to command your belief yet I hope you will admit them as grounds of credibility to facilitate your assent being handed to us by those that cannot be imagined not to know being so near nor be suspected to combine flalsly to impose on us being so pious And if you want an Example take it from the Disciples who out of a sense of their own wants bespake their Master thus Teach us to pray as John taught his Disciples I beseech you therefore consider in time what you are doing for if Mr. Baxter prophecies right he tells you That Separating will at last ruine the separate Churches themselves for no instance can be given saith he of a separate Church of a hundred years standing To conclude the same Author saith The Protestant Religion must be kept up by the means of the Parish-Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship then performed and they that think and endeavour that which is contrary to this of what side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists O that now my dissenting Brethren you would be perswaded to lay aside all prejudice and partiality self-ends and interests and follow the things that make for peace Suffer your Reasons to awake put on Modesty be clothed with Humility and call no men or decent Custom Popish or Antichristian till you are assured by an infallible signe it is so lest you be found fighters against God and slanderers of your Brethren Be not rash censurers but judge righteous judgment lest you abuse the truth it self and call the Spouse of Christ an Harlot The Church of England is bare-fac'd hath no Idols to obscure no spiritual Cheat with which to delude you for the representing of which we should stand either in need of darkness or a false light we have nothing in our publick profession which the wisest men the most pious Christians may not practice nothing in our Faith which they ought not stedfastly to believe It is onely want of Enquiry and a sober Examination that the purity of our Churches Doctrine is not more generally embraced 't is because the calmness and sobriety of its Devotion the moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not more impartially enquired into that men mistake us divide from our Communion trouble the world with their impertinent noise and clamour and administer matter of offence to many thousands in England who are hardened into an utter neglect of Godliness by the unwarrantable Singularities and the scandalous sins especially of those Professors that have been most addicted to sinful Separations without receiving occasion or giving a reason for it And to conclude I am afraid that all those Scruples that have been urged to vindicate a Separation from our Communion will be found too light at the day of the Lord to counterpoise the vast guilt of Schism and Disobedience Could you make it appear that your Salvation was in the least hazarded by Communion with us if you could not have Peace but upon those ill terms of parting with Truth and Holiness could you demonstrate that in any thing we are departed from the true Church your Separation was warrantable but since 't is evident our Church hath preserved intire that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints without any loss or innovation since all the Laws and Rules of holy and Christian life are by our Church taught since men may conform to all the Constitutions of our Church and yet be as holy as the best of Saints in any Age of the world since there is nothing herein commanded that ever God did forbid and since all this we are able to prove by the clearest Demonstrations it must necessarily follow they incur a Wo that call good evil and light darkness 4. 'T is no less a hainous offence also to separate from a true Church under a pretence that notoriously sinful Members are received into Communion with it This is to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Spider and to prevent an imaginary guilt of Pollution by others incur a real guilt of Schism in themselves And though by dispencing with Humility and Charity they magnifie themselves and brand those they separate from with the disgraceful Epithets of ungodly and profane and with the Whore in the Proverbs wipe their mouths and say they have done no harm yet in the judgment of St. Paul the sin of Separation is so dangerously infectious that the persons guilty of it are to be set in the first rate of Offenders and to be shunned as soon as descried Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est attentè diligenter quasi hostes è spicula observetis Biza in loc Divisions are the Intelligences that put the Orbs of Offences into motion and are the prime subversion of the Church which otherwise is rarely endamaged for whilst it is united Satan is not admitted nor Scandals started which makes the Apostle in another place so passionately resent the injury offered to the Church by Divisions that he wishes they were cut off that trouble it by unsetling and removing its Votaries from their first Station 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And you will have no cause to think this a severe process since there is more mischief threatned to the Church of God and less hopes of recovery in a Separatist than a more notified Malefactor A debauch'd man if discreetly reprehended will blush and tremble at his Miscarriage but an Ableptick Schism-Master will disdain insult and