and heresies in meer opposition to their afflicters I know that the great objection is That under pretence of Love I would bring ungodly persecutors into reputation and tempt men to unlawful Communion with them and that I make an ill application of good principles to hide the odiousness of their sins that care so little for the souls of men as their usage of Ministers and people doth openly declare If I had only perswaded you to unite in Love to one another and not to think better of the destroyers of the Church nor to comply with them in their Idolatrous way of worship you could have born it Brethren will you that take it for injustice in a Iudge who will condemn a man before he hear him speak for himself be intreated but to repress your passions for a little while till you have calmely considered these things following 1. Did I ever perswade you to think well of the faults of other men while I perswaded you to love their persons unless you call the Communion a fault of which we are to speak anon Did I ever seek to abate your dislike of the sins which you most speak against Either malignity cruelty persecution or any other 2. The thing which I perswaded men to in that book was Communion with all Christians but differently as they differ in degrees of purity That which I motioned and pleaded for I summed up in the latter end with the contrary extreams which you may there read in five propositions 1. To adhere to the primitive simplicity and make nothing necessary to our Concord and Communion which is not so 2. To love your neighbours as your selves and receive those to Communion whom Christ receiveth and that hold the foresaid necessary things be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independents Anabaptists Calvinists Arminians Lutherans c. so they be not proved heretical or wicked Peruse the rest When you come to your selves you will confess that this was no unreasonable nor unchristian motion Which of all these Parties is it that you are angry with me for perswading you to Communion with Must every one of the Parties renounce Communion with all the rest O how unlike is this doctrine to that of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 1. 10. 3. 1 2 3. Rom. 14. 15. c. If not every one which of them is it Is any one of all these Parties the whole Church of God who dare say so Why should I refuse Communion with any one of these while I scruple not Communion with all the rest Or if it must be but with one sort how shall I know which of them it must be I know some men judge of others by their Own opinions and self interest But is that indeed the Christian Rule Some of the Episcopal way are angry with me for including the Independents when I doubt not but the far greater part of them are the sincere servants of Christ And since their Synods late moderation I know not many Churches in the world besides the Waldenses of the Bohemian Polonian and Hungarian Government who are neerer to my own judgement in Order and Discipline than those in New England are and none that for Piety I prefer before them Some are angry with me for taking in the Anabaptists when it is not such as the Munster Anabaptists that we have to do with but godly men that differ from us in a point so difficult that many of the Papists and Prelatists have maintained that it is not determined in Scripture but Dependeth on the tradition of the Church I am not of their mind and I have given them my reasons in my book for Infant Baptism But having had more invitation to study the point throughly and treat of it largely than most of those that are offended herein let them give me leave to say that I know it to be a very difficult point And I know as good and sober men of that mind as of theirs that are most against them And I know that in the dayes of Tertullian Nazianzene Augustine men had liberty to be baptized or to bring their children when and at what age they pleased and none were forced to go against their Consciences And I know not that our Rule or Religion is changed or that we are grown any wiser or better than they I once motioned terms of Concord to the Anabaptists and was in as hopeful a way for Peace with them as with most others till Some are offended that I put in the Arminians when I am confident that there is not one of many hundreds whoâ— are against Communion with them that know what Arminianisme is and truly understand the difference And the same men refuse not Communion with those Anabaptists who are Arminians And it hath been the work of not only Mr. Dury but many other excellent men for many years to reconcile the Lutherans with the Calvinists and it hath justly been thought a blessed work to draw them to Communion with each other And yet the Lutherans are not only of most of the Arminan opinions but also have superintendents liturgies ceremonies exorcisme Church-images c. When so much labour hath been bestowed in this work and so many excellent Treatises written for it by pious Dury Junius Paraeus Calixtus Ludov. Crocius Joh. Bergius Conrad Bergius Hattonus Amyraldus Hall Davenant Morton c. When all sober Protestants have prayed for their success or approved this design are we now come to that pass that those that seem the zealousest for the Church and mutuall Love shall think it to be a sin either to hold Communion with the Lutherans or to write for it But the great offence is that I put in the Episcopal as fit for our Communion which I suppose is principally because of their manner of worship in which we must have Communion with them Which foreseeing I answered more objections against this than against the rest which hath occasioned some falsly to affirm that I write only to draw men to Communion with the Church of England I will therefore here proceed to some further expostulations of this point 3. Is there ever a word in all my Book perswading you to Communion with a Diocesan Church as such 4. Is there one word in it for your Communion with a national Church that hath one political spiritual Constitutive Head under Iesus Christ though the Kings supremacie none of us question Do I once meddle with any such thing 5. Is there a word to perswade you to Communion with Persecutors Though I am forced to displease you by answering that objection and telling you that we should be Impartial and remember what most parties or many have done to others which you were not able it seems to bear though it was plainly necessary to the due resolution of the Case in question whether any Persecutors may be Communicated with 6. Is there one word to perswade you that every Parish is a true Church and fit to be Communicated
and those that are of that fashion are the only people and to reproach all of other fashions as ungodly and to think that he is therefore a better Christian than the other because his fashion of outward Worship seemeth the better to him Not that any thing in Gods Worship should be denyed its due regard But its pity that by an unproportionable estimation of mens several outward fashions words and gestures poor souls should be tempted to deceive themselves and to forget that he is the best Christian that hath most Faith Humility Love and Heavenliness which is the true Holiness and Beauty of the soul. 9. When men think a Lawful Communion yea a duty to be unlawful it will both keep them in the sin of omitting it and cause them to add their sinful Censures of all those that use that Communion which they avoid They do not only think that they are holier because they hear not and pray not and communicate not in the Parish Churches but they look down with a supercilious pity upon those that do And how many parties have I thus been pitied by As I go along the Streets the Quakers say Poor man thou art in darkness The Papists pity me for not being one of them The Anabaptists pity me for not being one of them The Separatists pity or disdain me because I forbear not the Worship that they forbear And this Excepter lamenteth my condition as passionately as any It is not for Not Worshipping with them that they censure me for I am ready to do it but for Worshipping with others in Words which they like not And whereas holiness was wont to be expressed most by Worship actions now it must be characterized more by Negatives even in external adjuncts And if he be the best man that avoideth most the Communion of others which he taketh to be bad I have and have had neighbours better than you all that never communicate with any Church nor ever publickly hear or pray or Worship God at all because they think all your wayes of Worship to be bad I remember Rivet marketh out Grotius by this that while he forsook the Protestant Churches and called us to unite with the Church of Rome that is with the Pope ruling not arbitrarily but by the Laws of a General Council not excluding that of Trent he did actually communicate with none at all 10. When mens judgements are thus mistaken about Church Communion their Worship of God will be corrupted They will in their hearts earnestly desiee that all others may be of their mind and they will complain to God of that as a sin which is mens duty Especially among those of their own mind And this offering up of their mistakes to God in earnestness as an acceptable service is a sad polluting of holy things So he that is famed to have written this Antidote is said to have made my Book which was written for Christian Love to be the matter of his publick Humiliation And another of my friends in dayes of prayer maketh it his lamentation Lord here are those that are one day here and another day at Common-prayer As if the exercise of Knowledge and Love in impartial Communion with all Christs Churches not forcing us to sin were a sin to be lamented But I need not go further for instance than this Antidote where the Reverend Author taketh it for a service of God to write against those necessary Precepts of Love and Unity which he mistakingly opposeth And so did Mr. Iohnson and Mr. Canne who most confidently presented their Writings for separation to God as a service which he had commanded them and would own 11. This narrow judgement tempteth men on one side to Anathematize all that say There are any other true Churches in England save of one form and fashion and it tempteth others to deny the Parish Churches to be at all true Churches and so to narrow the possessions of Christ. And hereupon it tempteth them to endeavour to disgrace and dissolve each other It draweth many to think that it is the Interest of Religion now in England to have the Parish Churches to be brought low in reputation and deserted and Gods publick Worship which they would have all Religious people use to be only that of tolerated or more private Churches By which they little know what they wiâ—â— against the interest of the Christian and Pro 〈…〉 nt Religion in this Land Nor what hurt they would do if in this they had their wills 12. These dividing Principles and Spirits which I oppose will on one side give shelter to all the prophane malignant minds that itch to be afflicting others that fear God more than they And on the other side it will give shelter to all kind of Heresies and Sects of which experience is too full a proof 13. Yea before our eyes the most pernicious Heresies even those of Quakers are still not only continued but increase And we see men that to day condemn Communion with the Parish Churches and then with the Presbyterians do shortly fly from Communion with the Independents too And mens passions in sufferings pervert their judgements And frequently men are overcome by tryal when they think they are most constant and have overcome It s commonly known how many of late are turned Quakers And what considerable persons lately in prison fell to that unhappy Heresie Yet they that by a Prison lost their Religion no doubt thought themselves more honourable by their sufferings than those that go to Common-prayer And shall we stand by and see this work go on and neither lament their sin that drive men to this nor warn them of the Passions and Principles that lead to it 14. Separation will ruine the separated Churches themselves at last By separation I mean the same thing that the old Non-conformists wrote against by that name It will admit of no consistency Parties will arise in the separated Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech my deer brethren that are otherwise minded to open their eyes so far as to regard experience Brethren what now Comparatively are all the separated Churches or parties upon Earth Would you have all Christs Churches and all the interest of the Christian Religion to be as short lived and to stand upon no more certain terms than they do How few separated Churches do now exist that were in being an hundred years ago Can you name any And would you have had all the Churches of Christ on Earth to be dissolved when they were dissolved Or do you think that all were dissolved with them This would make us all seekers indeed 15. Separating and narrow principles befriend not Godliness as they pretend to do but lamentably undermine it If it were but by driving off and disaffecting the lower sort of Christians whose Communion you reject The Case of three or four Churches in new-New-England grieve my heart But the Case of the Summer Islands as
observe 1. That it is none of our Question Whether you should Communicate with the Parish Churches alone and no other 2. Nor Whether you should Communicate with every Parish Church or any one whose Pastors are through insufficiency heresie or impiety intolerable which I have written against Dir. 36. p. 202 c. 3. Nor Whether we may hold local Communion in Worship with a Church which denyeth us such Communion unless we will sin This I have oft enough denyed p. 203 c. 4. Nor Whether caeteris paribus local Communion with a purer and better Church be not ordinarily to be preferred before local Communion with a worse which I assert p. 203 c. 5. Nor Whether a man be a Separatist from another Church meerly because he is not locally present with it For then when I am in one Church I separate from all other in the world 6. Nor Whether it be lawful to remove ones dwelling for Communion with a better Minister and Church supposing that we are free p. 204. 7. Nor Whether it be lawful to remove to a better Church without removing ones dwelling in a place where another Church is near to which we may go without any publick injury or hurt to our selves or others which is greater than the benefit pag. 204. 8. Nor Whether we may remove both from Church and Countrey by the occasions of our Callings or Trades or other outward weighty reasons pag. 298. 9. Nor Whether we may keep in Communion privately with our lawful Pastors if they be turned out of the publick Temples Which I have asserted pag. 299. and have said that where the Pastor is there the Church is in whatever place they do assemble p. 250. which Dr. Hide also thought when he began his Book with an assertion of the necessity of separating then from the publick places And so did other Prelatists then and so think the Papists now and most other parties 10. Nor is it any of our Question Whether you should have Communion with a Diocesan Church as such It is a Parochial Church with such others that I spake of and never a word of a Diocesan Church 11. Therefore it is none of the Question Whether you must own our Diocesan Bishops 12. Nor yet Whether you must have Communion with any thing called A National Church as a Political Society constituted of an Ecclesiastical Head and Body and denominated from that form â—r Constitutive Head Though we must own a National Church as it is improperly so denominated from the King that is the Civil Head accidental and not Constitutive to the Spiritual Church And as it is a Community of Christians and a part of the Universal Church united by the Concord of her Pastors who in Synods may represent the whole Ministry and be the means of their agreement 13. Nor is it the Question Whether you must needs hold Communion with those individual Bishops whom you account the Persecutors and Causes of our silence and confusions I have told you in the Story of Martin how he separated from the Synods of thâ—se individual Bishops and from their local Communion without separating from the Office the Churches or from any other Bishops This is a matter that I did not meddle with because it is not their Communion that you are called to but the Parish Churches Indeed to save mâ—ns lives he did yield to the Emperour once to communicate with them But saith Sulp. Severus â—iâ—l 3. p. Bib. Paâ— 254. Summa vi Episcopis nitentibus ut communionem illâ—m subscriptione firmaret extorqueri non potuit And the Angel that appeared to him said Merito Martine compungeris sed aliter exiâ—e nequiâ—ti repara virtutem resume Constantiam nâ— jam non periculum gloriae sed salutis incuâ—reris Ita ab illo tempore satis cavit cum illa Iâ—haâ—ianae partis Communione misâ—â—ri And after finding his power of Miracles abated with tears he conâ—essed to Sulpit. That propter Communionis illius malum cui se vel puncto temporis necessitate non Spiritu misâ—â—isset dâ—trimentum sâ—etire virtutis Sâ—dâ—â—im pâ—sâ—ea vixit annos nullam Synodum adiit ab omnibus Episcâ—porum Conveâ—â—ibus se remâ—vit But this was only from those Bishops who by provoking Magistrates against the Priscillian Gnosticks had brought all strict Religious people under scorn But he separated not from any others 14. Nay I made it none of our Question Whether you should Communicate with any Parish Minister who concurreth with theâ— in the said matters whiâ—h yâ—u â—â—cuse the Bishops of aâ—y farther than by Câ—â—â—orming to the Laâ— For it is but few o◠〈◊〉 Parish Ministers that were Convâ—cation Men or that you can prove did ever consent to our silencing 15. Nor is it any of the Question Whether those also be guilty of separation and divisions whâ— shall make unnecessary Engines of division and â—â—y upon the neâ—ks of any Churches such unnecessary things as have a tendency to divide Who hath said more against this than I have done 16. Nor is it any of our Question Which of the two is the greater cause of divisâ—â—â—s or which of the foresaid persons is mâ—â—t 〈◊〉 Who hath spoken plainlier in this than I Iâ— the Brother that excepteth would maâ—â— you believe that any one of these is the 〈◊〉 iâ— you believe him he doth but deceiive you But whom I mean by Sâ—paratiâ—â— I havâ— plaâ—ly told you pag. 249. 2â—0 c. ☞ And that which I perswade men to is this 1. To love all Christians as themselves 2. To hold nothing and do nothing which is contrary to this Love and would destroy it 3. Therefore to deny no Christians to be Christians nor no Churches to be Churches nor no lawful Worship of any Mâ—de or Party to be lawfull 4. Not to sepâ—â—ate from any others upon any of these three false suppositions or accusations viz. 1. As no true Christians 2. As no true Churches 3. As having no true Worship or as worshipping so as it is not lawful to joyn with them 5. To choose the most edifying Ministry and the soundest Church and purest manner of worshipping God that possibly you can have on lawful terms as to your ordinary use and Communion so far as you are free to choose 6. To joyn with a defective faulty true Church ordinarily and in a manner of Worship which is defective when you can have no better on lawful terms as without the publick injury or your own greater hinderance than help And I prove that this is the worst that you can charge as to this matter of Communion on those Parish Churches in England that have honest compâ—tent Pastors and the same others charge on the Churches of Independents and Anabaptists And that it is a duty to hold communion with any one of thâ—se constantly when you can have no better 7. That if you can statedly have better yet sometimes to Communicate with a defective Church as a stranger may do that is
