building and unsafe unto its self or like a dead mortifyed part of the Body which neither receives any vital Influence from the Head nor administers nourishment unto any other part Now it cannot be denyed but that in the Contests that are in the world about Church Vnion and Divisions with what is pleaded about their nature and Causes there is little or no consideration had thereof Yea those things are principally insisted on for the constituting of the One atd the according of the Other which cast a neglect yea a contempt upon it It is the Romanists who make the greatest outcryes about Church Union and who make the greatest Advantage by what they pretend so to be But hereunto they contend expresly on the one side that it is indispensibly necessary that all Christians should be subject to the Pope of Rome and united unto him and on the other that it is not necessary at all that any of them be spiritually and savingly united unto Christ. Others also place it in various Instances of Conformity unto and Complyance with the Commands of Men which if they are observed they are wondrous cold in their enquiries after this Relation unto the Head But the truth is that where any one is interested in this Foundation of all Gospel Unity he may demand Communion with any Church in the world and ought not to be refused unless in Case of some present Offence or scandal And those by whom such Persons are rejected from Communion to be held on Gospel terms on the account of some Differences not entrenching on this Foundation do exercise a kind of Church Tyranny and are guilty of the Schism which may ensue thereon So on the other side where this is wanting mens complyance with any other terms or conditions that may be proposed unto them and their obtaining of Church-Communion thereon will be of little Advantage unto their Souls Secondly Unto this Foundation of Gospel Unity among Believers for and unto the due improvement of it there is required an Vnity of Faith or of the belief and Profession of the same Divine Truth For as there is one Lord so also one Faith and one Baptism unto Believers And this ariseth from and followeth the other For those who are so united unto Christ are all taught of God to believe the Truths which are necessarily required thereunto And however by the Power of Temptation they may fall in it or from it for a season as did Peter yet through the Love and care of Jesus Christ they are again recovered Now unto this Vnity of Faith two things are required First a precise and express Professio 1 of the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion For we outwardly hold the Head by a consent unto the form of wholsome words wherein the Doctrine of it is contained Of the Number and Nature of such Fundamental Truths whose express Acknowledgment belongs unto the Unity of Faith so much hath been discoursed by others as that we need not add any thing thereunto The sum is that they are but few plainly delivered in the Scripture evidencing their own necessity all conducing to the begetting and increase of that Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God Secondly It is required hereunto that in other things and Duties every man be fully perswaded in his own mind and walking according to what he hath attained do follow Peace and Love with those who are otherwise perswaded than he is For the Vnity of Faith did never consist in the same precise Conceptions of all revealed Objects Neither the nature of Man nor the means of Revelation will allow such a Unity to be morally Possible And the figment of supplying this variety by an implicit Faith is ridiculous For herein Faith is considered as professed and no man can make profession of what he knoweth not It is therefore condescention and mutual forbearance whereby the Vnity of Faith consisting in the joynt belief of necessary Truths is to be preserved with respect unto other things about which Differences may arise Yet is not this so to be understood as though Christians especially Ministers of the Gospel should content themselves with the knowledge of such Fundamentals or confine their Scripture inquiries unto them Whatever is written in the Scripture is written for our instruction and it is our duty to search diligently into the whole Counsel of God therein revealed Yea to inquire with all diligence in the use of all means and the improvement of all advantages with fervent supplications for light and aid from above into the whole Mistery of the will of God as revealed in the Scripture and all the Parts of it is the principal duty that is incumbent on us in this world Aud those who take upon them to be Ministers and Instructors of others by whom this is neglected who take up with a superficiary knowledg of general Principles and those such for the most part as have a coincidence with the Light of Nature do but betray the souls of those over whom they usurp a charge and are unworthy of the Title and Office which they bear Neither is there any thing implyed in the means of preserving the Vnity of Faith that should hinder us from explaining confirming and vindicating any Truth that we have received wherein others differ from us provided that what we do be done with a spirit of meekness and love Yea our so doing is one principal means of ministring nourishment unto the Body whereby the whole is increased as with the increase of God But in the Room of all this what contendings fightings destructions of men body and soul upon variety of Judgments about sacred things have been introduced by the Craft of Satan and the carnal interest of men of corrupt minds is known to all the world Thirdly There is an Vnity of Love that belongs unto the Evangelical Unity which we are in the description of For Love is the bond of perfection that whereby all the Members of the Body of Christ are knit together among