ungodly Sixthly and hence it will follow that either none must make any profession of saving Faith and Repentance and so all appearance of holiness must be driven out of the world or else the Church must be constituted of two sorts of professions and professours tota specie distinct from one another yea more distinct than Infidels are from their new sort of Christians And consequently it must needs be indeed two Churches and not one viz. One Church of those who take Christ for their Teacher only and another of those that take him entirely as Christ. Seventhly and by this rule the Socinians and Mahometans who confess Christ to be a great Teacher but deny him to be the Priest and sacrifice for sin may be baptized and taken for Christians These and many more absurdities follow upon this new conceit But I must desire the Reader who would see more of it to peruse my Disputations about Right to Sacraments where it is handled at large As to their Objections I answer First no man is called to lie nor yet are they fearful to be shut out For as no man is perfectly acquainted with his own heart so no man is to profess a perfect knowledge of it But if a man speak as he thinketh upon faithful endeavours to avoid self-deceit no more can be expected of him He that can say Though I am not certain that there is no secret fraud in my heart yet as far as I can discern it I am willing to be a Christian upon the terms of Gods Covenant and to take Christ for my Teacher Priest and King must offer himself and must be received into the Church Secondly and as to the Jews case I have proved in the fore-mentioned Disputations First that it was no less than a profession of saving faith which was made in the Covenant of Circumcision Secondly that men were then to be put to death for almost all those enormous crimes which we now excommunicate men for And the dead are not members of the Church on earth Thirdly that all that in matter of fact was found among them contrary to this was contrary to Gods Law And to argue against the Law from mans breach of the Law a facto contra jus is very bad arguing Fourthly that it is farre surer and clearer reasoning about the Evangelical state and order of the Church from the Gospel than from the Law of Moses much more than from the violations of that law Fifthly but yet all the corruptions of the Churches as I have cited and proved them before do shew us the difference between the Church as visibly Congregate and as Regenerate and shew us that the presence of scandalous sinners will not warrant us to separate or to unchurch the Church And this may suffice against that errour The true conditions of admittance into the Church and state of Christianity are these First A true belief in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and a Devoting of our selves sincerely to Him as our reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifier in a resolved Covenant or Consent renouncing the Devil the world and the flesh expresly or impliedly is the whole and the only condition of our Communion with the Church mystical or the living body of Christ which is called The Church in the first and most famous sense Obj. If this must be wrought in us before we are in the mystical Church then a state of holiness may be found in such as are yet out of the body of Christ in the world But if this be after our entrance into the Church than less may sufficiently qualifie us for admittance Answ. It is neither before not after but it is our change and entrance it self To be a member of the Church mystical and to be a Christian is all one And this is Christianity If I should say that the making a man a Rational free agent is the making him a member of the Rational world would you think that this must be either antecedent or consequent to his change which is nothing else but the change it self Secondly That which maketh a man a member of the Vniversal Church as Visible is his Baptism Which is his profession of the same true Faith aforesaid and consent to the Covenant or his visible dedication to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as his Reconciled Father his Saviour and Sanctifier by a Vow and Covenant in Baptism Where note that Baptism hath two parts The Covenant there made and openly declared between God and Man And the Sacramental obsigning and investing sign which is the washing in water The Profession it self or open covenanting with God is the thing statedly necessary to the being of Visible Christianity And the washing with water is necessary as a duty where it may be had and as a means to the orderly and regular entrance by which the Church is commonly to judge who are its admitted members and who not As inward consent and outward profession of consent and publike solemnization are the necessaries to a state of marriage the first being as the soul the second as the body and the third as the wedding garments so is it in this case So that in short if you take Baptism aright for the Covenant and the Sign there is no other entrance into the Visible Church nor any other condition necessary to a title to its communion But if you take Baptism improperly for the wasâ—ing alone there is no title to such washing necessary but Professed faith and Covenanting So that if you require more or invent and impose any further conditions and deny baptized professors of Christianity to be visible members of the Church you are superstitious devisers of a way of your own and makers of will-worship and not obedient submitters to the way of God Profession then of Belief and consent to the Covenant is our title-condition to communion with the Universal Visible Church This profession must be solemn and solemnized under the hand of a Minister of Christ who hath the Keyes of the Church or Kingdom of heaven that it may be satisfactory to the Church and valid at its barre Those that are baptized at age have present Right to communion with the adult Those that are baptized in Infancy upon good right are admitted to such Infant-communion as they are capable of And at years of discretion they themselves must own the Covenant which their Parents entered them into The more solemnly this is done as it was in baptism the better it is But if it be done but by a professing themselves to be Christians and attending Christs ordinances with his Church it is valid unless they forfeit the credit of their profession by proved Heresies or crimes in which they live impenitently But then it must be here observed what a Profession of Christianity is which intitleth to Baptism and Church-communion And objectively it must be the whole Baptismal Covenant that must be professed No less is to be taken
