as that of the Jews was when they took upon them and decreed for their Seed that they should keep the dayes of purim And as that of Sampson's Parents was in devoting him to be a Nazarite from the womb Est 9.27 28 31. Judges 16.17 Or as the Parents Covenant with the Gibeonites was to their Children after them Or as David's and Jonathan's was to their Seed 1 Sam. 20.42 Or as the Fathers Act in Circumcising his Child was obliging to the Child afterwards to keep the Law 4. Another end and use of Baptism is solemnly to declare such to be of the Church who are Baptized and to signifie their right to Church-priviledges and as the Christian badge to be a mark of distinction between compleat Members of the Church and those which are not even as Circumcision was of old Infants are as capable of these ends by Baptism as they formerly were by Circumcision If it be said there may be other ends of Baptism that cannot be attained in Infants Baptism as they may in the Baptism of those of riper years yet if this be granted it will not therefore follow that their Baptism is a Nullity so long as other ends of Baptism are attained thereby It might as well be said that more ends of Circumcision were attainable in the Circumcision of grown Proselytes than of Minor Proselytes but if there were it did not make their Circumcision Null Our Saviour did not by his Personal Baptism profess Repentance and Mortification of any sin of his and belief of pardon of it as many others did of their sins in their Baptism because he had none to repent of to mortifie or to be pardoned and yet I hope none will say his Baptism was a Nullity And if the absence of such a profession did not make his Baptism a Nullity how can it be proved that the absenee of it will make the Baptism of Infants to be a Nullity The absence of one end of Baptism doth no more make it useless as to all other ends and consequently no more a Nullity then all such Marriages are Nullities where procreation of Children which is one end of Marriage is not attainable Now then considering what hath been said about Infants Church-Membership and Disciple-ship and the attainableness of the ends of Baptism in their Baptism I appeal to all who are not over-grown with prejudice and partiality whether ever Infant-Baptism be like to be proved to be a Nullity And if not whether separation upon supposition that it is be not a causless rent in the Church which is Schism in the formality of it But besides all this I have another thing in the second place to say and that is that if Insant-Baptism could be proved an errour yet it can never be proved to be an errour of that Nature as will of it self and without any other cause be a sufficient ground of separation as to other Acts of Church-Communion To make this out I shall take one thing for granted which I believe very few if any of the Anabaptists will deny and that is that many at least of the Pedobaptists are godly both of Men and Women They are Sanctified in Christ Jesus called te be Saints and such as call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and these and such like Characters are Churches described by in the Epistles which the Apostles wrote to them 1. I reason thus then If Pedobaptists are godly Men such as believe in Christ then they are Members of Christ and if they are Members of Christ they are of his Body the Church and if they be of the Church then they have right to Communion with the Church and they that deny it them deny them their right Because Union with the whole creates a right to Communion with the parts in all Bodies Natural Political or Mystical The Ministration of Gospel-Ordinances which is given by Christ for the Edification of the whole Body belongs to every part Ephes 4.12 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. If it be said though such Pedobaptists have a remote right yet without Baptism after Faith they cannot have an immediate right to Church-Communion I answer that Baptism after Faith can be no more necessary to Church-Communion then it is unto Salvation For the means cannot be more necessary to the subordinate end which is Church-Communion then it is to the principal which is Salvation And Baptism is necessary to Salvation but by way of duty where opportunity occurs but not by way of means where opportunity of doing ones duty is wanting And if to be Baptized after Faith were indeed the Pedobaptists duty the true reason why they do not perform it is the want of a Moral opportunity that is the want of conviction that it is their duty they verily believing they were sufficiently Baptized in their Infaucy and that it is not Lawful for them to be re-baptized And all the while they remain under this perswasion they can no more lawfully receive an after-baptizing by a voluntary submission to it then they can who desire to be Baptized but want the opportunity of that health or such an administrator as is necessary thereto And if their right to Salvation under these Circumstances be not cut off as doubtless it is not for the reason before given then no more can their right to Church-Communion be thereby cut off for the fame reason I think I may very safely say that there is no errour in judgment about Baptism nor about any other thing which yet is consistent with saving Faith and Love and not pertinaciously persisted in after conviction for which a Man can duly be deprived of church-Church-Communion that doth not by his voluntary separation deprive himself of it which persisting in errour after conviction is not the case of the honest-minded Pedobaptists though they should be supposed to be in errour Persons erring upon no worse terms are doubtless the objects of Christian forbearance in the Church and not of such severity as to exclude them from Communion This you may take as a further account why I said Baptism after Faith can be no more necessary to Church-Communion then it is unto Salvation 2. If very many of the Pedobaptists are such godly Persons and true believers in Christ as are afore described then it cannot be denyed but they are such whom the Lord hath received into Communion with himself and if so then those who are likewise his People ought to receive them into their Communion too Rom. 14 1-3 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye for God hath received him Rom. 15.7 Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ received us If it be said these Scriptures concern such as were duly Baptized I answer That the reason why they should receive one another is not fetcht from their having been Baptized but from the Lord 's receiving them And no supposed errour in Persons about Baptism can be a reason why they should not be received to Communion farther
did all eat the same Spiritual meat and drank the same Spiritual drink By whose example he would have them take warning and not be flattered into a good opinion of themselves meerly upon account of their Baptism and holding Communion with the Church in Holy Administrations and being numbred among the Saints or Christians 1 Cor. 10. And truly they seem to be much more in danger of being betrayed into such a self-flattery who are not admitted to Church-fellowship upon their Christian profession unless besides that they can give such a satisfactory account to the Church of their conversion after they have been first received into the Church Catholique by Baptism in which there may be great mistake in them that so receive them And therefore the New-England Ministers in their Answer to Mr. Davenport's Apologetical Preface p. 43 44. say thus Indeed when Men confound these two and do tye visible Church-Member-ship unto such Conditions and qualifications as are reputed enough to Salvation this may tend to harden Men and to make them conceit that if once they be got into the Church they are sure of Heaven whenas alas it may be they are far from it But in all this there is nothing against the great usefulness and defirableness of Discipline in the Church for the Cure or Excommunication of the notoriously scandalous But yet a neglect of this in them to whom it belongs is no sufficient ground of separation from that Church where it is so neglected For though Discipline be necessary for the better being of the Church yet it is not of the Essence of the Church it doth not cease to be a true Church for want of it And the neglect of it in a Church is so far from being a reason why the better part in such a Church should separate from the worse as that it is indeed a reason against it why they should not Because where publick Discipline is wanting there is the more need of private application to delinquent Members which separation takes Men off from or at best puts them under a great disadvantage of doing that good among them thereby which otherwise they might Such a separation rather