Hoc frater tuus Edvardus Angliae Rex praeclarissimus pro viribus sane prae quam ejus aetas pateretur facere studuit cujus regnum diutius extrahi peccata nostra ingratitudo intolerabilis non siverâ—nt eximias illius adolescentis virtutes egregiam pietatem Deus orbi tantum ostendere voluit deinde ut nos quemadmodum mala nostra merita exigebant aliquantulum castigaret illum e terra citius ad se revocavit The same your brother Edward the most renowned King of England did study to the utmost of his Power and beyond what his age would permit to doe whose reign our sins and most intolerable ingratitude would not suffer to continue longer over us God onely would shew to the World the singular virtues and most excellent Piety of that young man and then to correct us as our evil deservings did require he soon recalled him from this World to himself Judicious Mr. Hooker calls him Edward the Saint in whom it pleased God righteous and just to let England see what a blessing sin and iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy This rare and most excellent person God raised up to see this Book composed to establish it by regal Authority and then he was taken to his Crown of Glory 2. For the matter contained in that Book Sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what prophane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition Whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England and this by all reformed Churches is confessed to be most found and orthodox It casts out all false Doctrine and Worship and is of it self sufficient to confute a Papist and other the Enemies of the Protestant Religion It is fitted for all occasions and uses of the Church and comprehends the whole Duty of a Christian both for the credendis contained in the Confessions of Faith the faciendis in the ten Commandments and the petendis in the Lord's Prayer and others framed thereby 3. For the Confirmation of it it stands ratified and enjoined by the Laws Statutes and Sovereign Authority of five most prudent and pious Persons immediately Queen Mary a Papist onely interposing succeeding one the other on the English Throne sealed and confirmed by the bloud of so many Martyrs that suffered in those Marian days shortly after the composure of it and so written in the bloud of those that compiled it 4. For the approbation of it it is commended and allowed by the best Divines of the reformed Churches both at home and abroad Such as Cranmer Tayler Ridley Iewel Calvin Bucer and many others 5. Touching God's acceptance and owning of it the History of ages past and the strange providence of God in relation to the framing preserving blessing and restoring it do so evidently declare this that he seems to be very much darkned in his mind with prejudice that can deny or gainsay it Which grace and favour of Divine assistence having not in one thing or two shewed it self nor for some few days or years appeared but in such sort so long continued our manifold sins and transgressions striving to the contrary what can we less thereupon conclude than that God would at leastwise by tract of time teach the World that the thing which he blesseth defendeth keepeth so strongly cannot chuse but be of him Wherefore if any refuse to believe us disputing for it let him believe God himself thus miraculously working for it What I have said in commendation of this book amounts to no more than what the reverend Divines of the Presbyterian perswasion have been constrained to say of it even then when they were to make all the exceptions they could against it They say We have an high an honourable esteem of those Godly and Learned Bishops and others who were the Compilers of the publick Liturgy and do look on it as an excellent and worthy work 'T is true they add for that time But these words seem to me no way to abate or detract from the acknowledged excellency and worth of it For if it were an excellent and worthy work then what hinders but that it is so now Wherein doth the excellency and worthiness of any form of God's worship at any time consist but in its Conformity to the Scriptures which is the rule and measure of Divine worship at all times It could never be excellent and worthy that was at any time unlawfull and it could have been no otherwise had it been contrary to God's word And they that shall impartially reade the History and seriously consider the profound Learning clear Light admirable Piety incomparable Zeal Purity Patience Loyalty and all other Christian Graces and Virtues which did shine forth in those renowned Fathers and Martyrs the Compilers of that book cannot without blushing arrogate to themselves greaterâ— and higher attainments than they had Are the men of this age the onely Children of the light and were those Worthies one of whom prophetically said to his fellow-sufferer at the stake We shall this day light such a Candle by God's Grace in England as I trust shall never be put out but in the mist of Popish ignorance and superstition in comparison of us now Rather I think they ought to be acknowledged men extraordinarily filled with the Spirit of God Light and understanding and sound wisedom was found in them and in nothing did they come behind the very chiefest Servants of God in this generation We allow and confess them to have been men not onely profound in Learning but sound in the faith Orthodox in judgment yea the great assertours of the Protestant Religion and glorious instruments in the hands of God of causing that light of truth to break out of darkness by which we now walk and which we all profess How is it then that they who spent all their time studies and strength in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church and loved not their lives unto death but were slain for the word of God and testimony which they hold should be thought to retain any thing of Popish superstition in worship What is this but to condemn the generation of God's Children which cannot be well pleasing to their Father But what if it should be proved that the Liturgy of our Church was for the substance of it in use in the very first and purest times of the Church of Christ before ever Popish Superstition came into the World Then I hope it will be acknowledged to be free from that whereof it is secretly and most ignorantly charged But Godly and Learned Cranmer in Queen Mary's days who knew well what he said and was well able to make his words good offers to enter the lists with any Papist living for it had no other Enemy in those days
quietness which Christians are to study a manifest breach of this great Gospel-command and consequently inconsistent with the ordinance of God A Third Evangelical precept is that of our blessed Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe ye even so to them It is a principle both natural and divine enjoyned by our heavenly Law-giver as a ground and rule of all equity amongst men Lactantius thus comments on it Radix omnis fundamentum aequitatis est illud vide ut ne facias ulli quod pati nolis sed alterius animum de tuo metieris This is the root and foundation of all equity for a man to be carefull no to doe that to another which he would not suffer himself but to measure another man's mind by his own Now I appeal to the hearts and consciences of those Ministers that thrust themselves now into other mens Congregations and Parishes and there in private houses gather together a company of disciples and followers of the more giddy and unstable sort of People for such they are for the most part that not content with the publick labours of their own Pastors flock to private Conventicles and set up a course of Preaching and other Ministerial Acts whether if they were Pastors of Congregations as sometimes they were and had a charge of a flock of God's People committed to them for whose Souls they and none else must be accountable they would take it well or permit it if they could otherwise help it that a stranger should thrust himself into their Parishes and lead away a number of their People to private Assemblies in corners to a dependence on them for teaching and other duties which they obtrude upon them as the worship and service of God even to the forsaking and loathing of