in order do require the Church with Prudence to determine of such undetermined Circumstances Modes and Orders as fall under those Generals As what Translation of the Scriptures to use what Metre of the Psalms what Tunes whether to divide the Scriptures into Chapters and Verses what Chapters to read what Psalms to Sing and when and how many what particular Method to use in Preaching and what words what helps for Memory whether written Notes in length or briefly At what Hour to begin How long to Preach and Pray In what words to Pray In what decent habit and in what gesture to Preach or Sing God's Praises c. what Utensils to use as Pulpit Font Table Cloth Cups c. In what Place c. In all which the Pastors are the Guides by Office and in many the Agents And it is no sinful Will-worship or adding to the Word of God to determine in such cases And they that will not stand to such Determinations cannot be Members of their Flocks As if any will not meet at that time or place where the Church doth meet or will not use the same Psalms or Translations or hear the Pastor in such a Method or with such Notes c. he thereby refuseth the Communion of that Church which must have some determinate time and place c. But yet the Pastors Power being for Edification and not for Destruction he must take the Peoples consent in all so far as the Churches good requireth it to their Edification and Peace and guide them as a Father by Love and in Humility as the Servant of all and not as Lording it over the Flock And if his Determination should be so perverse as to be destructive of the Church or of the Worship of God the people must seek the due Remedy of which more anon 10. As the Keys of the Church are committed by Christ to the Pastors for intromission Guidance and Sentential Excommunication that is for the Government of the Church so the People must not usurp any part of their office They are not obliged to try the Faith or Holiness of such as are to be Baptized or such as are to be received into their Publick Communion but may rest in the Pastors Judgment whose office it is to try them supposing still that they have their due remedy in case of corrupting or destructive Male administration And that their needful assistance in their Places should be used 11. If any Member of the Church do live in any Heresie or other great Sin contrary to his Covenant with God those who are acquainted with it must admonish him and seek to bring him to Repentance in the order appointed by Christ And if he repent not they must tell the Church And if being duely admonished by the Pastors he yet repent not the Pastors as the Church Guides must pronounce him unfit for the Communion of the Church and require him to forbear it and the people to avoid him which the people must obey Yet so as that if the people have sufficient cause to doubt whether a censure be not contrary to the Word of God they may enquire into the cause And if they find it contrary indeed they must not execute that Sentence by any of those private Acts of alienation which are in their own Power And they may seek due reparation of the publick breach 12. If one Pastor of a Church where there are many do perniciously and notably corrupt the Faith or the Worship or the Discipline of the Church the other Pastors must admonish him and both they and the people disown him if after a first and second Admonition he repent not And the same must the people do by all the Pastors if all be guilty in the same kind and must trust their Souls with more faithful Pastors But this must not be done mistakingly headily or rashly nor as an Act of Government over the Pastors or the Church but as an Act of Obedience to God for the preservation of their Souls and of the interest of Christ Nor must it be done without such consultation with and assistance of the Neighbour Churches or the Magistrates as their case shall make necessary or profitable to their right Ends. Nor by a violation of any lawful Orders of the Magistrates 13. If a Pastor preach some unsound Doctrines or faultily perform the publick Worship or neglect just Discipline and receive the unworthy to the Communion of the Church or reject the worthy the presence of the innocent Members who make not the fault their own by consent or by neglecting their Duties to reform it maketh none of this to be their Sin nor is to be taken for a sign of their consent Nor will the presence of the unworthy deprive the Godly of the Blessing or Comfort of God's Ordinance Nor are they bound to separate from that Church because of these Corruptions unless they are so great as to unchurch that Church or make their Worship and Communion such as God himself rejecteth and will not accept or unless by imposing Sin upon them or some other way the Church expel them or they have accidentally some other reason to remove 14. The Members of the same Church must live so near to one another as that they may be capable of the Communion and Duties of their relation But whether Parish-bounds shall be Church-bounds and whether there shall be one Church only or more in the same Parish is a thing which God hath not directly determined but only by general Rules to direct our Prudence as cases are by Circumstances varied Where the Magistrates Laws thus bound the Churches and the conveniences of Numbers Maintenance Place and common Expectation require it And where it is commonly taken for scandalous Disobedience or Disorder or Schism to do otherwise Prudence forbiddeth us to violate these Bounds and Orders without true necessity Not taking all for Church-Members who are Parishioners but taking none but Parishioners into that Church nor setting up other Churches in that Parish But when there are no such Laws and Reasons for it and where there are plainly greater Reasons or necessity to do otherwise we should not make such a Law to our selves 15. When true sound Churches are first settled all unneoessary and causeless Separation from them or setting up of new Churches in the same Towns or Parishes by way of disclaiming them or in opposition to them should be avoided by all Christians Because 1. We find not in Scripture times that any one City had many such Churches approved of God The numbers of Christians being but enow for one 2. Because it taketh up more Ministers than the interest of the Universal Church can allow to so few 3. Because it proceedeth from a sinful want of Love and Unity and tendeth to the further decrease of both Long and sad Experlence having shewed that each of those Churches think it to be their Duty to stablish their several perswasions and oppose the contrary
against the Major Vote What if Twenty be of one Mind and Twenty one of another Will one Voice satisfie the Consciences of the rest to acquiesce Q. 21. You build all this on the foundation of Rebellion against God and Governours as if the People were the first receivers of ruling Power and were by Nature made the Rulers or Law-makers by a Majority over the Minor part which is so false that as People they have no Ruling Power to Use or Give All Power is of God and none have it but by his Gift And he never gave Power to the Children and Servants to Rule the Master of the Family nor to the People to rule the Pastor or Church nor to the People to Rule the Iustices or Iudges c. God made Governours so early as prevented the Peoples making them in the essential part of the office It 's enough that they choose him in Cases not Natural that shall receive it from God But I wonder not that Brownists and ignorant Sectaries receive this false Principle of the Bodies Ruling Power by a Major Vote when even Archbishop Laud and Dr. Beveridge yea and judicious Richard Hooker yea and many Papist and Protestant Authors of Politicks and some Lawyers have published it to the deceiving of the undistinguishing Ignorant and the confounding of Societies Civil and Ecclesiastical and the robbing God of his Prerogative and feigning all Government as a Mushroom to spring out of the Earth which cometh down from Heaven Power is by descent from above Q. 22. I will ask you but this Question more Whether now the Brethren called Congregational the most Able and Zealous have consented to a form of Concord which excludeth the Peoples Government can your Consciences chuse but accuse you as proud and Enemies of Concord if as wiser than all these you be so foolish as to continue the Divisions And also when it 's known that it was men of your Principles and Tempers that caused our former Confusions and pull'd down after the King the Parliaments of all sorts the Protector and one another till they set up their Quarters over the Gates and pluckt up the Floodgates that have these Thirty years overwhelmed us and hazarded all the Reformation Is there after all this any excuse for Dividers or any pretence to extenuate their Sin A Sin that hath cost England Holland Germany Poland and many other Nations dear Yea a Sin that tore the very Apostolick Churches and grieved the hearts of the Apostles and caused them to record their vehement obtestations against it If there be any consolation in Christ if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Had you not been ignorant of Church History but known what the Churches from the Apostles days till now have suffered by an hundred sort of Sects and Heresies and what the woful effects of them have been and what a Scandal they proved to the beholders and how shamefully they all ended you would have feared the very appearance of so direful an evil and would not have cherished a worm of so many feet in your bowels even that IGNORANT PRIDE which hath caused all this What is there in this odious Sin and this contentions Church State that should make men professing Godliness love it and make the cure of it so hard Is Ruling a work of ease Is there nothing but Honour in it Is it not dreadful to be accountable for the ill managing of it Do you not reproach Pastors as dumb Dogs and treacherous that neglect their Duty Yea and Kings and Magistrates if they miscarry And are not you afraid of your account of a usurped mis-performed Government Can you judge whether your Pastors understand the Gospel in the Language that the Holy Ghost hath given it in and whether they rightly expound a thousand difficult Texts and whether they decide Doctrinal Controversies truly or erroneously Or do you not rather cry up men that are of your Opinion be it right or wrong and love those that are sick of your Disease and tempt such ignorant Teachers to speak and do that which pleaseth the People for fear of incurring their censure â—â—â—â—â— losing their maintenance It grieveth me â—o hear that some are drawn so far to concur in the Peoples guilt that they will reject from their Communion all that will communicate with the most Godly Conformists And make Adversaries say that the Question between us is Whether Bishops or Women or at least ignorant Voters should govern the Church They say The publick Churches have Faults and Forms And have you no Faults Had the Iews Church no Forms Is not the whole Bible a form of words for Instruction and Prayer and Praise Obj. But they are God's Words Ans. Then God was for Forms But your Bibles are all Man's words Do you think that Moses the Prophets or Christ were Englishmen Or was any of the Scripture written or spoken in English by them or by the Apostles Do you not take every word in your Bibles on trust from English Conformists or such men It was Conformists all save one that made the Translation of the Bible which you use The Papists say It is a false Translation How will you confute them and prove that you have any Gospel or Word of God And is not taking all your Bible as to the words on Trust from Conformists a greater degree of Communion with them than receiving the Sacrament at their hands in form I advise all sober Persons to be no Members of any such Church as will engage them to have no Communion with any others but to be as guilty of Separation aâ— they are themselves I mean that you make not or perform any such wicked Covenant or Condition of Communion with them though their Leader should seem the most Zealous and Devout To renounce Communion with all the Church of Christ save such à Schismatical Sect yea or with all that have not purer Worship than our Liturgy or that are not purer Churches is a Sin so heinous as should deter you from it Though better be to be preferred renounce not Communion with all that have not better lest yours prove worse Had not the Publick Church-men been guilty of Schismatical Separation calling men from all Churches and Worship save their own and appropriating all Church Title and Communion to themselves they had been more blameless than they are But while some silence and others separate Concord is banished more and more And if the Imposing Party well consider this late Agreement they will find that there is nothing in it that may make them think that the same men will be averse to any just terms
