibly prove by displeasing those who are concerned in it and medling about a Case of Persons utterly unknown to me yet because I take it to be a thing which Fidelity to the Truth and Charity to a Christian Soul requireth I shall speak my Judgment whatever be the Consequents But I must crave the pardon of that Noble Lord who desired my Answer might be Subscribed to the Case because Necessity requireth more words than that Paper will well contain The Question about the Marriage is not An factum valeat but An fieri debeat There is no affirming or denying without these necessary Distinctions 1. Between a Case of Necessity and of no Necessity 2. Between a Case where the Motives are from the Publick Commodity of Church or State and where they are only Personal or Private 3. Between one who is otherwise sober ingenuous and pious and a faithful Lover of the Lady and one that either besides his Opinion is of an ungodly Life or seeketh her only to serve himself upon her Estate 4. Between a Lady well grounded and fixed in Truth and Godliness and one that is weak and but of ordinary setledness Hereupon I answer Prop. 1. In general It cannot be said to be simply and in all Cases unlawful to marry an Infidel or Heathen much less a Papist 2. In particular It is lawful in these following Cases 1. In Case of true Necessity when all just means have been used and yet the Party hath a necessity of Marriage and can have no better If you ask Who is better I answer A suitableness
only to the Holy Canonical Scriptures in general and to the Creeds and 36 Articles in particular And no Oath Promise or Consent he required save only the renewing of the Covenant which in Baptism we made to God and a promise of Fidelity in our Ministry and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King And for all lesser matters let it suffice that the Laws may restrain us from preaching against any Established Doctrine or against Episcopacy Liturgy or Ceremonies and from all Male-Administrations or Church-Tyranny or Injustice about the Sacraments and that we be punishable according to the quality of the Offence II. The Fire having now caused a Necessity of many more publick Assemblies for God's Worship besides those in the yet standing Parish-Churches we humbly conceive that it would much conduce to the re-edifying of the Churches and City and the contenting of many and the drawing off the people from more private Meetings if a competent Number of the Ruin'd Cnurches be allowed to such sober Protestants as will repair them with the same liberty and Security for possession as the French and Dutch in London have their Churches the people chusing their Pastors and maintaining them Or if his Majesty's Bounty allow them any Stipend that none have that Stipend whom his Majesty approveth not And that the Pastors be not suffered to introdâce there any Heresie or Idolatry but shall preach the Doctrine of the sacred Scriptures not opposing the Doctrines or Orders of the Church and shall worship God according to the Liturgy or the Assembly's Directory or the Reformed Liturgy offered by the Commissioners 1660. as they desire III. That all such be capable of Benefices who subscribe and swear as is aforesaid and being of Competent Abilities shall be lawfully Ordained or if already ordained are confirmed by the late Act or shall be confirmed by any Commissioned by his Majesty they being obliged some time to read the Liturgy and sometimes to administer the Sacrament according to it abating the Ceremonies And to be often present when it is read which shall be ordinarily or constantly done and the Sacrament administred as oft as is required by Law by himself or some other allowed Minister And that those who will only subscribe and swear as is abovesaid being ordained also as aforesaid but cannot so far conform to the Liturgy may be allowed to preach and Catechize publickly as Lecturers or Assistants to some others and to have such further Liberty about the Sacraments as by just Regulations shall be made safe to Religion and the publick peace There is another way which would satisfie almost all by allowing each party such a Minister whose Ordination and Ministration they do make no scruple at which would prevent all private Churches and perhaps all Face of Schism among us which is if in every Parish where any party dissenteth from the Established way the Dissenters be left at liberty either to communicate with any Neighbour-Parish or to chuse an Assistant for the Incumbent which Assistant shall be maintained by themselves unless the Incumbent will voluntarily contribute And shall officiaâe one half of the Day as the Incumbent doth the other having leave to do it according to the foresaid Directory or the Additional Liturgy offered 1660. or at least to have the use of the Church at such Hours as the Incumbent doth not there officiate The people receiving the Communion from each according to their several Iudgments And though so great a Rupture as ours is cannot be cured without some inconveniences which may be here objected yet such Laws may be made for the Regulation of this Liberty as may restrain all Faction Contention and Mutual Contempt or Injuries and even the Naming themselves Members of distinct Churches as might be shewed § 66. The Copy of the Lord Keeper's or Dr. Wilkins's Proposals In order to Comprehension it is Humbly Offered 1. That such persons as in the late times of disorder have been ordained by Presbyters shall be admitted to the Exercise of the Ministerial Function by the Imposition of the Hands of the Bishop with this or the like Form of Words Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God and to Minister the Sacraments in any Congregation of the Church oâ England where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto An Expedient much of this Nature was practised and allowed of in the Case of the Catharists and Melesians Vid. 8th Canon Concil Nic. âynodical Epistle of the same to the Churches of Egypt Gelasius Cyzicenus Hist. Con. Nic. 2d part 2. That all persons to be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Function or Dignity or the Employment of a School-master after the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy shall instead of all former Subscriptions be required to subscribe this or the like Form of Words I A. B. do hereby profess and declare That I do approve the Doctrines Worship and Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation and that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Doctrine contrary to that which is so Established And I do hereby promise That I will continue in the Communion of the Church of England and will not do any thing to disturb the Peace thereof 3. That the Gesture of Kneeling at the Sacrament and the use of the Cross in Baptism and bowing at the Name of Iesus may be left indifferent or may be taken away as shall be thought most expedient 4. That in Case it be thought fit to review and alter the Liturgy and Canons for the satisfaction of Dissenters that then every person to be admitted to preach shall upon his Institution or Admission to preach upon some Lord's Day within a time to be limited publickly and solemnly read the said Liturgy and openly declare his Assent to the Lawfulness of the use of it and shall promise That it shall be constantly used at the time and place accustomed In order to Indulgence of such Protestants as cannot be comprehended under the publick Establishment it is Humbly offered 1. That such Protestants may have liberty for the Exercise of thâr Religion in publick and at ãâã Charges to build or procure places for their publick Worship either within or near Tââs as shall be thought most Expedient 2. That the Names of all such persons who are to have this Liberty be Registred together with the Congregations to which they belong and the Names of their Teachers 3. That every one admitted to this liberty be disabled to bear any publick Office but shall fine for Officers of Burden 4. And that upon shewing a Certificate of their being listed among those who are indulged they shall be freed from such legal penalties as are to be inflicted on those who do not frequent their Parish-Churches 5. And such persons so indulged shall not for their meeting in Conventicles be punished by Confiscation of Estates 6. Provided that they be
the Ministry in general but a designation to a particular Charge and a legal License c. 4. By such as by his Majesty c. because it is not for us to offer our selves to a Diocesans Imposition of Hands in that manner but if you put it in other Words we cannot help it 5. There are three things which the Nonconformists here scruple 1. Renouncing their Ordination 2. Reordination which is like Rebaptization 3. Owning the Diocesan Species of Prelacy for the Presbyterians are against all Prelacy and the Episcopal Nonconformists are against the English Frame as contrary to that in the time of Cyprian c. Therefore because these Words so much seem to express a Re-ordination by Diocesans 1. by the sign of Imposition of Hands 2. By the Authorising Words 3. and put in of purpose to satisfie them that think the Presbyterians no Ministers 4. In a time when this hath been so publickly declared they cannot submit to all this without either a Declaration to the contrary in the Law or a Liberty by the Law given them to profess their own Sense in the three particulars questioned that they renounce not their Ordination nor take this as Re-ordination nor own the Diocesan Prelary as distinct from the old Episcopacy though they will submit to it 6. As by Instituted we intend admittance to a Pastoral Charge or Authority to administer Sacraments we desire that may he plainly inserted seeing he that only preacheth as Probationers may do hath no need of this nor do any scruple to hear him Or if they do while he hath no charge they may turn their back on him while a Man is a Lecturer only to meer Volunteers there is no use for this II. 1. We mention the Vniversity because many were turned out of their Fellowships there for non-subscribing c. 2. We would have the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy made necessary 3. The professed belief of the Scriptures and Creed we take to be needful to Admittance That which was the only ancient Catholick Profession should not be left out of ours 4. The professed Assent to the Doctrine of the Church of England and not only to approve it in tantum seâmeth needful to satisfie the Suspicious and to shut out Papists and Hereticks from the comprehension 5. Yet the word approve as related to the Worship and Government though restrictively will on many Accounts be scrupled and that is needless 6. So absolutely as joyned to necessary is needful to avoid Ambiguity and just Scruple 7. The word promise requireth fuller certainty than resolve doth and it bindeth us not to alter our Iudgments which is not in our power in such a case 8. The Word continue is a needless and entangling Word and will deprive us of the use of the Indulgence if we should ever change our minds But if as some say it be only the Communion of Faith and Love such as we owe to Neighbour-Churches and not Subjection nor local presence in Worship let that be but expressed and every sober Person will promise it 9. To promise to preserve the Peace and Happiness of the Church is a fuller Word then to do nothing to disturb the peace and yet more clear and plainly relateth to the whole Church III. We put bowing at the Name of Iesus rather than c. to avoid the imputation of Impiety lest we be thought to be against bowing at that Name simply when it is but as comparatively and exclusively to others IV. 1. In case if it be thought fit c. We must suppose it thought fit 2. This whole Vndertaking is proper only to them that take a Cure and not for an occasional or set Lecturer 3. It will answer our Sense if you put it thus Shall read the Liturgy when satisfactorily altered and some considerable part 'till then if it be delayed 4. The profession of the Lawfulness is but a needless temptation as to him that is bound actually to use it 5. And the promise that it shall be constantly used may be hindered by sickness or so many Casualties that its much safer to bind them only by a Law 6. And then the Event only must be expressed that it be used by whose procurement soever so it be done I may think it unlawful to procure another to do that which I cannot do my self and yet some other may procure it In the Second Article I forgot to tell you That we annex the grant of the desired liberty after the Subscription lest else our hopes be frustrate when we have done all The Reasons of the added Articles are apparent in themselves The Sum of all our Reasons is It is confessed that our Phrase will serve the Ends of our Superiours and we are certain that they will satisfie a far greater number than the other will do and to their greater ease and quiet of Conscience that they may not feel themselves still pinched and uneasie and kept under desires of further changes And we are sure that we are much better able our selves to plead down Men's Objections if it be thus worded than as the other way And we would fain have this no patch or palliate Cure but such as may cause the now drooping Dissenters to rejoyce under the Government and to perceive it to be their Interest to defend it against all Attempters of a Change § 71. But because the grand stop in our Treaty was about Re-ordination and Dr. Wilkins still insisted on this That those Consciences must be accommodated who took them for no Ministers who were ordained without Bishops and some Words were ãâã into their Proposals which seemed to signifie a Reordination though he denied such a signification we were put to give in this following Paper The Reasons why we cannot consent to Reordination I. WE dare not causelesly consent to the use of such Words as imply an untruth viz. That such as were Ordained by Lawful Pastors and the Presidents of their Synods are not lawful Ministers of Christ in an Ecclesiastical Sense II. We dare not consent to the taking of God's Name in vain by using holy Expressions and a Divine Ordinance either as a Scenical Form or to confirm an Error III. We dare not causelesly go against the Iudgment of the Vniversal Church of all Ages who have condemned Reordination as they did Rebaptization The Canons called the Apostles deposing both the Ordainers and the Ordained IV. We dare not so far wrong the Protestant-Churches as to do that which importeth That their Ministry is null and consequently all their Churches null politically taken V. We dare not so far wrong all the People of England and all other Protestant-Churches who have lived under the Ministry of meer Presbyters or such Bishops as were Ordained only by Presbyters as to tempt them to think that all the Sacraments were nullities which they received and so that they are all unchristened or unbaptized even Denmark and those parts of Germany which have some kind of
Bishops had their first Ordination of them by Pomeranus and others that were no Bishops And most Protestants hold That Baptism is null which is not performed by a Minister of Christ. Because no one else is Authorized to deliver God's part of the Covenant or to receive the Covenanter or invest him in the Christian State and Privileges VI. We dare not so far strengthen the cause of the Anabaptists as to declare thus far That all the People of England and all Protestant-Churches as were Baptized by such as had not Ordination by Diocesans are to be Re-baptized VII We dare not so far harden the Papists and honour their cause nor tempt the People to Popery as to seem to consent that their Churches Ministry and Baptism is true and the Protestant Ministry Churches and Baptism is false Nor dare we teach them if which God forbid they should get the power of governing us to call us all again to be Re-ordained and Re-baptized Our Liturgy bidding us to take private Baptism as valid if the Child was Baptized by any Lawful Minister intimating that else it is invalid and so that seemeth the Iudgment of the Church of England VIII We dare not tempt any other Sects or Vsurpers to expect that as oft as they can get the upper hand we must be Re-ordained and Re-baptized at their pleasure IX We dare not make a Schism in our Congregations by tempting the Pastors to reject most of the People from the Communion as unbaptized Persons X. We dare not dishonour the King and Parliament so far as to encourage them to confirm these Errors by an Act of Parliament Enacting really Re-ordination And I R. B. must profess That having eight Years ago written a Treatise purposely to prove the validity of the late Ordination by the Synods of Presbyteries in England though I never practised any my self and having openly called for some Coufutation of it I never could procure any to this day And therefore am the more excusable if I err Though I was my self Ordained by a Bishop Note That by Ordination we mean the Solemn Separation of a Person from the number of the Laity to the Sacred Ministry in general and not the designation appointment or determination of him to this or that particular Flock or Church nor yet a meer Ecclesiastical Confirmation of his former Ordination in a doubted Case Nor yet the âagistrate's License to exercise the Sacred Ministry in his Dominions All which we believe on just Occasion may be frequently given and received And we thereby profess to consent to no more § 72. Besides the foresaid Alterations of their Proposals we offered them this following Emendation of the Liturgy containing in some Points less and in some Points more than their own Proposals for in this Dr. Wilkins was not streight The most necessary Alterations of the Liturgy THat the old Preface be restored instead of the new one The Order for all Priests Deacons and Curates to read the Liturgy once or twice every Day to be put out The Rubrick for the old Ornaments which were in use in the second Year of Edw. VI. put out The Lord's Prayer to be used intirely with the Doxologies Add to the Rubrick before the Communion thus Nor shall any be admitted to the Communion who is grosly ignorant of the Essentials of Christianity or of that Sacrament or who is an Atheist Infidel or Heretick that is denyeth any Essential part of Religion nor any that derideth Christianity or the Holy Scriptures or the strict obeying of God's Commands Read the Fourth Commandment as it is in the Text viz. God blessed the Sabbath Day Add to the Communion Rubrick None shall be forced to Communicate because it is a high Privilege which the Unwilling are unworthy of and so are those who are conscious that they live impenitently in any secret or open hainous sin And because many conscionable Persons through Melancholy or too hard thoughts of themselves have so great fears of unworthy receiving that it were like to drive them to despair or distraction if they are forced to it before they are satisfied Therefore let Popery and Prophaneness be expressed by some fitter means than this In the Prayer before the Consecration Prayer put out That our sinful Bodies may be made clean by his Body and our Souls washed by his precious Blood and put it thus That our sinful Souls and Bodies may be cleansed by his Sacrificed Body and Blood Alterations very desirable also THE Lord's Prayer and Gloria Patri seldomer used Begin with the Prayer for the second Sunday in Advent for Divine Assistance or some other Let none be forced to hear the Decalogue kneeling because the Ignorant who take them for Prayers are scandalized and hardened by it Let none be forced to use Godfathers at their Childrens Baptism who can either Parent be there to perform their Duty Or at least let the Godfathers be but as the ancient Sponsors whose Office was 1. To attest the Parents Fidelity 2. And to promise to bring up the Child in Christian nurtue if the Parents dye or prove deserters Because Ministers subscribe to the 25th Article of the Church's Doctrine which saith Those Five commonly called Sacraments that is Confirmation c. are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles For they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God Therefore in the Collect for Confirmation put out Upon whom after the Example of the Holy Apostles we have now laid our Hands to certifie them by this sign of thy favour and gracious goodness toward them Holidays left indifferent save only that all be restrained from open labour and contempt of them Especially Holy Innocents-Day St. Michael's Day and All-Saints because there is no certainty that they were Holy Innocents And its harsh to keep a Holiday for one Angel And all true Christians being Saints we keep Holidays for our selves The Book of Ordination restored as it was Let there be liberty to use Christ's own Form of Delivery recited by St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. changing only the Person Take Eat this is Christ's Body which c. Let Christian Parents be permitted to offer their own Children to God in Baptism and enter them into the Holy Covenant by using those Words that are now imposed on the Godfathers That where any Minister dare not in Conscience Baptize the Child of proved Atheists Infidels gross Hereticks Fornicators or other such notorious Sinners as the Cannon forbiddeth us to recive to the Communion both Parent being such and the Child in their power and possession that Minister shall not be forced to do it but the Parents shall procure some other to do it For ââât thou be Baptised put âilt thou have this ââld Baptized The Cross and the Surplice left at liberty and kneeling at the Act of Receiving and bowing at the Name âesus rather than âhrist God
you had been unsatisfied in that which went before And you know what Mr. Nye is wont to say against drawing a Hose over our Differences though for my part I know no other way where we agree not in particulars but to take up with an Agreement in Generals But where indeed we do agree in Particulars I know no Reason why we should hide it to make our Difference to seem greater than it is 2. The Reasons why I make no larger a Profession necessary than the Creed and Scriptures are because if we depart from this old sufficient Catholick Rule we narrow the Church and depart from the old Catholicism And we shall never know where to rest From the same Reasons as you will take in Four Councils another will take in Six and another Eight and the Papists will say Why not the rest as well as these 3. Because we should Sin against the Churches 1200 Years Experience which hath been torn by this Conceit That our Rule or Profession must be altered to obviate every new Heresie As if you could ever make a Creed or Law which no Offender shall mis-interpret nor hypocritically profess By this means the Devil may drive us to make a new Creed every Year by Sowing the Tares of a new Heresie every Year Hilary hath said so much against this not sparing even the Nicene Creed it self that I need say no more than he hath done upon that Argument of Experience but only that if 30 or 40 Years Experience so much moved him against new Creed-making what should 1200 Years do by us 4. And the Means will be certainly Fruitless seeing that Hereticks are usually Men of wide Consciences and if their Interest require it they will Equivocate as Men do now with Oaths and Subscriptions and take any Words in their own Sense 5. And the Means is needless seeing there is another and fitter Remedy against Heresie provided and that is not making a new Rule or Law but judging Hereticks by the Law of God already made Either they are Hereticks only in Heart or in Tongue also and Expression If in Heart only we have nothing to do to Judge them Heart-Infidels are and will be in the Churches If they be proved to be Hereticks in Tongue then it is either before they are taken into the Communion of the Church or after If before you are to use them as in case of proved Wickedness that is call them to publick Repentance before they be admitted If it be after they must be admonished and Rejected after the first and second contemned Admonition And is not this enough And is not this the certain regular way Is it not confusion to put Law for Iudgment and say there wants a new Law or Rule when there wants but a due Iudgment by the Rule in being 6. Lastly We shall never have done with the Papists if we let go the Scripture-Sufficiency And it is a double Crime in us to do it who Dispute with them so vehemently for it And we harden and justifie Church-Tyranny and Impositions when we will do the like our selves If there be nothing against Socinianism in the Scripture it is no Heresie If there be as sure there is enough and plain enough Judge them by that Rule and make not new ones But if any will not hold to this truly Catholick Course I shall next like your Motion very well to take up with the Creed as Expounded in the 4 First Councils called General which I can readily subscribe my self but it 's better let them all alone and not to be so found of one onely Engine which hath torn the Church for about 1200 Years I mean departing from the Ancient Rule and making new Creeds and Forms of Communion To your Third Qu. 1. I suppose you observe that what I say about Separation is not under the third Head of the Concord of Neighbour Churches but under the second Head of the Concord of Members in the same particular Churches and were you not heretofore at Agreement in your own Churches And is it not the Duty and Interest of your own Churches to keep Unity and that the Members separate not unjustly whether you agree with other Churches or not 2. Either what I say about Separation is that which we are all now Uniting agreed in or not If it be iâ honoureth our Brethren to profess it and can be no Reproach or Offence to them to declare it If any have sinned against their own present Judgment I hope they are not so Impenitent as to desire us to forbear agreeing with their own Iudgments because it is against their former sins And here is no Word said Historically to upbraid any with these Sins at all But if we are not all agreed thus far against Separation I desire you to name the Terms which we agree not in and then we shall see whether we may leave them out or whether it render our Concord desperate and impossible of which anon To your Fourth Qu. The Iealousies and Errors of these Times do make it necessary to our Peace to make some Profession of our Judgment about Magistracy and I think there is nothing questionable in this I am sure there is nothing but what many of the Congregational-Party do allow but if you come to Particulars I shall consider of them again The particular Exceptions which you Obliterate not your selves are but these 1. To Qu. Prop. 9. Whether I mean prescribed Forms and Homilies and Habits by the Terms what Words to use in Preaching and Prayer c. Answ. That which I say as plain as I can is 1. That a determination of such Circumstances is not a sinful Addition to God's Word nor will allow the People therefore to avoid the Churches Communion 2. That it belongs to the Pastor's Office to determine them what Words he shall Preach and Pray in c. Therefore you have no cause to ask my meaning about imposing upon him but only whether he may so far impose upon the Flock as to use his own Words in Preaching Prayer c. 3. That yet if the Pastor determine these Circumstances destructively the People have their Remedy And is not this enough Why must I tell you whether you may read a Sermon or Homily of your own Writing or another Man 's unto the People Or if you do whether they must separate Or else if you read a Prayer c. Either you determine these things to the Churches hurt or not If not why should they blame you or Separate If you do they have their Remedy But whether you do or not I now decide not If we meddle with all such Particulars we shall never agree more than those must be left to liberty You think our Particulars are too many already and would you have more And if the Controversies of the Times will tempt any to Expound our General Terms of Agreement amiss we must not go from Generals for that To the Tenth Prop. You say
