so clear I have already shew'd that there lies no Obligation upon any Non-Conformist Minister to Preach in England and consequently there can be no necessity for the People to hear them The Oaths and Subscriptions are required only of the Clergy and is no more than what other Reformed Churches require of all theirs By the Constitution of the French Church every Minister that will not subscribe to the Orders among them is to be declared a Schismatick And by the Constitution of Geneva any Minister that contemns the Authority of their Church or by his obstinacy disturbs the Order of it shall be first summon'd before the Magistrate and if that will not do he shall be Excommunicated but no Separation allow'd And Calvin says Ep. Olevian pag. 311 122. Let him that will not submit to the Orders of a Society be cast out Our Dissenters themselves did oblige all to Swear Solemnly to their Covenant under pain of Sequestration But say the Dissenters What if the Church of England Excommunicates us may we not then lawfully Separate and set up Meetings of our own I Answer 't is true the Laws of the Church do say that in some cases Men are Excommunicated ipso facto yet this does not oblige any to separate from Communion till Sentence be duly and judicially pronounced in a Church For by the Civil Law notwithstanding Excommunication ipso facto a Declaratory Sentence of the Judge is necessary before a Man shall be deny'd the benefit of Communion And the saying a Man is Excommunicated ipso facto signifies no more than that the Judge may give Sentence without any new judicial Process But though our Dissenters were actually Excommunicated for their Disobedience this this would not excuse them from Schism as Dr. Stillingfleet has proved at large Misch of Separ p. 370. Thus I have shew'd that none of those Pleas which are commonly used by the Dissenters for their Separation from us are sufficient to justifie Separation from a True Church Now if I can prove That the Church of England is a True Reform'd Church they must either Renounce their Principles of Separation or their Reason The only Argument I shall here make use of to prove that the Church of England is a True Reform'd Church is That it is so acknowledged by all the Reform'd Churches in the World who do all own her as a Sister and also by the most Eminent of our own Dissenters themselves All the Reform'd Churches beyond Seas do own the Church of England as a True Reform'd Church and yet they know what her Faults be in her Assemblies in her Worship in her Ministry and Government And this appears by the Harmony of Confessions of the Churches Collected and set forth by the Churches of France and of the Low-Countries They do receive and approve of the Confession of the Church of England and call it one of the True Reform'd Churches Calvin has acknowledged the same in his writings against the Brownists and condemns them for Schismaticks for separating from it See his Instit lib. 4. c. 1. And the famous Causabon in his Epistle to King James I. declares plainly That none at this day comes nearer the form of the Ancient Church than the Church of England does Grotius ad Boatslaer Ep. 62. acknowledges the same To which I shall add the Opinion of Two of the most Eminent Reform'd Divines at this day beyond Seas The one is Monsieur L'Moyn Professor of Divinity at Leyden in his Letter to the Bishop of London Anno Dom. 1680. who wrote to him to know his Judgment concerning our present Divisions in England L'Moyn writes him a long Letter which you may see at large at the latter end of Dr. Stillingfleet's Mischief of Separation I shall only repeat some of it Where was it ever seen says he after he had been highly condemning our Dissenters for Separation that the Salvation of Men was concern'd for Articles of Discipline and things which regard but the out-side and Order of the Church Truly these are never accounted in the number of essential Truths And as there is nothing but these that can save so there is nothing but these that can exclude from Salvation For the Episcopal Government what is there in it that is dangerous and may reasonably alarm Men's Consciences And if this be capable of depriving Men of Eternal Glory and shutting the Gates of Heaven who was there that entred there for the space of 1500. Years since that for all that time all the Churches of the World had no other kind of Government If it were contrary to the Truth is it credible that God had so highly approved it and permitted his Church to be tyrannized over by it for so many Hundred Years c. Therefore since all the Reformed Churches do look upon the Church of England not only as a Sister but as an elder Sister how comes it to pass that some English-men themselves have so ill an Opinion of her at present as to separate rashly from her For to speak the Truth I do not see their separate Meetings are of any great use or that one may be more Comforted there than in the Episcopal Churches When I was at London almost Five Years ago I went to several of their Meetings to see what way they took for the Instruction of their Hearers but I profess I was not at all Edified by it I heard one of the most famous