the due esteem of the great mercy the Lord hath shewed unto his church No particular member of a church may voluntarily break off externall communion with the church or refuse to communicate in the publick service and worship of God unlesse the Lord Jesus go before him therein and be his warrant that is unlesse Christ hath withdrawn the presence of his grace or the party cannot be present without the guilt of hypocrisie or approbation of somewhat that is evil For the members of the visible church must hold fellowship in faith and love not onely one with another but with all other visible churches and all others intirely professing the faith of Christ so farre as they hold communion with Jesus Christ And therefore no member can lawfully break off externall communion with the true church of Christ but in that onely wherein and so farre as it hath broken off fellowship with Christ For where Christ is there is his church and where two or three are met together in his name there is he in the midst among them He is that Prince that is in the midst of his people who goeth in when they go in And when Christ calleth his free voluntaries to assemble in prayer or to partake at his table and promiseth to be present with them to heare their prayers and refresh their souls with grace it is not lawfull for a Christian to withdraw himself But in a congregation where a stinted form is used and that in some respects faulty here or there Christ may be and is present in the midst among them Christians are called to come and may be present without guilt of hypocrisie or approbation of the least evil To leave communion when we be obliged by God to continue in it is no lesse then schisme according to the nature of it Obliged by God we are to hold communion with the true churches of Christ in his true worship and service so farre as it may be without sin and wickednesse on our parts So that though there be some errours or ignorances in the publick administration yet if our belief of some errour or approbation of disorder be not required to that communion it is not lawfull to depart from the society of that church which professeth the saving truth of Christ intirely for substance rightly mainteineth the dispensation of the sacraments soundly calleth upon God in the mediation of Jesus Christ and plentifully enjoyeth the means of grace When corruption and externall communion be so involved that it is simply impossible to leave the corruptions unlesse we leave the externall communion of the church a necessity of separation from that externall communion then lyeth upon us But though errours or corruptions of some kind be not onely tolerated but established mainteined and pressed yet if we can hold communion without approbation of the said errours or corruptions Separation in that case is unjust rash and unadvised because the Lord therein doth not go before us The sin of Separation if unjust is so great and heinous the ill consequences and mischiefs so many and fearfull that all Christians should be well advised neither to lay stumbling-blocks before the feet of others which might occasion their turning aside nor to seek or catch occasions of departure but rather to wait and tarry till they be assured that the Lord goeth before them For the first when the Anabaptists in Helvetia opposed humane inventions as unlawfull they were by publick authority and with common consent abolished And that of Irenaeus is well known Variety of ceremonies commend the unitie of faith For the other part the faithfull have ever tolerated weaknesses and infirmities in each other and abuses in the church so long as the foundation was held and they agreed in the main In the primitive church not onely some persons but whole congregations have doubted of many books of scripture and yet lost not their dignity of true churches of Christ How long did the faithfull wait and bear before they departed or rather were driven by excommunication sword and sire out of Babylon This hath been the judgement of the godly learned in all ages of the church They that for trifling and small causes saith Irenaeus divide the body of Christ c. these can make no reformation of such importance as to countervail the danger of a division When good men tolerate bad men saith Augustine which can do them no spirituall hurt to the intent they may not be separated from those who are spiritually good then there is no necessity to divide unity And in another place These two things reteined will keep such men pure and uncorrupted that is neither doing ill nor approving it Although faith be one funiculus colligantiae yet variety of opinions without pertinacy standeth with unity but nothing is so contrary to the church as schisme and departure This matter I will shut up with the saying of Zaga Bishop of Aethiope and embassador of Prester John It is a miserable thing that Christian strangers should be so sharply reproved as enemies as I have been here and other things which concern not the faith But it should be farre more convenient to support all Christians be they Grcaeians be they Armenians be they Aethiopians be they of any one of the seven Christian churches with charity and love of Christ and to permit them to live and converse amongst other Christian brethren without any injurie because that we are all infants of one baptisme and do hold truly the true faith The conclusion is That the externall communion of the church in publick worship is not to be forsaken for some faults neither fundamentall nor noxious which may be espied in her Liturgie Though the bearing and forbearing not onely of small but even of great sinnes also must be for a time yet it must be but for a time and that is whilest reformation be orderly sought and procured Lev. 19. 17. But what time hath wrought in the church of England all men see growing dayly by the just judgement of God from evil to worse and being never aforetime so impatient either of reformation or other good as at this day Moreover a man must so bear an evil as he be no way accessory unto it by forbearing any means appointed by Christ for the amending of it Errours or faults be of two sorts Some grosse notorious manifest such as a man cannot but see to be amisse unlesse he will shut his eyes against the light and must amend or there can be no hope of salvation Others of quotidian incursion frailty and infirmity ignorance or mere weaknesse such as godly men are not convinced of or if they see them at some times to be amisse yet in ordinary course they be overtaken with them from which the most holy be not altogether free In these latter though Christians must labour the help cure and support of each
Thyatira Laodicea Pergamus and Sardis are all reprehended What then must the faithfull do leave their standings and depart from the ordinances of grace whilest God is pleased to dwell amongst them or neglect the duty which God calleth them unto and so partake in other mens sin The community or congregation it self is oft divided remisse the greatest part many times the worst so that the best cannot be heard amongst them truth cannot take place In Corinth there were so many sects and divisions that the house of Chloe was constrained to complain of them to the Apostle most of them were puffed up in the case of the incestuous man that it had been in vain for the better sort to seek his casting out if the Apostle had not sharply admonished them of their duty And their disorder in coming to the Lords supper was generall so that the better sort might bewail but could not redresse it In the primitive church there was such contention oftentimes about the choise and election of ministers the Pastours divided from the people and the people one from another to the committing of many outrages that if the godly must not hold any place in the church but where they could perform all offices injoyned in the text of scripture before alledged they must welnigh go out of the world In this and such cases then what should the faithfull do Tell the church they cannot for that is divided and it may be the greatest part holdeth the worst cause Depart they must not for the Lord doth not go before them and if they depart without him they depart from the Lord himself What remaineth then but that with mercifull affection they dislike reprove and correct as much as in them lieth what they find to be amisse what they cannot amend that they should patiently endure and suffer and in loving sort bewail and lament till God do either correct and amend it or make way for their enlargement as they may see the Lord to go before them But in the mean space it will be said they do not their duty in telling the church Nay rather the Lord requireth not that particular duty at that time because they have no opportunity or means to do it The rule prescribed concerneth visible and particular churches as a solemn ordinance of Christ for the humbling and saving of an obstinate sinner but a Christian may be a true member of a visible church when he is hindred and cannot do the thing that is there prescribed For our Saviour speaketh of a brother that doth justly truly and according to equity reprehend admonish or complain and of them who being set in office do rightly and lawfully perform the office whereunto they are appointed of God of the church who doeth what becometh her keepeth herself within the bounds prescribed of God and rightly executeth what is committed to her trust But in the true church of God which Christ is pleased to grace with the visible tokens of his presence all things may fall out clean contrary that such as be in office do not truly discharge their office that the church doth not keep herself to the rule nor fulfill the trust committed unto her In the Law they that were thought unclean were to be restrained from the sacrifices the eating of the passeover entrance into the temple And not onely legall pollutions but sinnes of all kinds whether by errour or ignorance of the law or fact or voluntarily committed were to be expiated according to the prescript of the law which doth necessarily presuppose uncleannesse and that accompanied separation from the altar and the participation of the holy things The legall ceremonies which were outward and carnall did represent spirituall and internall to the minds of the faithfull as the uncleannesse of the body did the inward filth of the soul The wicked are oftentimes upbraided that they durst come into the presence of God The scriptures testifie that the Lord acceteth the sacrifices of righteousnesse of a broken and contrite heart that he is not pleased with the sacrifices of wicked men whose hands are full of bloud And the Lord often giveth commandment that he which shall do so or so or shall not do this or that shall be cut off from his people All which whether they conclude the use of excommunication amongst the Jews let the learned judge But howsoever this is most certain Many things were required which the wicked altogether neglected the godly could not redresse nor complain of to them that should or if they did no regard was had thereunto no reformation followed and yet the godly left not their standings as unlawfull nor the society as left and forsaken of God because they had broken covenant with him nor the ordinances of God as if externall communion with the wicked as one body had polluted and defiled them Put case a brother offended make a complaint to the church of some private injury or wrong received by one of the same or another socity and the church to whom the complaint is brought deal remissely either through ignorance partiality carelessenesse or the like must the innocent party stand to the decision of the church although they do not see right exactly restored and the delinquent brought to repentance or must he protest against their neglect and depart from the society as not to be communicated with because they tolerate a wicked and ungodly person among them If the first then simply to be present at the worship of God where wicked men are tolerated is not to partake in their sin If the latter then the accuser may be judge in his own cause and not onely hold him an heathen whom the church esteemeth holy and honest but hold the church it self heathen then because they account him not so blame-worthy whom he accuseth then which what is more contrary to the rule of our Saviour And so if true examination be made they that leave our societies because they cannot observe the rule prescribed by Christ do of all others most neglect it in their separation because they challenge that authority which Christ never gave them and wait not upon him to go before them If iniquity be committed in the church and complaint and proof accordingly made and the church will not reform or reject the party offending but will on the contrary maintein presumptuously and abett such impiety then by abetting the party and his sin she maketh it her own by imputation and enwrappeth her self in the same guilt with the sinner and remaining irreformable either by such members of the same church as are faithfull if there be any or by other sister-churche wipeth herself out of the Lords church-rolle and now ceaseth to be any longer the true church of Christ And whatsoever truths or ordinances of Christ this rebellious rout still reteineth it but usurpeth the same without right unto them or
because it was culled and picked out of the popish dunghill the popish and vile masse-book full of all abominations Who knoweth not that many pretious truths may be culled and picked out of the masse-book Good gold may have some drosse and amongst an heap of drosse it is possible to find some good gold A true mans goods may be found in a thieves den or cave and the goods of the church in the possession of Antichrist Antichrist hath either by violence broken in upon or by secret insinuation before his cunning was spied gotten the rich treasures of the church into his hand which the right heirs may lawfully require and take back again not as borrowed from him but as due to them I scarce know how a man should more honour Antichrist or wrong the true church of God then to grant that all the good things that Antichrist doth usurp do of right belong unto him and are borrowed from him For they are the rich legacies which Christ hath bequeathed unto his church to whom properly they pertein The matter then of our stinted form may be from God and proper to the church though picked and culled out of the Masse-book If therefore our stinted Liturgie be Antichristian it is so either in respect of the matter or of the form Not of the matter for that which properly belonged to Antichrist the soul and grosse errours are purged out Not of the form for order and phrase of speech is not properly Antichristian of which more hereafter The Papists cannot sincerely approve our publick service but they must condemn and detest their own their prayers in an unknown tongue their praying to saints departed much more to feigned saints their receiving in one kind their unbloudy sacrifice their reall presence their satisfaction for veniall sinnes and temporall punishment of mortall sinnes their blotting out of the second commandment or at least confounding it with the first with others the like And if for the first eleven yeares of Qu. Elisabeth the Papists came to our churches and service what can we think but that the hand of the Lord was with us at that time for good when without division we sought him and he was pleased so to honour us that our adversaries should at least feignedly submit themselves The Lord grant all estates and conditions wisely to consider the true cause why they are fallen from our assemblies since that time and hardned in their perversenesse every day more and more But to come to the thing it self objected to wit That our book of common prayer is wholly taken out of the Masse-book we are here to note that the Masse in former times did signifie the worship of God which consisted in publick prayers thanksgivings confession of faith singing of psalmes reading and interpretation of the holy scriptures and receiving the sacrament of the Lords supper and so the ancient Masse and Liturgie were the same But now the Romane Masse is put for the unbloudy sacrifice of the body of Christ which the priest doth offer up for the quick and dead And in this sense the word is to be taken when they say our service-book is taken out of the Masse-book But it should rather be said that the Masse was in time added to our communion-book and by the purging out of the Masse it is restored to its former puritie Popery is as a scab or leprosie that cleaveth to the church and the Masse an abomination annexed to the Liturgie Before ever the Masse was heard of in the world or began to be hatched there were stinted Liturgies in the church for substance much-what the same with ours and these at first more pure after stained with more corruption as the times grew worse and worse The Eastern churches as it should seem had their stinted Liturgies first and the Western borrowed many things from them but as the times declined they brought in more and more drosse into the church untill the canon of the Masse was completely framed The ancient Liturgies attributed to James Basil Chrysostom c. are counterfeit as our Divines have largely proved and the Papists cannot deny But divers things conteined in those Liturgies were in use in the primitive church without question In the primitive times they had their appointed lessons out of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalmes and the Evangelists their stinted prayers and forms of celebration with some variety but in substance all one in a manner This is evident if we compare the genuine writings of the Fathers with those counterfeit Liturgies before mentioned whereof some particular instances are given in the chapter following The stinted forms at first were more brief afterwards they were enlarged and as often it falleth out by enlargement corrupted and defiled Corruption by this means as a disease cleaving to the Liturgie it is necessary it should be corrected and thereby recovered to its first integrity or foundnesse Thus Cardinal Quignonius by the commandment of Clement the seventh so changed the Romane Breviarie that for a great part it was more like the English book of prayers than the Romane Breviarie And the English Liturgie gathered according to the module of the Ancients the purest of them is not a collection out of the Masse-book but a refining of that Liturgie which heretofore had been stained with the Masse And if those things were unjustly added to the Liturgie they might be and were justly cast out If it was wholly taken out of the Masse-book I should desire further to know how the Masse-book came to have those things in which are found in the book of Common prayers sound and holy for matter and directly contrary to Antichristianisme If these things were in the book before then all things therein were not of Antichrist but he had usurped them and it is lawfull for the true man to lay claim to his goods whereever he find them If they were not in the Masse-book then all things are not taken out of it but somethings restored out of purer Antiquity which the man of sinne had wickedly expunged The ministers of Lincoln never judged the use of the Book unlawfull never thought it lawfull to separate from the prayers of the congregation never refused to use the book though in some things they desired to be excused The churches of God have been evermore taught to prize and esteem these main and fundamentall truths and ordinances of worship at an higher rate then that some petty dislike of this or that in the externall form when the matter is sound and good should cause Separation The conclusion in brief is That our Service-book is not a translation of the Masse but a restitution of the ancient Liturgie wherein sundry prayers are inserted used by the Fathers agreeable to the scriptures Causelesse separation from the externall communion with any true church of Christ is the sinne of schisme But to separate from the prayers of the