committed on these occasions if all the envious slanderous censorious and other uncharitable words were open to our view that many that profess the fear of God are frequently guilty of It is a sad condition that tempteth Christians to so much Sin and quieteth their Consciences in it as if their horrid iniquity were their piety and that bringeth too many separated Churches under some such reputation as Alehouses are faln into I speak it not in contempt but lamentation which are taken to be lawful but places where so much Sin is committed that it is a suspicious sign for a Mâ—n to be oft seen in them especially near home As Swearing and Excess of Drink are the ordinary sins of Alehouses so Church dividing Censorious Envious words with more that I shall anon mention are the too common Sins of these Dividing Congregations And then as Love so Unity and Concord is importunately urged on us in the holy Scriptures and the contrary condemned O read and study that prayer of Christ that his Servants may be One Iohn 17. 11 21 22 23. how high he drives it and how much he insisteth on it His Church was then most spiritual and pure when it had the greatest Unity Act. 2. 1. They were all with One accord in One place when the Holy Ghost did fall upon them Act. 2 42. They continued stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and breaking of Bread and Prayer verse 44. All that believed were together yea and by the power of Love though not by Levelling destruction of Propriety had all things common Vers. 46. They continued daily with one accord in the Temple Act. 4. 31 32. They were together praying when the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And the multitudâ— of them that believed were of one heart and soul. So Act. 5. 12. Many great faults we find had tainted the Church of the Corinthians the Galatians and too many more when yet we find not that any Separated Churches were gathered by the godly for the avoiding these corruptions nor that I remember on any other occasion No where do I read in the same Precincts or Cities of any Churches separated from the first Churches but only the Societies of Hereticks that are so much reprehended and branded with Infamy by the Spirit of God Not one that ever I could find of the true Believers did take this to be his duty Name any Church that was separated from a former Church in Scripture and held divided Assemblies in the same Precincts and was approved by the Lord. I find Divisions in the Churches too many some saying I am of Paul and some I am of Apollo but I find none but those condemned of Heresie that divided from the Churches Separation from the World was the practice of the Churches but separation from the Churches was the practice of Hereticks only as far as I remember or those that are charged with Schism at least though I remember not that meer Schism then rose so high They that had the Apostles among them could not easily fall to such a Crime till they fell from the Apostles And far were the Apostles when they reprehended the Corruptions of the Churches from perswading Men to separate from them Though it's possible for such a case to be when that may be a Duty yet all those faults enumerated by Paul did not make it so But contrarily they charge them not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together as the manner of some the Hereticks was Heb. 10. 25. and beseech them by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to speak all the same thing and that there be no Divisions among them but that they be perfectly joined together in the same Mind and in the same Judgment I Cor. 1. 10. 11. That they be all of one Mind having Compassion one of another loving as Brethren being pitiful and courteous not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing c. 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. O how constant and how earnest were the Apostles in these Exhortations and in answerable Prayers to God Phil. 2. 1 2 3 4. If there be therefore any Consolation in Christ if any Comfort of Love if any Fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies fulfil ye my Joy and what was Paul's so much desired Joy That ye be like minded having the same Love being of one Accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Look not every one on his own things but every Man also on the things of others Rom. 15. 5 6. Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that you may with one Mind and one Mouth glorifie God Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus but their own Bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple So 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. Study Iam. 3. throughout Abundance of such passages are before us in the Word which tell us that this Great and Necessary command of Love and Unity is not to be dispensed with nor Divisions among Christians to be accounted small things And shall men professing the fear of God go against such a stream of Holy Precepts And be sensible of a Swearers or a Drunkards Sin and not of so great a course of Sin of their own 3. The Nature of Gods Graces in his Servants Souls is contrary to a way of Separation and Division As Fire would to Fire and Water to Water so would Christian to Christian Grace is sociable and abhors Division as well as Nature Wounding is not its Delight Love is an Essential part of the New Man The living Members rejoyce together and suffer together and be not easily set against each other but it 's hurt to all that 's hurt to one 4. Divided Churches are the Seminaries of Private dividing Principles As they proceed from such Principles so do they cherish and increase them They espouse an Interest that 's contrary to Catholicism and Christian Concord and therefore we find that they make it much of their Business to propagate it Whatever Opinion drew from the Communion of the Church must be there pleaded for against the Peace of the Church And to have a Mutineer in the Army of our Lord is bad but to have Schools and Nurseries of Mutineers dispersed through the Land and favoured by Godly Men is far worse 5. And certainly so far to forsake the Catholick Principles and Interest and be so void of a Catholick Spirit and Love as to set a part against the whole or a smaller part against the Profit of the main part of Christ's Body is a thing much unlike the
of the lawful Pastors Q. 12. Why would you chuse Pastors that be not wiâ—â—r to govern than your selves Q. 13. Do you not imitate those Diocesanâ— that take on them the sole Government of more Churches than they can govern And do not you also undertake what you cannot do Q. 14. Do you think it is not lawful for a great Lord like Abraham that hath a hundred or many hundred Servants to make a Church of his Family And do you think his Children and Servants should rule it by Vote and try their Lord and Ladies graces Q. 15. Do you not know that Baptism entereth into the Universal Church as such and not into any particular Church without a further contract And who made you Rulers of the Church Universal why you rather than another Church Did the People try and judge by Vote the Baptizing of the three thousand Act. 3. and of Cornelius and the Eâ—much and the Iailor or the Samaritans or any one person Prove it if you can and defie not God's Word Q. 16. What if the Minister that must Baptize and give the Lord's Supper be unsatisfied in your Iudgment Must he go against his Conscience in obedience to you Q. 17. Is one abused Text Tell and hear the Church ignorantly repeated enough to blind you against all this Evidence If the King send to the City of London to cast out an ill Member doth it follow that all the People must do it by equal Power or Vote or some as Rulers and others as obedient Consenters your freedom and your choice of Rulers is not a Power to Rule Papists and all Sects abuse this Text. § 13. Is not your Liberty to be governed only as consenting Volunteers enough for you unless being many Masters you receive the greater condemnation Jam. 3. 1. I would you would read the Third Chapter of James and the Fourth to the Ephesians and the Second to the Philippians on your Knees begging of God to cause the Scales to fall from your Eyes and to give you his Eye salve that you may see that you are poor and miserable and blind and naked When the greatest Millenaries say This is spoken of the new Jerusalem in another World in Paradise do not repine that I apply it to you § 14. And that you may not be proud of your Church Liberty it self not to be forced to Sacraments and Communion Let me tell you what it is It is a Liberty to be sinful disorderly and unhappy resulting from that Necessity which God in Nature and Scripture hath founded in that he will make no one happy without his voluntary consent If you will you may renounce your Baptism and your Childrens Church-Membership and your own you may after a first and second Admonition Excommunicate and condemn your selves and renounce Communion with the Universal Church and with Christ himself you have liberty to forsake the Assemblies and Communion of the Church and the help and conduct of true Pastors you have liberty to forsake God and to be damned O woful liberty God will not pardon or save you against your wills And Kings and Bishops should not force you to take a sealed Pardon or any of the Childrens peculiar part without your voluntary consent As much as you blindly cry down Freewill I think you deny not but men have a will free and able to Sin and to choose Destruction till Grace cure that freedom And verily I think to such ignorant proud Dividers as you it is but such a freedom to choose your own Teachers where Christian Magistrates have more Wisdom to choose for you Not much more than for Boys to choose their own Schoolmasters or Tutors or Servants in a Great mans Family-Church yea or Sons to choose their Pastor Your most desireable Liberty is to have wiser Governours and Choosers and to have Wit Humility and Grace to obey them But yet to be the discerning Iudges of your Duty and to do nothing against God's Law Q. 18. I would know why you do not also your selves Baptize and Administer the Lord's Supper Do you not know that the Ministerial Power of the Keys lyeth more in judging decisively who should receive these Sacraments than in the actual delivering them Do you not as the Lay Chancellours do by the Parish Ministers make them but the Executioners of their Decrees You must Iudge and your Pastors Execute or as Cryers proclaim your Iudgments Q. 19. When all the Church must try the Repentance or Conversion of