Schism Heresie and Rebellion were let in to disturb the Peace the Quiet and the Unity of the Church Thus I say it was effected by the means of Satan that Evil one who still makes it his great business where ever he finds Unity and Peace to spoil and deface them and to raise up Strife and Separation Since Separation and Division among Brethren proceeds from the Cunning and Malice of Satan why should it continue any longer in our Israel Why should not every Man put to his helping hand to build up the Walls of Unity Are we not Brethren Have we not one Father God One Head Jesus Christ Is he not our Common Shepherd Have we not one Faith Salvation by Christ Do not we Believe him come in the Flesh Do not we Confess his Name Are we not all Christians And indeed are we not also of one Mother the Church Why then this Separation This Division This drawing several Ways Why cannot or why do not you Unite as you ought to do If there be any obstacles and stumbling blocks of offence that lie in the way set to your Hands and endeavor to remove them I suppose they are not so many nor so great but they may be easily enough removed if you go about it willingly and sincerely if you are not byassed or perverted by your own Passions and your own contradictory and perverse Wills if you are not Stubborn and Dogmatical and not too stiff in your own Opinions in small matters you must yeild somewhat in Love one to another that the Work may be done and the Breaches made up and that the Walls of a perfect Uniformity may at last be built for the security and welfare both of Church and State And that this may be Effected and that our happy Unity may be lasting and perpetual that the Stones may be made smooth and polished fit for the building that they may lye fast equal and close all ruggedness and gratings must be done away for whilst they remain they will not be fit for the building and there will be but little hopes of Conformity and entireness You must then lay aside that bitterness of Spirit which some of you call Zeal wherewith you upbraid those of the contrary Party and to the multitude cunningly insinuate an Opinion of Holiness and Integrity of your Selves and of loosness and neglect of your Adversaries always on the least occasions lashing them with sharp and severe reproofs ripping up the faults of Bishops and the Clergy of the Prelatical Party You must leave these common Aspersions which abound among many throwing all Faults and Errors on the Ecclesiastical Government and to it impute all Faults all Corruptions endeavoring thereby to win to your selves the Opinion of Wisdom you must also leave to intrude upon the People and your Hearers your own Form of Church Government as the only remedy to avoid all Evils as the only true Way to walk in and as if Salvation were hard to be purchased any where else and giving it so many glorious Titles and Encomiums and so possessing the minds of Men with an overweaning of the one and a bitter and malicious Scorn and Detestation of the other Leave also to interpret the whole scope of Scripture as if framed to maintain your own Form of Government presenting your Followers with false Glosses whereby they read only as you would have them and pervert Scripture to maintain the false Ideas of their sickly Imaginations and thus every Sect makes the Scripture to speak in favour of their Way and false Opinions to maintain their Schism and Separation calling all Samaria and Babylon that are not of themselves and their own Congregations Sion and Jerusalem You must also leave off those Names of Separation and Distinguishment calling your selves the Godly the Brethren the Good People Gods Children the Sanctified and others the Ungodly Reprobates Worldlings Time-servers Men-pleasers Moralists and Latitudinarians Arminians and the like You must also lay aside that eager endeavor of making Proselytes especially of the weaker Vessels who are apt to be easily led and perswaded by godly and Religious pretences though thereby they do great damage to their Husbands and Families making the Separation within their private Walls as wide as that which you have caused in the Nation You must also cease to cry out and exclaim against Magistrates and Rulers Kings and Governors as Severe Cruel and Tyrannical upon the least restraint of your Liberties as if you were thereby become Martyrs for the Cause of Christ and branding those that perhaps not with out occasion given thereto put some moderate restraint upon you with the Titles of Blood-suckers and Blood-thirsty Men Persecutors and Tormentors drawing all the Scriptures that any way favour the Innocency of such as have Suffered for the Truth by wicked Tyrants to your own selves and apply them still to your Case as if you were the Persons pointed out by the Finger of the Holy Ghost and for whom they were chiefly intended Also you must not speak contemptibly of Bishops as you too frequently do giving them scurrilous Names as Limbs of Antichrist Locusts of the bottomless pit domineering Lords Usurpers