congregation simply because a stinted form is used is causelesse separation from the externall communion of the church Weigh all the reasons brought to prove it lawfull and they will be found too light If we look to our guide and captain Christ doth not goe before us therein Dare any man affirm that they be not met together in the name of Christ or that he is not present in the midst of them that joyn together in a stinted Liturgie Is there any duty publick or private which God requireth of people holding communion together in ordinances of worship which may not be performed of each to other when a stinted form of prayer is used without Separation But by that unwarrantable course of voluntary separation they make an unlawfull rent in the church deprive themselves of the comfort of Gods ordinances weaken the faith of many cause divisions among brethren and advantage the adversaries of true religion CHAP. IX It is lawfull for a Christian to be present at that service which is read out of a book in some things faultie both for form and matter ONe reason alledged to prove the lawfulnesse and necessity of Separation from our publick service in particular is this That the prayer-book in question is corrupt in many things which is thus amplified The matter of some petitions is such as we cannot say Amen to it in faith as in the collect on the XII sunday after Trinitie it is prayed that God would forgive us those things whereof our consciences are afraid and give unto us that our prayers dare not presume to ask c. To omit divers others the very â—itting of Collects to certain dayes for holy fasts and feasts not sanctified by God savour of superstition as speciall prayers for Lent serving to countenance the keeping of it as a religious fast c. the manner of praying vain repetitions as the often repeating of the Lords prayer and GLORY TO THE FATHER and LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US c. disorderly responsories the clerk taking part of the prayer out of the ministers mouth c. Moreover the book perverteth the right use of the scriptures dismembreth and misapplieth them for making of gospels epistles lessons and collects appointed for feasts of mens devising and derived from the Papists and it reteineth a corrupt translation of the psalmes and bringeth into the church Apocrypha writings and the errours conteined in them To them that look at all humane Liturgies as images forbidden by the second commandment this objection is of small force because the thing it self and not the corruption cleaving to the Liturgie is disallowed But lest this accusation should breed scruple in the minds of some not altogether disaffected to stinted forms of prayer or Liturgies I will examine not the qualitie of the exceptions whether justly or unjustly taken but the weight of the reason if the particulars should be granted For this objection it self doth free the Liturgie from grosse errours either fundamentall or such as border thereupon respecting faith or practice in the prayers themselves or that which concerneth the administration of the sacraments For the corruptions objected are Misapplication of some text si of scripture Frequent repetitions of the same things Disordered responsories and Breaking petitions asunder c. and these not dispersed throughout the whole book but in some passages onely which concern not the main grounds and chief heads of Christian religion but are such faults or slips as may peaceably be tolerated amongst brethren Therefore not to insist upon any particulars mentioned I lay down this proposition That a Christian may lawfully and with good conscience be present at such service and prayers which are read out of a book though somethings therein are or may be supposed to be faultie for form or matter in things not fundamentall nor bordering thereupon not pernicious or noxious but such as may be tolerated amongst brethren these not dispersed through the whole body of the book but in some passages onely It is one thing to allow corruption another to be present at the service of God where something is done corruptly For the Lord chargeth us to keep our selves free from all pollution but alloweth not to separate from abuses unlesse he be pleased to go before and as he goeth before us It is one thing to approve of abuses in a Liturgie another to tolerate what we cannot reform For a Liturgie should be framed so not that things may be construed well but that they cannot be construed amisse But many things may be suffered which are not so well ordained when it is not in our power to redresse them The Lord needeth not mans lie neither doth he allow us to do evil that good may come thereof and therefore I must not subscribe to an errour against conscience though never so innocent nor professe approbation of that which in conscience I cannot allow though never so small to the intent I might enjoy externall communion with the church of God in the ordinances of worship But I must tolerate many things for the maintenance of peace and unitie and the preservation of Gods worship For if there be not mutuall toleration and forbearance but each man will rigidly stand upon his own opinion and presse others to be of his mind and follow his practice in all things and every tittle of necessitie all things must fall into confusion and the church be rent almost into as many pieces as there be men The proposition is proved first Because they that alledge the foresaid faults or corruptions against communicating with us in our publick Liturgie or stinted prayers do themselves put small strength or none at all in this reason For suppose a chapter be somewhat unfitly divided and break off in the midst of the matter or now and then separate verses which should go together or a verse be ill distinguished or the preacher misalledge a text of scripture or something be found amisse in his prayer when he exerciseth his own gifts must I of necessitie separate from that ordinance of God or reject the good for that which is amisse Hereunto this answer is returned When the minister exerciseth his own gift Gods ordinance is observed wherewith I may communicate in praying as well as preaching notwithstanding his infirmities in either which are but personall and in such cases the rule warranteth men to trie all things and to hold that which is good 1. Thess 5. 21. But when the Liturgie is read an ordinance which is not of God but of man is introduced into Gods worship contrary to the second commandment and therefore I must reject it and have no communion with it Is not this in plain terms to grant that the corruptions alledged can be no cause of Separation but this onely Because it is the devise of man The corruptions alledged are not the cause because they may be found in translations the distinction of chapters and verses the preaching
other by all means lawfull yet they must bear one with another not for a time onely but continually For such are the ignorances and frailties of all men that if they bear not one with another of necessity they must break off all society one with another If all that dissent in opinion in any circumstances of religion if all that be judged too remisse or over-zealous or if every one that is waspish rash stiff in his own opinion or laboureth under such like infirmity must be cut off I know not where we shall find a church upon earth Besides it is one thing to bear with faults for a season when we have power in our hands to reform them another to hold communion with the church in the worship of God where such abuses are continued Such as have power in their hands to reform should tolerate abuses for a time onely sc untill there be opportunity of reformation But such as have not power in their hands to redresse abuses may and ought to hold communion with the church of God in the publick worship of God notwithstanding such abuses continued for the continuance of such corruptions is not the sin of him who hath used all good means for their removall but cannot obtein it The Lord never gave commandment to his people to depart from and forsake his ordinances because such as ought did not reform but maintein abuses in his sanctuary If they abode still in that corrupt society and joyned in the publick worship of God because they had not authority to redresse them then it followeth that communion in Gods ordinances is not sin to them who mislike the corruptions that are allowed and practiced pray desire and by all other good means seek reformation but break not off society because the Lord hath given them no authority so to do goeth not before them therein they should walk by their own light and not by Gods commandment nor the approved examples of the Saints recorded in scripture For one or a few private Christians to break off society with the church in prayer or participation of the sacraments because they are administred in a stinted Liturgie or the corruptions pretended therein is a greater disorder and corruption then any they can alledge in the Liturgie concerning prayer or administration of the sacraments because in so weighty businesse they challenge that authority which Christ never committed to them and go directly crosse to the order established by our Saviour Christ But of that more at large in the chapters following CHAP. X. It is lawfull to communicate in a mixt congregation where ignorant and prophane persons be admitted to the sacrament THis is made an exception against communicating in our assemblies that we are a mixt congregation and that ignorant and prophane persons are admitted unto the Lords table To trie the weight of this reason the better we must remember that sinners which may come into question are either secret that is not of publick note though one or other perhaps the minister himself may know them in their course scandalous or else notorious such as are commonly defamed and known for evil by evidence of fact and course if not juridicé The first sort sin in coming prophanely unto the Lords ordinances and they pollute the holy things of God unto their own destruction if they come without repentance and purpose of amendment But they are not to be repelled if they offer themselves because though one know them to have sinned thus and thus it is unknown to others and so the sin is private and not openly known Christ knew Judas his fetches yet he suffered him and though his treason was hidden and there were no witnesses of his intendment yet his theft was acted and not purposed onely De secretis non judicat ecclesia Et privata scelera non habent vindictam When it is not notorious and manifest that such a man hath lost his right to the sacrament it ought not to be denied unto him in the face of the congregation otherwise liberty should be granted to wicked ministers to punish with this punishment whomsoever they please The law of God in all ecclesiasticall and civil punishments requireth either confession by the party of the fault which is committed or else proof by witnesses Augustine tom 9. lib. De medicin poen cap. 3. is clear of this opinion Nos à communione quenquam prohibere non possumus nisi aut spontè confessum aut in aliquo judicio ecclesiastico vel seculari nominatum atque convictum as he is cited by the glosse ad 1. Cor. 5. and by Aquinas in the place above mentioned It is requisite for the common good and convenient order both of church and common-wealth that all common favours which are publickly to be disposed and distributed according to the dignity of private persons should be dispensed by publick ministers designed thereunto not according to the private knowledge of this or that man neither of that minister but according to a publick and notorious cogniscance And whosoever doth by his offense against God lose his right and interest to the holy things of God he must lose it in the face of the church before it can be denied him in the face of the congregation And he is to be judged as in all other cases not by any man 's nor by any ministers private knowledge but according to proofs and allegations For the common good necessarily requireth that such publick actions of this nature should be regulated by a kind of publick and not private knowledge which once admitted into judicature would soon fill up the church and state with a world of scandals injuries and inconveniences Grosse notorious scandalous sinners should be excluded from the sacrament but yet according to the order and appointment of the Lord. Cast not pearls before swine give not holy things to dogs Therefore the primitive church about to administer the Deacon cryed out against flagitious persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which the charge in our Liturgie well suteth Amongst the heathen some were accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were admitted into the entrance but not into the temple Whence among the Latines they are called profane because they stood before but might not enter the temple Hence also was that question amongst the Heathen in their services 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Who is here to which it was answered of the assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Many and good Hence that of Callimachus in hymnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Virgil expresseth thus Procul ô procul este profani Conclamat vates And amongst the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are thought to have their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is because they did restrain ar drive the profane from them And if the heathen had such care of their idolatrous services that they
should not be prophaned what conscience should Christians make neither to prophane themselves nor suffer so farre as lyeth in them the supper of the Lord to be prophaned It was a worthy saying of Chrysostome Animam priùs tradam meam quà m Dominicum corpus alicui indigno sanguinémque meum effundi potiùs patiar quà m sacratissimum illum sanguinem praeterquam digno concedam Neverthelesse it perteineth not to every man to debarre the impenitent from the Lords table but it must be done by them and in such manner as the Lord hath appointed For private Christians may not usurp the authority of the church nor the church execute her authority in undue manner That is necessary to them that have received commission from God which is unlawfull to them that want authority In the common-wealth the execution of justice is necessary but private persons must not challenge the sword of the magistrate In a corporation no one must take that upon himself which belongeth to the common councel Holy things must not be given to prophane persons but every one at his pleasure must not deny holy things to unholy persons but unholy persons must be debarred from holy things in such order as God hath prescribed It is a thing illegall altogether and unreasonable that a Christian man laying open claim to his right in the sacrament should by the mere discretion of a minister or private Christian be debarred from it Men would be loth to put their lands nay their goods and cattels and shall we think the Lord hath put their interest in the body and bloud of Christ to a private discretion So should it fare ill with the deserving members of the church and such as most deserved should least feel the severity of this censure The precept then of debarring scandalous offenders bindeth them to whom God hath given this power and them onely so farre as God hath put it in their power But God regularly doth not leave that power in the hand of one singular steward or some few private Christians to discommon one from the Lords table by publick censure And therefore the steward may not by any means keep back the fat ones of the earth from his masters table but warn them fairly of the danger ensuing as Gratian noteth out of Augustine And if one or few private Christians cannot debarre the unworthy from the Lords table it is manifest the ordinance of God is not defiled to them by the presence of the wicked whom they desire to reform or expell but cannot because power is not in their hand to do it lawfully For if it be lawfull for the faithfull to hold spirituall communion together in the ordinances of worship where the wicked and ungodly are tolerated as outward members of that society and have externall society with them in those ordinances then the presence of scandalous men doth not defile the sacrament to the worthy receiver The consequence is evident from the reason given to disswade communion in the sacrament sc because they that partake are one body Now if the same communion for substance be in other ordinances and yet it is lawfull for the faithfull notwithstanding the wicked be permitted to hold communion in those ordinances then it is lawfull to partake at the Lords table though the scandalous and prophane be received But it is lawfull for the faithfull to hold spirituall communion and fellowship together in the ordinances of worship where the wicked and ungodly are suffered as outward members For Moses calleth Israel a chosen people an holy nation the peculiar people of God whom he calleth a stiff-necked people foolish and unwise The Lord protesteth that Israel did rebell against him that they did not understand but were a most sinfull nation yea as Sodom and Gomorrah and yet he calleth them his children and people yea passing Sodom in iniquity and yet the daughter of his people and daughter of Sion his pleasant plant and a noble vine Israel then was the true church of God and the people true members of that society and yet many of them not truly sanctified nor true Saints And if the priests and Levites were set over a people unconverted for the truth of sanctification though holy by externall covenant which they for their parts had broken by their iniquities but on Gods part was undissolved and the faithfull had spirituall communion together in the ordinances of worship when the unwise foolish perverse uncircumcised in heart and life sinfull and laden with iniquity were admitted as members of the same body or society then the faithfull are not defiled with the presence of the ungodly at the sacrament though they that communicate together make one body in externall communion As the common-wealth of Israel consisting of men uncircumcised in heart perverse rebellious obstinate as well as faithfull and obedient was separated into covenant and so one body in externall communion and might lawfully have fellowship together in the ordinances so the faithfull and scandalous received into covenant and living in society do partake in the same ordinances without tincture or infection to the better part As the rebellious and perverse in Judah so the scandalous in the church are separated into covenant and though in course of life they be dogs yet in publick esteem they are not to be reputed dogs nor used as dogs till the church have so pronounced of them Peter calleth the Jews that had crucified Christ Brethren not according to the flesh because his kinsmen but as children of the prophets and of the covenant And if the Apostles might hold spirituall brotherhood with them who were impenitent perverse rebellious yea murderers of the Lord of life why should it be unlawfull to hold externall communion in the participation of the sacraments with persons scandalous and offensive in course of life The common-wealth of Israel was a religious politie and God established them a people unto himself by covenant without exception and so long as the covenant stood undissolved on Gods part though broken on theirs by their iniquity they might hold communion one with another Religion ever since the fall of Adam is one and the same for substance though different in the manner of dispensation the church from the beginning one and the same in common nature and essence though different in the manner of government and measure of gifts fitted to severall ages thereof The mysteries are varied according to the times but the faith whereby we live is in every age invariable As God is unchangeable so is his covenant one and the same that excepted which was peculiar to the manner of dispensation the confederates or members of the church by Gods approbation one and the same and so the common nature and essentiall constitution of all true churches from the beginning of the world to the end thereof In all ages of the church the members of
