Catholicism Or Several ENQUIRIES TOVCHING Visible Church-membership Church-Communion The Nature of Schism And the Vsefulness of National Constitutions For the furtherance of RELIGION By W. A. LONDON Printed by M. C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER ONE would think any thing should be acceptable to dissenting Brethren which has a true tendency to deliver them from those mistaken notions of things which do expose them to much trouble from Men and from the Laws themselves and by means of which they are an occasion of trouble and danger to the Nation And it is but reasonable to expect that things of this nature should be consider'd by them now at such a time as this tho' neglected during the time in which those Opinions put them to no trouble The hope of which and the sorrow to see Christian Brethren to suffer great inconveniencies to themselves needlesly has been a motive to me to make these sheets publick at this time as not doubting but that if judiciously and impartially weighed they with other writings of like nature may be of good use to discover to them their mistakes Their Separation from parochial Communion which does expose them to trouble does proceed principally from their mistakes as I conceive them to be either about that which makes men members of the visible Church or that which gives them Right to the external Priviledges thereof or about the external manner of publick worship There are many of the Dissenters whose notion of the visible Church and of Mens Right to Communion in the external Priviledge of it seems much narrower than the Scriptures represent those things to be They make that to be necessary to visible Church-member-ship and Communion which is but necessary to Invisible church-Church-Communion And then they make this qualification necessary not only by way of Duty but of Condition also without which in humane judgement persons ought not to be admitted into Church fellowship or unto Communion in the external priviledges of the Church Which notion and correspondent practice of theirs I have endeavored to discover to be plainly contrary to the whole current of the Scriptures touching these matters both of the Old Testament and of the New both as to doctrine and matters of fact That which hath betrayed them into this mistake seems to have been the want of distinguishing between the internal and external state of the Church for want of which they confound them and make that which is but necessary to the Being of the Church as invisible to be so likewise to the Being of it as it is visible The Church being described in Scripture but as a little flock and that as our Saviour says there are but few which find the narrow way which leads to Life and enter in at the strait gate and because the qualification of those of the invisible Church who shall be saved as described in Scripture seems to agree but to a few of those who profess the Christian Religion and because the Church is but One hereupon they come to be persuaded that none are really and truly of the Church but such whose qualification agrees with their description to whom Salvation is indeed promised But as for others they esteem them no more to be true and real Members of the Church than wooden Legs and glass Eyes are Members of the Body of a Man But then there are Scriptures which must be considered likewise which have foretold of the coming of many whole Nations into the Church both Kings and their People and of the numerous increase of it when a little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation when the stone cut out of the mountain without hands shall fill the wole Earth when for number they shall say the place is too strait for me give place to me that I may dwell and the like for there are many such Predictions in Scripture Now unless they will say that whole Nations and those vast numbers forementioned are all of the Church as invisible which is more then they will or can say they must of necessity admit of a distinction of a two-fold state of one and the same Catholick Church the one external and visible the other internal and invisible And if this distinction be admitted then these Predictions concerning the vast extent of the Church will be fairly reconcileable to those other Scriptures which speak of it in a more contracted and limited sense without which they seem irreconcileable For what some Scriptures speak touching the paucity or fewness of Church-members and what others say touching a far greater number of which the Church doth and will consist are both true in different respects the one in respect of the Internal and Invisible state of the Church the other in respect of that which is external and visible And this distinction is fairly justified by what our blessed Saviour hath said more than once to wit that many are called but few are chosen And if any should fancie that this twofold state of Church-members implies two Churches the one visible the other invisible there is no ground for it since those who are of the Church as invisible are the same Persons which are in external and visible Vnion and Communion with those who are of the Church only as visible and so make one Church with them But we cannot say they make one Church with these and another by themselves for then there would be two Churches indeed and yet of the same persons for a considerable part Considering then this twofold state of the Church it will not be difficult at all to conceive how and why a participation in the external priviledges of the Church does belong to all that are externally and visibly of it when yet a participation in the internal and invisible priviledges of it belongs only to those who are of the Church in respect of its invisible as well as visible state As there are different qualifications of persons of the same Church so there are different priviledges which belong to them accordingly external ones to them who are only externally qualified and both external and internal ones to them who are qualified for both Now this different state of the Church being so apparent as it is in Scripture as also that those who have but common grace and yet Baptized are really and truly of the visible Church I say the consideration of these things hath enclined me to touch upon several things which seem to render it very improbable at least that the Apostles should admit none into the Church by Baptism but such as they judged to believe so effectually as to be thereby Regenerate before they would Baptize them To what is said in my inquiries into these matters I shall here add a little more for our better Vnderstanding that case or question The question is whether it be probable that the Apostles admitted none into
is that makes men to be of it and concerning Church-Communion and what it is that qualifies men for it have been the true reason and cause of our Church-Divisions and Separations in great part where such notions have been entertained My present design therefore which I intend to pursue in these Papers is to inquire into the true measure which the holy Scripture gives us of these things that thereby we may the more steadily and with the more certainty make a true Judgment of those separations in church-Church-Communion which have been made and applauded by some I shall begin with what concerns the being of the Universal Church as Visible and then inquire how and by what means men become Members of it After this I shall inquire further what it is that qualifies men for and which gives them a right to external Communion in this Church as exercised in particular Congregations and likewise into the nature of catholick-Catholick-communion and Schism and the usefulness of National-Constitutions for the furtherance of Christian Religion QUERY I. WHat is the true notion of the Vniversal Church as visible The Universal Church as Visible is that Body Company or Society of People throughout the whole World which consists of all such as are Visibly Joyned or Vnited to God in Christ as Head by a Religious Bond. And that which doth distinguish them from all other People in the World is that Relation they bear to God different from that in which all other People stand related to Him And this Relation is a Religious relation by which they are brought nearer to God than all other People are All other People are related as humane Creatures to God as their Creator and Governour but these are related to him by another kind of Bond Obligation such as is Spiritual and of a Religious Nature of which I am to say more afterward And then as this Relation is External and Visible so that by which this Relation is effected and wrought is something Visible also which is the reason why the relation it self is said to be Visible Now the Persons thus Visibly Related to God in Christ are not all Religiously Related to Him alike Some of them are Related and United to him Internally and Invisibly by an Invisible Bond of Union over and besides their Visible Relation to him by that which is visible When as all the rest are Related to him only Externally or if in any respect Internally also yet not so or by such a relation as will entitle them to the internal and best sort of priviledges of Gods People such as Justification Reconciliation Pardon and Eternal life But yet this difference does not make this body of People which are externally one by a Relation to God common to the whole to become two Universal Churches For all which Essentially belongs to the being of the Universal Church is not limited and restrained to that part of it which in respect of its internal and invisible state does differ from and excel the other for the External Relation to God without which the Universal Church does not exist is common to the worser part of it as well as the better by reason whereof they cannot be two Churches and are but one One part of the Visible Church differs from another indeed in respect of Internal and Invisible State before God this is plain from the Scripture But then it is as plain from thence that as touching their External and Visible state they are one and that the same external priviledges belong to the one as to the other of which more afterward We have not indeed the words Visible and Invisible used in Scripture in reference to the two different states of men in one and the same Church but yet we have those different states of them sufficiently revealed in Scripture which we mean by those words I need not instance in Scriptures of this nature because they are sufficiently and commonly known and I shall have further occasion to mention them afterward QUERY II. WHat is it which prepares or qualifies persons for that Relation to God in Christ which makes them Visible Members of his Church There is something previous to that by which the Relation in men to God is wrought which makes them Visible Members of his Church and which does capacitate them for it and that is their being Externally called by God to be of the true Religion Persons lare first to become Disciples before they be received into the Church by Baptism and their becoming Disciples and their being called is the same thing This is the foundation in which that Relation is laid and upon which that which does effect it is built And People are thus called either 1. When they are Converted from a false Religion to own and profess the true And thus the Pagans were called by the Preaching of the Apostles when they were brought to be Disciples Or 2. When Almighty God causes them to be Born and to be Educated in the true Religion as those are who are born of Parents externally in Covenant with God Thus the Jewish People from Abrahams time downward were called to be Gods People and to profess the true Religion And accordingly they were stiled Gods called ones by the Prophet Isa 48.12 Hearken to me O Jacob and Israel my called And how were they called Abraham indeed he was called extraordinarily by God who appeared to him when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charran Act. 7.2 But his Posterity were called by being Born to and educated in the same Religion which he himself was of and so were his Childrens Children from Generation to Generation And thus has it been in calling Persons to be of the Christian Religion At the first erection of the Church as Christian men were extraordinarily called by the Preaching and Miracles of the Apostles and others they were called and converted from the Pagan and Jewish Religion to own the Christian Religion But since the times of first planting the Gospel up and down in the World Gods ordinary and common method of calling men to the profession of the Christian Religion has been by their Christian Parents educating them in it And indeed their being born of Parents in an especial Relation to God is in it self a Providential Call which qualifies them for the priviledge of being so related also For upon that account they are both in the Old Testament and the Now stiled a holy Seed that is a Seed separated from the Infidel World to God And by this the Females of the Jews became Church-Members and by this were their Males qualifi'd to enter into Covenant with God by Circumcision at eight days old But of these things further mention will be made in the process of our Inquiries QUERY III. WHat may that be by which People are made Visible Church-Members That by which People are constituted compleatly Visible Church-Members is a mutual Covenanting between God and them between Christ
his Ordinances and have the form of godliness tho otherwise destitute of the power of it yet as they are thus far a People unto God so God so far owns them as a People unto him separated unto him from the Idolatrous and Infidel world and accordingly allows them an interest and share in the external priviledges of his People of which communion in his Word and Ordinances is the chief Only where God himself hath put a bar to this enjoyment there the Visible Church ought to do so too as in those cases wherein deprivation by Church-censures is enjoyned Right to the priviledges of the Church comes in by mens relation to it as parts or members of it and so long as the relation continues so long a right to the external priviledges continues except in the case before excepted Those that are related to the Church both as Visible and Invisible have a right from God to Church priviledges both external internal and eternal but those who are related to the Church only externally as it is Visible have right only to the external priviledges of it Thus far we have argued from the nature and reason of the subject under consideration Come we now to enquire what the usage of the Church has been as to point of 〈◊〉 in this matter as we have it recorded in Scripture And as for the Old Testament Church the whole Nation of the Jews that entred into Covenant with God to be his People were allowed their part and share in the Ordinances of publick worship and not only so but were commanâ—◠〈…〉 them save in some exâ—◠〈…〉 as while they were unâ—◠〈…〉 legal uncleanness and in thâ—â—e particular cases of guilt for which they were to be deprived of their lives as well as communion and to be cut off from among the People Three times in the year were all their Males to appear before the Lord to keep three solemn Feasts appointed and yet I think no body will imagine them to be all without exception of the Church as Invisible And when any Strangers from among the Gentiles had a mind to turn Proselytes to the Jews Religion all that was required of them to make them capable of communion in the Passover was but to Circumcise all their Males by which they entred into Covenant with God Exod. 12.48 And since it was thus in the old Testament Church it is not to be imagined that the terms of external communion should be more rigorous and severe in the new since our Saviours yoke is casie and his burden light in comparison of that among the Jews which was a yoke as St. Peter speaks which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear All the same adult Persons which were received into the Church by Baptism were admitted to communion of the Church in the Ordinances of worship Thus it was in the first Christian Church which was a pattern to all that followed Act. 2.41 42. When the three thousand were added to the Church by Baptism They continued in the Apostles Doctrine and in breaking of bread and prayer Acts 2.42 And St. Paul saith By one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit The same all we see were made to drink into one spirit which were baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 By drinking into one spirit is meant Communion in the Lords Supper according to the sense of all Interpreters that I have met with Again he had said thus Chap. 10.17 We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of one bread Here again the same all that made one body were partakers of one bread So that the extent of the Communion of the parts equallized the union of the whole Nor indeed is there any one instance in Scripture that I can find of any one person that has been refused Communion with a Christian Church when he has desired it who has been before received into the Church by Baptism except such as have been under Censure of the Church for some Capital Offence And such indeed are to be excluded until brought to repentance by the Ecclesiastical Government under which they live And St. Paul has given direction in what manner of Cases and for what manner of Offences men are to be proceeded against by Church Censure greater or lesser after due admonition otherwise used But now saith he I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat 1 Cor. 5.11 For these and such like Crimes a Church may and ought in her governing capacity to deny her Communion with persons guilty of them after due admonition And accordingly our Church has ordered publick admonition frequently to be made in these words with many other If any of you be a blasphemer of God a hinderer or slanderer of his Word an Adulterer or be in malice or envy or in any other grievous crime Repent you of your sins or else come not to that holy Table lest after the taking of that holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you as he did into Judas and fill you full of all iniquities and bring you to destruction both of body and soul And further If any that desire to communicate be an open and notorious evil Liver or have done any wrong to his Neighbour by word or deed so that the Congregation be thereby offended the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertise him that in any wise he presume not to come to the Lords Table until he hath openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former naughty life that the Congregation may thereby be satisfied which before were offended The same order shall the Curate use with those betwixt whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign not suffering them to be partakers of the Lords Table until he know them to be reconciled I know there are several things wont to be alledged against admitting such to the Lords Supper who have not saving Grace as 1. That such will but increase their sin and further their Damnation by partaking of it so long as they are unregenerate To which it may be Answered 1. That such would no less sin by neglecting to Obey Christs Command Do this in remembrance of me and in neglecting to prepare themselves for it than they do when they come to this Supper of our Lord unprepared but rather indeed more For by not coming they make themselves guilty of a double Disobedience the one in not doing what Christ has Commanded to be done in remembrance of him the other in not preparing to do it after a right manner whereas by coming unprepared they make themselves guilty but of one of them 2. For the same reason Men should not
me to fall somewhat hard upon such as separate from the publick Worship of God established in such Nations by National Authority in a way of National Reformation and on those more especially who separate from that Worship for that very reason because enjoyned by National Authority It likewise falls hard upon them also who disesteem or less esteem a National Ministry because it is National or made such according to a National establishment These seem to be of one mind and Almighty God of another when he esteems Nations to be joyned to him and to be his People by that for which they separate Their pretence that in the Apostles times and for three hundred years after the Affairs of the Church were carried on only in a free Congregational way in greater or lesser voluntary Associations and therefore they ought to be so now seems very inconsiderable Because what was done in that kind then was done by way of necessity because they had not opportunity of a better Not but that they long'd for and pray'd for such Kings as would use their Authority and Power for the propagation and furtherance of the Christian Religion as well as for the defence of it and the Professors of it And they esteemed it no small favour from God when at last they obtained it in Constantine a Christian Cesar who used that Power of his for the establishing the Christian Religion and Worship of the only true God and for the ordering and regulating many things relating to the more commodious and orderly carrying on the ministration of the Gospel and the Worship of God And therefore the people of God then existent in the Empire are brought in by the Spirit of Prophesie expressing themselves thus upon that occasion Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ as I shew'd before Rev. 12.10 2. It may be justly questioned whether it be worth the while for men to dispute against the being of a National Church in New Testament times considering that in the New Testament Nations reformed from Paganism and Popery are stiled Gods Kingdoms And considering likewise that the Scripture stiles the same people and in the same respect sometimes the Kingdom of God and sometimes his Church And therefore it should seem no more improper to call a Christian Nation a Church of God than it is to call it a Kingdom of God which yet the Scripture stiles so 3. It may be observed yet farther That the Kingdoms or Nations which have been reformed from Popery were before such reformation was made but Kingdoms of this world notwithstanding much of what pertains to the Christian Religion was then owned and professed in them The Spirit of God by whom the book of Revelations was indited we see stiles them so in their unreformed state The Kingdoms of this world are become c. Yet they then in their unreformed state Worshipped the true God and his Son Christ Jesus They owned the holy Scriptures for the Word of God and used the same Creeds which the Reformed Churches themselves use and yet we see they are in that state stiled by the Spirit of God but Kingdoms of this world when as under their reformed state they are said to be the Kingdoms of God and of his Christ Like as Almighty God for the like reason esteemed the Nation of the Jews who had been his own Church and People but as Ethiopians unto him Amos 9.7 and told them by another Prophet Ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos 1.10 For tho they had his Ordinances among them and boasted of their Temple-Worship crying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these yet at the same time they burnt Incense unto Baal and walked after other Gods Jer. 7. they divided their Worship between the true God and Baal and did swear by the Lord and by Malcham Zeph. 1.5 And upon this account it was that God said of them by his Prophet they are unto me as a speckled bird of a Religion of several colours Jer. 12.9 For this spiritual Whoredom especially it was that Almighty God who had once espoused that people to himself gave them a Bill of Divorce at last brake up house turned them out of doors and sent them out of his Land untill they should repent and reform And if we compare these things with the spiritual whoredom wherewith Mystical Babilon is charged and for which with other heinous crimes she is threatned in this Book of Revelations it will not be at all hard to conceive why Nations while Popish are stiled and esteemed but Kingdoms of this world And this if there were no other is argument enough to prevail with all such as would not be disowned by God to be none or to become none of their Communion who are thus disowned by him And thus we have seen how both from the light and law of Nature the reason of the thing and from divine Revelation also the great expediency at least of the publick exercise of Gods Worship in the way of National establishment is warranted and approved of This then may be a caution to men who live in any such reformed Nation as we have discoursed of and as ours is to take heed of acting in matters Ecclesiastical or pertaining to Church Communion as if they lived in a Popish or Pagan Nation by disowning and by separating from the National way of Worship lest thereby they discountenance and disparage what God approves of and disown that for which God owns such a Nation for his Kingdom It is true the Primitive Christians who lived in Pagan Countries and those since which have lived in Popish have been necessitated in duty to be separate in their Christian Communion from their National Worship as much as they were obliged not to be Idolaters But there is a great difference between false Worship and defects in that which is true The best Church Constitution and the best Church Administration which have men not divinely inspired for the ordering of them are liable to humane defects And if humane defects even in Gods Worship were not to be endured for the sake of Communion in the Worship it self there could no such thing as Church Communion be enjoyed among Christians because we cannot say there is any in this imperfect state in which we are without defects But then the question will be what defects are to be indured in Gods Worship rather than Communion in it should be forsaken and what are intolerable and for the sake of which Communion in the Worship is to be declined And here it seems to me impossible warrantably to determine any defects intolerable which do not alter the nature of the Worship and make it become false Worship that do not destroy or defeat the ends for which true Worship serves Who is he that will undertake to determine for what defects which