themselves and which renders all the other ingredients of this Unity useful unto them And as we have discoursed of the nature of this Love before so the exercise of it as it hath an actual influence into Gospel Vnity among Christians may be reduced unto two Heads For First it worketh effectually according to the measure of them in whom it is in the Contribution of supplyes of Grace and Light and helps of obedience unto other Members of the body Every one in whom this Love dwelleth according to his Ability Call and Opportunities which make up his measure will communicate the spiritual supplies which he receiveth from the Head Christ Jesus unto others by Instructions Exhortations Consolations and Example unto their Edification This he will do in Love and unto the ends of Love namely to testifie a joynt Relation unto Christ the Head of all and the increase of the whole by supplyes of life
of attaining it are the chief cause of Offences unto them who are yet strangers from Christianity The Jews object unto us the Wars among Christians which they suppose shall have no place under the Kingdom and Reign of the true Messiah And we have been reproached with our intestine Differences by Gentiles and Mahumetans For those who never had either Peace or Love or Unity among themselves do yet think meet to revile us with the want of them because they know how highly we are obliged unto them But any Men may be justly charged with the neglect of that Duty which they profess if they be found defective therein Under the sad Effects of the want of these things we may labour long enough if we endeavour not to take away ihe Causes of it And yet in the entrance of our Disquisition after them we are again entangled Christians cannot come to an Agreement about these Causes and so live under the severity of their Effects as not being able to conclude on a Remedy The multitude of them is here divided and one cryeth one thing another another Most place the Cause of all our Differences in a dissent from themselves and their Judgments Yea they do so apparently who yet disavow their so doing And it may be here expected that we should give some account of our thoughts as to the Causes of these Differences whereof we also have now complained so far as they are contrary to the nature or Obstructive of the Ends of the Gospel We shall therefore briefly endeavour the satisfaction of such as may have those Expectations Particular Evils which contribute much unto our Divisions we shall not insist upon much less shall we reflect upon and aggravate the failings of others whether Persons or Societies Some of the Principal and more General Reasons and Causes of them especially amongst Protestants it shall suffice us to enumerate The Principal Cause of our Divisions and Schisms is no other than the Ignorance or Misapprehension that is among Christians of the true nature of that Evangelical Vnity which they ought to follow after with the ways and means whereby it may be attained and preserved Hence it is come to pass that in the greatest Pleas for Vnity and endeavours after it most men have pursued a shadow and fought uncertainly as those that beat the Air. For having lost the very notion of Gospel Vnity and not loving the thing its self under what terms soever proposed unto them they consigned the Name of it unto and cloathed with its ornaments and Priviledges a vain Figment of their own which the Lord Christ never required nor ever blessed any in their Endeavours to attain And when they had changed the End it was needful for them also to change the Means of attaining it and to substitute those in their Room which were suited to the new Mark and Aim they had erected Farther to evidence these things we shall give some account of the Nature of Evangelical Vnity the means of attaining it with the false notion of it that some have embraced and the corrupt means which they have used for the compassing of the same First that Unity which is recommended unto us in the Gospel is spiritual and in that which is purely so lies the Foundation of the whole Hence it is called the Vnity of the Spirit which is to be kept in the bond of Peace because there is one Body and one Spirit whereby that Body is animated Thus all true Believers become one in the Father and the Son or perfect in one It is their Participation of and quickening by the same Spirit that is in Christ Jesus whereby they become his Body or Members of it even of his flesh and of his bones that is no less really Partakers of the same Divine Spiritual Nature with him than Eve was of the Nature of Adam when she was made of his flâ—sh and his bones The real Union of all true Believers unto the Lord Christ as their Head wrought by his Spiâ—iâ— which dwelleth in them and communicates of his Grace unto them is that which we intend For as hereby they become one with and in him so they come to be one among themselves as his Body and all the Members of the Body being many are yet but one Body wherein their oneness among themselves doth consist The Members of the Body have divers forms or shapes divers uses and Operations much more may be diversly cloathed and adorned yet are they one Body still wherein this Unity doth consist And it were a ridiculous thing to attempt the appearance of a dead useless Unity among the Members of the Body by cloathing of them all in the same kind of Garments or Covering But granting them their Vnity by their Relation unto the Head and thence to one another unto the Constitution of the whole and their different Forms shapes Uses Operations ornaments all tend to make them serviceable in their Unity unto their proper Ends. And saith the Apostle as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one body so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And he doth elsewhere so describe this Fundamental Unity of Believers