for Church Communion and may be forced to it No nor any that do not desire Christ Grace and Glory before all the Baits of sin 2. Did you think I had pleaded that Men may without punishment do what they list and live in wickedness It 's one thing to restrain them from sin and another to constrain them to sin under the name of Religion 3. Nor did I speak against constraining Atheists and Infidels and Malignant Enemies to hear the Gospel 4. But your force cannot constrain them to believe And 5. You ought not constrain them to Lie and say they believe 6. And you ought not prophanely to Lie in Christ's Name by telling an unwilling Communicant that all his sins are pardoned and that you Seal it to him Do as much good by force as you can but do no mischief L. But hath not the King more power over your Family than you have Sure the highest power is the greatest and containeth all the lower in it The last words are a great mistake Political Power doth not contain Natural Personal and Oeconomical and Ecclesiastical in it but supposeth them all unalterable and pre-existent and only useth them to Political ends that is the safety and good of the Common-wealth And as far as this end requireth the King hath more power of my Wife Children Estate Life than I have That is He may see that I use my Personal and Family Government so as may not hurt the Commonâ—wealth and do more harm than good But that Politick Power doth neither contain nor abrogate the other is evident 1. The King doth not eat and drink for me nor digest my Meat nor rejoice or grieve for me 2. The King doth not sin by my sinning nor shall be judged saved or damned for me 3. The King may not chuse my Wife Diet c. As aforesaid Nor hath he right to lye with your Wife as you have nor to dispose of your Children or Propriety 4. The King that ruleth Priests may not do what the Priest doth administer Sacraments use the Church Keys c. So that all that he can do is to over-rule Personal Family and Church Governors to the common good without destroying them L. It is for the Common good that all be forced to Communion M. Yes if you can first force them to Faith and Holiness else it is for the common Church-confusion Corruption and Mens deceit and damnation and not the common good Chap. XLVI Point III. Of forcing Men to Schism by renouncing Communion with true Churches and Members of Christ. M. III. THe Third unlawful part of Lay-Conformity is that they must be forced from Local Communion with all the Nonconformists that Assemble any where save in the parish-Parish-Churches or Chappels and so under pretence of driving them from Schism they are driven into notorious Schism L. How prove you that it 's their Duty to have any such Communion with Nonconformists Conventicles If you are Scismaticks it 's a Sin to Communicate with you M. 1. I prove Communion with us a Duty Tho' it be not every Man's Duty to be Locally present with us it is every Man's Duty not to avoid it as an unlawful thing but to be willing of it as he hath occasion 2. It is a Duty for all Christians to own Communion with all true Members of the Body of Christ. But Nonconformists and their Assemblies for Worship are true Members of the Body of Christ. Ergo The major is most fully proved by Christ Ioh. 17. 24. and Paul 1 Cor. 12. throughout and Eph. 4. 1 2 3 to the 17. and Rom. 14. and 15. and many other Scriptures The minor I prove All those are true Members of the Body of Christ who have all the Essentials necessary to the Constitution of such Members But so have the Nonconformists and their Church Assemblies as afore described Ergo. The major none but the ignorant of Logick will deny As to the minor They that have true Christian Faith Hope and Love have all that is Essential to personal Members And the Churches that have Pastors and People communicating in that Faith Hope and Love in Doctrine Worship Sacraments and tolerable Discipline are true Churches parts of the Universal Church But such are many Persons and Churches of Nonconformists Ergo. The major all sound and knowing Christians grant For the minor no proof is necessary but our Profession till it be disproved And let the Accusers of the Brethren as they love themselves take this warning before they undertake to disprove it Do it by no Argument that will ten times more condemn your selves and your Church than such Nonconformists 2. The second Argument is this It is a Sin of Schism to refuse Communion with those that Christ receiveth so we own not any of their sin Rom. 15. 6. c. But Christ receiveth into his Communion the foresaid Nonconformists and their Worshipping Assemblies Proved as before 3. It is a Sin to deny the lawfulness of Communion with Christians and their Assemblies for lesser faults than those Persons and Assemblies had whose Communion Christ and his Apostles were for But so must they that will deny the lawfulness of Communion with the said Nonconformists and their Assemblies The major none will deny that take Christ and his Apostles for their Teachers The minor is easily proved The Church of the Jews had Priests unlawfully introduced and corrupt Teachers and Worship and yet Christ disowned not Communion with them in Synagogues and Temple and Houses save only that he Conformed not to their sinful Traditions and Corruptions The Church of the Corinthians had men guilty of Schism and Faction and quarrelling with the Apostle wronging each other sinful Law Suits Scandalous Persons denying the Resurrection grosly abusing the Sacrament and Communion c. The Churches of Galatia Ephesus Smyrna Thyatira Sardis c. had such faults as I need not tell you of Yet no Man is bid or allowed to disown Communion with them You can truly prove no such by those in question Arg. 3. Ad hominem It is lawful to communicate with the Churches of England that have more Faults than the Nonconformists Ergo it is lawful to communicate with them that have fewer We challenge any to prove so many and such Faults by us as I have here before proved by your Church And if for ours Separation from us be a Duty from yours it proves a Duty much more Arg. 4. It is a Schismatical Doctrine which would teach Men by parity of Reason to renounce communion with all Churches and Christians on Earth or near all But such is that which would teach Men to renounce communion with all the Nonconformists and their Worshipping Assemblies The major is unquestionable The minor is proved In that all or near all the Christians on Earth have as great Faults as the Nonconformists and their Assemblieâ— O that God would so bless the World as to make all the Churches of the Armenians Abassians Syrians
Georgians Circassians Greeks Moscovites Papists Lutherans and all other Protestants c. but as knowing sincere faithful obedient c. as those in England that you revile cast out and prosecute L. But Communion in Schism is unlawful But you are accused of Schism and so are your Assemblies M. And the Church of England is as loudly accused of Schism and Heresie by the Papists and too much by the Greeks if the Patriarch Ieremy spake their Sence Art they therefore Schismaticks indeed None forwarder to accuse than the Ignorant or Guilty Judge by what I have said of our Judgment in my Search for the Schismatick We abhor Schism and have laboured to have healed the Wounds of the Church with all our power these 22 years and more And who be they that have resisted it and hate the only healing Balsam 2. It is not true that we must have Communion with no Church that is guilty of Schism tho' we must not be guilty of Schism it self If the Schism be Apostasy that cuts them off from Christ and the Church universal we must not have Christian communion with such that are no Christians But if they are only guilty of Schism from some particular Church and of Schism in the Universal Church and not from it wounding and not dismembring we must not renounce communion with such save only as with any other scandalous Sins so far as impenitence proveth ungodliness The Church of Corinth was much guilty of Schism and so was that of Galatia and yet none were therefore to renounce their Communion Was not Peter guilty of some Schism Gal. 2. I doubt there are few Churches on Earth that are not herein guilty either in East South West or North. And must we renounce communion with them all That is to commit tenfold greater Schism for fear of Schism 3. Read impartially my Search for the Schismatick and if the Prelates thus mentioned be not far more guilty of Schism than we are I despair of ever understanding what Schism is This would be the strongest Argument for separation from them and is so used by many Separatists Chap. XLVII Point IV. Of obliging the Laity to live without any more benefit of Disciplinâ— than is in the Publick Churches M. IV. THe next part of Lay-Conformity is this Christ who instituted Ministry Word and Sacraments hath also instituted a certain determinate Discipline in his Church of great use to the Church and to particular Souls And this is considerable 1. As a Duty 2. As a Benefit And no Man hath authority 1. To disoblige us from a Duty of Christ's imposing 2. Or to deprive us of a Benefit of Christ's giving But Conformity doth both these to the Laity in a great degree L. What mean you by that Discipline I thought our Church had rather too sharp Discipline I hope you mean not the Geneva Discipline or the Scots Presbyteries and Stool of Repentance M. I mean nothing but what as to the Matter the Episcopal Party write for as the Ordinance of Christ The true exercise of the Keys and the previous Acts. That is That God hath made the Church to be as it were the Porch of Heaven a Society gathered out of the Infidel World sanctified to God and prepared for Glory and therefore he would have none in his Church but such as profess Faith Love and Holiness and renounce a fleshly sensual worldly and profane Life And the Pastors bear the Keys of Trust and Government to judge of such that is who are to be taken in and who to be cast out and who to be admonished and cured of scandalous Sins And all the Members are bound to preserve the Purity of themselves and the Society in their places And therefore if a Brother live scandalously contrary to his Profession his Neighbour that hath notice of it is to tell him of his fault and if he hear not and repent not to warn and admonish him before witnesses and if yet he repent not to tell the Church and if yet he repent not and hear not the Church he is to be avoided as one that is none of their Communion But if warning perswasion Prayers and Patience bring him to Repentance the Church is gladly to pronounce his forgiveness by God and to receive him This is the Discipline which Christ hath instituted and the Christian Churches have Professed L. This calling Men to Repentance personally will but disturb and distract the Parishes Men will never endure it And that 's no Duty that will do harm M. They are not fit to be Communicants or Members of a Christian Church that will not endure it It is the Crime of the Church-Governours that they receive yea drive such into the Church as will not endure the Laws of Christ and Church-Duties and then cast by such Duties because Men will not endure them As if you took Scholars into a School that will not endure Government and Correction or Soldiers into an Army that will not endure Command and Discipline and then omit it and leave them to their wills because they will not endure it Or as if you would take Servants that will not be commanded nor endure Labour and then let them be masterless and idle because they will not endure service Who allow'd you to take and keep such in Christ's Church that will not endure either to live obediently or be called to Repentance I confess that to let all Men alone in their sin is the way to some kind of Peace in the Parish But it is not Christ's Peace but the Devils by which he keeps possession of Souls and Countries till Christ break his peace and cast him out such peace will end in endless sorrow L. What Reasons can you give for the necessity of such a sort of Discipline and why it may not be fâ—rborn M. 1. It is Christ's Law and Institution and that is the same reason that we give for our Christianity it self L. But I have read in Erastus Selden Ludov. Moulin and Prin that Christ did but tell his Disciples how they should carry themselves under the Jewish Government and use their Sanedrims or Iudicatures and did not institute any new sort of Church-Discipline M. Christ's taking occasion from the Iewish Judicatures to institute his Discipline doth no more prove that he did not obligatorily institute it than his calling twelve Apostles according to the number of the Tribes and his taking occasion from former practice for Baptism Ministry Elders c. doth prove that he ordained no such things 2. What need Christ command his Disciples to use that Iewish Government which was in use before and they could not avoid 3. Christ knew that the Iewish Government was presently going down and tells his Disciples that they should be judged and scourged as Malefactors in those Synagogues And is it like then that he is calling them to exercise their discipline in those Synagogues 4. If it were so it will hold à fortiore that if Christ
many worthy men such as Mr. Gurnal and others known to us were drawn in by having leave to declare that they took the impositions in such a sence as they thought Lawful as the Arians at the Council of Seleuciâ— and the Acacians drew many in to them by giving them all leave to subscribe in their own sence And though I can justifie none of this yet what ever their words were and though they were not faultless their hearts abhorred Perjury But I pray you ask your friend these Questions 1. Did none that are for separation from the Church of England take the Corporation-Oath and Declaration You know that many of them did 2. Do they ever since avoid Communion with all those men You know they do not And yet none of the Ministers Subscriptions to me seem half so frightful as the Corporation Declaration Do they not then here shew Partiality and themselves justify our Communion with the Conformists Yea when Mr. Eaton and some other Independants wrote against the obligation of the Covenant and of the Oath of Allegiance and many called the Covenant an Almanack out of date did the rest avoid communion with these L. But briefly tell me why you Communicate in the Parish Churches M. Briefly 1. Because Christ hath Commanded us to live in the utmost Love Union and Concord with all his Church on Earth that we possibly can 2. Because they hold all the essentials of Christianity which constituteth them Members of Christ's Church and no errour that nullifieth their Christianity or maketh their Communion unlawful to me 3. Because my own edification hath required it I have long lived where I could have no better Communion and after I found Communion with both sorts most profitable to me I found the Liturgy in the main fit for my serious desires and praises to God and the Preachers that I heard were profitable Preachers and if some words were amiss I past them by and the very Concord and Presence of Christians though faulty is pleasant to me 4. I lived where and when these Parish Churches were slandered by mistakes to be such whose Communion was unlawful and my constant avoiding them would have made me seem a consenter to the slanders and so to be guilty of scandal 5. I lived in a time and place where the Rulers and Laws Commanded Parish Communion and to forbear it against such commands and penalties seemeth plainly to tell the world that I hold it unlawful which is an untruth 6. I had seen whither this extream of separation had brought this Nation formerly and of late and what a hopeful Reformation it shamed and destroyed and that by such Rebellious and mad actions as made them and accidentally others the scorn and hatred of the World and have occasioned all our sufferings 7. I lived where men that I thought guilty of our sinful persecution and the danger of the land did discern the mistake of them that overcharged the Liturgy and Parish Communion and thereupon took them for a proud Fanatick sort of People worthy of all that doth befal them and think they do God service in ruining us all as if we were such And I durst not thus scandalize and harden men in grievous persecutions 8. I was loth to misguide others by my example and I doubted not but when necessity drove them to it many would see cause to Communicate with the Parish Churches And I was willing that they should sooner see these Reasons and not seem to do it only to save themselves 9. I had read the writings of those excellent men of God against Brownists or Separation heretofore who then were the Non-Conformists that did suffer so much for Reformation He that will read what is written by Mr. Iohn Paget Mr. William Bradshaw Mr. Gifford Mr. Hildersham Mr. Brightman Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Rathband Dr. Ames First and Second Manuduction c. and lately Mr. Iohn Tombes the Pillar of the Anabaptists and for hearing by Mr. Philip Nye may see enough for just satisfaction especially in Mr. Ball 's Trial of Separation And though the case of Conformity be since made much harder to the Ministers to the Laity the change is not so great as herein alters the case of Lawfulness or Duty 10. I found that St. Paul charged the Church of Corinth as having among them men Carnal guilty of Schism slandering the Apostles guilty of sinful Law-Suits and defrauding each other bearing with incest disordered profane and drunk at Sacramental Communions some decryed the Resurrection c. The Galatians seem more to be accused than they as depraving the Christian Doctrine The Colossians faulty almost all the Seven Churches of Asia charged with grievous corruption And yet in all these no man is commanded to separate from any one of these Churches nor blamed for not doing it 11. And which is most of all I find that Christ himself who was certainly sinless held open Communion with the Iewish Church in Synagogues and Temples and Commanded the people their duty even to the falsly obtruded Priests and to hear the Pharisees while they delivered Moses's Law though he condemned and separated from their false Doctrine and superstitious traditions and corruptions These are my Reasons for lay-parish-Lay-Parish-Communion L. But you did not answer from such turn away and with such not to Eat c. M. The answer is obvious 1. It is the duty of the Church to cast out wicked impenitent men and this Christ commandeth them but he never bids particular Christians to separate from the Church where some such are because the Church omits its duty For then you should separate from duty from Gods Worship and holy Communion on pretence of separating from sinners 2. But for Family and Private Converse every Christian is judge himself and must refuse all familiarity with scandalous Christians which encourageth them in sin or seemeth to own it God Commandeth no man to do that which is not in his power to put a scandalous impenitent man from the Church is in the Churches power and so that command belongs to them it is not in your power and therefore belongs not to you save to admonish men and tell the Church but to put men from your table and familiarity is in your power and belongs to you Suppose the King write to the City of London to put all Rebels out of their Company and Converse its easie to understand that every one must do it only in his own place Every single man cannot turn such out of the Common-Council The City Rulers must do that and till it be done single men may not deny obedience to the Governours But all may turn them out of their houses shops and familiarity L. But they say it is a receding from our former Reformation and pulling down what we built M. The Separators pull'd it down with a witness but it is no such thing Did the Covenant or our Profession ever bind us to take the Liturgy to be worse than
Ministry on such terms V. They never accused the use of Holy dayes as dayes of Thanksgiving to God for giving such Holy Apostles to the Church and whose memory we honourable commemorate VI. They never accused our Kneeling at the Lords Supper as unlawful but only the casting Godly persons from Communion for not using it when they take it to be sin About the Kneeling the old Nonconformists were not of one mind some thought that every objectum motivum of Adoration was forbidden that was a Creature But others said that every Creature in the World may be such an object Our Meat is objectum motivum when we pray for a Blessing on it If I see the Relicts or Picture of a Friend that I wronged while he was alive I may well be moved by it to beg pardon of God. All his works must move me to adore and praise him But we may not make any Image objectum terminativum or ad quod to which we direct our Divine Worship as a Medium of our sending it to God. The only great difficulty about this is from the argument of scandalous hardening the Papists that live among us Though indeed our Doctrine avoideth that scandal VII They never accused the Ceremony of laying the hand on the Book and kissing it in taking an Oath VIII They never spake against the Ring in Marriage IX They meddled not with the Surplice Tippet Hood Rochet Cope but only the casting men out of the Ministry that dare not use them thinking them unlawful Though we justifie them not X. They accused not all significant use of the Cross but only that in Baptism it seemed to have all or most of the nature of a Humane Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace as it is expounded in the Liturgy and Canon XI They spake not against Episcopacy as it is a presidency among and over Presbyters differing in Degree and not in Office called ORDER and that in a Church of the lowest Species XII They opposed not Arch-Bishops as over many such Churches and Bishops nor Diocesans as Arch-Bishops ruling but by Gods Word XIII They said nothing against Metropolitans Patriarchs Lay-Chancellors Commissaries Officials Surrogates Archdeacons c. as Officers of the King appointed to do nothing besides the Sacred Ministry if they be Clergy-men but what belongs to Magistracy XIV They said nothing against any promise of Obedience to them only in the capacities and in the exercise of the power forementioned XV. Much less did they ever oppose or question Swearing to the King according to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And I with divers others also being for some ends entered as his Chaplains in Ordinary took also that Oath of Fidelity which the Kings Houshold Servants take XVI We never were for any dishonouring of Kings by publick Excommunications much les by Subjects or Forreigners whom Kings never choose to be their Pastors but only in case of necessity for such a denyal of Sacramental Communion to them as Bishop Andrews in Fortura Torâ— and Bishop Bilson plead for which is but to forbear our selves a sinful act XVII We never pleaded for any Elders or Chancellors power of the Keys who are but Lay-men XVIII We never held that Magistrates are bound to add their force by the Sword to the censures of the Church as such and to punish men more because the Church hath by Excommunication cast them out or because they are not reconciled XIX We never thought that things indifferent do become unlawful to us because the Magistrate commandeth them XX. We never held that the Scripture is a particular Rule commanding every accident and circumstance about Gods Worship but only a general Rule requiring all to be done in Love and Peace and to edification and decently c. in those circumstances which must be some way determined and God hath left to variable Humane determination Such as are Time Place Utensils Translations Sections Metres Tunes Methods and Words in Preaching and Prayer Habit Gesture and many such XXI We never held it unlawful to do one of these actions though it were by mistake unlawfully commanded e. g. If the Rulers prescribe a Time Place Metre Tune c. unfit if it be not so bad as to overthrow the ends and use of the Worship the fault of the Commander will not disoblige us from the duty of obeying And whereas some argue that no man hath authority to sin ergo we are not bound to obey that which is no act of authority I answer Rulers have authority to command that which is good though not in a faulty manner and when we cannot do the good without the faulty manner it is their fault and not ours e. g. If an inconvenient Time Place Text Tune c. be chosen the Union and Concord which is held by agreeing in those Modes is necessary He that will not joyn in them cannot joyn in the Worship So that we obey the Ruler or Guide as a determiner of the means of Concord which is necessary and not sub ratione erroris as misdetermining though in that which is misdetermined If a Master bid his Servant go at an unseasonable time about his work it 's his duty to go at that time We never pray without some fault in the manner and yet must rather do it so than not at all The mistaken Ruler bids us not sin It 's his sin to choose a mis-circumstance and it is not his own action that he bids us do but ours And it s to us a lawful circumstance because necessary to Concord and commanded though mistakingly XXII We never held it unlawful to joyn with a Church or Minister that hath some faults both Personal and in their acts of Worship as if all that joyned were guilty of all the faults there committed No not though we knew before hand that some false Doctrine would be uttered or fault committed Else we must separate from all the world and all from us XXIII We never thought it a duty to separate from every Church that culpably neglecteth Discipline and hath open wicked men therein If we be not guilty of it and cannot lawfully live in the Communion of a more obedient reformed Church XXIV We never judged needless affected singularity a duty but judge it best in lawful things for Concord sake to Conform to the custom of the Churches where we live or come XXV Though we think not that men may command us to destroy our Neighbours Souls by scandal yet when disobedience to a Rulers Law is like to do more hurt than the scandal taken at it comes to we are for avoiding the greater hurt XXVI We never separated from any tolerable Parish Ministers or Churches as if they were no true Ministers or Churches nor perswaded any so to do nor to take the Communion of such Churches for unlawful to us either occasionally or constantly when we can have no better without more hurt than benefit to our selves and others XXVII We hold