the church ought to be saints and holy must be such as they ought to be in some measure or they shall not be approved of God They are saints who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice But as for the wicked they have nothing to do with the covenant The end of the calling of the church is holinesse to the glory of God at all times and it is true in one age as well as another that they who are utterly unanswerable or clean contrary affected to the ends of the true church which are holinesse and the glory of God they are not called into covenant or communion with God If in one age of the church the scriptures asscribe not holinesse to a people for some fews sake if the rest be unholy and profane it asscribeth it to them in no age If in one state of the church unclean persons and things do pollute and unhallow clean persons and things and a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump it must hold true in every age in its proportion And therefore if ignorant unwise impenitent uncircumcised in heart and life rebellious and obstinate in course and conversation might be in externall covenant with God and in that respect a separated holy and chosen people with whom the faithfull might hold communion externall in the ordinances of worship then it is lawfull for Christians to partake in the ordinances of Gods worship though scandalous livers be admitted with whom in partaking we must have externall communion For if the scandalous were in covenant then they may be so now If communion with the wicked defile now it defiled then If the godly might then communicate because they could not cast out the ungodly the same reason is good at this day If the faithfull be bound to reprove their delinquent brother and not suffer sin to rest upon him the same duty did concern them in former times If the sacraments be now available and of use according to the covenant of promise which God hath made to the faithfull and their seed and none otherwise as the sacraments are one in their common nature so in their use available onely to the children of the covenant at all times If it be contrary to the main ends for which the Lord gathereth and preserveth his church upon earth that wicked and ungodly men should be received into covenant or permitted to continue in the society of the faithfull it was unlawfull in the Jewish as well as in the Christian churches And therefore if the church of the Jews all this notwithstanding continued the true church of God when it was corrupted in doctrine and manners in officers and ordinances of worship when the teachers were dumb dogs and blind guides the prophets prophesied lies and the priests received gifts and the people rebellious adulterous oppressours an assembly of rebells when the priesthood was bought and sold the temple defiled and made an house of merchandise the law corrupted with false glosses and made void with false and sinfull traditions when errour heresie idolatry oppression rebellion stubbornnesse and all manner of sin was exceeding rife among them If when all these things were amisse and greatly out of order they yet continued the sheep of the Lords visible flock and the Lord was pleased to own them for his people his flock his inheritance if they reteined still the holy law of God and the seal of his covenant and the prophets and faithfull servants of God held lawfull communion with the church in the ordinances of God then the covenant of God is not disannulled with his people because ignorant and prophane persons are tolerated in the assembly nor the godly defiled because scandalous persons are suffered to communicate The word may be preached to heathen and infidels for their conversion Paul preached the word to the scoffing Athenians and to the blasphemous Jews and yet had no externall communion with them as with members of the same body The word may be preached to them that are without for their conversion to the faith to them that be within the church by baptisme and externall profession for their found conversion unto God conversion from particular sinnes and building forward in grace and holinesse The word is preached to heathens and inâ—idels but no communion with them is had thereby because they are not of the Christian society But to scandalous persons first received into the church by baptisme and not cast out by publick censure the word is preached as unto members and not as unto bare hearers and they are admitted to the prayers of the congregation as well as to the hearing of the word and that as members in outward covenant Therefore it is an act of communion in some mens opinions To use one ordinance and not another is to make a schisme in the church And as the preaching of the word not the bare tender of the word but the giving of it to dwell and abide with a people is a note of a true church so is the hearing of the word an act of communion with the church If the presence of the wicked doth not defile Gods ordinance to the worthy receiver then it is lawfull to receive the sacrament in a mixt congregation where scandalous persons are admitted For what but pollution or defilement can warrant voluntary Separation and departure from the Lords ordinance But the presence of the wicked doth not defile Gods ordinance to the worthy receiver The simple presence doth not defile For then the presence of close hypocrites and secret dissemblers who are in truth unworthy though they appear not so to us should pollute and defile Not his knowledge of their unworthinesse For then Judas his presence had stained the ordinance of God to our Saviour himself to whom the unworthinesse of Judas was well known then one man should be bound in conscience to excommunicate another or himself rather before the matter be brought to the church yea for that which in conscience cannot be brought unto the church Not the notorious knowledge of their unworthinesse seeing he hath no power to repell them nor leave from Christ to withdraw or separate himself from the society It is the duty of a godly man to withdraw himself from all private familiarity with the wicked and by no voluntary friendship to ensnare himself with them But it is one thing to avoid the private society of wicked men another for the hatred of the wicked to renounce the publick communion of the church and so of Christ who is present with his people The duties which I ow to a brother in this course I must perform but privately excommunicate him or separate my self from the congregation for his sake I must not because I have no charge from God no pattern from the godly so to do My communion with the
in their meal lest they be sowred with their leaven The comparison of the leaven used by the Apostle is to be understood in likenesse of nature not in their equality of effecting For leaven sowreth naturally and cannot but sowre the meal the godly may be hurt by the wicked but it is not necessary Therefore every member must look warily to himself and do his endeavour to reclaim other or that he may be cast out if notorious and incorrigible but not withdraw himself from the ordinances of grace The doctrine of the Gospel is compared to leaven in respect of its efficacy but all that heare it are not seasoned by it though it be a good means of seasoning The corrupt doctrine of the Pharisees is compared to old leaven but every one that heard it was not necessarily tainted with it It is true if the whole church shall bear with scandalous notorious offenders and do not their endeavour to bring them to repentance or to have them cast out they are polluted and stained by their remissenesse indulgence and this is that which the Apostle presseth upon the Corinthians that they should give all diligence to clear themselves and prevent the danger which might come by their negligence But if the church be remisse or slack the private men who mourn for what they cannot amend and labour conscionably to discharge their duties may not separate from the communion or withdraw themselves from the Lords table For the Apostle who blameth the Corinthians because they suffered the incestuous person doth never blame the faithfull for communicating with him before he was cut off nor intimate unto them that unlesse he did amend they must absent themselves from their assemblies and holy exercises or depart away being come together They that have authority to debarre men from the sacrament sin if wittingly or negligently they allow such to approch as worthy guests to the Lords table who are known unto them notoriously to be unworthy but if authoritie be wanting if we have done the office of private Christians or publick ministers to communicate with the wicked outwardly in the worship of God is none offense And thus the minister may reach the sacrament to an unworthy communicant and yet be innocent For he doth not so much give it him as suffer his communion because he hath not power or authority to put him back He reacheth him the signes as that which he cannot withhold because he is held in by the most prevailing power without which he cannot be debarred In this case the minister is neither actour nor consenter in his admission because he doth it not in his own name but according to the order established by God who will not have any member of the congregation publickly denied his interest and right to the holy things of God by the knowledge will and pleasure of one singular minister If a minister know a man to be unworthy he must yet receive him because he cannot manifest it to the church And for the same reason if his unworthinesse be notorious if it be not so judged by them that have authority he must administer the sacramentall signes unto him not as unto one worthy or unworthy but as unto one as yet undivided from them A man is not onely bound in his place to do his best for the reclaiming of his brother but to see his place be such as wherein he may orderly discharge the duties of admonition otherwise both his practice and place are unlawfull This is not sufficient that we labour by the best means to have manifest evils amended except our places be such and we in such churches as wherein we may use the ordinary means Christ hath left for the amendment of things otherwise our places and standings themselves are unwarrantable and must be forsaken If all places and standings be unwarrantable wherein we may not use the ordinary means God hath left for the amendment of things then all places are unlawfull wherein the greatest part of the church at least do not conscionably discharge their duties and of them which have greatest authority Then the Levites might not abide in their standings when the priests neglected their office nor the prophets when the priests and Levites had corrupted their wayes Then the people might not sacrifice nor receive spirituall blessings by their hands when Eli's sons had notoriously corrupted their wayes nor the faithfull remain in society when the priest and people both had corcupted the law worship offices and manners To speak no more of abuses if this rule hold no place or standing in the church is lawfull wherein three or more private persons who can make Peters confession of faith have not power of the keyes to receive into and shut out of the church to censure and determine authoritatively And so it may well be questioned to say no more whether ever there was any lawfull standing in a constituted church Since the death of the Apostles if they be put unto it according to this position they must confesse there was never any And considering the ignorance infirmities diversities of opinions that be amongst the godly passions distempers and corruptions how is it possible but that the church must fall into as many schismes almost as there be men if each man must renounce others standing as unlawfull wherein he conceiteth he is restrained of some power or hindred of some ordinary means which Christ hath left for the amendment of things No church in the world now hath that absolute promise of the Lords visible presence which the church then had till the coming of Christ It was simply necessary that Messiah should be born in the true church wherein he might have communion and fulfill the law The Lord did afford the Jews even in their deepest apostasie some or other visible signes of his presence and those extraordinary when ordinary failed thereby still declaring himself to remember his promise There was that onely visible church upon the face of the earth tyed to one temple altar sacrifice priest hood in one place and no man could absolutely separate from that church but he must separate from the visible presence and from all solemn worship of God Moreover the Jewish church had not that distinct ecclesiasticall ordinance of excommunication which we now have but that the obstinate or presumptuous offender was by bodily death to be cut off from the Lords people the same persons namely the whole nation being both church and common-wealth according to that speciall dispensation These observations rightly applyed do manifestly overthrow what hath been and is by others objected against communion with us in the worship of God For if it was absolutely necessary that the Messias should be born in the true church wherein he might have communion then a church corrupted in officers and offices doctrine worship and manners may be a true
primitive church after the apostles the discipline of the church was in some cases very severe partly to prevent the abuse of Gods ordinances partly to maintein the dignitie and authority of the censures neverthelesse the godly were compelled to tolerate many disorders which they could not redresse not in doctrine and worship but in manners and conversation For as soon as Christians began a little to breathe from the fear of bloudy persecution they fell into dissolute idlenesse and began to nourish debate strife hatred emulation pride c. to heap sinne upon sinne as might be proved at large by the complaints of the Fathers made of the sinnes of the times in all sorts ministers and people men and women But it was and ever hath been the judgement of them who did so grievously complain of the sinnes of their times that the godly did not communicate with others in their sinnes although they did continue with them in the communion of the sacraments If a church depart from the Lord by any transgression and therein remain irrepentant after due conviction and will not be reclaimed it manifesteth unto us that God also hath left it and that as the church by her sinne hath separated from and broken covenant with God so God by leaving her in hardnesse of heart without repentance hath on his part broken and dissolved the covenant also The Lord Jesus threatneth the churches for leaving their first love and for their lukewarmnesse that he will come against them speedily and remove their candlestick that is dischurch them except they repent and spue them as lothsome out of his mouth It is true the Apostles mention corruptions in the churches with utter dislike severe reproof and strait charge of reformation and the Lord Jesus threatneth the churches for lukewarmnesse and leaving their first love But neither Christ nor his Apostles did ever blame the faithfull for holding communion in those churches in the ordinances of worship or give them charge to depart if disorders and abuses were not forthwith corrected and amended Not to enquire what is due conviction Not to enquire what is due conviction or when a church is to be deemed obstinately impenitent it is most untrue that the toleration of disorders or maintenance of corruptions of some kind by some yea by many in the church is to us a manifest token that God hath left it The history of the church from the very first plantation thereof unto this very day doth evidence that many and foul abuses disorders and corruptions have continued in the churches of God when yet the Lord did not utterly take from them all tokens of his visible presence This is confessed of the church of the Jews And if they continued the church of God when they had broken covenant for their part so long as the Lord continued the signes of his visible presence among them how dare any man think or say that God hath utterly left or forsaken that people amongst whom he dwelleth plentifully by the means of grace and unto whom he imparteth the graces of his Spirit though for their sinnes they deserve to be cast off The Lord is God and not man therefore the sonnes of Jacob are not confounded The Jews at first were chosen to be the people of God not for their righteousnesse but of the rich grace and mercy of God They continue to be his church not for their righteousnesse but according to his free and gracious promise And so long as Christ doth of his mere grace and love bear with the manners of his church and giveth her not a bill of divorce it is not for men to say or judge that he hath utterly left and forsaken her And seeing the faithfull must follow Christ dwell with Christ and abide with him so long as Christ doth dwell in the assembly by his presence and plentifull means of grace it is not lawfull for them voluntarily to depart and break off communion CHAP. XI Of holding communion with that assembly in the worship of God where we cannot perform all duties mentioned Matth. 18. 15 16 17. VVHosoever neglecteth Christs rule in proceeding with his minister or others of the church both partaketh in their sin and sinneth against Christs command Matth. 18. If he be ignorant of Christs rule and order yet he sinneth but if he know it and do it not then his sin remaineth Now the rule prescribed by Christ is That one brother offended should warn any member of the same church whereof he is a member if he offend him yea though it be his minister And if he reform not he must proceed to warn him more solemnly taking two or three with him doing it in the name of Christ If this admonition take not effect for reformation he must tell the church If the church then will not do their duty he must clear himself protesting against their neglect therein Hos 2. 12. The brief and plain meaning of this objection is That every Christian is bound to perform all those offices mentioned to every delinquent brother in society or communion and that it is not lawfull to abide in society or communion where a man cannot perform all those duties without defiling or undoing himself And therein is implyed that seeing the Jews had no such order for excommunication established amongst them therefore they might hold communion not withstanding the corruptions that were found amongst them To trie the strength of this argument let it be granted that our Saviour speaketh not of private managing of civil affairs and private injuries whereby we might recover what we lost by the injurie of our brother for that is an indulgence or benefit no commandment of rule and duty yea sometimes it is a fault not to suffer wrong but of church-admonitions and censures and that order which he hath set for the winning or punishment of offenders But then by a delinquent brother we must not understand onely one of the same particular society or fellowship but any one of what countrey or condition soever with whom we have religious fellowship If thy brother If any man that is called a brother thy brother that is a Christian For our Lord hath appointed no such course to be taken with them that are out of the church Suppose Christians of distinct societies living remote one from another do trespasse one against the other is not the innocent party bound to hold the course here prescribed with the delinquent brother The rule of our Saviour is not That one brother offended should admonish any member of the same church whereof he is a member that is an addition which the text will not acknowledge but If thy brother trespasse against thee Christ speaketh here unto his Apostles but not unto them simply as Apostles but as disciples Christians and followers of Christ because the things here commanded are common to all
