their Faith their Religion nor the guidance of their manners to an Authority which is subject to errour but only to the Word of God which is an infallible Authority Upon this ground the Bishop of Condom hath reason to condemn the Synod of Charenton for having taxed the Judgement of the Independants with Errour which consists as sayes the Synod in what they teach that every Church ought to be governed by its own laws without any dependance upon any in matters Ecclesiastical and without any obligation to acknowledge the authority of Synods for its governance and conduct THEN a little after this same Synod decides that this Sect is as prejudicial to the State as to the Church that it opens a door to all sorts of Irregularities and extravagancies that it takes away all the means of bringing any remedy to them and that if it had field-room enough it would form to it self as many Religions as Parishes or particular Assemblies THESE last words sayes the Bishop discover that it is principally in matters of Faith that the Synod would establish dependancy since the greatest inconvenience that he takes notice of into which the faithful people of God would fall by independancy is that they would frame as many Religions as Parishes then says he of necessity according to the Doctrine of that Synod each Church and by a stronger reason each particular must depend as to what respects faith upon a supreme Authority which resides in some Assembly or in some body to which Authority all the faithful people of God ought to submit their Judgement THIS Bishop could take notice of nothing more unreasonable and more extravagant in our Synods than to oblige a private person to submit himself in matters of Faith to the Judgment of an Assembly whose decisions are not the Word of God that is to say not infallible 'T IS true that pre-supposing all Supreme Authority in the Church whether in the Protestant or Romish is subject to errour the Government of the Adversaries of Rome of Independants or other Protestants is equally justifiable when they refuse to pay submission to the Authority of Rome since that it is incomparably more defective than that which the Protestants set up in their Churches BUT on the other side if it be true that upon this ground the Government of the Independants is more justifiable and more reasonable than that of other Protestants who blindly submit themselves to a Tribunal subject to errour and whose conduct and gonance is beyond all comparison further off from Reason than is that of the Papists for pre-supposing that the Authority of Rome is infallible the submission which the people pay to that supreme Authority is so much the more reasonable as that of the Protestants is the less when they submit to a supreme Authority which they themselves believe is subject to errour IN short the Bishop of Condom hath great reason to be sure that the Protestants are mightily beside the Cushion and to blame for condemning the Infallibility of Rome so long as the Incontestability and indisputableness which they invest their supreme Authority withal carries the same Obligation along with it to obedience and submission A great Divine of ours who relates the Judgement of the Protestants hereupon libr. 1. cap. 8. de Clavibus expresses himself in these words Hujus ligamenti quo Pastores Ecelesiae constringunt peccatores tanta est vis certitudo ut Christus pronunciet si quid ligaverint pastores in terris id fore ligâ—tum in coelo id est Deum Ratum habiturum hanc ligationem potest fieri aliquando ut ligatio sit injusta vult tamen Christus eam ratam esse non enim fas est homini qui injuste excommunicatus est invaaere sacram Coenam invitis Pastoribus irrumpere in communionem Ecclesiae IS not that to tell us that a man excommunicated unjustly is as much obliged to submit himself to the excommunication pronounced against him by an Authority which hath erred as when it is given by an Authority which hath not erred And is not that to tell us that in every way whither justly or unjustly a person delivered to Satan as is the general opinion of all Protestants excepting my Father that to deliver to Satan and to excommunicate are one and the same thing ought not to dispute oâ—â— resist that Authority which hath delivered him up to that evil Spirit To conclude is not that to speak in the Language of the Canon Si papa distinct 40 which will by no means permit a person cast thus to the Devil although against all right and justice by the Authority of the Pope to resist that supreme Authority THE Bishop likewise hath no less good Reason to be sure that the conjunction of all the parts of Romish Church in one body would be unreasonable if they were not cimented by infallibility and to divest it of its Infallibility is to break it in pieces is to cast every of its least parts into Independancy and to give liberty to every of them to govern themselves according to their own mode and way and to do their business by themselves BUT here we should observe as we go along that of two depths of Satan the Ecclesiastical Power and Infallibility the first is a Lie an Imposture and a cheat but that presupposing that it is not a cheat but a thing that is good and true and the use of which is necessary in the Church Infallibility is naturally and reasonably a consequence of it And in truth our Reformers have placed Incontestability in the room of Infallibility But it is true also that if Infallibility be a pure cheat the other is a pure and absolute tyranny and it is less reasonable in not being a natural consequence of Ecclesiastical power incontestability is a thousand times worse than Infallibity except it be in one thing and that is that it hath not been of so long a Duration 'T IS here no doubt wherein the illuminations of humane Reason were not so great to our first Reformers as to the generation of men in this Age For as those soresaw in it that a submission of so many Princes and people who differed in Customes Laws and Languages to an Authority subject to errour was not only unreasonable but also impossible to prevent the revolt both of Kings and people they with a great deal of Justice invested it with Infallibility AND 't is here too that the Bishop of Condom triumphs over us and has great reason for it on his side when he reproaches us that we have been deficient in our Politicks in not erecting among us an infallible Tribunal and that we are much to blame for obliging the faithful people of God with so much rigour and severity to submit to a tribunal subject to errour but those of Rome are not so for they oblige their people to submit to one that is infallible BUT the Independants as they are led by
Omnipotentiam non credunt 'T IS true they are accused for depriving the Magistrate from the same Authority and Soveraign Intendence over the Ecclesiastical State as over that of the Civil But notwithstanding they do sufficiently satisfy all reasonable and considerate persons of this in the four and twentieth Chapter of their Confession Beside those who condemn that collaterality of Governments and of Tribunals the one Ecclesiastical and the other Civil in one and the same territory and who believe that it comes from the forge of Antichrist and that it hath introduced Popery into the world do not trouble themselves about resolving the difficulty nor about assigning to each his Lawes his Courts his Officers his Soveraign and the measure of his Power and Authority I add that as the force and efficacy of Laws does not consist in whither they are Ecclesiastical or Civil nor in their goodness justice and truth but in the will of him or those who sit at the Helm of Affairs the Congregational Churches must of necessity acknowledg the force of all those Laws whither for the Ecclesiastical or the Civil State only they affirm that as the Magistrate is not Infallible he may possibly abuse his right and orr either in the publication or the execution of his Laws of what Nature soever they be and as they are not obliged to obey all Civil Laws no more are they obliged to obey all Laws Ecclesiastical they affirm also that as the Empire of Jesus Christ in matters of Religion is not over the bodies but over the hearts of men the Magistrate who is the Protector and Defender of the visible Church of Jesus Christ in his Territories sins