Men stupid and foolish that they may the better Lord it over them as besotted Vassals It cannot invite or ingage any to its Side by â—arnal allurements and provisions made for â—he lusts of Men. The making of such Provisions would extinguish its life and power and bring forth a spurious carnal Brood that always with deadly hatred pursues its true Proâ—essors It cannot lift up it self by serving the deâ—â—gns and lusts of earthly Potentates though it â—ives them their due honour to the full yet it â—empts them not by flattery to think of themselves above what they are nor doth it proâ—itute its Sacred Rules to patronize any enorâ—ities in their Conversations or political Adâ—inistrations It cannot subdue a People and hold them unâ—er by armed violence and usurpation for his were to subvert it self and undermine its â—wn foundation which is truth meekness and â—â—ghteousness It seeks not by any irregular motions to perâ—rb a settled State though adverse and injurious to it It cannot enter into the recesses 〈◊〉 wicked Policy its principles will not bear 〈◊〉 out in the cunning and close ways of dishonâ—… sty It abhors such ingagements as draw oâ—… necessity of proceeding in unrighteous or daâ—… gerous Counsels and especially such iniquiâ—… as would not pass away in a transient action but would hold up a lasting usurpation or iâ—… jury to its perpetual reproach and repugnanâ—… to it self It neither hath nor in human judgment 〈◊〉 like to have the sufficiency of an arm of Flesâ—… or worldly Puissance for its intrinsick and aâ—… biding strength untill it comes in a more exâ—… tensive power and more ample victory that hath been yet manifested in the World Thâ—… mutable Advantages of certain times and occaâ—… sions are but loose and hollow ground and nâ—… settled foundation for it to build upon It is not furthered by a course of subtilties and of intricate and cloudy projects which be get suspition of evil but by an openess an frankness of dealing in all certainty and clearness For in it self it is clear as the Sun anâ—… regular and certain as the ordinances of Heâ—… ven or the Motions of the Celestial Bodies Whatsoever degree of obliquity or uncertainty happeneth to it is only extrinsical proceeding from Mens corruptions and frailties who neâ—… ther are can be here absolutely exact and perfect in it It rejects the fury of passion bitterness clamours wrath tumult and all outrage In a word it can admit nothing that is inconsistent with intire honesty And it is not weakened by this strictness For Truth is great and powerfull and by a weak and gentle yet sound and solid manifestation of it self it maintains a conquest answerable to its own condition in this present World CHAP. XVIII The Interest of true Religion lies much in its venerable Estimation among Men. A Corrupt state of Religion nourishing Pride and Sensuality and yielding it self managable to the designs of Men after the course of the World is commonly upheld by an arm of Secular power which by ways of its own it can make sure to it self But pure Religion abhorring base compliances and residing in the hitherto lesser number that walk in the narrow way is not so well suted for a settled and continued potency in that kind Wherefore by how much the more it fails of an assurance of worldly Power and Greatness by so much the more it needs the advantage of venerable estimation for its own intrinsick excellence A desire of vain glory and an ambitious catching at the praise of Men is opposite to this interest and destroys the ends thereof But because things that appear not are of the same reason with things that are not in regard of influence upon the minds of Men Christianity should be made appear to be what it is indeed that it is not a meer Idea in the imagination or intellect but a wisdom and power that may be practiced and its glory is displaid in a Life of integrity purity and charity by the brightness of which graces in the primitive Times it became illustrious and was exalted over all the learning and vertue and potency of the Heathen World in such an Age as had all civil disciplines in their perfection and it is never so much indangered as when the sanctity of its Professors is fallen or exposed to scandal Eminent Holiness is after miracles the next great testimony to the truth and is now in the room of Miracles and its influence is very powerfull Wheresoever it is it invigorates others of this Fellowship that are near it and it commands aw and reverence from all Men. T is a great happiness when Persons indued herewith are in proportionable number fixed like stars of the first magnitude throughout the firmament of the Church when there are Men of strong Parts much prudence active spirits firm resolution who are filled with the Holy Spirit inflamed with love to God and devoted to seek the things that are Christs and fitted thereunto by real mortification and self-denial also when Persons of a lower sphere for the perfections of Nature or Learning have attained to a large measure of the primitive Spirit of Faith love meekness brotherly kindness and charity whereby they are made ready to every good work and provoke others thereunto As the eminent piety of some so the approâ—ed piety of the generality of serious Professors imports exceedingly to the reputation and reverence of true Religion The spiritual Man discerneth the excellency of the Divine life and the beauty of Holiness and the natural Man also can discern humility chastity temâ—erance patience charity integrity as things morally good and profitable to Men and by â—…ese things the truth is vindicated and mainâ—…ined To defile the purity of this Professiâ—… is to stain its glory and to stain iâ—s glory is 〈◊〉 render it weak and despicable None thereâ—…re may pass for the allowed Disciples of this â—ay but such as keep themselves pure from 〈◊〉 foul sins of Sensuality and from all palpaâ—… dishonesty Howbeit the lawfull favour â—…d assistance of any others may with due cauâ—… be admitted in its concernments A harmless life if barren and unprofitable is of little value in it self and also of little force to advance any Profession Nay a fruitless life is scandalous and unchristian They are the words of Christ herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples The root of such fruitfulness in good works is love out of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned to which belong those praises that it is the end of the Commandment and the fulfilling of the Law Now because they that walk circumspectly are often censured by the looser Sort to be uncharitable it doth the more concern them really to shew forth the laudible fruits of Charity and to maintain all good works before Men though not to be seen of Men and to hate narrowness of Soul and base selfishness What do ye more