case much rather than those which tend to aggravate a matter Charity thinketh not evil is not easily provoked beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things and by these means charitable men have hold of others and keep them from flying out unless of very bad minds and ill tempers The truth is Charity is that to Catholick Communion which the Soul is to the natural body the life and spirit of it that preserves it in a healthful condition but so far as Charity is wanting in Communion so far that Communion is sickly and languishing and void of its true spirit and life 2. The other Bond by which Christians are bound up together in one Catholick Communion is the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace So that we see Peace is the bond by which the Unity of the Spirit is kept Now this Vnity of the Spirit is that oneness of mind and oneness of practice which holy men inspired by the Spirit have taught all Christians to observe in reference to Faith Worship and Love that is that they should be all of one and the same Faith use the same Worship and have the same love to one another which are the same things in which the Communion of the Catholick Church from the beginning of it did consist as I have already shewed When St. Paul beseecheth the Christians in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that they would all speak the same thing and that there might be no divisions among them but that they would be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment he doth not say in reference to what 1 Cor. 1.10 But it is to be supposed that they readily understood his Exhortation to refer to these great Articles of Christianity The like we have in Phil. 2.1 2. save that love is there particularly instanced in If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind The Unity of the Spirit then is the Unity of Christians in those things in which they have Communion or their Unity in Communion and this is we see to be kept or preserved by the bond of peace Now this peace consisteth chiefly in Christians avoiding differences among themselves as much as in them lies But if differences do arise then this peace consisteth in such gentleness moderation and calmness of behaviour in Christians one towards another as by reason whereof their Christian Converse is not interrupted nor their Communion disturbed their differences notwithstanding It is true indeed in this imperfect state it cannot be but that there will be difference of opinion among Christians about lesser things not essential to Communion especially concerning such circumstantial matters as are left undetermined in Scripture except only by general rule For considering that more Christians are weake than those that are strong and less spiritual both in point of knowledge and in the graces of Humility Meekness and Charity and more unmortified in self-will and self-conceit it cannot be otherwise but that there will be differences among Christians But yet if the greater the wiser and the better sort of Christians do not slight and despise those that differ from them through weakness of judgment or prejudice of education nor violently oppose them but patiently bear with them and wisely insinuate to them by degrees those things which may help them and by condescension become all things to them for their good so far as innocently they can peace may very well be preserved among them which otherwise differ in many things Not but that offences will come when the best men have done the best they can to prevent it for this will fall out so long as there are those among Christians whose Lusts and Passions are unmortified But I am shewing how the Unity of the Spirit may be kept in the bond of peace among them that differ in mind and opinion about circumstantial matters and that they may converse very lovingly together where unmortified Lusts and Passions do not prevail notwithstanding such difference The wise and good carriage of good men towards those that differ will have a great influence upon them if not presently to reconcile them in opinion yet to charm them into a peaceable demeanour if they be not men of ill temper God himself makes allowances unto men that differ conscienciously about lesser things and not out of affectation though they err in judgment so long as their error proceeds not from a corrupt will or pride of mind Rom. 14. and good men so far as they are partakers of a divine nature will do so too And such differences are very consistent with Catholick Communion in peace and love So that it is not so much mens differing in opinion about circumstantial matters in Religion that breaks Peace destroys Charity and disturbs the Communion of the Church but mens unruly Lusts and Passions of pride envy and ill will which take the advantage thence to vent themselves against one another in irregular practices From whence come wars and brawlings among you Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Jam. 4.1 Tho Christians then may differ in opinion in some lesser things yet so long as they agree in the substance of Faith and Worship and so long as they manage themselves in their differences so as that peace is not broken by any irregular or troublesome behaviour their Communion in Faith Worship and Fellowship or mutual love cannot suffer much by such differences For Peace and Charity support each other and propagate each other And the Apostle does very well therefore couple them together in his Exhortation Col. 3.14 15. Above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectness and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are called in one body The Peace here meant to which Christians are called by being united in one body is peaceable living one with another 3. Besides the bond of Charity and the bond of Peace there is a third thing very necessary to the Unity and peaceable Communion in the Church and that is prudent and moderate Government The peace and purity of the Church are two great ends of the Government in it both which conduce very much to the comfortable Communion of the Church and to the Christians Unanimity in it In reference to which Moderation is very necessary in respect of the external manner and circumstances of Worship as namely that the terms of Communion therein be made as easie as will well consist with publick edification and comely order For when they are so men will have no tolerable pretense upon account of conscience to refuse Communion with the Church therein But otherwise some
one they are strictly bound up by particular determination in the other they are left more at large to govern themselves to the best of their understanding by general Rules And the different Circumstances under which Christians are in several Nations will necessitate them to use some difference in practice even while they govern themselves by the same general Rules Do all things to edifying Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are called in one body are two general Rules and Christians are to have respect to the one as well as the other in ordering their practice The same Circumstances of Worship will not tend both to edification and to peace also at one time and in one place which will do so at another These Rules touching Edification and Peace would lead a man to do otherwise in his Communion in Publick Worship with the Churches in France in Geneva in Holland if he should sojourn in these places than he does while he is here in England and observes the usages of this National Church For it would not tend to peace and edification for such an one to make a disturbance by labouring to set on foot among them all the same Circumstances of Worship he had been accustomed to here because he likes them better And the same is true of such as come from those forein Churches to sojourn here or in any other Reformed Church The right way of maintaining true Catholick Communion is to refuse Communion with no Church in any Country that is Orthodox in the Faith and in the Essence of Worship and is not Schismatical notwithstanding any difference there may be in the degrees of usefulness in the external manner of Worship between one Church and another so long as they are all useful to their end in some good measure and agreeable to general Rules in that case I cannot take him for a right Catholick Christian that can have no Communion with any Church where he comes but where the external Mode of Worship agrees with that which he most affects When I am at Rome I fast on Saturdays when I am here at Milan I do not said St. Ambrose to St. Austin 5. One external Mode of Worship is not therefore useless because another is more useful For a greater degree of usefulness herein does not exclude a less but only excel it The gesture of Kneeling in Prayer is better and more sutable to the nature of the duty than that of standing yet that does not make it unlawful to pray standing One Version of the Psalms is more useful to its end than another yet that does not make it unlawful to joyn with those who use that which is less useful Nay I will say more than this That Mode of Worship which is best under some Circumstances is not so under others As when it cannot be used without causing such a division in the Church as will produce most pernicious effects in reference to the Church it self and to Religion Upon which account the Dissenters ought to esteem it better to joyn in the Worship performed by the Liturgy than in that performed in their Assemblies under the ill Circumstances which do attend it tho they esteem theirs to be better abstractedly considered 6. If a less degree of usefulness in the external manner of Worship should be allowed to be a sufficient ground of Separation from Communion in it where it is used our Church divisions would be irrepairable and beyond all remedy in whose hands soever the ordering the external Circumstances and manner of Worship may fall be they the Dissenters themselves or any other For when they shall have done the best they can therein there will be others who will find out some Circumstantial defects in it that will in their judgment and perhaps according to truth too render it less useful than it was capable of being made There is such a difference in the thoughts and apprehensions of wise and good men themselves and much more in those that are weaker that it is impossible unless they were all divinely inspired that they should all agree to a Circumstance in such a thing as the external manner of Worship but that some will think this and others will think that might have been better done than it is There is a necessity therefore unless we resolve to perpetuate division and separation to take up with the best external way and manner of Publick Worship we can obtain from the wisdom of the Nation so long as it is competently useful to its end and not to divide and separate upon account of our esteeming it less useful than we desire For otherwise it is not to be expected that the best wisdom that is to be found in the Nation should ever be able to find out any way or means of curing our Church divisions and to put an end to our unchristian-like separations And to give liberty for every one to do that which he esteemeth best is farthest of all from working such a Rule Object But it may be it will be said and indeed is alledged by some That since every man is to worship and serve God in the best manner he can it follows that therefore if there be one way of Publick Worship which he esteems better than another he is to make use of that when he has opportunity of doing so And by this those that do esteem the external manner of Worship used in separate Assemblies to be better than that performed by the Liturgy in Parochial Congregations do labour to defend their separation To this several things are to be said 1. In ordering the Mode or manner of Publick Worship respect is to be had not to what is most acceptable to one sort of men only but to what is useful and profitable for the whole Community as well those who are of a lower capacity as those of a higher as well those who desire a Liturgy as those that do not and to what is most likely to preserve peace among them And when the Government to this end hath ordered that part of the Publick Worship shall be performed by the Liturgy and has allowed a liberty of performing part of it without by Pulpit Prayer provision is thereby made to accommodate both the one and the other in the external manner of Worship And Christian ingenuity and Charity which seeketh not her own will teach men to be content that others should be accommodated as well as themselves in things wherein they may rather than to make a division in the Church because all things are not ordered just as they would have them And of this truly Christian strain was St. Paul which made him say I please all men in all things not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved 1 Cor. 10.33 And that it has been the judgment of the Church from Age to Age that it is best for the Church all things considered that the
misrepresented that Method of our Lord in the general tenour of my Inquiries And indeed if I have not taken wrong measures and unless very much mistaken their Communion in their state of Separation if taken altogether and the terms on which it is held must needs be far more impure than the Parochial Communion they have withdrawn from There are extreams on both hands as well on the right hand as on the left and there is a proneness in men to run into the one by flying from the other And good men especially in matters of publick Reformation are through mistaken zeal more in danger of running into an extreme on the right hand than into one on the left and in flying from Babylon to run beyond Jerusalem And there is a danger of doing much hurt in the Church by over-doing as well as there is by under-doing and both extremes are carefully to be avoided The New England Ministers in their Answer to Mr. Davenport formerly mentioned do say We may be very injurious to Christ as well as the Souls of men by too much straitening and narrowing the bounds of his Kingdom or Visible Church here on earth Certainly enlargement so it be a regular enlargement is a very desirable thing In Church Reformation it is an observable truth saith Pareus on the Parable of the Tares that they which are for too much straitness do more hurt than profit the Church So much they p. 45. Thus the mistaken zeal of the Donatists and Novatians of old for a purer Church and purer Communion as was thought or pretended put them upon separating from other Orthodox Christians which proved an inlet to the most unchristian practices imaginable for the carrying on their undertaken Reformation and destructive of the peace of the Church in the highest and lamentably scandalous to the Christian Religion in the Doctrinal part whereof notwithstanding they were for the most part all agreed as we are now and differ mostly about Disciplinary Points as they did then Such a strictness in Church Reformation as does so narrow and lessen the Visible Church as to endeavour to reduce it to the size of the Invisible is many ways hurtful as I have shewed in my Reasons for the contrary It tends to hinder and lessen the great work of thorow and sound Conversion in the Church It tends to hinder the spreading and propagating of the Christian Religion It tends to harden men in an unsafe condition It tends to deprive good men of Communion with the Church under the Notion of bad It tends to ruine the Church as to its existence in the world And lastly it tends to beget and foment divisions contentions feuds envyings strifes and undue censurings among Christians and so to cast the Church into a sickly state and such as threatens her spiritual life Besides the encouragement and advantage which is thereby given to our common Enemies to plot and attempt against us And thus over-doing is indeed undoing And lest any should be offended at a discourse against over-much strictness It ought to be considered that there is a great difference between a mans being strict towards himself and in reference to his own practice and his being strict and severe towards others in depriving them of the outward Priviledges of Christian Professors A man cannot well be too strict in keeping a narrow watch over his own heart words and ways in governing his Appetites Thoughts and Passions Tongue and Actions Nor does this kind of strictness depend upon such a purity of Communicants or Communion in which no Carnal Christians have any share But it depends upon or rather it consists in a due attention of mens minds to their own duty and to the opportunities of receiving good by the Ordinances of God The rest of the Guests in the Parable were not the worse nor did fare the worse for that there was one among them that had not on the Wedding Garment The ordinances of God do not the less avail good men that with a due frame of mind wait upon God in them tho unregenerate men participate with them therein And when by the Censures of the Church Capital Offenders and notorious scandalous Persons are deprived of Communion with the Church it is not for that reason as if the Ordinances of God were the less useful to the good by such mens sharing in them But it is to bring such Persons to shame and by that means to repentance and to free the Church from that dishonour which otherwise would stick upon it for tolerating such scandalous persons among them And partly also for admonition to others and to prevent the tainting of such as are less wary by their ill example and familiar converse But otherwise bad mens sharing in external Communion with the Church is no ways likely to hinder the growth of good men in grace or their profiting by the Ordinances of God there administred To the pure all things are pure Bad men cannot in the least pollute the Ordinances of God to the good by their participating with them in them And therefore if God would have such as are not obnoxious to Excommunication for Capital Crimes tho not Regenerate to be continued in the Church being once received into it by Baptism to the end they might be under the influence of his Ordinances for their Conversion I say if God would have it thus in order to their Conversion no good man should envy or grudge them this benefit of enjoying the means of such Conversion And they especially should not who have themselves been Converted and Regenerated in the same way of general Communion and by the means therein afforded which yet has been the case I doubt not of such as have been leading men in modelling this new Church way as it has been of many others For their Congregations at the first and long after consisted scarcely of any other than what had been drawn out of the Parochial Congregations where they had been Converted if they were indeed Converted as they supposed them to be before their incorporating and associating in their new way And if they had continued in the same way wherein they were by Gods blessing upon the means of Grace they therein enjoyed made such as they then were they might without doubt have attained to as much growth in all Christian Virtues as ever they did afterwards and I think much more provided they had but diligently and carefully improved the same means and opportunities by which they had acquired what they had then attained to For the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel which are the means of increase of Grace as well as of the beginning of it are the same and will produce the same effects in those who with a good frame of mind attend upon God in them as well when unregenerate men share in them as when they do not And therefore neither the holy Prophets or other holy men of greatest Piety under the Old Testament nor
