Their Union and Fellowship being chiefly mystical and invisible their Unity is far greater than what outwardly appears to the World and sometimes than what themselves can discern among themselves in particular by reason of many inferior yet very disquieting differences and discords Nevertheless it behoves them to provide that it might appear as much as may be what it is indeed and that it be conspicuous and illustrious in the sight of Men by their walking in love and peace Unity is the Churches strength and beauty the honour of the Faithfull and an argument for the certainty of their most holy Faith It makes Religion lovely and draws forth blessing praise from the Beholders of it and wins the World to a love and reverence of that Piety which makes the Professors of it to live in brotherly kindness and mutual charity But Division is the Church's weakness and deformity the reproach of Christians and a scandal against Christianity and an objection put into the mouths of Infidels against the Faith and an occasion of stumbling unto many In the present divided state of Religion each Party is apt to appropriate Godliness to themselves or at least to carry it towards others as if they did so And they that are loudest in accusing Dissenters of uncharitableness in this kind are themselves as uncharitable as any others It is true that God hath a peculiar People distinguished from all others by a peculiar Character but it is not confined to any Party of this or that Persuasion or Denomination that is narrower than meer Christianity And all true Christians are to receive one an other as God hath received them Indeed the best Christians are to be best esteemed and their fellowship is most desired But if they should be severed from the universality and in a strict combination set up as divided Party it tends to the Churches Ruine For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and if the nobler parts of the Body forsake the rest the whole must needs die Christian Concord doth not signifie an aggregation of things inconsistent as the fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness the communion of light with darkness the concord of Christ with Belial To set up Unity against Piety is a conspiracy against Christ who is King of righteousness and to pretend Piety against Unity is to oppose Christ the Prince of Peace whose Kingdom is the Reign of Love in the Soul Holiness and Peace must kiss each other and as inseperable Companions walk together It is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external Order without fellowship in the Divine Life is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new nature and to walk together in the same holy way This is far more excellent than the greatest compliance in matters of meer external order and consequently much more regardable in our estimation and reception of Persons Though to meet in one place be not of so great importance as to be joyned in one Spirit yet it must not be counted a small matter The unity of Faith and Love is much concern'd in the unity of Church Communion it will be a matter of some difficulty for them to live together in Love whom one Church cannot hold Church divisions commonly divide affections and draw men into Parties and divided Interests and make them seek to strengthen their own Party by weakening all others to the great dammage of true Religion in general For which cause the unchurching of Churches and renouncing of Communion with them that are sound in the Doctrine of Faith and Sacrament and in the substance of Divine Worship should be dreaded by all sober Christians yea all unnecessary distances should be avoided least they lead to greater alienations and direct enmities and oppositions Those Churches that cannot hold local communion one with another by reason of differences that destroy not the essentials of Christianity should yet maintain a dear and tender Christian love one to another and profess their owning of each other as Churches of Jesus Christ and should agree together upon certain just and equal Rules for the management of their unavoidable differences so as may least prejudice charity and common good and least harden the ungodly and grieve the weak or dishonour God or hinder the success of common great and necessary truths upon the Souls of men amicably promoting the common cause of Christianity and every part thereof in which they are agreed and opening their disagreements to the People as little as they can Schism is an unwarrantable separation from or division in a Church and without controversie it is a heinous sin and to be detested both for its exceeding sinfulness and wofull consequents But it hath been so disguised and the odious name hath been so confusedly cast abroad and so unreasonably and maliciously misapplied that it is too slightly thought of where it should be sadly laid to heart For it is common with the strongest Party be it right or wrong to call themselves the Church and to have no better name for others than Schismaticks And so the reproach is but contemned by them that suffer it and the sin it self is too little feared on all sides But it is not a Temporal Law nor Secular Power nor any prevalence of Strength or Interest that makes a Church and none of these things will excuse them from Schism that act uncharitably against their Brethren and obstruct the progress of the Gospel and the increase of Godliness Nor are they forthwith to be counted Schismaticks who cannot in all points observe the Commandments of men and cannot neglect to yield their help to the saving of Souls that would otherwise want due means of Salvation when God hath called them to that Service with a woe unto them if they Preach not the Gospel For as much as all must dread the guilt of Schism truly so called let it be well considered that Ecclesiastical Superiors are as much concerned to take heed of Schismatical impositions as the People are to shun Schismatical Recusancy and Disobedience As well the Pastors Wisdom as the Peoples due submission is here importunately called for When Superiors know how to Command and Inferiors how to Obey things will go as well as may be hoped for in this our imperfect state here upon Earth As the Peace of a corrupt state of Religion is best assured by suppressing all conscientious inquiries into its Decrees so the Peace of the true Church and of the sound state of Religion is most secured by the most perfect exercise of sound Judgment and upright Conscience in all its adherents That Church that claims to her self an infallibility or challenges and obtains from her partakers an implicit Faith in her determinations without further enquiry needs not fear the breaking of the bond of her Peace if she multiply constitutions and impose any devised Doctrines and Ordinances sutable to
the Spirit among Christians is witnessed maintained and strengthened by their holy communion of Love and Peace one with another but is darkened weakened and lessened by their uncharitable Dissentions Hence it is evident that the Unity here commended is primarily that of the Church in its internal and invisible State or the Union and Communion of Saints having in themselves the Spirit and Life and Power of Christianity T is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external order with a vital Union with Christ and holy Souls his living members is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new Nature and Divine Life Secondarily it is the Unity of the Church in its external and visible State which is consequent and subservient to the internal and stands in the profession and appearance of it in the professed observation of the duties arising from it Where there is not a credible Profession of Faith unfeigned and true Holiness there is not so much as the external and visible Unity of the Spirit Therefore a sensual Earthly generation of men who are apparently lead by the Spirit of the World and not by the Spirit that is of God have little cause to glory in their adhering to an external Church order whatsoever it be Holy love which is unselfed and impartial is the Life and Soul of this unity without which it is but a dead thing as the Body without the Soul is dead And this love is the bond of perfectness that Cement that holds altogether in this mystical Society For this being seated in the several members disposeth them to look not to their own things but also to the things of others and not to the undue advancement of a Party but to the common good of the whole Body Whosoever wants this love hath no vital Union with Christ and the Church and no part in the Communion of Saints The Church is much more ennobled strengthened and every way blessed by the Communion of holy love among all its living members or real Christians than by an outside uniformity in the minute circumstances or accidental modes of Religion By this love it is more beautifull and lovely in the eyes of all intelligent beholders than by outward pomp and ornament or any worldly splendor The Unity of the Church as visible whether Catholick or particular may be considered in a three-fold respect or in three very different points The first and chief point thereof is in the essentials and all weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life The second and next in account is in the essentials and integrals of Church state that is in the Christian Church-Worship Ministery and Discipline considered as of Christs institution and abstracted from all things superadded by men The third and lowest point is in those extrinsecal and accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination Of these several points of Unity there is to be a different valuation according to their different value Our first and chief regard is due to the first and chief point which respects Christian Faith and Life The next regard is due to that which is next in value that which respects the very constitution or frame of a Church And regard is to be had of that also which respects the accidentals of Religion yet in its due place and not before things of greater weight and worth Things are of a very different nature and importance to the Churches good Estate and a greater or lesser stress must be laid upon Unity in them as the things themselves are of greater or lesser moment The Rule or Law of Church Unity is not the will of man but the will of God Whosoever keeps that Unity which hath Gods word for its Rule keeps the Unity of the Spirit And whosoever boasts of a Unity that is not squared by this Rule his boasting is but vain An Hypothesis that nothing in the Service of God is lawfull but what is expresly prescribed in Scripture is by some falsly ascribed to a sort of men who earnestly contend for the Scriptures sufficiency and perfection for the regulating of Divine Worship and the whole state of Religion God in his Word hath prescribed all those parts of his Worship that are necessary to be performed to him He hath likewise therein instituted those Officers that are to be the Administrators of his publick Worship in Church Assemblies and hath defined the authority and duty of those Officers and all the essentials and integrals of Church state As for the circumstantials and accidentals belonging to all the things aforesaid he hath laid down general Rules for the regulation thereof the particulars being both needless and impossible to be enumerated and defined In this point God hath declared his mind Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. 12. 32. What soever thing I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it The prohibition is not meerly of altering the Rule Gods written Word by addition or diminution but of doing more or less than the Rule required as the precept is not of preserving the Rule but of observing what is commanded in it Such human institutions in Divine Worship as be in meer subserviency to Divine institutions for the necessary and convenient modifying and ordering thereof are not properly additions to Gods commandments For they are of things which are not of the same nature end and use with the things which God hath commanded but of meer circumstantials and accidentals belonging to those things And these circumstantials are in genere necessary to the performance of Divine Institutions and are generally commanded in the Word though not in particular but are to be determined in specie by those to whom the power of such determination belongs They that assert and stand to this only Rule provide best for the Unity of Religion and the Peace of the Church For they are ready to reject whatsoever they find contrary to this Rule they are more easily kept within the bounds of acceptable Worship and all warrantable obedience they lay the greatest weight on things of the greatest worth and moment they carefully regard all Divine institutions and whatsoever God hath commanded and they maintain Love and Peace and mutual forbearance towards one another in the more inconsiderable diversities of Opinion and Practice Those things that are left to human determination the Pastors Bishops or Elders did anciently determine for their own particular Churches And indeed it is very reasonable and naturally convenient that they who are the Administrators of Divine institutions and have the conduct of the People in Divine Worship and know best what is most expedient for their own Society should be intrusted with the determination of necessary circumstances within their