it Of which in that Book he saith so much to the pity rather than satisfaction of the Judicious his Book being otherwise the soundest and most abounding with Light of any one that I have seen But the very necessity of explaining the Three Articles of Baptism and the Three Summaries of Religion the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue hath led all the common Catechisms that go that way of which Vrsine Corrected by Paraeus is the chief into a truer Method than any of our exactest Dichotomizers have hit on not excepting Treleatius Solinius or Amesius which are the best § 147. The Nature of things convinced me That as Physicks are presupposed in Ethicks and that Morality is but the ordering of the Rational Nature and its Actions so that part of Physicks and Metaphysicks which opened the Nature of Man and of God which are the Parties contracting and the great Subjects of Theology and Morality is more neerly pertinent to a Method of Theology and should have a larger place in it than is commonly thought and given to it Yet I knew how Uncouth it would seem to put so much of these Doctrines into a Body of Divinity But the three first Chapters of Genesis assured me That it was the Scripture-Method And when I had drawn up one Scheme of the Creation and sent it the Lord Chief Baron because of our often Communication on such Subjects and being now banished from his Neighbourhood and the County where he lived he received it with so great Approbation and importuned me so by Letters to go on with that work and not to fear being too much on Philosophy as added somewhat to my Inclinations and Resolutions And through the great Mercy of God in my Retirement at Totteridge in a troublesome poor smoaky suffocating Room in the midst of daily pains of the Sciatica and many worse I set upon and finished all the Schemes and half the Elucidations in the end of the Year 1669. and the beginning of 1670. which cost me harder Studies than any thing that ever I had before attempted § 148. In the same time and place I also wrote a large Apology for the Nonconformists Partly to prove it their Duty to Exercise their Ministry as they can when they are Silenced and partly to open the State of the Prelacy the Subscriptions Declarations c. which they refuse for the furious Revilings of Men did so increase and their Provocations and Accusations and Insultings were so many and great that it drove me to this work as it were against my will But when I had done it I saw that the Publication of it would by Imprisonment or Banishment put an end to my other Labours which made me lay it by for I thought that the finishing of my Methodus Theologiae was a far greater work But if that had been done I think I should have published it whatever it had cost me § 149. This Year 1670 my forementioned Cure of Church Divisions came out which had been before cast by which occasioned a storm of Obloquy among almost all the separating Party of Professors and filled the City and Country with matters of Discourse which fell out to be as followeth I had long made use of two Booksellers Mr. Tyton and Mr. Simmons the former lived in London and the later in Kiderminster But the latter removing to London they envyed each other in a meer desire of gain one thinking that the other got more than he was willing should go besides himself Mr. Tyton first refused an equal Co-partnership with the other Whereupon it fell to the others share to Print my Life of Faith and Cure of Church Divisions after my Directions to weak Christians together Which occasioned Mr. Tyton to tell several that came to his Shop that the Book as he heard was against private Meetings at least at the time of Publick and made those Schimaticks that used them Mr. Simmons met with a credible Citizen that gave it him under his Hand that Mr. Tyton said that he might have had the Printing of the Book but would not because it spake against those things which he had seen me Practise c. which were all gross Untruths for the Book was never offered him nor had he never seen a word of it or ever spoken with any one that had seen it and told him what was in it Mr. Tyton being a Member of an Independent Church this sort of People the eaâilier believed this and so it was carried among them from one to one first that I wrote against private Meetings and then that I accused them all of Schism and then that I wrote for Conformity and lastly that I conformed so that before a Line of my Book was known this was grown the common Fame of the City and thence of all the Land and sent as certain into Scotland and Ireland yea they named the Text that I preached my Recantation Sermon on before the King as stirring him up to Cruelty against the Nonconformists So common was the Sin of Back-biting and Slandering among the Separating Party so it were but done at the second hand and they that thought themselves too good to joyn with the Conformists or use their Liturgy or Communion yet never stuck at the common carrying of all these Falshoods because they could say a good Man told it me So that Thousands made no bones of this that would not have defiled themselves with a Ceremony or an imposed Form of Prayer by any means Yea the Streets rang with Reproaches against me for it without any more proof Some said that I took part with the Enemies of Godliness and countenanced their Church-Tyranny and some said that I sought to reconcile my self to them for fear of further Suffering And thus the Christians that were most tenderly afraid of the Liturgy and Ceremonies were so little tender of receiving and vending the most disingenuous Falshoods as if they had been no matter of Scruple So easie is a sinful Zeal and so hardly is true Christian Zeal maintained § 150. At the same time there fell out a Case which tended to promote the Calumny The old Reading Vicar of Kiderminster dyed about the Day of the Date of the Act against Conventicles Sir Ralph Clare his chief Friend and my Applauder but Remover being dead a little before the old Patron Collonel Iohn Bridges Sold the Patronage to Mr. Thomas Foley with a condition that he should present me next if I were capable which he promised as also that he would Present no other but by my consent Because I had done so much before to have continued in that place and had desired to Preach there but as a Curate under the Reading Vicar when I resused a Bishoprick and the Vicaridge was now come to be worth 200 l. per Ann. and this falling void at the same time when the Independents had filled the Land with the Report that I was Writing against them for Conformity hereupon the Bishops
the thing to avoid Errour but yet I think that none should stick much at this because it is but de Nomine and afterwards you seem to leave a true Governing Power not only in the Presbyters but in the Pastors and Elders of the Parish-Churches 7. Seeing your Moderators are truly Bishops as described and others also if the Parishes be true Churches why is Ordination appropriated to the Bishops so called Do you intend that he shall do it by Consent of his Synod or a Presbytery or by his own Power alone 2. Is he to suspend depose and excommunicate by himself alone as this General seems to intimate or only in and by Consent of his Synod or Presbytery 3. The same also I ask as to his Transplanting Ministers as he sees useful for if he may do all this himself ad libitum it may discourage a Man from meddling with the Ministery when after all his Study and Labour it is at the Bishop's pleasure whether he shall Preach or be Suspended For though you after say for what Faults he shall be Suspended yet that signifieth nothing if the Bishop be Judge Of Appeals as a dear Remedy and doubtful Men will be diffident And Transplanting may undo a Minister at the Bishop's Pleasure And I doubt the absolute Deprival of the People of their Power of Consent or Dissent in this and other Cases of Title to their proper Pastors will be found 1. contrary to the nature of the Pastoral Work 2. to the Scripture 3. and to all Antiquity and practice of the Catholick Church for many Hundred Years 15. If it had been said that none but such Bishops shall have power to pronounce the Major Excommunication or that which is now called Excommunication in Scotland to which Horning c. is annexed it would have less founded to the contradiction of Antiquity c. For Suspension from the Communion which you allow to particular Churches and Presbyteries is called by many the minor Excommunication and by some a Temporary Conditional Excommunication and by others as Sir Wil. Morrice is written against as an unlawful thing 'till some just Excommunication precede 22. Might but the Moderator with his Presbytery by consent Ordain it would more satisfie 24. In Transplanting both Moderators and Pastors should not either their own Consent or the Presbytery's or People's be made necessary 31. The words of the Formula of Ordination will be material as to honest Men's reception or refusal of the Office 32. The Office of a Pastor as instituted in Scripture is not only to Baptize and celebrate the Sacrament of Communion but also to Judge by the power of the Keys whom to Baptize and to whom to give the Sacrament of Communion that is in Subordination to Christ's Prophetical Preistly and Kingly Office to be his Minister in Office 1. To teach the People 2. To go before them in Worship 3. To guide them by the Keys of Discipline And he is no true Minister that wanteth any one of these Powers however he may be hindered from the Exercise 33. At least 1. Necessity ad finem 2. Scripture 3. And the Catholick Antiquity should be so far regarded as to make the People's Consent necessary though not their Election at least when they do not by unreasonable Denial forfeit this Priviledge 35. If this be a limitation of Can. 7. it s well A. 3. viz. Supposing there be a tolerable Pastor there and no notorious necessity for some Parishes may have no Pastor some worse than none and some with us as many in London-Parishes Stepney Giles Cripplegate Sepulchres Martins c. have more Souls than ten Men can Teach and Over-see who must not therefore be forsaken and given up to Satan what-ever we suffer for endeavouring their Salvation 47. A Bishop if he please may thus causlesly keep most Ministers in his Diocess from Preaching the Gospel for the most part of their Lives I had rather be punished as a Rogue at a Whipping Post before I am fully heard and judged than have innocent Souls deprived of the usual means of their Salvation under pretence of Punishing me At least let no Suspension be valid longer than the place is competently supplied by another 48. Will no Mulcts or Stripes satisfie the Law without Silencing Men and forbidding them to endeavour Men's Salvation before their Crimes are proved such as render them uncapable of that work 49. But hath the Synod or Presbytery a Negative Voice in his punishment or not 50. For Treason and Murder there is reason for it but if every Man must be deposed from the Ministry that did ever Curse Swear or had any scandalous Vice from his Child-hood before his Ordination or Conversion I doubt the number left will be too small 53. The old Canons distinguished Some Crimes left so great a blot as made Men uncapable others did not so If such a War should break out as between the Emperor Henry IV. c. and the Pope or between the Houses of York and Lancaster the prevailing Party will force the Ministers to own him and if the other Party after prevail their Crime will be called Treason and all the Churches left desolate and the Peoples Souls forsaken by the Ministers perpetual incapacity and the King 's pardoning Power much restrained 54. Why should it be left to the Bishop's Will whether he will restore such a Penitent or not 56. Peaceable Men will consent that no Ministers should be permitted to Preach or Talk Seditiously against even those Rules of Government which they do not approve But this Penalty is so high and severe that few worthy Ministers will think their Station secure but will prepare for Banishment For 1. These Rules are many 2. And Derogatory is a large Word and will extend far 3. And there are few worthy Ministers that have no Drunkards Fornicators c. for their Enemies to accuse them E. g. if I lived in Scotland and should but read Blondel de jure Plebis in regimine Ecclesiastico and say it is sound Doctrine and this in Discourse at my own Table I might be thus troubled and banished it being derogatory to that part of the King's Rules as here exprest which deprive the People of all power of Consent c. Is it not enough that this Paper of Canons be so far equalled with God's Word yea with the very Articles of our Faith as that the open Oppugners of them have the same Penalty as open Hereticks who of old were after a first and second Admonition to be avoided And surely I think even that this is too much and yet I would have turbulent Preaching against the Government or Endeavours openly to subvert it restrained But methinks after the first and second Admonition a competent Mulct might do that sufficiently till Men go so far as to be turbulent Incendiaries 63. Shall the Presbytery have a Negative Voice in the Ordination or be Cyphers 66. It is well that the Elders Consent is
required but I think it should be the Congregation's And what if the Elders dissent Shall that hinder the Relation or not 93. The number of chosen Ministers in National Synods will be inconsiderable as to the rest 96. The use of a National Synod where all Bishops and Moderators are chosen by the King and the Commissioner ruleth being before-hand resolved to be to Compile a Liturgy and Rules for all Points of Divine Worship with the Methods Circumstances and Rites to be observed therein Many knowing what Liturgy Subscriptions Declarations and Rites are pleasing to Authority in England will imagine them in fierâ if not virtually set up already in Scotland when these Rules are set up 107. Publick Pennance And why not and Suspension from Communion till penitent Confession be made But I know not why Compensations should serve instead of Confession and Promise of Reformation without which Money will not make a Man a Christian nor fit for Church-Communion But for any other Pennance besides one penitent Confession and Promise of Amendment and desire of the Churches Prayers for Pardon I know nothing of it and therefore meddle not with it 132. No Act Order nor Constitution may be Expounded to reach to Scripture Constitutions and Orders and the proper Acts of the Ministerial Office if not better explained 133. The Word Ecclesiastical Meeting may be interpreted of particular Synaxes or Congregations of a Parish for Worship if not limited which Convocating of the People is part of the Pastor's proper Office and for a thousand Years was so accounted by the Catholick Church And if in case of Discord or Heresie a few Neighbour Ministers meet for a Friendly Conference to cure it it seemeth hard to charge them with Sedition 140. If the Parties be able to come 143. Many of these Faults should be Corrected by Mulcts before Men be forbidden to Preach the Gospel If every Man be Suspended which I suppose is prohibiting him to Preach and Endeavour Mens Salvation who useth unsound Speeches Flattery or Lightness I doubt so many will talk themselves into Silence that a sharp Prosecution will leave many Churches desolate 145. But what if there be no Preachers to be had May not the Suspended Preach 146. Disobedience to some of the small Ecclesiastical Rules may be punished with Mulcts without absolute Silencing especially when able Preachers are wanting Shall the instructing of the Peoples Souls so much depend on every Word in all these Canons But oh that you would make that good in Practice that Labouring to get Ecclesiastical Preferment should be punished if it were with less than Deposition It would be a happy Canon 147. But shall the Synod or Presbytery carry by Vote or not 149. If every Church-Session have this power of Suspension with power but to say We declare you unfit for Communion of this particular Church till you repent it would give me great Satisfaction were I in Scotland For to speak freely I take these two Things to be of Divine Appointment 1. That each particular Church have its proper Pastor who have the Ministerial Power of Teaching Worship Sacraments Prayer Praise and Discipline and I desire no more Discipline than you here grant that is Suspension from Communion in that particular Church if also the Person may be declared unfit for it till he Repent 2. That these Pastors hold such Correspondency as is necessary to the Union of the Churches in Faith and Love And 3. For all the rest I take them to be Circumstances of such prudential Determination that I would easily submit to the Magistrates determination of them so they be not destructive to the Ends and would not have Ministers take too much of the trouble of them upon themselves without necessity 152. But then you seem here to retract the particular Churches Power again For if a Man may be debarred the Communion for once sinning by Fornication Drunkenness c. why not much more for doing again after Repentance I differ more from this than all the rest Is it not enough that the Party may Appeal to the Presbytery And that the Sessions or Pastor be responsible for Male-Administration or Injury if proved This one Canon would drive me out of the Ministry in Scotland I would never be a Pastor where I must after the first Crime ever after give the Sacrament to every flagitioâs Offender till the Presbytery suspend him unless they do it very quickly which perhaps they may never do 153 154. No doubt but Iure Divino every true particular Church hath the Power of Excommunicating its own Members out of that particular Church-Communion Delivering up to Satan is a doubtful Phrase which I shall not stand on But an Excommunication which shall bind many Churches to avoid the Sinner must be done or Consented to by those many Churches Therefore Excommunication should be distinguished 156. Sure some few Ecclesiastical Rules and Proceedings may be so low as that a Contempt of them may be easilyer punished than with this terrible Excommunication Impenitency must be joyned with Scandalous Sins or else they make not the Person Excommunicable as is implyed in what followeth 162. No doubt but every Church may absolve its own Members from that sort of Excommunication which it self may pass And so may a Presbytery But if the Magistrate will have a more formidable Diocesane or National Excommunication and an answerable Absolution those Circumstances are to be left to his Prudence so be it he deprive not each particular Pastor and Church of their proper Power and Priviledge plainly found in Scripture and used many hundred Years through the Catholick Church Honourable Sir The Copy which you sent me goeth no further than to the Visitation of the Sick viz. to Can. 176. And so much according as I was desired I have freely and faithfully Animadverted And in general here are many excellent Canons though of many things I cannot Judge and those few Exceptions I humbly offer to your Consideration craving your Pardon for this boldness which I should not have been guilty of if the worthy Messenger had not told me that it was your desire Sir I rest Your Humble Servant Rich. Baxter Iuly 22. 1670. § 173. I had forgotten one passage in the former War of great remark which put me into an amazemeut The Duke of Ormond and Council had the cause of the Marquess of Antrim before them who had been one of the Irish Rebels in the beginning of that War when in the horrid Massacre two hundred thousand Protestants were murthered His Estate being sequestred he sought his restitution of it when King Charles II. was restored Ormond and the Council judged against him as one of the Rebels He brought his cause over to the King and affirmed that what he did was by his Father's Consent and Authority The King referred it to some very worthy Members of his Privy-Council to examine what he had to shew Upon Examination they reported that they found that he had
the Immortality of the Soul and many against the Being of God There are many Papists Hereticks Schismaticks common Adulterers openly owning it Fornicators Drunkards Blasphemers many have been Condemned for Treason Murder Theft c. The Conformists themselves Preach and write that such cannot be saved without true converting Repentance We are commanded at the Burial of all Men to say these Words For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great Mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear Brother here departed and we give thee hearty Thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother out of c. and that we may rest in him as our Hope is this our brother doth These words import the Person 's Justification and Salvation We are to except no Person from this form of Burial except 1. Those that die unbaptized though the Children of true Believers 2. The Excommunicate though for not paying fees or not conforming against Conscience 3. And those that have laid violent Hands on themselves though true Believers in a Fever Frenzy or Distraction Some die in the act of Drunkenness some murder each other in Duels and that in Drunkenness as lately was done near my Door some scorn the Minister and the Gospel to the death Now we must openly pronounce all these Saved for fear of having Power to Saint and Damn whom we will But we appeal to humanity it self Quest. 1. Whether I damn any Traytor or Murderer or impenitent Infidel meerly by saying nothing of his Case or not pronouncing him to be saved And whether I Saint those that I bury in their own prescribed words any otherwise than they Saint all Men Quest. 2. Whether we expose not our Ministry to the scorn of every Infidel and Heretick and Adulterer when they can say to us What False Deceivers are you to Preach and Write Damnation against us and proclaim us all saved when we die Quest. 3. Whether any thing can more probably debauch the World and keep Men from Repentance and so sill Hell and damn the people than to perswade all Men that every ignorant person that never knew what Christianity was every impenitent Infidel Adulterer or wicked person is saved when they die Doth not this give the Lie to all our Preaching the contrary to them in the Pulpit Do we not Teach them not to believe us Or else it disableth us from telling them that there is any Hell for them hereafter If you say we presume that they Repent I Answer If it be presumed that all Men repent at last and are saved even they that make no profession of any Repentance but justifie their Infidelity or Heresie or Schism or die in the Act or in utter Ignorance as a Heathen then why may we not presume the like of all the World and so lay by the Gospel and all our talk of future punishment Quest. 4. And is he worthy to be trusted with the Care of Souls as a Minister of Christ that may not be trusted I say not to speak but to suspend one word at any time which is thus Written for him to say Judge by this with the Offices of Baptism Confirmation Communion and Absolution what is a Priest's Office under such Bishops and whether he have the Pastoral Power either independently or dependently at all 4. Prop. n. 11. Let no Minister be forced to deny the Communion to godly persons that think it unlawful to kneel Strict Why may not our Church forbid the giving of it to those that will not kneel as well as the Presbyterians here and in Holland forbid the giving of it to those that will not sit Answ. 1. I never knew one Presbyterian here that did so And their Directory did not so And if any one should do so I am sure it is a rare Person And the Author of these words is no liker to know them than I. This therefore was not well said 2. Whether they in Holland do so I know not But if they do Do you think it well I think otherwise and all Nonconformists that I converse with We take not a gesture to be crime enough to cut off Men from Communion with the Church And if you think otherwise or durst Excommunicate a Man for being Lame or having the Gout in his knees Why must we all needs practise as you judge and execute so cruel a Sentence any more than kill men when-ever you bid us The Canon hath no Exception Can. 27. No Minister when he celebrateth the Communion shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel under pain of Suspenââon 4. Prop. n. 12. Let Ministers have leave to open the meaning of the Catechism It is much to be wish'd that it were amended Strict 1. I know no Law which forbids them to do so Answ. 1. That it is good news some think so And others think that the Rubrick and Canon Commanding them to Teach persons the Catechism meaneth that we must only teach them the words And I remember the Articles in Parliament against Bishop Pierce contained that among other things that he forbad Ministers Expounding the Catechisme in the Afternoon saying it was as bad as Preaching And the Sence as to us will be what please the Bishop Strict 2. I know no need it hath of mending nor who are wise enough to amend it Answ. I am sorry for it but cannot help it 4. Prop. id Some few quickening words of Exhortation Strict 3. The words prescribed both in Baptism and the Eucharist are quickening enough and more edifying perhaps and safe than an Extemporary fancy can add unto them Answ. 1. You know not what is most quickening and edifying to all other men so well as some know what is so to themselves 2. All that know Humane Nature know that Customaââness dulleth and the use of words many hundred times over usually affect less than when there is some variation though it were to be wisht it were not so 3. Why must an Extemporary fancy needs be the Author May not a man premeditate a few sentences as well as a sermon Or if it were ex tempore is he fit to be a Preacher that cannot speak a few sentences on so great a subject with safe and edifying words 4. Is it unsafer to give a Preacher leave to utter a few Sentences of the Sacrament at the Delivery than to Preach a whole Sermon of it And is he not equally responsible for both But we insist not on this as if we could not Administer without it Prop. 4. n. 13. The Surplice indifferent in the Parish Churches Strict I had rather that or any other of the Ceremonies should be taken away quite than left indifferent for that would be to establish Schism by a Law and to bring it into the Church in stead of excluding it out of the Church which of two Evils is much the lesser Ans. I think not for we see things left indifferent make no
