their Church and Cause is meritorious of Salvation II. By the Passive Conformist I mean both such as go on the grounds of Mr. Sprint and think a Reformation very desirable but Conformity lawful to escape silencing and ruine and such as like Conformity for it self and wish all others did Conform but like not uncharitable censures or silencings or violence against conscionable Dissenters nor the compulsions which have caused our Church-convulsions Though the Nonconformists must needs judge these to partake in Schism so far as they own the Schismatical dividing terms of Communion which are the greatest hinderance of our Concord and will be still inconsistent with it yet as they reproach not Dissenters as Schismaticks so neither are they accounted Schismaticks by the Dissenters because they are sound and peaceable brethren and desire to live as such with others and Schism is not their disposition nor predominant We would live in greater Love and Concord with such as these than the differing Conformists have with one another III. The names of Sectaries and Separatists are of no fixed signification but vary according to the mind of the speaker But I now use them for those 1. Who appropriate the Church to some narrow Sect or Party which denieth all others to be true Churches or to have true Ministers and Sacraments 2. And next to those that though they own others as true Churches or Ministers yet hold their Communion unlawful when it is not so and renounce Communion with them on these grounds Such besides Papists are too many Prelatists that deny the Ministry Sacraments and Communion of the Reformed Churches which are not such as they yea of all Churches that have not an Episcopacy by uninterrupted Succession of Episcopal Ordination from the Apostles and that excommunicate all that do but say that there are any true Churches in England but their own And such are some Anabaptists some called Brownists or Separatists heretofore c. And the Seekers are much worse that deny all Churches and the Quakers and Ranters who revile the soundest and all true Hereticks who separate by denying some Essential of Christianity All these are Schismaticks in the judgment of all sound and sober Christians IV. By Active Canonical Conformists I mean those that are for the present frame of Ecclesiastical Government with the Liturgy and Canons and the Laws which enforce them who call usually for the Execution of those Laws V. By the meer present Nonconformists I mean such as are guilty of no other punishable errors or sins but such as the Act of Uniformity doth eject and silence us for and who declared openly their judgments about Doctrine Worship and Discipline in 1660 after a Common meeting at Sion-Colledge and another at the Savoy which is published in Print That is the Reconcilers or Peacemakers who then laboured and beg'd for Peace and Unity in vain who tye themselves to the judgment of none called Nonconformists heretofore Presbyterians Independents c. but to the Word of God and the example of the true Primitive Churches and are not for Concord only with a Sect or a dividing-party High or Low but for that Catholick Church and Communion of Saints which are in our Creed Schism being a culpable rending of Christians from each other hath a great number of degrees as it is by Apostasie from the Universal Church totally or by denying a fundamental by Heresie or as it is but by denying Integrals or but Accidents as it is but from a particular Church a Church of Gods forming or of mans As it is from a Church as if it were no Church or a corrupt Church falsly said or only a less desirable as it is from a Parish-Church a Diocesan a National c. As it is total or partial or but in some accidents from that particular Church holding Communion in all the rest As it is mental or but causeless local As it is from a Church or only from some persons in a Church-Pastor or others As it is by driving men by sinful Impositions from a Church or too easie departing with many the like differences elsewhere opened So that as all men have some degree of ignorance pride hypocrisie c. and yet are not to be denominated ignorant proud hypocrites where it is not predominant so all are defective in Love and Union and few Churches on earth are no way guilty of Schism and yet are not to be called Schismaticks where it is not predominant Almost all Churches on earth accuse each other of Schism the Papists so accuse the Greeks Protestants and all others the Greeks so accuse the Papists and Protestants as the Patriarch Jeremiah shews us and both the Abassines Jacobins Nestorians c. The Lutherans so call the Calvinists and they many Lutherans the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independents so accuse each other Sober and peaceable men must confess that most are guilty of some degree Laying by the rest our Question now is of Two Parties here the Canoneer Diocesan Conformists and the Present meer Conformists which are the ENGLISH SCHISMATICKS CHAP. II. The Case of the Diocesan-Canoneers or Zealots for Imposition of Conformity 1. THey agree not of the Essentiating Head of their own National Church whether it be Lay or Clergy King or Bishops and so are indeed of divers Churches no nor whether it have any constitutive Head or none 2. Some hold Bishops necessary to the Being of a Church and some only to the well-being of it and so agree not neither what a particular Church is 3. The former unchurch the Parish-Churches and make them only parts of a proper Church the Diocesan being the lowest in a politick sense 4. They make the Parish-Priests but half Priests or Pastors denying them the Power of the Keys over their flock save in a little part 5. These deny the Reformed Churches which have