own Sphere But forasmuch as the Supream Magistrate is intrusted of God with the care of Religion within his Dominions and hath a Civil Supremacy in Eclesiastical affairs and a great concern in the orderly management of publick Assemblies he is authorized of God to oversee the determinations and actings of Ecclesiastical Persons and may assume to himself the determination of the aforesaid circumstantials for the honour of God the Churches edification and the publick Peace keeping within the general rules prescribed in Gods Word For the maintaining of Church-Unity that is according to Gods word it is the part of Subjects to submit to what their Governours have determined so far as their submission is allowable by the said rule and it is the part of Governours to consider well the warrantableness of their determinations More especially their wisdom and care is much required in settling the right bounds of Unity In this regard the terms of admission to the Communion and Ministery of the Church must be no other than what the declared will of God hath made the terms of those priviledges and which will shut out none whom God hath qualified for and called to the same The setting of other boundaries besides the iniquity thereof will inevitably cause divisions The Apostles Elders and Brethren assembled at Jerusalem Acts 15. 28. writing to the blieving Gentiles declare It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things From which it is evidently inferred that the burden of things unnecessary ought not to be laid on the Churches The things injoyned by that Assembly were antecedently to their Decree either necessary in themselves or in their consequents according to the state of things in those times and places And whatsoever is made the matter of a strict injunction especially a condition of Church Communion and Priviledges ought to have some kind of necessity in it antecedent to its imposition Symbolical Rites or Ceremonies instituted by man to signifie Grace or Duty are none of those things which being necessary in general are left to human determination for this or that kind thereof They have no necessary Subserviency to Divine institutions they are no parts of that necessary decency and order in Divine Worship without which the Service would be undecent And indeed they are not necessary to be instituted or rigidly urged in any time or place whatsoever The being and well being of any rightly constituted Church of Christ may stand without them St. Paul resolves upon the cases of using or refusing of meats and the observance or non-observance of days which God had neither commanded nor forbidden and of eating of those meats which had been offered in Sacrifice to Idols Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way The Command here given extends to Pastors and Governours as well as to other Christians and is to be observed in acts of Governments as well as in other acts St. Paul was a Church Governour and of high authority yet he would not use his own liberty in eating Flesh much less would he impose in things unnecessary to make his Brother to offend In the cases aforementioned there was a greater appearance of reason for despising censuring or offending others than there can be for some impositions now in question among us viz. on the one side a fear of partaking in Idolatry or of eating meats that God had forbidden or of neglecting days that God had commanded as they thought on the other side a fear of being driven from the Christian Liberty and of restoring the Ceremonial Law Nevertheless the Apostle gives a severe charge against censuring despising or offending others of different Persuasions in those cases And if it were a Sin to censure or despise one another much more is it a Sin to shut out of the Communion or Ministery of the Church for such matters The word of God which is the Rule of Church-Unity evidently shews that the unity of external order must always be Subservient to Faith and Holiness and may be required no further than is consistent with the Churches Peace and Edification The Churches true Interest lies in the increase of regenerate Christians who are her true and living Members and in their mutual love peace and concord in receiving one another upon those terms which Christ hath made the bond of this Union The true Church Unity is comprized by the Apostle in these following Unities One Body one Spirit one Hope One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God But there is nothing said of one ritual or set Form of Sacred Offices one policy or model of Rules and Orders that are but circumstantial and accidental in a Church state and very various and alterable while the Church abides the same CHAP. III. Of Schism truly so called HEre I lay down general positions about Schism without making application thereof Whether these positions be right or wrong Gods Word will shew and who are or are not concerned in them the state of things will shew Schism is a violation of the Unity of the Spirit or of that Church-Unity which is of Gods making or approving This Definition I ground on the afore-cited Text Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have learned Separation and Schism are not of equal extent There may be a Separation or Secession where there is no Schism For Schism is always a Sin but Separation may be a Duty as the Separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome Moreover there may be Schism where there is no Separation The violation of Unity or the causing of Divisions may be not only by withdrawing but by any causing of others to withdraw from the Communion of the Church or by the undue casting or keeping of others out of the Church or by making of any breaches in Religion contrary to the Unity of the Spirit By looking back to the nature and rule and requisites of true Church-Unity we shall understand the true nature and the several kinds and degrees of Schism As holy love is the life and Soul of Church-Unity so that aversation and opposition which is contrary to love is that which animates the sin of Schism and is as it were the heart root of it Whosoever maintains love and makes no breach therein and whose dissenting or withdrawing from a Church is no other than what may stand with love in its extent is no Schismatick The Unity of the Spirit being primarily that of the Church as mystically the breach thereof lies primarily in being destitute of the Spirit and Life Spiritual much more in being opposite thereunto under the shew of Christianity also in the languishing or lessening of Spiritual Life especially of the acts of holy love The Unity of the Spirit being secondarily that of the Church as visible in its external state and the first and
our heads is by custom taken for irreverence and incivility and therefore to be avoided as offensive All matters of necessary decency are in their generals of the Law of nature and in the particulars to be ordered by human prudence All natural expressions of devotion as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer are allowed by all sorts We call them natural because nature it self teacheth to use them without any positive institution divine or human and a rational man by the meer light of nature is directed to use them yet not without some government and discretion For herein nature it self is subject to some variety and is in part determined and limited by the custom of several ages and countries as for instance in the prostration of the body in the act of adoration in the wearing of Sackcloth and renting of clothes in time of great humiliation which in former ages were sutable and that according to nature but not now adays in regard of the variation of custom And I suppose that in this sense St. Paul speaks against wearing of long hair as contrary to nature But there hath been much controversie about such Ceremonies as contribute nothing to the aforesaid necessary decency and are no natural nor civil and customary expressions of reverence and devotion but are of human institution and of a mystical and meerly instituted signification and made visible stated signs of Gods honour and the immediate expressions of our observance of him and obligation to him and by some supposed to be not meer circumstances but parts of divine Worship and yet more especially if they be designed in their use for that significancy and moral efficacy that belongs to Sacraments and made no less then the Symbals of our Christianity It lies not on me to determine on either side in this controversie nevertheless it is easie to apprehend this that it can be no danger nor dammage to be sparing in those things which being at least doubtfull and unnecessary have turned to endless strife and scandal between those that own the same doctrine of Faith and the same Church Communion Likewise it can do no hurt to reformed Christianity not to insist on that latitude in devised rites of worship that will acquit the greatest part of the Ceremonies used in the Church of Rome from the charge of Superstition and which makes way for the oppressing of the Churches and the sinking of religion under a luggage of unprofitable institutions To make any thing necessary and commanded of God which he hath not commanded and to damn any thing as forbidden by him which he hath left indifferent and to dread left God should not be pleased unless we do somethings which we need not do and lest he should be displeased when we do somethings not forbidden is no doubt the crime of Superstition but it is not the whole extent of that sin For it is no less Superstition to feign God to be pleased with mens vain inventions yea though they be not injoyned or observed as divine precepts and this also is to teach for Doctrines the commandments of men And who are the greater controlers of Gods wisdom and usurpers upon his authority They that fear to do what God hath allowed supposing it to be forbidden or they that presume to add their own inventions for the bettering of his service and make the omission thereof as criminal as the neglect of divine ordinances Doubtless it is a more tolerable Superstition to be over solicitous and scrupulous about the commandments of God than to be over-confident and vehement in the unwarrantable or questionable traditions of men Human devices multiplyed in Gods worship ingender to much vanity and superstition in the zealous observers of them and are apt to extinguish the inward life of Godliness as rank weeds choak the corn and they are commonly made a Cloak to real ungodliness And if some of them were first introduced with pious intention yet they are commonly maintained and multiplied to serve a carnal Interest And they are the more easily entertained and observed because it is easie to the flesh to buy out the inward Service of God and the subjection of the inward man by superficial bodily exercise But the depretiating of these devices serves to pluck off the mask of hypocrisie made up of meer formalities and to invigorate the life and spirit of true Religion To be the Ministration of the Spirit is the excelling glory of the Gospel Ministration wherewith a grave and sober decency and comely ornament doth well accord but excessive gaudiness pompous and theatrical shews various gesticulations and affected postures are vanities too much detracting from its dignity and spiritual Majesty CHAP. IV. The due dispensation of Gods word WHen our Lord Jesus ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men appointing and furnishing Spiritual Officers for the Service of his Kingdom some extraordinary and temporary as Apostles Prophets Evangelists others ordinary and successively perpetual as Pastors and Teachers Wherefore the interest of Christianity lies much in a right Gospel Ministery which is sutable and serviceable to our Lords design and the ends of his Gospel And it is a Ministery which is pure and uncorrupt dispensing the truth as it is in Jesus whereby men are brought to sound faith and true holiness which is vigorous and powerful apt to take hold of the conscience and reach the heart which is sollicitous and laborious travelling in birth till Christ be formed in the hearers and the Man-child the new creature be born into the world which is assiduous and instant in preaching the word by instruction reproof and comfort that as much as in it lies it may present every man perfect in Christ which comes with full Scripture evidence and cogent reason with solid matter in stile and language not negligent much less undecent yet not too curious and elaborate but free vehement grave serious and fit for the work in hand which is not to tickle ear but to break open the heart which is exemplary in faith purity charity self-denial and contempt of the world and finally which is not mercenary but naturally cares for the state of the flock and accommodates it self thereunto as its great charge and chief concern And who is sufficient for these things saith the great Apostle Doubtless much wisdom and grace is needfull in an able Minister of the new Testament and a Workman that needs not to be ashamed It being pre-supposed that he holds fast the form of Sound words and that he is throughly instructed in the mystery of Godliness which he is to impart to others in the first place his prudence will be concerned for the judicious management of the dispensation committed to him A prudent dispenser of the word will take care to deliver nothing to others but what is very intelligible to himself and whereof he can make good sense and render a reason to those that ask it He doth not