I never spake for liberty herein for Episcopal Independents yea and Anabaptists that only deny Infant Baptism I wrote that hindering men's Ministry for their being against the Parliament And I think I kept many and many thousands from taking the Covenant 7. At least do you deny Liberty to none but those that denyed it to others and we shall thankfully acquiesce Strict I cannot think the maker of these Proposals could imagin that any much less all of them would or could be agreed to Answ. 1. You speak truly if you mean by those men of whom upon former tryal he had so great Experience It were great weakness in him to have expected it But yet he is so charitable as to be confident though not certain that if these Proposals were made to the Conformable London Ministers such as Dr. Whitchcot Dr. Stillingfleet Mr. Gifford Dr. Tillotson Dr. Cradock Dr. Outram Dr. Ford and many more such Learned worthy peaceable men in this City they would either grant all that is here desired or abate so little as should be no hinderance to our present Concord And though I have no great acquaintance with any of them yet my knowledge of them by fame and hearing them preach doth render me so fully persuaded that if we could get the Case but referred to their Judgment and Counsel instead of the Interessed Bishops who brought us to the state that we are in I make no doubt but we should be all healed in a few weeks time And that you may not think my confidence vain take this proof Bishop Wilkins was no fool nor fanatick These men are much of his spirit and judgment who was a Lover of Mankind and of honesty peace and Impartiality and Justice And we agreed with him upon Terms like these upon the Lord Keeper Bridgman's Invitation so far that by mutual Consent the Agreement was drawn up into the form of an Act to have been offered to the house so that as much as lay in him and us we were all agreed and healed And why should I suspect that any of these worthy persons are less peaceable 2. But by this Conclusion those many persons who have talk't so loud how ready some great Clergy-men are to Condescend agree and abate all Unnecessary things to Unite us and prevent Popery may now see past all doubt the very truth of the Case This Animadverter you see would not grant any one of all these Proposals no not our forbearance of an Oath or Subscription to Ceremony or any piece of their imposed formalities not the leaving out of a word of the Liturâie c. What is it then that they would abate such Dealing will make men see at last Strict Or that if the Non-conformists were upon such Terms as these permitted to exercise their Ministry and made capable of Pastoral charges and other Preferments in our Church this would be a means to heal our lamentable Divisions that are now among us unless he will say that the best expedient to suppress Schism is to embrace and cherish and to reward Schismaticks still professing and resolving to be so Or that it is better and safer for the Church to have a fire within her bowels than without her doors or contraries by being mingled together would thereby become less contrary or destructive to one another No certainly And therefore if they will still continue Non-conformists it is better and safer for the Church they should be still kept out than taken into it Answ. 1. But 't is our Opinion pardon our folly that if the Law had not been made which forbad Daniel to pray to God or commanded the worshiping of the Golden Image they had been no Inconformists that kept not such a Law And that if the Law were repeated which requireth Corporations to declare that no man is bound by the solemn vow no not to repent nor against Popery Schism or Prophaness they would be no Inconformists that did not so declare And that if the Laws commanded us not to swear subscribe declare Cross c. We were no Inconformists or Schismaticks if we did them not But the name of Schismaticks is by such Godfathers as Ithacius Idacius and the rest of the Council of Bishops from whom Ambrose dissended put upon such as St. Martin who separated from them to the death for their Church-Tyranny and wicked Lives and bringing Godly people into the suspicion and reproach of Priscillianism if they did but meet for mutual edification and live Religiously As Grotius saith that by a Papist he meaneth one that approveth of all that any Pope shall say or do and I hope there are few such so with some men a Schismatick is one that approveth not of all that a Pope or Prelate will prescribe And if all the present Non-conformists were commanded to Preach with horns on their heads to signifie the conquering power of the Church or Word they were Schismaticks by such men's nomination if they disobeyed But I will now only ask 1. Q. Were all the Apostles and the Churches in their time and long after Schismaticks who knew not our Oaths Declarations Subscriptions Liturgie Ceremonies c. Q. 2. Did they not take as wise a course for the Churche's concord and the avoiding of Schism as either the English or Roman Bishops take Q. 3 Had not the Omission or the Romish Canons about Transubstantiation Tradition and such like been a better way to prevent heresie than the obeying them And may it not be so in our case Would any be Schismaticks for dissenting from Lay men's power of the Keys from Crossing c. if there were no such Laws And did not Peter and Paul please God as well without them as you do with them And did not Peter and Paul go as safe a way to Heaven as you And is he that consenteth to go the same way to heaven as they did and to do all that the Universal Church imposed for an hundred two hundred years after them at least yet worthier of the Name of a Schismatick than the New Lords that by new Laws do make and call all Schismaticks that live as the Apostles did or did command them and no more 2. You have tryed your Better and safer way by silencing 1800 Ministers of Christ by which the Flocks are scattered and divided and we are as Guelphes and Gibelines in Contention And if yet it seem best to you a few years by Death's interposition will help you to be of another mind But alas must the souls of Millions and the Nation pay so dear for your mistake while you are preparing for the too late Convictions of sad Experience Strict The only certain and safe way of healing these Divisions as I conceive is for all that are taken into the Church to submit to one and the same Rule as well in Agendis as Credendis as well in circumstantials and ceremonials as in Substantials and Essentials as well in the manner as the matter of Religious
one Mind in every word circumstance ceremony and mode of Worship and Discipline upon Christian conscientious terms Either they must absolutely believe as the Rulers bid them or not If yea then most Turks Heathens Papists are in the right that be of the Religion of their Rulers If not some bounds and Rules must shew them the difference how far Obedience is to be given And the Subjects must be the Discerners whether the Case falls under those Qualificationt or not As e. g. whether it be Sin against God And when all the Men and Women in a Kingdom have a Multitude of Words circumstances and ceremonies and modes to try by such Rules they will never be of one Mind about them who would be of one Mind in a few plain things And then you come and make their Disobedience to be one of the greatest Crimes deserving Excommunication Imprisonment and ruin so that you make such a National Church to be a trap for Men's undoing and Damnation 5. As for what you say of the Foreign Churches their Country-men say that it is not all one to impose the necessary Discharge of Men's plain undeniable Duty and to impose the Humane Work which you can describe But I am a stranger to them and am bound to receive nothing against another till I hear both Parties speak nor am I concerned in the Case as not being bound to justifie them any more than you If it be as you say no wonder if they have the distractions and calamities and Divisions which render them the objects of compassion The Serpent that beguiled Eve hath long ago tempted almost all the Churches from the Ancient Christian Simplicity in Doctrine Discipline and Worship which is the only way of common Concord 6. But yet besides the Catholick Church we hold particular Churches being Christian Assemblies to be of Christ's Institution And it is impossible there to worship God without the determination of many Circumstances and Modes Some Translation some Metre of Psalms some Tune some Time and Place some Pastor some Utensils must be chosen And he that will herein depart from the Common chosen Circumstance departeth therein himself from their Communion But yet such may serve God acceptably in another Assembly and may live in Christian Love and Peace though they Sing not in the same Tune or Gesture or use nor every Ceremony alike And this is nothing to the making of new Symbols Oaths Subscriptions or other things not necessary in genere and that by the Officers of National Humane Church and this not only to be done and quietly born but approved Your Way is the most proper Engine to tear in pieces all the Churches in the World or reduce them to a Spanish Humane Obedience For if a particular Parish-Church did not so much as tye Men to a Ceremony but mere Determinations which must some way be made If the Priest stood at the Church door and said You shall not enter unless you will Subscribe or Say or Swear that we are infallible in all that we do or that there is no Sin no Fault nothing contrary to God's Will and Word nothing but what you Assent and Consent to in all our Translations of Scripture in all our Versions Tunes Words Gestures Circumstances I would never enter into that Church though I will gladly and peaceably joyn with them if they will let me alone without such Obligations to justifie all they do One would think this should have been past Controversie before this day among the Prudent Pastors of the Churches Strict Still supposing that neither they nor we require any thing that may not be submitted to without sin Answ. Upon that Supposition we have no Controversie with you Then what need any of this adoe But who shall be the Judge If you must and that absolutely then it is all one to us whether it be sin or no sin for to us it will be none if we do as you bid us But then why do Protestants condemn Papists who do as they are bidden And why do our Articles condemn them that say All Men may be saved in the Religion they are bred in when they all do as they are bidden even they that defie Christ. But if you hold not to this what shall we do Are we our selves the discerning Judges Then we protest before God and Men that we take the things that we deny Conformity to to be sins and very heinous sins and very far from things indifferent If you say that we must obey you till we are past doubt and certain that 't is sin I Answer 1. It 's too few things that Man's Understanding reacheth to a certainty in What if I verily think that I see reason to take that which a Bishop or Church Commanded to be Blasphemy Perjury Treason Murder Heresie c. but I am not certain and past doubt Must I then do it Then a Man that can be but sufficiently ignorant or doubtful may stick at no Commanded Wickedness Some other Rule therefore than this must be found out If you say That we have no reason to take any thing commanded for sin and you think you confute all our Objections I Answer 1. So all Imposers think or most And so we are as confident that our Reason is good and that we see the gross Errors of your Answers And all this is but to say that no Man is to be Tolerated in your Church that is not in every thing in the Right and that in your Judgments Suppose you were Infallible so are not all the Subjects And if their Reason be bad and yours good all that is no more than to say That They Err or are Mistaken And if no Man shall be Tolerated with you that Erreth and that in as great a Matter as a Circumstance or Ceremony no two Men in the World must hold Communion on such Terms I am confident I study as hard as you I am confident I am as impartial and willing to know the Truth I have far less than you to tempt me to the contrary And yet I verily think Conformity to me would be a heinous Sin Nay I am past doubt of it if that will serve Give us but leave to publish our Reasons freely and you shall see whether we have any Reason But if yet I be mistaken Shall your National-Church have never a Member Tolerated that is as ignorant and bad as I Hold to that and try the Issue whether your Church will be as numerous as you are Strict And Churches abroad both have been and will be our Compurgators and I wish the Presbyterians of England and Scotland would be content to stand to the Judgment of all the Tresbyterian Churches abroad whether they may not without sin conform to all that by our Church is required of them Nay whether they can refuse to Conform without sin Ans. Content I and all of my mind profess that we will accept your offer But we wish as sincerely that you
Expressions And this Expedient I gather from my Lord Cook who hath providently as it were against such a season laid in this observation The âorm of the Subscription set down in the Canons ratified by King James was not expressed in the Act of the 13th of Elizabeth Instit. p. 4. c. 74. And Consequently if the Clergy injoyed this freedom untill then in reference to the particulars therein contained what hinders why they might not have the same restored in reference also to others It is true that it may seem hard to many in the Parliament to undo any thing themselves have done But tho this be no Rule for Christians who are sometimes to repent as well as believe if they be loth to repent any thing what if they shall only Interpret or Explain Let us suppose then some Clause in this Bill or some new Act for Explanations If anâ Nonconformist cannot come up to the full meaning and intent of these Injunctions rightly Explained let him remain in statu quo under the state only of Indulgence without benefit of Comprehension for so long as those who are not Comprehended may yet injoy that ease as to be indulged in some equal measure answerable to his Majestie 's Declaration whether Comprehension be large or narrow such Terms as we obtain are pure Advantage and such as we obtain not are no loss But if any does and can honestly agree to the whole sense the Parliament intends in such Impositions why should there be any Obstruction for such a Man tho he delivers himself in his own words to be received into the Established order with others Unless men will look on these Injunctions only to be contrived for ââgines of Battery to destroy the Nonconfromist And not as Instruments of Vnity to edify the Church of God I will not leave our Congregational Brethren neither so long as I have something more that may be said for them not ordinarily considered by any It is this that tho indeed they are not and cannot seek to be of our Churches as they are Parochial under the Diocess or Superintendency of the Bishops yet do they not refuse but seek to be comprehended within the Church as National under his Majesty I will explain my self The Church may be considered as Vniversal and so Christ alone is the head of it and we receive our Laws from him Or as Particular and so the Pastors are Heads Guides or Bishops over their respective flocks who are commanded therefore to obey them in the Lord Or as National which is an accidental and external respect to the Church of God wherein the King is to be acknowledged the supreme Head of it and as I judge no otherwise For thus also runs the statute That our Sovereign Lord shall be taken and reputed the only supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England called Ecclesia Anglicana Now if it should please the King and Parliament to allow and approve these Separate Meetings and Stated Places for Worship by a Law as His Majesty did by his Declaration I must profess that as such Assemblies by this means must be constituted immediately integral parts of the Church as National no less than our Parish Cougregations So would the Congregate Churches at least those that understand themselves own the King for Head over them in the same sense as we own him Head over ours that is as much as to say for the supreme coercive Governour of all in this accidental regard both to keep every several Congregation to that Gospel-order themselves profess and to supervise their Constitutions in things indifferent that nothing be done but in subordination to the peace of the Kingdom Well Let us suppose then a liberty for these separate Assemblies under the visitation of his Majesty and his Justices and not the Bishops I would fain know that were the Evil you can find in them If it lie in any thing it must be in that you call Schism Separation then let us know in it self simply considered is nothing neither good nor Evil. There may be reason to divide or separate some Christians from others out of prudence as the Cathechumens of old from the fully instructed for their greater Edification and as a Chappel or two is added to a parish-Parish-Church when the people else were too big a Congregation It is not all Division then or Separation that is Schism but sinful Division Now the supreme Authority as National Head having appointed the Parochial Meetings and required all the Subjects of the Land to frequent them and them alone for the Acknowledging Glorifying or National serving and worshiping the only true God and his Son whom we have generally received And this Worship or Service in the nature of it being intrinsecally good and the external Order such as that of time and place and the like Circumstances being properly under his Jurisdiction it hath seemed to me hitherto that unless there was something in that order or way prescribed which is sinful and that required too as a Condition of that Communion there is no Man could refuse his attendance on these Parochial Assemblies without the sin of Disobedience and consequently his separation thereby becoming sinful proves Schism But if the Scene be altered and these separate Assemblies made Legal the Schism in reference to the National Church upon the same account does vanish Schism is a separation from that Church whereof we ought or are bound to be Members if the supreme Authority then loose our obligation to the Parish-Meeting so that we are bound no longer the iniquity I say upon this account is not to be found and the Schism gone Lo here a way opened for the Parliament if they please to rid the Trouble and Scruple of Schism at once out of the Land If they please not yet is there something to be thought on for the Separatist in a way of forbearance that the innocent Christian at least as it was in the time of Trajan may not be sought out unto Punishment Especially when such a toleration only is desired as is consistent with the Articles of Faith a Good Life and the Government of the Nation And now I turn me to the Houses My Lords and Gentlemen I will suppose you honest persons that would do as you would be done unto that would not wrong any or if you did would make them recompence There hath been very hard Acts passed which when the Bills were brought in might haply look smooth and fair to you but you saw not the Covert Art secret Machination and purposely contrived snares against one whole Party If such a form of words would not another should do their business By this means you in the first place your selves some of you were overstript Multitudes dispossest of their Livings The Vineyard Let out to others The Lord Jesus the Master of it deprived of many of his faithful Labourers And the poor sheep what had they done bereft of their accumstomed spiritual