the Ordainers investing action This is it which we mean in the Controversie which may not be done twice 2. Or it may signifie the meer words of the Ordainers and Ordained which make up the said Moral action We deny not but the same words repeated may make up one Moral Ordination If the Bishop by tautology repeat them twice or thrice Or if they should to satisfie men of divers Languages that are present be first spoken in English and after in French or when some that doubted require it should go over them again all this is but one Ordination L. How prove you that our Bishops intend any more when they say it is only to satisfie the Law that you may be capable in England M. 1. That it is not a meer relation to some particular cure that they mean is undenyable 1. Because they call that by the name of Institution and Induction and not of Ordination 2. Because they never ordain any over and over upon removals 3. Because the words of Ordination in the Book tell it us 2. That they do it not as a Repetition of the same valid Ordination is past doubt 1. Because the same repeated by the same men will not serve 2. It is to be done again ten or twenty years after the first 3. He is to be fined in an hundred pound that administreth the Sacrament without it 4. He is taken for no true Minister without it which cannot be true of a bare repetition of words No reasonable men would lay so much on that 3. It is undeniable that they take men for unordained and no Ministers till they ordain them 1. Because they all disown reordaining they know that the Canons called the Apostles and the whole antient and later Church condemn it as like Anabaptistry and no one Bishop in England will not renounce it Therefore its certain that they take the first Ordination for null 2. And they have so declared their judgment in many words and writings and in the Act of Uniformity it is plainly intimated in the penalty L. And what harm is there in being twice Ordained M. 1. Ad hominem I need not dispute it All the Bishops disclaim it as unlawfull so that we have their confession 2. It is the same fault as Anabaptistry If they be blameless why make you such a noise against the Anabaptists To be twice made a Christian and twice made a Minister is of the like kind 3. It is something causelesly to cast our selves under the Censure of all the Church that hath been against it and to be condemned by them 4. It is a plain prophanation of God's holy name and of a great and holy Ordinance by Lying and taking Godâ—s name in vain For they are said to be now admitted to the Office and this day to receive it and God is told that they are now called to it And all their Examinations and Answers imply that they were no Ministers before and the Bishop saith Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Priest now committed to thee by the Imposition of our hands which all imply it not done before And in so sacred a contract with God to lie to him and prophanely abuse his name and the holy Ghosts and the Duty of Prayer and Praise is tremendous Be not deceived God is not mocked 5. It is a confederacy with Corrupters and Usurpers that arrogate and appropriate valid Ordination to themselves and a confirming all their injury to posterity that all that shall hereafter imitate them may be encouraged by alledging our Re ordination 6. It is a hainous injury to all the other Reformed Churches as if we degraded their Ministers and separated from them all as no Churches For one part of them have no Diocesans and the rest have Bishops that at the Reformation were Ordained by Presbyters 7. It is contrary to one of the Articles of our Religion 23. These we ought to judge them lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick authority given to them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers c. But in other Countries Presbyters have publick authority given them And Art. 36. The book of Consecration doth contain all things necessary to such consecration and Ordaining But it hath nothing for Re-ordaining those before Ordained 8. It is a plain condemnation of the Church of England which hath professed Communion with the Reformed abroad as with true Ministers and Churches of Christ. And we are now told that to communicate with Schismaticks induceth the guilt of Schism 9. It introduceth Anabaptistry or utter confusion into the Nation leaving men in doubt whether for fourteen years the people had any true Baptism while it's a controversie whether Lay-mens Baptizing be valid and Mr. Dodwell maketh all men to be out of any Covenant-title to Salvation that have not the Sacraments from a Minister that hath successive Episcopal Ordination And all Christians must question whether they have not so long here lived out of the Church of Christ without Ministery and Communion Do you think that none of these nine Reasons prove Re-ordination sinful L. But because the Bishops deny it let me hear your proof that the former Ordination here by Presbyters is not a nullity M. I. Ad hominem the Church of England hath as I said judged the like valid in the Reformed Churches by holding Communion with them I cited a great number of Bishops and Doctors in my Christian Concord L. But they say that necessity differeth their case from ours here And even Doctour Sherlock tells you that if God make necessity necessity will make Ministers But ours Schismatically pull'd down the Bishops and now disown the very Order M. There is a satisfactory concession in these words but the accusations are made up of falsehood and deceit 1. Archbishop Vsher and others that thought the Ejectors of Episcopacy were guilty of Schism yet maintained that their Ordination was valid He told me how he pleaded it to the King. 2. Do they think that Salmasius Blundel and all others that have written more against our Prelacy than the English were deprived of it against their wills by necessity 3. What necessity can they pretend to the Hollanders Helvetians Geneva Embden Bremen the Palatinate and Scotland heretofore might they not have had Prelates when they would 4. Was not the necessity far more notorious to those that I now plead for They lived in a Land where Episcopacy was cast out and kept out by a potent Army I think there were but four or five Bishops alive when it was restored 5. It is false that they cast out the Bishops Those Ministers that joyned with the Parliament to cast them out were Ordained by Bishops and therefore are none of the men that we are speaking of These that were Ordained by Presbyters were then young men at School or in the Universities And what are other mens actions to them L. But
M. 1. There is no place of doubting of their universal sence For an Indefinite term in re necessaria is equal to an Vniversal And they except the unbaptized from Christian Burial 2. It is Baptized Infants as such that they speak of and that under no other Character nor with the least exception And a quatenus ad omnes valet argumentum 3. The Canon commandeth Ministers to baptize all Infants without exception that are brought to them on any Sundays or Holy-days to be baptized after the Manner of the Church of England 4. I have spoken with the Bishops that brought in and promoted this Article and they own the universal sence supposing the true form of Baptisme and say that as any man hath right to take up an exposed Infant in the streets and take it in so hath any one to bring the Child of a Heathen Infidel Atheist or Sadducee to baptisme 5. If they had meant it only of some baptized Infants and not all they knew the Non-conformists were of the same mind and then they would have told us what sort they mean. L. I. And why may not an Article of Faith be newly declared we have not read the Fathers It may not be unknown to them And I have heard that they are for it M. The most ancient Churches were so much employed in baptizing the adult Converted from Infidelity that we read little or nothing expresly and particularly what they did about Infants in Baptisme They baptized none at age without a serious Profession of true Faith and Repentance and holy Dedication to Christ They used to keep these as Learning Catechumens long before they baptized them save in case of necessity near death Therefore they had their set-times of the year for baptizing two or three times as our Bishops have now for ordaining And after all this strict preparation they pronounced the baptized in a state of Salvation but it was only on supposition that he was a sincere penitent covenanting Believer Even Hildebrand Pope Greg. 7. in his time concludeth that baptisme saveth none that dissemble or have not the Faith and Repentance which they profess which the Papists do ordinarily confess and Protestants much more And as for Infants the Ancients compelled not Christians themselves to baptize them but left them to their own choice Tertullian is for long delay till-they understand saying Cur festinat innocens at as Greg Nazianzene would have them stay at least three years In danger of Death they alway hastened Augustine and many others that had Christian Parents were not baptized till at Age. And they took Christians Infants as Paul did to be not unclean but holy and would receive others brought by such as adopted or owned them as Pro-parents But it was never the judgment of the ancient Churches that all Heathens or Infidels Children have right to Baptisme and Salvation if any will but offer them to Baptism Much less that it is certain by Gods Word that all such are saved 2. Articles of Faith are all contained in the Scripture and that is not new therefore nothing that is new can be an Article of Faith nor can it be said to be newly declared which was there from its beginning L. II. And why call you it arrogant and dividing M. Because it presumptuously condemneth the Reformed Churches and the Christian World determining that to be so certain by Gods Word that none should doubt of it that will be a Minister when the Christian World is of many several opinions about it L. What be those Opinions about it M 1. Some hold that the Covenant being the same pardoning saving Covenant that is made to the faithful and their Seed and their Children expresly called Holy they are all in a state of pardon and salvation before baptisme and baptisme doth but celebrate and invest them in it before the Church and solemnly seal their Covenant right And that this saving right is given only to the seed of the sincerely faithful or at most to those that have such Pro-parents though the Seed of Hypocrites must be received by the Church that know not mens hearts And this I take to be the Truth 2. Some others hold that this right to Salvation belongeth to them that have Grand-fathers and Grand-mothers or remote Ancestors that were truly Godly Christians 3. Some hold that it belongeth to all the Seed of professed Christians how bad soever the Parents be 4. Some hold that it belongeth only to the Children of true Believers that are baptized but not to the unbaptized 5. Some hold that it belongeth to Hypocrites Children that are baptized but not to the unbaptized 6. Some hold that it belongeth to all baptized ones if they have God-fathers that profess Christianity 7. Some hold that it belongeth to all baptized by a true believing Minister for the Faith of the Church 8. Some hold that it belongeth to none that by Baptism are taken into any Congregation guilty of Heresie or Schism 9. Some hold that it belongeth to all that are baptized by a Minister who is ordained by Bishops that have uninterrupted Canonical Succession and not to others 10. Some hold that the Baptisme of a Lay-man or a Woman may be effectual to the Salvation of such 11. Some Conformists hold that all Infants in the World are saved baptized and unbaptized 12. The most of the Papists hold that the baptized are saved both from the pain of Sense and of Loss but the unbaptized are saved from the pain of sense only but not of loss and so have neither Joy nor Sorrow 13. Many wise Men hold that Salvation is certain according to the first Opinion to the Seed of Sincere Believers but that we have no certain notice at all what God will do with all the rest baptized or unbaptized 14. Many think that God hath a certain number of Infants Elect whom he will save and will cast away the rest but that no man can know who they be though the Faithful may have some uncertain hopes for their Children more than others but no Promise 15. Some think that the Common state of Infants in the Life to come is utterly unrevealed and unknown to us I do not say that none of these opinions should be disclaimed But among all which Learned godly men of all Countries hold to say he that is not certain of some one of them as God's word is unmeet to be a Minister is dividing arrogance of men that overvalue themselves L. III. How then can you make good your charge of falsehood May it not be true among many false ones M. I make it good two ways men must say they are certain that are not certain 1. No man can be certain that God's word saith that which it doth not say But God's word doth not say directly or by consequence that all baptized dying Infants are undoubtedly saved He that saith there is such a word let him produce it It is suspicious that these same men
also many general and collateral and circumstantial considerations that make men fear the guilt of Conformity the more L. What are those I believe you will find as many of that sort of reasons on the other side to move you to Conform if you consider them M. I will tell you what I mean and then I will hear all that you have to say for it I. We are all agreed that no sin must be done for any commodity or on any pretence of good II. We are agreed that to pretend Gods Service or Name for our sin is a heinous aggravation To say I must do evil to please God to Preach and to win souls is Prophaneness and Hypocrisy III. We are agreed that it is worse in a Minister of Christ than in others because he is bound to be an example to the flock who are apt to imitate him IV. It is granted that God is jealous about his worship and that the profaning of Holy things and sinning openly in the Sacred Assemblies is caecris paribus worse than meer miscarriages in our Conversation V. Lying is by most acknowledged a great sin as overthrowing humane credit and converse But especially in a Preacher because it will tempt men never to believe him And to say that we assent and consent and that ex animo when we do not is heinous lying VI. It is granted that man hath not a despotical power of his own understanding to believe what he will And that if any of his errours be vicious vice and errour must have better cure than meer commands And if men could know and believe what they will they should will to believe nothing but what hath credible evidence without a carnal biass VII It is agreed that all men have errour and therefore that erring men or no men must be tolerated in our Communion and he that thinks otherwise condemneth himself and teacheth all men to condemn him VIII It is granted that it is a very low degree of knowledge that the universality of vulgar Christians do attain who hardly learn the common Catechism much less can it be expected that they should all be able to understand all indifferent things to be indifferent and to be judges of the minutissima IX If any errours be tolerable it 's like to be the errours about things indifferent and small X. St. Paul hath expresly determined the Controversy about loving and receiving such Rom. 14. 15. XI To encourage by compliance a generation and design of men that overthrow Christ's and his Apostles rule of Communion and by invented impositions of their own would make Church-Concord impossible and would propagate this way of certain Schism and stablish it in the World is to confederate for tearing the Church of Christ and making Schism common and uncureable XII It is granted that he that after his greatest study is perswaded that unnecessary Oaths Subscriptions Covenants Ceremonies are sinful is condemned if he go against his Conscience tho' he should mistake XIII Those therefore that make such snares for Souls and then tell us If you go against your Consciences you are damned for that and if you do not you are damned as Schismaticks for disobeying us are far unlike the Ministers of Christ or Men that help to save our Souls XIV We Non-Conformists offer cur solemn Oaths that we have by Prayer and earnest search and study laboured to know the truth herein And as our worldly interest would perswade us to conform so we would readily do it did we not believe that it is sin against God Yea we take it as to us to be no small but heinous sin by the aggravations which I am mentioning XV. Seeing then the way of our Condemners is either to cast all Christians out of the Church that have not a greater degree of Knowledge herein than I have and all men of my Rank or else to bring all men implicitly to believe all to be lawful that is commanded them we cannot consent to either of these two Measures for the Church XVI It is agreed that Perjury is so heinous a Sin as that few are greater It so taketh God's Name in vain as to engage his Justice in a special Revenge It depriveth Kings of due Security for their Lives and Crowns by the Oath of Fidelity It destroyeth all Trust and consequently all Commerce among Men as well as all Hope of publick Justice It exposeth the Estates and Lives of all men to the will of Perjur'd men so that he that dare be perjur'd may be supposed liable to any other Wickedness how great soever Therefore if we Ministers should be perjured we should make our selves utterly unmeet for our Office. XVII It is agreed that to sin deliberately by a Covenant under our Hands is one of the most heinous sorts of sinning and if it be done knowingly sheweth the person to be a wilful Servant of sin To sin by the sudden surprize of a Passion is too bad but to study it resolve it and covenant it is most dangerous To engage a Mans self by Covenant to be once a Month drunk or steal or commit Fornication is far worse than the bare Act. XVIII It is granted that Repentance is the condition of Forgiveness and for a man to swear or covenant that he will never repent or endeavour to amend or alter any thing that is amiss is to renounce Forgiveness XIX It is granted that publick common national Sins are far worse than private and personal in few and if heinous they are Prognosticks of the sorest Judgments and to promote them is to be the Enemy of the Land. XX. It is granted that if that prove Perjury which some Dissenters fear is such and the Kingdom should be stigmatized by it there could scarce be any greater Shame and Danger befall the Land to make it odious to GOD and Men and Recorded as such to all Generations As I said The Oaths and Covenants to endeavour no Alteration in Church Government is imposed on all Corporations all Souldiers in the Militia all Vesteries all Non-conformist Ministers that will take it and all Ministers as to covenant in the Act of Uniformity And he that without accusing others only studieth to be innocent of so mortal a feared Guilt sure is therein excusable if the fear of God and the love of our Souls and of the Church and State be not an unexcusable Crime Apply this no farther than I apply it XXI There is so much written for a foreign Iurisdiction over England in Church Affairs by Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bromhall Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell Bishop Gunning 's Chaplain and many others whose Words I am ready to produce as may assure us that it is in the same Mens thoughts to introduce it as the only way to Concord and that they therefore desire the Ejection and Ruine of such as we because we are against it And how far and how soon God will let these men prevail we know not But we
such being Engines of Division and Persecution what promises are necessary is further to be opened nor is Re-ordination or Re-baptizing to be forced on the truly Ordained and Baptized VI. The just Ordainers must needs be the discerning Iudges whom they shall Ordain to the Ministry as such And the Magistrate is Iudge whom he shall approve and maintain as publick Teachers and whom to tolerate as tolerable And every man is a discerning Iudge to whom he shall trust the Pastoral care of his own-Soul as he doth what Physician he shall use for his Life to which Self-love and Self-government do Authorize and Oblige him and no erring judgment of Superiors can disoblige him much less every Patrons Choice VII Truly Ordained and Called Ministers must Preach to their Flocks though they have no other Licence and are by Office Authorized to choose their Subject due Method and Word And if a Form of Liturgy in Prayers Praise Psalms be imposed by Agreement or Authority that all the Church be not left at utter uncertainty what worship they meet to offer to God till it be pass'd out of the Minister's mouth let it be agreeable to Scripture-direction in Matter Method and Words blameless orderly and without just cause of suspicion or offence and let it not be made a snare for Contention and Division by the rigorous urging of needless things nor worthy men be silenced and cast out that cannot Declare Assent and Consent to all things contained in it and prescribed by it by fallible men nor for every omission or abbreviation through scruple or necessitated hast or for not officiating in a Surplice And let the Canons 6. 7. 8. 9. and others that unjustly fetter the Ministers and Flock be Altered or Repealed VIII Let no Minister be Silenced Suspended or Ejected for not publishing Excommunications pass'd by Bishops or Lay-Men against any of his Flock best known to the present Pastor whom be judgeth not guilty or for scrupleing a Ceremony especially upon such Canons as the 6. 7. 8. c. that Excommunicate ipso facto every man not excepting Parliament-ment Lords Iudges or Iustices Parents or Wives or Children that do but affirm That any thing is unlawful or repugnant to the word of God in the Liturgy or Ceremonies or Ordination or in the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Arch-Deacons and the Rest that bear Office therein seeing Wise and Godly Ministers judge such things too light to deserve an Excommunication and dare not so dishonour those Superiors whom God hath commanded us to honour yea and think all Excommunicating ipso facto sine sententia Judicis to be sinful and contrary to the use of Excommunication which supposeth Impenitence And let no Minister or People be forced to publish or execute any Excommunication Arbitrarily Decreed or against their Consciences And let none be forbidden to Preach the Gospel who do not more hurt than good while Iustice may be done by other Penalties IX As Christianity Baptism and Sacramental Communion are gifts from God of unspeabahle value so none at age but willing Consenters to the Covenant of God can have any right to them Therefore no unwilling person should be forced to Baptism or the Lord's Supper and so to profane Gods holy Ordinance and corrupt the Church But in each Parish the meer Auditors or Catechized must be distinguished from the Communicants as meer Catechising and Teaching is from Pastoral Oversight and Church-Conduct X. The Kingdom consisteth of Ministers and People Approvable Tolerable and Intolerable though the publick Temples and Maintenance be at the Dispose of the Sovereign Power and Magistrates yet are not all Laymen that can but Buy or Inherit a Patronage Advowson or Presentation either Authorized by God or Qualifyed with sufficient Wisdom and Piety to choose such as Pastors to whom though Ordained by a Bishop all men are bound to commit the Pastoral care and conduct of their Souls as is aforesaid Therefore to this Relation the Peoples Choice or Consent is necessary And because Parish Churches are by fixed Neighbourhood the most convenient Order the Rulers should either make those the Publick Teachers whom the People can take for their Pastors or the People after take those for their Pastors who are truly Capable whom the Rulers first choose for the Publick Teachers But in case they cannot so agree each man must be Tolerated to choose and join with some other Parochial or more private Minister for his Pastor so be it 1. They fess the essentials of Christianity and Church Communion 2. And live peaceably and loyally in their Preaching and Practice 3. And pay the publick Teachers and Magistrates their dues renouncing Heresie and Popery and all Foreign Iurisdiction and Treason The TEST or Profession of the Maintain'd Ministers supposing the amendments of Discipline I Do sincerly as before God Profess that I believe the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the True word of God and supposing the Light and Law of Nature the Divine sufficient Rule of Faith and Holy Living according to which we shall be Iudged which no humane Laws or Power can Abrogate or Suspend being all but subordinate thereto And I will Preach nothing as necessary to Salvation which cannot be proved or warranted thereby And more particularly I believe all the Articles of the Creed called the Apostles as a summary of our Faith and Consent to the Lord's Prayer as the summary of our Desires and to the Decalogue as expounded by Christ as the summary of our obedient practice and I resolvedly Consent to the Gospel-Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which these summaries explain and which is celebrated in Baptism and the Lord's Supper And I do own and honour the Church of England that is This Christian Reformed Kingdom containing the Approved Pastors and their Flocks both the Publickly Maintained and the Duly Licensed and United under one Christian Reformed Sovereign and Renouncing all Foreign Jurisdiction And I do honour with thankfulness to God the Reformation and Concord of this Church in Doctrine Worship and Discipline and will labour to preserve its Unity and Peace renouncing all Treasons Seditions Popery Foreign Iurisdiction Heresy Schism and Profaneness And I do promise to Exercise my Ministry with diligence for the edification of the Church and the saving of mens Souls The Ministers being of three sorts 1. The Maintained or Promoted 2. The Licensed to Preach as Candidates or Lecturers without the publick maintenance or Helpers to Incumbents who desire them or occasionally such as sound Protestants continuing Non-conformists should be 3. The Tolerated that have only a Grant of Protection and Peace without either Mainterance or Approving Licence I leave it to Superiours how much of the aforesaid Profession shall be required of the two latter This would much reduce the Kingdom to a Holy and Happy Unity and Peace which yet containeth nothing that Protestants have any just cause to reject And we are not