the Parts of the Sacrifice should be laid upon the Wood. And besides all this there were Laws directing how the Priests should be Accoutred in their Ministration as of what and after what manner and fashion their Garments should be made and when put on and when put off And I might instance in many like things in other cases But now in the New Testament it is far otherwise There we are directed indeed in the Substance and Spiritual Nature of Divine Worship and what is essential to it But as for the External circumstances of Administration thereof we have very little of particular direction therein but the Church in those things is left for the most part to guide and determin her self and her own actions by general Rules such as Edification Peace and Order and such External signs of Reverence and Devotion as Natural Religion will direct men in And indeed there is so little of particular direction in these things as that there is no sort of Christians however distinguished but do more and are under a necessity of doing more in the External manner of Worship than there is particular direction for in Scripture There is a command for Baptising Disciples in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost but no particular direction what Prayer shall be made or what Instruction shall be given at the Administration of Baptism nor after what manner or form the Party Baptised shall by himself or Parents enter into Covenant with God The like may be said touching the Lords Supper there is no particular direction what Prayers shall be made or Instruction given or Exhortation made at the Administration of it nor after what manner the Elements are to be Consecrated otherwise than by reciting the words of Institution nor how in particular the Cup is to be Blessed nor what Gesture shall be used nor when and how often it shall be Received In these things Churches in several Nations may and do vary more or less and yet all is well done so long as they keep to general Rule which may be observed and kept to in these and other Ordinances of Worship under several different Circumstances and this none can deny And so far publick Prayer tho' we have particular Rules for the matter of it and to whom and in whose Name to be made and likewise for the Internal manner yet as to the External manner and circumstances save that of being made in a known Tongue as whether it shall be made in a set Form or without except the direction given for the use of the Lords Prayer or whether with the use of a Book or without it or whether kneeling or standing or how many shall be made at one Church Assembly these things are not particularly determined one way or other but are left to the prudence of men to use one or another according as the exigence of Circumstances shall require or their Governors order And if our Blessed Saviour had not intended to have allowed such a liberty in the choice of External Circumstances of Worship we cannot in reason but think he would have been as particular in determining them as he has been in the matter and substance of Worship it self which yet we see he has not been For he could not but know it impossible for all Church Guides not immediately inspired tho' otherwise never so wise and good to pitch upon the self-same Circumstances of Administration where they have only general Rules to Guide them in their Choice And accordingly experience shews that among good men some have thought such and such Circumstances of Worship best to agree with general Rules when others as good as they have thought others to do so And tho' in such cases both cannot be best under the same Circumstances of things yet that which is not best in it self may be best to be used as Circumstances may fall out as when that which is not best cannot be refused without a greater inconvenience than the use of that rather than a better does amount to Our Blessed Saviour then having left his People at so much liberty in the choice of External Circumstances of Worship as we see he has it argues sufficiently that the use of different Circumstantial modes of Worship is not at all displeasing unto him so long as they agree with the general Rule especially when the avoiding of a Breach and the preservation of Peace Vnity and good Will in the Church does influence the choice If there be then such a liberty left by Christ unto his Church of using different Circumstantial modes of Worship so long as they answer to the general Rule as none can with any colour of reason deny but there is then it cannot but be a great abuse of this liberty for Christians so to contend for one of these Circumstantial modes of Worship in opposition to the other as to separate and break Communion about it and thereby to involve the Church in unpeaceable strife and contention disaffection and feuds When it is but matter of liberty to use one or another and not matter of indispensable Duty to use one only and not the other it cannot but be an abuse of such a liberty to make use of it to a publick hurt to the Church The making use of that which is but only matter of liberty when to do so causeth a Brother to offend is severely condemned by St. Paul how much more then is the making use of such liberty to be blamed when it tends to a great and publick mischief in the Church St. Paul saith brethren ye have been called unto liberty onely use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another Gal. 5.13 That the using of this liberty we speak of has been an occasion for the flesh to show it self and play its part is sadly visible in that variance strife emulation and envying which has been caused thereby which are works of the flesh and such too that as St. Paul saith they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. I know it will be said that if it be an abuse of liberty to contend so much for the use of one External way and manner of Worship when another is Lawful as well as that and when to do so tends to strife and division and the destruction of Charity then it must be alike abuse of liberty to impose the use of another when such an imposition is attended with the same or like evil or inconvenience as we see the imposition of that prescribed by the Liturgy is To this I shall say but these two things 1. If we should suppose this to be so as they object yet the abuse of a liberty one way by the Authors of such an imposition does not at all priviledge the abuse of a liberty by others in the contrary extream 2. The imposition they speak of is no necessary Cause of division and separation
or of the ill effect of them and if it should be any occasion of them yet there is a vast difference between the being an accidental occasion of division and actually to divide and separate causlesly And look how much the one is worse than the other by so much must the Dissenters be more in fault by their actual division and separation than they can with any appearance of reason pretend the other to be for the severity of their imposition Now that the imposition of the Liturgy is no necessary cause of division and separation will appear in that the defects objected against it are no sufficient cause of separation from the Worship performed according to it and this I hope I have made out to the satisfaction of any Man whose prejudice is not greater than his reason in my inquiring into the nature of Schism among the following discourses In which discourses I have endeavoured to remove those bars and stumbling-blocks out of the Dissenters way which have kept them from Communion with our Parochial Congregations and this with a design of ease to them as well as service to the Church otherways But this their narrowing and lessening the extent of the visible Church and the terms of admission into it and of sharing in the External priviledges of it and likewise their confining the Administration of its Worship to one Circumstantial mode as only Lawful when Almighty God has not done so is of very pernicious consequence For it has we see divided the Protestants among themselves and cast them into Parties and then engaged them in contentious Disputes one against another which has begot a kind of strangeness and shiness in them towards each other yea and disaffection too and the opposition begot upon this account rises still higher and higher and more and more threatens ruine to both Parties first and last And the Papists themselves could never have contrived a more likely way to disgrace the Reformation to lay low the Protstant interest to enfeeble its strength and to break down its fence and make way for the return of Popery than we our selves have taken by dividing our selves by needless and unreasonable scruples and by making a Reformation of the Reformation as necessary as the first Reformation from Popery was and for want of it to make a second separation as necessary as the first For what would or could they do more than separate in case Popery were in place of Protestant Worship And however an emendation in some things of an Ecclesiastical concern may be very convenient and desirablee when it can be had in a Legal way yet to make this as necessary as the first Reformation from Popery was and a separation from Parochial Communion for want of it as necessary as our first separation from Popery was is so unreasonble that it is a marvelous thing that men of any reputation for Wisdom should not see it and be full of the sense of it And so it is likewise that they should run so desparate a hazzard as they do of losing all the benefit they have of the National Reformation from Popery rather than be denied or want that further Reformation as they esteem it which they desire And is it not marvelous also that they will not do what they can do toward preventing of it by complying with publick Order as far as they can For they themselves have given occasion to believe that very many especially of the more knowing of them can joyn in the Common Prayers made in our Parochial Assemblies yea and more than so however it comes to pass they refrain from doing so And one would think the Apostles injunction if it be dossible and as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men should weigh more with them than any politick consideration whatsoever especially when the Publick Peace and Safety is so much concerned in it as it is and as they know it is It is hardly to be believed that they can think that not to comply as far as they can should be a more likely way to come into their End fo far as it is fair and reasonable than to do so is God Almighty grant the things which belong to our Peace may not still be hid from our Eyes I have been informed and do perceive that many of the Dissenters can come to Church but cannot not kneel in receiving the Sacrament by reason whereof they are obnoxious to the Law tho' they should come to Church For whose help and satisfaction in this Case I shall here add a few words which were omitted in a more proper place One reason of this scruple of theirs is taken from our Saviour and his Apostles using another gesture at the first Institution of the Lords Supper But it must be considered 1. That if the circumstances attending the first Institution of this Supper should oblige us to an imitation of them as well as in what is Essential to the Ordinance it self then we may not receive it but in the Night and after another Supper is first eaten and in the Gesture and Posture of lying upon Couches or Beds for under those Circumstances it was first instituted and received But now the different Practice of Christians in after times does declare That they have not held themselves obliged to imitate them in these Circumstances Nor is there any reason they should because these things were but accidental to the Ordinance it self and were all occasioned by this Supper being instituted at the Paschal Supper and from the Jews Gesture used therein according to the Custome of their Countrey And the alteration of the Gesture does no more alter the Nature of the Ordinance than the alteration of the other Accidental Circumstances does 2. Scripture Examples are no farther binding to us than they were agreeable to some Precept or Rule of Duty otherwise But now there is no Precept enjoyning any one Gesture to be used in receiving the Sacrament as exclusive of any other and therefore any may be made use of when required by the Government over us for where there is no Law there is no Transgression But if there had been any one Gesture required by our Saviour as necessary and as exclusive of others no doubt but St. Paul would have made mention of it when he made known to the Church of Corinth what he had received from the Lord touching his Last Supper but we see no such thing was mentioned by him Chap. 11. 3. The Jewish Church having altered the Gesture in their eating the Passeover from what was used at the first institution of it our Saviour we see complyed there with and conformed to what was then become Customary in that Church And if we do the like for the like reason who can blame us for it without reproaching our Blessed Saviour Their other reason of their Scruple is taken from the Papists having abused this Gesture of kneeling to Idolatry in worshipping the Bread by
it for which cause they say we should not use it in receiving the Sacrament least we seem to sympolize with them therein In Answer to this several things are to be considered As 1. That tho' the Church of Rome doth strictly enjoyn kneeling at the Elevation of the Host yet in the Act of Receiving it is not required by any Cannon or Constitution of theirs Dr. John Burges of great Note in his time in his Treatise touching the Lawfulness of receiving the Sacrament kneeling or in his Defence of the three Innocent Ceremonies Chap. 21. pag. 67. and pag. 479. of his Rejoynder as he is recited for I have not his Book hath these words With us the Bishops or Ministers Communicate kneeling as well as the People But with the Papists the Pope when himself performeth the Office receiveth sitting as being a Type of Christ the Mass Priests receive standing by the Canon of the Mass For confirmation of all which he cites several Authors He denies not but that the People receive kneeling and says that the Priest did so too untill the Doctrine of Transubstantiation begot the Canon for his standing But he denies that kneeling in the very time of receiving was ever in the Church of Rome any Rite of or for Adoration of the Sacrament it self and says never any Pope enjon'd it nor is there any direction in the Mass for it The Reverend Dr. Stilliigfleet hath asserted much to the same effect in his Unreasonableness of Separation Pag. 15. 2. How or after what manner soever kneeling has been abused by the Papists to bad purposes yet the abuse of a thing otherwise lawful in it self does not make the Vse of it unlawful when separated from that abuse Kneeling is abused by the Papists in their Prayers to the Virgin Mary and other Saints but this does not make the Vse of kneeling unlawful in our Prayers to Almighty God 3. Our receiving the Sacrament kneeling in complyance with Publick Order and Authority can be no appearance or cause of Suspicion of Bread-Worship because the same Authority which requires our kneeling therein has declared in the Rubrick at the end of the Office of Communion That no Adoration is thereby intended or ought to de done to the Bread and Wine or to any Corporal Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood but is intended and meant for a signification and grateful Acknowledgement of the benesits of Christ therein given By this we see all appearance and suspicion of requiring kneeling in order to any Bread-Worship is quite taken away 4. Standing is a Gesture of Adoration as well as kneeling Mark xi 25. and yet the Dissenters do not think it Vnlawful for that reason to receive the Sacrament standing And if its being a Gesture of Adoration be no just exception against the Vse of it in receiving the Sacrament then the Adoration supposed or implyed in the Gesture of kneeling can be no just exception against the Vse of that Gesture neither in the performance of the same Duty 5. Kneeling its being a Gesture of Adoration is so far from making the Vse of it unlawful in receiving the Sacrament as that it is the great reason why it is not unlawful but fit and convenient For no good Christian will deny but that it highly becomes us inwardly to Adore our Blessed Saviour in the Act of receiving the Bread and Wine for his wonderful love in dying for us and for giving his Flesh for the Life of the world and if so then it cannot be incongruous or unfit to express and signifie this internal Act of Adoration by another that is external for we are to Worship and Glorifie him both in our Bodies and our Spirits And now me thinks no man atho understands and considers these things should be able to think it Vnlawful to kneel in receiving the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Blessed Saviour THE CONTENTS OR THE Heads of Enquiry Query I. WHat is the true Notion of the Vniversal Church as visible Pag. 3 Query II. What is it which prepares or qualifies persons for that relation to God in Christ which makes them visible members of his Church 6. Query III. What may that be by which People are made visible Church-members 9 Query IV. How and when is the Covenant between God and men entred into by which people are externally united to Christ and visibly made members of his Church 13 Query V. How can Infants become visible Church-members by Covenanting with God since they seem naturally uncapable of doing such a thing 19 Query VI. Whether in the baptising of Children that method of proceeding be not most proper by which the Children are most directly made to enter into Covenant with God by their Parents 38 Query VII For what reason is Church-membership said to be invisible as well as visible in some and yet but only as visible in others and from whence doth this difference arise 41 Query VIII Whether men are no otherwise members of the Church as visible then as they are reputed members of the Church as invisible 53 Query IX Whether God hath granted any right to Church-priviledges to those who are only of the Church as visible but not as invisible 123 Query X. Why and for what reason may it be conceived does Almighty God own and and allow others to be of the Church as visible than only such as are of the Church as invisible 173 Query XI What is it that makes the difference between the Vniversal Church as visible and particular Churches And what makes the difference between one particular Church and another 207 Query XII Whether from the reason of the Extent and Latitude of visible Church-membership and Communion which has been discoursed of the great usefulness of a National Settlement or Constitution for the publick Emercise of the Worship of God in all parts of a Nation professing Christianity may not fairly be infer'd and concluded 225 Query XIII Wherein may catholick-Catholick-Church Communion consist And how and by what means is it best preserv'd 265 Query XIV What is the nature of Schism 300 Query XV. Supposing things touching visible Church-membership and Communion to be as they have been represented in our former Enquiries Yet how do they tend to lessen our Church-divisions 349 ERRATA THe Running Titles of the Book mistaken Pag. 22. l. 23. dele since p. 31. l. 1. after all add these p. 39. l. 27. for properly r. property p. 48. l. 5. f. whom r. when l. 25. dele also p. 54. l. 15. f. mans r. mens p. 57. l. 16. f. man r. men p. 61. l. 12. f. taken r. broken p. 62. l. 2. f. in r. on p. 118. l. 8. f. qualifies r. qaalified p. 195. l. 2. f. bein r. being p. 335. l. 19. f. Rule r. Cure CATHOLICISM OR Several Enquiries touching the Nature and Extent of Visible Church-Membership and Communion c. NOTIONS narrower than those which will hold Scripture-measure concerning the Church and what it
Communion in the instituted Ordinances of worship That particular Churches are Constituted or to be Constituted only of such But others do think that these do make the Visible Church much narrower than the Scriptures do and do hold that all that are visibly in Covenant with God are thereby joyned in Relation to him and are made Members of his Visible Church as well those which have no saving grace as those that have Our business then for the present will be to consult the Scriptures in this case Before God had a Church in the World by Institution mans visible relation to God was known by their worshipping of him only whether they had any other signs of saving grace or no and tho they were in no visible Covenant with him They were known to whom they did belong by whom they worshipped Every man walked in the name of his God as the Prophet speaks Mica 4.5 and those that worshipped a strange God were the Children of a strange God Mal. 2.11 as those that worshipped the true God were counted his Children Natural Religion especially in point of worship was then the measure of judging mens visible relation to God But when Almighty God was pleased to set on foot and begin the gathering him a Visible Church out of the rest of the World in a way of divine Institution he laid the foundation of it in his transaction with Abraham by instituting and ordaining two things 1. That as God by Covenant engaged to Abraham to be his God and the God of his Seed so Abraham and his Seed must engage to God by Covenant to be his Servants and a People unto him 2. That this Covenant should be entred into by Abraham and his Seed by observing such a Sacred Rite as God instituted and appointed for that purpose and that was Circumcision And this was continued for this use until the Messias came and instituted Baptism another Sacred Rite for the same end Now in Gods thus founding his Visible Church there was no such thing as the appointing saving Grace in the judgment of charity to be the condition of mens admission into his Church by Circumcision But the Lord absolutely commanded that Abraham and his Male Seed after him and all Born in the House or bought with their money should be Circumcised without any limitation or condition in reference to the appearance of saving Grace By which it is evident that God did not design to have no others of his Visible Church than such as had saving Grace Now the Posterity of Abraham when they came out of Egypt were by virtue of their Covenanting with God all of them bad as well as good visibly related to God as his People and so his as no other people were And I hope we may safely say that God himself accounted them to be what Moses and others by divine inspiration said they were And if so then we may say that Almighty God did account them all bad as well as good tho not in the most emphatical sence to be his chosen elected and adopted People Deut. 4.37 Rom. 9.4 his Called Isa 48.12 a People near unto him Psal 148.14 his Saints his holy People Deut. 7.6 33.3 Psal 50.5 his Children Deut. 14.1 a special and peculiar People unto himself Deut. 7.6 14.2 his Inheritance Deut. 9.29 his Portion Deut. 32.9 his peculiar Treasure Psal 135.4 All these Titles and Appellations given them by God or by man inspired by God in giving them do with as much plainness as words can express shew that God himself owned them for his People his Children and related to him in such a sence as other People not in Covenant with him were not Now that they were not thus called or accounted for any such reason as because they had saving grace or because they were reputed to be of the Church as Invisible will appear with full evidence For the same inspired Man Moses at the same time and in the same Book in and by which God owned them for his People under many of the foresaid appellations did from God charge them with such and so much guilt as no man can with any colour of reason say was consistent with an Invisible Church-state Thus in Deut. 9. Thou art a stiff-necked People vers 6. From the day thou didst depart out of the Land of Egypt even until ye came unto this place ye have been rebellious against the Lord vers 7. They have corrupted themselves they have quickly turned aside vers 12. I have seen this People and behold it is a stiff-necked People vers 13. You have been Rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you vers 24. I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck chap. 31.27 They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his Children they are a perverse and crooked generation chap. 32.5 When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his Sons and of his Daughters vers 19. A froward Generation Children in whom is no faith vers 20. They are a Nation void of Counsel neither is there any understanding in them vers 28. These things are charged on them generally and in the gross And considering some other passages there is great cause to fuspect that much the major part of them at least were thus guilty For in Numb 14.2 its faid That all the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole Congregation said Would God we had died in the Land of Egypt or would God we had died in the Wilderness And vers 10. All the Congregation bade stone them with stones And vers 33. Your Children shall wander in the Wilderness forty years and bear your Whoredoms until your Carcases be wasted in the Wilderness And vers 35. I will surely do it to all this evil Congregation that are gathered together against me And vers 29. Your Carcases shall fall in this Wilderness and all that are numbred of you according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me All these things considered they will not suffer us with any plausible pretence to say or to think that God owned this People in the bulk of them as his Visible Church for any such reason as because they seemed to be Invisibly related to him by special grace And if not then it must be upon some or all of these accounts following unless any other more likely can be thought of which I am not able to foresee nor to suspect 1. They were in some sort holy and separated unto God as they were Born of Parents who were in Covenant with him Upon which account they were called a holy Seed Ezra 9.2 Now the holiness of persons always signifies some such special relation to God which is not common to all persons as such Almighty God has another kind of right to the Children of such as are his by Covenant than he has to the Children of