and intire profession of the truth is to be found in the church alone and is conteined in the belly of the church as light in an house whereby it may be discerned The law shall go forth of Sion it is not elsewhere to be found My word shall not depart out of the mouth of thy seed c. The sacraments are seals of the covenant of grace and symboles or testimonies whereby the people of God are distinguished from all other nations The sacraments when for substance they be rightly used are tokens and pledges of our admittance into and spirituall enterteinment in the Lords family This is my covenant that I make with thee Go teach all nations and baptize them into the name of the Father c. Amend your lives and â—e baptized The sacraments do necessarily presuppose a church constituted unto which they are committed as the oracles and ordinances of God unto Israel Baptisme rightly used is within and not without the church It is a seal of the covenant which is the form of the church as some call it to the faithfull and to their seed It is the sacrament of initiation whereby members are solemnly admitted into the body of Christ To have Pastours which feed with spirituall knowledge and understanding is a gift of matrimoniall love which God vouchsafeth unto his church And I will give you Pastours according to mine own heart And though all that heare do not receive the love of the truth yet where God giveth his word it is a signe that some in those places belong to the kingdome of heaven The Apostles first gathered churches and then ordained elders in every citie So that it is proper to the church to be fed and guided by true spirituall Pastours who do both teach and blesse in the name of the Lord. The true worship of God is an inseparable and infallible mark of a people in covenant with God For where Christ is there is 〈◊〉 church but Christ saith Where two or three are met together in my name there am I in the midst among them This is the priviledge of the saints that Christ the prince of his people is in the middest of them and goeth in when they go in And for certain they are gathered in the name of Christ who being lawfully called do assemble to worship God and call upon his name in the mediation of Jesus Christ In times past the church was acknowledged by these signes of continuance in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer of true fear intire service holy profession and religious prayer The weightiest matter therefore in religion that concerneth a Christian is to know God and Christ to repent heartily and believe unfeignedly which is ever accompanied with holinesse of conversation if God give time and opportunity because without these there is no salvation to men of age and discretion It is a matter of weight and importance also to know where and how God is to be worshipped and the right use of his ordinances as of prayer and the sacraments because otherwise we cannot know how to joyn our selves in holy communion with the people of God in the ordinances of worship which is a necessary duty if God give opportunity But to know the externall order or constitution of a particular ministeriall politicall church is not a matter of weight or importance to be matched with either of the former And if M r Jacob comprehend all these things under the name of the church his speech is false deceitfull and confused because he distinguisheth not things that be of different kinds If the latter it is most inconsiderately spoken and weakly proved For out of the catholick invisible church or society there is no salvation but out of a particular visible ministeriall church salvation is to be had Internall society with the members of Christ and communion with Christ himself which is invisible is necessary externall not so Christ is the Saviour of his body and saved he cannot be by Christ that is not a live-member of his body Noahs ark builded by Gods appointment for the safety of all such as were obedient to his preaching was a type and figure of this onely holy catholick church not of a visible particular ministeriall church for as none of the sonnes of men besides such as entred into Noahs ark were saved from the deluge so whosoever entred into the ark were saved from the deluge And so Noahs ark was a type of that church into which whosoever entreth he shall be saved But this cannot be affirmed of the visible church Peter speaking of the ark wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water he saith The like figure whereunto even baptisme doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience inwards Gods by the resurrection of Jesus Christ His meaning is that Noahâ— ark was a type of that church out of which there is no salvation in which there is most certain salvation and the waters by which such as entred into the ark were saved a type of baptisme But of what baptisme Externall No Externall baptisme and the ark of Noah were types of the same rank both types and signes of that internall baptisme which is wrought by the holy Ghost by which we are incorporated into the body of Christ and become more undoubtedly safe from the everlasting fire then such as entred Noahs ark were from the deluge of water If the ark which Noah built did save all such from the deluge as entred into it how much more shall that holy and catholick church which Christ hath built and sanctified by his most precious bloud give eternall life to all such as in this world become live-members of it Such members they are made not by becoming meÌ„bers of the visible church but by internall grace or sanctification There is not the same reason of externall and internall communion with the church The inward is and was ever necessary the externall necessary when it may be enjoyed Some may be of the church in respect of the profession participation of the ordinances and other inferiour priviledges who are not of the invisible church that is do not communicate in the most perfect work force and effect of saving grace And some that be not full members of the true orthodox and visible church may notwithstanding be found and live members of the mysticall body of Jesus Christ For all that truly believe are in the state of salvation and all that be in the state of salvation be members of that church out of which no salvation is to be hoped for or can be obteined which doth comprehend all the faithfull and them that shall be saved They are in act and in deed both in and of that church and not in desire and wish onely
A FRIENDLY TRIALL OF THE GROUNDS TENDING TO SEPARATION In a plain and modest Dispute touching the Lawfulnesse of a stinted Liturgie and set form of Prayer Communion in mixed assemblies and the Primitive subject and first receptacle of the power of the Keyes Tending to satisfie the doubtfull recall the wandring and to strengthen the weak By JOHN BALL ISAIAH 8. 20. To the law and to the testimonie if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them PSAL. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path ¶ Printed by Roger Daniel printer to the Universitie of Cambridge For Edward Brewster and are to be sold at his shop at the Bible on Fleet-bridge 1640. To the Christian Reader sound judgement the spirit of wisdome uprightnesse of heart and sweet communion with GOD. Christian READER IT is commonly professed though not so well known and observed as it ought that Satan is alwayes busie to solicite and our own deceitfull hearts ready to turn aside from the wayes of peace and comfort either to the right hand or to the left To say nothing of the lamentable state of heathen Infidels Turks and Jews who know not God nor believe the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST Amongst them that professe Christianity some are so deeply plunged into superstition that the truth of God and the ordinances of grace are not prized in comparison of their own vain and fruitlesse traditions And others on the contrary do so farre distast all inventions whatsoever as they speak in Gods worship as they reject that which beareth the stamp and image of God and might be greatly profitable to their souls Many come profanely to the Lords table and pollute the holy things of God to their own destruction Others through groundlesse fears of defilement do withdraw themselves from ordinances Divine and the society of the godly because some unworthy are not debarred To satisfie this latter sort who offend out of weaknesse misguided judgement not of stubbornesse and contempt and to settle them that are staggering I have penned this poore rude treatise nothing doubting but the truth will be able to maintein it self and that the beauty thereof will procure favour and acceptance though it come arayed in a very homely garment A stinted form of prayer hath been challenged as an image forbidden in the second commandment a forged and devised worship unlawfull both in them that use it and those that joyn therein To remove this scruple I have shewed the use of a stinted Liturgie lawfull and allowable by the word of God of ancient use in the churches of Christ approved by all reformed churches at this day Upon which occasion many things are disputed touching the meaning of the second commandment the nature of true and false worship and what it is to pray by the Spirit Many are the objections which are made against set forms of prayer and particularly against our book of common prayer all which I have endeavoured to answer severally and not because they are of so great weight but because I desired fully to satisfie every doubt and roll away every stone I met withall If one and the same thing be oft repeated I desire it may be considered that one and the same objection for substance is often brought forth though perhaps in new aray and every plain-hearted Reader for whose use I principally intend this labour is not able to apply an answer once given to sundry objections in colour diverse though for substance the same And I suppose the prudent will think it more reasonable that the wise in heart be burdened with over-much then that the weak should remain unsatisfied through some defect Some stagger at this that ignorant profane notorious offenders are admitted to the Lords table and conceive that communicating with such in the ordinances of religion they are partakers of their sinne And sure it is a thing to be lamented with tears of bloud that the body and bloud of our Saviour CHRIST should be profaned the house and church of God defiled the name of the Lord dishonoured religion blasphemed and the blind notorious profane permitted to rush upon their own perdition But it is not for private persons to take that upon them which belongeth not unto their place nor being invited by CHRIST to excommunicate themselves because such as are notoriously wicked be not admonished kept back or censured The main ground of the former doubt and all others tending to Separation seemeth to be this That the power of the keyes is primitively given to the community of the faithfull as the first receptacle For then they conceive that it perteineth to them to censure offenders or else to separate from them Then likewise it will more probably be concluded as they think That that society which hath not the power of CHRISTS keyes is not the true church of CHRIST Therefore to raze the foundation of Separation and at once to overthrow their main objections this question is more largely disputed wherein is shewed by evidence of Scripture That the power of the keyes is given by Jesus Christ the Lord and King of his church and great Shepherd of his sheep to the church-governours whom he hath appointed to rule and feed his flock in his name and to whom they must give account If any man shall think these things are small and not to be insisted upon he may please to consider How small soever the things in themselves seem to be the evil consequences that follow thereupon be both many and great It is no small matter to bury that under the condemnation of false worship which the Lord the authour of all truth the determiner of his true pleasing and acceptable worship doth allow in his service It is no small offense to forsake the prayers of the congregation to depart from the table of the Lord when he calleth to feast with himself and to break off society and communion with the churches of Christ where he doth cause his flock to rest at noon to fill the hearts of weak Christians with doubts and distractions as not knowing what to do or which way to take to spend time in reasonings and disputations of this kind which might much more profitably be employed in the practice of repentance and holy obedience to expose religion to contempt and the truth of God to reproch amongst them that delight to speak evil These are sad effects of this Separation which is here opposed Is it not lamentable to see poore Christians who sincerely thirst after the waters of life and long to meet the Lord in his holy ordinances cast into doubts and fears about the things which so nearly concern their comfortable walking with God and salvation of their souls May not this tend to the discouragement of divers that are coming on and turn them who are halting clean out of the way The rents and divisions which have been in the
church have evermore been one advantage which the enemies of the truth have taken to speak reprochfully And if the credit of religion the glory of God and the souls of our brethren be dear unto us what can we do lesse then by a just and mild defense of the truth seek the reclaiming of such as are gone astray the establishing of them that be weak in judgement but zealously affected to the wayes of God stop the stream of seducing free the godly from unjust imputations and settle peace and unitie in the truth amongst brethren I heartily wish we had not so much experience to lesson us that when men have once begun to neglect the publick exercises of religion and to separate from the churches of Christ they have run from one errour into another after the fond imaginations of their own seduced hearts untill they have dashed themselves upon the rocks They that break off communion in the particulars mentioned have not proceeded to a totall Separation from our congregations and assemblies as no churches of Jesus Christ This rigid Separation they condemn as that which was never approved or blessed of God But they have gone further then the word of truth doth warrant them or they have the Lord Jesus for their guide whereas it is the duty and safety of Christians to follow after but not to go before their Lord and Captain The first entrance into an erroneous way is dangerous for in the track thereof there is no stop unlesse God of his infinite mercy do prevent Errours are lapped up together in a bundle and many times the least onely appear which yet serve to bring on and usher in the greater At once men fall not into strange and monstrous opinions no more then into outragious evils but by degrees they insensibly are drawn from bad to worse untill they come to a great height At the first sight many a mans conscience would have been affrighted with that errour which after some tampering he highly admireth and is bewitched withall How many of great hopes and excellent parts have been overthrown hereby is too evident by lamentable observation in all ages Rents and divisions are the disease Separation the wound of the church unto which of long time she hath been obnoxious but it is the sinne of them who either lay stumbling-blocks of offense before their brethren or separate rashly or unjustly being carried away rather with prejudice then strength of argument and commanded more by the examples of others then by the authority of the rule of righteousnesse There is but one body the Church and but one Lord or head of the body Christ And whosoever separateth from the body the Church separateth from Christ in that respect And if we withdraw our selves from Christ where he graciously inviteth us to feast with him may we not justly fear that he will withdraw himself from us and make us seek when we shall not find him Voluntary Separation from the Lords table and prayers of the congregation what is it but a willing excommunication of our selves from the visible tokens of the Lords presence and love And if it be a grievous sinne in church-governours to deprive any member of the church of all communion with the visible church upon light and unnecessary occasions is it not a greater sinne in the members to deprive themselves of the same communion upon the like or lesse occasions Zeal and tendernesse of conscience must be nourished by all good means but they are not to move alone without their guide that is the word of God Perhaps this kind of writing may occasion more disputes If so it is contrary to my hearts desire who intend onely the satisfaction of them that stagger the reclaiming of them that are gone too farre and the maintenance of peace truth and communion in the worship of God as it furthereth communion with Jesus Christ If I may obtein this end I have that which I beg of the Lord. Willingly I would not offend any that fear God but endeavour onely to remove the blocks at which I see some stumble and to further the more comfortable walking of others who desire to please God in all things but are kept under in the means of comfort with vain scruples And happy were it if doubtfull disputations laid aside we might joyn together with one heart and soul to advance religion worship the Lord purely edifie one another in our most holy faith and walk unblameably in the fear of God and comfort of the holy Ghost I take no pleasure in controversies of this kind and could heartily wish that these matters rightly composed we might give heed to that one thing which is necessary But if it seem good to any man to reply I earnestly beg that he would take the word of God truly understood for his warrant make proof of what he saith keep himself to the points in hand without impertinent digressions and proceed on in love and meeknesse as becometh them that professe the truth and desire to preserve the peace of a good conscience A good cause is no way advantaged by heat and passion We must so write and speak in controversies of religion as that we remember we must give account to God of that which we say And if passionate and distempered speeches in common talk be no light offense in matters of religion which are soberly to be debated as in the presence of God to give way to humane rashnesse and distemper is much more disgracefull God will not hold him guiltlesse that telleth a lie for the glory of his name To bear false witnesse in civill contentions betwixt man and man is odious and abominable Therefore it behooveth us to fear and stand in aw lest being transported with misguided zeal we call evil good and good evil and misapply the scriptures when we speak of our selves Let us weigh all things and hold that which is good The Lord in mercy look down from heaven upon his poore church and people bring his truth to light more and more dispell the mists of ignorance remove all occasions of offense settle peace and truth prosper the means of grace build us forward in faith and holinesse and unite the hearts of his people in love that they may direct their course by one rule if they cannot be all of one mind in every thing and as one man may walk together in heaven-way untill they receive the end of their faith the salvation of their souls CHAP. I. Of a stinted form of Prayer PRayer is the sweet and familiar conference of a faithfull soul with the Lord his mercifull Father Or A calling upon God in the name of Christ with the heart and sometimes with the voice according to his will for our selves and others In it to let passe other matters not pertinent to this purpose foure things come to be considered the Subject recipient Authour Matter and Manner thereof The honour of invocation is due to God onely in
