as much sign of pride in you to think you know more than I as in me to think that I know more in this than you The truth is Pride is not a true valuing but an over-valuing our selves and our own understandings If either you or I be in the right and both think our selves confidently to be so he is the Proud person which ever he be that is in the wrong For it is he that over-valueth his own understanding Here therefore the Evidence must decide the Case EXCEPT V. p. 3. Answered Your 5th Exception implieth more Untruths The first is that I did not consider that fault of the Imposers which I have written in that very book so much against and elsewhere and before said more against than any man that I know in England This was not considerately spoken The second is that all or most of those that you separate from made tearing engines and dividing impositions If this be not implied you speak not to the point But you may easily know that in all the Parish-Churches of England there is not one man or woman no not one Minister of very many that ever made or imposed such Engines The third implied untruth is that I plead either for subscribing Assent or for such Communion as cannot be had without subscribing Assent to what you know is sinful when you may joyn as far as I desire you without subscribing any Assent at all EXCEPT VI. Answered 1. As to the sense of 2 Cor. 6. 14 15 16. and Rev. 18. 6. You confess that the Texts do directly and properly concern only Infidels and Idolaters there mentioned 2. You say It belongs to others that are guilty of the same Crimes under the name of Christians proportionally Answ. Very true If it be not a contradiction If any called Christians be notorious Infidels and Idolaters they are not Christians and so not fit for Christian Communion But from the Societies of such we must flie our selves But not from the societies of Christians alwaies when some such shall intrude 3. You say We are commanded strictly to separate from every one that is called a brother if he be covetous or a railer c. Answ. The Church and not a private man must exclude such a one from Church-Communion And you your self must exclude him from your private familiarity But you are not commanded to separate from the Church if they exclude him not I am not bound to separate from the Church where you are for this Book which you have written though I could prove it railing How few separated Churches know you on earth that have no Covetous person or railer Or at least where the people hold it their dutie to separate from their own Church if any Covetous person or railer be there 4. You add that if notwithstanding all admonition any Church will still retain them we are not to own such a Church as a Spouse of Christ and therefore must come out of it c. Answ. 1. I have in that Book proved the contrarie by abundant Scripture instances And in the next exception you your self confess the primitive corruptions and lay the stress of your Separation only on Imposed Conditions of Communion 2. You give us no proof of this naked assertion If a Scolding woman or a Covetous Professor be reteined in a Church otherwise pure you are not therefore bound to separate much less to take it for no Church For that is a true Church which hath the true essentials of a Church But so may one that reteineth a Covetous man or a Scold Ergo By your rule you must Separate not only from Parish Churches but from most of the Separated Churches that ever I was acquainted with I find no particular Church called A Spouse of Christ but the universal only As a Corporation is not a Kingdome but a part of a Kingdome 5. Above twenty Arguments in my book for Infant Baptism shew that you did not truly say that the best argument that all learned men have ever defended it by is the proportion it hath to Circumcision EXCEPT VII Answered You say that I impertinently recite the Corruptions of the Scripture Churches to prove that we are not to separate c. your reason is Because many Errors in Doctrine and life were formerly admitted yet none of them were imposed as conditions of Communion Answ. Do you not see that here you seem to deny what you said so confidently in the last Exception There you say We must come out if they will receive such for members after all admonition and retein them Here you seem plainlie to yield that up and to lay all on imposed Conditions of Communion as if else you could communicate with Churches so corrupt You can bear your own contradiction better than mine 2. What is imposed on you as a condition to your Communion in the Doctrine and Prayers of the Parish Churches but your actual Communion it self If you will say that their bad Minister and their imperfect form is imposed as a Condition because you must be present so they may say that you also impose your imperfect manner and expressions on them as Conditions of their Communion in your Churches And thus you are all Imposers EXCEPT VIII Answered First you say I said that I met with many Conscientious Professors c. That 's your fifth untruth I said no such thing but only many Censorious professors 2. You say It is hardly possible to believe it But that is possible to men that use to be more careful of speaking truth themselves and that are acquainted with the people of England by such means as Conference which is hardly possible to others 3. You ask Ought not such things to be concealed And you abuse Scripture to confirm it But 1. Are you not here partial Is it your judgement that we should conceal the faults or ignorance or errors of the Bishops Conformists and Parish members Or be they not commonly multiplied and aggravated And yet must the Separatists ignorance and error be concealed 2. Do you desire their Repentance and humiliation whose faults you would have concealed And do you imitate Nehemiah and others of Gods Servants that use to Confess the sins of all ranks and sorts of men 3. Do you use in publick humiliations to confess this ignorance of Professors or not If not what a kind of humiliation do you make If you do do not you publickly reveal this secret 4. How grosly are you unacquainted with England that take this for a secret or for hardly to be believed when we have Congregations and multitudes of such and the land and world ringeth of them 5. Do you not thus harden them that charge us with factiousness when you shew your self so solicitous for the Concealment of the ignorance of your party while you have no such care for others 4. But it is your sixth Untruth in point of fact when you say
if they that hold more things to be lawful must agree in practice with them that hold the fewest lawful than such must 1. Forsake their own understandings and live in many sins and 2. They must be alwayes at an uncertainty in their practice because some may yet arise that may count more things unlawful And so the whole party may change their practice every year as new scruples or errors arise in any 3. And so the most scrupulous though the most erroneous must be the Standard and Rule of all the rest 4. And so we should tempt others still to new scruples and to make more and more things sinful that so they might obtain the Rule of all I ever thought therefore that without any combinations our way is every man to know the truth as well as he can and practice accordingly and live in Love and Peace with those that differ from him in tollerable things And thus I hope most Non-conformable Ministers do In the year 1663 divers learned and reverend Non-conformists of London met to Consider how far it was their duty or lawful to Communicate with the Parish Churches where they lived in the Liturgie and Sacrament and we agreed the next day to bring in our several judgements in writing with our reasons Accordingly I brought in mine in which I proved four propositions 1. That it is Lawful to use a form of prayer 2. That it is Lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the use of the Liturgie 3. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the Lords supper 4. That it is to some a duty to joyn with some Parish Churches three times a year in the Lords supper They being long I read over to them the last only which being proved by 20. Reasons included all the rest Upon Consideration whereof no one of the brethren seemed to dissent but to take the reasons to be valid save only that one Objection stopt them all to which I also yielded and we concluded at the present to forbear Sacramental Communion with the Parishes And that was because it was a time when great severities were threatned against those that could not so far Conform and most of the Independents and some others were against it And our brethren verily believed that if we should then Communicate those that could not yield so far would be the sharplier used because they yielded not as far as we I yielded to them readily that God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and even Gods worship otherwise due as prayer or preaching or sabbath-keeping may be omitted for an act of Mercy even to pull an Oxe or Ass out of a pitt And therefore pro tempore I would forbear that sacrament which was like to cause the imprisonment or undoing of my neighbour In mentioning this these three things are my end 1. To tell the world the judgement of these Ministers who are misjudged by their actual forbearance of publick Communion that they take it for a thing unlawful whereas they are thus accidentally hindered from it Besides many other accidents not here to be mentioned this before named is one 2. To shew the Prelates who and what it is that hath hindered mens nearer Communion with them And that while rigor and severity is trusted to as the only means to further it it proveth the principal means of hindering it 3. To shew the Independents that we have been so far from dealing hardly or uncharitably with them that we have forborn that Communion which else our own