THE ENGLISH Nonconformity As under King Charles II. and King Iames II. TRULY STATED and ARGUED By RICHARD BAXTER Who earnestly beseecheth Rulers and Clergy not to Divide and Destroy the Land and cast their own Souls on the dreadful Guilt and Punishment of National PERJVRY Lying deliberate Covenanting to Sin against God corrupt his Church and not Amend nor by Laws or blind Malignity to reproach faithful Ministers of Christ and Judge them to Scorn and Beggery and to Lie and Die in Jails as Rogues and so to strengthen Profaneness Popery and Schism and all for want of WILLINGNESS and PATIENCE to READ and Hear their just Defence while they can spend much more time in Sin and Vanity The Author humbly begs that he and his Books of unconfutable Defence of a Mistaken persecuted Cause may not be Witnesses against them for such great and wilful Sin to their Condemnation Mat. 12. 25. Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to Desolation Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise Perish LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside 1689. The Preface IT is agreed on by all real Christians that Man being made an Intelligent Free Agent not under bruitish necessitating Determination by Objects is governed by God by the Moral way of Law that is by the Signification of his Ruler's Will making his Duty and not by meer natural or forcible Motion And it is agreed that GOD himself is his only absolute Universal Ruler and his Laws given in Nature and by Revelation are the only Universal Laws which no Humane Power can abrogate or dispense with And that Kings and Magistrates are his Ministers for Mens good and have no Power but from him and none against him or his Laws and that it is not Man but God by whom we must all be judged to everlasting Reward or Punishment And therefore that all men must obey God before Men and must not fear them that can but kill the Body but him who is able to cast both Soul and Body into Hell. And it is agreed on by all Sober Christians that therefore as Subjects must use their own Reason as discerning Self-Governours to Iudge who is their King and who is a Usurper and what Actions are commanded or forbidden by Man's Laws so must they first and chiefly use their own reason to judge discerningly what Actions are commanded or forbidden by God and must do accordingly whoever is against it This Iudgment is commonly called Conscience which if it err not must be followed but if it err it must be rectified for then it is not God indeed that is obeyed for God's Law changeth not as Conscience doth yet to go against such a Conscience is Sin because it iâ— interpretatively to go against God while the Man thought this had been God's Will. On Supposition of this certain truth all that ever I yet read that Condemn the Nonconformists and Preach for their Reproach and Ruine do confess that If any one thing required of us as necessary to our Ministry or Communion be Sin our Nonconformity is but our Duty and all the whole Ministry of England on whom this was imposed by the Act of Uniformity on Baâ—tholomew-Day 1662. were bound in Conscience to have been Nonconformists Whether also to bave all ceased to Preach the Gospel I leave to their Consideration This being the Confession of all that Silence us and send us to Gaols and call out for our utter Extirpation I know no shorter or likelier way to stop all this burning Wrath and end our Mischievous Dissentions than to try whether no one thing required of us be Sin. Forty of the things required of Ministers and Twelve of those required of the Laity in all Fifty two I have proposed to Examination not as accusing the Laws or the Conformists whatever I think of them but only rendering briefly the Reasons of our own refusals And Forty three Points in which many falsly suppose we Conform not and some may perhaps be found that do not Conform to them all I have first instanced in as being such as we oppose not nor are any Parts of our Nonconformity If all the Iustices and Ministers of England who censure us and prosecute us as intolerable Sinners for our fearing these as Sin have impartially tryed all these Points and Reasons or yet will do and can find no Sin in any one of the Fifty two and it prove so indeed I must say that all the Two Thousand Ministers that in 1662. were Silenced were as unhappy and strangely blinded Men as most in the World that are true Christians that after all their Study and Prayers they should affright themselves into so calamitous a State against all the reason of their Worldly Interests as well as against the welfare of the Church and their Duty to God 2. But I must say past doubt that the accusing Clergy are deeply guilty of it who these Twenty one years have no better answered the Reasons of our fear nor used more Wisdom and Charity for our just Conviction For our Consciences are of such a temper as will not be convinced with a Scorn or a Iail nor take all Writings or Words as satisfactory that are poured out with supercilious Confidence and called Satisfactory by the Self-esteeming Authors I am told by divers That I have written enough already on these Subjects were it only my first and second Plea for Peace my Treatise of Episcopacy and that of Concord and my Apology for our Preaching And they say You must expect to do no good nor so much as to be read by Adversaries much less with Diligence and impartial Willingness to know the Truth but contrarily to be hated and accused of some odious Crime and laid in Iail among Malefactors till you die and a Prison will be more grievous to one in your pain and languishing than to another On the other side I have been long importuned to give an account of the Reasons of our Nonconformity I have by Bishops been reproved for not doing it Lords and Persons of great Quality have been perswaded that we keep up a dangerous Schism in the Land to the cherishing of Discontents and Sedition only for things which we confess to be indifferent and no Sin the Laws accuse us The numerous Addresses of Counties Cities and Corporations revile us as the Nurses of Rebellion No small number of Preachers plead for our Ruine on the same Supposition and tell the People that it is no Sin that we stick at but Humour Pride and Faction make us disobedient Schismaticks without any reason for what we do The Iails are fill'd with Nonconformists Nine Ministers are now in Newgate and many more in other Places And almost all of them Mulct and Fined in far more than ever they were worth Their Goods and Books taken by Distress They are fain to fly or abscond that are not in Prison Their Wives and
to save their Money and the better to serve their Faction that we may if possible distinguish and know all such dangerous Enemies we will strictly require all Church-wardens and Constables at all our Monthly Meetings to give us a full account of all such as do not every Sunday resort to their own Parish-Churches and are not at the beginning of Divine Service and do not behave themselves Orderly and Soberly there observing all such decent Ceremonies as the Laws enjoyn And that they likewise Present unto us the Names of all such as have not received the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in their own Parish-Churches Thrice in the Year 3. Being fully satisfied as well by the clear Evidence of the late Horrid PLOT as by our own long and sad Experience That the Nonconformist Preachers are the Authors and Fomeâ—â—ers of this Pestilent Faction and the implacable Enemies of the Established Government and to whom the late Execrable Treasons which have had such dismal effects in this Kingdom are principally to be imputed and who by their present obstinate refusing to Take and Subscribe an Oath and Declaration That they do not hold it Lawful to take up ARMS against the KING and that they will not endeavour any Alteration of Government either in Church or State do necessarily enforce us to conclude that they are still ready to engage themselves if not acutally engaged in some Rebellious Conspiracy against the KING and to invade and Subvert his GOVERNMENT wherefore we resolve in every Parish of this County to leave strict Warrants in the hands of all Constables for the Seizing of such Persons And as an encouragement to all Officers and others that shall be instrumental in the apprehending of any of them so as they may be brought to Justice we will give and allow Forty shillings as a Reward for every Nonconformist Preacher that shall be so secured And we Resolve to Prosecute them and all other such Dangerous Enemies of the Government and common Absenters from Church and Frequenters of CONVENTICLES according to the Directions of a Law made in the Five and Thirtieth Year of the Reign of Queen ELIZABETH Entituled An Act for the keeping Her Majesties Subjects in due OBEDIENCE Lastly That we may never forget the infinite Mercies of Almighty God in the late Wonderful Deliverance of our Gracious KING and his Dearest BROTHER and all His Loyal Subjects who were designed for a Massacre from the Horrid Conspiracy of the Phanatiques and their Accomplices and that we may perpetuate as well our own Thankfulness as their Infamy that the Generations to come may know their Treachery and avoid and never trust men of such Principles more and also that we our selves may perform our publick Duty to Almighty God before we enter upon the Publick Service of our Countrey We Order Resolve and Agree with the Advice and Concurrence of the Right Reverend Father in God our much Honoured and Worthy Lord BISHOP to give and bestow for the Beautifying of the Chappel in the Castle of EXON and for the erecting of decent Seats there Ten Pounds And we will likewise give and continue Six Pounds to be paid yearly to any one of the Church of Exon whom the said Lord BISHOP shall appoint to read the DIVINE SERVICE with the Prayers lately appointed for the day of Thanksgiving on the Ninth of September last and to Preach a Sermon exhorting to OBEDIENCE in the said Chappel on the first day of every general Quarter-Sessions of the Peace held in the said Castle to begin precisely at Eight of the Clock in the Morning And may the Mercies of Heaven which are infinite always protect our Religious and Gracious KING his Dearest BROTHER and every Branch of that ROYAL FAMILY and may all the Treasonable Conspiracies of those Rebellious Schismaticks be always thus happily prevented Hugo Vaughan Cler. Pacis Com. praed That the continued Care of His Majesties Iustices of the Peace for the County of DEVON for the Safety of His Majesties Sacred Person the Preservation of the Publick Peace and advancement of true Religion may be fuller known and have a better Effect I do hereby Order and Require all the CLERGY of my Diocess within the County of Devon deliberately to publish this Order the next Sunday after it shall be tendred to them THO. EXON Now Archbishop of York THE CONTENTS CHap. 1. The Introductory Conference Ch. 2. The things presupposed as agreed on Ch. 3. What our Nonconformity is not in 50 Instances Ch. 4. A brief Enumeration of the things imposed on us which are the Matter of our Nonconformity Ch. 5. I. Of Reordination Ch. 6. II. Of the Oath and Covenant of Canonical Obedience to Bishops and Ordinaries Ch. 7. III. Ordained Ministers forbidden to Preach or Expound any Scripture or Matter or Doctrine Can. 49. Ch. 8. IV. and V. Of Subscribing that there is nothing in three Books contrary to the Word of God and Declaring Assent and Consent to all in the Liturgy c. Ch. 9. VI. Of Assenting that it is CERTAIN by the Word of God that Infants baptized dying before actual Sin are undoubtedly saved qua tales not exceepting the seed of Atheists Iews or any Ch. 10. VII Of the English sort of Godfathers at Baptism and their Vows Ch. 11. VIII Of refusing to Baptize such as have not such Godfathers Ch. 12. IX Of the Dedicating symbol of Crossing at Baptism Ch. 13. X. Of denying Baptism where Crossing is refused Ch. 14. XI Of Rejecting from Communion all that dare not receive Kneeling Ch. 15. XII Of consenting to the false Rule as true for finding Easter Day always Whether small lyes be Sin Ch. 16. XIII Of Pronouncing all Saved that are Buried except the Excommunicate Vnbaptized and Self-Murderers Ch. 17. XIV Of Consenting to read so much of the Apocrypha Ch. 18. XV. Of Assenting to Mis-translations of God's Word and subscribing that they are not contrary to it Ch. 19. XVI Of Consenting to reject all from Christian Communion who desire not the English manner of Episcopal Confirmation C. 20. XVII Of Consenting to all the Ornaments of Church and Ministers which were in use in the Second year of King Edw. 6. Ch. 21. XVIII Of giving account to the Ordinary of all that we keep from the Sacrament that he may proceed against them according to the Canons which leads us to consider those Canons Ch. 22. XIX Of Publishing Lay-Chancellors Excommunications and Absolutions according to the Canons Ch. 23. XX. Of Publishing Excommunications according to the fourth Canon Ch. 24. XXI Of Publishing Excommunications according to the fifth Canon Ch. 25. XXII Of Publishing Excommunications by the sixth Canon Ch. 26. XXIII Of Publishing Excommunications by the seventh Canon Ch. 27. XXIV Of Publishing Excommunications by the eighth Canon Ch. 28. XXV Of Excommunicating all that call Dissenters a Church according to the 9th 10th and 11th Canons Ch. 29. XXVI Of executing Canon 27 rejecting Nonconformists from Communion Ch. 30.
XXVII Of refusing others Parishioners from Communion according to Can. 28. Ch. 31. XXVIII Of Can. 38. Excommunicating Ministers for Repenting of their Subscribing Ch. 32. XXIX Of Can. 57. Excommunicating Men for going for Baptism and Communion from Ministers that never Preach to those that do Ch. 33. XXX Of Can. 58. making the Surplice necessary to Ministration Ch. 34. XXXI Of forcing Ministers by Can. 68. to Baptize all Children without exception of Atheists or Insidels Ch. 35. XXXII Of Can. 72. against Fasts and Prayer unlicensed Ch. 36. XXXIII Of Excommunication by the three last Canons Ch. 37. XXXIV Of renouncing all Obligation by the Covenant as on me or Any other to Endeavour any alteration of Church Government Ch. 38. XXXV Of the Oxford Oath never to Endeavor such Alâ—â—â—ioâ— Ch. 39. XXXVI Of Subscribing and Swearing that the Position is Traitorous of taking Arms by the King's Authority against those Commissioned by him in Pursuance of such Commission without Exception A Lord Keeper's Seal to a Commission to Conspirators to seize the King's Forts Magazine and Guards may so depose him Ch. 40. XXXVII Of Assenting and Consenting to the damning Clauses in Athanasius's Creed Ch. 41. XXXVIII Of saying Common-Prayer twice a day every day in the year or dinarily Ch. 42. XXXIX Of forcing unwilling Men to the Sacrament and Accusing and Excommunicating the refusers Ch. 43. XL. Of forsaking our Ministry and ceasing to Preach the Gospel Whether it be not Sacriledge and Cruelty in us and of Banishment 5 miles from all Corporations c. Ch. 44. Of Lay-Conformity I. Whether all men must trust their Souls on the Pastoral Conduct of all such as our Patrons will choose and the Bishops institute Ch. 45. II. Whether Parents have not more right than our Patrons to choose Pastors and church-Church-Communion for their Children Ch. 46. III. Of forcing Men to Schism by renouncing Communion with true Christians and true Churches Chap. 47. IV. Of binding all the Laity to live without any more benefit of Church-Discipline than is used by the Bishops and their Courts Ch. 48. V. Of discountenancing the fear of Sin and the serious practice of Godliness divers instances Ch. 49. VI. The Laity denied Baptism who refuse the foresaid sort of Godfathers excluding the Parents Ch. 50. VII Baptism denied to them that dare not submit to the dedicating Symbol of Crossing Ch. 51. VIII Of Rejecting not-kneelers from Church Communion Ch. 52. IX Of denying Lay-men Communion in a Neighbour parish-Parish-Church when they dare not Communicate with their own Parishes For the Reasons aforesaid Ch. 53. X. The Laity must Swear never to endeavour any Alteration of Government in the Church without Exception Ch. 54. XI The Laity must swear an Abhorrence of taking Arms against any Commissioned by the King without Exception when they understand not whether every one be the King's Commission that is signed by the Lord Chancellor or Privy Seal though it be against Law and tend to overthrow King and Kingdom Ch. 55. XII Whether all trusted in Corporations may declare that there is no Obligation on them or any other from the Oath call'd The Solemn League and Covenant not so much as to repent of Sin or oppose Profaneness Popery or Schism and defend the King and so that G. Monk's Army and all the rest of the Three Nations that restored the King as obliged to it by that Vow were all deceived and not so obliged and whether all the Subjects must be sure of this Ch. 56. Of Thirty tremendous Circumstances and Principles which all agree in that affright Men from Conformity Ch. 57. The Reasons for Conformity considered Ch. 58. Whether Communion with so faulty a Church be lawful Separation confuted Ch. 59. A Draught in ten Articles of that which the Reconciling Nonconformists desire for healing our Church Divisions In the words which they judge meetest to that use Ch. 60. The Reasons of those ten Articles distinctly render'd Ch. 61. Whether the Extirpation of the Nonconformists be not rather to be attempted than a Vnion with them by these means Handled with reference to a late Treasonable Plot against the King. Ch. 62. Fifty Questions proposed to unjust Silencers ERRATA PAg. 100. l. 31. for I read It p. 103. l. 22. for Corners r. Courts p. 107. l. 38. for is r. is not p. 113. l. 13. for our r. one l. 14. for Clergy r. Churches p. 115. l. Penult r. Stoughton p. 124. l. 13. for our r. one p. 129. l. 15. for it is r. is it p. 131. l. 25. r. well as p. 134. l. 13. r. If it p. 144. l. 23. dele revoked THE True CASE OF THE English Nonconformity In a DIALOGUE between A Silenced MINISTER and a LAWYER CHAP. I. The Introductory Conference Lawyer SIR the danger of the Kings Dominions by our Irreligious Contentions about Religion possesseth the observers with just indignation but all know not on whom to lay the blame some lay it on the Bishops and some on the Nonconformists and some on both I am unwilling to wrong any but when I think of our danger and hear that it is but Ceremonies and things indifferent for which you break the Law and make a Schism in the Church and weaken us by divisions I cannot but think you deeply guilty Minister How long have you so judged L. These twenty years ever since you were put out M. Did you ever by Reading and Conference with those that you censure acquaint your self truly with their Case L. I have seen some of your Books but I have not talkt much of these matters with any of you but I read and hear from the Doctors of the Church what you are and what you hold M. Will you take us to be the just reporters what they are and hold L. No you are Adversaries and partial M. And are not they as much so to us Is not every man fitter to profess his own Faith than his Adversary is And have you done well to judge before you heard and tryed Shall Judges do so on the Bench Have you not all these years continued guilty of false judging and uncharitableness and that against a great number of the innocent And if you every day prayed for forgiveness but as you forgive even an enemy and real injury what have you done all this while in condemning the guiltless L. Why have you not in Writing given the World just satisfaction if you are guiltless What sin have you proved to be in the Conformity required of you I see no such proof M. You know what penalties the Law layeth on any that deprave the Common-Prayer Books and that all are Excommunicate ipso facto that do but affirm any thing to be against Gods Word in any Office of your Church Government in any Word or Ceremony in your Liturgy c. Can. 5. 6 7 8. And you know what follows Excommunication here And you know that till of late years the Press was shut up to us But have
it unlawful to reproach all Churches that we see to be faulty but it is our duty to keep peace with all XXVIII VVe hold mental distant Communion in Faith and Love with many Churches that by imposing sin do deny us local Communion XXIX Though I here tell you once for all that I justifie not all that I can thus bear with yet we can submit by peaceable silence to many abuses in a Church which we dare not subscribe to and approve and use also passive Obedience where active is unlawful XXX VVe are not against God-Fathers and God-Mothers as used of old that is when the Parents are the Covenanters for their Child and their Death or Apostasie is feared for others to promise if they dye or apostatize to take care of the Child or for any Adopters or Owners to do it that take the Child as theirs XXXI VVe are so far from being against true confirmation as it is the taking persons that own their Baptismal Covenant solemnly into the number of adult Members and Communicants that we desire it and have written for it as a chief means of the true Reformation of all our Churches in the Land. XXXII VVe differ not in Faith or meer Doctrine from the Church of England as it 's in the Thirty Nine Articles but only in One new Article put into the new Liturgy of the Salvation of Baptized Infants as undoubtedly certain by the Word of God without any exception if they then dye XXXIII VVe are not against reading the profitable part of the Apocrypha as other Humane VVritings may be read sufficiently distinguished from the word of God. XXXIV VVe are for Corporal VVorship as a due expression of Spiritual And we are against all undecent expressions in Praying or Preaching and all undecent Habits Gestures or Actions XXXV VVe blame not the Liturgy for extending the words of Charity and Hope as far as there is any reasonable ground in Sacraments Absolution and Buryal XXXVI VVe are not for mens invading the Ministry unordained but believe that Senior Pastors or Bishops are ordinarily the regular Judges of the fitness of Candidates for the Ministry XXXVII VVe are not for unlimited Toleration But that the Rulers justly distinguish in Law and License 1. The approved whom they must own and maintain 2. The tolerable whom they must tolerate 3. The intollerable whom they must restrain from doing hurt XXXVIII VVe are for making true Religion as National and extensive as may be and for a National Church 1. As the associated Community of Churches in a Nation is so called 2. And as they are all accidentally united under one Christian Soveraign Though we abhor the casting out all that be not of our opinion and measure and that cannot submit to all that I here enumerate which I and others of my mind can submit to XXXIX VVe are so far from desiring to draw people from the Parish Churches into Conventicles that we would keep up the honour of them to the utmost of our power as knowing how greatly the countenance and maintenance of Rulers conduceth to the furtherance of Religion and that the publick Religion will be the common and National Religion and most will be there And if the Protestant Religion were reduced to Tolerated Conventicles Popery would possess its place and become National and soon withdraw even private Toleration as we see in France XL. VVe are not for Preaching when we are forbidden where there is not a real and evident need of our Labours XLI VVe believe not that the Scots Covenant or any other doth oblige us to Sedition Rebellion Schism or any sin nor doth disoblige us from any Obedience due to any Superior XLII VVe refuse not the Oxford Oath or any such because it is an obligation to obey our Rulers in Lawful things nor because it restraineth us from resisting Authority for we give as much to Humane Soveraignty and confess as much obedience due to them from Subjects 1. As any Text of Scripture speakes 2. Or any General Council save what they give to the Pope and his Vassals 3. Or as any Confessions that we know of of any Christian Churches agree in 4. Or which Lawyers Politicians and Historians Protestants Papists or Heathens agree in as far as we are acquainted XLIII VVe are not against the use of Synods or Councils nor against Princes using their advice for such Laws circa sacra as belong to them to make VVe believe Councils should be used as far as the common good and Communion of the Catholick Church requireth it though no Foreigners have Jurisdiction over us And we hold that if they agree of any thing conducible to the common good though their agreement be not a Law but a Contract yet the general command of keeping the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace obligeth all to hold such concord for the ends sake that have no special reason against it In these Forty three things we oppose not conformity L. And if yet after all this Agreement we must be destroyed by divisions the heavy Curse of God is on us and will surely fall on them that are the causes of it who ever they be CHAP. IV. A brief enumeration of the things imposed on us which is the matter of our Nonconformity M. DO you know what it is that we are required to conform to L. I know it is to use the Liturgies Ceremonies and submit to the Bishops as your Governours I know no more M. And yet dare you become our Judge If you are no more exact and just in matters of Law your Clients must pay for it Before I come to handle the particulars I will set together here the things required of us and how much of them we refuse I will tell you when I try them and give you our Reasons against them I. Whereas few of the Nonconforming Ministers were at Age and Ordained till Diocesans were put down in England and were Ordained by an Assembly of Senior Pastors which were then in possession of the Power and had many years the Approbation of the whole National Assembly of Divines at Westminster before they were admitted to any Incumbency none of these may now exercise their Ministry unless they be Re-ordained by Diocesans II. No man can be Ordained by them and admitted to any Cure that will not take the Oath of Canonical Obedience as they call it and in his Ordination Covenant to obey his Ordinary III. No man must Preach the Gospel by the authority of his Ordination and Office till moreover he have got a Licence from the Bishop to Preach and till he have got that Licence to Preach he may not take upon him to Expound in his own Cure OR ELSEWHERE ANY SCRIPTURE OR MATTER OR DOCTRINE but shall only study to read plainly and aptly without glossing or adding the Homilies already set forth or hereafter to be published by lawful Authority Can. 49. IV. No man may be Ordained or be a Licenced
