such as expect the very Syllables of the Assertions in the proofs Therefore for brevity I take it to be the better way â—â— this time to offer here a full sufficient proof of any one of these Assertions which shall be questioned to such as shall soberly demand it A Servant of Christ for his Churches Unity and Peace Richard Baxter Acton Nov. 2â— 1688. Q. SEeing you have oft affirmed publickly that the Terms of Concord among Christians are easie to be known if their unwillingness to practise them were not the hinderance you are desired to answer these Questions following 1. What are the necessary Terms of Catholick Communion of Christians as Members of the Church Universal 2. What are the necessary Terms of the Communion of Christians personally in a particular Church 3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another 4. What are the Terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms 5. What is the Magistrates Power and Duty about Religion and the Churches and Ministers of Christ I. It is to be understood that the Universal Church is considered as Spiritual or as Visible As Spiritual it is the Universality of true Spiritual or Regenerate Believers as Headed by Jesus Christ. As Visible it is the Universality of the Baptized or Professors of true Faith as Headed by Christ the Author and Object of that Faith And accordingly Christians are to be distinguished And that the Question is of the Visible Church and Christians 2. This being supposed I answer that Catholick Visible Communion consisteth 1. Fundamentally in being all Baptized or entered into the same Covenant of Grace with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and so being joyned to the same Head and entered into the same Universal Body and professing the same Faith and Love and Obedience contained in that Covenant and not falling away from that Profession or any Essential part thereof 2. And consequently that we all acknowledge the extraordinary Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and receive their Testimony and Doctrine recorded in the Sacred Scriptures At least the foresaid Essentials of the Covenant and so much more as we understand and are convinced to be Canonical Scriptures or written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 3. And also that we acknowledge a stated ordinary Ministry in the Church appointed by Christ to Disciple and Baptize the Nations of the World and then to teach them to observe all his Commands And that we profess our willingness to join in Christian Assemblies under the conduct of such Ministers for the worshipping of God and furthering our own and others Salvation if we have opportunity so to do And that we do accordingly II. Q. 1. We speak only of Visible Christians in this second Question also of Church Communion 2. A Particular Church signifieth either 1. A Community of Christians agreed to live under Pastoraâ— Guidance before they have a Pastor or have practised that agreement This is not the Church here meanâ— 2. Or a Political Society of Christian Pastor and People professedly associated for Personal Communion Exercise of these Relations as such in the publick worshipping of God and for the furtherance of Love and Obedience in each other The Ends difference it from all Civil Societies of Christians and from the associations of many Churches for Communion by delegates The necessary Terms of this Church Communion are these 1. The Pastor whether one or more must have all things essential to his Office 1. As to his Qualifications that is 1. That he understand at least the Essential Points of Christianity and Church Communion 2. That he be able to teach them to others in some competent degree 3. That he be willing to do it and this for Gods Honour the Churches Good and Mens Salvation 2. As to his Call that he have a true notification of the will of God that he should undertake this Office which is ordinarily done 1. By the Ordination that is the Approbation and Investiture of Bishops or Pastors 2. And in this case of his relation to a particular Church by the peoples consent All this in truth is needful before God and in Appearance and Profession before the Church 2. The People must be Baptized persons Sacramentally engaged into Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and such as have not professedly deserted that Covenant by Apostasie nor are proved before a lawful Judicature to be deserters of any Essential part thereof Whether open professed Covenanting may not serve without Baptism in cases of Necessity where Baptism cannot be had is a case so extraordinary that we need not here meddle with it 3. He that was Baptized in Infancy and yet having opportunity at full age doth make no Profession of Christianity nor own his Baptismal Covenant openly by word or deed is to be numbered with Deserters 4. Though the most plain and open profession is usually best where it may be â—ad yet a profession less explicite may serve to the being of Church-members such as is their actual joyning with those Churches who purposely assemble to make