judgements would have charged on us as our duty either only or chiefly for fear of being the least occasion accidentally of their sufferings And if yet they are impatient with us for obeying our Consciences who can help it What the rest did after this consultation in their practices I enquired not But for my own part on the same argument I forbore Communion with the Parish Churches in the sacrament a long time till at last I saw that the Reason seemed to me to cease and I durst not for I knew not what go against my judgement But lest it might possibly have any such hurtful consequents I chose a very private Country Parish to Communicate with where I sometime sojourned and where there was neither that nor any other reason to hinder me But yet after many years further observation lest men that know not of my practice should be scandalized or insnared to think that I forbore Parish Communion as unlawful and so to do the like themselves I once chose an Easter day to Communicate in a very populous Church in London purposely that it might be the further known But having some reasons to forbear at the Parish where I lived most constantly it so far provoked the Parson that I may suppose no Independent suffered so much through my Communicating as I have done by forbearing for their sakes At last in the year 1667. observing how mens minds grew every day more and more exasperated by their sufferings and whither all this tended and what was like to be the issue I wrote this book called The Cure of Church-Divisions the Reasons whereof I am next to give you But being not used to publish any thing unlicensed nor thinking it fit to break the Law of Printing without necessity nor knowing how to get it Printed unlicensed if I would I knew that if I put any thing into it very provokingly it would not be licensed and would frustrate all the rest And yet my Conscience told me that it looked so like partiality to tell one party of their faults and call them to their duty and not the other that I resolved to say as much to the Bishops and Imposing Clergy as should signifie my judgement plainly to any intelligent man and tell them what sense I had of narrowing Impositions and Severities and what is the way of Unity and Peace though not to cloath it in exasperating language And if they would not not license it all together I purposed to cast it all aside And to confess the truth the deep sense of the sin and infatuation of this age hath long made me desirous to have written one Book with the Title in dying Bradfords words REPENT O ENGLAND and that in several parts professing first my own Repentance in several Particulars then calling severally the Bishops and Conformable Clergy the Presbyterians the Independents and the Sectaries Corporations and Country to Repent But I knew the Bishops would not endure it and I could not get it Licensed or Printed and I had greater things to write and many wise men whose judgements much rule me disswaded me and laughed at my weakness that I should think that such men would regard what I said or that it would have any better effect than exasperation And I long purposed not to speak to one sort till I might speak to all to avoid partiality and evil consequents But at last considering that by this rule I might
the dangerous guilt of Adding to the Word of God under pretence of strict expounding it and defending its perfection and extent 3. By the same Rule as they deal thus by one Text as the second Command they may do so by all And if all or much of the Scripture were but thus expounded I leave it to the sober Reader to consider what a body of Divinity it would make us and what a Religion we should have 4. It altereth the very Definition of the holy Scripture and maketh it another thing That which God made to be the Record of his holy Covenant and the Law and Rule of Faith and Holiness and the General Law for outward Modes and Circumstances which are but Accidents of Worship is pretended by men to be a particular Law for that which it never particularly medleth with 5. It sorely prepareth men for Infidelity and to deny the Divine Authority of the Scripture and utterly to undo all by overdoing If Satan could but once make men believe that the Scripture is a Rule for those things that are not to be found in it at all and which God never made it to be a Rule for he will next argue against it as a delusory and imperfect thing He will teach every Artificer to say That which is an imperfect Rule is not of God But the Scripture is an imperfect Rule For saith the Watch-maker I cannot learn to make a Watch by it saith the Scrivener I cannot make a Legal Bond or Indentures by it saith the Carpenter I cannot build a House by it saith the Physician I cannot sufficiently know or cure Diseases by it saith the Mathematician Astronomer Geographer Musician Arithmetician the Grammarian Logician Natural Philosopher c. it is no perfect particular Rule of our Arts or Sciences The Divine will say It tells me not sufficiently and particularly what Books in it self are Canonical nor what various Readings are the right nor whether every Text be brought to us uncorrupted nor whether it be to be divided into Chapters and Verses and into how many Nor what Metre or Tune I must sing a Psalm in nor what persons shall be Pastors of the Churches nor what Text I shall choose next nor what Words I shall use in my next Sermon or Prayer with abundance such like Only in General both Nature and Scripture say Let all things be done in Order and to Edification c. Spiritually Purely Believingly Wisely Zealously Constantly c. He that believeth it to be given as such a particular Rule and then findeth that it is silent or utterly insufficient to that use is like next to cast it away as a delusion and turn an Infidel or Anti-scripturist 6. This mistake tendeth to cast all Rational Worship out of the Church and World by deterring men from inventing or studying how to do Gods work aright For if all that man inventeth or deviseth be a forbidden Image than we must not invent or find out by study the true meaning of a Text the true method of Praying or Preaching according to the various subjects Nay we must not study what to say till we are speaking nor what Time Place Gesture Words to use no nor the very English Tongue that we must Pray and Preach in Whereas the Scripture it self-requireth us to meditate day and night to study to shew our selves workmen that need not be ashamed to search and dig for knowledge c. Do they not err that devise evil but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good Prov. 14. 22. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence or subtilty and find out knowledge of witty inventions Prov. 8. 12. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words Eccles. 12. 10. Banish study and you banish knowledge and Religion from the world The Spirit moveth us to search and study and thereby teacheth us what to judge and say and do and doth not move us as I play on an Instrument that knoweth not what it doth 7. This Opinion will bring in all Confusion instead of pure reasonable Worship While every man is left to find that in the Scripture which never was there and that as the only Rule of his actions one will think that he findeth one thing there and another another thing For it must be Reality and Verity which must be the term of Unity Men cannot agree in that which is not 8. Yea it will let in impiety and error for when men are sent to seek and find that which is not there every man will think that he findeth that which his own corrupted mind brings thither 9. And hereby all possibility of Union among Christians and Churches must perish till this Opinion perish For if we must unite only in that which is not in being we must not unite at all If we must all in singing Psalms agree in no Metre or Tune in the Church but one that Scripture hath prescribed us we shall sing with lamentable discord 10. And hereby is laid a snare to tempt men into odious censures of each other Because studied Sermons printed Books Catechisms and Forms of Prayer are Images and Idolatry in these mens conceits all Gods Churches in the world must be censured as Idolatrous And almost all his Ministers in the world must be accounted Idolaters Children must account their Parents Idolaters and disobey them that would teach them a Catechism Psalm or Form of Prayer Our Libraries must be burnt or cast away as Images And when Ministers are diminished and accounted Idolaters if Satan could next but perswade people against all the holy Books of the Ministers of Christ such as Boltons Prestons c. as Images and Idols had he not plaid a more succesful game then he did by Iulian and doth by the Turks who keep the Christians but from humane Learning 11. Hereby Christian Love will be quenched when every man must account his Brother an Idolater that cannot shew a Scripture for the hour the place of Worship the Bells the Hour-glasses the Pulpit the Utensils c. or that studieth what to say before he Pray or Preach 12. And hereby backbiting slandering and railing must go currant as no sin while every Calvin Cartwright Hildersham Perkins Sibbs c. that used a Form of Prayer yea almost all the Christians in the world must be accused of Idolatry as if it were a true and righteous charge 13. And all our sins will be fathered on God as if the second Commandment and the Scripture perfection did require all this and taught Children to disobey their Parents and Masters and say your Prayers and Catechisms are Images and Idols c 14. It will rack and perplex the Consciences of all Christians when I must take my self for an Idolater till I can find a particular Law in Scripture for every Tune Metre Translation Method Word Vesture Gesture Utensil c. that I use in the worshipping of God When Conscience must build only in the air and rest only on
