Scripture revealeth for us to believe which are many I only instance in the Point of Sovereignty is contrary to the Determination of our General Councils That which is contrary to what a General Council pronounceth to be believed is in the Papists sence a Heresie But that the Pope is above a General Council and that a General Council is above the Pope are both determined to be believed by General Councils The first by the Councils at the Laterane and Florence and the second by the Councils at Constance and Basil They are both Heresies therefore because they are both against General Councils and they are both Points of Popery because both determined in General Councils as I have proved in my Key c. If you will peruse a Catalogue in the End of my Book called The Safe Religion or the Thirty two Novelties mentioned in my Key pag. 142 143 144. you will see whether Popery be Error If any other Doctrine contrary 〈◊〉 Christ's do infer an Anathema then everlasting Woe to Papists And here you may see the Safety of the true Catholicks that have rejected Popery Our Religion is all contained in the Holy Scripture we profess to have no other Rule and you charge us not that I know of with believing too much by holding any positive Error but with believing too little because we believe not your supernumerary Articles And therefore you cannot say that we teach any other Doctrine than Christ's though you fancy that we teach not all because we teach not your Traditions But on the contrary we prove that you teach another Doctrine and many such which Christ never delivered to the Church But yet to abate your severe Selâ—condemnation let me excuse you thus far as to say that you do it upon mistake For Gal. 1. saith not Let him be accursed that preacheth another Doctrine but another Gospel While it is the same Gospel in the Essentials that is preached and believed this Anathema belongs not even to you that err till you come to contradict the Essence and make it another Gospel as well as another Doctrine If you have made it your whole business till seventeen Years of Age to pray to God to direct you to follow his Doctrine it 's like that I and many another have made it at least as much of our Business till forty six Years of Age as ever you did and with better Advantage and yet are as confident of the Falseness of your Doctrine as we are that the Earth doth bear us here therefore you are not beforehand with us But what have you found that cheated or frighned you into Popery 1. The variety of Iudgments But you never found the far greater variety among Papists You never read the voluminous Dispute between the Dominicanes and Jesuits to overpass the rest or perhaps you will as others do expect that the very same Opinion be a Heresy in a Calvanist and none in a Dominicane or Iansenist or a Heresy in a Lutheran and none in a Iesuit You will run out of England because of Mens diversity of Complexions and finding a greater Diversity in France expect it should be esteemed none If I prove not before any impartial Judge that the Papists have far more and greater Differences amongst themsâ—â—ves than the reformed Churches called Protestants yea I doubt not I may add than Greeks Calvinists Lutherans and many more such set together then let your Imagination go for Truth Bellarmine himself hath enumerated enough 2. You say the Scripture admits of no private Interpretation But 1. You abuse the Text and your self with a false Interpretation of it in these Words An Interpretation is called private either as to the Subject Person or as to the Interpreter You take the Text to speak of the latter when the Context plainly sheweth you that it speaks of the former The Apostle directing them to understand the Prophesies of the Old Testament gives them this Caution That none of these Scriptures that are spoken of Christ the publick Person must be interpreted as spoken of David or other private Persons only of whom they were mentioned but as Types of Christ It is subjectively a private Interpretation to restrain that Scripture e. g. the Second Psalm to David or other ordinary Men which the Holy Ghost intended of the Messiah But here 's no talk against Private Interpreters but only against a Private Interpretation 2. But suppose it were as you imagin and the publick Judgment of any Case suppose a Publick Interpreter yet every Man must see with his own Eyes and their private Judgment of Discretion must be according to their private that is personal Interpretation Or else your Churches Interpretation must have another publick Interpretation and that another and so endlesly If we can understand your Councils which your Doctors disagree about without another publick Interpretation we may as easily understand the Scripture or at least much of it And therefore that can be none of the Sence which you imagine no Scripture c. 3. Yea suppose all Interpretation must be publick and you may not presume to misunderstand the Commands of Repentance Faith or Love without a publick Commentary do you think this doth not make against you Is not the Interpretation of the Papal Sect a more private Interpretation than that of the whole Church The Greek Arminians Abassines Protestants and so all the far greatest part of the Church interpret those Texts which you wrest for the Papal Soveraignty in a quite other Sense And is not the Interpretation of your Fourth or Third part of the Church that 's partial in the Cause more private than that of all the rest would you have Men care no more for their Souls than to cast them away upon the Delusion of such Reasonings as these 3. You next speak of Interpretations by Apostolical Tradition But are sober People capable of such a Bafflle as to lay their Salvation on a Dream that never had a Being Was there ever such a thing as an Interpretation of the Bible by Apostolical Tradition without which no Scripture must be interpreted Where is that Commentary that the World never knew and yet all must know it that will be saved Written it is not by Fathers Popes or Councils and if unwritten in whose Memory is it and how learnt they it Not in the Peoples nor the generality of Pastors for they that were most learned presume to write their private Interpretations and Commentaries never giving us the publick Commentary and take Liberty to differ about many hundred Texts among themselves and are not these then gross Delusions 4. You say the Church is a City set upon a Hill Christ speaks there of Preachers but let it be of the whole Church In good sadness can you believe that the Universality of Christians which is the true Catholick Church is not more conspicuous than the Papal Faction or any one particular Part Should your Sect be judged more visible than the
Errours have divided and distracted the Christian Churches and one would think Experience should save us from them § 53. But the Brethren resolved that they would hold on the way which they had begun And though they were honest and competently judicious Men yet those that managed the Business did want the Judgment and Accurateness which such a Work required though they would think any Man supercilious that should tell them so And the tincture of Faction stuck so upon their Minds that it hindered their Judgment The great doer of all that worded the Articles was Dr. Owen Mr. Nye and Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Syd Sympson were his Assistants and Dr. Cheynell his Scribe Mr. Marshall a sober worthy Man did something the rest sober Orthodox Men said little but suffered the Heat of the rest to carry all § 54. When I saw they would not change their Method I saw also that there was nothing for me and others of my Mind to do but only to hinder them from doing harm and trusting in their own Opinions or crude Conceirs among our Fundamentals And presently Dr. Owen in extolling the Holy Scriptures put in that That no Man could know God to Salvation by any other means I told him that this was neither a Fundamental nor a Truth and that if among the Papists or any others a poor Christian should believe by the teaching of another without ever knowing that there is a Scripture he should be saved because it is promised that whoever believed should be saved He said awhile That there could be no other way of Saving Revelation of Jesus Christ I told him that he was savingly revealed by Preaching many years before the New Testament was written He told us that the Primitive Church was bound to believe no more from the Apostles but what was written before in the Old Testament and proved thence I told him that by that Assertion he subverted the Christian Church and Faith 1. By overthrowing the Material 2. and the Formal Object of our Faith or the medium necessary thereto 1. For the Matter it is not in the Old Testament That this Iesus is the Christ that he is already incarnate conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary fulfilled the Law suffered was crucified buried and rose again ascended into Heaven and is there at the right hand of God in our Nature and therein intercedeth for the Church that he hath instituted the Sacraments sent his Apostles given the Holy Ghost to them to direct them into all Truth c. with more of the like 2. That if Christ and his Apostles were not to be believed for the Image of God appearing on their Doctrine and the Divine Attestation of Miracles confirming it then Moses and the Prophets were not for those Reasons to be believed And consequently not to be believed at all for there was no reason to believe them which Christ also gave us not for the belief of him and his Apostles After a deal of wrangling about these Things because the Doctor was the hotter and better befriended in that Assembly and I was then under great Weakness and Soporous or Scotomatical Ilness of my Head I asked their leave to give them the Reasons of my Opinion in Writing which I brought in and never received any Answer to it And yet if Mr. Vines who came but seldom had not stuck to me when he was there they would have made the World believe as some of them endeavoured that I was Popish and pleaded for the Sufficiency of Tradition to Salvation without the Scripture But Bishop Usher was of the same mind with me and told me that he had said the same to the Iesuits Challenge Cap. de Tradit § 55. Many other such crude and unsound Passages like the Savoy Articles of Justification after put into the Independant Agreement had come into our New Fundamentals And all because the over-Orthodox Doctors Owen and Cheynell took it to be their Duty in all their Fundamentals to put in those words which as they said did obviate the Heresies and Errours of the Divines Whenas I told them they should make the Rule to look no way but strait forward and put in their Rejections after as the Synod of Dort doth as being the Contradictions of the Rule One merry passage I remember occasioned laughter Mr. Sympson caused them to make this a Fundamental That He that alloweth himself or others in any known sin cannot be saved I pleaded against the word allowed and told them that many a Thousand lived in wilful sin which they could not be said to allow themselves in but confessed it to be sin and went on against Conscience and yet were impenitent and in a state of Death And that there seemed a little contradiction between known sin and allowed so far as a Man knoweth that he sinneth he doth not allow that is approve it Other Exceptions there were but they would have their way and my opposition to any thing did but heighten their Resolution At last I told them As stiff as they were in their opinion and way I would force them with one word to change or blot out all that Fundamental I urged them to take my wager and they would not believe me but marvelled what I meant I told them that the Parliament took the Independant way of Separation to be a sin and when this Article came before them they would say By our Brethrens own Judgment we are all damned Men if we allow the Independants or 〈◊〉 other Sectaries in their sin They gave me no Answer but they left out all that Fundamental The Papers which I gave them in were these Without the Knowledge of whom by the Revelation of Scripture there is no Salvation The Words by the Revelation of the Scripture I desired might be either here left out or changed into the Revelation of the Gospel or the Word of God To this you will not consent because it would intimate that there may be another co-ordinate way of Revealing Christ besides the written Word by which there may be Salvation I cannot subscribe to the Article as it stands of which when I have shewed the point of our Difference I shall give you my Reasons 1. Our Difference is not de doctrina tradita but de modo tradendi For I have fully acknowledged that there is no Salvation without the Knowledge of the Essentials of the Christian Faith 2. And that the Light of Nature and Book of the Creatures is insufficient hereunto So far we are agreed as to the way of the Revelation 3. Nor do I doubt of the full Perfection of the Scripture but detest the Popish Doctrines of Traditions or unwritten Verities to supply what is supposed to be wanting in the Scripture as if it were but a part of God's Word for the revealing of these supernatural things I desired rather that you would more fully express the Scriptures Perfection and Infallability 4. Nor is it any doubt
