dilemmatically either by Peace and Union you mean inclusive Union with Christ and the Unity of the Spirit one Faith one hope and Union of Christian Love and by Communion a Communion in things necessary to salvation or you do not If you do then this is the true Paraphrase of your words They may have all the Essentials of a true Church except all the Essentials for those they have not If you do not include these then this is the Paraphrase They may be true Believers and penitent and love God and Man sincerely and be Members of Christ and have his Spirit and one Baptism and one true hope of Heaven and the pardon of sin and yet be Rebels and damned for want of somewhat ese which I call Unity Peace and Catholick Communion I think you mean subjection to such as you in all your Canonical Impositions In short the plain truth of this Case I before opened viz. When disobedience to true Church-â—astors proveth tâ— be as Adultery and Murder sins signifying such Predominance of the Flesh and absence of Divine Faith and Love as is inconsistent with 〈◊〉 then it is damning as other grâ—ss and reigning sin is But else it â—uts not off from Christ and if the Prelates pretend to cut off such they are liker to cut off themselves § 33 His rare distinction he fullier openeth which is Between the Visible Church and the one true Catholick Visible Church The Visible Church comprehends all Societies of professed Christians Hereticks Idolaters or whatever they be Tâ—e one true Catholick Church 〈◊〉 not Ans. I have answered this before It 's well the distinction is not commonly observed as the Coyner saith for it would be a common abuse Hitherto we have known but one Universal Church considered as Mystical in Believers or Visible in Prosessors of the same and not another Faith Profest Idolaters or Hereticks that deny the Essential are no Members of it as Visible But this Doctor hath forged an One true Catholick Church less than the Visible and yet Visible Could he have spoken sence he would but have said The Universal Visible Church hath some Members that are sound orderly and peaceable and some that are erroneous disorderly and unruly even as it hath some holy and some Adulterers Thieves and Persecutors In a great house are some Vessels of Earth to dishonour § 34. I fear if I should survey but half the confused passages of this book I should tire the Reader as well as my self I will be briefer with the rest P. 94 95 c. He giveth us an allay against the tenor of his Excommunications and Damnations to shew that he is not so uncharitable as he seems to be and that his Canon that maketh so great a noise hath but Powder without Bullet I look he should say I misunderstand him and therefore I will not tell you his meaning but the sum of his words viz. p. 87. to shew us why Those that believe in Christ repent of their sins and lead an holy life in all godliness and honesty may yet be excluded from all the ordinary means of salvation He first blames them that in these days have thought Holiness so sufficient and would cheat his Reader by citing Austin as of that mind who hath no mention in the words which he cites of Faith Holiness Love to God or to his Saints or Service but only a Catalogue of such Virtues as Heathens or â—nfidels plead for viz. Chastity Continence not coveâ—â—us not serving Idols not contentious patient quiet emulating and envying none sober frugal But yet an Heretick who is without the Christian Faith and Love so far is he from including these in his Description But no doubt he will have some Readers that will swallow all such Hooks as these Then supposing men have no Love that communicate not on his terms nor love the Peace and Unity of the Church unless they joyn in such Principles as his that would destroy it he tells us truly that Heaven is only the Gift of Christ as merited by him and therefore can be had only on his terms and that is only in Communion with his Church and by his Sacraments Ans. And what Christ's Terms are he hath told us Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved John 3.16 Whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life c. The Whole Gospel is a Charter of salvation to all that have true Faith Hope Love and Holiness And all such are in the Church of Christ. 2. And as ordinarily doth the Scripture tell us that the preaching of the Gospel is the means of faith and holiness by which God saveth them that believe and that by the hearing of faith preached the spirit is given Gal. 3.2 c. Rom. 10.14 17. John 5.24 Acts 18.8 Acts 10.44 The holy ghost fell on all them that heard the word before they were baptized even the miraculous gift of the Spirit Matth. 13.18 Mark 4.20 Luke 8.13 21. and 11.28 Christ himself preached but did not baptize He sent forth his Disciples to convert men by preaching Matth. 