praying by habit Marvel not if it burn you within and without and when your own passions have scorched you other mens hatred of your prayers as you hate theirs do trouble you also And if you hate the quenching of these fires even when the Churches by them are all on a flame as sober men as you will be of another mind I tell you again brother you greatly wrong and dishonour God if you think that he layeth so much upon that which he never gave any law about or spake one word for or against as to tell the World that he hateth all prayer that is put up by a form or book And that he that denyeth this speaketh meanly of prayer The Lord teach you to know what manner of spirit you are of which request I shall reitâ—rate for you instead of praying with your earnestness The Lord rebuke him Have you the bowels of a Christian and the spirit of Christian Love and Unity and can you think that God hateth for that was my word all the prayers of all the Churches and Christians in the World that use a form Even of all the Greek Churches the Armenians Abassines Jacobites Syrians Copâ—ies Lutherans and Calvinists of all the English publick Churches and the prayers of such holy men as Dr. Preston Dr. Sibbes Mr. Perkins Mr. Hildersham Mr. Cartwright Dr. Stoughton Mr. Whateley Mr. Bolton and all such as they that used some the Liâ—urgie and some other forms And that God hateth the prayers of all Christian Families and Christians that use a form Do you dislike adding to God's word and will you adde to it so boldly as to say he hateth that which he never once forbad If you would make your reader think that I make God indifferent to all modes and words in prayer you would abuse him For though I never heard a man swear in prayer I think you curse in prayer a little before and I have heard many rail in prayer and traduce men for truth and duty and vent their own errors But I beseech you promote superstition no more and feign no Divine Laws which you cannot shew us And teach not this unhappy age to feign things necessary that are not and paint out the most holy gracious God as the patron of every one of their fancies Your words Doth not God regard the manner of our addressing our selves to him Must we not pray in the spirit Do still make me pray that you may know your spirit Do you well to intimate that I say the contrary When I maintain that God so far accepteth them that worship him in spirit and truth that he will accept their prayers with a form or without and hateth neither yea hath left both indifferent to be varied as mens occasions and use for either vary as he hath done a form or notes in preaching It is an easie thing to turn formalist either way by thinking God loveth our prayers either because they are in the same words or in various words The second part of this Exception calleth me a trifler that doth neither believe the Scripture nor himself but tries to abuse c. Because I say about a Liturgie 1. Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and prayers by habit were used 2. That it is like that the Pharisees long Liturgie was in many things worse than ours And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Answ. 1. Let the Reader observe whether ever Christ his Apostles or the Pharisees medled with the Controversie about the lawfulness of forms Whether ever Christ condemned them 2. Let the Reader note that when I say that Certainly forms were used I say not whether in the Synagogue or Temple or House nor do I say that they were other forms than Divine But when I say that it is like in many things the Pharisees Liturgie was worse than ours I mean that it is like though not certain that part of it was of humane invention and used publickly And 1. The word Liturgie as Martinius and other Etymologists agree hath three significations 1. The largest is for any publick office of ministry and specially of distribution 2. For the publick service of God in reading teaching praying c. 3. For stated orders and forms of that publick service To which Bellarmine addeth a 4th as the narrowest sense of all viz For the sacrificing offices only which is no usual sense Now the second and third being the now-Common sense I thought there had been no question about them That the Jews had a Divine Liturgie in both senses as a service and as a prescript form I proved in my 5th Disput. of Liturgies many years ago 1. In the Temple they had most punctual prescripts for their sacrifices of all sorts and their offerings and the manner of performance and the actions of Priests and people about them In the Synagogues Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day And the Psalms were purposely penned many of them and recorded to be Prayers and Praises for the publick and private worship and were committed to several Church-officers to be publickly used And David and Solomon appointed the Instruments Singers and order manner in which they should be used A form of prayer for the Priests is prescribed in three benedictions Numb 6. 23. Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing Praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Sâ—â—r 2 Chron. 29. 30. 1 Chron. 16. 7. On that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hands of Asaph and his brethren Exod. 15. The song of Moses is a form And Rev. 15. 3. the Saints are said to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Most Expositers think that the Hymne that Christ sung at his last supper was the usual form If not it was a new form Moses form at the moving and resting of the Ark is set down Numb 10. 35 36. Deut. 21. 7 8. There is a form for the people to use Iudg. 5. Deborahs song is recorded so is Hannahs praise 1 Sam. And Ioel 2. 17. there is a form for the Priests in their Humiliation And Iohn taught his Disciples to pray And when Christ was desired to teach his Disciples as Iohn had done his he gave them a form Now let the sober Reader judge whether the Jews had no form or Liturgie of God's appointment If he say I thought you had meant a humane form I answer If you will think that which I say not and choose rather to revile than observe what you â—ead I cannot help it 2. When I speak of a Probability afterward I do mean of a humane Liturgie of which I will now only say 1. That it seemeth very improbable to me that the Pharisees who so abounded with Traditions should not so much as have any humane forms of prayer or praise 2. When Christ speaketh of their long prayers I desire them on both
Christians and in particular between the Non-conformists and Conformists 1. The General Part or Introduction Chap. 1. A Narrative of those late Actions which have occasioned mens displeasure of both sides against me The Reasons of my omitting the Narration of those former Actions which Mr. Durel and many others have reported falsly because they wrote of that which they knew not The Reasons of my earnest displeasing endeavours with the Bishops for Reconciling and Uniting terms in 1660. Our Common Profession about a Liturgie at that time and about this Liturgie and my practiee ever since How the Non-conformists must be united among themselves Of our judgement about Communion in the Liturgie and Sacrament with the Parish Churches in aâ— 1663. My ends in opening this 27. Reasons for the writing and publishing my Book called The Cure of Church-Divisions A word of the Debatemaker Of the filse reports that have been vented of my Book aâ—d me and of some Inferences to be noted by the Reporters Chap. 2. The state of the Controversie which I specialy managed in that Book with thâ—se that I called Diâ—iders Chap. 3. Objections and Questions about this subject 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 Liturgie Quest. 2. Doth not the Covenant make it now unlawfull Quest. 3. Whether the case be not much altered since the Old Non-câ—nformists wrote against separation then called Brownisme And whether we have not greater Light into these Controversies than they had Quest. 4 Is it not a shameful receding from our Reformation now to use an unreformed Liturgie and a pulling down what we have been building Quest. 5. Will it not strengthen and encourage the adversaries of Reformation Quest. 6. Will it not divide us among our selves while one goeth to the Parish Churches and another doth not Quest. 7. Shall we not countenance Church Tyranny and harden Prelates in their usurpations and invite them to go further and make more burdens of Ceremonies or Forms to lay upon the Churches The manifold danger of feigning the Scripture to be a particular Rule where it is none The Contents of the Answer to the Exceptions Except 1. False Worship distinguished and opened Whether I speak very little against persecution Exc. 2. Whether I was as guilty as any one whatsoever in stirring up and fomenting the War Whether it be unbecoming a Minister to blame the sin which he hath been guilty of or to blame the Effects if he encouraged the Cause Whether nothing of the late Military Actions be to be openly repented of Whether I never mention the prophane but with honour Exc. 3. Of partial tenderness as to Reproof Whether my prayer was jesting c. Exc. 4. Of the supposed Expressions of my Pride Exc. 5. More of the Excepters mistakes Exc. 6. What separation Scripture calleth us to and what not Exc. 7. Of the Corruptions in the primitive Churches and of Imposing Exc. 8. Whether I be a Revealer of mens secrets Exc. 9. Whether the Universality of Christians ever took the Pope for their Head Of my Dispute with Mr. Johnson alias Terret on that point Whether all History be uncertain Whether it be intolerable to say that the Papists understand not that answer which is Christian sense and reason Exc. 10. Of Local Communion of separating from the particular Churches which we were never members of Exc. 11. Of Censurers requitals Whether a Papist can go beyond a Reprobate Exc. 12. Of Scandal and of Pauls case 1 Cor. 8. explained Exc. 13. More of my revealing