rash with their mouths and hasty to utter any thing before God that is unmeet they are subject to the discipline of the Church to be censured for their errour Moreover heightened affections inlarge the heart and open the mouth and do not make a man at a stand for want of words Indeed astonishing affection or an extasie of Spirit may put one to such a stand but that rarely takes hold of any in a pubick performance But a calm admiration and reverence of God and seriousness and earnestness of address to him doth not hinder but further apâ—expressions For the use of one constant Form it hath been pleaded that a stranger may thereby the better know how we Worship God and that the people better understand and remember that to which they are continually used But on the other hand variety and newness of matter and words are more apt to quicken the affection and perfect the understanding also especially of the attentive whenas under the constant rehersal of one thing the faculties grow flat and dull Besides in the use of this liberty and variety the Prayer being ordinarily the same for substance in the main the vulgar apprehension and memory is help'd by the sameness of the main substance and scope and the affections are raised and the understanding further edified by that which is new in the frame and method and particular matter and the peoples more particular variable concernments are provided for by a more peculiar accommodation and respect thereto as occasions vary And by the received doctrine of Faith a stranger may be sufficiently ascertain'd of the substance of the Worship to be celebrated For a Doctrine of a Church governs its Worship and it is well known that one the same tenor thereof will pass through the several congregations of a nation that are not confined to a stinted Form yet combined in the same faith and order And when all is said that management and performance of this Service is the best that is most effectual to make the Comers thereunto more perfect in knowledge more devout and zealous towards God more pious and blameless in their conversation and every way more perfect in the divine life and it will be so acknowledged by them that are discerning and serious in the things of God But to conciliate the minds of men diversly affected in this matter and to prevent the inconveniencies and to obtain the good of either way a prescribed Form and a free Prayer will do best together in reference to the Churches peace and edification CHAP. VI. The right Administration of Ecclesiastical discipline THe Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God are Pastors of the Church and Pastoral authority includes both teaching and ruling and implies the peoples subjection in the Lord to their Doctrine and discipline To bereave the Church of discipline is to leave it unfurnished of that means which is necessary to the preservation of all orderly Socities of mankind It is to turn the Garden of the Lord by plucking up the fence thereof into a Common or Wilderness The power intrinsecal to this Office is not secular and coercive by temporal penalties but purely Spiritual which is in the name of Christ and by authority from him the chief Pastor to watch over the Flock to encourage them that live conformably to the Gospel by the consolations thereof and to warn them that walk disorderly and if any continue obstinate therein to declare them unworthy of church-Church-Communion and Christian converse and to require the faithful to have no fellowship with them to the intent that they may be humbled and reformed As the Discipline of all Societies is to be regulated by their true interest and and chief scope so is this of the Church of God Now the Christian Church looks mainly to the honour of Christ and the glory of Gods grace in him and to the Salvation of men for which ends it was ordained And consequently its true interest lies in the conservation and augmentation of true Christianity or the power of godliness but that Church interest which is elsewhere fixed and levelled to an other mark appertains to a carnal and worldly State set up in the room and pretence of this Spiritual Society The Churches true and proper excellency lies not in worldly splendor opulency and power nor in outward rites and formal unity nor in the stability and amplitude of a meer external State but in the inward light and life in the unfained faith and love in the purity and Spiritual unity of believers and in the security and advancement of this internal State and of the external State in order to the internal Wherefore the right end of discipline is not to promote temporal glory and opinions and formalities thereunto subservient but the Apostolick faith and worship and the regeneration of the professors thereof and their sincere devotion Godly unity Sobriety Righteousness Brotherly-kindness and common Charity and all the vital parts of Christianity and to keep and cast out Heresie Superstition Profaness Unrighteousness and all wicked error and practice that tends to frustrate the designs of Christs Gospel as also to prevent and remedy the causless tearing and renting of Churches and those alienations and animosities among Christians that proceed only from the wills and lusts of men And the management hereof to this right end is of far greater consequence than any scrupulosity or preciseness about its external form and order Nay if an external order could be proved to be primitive and Apostolical and were perverted and abused to inforce corrupt doctrines scandalous and insnaring inventions and impositions and in a Ceremonial strictness to indulge real profaness and discourage true Godliness it were no other then the mystery of a carnal state under a Spiritual name having a form of godliness but denying and suppressing the power thereof The right end of Discipline being such as hath been declared it follows that its proper work is to incourage Godliness and to disgrace open sin Accordingly being rightly managed it admonisheth the unruly casts out the obstinate and restores the penitent About these things it is active watchfull and vigorous What severity it hath it exerciseth in correcting real scandals and gross breaches of Gods Law and in maintaining the Churches peace against those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have received that is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles But it careth little for those matters wherein the life and power of Religion and the Churches peace and edification is unconcerned Much less doth it seek to quench godly zeal and to hinder the necessary means of the increase of true godliness or to afflict peaceable and pious Christians by any needless rigors CHAP. VII Religious Family-government IN the time of the Law the solemn Dedication of houses was in use the Solemnity expressing that holy exercises should be performed in it and that the houshold should be
not lasting but by usual and easie changes their weakness is discovered To tie a People to certain little rules and methods in Church Discipline that are geâ—erally displeasing as the necessary terms of â—hurch Priviledges when the ends of Discipline may be as well obtained without them is at the best but the vanity of a needless trouble in doing that with much ado which might be done with less and it may occasion an incurable breach and the rejection of the whole Form of Government Narrow and uncertain boundaries of Church Communion and arbitrary and rigid rules of admission are contrary to that ample and fixed Church state which is necessary to uphold and propagate true Religion The Faith of Christ hath been propagated and perpetuated in large Kingdoms and Nations by incompassing under its external Rule and Order the multitude that made profession though they might faâ—… short of the New Birth and those things thaâ— accompany Salvation And it doth not rooâ— or spread in any sort considerable in a Region where the order of admission is set by the rigid and narrow principles of a small Party and the general multitude lies open as waâ—… ground for any to invade or occupy The strength and security of the Protestant Reformation came by the taking in of Kingdomâ— and whole Dominions within its compasâ— The external Kingdom of God must needs be much wider than the internal It is like the draw Net that gathered Fishes good and bad and like a Corn Field wherein Wheaâ—… and Tares grow together till the Harvest Moreover the increase of professed Christian makes way for the increase of regenerate Christians and Converts to the power of Godliness are generally made out of the mass of People of an Orthodox profession and few of them are turned immediately from Infidelity Popery or any Heresie CHAP. XXIV The Care and Wisdom of the Church in preventing and curing the evil of Fanatical and Sectarian Error AMong the Wiles of Satan whereby he depraveth the Spiritual excellency of pure Religion and mightily hinders its advance in the Kingdoms of this World Fanatical and Sectarian aberrations are not the least If these follies were but heeded by those that are most in danger before they are ingaged and drunken with errour it were in great part an antidote against this mischief For the well minded that are but weak and of easie impression are lead aside chiefly for lack of attention and observation Many are Children in understanding and many are passionate and inconsiderate and an innate levity and inconstancy of mind is very common It behoves the Guides of the Flock to possess the minds of the People with sober principles and to have a watchfull eye upon the first rising of any Pragmatick Fancies that feed on notions and novelties under a shew of a more discerning Spirit in Gospel Mysteries than others have Such being vanity puff'd up will be starting questions and multiplying slight exceptions against the received Truth and will please the itching ears and slight Spirits of some pretenders to Godliness who will become their hasty proselytes and join with them to unravel one thing after another in the texture of holy Doctrine And by the repute of their good parts and seeming Piety may stagger others of good intentions but weaker judgments And of this sort none are more dangerous than vain-glorious Teachers ambitious of leading Parties and by plausible indowments furnished for such designs These to raise their own fame and make to themselves a devoted People will become absolute Sect-Masters and those that close with them they hold with pleasing devices and serve their humours that they may serve themselves of them There is also in some Persons a right Sectarian leaven which is evermore to follow peculiar Opinions and some separated Party in Religion and they speak security to their own Souls by being of such an Opinion or of such a Party Against the Sectarian and Fanatick Spirit it concerns the Church to keep a continual watch and ward but not so as to imprison the truth to lock up the key of knowledge to stifle Godly zeal to detain a People in dead and dull principles that will not reach to the New Birth and Divine Life For this were all one as to prevent or cure a frenzy by causing a Lethargy or some other such like stupidity Moreover a Superstitious formal love and sensual way of Religion will in no wise be able to prevent or suppress this evil but will give occasion to its rise and growth except in times of profound ignorance and silence as in the depth of Popish darkness But whensoever the light breaks forth and the People see