puts those separated from under a temptation of Making a party against them as is frequently seen and the division made and heightened thus on both sides tends more to weaken the Christian Interest in the main then all the exercise of Discipline in separate Congregations tends to promote it It s true if Christians were to mind only the pleasing of themselves it would be a pleasant thing for the good indeed to converse and hold Communion with such only as themselves But it will turn to a better account at last if by denying their inclination in this they help and bring on a worser sort and gain their Master ten Talent There should be more abundant honour given to that part which lacketh that there may be no Schism in the Body 1 Cor. 12.24 Our Saviour himself was chiefly for the bringing home of straying Sheep and as a Physitian to be among the sick rather then the whole Not because he loved them better but because they had more need and because he could thereby be more serviceable as to the main end of his coming into the World He came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance to minister and not to be ministred to And to be this way employed seems to be more acceptable to God then to have to do only with the Righteous There is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety and nine just Persons which need no Repentance And thus much I think may suffice to shew how unlikely yea how impossible it is to prove that the mixture of the bad with the good in the Parishes makes Communion with them unlawful 3. They cannot prove the constitution of parochial Congregations to be bad upon account of that distribution by which the whole Nation is divided into parts into so many Parishes which they are wont to call humane institution For first they are of the same institution in the main as those were which were planted by the Apostles themselves For from what were those called Churches but from the Christians usual Assembling together for Communion in Gospel-Ordinances The Greek word Translated Church properly signifying an Assembly And if the Parishioners in a Parish do usually Assemble together upon the same account are not those Gospel-Churches as well as the other and of the same institution Secondly for the Christians that live within the same Precincts or Parish-bounds to Assemble together for Communion in Gospel-Ordinances and so to be of the same particular Church and not of another is a thing which best answers the ends of particular Church-ship and the primitive patern For vicinity of Neighbour-hood and cohabitation which generally are not to be had so well in any other way as in that of parochial distribution do best accommodate those in Church-Relation with the knowledge of each others Condition and Conversation and with opportunity and advantage to watch over confer with and to admonish exhort and comfort one another and to Assemble together for publick Worship which are the ends of particular Church-association And accordingly the primitive Christians which lived together within the same civil bounds of Cities and Towns as of Corinth Cenchrea c. were constantly of the same Church and as such were still denominated by the places where they did reside And if some such distribution of the Christians in a Nation into several particular Worshipping Congregations as is now made by humane Authority is necessary of it self in reference to the Church-Association though no humane Authority had required it then certainly the command of humane Authority that it should be so cannot make it unnecessary much less unlawful 4. They cannot prove the Worship now used in our parochial Assemblies to be such as may not lawfully be joyned in The Lawfulness of Communion in the Worship of the English Lyturgy is the thing in question And if they cannot prove Communion in it unlawful neither 1. Because it is a set Form nor 2. Because it is such a set Form as it is nor 3. Because it is imposed then I shall take it for granted they cannot prove it unlawful any other way And whether ever they are like to prove Communion in that Worship unlawful upon any of those accounts consider what I have to offer and then judge 1. They cannot prove Communion in that Worship unlawful upon account of its being a set Form because they cannot prove all set Forms of Worship fotbidden We have Prayer several times commanded in Scripture but no where determined that it shall be extemporary that ever I could learn And therefore if the want of an express precept for praying in a set Form made praying in a set Form unlawful the same thing would make extemporary prayer unlawful too When God hath in Scripture plainly
what party soever and how different soever from himself in by-opinions If those of each party then would but steer by this compass and proportion their zeal to the Nature of things labouring more to lessen differences to make peace and to recover Charity then to propagate those things which as they are more uncertain so at best are less acceptable to God and less profitable unto Men and consequently less atractive of their zeal I should not doubt but that in a little time things would be at a much better pass in the Church of God then for the present we see them to be Postscript THere is great reason to think that many of the Non-Conformists do hold it Lawful for Persons in the capacity of private Members to joyn in parochial Communion who yet do not do so themselves The five dissenting Brethren that lived in separation from parochial Communion yet did in their Apolagetical Narration profess before God and the World that all that conscience of defilement they conceived cleaved to our parish-Parish-Churches or of the unwarrantable power of Church-Governours exercised therein did never work in them any other thought much less opinion but that multitudes of the Parish-Congregations were the true Churches and Body of Christ and the Ministry thereof a true Ministry And I have no reason to doubt but that very many of the present Non-Conformists that never went so far as those are of the same opinion who yet live not in communion with those parish-Parish-Churches though they live among them And I cannot but wonder that the sence they must needs have of the ill tendency of our Divisions and of the desirableness of Peace and Unity should not deter them from making or keeping the breach wider then needs wide then the necessity of not sinning puts them upon For it cannot be denied but that it is a duty incombent upon Chrstians and becoming all that love long for peace unity in the Church to go as far as ever a good Conscience will carry them towards the lessening of our differences and closing up the breach among us They cannot but know as well as all other men that to break church-Church-Communion and rend the Church where men are not necessitated to do so or to sin is Schism And I must needs say they put the Charity of their Friends hard to it not to think they condemn by their practice what they allow in their judgment while by separation they break the Unity of the Church which according to their own judgment they might forbear to do without sin If they think their concession touching the Lawfulness of lay-Lay-Communion with our parish-Parish-Churches will free them from the guilt of Schism though they themselves keep in no such Communion I may well pray them to consider whether that very thing doth not render their Schism in some respect more criminal then theirs who separate as accounting our Churches no true Churches since it seems to proceed more from errour in the will which is errour of the worst kind than Schism in the others doth and since their judgment practice seem more to enterfeire and to render them self-condemned in their way When Peter knew that the difference between the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles was no sufficient ground of separation between them and yet did withdraw and separate himself from the believing Gentiles for fear of displeasing the believing Jews St. Paul withstood him to his face because he was worthy to be blamed and so much the rather because he drew Barnabas and other Christians into the same dissimulation with himself Gal. 2.11 12 13. These things considered One would think they should apprehend it far more safe and less scandalous and more conduceable to Peace Unity and Love and a more regular way of obtaining the removal of burthens for those Non-Conforming Ministers as can to maintain Communion as private Members with the Parishes and to perswade their hearers to do so too though otherwise they should think it fit for the exrcise of their gifts and function at convenient times to improve His Majesties Indulgence to Preach in other places besides the Temples THE END
