Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY IN SELECT ADMONITIONS AND DIRECTIONS TO ALL Sober Dissenters To whom Being dead he yet speaketh LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationer's Hall 1697. THE PREFACE TO DISSENTERS THE Instructions here recommended as Mr. Baxter's Legacy were collected out of his own genuine Writings and perused by him in his Life-time and being much for his Reputation with all sober Persons he seemed well pleased with them notwithstanding much obloquy and reproach from divers Dissenters for in the Preface to his Christian Directory he says It was objected that his Writings differing from the common Judgment had already caused offence to the Godly to which he answers If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such Men much more by endeavouring farther than ever I have done the quenching of that Fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the Folly and Mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and inflame and tear the Church of God And in his Second Admonition to Bagshaw he stiles himself a Long-maligned and resisted endeavourer of the Churches Vnity and Peace and in p. 11. of that Book he thus declares his Christian temper and resolution If Injuries or Interest would excuse any Sin I think their are few Ministers in England who have more inducement to the angry separating way than I have But shall I therefore wrong the Truth God forbid and p. 52. He further tells Bagshaw I repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of peevish quarrelling with Superiours and Church Orders and though I ever disliked it and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much encourage such as were of their temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church Corruptions and was too loth to displease the Contentious for fear of being uncapable to do them good meeting with too few Religious Persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives and when Mr. Bagshaw objected that he chose to communicate on Easter-day in a very populous Church purposely that it might be known he answered p. 76. If a Man by many years forbearing all publick Prayers and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or counts them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly and pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach the People by Example as well as Doctrine The Question which he maintained against Mr. Bagshaw was Is it lawful to hold communion with such Christian Churches as have worthy or tollerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial order of the Ministers Conformity and use of the Common Prayer-Book And concludes p. 89. That we ought to do so when some special Reasons as from Authority Scandal c. do require it He saith I wrote a Book at the end of my Cain and Abel on purpose to shew the lawfulness of communicating with the Church of England but before it was printed Dr. Owen having heard of it sent me 12 Arguments against joyning with the Church of England which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers poured out their keenest Censures upon me one said I was an Apostate another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation and I were reported to be a pleader for Baal and Anti-christ in Answer to all which I published a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer you I will tell the World a certain Truth I Preach I Write I frequently and openly talk against Separation and for the lawfulness of joyning with the Church in the use of the Liturgy and to rebuke Mens extreams and censures of the Episcopal Clergy and for an impartial Love of all true Christians I sharply reprove the weak Reasonings of those that are otherwise minded and by this I occasion the true Sectarians every where to speak against me Apol. p. 62. I take it for a duty to Preach against Schism Sedition and Rebellion and all Principles that tend to breed or feed them and to use all Opportunities and Interest in the People to promote their Loyalty and Publick Peace p. 18 19. I did not vary from my most early Opinion concerning these things for in my Epistle to the Saints Rest I gave the same Admonition to my Flock at Kidderminister in these words I charge you in Christ's name as you will answer it when we shall meet at Judgment that you faithfully and constantly practise these Directions Above all see that ye be followers of Peace and Vnity in the Church and among your selves I differ from many in several things of considerable moment yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others so as to disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear least I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I charge you that if God should give me up to any Factious Church-rendring course that you forsake me and follow me not a step believe not those to be Friends of the Church who would cure her by cutting her Throat Vpon writing my Cure of Church Divisions Mr. Bagshaw p. 152. Published other Invectives against me as that one worthy of credit told him that the Learned and Judicious Mr. Herle having read that Book said That it had been better for the Church of God if Mr. Baxter's Friends had never sent him to School and that Mr. Cawdry had a like opinion of that Book and that another Person as knowing in the Mystery of Godliness as either of them told a Friend of his that notwithstanding the noise about Mr. Baxter he would end in Flesh and Blood But Mr. Baxter was well fortified against these obloquies having been surfeited as he says with humane Applause But notwithstanding all these Clamours and vexatious Troubles Mr. Baxter kept a constant