Preacher or Catechize who doth not subscribe these words Ex animo That the Book of Common-Prayer and of Ordaining of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God and that it may lawfully be used and that he himself will use the Form in the said Books prescribed in publick Prayer and administration of the Sacraments and no other V. No man is to be Ordained a Minister nor have any place or Benefice or Cure that doth not openly and publickly before the Congregation declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the use of all things in the said Book contained and prescribed in these words and no other I A. B. Do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book entitled The Book of Common-Prayer and Ordaining And every Lecturer also the first Lecture and every Month must publickly and openly declare his Assent to and Approbation of the said Book and to the use of all the Prayers Rites and Ceremonies Forms and Orders therein contained and prescribed VI. By this all must Assent and Consent to this Article of Faith or Doctrine It is certain by the Word of God that Children which are Baptized dying before they commit actual Sin are undoubtedly saved Not excepting any though the Children of Atheists Infidels or Sadducees VII We must Assent and Consent that at publick Baptism persons called Godfathers and Godmothers who take not the Child for their own do in the name of the Child Covenant with God without the Parents who are forbidden to be Godfathers or Godmothers or to speak one word nor must be urged to be present nor may the Godfathers c. speak one word but what is written in the book And they are there not only to promise for the future but to profess in the Name of the Child at present I renounce them all the Devil World and Flesh and All this I stedfastly believe and to be baptized This is my desire and for obedience I will. And these Godfathers also engage as their parts and Duty to see that this Infant be taught so soon as he shall be able to learn what a solemn Vow Promise and Profession he there made by them And that they call on him to hear Sermons and chiefly that they provide that he may learn the Crede the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar Tongue and all other things that a Christian ought to know and believe to his Soul's health and that the Child may be vertuously brought up to lead a godly and Christian life All this these three persons must promise as before God and the Church but the Parent is not only excused from any such promise but forbid it by the Canon VIII We must Assent and Consent to refuse to baptize the Child of any godly Christian who bringeth not his Child to be baptized with such undertaking Godfathers either because he can get none that will seriously promise him to do what they must Vow to do and so dare not draw them into sacrilegious perfidiousness or because he thinks it his own part to enter his Child into God's Covenant and thus to promise for its Education IX We must Assent and Consent to sign the Infant with the transient Image of the Cross In token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World the Devil and to continue Christs faithful Souldier and Servant to his lives end Which the Canon farther expounds thus To dedicate them by that Badge to his Service whose benefits bestowed on them in Baptism the name of the Cross doth represent an honourable Badge whereby the Infant is dedicated to the Service of him who died on the Cross. X. VVe must Assent and Consent to Baptize none publickly without this Sign but to deny Christendom to all that dare not receive it and their Children XI VVe must Assent and Consent to reject all that dare not receive it Kneeling from the Sacramental Communion of the Church XII VVe must Assent and Consent to a false Rule to find out Easter-day for ever in these words Easter-day on which the rest depends is always the first Sunday after the first full Moon which happens next after the one and twentieth day of March. The common Almanacks tell you it is often false XIII VVe must Assent and Consent to use words at the Burial of all except the Vnbaptized Excommunicate and self-murtherers which plainly pronounce them saved viz. For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take to himself the Soul of our dear Brother here departed And we give thee thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother out of the miseries of this sinful world and that we may rest in him as our hope is this our Brother doth XIV VVe must Assent and Consent to read publick Lessons out of Iudith Bell and the Dragon Tobit and other Apocryphal books from Sept. 28. till Nov. 24. every day except some proper Lessons interposed XV. VVe must Assent and Consent to all the mistranslations of the Psalms c. and not only use them which we refuse not but subscribe that none of them are contrary to the word of God. XVI We must Assent and Consent to admit none to the holy Communion till such time as he be Confirmed or be ready and desirous to be Confirmed that is by Bishops in the English method XVII We must Assent and Consent that such ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof at all times of their ministration shall be retained in use as were in this Church of England by that authority of Parliament in the Second year of Edward VI. XVIII We must Assent and Consent to give an account within fourteen days of every one that we keep from the Sacrament to the Ordinary And that the Ordinary proceed against the offending person according to the Canons XIX We must publish all such Excommunications and Absolutions as are according to the Canons decreed by Lay Chancellors XX. This binds us to consent and publish the Excommunication of all that affirm that the Liturgy containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures And the Oath of canonical Obedience binds us to such publication if it be commanded us XXI And we are both these ways bound to publish all Excommunicate ipso facto if commanded who affirm any of the Rites and Ceremonies such as may not be approved and used lawfully XXII And all that say any of the Thirty Nine Articles in any part may not be subscribed though it be but about Traditions or Ceremonies XXIII And we must if required publish all ipso facto Excommunicate who say the Church Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons and the rest that bear Office is against God's word XXIV We must if commanded publish all Excommunicate who affirm
that the Form and Manner of Making and Consecrating Bishops Priests or Deacons containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the word of God. Though it assert that the Bishops and Priests are distinct Orders which even in K. Aelfrick's days the Church of England denyed XXV We must publish them Excommunicate who affirm that the Nonconformists may truly take the name of another Church c. and that any assemblies of Subjects not allowed by Law are true and Lawful Churches XXVI No Minister must wittingly administer the Sacrament to any but such as Kneel nor to any of the foresaid depravers of the Liturgy Ceremonies Orders of the Church c. Can. 27. XXVII None of other Parishes are often to be admitted to Communion XXVIII All Ministers that repent of Conforming must be suspended excommunicate and deposed at last Can. 38. XXIX We must give the Sacrament to none that go for it from unpreaching Ministers but must send them home Can. 57. Nor must Baptize their Children XXX Ministers must not be suffered that wear not the Surplice Can. 58. XXXI No Minister must refuse or delay to Christen any Child that 's brought to the Church to him on Sundays or Holydays to be Christened without exception of Atheists or Infidels Children Can. 68. XXXII No Minister may keep any Fast in publick or at private Houses or be present at any on what necessity soever without the Bishops License for it under Hand and Seal or the Laws appointment XXXIII We must if commanded publish all Excommunicate that affirm that the Sacred Synod is not the true Church of England by representation or that deprave it as a faction c. XXXIV No man was to be ordained or suffered in the Ministry for twenty years that did not subscribe thus I do declare that I do hold that there lies no obligation on me or on any other person from the Oath commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any change or alteration of Government in Church or State. XXXV All Nonconformists must swear that they will never endeavour any alteration of the Church Government or else be banished five miles from Corporations and all places where ever they preached since the Act of Oblivion XXXVI All Ministers must subscribe and Nonconformists swear that they abhor the Trayterous position of taking Arms by the Kings Authority against those that are Commissioned by him XXXVII We must assent and consent to the damnatory sentence in the Creed called Athanasius's XXXVIII Every Minister consenteth to say the Morning and Evening Service every day in the year not being lett by sickness or other urgent cause XXXIX Ministers must concur to force the unwilling Parishioners to the Sacrament or else to Excommunicate and ruine them XL. If we dare not Conform for fear of sin we must forsake our Ministry to which we are Ordained and Vowed and give over Preaching the Gospel what ever need there be and must also remove our dwelling from all places aforesaid These are the parts of Ministers Conformity Lay Mens Conformity is as followeth I. They must trust their Souls with the Pastoral oversight of those and only those as their fixed Pastors whom Patrons will choose for them and Bishops institute Though the Conformists accuse many Patrons of such hainous sins as speaketh them unfit for so strange a trust besides those that are Papists and Bishops say they have not power to keep out the unfit II. They are not only hereby deprived of the exercise of Self-Government for the saving of their own Souls but of due Family Government for the safety of Wife and Children and Servants and must not bid them choose better Pastors III. They are forced to forbear Communion with all Nonconformists and to separate from all others besides Conformists though they account this Schismatical separation IV. When God commandeth them If thy Brother trespass against thee tell him his fault between thee and him if he hear not tell the Church c. And with Drunkards Railers Fornicators c. not to eat They are forced to have Communion with Parishes where no such Discipline is exercised nor can they perform any such duty and to lose all the benefit of this Christian Order and Discipline none being so much cast out as Conscionable Dissenters V. Conscionable care to obey Gods Law is greatly discouraged and made a dangerous thing while it must be mens utter ruine to deny Conformity even in a Ceremony to men when it 's done for fear of sinning against God. VI. They are to be deprived of Baptism and Christendom for their Children if they dare not use the foresaid way of God-Fathers as described VII They are also to be unchristened if thinking our Crossing is used as an unlawful Humane Sacrament they dare not receive it as a dedicating Badge of Christianity VIII If they think Kneeling at receiving the Sacrament an unlawful hardening the Papists they are denyed Communion IX If any dissent but from Confirmation Organs Kneeling at the Rails taking a Reader or unfit man for their Pastor they must not be received to Communion by a Conformist in another Parish X. All the Land is engaged Ministers Vestries Corporations and Militia by Oaths or Covenant never to endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church XI They are all engaged to abhor the position as trayterous of taking Armes by the Kings Authority against any Commissioned by him in pursuit of such Commission XII All Corporation Government and Trust is confined to them that declare that there is no obligation on them or any other from the solemn Covenant or Vow not excepting so much as to oppose Schism Popery or Prophaneness to defend the King or repent of sin though these be Vowed I have now told you what Conformity is in Ministers and People CHAP. V. I. Of Re-Ordination L. YOV have named a great number But I doubt whether all these are imposed and in many of them I see no harm M. I told you that if any one of them imposed be sinful Nonconformity is a duty which all the Ministers in England were bound to L. What sin can you find in Re-Ordination M. I must first state the Controversie before I argue it 1. The word Ordination may signifie either the first Dedication and Ordination to the Ministerial Office as such by which a man is separated from the Laity to Gods Ministry Or else a Mission on some particular Ministerial work as Paul and Barnabas were sent abroad Acts 11. Or a Minister may be sent to America c. Or else a fixed appointment to some one particular Church or Flock which is done here by Presentation Institution and Induction It is neither of the two last that we speak against They may be often done But it s only the first 2. The word Ordination may signifie 1. That Moral action by which a man is made a Minister of Christ which is his solemn Contract with Christ exprest by his Consent and by
and terms which they undertake to prove sinful 3. And our Ministry is by this made arbitrary to the Bishops will. He may bind us to the Office and when he hath done keep us from it L. If they deny you Licenses they bind you not to preach M. Ordination is a Vow and Dedication to the sacred Office Mark the Covenant which they impose on us Are you determined out of the Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your Charge c. Answ. I have so determined by God's Grace Q. Will you give your faithful diligence always so to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded c. that you may teach the people committed to your Care and Charge with all diligence to keep and observe the same Answ. I will so do by the help of the Lord. Q. Will you be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word and to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole within your Cure as need shall require and occasion shall be given Answ. I will the Lord being my helper Is it not treachery to draw men into all these Vows and then to command them never to Preach nor Expound any Doctrine or matter any where Doth it not come near to an Atheistical prohibition of Religion may they not tell their people the meaning of Baptism or the Creed or Lord's-Prayer or Commandments May they not teach their own Children and Servants these If a Priest may not do it much lesse the Laity and Vulgar L. The meaning is not against expounding to their children or wives at home but in the Church M. Can the Church of England tell such a meaning no plainer than by saying either in his own Cure or elsewhere Is not his House or his Neighbour's House elsewhere If they can speak no plainer I would they would make us no Laws till God Licence them 2. But suppose that elsewhere speak only of Churches you know that other Canons forbid them Preaching in private houses 3. And what a Priest is that who must be forbidden to teach the people in the Church or there to tell Children the meaning of the Catechism How like is this to the Moscovy State L. You know that many men are unable to Preach Expound or speak sense about Divinity if they should attempt it M. And are such fit to be made the Teachers and Guides of the Flock shall the same men make a man Physician to an Hospital and when they have done forbid him to do any more than read to them a Physick Book of their making Is it not an ability to teach men at least the Essentials of Christianity Essential to a Minister Do they not then make No-ministers and call them Priests if they ordain men that cannot Teach the essentials L. Reading the Scripture and Homilies is Teaching M. It is so but if that only will qualifie one for the Priesthood one may be a Priest that knows no more than an Infidel or Atheist and if Reading will qualifie men for a Benefice many will study for no more and the people will value them accordingly L. But you know that when the Land came out of Popery we must have meer Readers in most places or worse M. And you know that these Canons were made in K. Iames's days long after that and that they are now continued as the Church Laws Did our last Convocation alter them It is such excellent men as the world is not worthy of Ames Bayn Parker Hildersham Dod c. that have been forbidden to Preach whilest these that could not preach were Ordained and inducted It is only the present things that I am speaking of 2. And though men of mean abilities if tolerable may be tolerated yet men that want essential qualifications should not be made Ministers but if bare Reading be necessary they may Read as Lay-men I conclude therefore that as making such Priests and Canons is a sin in them so to obey them by omission of Ministerial teaching for want of a Licence from the Bishops would be sinful Conformity in any true Minister of Christ if he live where his Ministerial work is necessary And to forbear all Expounding any matter or doctrine save by Reading our Homilies is sacriledge and perfidiousness and uncharitable inhumanity CHAP. VIII IV and V. Of subscribing and declaring Assent and Consent L. WHat is your next exception to Conformity M. Subscribing according to the Canon that there is nothing in the book of Common-Prayer contrary to the word of God. and that we will use no other form 2. And publickly declaring our Assent and Consent to all things contained and prescribed in and by it and our Approbation of all the Forms Orders c as aforesaid L. What have you against this Approbation of the Liturgy M. Negatively 1. We blame nothing in it that is good And I take it for a good Book in the main but not faultless As you said of the Canon of allowing Readers so say I of the Liturgy it was better immediately after Popery than it is now that is it was more congruous and was a great Reformation and we honour the Book and their Memory that made it 2. We do not think that there is any such faultiness in it as maketh it unlawful to joyn in the publick Worship and ordinary Communion with the Church where it is used We honour them as true Churches of Christ. 3. I do not think it unlawful to read the ordinary Lords day Service when the publick good requireth it and we can have no better without greater hurt than benefit Our objections being most against the by-offices especially of Baptizing and Burial Bâ—â— 1. We think it unlawful to Covenant to use no other Forms in publick Prayer II. And unlawful to subscribe and declare that it is faultless I. For the first we have these Reasons 1. The Bishops themselves by the King's order do upon special occasions of Fasts and Thanksgivings prescribe impose and use other Forms and we must not covenant to disobey them 2. The publick Ministers have and do in the Pulpits before Sermon use other Forms And so break this Covenant themselves 3. It belongs to the office of a Pastor as well to word his own Prayers as his own Sermons And it is sinful to renounce so much of the work of the Office which we are vowed and ordained to L. These instances are a clear exposition of the Canon and shew that by no other Form they intended not to exclude other Pulpit-prayers or other Forms prescribed by the Bishops M. 1. If the whole Church of England here also can speak no more intelligibly than by no other Forms to mean only till the Bishop prescribe it and except your own daily Form in the Pulpit I would they would leave us to God's own Laws and not
doth the Church make Kneeling in Receiving necessary to Salvation but enjoyne it as a decent Ceremony M. They that make this Kneeling necessary to Church Communion and avoiding Schism and make Church-communion and avoiding Schism necessary to Salvation do make the said Kneeling necessary to Salvation But so do the Canonists here Ergo. How usually do they apply Christ's words to the Sacrament Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you If Communion herein be not necessary how come all the dreadful Sermons and Volumnes to thunder damnation against those that do but stay away through fear of unpreparedness and they must be Excommunicated that Communicate not twice a year with them yea though they communicate elsewhere with Nonconformists L. Wherein lyeth the sinfulness of Conformity here M. I. In subscribing Assenting and Consenting to this II. In practising it against Godly Believers L. I have heard that 1661. at the Savoy they maintained that the Liturgy did not bind you to put away them that do not Kneel and so you might subscribe to it M. This quibble served mens turn that were resolved it should be served The case was this They required us to lay by inconveniencies and name only flat sins which the Liturgy required we gave them in a Catalogue of eight This was the first Denying the Lord's Supper to all that durst not receive it Kneeling They were hereupon divided among themselves Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning and Sparrow who were the Disputants in policy finding that they should be hard put to it to justifie such rejections devised this evasion that the Liturgy did only bid them give it Kneeling but did not forbid them giving it to others Dr. Morley and others were against their opinion and so they were divided But they permitted the Disputers to go on it being the last day in the way that served their present turn But the case is clear 1. The Canon forbids them on pain of Suspension to give the Sacrament to any that Kneel not And they all take the Oath of Canonical obedience And though in Licitis honestis be added the terms signifie that they are to take the Canons as Licita honesta And these Canons ipso facto Excommunicate all professed Nonconformists 2. They all subscribe to use the form of administrating Sacraments in the Common-Prayer book and no other 3. The Church therefore expounds its own meaning in the Liturgy by the Canon that give it to them Kneeling signifies give it only to such 4. If any doubt of it let them try and their Suspension according to the Canon will expound it to them L. If the practice be sinful in rejecting such Assenting and Consenting and Subscribing to do it must be sinful M. The sin lyeth in what I before said about refusing Baptism 1. It maketh new terms of Church Communion 2. It contradicteth Christ's appointed terms which require all Christians to receive each other in Love and Concord And Paul expresly decideth such cases Rom. 14 and 15. Receive one another as Christ received us to the Glory of God. Will Christ that receiveth them to pardon grace and endless Glory own these Rejecters and Condemners Or will he not say In as much as ye did it to one the least of these my brethren ye did it to me And who is he that condemneth when it is Christ that justifieth 3. They shall answer for depriving Christ's Members of their right as truely as if they oppressed Widows and Orphans and turned them out of their houses and inheritance 4. They shall answer for Schismatical tearing the Church by their Engines 5. And for usurping a needless and hurtful dominion over mens faith and consciences by their Church Legislation 6. And for using that office which is made for the edifying and comfort of the Faithful to drive conscience and obedience to God out of the world by making doubtful ensnaring impositions and then persecuting and rendring odious all that dare not obey them for fear of sin while they bear with the Rabble that hate serious godliness and encourage them by preferring them in their communion L. But what pretence have any against Kneeling M. 1. It is not a necessary point of Salvation or communion and therefore if they err they are not therefore to be Excommunicate unless you will Excommunicate all that have errour and sin that is your selves and every living man. 2. They have the pretence of real fearing that it is a sin to differ in the Gesture from Christ's administration thinking that a Table gesture was intended by him to signifie his sacrifice-Feast 3. They fear breaking the Second commandment which is against corporal seeming to worship as Idolaters do though the heart mean better and so against symbolizing with Idolaters and against scandalous hardening them in their sin Because Papists are known to kneel to the Bread as unto God and worship it And these Papists live among us and are now hoping to set up their Idolatry Though for my part I think that the publick Doctrine of the Church takes off this argument of Scandal yet it is such as very Learned and holy men think valid as you may see in Mr. Rutherford's Letters and many others 4. And ad hom̄inem I see not what the Excommunicators can say for themselves while they condemn all of Schism that obey not General Councils especially the four first and that differ from the Universal Churches customes And yet the very first Nicene Council and divers after forbid all Kneeling in adoration on any Lord's day in the year and on any weeks day between Easter and Whitsunday And all the Ancients assure us that this was one of the chief ceremonys that the Church then called Universal agreed in And it was never put down by any other General Council but at Rome grew out of custome by degrees and that not till a thousand years after Christ as Dr. Heylin confesseth And shall these same men that cry up the Church and the Laws of Councils Excommunicate those that obey them as Schismaticks and pass for the followers of the Church themselves In a word I dare no more cast godly Christians from Christs Sacrament for fearing least Kneeling in Receiving be a symbolizing with Idolaters contrary to the Second Commandment than I durst turn Widows and Orphans out of their inheritance for not speaking the same language or wearing the same fashions as I do CHAP. XV. Point XII Of Consenting to the false Rule to find out Easter-day in the Liturgy M. THE next Point is materially a trifle but formally so palpable an untruth that we cannot deliberately declare that we Assent to it viz. They tell us in their Calender truly how to find Easter-day and they add another Rule to find it always which is frequently false as every Almanack will tell you viz. that it is always the first Sunday after the first full Moon which happens next after the
