you avoid what you injuriously impute to others when you cry out What could Parker c. have spoken more reproachfully c. Sure you thought I had spoken against fervent preaching it self or else you would not have talk'd as you do Here also after some mention of my Pride and Folly you adde two more gross Untruths 1. That what I spake of individual persons without respect to any party Conformists non-Conformists or Separatists and instanced in many of my own acquaintance some of which now Conform yea are zealous Conformists who were the ferventest loudest Preachers that ever I knew in all my life If I will not tell you who they are alas man did you never know such you must think it concerns all that are at this day engaged in a Gospel separation Answ. Had you said We will think so it might have been true But 1. I had made no mention at all of separation in the whole Direction nor intended any more than I expressed But only meant to direct people to avoid that error in the choice of Teachers which prepareth them for any seduction and division 2. I had largely spoken there for affectionate Preaching 3. I am not acquainted with very many such as in England have been known by the name of Separatists that go no further But those few that I do know I take to be colder duller Preachers than those that are called Presbyterians byfar for the most part of them so far was I from meaning them But Quakers and Fifth-Monarchy men and some Anabaptists I know and many revilers of the Ministry I have known in Armies and Countreys that were just such as I describe 2. It is an untruth that you had no pretence of Reason for that I can think of that I have left off the Lords work and instead of helping it forwards with you am weakening your hands and disgracing the builders If you mean that I preach not in the Pulpit no more do you If you mean that I have not a separated Church I never had one on your principles at least If you mean that I preach not in London 1. I cannot if I would 2. I never had any Pastoral Charge nor place in London but preach'd one year up and down for others and another year took but a voluntary Lecture 3. London I was forced eight years ago to forsake for my health and life 4. Gods work is not only in London 5. I have no call thither nor any people related to me as a Pastor there 6. There are very many worthy men there that want both employment and maintenance whom I will not injure Are not all these reasons enough But if you think otherwise 7. Are not all the Preachers in England forsakers of Gods work that preach not in London 8. I think you preached not for many years when you lay so long in prison Did you then forsake Gods work But I must confess Brother I have alwaies been too slothful and unprofitable a servant and still am Yet I can say that I know no other employment that I have and that I spend no more time in other things than necessities of life require I play away none and I idle away but little and preaching were it oftner is a small part of my work and that will be proved to be the Lords work which you think is against him as all have done that ever I wrote against almost And I love you much the better for being zealous for that which you do but think is the Lords work But I am past doubt that it will prove at last that such doctrines passions and practices as yours will be the weakeners and hinderers of the builders EXCEPT XXVI Answered p. 16. I intreat the Reader to peruse my words which you except against so angrily and I am assured he will find them useful to him in the great Question Who shall be Iudge And to help him out of his perplexities 1. It is a notorious untruth that you say It is altogether a new way of deciding Controversies to affirm Dictator like in all points of belief or practice which are of necessity to Salvation you must ever keep company with the Universal Church Be it right or wrong who knoweth not that knoweth what was held of old that it is the way that Irenaeus Tertullian Epiphanius Hierome Augustine Optatus and abundance more have largely written for And which Vincentius Lirinensis wrote his book for Quod semper ubique ab omnibus c. 2. Note Reader that he leaveth out that I said here no man must be Iudge no not the universal Church but only that they are our associates and that here every Christian maketh the Articles of his Faith his own and upon no mans authority c. But I maintain that it is no Article of absolute necessity to Salvation that hath been unknown to the Universal Church till now for then it were no Church But saith our brother who shall tell us what is the Universal Church And where shall we find it Answ. Are these Questions now to be answered by me Did you never before hear it done by others The Universal Church is the Universality of Christians It is to be found militant on this habitable earth Did you not know this But you ask How comes the Scripture not to be mentioned Answ. Because it was not seasonable