no Acts of Government but the Parliament in being should continue or if none then were that which last was should be in power and exercise all the Government in the Name of the King This offer took much with many but most said that it signifyed nothing For Papists have easily Dispensations to take any Tests or Oaths and Queen Mary's case shewed how Parliaments will serve the Prince's will § 39. Divers Papists turned from them to the Protestants upon the Detection of their wickedness and bloody Principles and minds And among others Mr. Hutchinson that called himself Berry against whom I lately wrote He first wrote for the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and after forsook them seemingly for a time § 40. When I had written my Book against Mr. Gale's Treatise for Predetermination and was intending to Print it the good man fell sick of a Consumption and I thought it meet to suspend the publication lest I should grieve him and increase his sickness of which he dyed And that I might not obscure God's Providence about sin I wrote and preached two Sermons to shew what great and excellent things God doth in the World by the occasion of Man's sin And verily it is wonderful to observe that in England all Parties Prelatical first Independents Anabaptists especially Papists have been brought down by themselves and not by the wit and strength of their Enemies and we can hardly discern any footsteps of any of our own Endeavours wit or power in any of our Late Deliverances but our Enemies wickedness and bloody Designs have been the occasion of almost all Yea the Presbyterians themselves have suffered more by the dividing effects of their own Covenant and their unskilfulness in healing the Divisions between them and the Independents and Anabaptists and the Episcopal than by any strength that brought them down tho since men's wrath hath troden them as in the dirt § 41. In April I finished a Treatise of the only way of Union and Concord among all Christian Churches In three parts 1. Of the Nature and Reasons of Union an Concord 2. Of the true and only Terms 3. Of the Nature of Schism and the false Terms on which the Church will never unite § 42. Two years ago by the Consent of many Ministers I Printed one Writing called the Judgment of Nonconformists concerning the Parts or Office of Reason in Religion which having good acceptance by the same Men's consent I yielded to the Printing of three more one of the difference between Grace and Morality Another called the Nonconformists Judgment about things indifferent commanded by Authority And another What Nonconformity is not disclaiming several false Imputations To which I added a 4th of Scandal But when they were Printed some of our Political friends in Parliament and else where were against the publishing of them saying they would increase our sufferings by exasperating or offend some Sectaries that dislike some words And so I was put to pay 23 l. for the printing of them and suppress them § 43. I wrote also Divers Treatises of Nonconformity One opening their case by a multitude of Quere's Another by way of History and Assertion specially vindicating them from the Charge of Schism Another to prove it their duty to continue preaching tho forbidden c. § 44. The Earl of Argyle told me that being in company with some very great men one of them said that he went once to hear Mr. Baxter preach and he said nothing but what might beseem the King's Chappel and concluded that it was his Judgment that I ought to be beaten with many stripes because it could not be through ignorance but meer faction that I conformed not And the Bishops and Clergy to this day make unstudied Noble Men and Gentlemen believe that we confess all to be lawful and meer Inconveniences which we deny Conformity to O inhumane Impudence A Plot of Satan to tempt men never more to believe Clergy men's History Hereupon the said Earl of Argyle after many others desiring me to write down the points that we deny Conformity to I wrote 1. The case of the Nonconformists in a brief History 2. An Index of about 40 or 50 of the points that we cannot conform to but barely naming them without proof to avoid prolixity which may expose them to any Pretender's Confutation And at the importunity of a friend this week May 2. I permitted the shewing them to the Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Barlow who is a Man firmly zealous against Popery of great Reading and Learning long a publick Professor of Divinity in Oxford and esteemed of as equal at least with the best of the Bishops And yet told my friend that got my Papers for him that he could hear of nothing that we judged to be sin but meer inconveniences When as above 17 years ago we publickly endeavoured to prove the sinfulness even of many of the old Impositions and our petition for peace was printed in which we solemnly professed that nothing should hinder us from Conformity did we not believe it to be sin against God and endangering our salvation Yet thus talk the best and Learnedest of them as if they had dwelt a thousand Miles from us and had never heard our Case Some would persuade us that they are all meer hardened impudent Worldlings that know all to be Lies which they thus speak But I am persuaded that this is too hard Censure and that some yea many of the Clergy think as they thus speak because the Schism of the Age doth make them meer strangers to us knowing little more of our minds than what they hear from one another by such Reports And yet we never had leave to speak or write our Case to tell men what it is that we think sin in the New-Conformity much less to give our Reasons § 45. The firing fury going on still God leaving the Papists to self-destroying madness on Friday night May 9. Some Papist prisoners bribing the Porter they set the prison on fire and burnt much of it down the Porter and they escaping together which put the Parliament to appoint the drawing up of a stricter Law to prevent more firing But what can Laws do to it § 46. On the Lord's day May 11th 1679. The Commons sate extraordinarily and agreed in two Votes first that the Duke of York was uncapable of succeeding in the Imperial Crown of England 2. That they would stand by the King and the Protestant Religion with their Lives and Fortunes and if the King came to a violent Death which God forbid would be revenged on the Papists § 47. The Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews in Scotland Iames Sharp was Murdered this Month. The Actors a Servant hardly used by him or a Tenant drew in some Confederates since suffered § 48. The Parliament shortly dissolved while they insisted on the tryal of the Lord Treasurer § 49. The Scots being forbidden to preach and Meet in the open Fields being led by a few rash
excepting Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys ipso facto Excommunicateth all Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons that say That it is repugnant to the Word of God And it 's time to take heed what we Swear when the Act of Uniformity the Oxford-Act the Corporation Act the Vestry Act the Militia Act and the Oath of Supremacy do bind all the Nation by Solemn Oath not to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State And yet most Reverend Fathers who most sharply call us to Conformity do Write for a Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the Name of an Universal Colledge of Bishops or Council having such power as other Courts even Commanding Pretorian Legislative and Judicial to all the Church on Earth and that obedience to this Foreign Jurisdiction is the necessary way to escape Schism and Damnation And if it be no alteration of Government to bring King and Kingom to be subject to a Foreign Jurisdiction this Oath and the Oath of Supremacy and the 39 Articles and Canons and several Statutes which renounced it are all unintelligible to us We renounce all subjection to any Foreign Church or Power but not Communion We have Communion with the Church of Rome and all others in Christianity but not in their sin and we are not yet so dull as to know no difference between Foreigners Government of us and their Communion nor to think that Separation from a Usurped Government is Separation from Christian Communion Nor can we possibly believe the Capacity of Pope or Council or Colledge of Bishops as a Monarchy or Aristocracy to Govern all the World in one Soveraignty Ecclesiastical till we see one Civil Monarchy or Aristocracy rule all the Earth And we dread the Doctrine and Example of such Men as would introduce any Foreign Jurisdiction while they are for Swearing all the Land against any alteration of Church-Government And we must deliberate before we thus Conform while so Great Men do render the Oath so doubtful to us I appeal to the fore-cited Profession of my Loyalty published many years ago as being far more full and satisfactory to any that questioneth it than the taking of this doubtful controverted Oath would be A true Copy of the Iudgment of Mr. Saunders now Lord Chief Iustice of the King's-Bench given me March the 22d 1674 5. 1. IF he hath the Bishop's License and be not a Curate Lecturer or other Promoted Ecclesiastical Person mentioned in the Act I conceive he may Preach Occasional Sermons without Conforming and not incure any Penalty within this Act. The due Order of Law requires that the Delinquent if he be forth-coming ought to be summon'd to appear to Answer for himself if he pleases before he be Convicted But in case of his withdrawing himself or not appearing he may be regularly Convicted Convictions may be accumulated before the Appeal be determined but not unduely nor is it to be supposed that any undue Convictions will be made As I Conceive Edm. Saunders M. day 22. 167â Mr. Polixfen's Iudgment for my Preaching Occasionally A. B. before the Thirteenth of this King being Episcopally Ordained and at the time of the Act of Uniformity made Car. 2. not being Incumbent in any Living or having any Ecclesiastical Preferment before the Act of Uniformity viz. 25 Feb. 13 Car. 2. obtains a License of the then Bishop of London under his Seal to Preach in any part of his Diocess aud at the same time subscribes the 39 Articles of the Church of England Quest. Whether Licenses Preceding the Act be within the meaning of the Act I conceive they are For if Licensed at the time of the Act made what need any new License That were but actum agere and the Clause in the Act unless he be Iacensed c. in the manner of penning shews that Licenses that then were were sufficient and within the Provision And the followiug Clause as to the Lecturers is Express now is or shall be Licensed The former part of the Act as well as that extends to Licenses that then were For the same License that enables a man to Preach a Lecture must enable a man to Preach Q. Whether he be restrained by the Act of Vniformity to Preach a Funeral Sermon or other occasional Sermon I Conceiâe that he is not restrained by this Act to Preach any Occasional Sermon so as it be within the Diocess wherein he is Licensed Hen. Pollexfen Decemb. 19. 1682. § 77. While I continue night and day under constant pain and often strong and under the sentence of approaching death by an uncurable disease which age and great debility yields to I found great need of the constant exercise of patience by obedient submission to God and writing a small Tractate of it for my own use I saw reason to yield to them that desired it might be publick there being especially so common need of obedient patience § 78. Having long ago written a Treatise against Coalition with Papists by introducing a Foreign Jurisdiction of Pope or Councils I was urged by the Writings of Mr. Dogwel and Dr. Saywell to publish it but the Printers dare not Print it Entitled England not to be perjured by receiving a Foreign Jurisdiction It is in two Parts The first Historical shewing who have endeavoured to introduce a Foreign Jurisdiction citing Papists Grotius Arch-Bishop Bromball Arch-Bishop Laud Thorndike Dr. Saywell Dodwell four Letters to Bishop Guning and others The 2d part strictly Stating the Controversy and Confuting a Foreign Jurisdiction against which Change of Government all the Land is Sworn I may not Print it § 79. When I saw the storm of Persecution arising by the Agitators Hilton Shad Buck and such other and saw what the Justices were at least in present danger of and especially how Le Strange and other weekly Pamphleteers bent all their wit and power to make others odious and prepared for destruction and to draw as many as possibly they could to hate and ruine faithful men and how Conscience and serious piety grew with many into such hatred and reproach that no men were so much abhorred that many gloried to be called Tories tho they knew it was the name of the Irish common murdering Thieves I wrote a small Book called Cain and Abel in two parts The first against malignant Enmity to serious Godliness with abundant Reasons to convince Malignants The second against Persecution by way of Quaere's I wrote a third part as Impartial to tell Dissenters why while I was able I went oft to the Parish Church and there Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists or Recusants lest they suffer as evil doers But wise men would not let me publish it And the two first the Booksellers and Printers durst not print but twice refused them § 80. But the third part the Reasons of my Communion with Parish Churches that have honest able Ministers I sent to one friend who telling others of it a Bookseller after two
his Congregation a Church worshipped many years without singing Psalms and Sacraments forsooth because he took them not then for a Church I must suspend my Answer to them and all such tho' I know the Papists will take it for a Confutation of all my writings against them to say his own brethren Prosestants and Dissenters have proved him a Lyer This I must bear from Separating Non-conformists while the Justices that bind and trouble me openly declare me innocent And I am told that the Papists will not endure me to write against the Separatists no more than against themselves because they need their help to pull down the Godly Parish Ministers § 87. Many French Ministers sentenced to Death and Banishment fly hither for refuge And the Church men relieve them not because they are not for English Diocesans and Conformity And others have many of their own distressed Ministers and acquaintance to relieve that few are able But the Chief that now I can do is to help such and the Silences Ministers here and the poor as the Almoner of a few Liberal friends who trust me with their Charity § 88. As to the present State of England the Plots the Execution of Men High and Low the Publick Counsels and Designs the Quality and Practice of Judges and Bishops the Sessions and Justices the quality of the Clergy and the Universities and Patrons the Church-Government by the Keys by Lay-Civilians the usage of Ministers and private Meetings for Preaching or Prayer the Expectations of what is next to be done c. The Reader must expect none of this sort of History from me No doubt but there will be many Volumes of it by others transmitted to posterity who may do it more fully than I can now do § 89. Ianuary Seventeenth I was forced again to be carried to the Sessions and after divers daies good words which put me in expectation of freedom when I was gone one Justice Sir Decerham said that it 's like that these persons solicited so for my liberty that they might come to hear me in Conventicles and on that they bound me again in Four hundred pound bond for above a Quarter of a year and so it 's like it will be till I die or worse Tho' no one ever accused me for any Conventicle or Preaching since they took all my Books and Goods above two years ago and I for the most part keep my bed § 90. Mr. Ienkins dyed in Newgate this week Ianuary Nineteenth 1684 5. as Mr. Bampfield Mr. Raphson and others died lately before him The Prison where are so many suffocateth the Spirits of aged Ministers But blessed be God that gave them so long time to Preach before at cheaper rates § 61. One Richard Baxter a Sabbatarian Anabaptist was sent to Gaol for refusing the Oath of Allegiance and it went for currant that it was I. § 92. Mr. Rosewell did so fully plead his own Case and prove his innocency and prove the Confederacy incompetency and falshood of the Witnesses that tho' alas the Jury found him guilty of Treason even the Chief Justice and Judges were convinced of his innocency and at last procured his Pardon and deliverance Innocency with humility and great ability were his advantages improved and withall that he had few Enemies APPENDIX A Reply to some Exceptions against our Worcestershire Agreement and my Christian Concord Written by a nameless Author and sent by Dr. Warmstrye Honoured and Worthy Sir Salutem Officia in Christo Iesu Autore Salutis Except Sect. 1. FOR Christian Concord Mr. Baxter cannot write more willingly nor you be more strongly inclined to meet any such motion then you well know the Hearts of very many of your Brethren to be already agreed in that And I believe I have given you evidence in all my former Discourses with you uncontradicted by any action of mine that I the meanest of the servants of your Order do make it the butt and aime of all my weak Studies and Labours in order to the glory and service of God and Christ our Lord who hath so hightly injoyned it 2. But this bars us not but obliges us well to consider whether this Worcester Agreement be a true Union in Ecclesiastical Peace or the carrying on a Schismatical Combination reaching to enclose in the Episcopal Divines also â3 That they may now at length by this approve of the Presbyters Declaration to the World of the no necessity of continuing their Canonical Obedience to their Bishops in Christ which was the first wheel that set a work this sad Revolution the ejecting out of the Church I mean out of their principal proper place in the Church the Bishops and Pastors the Successors of the Apostles in the Church whether this be so or no I say I must request you to judge by considering Reply to Sect 1. I shall not unwillingly believe and acknowledge that your love to Concord is greater than mine when I see you more zealously seeking it and hear of your Motions and moderate Rational Attempts to that end And I shall begin to hope well of you when you are but willing to accept such motions from any others or at least not to hinder the Concord of your Brethren 2. Schismarical Combinations are against the United Churches or the United Members of one particular Church We unite or combine against no such-Churches or Members nor against any thing but prophaneness and wickedness and against the disunion discord and alienation of Brethren and the utter neglect of the Ordinances of Christ. Our utmost care and endeavour is to heal a Schism and if they that do their best to heal it lamenting it daily as the great sin and calamity of the Churches and making it the chiefest part of their Studies with unsatiable longings to see it accomplished looking for no wordly advantage by the work having no Lordly Honours nor Dignities of their own to engage for which might byass them nay most prodigally casting away their Reputation with all the contenders of every Party accounting nothing in this world dear to them for the healing of our Divisions and waiting on God in earnest Prayer daily for success concerning all which the Righteous God is better acquainted with my heart and ways than this Contender I say if yet we are not only Schismaticks but Schismatical in these very attempts I know not yet how we shall escape that sin I hope God will not impute that to me which this Writer doth and that as he will not impute my Prayers and Endeavours against Drunkenness Covetousness and Contentions of Neighbours to be indeed Drunkenness Covetousness or Contention so neither will be impute my earnest Prayers and endeavours against Schism and Discord to be Schismatical But Schism is not the same thing in one Mans mouth as in anothers It is the unhappiness of each Party or Schismatical Faction to make to themselves a new Center of union which God never made and then all must
be Schismaticks with them that unite not in their Center or at least be not tyed to union by their ligaments So he is a Schismatick to a Papist that Centers not in the Pope as the Principium unitatis and visible Head of the Church and in the Roman Church as the Heart of the Church Catholick denominating the whole He is a SchismatiÌck with some others that owns not every Order or Ceremony which they maintain For my part I should think that he that ãâã in âhrâât and âââdeth the sound and wholsome Doctrine contained in the Creeds of the Church and maintaineth love and unity with all Christians to the utmost extent of his natural capacity even with all that he is capable of holding Communion with is no Schismatick nor his attempts for that end Schismatical Combinations If there were a Bishop in this Diocess and he should go one way suppose he command that all Church Assemblies be at such a time and all worship in such a form and all the Presbyters and People go another way whether they do well or ill so the thing itself be tollerable and will not meet at the time nor worship God in the form which he prescribeth I should think I were guilty of Schism if I separated from all these Churches and guilty of ungodliness if I wholly forsook and forbore all publick worship of God because I could have none according to the Bishops commanding Much more if there were no Bishop in the Diocess at all This seems to be our case in respect of both Worship and Discipline at least for the most part Is that man guilty of no Schisme nor Impiety who will rather have no Discipline exercised at all on the profane and scandalous but all Vice go without controul and the rage of Mens sins provoke Heaven yet more against us who will rather have no Ministerial Worship of God in Prayer or Praise no Sacraments no Solemn Assemblies to this end no Ministerial Teaching of the people but have all Mens Souls given over to perdition the bread of life taken from their mouths and God deprived of all his Worship then any of this should be done without Bishops That had rather the Church doors were shut up and we lived like Heathens than we should Worship God without a Bishops Commands and that when we have none to command us 3. We distinguish of the necessity of Bishops either it is a necessity ad bene esse for the right ordering of the Church when it may be had or it is a necessity ad esse to the very being of a Church or of Gods Worship without which we may not offer God any publick Service or have any Communion with any Congregation that so doth The former we leave as not fit for our determination and therefore we do not contradict you in it nor seek to draw you to own any Declaration against it The latter we do deny there is no such necessity of Bishops as that God can have no Church without them and that we must rather separate from all our Assemblies and never offer God any publick Worship then do it without them remembring still that we speak of those Bishops whom we are charged with rejecting and not the Pastors of particular Congregations And in this distinction of necessity and in this conclusion I have the consent of the generality of the Protestant Bishops so far as I know to a Man as far as their Writings declare to us their Minds and therefore Episcopal Divines may consent Except to Sect. 2. 1. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge those for Presbyters and Pastors of Churches who profess themselves to have been made such in a Church where there are and were Bishops that never denyed them Orders without the Hands Consent or Knowladge of the Bishop yea in a time when Bishops were without any accusation before any Ecclesiastical Superiour Synod or other unheard ejected laid by by their own sheep and Presbyters that owed them obedience Reply to Sect. 2. To your first Question I answer 1. You must distinguish of punishing and ejecting Bishops that deserve it and casting out their Order 2. Between casting out the appurtenances and corruptions which made up the English sort of Prelacie as differing from the Primitive and casting out the Order and Office of Bishops simply in itself 3. Between those Men that do cast them out and those that do not 4. Between a Church that hath Bishops and one that hath none 5. Between them that can have Ordination by them and those that cannot 6. Between those Ministers of this Association that were Ordained by Bishops and those that were not 7. Between the Irregularity and sinfulness or Ordination and the nullity thereof and so between a Minister regularly Ordained and a Minister Irregularly Ordained who is a Minister still Hereupon I answer further in these conclusions 1. That too many of the Bishops lately ejected did deserve it is beyond dispute 2. Whether the Parliament in the state that they were in had not power to punish them by Imprisonment or Ejection as Solemon did Abiathar without an Ecclesiastical Superior or whether the Clergy be exempted from such punishment by the Secular power till they are delivered up to them by the Ecclesiastical Head hath been voluminously disputed in the world already Sutcliffe Bilson Iewel and a multitude more have proved that Kings have power in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that the Pope hath no power of Jurisdiction in England let the Oath of Supremacy judge and if the Metropolitan of Canterbury or the highest Ecclesiastical Power miscarry who shall restrain or eject them but the Civil Power unless we go to the Pope for more acceptable witnesses I commend to you Spalatensis Grotius and Saravia yea Fr. de Victoria and several Parisians The two former one de Republ. Eccles. the other de Imperio summarum potestatum will never be well answered If it be said the King did it not I answer I think the Authority by whom that much was done that we now speak of will be acknowledged sufficient by most that were against the fact and that fought against the Parliament that understood the Laws It was long before the King withdrew 3. Many of those that approved of the Ejection of those unworthy men yet approved not of the dissolution of the Office and such may be many and for ought you know most or all of the Ministers here Associated Though I suppose rather it is otherwise yet while Men do for peace silence their opinions who knows what they are And sure I am many among us had no hand in the downfall of the Bishops and whether any at all be lyable in this to your Charge besides my self whereof more anon I know not most of our Association were in the Universities in the Wars and the rest were some I
