are termed Presbyterians and who put these names upon them Who can with any face affirm that ever these men were members of any Presbyterian Churches in this Kingdom of England or ever had union or communion with them as such how can they then be said to make a Schisme or separation to part away or divide asunder from them who knows not that they are but of yesterday if so they may be said to have yet any being to this day some few it may be shuffled together after a fashion here in this great City but few or none else throughout the Kingdom and who knowes not also that many of these men who are thus reproached by them were such as they are in their opinion and practises long before there was any noise hope or expectation of any Presbyterian Government or Churches to be erected in this Kingdom Object Neither will it help them to say they were Members of the Church of England in the Bishops times and the Church consists of the same Members still Ans. But it s notoriously known that many of them were not so having long before discovered filthinesse in her skirts and if upon the common abjuration of those Officers Offices and wayes the same filthinesse Tyranny Superstition c. being generally by Discourses Conferences Arguments Debates Laws Ordinances and Oaths made known to many more ther have according to their Protestations and Covenants forsaken those wayes and are come up farther in a Reformation then the common light of the State will yet reach to who shall lay this as a crime unto their charge when as the higher powers through a speciall hand of Providence engaging men in a solemn Covenant for Reformation have necessarily forced them hereunto I answer if the Members be such as indeed it is too true this cannot but be a Just cause of breaking from them though men for such a separation ought not to be termed Schismaticks for Schisme is alwayes a causlesse seperation whilst they depart rather from their corruptions then their Communion being ready to joyn with them in such acts of Piety wherein they are not obliged to professe or practise what they are perswaded is Eroneous but I conclude this argument with this Assertion That to leave the Church and to leave the externall Communion of a Presbyterian Church is not one and the same but two distinct things the first is done by ceasing to be a Member of the Church i. e. by ceasing to have those requisites which make constitute a man a Member of it viz. Faith and obedience the second by refusing to communicate with such a Church in her publike worship and service of God I affirme this as a certain and undoubted truth that there is no necessity of communicating with true Believers in evill actions when men are Convinced know and believe they are so nay I assert farther there is a necessity herein of seperation from them and men may without scruple forsake and renounce the receiving and practise of some opinions and observances the which your Churches hold and in which they do communicate but I maintain that this is done without Heresie or Schisme because they have cause to do so and no man can have cause to be a Heretick or Schismatick and so I passe to the third Position which is That in case the name of Sectaries Schismaticks be truly applicable to any persons in this Nation that themselves and no others can so properly deserve that name and that they only make the rent and division that is amongst us my reason is because these men endeavour to force and compell others to the opinion and practise of such tenants as themselves maintain for true when others are convinced they are false a thing themselves did laetly much complaine against and which was hatefull and detestable in the old Episcopacy but is of a sudden grown very laudable and lovely in our new Presbyterie I shall hold forth this truth in these two Assertions which I shall place as Bul-warks to defend these poor harmlesse Sectaries from all the force the Presbyterian enemy can raise against them 1. That not every separation but onely a causlesse or needlesse separation from the externall Communion of any Church is the sin of Schisme If this Position be not sound there can be no justification of the Protestants separation from the Church of Rome nor of those eminent Saints who have in all Ages born witnesse against the errours of that Church 2. That Antichristian spirit and principle of persecution which makes some men to impose on others under penalties a necessity of professing known errours and practising known corruptions is a sufficient just necessary cause of separation and that this is the cause which Protestants alledge to justifie their separation from the Church of Rome now that divers things practised by the Presbyterian Churches are errors known so to be to those that depart from them None without the highest breach of charity can deny nor with lesse impudency affirm they endeavour not that others should believe the same or suffer All that men forsake in them is onely the beliefe practise and profession of their errors And for men not to forsake the belief of their errours having discovered them so to be is impossible and not to forsake the practise and profession of them is damnable hypocrisie Let them free their Churches from requiring the belief practise or profession of any errour or whether they will or no they must free such as depart from them from being Schismaticks