Non-Conformists he Preached in a place where there were about Fourscore Women and a few Men He had chosen a Text about the Building up the Ruines of Jerusalem and for Explication of it he cited Pliny and Vitruvius I believe an Hundred times And did not forget to mention a Proverb in Italian Duro con duro non fa muro All this seem'd to me nothing to the purpose and very improper for his Auditory To Cantonize themselves and make a Schism to have the liberty to vent such Vanities seems very ill Conduct And the People seem very weak to quit their mutual Assemblies for things that so little deserve their esteem and preference I do not think that any one is obliged to suffer such Irregularity c. The other Authority I promised to cite is Monsieur Claud to whom the Bishop of London wrote about the same time desiring his Opinion as aforesaid Monsieur Claud returns him this answer All Reform'd Churches do acknowledge the Church of England as a true Church and I shall not be afraid to give that name to the holding of Assemblies apart and separating from the publick Assemblies and withdrawing themselves from under the Government of the Church 'T is real Schism We do not enter into a comparison of your order with that under which we live all are subject to inconveniencies ours have hers as well as yours It is enough for us to know that the same Divine Providence which by an indispensible necessity and by conjuncture of Affairs did at the beginning of
Separation from a true Church to be sinful who can help that The great number that have liv'd and dy'd in that Opinion does not make the thing less sinful The Donatists in the African Church were more numerous that our English Dissenters are and had 't is likely as many sober and learned Divines among ' em For at the Conference at Carthage they had 400 Bishops yet these were condemn'd for Schismaticks by St. Austin and all the Catholick Bishops And the things that these Donatists separated from the Church for were for the most part the very same that our present Dissenters make the cause of their separation from the Church of England They thought the Bishopricks too large and the Power of the Bishops too great They refus'd to join in Communion with the Catholicks because sinners were admitted there They forsook the Ministers because they were not so agreeable to their humour as they would have them * Optatus Malevianus lib. 2. p. 47. They would not suffer any to speak in the Churches but the Ministers and stopt the mouths of all the People They held that the Civil Magistrate had no Power to Reform the Church They made a shew of greater Zeal for the Purity of Religion than other People and by their stiff rigorous severity which they shew'd and the vehement out-crys which they made that Discipline was not duly executed Many of the People not well grounded in the truth were terrified and turned unto them believing them to be the most zealous holy Men and the only true Church in the World Finally they condemn'd all other Churches as not true Churches See all this in Gifford a Non-conformist Minister his Book against the Brownists 2. part These are the very pretences that our present Dissenters make for their separating from this Church Our Bishopricks are too large our Churches not according to Christ's Institution our Ministers unable and ungodly our way of Worship false our Magistrates assume an unwarranted Power in Church Matters Yea and in their over pretending to Purity and Godliness they are exact Donatists and by that very means do draw the more ignorant and zealous sort of People to them as the Brownists did No People pretend so much to Purity and Religion as they do In all places where they have their publick Meetings they are sure to begin before the Parish Churches and end after be they as long as they will But yet go in to one of their Meetings and you shall see as little signs of Devotion and as many of the People asleep as in any Parish Church in the Kingdom for the number So in their common Discourse many of them will scarce allow themselves so much liberty as to make them good company for fear they should happen to tell a lye but yet in their Dealings they will over-reach a Customer in a Bargain and use as many equivocations to deceive him as any other People shall But least you think I do them wrong let us hear what the learned Mr. Baxter says of them you won't believe that he would wrong them In his Poor Man's Family Book p. 221. speaking of such who run into Parties by Divisions says he Those injudicious sort of Christians having an over high esteem of their own Vnderstandings and Godliness and desiring to be made conspicuous for their Godliness in the World separate from ordinary Christians as below them and unworthy of their Communion these Sects have ever been the Nests of Errors And again ib. p. 331. he bids us beware of joining our selves to Separate Meetings who pretend to stricter Discipline and greater Purity who set themselves up Factiously and Contentiously against the Concordant Churches on pretence of greater Purity whose Meetings are imployed in Reviling others and Condemning other Churches and puffing themselves up with