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
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
now Published by the Collector But I foresee it will be necessary to obviate two Objections that will be made against these Admonitions First That Mr. Baxter hath written plain Contradictions to them and the Separating Brethren will adhere to his First Sentiments which lead them to their Non-conformity to which I Answer That Mr. Baxter gave them this Precaution in one of his first and best Treatises charging them strictly that if God should give him over to any Church-rendring course that they would forsake him and not follow him a step Secondly That what they interpret as Contradictions were in Truth no other then Confessions of his former mis-apprehensions and passionate heats of his intemperate Zeal but these are the Results of his sedate and rational Deliberation The great Apostle St. Paul was not ashamed to record in Holy Writ what enormities a misgrounded Zeal had hurried him into while he was in an estate of Ignorance and Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. and this doubtless was Mr. Baxter's practice for reflecting upon what he had said or done to countenance the Separating way he saw it had done more hurt than good for which reason he recanted them But these instructions of his are like the Coelestial Bodies which carry light and benign influences with them they are self-evident and speak home to the Judgment and Consciences of all unprejudiced Men who cannot resist the force of that Reason and Demonstration which inspires every part of them with so much Life and Power Beauty and Ornament Consistency and Symmetry as will render them highly Acceptable Amiable and Beneficial to such as shall embrace and practise them As for such Dissenters as have conceived any hard thoughts of Mr. Baxter or these his Admonitions I intreat them to consider whether they can answer or confute them to the satisfaction of their own Consciences and if they cannot then whether it be not rational and pious to walk by these directions which tend so much to the establishment of the publick Peace of this divided Church and Nation and to their own present and eternal welfare 2. Objection It may be said that these Amonitions are now become unseasonable there being a Toleration granted to Men of all Perswasions to Worship God after their several modes Answ To this I say that Schism is a Sin antecedent to all Humane Constitutions as being directly forbid in the Holy Gospel and consequently will continue to be sinful tho' all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth should indulge and tolerate them for the Laws of Men cannot make void the Law of God nor alter the nature of things and justifie or make that to be good which the only Lawgiver of Christians hath condemned as unlawful and as it is said of Poligamy among the Jews that the Law of Moses connived at it for the hardness of their hearts so it is for the hardness and uncharitableness of Mens Spirits that Rulers are constrained for a time to tolerate and bear with many things that are Offensive and Prejudicial to the prosperity of their Government For Toleration far differs from the approbation of a thing and implieth the unlawfulness thereof rather than the Justification of it Besides the present Toleration is far from intending or making an establishment of the Practises which are tolerated to the prejudice of the Church which hath for many Ages and now doth continue in actual possession of all its Powers and Priviledges as in time past So that as the present Schism and Separations is possitively condemned by the Laws of the Gospel so they have not any approbation from the Laws of Men but what the corruptions of Men and their ungovernable Tempers make tolerable on some pressing occasions and unhappy juncture of Affairs I beseech you therefore read the following Admonitions without Prejudice and judge of them by the end for which they were first written by Mr. Baxter and are now published by c. Mr. RICHARD Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters Of the Church IN a Petition drawn by Mr. B. to be presented to the King He makes this a part of the Profession of his Religion I do willingly profess my consent to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sense agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Errors or Heresies contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common-Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it Mr. Baxters Life Part 3. p. 161. Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. Sect. 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but Unity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church § 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the Worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the Several Members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it tho' we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion § 1. We do not say you are no true Ministers nor Churches nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you Apology p. 82. See also p. 87. 89. § 2. Where Parish Bounds are judged necessary all Persons living in the Parish may be constrained to hear Publick Teaching and to Worship God either in that or in some other approved or tolerated Church within their convenient reach or Neighbourhood Way of Concord Part 3. p. 139. § 3. The People are no Judges who is fit to be and shall be a Minister of Christ the Supream Civil Magistrate is Judge whom he must countenance maintain and tolerate The disposal of the Tithes and Temples is in the
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