no Bishops to be true proper Churches and their Ministration and Sacraments to be valid But others of them hold the contrary and so differ in their Communion with the Protestant Churches 6. Some of them say that none are true Ministers of Christ that have not Episcopal Ordination by uninterrupted succession from the Apostles And that their flocks have no title to Salvation because they have it not by Gods Covenant sealed by such a Ministry of the Sacraments 7. They hold twice Ordination sinful and yet Re-ordain those who were ordained by meer Presbyters or Rectors of Parish City Churches 8. Some Leaders grant that there were no Subject-Presbyters in Scripture times nor Bishops that had more than one stated Assembly and Altar which others are against 9. They agree not of the sense of the words Presbyter and Bishops in the Scripture 10. Some of them reproach the Reformation of other Churches as the Papists do as the effect of fury and rebellion and seek to render it odious as a crime 11. Yea and the Reformation of England by K. H. 8. as the product of his filthy lust and
another keeping sound Doctrine Love and Peace 21. The number and need of the people must determine whether a particular Church shall have one Pastor or more 22. If one for Concord be President to the rest and the Senior Pastors be guides to the younger we are not against it 23. Nor yet if the Magistrate or Churches by consent appoint some of the Graver to be visitors of many Churches and to instruct and keep the younger in peace 24. Nor will we quarrel against the Names of Bishops or Archbishops or their Wealth and Honour while Faith Worship Discipline and Love are preserved 25. If by a National Church they mean either a Christian Kingdom or all the Churches of a Nation as under one Prince or as associated for Concord we deny none such 26. For we hold that all Christians should live in as much Concord as they can and that Synods are useful to that end 27. We must honour our Rulers though they afflict us 28. We hold that we must separate from no Church or Christian farther than they separate from Christ though we must not sin against God for communion with any We take it for a great sin for any party to appropriate the Church only to themselves We own no Church but as part of the Catholick or universal Church and we hold all our Assemblies as in union and communion with All the true Churches on earth and put up our prayers and praises as in conjunction with theirs not owning their failings or our own but their duties And we will be members of no particular Church which alloweth us not occasional Communion with others but take such for Sectaries 29. The welfare of Souls is of so great concernment that we cannot think any Christian should be indifferent to whom as a Pastor he committeth the care and conduct of his Soul any more than what Physician he chuseth for his body And the difference between the ignorant and the wise and wicked and the godly the negligent and the faithful is of grand importance 30. We think that all Christians should prefer a faithful Pastor before an unfaithful or insufficient one and a purer Church before a more corrupt as far as they are free without doing more hurt than good But we will hold occasional communion with more faulty Churches so they compel us not to sin 31. We take not all the faults of the Pastor flock or service to be made ours meerly by our presence Nor do we think that all faults or many and great ones consistent with the necessaries to communion will allow us to separate that is either from a true Church as none or from lawful communion as unlawful For Natural distance is not Moral Separation 32. We take the Magisterial imposing of unnecessary Oaths Professions Subscriptions Practices much more sinful ones as necessary terms of communion and silencing and casting out Christs faithful Servants that obey them not to be the grand and common causes of Schism which have through the pride of a Domineering-Clergy broken most of the Churches on Earth for above 1000 years 33. We hate the spirit of pride and envy in Preachers who cannot endure to see others at least that differ from them preferred before them and if any do but go from them to others or worship God in another place or in other words or circumstances do frighten the people by their loud allarm and cry of Schism as if all were of a different Religion or species of Communion that differ from their book in Word or Ceremonies And by that blinding name of Different Communions alienate the hearts of the ignorant and make them think of the Dutch French and others that only differ from them in accidents as the Papists do of us that are called by them Hereticks 34. We take him not to have the Wisdom and Love of a sound Christian who cannot love and bear with his fellow Christians who differ but in such tollerable things 35. Yet we think not that all should preach and gather Churches that will and that the intollerable must be tolerated and that it must be All or none And the Magistrate is Judg whom he will tolerate but he must judg aright 36. We hold the Parish-Divisions to be of great convenience Not taking all in the Parish for the Church but confining Ministers to their proper bounds 37. And whatever differing Churches the Magistrate tolerateth he must force them to live peaceably and modestly towards others 38. Were every Church reduced to such a number as that all might in season have local personal communion like great Parishes that have Chappels and E. g. every Church of 6000 Souls have six Pastors conjunct or every Corporation or Market-Town of old called Cities with the Neighbour-Villages be one Church and one among these Pastors to be a President Bishop we should think it most