of which difference of knowledge and grace differences are apt more or less to arise among them The weak are apt to be more scrupulous than the strong as being more in the dark and so apter to stumble Whereupon the strong if they be not restrained by Humility and Charity are apt to despise them when they cannot make them understand what is plain and evident to them themselves And the weak again if they be not restrained by Humility and Charity are apt to judge and censure the strong as if they were not so conscientious because not so scrupulous as themselves And upon this despising and judging one another the bond of peace is broken and a way prepared for dividing For when the weak see themselves neglected slighted not regarded and set at nought by the strong it discourages them and takes off the pleasure of their Society and Communion and makes them weary of it and becomes a temptation to them to forsake it and to follow any opposite party that will head them And when the strong again find themselves judged and censured by the weak as if they were Men of little Conscience they are apt to look upon themselves as being by such prejudice taken up against them put out of a capacity of serving them which becomes a temptation to them to neglect them and somewhat to estrange themselves from them Or however though that temptation should not prevail so far upon them yet all endeavours of the strong to help and cure the weak are by the prejudice which the weak have against them when they once fall to judging them made very much ineffectual so mischievous and baneful to the Churches peace and Unity is proud despising and uncharitable censuring one another This was the case between the believing Jews and Gentiles upon which the first considerable breach we read of brake out in the Christian Church of which we have an account in Act. 15. and Rom. 14. and other places The believing Jews durst not use such liberty in meat as the believing Gentiles did nor did the believing Gentiles think themselves obliged to be circumcised and to observe Jewish Festivals as the believing Jews thought they were Hereupon the believing Gentiles which understood their Liberty despised the believing Jews when they could not make them understand it too And the believing Jews on the other hand fell to judging the believing Gentiles as looser than themselves and as Men of no Conscience because they did not make Conscience of Meats and days of Circumcision as well as themselves And upon this unchristian carriage of one towards another under their different apprehensions in these things great divisions sidings and disturbances among them did ensue Now that all such despising and judging one another and dividing from one another about their difference in lesser matters of doubtful disputation should be forborn by Christians so long as they agree in the essentials of Christianity St. Paul declares upon these two grounds among others 1. Because upon the Common Faith wherein they were both agreed they were at the first received by the Lord into his Church and so into a near Relation to himself And therefore their after-differences which did not destroy that Foundation upon which that Relation was first built were no sufficient ground of despising or judging one another or of dividing or withdrawing one from another This is plainly set down in these words Let him that eateth not despise him that eateth not and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Rom. 14.3 And this reason is farther backed and urged again Chap. 15.7 Wherefore receivere one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God Those whom God hath received into his Church upon such and such grounds we may not we ought not to discourage or reject by despising or judging or withdrawing so long as that remains in them upon which God at first received them Which holds in all other cases of difference between Christians that agree in the main as these did as well as in this between the believing Jews and Gentiles It is upon the like reason and ground that our Apostle in the words upon which I found my discourse and those following Ephes 4. presseth upon Christians the great duty of endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace viz. because they were at first incorporated into one Body by a profession and acknowledgment of one God and Father of all of one Lord Jesus Christ of one Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son of one Doctrine of Faith of one Hope of one Baptism Which fundamental points believed and lived to are sufficient to Salvation And if so they are sufficient bonds of Union and boundaries of Communion whatever difference in lesser things may otherwise occur For more in profession cannot be absolutely necessary to church-Church-Communion then what in reality is absolutely necessary to Salvation For as the one doth constitute the Church as invisible so doth the other the Church as visible And the same thing which constitutes the Church as visible must needs invest the Members thereof in a right to its external priviledges And if the Church had kept this her ground upon which she was first built and not made more conditions of Communion she had never been cut mangled and torn into I know not how many pieces as she hath been and at this day is And I see not any probability of her recovery to her primitive Union and Communion till she return to this her first Foundation of Union and boundary of Communion But a return to this would quickly do it if all Christians would acquiesce therein And why they should not as well as the primitive Christians the best Christians that ever the World saw did I understand not nor ever could hear any good reason to make me understand it 2. St. Pauls other reason why Christians that agree in the main as aforesaid should not despise or judge or withdraw from one another for their differing in lesser things is this because both parties differing but only so are to be presumed in the judgment of Charity to aim at the pleasing of God in what they differently hold and do For Charity according to which we are to guide our selves in all such cases of difference thinketh no evil but believeth and hopeth all things concerning others in the best sence and construction their Actions are capable of This was the case of the believing Jews and Gentiles they both aimed at the pleasing of God even in those things wherein they differed He that regardeeh the day regardeth it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord saith he for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks Rom. 14.6 Both aimed at the approving themselves to God in
their contrary wayes And if the Lord in such a case will not despise or judge such an one so as to condemn him though under a mistake but of that Nature as certainly he will not but pity and pardon him for he hath compassion on them that are ignorant and out of the way much less should we who are fallible our felves and compassed about with infirmities Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant saith our Apostle to his own Master he standeth or falleth every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Let us not therefore judge one another any more ver 4.12 13. for that is a judgment belongs not unto us There is one Law-giver and one Judge who art thou that judgest another Jam. 4.12 That is what dost thou make thy self to be that darest to undertake such a thing And as we should be afraid to judge one another so we should of despising one another in any case like that before mentioned for our Saviours serious caveat against it argues it to be both much against his mind and of dangerous consequence to our selves and others Take heed that ye despise not one of these little Ones Mat. 18.10 He knew that his little Ones because but little Ones in knowledge and grace that have little of these to render their fellowship much desirable are apt to be neglected and slighted and to be thereby discouraged and turned aside he therefore cautions those that are stronger to take heed lest they should be betrayed into any carriage towards them as signifies their slighting of them Our Saviour had shewed before how sad a thing it would be for any Man to be instrumental in turning any weak Christian aside by any undue carriage towards him when he said in ver 6. Wo be to the World because of offences c. and wo be to him by whom the offence cometh And it would be far more Christ-like of whom it is said He shall not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax to use more care pains and tenderness towards the weak and feeble to preserve and increase that little spark of Christianity in them though it be no more and though there be no more appearance of it than there is of fire when only smoak can be discerned then towards those that are strong and do not stand in so very