secrets and other of the Excepters mistakes Exc. 14. Whether by Separatists I meant the Independents as such Exc. 15. Whether I speak slightly of Prayer in comparison of Study Whether it be a slighting of Christ to say that he increased in wisdom which is opened Whether Christ needed not prayer but as a pattern to us c. Exc. 16. Of expounding Scripture by the Impressions set upon our minds in Melancholy How the Spirit cureth our fears and giveth us comfort by twelve acts Exc. 17. Whether my saying that God hateth neither extemporate prayers nor forms be as if I could never speak meanly enough of prayer Whether I be a Trifler that neither believe the Scripture or my self for saying that in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and prayers by habit were used and that Christ yet made no question about them Seldens words upon the Iews Liturgies Exc. 18. Whether I did ill in disswading men from jeering and jesting at other true Christians manner of Worship And whether I purposely justifie persecution Exc. 19. Whether all be Idolatry which is used in the Worship of God without a Command of God to make it lawful The unhappy consequents of making so many Christians and Churches Idolatrous Exc. 20. More of the Excepters mistakes Exc. 21. Whether our presence at the prayers of every Church be a professing of consent to all that is faulty in those prayers Exc. 22. Of not silencing any truth for peace Exc. 23. Of imprudent speeches to superiours Exc. 24. Whether there â—e any weak ignorant and injudicious Christians and whether they hereby have been any cause of our divisions And whether these be vile Epithets not to be given to Christians but instead of them all Christians are to be told that they have the anointing and know all things Twenty proofs of such ignorance And the greatness of their sin especially Ministers that would hide it or deny it at this time manifested in forty aggravations Exc. 25. Whether any hearers use to be more moved with the affectionate delivery of meaner than with a colder delivery of more excellent things Of my forsaking the Lords work Exc. 26. Whether there be any Article necessary to salvation unknown to the universal Church Whether in points of difficult speculation one clear judicious well studied Divine be not to be more hearkened to than the Major Vote Whether the perfection and plainness of the Scriptures prove all Christians to be of equal understanding or to need no others help Exc. 27. Whether honest people be not in danger of following others into error and sin And whether to say so be enough to make people afraid of being honest Exc. 28. Whether it be new or intolerable to advise men not to imitate Religious people in the sins which they are most prone to What it is to flatter Professors of Religion and what it is in them to expect it Exc. 29. Of the name of a Sect. Exc. 30. Whether we must avoid that good which is owned by bad men Exc. 31. Of his accusations of my unsetledness in the point of Church Government and suspectedness in the point of Iustification Exc. 32. Whether we can speak bad enough of corrupted Nature Twenty instances of speaking too bad of it Whether I understand by the flesh only the sensitive Appetive Whether I be strongly inclined to deny Original sin
thing by reason of the new impositions than it was to our predecessors yet to the people conformite is the same if not easier especially to them that I now speak to For it is the Liturgie Ceremonies and Ministry that most alienate them as I said before and not so much the subscription against the obligation of the Covenant And the Liturgie is a little amended as to them by the change of the Translation and some little words and by someâ—onger prayers And the Ceremonies are the same and thirty years ago there was many bare Reading not Preaching Ministers for one that there is now Therefore our case of separation being the same with what it was of old I take it to be fully confuted by the antient Non-conformists And I have so great a veneration for the worthy names much more an estimation of the Reasonings of Mr. Cartwright Egerton Hildersham Dod Amesius Parker Baines Brightman Ball Bradshaw Paget Langley Nichols Hering and many other such that I shall not think they knew not why they chose this subject and wrote more against separation than the Conformists did Nor do I think that the reasons of Mr. Iohnson and Mr. Canne can stand before them And it pittieth me to hear now many that differ from them say we are grown wiser and have more light than they when as our writings upon the same subjects shew that we are far in that below them And in other parts of knowledge alâ—s what are we to Reignolds Ames Parker and several of the rest But the world knoweth that the turn of the times put most of us into the sudden possession of our opinions without one half of the study it may be with most not the hundredth part which Cartwright Ames Parker c. bestowed upon these points And I never yet saw cause to believe that our present Dividers do learn more in a days study than those learned holy men did in twenty Nor do they shew more wisdom or holiness in the main I am very glad that the Pious Lectures of Mr. Hildersham Mr. R. Rogers and such other old Non-conformists are in so good esteem among good people where they will read them urging the people not only against separation but to come to the very beginning of the publick worship and preferring it before their private duties As for them that say If Dod Ames Hildersham c. had lived till now they would have been of our mind I desire them to prove it or not affirm it Is not the Liturgie Ceremonies and Ministery the same And what signs of such mutability did they shew Could your Reasons have conquered them more than Mr. Ainsworths Iohnsons or Cannes They were not so Light to be changed causelesly And I pray you mark that if you are wiser in this point of separation than all these old Non-conformists were than Iohnson and Canne and Howe were wiser also in that than they which doth not appear to us by their writings And then for all the greater Light that you think you have yet Iohnson Canne and Howe had as great Light and were in this as wise as you though Ames and the rest of the Nonconformists were not O that our brethren would but seriously read over the writings of these men especially Iacob Paget Ball and Bradshaw and Gifford against the separatists and try whether the case was not the same 20. Yea I must confess that when I think what Learned Holy Incomparable men abundance of the old Cenformits were my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them If I had come to their Churches when they used the common-Common-prayer and administred the Sacrament could I have departed and said It is not lawful for any Christian here to Communicate with you What! to such men as Mr. Bolton Mr. Whateley Mr. Fenner Mr. Dent Mr. Crook Mr. Dike Mr. Stocke Mr. Smith Dr. Preston Dr. Siâ—bes Dr. Stoughton Dr. Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Iewel Bishop Grindal Bishop Hall Bishop Potter Bishop Davenant Bishop Carlâ—tâ—n c. Dr. Field Dr. Smith Dr Iohn White Dr. Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Philpot Sanders c. To say nothing of Luther Melanebthon Bucer and the rest of the forreign worthies Could I separate from all these on the reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the separatists of their times 21. At least I cannot easily condemn the ancient Independents who were against separation as well as the Presbyterians Mr. Henry Iacob is accounted the Father of the English Independents And he hath wrote a book against Mr. Iohnson the separatist or thâ—s Title A Defence of the Churches and Ministery of England written in two Treatises against the Reasons and Objections of Mr. Francis Johnson and â—thers of the separation Commonly called Browâ—â—â—s And in the end he hath A short Treatise concerning the truness of a Pastoral Calling in Pastors made by Prelates And I intreat the Reader to note that Mr. Iohnson there chargeth the Church of England and their worship with no fewer than 91. Antichristian abominations And I would ask any of the dividers whether they have more than 91. Antichristian abominations to charge upon it now I am content that those I write to now will cast by my book if they will but read Mr. Iacobs And Dr. Ames was half an Independent and yet against separation I need not mention the great moderation of New-England where their late healing endeavors greatly tend to increase our hopes of reconciliation O that the rest of the Churches were as wise and happy Whose experience hath possessed them with a deep dislike of the spirit of separation and division Yea if any thing may be believed which I have not seen Mr. Ph. Nie himself hath writen to prove the Lawfulness of hearing the Preachers in the Parish assemblies And yet it is as confidently confuted by another of the Brethren as my book is by this Excepter And he that proveth it Lawful to joyn with them that profess themselves a Church in their ordinary Doctrine and pulpit prayers and Psalms of praise I think can never prove it unlawful at all times to joyn with them in the use of the Liturgie or in the Sacrament supposing the scruple of Kneeling removed For the most of the Liturgie is the reading of the Scripture it self and the rest is sound matter though in an imperfect mode and fashion of words 22. Is sects and heresies increase among us the blame of all will be laid upon the Non-conformists And so it now is They commonly say It is you that open the door to them all And how injuriously soever this be said it becometh our duty not only to see that it be not true but also to do our part against them And this was one great reason why the old Nonconformists wrote and preached so much more thâ—â— the Bishops
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.