not uttered without premeditation settled and digested or at least which is not immediately suggested by the Spirit in respect of words and phrase of speech If the latter then devised worship is not forbidden in the second commandment but worship devised by another For that prayer which should be pure worship if devised by a mans self is unlawfull worship when devised by another And so devised worship or prayer is not condemned but worship or prayer devised by another man And if this be not the devise of man I know not what is Can this alter the nature of the worship in the hearer or him that joyneth that the words in prayer are invented by another studied by the governour or more suddenly conceived In the judgement of some Divines the three first commandments are thus distinguished each from other That the first commandment conteineth all those our duties towards God which are naturall The second all those duties in Gods speciall worship which are instituted and either of these is both inward and outward The third commandment requireth the well using of both these and of all other things which come of God If this distinction be allowed a stinted form as such doth not at all belong to the second commandment For instituted worship and not the order or manner of performance is the matter of the second commandment Stinted prayer is unlawfull because a man in devising it doth not exercise his own gifts Though he exercise not his gifts in devising it in reading or uttering it as a prayer he may set his understanding judgement faith hope love humility fervency and other graces of Gods Spirit on work And if the minister do not may not the people exercise their gifts in hearing and so though it be unlawfull to him it is not so to them Stinted prayer voluntarily taken up upon a mans self is not so much unlawfull but prayer imposed upon men because in such case they subject themselves to mans ordinance in Gods worship This is a strange description of mans ordinance in the worship of God or of worshipping God after the ordinances of men For thence it will follow that the same devised worship voluntarily taken up hath some allowance as the ordinance of God and ceaseth onely to be of God when it is imposed Whereas the ordinances of men in Gods worship condemned in scripture are not mere matters of order forms of words and phrases circumstances of time and place determined by men according to the generall rules but matters of worship devised besides and against the word of God and are unlawfull whether voluntarily taken up and devised of our selves or imposed by others A prescribed set form is not agreeable to the word of God for circumstance because the prescribing of it is to set apart or sanctifie it for such an use without Gods command and so to idolize it above other prayers In what sense a stinted form of prayer is or may be set apart hath been shewed before But this description of setting apart or prescribing is a mere devise barely affirmed without any shew of reason What is here objected against a prescribed form may be affirmed of a prescribed place time and order for the celebration of Divine ordinances which are of the same nature with it and no more determined by the word of God And suppose the minister or governour maintein some erroneous conceit touching the prescribed form of prayer are the people children or servants hereby authorized to withdraw themselves from such prayers or the prayers themselves made unacceptable to such as know how to use them aright One man is of opinion that a prescribed form is better then another another that a prescribed form is unlawfull one that it is best ordinarily to use a stinted form another that he is to pray alwayes according to the present occasion in a different order and phrase of speech In these cases if the least errour do stain the prayers to others that they may not lawfully joyn together with whom shall the faithfull joyn at all Is not this to fill the conscience with scruples and the church with rents Errours and abuses personall they rest in the persons so erring and stain not others It is harsh to affirm that such hath been the estate of the church ever since the death of the apostles almost if not before that a Christian could not without sinne joyn with any publick assembly in prayer or participation of the sacraments that he must either separate from the prayers of the assembly and depart from the sacraments or derogate from the authoritie of God and worship him after the ordinances of men For if such was the state of the Christian church from that time what is become of those great and pretious promises made to the church in the times of the Messias Did the church begin to draw and give up her breath both in one day Many things were amisse in the church many corruptions did begin to bud in the apostles times and after their departure did put forth with greater vigour and the saints of God I doubt not offended many wayes through ignorance and infirmity which God in mercy was pleased to pardon unto them But that the state and condition of the church was such that a Christian could not hold communion in prayer and the sacraments with the churches of God is contrary to the many promises in scripture made to the churches of the New Testament It is true the scripture doth forewarn us of an apostasie from the faith and the mystery of iniquity began to work in the apostles dayes and after their death things declined more and more But that within an age or two after the apostles departure out of this life things were so corrupted that the godly might not hold communion with the church in prayer and participation of the sacraments is more then an advised Christian will dare to affirm or think But if a stinted form of prayer be unlawfull both to minister and people to him that administers according to it and them that joyn a Christian might not safely joyn in any church-assembly or congregation in prayer or participation of the sacraments within few ages after the death of the apostles if at all Unlawfull commands in matters of religion especially cannot be obeyed without sinne Hos 5. 11. and it is a sinne to walk after them many wayes In matters of religion if the commands of men be contrary to the commands of God for substance or matter of the thing commanded we must obey God rather then men But if the command of man be for substance of matter agreeable to the rules of scripture pressed onely with too great strictnesse or severitie it is not evermore against God nor our superiours nor the present age and posterity nor ourselves to yield obedience If it be an holy form of baptisme voluntarily to baptize into
granted nothing is here alledged but what might be said against communicating with ministers who have their weaknesses or use a stinted form of their own devising ordinarily or be of different opinions either in prayer or sacrament and if we must hold communion with none who dissent from us in any jote or tittle we must never joyn or not long continue in any congregation The personall miscarriages of private persons are not so perillous as the evil acts of the minister whom I make my mouth to God in prayer Neither do the errours of individuall men tainted with corruptions voluntarily broched in prayer or sermon cast that defilement upon them who joyn together as do the unwarrantable opinions of the church and the ministration upon such publick commandment It is a good rule in Divinity oft to be thought upon That every distinction in matters of faith or religion not grounded upon or warranted by the scripture is an humane devise For is not this to adde to the word of God to lay down an opinion as from God which is not to be found in his word at all Now to apply this to the present matter in hand I desire to know from what scripture this distinction can be warranted That the personall errours of the minister in his voluntary administration of the sacraments or prayer do not defile though I do not publickly testifie dislike or absent my self but errour committed in the administration by publick commandment do pollute all that be present Reason why presence should pollute in one case more then the other none can be given Calling from God to testifie dislike it may be I have in neither but least in the latter It being more tolerable for private persons to rebuke the slips and errours of their minister in voluntary administration then for a man to controll the order established by publick authority and common consent when he is not in speciall called thereunto If this distinction be of weight it would go best with the church to have no settled order amongst them for so long as the faults and corruptions be onely personall they defile not them that be present at the ordinances but personall they are untill they be established by common consent or publick authority Moreover by this rule one member may sooner cast out the whole church then the whole church can cut off one member For the church must not cut off a member but upon weighty consideration and apparent just cause and that after conviction with much long-suffering and patience but if this objection hold true one member must openly rebuke the church or withdraw from communion with the church for a stinted Liturgie or for some slip or fault there committed perhaps questionable at least tolerable among brethren Is not my joyning with them that sinne to be reputed an appearance thereof when I professe not dislike thereof It is one thing to joyn with men in sin another to joyn with them necessarily in the worship of God though for the manner of administration something be done amisse If I professe not dislike of what I judge amisse having no calling thereunto my joyning in prayer is no appearance of evil to a right-discerning eye because I am necessarily called there to attend upon the Lord in his holy ordinances Necessary attendance upon his master excuseth the servants presence in many companies where he seeth and heareth much evil which he cannot amend nor reprove and shall not necessary attendance upon Jesus Christ justly and truly excuse the faithfull To say nothing that this exception is crosse to the former and if these exceptions be laid together we shall find nothing but going backward and forward one denying what the other affirmeth If the faithfull by the approbation of our Saviour Christ and his Apostles were present at Divine ordinances as much or more corrupted then they can be supposed to be with us then for such corruptions we are not voluntarily to withdraw our selves For defilement is feared without cause by simple presence where Christ requireth and approveth our presence and hath promised to be present with us by his grace But the faithfull by the commandment and approbation of Christ have been present at Divine ordinances as much or more corrupted then they can be supposed to be with us For the scribes and Pharisees sinned grievously in corrupting the law with false glosses in so much that they neither taught nor practiced what was necessary to salvation They taught many things directly contrary to the law as if a child had vowed not to relieve his parents he was bound to keep his vow and neglect them They defiled the worship of God with their vain inventions And it may well be thought their praying was answerable to their preaching cold fruitlesse corrupt and rotten many wayes Neverthelesse the faithfull held communion and fellowship with them in the worship of God not in their corruptions and that by the approbation and commandment of Christ himself Our Saviour doth not tell the faithfull they were to call upon the Pharisees to fulfill their ministery which they had received and as occasion should require proceed further to declare their dislike in such manner as is meet either absenting themselves or other wayes declaring their dislike so as the whole church may take notice of it But his commandment is they should heare them so long as they sit in Moses chair It is true our Saviour doth not approve their corrupt glosses and sinfull inventions but doth sharply reprove them himself and admonish others to let them alone and beware of their leaven but not to forsake the assembly or absent themselves from the ordinances of worship From which it followeth evidently that simple presence at Divine ordinances is not consent or approbation of the corruptions therein practiced and that we must leave and forsake some in respect of familiar conversation with whom we may hold outward communion in the exercises of religion The sinne of Eli's sonnes in prophaning the holy things of God was exceeding great but Elkanah Hannah and Samuel did not partake with the sinnes of the priests in that they did not abstein from the Lords sacrifices The behaviour of the Corinthians in their unreverent scandalous and almost prophane coming to the Lords table was foul and corrupt yet the faithfull did not forbear nor the Apostle charge them to absent themselves from the Lords table The famous church of Rome was so weak and feeble in the duties of government as they did not or could not separate from them such as preached Christ contentiously and with spitefull minds against the Apostle and the greater number of that church did corruptly demean and carry themselves therein and yet the Apostle never taught the rest to separate and have no communion with them in the ordinances of worship Knowledge before-hand that such corrupt administration will be used
maketh our joyning with the assembly sinfull to us whereas if the evils were unexpected the danger would not be alike And thus it was with them who congregated to heare the scribes and Pharisees It is not for them that earnestly oppose all humane inventions to ward off a blow by humane devises When God commandeth my presence at his ordinance why should the corruption foreknown in the manner of administration without my consent or approbation any more defile then that which falleth out unexpected Or if it should nothing can be alledged more impertinently For the corruptions of the Pharisees in perverting the law were ordinary and common well known to all men and so reproved by our Saviour as a thing notorious And the like may be said of the disorders in the churches of Corinth and Rome for if the knowledge thereof came to the Apostle absent and at that time in prison by the information of the brethren of necessitie it must be known to the members of the churches The faithfull therefore when they joyned in the ordinances of worship with these assemblies neither did nor could pretend ignorance of these things There is a broad difference to be put betwixt the sinne committed by persons with whom I communicate and the corruption put upon the ordinance in which I communicate If the sinne of him with whom I communicate be manifest and known the ordinance of God is corrupted by it one way or other And if I be defiled with all known corruption whatsoever it is not materiall to the point in hand how those corruptions differ in their specificall nature The question is Whether all presence at the ordinances of God in some respect corruptly or disorderly administred contract guilt in him that is onely present in obedience to Gods commandment and hath no calling from God to testifie peculiar or speciall dislike It may be of some use here to shew what corruptions be fundamentall and what not what pernicious to be tolerated and what not when a man hath a calling to testifie against abuses and when not But to speak of the specificall difference betwixt abuses of the same kind or degree is quite wide of the mark This will easily be yielded because communion in the ordinances of worship is as well denied when wicked men are admitted to the sacrament as when it is administred in a devised or stinted Liturgie as it is called It was never questioned by right-believing Christians but the faithfull by Gods approbation might hold communion with the churches in the ordinances of worship for some ages after the death of the apostles The church continued a virgin all the dayes of the apostles as Hegesippus noteth But immediately after their death innumerable evils crept in began to spring amain neverthelesse the faithfull might did and ought to hold communion together in the proper and substantiall means of worship That many things were amisse in the churches is not denied and that the faithfull through ignorance did offend in many things but in this that they held communion notwithstanding such abuses amongst them they are blamelesse For a time the faithfull did lie hid in Babylon by Gods approbation untill the exhortation was given from heaven to come out of her and touch no unclean thing Not that they might touch any unclean thing at any time that is either in practice or consent and liking stain themselves with the corruptions of the world But that they might lie hid in the midst of much confusion and neither like nor consent unto the evils which they did bewail but could not reform That exhortation from heaven Come out of her my people come out of her c. some interpret of a locall departing out of the citie of Rome as Lot went out of Sodom and that interpretation the text seemeth to favour because the very outward destruction of the place is in that chapter menaced and therefore the removing out of the very place in avoydance of the mischief coming upon it forewarned But most commonly it is applied to a spirituall coming out of Babylon in separating from the societie and communion of that church wherein they could lie hid no longer without defilement And hence some conclude that this departure was to be made at a certain definite time when God was pleased to go before the faithfull and furnish them for this end and purpose But untill the time of freedome was proclaimed the faithfull did and might so lie hid in Babylon as not to be partakers of her sinnes For there is a certain order of the Revelation fitted to the order of times And as there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence but no time to lie so there is a time for the church to figh and lie hid but no time to dissemble or defile her self And as the Israelites offended not when they removed not out of Egypt before Moses was sent thither of God so neither did the faithfull transgresse in that they departed not out of Babylonish captivitie before they were called of God the time of liberty was proclaimed and God shewed them whither to flie To live in captivitie untill freedome be published is a misery not a sinne In that condition care must be to keep pure and undefiled but not to run away without leave or licence from God Whatsoever is to be thought of this application of the text herein all orthodox interpreters consent and agree that after the church was stained with manifold abuses the faithfull did and ought to hold communion with her in the means of worship But if simple presence be approbation of every thing that is judged to be done amisse in the worship of God a Christian could at no time that can be named in no age since the death of the apostles hold communion with the church of God in the ordinances and means of grace For it is as lawfull to be present at the worship prayers or administration which is read out of a book in some things faulty as to be present at that service where the scriptures are read out of a translation in many things faulty and corrupt in which many things are added diminished altered and changed But in the primitive churches the faithfull must be present if at all at the worship of God when the scriptures were read out of a faulty translation For to say nothing of the corruptions of the Seventy Interpreters which as Bellarmine confesseth had gathered many stains and blots in three hundred yeares of necessity the translations which were derived from it of which sort were most in the primitive church can be no lesse corrupt For no man before Hierome ever translated the books of the Old Testament out of the originall into Latine but out of the Seventy And the same may well be thought of most vulgar translations where the Greek or Latine were not in