10.7 and 11.1 Mark 1.38 and 3.14 Luke 4.18 19 43. and 9.2 60. Acts 5.42 and 10.42 and 8.5 25 35 40. and 9.20 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Cor. 1.17 Paul saith he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel John 15.3 Ye are clean through the word c. John 6.63 The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and life John 17. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth 6.68 and 8.30 2 Cor. 5.19 20. 1 Tim. 5.17 and 1.2 John 4.2 It is able to save souls James 1.21 1 Pet. 2.2 John 8.31 Heb. 4.12 It is able to make us wise to salvation It is by the word of God that men are born again as an incorruptible seed 1 Pet. 1.23 It is that abiding in us that is our continued life 1 Iohn 2.14 There is no mention in Scripture of any one that was converted and made a Believer by Baptism or the Lord's Supper The Adult were all to repent and believe before they were baptized and God promised them forgiveness thereupon He never bid men baptize Infidels nor graceless men Baptism was but the publick solemnizing of the Covenant which they consented to before and the solemn investing them in that relation to which they were before entered And entring them by Baptism stated them in the Universal Church before ever they were setled under any particular Pastor in a particular Church as the case of the Eunuch Acts 8. shews But that which I call his Allay is that he copiously tells us that Heaven is a supernatural state of happiness and not the natural reward of an eartly creature p. 92 93. It is but an earthly happiness that Nature was made for and was promised to Adam in Paradise an immortal life on Earth An immortal life after death cannot be the natural Reward Innocent flesh is flesh Were it not for Heaven
sound and moving words are set before an unready Speaker they help his affection more than his own shorter and unmeeter words would do And his mind being not taken up with the study of words is the freer to attend its affections You must not measure all Mens Volubility of Speech by your own I can truly say that Forms are oft a help to me I find young and old Christians are more fit to use them than the middle-aged For the young cannot at first pray well at least before others without them till use hath taught them And the old have discretion to fit their Affections to sound words oft repeated But the middle-aged that have a greater Heat and a lesser Light are much more taken with their own sudden Effusions and Expressions Do you think that when Calvin formed the Liturgy for Geneva and France he had so Malignant a Design as to defeat the Spirits help Or do our English Psalms and Tunes quench the Spirit and are they used to keep Men from the Gift of making Hymns Ex tempore 2 I answered your Minor first because it is matter of Fact but your Major also is untrue For that which is imposed with an ill Intent may be used to a good one And that which hurteth some may be a help to others If the Parish Churches were all built to serve Popery and the Mass and dedicated to Saints yet we may use them lawfully to better Purposes If Priests Marriages be forbidden for ill Ends it may be forborn for good Ends. If Glebe and Tythes were here given first to maintain the Mass they may be used to maintain sound Teachers It was Popes that reverst the old Custom of not adoring kneeling on any Lords day And yet you may lawfully kneel then in Prayer Yea tho they brought in kneeling to the Host by that Alteration XXV Errer So that this is another Error And your Confirmations are not true D. O. Hereon the Church lived and acted for several Ages performing all Divine Worship in their Assemblies by vertue of the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit and no otherwise When these things were neglected when the way of attaining and the exercise of them appeared too difficult to Men of carnal minds this way of Worship by a Prescribed Liturgy was insensibly brought in to render the Promise of Christ and the Work of the holy Ghost in the Administration of Gifts useless And herein two things do follow § 13. 1. IT is a great Error to think that the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit may not be exercised if we use the same words or if they be prescribed The chief help of Gods Spirit lieth in giving us a due esteem of the things prayed for and a holy Desire after them and a lively Faith and Hope that we shall obtain them and a fixed Resolution to use all other means for them and avoid all that would deprive us of them And doubtless he that hath these mental Dispositions hath thereby a great help for his Expression of them for out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh But 1. It 's well known that Use and Knowledge can enable an Hypocrite to pray as long and in as good Words and earnest Tone as a sincere Christian. 