experience do mellow green and sowre Spirits and teach them to judge of things soberly and impartially not as others judge of them but as indeed they are 10. And men are much furthered in the way of separation by forgetting what good even hypocrites themselves may receive by their station in the visible Church And that it is not for nothing that the Great Master of the Church hath so ordered the terms of admission upon meer Profession of Consent to the Baptismal Covenant and of Exclusion upon proved Impenitency in gross sin after sufficient admonition and patience as that multitudes of bad men ever have been and will be in the visible Church Though the regular station that such persons should choose till they come up to sincere consent is the place of Catechumens if they were not baptized in Infancy and the place of Penitents if they were yet supposing that they intrude further by a false profession yet God hath provided great advantages in Church communion for their good and secured the innocent from imputation of sin by reason of their presence 11. And men are induced to separation by forgetting how tender Christ is of the weakest of his members that are sincere and that he had rather many hypocrites were received than one true Christian shut out For he hath a day at hand in which he will separate the Tares from the Wheat and will take out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that work iniquity And they consider not how impossible it is to shut out all hypocrites and not to shut out many weak ones that are sincere 12. And it much wrongeth them that they forget what a Mercy it is that Christ hath not made the power of the Pastors or Church to be arbitrary in admissions or exclusions but hath tyed them up to certain terms and prescribed to them whom to Receive or Reject And that they consider not what confusions otherwise would be brought into the Church and what Church-tyranny men would exercise And how the difference of mens Judgements Interests Temptations and Passions would make almost as many sorts of Churches as there are individual Governours and Churches And one would make one measure and another another measure of their communion 13. And it greatly wrongeth such men that they never had right apprehensions of the Nature and great Necessity of Vanity among believers and the Churches of Christ They cry out Truth must not be sold for Peace when they neither know aright what is Truth or Peace But by Truth they mean their own doubtful opinions and by Peace they mean their own quietness with men We easily confess that as Peace signifieth our freedom from persecution or sufferings or from the reproach of men the least holy truth is to be preferred before it and more tenaciously held than it But if by Peace they mean the Unity and Concord of believers or of the Church of God they speak dangerously and suppose a pernicious falshood that Gods Truth and such Peace or Concord may at any time be separated And it is no wiselier spoken than if they had said A mans eye-sight or health is to be preferred before the Union of his soul and body or before the Concord of Head and Heart or before the conjunction of his members When as non cutis nulla est affectio Destroy the Subject and you destroy the Accidents Without union of parts the Church is no Church Dividing it is destroying it A House or Kingdom divided cannot stand And when it is no Church it hath no Truth as a Church nâ—r any thing that dividers did contend for An Integral member may rather be cut off than the whole should perish But what member will separate it self from the bâ—dy Or who but a murderer will on pretence of curing be a divider and dissolver 14. And it wrongeth these Christians much that they look on the narrow space of the Churches about them and forget the state of almost all Christs Churches in the whole world which are in a 〈◊〉 worse condition than our Parish Churches are which though it should draw no man to like the least imperfection in them or in himself nor to neglect any true reforming duty yet would it make a tender Christian rather tremblingly to return to Vniversal due Communion than to dare to separate from almost all Christs visible body upon earth 15. And gazing all upon one side doth make men forget how heinous an injury it is to Christ to rob him of the greatest part of his Churches and to say that they are none of his when they could easily perceive that it would not be well taken by the King if they should say that he is King of no more but three or four Villages in the Land And he that can take four parts yea nineteen parts of Christs Church from him to day may take away the fifth or the twentieth to morrow and so may turn Infidels and deny Christ to be Christ For no Kingdom no King 16. And they forget that as the Body must have its due magnitude as well as its comely scite of parts so we must be zealous for the Greatness as well as the Purity the Extensive as well as the Intensive growth of the Church And if Christs flock be little they dishonour it that would make it tenfold less than indeed it is Jer. 30. 