communion with them all as far as Catholick Principles will give leave In pursuing the ends of this Interest there is no need of private or unauthorized Persons entring into such stated combinations and correspondences as the Jesuits and other Orders under the Papacy have setled in their Societies throughout the World For all Pious Christians are taught of God and have one Spirit touching the main of this design and are inclined to pursue the same with one accord And indeed so it is that only the sincere friends of truth men of upright hearts and humble spirits and honest lives will observe and follow the rules of this Interest And it sufficeth if they keep close to their common rule of Faith and Life and follow after the things that make for Peace and know the present state of Gods Israel and acquaint themselves with each other as opportunity of converse offers it self and so govern themselves and carry on the advancement of Religion by such honest and harmless means as need not shun the light but may stand before the face of all opposers CHAP. XXXII The Wisdom of the Higher Powers in promoting the Religiousness of their People THe advancement of true Religion is the interest of the Higher Powers if to maintain Gods honour and mans chief good be their interest and if the defying of God and the utter undoing of men be against it Yea if the Tranquility and Peace of Governours and the stability of Government be regarded human Wisdom will direct to promote that way which is no other than the exercise of a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man Godliness includes Prudence Justice Temperance Fortitude and all Goodness It is an internal Law effectually subduing them that have it to all external Laws that are just and good and the example of it goes far to the bettering of many others in things pertaining to humanity It is regular and harmonious in every part it leads to Order Peace and Unity and there is nothing in it inconsistent with right Policy It is the way of true Wisdom and apt to take most among the serious and well advised part of the People and when it hath taken hold of them it makes them Wise and Serious more abundantly It corrects rash rugged wrathfull and fierce natures and to say the least whatsoever turbulency may afterwards remain in such it makes them of far more sedate and castigate Spirits than otherwise they would be And though it doth not forthwith exterminate yet it so debilitates all Complexional Distempers that they cannot break forth into a course of mischief and ordinarily it works an evident notable change Of so great force is an attentive and active Conscience over all human passions And doubtless it is the strongest bond to hold Subjects in obedience to their Governours For the Conscientious are held in by the terrour of the Lord and the dread of the wrath to come besides the sense of mans wrath which they have in common with all considerate Persons Wherefore it is clearly the Princes Interest that his Subjâ—cts universally if it can be should be Religious and consequently it is the Wisdom of his Government to indeavour it as far as it is attainable And if he would bring them to such a state he is to take care to exalt Gods immediate Soveraignty over their Consciencies and under that Soveraignty to hold them in subjection to himself For where Conscience is not preserved in its awfull regard to Gods Law as its Supream rule true Religion is extinguished And they are the Patrons of Irreligion who propagate such principles as tend to alienate the Conscience from its true Soveraign and Proprietor and either to make it servile to those who have no just dominion over it or to debauch it into searedness or dead security One way most needfull and advantagious for preserving Gods Authority over Conscience is most effectually to bind Gods Laws upon the People and to order what things else are necessary for the due observation thereof and to lay no other yoke upon them in things pertaining to God And as this way imports much to the sincerity and reality of Religion so it doth no less to the keeping of Religious minds in unity For in what center will the judiciously Conscientious unite if not in the revealed mind and will of God as it is apprehended by them Will the injunctions of the Civil Magistrate or the Authority of Ecclesiastical Superiors better resolve the doubts of such men or silence their Disputes This is not urged to prove that Superiors can injoyn nothing in Religion but what is particularly before enjoyned of God or that the Consciences of Inferiors are not bound by their Commands in subordination to Gods Commands but only that they take the best course for the unfeigned Piety and truly Christian concord of their People that by their injunctions seek mainly to promote obedience to the Divine Laws and add no more of their own than what is clearly necessary thereunto And what more just and prudent course than to forbear things that are unnecessary and unserviceable to the promoting of Truth and Peace yet with a perplexity and a stumbling block an easie inlet to all dissolute or ductile Spirits and a bar against many of known sincerity and to use that moderation in the publick Rule and Standard which takes away or exceedingly lessens dissents and consequently the occasions of dissention The Spirit of Christianity forbids Christian Magistrates to destroy sincere Christians for their little differences and narrow principles in Forms of Church Order And no reason of State will oblige them to that severity how importunately soever some Interessed men may urge it Judicious charity or a prudent indulgence towards such cannot undermine Religion or the Civil State And a sound Ecclesiastical Polity set for the increase of true Godliness will receive no dammage by it but it will rather gain upon those Dissenters and if their scruples be not removed it shall abide firm and stable and grow in strength by the reputation of its own goodness and sufficiency in that it is not hazarded or impaired by this charity and forbearance The Higher Powers by granting some limited liberty do more universally protect the faithfull and having no interest in competition with the advancement of Christs Kingdom are able and wise enough to provide against any dangerous inconveniencies The bounds and rules of this indulgence are not so undiscoverable as to make it a vain proposal yet it is but an idle demand of those that require an enumeration of all particulars than which nothing more or less may be tolerated in any case All particularities in any human affairs are not easie nor necessary to be known at one view nor are they so fixed but they may admit considerable variations according to the different state of things There be general rules of Prudence that are a sufficient indication of what ought to be done at any