with their own eyes and the Ecclesiastical Governours will not admit a true reformation but persecute those that seek it then are many in danger of falling into this opposite extream For they are cast upon it both by the hatred of the present corruptions and by the weakness of their own judgment being not throughly instructed in the solid truth And so they â—un hastily from superstition and externalness into delusion and wild fancies from the common dissoluteness and remisness of those that call themselves Orthodox into a vain boasting of perfection from the usurpations of proud men incroaching upon Christs Prerogative and their false constrained Unity into Anarchy and confusion and from a wrathfull zeal and persecuting cruelty into a disorderly promiscuous and familistical love or indulgence towards all On the contrary a Church state that is agreeable to the Spiritual Ministration of the Gospel and truly Apostolical is the surest remedy against Sectarianism and Phanaticism truly so called When the Church abandons Romish Tyranny and Superstition and yet is settled in a regular and stable Polity when the publick Order throughly promotes the means of sound knowledge and incourageth real Godliness it satisfie the minds of them who justly expect in a Gospel Church and Ministry more than an outward Form even the manifestation of Truth and Spiritual Light and Life and Power anâ— it prevents their wandring to seek after it iâ— the devious paths of Sectaries It is of great moment that of the moâ—… learned able and judicious Persons of Orthodox profession there be many eminently Pious whose authority and reputation may bâ—… able to hold in those whose affection anâ—… fancy is apt to outrun their judgment likewise that the Pastors of the Church who aâ—… called the Light of the World do so walk iâ—… the Light as that there be no occasion oâ—… stumbling in them through notorious Pridâ—… Covetousness Self-Seeking inordinate sensuality or the vehement appearance of any gross evil For the weaker sort is commonly undone by offences And because seducers are very active and spare no cost nor travel but as they have done of old do compass Sea and Land to gain Proselites it behoves the Pastors carefully to keep their People and the People carefully to keep themselves out of the hands of these Hucksters The
common remisness in this matter is deplorable Sometimes the manner of opposition against Seducers is unadvised and prejudicial To contend for truth by wrath and clamour and contumelious language and usage inhanceth the price of Error and adds to its reputation But the surest way is to converse much with our plain hearted People and to season them with right principles and to detect the subtile methods of deceitfull workers and the dangerous issues of their allurements and by honest and inoffensive applications to prepossess those holds of which deceivers seek to possess themselves And here it is of chief importance that the influence of the Pastors and other prudent and able Persons upon the common multitude of professors be more prevailing than the influence of the common multitude upon the Pastors and other prudent Leaders Servile temporizing with vulgar fancies degrades the Authority and Wisdom of prudent Guides and lifts up a vulgar Spirit and will bring it to that pass that the weakest and most inconsiderate shall sway the Churches Interest Let Persons of approved worth be more faithful and noble than by such servility and treachery to raise to themselves a power in the hearts of the weaker sort Let them rather commend themselves by their known Integrity Wisdom and Goodness and by being ready also in all condescention to serve and please them to their Edification And such faithfulness is the surest means to gain them love and honour Let the Religious beware of seeking to be admired and magnified among one another or of overprizing each others esteem This latter seems to be the cause that drew Peter to a fit of dissimulation and separation from the believing Gentiles while he sought too much to please them that were of the Circumcision Sometimes we know not our own Spirits It is good to beware of provocations like to be given or taken Upon a supposed affront or injury men of parts have been hurried into dangerous contests and to make head against petty passionate opposition they have run beyond their own thoughts and wrought strange confusion Discretion and charity seeks to convince and satisfie and not to exasperate an offended Brother It is well observed that no turbulent Opinion or Party doth usually arise in the Church but by the Church's neglect of some truth or duty Wherefore if an evil spirit seek an occasion of mischief reform the abuse and so prevent his working upon the simple And forasmuch as some of upright hearts being deceived with a fancy of a more sublime and perfect way may pass into the tents of Sectaries so far as conceâ—ns Church Order and external Worship a compassionate regard must be had of such as walk honestly and retain those fundamental Truths that may be a ground-work for saving Faith and godly Life Now towards such the greatest charity is exercised in labouring to remove the stumbling-block of their error and to make it plain before them that the Faithfull whose Communion they forsake contend for the Perfection of holy Scripture and the explicit Knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation and the reasonable service of God according to his Word and spiritual Worship sutable to the Gospel Dispensation and the lively use of holy Ordinances in opposition to unwritten Traditions Mens inventions implicit Faith ignorant devotion and meer formality That they declare by word and deed against the iniquity and impiety of this evil World and therefore the world hates them that they insist upon no forms or usages in Religion but what are commanded by the positive Laws of Christ or are necessary in their general reason by the law of Nature that they seek no worldly advantages or advancements in the Church but what are necessary for the support of the Truth according to Gods ordinary Providence and lastly that human infirmities must not be thought strange in them that have not obtained Angelical perfection These and the like things should be laid open before honest People that have been seduced into Sectarian error CHAP. XXV The advancement of the sound State of Religion by making it National and the settled interest of Nation CHrists little Flock cannot go out of the World nor retire within themselves alone from the Nations of the Earth but they must needs remain a part of Kingdoms Commonwealths with the World in general They must take themselves to be concerned in the civil Powers for the Powers that are will take themselves to be concerned in them and their ways For which cause their aims and actions as far as their Sacred Rule allows must be fitted to the capacity of the civil Government and directed unto the generall peace and quietness of the nation whereof they are in which they enjoy their civil rights By this means religions interest may incorporate with the general interest of a nation run in the same channel That pure Religion may take root and spread and prosper it is necessary to bring its external frame to the consistency of a National settlement The just â—aâ—aude hereof is laid in the doctrine of Faith and substantials of Divine Worship and things necessary to Church unity and order but it goes not beyond these And being fixed in this extent it is in a way to gain besides the support and power of the Law the Nations unstrained compliance and approbation As on the one hand Ecclesiastical tyranny is a root of bitterness always bearing gall and wormwood so on the other hand unfixedness and unlimited liberty consists not with that stability wherein all prudent Governors would settle their own affairs as also with that general tranquillity and repose which is the health of any People If one were raised to empire by a meer Fanatick Party he cannot settle himself nor stand upon firm ground till he wind his interest out of their hands and turn himself to the way of general satisfaction To the same intent and purpose it is of great importance so to fix the terms of Church Communion as not to set a perpetual bar against the main body of the People A Church state so barr'd though it were asserted with a veterane Army and could inclose all preferments both of honor and profit within it self to be at its disposal yet it is hard to see how it could ever obtain a firm establishment For a Christian Nation in general being shut out of the Church or barr'd of such Privileges as are supposed to belong to them as Christians are inraged and likely to be ingaged as one Man to oppose that which they take for intolerable oppression Or if they care not to be admitted they will turn to a contrary interest and Party in Religion or to infidelity Barbarism Atheism or some destructive way or other Now the intention here propounded may take effect if the Constitution shut out none from Sacred and Spiritual Priviledges but such as make not Profession of true Christianity or be destitute of that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to true
there is a real hazard of a greater mischief and in hasty attempts of changes things may be carried on beyond the commendable end designed even to its utter ruin For commonly men are not Masters of what they get in such precipitate ways CHAP. XXVIII Considerations tending to a due inlargement and unity in church-Church-communion AN unhappy kind of controversies about Forms of Divine Worship Ecclesiastical Government and qualification of Church Members hath been the calamity of our times The differences in these points have made a sad breach upon Church unity and divided Brethren of the same Reformed Profession both in affection and interest and have been the occasion of much misery In regard whereof some things that make for an amicable condescention among Brethren and for humble submission to Superiors are here propounded for consideration but not as peremptory resolves Though many or most of them seem to me to carry their own evidence Yet it becomes one who is sensible of human weakness and of his own meaness to write modestly in these points about which there is so great a variety of apprehensions The Communion of Saints is the Communion of the Catholick Church and of particular Christians and Churches one with another as Members thereof and therefore we may not restrain our fellowship to any particular Church or Churches so as to with-hold it from the rest of the Catholick Church Our Communion with the Catholick Church is as well in Religious Worship as in Christian Faith and Life As there is one Faith so one Baptism and one Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ and we being many are one Bread and one Body Though we cannot at once locally communicate with the whole Church in external Worship because it cannot possibly meet in one place yet according to our capacity and opportunity we are so to communicate with the several parts thereof and not unwarrantably withdraw from any and this is a vertual communicating with the whole Church Discipline and Government as to the particular Form thereof hath much more obscurity than the Doctrine of Christian Faith and Life and is much more controverted among the Godly Learned And in more dark and doubtfull points humility charity and good discretion teacheth mutual forbearance In Ecclesiastical Regiment all Church Members are not so concern'd as Church Guides and Pastors are Christ hath not left the affairs of his Kingdom in so loose a posture as to give a liberty of leaving or chusing the Communion of a Church according to our own affections without regard to order A particular visible Church being a Body politick cannot subsist without rules of stable Policy Her censures and judgments ought to be clear certain and uniform or of the same tenor and therefore may not proceed upon such a kind of Evidence as at the most is but conjectural and of variable apprehension Our arbitrary conjecture of an others Regeneration is but an uncertain way of admission to sacred Priviledges wherein no uniform judgment can be held between several Churches nor the several Members of the same Church nor by the same Person with himself at several times For mens apprehensions about the Spiritual Estate of others are exceeding different and inconstant But whether a Person make a credible profession or be competently knowing or grosly ignorant whether he be scandalous or walk orderly is capable of certain evidence and of constant regular proceeding thereupon Let it be considered whether of these two either to proceed with men according to our private hopes and fears about their internal state or according to stated Rules and certain Evidence