like the ancient Government But we can live in peace where we cannot have all which we justly wish for 39. Though some preach not Christ sincerely but in envy and strife to add to our affliction we rejoyce that Christ is preached 40. We hold all that for the power of Kings the obedience of the Subjects and against rebellion which the Scripture speaketh and which the Christian Churches Politicks Lawyers as far as we know them commonly hold and more than divers chief Conformists Bishop Bilsons book of Subjection and Grotius de Imperio Sum. Pat. fulliest speak my thoughts in the greatest part 41. As these are the meer Nonconformists principles so their practice is accordingly They pray for the King and all in authority not for preserment but that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And they pray and seek for the publick safety and live peaceably towards others 42. They sought reconciliation with the Diocesans before the Kings return and associating upon uniting terms 43. What the Nonconformists in City Countrey Monks Army and the next Parliament did for the Kings restoration is known 44. They offered but Bishop Ushers form of Primitive Government or Episcopacy for reconciliation and concord with the Bishops 45. They gave publick thanks for the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical affairs which had healed us had it not been cast away In which he declareth their moderation 46. They never made one motion for Presbytery Lay-Elders Independency Nor against Parish-Churches nor against the Bishops Lordships or place in Parliament or Wealth Though I confess they desired better than they saw fit to ask 47. They did as much with the Bishops as if it had been for their lives by Condescention Reason and Petition to have prevented the foreseen divisions and were the seekers of Peace 48. The Liturgy which they offered had not one word of exception returned by the Bishops nor were their Reply or Petition answered by them to this day 49. They offered their solemnest Protestation or Oaths that it was to avoid sin that they refused Conformity and yet
A SEARCH FOR THE English Schismatick By the CASE and CHARACTERS I. Of the Diocesan Canoneers II. Of the Present Meer Nonconformists Not as an Accusation of the former but a Necessary Defence of the later so far as they are wrongfully Accused and Persecuted by them By Richard Baxter One of the Accused LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Sign of the Three Golden Cocks at the West-end of St. Pau ls Church-Yard 1681. POSTSCRIPT THE strivings of Parliaments since Archbishop Laud's Government against Innovations Popery and Arbitrary over-topping Law and their jealousies of the designs and progress while they themselves were of the Old Church of England do call us to think what the difference was between the Old and New HE that would know what the Old Church of England is let him read I. The 39 Articles II. The Homilies III. The Apology with Jewels defence IV. Nowell's Catechism V. Deus Rex all owned by the Church VI. Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity in 8 Books VII Bishop Bilson of Christian Subjection VIII Bishop Downham de Antichristo IX The great Writers against Popery as Dr. Whitaker Dr. Reynolds Dr. Willet Dr. Sutliff Dr. White Dr. Airy Dr. Humphrey Dr. Fulk Dr. Prideaux Dr. R. Abbot Dr. Crakenthorp Dr. Challoner Dr. Hall Bishop Usher Dr. Davenant Bishop Carlton Chillingworth Bishop Morton c. X. The Writings against Bishop Laud viz. Bishop Hall ' s Epistle to D. L. Archbishop G. Abbots and Bishop R. Abbot ' s judgment of him and his Tryal with what was there charged against him XI The Harmony of Confessions and the Synod of Dort XII King James ' s Works HE that would know what is the New Church of England since Bishop Laud differs from the Old let him read I. Dr. Heylin ' s Writings Dr. Pocklingtons Mr. Dows Sybthorps and Mainwarings II. Heylin ' s Life of B. Laud particularly his description of the designed reconciliation with the Papists III. Mr. Thorndike's Just weights and measures and forbearance of Penalties IV. Archbishop Bramhall ' s book against me explaining the new way in these particulars 1. To abhor Popery 2. That we all come under a Foreign Jurisdiction obeying the Pope as the Western Patriarch and also as the Principium unitatis to the universal Church Governing by the Canons 3. That Dissenters from this be accounted Schismaticks 4. That we yield to what the Greeks have yielded and be of their Religion 5. That Grotius was a Protestant for the Church of England V. Dr. Parkers Preface to that book and Dr. Pierce's defence of Grotius VI. Grotius his Volume and Notes on Cassander specially his Discussio Apologetici Riveliani in which he professeth 1. That Rome is the Mistris-Church 2. Sound in faith 3. That he finds Protestants can never unite but by uniting with Rome 4. He owns the Doctrine of the Councils even that of Trent 5. The Pope to govern by the Canons of the Councils and not arbitrarily 6. Nor must invade the rights of Kings or Bishops 7. That if the curiosities of the School-men and the ill lives of the Clergy be disowned and amended this much is enough to sober men 8. And he saith that the English Bishops were many of his mind tho' the Separatists were not VII The Earl of Clarendon ' s Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet laying the nature of Popery in their injury to Princes VIII Guil. Forbes Bishop of Edenborough his Irenicon IX Mr. Dodwell ' s book against Schism and the same doctrine maintained by others who nullifie Ministry and Churches whose Episcopal Ordination hath not come down from the Apostles uninterrupted X. The Bishops endeavours since 1660 to silence fine imprison banish and drive