in one Body under and in dependance on the same Head as to make it the only means of the usefulness and Preservation of the whole They grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body unto the Edifying of its self in Love The conjunction of all the Members into one Body their mutual usefulness unto one another the Edification of the whole with its increase the due exercise of Love which things contain the whole nature and the utmost Ends of all Church-Communion do depend meerly and solely upon and flow from the Relation that the Members have to the Head and their Union with him He speaketh again to the same purpose in the reproof of them who hold not the Head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God This is the Foundation of all Gospel Vnity among Believers whereunto all other things which are required unto the compleating of it are but accessory nor are they without this of any value or acceptation in the sight of God Whatever Order Peace Concord Vnion in the Church any one may hold or keep who is not interested herein he is but like a Stone in a building laid it may be in a comely order but not cemented and fixed unto the whole which renders its station useless to the
interest in his present condition and circumstances And as this being once admitted will give the minds of men an Indifferency as unto the several Religions that are in the world so it will quickly produce in them a Contempt of them all And from an entertainment of or an indifferency of mind about these and the like noysome opinions it is come to pass that the Gospel after a continued Triumph for sixteen hundred years over Hell and the world doth at this day in the midst of Christendome hardly with multitudes maintain the reputation of its truth and Divinity and is by many living in a kind of outward conformity unto the Institutes of Christian Religion despised laughed to scorn But the proud and foolish Atheistical Opiniators of our dayes whose sole design is to fortifie themselves by the darkness of their minds against the charges of their own consciences upon their wicked and debauched conversations do but expose themselves to the scorn of all sober and rational Persons For what are a few obscure and for the most part vitious Renegadoes in comparison of those great wise numerous and sober persons whom the Gospel in its first setting forth in the world by the evidence of its truth and the efficacy of its Power subdued and conquered Are they as learned as the renowned Philosophers of those dayes who advantaged by the endeavours and fruits of all the great Wits of former Ages had advanced solid rational Literature to the greatest height that ever it attained in this world or possibly ever will do so the minds of men having now somthing more excellent and noble to entertain themselves-withall Are they to be equalled in wisdome and experience with those glorious Emperors Senators and Princes who then swayed the Scepters and affairs of the world Can they produce any thing to oppose unto the Gospel that is likely to influence the minds of men in any degree comparably to the Religion of these great learned wise and mighty Personages which having received by their Fathers from dayes immemorial was visibly attended with all Earthly Gloryes and Prosperities which were accounted as the reward of their due observance of it And yet whereas there was a Conspiracy of all those persons and this influenced by the craft of infernal Powers and managed with all that wisdome subtlety power and cruelty that the nature of man is capable to exercise on purpose to oppose the Gospel and keep it from taking Root in the world yet by the glorious evidence of its divine extract and original wherewith it is accompanied by the efficacy and power which God gave the Doctrine of it in and over the minds of men all mannaged by the spiritual weapons of its Preachers which were mighty through God to the pulling down of those strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted it self against the knowledge of God it prevailed against them all and subdued the world unto an acknowledgment of its truth with the divine power and authority of its Author Certainly there is nothing more contemptible than that the Indulgence of some inconsiderable Persons unto their lusts and vices who are void of all those excellencies in notion and practise which have already been triumphed over by the Gospel when set up in competition with it or opposition unto it should be once imagined to bring it into question or to cast any disreputation upon it But to treat of these things is not our present design we have only mentioned them occasionally in the account which it was necessary we should give concerning our Love to all men in general with the grounds we proceed upon in the exercise of it CHAP. III. Nature of the Catholick Church The first and principal Object of Christian Love Differences among the Members of this Church of what nature and how to be managed Of the Church Catholick as visibly professing The extent of it or who belongs unto it Of Vnion and Love in this Church-state of the Church of England with respect hereunto Of particular Churches Their institution Corruption of that Institution Of Churches Diocesan c. Of separation from corrupt particular Churches The just Causes thereof c. IN the second sort of Mankind before mentioned consists the visible Kingdome of Christ in this woâ—ld This being grounded in his Death and Resurrection and conspicuously settled by his sending of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension he hath ever since preserved in the world against all the contrivances of Satan or oppositions of the Gates of Hell and will do so unto the consummation of all things For he â—â—â—st reign until all his enemies are made his Footsâ—ool Towards these on all accounts