course pleading for Concord and Vnity almost in every Book which he set forth and that with such cogent Arguments as the like are scarce to be found on any other Subject which he hath written upon as from the following Admonitions collected out of a few of his many Treatises will appear to the Judicious Reader and many more may be observed in those that are conversant in his Writings wherein although some things accidentally written may seem to be contradictory yet as he told Mr. L'Estrange he was well able to reconcile them And by his distinctions he hath reconciled many seeming Contradictions by help whereof as Mr. Silvester observed in the Preface to his Life as he could speak what he would so he could prove what he spake I am well perswaded that by the following Collections any impartial Separatist may find sufficient Arguments to resolve all his Scruples and Objections against Conformity to the Established Worship for which end they are
tenderest of their Unity and Peace Own the best as best but none as a divided Sect espouse not their dividing interest confine not your especial love to a Party but extend it to all the Members of Christ Deny not local Communion when there is occasion for it to any Church that hath the Substance of True Worship and forceth you not to sin Love them as true Christians and Churches even when they drive you from their Communion I have found that Reformation is to be accomplished more by restoration of Ordinances and Administrations to their Primitive Nature and Use than by utter abolition Mr. Bagshaw objected to Mr. Baxter that he chose to communicate in a very populous Church upon Easter-day purposely that it might be known To this Mr. Baxter Answers p. 76. If a Man by many Years forbearing all Publick Prayer and Sacraments should tempt others to think that he is against them or thinks them needless How should he cure that Scandal but by doing that openly pleading for it which he is supposed to be against Ministers being bound to teach by Example as well as Doctrine Of the Liturgy § 1. Mr. Baxter in the 2d page of his exceptions against the Liturgy urged an Objection of Mr. Hales in these Words To load our Publick Forms with Private Fancies on which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism See also p. 48. The Bishops gave this Answer to the Objection We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress private Conceptions of Prayer lest private Opinions be made matter of Prayer as it hath and will be if private Persons take liberty to make publick Prayers To this I agreed p. 201. Cure of Divisions in these words Every Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian doth too willingly put his Errors into his Prayers The Sense of which Mr. Bagshaw thus expounds p. 7. Of his Antidote by mentioning of Separatists as a distinct body of Men from the Antinomian Anabaptists c. It is evident he can mean no other but his Presbyterian and Congregational-Brethren § 2. That which God prescribed is lawful but God prescribed Forms of Prayer as the Titles and Matter of many of the Psalms prove which were daily used in the Jews Synagogues Christ Direct 2d Edit p. 139. Q. 74. Is it lawful to impose Forms on the Congregation in publick Worship Answ Yes and more than lawful It is the Pastors duty so to do for whether he forethink what to pray or not his Prayer is to them a Form of Words and they are bound to concur with him in Spirit or Desire and to say Amen So that every Minister by Office is daily to impose a Form of Prayer on all the People only some Men impose the same Form many times over or every day and others impose every day a new one pag. 140. Ibid. Pag. 142 143. Mr. Baxter shews the conveniencies and inconveniencies both of see and prescribed Prayers and adds My own judgment is that somewhat of both ways joyned together will best obviate the inconveniencies of both though by this I cross the conceits of prejudiced Men on both extremes I think I cross not the judgment of the Church of England which alloweth free Prayers in the Pulpit and at the Visitation of the Sick Nor of the Famous Non conformists Cartwright Hildersham Greenham Amisius Perkins Bains c. Mr. Cartwright all the time that he lived abroad used the same Form before Sermon and after and read Prayers in the Church and concluded with the Lords Prayer § 4. Pag. 102. Of Mr. Baxter ' s life Part 1. Under pretence of the purity of their Churches the Separatists set themselves against the same Men that the Drunkards and Swearers set against doing what they could to make them odious and put them down only they did it more profanely than the Profane in saying Let the Lord be glorified let the Gospel be propagated abusing Sacred Scripture to their purpose All this began in unwarrantable Separations and too much aggravating the faults of the Churches and Common People and Common-Prayer-Book and Ministry which because they thought they needed amendments it required their obstinate Separation and allowed them to make odious any thing that was amiss and if any Man had rebuked them for making it more faulty than it was they called him a pleader for Antichrist and Baal and every eror in the mode of Worship was Idolatry Popery Antichristianism Superstition Will-worship c. When many of their own Prayers were full of Carnal Passion Faction Disorder vain Repetitions unsound and loathsome Expressions and their Doctrine full of Errors and Confussion § 5. Pag. 169. Part. 3. Of B' s Life I wrote a Book called Cain and Abel intending a third Part to tell Dissenters why I went to the Parish Church and Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists least they suffer as Evil doers which a