a Sinner must he open his Sin before you all If not you will take him I doubt for no true Penitent If yea then by what right can you make his secret Sins to be openly known Auricular Confession is better than such And if an aged Person for want of use be uncapable of handsom Expressions about Religion must he be put to shame before you all And as Mr. Noyes saith Shall Lads thus uncover their Father's nakedness Q. 20. Are you sure that upon a wiser Examination than yours most of this masterly Party would not be cast out themselves In many things we offend all And he that sheweth not his religious Wisdom out of a good Conversation by works of Meekness but hath bitter envying and strifes his glorying is a lying against the truth Such Wisdom is not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work I would advise the Pastors of such masterly People to try and examine these Tryers I have given them a Catalogue of Questions for them at the end of my Reformed Pastor Try whether they can tell you whether Christ hath one or two or three Natures Whether he was Man before the World In what Nature he made all things How the Godhead and Manhood are one Person Whether each be a part of Christ's Person What the Soul is How they will prove against an Infidel that Christ is the Son of God and that Scripture is true What the definition of Faith is and of Iustification and of Regeneration And the Covenant of Grace whether it be the substance of the Holy Ghost that is given in to the Faithful or only his Effects An hundred such Questions I doubt you will find them ignorant Answerers of It 's a sad case to have those try mens regeneration that know not what regeneration is If you will abuse the Letter of the Text the Women must Govern Are not they of the Church You 'l say They are forbid to speak Ans. That 's as Teachers but what 's that to Iudging And are not you forbid to Rule when you are commanded to OBEY The Church that must be Heard is it that must be Told and Iudge But it is the Pastors that must be Heard For if all the People be the speaking Reprovers it will be a clamorous Church And how without such clamour can the multitude be heard And must not all Dissenters have leave to enter their Dissent
the beginning until now Had it not been the greater Sin to have separated from the Jewish Church much worse than English Congregations when all the rest of the World were Aliens and much further from God than they Five Parts of the World are Idolatrous Heathens and Mahometans A Sixth part only make any Profession of the Christian Name Not a quarter I think of that Sixth part are Protestants How ignorant and rude the Eastern and Southern Churches are is lamentable to relate Few of them have any Preaching but only Homilies and Liturgies read What the Papists are I need not tell you Not the Twentieth part of the World â—â—â— admâ—â—â—nts And among these alas how few have so much of the life of â—ining thâ—â—â—mong them as the meaner sort of our English Congregations And hath Goâ— called this spot of Earth this narrow Island a corner of the World to honour with the greatest lustre of the Gospel and true Reformation and Godliness and yet will these men withdraw from the Publick Churches here as if no Publick Church on Earth but the few of their way were worthy of their presence Are they no more thankful for England's singular Privileges nor no more humbly sensible of their own unworthiness And would they separate from all the Publick Churches almost in the World 19. These continued Divisions among our selves are a great discouragement to our highest Rulers from seeking the healing of the Churches abroad The greatest Service they can do to God is to reconcile the Churches and bring them to Agreement and strengthen them thereby against their Adversaries And all good men desire this of them that they would improve their interest to this end But alas with what heart can they set upon it as long as they are unable to reconcile and unite the best of the Subjects here at home It was the Grecians Jest upon a great man among them that he went about to reconcile all the Princes and States of Greece and could not reconcile his Wife and her Maid that lived unquietly at home And do not we prepare such Entertainment for our Governours attempts in so good a Work 20. Lastly I heartily desire that our Divisions and Antichurches may not prepare renewed Wars and Calamities to the Commonwealth Certainly the Body of the Nation is much disaffected to them And I wish that for their sakes they grow not disaffected to the Government and ready for Enterprizes that beseem them not But I much more fear left animosities among the several Parties should make them busie and bold in their Enterprizes against each other and still seeking opportunities to oppress one another and to advance themselves And lest the several Parties be to their Prince like the many Wives that some of the Jews had to their Husbands that were still jealous of his Affections lest he loved this or that Wife better than the rest Every one looketh to be most esteemed And jealousie is apt to break its bounds But I will not Prognosticate but forewarn If Unity be our Strength and Division our Destruction let us pity the calamitous Church and not set fire on the Commonwealth And let all Christians that are such indeed lament our distances and lay to heart the Sin and Calamity of our long Divisions and at last let Catholick Principles and Affections be entertained by us and let us pray and study and seek and submit and deny our selves for the Unity of Christians and the Churches Peace For my part I have spoken much of this from certain Experience The Evils of Divisions and Antichurches I have seen abroad The Ease and Comfort of Unity and Peace I enjoy at home O what a Mercy is it to me and the poor Flock that Christ hath committed to my Charge what a help to my Labours and to their Souls that we have not Minister against Minister nor Church against Ch 〈…〉 any separating Parties to ensnare men but that we Serve the Lord â—â—â— to â—â— Heart and Soul one Mind and Mouth If I can procure the eâ—â—â—â—t of this Mercy no further I will compassionate the Church and rejoyce in it at home Chap. II. THE Second part of my Task I shall briefly dispatch which is to shew what is incumbent on the Pastors of the Church for the prevention of such Separations or their increase Having spoken the most that I think necessary of this in the end of my Catholick Key Part 2. I shall refer the Reader thither for the Rules of the Churches Peace and the terms on which they must be put in execution I shall only here reassume these few particulars suitable to our case I. If we would prevent our Peoples Separations we must not make the door of the Church so narrow as to shut out the faithful though infirm If we keep them ouâ— we cannot for shame childe them for not coming in The principal thing that here we must avoid is large and particular Professions of Faith containing Controvertible Opinions and Points that many true Believers are unsatisfied in and also the imposing of unnecessary Ceremonies The Holy Ghost hath decided this difficulty to our hands and left it us as a standing Rule Rom. 14. 1. That we must receive even him that is weak in the Faith but not to doubtful Disputations And that we must be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus and therefore receive one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God Rom. 15. 6 7. Men must be called to no Profession but of Points plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures and the ancient simplicity must recover us to the ancient Charity and Unity And though more knowledge be necessary to the Pastors than to all the Flock yet must the Scripture sufficiency be maintained and necessary things distinguished from unnecessary and those that are necessary to the being of the Ministry from those that are necessary but to the Better being and nothing should be imposed on Pastors themselves as necessary to the Communion of Churches but Points that indeed are necessary to such Communion and those if possible in Scripture phrase But because Hereticks will subscribe to Scripture and to ancient Creeds and simple Confessions of Faith therefore many have thought that other kind of Confessions must be made which they cannot subscribe to But by that course the mischief of Heresie is not so much avoided as the mischief of Divisions caused and all because the right way of obviating Heresies is mistaken and overlookt Heresie in the Mind is cured only by Doctrine and is not it that we have here to obviate but Heresie in the Mouth must be corrected by Discipline and it is not a better Rule or Law than Scripture for them to Subscribe that is the Remedy but a careful Execution of that Law against them 1. By casting them out of our Communion after a first and second admonition when they are proved guilty and 2. By the Magistrates restraining them according to
the quality of their offence He that hath a Conscience to Subscribe to all the Scriptures and yet contradict them by his Heresie may do so by any Form that you can impose on him that hath any appearance of fitness to be so imposed We must not make new Laws every time the old ones are misinterpreted or broken Our great danger in England is of Popery above any thing except Impiety it self And the strength and upshot of all the Papists arguings is Where was your Religion and Church before Luther which by their Exposition is Where was your Thirty Nine Articles or your Assemblies Confession or any Church that Successively from the Apostles held them This is their all which indeed is nothing LET US OWN AS THE RULE OF OUR RELIGION BUT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND EXPRESS OUR BELIEF IN SCRIPTURE PHRASE without distorting it to look towards any Heretical or Erroneous Sense AND THEN WE MAY EASILY TELL A PAPIST WHERE OUR RELIGION AND CHURCH WAS BEFORE LUTHER yea the simplest Women that understand but what Christianity is may thus be able to defend their Religion against the Cavils of these Learned Adversaries Let us not therefore give away so great an advantage and withal divide the Church of God by departing from the sufficiency of the Scripture when it is the principal point wherein a Protestant differeth from a Papist and that wherein we unanimously oppose them II. If we would avoid Separations we must keep up holy Discipline and not leave the Churches so polluted by the abundance of impenitent impious Persons as may frighten tender Consciences from us Discipline that is pleaded for must be faithfully practised We must not step out of the way of God by unjâ—st rigor to please any Men nor to avoid their offence but we must cast out those that should not be in the Church the rather lest those withdraw that should be in And herein a principal part of our Care must be to set Godly people a-work upon their own Duty in a loving humble admonishing of Offenders that we may convince them how sinful a course it is to expect that Men should be cast out before they have been dealt with on the Terms and by the degrees that Christ hath appointed and to run away from the Church because they will not do their Duties III. To this end that our Churches may be capable of Discipline the Duty of Confirmation must be so far restored and faithfully practised that none may be admitted into the Number of Adult Members for the Communion proper to such till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and Repentance and renewed their Baptismal Covenant consenting to the State and Duty of Church Members if they are stated in a particular Church and so are Approved by the Pastors of the Church Without this Discipline cannot be exercised as I have shewed