our Love ought to be intense and fervent as that which is the immediate Bond of our Relation unto them and Union with them And this Kingdome or Church of Christ on the earth may be and is generally by all considered under a threefold notion 1. First as therein and among the Members of it is comprized that real living and spiritual body of his which is firstly peculiarly and properly the Catholick Church militant in this world These are his Elect Redeemed justified and sanctified ones who are savingly united unto their Head by the same quickning and sanctifying Spirit dwelling in him in all fulness and communicated unto them by him aâ—cording to his Promise This is that Catholick Church which we profess to believe which being hid from the eyes of men and absolutely invisible in its Mystical Form or spiritual saving Relation unto the Lord Christ and its Unity with him is yet more or less alwayes visible by that Profession of Faith in him and obedience unto him which it maketh in the world and is alwayes obliged so to do For With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And this Church we believe to be so disposed over the whole world that where-ever there are any Societies or Numbers of men who ordinarily profess the Gospel and subjection to the Kingly Rule of Christ thereby with an hope of eternal blessedness by his Mediation we no way doubt but that there are among them some who really belong thereunto In and by them doth the Lord Christ continually fulfil and accomplish the Promise of his Presence by his Spirit with them that believe in his name who are thereby Interested in all the Priviledges of the Gospel and Authorized unto the Administration and Participation of all the Holy Ordinances thereof And were it not that we ought not to boast our selves against others Especially such as have not had the Spiritual Advantages that the Inhabitants of these Nations have been intrusted withal and who have been exposed unto more violent Temptations than they we should not fear to say that among those of all sorts who in these Nations hold the Head there is probably according unto a Judgment to be made by the fruits of that
Spirit which is savingly communicated unto the Church in this sense alone a greater number of Persons belonging thereunto than in any One Nation or Church under Heaven The charge therefore of some against us that we Paganize the Nation by reason of some different Apprehensions from others concerning the regular Constitution of particular Churches for the Celebration of Gospel Worship is wondrous vain and ungrounded But we know that men use such severe Expressions and Reflections out of a discomposed habit of Mind which they have accustomed themselves unto and not from a sedate Judgment and consideration of the things themselves And hence they will labour to convince others of that whereof if they would put it unto a serious Tryal they would never be able to convince themselves This then is that Church which on the account of their Sincere faith and Obedience shall be saved and out of which on the account of their Profession there is no salvation to be obtained which things are weakly and arrogantly appropriated unto any Particular Church or Churches in the World For it is possible that men may be Members of it and yet not belong or relate unto any particular Church on the Earth and so it often falleth out as we could manifest by instances did that work now lie before us This is the Church which the Lord Christ loved and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it unto himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish And we must acknowledge that in all things this is the Church unto which we have our first and Principal regard as being the spring from which all other considerations of the Church do flow Within the virge and compass of it do we indeavour to be found the End of the Dispensation of the Gospel unto Men being that they should do so Neither would we to save our Lives which for the Members of this Church and their good we are bound to lay down when justly called thereunto wilfully live in the neglect of that Love towards them or any of them which we hope God hath planted in our hearts and made natural unto us by that one and self-same Spirit by whom the whole Mystical Body of Christ is animated We do confess that because the best of Men in this Life do know but in part that all the Members of this Church are in many things liable to Error mistakes and Miscarriages And hence it is that although they are all internally acted and guided by the same Spirit in all things absolutely necessary to their Eternal salvation and do all attend unto the same Rule of the Word according as they apprehend the mind of God in it and concerning it have all for the Nature and Substance of it the same Divine Faith and Love and are all equally united unto their Head yet in the Profession which they make of the conceptions and perswasions of their minds about the things revealed in the Scripture there are and always have been many Differences among them Neither is it morally possible it should be otherwise whilst in their Judgment and Profession they are left unto the Ability of their own Minds and Liberty of their Wills under that great variety of the Means of Light and Truth with other Circumstances whereinto they are disposed by the Holy Wise Providence of God Nor hath the Lord Christ absolutely Promised that it shall be otherwise with them but securing them all by his Spirit in the foundations of eternal Salvation he leaves them in other things to the exercise of mutual Love and forbearance with a charge of Duty after a continual endeavour to grow up unto a perfect Union by the improvement of the blessed Aids and Assistances which he is pleased to afford unto them And those who by ways of Force would drive them into