Mystical and as Visible is but One however the Members and their Gifts and degrees of grace are many Sixthly It is One way of Faith and Holiness which all must walk in Seventhly And it is One end and happiness which we all expect and in One Heaven that we must meet and live for ever so many as are sincere in the faith which we profess And in Heaven we shall have one Mind and Heart and One employment in the Love and praise of our Creator and Redeemer and one felicitating fruition of his Glory for evermore Therefore he that seeth not the necessity of Unity knoweth not the Nature of the Church or Faith or true Religion The Honours and Benefits of Unity and the shame and mischiefs of Divisions may appear to him that further considereth the instances which follow First Our Union with the Church is a sign of our proportionable union with Christ And our separation from the Church doth signifie that we are separated from Christ. He that is United but to the Visible Church is but visibly by Baptism and Profession united to Christ such a union is spoken of in Ioh. 15. 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away He that is united to the mystical Church of the Regenerate and spiritual is united to Christ by faith and by the spirit For his union to Christ is at the same instant of time with his union with the Church but in order of nature goeth before it He that is divided from this mystical Church cannot possibly at that time be a Member of Christ in the spiritual sense As the member which is cut off from the body is also separated from the Head And he that himself forsaketh the Visible Church as such sorsaketh the mystical Church and Christ himself For to forsake the Visible Church as such is to cease to be a Professor of Christianity One may be a Member of the Visible Church and not of the spiritual but you cannot be a Member of the spiritual Church if you forsake and refuse the visible Church as such For though a man may be regenerate by the Spirit before he make an open profession or be baptized and without baptism in some few cases yet so he cannot be if he refuse to be a Professor It s possible indeed to be a member of the Universal Church both as Mystical and as Visible as spiritual and as professing while we have not opportunity to joyn with any one particular Church or to separate from some particular Church without separating from the Universal But to separate from the Universal Church is to separate from Christ. But then you must understand that the Universal Visible Church is nothing else but all professing Christians in the world as visibly subjected to Christ as their Head And that there is no such thing in being as the Papists call the Catholick or Universal Church that is the universality of Christians subjected to one Vicar of Christ as their Head either Constitutive or Governing Such a pretended Head is an Usurper and no true authorized Vicar of Christ And therefore such a Church as such is nothing but a company of seduced Christians following such a traiterous Usurper And to separate from the Pope is not to separate from Christ or from his Church Secondly Consider also that Union is not only an Accident of the Church but is part of its very essence without which it can be no Church and without which we can be no members of it It is no Kingdome no City no family and so no Church which doth not consist of United members As it is no house which consisteth not of united parts And he is no Member which is not united to the whole It is the great course of mens boldness in dividing ways that they take union to be but some laudable accident while it may be had which yet in some cases we may be without and think that separations are tollerable faults even when they are forced to confess them faults But they do not consider that Vnity is necessary to the being of the Church and to the being of oâ—r own Christianity Read 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. Thirdly Remember also that our Vnion is necessary to our Communion with Christ and with his Church and to all the blessings and benefits of such communion Ioh. 15. 4. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me for without me ye can do nothing If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned And Col. 2. 19. From the Head all the body by joynts and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God The member that is cut off from the body hath no life or nourishment from the head or from the body but is dead He that is out of the Church is without the Teaching the holy worship the prayers and the discipline of the Church and is out of the way where the spirit doth come and out of the Society which Christ is specially related to For he is the Saviour of his body And if we leave his hospital we cannot expect the presence and help of the Physician Nor will he be a Pilot to them who forsake his Ship Nor a Captain to them who separate from his Army Out of this Ark there is nothing but a deluge and no place of rest or safety for a soul. Fourthly The Unity of Christians is their secondary strength Their primary strength is Christ and the Spirit of grace which quickeneth them And their secondary strength is their Vnion among themselves Separation from Christ depriveth men of the first and separation from one another depriveth them of the second An Army is stronger than a man And a Kingdom than a single person A flame will burn more strongly than a spark And the waves of the Ocean are more forcible than a single drop A threefold Cord is not easily broken Therefore it is that weak Commonwealths do seek to strengthen themselves by confederacies with other States The Church is likened to an Army with Banners both for their Numbers their Concord and their Order And therefore Christ saith that a Kingdom divided cannot stand Union is the Churches strength And what good soever they may pretend Dividers are certainly the weakeners and destroyers of the Church And as those means which best corroborate the body and fortifie the spirits do best cure many particular diseases which no means would câ—re whilst nature is debilitated So are the Churches diseases best cured by uniting fortifying remedies which will be increased by a dividing way of Reformation Dividing is wounding and uniting is the closing of the wound There is no good work but Satan is a pretender to it when he purposeth to destroy