19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry And I will multiply them and they shall not be few and I will glorifie them and they shall not be small 17. And the Passion that is kindled in men by their sufferings is very strong in conquering their judgements so that too few in the whole world are found so sober as not to go too far from those they suffer by unless it be timerous or temporizing complyers that yield to escape their further suffering 18. And men are strangely forgetful of the experiences of themselves and others And when God hath let loose the Spirit of division to the confusions both of State and Churches and to the ruining of true Reformation and to the woful and scandalous dissolution of many particular Churches where it hath come yet will not men understand or remember but see as if they did not see Holland England New England give them loud and lamentable warnings and yet they will not hear 19. And they that know what man is indeed will not deny but that in very many there is something of that Pride which some call spiritual but is too carnal in mens inclination to separation He that knoweth how excellent a thing it is to be Wise and Holy and Happy is oft tempted to be desirous that his own excellency should appear and not be hid by his joyning with such as are taken for ignorant common men and so would stand further from the common sort of visible Christians than God would have him And also some persons who
Principles of Church-division and censorious unwarrantable Separation I Know there is in Holiness a contrariety to sin and Heaven and Hell must finally shew the difference for ever And to reconcile them is as unpossible as to reconcile Light and Darkness I know that it is the endeavour of every faithful Minister of Christ to make this difference plainly known and in Doctrine and Discipline to separate the precious from the vile and to make ungodly men know that they are ungodly and to give to each their proper portion and to keep the Churches as clean as they can by lawful means I know that the ruine of this purging and differencing Discipline is a great part of the lamentable ruine of the Churches and occasioneth that scandal to the Mahometans and Heathens because of the wicked lives of Christians which is one of the greatest hinderances of their conversion And that all Christians should use their utmost skill and power to recover Religion to its primitive Purity and Splendour and Discipline to the most effectual regular exercise And I know that in mens private converse there must be a great care what company we converse with and especially whom we make our familiars And that to be indifferent and to intimate an equality or likeness of the godly and the wicked in doctrine communion and familiarity is a notable sign of an ungodly person And upon these accounts I know that when persons are newly recovered from ungodliness themselves they are very much inclined to fly from the company of such as far as their safety doth require And by this inclination and their ignorance they are frequently tempted to go further from them in Church communion than God alloweth them to do and instead of separating from them in their sin to separate from them in their duty and to separate from the Churches of Christ in his true worship because of the mixture and presence of the bad And this they are drawn to 1. By forgetting the Scripture pattern and state of the Churches even in the purest age and thinking only what they desire rather than what is to be expected or done 2. By forgetting the difference between the Church visible which is alwayes mixt with Hypocrites and offenders and the Church invisible which shall all be saved 3. By forgetting the difference between their private familiarity where they are choosers of their company themselves and their Church communion where the Pastors are the Rulers and Judges of the fitness of the members Or else not understanding that this use of the Keyes and judging of the fitness of the members is indeed the Pastors Office and not theirs 4. By not considering that nothing must be done by Discipline upon Offenders but in a course of Church-Justice upon due Accusations Summons Audience Proof and patient Admonition And not by casting out any irregularly upon the expectation of every one that will say that they are ungodly and scandalous 5. By forgetting the great difference between joyning with men in sinful actions and joyning with them in their duty in which they should be encouraged 6. By forgetting the great difference of keeping in our own place and duty though bad men are present and going out of our place and duty to joyn with them in sin 7. By forgetting that God will have all mens own wills by Choosing or Refusing to have more hand in their Welfare or Misery than other mens And if they mischoose the sin will be their own 8. By forgetting that God hath not left the Church at arbitrary liberty to judge any Godly or Ungodly at their pleasure But hath given us a set Test or Rule to judge them by which is their sober Profession of Consent to the Baptismal Covenant upon which the Adult and their Infants have right to Baptism And being Baptized have Right to Church Communion in all the Acts which their Age and Understanding makes them capable of And it is Church-tyranny to refuse such as shew this Title till they are openly proved to forfeit it by Impenitency in gross sin after publick admonition and due means This is the truth and the method of Christs discipline and the Rule of our Communion 9. By superstitious placing their Religion in indifferent and undertermined things and laying a greater stress on the words of prayer than there is cause Overvaluing their several outward forms expressions and orders in the worshipping of God when instead