2. That which is easiest needeth the least help It is to me so much easier to speak my own thoughts in Prayer ex tempore than to remember a form of words that never since I was twenty years old did I ever learn and say without Book the words of one Prayer or one Sermon since I Preacht to have learnt a Prayer or Sermon without Book would have cost me ten times and more both time and labour and fear of being out than I ever used or could afford 3. Pardon me for asking Whether if this Author put all the Errors of this his writing into a Prayer or Sermon he did not need more help of the Spirit to have avoided them and to have spoken nothing but truth than to have fluently uttered so many mistakes He hath heard those called Arminians on one side and Antinâ—mians on the other oft fluently express their Opinions in Gods Worship The former he took to be heinous Errors Had not all these had more of the help of Gods Spirit if they had uttered nothing but true and good in a form than they had to speak so much Error and Evil to God or Man with extemporate fluency 4. May not a man use the Lords Prayer by the Spirits help If I have any help of Gods Spirit it is more in the use of that Prayer than at any other time 5. May not one sing Psalms by the help of the Spirit unless he make them extempore I doubt you lay too much on words Gods Spirit worketh on the heart and its greatest help is in its greatest gifts which are Faith Repentance Love Desire c. and not words Words must be used and weighed but the main work is heart work and God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit when we have but groans which we canot express and cry but Abba Father But you come to History and add another misreport in the words XXVI Error and no otherwise that the Church for several ages Worshipped no otherwise than by such gifts as you describe which exclude Liturgick forms It 's plain in the descriptions of Iustin and Tertullian that they did use extemporate Prayer then but not that they did no otherwise 1. Tertullian himself giveth you their form of a Creed and so do many others 2. They used a set form of words in Baptizing 3. And they constantly used singing Psalms and Hymns which were not made ex tempore nor by every singer 4. They used the Lords prayer in form often 5. At the Lords Supper they had divers words of form and responses In Cyprian some parcels are to he seen and in divers others 6. The truth is our History of the Churches manner of Worship for the first two hundred years is so little that we know but little how they did it beside the foresaid two passages in Iustin and Tertullian But by what is in the Historians of the next Ages and by the Churches general use of the Liturgies without contradiction soon after and what Daillee hath gathered de cultu Latinorum c. we know that no otherwise is not true 2. It 's too true that the carelesnesâ— sloth and worldly alienations of Ministers made all useful sufficiency for the work of the Ministry in Praying and Preaching to be neglected and doth to this day But I hope no wise man dreameth that all the Pastors had one soul or one mind and design If any Malignants used or enjoyned forms to make â—hrists promise and the Spirits help useless others used them and promoted the use of them for the performance of Christs promise and the Spirits help 1. Because there were not when publick countenance increased the Churches half enough
men for the Ministry that had the extemporate gifts of Prayer and Preaching 2. And you confess that each Church had then many Elders for oversight besides those that laboured in the Word and Doctrine Do you believe that all these had such extemporate gifts of utterance Or that these might not on occasion Pray and Preach 3. If Parents teach Children necessarily to Pray in a prescribed form of words without designing to defeat Christ or his Spirit but to subserve them how can you tell but the first prescribers of publick forms did mean as well when they found few persons able to do so well without and abundance of Hereticks ready to corrupt Gods Worship with their Errors 4. Let it be soberly considered Whether mens long and hard Study for all the words which they write in Books and for their Sermons be done to defeat Christ and his Spirit or to subserve them And why the use of words studied by others and weighed by us before we utter them should defeat the Spirit any more than words premeditated by our selves Or at least is not the Spirit as much defeated in the People that joyn who ever prepareth the words For they do not themselves put them up by their gift of utterance And its impossible when you speak for the people to know whether those words were before studied and whether by your self or by another from whom you borrowed them I have heard Mr. Ph. Nye wish that some men were sent into Wales and other such places with an injunction to read good Sermon Books to the people such as Dr. Prestons Sibbs c. was this spoken to defeat the Spirit or to serve him D. O. 1. A total neglect of all gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Administration of Church-worship and Ordinances § 14. THe first Consequence is an untruth No doubt but Liturgies were abused to cherish