by hearing Non-conformists than others and therefore why should we not forsake our Parish-ministers to hear them I answer 1. were this generally true that hereby men are better Christians than they were before we have reason to rejoyce in that more honour redounds to God and good to their own Souls Are men hereby more acquainted with the Perfections of God so as to live in the sense of his All-seeing Eye his governing the world his supplying us with blessings so as continually to fear and love him daily to offer up their Prayers and Praises to him and more frequent in communicating of the Body and Bloud of Christ in the Lords Supper Are they hereby more dutiful Children loyal Subjects obedient to them that have the rule over them and watch for their Souls more faithful Servants more loving Neighbours and as Parents more careful to educate their children in the nurture of the Lord Are they more just in their dealings more charitable and loving in their demeanour more humble and condescending to their fellow-brethren less censorious than formerly less prying and intermedling with the affairs of others and in a word doing the same to others as they desire others should do to them Lastly are they hereby more heedful lest their hearts should be overcharged with surseiting drunkenness and the cares of this life are they better able to command and regulate their passions and affections less solicitous for the things of this world and more ardently breathing after Heaven I say if these and the like Christian qualifications are wrought in mens Souls by the labours of our Non-conforming Brethren we do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce I wish these effects were more generally wrought among their Hearers and that instead thereof many did not make their Hearing them and separating from us a Cloak for their sins 2. Suppose these be generally the fruits of their labours I wish them to consider whether the like would not be produced if their Preachers kept their meetings at other times than those wherein we assemble and whether the Hearers be the better Christians for being hindred from joyning with us in our addresses to God and attendance on his word 3. May not the like gracious effects be expected in the hearing of their own Pastors that are Conformists If not it must arise either from the insufficiency of the means or the denial of Gods Blessing upon it As for the first consider whether our labours tend not to the foresaid ends and whether the producing those effects is not the great thing we drive at and withal whether the greatest part of Conformist Ministers are not fitted and qualified for this work And as for Gods blessing it may in all reason be expected from those that attend on us because they do not offend God by needless separation by forsaking the lawful Assemblies by withdrawing themselves from the Churches of Christ and by breaking the bond of peace in opposing them Gods blessing is then chiefly to be expected by us when we walk in Gods ways 4. Suppose the Non-conformist you hear may more warm and raise your affections nay suppose his Sermons better fitted to inform you if these benefits may be obtained in a lower degree in our publick Assemblies Consider whether you ought to leave us when you give so great advantages to the Common Enemy the Popish Agents to destroy both you and us when you do so much mischief by your bad Example in drawing others to separate or incouraging them in their Separation and when from hence you incur so much danger by Scandalizing others for that is Scandal when we draw others into sin or hinder them in the ways of God for a woe is pronounced by our Saviour against such Luke 17.1 2. and that it were better for him that a milstone were hung about his neck and he cast into the Sea 5. Consider whether your practice be consistent with the Duties that God requires should be performed to your legal Pastors who labour among you and are over you in the Lord These you are commanded to esteem very highly in love for their works sake 1 Thess 5.12 13. Now do you manifest any esteem or love towards them while by withdrawing your selves from hearing them you discourage them in their labours 6. Supposing some N. C. be a more edifying Teacher what necessity is there that you should hear him in such a constancy as to reject your Parish-Minister or from hence to forsake our publick Assemblies and to neglect the Sacraments administred in our Churches Lastly if this be a sufficient reason to leave one Preacher and follow another because he more affects or pleases you consider whether this will not be an inlet to all delusions If you leave your own Minister whom you cannot but owne preaches the Gospel of Christ to hear another who in your esteem preaches more feelingly you may on the same reason leave this new preacher to follow another and another and never stop till you fall into gross Errors to the dishonour of God the disturbance of the Church and the perdition of your own Souls As the reason of the thing it self evidences this so do the Instances of many who have run thus giddily sadly evince the truth hereof Take heed of being in the number of those spoken of 2 Tim. 4.3 who after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers having itching Ears Such are in danger of turning away their ears from the truth and turning unto fables Verse 4. Having thus largely answered that objection I again beseech you Brethen in the bowels of love as you desire the peace of your own Conscience the peace of the Church of God and the prosperity and peace of England that you would seriously consider what I have propounded It is our Duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace This Duty is not practised by those who without any just grounds separate themselves from any true Church There can be no just ground of Separation from our Churches unless you are put upon doing something that is sinful in order to enjoying Communion with us Nothing can be sinful but what is a Transgression of some Law of God Now if any thing occur to your own thoughts or be propounded by others as a violation of Gods Laws which is required as a condition of Communion with us be serious in the examination hereof before you forsake our Assemblies upon the account of its unlawfulness In this trial I beseech you make Gods revealed will the Rule of your Conscience and not the Example or Judgment of such whom you esteem for their Piety Several persons remember how many who before the late unhappy troubles in this Nation were followers of the Non-conformists though it is probable on no other ground but because they appeared to manifest a greater Zeal for God than others how these I say fell into monstrous extravagancies after liberty was given to men to vent their