extremely when he makes Laws and Ordinances that do violence to the bodies of his Subjects and that take from them that liberty which every man ought to have in the choice of his Religion and in the manner of serving God BUT that crime which is imposed on them supposing it to be one is incomparably less than that of Presbyterian Churches all which follow the establishment and the practise of Calvin who set up in Geneva an Ecclesiastical Tribunal Independant and distinct from that of the Magistrate insomuch that a learned man named Monsieur Jurieu has writ a large Book wherein he endeavours to prove that the Soveraign Magistrate considered as such has not any jurisdiction nor Intendence over the Collected Churches in his Dominions and that he hath no other right than that of Inspection and considered as a Christian and one of his principal Members wherein Monsieur Jurieu is more Independant than the Independants themselves and he does not afford so much Authority to the Magistrate over the Churches that are collected within his Territories and Dominions as the Independants do THE Independant Churches and their Pastors are very wide from these thoughts and practises For the Authority of every Congregation being as that of every Family what liberty soever it has to govern it self according to its own way and humour it is not neither in right nor in power nor even in will to set up a Tribunal distinct from and Independent on that of the Magistrate AFTER all a Prince who should endeavour to establish an Arbitrary Power in his Kingdom that should depend only upon God and his Sword might imagine he should be less hindred by several thousands of Independant Congregations not only on him and on his Courts but also the one Independant on the other than by one entire body of all those Churches which should set up by their deputies an Ecclesiastical Tribunal distinct from and Independant on the Civil For the strengeh of all those Independant Congregations would be like that of several threads which may easily be broke one after another whereas the strength of all those Churches joyned in one body would be like to that of all those threads twisted together which it would be almost if not absolutely impossible to break or to undo but by the same way that Alexander took to break the Gordian-knot AS the Independent Churches do come the nearest to those of the Apostles so likewise they are further off than any of the other reformed Churches from that thought and practise which has accomplished the Mystery of Inquity which is nothing else but the Empire of the Clergy and so consequently That of the Pope in the Empire of the secular Powers under the Mask and Disguise of Religion and Ecclesiastical power AS to the Objection that is made against them that in case there should be no other Ecclesiastical Establishment in a Kingdom than theirs the three fourths of the Inhabitants would live in great negligence and a gross Ignorance of Religion To that they say that their way does not exempt Pastors from attending upon the Office of their Ministry at all times and places both within and without their particular Congregations and to take the same pains as the Presbyterian Ministers do for what repects the preaching of the word in the most publick places also they do very much approve that the Magistrate should erect Academies and Colledges assign Tithes and Revenues and Temples establish persons to be imployed in the instruction of people in publick to invite them to it and to excite the Ignorant to frequent the Schools and the Lectures of the Professors of Arts and Sciences where they should go for the love of vertue and knowledge without being constrained AS to the crime of Schism which is imposed on them as their being seperate from all the visible Churches of Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Donatists the Novatians and the Luciferians did 't is a false Accu sation Those who accuse them of Schism do not understand the nature of Schism 1. 'T IS not Schism when a particular Church separates from another Church as the Church of Luther from that of Calvin nor the Protestants from the Papists nor even one particular reformed Church from some other with which it made before but one body of a Church But true Schism is formed among the Members of one and the same particular Church as was that of Corinth 2. 'T IS not Schism when a number of Hereticks separate from the Orthodox party of a particular Church to make a Congregation apart to the end they may profess their heresie with greater liberty but it is an Apostasie and an abandoning and forsaking of the Orthodox faith or Church of Jesus Christ which is Catholick and visible and upon this ground the Church of Rome is not a Schismatical but an Apostate Church although it be one for the first reason because that what ingagement or tye soever all its Members have to one head however they are not all agreed together Schism properly is when the Members of one Church are at variance as were those of the Church of Corinth and upon that account there is alwayes a Schism in the Romish Church 3. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that
THE CONFORMITY OF THE Discipline and Government Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS To that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS By Dr. Lewis Du Moulin sometime History Professor of Oxford Qui repertâ veritate aliquid ulterius discutit mendacium quaerit Valentinianus Martianus LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway 1680. THE TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS CHap. 1. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the Tenets and principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The advantages of the Congregational may above any other Establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that all others have insuperable inconveniences p. 3. Chap. 3. That upon the Ground of this Hypothesis that every supreme Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to ernour Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational may and the independancy of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his word p. 8. Chap. 4. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a conformity of Faith with the other reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline Of the Veneration they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and discipline p. 12. Chap. 5. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church p. 14. Chap. 6. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is incompatible with the Civil Power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church p. 16. Chap. 7. That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World p. 23. Chap. 8. Of the great Benefit and Advantage that comes from the Establishment of the Congregational way in the World p. 34. Chap. 9. That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without thinking of it do naturally fall into the Hypotheses of the Congregational Churches Of the Judgment which ought to be made of their Confession of Faith of their discipline and conduct p. 38. Chap. 10. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome That the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England p. 43. Chap. 11. A continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those Churches that are for their way Congregational when they condemn all manner of speaking like to Rome and all practises that do any whit savour of theirs and the six Maxims on which the Pope and his Church are founded a Confirmation of that by a History taken out of the Life of Joseph Hall p. 47. Chap. 12. An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is is the most fit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him p. 53. Chap. 13. The Explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse p. 58. Chap. 14. Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse p. 60. Chap. Ult. An Answer to those who accuse the Independants for being the Authors of the late Civil Wars in England and particularly for having had an immediate hand in the death of KING CHARLES the first p. 68. THE CONFORMITY OF THE GOVERNMENT Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS With that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS CHAP. I. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the Objections commonly urged against the Tenets and Principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants 'T IS above fifty years since some learned and judicious Persons as well of the Gown as others have now brought to light an important and necessary truth which the strength of prejudice and a General and Opinionative blindness that hath lasted for more than this thousand years hath kept under a Bushel 'T is that of Nestorius which the eminent Authority of Cyril has made to pass during all that time and even from the third Oecumenical Councel for an absolute lie and with which all the learned both the general and particular Councils all the Fathers and all the new Doctors of both Communions have been so successively prepossessed that they have thought it nearly concerned their honour not only to deny it but even to be continually throwing their Anathema's at the head of the poor Nestorius whom they have made to pass for an abominable Heretick although at the bottome Nestorius was he of the two who was by far the more Orthodox and the honester man and on the other hand Cyril was the Heretick For it is with the Authority of Cyrillus as with that eminent Authority of the Church of Rome to which Monsieur Aâ—â—auld would have all men fixed and with which he thought to overwhelm and undo Monsieur Claude NOT to make any Application of this History to what has happened to my self in particular as to the necessary truths I have promulged and advanced I will content my self with fixing to one which is like to that of Nestorius 't is that about those who are called Independants who though they will not yield in exactness of living or in holiness of Doctrine to any of the Protestants in Europe for they are led more than other Christians by the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is a Spirit of meekness moderation and of a sound mind and they are farthest off from the spirit of malignity and Persecution and their Doctrine hath more of conformity with that of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians than any of the others and though to conclude their confession of Faith is the most Nervous and sinewy the most Orthodox and coutched up in terms so strong and powerful that of all pieces which yet have appeared in the World fince the Writings of the Apostles it is the most full and perfect Yet have they had the unhappiness to be loaded with injuries by our Synods and by those of our Divines who are the most eminent in learning and of a life and piety the most exemplary and that too in a manner altogether inhumane and barbarous so far as that Monsieur Amyâ—auld calls them Fools Enthusiasts and such as are infamous in their lives Monsieur D' Aille the Father says of them that it
is a pernicious Sect which from the very foundation overthrows the Empires and Governments of the World and others have no better opinion of them imputing to them practises contrary to truth as to receive into their Communion the most loose disordered and impious persons though on the contrary their fault if it be one is just at the other extremity not to receive neither into their Society nor their Communion any but such in whom they probably find the marks of regeneration and that beside their greatest Crime is to condemn the practise of Churches as Popish and Tyrannical when by a right pretended to be divine and by vertue of the power of the Keyes and of that of binding and loosing they erect a Tribunal or a National Ecclesiastical power independent and distinct from that of the Magistrate though otherwise they approve of the Government of our Churches of France according to the principles of those who establish it upon a natural right and upon a considerate discipline in a manner absolutely like to the civil and politick For it is upon this ground of natural right of confederation of Arbitrary Discipline and purely humane which may and ought to be changed and altered according to times and places it is upon this ground I say that the Discipline of the Reformed Churches of France is established and founded as the last Article of their Discipline says it in the very express terms CHAP. II. The Advantage of the Congregational way above any other establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that oll others have insuperable inconveniencies THIS Congregational way hath incredible advantages over and above all the other establishments of Religion which most commonly are of the same extent as the civil State of every Territory but beyond all this way introduces into all the Churches which conform to it or at least into a great many of those Churches a Reformation in Doctrine in Discipline and in manner of Government wholly Apostolical it being impossible that of a hundred Congregations or particular Churches which should differ one from another in Faith and in the way of Government otherwise Independant each on the other or on the Synods but that there should be some or other which does retain this Apostolical holiness whereas it is not any wayes possible as we have seen by experience since the time of Constantine the Great but that one national Church of the same extent as the civil State or as the Empire or Dominion of a Prince must needs have many defects errours and apparent disorders not only in Discipline but also in Doctrine for these following Reasons 1. We must consider a National Church either in the manner as it was established by Constantine Theodostus and Justinian of as great an extent as the Roman Empire in which the State Ecclesiastical was regulated after the Model of the Civil State where the Bishop of a City or place whose extent was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was parallel to the Defensor Civitatis or to the Dux The Archbishop or the Metropolitan of the Province was parallel to the Praeses or Proconsul and Corrector The Diocesan the Primate or the Patriarch who was also the Hexarch in the time of the Calcedonian Council was parallel to the Legat of the Emperour or Vicarius where the Praetorium was and where there was in the Ecclesiastical State a subordination of Courts and Tribunals as in the Civil State for that was the Errour of the Antients to adjust the Ecclesiastical Government to the Civil instead of practising the quite contrary according to the judicious maxim of a wise Italian Politician Bisogna accomodare la ragione di Stato alla Religione non la Religione alla rag one di Stato Or we must consider the National Church when the Pastors are in an equality of rank and dignity but with subordination to Provincial or National Assemblies Consistories Colloquies and Synods Now in either manner of establishment where there is observed in all things an uniformity of Doctrine and of Discipline and which is pressed by the same rigorous severities in the State Ecclesiastical as the Laws are in the Civil in either manner I say even when the Magistrate favours the true Worshippers of Jesus Christ there happens Errours and disorders innumerable which never would be found in the establishment of the Congregational way as when the Bishop or a small number of Pastors has the whole management and supervision of affairs and where it is impossible but that Heresie Ambition Envy Politick regards temporal interest the Spirit of Pride and Grandeur and Factions should reign among them and that these Errours and disorders should so easily be visible and taken notice of as in a particular composed of one or two Pastors and of a small number of People This is what has been observed by the Historians Socrates and Sozomen and by the Fathers Gregory Nazianzen sayes that he had never seen Synods to produce any good effects but that they had rather increased Heresie then stifled and suppress'd it Martyn the Bishop of Tours had no better opinion of them All the Synods especially the Oecumenical had been Shire halls houses of confusion or even Aceldama's if the Emperours or their Commissaries had not thrown water upon the fire which they had kindled Yet they could not always so hinder but that these two great evils of Synods and Bishops the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did transport them to the very extremities of tyranny and cruelty insomuch