Churches to be no true Churches or that the Church does impose such things as conditions of her Ordinary Constant Lay-communion which are sinful or intolerable As I am of Opinion that they can make no such plea good so must I heartily advise them to take heed because if they do stand upon such a one their Separation being without cause if the Parish-Churches be true Churches and it be no sin to go to them they know the Charge lyes against them I will add To separate from any Church upon a reason common to others as because we have a Liturgy or the like is virtually to separate from all that have one and consequently from the most of Churches in all Ages of the World The truth is there is such an impression got on the imaginations of some of the Dissenters that if they should come in to the Church so as to be subject to the Hierarchy and submit to her present Impositions nay if they shall but touch with the Conformist almost in any thing though only to go to Church with them and take the Sacrament there which yet as to Lay-conformity is in effect indeed all they are afraid as if it were the receiving upon them the Mark of the Beast I mean the doing some very horrid thing they know not well else what and were therefore to be cast remediless into the Lake of Fire A business really of very sad consequence to our selves at home as exceeding scandalous to the Reformed Churches abroad who have their Liturgies and Ceremonies as we have and perhaps some or other of them less innocent than this of the Church of England But I will ask here What think we of Bradford Philpot Latimer Ridley Cranmer and the rest that suffered in Q. Mary's time Were there not amongst these holy Martyrs an Archbishop and Bishops and did not they go ordinarily to Church and receive the Sacrament according to the Liturgy as we do and admit of all the Impositions besides in King Edward's days Nay what think we of the old Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeth's and K. James his time who though they laid down their Ministry rather than to conform to some Impositions afterwards did yet maintain Communion with the Parish-Churches all their days Did any of these now or all these receive the Mark in their right hands or in their foreheads by this means And must they therefore be everlastingly damned I argue The receiving the Mark in the Revelations must be a sin certainly because the receiver is cast into Hell for it But to obey the Law or to conform only so far as we can which is the Rule of these Papers is the duty of every man no sin Again if receiving these Impositions be receiving the Mark it must be the promiscuous receiving them without caution which to beware of is the end of these Papers or against Conscience that is sinfully receiving them But to receive them as I here propose with Explication which is to receive them no otherwise but so as they may and ought to be received is to get a victory over the Mark avoiding the sin in the doing I must confess I am sorry that I have need to say thus much I wish I had not but there are some odd minds some vehement Revelation-men some melancholy Spirits and I am much assured that such a conception I speak of is not uncommon to such As for those that never had any such kind of thought but have their rational Exceptions it will yet be well even for them when they shall be able to get off their proper Objections so as to come honestly to Church with a Judgment that is satisfied and not only to avoid the Law to be secured from this also after they have done who can tell what impression the suggestions of a mans own heart if troubled or the words of another upon occasion may lay upon him And as for such as are for disputing the Point if they can produce those Arguments as will prove that the Church hath indeed imposed any thing as the condition of her Ordinary Communion which is sinful and intolerable those Arguments be sound then must I acknowledge the Schism which is made by their Separation from her Communion through those sinful Impositions must be imputed to her the Church of England is the Schismatick till she removes them But if those Arguments be not sufficient or unsound then must the Schism which is made be imputed to them For if the cause upon which they separate be found no cause and an insufficient one is none I must assert still that the Separation here conceived being causless must be Schism But what if it be Schism There are many such Ministers and such People who are rivetted in the belief that the Parish-Churches are no true Churches or at least that it is sin to go thither and what shall these do I answer I need not stand to say first what all will that these men are to lay down their Errour and so come to Church as the only way to escape sin but seeing they can never be convinced of that I must say there are degrees of Sin and Schism and the greatest evil must be most carefully shun'd To set up Meetings upon the account these do is sin is Schism I take it but to hold no Meetings at all and leave off the Assembling themselves together so as to rob God of his Worship altogether this is certainly more sinful more wicked more intolerable It appears consequently in the issue that a Toleration understand such a one as is meet or of such as are Tolerable is even almost as necessary to be granted by His Majesty and a Parliament when we have one as a constant and continued Pardon from God Almighty is to this poor divided Nation Not that I deny but there may be Reasons for the Meetings of Dissenters and perhaps very many that will hold and cannot be gainsaid and when I say that separating from the Church upon such grounds as draw ill consequences after it and will not hold is Schism I do not say that every meer local Separation from the Parish-Meeting when there is cause is so who am sensible what a Scare-crow hath been made of that bare word only as Mr. Hales hath observed Suppose a man stands upon his liberty from God and Nature to chuse his own Pastor for the benefit of his Soul as his own Physician for the health of his Body and so using those means which he finds most conducive to his own edification he sits down with such or such a Meeting for his stated Communion when yet he refuses not to go to Church maintaining occasional Communion also with his Parish I will not deny but such a man hath reason Indeed if he quite leave the Church I shall suspect according to my Principles that his ground is not good and that is all one as that he hath none You will say if I go