any other Union or Agreement than their own Light and Duty will lead them into do what in them lies to oppose the whole Design of the Lord Christ towards them and his Rule over them In the mean time it is granted that they may fall into Divisions and Schisms and mutual Exasperations among themselves through the Remainders of Darkness in their minds and the Infirmity of the flesh And in such Cases mutual judgings and despisings are apt to ensue and that to the Prejudice and great Disadvantages of that Common faith which they do profess And yet notwithstanding all this such cross intangled wheels are there in the course of our Nature they all of them really value and esteem the things wherein they agree incomparably above those wherein they differ But their valuation of the matter of their Union and Agreement is purely spiritual whereas their Differences are usually influenced by Carnal and Secular Considerations which have for the most part a sensible Impression on the Minds of poor Mortals But so far as their Divisions and Differences are unto them unavoidable the Remedy of farther Evils proceeding from them is plainly and frequently expressed in the Scripture It is Love Meckness forbearance bowels of Compassion with those other Graces of the Spirit wherein our Conformity unto Christ doth consist with a true understanding and due valuation of the Vnity of faith and the common Hope of Believers which are the ways prescribed unto us for the prevention of those Evils which without them our unavoidable Differences will occasion And this excellent way of the Gospel together with a Rejection of evil surmises and a watchfulness over our selves against irregular judging and censuring of others together with a peaceable walking in consent and Unity so far as we have attained is so fully and clearly proposed unto us therein that they must have their Eyes blinded by Prejudices and Carnal Interests or some effectual working of the God of this world on their minds into whose understandings the Light of it doth not shine with uncontroulable Evidence and Conviction That the Sons or Children of this Church of Jerusalem which is above and is the Mother of us all should on the account of their various Apprehensions of some things relating to Religion or the worship of God unavoidably attending their frail and imperfect condition in this world yea or of any Schisms or Divisions ensuing thereon proceeding from Corrupt and not throughly mortified Affections be warranted to hate judge despise or contemn one another much more to strive by external force to coerce punish or destroy them that differ from them is as forreign to the Gospel as that we should believe in Mahomet and not in Jesus Christ. Whatever share therefore we are forced to bare in Differences with or Divisions from the Members of this Church that is any who declare and evidence themselves so to be by a visible and regular Profession of faith and Obedience as it is
severe in their censures for God than he will be for himself Moreover such as were baptized in those Churches were not baptized into them as particular Churches nor initiated into them thereby But the Relation which ensued unto them thereon was unto the Catholick Church visible together with a seperation from the Infidel world lying wholly in darkness and evil by a dedication unto the Name of Christ. Upon a personal avowment of that Faith whereinto they were baptized they became compleat Members of that Church Whatever state they are hereby admitted into whatever benefit or priviledge they are personally interested in they lose them not by the miscarriage of that particular Church whereunto they do relate Yea losing the whole advantage of an Instituted Church-state they may still retain whatever belongs unto their Faith and Profession Were Baptisme only an Initiation into a Particular Church upon the failure of that Church Baptism as to all its benefits and Priviledges must cease also We do therefore own that amongst those whose Assemblies are rejected by Christ because of their false worship and wickedness there may be persons truly belonging to the Mystical Church of God and that also by their Profession are a portion of his Visible Kingdome in the World How far they do consent unto the Abominations of the Churches whereunto they do belong how far they have Light against them how far they do bewaile them how far they repent of them what God will bear withall in them we know not nor are called to judge Our Love is to be towards them as persons relating unto Jesus Christ in the capacity mentioned but all Communion with them in the Acts of false Worship is forbidden unto us By vertue also of that Relation which they still continue unto Christ and his Church as believers they have Power and are warranted as it is their Duty to reform themselves and to joyn together anew in Church Order for the due celebration of Gospel Ordinances unto the Glory of Christ and their own edification For it is fond to imagine that by the sins of others any Disciples of Christ in any place of the world should be deprived of a Right to perform their Duty towards him when it is discovered unto them And these are our thoughts concerning such Churches as are openly and visibly Apostatical Again There are Corruptions that may befall or enter into Churches that are not of so heinous a nature as those before insisted on Especially if as it often falls out the whole Lump be not leavened if the whole Body be not infected but only some Part or Parts of it which others more sound do resist and give their Testimony against And these may have none of the pernicious consequences before mentioned Thus many Errours in Doctrines Disorders and Miscarriages in sacred Administrations irregular walking in conversation with neglect or abuse of Discipline in Rulers may fall out in some