publick profession of the Christian Religion Faith Love and Obedience 5. There must be also a signification of consent to their particular Church-Relation either more express and plain or at least by such actions which may be reasonably presumed to signifie it As ordinary joining in Church-worship with that particular Church and submitting to the necessary guidance of the Pastors 6. He that thus consenteth to his Relation to the Pastor and that Church is a Member though he consent not to the Membership or Presence of many particular Members thereof Because they are but Integral and not Essential parts of the Church 7. But if a usual mixture in the Assemblies of Hereticks or Strangers which are not Members of that Church or any other confounding cause do give the Pastors sufficient reason to call all or part of the people to an express signification of their consent to their Relation to put it out of doubt they that causelesly refuse such signification do seem to deny their consent and allow the Pastor and Church to judge of them accordingly 8. The office of the Bishops or Pastors is subordinate to the Teaching and Interceeding and Ruling office of Christ And their work is to Teach the people the Word of God to be their Mouth and Guide in publick Worship in Prayer and in Thanksgiving and Praise to God and to administer his holy Sacraments and to exercise that Power of the Keys which Christ hath committed to their trust in the Prudent and cautelous use of Church-Discipline And all this according to the Laws of Christ recorded in the holy Scriptures These therefore must be the Works and Ends for which these Churches must professedly assemble Especially on the Lord's Days which are separated to these holy Uses 9. The General Command in Nature and Scripture that all be done to Edification decently and
Church Concord CONTAINING I. A Disswasive from unnecessary Division and Separation and the Real Concord of the Moderate Independents with the Presbyterians instanced in Ten seeming Differences II. The terms Necessary for Concord among all true Churches and Christians The First Part written 1655. The Second Part 1667. And Published this 1691. To second a late Agreement of the London Protestant Nonconformists And a former Treatise called The true and only terms of Church-Concord By RICHARD BAXTER Mat. 5. 9. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. We beseech you Brethren to know them who labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in Love for their Works sake and Be at Peace among your selves Phil. 2. 1 2 3. If there be any Consolation in Christ If any Comfort of Love If any Fellowship of the Spirit If any Bowels and Mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love being of one accord of one Mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of Mind let each esteem other better than themselves 1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3. And I Brethren could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to carnal to Babes in Christ For whereas there is among you envying and strife are ye not carnal and walk as men LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. THE PREFACE § 1. IOwe some satisfactory account to the Reader of the Reasons of my Publishing this Book which I have cast by about Thirty four Years It cannot be well understood without the knowledge of the Case we were then in and the Occasion of my Writing it The Ministers of the Churches were then as is usual of divers Opinions about Church-Government 1. Some men for our Diocesane Episcopacy as stated by the Reformation 2. Some were for a more Reformed Episcopacy described by Bucer in Script Angl. 1. Archbishop Usher c. 3. Some were for Diocesans in a higher strain as subject to a foreign Iurisdiction and as parts of an Universal Church Headed by a humane Head the Pope being Principium Unitatis 4. Some were for National and Classical Government by Presbyters only without Bishops 5. And some were for a parity of Ministers and Churches without any superior Bishops or Synods or Governours but to have every Congregation to have all Governing Power in their proper Pastors 6. And some were for each Congregation to be Governed by the Major Vote of the people the Pastor being but to gather and declare their Votes Among all these the 3d sort the Foreigners were utterly unreconcileable and of the 6th we had no great hopes But with the other four we attempted such a measure of Agreements as might be useful in a loose unsettled time to keep up Christian Love and so much Concord as that our Differences should not so much weaken us as to frustrate all our Ministerial Labours § 2. To this end I attempted a double work of Concord in Worcester-shire 1. For the willing Ministers Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent to Associate in the Practice of so much of the Ministerial Office as they were agreed did belong to Presbyters II. To Catechize or personally by Conference instruct all the Families and capable Persons in our Parishes who would come to us or admit us to come