for Schism there cannot be in leaving their communion unlesse men were obliged to continue in it And man cannot be obliged by man but to what either formally or virtually he is obliged by God For all just power is from God God the eternall Truth neither can nor will oblige us to believe the least and the most innocent falshood to be a truth that is to erreâ— nor to professe a known errour which is to lie Thus you see that whilest they require the belief practise or profession of any errour amongst the conditions of their Communion the obligation of mens communicating with them ceaseth and so the imputation of Schisme and the names of Horsticks and Secta its vanish into nothing but lie heavy upon themselves for making mens separation just and necessary by requiring unnecessary and unlawfull conditions of their Communion either let them prove then that they erre not at all or forbare those odious names or at least apply them rightly as they ought to themselves If men would be themselves and would be content that others should be so in the choice of their Religion the servants of God and not of men if they would allow that the way to Heaven is no narrower now then Christ left it if all men that believe the Scriptures would free themselves from prejudice and passion and sincerely endeavour to finde out the true sence of them live
the whole discourse and being kept in memory will in some measure enable thee if thou have any knowledge of the things of Christ to judge of truth and Errour in reference to the severall partyes it makes mention of A Church or an Assembly may be said to be true or false in respect 1. Of their Foundation 2. Of their Members 4. Of their Ministry 4 of their Doctrine 5. of their Institutions or Ordinances 6. of their placing and exercise of power Such Assemblies or Churches who have not God in Christ for the foundation or obiect of their worship can in no sence be called true or Christian Churches as the Turkes who worship Mahomet c. And such as doe lay this foundation may in some sence be called true or Christian Churches But then as they depart from the truth of Scripture either in their members ministry doctrines institutions or Ordinances right placing or exercise of power or Administration of Discipline if you please so to cal it in any some or all of those so may they be said to be more or lesse false or Antichristian which is a building wood hay and stubble upon the foundation as by the book of the Revelation it appeares Antichrist hath done in all Ages all which must be destroyed with fire I shall make no farther applycation consider what is said and the Lord give thee understanding in all things THE wisest of meer men hath said it That there is no new thing under the Sun but that which hath been is at this day and what is now shall be afterwards if God prevent not under base and odious names Persecution hath in all Ages been the Saints portion The Scribes and Pharisees in our Saviours time boasted that had they lived in the dayes of their fathers they would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets yet these very men cruelly persecuted and put to death some of the Apostles and Crucified Jesus Christ who was the Lord not onely of the Prophets but of life and glory too though he himself did forewarn them of it and so brought upon their own heads all the bloodshed upon earth from righteous Abel to Zacharias And I fear that all these things are coming upon this Generation else what may be the reason that whilest those that are called and faithfull and chosen in the land who have been with the Lamb and who have through the power of the Lamb overcome that part of the Beast viz. that Antichristian and Malignant power that hath risen up against them at this time in this Nation whilest these I say after all their travell and sorrow in expence of blood and estate are thinking upon the sweet fruit of their long endured hardships and hazards and peace others have whet their tongues sharper then any two edged sword and have dipt their Pens in the blacknesse yea and darknesse of Hell it self continually sending forth most railing and bitter speeches and are thus afresh preparing war against them If new troubles be not creating for these men what mean those daily invective Alarms by such who are called the Ministers of Jesus Christ too which from Presse and Pulpit are ratled in the ears of our most worthy Senators and other subordinate Magistrates in the Kingdom incensing and provoking them contrary to their own judgements and reason against such who by Gods even miraculous blessing upon their weak endeavours have been theirs and the Kingdoms Saviours Sometimes dashing Hell fire in the faces of their consciences to fright them if possible into the same persecution and condemnation with themselves and then otherwhile beseeching them as they tender the Blessings Peace and prosperity of the Nation that they would rise up in indignation against these Heretiques Sectaries and Schismaticks for so they call them the Seducers and deceivers of the people to their utter extirpation the old way of Satan the great Seducer of the Nations and all such who cleave to this present world to besmear the faithfull and godly of the land in all ages with names of ignominy and reproach and so to fall upon them to their ruin and destruction Witnesses of which Truth have the prophets been