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A44665
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An ansvver to Dr. Stillingfleet's Mischief of separation being a letter written out of the countrey to a person of quality in the city. Who took offence at the late sermon of Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of S. Pauls; before the lord mayor.
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing H3014A; ESTC R215389
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34,952
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57
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gladly we should receive information and admit the belief that we ought to content our selves entirely and only with such provisions as the established Religion to use the Doctors phrase allows us if the evidence of the thing it self did not seem irresistibly and unavoidably to perswade us otherwise And for him to say so were but to suppose men wilful only for not being of his mind who can as easily think him so for not being of theirs But this cannot be a Question between the Doctor and us whom as we have taken notice above he hath so far obliged as to admit p. 37. That we generally judge as we practice and that it is not to be supposed that faction among us should so commonly prevail beyond interest But since this appears to be his determination concerning us and that his Assertion seems positive and peremptory p. 20. That in this our case to proceed to the forming of Congregations under other Teachers and by other Rules than what the establisht Religion allows where a sinful and mischievous separation We are in the next place 2ly To discuss the Matter with the Doctor wherein we shall endeavour to shew 1. The indefensibleness of the Judgment the Doctor hath given in this case which will both infer and in some part excuse what we are afterwards to discover Viz. 2ly The Infirmity of what is alledged by him in this Attempt of his to defend it 1. For the former it being obvious to common observation that a natural self-indulgence and aptness to decline and wave what is of more terrible import to themselves doth usually insinuate and influence mens minds in their judging of such Cases We are the more concern'd because a favourable false judgment will do us no good with an impartial strictness to hold our selves to the thing it self And when we most strictly do so methinks the Doctor should have somewhat an hard Province of it For his Determination amounts to thus much That we ought to be kept in a state of Damnation for scrupling the Ceremonies i. e. to be deprived of the necessary means of our salvation And that while he accounts our scruple after the use of due means for our information not imputable to us as a sin And not that only but that we ought to consent to our own damnation for this no sin of ours Inasmuch as it would be sinful and mischievous to procure to our selves the necessary means of our salvation in another way while we apprehend that without our sin we cannot have them in the way which he allows us We are indeed satisfied that our sin one way or other would contribute little to our salvation But when also we are satisfied that we cannot enjoy the means of salvation in his way without sin and he tells us we cannot without sin enjoy them in our own We hope every Door is not shut up against us and cannot think the merciful and holy God hath so stated our case as to reduce us to a necessity of sinning to get out of a state of damnation And therefore this Reverend Author having already determined that our Remedy cannot lie as our Consciences are hitherto inform'd in coming over to him and his way For he believes we generally judge it unlawful to joyn with them in the publick Assemblies p. 37. and says p. 43. That no man that hath any Conscience will speak against the power of it and he that will speak against it hath no reason to be regarded in what he says as no question he expected to be otherwise he had not given himself so much trouble and concludes p. 44. That we should sin in going against it As he also thinks we should in acting with it which as is necessarily imply'd we as yet see not Our great hope upon the whole matter is that our relief must lye in taking the way which we do take And that it cannot be proved to be sinful We reckon it is not and that the Doctors judgment herein is simply indefensible because whatsoever is sinful must transgress some Law immediately divine or that obliges by vertue of the divine Law And we cannot find that God hath made any Law or enabled any made by others to oblige us so far in our present Circumstances as that we should be involv'd in the guilt of sin by some variation from the letter of it For any Divine Law that can be supposed to oblige us to the use of the things we scruple or else to live without the Worship and Ordinances of God not knowing any such our selves we must wait till we be inform'd of it And that his Law doth give an obliging force so far to any other we as yet understand not Wheresoever he hath been pleased to lodge and entrust the Keys of the Church we do not find he hath appointed them to that use to admit us into the Communion of his Worship and Ordinances or totally to exclude us upon such terms And herein we suppose we have the Doctor consenting with us Who in his Irenicum p. 216. plainly asserts That the Office which the power of Keys implies is Ministerial and not Authoritative Declarative and not Juridical And says in the Preface to the same Book That He that came to take away the unsupportable Yoke of the Jewish Ceremonies did never intend to gall the Disciples Necks with another instead of it Whereto he immediately adds in the same Preface And it would be strange the Church should require more than Christ himself did and make other conditions of her Communion than our Saviour did of Discipleship What possible reason can be assign'd or given why such things should not be sufficient for Communion with a Church which are sufficient for eternal Salvation And certainly those things are sufficient for that which are laid down by our Lord and Saviour in his Word What ground can there be why Christians should not stand upon the same terms now which they did in the time of Christ and his Apostles Was not Religion sufficiently guarded and fenced in them Was there ever more true and Cordial reverence in the Worship of God What Charter hath Christ given the Church to bind men up to more than himself hath done or to exclude those from her society who may be admitted into Heaven Will Christ ever thank men at the great day for keeping such out from Communion with his Church whom he will Vouchsafe not only Crowns of Glory to but it may be aureolae too if there be any such things there The Grand Commission the Apostles were sent out with was only to teach what Christ had Commanded them Not the least Intimation of any power given them to impose or require any thing beyond what himself had spoken to them or they were directed to by the Immediate guidance of the Spirit of God It is not whether the things Commanded and required be lawful or no It is not whether indifferences may be determined or