manifested that the Western Creed now called the Apostles wanting two or three Clauses that now are in it was not only before the Nicene Creed but of such farther Antiquity that no beginning of it below the Apostles Days can be found So it is past doubt that in other Words the Churches had still a Symbol or Sum of their Belief which was the Test of the Orthodox and that which the Catechumeni were to be instructed in Origen Tertullian Irenaeus to speak of none of these below them do mention and recite them The Doctrine of this Creed they affirm themselves to have received from the Apostles by verbal Tradition as well as by Writing This then hath been a collateral way of delivering down the saving Truths of the Gospel though a far more imperfect way than by the Scriptures 4. Another means hath been by Parents teaching these Principles to their Children which as they were commanded to do and did before the writing of the Gospel so did they successively continue it as a collateral way 5. Another collateral means was in the constant use of the Lord's Supper in Commemoration of Christ's Death till he come to receive us to Glory where the very Sum and all the Fundamentals of our Religion are contained which hath been continued by uninterrupted Succession even from the time that preceded the writing of the Scriptures it is therefore conceived possible for some Souls to be converted in darker parts of the World by these or some of these means without the written Word 3. The ancient Doctors of the Church affirmed that they had their Doctrine from the Apostles by verbal as well as by written Tradition Yea and that if there were no Scripture yet Tradition might resolve the Doubts against the Hereticks and that in those Days which were nearer the Spring-Head Tradition was a better way than Scripture to confute Hereticks as Tertullian de Praescript at large and Irenaeus's Words are well known Whether in this they mistake or not I don't determine yet certainly this may tell us that we cannot conclude that there was then no co-ordinate way of delivering down the Sum of Christian Verity 4. He that will prove your negative Assertion must either know all the World and that de facto there is among them no such Tradition or else must have some Revelation from God that there is not any such nor shall be But we have neither of these Ergo we cannot certainly conclude it 5. We see by Experience that more in substance of other common Precepts and History can be delivered down to Posterity by other means without formal Records Ergo so may these For though they cannot have the golden Cabinet of Scripture but from the Spirit nor without the Spirit can Men believe Yet the Truths may be remembred and delivered as aforesaid 6. God can deliver the Marrow of the Gospel by other means than the Writing and he hath not told us that he will not Ergo for ought we know he doth 7. We ought not absolutely to exclude extraordinary means when God hath not tyed himself from them It is a dangerous Sin of them that leave the ordinary means and look out for extraordinary as Spirit of Prophesy Angels c. But to conclude that God will never reveal Christ by an Angel to one that hath not the Scripture is more than we may do I know not therefore why it is that you would not be prevailed with so much as to add the Word ordinarily when yet it 's by some affirmed to be your Sense and by all that it is your Duty to deliver your Sense as plain as you may So much of my Reasons against the certainty of the Truth of your Assertion 3. I next add that it seems not a Point so weighty as to cast out all that are different from us in this Opinion My Reasons are 1. From the Nature of the Thing 1. It hath so much to be said against the very Truth of it and so is doubtful 2. There can no ill Consequences be manifested to rise from the contrary Opinion Much less so ill as to deserve such a Censure It is no wrong to Scripture that there is a more imperfect collateral way of delivering some part of the same Truths no more than it is a wrong to Scripture that the Law of Nature delivers some other Part of them 2. From the Persons that were of the Opinion contrary to your Assertion who were the ancient Doctors of the Churches and many of the most learned judicious and godly of the Reformed Divines as I undertake to manifest when I have Opportunity and it is necessary For my own part if it were only my self that should be cast out by this Engine I should say the less but as I know not how many Hundred may be of the same Mind and as I think it to be the most common Judgment of Divines so I know such here among us of that Mind with whom I am not worthy to be named who would not subscribe to this your Assertion whereby it seems to me to be more tollerable to diffent from you 4. Seeing you have voted to lay down only Fundamentals to Salvation first and upon that Vote have put this as one you do not only damn all that believe any other way than by the written Word but you damn all those that will not damn them by owning this condemning Article Now that it is not Fundamental appears 1. In that the Fathers and choicest reformed Divines were else no Christians 2. No Creed of the ancient Churches did contain it 3. It is not of necessity to our believing on Christ the Foundation A Man may be brought himself by the Scripture to believe that yet thinks another may believe by verbal Tradition 4. No Scripture doth expresly no not implicitly deliver it much less as a Fundamental 5. My next Reason was that your Assertion and Reason are injurious to the Christian Cause For 1. When Gospel Truth is delivered down by two Hands you wrong it when you cut off one when neither is needless 2. We are able by other ways of Proof to confute those Infidels that deny the Authority of Scripture especially when they tell us that we cannot prove that our Doctrine was delivered from Christ and his Apostles and not since devised or corrupted by later Hands Now you would force our Arguments out of our Hands to the Advantage of the Enemy Upon the Experience of some late Debates with subtil Apostates now Infidels I am bold with Submission to say that I would not for all the World so wound the Christian Cause as it is wounded by those who bereave the Scripture of the Advantage of other Tradition And think that a Bible found by the way by one that never heard of it hath the same Advantages to procure Belief as Scripture and scripture-Scripture-Doctrine and matters of Fact delivered to us by the Hand of certain Tradition And 3. By the
that was the fourth Sect the Quakers who were but the Ranters turned from horrid Prophaneness and Blasphemy to a Life of extream Austerity on the other side Their Doctrines were mostly the same with the Ranters They make the Light which every Man hath within him to be his sufficient Rule and consequently the Scripture and Ministry are set light by They speak much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit in us but little of Justification and the Pardon of Sin and our Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ They pretend their dependance on the Spirit 's Conduct against Set-times of Prayer and against Sacraments and against their due esteem of Scripture and Ministry They will not have the Scripture called the Word of God Their principal Zeal lyeth in railing at the Ministers as Hirelings Deceivers False Prophets c. and in refusing to Swear before a Magistrate or to put off their Hat to any or to say You instead of Thou or Thee which are their words to all At first they did use to fall into Tremblings and sometime Vomitings in their Meetings and pretended to be violently acted by the Spirit but now that is ceased they only meet and he that pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh and sometime they say nothing but sit an hour or more in silence and then depart One while divers of them went Naked through divers chief Towns and Cities of the Land as a Prophetical act Some of them have famished and drowned themselves in Melancholy and others undertaken by the Power of the Spirit to raise them as Susan Pierson did at Claines near Worcester where they took a Man out of his Grave that had so made away himself and commanded him to arise and live but to their shame Their chief Leader Iames Nayler acted the part of Christ at Bristol according to much of the History of the Gospel and was long laid in Bridewell for it and his Tongue bored as a Blasphemer by the Parliament Many Franciscan Fryers and other Papists have been proved to be Disguised Speakers in their Assemblies and to be among them and it 's like are the very Soul of all these horrible Delusions But of late one William Penn is become their Leader and would reform the Sect and Set up a kind of Ministry among them § 124. The fifth Sect are the Bethmenists whose Opinions go much toward the way of the former for the Sufficiency of the Light of Nature the Salvation of Hearthens as well as Christians and a dependence on Revelations c. But they are fewer in Number and seem to have attained to greater Meekness and conquest of Passions than any of the rest Their Doctrine is to be seen in Iacob Behmen's Books by him that hath nothing else to do than to bestow a great deal of time to understand him that was not willing to be easily understood and to know that his bombasted words do signifie nothing more than before was easily known by common familiar terms The chiefest of these in England are Dr. Pordage and his Family who live together in Community and pretend to hold visible and sensible Communion with Angels whom they sometime see and sometime smell c. Mr. Fowler of Redding accused him before the Committee for divers things as for preaching against Imputed Righteousness and perswading married Persons from the Carnal Knowledge of each other c. but especially for Familiarity with Devils or Conjuration The Doctor wrote a Book to vindicate himself in which he professeth to have sensible Communion with Angels and to know by sights and smells c. good Spirits from bad But he saith that indeed one Month his House was molested with Evil Spirits which was occasioned by one Everard whom he taketh to be a Conjurer who stayed so long with him as desiring to be of their Communion In this time he saith that a fiery Dragon so big as to fill a very great Room conflicted visibly with him many hours that one appeared to him in his Chamber in the likeness of Everard with Boots Spurs c. that an impression was made on the Brick-wall of his Chimney of a Coach drawn with Tygers and Lions which could not be got out till it was hewed out with Pick-Axes and another on his Glass-window which yet remaineth c. Whether these things be true or false I know not but the chief Person of the Doctor 's Family-Communion being a Gentleman and Student of All Souls in Oxford was thus made known to me His Mother being a sober pious Woman being dissatisfied with his way could prevail with him to suffer her to open it to none but me of whole Conversion to them their Charity was much desirous Upon discourse with the young man I found a very good Disposition aspiring after the highest Spiritual state and thinking that visible Communion with Angels was it he much expected it and protest in some measure to have attained it for some lights and odd sights he had seen but upon strict Examination he knew not whether it were with the Eye of the Body or of the Mind nor I knew not whether it were any thing real or but fantastical He would not dispute because he thought he knew things by a higher light than Reason even by Intuition by the extraordinary Irradiation of the Mind He was much against Propriety and against Relations of Magistrates Subjects Husbands Wives Masters Servants c. But I perceived he was a young raw Scholar of some Fryar whom he understood not and when he should but have commended the Perfection of a Monastical Life which is the thing that they so highly magnifie he carried it too far and made it seem more necessary than he should They then professed to wait for such a Coming down of the holy Ghost upon them as should send them out as his Missionaries to unite and reconcile and heal the Churches and do wonders in the World But its fifteen years ago and yet they are latent and their work undone § 125. Among these fall in many other Sect-makers as Dr. Gell of London known partly by a printed Volume in Folio and one Mr. Parker who got in to the Earl of Pembroke and was one that wrote a Book against the Assemblies Confession In which as the rest he taketh up most of the Popish Doctrines and riseth up against them with Papal Pride and Contempt but owneth not the Pope himself but headeth his Body of Doctrine with the Spirit as the Papists do with the Pope And if they could bring men to receive the rest it will be easie to spurn down the Idol of their Fantasie or pretended Spirit and to set on the proper Head again To these also must be added Dr. Gibbon who goeth about with his Scheme to Proselyte men whom I have more cause to know than some of the rest All these with subtile Diligence promote most of the Papal Cause and get in with the Religious sort
Churches Good must be first regarded As to the other Question Why we dealt not thus by all the Parish and took them not all for Members without question We knew some Papists and Infidels that were no Members We knew that the People would have thought themselves wronged more to be thus brought under Discipline without and against their own Consent than to 〈◊〉 them to withdraw And we thought it not a Business â—it for the unwilling â—â—â—â—ually at such a time as that But especially I knew that it was like to be their utter undoing by hardening them into utter Enmity against the means that should recover them And I never yet saw any signs of hope in any Excommunicate Person unless as they are yet men and capable of what God will do upon them except one that humbled himself and begged Absolution Now either Discipline is to be exercised according to Christ's Rule or not If not then the Church is no purer a Society as to its Orders than those of Infidels and Pagans but Christ must be disobeyed and his House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves If yea then either impartially upon all obstinate impenitent Sinners according to Christ's Rule or but on some If but on some only it will be a Judgment of Partiality and Unrighteousness whereas where there is the same Cause there must usually be the same Penalty If on all then the multitude of the Scandalous in almost all places is so great and the Effects of Excommunication so dreadful that it would tend to damning of multitudes of Souls which being contrary to the design of the Gospel is not to be taken for the Will of Christ we have our Power to Edification and not to Destruction A few in case of necessity may be punished though to their hurt for the good of all but multitudes must not be so used Indeed a Popish Interdict or mock Excommunication by the Sentence of a Prelate or Lay-Chancellour may pass against multitudes and have no considerable Effect but as it is enforced by the Sword But the Word of God is quick and powerful and when it is thus personally applyed in the Sentencing of a guilty obstinate Sinner doth one way or other work more effectually Therefore in this difficulty there can be but two Remedies devised One is with the Anabaptists to leave Infants unbaptized that so they may not be taken into the Church till they are fit for the Orders of the Church But this is injurious to Infants and against the will of God and hath more inconveniences than benefits Though for my part as much as I have wrote against them I wish that it were in the Church now as it was in the days of Tertullian Nazianzen and Austin where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism but all left to their own time For then some as Augustine c. were baptized at full Age and some in Infancy The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy which is That by the due performance of Confirmation there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership into the state of Adult Church-Membership and due qualifications therein required and that the unfit may till then be left inter Auditores without the Priviledges proper to Adult Members of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation 26. Another Advantage which I found to my Success was by ordering my Doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end and yet so as might suit their Dispositions and Diseases The thing which I daily opened to them and with greatest importunity laboured to imprint upon their minds was the great Fundamental Principles of Christianity contained in their Baptismal Covenant even a right knowledge and belief of and subjection and love to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and Love to all Men and Concord with the Church and one another I did so daily inculcate the Knowledge of God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and Love and Obedience to God and Unity with the Church Catholick and Love to Men and Hope of Life Eternal that these were the matter of their daily Cogitations and Discourses and indeed their Religion And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery and which they had not known before and this I did that they might be kept humble and still perceive their ignorance and be willing to keep in a learning state For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know and do not shew that they excel them in Knowledge and easily over-top them in Abilities the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them and are as wise as they and they will be apt to contemn their Teachers and wrangle with all their Doctrines and set their Wits against them and hear them as Censurers and not as Disciples to their own undoing and to the disturbance of the Church and they will easily draw Disciples after them The bare Authority of the Clergy will not serve the turn without over-topping Ministerial Abilities And I did this also to increase their Knowledge and also to make Religion pleasant to them by a daily addition to their former Light and to draw them on with desire and Delight But these things which they did not know before were not unprofitable Controversies which tended not to Edification nor Novelties in Doctrine contrary to the Universal Church but either such Points as tended to illustrate the great Doctrines before-mentioned or usually about the right methodizing of them The opening of the true and profitable method of the Creed or Doctrine of Faith the Lord's Prayer or Matter of our Desires and the Ten Commandments or Law of Practice which afford matter to add to the knowledge of most Professors of Religion a long time And when that is done they must be led on still further by degrees as they are capable but so as not to leave the weak behind and so as shall still be truly subservient to the great Points of Faith Hope and Love Holiness and Unity which must be still inculcated as the beginning and the end of all 27. Another help to my Success was that my People were not Rich There were among them very few Beggers because their common Trade of Stuff-weaving would find work for all Men Women and Children that were able And there were none of the Trades-men very rich seeing their Trade was poor that would but find them Food and Raiment The Magistrates of the Town were few of them worth 40 l. per An. and most not half so much Three or four of the Richest thriving Masters of the Trade got but about 500 or 600 l. in twenty years and it may be lose 100 l. of it at once by an ill Debtor The generality of the Master Workmen lived but a little better than their
