doubt that disobedience to their lawful commands in lawful things tends to the Rom 13. 3. damnation of souls Object I will then submit to the punishment inflicted according to Law Answ But what if that is not sufficient in point of conscience for Laws made of things just and profitable for humane societies intend the subjects obedience in doing them and are confirmed with a double bond the wrath of the Magistrate and conscience towards God by undergoing the punishment the injury done to man is satisfied but by resisting the Magistrate in intention and breaking a profitable Law a man remains under the pollution of sin before God from whom none can discharge The Law enjoyns publick Worship and forbids such private Meetings you neglect the publick Worship and extol your private Meetings as the only way you condemn the Law as unjust and commend your so doing as good whereas the Law tending to settle preserve and keep unity peace order and concord must needs be good And being so consider whether such Meetings can be so 1. Confronting and disobeying lawful Authority 2. Casting dirt and disgrace upon the face and form of Government proclaiming it persecuting and tyrannical compelling such good people as you would be accounted to creep into Barns and Houses as if you wanted the truth publickly taught in our publick Meetings 3. Do you not in so doing condemn our Church as false if not Antichristian 4. Do you not condemn all the allowed Clergy as unprofitable and naught 5. Do you not neglect and draw others to neglect the publick Ordinances of Christ 6. Do you not cause people to slight their Teachers and to question whether there be such a thing as Religion and so to turn Atheists 7. Do you not hereby cause people to think our Laws are but scare-crows and our Law-makers to be such men who regard not what they do so to undervalue the one and other 8. Do you not encourage your Teachers to do that they have no warrant to do from God or man For what warrant have they to exercise the Ministerial function since the same Authority which enabled them to disinables them from preaching It is the Law which inables us to and allows us where and when to preach which Law hath power to disinable also To this end see the judgment of the old Nonconformists in a Book put forth by Mr. William Rathband in which they prove against Separatists that the Church of England is a true Church and that separation from it is unlawful Amongst many other things they answer the Separatists objecting against them their yielding to suspensions and deprivations thus That so long as the Bishops suspend and deprive according to the Law of the Land we account of the action herein as of the act of the Church which we may and ought to reverence and yield unto if they do otherwise we have liberty given us by the same Law to appeal from them Object If it be said that the Church is not to be obeyed when it suspends and deprives us for such causes as we in our consciences know to be insufficient Answ We answer say they That it lyeth in them to depose that may ordain and they may shut that may open and that as he may with a good conscience execute a Ministry by the ordination and calling of the Church who is privy to himself of some unfitness if the Church will press him to it so may he who is privy to himself of no fault that deserveth deprivation cease from the execution of his Ministery when he is pressed thereunto by the Church And if a guiltless person put out of his charge by the Churches authority may yet continue in it what proceeding can there be against guilty persons who in their own conceits are alwayes guiltless or will at least pretend so to be seeing they also will be ready alwayes to object against the Churches judgment that they are called of God and may not therefore give over the execution of their Ministry at the will of man Object And to the speech of the Apostles objected Act. 4. 19 20. Answ They shew it is most unskilfully alledged there being three differences between their case and the Apostles 1. They who inhibited the Apostles were known and professed enemies to the Gospel 2. The Apostles were charged not to teach in the name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel which commandement might be more hardly yielded unto than this Our Bishops are not only content that the Gospel should be preached but are also Preachers of it themselves 3. The Apostles received not their calling and authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediately from God himself and therefore also might not be restrained or deposed by men Whereas we although we exercise a function whereof God is the Author and we also called of God to it yet are we called and ordained by the hands and Ministry of men and may therefore by man be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry Thus they See also Mr. Bals tryal of the grounds of separation a solid work 9. Do not such Meetings asperse all the penal Laws of the Land and the judicial proceedings which have been since the Reformation against Papists Priests and Jesuits or any other justly suffering for their Religion as acts of highest injustice 10. Do they not endeavour the rending and crumbling our Church to nothing 11. Are they not a menas to fill the Kingdom full of factions and tumults 12. Yea and are they not against your so much cryed up Covenant which was to bring the Church of God in the three Kingdoms to the neerest uniformity in Religion whereas you by thus doing go about to divide and subdivide not being ignorant what fruits our Saviour shews to come Mat. 12. 25. from division saying A Kingdom divided against it self political good Laws and constitutions Ecclesiastical as doctrine and discipline brings desolation probably and very often Look but to the Church of Corinth what desolations Their preaching an empty thing when one for this anther 1 Cor. 1. 12. 1. Cor. 11. 20. for that Their Communions became desolate and by such means and doings St. Paul became their enemy who gave them their very being in faith and was their spiritual father And what desolation such divisions bring with us is evident what casting off your Preachers their old precepts and your old practises until at length some grow from something to nothing Is it not so when some noted for parts and piety long since a long time talk so Atheistically as to profess a readiness to hear the one and the other with a resolution to believe neither the one preaching against the other and that there was never any sound preaching since Christ's time Are these good fruits and would not such have objected the same against the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself false Prophets and Apostles