Spiritual Tyrants Lordly Bishops c. and calling the Ministers of the Gospel in contempt Priests nay Baal's Priests Time-servers Hirelings State Divines dumb Dogs vain Bablers with such like Language those whom the Scriptures Dignifie and Honour with the Titles of Christs Embassadors Gods Stewards Pastors of Christs flock Stars Angels Gods receive too often from you contrary Denominations being scandalized at the Title of Lord given to Bishops which is an Honorary Name annexed to their Temporalties by the Kings of England you call them in Disdain Lordlings Proud Imperious Arrogant and the like You must also leave to Whisper in private against the Governors and against the Secular Power as if tending to and infected with Popery and of complaining to your Disciples that you are fain to fly to Corners and to Private Meetings like the Primitive Christians whilst Papists Drunkards and Swearers are not medled with or disturbed that you are more roughly handled than those who go to Mass that your Godly Meetings are disturbed whilst Taverns Ale-houses and Play-houses are never look'd into and where they commit Enormities without Check or Controle that you are the true Church and that the Word and Sacraments are by you dispensed in Purity and according to the Primitive Institution that the publick Places of Gods Worship are defiled with Common Prayers Singing Anthems Read-Sermons and Set-Prayers Organs and such like as you call them Superstitious rags of Popery You must also utterly lay aside all your Reverend thoughts of your great Idol the Covenant the Moloch of Presbytery the Scottish Dagon a very Monster of Rebellion this must be never thought of more but laid aside and drowned in the Sea of Oblivion You must also leave off your continual Scoffing at the publick Prayers of the Church which you have
abuse her when you tax her of Popery or Superstition by reason of her Rites and Ceremonies But you too often confound Superstition and Idolatry together sometimes the keeping of Christmas is Superstitious the Cross the Surplice the Common Prayer Book the Holy Days the Vigils Lent all Superstitious and sometimes 't is the Idol Christmas the Idol Common Prayer Book the Idol Saints Days and the like But as you know what Idolatry is the giving an Holy and Religious Worship to any thing that is only due to our Maker the only true God so you may know also that Superstition is not the doing or omitting of any thing more or less than is necessary in matters of Religion by reason of the Obligation laid upon them by Superiors but it is the performing or not performing those things by reason of a necessity that is laid upon them that they are sinful of themselves whereby the Consciences of Men are inslaved and terrified And by this means all things that you Judge to be Unlawful though indifferent in themselves till commanded by Authority you prohibit under the Obligation of Sin thereby imposing on the Consciences of others a necessity of not using them though commanded by Authority as being of themselves vile and sinful and this is truly Superstition But what is it you would have Would you have no Government No Discipline No Form in the Church If any why not this as is already Established Since you are not able to Convince it or Convict it either of Popery or Superstition You would have your own you think that purer and better but you must then stay till you can Convince the Magistrate also you must Convince your King and Governors make them first of your Perswasion exhibit to them your Arguments your Reasons your Perswasions all you have done hitherto is nothing you see Thousands are not of your Mind and they will not believe your Church Government and your Classical Form to be any ways Quadrate with such a Monarchy as this is it may perhaps be fit for a small City a little Commonwealth a Province or so it may be fitted for the Constitution of Geneva or some Cantons of the Switzers but it can never be made to sit well about the Necks of these three Kingdoms neither will you be able to perswade the King to pull down the Bishops to set up arbitrary and boundless Tryers to lay aside the Ancient Liturgie and to bring in its place your Directory to put down Ecclesiastical Courts and set up Commissioners we have had too late tryal of your Way and the Tyranny of your Church Government cannot so soon be forgotten when every the Heads of your Classes were as Absolute as Popes and your Inferior Clergy as Proud as Cardinals But had the King and State a mind to gratifie you and to set up your Form would not there still be as many Dissenters for you are not yet agreed among your selves you have not yet shaped a Form that would please others the Independent Anabaptist Quaker Cry out against it and had rather live under the Rule of the Bishops than under the rigid Government of Presbytery it will be impossible to please you all and you may as soon hope to fit a Garment for the Moon Till you are agreed then of a better Form of Ecclesiastical Government and that you are able to