much need of tenderness in our carriage and applications to them Which also agrees excellently well with St. Paul's Metaphorical Discourse in 1 Cor. 12.23 24 25. Those Members of the Body which we think to be less honourable upon these we bestow more abundant honour and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness For our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the Body together having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked that there should be no Schism in the Body implying that certainly there will be where such care tenderness of proceeding is not used towards such as are least accounted of in the Church Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet by removing all discouraging impediments out of the way lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but rather let it be healed looking diligently lest any fail of the grace of God Heb. 12.12 13 15. How far all parties of Men among us have made themselves guilty of breaking the Peace and Unity of the Church by this unchristian despising and judging one another concerns them to consider and the guilty to repent of what is past and to reform for time to come that they may not be judged and condemned by God for what they have done That 's the second Direction III. Direction Those that would keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace must be careful to forbear all hard speeches and ill reflexions on them that differ from them especially tale-bearing backbiting and whispering They must make no ill representation of one another behind their backs by raking up and then scattering abroad all the evil they can or whatever may tend to the disparagement or reproach of such as differ from them Because if they should be guilty herein though they may think thereby to weaken the Reputation of the Cause they oppose yet in truth they will be so far from reconciling their Opponent to their Cause as that they will thereby dishonour it and render it the more suspected and Communion with themselves so much the less desirable and all their own arguings the less available and by-standers the readier to fall in with those of a better behaviour as judging thereby their Cause to be better though in it self it should be worse for a good Cause may be spoiled in the handling All such unchristian carriage tends to exasperate imbitter and provoke the Spirits of their Opponents both against them and their Cause and to widen the breach more and more and to set them at the greater distance and to make them the more irreconcilable A froward Man soweth strife saith the Wise man Prov. 26.28 Grievous words stir up anger and the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife and the words of a tale-bearer are as wounds Prov. 15.1 and 26.22 and 30.33 So true it is that the wrath of man doth not work the Righteousness of God Jam. 1.20 It is not for the interest of the Truth nor doth it any wayes advantage the cause of God No if any Man would see any good effect of his endeavours towards the Uniting of Men if he would see the Seed he sows come up let him be sure to avoid all harsh and unpeaceable proceedings therein The Fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Jam. 3.18 The Servant of God must not strive but be gentle to all 2 Tim. 2.24 As we must follow Peace with all Men Heb. 12.14 So in order thereto we must speak evil of no Man Tit. 3.2 IV. Direction In Order to our keeping the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace we must study rather to agree with than to differ from one another and be more sollicitous to find out what will bring us nearer together than what will set us at a greater distance And this is one way of following after the things which make for peace and of studying to be quiet to both which we are exhorted Rom. 14.20 1 Thes 4.11 And to this end I shall recommend these three things 1. To make Conscience of endeavouring as truly and sincerely to find out what may make us of their mind that differ from us if it be to be found out as what may tend to make them of our mind We should be as much afraid of offending against the publick Peace and Charity of the Church as against Truth of being guilty of Schism in practice as of error in judgment and take as much pains to keep our selves from a causless differing from others
as to make them agree with us 2. That we do as impartially weigh what those that differ from us do offer for our satisfaction as what we our selves do offer to satisfie them In doing of which we shall in part discharge that duty enjoyned us in Phil. 2.4 Look not every Man on his own things but every Man also on the things of others And by this we shall make it appear that we are willing to agree with those that differ from us as far as possibly we can as far as any reason or ground appears to bear us out in so doing And if we herein begin to those which differ from us it will induce them if there be any candor in them to return the like to us And this is the way to reduce the difference to a narrow compass and to make it as little as may be And when it appears to be but little it will be the easier to satisfie one another about it or however we shall then be the better able peaceably to bear with one another in it But if this be not done it will beget a suspition that we affect to differ and to strive for Victory more than for Truth and Peace and that it is more from a spirit of contradiction than Conscience that we differ 3. When any alter their judgment either upon grounds found out by their own search and studies or offered to them by others so that they come over to them in whole or in part from whom they differed before then beware of representing this as matter of Odium and reproach to them so long as they are not worse in their Morals The contrary that is the doing so hath been an ill practice and such as hath tended greatly to block up the way of a due and Christian compliance with them from whom through mistake they have once professedly differed While it hath been represented as matter of reproach to Men not to stand their ground and to be true to their principles they have once received though found erroneous enough when better considered and looked into it hath proved a great temptation doubtless unto many to neglect an impartial and thorow-examination of the grounds of their Opinion or practice and to be prejudiced against all that is offered by others to convince them of mistake Mens Reputation among their party is a dangerous snare to hold them fast in error and a great impediment to their understanding and discerning the Truth when it is declared to them when it tends to draw them off and to expose them to reproach among their party and a great prejudice and bar against their receiving and owning of it Why do ye not understand my speech Even because ye cannot hear my word said our Saviour to the Jews John 8.43 They had no mind to embrace his Doctrine which would bring them into disgrace with their party the Pharisees and therefore they had no mind so to consider it as to understand it Which made our Saviour say again How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Joh. 5.44 But if Men would but understand and consider that it is truly honourable and praise-worthy in the sight of God and Wise Men to love and own Truth where ever they find it and however disguised by its Adversaries and to be of open and free minds to consider and try all things and when they discover Truth to buy it at any rate though it cost them more than the loss of their Reputation among an erring party they would then neither fright others nor be scared themselves from exchanging error for Truth Schism for Peace and Unity by reproachful nick-names V. Direction Those that would keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace had need to be of publick Spirits and still to seek their own personal and private satisfaction in subordination to a publick good and not in opposition to it to preserve the publick Peace and Unity of the Church and the benefits that depend thereon before the pleasing of themselves in things not absolutely necessary but convenient only If this be not observed there will be no avoiding divisions and separations And the Reason hereof is taken from the different apprehensions capacities and tempers of the several parts and Members of the Church By reason of this those circumstances about the administration of Holy things which will best please some good Men will not so well satisfie others This we find to be true by the different usages of the parts of the Reformed Church in several Nations and by the different perswasions and inclinations of the parts of the Church in one and the same Nation yea in one and the same City Town and Parish as is well known So that if one part of the Church