enjoy what Success is such a Dispute like to have either with the People or with the Adversary will they not tell us our Church is invisible especially when these few Bishops are dead Except to Sect. 6. 2. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whosoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge that Presbyters while there remain alive fourteen or thirteen or twelve Catholick Protestant Bishops may proceed to publick Excommunications and Absolutions in foro Ecclesiastico without asking those Bishops Consent allowance or taking any notice of them See Resolution 12 13 14 15. and the Scope of the whole Book Reply to Sect. 6. To your second Question I answer The Term Excommunication we use not This Term is used to signify sometimes a delivering up to Satan and casting out of the Catholick Church sometimes only a Ministerial Declaration that such a Person should be avoided by the People acquainting them with their Duty and requiring them to perform it sometimes it signifies the Peoples actual Avoidance In the former Sense we have let it alone and that which you call your Excommunicatio Major we meddle not with much less do we usurp a compelling Power for the Execution The other we know to be consistent with the Principles of Episcopal Protestants if not also with Papists yea even when there is a Bishop resident in the Diocess it being but part of our teaching and guiding Office as Presbyters of that Congregation but I have said enough of this in my Explications already 2. But what if there be twelve latent Bishops in England when for my part I I hear not of above two or three have they Power not only to ordain but also to govern other Diocesses which have no Bishops Yea must they needs govern them 1. Woe then to the Churches of England that must live under such Guilt devoid of all Government 2. Woe to the Sinners themselves that must be left without Christ's Remedy 3. Woe to particular Christians that must live in the continual Breach of God's known Law that saith with such go not to eat c. for want of a Bishop to Execute it 4. Woe to the few Bishops that be for it all the Authority be in them then the Duty and Charge of executing it is only on them and then they are bound to Impossibilities one Bishop must Excommunicate all the Offenders in a great part of the Land when he is not sufficient to the hundredth part of the Work Then when all the Bishops in England are dead save one or two they are the sole Pastors of England and all Discipline must be cast away for want of their Sufficiency Then it seems the Death of one Bishop or two or three doth actually devolve their Charge to another and who knoweth which other This is new Canon Not only Protestant Bishops but some Papists confess that when a Bishop is dead the Government remains in the Presbyters till another be chosen sure they that govern the People at least with him whilst he is living as is confessed need not look on it as an alien supereminent transcendent Work when he is dead Bishop Bromhall against Mil. p. 127. gives People a Judgment of Discretion and Pastors a Judgment of Direction and to the chief Pastors a Judgment of Jurisdiction You may go well allow us by a Judgment of Direction to tell the People that they should avoid Communion with an open wicked Man even while a Bishop is over us Selden de Syne c. 8 9 10. and will tell you another Tale of the way of Antiquity in Excommunication and Absolution than you do hear But of this enough in the Books Except to Sect. 7. 3. Doth not he oblige himself also to acknowledge that not only Presbyters incommuni governing but one single one of them may proceed to Excommunicatiand Absolution in foro Ecclesiastico Reply to Sect. 7. Your third Question I answer by a Denial There is no such Obligation The Declaration of the Peoples Duty to avoid such an one is by one so is every Sermon so is your Episcopal Excommunication Doth not one and that a Presbyter declare or publish it But for advising and determining of it we have tyed our selves not to do it alone though for mine own private Opinion I doubt not easily to prove that one single Bishop or Pastor hath the Power of the Keys and may do all that we agree to do Except to Sect. 8. 4. That not only one single Presbyter but one whose Ordination was never by any Bishop to be Presbyter where also Bishops were that might have been sought unto hath that Power also of Excommunication c. Reply to Sect. 8. Your fourth is answered in the rest if his Ordination have only in the Judgment of Episcopal Protestants yea of some Papists an Irregularity but not a Nullity then he hath Power to do so much as we agree on Your Exception is as much against his other Ministrations Except to Sect. 9. I speak only of the Essence of their Association not insisting on what Mr. Baxter declares to the World that in some Cases the People not satisfied with the Bishops or Presbyters Ordination may accept or take a Man of themselves without any Ordination by Bishops or Presbyters to be their Pastor and Presbyter with Power of Excommunication and Absolution in himself alone without the People see p. 83. Reply to Sect. 9. That this may be done in some Cases I have lately disputed it with a learned Man of your Party and convinced him And methinks Nature should teach you if you were unordained but qualified by Gifts cast among the Indians that you should not let them perish for want of that publick constant teaching which is Ministerial or of Sacraments and Discipline only for want of Ordination that the Substance of Duty should not be thrown by for want of that Order which was instituted for its Preservation and not for its Destruction You dare scarce openly and plainly deny that Necessity warrants the Presbyters of the Reformed Churches to ordain And I doubt you allow it them then on no other grounds then what would warrant this that I am now pleading for Except to Sect. 10. And for any Votum or desire of Bishops Protest Bishops if they might have them or access unto them which was so oft the publick avowed Desire of the chiefest Reformers and Protestants beyond Sea much unlike the Spirit of our Presbyterians see what Mr. Baxter gives us to know p. 85. where comparing our present Bishops with a Leader in an Army he faith Nay it is hard trusting that Man again that hath betrayed us and the Church ibid. These have so apparently falsified their Trust that if we were fully resolved for Bishops yet we cannot submit to them for Ordination or Jurisdiction and then he proves it by Canon he thinks that the Presbyters now should not submit to the present Bishops by Canon Concilii Rbegien ut
Protestant Divines of England are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino for so I say it was direct Popery that first denied Bishops to be jure Divino witness the Pope's and Papelins canvassing in the Council of Trent to oppress by Force and Tyranny the far major and more learned part of the Council that contended for so many Months with Suffrages Arguments and Protestations Protestant like to have it defined that Bishops were jure Divino and only the Pope and his Titulars and Courtiers suffered it not to be propounded least it should be as certainly it would have been defined for then Popes and Presbyterians could not have lorded it so Thus the chiefest and most pious and learned Bishops of our English Church must be branded for Popish Bishop Andrews Mountague White c. Reply to Sect. 15. 1. If you deny the Authors cited by me to be authentick pretend not to adhere to the Episcopal Protestants for sure these are such 2. You do not well to say that all the Protestant Bishops are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino either shew the Words where I so brand them or else do not tell us that your Words are true though in a matter of Fact before your Eyes we may well question your Argument when we find you so untrue in reporting a plain Writing Indeed our late Bishops and those most that were most suspected to be Popish did stand most upon the jus Divinum which many of the first did either disclaim or not maintain But it never came into my Thoughts to brand all for Papists that did own it Do I not cite Downame and others as Protestant Bishops who yet maintain it yea Bishop Andrews whom you name this is not fair 3. As for the Trent Quarrel about Bishops I say but this if the Spanish Bishops and the rest that stood for the jus Divinum of Episcopacy there were no Papists then those that I spoke of in England were none much less And I must cry you mercy for so esteeming them Except to Sect. 16. The 3d Argument is from the uncertainty of Succession which might have done the Hereticks good Service in the old times when St. Irenaeus and Tertullian muster up against them Successions of Catholick Bishops that ever taught as the Church then taught against the Hereticks Reply to Sect. 16. 1. It seems you are confident of an uninterrupted Succession of authoritative Ordination though you seem to think none authoritative but Episcopal But so were not the Protestant Bishops who took the Reformed Churches to have true Ministers and to be true Churches when yet Episcopal Ordination is interrupted with them Such are all those with whose Words you say I fill my Book to whom I may add Men which is strange that were thought nearer your own way As Bishop Bromhall in his late Answer to Militerius who yet would have the Pope to be the Principium Unitatis to the Church and the Answer to Fontanus's Letter said to be Dr. Stewards besides Dr. Fern yea if you were one of those that would yield that Presbyters may ordain yet I am still unpersuaded that you are able to prove an uninterrupted Succession of Authoritative Ordination and if you are able I should heartily thank you if you would perform it and seeing it is so Necessary it is not well that no Episcopal Divine will perform it If you are not able methinks you should not judge it so necessary at least except you know them that are able If you cast it on us to disprove that Succession I refer you to our Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers as to that point 2. As for Tertullian and Irenaeus and others of the primitive Ages pleading such Succession I answer 1. It is one thing to maintain an uninterrupted Succession then when and where it was certain and another to maintain it now when it is not 2. It is one thing then to maintain that such a Succession was de facto and another to affirm that it must be or would be to the end of the World which those Fathers did not It was the Scope of Irenaeus and Tertullian not to make an uninterrupted Succession of standing absolute necessity ad esse Officii nor to prophecy that so it should still be and the Church should never want it but from the present certainty of such a Succession de facto to prove that the Orthodox Churches had better Evidence of the Soundness of their Faith than the Hereticks had If this be not their meaning I cannot understand them it was easy then to prove the Succession and therefore it might be made a Medium against Hereticks to prove that the Churches had better Evidence than they But now the Case is altered both through time and Sin It might have been proved by Tradition without Scripture what was sound Doctrine and what not before the Scripture was written An Heretick might have been confuted in the Days of the Apostles without their Writings and perhaps in a great measure some time after but it follows not that they may be so to the End of the World Those that heard it from the Mouth of the Apostles could tell the Church what Doctrine they taught but how uncertain a way Tradition would have been to acquaint the World with God's Mind by that time it had passed through the puddle of depraved Ages even to 1653. God well knew and therefore provided us a more certain way So is it also in this Case of Succession as the Fathers pleaded it against the Hereticks to prove the Soundness of the Tradition of those Churches Except to Sect. 17. Against all which a Quirk it seems lay that if secretly any of them had had but a secret Canonical Irregularity all the following Successions were null But the evident Truth is much otherwise that the Church never anulled the Acts or Ordinations made by Bishops which the Catholick Church then had accepted and reputed Catholick Bishops though afterwards they came to know of any Secret Irregularities or canonical Disablings had they then been urged or prosecuted by any against those Bishops and then they should have been accepted for Bishops by the Church no longer Reply to Sect. 17. 1. I have proved and more can do open and not only secret Irregularities in the Church of Rome's Ordinations known a Priâre and not only after the Ordinations The Multitude of Protestant Writers even English Bishops have made that evident enough against the Pope which you call a Querk general Councils have condemned Popes as Hereticks and Infidels and yet they have ordained more 2. If it were otherwise yet all your Answer would only prove that we must sometimes take them for Bishops who were none when the Nullity is secret but not that they are Bishops indeed or have Authority It is one thing to
say that God will make their Acts as useful to the honest Receiver as if the Ordainer had done it by just Authority and another to say that such an Ordainer had Authority because his Incapacity was not known or judged that is because it was not then known that he had none 2. Moreover if the Catholick Churches Acceptation and Reputation which you mention would serve turn then 1. It were well worth the knowing what you mean by the Catholick Church do you mean the whole or only a Part If the whole then few Ministers or Bishops must be so accepted for who is known to all Christians in the World If a Part then what Part must it be what if one Part repute him a true Minister or Bishop and the other a false or none which is very common If you say it is the People over whom he is Pastor then nothing more common then for them to be divided in their Judgments If you say it is the greater part then we shall be at utter Uncertainties for our Succession as little knowing what the greater part of the People thought of our Predecessors if you mean the Superior Bishops then a Metropolitan it seems is the Catholick Church when a Bishop is to be judged of and it is like a Patriarch for a Metropolitan and the Pope for him But as 1. We know not how these judged of our Predecessors 2. So we little believe that these Mens Judgments can make a Man to be a Bishop that is none or make him have a Power which else he had not this is worse than the Doctrine which hangs the Efficacy of the Sacraments on the Priests Intention It 's like the Faith of some that think to make a Falsehood become true by believing it true 3. And you know it is the Pope whose Succession we are questioning and which is the Catholick Church that must accept and repute him a true Pope If the Council of Basil were the Catholick Church then you know how Eugenius was reputed and then where is our Succession I doubt not but true Christians that are not guilty of the Nullity of the Ordination nor knew it may have the Benefit and Blessing of such a Man's Administrations and they may be valid to the Receiver But that is on another ground which I have lately manifessed to another in debating this Cause and not that the Administrator had any true Ministerial Authority from God Again I refer you to my Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers Except to Sect. 18. V.G. Put case one not baptized thought to have been baptized had per ignorantiam facti been promoted to be Bishop Archibishop or Patriarch yet so long as the Church knew it not nor himself perhaps but did accept him bona Fide though ipso Facto had it been known such had been uncapable of Episcopal Order yet being so accepted by the Catholick Church Ordinations done by him were not null nor did he interrupt the Succession but latente omni defectu baptismi he was a true Bishop though after his Death by any Writing they had come to discover it for the Church as all Judicatures rightly proceeds secundum allegata probata the same I say of secret Symony V. S. But on the other side to speak now to the Presbyterian Case Reply to Sect. 18. Nay then put Case the Man were not Ordained and the Church took him to be Ordained you say the Church must proceed secundum allegata probata doth not this give up your Cause and yield all that I plead for which is that an authoritative Ordination and so an uninterrupted Succession is not simply and absolutely necessary to the being of the Ministry For you confess your Churches Reputation may serve without it By the way take head least you either make the People to be none of the Catholick Church or at least you give a Power to the People to make Ministers Bishops and Popes by their bare Thoughts without Ordination or so much as Election But then you will remember that if Reputation without just Ordination may serve turn I know not but those among us may be Ministers whom you disclaim For the Pastors and People of all the Protestant Churches in Europe except your selves here do take such for Ministers so far as it is possible by Writings Professions and Practices to know their Minds and I hope they are as good a part of the Catholick Church as the Pope and his Consistory are If Reputation then will make Pastors without Ordination we may have as good a Plea as those you plead for For the case of Symony you mention see what I cited out of Dr. Hammond and you know sure that many Canons make Ordinations null and the Office null ipso Facto whether ever the Party be questioned in Judgment or not such Canons and Laws are equal to Sentences A Case also may be known that is never questioned and Judged who could question the Sodomitical unclean murderous Popes though it was commonly known I take it for granted therefore that the Knowledge degraded them without a Judgment according to your own Words here unless one part of them contradict the other Except to Sect. 19. The same ancient Church which did make void and annul constantly all Ordinations made by meer Presbyters whether they Schismatically arrogated to themselves to be Bishops and were not nor so reputed by the Church or otherwise upon any Pretention whatsoever for at that time no necessity could be with any Colour nor was pretended Reply to Sect. 19. 1. But is it the Judgment of the Ancient Church that will serve to degrade or null a Minister of this Age If so then all your former Arguing is in the Dust For though your Popes had none to Judge them Wicked and Uncapable then yet the ancient Church before them did make void and null the Office and Ordinations of such as they If it must be a present Power that must do it we have not yet been called to any Judicature about it 2. Your Parenthesis seems to intimate that if the Presbyters be but Reputed Bishops by the Church then their Ordinations are not null All 's well on our side then except you only or the Romanists be the whole Western Church For not only Pastors and People here do take Presbyters to be Bishops having Power of Ordination but so do the rest of the Reformed Churches or at least most of them They think that the primitive Bishop was the Bishop of one particular Church and not of a Diocess or many Churches 3. You talk of necessity again but you would not say that necessity would have excused them then if there had been such though it seems you would be thought to judge of the Reformed Churches as the Protestant Bishops do or else hide your Judgment in part Except to Sect. 20. These Three Fallacies are the Summ of all his Arguments rather popular Calumnies for want of Argument
to cry out these Men are not Protestants at least in this see pag. 49. âin these are Popish who contend for Succession of Ordinations Reply to Sect. 20. I see nothing to forbid me to say that these few frivolous Exceptions and the Name of Fallacies Sophisms c. is the Summ of your Opposition and how far you manifest your self to be free from Popery I leave to others to judge for I will not till I know you Except to Sect. 21. And here give me leave because there is a Mask of Christian Concord and Charity even to the embracing the Episcopal Party also pretended in this Union let me a little give you a taste of the Spirit of this Charity of theirs whether it be like the true genuine Christian Spirit and Love Besides the Charity he allows to Bishops which I have writ out unto you in my Second Page to which you may add that of pag. 74. The late Bishops even in the Judgment of all moderate Men that ever I spoke with did very many of them deserve to be put down and More reckons four Wren Land c. but come we to the Charity he allows Episcopal Divines as he calls them Reply to Sect. 21. If by a Mask you intimate a dissembling Pretence he that better knows my Heart than you will be Judge between you and me concerning this but I dare not say that my Charity is of as high a Degree as theirs that have more of that Christian Grace But I bewail any Uncharitableness and beg Pardon of God and Man 2. But were found you any Mââk of Concord in my Book as with any Bishops but the Protestant Bishops and their Followers I never extended it to others Not that I have not Charity to them or wish not Concord with them but that it is impossible till they change their Minds And here I put it to your self and to all of your own way to tell me what you would have wished me and all the Ministers of our Association to have done for Concord with you and whether you will not confess it impossible till one party change their Minds for the preset Rulers will not have Episcopal Ordination nor allow any in the Publick Exercise of the Ministry but those that come in by meer Presbyters in your Esteem Many of the Ministers after earnest study and Prayer cannot be satisfied that Episcopacy is Iure âivino or lawful it is not in their power to change their own Judgments Till they do change them and procure Episcopal Ordination you will not take them for any Ministers at all no nor joyn in the Association least you be guilty of acknowledging them Ministers what means then have we left for Concord with such as you Only this Renounce your Ministry all must forbear Preaching and Baptizing and all Ministerial Duties all forsake the Congregations of Christ here and throughout England that are in the same case and then you will be at concord with us but what concord not as fellow Pastors that cannot be when we must first renounce that Office the meaning then of your desired Concord is this give up all your Offices and Churches to us and let us alone to have our way and do all and then we will have Concord with you as our people whilst you obey us Truly we have found you Predecessors step Fathers and hard Task-masters yet the Lord knows my heart that I take it far more easie incomparably and in itself desirable to such as I to be Ruled then to Rule to Obey then to Command so be it we be not commanded to sin against God and run into Hell But when we have all forsaken our Churches and Offices for peace with you is all the work done 1. How shall we do for peace with God and Conscience for over-running his work and starving Souls 2. How shall we bear the cryes of poor People for the Bread of Life 3. What shall God's Worship and our Congregations do Who shall supply our Places are there able faithful Men enough of your Way O that we could see them It is not two or three or ten in a Country that would serve turn If there be enough why did you permit so many drunken sottish Readers and so many hundred wicked Livers which the Church is not well rid of yet See the Centuries of those rejected in the Beginning while Mr. White was Chairman I never owned the casting out of any worthy or tollerable Man for Loyalty yet what Reproaches did he and others undergo for casting out such a pack of Swearers or Drunkards or Adulterers or the like is there no Concord to be had with you but by giving up our poor People to such as these again For my part I love Charity and Peace better than ever I did but Charity hath Eyes or is guided by Eyes I am not a Stranger in England I knew Multitudes of the old Episcopal Clergy that were ignorant or of wickedâ Lives and the great Hinderances of the Salvation of their People when they should seek to save I knew but here and there one of them that was learned and godly serious Preachers Those Men I love and honour according to their Worth as much as any Men of any party These only did we desire Concord with as Ministers and alas if it be not to be had without forsaking all our Charges and giving up a whole Country to so few of these the Will of the Lord be done for I will never believe that this is his Will till you bring other Reasons for it then yet any of you all have publickly done And I warn all honest Episcopal Divines that they take heed of drawing your Guilt upon them and of concurring with Men of such dangerous Principles as you are your way to Concord must be like the Romanists the greatest Schismaticks on the Face of the Earth who cry up Unity Unity but themselves must be the Centre or it must be only in their Way and on their Terms They will unite with no Christians in all the World that are not of their Party for a Party they are though they will be called the Catholick Church and do not you go this way too far You will have Concord with none as Ministers but those of your own Party all the rest must be no Ministers with you nor their People take them for such Durst you whoever you are for I know you not be bound to answer for us and bear us out before God in Judgment if we should all give up our Places or preach no more durst you be bound upon pain of Damnation to your selves to save all our People from being condemned for it if they should all renounce and forsake us and all the Ministerial Worship of God which we perform and the Churches we guide Alas it is not your telling us that the Holy Saint Ignatius is lately vindicated that will satisfy our Consciences in a Case of this Moment even