Assurgency to the attempting of difficult thing and so my Mind may retire to the Root of Christian Principles and also I have often been afraid lest ill-rooting at first and many Temptations afterwards have made it more necessary for me than many others to retire to the Root and secure my Fundamentals But upon much Observation I am afraid lest most others are in no better a Case and that at the first they take it for a granted thing that Christ is the Saviour of the World and that the Soul is Immortal and that there is a Heaven and a Hell c. while they are studying abundance of a Scholastick Superstructures and at last will find cause to study more soundly their Religion it self as well as I have done The better Causes are these 1. I value all things according to their Use and Ends and I find in the daily Practice and Experience of my Soul that the Knowledge of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Truth of Scripture and the Life to come and of a Holy Life is of more use to me than all the most curious Speculations 2. I know that every Man must grow as Trees do downwards and upwards both at once and that the Roots increase as the Bulk and Branches do 3. Being nearer Death and another World I am the more regardful of those things which my Everlasting Life or Death depend on 4. Having most to do with ignorant miserable People I am commanded by my Charity and Reason to treat with them of that which their Salvation lyeth on and not to dispute with them of Formalities and Neceties when the Question is presently to be determined whether they shall dwell for ever in Heaven or in Hell In a Word my Meditations must be most upon the matters of my Practice and my Interest And as the Love of God and the seeking of Everlasting Life is the Matter of my Practice and my Interest so must it be of my Meditation That is the best Doctrine and Study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy I abhor the Folly of those unlearned Persons who revile or despise Learning because they know not what it is And I take not any piece of true Learning to be useless And yet my Soul approveth of the Resolution of Holy Paul who determined to know nothing among his Hearers that is comparatively to value and make Oftentation of no other Wisdom but that Knowledge of a Cruchfied Christ to know God in Christ is Life Eternal As the Stock of the Tree affordeth Timber to build Houses and Cities when the small though higher multiâ—arious Branches are but to make a Crowns Nest or a Blaze So the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ of Heaven and Holyness doth build up the Soul to endless Blessedness and affordeth it solid Peace and Comfort when a multitude of Schoolâ—Niceties serve but for vain Janglings and hurtful Diversions and Contentions And yet I would not dissuade my Reader from the perusal of Aquinas Scotus Ockam Arminiensis Durandus or any such Writer for much Good may be gotten from them But I would persuade him to study and live upon the essential Doctrines of Christianity and Godliness incomparably above them all And that he may know that my Testimony is somewhat regardable I presume to say that in this I as much gainsay my natural Inclination to Subtilty and Accurateness in Knowing as he is like to do by his if he obey my Counsel And I think if he lived among Infidels and Enemies of Christ he would find that to make good the Doctrine of Faith and of Life Eternal were not only his noblest and most useful Study but also that which would require the height of all his Parts and the utmost of his Diligence to manage it skilfully to the Satisfaction of himself and others 4. I add therefore that this is Another thing which I am changed in that whereas in my younger Days I never was tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ and this was it which I called Unbelief since then my soreft Assaults have been on the other side and such they were that had I been void of internal Experience and the Adhesion of Love and the special help of God and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger I had certainly Apostatized to Infidelity though for Atheism or Ungodliness my Reason seeth no stronger Arguments than may be brought to prove that there is no Earth or Air or Sun I am now therefore much more Apprehensive than heretofore of the Necessity of well grounding Men in their Religion and especially of the Witness of the indwelling Spirit For I more sensibly perceive that the Spirit is the great Witness of Christ and Christianity to the World And though the Folly of Fanaticks tempted me long to over-look the Strength of this Testimony of the Spirit while they placed it in a certain internal Assertion or enthusiastick Inspiration yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the Witness of Christ and his Agent in the World The Spirit in the Prophets was his first Witness and the Spirit by Miracles was the second and the Spirit by Renovation Sanctification Illumination and Consolation assimilating the Soul to Christ and Heaven is the continued Witness to all true Believers And if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Even as the Rational Soul in the Child is the inherent Witness or Evidence that he is the Child of Rational Parents And therefore ungodly Persons have a great disadvantage in their resisting Temptations to unbelief and it is no wonder if Christ be a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness There is many a one that hideth his Temptations to Infidelity because he thinketh it a shame to open them and because it may generate doubts in others but I doubt the imperfection of most mens care of their Salvation and of their diligence and resolution in a holy Life doth come from the imperfection of their belief of Christianity and the Life to come For my part I must profess that when my belief of things Eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firm all goeth accordingly in my Soul and all Temptations to sinful Compliances Worldliness or Flesh-pleasing do signifie worse to me than an invitation to the Stocks or Bedlam And no Petition seemeth more necessary to me than Lord increase our Faith I Believe help thou my unbelief 5. Among Truths certain in themselves all are not equally certain unto me and even of the Mysteries of the Gospel I must needs say with Mr. Richard Hooker Eccl. Polit. that whatever men may pretend the subjective Certainty cannot go beyond the objective Evidence for it is caused thereby as the print
on the Wax is caused by that on the Seal Therefore I do more of late than ever discern a necessity of a methodical procedure in maintaining the Doctrine of Christianity and of beginning at Natural Verities as presupposed fundamentally to supernatural though God may when he please reveal all at once and even Natural Truths by Supernatural Revelation And it is a marvellous great help to my Faith to find it built on so sure Foundations and so consonant to the Law of Nature I am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty to be greater than it is meerly because it is a dishonour to be less certain nor will I by shame be kept from confessing those Infirmities which those have as much as I who hypocritically reproach me with them My certainty that I am a Man is before my certainty that there is a God for Quod facit notum est magis notum My certainty that there is a God is greater than my certainty that he requireth love and holiness of his Creature My certainty of this is greater than my certainty of the Life of Reward and Punishment hereafter My certainty of that is greater than my certainty of the endless duration of it and of the immortality of individuate Souls My certainty of the Deity is greater than my certainty of the Christian Faith My certainty of the Christian Faith in its Essentials is greater than my certainty of the Perfection and Infallibility of all the Holy Scriptures My certainty of that is greater than my certainty of the meaning of many particular Texts and so of the truth of many particular Doctrines or of the Canonicalness of some certain Books So that as you see by what Gradations my Understanding doth proceed so also that my Certainty differeth as the Evidences differ And they that have attained to greater Perfection and a higher degree of Certainty than I should pity me and produce their Evidence to help me And they that will begin all their Certainty with that of the Truth of the Scripture as the Principium Cognoscendi may meet me at the same end but they must give me leave to undertake to prove to a Heathen or Infidel the Being of a God and the necessity of Holiness and the certainty of a Reward or Punishment even while he yet denieth the Truth of Scripture and in order to his believing it to be true 6. In my younger years my trouble for Sin was most about my Actual failings in Thought Word or Action except Hardness of Heart of which more anon But now I am much more troubled for â—nward Defects and omission or want of the Vital Duties or Graces in the Soul My daily trouble is so much for my Ignorance of God and weakness of Belief and want of greater love to God and strangeness to him and to the Life to come and for want of a greater willingness to die and longing to be with God in Heaven as that I take not some Immoralities though very great to be in themselves so great and odious Sins if they could be found as separate from these Had I all the Riches of the World how gladly should I give them for a fuller Knowledge Belief and Love of God and Everlasting Glory These wants are the greatest burden of my Life which oft maketh my Life it self a burden And I cannot find any hope of reaching so high in these while I am in the Flesh as I once hoped before this time to have attained which maketh me the wearier of this sinful World which is honoured with so little of the Knowledge of God 7. Heretofore I placed much of my Religion in tenderness of heart and grieving for sin and penitential tears and less of it in the love of God and studying his love and goodness and in his joyful praises than now I do Then I was little sensible of the greatness and excellency of Love and Praise though I coldly spake the same words in its commendations as now I do And now I am less troubled for want of grief and tears though I more value humility and refuse not needful Humiliation But my Conscience now looketh at Love and Delight in God and praising him as the top of all my Religious Duties for which it is that I value and use the rest 8. My Judgment is much more for frequent and serious Meditation on the heavenly Blessedness than it was heretofore in my younger days I then thought that a Sermon of the Attributes of God and the Joys of Heavenâ— were not the most excellent and was wont to say Every body knoweth this that God is great and good and that Heaven is a blessed place I had rather hear how I may attain it And nothing pleased me so well as the Doctrine of Regeneration and the Marks of Sincerity which was because it was suitable to me in that state but now I had rather read hear or meditate on God and Heaven than on any other Subject for I perceive that it is the Object that altereth and elevateth the Mind which will be such as that is which it most frequently feedeth on And that it is not only useful to our comfort to be much in Heaven in our believing thoughts but that is must animate all our other Duties and fortifie us against every Temptation and Sin and that the Love of the end is it that is the poise or spring which setteth every Wheel a going and must put us on to all the means And that a Man is no more a Christian indeed than he is Heavenly 9. I was once wont to meditate most on my own heart and to dwell all at home and look little higher I was still poring either on my Sins or Wants or examining my Sincerity but now though I am greatly convinced of the need of Heart-acquaintance and imployment yet I see more need of a higher work and that I should look often upon Christ and God and Heaven than upon my own Heart At home I can find Distempers to trouble me and some Evidences of my Peace but it is above that I must find matter of Delight and Ioy and Love and Peace it self Therefore I would have one thought at home upon my self and sins and many thought above upon the high and amiable and beatifying Objects 10. Heretofore I knew much less than now and yet was not half so much acquainted with my Ignorance I had a great delight in the daily new Discoveries which I made and of the Light which shined in upon me like a Man that cometh into a Country where he never was before But I little knew either how imperfectly I understood those very Points whose discovery so much delighted me nor how much might be said against them nor how many things I was yet a stranger to But now I find far greater Darkness upon all things and perceive how very little it is that we know in comparision of that which we are ignorant of and and have