should refuse Communion with the other in the same Ordinances unless they can have them administred upon terms best pleasing to themselves and if the other part of the Church of a different opinion therein should do so too separation follows of course till they can all be of one mind in those disputable things But in all such cases the publick concerns of Religion should sway more with us than what otherwise would be more to our liking The profit of the whole is more to be attended than the pleasing of our selves when the question is not which is good and which is simply bad this or that But only which is better this or that St. Paul walked by this Rule in bearing with yea in chusing some things for publick edification sake when circumstances made them necessary thereunto which out of those circumstances he would not have chosen nor could well bear with Even as I saith he please all Men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved 1 Cor. 10.33 Under some circumstances he would forbear things which under others he would not and thus he would eat no meat while the World stands rather than make his Brother to offend He chose to labour with his own hands for his support rather than to take Money from others when he saw the interest of the Christian Religion would be disadvantaged thereby And he Circumcised Timothy purified himself and took on him a Vow after the Jewish mode when so to do tended to publick good though otherwise the doing of such things could not be without some regret to him considering how slightingly he speaks of them at other turns And thus he took up and laid down many things even as the publick interest of Religion lead him to it To them that were under the Law he became as one under the Law and as without Moses's Law to them that were without it and all this he reckoned to be consistent with his being under the Law to Christ To the weak he became as weak that he might gain the weak he was made all things to all
men but it was for the Gospels sake as he saith and that he might by all means save some it was that he might gain the freer passage and readier reception of the gospel for the Salvation of men 1 Cor. 9.2.23 And accordingly he exhorted others to walk by the same rule and to consider and do what would best consist with publick benefit rather then what would best please and gratifie themselves We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Rom. 15.1 Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Phil 2.4 If Christians on all hands among us had but acted and walked according to this rule nay if the dissenters would but have done it when the other could not be prevailed with the publick interest of Religion would not have been exposed to that loss and dammage as it is at this day And therefore as that publick benefit which might have been procured and secured by such yielding and condescending as circumstances made not only Lawful but necessary might have been a forcible motive so to have done so the publick dammage and mischief which a non-compliance under our circumstances tends to may and ought also to be a powerful disswasive from maintaining and continuing our distance upon such slight grounds as those are which have brought us to it For such a distance tends to keep open a wide breach in the Body of the Nation to the weakening of it and rendering it obnoxious to the Envy ill will or ambition of any publick Adversary or to create one if there were none it tends to the dishonour and reproach of the Nation it tends to weaken the Protestant interest and to bring a scandal and reproach upon our Religion it self and to put an Advantage into the hands of the Adversaries of it it tends to lay a stumbling-block in the way of such as are Atheistically inclined it tends to distract and unsettle the Peoples minds about the more necessary points of Religion or at least to divert them from the serious practice of them and it tends to the distraction of Christian Charity And that which tends to any one of these tends to a publick hurt and dammage how much more that which tends to them all And in good sadness are the things on either hand about which we differ of such necessity or value as that for the sake thereof the publick interest of Religion and of the Nation should run such hazards and sustain such apparent dammage by contending for them as they do Or can it be thought when seriously considered that God who hath said I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings which yet were his own institutions is such a lover of those things which are but circumstances of institutions at most wherein our difference as to communion of private Members lies as that he had rather the interest of Religion in the main and of National Societies of Men should deeply suffer then that those circumstances should be either waved or born withall Me-thinks those who have not Love and Zeal enough for Religion to be restrained from such dividing wayes and practices as evidently tend to its great prejudice should yet be restrained therefrom upon account of their own secular interest as that is exposed thereby to great hazards as that is involved in the common Fate of the Nation alwayes remembring who hath said A Nation divided against it self is brought to desolation VI. Direction Those that would keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace had need to be careful not to impose upon their Christian Brethren as conditions of communion things of doubtful disputation or which are not some way necessary to further the great ends of Religion Because though some such things may not be unlawful in themselves yet so long as they are thought to be so by many it will occasion a breach as experience shews that from time to time it hath done And when the imposition of any thing that is apt to do so may be forborn without any detriment to Christianity in its end or means without any dishonour to God or wrong to Mens Souls it seems altogether incongruous then to impose it When the believing Gentiles would impose upon the believing Jews to use the same Liberty in Meat which they themselves did when those Jews were perswaded it was unlawful for them so to do and when again the believing Jews would impose upon the believing Gentiles the observation of dayes and other legal Rites which the Gentiles scrupled and that they fell to judging one another hereupon St. Paul interposed and directed and perswaded them that instead of this they would judge this rather as better becoming them that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way that they would not by impositions tempt one another to do that which they could not do with satisfaction of Conscience or else to separate And to put one another upon a necessity of doing either the one or the other argued great uncharitableness Rom. 14.13 And when he had in ver 1. exhorted the strong to receive the weak into their communion he cautions them that by no means they would trouble them with matters of doubtful disputation That agreement of Christians in the substance of Doctrine and Worship upon which they became one Body at the first is doubtless sufficient without any addition to continue that Union in communion And upon this very thing was the Communion of the Apostolical Churches Founded And the going off from this and the adding such conditions of Communion as are not found in Scripture hath been Fatal to the Churches Peace and that which hath from time to time broken it into pieces Men should alwayes make choice of means fitted to their end And therefore those who design the establishing of Peace and Unity in the Church should beware of imposing such things on their Brethren as are like to prove a bone of contention when they may be forborn without prejudice to any The contrary many times proves as I have said very mischievous to the Church As Parents tempt their Children to withdraw that reverence and obedience which is due in things necessary by imposing upon them unnecessarily out of humour against which they are cautioned Col. 4. So Mens greater Extravagancies in the Church frequently take their first rise from the imposing of such things on them which might well have been forborn In the choice of Circumstances about Worship wherein there is a liberty of choice it would alwayes for Peace and Unity sake be considered what the People are able to bear a thing which our first Reformers had an eye to and Moses would never have permitted divorce but that the temper of the people lead him to it He suffered it for the hardness of their hearts Our Saviour also in his conduct