and plain answer to the Papists about our separation from their Church and remembred how many Volumes they have troubled the World with by obscuring our plain and ordinarie answer I told them that must have Volumes to hide the sense that if this answer seem not plain and full to them it is because they understand not Christian sense and reason and not for want of plainess in the matter or through defectiveness as to satisfie a reasonable impartial man This brother chargeth this saying to be insolent and from intolerable Pride because I dare so Charge another with want of Christian sense and reason c. Answ. 1. This is his eleventh untruth I only named sense and reason objectively not subjectively It is not because the Answer which I give the Papists and which Protestants commonly give is not full and plain or wanteth sense or reason but because the Papists understand it not He that hath sense and reason may be hindred from using it aright by interest partialitie and wilful negligences which it is no new thing for Protestants to think that Papists are too oft guilty of But how proud am I then intolerably proud that in several books have maintained that all Papists that hold Transubstantiation do make it an Article of Faith and necessarie to Salvation flatly to contradict all the senses of all the sound men in the World that shall judge whether bread be bread and wine be wine How much more insolent a Charge is this But brother Popish absurdities have need of a better defence than to call the adversarie insolent and proud 2. And is the thing I say true or false I prove it true The Answer of the Protestants about Luther's Reformation which I give is Christian◠Sense and Reason But the Papists or any that deny it seriously and take it not to be plain and full understand it not Ergo they understand not Christian sense and reason That is In this For I never said that they understand not Christian Sense and Reason in any other thing nor is there the least appearance of such a sense Now if this brother will deny either of the premises he may expect an answer Till then I adde 3. Are not you brother by your own censure notoriously insolent and intolerably proud if this hold good as well as I Do you not take all that you say against me or some part at least to be plain and full and to be Christian sense and reason And do you not suppose me to think otherwise of it And do you not think that this is because I understand it not Thus some mens hands do beat themselves 4. And do you not implicitly charge all or most Protestant Writers with insolence and intolerable pride as well as me Do they not all think their reasons against the Papists plain and full at least some of them And do they not think that the Papists denie them because they understand not the Christian Sense and Reason which is in them 5. And have not all mankind a deficiencie of understanding And is it pride and insolence to say so 6. But judge of your own spirit by your own rule Do not you think those that you before charged with persecution and making our dividing engines and whose Communion you think it a duty to avoid to be such as understand not Christian sense and reason in the arguings which I and others have used against them And is it not as lawful to think so of the Papists EXCEPT X. Answered I used the phrase of Local presential Communion in Contradistinction 1. To the Catholick Communion of persons absent which is by Faith and Love 2. And the Communion by Delegates and Representatives And our brother here 1. Calleth this phrase insignificant Iargon which was not said through any redundancy of Sense and Reason above othets Nor do I acknowledge his authoritie in the sentence without his reason 2. He saith Unlawful terms are imposed on us Answ. Brother Do you think men must trust their souls on your naked word Where in all this book have you done any thing that with an impartial understanding can go for proof that in all the Parish Churches of England that use the Liturgie that is imposed as a Condition of our Communion in hearing or praying which it is not lawful sometimes to do Answer this as to Mr. Nie about hearing and to me about Praying if you can and do not nakedly affirm 3. You say you do not so much separate as forbear Communion and your reason is for we were never of them Answ. I take you for a Christian and a Protestant Are you not so far of us Is not a member of the same Universal Church of Christ obliged to hold Communion as he hath a special Call or occasion with more Churches than that particular one which he ordinarily joyneth with If you purposely avoided and denied Communion with all the Independent Churches in England save one and wrote to prove it unlawful I think this were a separating from them as they are parts of the Church Universal that are neer you EXCEPT XI Answered 1. The word Sect though oft taken but for one party in a division was not by me applied to all the names before going but to the last named only and such other 2. I spake nothing at all of the truth or falshood of the Censurers words but of the requitals that Censurers have by other mens Censures which may be sharp and passionate and a rebuke to the Censured and modally Culpable when the words are true Yet I am content to undergo the Censure you here cast out of me rather than to censure that a Papist cannot go beyond a reprobate unless you do as Mr. Perkins doth to make it good be so charitable to all the millions else among them as not to call them Papists except they practically hold the most pernicious opinions of their Councils and Divines I confess I affect none of the honour of that Orthodoxness which consisteth in sentencing millions and Kingdoms to Hell whom I am unacquainted with EXCEPT XII Answered Here we have first a meer magisterial dictate without proof that I speak triflingly about Scandal and shew how little I understand it But where 's his reason or Confutation 2. Why all is but this Paul would not eate flesh rather than he would offend his weak brother c. Judge Reader whether the bare citing of these words be any proof that in Scripture Scandal is not taken more for tempting ensnaring and laying before men an occasion of stumbling or sinning than for meer displeasing men which is the thing that I affirmed But sure Brother if you soberly review it you will find that you deal very hardly with the Scripture and the souls of men First the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators turn make to offend you read offend instead of scandalize And 2. You bring a text against
Consequences on your person but it 's easie to see that it will follow from this opinion that Christ was a sinner and consequently no Saviour and so no Christ. Alas whither would you carry the people of the Lord Nor do you prove Paul's Case to be like this Eating at the sacrifiâ—â—s in the Idols Temples was visible Corporal Idolatry forbidden indeed in the second Commandement as Idolatry interpretative visible external corporeal It was that very Act by which an Idol was outwardly worshipped Therefore it was a Professing-act interpretatively Symbolizing with Idolaters I have told you is Professing for a Symbole is a Professing sign But he that is present with a Church professing to worship not an Idol but the true God and that according to the Scripture and is united to the Church only in this profession doth not by so doing Profess Consent to a Ministers ill wording or methodizing of his Prayers or his Sermons which is the work of his own office 2. As for your charge of Blasphemy c. on me for intreating you to take heed lest you blaspheme by making Gods foreknowing of faults to signifie an approbation I pass it by and will not by so frivolous a return be drawn to enter further on that point EXCEPT XXII p. 13. Answered Whether it be bitterness fierceness fury or proud impatience to reprove these sins in an instance which your self presume not to contradict And whether the opinion that no truth is to be silenced for peace be fit for judicious peaceable men to own or be not fit to be gain-said I have long ago debated in my book of Infant-Baptisme pag. 218. EXCEPT XXIII p. 13. Answered If you dissent why did you answer none of the six Reasons I gave for what I said nor seem to take notice of them But only when I say It were easie to instance in unseasonable and imprudent words of truth spoken to Princes which have raised persecutions of long continuance ruined Churches caused the death of multitudes c. Upon which you put four questions To which I answer 1. The flattery of some will not justifie the sinful imprudence of others 2. If you should be guilty of the blood of thousands by one sin will it excuse you that another was more guilty 3. Elijah Micaiah and Iohn Baptist spake not unseasonably or imprudently Nor is all imprudent that bringeth suffering or death 4. Gospel Ministers may follow them that spake prudently but unseasonable and imprudent speaking is not following them I have recited elsewhere a saying even of Dr. Th. Iackson that It is not because great men have not sins and wrath enough that there are no more Martyrs under Christian Rulers but because there be not John Baptists enough to tell them of them to that sense But either by all this you mean to defend unseasonable and imprudent speaking or else you mean that there is no such sin or else you must needs contend where you consent If it be the first or third I will not be so imprudent as to sence with you If the second it is gross contradiction of reason and morality and of Christ himself Matth. 7. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 11 12. 1 Cor. 14. 28. 34. Amos 5. 13. Eccl. 3. 7. EXCEPT XXIV p. 14. He hath found out a new Cause of Separation and such as we doubt not the Pope will thank him for when he saies Almost all our contentions and divisions are caused by the ignorance and injudiciousness of Christians For it is evident that our contentions at this day are principally if not wholly caused by the pride impertinencie and tyranny of imposers which guilt Mr. Baxter would ease them of by charging it on the ignorance and injudiciousness of Christians Answ. These last words are your 17th Untruth 1. Where have I said a word to ease them of it May not two persons or parties be both guilty of Division Yea if one were guilty wholly that is of the whole yet he may not be guilty solely and no one with him 2. Have you or any of your party done so much to have stopt that cause of divisions which you accuse as I have done And did I ever change my mind 3. O that God would make you know what spirit you are of and what you are doing Alas brother will you leave England no hope of a Cure What hope while we are impenitent What Repentance while we justifie our sins Yea while the Preachers teach the people to justifie them and become the defenders of the sins which they should preach against and fight against their brethren that do but call mâ—n to â—â—pâ—nt What! is Godliness up and in honour among us while Repentance is down as an intolerable abhorred thing What a Godliness is that which abhorreth Repentance I am offended greatly with my own heart that melteth not into tears over such lines as thâ—se for England's sake and for Religions sake For the honour of God and for the souls of men Is that a new Cause of separation which hath been the Cause since the daies of the Apostles to this day Did ever man read the histories of the Schismes and Heresies of the Churches and not find out this Cause this old this ordinary Cause If you had remembred but what Socrates and Sozomene say of the Church of Alexandria alone what contentions what tumults what blood-shed these weaknesses and faults of Christians caused it might have told you it is no new thing O lamentable case of miserable England that even among the zealouser sort of Ministers any should be found that either vindicateth all Christians from the charge of Ignorance and Injudiciousness Or that thinketh these are no Causes or no culpabie Causes of divisions That have no more acquaintance with the people of this land And know no better them that they plead for That such should seek to flatter poor souls in despite of that open light and undeniable 〈◊〉 of all the Christian World That in an age when the weaknesses and faults of Christians have wrought such heinous effects among us they should be denied And when God by judgements hath so terribly summoned us to repent by silencing dissipations imprisonments reproaches and most dreadful plagues and flames alas shall we call to professors that have ruined us by Ignorance and Injudiciousness the gentlest names that their sin will bear and say Repent not Christians you are not ignorant or injudicious It is not you that are the causes of our divisions and calamities Our Contentions at this day are principally if not wholly caused by the pride impertinency and tyranny of the Imposers Believe not Christians that you are innocent Believe not that you are not ignorant and injudicious as you love your souls and as you love the land If once God deliver us up to Antichristian darkness and cruelties it will be cold comfort to you to think that you once were flattered into impenitency and made believe that you were not
with If none of all this be there I hope your Patience is not very hard put to it if I do but intreat you to repent if you have said that of it which is untrue whoever told you so or at least not to proceed in untruths when you are so often warned of them 7. Do you think that it was done like tender conscienced Christians for so many to say that I write against your meetings yea that I conformed my self And this before ever they saw my book or ever spake with man that saw it And that men dare yet continue such sayings while the book is visible to prove them false and revile against it when they confess that they never read it Is this the fruit of the spirit of Christ But give me leave after these expostulations to come a little nearer to your objection and to tell you openly where we differ 1. You would have me speak for Love and Unity among the Nonconformists And I know no man that hath done it more frequently and more openly than I have done having these 24 years been offering or publishing terms of peace But God forbid that ever I should be of their opinion if there be any such who think that our union must be only with a Party and not with the whole Church of Christ or that we must Love none or seek peace with none but thâ—se that are in such points of our own opinion I am united first to Christ and the universal Church and consequently to all the parts as such though in divers degrees as they differ themselves in their Conformity to Christ. 2. I beseech you endure me with patience to tell you that I never took either the Non-conformists alone or the Conformists to be the whole Church of Christ or to be his only people in this Land nor the only faithful Ministers of the Gospel Bâ—ethren let not wrath and the faults of some deceive us to become injurious to others or to deny them Love and Iustice because that many of their opinion are bad Where in all the world do you know a Kingdom where the greater part are not too bad and where those that are of the Rulers Religion be it never so right do not comply with it to serve their flesh The Low Countries have no Bishops nor Ceremonies nor no such Liturgie as most are offended at with us but are under the Presbyterian Government And yet what the Commâ—n sort are there and in other such Countries I need not tell you Forgive me for telling you that if you know no godly persons Ministers or others of the Episcopal way I do and long have done And as my acquaintance increaseth I know more and more You that take me to be so bad as the Antidote describeth me will think it no great commendation to them that I profess to know those of them whom I take to be much better than my self Therefore I will say a greater word that I know those of them whom I think as godly and humble Ministers as most of the Nonconformists whom I know I doubt not but there are many hundred Parish Ministers who are no Persecutors nor ever consented to Persecution who Preach holily and live holily though I could wish that they were more And what reason have you to charge any other mens sins on them I am not ignorant what may be said to make them consequentially partakers But I must say this in answer to all that if God will charge undiscerned consequences upon them and us there will none of us all be found meet for Church Communion or for heaven I am judged by your selves to be too censorious of you and too sharp in telling you of that which I doubt not to be your sin why then are you so offended with me for being no more censorious and sharp towards others was I ever thought to be kinder to them than to you Is not every man naturally most favourable to those of his own opinion Is it Conformity or Non-conformity which I have most defended Is it as a Conformist or a Nonconformist that I have been judged and used these 33. years It is they that have lately written reproachfully against me It is they that have I need name no more But for the Non-conformists I must bear witness of their kindness to me that they never rejected me never forbad me to preach but one Sermon nor except particular angry parties whom I wrote against they never denyed me their good word What then can you think should draw me to be too sharp against them and too favourable to the other I look for no worldly advantage or benefit from them Surely be that is apt to be too sharp is liker to be so against dissenters from whom he suffereth than against those that have ever been his friends But truth is truth and the wisdom from above is without partiality and without hypocrisie Do but mark how both parties justifie me while both condemn me though I am too Conscious of my faultiness to justifie my self The one side think that I am not half sharp enough against the Anabaptists Sâ—pâ—ratists and Independents And you that I now write to think that I am not half sharp enough against the Conformists so that one side doth not only justifie me from the charge of câ—nsâ—â—iousness or sharpness against the other but blame me for the contrary and are angry with me that I am no sharper But Gods judgement of us all is right and his seal is sure The Lord knoweth who are his whoever shall deny it God will not judge of upright Christians as they judge of themselves when they unjustly accuse themselves Much less according to the judgement of their adversaries Brethren I think verily that I have as much to say against conformity as it is required of us Ministers as most of you that are most angry have And yet I tell you again that I believe there are many hundred Godly Ministers in the Parish Churches of England and that their Churches are true Churches and that I think not my self worthy to be compared with Mr. Bolton Whately Fenner Dr. Preston Sibbes White Field Uâ—her Jewel and abundance other old Conformists And you might forgive me if I compare them with your selves and if I again profess to you that if they were all alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then I could not find in my bea rt to think their Communion in Prayer and Sacrament to be unlawful nor to censure that man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them on that supposition I am sure the Assembly of Divines that sate heretofore at Westminster were so conformable when they went thither that I never heard of five Non-conformists among them besides the five dissenting brethren Their judgement was as Mr. Sprints that Confâ—rmity was lawful in case of necessity rather than to be deprived of