Ignorance and Negligence XXVII Error But that the neglect was total is not true whether you respect all the Churches or all the parts of Worship and Ordinances 1. The many holy and excellent Men whose fame and writings are transmitted to us did not totally neglect all gifts of the Holy Ghost Were all the great Volumes of Sermons preached and written by Chrysostome without any gift of the Holy Ghost Or was Preaching no Ordinance Were all Augustine's elaborate Volumes done without him Or all Cyprian's Macarius Ephrem Syrus Basil's Gregory's yea or Bernard's Homilies and Works 2. Are the gifts of Holy Desire Faith Hope Repentance no gifts of the Holy Ghost Or can you prove that these were all totally neglected in the administration of Church-worship 3. It 's known thar in the Exercise of Discipline which is a Church-Ordinance and in Catechizing and Preaching they were not tied only to a form of words no nor in all Confession Prayer and Thanksgiving 4. It 's a great blow to the Universal Church to say That it totally neglected all the gifts of the Holy Ghost D. O. 2. When a Plea for the Work of the Holy Ghost began to be revived it produced all the enmity hatred and contempt of and against the Spirit of God himself and his whole Work in the Church which the World is now filled withal § 15. THat word his whole work in the Church is another mis-report XXVIII Error It is not his whole work that is so contemned A man may preach for Mercy to the Poor for Obedience to Authority for Love c. and he may sing Psalms of Praise and pray for Pardon and for Kings and Magistrates and for daily Bread and may profess to believe the Creed and Scripture c. without the contempt which you describe But no doubt but Malignity will take advantage of Liturgies and of almost any thing and so hath still done All is not unlawful which bad men abuse What is more turned against Christ in the world abroad than his Two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry What more abused to strife than the Sacrament of Love Union and Communion Are all these therefore unlawful And it 's a palpable Mistake That the foresaid scorn of all done by the Spirit ariseth from hence alone XXIX Error a justification of the devised way of Worship It ariseth more from a malignant enmity to serious godliness and from worldly interests and designs and from the slanders of Seducers that accuse good men and too much from the miscarriages of many that have boasted most of the Spirit as Quakers Ranters Familists c. do And Experience confuteth you For all those Countries that make but little use of Liturgies have yet malignant parties that hate and oppose spiritual serious Exercises of Religion D. O. All the Reproaches that are daily cast upon the Spirit of Prayer all the concontempt and scâ—rn which all Duties of religious Worship performed by his aid and assistance are entertained withal ariseth from hence alone namely a justification of this devised way of Worship as the only true way and means thereof Take this away and the wrath and anger of men against the Spirit of God and his wâ—rk in the Worship of the Church will be abated yea the necessity of them will be evident Tâ—is we cannot comply with lest we approve the original design of it and partake in the sins which proceed from it § 16. BEcause you lay the main stress of your Cause on History and Experience you constrain me to add some more History which I had rather have past by But if I set not Experience against Experience I shall leave abundance unto the danger of error who can judg by little else than Experience and that see and feel what 's present and forget what is long past and gone The Truth I have opened in my Christian Directory that both ways are liable to great abuse and all humane actions have their inconveniences The benefits of a sound Liturgy are 1. To keep out Heresie and ill words from publick worship 2. To be a help to men of unready utterance 3. That the people may know before-hand what they joyn in The inconveniences are 1. The dulling of Affection in hearing still the same words 2. The tempting of slothful worldly Candidates and Ministers to learn no other way of praying when this will serve all their worldly turns But I must add That this followeth not the imposing of a Liturgy but the exclusion of other Prayer and taking up with this alone 2. The conveniences of praying from an habit are 1. A just variation as Occasions vary 2. Help to fresh Affection 3. Forcing Ministers to get ability for utterance The inconveniences are 1. That the people know not till the words are past whether they may own them and so hardly try all and follow with just consent 2. That abundance of young raw unskilful men do ordinarily disgrace Prayer by their unskilful methods and expressions 3. That Hereticks and erroneous men have great opportunity to put their sins into their