manners Some ignorantly say you have no power you can do nothing That you have power this meeting shews you calling us hither and I hope for some good end Let your power and authority I beseech you be exercised as St. Pauls was 2 Cor. 10. 8. for edification That it may appear we live in a flourishing Christian Church where good Laws are and they well observed and executed where Religion is professed and practised where the youth are catechised and principeled in Religion where the Sacraments are duly and orderly administred where the houses of God are solemnly frequented where Schisms and Factions are discountenanced where vice is punished and vertue encouraged where mens lives are reformed so that obedience to Governours charity and righteousness to men may and do appear and according to this Scripture Canon all things are done decently and in order The POSTSCRIPT I Reading in Mr. Howel Engl. speaking thus I that have Englands Tears pag. 2. been accounted the Queen of Isles the darling of Nature and Neptunes minion I that have been stiled by the character of the first Daughter of the Church that have converted eight several Nations I that made the morning beams of Christianity shine upon Scotland upon Ireland and a good part of France I that did irradiate Denmark Swedland and Norway with the light thereof I that brought the Saxons with other Germanes high and low from Paganism to the knowledge of the Cospel I that had the first Christian King that ever was Lucius and the first reformed King the eight Henry to reign over me I out of whose bowels sprung the first Christian Emperor that ever was Constantine I that had five several Kings viz. John King of France David King of Scotland Peter King of Bohemia and two Irish Kings my captives in less than one year I under whose Banner that great Emperor Maximilian took it an honour to serve in person and receive pay from me I that did so abound with Bullion c. Behold behold I am now become the object of pity to some of scorn to others of laughter to all people my children abroad are driven to disavow me for fear of being jeered they dare not own me their Mother upon the Rialto of Venice the Borle of Auspurge the New-bridge of Paris the Cambios of Spain or upon the Quoys of Holland for fear of being bafled and hooted at I reading in Mr. Vines what we had been a people His last Sermon March 10. 1646. of as powerful godliness as any in the world that practical divinity was improved to a great height of clearness and sweetness and his lamenting our miserable declination in the same Sermon from the life and power of godliness which is come to pass within these few years so that our practicals our inward and close wayes of walking with God in faith and love are sublimed into fancies and vapours into fumes of new opinions and which is worst of all we take this Dropsie to be growth and conceive our selves more spiritual Page 56. and refined because more airy and notional Liberty of Religions is become the golden calf of the times And Page 2. the Ministers are laid low in order to a twofold liberty the one of prophesying every one to set up Trade who is Page 23. able and liberty of lusts and ways of looseness I considering In his Fast Sermon March 10 1646. what Mr. Hodges saith we have long enjoyed as clear light and as full discoveries of fundamental truths as any Church others have lighted their Tapers more at our flame than we at theirs our Church once the great eye-sore to Hereticks envy of Papists refuge of Orthodox glorious for Doctrine a praise in the earth the Mother of many Stars of the first magnitude faithful Martyrs famous Confessors and innumerable souls in Heaven c. and yet after his preaching in his Epistle he saith the Prince of flies hath raised such swarms of flies in every corner of our Land that many of our Congregations and Families are miserably fly blown with Heresies and corrupt Tenets I reâ—â—mbring some passages in Sir Edward Deerings Speeches Octob. 23. pag. 23. in Parliament at the beginning of it saying if we let forth the Government into a lose liberty for all Religions we shall have none Libertinism will beget Atheism a little after Men upon whose merit let my credit stand or fall in this House complain with grief of heart to see their now infected sheep after long pastoral vigilance and faithful Ministery to run and straggle from them more in these ten Nov. 20. pag. 98. moneths than in twenty years before in another he saith there is at present such an all-daring liberty such a lewd licentiousness for all mens venting their several senses sensless senses in Matters of Religion as never was in any Age or any Nation until this Parliament was met together Thus the Church of England once the glory of the Reformed Religion is miserably torn and distracted so that you can hardly say which is the Church of England c. These shew what we have lost and what we have found And I living in the best times that ever England had and seeing what I see cannot but wish with Jeremy That my eyes were a Jer. 9. 