God hateth every sin in every prayer but he hateth the avoiding of prayer and of due communion much more He hateth every disorder in extemporate prayer And yet he more hateth that Censoriousness and Curiosity which would draw men to forsake the substantials of Worship or Christian Love and Communion on that pretence Gods Jealousie in his Worship is most about the heart and next about the substantials of his own institutions and of Natural Worship and least about the phrase of Speech and order while it is not such as is grosly dishonourable to the Nature of God and to the greater things And though God under the Law expressed his jealousie much about Ceremonies yet that was not for the Ceremonies sake but to controll gross irreverence and contempt of holy things as in the Case of Uzzah the Bethshemites Uzziah Aarons Sons and to keep up an esteem of the Holiness of God and to restrain sacrilegious presumption And under the Gospel it is neither this place of Worship nor that neither this Mountain nor Ierusalem but Spirit and Truth that God most looks at It is not whether you pray by a Book or without by words fore-studied or not by words of your own contriving or of anothers that God is now jealous of For even when you want words he accepteth the groans excited by his Spirit Rom. 8. 26 27. If Christians should plead Gods jealousie about his Worship as Censoriously against thelr own prayers as they do against other 〈◊〉 and Churches in this case they would turn prayer into the fuel of despair and torment For God is so jealous of his Worship that he hateth all the sinful dulness emptiness wandrings vain repetitions confusions unseemly expressions of all your secret prayers and all your family prayers And yet I would advise you neither to think that God therefore hateth you or the prayer it self nor yet to fly from God and prayer nor family Worship where it is no better done Gods jealousie especially under the Gospel is to be minded for to drive us from our sloth and carelesness to do the best we can but not to drive us from him or from prayer or from one another These are Satans ends of minding men of Gods jealousie as he doth troubled souls to drive them to despair And others may scruple joining with your weaknesses and faults in Worship on pretence of Gods jealousie as well as you with theirs What if twenty Ministers be one abler than another in their several degrees and the lowest of them doth weaklier than the Liturgick forms Doth it follow that only the ablest of all these may be joyned with because that all the rest do worse It is granted that we must offer God the best that we have or can do But not the best which we cannot do And many things must concurr and especially a respect to the publick good to know which is the best QUEST II. Quest. 2. DOth not the Covenant make it now unlawful to hold Communion in the use of the Liturgie Answ. To hold Communion in the Liturgie Ordinarily where we cannot lawfully have better and extraordinarily where we can have better is a thing that we are bound to by the Covenant and not at all bound against For those of the Independent way who think as Mr. Eaton writeth that the Covenant bindeth not I need not here say any thing as to their satisfaction For others I say 1. There is no word in all the Covenant expresly against the Liturgie 2. If there had been any word in it against Communion with the Churches that use the Liturgie it had been sin and against our duty and therefore could not bind 3. The judgement of Protestants is that Vowes must not make us new duties of Religion but bind us faster by a self obligation to that which God binds us to without them Therefore though if we should Vow an indifferent thing it would bind yet this could not be taken for the Covenanters intention 4. And it is commonly agreed that if we Vow a thing indifferent it bindeth us not when the indifferency ceaseth which may be by the Magistrateâ— command or by another mans necessity or change of Cases Else a man might before hand prevâ—â—t most of the Magistrates obligations and his Pâ—reâ—ts and Masters too and escape obedience and might say with the Pharisees it is Corban or a devoted thing 5. It remâ—â—neth therefore that no man of us all hath need to go or ought to go to the Covenant to know what is his duty in the worship of God but only to the Scripture seeing if Scripture make it noâ— a duty the Magistrates Law will make the doing of it a sin And if Scripture make it not a sin the Magistrates command will make it a duty But when we know what is duty or sin in our case we may go to our Vows next to prove that it is a double duty or a double or aggravated sin but no otherwise Therefore let the Scripture only decide the first case whether it be lawful or not 6. The Covenant or Vow expresly bindeth us against schisme But the renunciation of Communion which I now dispute against is plaine schisme Therefore we are bound against it by that Vow 7. The Covenant bindeth us against all that is contrary to the power of Godliness and found doctrine But the separating which I plead against is certainly such 8. The Covenant bindeth us to Unity and the nearest Uniformity we can attain But as the world goeth now this Communion is the nearest and needful to express our Unity 9. The Covenant bindeth us to Reformation according to Gods word and the example of the best reformed Churches But to prefer no publick worship or a worse before the Liturgie is deformation and prophaneness And it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgie before none than to prefer extemporate publick worship before the Liturgie And all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgie if they come among us where it is used Therefore it seemeth to me to be perjury and Covenant-breaking either to prefer no publick worship before the Liturgie or to refuse occasional Communion with the Churches that use the Liturgie as a thing meerly on that account unlawful QUEST III. Quest. 3. WHether the Case be not much altered since the old Non-conformists wrote against separation then called Brownisme And whether we have not greater Light into these Controversies than they Answ. 1. The Case of Ministers Conformity is much altered by a new Act which requireth subscribing new things Declaring Assent and Consent to all things prescribed and conteined in and by three books and by some other things But that part of the Liturgie which the people are to joyn in is made better as is shewed before And if we are returned to the same state that they were then in we are under the same duties that they were under And let
countenance the Prelates in Church-Tyranny and Usurpation and invite them to go further and to make more burdens of Forms and Ceremonies to lay upon the Churches Answ. Without medling now with the question what guilt it is that lyeth on any Prelates in the points here mentioned I answer on your own supposition 1. That it is the King and his Laws which we obey herein and not the Diocesans 2. How openly and fully have we declared our utter dissent from the things which you suppose that we shall countenance them in Our Writings are yet visible Our Conferences were notorious And is not the loss of our Ministry and the loss of all Ecclesiastical Maintenance and the pinching wants of many poor Ministers and their numerous families and our suffering Volumes of reproach confinements c. a signification of our dissent The case is somewhat hard with abundance of godly faithful Ministers Few that never felt it themselves can judge aright what it is to want a house to dwell in a bed to lye on to have Wives that are weak natured to keep in yearly patience under all such necessities which the Husband can bear himself to have Children crying in hunger and rags and to have a Landlord calling for his Rent and Butchers and Brewers and Bakers and Drapers and Taylors and Shoo-makers calling for money when there is none to pay them there being no fifth part of Church-maintenance now allowed them in the Frost and Snow to have no fire nor money to but it And yet all this is little in comparison of their restraint from preaching the Gospel of Salvation and the displeasure of their Governours against them if they preach And is not all this yet an open signification of their Dissent from the things which they so far deny complyance with If some of their Accusers on both sides were but in the same condition they would think it should go for a sufficient notification of dissent 3. We perswade no man to any one sin for Communion with others no not to save their lives If the thing be proved unlawful to be used and not only unlawful to be so imposed we exhort all to avoid it 4. Yea if an over numerous aggregation of things which singly are lawful should make them become a snare and injury to the Church we would have all in their places sufficiently signifie their dissent or if the number shall turn them into a sin in the users we would have none to use them Though we would not have men censure or contemn one another much less destroy one another foâ— a matter of meats or dayes or shadows yet if any will by false doctrine or Imperiousness say Touch not Taste not handle not and will judge us in respect to Meat or Drink or Holy Dayes or the New Moon or Sabbaths Col. 2. 16. 