in a Treatise for Confirmation IV. Lastly if we will prevent Antichurches and Separations Ministers must be studious that they may be able to confound Gainsayers and then they must be holy harmless humble self-denying charitable manifesting tender Love to all that they deal with prudent and very vigilant and industrious thinking no cost or pains too great for their so great ends Because we have neglected these four necessary things Separations have afflicted us Chap. III. Difference I. THE third part of my task is to state the Controversies that occasion our present Divisions in England There are besides intolerable Hereticks as Seekers Quakers c. but three Parties that I remember that trouble us much with unjust Separations and Antichurches The first is that new Prelatical Party that unchurch our Churches and nullifie our Ministry and Ministerial Performances and draw into private Meetings supposing that only Laymen or Schismaticks with whom they must not Communicate because they are not Ordained by English Prelates have possession of the publick Churches To these I have spoken in my Disputation of Church Government and therefore shall say nothing here The Second Sort of Separatists are those called Anabaptists that deny Communion with our Churches supposing us to be unbaptized To these I shall speak by themselves in the Offer of an Agreement The Difference is sufficiently made known The Third Sort are those that of old were peculiarly named Separatists together with some of those that are now called Congregational or Independents who withdraw upon some Differences in Points of Discipline which Differences it shall now be my work to state And because I would be brief I will annex the Accommodations to the Differences I. The first Point of Difference which I think is no Difference and yet is it that indeed makes almost all the Difference is about the necessary Qualification of Church Members That this makes almost all our Difference except what disowned neglects of Discipline and other such faults among us occasion is known to us by experience who hear the Members of the private Churches alledge this as the principal Point of Difference for our accusation and their own justification that we take those for Godly that they take not for such That Doctrinally here is no difference between the Parties but what is between the Persons in the same Parties is in their words apparent The Independents say that the Members of the Church must be visible Saints The Presbyterians deny it not The Presbyterians say that Sincerity or real Sanctity is not of Necessity to Visible Church Members The Independents say so to and no wonder for else the Visible Church would not be Visible nor could any Man be known to be a Member because we know not their Sincerity or real Holiness Master Norton Resp. ad Apollon p. 7. 11 12. thus fully openeth their mind that All and only those Competentes that are Ecclesiastically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believers and walk orderly are the next matter of a Visible Church and to be admitted By Ecclesiastically Believers he tells us that he meaneth such as are faithful in the judgment of the Church or such as towards whom whether they are positively faithful or not we are bound to carry our selves in common Church Duties as if they were faithful To this he takes these four things necessary 1. A Confession of the Fundamentals and other points of Religion which are of necessity to avoid a scandalous Life 2. Such a declaration of the Experimental work of Faith which contains the substance of Conversion though it may be counterfeit 3. A Conversation not scandalous 4. A testified Subjection to the Gospel of Christ and his Government There is nothing in all this but what the Presbyterians consent to with these Explications which we doubt not but will be allowed 1. That this excludeth not the Infants of Believers from being Infant Members of the Church without these Qualifications in their Persons 2. That if Infant Members grow up and claim a place among the Adult it will then be meet that
words and that withal make the most imperfect Credible Profession of Faith and Repentance and Resolution for Obedience And that we must not break the bruised Reed nor reject the least of the Lambs of Christ but receive them that are weak in the Faith and not of our own Heads reject any persons Profession as Incredible without sufficient Reasons for such a judgment of it Indeed there is abundance of difference in these points but 1. It is in the Iudgment of particular Persons and Cases and not in the Law or Rule of our Proceedings And 2. It is a difference between Persons and not between Parties Some of the Congregational way are more rigid than many of the Presbyterians in Iudging who are Credible Professors and who not Some will hear the Reports of a change when most Presbyterians will be satisfied with the profession of Holiness though it have grown up with the person from his Infancy and he knew of no change Some look for such Evidence from a Holy Life as may it self directly suffice to ingenerate in the Church a persuasion that the person hath Saving Grace and so they make the Life to be Testimonium primarium vel primario aequale When most Presbyterians take the Profession for the Primary Testimony or condition of Right and so receive it directly as Credible by such a Humane Faith as one Man Credits another by in all Civil Transactions in the World And they look at the Life but as a Secondary Testimony which may Confirm or Invalidate the former Though after Church entrance the Life is directly looked after in the Discipline of the Church But this difference is between Men of the same parties Independents differ from Independents and Presbyterians from Presbyterians and perhaps a hundred Men of the same Congregational way may most of them gradually differ from each other in the strictness or laxness of their Executions as one is more or less Charitable than another or more or less Tender Compassionate Strict or Rigid Censorious or Remiss c. which may occasion difference I conclude therefore that about the great disturbing point viz. The Matter of the Church or Qualification necessary to Members Presbyterians and Independents differ not Doctrinally though practically persons of each party differ among themselves and therefore that here is No Need of a Reconciliation Chap. IV. Difference II. THE second Point supposed to be a Difference is about the Necessity of a Church Covenant Here is no Difference at all between the Learned of each Party that I am able to discover We are Agreed 1. That our consent to the Covenant of Grace is it that makes us Christians and so Members of the Universal Church and the Profession of that Consent which regularly is to be done in Baptism Parents professing their Consent for their Infants benefit and the Adult professing their own Consent doth instate them in their Visible Membership 1. The baptized Person being Offered to God and so solemnizing his own Covenant Act and God by his Minister accepting him into his Church 2. And we are Agreed that a signified Consent is necessary to Membership in a particular Church that is A Consent to the Relation of a Member which includeth a Consent to the necessary Duties of that Relation and an acceptance of the Benefits 3. And we are Agreed that any tolerable signification of this Consent is all that is absolutely necessary And that an express Church Covenant is not necessary to the Being of a Church or Member but that one that by actual Submission and Communion hath signified his Consent may be truly a Member 4. And yet we are Agreed because Ignorantis non est Consensus and for many other weighty Reasons expressed in my Book of Confirmation that where we can require and procure it without a greater accidental Detriment to the Church it is needful ad bene esse to the Churches Reformation and to the Persons firmer engagement to the satisfaction of others and the due execution of Discipline c. that the Consent be as open and express as may be As nothing is more necessary excellent honourable reasonable than a Holy Life and nothing that less feareth the light than the Cause of God so he would have his Cause to be openly owned and managed above board and would be confessed before men and have all men know what they do that take him for their Master It is an honour to God and the Gospel and an excellent advantage to the ordering of the Church and the saving of the People to have all brought to as serious and solemn an Engagement to the Living God as conveniently can be procured I doubt not but the Presbyterians would joyn with their Brethren to Petition the Soveraign Rulers that all our People may be brought to this Let no man think so uncharitably of them as if they desired that Christ should be but darkly and implicitely owned by the Churches and as if they would not have Church Members know what they do Doubtless they cannot but be sensible how much it would further their Ministry with the People if Magistracy would but assist them herein against the stubborness of ignorant and wilful men that men might be compelled to submit to Instruction and Approbation and make a credible Profession of Christianity owning their Baptismal Covenant and by this engage themselves to submit to the Officers Discipline and Ordinances of Christ in the Churches where they desire Communion The thing that the Presbyterians have stood upon is no more but to vindicate the Truth of our Churches against Separatists that have denyed them to be true Churches because they had not an explicite Covenant They deny not that such a Covenant may conduce much to the well-being of the Church especially if we have the Magistrates help to take off the Peoples prejudice Note here also that by a Covenant we mean nothing but exprest Consent and that exprest Consent is indeed a Covenant And that by an Implicite Covenant we mean but a Consent that is less express and not that is not exprest at all For Consent cannot be known to the Church without some Expression I conclude therefore that whatever some particular persons may be guilty of there is no real difference between the Presbyterians and Independents in the Point of a Church Covenant and therefore here is no work for a Reconciler God forbid that any faithful Ministers of Christ should fight against that much which is profitable to the well being of the Church meerly because without it the Church may have a Being Then must we Plead for hunger and want and calamitous Diseases that leave us but the being of men Nature and the Scripture Presidents in the Old Testament and the Doctrine of the Apostles and ancient Practice of the Churches do satisfie us of the usefulness of Holy Covenants prudently seasonably and seriously made Of this I have said more in my Treatise of Confirmation