in all Ages yea Christ himself and his Apostles with all the faithfull Martyrs to this yery day whose accusations still were these men are pestilent fellows movers of sedition ring leaders of Sects broachers of strange Doctrines teaching things contrary to the Law Seducers stirrers up of the people drawing disciples after them speaking against Caesar troublers of the State and the like but the Saints are in expectation that these men who thus resist the people of God as sometimes Jannes Iambres withstood Moses shall not proceed much farther that their folly shal be made manifest to all For this wicked one and all such as act from him and for him shal the Lord consume shortly by the Spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightnesse of his coming as hath in some measure been fulfilled already in our dayes and shall be more and more till Babylon be wholly fallen as a milstone to the bottom of the Sea never to rise again any more and till the Beast be taken and with him the false Prophets and be cast alive into the Lake of fire burning with Brimston If new Gives and Fetters be not contriving for the Saints why are the poor misled and ungratefull Citizens so constantly hurried on with most troublesome and unwearied paines to remonstrate Petition upon Petition and act contrary to the Priviledges of Parliament their own interests and the Kingdomes little dreaming what a foundation they are laying for their own destruction if affairs be transacted after their desires numerously and tumultuously and now formally attending day after day at Westminster as if they intended to force the Parliament to some unjust Laws or Ordinances against other men for satisfaction of their own carnall lusts and others who continually instigate and solicite them to this service Saying in their hearts we will not have this man to reign over us Come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours Let us traduce these men Petition against them and every way make them vile and odious to the Magistrates and the People That now they have subdued the Enemy for us we may divide the places of Honour and Profit amongst our selves passionately and with uncivill language every where complaining of them as Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks and such who though they have ventured lives and estates for their preservations yet because they differ but it may be in some petty circumstance or opinion from them must be thought unfit to breath in the same common aire with them and to enjoy the common priviledges and liberties of Native Subjects though if any they have most right unto them as by birth claiming the same interests with others and having redeemed them well nigh lost by their own prowesse and valour
in the field But to stop the rage of these unstable waters For the waters upon which the Whore sits are multitudes and people and to still this out cry if possible let us consider who these people are and whether or no indeed truth any such persons may be found amongst us who are so called We will first then inquire after the Names themselves and see what they hold forth unto us and what may be concluded thence Secondly We shall prove that though the Presbyteriah Churches were truly constituted and ordered according to the rule of the Word as indeed they are not yet maintaining any errour either in judgement or practice that the rest of the Christians in the Kingdome who joyne not themselves to them cannot truly and properly be termed Schismaticks for this Thirdly we shall clear it we hope to every reasonable understanding that in case these names of Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks be truly to be applied to any persons in this Nation that themselves no others do so properly deserve that name and that they onely make the rent and division that is amongst us For these names we shall speak of them according to the Scriptures onely that foundation upon which if we build we shall stand fast like to mount Zion which cannot be removed and from which if we turn aside we cannot but be shaken into dust being built upon the quick-sand of every unstable mans fancy of whom the holy Ghost hath said Psal. 30. 5. Verily man yea every man at his estate his best estate is vanity nay altogether vanity and that to be laid in the balance he is lighter then vanity nay plainly he is a lie Beware then of men especially such men wo be to them who shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men Who love the uppermost seats at feasts VVho tithe Mint and Anise and Comin and passe over judgement mercy faith and the love of God our too much doting upon men hath forced this expression to return then Heresie is a Greek word having its derivation from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies to chuse so that it holds forth in the generall no more then the choice of any opinion either good or bad So it was used amongst the Heathens Vt non sum in eadem tecum haresi i e. opinione I am not in the same opinion with thee Learned Passor saith it s used in a good sence Act. 24. 