five miles from all Corporations c. all such as receive not the Impositions Together with the rest of the true History of these last Twenty years The particulars are not now to be recited A SEARCH FOR THE ENGLISH SCHISMATICK OR The True Characters of the several Accused Parties by which they may be discerned CHAP. I. The Parties Accused The Parties questioned are I. The Papists II. The Diocesan-Militants or Canoneers III. The Passive peaceable Conformists IV. The Meer Nonconformists V. The Sectarian Church-Appropriators and Causeless Separatists and Dividers I. THERE is no Sect of Christians which maketh so great use of their pretence to Unity and crying down Heresie Schism and Separation as the Papists do and yet are the greatest Schismaticks and Dividers as thus appeareth 1. They have a self-made humane universal Church feigning the Pope to be the rightful Head of all the Christian World 2. They exclude all from Christs Chuch who are not the Popes Subjects though at the Antipodes where he never came nor sent 3. They presume to make universal Laws for all the World 4. They Curse men from Christ by Excommunications who refuse such subjection and obedience to these Laws 5. They have introduced many new Articles of Faith on pretence of declaring and expounding Faith 6. They have multiplied corrupting additions in the Christian Worship 7. Their regular objective Religion now consisteth in so great a number of the Decrees of Councils as no Christians can well understand while they accuse Gods Laws as unintelligible 8. They can give us no certainty which of these Councils are obligatory to us while they contradict each other 9. They agree not of the Essence of Christianity or necessary truths but resolve all into the uncertainty of sufficient Proposals 10. They damn men as Hereticks that deny not all humane sense believing there is no Bread and Wine when they see and taste them 11. They burn such as Hereticks and are for tormenting Inquisitions to destroy them 12. They bind Temporal Lords to exterminate all such and to swear to do it and this on pain of Excommunication Deposition and Damnation So that a Protestant Kingdom under a true Papist King hath a King that is thus bound to exterminate his Subjects if he be able and professeth to do it on these three penalties his Salvation lying on it 13. They decree the giving of his Dominions to another and absolving his Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity if he obey not 14. They decree that it's Heresie to hold that a King hath the power of Investing Bishops and that he is not thus subject to the Pope 15. They tolerate their chief Doctors to write that a Heretick is no King at least if Excommunicate and may lawfully be killed 16. Their Canons exempt the Clergy from being Governed and Taxed by Kings 17. They forbid the reading of the Scriptures translated without a License 18. They say that we cannot well believe the Gospel but on the credit of their Church As if we must first know that the Pope and Council are authorized by Christ before we believe in Christ himself 19. They renounce Repentance by pretending to Infallibility 20. They cherish a numerous Clergy and Sects to carry on all this in the World and perswade high and low that to promote
as blasphemy against God and destructive to the piety and peace of man 88. Some of them preach for universal Redemption as a necessary point of faith which others cry down as Arminianism 89. Some of them make Justifying faith to contain Obedience and others cry it down as Popery and Socinianism 90. Some of them say that God hath given to all men sufficient grace to salvation yea say some and efficient which others call Arminianism 91. Some of them say that it is Gods Grace that maketh the faithful to differ from others and others say it is their own Wills And about the parts of Grace and Free-will they preach and write against each other 92. Some of them preach that all the justified persevere And others preach it down as a dangerous errour I have tryed to reconcile all these but they go on 93. Some of them are only for Bidding prayer in the Pulpit as if all other were forbidden by the Canon as Heylin others use prayer there 94. Some there pray in their own words and some only in the words of the Liturgy some use the same words and others vary them 95. Their Cathedral Worship much differeth from the Parochial and some Churches use Organs and others have none 96. One writeth for the Religious use of Lent as Bishop Guning others as Bishop Taylor and Dr. More c. are against their principles and use yea and against many other things of Church-Government and significant Ceremonies which the other party hold See Taylor cited 2d Plea for Peace 97. Some of them are for the Divine right of the Lords Day and the Morality of the fourth Commandment which Heylin and many others vehemently deny 98. One is for Altars and Rails and others against them and others for indifferency 99. In preaching they use very different Methods And some Churches of them begin to use new Versions of the singing Psalms 100. Some following Grotius de Jure Belli and Dr. Taylors Ductor Dubitantium are for useful lying which injureth not others and therefore no doubt for doubtful Conformity But others are against it 101. But they no-where more differ than in their Conformity it self one taking the words in one sense and another in another so that their Conformity is not the same thing though the Letters and sound of voice be the same One by his Assent and Consent to all things in the three books meaneth plainly and another meaneth but that he may and will use so much as concerneth him One by Not resisting by Arms any Commissioned by the King meaneth as he speaketh Another limiteth