liberty to preach the Gospel but that it was a burden which they should cast off as soon as they had liberty so to do And I knew some who urged them to declare their Repentance for their former conformity and to have confessed it to have been their sin But I never heard of any considerable number of them that ever did it or that changed their minds And though Ministerial Conformity as to Engagements is now much altered many of them that are yet living do again confâ—rm And though I then was not nor yet am of their mind my self yet I would not shun Communion with the Reverend members of that Assembly Twisse Gatâ—ker Whittaker and the rest if again they werâ—â—sers of the Liturgie among us 3. But what if in all this I be mistaken and if Communion in the Liturgie prove unlawful should you be so impatient as not to bear with one that in such an opinion differeth from you As I write for my opinion so do you for yours And why should not you bear with my dissent as well as I do with yours My judgement commanded me First to exhort all sober Christians to draw neerer and to lay by those principles which drive them from each other as not to be Communicated with And Secondly where that cannot be obtained to bear with one another in our several Assemblies or Churches and to manage them with Love and peace This was my exâ—â—rtation And the time once was even when the five Dissenting brethren pleaded their cause with the Assembly at Westminster that this motion would have been accepted or at least not judged so great an injury as now it is O brethren do not expose your selves and cause so much to the censure of impartial men and of posterity as to let them know that you are grown so high or that in the very day of our humiliation these terms seem so injurious to you as these exceptions intimate Mr. Nye and Mr. Tho. Good win were so friendly with Dr. Prâ—ston as to publish his works when he was dead And I verily think if you had been acquainted with such Conformists heretofore as he was and Dr. Stoughton and Dr. Taylor and Mr. Downam and those forenamed and abundance more you could not choose but have thought them both tolerable and lovely if you had not thought it lawful to Communicate with them Much more you should have endured such as the Non-conformists of that age who used Parish Communion and pleaded for it against the Separatists in far sharper language than ever I used to you as their books against Johnson and Cann and Brown and Ainsworth do yet visibly declare If you think their Reasons and mine for the Lawfulness of Parish Communion to be insufficient so do I think of yours against it I have read divers that charge the Liturgie with Idolatry Did I ever lay so heavy a charge on you Did I ever say that it is unlawful to have Communion with you as you say it is to have Communion with others Why then should you not bear with lesser Contradiction when others must bear with far greater from you Will you proclaim your selves to be the more impatient You will then make men think that you are the most guilty You say of such men as those before named your worship is Idolatry and it is unlawful for any Christian to hold Communion with you in it and all that are present and joyn with you are guilty of the Idolatry I do but say that you make the Case more odious than it is and injure others by this charge What a world are we come to when those that you count unworthy of your Communion must not take your charge of Idolatry as too sharp and yet you that should be most patient take it for a heynous crime and injury to be told that you wrong them and that you judge too hardly of them and that their Communion is not unlawful Nay is it seemly for thâ—se men that have said and done so much I say so much for Liberty of Conscience and would never consent to the Westminster Assembly to declare against it even as to those parties whom you counted very erroneous your selves to be yet so impatient of our liberty to tell the Church our judgement about the Lawfulness of other mens Communion Is it meet for them who are offended with those that silence us and restrain us of our liberty to be so tender as to shew by such language as this Excepter useth and by such unjust fames as some others have dispersed how little themselves can bear dissenters I know that displeasure and impatience in the divers parties is expressed different wayes But O that yet you would consider how near of kin the principles are and how much defect of Love and Patience there is in you as well as others 4. And I intreat you to mark but what your own objection intimateth You could endure it if I had only pleaded for Peace and Concord among the Non-conformists But doth not this intimate that Peace and Concord in it self is desirable among all those that should agree and be united Why I am as well able to prove that all true Christians should have Peace and Love and Concord for the strength of the Universal Church as any of you all are able to prove that any one Party should have Concord in it self The Episcopal part would have all possible Concord among those that are Episcopal and the Presbyterians among Presbyterians and the Independents among Independents and the Anabaptists among Anabaptists no party is for Divisions among themselves till the particular temptation doth prevail And yet I am not pardonable for motioning that all sober Christians as Christians may have all possible Love Peace and Concord among themselves Brethren I am sure that Christs body is but one I do not despise all those words of Christ and the Spirit which I cited in my book I know that the diversity of knowledge and gifts among true Christians should not make diversities of Churches 1 Cor. 12. When I know this and cannot choose but know it why should any be angry with me for knowing it I know that the Godly Conformists and Non-conformists in England should be united as well as each party among themselves I know that our division gratifieth the Papists and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion and that more than most of you seem to believe or to regard I know that our division advantageth Profaneness and greatly hindereth the success of Ministers on both sides I know that it greatly pleaseth Satan and buildeth up his Kingdom and weakneth the Kingdom of our Lord His own mouth hath told us so And shall I not believe him As in our Worcestershire Agreement heretofore we proceeded on terms which excluded not the Episcopal so in our desires and terms of Concord we must still go the same way and shut out none from our Love and Communion whom Christ receiveth and would
have us receive If they shut out us that is not our sin but theirs The hurt and loss is farr more to the excluder than the excluded to him that loseth his Charity than to him that loseth but Communion with others And I know that as none shall take out of Christs hands those that are given him by the Father and he himself will in no wise cast them out so he will at last give no more thanks either to Diotrephes or to any separating parties that would rob him of his own and say that his Children are not his Children and that his Churches are not his Churches and that his Worship is not his Worship but Idolatry than you will give to him that will turn out your Children and servants and take away your goods and lands and say that they are not yours Brethren it grieveth me to the heart that neither party Conformable or Non-conformable is more sensible of the sin and danger of our distance Though I know that in both parties there are many wise and holy persons who I suppose lament it more than I do It layeth my soul in daily lamentations to see how we run further and further from each other to the apparent danger of the Protestant Cause and of the Kingdoms welfare and of all the hopes of our posterity And that in stead of repenting of those sins which every party is guilty of and taking warning by our former experiences or by the dreadful judgements of God upon us all that yet we are daily losing the little Love that is left and still flying further into more and more exasperations and distast As if all the Church and Kingdoms hopes consisted in overcoming one another When our long experience telleth us that subduing those that must still be members is no Cure of a divided body and that treading men down doth but alienate them the more And I know that it is Concord and Union upon such terms in which we are all agreed that must be our Cure if ever we be Cured And that no Covenant nor partial interest can possibly justifie us if we will stablish our union on such terms as shall either exclude such on one side as Jewel Grindal Downam Hall and other such Bishops or such on the other side as Ames Hildersham Cartwright Bayne Egerton and other such worthy persons that were Nonconformists For my part my terms should neither exclude Episcopal Independent nor Anabaptist But one that will separate and exclude himself or one that will tyranizâ— and exclude all others we cannot any otherwise have Concord and Communion with than distantly by Christian principles and patience But at long running they shall be all convinced that the Cure of the Church is not by meer Conquest or Contempt of others Nor by the Union and Concord of some Parties only but of the whole And that the sound and sober Conformists and Non-conformists are the parts in England that must be united And that neither Violence nor unjust separating Censures are the healing way And that which party soever it be that contriveth and endeavoureth a Union by the extirpation and ruine of the other part is schismatical and taketh the way of desolation And that it is the Devil the Infidels and the Papists that will be the gainers by our continued divisions And therefore though I know not the man alive in England who hath more fair pretence from the ungrateful usage of the differing partieâ— to desist from any more such conciliatory attempts yet let my hopes be never so low seeing it is a thing that must be done or we are undone I will imitate honest Mr. Dury and choose rather to wast my daies in vain attempts for Peace than to go quarrelling and contending to the grave as I have seen too many others do And if both parties in this exasperated age should never so much revile and sâ—ander me though a surviving name be little of my interest I make no doubt but our posterity will be constrained by experience to think better of Peace-makers than of Contenders The names of Melanchthon Bucer Calixtus Bergius Burroughs Hall Davenant c. are far more grateful and honourable to after times than the name of Flacius though an excellent learned man or of Schlusselburgius Calovius or any of our fiery Contenders or destroyers To all this I add that even the separated Churches themselves do find a necessity of Union and Concord for their preservation Division else will pursue the several pieces and the same principles which I write-against if they go along with them will crumble them all to dust The separated Churches in Holland of the English fully proved this Even those members in new-New-England which Mr. Norton sadly told Mr. Ash and me did withdraw and gather themselves to an unlearned Pastor and would not be intreated by Magistrates or Ministers yet when they were separated would fain keep Concord among themselves And if half of that separated body should again have separated from the rest that fragment would fain keep themselves in Unity And still nature teacheth them to feel that their Unity is their strength and life and that their Division is their dissolution 5. And I must needs tell the world that though I Conform not it is greater things than the matters of Conformity which are the chief parts of my Religion And therefore it is not Non-conformity that we must all Unite in so much as Christianity and soundness in the Faith And I doubt not but the Independents who offer to subscribe to the Doctrine of the Church of England will say that they differ far more from the Quakers and Seekers and Familists than they do from the Conformists And so do I though I would have Love and Gentleness exercised to them all 6. And if the present Conformable Ministry were more to be blamed than they are yet they may learn and profit while they teach Many of them are young coming lately from the University and may yet grow up to ability and piety and greater usefulness in the Church And many of them are prejudiced against their brethren for want of acquaintance And a Christian prudent Loving familiarity and Conversation with them may make them in time become more serviceable to the truth than we are whereas a continued distance estrangedness and censorious aversation will feed their mistakes and uncharitable censureâ— of us yea and their sharp severities against us and will keep up a heart-war and a Church-war in the land And alas who knoweth either when or how or in whose calamity it will End For he that puts on his armour should not boast as he that puts it off I do therefore conclude with this repeated profession that it is the Conformists and the Non-conformists that constitute the English protestant body And it is the Conformists and Non-conformists that must at last when they are wearied with tearing and opposing one another be brought together and the faithful of both
related to me by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister lately discouraged and come from thence would make a Christian heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that plantation once was And how one Godly Mininister by separation selecting a few to be his Church and rejecting all the rest from the sacrament the rejected party are grown to doleful estrangedness from Religion and the selected party much turned Quakers and between both how wofull are the fruits But the Case of England Scotland and Ireland which I foretold in my book of Infant Baptisme is yet a more lamentable proof what separation hath done against Religion so full a proof that it is my wonder that any good man can overlook it 16. Yea it tendeth to make Religiousness contemptible and the professors of it a common scorn when we are perceived to place it in unwarrantable separations and singularities and when we make men think that the greatest difference between those that they call Precise or Religious and others is but this that one of them prayeth without book and the other by the book that one of them will not joyn with those that use the Liturgie and the other will If we let men see that in indifferent things we are indifferent and that lesser evils we avoid as lesser and greater evils as greater and that the great difference between us and the ungodly is in our seriousness in our Christian profession and in our heavenlyness and true obedience to Christ it would much convince them of their misery and honour Religion in the world But when they perceive that the greatest contention which our houses and our streets do ring of is whether we shall hear a man that conformeth or not Or whether we shall pray with them that use the Liturgie Or whether we may sometimes Communicate with a Parish Church or not This turneth the thoughts of the careless and carnal the worldling and the sensualist from the necessary condemning of himself for his ungodliness and sets him on thinking that these stricter people do differ from him in things of no importance and that they are but an erroneous self conceited sort of persons and that he is much the wiser man Thousands in England are hardened into a neglect of Godliness to our suffering and the apparent danger of their own damnation by occasion of the unwarrantable singularities and the scandalous sins especially of those professors that have been most addicted to sinful separations 17. I am not causelesly afraid lest if we suffer the principles and practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazzard us all and we may lose that which the several parties do contend about Three waies especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied sects they will perswade people that we must either come for Unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this argument already And I am perswaded that all the arguments else in Bellarmine and all other books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of sects among our selves Yea some Professors of Religious strictness of great esteem for Godliness