to them in order at due appointed times God gave our People in many Parishes willing Minds and encouraged us by unexpected great success The most laborious Ministers took the hint and seconded us in many Counties First and chiefly in Westmorland and Cumberland and then in Dorsetshire Wilâ—shire Hampshire and Essex and Dr. Winter and others in Ireland The terms of our Association the Reader may see Printed at large 1653. But theirs of Westmorland and Cumberland more large and worthy the Consideration of the present tolerated Churches I pray you read them § 3. But when it came to closest Practice As the Foreigners Prelatists and Popular called Brownists kept off so but few of the rigid Presbyterians or Independents joyned with us And indeed Worcestershire and the adjoyning Counties had but few of either sort But the main Body of our Association were men that thought the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independents had each of them some good in which they excelled the other two Parties and each of them some mistakes And that to select out of all three the best part and leave the worst was the most desireable and ancient Form of Government But that so much as might Unite them in the Comfortable Service of Christ was common to them all The most of our Ministers were Young men bred at the Universities during the Wars and engaged in no Faction nor studied much in such kind of Controversies but of solid Iudgment and zealous Preachers and eminently Prudent Pious and Peaceable And with them there joyned many that had Conformed and thought both the Common-Prayer and the Directory Episcopacy and Presbytery tolerable And these in 1660. did Conform but most of the rest were ejected and silenced Though of near Ten Thousand that the Parliament left in possession there were but Two Thousand cast out by the Prelates we strongly conjectured before hand who those would be Satan desired to have Power to sift us as wheat And the chaff and the bran stayed in and made that which some called the best in the World And indeed much of the bran is honoured by us as very useful But the simila was too fine and precise for the pallates of the Great Churchmen and was cast out in the sifting And the Sifters did but call the Similago Simulatio and such other names and out it went with Scorns and Devestation And the hatred of it is propagated as the natural Progeny of revived true simulation and revenge But though fur-fur be a name of no honourable sound or sence as it looks to Brethren and the Church yet for my part I do with thanks for England and with lamentation for other Lands consent with them that say Few Churches are so well fed God can use this for the cleansing and drying up the Hydropical tympanite of this Land And Christ I hope will Remember the Penitent part of them when he cometh in his Kingdom and they that rob'd others of their Civil and Church Rites may yet be with Christ in Paradise Furfure pinguescunt pulli si lacte madescat Even those that read this Praise with displeasure taking Repentance for a Disgrace and being loth to think they need it may yet by Grace repent and live Through God's great Mercy the excussed simila hath been Childrens food though the Milstones have made it unfit for seed But God will aliunde provide seed Though we cannot but dread the abundance and malignity of the Seminary Tares § 4. But our trouble next to the ignorance and badness
of a further Agreement with those that have been their Ejecters They have agreed to take no Members out of any of your true Pastoral consenting Churches without a just hearing and satisfactory Reasons to them But I hope you take not all your Parishioners even Atheists Papists and Infidels for your Church Members Noâ— yet all your Auditors and Catechumens but only your Communicants And is it not better that they be Members of Nonconformists Churches than of none I have elsewhere cited you the Canons of a Council decreeing That if the Bishop of the place convert not any Heathens or Unbelievers and another convert them they shall be his Flock that did convert them in my Hist. of Councils Would they but first admit the Excluded to Publick Lectures where the Incumbent consenteth it would prepare the way for further Concord The Great Reconciler will in due time reconcile and closely Unite his own Amen Apr. 11. 