or pertinent I was not defining the Church If I had it was definable without the naming of the Scripture at least before the Scripture was written And whence think you did I mean men should make the doctrine of Faith their own past controversie but by the Scripture Good brother till you have written more books for the authority of Scriptures than I have done or preach'd more for it own not such disingenuous intimations 2. You say that what he addes is much more conceited and singular In matters of high and difficult speculation the judgement of one man of extraordinary understanding and clearness is to be preferred before both the Rulers and the Major Vote Answ. It is another Untruth that this is singular My very words are almost verbatim in Mr. Pemble Vind. Grat. elsewhere cited Why do the Scotists so far follow Scotus and the Nominals Ockbam and the Dominicans Aquinas c. if this were a singular opinion Do not all the Peripateticks say the same of Aristotle in Philosophy And the Atomists of Epicurus Democritus and Lucretius and the Cartesians of their Master Doth not Dr. Twisse say the like of Bradwardine and of Piscator And do not many besides Rutherford think the same of him Do not the Ramists say so of Ramus Do not the Protestants say so of Calvin as to all that went before him Nay is it not almost the common opinion of all Learned men And a thing beyond dispute Did ever any man put such points of high speculation to the Major vote Alas brother that you should
not intâ—ressed in their discipline or is no stated member is not only lawful but for the ends sake is a duty when our never communicating with them is scandalous and offensive to our Rulers and tendeth to make people think that we hold that to be unlawful which we do not and when our actual Communion is apt and needful to shew our judgement and to cherish love and Christian Concord On which account as I would statedly communicate with the Greek Church if I were among them and had no better and would sometimes communicate with them in their Prayers and Sacraments if I did but pass through the Countrey as a stranger or if I could have better even so would I do with a Parish Church if as faulty as you can justly charge it with the foresaid limitations or with a Church of Anabaptists or Independents if they did not use their meetings to destroy either Piety or Love This is my judgement This is the summ of all that I plead for as to Communion If the Excepter deny not this he talketh not at all to me If any that have passionately reviled my Book and me do say We thought you had gone further and pleaded for more I answer them that we should not speak untruths and revile things before we understand them and then come off with I thought you had said more It is this with other Love-killing distempers that I strive to Cure And again I tell you that it is 1. Ignorance 2. Pride or overvaluing our own understandings 3. And Uncharitableness generated of these two which is the Cause of our CRUELTIES and our unlawful SEPARATIONS and which breed and feed our threatning Divisions among the parties on both extreams And it s the death of these three that must be our Cure CAP. 3. Some Objections or Questions about Separation answered AS to that party who think Anabaptists and Independents unfit for their communion I am not now dealing with them and therefore am not to answer their Objections Only on the by I shall here mind them 1. That it is not such as the old German Anabaptists who denyed Magistracy to Christians c. that I speak of But such as only deny Infant Baptism And that many of them are truly Godly sober men and therefore capable of communion And that the ancient Churches left it to men liberty at what time they would have their Children baptized 2. That many Independents are downright against Separation Mr. Iacob hath notably written against it Therefore those that are but meer Independents refuse not communion with the Parish Churches And why should you refuse communion with them 3. That many that separate secundum quid or pro tempore from some part of Worship only and for a season yet separate not simply from the Churches as no Churches nor would do all as they do in otheâ— circumstances For instance when they come not to the publick Assemblies yet they will not refuse you if you will come to theirs Go to their meetings and see if they so far separate as to forbid you Nor perhaps to their Sacraments if you will submit to their way as you expect they should do by yours Now seeing we are all agreed that the Magistrate doth not make Ministers Churches or Sacraments but only encourage protect and rule them I desire you but to be so impartial as to consider that 1. You count not your selves Separatists because you never go to one of their Meetings in their houses or other places Why then should you call them Separatists only for not coming to yours 2. But if they are guilty of Separation for holding either that