it to Lawfully Commissioned One by on any pretence whatsoever meaneth as he saith Another excepteth as Bilson aforesaid and such cases as King Johns who gave up his Kingdom to the Pope and would have done to the Morocco-Mahometan and many other such instances as Killing the Parliaments City c. One that subscribeth never to endeavour any Alteration of Church-Government meaneth as he speaketh Another excepteth Lay-Chancellours use of the Keys Deans and Chapters Archdeacons c. if the King would change them One by any endeavour meaneth as he saith Another meaneth only unlawful endeavour one by nothing contrary to Gods word in Can. 36. meaneth plainly Another meaneth nothing which maketh Communion unlawful One taketh all the imposed subscriptions to be but a promise of submission and peace which others abhor and are for the Truth of all that they subscribe assent to In a word some are for the common Rule of taking all the words in the usual sense except the Imposers declare a different sense And others are for necessary supposing that the Imposers meant well whatever they said and therefore our Charity and honouring them bindeth us to put no sense on their words which is contrary to Gods Law the Law of the Land or Common Right and supposing them true and good whatever they are who can doubt but they may be sworn or subscribed 102. Dr. Hammond and his party thought that it doth not appear that there were any subject Presbyters in Scripture-times and so that every single Congregation had a Bishop present in worshipping God But Dr. Stillingfleet saith p. 269. While the Apostles lived it is probable there were no fixed Bishops or but few And so the world had but 12 or 13 indefinite Bishops who are not proved to have any peculiar determinate Diocesses 103. Mr. Dodwell and I think most of them take the Church of England to be a Political society and many think we overthrow Church and Order if we deny Churches to be formed by a Constitutive Government But Dr. Stillingfleet not only holdeth that the Church of England is but the Pastors and people consenting by Parliaments to live under the same Laws about Religion without any Constitutive Church-Head one or many but also peremptorily concludeth that to maintain such a Constitutive Supreme Church-power will necessarily infer Popery and so maketh all the Conformists necessarily to lead in Popery who are for such Political Churches and Constitutive Governours 104. Mr. Cheny saith That to make Churches by Covenants confederacies or consent besides baptism is to be guilty of blasphemy impiety irreligiousness infidelity and one should rather die than yield to it But Dr. Stillingfleet saith the Church of England is one Church made by such consent But such Schisms among themselves are too many to be here numbered And no wonder when they differ so much as they do with their own Sentiments in one and the same book saying and unsaying as the argument in hand requireth E. g. Dr. Stillingfleet thinketh that the seven Churches of Asia being Metropolitan prove Diocesan or Metropolitan-Bishops then in being And yet that while the Apostles lived it 's probable there were no fixed Bishops or but few And so either seven Apostles were the Angels of the seven Churches of Asia reproved so much for their sin and backsliding or the Angels signified not the Bishops While we are all Schismaticks for disobeying say some and holding Nonconforming Assemblies say others from the Church of England yet this Church is no proper Political Church and hath no Constitutive chief Government saith Dr. St. and therefore hath no authority to make Canons to command us He no less than threatneth us with damnation not in the retracted Irenicum but in his late book against Popish Idolatry if we chuse not the purest Church and the Papist granteth it and saith as he And yet it is the substance of his unreasonable books to prove us Schismaticks if we depart from their Church or so much as preach to other Assemblies on the account of purer worship and greater edification c. And he had the wit to pass by this citation in the Epistle of a book against him As for Mr. Cheny and divers other such another book openeth their Contradictions They often tell us of the Nullity of the Ministry or Power which is not received from Episcopal Superiors Especially Bishop Gunning and
Mr. Dodwell hence draw dismal degrading and unchurching Consequences And yet thus they condemn both the English and Roman and Universal Church If Church-power be given by Inferiors the Independents are not to be confuted If from equals as Generation is as men generate men and Physicians make Physicians c. then Presbyters may make Presbyters If it must be by Superior Power then who maketh Archbishops in England or Popes at Rome who have no Superiors and so by them no authority So much for the Historical Characters of the Canonical Conformists But after all this we grant that there is some tye and union among them They all own Archbishops Bishops Deans and Chapters Archdeacons with an Et caetera the rest as the Canon speaketh They all agree to declare and subscribe the words imposed and promise or Covenant accordingly and swear Obedience to their Ordinaries E. g. Though such as Mr. Bull and Dr. Tully write against each other of Justification as by Faith or Works though many are very much against the Doctrine of Mr. Thorndike Mr. Parker Mr. Sherlock and such other yet they all subscribe the same Articles about Justification Free-will Predestination And I doubt not but there are very many not only Learned but Pious men among them who yet by strong prejudice and passion through education converse cross interests and unacquaintedness with Dissenters and the many scandals that have risen and