Papist But if you ask why we separated from the Papal Church I answer Because first it was no Church of Christ as such And secondly It was a Church of traiterous combination against the prerogative of Christ and therefore by the Protestants called the Anti-christian Church We separated not from Rome either as the Universal Church for that it was not nor as part of the Universal Church for so we hold communion with those that are Christians in it still Nor as a true worshipping Congregation for they consist of many thousand congregations which we had never local communion with And as true worshipping congregations in specie we still hold communion with them in mind so far as they are such indeed But in two senses we separate from them First as a Papal Catholick Church because in that sense they are no Church of Christ but a pack of rebels Secondly as particular Congregations in specie which have mixed Gods worship with false doctrine and Idolatrous bread-worship and other unlawful things which by oaths and practise they would force those to be guilty of who will communicate with them And thus we disown them only as neighbour Churches that never were their lawful subjects but bear our testimony against their sin And our forefathers who were members of their Churches departed to save themselves from their iniquity and because they were refused by themselves unless they would lie forswear be idolaters and communicate with them in their sin Nor would they then nor will they to this day admit any into communion of their particular Churches as such who will not first come in to their pretended Universal Church which is no Church and worse than none If this answer seem not plain and full to you it is because you understand not Christian sense and reason DIRECT X. Expect not that any one lawfully received by Baptism into the Christian Church should be cast out of it or denied the priviledge of members but according to the rules of Christian discipline by the power of the Keyes that is for obstinate impenitency in a gross or scandalous sin which the person is proved to be guilty of and this after private and publick admonition and tender patient exhortation to Repentance HEre are two things which I desire you to observe First what is Christs appointed way for removing members from the Communion of the Church Secondly how great a sin it is to remove them by a contrary and arbitrary way of our own presumptuous invention First It is here supposed that the person is not a professed Apostate For there needeth no casting out of such He that turneth Turk or Heathen or openly renounceth Christianity or ceaseth the Profession of it doth go out of the Church himself and needeth not to be cast out Unless it be any Tyrant who will come to the Communion in scorn while he professeth but to shew his lawless will He that seeketh the Communion of the Church in sobriety thereby professeth himself a Christian. and for such as being Baptized continue this profession Christs way of rejecting them is plainly described in the Gospel Mat. 18. 15 16. If thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it to the Church But if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man or a Publican Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject 1 Cor. 5. Ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have jâ—dged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan V. 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven v. 11 12 13. With such a one no not to eat Do not ye judge them that are within Therefore pâ—â— away from among your selves that wicked person By all this it is plain that the Church must exercise a regular course of justice with every person that it shall reject He must first be told prâ—vately of his fault and then before two or three unless at least the open notoriety make the private admonition needless And then it must be told the Church And the Church must with compassion tenderness and patience and yet with the authority of the Lord Jesus and the powerful evidence of truth convince him and perswade him to repent And he must not be rejected till after all this he obstinately refuse to hear the Church that is to Repent as they exhort him Note here that no sin will warrant you to cast out the sinner unless it be seconded with Impenitency It is not simply as a drunkard or a fornicator or swearer that any one is to be rejected but as an impenitent drunkard or fornicator or swearer c. Also that it is not all impenitency that will warrant their rejection But only impenitency after the Churches admonition Note also that no private person may expect that any offender be cast out either because his sin is known to him or because he is commonly famed to be guilty till the thing be proved by sufficient witness Yea that the admonition given him must be proved as well as the fault which he committed Yea if all the town do know him to be guilty and witness prove that he hath been privately admonished he may not be rejected till he be heard speak for himself and till he refuse also the publike admonition This is Christs order whose wisdom and mercy and authority are such as may well cause us to take his way as best And yet the ignorance or rashness of many professors is such that they would have all this order of Christ overturned And some of them must have such a drunkard and such a swearer kept away and rejected before ever they admonished them or exhorted them to Repentance or prove that any one else hath done it much more before they have told the Church or proved that he hath neglected the Churches admonition And some go so much further that they must have all the Churches taken for no Churches till they have gathered them a new and must have all the Parish at once rejected till they have gathered out some few again without any such order of proceeding with them as Christ appointeth It may be a thousand shall be cast out at once when never a one of them was thus admonished Obj. They were never members of a true