Bookseller importuned me to let him Print but for Reasons then given I delayed it but at last consented to publish the Reasons of my Communicating in the Parish Churches and against Separations But a Manuscript of Dr. Owen's containing Twelve Arguments against joyning with the Liturgy in Publick Churches was sent me which I answered whereupon a swarm of Revilers powred out their keenest Censures whom I answered Another said that my Treatise of Episcopacy fully proved the duty of Separation whereupon I explained that Treatise and all these things together I Published in a Treatise in defence of Catholick Communion to which I refer such as desire farther Satisfaction § 7. I shall name but one Passage more on this Head in his Defence of the Principles of Love pag. 88. The Covenant he saith bindeth us to Reformation according to God's Word and the Example of the best Reformed Churches But to prefer no Publick Worship or a worse before the Liturgy is Deformation and Profaneness and it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgy before none than to prefer Extemporate Publick Worship before the Liturgy for all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgy if they come among us where it is used so that it seems in Mr. Baxter's Judgment a breach of the Covenant to prefer no Publick Worship before the Liturgy or to refuse Occasional Communion in the use of the Liturgy as if it were unlawful when in Mr. B's as well as in the Judgment of all the Reformed Churches it is to be preferred to Extemporate Publick Worsip My Opinion as to Liturgy in general is 1. That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful 2. That a stinted Liturgy in some parts of Publick Service is necessary 3. In the parts where in is not necessary it may not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it 4. It is not of such necessity to take the matter and words out of the
them How Forms may be imposed publickly on the Congregations of Believers and on the Ministers yea though the Forms imposed be worse than the exercise of their own gifts though among us no Man be forbidden to use his own gifts in the Pulpit The Pharisees long Liturgy it is like was in many things worse than ours yet Christ and his Apostles often joyned with them and never condemned them I shall now only add that the Lord's Prayer is a Form directed to God as in the Third Person and not to Man only as a directory for Prayer in the Second Person it is not Pray to God your Father in Heaven that his name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come c. But Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name c. And it seems by the Disciples words that thus John taught his Disciples to pray Luke 11. 1. and we have in the Scripture the mention of many Set Forms of Service to God which therefore we may well use And I desire the Reader again to Note that though Prayer was corrupted by the Pharisees yet Christ usually joyned in their Synagogues Luke 14. 17. and never medled with our controversie about the lawfulness of Set Forms This Mr. Baxter infers from Calvins note on Matth. 6. before the Preface to the Defence Pag. 76. Of Concord I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the Common-Prayer to be better incomparably than the Prayers or Sermons of many that I hear As for the Common Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would again in the like case He that separates upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate upon a reason common to almost all of the far greatest part of the Churches See the Defence p. 54. The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert Defence p. 68. Apology p. 9. Having perused all the Foreign and Antient Liturgies in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there That which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful because it is commanded Obedience to Superiors is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things p. 152. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of Obedience to our Pastors We are indangered by divisions principally because the self-conceited part of Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be rulers of the Church and them But pleasing the ignorant Professors humors is a Sin that shews us to be too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last It is a high degree of pride for persons of ordinary understandings to conclude that almost all Christs Churches in the World for Thirteen Hundred Years at least have offered such Worship to God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth at this day is below your Communion for using Forms Mark Is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of old experienced Christians I think till we have better taught even our godly People what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Church of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order We are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The People of the New Separation so much rule their Ministers that many of them have been forced to forsake their own judgments to comply with the violent Labour to maintain the Ordinances and Ministry in esteem The Church is bound to take many a Man as a True Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in Faith and expectation of Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it How much more then to respect their lawful Bishops and Pastors Of Lay-Elders For Lay-Elders As far as I understand the greatest part if not three for one of the English Ministers are of this mind That unordained Elders wanting power to Preach or Administer Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's