Pride as if they were the only Churches of Christ But our Dissenters will say This is a scandalous abuse to say that they condemn all other Reformed Churches in the World But I doubt they agree with the Donatists even in this For I suppose they will condemn all those that account them Schismaticks And this do all the Reformed Churches for they all hold that Separation from a true Church is Schism and own the Church of England for a true Church and consequently make them Schismaticks and so have expresly declared them as appears before Again I suppose they will condemn all Churches that communicate with an Idolatrous Anti-Christian Church knowing her faults some of them declare the Church of England to be such a Church and then they must condemn all the Reformed Churches which communicate with her Well say the Dissenters You of the Church of England have a great deal to say for your selves and if all be true that you have told us our Separation from you is sinful and unreasonable But what reason have we to believe you we have a great many able and godly Ministers of our own who tell us the quite contrary 't is certain they can't both be in the right why may we not then believe your Ministers may be deceived as well as ours I answer 'T is not so likely that all the Divines of the Church of England that have been since the Reformation should be deceived in a thing of this nature as that those of the Non-conformists should First Because they are much more numerous and 't is not so likely that a great many good Men should be deceived as a few 'T is a Rule in Logick Quod plures sapentiores testantur credibile est esse verum And Secondly Because they have much better means to come to the knowledge of the Truth than those of the Non-conformists can pretend to as will plainly appear by considering the Method taken on both sides for the breeding up of Divines Those who are design'd for the Study of Divinity in the Church of England are kept at the best Schools that can conveniently be had till they understand Latin and Greek very well then they are admitted into one of the Universities where they are put under the Care of a particular Tutor who is always one of the Fellows of the College and consequently a Man well approved of by the whole College for his Learning and Sobriety for by the Statutes of every College none but such are qualified for Fellowships This Tutor has seldom above 20. Students under his Care at a time and many of them not half that number every Student comes twice a day to his Tutor's Chamber to be instructed by him And besides this the College appoints other Tutors or publick Lecturers who are to teach and instruct them in the publick Halls some for Philosophy some for Disputations and other Exercises These publick Tutors are changed every year which is a great Advantage to the Students by acquainting them with the several Methods and Opinions of such variety of Learned Men. Thus they spend the first four Years and then after very strict
fairly in his Answer to a certain Letter p. 18. where he says he has seldom heard any but very good and well studied Sermons in our Churches and on the other side complains publickly of the weakness and injudiciousness and self-conceitedness of too many of the Non-conformist Preachers in his Sacral Desert p. 86. yet they will tell us they deceive the People and keep them all in ignorance for their own Interests least they should lose their Church Preferments This is a very severe Censure to say that so many Thousand godly Ministers as have been of the Church of England since the Reformation and who have many of them died Martyrs for the sake of it should be such Villains as to deceive the People and damn their own Souls for the sake of their Church Preferments But how can self-interest oblige the Clergy to defend the Church of England as now establish'd if they thought it not agreeable to the Word of God It must be either Pride or Covetousness that must move them to it If it were Pride doubtless the Presbyterian or Independant way would answer that end much better for whereas now the Parsons Vicars and Curates of all the Parishes in England are subject to their respective Bishops c. and can do nothing as to matters of Discipline or Government c. not even in their own Parishes without the consent of the Diocesan Bishop Were the Constitution of the Church changed to that of the Presbyterian or Independant way every Pastor would become an absolute Bishop and accountable to none for what he did If it were Covetousness that moved them to it I suppose that were all the Parsons of every Parish in England made the Pastor of that Church or Parish according to the Presbyterian or Independant Notion of a Pastor and all the Diocesan and Metropolitan Bishopricks and their Deans and Chapters dissolved and their Revenue super-added to the present in-come of every Parish Minister or Pastor their Church Livings would be no less but more valuable than now they are Why do they not then set about this change of Church Government as fast as they can if they think in their Consciences 'twere more agreeable to God's will so to do 't is plain 't would better answer