that Dioscorus who was President in the second Council of Ephesus over four hundred persons was so moved with rage and passion against Flavian Bishop of Antioch that he rose up from his seat and killed him with blows and kicks and also trampled upon his body after he was dead 'T is remarkable that the Canons full of piety and pure Doctrine were never made in Numerous and Oecumenical Synods but in those that were private and composed of a few persons such as was that of Orenge where we read these words that deserve to be writ in Gold Tales nos amat Deus quales futuri sumus ipsius dono non quales sumus nostro merito having in it only the first Nicene Council which hath produced us this most Nervous confession concerning the blessed Trinity I add that in the Establishment of a National Church which observes in a large extent of Dominion the same uniformity of Religion as of Polity it is neither goodness nor truth neither sincerity nor a well-form'd design that acts but it is hazard worldly interrest power and the greatest number which is oftentimes the most erroncous and the will of one single Person invested with an absolute power which is most commonly taken up by Flatterers and Counsellors who are animated with other motives than those of Conscience or who how good soever and sincere otherwise are not illuminated
nor learned enough to give a right judgement about matters of Religion Carneades said that the State of Athens was unhappy in which wise men made fair Overtures and gave good Counsels but Fools judged of them and ordered all things according to their idle and extravagant fancies And indeed Wise men may consult but it is the greatest number or the longest and best sword that determines which is too often in the hands of those who have more strength of power than force of judgement so that by this establishment of a National Ecclesiastical Government thousands of Christians and faithful Souls are as much obliged to submit themselves to the Religion of a whole Empire according to the establishment which shall be made of it by an Idolatrous Rehoboam by an Arrian Constantius by an Apostate Julian by a Popish Mary Queen of England as to that which shall be set up by a David by a Constantine the the Great and by a Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed memory which Inconveniencies neither can nor ever will be able to happen in a place where the Congregational way shall be established It may be one Soveraign who shall be as Heretick as Constantius will issue forth his commands for the establishment of his heresie in all the places of his dominion as Theodosius the second made another for that of the Orthodox Faith when he commanded that all the Subjects of his Empire should receive the faith from Damaseus of Rome and from Peter of Alexandria But it may likewise fall out that that same Emperour to wit Theodosius the second might make two Ordinances which may mutually destroy one another for he convoked the first Synod of Ephesus which condemned the Opinion of Nestorius and some years after he convoked the second Synod of Ephesus which contradicted it and allowed the opinion of Nestorius 2. THIS same inconvenience is verified by the establishment of the best reformed Churches in the World I mean that of Luther and of Calvin For as the Reformation was that of a National Church of the same extent with that of the Territory of the Soveraign where it was established so likewise did it carry the Obligation into Germany Sweedland and Denmark that they should submit to Consubstantiation without any bodies having the liberty to form assemblies to themselves which may reject it which Churches might do if they were Independant The same inconvenience is happened and must happen from the National establishment of the Reformation which Calvin hath made in England Holland some parts of Germany and elsewhere and how pure soever the Reformation was as for the Doctrine of that holy man it is extremely defective as to the Discipline the power Ecclesiastick and that Tribunal which he Erected in Geneva distinct and Independant on the Magistrate by vertue of a pretended Divine right and power which hath been the cause of all those infinite disorders confusions and even Schisms in England Scotland Holland and Geneva even in the time of Calvin as we read in his Epistles 3. ONE great convenience which is found in the Establishment of a National Government is that it is always grounded upon humane principles cruel and barbarous as to constrain to persecute and even to burn those who in matter of Religion do not embrace that of the Ecclesiastical State or of the Magistrate that establishes it and do not conform to all the practices that he appoints and commands 4. THEY say that this National establishment of Ecclesiastical Government deprives Man of his Reason and his natural and Religious liberty in the choice he ought to make of his God and of the worship he ought to render him and to which he should not be constrained but perswaded neither to be brought to it by custome nor by birth nor likewise by the Law of the Magistrate unless he be convinced that his Ordinances and commands in matters of Religion are conformable to the word of God for they press mightily upon this consideration that this establishment divests Man of the same liberty in his religious life as he hath in the Civil where he is not restrained by any Law of the Magistrate to choose his house his Wife his Master his Servant his Lawyer his Physitian his Calling nor any one particular manner how to govern his Family provided it may be done without breaking the publick peace 5. THEY say that how unjust or how extravagant soever the Laws of the Magistrate might be for the regulating of Politie yet there is nothing unreasonable neither in the Magistrate generally to command the practice of them nor in all Subjects submitting to them without reserve or exception so long as the importance of those Laws do not extend beyond the present life but if it reaches further and Conscience and Eternal Salvation be concerned therein they believe that an uniformity of Faith and of Religion which should be imposed upon us how good so ever the thing might be in its self it would be wicked and unreasonable because it would do violence to the Conscience of which the Magistrate is not the Master nor the Arbiter as he is of the Bodies and estates of Men. CHAP. III. That upon the ground of this Hypothesis That every Supream Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to Error Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational way and the Independency of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his VVord BUT there is nothing which does more reasonably establish the Independancy of particular Churches nor which more powerfully destroyes this Authority in the Church by a divine right and the necessity there is that a person or a particular Church should depend upon its Ordinances unless that Supream Authority is infallible for if it be subject to Error it must of necessity do violence to the Christian liberty of the faithful and so degenerate into a Tyrannical Authority there is nothing I say which establishes more reasonably the Independency of particular Churches nor which more powerfully destroyes their dependency than the account which the Bishop of Condom gives of the judgements of the Independants and of the Sentence that the Synod of Charenton pronounced against them THEY believe sayes he that every faithful Member ought to follow the illuminations of his own Conscience without submitting his judgement to the Authority of any Body nor any Ecclesiastical Assembly and they do not refuse to submit to the word of God nor to embrace the decisions of Synods when after a due and through Examination of them they find them reasonable That which they refuse to do is to submit their judgement to that of any Assembly because it is a Society of Men that are subject to Errour THE Gospel it self is not more true than this perswasion of Independants and that Bishop could not approve of one more reasonable to wit that a particular person or Church ought not to submit