of provoking each other to faith and fervency to Love and to good works they place more of Godliness in words and circumstances which God hath certainly left free to every mans conscience than God doth place in them And one thinks that he is irregular that prayeth without a set form and another that he is ungodly that prayeth not by the Spirit who useth a set form when both do but speak their own superstition and make Laws and Rules which God never made Superstition and our own additions in Religion even in those that cry out much against it is the occasion of most of our Church-divisions One side supposeth every disorder or unfit expression in free prayer to be a greater fault than indeed it is And that its unlawful therefore to joyn with a Church that hath no set forms Another party supposeth the forms in the Church Lyturgy to be worse than they are and that it is unlawful to joyn in them or to receive the Lords Supper when they are used When as God hath neither tyed us to set forms nor from them save only as unsuitableness to any particular persons may make one less edifying than the other And both free prayers and set forms studied prayers and sudden prayers are all the work of man as to mans part and therefore they must needs be imperfect and faulty as man is And yet in both we may pray by the Spirit even with the holy and fervent desires which the Spirit exciteth in us And the Spirit may ordinarily be a Spirit of supplication in us and help our infirmities in the one way and in the other And therefore though I will not equall them For I prefer some mens free praying before any forms and I prefer the Common prayers before some mens free prayers yet I may say that I will neither Assent and Consent to every word in the one nor in the other no not of any man that ever I heard And yet I will not take it for unlawful to joyn with Church or Family or person in the one or in the other yea upon long experience if I had fully my own choice and liberty I would use free prayer one part of the day or one day and a well composed form another part because I see commodities by both and such inconveniences of either way alone as are if possible to be avoided But when the Mind hath received a prejudice against either way by Education Custom or former distastes no reason how clear soever will overcome it till age and
The word mixt is ambiguous and implyeth a double act one of the Impure part and that Christ designeth not but forbiddeth the other of the holy who joyn with some that are unholy and that in some Cases Christ commandeth and did practise himself 3. Without distinction indeed it should not be for Discipline is appointed to distinguish regularly 4. Take home the argument and try it on your self Whatever Church is such as Christ did not call and design it to be is not to be communicated with But a Church that hath an erroneous Preacher or an erroneous sinful people is such as Christ did not call or design it to be Ergo And will you then communicate with any in the world or any with you Sect. 50. E. B. p. 14. Though through the Corruption of men and negligence of Church-Officers many ungodly prophane Formalists and hypocrites did and daily do creep in yet there is a strict command given to put such out of the Church and turn aside from them If such are to be withdrawn from then if any Church which is admonished concerning them shall still maintain abett and countenance them that Church is defiled and unfit to be communicated with 1 Cor. 5. 7. Eccles 9. 18. Heb. 12. 15. R. B. 1. It is only gross sinners after just Admonition upon proof that are to be put out The Officers ought not to do it without proof 2. Have you or others rightly Admonished every Parish Minister that you call us to separate from and convicted them upon proof when you have heard them speak for themselves 3. And who gave you authority so to examine other Pastors being but a single person 4. We easily grant and earnestly desire that true Church-Justice should make a difference But in case the Officers do not their duty it is none of the peoples duty to separate therefore haveing done their own part except in these cases 1. That the Error or Crime be so great as to be inconsistent with Christianity or Church communion 2. That the Church do not only neglect it but deliberately Own that Error or Crime in its aggravated state as it is so inconsistent with Christianity or Communion Not only being consequentially guilty of it as the best man may be of the most heinous sin of another by some omission of his duty to cure it but making it their profession or Practice 3. That this be done not by some particular members only but by an essential part of the Church that is either by the Pastor or by the main body of the people 4. That this be fully proved or so notorious as to need no proof 5. That they be impenitent herein after due admonition When these five things concur it is a duty to separate from a Church as unfit for Christian Communion And in lower cases it is a duty to prefer a Better when we can have it But it s much higher or lower rather that you go You say A Church which after admonition and discovery of offenders will not use her authority to cast them out This may be by mis-information on the sinners side or by meer negligence as in Eli's case and may be a great sin and yet not the same in kind as that which should be censured nor such as will unchurch that Church nor make its communion unlawful to the innocent As to your proofs the Texts you cite are all written to the whole Churches as Churches who are bid put them away c. save that to Timothy and Rev. 2. which is to the Church-Rulers And it followeth not that if a Church or Church-Rulers who have the power of the Keyes are bid to reject or cast out or not suffer an Heretick or wicked person and to have no fellowship with them therefore every member is forbidden to have Communion with that Church in Gods Worship unless they cast such a one out I did by many Scripture instances Rev. 2. 