your Churches and Ministry are Null or that Communion with you is unlawful by Gods Law enquire how far you also are Separatists if you say the same without proof by any others Though their lawfulness by the Law of the Land I justifie not no nor the regularity of their Church Assemblies 4. And I would here note how partial most men are They that think an Independent or Anabaptist yea or a Presbyterian intolerable at home in their several Churches yet if they would but come to their communion they would receive them as tolerable members And they that think it unlawful to hold communion with the Prelatists and give the reason partly from their unfitness yet would receive them in many Churches if they did but change their Opinions and desire communion with them in their way But it is those that judge Parish communion where there are godly Ministers unlawful that I am here to speak to And their principal doubts are such as many good and sober persons need an answer to QUEST I. Quest. 1. DOth not the second Commandment and Gods oft expressed jealousie in the matters of his Worship make it a sin to communicate in the â—â—turgiâ— Answ 1. The meaning of the second Commandment mistaken by many is directly to forbid Corporal or Interpretative Idolatry and worshipping God by Images as if he were like â— Creature And scandalouslâ— symbolizing with the Idolaters or Worshippers of false Gods by doing that which in outward appearance is the Worshipping of a false God though the mind be pretended to be kept free Now the Worshipping of the true God in the words of the Liturgie hath none of this nor will any but a sinful Câ—nsurer think that it is the worshipping of a false God Nor is every use of the same places words or other things indifferent a symbolizing with Idolatry But the saying those words or the using those Acts or Ceremonies by which their false Religion in specie is notified as by a tessera or badge to the world Or using the Symbols of their Religion as differing from the true Even as the use of Baptism and the Lords Supper the Creed and the constant use of our Church-Worship are the Symbols of the Christian Religion So their Sacraments Incense Sacrificings and Worshipping Conventions were the Symbols of Worshipping false Gods which therefore Christians may not use But they that say that all false Worship of the true God is Idolatry add to Gods word and teach doctrines which are but the forgeries of their own brain Though more than Idolatry be forbidden by Consequence in the second Commandment that proveth it not to be Idolatry because it s there so forbidden 2. I have after distinguished of false Worship and told you that if by false you mean forbidden or not commanded or sinful we all worship God falsly in the Manner every day and in some part of the matter very oft Our disorders confusion tautologies unfit expressions are all forbidden and so false worship And if God prohibit any disorder which is in the Liturgie he prohibits the same in extemporate prayers in which some good Christians are as failing as the Liturgie And as the words of the Liturgie are not commanded in the Scripture so neither are the words of our extemporate or studied Sermons or Prayers 3.
Consequences on your person but it 's easie to see that it will follow from this opinion that Christ was a sinner and consequently no Saviour and so no Christ. Alas whither would you carry the people of the Lord Nor do you prove Paul's Case to be like this Eating at the sacrifiâ—â—s in the Idols Temples was visible Corporal Idolatry forbidden indeed in the second Commandement as Idolatry interpretative visible external corporeal It was that very Act by which an Idol was outwardly worshipped Therefore it was a Professing-act interpretatively Symbolizing with Idolaters I have told you is Professing for a Symbole is a Professing sign But he that is present with a Church professing to worship not an Idol but the true God and that according to the Scripture and is united to the Church only in this profession doth not by so doing Profess Consent to a Ministers ill wording or methodizing of his Prayers or his Sermons which is the work of his own office 2. As for your charge of Blasphemy c. on me for intreating you to take heed lest you blaspheme by making Gods foreknowing of faults to signifie an approbation I pass it by and will not by so frivolous a return be drawn to enter further on that point EXCEPT XXII p. 13. Answered Whether it be bitterness fierceness fury or proud impatience to reprove these sins in an instance which your self presume not to contradict And whether the opinion that no truth is to be silenced for peace be fit for judicious peaceable men to own or be not fit to be gain-said I have long ago debated in my book of Infant-Baptisme pag. 218. EXCEPT XXIII p. 13. Answered If you dissent why did you answer none of the six Reasons I gave for what I said nor seem to take notice of them But only when