considerable hath betrayed many a one into that which St. Paul calls vain jangling 1 Tim. 1.5 6. The end of the Commandment saith he is Charity from which some having swerved or not aiming at as it is in the Margin have turned aside to vain jangling VIII Direction To the keeping of the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace it s greatly necessary to take heed of dividing Principles Because these especially are the spring of irregular motion of breaking asunder instead of Uniting There are indeed other causes of unlawful divisions and separations but they scarce ever proceed to any height in producing such effects without this Pride Self-conceitedness Uncharitableness and affection of singularity are also causes of this evil but these usually Act under the colour of some one or more mistaken Principles I shall instance in some of them and insist the longer upon them because they are the Weapons in which Church-Dividers do usually put their trust Some of them relate to the qualification of Church-Members and the constitution of Churches some to the Worship performed in Churches and some to the Magistrates Authority enjoyning that Worship I shall begin with what concerns the qualification of Persons of which Churches are constituted I. Dividing Principle to be avoided That Churches Founded in Infant-Baptism are not to be held Communion with This tenet is built upon a supposition that Baptism administred to Infants is a Nullity is invalid and no Baptism and that therefore Churches made up of Pedobaptists are no true Churches To this I have two things to say 1. That they of this way will never be able to prove Infant-Baptism a Nullity 2. That if they could prove it an errour yet they cannot prove it to be an errour of that Nature as will be a sufficient ground of separation First they will never be able to prove it a Nullity and till they do prove it to be so they will never be able to justifie separation upon account of it For if they pronounce them no true Churches and renounce Communion with them upon that account they must prove their charge or lye under the blame of a false accusation and an unjust separation It lyes on their part to prove their refusing Church-communion with such to have a sufficient ground to justifie their practice If ever they prove Baptism administred to the Infants of Believers to be a Nullity it must be 1. By disproving their Church-Relation And 2. By proving their exclusion out of Christ's Commission to Baptize and thirdly by proving that the ends of Baptism are not attained when administred to them And that they are never like to do this consider what I have to offer to make you think so 1. That they cannot disprove such to be of the Church if they should atempt it I have two things to lay in their way First that the same Jewish Children which were visibly of the Church immediately before their Parents became Christians at the first ☞ continued to be so after The reason of which affection is this Because they were not under the dischurching cause of as many of the Jews as were dischurched and that was unbelief and wilful disobedience in rejecting the Gospel of which they could not be guilty by any Act of their own or of their Parents as imputed to them Because of unbelief saith St. Paul they were broken off Rom. 11.20 See also John 8.35 If it be said they were dischurched in the dissolution of the Jewish Church-state in general it is but an evasion which will not help them for the fore-cited Text is flatly against them For all that were not broken off by unbelief did continue unbroken off that is they still kept their place and standing in the Church of God And therefore to assign any other cause of dischurching any than the Scripture hath assigned or at least any other without this here assigned and determined by the Apostle is too great presumption and such as will not satisfie an impartial mind Secondly our Saviour hath declared little Children to be of the Church when he said of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.14 If any by Kingdome of Heaven have a mind to understand it of the Kingdom of Glory yet they may remember that none are of the Kingdome of Glory who were not first of the Church first of the Kingdome of Grace here So that it comes all to one understand it of which you will If they shall say that by Such here is not meant such in age but such in quality such as are like Children in Humility and Innocency The scope of the place and the purpose to which the words are applyed will not suffer them so to understand them For the words of such is the Kingdome of Heaven are our Saviour's reason by which he would take off his Disciples from hindering little Children properly taken from being brought unto him and of justifying their practice that brought them Suffer little Children to come unto me and forbid them not saith he for of such is the Kingdome of Heaven And if we should understand by such not such Children properly but Men like such in quality we destroy the force and sence of our Saviour's reason and render it wholly inconsequent For it doth not follow at all that because the Kingdome of Heaven is of other Persons like little Children in some other things but altogether unlike them in what was the matter of exception against their being brought to Christ which was their minority or infancy that therefore little Children properly understood ought to be suffered and not forbidden to be brought to Christ Such a rendring the sence would fasten a fallacy of four terms on our Saviour's words of putting one thing in the premises and another in the conclusion as you will see if you cast them into a syllogism Besides our Saviour plainly declared the Relation of little Children to himself when at another time he taking a little Child said Whosoever receiveth this little Child in my Name receiveth me Luk. 9.48 For how could a little Child be received in his Name if it were not visibly related to him To receive one in Christ's Name and to receive one because he belongs to Christ is one and the same thing Mark 9.41 1. If such Children then are of the Church and Related to Christ to Baptize them cannot be proved unlawful And the reason is because the same thing which qualifies any Persons for Church-Member-ship qualifies them for Baptism And Baptism is a sacred Rite of Christianity instituted by Christ solemnly to publish and declare such to be of the Church as are Baptized it is a Christian badge to declare to whom they do belong There is one Body and one Baptism for all of that one Body Ephes 4.4 5. 1 Cor. 12.13 2. If the Infants of believing Parents be of the Church it cannot be proved that they are excluded out of Christ's Commission to be Baptized Mat.
then it is a reason to prove that the Lord hath not received them St. Peter thought it a good reason why the Christians should make no difference between believing Jews and believing Gentiles though they were of different perswasions about the necessity and non-necessity of Circumcision wherein the one erred because the Lord made no difference but gave to one the Holy Ghost as well as to the other and purified the hearts of the one by Faith as well as the other Acts 15.8 9. His reason is not setcht from the Nature of the things wherein they differed but from God's giving them an equal interest in his grace notwithstanding their difference When God had vouchsafed the gift of his grace and Spirit to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews St. Peter thought that if after this he should have kept the same distance from them as before he thought he was bound to do he should have withstood God in so doing Act. 11.17 For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God To keep at a distance from those to whom God draws nigh in the Communication of his grace and Spirit is it seems to steer a course against God or to withstand him 3. The Anabaptists and Pedobaptists if Godly do by Faith hold Communion one with another in eating the same Spiritual meat and drinking the same Spiritual drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which is the thing signified in the Lord's Supper Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.53 And therefore they cannot duly deny Communion with them in the Lord's Supper it self which is the sign 1. Because if they do they thereby cross one great end and design of God in that Ordinance which is to increase and strengthen Love and Unity among Christians in communicating together in the sign upon account of their joynt-interest in and Relation to Christ the Substance Christians by their Communion in that Ordinance are made to drink into one Spirit or into one-ness of Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 But by their thus refusing to Communicate one with another they do not only sin in not using the Lord's appointed means to increase and strengthen Love and Unity upon account of common interest in the same Saviour but also in that by such their refusal they destroy Unity and weaken