be the surer way to preserve the Church in Peace and to propagate true Piety Also whether Persons passable by such publick Rules can in Ecclesiastical Tryal be judged to be ungodly or to make a false profession whatsoever our private fears are concerning them And if their Profession be not proved false whether it be not to pass for credible in that Tryal Human Laws and publick Judgments presume them to be good that are not evicted to be bad Private familiarity is at every ones choice but our church-Church-communion being a publick matter must be Governed by publick and common Rules and not by private will If a Church impose such Laws of her Communion as infer a necessity of doing that which is unlawfull there is a necessity of abstaining from her Communion so far as those unlawfull terms extend Churches mentioned in Scripture had their corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Manners yet the Godly did not separate from them for those corruptions nor were commanded so to do Indeed they are commanded to come out of Babylon which is no other than to separate from Idolatrous Heretical Antichristian Societies Yet in suggesting this I do not encourage to a stated Communion in such Churches as have no other Ministers placed in them than such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of Souls commited to them that is who are unable to teach or teach corruptly either teaching pernicious Doctrine or abusing mishandling and misapplying sound Doctrine to encourage the Ungodly and discourage the Godly For the Scripture bids us beware of blind Guides and false Prophets By continuing in Church-communion we partake not of the Sins of others which we have no power to redress nor are we made guilty by their leaven if it doth not infect us and profane Persons are no more countenanced by our presence than those lewd Priests the Sons of Eli were by the Peoples coming to sacrifice In communicating in holy things we have internal Communion only with the faithfull and as for the meer external Communion it is with those that have as yet an outward standing in Christ till they are cut off by the hand of God or due order of Discipline When a Minister hath done his part to keep off the unworthy in the dspensing of the Sacrament to such he is in a moral sense meerly passive so that their unworthy participation cannot be imputed to him Nor in such an Administration is a practical lie or any falshood uttered For the Sacrament seals the mercy of the Covenant not irrespectively but conditionally and the words of the application must be so understood If we have not power to separate an obstinate scandalous offender from the Church yet the withdrawing of our selves from him is an Excommunication in some degree and the effect thereof is hereby in part obtained When Ministers and People do their duties in their Places without usurpation of further Power than they have warrant for then all will be though not so well as it might yet as it can be at present Of several modes and methods of publick Action Prudence makes choice not always of what is simply best but of that which is most passable if it be not so disorderly as to marr the substance or frustrate the end of an Administration In sacred Adminstrations we may yield without sin to others sinfull weaknesses
Lot of inheritance in the glory of it doth not value the concerns thereof above all his chief joys that are but of this World A zeal for the common Faith and a constraning love to all the Faithfull hath excited a very mean and weak one to do what he was able on this important Subject impartially searching after their common good Let the Prince of this Society one of whose names is Counsellour deliver his Flock from all dangerous and disadvantageous error and from wandring in broken Parties by unstable and divided Counsels and shew them graciously the right way of maintaining a consistency among themselves and of gaining upon the reconcilable part of men And forasmuch as this Prince and Leader is the Lamb of God whose Banner is Love let his people every where be acted by the Spirit of Love and shew forth the meekness of Wisdom in all good Conversation with Humility Patience and Long-suffering having this Principle deeply imprinted in them The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God The point of CHURCH-UNITY AND SCHISM Discuss'd CHAP. I. Of the Church and its Polity THe Church is a Spiritual Common-wealth which according to its primary and invisible State is a Society of regenerate Persons who are joyned to the Lord Christ their Head and one to another as fellow Members by a mystical Union through the Holy Spirit and are justified Sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Life but according to its secondary and visible state it is a Society of Persons professing Christianity or Regeration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the Symbals of that Profession and made partakers of the external priviledges thereunto belonging There is one Catholick Church which according to the invisible Form is the whole company of true Believers throughout the World and according to its visible Form is the whole company of visible Believers throughout the World or Believers according to human judgment This Church hath one Head and Supream Lord even Christ and one Charter and System of Laws the Word of God and Members that are free Denizons of the whole Society and one Form of Admission or solemn Initiation for its Members and one kind of Ministery and Ecclesiastical Power This Church hath not the power of its own Fundamental Constitution or of the Laws and Officers and Administrations intrinsecally belonging to it but hath received all these from Christ its Head King and Lawgiver and is limited by him in them all Nevertheless it hath according to the capacity of its acting that is according to its several parts a power of making Secondary Laws or Canons either to impress the Laws of Christ upon its Members or to regulate circumstantials and accidentals in Religion by determining things necessary in genere not determined of Christ in specie As the Scripture sets forth one Catholick Church so also many particular Churches as so many Political Societies distinct from each other yet all compacted together as parts of that one ample Society the Catholick Church Each of these particular Churches have their proper Elder or Elders Pastor or Pastors having authority of teaching and ruling them in Christs name An Ecclesiastical Order of Presbyters or Elders that are not Bishops is not found in holy Scripture For all Presbyters or Elders being of a sacred Order in the Gospel Church that are any where mentioned in Scripture are therein set forth as Bishops truly and properly so called and are no where set forth as less than Bishops These Elders or Bishops are Personally to Superintend all their Flock and there is no grant from Christ to discharge the same by Delegates or Substitutes A distinction between Bishops and Presbyters and a Superiority of the former over the latter was after the Scripture times anciently and generally received in the Christian Church Yet it was not a diversity of Orders or Offices essentially different but of degrees in the same Office the essential nature whereof is in both The Bishop of the first Ages was a Bishop not of a multitude of Churches but of one stated Ecclesiastical Society or single Church whereof he was an immediate Pastor and he performed the work of a Bishop or immediate Pastor towards them all in his own Person and not by Delegates and Substitutes and he governed not alone but in conjunction with the Presbyters of his Church he being the President Though several Cities in the same Kingdom have their different municipal Laws and Priviledges according to the diversity of their Charters yet particular Churches have no Divine Laws and Priviledges diverse from each other but the same in common to them all because they have all the same Charter in specie from Christ. Therefore each of them have the same power of Government within themselves And the qualifications requisite to make men Members or Ministers of the Universal Church do according to Christs Law sufficiently qualifie them to be Members or Ministers of any particular Church to which they have a due and orderly call Local presential Communion in Gods Ordinances being a main end of erecting particular Churches they should in all reason consist of Persons who by their cohabitation in a vicinity are capable of such Communion and there may not be a greater local distance of the Persons than can stand with it A Bishops Church was anciently made up of the Christians of a City or Town and the adjacent Villages who might and did Personally meet together both for Worship and Discipline All Christians of the same local Precinct are most conveniently brought into one and the same stated Church that there might be the greatest Union among them and that the occasion of straggling and running into several Parties might be avoided Yet this local partition of Churches is not of absolute necessity and invariable but if there be some insuperable impediment thereof the partition must be made as the state of things will admit No Bishop or Pastor can by Divine right or warrant claim any assigned circuit of Ground as his propriety for Ecclesiastical Government as a Prince claims certain Territories as his propriety for Civil Government so that no other Bishop or Pastor may without his Licence do the work of the Ministery in any case whatsoever within that Circuit It is not the conjunction of a Bishop or Pastor with the generallity or the greater number of the People that of it self declares the only rightfull Pastor or true Church within this or that Circuit For many causes may require and justifie the being of other Churches therein Seeing particular Churches are so many integral parts of the Catholick Church and stand in need of each others help in things that concern them joyntly and severally and they have all an influence on each other the Law of Nature leads them to Associations or Combinations greater and lesser according to their capacities And the orderly state that is requisite in all Associations doth naturally require some regular
chiefest point thereof being in the essentials and weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life the highest violation thereof and the chiefest point of Schism lies in denying or enormously violating the said essentials or weighty matters And it is directly a violation of the Unity of the Catholick Church and not of particular Churches only Not only particular Persons but Churches yea a large combination of Churches bearing the Christian name may in their Doctrine Worship and other avowed Practice greatly violate the essentials or very weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life and be found guilty of the most enormous breach of Unity It is no Schism to withdraw or depart from any the largest combination or collective body of Churches though for their amplitude they presume to stile their combination the Catholick Church that maintain and avow any Doctrine or Practice which directly or by near and palpable consequence overthrows the said essentials The next point of external Unity being about the essentials and integrals of Church state the Sacraments and other publick Worship the Ministery and Discipline of the Church considered as of Christs institution the next chief point of Schism is the breach hereof And this may be either against the Catholick or a particular Church Of such Schism against the state of the Catholick Church there are these instances 1. When any one part of professed Christians how numerous soever combined by any other terms of Catholick Unity than what Christ hath made account themselves the only Catholick Church excluding all Persons and Churches that are not of their combination 2. When a false Catholick Unity is devised or contended for viz. a devised Unity of Government for the Catholick Church under one terrene Head personal or collective assuming a proper governing power over all Christians upon the face of the whole Earth 3. When there is an utter disowning of most of the true visible Churches in the World as having no true Church state no not the essentials thereof and an utter breaking off from communion with them accordingly Of Schism against a particular Church in point of its Church state there be these instances 1. The renouncing of a true Church as no Church although it be much corrupted much more if it be a purer Church though somewhat faulty 2. An utter refusing of all acts of communion with a true Church when we may have communion with it either in whole or in part without our personal sin of commission or omission 3. The causing of any Divisions or Distempers in the state or frame of a true