14. After the way which men cal Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers the Religion of the Apostles appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ was then called by those who were the strictest professors of that time the great Rabbies and Doctors of the People but blinde leaders of the blinde Heresie or a Sect I wish that now that which comes neerest to Christs Institution and his Apostles were not so judged by the most of men and those who think themselves the wisest too but the world by wisdome knows not God and this wisdome is no better then foolishnesse with God You see briefly what the name Heretick Imports the choice of an opinion not generally received Though sometimes it falls out to be the truth even the truth it selfe the Way the Truth and the Life even Christ himself The next word which is Sect whence comes the common name Sectaries a word now so much in use and this is no other then the Latine of the former Greek word made into English as you may see Acts 5. 17. Chap. 15. 5. And elsewhere where you finde mention made of the Sects of the Saduces and Pharisees and the Originall word is still {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Heresie of the Saduces and Pharisees and so in the place fore quoted Acts 24 14. the choise of Christ and the true christian Religion is called a Heresie so that these two words signifie but one and the same thing only one is the Greek Word and the other is the Latine of it as you may see further in the 1 Cor. 11. 18 19. Which place I alleadge that we may finde out fully the meaning of the last word which is Schisme hath its Etymologie from the Greek word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Findo to cleave or rent asunder as you may finde it used in Matth. 9. 16. Chap. 27. 51. Luke 5. 26. and many other places so that Schisme is properly a seperation or division in a body whose parts were before united and in Scripture signification holds forth a division or discention in Judgement or opinion from others in what was before received and maintained together with them there must be a Vnion or Conjunction before this parting and division according to the true and proper sense of the word or else it cannot be a Schisme the full understanding of the word you may have in Iohn 7 43. and 10. 19. compared with 1 Cor. 11. 18 19. the two first texts tels us there was a division among the people and in the last the tearms Heresie Sect and Schisme are used promiscuously and seem to signifie but the same thing as in ver. 18. I heare there are Schismes among you and I partly beleeve it and in the 19. the Apostle renders the reason of this beliefe for there must be Heresies or Sects or it must be so for this cause that those that are approved may be made manifest So here you have all together and hold out but the very same to us or at most that one is the cause and the other the effect because the choice of an opinion differing from others is oft and hath been an occasion to those that entertain that opinion to divde from others in their practise also thus Heresie hath usually in the ordinarie sense of men referred to the Judgment and Schisme to the practise And because the Churches of the New Testament were every way true and sound both in respect of their Foundation Members Ministry Doctrines Institutions and Censures in their primitive Apostolicall planting therefore those that were once joyned to them and then chose out any opinion to themselves differing from them and upon that opinion made a division and seperation in their practise were in the true genuine signification of the words truly and properly Hereticks and Schismaticks so called but because the Churches of Iesus Christ straight after even in the Apostles time begun to decline from their first purity every way to wax worse and worse till the man of sin mentioned 2 Thess. 2. 3. 6. came fully to be revealed which hath now been for many hundred of yeares therefore such could not be Hereticks and Schismaticks who after the Apostles time and in succeeding ages took up opinions which were contrary both to the Doctrine and Practise of those declining Churches which were now no longer the true Churches of Iesus Christ according to their originall Institution and Plantation but the falfe and faigned
according to them and require no more of others but to do so who doth not see sith all necessary truths are plainly and evidently set down in Scripture there would of necessity be amongst all men in all things necessary unity of opinion unity of love and a spirit of mutuall toleration By which means all Schisme and Heresie would be banished the world and those wretched contentions which now rend and tear in pieces not the coat but the Members and Bowels of Christ which mutual Pride Tyranny cursing killing and damning would fain make mortall should speedily receive a most blessed conclusion By this means indeed should the Lord be one and his name one in the Nations which onenesse is not meant of any outward form but of the onenesse of love and affection in the spirit Doubtlesse at this day the most vehement Accusers are the greatest Schismaticks and those who talk of Uniformity do drive at Tyrannie and will have peace with none but their slaves and vassals By a late learned Antagonist of the Church of Rome and that whilest the Prelates were in their pride it was truly said Nothing is more against Religion then to force Religion Humane violence may make men counterfeit but cannot make them believe and is good for nothing but to breed form without and Atheism within Besides if this means of bringing men to embrace any Religion were generally used as if it may be justly