serious manner for transition into the State of Adult Communicants it would be the greatest means of a true Reformation and of Union with the parties that now differ about Church order that can be used Divers of the highest Episcopal Divines write as earnestly for this as any of us Especially Mr. Elderfield and Dr. Hammond and yet were it to prevent our continued division and our ruin there is no hope of obtaining it L. Why what hinders if all sides desire it M. It is desired as Holiness is desired seriously by the serious reservedly and by halves by the half Christian and only the Name Image and Ceremony by the gross Hypocrite who hateth it at the Heart because it is above him and against his carnal mind and interest And indeed it is here made impossible to be done any otherwise ordinarily than as a Ceremony For 1. The Diocesses are so vast that the Bishop cannot do this and other his Offices for the hundredth part of his undertaken Flock Suppose this Diocess have but five or six hundred thousand Souls for when an hundred thousand died the last Plague I hope it was not above the â—ixth part Do you think that the Bishop is able did he work as hard as any Nonconformist to confirm six hundred thousand Persons or the twentieth part of them or the hundredth in that serious manner as belongs to the binding of a Soul to Christ in so solemn a Covenant It becometh me not to inquire whether Bishops be men that are for so much seriousness in Christianity themselves and so much labour to attain it Some are far better than others You know them as well as I. But I must say 1. That as far as I can learn there is not one of an hundred confirmed at all 2. All the thousands that are unconfirmed live in the Parishes as reputed Christians and may come to the Sacrament when they will. 3. I never knew one Minister of all that Covenanted it to keep one man from the Sacrament for not being Confirmed or not being desirous of it nor one Neighbour that ever was examined on this Point whether he were Confirmed or were ready and desired it 4. Some few elder Votaries to the Bishops perhaps may be serious in it but what a mere running Ceremony it is usually made I need not tell you I have formerly said that I was at 15 years of Age Confirmed my self by Bishop Morton one of the Learned'st and best Bishops that ever I knew and we ran thither from School without the Minister's knowledge or one word from our Master to tell us what Confirmation is and in a Church yard in the Path-Way as the Bishop past by we kneeled down and laying his Hands on every Boys Head he said a few words I knew not what nor did any one of my School-fellows as far as I could perceive know what he said nor know what Confirmation is any more than to have the Bishop's Blessing nor were we ask'd by him or any whether we stood to our Baptismal Covenant save only by saying by rote the Catechism to our Master nor did I see any one make any more than a Ceremony of it When the Bishops were down I saw it made a serious Work by divers Ministers who instructed Young Men till they found them seriously resolved for Christ and then taking the best of Confirmation and Penitence caused them publickly before the Congregation to profess their Faith and Repentance and to renew the Covenant they made in Baptism to Christ. And were it made the work of Godly Ministers to do it or to prepare Men personally for it and not make it a Game for Boys much good might be done by it L. Well What have you against it besides Abuse which no body desireth you to subscribe to M. Were I a publick Minister I should be glad of that Rubrick to enable me to keep away the grosly Ignorant which I know no other Clause that enableth me to do But I durst not use it to turn from Communion all Godly Persons whom it excludeth nor can I consent so to do L. What can make Godly Persons scruple it as sinful M. Many things 1. The words make it seem to some to be yet made a Sacrament which are Vpon whom after the example of thy holy Apostles we have now laid our hands to certifie them by this sign of thy favour and gracious goodness toward them Here is an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace given to them said to be done in imitation of Christ's Apostles as a means whereby they receive the same and a â— ledge to assure them thereof as the Collects with it shew which is the Catechisms Definition of a Sacrament 2. They that are against our Diocesan sort of Prelacy dare not seem to own it by coming to them for Confirmation appropriated to them 3. Those that think that a great and holy Duty is made a mere Mockery to delude Souls and corrupt the Church while every one in England that will but take this Ceremony is pronounced to God in Prayer to be Regenerate by the Holy Ghost and all their Sins forgiven them these dare not joyn themselves with the Prophaners in their delusory way Be these Scruples just or unjust while the same Persons are willing to own their own Baptismal Covenant understandingly and seriously before the Church and their own Pastors and to know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and esteem them in Love for their Works sake and to be at Peace among themselves I dare not for scrupling this Diocesan Ceremony cast them from the Communion of the Church of Christ. And therefore I dare not Approve of the Order that requireth it nor Assent and Consent to it nor Subscribe that it is not contrary to the Word of God. Chap. XX. Point XVII Of Consenting to all the Ornaments of Church and Ministers that were in use in the Second year of King Edw. 6. L. VVHat have you against this M. The words are That such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof at all times of their Ministration shall be retained in use as were in this Church of England by the Authority of Parliament in the Second year of King Edw. 6. Against this we have these Exceptions 1. We know not what was then in use and therefore cannot consent to we know not what 2. We are told that the Albe and many other Ornaments were then in use that are since put down and we must not consent to restore them without more reason than we hear And the Canon enumerating the Ornaments now we suppose the addition of all those will Contradict it 3. We meet with few Conformists that know what was then in use And we see that all those that Subscribe or Consent to this yet use them not And we will not run for Company into a solemn Covenant-Consent to the use of those things that we see
no body use The second year of King Edw. 6. was the minority of the Reformation and before we consent to make it our pattern we must know what it was and whether no Act of Parliament have since reversed that which then was used Chap. XXI Point XVIII Of giving an Account to the Ordinary of all that we keep from the Sacrament that he may Proceed against them according to the Canons L. VVHy cannot you Approve of and Consent to this M. For many and great Reasons 1. From the Ordinary 2. From our Selves and our Ministry 3. From the People 4. From the Church 5. From the Nature of the Matter L. I. What have you against it from the Ordinary M. I told you before that 1. Some of the Ordinaries are Lay-Men sitting in Corners to Decree Excommunications and Absolutions proper to the Clergy And we ought not to consent to the guilt of this 2. Other Ordinaries are single Presbyters that have no Power of the Keys from Christ over their Brethren and over a multitude of Churches 3. Other of the Ordinaries are Diocesans over Hundreds of Churches that have no Bishops of their own under these And we ought not to own any of all these L. II. What Reasons have you from your selves M. If we should accuse to the Ordinaries all that we ought to keep away it will utterly destroy our Ministry 1. We are bound to keep away all that desire not Episcopal Confirmation 2. All Ignorant Persons that are unready to be Confirmed 3. All Atheists Infidels Hereticks scandalous Sinners and that live in malice to others much more to the generality of Godly Men. 4. All the Nonconformists whom they call Schismaticks that Kneel not c. And in a Parish of 30000 or 40000 in London it 's well if of all these sorts there be not many Thousands And 2. The Ordinaries Courts are full of other Work And in the Countrey they are oft far from most Ministers 3. Ministers have usually much more Work than they can do at home and less Money than they need And the Prosecution of all these and bringing up Witnesses will take up all their time and leave them none for their Studies or many other Offices at home And it will undo them in their Estates 4. It will make the People so much to hate them that their Preaching will do little good 5. And when they know all this none of the Ministers will practice it as Experience tells us and so they will all live in the breach of the Covenant which they made and when to get a living they have falsly professed Consent to all this Accusation and Prosecution Self-love will not suffer them to do what they consented to L. III. What are your Reasons against it from the People M. 1. The Multitude that makes it unpracticable 2. The greatness of some of them that will ruine the Ministers 3. But especially because it will cross the just end of our Ministry and make them uncapable of receiving any Profit by us And our Power is given us for their Edification and not for their Destruction This will but harden them against our Doctrine L. Do not you by this Condemn your selves that desire a stricter Discipline which would offend them more M. No for 1. We would not turn our Churches into Prisons nor bring in any under our Discipline but consenting Volunteers 2. We would have no Lay-men or forced Ordinaries to do this but Pastors of their own choice whom they well know 3. We would have nothing done against any sinner Magisterially and forcibly by the abuse of the Keys but only humble Ministerial convincing them by Gods word of sin and of Gods wrath and praying for their repentance and meek and patient warning them and waiting till they prove obstinately impenitent And then only an Exclusion of them declaratively from that Communion from which they exclude themselves without any force on their Goods or Persons L. IV. What are your reasons from the Church M. 1. We ought not to consent to so great a corruption of its Discipline 2. Nor to a course that will render it odious to men 3. And deprive it so much of the true work of a faithful Ministry L. 5. What mean you by your reasons from the matter M. The ordinary proceeding according to the Canons must cast out a multitude of truly godly Christians and then they must be further prosecuted and ruined as we shall see anon under the particulars And we cannot Covenant and Consent to be prosecutors of such men before such Judges for such an end and to such direful Effects Chap. XXII Point XIX Of Publishing the Lay-Chancellors Excommunications and Absolutions according to the Canons L. HOw are you bound to publish their Excommunications M. 1. By our Ordination-Covenant to obey the Ordinary 2. By the Oath of Canonical Obedience 3. By this assent and consent to the words last mentioned to accuse them that the Ordinary may proceed against them according to the Canon 4. By constant custom If we do it not we shall be suspended or cast our L. But the Oath of Canonical Obedience is but in licitis honestis M. I told you before it implyeth that all that is Canonical is licitum honestum And they will not allow us to be Judges but will suspend us if we refuse their commands as unlawful and dishonest And the Canon it self ipso facto Excommunicateth all that say any of their Governing Offices are contrary to the Word of God or that the Canons bind not Dissenters And so far is the Church from taking this for unlawful or dishonest as that it expresly commandeth it in these words Can. 65. All Ordinaries shall in their several Jurisdictions carefully see and give order that as well those who for obstinate refusing to frequent Divine Service Established by publick Authority within this Realm of England as those also ESPECIALLY OF THE BETTER SORT and Condition who for notorious contumacy or other notable crimes stand lawfully Excommunicated be every six Months ensuing as well in the Parish Church as in the Cathedral by the Minister openly in time of Divine Service upon some Sunday denounced and declared Excommunicate that others may thereby be admonished to refrain their Company and excited the rather to procure out a Writ de Excommunicato capiendo so that no man can be a Minister that will not practise it L. And what have you against the practice of it M. 1. To be the Agent of Lay-mens Excommunicating 2. And the Instruments of godly mens Excommunications and Ruins You may as well ask us why we dare not oppress and destroy men without cause the Publishers cannot be Innocent Chap. XXIII Point XX. Of Publishing Excommunications according to the 4th Canon M. THE Fourth Canon saith Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the Form of Gods Worship in the Church of England Established by Law and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments
such as he may not with a good Conscience subscribe unto let him be Excommunicated ipso facto and not restored but only by the Arch-Bishop after his Repentance and publick Revocation of such his wicked Errors L. I hope you that agree with the Church in Doctrine have nothing against Publishing such an Excommunication M. I Subscribe to the Doctrinal Articles as true because I judge of them by what I take to be the Author's meaning But 1. The words in the obvious sence are divers of them liable to Exceptions 2. And some of them about Traditions Ceremonies c. are of small moment and dubious 3. And every word that is true is not an Article of the Creed nor necessary to Church Communion so that all Men must be cast out of the Church that dissent from it And this Excommunication extends to Lay-Men who are not bound to know as much as Ministers L. What is therein the Articles that any good Man can scruple M. Article 3. Learned Men doubt of Christ's going down into Hell. Art. 4. That Christ's Body in Heaven hath Flesh and Bones is contrary to two General Councils that of Nice and that before it at Const. which it confuteth And in this they agree Art. 8. That Athanasius's Creed ought to be omnino recipiendum credendum wholly received and believed when the Damning part is scrupled by many Conformists Art. 9. Bishop Ieremy Taylor was against that of Original Sin. Art. 10 Many called Arminians are against that No Power to do good Works Art. 11. Many Conformists are against the word We are accounted Righteous before God only for the merit of Christ because a subordinate Righteousness is mentioned many Score or Hundred times in Scripture Art. 12. Many think that good Works spring not necessarily from Faith but freely Art. 13. Many think that merit of Congruity may be held and that Men by natural or antecedent Works may be made meet to receive Grace which Dr. Hammond in his Annotations seemeth much to insist on under the Name of Probity Art. 14. The said Dr. Hammond and many other write for good Works over and above God's Commandments as only counselled by God and voluntarily done which this Article calleth Arrogancy and Impiety And many follow Dr. Hammond and yet subscribe this Art. 15. Is denied by them that think Infants sinless when Baptized Art. 16. Many deny falling from Grace given Art. 17. Dr. Hammond and his Followers seem to deny the absolute Election here described Art. 18. Many good Men think some are saved that live up to the Light of Nature and yet this Article curseth them that say so Art. 19. The Description of the Visible Church greatly disagreeth from that now given by many great Church-men not at all mentioning the Bishops or their Government in it And some deny that the Church of Rome hath Erred De Fide. Art. 20. The Churches Power to decree Ceremonies as not limited here is doubted of by good Christians And they see not how that is not made necessary to Salvation contrary to this Article which is made necessary to avoid Excommunication as for wicked Errour Art. 21. Too many deny what is said here against gathering Councils witout the Will of Princes and that Councils may 〈◊〉 in things pertaining to God c. Art. 23. Seems defective about calling Ministers to them that are for uninterrupted Canonical Succession c. Art. 25. Contrary to this Article some great Church-men think that Confirmation at least is a Gospel Sacrament and that it hath a visible sign ordained by God. I will proceed no further herein By this it is evident that many Subscribers are great Nonconformists and if they speak their Minds are Excommunicated ipso facto L. You make our Articles of Religion a doubtful thing what certainty then is there of the Protestant Religion M. The Protestant Religion is the Holy Scriptures older than our Form called the 39 Articles which are a laudable sound account how we understand the Scriptures but not of such perfection that all Men must be Excommunicate that say any word in them is faulty Chap. XXV Point XXII Of Publishing the Sixth Canons Excommunications L. WHat is the Sixth Canons Excommuication M. Whosoever shall affirm that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by Law Established are wicked Antichristian or Superstitious or such as being commanded by lawful Authority Men who are Zealously and Godly affected may not with any good Conscience approve them use them or as occasion requireth subscribe unto them Let him be Excommunicate ipso facto and not restored till he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked Errors L. I confess it sounds harshly to lay so great stress on every Ceremony of the Church as to Excommunicate every one that Calleth any one of them unlawful What could be said more of the Ten Commandements or the Creed If it be a wicked Errour to mistake about a Ceremony or to account a Cope or a Pair of Organs unlawful the Lord have Mercy on us what a Case are we all in by wicked Errours What shall my poor Country Neighbours and Tenants do that few of them understand one half the Creed M. Yet 1. The Articles and our Ordination-Vow oblige us to believe and teach that nothing is necessary to Salvation but what is contained in the Scripture or certainly proved by it And that General Councils and all Men are fallible And sure they are very near to Infallibility who are so Infallible about every Rite and Ceremony that they dare bind all the Land to justifie or notblame them on pain of ipso facto Excommunication 2. Yet Grotius and Bishop Taylor that justifie some Lying are Men that deserve Praise with them and in truth And Oh! how many Thousands live quietly in their Communion who err in greater Matters than a Ceremony 3. And judge by what I have said of the Symbolical Crossing in Baptism Godfathers c. whether it be a wicked Errour deserving Excommunication and Ruine to charge any one of their Rites with Sin. 4. Was it not enough to cast us out of Ministry and Maintenance for blaming a Ceremony but they must cast us out of the Church what is Pharisaical if this be not Chap. XXV Point XXIII Of Publishing the Seventh Canons Excommunications M. THe Seventh Canon is Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the Government of the Church of England under His Majesty by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Arch-deacons and THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE in the same is Antichristian or repugnant to the Word of God Let him be Excommunicate ipso facto and so continue till he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked Errors L. Mark here that And connexeth all these Offices it is not OR disjunctively So that you fall not under this Canon if you condemn every Church Office save one if you condemn not all M. That 's a meer violent unjust exposition The Government is the thing named as consisting of many
to be cast out as an impenitent wicked man for this when they that will say all 's well that the Bishops do may live quietly in open vice or ungodliness As Dr. Sloughton saith If you strike a Schismatick and Christ find a Saint lye bleeding and you be to answer for it I would not be in your case for all your wealth If you must kill a Fly on the Forehead of a Child of God with a Beetle or a Butchers Axe you shall not use my hand to give the blow If Chrysostom would rather have his hand cut off than give the Sacrament to a wicked man tho' a Prince I will rather have mine cut off than reject a Saint or my Tongue cut out than curse Christs Members lest he say I cursed him in them Chap. XXVIII Point XXV Of Publishing the Excommunications of Canon 9th 10th 11th Of such as call Dissenters a Church M. THese Canons made against Schismaticks and Conventicles do Excommunicate all that say such are true Churches that have groaned under the burden of grievances c. And is this a just cause of Excommunication I wish they had no such burden laid on them to make them groan But suppose them quite mistaken if a weak mistaken Christian may be a true Christian tho' faulty why may not a mistaken Congregation be a true Church tho' faulty I hope no man of Protestant Faith and Charity will take the Errors of such as they describe for worse than the Papists and yet how many have written tho' confusedly to prove the very Church of Rome a true Church tho' sinful Yea I hope few Protestants will say that our Separatists have half so great Ignorance Error and Corruption as the Moscovites Greeks Abassines Copties Iacobites Nestorians Armenians who yet are commonly by us confessed to be true Churches If they be no true Churches it is either because of the greatness of their Errors or because they go against the Law or Will of Governors not the first as the foresaid instances shew not the latter for no man ever yet owned that Principle that it can be no true tho' faulty Church that is gathered against the Rulers wills For many hundred years the Orthodox did it justly and afterward when some did it unjustly the culpability made it not a nullity Else what a case was the Roman Church in that for many hundred years was kept up by Rebellion against their Lawful Emperors and Princes And how oft have a great part of the Greek Churches been guilty of it And do not the Condemners hereby imitate the Separatists in the sin and reviling as they are reviled The Separatists falsly say that you are no true Churches and you requite them with saying falsly the same by them Chap XXIX Point XXVI Of Executing Canon 27. rejecting Nonconformists from Communion L. THis is but the same that we heard before M. Before I speak against publishing Excommunications This Canon commandeth the Minister executively before they are Excommunicated to give the Sacrament to no one that receiveth it not kneeling or that is guilty of any of the foresaid Points of Dissent unless he confess his fault and promise to do so no more So that here the Minister is to be himself the prime Executioner against such Dissenters before the Courts or Ordinaries Excommunicate or meddle with them L. But none subscribe to this Canon M. I told you they Swear Canonical Obedience and the Canon suspendeth them if they do not do it Therefore it is a necessary part of Conformity But of this I spake before about Assent and Consent Chap. XXX Point XXVII Of refusing Communicants from other Parishes Canon 28. L. VVHY may not this be obeyed M. In some cases it may when Persons straggle without cause But there is frequent need that will justifie it as a Duty Parish Bounds are a humane Order for conveniency but the benefit of an able faithful Minister and the choice and use of such where they may be had is of Divine Appointment and a matter of far greater weight The Canon supposeth Ministers that neither can nor may be suffered to Preach or Expound any Doctrine If a Neighbour Parish have an able Teacher must he drive away poor hungry Souls that seek his Consolatory Communion and Help If Parishes that are bound to maintain their own Poor suffer any of them to be in danger of perishing by cold or hunger a Neighbour Parish tho' forbidden by men is bound by God to relieve them in distress Every Christian is related to all the Catholick Church and as he hath need hath right to the Communion of Saints out of his Parish In London where some Churches have excellent men if a Lord or Gentleman live in a Parish where a Patron hath set over them one that Preacheth not sincerely but railingly in strife contention or gross Error why may not such a man go to a Neighbour Church And why must that Neighbour Minister repel him When yet our Antagonists in this case maintain that the Catholick Church being but one every Christian must Communicate in every place where he hath occasion And that a Diocess is the lowest sort of Church of which Parishes are but parcels And consequently a man never separateth from his Church that separateth not from the Diocesan Chap. XXXI Point XXVIII Of Canon 38. Excommunicating Ministers that repent of Subscribing M. IF Subscribing prove a Sin of which I am past doubt this Canon commandeth the Excommunicating Men for repenting of Sin. Whereas Christ's Law of Excommunication is to Excommunicate none but for not repenting of Sin. Are not these two very contrary And do you think that Christ will stand to such an Excommunication or disown them that are thus cast out Some Mens abuse of Excommunication is such as if at last if all their Canons be executed they would tempt Men to doubt whether they live like Christians because they are not Excommunicate and would make it a good argument He is cast out of the Church for Conscience sake ergo it is a good sign that he is a Man of Conscience Or as if they were but fulfilling They shall cast out your names as Evil doers c. L. Why should you put Cases that may never come to pass I do not think you were ever commanded to Publish an Excommunication against any such M. But to Promise and Swear Canonical Obedience is a thing that is required of us all And promising to Sin is Sin and oft worse than a sudden act Yea if a Minister do but omit some Forms or Ceremony by this Canon he must be first Suspended and then Excommunicate and I must publish it if required Chap. XXXII Point XXIX Of the Execution of the 57th Canon L. VVHat is the 57th Canon and its Execution M. It Suspendeth and after a Month Excommunicateth all that go for Baptism for their Children or Communion themselves from their own Parish because the Minister is no Preacher to another Parish
to work in Bed or go abroad Naked Men that need Marriage must Marry and then liberis operam dare but not to do this before they Marry So Persons that are unfit for the Sacrament must be fit and then receive it but not before they are fit Now if you can force them by a Gaol out of Ignorance unbelief and ungodliness it will be a very charitable work Otherwise you force them upon Sacriledge and Profanation to their Damnation Why else doth the Common-Prayer Book perswade the Blasphemers and hinderers of God's Word and the uncharitable not to come to that Holy Table lest the Devil enter into them as he did into Judas and fill them with all unrighteousness to the destruction of Body and Soul. L. But they that are forced to come will be liker to take preparing Care than if they be let alone M. Look over the foregoing instances Will you make a Law among Heathens that all shall be baptized that this may draw them to believe Or will you Command all Students to Administer the Sacraments that this may draw them to Study and be Ordained c. We disswade you not from forcing all to Hear and Learn But do you think that it is so easie and small a Matter to bring a Man to Repent and Believe and give up his Heart and Life to Christ and prefer Heaven before Earth and a holy Life before a fleshly and worldly Life as that it is but say Do it or thou shalt go to Iail What need a Saviour a sanctifying Spirit a teaching Ministry c. if it be so easily done at a Command Will the fear of a Jail make Men believe the Gospel or Love God Oh how little doth this way savour of any true Knowledge of the State of Man or what Faith or Sanctification is L. Wherein lyeth the Sinfulness of such force M. 1. It seemeth to make a New Gospel-Condition or contradict Christ's Christ saith That none can be his Disciple except he forsake all and follow him This Course saith Thou shalt be saved by Christ if thou hadst rather Communicate than lose all and lie in Jail The Sacrament is an Investing delivering of Pardon and right to Christ and Salvation And none but those that desire them above all the World are capable of these And to give them to the forced and unwilling is contrary to the Gospel 2. It seems to put a Lie on Christ as if he had ever made any such gift 3. It tendeth to deceive poor Souls 4. It forceth them on Sacriledge Hypocrisie Prophanation and Damnation 5. It may distract those Persons with terror who are conscious of their unfitness or those Melancholy Christians that under Temptation tremble for fear of taking their own damnation 6. It polluteth the Church and confoundeth the Infidels Catechumens and Fideles 7. It thereby filleth the Church with such wicked men as prove worse Enemies to the godly than those without 8. In all Elections the Major part of wicked forced Communicants will carry it to chuse Ministers like themselves and carry Church Matters according to their wicked minds 9. Good men seeing this are ready to be frightned out of the Church to Separation as men run out of a ruinous House lest it fall on their Heads or fly from a noisome place with loathing 10. And then the Crowd that thus get Church possession will revile them as Schismaticks and Sectaries and Hypocrites and persecute and destroy them if they can Are not all those sad effects of turning a Church into a Prison and forcing men to seem to take that which Christ professeth he doth not give them And of casting holy things to Dogs and Pearls before Swine and cramming and drenching those with the Body and Blood of Christ who have no right till they desire and beg it and can sell all to buy this precious Pearl We dare not Assent Consent or Swear to such a Course as this nor publish an Excommunication against such men on this account It 's an odd thing to cast men out because they will not come in And I pray you how can Ministers in great Cities and Parishes perform this Canonical Obedience to give in to the Bishop or Chancellor the names of all that Communicated not at Easter when they know not the hundredth part of the Parishioners in some places I do believe that in the two Parishes that I last lived in there are above fourscore thousand Souls And is it like that the Ministers know twenty thousand of these I have been at their Communion even at Easter and Whitsuntide and I never saw five hundred there And if they gave in the names of but twenty or forty thousand Non-communicants tho' it 's like there are nearer two hundred thousand in this Diocess what work would the Bishop and Chancellor have Cannot you easily imagine what their Discipline would be and how they would exhort each Person one by one to Repentance and plead with them for conviction and resolve their doubts Doth not this one thing tell you what the English Diocesan Episcopacy is that giveth one man the Disciplining of many hundred Parishes L. You talk as if you would have a Church of Saints and seem to make Religion too serious a business It is well if we could have a Church of Civil Men and Peaceable Subjects that will use Religion for the Civil Interest as far as will serve the will of Governors and the Common Peace M. I am sure St. Paul wrote to no Church but such as he called Saints and I am sure Christ will save none but Saints An unsanctified Christian and a Church not holy are contradictions in adjecto Christ came not to set up a meer worldly Kingdom and to devise a Religion to serve the Will Ambition or Interest of worldly men nor meerly to promote Civility Wealth and Peace If this be all that you would have go to Aristotle Plato Seneca Plutarch Cicero c. You need not be Christians for this But yet we pretend not to know mens Hearts It is visible Saints that the visible Church consisteth of and with whom we must have visible Communion And it is not left to the will of every Pastor whom he will take for a Saint for then Churches would be of as many sorts or degrees as Ministers strict or loose Opinions are But Christ hath himself made the Articles Essential to Christian Faith and Practice and the Baptismal Covenant and required us to take those into the Church who seriously profess Belief and Consent till they null that Profession by a contrary Profession or Conversation which must be proved against any man before he is rejected For the Church is not a Society to be arbitrarily made or unmade at every Ministers or Bishops will but hath from Christ the fixed Laws of its Constitution and necessary Administration better than our 141 Canons But indeed you have toucht our sore For my part I am past doubt that we should all