that which is publickly established for waiting on them in private And whether when those men were in their Pastoral charges and in the late time Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries did the like as they themselves now doe set up private Conventicles in several Towns and Parishes they did not account themselves much injured thereby and made their Pulpits sound loud against it nay oppose it by all means they possibly could Which is a truth sufficiently known to all that have been hearers of them or know their practices Neither will it suffice them to say those whom they then opposed were Persons heterodox in their judgments and corrupt in their opinions For 1. So may these House-creeping Preachers be also for ought any one knows If it be sound Divinity they Preach it is avowable and publication is a fair Argument of truth Truth seeks no corners it is onely ashamed to be hidden as the Sun to be clouded or eclipsed The desire of Secreâ—ie and Privacy renders their Doctrines suspicious of falshood and errour In the dark gross faults are not perceived and they are evil-doers onely that are said by our Saviour to hate the light While men doe nothing but well they need not conceal and hide their doings The very Heathen as a Divine of ours observes did worship their Gods sub dio without Roofs or Coverings in a free openness and where they could in Temples made with Specular Stone that was transparent as Cristal so as that they that walked without in the Streets might see all that was done within And even nature it self taught the natural man to make that an Argument of a man truly Religious aperto vivere voto that he durst pray aloud and let the world hear what he asked at God's hands which duty saith he is best performed when we joyn with the Congregation in publick Prayers St. Austin hath made that note upon the Donatists that they were clanculary clandestine Divines Divines in corners And in Photius we have such a note almost upon all Hereticks as the Nestorian was called Coluber a Snake because though he kept in the Garden in the Church he lurked and lay hid to doe mischief And truly so long as the Preaching of the Gospel is not persecuted and there is no prohibition to the contrary as sometimes there was it seems to me to be contrary to the very nature of it herein differing from the Law that it is not confined to any one Nation or Place nor is subject to bonds or restraint to be shut up in private houses and taught in secret and not rather to be published in Churches and open Places of free and common resort The command to the Apostles was Go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life And accordingly was their Practice Act. 9. 20. Act. 13. 14. 44. 'T is true the godly in times past had their private Meetings in Deserts Mountains Dens and Caves of the Earth But the case is not alike with us as with them The times then were of most bloudy Persecution when neither Preacher nor Professour escaped the Fire and therefore were enforced to conceal themselves and privately to enjoy those Comforts and discharge those Duties and Exercises of Religion which they could not publickly be suffered to doe But those who set up and frequent private Meetings now may enjoy the preaching and reading of the Word prayers to God confession of Sin profession of Faith and benefit of the Sacraments in the publick Assemblies of the Saints Yea they are not onely allowed but commanded by Authority so to doe but they will not Those Teachers then that in these Halcion days of the Gospel creep into corners to vent their Doctrines discover themselves to be either First Seditious and Schismatical seeking to make Parties and Divisions in the Church Or Secondly Proud and Arrogant preferring their own Opinions and Doctrines Assemblies and Persons before all other Or Thirdly False and Erroneous for all damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Perdition which pervert and destroy Souls are thus brought in underhand privily by such as creep into the Church of God by stealth At least they are destitute of that means of justification and defence of the truth which our Saviour Christ had and which all Christ's Ministers in a setled Church ought to have viz. to appeal to the publick Audience That which is publickly Preached may be proved and tryed but not so well that which is taught in obscurity 2. What the Judgments and Opinions of these Men have been and that in all those things wherein the Peace of the Church and the Salvation of Souls of Christians are concerned I mean the Doctrine Discipline and Worship as it stands established in the Church of England the World hath had sufficient knowledge and experience by the late bloudy Wars and Persecutions raised thereabout 3. Lastly The question is not as hath been said de facto what Doctrine these men deliver in their private Conventions but de jure what right they have to Preach any in other Mens Parishes as they doe Such a Person
ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the Laws of our Church now as hath been to the like Laws and Canons in former and purer times Especially if we enquire into these four things 1. What Power the Church hath to make Laws Canons and Constitutions 2. Who were the Authours and Composers of these of our Church 3. What is the subject matter of them 4. What hath been the judgment of Divines of unquestionable learning judgment and piety concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature Concerning the first That the Church hath a maternal power to decree and make Laws to bind all her children is such a clear truth as no sober person I think will question By Church I understand not all the number of the faithfull but those that have the lawfull rule and government of the Church Which is the sense that our Saviour Christ useth it in when he saith Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church for there is Ecclesia collectiva and Ecclesia representativa I take it in the latter sense By Laws I understand not any new Article of faith or any thing contrary to what God hath commanded in the holy Scriptures For it is a true maxim whoever was the Authour of it Potestas descendit non ascendit None have power in those things that are above them but in those things which are beneath them So the Church hath no power in those things which are above her but in those things which are below her Now all Doctrines of faith and other things already commanded of God are above the Church and out of her reach so that the cannot meddle with them by any Law de novo otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed But as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature serving to external order and decency in these she hath power to ordain and make Laws and Constitutions though not contrary to yet other than what are already made in God's word holding still as near as the can to the general rules of Scripture The doctrine of Salvation is always in all places the same and can never be changed But external rites and order are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place and the variety of the minds and manners of men The Church of the Jews had power of ordaining other things than what were expresly set down in God's word and that for perpetual observation She ordained the two days of Purim as perpetual festivals Moreover Iudas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained that the days of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu with mirth and gladness This feast was instituted by Iudas Machabeus and his brethren when Antiochus Epiphanes was expelled out of Ierusalem the worship of God restored and the Temple prophaned by the Heathen again consecrated which was about 167 years before the Coming of Christ. Which feast was yearly kept ever after and our Saviour Christ himself honoured it with his own presence And if the Jewish Church had that power why then hath not the Christian the like And that the Primitive Church of Christians had and did exercise the like power is plain to any that shall reade Act. 15. and 1 Cor. 11. Secondly The Authours and Composers of these Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical were the reverend learned and godly Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons and other Clergy-men of every Diocesee within the Province of Canterbury met together neither with multitude nor with tumult but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned by virtue of the King's Majesties Writ and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them So then the composers of those Canons were such persons as were ordained of God to rule the Church and to order what in their Wisedom should be thought convenient to whom in all things not contrary to God's will revealed in his word we are commanded obedience Luk. 12. 42. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Thirdly The subject matter of these Canons and Consitutions is of such things as concern External order decency and edification which God hath not particularly determined in Scripture but hath left to the rulers and governours of the Church to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the Apostle Let All things be done unto edifying and in order In which place those things that concern the external polity of the Church are generally expressed but the particulars are not mentioned but left to the wisedom and liberty of the Church Fourthly What have been the judgment of Divines of whose learning and piety and Church of God never yet since their times made the least doubt or question concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature They have always thought them sacred and venerable and their observation an act of Religion and Obedience to the general commands of God Instead of many take a few testimonies of Divines of the highest rank both foreign and domestick Two I shall quote out of learned Zanchy Quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum Sacris Literis aut saltem non sunt dissentaneae Eatenus verae sunt Ecclesiasticae eoque admittendae nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam So far forth as these Constitutions are agreeable with the Scriptures or at least not disagreeing with them so far forth they are truly Ecclesiastical and to be received and we owe reverence and obedience to them And he gives his reason in these words Si Consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo Dei qui illas rejicit verbum Dei rejicit Si non repugnant contemnit Ecclesiam Dei qui illas contemnit Contemptus autem Ecclesiae quam Deo ingratus sit apparet cum aliis ex locis Sacrarum Literarum ubi illam magnificat tum maxime ex Evangelio Mat. 18. 17. If those Laws are agreeable with the word of God he that rejecteth them rejecteth the word of God if they are not contrary to the word of God he that rejecteth them despiseth the Church of God and how odious a thing unto the Almighty it is that any should despise his Church as it appears in many places of Scripture where the Church is magnified so especially in Mat. 18. 17. whrere God hath commanded that that person should be accounted as an heathen man and a Publican who hears and obeys not the Church Hear the same Learned Authour again Credo ea quae a piis patribus in nomine Domini congregatis communi omnium Consensu citra ullam Sacrarum Literarum Contradictionem definita recepta fuerunt Ea etiam quanquam haud ejusdem cum Sacris Literis authoritatis A SPIRITV SANCTO ESSE Those things saith he which have been concluded and received by the Holy Fathers gathered together in the
Name of God agreed on by Common-consent and without any Contradiction of the Scripture although they are not of the same Authority with the Scriptures Yet I beleive even those things to be from THE HOLY GHOST Hinc fit ut quae sunt hujusmodi c. Hence it comes to pass that those things which are of this nature I neither will disallow nor dare I with a good Conscience Quis enim ego sum c. For who am I that I should dissallow that which the whole Church approves of So far that worthy Authour The next whose judgment in this case I shall produce is Mr. Calvin in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Corinthians Quinetiam hinc colligere promptum est has posteriores scilicet Ecclesiae Leges non esse habendas pro humanis traditionibus quandoquidem fundatae sint in hoc generali mandato liquidam approbationem habent quasi ex ore CHRISTI IPSIVS Where shewing the difference betwixt the tyrannical Edicts of the Pope and the Laws of the true Church in which discipline and order are contained he saith Whence it is easie to be gathered that the Laws of the Church are not to be accounted humane traditions seeing they are founded upon the general precept of the Apostle and have as clear an approbation as if they had been delivered from the mouth of Christ Himself For saith he elsewhere Dico sic esse humanam traditionem ut simul sit divina It is so an humane tradition as that it is also divine Dei est quatenus est pars deeoris illius cujus cura observatio nobis per Apostolum commendatur hominum autem quatenus simpliciter designat quod in genere fuit indicatum magis quam expositum It is of God fo far forth as it is a part of that order and decency the care and observation whereof is commanded and commended to us by the Apostle It is of men so far forth as it simply names or signifies that which was in general uttered rather that particularly expounded Take a third testimony from that burning and shining Light of the French Church Licet quae a regia aliis Legitimis petestatibus rite praecipiuntur sunt de jure positivo quod tamen illis postquam ita constitutae sunt pareatur est de jure divino cum Legitimae potestates omnes a Deo sint Deique vices in suo ordine teneant dumque illis obedimus eorumque praecepta observamus Deo pariter in illis paremus Deique praeceptum voluntatem exequimur Although those things which are commanded by the King's Authority or other lawfull Powers under him are of positive right Yet it is of divine institution that we should obey them in those things which they command seeing all lawfull Powers are of God and supply the place of God in their several orders Therefore while we obey them and keep their Commandments we obey God in them and so fulfill the Will and Command of God Learned Beza shall be the next that shall give in his verdict to this truth Nam etsi Conscientias proprie solus Deus ligat c. For although God alone can properly bind the Conscience yet so far as the Church with respect to order and decency and thereby to Edification doth rightly enjoyn or make Laws those Laws are to be observed by all pious persons and they do so far bind the Conscience as that no man wittingly and willingly with a purpose to disobey can either doe what is so forbidden or omit what is so commanded without Sin To these above named add we in the last place the verdict of our own learned and judicious Mr. Hooker To the Laws saith he thus made id est according to the general Law of Nature and without contradiction to the positive Law of Scripture and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosome of that Church must not think it a matter of indifference either to yield or not to yield obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My son keep thy Father's Commandments saith Solomon and forget not thy Mothers instructions bind them both always about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty we owe to our heavenly Father that to the ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew our selves disobedient Let us not say we keep the Commandments of one when we break the Laws of the other For unless we observe both we obey neither And what doth let but that we may observe both when they are not one to the other in any sort repugnant Yea which is more the Laws of the Church thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him Thus far that most judicious Authour Yea one of the reformed Churches have put it into their very Confession That those Laws of the Church deserve to be esteemed divine rather than humane Constitutions From all which it appears that Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions are not merely man's Laws but God's also both because they are composed and framed by those Fathers by divine Authority and have their general foundation in Scripture and also because they are ordained for the Glory of God for Edification order and decency of the Church and the better fulfilling and keeping the Laws of God For as we have a Command from Christ to tell the Church when any one is refractary and perverse So have they which are complained of to the Church that Command from Christ also to hear the Voice of God in the Church and in disobeying the Church they disobey God And if Children and Servants are bound by the Law of God to obey their Parents and Masters in all things that are reasonable honest and just and in their obedience they obey and serve God himself Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 20. 