Church contrary to the Unity of the Spirit But it is no Schism to disown a corrupt frame of Polity supervenient to the essentials and integrals of Church state in any particular Church or combination of Churches like a leprosie in the Body that doth grosly deprave them and in great part frustrate the ends of their constitution The last and lowest point of external Unity lying in the accidental modes of Religion and matters of meer order extrinsick to the essentials and integrals of Church-State the violation thereof is the least and lowest point of Schism I mean in it self considered and not in such aggravating circumstances as it may be in Those accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination are allowed of God when they are determined according to prudence and charity for Peace and Edification and accordingly they are to be submitted to Consequently it is one point of Schism to make a Division from or in a Church upon the accountal of accident Forms and Orders so determined according to Gods allowance But if any of the accidentals be unlawfull and the maintaining or practicing thereof be imposed upon us as the terms of our communion it is no Schism but Duty to abstain from communion in that case For explicitly and personally to own errors and corruptions even in smaller points is evil in it self which must not be committed that good may come In this case not he that withdraws but he that imposes causeth the Division And this holds of things sinfull either in themselves or by just consequence And herein he that is to act is to discern and judge for his own practice whether the things imposed be such For Gods Law supposeth us rational creatures able to discern its meaning and to apply it for the regulating of our own actions else the Law were given us in vain Submission and reverence towards Superiors obligeth no man to resign his understanding to their determinations or in compliance with them to violate his own conscience Persons meek humble peaceable and throughly conscientious and of competent judgment may not be able by their diligent and impartial search to see the lawfulness of things injoyned and t is a hard case if they should thereupon be declared contumacious Seeing there be several points of Unity the valuation whereof is to be made according to their different value mens judgment and estimation of Unity and Schism is very preposterous who lay the greatest stress on those points that are of least moment and raise things of the lowest rank to the highest in their valuation and set light by things of the greatest moment and highest value as indeed they do who set light by soundness of Faith and holiness of Life and consciencious observance of Divine institutions where there is not also unanimity and uniformity in unscriptural Doctrines and human ceremonies And they that make such an estimate of things and deal with Ministers accordingly do therein little advance the Unity of the Spirit or indeavour to keep it in the bond of Peace Seeing the word of God is the rule of Church Unity a breach is made upon it when other bounds thereof are set than this rule allows An instance hereof is the devising of other terms of church-Church-communion and Ministerial liberty than God hath commanded or allowed in his Word to be made the terms thereof Also any casting or keeping out of the Church or Ministery such as Gods Word doth not exclude from either but signifies to be qualified and called thereunto God doth not allow on the part of the Imposer such tearms of Church communion or Ministerial station as are neither Scriptural nor necessary to Peace and Edification nor are any part of that necessary order and decency without which the Service of God would be undecent nor are in any regard so necessary but that they may be dispensed with for a greater benefit and the avoiding of a greater mischief And they are found guilty of Schism that urge such unscriptural and unnecessary things unto a breach in the Church Such Imposers are not only an occasion of the breach that follows but a culpable cause thereof because they impose without and against Christs warrant who will not have his Church to be burdened nor the consciences of his Servants intangled with things unnecessary Nevertheless such unscriptural or
unnecessary things if they be not in themselves unlawfull nor of mischievous consequence may be of Gods allowing as to the submitters Thereupon they are guilty of Schism who meerly for the sake of those unnecessary things yet lawfull as to their use though wrongfully urged upon them forsake the communion of the Church or their Ministerial station where things are well settled as to the substantials of Religion and the ends of Church order and when they themselves are not required to justifie the imposing of such unnecessaries Here I speak of contumacious refusers who will rather make a breach than yield But refusers out of conscience believing or with appearance of reason suspecting the said lawfull things to be unlawfull are either accquitted from Schism or guilty but in a low degree and much less culpable than the Imposers who might well forbear to impose Be it here noted that when Superiors sin in commanding a thing exempt from their authority it may be the Subjects duty to observe the thing commanded In this case the said observance is not an act of obedience for that can arise only from the Rulers authority to command But it is an act of prudence equity and charity and it is good and necessary for the ends sake and in that regard t is an act of obedience though not to the Earthly Ruler yet to God who commands us to follow Peace and maintain Unity in all lawfull ways and means In the judgment of the Apostle it is no slight matter to act against conscience rationally doubting or suspecting a breach of Gods Law Rom. 14. 5. Let every man be fully persuaded in his mind v. 14. To him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean ver 23. He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin The command of Rulers is no good security for acting against a rational doubting conscience When I am in doubt touching the lawfulness of the thing injoyned I have no certainty of being on the safer side by complying with Rulers For though in general obedience to Rulers be a certain Duty yet in the particular doubted case I cannot be certain that my compliance is right and warrantable obedience and not a breach of Gods Law Is it plain that I ought to obey the commands of Rulers in things that have Gods allowance so t is as plain that I ought not to obey their commands in things which God hath forbidden Moreover it is as plain that I ought not to act against my own conscience which as being the discerner of the will of God concerning me is of right the immediate director of my actions Indeed my conscience cannot alter Gods Law or make that which God hath made my duty to be not my duty yet it will not suffer me to act in disconformity to its directions Seeing the Unity of the Spirit is always in conjunction with Faith and Holiness to which the Unity of external order is always to be subservient it follows that when Unity of external order doth not tend to advance but hinder sound Faith and true Holiness then a false Unity is set up and the true Unity is abandoned and divisions and offences are caused And it is no Schism but a duty not to adhere to a Unity of external order so set and urged as that it tends to the destruction or notable detriment of Faith and Holiness which are the end of all Church Order The means are good in reference to their end and must never be used in a way destructive to it Of the hinderance of the said ends there be these following instances Here laid down in general without intendment of particular application to any Churches now in being which are left to be tryed and judged by that rule by which all must stand or fall 1. When a Church or Churches a Congregation or Congregations have an establishment of external Polity and an ordained Ministery and a Form of Divine Worship but are destitute of such Ministers as are qualified to feed the Flock and are burdened with such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of Souls committed to them who are either unable to teach or teach corruptly either teaching corrupt Doctrine or abusing mishandling and misapplying sound Doctrine to encourage the Ungodly and discourage the Godly 2. Where there are some Ministers able and apt to teach and duly qualified but their number is in no wise proportionable to the number of the People and there be multitudes that cannot have the benefit of their Ministery so that if they have no more placed among them than those few they have in effect none 3. Where sincere Christians or credible Professors of Christianity are cast out of an established Church by wrong sentence or are debarred from its communion by unlawfull terms injoyned them or unnecessary terms which are to them unlawfull by real doubts of conscience and which Christ hath not authorized Rulers to injoyn as terms of Church communion 4. When Ministers whom Christ hath furnished and called are driven out of their publick station by unlawfull terms injoyned or by terms unnecessary and to them unlawfull by real doubts of conscience and which Christ hath not authorized Rulers to injoyn as terms of the publick Ministery Upon the cases here mentioned I inquire whether the said Ministers and People may not draw together into new congregations Let it be considered whether the determinations of men may be a perpetual bar to true visible Christians it may be to multitudes of them against the injoyment of those most important priviledges to which God hath given them right Yea suppose their consciences were culpably weak in scrupling things imposed yet they may suffer wrong by such an excess of punishment as so great a deprivation And Christ doth not reject them for such weaknesses Let it be also considered whether such injured as Christians are wrongfully excluded from Gods Ordinances and such neglected Souls as are left destitute of the necessary means of Salvation may lawfully be deserted by Christs Ministers Should not the Stewards of the mysteries of God indeavour to supply what is lacking to such by reason of the rigourousness or negligence of others If it be said we may not do evil that good may come nor break the laws of Unity for such respects the answer is that this is not to do evil but a good work and a necessary duty and here is no breach of Unity that is of Gods making or allowing The necessary means of saving Souls are incomparably more pretious than uniformity in external accidental order especially when t is unwarrantably injoyned and attended with such evil consequents If within any local bounds assigned for the Pastoral charge of any Ecclesiastick the People be left destitude of competent provision for their Souls it is no intrusion or breach of Unity if an other Pastor perform the work of the Ministery within