thought this be his own Sin it will not excuse the People from Obedience unless the Errour of his Directions be so great as would frustrate the Ordinance it self or do more harm than our Disobedience would do which in Circumstantials is rarely found By long Experience I am assured that Practical Religion will afford both to Church State and Conscience more certain and more solid Peace than contending Disputers with all their pretences of Orthodoxness and Zeal against Errours for the Truth will ever bring or did ever attain to Holy Common-wealth p. 352. God never instituted Churches to be kept up in Disobedience to those Christian Magistrates which he Commands us to obey upon pain of Damnation Disobedience to our Rulers is in Ministers double Treason and Wickedness Page 30. of the 1st Plea Princes and Rulers may forbid all that preach Rebellion and Sedition and may punish them if they do it and may hinder the Incorrigible whose preaching may do more hurt than good from exercising their Ministry or preaching within their Dominions Pag. 32. They should see that their Kingdoms be well provided of Publick Preachers and Catechists And may by due means compel the Ignorant to hear and learn what Christianity is And Sect. 37. They ought to be Preservers of Peace and Charity among Churches and to hinder Preachers from uncharitable and unrighteous Reviling each other and their unpeaceable Controversies and Contentions Pag. 35. Sect. 40. They may make their own Officers circa Sacra to execute their Magistratical Power And if they authorize any particular Bishops or Pastors to exercise any such Power as belongs to the Prince to give not contrary to Christ's Laws we judge that the Subjects ought to obey for Conscience sake Christian Direct He that is silenced by a just Power though unjustly in a Country that needeth not his preaching must forbear therefore Let none perswade you i. e. the Magistrates that you are such Terrestrial Animals that have nothing to do with the Heavenly Concernment of your Subjects Bodily things Rewards and Punishments are the Means whereby you may promote it you are Custodes utriusque tabulae and must bend the force of all your Government to the Saving of the Peoples Souls The Mischief of Separation The Mischief of Separation lies not in the bare Errour of Judgment but in the Unchristian and Church-dissolving Division and Alienation which thence followeth contrary to that Humility and Love which is the visible Character of Christians and to that Oneness which is still in Scripture ascribed to the visible Church Alas that Pride and Ignorance should have such power among Believers that Men cannot be of several Judgments in lesser Points but they must needs be of several Churches God will make us value Peace and Union a little more before we shall taste of the perfect everlasting Peace and Union yea before we shall see the Blessing of Union in the Church Wounding is a dividing healing is a re-uniting a Building is of many Stones or Pieces orderly conjoyned a Church is an Aggregation of Individuals an Association of Believers What then is it to demolish but to separate and disjoyn and what is it to dissolve Churches but to break their Association to reduce them to the Individuals to cut them into shreds As for the Differences in way of Government between the moderate Presbyterians Independants Episcopal and Erastian I make no doubt but if Mens Spirits stood not at a greater distance than their Principles they would quickly be united But of all the four sorts there are some that run so high in their Principles that they run out of the hearing of Peace or Truth For Anabaptism and Antinomianism God spake effectually against them by those wondrous Monsters in New-England but Wonders are over-lookt where the heart is hardned and God intends to get his Justice a Name The fearful Delusions that God hath formerly given them over to and the horrid Confusion which they have introduced where they have sprung hath spoken fully against both these later Sects The weeping Eyes the bleeding Sides the lacerated Members of these Churches the reproach of the Gospel the disappointed Reformation the hideous Doctrines and unheard of Wickedness that hath followed them the contemned Ordinances the reproached slandered and ejected Ministers the Weak that are scandalized the Professors are apostalized the Wicked hardned and the open Enemies of the Gospel that now insult all these do describe them more plainly to England than words can do and cry loud in the Ears of God and Man What will be the Answer time will shew but from Rev. 2. 14 15 16 c. we may probably conjecture He that is not a Son of Peace is not a Son of God All other Sins destroy the Church consequently but Division and Separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joyning of the Materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Many Doctrinal differences must be tolerated in a Church and why but for Unity and Peace therefore Disunion and Separation is utterly intolerable Believe not those to be the Churches Friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Those that say no truth must be concealed for Peace have usually as little of the one as the other Study Gal. 2. 22. Rom. 14. 1. Acts 21. 24 26. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 6. 4. Titus 3. 8 9. I hope sad experience speaks this lesson to your very hearts if I should say nothing Do not your hearts bleed to look upon the State of England and to think how few Towns or Cities there be where is any forwardness in Religion that are not cut into shreds and crumbled as to dust by Separations and Divisions To think what a wound we have hereby given to the very Christian Name how we have hardned the Ignorant confirmed the Papists and are our selves become the scorn of our Enemies and the grief of our Friends and how many of our dearest best esteemed Friends have fallen to notorious Pride or Impiety yea some to be worse than open Infidels These are Pillars of Salt see that you remember them Though of your own selves Men should arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them Acts 20. 30. Yea though an Angel from Heaven should draw you to Divisions see that you follow him not If there be erroneous practices in the Church keep your selves innocent with Moderation and Peace It must be no small Error that must force a Separation Justin Martyr professed that if a Jew should keep the Ceremonial Law so he did not perswade the Gentiles to it as necessary yet if he acknowledged Christ he judgeth that he might be saved and he would imbrace him and have communion with him Paul would have him received that is weak in the Faith and not Un-church whole Parishes of those that we know not nor were ever brought to a just trial I ever loved a godly peaceable Conformist better than a