Convince the King and the State and your other Dissenting Brethren that you have a better and one more agreeable to the Constitution of this Nation to the Primitive Institution and Purity without the unlawful Argument of the Sword and Rebellion submit I say in Gods Name and for Conscience sake to this as is set up and be no longer Separatists and Congregate no longer by your selves but be perswaded as you ought to hearken to the Call both of God and Man of the Scriptures that press you to Unity and Amity of your Brethren that invite you to Conformity and Communion and to your Superiors who Command you to Submission and Obedience As to the Doctrine of the Church of England you have not wherewith to find any the least shaddow of Cavilling against it you cannot but Confess its Principles to be found but all your Pique is against its Discipline or Church Regiment which as the Learned and Rational Mr. Hooker Law of Eccl. Poâ— Lib. 3. Sect. 3 Hooker tells you is a thing different from Matters of Faith and Salvation But who is it that ought to lay down the Rules and matters of Church Polity and to frame the Laws and Constitutions of Church Government Are they not Men And such to whose care the Governance of the Church is Committed To Kings the Nursing Fathers and to subordinate Ministers as Bishops c Would you have all Laws already laid down in Scripture And nothing left for the exercise of the Light of Reason in these matters But there is no doubt but these Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity may be made by Man Legally and by the Authority of God Luminis naturalis dictatum repellere non modo stultum est sed impium August Lib. 4 de Trin. Cap. 6. and in which Man may make use of his Reason following therein the Rules of the Law of God and the Law of Nature which in the substance is one with the Moral Law of the Scripture and also though these Humane or Canon Laws be not expresly set down in any part of the Scripture yet they ought upon unerring Principles to be deduced therefrom or at least without Contradiction unto any positive Law or Command in Scripture By this means the Laws of Man may be said to be the Laws of God For he owns the very Laws of the Heathen to be of himself though framed by the Light of Nature only and by him written in their Hearts by which the Gentiles were either Excused or Condemned 2 Rom. 15. Why then fly you from these Laws as such Bug-bears Why do you not in all Humility and Singleness of Heart yield Obedience to them for the Lords sake Where lies the Illegality of them Because you cannot find Lawn Sleeves and Rochets in Scripture therefore must they not be worn And because you do not Read of Gowns Tippets square Caps and Canonical Girdles therefore 't is unlawful for Ministers to wear them When God gave us the Light of the Scripture he did not take from us the Light of Reason this indeed is but a dim Light in respect of the other and ought not be trusted to in matters of Faith Divine and Supernatural things but being in Conjunction with the greater Light of Gods Word we have a clear and perfect Sun-shine to see as far as an Humane condition will permit of into the business both of Doctrine and Mannors and we are thereby inabled to give Rules in matters of Faith and Life For though the Scripture is a perfect and absolute Rule in it self and contains all things within it self
as to what belongs to our Salvation yet it is no ways derogatory from its fullness and sufficiency to say that we cannot make use of this Rule without the Light of our Reason and also that in Civil things we may with a Christian Liberty do many things that we find not in Scripture by the meer use of Reason alone and that very Lawfully and without Sin so those things be not contradictory to the Word of God If then our Governors have a Power given them that they may Ordain and Constitute divers Ceremonies in the Church though not mentioned and found in Scripture then ought Inferiors to submit to such Laws and Rules and are in Duty bound to observe them when they are injoyned by a Lawful Authority Do but consider with your selves that whilst you so strictly Demand Scripture to be shown for the use of Ceremonies and other things made use of in the Church of England may not others with the like Liberty bid you to show what Example or Command you have in Scripture for your Lay Presbyters your Classes your stone Churches your Tythes your Infant Sprinklings your Singing Psalms your Weekly Sabbath all these things you know have been Objected against you to which you led the Way and opened the Gap by such your unreasonable Demands If Man hath not a Liberty given him to make use of his Reason in Ordering the Affairs of the Church or in altering many things and adding others as may be Convenient to the temper and constitution of Times but must have a Precedent or Command for it expresly in Scripture how did David err when he thought to build a Temple at Jerusalem 2 Sam. 1.2 3 1 King 8.5 2 Chron. 