3. 1 Cor. 11. 15 c. prove the contrary to which you give no answer 5. Let all sober Readers note how few in the world we shall have communion with on your terms How certainly you will turn all Churches into strife and bitter envyings confusion and every evil work For Railers and Covetous among the rest are those that must be avoided And if any member of the Church shall think that one Railer or one Covetous person is kept in unjustly away they must go and condemn the Church as unworthy of Communion And who will not think that read your Book that you would be one of the first accused of Railing Yea how few even of the strictest separating Churches are they that neglect not Discipline upon some one person It may be it may be a rich or powerful man that will persecute or divide the Church if he be cast out Is there no Gathered Churches as they are called that have one Railing woman in or one Covetous person 6. But Sir our question is not only of the Communion of Members but also of strangers occasionally and rarely And what call hath a stranger to try the Discipline of another Church Or what opportunity hath he to know all their members crimes and to admonish them Why may not I in my travail communicate with a Church whose members and Discipline I know not At least all Parish Churches have not been thus admonished by you Sect. 51. E. B. p. 14. Lastly Which will fully answer the scruple It is to be considered that the Primitive Churches were setled by the Apostles and constituted according to the Divine pattern having all the Ordinances of Christ and true Officers rightly established among them so that though many scandalous sins did break out and were visible among some of the members yet a power was still retained in each Church for the keeping themselves pure by casting out offenders whereby they were kept to the institution and orders of Christ without any universal innovation or degenerating in those Essentials of Order as well as Doctrine which they fell into in the ages after and when Antichristianism which was then working did manifestly shew it self not only in rejecting truth 2 Thess 2. but in imposing error Rev. 13. 16 17. then was separation made necessary R. B. Reader this confused huddle of words it seems is the thing he trusteth to as a full answer to the scruple But 1. If such Churches are to be communicated with as yet retain all the Essentials of Office Order and Doctrine then those are to be communicated with that are now in question But the former seemeth here intimated by himself That our said Churches have all such essentials is thus proved Whereever there are true Pastors and a Christian flock related mutually as such receiving the holy Scriptures as such there are all things essential to a true Church for Office Order and Doctrine But it is so 〈◊〉 the Parish Churches in question To stay here to write a particular
needs talk to the people of their superiours actions and speak against them behind their backs 4. If we know that one two twenty have spoken or written plainly in reproof of a sin are all the Ministers in the Land bound to do the same over again Must they all leave their flocks to come up to London to do it Or must they every one publish his reproof in Print 5. All silence or not-reproving is not a seeming consent much less in Gods sight little different from persecution Were all the Churches in the Empire Persecutors or to be separated from which did not reprove the Emperours for banishing Athanasius and Chrysostom and such others Of all the silenced Ministers in London or England how small a number is there that have sharply reproved the silencers And perhaps they that have done it most sharply may have been more sharp than did beseem them To conclude Readers mark here by this reason how few you must hold communion with in the Land or in the world if you will be the Disciples of Mr. Bagshaw Away from Conformists and Non-conformists that have sharply reproved persecutors This is the way to be able to guess at the names and numbers of those that by his rule you must Communicate with 5. But what if they have sharply reproved this one sin you cannot prove that they themselves have done so by all other sins Even you your self have left some unreproved And will not the want of the sharp reproving of other sins as well as of persecution make your communion with such unlawful 6. But at the worst not reproving can be but a particular sin And it is not every particular sin that maketh Communion unlawful 7. And have you first admonished them of that sin and tryed all these Ministers whether they be penitent Yea or ever heard them speak for themselves Or do you reject Matth. 18. 