spurn at him that by a modest Reproof would turn him from the errour of his way besides a Sect-maker disturbs the peace of the Church tears its Vnity and paves a Causey to destruction whilst the other onely perverts himself and disquiets but his own Conscience But admit some of the Members of our Church were as bad as they would render them it makes no Pallizado for their Conventicle for as long as the Church sojourneth on Earth bad men will be mixed with the good and they deserve a sharp reprehension in the opinion of Mr. Calvin Calvin in Mat. 13.36 that tumultuously depart from the Church or by unseasonable rigidness endeavour to overthrow it And Christ Jesus in propounding this Parable saith the same Author would bridle and moderate their Zeal who think it unlawful to have Communion with none but pure Angels and they that preposterously make haste to root out all that displeaseth them do as much as in them is prevent Christs Judgment and usurp the Angels Office Mr. Perkins tells us Expos on St. Jude v. 9. Amplified on Gal. 1.2 that faults in the manners of Professors is no warrant for our Separation for tho vices saith he appear in the lives of Ministers and People so long as true Religion is taught and the Sacraments duely administred it is a Church and we may not depart from it Mr. Hildersham makes it
but rather on the contrary if you had as God bethanked you have not a just cause to refuse Communion with our Church in some instances yet you ought not therefore to proceed to a total Separation from it or to erect new Churches in contradistinction to us or gratifie the humorous dislikes of them that do by joyning with them You often call us Popish Prelatical Priests but if you will believe Mr. Baxter he says You are the great Factors of Rome and Vpholders of the Triple Crown For saith he Defence of the Principle of Love p. 52. thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by your Separation already and I am perswaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine and all other Books have not done so much to make Papists in England as the Divisions among our selves yea some Professors of strictness in Religion and of great esteem for godliness have turned Papists themselves when they were giddied and wearied with turning They know but little of the world who perceive not that our Differences are the Contrivances of the Romish Cabal to ruine us Read the Bishop of Rhodes's History of Henry the Fourth of France and Campanella's Spanish Monarchy where after a long discourse of the intended Invasion of England by the Monarchs of Spain and France incited thereto by the Commands and Benedictions of Rome as well as their own Ambition they especially declare their judgements of the means and instruments to be employ'd for the Ruine of the English Church in this sort that there was no better Artifice than by causing Divisions and Dissentions among the English And to this purpose they advised it as the onely way to erect certain Schools and Academies in Flanders that the Students thereof may disseminate Seeds of Division in Natural and Theological Sciences which would discompose their Opinions and unsettle their Judgments for say they the English are enclined to Novelties and are no less violent in defending them And how considerable the effects of this Contrivance has been their late horrid Conspiracies against our gracious King do manifest And you my dissenting Brethren of whom it may be said as Chemnitius spake of the Monks concerning Pelagianism You defie the Heretick and foster the Heresie for while you separate from us you do no less than make your selves Agents to accomplish their designes in overthrowing a Church you acknowledge to be true and promote the Errours of Antichrist Many sad Examples might be produced to this purpose Vid. Dr. Ashton's Postscript to the case of Scandal but I delight not to vex a Wound by a continued application of Corrosives I shall therefore proceed to answer the main Objections against the use of our Common-prayer-book the first of which is Object Praying by a Set Form is a humane invention and sinful because not commanded in Scripture Answ In answering whereof I must invoke again the assistance of Mr. Baxter for they that raise these Spectrums are best skill'd in laying them Lib. id pag. 53. ad 60. If by false Worship saith he you mean forbidden or not commanded we i. e. the Presbyterians worship God falsly every day and in some part of the matter very oft our Disorders Confusions Tautologies and unfit Expressions are all forbidden and so false Worship and if God prohibit it in the Liturgie he prohibits the same in extemporate Prayers in which some good Christians are as failing as the Liturgy And as the words of the Liturgie are not commanded in Scripture so neither are the words of our extemporate or studied Sermons or Prayers God hateth every sin in every Prayer but he hateth the avoiding of Prayer and due Communion much more and you but strain at Gnats and swallow Camels while you thus eagerly contend for the Shadow and let the Substance glide from you giving us cause to think these Niceties are but the Bones that the Devil throws amongst us to break our Teeth with and in the mean space reject the wholsome Food of our Souls Open your Eyes I beseech you and you will easily discern how you are imposed on and made the Engines of their