have turned Papists themselves when they were giddy and wearied with turnings and when they had run from sect to sect and found no consistency in any For when they see so many they say How can I tell that this or that is in the right rather than the other This it is that they ring continually in our ears Which of all these sects is in the right And what assurance have they of it more than all the rest that are as confident And how small a Church doth any one sect make And â—f hâ—w late original for the most But the poor deluded souls consider not that in going to the Papists they go but to another sect that is worse than any of the rest And though greater yet not past the third part of the Christians in the world And that Christianity is but one And that the way to rest is to unite upon the common terms of simple Christianity 2. And who knoweth not how fair a game the Papists have to play by the means of our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on each party and saying to one side Lay more upon them and and abate them nothing and to the other stand it out and yield to nothing And who is so blind then as not to see their double game and hopes viz. that either our divisions and alienations will carry men to such distances and practices as shall make us accounted seditious rebellious and dangerous to the publick peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that when so many parties under sufferings are constrained to beg and wait for liberty the Papists may not be shut out alone but have Toleration with the rest And shall they use our hands to do their works and pull their freedom out of the fire We have already unspeakably served them both in this and in abating the odium of the Gun powder plot and their other Treasons Insurrections and Spanish invasion of which read Thuanus himself that openeth all the mystery 3. And it is not the least of our danger nor which doth least affect me lest by our follies extremities and rigors we should so exasperate the Common people as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in Case of any competitions or their invasions or insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace Sure I am that the Parliaments and peoples resolutions against them after the late fire and in the time of the last war when they were so much feared did discourage and depress them more than all the rest of their opposers And though we cannot rationally believe that the people of England much less wise and sober Governors will ever be such enemies to themselves as to subject themselves to the Romish Tyranny and to forget what Ireland and England have seen and felt yet because it is not only oppression that maketh wise men mad let us do nothing by unlawful alienations and singularities or fierce and disobedint oppositions which tend to make the people like better of the Papists than of us 18. I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christs Churches upon Earth But he that separateth from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all And he that separateth from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgie and the badness of all our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive 19. Though Ministerial Conformity be to us another
thing by reason of the new impositions than it was to our predecessors yet to the people conformite is the same if not easier especially to them that I now speak to For it is the Liturgie Ceremonies and Ministry that most alienate them as I said before and not so much the subscription against the obligation of the Covenant And the Liturgie is a little amended as to them by the change of the Translation and some little words and by someâ—onger prayers And the Ceremonies are the same and thirty years ago there was many bare Reading not Preaching Ministers for one that there is now Therefore our case of separation being the same with what it was of old I take it to be fully confuted by the antient Non-conformists And I have so great a veneration for the worthy names much more an estimation of the Reasonings of Mr. Cartwright Egerton Hildersham Dod Amesius Parker Baines Brightman Ball Bradshaw Paget Langley Nichols Hering and many other such that I shall not think they knew not why they chose this subject and wrote more against separation than the Conformists did Nor do I think that the reasons of Mr. Iohnson and Mr. Canne can stand before them And it pittieth me to hear now many that differ from them say we are grown wiser and have more light than they when as our writings upon the same subjects shew that we are far in that below them And in other parts of knowledge alâ—s what are we to Reignolds Ames Parker and several of the rest But the world knoweth that the turn of the times put most of us into the sudden possession of our opinions without one half of the study it may be with most not the hundredth part which Cartwright Ames Parker c. bestowed upon these points And I never yet saw cause to believe that our present Dividers do learn more in a days study than those learned holy men did in twenty Nor do they shew more wisdom or holiness in the main I am very glad that the Pious Lectures of Mr. Hildersham Mr. R. Rogers and such other old Non-conformists are in so good esteem among good people where they will read them urging the people not only against separation but to come to the very beginning of the publick worship and preferring it before their private duties As for them that say If Dod Ames Hildersham c. had lived till now they would have been of our mind I desire them to prove it or not affirm it Is not the Liturgie Ceremonies and Ministery the same And what signs of such mutability did they shew Could your Reasons have conquered them more than Mr. Ainsworths Iohnsons or Cannes They were not so Light to be changed causelesly And I pray you mark that if you are wiser in this point of separation than all these old Non-conformists were than Iohnson and Canne and Howe were wiser also in that than they which doth not appear to us by their writings And then for all the greater Light that you think you have yet Iohnson Canne and Howe had as great Light and were in this as wise as you though Ames and the rest of the Nonconformists were not O that our brethren would but seriously read over the writings of these men especially Iacob Paget Ball and Bradshaw and Gifford against the separatists and try whether the case was not the same 20. Yea I must confess that when I think what Learned Holy Incomparable men abundance of the old Cenformits were my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them If I had come to their Churches when they used the Common-prayer and administred the Sacrament could I have departed and said It is not lawful for any Christian here to Communicate with you What! to such men as Mr. Bolton Mr. Whateley Mr. Fenner Mr. Dent Mr. Crook Mr. Dike Mr. Stocke Mr. Smith Dr. Preston Dr. Siâ—bes Dr. Stoughton Dr. Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Iewel Bishop Grindal Bishop Hall Bishop Potter Bishop Davenant Bishop Carlâ—tâ—n c. Dr. Field Dr. Smith Dr Iohn White Dr. Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Philpot Sanders c. To say nothing of Luther Melanebthon Bucer and the rest of the forreign worthies Could I separate from all these on the reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the separatists of their times 21. At least I cannot easily condemn the ancient Independents who were against separation as well as the Presbyterians Mr. Henry Iacob is accounted the Father of the English Independents And he hath wrote a book against Mr. Iohnson the separatist or thâ—s Title A Defence of the Churches and Ministery of England written in two Treatises against the Reasons and Objections of Mr. Francis Johnson and â—thers of the separation Commonly called Browâ—â—â—s And in the end he hath A short Treatise concerning the truness of a Pastoral Calling in Pastors made by Prelates And I intreat the Reader to note that Mr. Iohnson there chargeth the Church of England and their worship with no fewer than 91. Antichristian abominations And I would ask any of the dividers whether they have more than 91. Antichristian abominations to charge upon it now I am content that those I write to now will cast by my book if they will but read Mr. Iacobs And Dr. Ames was half an Independent and yet against separation I need not mention the great moderation of New-England where their late healing endeavors greatly tend to increase our hopes of reconciliation O that the rest of the Churches were as wise and happy Whose experience hath possessed them with a deep dislike of the spirit of separation and division Yea if any thing may be believed which I have not seen Mr. Ph. Nie himself hath writen to prove the Lawfulness of hearing the Preachers in the Parish assemblies And yet it is as confidently confuted by another of the Brethren as my book is by this Excepter And he that proveth it Lawful to joyn with them that profess themselves a Church in their ordinary Doctrine and pulpit prayers and Psalms of praise I think can never prove it unlawful at all times to joyn with them in the use of the Liturgie or in the Sacrament supposing the scruple of Kneeling removed For the most of the Liturgie is the reading of the Scripture it self and the rest is sound matter though in an imperfect mode and fashion of words 22. Is sects and heresies increase among us the blame of all will be laid upon the Non-conformists And so it now is They commonly say It is you that open the door to them all And how injuriously soever this be said it becometh our duty not only to see that it be not true but also to do our part against them And this was one great reason why the old Nonconformists wrote and preached so much more thâ—â— the Bishops
against separation because all this spurious offspring was fathered on them and still laid at their doors And withal because they found how hard it is to stop men that begin to find real faults with other men from fancying abundance more that are not real and to keep men from running into extreams And experience told them that their own party was in danger of running from them and it was not easie to keep them stable in the sober 〈◊〉 of the truth Especially the Independents oâ— this account are obliged to be the greatest disswaders of separation because all sects are fathered on them and too many of their congregations in England and New-England have been lamentably corrupted or subverted and dissolved by them 23. There is 〈◊〉 man that is acquainted with Church history but knoweth that as Christ was Crucified between two thieves so his Church hath been 〈◊〉 and troubled between the prophane malignant persecutors and the heretical and sectarian dividers even from the dayes of the Apostles until this age Insomuch that Paul himself and Peter and Iude and Iohn were put to 〈…〉 as largely against the Dividers almost as the persecutors Iraenaeus Epiphanius Augustine Theodoret besides the rest do sadly tell us in their Catalogues and Controversies how lamentably these Dividers then hindered the Gospel and distressed and dishonoured the Church And the sad stories of Hâ—lland Munster and others in Germany Poland and especially these twenty years past in England do bring all closer to our sense And are not the Watch-men of Christ still bound to tell the Church of their danger on the one side as well as the other Yea in some respects to say more on this side than on that because Religious people are easier and ofter turned to be Dividers than to be Persecutors or Prophane 24. All these dangers lying before us and the Non-conformable Ministers being under great reproaches and lamentable hinderances from their sacred work and called by God to fidelity as in a day of tryal what guilt would be upon us what shame would be our due if we should all be silent whilest we see the principles of Division continually increase The 〈◊〉 principles which the old Non-conformists confuted greatly propagate themselves through the smart which alienateth the peoples minds And Reason doth so hardly prevail against Feeling that all that we can say will prove too little This is the true cause why they cry out now Oh the case is changed It is not with us as it was in the old Non-conformists daies Because they did but hear of what was in those daies but they see and feel what is done in ours Therefore we had so easie a work comparatively to perswade men that the old separatists were mistaken but can hardly now perswade them that the same principles are a mistake because now they smart and Passion is not easily held in by reason I can make shift to hold in a mettlesome horse while he is not provoked But if a Bishop will come behind me and laâ—h him or prick him and then blame the rider if he run away with me I cannot help it But sure if we must needs have to do with such men it concerneth us to hold the reines the harder And if after such grievous judgements as plagues flames poverty reproach and silencings and sad confusions which God hath tryed us with in these times his Ministers should through passion policie or sloth sit still and let Professors run into sinful principles and extreams it will be our Aggravated sin 25. And one reason why I set upon this work was because I saw few others do it If it must be done and others will not then I must take it for my duty 26. And another reason was because I knew but few that I was willing to thrust upon it so forwardly as my self for fear of being the author of their sufferings Many may be abler that are not in other respects so fit Some Ministers are young men and like to live longer to serve God in his Church and their Reputation is needful to their success If they be vilified it may hinder their labours And experience telleth us that the dividing spirit is very powerful and victorious in censorious vilifying of dissenters But I am almost miles Emeritus at the end of my work and can reasonably expect to do but little more in the world and therefore have not their impediment And for popular applause I have tryed its vanity I have had so much of it till I am brought to a contempt if not a loathing of it And whereas some brethren say that Censures will hinder the success of my Writings I answer No man shall do his duty without some difficulties and impediments If my writings will not do good by the evidence of truth in them and if the censures of Dividers are able to frustrate them let them fall and fail And some of my brethren have great Congregations to teach which are so inclined to this dividing way that they cannot bear their information But when I preached in my house to the most I knew scarce any of the Parish that came not to the Parish Church but such as lived in my own house Also many Ministers being turned out of all their maintenance have families and nothing to maintain them but what the Charity of Religious people giveth them Little do some know what the families of many godly Ministers suffer And some Independents are maintained by their gathered Churches and if they cast them off both reputation work and maintenance would fail For those that silence them will neither honor them nor maintain them And though I suppose that these brethren would serve God in the greatest contempt and poverty and self-denial if they perceive that God doth call them to it yet I think it a duty of Charity in me to go before them and do the more displeasing work to prevent the sufferings of such or at least not to thrust them on so hard a service For I have no Church that maintaineth me nor any people whose estimation I am afraid to lose that are dividingly inclined nor through Gods mercy have any need of maintenance from others and therefore may do my duty at cheaper rates than they 27. And I will add one reason more of the publishing though not of the writing of my book When it had been long cast by â—â—ound in the Debater and Ecclesiastical Polititian that the Nonconformists are made ridiculous and â—dious as men of erroneous uncharitable and ungovernable principles and spirits Though we subscribe to all the Doctrine of the Church of England And I thought that the publication of this book should leave a testimony to the generations to come by which they might know whether we were truly accused and whether our principles were not as much for Love and Peace as theirs and as consistent with order and government Is not the Non-conformists doctrine the same with that of the