Reasonings that are brought against co-ordinate Tradition you will invalidate subservient Tradition which is necessary to convey the very Scriptures from the Apostles and to assure us that these are all the same Writings and not corrupt and which is the Canonical and that there were no more 6. My sixth Reason against your Assertion is That it seems injurious to the Work we have in hand For 1. you will by any one Errour keep or cast out many godly Men from the Ministry 2. You will harden the Libertines when they discern it 3. And you will do more to introduce an Universal Toleration than can be done by most other Means imaginable For 1. One flaw found in your Work may cause it to be cast by 2. It will seem a potent Reason for such Toleration when the choicest Enemies shall mistake in their very Fundamentals 3. You will force us that are your Brethren to petition for Liberty and then others will think that they may come in at the same Gap 7. I added It will be a dishonour to the Parliament 1. When they shall send so hard a Work abroad and establish such a crooked Rule if they thus receive it from you if they reject or correct it it will be their grief to see our Division and Mistake 8. Lastly I added That it will be much to our own dishonour For 1. The Parliament will exactly scan it and no doubt discover the Mistake And 2. many too curious Eyes will examine it and what a reproach will it be to us to be the By-word of Gainsayers and to hear that such chosen Enemies have erred in their very Fundamentals and for the Papists to insult over us and say we can agree in no Confession and know not yet what Religion we are of And withal it may bring us under Jealousies with others that indeed we are Friends to Universal Toleration and made such flaws in our Work to destroy it and intended to undo all by our overdoing or misdoing I should not have presumed to have put you to so much trouble nor have made any stop in your Work when the dispatch is so desirable had not the Consequents of Silence seemed to me so intollerable I only add 1. I dare not think but Scripture is sufficient both for Matter and Words to afford us Fundamentals and to any thing which it speaks I am ready to subscribe 2. I dare not think that your late Reverend Assembly hath left out the very Fundamentals in their large Confession to which in this Article I offered to subscrible 3. I dare not undertake at the day of Judgment to justifie that Man from the Charge of damnable Infidelity who hath had only verbal Tradition of Gods Revelation of the Sum of Christianity as if this did not make his Infidelity inexcusable because he had it not from Scripture But I think that he shall be damned for his Infidelity who believeth not in Christ if he have all other Means besides the Scripture to help him to believe Ri. Baxter After this Paper they new worded the Article which occasioned the following Paper The Article All the means of Revealing Iesus Christ are subordinate and subservient to the Holy Scriptures and none of them co-ordinate It is no small trouble to me that I was necessitated to be the least delay to your Proceedings by reason of my unsatisfiedness with the former Article But that after our Endeavours for a Closure in that point and when we thought that all had been brought to Agreement the Matter of our Difference should be again received by the Addition of this Article is yet a greater trouble to me Not so much for my own sake as others lest it should offend the Parliament and open the Mouths of our Adversaries that we cannot our selves agree in Fundamentals and lest it prove an occasion for other to sue for an Universal Toleration I am unsatisfied in the last that is the Negative Clause of this Article as I was in the former 1. As to the Truth of it and 2. As to the weight of it as a Test for the Ministers that shall be allowed to preach 3. And as to the Necessity of it to Salvation as a Fundamental Concerning the first it must be remembred 1. That you speak of All means of revealing Christ without any Exception Limitation or Restriction no not so much as to ordinary means nor restraining it to means sufficient to Salvation 2. That you deny them to be co-ordinate absolutely also without any distinction exception or limitation 3. I desire it may be observed that I am not my self imposing any Terms on you or offering the Terms subordinate or any other to be put into the Article but only giving a Reason why I cannot subscribe it as it is which I shall now render having premised these Observations 1. The word co-ordinate being comprehensive and ambiguous I conceive doth among others contain these several Sences following 1. As the Species is subordinate to the Genus 2. As the nearer Causes in the same rank are subordinate to the higher and remote and all to the first Cause as in Generation the nearer Parents to the remote 3. As the Means are subordinate to the End in order thereto 4. As the less worthy is subordinate to the more worthy in degrees of Comparison Many other common Sences I now pass These being at least the three first common and the opposed Co-ordination universally denied I see no Evidence to warrant the denial 1. In the first respect I conceive that Divine Revelation being the Genus by word and by writing are distinct Species And as the delivery of the thing revealed is the Genus so the delivery of the perfect word in Scripture and of the Sum of the matter in Sacraments and other Means forementioned are distinct Species 2. In order of Efficiency I conceive that some Means are Supra-ordinate to Scripture and some Co-ordinate and Subordinate in several Respects and some Subordinate only of which I shall give Instances anon 3. In order to the nearer End those Means are subordinate to Scripture which are supra-ordinate in Efficiency and some of those which ab origine are co-ordinate when yet in order to the more remote End they are co-ordinate 4. In order of Dignity some Means are above Scripture some below it For Instances in these Cases 1. Jesus Christ himself both as the great Prophet of his Church inditing the Scriptures by his Spirit and sending the Apostles and still sending Ministers and owning his own Word is one Means of Revealing himself to Mankind And he is in order of Efficiency and of Dignity above the Scripture but subordinate as to the End which is near but not as to the ultimate End 2. The Holy Ghost inspiring the Apostles is a Means of Revelation supra-ordinate to the Scripture in Efficiency and Dignity And the Holy Ghost as enabling and sending forth Pastors is co-ordinate in Efficiency and subordinate as to one
when it is a thing not requiâ—ed of the Infant but only that he be the Child of a Believer and by the Parent dedicated to God in Baptism and there engaged in his Covenant to Believe and Obey when he is capable Of the Cross in Baptism we have said more in due place but here only add that it is a very great disorder besides the other faults to express the Terms of the Covenant as signified by the Cross more fully than as signified by baptizing viz. We sign him with the sign of the Cross in tâ—ken that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant unto his lives end Amen The Conclusion that the Child is Regenerate and the Thanksgiving for Regenerating it by the Spirit are doubly faulty First in concluding that all Children baptized are Regenerate when we admit those before mentioned whose Interest in the Covenant which Baptism sealeth cannot be proved that is such whose Parents can lay no just claim to the Grace of the Covenant At least here is a private Opinion thrust into our Liturgy Secondly in concluding all Infants regenerate by the Holy Ghost when so many Learned Divines think that it is but a Relative Regeneration that is ascertained them and the Controversie is yet undecided The Exhortation to the Godfathers and Godmothers imposeth on them the Duty of the Parents to see to the holy Education which ordinarily they cannot do nor are to be required to do nor is it ordinarily done and yet we go on in the abuse The concluding Rubrick hasteneth Children too soon to Confirmation contrary to some Clauses in the Rubrick for Confirmation Divers Defects besides these expressed will appear by comparing this part of the Common Prayer with the Forms which we offer In the Private Baptism it is disorderly to make the Godfathers and Godmothers renew solemnly the Covenant-Ingagement of the Child when before we are to certifie them that all is well done and according to due order and the solemnizing of the Covenant is the principal use of Baptism so that its doubtful whether the repeating of so great a part of Baptism be not a great part of Anbaptism And it is not orderly that twice we must say to the Godfathers and Godmothers Dost thou in the Name of this Child as if we spoke but to one of them and the third time we say Do you in his Name Also the Prayer of giving the Spirit to the Infant that he being born again seems to import the Effects of Baptism on Christ's part as understood by the Common Prayer Book to be not given by the Private Baptism In the Rubrick for Confirmation the Order that Children shall be Confirmed when they can say the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments and answer the Questions of the Catechism seems contrary to the first and third Reasons which require that Solemn Renewal or owning of their Covenant which ordinarily they are not ripe for of many years after they can say the Catechism And though we suppose the meaning was only to exclude the Necessity of any other Sacrament to baptized Infants yet these Words are dangerous as to mislead the Vulgar He shall know for a Truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved The meaning is ex parte Ecclesiae but it hath mislead many to think it is absolute and comprehendeth all things necessary in every respect In a Catechism where so many necessary Points are passed over it 's disorderly to put two such frivolous Questions in the beginning as What is your Name and Who gave you this Name In the Catechism there is omitted some of the Essential Attributes of God without which he cannot be rightly known There is also omitted the Doctrine of the Law made to Adam and of Man's Fall and the Doctrine of our Misery is insufficiently touched The Person Office and Properties of the Redeemer are so insufficiently opened as that we should think the Essentials of Christianity are omitted were it not that they are generally at least expressed in the Creed it self which is more full than the Explication of it There is no mention of the Holy Scriptures in it and the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace is very defectively expressed and so is the Doctrine of Sanctification and other parts of the Work of the Holy Ghost and the whole Doctrine of God's Judgment and Execution and that of Man's Duty and even the Nature and Use of the Sacraments in which it is fullest as will appear by a true comparing it with what we offer The Prayers and Administration of Confirmation suppose all the Children brought to be Confirmed to have the Spirit of Christ and the forgiveness of all their Sins whereas a great number of Children at that Age that we say not the far greater part do live a carnal careless Life and shew no Love to God above all no prevalent Self-denial Mortification nor Faith in Christ and Heavenly-mindedness nor serious Repentance for the Life of Sin which they continue in after Baptism Therefore to these Children Confirmation is not to be Administred till besides the saying of the Catechism they make a credible Profession of Faith Repentance and Obedience And to them that do not thus Confirmation is a gross and perillous Abuse In the concluding Rubrick there is no care taken for the multitude that being past Childhood understand not what it is to be a Christian who also have need of Catechizing In Matrimony these Words For be ye well assured that so many as be coupled together otherwise than God's Word doth allow are not joined together by God neither is their Matrimony Lawful do dangerously speak that of Irregularities in General which is true only of some greater Faults that are contrary to the Essentials of Matrimony For in many Cases quod fieri non debet factum valet The Ring should not be forced on those that scruple it The obsolete Phrases With my Body I thee Worship c. should be changed The Prayers at the Table are disorderly Repetitions not delivering that in many Words which may be exprest in few It is unfit to keep all Persons unmarried that are unmeet for the Communion being Infidels and unbaptized and prophane Persons may marry and it is unmeet to force such to receive the Communion the same Day that they Marry If it were requisite to put the private Work of visiting the Sick into the publick Liturgy of the Church yet the Variety of the Cases of the Sick is such that these Forms are not suitable to all In the Communion of the Sick the ancient Custom of the Church was where time and place allowed it to send the Deacon to the Sick at the time of the Celebration with a Portion of the
for my fear that he symbolized with the Papists was abated now I perceived that he knew not what they held And Dr. Gunning answered against him and said that the Papists do so use the Word I went on and told him That I also granted that a Man for a certainspace might he without any Act of Sin end as I was proceeding here Bishop Morley interrupted me according to his manner with vehemency crying out what can any Man be for any time without Sin And he founded out his Aggravations of this Doctrine and then cryed to Dr. Bates what say you Dr. Bates is this your Opinion Saith Dr. Bates I believe that we are all Sinners but I pray my Lord give him leave to speak I began to go on to the rest of my Sentence where I lest to shew the Sense and Truth of my Words and the Bishop whether in Passion or Design I know not interrupted me again and mouthed out the odiousness of my Doctrine again and again I attempted to speak and still he interrupted me in the same manner Upon that I sat down and told him that this was neither agreeable to our Commission nor the common Laws of Disputation nor the Civil Usage of Men in common Converse and that if he prohibited me to speak I desired him to do it plainly and I would â—â—sist and not by that way of interruption He told me I had speaking enough if that were good for I spake more than any one in the Company And thus he kept me so long from uttering the rest of my Sentence that I sat down and gave over and told him I took it for his Prohibition At last I let him talk and spake to those nearer me which would hear me and told them that this was it that I was going to say That I granted Bishop Lany that it was possible to be free from acting Sin for a certain time that so he might have no matter of Objection against me and that the Instances of my Concession were these 1. In the time of absolute Infancy 2. In the time of total Fatuity or Madness as natural Ideots that never had the use of Reason 3. In the time of a Lethargy Carus or Apoplexy or Epilepsie 4. In the time of lawful sleep when a Man doth not so much as dream amiss And whether any other Instances might be given I determined not But as I talked thus Bishop Morley went on talking louder than I and would neither hear me nor willingly have had me to have been heard Behind me at the lower end of the Table stood Dr. Crowther and he would consute me and I defended Dr. Lany in that Ieroboam made Israel to Sin What gather you thence quoth I that they had no Sin but that or never sumed before He answered yes and with a little Nonsence would defend it that Israel sinned not till then When I had proved the contrary to him in the general Acceptation of the Word Sin I told him that if he took the Word Figuratively the Genus for a Species I granted him that they sinned not that Species of Sin which Ieroboam taught them which is in the Text emphatically called Sin If he meant that they sinned no Sin of Idolatry or no National Sin till then It was not true and if it were it was nothing to our Question which was about Sin in the General or indefinitely He told me they Sinned no National Sin till then I asked him whether the Idolatry