the heavenly glory as Enoch and Elias this flesh and bones of his were not transformed into a spiritual body I do question seeing the Apostle tells us expresly That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven We may refer this flesh and bones therefore to his Rising and Ascension but leave it in dubio in regard to his Sitting in Heaven In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and new Testament of whose AuthorÃty was never any doubt in the Church Art 6. By Church I understand the whole Catholick Church or this Church of England for it is evident that there hath been doubt made of some Books in our Canon by Antient Particular Churches and Fathers The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius's Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought thorowly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Art 8. The word thorowly I understand only in regard to the Articles of those Creeds not in regard to the Proem and Conclusion of the Athanasian Quicunque vult which is inconsistent I hold with the Goodness of God and Natural Religion The condition of man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will Art 10. By the words no power and cannot I understand a Moral power and impotency which lyes in such a disposition as that a man never will without the special grace of God but not so as if we had no power at all that is Physical or as if the terms of the Covenant of Grace were Impossible to any We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholsom Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification Art 11. By the words Faith only I understand what Paul means by Faith without works that is Faith in opposition to works that would make the reward to be of debt and not of grace or to works of the Law works which the Law requires to Justification which none have and if any be justified at all it must be therefore without them not in opposition to Repentance and Evangelical Obedience and though it be for Christ's sake or his merits and not ours that he accounts us righteous yet is our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience the condition upon which he does it or rather the Righteousness it self which upon the account of Christ's deserving he accepts unto life everlasting Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sin Art 13. When good works done before grace are said to have the nature of sin I understand that thô such works are good quoad operis substantiam yet they are evil quoad modum quo ordinantur ad vitam aeternam and consequently when they are said not to be pleasant unto God I understand not acceptable unto Salvation I judg that the doing what we can through the strength of free will and common grace is not to be discouraged and to be held in some good sense preparatory to saving Conversion yet because there is no full promise made thereunto as the condition of obtaining that grace which is special it is truly said that such works do not make us meet for receiving or do not of congruity deserve the same Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as Vessels made to honour After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives Art 16 17. I apprehend the Church here does follow St. Austin in the Points of Election and Perseverance and when it is said that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given it must be understood so as that the Elect for all that shall never finally fall away but shall infallibly recover and be saved They are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved Art 18. I observe the Church hath but one Anathema in all her Articles and that seems to be denounced here against all those who do or shall hold that any persons can be saved that are not Christians as if the Death of Christ or benefits thereof and the knowledge of him were commensurate through the world But God forbid I am out of doubt that God hath a Government over all mankind which is Moral in order to Life and Salvation and that the instrument of that Government must be the Law of Grace the Law of Innocency becoming in the state of Lapsed Nature uncapable of that end which being at first promulgated to Adam after his Fall and to Noah must belong to all their Posterity insomuch as every one whosoever he be that lives up in sincerity to this Law according to that administration of it he is under shall be saved For my Assent then to this Article I do desire the word by may be especially noted I could not assent to this Article if it were in the Law or Sect he professeth but being by I hold plainly that if a Heathen or any Person that never heard the Gospel repents of his sin and trusts to a good God and lives up to the Law or Covenant of Grace according to the first Edition of it I say if any such indeed do Rom. 2.26 Act. 10.35 and thereby comes to be saved it is by the Christian Religion which he implicitely holds in the substance with us and not by the Law Sect that he professeth that he is saved And this Salvation of his is in