1 2. fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the divisions and destractions in England I now seeing the truth of Mr. Burtons saying superstition will run along like a Murrain Melanch pag. 606. in Cattel scab on sheep nulla scabies superstitione scabiosior He who is bit of a Mad dog bites others and all in the end become mad either out of affection of novelty simplicity blind zeal hope fear the giddy headed multitude will embrace it So he Mahomet was but a poor Orphan he Mr. Alexand Rosse History of the World p. 109. marryed his Mistriss Chediga whom he made believe that his falling sickness proceeded from the sight of Angels which appeared to him yet he was the beginner of the Mahumetans which are so multiplyed some following Alli some Endocar some Acmar and some Ozimen Mahomets successors whose followers are subdivided into seventy two Melanc p. 582. Englished by Sir Rob. Stapelton sorts as Leo Affricanus reports saith Mr. Burton and also that Poland is a receptacle for all Religions No marvel then if Fabianus Strada calls heresie the School of Pride and affirms that for a man to be an Heretick and a good subject is impossible and saith it is with less difficulty kept out than shut up And sad experience doth fully demonstrate how errors and heresies swarm amongst us so that Mr. Saltmâ—â—sh in his groans for liberty pleads Whether an hundred and fourscore Opinions are more to be cast into the face of Religion Groans p. 13. l. 1. c. 2. p. 15. than six hundred in the dayes of Nazianzen and a little after because of our many Opinions and divisions he crys out where is the Church now not
in the Assembly saith he they are but consulting how to build the Church not in the Presbytery for that is a Church unbuilt as yet not among the Parishes they are not Scripture Congregations as Smectymnus saith where is the Church of England Dr. Field of the Church will tell you Mr. Saltmarsh That there are some who profess the truth described by the Son of God but not wholly and entirely as Hereticks some who profess the whole saving truth but not in Unity as Schismaticks Some who profess the whole truth in unity not in sincerity and singleness of a good and sanctifyed mind as hypocrites and wicked men outwardly Some who profess the whole saving truth in unity and simplicity of a sanctified and good heart and I hope you will say they are the Church not excluding the other from the visible Church a net a field c. The old Non-conformists in a book set forth by Mr. William Rathband will shew you that the Church of England as formerly established was the true Church of Christ and that you should not separate from it Mr. Ball a Non-conformist writing against Can a Separatist Page 75. shews you that the Church of England is a true Church of Christ a people in Covenant with Christ to whom he hath committed his heavenly Oracles and Seals of the Covenant c. and in the second Chapter he shews the Church of England governed by Bishops to be the true Church of Page 79. Christ Sir Edward Deering in one of his Speecâ—â—s to the like purpose saying I am bold to forbid any man from this Page 125. house for 1600 years and upward to name any one age nay any one year wherein Episcopacy was out of date in Christendom in another Speech he saith I am none of those men that 1600 years after my Saviour came to plant his Church will consent to give a new Rule a new invented Government to his Church never known untill this age yet Mr. Howel tells us that the holy Titles of Bishops and Page 138. Priests are grown odious amongst poor Sciolists who scarce In his addition Letters p. 5. In Vind. of King ch 1. p. 49. know the notions of things And we have amongst us as Mr. Symonds saith such who love strife and although they have already offered most wrong yet still are most full of clamours and as another saith who cry out much against the Pope to whom they do better service than they are aware so that he saith it is a thousand pities that our Sectaries Regum Sacr Sancto Majest by J. A. pretending such zeal against Popery who no less maliciously than confidently rub upon sound Protestants the aspersions of Popery and malignancy do joyn with the worst of Papists in the worst at least in the most pernicious Doctrine Page 70. of Papists At the beginning of as in our troubles His Majesties Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. shews us Page 18. that nothing was discountenanced and reproached but a dutiful regard to us i. e. the King and our honour and a sober esteem and application to the Laws of the kingdom and may it not prove so again if not prevented and so be more advantage to run the contrary course if a good conscience â— A. Reg. Sac. San. Maj. to the Reader could allow as one saith for if the conforming obedient Clergy must lie under the lash of being prophane and scandalous and the irregular and disobedient accounted and cryed up for the pious powerful and precious men was Mr. Burton now alive he might better say than when he wrote thus What father after a while will be so improvident Mel. p. 126. to bring up his sons to his great charge to necessary beggary what Christian will be so irreligious as to bring up his sons in that course of life which by all probability and necessity will entail on him symony and perjury for he might now add scorn and contempt if he be an obedient son of the Church for what in regard of pretended conscience to that Idol Covenant which Lilâ—urn calls the make-bate persecuting soul-destroying Englands dividing and undoing Engl. Birth-right p. 29 Covenant what in regard of the boldness of some-daring people and the connivence of some in Authority it had been better for conscientious subjects that some Laws had not been made than that being made their obedience to them should be their disgrace and the disobedience of others to them their honour and dignity I know that some mens natures are easiest cured by lenities and that if violence be offered they will struggle they being easier led than driven but it is not so with all for since his Majesties happy Restauration some now daring people began to be tractable and orderly but feeling the reins of Government somewhat loose like unruly horses they get the bit into their teeth they kick and think to run away with and throw their Rider Amongst certain passages I have read in the reign of King James this I remember he who deceives Regum Sacr. Sanc. Majest me once it is his fault but if twice it is my fault What these men have done cannot be forgotten if it is let