Churches which yet may be so far from evacuating their Church state as that they give no sufficient Warrant unto any person immediately to leave their Communion or to seperate from them The Instances that may be given of the failings of some of the Primitive Churches in all these things with the consideration of the Apostolical Directions given unto them on such Occasions render this Assertion evident and incontroulable Nor do we in the least approve of their practise if any such there be that are considerable who upon every failing in these things in any Church think themselves sufficiently warranted immediately of their own minds to depart from its Communion Much more do we condemn them who suffer themselves in these things to be guided by their own surmises and misapprehensions For such there may be as make their own hasty conceptions to be the Rule of all Church Administrations and Communion who unless they are in all things pleased can be quiet no where Wherefore when any Church whereof a man is by his own consent antecedently a Member doth fall in part or in whole from any of those Truths which it hath professed or when it is overtaken with a neglect of Discipline or irregularities in its administration such a one is to consider that he is placed in his present state by divine Providence that he may orderly therein endeavour to put a stop unto such Defections and to exercise his charity Love and Forbearance towards the persons of them whose Miscarriages at present he cannot Remedy In such cases there is a large and spacious Field for Wisdom Patience Love and prudent Zeal to exercise themselves And it is a most perverse Imagination that Separation is the only cure for Church-disorders All the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit bestowed on Church-Members to be exercised in their several stations at such a season all Instructions given for their due improvement unto the good of the whole the Nature Rules and Laws of all Societies declare that all other Remedies possible and lawful are to be attempted before a Church be finally deserted But these Rules are to be observed provided alwayes that it be judged unlawful for any Persons either for the sake of Peace or Order or Concord or on any other consideration to join actually in any thing that is sinful or to profess any Opinion which is contrary to Sound Doctrine or the form of wholesome words which we are bound to hold fast on all Emergencies And farther if we may suppose as sure enough we may that such a Church so corrupted shall obstinately persist in its Errors Miscarriages Neglects and Mal-administrations that it shall refuse to be warned or admonished or being so by any means shall wilfully reject and despise all Intruction that it will not bear with them that are yet sound in it whether Elders or Members in peaceable Endeavors to reduce it unto the order of the Gospel but shall rather hurt persecute and seek their trouble for so doing whereby their Edification comes continually to be obstructed and their Souls to be hazarded through the loss of Truth and Peace we no way doubt but that it is lawful for such persons to withdraw themselves from the Communion of such Churches and that without any apprehension that they have absolutely lost their Church-state or are totally rejected by Jesus Christ. For the means appointed unto any end are to be measured and regulated according unto their usefulness unto that end Aud let mens present Apprehensions be what they will it will one day appear that the end of all Church-Order Rule Communion and Administrations is not the Grandeur or secular Advantages of some few not outward Peace and Quietness unto whose preservation the Civil Power is ordained but the Edification of the Souls of men in Faith Love and Gospel-Obedience Where therefore these things are so disposed of and mannaged as that they do not regularly further and promote that End but rather obstruct it if they will not be reduced unto their due Order and Tendency
such Churches should long continue in peace nor is that peace wherein they continue much to be valued An Agreement in such wayes and practises is rather to be esteemed a Conspiracy against Christ and Holiness than Church Order or Concord And when men once find themselves hated and it may be Persecuted for no other cause as they believe but because they labour in their Lives and Professions to express the power of that Truth wherein they have been instructed they can hardly avoyd the entertainment of severe thoughts concerning them from whom they had just reason to expect other usage as also to provide for their own more peaceable encouragement and edification Fourthly Hereunto also belongeth the due exercise of Gospel Discipline according to the mind of Christ. It is indeed by some called into question whether there be any Rule or Discipline appointed by Christ to be exercised in his Churches But this doubt must respect such outward forms and modes of the Administration of these things which are supposed but not proved necessary For whether the Lord Christ hath appointed some to Rule and some to be ruled whether he hath prescribed Lawes or Rules whereby the One should govern and the other obey whether he hath determined the Matter Manner and End of this Rule and Government cannot well be called into Controversie by such as profess to believe the Gospel Of what nature or kind these Governours or Rulers are to be what is their Office how they are to be invested therewith and by what Authority how they are to behave themselves in the Administration of the Laws of the Church are things determined by him in the Word And for the Matters about which they are to be conversant it is evidently declared of what nature they are how they are to be mannaged and to what end The Qualifications and Duties of those who are to be admitted