24. Tit. 2. 9. 10. then it can be no less pleasing to God that Christians who live in the bosome of the Church should be obedient and conformable unto the lawfull Precepts and Constitutions of their spiritual Mother the Church of Christ and the Rulers thereof It is very truly said by Calvin Semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa A frowardness and aptness to quarrell with the proceedings of the Church is accompanied with ambition and pride It is not because the Church takes too much power on her but because they would be under none It is ambition to have all Government in their own hands that is the Cause why some will not be subject to any All which hath been said of this matter is agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church of England who in her twentieth Article saith The Church hath power to decree and make Laws So in her 34th Article That whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the word of
Christ to become followers of him Then amongst others as they were added to the Church they were called by the word witness that great work of conversion wrought by the Ministry of St. Peter At one Sermon three thousand were severed from the rest of the world and added to the Church Next for the Sacraments these rightly administred are certain marks of a true Church for they are the Seals set by God to his word the signs of his Covenant whereby he binds himself to be our God and receives us to be his People They are sure pledges of his love to us which we really have till we come actually to be possessed of perfect holiness and glory with Christ Whilst we have these blessed ordinances of his amongst us his word truly preached and his Sacraments rightly administred it is not the rash censure of a few giddy heads that can unchurch us If they say we are a true Church then God is ever with us Es. 45. 14. in our assemblies at all times and in all parts of his worship Lo I am with you always to the end of the world Anâ— I will dwell in theâ— and walk in them and will be their God and they shall 〈◊〉 my People Thence the Holy Ghost iâ— Scripture calls the Church his house the dwelling place of his Name thâ— place where his honour dwells the Presence Chamber of the great King c. And as the glory of the Lord did Sensibly appear in the Tabernacle Exod. 40. 34. and in the Temple 1 kings 8. 10. So doth it now in our Church-assemblies as really and truly though not as visibly as then For if the Ministration of Death was glorious how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be glorious If the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory If that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Now if God be present with and in our assemblies how dare any that are or ought to be Members thereof absent themselves Dare ye to withdraw at any time from God's presence whose face at all times ye are commanded to seek I speak not of his omnipresence in regard of the immensity of his essence which fills all places God fills every place and fills it by containing that place in himself But I speak of that special presence which he hath promised to afford to his Church manifesting himself in that place and assembly more graciously than elsewhere If then we retain our Conjunction with Christ why do ye refuse Communion with us May we not therefore justly charge you as guilty of making a Schism in the Body of Christ That we may by your own Doctrine For say the Presbyterian Divines If the Apostle calls those divisions of the Church of Corinth wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations of several Communions in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Schism 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us and profession that ye cannot joyn with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism And presently after they distinguish out of Camero of a twofold Schism negative and positive The former is when men do peaceably and quietly draw from Communion with a Church not making a head against that Church from which they are departed The other is when persons so withdrawing do consociate and draw themselves into a disitinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church which Camero calls Schism by way of Eminency Now if this were true Doctrine in those days against those who were then concerned in it I know no reason why the space of a few years should so alter the case but that it is as true now against themselves who now doe what they then condemned in others viz. not onely withdraw from our publick assemblies but set up Church against Church And therefore to use their own words Ye must not be displeased with us but with your selves if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism And that is no small fault in the judgment of any sound Divine but a far greater than the fault upon which they pretend separation The things for which they make a rent are not so great a fault in the Church as the want of Charity in them which prompts them so to doe It is a sin of the first rate and one of the greatest size that a Christian can commit in the judgment of the Brethren of the Nonconformists themselves though now it goes down gliâ— with too many of them who not withstanding are obliged to the extirpation thereof not onely by the common bond of Religion and Christianity but also by the second Article of their solemn League and Covenant taken with hands lifted up to the most high God wherein they rank it with Popery Superstition Heresie Profaneness and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness Let the words of Mr. Baxter be noted as an evidence of this truth If the Scripture were Conscionably observed men would take Church-divisions for a greater sin than Adultery or Theft Mutinies and Divisions do more infallibly destroy an Army than almost any other fault or weakness and therefore all Generals do punish Mutineers with death as well as flat Traytors Our Union is our strength and beauty commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice do but destroy that truth and piety that was there before I like not him that will cure the head-ach by cutting the throat yea it is a greater sin than Murther saith Mr. Paget A Murtherer killeth but one man or two but a Schismatick goes about as much as in him lies to destroy the Church of God Yea it is worse to make a Schism in the Church than to Sacrifice to an Idol saith Mr. Calamy out of St. Cyprian And may Christians then play at sast and loose with the bonds of holy Communion at their pleasure St. Peter could say Lord whither shall we goe thou hast the words of Eternal Life Where this word is truly Preachâ—d in the way of Christ's appointment and the rest of his worship celebrated accordingly wo be to those that are not found there also Christians in the pure and primitive times did not take this Liberty in point of Church-fellowship but by the acknowledgment of the Divines before mentioned and Oh that their Practices now did not contradict their words then All such who professed Christianity held Communion together as one Church notwithstanding the difference in judgment in lesser things and much corruption in Conversation Cain was the first that ever separated from the Church he went out from the presence of God God is every where the meaning therefore is from his Church the place of his publick worship which was then in his Father's Family And will it be