their Covetousness and Ambition to pull down Episcopacy than to live in this poor subjection that now they do Here they will tell us the reason is plain because the Bishops who are the Governours of the Church will not let them they know the sweet of a fat Bishoprick too well to part with it I warrant them But the Thousandth part of the Clergy of England are not Bishops nor perhaps never think to be so Every one of these have a Vote in the Convocation and doubtless may carry it against so small a number of Bishops as 27. were they not perswaded in their Consciences that the Church of England as now establish'd is as agreeable to the Will of God as any other whatsoever Therefore since the Divines of the Church of England are more Numerous and generally more Learned and can have no design upon the account of Self-interest to deceive the People 't is safer sure in a doubtful case to take their words and trust to their judgments than to those among the Dissenters whose Interest it is to deceive the People and make the breach between us as wide as they can many of them being Men of no Fortune and such as have no other way to get a Living and Men who must needs be losers by an Union between us be the Conformity of which side it will whether they Conform to us or we to them for be the Government of the Church of England either Episcopal or Presbyterian or Independant 't is but reasonable that the Ministers who are lawfully put into the Cures should continue therein still as Pastors of their own Churches so that the greatest part of the Non-conformist Preachers must be laid aside for 't were not reasonable that others who are as deserving as they and lawfully settled in their Cures should be turn'd out to make room for them nor that Parishes should be divided all over the Kingdom to furnish them with Churches 'T is likely that some of the Non-conformist Ministers who are better qualified than ordinary might be provided for should it please God that there were an Union between us But many of them I doubt could not so that 't is evident their Interest obliges the most of them to deceive the People and keep open the breach as wide as they can And that they really do so is plain by their making the Differences between us seem greater than really they are and than they themselves have own'd them to be in their Writings as I have all along shewed And also by their pretending to quote Authority for what they say and either not mentioning the Chapter or Page where the Words are to be found or else altering the very Words and Sence of the Author to serve their turn If any one think I do them wrong let them look into Dr. Maurice his Defence of Diocesan Episc p. 237. 335. 353. 377. 396. 442. 444. how Mr. Clarkson to prove Episcopacy in the Primitive Church to be agreeable to the congregational or Independant way has misrepresented the very Words and Sence of his Authors You may find more Instances of this kind in the Preface to Dr. Comber's Defence of Liturgies 1st part And see how falsly Mr. Baxter has translated Theodoret's Epistle to serve his Hypothesis Dr. Stillingfleet his Mischiefs of Separation p. 261. And how he has misrepresented the Doctor 's own words ib. 131. 132 and 126. Many more Instances of this kind may be given were it necessary but what has been said is sufficient to show that in Matters of Religion where the case seems doubtful and all the Divines of the Church of England agree on one side and the Non-conformists only on the other 't is much safer to take the Opinion of those of the Church of England than of the others because they are more numerous and generally more learned and seem to have less reason to deceive us To all that has been said I shall only add this That I have taken all the pains that possibly I could to inform my self truly of the Matters in Controversy between the Church of England and the Dissenters and did really believe the things Scrupled to be of much greater moment than I now find them to be And tho' I for my own part am satisfied in my Conscience that there is nothing at all injoin'd by the Church of England but what is agreeable to God's Word and the Opinion of the wisest Men of the Church in all Ages and what the most tender Consciences may satisfie themselves in if they would but make use of the proper means yet I could heartily wish that many things were laid aside if that would purchase an Union between us If things which are allow'd to be in themselves indifferent as Postures and Ceremonies and such like were neither impos'd nor abolish'd but left to the Discretion of every Christian to use or not to use as he thinks best and as the Ceremony of Bowing towards the Altar is and some other alterations made such as you may see in the Proposals offer'd to the Parliament for the Uniting of Protestant Dissenters by Dr. S. Dean of St. Pauls there could then be no reasonable Pretence left for Separation But if nothing else must purchase our Peace but the overthrowing the whole Constitution of this Church 't is too dear a purchase till we have found another to exchange for more agreeable to God's Word and more consistent with the Peace and Tranquility of this