the extremes which many have run into are possest with a conceit that the ruine imprisonment banishment or silencing of Nonconformists is necessary to the prosperity of their party called by them The Church And to do the Papists right they agree to be members of one Church and to be for the Dignities Wealth and Power of their Clergy and take the same Oaths and are under the same Canons c. though they differ about the Supremacy it self as between the Pope and the Prelates in General Councils and about swearing forswearing lying murder deposing and killing Kings fornication and many such as the Jansenists have opened at large All these differences they can bear with and the many different Sects of Fryers fitted to the several humours of men as long as they are for one Common society and interest And doubtless many of strict lives do think it a service to the Church and so to God to kill burn and destroy others that are against them as they do There is some one with what mind I know not that hath written a book called The Catholick Hierarchy pleading like an Independent against humane Impositions But in a Digression so diligently labouring to prove that the Diocesans Subordination of Churches will unavoidably infer a Pope or Universal Head that I take it to be a dangerous book while it stalleth the said Diocesans whether imprudently or fraudulently as a Prevaricator I know not he saith more for a Pope without any antidote than is ordinarily to be elsewhere found and then most heads are able to answer though the main conclusion is fully confuted in my last book against Johnson alias Terret the Papist CHAP. III. The Meer Nonconformist 1. BY the present Meer Nonconformists we mean those that 1660 by the Kings Concession made their proposals for Reformation and Concord and as are of the Judgment then by them professed I meddle not with others unknown 2. Their profest Religion is Meer Christianity essentially contained in the Sacramental Covenant explained in the Creed Lords-prayer and Decalogue and integrally in the sacred Scripture 3. Yet as Christians are accidentally called Protestants because they renounce Popery so we are Catholicks as renouncing all Schismatical Sects and Nonconformists because we dare not Conform to all that is imposed on us 4. We hold that all Christians should Love each other as themselves and do them all the good they can and no hurt 5. We hold that all baptized in Infancy should solemnly at age renew and own that Covenant as adult members 6. And that all that do so not nullifying their profession by inconsistent heresie or sin should be received in Communion 7. That such as renew it not or are proved to forsake it or heinously sin against it should be reproved and after sufficient admonition if impenitent be declared unfit for Church-Communion and accordingly avoided 8. That God hath appointed that there be stated Assemblies of Christians especially on the Lords-days where he shall be worshipped Men instructed and Communion exercised 9. That these Congregations should have known stated Pastors to be their Teachers and Guides in worship and holy living 10. That these Pastors by Office have the power of the Church-keys to judge whom to take in by Baptism and whom to admonish as Criminal to reject as impenitent and to absolve and receive again as penitent in their proper charge 11. That Baptism and the Eucharist being a Gift of a sealed pardon and of Christ and life no unbelieving nor unwilling person is capable of them Therefore none but believing Consenters or Volunteers and their Infants should be baptized and Volunteers only admitted to the Lords-Supper 12. And though Magistrates should promote the sacred Work and Rule the Churches and keep peace and order by the Sword and see that all have competent Teachers and hinder the intollerable yet may they not invade the Pastors office or peoples right nor force men to trust their Souls to the Pastoral Care of unable or untrusty men nor hinder them from chusing better for themselves any more than they may confine them to untrusty Physicians Servants or Wives 13. That because the Pastoral Office cannot be exercised either by or on the unwilling mutual consent is necessary to the Relation of Pastor and Flock 14. That it is part of the Pastors Office to word his own Sermons and Prayers But yet if to avoid discord or errour some common forms be agreed on not overthrowing the Pastors office they may be fitly used till by accident they do more hurt than good 15. The Laws of Magistrates Circa Sacra and the consent and custom of Churches should not in lawful things be crossed by humorous dividing Singularity 16. No one Liturgy was imposed on any National Church or any Patriarchate for many hundred years after the Apostles days yea and after Constantine But every Bishop or Pastor was the chuser of his Words and Practice 17. Christians should all live in Love and walk peaceably by the Divine Scripture-Rule so far as they have attained so waiting for increase of grace 18. We must receive the weak in the faith and such as differ tolerably from us even as Christ receiveth us and no Christian should be excommunicated but for impenitency in sins subverting faith or holy living 19. Nor must Christs Ministers be forbid to preach the Gospel because of tollerable differences 20. And those that through differences and scruples cannot comfortably worship God under one Pastor or in the Words or Ceremonies of one Church should have leave to do it in
