Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
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A49125
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The non-conformists plea for peace impleaded in answer to several late writings of Mr. Baxter and others, pretending to shew reasons for the sinfulness of conformity.
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Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing L2977; ESTC R25484
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74,581
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138
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the beginning Whosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith And the Catholick Faith is this c. And in the end This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved Answer if our Assent be required only to the Use of this Creed and not to a belief of the Truth of every part of it the controversie will be at an end Secondly The Belief of things as necessary to Salvation is granted by Non-conformists to be not an Assent to the several Phrases and obscure Words but to the general sense contained in them Now the sense of our Church in proposing this Creed may be judged by the Use which she makes of the Apostles Creed not only in the daily Profession of it but in the Office of Baptism as containing all the necessary points of Faith into which we are Baptized And in the Catechism as containing all the Articles of the Christian Faith which doth shew that no more is required as necessary to Salvation than what is contained in the Apostles Creed Thirdly In this Creed some things are propounded as necessary points of Faith which Men of weak judgments may apprehend as that we Worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity Other things are for a clearer explication of that Doctrin and vindication of it from the errors that were then risen in the Church as the Arrians and Nestorians who erred concerning the Divinity of Christ and his two Natures which begin thus For there is one Person of the Father c. After which followeth the necessary Doctrine again So that in all things as is aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity is to be Worshipped He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity So that the Doctrine of the Trinity is that Faith which is proposed as necessary to Salvation I know the exception of many against this Creed is in relation to the Heathen who seem by it to be excluded from Salvation In which respect I suppose it is that Mr. Baxter says p. 191. That some R. Reverend Conformists do profess that those Sentences are untrue and not to be approved and he instanceth somewhere in Mr. Chillingworths refusal to subscribe it But if this be the ground of the Exception I conceive that the generality of the Non-conformists who maintain the same Opinion which is consonant to the Scriptures and to the Assemblies Confession of Faith to which Mr. Baxter also hath declared his Assent in this particular will not oppose For in the Assemblies Confession C. 10. Article 4. concerning effectual calling they say That Men not professing the Christian Religion cannot be saved in any way whatsoever be they never so diligent to frame their Lives according to the Light of Nature and the Law of that Religion they do profess and to assert and maintain that they may is very pernicious and to be detested And I know some Non-conformists have lately blamed some Conformists for seeming to incline to the contrary Opinion Which if this be sense of the Creed our Church doth explode yet some Non-conformists think that by holding the Doctrine of the Athanasian Creed they do not judge the Heathen World and that they dobut not but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him so that this obloquie is silenced But it is most probable that Athanasius intended the Explanatory part of the Creed against the Arrians and other Hereticks in the Church who if they denied the Divinity of Christ and dyed in that error who can think they can be saved seeing they make Christ a meer Creature and overthrow the Doctrine of our Redemption by him But that he should condemn all that have a true though but a weak Faith in the Holy Trinity and cannot comprehend the manner of the Eternal Generation of the Son the Procession of the Holy Ghost and the Co-equality of the Trinity cannot be thought to have been the Mind of Athanasius P. 192. N. 20. The Liturgy saith All Priests and Deacons are to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer privately or openly not being lett by sickness or some other urgent cause c. Answ That the Primitive Christians did meet daily not only for publick Prayers but to receive the Sacrament is believed and that it is our duty to Pray Morning and Evening cannot be denyed and what should hinder but that such as are specially devoted to the Service of God should Pray openly with the people if not reasonably hindred or at least pray privately for them there are many that do their duty herein and if all did it would be better with us because all Men do not perform their Baptismal Vows is it fit that none such should be made we see this duty is performed in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and in many other places where there is a liberal maintenance provided for the Priests and Deacons where though one only do Officiate yet all those that are present may say the daily Prayers as the Liturgy requires which is another frivolous Objection of Mr. Baxters p. 192. n. 3. The next is a Calumny against the whole Liturgy viz. that the Prayers are disorderly and defective not Formed according to the Order of Matter nor of the Lords Prayer but like an immethodical Sermon which is unsuitable to the High Subjects and Honorable Work of Holy Worship and that the Non-conformists have Offered when it shall be well accepted to give in a Catalogue of the disorders and defects of the Liturgy But all this notwithstanding they think it lawful to Use the Liturgy in Obedience or for Unity or when no better may be Used It is something to go thus far but if they would impartially consider the defects and confusions which were in the Directory as it hath been considered by Doctor Hammond or in Mr. Baxters Eight days exploit for a more correct Nepenthes and shall on the other side read that account which Mr. Comber and others have given of the Methodical order and dependance of the several Prayers and Offices the Grave and Scriptural Phrases and Expressions in the Liturgy he may perceive that this is fitter to guide the Devotion of the Universal Church than those other are for Country Conventicles P. 194. He excepts against the Preface to the Book of Ordination where it is said that It is evident to all Men diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons as several Offices Answ I shall not trouble my Readers with the Arguments of Learned Men for the Order of Bishops in the Church ever since the Apostles days as distinct from Presbyters much less shall I repeat those uncomely Reflections which Mr. Baxter hath made on Diocesan Bishops in both his late Books It may suffice in Answer to this Objection that Mr. Baxter