Nation but that we have not found yet I am sure as is sufficiently evident by a plain experimental Proof which these Nations lately had 't is very well known that in the late unhappy times when the Church of England Liturgy c. was taken away the Presbyterians Independants and other Parties pray'd one against the other and against establishing that way of Government which others of them pray'd for divers Persons made their own Passions singular Opinions and Errors great part of their Prayers others rejected all Confessions of sins as no part of their Devotions in many places of England the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was laid aside for 12 or 15 Years together so was Infant Baptism some would Pray for the King one way some another others not at all And in that time that the Church of England way of Worship was laid aside there were more Errors Sects Heresies and Blasphemies broach'd and vented than ever before or since This is acknowledged by the Dissenters themselves see a Book call'd Gangrena part 1st p. 175. writ about the Year 1646. where many of them do acknowledge That we say they in these four last Years for so long had Presbytery been uppermost have overpassed the Deeds of the Prelates in whose time never so great nor so many Errors were heard of much less such Blasphemies and Confusions we have worse things among us more corrupt Doctrines and Practices than in 80. Years before c. So that if nothing must purchase Peace between us but the parting with our Religion and overthrowing our whole Constitution to set up another which Experience has taught us is neither so consistent with God's Glory nor the Peace of these Nations they must excuse us Besides let me tell them Their late Carriage in Scotland has given us great reason to fear that the Religion they so much boast of and with so much Zeal endeavour to set up in this Nation in the place of that which by God's good Providence is now Establish'd is not the true Religion of Christ for that never taught any to Affront and Revile his lawful Ministers and to burn the Holy Scriptures as they have done now more than once I pray God open their Eyes and soften their Hearts and give them Grace to Repent FINIS
time of Constantine the Great which is near 1400 years Constantine by his Edict suppress'd all separate Meetings and among the rest the Novatians and silenc'd their Preachers though their Ordination was as good as any among our Nonconformists See Eusebius Vita Const lib. 3. cap. 63 64 65 66. And St. Augustine did very much commend the Emperour for so doing See Aug. Ep. 48. and see also his 4th Book against Cresconius a Donatist ch 51. All the Reform'd Churches in the World do at this day silence such Ministers as refuse to submit to the Orders and Government of their Church and believe they have Power so to do At Geneva their Council of State has the sole Power of Electing and Deposing Ministers Nay farther by the Constitution of Geneva they have Power not only to silence but to excommunicate such Ministers as shall contemn the Authority of the Church or by their obstinacy disturb the Order of it In the French Church if any refuse to subscribe to the Orders of their Church he is to be declared a Schismatick And Calvin himself Ep. Olevian pag. 311 and 122. says Let him that will not submit to the Orders of a Society be cast out But what need we go so far from home for Instances of this kind Let us see what the Opinion of our own Dissenters heretofore was in this matter First then in the great Dispute between the Brownists and the Non-conformists about the Ministers preaching c. against the Will of the Prince the Non conformists all agreed That the Apostles had Power immediately from God to set up his Kingdom but their Power was extraordinary and under Heathen Magistrates But our Ministers have no such extraordinary Power And our Magistrates being Christian are much more to be respected See Gifford a Non-conformist Minister his Answer to Barrow And see the Confutation of the Brownists by several Non-conformists who join'd together for that purpose publish'd by one Rathband by their command p. 51. And see Mr. Bradshaw his Answer to Johnson to the same purpose where he says That the Magistrate had no Power to silence the Apostles for that 't was manifest by the silencing of them was intended the utter extirpation of Christianity But the case is alter'd among us for the intent of a Christian Magistrate is not to silence all Christian Ministers but some particular men only so that the Question is not whether Minister or no but whether this or that Minister of Christ And doubtless every Christian Prince has Power to chuse what Men he thinks fittest for publick Offices in Church or State so long as they be equally qualified according to God's Law But to go on The Opinion and Practice of the Dissenters in the late unhappy Times are not yet forgotten they were all then of an opinion that Christ's Ministers may be silenc'd and accordingly put it in practice every Party as it serv'd their turn See their Solemn League and Covenant all who would not enter into it and solemnly swear to doe their utmost endeavour to abolish