alteration by the FRIVOLOUS suggestions of any LIGHT spirit Neither are wee ignorant of the inconveniences that do arise in GOVERNMENT by admitting INNOVATIONS in things once SETTLED by mature deliberation and how necessary it is to use CONSTANCY in the upholding of the publick determinations of states for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions affecting every year NEW forms of things as if they should bee followed in their unconstancy would make all actions of state RIDICULOUS and contemptible Whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established is the weal of Common-Wealths Thus far of the first point of Independency viz. Separation the second and third Congregation and non Subjection have been spoken to above and of the causes of my recess from the Church thereunto with responsals to them Wherein for the clearing of things I have been much larger than my self intended But yet Absit enim ut multiloquium deputem quando necessaria dicuntur quantalib Sermonum multitudine ac prolixitate dicantur Aug. God forbid dhat I should count that Aug. Prolog in lib. Retract multitude of words when nothing is said but what is necessary although it be uttered with never so great a number of speeches or length of discourse saith S. Austin CHAP. IX The Proof and Tryal of these Retractations SECT I. LEt mee now subjoyn a certain proof and as it were divine tryal or attestation of these Retractations and then I shall conclude and dismiss the Reader It is one of the gracious providences which Almighty God exerciseth towards his Servants to put them to the tryal of their Faith and Profession 1 Cor. 3. 1 Pet. 1. and that by fire So the Apostle That the tryal of your Faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tryed by fire c. Hence hee smites them into the place of Dragons and covers them with the shadow of death that by extremity being put to examine their grounds if they were insufficient they might not dye for Psal 44.20 or in them and if good they might stick the closer to them Hereupon oftentimes sufferings sickness and the approach of death occasions the repenting of those things whereof men have been very confident Vid. The speeches of the Gent. that suffered as communicated by the publick intelligencer Mr. Cook As appeared now of late in the sad Example of those Gentlemen who suffered about the death of our late Soveraign As may bee seen on publication of the speeches of some of them and the wonderful consternation and unpreparedness for death of Mr. Peters And touching Mr. Cook I remember that hee being of the Independent opinion and writing a book for that way wrote also soon after the death of the King a vindication and defence of that his act Wherein hee much glorieth in the office hee performed in that affair Sollicitor as I take it he was and among other things hath these That hee was indifferent whether hee dyed by a stab or a pistol or by a Feaver or Consumption That in his pleading against other malefactors hee used to tremble but that in his actings against the King his blood sprung in his veins Yet wee hear he was of another minde at his death but whether so or no I insist not on it The prophane Schism of the Brownists chap. 7. pag. 41. And there is remarkable story in a Book intitled The prophane Schism of the Brownists written by some that had been in that seduction of a certain Minister one Mr. Gilgate who was misled that way and of Mr. Ainsworths company Who lying on his sick-bed and in peril of death uttered by way of repentance these most savoury and considerable words O Lord rebuke mee not in thine anger Psal 6. neither chastise mee in thy wrath for thine arrows have light upon mee and thine hand lieth upon mee There is nothing sound in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there rest in my bones because of my sin c. Having now long time been afflicted with sharp and grievous sickness whereby it hath pleased God to bring mee into more serious and deep consideration of my estate Note in separating from the Churches of Christ and still finding my separation to bee more unlawful the more I consider the same And while I felt my felt at the weakest and sickest and so pressed with the force of my disease that I even doubted of life I left my conscience most pressed with desire Note to revoke my separation And therefore do now think it my duty before I bee taken away hence and bee found no more or howsoever the Lord shall dispose of mee by life or death to give testimony to the truth whereof I am perswaded in my soul And as mine own disease and the hand of God stretched out upon mee The disease of the separation moveth mee to consider and testifie these things so the disease of the separation and the hand of God which I see to be stretched out a-against it doth also draw mee on the other side unto the same thing The disease of the separation is a hot and burning disease that consumeth and destroyeth many with the poisonous and contagious heat thereof of every company among them is a flame of condemnation to devour another The boyl of their contention swelleth and burneth incessantly and they have yet no poultess to break it nor any oyl to mollifie the same Then speaking of Mr. Ainsworth's and Mr. Johnson excommunicating one anothers members with much bitterness hee addeth It appears they never travelled in pain of them Note they never begot them by their Ministry but having seduced and stolen these children from the sides of other true Churches the right Mothers in whose womb they they were regenerate and born anew they are now become hard-hearted c. Like the false Mother that would have the childe divided And a little after I do now by this writing unfeignedly acknowledge my sin to bee great in renouncing the communion with so many faithful servants of God with whom once I lived Church of England Note In the Church of England I sinned against and dishonoured his name in refusing to hear the word of life preached in those Assemblies The life comfort and salvation that I expect and hope for in the Kingdome of Heaven is by the Faith of the Gospel preached in that Church and preached there with more power fruit and efficacy Note than I ever yet heard in the Churches of the Separation Then speaking of the Lady C. that desired to be in that way hee adds But for my part having now had sufficient experience of their waies I do freely acknowledge and profess in this bed of my sickness from which I know not whether ever I shall arise unto my former health that it should bee my great comfort to dye in the communion of those Churches