Clouds may be discerned Cum tota dicat Ecclesia quam diu hic est dimitte nobis deâ—ita nostra non utique hic est sine macula ruga So long as the whole Church is commanded to say whilst she is in this World forgive us our trespasses she cannot be imagined to be altogether without spot or wrinkle Rather they discover themselves to be most stained to whom every small spot in the Church seems to be altogether intolerable Cum sub specie studii perfectionis imperfectioneâ— nullam tolerare possumus aut in corpore aut in membi is Ecclesiae tum diabolum nos tumefacere superbia hypocrisi seducere moneamur When under colour of perfection ye can endure no imperfection either in the body or members of the Church you must be admonished that this your separation is caused by the Devil who puffs you up with pride and seduceth you by Hypocrisie Secondly We may not upon every slight ground to please a fond humour leave the Society of God's People in the Church for sake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is or goe off from Communion with that Church whereof we are or ought to be Members When an Ulcer breaks out in any part of the body suppose the hand or the foot must that member presently be cut off or not rather be cured and healed by the use of plasters and other wholsome medicines or the pain and evil be endured with patience â—ntill nature hath tryed her skill and as it will in short time conquered the malignity of the Distemper And shall we then presently make use of the knife as soon as ever there ariseth some diversity of opinions in the Church especially in matters that are circumstantial in Religion This were not Chirurgery but Butchery Nay suppose the very substance and body of Religion were corrupted and not onely some light errours in circumstances were maintained but there were Heresie in Doctrine also in this case we ought to be very tender of making a Schism and look well to our selves with what mind and affection we doe it Suppose a Malefactor be really guilty and hath deserved to dye yet if the Judge condemn him out of cruelty of mind envy or spleen and not out of true love to justice and hatred of his sin though the Sentence were for the matter of it never so just yet he were most unjust in pronouncing of it so a separation from a Church though for just causes yet would be most unjust and sinfull if it be done out of malice or any evil respect or affection whatsoever In such a case that is required of a Christian which is required of a Chirurgeon who when necessity forceth him to cut off a member yet he doeth it unwillingly with grief and after trial of all lawfull ways and â—â—eans to stop the evil and to prevent the mutilation of the Patient The property of true Christian Charity is it rejoyceth not in iniquity but in the truth That is iniquity which is so diametrically opposite to Charity which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a vice that makes men not onely to rejoyce in the Calamity of others but greedily to such in all evil reports of them and rejoyce if they are true Christian Charity where it is works the same mind and affection in us towards our neighbours as is in Parents towards their Children who with joy admit of their commendation but will not so easily believe any thing that tends to their disparagement unless they either soe it with their eyes or have good proof made for it and then not without grief of heart Faults in a Church call for our lamentation not separation should God separate from a Christian Soul because there is still some corruption of sinfull nature remaining in it the condition of us all would be most miserable to Eternity Did Christ separate from the Church of the Iews and not hold Communioâ— with her because she was not what she had or ought to have been What the state of the Jewish Church in our Saviour Christ's time was the Scriptures do abundantly shew In it was a very corrupt Ministry blind leaders of the blind They preach'd well enough but did not live accordingly The High-Priests Office which by God's Ordinance was to last during Life was now become annual and basely bought and sold for money The People were wicked impenitent haters and â—â—â—secutors of the Son of God Their Doctrine was much corrupted and blended with false and Pharisaical glosses Many superstitious Ceremonies were used and urged more strictly than any of God's Commandments Church-discipline very much perverted The Jews had agreed that if any did profess Christ he should be excommunicated An horrible abuse was crept into the place of God's Service A Market and Money-changing set up in the Temple of God And yet for all this our Saviour made no separation from this corrupt Church but communicated with them 〈◊〉 all parts of Divine Worship In his Infancy he was admitted a Member of that Church by Circumcision At the Purification he was presented before the Lord in that Church and a Sacrifice offered for him according to the Law of Moses When he came to riper years he constantly kept the Church came to the Congregation to Divine Service publick Prayers and reading the Scriptures He received the Sacraments in their Church Baptism and the Passover Yea his conformity to the Iewish Church was not onely in Divinâ—â— Institutions but in Humane also as in his observation of the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple mentioned Ioh. 10 doth appear He was so far from breaking the order or custome of that Church as that he conformed to it in those things that were contrary to Divine Institutions It was the ordinance of God that the Passover should be eaten by the Iews with their loyns girded their shooes on their feet and their staves in their hands because they were to eat it in haste Standing was a posture of readiness for travell and they used long Garments in those Countries which would have been an hindrance to them if they had not been trussed up The Apostle seems to allude to this custome when he saith stand therefore having your loyns girded about But because the Church of the Iews being now safely escaped out of Egypt had by long custome omitted and altered these Ceremonies therefore our Saviour Christ would not break or alter the custome of that Church but did as they did He did not stand 〈◊〉 the Passover but sate or used a leaning posture for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by St. Matthew doth signifie as appears by the Evangelist When the even was come he sate down with the twelve And all this to teach us that we ought to be tender of violating the customes of the Church not to grow into
a prophane contempt or neglect of any part of publick worship for every imperfection and blemish nor to separate from a Church though never so corrupt so long as the Word Sacraments and Doctrine of Salvation may there be enjoyed Corruptions of a Church are commonly by Divines distinguished into two sorts They are either such as concern the matter of Religion which the Apostle calls demnable Heresies in fundamental points of Faith and Holiness which tend to the destroying of the very being of a Church Or else such as concern the manner of Religion in circumstantials and ceremonials which are matters of lower concern and inferiour alloy Such as to use the words of Learned Bp. Davenant Non continuo ad fidem fundamentalem spectant sed ad peritiam theologicam fortasse ne ad hanc quidem sed aliquando ad curiositatem theologorum belong not to the fundamentals of Faith but skilfulness in Divinity and not to that neither but rather to the curiosity of Divines Now errours even in fundamentals may be in a Church upon a double account either through infirmity and humane frailty the best of us knowing but in part in this Life God allows no separation in such a case The Church of Galatia through infirmity was quickly turned to another Gospel and erred even in matters fundamental holding justification by works and was fallen to the observation of Iewish Ceremonies which St. Paul calls beggarly Elements Their Apostle was become their Enemy and that for telling them the truth He was afraid of them lest all the labour he had bestowed amongst them was in vain and was fain to travel in birth with them again yet he owns them and writes to them as a Church notwithstanding Or else vitioso affectu immorigeroe voluntatis out of malice when men know they doe amiss and yet persist obstinately in so doing In such a case separation may be with a good Conscience When St. Paul had preach'd in the Synagogue of the Iews and they would not believe but began to blaspheme and speak evil of the ways of God then he withdrew and separated from them So that it must be no small matter that must be a sufficient ground to any one that means to keep a good Conscience to warrant his withdrawing from the publick Congregation in any part of God's worship If a man have not discretion he may easily run himself into a great evil of sin whilst he seeks to shun a light inconvenience and in avoiding that which he thinks to be superstition he may soon become really Schismatical and prophane which is as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Suppose there were some evil mixtures in our administration of Church-worship yet in the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves this is not a sufficient ground of a negative much less of a positive separation For say they the learned Authour before mentioned that is Camero tells us that corruption in manners crept into a Church is not a sufficient cause of separation from it This he proves from Matt. 23. 