undissembled belief was that I doubt not which Philip required of the Eunuch when he said If thou believest with all thine heart thou maist be Baptized And the Eunuchs answer upon which he was Baptized by Philip does intimate so much when he only said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God And more than this I conceive cannot be duly inferred from those words of Philip to the Eunuch for the reasons I have already given These are the principal Texts made use of to countenance the opinion which I have in this Inquiry opposed There are objections or pleas drawn from some other which are well answered by Mr. Thomas Lamb as some of these I have insisted on also are in his fresh suit against Independency And thus upon our Inquiry we have found as I conceive that others are of the Visible Church in Scripture account and so in Gods account by whose inspiration the Scriptures were written than those which are of the Church as Invisible or them that seem to be so For Almighty God as has been shown accounteth and owneth such to be his People in distinction from the rest of the world that have entered into Covenant with him tho otherwise they or many of them are far from seeming to be of the Church as Invisible And if God esteem of them as such then so must his Servants likewise and if the Scripture account them such it will become us to do so too who profess to make the holy Scriptures the rule of our judgment After that upon our Inquiry we have found things thus Let not any man now say that by this doctrine we confound the Kingdom of the Devil with the Kingdom of God For this would but reflect after an unseemly manner upon the wisdom of God for thus numbering bad men as well as good to be of his Visible Church as externally related to him and as worshippers of him Secret Hypocrites belong to the Kingdom of the Devil as well as those that are more visibly such and yet none deny but that many such are in the Visible Church nor do they count this a confounding Gods Kingdom with the Devils There is no doubt but that the Devil has his Visible and Invisible Kingdom as well as God has his But those Hypocrites whether secret or more open which are of the Visible Church tho they are in a sence of the Kingdom of the Devil yet must be reckoned to be not of his Visible but of his Invisible Kingdom So that the Hypothesis I seek to establish does not at all tend to confound Gods visible Kingdom and the Devils visible Kingdom one with another much less their Invisible Kingdoms For those are not in Scripture reckoned to be of the Visible Kingdom of the Devil who professedly worship the true God and him only and Jesus Christ as his Son and only Mediator tho otherwise bad But such as worship Idols other gods and other mediators in doing of which they do in effect worship the Devil who is the founder of such worship Those Kingdoms or Nations are in Scripture counted of the Devils Kingdom or Dominion in which his Worship and Ordinances Idol-worship and the Rites of that worship are established by publick Authority as the Religion of those Nations As on the contrary those Nations or Kingdoms are counted Gods Kingdoms in which the Word and Worship of God are by publick Authority owned and established as the Religion of those Nations Thus when Idol worship was put down and cast out of the several Territories of the Roman Empire by the first Christian Emperors and the Christian Religion established by publick Authority as the Religion of those Nations then the Devil was said to be cast down and the Kingdom of God and the power of his Christ to be come Rev. 12.9 10. And again The Kingdoms of this world are said to become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ When idol-worship which is Devillish worship is rejected by the Authority of those Kingdoms Revel 11.15 Not that there shall be no Hypocrites or Carnal Professors of Christianity in these Kingdoms when they are thus become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ But tho there be 〈◊〉 as the true Christian doctrine and worship is owned and established by the Government or ruling power of those Kingdoms and so long as the generality of the Inhabitants are for the same doctrine and worship in opposition to Idolatrous and Antichristian doctrine and worship they are accounted to belong to Gods Visible Kingdom in the world and not the Devils however many of those Inhabitants may belong to the Invisible Kingdom of the Devil And thus those are called the Children of Gods Kingdom by our Saviour who yet at last shall be cast out into outer darkness Mat. 8.12 But of this more afterwards QUERY IX WHether God hath granted any right to Church-priviledges to those who are only of the Church as Visible but not as Invisible That such have right to them before men unless they are justly deprived of them by Church-censures those will grant who yet deny that they have any right to them by Gods allowance But our present enquiry is whether they have any right by Gods allowance And if that be true which we now suppose we found to be so in our former enquiry viz. that God himself doth own very many such to be of the Church as Visible which yet are not at all of it as Invisible then it will be but reasonable to conclude from thence that he does allow them a share in the external and temporary priviledges of that relation except in those cases wherein he himself hath made an exception For otherwise God by conferring on them the priviledge of Relation to himself and his Church has conferred upon them a right to the priviledges of that relation so far as the relation it self extends For the relation and the priviledges of the relation go together except in case of forfeiture by miscarriage The union of parts does of it self infer right to communion with them in things common to the whole The right of those in the Visible Church to Visible Church-priviledges does arise I conceive from that Covenanting between God and them in Baptism by which they engaged themselves to be his People as God on the other hand had engaged himself to be their God on that condition Now for ought that appears from the Scriptures to the contrary so far as they perform Covenant with God in being a People unto him so far he owns them to be his People and so far as he does so he allows them the priviledge of his People which is a share in his houshold fare and in the provisions for his Family which are his Word and Ordinances If they worship no other God and hold the Head Christ Jesus in point of doctrine and worship and own his doctrine and precepts as the rule of faith and life and worship God in
the bad from among the good in the Church but from among the good in the World Not that they should both grow together in the Church till Harvest but in the World And to strengthen this they alledge our Saviours interpretation of this Parable where he says that the Field where the Tares and the Wheat grow together is the World Mat. 13.38 And this indeed at first sight seems to be a very considerable Objection But if we consider the matter well I think it may appear otherwise The Field indeed in which the Seed was sown and the Gospel first preached was the World according to our Saviours Commission to his Apostles Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel Mar. 16.15 But then those that received this Seed of the Gospel so as to make profession of adhering to it were presently baptized and received into the Church Now it was among these that the Tares sprang up many of them proving bad Christians So that the Seed was first sown in the World as in a common field But yet the Tares sprang up in that part of the world which was now become the Visible Church and an enclosed Garden And therefore when the time of the Harvest shall come when these Tares must be separated from the Wheat our Saviour says They shall be gathered out of the Kingdom of the Son of Man Ver. 41. where they were permitted to grow till this Harvest And what is this Kingdom of the Son of Man but his Visible Church The History of the Event of the Apostles Preaching does plainly lay open the meaning of this Parable and that of the Draw-net and other like Parables in that the Visible Church which they gathered out of the world consisted of bad as well as good And this Parable in particular shews further that these Tares were not to be gathered out of the Church for this very reason Lest while ye gather up the Tares saith he ye root up also the Wheat with them So that it seems that the Tares growing with the Wheat is in some respect matter of security to the Wheat and that the Wheat would be in more danger by the Tares being gathered from among it than by their growing together with it in more danger of bein rooted up or rooted out And this seems fully to justifie and make good that reason I am now upon why all unregenerate Christians should not be denied a place and being in the Visible Church If it shall be hear said that the Church in the Primitive times when but few in number did yet subsist yea and abundantly increase too tho they had no humane or worldly Power to defend them and when almost the whole world both of Jews and Gentiles were against them And why may it not as well do so now tho none that are not of the Invisible Church should be any defence unto it I answer that there is no doubt but that they might subsist in the world continue and increase as well as they did provided they had but the same extraordinary means to back and abet them and to increase their numbers as those Primitive Christians had I mean those miraculous Powers which then procured the Christians great reputation among the People and which did still attract and draw in more to their Party than were diminished by the Persecution which was raised against them by the higher Powers which were then Infidel For by reason of those miraculous wonders which were done by the Apostles and others in those times the multitude of People were so astonished and affected that they favoured them so far as that the Rulers were put under some awe For we read that for the reason aforesaid great grace or favour was upon them all to wit all the Christians Acts 4.33 And Chap. 5.13 it s said that the people magnified them So that the Rulers when they had otherwise a mind to it found not how to punish them because of the people for all men glorified God for that which was done Chap. 4.21 And in Chap. 5.26 it s said of the Captain and Officers that were sent to bring the Apostles before the Council that they brought them without violence because they feared the people lest they should have been stoned And by reason of the credit they obtained among the people both to themselves and their way by the numerous Miracles they wrought believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women notwithstanding all the opposition which was made against them by the Rulers Chap. 5.14 And that wonderful increase of Believers which was made from among the Heathen also was attributed by St. Paul unto those Signs and Wonders that were wrought for the proof and confirmation of the Christian Way I will not dare saith he to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed through mighty Signs and Wonders by the Spirit of God Rom. 15.18 19. But if the small number of sincere Christians that are in the world had no other means to preserve themselves and to increase their number but the goodness of their Cause and their own Innocency and were not countenanced and protected by Christian States and Governours and by a multitude more of the same Profession with themselves than are of like sincerity in that Profession they would be in great danger of being in a manner extirpated out of the world by the Insidel and Antichristian Parties in it When the Papal defection befel the Church within the Roman Empire the greatest part perhaps of the then Visible Church in that part of the world fell off from the Orthodox and sincere and became their Enemies in time The consequence of which was the exterminating and rooting out of that part of the world in a great measure the Orthodox and sincere Christians Which is a great instance to shew how it would fare with those of the Invisible Church if they were deserted by those Christians which are not of it or if those were rejected as no fellow-members of the Visible Church and thereby made their Enemies 4. Another reason is taken from the danger in another respect of reckoning none of the Church as Visible but upon the reputation of their being of the Church as Invisible For to admit men upon no other terms into the Visible Church nor to its Communion but upon the reputation and under the Notion of their being already of the Church as Invisible tends greatly to betray many Souls into a dangerous snare of self-deceiving For if this rule of admission should be observed many mistakes would be committed either through fallibility or partiality of judgment in them that admit them and so many would be received into the Visible Church or to the Communion of it as Members of the Invisible which yet are not of it And if so then all those which are thus received under the approbation of
the Visible Church as Members of the Invisible will be thereby strengthened in their self-flattery and good opinion they have of themselves touching their good and safe condition when there is no such matter And when they find the good opinion they have of themselves thus strengthened by the publick judgment of the Church concurring with them therein they will be under the greater temptation and in so much the greater danger of resting securely in that unsafe condition to the great hazard of their Souls We know or have abundant reason to suspect that many that have but a Form of Godliness are Laodicean like less apt to suspect the goodness of their own condition before God than they that are truly sincere How much less will they suspect it and how much more will they be confirmed in the good opinion of themselves tho false when they have the publick judgment of the Church to back them in it and that after inspection has been made into their lives and signs of their Conversion approved of As the manner is of those that go that way Of this danger and of this great inconvenience some of the New England Divines grew sensible after they had made trial of that way a great while For in their answer to Mr. Davenports Apologetical Preface pa. 43 44. they express themselves in these words Indeed when men confound these two and do the Visible Church Interest unto such conditions and qualifications as are reputed enough to Salvation this may tend to harden men and to make them conceit that if once they be but got into the Church they are sure of heaven when as alas it may be they are far from it But now there is no such danger does arise from mens being owned Visible Church Members from their professing to believe the Christian Religion and from their Covenanting to endeavour to live according to it Such Profession and such Covenanting does indeed give ground of hope to the Church that such will not be so regardless of their own Salvation as not to be willing to learn their duty and to endeavour to do it that they may be saved But yet such hope of the Church concerning their good performance for the future does not minister any occasion of confidence in such men that they have already performed what is necessary to their Salvation as a receiving them into the Church and unto Communion as having in the publick judgment of the Church already performed it would do This act of the Church in receiving them into Communion in her external priviledges in hope of their improving them to the saving of their Souls gives them no ground of confidence of the safety and goodness of their condition thereby further than they are careful to make their Calling and Election sure by using all diligence in improving the opportunity and means of doing so by their being in the Church Men are too prone to lay too great a stress upon their being received into the Visible Church and Communion tho the Church hath past no judgment thereby of their being of the Invisible Church how much more would they do so in case it had St. Paul was sensible I doubt not how prone many Christians are to lay too much stress meerly upon their being of the Church and partakers in the external Communion thereof For which cause he cautioned the Christians against flattering themselves with an opinion of their safe condition upon that account and laboured to possess them with a sense of the danger they were in for all that if they should rest therein without growing better and better thereby 1 Cor. 10. I would not saith he that ye should be ignorant brethren how that all our Fathers were baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink and yet with many of them God was not well pleased but overthrew them in the Wilderness And he told them that these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted Then enumerated their miscarriages and what befel them thereupon and further told them that these things hapned to them for Examples or Types to us and were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come Thereby giving them to understand that tho they were baptized and received into the Church and did participate of the same spiritual meat and drink in the Sacrament with the best in the Church yet if they did not take warning by the miscarriages of those that had been of the Church and of the Communion of it as well as they to avoid the like they might perish as well as the other did for all their Communion in the Church 5. Another reason against refusing all such Communion in the Visible Church who are not judged to be of the Church as Invisible is taken from the danger of such a practice in another respect and that is the danger of mistaking the good for bad and of refusing the sincere Christians under the Notion of Carnal and Unregenerate There is so little visible difference between what many of the same persons were a little before they had saving grace and what they are when they have it only in the lowest degree that men would be in great danger of mistaking if they should make a judgment of their spiritual state under such Circumstances And the difficulty of not mistaking in this case will be still increased when that very little of true grace which is in some men is greatly obscured by the courseness of their natural temper and disposition Besides the prejudice which some good men have against others upon account of some difference in Opinion will not suffer them to discern true grace in some of them in whom it is and perhaps in some good degree too This Age hath furnished us with too many instances of this nature The like may be said in respect of the narrowness of spirit and severity of many by reason of which many of those in whom God himself finds saving grace would be refused Communion with the Church for want of it if that opinion should generally obtain that none should be admitted into the Visible Church ar to its Communion but upon the reputation of their being of the Church as Invisible Some do understand the danger of rooting up the Wheat if the Tares should be gathered from among it to lie in the danger of mistaking the Wheat for the Tares if the one should be attempted to be gathered from the other And if this should be the reason why our Saviour would have them both to grow together till the Harvest it would be pat to what I have said on this reason But if it be not as I am apt to think it is not yet then it so much the more confirms that to be our Savious meaning which I have suggested elsewhere for I do not