her own estate On the other hand it is most evident that a Rational Conscientious and truly Pious Concord among such Christians as know and care what they believe can never be procured without avoiding the imposition of things unwritten and unnecessary in which it is morally impossible for men of sound faith and good conscience generally to agree But when necessary things only are injoyned their weight and truth will soon be known and owned of all honest minds or at least are most likely so to be and much sooner and easier than the weight and truth of little and doubtfull things and by this means they would more easily move with joynt consent in one Godly order the matters of their difference being before hand taken out of the way This moderate course being held the union of unseigned faith and love will become a sure foundation of true Christian concord with sound judgment and good conscience and do that for the suppressing of Schism in the right state of Christianity which implicit faith and blind obedience doth in false corrupt and Antichristian State Here it is mainly requisite that those things that most promote or hinder the New birth and Spiritual life be by Pastors and people universally most regarded and those that make little for or against the same be looked upon as of little moment And the truth is when the greatest and weightiest matters are duely prized and most contended for contentions about little things will soon expire And if this course be taken hypocrites will lose their advantages of seeming Religious by zeal for those things wherein Religion doth not consist and carnal designs and interests that now rend the Churches and trouble all things would be defeated and abandoned Moreover to maintain peace they that Rule had need consider what mistakes and weaknesses are competible to true Believers and sometimes to the best and choicest of them that they might not bear too hard upon them And they that are ruled must consider that the best polity or Constitution so far as it is of mans regulating hath defects and inconveniences and affairs will be complicated and therefore they must not be too unyielding but bear with what is tolerable and not easily remediable though they may not in any wise do a sinfull act or omit a duty in the season of it For by want of such forbearance they may sooner destroy the good part than mend what is amiss It is not seldom in such cases that men seek remedies that prove worse than the disease If the healing of breaches require an yielding or receding from what hath been stood upon it should be on that part where equity and necessity declares it should be It is not so easie for every Christian to resolve what is right in many opinions and usages as for those in power to omit the inforcing of them Unnecessary injunctions may easier be parted with than mens judgments can be altered or their doubting consciences well setled This tenderness and forbearance is no lessoning of the Church ' s honour and power And a little diversity iâ— little things cannot rationally move derisiâ—… in the irreligious nor justly give scandal to any But there be things of that slightness that an over-precise and importunate unifoâ— mity in them may occasion contempt and suspition of hypocrisie or superstitious folly Unity of faith and life is the glory of the trâ—… Church and uniformity in external order is 〈◊〉 be indeavored with Sobriety and is best effecteâ— by cutting off superfluous institutions and lay ing no greater burden on the faithfull thaâ— things necessary And this pacifick state may bâ— as well hoped as wished for if the Guides oâ— the Church would seek the things of Christ morâ— than their own things But alas the usurpations and impositions oâ— proud and selfish men even in pretence oâ— suppressing Schism have hindred Christiaâ— people from uniting in the true center of unity which is Jesus Christ as set forth in the doctrinâ— of the Apostles and Prophets and which 〈◊〉 the same yesterday and to day and for ever In deed they that prevail by power to advancâ— their own devised ways and crush Disenters may make a desolation and then call it peace anâ— union but it is not the peace of Christs Kingdoâ—… Divisions are caused by men of corrupâ— minds and partly by the weakness of Good men ascribing too much to their own apprehen sions and inclinations and not considering thâ— condition of others as their own nor minding the necessity and usefulness of lawfull compliance or of mutual forbearance and discention CHAP. XI A good frame of Ecclesiastical Polity THe promoting of true Christianity and all the things before named pertaining to the sound state of Religion depends much upon a good frame of Ecclesiastical polity Undoubtedly our Lord Jesus Christ hath appointed Spiritual Officers to guide and rule his Church and in the government thereof there be some things of divine right and unalterable by the will of man and there be many things necessary to the support and due managment thereof that are of humane determination as to the particulars Both kinds are liable to depravation and great abuse Things of divine right may be corruptly managed and perverted to wrong ends And things of mans appointment are sometimes not only ill managed but ill ordained as being wholly incongruous and perhaps pernicious to the right ends of goverment Now a good polity is the whole compages of things laid together in the fabrick of the Church fitted and directed to promote the Christian life or the power of Godliness and to prevent or remedy the decay thereof And the more notably and powerfully conducible it is to this end it is by so much the more excellent According to this rule it hath most regard for sincere Christians and insists most upon their incouragement and the increase of their number and it makes all its external orders and interests subservient to the prosperity of the Church regenerate The order wherein it excells is an orderly management of those things which are of divine Command in matter of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Conversation in such manner as is most effectual for the obtaining of their ends by such necessary rules of Prudence as are requisite in all Human actions It prefers purity and spirituality before external pomp though it neglects not those necessary decencies and Ornaments that should attend the Service of God according to the awfull regard that is to be had thereto and the reverend demeanor to be used therein It provides able Ministers of the Gospel and that every Pastor be resident with his own Flock and that he duly feed them and labour in the Word and Doctrine and that the People be not left in the hands of a Mercenary procured at the cheapest rate It provides by a liberal maintenance worthy endowments and priviledges for that meet support and honour of the ministery which is requisit to preserve the