Church that is to be told The Major seems plain because else the Equivocation in the word Church would make the matter not intelligible The Minor they prove because the whole Congregation cannot speak and be heard without confusion Nor are the Representers of the people in speaking If they be then here 's a word for a Ministerial Representative Church 2. But yet for my part I shall yield that it is this whole Congregation that is here meant that must be told But my answer then is the same as the last to the last objected Text It is the same Church that hath Officers and People the same Body that hath Eyes and Ears and Hands But it doth not follow that the Ears and Eyes and Hands are the same Members Or if the Man have a command to Hear See and Work that he is therefore commanded to do all these by the same Parts The Church may first Hear by her Officers and lastly Hear by the Congregated people and Execute by them and yet not Censure or Admonish or Absolve by them All the Church must hear at last and each part do its proper work in casting out Arg. 2. If God have made the Pastors the Stewards Overseers and Rulers of the Churches commanding them to Rule well and the people to Obey them as their Rulers then is it not the people that God hath made the Rulers But the Antecedent is express 1 Cor. 4. 12. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. Acts 20. 28. 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. 1 Tim. 5. 17. and 3. 1 5. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3 5. It is intolerable abuse of Scripture to suppose that it is so self-contradictory as to make the same persons the Rulers and the Ruled and to command them to obey others as their Rulers whom it would have to Rule them and be obeyed and to command them to Rule well whom it would have to be subject Arg. 3. To be briefer in the rest This Doctrine of popular Rule destroyeth the very Essence of a Political Church For as in a Civil Political Body the Pars Imperans and Pars Subdita are Essential to it so are the Ruling and Ruled part in a Political Church So that the Being is gone and the Body dissolved into a Community or ungoverned Company if the Governing part be taken down As here it is For the people are made Governours whom God never made so and so indeed are none And the Officers being a few to the people are supposed to be subject Arg. 4. And this course introduceth having destroyed that of Gods Institution a New Species of a Church Arg. 5. And it setteth the people on a Work that they are uncapable of Their parts allow them not to judge some cases but secondarily as obedient to their Guides as some Heresies against the Original Text c. Their Callings and Necessities allow them not time for all that work that to a faithful Government is required it being such as taketh up with Ministers a great part of their time Arg. 6. And it setteth up an hundred and one to be Governours of â—nâ—…ty nine without any Scripture command or president if not to the oppresâ—… or dividing of the Church Where did Men go to Voting in Scripture for Acts of Government And where find we that the lesser part are to be Ruled by the greater What if the lesser part be the wiser or in the right and say as God saith in judging of a Heretick or such like and the greater part be more ignorant and partial and contradict God and cast out an Orthodox Man as an Heretick By what Word of God are the smaller number bound to take them for their Rulers that can but get the casting Voice But yet though some do thus differ from us in the Essentials of Church Policy we are here in no danger I think of a continued distance from the Congregational party but may quickly be Reconciled if indeed there be any real difference among us For 1. The Brethren that we have to do with do expresly reject and write against this Doctrine as Brownism it is their own word which say they doth in effect put the chief if not the whole of the Rule and Government into the hands of the people and drowns the Elders Votes which are but few in the Major Vote of theirs And they give unto the Elders or Presbytery a binding power of Rule and Authority proper and peculiar to them 2. It is usually confessed by the most Learned of them that the Elders are the Rulers of the Church for the express Scripture cannot be denied and that say they two or three or more select persons should be put into an Office and be trusted with an intire interest of Power for a multitude to which that multitude ought by a command from Christ to be subject and obedient as â—o an Ordinance to guide them in their consent and in whose sentence the ultimate formal Ministerial Act of binding or loosing should consist This power must needs be esteemed and acknowledged in these few to have the proper Notion and Character of Authority in comparison of that Power which must yet concur with theirs that is in a whole Body or multitude of Men which have a greater and nearer interest in those Affairs over which these few are set as Rulers And as long as they confess that the Pastors are the Rulers and the people must obey I think in sense we are agreed 3. And though many of them say that the Power of the Keys are in the Church or people yet they usually tell us that it is but Priviledge and Liberty which they mean by Power and by Keys and that as distinct from Authority So that it is but a misuse of Terms and a false Exposition of a Text that they are guilty of rather than an Error in the thing it self 4. And they confess also that this power of the Pastors they have immediately from Christ in respect of a mediation of delegation or dependance on each other and are the first Subjects of the power allotted them They say that the Office of Rectors is received immediately from Christ and to be exercised in the Name of Christ and that it is the Designation of the person that is from the Church but the Application of the Office from Christ. Mr. Noxton addeth p. 75. Distinguâ—ndum accurate inter officium ipsum conjunctionem personae cum officio Officium est à Christo conjunctio talis personae cum tali officio est ab Ecclesia Christus confert authoritatem illi personae quam eligit ad hec munus quasi praesentat Christo Ecclesia that this is the very truth supposing Ordination also to have its place I have manifested Disput of Ordinat The truth is the people have not the least degree of Governing Power but each man of Self-government and Parents and Masters of Family-government It is Christ
but bound in lawful things to consent for Unity and Communion And Mr. Cotton granteth for ought I see as much if not more than this comes to and Mr. T. Goodwin and Mr. Nye I think as much in their Preface to his Book saith Mr. Cotton p. 53. A fourth Corollary touching the Independency of Churches is That a Church fallen into any offence whether it be the whole Church or a strong Party in it is not Independent in the exercise of Church Power but is subject both to the admonition of any other Church and to the Determination and Iudicial Sentence of a Synod for Direction into a way of Truth and Peace For saith he Ecclesia litigans non ligat that is if Christ hath not given to a particular Church a Promise to bind and loose in Heaven what they bind and loose on Earth unless they agree together and agree in his Name then such a Church is not Independent in their Proceedings as do fail in either For all the Independency that can be claimed is founded upon that Promise What ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. The fifth Corollary affirmeth that Though the Church of a particular Congregation consisting of Elders and Brethren and walking with a right foot in the Truth and Peace of the Gospel be the first subject of all Church Power needful to be exercised within it self and consequently be Independent from any other Church or Synod in the use of it Yet it is a safe and wholesom and holy Ordinance of Christ for such particular Churches to joyn together in holy Covenant or Communion and Consolation Consociation or Consultation it should be amongst themselves to administer all their Church Affairs which are of weighty and difficult and common concernment not without common Consultation and Consent of other Churches about them Now Church Affairs of weighty and difficult and common concernment we account to be the Election and Ordination of Elders Excommunication of an Elder or any person of Publick Note and Employment the translation of an Elder from one Church to another or the like In which case we conceive it safe and wholesom and an Holy Ordinance to proceed with common consultation and consent And so he proceedeth distinctly to prove this 1. Safe 2. Wholsom 3. An Ordinance adding this Caution which we accept To see that this Consociation of Churches be not perverted either to the oppression or diminution of the just Liberty and Authority of each particular Church within it self who being well supplied with a faithful and expert Presbytery of their own do walk in their integrity according to the Truth and Peace of the Gospel Let Synods have their just Authority in all Churches how pure soever in determining such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as are requisite for the Edification of all Christ's Churches according to God But in the Election and Ordination of Officers and censure of Offenders let it suffice the Churches consociate to assist one another with their counsel and right hanâ—… of fellowship when they see a particular Church to use their Liberty anâ—… Power aright But let them not put forth the Power of their Communityâ—… either to take such Church Acts out of their hands or to hinder them in theâ—… lawful course unless they see them through ignorance or weakness to abuâ—… their Liberty or Authority in the Gospel They may indeed prevent the abuâ—… of their Liberties and direct in the lawful use of them but not take theâ—… away though themselves should be willing So also before Pag. 47. he saiâ—… 4th Propos. In case a particular Church be disturbed with Errour or Scandaâ—… and the same maintained by a Faction amongst them Now a Synod 〈◊〉 Churches or of their Messengers is the first Subject of that Power and Aâ—thority whereby Errour is judicially convinced and condemned the trutâ—… searched out and determined and the way of Truth and Peace declared anâ—… Imposed upon the Churches which he proceeds to prove And Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Nye in their Preface approving of this sayinâ—… that these Synods have a due measure of Power committed to them suite and proportioned to those and are furnished not only with ability to givâ—… counsel and advice but further upon such occasions with a Ministerial Powâ—… and Authority to determine declare and enjoyn such things as may tend to thâ—… reducing such Congregations to right order and peace And whereas they put it in as a caution that yet Synods may not Excoâ—municate I answer that as long as they grant that they may renounce Communion with such a Church and Doctrinally apply to them their Portion anâ—… Doctrinally enjoyn the people to avoid the impenitent Offenders by applyinâ—… the Scriptures to them that enjoyn it we have no mind to disagree witâ—… them about the rest I conclude therefore that we are Dogmatically agreed in this great Poinâ—… as far as is necessary to our Loving Communion Let us in our Consociationâ—… either keep our Principles to our selves of the degree of a Synods Power 〈◊〉 else let all have Liberty to write them down in the Register Book of the Synoâ—… and so to proceed in Concordant Practice Perhaps some may be found thâ—… think Synods are the proper Superiour Governours of the Pastors of particulâ—… Churches yea and their Ordinary Governours Others may think that theâ—… are not necessary nor any Ordinance of God but yet a lawful thing that maâ— for Peace be used And others that I think are in the truth may think thâ—… Synods are not the direct Governours of the particular Pastors but are Godâ—… Ordinance for the Communion of Churches and so indirectly bind in lawfâ—… Agreements both as our own Consents oblige us and as God's general Coâ—mand of doing all things in Unity and Peace and Concord doth animate theâ—… Agreements Let us impose none of our Principles here on others but Agrâ—… to hold Communion in Synods for mutual Edification and Corroboration aâ—… such like ends of Communion as Mr. Cotton mentioneth and to be accouâ—… table to the Brethren in cases of offence so far as to tender them due satisfactioâ— and hear their Brotherly Admonitions In a word let us but maintain thâ— necessary Communion of Churches which the Ends and Nature of the Church require and we shall press no more Obj. But being free why should we desire to be bound in Associations Answ. You are not free from brotherly Charity the Communion of Saints and the Concordant doing the Works of God of common Concernment Nor do we desire you to bind your selves to any thing but what is antecedently your Duty and you 're already bound to by God Object But perhaps if we associate with you you will be rigid for your own ways and be the Major part and then if we displease you our Communion shall be rejected to our disgrace Ans. 1. The Churches can pass as disgraceful a Sentence on you if you come not near them as if you joyned