1691. Ri. Baxter To the UNITED Protestant Nonconformists IN LONDON THough I was by the Confinement of decrepit Age and Pain hindred from having any part in the Form or Contract of your Agreement I think it my Duty to signifie my Sence of what you have done and by the Publication of my old Endeavours of that Kind to promote the Execution I greatly rejoyce in your very Attempt That God exciteth you to a practical desire of speedy healing our pernicious shameful Strifes Much more that you have so Skilfully made the present Plaister for the Wound No man doth any thing so well but it might be better done You must look that it should be assaulted by Cavil and Reproach Those that these Thirty Years have denied you Brotherly Communion with them will be loth you should be thought to have any Union among your selves And the Potent Schismaticks that to divert the Infamy from themselves have Stigmatized you with their own Name will be loth that your Concord should confute them while you offer your Reasons to prove that what they make necessary terms of Ministration and Communion would be to you if obeyed not medling with them no less than deliberate Covenanted Perjury or Lying and renunciation of repentance and amendment of Church-Corruptions and of the Law of Nature and Nations and the Kingdoms Self-defence they must stretch their Wits and gift of Tongue to make all this seem but a melancholy or feigned Fear and that it is but things indifferent that you refuse As they call me Antiepiscopal and against the Church because I would have more Bishops over a Thousand or many Hundred Churches than One and would have as many hands to do the work at least as are necessary to the Hundredth part of it and would have more Churches in a Diocess than one and would have Incumbents to be Pastors and Rectors But dreaming Men that build Cities or Travel in their Sleep can build more or go further in an hour specially if they lye soft in a University or a Great man's House than a waking Man can do in a Year or in his Life My own Judgment of Episcopacy and Church Constitution I have oft Published and you may see it in Lascitius and Commenius Books of the Bohemian Waldenses Church-Government Brethren I hope you fix not your Bounds of Pacification in the words or limits of this Form of Concord with a ne plus ultra Either when I am dead the Publick Church Doors will be unlock'd to your lawful Communion or not If yea it will be so great a Mercy that the Prospect of a Possibility of it will justifie my Publishing my old Reasons against unnecessary Antichurches or Militant contentious Gatherings But if God have not so much Mercy for this Land but that the Doors be lock'd up against desired Concord or Venient Romani our Foreign Jurisdiction men will prevail to deliver up the Land to a pretended Universal Foreign Power and make all believe that it is Treason to resist either a French or Irish Army if they be but Commissioned to perform it Then your Concord with such as are not Enemies to Peace will be a comfortable help to your patient Sufferings and may keep up some sparks of the Reformed Religion from being utterly extinguished And while you dwell in the Secret of the most High you may lodge under the shadow of the Almighty And may enter into your Chambers and shut the Doors on you for a little moment till the indignation be over-past and God be known by the Judgments which he executeth when the wicked are insnared in the work of their own hands Thus praying God to save you from violating the Concord you consent to and from being perverted by the ignorant Dividing sort of Teachers or People and that you will study Mr. Meade's Reasons against Division well and seasonably urged I bid you Farewel Your Quondam Fellow-Labourer Ri. Baxter London April 23. 1691. The Contents of the First Part. Chap. I. THe Necessity of Concord and Mischief of unnecessary Separations manifested in Twenty of the ill Effects Pag. 1. Ch. II. What is Incumbent on the Pastors for the Prevention and Cure hereof p. 13. Ch. III. The first Difference with the Independents Reconciled viz. Of the necessary qualification of Church Members p. 15. Ch. IV. The second Difference reconciled Of a Church Covenant p. 19. Ch. V. The third Difference reconciled Of the extent of a particular Church p. 21. Ch. VI. The fourth Difference reconciled whether a particular Church hath Power in it self to Ordain and impose hands on their chosen Pastors p. 23. Ch. VII The fifth Difference reconciled Of the first subject of the Power of the Keys Or of Right to Govern and Censure p. 25. Ch. VIII The sixth Difference reconciled Whether a Pastor of one Church may do the work of a Pastor in other Churches for that time being called to it p. 32. Ch. IX The seventh Difference reconciled Whether each particular Church hath Power to exercise all Government and Church Ordinances within it self without subjection to Synods or any other Clergy Governours as over them p. 33. Ch. X. The eighth Difference reconciled Whether Lay-men may Preach in the Church or as sent to gather Churches p. 38. Ch. XI The ninth Difference reconciled Whether the Parish Churches are true Churches p. 41. Ch. XII The tenth Difference reconciled Of taking Members out of other Churches and of Gathering Churches in other mens Parishes p. 42. Ch. XIII The sum of this Agreement reduced to Practice p. 55. The Contents of the Second Part. Q. 1. VVHat are the necessary terms of Communion of Christians as Members of the Universal Church p 62. Q. 2. What are the necessary terms of the Communion of Christians personally in a particular Church Q. 3. What are the terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another Q. 4. What are the terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms Foreign Iurisdiction is confuted in another Book Q. 5. What is the Magistrates