Christian World viz. the adding other conditions of Church-communion than Christ hath done And though he hath lately told the World there are some passages in that book that shew only the inconsiderateness of Youth and that he seems to wish unsaid yet he hath not that we know declared that these are some of them However since this present determination and judgement of his against us is so peremptory and positive as well as severe let us in the next place 2. Consider and carefully examine as we are concerned what he hath performed in defence of it and it is to be hoped the inefficacy and weakness of his attempt therein will sufficiently appear What I can find in his Sermon hath any aspect or design that way is either ad rem or ad hominem And to my apprehension his reasonings of the one kind or the other are altogether unconcluding 1. As to what may be supposed to be ad rem if you look narrowly you will find that the principal things alledged by him that can under that notion give support to his Cause are only affirmed but not proved For instance p. 9. When he tells us that the Apostle supposed the necessity of one fixed and certain Rule c. This had been very material to his purpose if 1. He had told us and had proved the Apostle meant some Rule or other super-added to the Sacred Scriptures For then he might it is to be presumed as easily have let us know what that Rule was which most probably would have ended all our controversie it being little to be doubted we should all most readily have agreed to obey it Or 2ly If he had proved that because the Apostle had power to make such a Rule and oblige the Churches to observe it that therefore such Church-Guides as they whose cause the Doctor pleads have an equal power to make other Rules divers from his containing many new things which he never enjoyn'd and to enforce them upon the Church though manifestly tending to its destruction rather than edification But these things he doth but suppose himself without colour of proof Again for his Notion of Churches p. 16 17 18 19. examine as strictly as you will what he says about it And see whether it come to any thing more than only to represent a National Church a possible thing and whereto the name Church may without absurdity be given His own words seem to aim no higher Why may there not be one National Church from the consent in the same Articles of Religion and the same order of Worship pag. 18. The word was used in the first Ages of the Christian Church as it comprehended the Ecclesiastical Governours and the people of whole Cities And why many of these Cities being united together under one Civil Government and the same Rules of Religion should not be called one National Church I cannot understand p. 19. But can it now be infer'd thence that therefore God hath actually constituted every Christian Kingdom or Nation such a Church Can it further be infer'd that he hath invested the Guides of this Church not chosen by the people according Scripture and Primitive practice for some ages with a power to make Laws and Decrees prescribing not only things necessary for common order and decency but new federal Rites and teaching Signs and Symbols superadded to the whole Christian Institution with many more dubious and unnecessary things besides and to exclude sober and pious Christians from the Priviledges that are proper to the Christian Church as such meerly for that out of conscience towards God they dare not admit into their Worship those Additions to the Christian Religion To take order they shall have no Pastors no Sacraments no Assemblies for Worship and because they will not be so much more than Christians that they shall not be Christians at all He that would go about to make these Inferences meerly from the forementioned ground would gain to be laught at by all sober men instead of a conclusion whatsoever better success he should have who should undertake to prove the same things any other way This Reverend Author was so wise as not to attempt either of these But then in the mean time what doth the meer possible notion of such a Church advantage his Cause Because it is possible there might have been such a Macedonian or such a Lydian Church is such a one therefore necessary and any other Constitution of a Christian Church impossible or unlawful Or because the General meeting of the Magistrates of the whole City and People together in Pagan Athens was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore such must be the constitution of a Christian Church And therefore such a Church hath such powers from Christ as were above mentioned Here howsoever we make our stand and say that till the Doctor hath proved these two things 1. That such a Church as he hath given us the notion of as of a thing meerly possible is actually a Divine Institution And 2ly That God hath given to the Ecclesiastical Governours in it never chosen by the Christian Community or to any other Power to super-add Institutions of the nature above mentioned and to enforce them under the mentioned Penalties All his reasonings that pretend to be ad rem are to no purpose and do nothing at all advantage his Cause Yet there are some passages in this part of his Discourse that though they signifie nothing to his main purpose are yet very remarkable and which 't is fit we should take some notice of As when pag. 16. He tells us what he means by whole Churches viz. The Churches of such Nations which upon the decay of the Roman Empire resumed their just power of Government to themselves and upon their owning Christianity incorporated into one Christian Society under the same common tyes and rules of Order and Government As if there could be no whole Churches in the world that had not been of the Roman Empire Or as if those of the Roman Empire could not have been whole Churches without resumption of the Civil Government Or as we suppose he means as if which he intimates p. 19. we needed this so dearly espoused notion as a ground to acquit us from the imputation of Schism in our separating from the Church of Rome Which certainly it were not for the advantage of the Protestant Cause to admit For then all that remain within the Empire were bound to continue in the Communion of the Roman Church And in the other Kingdoms where Princes have not resumed their just right of reforming Errors in Doctrine and Corruptions in Worship all should be Schismaticks that should separate from the Church of Rome Again when p. 17. He would confute that great mistake the making the notion of a Church barely to relate to Acts of Worship A mistake whereof I never knew any man guilty He surely runs into as great an opposite mistake in making the notion of a Church