2 3. And he also gives this reason for it Because in what Church soever there is purity of Doctrine there God hath his Church though overwhelmed with scandals And therefore whosoever separateth from such an Assembly separateth from that place where God hath his Church which is rash and unwarrantable And in the next Page they say He that will never communicate with any Church till every thing that offendeth â—e removed out of it must tarry till the great day of Judgment when and not till then Christ will send forth his Angels and gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offendeth and them that doe iniquity And though to excuse themselves from the guilt of Schism they that do separate may pretend that they make not aâ— open breach of Christian Love wherein the nature of that great sin doth consist Let their own words answer themselves We grant that to make up the formality of a Schismatick there must be added uncharitableness as to make up the formality of an Heretick there must be added obstinacy But yet as he that denieth a fundamental Article of Faith is guilty of Heresie though he add not obstinacy thereunto to make him an Heretick so he that doth unwarrantably separate from a true Church is truly guilty of Schism though he add not uncharitableness thereunto to denominate him a complete Schismatick How unjustifiable then is the separation which some make themselves and cause others to make in these days from our Churches which in their Constitution for Doctrine Discipline and Worship are the envy of Rome and the admiration of the rest of the Christian World where there is nothing Idolatrous in Worship nothing Heretical in Doctrine nor Antiscriptural in Discipline where there is nothing taught believed or done but what is agreeable with the word of God or not contrary thereunto And to speak in the words of the learned and godly Dr. Henry More a Church so throughly purged from whatsoever can properly be styled Antichristian and is I am confident so Apostolical that the Apostles themselves if they were alive again would not have the least scruple of joyning in publick worship with us in our common Assemblies Separation from it can be no less than the fruit of Pride or bitter Zeal which tends to strife And where envy and strife is there is confasion and every evil work I have heard some Church-forsakers when they have been told of their Apostasie and falling off from the Church whereof they were Members excuse and please themselves in this that they are not Apostates from the Faith they hold the same Doctrine and believe the same Creed we do Though in that they doe no more than Papists doe But in the mean time they consider not That 1. This is an improvement and aggravation of their sin so far is it from excusing the fault to depart from a Church wherein they were born and baptized and which by their own confession continues sound in the Faith Separation is allowed by no Divines no not by the Presbyterians themselves but either in case of cruel Persecution damnable Heresie or down right Idolatry They then that separate from a Church where there is neither of these have the greater sin 2. That the hainousness of the sin of Schism doth not consist in renouncing the Faith but in the breach of Christian Charity without which all Faith is nothing A man may be very Orthodox in his Judgment and yet be a damnable Schismatick if he break that Union which ought to be religiously kept amongst Christians in God's worship especially And because this breach is manifestly perfected in refusing due Ecclesiastical Communion together therefore that separation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Schism 3. That the breach
in the last page save one they have these words Gathering Churches out of Churches have no footsteps in Scripture is contrary to Apostolical practice is the scattering of Churches the Daughter of Schism the Mother of Confusion but the Step-mother to Edification If this Doctrine of theirs be as doubtless it is true and godly then surely the practices of many of them that are Antipodes to it must needs be by their own confession very false and impious We reade in Scripture that if fire break out and catch in thorns so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn or the field be consumed therewith he that kindleth the fire shall surely make restitution By thorns are generally understood such thorns as Husbandmen use in hedges wherewith they separate and distinguish their Land from other mens By breaking out of fire any man's making a fire in the field to burn up weeds or otherwise to make their Land fruitfull And 't is meant say interpreters of such kindling of fire when any hurt comes of it proeter intentionem accendentis besides the intention of him that kindles it it being carried by the wind and lighting on some dry hedge and finding combustible matter goes farther and burns the Corn either in shocks or standing by And in this cafe of Casualty by the Law of God restitution was to be made because firing the hedge was the cause of the Corn's being burnt Otherwise if a man did wilfully and purposely set Corn on fire he was to sustain greater punishment by the Civil Law vel decapitetur vel comburatur vel bestiis subjiciatur he was to be beheaded or burnt or cast to wild beasts God whose own the whole Field of the Church is hath set an hedge of separation and distinction to bound out every one of his servants the Minister's property These are your limits and this the portion of my people committed to your charge this piece of Land is your several to manure for me the fruit whereof I will require at your hands at harvest He that shall not casually but wilfully break down or fire that hedge and so cause a combustion in the Church the least that can be required of such a person is that he make full restitution for the damage he hath caused that he set himself to quench the fire he hath kindled and to make up the hedge again which he hath consumed undeceive the People he hath seduced by acknowledgment of his fault restoring what he hath fraudulently taken and cease to be any more an incendiary for the time to come To the poor deceived People shall I say out of zeal to God's Glory and safety of your souls as St. Paul to the Galatians I would they were even cut off that trouble you It were better one man or a few did perish than that the Unity of the Church should be broken Rather for loves sake I heartily wish that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filii sonitus tumultuous ones that delight to make a noise in the Church that they may be heard had more peaceable and quiet spirits and would either content themselves to doe their own business if they have any or else sit still and cease troubling you or themselves in matters that belong to others And though you have been drawn away from your Conjugal duty to your own Pastours and have gone aside to others in stead of them by means of the amarous Courtship of such as want not fair speeches and winning Oratory to deceive the hearts of the simple but intrude themselves in amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with feigned words or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with wisedom of words or as elsewhere the Apostle persueth it with excellency of speech and of wisedom or intising words of man's wisedom insomuch that if it were possible the very Elect would be deceived by them Yet I hope through the assistence of Divine grace you will soon bethink your selves and repent and so return from following after your Lovers with the house of Israel and say I will goe and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now Secondly it divides the intire body of Christ also and makes such factions as were in the Church of Corinth where one said I am of Paul another I am of Apollos and another I am of Cephas Than which there is nothing that more demonstrates People to be carnal whatsoever they pretend to the contrary It makes the Church of Christ which should always be as some time the Children of Israel were from Dan even to Beershebah all as one man to be a Baal-Perazim the place where David smote the Philistins A Valley of Divisions and Breaches It breeds such animosities and exasperations of mind amongst Christians that it makes the Members of the Church militant among themselves and against their Ministers doeing us though unwillingly the kindness as to free us from that woe denounced by our Saviour when all men shall speak well of us and none at last but Satan and his Servants Atheists and Papists triumphant It causeth such rents in the Church that the end thereof will be unless a prodigy of Divine mercy prevent it the common Enemy of our Religion will laugh whilst the promoters of such divisions have cause to weep It promotes such a War whose Victory shall have a sorry triumph It deals worse with the feamless Coat of Christ which St. Cyprian saith was a sign intended by our Saviour to shew how his Church should be woven together in Unity than the Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite did with the new garment wherewith Ieroboam had clad himself who even rent it in twelve pieces It mangles the body of Christ into as many parts as there are parties as if it were no better than the body of the Levite's Concubine which he divided with her bones and sent into all the quarters of Israel It was a worthy saying of the late reverend and learned Bishop of Sarum Si schismata Ecclesiae tolli possunt uti proculdubio possunt suspendi mallem ad collum meum molam asinariam c. If the schisms that are in the Church may be taken away as doubtless they may I had rather a Milstone were hanged about my neck and I drowned in the bottom of the Sea than that I should any way hinder that work or not withall my heart and strength promote it which is so pleasing to God and so necessary for the avoiding of scandal A gracious speech not unlike that of an holy Father of the Church before him Greg. Nazianzene who as Ruffinus reports it in the tumultuous division of the People cryed out mitte me in mare non erit tempestas He offered himself Ionah like to be cast into the Sea to appease the tempest in the Church that neither the peace of it might be disturbed or Unity broken
neither hath it in these but such as fight with their weapons and sharpen their instruments against it at their forge And if the Queens Highness would grant thereunto prove against all that will say the contrary that all that is contained in the Holy Communion set out by the most innocent and godly King Edward VI. in his high Court of Parliament is conformable to that order which our Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed and which the Apostles and primitive Church used many years And that if he might be permitted to take to himself Peter Martyr and four or five others whom he should chuse they would by God's Grace take upon them to defend not onely the Common-prayers of the Church the ministration of the Sacraments and other the rites and ceremonies but also all the Doctrine and Religion set out by the said King Edward VI. to be more pure and according to God's word than any other that have been used in England these thousand years so that God's word may be judge And that the Order of the Church set out at that present in the Realm by Act of Parliament is the same that was in the Church fifteen hundred years past Neither saith he it alone but we have the several testimonies of particular Learned and judicious Saints of that and the following generation touching the excellency and worth of that Book such as Saunders Taylor Ridley Iewel c. We have a Noble Army of Martyrs standing together in vindication of the purity of it The whole blessed company of persecuted Preachers in Prison at the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign in a petition of theirs to the King Queen and Parliament say thus If your said Subjects be not able by the Testimony of Christ his Prophets Apostles and Godly Fathers of his Church to prove that the Doctrine of the Church Homilies and Service-book taught and set forth in the time of our late most godly Prince King Edward VI. is the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church and most agreeable with the Articles of the Christian faith your said subjects offer themselves then to the most heavy punishment that it shall please your Majesty to appoint Should but one Nonconformist have said so much for the antiquity and purity of this Book it would sooner have been believed by the people of our age than from the mouths of so many learned and holy Fathers Take therefore the testimony of one of that way and a learned one Mr. Iohn Ball who having spent great pains in quitting it from the objections of Separatists lays down this conclusion Our Service-book is not a Translation of the Mass but a restitution of the ancient Liturgy wherein sundry Prayers are inserted used by the Fathers agreeable to the Scriptures And in the same Chapter in a few pages after he hath these words To the praise of God be it spoken our Liturgy for purity and soundness may compare with any Liturgy used in the third and fourth Ages of the Church Which was long before Popery came into the World Neither hath any of the several emendations that it hath admitted since its first composure been of that nature or moment as to give an occasion to charge it in the least with any thing that is or was sinfull or Superstitious However thus much I suppose may unquestionably be concluded from the abovesaid acknowledgment that if it were an excellent and worthy work then it is not sinfull now but the use of it being enjoyned by Authority may be conformed to with a good Conscience Especially considering that it is farther acknowledged by the Divines first named That what things soever are offensive to them in it and desired to be removed are not of the foundation of Religion nor the essentials of publick Worship and must therefore be but circumstantials Which ought to be the more easily born with in complyance with Lawfull Authority by all such as mind their own duty or tender the peace of the Church it being a good and safe rule which St. Augustine gives in such a case Quod neque contra Fidem neque contra bonos more 's injungitur indifferenter est habendum pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est Whatsoever is enjoined that is not contrary to Faith or Holiness ought to be observed for peace-sake with them among whom we live Yet how is this Book called to the stake by the upholders and frequenters of Conventicles and made to fill up what was behind of the sufferings of those holy Fathers that compiled it How often have I heard it call'd by some of them Popery Idolatry Superstition and what not How are they accounted the onely Virtuoso's in these days and to have attained to a very high pitch of Piety when they have onely arrived at such a measure of profaneness as to rail at it and carefully to shun their joining with us in the Worship of God by it and think that they have then done him a very acceptable service when they have done him none at all but onely afforded their presence at the Preaching of a Sermon And to the end that malice may leave nothing unattempted to render it contemptible I have observed that these sinfull Assemblies are