But if practically any of us shall either slander any particular Church to be No Church or shall use it as no Church the case must be heard and judged of in our Churches and Associations 10. We are Agreed that no Member should forsake a Church and be received into another without sufficient Reason to be given to the Church that he forsaketh if they require it And that much less should any part of a Church make an unnecessary Separation from the rest and become a distinct Church by themselves And we are Agreed that private Antichurches I mean separated Assemblies set up against the publick Assemblies and as Rivals drawing persons to themselves and keeping up Faction and Contention in the place should be carefully avoided by us all unless there were a certain Necessity of such Separations We are Agreed also that no publick Pastors or Churches should refuse the Communion of any of their Neighbours that are Credible Professors of Faith and Repentance and Holiness of Life much less should they cast off the greatest part of their Parishes that are such And yet we are Agreed that there are several cases in which Persons may withdraw from Churches or for those of one Parish to join with a Church in another Parish though the bounds of our Habitations are usually meet to be observed for the bounding of our Churches not that all in the Parish be therefore of the Church but that ordinarily none be of the Church that is not in the Parish Let us therefore put only the necessary Generals into the Form of our Agreement and leave the particular cases of any that shall be accused of any violalation thereof to be heard at the Synods of the Associations Where if the Accused will appear they may have a Brotherly hearing if not the case may be judged according to the Evidence that shall be given in and the Associated Brethren proceed accordingly in admonishing the Offenders and holding or not holding Communion with them and declaring this The yet Briefer Sum of our Agreement is 1. To avoid Unnecessary Separations and Contentions 2. To hold an Ordinary course in Synods for the Communion of Churches and strengthning each other for the work of God For the attainment of these we must yield as far as Lawfully we may in lesser things But to deny us these viz. Union and Communion and Peace is to-deny us our end and all Yet Note that it is not our Intention to impose upon all others all points that these two parties are agreed in nor to put all their Agreements into our Form of Concord as if we regarded Agreement with no others For instance both parties are Agreed of the Divine Institution of meer Ruling Elders But so are not all others that are fit for their Communion And therefore let that point be left out to the liberty of each Church So both parties are Agreed that the Moderators or Presidents of the Associated Synods should rather in point of convenience at least be temporary than stated and that they should have no Negative Voice in Ordination But others that are fit for our Communion think otherwise And therefore let this be left out of the Form of Concord to our Brethrens Liberty If they will hold Communion in the Associations that have but temporary Presidents let them be received And if those that own not stated Presidents or at least such as Exercise a Negative Voice in Ordination will yet hold Communion in Synods with a signification of their dissent in that point with them that are of a contrary mind they are to be received and will be by such as more regard the honour of God and the Churches peace and the Interest of Christian Charity Piety and common Truths than their own conceits and carnal Interests I shall therefore next adjoin the Necessary Terms of an Universal Concord between all the Faithful Pastors and Churches of Christ in these Nations which yet need not be subscribed but taken as presupposed there being in the following Form of Concord for the General Peace and Communion of the Churches enough for Subscription or Express Consent Church Concord ABOUT Government and Order The Second Part. The Just Terms of Agreement between all Sober Serious Christians by what Names soever now distinguished In point 1. Of Catholick Communion 2. Of particular Church Communion 3. Of the Communion of Neighbour Churches 4. And of Churches of several Kingdoms 5. And of their Duty as good Subjects to their Prince Humbly offered to all the Christian Churches as the true and sufficient remedy of their Divisions if not rejected or neglected And as a standing Witness before God and Man against Dividing Zeal and Church Tyranny By RICHARD BAXTER a Servant of the God of Love and Peace We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification That ye may with One Mind and One Mouth glorifie God Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God Rom. 15. 1 2 6 7. Be of One Mind Live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13. 11. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. To the READER Countreymen MY Saviour having made me Believe that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation Mat. 12. 