Young Men exalt themselves over the Faith of their Ancients 9. Some are sent to their Graves frustrate of their hopes we being in a way to admit no more in many years than were admitted by the Apostles in one day 10. To grieve such as ought to be comforted to defame such as deserve honour to judge one another for infirmities is unjust Rom. 14. The Apostle thought it just to think well of all Phil. 1. 17 c. The Apostles were diligent and faithful in directing and exhorting and rebuking And why are they then so silent in point of admission Yea when the Churches were corrupted and pestered with corrupt Members such as made their Bellies their Gods Phil. 3. Jude 4. 1 Cor. 15. and 13. Surely admission hath never been deemed in the Churches so momentous as with us And yet we commit it to the dissident and multiformons fancies of Members without a Rule The Apostles were never acquainted with those Questions How when where and whereby and by whom Conversion was wrought The Church is a tender Mother Cant. 7. and speedily embraceth her Infant by admission into her Arms and layeth it to her Breasts of consolations Experience telleth us that a Man will not easily make Protestations before God and subject himself to Discipline unless it be resolved with him If it be resolved he shall be saved Happy is he that is resolved to slee from the wrath to come to the Ark to Zâ—ar to the Cities of Refuge And open we the Gate readily without many expostulations to rescue him from the avenger of Blood Yea the way is to be made easie to encourage him to come We must not have such a Rule of admission as may in an ordinary way disinherit Saints of their Right and Priviledges in the Kingdom of God So far Mr. Noyes 3. We crave and expect our Brethrens consent that we may not have the Gospel hindered through the Land by unnecessary sinful private Antichurches That every Town or City where are Men professing Godliness may not be as a pitcht Field and holy Exercises turned into Contendings nor Christian Assemblies turned into Schools of War or scolding places Let us not be many Masters lest we receive the greater condemnation The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated c. where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish Iam. 3. Let us agree then to do what lyeth in our power that the Churches may be reduced to the Primitive patterns that met all in One place and there were of one Heart and Soul Where find you in all the Scriptures that there were two distinct Churches especially distinguished or divided by differences in one City and that when for the number they might have joyned in one Where find you that the worst Church had any good men that separated from it into a distinct Church in that place Is Scripture our common Rule I beseech you then be able well to resolve these Questions before you venture in your practice to contradict the word If we drive you from our Churches causelessly the Shame be on us But if you causelessly depart into Antichurches the blame shall lye on you Do not stagger and confound our poor People by shewing them in each Town Minister against Minister and Church against Church and entice not young Novices into an opinionative Religiousness and draw not the Nation from the Power of Godliness and Practice of Charity into doting about Questions 4. For order sake let Parishes be the ordinary bounds of Churches not so as if all in the Parish are therefore of the Church but so as that ordinarily we take none out of others Parishes Let us not do it without just cause nor do it when it will tend more to publick hurt than any persons good can compensate If you could prove Parishes no Churches yet they that Preach to them for their Conversion caeteris paribus are fittest to be their Guides when they are converted Tell us if you can wherever you found one instance in Scripture or the Primitive times of one Soul that forsook the Church that was Congregated in the City of his Habitation and was a Member of any other Church in a place where he dwelt not Except the Hereticks that Iude saith did separate themselves being sensual having not the spirit whose manner it was to forsake the Assemblies Heb. 10. 25. Cohabitation is requisite to the Ends of Churches even the exercise of Communion and the offices of Members one towards another How can we watch over men that live out of our reach How know we what their conversation is But especially when a Parish hath a faithful Minister that undertaketh to prove the Members that you receive to be part of his Pastoral Charge or Church it will no more warrant any man irregularly to receive them because he affirms that it is no Church or they no Members than such an Affirmation concerning your own Churches or Members will warrant others to receive your Members 5. And that justice may be exercised and order observed let no Member remove till he have sought the Consent of the Church where he is or heard them give their Reasons against it And let none be received from another Church or Parish but either upon Communicatory Letters or Certificates or else after a just discussion of the Cause with the Church or Teachers from whom they do withdraw 6. And as it is agreeable to our several Principles and the great thing that is now desired that we may all correspond in Brotherly Associations and have Synods at fit Seasons for the Communion of the Churches that are link'd together let us there be Responsible not as to our Governours but as to Associated Brethren and Churches for our Actions that are of Publick offence or of which we shall be there accused and in particular for this of taking Members out of other Churches that the Cause may have an equal hearing 7. Or if any of you shall refuse to meet in constant Synods yet do this much at least Let your Churches and ours be so far Consociate as to Own each other for true Churches though we take the Liberty to disown any notable Distemper that we may see each other guilty of and let Communicatory Letters be necessary for any that be received from one Church to another unless in special cases And deny not to appear at least on such an extraordinary occasion at a Synod to satisfie the Churches when you are accused 8. And let us agree on such Rules for the peaceable management of our remaining Differences as are necessary to the Security of the common Truths and the common cause of Christianity and Piety which we own that we hinder not God's Work and harden not the Ungodly and weaken not each others hands and prove not at last the unwise Destroyers of the Church
and Betrayers of the Gospel and our Liberties to the Enemies by our obstinate Divisions and Contentions If the worst be supposed of a resolved distance which we dare not be so uncharitable as to suppose we may yet expect an Agreement to such terms as are here after offered to the Anabaptists If yet it be insisted on by any that by holding Communion with us in Synods and being there responsible for offences you shall be proceeded against to a Non-Communion I further answer 1. Will you choose a Non-Communion to escape it yea to escape a possibility of it And shall it be by your own act and guilt lest it should be by other mens 2. Again I tell you they can declare their avoiding your Communion whether you Associate or not And will have the more occasion when you wilfully divide and refuse to be responsible than when you live among them as Brethren in Charitable Correspondencies and Communion and walk in order And there will be far more probability that things will be carried on against you in their Synods in your absence than in your presence when you speak for your selves 3. They will allow you in any of the ten fore-allowed Cases to take Members out of other Parishes and Churches and also out of all those Parishes that have no tolerable Pastors or where the People have any warrantable cause to depart yea in case the person will but remove his Habitation they will not contend though he do it causelesly And surely the Publick Order and Peace of the Churches is of greater moment than the Riches and worldly Accommodations of a particular man and therefore in most cases reason it self will tell us that it is fitter such incur some incommodity by removing their Habitations than that the Church incurr dammage by their breaking Order and crossing all the Scripture Presidents where men were ever Members of the Church that was in the Places where they lived or next to them and there none but Hereticks had Antichurches or separated Assemblies Moreover if you do disorderly receive any Members out of other Churches the Brethren associated may by Evidence of Reason satisfie and reduce you If they do not so they will understand on what account you do it and so if it be but on some tolerable Mistake or Infirmity they will be satisfied in the disowning your Sin without disowning your Communion But if it be on an intolerable ground and such as signifieth you to be uncapable of their Communion as if you â—hould cherish Heresie or Ungodliness and cast out men for sound Belief and Piety they can but in the extremity declare you uncapable of their Communion and warn your People to take heed of you and so they can do whether you associate or not So that I may conclude 1. That difference in Practice will necessitate a Toleration of Postors taking Members in certain cases out of other Parishes 2. But differences in any Principles between the several Parties will occasion none if we could exactly practise our own Principles 1. That difference in Practice will is evident 1. Because it is impossible that all men of the same Parties should have the same degrees of Prudence Moderation Charity Zeal c. which will make some to exclude abundance of persons that others of the same Party will admit 2. Because if the Pastor should be moderate he cannot promise that his Congregation will be so And if they too rigorously refuse any Members he is not able alone to retain them 3. And if abundance of tolerable Christians be refused there is no reason that for the rigour of others they should wholly be deprived of the Communion of the Church and the Ordinances of God I easily foresee that whoever was first guilty of it it is the more Charitable Churches that will be put most upon the receiving of Members out of other Parishes For the uncharitable will take perhaps an Hundred and leave out and reject two Hundred of their Parishioners that should be accepted And then the next adjoyning Church cannot conscionably refuse their Entertainment But let us have these three Points at least agreed on 1. That the Neighbour Pastors and Churches may be consulted with and heard before such rejections be made or at least afterward upon the Complaint of the rejected 2. That those that are refused in one Parish joyn with the Publick Church in the next and that without necessity they do not either draw into private Churches nor yet joyn themselves to publick Churches so distant as are uncapable of holding such Communion with them as Church-ends require 3. And that the Neighbour Pastors do not promiscuously receive all that are rejected by the Publick