the illumination of grace and reason so likewise are they most reationally and with great Justice and Piety disengaged not only from a pretended Infallible Tribunal but also from the Tyranny of such dependance or submission to an Authority subject to errour AS to the Assertion of the Synod of Charenton that the Sect of the Independants opens the door to all manner of Irregularities and Extravagances that Assertion I say seems plausible at the first as in truth it is not only plausible but most reasonable in matters purely Civil in which if there were not a last Resort and Refuge and Appeal from Court to Court in the Territories of a Soveraign there would be as many Courts erected Independant one on the other not only as there are Families but as there are private persons Which inconvenience is not one in matters of Religion Faith Doctrine and Divine Worship in which the Conscience of every one is the last resort wherein the business is to be judged without any further Appeal and where none ought to be constrained but exhorted and perswaded A Synod is to perswade a particular Church to embrace such a Faith but it hath neither right nor power to force it Now a particular Church is to do the same as to one of its Members and if it carries any constraint with it it no longer acts as a Church and as an Assembly of Christians and faithfulâ— people but as a Magistrate at least like an Arbiter and Judge to whom Jesus Christ sent the planteth in the eighteenth Chapter of St. Matthew in these words tell it to the Church that is to say tell it to an Assembly which had neither any Court nor any power nor Jurisdiction and where the party intimated mightly decline or refuse the Judgement without damage as it appears by those words of Jesus Christ if he dres not hearken to the Church For by these words let him be unto thee c. Jesus Christ does not command the Church to proceed to an Excommunication of that party that has done the wrong but he advises the offended party to cite the other who has deprived himself of the quality of a Brother before the natural Judges as well of the Publicans as of the Heathens the one being the Ministers of the State and the other being of the Religion of the Emperour In short the Church as such and considered as Christians and honest men hath no more jurisdiction that a Colledge of Philosophers CHAP. IV. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a Conformity of Faith with the other Reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of Discipline Of the veneraiton they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and Discipline THE design of producing their Confession of Faith is to shew that it is the very Masterpiece of an extreamly juditious Government and as it was the work of persons most perfect in the Study of Divinity the principal design they had in the composition of their Confession was to declare and testifie to the World that altho every Church might take the liberty to differ from others in discipline they ought nevertheless to labour above all things to retain and keep the same faith in matters that are essential with all the Reformed Churches This is what the Congregational party have done with great care and circumspection in the making of their Confession for beside that they do but a very little differ from that of the Presbyterians and that they do not at all divide from them but in matter of Discipline they have also indeavoured to have their Faith conformable to the Doctrine of the Church of England and as to their Discipline it is very simple and naked they have no other than that which Saint Paul gives in three words to wit That every thing in the Church should be done Decently and in Order They have especially had an eye to the practice of the Churches under the good Roman Emperors under Constantine Theodosius Martianus and Justinian under whom they kept a strict uniformity in Faith and that correspondence was maintained by letters which they called Literae Testimoniales Circulares Ecclesiasticae Formatae tho otherwise they took the liberty to differ one from another even under one and the same Emperour in Discipline in Customes and in Ceremonies Saint Austin Epist ad Tanuarium 119. Epist 86. ad Casulanum Presbyterum permits any Church to differ from others in Ceremonies and in manner of Government provided that they agree with them in Unity of Faith The Historian Socrates libr. 5. cap. 21. tells us that there was not to be found two Churches in all the Roman Empire which observed one and the same form of Prayers to God The Jesuit Mainbourg how zealous soever he is to the Uniformity of Rome in his Doctrine and discipline yet he ceases not to say and to maintain that the diversity of usages customes and practices is compatible with the unity of Faith One ought not says he never to separate for the diversity and customes which may be different the one from the other without the wounding the Vnity of Faith Pag. 303. of his third book of the Treatise of Schism among the Grecians I have read as much in a great Lawyer it is Godefrey the Son Certissima olim fidei contesseratio erat unà Eucharistiam sâ—mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebantur non in eadem disciplina sed fidâ— WE must also do them this justice that there are no Doctors who have a greater Veneration for the Doctrine and memory of Caloin nor who desire with more ardent zeal to have a strict and close Communion with the Churches which follow the Doctrine of that holy man than their Pastors altho they believe that they may have as I have said the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline without thinking themselves guilty either of separation or schism CHAP. V. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally Establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church 'T IS a great wrong and injury done to the Independants to affirm that they condemn Synods since on the contrary they Establish the true use of them as the Bishop of Condom who hath more charity for them than other Synods and our Divines acknowledge The Independants says he do not refuse to embrace and comply with the decisions of Synods when after they have duely examined them they find them not unreasonable that which they refuse to do is to submit their Judgement to that of any Assembly or Society subject to errour THE Independants argue as Mr. Pajon does Though Jesus Christ himself says he should come down from Heaven to dwell on the earth again with all the rayes of Glory that are roand about him to teach us and to guide and direct us yet it would be impossible for us
Saint Paul to Timothy the 1 Epist 4 Chap. and 5 Verse which I lately mentioned that that good practise of reading the holy Scriptures during their repasts succeeded both a good and an evil custome among the Heathen of quality and condition according to the disposition of persons and according to their manners for the debauchees during theirs had as Pliny the Younger tells us their Moriones and their Cynaedos qui inerrabant Mensis to pass away the time and please the Company But those who were serious and more composed as Cicero Cratippus Seneca Pliny the Elder Euphrates and Spurinna had their Anagnostes who read to them the Golden Sentences of Pythagoras and of the other Sages of Greece It doubtless therefore thus came that the Heathen families which were of the disposition of these latter being come over to Christianity as was that of Cornelius the Centurion Publius the Proconsul Philemon and Lydia took this good custome not only to have a Church in their house but to practise there all the Religious duties as well during their repasts as out of them THIS comes very near to the Idea of the Congregational way which is to be considered in two respects either when their Pastors and their people retire and withdraw from the crowd of the world I mean from the Worldlings to live continually in the contemplation and meditation of the works of Creation of Providence and of Redemption in the devotion and elevation of the Soul to God or else when those same persons do form to themselves Religious assemblies distinct from the national Church and Parochial assemblies in a word when they are distinct from the Ecclesiastical Government which is of the same extent as that of the Civil that is establish'd by Lawes though in this last respect their separation be not an absolute and intire abandoning of the profession of the doctrine and