21. We would have all men to bear a just testimony to the truth and to their Christian liberty 5. But if the defects of publick Worship be tolerable and if Providence necessity and Laws concurr to call us to use them when else we must use none or do worse here Communion doth become our duty And a Duty must not be cast off for fear of seeming to countenance the faults of others We have lawful means to signifie our dissent It is not in our power to express it how we please nor to go as far from the faulty as we can to avoid the countenancing of their faults But we must do Gods work in his own way And we must disown mens sins only by prudent lawful means and not by any that are contrary to Christian Love and Peace or a breach of any Law of God 6. Paul was not for countenancing any of the falsehoods and faults which he reproveth in any of the Churches especially partiality sensuality drunkenness at the very Sacrament or Love Feasts 1 Cor. 11 c. And yet he never bids them forsake the communion of the Church for it till they shall reform There were other wayes of testifying dislike 7. I must not countenance an honest weak Minister or Master of a family in the disorder or defects or errors of his prayer or instructing And yet if they be tolerable errors or defects I must not forsake either Church or family-Worship with him that I may discountenance him 8. There be Errors on the contrary side which are not without considerable danger which we are obliged also to take heed of countenancing I will instance but in two one in Doctrine and the other in Practice 1. There are men otherwise very honest and truly godly and of holy and unblameable lives who think that the Scripture is intended by God not only as a General but a particular Law or Rule for all the very Circumstances of Worship yea some say of the common business of our lives and that the second Commandment in particular condemneth all that is the product or invention of man in or about the Worship of God and that to deny this is to deny the perfection of the Scripture and that all written Books and Printed are Images there forbidden and that all studied or prepared Sermons as to Method or Words whether in Notes or memory are forbidden Images of Preaching and that all provided Words or Forms written or in memory of our own or other mens Contrivance or Composition are forbidden Images of Prayer and all prepared Metre and Tunes are forbidden Images of Praise or singing and that no man that useth any such preparation or form of words in preaching or prayer doth preach or pray by the help of Gods Spirit and that if Parents do but teach a Child a form of words to pray in they teach him this forbidden Imagery yea Idolatry I hope the number is but small that are of this Opinion and that it being commonly disowned by the Non-conformists no justice or Modesty can charge it on them but only on the few persons that are guilty of it But yet I must say that we are obliged to take heed of Countenancing this Error as well as of Countenancing Church-Usurpations For 1. When a few men of eminent integrity are of this mind it proveth to us that many more may be brought to it and are in danger of it Because meer Piety and Honesty is not enough to keep men from it Yea when men otherwise eminent also for Learning and great understanding are of that mind as they are poor ignorant unlearned persons though very godly are not out of the danger of it 2. And if it prevail what abundance of hurt will it do 1. You may read in the new Ecclesiastical Politician how it will exasperate the minds of others and give them matter of bitter reproach and for the sake of a very few how many that are blameless shall be aspersed with it and the cause of the Non-conformists yea with many the Protestant yea and the Christian Religion rendred contemptible and odious by it 2. It draweth men into
a word which never was 15. It will have a confounding influence into all the affairs and business of our lives 16. Lastly It will affright poor people from Scripture and Religion and make us our Doctrine and Worship ridiculous in the â—ight of all the world The Doctrine which we hear maintained which hath no better fruits than these must be avoided as well as the contrary extream which would indeed charge the Law of God with imperfection and cause man to usurp the part of Christ. And we must first know How far God made the Scripture for our Rule and then we must maintain its sufficiency and perfection II. Also on that extream we must do nothing to countenance those Practices which tend to alienate Christians hearts from one another and to keep up Church-Wars or to feed bitter censures scorns and reproaches And we that must not scandalize the Religious sort must avoid all that thus tempteth them which is the real scandal But of this I have said enough in the Book which I am now defending Part II. An ANSWER to the Untrue and unjust Exceptions OF THE ANTIDOTE Against my TREATISE for LOVE and UNITY DEar Brother for so I will call you whether you will or not the chief trouble that I am put to in answering your Exceptions next to that of my grief for the Churches and your self by reason of such Diagnosticks of your Malady is the naming of your manifold Untruths in matter of fact It is it seems no fault in your eyes to commit them but I fear you will account it unpardonable bitterness in me to tell you that you have committed them If I call them Mistakes the Reader will not know by that name whether it be mistakes in point of Fact or of Reason And Lies I will not call them because it is a provoking word Therefore Untruths must be the middle title EXCEPT I. Page 1. Tâ—e whole dâ—sâ—â—n of this Book being â—â— make such as at this day are carefull to kâ—â—â— themselves Pure from alâ— defilements in False worship Odiâ—us it may well be affirmed iâ— was neither seasonable nâ—r hâ—nest Answ. THat 's the fundamental Untruth which animateth all the râ—â—â— when 〈◊〉 had got a false apprehension of the design of the Book you seem to expound the particular passages by that Key That which you call The whole design is not any part of the design but is expresly and vehemently oft disclaimed and protested against in the Book And whoever readeth it without a Partial mind will presently sâ—â— that the whole design of the Book is to deliver weak Christians from such mistakes and sins as destroy their Love to other Christians and cause the divisions among the Churches 2. False worship is a word of various sensâ—â— Either it signifieth 1. Idolatry in worshipping a false God 2. Or the Idolatrous worshipping of Images as representations of the true God 3. Or worshipping God by Doctrines and Prayers that consist oâ— falshoods 4. Or devising Worship-Ordinances and falsly saying they are the Ordinances of God 5. Or making God a Worship which he forbiddeth in the subâ—â—anâ—e and will not accept 6. Or worshipping God in an inward sinful manner through false principles and ends as hypocrites do 7. Or in a sinful outward manner through disorder defectiveness and unhandsome or unfit expreâ—â—ions Oâ— these I suppose you will not charge the Churches you separate from as guilty of the first second fourth or sixth which is out of the reach of humane judgment For I suppose you to be sober As for the third through Gods great mercie the Doctrine of England is so â—ound that the Independants and Presbyterians have still offered to subscribe to it in the 39 Articles according to which if there were any doubtfulness in the phrases of their Prayers they are to be interpreted For the fifth if you accuse them of it you must prove it which is not yet done supposing that you take not Government for Worshipâ— nor can you do it So that it must lie only on the seventh And for that if you will take the word false-worship in that sense do not you also worship God falsly when you worship him sinfully And are not your disorders and unmeet expressions sins as well as theirs Alas how oft have I joyned in Prayer with honest men that have spoken confusedly unhandsomly and many waies more unaptly and disorderly than the Common Prayer is How oft have I heard good old Mr. Simeon Ash say that he hath heard many Ministers pray so unfitly that he could heartily have wished that they had rather used the Common Prayer When did any one of us pray without sin How ordinarily do Anabaptists Antinomians Arminians Separatists c. put their Opinions into their Prayers and so make them false Prayers and so false Worship Nay could you lay by partiality and knâ—w your self a very hard thing you would presently see that you who wrote these Exceptions are liker to Worship God falsly than they that do it by the Liturgie that is in the third sense Because the Doctrine of the Prayers in the Liturgie is sound but if you account this Script of yours to be Worship and why not writing as well as preaching or if you put the same things into your Worship which you put into your writings as is very usual with others then it is false Worship indeed as consisting of too many falshoods If you pray to God to encline men against all that Communion which you write against or lament such Communion as a sin this is falser worship than any is in the Liturgick Prayers And if you will call all those modes of worship false which God in Scripture hath not commanded what a false worshipper are you that use a translation of Scripture a Version and tunes of Psalms a dividing the Scripture into Chapters and Verses yea the Method and words of every Sermon and Prayer or most and abundance such like which God commanded not God never bid you use the words of Prayer in the Liturgie Nor did he ever bid you use those which you used last without it O Brother if you knew your self and judged impartially you would see that whatever you say against mens communicating with other mens tolerable failings as false worship may be as stronglie urged for avoiding communion in disordered prayers that are without book and much more in the prayers of honest erroneous Separatists Anabaptists Antinomians c. which yet for my part I will not so easily avoid I confess if my judgment were not more than yours against dividing from each other in the general I should be one that should be as forward to disclaim Communion with many zealous Parties now received by you and that as false worshippers as you are to disclaim Communion with others I am sure you worship God falsly that is sinfully every time that you worship him 3. But seeing my Book disswadeth you equally from unjust avoiding Communion