Church of England when they subcribe to it or offer so to do Did not his Majesty in his Declaration about Ecclesiastical affairs complain of them Dr. Burges I suppose who pretended a difference between us in doctrine If they say that the Non-conformists are to be denominated from the Major part I answer we provoke the willingest of their adversaries to prove that either the Major part or any thing near it is of more erroneous doctrinal principles than themselves The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to subscribe to the doctrine of the 39. Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And I must witness that when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister of ten that are now silenced that was not in the main as far as I could discern of the same principles with my self And though any Reproacher will blindly injure the Non-conformists who shall judge of them throughout England and Scotland by the many parties in London where a great number of differing opinions alwaies inhabited Yet I may add that even in London the burning of the Churches and the notorious necessity of many thousand souls and the Acts which punish them by six moneths imprisonment if they come within five miles of a Corporation and therefore make them think it necessary to keep out of the Parish Churches where they may presently be both accused and apprehended doth make the Practice of many very humble godly peaceable and moderate men by Preaching at the time of publick worship when their hearers cannot well come at another time to be such as causeth men to misstake their principles But Satan maligning the just vindication of the Non-conformists against these accusations hath by false suggestions stirred up some who differ from the rest as well as we to clamour against this Book which was published for the clearing of the innocent And now they have disclaimed it they have renounced their own part in those peaceable Principles which they disown and in this Vindication But I must desire the next Accuser to charge this Renunciation upon none but those that he can prove to be guilty of it and not on the Non-conformists And the rather because by a self confutation they have shewed themselves that the old Non-conformists were more sober and peaceable And I can assure them that the most of the Non-conformists Ministers of my acquaintance are not a jot more rigorous or farther from them than the old Nonconformists were And that those that treated with the Bishops in 1660. did yield to such an Episcopacy as the old Non-conformists would scarcely have generally consented to viz. Bishop Ushers model in his Reduction If the Accusers of the Non-conformists shall say By the censure of your Book and Person you see what Non-conformists are that will joyn in receiving and venting false reports even of their brethren before they saw or heard one line of the book I Answer to such 1. Call not that the act of the Non-conformists which some of one party of them are drawn to by misinformation 2. There were so great persons and so many of the Conformists concurred in the report that you may well be silent as to Parties and say that Iliacos intra muros c. We are all to blame 3. It cannot be denyed that among all parties in England there are so many that take up false reports and think it no sin if they did but hear it from credible persons and hereby are Satans instruments to vend false defamations that it is become the shame and crime of the land and many strict Professors excepting the graver and soberer sort are too commonly guilty of it though not so much as others I will not deny but humane converse requireth some credulity But if men medled not with other mens matters without a call and withall did Love their neighbours as themselves and were as tender Conscienced as they ought to be and knew how little before God it will excuse a Lie or Slander to say I heard it of such an honest man or I said but what I heard of many it would prevent a great deal of sin And that it may appear I am impartial and defend not those faults in the Religious sort which they must repent of I will intreat you to note from this one instance these following obvious observations 1. Note by this instance what an inequality there may be in the â—â—ndâ—â—ness of mens Consciences towards meer words and formes of worship and towards the sins which nature it self condemneth if they study not well the wiles of Satan when the City and Country shall have the same men that are tender Conscienced which I commend about a Ceremony or the fashion of their prayers without any scruple or remorse thus receive and publish a slander or falshood that I wrote against private meetings and for Conformity and that I Conformed and this before they had ever seen or spoken with one man living that had seen one line of the book or could report it to them with the least pretense of knowledge Yea and all this against one that had given an opener testimony against Conformity than any one man of all them that thus slandered him as far as ever I was able to know 2. Note here what I have told you in the book the great difference between a formal dividing zeal for opinions and a Christian zeal of Love and Heavenliness and good workes If you would kindle this latter in your own or others hearts alas what holy labour doth it require How many lively Sermons are all too little to kindle the least flame of Loving heavenly fruitful zeal How many meditations and prayers are used before any holy flame appeareth But a zeal for our Party and our opinions and our several formes and fashions of speaking to God will kindle and flame like the fire that consumed London A sparke from one discontented persons mouth will suddenly take and engage multitudes in City and Country in the affectionate spreading of untruths and who can quench it till it go out of it self for want of fewel 3. Note also the great Partiality of multitudes of Religious people and how easily we can aggravate the faults of others and how hardly we can either aggravate or see our own The defects of the Liturgie and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert But when many of us vend untruths and slanders against our brethren about the land who aggravateth this or repenteth of it 4. But above all I intreate the Dividing Brethren if they can so long lay by their partiality to judge by this of the Reasons of their Separation from those Churches Private or Parochial that they differ from in tolerable things You think it a sin to Communicate in a Church where the Liturgie is used and Discipline is not so strictly exercised against some offenders as you and I desire But such publicke multiplyed untruths in
a word which never was 15. It will have a confounding influence into all the affairs and business of our lives 16. Lastly It will affright poor people from Scripture and Religion and make us our Doctrine and Worship ridiculous in the â—ight of all the world The Doctrine which we hear maintained which hath no better fruits than these must be avoided as well as the contrary extream which would indeed charge the Law of God with imperfection and cause man to usurp the part of Christ. And we must first know How far God made the Scripture for our Rule and then we must maintain its sufficiency and perfection II. Also on that extream we must do nothing to countenance those Practices which tend to alienate Christians hearts from one another and to keep up Church-Wars or to feed bitter censures scorns and reproaches And we that must not scandalize the Religious sort must avoid all that thus tempteth them which is the real scandal But of this I have said enough in the Book which I am now defending Part II. An ANSWER to the Untrue and unjust Exceptions OF THE ANTIDOTE Against my TREATISE for LOVE and UNITY DEar Brother for so I will call you whether you will or not the chief trouble that I am put to in answering your Exceptions next to that of my grief for the Churches and your self by reason of such Diagnosticks of your Malady is the naming of your manifold Untruths in matter of fact It is it seems no fault in your eyes to commit them but I fear you will account it unpardonable bitterness in me to tell you that you have committed them If I call them Mistakes the Reader will not know by that name whether it be mistakes in point of Fact or of Reason And Lies I will not call them because it is a provoking word Therefore Untruths must be the middle title EXCEPT I. Page 1. Tâ—e whole dâ—sâ—â—n of this Book being â—â— make such as at this day are carefull to kâ—â—â— themselves Pure from alâ— defilements in False worship Odiâ—us it may well be affirmed iâ— was neither seasonable nâ—r hâ—nest Answ. THat 's the fundamental Untruth which animateth all the râ—â—â— when 〈◊〉 had got a false apprehension of the design of the Book you seem to expound the particular passages by that Key That which you call The whole design is not any part of the design but is expresly and vehemently oft disclaimed and protested against in the Book And whoever readeth it without a Partial mind will presently sâ—â— that the whole design of the Book is to deliver weak Christians from such mistakes and sins as destroy their Love to other Christians and cause the divisions among the Churches 2. False worship is a word of various sensâ—â— Either it signifieth 1. Idolatry in worshipping a false God 2. Or the Idolatrous worshipping of Images as representations of the true God 3. Or worshipping God by Doctrines and Prayers that consist oâ— falshoods 4. Or devising Worship-Ordinances and falsly saying they are the Ordinances of God 5. Or making God a Worship which he forbiddeth in the subâ—â—anâ—e and will not accept 6. Or worshipping God in an inward sinful manner through false principles and ends as hypocrites do 7. Or in a sinful outward manner through disorder defectiveness and unhandsome or unfit expreâ—â—ions Oâ— these I suppose you will not charge the Churches you separate from as guilty of the first second fourth or sixth which is out of the reach of humane judgment For I suppose you to be sober As for the third through Gods great mercie the Doctrine of England is so â—ound that the Independants and Presbyterians have still offered to subscribe to it in the 39 Articles according to which if there were any doubtfulness in the phrases of their Prayers they are to be interpreted For the fifth if you accuse them of it you must prove it which is not yet done supposing that you take not Government for Worshipâ— nor can you do it So that it must lie only on the seventh And for that if you will take the word false-worship in that sense do not you also worship God falsly when you worship him sinfully And are not your disorders and unmeet expressions sins as well as theirs Alas how oft have I joyned in Prayer with honest men that have spoken confusedly unhandsomly and many waies more unaptly and disorderly than the Common Prayer is How oft have I heard good old Mr. Simeon Ash say that he hath heard many Ministers pray so unfitly that he could heartily have wished that they had rather used the Common Prayer When did any one of us pray without sin How ordinarily do Anabaptists Antinomians Arminians Separatists c. put their Opinions into their Prayers and so make them false Prayers and so false Worship Nay could you lay by partiality and knâ—w your self a very hard thing you would presently see that you who wrote these Exceptions are liker to Worship God falsly than they that do it by the Liturgie that is in the third sense Because the Doctrine of the Prayers in the Liturgie is sound but if you account this Script of yours to be Worship and why not writing as well as preaching or if you put the same things into your Worship which you put into your writings as is very usual with others then it is false Worship indeed as consisting of too many falshoods If you pray to God to encline men against all that Communion which you write against or lament such Communion as a sin this is falser worship than any is in the Liturgick Prayers And if you will call all those modes of worship false which God in Scripture hath not commanded what a false worshipper are you that use a translation of Scripture a Version and tunes of Psalms a dividing the Scripture into Chapters and Verses yea the Method and words of every Sermon and Prayer or most and abundance such like which God commanded not God never bid you use the words of Prayer in the Liturgie Nor did he ever bid you use those which you used last without it O Brother if you knew your self and judged impartially you would see that whatever you say against mens communicating with other mens tolerable failings as false worship may be as stronglie urged for avoiding communion in disordered prayers that are without book and much more in the prayers of honest erroneous Separatists Anabaptists Antinomians c. which yet for my part I will not so easily avoid I confess if my judgment were not more than yours against dividing from each other in the general I should be one that should be as forward to disclaim Communion with many zealous Parties now received by you and that as false worshippers as you are to disclaim Communion with others I am sure you worship God falsly that is sinfully every time that you worship him 3. But seeing my Book disswadeth you equally from unjust avoiding Communion
an exhortation and advice seem injurious or intolerable to you the Lord have mercy on your souls Is the matter of this prayer unlawful Or can he prove that I spake it jestingly when I took it to be the serious prayer of my grieved heart Or may we use no words as Lord have mercy on us c. which others use unreverently Or is it true doctrine that this is the foolish talk and jesting forbidden Eph. 5 What proof is there here of any one word of all this EXCEPT IV. p. 2. He doth very often and needlesly insist on many things that may tend to advance his own reputation The instances are added Answ. 1. I Confess Brother I am a great sinner and have more faults than you have yet found out But I pray you note that all this still is nothing to our Controversie whether we should advise men against Church divisions as contrary to Love 2. If a humble Physitian may put a probatum to his Receipt and say I have much experience of this or that I pray you why may not a humble Minister tell England that I and you have had experience of the hurt of divisions and of the healing uniting power of Love Did all the Independent Church-members whose Experiences are printed in a book take Experience to be a word of pride 3. And is it pride to thank the World for their Civilities to me in mixing commâ—ndations which I disown with their censures What! to confess the remnants of their moderation notorious in matter of fact the truth of which you durst not deny in the midst of their many false censures and calumnies 4. Or to tell you how unable I have â—ound back-biters to prove their accusations in doctrinals to my face 5. Or to tell you that some even Independents perswaded me when I was silenced to write sermons for some of the weaker Conformists such as are too many youths from the University to preach Where lieth the pride of these expressions Is it in supposing that there are any Conformists weaker than my self Whether think you this brother or I think meanlier of them Or set our selves at the greater distance from them 6. When I plead against charging forms with Idolatry I say that for my self it is twenty times harder to me to remember a form of words than to express what is in my mind without them If this be not true why did you not question the truth of it If it be why is it pride to utter it as a proof that I plead for Love and not for my own interest Is it pride to confess so openly the weakness of my memory I never learnt a Sermon without book in my life I think I could not learn an hours speech sufficiently to utter the very words by memory in a fortnights time And is it pride for a man to say that he can easier speak what is in his mind Truly brother I was so far from intending it as a boast that I meant it as a diminâ—tion of the over-valued honour of present extemporary expression and to tell you that I take it to be so far from proving that your prayers only are accepted of God before a form as signifying more grace that I take it to be an easier thing for an accustomed man that hath not a diseased hesitancy to speak extempore what is in his mind than to learn a form without book And that they thaâ— do this do serve God with as much labour and cost as you do Do I boast or do I not speak the common case of most Ministers when I truly say That when I take most pains for a Sermon I write every word when I take a little pains I write the heads but when business hindereth me from taking any pains I do neither but speak what is in my mind which I suppose others as well as I could do all the day and week together if weariness did not interrupt them I seek by these words but to abate their pride that think themselves spiritual because they can pray or preach without book Like some now neer me that account it formality and a sign that a Preacher speaketh not by the Spirit if he use notes or preach upon a text of Scripture but admire one neer them that cries dâ—wn such and useth neither 7. Is it pride to say that thâ—se darker persons whom I have been â—ain to rebuke for their over-valuing me and my understanding would yet as stiffly defend their most groundless opinions against me when I crost them as if they thought I had no understanding If you do think that you cannot be over-valued or are not so do not I. And I thought my rebuking men for it had been no sign of pride And brother I am confident if you your self did not believe that my understanding and consequently my Writings are over-valued you would never have written this book especially in such a stile against me yea in the end you profess this to be your design to undeceive those that had a good opinion of me If those on the other side had not thought the same my late Auditors at Kederminster had never had so many Sermons and that by persons so high nor would so many books have been written to the same end even to cure the people of this dangerous vice of over-valuing me The matter of fact being so publick invalidateth your exception 8. The last expression of my pride is that I give this testimony even to Christians inclined to divisions that if they think a man speaketh not to the depressing of true and serious religion they can bear that from him which they cannot bear from one that they think hath a malignant end and that on this account in my sharpest reproofs my own auditors have still been patient with me Enquire whether this be true or not Whether I have not preached twenty times more against Divisions to a people that never once quarrelled with it than I have written against it in the book with which you so much quarrel And is this probatum given against malignity a word of pride too You proceed in your Charge that I have great thoughts of my self and have learned little of Christian or moral ingenuity and am unfit to be a Teacher of it to others Answ. 1. Do you not yet perceive that you also have a silencing spirit when you and those that you separate from are agreed that we are unfit to be Teachers because we gainsay you why do you pretend so great a distance even in the point of imperious severity 2. O how hard is it still to know our selves and what manner of spirit we are of Is it pride in me to think that I am righter than you or to express it Why brother do not you think as confidently that you are righter than I and do you not as Confidently utter it I differ no further from you than you do from me And why is it not