life of those who follow the Religion of their Country but of those who condemn that carriage that doctrine and Discipline which retained the most of the Apostolical 'T is a separating of the good Seed from the Chaff whereof there is but too much in parochial Assemblies where one is as much if not more a Christian by the chance of birth of place and of custome than by any inward principle or design fratned for otherwise the people of the Independant Church and their Pastors are no more backward than the Episcopal men or the Presbyterians to participate with them in the Ministry of the parochial Churches provided they do not force them there to practise such things as they do really believe from their Consciences to be contrary to the word of God and provided also that they permit them to believe that if the Churches reformed from Popery where all sorts of persons are received are the true Churches of Jesus Christ in which Salvation may be had they ought to have no less good and charitable opinion of the Independant Churches which are come out from them FOR these reasons all disinteressed persons that have a zeal for all the true Worshippers of Jesus Christ indifferently in what way of communion soever whither Episcopal or Presbyterian or Congregational may easily be perswaded that this last retains more of the Apostolick because it is not only the Cream and best of the others and a part of that good Seed that has the least of chaff in it but also because it hath more goodness love and Charity in the esteem of those who follow it for the way of communion with others and of those who are of it then the others have for the Congregational way 'T is very rarely seen that any one of the Congregation does not love all good men of what Communion soever they be and that they do not speak of them as of the true Churches of Jesus Christ whereas even the more sober and honester party of the Episcopal men and some of the Presbyterians are so strongly prepossessed with prejudices against those of Congregations that they are in their account no better than Hypocrites Schismaticks and men of strange Enthusiasms A Learned Lawyer having cast his eye upon the matter contained in this Chapter assured me that one Mr. Hubbart a grave Barrester in a Cause between Colt and Glover plaintiffs on the one part and the Bishop of Gloucester defendant on the other makes it out that the Assemblies in the Primitive Church were Congregational He hath also acquainted me with an Ordinance of Canutus KING of England in the year one thousand and sixteen which began thus hae sunt sanctiones for the establishment of peace and Justice where it is clear that beside the Ecclesiastical National Government established according to the Model of the civil the Towns were full of little private Congregations which assembled together voluntarily in the Towns and which the King permitted whilest neither Justice nor the publick peace were interrupted He prest me likewise mightily to insist upon the definition which the Church of England made of the Church in its Confession of Faith made in the year 1562. Article the XIX because it is absolutely conformable to that which the Congregational Churches give of theirs to be as I have already a little touched an Assembly of persons together in one place to attend upon the hearing of the word of God and upon the Administration of the Sacraments CHAP. VIII Of the great Benefits and Advantages that come from the Establishment of the Congregational way in the World THUS you see we are insensibly fallen upon the conformity of the carriage and government of the Congregational assemblies with that of the Primitive Christians for their smalness of number and for the way and manner of gaining souls to Jesus Christ by Prayer by Exhortation and by Preaching which they do to a few persons or a few Families as when their Elders inculcated into them every day and line upon line the necessity of leading holy and exemplary lives so that the Christian people made far greater progress in Sanctification by the means and helps of those Elders than when they assisted at publick assemblies where the severities of discipline and the degrees of penitence through which but very few persons went seem'd to retain more of the affected devotion of pride and of worldly pomp than of sincerity and where the fruit of the Bishop's preaching was like to that of which S. Chrisostome speaks in one of his Homilies which resembles the water that is thrown in Buckets upon a great number of Bottles which have a strait Neck and where there goes in but a few drops whereas the fruit of the exhortations which are made in private to a few is the effect of him who having taken the bottles wil fill them by degrees one after another Beside that it is impossible that a Bishop or other person who shares out all his time between his Chamber-studies and preaching in publick and who hath some thousands of persons under charge it
of the true Church of Jesus Christ and on the other hand that of the other Reformed Churches because they were not Episcopal is rendred void and null and because they had not the â—ark of the beast upon their fore-head whereat Monsieur Claude is extreamly offended Nay they have gone to that extremity that one Henry Dodwell hath newly published a large Book where he labours to prove and establish this maxim that there where there is no Episcopal Ordination there is no true Church no Minister of Jesus Christ no Sacrament and no Salvation They have lest out those expressions that are a shock and offence to Rome that the Pope is the Antichrist the man of sin and the Son of Perdition the Doctors of the Church of England as Thorndike Tailor Bramhal Patrick Sherelock c. have sweetned the Doctrines of Rome to make them rellish and go down the better with the Protestants In a word to compleat the design they had to testifie their kindness for Rome they have persecuted them most who are got at greatest distance from it They have made the Image of their persons and of their devotion to tread the Stage to render them both odious and ridiculous They have loaden them with calumnies in the same manner as the Pagans of old cloathed the Christians with Bears skins and Lyons skins to stir up the rage of Mastiff Dogs against them they have treated them with the Appellations of Schismaticks and Rebels who have been concerned deep in the late Conspiracy a thing that gives one a horrour to think of And the mildness and most gentle treatment is that of Fanaticks Enthusiasts and Medlars that perpetuate the division between the English and the Romish Church and hinderers of their coming together To conclude as Tacitus sayes proximorum odia sunt acerrima their aversion and hatred are so great against the Presbyterian Puritan and Independant party that these words are very frequently in their mouths and it is their discourse both as they walke along the Streets and set at their Tables that they would rather be Papists than Presbyterians 'T is then a thing much to be wondred at that whilest the Prelatical party have so much love and kindnsss for Rome and so much aversion for Calvin and our Churches in France as to rase them out of the number of the Churches of Jesus Christ to reject the ordination of their Pastors as Null and to tear in pieces with calumnies the puritanical party only for this reason because it hath a veneration for our Churches and for the Memory of Calvin 't is I say a very suprising thing and much to be wondred at that our Pastors in France at least the greatest part should make their Court to that Episcopal party and call those faithful people in England Enthusiasts Fanaticks and Hypocrites who separate from the Doctrines Customes Practises and Lives of those that Persecute them But yet a People who by the Purity of their Doctrine the holyness of their Lives and their Conformity with Calvin and his Disciples keep off and retard the Introduction of Paganisme in England and the Judgements of God upon the Nation Certainly it is a very surprising thing that the Fat of the Prelates Kitching and the lustre of their Hierarchy should so dazle the eyes of our great men in France as to postpone in their esteem the best the most holy and the most numerous Party of the People of England to that which glitters and dazles