Malice who would destroy both us and you Methinks I hear the Papists Independents Anabaptists and Quakers hissing each Party on saying There there so would we have it One while crying Throw Dirt enough on the Surplice and be sure some will stick call the signe of the Cross the Mark of the Beast tear in pieces their Liturgie and call it the Popish Mass-book Another Sect saying Bate them nothing and others Stand it out and yield to nothing with a deal more of this insignificant Jargon Who are well assured that if there be once a right Understanding and consequently a mutual Agreement betwixt the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties they must of necessity dwindle into their Original Nothing or like rotten Houses when the substantial Props they lean on are taken away moulter to dirt and bury themselves in their own Ruines Have a care therefore you warm not these Vipers any longer in your bosoms by espousing their Quarrels for if ever they come to be strengthned with power will turn their stings against their Nourishers as the Independents have done against you once already Object But the Covenant i. e. the Scotch Covenant say they wherein we have lifted up our hands to the most High makes it unlawful to hold Communion with any that use a Liturgy Answ I shall again make bold with Mr. Baxter for this reason that Lawyers affirm there needs no greater conviction of an Offender than the Confession of one of the Complices His words in answer to this Objection are these No man of us all hath need or ought to go to the Covenant to know what is his duty in the Worship of God but onely to the Scriptures for if Scripture make it not a duty the Magistrates Law will make it a sin and if Scripture make it not a sin the Magistrates Command will make it a duty And in p. 9. and p. 88. of his Defence of the Principles of Love resolves it thus To prefer no publick Worship or a worse before the Liturgie is deformation and prophaneness for all the reformed Churches in Christendom do profess to hold Communion with the Church of England in their Liturgie if they come amongst us where 't is used Therefore it seems to me to be Perjury and Covenant-breaking either to prefer no publick Worship before the Liturgie or to refuse Communion with the Churches that use it as a thing meerly on that account unlawful Consider further that your Separation savours of Novelty which among the Wise and Holy without any further aggravation renders it scandalous and our practice corresponds with Antiquity whose custom in the first and purest times was to pray by Forms Nay the Antients pronounc'd it a sin to do otherwise in their publick Devotions And though I urge not their Practices and Opinions as Principles of infallible verity
is Doctrinal Observation upon the fourth of St. John 22. Lecture the 36. That those Assemblies that enjoy the Word and Doctrine of Salvation though they may have many corruptions in them are to be acknowledged the true Churches of God and such as none of the faithful may make separation from I am almost assured they would think it little less than Sacriledge not to allow these men to be theirs and whether it be not an offence for those of a second Edition to make their practices clash with these allowed Doctrines let Conscience judge Onely give me leave to make this use of their Doctrine That 't is extreamly sinful for Presbyterians to separate from the Church of England their own celebrated Teachers being Judges Our blessed Saviour refused not to communicate with the Twelve though he knew one of them was a Devil nay he lived and died in Communion with the Jewish Church though 't was abominably corrupted and was so indulgent and graciously applicable to sinners that the Pharisees call'd him a Companion and Friend of Publicans and Sinners One reason why Christ would be baptized among the common sort is rendred by Spanheim to be that he might convince the World he was no Friend to those Opinions that debarred men from frequenting the means of their Salvation under the colour of their present unworthiness for he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance It is the works not the workers of darkness that the Apostle enjoyns us to have no fellowship with Judas his personal action in eating the Pascal Lamb was an abomination but it had no reflection on the Apostles that communicated with him for as their Faith and Piety did not sanctifie him neither did his iniquity defile them or hinder the benefit of their worthy receiving The Sons of Ely were practically vitious scandalous Sons of Belial 2 Sam. 12.29 yet the People that communicated with them were Gods people Scripture almost every where is loud in the commendation of unanimous Congregations but stigmatizeth the privacy of a disjoynted Separation Neither is it fit for you my dissenting Brethren to complain against our Parochial Communions for the detestation of our Offences is no Priviledge nor Plea before Gods dreadful Tribunal for the prosecution of your own though spun with a finer thread First cast out the beam that is in your own eye and then you may see clearer to take the mote out of your brothers eye Give me leave I pray you out of love to your Souls and the Church's peace to be plain with you for I must not I dare not flatter you by sowing Pillows under your Elbows and calling you pretious Souls Gods elect people and