This is like the Man that swears he never swore in his Life you blame me with charging you with what you contend for 2. But you do with as little Candor as verity say that in the next Page it is those same Men that I speak of when I purposely and plainly call these Gentlemen of the Episcopal Protestant Party as distinct from the Cassandrian Papists and as helping us in the Discovery of the Danger But I perceive it is your Desire to make Men believe that I took them for all one But a good Cause needs to such a way of Defenceâ Did you think that the learned Doctor to whom you wrote would believe you who had my Book at hand and could see that your Words were false And is it not strange that upon such a dishonest Foundation you can build such a triumphant Exclamation as follows See how Uncharitableness betrays and accuses it self c. Exception to Sect. 27. Pag. 50. n. 4. If these that I dispute with will shew themselves openly to be Papists and plead that Women or Lay-Men may baptize in case of Necessity c. See see his Magisterial canting crying out Popery upon whatever likes him not Doth he know whom he here condemns for Papists Yes he doth for he tells us pag. 81. that the 38th Canon Elibertint Concilii and he tells us right decrees that in case of necessity a Lay Man may baptize well an ancient Catholick Council held under the primitive pure Times whilst Persecution yet exercised the Church more ancient than the Council of Nice and whereof Magnus Osius Confessor was a part is peacht of Popery too together with us Enough of this I might add much more All this within the compass of twenty Leaves from pag. 45. to 85. Reply to Sect 27. All this but a meer Mistake whether willing or unwilling I never took this Point alone enough to denominate a Man a Papist but because it is a Point wherein the Papists generally hold one way and the Protestants another I take it to be a ãâã Discovery which side the forementioned Persons are of I durst not say that the Error of Purgatory or praying for the Dead or praying to Saints no â nor Transubstantiation alone is sufficient to denominate a Man a Papist But yet I think if a Man would degrade our Ministers and unchurch our Churches and all the Reformed Churches that have not Bishops and maintain the Romish Ordination and Church and yet saythe is not a Papist your Addition of one of these would further the Discovery I am not ignorant that Tertullian and others speak of Lay Mens Baptizing in case of necessity but not for Women though Pamelius would pervert Tertullian's Words for that End Except to Sect. 28. To give you a Taste when he quotes Fathers as he quoted above the 80th Canon Apostotical to eject our Bishops So also when he would prove that the ancient Church held it lawful for Ministers to impose Hands for the confirming of Parties haptised pag. 58. for Proof of what he saith he pretends to but Two Authors viz. Ambrose in Ephes. 4. and Augustin quoest ex vet novo Testam mixt both certainly spurious Pieces and the latter the Work of an Heretick Reply to Sect. 28. You go the farther the worse I quoted Bishop Downame as one of the Episcopal Protestants to shew that it is their Judgment that Ministers ordained without Bishops may be true Ministers Now because the Bishop brings these two Testimonies on the by about Confirmation and Reconciliation of Penitents you do in my Judgment not well 1. Feign me to be the Speaker of those Words and the Alledger of those Authors when it was a Bishop and his Words go cited because a Bishop 2. You make me to do it in order to prove the Power of Ministers to impose Hands on the Confirmed and Reconciled when even Bishop Downame brought in that and these Testimonies thereto but as subservient to the others But perhaps I left you some occasion of this mistake to charge me with the Words of the Bishop No none at all I enclosed his Words with this Mark and after I wrote so far Bishop Downame that there might be no place for such an Oversight But where you talk of but two Authors for this I thought you had known how easy it is to bring more For if it be the Ceremony of Imposing Hands that you would deny to the Presbyters it was so far from being denied theââ anciently that even the English Bishops allowed it them in Ordination which is the greater If you mena the Power of Confirming and Reconciling it 's known the Bishops might delegate Presbyters to it and the Corepiscopi used it yea Presbyters I think in some Cases And for Reconciliation Bishop Usher tells you in the Words I cited that even Deacons used it or had it Yet is not the Testimony of those Authors contemptible that ascribed to Ambrose is taken by Erasmus to be Remigius or Anselme by Maldonate to be Remigius by Brugensis and Bellarmine to be Hillarius Diaconus And well might Downame alledge them against the Papists when Bellarmine the Rhemists Alan and others so esteem them and quote them as Ambrose when it serves their turns And for the Book of Quest. in vet nov Test. 1. The Papists citing it Bellarmine Harding Turrian Eckius Cope Rhemists c. Downame might well cite it ad Hominem yea ad Rem it being matter of Fact that he speaks to and the Author so ancient that Hierome seems to take notice of him Except to Sect. 29. In all this you see I have not disputed the Case with him but only discovered to you his manner for that he himself professes he is resolved in this Book to forbear the Dispute p. 79. princip pag. 77. he would give us to understand that he hath much more behind that he can say by way of Argument for this is only crying out Popery Popish c. for Presbyters Power of Governing Excommunicating ordaining without a Bishop Let him be intreated to do it and lay aside his poor kind of calumniating his Adversary and deal Christianly by Arguments only and he shall soon be answered I believe For the present he may know his Papers prevail not but only provoke those he writes against Reply to Sect. 29. It 's strange that to call a Papist a Papist should be accounted Calumniation I profess to speak of none but Cassandrian Papists I name none They that are not such have no reason to say that I calumniate them when I professedly accept and and honour and seek Reconciliation with them They that are such methinks should not be ashamed of it It 's an ill Religion which a Man must be asham'd of and an ill Profession that is ashamed of a true Religion 2. That my Papers prevail not but provoke is no wonder 1. The Papists I expected to provoke by discovering their Designs and attempted not
the publick Lectures 4. In the Strength of God taken Courage to preach to the Congregation the Doctrine of the Church Universal and its Unity from 1 Cor. 12. 26. and from thence to shew them the Schismatical state wherein we are which Sermons hath brought the Anabaptists about my Ears from other Parts Four or five of them opposed me the last first day after my Sermon and because of what I had preached the Day before half my own Congregation never came to hear me Their Hearts are quite gone from me Not any of the Church cometh to see me or ask me any Question Now 3. and Lastly As to the present frame of my Spirit and State it is thus As to the uniting Work I have in Hand I thank God I am bold and am waiting on God upon whose Influences I live to guide me in Thought Word and Deed about it but I have lately been sorely troubled with one Temptation What should I preach or write any thing for concerning Religion I cannot endure Toâments for Christ if I should be triedâ 't is not for such faint hearted Creatures as I to meddle in such Work Now the Conscience of this that indeed I am a poor Creature weak both in Faith and Spirit hath made way for this Temptation to seize upon me to the saddening of my Soul and to the enâeebling of me to so great a Degree that for this two or three Days I have not been able to do any thing As for my present State in respect of the Church I am still with them and purpose God willing to Morrow to apply what I have preached about Schism The next Wednesday is appointed to debate things our Friends call in the Heads of other Churches to their Assistance and I hear those from abroad intend to stir up our Friends to cast me out of the Church what the Issue will be God knoweth and what to do with my self afterwards I know not I know I shall be sorely beset by the Enemy but my hope is in God that he will not suffer me to be tempted above that I am able and that my merciful Redemer and High Priest will be touched with the Feeling of my Infirmities himself being tempted he knoweth how to succour those that are tempted Heb. 4. 16. saith Grace hath a Throne and 5. 20 21. saith Grace reigneth Oh blessed be God! 1 Ephes. saith he hath given him to be Head over all things to the Church not to govern it only but to influence it with all necessary Supplies to fill all in all He supposed while we are here we shall be in an indigent Condition divers ways but at that Throne where Grace Reigneth there is Grace enough to supply all our Wants Therefore 1 Ioh. Of his fulness we have all received Grace for ârace and because such poor Creatures as I sensible of much Unworthiness are very apt to doubt our Entertainment and fear where no fear is blessed Jesus calleth us to come boldly Sir when I shall have done my Work where I am which I believe will be shortly I could be content to return to Mr. Goodwin's if God would like it and that my Re-union with that Church would not hinder my main Work They have of their own accord made a Vote to receive me when my Spirit should be free to return and indeed always have manifested much Love to me but the Truth is I am so clog'd with Scruples about popular Government and such like things that though to Will be present with me to perform I find not Mr. Goodwin never renounced his Ordination to take it from the People and is for Free Communion and saith will join in such a Uniting Draught as I hope you will now draw up and prosecute presently and which I will labour in God willing to promote when it cometh here That which mainly sticketh with me in respect of returning to Mr. Goodwin's is that when I shall publish what is in my Heart about the Causes of the Churches Malady in England I shall reflect upon the Independant Principles exceedingly Now my fear is that my Relation to them will be a Curb to me I know not what to do but my Eye is up towards God I am sure I have reaped Benefit by your Counsel and hope I have had an Interest in your Prayers which I still beg being confident God will hear you Sir the Lord preserve your Life and bless your Labours I hope it will not be long e're I shall hear from you who am Your affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Tho. Lambe From my House in Great St. Bartholomews My Wife presents her Love with many Thanks to you To his very worthy Friend Mr. R. Baxter Preacher of God's Word at Kidderminster in Worcestershire Dear Brother IF I understand any thing of the Ways of the Love of God and can perceive by the Effects below what Souls the Light of his Countenance doth shine upon you owe much to his Love and are used by him as he useth the dearest of his own what a Mercy is his Illumination and how much greater his quickening Life that possesseth you with Love to God and Man O did we but know when we feel one Spark of Love to God and his Servants in our Souls from what an infinite Love it comes and to what it tends and what it signifieth surely there would be more studying comparatively for Charity that edifieth than for the Knowledge that puffeth up If your Work for God did cost you nothing it would not be so comfortable to you symptomatically or effectively Though I confess it is harder to bear the Censures of Godly Men than of the World yet the âiger the Tryal the fuller will be the Evidence of Sincerity in Submission and the greater that Grace and Peace that is used to be given in for Encouragement or Reward And yet I must tell you that your Tryal here is not of the greatest when your Recovery is like to procure you the Esteem of Ten if not an Hundred of God's Servants for one that you are like to lose and I am glad that you give your Censurers so good a Description for if they are such as you describe them I am persuaded many of them will come after you in time And is it not a great Encouragement to you that your Brother and Fellow-labourer comes over with you and so your Hands are strengthned and half your Opposition taken off and turned into Comfort For though I never told him of your Letters to me nor you of his yet I take it for granted that you know each others Minds and ways and yet you know that he is satisfied and resolved for Catholick Communion I pray you go together and do what you do as one Man while you have one Mind and Heart I perceive the Signs of Iudgment and Charity also in him I beseech you also both to hold on your Charity even to them that are offended with
Conformists and Nonconformists The Episcopal Conformists are of Two Sorts some lately sprung up that follow Archbishop Laud and Dr. Hammond hold that there are no Political Churches lower than Diocesan because there are no Bishops under them and so that the Parish-Churches are no Churches properly but part of Churches nor the Incumbants true Bishops but Curates under Bishops nor the Foreigners true Ministers or Churches that have no Diocesan Bishops This Party called themselves the Church of England 1658 1659. When we knew but of Four or Five Bishops left alive who Dr. Hammond said with that Party of the Clergy were of his Mind And these seemed uppermost in 1660 and 1661. and were the men whom I disputed with in my Treatise of Episcopacy The other Episcopal Conformists are they that follow the Reformers and hold the Doctrine of the Scripture as only sufficient to Salvation and as explicatory of it the Thirty Nine Articles the Homilies Liturgy Book of Ordination Apology c. These take the Parish-Pastors for true Rectors and the Parish-Churches for true Churches but subordinate to the Diocesans and to be ruled by them But the Laws have imposed on them some Declarations and Subscriptions which they think they may put a good Sense on though by stretching the Words from their usual Signification The Bishops and Deans are chosen by the King indeed and by the Prebends in shew The Incumbant are chosen by Patrons ordained by Diocesans with Presbyters and accepted by Consent of the Communicants of the Parish The Episcopal Government is managed partly by the Bishops and partly by Lay-Civilians and Surrogates The Episcopal Nonconformists are for true Parish-Churches and Ministers reformed without swearing promising declaring or subscribing to any but sure clear necessary things desiring that the Scripture may be their Canons disowning all persecuting Canons taking the capable in each Parish for the Communicant and Church and the rest for Hearers and Catechized Persons desiring that the Magistrate be Judge whom he will maintain approve and tolerate and the Ordainers Judges whom they will ordain and the People be free Consenters to whose Pastoral Care they will trust their Souls desiring that every Presbyter be an Overseer of the Flock and every Church that hath many Elders have one Incumbent President for Unity and Order and that Godly Diocesans may without the Sword or Force have the Oversight of many Ministers and Churches and all these be confederate and under the Government of a Christian King but under no Foreign Jurisdiction though in as much Concord as is possible with all the Christian World And they would have the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution taken out of the Hands of Lay-Men Chancellors or Lay Brethren and the Diocesans to judge in the Synods of the Presbyters in Cases above Parochial Power That this was the Judgment of the Nonconformists that treated for Peace in 1660. and 1661. is to be seen in their printed Proposals in which they desired Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Episcopacy joined with the Synods of Presbyters II. The Presbyterians are for Parish-Churches as aforesaid guided by Elders some teaching and some only ruling and these under Synods of the like Class without Diocesan or Parochial Superiors and all under a National Assembly of the same as the Supreme Church Power III. The Independants are for every Congregation to have all Church Power in it self without any superior Church-Government over them whether Bishops or Synods yet owning Synods for voluntary Concord Of these some are against local Communion with the aforesaid Churches and for avoiding them by Separation some as if they were no Churches and had no true Ministers some for Forms of Prayer some for faulty Communicants some for Episcopal Ordination and some for subscibing and some for all these and many other pretended Reasons But some Independants are for occasional Communion with the other Churches and some also for stated Communion in the Parish-Churches for which you may read Mr. Tomes's the chief of the Anabaptists in a full Treatise and Dr. Thomas Goodwin on the first of the Ephesians earnest against Separation as the old Nonconformists were Now which of all these should you join with I affirm that all these except the Separatists are parts of the Church of England as it is truly essentiated by a Christian Magistracy and confederate Christian particular Churches All are not equally sound and pure but all are parts of the Church of England Liturgies and Ceremonies and Canons and Chancellors are not essential to it as a Church or Christian Kingdom But it is now a Medly less concordant than is desirable but you are not put upon any such Disputes whether you will call the present Church of England Roman as denominated from the King that is the Head or whether you will say that King and Parliament conjunct are that Head and so it is yet Protestant because the Laws are so or whether you will denominate it materially Protestant because the Clergy and Flocks are so your Doubt is only what Congregation to join with I answer That which all your Circumstances set together make it most convenient to the publick good and your own Though I hold not Ministerial Conformity lawful I take Lay-Communion in any of these except the Separatists to be lawful to some Persons whose case maketh it fittest But I judge it unlawful for you to confine your Communion to any one of them so as to refuse occasional Communion with all save them 1. The Parish-Churches have the Advantage of Authority Order and Confederacy and the Protestant Interest is chiefly cast upon them therefore I will not separate from Lay-Communion with them though they need much Reformation 2. You must not go against your Father's Will no nor divide the Family without necessity The same I say of your Husband when you are married 3. The Nonconforming Episcopal and Presbyterians have not such Churches as they desire but only temporarily keep Meetings like to Chappels as Assistants to others till Parishes are reformed 4. I think it a stated sinful Schism to fix as a Member of such a Church and Pastor as is of the Principles of the Writing which you shewed me I. Because they grievously slander the Parish-Churches and Ministers as none and their Worship and Government as far worse than it is II. Because they Renounce local Communion with almost all the Body or Church of Christ on Earth by renouncing it on a Reason common to almost all III. Because they separate from such Churches as Christ and his Apostles joined with and so seem to condemn Christ and his Apostles as Sinners Christ ordinarily joined with the Iews Church in Synagogues and Temple-Offices when the High-Priest bought the Place of Heathens and the Priests Pharisees and Rulers were wicked Persecutors and the Sadduces Hereticks or worse he sent Iudas as an Apostle when he knew him to be a Theif or a Devil The Apostles neither separated nor allowed Separation from
such Churches as Corinth Gallatia Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Laodicea c. defiled with odious Crimes and Errors though God command them to reform IV. Because hereby they tempt Men to infidelity when they hear that Christ hath no greater a Body and Church than they with which Men may lawfully communicate and rob him of almost his Kingdom V. By false accusing the Prayers of almost all Christ's Church and renouncing Communion with them they forfeit their Interest in the Benefit of their Prayers and of the Communion of Saints VI. Who but Satan would have all the People of England and all Nations to live without any publick Church-worship till they can have better than such as is in our Parish-Churches as if none were better VII With whom would these Men have held Communion if they had lived in any Age till two hundred Years ago when as far as ever I could find there was not one Congregation of Christians or Hereticks in all the World that was against Forms of Worship or Bishops or all Ceremonies let them name one if they can what then will they say to the Question Where was your new Church before the two last Ages Had Christ no Church for One Thousand Two Hundred Years in all the World that a Christian ought to join with in local Communion Did Christ disown them all and yet was he their Head and they his Body Or are these Men as much stricter than Christ as the Pharisees were about his Converse and the Sabbath VIII They condemn themselves by their own Practice while some of them cry down Communion with imposed Forms of Liturgy they sing Psalms imposed by the Pastor or Clerk which are the chief part of imposed Liturgies They sing them in new Versions Metre and Tunes different from the Apostles Churches and yet better for us They use imposed Translations of the Scripture The Pastor imposeth his Words of Prayer as a Forme which the People ââst all join with This is but a different Mode of Liturgies IX Charity or Christian Love and Unity are the great vital Graces of the Christian Church And oh how wofully do these Men violate and destroy it when as is said they renounce Communion for a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Years at least with all known Churches on Earth as unlawful in point of local Presence 2. They bind all Christians that will hear them to do the like to this Day to almost all the Churches on Earth 3. Their Principles and Reasons make it sinful to have Communicated with the Reformers the Waldenses Wickliffe Luther Melancthon Zwinglius Calvin Bucer and the rest 4. And they condemn Communion with the Martyrs both under Heathens and of later Times who made or valued and used Liturgies 5. They condemn local Communion with all the late and former holy excellent Bishops and Conformists such as Archbishops Parker Grindall Abbot Usher c. Bishops Hall Morton Pilkinton Downame Davenant and many such All that glorious Tribe of Conformists Preston Sibbs Bolton Whately Crook Io. Downame Stoughton c. Oh how great a Number and how excellent almost matchless Men Almost all the late Westminster Assembly 6. And all the excellent old Nonconformists that were against Separation Dearing Greenham Perkins Bayn Reignolds Dod Hieldersham Bradshaw Ball and Multitudes of such of greatest Piety and Parts 7. All or near all the Reformed Churches 8. All the meer Independants that were against their Separation such as Dr. Tho. Goodwin aforesaid and many of his Mind 9. Yea they condemn the Old Brownists who Printed their Profession of Communion with many Parish-Churches and with Liturgies 10. And they utterly condemn all local Communion with the meer Nonconformists of this Age who offered Terms of Concord in Liturgy and Episcopacy 1661. None of all these are good enough for these Men especially their Women and Lads to have any present Communion with Do they know how little radical Difference there is between saying as Persecutors All these are Hereticks and as Separatists All these are unworthy of Christian Communion Yea the Pope rejecteth Communion but with two or three parts of the Christian World and these Men renounce local Communion with almost all Is this the way of Love and Unity in the Body of Christ X. Is Provoking Excommunicating them the way to reconcile the Publick Ministers and Churches Or is this a time to join with the Enemies of the Protestant Religion to draw all the People to forsake them That so the Reformation here may have only private Toleration as we have till some Disorder is said to forfeit it the King promiseth to defend them and shall separating Protestants pull them down XI The Weakness of these Mens Judgments and Dealings bring all the Nonconformists into Contempt and Scorn with Multitudes of undistinguishing Men as if we were all of the same Temper and hardeneth Thousands in hatred to them all and maketh them long to be persecuting us again and keepeth them from repenting of the Evil they have done Offence must come but woe to them by whom it cometh XII God hath most expresly decided this Controversy in Scripture and these Men seeming Adherents to Scripture cannot see it Rom. 14. and 15. and 16. 17. Ioh. 17. 22 24. Phil. 2. Eph. 4. In a Word in all those Texts that plead for Church Unity and Love and all those that speak of the sinfulness of Schism and that a kingdom divided cannot stand and all those that condemn Dividers and all that command mutual forbearance c. Do you think that receive one another as Christ received us even them that are weak in Faith it self doth mean no more than do not silence them or imprison or murder them No doubt but it meaneth receive them to Church-Communion XIII What a great Sin is unjust silencing worthy Preachers And do not these Men endeavour to silence more thousands than the Act of Uniformity or Bishops did when they tell all that it 's a Sin to hear them XIV If it be unlawful to join with others that are no worse than they it must be unlawful to join with them If I be guily of all that is said or done amiss in the Parish-Churches I shall be more guilty if I join with the Separatists I am not desirous to accuse any but to cover their Faults as far as I can But I cannot resolve your Question without telling you that I take their Church-State to be so far different from the Rule and in many Respects worse than the Parish-Churches as that to join with them as fixed covenanted Members will be a state of Sin 1. Scripture-fixed Ministers or Elders were all ordained by superior general Pastors either alone or with Presbyteries So are not theirs if by any at all 2. Scripture-flocks were ruled by their Pastors Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Thes. 5. 13 14. 1 Pet. 5. 1 Tim. 3 c. But many of their Flocks are the Rulers of themselves and Pastors 3. Scripture particular Churches