Union of Soul and Body makes a man and an Embryo before it be organized 2. The Union of the Body maketh it capable of the Souls further Operation 3. The Union of the Organical chief parts as Heart Lungs c. to the rest make it a true humane Body compleated to the nutriment and action of Life 4. That it have Hands and Fingers Feet and Toes and all integral parts makes it an intire Body 5. The due site temperament and qualities of each part make it a sound Body 6. Comely colour hair action going speech c. make it a comely Body 7. To have all parts of equal quantity and office would make it uncomely And to have the same hair colour c. is unnecessary at all 1. The Union of King and Subjects as such makes a Kingdom 2. That the People be agreed for one conjunct interest and Government maketh them a Community capable of Politie or Government 3. That there be Judges Maiors and Justices and subordinate Cities or Societies maketh it an Organized Body in which Kingly Government may be exercised to its end the common good 4. That no profitable part be wanting Judge Justice Sheriff c. maketh it an entire Kingdom 5. That all know their place and be duly qualified with Wisdom Love Justice Conscience Obedience to God first to the Sovereign Power next to Officers next c. maketh it a sound and safe Kingdom 6. That it be well situate fertile rich eminent in Learning Skill c. maketh it an adorned beautiful Kingdom 7. That all be equal in Power and wealth is destructive and that all be of one Age complexion calling temper degree of knowledge c. is impossible And that all have the same language cloathing utensils c. is needless at least VII Jesus Christ is the only Universal Soveraign of the Church both of vital influence and Government nor hath he set up any under him either Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or mixt Pope Council or diffused Clergy that hath the Power of Legislation and Judgment as governing the whole Chorch but only Officers that per partes govern it among them each in his Province as Justices do the Kingdom and Kings and States the World nor is any capable of more VIII To set up any universal Legislators and Judge Pope or Council is to set up an Usurper of Christs Prerogative called by many a Vice-Christ or an Antichrist and as bad as making one man or Senate the Soveraign of all the Earth and to attempt the setting up of such or any forreign Iurisdiction in this Land is to endeavour to perjure the whole Kingdom that is sworn against it in the Oath of Supremacy and sworn never to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State in the Corporation Oath the Vestry Oath the Militia Oath the Oxford Oath with the Uniformity Covenants And if any should endeavour to introduce such a forreign Jurisdiction who themselves have had a hand in driving all the Kingdom to all these Oaths against it I doubt whether all the Powers of Hell can devise a much greater crime against Clergy Cities and all the Land Good reason therefore had Doctor Isaac Barrow to write against it as he hath done and to confute Mr. Thorndike and all such as of late go that pernicious way by the pretence of Church Union and Communion As if one universal Soveraign and Legislator and Judge were not enough to unite Christs Kingdom or man could mend his universal Laws and could not stay for his final judgment and Churches and Kingdomes might not till then be ruled without one humane universal Soveraign by necessary and voluntary agreement among themselves XI To be a true Believer or Christian or the Infant seed of such devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant uniteth each Member first to Christ himself directly and consequently to his Body or Church and this coram Deo as soon as it is done by heart consent and coram Ecclesia regularly as soon as he is invested by Baptism which Baptism when it may be had so is regularly to be administred by none but an authorized Minister or Deacon but if through necessity or mistake it be done by a Lay-man the Ancient Christians took it not for a nullity much less if the Baptizer was taken for a Minister by mistake being in his place and if no Baptism can be had open covenanting is vallid X. The Papists and their truckling Agents here have here hampered themselves in a fatal contradiction To make themselves masters of the World they would perswade us that Sacraments only regenerate and sanctifie and that God saveth none by any known way and grant but by his Covenant Sealed by the Sacraments and that he authorizeth none to administer this Covenant but Prelates and their Priests and none can validly have it from other hands And so if you will but abate them the proof of many things that stand in the way Heaven and Hell Salvation and Damnation are at the will and mercy of such Prelates and Priests But unhappily they cannot retrieve their old Opinion but maintain that Lay-men and Women may baptize in necessity validly and that Baptism puts one into a State of Salvation XI As he that swears and keeps his Allegiance to the King