know any third sense pretended to among Interpreters But indeed there is danger in both respects and therefore I know no inconvenience if we understand the Parable in reference to both Now it is not hard to conceive how bad a thing it would be if such as have true grace should be refused admittance into the Visible Church or to its Communion only because it is so little that men cannot discern it to be so For such a discouragement may be enough to set them back again to quench the smoaking flax and to expose them to the loss of that very little grace in its beginning which they have A thing point blank against that admonition and caution of our Saviour Mat. 18.10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones QUERY XI WHat is it that makes the difference between the Vniversal Church as Visible and particular Churches And what makes the difference between one particular Church and another The Query being double I shall answer to that first which is first and do say the Universal Church differs from a particular Church in two respects 1. The Universal Church differs from a particular as the whole differs from a part and a particular Church differs from the Universal as a part differs from the whole For otherwise they are materially the same only with this difference the one contains all Visible Church matter and the other but a part of it There is nothing necessary to qualifie the matter of which a particular Church doth consist than what made all the Members of it Members of the Universal Church unless it be what belongs to the Officers of it as such 2. If by a particular Church we understand one single Congregation then a particular Church differs from the Universal as those of which it does consist do assemble together in one place for Publick Worship which the Universal Church cannot do now tho in the beginning of its existence possibly it might But if by a particular Church we understand so many single worshipping Congregations as are united under one and the same Church Government and Governours in a City Province or Kingdom Then a particular Church in this sense is differenced from the Church Universal by this Ecclesiastical Polity under which it is otherwise united than the Universal Church as such is or can be And such a particular Church we suppose the Church in Jerusalem in Corinth and in other great Cities to have been the Scripture so accounting them when yet each of them consisted of more single worshipping Assemblies than one as may well be presumed on several accounts not here to be mentioned There is another thing which the Congregationalists make essential to the being of a particular Church for they make it the Form or formal cause of it which would be another difference between the Universal Church and a particular if their Opinion and Assertion were admitted concerning it and that is that Church Covenant or mutual engagement to walk together in the way and order of the Gospel And by this each one of their single Congregations distinguisheth it self from all other And they account this so necessary as to make it a condition of Communion without which they will not admit persons otherwise well approved of by themselves to Sacramental Communion that is unless they are under this engagement to them or some other Sister Church of the same kind But this is so much the worse because it is done and required under the Notion of Divine appointment when God has appointed no such thing Which is such a piece of superstition as the enjoyning the use of the Ceremonies of the Church of England is free from so long as they are not enjoyned as things of divine appointment but only as of an indifferent nature and therefore there is no such reason to scruple them as there is to scruple this practice upon those terms There are two Texts of Scripture upon which more especially and principally they ground this opinion and practice of theirs which I shall a little enquire into The one is 2 Cor. 8.5 which Dr. O. to this end quotes more than once in his late Book the words are these And this they did not as we hoped but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God The Vs here in the Text are St. Paul and Timotheus from whom this Epistle came Chap. 1.1 And if so how could the Churches of Macedonia's giving themselves to St. Paul and Timothy possibly signifie their mutual Covenanting one with another among themselves And is it not as strange also that they should give themselves to Paul and Timothy in order to the Constituting themselves Churches when as that giving themselves to Paul and Timothy here spoken of was done then when they were already Churches as the whole Context from ver 1. doth shew And if their giving themselves to Paul and Timothy was one of those things which they did more than Paul and Timothy hoped for then such a confederation is not likely to be meant by it as was essentially necessary to their existence as Churches this certainly would not have been more than they hoped for if it had been their duty and of so great a necessity This is enough to shew how impertinently this Scripture is alledged But the whole Context shews that the things St. Paul here speaks of were quite of another nature and that is the liberality of the Churches of Macedonia towards the relief of the Christians of Jerusalem and their zeal in being otherwise serviceable to so good a work wherein they did indeed exceed the expectation of Paul and Timothy For their Poverty to which they were brought by sustering for the Gospel was so deep that St. Paul it seems scarce thought it fit to receive any thing of them and it was upon their earnest intreaty that he did and yet they did not only thus give above their ability but besides their giving up themselves to God as ready to suffer further for him if called to it they gave up themselves to St. Paul Timothy also to assist them in that charitable work they had in hand by their further endeavours to promote it among others For they intreated Paul and Timothy earnestly to take upon them the fellowship of ministring to the Saints the managing of that affair and procured them to send Titus to Corinth to promote the same business as appears by ver 6. This Scripture though so great a stranger to this opinion as you see yet is that which so far as ever I could perceive is chiefly depended upon in this cause They bring in also as favouring their notion and practice the saying of St. Peter to the Christians ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood c. 1 Pet. 2.5 And they do it seems suppose that these living stones being so laid together as to to make a spiritual
house is done by their Confederation and Covenant as the Cement by which the Christians were united and combined in one particular Church fitly framed together as the phrase is Ephes 2. But St. Peter is not here speaking to any one particular Church as such when he says ye are built up a spiritual house but to the strangers scattered abroad throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bethynia as appears Chap. 1.1 And no one surely can think that these Christians thus scattered and at this distance could become one particular Church by such a mutual Confederation as these hold necessary for the forming a particular Church And if not it must be by vertue of somewhat else than such a particular Church Covenant as these dissenting Brethren thought to find here by which Christians in so many distant parts of the world as aforesaid were built up one spiritual house And that doubtless must be the same thing by which all Christians in the world become one spiritual house of God for so they are For when Christ is said to be High Priest over the house of God Heb. 10.21 And to be faithful as a Sen over his own house Heb. 3.6 House in these places cannot signifie less than the Universal Christian Church who are called the houshold of faith And how do all these Christians become the house of God but by being joyned and devoted to him by the Baptismal Covenant and thereby to one another among whom he dwells and is Worshipped as in his holy Temple For by this they all become one body which is but another Metaphor under which to express the same thing Ephes 2.21 22. 1 Cor. 12.13 It is the same thing which makes persons Members of the Church Universal that qualifies them for particular Church Membership and that is the Baptismal Covenant And to make any other Covenant besides this so necessary to qualifie men for particular Church Membership and Communion as to make this of Gods own appointment insufficient for that end is a great impeachment of it and contains in it such consequences as the Abetters of it would be ashamed to countenance if they were aware of it For so long as it is asserted to be of divine appointment the formal cause of a particular Church and essential to its being and is made the Condition of Communion when God has no where appointed or required it so long it may be charged with these evils 1. With a teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of men a piece of vain Worship condemned by our Saviour Mat. 15.9 which is the same thing with adding to Gods Word or a saying he saith when he hath not said it 2. It is in some sort and in part a making void the Command or Institution of God that men might establish their own Tradition For whereas the Baptismal Covenant qualifies men for particular Church Membership by bringing them into the Universal Church this Opinion denies the Baptismal Covenant to be sufficient to this end and sets up this other confederating in its room 3. It contains in it the Unchurching of all those Gospel Churches that are or ever have been in the world that have not been thus united by Church Covenanting For to say this is the Form of a particular Church or the formal cause of it is in effect to say that none are really Churches without it for Matter and Form are essential to the being of Churches as well as they are of other things Now to Unchurch all Churches that have not been thus confederate is a great thing indeed if we consider how few years it is since such Covenanting was heard of in any Christian Church in the world and by how inconsiderable a number of Congregations it has been used since it has been heard of These things considered it is matter of a very venturous and daring nature As for the other part of our Enquiry touching that which makes the difference between one particular Church and another we may conceive of it thus 1. It consists partly in that which does distinguish one Town from another or one great Neighbourhood from another and that is the bounds of Habitation And this distinction is as well convenient yea necessary for Ecclesiastical Order and peaceable Government as it is for Civil and does as well accommodate the ends of the one as of the other and without this a peaceable and orderly Government in the whole Church would be impracticable even as it would be in an Universal Empire And thus the Churches planted by the Apostles are differenced and distinguished one from another that at Rome from that at Corinth and that at Ephesus from that at Philippi yea that at Cenchrea from that at Corinth which yet bordered upon Corinth and so of the rest And indeed that difference which is made between Church and Church by Vicinity of Neighbourhood and Cohabitation does best answer the ends of particular Church Association such as is assembling together for Publick Worship and mutual assistances in all Christian offices of Brotherly love and friendship But this alone does not constitute Christians dwelling together in the same place a particular Christian Church tho by their being of the Church Universal they are as fit matter qualified for it But 2. That which does constitute such to be a particular Church as that signifies a company of Christians in Local Communion in Divine Worship consisting in the participation of Gospel Ordinances is the placing over them one or more Church-Officers to minister to them therein By which Officers as well as by the place where they dwell and where they assemble for Worship they are distinguished from other like Churches under the Conduct of other Church-Officers of the same kind For by such their joynt Local Communion in the Worship administred by their spiritual Guide or Pastor they are united with him and among themselves as one Worshipping Congregation by which Union also they are distinguished from other particular Churches as other particular Churches in like manner are from them Those of the Independent Church-way do indeed hold particular Churches as such to be Antecedent to any Church-Officers over them Which is the reason which Dr. Owen in his Inquiry concerning Churches does alledge to prove the Power of the Keys to be given to the Church And to prove particular Churches to be Antecedent to Church Officers he quotes Acts 14.23 where it is said of Paul and Barnabas And when they had ordained them Elders in every Church c. As for this proof of his Assertion I shall consider it by and by but shall first examine and try what is in the Assertion it self which I am inclined to think will be found full of mistake and that the contrary will be found true viz. that the Evangelical Ministry is and always has been Antecedent to the existence of Christian Churches and indeed an instrumental cause of their being And this is true not only of particular Churches but also
of the Universal Church as Christian which yet in order of nature is Antecedent to particular Churches The gathering of Christ a Christian Church in the world at first was the effect of the Apostolical Ministry and the Ministry of their assistants The Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ being the chief corner stone Eph. 2.20 and the Foundation is Antecedent to the Superstructure All the additions that have been since made to the Visible Church have been by the Ministerial Office by letting all the particular Members of that addition into it by Baptism And when men are ordained Ministers of the Gospel they are not ordained Ministers of this or that particular Church but Ministers of Christ to the Church in general Let no man glory in men for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas all are yours and ye are Christs 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Paul Apollos and Cephas were theirs in common with others not theirs appropriately And their being sent or called to be Ministers to this ot that particular Church is but the application of their general capacity to particular use and exercise to wit that of Ministration to such a people in particular And this Ministerial Power they bring with them to the Church or People among whom they are placed but do not receive it from them And it is by virtue of their Ministry and Ministration that a particular Body of people can act or perform any Publick Acts of Communion peculiar to a Church as such And therefore as they cannot act as a Church without such a Ministry so neither can they properly be a Church without it The first thing St. Paul mentions Ephes 4.11.12 for which our Saviour Christ gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers was for the perfecting of the Saints or for the joyning them together or for the making them up or for the compacting or knitting them together For thus variously is that word rendred by Expositors but all to the same sense For it is for the knitting them and holding them together as one body in their several Publick Assemblies for Worship and Edification And indeed a Church is so called from several Christians assembling together for Publick Worship their Union wherein is made by their joynt concurrence with their Spiritual Pastor in his Ministration for which end and purpose such Officers are given and appointed by Christ as the words of St. Paul now alledged shew And now as for the Text alledged by the Doctor in which Paul and Barnabas are said to have ordained Elders in every Church Acts 14.23 this does not prove the Churches there spoken of to be such Antecedently to any Ministerial Act or Power by which they became such For they had been made Churches in some sort by the planting of Paul and Barnabas who also as Church Officers ministred to them while they were among them For this ordaining Elders in every Church by Paul and Barnabas was done in their return to the places where they had preached the Gospel and made Disciples before and they returned to them to confirm them and to ordain Elders among them as appears by the two precedent verses compared with the Text it self Besides St. Luke did not write this History till after the Apostles had thus ordained Elders in the Churches mentioned by him so that they were indeed Churches then when he wrote those words and it was proper for him to stile them so tho it should be supposed they had been none before they had Elders ordained in them So that this Text can be no proof of that for which the Doctor doth alledge it QUERY XII WHether from the reason of the extent and Latitude of Visible Church-Membership and Communion which has been discoursed of the great usefulness of a National settlement or Constitution for the publick exercise of the Worship of God in all parts of a Nation professing Christianity may not fairly be inferred and concluded Now the reason why Visible Church-Membership Communion are better in respect of their due extensiveness than they would be if the terms and conditions of enjoying those Priviledges were limited and restrained to the same terms which the enjoyment of Invisible Church Membership and Communion are is this viz. because these Priviledges under such an extent and latitude tend more to the propagation of the Christian Religion and the increase of the number of those who shall be saved than they would or could do if they were limitted and restrained to the same terms and conditions of enjoyment as Invisible Church Membership and Communion are This hath been shew'd in our tenth Inquiry And it is for the same reason that it is better that the exercise of Gods Publick Worship should be set up in all parts of a Nation professing Christianity by a National Authority and that all such Professors should be thereby obliged to frequent it than it is to leave all such to their own liberty to promote and frequent it or to forbear and neglect to do so as the way called Independency does For the National way tends more to propagate and promote the knowledge and practice of Christian Religion and the Salvation of Souls than the Congregational way does and therefore must needs be abundantly better That it does so is too apparent to be denied by any that have but common reason when these things following are but duly considered 1. Better provision is made by a publick establishment for the instruction of such a Nation in the way of Salvation than can reasonably be expected without it Unless provision were made by publick Authority for the maintenance of a Gospel Ministry in all parts of a Nation there would certainly be a greater want of a publick Ministry in many places of it than by reason of such a publick provision there is Would people think we of themselves in all places of a Nation provide a better maintainance for the Ministry of the Gospel among them if left wholly to themselves than there is made by publick Authority If they would how comes it to pass that those places are generally worst supplied with Ministers where the Publick has made least provision for their maintainance And generally where there is the greatest failure in this there is the least face of Religion and greatest hazard of mens Souls Where there is no Vision the people perish saith Solomon Prov. 29.18 And the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge saith the Prophet Hos 4.6 2. If the people should be all left to themselves to chuse what Ministers they please without any publick approbation and allowance of some appointed by publick Authority to judg of their fitness many would be in danger of chusing men of erronious Principles and such as would corrupt the minds of men The consequence of which would be great opposition and contention between the Orthodox and the Erronious and making of Parties and endless strife to the destruction
good opinion of them and of the innocency and goodness of their intention in what they desire and seek Whereas the other tends to exasperate and provoke and to beget an ill opinion of them and a jealousie of their designs in the minds of those from whom they expect ease and relief in what is mattet of grievance to them And that which does that is no good way of obtaining from them Solomon's wise advice is If the Spirit of the Ruler rise up against thee leave not thy place for yielding pacifieth great offences Eccles 10.4 QUERY XIII WHerein may Catholick Church Communion consist And how and by what means is it best preserved To clear our way in this Inquiry it will be convenient to take notice of the difference that is between the Vnion of the Catholick Church and the Communion of it The Union of the Catholick Church consists in the same Relation which all the Members of that one Body bear to Christ the Head of it and to one another as fellow-members But the Communion of this spiritual Corporation consists in a mutual performance of those Christian Duties and Offices to which they are engaged by virtue of that relation By that Relation in which their Union consists they come to have a greater interest in one another than they had before their incorporation into that body and by it they come under new duties to one another to which they were not obliged before But their Communion consists much in a mutual discharge of those duties towards one another and in an improvement of that interest for the benefit of one another and the good of the whole by their mutual intercourse in spiritual affairs The Union of the whole which is made by one Baptism or the Baptismal Covenant respects the being of the Church But Catholick Communion respects its well-being by its increase in wisdom goodness and comfort There is indeed a Catholick Church Vnity by Communion as well as there is another which comes by Relation but this Unity of Communion slows from that which is made by a Relation common to the whole Having thus briefly considered how Catholick Communion differs from Catholick Union I shall now proceed to shew a little more particularly wherein or in what Catholick Commumunion doth consist And we may best know what it is and wherein it doth consist by the account we have of it as practised in the Catholick Church when it first became Christian And this account we have in these words Acts 2.42 And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers By which description we see it consisted in their consent and agreement in three things Faith Worship Fellowship 1. In their agreeing in the same Faith they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine that is in the belief of it in attendance to it and practice of it From the same faith being common to all Christians it is called the common faith Tit. 1.4 the one faith Eph. 4.5 and their agreement in it is stiled Vnity in the faith Eph. 4.13 2. In their agreement in the same Worship breaking of bread and prayers This Catholick Church in its beginning is said to have continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication Acts 1.14 And on the day of Penticost they were all with one accord in one place when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them And when their number so increased that they could not all perform this Publick Worship together in one place but in several distinct Assemblies called particular Churches yet their agreement in the same Worship made their Communion in it but one Communion tho performed in several Assemblies For altho these Assemblies be never so far distant from one another yet so long as they all agree in the same Worship the distance of place can no more hinder their Communion from being one than their being baptized in several distant places can hinder the Relation to one another contracted thereby from being one when it is common to all the Members We account all those to be of the Communion of the Church of Rome at the same time and in the same acts in which they hold their Local Commumunion in several distant Nations so long as they all agree in the same corrupt Worship And there is the same reason for the Unity of the Communion in Worship of all Orthodox Assemblies in all Nations So that I take this for an unquestionable truth That it is mens agreement in the same Principles of Communion be they good or bad that makes their Communion but one tho the particular acts of it are performed by them in many thousand distant places And now it is by the Union of Relation by the Baptismal Covenant and the Unity of Communion by agreement in the Principles of the Worship wherein they have Communion that all Orthodox Christians make one great House or Temple of God in the world in which he is openly worshipped and publickly acknowledged to be what he is the one only true God Father Son and Holy Ghost in opposition to all false Gods Ephes 2.21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. This is that house which is called Christs own house Heb. 3.6 and that House of God over which Christ is said to be High Priest Heb. 10.21 And particular Churches in reference to this one house are but as several Apartments in it which all together make up one great house of God And in this house of his God dwells and therein manifesteth himself to his People after a more special manner than he does to the world 2 Cor. 6.16 Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people Here Almighty God meets with them and communes with them and receives their addresses and here he entertains them with the fatness of his house the Ordinances of the Gospel and the benign influences and comfortable presence of his Spirit in the use of them In this way the whole Church in their several Assemblies have Communion with their Head Christ Jesus and one with another by partaking in common of the spiritual benefits communicated by the Lord and in assisting in common in the Worship Adoration and Thanksgiving which the Church renders him for the glory and transcendent perfections of his nature and being and returns him for all the blessings and benefits they receive from him And the more all Christians are agreed in their worshipping of God and in their Communion with him the more they honour him and the more they please him and make themselves the more capable of receiving all good things from him in the greater abundance If the agreement but of two of them touching any thing they shall ask hath his promise of granting it Mat. 18.19 what might not be expected from him