diminish Love they pull down instead of building up steer a contrary course to Christ in appointing that Ordinance 2. Men's right to the sign proceeds upon the best account from their right to the thing signified though not from that only As those who have right to such or such an Estate in Land have thereby a right to the deeds and evidences by which such a right is to be declared So those that have a right to the Body and Blood of Christ through Faith have thereby a right to the Lord's Supper as an evidence appointed by God by which such their right is to be declared and acknowledged And therefore as a detaining of such evidence from him who by having right to the Land hath right to the evidence would be an injury even so for any as much as in them lies to detain the Lord's Supper from them who by having right to the Body and Blood of Christ have right to the Lord's Supper as an evidence and sign thereof would be an injury likewise and that so much greater too as Spiritual things are of more value then temporal 3. It is absurd and against common reason for them to grant that the Godly Pedobaptists have Communion with them in the greater and better part and yet for a supposed errour consistent with saving Faith Love to deny it them in the less whenas the greater alwayes includes the less But for the Godly Pedobaptists to be partakers of like precious Faith with them and thereby to eat of that Flesh which is meat indeed and to drink of that Blood which is drink indeed together with themselves a thing which the Anabaptists will not deny is certainly to have hold and enjoy Communion with them in the greater better more Spiritual and more substantial part of Communion and therefore to deny it them in the out-side and letter of it which is far less considerable is very incongruous and contradictious What was objected by distinguishing between an immediate and remote right if it should be here brought in again hath been answered before and the answer need not be repeated but only applyed here And let it be remembred alwayes that there is a vast difference between those who deny and those that hold the necessity and usefulness of water Baptism in these latter Ages of the Church The Pedobaptists are as much for water-Baptism as the Anabaptists are and hold themselves as firmly engaged by their Infant-Baptism as they do by their after-Baptism If this were not so their case would not be so pleadable as now it is And for any to separate from them upon account of their being Baptized in their Infancy as it is without ground from Scripture I conceive so it is without all president in the Church of Christ for the first fifteen hundred years and more Though some in the ancient Church were Baptized in Infancy and some at Age yet there was never any breaking of Communion among them upon that score so far as ever I could learn untill a Reformation of a Reformation was set on foot the one to puzle and confound the other I mean the attempt of the Anabaptists in Germany to Reform the Reformation by Luther and others Which may be a motive to reflect upon what they have done and to review their grounds Can they think to out-do the Church in her purest times in point of Communion Me-thinks they should greatly suspect themselves in their undertaking wherein they go so manifestly contrary to the Universal Church in all places and Ages till so lately as afore-said II. Dividing Principle to be avoided That it is unlawful to hold Communion with parochial Congregations notwithstanding they have been Baptized into the Profession of the true Faith and continue in that profession This is another grand dividing Principle indeed They who hold this and practice accordingly must prove such Communion unlawful or else lye under the guilt of a sinful Schism or causless separation and of all the evil and mischievous effects and consequences of it And to prove it unlawful they must prove it is so either by proving 1. That all the Members of each Parochial Assembly from which they separate are destitute of saving grace or 2. By proving that the mixture of bad with good makes Communion unlawful or 3. By proving the constitution of such Congregations bad upon account of that distribution by which the whole Nation is divided into its parts and precincts or 4. By proving the worship
in those Assemblies to be such as may not lawfully be joyned in These contain either all or the principal pretended causes of a stated separation from them For the plea upon account of the insufficiency of some Ministers is a thing but of an accidental Nature and no Universal pretence of separation And whether they are like to prove all or indeed any of these you may please to consider what follows and then judge 1. They cannot prove all the members of each parochial Assembly from which they separate to be destitute of saving grace much less to be so scandalous as to deserve Excommunication For First there is so little a difference between common grace and the lowest degree of special and saving grace as makes it impossible for one Christian to know another to be destitute of saving grace the tenor of whose Life is not worse then theirs who are the most inoffensive and best disposed in the Parishes And if they cannot make proof that they are all destitute of saving grace then 2. It s utterly against the rules of Charity indeed of all Christianity to judge such to be destitute of saving grace of which they cannot make certain proof For Charity thinketh no evil but believeth all things and hopeth all things And for one Man to judge another to have no grace or to be in a damnable condition who is not manifestly guilty of living in such sins as for which the Scripture expresly excludes Men out of the Kingdome of Heaven is a thing which the Scripture expresly condemns as a great sin Mat. 7.1 Judge not that ye be not judged Jam. 4.12 Who art thou that judgest another And again Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant Rom. 14.4 And can they prove indeed or will they undertake it that all the Inhabitants of this or that Parish without exception are guilty of such sins as for which the Scripture doth expresly bar Men out of the Kingdome of Heaven And if not dare they judge them all to be in a reprobate or damnable condition And if they dare not or cannot judge so without manifest breach of Charity then to be sure they cannot prove that they are so And if they cannot prove it what a horrid thing is it or would it be to judge whole Parishes by the lump to be such 3. I querie how they will prove it is of absolute necessity unto Lawful Communion with a Congregation that have been Baptized into one Body the Church that at least some of them should be savingly holy As Suppose the Church of Laodicea for instance had consisted all of such as had only a form of Godliness will they say and prove it when they have done that Communion with them had been unlawful I suppose they will not and am confident they cannot 2. They cannot prove that a mixture of the bad with the good makes Communion with such mixt Assemblies unlawful They can neither prove it by Scripture prohibition nor by Scripture Example 1. Let them shew where the Scripture forbids it If they say there where it saith If any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolator or a railer or a drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat 1 Cor. 5.11 And where again it saith Withdraw your selves from every Brother that walks disorderly and the like The Answer is ready which is this That these and all other Scriptures of like Nature are to be considered either first as injunctions upon the Church as invested with the power of discipline or secondly as commands to particular Persons a part So far as they belong to the Church in a publick capacity and as invested with the power of discipline they impose the duty of using the power of the Keyes for the Reforming and Cure of the scandalous and for preventing contagion in the Church But so far as they respect Persons in a single and private capacity they prohibit personal familiarity and converse thereby to discountenance their evil and to work them to a sense of it and to caution others against it and to secure themselves from the infection of it But then there is a vast difference between abstaining from a personal familiarity and converse with such and a withdrawing from the Church for the sake of such this is a sin but the other a duty And whereas some have alledged the 2 Cor. 6.17 Come out from among them c. This was no call to the better sort of Christians to separate from the worser and such as were scandalous in the Church of Corinth but a call to those that had in part embraced the Gospel to come quite off from Heathenish Idols and from participating in the Sacrifices which were offered to them which is