Episcopacy and set up Presbytery were immediately not only silenc'd but sequester'd though their Ministry was as much of Divine Right as any of theirs now Conscience then was no Plea for not taking this solemn Oath They would not suffer one of the old Clergy to teach a School Nay they would not allow their own Independent Brethren to preach though they had all taken Presbyterian Orders as they themselves See the Letter from the Presbyterian Ministers of London to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster Ann. 1645. Jan. 1. And the grand Debate c. And in New-England where the Independents have the Power they are all of the same Mind none is to preach publickly by their Laws where any two organick Churches Council of State or general Court shall declare their dissatisfaction thereat See their Body of Statutes which they have lately printed Nay they are not satisfied to silence such Ministers as will not conform but they banish them too as they did Mr. Willams and others And is it not very strange then that the silencing of such Ministers by the King and Governours of the Church who positively refuse to submit to the Orders of the Church or to give their Governours such a Test of their Obedience and Conformity to the Laws of the Church and State as they in their Discretion have thought fit to require of them that this should be a thing so unlawful and wicked now that has been practised in the purest Ages of the Church and by the Dissenters themselves when they were in Power and by all the Churches in the World at this day And indeed if the Tests which the Laws require of their Obedience and Loyalty be too severe and rigid they may blame themselves for it for Governours cannot be too cautious in securing the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom against a Faction that has once already overthrown this Monarchy and Church And give us all the Reason in the World to believe That they are ready to do the same again especially the latter as soon as ever it is in their Power The bitter Spirit they show in Scotland already and their Unchristian like behaviour to all those that differ from them in Opinion shews us plainly what we may expect here when ever they are able And thus much for the Pleas which the Dissenters use for Separation which relate to the Constitution of our Church The second sort are against the terms of Communion with it They say our terms of Communion are unlawful for that the Church of England injoins some things in God's Worship which are not expresly commanded in Scripture and so makes the Scriptures insufficient And these things are our Ceremonies and prescribed Forms of Prayer c. First as to our Ceremonies The Church of England uses no Ceremonies but such as were us'd in the purest Ages of the Church as Dr. Stillingfleet has prov'd in his Mischiefs of Separation And such as are now us'd by the greatest part of the Reform'd Churches beyond Seas The Lutheran Churches have the same and more Ceremonies than we have And yet these Churches have been thought fit to be united to the best Reform'd Churches by the best and wisest Protestants as appears by a Synod of the Reform'd Churches at Chareton in France Anno 1631. And indeed there is no Christian Church in the World but what do make Laws and Canons in Matters of Circumstance and compel both Ministers and People to obey the same They do not believe that every variation in Circumstance in God's Worship is setting up new parts of Worship as our Dissenters seem to do when they charge us with setting up new parts of Worship and making the Scriptures insufficient Adoration we all agree is a substantial and proper act of Divine Worship but whether this Adoration is perform'd by prostration or by bowing or by kneeling is a Circumstance in it self indifferent And
the Reformation put our Churches under that of the Presbytery has put yours under that of the Episcopacy and as we are assured that you do not despise our simplicity so neither ought we to oppose our selves against your Preheminence See both these Letters and a third from Monsieur L'Angle to the same purpose at large in the latter end of Dr. Stillingfleet's Misch of Separ Thus much for the foreign Divines Now we will come nearer home and see what our Dissenters themselves have thought of the Church of England from which they separate First then Several of the Dissenters to avoid the imputation of Brownism do sincerely profess before God and all the World That they hold the Church of England to be a true Church of Christ with which they did and would hold Communion notwithstanding any defilement or unwarranted Power of Church Government exercised therein See the Apologetical Narrative p. 5 6. Again They own that our Parochial Churches are true Churches and that they can find no fault with the Doctrine of our Church and that 't is lawful and * If occasional Communion be lawful constant is a Duty See Papers for Accomm p. 47 51 56. sometimes a Duty to communicate with us Baxter's Defence of his Cure p. 38. and 64. Corbet of Schism p. 41. Peace-offering in the name of the Congreg party Anno Dom. 1667. p. 10. True way of Conc. part 3. c. 1. sect 