and perswading all the Families House by House they saw the Body of Town and Parish in love with serious Religion they told me they had been undone if I had followed their Counsel William Allen who with Mr. Lamb were Pastors of an Anabaptist Arminian Church first separated from the Parish-Churches and next from the Independents was turned from Independency much by seeing being our Kidderminster Factor that Parish-Churches may be made as holy as separated ones and the People not left by lazy Separatists to the Devil So that this Experience made him and his Companion more against Independency than I am 11. They abuse the People in indulging them in works that they were never called to nor are capable of nor can give any comfortable account of to God that is To be the Judges of Persons admitted to Communion and of Mens Repentance and Fitness for the Sacrament c. whenas God hath put this Power called The Church Keys into the Pastors and Rulers hands the not over-forced Men but Voluntiers Baptism is the true Churches Entrance and the Baptizer is the Judge of the Capacity of the Baptized no more but Consent to particular Church Relation and Duty is necessary to Membership of Neighbour Christians in particular Churches And nothing but proved nullifying the Baptismal Covenant by Heresie or Sin impenitently maintained or contained in doth forfeit their visible right to Communion And if the People must judge of all these they must have their Callings to examine every Person and they must grow wiser and abler then many of their Leaders are 12. Their Churches have among them no probable way of Concord but they are as a heap of Sand that upon every Commotion fall in pieces The Experience of it in Holland broke them to nothing And it so affected the Sober in New-England that in 1660. or 1661. Mr. Ash and I were fain to disswade Mr. Norton and Mr. Broadstreet whom they sent hither as Commissioners from inclining to our English Episcopacy foretelling them what was doing and we have seen so deeply were they afraid of being received by that Peoples uncurable Separation from their ablest Pastors whenever any earnest erroneous Teachers would seduce them Their Building wanteth Cement 13. God hath so wonderfully by his Providences disowned the way of Schism and Separation on how good pretences soever that I should be too like Pharaoh in hardness if I should despise his warnings For Instance 1. In the Apostles days all are condemned that separated from the setled Churches even when those Churches had many heinous Scandals and St. Paul saith That all they in Asia were turned from him The Authority and Miracles of the Apostles did not serve to keep Men from Separation and raising Schisms 2. Even when the Church lay under Heathen Persecutors for 294 years yet Swarms of Condemned Sects arose to so great a number as that the naming and confuting them filleth great Volumes to the great Reproach of the Christian Churches and Scandal of the Heathens 3. As soon as Constantine delivered the Churches from the Flames of cruel Persecution and set up Christians in Power and Wealth separating Sects grew greater than before each Party crying up their several Bishops and Teachers and grew worse by Divisions till thereby they tempted the Papal Clergy to unite Men carnally by force 4. At Luther's Reformation Swarms of Separatists arose in Germany Holland Poland c. to the great dishonour of the Protestant Cause 5. Here in England it hath been ill in Queen Elizabeth's time by the Familists and Separatists and far worse since It was such as Quarterman and Lilburn and other Separatists that drew Tumults and Crowds down to Westminster to draw the Parliament to go beyond their own Judgment and thereby divided the Parliament-men and drove away the King which was the beginning of our odious War It was the Separating Party that all over the Land set up Anti-Churches in the Towns that had able godly Ministers when they had nothing imposed on them to excuse it neither Bishops Liturgies nor Ceremonies So that Churches became like Cockpits or Fencing-Schools to draw asunder the Body of Christ. It was the Separating Party that got under Cromwell into the Army and became the common Scorners of a godly able Ministry by the Names of the Priest-byters the Driviners the Westminster-sinners the Dissembly-men as Malignant Drunkards did and worse It was these that thought Success had made them Rulers of the Land that caused the disbanding of all the Soldiers that disliked their Spirit and Way and then pull'd down first eleven and then the major part of the Parliament imprisoning and turning out Men of eminent Piety and Worth and making a Parliament of the minor part and their killing the King and afterward with scorn turning out that minor part that had done their work and to whom they had oft profest themselves Servants It was these Men that set up a Usurper that made a thing called a Parliament all of his and his Armies nomination If this should ever be imitated whom may we thank It was these Men that set up the Military Government of Major-Generals It was they that set up and pull'd down so many feigned Supream Powers in a few years as made themselves the Scorn of the World and by a dreadful warning of Divine Justice all their victorious Army and Power dropt in pieces like Sand as they would have used the Church and was dissolved without one Battle or drop of Blood save the after-Blood of their Leaders that were hang'd drawn and quarter'd by Parliament Sentence It is these Men and these doings that have hardened thousands against Reformation and turned all that was done for it O what did it cost and what raised hopes had many of the Success into Reproach quieted the Consciences of those that have thought they served God by silencing hating and persecuting those that they thought had been of this guilty Sect. In a word the spirit and way of causeless Separation whether by violent Prelatists Pursuits and Excommunications or by self-conceited Sectaries was never owned or blest by God If any say truly or falsly You have had a hand in some such thing your self I answer If I had I will hate it and write against it so much the more To thrust ones self into a way so disowned by God by such a course of fearful warnings is to run with Pharaoh into the Red-Sea especially when Impenitence so fixeth the guilt on them that cannot endure to hear of it as may make us fear that the worst ãâã behind and Sin and Judgments yet continue The Sum of what is said to you on the other side is that the Church of England and the Parish Churches have no true Ministry and therefore are no true Churches That they confess there is no Church without a Bishop and no Bishop below the Diocesan and so no Church below the Diocesan Church That those are no Scripture Bishops and Churches
shall we find them and make them in our Brethren Christ gathereth and will you scatter he reconcileth and uniteth and will you divide he justifieth and will you be he that shall condemn Even them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and all for want of delaying Baptism till your time when in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth nothing nor uncircumcision but the New Creature and Faith that worketh by Love Have you mark'd how Unity and Love is inculcated in the New Testament and that as Omnipotency is most eminently engraven upon the Creation and Wisdom on the Laws of God so Goodness is most eminently engraven on the Redeemer and that in this Glass the Father in his Love and Goodness must be known and hereby the Impress and Image of Love must be made upon our Souls They that are least for Love and holy Unity are least like God and least for him and most like his Enemy and ours 18. Christ is both King Prophet and Priest and no one is sincerely related unto him in any of these respects but is related to him in all And Ergo all Christians are to be under his Church-Government and Protection in his Family as well as under his Teaching If they are by your own confession Fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God do not disfranchise them nor deny them their Priviledges 19. Will not your Principles lead to narrowness of holy Charity in Communication of worldly Goods and destroy Christian Communion in this Those that were in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayer not through levelling but charitable Community had all things as common sure you will refuse this when you refuse Communion in Sacrament you will on the same ground think that those few only of your Opinion are to partake of this Special Communication For the Reason is the same 20. Contrary to the Spirit and Scope of the Gospel you lay greater stress upon the very timing of a holy Ceremony than under the Law was laid upon the being of the Ceremony it self Women had Communion without Circumcision The Males in the Wilderness did hold all holy Communion even in the Passover without Circumcision To all this let me add these few Questions to you 1. Do you think in the most humble frame of your Soul that you have no failing as great as you suppose the mis-timing of our Baptism to be and would you be rejected for it 2. Is this norrowness of special loving Communion answerable to the Principles of Universal Redemption and Grace wherein I suspect you go beyond me 3. Have you well considered that God's Unity is the first of his Attributes next his Being The Lord our God is one God And so the Unity of the Church is next the very Essence of it so to be regarded and maintained The Unity cannot be destroyed without destroying the Essence and therefore many Truths and Duties must be put behind the Churches Unity when accidentally the use of them is made inconsistent with it 4. It hath been the common frame of the Church since the Apostles days till of late to consist of a mixture one half baptized at Age being converted at Age from Infidelity and their Baptism before neglected and the other half that were born of Christian Parents baptized in Infancy And both sorts lived in Peace and Love and no Church History that ever I read doth give us any the least intimation that ever these two Sorts disagreed hereupon or accused one anothers way or made it any occasion of a Division And will you advance Knowledge and Holiness in the end of the World by advancing Uncharitableness and Division 5. Bethink you with sobriety as before the Lord if you had lived in the Church in the second third fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth Century or lower in all which though many were baptized at Age being not Christians by any Infant Covenant yet no Writer that ever I saw doth tell us of one Church or one Pastor no nor of one Man that was a Catholick Christian no nor of one Heretick that I remember that was against the lawfulness of Infant Baptism I say if you had then lived would you have separated from all the Churches on Earth What! from the Universal Church in your Communion or would you have had all these Ages have laid by all instituted Church Order and Worship The consequences of this would rise so high that I will not name them to you Only I would further ask you 6. If you think their Baptism a Nullity and consequently the instituted Churches Ministry Order Sacraments Nullities that were used in all those Ages the seventh eighth ninth tenth c. when almost none but such as were baptized in Infancy were Church Members how far then do you differ from the Seekers that tell us All these were lost in the Apostacy 2. And how easily will a Papist trample you in the dirt and laugh you to scorn when he puts you to prove Successive Church and Ordinances and Ministry 3. And what advantage give you the Infidels and our own Remnants of Infidelity to deny the Head by so far denying the Body 7. Would you have a Unity and do you ever expect such a thing or not If not If you do on what terms do you expect it You can never with the least Encouragement of Reason expect that all should deny Infant Baptism and come to you These late years have given you as much advantage as you can well expect and yet you see the most of the Godly dare not come to you If therefore you will neither come to them in Judgment nor yet close in Communion with Christians of different Judgment what do you but give up Unity as desperate and fix in your divided State 8. And will you give the Papist Disputants so much Encouragement as to confess to them that among us there is not any hopes of Unity or loving Christian Church Communion I have been longer than I intended upon these Reasonings but it is because I would not neglect you but some one of them at least may stick upon you of which success your lives declaring you so honestly impartially and happily disposed to Love and Peace I make no doubt And now to your Objections which should have been my whole Task but that I would make sure the Issue And 1. to your first Argument I answer 1. It is against you and overthrows your Cause for as ordinarily Women were admitted to the Passover without Circumcision but not without the Covenant and as in extraordinary Cases offered as of all Israel 40 years in the Wilderness the Males also were admitted uncircumcised so much more may it be now in case of Baptism 2. Either the Ordinances and Examples of the Jews about Circumcision afford us Arguments for regulating our Baptism and Communion or not If not then you urge them in
a Nonconformist and is your Address to your self or do you take the Word Church there also equivocally and improperly If so you should have said so The Prelatists grant with Cyprian that ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia and with Ignatius that to every church there is one Bishop with his Presbyters c. No King no Kingdom no Master no School nor Family no Bishop no Church Therefore the Prelatists hold that we have no true proper Church below a Diocesan and that Parishes are not Churches but Chappels or parts of a Church and this is not the least part of our Nonconformity how hold that Parishes are or should be true Churches and not only parts of a Church in fini ordinis without any proper Bishop Tell me better I pray which side you here intend to take Quest. 4. Seeing p. 111. c. you very well plead for the Power of Kings in Determination of Parish-Bounds and Church Orders as under the Jewish Polity and the new way of the Conformists is so far contrary as that they hold that if a Bishop command one Time one Place one Translation Metre Ceremony Utensil c. and the King another that the Bishop is to be obeyed before the King because it belongs not to him but to the Church Is it the New Conformity in this that you are for or for the old and the Nonconformists who in this Agree Quest. 5. Some Words p. 124 125. move me to ask you whether such Anabaptists as you formerly taught and joined with or the ignorant irreligious vulgar as you then accounted them were the better People If the Religion of them that mind little of God or Life Eternal further than to join with the Church be the true State of Regeneration and Holiness were it not more worth your Labour to write a Book against that which now we take for Holiness seeking first God's Kingdom and Righteousness But if other Wise and Pious Sectaries be better than impious Churchmen were those times so much better than these as you describe them in which there was not one counted Religious e. g. from 1625. till 1637. for Three that I say not for Ten or Twenty that are now in most places that I have known Quest. 6. And I add hath not Scotland kept out Sects without our Conformity more effectually than Conformity here kept them out Quest. 7. P. 129. Had you nothing but Suspicion and Opinion to oppugn and must that be granted you and yet have lived so long where you live Quest. 8. Because you talk so much of Shism sinful in it self without ever telling us exactly how to know it I pray tell me if Mr. Sangar Dr. Manton and such others should say to these Parishioners we are in the Relations which we were truly and justly stated in and because the Magistrate hath given others the parish-Parish-Churches and the Tythes you separate from us and come not to our Assemblies therefore you set up a sinful Schism as some did in the Churches of the Roman Empire who adhered to Pastors put in by the Emperors while the People adhered to their former Pastors How shall I answer them better than they do you Quest. 9. Your Question p. 157. moveth me to put you to think it over again whether you think indeed as your Words import if all the People of England these fourteen Years past had heard no Sermon but in the Parish-Churches and so had heard none of the 2000 Nonconformists or neer that were silenced even in all those Parishes where the reading of the Liturgy is the far best and likeliest means of the Peoples Good and in all those Parishes where not one of very many hath any Church to hear in I say do you think that there would have been more Persons truly converted and saved by this means If you think that all these 1800 or 2000 Mens Preaching hath done and doth more harm than good had it not been a directer way to have written to them to convince them of it that they might cease of which more anon Pag. 161. You say If instead of this each Christian of you had kept to Parochial Communion and each outed Minister had kept their Residence among them and Communion with them as private Members in the Parish way and had also in a private Capacity joined with those Ministers which have succeeded them in doing all the Good they could in the Parish as by a private Application and Improvement of the publick Labours of their Minister together with Catechizing and other personal Instruction and Exhortation privately administred to the several Families in the Parish c. Quest. 10. Will you do us the Favour as to answer first those Books that be written to prove our Obligation to Preach such as Ios. Allen's Call to Archippus and my Sacrilegious Dissertion c. was not that to have gone before such Advises as this If you say Dr. Fullwood hath done it I beg of you to tell me what Arguments of his you think have done it while he yields the contrary Quest. 11. Would you have all those Ministers take this course that must lye in the Common Goal if they come within five Miles of the Place can they do it in Newgate If you say that the Act of Consinement had not been made but for Conventicles we have Proof of that nor is the Occasion now any Remedy for the future Quest. 12. Do you not know that Conformists will not endure us in this private Diligence which you speak of I will give you in the end an Instance from the Parish where I live Quest. 13. Do you well know what sort of Ministers are in too many Parishes of England I will not imtate the Gloscester Cobler in gathering up their Faults but only ask you if for Instance Mr. Corbet that was turned out of Bromshut had stayed there where Mr. Hook the Patron hath often told me that their Preacher was formerly an Ale-seller and was so common a Drunkard that he would be drunk in the Pulpit could you have advised him to do nothing but apply this Man's Sermons as you say When I was young the first place I lived in had four Readers successively some Drunkards all my Masters the next place had in my time an old Reader that never preached as had most of the Churches round about us his Curates were successively three Readers of which one never Preached one Preached and was a Stage-Player another my Master also a common Drunkard never preached but once and then he was stark drunk when the Old Man's Eyesight failed that was the chief Incumbent he said Common-Prayer by rote and one Year a Day Labourer and another Year a Taylor read the Scriptures and we had no more What Mr. Dance and Mr. Turner were at Kidderminster and Mitton Chappel I suppose you know Quest. 14. Would you have those Ministers take the Course which you describe in the Parishes where the generality of the People must be
be sinful and hazarding our Souls c. We should never have stuck at Conformity to them And it is no small Number of Sins so heiâous which we suppose since imposed that we dare not so much as name them least we displease you and make you say that we render the Conformists such heinous Sinners But I will alledge your Authority when any of us are next blamed for discovering the âeinous Sinfulness of Conformity as we yet believe it would be to us If you say that the Licensers would licence our Writings if we did it with Sobriety 1. You know that the Canon and Law is against it 2. I shall then in Justice challenge you to make it good and here promise you an account of my Nonconformtiy whenever you will procure it licensed 6. And which way got you so strong a Faith as to be past doubt that did we discover any sinfulness it would by Authority have been taken away Make this true yet after neer Two Thousand Ministers have been neer Sixteen Years ejected and silenced and many killed by Imprisonment and the People of the Land divided and distracted by the training Engines and you shall have the Honour of being the greatest healer of our Breaches that ever rose in the Days of my Remembrance But if it be not true III. The Third Passage is p. 69 70. throughout These are great things to be spoken so boldly 1. Do you suppose your Reader one that never read Church-History What Work the Bishops made for Arrianism for Nestorianism for the Eutychians and Aââphalites against Nazianzen Chrysostom c. for the Monothelites about the tria Capitula for Images against Emperors and Kings setting up the Pope and decreed the Deposition of all Princes that obey him not and making Loyalty to be Heresis Henriciana How the River Oronte at Antioch hath been coloured with the Blood and the Graves of the Monks and People that fought it out in the Streets for the several Bishops what work they made at the first Council at Constance the first and the second of Ephesus the Council at Calcedon and many another How many Ages they were and yet are the Army of the Pope to subdue Princes and Nations Truth and Justice and set up the Evil that now reigneth in the Christian World How even against the Popes Will they made the best King and Emperor Ludovicus Pius as a Pennance resign his Crown and Scepter on the Altar to a Rebel Son and sent him to Prison He that ever read but Baronius Binnius or other Episcopal History will pity you can you name one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion and yet Presbyters were more in Number than Bishops Innumerable Bishops saith Binnius were in the Monothelite Council under âhilipicuâ Of all things that ever befel the Christian Church I scarce know any thing comparable in Shame and Mischievous Effects to the horrid perfideousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops Cursing one Year by Hundreds all that were of one Opinion and another Year all that were of the contrary as the times and Interest and Emperor changed And if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which are all you name were the Beginners of any Schism how many hundred Bishops were the Promoters of them all save that of Aerius against themselves And is it any honour to Episcopacy that Arius and Aerius an Arian were not Bishops when they were said to be Seekers of Bishopricks and to divide because they could not obtain them Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters what honour were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop if all these and such things were vended by you in hope of a Bishoprick or some Preferment I will never whilst I breathe trust a Presbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a But did you know or did you not that as for Novatus and Novatian one of them was an ill-chosen Bishop of Rome and the other a Promoter of his Prelacy and that as for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and that the Donatists Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical even whether their Bishop or Cecilianus should carry it and that their Re-baptizing and Re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it not from their Bishop as being their right like our Re-ordainers And are these Instances to prove what you assert Were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable Task I would ask you 1. Who that Iuncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King was it they that petitioned and protested against it 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army twenty to one were not Conformists 4. Whether the Major Generals in the Countries were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost all Episcopal Conformists As Heylin distinguisheth them of Archbishop Abbots mind disliking Arminianism Monopolies c. 6. Whether the Archbishop of York were not the Parliaments Major General 7. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers than the Presbyterians 8. Whether if this Parliament which made the Acts of Uniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Nonconformists 9. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Usurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of Londons inviting General Monk from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very Day that turned the Scales for the King But all these are Matters fitter for your better Consideration than our Debate I rest Your Servant Rich. Baxter Iuly 26. 1678. To Mr. Long of Exeter Numb VI. A Resolution of this Case What 's to be done when the Law of the Land commands Persons to go to their Parish-Church and Parents require to go to private Meetings Quest. THE Law of the Land commandeth me to go to the Publick Churches the Canon commandeth me to go to my own Parish-Church and not to another Parish Both forbid me to go to Conventicles and silenced Preachers My Father and Mother forbid me to go to the Publick Churches and command me to go constantly to a silenced Minister in Meetings forbidden by the Law But specially not to go to my Parish Priest saying he is an insufficient and drunken Railer but to a Neighbour Parish if I will not obey their first Command Am I now bound to obey my Parents