Pastor at home but only such as upon just tryal are found fit Q. But what shall the people of the Parish do that are put upon such straits as to joyn with another Parish far off because they have a Minister at home that refuseth them as possibly an Anabaptist that requireth them to be rebaptized or an uncharitable rejecter of all except such as have voluble Tongues c. Answ. 1. He that is chosen to be the Pastor is chosen to the Pastoral work and therefore is trusted with the oversight and government of the Church which must not be taken out of the Pastors hands because of the Miscarriages of some 2. But this must be prevented in the choice Patrons must choose none but Prudent Pious men that will not intolerably wrong the Church And the Approvers must let no others in But if Patrons or People choose such men and the Approvers let them in there 's no Remedy but shift for your selves unless you can get them out again 3. If therefore they be so grosly injurious procure the Magistrates to punish such for maleadministration For to them it doth belong Though it should be a very gross and proved abuse that must warrant them to punish the Pastors Let the Cause be heard and the Commissioners have Power to remove them if after warning they are uncurable 4. And if the Magistrates will not do so but keep them in all that the Neighbour Churches can do is to hear the Case and if it be gross and intolerable to disclaim Communion with them and receive such Christians as the uncharitable do reject This is all that can be done But the best way is to be careful in the Choice For it is an intolerable course that some are harping on that Pastors should not be trusted with Church Guidance and Administrations that is to do the work of Pastors any further than Magistrates make them Rules because they may possibly be too imprudent or injurious to the People Surely as long as the Patrons or People choose and the Magistrate Guards the Door and also may punish or reject maleadministrators as the Cause requireth there needs no more 2. And that difference in Principles between the Parties as thus principled cannot be here a cause to break us I
such as expect the very Syllables of the Assertions in the proofs Therefore for brevity I take it to be the better way â—â— this time to offer here a full sufficient proof of any one of these Assertions which shall be questioned to such as shall soberly demand it A Servant of Christ for his Churches Unity and Peace Richard Baxter Acton Nov. 2â— 1688. Q. SEeing you have oft affirmed publickly that the Terms of Concord among Christians are easie to be known if their unwillingness to practise them were not the hinderance you are desired to answer these Questions following 1. What are the necessary Terms of Catholick Communion of Christians as Members of the Church Universal 2. What are the necessary Terms of the Communion of Christians personally in a particular Church 3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another 4. What are the Terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms 5. What is the Magistrates Power and Duty about Religion and the Churches and Ministers of Christ I. It is to be understood that the Universal Church is considered as Spiritual or as Visible As Spiritual it is the Universality of true Spiritual or Regenerate Believers as Headed by Jesus Christ. As Visible it is the Universality of the Baptized or Professors of true Faith as Headed by Christ the Author and Object of that Faith And accordingly Christians are to be distinguished And that the Question is of the Visible Church and Christians 2. This being supposed I answer that Catholick Visible Communion consisteth 1. Fundamentally in being all Baptized or entered into the same Covenant of Grace with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and so being joyned to the same Head and entered into the same Universal Body and professing the same Faith and Love and Obedience contained in that Covenant and not falling away from that Profession or any Essential part thereof 2. And consequently that we all acknowledge the extraordinary Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and receive their Testimony and Doctrine recorded in the Sacred Scriptures At least the foresaid Essentials of the Covenant and so much more as we understand and are convinced to be Canonical Scriptures or written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 3. And also that we acknowledge a stated ordinary Ministry in the Church appointed by Christ to Disciple and Baptize the Nations of the World and then to teach them to observe all his Commands And that we profess our willingness to join in Christian Assemblies under the conduct of such Ministers for the worshipping of God and furthering our own and others Salvation if we have opportunity so to do And that we do accordingly II. Q. 1. We speak only of Visible Christians in this second Question also of Church Communion 2. A Particular Church signifieth either 1. A Community of Christians agreed to live under Pastoraâ— Guidance before they have a Pastor or have practised that agreement This is not the Church here meanâ— 2. Or a Political Society of Christian Pastor and People professedly associated for Personal Communion Exercise of these Relations as such in the publick worshipping of God and for the furtherance of Love and Obedience in each other The Ends difference it from all Civil Societies of Christians and from the associations of many Churches for Communion by delegates The necessary Terms of this Church Communion are these 1. The Pastor whether one or more must have all things essential to his Office 1. As to his Qualifications that is 1. That he understand at least the Essential Points of Christianity and Church Communion 2. That he be able to teach them to others in some competent degree 3. That he be willing to do it and this for Gods Honour the Churches Good and Mens Salvation 2. As to his Call that he have a true notification of the will of God that he should undertake this Office which is ordinarily done 1. By the Ordination that is the Approbation and Investiture of Bishops or Pastors 2. And in this case of his relation to a particular Church by the peoples consent All this in truth is needful before God and in Appearance and Profession before the Church 2. The People must be Baptized persons Sacramentally engaged into Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and such as have not professedly deserted that Covenant by Apostasie nor are proved before a lawful Judicature to be deserters of any Essential part thereof Whether open professed Covenanting may not serve without Baptism in cases of Necessity where Baptism cannot be had is a case so extraordinary that we need not here meddle with it 3. He that was Baptized in Infancy and yet having opportunity at full age doth make no Profession of Christianity nor own his Baptismal Covenant openly by word or deed is to be numbered with Deserters 4. Though the most plain and open profession is usually best where it may be â—ad yet a profession less explicite may serve to the being of Church-members such as is their actual joyning with those Churches who purposely assemble to make publick profession of the Christian Religion Faith Love and Obedience 5. There must be also a signification of consent to their particular Church-Relation either more express and plain or at least by such actions which may be reasonably presumed to signifie it As ordinary joining in Church-worship with that particular Church and submitting to the necessary guidance of the Pastors 6. He that thus consenteth to his Relation to the Pastor and that Church is a Member though he consent not to the Membership or Presence of many particular Members thereof Because they are but Integral and not Essential parts of the Church 7. But if a usual mixture in the Assemblies of Hereticks or Strangers which are not Members of that Church or any other confounding cause do give the Pastors sufficient reason to call all or part of the people to an express signification of their consent to their Relation to put it out of doubt they that causelesly refuse such signification do seem to deny their consent and allow the Pastor and Church to judge of them accordingly 8. The office of the Bishops or Pastors is subordinate to the Teaching and Interceeding and Ruling office of Christ And their work is to Teach the people the Word of God to be their Mouth and Guide in publick Worship in Prayer and in Thanksgiving and Praise to God and to administer his holy Sacraments and to exercise that Power of the Keys which Christ hath committed to their trust in the Prudent and cautelous use of Church-Discipline And all this according to the Laws of Christ recorded in the holy Scriptures These therefore must be the Works and Ends for which these Churches must professedly assemble Especially on the Lord's Days which are separated to these holy Uses 9. The General Command in Nature and Scripture that all be done to Edification decently and
whereby they are carried as for the interest of the truth to make their Adversaries be thought to be ignorant erroneous or bad and so to make one another seem less amiable to the ruine of Love and the division and danger of the Churches And because Love and Unity are so frequently and vehemently pressed in the Scriptures and Divisions or Schism so much forbidden 16. All these are sinful Schismatical Separations but in very different degrees 1. When the interest of some Heresie or lesser Errour and the disclaiming of some truth doth cause men to separate 2. When they slander a true Ministry as no true Ministry and so separate 3. When they slander a true Church as no true Church 4. When they separate because they accuse true worship to be Idolatry or lawful worship to be unlawful 5. When they falsly accuse the Churches Faith Worship or Order to be defective and to want some necessary part As the Papists do by the Protestants who take up with the Scripture-Religion alone 6. When they accuse some tolerable failing in the Church to be intolerable and such as maketh their Communion unlawful 7. When they separate from the Church because of the Holiness and Strictness of its Doctrine and just Discipline which crosseth them in their Sin or because they hate the Purity of its Worship and Obedience 8. When they separate because that they have not a part in the Government of the Church themselves in receiving Members or censuring them or because they may not be Teachers of the Church or otherwise invade the Pastoral Office 9. When Pride or Coveteousness maketh them separate through personal distaste at the Pastors or any Members for want of respect or honour or gain or upon supposed injuries 10. When the Minor part separate because they have not their own will against the Major part in the choice of Ministers or in other Church-Affairs in which they have just cause to acquiesce 11. When they over-value their own Conceits and doubtful Opinions and their own indifferent Modes or words of Circumstances of Worship or Order so that they think it needful to separate to enjoy them 12. When they expect that the Pastors should Excommunicate or deny the Communion of the Church to such as they account unfit without any accusation and proof or true Church-justice And do separate from the Communion where such are received as unlawful for themselves 13. When they separate upon this false Supposition that their presence maketh them guilty as Consenters of all the Ministers Errours in the Doctrine or Method or words of his Preaching Praying or other Administrations 14. When they separate because the Church will not forbear the Singing of David's Psalms the Baptizing of Infants or some other such part or order of God's Worship 15. When they separate because they will not consent to the lawful Circumstances of Time Place Translation Metre Tunes Utensils or Methods which the Church doth use These all are unlawful Separations But the great aggravations are when they separate to set up Heretical Doctrine and Teachers or false Church-Orders and Worship corrupted in the Essentials or to promote ungodliness or to rail at others from whom they separate and to cherish Divisions to the injury of the common Christian Cause 17. These following are lawful Causes of Separation 1. When the Pastors are really no Ministers of Christ but uncapable or uncalled Usurpers or Hereticks or Infidels or open Enemies to Piety who do more harm than good and set themselves to destroy the Church of God and the ends of their Ministry 2. When the Church maketh not Profession of the Christian Faith or are not baptized or visible Christians 3. When the worship of the Church is Idolatry or such for the Substance as God will not accept nor it is not lawful to joyn in 4. When the Church renounceth or omitteth any Ordinance of God which the whole Church must ordinarily perform and which all things considered it is not lawful to omit 5. When after due admonition the Church is turned into a Theatre of Contention and a School of Malignity and reviling the Brethren and of destroying Christian Love to others or of promoting Schism to the intolerable wrong of the people and of others and of the Cause and Churches of Christ. 