the Unbelief the Murmuring c. by which all the Nation save Caleb and Ioshua fell in the Wilderness and the Idolatry for which in the time of the Judges the Nation was conquered and captivated were none of them National Sins I give the Reader the Instance if this Odious kind of Talk to shew him what kind of Men we talkt with and what a kind of Task we had § 196. And a little further touch of it I shall give you When I beg'd their Compassion on the Souls of their Brethren and that they would not unnecessarily cast so many out of the Ministry and their Communion Bishop Cosins told me that we threatned them with Numbers and for his part he thought the King should do well to make us name them all A charitable and wise Motion To name all the Thousands of England that dissented from them and that had sworn the Covenant and whom they would after Persecute § 197. When I read in the Preface to our Exceptions against the Liturgy That after twenty years Calamity they would not yield to that which several Bishops voluntarily offered twenty Years before meaning the Corrections of the Liturgy offered by Archbishop Usher Archbishop Williams Bishop Morton Dr. Prideaux and many others Bishop Cosins answered me That we threatned them with a new War and it was time for the King to look to us I had no shelter from the Fury of the Bishop but to name Dr. Hammond and tell him that I remembred Dr. Hammond insisted on the same Argument that twenty Years Calamity should have taught Men more Charity and brought them to repentance and Brotherly Love and that it is an Aggravation of their Sin to be unmerciful after so long and heavy Warnings from God's Hand He told me if that were our meaning it was all well And these were the most logical Discourses of that Bishop § 198. Among all the Bishops there was none who had so promising a Face as Dr. Sterne the Bishop of Carlisle He look'd so honestly and gravely and soberly that I scarce thought such a Face could have deceived me and when I was intreating them not to cast out so many of their Brethren through the Nation as scrupeled a Ceremony which they confess'd indifferent he turn'd to the rest of the Reverend Bishops and noted me for saying in the Nation He will not say in the Kingdom saith he lest he own a King This was all that ever I heard that worthy Prelate say But with grief I told him that half the Charity which became so grave a Bishop might have sufficed to have helpt him to a better Exposition of the Word Nation from the Mouths of such who have to lately taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and sworn Fidelity to the King as his Chaplains and had such Testimonies from him as we have had and that our case was sad if we could plead by the King's Commission for Accommodation upon no no better Terms than to be noted as Traytors every time we used such a Word as the Nation which all monarchical Writers use § 199. Bishop Morley earnestly pleaded my own Book with me my fifth Disput. as he had done before the King And I still told him I went not from any thing in it He vehemently aggravated the mischiefs of Conceived Prayer in the Church and when I told him that all the Action of Men would be imperfect while Men were imperfect and that the other side also had its
nor Seditious but a People that quietly followed their hard Labour and learned the Holy Scriptures and lived a holy blameless Life in Humility and Peace with all Men and never had any Sect or separated Party among them but abhorred all Faction and Sidings in Religion and lived in Love and Christian Unity Yet when the Bishop was gone the Dean came and preached about three hours or near to cure them of the Admiration of my Person and a month after came again and preached over the same perswading the People that they were Presbyterians and Schismatical and were led to it by their over-valuing of me The People admired at the temerity of these Men and really thought that they were scarce well in their Wits that would go on to speak things so far from truth of Men whom they never knew and that to their own faces Many have gone about by backbiting to make People believe a false report of others but few will think to perswade any to believe it of themselves who know themselves much better than the Reprover doth Yet besides all this their Lecturers were to go on in the same strain and one Mr. Pitt who lived in Sir Iohn Packington's House with Dr. Hammond was often at this work being of the Judgment and Spirit of Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pierce calling them Presbyterians Rebellious Serpents and Generation of Vipers unlikely to scape the Damnation of Hell yet knowing not his Accusation to be true of one Man of them For there was but one if one Presbyterian in the Town but plain honest People that minded nothing but Piety Unity Charity and their Callings This dealing instead of winning them to the Preacher drove them from the Lecture and then as I said they accused the People as deserting it and put it down § 252. For this ordinary Preacher they set up one of the best parts they could get was far from what his Patrons spake him to be who was quickly a weary and went away And next they set up a poor dry Man that had been a School-master near us and after a little time he died And since they have taken another Course and set up a young Man the best they can get who taketh the contrary way to the first and over-applaudeth me in the Pulpit to them and speaketh well of them and useth them kindly And they are glad of one that hath some Charity And thus the Bishop hath used that Flock who say that till then they never knew so well what a Bishop was nor were before so guilty of that dislike of Episcopacy of which they were so frequently and vehemently accused I hear not of one person among them who is won to the Love of Prelacy or Formality since my removal § 253. Having parted with my dear Flock I need not say with mutual sense and tears I left Mr. Baldwin to live privately among them and oversee them in my stead and visit them from House to House advising them notwithstanding all the Injuries they had received and all the Failings of the Ministers that preached to them and the Defects of the present Way of Worship that yet they should keep to the Publick Assemblies and make use of such Helps as might be had in Publick together with their private Helps Only in three Cases to absent themselves 1. When the Minister was one that was utterly insufficient as not being able to teach them the Articles of the Faith and Essentials of true Religion such as alas they had known to their sorrow 2. When the Minister preached any Heresie or Doctrine which was directly contrary to any Article of the Faith or necessary part of Godliness 3. When in the Application he set himself gainst the Ends of his Office to make a holy Life seem odious and to keep Men from it and to promote the Interest of Satan Yet not to take every bitter Reflection upon themselves or others occasioned by difference of Opinion or Interest to be a sufficient Cause to say that the Minister preacheth against Godliness or to withdraw themselves § 254. When I was gone from them I wrote not a Letter to them past onec in a year left it should bring Suffering upon them the Cause also why I removed my Dwelling from them was because they apprehended themselves that my presence would have been their ruine as to Liberty and Estates For had they but received a Letter from me any displeasing thing that they had done would have been imputed to that As for instance not long after there came out the Act that all that had any Place of Trust in Cities Corporations or Countreys should be put out unless they declared that they held That there is no Obligation lying upon them or any other person from the Oath called The Solemn League and Covenant Hereupon all the Thirteen Capital Burgesses Bailiff Justice and all save one that had been an Officer in the King's Army were turned out though I suppose never any more than two or three of them took the Oath and Covenant themselves and almost all the 25 inferiour Burgesses were turned out with them Whereupon it was charged upon them that I had perswaded them to refuse this Declaration till it was manifest that I had never once spoke a word to them about it nor written one Line to them about that or anything else of a long time At such a distance were we forced to remain § 255. After a short time the Lord Windsor who was Lord Lieutenant of the County and Governour of Iamaica bought a House in the Town and lived among them as most thought to watch over them as a dangerous People which turned to their great Relief For before his coming they were many of them imprisoned and hardly used but when he lived among them and saw their honesty and innocency they have had Three years of as great quietness and liberty as any place I know in the Land When he first came thither I was there and went to wait upon him and told him truly that I was glad of his coming for my Neighbour's sakes for an innocent People are never so safe as under their Governour 's Eye seeing Slanders have their power most on strangers that are unacquainted with the persons or the things § 256. Just at the time that the Bishop was Silencing me it was famed at London that I was in the North in the Head of a Rebellion And at Kidderminster I was accused because there was a Meeting of many Ministers at my House which was no more than they knew had been their constant Custom many a year to visit me or dine with me And while we were at Dinner it fell out that by publick Order the Covenant was to be burnt in the Market-place and it was done under my Window and the Attendance was so small that we knew not of it till afterwards Yet because I had preached the Morning before which as I remember was my
it Of which in that Book he saith so much to the pity rather than satisfaction of the Judicious his Book being otherwise the soundest and most abounding with Light of any one that I have seen But the very necessity of explaining the Three Articles of Baptism and the Three Summaries of Religion the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue hath led all the common Catechisms that go that way of which Vrsine Corrected by Paraeus is the chief into a truer Method than any of our exactest Dichotomizers have hit on not excepting Treleatius Solinius or Amesius which are the best § 147. The Nature of things convinced me That as Physicks are presupposed in Ethicks and that Morality is but the ordering of the Rational Nature and its Actions so that part of Physicks and Metaphysicks which opened the Nature of Man and of God which are the Parties contracting and the great Subjects of Theology and Morality is more neerly pertinent to a Method of Theology and should have a larger place in it than is commonly thought and given to it Yet I knew how Uncouth it would seem to put so much of these Doctrines into a Body of Divinity But the three first Chapters of Genesis assured me That it was the Scripture-Method And when I had drawn up one Scheme of the Creation and sent it the Lord Chief Baron because of our often Communication on such Subjects and being now banished from his Neighbourhood and the County where he lived he received it with so great Approbation and importuned me so by Letters to go on with that work and not to fear being too much on Philosophy as added somewhat to my Inclinations and Resolutions And through the great Mercy of God in my Retirement at Totteridge in a troublesome poor smoaky suffocating Room in the midst of daily pains of the Sciatica and many worse I set upon and finished all the Schemes and half the Elucidations in the end of the Year 1669. and the beginning of 1670. which cost me harder Studies than any thing that ever I had before attempted § 148. In the same time and place I also wrote a large Apology for the Nonconformists Partly to prove it their Duty to Exercise their Ministry as they can when they are Silenced and partly to open the State of the Prelacy the Subscriptions Declarations c. which they refuse for the furious Revilings of Men did so increase and their Provocations and Accusations and Insultings were so many and great that it drove me to this work as it were against my will But when I had done it I saw that the Publication of it would by Imprisonment or Banishment put an end to my other Labours which made me lay it by for I thought that the finishing of my Methodus Theologiae was a far greater work But if that had been done I think I should have published it whatever it had cost me § 149. This Year 1670 my forementioned Cure of Church Divisions came out which had been before cast by which occasioned a storm of Obloquy among almost all the separating Party of Professors and filled the City and Country with matters of Discourse which fell out to be as followeth I had long made use of two Booksellers Mr. Tyton and Mr. Simmons the former lived in London and the later in Kiderminster But the latter removing to London they envyed each other in a meer desire of gain one thinking that the other got more than he was willing should go besides himself Mr. Tyton first refused an equal Co-partnership with the other Whereupon it fell to the others share to Print my Life of Faith and Cure of Church Divisions after my Directions to weak Christians together Which occasioned Mr. Tyton to tell several that came to his Shop that the Book as he heard was against private Meetings at least at the time of Publick and made those Schimaticks that used them Mr. Simmons met with a credible Citizen that gave it him under his Hand that Mr. Tyton said that he might have had the Printing of the Book but would not because it spake against those things which he had seen me Practise c. which were all gross Untruths for the Book was never offered him nor had he never seen a word of it or ever spoken with any one that had seen it and told him what was in it Mr. Tyton being a Member of an Independent Church this sort of People the eaâ—ilier believed this and so it was carried among them from one to one first that I wrote against private Meetings and then that I accused them all of Schism and then that I wrote for Conformity and lastly that I conformed so that before a Line of my Book was known this was grown the common Fame of the City and thence of all the Land and sent as certain into Scotland and Ireland yea they named the Text that I preached my Recantation Sermon on before the King as stirring him up to Cruelty against the Nonconformists So common was the Sin of Back-biting and Slandering among the Separating Party so it were but done at the second hand and they that thought themselves too good to joyn with the Conformists or use their Liturgy or Communion yet never stuck at the common carrying of all these Falshoods because they could say a good Man told it me So that Thousands made no bones of this that would not have defiled themselves with a Ceremony or an imposed Form of Prayer by any means Yea the Streets rang with Reproaches against me for it without any more proof Some said that I took part with the Enemies of Godliness and countenanced their Church-Tyranny and some said that I sought to reconcile my self to them for fear of further Suffering And thus the Christians that were most tenderly afraid of the Liturgy and Ceremonies were so little tender of receiving and vending the most disingenuous Falshoods as if they had been no matter of Scruple So easie is a sinful Zeal and so hardly is true Christian Zeal maintained § 150. At the same time there fell out a Case which tended to promote the Calumny The old Reading Vicar of Kiderminster dyed about the Day of the Date of the Act against Conventicles Sir Ralph Clare his chief Friend and my Applauder but Remover being dead a little before the old Patron Collonel Iohn Bridges Sold the Patronage to Mr. Thomas Foley with a condition that he should present me next if I were capable which he promised as also that he would Present no other but by my consent Because I had done so much before to have continued in that place and had desired to Preach there but as a Curate under the Reading Vicar when I resused a Bishoprick and the Vicaridge was now come to be worth 200 l. per Ann. and this falling void at the same time when the Independents had filled the Land with the Report that I was Writing against them for Conformity hereupon the Bishops