Crook Dike Stock Smith Dr. Preston Sibbs Stoughton Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Jewel Grindal Hall Potter Davenant Carleton c. Dr. Field Smith Jo. White Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Fillpot Sanders c. Could I separate from all these on the Reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the Separatists of their times And though Ministerial Conformity is now much altered as to Ingagements many of the Assembly of Divines that are yet living do Conform again nor would I shun Communion with the Reverend Members of that Assembly Twiss Gataker Whitaker and the rest if again they used the Liturgy among us And if the old Conformists such as Bolton c. were alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then which was worse than now I could not think their Communion in Prayer and Sacraments unlawful nor Censure that Man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them Read over some of the old Non-conformists Books against Separation as Mr. Jacob's the Independent against Johnson and Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Gataker's Defence against Cann Mr. Gifford Darrell Paget c. and fullest of all at the beginning of our Troubles Mr. John Ball in Three Books In these you will find the same Objections answered or more and greater And I profess my Judgment That our ordinary Boasters that think they know more in this Controversie than the old Non-conformists did as far as I am able to discern are as far below them almost as they are below either Chamier Sadeel Whitaker or such other in dealing with a Papist Objections answered But what if there be gross and scandalous Sinners are Members of the Church Answ If you be wanting in your Duty to reform it it is your sin but if bare Presence made their sin to be ours it would also make all the sins of the Assembly ours But what if they are sins committed in the open Assembly even by the Minister himself in his Praying Preaching and other Administrations Answ 1. A Ministers personal Faults may damn himself and must be matter of lamentation to the Church who ought to do their best to reform them or get better by any lawful means But in case they cannot his sin is none of theirs nor doth it make his Administration null or ineffectual nor will it allow you to separate from the Worship which he administreth You may not separate from him unless you can prove him or his Ministry utterly intolerable by such Faults as these 1. An utter insufficiency in Knowledge or Utterance for the necessary parts of the Ministerial Work as if he be not able to Teach the necessary Points of Christian Religion nor to Administer the Sacraments and other parts of Publick Worship 2. If he set himself to oppose the ends of his Ministry and preach down Godliness or any part of it that is necessary to Salvation Or be a Preacher of Heresie preaching up any damning Errour or preaching down any necessary saving Truth 3. If he so deprave the Publick Worship as to destroy the Substance of it as in putting up Blasphemy for Prayer or Praise or commit Idolatry or set up new Sacraments or impose any Actual Sin on the People But there are other Ministerial Faults which warrant not our Separation as 1. Some tolerable Errours of Judgment or Envy and pettish Opposition to others Phil. 1. 15. 2. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath many Defects in his Ministration or manner of Worship as if he preach with some Ignorance Disorder unfit Expressions or Gestures and the like in Prayer and Sacraments 3. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath some material Errour or Untruth in Preaching or Praying sobeit we be not called to approve it and so it be not pernicious and destructive to the ends of his Ministry If we run away from all that vent any Untruth or Mistake in Publick or private Worship we shall scarce know what Church or Person we may hold Communion with For 1. a small Sin may no more be done or owned than a greater 2. And then another Man's Weakness may disoblige me and discharge me from my Duty Of Subscription with Assent and Consent particularly concerning Infants baptized Q. 152. Is it lawful to subscribe or profess full assent and consent to any religious Books beside the Bible seeing all are fallible Answ 3. It is lawful to Profess or Subscribe our Assent and Consent to any Humane Writing which we judge to be true and good according to the Measure of its Truth and Goodness As if Church-Confessions that are sound be offered us for our Consent we may say or subscribe I hold all the Doctrine in this Book to be true and good And by so doing I do not assert the infallibility of the Author but only the verity of the Writing I do not say that he cannot err but that he erreth not in this as far as I am able to discern Q. 35. Is it certain by the word of God that all Infants baptized and dying before actual sin are undoutedly saved Answ I think that all the Children of true Christians do by Baptism receive a publick investiture by God's appointment into a state of Remission Adoption and right to Salvation at present though I dare not say I am undoubtedly certain of it But I say as the Synod of Dort Art 1. That believing Parents have no cause to doubt of the Salvation of their Children that die in Infancy before they commit actual sin that is not to trouble themselves with fears about it For if such Infants were admitted to outward Priviledges only then which is my second Reason we have no Promise or Certainty or Ground of Faith for the Pardon and Salvation of any individual Infants in the World and if there be no Promise there is no Faith of it nor no Baptism to Seal it and so we make Anti-paedobaptism unavoidable Whereas some mis-interpret the words of the old Rubrick of Confirmation in the English Liturgy as if it spake of all that are baptized whether they have right or not the words themselves may serve to rectifie that mistake And that no Man shall think any detriment shall come to Children by deferring of their Confirmation he shall know for truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved where it is plain they mean they have all things necessary ex parte Ecclesiae or all God's applying Ordinances necessary though they should die unconfirmed supposing they have all things necessary to just Baptism on their own part which is but what the Ancients were wont to say of the baptized Adult but they never meant