be such And tho' good and sober Lords and Gentlemen will promote good and sober men the propagation of the species is the most natural Appetite and an evil Tree will bring forth evil Fruit and a Hater of Godliness is unlike to chuse a godly Pastor And any man that hath Money be he never so bad or erroneous may buy an Advowson or Presentation And must all pâ—or Souls have no other Pastors than these men will chuse And quo jure how came they by a right to chuse Pastors for all the â—and Did God ever give it them The People at first sinfully gave it them in blind gratitude for Building and Endowing Temples But Mens Grant many hundred years ago being sinful hath no power to bind our Consciences Our Fore fathers might give their Lands from their Posteritâ— but they could not give away Gods Ordinances nor the means of our Salvation If Patrons might ill dispose of Temples and Tythes that 's nothing to prove that they may chuse Pastors for all men against their wills L. But the Bishops have the power of Institution and they will keep out unworthy Men. M. 1. Do they de facto keep them out I told you truly what a company of ignorant drunken Readers I was bred up under till I was thirteen years of Age or fourteen and what a sort were round about us And yet the Bishops were as good men as any I know now Bishop Morton was our Bishop If we are so hardly agreed in a notorious matter of Fact viz. what Pastors multitudes of Parishes now have it 's in vain to dispute of any thing else 2. When we have told the Conformists what men are Instituted their common answer is that it 's long of the Patrons and the Law that enableth not the Bishop to keep them out And that if the Bishop deny Institution to any one that can but say some account of his Faith in Latin a quare impedit will force him to Institute him But whether you will lay it on the Bishops want of Power or their Will it 's no relief to the miserable People And that which the Bishop requireth more to Ordination is but a Certificate of a good Conversation which I never knew man so Heretical or wicked in all my Life that could not get from three Ministers L. Would you have Patrons turned out of their right M. No it is no right of Gods giving to be the sole Choosers of Pastors for men Souls There is a threefold part in Ministers admittance 1. To judge who is fit to be by them Ordained And this is the Ordainers part 2. To Chuse or Consent who shall be the Pastor of Mens Souls And this is the Peoples part 3. To judge and chuse who shall have the publick Places Maintenance Countenance and Toleration And this is the Magistrates and Patrons part L. But these three may differ and it 's like will do so how then shall ever the Churches be provided M. There is nothing in this World without difficulties and inconveniences But on so great a Treasure a threefold Lock is good security and hath less inconvenience than the way that we are against It 's like necessity will at last make all consent as the Cities in Belgium do in their Government But if they should not 1. None can chuse who shall be the Pastor of this or that Church till the Ordainers consent that he be in general a Minister in the Church Universal So that their Consent so far is previous 2. If the Patron offer an unfit Man and the People refuse him he may offer others If they continue to disagree it is but let the Patron chuse who shall have the Place and Tythes and the People chuse who shall be their Pastor L. What confusion will this bring in Shall one that is no Pastor have the Benefice and whom shall the People chuse and where shall they Assemble M. If great Men that should keep Gods Order will obstinately break it it 's they that cause the confusion and inferiors cannot remedy it But if you will lay by prejudice and have patience I shall open the case to you I. The Magistrate as the Patron of the Church must see that every place have competent Teaching And over the meer Catechumens or Auditors he may appoint who shall chuse these Parish Teachers and to them as such he may give the publick Place and Maintenance if Original Dedication to Pastors as such make it not Sacriledge to alienate it And these Teachers are bound to Preach Catechise and do all that 's due to Catechumens II. If these men be tolerable no doubt the generality of the People will chuse them for their Pastors prudence requiring it rather than lose the advantage of the Place and of a countenanced maintained Ministry III. If intolerable Men get in or such as the Flock of Communicants cannot submit to it 's most like that the People will for the advantage of the publick Place and Countenance take some Neighbour Pastor for theirs and there Communicate paying their Tythes at home IV. If most chuse the Parish Teacher for their Pastor and a few Dissenters go to the next Parish Church the inconvenience will be comparatively small V. If any number can consent to no Parish Minister near them it is but to tolerate their Communion in a place of their own preparing if the Magistrate find their Principles and Conversation tolerable and this under Laws of Peace and good Behaviour and what harm is in all this L. It seems then you take it for unlawful Conformity to take the Parish Ministers for our Pastors M. No Sir tho' any Patron chuse them and obtrude them to whom God hath given no such right yet if they be fit or tolerable Men the convenience of Place Countenance Maintenance and Parish Order will teach Men as I said finis gratiâ in prudence to consent to them But if such be unfit and intolerable I will have better if I can And I take it for unlawful Conformity to take all or any that are intolerable for our Pastors because such Patrons chuse them who I should be loth should chuse my Servants my Cook or my Physician And it 's unlawful to give away to a Patron the Churches right of Election or Consent if we can keep it Chap. XLV Point II. Whether Parents have not more right than our Patrons to chuse Pastors and Church Communion for their Children M. II. THE next fault of Lay-Conformity is That they are deprived of due Family-government while a Stranger called Patron and not the Parents must chuse who shall be Pastor to their Children when they are at Age and to what Church their Family shall go L. Did not you say before that the King may settle Teachers in all the Parishes and force Men to hear them why then may he not force you and your Children and Servants to hear them as Catechumens M. I told you that he ought to take
That 's his act and not theirs and they cannot hinder him They send their Children to be Baptized and not to be Cross'd M. But we have many Antipadobaptists and converted Iews to be Baptized at Age. 2. And tho' I am much of your mind in this yet all wiser Men are not and the case is very difficult as to Infants If one knew beforehand that the Priest would use Oil and Spittle and Exorcism and invocate Saints and Angels over the baptized Child it were hard to say I send him only to be Baptized when he knew how sinfully it will be done The truth is I can justifie no Man that will submit his Child to such a crossing at Baptism that can caeteris paribus have it by another better done tho' Prohibited by Man We must not be guilty of other Mens Sins nor of Church Corruptions L. Christ that will have mercy and not sacrifice would not have men refuse Christendom for fear of a Cross. M. Christ who would have Teachers learn that Lesson I will have mercy and not sacrifice would have no Minister deny Christendom to such as think their crossing sinful And yet he would have no Man commit any Sin to gain Baptism but will save the unbaptized that desired it so they might have had it without and will himself shew Mercy to such as consent not to a polluted Sacrifice And would have us prefer a lawful way when we can have it Baptism is our Renunciation of Sin. CHAP. LI. POINT VIII Of Rejecting not-Kneelers from Communion L. AND well they deserve it that will not reverently receive so great a Gift upon their knees from God. M. Do you think it is for want of humble Reverence Do they not kneel after and longer to God in Prayers publickly and in their Families and Chambers than most that blame them Were Christ's Apostles unreverent that did not kneel at receiving it in his own visible presence Was all the universal Church unreverent that for 600 Years if not 1000 after Christ forbad strictly all Adoration by kneeling every Lords Day because they would use a Laudatory Gesture denoting their belief of Christs Resurrection Do those men shew more Reverence to God and Religion that will kneel at the Altar and scarce ever kneel to God at home and seldom use his Name but with prophanation It is not unreverence that causes their dissent L. I know no just cause they have of this dissent M. I confess nor I while the open Doctrine of the Church renounceth all Bread-worship and Idolatry But were it among Papists where the Doctrine expounds the action I durst not do it But I told you before what moveth them which I must not again repeat But I will repeat it that it is a heinous injury to the Church and the particular Persons that on the account of so small and doubtful a circumstance wherein all antiquity is against the imposers they should deny Communion with Christ and his Church as much as in them lieth to faithful Christians and should turn the Sacrament of Love for no just cause into an occasion of hatred and persecution and the Sacrament of Unity into an Engine of division by their own needless impositions to perplex mens Consciences and set people one against another O what a snare and instrument of wrath and discord and inhumane usage of other men do many turn that blessed Sacrament into which is instituted for the Communion of Saints in unfeigned Love. The more such magnify the Sacrament as the very Flesh and Blood of Christ the more do they condemn themselves CHAP. LII POINT IX Of denying Lay-men Communion in a Neighbour Parish Church when they dare not Communicate in their own Parish for the Reasons aforesaid M. IX DO you think it is a sin deserving exclusion from Christian Communion for a man to think it unlawful for him to own and encourage the Ministry of an ignorant insufficient or grosly scandalous or hurtful Teacher A poor Christian that is unwilling to be damned and readeth that he should love his Neighbour as himself perhaps heareth the Priest tell the People what hypocrites and odious persons Non-conformists are and exhorts them to avoid such and to prosecute them and root them out as the intolerable enemies of Church and State and as unfit to be Members of any Society He is acquainted with divers Non-conformists their Lives and their Books and Doctrines and finds the clean contrary He reads in Scripture See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently He heareth from the Pulpit See that ye hate one another and seek the destruction of one another Christ saith Love your enemies the Priest exhorts them to root out their friends Christ saith He that receiveth you receiveth me and shake off the dust of your Feet against them that receive you not It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for such the Priest saith He that receiveth such Ministers sinneth against Christ and he that hath any communion with them is a Schismatick The man readeth Beware of false Prophets and thinks it a sin to encourage the teachers of lies and wickedness and he readeth He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and hath not eternal Life and if I have not charity I am but as sounding Brass c. He thinks him a false teacher that contradicteth Christ and that seeks to damn the hearers And he thinks that no tongue can more contradict Christ than that which Preacheth down Love and Preacheth for hating godly Men tho' on slanderous pretences and that no man can do more to damn the People than he that draweth them from love to such hatred Another liveth in a Parish where a dry ignorant fellow affords him no such help as he is conscious his soul needeth and where the Common-Prayer is so much better than the Sermon that were it not for that he might better stay at home And where the Priests Conversation encourageth the Drunkards and Prophane and vilifieth godly Men. This man is for the Church-way but for a better Minister The question is whether for this he be so great a sinner that all neighbouring Ministers must drive him away and deny him Communion Another honest Christian taketh it for a sin to kneel at the Railes or to join with the Organs or to receive or desire the Diocesan manner of Confirmation or to forbear Communion with all Christians whom the Church-men here condemn or cast out The question is whether it be no wrong to any of these to be denied Communion at a neighbour Parish where his doubts are removed I prove that he hath right to such neighbour Communion 1. Because he is a Member of Christs Body the Catholick Church and therefore hath right to the Communion of Saints And to believe that in the Creed and condemn it in Practice is to believe to condemnation 2. They themselves teach that a true Christian hath right to Communion with all Churches where he hath
just occasion to seek it 3. They say that there is no Church without a Bishop and that the Diocesan-Church is the least true political Church And if so he separateth not from any Church that separateth not from the Diocesan 4. These foresaid persons do nothing to forfeit the Communion of neighbour Churches therefore it is a sin and wrong to deny it them If it were proved an errour to avoid that as a sin which they avoid all mankind hath errours and to be over-fearful of Fire or Water or Plague or Poyson is a tolerable safe weakness and not like the sins that swarm in multitudes of tolerated Parishioners L. That which is not so immoral as Fornication Drunkenness Cursing and Swearing may be more hurtful to the Church and so deserve greater severity from Governours M. The Church-Keys are to be used with due relation to Heaven and those are to be taken in or cast out that Christ will take in or cast out from Heaven And if you think he will damn an obedient godly Christian for fearing to partake of the sin of wicked Priests or for fearing to be poysoned with love-killing Doctrine or for fearing the vain Worship of mens traditions rather than a prophane derider of Conscience and a filthy Fornicator Drunkard or Blasphemer I shall not think it worth my labour to dispute with you But men that take the Churches welfare to lie in the wealth and domination of such as they more than in the Holy Obedience Conscience and Piety of the People will object the same that you now do CHAP. LIII POINT X. Of Swearing never to endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church M. HOW far this extendeth objectively I before proved X. by 1. The words of the Oaths 2. The consent of the Bishops 3. And the words of the seven Canons and the Et Caetera Canon in 1640. so that there is no doubt of it 2. How far it extendeth as to the persons obliged I before told you and you may read 1. In the Corporation Act which imposeth it on all Corporations 2. In the Vestry Act which imposeth it on all Church-Vestries 3. In the Act of Vniformity which imposeth the subscription on all the Clergy 4. In the Oxford Act of Banishment which imposeth the Oath on Non-conformists and more 5. In the Militia Act which imposeth it on all the Military Commanders and Souldiers in the Land so that you may well say that is a National Covenant or Oath 3. What is amiss in the Church-Government that needeth an amending alteration I have so often told you that I will not repeat it Judge then what this Oath importeth L. It could never be the meaning of the Parliament that no man shall endeavour to amend the faults of any Officers Courts or Actions for they often amend their own Acts of Parliament and they reserve a Power in King and Parliament to make alterations even in Church Governments But that belongs not to the People nor should they endeavour it M. 1. I hope you will not confound Stated Offices and Mens Exercise of them in Practice I grant that they do not bind us by Oath never to endeavour that Bishops and all the Officers of their Courts may be honest men and slander and injure no man against Law c. But it is the Offices as here stated that are made thus far unalterable named in the Canon Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and the rest that bear Office therein 2. I grant that the Law is made to bind none but Subjects and that an altering power is reserved to King and Parliament But it doth not follow that all the Subjects be not bound by it Though They may change Laws yet We may not And as you say They suppose that it belongeth not to the People to endeavour it Which We grant as to any Rebellious Seditious or otherwise unlawful Endeavour But whether God bind not all men in their own Place and Calling by Prayer Conference Elections of Officers Petition c. to endeavour to amend all Crying Dangerous Common Sins is a farther Question L. They cannot mean to exclude Petitioning for that is the Subjects Right and is by them allowed with Restraints M. 1. It is meant in opposition to the Scots Covenant which tyed men to oppose Popery Prelacy and Schisme only in their several Places and Callings 2. It is expres'd in the most universal terms without the least Exception by men that knew how to speak 3. Reasons were given in Parliament against any Limitation and those Reasons carryed it 4. They were Men that were wholly for the Church of England whose Canon had before Excommunicated themselves and all men that accused any Office in the Church Government as sinful And they knew that should any of them when the Parliament is risen yea or there so say he is an Excommunicate Man. 5. It is most certain that they intended to bind all Subjects on whom these Oaths are imposed even from petitioning or any other Endeavour of Alteration though they allow petitioning in other Cases for they intended to fix and secure the Church-Government against all Alterations 6. Therefore as I said before they joined it with yea and set it before State-Government in all their Oaths and Covenants And do you think in Conscience they left men at liberty to petition against Monarchy or against the Life or Power or Honour of the King Far be it from us to think so ill of them I must profess to you that I do not think half so ill of well-order'd Monasteries of Men or Women as I do of our large Diocesses or our Lay-Excommunicators according to the Canons And yet even in the Times of Popery the Nation was not Sworn never to endeavour any alteration of Monasteries If you would have all Corporations Soldiers Vestries Ministers sworn never to endeavour to cure the Sick to relieve the Poor to seek more Wealth to reform all Play-houses Ale-houses and Taverns to Catechize their Families c. I would not join with you National Oaths and Covenants are Matters of great moment We have deeply suffered by rashness in such already And should any of them prove false and wicked and the Nation be stigmatized with Perjury you might more sadly write Lord have Mercy on us on the Land than on the Doors where the most dreadful Plague prevaileth CHAP. LIV. POINT XI Of Swearing an Abhorrence of taking Arms against any Commissionated by the KING M. THis also I have said enough of in the Case of the XI Ministers and told you that we are far from scrupling it in Disloyalty but in Loyalty only 1. Lest the Keepers of the Seals may by Commissions depose the King or deliver up the Kingdom to whom they please 2. Because the Authority of a Commission as above and against the King 's own Law is not a matter that Lawyers and Judges themselves are agreed of and therefore unfit for the unskilful Vulgar to determine by their
are past doubt that to subject a Nation to a foreign Iurisdiction is to stigmatize it with the most odious Perjury Seeing as the Oath of Supremacy sweareth all expresly against it so the foresaid Corporation Oath Vestery Oath Militia Oath Oxford Oath and Vniformity Subscription have sworn or engaged the Nation never to endeavour any Alteration of Government in Church or State And if a foreign Iurisdiction be no Alteration we know nothing capable of that Name And when we see some of the same men at once endeavour to make us take such Oaths on pain of Ruin and to design to bring all under the Guilt of breaking them when we have done men think it best to take no more of them than is necessary till they see whether they must be kept or broken XXII Plagues Flames Poverty Convulsions that have befaln Corporations of late years makes us the more afraid of the sins which are like to be the Cause And the Earl of Argyle 's Case makes us afraid of stretching Expositions of Oaths And the Londoners have sped so ill by such stretching Expositions as confirmeth us in our Purpose to avoid them XXIII If we wilfully sin on pretence of Liberty to preach the Gospel we cannot expect God's Blessing on our Labours And then what is our preaching worth XXIV We read how joyfully many Martyrs in Queen Mary's days endured the Flames rather than grant the real Presence in the Mass And we that fear far greater sin must rather suffer than commit them XXV As we dare not Conform against Conscience so to lay by our Ministry while we can exercise it we take to be Sacrilege Covenant-breaking with God and Treachery and Cruelty to the Souls of Men. XXVI We are sure if all the Ministers should conform it would be so far from healing the Church that it would widen the Breach For the Dissenting People would be tempted to go the further from us all and think that none of us were to be trusted as many have turn'd further already on some such Accounts XXVII We are Commonly agreed that no men have right from God to Silence all the Ministers in the Land And we are fully satisfyed that Conformity to the things aforesaid being a Sin all the Ministers in England ought to have been Non-Conformists and then the Act of Uniformity had silenced them all XXVIII Lastly the dreadful effects of Canonical and the like Impositions the sufferings of Godly Minsters Congregations Cities Countries and Persons thereupon our doleful divisions especially among Ministers the evil Spirit that possesseth multitudes to cry down Love and call for Vengeance and the prospect of what is going on do affright us from approving consenting to or using the Engines that thus divide us and the Canons that are battering down our Peace and consequently to be guilty of all the Atheism Prophaneness Malignity Popery Persecution and Calamity to this Land which are like to come in at the breach of our Walls which the battery of those Canons and Engines make A Jayl and a Fire or a Gallows is an easier place than a bed where Conscience shall charge such Evils home upon us much more then the Judgments which the True and Righteous Judge of the World will shortly execute on Lyers Malignants or Persecutors of his Flock yea of the least of those that Christ will call Brethren at that day I have oft said if any Church-History of one man be credible St. Martin wrought many Miracles and when the Bishops about him being bad men to get down the Priscillian Gnosticks worse than our Quakers did 1. Seek help of the Magistrate's Sword 2. And bring strict Godly persons under suspicion of being Priscillianists Martin renounced their Communion by resolved separation to his death save that once at the Emperour's desire he Communicated with them on condition the Emperour would spare the lives of some condemned as Priscillianists and even for this was rebuked and chastized by an Angel if his Scholar and Companion Sulpitius Severus a Learned Godly man be to be believed CHAP. LVII Of the Reasons for Conformity L. NOW I will tell you what I hear said against your Non-Conformity and I will give you leave to answer the Objections as we go on Obj. I. It 's commonly said that you are Fanatick persons that build all your dissent on your own private Spirits and pretended Impulses and In spirations M. Have I pleaded with you any such Impulses or Inspirations as the Reasons of our Dissent Is there any such thing in above 100 Books that I have written Did we use any such Argument in our Dispute with the Bishops but the Papists call every mans Faith that is his Own and not taken meerly on trust as the Churches Faith by the Name of a Private Spirit L. Obj. II. They say you make a Schism and Stir for meer tristes and things indifferent viz. Ceremonies and Liturgy confessing that they are not unlawful M. 1. And what if they say that we are Turks or Heathens or have Horns and are Brutes what remedy have we To their honour be it spoken we would not hope to confute them 2. Do you not know that so far are we from this that even under the old easier Impositions we protested to the Bishops in our Petitions for Peace That we would yield to any thing but Sin against God and we endeavoured to prove Conformity sinful And do they well agree with themselves when Dr. Stilling fleet saith that I would represent Conformity such as should make them seem a company of Perjur'd Villains 3. I pray you tell me whether the 52. Points now opened by me be nothing but Liturgy and Ceremonies and whether you take them all to be things indifferent Is it not an odd sort of Accusers that we have that sometimes say we suspect the Nation of common Perjury and the Church of Subverting Corruption and overthrow of Discipline and Excommunicating Christs Faithful Servants and shortly after say We Dissent only about things Indifferent God have mercy on those miserably Souls that take such things for Indifferent 4. Who is it troubles the Land with their things Indifferent Is it we Did we devise them Do we impose them on any and say Vse our things indifferent or we will Silence you or Excommunicate you and lay you in Iayl with Rogues Be such things imposed as Indifferent L. III. They say you hold your Opinions in obstinate wilfulness and have no Reason to give for them and therefore are not to be born with as weak Brethren M. So said the Arians of the Orthodox and the Heathens of the Christians It 's a fine World when ignorant ungodly Lads are heard tell such men as were Dr. Reignolds Iohn Fox Amesius Blondel Dailee Chamier c. We can't allow you so much as the esteem of weak Brethren I do not think but some of their School boys might soon be taught by a Bishop to say thus to their Masters 2. But do all