into the Church their deportment in it their removal from it are all expressed in the Lawes and Directions given unto the same end In particular it is ordained That those who are unruly or disorderly who walk contrary unto the Rules and wayes of holiness prescribed unto the Church shall be rebuked admonished instructed and if after all means used for their amendment they abide in impenitency that they be ejected out of Communion For the Church as visible is a Society gathered and erected to express and declare the Holiness of Christ and the power of his Grace in his Person and Doctrine And where this is not done no Church is of any advantage unto the interests of his Glory in this World The Preservation therefore of Holiness in them whereof the Discipline mentioned is an effectual means is as necessary and of the same importance with the preservation of their Being The Lord Christ hath also expressly ordained That in case Offences should arise in and among his Churches that in and by them they should be composed according to the Rules of the Word and his own Lawes and in particular that in sinful miscarriages causing offence or scandal there be a regular proceeding according unto an especial Law and Constitution of his for the removal of the offence and recovery of the offendor as also that those who in other cases have fallen by the power of temptation should be restored by a spirit of meekness and not to instance in more Particulars that the whole Flock be continually watched over exhorted warned instructed comforted as the necessities or occasions of the whole or the several Members of it do require Now supposing these and the like Laws Rules and Directions to be given and enjoyned by the Authority of Christ which gives Warranty for their Execution unto men prudent for the ordering of affairs according to their necessary circumstances and Believers of the Gospel doing all things in obedience unto him we judg that a compleat Rule or Government is erected thereby in the Church However we know that the exercise of Discipline in every Church so far as the Laws and Rules of it are expressed in the Scripture and the Ends of it directed unto is as necessary as any Duty enjoyned unto us in the whole course of our Gospel Obedience And where this is neglected it is in vain for any Churches to expect Peace and Vnity in their Communion seeing it self neglecteth the principal means of them It is pleaded that the mixture of those that are wicked and ungodly in the sacred Administrations of the Church doth neither defile the Administrations themselves nor render them unuseful unto those who are rightly interested in them and duly prepared for the participation of them Hence that no Church ought to be forsaken nor its Communion withdrawn from meerly on that account many of old and of late have pleaded Nor do we say that this solely of its self is sufficient to justifie a separation from any Church But when a Church shall tolerate in its Communion not only evil men but their evils and absolutely refuse to use the Discipline of Christ for the Reformation of the One and the taking away of the other there is great danger least the whole Lump be leavened and the edification of particular persons be obstructed beyond what the Lord Christ requires of them to submit unto and to acquiesce in Neither will things have any better success where the Discipline degenerates into an outward forcible Jurisdiction and Power The things of Christ are to be administred with the Spirit of Christ. Such a frame of heart and mind as was in him is required of all that act under him and in his Name Wherefore Charity Pity Compassion Condescention Meekness and Forbearance with those other Graces which were so glorious and conspicuous in him and in all that he did are to bear sway in the minds of them who exercise this Care and Duty for him in the Church To set up such a Form of the Administration of Discipline or to commit the exercise of it unto such persons as whereby or by whom the Lord Christ in his Rule of the Church would be represented as furious captious proud covetous oppressive is not the way to honour him in the world nor to preserve the peace of the Churches And indeed some while they boast of the Imitation of Christ and his Example in opposition to his Grace do in their Lives and Practises make unco the world a Representation of the Devil But an account of this Degeneracy is given so distinctly by Peitro Suave the Author of the History of the Council of Trent lib. 4 ad Ann. 1551. that we think it not unmeet to express it in his own words He saith therefore that Christ having commanded his Apostles to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments he left also unto them in the person of all the faithful this principal precept to love one another charging them to make peace between those that dissented and for the last Remedy giving the care thereof to the
pretendeth to fall under Scripture-proof that such Bishops should be Diocesan that they should depend on Archbishops over them that they should assume the whole power of Church-Rule and Discipline into their hands that they should administer it by Chancellors Archdeacons Commissaries and the like that this should be done by Presentments or Indictments Citations Processes Litigious Pleadings after the manner of Secular or Civil Courts to the Exclusion of that Rule and Discipline which the Gospel directs unto with the management of it in Love and Brotherly compassion in the Name and by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. But these things we shall not in particular insist upon for the Reason before given This we must say that take the whole of the Government and the Administration thereof together which by the conformity required of us we must testifie our Approbation of and Acquiescence in or we