if the whole Church were of one heart and one soul as they were at the first in matters of their Communion 3. Catholick Communion consisteth also in the mutual assistances which Christians give to and receive one from another couched in that one word Fellowship in the description of Catholick Communion Acts 2.42 And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship c. The same word which in our Version is here translated Fellowship is by the Dutch in their Version translated Communion And according to Dr. Hammond it signifies both to communicate and to participate to distribute and to receive So that according to the nature of Christian Communion every Member of the whole Church is or ought to be useful and serviceable to the whole Community of Christians in general and to every Christian in particular so far as they can in the place and rank in which the Providence of God hath set them The which if duly observed by all as it ought to be the same persons that thus communicate and contribute assistance to others would be receiving back again from the whole and from every Member in particular the like succour service and assistance as opportunity serves as they themselves had contributed to them As a Christian is to serve every fellow-Christian so according to the same Law every one is to serve him This is that the Apostle means when he says By love serve one another Gal. 5.13 And this giving and receiving assistance the same Apostle calls communicating with him Phil. 4.15 If this Catholick Communion were but duly maintained among all Christians how like a heaven upon earth would the Catholick Church be And how happy would they be even now for the present that are of it And how would the Inhabitants of the world that are not of it then flow into it And yet for Christians thus to exchange Offices of love with one another is nothing more than what we are all obliged to by the Royal Law of Love Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self For if I am hereby bound to love every Neighbour as my self so is every Neighbout obliged by it to love me as they love themselves And how delightful a commerce would this be if the Christian Church were but so happy as to hit on it The particular duties and offices of love in which this part of Christian Communion does consist are such as these the instructing and exhorting one another the watching over and admonishing one another the strengthening the feeble minded the visiting and comforting the afflicted the relieving one anothers wants the bearing on anothers burdens the having the same care one for another and the like Together with these we may reckon the yielding and allowing to every one the liberty of sharing in the common priviledge of enjoying Communion in Gospel-Ordinances and Worship so long as they have not made themselves uncapable of it by drawing on themselves deservedly the Censures of the Church nor are otherwise naturally uncapable of the end and use for which those Ordinances or any of them were ordained as little Children seem to be in reference to the Lords Supper THus much briefly touching the nature of Catholick Commumunion Come we now to enquire how and by what means it may best be preserved There are two Bonds which the Scripture mentions by which Christians are bound and knit together in one Communion the bond of Charity and the bond of Peace 1 The bond of Charity Above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectness Col. 3.14 Charity is a bond which knits and unites mens hearts together and makes them one in affection knit together in love as as it is exprest Col. 2.2 and while they be so it can hardly be but that they will be one in Communion This was that which made the Catholick Church in its beginning to be all of one heart and one soul as it is said the multitude of them that believed were Acts 4.32 And that was the reason doubtless why they continued stedfastly in their Communion in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayer Charity we see is called the bond of perfectness for the Church is in a kind of perfect state in her Communion so long as the Parts and Members of it are knit together in one Communion by love made perfect in one as our Saviour expresseth it Joh. 17.23 And the Union in Communion which is made by love is Union in its perfection nothing unites Christians so entirely and firmly as love does If Christians love one another in the truth and for the truth sake which dwelleth in them as St. John speaks this Love and Union by Love will last there will be no failure in the oneness of Communion until there be first a failure in love Charity must needs unite and knit Christians together in one Communion because it is the Principle from which the particular acts of Christian Fellowship fore-mentioned do spring a great part of the acts of Christian Communion are nothing else but offices of brotherly love and by these Christians take fast hold one of another Charity in its own nature is communicative of the good it has and the good it can do and by that it does attract and draw others to a nearer conjunction with those in whom it dwells Charity is the Arms of the Christians inner man by which they imbrace one another though absent Love is of a winning nature it gains upon others that stand at a distance If a Principle of love be in the heart it will season a mans speech and enable him to speak the truth in love according to St. Pauls direction And the truth spoken in love will sooner reconcile than the strongest Arguments when mixt with bitterness of Spirit A tongue of love is Solomons tongue of health it will heal wounds when another tongue does but make them And therefore with great reason did St. Paul call upon the Church of Corinth to do all their things with Charity and spent a whole Chapter upon them to persuade them to it as an effectual means to cure the divisions into which they were unhappily fallen Again Charity covereth a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 4.8 and by that means among other it keeps Christians from flying asunder and dividing in their Communion which many times takes its first rise from very small matters when they meet with an evil mind that will aggravate and make the worst of things and seek out matter to make the breach wider But Charity is not apt to spie faults or to pick quarrels nor to aggravate and make the worst of things nor to harbour jealousies or evil surmises out of which breaches are wont to grow but it will over-look mens weakness mistakes and inadvertencies as believing they do not proceed from an evil mind And if any thing be amiss love will take notice of all the extenuating circumstances in the
out of scruple of Conscience and others from a worse Principle will be apt to take occasion to disturb the peace of the Church with disputes and by deserting the Communion of it And then moderation and prudence are necessary to the same end in the exercise of Discipline in the Church by making a difference in correcting open and notorious scandals and lesser disorders For else if both be punished alike when they are not alike criminal or if lesser disorders shall be strictly looked after and severely punished and greater connived at it will tend to lessen the Government in mens reverence and esteem and so weaken the fense of the Churches peace and render Communion with her less desirable by such as will take themselves to be unequally dealt with by her But as good Government in the Church is necessary to its Peace and to Unity in its Communion so is obedience to such Government without which Government loseth its end But when the Government and exercise of it is equal and as easie as will consist with the due ends of it then if yet for all that men will be troublesom and disobedient under it they will be left without excuse in the eyes of sober men if fitting course be taken to restrain them from disturbing the peace of the Church for otherwise if this be not granted Government in the Church would signifie little THus much concerning our Inquiry touching the nature of Catholick Communion and the means of preserving it But before I proceed to an Inquiry into the nature of Schism I think it not amiss to enquire for what reason the Unity of Catholick Communion is necessary and why we should endeavour that as much as may be it should be kept entire and all of a piece and without Fracture And the only reason which I shall insist on is this because its being such and so kept and maintained tends greatly to the growth and increase of the Church both in respect of the number of its Members and bigness of its Body and also in respect of its healthful state and its growing up to a greater stature in all virtue and goodness 1. It tends to the increase of the body of Christians in the number of its Members For next to the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles and Primitive Believers the peaceable and charitable demeanour among Christians and good agreement among themselves if it were generally found in them would attract and draw men to the liking and love of the Religion which they profess for the sake of the lovely effects it produceth in them Men can hardly think otherwise than well of that Religion by which they find men are made more peaceable and loving and more ready to all good offices to one another and to all men than others are or than they themselves were before they engaged heartily and seriously in it And that the concord and good agreement of all Christians in one Catholick Communion has so happy a tendency as I have said to draw others to the belief love of that same Religion appears by the reason why and for which our blessed Saviour so earnestly desired and prayed for the Union and Agreement of all Christians in the things their Religien taught them to wit because the world would thereby be brought to believe that he the Author of it had been sent of God Joh. 17.20 21. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And it s most apparent that the contrary to this has had its contrary effect For where have any such numerous additions to the Catholick Church been found from among the Pagan world since the great divisions which have risen and been kept on foot in the Christian world as those which were made for some hundreds of years together in the Primitive times while Catholick Communion was preserved in the Church without any considerable interruption Nay have not the unreasonable divisions and fierce contentions which have broken out in the Reformed Churches since the Reformation and in our own nation especially been a temptation to many to turn Atheists or Scepticks The holy Scriptures in many places seem to foretel a more general flowing of the Nations of the world into the Church than ever yet has been accomplished But we cannot reasonably expect this should be brought to pass by means of the Christian Churches in being until by humility peaceableness and charity and good agreement among themselves and other virtues they make a better representation of the excellency of the Religion which they profess than they do at this day When God Almighty turns to the people a pure Language then it may be expected they will call upon him and serve him with one consent as the Prophet speaks Zeph. 3.9 Not while they treat one another with impure and corrupt Language which smels of wrath and disdain of envy spight and contempt Not while by words they do all they can to disgrace one another but by speaking the truth in love and with meekness of wisdom 2. The good agreement of Christians in one Catholick Communion tends greatly to the increase of the Church in respect of its spiritual healthful state and its growing up to a greater stature in all virtue and goodness For where peace and good agreement is in the several offices of Christian Brotherhood there love is which is the bond of perfectness which holds them fast together And love is a radical grace out of which other graces grow in so much that love is made the Summary of all Christian duties towards one another Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8.10 Charity edifieth saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 8.1 It tends to edifie and build up the subject in which it dwels and to make him more like God who is love and it tends to edifie the object on which it is set and on which it exerciseth it self it tends to build up both the one and the other in grace and goodness And there is this further reason why a peaceable agreement in one Catholick Communion tends to increase the Church in her spiritual riches viz. because the holy Spirit of God delights to dwell where peace and love dwell and there to dispence and communicate his treasures by which the souls of men are enriched but without his supplies influences and operations there is no thriving in grace and real goodness He that dwels in love God dwels in him 1 Joh. 4.16 And where God takes up his special residence he will adorn those living Temples with plenty of spiritual ornaments and those shall be sure to be made partakers of his best sort of gifts such as the world cannot receive Be of one mind live in peace and
the God of love and peace shall be with you saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 13.11 While the Catholick Church is of one mind in the great things of Christian Religion and being so do live in peace and not unpeaceably contend fall out and divide about lesser things such as for which God perhaps doth neither esteem or disesteem men he who is the God of love and peace will be with them to bless them with his presence with spiritual blessings especially And as the presence of the soul in the body enlivens it with natural life by virtue whereof the several Members perform their several functions proper to each of them respectively even so the presence of the holy Spirit in the body of Christ the Church does animate it with spiritual life and does so influence and actuate the several Members of it as that by virtue thereof they all perform their several Christian offices proper to each for the common good of the whole But then this vital power of acting spiritually is conveyed by the Spirit to each of the Members as they are in Vnion and communion with the whole and so as one Member is made a Channel of this conveyance to another and each enabled to contribute its part to the common good of the whole Thus Col. 2.19 where St. Paul mentioning the Head of the Church saith from which all the body by joynts and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God This spiritual nourishment of the body flows from Christ the Head we see as having obtained it by his Mediation but then it is the great Office-work of the holy Spirit to apply the benesits obtained by Christ to the several members of his body by working and increasing grace and comfort in them He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you saith our Saviour speaking of the Holy Ghost Joh. 16.14 And this conveyance of nourishment from the Head to the Members by the Holy Spirit is made by the union of the parts as knit together by joynts and bands by which Union one member is made a Channel of conveyance of nourishment to another and in this way the whole body increaseth with the increase of God This being so a disunion of the parts or members must needs obstruct this spiritual nourishment and hinder the growth of the body To the same effect is that parallel place Ephes 4.15 16. Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working of the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love This increase of the body to the edifying it self in love is made we see both by the parts of the body being joyned together and also by that which every joynt supplyeth being so compacted Thus we see how the increase of the Church in spiritual strength depends upon Gods special presence and assistance and how the enjoyment of that presence depends upon the peaceable agreement and mutual love of the parts of which the Church doth consist And if so then unpeaceableness discord and strife contention and dividing into Parties in the Church must necessarily tend to deprive her of that special presence and divine assistance of the holy Spirit without which Christians cannot thrive and increase in true goodness and for want of which they will rather decline and go backward Tho the God of peace and of love will be with his People while they are so of one mind in the Essentials of Christianity as upon that account to live in peace and Christian Communion one with another notwithstanding their differing in some lesser things which will always be found in the best estate of the Church which can be expected here on earth yet there is no reason to expect he will be so with them when they do not so live in peace tho they should otherwise be of one mind in the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity and all the substantial parts of Worship The holy Spirit may indeed dispense gifts of Knowledge and Utterance and the like which are common to bad men as well as good such as these he may bestow upon Christians even while they are in disorder and unpeaceable division But as for those fruits of the Spirit which constitute men truly good such as love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness and meekness Gal. 5.22 the having of these and mens being of an unpeaceable temper and in a state of discord and division are I fear inconsistent for these are contrary one to another Tho St. Paul acknowledged those of the Church of Corinth to be enriched with all utterance and all knowledge Chap. 1 5. yet in Chap. 3.1 he tells them that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as to babes in Christ and for this reason as it follows in ver 3. because there was among them envying strife and division Ye are yet carnal saith he for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men that is as other men which were no Christians They might indeed know and believe and talk otherwise and better than those that were out of the Church but their walking and living was but as theirs while envying strife and division was found with them For these are of those works of the flesh of which St. Paul saith that those which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.20 21. And if Christians would but examine and judge of themselves by these Scripture measures it would make them on all hands one side as well as another to be as much afraid to do any thing to disturb the peace of the Church or to be guilty of envying strife and division in it as they would be to find themselves but in a carnal state and of being shut out of the Kingdom of heaven And as for those who are guilty of these things in these sad times wherein envying strife and division do abound it is hugely necessary that as they love their own souls they would without delay repent and get out of such a state and not flatter and deceive themselves with an opinion of their good and safe condition upon account of their being otherwise Orthodox and Religious so long as they indulge themselves in such a state QUERY XIV What is the nature of Schism From what hath been discoursed touching the nature of Catholick Communion and the means of preserving it we may be able to make a judgment of the nature of Schism what it is and who are guilty of it For if Catholick Communion stands in the Unity of the Spirit or Christians Unity in their Communion in the Doctrine of Faith in things necessary to Salvation and in the