you be not for us you are against the King since all are sworn against altering the Church-Government before that of the State. Mr. Martin that lost an arm in the Kings service in the War lay in Gaol at Warwick for preaching when silenced and Mr. Francis Bampfield that was against the Parliament's War lay seven years in Gaol for preaching as a Non-Conformist and died in New-gate Non-Conformists that have been and are most for the King do suffer as much as others 3. Read my second Plea for Peace in which I declare our political Principles and tell us what you there dislike L. Obj. VII But why do you refuse to renounce all the Obligation of the Covenant if you are not disloyal M. If you reduce your objection to an argument it must run thus All those are disloyal to the King who think that this vow binds them to be against Prophaneness Popery or Schism or to endeavour any amending or alteration of the prelatical way of Church-Government But c. I deny the Major Is he an honourer of the King that dare affirm this We are ready to renounce all Obligation from that or any other Covenant to any disloyalty what ever L. Obj. VIII They say that your Preaching is unnecessary there being Ministers enough without you and therefore that you Praech but to keep up a party and your own Reputation and Interest in them M. And I think that Priest fitter for tears than for disputes that so little knoweth England or the work of the Office they undertake If I know the Church that hath such a Pastor I shall be past doubt that they have need of help I would as soon believe him if he undertook to build a Castle alone and said he had no need of help or that forty thousand of the poor of London have no need of relief and that it is rebellion to relieve them as that the forementioned two hundred thousand have no need of teaching or Ministerial help for their souls L. Obj. IX There are some that have written that it is Pride and Covetousness that makes you Non-Conformists to seem godly and to get livings for your Sons M. Satan is so impudent a disputant that I am aweary of answering him tho' in self-defence If it be pride to be scorn'd and toss'd about as Rogues why will these humble Lord Bishops and Masters so be-rogue us to make us proud Men use to take down that which feeds their enemies pride I pray get them to restore us from poverty and prisons and scorns and slanders to take down our pride And for covetousness get them one year to take our turns to have all their Goods and Books taken away on the penalty of 40 l. for every Sermon and that to be levied on their hearers which they cannot pay and in this case to ly in Gaol and tell us when they have tried it whether it gratified their covetousness As to mens Charity to our selves or Sons 1. I have said heretofore that the 2000 that were ejected were fit for Bedlam if they would go out and suffer that so forty Mens Sons that conform against their Fathers wills might get benefices 2. They will take it for a disgrace to their Church if we should not grant that the Lords Knights Rich Men and Patrons are far more of their Church than of Dissenters and therefore liker to preferr Conformists Sons than others And a Living for the Father another for the Son is more than a possibility for one But brazen-faced impudence cannot be confuted L. Obj. X. They say you are meer Hypocrites that have learnt a shew of Holiness and Iustice but have false proud self-conceited rebellious Hearts M. And truly we cannot confute them any otherwise than by an appeal to the Judge of Hearts We cannot shew them our Hearts And if they say that they see and know them let Men believe them as they see cause They did not craftily so much to praise our out-side for those that take them not for Gods will hardly believe that they see any deeper But as far as I understand their meaning is That no man on earth is truly honest and godly and therefore all are Hypocrites that profess it And so they confess themselves Hypocrites in professing Christianity if Professing be the mark of Hypocrites L. Obj. XI They say that you are Rebels and Schismaticks against the Church and that 's as bad as Murder or Adultery and so you are more vicious than they M. It 's well they made their Chancellours Officials Commissaries c. the Church first I confess I am not unapt to believe that they take it for worse than Adultery Murder Persecution or Perjury to cross their wills and worldly interest And if calling themselves the Church would make any needy or ambitious pack of men the masters of all mens consciences and persons and estates I should not wonder if more than Papists and Prelatists strove to be called The Church L. Obj. XII But they say all antiquity condemneth Schism and you are they that will not suffer the Church to have Vnity and Peace in disobeying the Bishops and Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and disobedience as Idolatery M. The sence of this last Clause is God calls it like Witchcraft and Idolatry to Obey Him and Rebel against His Laws Ergo it is like Witchcraft and Idolatry not to Rebel and Disobey Him if Bishops command us Prove the consequence 2. Do not Papists call them Schismaticks and Hereticks too as long and as loud as they call us so And will this prove them such indeed We appeal to the common reason of mankind whether they that make a multitude of sinful Canons to persecute Christs Church and Servants and add to his Laws an hundred forty one of their own with inhumane penalties casting out those that obey them not be not rather Schismaticks than they that say We will hold Concord in all that Christ commandeth or his Apostles practised but we dare not obey you against God. Read my Search for the Schismaticks and The English Schismatick Detected and Confuted and then blame the Schismatick and spare not L. Obj. XIII But they say that it is but a company of self-conceited bad rebellious People that befriend or fellow you and the sober People are for them M. These things are unfit matter for a controversy with any English-Men of this age but only with Foreigners and Strangers I thought once it would never have been so hard to know good Men from bad as these would make it But I remember how bad Christ and his Apostles were thought by their persecutors Wherein doth such mens badness lie In not coming to their Churches Thousands do and the rest go to other Churches But thousands of our adversaries go to none but very rarely Is it in any other Vice Why do they then charge them with avoiding Vice in Hypocrisie And what is that Vice Here are some say many hundreds that
man should not play with Matters of this moment nor take God's dreadful Name in vain nor sport with the Consuming Fire And I hope you grant that Words in Caths and Impositions are to be taken in the properest usual sence unless the Authors otherwise expound them And you know that they have been so far from expounding them otherwise as that these twenty years they have refused it and in Scotland sentenc'd the Earl of Argyle to die for expounding them as some would have us do And what do Oaths or Covenants signify if the Takers may put what sence they will on them and if the most express Universals yea the express Exclusions of all Exceptions may be taken in a particular sence with Exceptions such Swearers and Subscribers give their Rules no security Is it not enough to tell you we will willingly stand to Bishop Sanderson's own Rules in his Excellent Prelections de Iuramento for expounding Oaths and Promises Such as these Expositions of stretchers make Oaths to be none viz. It 's unlawful that is against the King's Law but not against God's to take Arms against the King viz. As King but say the Papists when the Pope excommunicates and deposeth him he is no King on any pretence whatsoever that is any unjust pretence by his Authority against his Person viz. It is to be done by Gods Authority and not by his or against any Commissioned by him viz. Lawfully Commissioned of which we are discerning Iudges The same I may say of all the rest As Assenting and Consenting to all things except many things Swearing Canonical Obedience in Licitis Honestis when we judge ten or twenty Canons if not the very frame to be Illicita Inhonesta c. L. But as you have said that those Great Men Grotius and Bishop Jeremy Taylor were for profitable Lying so you know that Worthy Latitudinarian Dr. who was wont to say That if false Knaves would turn him out of his Ministry and Living by ensnaring Impositions he would take the Words in the best sence he could subdue them to whatever the Authors meant and it was as Lawful for him to defend himself against Knaves with his Tongue as with his Hands and Sword. M. He is newly gone to his Judge Nobis non licet I told you that in my Catechism on the Ninth Commandment I have given unanswerable Reasons against Lying for any Benefit whatever Some say that all our Articles of Religion are but Articles of Peace and we subscribe not to believe them true but not to preach against them At this rate men need not stick at any Oath and may shake off the Oath of Allegiance or any other when they have taken it And if we are thought worthy to be hated and ruined as Rogues for refusing self-saving prudential deliberate Lying and Perjury when Oaths and Veracity are so much of the security of the Estates Names and Lives of Kings and Subjects and so necessary to all humane Converse we patiently commit our Cause to Him that shortly and righteously will determine all CHAP. LVIII Whether Communion with so Faulty a Church be Lawful L. I Shewed what you said against Conformity to a Friend and when he had read it he said What a Self-contradictor is this Man to lay all this Charge on the Church of England and yet himself to hold Communion with it and perswade others so to do Can we touch Pitch and not be defiled And indeed if all this be as bad as you fear I cannot see how any Separatists are to be blamed or how any may Communicate with so bad a Church M. Sic stulti vitia vitant drunken men reel from side to side to keep one right tract or to cut by a thred seemeth impossible to them I. You must distinguish between the Diocesan Churchs as constituted by their Courts of Government and Canons and the Parish Churches II. Between those Parish-Churches which have godly or tolerable Pastors and those that have not III. Between Ministry and lay-Lay-Communion IV. Between stated and occasional Communion V. Between preferring their Churches before better and not avoiding them as null or as unlawful to be Communicated with Understand these five distinctions well and I shall satisfy you L. Apply them and let us hear your judgment M. I. The Diocesan Churches as they depose all inferiour Bishops and Churches and Rule by their Lay-Civilians Church-Censures I disown and hold no Communion with in those errours but only in their Christianity But I peaceably submit to them and would live quietly under them if I might II. Those Parishes that have notoriously uncapable Priests either through utter insufficiency heresy or hurtfulness doing more harm than good I own not to be Organized Churches nor have Commmunion with their Ministers as Ministers not owning them for such III. I hold it utterly unlawful to be Ministers with them on the terms now required of us and therefore I have no such Ministerial Communion with them IV. I preferr them not before better V. I hold not fixed Communion as a fixed Member of their Churches with all that I hold occasional Communion with L. What Communion is it then that you hold with them M. I. With the Diocesans and their Officers I hold mental Communion as a Christian and a Protestant in all the essentials of Christianity and that Reformation which they own II. With the parish-Parish-Churches that have true Ministers I hold mental Communion as true particular Churches of Christ tho' faulty and local Communion on just occasions III. With the Parish-Assemblies that have intolerable Ministers I hold mental Communion with the People as Christians and will not refuse on just occasion to join with them in any good exercise as Lay-men IV. With those Churches that have Ministers and Liturgy as ours that need reformation I profess to join with them as Christians and Protestants that own all the Scriptures and that promise to preach nothing as necessary to Salvation but what is contained in it or may be proved by it And when I Communicate with that Church it is as a Society so professing But if their Sermons Liturgy or Lives have any faults being not Idolatry Heresy Blasphemy or such as rendreth their whole Worship and assembling unacceptable to God I disown Communion in any of those faults tho' I be present V. When I can have better caeteris paribus without greater hurt than good I preferr it and only use occasional local Communion with the Liturgy-Churches as I would do with strangers were I in foreign lands VI. Where I can have no better without more hurt than good I Communicate constantly and only with the parish-Parish-Church where I live as to local-Local-Communion L. But how can you do either of these without guilt when they are as bad as you have described M. 1. I have not charged the parish-Parish-Churches with that which I have charged the Diocesans their Courts with many honest Ministers never troubled nor excommunicated a
it is or the Parish Churches to be no Churches or their Communion utterly unlawful Or did it bind us to preferr a desertion of all publick Communion before it No it did not but if it had it had been sinful and to be repented of But 1. We were bound by God's word and no Covenant or Practices bind us to any more than Scripture binds us to to avoid all that is sin 2. And when we have our choice to preferr the best he that doth either turn to Sin or preferr a less good when it is so before a greater goeth back but he that preferreth no Publick Worship before the Parish Worship goeth back indeed and breaketh the Covenant by profaneness and Schism God's word is a clearer and surer Test of our Duty and Controversies than any humane Covenants When Ministers were changed 1647. many places got out some tolerable weak Ministers to get in abler men in great Towns. When the Bishops returned their abler Ministers being dead or ejected they took the old ones again Did these go back from Covenant Reformation or Duty when they could have no better Had not those been the revolters that would rather have had none L. But why go you to the Parish-Churches when you might have better M. 1. All Non-Conformists Preach not better than many of them yea the Liturgy is better words of Prayer than some weak or faulty Non-Conformists oft use 2. A brown loaf and a white one both may be better than a white one alone I found both best and I knew it sin to renounce Communion with any Church for weakness because they are not as good as others 3. That is best at one time and place that is not so at another Praying in it self is better than working and eating sleeping And yet in their proper time your servants working and your eating and sleeping is better than praying at that time One that is a Son a Servant a Wife who is commanded by ahe Master of the Family to hear a tolerable Parish-Minister may then find it better than disorderly and disobediently to hear an abler Man that may by variety of conditions be one mans Duty which is anothers sin But alas I fear that Communion with a non-conformist-Non-Conformist-Church will quickly in England be so rare as will end the controversy which you should preferr and you must have Parish-Church Communion or none As it was before 1638 when there was scarce more than one Non-Conformist that held any church-Church-Communion but Parochial in each County I think God's Judgments will soon silence this dispute with all that will not renounce all local-Local-Church Communion I will conclude with another reason of my practice Almost every Church on Earth hath a worse Liturgy as I said and People than ours But I dare not separate from almost every Church on Earth And therefore not from one for a reason that is common to almost all CHAP. LIX A Draught of ten Articles containing that which the Non-Conforming Reconcilers desire to unite us and heal the Church when GOD seeth this Land meet for so great a Mercy L. I Have one thing more to desire of you That you will so far answer the common question What would you have As to tell it us punctually as to those things which you take to be necessary to our agreement It may be hereafter they may be regarded and used tho' not in our days M. Do you mean as to the ends and things desired of us or a form of Words to be the containing means As to the former 1. We desire nothing but the promoting God's Glory Kingdom and Will according to the three first Petitions in the Lord's Prayer for the Information Sanctification and Salvation of the People by the Pure Plentiful and Powerful preâ—ching of the Gospel the True and Spiritual Worshipping of GOD and the due Exercise of Church-Discipline according to Christ's Laws And that herein all Christians may live in Love and Peace and as much Concord as they can And to that end that they may take God's Word which they are all agreed in as the Test of their Concord and as sufficient for all things necessary to Salvation and the only universal Law And that the Churches may not be torn by the imposition of Mens Canonical Engines as necessary to Liberty or Communion in which all never did nor can unite And that such course may be taken for the Choice of Church-Pastors that the Flocks may be guided and fed by Truth and Love and not famished nor opprest by Malignants that hate the serious practice of what they Preach It is not Wealth nor Honour nor any thing but this that we desire but see small hopes of attaining by Men. L. The desires are honest but you all profess just desires in general and de fine But I desire you to leave to the World in writing the ipsissima Verba which you would wish in a healing Law with as little change as may be M. I shall do it premising 1. That such a yielding form must contain but what 's of necessity to our Concord and not all that our well-being requireth 2. That the words must not be too many lest they seem too tedious nor too few lest they be not intelligible 3. That they that will defeat them will pretend but to change the words and thereby cross our sence and necessities but take them tho' men give us no present hopes A Breviate of the Ten Articles desired by such Non-Conformists as treated for Concord 1660. and 1661. for such a Reformation of the Parish-Churches as is needful to our Union I. THat the Profession of the Christian Faith and consent to the Baptismal Covenant by Parents or Pro-parents or Adopters for Infants and by the Adult for themselves be the Terms of Church-Entrace by Baptism II. That the Terms of the Communion and Privileges of the Adult be That they have personally owned and renewed solemnly the said Christian Covenant and are not proved to have nulled that Profession by Apostasie Heresie or an inconsistent wicked Life And that they understandingly desire the said Communion III. For the necessary notification of such understanding consent and desire the Pastors that know them after due Catechizing shall try them and upon Approbation admit them to the Communion of the Adult or upon a just Certificate that they have been so approved and received by any other Orthodox Pastor IV. Such as are proved to violate the Baptismal Covenant by Apostasie Heresie or a wicked Life the Pastor must wisely and compassionately admonish to repent and amend And if after private and open Admonition such remain obstinately impenitent the Pastor shall publickly declare them Persons unfit for Communion with the Church or where so much is not permitted shall at least forbear to give them the Sacrament but shall receive them when they credibly profess Repentance V. No unnecessary Oath Covenant Subscription Profession or Promise shall be made necessary to Communion or Ministry
inserted those restraints of the hurt and abuse of the Diocesan form and their Courts as may do much to secure Religion And if they be kept from doing harm we have most of our end Their faults are not ours who cannot remedy them 4. And you are mistaken in thinking that this form of Reconciliation will cause no Concord Less was accepted with published thanks to the King for his Declaration 1660. And I believe that the Dissenters would be so few as that the Concord of Consenters would render them inconsiderable or uncapable of being dangerous to our peace L. But 1. what makes you put in so much that no body denieth Do you not seem hereby to intimate unjustly that all this is denied you M. 1. I have no hope of Concord but by disputing ex concessis and improving mens own principles Do you think I am so foolish as to expect that Adversaries so fierce should change their judgments by any thing that I can say if their own interest or their own principles by inference change them not 2. We want nothing more in reality and practice than that which is most granted us in shadow and general words who grant not that we must obey God before man And must love God above all our neighbours as our selves and must do as we would be done by And must bear with the receive the weak and persecute none c. And if this were done we were all agreed O happy England if all were granted practically and indeed which men in general words approve But if they grant this and yet will not grant it but seek to ruine them that seek it are they not unexcuseable L. Why begin you with the qualifications requisite to Baptism as if you spake to Infidels M. Because I cannot build without a foundation This is the chief thing necessary to our Reformation that the Church may consist of capable persons L. Why name you Parents and Pro-parents instead of God-fathers and God-mothers M. Because it belongs to him to covenant in the Childs name or behalf whose will may justly go as for the Childs will and that is they whose he is and who have the power of him and whom God hath commanded and authorized to this office and who are obliged to educate him and seek his well-fare By Pro-parents I mean such as by Adoption or otherwise justly take the child for theirs which when Parents leave them Orphans is usual I say nothing against God-fathers as seconds presupposing this much L. But I pray you who shall be judge whether the profession be Understanding which must be made by the Adult or by the Parent By this trick you will make the Priest the chief Governour of the Church and he shall keep out whom he pleases as for want of understanding the words of the Covenant M. 1. I confess that this is the first and most momentous part of the power of the Keys But it tells us that it is not only Bishops that have that power But either some-body or no body must have this power or trust 1. If No-body Turks Heathens Sadducees any may be baptized tho' in scorn and may be members of the Church at pleasure and the Church shall indeed be no Church being confounded with the World. A Parrot may be taught to say those words A man of about 80 Years of age in the Parish where I taught being ask'd who Iesus Christ was pointed to the Sun and said That was he and ask'd Wh was the Holy Ghost Said he thought the Moon What wiseman will be the Pastor of such a Church 2. Christ hath instituted an Office for this judgment and given them the Keys Therefore there must be some such judge 2. If Some-body who must it be 1. If it be every expectant for himself it will be as before and there will be no Church Any Heathen may come in 2. If it must be the Magistrate you call him to attend this Service and to teach and try all that are baptized at age and all Parents for their Children And if you lay on him the Pastors Office you make him Pastor 3. If it must be the Bishop it is impossible and no Bishop will do it when he doth not so much as know or see one of an hundred in his Diocess It must then be the Parish-Minister or No-body 3. Those must be trusted with it whom Christ hath appointed for such trust But that is the Ministers To them he hath commited the Keys of his Church or Kingdom 4. Those must be trusted with it that must Execute it It is the Minister that must Baptize And therefore he must judge whom to baptize or else he is but an Executioner like one that washeth any one that 's foul and not a judge of what he doth nor must answer for it 5. The Universal Church ever since Christ's days hath agreed in this And shall we now overthrow it And as to the exception against the Power of the Pastor 1. All power may be abused shall we have no King no Judge or Justice or Bishops because they may abuse their power 2. It is so natural to men to consult their own carnal Interest which will here most lie in pleasing the people and sloathfully to omit so costly and troublesome a duty that it 's enough to foretell that a hundred will sin in making the door too wide for one that maketh it too narrow and doleful experience tells us this We are confounded by the contrary extream 2. He that is refused wrongfully by one Minister may find enough that will receive him 3. We grant appeals to Rulers in case of Male-administration 4. The setting open the Church-doors without an examiner will be an hundred fold worse And you must be like the Woman that would never have her house swept lest her servant should chance to sweep out a pin What think you of all the ancient Churches that taught the Adult long as Catechumens before they would baptize even them that begg'd it L. 2. In your second Article again you give the Minister a power to judge of mens Understanding But I need no further answer to that But do you not thus make Examination by Ministers necessary to the Sacrament M. I make it needful to Confirmation or adult-Adult-Communion but that is but once in a Man's life L. But is it not enough that Children own their baptismal Covenant by coming to Church and not denying it without any Confirmation or other Profession M. Many come to hear that are no Christians Children are born in Nescience and when they come to age must be made knowing Christians and believe and obey for themselves if they will be saved and they cannot consent to their baptismal Covenant if they understand it not This is the thing that hath corrupted the Church Those that were Infant-Christians and at age were no Christians have filled many Congregations Yet I confess that where Confirmation and Personal Trial is by the