J. A. remember them that the best of Kings in whom malice it self how quick-sighted soever could not find any thing blame-worthy except it be a crime to be too good and transcendently clement forced to flee his Royal Consort necessitated to flee beyond sea the Royal family divided one from another his Revenue seized his forts and holds Curia Politiae employed to destroy him and another speaking to them thus you have violated all sorts of right in the person of your King you have raised a war against him you have often assaulted and imprisoned him you have abused the confidence Page 12. he had in you and destroyed him with great cruelty and insolency when such men have acted so vigorously against the Lords anointed and some of them not so wary as their fellows say they cannot repent and are such of whom Mr. Edw. Sparks writing of Primitive devotion saith This Page 106. stolid disobedient age contemns their devotions and are so Pâ—â—e 53. immodest as to grudge God the hat the knee whatcan we hope for from such men we may remember the moral of the Country-mans snake which would take away life from him who preserved hers and not forget that of the young mans beloved Cat turn'd into a Maid which soon shewed again her cattish disposition having an opportunity by the sight of a Mouse Some think I wish they be mistaken that in regard of the speech and carriage of some that they have a second part to act after the same or a more doleful tune however it cannot but be good with the snake in the fable who thought her self not secure in that house wherein the great hatchet was which had almost slain her not to give too much credit to such who have formerly dealt as they have done error being obstinate and making men so Religio Medici shews the obstinacy of the Jews in all fortunes that the persecution of 1500 years hath but confirmed them in Page 49. their errors that they have already endured whatsoever may be inflicted and have suffered abundance even to the condemnation of their enemies concludes persecution to be a bad and indirect way to plant Religion It is so but means must be used to preserve Religion that we loose it not Society of Saints p. 29. p. 244. in an Assize Sermon Some I suppose will blame me for writing thus now having formerly pleaded for Puritans I own what I have written and wish these were such for which I and Mr. Bolton plead for namely practising Protestants loyal to Princes obedient to Laws just pious charitable labouring to be in truth what they seem to be we plead not for factious irregular disorderly followers of Barrow and Greenwood the old Puritans being their great opposers I judging with Mr. Howel that the itching of scriblers is the scab of the times Page 62. purposed no publication of these notes which made me careless in naming of my Authors but considering that Nicholas Causin had learned to regard the works of the worst Writers and not to censure them and seeing the flame to increase at home and abroad and those who have much water in their deep wells and buckets to vent it lie in a sleep I have presumed with my pitcher to shew mine endeavour to stop and extinguish this fire of error some perhaps impute it to dotage I being well-near such years which are labour and sorrow and scarce able to go with Crutches let men think as they please my desire is to cure error and to procure order for which end I will conclude with a passage in Mr. Vines fore-named Sermon which is this If conscience Page 60. be warrant for practises and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient license to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their shop and be resolved into the judicatorie of every mans private conscience and put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himself bound in conscience to draw forth his Authority against false teachers and their damnable heresies and upon that supposed error should challenge a liberty of judging as we do of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walk by a known Rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawful it is as easie for him to say our liberty of Preaching or professing errors is so too FINIS
That killing themselves to avoid punishment for their errors is Martyrdom They said the Son was inferiour to the Father the holy Ghost to the Son and they boasted of Revelations In the fourth Century arose above twenty of which the Pelagians was one of Pelagius who taught that Adam should have died if he had not sinned That Adams sin did hurt only himself That there is no Original sin That men have free will sufficient to do well and that God gives grace to the merits of works The fifth Century had some and the sixth brought forth as some others so those grand errors of Mahumetanism and Papism Mahumetanism of Mahomet which hath overspread many Kingdoms under the Turk and other Kings They deny the being of persons in the Trinity They say God is corporeal That Christ was not God but a creature yet a great Prophet That Christ did not suffer nor was not crucified That the Devil in the end shall be saved That Eternal Life consists in bodily pleasures They observe Circumcision Washings with some other Judaical Ceremonies They swear by Creatures and War for Religion to which they say men are to be compelled They allow of many Wives and Divorce without cause They hope to be saved by works They deny pardon for ever to them who forsake their Religion They hold venial and mortal sins They pray towards the East a set number daily but not for unbelievers And they take away the Sacraments ordained by Christ Papism arose under Phocaâ— the Emperor and Boniface the third Popes of Rome Luther was born at Isleben in Saxony Sleidan Anab. 1483. He when Leo the tenth sent forth pardons 1516. opposed them Preaching in Saxony there arose Nicolas Stocks and Thomas Muncer preaching that goods should be common Upon this fourty thousand rose in Suevia and Franconia plundering and killing but the Princes arming took Frantus executed Muncer Phifer and hundreds more The City Munster having received the Gospel John Becâ—ld