6. When after due Admonition and Patience the Church so far renounceth Discipline as openly to own and justifie such wickedness or heinous Sins as are inconsistent with the true Profession of Christianity and Godliness 18. And if the unsoundness badness or weakness of the Pastors and the faultiness of the Worship Order or Discipline be not so great as to make Communion with the Church sunply unlawful yet any free man whose Edification is greatly hindered by it and can elsewhere have far greater helps for his Salvation and joyn with a Church which walketh more conformably to the Christian Rule may lawfully remove himself to such a Ministry and Church when it is not to the greater hurt of others than his own good Especially such whose ignorance weakness and deadness maketh a lively and convincing Ministry more needful to their safety and welfare than it is to others For it is a Sin Caeteris paribus to prefer the worse before the better and a sin to neglect the best means for our Souls which we can lawfully enjoy And the Soul is more precious than to be hazarded or left in sin and darkness for an unnecessary Circumstance Nor is it any sinful Separation or Disorder for the Members of one Church to communicate occasionally with other Churches of Christ seeing our relation to the Universal Church is more strict and inviolable than to any particular Church as such Also in case of removal of our Habitations or change of our Family Relations or other the like Reasons it is lawful to remove from one Church to another without any unjust censuring of that which we remove from And if the first Church will not consent after due means for their satisfaction we may remove without their consent 19. He that is denied Communion with the Church unless he will speak or subscribe some falshood or take any false Oath or make any unlawful promise or commit any other sin is sinfully cast out or repulsed by the Imposer and is not guilty of Schism or sinful Separation by denying to commit such imposed sin And he that only removeth from the place of meeting with the Pastor and Church when they remove and doth not withdraw from the Church it self or that adhereth to his lawful Pastor and part of the Church when the rest of the Church adhere to an Usurper is not to be judged guilty of Schism for such avoiding of Schism 20. The principal care for the avoiding of Schism and for maintaining Unity and Love is incumbent on the Pastors of the Church whose first work must be to preserve this Love and Unity in their particular Churches to prevent withdrawing into separating Churches
be cast out Norton Resp. P. 28. â—3 De Veritate talis Ecclesiae to nomine dubitare peccatum ducimus Q. 3. Quale saedus sufficit ad formam Ecclesiae R. Faedus implicitum sufficit ad esse faedus explicitam ad magis ordinatum esse desideratur Rutherford Plea Pag. 85 86. An explicite Vocal Covenant whereby we bind our selves by entring in a new Relation to such a Pastor and to such a Flock we deny not as if the thing were unlawful Nor deny we that at the Election of a Pastor the Pastor and People tye themselves by reciprocation of Oaths to each other the one to fulfil faithfully the Ministry he hath received of the Lord the other to submit to his Ministry in the Lord 5. Any Professor removing from one Congregation to another and so coming under a new Relation to such a Church or such a Ministry is in a tacite and virtual Covenant to discharge himself in all the Duties of a Member of that Congregation Norton Illius Ecclâ—siae constitutio quae uno in loco ordinario ad eultum Dei celebrandum convenire requeat ob suam multitudinem est illegitimâ— â— non tamen quoad â—jus Essentiam sed quoad adjunctum numerositatis Rutherford Due Right Pag. 301 302. 1. The ordinary Power of Jurisdiction because of nearest Vicinity and Contignity of Members is given by Jesus Christ to one Congregation in an Isle 1. Because that Church is a Church properly so called A Congregation is a Church wanting nothing of the Being and Essence of a Church Yet is it in compleat Lond. Minist Ius Div. Minist Part 2. P. 82. These Angels were Congregational not Diocesane Ib The Asian Angels were not Diocesane Bishops but Congregational Presbyters seated each of them iâ— One Church not any of them in more than One. See Mr. Hooker's Concession of many Meetings in one Church in Mr. Cawdrey's Review P. 148. Norton Resp. P. 99. Toti multitudini Ecclesiae competit examen Pastorum per mannuum impositionem eorundem ordinatio in Ecclâ—sia homogenea sed non in officium Ecclesiasticum quia officium Ecclesiasticum recipitur invocatione non ordinatione idque à Christo immediatè non à totâ multitudine Id. p. 100. Vicinis insuper ordinariè consultis in Ecclesia homogenea competit fraternitati auxilio Consilio Presbyterorum viciâ—orum prudentum aliarum Ecclesiarum P. 101. Populus in judicando dirigi potest ac ordinarie debet à judicio aliorum Pastorum Electionem vel praeâ—unte vel concomitante Requiritur Conâ—ilium aliorum Presbyterorum Prudentum propter insufficientiam in Ecclesia infirmiori Propter salatem in amplitudinâ— Consiliarii in Ecclesia instructiori in omnibus propter Communionem Ecclesiarum P. 103. Propositio illa Bâ—llarmini Non sunt veri Pastores qui non sunt à veris Pâ—storibus ordinati vera est ordinariè seâ— extra ordinâ—m minimè necessaria Juâ— Ib. p. 105. Quam vis in Ecclesia bene constituta non debet aliis quà m Presbyteris Ordinandi munus mandari in defectu tâ—â—eâ— idoneorum Presbyterorum potest non-Presbyteris mandari Ames In Ecclesia constituta actum ipsum ordinandi ad Presbyteros pertinere ultro concedimus P. 106. Toti multitudini Ecclesiae 〈◊〉 competit collatio potestatis claviuâ— in Ministrâ—s aut tota illa potestas quâ— Ministriâ— Officium Ecclesiasticum tribuit Against the peoples Power of the Keys Rutherford Peaceable Plea and in his Due Right of Presbyteries and many more have written at large and unanswerably taking the Keys for Government or Pastoral Administrations Rutherford's Plea p. 6. The Power of the Keys is given to the Church of Believers as to the end for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Eph. 4. * * Mr. Norton p. 45. Sin per Ecclesiam Representtaivam intelligitur Ecclesia talis proprie dicta h. e. Ecclesia virtualis vicâ—-Ecclesia Ecclesiam repraesentatam subjectivè repraesentans atque adâ—o vi delegationis habens potestatem â—arum negotia exâ—quendi jure Dâ—i hoc sensu simpliciter negamus Ecclesiam repraesentativam P. 4. Their Power of Chusing is a Power about the Keys but not of the Keys And it is common to all Believers who are not to take Pastors as the Market goeth upon a blind hearsay c. It 's commonly granted them that the people regularly should chuse their Officers where some unfitness of their own doth not forbid it but that necessarily they must consent to his Relation or else he cannot Exercise his Office on them And it is granted them commonly according to Cyprian's words that the people also have a great hand in the Rejection of unworthy Pastors and that in case they prove intolerable and they have no more regular way to depose them after sufficient patience and warning they must forsake them But none of these are Acts of Church Government no more than for a Corporation to chuse the Major or for the Servant while he is Free to chuse his Master or a Scholar his School-master or a Patient his Physicion or for the Soldiers to forsake a Traiterous Commander that would deliver up their lives unto the Enemy It 's one thing to be a Church Governor and another thing to chuse or refuse a Church Governor Dr. Owen was at last against all Governing Power in the people and for the Pastors Government only * * See Dr. Taylor 's 2d Disswasive very well on the Text Dic Ecclesiae Mr. T. Goodwin and Mr. Nye Pref. to Mr. Cotton's Keys p. 5. It 's no contemptible case that Mr. Cawdrey puts Review p. 151. Are not a company of Women with the Pastors a true Church having all things Essential to it And have they the Ordaining Admitting Governing power by Vote or not If not then is it not in a Church of Saints as such but in the true Governours by Office or in none ††Ibid p. 4. I must profess that Scripture and Reason speak so plainly that Pastors are Gods Officers to Rule Rulers must Rule and the Ruled obey that I admire that wise and good Men can find a temptation to err in so plain a case A Church in a Prince's or Noblemans House will consist of perhaps a Lord and Lady and their Children and a hundred or two hundred Servants Now can any Man think it agreeable to Gods Word that the Servants because they are the Major Vote and the Children aâ— Age with them shall question examine and censure by Excommunication their Parents and Rulers It 's a true and weighty Speech of Mr. Cawdrey ib. p. 155. These destructive courses of Levelling Church and State proceed from the placing of all Power Originally in the people It hath been made a Controversie whether Bishops or Pastors may Excommuâ—…te a Prince But if his own Family 〈◊〉 just and meet should be a Church â—…ave him Examined and Excommuâ—…ed by his own Servants out of that Family-Church methinks should seem a â—aâ—der case {inverted †} {inverted †} Jid. ibid p. 7. Coâ—ton Keys ' p. 33. The Brethren of the Church are the first Subject of Church Liberty and the Elders thereof of Church Authority And both together of all Church Power needful to be exercised within themselves * * Jid. ib. p. 3. Norton pag. 74 75. * * Iudicium de coercendo poenis corporalibus est Magistratus Iudicium de actionibus Pastoralibus praestandis an non est Pastoâ—um Iudicium de obediendo vel non obediendo est subditorum Dâ— Propriis actionibus unusquisque praejudicat officium discernendo See Mr. Norton at large proving that a Minister of a particular Church may not only by virtue of his Gifts and the common bond of Christian Charity but also by virtue of his Calling exercise in another Church the acts of his Office Charitativè non Authoritativè p. 76. c. 6. Of this see my Disput. of Ordination and 3d of Episcopacy * * Nort. P. 45. Si Ecclesia Representativa sumitur pro mutua consultatione consotiatione confoederatione Ecclesiarum particularium in Synodis per Legatos nova Ecclesiae forma non addita libertate Ecclesiâ— salvâ rem agnoscimus