many reported that we held all for indifferent except renouncing the Covenant 50. The New Liturgy came out of the Press so near the penal Bartholomew-day that in almost all Counties of England they were turned out for not declaring Assent to a book which they never saw or could see and the Conformers there owned it before they saw it 51. The Nonconformists knowing that the Magistrate hath the power of the Temples and Tythes never pretended any right to them when they were cast out But knowing that they were justly possessed of their Pastoral relation to their flocks they believed not that the meer will of the Magistrate disobligeth them Yet they believe that when the continuance will do more hurt than good they and the flock should part by consent 52. We never heard that any of the 2000 ejected Ministers were cast out for any crime or false doctrine but meerly for not Conforming by Declaration Subscription and Practice 53. Nor have we heard that any or many in all these times of tryal have been convicted of heresie or drunkenness swearing cursing deceiving fornication or any such immorality 54. I am sure they have oft requested that Laws may be made to Constrain them to live peaceably to abuse none and to punish them as much as others if any of them be found guilty of any such crime and that such Laws may bring it to the tryal who they be that are of scandalous lives 55. They have been thankful for bare connivence and opportunity to preach for nothing save what they receive from the hearers charity these 18 years Some that could live without it have preached freely and the rest could they have lived and their families without bread had rather have been no burden to any They are naturally no more in love with a beggarly sordid life than others The Conformists would be loth to live on Charity Many hundreds have long had nothing or next to nothing of their own and Wives and many Children to maintain House-rent to pay Meat Drink Cloaths c. to buy and nothing but mens Charity to defray all this And in the Countreys Money is scarce Charity too cold and most of the Rich are taught by the Clergy to condemn them And if they come to great Towns the Clergy reproach them 56. Many have dyed in prison many catcht their death there many had their goods and books taken away and many endured long imprisonments and the prosecution goeth on 57. The Magistrates of London and other places have been vexed and sued by Informers for not prosecuting them 58. They preached mostly privately to few about London for fear of giving offence till the people in the dreadful Plague which killed about 100000 were left as sheep without shepherds crouding into another world and the Nonconformists durst not forbear to teach them And God so greatly blest their labours that the People and Preachers who had been thus awakened by devouring death resolved no more for fear of man to neglect the care and interest of Souls O who could be silent when thousands that lookt for speedy death did croud for help in their necessary preparation This first drew the London Nonconformists into more open exercise of their office which encouraged those in the Countrey to imitation And it is not their judgment that they are bound to preach when by opposing violence or the offending of Rulers it is like to do more hurt than good and once preaching to deprive them of all the usefulness of their lives The spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets to Reason and Prudence in the use of gifts as Dr. Hammond expoundeth it But whatever it cost them when there is true Necessity and Opportunity making the good like to be greater than the hurt they judg that they must use the Ministry which they are vowed and ordained to 59. When the Plague was over some thought once again to retire and the fire burning down the Churches and the people being destitute constrained them though forbidden to go on O what is man What were the Clergy that took upon them the Charge of Souls that they durst be against such mens Preaching of the Gospel in such a City when such a Plague and such flames had declared the necessity 60. Even when the Plague was raging and the Court and Parliament fled from it to Oxford they there were making the Oxford-Oath and Act of Confinement to banish the Nonconformists from the desolate City and all Corporations c. And they that before purposed to come to the Parish-Churches durst not come lest the Congregation being witness of their being in the City c. they should be sent to the Jayl 61. Most that we hear of in the Countreys and some about London preach not at the time of publick worship but go themselves to the publick Churches when they have honest tolerable men I and others here do ordinary hear and communicate in our parish-Parish-Churches when even the last Whitsunday I do not think there were above 100 Communicants in a Parish that its thought hath 20000 Souls and yet all the rest are not hunted as Schismaticks And so our Schism is not for withdrawing from the Parish-Churches but for communicating also with others which we avow As if it were greater Schism to separate from none than to separate from all save the Diocesan Conformists who appropriate the Church to themselves 62. We take it to be our duty to do our best to keep up the reputation of honest peaceable Conformists lest our Concord and the peoples edification be hindered 63. When we thought it a service to the Conformists to help them in teaching some of their Parishes which are exceedingly too great to hear them and to enjoy all their Pastoral helps and we preach as they confess the same doctrine as they yet we never asked or expected the least part of their maintenance much less Preferments Prebends Deaneries or Bishopricks but would have been thankful to have leave to be their helpers for nothing but cannot have their consent 64. Those of us that preach at the hours of publick worship do it for the most part where their hearers knowing that they cannot have the just benefit of the Parish-Pastors office in publick and private find it necessary statedly to chuse other helps and other hours would greatly disorder their family-duties Besides the Independents that have long had their gathered Churches 65. Though our judgment be against Pluralities and Non-residences we say little against it lest we should be thought to desire part of the prey or to envy their riches 66. Though we feared that if we conformed to the Professions Subscriptions Oaths Covenants and Practices before-named and this deliberately and on pretence of keeping our Liberty to preach against the sins of others we should be guilty of all the sin and its aggravations which we named in the first Plea for Peace yet knowing how various representations make mens judgments to