a Taylor came from Leyden thither where keeping Conventicles in few months he gets a great party they obtain freedom for their Religion and after grow so strong as to drive all the Protestants out This John of Leyden is made King he gave leave to have many Wâ—ves himself took fifteen Being vanquished he with Knipperdoling were tyed to a stake their flesh pul'd in pieces with hot pâ—ncers he recanted his errors Knipperdoling did not but died like a mad man These Anabaptists maintained as Mr. Paget shews us ten errors not to be tollerated in the Church Four not to be suffered in a Common-wealth and three not in a Family as community of goods putting away of Wives of a contrary Religion and that Christians may have many Wives Thousands of these perished in Germany by the sword and in Qâ—een Elizaâ—eths time some of them in England recanted and some were burnt After these arose the Brownists called Separatists because Mr. Paget they separate from all reformed Churches then one from another Robert Brown School-master in Southwark preached in a gravel-pit neer Islington Mr. Fox refused to talk with him Mr. Greenham perswaded him but could not prevail so to little purpose for he led his company beyond Sea where seeing their divisions he left them returned into England took the Parsonage of a Church in Northamptonshire and died as I have been informed since the beginning of our late troubles He and his followers left our Church as they said for our many abominations The Barrowists following yet more they compared our Church to Sodom Babylon Egypt as Barrow Brewis Bois Rutter c. The Wilkinsonians went a step higher affirming they were the Apostles and denied Communion to all who would not give them that title Mr. Paget The Lemmarists maintained a monster of Heresies Mahumetanism denying the Trinity and the eternal Godhead of Christ Judâ—ism affirming Christ to come shortly to reign on the earth Papism affirming a meer creature may be worshipped Lutheranism maintaining consubstantiation Anabaptism affirming that Christ took not flesh of the Virgin Mary Libertinism holding no visible Church on earth Brownism holding separation separating from all Churches excommunicating and cursing on another Mr. Paget also tells us that the begining of the Independents was thus Mr. Robinson leaving Norwich in discontent became a rigid Brownist but after by conference with some learned men he recanted his opinions yet derived this his way of Independency to his separate Congregation at Leyden and part of that Congregation did carry it to Plymouth in new England where the ashes of Independency did break out into a burning flame And Mr. Bâ—yly sets down the fruits of Mr. Bayly this Independency in new England in the opinions of some for I suppose he speaks not of all there being amongst them many sober Ministers and Magistrates who opposed and overthrew those opinions And they refusing to own the late powers is an Argument of their sobriety Besides there hath been great conversion of the Indians in so much that the Bible is translated and Printed in their Tongue as I am informed How it placeth many thousands of Christians in the condition of Pagans how it marr'd the conversion of Pagans to Christian Religion how it brought forth the foulest Heresies that ever yet were heard of in any Protestant Church to the number of fourscore and eleven That their piety seemed singular their malice was singular against all who opposed them especially Orthodox Ministers That their contempt of Magistrates was grievous their errors in opinion did draw on such seditious practises which did well near overturn both their Church and State That their proud obstinacy against all admonitions was marvellous that in the midst of their profession of piety the prophanity of many of them was great Of these particulars he speak largely and shews his warrant for what he saith in many particulars In Queen Elizabeths time Mr. Barrow Greenwood Percy and some others were executed Studly Billet and Bowly had judgment to be so The first Proposition is clearly evident That men yea the best of men are subject to err humanum est errare and have need to be called on not to err for they who have most light here have much darkness in them and we are more prone to follow the darkness of our spirits than the light of Gods Spirit He who thinks he cannot err reckons himself more than a man for whilst there remains corruption in the will the understanding cannot be wholly free from corruption The wills affections and understandings of Saints on earth have some corruption remaining in them as their practise so their opinions are soyld and faulty yea oftentimes good men continue long in error Jobs friends did multiply but not mend their answers for as it is hard to part Job 21. 34 with an evil practise so and much more with an ill opinion c. error in opinion because that reflects on the reputation of the best faculty the judgment And
effects of justifying grace they as causes we as the way wherein we must walk unto they as the meritorious cause of eternal felicity We with them believe two Sacraments but we with them believe not seven We and they believe a real presence so in the Sacrament that the worthy Communicant really partakes of Christ's body and blood spiritually but we with them do not believe that the bread is transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ so that dogs and mice may eat it We and they believe there is an heaven and hell but we with them believe not Purgatory Christians therefore they are Object But they are Idolaters Answ 1. And they say we are Hereticks and Schismaticks Saying only proves nothing 2. Call them Idolaters I think they are so and what you please yet I am sure as in many things you differ from them for whereas they make seven Sacraments some of you will not make use of two They ascribe too much to Sacraments you too little They keep too many holydayes some of you keep none They are blamed for saying the Lords prayer too often some of you for not at all So in some things you agree namely in Separation and Recusancy They