as much sign of pride in you to think you know more than I as in me to think that I know more in this than you The truth is Pride is not a true valuing but an over-valuing our selves and our own understandings If either you or I be in the right and both think our selves confidently to be so he is the Proud person which ever he be that is in the wrong For it is he that over-valueth his own understanding Here therefore the Evidence must decide the Case EXCEPT V. p. 3. Answered Your 5th Exception implieth more Untruths The first is that I did not consider that fault of the Imposers which I have written in that very book so much against and elsewhere and before said more against than any man that I know in England This was not considerately spoken The second is that all or most of those that you separate from made tearing engines and dividing impositions If this be not implied you speak not to the point But you may easily know that in all the parish-Parish-Churches of England there is not one man or woman no not one Minister of very many that ever made or imposed such Engines The third implied untruth is that I plead either for subscribing Assent or for such Communion as cannot be had without subscribing Assent to what you know is sinful when you may joyn as far as I desire you without subscribing any Assent at all EXCEPT VI. Answered 1. As to the sense of 2 Cor. 6. 14 15 16. and Rev. 18. 6. You confess that the Texts do directly and properly concern only Infidels and Idolaters there mentioned 2. You say It belongs to others that are guilty of the same Crimes under the name of Christians proportionally Answ. Very true If it be not a contradiction If any called Christians be notorious Infidels and Idolaters they are not Christians and so not fit for Christian Communion But from the Societies of such we must flie our selves But not from the societies of Christians alwaies when some such shall intrude 3. You say We are commanded strictly to separate from every one that is called a brother if he be covetous or a railer c. Answ. The Church and not a private man must exclude such a one from Church-Communion And you your self must exclude him from your private familiarity But you are not commanded to separate from the Church if they exclude him not I am not bound to separate from the Church where you are for this Book which you have written though I could prove it railing How few separated Churches know you on earth that have no Covetous person or railer Or at least where the people hold it their dutie to separate from their own Church if any Covetous person or railer be there 4. You add that if notwithstanding all admonition any Church will still retain them we are not to own such a Church as a Spouse of Christ and therefore must come out of it c. Answ. 1. I have in that Book proved the contrarie by abundant Scripture instances And in the next exception you your self confess the primitive corruptions and lay the stress of your Separation only on Imposed Conditions of Communion 2. You give us no proof of this naked assertion If a Scolding woman or a Covetous Professor be reteined in a Church otherwise pure you are not therefore bound to separate much less to take it for no Church For that is a true Church which hath the true essentials of a Church But so may one that reteineth a Covetous man or a Scold Ergo By your rule you must Separate not only from Parish Churches but from most of the Separated Churches that ever I was acquainted with I find no particular Church called A Spouse of Christ but the universal only As a Corporation is not a Kingdome but a part of a Kingdome 5. Above twenty Arguments in my book for Infant Baptism shew that you did not truly say that the best argument that all learned men have ever defended it by is the proportion it hath to Circumcision EXCEPT VII Answered You say that I impertinently recite the Corruptions of the Scripture Churches to prove that we are not to separate c. your reason is Because many Errors in Doctrine and life were formerly admitted yet none of them were imposed as conditions of Communion Answ. Do you not see that here you seem to deny what you said so confidently in the last Exception There you say We must come out if they will receive such for members after all admonition and retein them Here you seem plainlie to yield that up and to lay all on imposed Conditions of Communion as if else you could communicate with Churches so corrupt You can bear your own contradiction better than mine 2. What is imposed on you as a condition to your Communion in the Doctrine and Prayers of the Parish Churches but your actual Communion it self If you will say that their bad Minister and their imperfect form is imposed as a Condition because you must be present so they may say that you also impose your imperfect manner and expressions on them as Conditions of their Communion in your Churches And thus you are all Imposers EXCEPT VIII Answered First you say I said that I met with many Conscientious Professors c. That 's your fifth untruth I said no such thing but only many Censorious professors 2. You say It is hardly possible to believe it But that is possible to men that use to be more careful of speaking truth themselves and that are acquainted with the people of England by such means as Conference which is hardly possible to others 3. You ask Ought not such things to be concealed And you abuse Scripture to confirm it But 1. Are you not here partial Is it your judgement that we should conceal the faults or ignorance or errors of the Bishops Conformists and Parish members Or be they not commonly multiplied and aggravated And yet must the Separatists ignorance and error be concealed 2. Do you desire their Repentance and humiliation whose faults you would have concealed And do you imitate Nehemiah and others of Gods Servants that use to Confess the sins of all ranks and sorts of men 3. Do you use in publick humiliations to confess this ignorance of Professors or not If not what a kind of humiliation do you make If you do do not you publickly reveal this secret 4. How grosly are you unacquainted with England that take this for a secret or for hardly to be believed when we have Congregations and multitudes of such and the land and world ringeth of them 5. Do you not thus harden them that charge us with factiousness when you shew your self so solicitous for the Concealment of the ignorance of your party while you have no such care for others 4. But it is your sixth Untruth in point of fact when you say
The Lord give you a meeker spirit and a tenderer conscience And that I mean not an Independent as such for the Presbyterians will not suspect me I will stop your mouth with this sufficient proof 1. That the chief Independants have written excellently against separation as Mr. Iacob by name And they pretend that Mr. Bradshaw and Dr. Ames were Independants 2. That I rejoyce in the state of the Churches of New England since the Synods Concessions there and good Mr. Eliots propositions for Synodical constant Council and Communion of Churches as much as in any Churches State that I hear of in the World Though as to the form of Government my judgement most agrees with the Waldenses or Bohemian published by Lascitius and Commenius especially since the Magistrates late printed Order that all the Ministers shall take especial care to Catechize and personally instruct all the people under their Charge even from house to house at least 3 or 4 Families meeting together c. which I much rejoice in It is evident then that though a man may be a Divider that is Episcopal Presbyterian Independant or Anabaptist yet as such as their denominations signifie I mean none of them for many of all these names are no Dividers though a Papist is so by the essence of his Religion un-churching all beside his Sect. And if you had done me but common justice you would have noted that in my scheme in the end the second Proposition of the way of Love which I plead for is in these words Love your neighbours as your selves Receive those that Christ receiveth and that hold the necessaries of Communion be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independants Anabaptists Arminians Calvinists c. so they be not proved heretical or wicked Judge now of your Truth and Charity by these evidences EXCEPT XV. p. 8. Answered Here is the 13th visible Untruth He saith He speaks very slightly of Prayer in comparison of study for the attaining of wisdome calling it too cheap a way which sheweth you how little he understandeth the nature of true Prayer c. Answ. I love you the better for your zeal for the honour of Prayer though I had rather knowledge and truth had guided it Reader I intreat thee to peruse my book and if thou find there what he saith condemn me more than he doth and spare not I tell those men that will do nothing for knowledge but ask for it that God hath not promised you true understanding upon your prayers alone without all the rest of his appointed meaâ—s Nor that you shall attain it by those means as soon as you desire and seek it For then prayer would be a pretence for laziness c. That praying is but one of the means which God hath appointed you to come to knowledge by Diligent reading hearing and meditation and Counsel of the wisest is another And will any Christian deny the truth of this except the Enthusiasts Or should any Godly Minister rise up against it Is any of this true 1. That I have here one word of Comparing prayer and study 2. Or that I prefer study or reading or other means before prayer 3. Or that I speak lightly of prayer in Comparison of the other 4. Or that I make prayer it self an easie thing Is not this that I call his 13th Untruth composed of many When it is visible that I put prayer first that I only say that it is but one means and not all and that others must be added and that praying alone without other labour is too easie a way What should one answer to such dealing as this I beseech you brother preach not the contrary whatever you think lest you justifie the silencers while you blame them And if really you are against my words satisfie the World by experience how many you ever knâ—w that came to the understanding but of the Articles of Faith or the Decalogue or Catechism or Christianity it self that I say not to your degree of knowledge above me and such as I by prayer alone without hearing reading meditation or conference And why Paul bids Timothy give himself to Reading and meditate on these things and give thy self wholly to them And why Hearing and Preaching are so much urged And whether it be any great fault to silence you and me and all the Preachers in the Land if prayer be the only means of knowledge And whether you do not before you are aware still agree with them whom you most avoid who cry up Church-prayers to cry down Preaching And why you wrote this book against me if your earnest prayers against me and the people be the only means And when you have done I can tell you of many Papists and others that you your self suppose never pray acceptably who have come to a great deal of knowledge Though there be no sanctified saving Knowledge after the first Conversion without prayer I am sorry you put me to trouble the Reader about such things as these It follows Neither doth Solomon direct to any other way principally c. Answ. Did I speak one word of the principality or which was the principal way Did I not put prayer first and other means next This is not well brother Truth beseemeth our Calling and our work And yet he that said I was found of them that sought me not in my opinion which yet expecteth your reproach doth give so much knowledge as is necessary to mens first faith and repentance and conversion by the hearing or reading or considering of his word ordinarily to them that never first asked it by sincere prayer For I think that Faith goâ—tâ— before a believing prayer You adde We cannot but wonder that any dares so expresly go against the very letter of Scripture but that we have done with wondering at Mr. Baxter's boldness Answ. This I may well put as your 14th Untruth Reader try if you can find one syllable of what he speaks in all my book Doth he that saith prayer is but one of the means contradict the letter of Iam. 1. 5. If any man lack wisdome let him ask it of God O how hard is it to know what spirit we are oâ— That a man should go on in such dealing as this and make his own fictions the ground of such tragical exclamations when he hath done Yea he proceed For what follows in justification of his unwarrantable conceit exceeds all bounds of sobriety whither will not Pride and overweening carry a man He that had so trampled upon his brethren without any regard to their innocency or sufferings now speaks but slightly of our Lord Christ himself Answ. Your anger I pass by I like you the better for speaking against Pride For by that you shew that you love it not under that name But still How hard is it to know our selves I am sorry 1. That you are so sore and tender as to account it trampling on you to be intreated to Love your
confess to you brother that though I once hoped that we should have been great gainers by our sufferings the fruit of them now appeareth to me to be such in many as maketh me more afraid of imprisonment for the sake of my soul than of my body lest it should stir up that passion which should bear down my judgement into some errors and extreams and corrupt and destroy my Love to them by whom I suffer And truly Brother I am fully convinced that many that think their sufferings are their glory and prove them better men than others are lamentably lost and overcome by their sufferings I think your companion and you are no gainers by it who presently by preaching and writing thus bring water to the extinguishing of Christian Love I think those two Gentlemen before mentioned that turned Quakers in prison and left their Religion as many more have done were losers by it And I think many thousands in these times that are driven into various errors and extreams and have lost their charity to adversaries and dissenters have lost a thousand times more than their liberties and money comes to Woe be to the World because of offences And woe be to them by whom offence cometh Experience of too many maketh me less in love with sufferings than I have been And to think that the quiet and peaceable preaching of the Gospel though under many other disadvantages if God would grant it us would be better for our own souls EXCEPT XIX Answered You proceed But Mr. B. being once got into the chair of the scornful will not easily out and therefore goes on It is an odious sound to hear an ignorant rash self-conceited person especially a Preacher to cry out Idolatry Idolatry against his brethrens prayers to God because they have something in them to be amended Whereas we do not therefore think any thing to be guilty of Idolatry because it hath something in it to be amended but because it is used in the worship of God without any command of God to make it lawful And this we must tell our Dictator is a species of Idolatry and forbid in the second Commandement And if he will not receive it so it is to use his own arrogant and imperious words because he understands not Christian sense and reason Answ. 1. The charge of Idolatry against the Liturgie and Conformable Ministers I found in Iohn Goodwins book and Mr. Brownes and others But this Brother carrieth it much further 2. He contradicteth himself in his Negation and Affirmation For whatsoever is to be amended which is used in Gods worship hath no command of God to make it lawful For it is sin But whatsoever is used in Gods worship without any command of God to make it lawful he affirmeth to be Idolatry Ergo whatsoever is used in Gods worship which is to be amended he maketh to be Idolatry 3. Reader if this one Section do not make thy heart grieve for the sake of the Church of Christ that our poor people should be thus taught and our Congregations thus distracted and unholyness that is uncharitableness fathered upon the God of Love and our sufferings and non-conformity thus turned to our reproach and wrath and reviling pretended to be Religion thou hast not a true sense of the concernments of Christianity and the souls of men I shall propose here these few things to thy consideration Quest. 1. Whether an Idolater be not an odious person and unfit for Christian Communion That these men think so their practise sheweth Q. 2. Whether he that writeth and preacheth to prove others Idolaters do not write and preach to make them so far seem odious and to perswade men from loving them and having communion with them as Christians Q. 3. Whether he that preacheth up hatred causelesly and preacheth down Christian love do not preach down the sum of true Religion and preach against God who is Love Q. 4. Whether preaching against God and Religion be not worse than talking against it in an Ale-house or in prophane discourse And fathering all this on God and Religion be not a sad aggravation of it Q. 5. Whether this brother that affirmeth this to be Idolatry that he speaketh against should not have given us some word of proof especially where he calleth me that deny it a Dictator And whether both as Affirmer among Logicians and as Accuser among men of justice the proof be not incumbent on him Q. 6. Whether here be a syllable of proof but his angry affirmation Q. 7. Whether thou canst receive this saying of his if thou have Christian sense and reason so far as to believe that all the Churches of Christ fore-named the Greek the Abissine the Armenian the Coptics the Lutherans and all the Reformed Churches that fall under his Charge are Idolaters And couldst bring thy heart accordingly to condemn them and separate from them And whether thou canst take all the holy Conformists of England such as Bolton Preston Sibbes Stocke Dike Elton Crooke Whateley Fenner c. for Idolaters yea and all the non-Conformists that used and joyned in the Liturgie Q. 8. Whether thou canst believe that this same brother himself that writeth at this rate do use nothing in Gods worship which hath no command of God to make it lawful Is all this reviling all this false doctrine all his untruths commanded of God Or doth he not make himself an Idolater Q. 9. Whether if he teach true doctrine there by any Church or person in the World that worshippeth not God with Idolatry I give my reasons 1. There is no one but sinneth or useth sin in the worship of God But no sin is commanded or lawful Ergo there is no one according to his doctrine but useth Idolatry in the worship of God 2. There is no one that useth not some things not commanded to make them lawful in the worship of God Therefore if he teach true doctrine there is no one but useth Idolatry The antecedent I have oft proved by many instances The method of every Sermon and Prayer the words the time and length the translation of the Scripture whether it shall be this or that the dividing of the Scripture into Chapters and Verses the Meeter of Psalms the Tunes Church utensils Sermon notes which some use Catechisms in forms c. the Printing of the Bible or any other books c. none of these are commanded And all these are used in the worship of God And must all Christians in the World be taught to fly from one another as Idolaters Is this the way of Love and Unity Q. 10. Why should this brother be so extream impatient with me for calling Dividers weak and pievish and censorious Christians If in his own judgement all men be Idolaters that use any thing in Gods worship not commanded Is not this to censure all men as Idolaters And yet is a censure of previshness on these Censurers a justifying of persecution Q.