used in any place by those that have power and think they have Truth Certainly it cannot with reason be denied but that it may be used in every place by those that have power as well as they and think they have truth as well as they what could follow but the maintenance perhaps of truth but perhaps only of the profession of it in one place and the oppression of it in a thousand what will follow but the preservation perhaps of unity but perhaps only of uniformity in particular States but the Imortalizing of the great and lamentable division of Christendom and the world Therefore what can follow from it but perhaps in the judgement of carnall policy the Temporall benefit and tranquility of temporall States and Kingdoms but certainly the infinite prejudice if not the desolation of the Kingdom of Christ and therefore it well becomes them who have their portions in this life and serve no higher State then that of England Scotland or Ireland nor this neither no farther then they may serve themselves by its to maintaine by Worldly power and violence their State inframent Religion But they that the indeed lovers of Christ of Truth of the Church of mankinds ought with all courage to oppose themselves against it as Antichristian and a Common enemy to all these They that know there is a King of Kings by whose will and pleasure Kingdoms stand and fall they know that to no King or State any thing can be profitable which is unjust our experiment is too neer us at this day The desolations of our State are witnesses hereof and that nothing can be more evidently unjust then to force weak men by the profession of a Religion which they beleeve not to loose their own eternall happinesse least they loose their temporall Estates and quietnesse there being no danger to any state from any mans opinion unlesse such by which disobedience to authority or impiety is taught unlesse this bloody Doctrine be joyned with it that it is lawfull for the Magistrate by humane violence to enforce men to his own Religion Oh let not our Magistrates in this take part with the scarlet Whore who for these many Ages hath daily sacrificed thousands of poor innocent Christians under the name of Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks Doubtlesse if our Lord Jesus Christ himself would have submitted to the expositions and interpretations which the Priests and Doctors had at that time given out upon the Scriptures they had never crucified him and put him to such open shame But because that he and his apostles after him would according to that new light which they had received endeavour to set up a Reformation all which was yet no other then a clearer and fuller Declaration of what the Scriptures did hold forth above and beyond the light and understanding of these men who were no other then the Divine Presbyterie of those times therefore received they such hard measure from them and suffered as Blasphemers and Hereticks under them and by their censure We have a law and by this law he ought to die Joh. 14. 7. Pilate though the supream Magistrate was no other but their Executioner then as the Civill powers have been in all Generations since to this sort of men who under a pretence of holinesse have daily embrewed their hands in innocent-blood Before I end there are some Texts of Scriptures which seem repugnant to what hath been asserted and would be answered as Object That in Tit. 3. 10. Him that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject this Text placeth a power somewhere both of judging Hereticks and proceeding against them Answ I answer True it is in the Primitive and Apostolical Churches amongst the rest of those gifts which were powred forth by Jesus Christ upon the Saints this was one discerning of spirits 1 Cor. 12. 10. but this gift amongst others in the Apostacy and falling away of the Churches which was foretold by the Apostle 2 Thes. 2. 3. and 1 Ioh. 4. 3. where the holy Ghost saith expresly that instead of the Spirit of Christ the spirit of Antichrist should come and was already was lost and because of the want hereof the Saints whom God hath stirred up to bear witnesse to the truth in their severall Ages ever since have unrighteously suffered been persecuted and put to death under this notion and name of Hereticks Secondly In case some Heresies may be so grosse that even to this day he that runs may read and the Saints according to that small measure of the spirit which they have received might judge them so to be yet this text belongs to the Church as their portion and not to the civill Magistrate as a Magistrate and what censure or punishment soever this rejection was it was to be executed by the Ecclesiasticall and not by the Civill power so that to apply such texts as this to the power of the Magistrate is one of the most grosse and palpable wrestings of Scripture that can be and yet is too common amongst the Gentlemen of the Jus Divinum Tribe in their discourses printed and unprinted as I my self not long since before the House of Commons at a Publique Fast heard that of Rev. 2. 20. Because thou sufferest that woman Iezabel c. which was written to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira either weakly or wilfully alledged to justifie their power viz. the Magistrates in spirituall things by which you may take a scantling of that gift among them Thirdly Supposing Churches with this