substance of Worship and in their fellowship or mutual love as I have shew'd it does then their being divided in these or any one of these or in any lesser things if the Vnity of their Communion be thereby destroyed that undoubtedly is Schism When any thing which before was but one comes to be divided it ceaseth to be one any longer unless there be a re-union and thus it is in reference to Church Communion Altho Christians do agree in the Christian Faith and in the substance of Worship also yet if upon account of any lesser things they be so divided as that Christian Fellowship or Brotherly love be thereby destroyed their Vnity of Communion is thereby destroyed also I do not say that all their Communion in those things wherein they are agreed is destroyed by uncharitable division but this I say that the Vnity of their Communion is thereby destroyed For Brotherly love is an essential part of Cotholick Communion so that if that be destroyed by any division tho but about lesser matters the Vnity of the Communion is destroyed and the guilt of Schism contracted yea and their Communion it self in Faith and Worship wherein they are agreed is greatly damnified also For their Communion in Faith and Worship is rendred unacceptable to God and unprofitable to themselves for want of Communion in Brotherly love though I had all Faith and have not Charity I am nothing And for Worship If thou bringest thy gift to the Altar and rememberest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Shewing how little God regardeth devotional Communion in Worship when void of true Charity The Schism we enquire after then lies in division in the Church as that is opposite to and destructive of Christian Vnity in Faith or in Worship or in Love And all Church division tends more or less to the destruction of Christian Unity in these in whole or in part That it lies in division appears in that it receives its name from that for the word Schism signifies division or a rent And the Translators of our English Bible when they have put the word division in the line reading they have put Schism in the Margin 1 Cor 10.10 and 11.18 and when Schism in the line division in the Margin 1 Cor. 12.25 and this they have done to explain the one by the other Since then Schism consists in Church division it follows that by how much the greater the division is at any time by so much the greater is the Schism and the less the one is the less is the other also We must therefore distinguish of Schism There are several sorts or degrees of Division and so of Schism which are sometimes found among Christians I. A different persuasion in Christians touching some things indifferent in their own nature some holding them unlawful others lawful some accounting them necessary when others are otherwise persuaded This difference fell out between the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles touching some meats the observation of days and the use of Circumcision And a difference much like to this in some respects has fallen our among some Christians in our days and in our Nation Now a difference of this nature tho it be in some sort a division yet it is capable of being so managed as that the effects of sinful Schism shall scarcely at all follow upon it As thus First if those who are scrupulous and yet under a mistake shall be modest and humble in their dissenting and desirous to be as little troublesom and offensive to their Brethren from whom they differ as possibly they can and as tender of disturbing the peace of the Church as their case will permit and ready to hear and impartially to consider any thing offered by their brethren to remove their scruples and reconcile them in judgment Secondly if they be not averse to comply with their Brethren in all things so far as they can and to hold Communion with them so far as they have attained and are agreed according to the Apostles Exhortation in that case when he says Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.16 For these words were used in reference to those Christians mentioned in the Verse before of whom he had said If in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you And indeed this compliance is necessary in all like cases to prevent Schism upon a double account 1. Otherwise such do not what they can to preserve Peace and prevent Schism and so must be guilty of it if it follow for want of such compliance That to do thus is their undoubted duty is clear from that of the Apostle Rom. 12.18 If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men how much more with fellow Christians If Christian compliance than be the way to live peaceably with Christian Brethren then it follows that if they do not comply as much as in them lies and as far as they can when the preserving of peace requires it they do not what they ought to do and if Schism or a breach of peace follows they must needs be accessary to it and guilty of it 2. Because if they do not comply so far as they can they give occasion of suspicion that their non-compliance in that wherein their differing from their Brethren professedly lies proceeds not so much from scruple of conscience as from some worse Principle such as humour self will a spirit of opposition and contradiction or a personal prejudice against the men from whom they differ or the like For it will be thought that if Conscience to God were the only reason why they differ with their Brethren in any thing that then Conscience would engage them to go along with their Brethren in that wherein they do not differ and to be tender and scrupulous of making the difference or breach between them wider than needs must and of multiplying occasion of offence causelesly Men cannot be confident when they see such men are not tender of Conscience in the one that they are so in the other but will be apt to suspect that their differing proceeds chiefly from some worse cause tho the parties themselves perhaps are not aware of it but think it proceeds from the goodness of their Conscience when there is no such matter And when this occasion of suspicion is given by not complying in what they can the natural effect of it will be to weaken mens esteem of them and affection to them and to prepare the way to farther difference Whereas a compliance as far as possibly they can would maintain a good opinion of them in mens minds procure them fair quarter from them that differ from them prevent the differenee from growing up into a
direct Schism and prepare the way to reconciliation For when it does indeed appear by complying as far as they can and by other truly Christian behaviour of persons that through error of judgment differ from their Brethren in other things that that difference proceeds purely from Conscience tho erronious and not from a worse Principle their case is truly pitiable and calls for tenderness towards them from them that differ from them and to treat them accordingly is certainly the way to gain upon them and to make them the more capable of receiving information and satisfaction in their scruples Whereas when they are otherwise treated with severity it tends to spoil their good temper and to exasperate them and to make them out of disgust to them who have so dealt with them to unite into Parties and make head against them to the imbroiling the Church in grievous Schism 2. There is another and worse Division or Schism than meer difference in judgment and practice in some lesser things and that division lies more in Christians unchristian managing their differences than in the difference that is in their opinion and practice when it is but about some things wherein the good or hurt of men would be little concerned if they could be separated from their effects And this division lies in the immoderate manner of contending for that wherein Christians differ As thus when they do not content themselves with offering their arguments fairly and peaceably for that wherein they differ but fall out with their Brethren for not submitting to but opposing them both in their arguments and practice as when they set them at naught and censure them as insincere as not truly lovers of truth but that they are byassed by some undue interest of honour reputation or gain or humour or self-will and that these prevail with them more than truth Now such things as these are of a provoking nature and lay a temptation upon their Brethrens Passions and tend directly to alienate affections and minister to unpeaceable contendings and are a direct breach of peace Tho men have truth on their side yet they may be Schismatical in labouring to propagate or to defend that truth when they go farther in doing so than speaking the truth in love I mean in way of Controversie Tho those that differ from them may possibly be moved with undue motives to oppose them and the reasons for what they hold yet because whether they be so or no is a matter of which they are not competent Judges it lying out of their reach and belonging only to the Judgment of God who only is the searcher of hearts therefore whatever they may fear or suspect yet they should forbear either to pronounce or insinuate any such hard things against their Brethren by which they become Judges of evil thoughts Which if they do not they stir up strife and violate peace by causing unquietness and disorder in the Church and destroy Charity weaken yea wound the very Spirit of the Churches Communion which without doubt is Schism tho it should never proceed to actual separation This mingling of mens Passions and unchristian Censures and insinuations with their Arguments hinders the due operation of their Arguments upon their Antagonists minds tho they should have truth on their side For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God but hinders it Jam. 1.20 Whereas tho men do differ yet so long as they propose and reply one to another no otherwise than as supposing both sides to be only in the search of truth they may live lovingly and peaceably together and enjoy Edifying and comfortable Communion one with onother their difference in Judgment notwithstanding 3. There is a division and consequently a Schism in the Church of a higher nature than the former and that is when the persons that divide or cause division in the Church unnecessarily gather into a Party and do after a sort unite and combine themselves together the more publickly and avowedly to maintain and carry on the Cause they have espoused in opposition to their Brethren and industriously labour to increase their number as hoping thereby in time to be able to bring their opposites to submit to them and to give up their Cause Now if the thing or things they after this manner contend for should be unprofitable for the Church in case they should obtain or of so little use or benefit as that it could never reasonably be expected that it should countervail the hurt that is or will be done to the Church to the Communion of the Church to the Cause of Religion in the world and to the Souls of men in general by being obtained in such a way it would be a most grievous Schism thus to divide and imbroil the Church upon so mean an account A Division or Schism of this nature is termed Faction which is a siding or making of Parties in the Church And of this nature in some sort was the Schism in the Church of Corinth For their Divisions were factious Divisions for they proceeded to making of Parties Their Crime in this charged upon them by St. Paul is termed Divisions in our Bibles but the word is Faction in the Margin 1 Cor. 3.3 And part of the works of the flesh rendred Seditions in our Translation is Divisions or Factions in the Margin Gal. 5.20 This sort of Division which is accompanied with Faction or making of Parties is more than is found in some Divisions which yet are sinful Now when a Schism grows up to this height to a combined strength it is much worse than while it was acted only by a few apart and in a more private way and less taken notice of because then there is more of contempt in it and more are corrupted by it and the peace of the Community more disturbed and because usually by endeavours of increasing the Party much more evil is perpetrated by slanders naughty insinuations and suggestions against those they divide from and combine against than was found in the nature of the division at first or in the nature of the error on which the division first began This factious division is likewise aggravated further when it partakes of the nature of Sedition And we see in the fore-cited place Gal. 5. the same word signifies Division Faction and Sedition Now Sedition I conceive is a division accompanied with a combination of men against the Government either of Church or State under which the Providence of God hath set them It is their acting things contrary to that Government farther than the necessity of not sinning against God does oblige them to the disturbing of the publick peace thereby or it may be so perhaps by seeking to alter any thing amiss or inconvenient in the Government in an undue way that is by acting out of their sphere or the place or rank in which the providence of God hath set them their going beyond their bounds in it
or their doing more to accomplish it than the Law or Government under which they are allows them For otherwise it is not seditious I conceive for men to endeavour to get any thing amiss in the Government to be altered in a regular way that is in such a way as the Government or publick Constitution allows I need not say how much the two bonds the one of Peace the other of Charity is broken by this sort of Division which is accompanied either with Faction or Sedition nor how great the Schism is that is made thereby But this is certain that a Division of this kind cannot be without much envying and strife and where these are there is confusion and every evil work as St. James hath told us Chap. 3.16 4. Another sort of division in the Church is that which is made by an unjust Separation of one part of the Catholick Church from another in the business of their Communion in their solemn Worship And this is a division of a very high nature indeed especially when it is accompanied with the third sort of Division before insisted on For if such a Division be unjustly made it is point blank contrary to the Unity of the Spirit that is contrary to the Unity of Communion among Christians which was taught and practised by men inspired by the Spirit in reference both to solemn Worship and Christian Fellowship as has been formerly explained By such a Division the Churches peace is broken with a high hand great offence being thereby taken at others and cause of offence given to them and a wide gap opened for debate strife contention and confusion to enter in to a dreadful destruction of Charity the spirit and life of Christianity without which Faith it self is dead and all other religious performances little available It concerns us greatly therefore and some men more especially very diligently to inquire how far the Divisions and Separations that do abound in our days and in this Nation are unjustly or justly made To do which I do not know a more compendious way than to enquire into the nature of our National Constitution about Gods publick Worship and the power of giving being to it and how far we are obliged to observe it That such National Constitutions as have been made in several Nations for reformation from Popery and for the establishing of the Reformed Religion and Worship in the room of it since the beginning of the Reformation has been so far approved of by God as that he does reckon and esteem those Nations his Kingdoms upon that account I have found as I conceive in our twelfth Inquiry Which with what else is there produced and argued for the usefulness of such National Constitutions I take to be ground sufficient to authorize a National authority in such an undertaking Now when ever the forming of such National Constitution is undertaken by them to whom it does belong they must needs find that tho the Essentials and substance of all divine Worship is expresly and particularly set down in Scripture yet there are several Circumstances and Accidents of Worship which pertain to the external administration of the substance which are not otherwise determined in Scripture than by general Rules as that Edification Order and Decency be always observed in the choice of such things as are not particularly determined and set down in Scripture Such are those I instanced in in another of our Inquiries concerning Prayer tho all the substantial parts of it are determined in Scripture yet we are no where limited to pray with a set Form nor without one to use or not to use Book-prayer to kneel or to stand in Praying nor directed whether in the Publick Worship there shall be several distinct and short Prayers used for several things or whether all Prayer matter fit for a publick Assembly shall be comprised in one or more longer Prayers And the like may be said touching several external Circumstances that are to be used in all other parts of Publick Worship This being the case it will necessarily fall under the consideration of those who are imployed in the forming a publick Constitution for Worship which of these will tend most to the Peace Unity and Edisication of the Church and to Decency and Order whether to leave all aside termined Circumstances of Worship to every ones choice who are to administer the holy things or in these things to chuse for them and to determine by an Ecclesiastical Constitution what shall be observed Suppose we then that upon serious consideration and consultation they come to be fully persuaded in their own minds that to leave all both Ministers and People to their own choice in such undetermined Circumstances in Gods Publick Worship would tend to great Division Disorder and Confusion as it did in the late times of general Liberty and that then we should have one opposing another in their different ways and making of Parties one against another to endless branglements and to the eating out the heart and life of true Religion And suppose also that upon such considerations as these they come to a resolution to determine all undetermined Circumstances of Publick Worship by the use of a Liturgy except only what is to be performed in the Pulpit as that which tends most in their Judgment to Peace Unity Edification Order and Decency And when they have gone thus far in general they will necessarily be led to proceed in the next place to the choice of particular Circumstances of administration of the several parts of Publick Worship In which it is to be presumed they govern themselves according to the best of their understanding by those general Rules which direct all things to be done for Edification Order and Decency And when they have done so and brought things to the best issue they could yet considering that all men and the best of men are fallible it is not unlikely but that they may be mistaken in some things and that such and such a Circumstance or Mode of administration of Worship would have better and more fully agreed with the general Rules than those they have made choice of But yet if their failings and and mistakes therein do not extend to the corrupting of Gods Worship in the Essence or substance of it but only to the ordering of some less useful Circumstances to be observed in the external manner of performance of that Worship there will be no just cause of separating from Communion in it upon that account For those who separate from Communion in the Worship which is every Lords day performed in our Parochial Assemblies according to our Liturgy are obliged to prove one of these two things against it if they would justifie their separation from it Either first that the Worship is corrupt in the Essence or substance of it or secondly that the faults or defects in the External manner of performance of it are such as do fall short of and
defeat the end for which an external way and manner of performing Publick Worship should serve and is appointed If they would prove such Worship corrupt in the Essence or substance of it they must prove that it is so either in the object of Worship or in the subject matter of it for in those two the Essence or substance of Worship doth consist To prove it corrupt in reference to the object of Worship they must prove that the Worship is directed to some Creature as well as to the only true God or by some Mediator other than Christ Jesus But this they will not pretend to do If they would prove it corrupt in respect of the subject matter of it they must prove that the Prayers which are made or the matters for which Praise is given to Almighty God are not Prayer matter or Thanksgiving matter or that some other part of Worship is used as of Divine Institution which is not such But now none of these things can be proved against the Liturgy For no other things are therein prayed for or thanks given to God for but such as the Dissenters themselves do may or ought to pray for or praise God for nor any thing else observed as an Ordinance of God but what they themselves do own to be of Divine Institution such as Baptism and the Lords Supper So that the whole of the Worship is pure and uncorrupt in respect of the Essence of it 2. If then they will prove any thing to purpose they must prove that the faults and defects in the external manner of performing the said Worship are such as cause it to fall short of and do defeat the end and use for which an external administration of Publick Worship serves and is appointed Now the end and use of the best external Mode of Worship is edification that is it serves to convey the object and subject matter of Worship to the mind of the Worshippers to the end they may be sutably affected And this end of Worship is defeated when the Worship is performed in a Language which the People do not understand or in such words and phrases as are insignificant of or unsutable to the parts of Worship to which they are applied But neither of these things can be charged upon the Worship performed according to the Liturgy For the Worship is performed in a Language understood by all the People and in words and phrases competently significant and expressive of and sutable to the nature of the subject matter of the Worship in its several parts and so is agreeable to the general Rule for administration of Publick Worship which the Apostle terms to be uttering by the tongue words easie to be understood 1 Cor. 14. By it the minds of men may be guided and conducted from one part of Worship to another and be affected according to the different nature of the several parts of which the whole Worship doth consist which is the proper end and use of an external Form of administration of Publick Worship Object But perhaps it will be said that the Worship performed according to the Liturgy does not so adequately and fully agree with the rule and end of the external administration of Worship in some respects as it might have been made to do or as some other does To which I answer That the question is not whether the external manner of Worship according to the Liturgy be the best or no in all respects But suppose it should not and suppose that some external Circumstances ordered by it should be or make it to be less useful than it might have been or than some others are yet so long as they do but make it less useful to the end for which it serves but do not defeat it nor are destructive of it nor of the Worship it self but that it remains competently useful to its proper end tho comparatively but in an inferiour degree Suppose I say that all this should be granted for Argument sake and we should proceed with them upon their own terms yet this would be no sufficient cause of refusing Communion with the Church in the Ordinances of God thus administred 1. For first if it were it could scarcely be lawful to hold Communion with any particular Church in the whole world because it is not likely but that more or less of such Circumstances of Worship as are less useful are used in all Churches in the World For considering the fallibility of all men and their knowing but in part at best I think it would be no breach of Charity to suppose that there is no Church Constitution for Worship in all the world nor perhaps any one way of external administration of holy things humanely performed but what is accompanied with Circumstantial defects more or less such I mean as are less useful than others that might be made use of were it not for mens imperfection that have the making or managing of them So that the Notion or Opinion that Circumstantial defects in the external manner of Worship is a just ground of separation from it is destructive of Catholick Communion it self 2. None account themselves guilty of or defiled by the defects that are in the manner of a Ministers praying in the Pulpit so long as the matter is good and there is the same reason in reference to Circumstantial defects in Prayers made by the Liturgy We can hardly say that any publick Prayer is so free from all defects but either in respect of the Method or manner of expressing the matter it might possibly be better done than usually it is done even by good men And therefore it is a very unreasonable thing to make Circumstantial defects in the manner of praying a ground of separation from Communion in Prayer 3. If it were lawful to separate from Communion in Worship only because less usefully administred then tho there should be no Liturgy in the case yet where one Minister does but excel another in his Ministration it would be lawful to separate from that Congregation where the Worship or other Ministration is less usefully performed and in a manner inferiour to what is done by another in another place But no man will be so absurd as to say this may be practised for if it might there would be no end of separation but a door would be opened to all confusion and People must be separating as often as they conceive they have found one Minister of a Congregation to excel another in the manner of his Ministration And if Separation may not be practised upon this account then it cannot be duly practised for that reason that the manner of Worship performed according to the Liturgy is less useful and less edifying than that which is or may be done after another manner 4 It is not the external manner of Worship but the essential matter that is the Rule of Christians agreement in one Catholick Communion in Worship throughout the world In the