use And if the Septuagint was corrupted in many things at that time the translations drawn thence cannot be pure Amongst many and divers Latine translations which Augustine saith cannot be numbred there was one more common then the rest and better esteemed by Hierome called the Vulgar who disliketh it and preferreth the translation of Symmachus and Theodotion above it If we give credit to ancient writers we shall find that there were divers customes in the church and rites in the administration of the sacraments not mentioned in scripture and some of them savouring more of superstition then of devotion which the Papists themselves have not onely laid aside but condemned though of ancient and long continuance The particulars are many and well known so that ancient custome is not plea sufficient to prove a thing good nor some abuse crept into and continued in the church cause sufficient why we should voluntarily absent our selves from the Lords ordinances In the second primitive church as some distinguish if not the first they had a stinted form of Liturgie not onely for lessons psalmes epistles and gospels and professions of faith but in prayers for matter and manner not much unlike to ours To the praise of God be it spoken our Liturgie for purity and soundnesse may compare with any Liturgie used in the third and fourth ages of the church And if in those times the faithfull might lawfully hold communion in the ordinances of worship we cannot at this day lawfully withdraw our selves by reason of such faults as be objected This I mention that we might learn to acknowledge Gods mercy walk worthy of what we have received and strive forward towards perfection by all lawfull means Long before the Lord called his people to come out of Babylon what faults soever can be objected against our Liturgie were found in theirs The faithfull therefore may lawfully be present at our service notwithstanding the faults objected against it For the Lord did not onely wink at his peoples weaknesse and ignorance for the time but approve of their non-separation untill he was pleased to call them forth Neither can it be imagined that they might hold communion in other ordinances but not in their stinted Liturgies for in those times of all other parts the stinted Liturgies were most pure God of his endlesse mercy so providing for his church and the comfort of his people in those hard and evil times when the doctrine was miserably dangerously corrupted in respect of Merit of works and Invocation of Saints c. the Liturgies were long preserved pure and free whereby the faithfull might be present with more comfort and freedome of conscience This one thing duely considered would put an end to many scruples and might serve to stop them who out of over-great heat and forwardnesse are ready to except against the means of their own comfort and to cast off what God offereth because they cannot enjoy what they desire The snares of superstition are warily to be declined because we are apt and prone to take infection thereby it being a work of the flesh and agreeable to our nature All sinne is to be shunned and that at all times but the danger of sinning onely is to be shunned by watchfulnesse and circumspection not by omission or neglect of any duty that God calleth us unto or requireth at our hands In a free state and condition the occasions of sin must be avoided because no man is safe who is next to danger and it is no point of wisdome to fish with a golden hook But when God casteth a man upon the occasions of sin in the duties of religion justice or an honest calling he must not omit the duty because of the occasion but resist the occasion and watch over his heart that he be not hurt thereby If a sowre herb or two grow in a good pasture is it not better to heed the flock there then to suffer them to starve The sheep of Christ are wise to discern betwixt things that differ and know where to feed and what to leave And if superstition be dangerous partiall indiscreet misguided zeal is sinfull turbulent and pernicious Whence have most schismes arisen in the church but even from hence that some in place have been over-eager and peremptory to presse the members of the church to professe their belief or approbation of some errours perhaps in themselves small and to be tolerated which they could not professe with a good conscience and not allow them communion in the church but upon such condition Also the frequent drawing out of the sword of excommunication to cut off well-deserving members from visible society with the churches of God for small and trifling matters is a great occasion and cause of schisme Whatsoever man or church saith one doth for any errour of simple belief deprive any man so qualified as above either of his temporall life or livelyhood or liberty or the churches communion and hope of salvation he is for the first unjust cruel and tyrannous schismaticall presumptuous and uncharitable for the second Wherefore such as have power in their hands they are alwayes to remember that this power is given them not for destruction or to shew their own greatnesse but for the edification of others and therefore never to be used but upon speciall and weighty considerations and occasions He that striketh fiercely with his spirituall sword at feathers doth alwayes either wound himself or wrest his arm And of particular private persons it hath ever been most true that a partiall rigid irregular adhering to some branches of holy doctrine hath been no lesse pernicious to themselves then troublesome to others For the fond admiration of their zeal and forwardnesse in this one particular breedeth neglect of Christian watchfulnesse and constant uniform walking with God disregard of Gods ordinances and of the good which may be gotten thereby disesteem if not contempt of others who will not comply with them in the same way and what can follow hereupon but contentions and jarres surmises censurings and uncharitablenesse rents and divisions in the church This danger is the greater because it stoppeth the eare against advise and counsel For being once perswaded that they and they onely do maintein the truth and rightly affect it no reason will enter no perswasion take place to the contrary be it never so evident and apparent And this is most preposterous when the truths wherewith they are so enamoured and which they zealously affect be matters of small or least importance for then the great and weighty truths concerning the very life and soul of religion and the substantiall means of grace are undervalued in comparison of the other We must therefore labour and watch so to keep our selves from the infection of superstition as not to foster indiscreet and partiall zeal which admiring that which is of lesse importance thrusteth into over-vehement contentions and lesseneth
church wherewith the faithfull may hold communion without sin or at least the faithfull may lie hid in such a corrupt society and hold communion with them in the exercises of religion without sin And if the Jews had not power to cast out an offender the materiall part of that church was not visible Saints whom God was pleased to take into covenant but the whole body of the Jewish nation ignorant impenitent prophane obstinate even all that were not cut off by bodily death the sacraments must not be dispensed according to the promise made to the faithfull and their seed but promiscuously to all that came of the loins of Jacob according to the flesh the faithfull might and ought to have communion as one body with the wicked and prophane who remain in unbelief and both revile and persecute the truth Then a company of impenitent sinners might and did remain the true church being to the judgement of men irrecoverable then such as are altogether averse to the end of their holy calling may be received into covenant and though the society be never so much sowred with the unclean conversation of the ungodly yet the faithfull may dip in their meal and live in that society without fear of pollution dishonour to God encouragement to the wicked or scandal to the brethren And what then is become of the heaps of quotations whereby they would prove that the members of the church must be holy visible saints a people converted in covenant separated to the Lord and that the church is onely true whiles it continueth such and false when it degenerateth from this disposition and of their confident arguing That if it were the will of God that persons notoriously wicked should be admitted into the church then should he directly crosse himself and his own ends and should receive into the visible covenant of grace such as were out of the visible state of grace and should plant such in his church for the glory of his name as served for none other use then to cause his name to be blasphemed That all true churches from the beginning to the end of the world are one in nature and essentiall constitution and the first the rule of the rest and if it was not lawfull for the godly to contract with the wicked in the civil covenant of marriage how much more in the religious covenant of the church That God gave unto Abraham and to his family the covenant of circumcision which the Apostle calleth the seal of the righteousnesse of faith And to affirm that the Lord would seal up with the visible seal of the righteousnesse of faith any visible unrighteous and faithlesse person were a bold challenge of the most High for the prophanation of his own ordinances These and many the like are broken to pieces by this observation That the whole nation of the Jews sinfull laden with iniquity corruptours revolters in course of life were Gods separated people by covenant and might lay claim unto and could not be debarred from the visible seals of the righteousnesse of faith though in themselves faithlesse and unrighteous And if it was no pollution to the Jews to suffer notorious wicked ones amongst them so they discharged such other duties as were enjoyned them by the Lord because they had not power to cast them out it is no pollution for private and particular Christians who have not the power of excommunication in their hand given unto them by Christ to suffer such as be ignorant and scandalous to communicate in the ordinances of grace with them if they perform all other duties which God requireth at their hands Moreover if the Jews had not power to cast out a wicked person they had power to cut off the presumptuous and the neglect of the one is as inexcusable as of the other And so the whole controversie turneth upon this one hinge Whether one or two or some few private Christians have power to cast out and excommunicate whole societies churches for some remissenesse or abuse in bearing with or admitting scandalous offenders in the societies so long as the doctrine of grace is purely taught the sacraments rightly administred for substance Christ is pleased to tolerate and bear with their manners continueth the visible signes of his presence among them and is present by speciall grace to blesse his ordinances to the worthy receiver A few words one would think might suffice in this matter but seeing the strength of the cause lieth therein in the chapters following it shall be handled more at large In the church of Corinth there were divisions fects emulations contentions and quarrels and going to law one with another for every trifle and that under the infidels Pauls name and credit was despitefully called in question there whom they should have honoured as a father the resurrection of the dead which is the life of Christianity was denied that wickednesse was winked at there which is execrable to the very heathen the Lords supper was horribly profaned in that some came to it drunken there was fornication and such like sins not repented of things indifferent were used with manifest offense and idolatry committed in eating at the tables of idoles meats sacrificed to devils Notwithstanding all which abuses that societie is called and was the church of God and the faithfull did and might communicate with others without pollution The Galatians had so farre adulterated the Gospel of Christ that the Apostle telleth them they were removed to another Gospel pronounceth that they were bewitched and if they still persisted to joyn circumcision and the works of the law with Christ they were fallen from grace and Christ could not profit them and yet they are called churches of Galatia Ephesus was extremely decayed in her first love she was not onely cooled a little but had left it In Pergamus there were some that held the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitanes In Thyatira the woman Jezebel was suffered to teach and seduce the servants of Christ Of Sardis the holy Ghost saith she had a name to live but was dead her works were not perfect before God there were but a few there who had not defiled their garments Of Laodicea it is recorded that she was neither hot nor cold and then it is not hard to conceive how she was overgrown with disorders and yet Christ was present with her by his grace and the faithfull are exhorted to repent or beware of her sinne and not to forsake her society Of the abuses in the church of Rome something hath been noted before Of corruptions and disorders in other churches the scriptures give plentifull testimony But you shall never find that the faithfull are warned to separate from the worship of God in these assemblies but to keep themselves pure and undefiled and labour the reformation of others by all means lawfull In the
first subject from whom it cometh to the officers As the power of seeing is not onely given intuitu hominis as the end of it and the totum to whom it agreeth but is in homine as the first subject from whom it cometh to the eye The Apostles and other governours were given of Christ for the church as for the end and all their authority was given unto them for the church as for the whole but the authority it self was immediately derived from Christ and is not in the church as the immediate subject thereof The authority of the Apostles and other guides was for the church given for the good of the whole society and so may be called the authority of the church but the authority is not immediately in the church as the subject nor derived from the church but from Christ the King of the church The authority of governours is given of Christ for a gift to the church but not for a gift absolute that it may reside in the power of the whole church to whom it is given but for a conditionall gift that it may be communicated to the governours themselves for the edification of the whole It is one thing then to ask for what end or whose use the keyes are given another to whom To every one is given the declaration of the spirit for profit that is the good of the church But was this gift given to the community of the faithfull first and immediately No by gift and possession it was given to some but for use and profit it was publick As the Saints are not priests onely for themselves but for their brethren for whom they offer up the spirituall sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving so neither are they kings for themselves alone but for their brethren also having the power of Christ whereby to judge them 1. Cor. 5. 4 12. the keyes of the kingdome to bind and loose them Matth. 16. 19. in the order of him prescribed The order of kings is the highest order or estate in the church but the order of Saints is the order of kings and we are kings as we are Saints not as we are officers Exod. 19. 6. 1. Pet. 2. 9. Rev. 1. 6. Christ maketh every believer a king priest and prophet to teach exhort reprove comfort offer up spirituall sacrifices of prayer and praise and to guide and govern in the wayes of godlinesse But this belongeth not to the spirituall ministeriall power and authority which Christ hath given for the conservation and government of his church For every Christian man and woman is made a king priest and prophet unto God to perform all offices required in that relation but the spirituall power of government with the execution thereof is not committed to every believer in particular nor to any one The officers of Christ do neither feed and teach as prophets nor govern as kings nor offer sacrifices as priests The word it self teaching and feeding is one thing which floweth from Christ as Prophet the administration of the word whence also floweth the act of governing is from Christ as King It is from internall communion with Christ that the sound sincere faithfull and they onely are made spirituall kings and priests unto God but it is from Christ as King governing externally as be beareth the similitude of a politicall head that his servants do feed rule and censure in his name They onely are made true kings and priests unto God who have received from Christ the life of grace but they have received authority from Christ to do service in his church who have not received life of grace nor are made kings or priests unto God The Kingdome Priesthood or Prophesie of Christ doth make no man politically either priest or king or prophet for then all believers should exercise the office of politicall priests kings and prophets in the church which is opposite to the nature of Christs kingdome Christ according to his Person is neither externall King nor Pastour but doth govern his church externally by pastours and ministers yet not as by kings or priests politicall but as servants onely Pastours and teachers are but officers in the church and in no kingly authority by participation of Christs kingly office neither are they as civill governours though the Lords servants yet the peoples lords and masters But it is one thing to be a spirituall king or priest unto God another to be a pastour or teacher in Gods church for that is common to all Christians this peculiar unto them that have received authority of function from Christ The Saints therefore as spirituall kings have not received power from Christ by function or authority to censure their brethren or externally to rule or govern but this belongeth to them who are designed of Christ the King unto this office Every Christian woman may exhort or reprove without any designement of the church is every woman made a prophet externally in the church Is power to administer the sacraments and authoritatively to censure offenders se autoritate muneris not officii generalis or charitatis committed to every member of the society because every believer may exhort and admonish not onely his brother of the same or another society but even them that are without By the keyes of the kingdome power and jurisdiction is noted and not the bare duty of instruction or admonition The power of the keyes is given by Christ as the King of his church as is evident by the generall institution of ecclesiasticall politie and the particular narration of politie instituted but that every Christian was sent forth with authority and commission we never read And if this reason be of any force every believer man or woman is of equall authority to the Apostles in matters of ecclesiasticall government because the order of saints is the order of kings and that is the highest which is directly corsse to the holy scripture and the order appointed by Christ the King and Head of his church They that have received Christ have received the power of Christ and his whole power for Christ and his power are not divided nor one part of his power from another But every company or communion of faithfull people have received Christ John 1. 12. Rom. 8. 32. Isa 9. 6. and with him power and right to enjoy him though all the world be against it in all the means by which he doth communicate himself unto his church This objection is not to be understood of the essentially Divine power of Christ which is proper to him as the Sonne of God nor of the uncommunicated power of Christ given to him as Mediatour nor of that communion and fellowship which every sincere Christian and faithfull soul hath with him in his death and resurrection but of the communicated power of Christ which he hath given to his church or certain officers in the church for the