15. and make to your self and followers a new Law that whomsoever you shall suspect or accuse of sin you must also separate from 8. But by this rule of yours methinks few if any should be liker to be accepted in your communion than my self if reproving persecution would serve turn And yet even I also am rejected by you as being not wise or good enough to communicate with such as you but as one of the worst of Hereticks to be rejected of all 9. But I beseech you give your Readers leave here to remember if you will not that your own doctrine imposeth it on me as my duty to Reprove you sharply as I have done while you teach the world that it is but little different in the sight of God to persecute and not sharply to reprove it and so disown it For if it make the sins of my superiours mine if I do not sharply reprove them and make me almost as guilty as they I shall not be innocent if I reprove not you sharply when it is to me that you direct your words And I had rather be thought too sharp than be guilty of all the crimes and falshoods of this your Script especially when you are the accuser of my silence your self Sect. 41. E. B. Lastly admitting there are some worthy and able men among the Parish Ministers which for my own part I believe never a whit the more because you affirm it yet this we must say that their sin is great in submitting to so undue a way of entering into the Ministry and therefore we both forbear our selves and warn all others not to hear them because we cannot think our Lord Christ ever sent such to Preach in his name who directly and by a solemn Oath have renounced their Christian liberty under pretence of Preaching Christ and are indeed nothing else as to the whole discharge and exercise of their office but servants of men in consistent with being servants of Christ R. B. 1. Either you think there are some worthy able men among them or you do not If you do why should you be so malignant as to question the assertion of it and so loth to grant it If you do not how unfit is so false and malignant an accuser of the brethren to be the conducter of souls or the Historian of the age that will not know a thing so publick and notorious 2. As for your not believing me no men are so hardly brought to believe the truth from others as they that are conscious of ordinary falshood from themselves 3. I think I could prove their sin as effectually as you can But must we separate from all sinners or from all that sin in their entrance into the Ministry And why not as well from all other sins of equal greatness Do you warn all others not to hear your self Or do you yet take your self to be no sinner or no great sinner What if the Presbyterians think the Independents way of entrance to be undue And the Independents think so of the Presbyterians And both of the Anabaptists and the Anabaptists of them both c. Must they all therefore warm all men not to hear each other Mr. Nye thought not so when he wrote for such hearing publick Ministers Is it fit for the Author of two Books of Calumnies and bold Untruths besides false Doctrines and other Crimes to say Their sin is great c. and therefore we both forbear our selves and warn all others not to hear them 4. Most that I speak of did enter into the Ministry in the Presbyterian or Independent way heretofore and do but continue on the terms which I dissent from as well as you How then can you say they unduely enter into the Ministry 5. Did you know before you wrote this that all such as we perswade men to hear have by Oath renounced their Christian Liberty what Oath is it that you mean If you mean the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance unless Popery be Christian Liberty we know of none such which these renounce And I know of no other Oath except that of Canonical obedience in licitis honestis And for that 1. I find not that the Act or Canons do impose it on those that come for Ordination nor am so well skil'd in the Law as to know by what Law it is done 2. I know that men have been ordinarily ordained without it And to such your reason for separation is vain 3. Mr. Bradshaw and other old Non-conformists were wont to say that they obeyed the Diocesanes and so did promise them obedience only as they are the Kings Officers deputed for the exercise of that Civil or Coercive power which Magistrates have in Causes called Ecclesiastical And what Liberty doth that give away 4. But suppose that you are the wiser man and that those that are more ignorant do mistakingly think that Canonical obedience and the Oath with that of Supremacy to be their duty and no renouncing of their Christian liberty Is it not false doctrine to conclude that Christ never
sent out any that had as great a sin as this what none when he sent out Judas himself who was first a Thief and after a Traytor Do you think then that Christ ever sent out Lyars Railers furious Church-dividers false accusers c 5. That indeed they are nothing else as to the whole discharge and exercise of their office but the servants of men is another slander and untruth He that is a servant of Christ and a true Pastor of a Christian Church and a sound Preacher of the Gospel and an helper of believers faith and a lover of the peoples souls and a diligent upright labourer for mens salvation is something else than a servant of man even in the discharge of their Ministerial office But such are many of the Conformable Ministers Ergo Prove if you can that Dr. Preston Sibbes Stoughton Whittaker Mr. Bolton Whateley Gataker Fenner and all the late Assembly save eight or nine at most being all Conformists were nothing else but the servants of men and not at all the