most and which now have the uppermost seats in the Synagogues BUT that Church which will have all or nothing shews more heat and vehemency against these Reconcilers than against those that protest against all Reconciliation with Rome which imitates the Lyon in the Apologue that devoured the Asse for desiring to share with him THE Church of Rome which is said to be Infallible is an immoveable Rock the Reformed at least the English Church is a floating Boat upon the Water which is fastened to that Rock by a Rope now he that thinks to draw it to him will be much deceived for he will but pullhimself nearer to the Rock 'T is true that neither the whole body of the Clergy of England which set at the helm of Affairs nor any of them has been concerned in the late attempt upon the life of our most gracious King but it is true also that the Papists had never been brought or tempted to think of such a thing if they had not been strongly perswaded that the life of the King was the only Impediment why those who had already come over three parts of four of the way to Rome had not finished the rest of their Journey to them CHAP. XI A continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those Churches that are for their way Congregational when they condemn all manner of speaking like to Rome and all practises that do any whit savour of theirs and the six Maxims on which the Pope and his Church are founded a Confirmation of that by a History taken out of the Life of Joseph Hall T IS then with good reason that the Independants condemn all the Overtures of Peace and Reconciliation and believe that they have been attempted in vain from time to time between the Catholicks and the Arrians the Greeks and the Latins the Protestants and the Papists the Lutherans and the Calvinists the Episcopal and the Presbyterians and these from the Congregational men they condemn I say all these Overtures of Peace and Reconciliation unless the two parties that are both under Error and that are both at an equal distance from the truth be reduced to a Medium that may bring them to some Establishment without this they are very much perswaded that to compose all the differences which are in matters of Religion there is no other method than theirs which is that every Christian makes himself of that Assembly which is according to his Opinion and that the Church of which he is a Member do not persecute those who are otherwise perswaded THEY are not then led by any extravagancy of Reason when they put among the Ideas of Plato these six maxims with which the World is so strongly possest 1. THAT a Civil State ought to tolerate but one Religion 2. THAT all the Churches collected in that State ought to associate and joyn themselves into one body which may be of the same extent as the Civil State 3. THAT that body Ecclesiastical is distinct in Jurisdiction and Independant on that of the Republick and that there ought to be no appeal from Consistories and Synods to the Magistrate 4. THAT this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is exercised by vertue of a divine right positive and perpetual and by the power of the Keys and of that of binding and loosing given by Jesus Christ either to the Church or to its Pastors 5. THAT the Churches ought to be all united by the same bond of Faith and Discipline under the
same Ecclesiastical Governnours and to be obedient to their Laws their Commands and their Censures 6. THAT to compass this Union every party of different perswasion and Judgement in matters of Faith and Discipline ought to abate something of their rigour and their right and come one part of the way to a Reconciliation that is to say that every party ought to recover an insidious peace to abandon the truth he believes he has on his side or to enervate the force of it THESE maxims which are those of Rome have been and will be the cause why there will never be in the World neither Church nor Reformation without some mixture of corruption The Felicity of being freed from these is only to be found in the Independant Church ABOVE all they find the 5 th maxim to be unreasonable wicked and tyrannical◠principally when they press to an Uniformity of Discipline all the Inhabitants of a Territory or Kingdom under one and the same Soveraign about which both the greatest number of people and the most illuminated are divided and do not find one clear constant and perpetual truth in the Sacred Scriptures to press the Uniformity of it nor the necessity of that way that they find as to what concerns Faith Theodosius the II. had his reason better grounded when he commanded all his Subjects to believe according to the Faith of Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria then if he had commanded them an Uniformity in Discipline which he did not do and which he could not execute For he could not be ignorant that as there was but one Faith to which every faithful soul ought to adhere and to be verily perswaded that his was the true it was not without reason that he rather commanded the belief of that Faith than the practise of a discipline since that the one was expresly laid down in the holy Scripture and the other was not 'T IS after this manner the Independant Churches argue They believe with Theodosius that the Subjects of an Empire are obliged to embrace the same Faith supposing it be that of Jesus Christ but they are not obliged to practise one certain discipline which is not found in the holy Scripture THE first maxim was that of Dioclesian who alone did shed more Christian bloud than his Predecessors all together had done It cannot be practised without Fire and Sword and it is as full of Impiety and of Paganism as Excommunication Titus Livius lib. 39. tit 9 puts among the Roman Laws Ne qui Romani Dei neque alio more quam patrio colerentur ne quis in publico sacrove loco novo aut externo ritu sacrificaret The Scythians caused Anacharsis to be put to death for having a Worship a part which he had learnt in Greece And Mecaenas exhorted Augustus to punish those who would not conform themselves to the Religion of the Countrey Dio. lib. 52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 BUT yet this maxim was not so much practised when the Government was more popular and when Altars were erected to strange Gods and to some unknown for after they had subdued Nations they also brought their Gods in triumph I met with the Defeat and overthrow of the fifth maxim in a discourse at the beginning of a Treatise of that excellent Knight to whom I Dedicated my Fasciculus as an Answer to some questions that were put to him by thoughts much agreeing with mine before ever we had any communication of them together which he also confirms by those of a Learned Divine whose name is Chillingworth and whose Authority is so much the more considerable and weighty as being a Church of England man There are say they but two wayes to make all Christians to enter into one and the same communion either in taking away the diversity of Opinions that divide them which is impossible without a Miracle and unless God had established and set up a visible Judge to whom their differences should be referred or else being all perswaded that this diversity of Opinions ought not to hinder their communion and their Union in things wherein they do agree and where charity complaisance and condescention ought to have place without any ones being deprived of their Opinion or that one should persecute the other that differs from his DOCTOR Jeremy Tailor who was a strong man for the English Hierarchy by reason whereof he was made a Bishop in Ireland and who was extroardinarily illuminated and Learned agreed in the same Sentiment with Dr. Chillingworth and hath published a great Book whose Title is the Liberty of Prophecying against the wicked and unreasonable carriage of those who rigorously impose set Forms of Faith to others and who Persecute and ill-use those who are not of their Opinion in matters of Religion ALSO the Independants have indeavoured not so much to establish the goodness of the Congregational way in sound clear minds because they are soon convinced of it by the description they make of it as to disabuse them of those maxims which are but so many illusions though most commonly it is easier to refute Errours than to establish Truth