well enough bear with themselves in such sins as this or in others as great and that they can beat with as great sins in the people with too much patience when their own interest concurreth not to raise their passions in such cases we have reason enough to fear lest pride and selfishness have too great a part in much that is said and done against schism in the world Is it a greater shame for children to cry and wrangle with the Nurse and one another or for the Nurse or Parents to go to law with them for it or to hate them and turn them out of doors Is it a fault for children to be so impatient as to cry and quarrel And is it not a greater fault in Parents that pretend to greater wisdome to be impatient with them for it I know you will say that Parents must not be so patient with sin as to leave their children uncorrected But I answer correction must not be the effect of impatiency but of Love and Wisedome and dislike of sin and must be chosen and measured in order to the cure of it It s one thing to be angry for God against sin and its another thing to be angry for our selves against the crossing of our wils and interests And it s one thing to correct so as tendeth to a cure And another thing to be revenged or do mischief or to cast out of doors Are not you guilty of Ministerial weaknesses in preaching and praying and of many omissions in your private oversight And do you think that it is meet for the people therefore to revile you with odious titles and stir up the Magistrate against you for your infirmities Is it seemly for them who are the fathers of the flock and should excel the people in Love and lowliness in patience and gentleness and meekness to be so proud and passionate as to storm against the most conscientious persons if they do but set light by us and cast off our Ministery though perhaps they hear and submit to others who are as able and as faithful and more profitable to them than we When we can â—asiâ—er bear with a swearer or drunkard or the families that are prayerless and ungodly than with the most religious if they do not choose our Miniâ—â—â—â—y but prâ—â—er some others before us as more edifying When we can bear with them that have no understanding or seriousness in Religion at all but make the world or their lusts their idols but cannot bear with the weak irregularities of the most upright and devout If they were never so irregular in preferring us before others and in leaving others to follow us we can easily bear with them and think their disorders may be well excused And to shew the height of our pride we still are confident whether we are uppermost or undermost whether we have publick liberty or are forbidden to preach that we are the persons only that are in the right and therefore that all are in the right that follow us and all are in the wrong that turn away from us That it is Unity and duty to follow us and adhere to us and all are Schismaticks who forsake us and choose others And thus the selfishness and Pride of the Pastors making an imprudent and impatient stir against all who dislike them and applauding all how bad soever who adhere to them and follow them is as great a cause of the disorders of the Church as the weakness and errours of the people DIRECT V. Distinguish between those who separate from the Universal Church or from all the Orthodox or purest and Reformed parts of it and those who only forsake the Ministery of some one person or sort of persons without refusing Communion with the rest AS many occasions may warrant a removal from a particular Church but nothing can excuse a separation from the Vniversal Church so he that separateth only from some particular Churches and yet is a member of the Vniversal Church may also be a member of Christ and be saved He may be a Christian who is no member of your flock yea or of any particular Church But he is no Christian who is no member of the Vniversal Church Paul and Barnabas may in the heat of a difference part from one another and yet neither of them part from Christ or the Church-Universal I do not excuse the fault of them who sin against any one Church or Pastor But I would not have the Pastors therefore sin as much by making their fault greater than it is nor to suffer their own interest partially to call men Schismaticks or Separatists in a sense for which they have no ground If they can learn more by another Minister than by me what reason have I to be offended at their edification though perhaps some infirmity of judgement may appear in it A true mother that knoweth her child is like to thrive better by a nurses milk than by her own will be so far from hatred or envy either at the nurse or child that she will consent and be thankful and pay the nurse Solomon made it the sign of the false mother that could bear the dividatur the hurt of the child for her own commodity and of the true mother that she had rather lose her commodity than the child should suffer And Paul giveth God thanks that Christ was preached though it was by them that did it in strife and envy to add affliction to his â—ands Phil. 1. He is not worthy of the name of a Physician who had rather the patients health were deplorate than that he should be healed by another who is preferred before him If I knew that man by whom the salvation of my flock were like to be more happily promoted than by me whatever infirmity of theirs might be the cause I should think my self a servant of Satan the envious enemy of souls if I were against it DIRECT VI. Distinguish between those who deny the Being of the Church or Ministery from which they separate and those who remove only for their own edification as from a weaker or worse Minister and from a Church more culpable and less pure FOr these last are not properly Separatists in a full sense Though they think it unlawful to joyn with you as supposing that you impose some sin upon them or that you deprive them of discipline or some ordinance of God Whether they be in the right or in the wrong yet still they hold inward Communion with you in faith and love and in the same species of worship And this is such a communion as we hold with many forreign Churches with whom we have no local present communion DIRECT VII Distinguish between those who hold it simply unlawful to have communion with you and those who only hold it unlawful to prefer your assemblies before those which they judge more pure but hold it lawful to communicate with you occasionally yea and statedly when they can have