is a Subject and Member of the Kingdom though he be no Member of any Corporation so though he disown a thousand fellow Subjects yea though he deny the Authority of Constable Justice Judge so he that is devoted to Christ truly in the Baptismal Covenant is a Christian and a Member of the Universal Church though he were of no particular Church or did disown a thousand Members or any particular Officer of the Church XII All faults or crimes are not Treason A man that breaketh any Law is in that measure Culpable or punishable but every breach of Law or wrong to fellow Subjects or Justices as it is not Treason so it doth not prove a man no Subject though some may be so great as to deserve death and make him intolerable And so it is in the case of our Subjection in the Church to Christ. XIII To own Christs Instituted species of Church Officers is needful to the just Order Safety and Edification of the Church as to own the Courts of Judicature Justices c. in the Kingdom but to own this or that numerical Officer as truly commissioned is needful only to the right administration of his own Province XIV As Christ did his own work of universal Legislation by himself and his Spirit eminently in the Apostles and Evangelists who have recorded all in Scripture so he settled Churches to continue to the end associated for Personal Communion in his holy Doctrine Worship Order and Conversation with authorized Ministers subordinate to his administration in his Prophetical Priestly Kingly and Friendly Relations And thô these may not always or often meet in
us that he did not place this Communion in any transient Acts but in a fixed permanent state Ans. But 1. Taking the Bishops for true authorised Pastors and the Church for a true Church are transient acts Believing in Christ and repenting of sin are transient acts quoad objectum tho immanent quoad subjectum effectum Baptism and Profession of Christianity and of love and obedience to others are transient both quoad objectum effectum Coming to Church communicating obeying Bishops and departing from Schismaticks are transient in both respects You see that by Catholick Communion the Doctor meaneth none of all these 2. What meaneth he then a fixed permanent state But 1. Which Predicament can you conjecture that word state is in It 's commonly applied to Relation Quality and Scite and Place These latter I am confident he meaneth not If he mean Quality it is Dispâ—sitiâ—n or Habit sure But those come by Acts and he tells us not what he meaneth nor is it probable that this is it Relation is most likely to be that fixed state which is indeed the true form of a Church and a Church-Member and saith Durandus is meant by Baptism's indelible Character Supposing this his meaning 2. Are not transient acts the fundamentum of this Relation as verily as of Paternity Marriage-Relation c. Is any Man a Church-Member or Christian but by the transient acts of Baptism Profession Covenanting c. And do you define a Relation without the Fundamentum 3. But if Relation be all wherein lieth our damning Schism We profess Catholick Communion then somewhat more than you do For as we profess the same Relation that you do to Jesus Christ so we profess our Relation of Fellow-Members to all his Body even to those that in such Matters depart from each others and if I can understand you to the greatest part of Christ's Church on Earth which you damn as Rebels This is our profest Relation If you can disprove it 〈◊〉 § 9. He adds I conclude it 's sufficient to let you understand what the Ancients meant by Christian-Communion which in a large Notion signifies the Christian Church or Society which is called Communion from Communication which all the Members of it had with each other The plain and obvious sense is All the Churches of the World are but one Church or Society and have the same right and the same obligation on them to communicate with each other for the sake of which Christian Churches are instituted as the members of a particular Church are Ans. 1. Such large Notions may be sufficient to you but they signifie little more than noise to me Here we are told that by Communion he meaneth the Church And so when we read of Communion with the Church it meaneth the Church with the Church and Church-Communion are Two Synonimal words and signifie Church Church And in the Creed the Catholick Church and Communion of Saints is a Tautology 2. But the Church is called Communion from Communication And is Communication no transient act but a fixed state 3. If the plain sense be That all Churches in the World are one Church as parts in the whole who differs from you in that We are all then of one Catholick Communion and shall believe that all true Christians are of one Church till the Excommunicators better disprove it 4. But have all the same right and obligation to communicate with each other 1. All do actually communicate with each other 1. In their Union with and Relation to our Saviour and Head 2. And in having one holy Spirit 3. Being the adopted children of one God 4. Being of that one body formally related to Christ. 