those bounds Subjects may not by coercive power reform the publick State and change the Laws which is the work of the Supream Magistrate But let it be considered whether they may not have their voluntary Assemblies for Gods Worship when they are driven from the communion of the legal Churches by the imposition of unlawfull terms or unnecessary terms apprehended by them to be unlawfull For in this case they are forced either to hold such Assemblies or to abide perpetually without those Spiritual priviledges which are their due and the ordinary means of their Salvation There is a great difference between inimical Separation like Sedition in a Common-wealth and Secregation upon necessary causes without breach of charity And among the necessary causes this may be one that all sober Christians who for conscience sake cannot submit to the way of the Established Churches may be relieved and that none may be exposed for lack of that relief to be lead aside into the error of the wicked as Heresie Infidelity or any other course of Impiety Indeed here is some variation from the ordinarily regular bounding of Churches But the partition of one Church from another by local bounds is not of absolute necessity and invariable but naturally eligible from the convenience thereof when it may be had But the state of some Christians may be such as to compel them to vary from it The scope hereof is not to set up Churches against Churches but either occasional and temporary Assemblies or at the most but divers Churches distinguished by their several places of assembling or by diversity of external order as the allowed Congregations of Foreigners in London are distinguished from the Parish Churches If any object the inconveniencies that may follow the permitting of Church Assemblies besides those of the Established Order the answer is That the wisdom and clemency of Rulers in any Nation where this case may be supposed can provide that as few as may be should stand in need of that permission by fixing the terms of Church communion and Ministerial liberty to such a latitude as may comprehend all the more moderate Dissenters And after such comprehension Christian charity will plead that all tolerable Dissenters that is all who believe and live as Christians may be tolerated within such limits as may stand with publick Peace and safety That which is here proposed may make for the relief of many thousand serious Christians without breach of the external order which is necessary to be maintained and is not set up to the hinderance of things more necessary It is to be noted that the offenders expresly marked out by the Apostle in the Text Rom. 16. 17. were ungodly men that opposed or perverted the Christian Doctrine and being Sensualists and deceivers disturbed and polluted the Christian Societies and seduced the simple into destructive error and practice Wherefore the Text is ill applied to the rigorous condemnation of honest and peaceable men that dissent only in some accidental or inferior points of Religion for which the Apostle forbids Christians to despise or judge one another Yet not only false Teachers but all Schismaticks are here condemned under this description viz. those that cause Divisions and Offences And though they be not direct opposers of sound Doctrine yet being Dividers or Disturbers they practice contrary to the Doctrine of Christ which teacheth Unity Love and Peace But still it must be observed that the reality of Schism lies not in being divided or disordered but in causing the division or disturbance or in a voluntary violation of or departing from true Church-Unity They that cause Divisions are not excused from Schism by the support of Secular Power nor are others convicted of it meerly by the want of that Support The Magistrates power in Sacred things is accumulative not destructive or diminitive to the rights of Christs Ministers and People It takes not from them any thing that Christ hath granted them but gives them a better capacity to make use thereof CHAP. IV. Of the Schisms that were in the more ancient times of the Church and the different case of the Nonconformists in these times OF those parties which were anciently reputed Schismaticks as violating the Unity of the Church yet not Hereticks as denying any Fundamental point of the Christian Faith the Novatians and Donatists are of the chiefest note Forasmuch as both these are looked upon as the greatest instances of Schism it may be requisite for me to consider the true state of their separation from the main body of the Christian Church passing by accidental matters and insisting on the merits of their cause according to their main Principles and Practices As concerning the Donatists the breach made by them had this rise Donatus with his Complices vehemently opposed Cecilianus who had been chosen Bishop of Carthage in design to thrust him out of his Bishoprick They accuse him of being ordained by one that had been a Proditor and of having admitted into Ecclesiastical Office one that was guilty of the like fault This Cause was by the Emperor Constantine's appointment heard before several Councils and many Judges The Accusers still fail in their Proofs of the things objected Cecilianus is acquitted and confirmed in his Office The Party of Donatus failing in their design were carried in a boundless rage of opposition to a total and irreclaimable Separation from all the Churches that were not of their Faction and became very numerous upon a pretence of shunning the contagion of the wicked in the Communion of the Sacraments Their principles were that the Church of Christ was no where to be found but among themselves in a corner of Africa also that true Baptism was not Administred but in their Sect. Likewise they proceeded to great tumult and violence and rapine And a sort of them called Circumcelliones gloried in a furious kind of Martyrdom partly by forcing others to kill them and partly by killing themselves The Novatians took their name and beginning from Novatus a Presbyter first at Carthage afterwards at Rome who held that they who lapsed in times of Persecution unto the denying of Christ were not to be readmitted unto the Communion of the Church though they repented and submitted to the Ecclesiastical Discipline of Pennance He separated from the Roman Church and was made a Bishop by Bishops of his own judgment in opposition to Cornelius Bishop of Rome Cyprian gives a very bad character of him as a turbulent arrogant and avaritious Person But of what Spirit soever he was his Judgment and Canon was received among many that were of stricter lives and he himself is reported to have suffered death in the persecution under Valerian At the Council of Nice Acesius Bishop of the Novatians being asked by Constantine whether he assented to the same Faith with the Council and to the observation of Easter as was there derceed answered that he fully assented to both Then being again asked by the Emperor why
he separated from the Communion he recited for himself things done in the Reign of Decius and the exquisite observation of a certain severe Canon that they who after Baptism had fallen into that kind of sin which the Scripture calls a sin unto death ought not to be partakers of the Divine mysteries but to be exhorted to repentance and to expect the hope of remission not from the Priest but from God who hath power to forgive By this it appears that the Novatians did not deny the Salvability of the lapsed or others that had fallen into a sin unto death but only refused to admit them to Sacerdotal Absolution and Church-Communion And thus they made a very unwarrantable separation grounded upon an unjust rigor of very bad consequence Nevertheless their error was no other than what holy and good men might be ensnared in by the appearance of a greater detestation of sin and its tendency to prevent the lapse of Christians into Idolatry and to make them more resolved for Martyrdom And by as credible History as any we have of the ancient times they are reported to have had among them men eminently Pious and some famous for Miracles They unmovably adhered to the Homousian Faith and for the maintenance of it together with the Orthodox suffered dreadfull Persecutions They had some Bishops remarkable for Wisdom and Godliness and such as were consulted with by some of the chief of the Catholick Bishops and that with good success for support of the Common Faith against the Arrians and such like Hereticks Under a certain Persecution wherein they were Companions of the self same suffering it is said that the Catholicks and Novatians had Prayers together in the Novations Churches and that in those times they were almost united if the Novations had not utterly refused that they might keep up their old institutes yet they bare such good will one to another that they would die one for another These and many other things of like nature are reported of them by Socrates whom some indeed suspect to have been addicted to them yet upon no other ground but because he gives them their due upon evident proof And besides what he hath reported Sosomen thus testifies of them L. 2. C. 30. That when other Sects expired the Novatians because they had good men for the Leaders of their way and because they defended the same Doctrine with the Catholick Church were very numerous from the beginning and so continued and suffered not much dammage by Constantines Law for suppressing of Sects And Acesius their Bishop being much favoured by the Emperor for the integrity of his life greatly advantaged his Church Also L. 4. C. 19. He reports the great amity that was between them and the Catholicks in a time of common Persecution Whether the case of the Dissenters from the Uniformity now required be in point of Schism of the same or like reason with the above mentioned or any other anciently reputed Schismaticks is now to be considered And it is the case of those that dissent not in the substance of Religion but only in things pertaining to the Ecclesiastical Polity or external Order in the Church that is here taken into consideration Of these some being persuaded of the necessity of their own Church-Order desire to remain as they are in their severed Societies yet they do not nullify the legal Churches or Ministery or the dispensation of the Word Sacraments and Prayer therein performed Others being satisfied in the constitution of Parochial Churches and in the substance of the Established Form of Worship would gladly embrace a freedom of Communicating and Administring therein upon the removal of some bars that lie against them and which they think may well be removed Thereupon they seek an Accommodation and Union by a sufficient comprehensiveness in the publick constitution and withall a reasonable indulgence towards those Brethren who for the straightness of their judgments cannot be comprehended Neither Party of the Dissenters here described can be charged with any thing like the Donatistical fury before expressed If Austin sought the suppression of that Sect by the secular power in regard of the horrible outrages committed by them it cannot reasonably be urged for a precedent as it hath been by some for the suppression of men Sober and Peaceable and sound in the main points of Christian Faith and Life Nor can either Party of us be charged with that intolerable presumption and arrogance of the Donatists in confining the Flock of Christ to their own Party or the disannulling and utter denouncing of all Churches besides their own Nor is the ground of our dissatisfaction like theirs which began in a quarrel against a particular Bishop and was maintained by animosity against those that would not condemn him It is well known that another manner of account is to be given of our Dissents If it be objected that those Dissenters whose principles bind them up to persevere in their severed Societies seem in this respect to be as the Novatians who would not admit a re-Union with the other Churches it may be answered for them that reasons have been offered in the foregoing parts of this Discourse for indulgence to conscientious People who are intangled by the narrowness of their principles touching Church-Order Besides they do not stand off upon so harsh and rigorous a point as the Novatians did viz. The utter repelling of the lapsed though penitent from the Communion of the Church And they have ordinarily communion in the Word and Prayer with Congregations that are not of their Church way and occasionally in the Sacrament with those Congregations where they apprehend a care of the exercise of Discipline Nor may they be judged so irreconcilable to the Established Order but that the holy lives of those in the publick Ministery and their lively Preaching and a greater care of true and real Church-Discipline might do much to their recovery In the mean time why may not these be upon as good terms under the present Government as the Novatians were under the Government of their times Church History reports that they were cruelly Persecuted by the Arrian Emperours and Bishops and that they had great indulgence under Orthodox Emperours and with many Catholick Bishops and Patriarchs whose prudent and moderate Government did best provide for the Peace of their Churches But those Orthodox Bishops who took from them their Churches and Estates were chiefly either such as took to themselves a Secular Power and ruled imperiously and with violence or such as with their zeal had more of wrath and rashness than of meekness and prudence This can be easily proved in the particular instances if need were But this is not the case of all Nonconformists For part of them and upon good experiment made they may be found the greater part do not seek to abide in a severed State but desire a Union It is well known they are as sensible of the evil of Schism and