extreams to consider that If it was a long Liturgie they should not compare the Puritane to the Pharisee in his long prayers as they use to do but to others But if they were extemporate Prayers 1. To one side I say that if Christ had been against extemporate praying he would have put that into his rebukes 2. To the other side I say If the Pharisees had the gift of long extemporate prayers we must take heed of over-valuing such a gift and ascribing it too much to the spirit so that the Pharisees long prayers as a two edged sword cut both extreams in this pievish Controversie 3. This Controversie whether the Iews had a Liturgie is handled so largely by Mr. Selden that I must refer the Reader to him that would see what is said for the affirmative in Eutych Alexandr pag. 35 to p. 63. Where he shews that till Ezra's time there was none but the Scripture Liturgie And that in Ezra's time eighteen Prayers were made and shews how far they might or might not adde Where having cited abundance of Rabbins he shews that however the Jewish Rabbins are fabulous these historical testimonies are our best means of information and are credible and addeth the words of Ios. Scaliger Hic fuit vetus Ritus Celebrationis Paschae temporibus Messiae Quod vetustissimi Canones in Digestis Talmudicis manifesto probant Nisi quis eos neget antiquos esse Quod idem ac si quis capita Papiniani Pauli Ulpiani aliorum Iurisconsultorum in Digestis Iustiniani producta neget esse eorum Iurisconsultorum quorum nomine citantur Quod nemo sanus dixerit EXCEPT XVIII p. 10. Answered Here you except against me if for any thing for being grown so scrupulous and so tender as to be offended if any break jeasts upon Common Prayer Answ. 1. I spake of jesting on both sides at one anothers devotions and not of one alone 2. If you are for that way of breaking jeasts and scorns at other mens prayers with what measure you mete it will be meted to you again They will requite you to the full with jeasts and scorns at yours also 3. Brother do you like this way or do you not If you do what a spirit are you of If you do not why do you quarrel with this advice And whereas you cite my own words in the Reply to the Bishops I must tell you 1. That I know nothing in any of those Papers or Treaty as to the matter that I have changed my judgement in or repent of And I admire that the Prelates that ask so often What will satisfie us and others that carry it to the World as if we had said nothing should to this day leave that Reply and our Liturgie then offered them and our Petition for Peace so much unanswered Which few that knew them will believe is for want of will and fervour or indignation against them 2. That yet the sentence cited by you Whether it be that the Common-Prayer-Book hath never a Prayer for it self I confess is sarcastical and I unfeignedly thank you for calling me to review it and I do unfeignedly repent of it and desire pardon of God and men for speaking words of so much derision Though I then no more perceived my fault than you do yours I mentioned some that were scandalized at the scorns of men at the Liturgie heretofore And 1. He calls it a prophane story fitter for Ranters 2. He challengeth me to tell the names of them that used those expressions 3. He thinks I did greatly sin in repeating them 4. Else he will think I invented them on purpose to make my brethren odious and justifie the persecution against them Answ. 1. If it be so bad why are you so angry with me for being against it and thâ— like or â—ny scorns at other mens tolerable devotion 2. Your challenge is but a drop of your unrighteousness I told you I knew them that were inflamed by those words but not that I knew the Speaker And how should a man know the names of all that look in at a Church-door How oft have I had Quakers in the face of the Market and of the publick Congregation revile me and curse me as in the name of God and speak as bad words as those when I seldome asked what their names were And yet I must name them or be to you a malicious lyar And shall I noâ— be so with you if I obey your challenge Is it not unsâ—voâ—â—y to name men in such stories Well I will thus for this once obey you In 1640. coming up to London to the Physitians I lay at Bosoms-Inn in Laurence-â—â—â—â—e On the Lords-day the Inn-keeper an old man Mr. Hawkshead as I remember his name was came in from Laurence Church with some guests in a very great passion We ask'd him what the matter was He answered that as he went into the Church a fellow look'd in and spake those very words I recited save that he said The Deele instead of The Devil And from very sober honest people I have I believe many score times heard them call the Common Prayer Porridge and say He is not out of his Porridge yet 3. If I sin in repeating them I pray you justifie not that spirit that uttered them Nor be not of the mind of the Councellor of the wicked in this age whose policy is to perswade men to commit such heinous sins Perjury Lying c. which sound odiously in the naming and then no man may ever accuse them lest he be guilty of railing incivility c. 4. Brother a very low degree of ingenuity would have taught you to have judged such a Plea for Love by one that in this book speaketh more against Persecuting you than ever you read I believe in a Licensed book since the printing Act to have come from no malicious persecuting intent Yet as if you were so eagerly set on the Defence of the dividing scandalous miscarriages of this age as to take it for persecution so much as to lament them or pray against them you gather the same conclusion from my very prayers to God for pitty to his Church that is distracted and endangered by such usage And here seeing your sufferings are so much talk'd of and I am numbred by you among your persecutors endure me to tell you that suffering hath its temptations as well as prosperity And that the temptations to passion and to run too far from those we suffer by and to lose our charity to them and their adherents are so much stronger to me I leave others to judge themselves than the temptations to fear and timerous complyances that I was much more jealous of my heart in this when I suffered most than at other times For I knew that it is one of Satans designs to rob me of my Charity and Integrity in which he would more triumph than in depriving me of my maintenance reputation and liberty And I must
11. Whether this kind of talk be not sport to the Papists to hear us call one another Idolaters as well as them and do not make them deride us and harden them in their bread-worship and image-worship as being called Idolatry on no better grounds than we so call one another Q. 12. Whether it be not a great dishonour to any man to suffer silencing because he cannot add to Gods worship the Ceremonies and Liturgie and at the same time to add to Gods word new and false doctrines of our own by saying that It is a species of Idolatry forbidden in the second Command because it is used in the worship of God without any command to make it lawful And if we should suffer such false doctrine and additions and Love-killing dividing principlesas this to go uncontradicted whether we do not betray the truth and our flocks and shew that we were too worthy of our sufferings But that this assertion or definition of Idolatry is false I need to prove no otherwise than 1. That it is unproved by him that is to prove it and 2. That it denieth Christ to have a Church on earth or to have any but Churches of Idolaters 3. That it turneth all sin in Gods worship into one species even Idolatry And so every false doctrine used in Gods worship is Idolatry Every Antimonian Anabaptist Separatist or of any other error be it never so small must be presently an Idolater if in prayer or preaching he speak his error And what man is infallible When your Companion promised in the Pulpit that there should be no more Tythes no more Taxes nor no more King in Worcestershire after Worcester-Fight this must be Idolatry For certainly no error is commanded of God 4. That it maketh the description of a thing indifferent to be the description of Idolatry For as a thing forbidden is the description of sin so to be not commanded speaketh no more but Indifferency Though the prohibition to do any thing not commanded speaketh more if it could be proved 5. It is contrary to the Scripture which never useth the word IDOLATRY in that sense Peruse the several texts and try 6. It equalleth almost all Churches with the Infidel and Pagan World 7. It heinously injureth God who is a hater of Idolaters and will visit their sins as God-haters on the third and fourth Generations to feign him to be thus a hater of his Churches and of them that use any thing in his worship not commanded 8. It tendeth to drive all Christians to despair as being Idolaters and so abhorred of God because they have all some uncommanded yea forbidden thing in worship For by this mans doctrine a sinful wandring thought a sinful disorder or tautologie or bad expression is Idolatry as being not commanded 9. It tendeth to drive men to give ever worshipping God because while they are certain to sin they are certain to be Idolaters when they have done their best 10. It hardeneth the Mahometans in their enmity to Christianity who being the great exclaimers against Idolatry do already falsely brand us with that crime But what ever else it do I am sure it is so pernicious an engine of Satan to kill Love and divide the Church to feign every Conformist how holy soever and every one that useth in worship any thing not commanded to be an Idolater that I may well advise all Christians as they love Christ and his Church and their own souls to keep themselves from such mistakes Were it not that it is unmeet to do great works â—â—rily on such slight occasions in such a discourse as this is I would here stay to open the meaning of the second Commandement and shew 