5. Believing in the same God and Father Saviour and holy Spirit And 6. Consenting to the same Baptismal Covenant 7. Having the same hope of everlasting life These are the Instances of Christian Union and Communion in Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. And 8. They have also Communion in the same common benefits Pardon and Justification and right to life 9. And besides all this when they may be had they have Communion in the same species of necessary worship the use of the same Gospel and Sacred Scriptures and Creed of the same sort of Eucharistical Sacrament and Prayer and Praise and Thanksgiving in all parts of absolute necessity and holy Assemblies to that end consisting of several Pastors with their Flocks 10. Yea and all true Christians love one another as such and live in sincere tho imperfect obedience to the same holy Laws of Christ. In all this all Christians have Communion 2. And all have right to such measures of Local Communion where they come as they are in a more immediate capacity of 3. And all are obliged to exercise so much Mental and Local Communion as is necessary to edification and to the exercise of Christian love and peace besides what is forementioned But yet 1. All Churches on Earth are separate by distance as to Local Communion 2. No Two Churches or Men on Earth are perfectly united as to Mental Câ—mmunion There are Multitudes of degrees of differences in this 3. There are very many just causes of diversifying Local Communion in the same City Diocess or other Precincts and of diversifying individual Pastoral Relation and single proper Church-Communion Diversity of Languages is a cause that no man can deny The excessive Magnitude of a Church that is the Multitude of Persons is another Suppose that I were first and alone made Pastor of a Church in Mexico or Quinsay and I am not able to do the work of a Pastor for a Thousand Souls I get the help of Three or Four Presbyters and Deacons and we all are utterly unable to do the Pastoral work for Four Thousand may Four Thousand or Forty Thousand more claim of me the performance of the Pastoral Office Am I bound to undertake Tenfold more than I am able to perform Then Men may not only enslave me but damn me at their pleasure and pretend their right to Communion with me If you say I am bound to multiply Presbyters in the same Church to sufficiency I answer 1. What if I can neither have Men nor Maintenance 2. What if I think that when the Multitude is so great that I cannot know them nor they ever speak with me or know one another any more than Men of several Countreys that I ought not to undertake a personal oversight of them but perswade them to associate in Churches capable of such oversight It 's no breach of Charity for one School-Master or Physician to refuse a personal Relation as School-Master to Five Hundred Schools or Physician to all the City or Five Hundred Hospitals tho he have Apothecaries or others under him No Man hath right to more of my labour than I am able to perform If I be a Bishop and bound to hear and try the Causes of all that ought to come under Church Censure in a whole Diocess and am
and godly Ministers in the Parish-Churches and some have such as I would never own or encourage in the Ministry by seeming to own them Some can remove their Dwelling and some cannot Some had Liberty the last year that cannot have it this year without more hurt than their benefit will compensate In these Cases where God hath not at all tied us to a Book or no Book to this Church or to that he that can truly tell which way he shall do and get most good or hurt may by that better know his Duty than by these Arguments or Mens Censures But verily my chief Reason for Communion in publick is the very same which you bring against it Even the avoiding of hainous Scandal I have told the World 1. That Scandal is not displeasing men but laying before them a temptation to sin 2. That if the Separatists be the best Christians they are farthest out of the danger of Scandal It is the worst that are easiliest tempted to Sin and so whom we should be most fearful to scandalize 3. And it 's a greater Sin to scandalize many than few 4. And worse by scandal to tempt men to the mortal Sins of persecuting or scorning godly men than merely to tempt them to some small mistakes or to grieve them 5. And to scandalize our Rulers is worse than to scandalize Inferiors Caeteris paribus And now I tell you I the rather joyn in Publick 1. Lest I should harden thousands in the Opinion That we take that to be unlawful which is not and that we are for sinful Separation and that we separate from and unchurch almost all Christs Church and that we are Enemies to Order and Peace and Concord and that we are unruly enemies to Government and giddy ignorant self-conceited people 2. And so