forsake our Church as Heretical some of you as Antichristian I fear since you are come to say our Church and yours Object Say we not right that your Church is Antichristian since your Common-prayer-Book is Popery taken out of the Mass-Book how can we then abide it may we not justly leave it and for it your Assemblies Answ 1. Take heed what you say the first offence is an hundred marks the second four hundred marks and imprisonment the third is loss of all a mans goods and imprisonment duing life Laws which sleep a while may be awakened 2. But what one word or syllable is in it savouring of Popery Is there any praying to Saints for the dead Is there any allowance of merits of Purgatory name any one point of Popery if you can 3. Whereas you say it was taken out of the Mass-Book who told you so did you or they ever see the Mass-Book do you or they know what it is But admit it is taken out of it and that the Mass-Book is bad as it is Is it the worse Is gold refined from dross wheat cleansed from chaff at all the worse for the dross and chaff As for the Mass I abhor it as injurious to the Priesthood of Christ to the sacrifice or death of Christ as an hindrance to an holy life and contrary to Gods will and therefore I am far from defending it The word Missa or Mass by some is derived of Missoth or Mincha an Oblation by some from the Latins who used these words Missus Missa c. The ancient Roman Idolaters dismissed the people from their sacrâ—fices with these words I licet Missa est Depart it is permitted and so the Assembly was dismissed And these words are now pronounced Ite Missa est scilicet concio sive Ecclesiâ— signifying a leave given to the company to depart Let it be what it will or come from this or that we have it not neither name nor thing Demand of them I desire you who inform you that our Common-prayer-Book is taken out of the Mass-Book so Popery If ever they saw and read the Mass-Book And if they have seen and read it demand of them then 1. Whether all the Mass-Book is in our Common-prayer-Book They must say no. 2. Whether all our Common-prayer-Book is in the Mass-Book They must say no. 3. Whether that which is in our Common-prayer and in the Mass-Book is good or bad They cannot but say it is all good I am perswaded they can prove none of it to be bad 4. Whether it being good the being of it in the Mass-Book can make it bad or whether we are to reject all the good in Popery as the name of Christian with much more Mr. William Rathband who put forth a modest confutation of Separatists agreed upon long before as he saith by the joint consent of the godly and learned Ministers of this Kingdom who stood out and suffered in the case of Uniformity They in it shewing the Church of England to be a true Church of Christ and therefore separation from it to be unlawful He with Mr. Thomas Langley Mr. Simeon Ash Mr. Francis Woodcock and Mr. George Crosse all so far as I can conjecture Non-conformists put forth a Book of Mr. Joâ—n Ball a Non-conformist wherein he writes learnedly and The tryal of the grounds of separation he put forth himself piously against Separation he writes in defence of sett forms of prayer and that men are not to separate from the Church because of ours He saith many are the Objections which are made against sett forms of prayers and particularly against our Book of Common-prayer all which I have endeavoured saith he to answer severally not because they are of so great weight but because I desired to satisfie fully every doubt And whereas it was objected The Common-prayer-Book was taken out of the Mass-Book He saith It followeth not that therefore it is a Pag. 8. false worship for many things in the Mass-Book are good a pearl may be found upon a dunghil 2. If out of the Mass-Book How cometh it to pass then saith he that it hath those things directly contrary to the Mass-Book He instanceth in many Further he saith It is more proper to say the Mass was taken out of our Common-prayer for Pag. 10. most things in our Common-prayer were to be found in Liturgies long before the Mass The prayers and truths of God taught in that Book pertain to the Church as her prerogative Pag. 11. the Church of God may lawfully make claim to those holy things which Antichrist hath unjustly usurped Now since I find that erroneous opinions once entertained are not easily gotten out of the heads and hearts of men for they quickly root deep take strong hold and cannot easily be pull'd up as we see in Christ's time The Pharisees held corrupt opinions about (a) Mat. 15. 2. working (b) Mat. 7. 11. dispencing with childrens obedience about (c) Mat. 23. 32 33. swearing (d) Luk. 15. 12. fasting and many errors about the (e) Mat. 5. Law Did Christ get these errors out of them He brought the cleerest light that ever any did they for all that lived in darkness The Sadduces denyed the (f) Mat. 22. 23. resurrection Christ laboured to convince them they held their errors in St. Pauls (g) Act. 23. 8. time (h) 1 Tim. 1. 20. 2 Tim. 2. 18. Hymineus and Philetus and Alexander had rather be delivered to Satan than to deliver up their corrupt and damnable opinions Therefore as all of us should be careful to take heed what opinions we receive to this end to try the spirits not take things on trust for the learning seeming holiness and