other churches we shall not find the number of believers mentioned precisely but without question it was not samall in Antioch of which it is said a great number believing turned unto the Lord as that Barnabas by his preaching added a great multitude unto the Lord and that Paul and Barnabas continued there teaching and preaching with many others the word of the Lord. The like may be said of Corinth Philippi and the seven churches of Asia which are all spoken of as particular churches and societies They stretch the limits of the church of Corinth too farre that extend it to all the Saints in Achaia because the Apostle nameth the rest of Achaia with them as he doth all Saints in all places For he might speak of them as of divers churches in one province as he doth in other places And it is too grosse to think that all in Achaia came to Corinth to be instructed and make their contribution every church using the first day of the week when they assembled to make their collections within themselves Neither can it be well conceived how all Achaia should assemble together for the service of God and the execution of discipline as it is noted of the church of Corinth It will easily be credited that the number of believers was great in Ephesus if we call to mind that when Paul had been there but two yeares all they which dwelt in Asia had heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Graecians those that had used curious arts came and burned their books in the sight of all men which could not be done without great danger unto the church unlesse a great part of the city had believed the art of making shrines and Diana's temple was in danger to be set at nothing and that a great doore and effectuall was opened unto the Apostle at Ephesus And that the multitude of believers was great in all proper settled politicall societies appeareth in this that the Apostles appointed divers overseers elders and deacons to teach and govern the people and take care of the poore which they would not have done nor could the church have born the charge thereof if the number had not been large Two or three making Peters confession cannot be the church in this passage of scripture for the party complained of is one member and the complainant another and he is to take with him one or two if he be not heard before he bring the matter unto the church and how then shall any two or three separated from the world and consenting together in an holy covenant be the church in this place If any two or three consenting in an holy covenant serve to make up this community or church what hindreth but it may consist of women and children onely and so the spirituall authority of teaching exhorting binding loosing remitting reteining sins shall originally executivè agree unto a community of believing women whereof every member is regularly uncapable For the Apostle teacheth plainly that a woman may not speak in the congregation And though he speak particularly of prophesying and teaching yet layeth he down a more generall rule forbidding all such speaking as in which authority is used that is usurped over the man which is done specially in judgement And if a woman may not so much as move a question in the church for instruction how much lesse may she give a voice or rather a reproof for censure And if women be debarred by their sex as from ordinary prophesying so from any other dealing wherein they take authority over the man how can two or three believing women be the church with power ministeriall publickly to bind and loose remit and retein sinnes And if two or three gathered together have the same right and power with two or three hundred or two or three thousand let the society without officers be never so great it cannot be the church that is here meant For those Divines which hold power and authority of binding and loosing to be delivered by Christ to the whole church that is to every particular church collectively because it perteineth to them to deny Christian communion to such wicked persons as adde contumacy to their disobedience and to remit the punishment again upon repentance they generally with one consent maintein that the execution and judiciall exercising of this power perteineth to that company and assembly of officers or governours in every church which the Apostle calleth a presbytery But our Saviour in that text of Scripture speaketh of the execution and exercise of the power of binding and loosing which was never committed to the community of the faithfull without officers If the joynt consent of orthodox Divines move not let it be considered that the exercise of ecclesiasticall censures externall and authoritative was never committed to the community of the faithfull without officers never exercised by the faithfull in any age of the Christian church Let such as plead for this power bring forth either commission for it or precedent of it if they be able The externall and authoritative power of binding and loosing as the greatest power in the church doth comprehend under it all matters subordinate and of the same nature power to preach the word autoritatively and to admit unto or put from the sacraments but the exercise of this inferiour power was never committed to a Christian society or church without officers And if we will not make one text of scripture contrary to another we cannot think the exercise of that power is here given to the community of the faithfull few or many without officers which in all other places is given to the governours never to the faithfull without guides By the church the whole multitude of believers whether with officers or without cannot be understood For that power agreeth not to the whole body in actu primo or in esse as they speak whereof many particular members regularly are not capable as the faculty of speaking or seeing should not first belong to man as the principium Quod if the whole in all parts were not capable of that power But the power of binding or loosing cannot regularly agree to many particular members of that community sc women and children And if women and children though believers be here excluded the word church must not be taken in the largest and most ordinary signification in the new Testament for so it comprehendeth all believers disciples faithfull linked in society If the authority of binding or loosing pertein to the whole church in actu primo sive in esse and to the Presbytery alone in actu secundo sive in operari as the act of speaking perteineth to a man as the principium Quod but to the tongue alone as the principium Quo yet the church cannot be taken for the whole community for our Saviour
because they are actually in the state of salvation the heirs apparent to everlasting blessednesse actuall partakers of the benefits of Christs death which accompany salvation They are given unto Christ set into him as branches into a vine and they that be such be in deed and act not in desire alone members of Christs body All that were not in the ark perished in the waters No member doth live but that which is actually joyned to the head and draweth life from it Baptisme is the seal of our solemn admission into the church but it is not the gate of our setting into Christ but the seal of that admission we have received by grace are partakers of by a lively faith True believers theÌ„ are in the state of grace actuall members of the militant church but of a visible particular ministerial church or congregation they may be members in desire onely For it may so fall out many times that he who is joyned to Christ by a true and lively faith hath not means and opportunity to unite himself unto a visible and ministeriall church The Catechumâ—ni who did truly 〈◊〉 unfeignedly believe in Christ were live-members of his mysticall body and in respect of full effectuall and saving participation of Christs benefits actuall members of the church invisible when in respect of solemn outward and sacramentall admission they were not members of any visible congregation If a Christian be unjustly excommunicated he still reteineth all those things which the best parts of the church have inward or outward and though he be cut off from the meetings and assemblies of particular churches so that he may not bodily be present when the people meet together yet still he hath the communion which onely is essentiall and maketh a man to be of the church in that he hath all those things which the best that remain not ejected have as faith hope love and profession of the whole truth of God He is the friend of God an heir apparent of the new Jerusalem a living member of the mysticall body of Christ And if he be not cut off from Christ from hope of salvation and fellowship of the saints triumphant neither can he be cast out from the fellowship of the church militant for the church militant and triumphant is one The performance of holy duties is an action of them that be already of the church and doth not make a man of the church yea the performance of these duties is a thing of that nature that by violence and unjust courses holden by wicked men we may be hindred from it without any fault of ours Now that it often falleth out through the prevailing of factious seditious and turbulent men that the best part is unjustly and undeser◠〈◊〉 cast out of the visible church is a thing so plain and confessed that it needeth no proof In times of grievous and hot persecution under which the church hath laboured the faithfull have been compelled to meet in woods dens and caves some in one place some in another as opportunity was offered their societies have been broken and set congregations dispersed and scattered when yet they continued the true church wherein salvation was to be had and enjoyed the ordinary means of salvation And if we speak of a visible ministeriall church as it is here meant by you the faithfull who professed the truth of the Gospel intirely and did communicate in the ordinances of worship for the space of this fourteen hundred yeares and upward had not means or at least did not unite themselves into a visible ministeriall church of Christ And if out of this your church ordinarily there be no salvation no means leading to everlasting life the Christian world for these many hundred yeares hath wanted ordinary means to bring them to life and salvation and been in that state in which no salvation ordinarily can be expected If we detest the consequence as dreadfull not standing with the promises made to the church of the Gentiles and the tender mercies of God vouchsafed to his people we must acknowledge the position from whence it followeth undeniably to be most rash and inconsiderate Out of doubt this kind of the visible church is now under the Gospel onely lawfull for us even a particular ordinary congregation onely And whatsoever kind or form of a visible church is instituted or ordained by men the same is conteined manifestly in the negative part of the second commandment that is to say it is simply unlawfull and by God himself here forbidden unto us In the new Testament the church doth signifie a multitude of believers whether assembled or dispersed and whether they be met in one place or separated in place they retein tho same name still The church is a society of the faithfull not an assembly if we speak properly When the word is put absolutely it noteth the multitude or society of the faithfull which is distinguished from their assembly or meeting together for the worship of God For we shall reade the church of God or Christ and so the church of the first-born but never the church of these or them or you or us but assembly or assembling of your selves Now the society may be one when the congregations be divers in respect of place where they do assemble It is not opposite to the unitie of an ecclesiasticall society that the members should ordinarily assemble in divers places for the worshipping of God so long as they be united by the same laws have communion in the same ordinances and be linked under the same spirituall guides and officers When a church did comprehend a citie with its suburbs and the countrey circumjacent I mean the believers who professed that faith within that circuit it might well be that the number did so increase through the extraordinary blessing of God which did accompany the preaching of the word in those primitive times and first planting of that heavenly kingdome that they could not well meet ordinarily in one place and yet might and did continue one society For when a number is gathered in small villages or some added to the number already gathered it is not meet they should be neglected because small nor yet divided from the body because the number not competent to make an intire and perfect body of it self The increase of churches doth require an increase of ministers and if they grow to bignesse more then ordinary an increase of places for their assembling when the essence of the visible church is not changed nor one multiplyed or divided into many And it is more available for the good of the church and further removed from all ambition if the society shall assemble in divers places as parts and members of one body then to constitute a distinct free society consisting of some few believers not fit to make up an intire body contrary to the precedent examples of the apostles In times of hot and
grievous persecutions the churches of God could not assemble in any great numbers in publick places but have been compelled to meet in dens and caves and woods one and the same society in divers places yet so as the society was not broken though their meeting together in one place was interrupted To meet together therefore in one place is not so essentiall to the church but it may continue one in laws ordinances government and communion though in respect of multitude distance of places and many other occurrences they be constrained to assemble and hold their meeting severally And that it was thus in the churches planted by the apostles it is most probable May we not well think that the Christian church at Jerusalem for whom Christ had prayed particularly to which some attribute the first miraculous conversion by Peters preaching and amongst whom being now ascended into glory he did more abundantly display his power and more conspicuously swallow up the scandal of his Crosse which had the labour of all or many of the apostles for a time in it whose care and industry we may guesse at by their ordination of Deacons that they might not be distracted whereunto much people did resort dayly who though explicitely they did not believe in Christ yet had they in them the faith of the Messias and so were nearer to the kingdome of God then the common heathen which was to send out light to all other churches and be a common nursery to the world May we not well think that this church did quickly rise to such bignesse that they could not well assemble in one congregation as we call them And the same may be said of other churches before mentioned For at that time the regions were white even unto the harvest the time was come when that heavenly kingdome was to be planted amongst all nations and at the beginning God did reveal his arm more extraordinarily and things which have their set period of growing do in their beginnings come on the fastest And seeing the apostles were extraordinarlly furnished for the work and had a great and wide doore set open unto them of God seeing they were diligent and industrious in their work and God was pleased mightily to accompany their endeavours is it not more then conjecturall that within short time the number of believers in those great and populous cities with their suburbs and circumjacent villages did exceed the capacity of one congregation The officers also which the Apostles ordained for the use of those churches were in number more then one ordinary congregation could bear or were necessary for the service thereof unlesse it were exceeding great and could not long continue together with edification but of necessity must assemble in severall places It was not the apostles practice to ordain pastours in those places where as yet no sheep were to be seen or very few and it had been inconvenient to tie the faithfull to one congregation when by reason of multitude they could not meet in one place to their edification What then remaineth but that they might assemble in divers places and yet hold communion in laws ordinances government and officers When presbyters were first assigned to their particular cures it is not certain Eusebius reporteth that many churches were gathered in Alexandria by Mark But what he alledgeth out of Philo as if it was to be understood of Christians is misapplied by him The first as it is commonly received that divided churches into parishes and assigned presbyters distinctly to take care of them was Euaristus Bishop of Rome But Platina reporteth this upon the credit of Damasus and that supposititious for the authour of the book carrying the title of Damasus was Anastasius Bibliothecarius an Abbot of Rome who lived about the yeare DCCCLVIII And what probability is there that under the reigne of Trajan who moved the third persecution from Nero against the church and that most violent there should be place to divide parishes and place singular presbyters over their peculiar charges Some think with more probability that Dionysius who was bishop of Rome in the yeare of Christ 267. did ordain parishes and commit them so ordained to Presbyters For in his dayes the church had peace Galienus by publick edict granting liberty But if it be yielded that there were some parochiall divisions about those times they were not many and within the city and were but as chapells of ease the church holding and continuing the same communion And whensoever Presbyters were assigned to their speciall cures we may conceive the multitude of believers though within the cities onely necessarily required their assembling in divers places before For though the number of Christians was sometimes greatly wasted with hot and fierie persecutions as Platina in vita Xisti 1. who followed Alexander the successour of Euaristus about the yeare of Christ 120. writeth by reason of the frequent slaughters there were few found at Rome which durst professe the name of Christ And Onuphrius Annot. in vit Hig. saith Although all Popes in those times suffered not martyrdome yet they endured many things for the confession of Christ of the raging common people and wicked magistrates who reteined perpetuall hatred against Christians neverthelesse at other times the number of Christians did greatly increase as the Ecclestasticall story noteth a most remarkable growth of the faith in the time of Fabian before Cornelius Neither must we think that an Emperour as Philippus favouring the faith did not bring on multitudes to the like profession Cornelius reporteth that in the church of Rome there were seaven Deacons seaven Subdeacons two and forty Acolyths two and fifty Lectours Porters Exorcists six and forty Presbyters a thousand and five hundred widows poore and sick And from hence he doth amplifie Novatus his pertinacy that none of the numerous clergy nor yet of the people very great and innumerable could turn him or recall him This was one visible ministeriall church wherein all the members had union and communion together for the mutuall edifying and restoring one of another but it was too great and abundant ordinarily to assemble in one place So that the church might remain one when the multitude was too great to meet in one place ordinarily and when particular Presbyters were assigned to particular cures For that was not a division of the society into societies distinct but an assignement of some particular officer to the oversight of one part or branch of the society for the more fit and commodious government of the whole as it was conceived and they so attended that branch of the society or church that their care and oversight reached to the whole And out of doubt this form or kind of a visible and ministeriall church is much nearer to the patterns and precedents set by the apostles in the first plantation of Christian churches then that two three or few believers