appointment Of this number I am one and Mr. Vines was another In the Worcester Agreement Printed 1653. Mr. Baxter declared that neither Scripture nor Antiquity knew of any such Officers as Lay-Elders In the Third Defence p. 58. It was notorious that the Parliament yielded to Presbytery to exclude Episcopacy because they had no other way to uphold their Wars without which they had no way to hold up themselves but by help of the Scots My first Book Viz. the Preface to Saints Rest disclaims Lay-Elders Pag. 109. to Hinckly Of Bishops Page 832. of Mr. Baxter ' s Directory Q. 56. Mr. Baxter tells you in the Margin of those Reasons for a larger Episcopacy That in the Apostles Days there were under Christ in the Universal Church many general Officers that had the care of gathering and over-seeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation unto none And most Christian Churches think that though the extraordinary Gifts Privileges and Officers cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their Work the same Form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Ages tho' not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts were settled for all following Ages 1. Because we read of settling that Form viz. general Officers as well as Particular but never of any Abolition 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without Proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as setting a Form of Government for one Age only 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. 4. It was general Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. And in this Premonition he says he doth not dispute the Lawfulness of Arch-Bishops over Parochial-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and other general Officers of the first Age in the ordinary continued parts of their Office And in his Plea for Peace p. 263. Some of us incline much to think that Arch-Bishops i. e. Bishops that have over-sight of many Churches with their Pastors are lawful Successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their Work So also First Plea p. 35. and of his accepting two parts of Episcopacy not varying the Species in the Preface to the second Plea In Church-History p. 37. and in Plea for Peace p. 66. the Bishops in Cyprian's time had the best ordered Churches in the World
Power of the Prince and Patron by his grant Who but Physitians are fit to judge who is meet to be a Licensed Physitian p. 127. Of the 2d Defence § 4. In case of meer different Modes Circumstances and Order of Worship see that you give Authority and the Consent of the Church where you are their due Christian Directory Part. 3. p. 13. § 5. Conform your selves to all the Lawful Customs and Gestures of the Church with which you joyn You come not thither proudly to shew your selves wiser than they in the Circumstances of Worship nor needlesly to differ from them much less to harden Men into a Scorn of strictness by seeing you to place Religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things but you come to Exercise Peace Love and Concord and with one Mind and Mouth to glorifie God stand when the Church standeth sit when the Church sitteth and kneel when the Church kneeleth in cases where God doth not forbid it Christian Directory p. 71. Part 3. § 6. Temples Utensels Lands devoted and lawfully separated by Man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that Separation Every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness and this expressed by such Signs and Gestures as are fit to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in a Church and use reverent Cariage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Christian Directory Part 3. p. 167. § 7. Plain intelligible Church Musick which occasioneth not Divisions but the Church agreeth in for my part I never doubted but to be lawful For 1. God set it up long after Moses's Ceremonial Law by David Solomon c. 2. It is not meerly an Instituted Ceremony but a Natural help to the Minds alacrity and it is a Duty not a Sin to use the helps of Nature and lawful Art As it is Lawful to use the help of Spectacles in reading the Bible so is it of Musick to exhilerate the Soul to God 3. Jesus Christ joyned with the Jewes that used it and spake not against it 4. No Scripture forbids it 5. Nothing can be said against it but what may be said against Tunes and melody of Voices yea it is not a humane Invention as the last Psalm and many others shew which call us to praise the Lord with Instruments of Musick § 8. Let not prejudice against Melody or Church-Musick possess you with a splenatick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work if you know how much the Incorporate Soul must make use of the Body in harmony and the joyful praises of Jehovah Do not then Quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporal Christian Direct p. 72. Part. 3. p. 167. Harmony and Melody are so high a Pleasure of the Sense that they are nearest to rational delight if not participating of them and exceedingly fitted to elevate the Mind and Affections unto God We the Ministers who drew up the Worcester Agreement required our People to declare in these Words IAB do consent to be a Member of the particular Church of Christ in D. whereof EF is Teacher and Overseer and to submit to his Teaching and Ministerial guidance and over-sight according to God's Word Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhearing to the Augustine method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things Page 483. of his Five Disputations Sect. 1. Lest Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just Obedience and preserve them from any sinful Nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But First I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them And so cannot obey them in Faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their Offices to command 2. It belongs not to their Office to make God a new Worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of Worship belongeth to their Office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general Rules 3. We must not take the lawful Commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our Sin and one sin will not excuse another Sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying Men. 