St. Augustine saith Is the master builder which buildeth the City of the Devil for when men are so besotted with opinion of themselves that they think their own writings to be Gospel and Pigmaleon-like fall in love with images of their own making they will sooner hazard their lives than by revoking their errors impair their reputation Tell them of general Councels of many learned men they think they all might err sooner than themselves If you alledge to them the judgment of the ancient Fathers they are ready to say with Abailardus Although all the Fathers thought so yet I do not think so Fathers are but children Schoolmen Dr. Bois as one saith are but Foolmen in respect of themselves who can sooner espy moats in the Fathers eyes than beams of folly and ignorance in their own eyes Tell them of Mr. Dâ—d Mr. Bolton Dr. Tayler and such other who liv'd not long since in our own times what they taught how they liv'd they can presently say such were good men in their times but now we have new lights and are better gifted Let me also intreat you to consider what hurt you do what sad inconveniences your separations and divisions do bring how they distract people so that they know not what to do Bartholomew Casanus a Sapâ—nish Bishop tells us a story of a Spanish Priest desirous to baptize an Indian Noble man the Indian asked the Priest whither the Spaniards dying went The Priest said to heaven The Indian replyed he would not go whither such cruel people went There is also a story of Bernardine Ochin a man of great learning who disliking the Church of Rome fled to Geneva first from thence to England where seeing so many Sects all challenging themselves to be true and each condemning the other he turned back to Rome saying It was impossible that they who were so simple so way-ward so obstinate so full of Sects and dissentions could be of the true faith of Christ Suppose a Pagan should come and say I would willingly be a Christian and seeing such strife and dissentions amongst us one man saying he holds the truth Another saith no but he is in the right what shall this poor Pagan do And let me desire to know what will please and content you you extol Mr. Bolton he deserved the same but take heed it be not like the Pharisees commending the old Prophets Mat. 23. 29. your doings being contrary to his preaching and practise do you follow his doctrine and example then we are all agreed we shall have no such dividings you gathered hands against me to cast me out and to bring in Mr. Basely you had your desire for then you might do what you list you thought your selves happy in your change How long did he please you were you not then gadders this way and that way to this man and that man especially to one whom after you abhorr'd for doing but his duty were you not then condemned for your giddy waywardness For my carriage amongst you I shame not to own it and I challenge envy it self to say the worst it can when and where I may answer for my life and doctrine I am not like to be a burden to you long as a man muchless as a Preacher being so far stricken in age I having therefore often used arguments and reasons to dissâ—vade you from divers erroneous practises and thus far now discharged my duty in shewing the danger of error and wherein you grosly err if I err not as I am perswaded I do not and since all such perswasions are in vain and prevail not it being no little grief to me to see as some other so your neglect to say no worse of Catechising and Communions for the remedying of which I did formerly complain of one without any ill will to the party hoping that it might do good to him and others but only complaining and no more and keeping off the sentence intended no good was thereby done Now again out of the love I bear to you not bearing malice to the party or any mans person nor by respect to my self since the smaller the Communions are and no Catechising I have the more ease and less labour And out of the regard I bear to mine own soul in omitting no lawful means unattempted to do you good I am considering whether it will not be my duty out of the many refusers of Communions and Catechising to single out one who may be supposed in every respect best able to manage and defend such unwonted irregularities that so it may appear whether you have any grounds for such unwarranted courses and whether those in authority have power to keep us in order and to such necessary duties since by Sects and Schisms Sectaries and Separatists their ignorance and simplicity their divisions and obstinacy many in our unhappy England are cast down who were desirous to stand in the truth of God many are hindred from being Protestants and more turned Recusants many their hearts so shaken that Camelion-like they are capable of any save the right faith It being the property of Hereticks as Tertullian saith to weary the strong to catch the weak in a snare and to leave the middle sort scrupulous I therefore now resolve no longer by silence and fitting still to be accessary to so much hurt and for this end to make trial so far forth as I have said what good I can that way do some men being forced with rigour who will not be refelled with reasons from their erroneous wayes As in the Ark there was bread Manna for refection also a rod for correction So in the Church of England the Church of Christ there is a voice of consolation to defend the good as with a shield and a voice of correction to order the stubborn and disobedient The Church of Christ therefore according to St. Augustine is called the handmaid of the Lord so the Mistris of her people to guide and rule her folk yea and to correct Agust epist 50. ad Bonif. de corig heret epist 48. them to when they offend as Sarah did Hagar when she contemned her Mistris I believe Hagar thought Sarah dealt hardly with her whereas she did more persecute Sarah by her contempt and wicked pride than Sarah did her by sending her out of doors There being also little hopes of being heard or regarded amongst deaf and self-conceited men who regard the censures of the Church no more than a bullet of cork it is good to try and see whether they have a rod power and can use it for every one is not a friend who spareth nor every one a foe who smiteth yea it is a mercy sometimes to punish and oftentimes it is cruelty to spare Such a Father who spareth his servant killing his son will be thought unjust not merciful and what can we think of them who spare those who rend and tear the Church our Mother Bad men through malice do