hath been formerly of a contrary perswasion I do not mean only when he was Ordained by a Bishop and did or ought to swear Canonical Obedience to him as his Lawful Governour but in his more mature and serious Age when he had studied the controversie I mean in his Christian Directory p. 127. part 7. Where having proved the particular Orders of Presbyters and Deacons He gives his reasons for a larger Episcopacy as the Margin tells you And N. 4. Thus he says Besides this in the Apostles days there were under Christ in the Vniversal Church many general Officers that had the care of Governing and Overseeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated relation unto none Such were the Apostles Evangelists and many of their helpers in their days And most Christian Churches think that though the Apostolical extraordinary Gifts Priviledges and Offices cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their work the same Forms of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Age were settled for all following Ages though not with the same extraordinary gifts and adjuncts Because 1. We read of the settling of that Form viz. General Officers as well as Particular but we never read of any Abolition Discharge or Cessation of the Institution 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as settling one Form of Government for one Age only and no longer 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits accordingly to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. and to say that they were but for an Age. 4. It was General Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 Now this will hold true or not says Mr. Baxter If not then this general Ministry is to be numbred with humane Additions to be next treated of If it do then there is another part of the Form of Government proved to be of Divine Institution I say not another Church but another part of the Government of both Churches Vniversal and Particular because such General Officers are so in the Vniversal as to have a general Oversight of the particular As an Army is Headed only by the General himself and a Regiment by the Colonel and a Troop by the Captain but the General Officers of the Army as the Lieutenants General the Majors General c. are under the Lord General in and over the Army and have a general over-sight of the particular Bodies Regiments and Troops Now if this be the Instituted Form of Christs Church-Government that he himself rule absolutely as General and that he have some General Officers under him not any one having the charge of the whole but in the whole unfixedly or as they voluntarily part their Provinces and that each particular Church have their own proper Pastor one or more then who can say that no Form of Church Government is of Divine appointment or command So far Mr. Baxter with whom I find other Non-conformists to agree in the Notion of Diocesan Bishops which is enough not only to confute this Objection against the Order of Bishops but all that Mr. Baxter hath said in his late Writing against the Constitution of National Churches and the Government of Diocesans with so much partiality and passion And though Mr. Baxter deny it here that having diligently read the Holy Scriptures and Ancient Authors yet Three Orders and Offices are not evident to him yet it is evident he hath proved it solidly enough even from the Scripture alone to which whoever shall joyn the Practice and Testimony of the Primitive Church as a help to explain the sense of the Scripture must needs be perswaded of the Truth of these Three Orders in the Church of Christ and therefore this Objection from the Preface to the Book of Ordination is of no weight In all the fardle of Mr. Baxters impertinencies there is not a more trifling Objection than that which follows against the Bishops inviting the people in the Name of God to come forth and shew what Crime or Impediment they know in the Persons to be Ordained p. 196. For seeing no Person is to be Ordained without a Title to some Cure seeing there are solemn days set apart for Ordination and Prayers ordered to be Used the preceding Week-days for Gods Blessing on that Ordinance seeing every Person is to produce Testimonials under the hands of Three Persons to whom he is known of his Life and Conversation seeing any person may if he please be present at the Ordination and the Bishop may personally enquire into his Ministerial abilities I know not what further caution is necessary than to pronounce a Liberty to the people who generally meet on that occasion in the greatest Congregations and in publick Places to come forth and shew if they know any impediment in the Person to be Ordained upon which I my self have known several Persons to be repulsed in the Face of the Congregation and when the Ordained Person is to continue a Deacon for a year before he is admitted a Presbyter the people have a competent time to inform the Bishop of any Crime that they know by him which may render him an unfit Person without such a call from the Bishop which is but Abundans Cautela P. 197. He objects against these words in the Form of Consecration Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest c. The doubt is saith Mr. Baxter whether this be not an abuse of the words which Christ himself or his Apostles used and so not to be Assented to Now Mr. Baxter grants that Christ or his Apostles used these words that our Saviour used them and when is very observable It was after his Resurrection and before his Ascension that our Saviour endowed his Apostles with this Ministerial Power saying unto them Receive the Holy Ghost which could not be meant of any extraordinary Power of Tongues and Miracles which were not given till Christ was first glorified when the Day of Pentecost was fully come The Power therefore conveyed by these words was an Authorizing of them to the ordinary work of the Ministry as the following words do inforce whose Sins ye remit they are remitted and this Power Mr. Baxter grants to belong to every Minister That the Apostles of our Lord did use the same words is probable from that expression of St. Paul Acts 20.28 Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over seers And Mr. Baxter complains that too little notice is taken of the Holy Ghosts setting Pastors over the Flocks which the Scripture mentioneth p. 310. Which is a conveying of that Authority which Christ at his Ascension left to his Church he gave some Apostles some Prophets c. for the work of the Ministry Eph. 4.11 12. v. 13. Till we all come in the Vnity of the Faith c. P. 198. He excepts