THE CURE OF Church-divisions OR Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being Dividers or Troublers of the Church With some Directions to the Pastors how to deal with such Christians By Richard Baxter Joh. 17. 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me 22. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made Perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast Loved them as thou hast loved me 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 3. 3. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men London Printed for Nevil Symmons at the three Crowns over against Holborn-Conduit 1670. The Authors I. Purpose II. Reasons and III. Prognosticks of this Book I. IT is none of the business of this Book to single out any one Party in the world to tell you by Application how far they are under the guilt of Schism I meddle with the Cause and leave each person to make application to himself It is SIMPLE CATHOLICK CHRISTIANITY which I plead for and the Love and Unity and Concord which are its Ligaments and Essential parts And it is a SECT as a SECT and a FACTION as a faction and not this or that Sect or Faction which I detect and blame Yet I doubt not but as in the same City there are the wise and the foolish the sound and the sick and in the same Army there are valiant men and Cowards so in the same Churches there are Christians of various degrees of Wisdom Integrity and strength And all men should earnestly desire to be of the wisest the Holiest and the most fruitful sort and not of the more erroneous impure or scandalous and unprofitable And if the sick will make themselves a Party and call the sound the Aâ—verse Party I will endeavour to be one of a Party in that sense and to obey God as exactly as I am able and to worship him as spiritually and holily as I can and to Love him with all my Mind and Heart and Strength and lament that I can reach no higher and do no more And if any will call this by the name of Heresie or Schism they shall see that I can avoid Heresie and Schism at as dear a rate as enduring the Name and Imputation of that which I avoid It is not the Name of a Schismatick that I am writing against but the Thing by whatever Name it is called It is UNITY LOVE and PEACE which I am pleading for And it is DIVISIONS HATRED and CONTENTION which I plead against And it is the Hypocrisie of men which I detect who betray Love Unity and Peace by a Iudas kiss and will nor or dare not openly renounce them and defie them but kill them with dissembling kindness who cry them up while they tread them down and follow peace with all men that are not of their party as the Dog followeth the Hare to tear it in pieces and destroy it Who fight for LOVE by making others seem odious and unlovely By evil surmisings proud under valuing the worth of others busie and groundless censuring of men whose case they know not aggravating frailties stigmatizing the persons the actions the worship and religious performances of dissenters with such odious terrible names and Characters as their pride and faction do suggest And all this to strengthen the interest of their side and party and to make themselves and their consenters to seem Wise and Good by making others seem foolish and bad Though they thereby proclaim themselves to be so much the worst by how much they are most void of Love They are all for Concord but it is only on their narrow factions terms They are for Peace but it is not of the whole street but of their house alone or not of the whole City but of their street alone or not of the whole Kingdom but of their City alone O what a blessed thing were peace if all would derive it from their Wills and terminate it in their interest and they might be the Center of Unity to the world that is that they might be Gods or Christs such excellent Architects are they that they can build Christs house by pulling it in pieces and such excellent Chirurgeons that they will heal Christs body by separating the members and can make as many Bodies as there are separated parts 2. Nor is it any or much of the business of this book to speak to those that I think are deepliest guilty of the Schisms of the Christian world For they are out of hearing and will not read or regard my writings It is the Roman Head and Center of Unity which hath done most to divide the Church And it is the contending of Rome and Constantinople for the Supremacy which hath made the greatest Schisms that the Christian world hath known And the Regiment of such Lords must be answerable to their Power and Greatness and the simple terms of Christian Unity left us by Christ and his Apostles must be turned into a Religion large as the Decrees of all the Councels and say half of them and the Popes Decretals also And that there may be no way out of this wilderness but the Confessors present will you must not in all these so much as distinguish fundamentals from the rest but so much material belief is necessary to Salvation as each mans opportunities and helps obliged him to receive that is The faith which is necessary to Salvation materially or objectively is as various as the number of persons in the world To one more is necessary to another less to some none at all of the Christian faith And you must suppose that the Priest is well acquainted with the internal capacity of every mans Soul and with all the instructions opportunities and suggestions of his whole life and can tell what measure of belief he hath and whether it be proportionable to his helps and so can tell him whether he be capable of Salvation though neither Pope nor Councel have given any Standard by which to judge And though no man can be assured of his own Salvation and though another man could not be saved by the faith that saveth him So much are we mistaken to think that it is the Pope that hath the Keys of Heaven when it is every Priest who is the onely judge of the measures of the persons faith These new made multiplyed Articles of Religion