Faith in Christ or to the profitable use of those Ordinances whereof they would partake or by publick tryal can be evicted in their deeds to deny Christ to whom they profess subjection or be guilty of such scandalous enormity or disobedience as is reproachfull to the Christian Name It is likewise to be considered that Discipline is a work of time and that People are to be brought on by degrees when they have lain long undisciplined For a Nation is not born in a day Right Ecclesiastical Discipline grates hard upon Mens corruptions and stirs up many nemies Likewise the civil Powers are often jealous of it lest it should move excentrick to their motions Therefore being a tender point it requires so much caution as nothing more Cogent reason persuades those that are herein concern'd most willingly to put themselves under the regulation of the civil Magistrate and to contain themselves within all tolerable limitations prescribed by him I mean such as defeat not the ends of Discipline and by clear and moderate actings within their own sphere to render their Office less invidious CHAP. XXVI Of Submission to things imposed by lawfull Authority WHosoever duly prizeth the publick peace of his own liberty for publick service will consider the utmost lawfull boundary of Submission to things imposed by lawfull Authority that nothing possible to be done be left undone But what is sinfull â—…s in a moral sense impossible We may not â—…ie for God Nothing erroneous may be asserâ—ed nothing simply evil may be admitted in our own practice But in an established Church not infected with Heresie or Idolatry nor defective in any vital part of Religion it is duty to bear with much that we conceive to be amiss in others practice to which we make not our selves accessary by neglecting any means of redress within our Power and Calling Yea being constrained by others rigor we may stoop to the use of some things which profit little if they be not simply evil nor by an evil consequent destructive to the main Service to which they are superadded The yoke of such subjection may cause grief of heart but doth not wound the conscience Indifferent things are not made unlawfull meerly by being injoyned and it is necessary that some things indifferent in specie should be determined for orders sake But forasmuch as things not in themselves unlawfull may some times be so pernicious in their consequents aâ— by a vehement appearance of evil to draw others into sin and by a strong tendency to evil to lead and settle them in a way that is not good I dare not say that the latitude of conformity to things in their own nature indifferent is unlimited Rulers have received their power of Injoyning and subjects their liberty of conforming for edification and not for destruction In a case of this nature we are led on to consider whether the scandal of compliance with things indifferent in themselves but of harmfull consequence be not of lesser moment than the scandal and misery that may follow upon non-compliance Though of things simply evil neither may be chosen yet of things evil only in their consequents either the one or the other inevitably coming upon us that must be chosen upon which the lesser evil follows Peradventure the scandal of Submission may be overballanced by the apparent consequence of a more important good by which also it may in time be quite removed The wisdom of the Prudent must herein direct their way Though the Ruler be judge of what rules he is to prescribe yet the conscience of every Subject is to judge with a judgment of discretion whether those rules be agreeable to the Word of God or not and so whether his Conformity thereto be lawfull or unlawfull Otherwise he must act upon blind obedience and might be excused in doing things either simply evil or pernicious in their consequents A general certainty that Rulers must be obeyed in lawfull things is no security to the conscience for Obedience to this or that Injunction when we doubt of the Lawfulness of the thing injoyned For we cannot be sure that obedience in this case is a duty and not a sin because we are sure it is a sin to obey in things unlawfull and such the thing now in question is or may be for ought that we discern and our ignorance cannot change Gods Law Therefore the doubtfulness of the thing it self makes the obligation to Obedience likewise doubtfull And perhaps the danger may be greater on the part of obeying than refusing For possibly the injunction of an heinous sin may be the matter of the uncertainty and in this strait we apprehend it more unsafe and less excusable to choose the greater before the lesser sin on which side soever it be though indeed it be lawfull to choose neither Indeed it is much easier for Rulers to relax the strictness of many injunctions about matters of supposed convenience than for Subjects to be inlarged from the strictness of their judgment And blessed are they that consider Conscience and load it not with needless burdens but seek to relieve it iâ— its distresses And as this forbearance and tenderness iâ— Superiors is the praise of their Government and advanceth peace and concord so doth moderation and a submissive disposition commend Inferiors and much advantage their godly zeal For it stops the mouths of clamourous Men it obviates the ensnaring designs of adversaries and it gives greater boldness in contending for weightier matters Howbeit sometimes that submission which all circumstances considered both Prudencâ— and upright Conscience declareth necessary may be liable to a reproach as a matter of temporizing The truth is a Ministers reputation is of great moment to the ends of his Ministery and he is not to be blamed that is loth it should suffer shipwrack and an appearance or suspition of time-serving doth greatly indanger it If a man should forbear some compliances which he clearly foresees will bring him into a vehement suspition thereof in Charity it should be taken not for an undue valuation of his own credit but for a tender regard to the honor of the Gospel When an exalted Party shall set themselves to profligate the credit of those that are brought under by constraining them to such Compliances they have more regard to their own particular triumph than to the honor of the common Faith and all true Religion which is by this means exposed to the contempt of the irriligious as if it were meer hypocrisie and matter of interest on all sides As for Inferiors in this case they are in a strait between â—wo and which way can they turn themselves â—o avoid-all inconveniences For the same â—ersons that reproach them as temporizing would in case of non-submission clamour against them as humorous and factious Herein I shall offer the aptest remedy I know â—amely neither in word nor deed to abandon or disown the Truth and in these burdensom yet not unlawfull compliances