deal hypocritically with them that require it of us and we know it to be so far unscriptural as that an acknowledgment of it and submission unto it cannot duly and justly be made a necessary condition of communion unto us It may be it will be said that submission unto the Government of the Church is not so much a condition of communion with it as it is that wherein our communion it self with it doth consist and it is but a Fancy to think of communion with a Church without it But this is otherwise as appears in those Churches where all Rule and Government being left in the hand of the Civil Magistrate there communion is meerly spiritual in the Administration of Evangelical Ordinances And might but that be admitted which Nature Reason the Law of the Christian Faith and Gospel-Obedience do require namely that Church-fellowship and Communion be built upon mens own Judgment and Choyce and this would go a great way towards the pacification of our Differences But if this be so and that all Church-communion consists in submission to the Government of it or at least that it doth so principally it becomes them by whom it is owned and avowed so to do to take care that that Government be derived from the Authority of Christ and administred according to his Mind or all Church Communion properly so called will be overthrown Thirdly We are required to use and observe the Ceremonies in Worship which the present Church hath appointed or doth use and observe This also is made a necessary condition of Communion unto us For many are at this day actually cast out of all Communion for not observing of them Some are so proceeded against for not observing of Holy dayes some for not Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper some for not using the Sign of the Cross in Baptism and what would become of Ministers that should neglect or omit to wear the Surplice in Sacred Administrations is easie to conjecture But these things are all of them unwritten and unscriptural Great and many indeed have been the Disputes of learned men to prove that although they have no Divine Institution nor yet example of Apostolical or Primitive practise yet that they may be Lawfully used for Decency and Order in the Worship of God Whether they have evinced what they aimed at is as yet undetermined But supposing in this Case all to be as they would pretend and plead that it should be yet because they are all granted to be Arbitrary inventions of men and very few of those who make use of them are agreed what is their proper use and signification or whether they have any or no they are altogether unmeet to be made a necessary condition of Communion For enquiry may be made on what Warranty or by what Rule they may be appointed so to be Those who preside in and over the Churches of Christ do so in his Name and by his Authority And therefore they can impose nothing on them as a Condition of their Communion together but what his Name is upon or what they have his Authority for And it will be dangerous to set his Seal unto our own Appointments For what men think meet to do themselves in the matters of the House of God and his Worship it may be measured and accepted with him according to their Light and Design But for what they impose on others and that under no less penalty than the deprivation of the outward Administration of all the Priviledges procured for them by Jesus Christ they ought to have his Warrant and Authority for And their Zeal is to be bewailed who not only cast men out of all Church Communion so far as in them lyeth for a refusal to observe those voluntarily imposed Ceremonies in sacred Worship but also prosecute them with outward force to the Ruine of them and their Families and we cannot but wonder that any should as yet think meet to make use of Prisons and the destruction of men thereby as an Appendix of their Ecclesiastical Discipline exercised in the highest severity on no greater Occasions than the omission of the observance of these Ceremonies Whether such proceedings are measured by present Inteâ—est or the due consideration of what will be pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ at the last day is not difficult to determine Fourthly As we are Ministers there is in some cases required of us under the same penalty an Oath of Canonical obedience We need not labour to prove this to be unscriptural nor to avoid provocations shall at present declare the Rise Nature and Use of it with the fierce Digladiations that have formerly been about it We can look upon it no otherwise but as that which is contrary to the Liberty and unworthy of the Office of a Minister of the Gospel We know not any thing else which is required of us unto the end mentioned unless it be of some a Subscription unto the Articles of Religion And this because the Scripture enjoyns unto all a Consent unto sound Doctrine and a Form of wholsome words may be admitted so far as those Articles concern only Points of Faith But whereas there is annexed unto them and enjoyned with other things an Approbation of all those Instances of Conditions of Communion before insisted on a Subscription unto the whole becomes of the same Nature with the things themselves therein approved of These are the Conditions of Communion with the Church of England which are proposed unto us and which we are indispensibly to submit unto if we intend to be partakers thereof and these are all which we know of that nature That any of these are in particular prescribed in the Word of God much less that they can derive any Warranty from thence to be made necessary conditions of Church-Communion will not we suppose be pretended by any If therefore any Divisions do ensue on the refusal of some to admit of these Conditions the Guilt of them cannot by any Rule of Scripture or from any example of the first Churches be charged on them