25. I shall the less regard the Ministers of Satan who will say that such attempts to unite the true Subjects of Christ and the King is a dangerous Plot to strengthen Rebels against the King by their Union If such Fiends should do their will upon me as Faith is but a means to the final perfective Grace of Love so I shall as much rejoice to be a Sacrifice or Martyr for Christian Love as for the Christian Faith And if Peacemakers shall be called the Children of God by those that are his Children at least I am contented with that blessedness Mat. 5. 9. and envy not their kind of Honour or Prosperity If this attempt shall speed no better than many which I have formerly made have done as to any publick Reconciliation I shall not yet think it vain while the private minds of many Christians are formed into more peaceable Apprehensions and Dispositions But if it should succeed for any publick or common healing how great would be my Ioy While the Conciliatory Writings and Precious Names of Usher Hall Davenant Dury Bergius Burroughs c. are so sweet to me Let Envy gnash the Teâ—th and dividing Malice do its worst I hope in this delightful work to live and die One thing I must warn the Reader of that I have omitted Scripture proofs of my Assertions because they are self-evident or past Controversie and because that the proofs which are fetcht from two or three Texts compared will not be understood by the usual sleighty Readings of
To which end their first care must be to give no just cause by corrupting of Doctrine Worship or Discipline to any to withdraw and not to impose any unnecessary thing as necessary to Communion but to unite in things necessary and to give liberty in things unnecessary A means approved in all Ages by Peacemakers And to guide the Church by the paternal Government of Reason and Love and not by Tyranny to make themselves hateful And to be much in preaching Love and Concord that the people may know the sin and danger of Factions and Divisions and to avoid all Factiousness and Contentiousness themselves And their next care must be to labour after a laudable if they cannot reach an eminent degree of ability in teaching and exemplariness in a holy and charitable Life that they may win the esteem and love of the Flock and may give them no occasion to think that the necessity of their Souls requireth them to seek for better helps But if differing though tolerable Opinions do so possess any of the peoples minds that no means can satisfie them to continue in the same Assemblies and their presence will be more hurtful than their absence or if the Pastor or Church be so over-rigid as not to tolerate their dissent the next thing to be done is to permit them to Worship in other Assemblies though their withdrawing may not be justifiable and to take care that Love and Peace be maintained with them as with Neighbour Churches though perhaps weak and faulty which bringeth us up to the next Question Q. 3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another A. What these particular Churches in the question are is shewed before The Communion in question consisteth 1. In holding the same Faith 2. In the same Worship of God in the necessary parts 3. In the same profession of Obedience to God 4. In a professed estimation of each other as Brethren and as true Churches of Christ. 5. And in a professed Love to one another as such 6. And in such Communion and mutual Assistance as tend to the preservation of the Church Universal and the benefit of each other The Terms therefore and means must be these following 1. They must publickly profess the same Christian Religion in all the Essential parts which is no more but That we continue our consent to our Baptismal Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Devil the World and the Flesh Particularly professing to believe all the Articles of the Ancient Creed and to Desire all that is contained in the Lords Prayer and sincerely to endeavour to live towards God and Men according to the Ten Commandments Believing also the Sacred Canonical Scriptures to be true and taking them for the intire Rule of our Divine Belief and Worship and Obedience And we renounce so far as we can know them all Heresies Errors and Practices contrary hereto This is all the Profession that is to be required of any person in order to the Catholick Communion of Christians as such or of the Members of a particular Church besides their consent to their particular Church relation or of Neighbour Churches for their Communion with each other Except when any scandal obligeth us to clear our selves whether it be suspected Heresie or wickedness of Life by a just Purgation or Repentance And the requiring of larger unnecessary Professions hath been the grand Engine of Church Divisions through many Generations 2. Yet as there are Christians of divers degrees of knowledge and soundness in the same Church so there are Churches also as different And though we must own them all as Christian Churches which are such indeed yet must