but Quakers There are others who frame to themselves other reasons of separation from Parochial Communion in Worship besides its being performed by the Liturgy as namely because those Congregations are not as they pretend constituted of visible Saints nor by a Church Covenant Who these are is well known for whose sakes several of my former Inquiries are made in which there are such things produced from the holy Scriptures as may I suppose be sufficient to satisfie their reason if not their prejudice touching their mistake in these opinions As for their exceptions against the Government of the Church by Bishops as Diocesan how they would make Communion with the particular Congregations under their Jurisdiction unlawful upon that account I understand not unless they think the Ministers of those Congregations by whom the Ordinances are administred to be no true Ministers because Episcopally ordained and not by Presbyters And if this should be their scruple they may easily receive satisfaction by considering that Diocesan Bishops were Presbyters before they were Bishops and therefore must needs remain so after For they were not devested of any Ministerial power or authority by being made Bishops but only invested with a superaddition of authority and power they had not before So that they who are ordained by them are ordained by a Presbyterial authority and more And with this the old Nonconformists satisfied themselves touching the validity of their Ministerial authority received by Ordination from the Bishops that then were Some again dislike Parochial Communion because the Civil Power is so much concerned as it is in Ecclesiastical affairs relating to it one way or other and for that all such things are not left wholly to the ordering of Ecclesiastical Rulers as they were in the Apostles times and long after But there is not the same reason why they should be so left now as there was why they were so then The reason why they were wholly left then to the ordering of an Ecclesiastical Power was because there was no Civil Powers as Christian then in being so that they could not promote Christianity better any other way But it is not so now for it is shewed in our last former Inquiry but one that the affairs of the Gospel and the Salvation of men in a Christian Kingdom or State may better be provided for and promoted by a national Constitution than they can be without it And that therefore things of this nature are not to be ordered as if we were still in a Pagan Kingdom when we are not For where the reason of things is altered it is but reasonable and fit that there should be a sutable alteration in the things themselves Thus the gesture of standing with Loyns girt and a Staff in the hand appointed to be used in eating the Passover at the first Institution of it for that it was then to be eaten in haste was afterwards altered to another gesture by the Church when that Circumstance of eating in haste ceased and our Saviour himself did eat it in that posture to which the Church had changed it which is a consideration of very great weight in reference to this and some other cases And the Obligation of the Ceremonial Law ceased upon the same ground when the substance was come which had been prefigured by Ceremonial Rites And the like might be observed touching the discontinuance and disuse of anointing the sick washing Disciples feet and the kiss of Charity and some other things which were obliging until the reason of the Obligation ceased But altho the Civil Power doth concern it self by a National Constitution to order and direct in things appertaining to the Church for the promoting of Religion and the Salvation of men yet it does not this without the advice and assistance of those that are Officers and bear rule in the Church And when the Civil Powers have gone as far as they think fit in ordering and directing by Ecclesiastical advice and assistance yet they do not act any thing themselves peculiar to the Ministry of the Church but leave all such things wholly to them who are invested with Ministerial authority reserving only to themselves a power os restraining such men from an undue exercise of their Office tending to publick disturbance And thus I have endeavoured to satisfie the Dissenters that there is no sufficient reason or cause for them to separate from the Publick Worship of our Parochial Assembles and that their pretences for their doing so when narrowly looked into are found to have nothing of substance in them sufficient to bear them out in it And if I am not mistaken in my Allegations and reasonings I cannot discern how their separation can possibly be defended from being an unlawful Schism And if it be I am sure they have upon many accounts great reason to desist from engaging farther in it QUERY XV. SVpposing things touching visible Church-Membership and Communion to be as they have been represented in our former Inquiries yet how do they tend to lessen our Church Divisions The answer to which is That if the matters of our Inquiry be as they have been represented then they tend to lessen our Church-divisions by removing and taking away the very foundation on which they and our Church-separations are in great part at least built For I do not know any one of the different Parties among the Protestant Dissenters except those called Presbyterian who do not found their separation from our Parish Churches at least principally upon this supposition that they are not constituted according to the order of the Gospel And why not according to the Order of the Gospel but because as they say they are not constituted ol Gospel matter that is not of visible Saints but of such as for a great part of them at least were never duly reputed to be regenerate or to be of the Invisible Church and their meaning is as I collect both from their Writings and Converse That they were not at first nor since constituted of such particular members only as at the time of such their Constitution had a probable appearance of Regeneration but of all baptized persons however they proved good or bad and without any other probation or discrimination Now if those things be true which have been endeavoured to be proved to be so in the management of the former Enquiries Then this ground on which they build their separation is altogether unsound and such as has no firmness or substance in it but is only imaginary For our Parish Congregations are constituted of persons visibly in Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost by being baptized in their name and thereby engaged to be theirs to worship and serve the Father by the Son through the assistance of the Spirit And of such and no other were the Churches planted by the Apostles constituted And this Covenanting was then and so is now the visible formal difference between those of the Visible
our Saviour or his Apostles or any other holy men in the Primitive times of Christianity did ever decline the Publick Worship or the use of Gods Ordinances in such Assemblies where bad men as well as good had Communion in them Such a mixture of bad with good cannot hinder good men from any growth in Grace by those Ordinances if they have but a due care to make the best improvement of them they can And therefore there can be no need of separating and new associating in reference to mens own growth in Grace tho we should suppose it possible they could be sure it were simply lawful Which makes such separation on the one had and associating on the other the more inexcusable when it causes so much hurt to the Church in general and such obstruction to the success of the Gospel in the world as hath been shewn it does and would do more if it should more generally prevail The few names in the Church of Sardis did not defile their Garments by communicating with the greater number of those that had Nor did they thereby deprive themselves of the benefit which Christ designed them by his Ordinances either by having their minds discomposed by such a mixture of Communicants or otherwise For if they had we cannot think that our Saviour who walked in the midst of his golden Candlesticks searching the reins and the hearts to give to every one according to their works would have applauded them as he did with promise of great reward saying They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Rev 3.4 And now for a Conclusion That no man may take offence at the Discourse in these Papers nor at me for the sake of it I must inform those that are most likely to do so of two things First That if I had discerned that what is herein pleaded had had no better foundation than some few obscure Texts of Scripture of dubious and uncertain Interpretation I should not thus far have engaged in it as I have done But if it shall appear to others as it does to me that I have the general stream of the Scriptures on my side herein both of the Old Testament and of the New both as to matter of Doctrine and matter of Fact I hope I shall be excused for making this Essay for the satisfaction of those that most need it Secondly That I take the scope and design of the whole of the Discourse in these Papers to be perfectly agreeable to Christian Charity as tending to no mans hurt but to the general good of all sorts else I should not have been satisfied in it For I know not how to think any thing Orthodox in Divinity which is against Charity Now if the extent of Visible Church-Membership and Communion pleaded for tends more to the Conversion of such of them as are unregenerate and not otherwise obnoxious to Excommunication than the excluding such from both would do then what I plead for is great Charity to them And this extent of Visible Church-Membership and Communion tends to propagate and spread the Christian Religion among those that are yet without the Church more than the narrower way can do as has been shewn and therefore its matter of Charity to them also And in that this more general way of Visible Church-Membership and Communion is not pleaded to the denying the usefulness of Excommunication in reference to Capital Offenders but the contrary that 's matter of Charity to them also Because by that they may be brought to shame and so unto Repentance when they see all sober Christians ashamed to own them or to be numbred with them as being a disgrace to the Religion they profess And I am so far from being less for the exercise of Church-Discipline upon the proper Objects of it than our Dissenting Friends are That I think it a piece of great uncharitableness towards gross Sinners when it is neglected by them to whom the exercise of it does belong Only I would have the Scripture Rules observed in the exercise of it and not use such severity as to exclude all such from Church-Communion as may be suspected to be unregenerate when yet not guilty of any Heresie scandalous Crimes or gross ignorance For men may give occasion of suspicion of their unregeneracy by such sinful neglects of doing good as yet may be no just ground of Excommunication Neither is this more extensive way of Visible Church-Membership and Communion hurtful to those that are good but gives them opportunity of doing the more good and therefore is no matter of uncharitableness unto them neither For this will not hinder them from being as good as they have a mind to be if nothing else do They may be as strict as they will in reference to themselves And they will not be at the less but the more liberty to converse with the best men for their own improvement in wisdom and goodness And then it will be beneficial to them by putting them into a capacity and giving them an opportunity of doing more good than otherwise they could For while good men do not separate themselves from formal Professors of the same Religion nor exclude them from Communion with them in the means of Grace they the better preserve their own esteem among them and the esteem of that wherein they excel them and they will be the more ready to hearken to them in their advice and counsel and in their admonition or reproof and the sooner be brought to imitate their Virtues Whereas a contrary carriage produces contrary effects For separation from Neighbours as no Members of a truly Christian Church when yet they are so breeds more or less estrangedness between them and that begets prejudices against them and jealousies and suspicions concerning them as men wanting in true Christian Charity and Humility which will make them the less valued and their good Counsels and Exhortations the less regarded and their good example in what is worthy imitation the less taking with and the less gaining upon such men A Discourse likewise which evinceth a more extensive Visible Church-Membership and Communion to be approved of by God than these Dissenting Brethren will allow must needs be matter of Charity to themselves more especially For it tends to rescue and deliver them from such error as makes them injurious to the Church of God and the affairs of the Gospel in the World And what good man is there that would not be glad to be delivered from such apprehensions as made him troublesom even to good men themselves without any cause And from such opinions as have kindled a fire of contention and discord in the Church destructive of that Christian Charity without which all we do in Religion will signifie nothing It is certainly a great grief to all good men that there should be any bar in the way to keep them at any undue distance from one another and consequently it must be very grateful to them when ever it is removed This more general way of Visible Church-Membership and Communion being then more useful and beneficial to all sorts of men than the other is and truly hurtful to none I say it being a way and Method so ful of Charity in the nature of it and so agreeable to Moral Principles of wisdom and goodness as it appears to be would commend it self to right reason and to that natural light that is in men if it should not have had that evidence from supernatural Revelation to back and authorize it which it has The consideration of which as it was a great motive to me to engage in the defence of it so I hope it will plead my excuse in every good mans Conscience for this undertaking For indeed I that do certainly know my own mind do know that I have more love and true respect for the Persons whose Opinions I have herein opposed than to wish or do any thing that tends to their hurt And now methinks I might reasonably promise this to my self that such as love Truth for truth sake and are of the number of those that will buy the truth but not sell it at any rate whatsoever should not be unwilling to lay aside all prejudice and self interest and to consider impartially a thing of this nature by what hand soever it be prepared and yet that is all that I desire from them for whose sakes this Discourse was composed THE END
in the Union of the Head and Members of the Mystical Body Christ and the Church and every particular Member of it for they are united by the quickening power and influence of the same Spirit which abides both in the head and all the members By what hath been said touching the Invisible Vnion between Christ and his Church as Invisible it will be easie to discern whence and for what reason it is that many who are really Members of the Church as Vible are yet no more but such and not at all of the Church as Invisible And it is for want of such an inward change of the mind and will and all the affections of the soul in reference to sin and duty good and evil as is made by a vigorous assent of the mind to the great truths of the Gospel and the mighty motives of it and by a serious and frequent consideration of them and how a man 's own self is concerned in them in point of happiness or misery according as he yields up himself to be governed by them or refuses to do so I do not deny but that such who are Members of the Church but only as it is Visible may yet in some sort really assent unto the truth of what the Gospel reveals touching Christ his being the Son of God and Saviour of Sinners yea touching the necessity of Repentance in order to the obtaining the pardon of Sin and Eternal Life by his sufferings I doubt not but that these may in some sort believe and undissemblingly profess to believe otherwise concerning the Christian doctrine than profess'd Infidels do tho not so seriously and effectually as the truly Regenerate We cannot say they properly dissemble whom they profess to believe the Christian doctrine or Articles of the Christian faith We cannot say their words are knowingly contrary to the sentiment of their minds and thoughts in such a profession We see by experience that some Sea-faring men otherwise vicious in their lives yet when taken Captive by Infidels will endure any hardship rather than be drawn to say they do not believe the Christian doctrine which is a good evidence that they do in some sence really believe it tho perhaps not so effectually as the truly Regenerate do There were many in our Saviours days of whom the Scripture says that they did believe in Christ whose faith yet was not powerful enough to Regenerate them And such was Simon Magus also and such were those who as St. James supposed had faith and yet not justified by it it Being alone and but a dead faith and such faith is the faith as may justly be feared of many at this day who are Christians by profession and of the Visible Church Nay farther I do not deny but that this faith of theirs in conjunction with some external motives may produce a form of Godliness so that they may do most of the external acts of Religion which Regenerate men do They may enter into Covenant with God in Baptism and worship him only and in the name of Christ They may openly own the Articles of the Christian faith and with zeal dispute for them They may frequent the Ordinances of publick worship such as Prayer hearing the Word and the Lords Supper and may observe the Lords day They may be free from gross and scandalous sins do many acts of justice in their dealing with men and give Alms also They may be thus outwardly Righteous and externally Religious and yet be unrenewed as touching the inward man They may for all this be full of Envy Malice Hatred and Revengeful thoughts of Emulation Wrath and Pride of Ambition Covetousness and Inordinate affection which are sins of that sort which the Apostle calls works of the flesh and such as exclude men out of the Kingdom of Heaven And while they remain thus unrenew'd in their minds and wills what ever faith or repentings they may otherwise have or whatever their outward performances may be yet they fall short of being of the Invisible Church for want of that inward renovation that invisibly unites men to Christ But yet tho this external Christianity fore-mentioned will not make men Members of the Church Invisible yet it will evidence and declare them to be of the Church as visible and continue them in it For it is in some sort tho but partial indeed an external performance of the Covenant of Baptism by which they had their first enterance into the Visible Church and by which their external relation to God in a religious sence was first constituted It is in respect of external Christianity that such are said to be in Christ who yet are but unfruitful branches John 15. devoid of that fruit which is called the fruit of the spirit which consists of those internal qualifications described in Gal. 5.22 23. And their being in Christ signifies an external Vnion between them which is made by external Christianity And in such an external respect the whole multitude of the Children of Israel who did not violate the bond of the Covenant between God and them by running into Idolatry were said to cleave unto the Lord which is another word which signifies their being Joyned or United to him which can be understood but of an external Union by external Religion in reference to many of them at least Thus in Deut. 4.3 4. it is said All the men that followed Baal-peor the Lord thy God hath destroy'd them from among you but ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day Where we see their continuing to worship the God of Israel in the use of his Ordinances without following Baal-peor as some others did is called their cleaving unto God And by that they continued their relation unto God uninterrupted But of this I shall have occasion to say more in the next inquiry Thus we see that it is visible Christianity that makes men to be of the Visible Church and Invisible Christianity which makes them to be of the Church as Invisible Those that have visible Christianity are thereby differenced from the Infidel and Idolatrous World on the one hand and by their having no more they are differenced from the Invisible Church on the other and thereby set in a middle state between both and that is in the Visible Church QUERY VIII WHether men are no otherwise Members of the Church as Visible than as they are Reputed Members of the Church as Invisible Those of the Congregational way whether called Independents or Anabaptists have been wont strongly to adhere to the Negative of this question That men are not otherwise Members of the Church as Visible than as they are reputed of the Church as Invisible And it is upon the authority of this Hypothesis that they refuse to admit any to church-Church-Communion but such in whom in their judgment are found evidences or signs of Invisible Church-Membership or saving Grace That none but such have right to