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary Faith so much less can he disobey in Faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no Word of God against the act of Obedience now in quection It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful Cases it is our duty to use God's means for our Information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispence with us if it may not be dispensed without a greater injury to the Church or Cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their Office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a Humane Faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them ☞ being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer
People commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the Congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the People do it Of Bowing at the Name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the Name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive Scandalous or offensive I will bow at the Name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names which we Translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our Translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are Subordinate to Christ in his Priestly Office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Rom. 12. 1. and Heb. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any Question oa Scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their Followers that all Antiquity is on their side The Lord's Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion-Table c. Q. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the Rails to Communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these Circumstances but only general rules for Edification Unity Decency and Order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw Men to Popery or to incourage Men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away Dogs keeping Boys from sitting on it and the professed Doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real Corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the Place Name Scituation and Rail is unsound for we Assemble there to Communicate in and according to the professed Doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private Opinion and Error of the Minister Whether we shall receive the Lord's Supper at a Table or in our Seats Whether the Table shall be of Wood or Stone Round or Long or Square Whether it shall stand on the East or West side of the Temple or in the middle Whether it shall have Rails or no Rails All these are left to Humane Prudence As for standing at the reading of the Gospel Page 148. he says If I live where Rulers peremtorily command it as a signified consent to the Gospel I would obey them rather than give offence And for kneeling when the Decalogue is read That the thing it self is lawful is past doubt and if it be commanded and the omission would be offensive I would use it though mistaken Persons were present because I cannot disobey nor differ from the whole Assembly without a greater hurt and scandal than seeming to harden the mistaking Person and because I could and would by other means remove that Persons danger as from me by making him know that it is no Prayer And the rather because in our times the Minister may in the Pulpit tell the People the contrary We must not lightly differ from the Churches where we live in such things I like best to kneel in Prayer and Confession of Sins To stand up in Praises to God at Singing and Reading Psalms of Praise and other Hymns to set at Hearing the Word because the body hath necessity of some rest Of the Creed Q. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed Is it of the Apostle framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant And for the satisfation of the Church that Men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or Composition of the Words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the Three Articles of Christ's own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach Men to vary the matter And Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the Tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Q. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound Doctrine and fitted to the Peoples Edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's Book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scripture or other necessary Church duty 4. So they