we not judge them equally sound or pure but must disown the gross corruptions of Doctrine Worship or Discipline which are proved to be in any of them and must specially honour those that are more faithful pure and entire 3. No one particular single Church must claim or usurp a Right of Dominion or Government over other Churches as given them by God seeing that all such true Churches are as Cities or Corporations in one Kingdom which are all governed by one King but are none of them rightful Rulers of the rest Nor must any Men of their own heads set up such Forms of Government as of Humane right in Conformity to the Secular Governments of the World and this as Spiritual in the Exercise of the Keys which Christ committed to his Ministers tho' one eminent Minister may instruct and admonish many others and have some care of many Churches contrary to or inconsistent with the Orders setled by Christ or his Apostles who were commissioned by him for the setling of all Universally necessarily Church Government and infallibly guided therein by the Holy Ghost Much less may the Unity and Peace of the Church be laid upon such invented policies as it is by the Papists who make their forged Head Pope or Council a constitutive essential part of the Catholick Church and seign all the Christian World to be Schismaticks who will not be his Subjects 4. But Love and Concord and Peace must be maintained among the equal parts of the Catholick Church Seeing it is the strength of the Churches and their Beauty and the Exercise and help of the Life and Holiness of all the parts Therefore such correspondencies must be maintained among them as tend to a right understanding of each other and to a just furtherance of these happy ends And as in particular Churches the determinations of useful circumstances according to Gods general Rules is no sinful addition to Gods Word or Ordinances so neither is it here to be so judged if Magistrates by Laws or Churches by consent do determine of useful undetermined circumstances for the ordering of these Correspondencies and preventing Contentions Factions and Divisions 5. The ordinary means of these correspondencies are Messengers and Synods or Councils and Letters Testimonial or Certificates If one Church be offended with another upon suspicion of Heresie or scandalous Practices they may by Messengers admonish them and these may by Messengers make their Purgation or Confession As also if they desire Advice or Help from one another but if in common and weighty cases there be need of more common and judicious consultations or significations of Consent and Concord Synods are the means thereto And if one Member Travel into other parts or remove his dwelling or be to be received by other Churches especially in Suspicious Times and Cases Communicatory Letters and Certificates are the means that Hereticks and Deceivers abuse not the Churches 6. Whether these Synods shall be held at certain stated times or variously as occasions vary And whether they shall have a President And whether he shall be mutable or fixed And of how many Churches they shall be composed And how oft they shall meet and how long they shall sit with such like are circumstances left to Humane Prudence
under the general Laws of Christ. But the use of Synods is so ordinary and great that in sound and peaceable Countreys where Heresie or Church-Tyranny doth not turn them against their proper ends and where State-Iealousies cause not Rulers to forbid them the statedness and frequency of them will be of very great advantage to the Churches But in the contrary cases it may be quite contrary 7. Though no one of these Bishops or Pastors in Councils nor many conjunct be by Divine Right the proper Governour over the rest and therefore as to one another their Canons are Agreements for Union rather than the Laws of Superior Governours yet do they not by their Assembling lose their Governing Power over their Several Flocks but meet to exercise it with the greater consideration and force And therefore their lawful Determinations and Agreements may be truely obligatory to their several Flocks 8. The largeness of these Councils should be suited to the occasion and necessity As the Scandals Heresies Schisms or Contentions do require But to make proper Universal Councils to be the ordinary Supreme Governing Law-givers to a Body Politick called the Universal Church is a device of those who would do Christs work in their own mistaking way and for the preserving of the Churches Unity will desperately divide corrupt and injure it There is no necessity of it Christs Universal Laws being sufficient with the Civil Government of Princes and the Circumstantial Determinations of the particular Churches And it is pernicious if not impossible The many thousand Miles distance of the Churches the paucity of the Pastors and necessity of their presence in many Churches the many years that must be spent in Travel the opposition of Heathen and Infidel Princes whose Subjects they are or through whose Countreys they must Travel the Wars and Jealousies