unnecessary things if they be not in themselves unlawfull nor of mischievous consequence may be of Gods allowing as to the submitters Thereupon they are guilty of Schism who meerly for the sake of those unnecessary things yet lawfull as to their use though wrongfully urged upon them forsake the communion of the Church or their Ministerial station where things are well settled as to the substantials of Religion and the ends of Church order and when they themselves are not required to justifie the imposing of such unnecessaries Here I speak of contumacious refusers who will rather make a breach than yield But refusers out of conscience believing or with appearance of reason suspecting the said lawfull things to be unlawfull are either accquitted from Schism or guilty but in a low degree and much less culpable than the Imposers who might well forbear to impose Be it here noted that when Superiors sin in commanding a thing exempt from their authority it may be the Subjects duty to observe the thing commanded In this case the said observance is not an act of obedience for that can arise only from the Rulers authority to command But it is an act of prudence equity and charity and it is good and necessary for the ends sake and in that regard t is an act of obedience though not to the Earthly Ruler yet to God who commands us to follow Peace and maintain Unity in all lawfull ways and means In the judgment of the Apostle it is no slight matter to act against conscience rationally doubting or suspecting a breach of Gods Law Rom. 14. 5. Let every man be fully persuaded in his mind v. 14. To him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean ver 23. He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin The command of Rulers is no good security for acting against a rational doubting conscience When I am in doubt touching the lawfulness of the thing injoyned I have no certainty of being on the safer side by complying with Rulers For though in general obedience to Rulers be a certain Duty yet in the particular doubted case I cannot be certain that my compliance is right and warrantable obedience and not a breach of Gods Law Is it plain that I ought to obey the commands of Rulers in things that have Gods allowance so t is as plain that I ought not to obey their commands in things which God hath forbidden Moreover it is as plain that I ought not to act against my own conscience which as being the discerner of the will of God concerning me is of right the immediate director of my actions Indeed my conscience cannot alter Gods Law or make that which God hath made my duty to be not my duty yet it will not suffer me to act in disconformity to its directions Seeing the Unity of the Spirit is always in conjunction with Faith and Holiness to which the Unity of external order is always to be subservient it follows that when Unity of external order doth not tend to advance but hinder sound Faith and true Holiness then a false Unity is set up and the true Unity is abandoned and divisions and offences are caused And it is no Schism but a duty not to adhere to a Unity of external order so set and urged as that it tends to the destruction or notable detriment of Faith and Holiness which are the end of all Church Order The means are good in reference to their end and must never be used in a way destructive to it Of the hinderance of the said ends there be these following instances Here laid down in general without intendment of particular application to any Churches now in being which are left to be tryed and judged by that rule by which all must stand or fall 1. When a Church or Churches a Congregation or Congregations have an establishment of external Polity and an ordained Ministery and a Form of Divine Worship but are destitute of such Ministers as are qualified to feed the Flock and are burdened with such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of Souls committed to them who are either unable to teach or teach corruptly either teaching corrupt Doctrine or abusing mishandling and misapplying sound Doctrine to encourage the Ungodly and discourage the Godly 2. Where there are some Ministers able and apt to teach and duly qualified but their number is in no wise proportionable to the number of the People and there be multitudes that cannot have the benefit of their Ministery so that if they have no more placed among them than those few they have in effect none 3. Where sincere Christians or credible Professors of Christianity are cast out of an established Church by wrong sentence or are debarred from its communion by unlawfull terms injoyned them or unnecessary terms which are to them unlawfull by real doubts of conscience and which Christ hath not authorized Rulers to injoyn as terms of Church communion 4. When Ministers whom Christ hath furnished and called are driven out of their publick station by unlawfull terms injoyned or by terms unnecessary and to them unlawfull by real doubts of conscience and which Christ hath not authorized Rulers to injoyn as terms of the publick Ministery Upon the cases here mentioned I inquire whether the said Ministers and People may not draw together into new congregations Let it be considered whether the determinations of men may be a perpetual bar to true visible Christians it may be to multitudes of them against the injoyment of those most important priviledges to which God hath given them right Yea suppose their consciences were culpably weak in scrupling things imposed yet they may suffer wrong by such an excess of punishment as so great a deprivation And Christ doth not reject them for such weaknesses Let it be also considered whether such injured as Christians are wrongfully excluded from Gods Ordinances and such neglected Souls as are left destitute of the necessary means of Salvation may lawfully be deserted by Christs Ministers Should not the Stewards of the mysteries of God indeavour to supply what is lacking to such by reason of the rigourousness or negligence of others If it be said we may not do evil that good may come nor break the laws of Unity for such respects the answer is that this is not to do evil but a good work and a necessary duty and here is no breach of Unity that is of Gods making or allowing The necessary means of saving Souls are incomparably more pretious than uniformity in external accidental order especially when t is unwarrantably injoyned and attended with such evil consequents If within any local bounds assigned for the Pastoral charge of any Ecclesiastick the People be left destitude of competent provision for their Souls it is no intrusion or breach of Unity if an other Pastor perform the work of the Ministery within