Divisions from a Church that separates not from it himself The sparks of Schism are kindled when proud Persons are brainsick with a fond estimation of their own opinions and heart-sick for propagating them Till Church Divisions be rightly apprehended as Whoredom Swearing and Drunkenness are they will never be well cured Imprint therefore on your minds the true Character of them and consider the Effects and then you will fear this confounding Sin as much as a consuming Plague Pag. 63 When you are tempted to separate from any Church for defectiveness in its manner of Worship enquire how God is Worshipped in all the Churches on Earth and then consider if you lived among them you would forsake communion with them all Read the Church History and consider what Heresies have been in times past and what havock Schisms have caused among Christians for if this had been known by well meaning Persons in our days we should not have seen those same opinions appleaded as New Lights which were long ago exploded as Old Heresies Nor should we have seen many honest People taking that same course to reform the Church now and advance the Gospel which in so many Ages and Nations destroyed the Church and cast out the Gospel A narrow Soul that taketh all Christs Interest in the World to lye in a few of their Separate Meetings and shuts up all the Church in a Nut-shell must needs be guilty of the foulest Schisms It is a Catholick Spirit and Principles loving a Christian as a Christian abhorring the very name of Sects and Parties as the Churches Wounds that makes a Catholick indeed Mr. Caudry in his Book of Schism against Dr. Owen p. 14. says that Toleration of separate Congregations had done more to the rooting out Religion from the hearts of many in Seven Years than the inforcing of Uniformity in Seventy Years before As to Separation Be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extreme necessity resolve with Augustine I will not be the Chaff and yet I will not go out of the Floor though the Chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour for Reformation and yet as long as you can possibly avoid it Forsake not the Church that you desire to reform as Paul said to them that were to forsake a Shipwrackt Vessel If these abide not in the Ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others Of Raising Churches against Churches Church gathering is Church scattering work p. 110. Christ Direct The Interest of the Christian Protestant Religion in England must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as is possible in the Parish-Churches Therefore In Parishes where all may hear the Parish-minister I would not have you without necessity to Preach at the same hour of the day but at some middle time that you may not seem to vie with him for Auditors nor to draw the People from him but let them go with you to hear him and after come and hear you Do not meet together in opposition to the publick meeting nor at the time of publick Worship nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are Members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its Ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hope of reforming it nor yet would I have you forward to vent your own supposed gifts and parts in teaching where there is no necessity of it nor as a separated Church but as a part of the Church more diligent than the rest in redeeming time Let all your private meetings be in subordination to the publick and by the approbation and consent of your Spiritual guides Remembring them which have the rule over you Heb. 13. 7 8 9. And I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them c. Rom. 16. 17 18. I would you would ponder every one of these words for they are the precious advice of the Spirit of God and necessary now as well as then The great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the sin of the Pastors in these later days is by division By this he hath promoted all the rest of his designs Our division gratifieth the Papist and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to believe or regard It advantageth Profaneness and greatly hindereth the success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his kingdom The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare Persons for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the journeys end and perfection of your revolt By such fearful desertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the unity of the Church And separation will ruine the separated Churches themselves it will admit of no consistency Parties will arise in the separated Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech my Brethren to open their eyes so far as to regard experience How few separated Churches do now exist that were in being an hundred years ago can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ to be dissolved In the year 1634. Roger Williams of New-England an Assistant to Mr. Kalph Smith Pastor at Plymouth where having vented divers singular opinions he was dismissed went to Salem which place in a years time he filled with Principles of rigid Separation tending to Anabaptistry as that it is not lawful for an unregenerate Man to pray or take an Oath in special not the Oath of Fidelity to the Magistrate He forbad any of his Church-members to hear the godly Ministers of England when occasionally they went thither He taught that the Magistrate had nothing to do in matters of the First Table that there should be an unlimited Toleration of all Religions that to punish any Man for his Conscience was Persecution He separated not only from the Churches of Old but of New-England also as Antichristian After that he would not pray or give thanks with his own Wife or Family because they went to the Church-Assemblies He kept private Meetings by way of separation from and opposition to the Church-Assembly and being banished as a disturber of the Peace he sat down at a place called Providence and there fell to Anabaptistry renouncing Infant Baptism And after a while he told his People that he was out of the way himself and had misled them for he could not find that any on Earth had power to administer Baptism and therefore their last Baptism was a nullity as well