of Princes the probability of the death of the ablest Pastors in such a Voyage they being usually aged Men and weak their diversity of Tongues and unintelligibleness to one another their long continuance in such Councils their incapacity to meet and hear together in any one Room the probability that the numerousness of the nearest Bishops and paucity of the remote will make a Faction go for the Council the improbability that ever they will return to bring home the Decrees the unsatisfiedness of the Churches in their Decrees when a thousand or an hundred Pastors who chuse one single Delegate know not whether he will speak their sense or not with many such Reasons make it as pernicious as unnecessary Nor have the Christian Churches ever had such Councils the meetings of the Twelve Apostles being nothing to this purpose But as all Men know that the Roman Emperors had no power to Summon the Pastors who were the Subjects of other Princes so the recorded Suffrages of all the Councils certifie us that they were none such but the Subjects only of the Roman Empire or those that had been such with a very inconsiderable number of some adjacent Bishops and that but very seldom So that those Councils were Universal only as to the Empire of Rome and that but very rarely if ever but never as to the Christian World 9. If a plurality of Hereticks Schismaticks or ungodly Bishops or Pastors should by the advantage of their Councils oppress the Churches or the Truth the Sound and Faithful Pastors must hold on in the way of Duty and not forsake the Truth or the Flocks in Obedience to such Councils 10. If any Church or Pastor be accused or defamed to the Neighbour Churches of any Heresie Schism Scandal or Injury either to any Person of that Church or to any Neighbour Church or Person the general Precepts of Christian Charity Concord Humility Submission c. do oblige such accused Persons to tender to their offended Brethren especially if it be many Churches due satisfaction and to hear their Reasons and Admonitions and to acknowledge their own faults and amend if they have erred and in lawful things to yield to others for Peace and Concord and to avoid offence where greater accidents make it not then unlawful so to do 11. If any Pastors or Neighbour Churches remain impenitent under such proved Heresie Impiety or Crimes as are inconsistent with the true profession of Godliness the Synods or Neighbour Churches after due Admonition and Pationce should openly disown their sins and if they be inconsistent with the Essentials of Christian Communion should also disclaim Communion with them and should send to the innocent part to exhort them to save themselves by Separation from the rest or to forsake such Heretical and Impenitent Pastors And should motion them to better Pastors and send some to instruct them in the mean time if they be accepted But none of this must be done in case of tolerable infirmities or failings 12. A truely Ordained Minister of Christ being called or accepted by a Church for the present time to teach them and guide them in publick Worship and Sacramental Communion in the Sickness or Absence of their stated Pastors or in a vacancy ought to assist them and is to be esteemed as a Minister of Christ in those Administrations And when a Church is destitute of Pastors it is ordinarily the peoples Duty to desire the Faithful Neighbour Pastors to assist them for supply especially in the tryal of such parts of Pastoral sufficiency which they are unable to try themselves and to Ordain by Approbation and Solemn Investiture such a Person to the Ministry as they Consent to if he be not before Ordained or if he be yet by Prayer to desire God to Bless him in that special Charge Q. 4. What are the terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms A. This needs no more addition to the former Answer but this 1. That their Communion in the main must be the same in Faith and Love and Obedience to God as if they were under the same Civil Government 2. But they must not busie themselves needlesly with the distant and unknown cases and business of others Nor 3. Must they violate the lawful restraints of their civil Governours nor disturb the Peace of Kingdoms upon pretences of the Churches Privileges or Interest 4. And if they are offended at the Doctrine Worship or Practice of other Churches they should send to them for satisfaction and those Churches should send them the forementioned Confession of the Christian Religion and either purge themselves from the Crimes of which they are accused or confess them and forsake them But when the Pastors which in several Countries have drunk in differing Opinions shall expect that all others should speak as they do in all controverted Points of tolerable difference and by their odious imagined consequences shall slander other Churches or Pastors as holding that which they disclaim or as denying that which in their publick Confessions they profess as their very Religion and by their passions unskilfulness and uncharitableness shall make all differences though