against mâ—n iâ—â—hey 〈…〉 〈…〉 are men from Loving their enemies 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ssing them that curse them and doing good to them that hate them and praying for them that despightfully use them or falsely accuse them and persecute them that they are hardly kept from hating those that Love them and cursing those that bless them and hurting those that would do them good and falsely accusing and despightfully using and persecuting those that pray for them And yet lest they should not be flattered in their sin and that yet they may judge themselves the children of our heavenly father they will do all this as Acts of Love to the Church and Truth and to the persons souls and will Love them as is said with a hurting a reviling a slandering a cursing and a hating and malicious Love O that the God of Love would pitty and undeceive the selfish and passionate sort of professed Christians and teach them to know what manner of spirit they are of O that he would rebuke the evil spirits that are gone foâ—th The spirit of Coveâ—oâ—sness and Pride 〈◊〉 Hypocrisie and Religious Imagery Oâ— Self-conceitedness Of Malice and Wrath Of Back-biting and False accusing before that both Christianity and Humanity be turned into Devilisme 2. Tim. 3. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and earth be more conformable to Hell O that the spirit of Light would make us of one mind and the spirit of Love would mortifie both mens malignant and religious passions contentiousness and malice and cause us to Love our Neighbours as our selves That as the envious and striving wisdom from beneath hath caused Confusion and every evil work so the wisdom from above which is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated might bring forth Mercy and good fruits without partiality and hypocrisie that we might edifie the body of Christ in Love Eph. 4. 16. and frustrate the hopes of the enemies of our peace who wait for our total dissolution and triumph already in our Divisions when it is their own Mill which grindeth us into powder But God can make their Oven to bake us into a more Christian and salubrious Consistency that I may use Ignatius his â—llegory but it must be first by â—ermenting us with unfeigned Love and then we shall be Lovely in his â—ight and the God of Love and Peace will be with us 2 Cor. 13. 11. Amen POSTSCRIPT THat the Excepter may yet further be convinced that it is not any Party of men called Independents or Anabaptists as such that I here speak against As I did in my opposed Book declare that I thought them both and all others that hold the foundation and disclaim it not by Heresie or wicked lives to be such as the Churches should receive into their Communion and that it is their duty to hold Communion in the same Assemblies notwithstanding their difference and that it is not the Opinions which denominate them that I write against but only the Love-killing and Dividing principles which are among them which make them fly with censure and alienation from their brethren that are as meet for Church-Communion as they and oft break them into pieces among themselves so do I yet again here declare the same And not only so but that if it were in my power when their Communion with others cannot be procured they should yet be tolerated in their separation it self and enjoy Communion with themselves alone in their separated Congregations under the Laws of Peace being not tolerated to turn their preaching or worship into a reviling and reproaching of the Orthodox to the destruction of Christian Love And I should not doubt but the Communion of the Orthodox Churches maintained in Constant Synods together with the special Countenance of the Christian Magistrate and the daily experience of Believers which would still make the aged sort forsake them would suffice better than violent severities to repress the evil and to give victorious Truth opportunity to do its proper work And to silence this calumny yet more I do renew the Profession which I have often published that my own opinion is so much for Independency as that I think no Church is made by God to be a Ruler to other Churches under the name of a Mother Church or a Metropolitane or Patriarchal but that all these are humane forms And that Councils are not the proper Governours of the particular Pastors but are for Communion of Pastors and Churches directly by way of Consultation Consent and Agreement As I have heretofore declared that Bishop Usher professed his judgement to me Though I confess that the Pastors in Council are still the Guides of the people as well as singly at home and by their Consent lay a stronger governing obligation on them And that the General Law of Unity and Concord doth consequently bind the several Pastors to concurr in all things Lawful Consideratis considerandis with the Confenting Churches And even Dr. Hammond is for Independency so far as to say that every such regular assembly of Christians under a Bishop such as Timothy was an Oeconomus set over them by Christ was the Church of the Living God Though he adde such again every larger circuit under the Metropolitane c. Yet he confesseth And such all the particular Churches of the whole World considered together under the supream head Christ Iesus dispensing them all by himself and administring them severally not by any one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as inferiour heads of unity to the several bodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their plantatiâ—â—s each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct commission from Christ immediately and subordinate to none but the supream Donor or plenepotentiary So far he on 1 Tim. 3. 1â— e. To this do but adde what Bishop Bilson of subjection largely sheweth and other Bishops as well as he that Metropolitanes and Patriarks are not of Divine but humane institution ad accidental to the Divine constitution of Churches And also what Ignatius saith of the Unity of Churches and description of a Bishop that To every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and Deacons and so every communicating body or Congregation that had an Altar had a Bishop as Mr. Mâ—de on this of Ignatius sheweth and then you will see how far Independency is owned by others as well as by me And for further silencing the calumny let it be noted that the Churches in new-New-England are commonly called Independent or Congregational and yet they are against Separation and do find by experience that Separation is as perillous a thing to Independent free Churches as it is to Diocesane Churches and somewhat more Because they use not outward force to preserve their Unity and because one single Congregation is sooner dissolved by division than such a thing as a Diocesane Church is And therefore no men should be more willing to suppress Dividing Principles and
Passions than the Independents both because they are most charged with them and with all our Sects and Confusioâ—â— and because they are not the least in danger of them And that the New England Churches are against the Separation which hath been commonly known by the name of Brownisme I will give you these following evidences 1. Even Mr. Robinson himself a part of whose Church began the Plantation at Plimouth though he was one of those that was called a Semi-separatist yet hath written for the lawfulness of hearing in our English Conformable Parish Churches And in his Letter to his people in new-New-England in Mortons Memorial he hath these honest observable passages How imperfect and lame is the work of grace in that person who wants Charity to cover a multitude of offences Neither are you to be exhorted to this grace only upon the common grounds of Christianity which are that persons ready to take offence either want Charity to cover offences or wisdom duely to weigh humane frailties or lastly are gross though close hypocrites as Christ our Lord teacheth Mat. 7. 1 2 3. As indeed in my own experience few or none have been found which sooner give offence than such as easily take it neither have they ever proved sound and profitable members in societies who have nourished this touchy humâ—ur To these he addeth special Reasons from themselves Mr. Browne accusing the Ministers as being Separatists and would be Anabapists c. The Ministers answered that They were neither Separatists nor Anabaptists they did not separate from the Church of England nor from the ordinances of God there but only from the corruptions and disorders there c. Old Mr. Wilson Pastor of Boston being desired by all the Elders of the Churches assembled at his house that on his dying bed he would solemnly declare to them what he conceived to be those sins which provoked the displeasure of God against the Countrey told them that he had long feared these sins following as chief among others which God was greatly provoked by 1. Separation 2. Anabaptisme 3. Corahisme when people rise up as Corah against their Ministers and Elders as if they took too much upon them when indeed they do but Rule for Christ and according to Christ yet it is nothing for a brother to stand up and oppose without Scripture or reason the doctrine and word of the Elder saying I am not satisfied c. And hence if he do not like the Administration be it Baptisme or the like he will then turn his back upon God and his Ordinances and go away c. And saith he for our neglect of baptizing the children of the Church those that some call Grand-children I think God is provoked by it 4. Another I take to be the making light of and not subjecting to the Authority of Synods without which the Churches cannot long subsist And so for the Magistrates being Gallio like not caring for these things or else not using their power and authority for the maintenance of the Truth and Gospel and Ordinances c. Morton p. 133. 184. And among the Poems there recorded of him this is part Firm stood he 'gainst the Familist And Antinomian spirit strong He never lov'd the Separatist Nor yet the Anabaptists throng Neither the Tolerators strein Nor Quakers spirit could he brook Nor bow'd to the Morellian train Nor childrens right did over-look p. 186. And Pag. 195. in the Poems on their famous Mitchell it followeth The Quaker trembling at his thunder fled And with Caligula resum'd his bed He by the motions of a nobler spirit Clear'd men and made their Notions swine inherit The Munster Goblin by his holy flood Exorcis'd like a thin Phantasma stood Brown's Babel shatter'd by his lightning fell And with confused horror pack'd to Hell Let not the brazen Schismatick aspire Lot's leaving Sodom left them to the fire But the fullest evidence is the work of the New-England Synod 1662. who determined of two great points of Church-practice so as greatly tendeth to reconcile them to all the moderate Presbyterians and other peaceable Christians The one is 2. That Members of the visible Church according to Scripture are confederate visible believers in particular Churches and their Infant-seed that is Children in minority whose next Parents one or both are in Covenant The Case of Christians that are of no particular Church is not here medled with 3. And that The Infant-seed of such when grown up are personally under the Watch Discipline and Government of the Church 4. That these adult persons are not to be admitted to full Communion meerly because they are and continue members without such further qualifications as the Word of God requireth thereunto 5. That Church-Members who were admitted in minority understanding the doctrine of Faith and publickly professing their Assent thereto not scandalous in life and solemnly owning the Covenant before the Church wherein they give up themselves and their Children to the Lord and subject themselves to the Government of Christ in his Church their children are to be baptised As to the points themselves having written a Treatise on the subject under the name of Confirmation and therein distinctly shewed my Opinion in reconciling terms though it may seem stricter than these propositions and more inclining to the dissenters in some things I shall say nothing of it here But by this it is visible that the New-England Synod do not only exclude the practice of Gathering Churches out of Churches which was the great contest in England between the Assembly and the Congregational party but they provide that not so much as any particular persons that were Baptized in their Churches in Infancy shall be made Church-members de novo unless by removing from one Church to another but shall be accounted members till they apostatize notoriously or are Excommunicated And so shall their children after them succeed by the way of Baptism into the Church and they will have no other ordinary Church-door but Baptism And so gathering Churches of Baptized persons will cease unless it be in a ravelled state when the old Churches being dissolved believers are to embody themselves anew And Mr. Davenport and a few more seeing that by this way their Churches would fall into the way of England and other Churches by a succession of Members growing up from Infancy and not by making them up of new Adult enterers as the Anabaptists do did oppose himself by writing against the Synod which by some of them is largely Answered Wherein they tell us that there were nâ—t ten in a Synod of above seventy that did in any thing Vote on the Negative and not above three against the third Proposition which carryeth the Cause They frequently disclaim Separation They cite Allen and Shephard p. 33. as advising for the Reformation of such Churches as our Parishes that they be acknowledged true Churches and then called to Repentance and Reformation and a select number of those that agree to it
being fit for the sacrament c. to be admitted and go in the Congregational way pag. 42. they cite Cotton Holin of Chur. Mem. p. 92. saying Neither among us doth irregeneration alone keep any from Church-fellowship with us unless it be accompanied with such fruits as are openly scandalous and de convincingly manifest irregeneration They prudently tell us p. 45. that The Lord hath not set up Churches only that a few old Christians may keep one another warm while they live and then carry away the Church into the cold Grave with them when they die but that they might with all care and advantages nurse up still successively another generation of subjects to Christ c. And that We may be very injurious to Christ as well as to the souls of men by too much straitening and narrowing the bounds of his Kingdom or visible Church on earth Citing Paraeus in Mat. 13. saying In Church-Reformation it is an observable truth that those that are for too much strictness do more hurt than profit the Church Abundance more to the same purpose I might collect And seeing they take children growing up to be members under Church-discipline according to their Capacities Let it be considered soberly whether this doth not intimate to us that Discipline it self must not be exercised with the hurtful rigor that some expect For I would intreat the ridgeder sort if they are Parents but to tell me at what age and for what faults and for want of Grace they would have their own children excommunicated And when they have done whether they will also proceed to a Family Excommunication of them for the same causes They adde a sixth Prop. for the Baptizing of the Children of those that by death or extraordinary providence have been inevitably hindered from publickly acting as aforesaid and yet have given the Church cause in judgement of Charity to look at them as so qualified and such as had they been called thereto would have so acted And they adde a seventh Propos. that The Members of Orthodox Churches being sound in the faith and not scandalous in life and presenting due testimony thereof these occasionally coming from one Church to another may have their children baptized in the Church whither they come by virtue of Communion of Churches But if they remove their habitation they ought orderly to covenant and subject themselves to the Government of Christ in his Church where they settle their abode and so their children to be baptized It being the Churches duty to receive such to Communion so far as they are regularly capable of the same So that they provide for the reception of all meet persons But the chief thing observable is that in Propos. 