meant by touch not the unclean thing there This appears by the Context from ver 14. and by comparing here with 1 Cor. 8.7.10 and 10.7.14.21.22 Others alledge Revel 18.4 Come out of her my People c. If this be meant of Mystical Babylor as they understand it It is not a call to separate from those that Worship the true God only and in the Mediation of Christ Jesus only as the Parish Churches Protestant do But from her who is stiled a Harlot because she gives that Honour which is due only to God and to our only Mediator Christ Jesus to Creatures and to other Mediators together with God and with Christ When it can be proved our Parish Churches do so then and not till then will this Text be pertinently alledged to justifie separation from them 2. Let them shew if they can some approved Example in Scripture of such a practice That there have been great scandals in the Churches both in that recorded in the Old Testament and those recorded in the New is manifest as is shewed particularly and at large by Mr. Baxter in his fifth Direct for Cure of Church-divisions But where do we find any of the better sort in those Churches withdrawing themselves from the more carnal part into separate Bodies for Reformation sake We read indeed of some that went out from the Church because they were not of them and of some that did separate themselves being sensual not having the Spirit but not a word of the good separating from the Church because of the bad in it In the Church of Sardis which had a Name to live but was dead there were but a few Names but what had defiled their Garments And those few indeed are commanded and encouraged by promise of great reward for that they had kept their Garments undefiled amidst such a Society but not in the least encouraged to separate from them though all the rest were defiled They plead indeed that particular Churches ought to consist of none but of visible Saints because this is agreeable to the primitive patern the appellations or Titles which are given the Churches in the Epistles the Apostles wrote to them declare them to
reason why it would not make Prayer in that mode unlawful it doth not make it unlawful in this Men use to plead their Christian Liberty against such humane impositions But the best use of Christian Liberty is still to do those things which all things considered tend most to common good the edification of our selves and others though otherwise and out of those circumstances we were under no obligation to do them And thus did St. Paul make use of it who best understood the use of his Christian Liberty Though I am free from all Men saith he yet have I made my self a Servant unto all that I might gain the more To the Jews I became as a Jew to them that are without Law as without Law and all this 〈◊〉 the Gospel sake 1 Cor. 9.19.23 The interest of the Gospel in the main did govern him as it should do us in the use of his Christian Liberty sometimes one way and sometimes another And therefore we have him sometimes against Circumcision that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved among the Christians Gal. 2.5 and 5.1 And sometimes making use of it for the furtherance of the Gospel Acts 16.3 And he perswaded the Christians to use their Liberty to which they were called not so much to please themselves as to serve one another in Love but by no means to use it as an occasion to the flesh as some would have taught them in casting off the Rule and Government of Heathen Governours Masters and Magistrates under a pretence of being Christ's Freemen Gal. 5.13 1 Tim. 6.1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2.10 Jude 9. Now I have been shewing before that a Liberty of a total dis-use of the Lyturgie in the publick Worship as the case now stands cannot be practicable with that advantage to the general interest of Religion as the use of it may as any Men of reason may easily discern if they be not blinded with prejudice and interest An Argument may much rather be fetched from Christian Liberty for the use of the Lyturgie under the present posture of Circumstances then against it For if God hath not limitted Prayer to one mode only then Christians are at Liberty to use any as occasion shall require for the interest of Religion in the Main and consequently that which for the present the Law requires I have now near done with the second Dividing-Principle and when the whole I have said about it hath been considered I appeal to all who are able to make a judgment in the case whether those that separate from our Protestant Parish-Congregations will ever be able to clear themselves from the guilt of sinful Schism and causless separation and of all the mischievous effects that have and may proceed from it or be occasioned by it And to give yet the greater weight to the general scope of what I have said about the Lawfulness of Communion in our Parish Congregations and of the sinfulness of separating from them notwithstanding all pretences I shall set before you the un-erring example of our Blessed Saviour in his holding local Communion when he was on Earth with such a Church as he did which for ought I can judge was more corrupt both in respect of Persons and things then any of our Parish-Churches are though many of them alas are too bad indeed 1. The High Priest-hood the highest Office in the Church in which Ministry all the Worshippers were concerned was bought and sold for Money or otherwise unduly obtained and frequently translated from one to another contrary to God's appointment of which we have an account from Josephus besides what we have in Luke 3.2 John 11.49.51 and 18.13 2. Provisions for the Temple-Service were in part unduly obtained in the Corban way Mar. 7.11 3. The Holy Temple was profaned being made a House of Merchandize and a Den of Thieves which was otherwise Holy by institution as well as the matter of the Worship it self 4. The Law was corrupted by many false glosses Mat. 5.5 The Commandments of Men were taught for Doctrines Mat. 15.9 6. The Church censures were abused to the Excommunication of the best Men John 9.22.34 7. The Sadduces who denyed the Resurrection or that there is Angel or Spirit were not only tolerated but were also a great and prevailing party in that Church 8. The Scribes Pharisees Chief Priests and Rulers were persecuting and oppressive proud covetous and hypocritical and the common People generally so bad as that they preferred Barabbas before Jesus and had their hands in shedding the Blood of our Saviour and they with the other were all of them together a Generation of Vipers a sinful and an adulterous Generation In this lamentable condition was that Church then Yet all this notwithstanding our Saviour did not refrain the publick Worship but held Communion with this Church both in Temple and Synagogue-Worship as you may see in Luke 2.41 42 43. John 2.23 and 7.10 and 10.22 23. Luke 4.16 Mat. 26.17 18. There is no Man ever had so good a mind as he to soundness of Doctrine purity of Worship and Worshippers and to right order and Discipline in the Church And his Wisdome was such as that he knew perfectly what was fittest to be done under such Circumstances of things both in reference to his Father's Glory the furtherance of Religion the advancement of Reformation and the Salvation of Men for which he came into the World and what course would best conduce to these ends and what would not And although as a publick Person he did not spare to reprove the corruptions of the time both in respect of Persons and things and to endeavour a Reformation in a regular way yet he never attempted it by breaking off Communion with that Church in the publick Worship and by erecting separate Communities for Reformation sake which yet certainly he would have done if that had been the better and nearer way to those great ends but now mentioned And if Men had no other ends or designs then our Saviour had me-thinks those that are to learn of him and not to teach him should not lay aside those means and methods which he made choice of to accomplish his ends or ever think to make a better choice then he had done If when those who are ingenuous and truly consciencious have well considered these things and yet after that shall continue separatists from our Parish-Churchs I shall somewhat wonder how or which way they can satisfie themselves in so doing Me-thinks this unquestionable and uncontroulable patern and example of our Saviour of whom we are all to learn and who hath left us an example that we should tread in his steps should of it self alone if there were nothing else to be said in the case put an end to all disputes about this business and satisfie the most scrupulous Christian under Heaven The Jews initiating of Proselytes by Baptism as well as by Circumcision was a humane addition to what God had