40. and Mr. Baxter in his last Answer to Bagshaw p. 30 31. has these words You little know what pernicious design the Devil has upon you in perswading you to desire and indeavour to pull down the interest of Christ and Religion which is upheld in the Parish Churches of this Land and to think that 't is best to bring them as low in reality and reputation as you can and contract the Religious Interest all into private Meetings And see also Mr. Baxter's Plea for Peace p. 240. to the same purpose And lastly Dr. Owen in his Book of Evangelical Love p. 54. acknowledges That they look upon the Church of England measuring it by the Doctrine received since the Reformation to be as sound and healthful a part of the Catholick Church as any in the World I have now prov'd that Separation from a true Church is sinful and schismatical I have proved the Church of England to be a true Church and all this I have proved from their own Writings How will they now justify their Separation or clear themselves from the imputation of Schism What will they say to this Is Schism not a sin Or is their Separation from us not Schism If they say it is not Schism Why then our Non-conformist Ministers know better what is Schism than all the Learned Divines of the Church of England and the most Eminent Men of all the Reformed Churches beyond Seas do For I have shewed from their own words That they do acknowledge the Church of England to be as true and sound a part of the Reform'd Church as any in the whole World and condemn all those that separate from her as guilty of Schism Doubtless these Men are as competent judges of Matters of Religion as any of our Dissenting Ministers And I am sure we have not the least reason to believe they would flatter us for they are strangers who have no dependance upon us and Men of more Piety and Honesty than to indulge us in any thing that is sinful But it may be they will say that all these Learned Divines beyond Seas who have acknowledged the Church of England to be a true Church are ignorant of the Errors and Corruptions in her But let me tell them They might have a little more civility than to suppose that so many godly upright Men would rashly give their judgment of Matters of so great moment as those are which relate to Religion before they were truly acquainted with the nature and circumstances of the thing And besides They ought not to judge of other Men by themselves Because the most of their own Divines are utter stangers to the practice and Constitution of other Churches as appears sufficiently by their Principles of Separation must they believe others to be so too No throughly accomplish'd Divine can be supposed to be ignorant of the true state and condition of any Reformed National Church much less of so great and considerable an one as the Church of England But to put this out of dispute it appears before that several of the most Eminent Men before-mentioned were in England for some years and frequented both the Churches and Meetings on purpose to acquaint themselves with both in order to giving their judgment of them Since therefore the Doctrine of the Church of England is sound and the Worship true and Government and Constitution of it as agreeable to that of the best and purest Ages of the Church as any now in the World let us in the name of God lay aside all those fears and jealousies that have possess'd the minds of too many of us concerning it and let us remember that not only the Peace and Prosperity of this Church and Nation and of every particular Member of it depends upon our Union but of the Protestant Religion all over the World Tho' there may be some things amiss in the Church of England it is not the business of private Men to Reform the Church or dispute the fitness or unfitness of every little imposition Their Duty is to Conform at least in the outward action and submit the fitness of such things to the Wisdom of those to whom God Almighty has intrusted the Government of the Church and Nation they may reasonably be thought more competent judges of what is convenient and fit to be done or not to be done than private Men can be And if any thing be amiss in the Government of the Church or the manner of God's Worship they are to answer for it not the People God will call them to an account for imposing upon his People things not agreeable to his Will But will never condemn us for doing our Duty in submitting to such Governors as he has placed over us 'T is true there are some things in Religion which are essential to it without which Men cannot be saved Now in case our Governours command us to act contrary to these we ought not to obey for we must obey God rather than Men But 't is agreed on all sides That the Church of England enjoins no such things and that they who live godly sober lives according to the Doctrine of this Church are in a safe and ready way to Heaven But 't is a difficult Matter for Men to forsake what they have been all their lives accustomed to they cannot believe that Separation is so great a sin as we seem to make it And that so many honest good People and godly Ministers did live and die in sin If they are resolv'd they will not believe