your lawless Meetings the Assembly of Saints until I have other proof of your immunity from the common Errours of others besides your own naked affirmations Do not delude your selves nor suffer your Hirelings to do it you are not better than others but are dayly convicted of Pride and Covetousness Envy Malice and Vncharitableness Dissimulation Lying Over-reaching and Hypocrisie to every discerning eye and the reason why it is no more notorious to the common view is you have learn'd the knack to indulge each other in your close iniquities to palliate your open wickedness and obscure your own Crimes by defaming others But were you as eminent Vessels of Honour as you would be thought to be yet you may not disdain those that are but of wood and stone as unworthy your Societies 'T is one of Machiavil's principles that who they stagger with one wrong they must utterly cast down with more which you make your practice if you endeavour not by uniting with us to ward off that blow that from the hand of our common Enemy is falling on us 'T would well beseem the goodness you pretend to return and strengthen us with your better Members if you have any such that we may be thereby enabled to mend what is amiss and bless God for the mercy of making men to be of one mind in a house and stilling the Outrage of an unruly Faction And I beseech God Almighty to endue us all with a sorrowful apprehension of all our Offences that our Parochial Assemblies may be more sober and devout and that your separate Churches may be more just humble and charitable that we may all study to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace all minding the same thing and that there may be no Divisions amongst us but that with one mind and one mouth we may serve the living God that his Name may be glorified our Sins purged all our Souls saved and avoid that wo that belongs to them that cause Divisions and Offences Ve Segregatori Wo be to them that separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit 5. Neglecting the service of God in the publick Offices of Religion under the fallacious pretext of being above those subsidiary helps or being better employ'd on the Lords day at home is a most injurious and scandalous offence Do you provoke the Lord to jealousie are you wiser than he that you usurp a priviledge of doing onely what is right in your own eyes in opposition to the all-wise commands of a Deity Many Opinionists have done wickedly but this in pride and ingratitude exceeds them all Wo be to him that is alone in the want of a spiritual Guide to correct his wandering and direct his feet in the right paths For so pernicious is an affected curiosity to be wiser than our Neighbours and Teachers that it forces men upon dangerous precipices to their destruction Whereas abiding in their Station with a meek and humble obedience in a plain and well-ordered Devotion would have made them better men if not more knowing Christians To decline offences to be careful and conscientious in our several actions is a purity that every man ought to strive after but to cheat the world into a belief that we do so onely by separating from our Brethren is a double iniquity You think you are above Ordinances but I doubt it is nothing but a wanton fastus and proud temper of spirit that makes you boast so and if your own arrogance and presumption would give you leave to lay aside the flattering glass of Self-love you would find you stood in greatest need of them Object But say they we can better employ our time at home and read good Books and better Sermons than our Ministers can make And in these studied Excuses take themselves to be no less zealous but onely more discreet than their Brethren who do not the like when indeed they are guilty of folly and wickedness Of folly in ascribing as great applause to our private Devotions which lose their vertue and have no promise of audience being done in opposition to God's publick Worship as the united Orisons of religiously disposed persons in Gods House of Prayer And of wickedness in offering Sacriledge for Sacrifice robbing God of
now therefore O ye Kings be learned ye that are Judges of the Earth It is with men as with fishes if the head begins to putrisy the body can be worth nothing if the head be sick what can the heart do but faint and the body but languish If a Ruler hearken to lyes saith Solomon all his servants are wicked And here turning our woe on the Romish and Factious Grandees that have hearkned to lyes and led people into mischievous inventions how are we bound to bless God for the upright and moderate sway the inoffensive and meek carriage of our Royal Head and his subbordinate Deputies whose very lives may as well silence a saucy Libeller as their authority But this word gives them another memento Authority hath a Sword in her hand and if she bear it in vain sin is heartned and offences given The old Gyants were called Nephilim Cadentes not as if they fell from Heaven but because other men asrighted with their grim looks were ready to fall down and swoon away Among us 't is rather the over gentle than the terrible Rulers are the right Nephilim that make men fall into a custome of sinning for as Moses Rod cast on the ground became a Serpent so the Rod of Justice that falls from the Magistrates hands for earthly respects what does it prove but a destroying a poysoning