1. That there are abundance of lawful things in Gods worship as circumstances and outward modes that are not commanded in specie or individuo 2. That somethings forbidden in that Commandement indirectly are not Idolatry 3. Much less are they a sufficient cause of separation But this is fitter for another place And I again refer you to Mr. Lawson in his Theopolitica EXCEPT XX. Answered This Exception is but a bundle of mistakes and the fruit of your false interpretation of my design 1. That I prove not what I say is not true when the many instances fully prove it and you your self deny them not 2. When I explain my self frequently and fully who I do not mean by Dividers and what separation I allow you feign me to open my mind very unwillingly and to defend those whom I traduce that you may make men believe that I mean those whom I still profess that I mean not and that you know my mind better than I my self This is not true and righteous dealing EXCEPT XXI p. 12. Answered When I say Our presence at the prayers of the Church is no profession of Consent to all that is faulty in those prayers he saith The Apostle thought otherwise in a like â—ase of sitting at meat in an Idols Temple Answ. Brother of all the men that ever I had to do with scarce any hath dealt so superficially without saying any thing against the proofs which I lay down noâ— seeming to take any notice of them How can you choose but see your self that by denying my proposition 1. You make it unlawful to joyne with any Church or person in the World and so would dissolve all Church-Communion and Family-worship For do not all men sin in prayer And must any man consent to sin 2. How do you reflect on God that forbiddeth us to forsake the assembling of our selves together If consenting to sin be unavoidable 3. I told you we Consent not to the faults of our own prayers much less to anothers that are less in our power What work would this one opinion of yours make in the World If we are guilty of all that is faulty in all the prayers of the Church or Family we joyn with yea more do by our presence profess Consent to them and withal if all not commanded in worship be Idolatry what a World are we then in It 's time then to turn seekers and say that Church and Ministry are lost It is these principles brother that I purposely wrote my book against But you speak much besides the truth when you say The Apostle thought otherwise in a like Case For you never prove that he thought otherwise Dare you say I beseech you think on it that Paul and all the Apostles and all the Churches professed consent to all the faults in worship which they were present at How know you that they were never present at any such as Paul reproveth in the Corinthians Yea was Christ a professed Consenter to all that he was present at Or all that he commanded men to be present at when he went to the Synagogues and bade the cleansed go shew themselves to the Priests and offer c. And bade his Disciples hear the Scribes and Pharisees c. I do not charge the
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
this is no excuse to them that Tolerate not men to obey the Laws of Christ. To these I may adde that though many Prelatists utterly mistake and think that it is the Ministers every where that are the chief Leaders of the people to Separation yet both in New-England and in Old the people are so much proner to it than the Ministers except a very few that if it were not for the wisdom gravity stability and authority of the Ministers restreining them the matter would be otherwise than it is As this Synod of New-England sheweth you their stability and moderation so do the choicest of their Pastors still stand firm against all extreams and hold the people in that Concord which they have The excellent service of Mr. Mitchell in this kind before he died is predicated by all I will not recite all the complaints I heard from Mr. Nortons mouth against the separating humour of many people and their danger thereupon nor the many Letters to the same purpose which many worthy men thence have sent over to their friends and their particular lamentations of the case of Hartford Boston c. which I have had the sight of which fully testifie that they are no promoters of those waies The sad case of the Bermuda's I before mentioned Sad indeed when in so disciplin'd a Plantation one Minister shall turn away the greater part from Church-Communion till they become aliens And the rest whom he gathered as the only worthy persons shall so many turn Quakers and such like till Religion between both is alas how low as their late worthy Minister fore-named testifyeth The dissolution of the separated Churches of the English in the Low Countreys by their own divisions is a thing too well known to be concealed From all which I gather that it is the Interest of the Congregational Churches themselves as much as of any others to joyn with us for the Principles of Christian Love forbearance and Unity and against the Principles of alienation and division which is all that I am driving at Obj. But the Churches of New-England would not joyn with a Church that should use the common-Common-prayer in that worship nor in the Sacrament Answ. Nor I neither ordinarily if I were with them and in their case who have liberty to worship God in the most edifying and serious and orderly manner that they can And yet were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective form than our Liturgie rather than in none And that this is the judgement of many New-England Ministers to joyn with the English Liturgie rather than have no Church-worship I have reason to conjecture because in their foresaid Defence of the Synod Pref. pag. 4 5. They profess themselves to receive their principles not from the Separatists but from the good old non-Conformists to whom they adhere naming Cartwright Ames Paraeus Parker Baines Fox Dearing Greenham c. And I need not tell those that have read their writings that the old non-Conformists did some of them read the Common-prayer and the most of them judge iâ— lawful to jo 〈…〉 Or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Rich. Rogers c. would not write so earnestly to men to come to the beginning and prefer it before all private duties And Perkins was for kneeling at the Sacrament And Mr. Baines his successor in his Letters writes for Communicating kneeling at the Sacrament and answereth the objections But though I write this to give them the due honour of their moderation and sober judgement yet not as making them or any men our Rule in faith or worship Obj. Therefore the Churches of New-England reprove not separation from a common-Common-prayer Church though they would have none separate among themselves because there is no just Cause Ans. 1. The former answer may serve to make it probable that they would joyn with them as Churches in case they had not better to joyn with on lawful tearms 2. And their own expressions signifie that they take the English Parishes that have godly Ministers for true Churches though faulty 3. And those that I now write for cannot forget that they gathered their Churches by separation out of our parish-Parish-Churches when there was no common-Common-prayer nor Ceremonies used nor any difference in worship found among us that I know of And that in New-England it self the Principles which I deny do too of procure separation from those Churches that have nothing which moderation and peaceableness will think a sufficient cause of such disjunction 4. And it is well known that the name of a Separatist and Brownist was first taken up here in England with relation to these Parish-Churches where they had the Liturgie and Ceremonies as now Therefore they would speak equivocally in disclaiming Separatists and Brownists if they meant not such as the word is first and commonly used to signifie 5. And if that were not the sense a Separatist might be said to be against Separation as well as they in New-England For Canne or Iohnson would be against separating from their own Churches or from any which they judged as faultless 6. It was the Parish-Churches that had the Liturgie and were accused to have 91 Antichristian Errors in them and the Church of England which they belonged to which Mr. H. Iacob the Father of the Congregational Party wrote for Communion with against Francis Iohnson and in respect to which he called those Separatists against whom he wrote The same I may say of Mr. Bradshaw Dr. Ames and other non-Conformists whom the Congregational brethren think were favourable to their way And if the old Independents as well as the rest of the non-Conformists accounted them Culpable Separatists that then wrote for separation from the Parish-Churches for Diocesane Churches I Iâ— meddle not with then we have small reason to think that those New-England Brethren that disclaim the Separatists were of the mind of these Separatists themselves or that they differed from the old Independents herein when they seem rather to be of such healing principles and temper towards the Presbyterians as in my opinion they have in their Synodical Conclusions made â—p almost all the breach And therefore are not to be accounted more for separation than the old Congregational Divines And that you may see that the Magistrates of New-England are of the mind of their Pastors in the Synod and take the youth to be under the Ministers Charge or at least that I may hereby express my gladness for this work of their great prudence and Christian zeal and call those my brethren of the Ministry to Repentance who did neglect this work of personal Instruction while we had liberty to exercise the Pastoral office and also that I may yet remember them that are silenced what abundance of good the Law yet alloweth them to do by this course of going from house to house and of Catechizing the youth seeing we are restrained to no members under 16 years of age