a sober Christian hath the least reason to scruple Communion in Will you have a Pastor that shall not speak in the Name of the People to God or will you call his Prayers his own which he puts up by Virtue of his Office according to God's Word Ad 17m. I think they cannot without Sacriledge make such Alienation except where God's Consent can be proved For Example if the Ministers of the Church have full as much means given as is fit for the Ends to which it is given and yet the People will give more and more to the Burden and ensnaring of the Church and the impoverishing or ruin of the Common-wealth here I think God consents not to accept that Gift and therefore it was but an Offer and not plenarily a Gift for want of Acceptance for he accepts not that which he prohibits Here therefore the Magistrate may restore this to its proper use But whether this were any of the Case of these Sacrilegious Alienations too lately made in this Land is a farther Question I apprehend a deep Guilt of Sacriledge upon some Ad 18m. The Particulars here mentioned must be distinctly considered 1. About Fasts and Feasts the Question as referring to the Obligation of the Laws of the Land is of the same Resolution as all other Questions respecting those Laws which being a Case more out of my way I shall not presume to determine without a clearer Call Only I must say that I see little Reason why those Men should think themselves bound in this who yet suppose themselves loose from many other Laws and who obey many of the Laws or Ordinances of the present Powers 2. I much fear that not only the Querist but many more are much ensnared in their Consciences by misunderstanding the Nature and use of Synods It 's one thing for an Assembly of Bishops to have a superior Governing Power directly over all particular Churches and Bishops and another thing for such an Assembly to have a Power of determining of things necessary for the Concord of the several Churches I never yet saw it proved that Synods are over Bishops in a direct Governing Order nor are called for such Ends but properly in ordine ad Unitatem and so oblige only more than single Bishops by Virtue of the General Precept of maintaining Unity and Concord This is the Opinion of the most learned Bishop and famous antiquary that I am acquainted with 3. And then when the end ceases the Obligation is at an End So that this can now be no Law of Unity with us 4. All human Laws die with the Legislator farther than the surviving Rulers shall continue them The Reason is drawn from the Nature of a Law which is to be jussum Majestatis in the Common wealth and every where to be a sign of the Rectors Will de debito vel constituendo vel confirmando Or his Authoritative Determination of what shall be due from us and to us Therefore no Rector no Law and the Law that is though made by the deceased Rector is not his Law but the present Rector's Law formally it being the signifier of his Will And it is his Will for the continuance of it that gives it a new Life In all this I speak of the whole Summa potestas that hath the absolute Legislative Power If therefore the Church Governors be dead that made these Laws and no sufficient Power succeeds them to continue these Laws and make them theirs then they are dead with their Authors 5. The present Pastors of the Church though but Presbyters are the true Guides of it while Bishops are absent and the true Guides conjunctly with the Bishops if they were present according to the Judgment of your own side Whoever is the sole existent governing Powerâ may govern and must be obeyed in things Lawful Therefore you must for all your unproved Accusation of Schism obey them The Death or Deposition of the Bishops depriveth not the Presbyters of that Power which they had before 6. Former Church Governors have not Power to bind all that shall come after them where they were before free But their Followers are as free as they were 7. The Nature of Church Canons is to determine of Circumstances only for a present time place or occasion and not to be universal standing Laws to all Ages of the Church For if such Determinations had been fit God would have made them himself and they would have been contained in his perfect Word He gives not his Legislative Power to Synods or Bishops 8. Yet if your Conscience will needs persuade you to use those Ceremonies you have no ground to separate from all that will not be of your Opinion 9. For the Cross the Canons require only the Minister to use it and not you and if he do not that 's nothing to you 10. Have you impartially read what is written against the Lawfulness of it by Amesius's fresh Suit Bradshaw Parker and others If you have you may at least see this that it 's no fit matter to place the Churches Unity or Uniformity in and they that will make such Laws for Unity go beyond their Commission Church Governors are to determine the Circumstances pro loco tempore in particular which God hath in Word or Nature made necessary in genere and left to their Determination But when Men will presume beyond this to determine of things not indeed circumstantial or no way necessary in genere nor left to their Determination as to institute new standing Symbols in and with God's Symbols or Sacraments to be engaging Signs to engage us to Christ and to Work Grace on the Soul as the Word and Sacraments do that is by a moral Operation and then will needs make these the Cement of Unity this is it that hath been the Bane of Unity and Cause of Divions 11. Kneeling at the Sacrament is a Novelty introduced many hundred years after Christ and contrary to such Canons and Customs of the Church to which for Antiquiây and Universality you owe much more respect than to the Canons of the late Bishops in England 12. If your General Rule hold that you stand bound by all Canons not repealed by equal Power you have a greater burden on your back than you are aware of which if you bore indeed you would know how little this usurped Legislative Power befriends the Church And among others you are bound not to kneel in the Church on any Lord's Day in Sacrament or Prayer Grotius de Imperio Sumpotest would teach much more Moderation in these Matters than I here perceive Ad Q. 19m. 1. It 's too much Self-conceitedness and Uncharitableness to pass so bold a Censure as your Supposition doth contain of the visible ruling Church being Schismatical and so Heretical Which is the ruling Church I know none in England besides Bishops that pretend to rule any but their own Provinces and but few that pretend Order to Regiment Perhaps when the
Schism and Herefie come to be opened it will not be found to lye where you imagin nor so easily proved as rashly affirmed or intimated 2. Do not be too sensible of Persecution when Liberty of Conscience is so proclaimed though the Restriction be somewhat on your side O the difference of your Persecution and theirs that suffered by you 3. The only conscionable and safe way for the Church and your own Souls is to love long for pray and consult for Peace Close in the unanimous practice of so much as all are agreed in In amicable Meetings endeavour the healing of all breaches Disown the ungodly of all Parties Lay by the new violent Opinions inconsistant with Unity I expect not that this advice should please the prejudiced But that it 's the only safe and comfortable way is the Confident Opinion of Your Brother Richard Baxter All the Disturbance I had in my own Parish was by Sir Ralph Clare's refusing to Communicate with us unless I would give it him kneeling on a distinct Day and not with those that received it fitting To which Demand I gave him this following Answer SIR UPon Consultation with others and my own Conscience I return this Answer to your last motion beseeching you to believe that it had been more pleasing if it would have stood with the pleasing of God and any own Conscience 1. In general it is my resolution to be so far from being the Author of any Divisions in any part of the Church of Christ as that I shall do all that lawfully I can to avoid them 2. I am so far from the Judgment and Practices of the late Prelates of England in point of compelling all to obey or imitate them in gestures and other indifferent things on pain of being deprived of God's greatest Ordinances which are not indifferents beside the ruine of their Estates c. that I would become all things lawful to all Men for their good and as I know that the Kingdom of God standeth not in such things so neither would I shut any out of his visible Kingdom for such things as judging that our Office is to see God's Law obeyed as far as we can procure it and not to be Law-gives to the Church our selves and in Circumstantials to make no more Determinations than are necessary left they prove but Engines to ensnare Mens Consciences and to divide the Church And as I would impose no such things on other Churches if I had power so neither will I do it on this Church of which I have some oversight 3. More particularly I am certain that sitting in the receiving of the Lord's Supper is lawful or else Christ and his Apostles and all his Churches for many hundred years after him did sin which cannot be And I take it to be intolerable arrogancy and unmannerliness to speak easily to call that unreverence and sawciness as many do which Christ and the Apostles and all the Church so long used with one consent He better knew what pleaseth himself than we do The vain pretended difference between the Apostles Gesture and ours is nothing to the matter He that sitteth on the Ground sitteth as well as he that sitteth on a Stool And if any difference were it was their Gesture that seems the more homely and no such difference can be pretended in the Christian Churches many hundred years after And I think it is a naked pretence having no shew of reason to cover it of them that against all this will plead a necessity of kneeling because of our unworthiness For 1. The Churches of so long time were unworthy as well as we 2. We may kneel as low as the Dust and on our bare knees if we please immediately before in praying for a blessing and for the pardon of our sins and as soon as we have done 3. Man must not by his own Conceits make those things necessary to the Church which Christ and his Church for so long thought unnecessary 4. On this pretence we might refuse the Sacrament it self for they are more unworthy to eat the Flesh of Christ and to drink his blood than to sit at his Table 5. The Gospel is Glad Tidings the Effects of it are Faith and Peace and Joy the Benefits are to make us one with Christ and to be his Spouse and Members the work of it is the joyful Commemoration of these Benefits and living in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the Sacramental Signs are such as suit the Benefits and Duties If therefore Christ have called us by his Example and the Example of all his Church to sit with him at his Table to represent Our Union Communion and joyful redeemed State and our everlasting sitting with him at his Table in his Kingdom it as little beseems us to reject this Mercy and Duty because of our Unworthiness as to be our own Lawgivers And on the like Reasons men might say I will not be united to thee nor be a Member of thy Body or married to thee nor sit with thee on thy Throne Rev. 3. 21. according to thy Promise because it would be too great sawciness in me Gospel Mercies and Gospel Duties and Signs must be all suited and so Christ hath done them and we may not undo them 4. I must profess that upon such Considerations I am not certain that sitting is not of commanded Necessity as I am sure it is lawful nor am I certain that kneeling in the Act of Receiving when done of choice is not a flat sin For I know it is not only against Scripture Example where though Circumstances apparently occasional bind not as an upper Room c. yet that 's nothing to others but also it is against the Canons of Councils yea a General Council at Trull in Constantinople and against so concurrent a Judgment and Practice of the Church for many hundred years that it seems to fight with Vincentius Lerinens Catholick Rule quod semper ubique ab omnibus receptum c. Let them therefore justifie kneeling as lawful that can for I cannot and therefore dare not do that which shall be an owning of it when we may freely do otherwise 5. Yet for all this I so much incline to Thoughts of Peace and Closure with others that I will not say that sitting is of necessity nor that kneeling is unlawful unless where other Circumstances make it so nor condemn any that differ from me herein Yea if I could not otherwise Communicate with the Church in the Sacrament I would take it kneeling myself as being certain that the Sacrament is a Duty and not certain that kneeling is a sin and in that Case I believe it is not 6. As for them that think kneeling a Duty because of the Canons of the late Bishops enjoyning it I have more to say against their Judgment than this Paper will contain Only in a word 1. If it be the Secular Powers establishing those Canons that binds
Schism One useth the Surplice in the Pulpit and another not One Prayeth before Sermon And another only bids them Pray One Prayeth after Sermon and another not One at the Singing of Psalms doth sit another stand and it maketh no Schism And the Convocatioâ 1640 Commend Indifferency about Bowing towards the Altar Therefore that Convocation was not of your mind But either way will serve us Prop. 5. Not to renonuce their Ordination or be Re-ordain'd Strict They are not Neither doth their Re-ordaining imply that they are but only that they are not sufficiently qualified to Officiate in our Church Ans. What Qualification is it that that they want Generals here decides not the Case If it be only the Qualification of Legal Authority or License Why will not the giving of that qualifie them Or what necessity is there of Re-ordination But when you as well as we profess that Re-ordination when real is unlawful and yet you require their Ordination de Nova which they call Re-ordination Doth not this tell the World that you take the first for null 6. Prop. No Excommunicate Person as such to be Imprison'd and Undone but such whose Crimes deserve it Strict Contempt of Authority is one of the greatest Crimes and for that it is that men are Excommunicated first and afterwards Imprison'd Why doth not this Exception lie against such as are Outlawed in the Chancery as well as against those that are Excommunicated Answ. Because the Cause differeth E. g. I believe I have had multitudes with me Conformable as well as others who being of timerous or melancholy Constitutions and under Temptations and Trouble of Mind dare not receive the Sacrament for fear of doing it unworthily and of eating and drinking Damnation and the Devil entring into them according to the words of the Liturgy which affright them and they never Communicated in their Lives at above 30 years of Age and have oft been going and never durst venture One of them was with me within this hour Some that have ventured have faln Distracted and some near it by Terror and Temptations You can tell them reason against all this And so can I and have done it as like as oft as most of your Curates and yet they are Uncured And I must not say how little is done in too many places to cure their Ignorance or Timerousness which is the cause And are you sure that all these poor troubled timerous Souls are worthy of utter ruine as Contemners of Authority For not Communicating they must be Excommunicated and after Imprison'd and undone in the World even during life unless they can be changed by you Every Man deserveth not utter ruin who doth not all the good that he can do But can such a person change their own minds and fears because you give them reason for it I know they cannot And when Christ tenderly carrieth his Lambs in his Arms and will not break a bruised Reed Shall I in his Name as his Minister Excommunicate them and deliver them up if not to the Devil to the Magistrate to be Beggered and perpetually Imprisoned Let me rather bear the wrath of all the Prelates on earth and all that they can say or do against me Prop. 7. But who shall be judged tolerable it doth not become us c. Strict As it doth not become you to be Judges of what is or what is not tolerable in the case of others so it doth much less become you to be Judges of what is or what is not to be granted in your own case Ans. We never arrogated any of your Power over our Brethren We have formerly in our Folly hoped that we might presume to be Petitioners though not Iudges what is to be granted us We are not ashamed to confess that we did desire leave to Preach Christ's Gospel But we become not Iudges in the Case of our Superiours Acts. But by or without your leave we must be discerning Iudges of our own Duty or Sin whatever it cost us And I think no sober Christian will give the contrary under his hand as his Judgment Prop. id That no Licensed Ministers shall Preach against any of the Doctrine c. Strict It seems Vnlicensed Ministers may be allowed to speak for or against what they list Answ. Our Case is hard with you I put in Licensed or Vnlicensed And the first Honourable and Learned Person that saw it thought Vnlicensed should be put out because it was unmeet for us to tell His Majesty whom he should tolerate or how far but to meddle only with our own Case who desired Licenses And now for blotting out that word and not medling with any others we are censured as motioning that the Unlicensed may say what they list Thus all our Peace-making motions have been long interpreted by some Prop. id That all Magistrates be excepted from all open Personal Rebukes and disgraceful Censures or Excommunications because c. Strict We take Excommunication to be an Ordinance of God from which Magistrates are not to be exempted Ans. 1. God never ordained that a Lay-Chancellor should Excommunicate them 2. God never gave power to any to excommunicate a King Prince or other Ruler if any at all but that particular Pastor to whom by voluntary Consent he committeth the Charge of his Soul The Independents that think as you are yet more modest in this in that they subject the Ruler to none but the chosen Pastor of that particular Congregation which he voluntarily joyneth himself to 3. Is not the World much abused when they are told that it is the Presbyterians that are for excommunicating Princes and not the Episcopal For my part I am fully of the mind of Bishop Bilson and Andrews in âortura Torti in this that to an Impenitent wicked Ruler I would suspend my own Act of giving him the Sacrament with Chrysostom's resolution rather to suffer But my Judgment is that no Bishop nor Minister especially one that is not his proper Pastor may lawfully use any open personal rebukes or disgraceful censures or Excommunications against Kings Iudges or Honourable Magistrates And my Reason no Papist Prelate Presbyterian or Independent is able to refel viz. from the fifth Commandment The stablished perpetual Law of God Commandeth us to honour them Disgraceful Excommunication is not accidentally but purposedly a dishonouring them For Men are excommunicated that they may be shamed The after-positive Institution of Excommunication nulleth not this antecedent Moral Law but must give place to it and bindeth not against it I farther prove that 1. Because all Men confess that this last is but a Law of Order and that Order is for the sake of the end and thing Ordered and that it oft obligeth not when it ceaseth to be a means to that end or would destroy it And that E g. If you knew that an Excommunication of a King or Judge would prove the Dissolution of that Church it were not Lawful Therefore neither when
fittest manner and Season of your coming off Therefore it seems to me your Duty freely lovingly compassionately to communicate your Reasons to your Auditors if they can prove them unsound which I am sure they cannot in the main then yield to them if they cannot then beg their Pardon for misguiding them and beseech them to return not to any Sin against God but to the Love of the Saints and the Unity of the universal Body of Christ and the Communion of Brethren 3. To return to Mr. I. Goodwin's Church again I dare not dissuade you or advise you but I would not do it if I liv'd in another Parish where I could have Lawful Communion yea or if I could live in such a Parish I would not be a Member of a Church gathered out of many Parishes in such a Place as London Co-habitation is in Nature and Scripture Example made the necessary Disposition of the Materials of a Church 4. My Thoughts still are that you should Preach the Gospel in some Congregation most suitable to you But I am very glad that you give me the Reasons of your Trouble for it is a sad kind of Work for you or another to plead against Troubles in the dark which a Man can give no Reason for 1. Your First I need say nothing to If you had ever had a Temptation to thrust in a wrong Motive into a good Cause it neither proves the Cause bad else all our Preaching were too bad or your Heart bad as you see your Sin I hope you see your sufficient Remedy 2. The Second is carnal to resist so great a Truth and Duty lest good People be displeased what are they your God God must be enough for you if ever you will have enough and it must satisfie you that he is pleased if ever you will be satisfied Tell those Christians you will not cease to Love them by Loving more nor cease any due Communion with them by having Communion with more Keep in with them by Love and Correspondency even whether they will or no even when you have left their Separation Do not reproach them when you leave them but enjoy the Good of their Communion still as you have Opportunity God's House hath many Mansions if your Friends think that their Closet is all the House convince them of their Mistake and confine your self to that Closet no longer but yet renounce it not it may be a part though sinfully divided though it be not the whole 3. The way that you are called to is God's High way and though the Churches have many in them that are dead yet have they with them as many living Members as yours and many more if these parts may be Witnesses I would not be a Member of that Church willingly that is composed of none but not able Christians though I most Love the best and delight most in their Fellowship and wish that all were such yet when I see a Church so gathered I easily find it is a wrong Constitution and not according to the Mind of Christ. I will never join with them that will have but one Form in Christ's School I would have the A B C there taught as well as the profoundest Mysteries 'T is no Sign of the Family of God to have no Children what if I said Infants in it but strong Men only Nor of the Hospital of Christ to have none Sick nor of his Net to have no Fish but Good nor of his Field to have no Tares Flesh and Blood hath ticed me oft to Separation for Ease but it s too easy a way to be of God I undergo another kind of Life you are extreamly mistaken if you think that you are put on so much Duty and Self-denial by many Degrees among your Hundred Professors as we must undergo Your Work is Idleness to ours how then is yours the streighter way 4. For Riches and gay Apparel you may help to cure Excess where you find it What! a Physician fly because his Patients are Sick O that we had no sorer Diseases to encounter than fine Cloaths If you were with me I could tell you quickly where to find Forty Families of humble godly Christians that are as bare and Poor as you would Wish and need as much as you can give them or procure them that scarce lose a Day 's Work by Sickness but the Church must maintain them And I could send you to Sixty Families that are as poor and yet so Ignorant as more to need your spiritual Help When they have sat by me to be instructed in my Chamber they sometimes leave the Lice so plentifull that we are stored with them for a competent space of time Never keep in a Separated Church to avoid Riches and fine Cloaths and for fear lest you cannot meet with the Poor I warrant you a Cure of that Melancholy Fear in most places in England 5. The next is the great Block 1. If you gather out the choicest Members that should help the rest and then complain of Parishes when you have marr'd them you do not justly 2. If you will not do your Duty in a Parish because some Ministers do not theirs your excuse is frivolous 3. If I durst have gathered a separated Church here I could have had one large and numerous enough or such as would allow me ease but I think Parish Work the best We here agree on these Four Heads 1. To teach all In which Work in my Parish I could find Work for Ten Ministers if I could maintain them 2. To admit none as adult Members without a personal credible Profession of Faith and Holiness of which I refer you to my Treatise of Confirmation 3. To exercise Discipline with these 4. To hold Communion of Churches by Associations and Assemblies of the Officers And I bless God I find not my Parish such a dead Body as you speak of Among Eight Hundred Families Six Hundred Persons are Church-Members I hope there is not very many of these without such a Profession as giveth us good Hopes of their Sincerity and none whose Profession I am able any way to disprove and this satisfieth me as God's Way and many I hope Scores there be of those that join not with us on divers Accounts that I hope fear God If you have Charity to judge that our Parishes have Christians you may have Charity to judge that they have Life and some fit for Communion How tender is Christ of his weakest Members and shall not I imitate him yea shall I judge them that am so bad my self and pluck them from his Arms that designeth it as his highest Honour to be admired and glorified in the freeness and fulness of his Grace and Love to the Unworthy 6. Your Followers Souls are by you endangered while you leave them in their Sin will it endanger them to tell them of that Danger and help them out What! to lead Men to Holy Love and Unity with the Catholick