Protestant Divines of England are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino for so I say it was direct Popery that first denied Bishops to be jure Divino witness the Pope's and Papelins canvassing in the Council of Trent to oppress by Force and Tyranny the far major and more learned part of the Council that contended for so many Months with Suffrages Arguments and Protestations Protestant like to have it defined that Bishops were jure Divino and only the Pope and his Titulars and Courtiers suffered it not to be propounded least it should be as certainly it would have been defined for then Popes and Presbyterians could not have lorded it so Thus the chiefest and most pious and learned Bishops of our English Church must be branded for Popish Bishop Andrews Mountague White c. Reply to Sect. 15. 1. If you deny the Authors cited by me to be authentick pretend not to adhere to the Episcopal Protestants for sure these are such 2. You do not well to say that all the Protestant Bishops are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino either shew the Words where I so brand them or else do not tell us that your Words are true though in a matter of Fact before your Eyes we may well question your Argument when we find you so untrue in reporting a plain Writing Indeed our late Bishops and those most that were most suspected to be Popish did stand most upon the jus Divinum which many of the first did either disclaim or not maintain But it never came into my Thoughts to brand all for Papists that did own it Do I not cite Downame and others as Protestant Bishops who yet maintain it yea Bishop Andrews whom you name this is not fair 3. As for the Trent Quarrel about Bishops I say but this if the Spanish Bishops and the rest that stood for the jus Divinum of Episcopacy there were no Papists then those that I spoke of in England were none much less And I must cry you mercy for so esteeming them Except to Sect. 16. The 3d Argument is from the uncertainty of Succession which might have done the Hereticks good Service in the old times when St. Irenaeus and Tertullian muster up against them Successions of Catholick Bishops that ever taught as the Church then taught against the Hereticks Reply to Sect. 16. 1. It seems you are confident of an uninterrupted Succession of authoritative Ordination though you seem to think none authoritative but Episcopal But so were not the Protestant Bishops who took the Reformed Churches to have true Ministers and to be true Churches when yet Episcopal Ordination is interrupted with them Such are all those with whose Words you say I fill my Book to whom I may add Men which is strange that were thought nearer your own way As Bishop Bromhall in his late Answer to Militerius who yet would have the Pope to be the Principium Unitatis to the Church and the Answer to Fontanus's Letter said to be Dr. Stewards besides Dr. Fern yea if you were one of those that would yield that Presbyters may ordain yet I am still unpersuaded that you are able to prove an uninterrupted Succession of Authoritative Ordination and if you are able I should heartily thank you if you would perform it and seeing it is so Necessary it is not well that no Episcopal Divine will perform it If you are not able methinks you should not judge it so necessary at least except you know them that are able If you cast it on us to disprove that Succession I refer you to our Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers as to that point 2. As for Tertullian and Irenaeus and others of the primitive Ages pleading such Succession I answer 1. It is one thing to maintain an uninterrupted Succession then when and where it was certain and another to maintain it now when it is not 2. It is one thing then to maintain that such a Succession was de facto and another to affirm that it must be or would be to the end of the World which those Fathers did not It was the Scope of Irenaeus and Tertullian not to make an uninterrupted Succession of standing absolute necessity ad esse Officii nor to prophecy that so it should still be and the Church should never want it but from the present certainty of such a Succession de facto to prove that the Orthodox Churches had better Evidence of the Soundness of their Faith than the Hereticks had If this be not their meaning I cannot understand them it was easy then to prove the Succession and therefore it might be made a Medium against Hereticks to prove that the Churches had better Evidence than they But now the Case is altered both through time and Sin It might have been proved by Tradition without Scripture what was sound Doctrine and what not before the Scripture was written An Heretick might have been confuted in the Days of the Apostles without their Writings and perhaps in a great measure some time after but it follows not that they may be so to the End of the World Those that heard it from the Mouth of the Apostles could tell the Church what Doctrine they taught but how uncertain a way Tradition would have been to acquaint the World with God's Mind by that time it had passed through the puddle of depraved Ages even to 1653. God well knew and therefore provided us a more certain way So is it also in this Case of Succession as the Fathers pleaded it against the Hereticks to prove the Soundness of the Tradition of those Churches Except to Sect. 17. Against all which a Quirk it seems lay that if secretly any of them had had but a secret Canonical Irregularity all the following Successions were null But the evident Truth is much otherwise that the Church never anulled the Acts or Ordinations made by Bishops which the Catholick Church then had accepted and reputed Catholick Bishops though afterwards they came to know of any Secret Irregularities or canonical Disablings had they then been urged or prosecuted by any against those Bishops and then they should have been accepted for Bishops by the Church no longer Reply to Sect. 17. 1. I have proved and more can do open and not only secret Irregularities in the Church of Rome's Ordinations known a Priâ—re and not only after the Ordinations The Multitude of Protestant Writers even English Bishops have made that evident enough against the Pope which you call a Querk general Councils have condemned Popes as Hereticks and Infidels and yet they have ordained more 2. If it were otherwise yet all your Answer would only prove that we must sometimes take them for Bishops who were none when the Nullity is secret but not that they are Bishops indeed or have Authority It is one thing to
say that God will make their Acts as useful to the honest Receiver as if the Ordainer had done it by just Authority and another to say that such an Ordainer had Authority because his Incapacity was not known or judged that is because it was not then known that he had none 2. Moreover if the Catholick Churches Acceptation and Reputation which you mention would serve turn then 1. It were well worth the knowing what you mean by the Catholick Church do you mean the whole or only a Part If the whole then few Ministers or Bishops must be so accepted for who is known to all Christians in the World If a Part then what Part must it be what if one Part repute him a true Minister or Bishop and the other a false or none which is very common If you say it is the People over whom he is Pastor then nothing more common then for them to be divided in their Judgments If you say it is the greater part then we shall be at utter Uncertainties for our Succession as little knowing what the greater part of the People thought of our Predecessors if you mean the Superior Bishops then a Metropolitan it seems is the Catholick Church when a Bishop is to be judged of and it is like a Patriarch for a Metropolitan and the Pope for him But as 1. We know not how these judged of our Predecessors 2. So we little believe that these Mens Judgments can make a Man to be a Bishop that is none or make him have a Power which else he had not this is worse than the Doctrine which hangs the Efficacy of the Sacraments on the Priests Intention It 's like the Faith of some that think to make a Falsehood become true by believing it true 3. And you know it is the Pope whose Succession we are questioning and which is the Catholick Church that must accept and repute him a true Pope If the Council of Basil were the Catholick Church then you know how Eugenius was reputed and then where is our Succession I doubt not but true Christians that are not guilty of the Nullity of the Ordination nor knew it may have the Benefit and Blessing of such a Man's Administrations and they may be valid to the Receiver But that is on another ground which I have lately manifessed to another in debating this Cause and not that the Administrator had any true Ministerial Authority from God Again I refer you to my Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers Except to Sect. 18. V.G. Put case one not baptized thought to have been baptized had per ignorantiam facti been promoted to be Bishop Archibishop or Patriarch yet so long as the Church knew it not nor himself perhaps but did accept him bona Fide though ipso Facto had it been known such had been uncapable of Episcopal Order yet being so accepted by the Catholick Church Ordinations done by him were not null nor did he interrupt the Succession but latente omni defectu baptismi he was a true Bishop though after his Death by any Writing they had come to discover it for the Church as all Judicatures rightly proceeds secundum allegata probata the same I say of secret Symony V. S. But on the other side to speak now to the Presbyterian Case Reply to Sect. 18. Nay then put Case the Man were not Ordained and the Church took him to be Ordained you say the Church must proceed secundum allegata probata doth not this give up your Cause and yield all that I plead for which is that an authoritative Ordination and so an uninterrupted Succession is not simply and absolutely necessary to the being of the Ministry For you confess your Churches Reputation may serve without it By the way take head least you either make the People to be none of the Catholick Church or at least you give a Power to the People to make Ministers Bishops and Popes by their bare Thoughts without Ordination or so much as Election But then you will remember that if Reputation without just Ordination may serve turn I know not but those among us may be Ministers whom you disclaim For the Pastors and People of all the Protestant Churches in Europe except your selves here do take such for Ministers so far as it is possible by Writings Professions and Practices to know their Minds and I hope they are as good a part of the Catholick Church as the Pope and his Consistory are If Reputation then will make Pastors without Ordination we may have as good a Plea as those you plead for For the case of Symony you mention see what I cited out of Dr. Hammond and you know sure that many Canons make Ordinations null and the Office null ipso Facto whether ever the Party be questioned in Judgment or not such Canons and Laws are equal to Sentences A Case also may be known that is never questioned and Judged who could question the Sodomitical unclean murderous Popes though it was commonly known I take it for granted therefore that the Knowledge degraded them without a Judgment according to your own Words here unless one part of them contradict the other Except to Sect. 19. The same ancient Church which did make void and annul constantly all Ordinations made by meer Presbyters whether they Schismatically arrogated to themselves to be Bishops and were not nor so reputed by the Church or otherwise upon any Pretention whatsoever for at that time no necessity could be with any Colour nor was pretended Reply to Sect. 19. 1. But is it the Judgment of the Ancient Church that will serve to degrade or null a Minister of this Age If so then all your former Arguing is in the Dust For though your Popes had none to Judge them Wicked and Uncapable then yet the ancient Church before them did make void and null the Office and Ordinations of such as they If it must be a present Power that must do it we have not yet been called to any Judicature about it 2. Your Parenthesis seems to intimate that if the Presbyters be but Reputed Bishops by the Church then their Ordinations are not null All 's well on our side then except you only or the Romanists be the whole Western Church For not only Pastors and People here do take Presbyters to be Bishops having Power of Ordination but so do the rest of the Reformed Churches or at least most of them They think that the primitive Bishop was the Bishop of one particular Church and not of a Diocess or many Churches 3. You talk of necessity again but you would not say that necessity would have excused them then if there had been such though it seems you would be thought to judge of the Reformed Churches as the Protestant Bishops do or else hide your Judgment in part Except to Sect. 20. These Three Fallacies are the Summ of all his Arguments rather popular Calumnies for want of Argument