Serpent therefore is it good Counsel given by the Son of Syrac Let no man seek to be a Judge who is not able to take away iniquity lest at any time he fear the person of the mighty and lay a stumbling-block in the way of uprightness Honour on a Fools back is as Snow in Summer as Rain in the time of Harvest not onely unfit for himself but pernitious to others for as Summer-Snows corrupt the Fruits and Harvest-Showers rot the Corn so a weak Ruler is the spoil of a Country And though we may thank God that even this way we are better provided yet our Saviours Item like Philip's boy may stand for a Remembrance when sin and partiality would get admission Voe Rectoribus wo be to the exalted man by whom the offence comes And now if oyled Paper would be writ on I could try the Rich of this world how prone they are to scatter Offences as St. Paul says They faâ—… themselves into divers snares and temptations and bring others into the same trap Riches in the Hebrew Dialect have a name that implies Stability they are called Jechum as if they made a man to stand sure but if they make our selves stand and others fall what are they but unrighteous Mammon Our Saviours Churl was arrayed in Purple which is a bloudy colour and how many of our great mens Robes are dyed in the bloud and wrack and offensive spoil of their poor Neighbours yea in the pillage of the Temples How many of these dry Nurses have Breasts great enough but yield no Milk for the Babes of Christ whose houses stand like Beech-trees onely for Beasts and Drunkards to be sheltered under or like Oaks of Bashan as the Prophet speaks that have nothing but A corns for a few Swine while the poor and indigent are deni'd sitting relief and forced to rob pilfer and offend God if not to challenge him of unjust partiality 2. 'T is another offence I take it in men of Quality that many of them are become the Patrons of Schism and instead of their true Mistriss that heavenly and religious Wisdom that is both pure and peaceable like Errant Knights in the Pores legend have embraced an ugly Witch with her angry and fantastical face the masked Hypocrisie of cunning Zealots that such men whom our Pulpits have spewed out for retaining their old Principles of Disobedience Tumult Schism or Heresie shall by these great ones be hug'd and listened to as the onely Oracles of Infallibility O how they bless and admire themselves and are proclaimed by others as the grand Sticklers of their Party because they have a Nonconforming Levite to their Priest Is not this an offence that you that impose Laws upon us are the first breakers of them your selves and think you do God good service while you fight against him in disturbing the peace of the Church and Kingdom Ubi sublimior praerogativa ibi major culpa Salvian lib. 4. de gubernat Dei Combustible matter is not more incident to ruine by its vicinity to the flames than your inferiours are by tracing your steps You know well the honour and respect that belongs to your qualities cannot exempt you from the common Obligation and Law of Religion but the greater your persons are the more enforcing is your interest to be religious because your Examples are more leading and influential Be not I beseech you the Ring-leaders into Schism but be Followers of solid Piety and sincere Religion for this will adorn your bearings and ennoble your Souls and Names in the lasting Records of Heaven And on the contrary wo be to them that adde fuel to the fire of Dissention Voe diviti Wo be to the man by whose abused riches or honours the offence comes 3. 'T is a great exemplary offence in the judgment of all the sober and unprejudiced world that our Nonconforming Brethren give in separating from the Church of England because in our publick Service we use Set Forms of Prayer and because they think themselves innocent though but for the advantage of accusing us first â—s laying these stumbling-blocks in thâ— way to Peace and Vnity I shall takâ— off this Sanctimonious Vizor madâ— onely to startle the unwary admirers that gaze on the outside onely and make it appear to all that are not guarded with the Shield and Buckleâ— of Irrationality That they themselves are the men by whom the offence comes And that I may leave them without quarrel I shall make them both Judge and Party and endeavour to convict or acquit them by a Jury of their own packing and their own Creatures being Judges This makes Religion contemptible saith Mr. Baxter when we are perceived to place Religion in unwarrantable Separations and affected Singularities from a true Church and have no other pretence but that they pray by a Book and we pray without one These are the Complaints that make our Houses and Streets ring that our Governours are Persecutors because they would compel you to hear a man that is Conformable and pray with such as use the Liturgie and communicate with a Parochial Congregation These are the no Crimes you charge on the Churches score and the foundation on which you build the Wall of Separation and estrange your selves from the best Church in the world But how you will answer this to God Almighty in the Great and Terrible Day is my wonder and astonishment And therefore entreat you to consider whether these are sufficient causes to make Rents and Divisions in the Church and raise Contentions and Heart-burnings amongst those which agree in all fundamental truths No