as Studious of the Churches Peace and Concord as any others And though they have not the same latitude of judgment with others in some points yet they have a right Catholick Spirit to promote the common Interest of Religion and more especially the Protestant Reformation and dread the weakning and shattering of it by needless Divisions and are ready to go as far as conscience will allow in compliance with the injunctions of Rulers But they are cast and kept out of the Established Order by the injunction of some terms which in regard of their present judgment they can not comply with but under the guilt of so great a sin as dissembling in the matter of Religion Touching Church-Government they admit the Episcopacy that was of ancient Ecclesiastical custom in the time of Ignatius yea or of Cyprian Bishop Usher's model of Government by Bishops and Arch-bishops with their Presbyters was by some of them presented to the Kings Majesty for a ground-work of Accommodation They acknowledge the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy according to the Oath in that case required His Majesty in his gracious Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs gives a Testimony concerning the Ministers that attended him in Holland in these words viz. To our great satisfaction and comfort We found them Persons full of affection to Us and of zeal to the Peace of Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to be to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations in either as without shaking foundations might best allay the present Distempers They are ready to engage that they will not disturb the Peace of the Church nor indeavour any point of alteration in its Government by Rebellious Seditions or any unlawfull ways Those points of Conformity wherein they are dissatisfied are but some accidentals of Religion and external modes and the Declarations and Subscriptions importing an allowance of all and every thing contained in the Liturgy And they think that these points are not so necessary in themselves or in their consequents but they are very dispensable as the Wisdom of Governours shall see cause If it be objected that if any thing should be yielded to them there would be no end of their cravings that which I have to say is That reasonable men will be satisfied with reasonable concessions and if Subjects know not what is fit for them to ask Governours know what is fit for them to give By granting the desired relaxation the Church would not as some alledge be self-condemned as confessing the unlawfulness of her injunctions or as justifying the Opinions of the Dissenters For it can signifie from her no more than either her indulgence to the weak or her moderation in things less necessary and more controverted which would not turn to her reproach but to her greater justification I have here nothing to say to them that object against any relaxation after that manner as if they desired not our Conformity but our perpetual exclusion Such may be answered in due season And I have here nothing to do with those that argue against us from Politick considerations respecting a particular Interest too narrow for an adequate foundation of Church-Peace and Christian-Concord But my scope is to consider what may be done by the Higher Powers and Church Guides for the healing of breaches according to the Wisdom which is from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie I have made particular observation of those too most remarkable Parties which have been looked upon as the chief instances of Schism in the more ancient times The other Schisms that I find of any remark in those times were raised sometimes by Persons cast out of the Church for their Crimes and thereupon drawing Disciples after them as was that of Meletius a Bishop in Egypt who was desposed for having sacrificed to Idols Sometimes by offence unjustly taken at some supposed faultiness in a Bishop as was that of an Orthodox Party in Antioch against another Meletius an Orthodox and right worthy Bishop of that City only because he was at first brought in by the Arrians sometimes by the exasperations of the People for injuries done to them or their Pastors and outrages committed by their opposites as was that of the Johannites at Constantinople upon the banishment of Chrysostom and somtimes by meer animosity and humor of discontentment as was that of Lucifer a Bishop in Sardinia who separated from Eusebius Bishop of Vertellis and others because they disliked his rash act of Ordaining Paulinus to be Bishop of Antioch as tending to perpetuate the Schism there begun Touching all the said Parties it may be observed that they did not plead that any Opinions or Forms were imposed on them to which their consciences did reluctate nor did they desire others forbearance towards them in such things as might bear too hard upon them but they themselves would not bear with others in that which they supposed faulty but did nither choose wholly to abandon the Communion of the Churches and did not seek nor care for accomodation with them But this is not the case of at least a great part of the Dissenters of these times For they importune an accommodation with the Churches of the Established Order and for Peace sake are willing to bear with the practice of others in that which themselves dislike or doubt of but they cannot obtain a Dispensation from others in some things which are very dispensable points according to their judgment but are forced to abide in a severed state unless they will profess what they believe not or practice what they allow not Now because the judgment and practice of antiquity is much insisted on I pray that it may be considered whether in the Primitive or ancient times of Christianity men yea many hundreds of men duly qualified for the Ministery by sound Faith and good Life as also by their Learning and Industry and offering all reasonable security for their submissive and peaceable demeanure were or would have been cast and kept out of the Church for their Nonconformity to some Opinions Forms and Ceremonies which at the best are but the accidentals of Religion and of the truth or lawfulness whereof the Dissenters were wholly dissatisfied and which the Imposers judged to be but things in themselves indifferent And I further pray that it may be considered whether it be easier for the Nonconformists to be self-condemned in Conforming to some injunctions against their consciences and in deserting the Ministery to which they are dedicated than for Superiours either by some relaxation to make them capable of Conforming or to bear with their peaceable exercise of the Ministery in a state of Nonconformity while some of their injunctions confine them to that state CHAP. V. Of making a right estimate of the guilt of Schism and something more of taking the right way to
Unity THe confused noise about Schism and the unjust imputation thereof that is commonly made hath greatly disordered the minds of many Some have been thereby swaid to an absolute compliance with the most numerous or the most prevailing Parties Others discerning the abuse of this name but forgetting that there is something truly so called have made light of the thing it self which is indeed of a heinous nature I have been engaged in this Disquisition by a deep sense of the evil of Schism and an earnest care of keeping my self from the real guilt thereof and what is here written I willingly submit to a grave and just examination Errare possum Haereticus Schismaticus esse nolo I am liable to Errour as others are but I am sure I am no wilfull Schismatick It is commonly given to men to pass a severe judgment upon every dissent from their own Opinions and Orders Whereupon as that hath had the character of Schism stamped upon it which is not such indeed so that which is Schism in a low and tolerable degree hath been aggravated to the highest and prosecuted against all rules of prudence and charity To make an equal judgment of the guilt of Schism in Persons or Parties the degree of the Schism is duly to be considered Our Saviour teacheth that reviling language contemptuous words and rash anger are breaches of the Sixth Commandment yet in degree of guilt they are vastly different from the act of wilfull Murther And indeed in the kind of delinquency here treated of there are as great differences of degrees as of any other kind The case of those that are necessitated to a non-compliance in some lawfull things by them held unlawfull yet seeking union would gladly embrace a reasonable accomodation is much different from theirs who upon choice and wilfully sever themselves because they love to be severed In like manner the case of those who desire and seek the conformity of others and would gladly have fellowship with them yet through misguided zeal are approvers of such unnecessary impositions as hinder the conforming of many is much different from theirs who designing the extrusion of others contrive the intangling of them by needless rigors Many other instances might be given to express the great disparity of cases in point of Schism all which may teach us in the estimate that we are to make thereof to put a difference between honest minds that by mistake are drawn into Division and those that out of their corrupt minds and evill designs do wilfully cause Division In many things we offend all and therefore it behoves us to consider one another as subject to the like errours and passions We should not judge too severely as we would not be so judged There be many examples of Schismatical animosities and perversnesses into which in the ancient times such Persons have fallen as were otherwise worthily esteemed in the Church Cyril with the greater number of Bishops in the Ephesine Council too rashly deposed John of Antioch and his Party of Bishops upon a quarrel that arose between them And John with his Adherents returning to Antioch did more rashly depose Cyril and his Party and yet both Parties were Orthodox and in the issue joyned in the Condemnation of Nestorius But the most remarkable instance in this kind is the disorderly and injurious proceeding of so venerable a Person as Epiphanius against so worthy a Person as Chrysostom to which he was stirred up by the instigation of that incendiary Theophilus of Alexandria The said Epiphanius goes to Constantinople and in the Church without the City held a sacred Communion and Ordained a Deacon and when he had entred the City in a publick Church he read the Decree made by himself and some others in the condemnation of Origens Books and excommunicated Dioscurus and his Brethren called the long Monks worthy and Orthodox men persecuted by the Anthromorphites And all this he did without and against the consent of Chrysostom the Bishop of the Place and in contempt of him I may further instance in the long continued division between Paulinus and Meletius with their Parties at Antioch though both of them were of the Nicene Faith likewise in the long continued Separation made from the Church of Constantinople by the followers of Chrysostom after his banishment because they were exasperated by the injuries done to their worthy Patriarch These weaknesses in good men of old times I observe not to dishonour them but that we may be thereby warned to be more charitable and less censorious towards one another in case of the like weaknesses and disorders and to be sollicitous to maintain Peace and to prevent discord among all those that are united in the substantials of Christian Faith and Practice and for this end to be more carefull in avoiding unreasonable oppositions unwarrantable impositions and all causless exasperations True Holiness is the basis of true Unity For by it the Faithfull cleave to God and one to another in him and for him and are inclined to receive one another on those terms on which God hath received them all And by it they are turned from that dividing selfishness which draws men into several or opposite ways according to their several or opposite ends Let not a carnal wordly Interest in a Church state be set up against Holiness and Unity Let the increase and peace of the Church visible be sought in order to the increase and peace of the mystical Let no one Party be lifted up against the common Peace of sound Believers and let not any part of the legitimate Children of Christs Family be ejected or harassed upon the instigation of others but let the Stewards in the Family carry it equally and so gratifie one part in their desired Orders that the other part be not oppressed Let not them be still vexed who would be glad of tolerable terms with their Brethren In Church-Governours let the power of doing good be enlarged and the power of doing hurt restrained as much as will stand with the necessary ends of Government Let the Discipline of the Church commend it self to the consciences of men Let the edge of it be turned the right way and its vigor be put forth not about little formalities but the great and weighty matters of Religion Zeal in substantials and charitable forbearance in circumstantials is the way to gain upon the hearts of those that understand the true ends of Church-government and what it is to be Religious indeed Let the occasions of stumbling and snares of division be taken out of the way and let controverted unnecessaries be left at liberty Discord will be inevitable where the terms of concord remain a difficulty insuperable The Conscientious that are willing to bid high for Peace cannot resign their consciences to the wills of men and humility and soberness doth not oblige them to act contrary to their own judgments out of reverence to their Superiors they cannot help themselves