as Cicero very well says Vtinam tà m facile possem vera probare quà m falsa convincere NOW the tyranny of these maxims which are as much that of the Protestants as of the Papists is the cause why the transition of the Romish Religion to the reformed is but imperfectly done in France Germany England and elsewhere how little complaisance soever we have had for Rome and for an affinity with her it has cost us very dear we have thought we ought not to go from one extremity to another at one leap As we fell from the Impanation to Transubstantiation so likewise have we gone from Transubstantiation to Consubstantiation its Neighbour then we have retained the real presence in the Sacramental Supper which has some agreement and is conciliable with those three illusions of words 'T is said indeed that this presence was spiritual but at the same time it was clothed with the flesh when they kept at the beginning of the reformation such wayes of expressing themselves which have been a great Shock to Bullinger and many other great men of his time That we were nourished in this Sacrament with the substance of the flesh and with the blood of Jesus Christ Which has given occasion to the Bishop of Candom to Mounsieur Arnauld and to Father Maimbourge to put this Interrogatory to us if you speak as we do why do you not believe as we do Especially the Bishop of Condom has made use of it and they have given him reason to triumph over us as much in that as he hath done as to the eminent Authority that is established in our Churches with as much incontestability as if it were Infallible The Missionary Pean sayes that it is a Gallimauphrey of the Protestants to speak of being nourished with the substance of Jesus Christ and with his flesh and
not to believe Transubstantiation A Learned English Dr. named John Hales hath written a Learned Treatise upon this Subject where he condemns this way of Reconciliation that sayes one thing and believes another and that turns again to Rome and he exhorts his Brethren to condemn rather the use of it than to justifie it He sayes also that Martyn Bucer was the first of the Reformed that made use of this way of speaking IT must be confessed that as the weakness of those great lights of Reformation Bucer Calvin and Reza was very great when they explained those Scriptures concerning the Lords Supper by a Comment that was more obscure than the Text nor hath it been less great in those that have come after them when they have explained the words of Jesus Christ in S. John VI. concerning the fleshly eating to the Sacramental and Spiritual eating and when they have made long comments upon the words of Calvin to sweeten and smooth the harshness of them instead of condemning them this obstinacy in adhering to errors hath brought in the pretended infallibility into the Church of Rome and the Incontestability into the Reformed Churches Inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda hoe est errandi necessitas erroris amor Seneca NOW these ways of speaking which simbolize with those of Rome and which give it occasion to insult and triumph over us makes me remember what I have read in the Memoirs and specialties that Joseph Hall hath made of his Life and absolutely convinces me of this truth that it has been so unlikely that they who have believed they might gain upon Rome by retaining some of their ways and modes of speaking or their practises should have succeeded therein that on the contrary She has been so much the more set and hardened against us and have gone so far in it as to make us and their Religion far more reasonable than ours He sayes that in his journey to the Spadan Waters for his health he had before a great company of persons of quality both Papists and Protestants a very hot dispute with a Sorbonist a Prior of the Carmelites who maintained that the Kneeling practised in the Church of England at the receiving of the Eucharist strongly shewed that she believed Transubstantion for that kneeling and the belief of Transubstantiation were things inseparable and always went hand in hand together and since the one had never been believed in the Church without the practise of the other and since it was a distraction of reason and a wicked practise to carry their adorations to Elements that were only Bread and Wine this kneeling of necessity must be a natural consequence of the belief of Transubstantiation Bishop Hall adds that as the company was divided in their judgments and that several of them joyned with those of Rome in condemning this kneeling unless it was a consequence of Transubstantiation more than two thirds of the company were so heated against the poor Bishop that he had not the liberty to speak nor to stand up in defence of the Church's Opinion For if they had given him time to speak he had alleadged the Rubrick of the Church of England which undeceives the Communicants from the thoughts that they might possibly have that that Kneeling or Adoration is carried out to the Bread and the Wine But beside that there is not of a hundred Communicants one who reads the Rubrick it might have happened that those who were so violent against Bishop Hall would have pleasantly stopt his mouth with the Apologue which Beza writ in a Letter to the good Arch-Bishop Edmund Grindal who seeing that he was offended at this kneeling after Transubstantiation was banished endeavoured to cure him of the scandal he had taken making him to know that the Rubrick of the Church of England would give him enough wherewith to be satisfied Upon which Beza returned him this story A Lord having built his house near to the high way where he left a great stone that he had no occasion for just in the road several persons coming by in the night stumbled at it and did hurt themselves and often complaints being made to him about it and intreaties that he would take it out of the way he was very obstinate a long while and was resolved not to meddle with it but being wearied by the continual solicitations that were made to him he bethought himself to set over the stone a Lanthorn with a light Candle in it to warn people of it but that Admonition proving troublesome too one of his friends came and gave him this good Counsel Sir if you would be at quiet take away both stone and Lanthorn together The stone of stumbling is this kneeling at the Sacrament and the Rubrick is for a light and Declaration to signifie to the Communicants that this kneeling is not done to the bread and wine but to Jesus Christ If you take away both you will take away the scandal and the remedy to the scandall You will bring back the way with which Jesus Christ instituted the holy Supper who gave it not kneeling but in the posture of those who take their ordinary repasts at their Tables so that Jesus Christ never required any Genuflexion either at the time or place THESE two stories hit as we generally say two birds with one stone For they may relate to that neerness of assinity with Rome which I have already spoken of above and which I have showed has rather sharpened and embittered the Spirits and tempers of those of that communion to plot against the sacred person of the KING and against his Government than it has any wayes sweetned them and moreover they discover that those who go furthest off from the Doctrines and practises of Rome who renounce all reconciliation with Her as the people of the Congregational way do have most conformity with the blessed peace-Makers of whom Jesus Christ speakes and whereof the Character of the Children of God which he gives them upon this respect carryes them so much the farther from all thoughts of Rebellion CHAP. XII An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is the most sit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him I Think my self here obliged to add an Apology as to my own account for what I have said as to the Independant Churches I do imagine I shall be accused at first for having made the description of the congregational way not according as it is in effect but in that manner as Xenophon did the Cyropaedia to be the perfect model of a Prince They will say that any other interest than that of the inward knowledge I have of the goodness truth and holiness of the Congregational way ought to have excited me to commend it so as I have done That I