to prevail with them 2. The Protestants whom I spoke to may be prevailed with for ought you know All be not of one Spirit If they be not I have Confort in following Peace as far as I could which they will never find in flying from it While every Man must be a Pope and reduce all the World to his infallible Judgment as the only means to Peace and will agree with none but Men of his own Principles no wonder if Pacificatory Attempts are frustrate Duroeus Acontius Davenant Hall Melancthon c. found that better Labours than mine have been frustrate for Unity I bless God my Success is far more than ever I did expect but it is with the Sons of Peace Excep to Sect. 30. These things shall be defended against him through God's Grace 1. That if there be no Bishop in any Diocess yet in a National Church where many Bishops had united themselves to govern parts of one National Church they ought to have recourse to some neighbour Bishop 2. That if Presbyters in defect of Bishops might Ordain Excommunicate yet not one single Presbyter 3. That such as were never Ordained by Bishops where they might are none of of these Presbyters none at all Reply to Sect. 30. I am of as quarrelsom a Nature as others but yet I will not be provoked to turn a conciliatory Design into a Contention and if I would your Questions are ill fitted to our use 1. The First will necessarily carry us to dispute the Ius Divinum of Bishops which I purposely avoid and it should be after the last 2. The Secoônd if I yield it you is nothing against our Agreement 3. The Third I cannot dispute well till I know what you will yield in the excepted Case I would desire you as a more orderly and effectual way to our Ends to do these three Things 1. Tell me plainly whether you take the Reformed Churches of Holland France Scotland Helvetia Geneva c. for true organized Churches and their Pastors for true Pastors and Presbyters and Ordination by Presbyters to be valid in their Case 2. seeing you plainly seem to take an uninterrupted Succession of authoritative Ordination to be of flat Necessity to the being of the Ministry will you give us a clear Proof of such a Succession de Facto either to your self or any Man now living I earnestly intreat you deny me not this nor say it is needless I have told you the need of it in those Papers Again I pray you put it not off 3. Seeing you prosess to be for Concord and yet reject our Terms as a Schismatical Combination will you propound your own Terms the lowest condescending Terms which you can possibly yield to which may tend to our Closure If you only contend against our Way and will not find a better nor use any Endeavours of your own in its stead what Man of Reason will believe your Profession of the strong Inclination of the Heart to Concord and Peace I again intreat you instead of contending to perform these Three things which will exceedingly further the much desired Work And for my part though you and Millions of Men oppose it I am resolved by the Grace of God to desire pray and labour for Peace and the Unity of the Church upon Honest and Possible not Romish or Sinful Terms while I am Rich. Baxter Dec. 23. 1653. No. II. Mr. Johnson's First Letter to Mr. Baxter about the Point of Ordination SIR BEING very much unsatisfied in the reading of your late Discourse concerning the Interruption of the Succession of the Ministry I thought good to take Advantage from your own Offer friendly and freely to debate the Question with you And I shall lay out my Thoughts to you in this Method 1. I will give you the Reasons which makes me if it be Papistical to abet the Papists in pleading for an uninterrupted Succession 2. I will reply to your Arguments whereby you dispute the Succession of the Ministry of England to be interrupted 3. I will offer you some Reasons why an infallible Proof of the Point is not necessary in the Case 4. I will produce such Arguments as shall put it beyond doubting and so shall leave indubitable though not infallible Proof of the Question in your Hands 1. First I shall give you the Reasons why I plead so seriously for the uninterrupted Succession and I shall do this in the first place because all the rest will be Supervacaneous if it be a Matter of no great Consequence whether there be a Succession or not If therefore you can satisfy my Arguments whereby I plead for the Necessity and give me Reason enough to understand that an Uninterruption of the Succession is not much material I will save my self the Trouble of Confuting what you have said against it and you some Trouble of making a needless Repl. Now the first Reason which induceth me to believe that it is a matter of much more Cosequence than you talk of is the Seriousness of our Divines in their Endeavours to prove that the Bishops in Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's Days were Ordained by Bishops against the Calumnies of Sanders Kellison Chalmney and other Jesuits who in their Writings would have bore the World in Hand that the Succession of the Ministry of England had been interrupted at the Reformation because there were none but Popish Bishops to Ordain them and they would not and so none did But as you know had devised a Story of the Nag's-Head Ordination Now you also know there hath been much Endeavour made by searching the Archiva at Lambeth to clear up the Ordination of our first Reformers that thereby they might invalidate the Papists Calumny of our Succession◠being interrupted But if Succession in Office for Succession in Doctrine I neither speak of neither did they plead for be a matter of so small a Consequence our learned Country-Men might have saved themselves much Labour and Trouble and in a few Words have told the Jesuits that an Uninterruption of Succession was a thing not worth pleading for But on the other side we see them acknowledge Succession in Office to be necessary and contend that there hath been no such Interruption in our Ministry II. The Second Argument which persuades me to believe that the pleading for a Succession is of great Moment is this viz. That without this I do not understand how we that are now Ministers can be said to have our Authority from Christ For we must have it from him either mediately or immediately But we cannot have it mediately from him if the Succession be interrupted for if we have it mediately from him we must have it by the Mediation of some Person who at length had it immediately from him But if the Succession be interrupted we cannot have it from any Person that had it immediately from him or his Apostles This is a kind of Contradiction in adjecto and therefore we cannot have it
grant the Necessity of such Succession yet we need not grant the Nullity of our Calling 2. I deny that the English Bishops much less the Church of England did ever judge it necessary any farther than ad Hominem 1. Because it is apparent that they do ordinarily in their Writings speak against the Papists supposed Necessity of Ordination as I instanced out of some of them in my Book It is known to be a Point wherein the Protestants have commonly opposed the Papists 2. It is known to be but the later declining Generation of Bishops such at Montague Laud and their Confederates most in King Charles his Days very few in King Iames's and scarce any at all in Queen Elizabeth's that do join with the Papists in pleading the Necessity of Succession Even such Men as were as zealous against Queen Elizabeth's Episcopal Protestants as against the Papists at least many of them 3. The rest do expresly mention Succession and confute the Fâ—ble of the Nag's-Head Ordination in Cheapside to prove the Papists Slanderers So much to your Minor 3. If that will not serve I deny your Major All is not necessary that they thought necessary Protestants pretend not to Infallability in Controversals Many more perhaps ten to one at least of the English Clergy held it not necessary unless as aforesaid Ad 2 um Your second Argument hath all the Strength in it or rather shew of Strength â— first we must needs distinguish of your Terms Mediately and Immediately A Constitution may be said to be from Christ mediately either in Respect to a mediating Person or to some mediating Sign only Also it may be said to be mediante persona 1. when the Person is the cause totalâ—â— subordinata constituendi as having himself received the Power from God and being as from himself to convey it unto Man 2. Or when the Person is but Causa per accidens 3. Or when he is only Causa sive qua non vel quatenus impedementa â—emovit vel quatenus ejus Actiones sunt conditiones necessarie And so I answer 1. Immediately in the first absolute Sense excludendo personâ—â— res no Man ever had any Right communicated or Duty imposed on him by God unless perhaps the immediate Impress or supernatural Revelation of the Holy Ghost to some Peophet or Apostle might be said to do this Moses himself had the Ten Commandments written in Stone which were signa mediantia Those that heard God speak if any immediately without Angelical Interposition did receive God's Commands mediante verborum signo So did the Apostles that which they had from the Mouth of Christ. 2. God is so absolutely the Fountain of all Power that no Man can either have or give any Power but derivatively from him and by his Commission Man being no farther the Efficient of Power than he is so constituted of God the general way of his giving it must be by the Signification of God's Will and so far as that can be sufficiently discovered there needs no more to the Conveyance of Power Whether Men be properly efficient Causes of Church Power at all is a very hard Question especially as to those over whom they have no superior governing Power As Spalatensis hath taken great pains to prove that Kings or other Sovereigns of the Common-wealth have their Commission and Power immediately from God though the People sometimes may choose the Man for the Power was not given to the People first and then they give it the King but God lets them name the Man on whom he will immediately confer it so possibly may it be in Ordination of Church-Officers Three ways do Men mediate in the Nomination of the Person 1. When they have Authority of Regiment over others and explenitudine potestatis do convey efficiently to inferior Officers the Power that these have Thus doth the supream Rector of the Commonwealth to his Officers and Ergo they are caled the Kings Officers and he hath the choice of the very Species as well as of the individual Officers Now this way of mediating is not always if at all necessary or possible in the Church for the Papists themselves confess that the Pope is Ordained or authorized without this way of Efficiency for none have a Papal Power to convey to him His Ordination cannot be Actus Superioris And the Council of Trent could not agree whether it were not the Case of all Bishops to hold their Office immediately from Christ though under the Pope or whether they had their Power immediately from the Pope as the prime Seat on Earth of all Church Power who is to convey their Parts to others How the Spanish Bishops held up their Cause is known And it was the old Doctrine of the Church that all Bishops were equal and had no Power one over another but all held their Power directly from Christ as Cyprian told them in the Council of Carthage Add to this that the true old Apostolical Episcopacy was in each particular Church and not over many Churches together I speak of fixed Bishops till the matter becoming too big to be capable of the old Form Corruptio unius fuit generatio alterius and they that upon the increase of Christians should have helpt the Swarm into a new Hive did through natural Ambition of ruling over many retaine divers Churches under their Charge and then ceased to be of the Primitive sort of Bishops Non eadem fuit res non munus idem etiamsi idem nomen retinerent So that truly our Parish Ministers who are sole or chief Pastors of that Church are the old sort of Bishops for as Ambrose and after him Grotius argues qui ante se alterum non habebat Episcopus er at That is in eadem Ecclesia qui superiorem non habet So that not only all Diocesan Bishops but also all Parochial Bishops are Ordained per pares and so not by a governing Communication of Power which is that second way of Ordination when men that are of equal Authority have the Nomination of the Person Now whether or no he that ordaineth an Inferior as a Deacon or any other do convey Authority by a proper Efficiency as having that first in himself which he doth Convey yet in the Ordination of Equals it seems not to be so for they have no Government over the particular Persons whom they Ordain or Churches to whom they Ordain them nor could they themselves exercise that governing Power over that other Congregation which they appoint another to so that they seem to be but Causae Morales or sine quibus non as he that sets the Wood to the Fire is of its burning or as he that openeth you the Door is of your bringing any thing into the House So that if you will call the Ordainer of an Inferior causam equivocam and the Ordainer of an Equal causam univocam yet it is but as they morally and improperly cause The Third way of Mediating in the
Cause against those ravening Wolves and strengthen all thy Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage Let not thy Long suffering be an occasion to increase their Tyranny or to discourage thy Children c. The Homilies have many Passages liable to hard Interpretations The use of none of these is Sedition XXIV From 1650. to 1660. I had Controversies by Manuscript with some great Doctors that took up with Dr. Hammond's and Petavius's new singular way of Pleading for Episcopacy which utterly betrayed it They held that in Scripture time all called Presbyters were Diocesan Bishops and that there was no such thing as our Subject Presbyters and yet that every Congregation had a Diocesan Bishop and that it was no Church that had not such a Bishop and that there are no more Churches than there are such Bishops And so when Diocesses were enlarged as ours the Parishes were no Churches for no Bishop had more than one And that Subject Presbyters are since made and are but Curates that have no more power than the Bishop pleaseth to give them Dr. Hammond in his Vindication saith That as far as he knoweth all that owned the same Cause with him against the Presbyterians were come to be of his mind herein And we know not of four Bishops then in England And the Et caetera Oath and Canons of 1640. and the Writers that nullified the Reformed Churches Ordination and Ministry and pleaded for a Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and for our Re-ordination all looking the same way I thought they knew the Judgment of the few remaining Bishops better than I did and sometime called it The Iudgment of the present Church here that is of these Church-men and the English Diocesans but proved that the Laws and Doctrine still owned as the Churches was contrary to them and took the Parishes for true Churches and the Incumbents true Pastors and the Diocesans to be over many Churches and not one alone whereas the Men that I gainsayed overthrew the whole Sacred Ministry among us and all our Churches as of Divine Institution for our Presbyters they say were not in Scripture times Our Parishes are no Churches for want of Bishops our Diocesans are no Successors of such Apostolick Men as were over many Churches ours having but one And they are not like those that they call the Scripture Diocesans for they say these Doctors had but single Assemblies These Men I confuted in my Treatise of Episcopacy and other Books But the Scribe or Printer omitting my Direction to put still The fore-described Prelacy and Church instead of The English Prelacy and Church I was put to number it with the Errata and give the Reader notice of it in the Preface and Title Page and have since vindicated the Church of England hereform XXV I hear the angry Protestant Recusants say It is just with God that he that hath done more than all others to draw Men to the Parish-Churches and hath these Thirty years been Reconciling us to the Papists in Doctrinals and is now called Bellarminus junior for his Arguments for Liturgies and Forms and in his Paraphrase hath so largely and earnestly pleaded for Charity to Papists as not Babylonish or Antichristian should be the first that should suffer by them and that for this very Book that so extraordinarily doth serve their Interest To which I say take heed of mis-expounding Providence that Errour hath cost England dear If I be put to doath by them I shall not repent of any of those Conciliatory Doctrines and Endeavours I have reviewed my Writings and am greatly satisfied that I suffer not for running into either Extream nor for any false Doctrine Rebellion Treason or gross Sin but that I have spent my Labour and Life against both Persecuting and causeless Separating And that I shall leave my Testimony against both to Posterity and for what could I more comfortably suffer It is by decrying their Persecution and Cruelty that I have angred the hurtful Papists and by confuting their gross undoubted Crimes more effectually than you do by the Name of