lest we breed throughout the Land such a contempt of Conscience in Gods service as they have of Quakers and thousands by this should be alienated from the Reverence of serious Religion and Youth should be educated to the like contempt under these temptations 3. And lest if any in Church-matters be guilty of sinful Extreams on the other side in Oaths Professions Ceremonies or Practices we should harden them therein by tempting them to think that we have no worse against their way than the Use of a Liturgy 4. Lest the Conceit that we are but a company of giddy Fanaticks encourage any contentious Preachers to render us odious and rail at us in the Pulpits to their own shame and the widening of our Breaches 5. And lest the same Error should tempt any Bishops or Magistrates to think they do God and their Church and Countrey service in silencing imprisoning reproaching and ruining Gods faithful Servants without cause and bring the Land under Gods wrath by persecution Are these no Scandals or not greater than offending or displeasing the dissenting Separators to say nothing of ocsioning our Reproach in all the Foreign Churches which have a Liturgy If against all this the displeasing your mistaken Flocks should prevail then their weakness and error would constitute them our chief Governours D. O. Argument 9. That Worship which is unsuited to the spiritual relish of the New Creature which is inconsistent with the conduct of the Spirit of God in Prayer is unlawful For the Nature Use and Benefit of Prayer is overthrown hereby in a great measure Now let any one consider what are the Prâ—mises Aids of the Holy Spirit with respect to the Prayers of the Church whether as to the Matter of them or as unto Ability for their performance or as unto the Manner of it and he shall find that they are all rejected and excluded by this Form of Worship as is pretended comprizing the whâ—le Matter limiting the whole Manner and giving all the Abilities of Prayer that are needful or required This hath been proved at large § 25. TO your Ninth Argument I answer 1. O! confine not the New Creature to those of your Opinion Do you think none of the Old Nonconformists or Conformists none of the Reformed Churhes and no Church on Earth for a Thousand years had any of the New Creature When you have affrighted People with telling them it is heinous sin and returning to Babylon and also by long disuse made a Liturgy uncouth to them do not ascribe all their averseness to the New Creature which is from prejudice and disuse For my part when God taught me first to pray I had no averseness to a Form When I heard it charg'd with sin I began to be averse to it When I had studied the case I was cured of that aversness but never reconciled to the forbidding of all other Prayer nor to the faults of any Forms And who knoweth not that Man 's culpable Nature loveth Novelties and are hardly kept in lively Affections under any thing that is very often said A Book or Sermon tho never so good affecteth us not so much after many times reading and hearing as at the first We must not lay this weakness on the New Creature tho it should teach Imposers to suit the Remedy to the Disease and give children such food as is not too displeasing to their Appetites And yet I find not the generality of Appetites even in your Flocks is against the Forms of Psalms being not prejudiced against them It is not true that Liturgies are inconsistent with the conduct of the Spirit in Prayer It is a Mistake also XL. Error That this Form of Worship rejecteth and excludeth the matter of Prayer whenas the Visible Book tells all the contrary Do all those words express none of the Matter of Prayer It is untrue That it rejecteth and excludeth the Manner as to the chief part For the Lord's Prayer is a perfect Form for Matter Order and Method And the Psalms read and sung are for Matter and Manner neither evil nor excluded And sure there is much of the rest laudable If all Matter and Manner be rejected and excluded then the Martyrs that used it and all the Churches on Earth almost have no Church-Prayers But again I tell The use of Forms and the forbidding all other Prayers are Two different things which you ill confound D. O. Argument 10. That which overthrows and dissolves our Church-Covenant as unto the principal end of it is as to us unlawful This end is the professed joynt subjection of our souls and consciences unto the Authority of Christ in the observasion of whatever he commands and nothing else in the Worship of God But by this practice this end of the Church-Covenant is destroyed and thereby the Church-Covenant it self broken For we do and observe that which Christ hath not commanded And while some stand unto the Terms of the Covenant which others relinquish it will fill the Church with confusion and disorder § 26. TO your Tenth Argument I answer 1. What your Church-Covenant is I know not But if it profess subjection to nothing in Worship but what