7.6 7.30.23 Which the Prophet approved of Or Solomon for keeping a Feast of seven days for the Dedication of the Altar Or Hezekiah for continuing the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days longer than the time appointed by the Law Or Mordecai for making an Ordinance for the Yearly observation of the Feast of Purim Esth 9.27 The building of Synagogues wearing of Sackcloth and Ashes in sign of Humiliation their Fasts more then were Commanded immediately by God Zach. 8.19 were all of Humane Institution and without doubt Lawful Times alter and what at one Time may be thought Fitting and Harmless at another would be accounted Scandalous and Unfitting as that Osculum Charitatis used in the Times of the Apostles and approved of by them Rom. 16.16 2 Cor. 13.12 would now give Cause of offence and those Agapae or Love Feasts used by the Primitive Christians at first Innocent enough but soon grew to be worthy of Reproof by the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. There is Milk for Babes and Meat for stronger Men. There is a difference between the Church in its Infancy and after the growth of so many Years It has been Corrupted and grown four on its Lees and it hath been again Purged and Refined therefore there must of necessity have been several Laws Rules Canons and Institutions framed for its several Dispensations most agreeable to the temper of the Ages and the Times in which they were made And the Orders of the Times of the Apostles themselves are not in all things now to be urged as of absolute necessity I cannot but wonder since that these Ceremonies and Rites of the Church are by you accounted of but as Mint and Cummin nay by some Condemned as Toys Trifles and Follies that you should stand so stifly against them but those of the Church of England thinking not so meanly of them have therefore the more Reason to stand for their Continuance They say there ought to be a bowing of the Knee as well as of the Heart That by outward Actions the Mind is stirred up with greater fervency to Attention and Devotion That Solemnities have been in all Ages both in Religious and Divine matters as well as Civil That these things are necessary and of use as Garments to the Body That without them Religion would appear Naked and Uncomly That they are also Edifying and Significant That they move the Heart and the Affections and that they are of great use and force That they have been Instituted not without great Care and Deliberation by Holy Pious and Learned Men That they have been long Confirmed in the Minds of Men That to alter or abolish them would be Dangerous and Scandalous That they are Harmless and Innocent of themselves That they give not the Offence but that it is taken Unjustly against them That under the Use of them the Land hath long flourished with Peace and Prosperity till our late distracted Times That since God hath again Restored them almost Miraculously when they were thought to be Dead and for ever Extinguished These things Considered and that they appear not such Trifles to them as you account them they have more Reason not to Depart from them and you less to Insist upon their Abolishment But alas 't is not only Ceremony that you would take way but the Root and Branch as you are wont to say of Episcopacy the Bishops it seems are also Popery they must not stand but is not Self all the while at the Bottom Is it not that you may Reign in their stead with your Lay Elders And what is this Episcopacy so much Cry'd out against by you and others of your Dissenting stamp I 'll tell you in the Learned Mr. Chillingworth's Words Episcopacy in the Essentiality of it is an appointment of one Man of eminent Sanctity and Sufficiency to have a Care of all the Churches within a certain Precinct or Diocess furnished with Authority not Absolute or Arbitrary but Regulated by Laws to the intent that all the Churches under him may be provided of Good and Able Pastors or Presbyters This is the Government you are so scandaliz'd at and which you would take away being the Institution of Christ himself who made his Apostles Bishops or Overseers of his Church for Matthias was chosen to an Episcopal Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And St. Act. 1. Cyp. l. 3. Ep. 9 Cyprian calls all the Apostles by the same Name Episcopos And although they had a large Commission from Christ Go Baptize all Nations and seem Indefinite yet we find some of them Bishops by Restraint as St. James at Jerusalem St. Paul took to himself the Care of the Gentiles and St. Peter of the Jews St. John took Charge of Asia the Less where were afterwards seven Churches governed by so many Bishops termed by St. John Angels Rev. 2. And the Apostles themselves appointed others as Titus and Timothy at first Agents only in their stead and afterwards with Apostolical power of their own And if there be any Credit to be given to History and to Antiquity it self we find that Linus was made Bishop of Rome by the Apostles Iren. l. 3. c. 3 Polycarpus of Smyrna Evodius of Antioch and Titus of Creet Erecting Churches