Antichrist Babylon and the Whore And if their Cruelty on me should prove my Charge against them true I shall not be guilty of it Nor will their Sin abrogate God's great Law of Love even to Enemies and if it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men follow peace with all men blessed are the peace-makers c. The disorderly tumultuous Cries and Petitions of such ignorant Zealots for Extreams under the Name of Reformation and crying down all moderate Motions about Episcopacy and Liturgies and rushing fiercely into a War and young Lads and Apprentices and their like pricking forward Parliament Men had so great a part in our Sin and Misery from 1641. till 1660. as I must give warning to Posterity to avoid the like and love Moderation I repent that I no more discouraged ignorant Rashness in 1662. and 1663. but I repent not of any of my Motions for Peace XXVI I am sure that my Writings besides Humane Imperfection have no guilt of what they are accused unless other Men put their sense on my words and call it mine and say I meant the Rulers when I spake of Popish Interdicts Silencings and Persecutions And by that measure no Minister must speak against any Sin till he be sure that the Rulers are neither guilty nor defamed of it lest he be thought to mean them and so our Office is at an end If the Text and the general Corruption of the World lead me to speak against Fornication Perjury Calumny Lying Murder Cruelty or any Vice must I tell Men whom I mean by Name I mean all in the World that are guilty And why must my meaning be any more confined when I with the Text speak against Persecution and unjust Silencing the faithful Ministers of Christ while I say that Rulers may justly Silence all that forfeit their Commission and do more hurt than good XXVII Can any Man that hath read Church-History Fathers and Councils be ignorant how dolefully Satan hath corrupted and torn the Church by the Ambition and Tyranny of many Popes Patriarchs and Metropolitans while the humble fort of Bishops and Pastors have kept up the Life and Power of Christianity Or can any Man that maketh not Christ and his Church a meer Servant to Worldly Interest think that this should not by all true Christians be lamented Let such read Nazianzen's sad Description of the Bishops of his time in striving for the highest Seats and his wish that they were equal And the same wish of Isidore Pelusiota and the sharp Reproof hereof by Chrysostom Great Grotius expoundeth Matth. 24. 29. of the Powers of Heaven shaken thus It is the Christian Laity who after the Apostles times began to be marvellously shaken by the Tyranny of the Prelates who loved Pre-eminence and to Lord it oyer the Clergy by rash Excommunications and a daily increase of Schisms He that will
Church of Christ such danger will be but by Accident as every necessary Duty hath its Danger A loving melting Lamentation for that Violation of Charity which your own and their Division hath been guilty of is like to profit humble Souls that love the Truth and if they are such as will not indure the Doctrine of Love and Unity what are they better than our Parishes 7. None will be sad for the Return of a Brother to Unity or Love but those that grieve for your Felicity not knowing what they do You would not forbear a Return to God from any gross Sin for fear of grieving Men Is not Schism a gross Sin Are they not great that are directly against Love and Unity the Soul and Life of the Church of Christ and were you no whit partial you would think that Twenty Hearts made glad at your Recovery for one that 's made sad should at least here leave the Ballance even A Publish'd Exhortation from you such as it seems you intended to draw your Party to Unity and Communion with all true Christians and dissuade them hereafter from Censoriousness opposition to the Ministry and Separation upon the Account of so difficult a Point and so far from the Heart of the new Man might do more good than your overseeing that Church an Hundred Years it is not a Trifle to hold an Opinion that would warrant a Man to have denied or separated from the universal visible Church for so many Hundred Years even for almost all the time of its Existence since Christ. I forbear sending you the Form of Concord mentioned till you are readier for it and shall desire it as judging it useful and then God willing I shall send it The Lord I hope will clear up to you his Mind concerning the way in which he would have you walk and in the way of Duty give you the Peace which you desire and expect I rest Your unworthy Brother Rich. Baxter To Mr. Lambe Sept. 29. 1658. London the 15th of Ianuary 1658. Dear Sir THESE are to return you many Thanks for your two Letters which have been a very great Comfort to me in my Affliction and Warfare that I am now ingaged in Sir I thought good to be silent a while and not to trouble you with any more Letters till I had some new thing to say to you Now what I have to say is reducible to Three Heads 1. I would inform you what God hath done for me since my last 2. What I have done I hope in his Strength and that I may not doubt to say 't is for him in the Point of Union And 3. The present Frame of my Spirit and State 1. For God's dealing with me Sir after waiting on the Lord in his way sighing for Light and panting after him for refreshing as the Heart panteth after the Water Brook My Light hath broke forth as the Morning It hath rose in obscurity and my Darkness became as the Noon Day I see by Experience that though I am dark God is Light and though I am poor he is Rich and I believe there is nothing I want but Heaven is full of it The right Notion of God's Universal Church and the Unity he would have amongst the Members and indeed the necessity thereof upon the Penalty of infinite Dammage to the most excellent Body of Christ is that God hath blest me with the Sght of and shewn me as in a Glass the Condition of all our Congregations that refuse Communion with other Churches of Christ standing off from the main body of the Church militant as Christ's Part of that Body as Antichristian and so refusing to give or take Influences for their Comfort and Succour It healeth the whole but dreadfully endangereth those small Parts so divided Just as it would endanger a Troop or Company that should stand off from the main Body of a great Army that hath a potent Enemy engaged in the Field against them By this Light I perceive our Case namely that we are as you say guilty of Schism The Light in this Matter being clear to me I now begin to be satisfied that the Lord hath visited me from an high in Mercy and that all my inward Oppositions and outward too from my Friends are of Satan to stop me in a blessed Work I praise God I am now help'd to bear the Reproaches of my dear Friends that pour Contempt upon me daily as a most dreadful Apostate a Iudas one that it had been good for never to have been born one that though I were as the Signet on God's Right Hand I should be pluck'd from thence others wishing they had followed me to my Grave when they went with me to Baptism But it stirreth me not much for though their Zeal for God and his Truth and their Love to Christ and Holiness and Ability to suffer for Christ be more than mine yet my Conscience telleth me they are in an Error and that I am sincere in all I do not swayed by carnal Considerations in which I am so manifest to their Consciences that they are more troubled with me for that things sake Oh Sir I admire how a Man without the Brest-plate of Righteousness holdeth up his Head in such a Day But withal I experience the Worth and Excellency thereof By the Grace of God my Righteousness I will hold fast and my Heart shall not reprove me all my Days My conscience telleth me which is my great Comfort that I have not wickedly departed from my God that I would not break the least of his Laws willingly to gain a Thousand Worlds That the Love I bear to my Saviour and his most excellent Body the Church is the chief thing that inspireth me in all I do Now 2. Touching what I have done towards Union since I wrote last it is as followeth 1. I have been at Mr. G.'s Congregation from whom I departed to acknowledge my Sin in separating from them upon such silly Grounds and have offered my self to break bread with them if they pleased But withal told the whole Church that for two Reasons I could not come so close to them as heretofore 1. because of my Relation to the poor People I now serve being not yet well lodged in some safe Place And 2. because of some Scruples in my Mind whether Independency did not infer Schism in the Church Universal As that Independency upon the narrow foot I mean that which divideth Communion with Saints as Saints doth so my refusing Communion with them made me guilty of Schism in respest of that particular I do not doubt it and our Anabaptists are their natural Offspring But how to determine my Duty in respect of Mr. Goodwin's Church from whom I separated and with whom I was for many Years joined I know not considering their Principles are larger for Communion than others 2. Amongst our selves I have privately urged to my Friends enlarging considerably 3. I have my self with my Family frequented
the publick Lectures 4. In the Strength of God taken Courage to preach to the Congregation the Doctrine of the Church Universal and its Unity from 1 Cor. 12. 26. and from thence to shew them the Schismatical state wherein we are which Sermons hath brought the Anabaptists about my Ears from other Parts Four or five of them opposed me the last first day after my Sermon and because of what I had preached the Day before half my own Congregation never came to hear me Their Hearts are quite gone from me Not any of the Church cometh to see me or ask me any Question Now 3. and Lastly As to the present frame of my Spirit and State it is thus As to the uniting Work I have in Hand I thank God I am bold and am waiting on God upon whose Influences I live to guide me in Thought Word and Deed about it but I have lately been sorely troubled with one Temptation What should I preach or write any thing for concerning Religion I cannot endure Toâ—ments for Christ if I should be triedâ— 't is not for such faint hearted Creatures as I to meddle in such Work Now the Conscience of this that indeed I am a poor Creature weak both in Faith and Spirit hath made way for this Temptation to seize upon me to the saddening of my Soul and to the enâ—eebling of me to so great a Degree that for this two or three Days I have not been able to do any thing As for my present State in respect of the Church I am still with them and purpose God willing to Morrow to apply what I have preached about Schism The next Wednesday is appointed to debate things our Friends call in the Heads of other Churches to their Assistance and I hear those from abroad intend to stir up our Friends to cast me out of the Church what the Issue will be God knoweth and what to do with my self afterwards I know not I know I shall be sorely beset by the Enemy but my hope is in God that he will not suffer me to be tempted above that I am able and that my merciful Redemer and High Priest will be touched with the Feeling of my Infirmities himself being tempted he knoweth how to succour those that are tempted Heb. 4. 16. saith Grace hath a Throne and 5. 20 21. saith Grace reigneth Oh blessed be God! 1 Ephes. saith he hath given him to be Head over all things to the Church not to govern it only but to influence it with all necessary Supplies to fill all in all He supposed while we are here we shall be in an indigent Condition divers ways but at that Throne where Grace Reigneth there is Grace enough to supply all our Wants Therefore 1 Ioh. Of his fulness we have all received Grace for â—race and because such poor Creatures as I sensible of much Unworthiness are very apt to doubt our Entertainment and fear where no fear is blessed Jesus calleth us to come boldly Sir when I shall have done my Work where I am which I believe will be shortly I could be content to return to Mr. Goodwin's if God would like it and that my Re-union with that Church would not hinder my main Work They have of their own accord made a Vote to receive me when my Spirit should be free to return and indeed always have manifested much Love to me but the Truth is I am so clog'd with Scruples about popular Government and such like things that though to Will be present with me to perform I find not Mr. Goodwin never renounced his Ordination to take it from the People and is for Free Communion and saith will join in such a Uniting Draught as I hope you will now draw up and prosecute presently and which I will labour in God willing to promote when it cometh here That which mainly sticketh with me in respect of returning to Mr. Goodwin's is that when I shall publish what is in my Heart about the Causes of the Churches Malady in England I shall reflect upon the Independant Principles exceedingly Now my fear is that my Relation to them will be a Curb to me I know not what to do but my Eye is up towards God I am sure I have reaped Benefit by your Counsel and hope I have had an Interest in your Prayers which I still beg being confident God will hear you Sir the Lord preserve your Life and bless your Labours I hope it will not be long e're I shall hear from you who am Your affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Tho. Lambe From my House in Great St. Bartholomews My Wife presents her Love with many Thanks to you To his very worthy Friend Mr. R. Baxter Preacher of God's Word at Kidderminster in Worcestershire Dear Brother IF I understand any thing of the Ways of the Love of God and can perceive by the Effects below what Souls the Light of his Countenance doth shine upon you owe much to his Love and are used by him as he useth the dearest of his own what a Mercy is his Illumination and how much greater his quickening Life that possesseth you with Love to God and Man O did we but know when we feel one Spark of Love to God and his Servants in our Souls from what an infinite Love it comes and to what it tends and what it signifieth surely there would be more studying comparatively for Charity that edifieth than for the Knowledge that puffeth up If your Work for God did cost you nothing it would not be so comfortable to you symptomatically or effectively Though I confess it is harder to bear the Censures of Godly Men than of the World yet the â—iger the Tryal the fuller will be the Evidence of Sincerity in Submission and the greater that Grace and Peace that is used to be given in for Encouragement or Reward And yet I must tell you that your Tryal here is not of the greatest when your Recovery is like to procure you the Esteem of Ten if not an Hundred of God's Servants for one that you are like to lose and I am glad that you give your Censurers so good a Description for if they are such as you describe them I am persuaded many of them will come after you in time And is it not a great Encouragement to you that your Brother and Fellow-labourer comes over with you and so your Hands are strengthned and half your Opposition taken off and turned into Comfort For though I never told him of your Letters to me nor you of his yet I take it for granted that you know each others Minds and ways and yet you know that he is satisfied and resolved for Catholick Communion I pray you go together and do what you do as one Man while you have one Mind and Heart I perceive the Signs of Iudgment and Charity also in him I beseech you also both to hold on your Charity even to them that are offended with