5. Where the Qualifications or Description of a just entitleing Profession is laid down as consisting in no more than these four things 1. Understanding the doctrine of Faith 2. The publick Profession of Assent thereto 3. Not to be scandalous in life 4. And solemnly owning the Covenant before the Church wherein they give up themselves and their children before the Lord. They require no other proofs of Regeneration noâ— any particular account how they were converted nor what further signs of it they can shew And for my own part I never dissented from those called Congregational in England in the two great points from which their Churches are denominated viz. 1. That regularly they should consist but of so many as are capable of Personal Communion which they call a Congregation 2. And that this Congregation is not jure Divino under the spiritual Government of any superior Church as Metropolitane Patriarchal c. But my chief dissent from them hath been in their going beyond Independency and too many of them coming too neer to Separation 1. By making other tearms of mens title to Church-member-ship than these here recited by the new-New-England Synod and then the understanding sober profession of Assent and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant is 2. And for their gathering new Churches in the several Parishes as if there had been no Churches there before and the members not gathered by them were not the subjects of any Church-Discipline neither the Children nor Adult And the reasons why I have ever dissented from them in these points have been these 1. Because I find that the contrary was the way of Scripture-times and all antiquity And that the Apostles still received members upon a sudden and bare profession of belief and consent to the Baptismal Covenant with the penitent renunciation of the Flesh the World and the Devil And all Ages since have held this course and made Baptisme the Church-door But I shall heartily joyn with any Brethren that will endeavour herein to save the Church from that state of Imagery and dead Formality which Papists and all Carnal Hypocrites have mortified Gods ordinances and unspeakably injured the Churches by and are still working every ordinance of God that way All good men should labour to recover Religion and Christian profession to an understanding seriousness I will here insert the words of a most Learned and High Prelatist to shew you that whoever is against this Course in Practice no sober men can deny it in principles Eldersfield of Bapt. pag. 48. marg Upon score of like reason whereto and for such after-tryal may have been taken up in the Christian Church that examination which did sift the Constancy or rather Consistency of those that had been taken in young to their presumed grounds that if they wavered they might be known and discharged Or if they remained constant they might by Imposition of hands receive what the common name of that Ceremony did import of their Faith at least a sign of Confirmation Vasques hath from Erasmus in the Preface to his Paraphrase on the Gospels a word of most wholsome grave and prudent advice that those who were baptized young when they begin to write Man should be examined An ratum habeant id quod in Catechismo ipsorum nomine promissum fuit Quod si ratum non habeant ab Ecclesiae jurisdictione liberos manere in 3 part Thom. Disp. 154. To. 2. C. 1. 2. If they did then stand to what their Sureties had presumed for them If not they should be discarded Most necessary and of unimaginable benefit But not if it be turned into cursory Imagery Such a scrutiny would shake off thousands of rotten hypocrites and purge the Church of many such Infidel-believers or professors upon whose dirty faces a little holy water was sprinkled when they knew not what it was but they no more mind the true Sanctification appertaining than Turks or Saracens who shall rise up in judgement against their washed filthyness Or than those of whom St. Peter It is happened unto them according to the true Proverb The dog to his vomit and the washed swine to wallow in the mire Such Discipline of awakened Reason is that which the World groans for And groan it may for any
more careless and have less zeal and therefore like swine will leave such pearls to any that will take them up or they that have sound knowledge to guide their zeal 3. And the power which too many of them give the people over the Pastors and themselves will do much to increase these divisions and cause their dissolution And that this is the sense of New-England appeareth 1. In their banishing Lyford first and the two Brownes after lest they should be divided about the Prelacy and Liturgie 2. By their common judgement against dangerous Toleration 3. By the History of Mrs. Hutchinsons business in Sir Henry Uane's daies 4. By the History of Mr. Williams business 5. And of Gorton's 6. And of the Quakers of late All which I shall say no more of but only transcribe some of the words of Morton's Memorial about Mr. Williams p. 78 c In the year 1634. Mr. Roger Williams removed from Plimouth to Salem He had lived about three years at Plimouth where he was well accepted as an assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith then Pastor there But by degrees venting of divers of his own singular opinions and seeking to impose them upon others he not finding such a concurrence as he expected desâ—red his dismission foreseeing that he would run the same course of rigid Separation and Anabaptistry as Mr. John Smith the Separatist at Amsterdam had done the Church consented to his dismission and such as did adhere to him were also dismissed or removed with him or not long after him to Salem But he having in one years time filled that place with principles of rigid Separation and tending to Anabaptistry the prudent Magistrates of the Massachusets jurisdiction sent to the Church of Salem desiring them to forbear calling him to Office which they not hearkening to was a cause of much disturbance He being in Office proceeded more vigorously to vent many dangerous Opinions as That it is not lawful for an Unregenerate man to pray nor to take an Oath and in special not the Oath of Fidelity to the Civil Government Nor was it lawful for a godly man to have Communion either in Family-Prayer or in an Oath with such as they judged unregenerate And therefore he himself refused the Oath of Fidelity and taught others so to do Also that it was not lawful so much as to hear the godly Ministers of England when any occasionally went thither and therefore he admonished any Church-members that had done so as of heynous sin Also he spake dangerous words against the Patent which was the foundation of the Government of the Massachusets Colony Also he affirmed that the Magistrate had nothing to do in matters of the First Table but only the Second And that there should be a general and unlimited Toleration of all Religions And for any man to be punished for any matters of his Conscience was Persecution Staying at home in his own house he sent a Letter which was read in the publick Church-Assembly to give them notice That if the Church of Salem would not separate not only from the Churches of England but the Churches of new-New-England too he would separate from them The more prudent and sober part of the Church being amazed at his way could not yield to him Whereupon he never came to the Church-Assembly more professing separation from them as Antichristian And not only so but he withdrew all private Religious communion from any that would hold Communion with the Church there Insomuch as that he would not pray nor give thanks at meals with his own Wife nor any of his Family because they went to the Church-Assemblies Divers of the weaker sort of the Church-members that had been throughly levened with his Opinions of which number were divers Women that were zealous in their way did by degrees fall off to him Insomuch as that he kept a Meeting in his own house unto which a numerous company did resort both on the Sabbath day and at other times by way of Separation from and opposition to the Church-Assembly there Which the prudent Magistrates understanding and seeing things grow more and more towards a general division and disturbance after all other means used in vain they passed a Sentence of Banishment against him out of the Massachusets Colony as against a disturber of the Peace of the Church and Commonwealth After which Mr. Williams sate down in a place called Providence and was followed by many of the Members of the Church of Salem who did zealously adhere to him and cryed out of the Persecution that was against him Some others also resorted to him from other parts They had not been there long together but from rigid Separation they fell to Anabaptistry renouncing the Baptism which they had received in their Infancy and taking up another Baptism and so began a Church in that way But Mr. Williams stopped not there long For after some time he told the people that had followed him that he was out of the way himself and had misled them For he did not find that there was any upon earth that could administer Baptisme and therefore their last Baptisme was a nullity as well as their first And therefore they must lay down all and wait for the coming of new Apostles And so they dissolved themselves and turned Seekers keeping that one Principle That every one should have liberty to worship God according to the light of their own Consciences but otherwise not owning any Churches or Ordinances of God any where upon earth So far the History To which I adde that this man was one of the great instruments after all this of sublimating the English Separation to the same height and gratifying the Papists by raising up the sect of Seekers who said that both Scripture Ministry Church and Ordinances were lost And had they not now broken the Church sufficiently and made it small enough when they had made it none God forbid that I should transcribe any of this with a desire to bring reproach on any mens persons but only to help our dear brethren that are in danger to profâ— by the warning of other mens falls For to this end was the Scripture written historically with the falls of the Saints inserted in it The same History pag. 139 140. thus describeth Mr. Thomas Dudley a Principal Founder and Pillar of the Massachussets and often Governour dying 77 years old that His zeal to order appeared in contriving good Laws and faithfully executing them on Criminal Offenders Hereticks and Underminers of Religion He had a piercing judgement to discover the Wolf though cloathed with a Sheep-skin These following are the conclusion of a pious Copy of Verses found in his pocket when he was dead Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch O're such as do a Toleration hatch Lest that ill egg bring forth a Cockatrice To poyson all with Heresie and Vice If men be left and otherwise Combine My Epitaph's I dy'd no Libertine But
this is no excuse to them that Tolerate not men to obey the Laws of Christ. To these I may adde that though many Prelatists utterly mistake and think that it is the Ministers every where that are the chief Leaders of the people to Separation yet both in New-England and in Old the people are so much proner to it than the Ministers except a very few that if it were not for the wisdom gravity stability and authority of the Ministers restreining them the matter would be otherwise than it is As this Synod of New-England sheweth you their stability and moderation so do the choicest of their Pastors still stand firm against all extreams and hold the people in that Concord which they have The excellent service of Mr. Mitchell in this kind before he died is predicated by all I will not recite all the complaints I heard from Mr. Nortons mouth against the separating humour of many people and their danger thereupon nor the many Letters to the same purpose which many worthy men thence have sent over to their friends and their particular lamentations of the case of Hartford Boston c. which I have had the sight of which fully testifie that they are no promoters of those waies The sad case of the Bermuda's I before mentioned Sad indeed when in so disciplin'd a Plantation one Minister shall turn away the greater part from Church-Communion till they become aliens And the rest whom he gathered as the only worthy persons shall so many turn Quakers and such like till Religion between both is alas how low as their late worthy Minister fore-named testifyeth The dissolution of the separated Churches of the English in the Low Countreys by their own divisions is a thing too well known to be concealed From all which I gather that it is the Interest of the Congregational Churches themselves as much as of any others to joyn with us for the Principles of Christian Love forbearance and Unity and against the Principles of alienation and division which is all that I am driving at Obj. But the Churches of new-New-England would not joyn with a Church that should use the Common-prayer in that worship nor in the Sacrament Answ. Nor I neither ordinarily if I were with them and in their case who have liberty to worship God in the most edifying and serious and orderly manner that they can And yet were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective form than our Liturgie rather than in none And that this is the judgement of many New-England Ministers to joyn with the English Liturgie rather than have no Church-worship I have reason to conjecture because in their foresaid Defence of the Synod Pref. pag. 4 5. They profess themselves to receive their principles not from the Separatists but from the good old non-Conformists to whom they adhere naming Cartwright Ames Paraeus Parker Baines Fox Dearing Greenham c. And I need not tell those that have read their writings that the old non-Conformists did some of them read the Common-prayer and the most of them judge iâ— lawful to jo 〈…〉 Or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Rich. Rogers c. would not write so earnestly to men to come to the beginning and prefer it before all private duties And Perkins was for kneeling at the Sacrament And Mr. Baines his successor in his Letters writes for Communicating kneeling at the Sacrament and answereth the objections But though I write this to give them the due honour of their moderation and sober judgement yet not as making them or any men our Rule in faith or worship Obj. Therefore the Churches of new-New-England reprove not separation from a Common-prayer Church though they would have none separate among themselves because there is no just Cause Ans. 1. The former answer may serve to make it probable that they would joyn with them as Churches in case they had not better to joyn with on lawful tearms 2. And their own expressions signifie that they take the English Parishes that have godly Ministers for true Churches though faulty 3. And those that I now write for cannot forget that they gathered their Churches by separation out of our parish-Parish-Churches when there was no Common-prayer nor Ceremonies used nor any difference in worship found among us that I know of And that in new-New-England it self the Principles which I deny do too of procure separation from those Churches that have nothing which moderation and peaceableness will think a sufficient cause of such disjunction 4. And it is well known that the name of a Separatist and Brownist was first taken up here in England with relation to these Parish-Churches where they had the Liturgie and Ceremonies as now Therefore they would speak equivocally in disclaiming Separatists and Brownists if they meant not such as the word is first and commonly used to signifie 5. And if that were not the sense a Separatist might be said to be against Separation as well as they in New-England For Canne or Iohnson would be against separating from their own Churches or from any which they judged as faultless 6. It was the parish-Parish-Churches that had the Liturgie and were accused to have 91 Antichristian Errors in them and the Church of England which they belonged to which Mr. H. Iacob the Father of the Congregational Party wrote for Communion with against Francis Iohnson and in respect to which he called those Separatists against whom he wrote The same I may say of Mr. Bradshaw Dr. Ames and other non-Conformists whom the Congregational brethren think were favourable to their way And if the old Independents as well as the rest of the non-Conformists accounted them Culpable Separatists that then wrote for separation from the parish-Parish-Churches for Diocesane Churches I Iâ— meddle not with then we have small reason to think that those new-New-England Brethren that disclaim the Separatists were of the mind of these Separatists themselves or that they differed from the old Independents herein when they seem rather to be of such healing principles and temper towards the Presbyterians as in my opinion they have in their Synodical Conclusions made â—p almost all the breach And therefore are not to be accounted more for separation than the old Congregational Divines And that you may see that the Magistrates of New-England are of the mind of their Pastors in the Synod and take the youth to be under the Ministers Charge or at least that I may hereby express my gladness for this work of their great prudence and Christian zeal and call those my brethren of the Ministry to Repentance who did neglect this work of personal Instruction while we had liberty to exercise the Pastoral office and also that I may yet remember them that are silenced what abundance of good the Law yet alloweth them to do by this course of going from house to house and of Catechizing the youth seeing we are restrained to no members under 16 years of age