Unity THe confused noise about Schism and the unjust imputation thereof that is commonly made hath greatly disordered the minds of many Some have been thereby swaid to an absolute compliance with the most numerous or the most prevailing Parties Others discerning the abuse of this name but forgetting that there is something truly so called have made light of the thing it self which is indeed of a heinous nature I have been engaged in this Disquisition by a deep sense of the evil of Schism and an earnest care of keeping my self from the real guilt thereof and what is here written I willingly submit to a grave and just examination Errare possum Haereticus Schismaticus esse nolo I am liable to Errour as others are but I am sure I am no wilfull Schismatick It is commonly given to men to pass a severe judgment upon every dissent from their own Opinions and Orders Whereupon as that hath had the character of Schism stamped upon it which is not such indeed so that which is Schism in a low and tolerable degree hath been aggravated to the highest and prosecuted against all rules of prudence and charity To make an equal judgment of the guilt of Schism in Persons or Parties the degree of the Schism is duly to be considered Our Saviour teacheth that reviling language contemptuous words and rash anger are breaches of the Sixth Commandment yet in degree of guilt they are vastly different from the act of wilfull Murther And indeed in the kind of delinquency here treated of there are as great differences of degrees as of any other kind The case of those that are necessitated to a non-compliance in some lawfull things by them held unlawfull yet seeking union would gladly embrace a reasonable accomodation is much different from theirs who upon choice and wilfully sever themselves because they love to be severed In like manner the case of those who desire and seek the conformity of others and would gladly have fellowship with them yet through misguided zeal are approvers of such unnecessary impositions as hinder the conforming of many is much different from theirs who designing the extrusion of others contrive the intangling of them by needless rigors Many other instances might be given to express the great disparity of cases in point of Schism all which may teach us in the estimate that we are to make thereof to put a difference between honest minds that by mistake are drawn into Division and those that out of their corrupt minds and evill designs do wilfully cause Division In many things we offend all and therefore it behoves us to consider one another as subject to the like errours and passions We should not judge too severely as we would not be so judged There be many examples of Schismatical animosities and perversnesses into which in the ancient times such Persons have fallen as were otherwise worthily esteemed in the Church Cyril with the greater number of Bishops in the Ephesine Council too rashly deposed John of Antioch and his Party of Bishops upon a quarrel that arose between them And John with his Adherents returning to Antioch did more rashly depose Cyril and his Party and yet both Parties were Orthodox and in the issue joyned in the Condemnation of Nestorius But the most remarkable instance in this kind is the disorderly and injurious proceeding of so venerable a Person as Epiphanius against so worthy a Person as Chrysostom to which he was stirred up by the instigation of that incendiary Theophilus of Alexandria The said Epiphanius goes to Constantinople and in the Church without the City held a sacred Communion and Ordained a Deacon and when he had entred the City in a publick Church he read the Decree made by himself and some others in the condemnation of Origens Books and excommunicated Dioscurus and his Brethren called the long Monks worthy and Orthodox men persecuted by the Anthromorphites And all this he did without and against the consent of Chrysostom the Bishop of the Place and in contempt of him I may further instance in the long continued division between Paulinus and Meletius with their Parties at Antioch though both of them were of the Nicene Faith likewise in the long continued Separation made from the Church of Constantinople by the followers of Chrysostom after his banishment because they were exasperated by the injuries done to their worthy Patriarch These weaknesses in good men of old times I observe not to dishonour them but that we may be thereby warned to be more charitable and less censorious towards one another in case of the like weaknesses and disorders and to be sollicitous to maintain Peace and to prevent discord among all those that are united in the substantials of Christian Faith and Practice and for this end to be more carefull in avoiding unreasonable oppositions unwarrantable impositions and all causless exasperations True Holiness is the basis of true Unity For by it the Faithfull cleave to God and one to another in him and for him and are inclined to receive one another on those terms on which God hath received them all And by it they are turned from that dividing selfishness which draws men into several or opposite ways according to their several or opposite ends Let not a carnal wordly Interest in a Church state be set up against Holiness and Unity Let the increase and peace of the Church visible be sought in order to the increase and peace of the mystical Let no one Party be lifted up against the common Peace of sound Believers and let not any part of the legitimate Children of Christs Family be ejected or harassed upon the instigation of others but let the Stewards in the Family carry it equally and so gratifie one part in their desired Orders that the other part be not oppressed Let not them be still vexed who would be glad of tolerable terms with their Brethren In Church-Governours let the power of doing good be enlarged and the power of doing hurt restrained as much as will stand with the necessary ends of Government Let the Discipline of the Church commend it self to the consciences of men Let the edge of it be turned the right way and its vigor be put forth not about little formalities but the great and weighty matters of Religion Zeal in substantials and charitable forbearance in circumstantials is the way to gain upon the hearts of those that understand the true ends of Church-government and what it is to be Religious indeed Let the occasions of stumbling and snares of division be taken out of the way and let controverted unnecessaries be left at liberty Discord will be inevitable where the terms of concord remain a difficulty insuperable The Conscientious that are willing to bid high for Peace cannot resign their consciences to the wills of men and humility and soberness doth not oblige them to act contrary to their own judgments out of reverence to their Superiors they cannot help themselves