sin of Pastors omitted the peoples ordinary attendance at Church and desiring the Sacrament is an obscure profession and may serve to the being of a Church tho' not to the well-being L. But some of your Non-conformists will as much blame you for requiring too little to Communion in that you demand not an account of Mens Conversation M. 1. He that truly consenteth to the Covenant of Baptism is Converted or Sanctified and he oweth the Church no account of that consent but his own Profession not nulled by word or deed And if you forsake this rule you will never know what terms to take up with 2. And as to the time or circumstances whether God Sanctified him in Infancy and he grew up in grace or when or how God wrought upon him he oweth no account to others L. 3. In your third Article again the chief exception will be against this trying men by the Minister for Communion M. I have proved to you the necessity of it ad bene esse And may I not hope that the Bishops will be for it When 1. They order that the Minister catechize and send to the Bishop such as are to be confirmed 2. That he give the Sacrament to none but those that are Confirmed or are ready and willing to be Confirmed And how can they know this without trial 3. When they know that the Bishops are not able to do it for all or the hundredth part themselves Why then should they be against it L. If all the Bishops in England be for it the Parish-Priests will some be unfit for it and few will be at so much labour and self-denial as it will cost them M. If the Bishops put or take in bad untrusty men I cannot help that Let them be encouraged to do well that will. L. But why must they make their profession before others M. Not but that the Pastors word may satisfy the Church but it is much fitter that he that is to have Communion with all should be known to some besides the Minister to be a professed Christian. I should have desired that it might be done as Baptism in the Congregation as best but that of these men we must ask as little as may be L. But many ignorant people have not words to express their own belief or thoughts M. It is not ornamental unnecessary knowledge that must be demanded of them They that want other words may by Yea and Nay make known their mind when the Minister expresseth the matter in his question And the Church requireth that they can answer as catechized L. Some other will say that you are too lax in admitting all confirmed formerly by Bishops or by other Pastors M. If we crave that each Minister may try his Flocks we cannot in modesty refuse those tried and received by the Bishop or other Pastors All Churches should live in such Communion with each other as to receive each others Members on just occasion without trying them all again And if Bishops or any do it superficially that 's their own fault L. Why do you impose the Registring of Communicants M. I impose it not but only commend it as a help to memory He that hath no more Communicants than he can remember needs it not But Bishop Ier. Taylor in his Pref. to Treatise of Repentance saith That a Man cannot take a Pastoral charge or give an account of them that he knoweth not L. 4. Your fourth Article sets Ministers on such work as few can well do and few will ever faithfully do And yet for every young raw Priest to have such power will never be granted by the Bishops or the Laity M. You may as well speak out and say that Christ hath appointed such a Ministerial office as the World will never endure Why then do they call themselves Christians This is the proper work of a Pastor as it is of a Physician to look particularly to the sick and not only to read a Physick Lecture to them If Bishops will put in ignorant lads or unfit men I say again we cannot help it nor must we for that deny the Ministerial office any more than we must put down Preaching and Praying because some are unfit The weight of this work should rather make all careful to get only fit men into the Ministry L. But shall every Priest have power to put men from the Sacrament M. If every Priest must administer it he must judge to whom It is not a common food for all but the Childrens Bread. If every Priest must judge whom to baptize so he must whom to give this Sacrament to 2. The Canons allow this as to the scandalous so we do but present them to the Bishop or Chancellour and it 's less offensive to suspend them without such prosecution If he wrong any they have their remedy L. But why do you mention no more solemn Excommunication but this Declarative one and Suspension M. Because I would ask no more than needs of men that will not grant so much And I know no just Excommunication but a Ministerial declaring according to God's word that a man hath made himself uncapable of church-Church-Communion and of the benefits of Gods Covenant and binding him over to answer his Impenitence at the barr of God and requiring the Church accordingly to avoid him L. 5. The main charge will be against your fifth Article that cuts off so many Oaths Subscriptions and Professions M. It 's pity that these will not serve the turn whenas they are more than Christ or his Apostles or the Church for 300 years imposed And yet must we have more even as necessary to Ministry Will not the experience of 1300 years yet teach us to forbear tearing the Church by unnecessary snares Yet I deny not but the Ordainers may try the ability of Ministers in more than the words that they must subscribe to And if any will draw up such Articles as none shall Preach against I oppose them not The greater Concord the better But we must not cause perpetual discord by unskilful and impossible terms of Concord L. But for ought I see you will let in Papists if they will but take the Oath of Supremacy and renounce all in general that is contrary to the Scripture and their Profession M. And all Churches will let in Heart-Papists that renounce Popery Who knows the heart But 1. The Oath of Supremacy is a most express abjuring of the Essence of Popery especially as extended against the Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Power of the Pope 2. And is not God's Word a sufficient Rule of Religion Deny this and you will turn Papists to keep out Papists 3. If it be if Popery be against Scripture it 's here renounced If not why should we be against it L. But should they not distinctly renounce Transubstantiation Pâ—rgatory Image-Worship Merit and the rest of their Errours M. There is no end of enumerating Errours They are numerous like Maggots in a Carcase
pretence of concord or decency in God's service we can but wish and speak for better L. But they say if nothing unlawful be imposed it is disobedience to refuse it And if disobedience be endured no Government can stand M. 1. Judge by what is said whether no Sin be imposed 2. Obedience to God being more necessary than to man all just Rulers should encourage a due fear of sin and do nothing that tempts men from obeying God. 3. God himself doth not silence eject or condemn men for all disobedience else none could be saved All sin is disobedience to God. There is disobedience in small things as well as in great and of ignorance and infirmity as well as of malicious wilfulness And what smaller matter can there be than Humane Forms and Ceremonies and where is ignorance more excuseable than in things so minute and so uncertain and hard that they must all be wiser than you and I that know them to be lawful and what Unity will be in that Church and Kingdom that will endure none but such as are wiser than you and I L. 8. Your 8th Article preventeth all the objections against Ministers power and liberty while all are under Law responsible But what if the Rulers be Bishops or men that distaste your desired discipline M. We are not choosing Rulers by the sword but only Pastors to guide us by God's word and if we shall have bad ones we must patiently suffer we cannot remedy such infelicities L. But both Papists and many others say That the Iudgment of Ministers Doctrine and Ministry belongeth not to the Magistrate but to the Church M. Iudgment is as various as Execution e. g. If one be a Heretick or turbulent in Schism 1. The Magistrate is judge whether and how he shall be Corporally Punished 2. The neighbour Churches are Judges whether they will owne his Communion as approved 3. His own Flock are discerning Iudges whether he be fit to be trusted and owned as their Pastor or to be forsaken by them We must not imitate Papists in exempting Ministers from the Magistrates Government L. 9. I confess your Reasons against Constraining Infidels to Profess Christianity are undeniable and agree with the sence of the Antient Church and Fathers But the Papists and many Protestants hold that when once men are Baptized they may be forced to Communion and all other Christian Duty M. What if they openly apostatize and turn Infidels Iews or Mahometans will they yet force them to Communicate in the Lord's Supper L. No but they will put them to Death as they Burn Hereticks M. That 's their way but not Christ's way Why should they put Apostates or Hereticks to death any more than Infidels that never believed L. Because they break their Covenant and because they sin against the Laws which they consented to M. And doth not sinning against God's Law In neither Consenting to nor Obeying it deserve as bad If God by many years Preaching call one man to Christianity and he derides it to the last and another took it up but by Education and the Law of the Land and never heard and understood the Reasons of it and turneth from it being taken prisoner by the Turks which of these is the greater sinner God binds them to Believe and Consent that do not and they sin against God's Law which is more than to break their own Covenant as such But both these deserve death and worse from God But if it were Christ's way to have men put one of them to death I see not but why they should do so by the other Torment or Death is no fitter way to make an Apostate believe than other Infidels It 's known that all the ancient Churches abhorred this forcing and punishing way I have wondered at the Impudence of Baronius Binnius and other Papists and justifie Martin for separating from the Communion of the Bishops that were for punishing the Priscillianists by the sword and Canonize him as a Saint and condemn these Bishops for it and yet are for for more cruelties themselves to far better men than the Priscillianists But where Fleshly interest is a mans Religion no wonder if it have neither consistency with Reason nor Modesty L. But if none but Volunteers be Christians or Communicants most will despise the Church and it will be empty M. All that are fit to be there will come in And those few will give the Pastors more comfort and lesser trouble than the multitude of the uncapable If your purse be not quite full of Gold will you fill it up with dung or stones The uncapable will do better for themselves and the Church among the Audientes or Catechumens It is their forcing in the uncapable that hath corrupted the Church and deprived the Flock of their due privileges choosing their Pastors c. because it 's made up of men unworthy of them And doubtless if you but countenance and preferr the Communicants before the rest it will draw in more than are capable without force L. If the Excommunicate be no further punished nor forced to repent the Church censures will be despised How little will men care for an Excommunication M. This is commonly said and much of it is true But 1. Can you force men to Repent or rather Lye You make him Repent that he brought himself into your hands and into suffering But that is not to Repent of Sin. Will you tell a man before hand If thou wilt but say thou repentest rather than lye in Gaol till death we will pronounce thee absolved and forgiven in Christ's Name Who can think ill enough of such an Absolution 2. Do not they scorn Christ that say he hath advanced his Church to the Dignity of Government by putting into their hands a Reed for a Scepter and a Leaden Sword that will do nothing without the Magistrate's Sword of Steel Hath he set up an useless mock-power in the Church 3. Did the Primitive-Churches for 300 years use any Sword but Spiritual Or did they find it so uneffectual and vain 4. Yea for some hundred years after there were Christian Magistrates did not the Church abhorr such a thing as forcing the Excommunicate to repent by imprisonment or the Sword 5. No man is meet to be a just Member that careth not for a just Excommunication And still this sheweth what a wickedness it is to force in the unmeet that despise God's Ordinance and the Church that they are in And then God's Ordinance must be debauched for their unfitness 6. The Sword doth the Keys much more hindrance than help when it is thus annexed to them for then it cannot be discerned whether Excommunication do any Good or none or whether it be only the Sword that doth the cure And do not they that profess Excommunication to be vain without the Sword teach men to call them as Church Governours Vain and to despise them And is it not all one as to say if any good be done
by Church-Government it is by the Magistrate's Sword and not by ours by the Keys 7. And is it not then ridiculous contradiction to dispute so hard about Church-Power and against the Presbyters claim when you confess that it is an useless shadow that you dispute for and it 's not it but the Sword that doth the deed 8. Is it not an odious defacing of Princes and Magistrates to say That they are bound to Imprison and Ruine a man as a meer Lictor or Executioner of the Judgment of the Clergy or of a Chancellor without ever hearing or trying his Cause and to punish him again because they punisht him before or because he hath not got their pardon 9. If Excommunication be grosly unjust as against Christs Members for doing their duty or for common humane infirmity they do well that set by it no more than it deserveth and pretend not to repent when they do not nor cannot nor ought to repent L. Though you call it no Punishment to keep all the Non-Communicants from publick power and trust I think it will pass for a notable Penalty M. I grant them as much as I can as knowing how little they will yield to and indeed it 's my opinion that to deny all Non-Communicants Magistracy and publick Trust would be to Reform the Common-Wealth in the Foundation if the Keys were but justly exercised But then by this I exclude none but the Intolerable that Neither Communicate with the Approved or the Tolerated Churches L. But Rulers will turn this against you and shut out the Tolerated with the Intolerable M. I cannot help that Must I not tell men what is Right because they will do Wrong L. But you are for having all the Subjects forced to be Catechised and to be Auditors And do you think that this will not force Non-Conformists to hear against their Consciences M. I say not that they should be forced to hear in the Parish Church but either in a Parish Approved or a Tolerated Church How have they a Toleration that may not hear their Tolerated Pastors And he that is not for hearing at all is not to be Tolerated And indeed if those that are no Members in Communion of any Church but meer Catechumens or Auditors should be forced to hear in their own Parishes ordinarily if there be meet Teaching I oppose it not L. But is it noâ— as injurious to force men against their Consciences to Hear as to Communicate M. No the Case is greatly different Nature bindeth all men to learn that they may know what is good or evil to themselves Learning and Knowledge is the common Duty and Interest of mankind and though no man can be forced to Believe and Repent he that is forced to Hear may hear that which may make him Voluntarily Believe and Repent You must force your Children to Learn but not to Communicate I told you that to give a man the Sacrament is to give him a seal'd Pardon and Gift of Christ and Life which no unwilling man is capable of but he may be capable to Hear and Learn And this being only to those that are refusers of all Church-Communion or are uncapable and are in none either Approved or Tolerated what Conscience can such pretend against hearing or against being restrained from crimes and profaning holy things or reproaching Religion though they be not constrained to what they are uncapable of L. I am fully satisfied that your way of dividing all the Subjects into the Approved the Tolerated and the Intolerable is of absolute necessity And to conclude I am satisfied that you Non-Conformists have a Cause so good that you do well to suffer for it but were I in your case I know not what I should do my self The Flesh and World are strong and it 's easier to be convinced that one should be a Martyr than to submit to Martyrdom God be merciful to our weakness M. He trusteth not Christ that thinks he shall be a loser by him and he that will save his life from him by sin shall lose it and he that loseth it for him shall save it L. X. Your 10th for some Toleration will never be endured though the truth is your Reasons for it are unanswerable and your Limitations so strict as prevent most of the Objections that might be made against it M. God's Law requireth forbearing and forgiving one another and receiving the weak in Faith. And they that cannot Tolerate the Tolerable methinks should fear the thoughts of death lest then God will not Tolerate them but cast them out as they cast out his Children L. I confess you convince me that know what most Patrons in England are that it is unfit that all the Peoples Souls should be so far at the mercy of those Patrons that seem to care but little for their own as that no man must have any other or better Pastor than they will choose for him and that all mans duty to care for his Salvation and all the judgment of the Church of Christ from the Apostles dayes till a few hundred years agoe should wholly give place to the pretended right of any fellow that can buy an Advowsoâ— or Presentation And it were to be wisht that it were wholly taken from them and left to the Clergy and People alone the Magistrate being Iudge whom he will Approve or Tolerate But there is no hope that Patrons will let go their supposed right if an Angel from Heaven should speak against it but in all reason they should grant the Communicants that small consequent Vote of Consent or Dissent that you pleaded for but if they will not do that they should give them leave to go to another Parish or to choose a Tolerated Pastor whom they will maintain But men are so set on their own ways that they banish all sense of others case and of what conduceth to the common good M. We can but bring the truth to light and shew a self-wounding people the Balsam that must heal them and stay till God will give them a heart to use it L. But you are so careful not to offend them by â—otioning 〈◊〉 wide a Toleration that I doubt it will do little good For 1. some will scruple some of the Subscriptions or Oaths which you grant shall be imposed on them 2. If all the Tolerated must be responsible for their Doctrine and Ministration it 's two to one but the Rulers to whom they must give account will be so contrary to them that they will have no peace or safety M. How would you have these dangers and inconveniences be avoided An unlimitted Toleration of the Intolerable is it self Intolerable and you can devise no safer limitation The engagements which they are to take tell you the Terms of Toleration and if men will-Preach against those Terms that is against the Christian Faith or the Holy Scripture or their Allegiance to the King or if they use their Meetings to destroy Love and Peace
Canon tells you it is a dedicating Sign and Badge of our profession So that I see not what is wanting to a Sacrament as far as man can make one by presumption which we cannot consent to L. But it 's said that Baptism is perfect without it M. So it is without the Lord's Supper and yet that is justly added It saith not that mans covenanting with God is perfect without it For it seemeth a Sacrament of man 's added to that of Christ to tie men faster to him L. Ancient Christians did use the Cross without scruple M. 1. It is not all use of the Cross that we speak against but using it as a Sacrament of the Covenant and badge of Christianity The King would not take it well if Subjects presume to make a new Badge of the Order of Knights of the Garter and add it to the Garter and the Star. To shew by an action as well as by a word to scorning Heathens that they were not ashamed of a crucified Saviour might be more excusable that this And they foresaw not to what abuse it would be after turned 2. But suppose we mistook in these our fears of sinning 1. Do you think that the case hath not difficulty enough to excuse a man for fear of sinning 2. And do you think that for such fear and not acting against them we deserve to be cast out as heinous uncapable delinquents CHAP. XIII Point X. Of denying Baptism to them that refuse the Cross. M. BUT the practice of Crossing is disputable and I lay not so sharp a censure on them that differ from us in it But what excuse can be made by a man of Christian charity and consideration for denying Baptism to all that refuse this crossing I confess I cannot imagine nor could ever hear L. Their excuse is that Crossing being lawful the Refusers are disorderly Schismaticks and they and their Children as theirs uncapable of Baptism They say it is not they but you that are the Refusers They offer to baptize you or your Child and you refuse it M. 1. They know that it is not Baptism but Crossing that is refused And if they will not administer one without the other they are the refusers If one refuse the Papists Exorcism Salt Spittle c. and they will not baptize without it do they not deny to Baptize unless one will receive all these If God will justifie them for rejecting all that think it a sin to receive their Crossing then it is not them to whom it is to be imputed But can that be true 1. Christ that instituted Baptism ordained the conditions of it and the qualifications of such as shall be baptized Mat. 28. and Mark 16. 16. He that believed was to be Baptized Act. 28. If thou believe with all thy heart thou mayest No saith the Canon you shall not though you repent and believe unless also you will take the covenanting Badge of the Cross. Is not this to alter the terms of Christ's Covenant and Sacrament and directly to contradict his very fundamental Law of Christianity Baptize all that are made disciples saith Christ and all that repent and believe No saith our Convocation baptize none of them that will not take the transient Image of a Cross for their farther obligation 2. Do you that think it is necessary to Christianity and Salvation know that this Federal Crossing is lawful if you affirm it you must say the same of all ceremonies of the same importance and so must make a hundred new Articles of Faith even of Ceremonies and such little things and make them all necessary to Christianity and Salvation And is not this to make a new Gospel Christianity and Church and to turn Christ's easie Yoke into a worse than the slavery of Pharisaical Traditions And is not this to shut all or almost all men out of Heaven No one on earth doth know that this and all such ceremonies and inventions of men are lawful And must every one know it that will be a Christian or have his child made one Or must we all as necessary to Christianity believe all such things lawful if the Clergy do but say they are And what if the Clergy in one Land say it is and in another say it is not Must both be believed Have wise Bishops no fitter penalty to enforce their usurping Canons by than denying Christendom and Salvation One would think it should be enough for the Preachers of humility to say We are so wise that he that differeth practically from us in that which we call an indifferent ceremony and he calls a sinful corruption of baptism shall be punished as much as Swearers Drunkards and Fornicators be or shall be made a slave with his Children without denying them Christianity and Salvation But the best is all cannot keep men out of Heaven that boast of the power of the Keys and there is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy L. You make a heinous cruelty of it as if it were oppression and tyranny to souls and they say that they impose nothing on you but things indifferent M. Must their indifferent things be enforced with so great penalty as damnation If every one cannot love every Dish that they love or get down every Pill that they give him but he be famish'd therefore or have his thro at cut wider I had rather live and die a Chimney-sweeper or a Channel cleanser or a Keeper of Swine than a Bishop that should put Christ's Disciples and their seed whom he commandeth them to baptize Mat. 28. 19. from his Covenant and Church and specially when themselves make Baptism more necessary and certainly saving than it is L. But you may venture to baptize such if you will. M. What when I have covenanted Assent and Consent to all things in their Book and subscribed to use no other form in baptizing and also must be cast out for it CHAP. XIV Point XI Of rejecting from Communion all that dare not kneel in the act of Receiving L. I Hear that you receive the Eucharist Kneeling your self and take it for lawful what then have you against the Canon or Liturgy for this M. I am my self for the lawfulness of Organs Railes and Coming up to them and for the lawfulness of Kneeling when we sing Psalms or read the Scripture or hear the Preacher But I am not for the lawfulness of hanging or damning men that herein are not of my mind Nor for turning unnecessary things because they are lawful into conditions sine quibus non of Church Communion and Engines for Satan to divide Christ's Flock by and persecute men for fearing sin Paul was for the lawfulness of using or not using the meats and days mentioned Rom. 14. 1 2. But he was not for either judging or despising one another about them much less for casting men from the Church and Heaven for them nor for saying except ye be Circumcised ye cannot be saved L. Nor