unjustly hurt and vex the godly without cause and good men through love by discipline do justly correct others for their miscarriages The discipline of the Church being as Cyprian saith the preserver of hope the guide to salvation the retainer of faith and cherisher of godliness The correcting voice of discipline oft doth and may do good to such who will not be moved with the sweet voice of intreating St. Augustine saith He who binds a frantick man and awakes him who is in a Lethargy is troublesom to both yet he loveth and helpeth both So to bind men with the cords of justice that they may not wrong themselves and others is a great good it being also far better to weaken some by justice than suffer them to go on to weaken others by faction Object But if I will complain for neglecting Communions and Chatechising why not of swearers and drunkards Answ 1. I hear no oaths I see no drunkards I see absenters from God's Ordinances and I preach against the one and the other 2. Most speak against swearing and drunkenness as gross sins the other go under the notion of goodness 3. Swearers and drunkards deny not our Church to be a true Church they deny not the Ordinances and they might be better wrought upon and reformed was it not for our divisions The other do little less than seek the overthrow of the Church 4. I hope I am a friend to no vice and such an enemy to all that if any will bring me as good evidence and will stand to it that such and such are incorrigible swearers and drunkards as I have that such and such come not to Communions if I then endeavour not their amendment by Church-censures if I cannot by perswasions let me be blamed I intend not to create any just offence or real hurt to any mans person for truly I know not the man living or creature breathing to whom I do not heartily wish grace mercy and peace My desire is to endeavour in this place to stop the current of opinionists blown by the spirit of error over many parts of this Land to the dishonour of God and endangering of many a mans salvation and staggering well-meaning people and drawing them to disobedience Schism and Faction And whilst I am so doing when I have done I hope to make it appear that as I never yet did shew the least malice nor discontent to them who formerly sought to ruine me and mine so that now I bear not any ill will either to the party or any other but that I do what I do in love and that if they make tryal they may truly say of me as it became a Proverb concerning Arch-bishop Cranmer Do my Lord of Canterbury a shrewd turn and then you may be sure to have him your friend for your labour whilst you live Thus you and I being men are subject to err and it being dangerous to live in error according to my Office and duty I have declared wherein you err that I may not be guilty of the same by my silence If you can bring me convincing grounds that I thus differing from you in judgment and in thus discharging my duty do err you shall soon perceive and see that I will not be obstinate in error And if what I have said contain convincing arguments to make it clear that you do err then I desire the same of you that you may not obstinately persist in error that so both I and you may follow this blessed counsel of the holy Ghost by the Apostle Saint James speaking to you and me in these words Do not err my beloved brethren Preached October 6 13 20. Certain sayings of Mr. Baxter in his Infant-Church-membership THe main scope of their endeavours in publick and private is to propagate their opinions and if they preach any wholsom doctrine it is usually subservient to their great design that the truth may be as suger to sweeten their errors Pag. 144. that they may be easier swallowed They perswade the people that Ministers are seducers lyars c. judge therefore 16. what good may people expect from Ministers How hath it grieved my spirit to see and hear men professing to be more godly than others to make it the business of their lives to disgrace the Ministers of the Gospel When poor people hear those despise the Ministry that 16. once were constant hearers Sure these men having tryed see some evil in that way c. O how it stumbleth and drives off the poor ignorant people 145. from Religion when they see those that have seemed Religious prove such And when they see us at such difference one with another and when they see so many Sects and Parties that they know not which to turn to They think that all strictness doth tend to this and so that the godly are but a company of giddy proud unsettled singular persons that know not where to step till they are besides themselves O! how are the Papists hardened by this I have spoken with some of them that once began to be moderate who now upon the observation of these Sects are generally confirmed in their way and say Now you may see what it is to depart from the bosom of the Church to make the Scriptures common c. The Episcopal Party are more confirmed in their way by it and say You have mended the matter well c. yea those who were offended at the Prelates cruelty do now think they did well and that which was needful for the quenching of this fire whilst it When to whom was a spark And many who began to stagger at the Kings late Wars are now many thousands of them perswaded of the lawfulness of it from the miscarriages of these men And if report too probable do not lye thousands and And other grounds millions of Papists in all Countreys of Europe where they dwell are confirmed and hardened in their Religion by the odious reports that go of the miscarriages of these men in England These say they are your Reformers And this is your Reformation How many thousand Professors of Religion are quite ruined in their souls and turned into Monsters rather than Saints How many sad distracted divided Congregations What dividing and subdividing and subdividing 149. again and running from Church to Church and from opinion to opinion till some are at such a loss that they affirm Christ hath no Church c. How many distracted Families in England that were wont to worship God in unity and joyfulness One will pray and the other will not pray with him because he is unbaptized 16. and a third saith Family-duties are not commanded in Scripture One will sing praise to God another scorneth it as if it were singing of a Jig and a third will sing Psalms from the dictate of the Spirit only One will be of one Church and another of another Envying and strife hath taken place while