but their Superiors may T is the Spirit of Antichrist that is fierce and violent but the Spirit of Christ is dovelike meek and harmless and that Spirit inclines to deal tenderly with the consciences of Inferiours Tenderness of conscience is not to be despised or exposed to scorn because some may falsly pretend to it The Head of the Church and Saviour of the Body is compassionate towards his Members and he hath said Whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea As the way of unity lies much in the wisdom equity and charity of Superiours so in the humility and due submission of Inferiours in their ready closing with what is commendable in the publick constitutions in their bearing with what is tolerable in making the best improvement of what is therein improvable for their own and others Edification in a word in denying no compliance which piety towards God and charity towards men doth not forbid Matters of publick injunction which Inferiors stick at may be considered by them either as in themselves unlawfull or as inexpedient Now it is not only or chiefly the inexpediency of things commanded but the supposed unlawfulness of divers of those things that the Nonconformists generally stick at whereof they are ready to render a particular account when it will be admitted Howbeit a question may arise about the warrantableness of submission to things not in themselves unlawfull but inexpedient especially in respect of scandal the solution whereof may be requisite for the clearing of our way in such things Upon this question it may be noted That in those cases wherein there is no right of commanding there is no due of obedience Nevertheless things unwarrantably commanded are sometimes warrantably observed though not in obedience yet in prudence as to procure Peace and to shew a readiness to all possible compliance with Superiors Moreover Rulers have no authority to command that which in it self is not unlawfull when Christian charity forbids to do it in the present circumstances by reason of evil consequents For all authority is given for Edification and not for Destruction Likewise our Christian liberty includes no Licence to do that act at the command of Rulers the doing of which in regard of circumstances is uncharitable But here it must be considered how far the law of charity doth extend in this case and when it doth or doth not forbid my observance of what the Ruler hath unwarrantably because uncharitably commanded True charity doth not wholly destroy Christian Liberty though it regulates the use thereof and it doth not extend it so far one way as to destroy it self another way If I am bound up from doing every indifferent thing at which weak consciences will take offence my liberty is turned into bondage and I am left in thraldom to other mens endless Scrupulosities This is I think a yoke which Christians are not fit nor able to bear This bondage is greater and the burden lies heavier upon me if by reason of others weakness I must be bound up from observing an indifferent thing at the command of Rulers and by them made the condition of my liberty for publick Service in the Church when my conscience is fully satisfied that it is lawfull and otherwise expedient for me to do it As for the warrantableness of enjoyning the Ruler must look to that Are some displeased and grieved that I do it As many or more may be displeased and grieved if I do it not Do some take occasion by my necessary use of a just liberty to embolden themselves to sin My forbearing of it may be an occasion of sin to others as their persisting in some troublesom Errour to their own and others Spiritual dammage and in unwarrantable non-compliance with their Governours And the loss of my liberty for publick Service consequent to such forbearance must also be laid in the ballance When both the using and forbearing of my liberty is clogged with evil consequents I know no safer way than duly to consider of what moment the consequents are on either side and to incline to that which hath the lesser evil Herein the Wisdom of the prudent is to direct his way upon the impartial view of all circumstances which come under his prospect And if good conscience and right reason guided by the general Rules of Gods Word lead me to make use of my Christian liberty in compliance with my Superiors I must humbly and charitably apply my self to remove the offence that some take by clearing the lawfulness and expediency of my act to their judgments But if that cannot be discerned by them I am by my Christian good behaviour to make it evident to their consciences what in me lies that what I do I do sincerely and faithfully and that I am no temporizer man-pleaser and self-seeker I humbly conceive that that high saying of the Apostle If meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no Flesh while the World standeth doth admit such equitable interpretation as the circumstances of time place person and the whole state of things declares to be most reasonable A humble representation of my own case touching the exercise of the Ministery I Have been in the Ministery near fourty years having been ordained Presbyter according to the Form of Ordination used in the Church of England And being called to this Sacred Order I hold my self indispensibly obliged to the work thereof as God enables me and gives me opportunity The nature of the Office is signified in the Form of Words by which I was solemnly set apart thereunto viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained And be thou a faithfull Dispenser of the Word of God and of his holy Sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen The former part of these Words being used by our Saviour to his Apostles in conferring upon them the Pastoral Authority fully proves that the Office of a Presbyter is Pastoral and of the same nature with that which was ordinary in the Apostles and in which they had Successours Likewise this Church did then appoint that at the ordering of Priests or Presbyters certain portions of Scripture should be read as belonging to their Office to instruct them in the nature of it viz. That portion of Act. 20. which relates St. Pauls sending to Ephesus and calling for the Elders of the Congregation with his exhortation to them To take heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers to rule the Congregation of God Or else 1 Tim. 3. which sets forth the Office and due qualification of a Bishop And afterwards the Bishop spake to them that were to receive the Office of Priesthood in this form
of words Ye have heard brethren as well in your private examination and in the exhortation and holy Lessons taken out of the Gospels and Writings of the Apostles of what dignity and how great importance this Office is whereto ye are called that is to say the Messengers the Watchmen the PASTORS and Stewards of the Lord to teach to premonish to feed to provide for the Lords Family I mention my Ordination according to the Episcopal Form because it is of greatest esteem with them to whom this Representation is more especially tendred Nevertheless I own the validity of Presbyterial Ordination and judge that Ministers so Ordained may make the same defence for exercising the Ministery in the same case that is here represented Christ is the Author and the only proper Giver of this Office and though he give it by the mediation of men yet not by them as giving the Office but as instruments of the designation or of the solemn investiture of the Person to whom he gives it As the King is the immediate Giver of the power of a Mayor in a Town Corporate when he gives it by the Mediation of Electors and certain Officers only as instruments of the designation or of the solemn investiture of the Person I am not conscious of disabling my self to the Sacred