Lying Perjury false Covenanting against duty and all the other sins with their many and heinous aggravations which we fear being guilty of if we should conform Nor did we ever refuse to give the reason of our fears to the Learned'st man that doth accuse us 81. As is aforesaid we never to this day put up our Petition to any Parliament since we were silenced for relief compassion or to be heard which may seem strange to those that know our long accusations and sufferings 82. So far are we from loving Schism that we take Unity to be essential to the universal and particular Churches and that division is destruction though every difference is not such division And the chief of my studies and labours in the world is How to reconcile and unite divided Christians And having fully proved in a Treatise of the only terms of common concord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will never be attained but on the terms of Primitive simplicity prescribed by Christ and practised by the first Churches it is because our Conformity is inconsistent with such terms of common concord and such as we think but Sectarian schism that we are Nonconformists Let him that is for dividing the child be taken for no true mother of it 83. We are not against all Litanies our Litany hath not less but more than theirs We heartily say From Atheism Infidelity and Popery from prophaneness persecution and oppression from all sedition privy conspiracy and rebellion from false doctrine heresie and schism from an ignorant proud and worldly domineering Clergy from malignant hatred of Gods holy Image and servants and serious worship and from contempt of his word and commandments Good Lord deliver us Jam. 3. 13 14 15 16 17 18. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledg among you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts much more silencing persecution glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace 1 Thes 2. 15 16. Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us And they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sin always For the wrath is come upon them to the utmost I determine not in all this Who is the Schismatick but make a pair of Spectacles for the purblind to discern it But Reader I must earnestly intreat thee as thou lovest thy Soul to remember that as toys and plays and lust and pride and drunkenness and gluttony and ambition and covetousness are the Devils nets by which he taketh the most of the world so he hath a second sort for those that are above these things and that is the delights of wit in the vain unprofitable part of Learning And for those that yet are above this one of his last snares is Religious wrangling turning faith and godliness into opinions sidings formalities and perverse disputings especially with men of corrupt minds that take gain for Godliness and think that Reputation and Money will coin any thing that is for them into Truth and Goodness I conclude therefore That if thou would'st escape that Schism and Dangerous sin which Contenders charge on one another the way is short and plain I. Understand and stand to thy Baptismal-Vow and see that thy Belief Love and Practice of known Christianity according to our Creed Lords-Prayer and Decalogue in Love to God thy Soul and thy Neighbour in Godliness Charity Justice and Sobriety be serious and sincere and then thou art certainly of that Catholick Church which Christ is the Head of and will save II. Love all Christians as such according to the measures of their goodness and remembering thy own weakness pity and bear with the infirmities of the weak and when others wrangle against them and abuse them study thou to do them good III. Look on all particular Churches as members of the universal afore described and chuse the best thou canst for thy ordinary communion and good so it be not to a greater hurt by accident But deny not occasional communion with any though accused by others further than they force thee to sin or than they separate from Christ Thy presence maketh thee not guilty of the tolerable faults which thou canst not amend Take them for Sectaries and Separatists who forbid thee communion with all that are not of their mind and way in tolerable differences IV. Take heed of neglecting any truth or duty or living in any sin which all good Christians even the Contenders are agreed about And in these thou wilt find enough for peace of Conscience and Salvation V. Be sure that thou approve thy self to God and take his Law for thy Rule and his Love and the heavenly Glory for thy portion hope and All and let not the flesh nor worldly interest cheat thee into justly suspected sin nor the Threats or Flatteries or Bribes of men either Drive Allure or Hire thee to be false to thy Conscience thy Saviour and God nor prophanely with Esau to sell thy Birthright for a morsel or hazard thy part in Heaven for a transitory befooling dream and shadow of profit honour or delight FINIS