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
as the first and that they must wait for the coming of new Apostles and so they dissolved and turned Seekers The case of the Summer Islands as related by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister come from thence upon discouragement would make a Christians heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that Plantation once was and how one godly Minister by Separation selecting a few to be his Church rejecting all the rest from the Sacrament the rejected party were dolefully estranged from Religion and the selected party turned Quakers But our own case is yet a more lamentable proof what Separation hath done against Religion so that it is my wonder that any good man can over-look it Above all things I intreat the dividing Brethren if they can so long lay aside partiality to judge of the reasons of their separation The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert But when many of us vent untruths and slanders against our Brethren and multiply publick untruths we never make scruple of communion with such Suppose one should say that a People guilty of such sins as are condemned Exod. 23. 1 2. Psal 15. 3. Rom. 1. 30 c. i. e. raising false reports reproaching our Neighbours strife and debates should not be communicated with especially when not one of those offenders is called to repentance for it what answer will you give to this which will not confute your own objections against communion with many Parish Churches in this Land As to Popery The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Nor am I causelesly afraid that if we suffer the Principles and Practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several Parties do contend about Three ways especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied Sects they will perswade People that we must either come for unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this Argument already And I am perswaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multititude of Sects among our selves Some Professors of Religious strictness and great esteem for Godliness having run from Sect to Sect and finding no consistency turned Papists themselves 2. Who knows not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on both Parties saying to one side Lay more upon them and abate them nothing And to the other Stand it out and yield to nothing hoping that our divisions will carry us to such practices as shall make us accounted Seditious Rebellious and dangerous to the Publick Peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that they may get a Toleration together with us And shall they use our hands to do their work We have already served them unspeakably both in this and in abating the odium of the Gunpower-Plot and other Treasons 3. It is not the least of our danger lest by our Follies Extremities and rigors we so exasperate the common People as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in in case of competitions invasions or insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace The Papists account that if the Puritans get the day they shall make great advantage of it for they will be unsetled and all in pieces and not know how to settle the Government Factions and Distractions say they give us footing for continual attempts To make all sure we will secretly have our party among Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our interest Let the Magistrate cherish the disputations of the Teachers and let him procure them often to debate together and reprove one another For when Men see that there is nothing certain among them they will easily yield saith Contzen the Jesuit Of Toleration Shall the meer pretence of Carnal Liberty be thought an Argument for a wicked damning Liberty a Liberty to destroy and deceive as many as they can will merciful Rulers set up a Trade for Butchering Souls and allow Men to set up a Shop of Poyson for all Men to buy and take what they will yea to proclaim this Poyson for Souls in the Streets and Church Assemblies Saints Rest p. 133. Could I have believed him that would have told me five years ago that when the Scorners of Godliness were subdued and the bitter Persecuters of Church were destroyed that such should succeed them who suffered with us and were our intimate Friends which we took sweet councel and went up together to the House of God should draw their Swords against each other and seek each others blood so fiercely O what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided Conscience when it is set at Liberty Of Spiritual Pride Proud Men will not grow in the same Field or Church where Tares do grow but will transplant themselves because God will not pluck up the Tares especially if any Ministerial neglect of Discipline be conjoyned and instead of blaming their own Pride lay the blame on the corruptions of the Church The Pharisees Liturgy is frequent in separate Assemblies God I thank thee I am not as other men But this is very remarkable that it is a pretence of our impurity and a greater purity with you that is pleaded by such as first turn over to you and that this height of all impieties should be the usual issue or a way pretended so exact and clean doubtless it is not Gods mind by this to disâ—ouragâ— any from purity and true Reformation but to shew his detestation of that spiritual pride which maketh Men to have too high thoughts of themselves and too much to contemn others and to desire to be further separated from them than God in the day of grace doth allow of Consider this it is the judgment of some that Thousands are gone to Hell and Ten Thousands on their march thither that in all probability had never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for injoyment of communion in a purer Church He that causeth differences of Judgment and Practice and contendings in the Church doth cause divisions though none separate from the Church If you may not divide in the Church nor from it then you may not causelesly divide from it your selves And commonly Appearance Advantage