studiously continued till the end of Common Prayer in the Church at least if not during the Sermon also Could it ever have been thought that men who pretend Religion and Conscience could have proceeded to such a monstrous extremity of wickedness as to prefer their own private humours and fancies before God's publick Worship And thus endeavour to undermine and destroy so godly and legal an Establishment If confession of Sin profession of Faith reading of the Scriptures Prayers and Praise to God which is the substance of this whole Book be any part of God's Ordinance or Worship then surely the practice of these men is contrary not onely to Gospel order and commands but even to those Rules of Worship which the principal men of their own way and perswasion have given For in the Directory composed by the late Assembly of Divines the first direction for publick Worship which they give is this When the Congregation is to meet for publick Worship the people having before prepared their hearts thereunto ought all to come and join therein not absenting themselves from the publick Ordinances through negligence or upon pretence of Private meetings How are the mouths of Papists hereby opened against us to justifie their own Recusancy and to condemn our Church as false and adulterate seeing that our own members do revile it as they of the Romish Church also do calling it an abominable Book very pestiâ—erous c. the service of Baal plain Idolatry separate themselves from it join hands with them to destroy it and are contented to hazard their Estates and fortunes rather than to conform to it Doth not this harden them in their
potest The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone praying together with the multitude he shall obtain and why so for although not his own worthiness yet concord and unity prevaileth much When the whole Church joyned together in their devotions for St. Peter's enlargment Omnipotence exerted it self in a series of Miracles that their Prayers should not be unanswered Tunc est efficacior sanatior devotio quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesie unus est animus unus est sensus Prayer is then more holy and effectual when in the works of piety there is but one mind and one meaning of the whole Church Besides God hath promised as hath been before shewed to be more comfortably present in our Church-Assemblies than in any other houses or places whatsoever If it had been all one to pray in a private house or in the publick assemblies of the Church St. Paul and the Godly Christians with him would never have put themselves to an hazard of their lives in times of hottest persecution by meeting together in multitudes in a place where there was an House of Prayer or where they were wont to assemble together to pray For it is read both ways The first pleaseth Tremelius best the latter Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim orationem oratorium significat The word signifies both Prayer and an House of Prayer The House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of celestial powers there the Almighty doth sit to hear and his Angels intermingle with us as our associates and attend to further our Suits With reference hereunto the Apostle requires so great care to be had of decency in the Church for the Angels sake saith Mr. Hooker Sixthly it begets ill thoughts of his Majesty's most gracious Government as if he were a persecutor and suppressor of true Religion and an enemy to piety and godliness These meetings about in Barnes and private Houses look not as if we lived under a Christian Protestant Prince as if King Charles were upon the throne but as if Nero Dioclesian or Queen Mary were alive again and did rule Conventicles saith Bishop Lake make shew as if you had not freedom of Religion and thereby you derogate from the honour of the King 's most Christian Government and wrong your Pastour casting imputation upon him that he cannot or will not instruct you as he ought And indeed it lays the Axe to the Root and tends to the undermining and destruction of all Government and Governours Do not the Histories of all Ages give in evidence to the evil tendency of these private seditious and unlawfull meetings In the late years of war and confusion those meetings were effectually made use of by all parties as the great Engine to pull down the powers then in being By these means Presbytery did in a great measure prevail to the forceable and irregular throwing down of the legally established Episcopacy So by the same means Independency Anabaptism Fifth-monarchism hath been prevalent over and against Presbytery So that it is a wonder the Governours of our Church and State have not a more watchfull and jealous Eye upon all such illegal Schismatical and seditious conventions It is a sure rule of our Saviour A Kingdom divided cannot stand It was a principle of Machiavel divide impera divide and take all Whatsoever may be divided may be destroyed When a society is broken it may soon be brought to confusion 'T is Satan's way to destroy by dissolving unions Infirma est securitas ab alienis dissidiis nec unquam stabile est regnum vbi inter se discordant ii qui reguntur This practice then that tends so much to dividing tends as much to destroying both Church and State Seventhly Where this liberty is either taken or given there is or may be dissenting from yea contrariety of Doctrine to what is taught in publick And that can no way conduce to edification in faith and holiness but to the greatest confusion that may be The whole Church should be as the whole World was in Noah's time unius labii of one Language the building else will prove to be but a Babel and the Ministry for destruction and not for edification which is so far from being God's Ordinance that it is quite contrary thereunto This made St. Paul so earnestly to importune the Church of Corinth to speak all the same things And truly such is the condition of the Upholders and Masters of these unlawfull Assemblies in these days that there is great danger of their prevarication now and then in Doctrine and of suiting their discourses to their hearers palates I say they are under a very great temptation to gratifie mens vices by indulging their prejudices For as a worthy Prelate of our Church hath well observed Where Ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences if they do but upon some just reproof Gaul the conscience of a guilty hearer or preach some truth which disrelisheth the Palate of a prepossessed auditour he streightway flies out and not onely withdraws his own pay but the contribution of others also So as the free Tongue teacher must either live by air or be forced to change his Pasture Thereupon it is that those Sportulary Preachers are fain to sooth up their many Masters and are so gagged with the fear of starving displeasure that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing This is a truth easie to be apprehended For if even when the Laws enforce men to pay their dues to their Ministers they yet continue so backward in the discharge of them especially if never so little displeased at just reproofs and lawfull endeavours to reform their vicious lives how much less hope can there be that being left to their own free choice they will prove liberal or bountifull in their voluntary Contributions if never so little cross'd upon the like occasion by their new Masters Lastly it opens a door to all Errours and Heresies and is the ready way to bring all Religion to nothing For saith the Apostle when people heap up to themselves teachers to satisfie the itch of their Ears they will turn away their Ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables in a short time Elsewhere the Holy Ghost joins order and stedfastness together Though I be absent in the flesh yet am I present with you in the spirit joying to behold your order and stedfastness of your faith in Christ. It is impossible for men to be stedfast in Religion who keep not God's order How come so many in our days to fall from their stedfastness some to Anabaptism some to Quakerism and some to Atheism but by breaking first that order in Religion that God hath set If Souldiers in an Army keep their order every one abiding in