these things and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5.9 I might likewise here have shewn how that these things not only merit destruction but also are the immediate causes inlets and Instruments of that from which we chiefly fear our miseries I mean that Irreligion is the chief means to bring in Popery For when men are indifferent about Religion any Religion is alike to them supposing it comply with their corrupt inclinations and interests Now 't is likely they will soonest chuse that wherein they are deluded with hopes of sinning securely and yet dying happily 3. One thing that inhances a Nations sins and hastens their ruine is when they are persisted in after Judgments that God hath used to reclaim them It is clear that Incorrigibleness is in mens esteem an addition to other offences and renders the person unworthy of pity And to be sure it is thus in Gods esteem Amos 4.6 to 13. Englands case in many respects runs parallel with that of Israel beginning at the tenth verse May not God say to us I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt when my destroying Angel slew such multitudes in London and other places of the Nation Your young men have I slain with the sword In the late Civil wars I gave the Sword a Commission to destroy multitudes when Father was against the Son and the Son against the Father when there were so great confusions brought upon the Land when a pious King was cut off his Son exiled the Nobles debased the usurping government frequently changing that England being emptied from one Vessel to another might be purified from her dregs and yet she continues filthy and impure Besides the multitudes that have more lately been slain in wars with your Neighbours Yet have you not returned to me saith the Lord. Besides this that you might in one dreadful spectacle behold a monument of my wrath against sin I have wrought a thing that neither you nor your forefathers ever beheld nor could have expected I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha I made your City that was your pride and glory a desolation reduced that place to Ashes which made England admired envied and feared by her neighbours And may not God add yet have you not returned unto me 4. Another aggravation of a Nations sins is when they are committed against signal favours when we dare to offend him while he is loading us with his Benefits Moses frequently mentions mercies received as a strong obligation to the Israelites to obey him who had wrought such great things for them If God delivered them from bondage wrought mighty things for them in Egypt and at the Red Sea if he provided food for so great a multitude in a barren wilderness acted towards them as a nursing Father chose them for his peculiar people God justly expects a stricter obedience from them for whose sakes he had done all this And therefore afterwards God on this account aggravates their sins by his Prophets As Jer. 2.4 5 6. Now certainly if God ever dealt graciously towards a Nation he hath acted thus towards us and consequently we are a vile ungrateful people if we live in Rebellion against him Hath not God planted us in a fair place given us a Land flowing with milk and hony bestowed on us manifold Blessings which our own Country produces and by our shipping the Riches of other Nations Hath he not bestowed spiritual Blessings on us in a great measure that we have his Candlestick in the midst of us that we enjoy the Gospel so clearly preached that we are a Church so excellently reformed so as to reject the corruptions of Rome and yet to retain that Government which hath continued from the Apostolick Age Hath not God graciously delivered us from the designs of those who have endeavoured to reduce us under the Papal Tyranny and to introduce their corrupt doctrines and superstitious practices I might mention Gods bringing to light and disappointing the Plots laid against Queen Elizabeth and the Hellish conspiracy of the Powder-Traitors and other mercies of ancient date As also the deliverance of us from sad confusions by the happy restauration of our Gracious Sovereign But that which now chiefly challenges our observation is Gods discovery of the abominable traiterous designs of the Papists to murder the King and others that stood in their way and hence to subvert our Religion and Government And that God should discover this when it was so near taking effect We cannot but own these to be singular favours if we duly considered them and consequently our selves to be a wretched unworthy Nation if notwithstanding all these we go on to provoke that God who bestowed them on us 5. I might have named another circumstance or two which heighten a Nations Guilt viz. when sin is committed with an High hand and wickedness is impudent and bare-faced as also when the Guilt is universal when all ranks and degrees of men are degenerate But seeing this excellently handled by Dr. Stillingfleet in a Fast Sermon on 1 Sam. 12.14 15. as also I am not so well able to apply this as the former from my ignorance of the state of this Nation I leave others to consider whether a Spirit of Irreligion and contempt of what is Sacred hath not overspread the face of this Land and whether from hence many abominable practices which former Ages would have blushed at have not been boldly committed among us Lay all this together and we may conclude our Guilt is great and our fears of Punishment too well grounded When our sins are great and of such a nature as ordinarily provoke God to plague a Nation when committed notwithstanding former warnings and chastisements which he hath used to amend us when persisted in notwithstanding Gods signal favours which he hath vouchsafed to us to lead us to Repentance So that God may say to us as he did to the Jews Esay 5.4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Wherefore when I looked it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes And now go to I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up And break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down And I will lay it waste Lastly when our Kingdom is so overspread with guilt and hardened in iniquity when they have as Isaiah speaks Chap. 5.3 made their faces harder than a rock and refused to return may we not expect that sentence to follow which is denounced ver 9. Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this 6. Though we have just ground to fear the wrath of God if we persist in our Rebellion against him yet withal we have sufficient ground to hope that if we