Ministrations that belong to the Office of a Presbyter by any Opinion or Practice that may render me unfit for the same Touching which matter I humbly offer my self to the tryal of my Superiors to be made according to Gods Word Nothing necessary to authorize me to those Ministrations is wanting that I know of I am Christs Commissioned Officer and I do not find that he hath revoked the authority which I have received from him And without the warrant of his Law no man can take it from me Nor do I find that the nature of this Office or the declared will of Christ requires that it be exercised no otherwise than in subordination to a Disocesan Bishop That I do not exercise the Ministery under the regulation of the Bishop of the Diocess and in other circumstances according to the present established Order the cause is not in me who am ready to submit thereunto but a bar is laid against me by the injunction of some terms in the lawfulness whereof I am not satisfied whereof I am ready to give an account when it is required I do not understand that I am under any Oath or Promise to exercise the Ministery no otherwise than in subordination to the Bishop or the Ordinary of the Place The promise made at my Ordination to obey my Ordinary and other chief Ministers to whom the government and charge over me is committed concerns me only as a Presbyter standing in relation to the Bishop or Ordinary as one of the Clergy of the Diocess or other peculiar Jurisdiction in which relation I do not now stand being cast out and made uncapable thereof Moreover in whatsoever capacity I now stand the said Promise must be understood either limitedly or without limitation If limitedly as in things lawfull and honest as I conceive it ought to be understood then I am not bound by it in the present case For it is not lawfull nor honest for me to comply with the now injoyned Conformity against my conscience or in case of such necessitated non-compliance to desist from the Ministery that I have received in the Lord. If it be understood without limitation it is a sinfull promise in the matter thereof and thereupon void Absolute and unlimited obedience to man may not be promised Let it be considered also that the objected promise could not bind me to more than the Conformity then required But since my Ordination and Promise then made the state of Conformity hath been much altered by the injunction of more and to me harder terms than formerly were injoyned When I was Ordained I thought that the terms then required were such as might be lawfully submitted to But young men such as I then was may be easily drawn to subscribe to things publickly injoyned and so become engaged before they have well considered The Ordainer or Ordainers who designed me to this Office of Christs donation and not theirs could not by any act of theirs lessen it as to its nature or essential state Nor can they derogate from Christs authority over me and the obligation which he hath laid upon me to discharge the Office with which he hath intrusted me That a necessity is laid upon me in my present state to preach the Gospel I am fully perswaded in regard of the necessities of Souls which cry aloud for all the help that can posibly be given by Christs Ministers whether Conformists or Nonconformists The necessary means of their Salvation is more valuable than meer external Order or Uniformity in things accidental I receive the whole Doctrine of Faith and Sacraments according to the Articles of the Church of England and am ready to subscribe the same I have joyned and still am ready to joyn with the legally established Churches in their publick Worship The matter of my sacred Ministrations hath been always consonant to the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches and particularly of the Church of England I meddle not with our present differences but insist on the great and necessary points of Christian Religion I design not the promoting of a severed Party but of meer Christianity or Godliness I am willing to comply with the will of my Superiors as far as is possible with a safe conscience and to return to my Ministerial station in the Established Churches may I be but dispensed with in the injunctions with which my conscience till I be otherwise informed forbids me to comply In the whole of my dissent from the said injunctions I can not be charged with denying any thing essential to Christian Faith and Life or to the constitution of a Church or any of the weightier matters of Religion or with being in any thing inconsistent with good Order and Government My Case as I have sincerely set it forth I humbly represent to the Clemency of my Governours and to the charity equity and â—â—â—â—â—r of all Christs Ministers and People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e I design to follow after the things which make for Peace and I hope I am not mistaken in the way to it I. C. FINIS Books lately Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside ONe Hundred of Select Sermons upon several occasions by Tho. Horton D. D. Sermons on the 4th Psal. 42. Psal. 51. and 63. Psal. by Tho. Horton D. D. A Compleat Martyrology both of Foraign and English Martyrs with the Lives of 26 Modern Divines by Sam. Clark A Discourse of Actual Providence by John Collings D. D. An Exposition on the 5 first Chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ by Charles Phelpes A Discourse of Grace and Temptation by Tho. Froysall The Revival of Grace Sacramental Reflections on the Death of Christ as Testator A Sacrifice and Curse by John Hurst A Glimps of Eternity to Awaken Sinners and Comfort Saints by Ab. Coley Which is the Church or an Answer to the Question Where was your Church before Luther by Rich. Baxter The Husbandmans Companion or Meditations sutable for Farmers in order to Spiritualize their Employment by Edward Bury Mr. Adams Exposition of the Assemb Catechism showing its Harmony with the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England The present State of New-England with the History of their Wars with the Indies Popery an Enemy to Truth and Civil Government by Jo. Sheldeck Spelling Book for Children by Tho. Lye Principals of Christian Religion with Practical Applications to each Head by Tho. Gouge Almost Christian by Matth. Mead. Godly Mans Ark by Edmund Calamy Heaven and Hell on Earth in a good or bad Conscience by Nath. Vincent Little Catechism for Children with short Histories which may both please and profit them by Nath. Vincent Ark of the Covenant with an Epistle prefixed by John Owen D. D. This Author hath lately Published this Book Intituled The Kingdom of God among men A Tract of the sound state of Religion or that Christianity which is described in the holy Scriptures and of things that make for the security and increase thereof in the World designing its more ample diffusion among professed Christians of all sorts and its surer propagation to future Ages Printed for Tho. Parkhurst