I say It were easie to instance in unseasonable and imprudent words of truth spoken to Princes which have raised persecutions of long continuance ruined Churches caused the death of multitudes c. Upon which you put four questions To which I answer 1. The flattery of some will not justifie the sinful imprudence of others 2. If you should be guilty of the blood of thousands by one sin will it excuse you that another was more guilty 3. Elijah Micaiah and Iohn Baptist spake not unseasonably or imprudently Nor is all imprudent that bringeth suffering or death 4. Gospel Ministers may follow them that spake prudently but unseasonable and imprudent speaking is not following them I have recited elsewhere a saying even of Dr. Th. Iackson that It is not because great men have not sins and wrath enough that there are no more Martyrs under Christian Rulers but because there be not John Baptists enough to tell them of them to that sense But either by all this you mean to defend unseasonable and imprudent speaking or else you mean that there is no such sin or else you must needs contend where you consent If it be the first or third I will not be so imprudent as to sence with you If the second it is gross contradiction of reason and morality and of Christ himself Matth. 7. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 11 12. 1 Cor. 14. 28. 34. Amos 5. 13. Eccl. 3. 7. EXCEPT XXIV p. 14. He hath found out a new Cause of Separation and such as we doubt not the Pope will thank him for when he saies Almost all our contentions and divisions are caused by the ignorance and injudiciousness of Christians For it is evident that our contentions at this day are principally if not wholly caused by the pride impertinencie and tyranny of imposers which guilt Mr. Baxter would ease them of by charging it on the ignorance and injudiciousness of Christians Answ. These last words are your 17th Untruth 1. Where have I said a word to ease them of it May not two persons or parties be both guilty of Division Yea if one were guilty wholly that is of the whole yet he may not be guilty solely and no one with him 2. Have you or any of your party done so much to have stopt that cause of divisions which you accuse as I have done And did I ever change my mind 3. O that God would make you know what spirit you are of and what you are doing Alas brother will you leave England no hope of a Cure What hope while we are impenitent What Repentance while we justifie our sins Yea while the Preachers teach the people to justifie them and become the defenders of the sins which they should preach against and fight against their brethren that do but call mâ—n to â—â—pâ—nt What! is Godliness up and in honour among us while Repentance is down as an intolerable abhorred thing What a Godliness is that which abhorreth Repentance I am offended greatly with my own heart that melteth not into tears over such lines as thâ—se for England's sake and for Religions sake For the honour of God and for the souls of men Is that a new Cause of separation which hath been the Cause since the daies of the Apostles to this day Did ever man read the histories of the Schismes and Heresies of the Churches and not find out this Cause this old this ordinary Cause If you had remembred but what Socrates and Sozomene say of the Church of Alexandria alone what contentions what tumults what blood-shed these weaknesses and faults of Christians caused it might have told you it is no new thing O lamentable case of miserable England that even among the zealouser sort of Ministers any should be found that either vindicateth all Christians from the charge of Ignorance and Injudiciousness Or that thinketh these are no Causes or no culpabie Causes of divisions That have no more acquaintance with the people of this land And know no better them that they plead for That such should seek to flatter poor souls in despite of that open light and undeniable 〈◊〉 of all the Christian World That in an age when the weaknesses and faults of Christians have wrought such heinous effects among us they should be denied And when God by judgements hath so terribly summoned us to repent by silencing dissipations imprisonments reproaches and most dreadful plagues and flames alas shall we call to professors that have ruined us by Ignorance and Injudiciousness the gentlest names that their sin will bear and say Repent not Christians you are not ignorant or injudicious It is not you that are the causes of our divisions and calamities Our Contentions at this day are principally if not wholly caused by the pride impertinency and tyranny of the Imposers Believe not Christians that you are innocent Believe not that you are not ignorant and injudicious as you love your souls and as you love the land If once God deliver us up to Antichristian darkness and cruelties it will be cold comfort to you to think that you once were flattered into impenitency and made believe that you were not