and ingenious men such as Chillingworth as sufficient for subscribing these Articles that they understand nothing else by it but an obligation not to preach or write against them A gloss both too laxe because they do not subscribe I engage never to write or preach against the Articles bâ— they profess their unfeigned assent to them and if this be understood of the Authentick sense they cannot profess it and too streight because when they preach upon any such point they will speak do what they can according to their own Opinion and so break their Engagement It were to be wished therefore that if ever we have a Convocation that Sits to do any thing they would pass some such New Canon most fit to be decreed as may declare that the Articles and Homilies of the Church are not required to be subscribed but with this freedom of a Doctoral interpretation Were such a liberty authorized by an Act of Parliament or Convocation the conscience were put out of doubt In the mean while when others are satisfied with the reasonableness of the thing whether it be authorized or not I finding my self in doubt about it am forced to this course which is to secure my peace by my aforesaid Explication and my foreprized declaration concerning the matter I proceed now to the Subscription or Declaration required to be subscribed by the Act. Understanding by taking Arms raising War or joyning in it and by the King his Sacred Person and Authority I subscribe the first clause thereof That it is nâ—â— lawful to take Arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever Understanding the word abhor in a cool sense I disclaim and by the Commissionated those who have and pursue their Commissions according to Law I subscribe the Second Clause of it And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority or by Law that is upon pretence of it for the Position else is impossible against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him The Third Clause I take to be an Indefinite Promise of using Common Prayer which in the main I am not against And I do therefore subscribe that if I have a Publick Charge or Cure of Souls I shall in the ordinary constant Lords Day Service ordinarily by my self or by my Assistant according to the usage of the Church Rebus sic stantibus Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established Whether this be the sense of the Law-giver altogether it may be a doubt but in this sense supposing it to be so or with these limitations thereunto if it be otherwise I set my name The Second Step BEING A lesser Request the former not obtained IT was the policy of the Contrivers of the Act for Uniformity that those Ministers who were engaged in the late times on the Parliament side by taking the Covenant should renounce it or be debarred the liberty of their Ministry for twenty years accounting I suppose that if any supervived that time there could be no danger in their re-admission There was a clause therefore in the Subscription besides those before going which concern'd the Covenant and was the forest part of this injunction abiding in force till the last year and then it expired It was believed that many of the Nonconformists upon the expiration would have flocked in and subscribed but I know not of any who took the Covenant but my self only who took it not that have made any tryal upon that occasion Nevertheless to proceed in what I have begun having Wrote this Paper and presented it to the Bishop the last year 1682 when that clause ceased I think good this year 1683 to Print it upon the account ensuing I do apprehend there is a kind of universal guilt upon the Conformist some few alwaies excepted in receiving our late Impositions hand over head as they did which they should rather have all refused as one man and required explanation How many were there prepared the good God vouchsafe us all a sight of our sins and forgive them to declare their assent and consent to all and every thing in a book before they saw it at least read it with any examination as they should have done How many more were there yet more forward to subscribe a Declaration wherein there were so many hard things to be swallowed before any had wrote about them or themselves able to digest scarce any one branch of it It was their interest to comply but how they could declare and subscribe so soon or perhaps can yet in Truth Judgment and Righteousness the Lord knows On the other side I am no less sensible of a great deal of weakness and prejudice among our brethren in judging things sinful that are not and consequently Superstition in placing fear and danger in such things There is besides no little conceitedness of some mens being more holy than the Conformist and consequently Pride Uncharitableness Judging of others and if any Persons shall separate from the publick on sinful grounds it is really Schism and in real Schism how many evils are there included In this case of Sin and Scandal which we see on both sides I would fain know what way there is for any of us to escape but by following the rule I have laid down On the point of Sin If I assent to the Articles and subscribe the Declaration without an Explication then do I assent to what I think true and what I think not true in those Articles and I subscribe that which I take to be the good sense and that which is also the bad sense of the Declaration which seems unlawful to be done as what neither becomes a good Christian or true English-man But if I assent and subscribe with an Explication then do I assent only to what I judg true in those Articles and I subscribe only the good sense of the Declaration which seems not only what is lawful but fit to be done both as a Christian and good Subject who is to be Loyal to the Government of the Nation On the point of Scandal If I shall assent and subscribe as others without any Caution Limitation or Explication then shall I quantum ad me harden the Conformist who hath Conformed blindly in his sin and impenitence and draw the Nonconformist who judgeth it unlawful to do that which is against his Conscience by my Example If I do nothing or not endeavour what I can I nurse up my Brethren in those Evils before-mentioned and give occasion to the Conformist to say These men can do thus and thus more than they do and seeing they are such peevish obstinate persons we do well to submit to all that is Enjoyned our selves and persecute them and so do I become a stumbling-block to the one and to the other But if I assent and subscribe with Explication that is do as much and only what I can then do I deliver my