under more than ordinary shews of Godliness we should never be fixed on any sure foundation but must be always wavering always changing And indeed many instances might be given of persons who upon such slender Reasons have withdrawn themselves from their Parish-Churches and from thence have fallen from one Error to another till at length they have fallen into gross delusions and some into Atheism In this Trial make use of those helps which God in his providence affords you I mean the assistance of able peaceable Divines and of their Writings I know if I should direct you to the Friendly Debate or Dr. Combers explications of our publick Prayers or any other Treatises of this nature which are written by Conformists you will with disdain reject my advice I shall therefore only desire you to read the writings of some learned Non-conformists viz. those of Mr. John Ball against Separation and others written long since and especially Mr. Baxters Cure of Church-divisions and Mr. Tombes his Theodulia which have been published of late 2. If upon impartial trial you cannot satisfie your selves so far as to comply with every thing that the Magistrate enjoyns yet however seriously consider whether you have ground enough from thence to forsake the Communion of the Church of England and to withdraw your selves from our Assemblies To this end consider in what things we and you agree as well as in what things we disagree particularly whether there be not a full agreement in all the Essentials and Substantials of Christian Religion We both own the same Lord Jesus Christ we agree in the same Faith and that not only in the main fundamentals but also in lesser matters there being few if any Non-conformists who do not approve the doctrinal part of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England We both hope to obtain the same Heaven and both to obtain it the same way viz. by Faith in Christ manifested in an holy conversation Nay further we both agree in the main parts of Gods Worship And that both in reference to the object of our Worship and manner of it We and you worship the same God and him alone We pray not to Saints or Angels We pay no adoration to the consecrated Bread in the Lords Supper We bow not down to Images We worship God in the inward acts of our Souls our Faith in God our reliance and dependence on him our Love to him our Sense of his infinite goodness and the like graces and affections and by expressing these in such outward acts which God hath ordained and you and we own them as his Institutions such as Prayer Thanksgiving hearing the Word and the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper Where is the difference in all this betwixt you and us It must be therefore in something that is circumstantial And is this a sufficient Reason to separate from us It is evident that God hath not obliged us to this or that Gesture in his Worship suppose it be but reverent that he hath not determined circumstances this way or that but hath left them to humane prudence I will clear this by one instance As we both acknowledge Prayer to be one especial part of Gods Worship so we hold that the chief things we are to request of God are Pardon Sanctification assistance against temptation and the like We both own that our petitions are to be put up in and through the same Mediator Jesus Christ We both hold that it is the fervent desire of our hearts and the representation thereof to God that makes our prayers to be indeed such And that the holy Spirit works in our Souls a sense of our wants and an earnest desire that they may be supplied This is all that concerns the essence of Prayer and herein we are agreed But in reference to the gesture supposing it be such as becomes dust and ashes when they address themselves before the great King of Kings God hath not determined whether it should be kneeling standing or lying prostrate on our faces and therefore any of these may be used In reference to Time whether it should be this or that hour for publick prayer and therefore that time should be imployed therein which humane prudence determines as most convenient And the same is true in reference to words in Prayer For God hath not determined whether our desires should be represented in words premeditated or in words immediately conceived Neither of these are of the essence of Prayer neither of them particularly commanded of God so as to exclude the other both have been used by Saints in the Holy Scriptures and both approved by God Therefore when any ask Where God hath required forms of Prayer in Scripture I would ask these persons Where God hath required extemporary Prayers And when they demand where our Common prayers are to be found in Gods Word I would enquire where they find therein those particular Prayers which they and their Ministers have poured out to God By a serious consideration of all this you may easily understand how great our agreement is and consequently that those things must needs be small wherein we disagree And will you on account of such things separate from us If any pretend there are corruptions in our Church I would desire such to consider the state of the Churches in the time of Christs Apostles and see if they do not find as great in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia of Ephesus Pergamus Thyatira Rev. 2. and of Sardis and Laodicea Rev. 3. as they do among us And withal consider whether it would not have been a sin to separate from those Churches See this handled by Mr. Baxter in his Cure of Church-divisions Chap. 5. I cannot think of any thing that may be a just plea for Separation but this That something that is sinful is required as a condition of our Communion The chief thing that is instanced in is this that they must worship God by a Form of Prayer To make this plea good they must shew that forms of Prayer are sinful and to prove that it is a transgression of a Law and instance in the particular Law that is hereby violated But the case is so far from this that we have Forms of Prayer mentioned in Holy Scripture used by good men and that as an expression of their Piety nay in several cases prescribed by God himself or his extraordinary Ministers as that Num. 10.35 36. David and other Psalmists penned Forms of Prayer and Praise to be used by the Church of God in his Service Neither was there any thing typical in this thing nor any thing that had respect to that legal Oeconomy And indeed if Forms of Prayer were unlawful then which it would be blasphemy to utter our Saviour sinned when he bid his disciples when they prayed to say Our Father c. Luke 11.2 And when he himself prayed using the same words Matth. 26.44 And now I need not add that