uniting themselves in covenant should be reputed the onely visible and ministeriall church independent from whom the officers should as their servants derive their authority This kind or form of a visible church is so farre from being the onely lawfull and allowed form of a church in scripture as if we speak of a church complete in respect of the inward substance and externall order furnished for all duties and offices required of the church it is not so much as warranted in scripture To the constitution of a visible distinct society or church there is required First an intire profession of one and the same faith and holynesse intire in all fundamentall articles of faith to be believed as necessary to salvation and main precepts and morall laws for practice to be acknowledged A lively operative faith maketh a man a true member of the church invisible and the profession of faith and holynesse a member of the church visible Profession of Divine verities revealed in Christ whom onely the companies and societies of Christians acknowledge to be the Sonne of God and Saviour of the world doth distinguish Christians from Jews The intire profession of faith according to the rule left by Christ and his first disciples and scholars the holy apostles doth separate the multitude of night-believing Christians which is the sound part of the Christian church from all seduced hereticall combinations Secondly there is required an union and communion in the true worship of God and ordinances belonging thereunto appointed of God himself sc prayer administration of the sacraments and dispensation of the word But the time may fall out that the preaching of the word may be omitted and reading or meditation may possesse the place thereof nay mere desire conjoyned with manifold sighs So the administration of the sacraments may be left off as it was in the church of the Israelites for the space of fourty yeares in the wildernesse But though the being of a church is not absolutely destroyed by the want or omission of these exercises for a time yet they are actions necessary to the well-being of a church and such as flow from the very nature of a church if they be not hindred Thirdly there must be subjection to lawfull guides officers or pastours appointed authorized and sanctified to lead and direct the flock in the happy wayes of eternall life Companies of believers were gathered before elders were ordained amongst them and the church may continue when guides are wanting as in case they be taken away by death persecution banishment but it is not complete or perfect without them neither can it hold communion in many ordinances of worship nor execute many offices which belong to the church consisting of all its parts Fourthly to the making up of an intire visible distinct society orders laws and discipline is required for the perventing of abuses and scandals the preservation of the holy things of God from contempt the recovery of them that fall and suppression of prophanenesse Discipline is needfull in every society without which it cannot long continue but all things will run into confusion It is necessary the members of the church should live Christianly otherwise the profession of faith and administration of the holy things of God must needs be polluted Discipline put for the censures hath no practice but in an united body or church which must needs have a being before it can exercise its power But the excercise of that power in a body complete is necessary not simply to the being but to the well-being of the whole As a city so the church cannot be without those things which belong to the necessary being thereof but it may be without those that belong unto her safety alone though not so well Fifthly the members of a visible church must hold fellowship in faith and love not onely one with another but with all other visible churches and all others intirely professing the faith of Christ and walking in holynesse so farre as they hold communion with Jesus Christ For all visible churches though distinct societies be sisters one in profession fundamentall laws and ordinances and should be one in hearty love and affection And no particular church can be called or be the true church of Christ but as it holdeth union with the catholick From the relation whereby Christ is referred to his members these things flow sc That Christ doth expound to them his word for the food of eternall life and doth hang seals to his word whereby he doth confirm and ratifie it From the relation whereby the members of Christ are referred to him their Head these things flow That whosoever would be accounted for true members of Jesus Christ they must acknowledge and receive that food and those seals appointed by Divine institution If the faithfull must assemble to heare the word of God call upon his name and receive the sacraments then there must be some to preach the word administer the sacraments and blesse in the name of the Lord and that by authority from God If they must receive the word and avouch themselves to be the people of God then they must walk before him in holynesse and maintein the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace If the temple of God must be kept from pollution and the holy things of God from contempt then there must be authority communicated from Christ to censure such as offend to repell the notorious to comfort the afflicted and receive the penitent If all promiscuously may not meddle with the dispensation of the holy things of God to that purpose then there must be order for their election and admission into that office and for the execution thereof being admitted thereunto Where all these things are to be found purely the church is excellent for degree pure and famous Where any of these are wanting or impure the church is so much defective or impure though it may be pure in comparison of others Wheresoever we see the word of God truly taught and professed in points fundamentall and the sacraments for substance rightly administred there is the true church of Christ though the health and soundnesse of it may be crazed by many errours in doctrine corruptions in the worship of God and evils in the life and manners of men Profession of the true faith alone in matters fundamentall and holy prayer with exhortation to obedience is a mark of the true church though the sacraments upon occasion be not there administred so that they be not neglected upon any contempt or erroneous conceit of their not being necessary Where most of these notes are wanting or impure the church is of lesse account in dignity excellency and credit coming short of others according to the degrees of impurity in the marks the deficiency of some marks and the nature of the marks themselves in which the impurity is As impurity in doctrine or administration of the sacraments is worse then disorder in matter of
government onely Therefore to the full complete constitution of a visible church many things are required and that of divers kinds in themselves and of divers degrees of necessity all which cannot be referred to the second commandment but many and they most necessary to the first some to the third some to all And though in things essentiall and unchangeable belonging to the being of the church and matters positive determined by God nothing must be done besides the rule yet in things not determined concerning externall order and the better exercise of that authority which Christ hath committed to his servants some things are permitted to the wisdome of the church according to the generall rules of scripture And if the church holding the true faith as it hath formerly been said shall exceed or fall short in some particulars for such superfluity or defect she is not to be rejected as no true visible church of Christ Every church-ministery made and devised by the policy of men and not instituted of God is against the second commandment c. And all offices and ministeries in the church which are found in the scripture as instituted by God are in the affirmative part of this second commandment The church-ministery in respect of the main and substantiall duties belonging thereunto doth pertein to the second commandment in part not wholly or onely but in respect of things circumstantiall annexed to the ministery it belongeth not to the second commandment And if we consult scripture that is a new or devised ministery which for substance of the office is not of God be the outward calling never so orderly or legall and that ministery is not new or devised which for the substance of the office is of God though the entrance was disordered in the person admininistring many things be amisse and in the execution many defects or superfluities If a minister orderly chosen and ordained shall preach false and corrupt doctrine in points fundamentall or administer false sacraments his ministery is new devised false notwithstanding his lawfull entrance If a minister enter unlawfully either by the tumult of the people partiality of the overseers or corruption of patrones if he preach Christ crucified soundly and rightly administer the sacraments his ministery is true and of God though his entrance be of men If a minister preach sound doctrine in the main though mixed with some errours and administer the holy sacraments though with some superstitious rites his ministery is not to be esteemed new or devised for these weaknesses If some things humane be mixed with Divine a sound Christian must separate the one from the other and not cast away what is of God as a nullity fruitlesse unprofitable defiled because somewhat of men is annexed unto them In the body we can distinguish betwixt the substance and the sicknesse which cleaveth unto it betwixt the substance of a part and member and some bunch or swelling which is a deformity but destroyeth not the nature of that part or member Which of the prophets doth not cry out against the pride oppression covetousnesse tyranny of the priests in the time of the law Their offices were bought and sold they themselves despised knowledge opposed the prophets of the Lord strengthened the hands of the wicked and were enemies to all piety and yet their ministery was not false and devised for the main substance of it It is objected by the rigidest Separatists with great confidence That to communicate in a false ministery is certainly a breach of the second commandment For what do they else but set up an idole yea and bow down unto it which serve God in and by a devised ministery But if first they would consider what a false or devised ministery is and then what it is to communicate in the worship of God with them they would soon forsake this fort wherein they trust For the ministery may be true and of God when the election is disordered and the person unmeet and the execution maimed If this be not granted there was neither church nor sacrament nor ministery in the world for many hundred yeares yea if every superfluity or defect make a nullity of the ministery they that think themselves the onely ministers will be found none at all because they derive their authority from the community of the faithfull it may be two or three onely united in covenant which hath none authority to communicate it as hath been proved before For so we may reason as they do That is no ministery which is derived from them and executed in their name who have none authority to give it What is it to communicate in a false ministery Is it to communicate in the worship of God with them whose calling is not in every respect appointed and approved of God I might entreat them to look to their own standing before they accuse others and justifie their own calling before they seek to draw others from the communion of the church upon such pretenses But if that be their meaning the proposition is weak it can neither stand alone nor be underset with any props For when the prophets prophesied lies and the priests bare rule by their means was their ministery true or false When the priests were dumb dogs that could not bark and greedy dogs that could never have enough was their ministery true or false When the priests bought and sold doves in the temple or took upon them to provide doves and such like things for them that were to offer was their ministery true or false When the scribes and Pharisees corrupted the law by false glosses taught for doctrine mens precepts made the commandment of God of none effect by their traditions and set themselves against Jesus Christ was their ministery true or false If true then an ignorant idole prophane idle ministery which despiseth knowledge opposeth godlinesse prophaneth the holy things of God corrupteth the law polluteth his worship strengtheneth the hands of the wicked leadeth the blind out of the way may be a true and lawfull ministery If false then to communicate in a false ministery is not a breach of the second commandment For the true prophets forbad not the people to heare the priests nor our Saviour his followers to communicate with the scribes and Pharisees in the worship of God He charged them to beware of their leaven to let them alone because they were the blind leaders of the blind but he never laid his commandment upon the faithfull not to communicate with them in the worship of God And therefore to communicate with ministers no better then Pharisees in the true worship of God is neither a vain worship nor an abetting of the party in his sin nor to rebell against the Lord nor to commit spirituall whoredome but on the contrary it is to worship God aright to reverence his ordinances to relie upon his grace to hearken unto his voice and submit unto
his good pleasure If their ministery was true in some respects and false in others then the ministery is not absolutely false which in some respect is not pure as it ought and is to be desired then also it is no sin to communicate in a false ministery in some respect so farre to wit as it hath truth in it and doth carry the stamp of God The priests scribes and Pharisees were of the tribe of Levi which was set apart for the ministery yet might they be strangers thieves robbers murderers which the sheep of Christ will not heare that is follow or be led by them For the ministers whom our Saviour chargeth as thieves and murderers were of continuall succession of Levi and Aaron especially and it is to be understood of them who teach false doctrine and not of them who enter without a lawfull outward calling And to enter by Christ the doore teaching him alone to be the onely Saviour and Mediatour is the note of a good shepherd To heare them is not simply to communicate with them in the ordinances of God which the godly and faithfull among the Jews might not refuse to do with the Scribes and Pharisees who were thieves and robbers but to receive their doctrine and embrace their errours which was evermore unlawfull The thieves and murderers in the church of the Jews sprung up with them and continued amongst them and neither departed themselves nor were cast out by others that had authority In the Christian church divers false teachers ravening wolves Antichrists rose up not from among the Heathen or Jews but in and from themselves whereof some went out from the church and separated themselves others were cast out by excommunication and delivered up unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme others were tolerated in the church either because their heresies were not so pernicious at the first or the better side had not power to cast them out or they preached fundamentall truths but of evil minds These in respect of outward order were lawfully chosen or called and yet false prophets discovered by their doctrine not by their calling and some of them continuing in the church the faithfull are warned to beware of their errours that they be not infected by them but not forbidden to partake at the ordinances of worship because they are present And if we look into the Scriptures of the old and new Testament we shall never find the prophets called true or false in respect of their outward calling but in respect of their doctrine A man may have a lawfull outward calling to the ministery and yet be a false prophet because he preacheth the lying visions of his own heart But we shall never find him called a false prophet who teacheth the truth as he hath received it of God because in some particular his calling might be excepted against And seeing he that speaketh the truth to edification exhortation rebuke and comfort of Gods people according to the command of God is a true prophet he that speaketh the dreams of his own heart is a false prophet It were good if they in whose mouthes the chalenge of false prophets is rifest would better weigh how they themselves expound and apply the scriptures in their writings or prophesyings lest notwithstanding any outward church-state or calling as they pretend they be deeper wounded by the rebound of their accusations this way then their adversaries For whosoever will be pleased to trie and examine the matter unpartially shall find their quotations of scripture to be many impertinent forced wrested miserably abused without all fear or reverence Let no man therefore be dismayed at their great confidence big words multitude of scripture-proofs or pretended grounds from others whose principles they put in practice for if they be particularly examined they will either disclaim the cause or put weapons into thy hands truly to fight against and put them to flight But for the present I forbear to enter into particulars because I desire the satisfaction of the more moderate sort who though they scruple communion in some particulars above handled do yet dislike that totall Separation which others make and that bitternesse of spirit wherewith they prosecute their cause The Lord in tender mercy look down upon his church make up the breaches which sinne hath made remove the stumbling-blocks and occasions of offense recall such as are gone astray cause his truth to shine more and more in our hearts and teach them that fear his name to walk in love and by an holy unblamable conversation in all things to approve the soundnesse of their faith and sincerity of their religion before all men for the comfort of their souls the edification of others and the glory of his great name through Jesus Christ our Lord. FINIS The generall heads conteined in this Book CHAP. I. OF a stinted form of prayer pag. 1. CHAP. II. All things essentiall to prayer may be observed in a prescript form pag. 12. CHAP. III. A stinted Liturgie or publick form of prayer is no breach of the second commandment pag. 23. CHAP. IIII. It is as lawfull to pray unto God in a form of words devised by others as to sing psalmes to the praise of God in a stinted form of words prescribed by others pag. 54. CHAP. V. A stinted form of prayer doth not quench the Spirit pag. 83. CHAP. VI. In scripture there be prescript forms of blessing prayers salutations c. which may lawfully be used pag. 97. CHAP. VII The churches of God have both used and approved a stinted Liturgie pag. 106. CHAP. VIII The people may lawfully be present at those prayers which are put up unto God in a stinted form of words and partake in Divine ordinances administred in a stinted Liturgie pag. 122. CHAP. IX It is lawfull for a Christian to be present at that service which is read out of a book in some things faultie both for form and matter pag. 157. CHAP. X. It is lawfull to communicate in a mixt congregation where ignorant and prophane persons be admitted to the sacrament pag. 187. CHAP. XI Of holding communion with that assembly in the worship of God where we cannot perform all duties mentioned Matth. 18. 15 16 17. pag. 216. CHAP. XII The community of the faithfull much lesse two or three separated from the world and gathered together into the name of Christ by a covenant are not the proper and immediate subject of power ecclesiasticall pag. 231. CHAP. XIII An examination of sundry positions laid down by M r Jacob in his Exposition of the second commandment tending to Separation pag. 282. FINIS Octob. 9. 1639. Imprimatur Cantabrigiae Ra. Brownrigg Procan Psal 50. 15. 1. Tim. 2. 5. John 10. 23. Ephes 2. 18. Rom. 8. 26. 1 Cor. 14. 16 28. Orig. contra Celsum lib. 8. Ambr. in 1 Cor. 14. Hieron ad Heliodor Epitaph Nepotian August De Magist lib. 1 Idem De