under the degree and calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiat Church and they upon the Kings days and Festival days do take occasion by the expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any set discourse or common place otherwise than by opening the coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect and natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562. or in some of the Homilies Note set forth by authority in the Church of England not onely for a help for the non-preaching but withal for a pattern and boundary as it were for the preaching Ministers And for their further instruction for the performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two books of Homilies This I say had they observed the sound godly and comfortable doctrine therein contained might perhaps have so endeared them as not to be traduced by them so reproachfully that I say not their peoples edification the Kingdoms quiet and their own peace might have been more then now it is or like to be As to particulars the instances they give are few in number but two and weak in strength to bear up so heavy a charge as false doctrine The first is out of the Homily of the time and place of prayer part 1. Particular exception against the Homilies 2. 't is said that therefore plurality of wives was by special prerogative suffered to the Fathers of the old Testament because every one hoped and prayed that the blessed seed that should break the Serpents head might come of his stock The Brethren except As if every one did not know out of what Tribe Christ was to issue I answer No for these words may refer unto the Fathers more antient before any distinction of Tribes were Secondly After the distinction of Tribes it was long before this truth was made known and not till the latter Prophets if even by them understood of the people The next place is out of the Homil. of Alms-deeds part 2. pag. 160. The same lesson doth the Holy Ghost teach us in sundry places of Scripture saying Mercifulness and alms-giving purgeth from all sins and delivereth from death and suffereth not the soul to come into darkness The wise Preacher the son of Sirach confirmeth the same when he saith That as water quencheth burning fire even so mercy and alms resisteth and reconcileth sins Two particular places excepted against Against this passage they have three Exceptions 1. Against the expression reconcileth sins excellent sense say they Well we shall see how good theirs will be anon 2. Against the matter 3. Against the proof of it first for the matter they say that a charitable construction of them may be wyar-drawn implying they are not simply justifiable But why did not the Brethren retain so much ingenuity I say not honesty as to give the Homilies own explication of them which in that very page and the next saith But ye shall understand How good works do away sins dearly beloved that neither those places of Scripture before alledged neither the doctrine of the blessed Martyr Cyprian neither any other godly and learned man when they in extolling the dignity profit fruit and effect of vertuous and liberal alms do say that it washeth away sins and bringeth us to the favour of God do mean that our works and charitable deeds is the original cause of our acceptation before God or that for the dignity or worthiness thereof our sins may be washed away and we purged and cleansed of all the spots of our iniquity for that were indeed to deface Christ Note and to defraud him of his glory But they mean this and this is the understanding of those and such like sayings That God of his mercy and special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting salvation hath so offered his grace especially and they have so received it fruitfully that although by reason of their sinful living outwardly they seemed before to have been the children of wrath and perdition yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto obedience unto Gods will and commandments they declare by their outward deeds and life in the shewing of mercy and charity which cannot come but of the spirit of God and his especial grace that they are the undoubted children of God appointed to everlasting life And a little after The meaning then of these sayings in the Scriptures and other holy Writings How to understand the Script and Fathers concerning good works Alms-deeds do wash away our sins and mercy to the poor doth blot out our offences is That we doing these things according to Gods will and our duty have our sins indeed washed away and our offences blotted out not for the worthiness of them but by the grace of God Note which worketh all in all And that for the promise that God hath made to them that are obedient to his commandement that he which is the truth might be justified in performing the truth due to his promise Alms-deeds do wash away our sins because God doth vouchsafe then to repute us as clean and pure when we do them for his sake and not because they deserve or merit our purging Note or for that they have any such strength or merit in themselves In which words a double account is given of those expressions in Scripture which seem to attribute justification and salvation unto good works First Because they declare a man to be the child of God and to be endued with his Spirit and so do evidence that his sins are pardoned Secondly Because God hath unto believers promised a reward unto his own graces and especially that of Love and that which is prima charitatis deificantis filia eleemosyna as Theophylact calls it the eldest daughter of divine Charity Almes-giving Then which what could be spoken more Orthodox or more comfortable I know not But secondly Lest they should say these Answers are invented to salve Apocryphal and other human expressions they are to remember that the same doctrine for substance is delivered by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles Matth. 5.7 Chap. 6.14 As where he saith Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Again If ye forgive your Heavenly Father will forgive you which proceeds upon the same ground Luke 11.41 Also Give almes of such things as yee have and behold all things are clean unto you Calvan Harm Which Calvin expounds in this sense And in the next Chapt. Sell that ye have and give Almes Provide your selves bags which wax not old Luke 12.33 A treasure in the Heavens that faileth not c. And that expression Love covers a multitude of sins is used by the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 4.8 Gal. 5.6 as well as James to the same effect And the