servants of Christ Your Father thought otherwise of Mr. Bolton and perhaps they were both as wise as you Prove now that Mr. Gurnal Mr. Trap Dr. Lightfoot Dr. Walker Mr. Langley and many others that I can name that are worthy men in London and round about it are nothing else but the servants of men And will it not be as hard to prove one to be a servant of Christ who serveth Satan by falshood and malice and calumniating Christs Churches and Servants as those that are thus the servants of men Sect. 42. E. B. For the question is not as you weakly and insignificantly word it whether a Defective faulty true Church may ordinarily or at least sometimes be joyned with But whether a defective faulty imposing Church is not to be separated from R. B. 1. You begin here with another untruth I was the stater of the Question and did not referr it to you to state it I chose that question to dispute which I thought fittest Therefore to tell me that it not the question which is the question is untrue 2. We have here another taste of your insolency To call them Magisterially weak and insignificant words which you design not to examine nor once notifie to the Reader wherein the Weakness or Insignificancy is nay which we suppose you in the next sentence use your self expresly in all the words save one and implicitly as to that For Defective and faulty are words that you condescend to use And when you say a Church you must mean a Church that hath Truth of Essence or else you speak equivocally or contradiction And may not a True Church be faulty and Defective where then is the insignificancy of these words 3. And as to the Predicate Is there a difference between the Questions whether such a Church may be joyned with and whether it must be separated from If there be I will put the question as hath least ambiguity I mean such separation as consisteth 1. In holding that such a Church may not be joyned with 2. And as consisteth in a privative not-joyning or refusing Communion as unlawful If you mean any thing else you talk not to me and to my question 4. But is all the stress of separation laid upon the word Imposing I undertook to prove that the Parish Ministers that I speak of do not Impose upon the people unless officiating be imposing As Separatists themselves impose their own Words of Prayer upon the people that are to joyn with them It being the Ministers office to word his Prayers and praises he imposeth them on the people And all other circumstances in which the Pastor doth and must guide the flock as what Chapter shall be read what Psalm Meeter Tune Time c. I think the Separatists impose And I know not that the Minister whom I hear doth impose any more on me Therefore by your own rule I am not bound to separate from this Parish Church because it is no Imposing Church It is Imposed on but it doth not Impose that I know of Sect. 43. E. B. This we affirm 1. Because we know not how else to preserve our Christian Liberty which it is an indispensible duty to maintain but by separating from those that would unduly take it from us R. B. These universal terms not limited nor expounded are to be taken universally And so here are two false doctrines one that it is indispensible duty to maintain all our Christian liberty and the other that we know not how else to maintain it But if by this Liberty you mean but some sort of liberty and not all you should have distinguished if you would not deceive And if by we know not you intend only a Confession of your own ignorance that would be no proof of the point in hand because that may be true which you know not 1. There is a Liberty called Christian because it is essential to Christianity as to be freed from the Covenant of Works and from the Guilt and Reign of sin and from the power of Satan and the state of enmity against God c. 2. There is a Liberty called Christian because it is procured and given us by Christ though not essential to Christianity as to eat of this meat or that flesh or herbs to be free from the observation of certain dayes and Customs and Ceremonies not sinful in themselves 3. There is a Liberty called Christian because Christians have it in common with all other men or with many as to marry or not marry to live in this Countrey or that to be free from oppression injuries slanders persecution when they can And we must distinguish of the word Our that is we must shew how far this Liberty is Ours indeed 1. It is one thing to be Ours Necessarily or as you say Indispensibly and another thing to be ours when we can get it keep it or use it without a greater loss than it will compensate or a greater hurt to others It is one thing to be ours in fundamental right to be used at fit times and another thing to be ours to be alwayes used Prop. 1. The Liberty which is essential to our Christianity or Godliness is indispensibly to be maintained and exercised Gal. 5. 1. Prop. 2. All degrees of the same liberty must be maintained as well as the essentials that is we must labour to be as free as we can from all the degrees of sin and misery But we cannot here have what we would Prop. 3. There is a Liberty to use certain things as statedly or ordinarily Indifferent which is none of Ours to use them in several Cases which take away the Indifferency as in case of scandal or greater hurt to others or our selves or of the restraint of just authority Prop. 4. The same must be said of forbearing things indifferent Prop. 5. Our Liberty from