this Vine that it may grow up and flourish and as a sense unto this Vineyard full of choice plants both from breaking in upon it by odious calumnies and from others breaking out and making it but a stalking-horse to shoot at further game That they would preserve it sarta tecta which hath for its matter the sacred Doctrine for form the divine Worship for use both a Sanctuary for a godly soul and a Bulwark against the lesser Vermine and greater beasts of Separation and Popery And in a word hath been consecrated unto us and came swimming in the bloood of Martyrs and sealed by the holy Ghost unto our hearts and by the presence of God on our outward blessings Finally Act. 5.6 Edw. 6. 1 Eliz. 1. That they would please to reflect on and revive that wherein the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal For establishing the Book of Common-prayer and all the Commons in this present Parliament assembled doth in Gods Name earnestly require and charge all the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the uttermost of their knowledge that due and true execution hereof for establishing the Liturgy may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges Note as they will answer before God for such evils and plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and wholesome Law I have done with the two first the Doctrine and Worship the Articles and Liturgy CHAP. VI. Of the Assemblies their matter and mixture SECT I. The means of preserving them from corruption COme we to the third that is the Assemblies the impurity whereof is a grand motive unto Independents and Separation wherein the Church is clear the guilt must lie either on the negligence of persons entrusted or the necessity of times and the condition of the Church The Laws The Laws do meet with all both criminal and penal offences and evils if these be executed there can be no notorious offendors And there are but two things necessary to preserve an Assembly pure Instruction and Correction or Discipline upon offendors Now the Church hath strictly appointed Catechism through all the grounds of Christian Religion prohibiting any to come unto the Lords Table Rubrick after the Confirmation who cannot give an account of them and for the better ripening thereunto hath ordained confirmation as a preparative And for Discipline to preserve the Congregation pure the Rubrick before the Order of the Holy Communion hath these words So many as intend to be partakers of the Holy Communion Rubrick before the Communion shall signifie their names to the Curate c. And if any of those be an open and notorious evil liver or have done any wrong the Curate having knowledge thereof shall advertise him in any wise not to presume to the Lords Table until he have openly declared himself that he hath repented truly and amended and that he have recompensed the party whom he hath wronged or at the least declare himself to be in full purpose so to do The same order shall the â—urate use with those betwixt whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign NOT SVFFERING them to be partakers of the Lords Table until he KNOW them to be reconciled Wherein you see there is full provision made for the purity of the Church The Authors of necessity of Reformation pag. 48. say of this Rubrick for its fulness in point of Discipline What is this but as much and as high Jurisdiction as any Bishop can use in that particular Object But I am not ignorant that this Rubrick hath not served for a Plea at all seasons Cases may so fall out Respons that summum jus may be summa injuria and as in the Civil so in the Ecclesiastical Judicatories there may be cause to fly to the Courts of Equity for the moderation of the rigor of the letter of the Law But the intention of the Church is plain and if it can not always attain its end yet Est aliquid prodire tenus Independents Acknowledgement si non datur ultra Yea and the congregational Brethren themselves acknowledge That whatsoever defilements they apprehended in the Worship or Government of the Church yet it did never work in them any other thought much less opinion but that MULTITUDES of the Assemblies and PAROCHIAL Congregations Apologet. narrat pag. 6. were the true Churches and Body of Christ And again in the same page We always have professed and that in these times when the Churches of England were the most either actually overspread with defilements or in the greatest danger thereof that we both did and would hold a COMMUNION with them as CHURCHES of Christ Which reminds me of a speech of one in his dealing with persons of these Principles Aug. contr Parmen lib. 1. cap. 8. Et adversum nos loquuntur nobiscum loquuntur cum eos obmutescere compellat veritas silere non permittit iniquitas that is They speak against us and they speak for us and when truth constraineth them silence yet their iniquity will not let them hold their peace But touching the purity of the Assemblies it is no doubt with the Church in this life as it is with every member of it who if sensible hath cause deeply to cry out with the Apostle under the sense of the mixtures of corruption Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. Would we have mixtures born with in our selves if Hanc veniam petimus demus vicissim let us yield it to the Body especially seeing we have for our warrant not onely the state of the Jewish Church which in its greatest Apostacy was owned by the Lord as his Spouse and the Members of it for his Children Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement Isa 50.1 Ezek. 16.20 And thou hast taken my children which thou hast born unto me and offered them to idols Neither is it sufficient here to say Robins Apol. for Separat cap. 12. That this Church was holy in Abraham and also a typical one for it was to be holy in it self and a real Church too as well as typical for they did eat the same spiritual meat c. 1 Cor. 10. And the Catholick Church comprehends the Jewish as well as that which is Christian properly as is truly asserted in the seventh Article of the Confession of the Church of England We have not onely this president but also the example of our Lord and Saviour who communicated with that Church and did not gather another out of it till the consummation of that Polity and till they had declared themselves open adversaries to the scope of Scripture both in Doctrine and Worship In the mean time both going up to their feasts and commanding his Hearers to attend upon the Doctrine of their Teachers Mat. 23.2 3. and himself living and dying a member